Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
March is the month of Saint Joseph since 1855;
2024
23,658  Lives Saved Since 2007

We are the defenders of true freedom.
  May our witness unveil the deception of the "pro-choice" slogan.
  Campaign saves lives Shawn Carney Campaign Director www.40daysforlife.com
Please help save the unborn they are the future for the world

It is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish -- Mother Teresa
 Saving babies, healing moms and dads, 'The Gospel of Life'
     
The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
March 21 - Our Lady of the Rain (Italy, 1367)

Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List
Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday   Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
   Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday   Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War

Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
How do I start the Five First Saturdays?
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
The Passion of the Father was Experienced by Mary (II)
There was also the invisible presence of Saint Joseph, who shared everything with Mary. Mary said with Jesus, in a low voice: "I am thirsty." She was thirsty with Him, and not only that atrocious, physical thirst in his bruised body, drained of blood and burning with fever. Mary certainly tried to relieve that thirst. But how strongly she must have felt with Jesus that spiritual thirst that thirst for all of us who He wanted to save by His death.
What Jesus went through, Mary went through with him. In her motherhood that knew its most intense fullness, she brought her children together in herself -- absolutely all of God's children, the children of all time from the beginning until the end of the world. No one was left out, both the good and the bad. With her beloved Jesus, she also said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."
These words were not only for those who made Jesus suffer on Calvary. They were for the sinners of all time.
With Him, her heart tirelessly said: "Father forgive, forgive Father, Father forgive!"
She also presented her Son to all those who loved Him, awaited Him, all those who love Him now, we were there, present, as well as all those who will love Him until the end of time. We are all gathered in the same unity in the Virgin's heart with the Father's burning heart. Our love was the supreme comfort of Jesus as He died.
Rolande Lefebvre The Passion, (La Passion de Madame R.) Plon 1993.

The Commemoration of the Honored Archangel Michael commemoration are held and alms offered in his name on the twelfth day of each Coptic month.
Sufi Basant at the Chishti Dargahs (Spring for Hindus And Muslims in India)

  90 St. Birillus Bishop ordained by St. Peter the Apostle
       Saint Cyril Bishop of Catania disciple of Saint Peter wonderworker
 211 St. Serapion Bishop of Antioch (190-211) Known principally through his theological writings
 547 ST BENEDICT, ABBOT, PATRIARCH OF WESTERN MONKS Upon the site of the Appolo temple he built two chapels, and round about these sanctuaries there rose little by little the great pile which was destined to become the most famous abbey the world has ever known, the foundation of which is likely to have been laid by St Benedict in the year 530 or thereabouts.
1481 St. Nicholas von Flüe Hermit Swiss political figure Renowned for his holiness and wisdom;  “Bruder Klaus,” he often had the good fortune of contemplating Our Lady receiving frequent visits from her.
1556 Thomas Cranmer unterstützte die Reformation, er wirkte bei der englischen Bibelübersetzung mit, gab 1549 das erste Book of Common Prayer (Allgemeines Gebetbuch) heraus und verfaßte das Bekenntnis von 1553 (42 Artikel)
Johann Sebastian Bach was born MARCH 21, 1685; he died in the year 1750.
1949 Saint Seraphim  clairvoyance; healing priestly ministry in prison camps angels brought Communion

These days no one thinks of the fears that the future holds. No one takes to heart the day of judgement, and the wrath of God. The punishments to come to unbelievers, and the eternal torments decreed for the faithless. If only they believed, they would heed, and if they took heed, they would escape. -- St. Cyprian of Carthage

March 21 – Our Lady of Nowy Swierjan (Russia)
 You are a worthy dwelling for his glory…
 "Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" (Lk 1: 28). God is now reconciled with mankind.
In a certain passage, God said to the Israelites: “It is your crimes that separate you from your God” (Isaiah 59:2).
But when he found you, who are a worthy dwelling for his glory, he removed the old separation and dwelt with you, and through you, with all who share your human nature.   Germanus II of Constantinople
 
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).

Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.

"The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge (or by holy meditation and prayer), the spiritual passions of the soul
by charity,
and the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance." -Saint Serapion's little rule

"O most blessed Light, fill the interior of the hearts of your faithful ".
"The words of the Sequence are a beautiful summary of the life of Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello
and explain its extraordinary spiritual richness.

"Guided by divine grace, the new saint was concerned to accomplish God's will with fidelity and coherence.
With boundless confidence in the Lord's goodness, she abandoned herself to his "loving Providence",
deeply convinced, as she liked to repeat, that one must "do everything for love of God and to please him".
This is the precious inheritance that St Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello left to her spiritual daughters that today
is offered to the entire Christian community."

HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II at her Beatification

Sufi Basant at the Chishti Dargahs (Spring for Hindus And Muslims in India)
Johann Sebastian Bach was born MARCH 21, 1685; he died in the year 1750.  
By age 10, both his parents had died.  At 18, Bach was a church organist, then held positions in royal courts.  While serving as cantor at Thomas Church of Leipzig, Bach taught Luther's Small Catechism.  In 1717, Bach was imprisoned because a duke in the city of Weimar did not want him employed elsewhere. Widowed with 7 children, he remarried and had 13 more.

Johann Sebastian Bach stated: "The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.  If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging."

Considered the "master of masters," Johann Sebastian Bach's works include: -Jesus, Meine Freude (Jesus, My Joy!); -Passion According to St. Matthew; -O Sacred Head, Now Wounded;
-Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (Christians, engrave this day); -Easter Oratorio; and -Christmas Oratorio.
 Bach wrote more than 300 sacred cantatas, including: -Christ lag in Todes Banden (Christ lay in death's bonds); -Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God);
-Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's Time is the very best Time);
-Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake); and
-Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem (Behold, let us go up to Jerusalem).
In "The Story of Mankind," 1921, Hendrik Willem van Loon wrote:
"By the middle of the 18th century the musical life of Europe was in full swing.
Then there came forward a man who was greater than all others, a simple organist of the Thomas Church of Leipzig, by the name of Johann Sebastian Bach...
...In his compositions for every known instrument...to the most stately of sacred hymns and oratorios, he laid the foundation for all our modern music. When he died in the year 1750 he was succeeded by Mozart...then Ludwig van Beethoven." 


     The Commemoration of the Honored Archangel Michael commemoration are held and alms offered in his name on
     
the twelfth day of each Coptic month.
St Serapion
  90 St. Birillus Bishop ordained by St. Peter the Apostle
       Saint Cyril Bishop of Catania disciple of Saint Peter wonderworker
188 St. Demetrius the Twelfth Pope of Alexandria The Commemoration of the revealing of the virginity of Philemon & Domninus preached the Good News in various parts of Italy MM 
 211 St. Serapion Bishop of Antioch (190-211) Known principally through his theological writings
 342 Martyrs of Alexandria by Arians and heathens (RM)
 370 St. Serapion Scholastic Bishop head of famed Catechetical School of Alexandria; Socrates relates Serapion gave an abstract of his own life
 480 St. Lupicinus Abbot brother of St. Romanus of Condat founded abbeys
 530 St. Enda considered soldier then monk founder of monasticism in Ireland on
Aran island of
 547 ST BENEDICT, ABBOT, PATRIARCH OF WESTERN MONKS Upon the site of the Appolo temple he built two chapels, and round about these sanctuaries there rose little by little the great pile which was destined to become the most famous abbey the world has ever known,
the foundation of which is likely to have been laid by St Benedict in the year 530 or thereabouts.

 610 Thomas von Konstantinopel prophezeite das Zeichen bedeute den Verfall der Kirche und Krieg mit barbarischen Völkern erbat dann seinen Tod vor diesen Ereignissen
      Saint James Bishop Sicily Confessor full of works fasting prayer Pious well-versed in Scripture
9th v. Isenger of Verdun early Irish bishops of Verdun in northern Germany
1176 Blessed Clementia of Oehren, OSB Widow (AC)
1289 Blessed John of Parma 1st attempt won back schismatic Greeks died on 2nd attempt 7th general minister Franciscan Order
1305 Blessed Santuccia Terrebotti Benedictine abbess OSB Widow (AC)
1481 St. Nicholas von Fl
üe Hermit Swiss political figure Renowned for his holiness and wisdom;  “Bruder Klaus,” he often had the good fortune of contemplating Our Lady and of receiving frequent visits from her.
1556 Thomas Cranmer unterstützte die Reformation, er wirkte bei der englischen Bibelübersetzung mit, gab 1549 das erste Book of Common Prayer (Allgemeines Gebetbuch) heraus und verfaßte das Bekenntnis von 1553 (42 Artikel)
1617 Blessed Alphonsus de Rojas, OFM (AC)
1858 Saint Benedicta Cambiagio Frassinello profound mystical experience that left her devoted to prayer miraculously cured by St Jerome Emiliani
1949 Saint Seraphim gifts of clairvoyance; healing priestly ministry in prison camps angels brought him Communion



Sufi Basant at the Chishti Dargahs (Spring for Hindus And Muslims in India)
by Yousuf Saeed
North India wakes up from the chilly winter. Its spring here again. The yellow of mustard flowers covers miles on end. It is now that the joyful celebration of Basant will be celebrated. There will be singing and dancing. But few of us know that Basant is traditionally celebrated not only by the Hindus, but also by many Muslims in India. It is believed that the Chishti Sufis may have begun the celebration of Basant amongst Indian Muslims in as early as 12th century.
The legend goes that Delhi's Chishti Saint Nizamuddin Aulia once so grieved because of the passing away of his young nephew Taqiuddin Nooh, that he withdrew himself completely from the world for a couple of months, either locked inside his room or sitting near his nephew's grave. His close friend, disciple and famous court poet, Amir Khusrau, could not bear with his pir's absence any longer, and started thinking of ways to brighten him up.
The Commemoration of the Honored Archangel Michael commemoration are held and alms offered in his name on the twelfth day of each Coptic month.
On this day the church celebrates the feast of the honored Archangel, Michael, the head of the hosts of heaven, who stands at all times before the great throne of God, interceding on behalf of the human race.

Joshua, the son of Nun, saw him in great glory and was frightened by him and fell on his face to the earth and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" So he said, "No; but as Commander of the army of the Lord... I have given Jericho into your hand, ... and its king." (Joshua 5:13-15, 6:2)

The Archangel Michael was with all the saints and martyrs. He strengthened them and enabled them to endure patiently until they finished their strife. Festivals of commemoration are held and alms offered in his name on the twelfth day of each Coptic month.

An example of one of his wonders: A God-fearing man whose name was Dorotheus and his wife Theopista, held a festival of commemoration for the honored angel Michael on the twelfth day of each month. It happened that this righteous family fell on hard times and had nothing to celebrate with for the commemoration of the honored Michael. They took their clothes to sell so that they might have a feast. Michael the Archangel appeared to Dorotheus and commanded him not to sell his clothes, but to go to a sheep-master and to take from him a sheep worth one-third of a dinar. He was also to go to a fisherman and to take from him a fish worth one-third of a dinar but Dorotheus was not to slit open the fish until he came back to him. Finally, he was to go to a flour merchant and to take from him as much flour as he needed.

Dorotheus did as the Angel commanded him. He invited the people, as was his custom, to the feast honoring the Archangel Michael. When he went into his storeroom looking for wine for the offering, he found that all the containers had been filled with wine and many other good things. He marvelled and was astonished.

After they had finished the celebration and all the people had departed, the Archangel appeared to Dorotheus as before and commanded him to cut open the belly of the fish. He found 300 dinars of gold and three coins each is a third of a dinar. He told him these three coins were for the sheep, the fish and the flour, and the 300 dinars were for him and his children. God had remembered them and their oblations and had rewarded them here, in this world and in the kingdom of heaven on the last day. As Dorotheus and his wife were astonished at this matter, the Archangel Michael said to them, "I am Michael the Archangel who delivered you from all your tribulations and I have taken your oblations and alms up to God, you shall lack no good thing whatsoever in this world." They prostrated themselves before him and he disappeared and went up into heaven. This was one of the innumerable miracles of this honored Angel.
His intercession be for us and Glory be to our God, forever. Amen.
90 St. Birillus Bishop ordained by St. Peter the Apostle
Cátanæ, in Sicília, sancti Birílli, qui, a beáto Petro ordinátus Epíscopus, ibídem, cum multos Gentílium convertísset ad fidem, in última senectúte quiévit in pace.
      
At Catania, St. Birillus, who was consecrated bishop by St. Peter.  After converting many gentiles to the faith, he died in extreme old age.
He became the bishop of Catania, Sicily, remaining in his see for many years.
Brillus of Catania accompanied from Antioch Saint Peter B (RM)
(also known as Birillus) Saint Brillus is reputed to have accompanied from Antioch Saint Peter, who consecrated him bishop of Catania, Sicily. He died in extreme old age (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Saint Cyril Bishop of Catania disciple of Saint Peter wonderworker
He was born in Antioch and a disciple of the Apostle Peter (June 29, January 16), who installed him as Bishop of Catania in Sicily. St Cyril wisely guided his flock; he was pious, and the Lord granted him the gift of wonderworking. By his prayer the bitter water in a certain spring lost its bitterness and became drinkable.
This miracle converted many pagans to Christianity. St Cyril died in old age and was buried in Sicily.
188 St. Demetrius the Twelfth Pope of Alexandria The Commemoration of the revealing of the virginity of  
On this day also the church celebrates the commemoration of the revealing of the virginity of St. Demetrius the Twelfth Pope of Alexandria. The angel of the Lord appeared to St. Julian, the Eleventh Pope, before his departure and said: "You are going to the Lord Christ, the one who will bring you tomorrow a cluster of grapes, is the one fit to be a Patriarch after you." On the morrow, this saint came with a cluster of grapes, Abba Julian held him and told the people: "This is your Patriarch after me," and told them what the angel told him. After the departure of Abba Julian they took him and ordained him Patriarch on the 9th day of Baramhat (March 4th., 188 A.D.) and he was married.

Since no married Patriarch ever before this father been enthroned over the See of Alexandria, satan entered the hearts of the laity and made them talk and grumble against the Patriarch and the one who recommended him. The angel of God appeared to St. Demetrius and told him about that and ordered him to remove the doubt from their hearts by revealing to them his relation with his wife. When St. Demetrius refused, the angel told him: "It is not meet that you save your self alone and let others be perished because of you. But because you are a shepherd you should fight to save your people also".

On the next day, after he had finished celebrating the Divine Liturgy, he asked the people not to leave the church. He brought flamed charcoal, and brought his wife from the place of the women and the congregation wondered at his action, not knowing what he was going to do. He prayed and walked on the blazing fire, he took a piece of the blazing fire and put it in his shawl, then he took another piece and put it in his wife's shawl. He prayed again for a long time and both shawls did not burn. The congregation marvelled and asked him to tell them why he did that. He told them of his strife with his wife, and how his father and her father married them against their will, and they have lived together as a brother and sister since they were married forty-eight years ago, the angel of the Lord each night covered them with his wings, and no one knew that before that time until the angel of the Lord ordered him to reveal his secret.

The congregation marvelled for what they had seen and heard, they praised and glorified God asking the Saint to pardon them for what they had done or said and to forgive them. He accepted their apology, forgave them, blessed them, and sent them to their homes glorifying the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit talking about what they saw of wonders from this Saint.
May his prayers be with us. Amen.
211 St. Serapion Bishop of Antioch (190-211) Known principally through his theological writings.  
Of these Eusebius (Hist. eccl., V, 19) mentions a private letter addressed to Caricus and Pontius against the Montanist heresy; a treatise addressed to a certain Domninus, who in time of persecution abandoned Christianity for the error of "Jewish will- worship " (Hist. eccl., VI, 12); a work on the Docetic Gospel attributed to St. Peter, in which the Christian community of Rhossus in Syria is warned of the erroneous character of this Gospel. These were the only works of Serapion with which Eusebius was acquainted, but he says it is probable that others were extant in his time. He gives two short extracts from the first and third.
[Note: St. Serapion is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 30 October.]
342 Martyrs of Alexandria by Arians and heathens (RM)  
Alexandríæ commemorátio sanctórum Mártyrum, qui, sub Constántio Imperatóre et Præfécto Philágrio, irruéntibus Ariánis et Gentílibus in Ecclésias, in die Parascéves cæsi sunt.
       At Alexandria, under Emperor Constantine and the governor Philagrius, the commemoration of the holy martyrs who were murdered by the Arians and the heathens, being attacked by them while they were in church on Good Friday.
 Alexandríæ beáti Serapiónis, Anachorétæ et Epíscopi Thmúeos, magnárum virtútum viri; qui, Arianórum furóre in exsílium actus, Conféssor migrávit ad Dóminum.       At Alexandria, blessed Serapion, anchoret and bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who was driven into exile by the enraged Arians, where he departed to heaven.
The Roman Martyrology reads "At Alexandria, the commemoration of the holy martyrs who were slain on Good Friday under the emperor Constantius and Philagrius the Prefect, when the Arians and heathens rushed into the churches."
Saint Athanasius who escaped from the tumult has left a description in his second apology (Benedictines).
342 Philemon & Domninus preached the Good News in various parts of Italy MM (RM)  
Eódem die sanctórum Mártyrum Philémonis et Domníni.
       On the same day, the holy martyrs Philemon and Domninus.
The Romans Philemon and Domninus preached the Good News in various parts of Italy, until they were martyred--probably at Rome (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
370 St. Serapion the Scholastic Bishop head of famed Catechetical School of Alexandria Socrates relates Serapion gave an abstract of his own life.  Alexandríæ beáti Serapiónis, Anachorétæ et Epíscopi Thmúeos, magnárum virtútum viri; qui, Arianórum furóre in exsílium actus, Conféssor migrávit ad Dóminum.
      At Alexandria, blessed Serapion, anchoret and bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who was driven into exile by the enraged Arians, where he departed to heaven.


370 ST SERAPION, BISHOP OF THMUIS
SURNAMED “the Scholastic” on account of his learning both in sacred and in secular knowledge, St Serapion for some time presided over the catechetical school of Alexandria; he afterwards retired into the desert, where he became a monk and formed a friendship with St Antony, who at his death left him one of his tunics. Serapion was drawn from his retreat to be placed in the episcopal seat of Thmuis, a city of Lower Egypt near Diospolis. He took part in the Council of Sardica in 347, was closely associated with St Athanasius in defence of the Catholic faith, and is said by St Jerome to have been banished by the Emperor Constantius.
He informed Athanasius about the new Macedonian heresy which was being propagated and the four letters which Athanasius, from the desert where he lay concealed, wrote to Serapion were the first express confutation of that error to be published. St Serapion laboured with great success against the Arians and the Macedonians, and he also compiled an excellent book against the Manicheans.
He wrote several
learned letters and a treatise on the titles of the Psalms, which are lost, but for us his most important work is the Euchologion, discovered and published at the end of last century.
Socrates says that St Serapion made a short epigram or summary of Christian perfection which he often repeated
“The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge (or by holy meditation and prayer), the spiritual passions of the soul by charity, and the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance.”
He is thought to have died in banishment, but the exact date of his death is not known.

See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii; DCB., vol. iv, p. 613 and CMII., pp. 154—155. There has been much confusion in the martyrology entries. There is a short account of Serapion’s career in the preface to Bishop John Wordsworth’s booklet Bishop Serapion’s Prayerbook (1910), being a translation of the prayers of his Euchologion.

Egypt, also known as Serapion of Arsinoc. He was originally a monk in the Egyptian desert and a companion to St. Anthony who left in his will the gift of two sheepskin cloaks, one for Serapion and the other for St. Athanasius of Alexandria. A close friend of Athanasius, he gave support to the patriarch against the heretic Arians in Egypt especially after receiving appointment as bishop of Thmuis, in Lower Egypt, on the Nile delta. Because of his unequivocal backing of Athanasius and his opposition to Arianism, he was exiled for a time by the ardent Arian emperor Constantius II. A brilliant scholar and theologian, he was also the author of a series of writings on the doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Spirit (addressed to the emperor), the Euchologiurn (a sacramentary), and a treatise against Manichacism.
Serapion the Scholastic B (RM) (also known as Serapion or Sarapion of Thmuis)
Serapion was an Egyptian monk of great erudition and a penetrating intellect. For a time, he ran the famous catechetical school of Alexandria, Egypt, but resigned in order to spend more time in prayer and penitential exercises. Thus, early in life he was a disciple of Saint Antony in the desert. He was also a good friend and supporter of Saint Athanasius, who tells us in his Life of Saint Antony that when Serapion visited Antony the latter often told the former events that were occurring at a distance in Egypt. Upon his death, Antony left Serapion one of his tunics of hair.
Following his consecration as bishop of Thmuis (near Diospolis) in the Nile delta, Serapion became a leading figure in ecclesiastical affairs. He was a vigorous opponent of Arianism (the Son is not consubstantial with the Father) and an avid supporter of Athanasius. For this stance, he was banished by Emperor Constantius and called a confessor by Saint Jerome. As soon as the blasphemy of Macedonianism arose, Serapion vigorously opposed this denial of the divinity of the Holy Spirit and informed Athanasius, who wrote against it in four letters addressed to Serapion, in 359, while Athanasius was hiding in the desert.

Serapion also wrote an excellent book against Manicheism in which he shows that our bodies may be made the instruments of good or evil depending upon the disposition of the heart, and that both just and wicked men are often changed to the other type. It is, therefore, a self-contradiction to pretend with the Manichees that our souls are the work of God, but our bodies of the devil, or the evil principle. He also wrote several learned letters, and a treatise on the titles of the Psalms, quoted by St. Jerome, but which are now lost.

Above all, Serapion has become the best known of the saints with this name because a sacramentary ascribed to him, called the Euchologion, was discovered and published in 1899. This collection of liturgical prayers, which has been translated into English, was intended primarily for the use of a bishop. It is valuable for the knowledge of early public worship in Egypt

At Serapion's request, Athanasius composed several of his works against the Arians. A letter addressed to him Concerning the death of Arius still exists. So great was Athanasius's opinion of Serapion that he desired him to correct or add to them anything that he thought was wanting.
Socrates relates that Serapion gave an abstract of his own life--an abridged rule of Christian perfection--that he often repeated: "The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge (or by holy meditation and prayer), the spiritual passions of the soul by charity, and the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance."
Serapion died in exile (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
480 St. Lupicinus Abbot brother of St. Romanus of Condat founded abbeys life was brilliant with the glory of holiness and miracles
 In território Lugdunénsi sancti Lupicíni Abbátis, cujus vita ob sanctitátis et miraculórum glóriam fuit illústris.
       In the territory of Lyons, St. Lupicinus, abbot, whose life was brilliant with the glory of holiness and miracles.
Lupicinus founded the abbeys of St. Claud in the Jura mountains and in the Lauconne districts of France.
530 St. Enda considered soldier then monk founder of monasticism in Ireland on the island of Aran

530 ST ENDA, ABBOT, AND ST FANCHEA, VIRGIN
THE little which is recorded of St Fanchea (whose day is January 1) is of a very fabulous character, and is nearly all contained in the Life of St Enda, her brother. Fanchea, who along with other Irish maidens had consecrated herself to God, knew that Enda had taken part in a raid against his enemies, one of whom had been slain in the fight. The shouts of the victors as they returned from their expedition penetrated the convent walls. Fanchea recognized her brother’s voice, but at the same time received a supernatural intimation that he was called to serve God in great sanctity of life. She accordingly reproved him for the deed of blood upon which he had been engaged, and when he promised to settle peacefully at home if she would give him one of her maidens in marriage, she pretended to be ready to comply. But it pleased God that the maiden in question should die at that very time, and when she brought her brother to see the bride that had been promised him, he found only a corpse, pale and rigid in death. Enda thereupon gave himself up to a monastic life; but even so thoughts of warlike exploits still recurred, and his sister impressed it upon him that when these temptations came he ought to put his hand to his shaven head to remind himself that he now wore, not a regal diadem, but the tonsure (corona) of his Master, Christ.

Finally, still by her advice, Enda left Ireland and went to Rome, whither, after a long interval, Fanchea, with some of her nuns, set out to visit him, only spreading her cloak upon the sea, and being wafted over the waters. In Rome she asked Enda to return to Ireland for the good of his people. He promised to do so after a year, but she herself on reaching home surrendered her soul to God before he could follow her. It has been stated that St Fanchea built a nunnery at Ross Oirthir, or Rossory, in Fermanagh, and that her remains were deposited and long venerated at Killaine, but the evidence does not seem very satisfactory.

All that we are told of St Enda’s history previous to his settlement at Aranmore is quite legendary, except perhaps for an important stay at Candida Casa, the monastery founded by St Ninian in Galloway. After his alleged visit to Rome, where he was ordained priest, Enda landed at Drogheda and built churches on both sides of the river Boyne. Afterwards he crossed Ireland and went to see Oengus, King of Munster, who was married to another of his sisters, and lived at Cashel. From his brother-hi-law he asked for the isle of Aran that he might found a religious establishment there. Oengus urged him to choose a more fertile place nearer at hand, but when St Enda persisted that Aran was to be the place of his resurrection and that it was good enough for him, Oengus yielded, declaring that he willingly gave it to God and to Enda, whose blessing he craved in return.

To this island St Enda brought his disciples, and the fame of his austerity and sanctity led many others to join them. The saint built, on the eastern side of Aranmore, a great monastery at Killeany, over which he presided, and half the land was apportioned to it, whilst the rest of the island was divided between ten other smaller houses which he founded and over which he set superiors. We are told that not only did he live a most penitential life himself, but that he exacted a very strict discipline from all under his charge. A legend relates that every night he tested his brethren by putting them in turn into a curragh, or wicker-work canoe, and setting it afloat without the hide covering which rendered it watertight. If a man was free from sin, the water could not get in. All the monks—including the abbot himself-—escaped a wetting, except Gigniat the cook, who when questioned admitted that he had added a little to his own portion of food from that of Kieran, son of the artificer. St Enda ordered him to leave the island, saying, “There is no room here for a thief; I will not permit this at all”.

With St Finnian of Clonard, St Enda was a father of monachism in Ireland with him organized monasticism, properly speaking, seems to have begun. One of his best-known disciples was St Kieran of Clonmacnois, just referred to.

The Latin Life of Enda has been printed by Colgan and in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii, but more critically by Plummer in his VSH, vol. ii, pp. 60—75, and cf. J. Healy, Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars, pp. 163—187. See J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism (1931), pp. 106—107. Fanchea’s name is variously written Faenche, Faenkea, Fainche, Fuinche, etc.
Legend has him an Irishman noted for his military feats who was convinced by his sister St. Fanchea to renounce his warring activities and marry. When he found his fiancee dead, he decided to become a monk and went on pilgrimage to Rome, where he was ordained. He returned to Ireland, built churches at Drogheda, and then secured from his brother-in-law King Oengus of Munster the island of Aran, where he built the monastery of Killeaney, from which ten other foundations on the island developed.
With St. Finnian of Clonard, Enda is considered the founder on monasticism in Ireland.
Enda of Arranmore, Abbot (AC) (also known as Eanna, Endeus, Enna) Born in Meath; died at Killeany, Ireland, c. 530 or 590; feast day formerly on March 16.
In the 6th century, the wild rock called Aran, off the coast of Galway, was an isle of saints, and among them was Saint Enda, the patriarch of Irish monasticism. He was an Irish prince, son of Conall Derg of Oriel (Ergall) in Ulster. Legend has it that the soldier Enda was converted by his sister, Saint Fanchea, abbess of Kill-Aine. He renounced his dreams of conquest and decided to marry one of the girls in his sister's convent. When his financé died suddenly, he surrendered his throne and a life of worldly glory to become a monk. He made a pilgrimage to Rome and was ordained there. These stories told of the early life of Saint Enda and his sister are unhistorical, but the rest is not. More authentic vitae survive at Tighlaghearny at Inishmore, where he was buried.
It is said that Enda learned the principles of monastic life at Rosnat in Britain, which was probably Saint David's foundation in Pembrokeshire or Saint Ninian's in Galloway. Returning to Ireland, Enda built churches at Drogheda, and a monastery in the Boyne valley. It is uncertain how much of Enda's rule was an adaptation of that of Rosnat.
Thereafter (about 484) he begged his brother-in-law, the King Oengus (Aengus) of Munster, to give him the wild and barren isle of Aran (Aranmore) in Galway Bay. Oengus wanted to give him a fertile plot in the Golden Vale, but Aran more suited Enda's ideal for religious life. On Aran he established the monastery of Killeaney, which is regarded as the first Irish monastery in the strict sense, `the capital of the Ireland of the saints.' There they lived a hard life of manual labor, prayer, fasting, and study of the Scriptures. It is said that no fire was ever allowed to warm the cold stone cells even if "cold could be felt by those hearts so glowing with love of God."
Enda divided the island into ten parts, in each of which he built a monastery.
Under his severe rule Aran became a burning light of sanctity for centuries in Western Europe. Sheep now huddle and shiver in the storm under the ruins of old walls where once men lived and prayed. This was the chosen home of a group of poor and devoted men under Saint Enda. He taught them to love the hard rock, the dripping cave, and the barren earth swept by the western gales. They were men of the cave, and also men of the Cross, who, remembering that their Lord was born in a manger and had nowhere to lay His head, followed the same hard way.

Their coming produced excitement, and the Galway fishermen were kept busy rowing their small boats filled with curious sightseers across the intervening sea, for the fame of Aran-More spread far and wide. Enda's disciples were a noble band. There was Saint Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, who came there first as a youth to grind corn, and would have remained there for life but for Enda's insistence that his true work lay elsewhere, reluctant though he was to part with him. When he departed, the monks of Aran lined the shore as he knelt for the last time to receive Enda's blessing, and watched with wistful eyes the boat that bore him from them. In his going, they declared, their island had lost its flower and strength.

Another was Saint Finnian, who left Aran and founded the monastery of Moville (where Saint Columba spent part of his youth) and who afterwards became bishop of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. Among them also was Saint Brendan the Voyager, Saint Columba of Iona, Jarlath of Tuam, and Carthach the Elder. These and many others formed a great and valiant company who first learned in Aran the many ways of God, and who from that rocky sanctuary carried the light of the Gospel into a pagan world.
The very wildness of Aran made it richer and dearer to those who lived there.
They loved those islands which "as a necklace of pearls, God has set upon the bosom of the sea," and all the more because they had been the scene of heathen worship. There were three islands altogether, with lovely Irish names: Inishmore, Inishmain, and Inisheen.
On the largest stood Saint Enda's well and altar, and the round tower of the church where the bell was sounded which gave the signal that Saint Enda had taken his place at the altar. At the tolling of the bell the service of the Mass began in all the churches of the island.
"O, Aran," cried Columba in ecstasy, "the Rome of the pilgrims!"
He never forgot his spiritual home which lay in the western sun and her pure earth sanctified by so many memories. Indeed, he said, so bright was her glory that the angels of God came down to worship in the churches of Aran (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, D'Arcy, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Healy, Husenbeth, Kenney, Montague).
547 ST BENEDICT, ABBOT, PATRIARCH OF WESTERN MONKS
 In monte Cassíno natális sancti Benedícti Abbátis, qui in Occidénte fere collápsam Monachórum disciplínam restítuit ac mirífice propagávit; cujus vitam, virtútibus et miráculis gloriósam, beátus Gregórius Papa conscrípsit.
At Monte Cassino, the birthday of the holy abbot St. Benedict, who restored and wonderfully extended the monastic discipline in the West, where it had almost been destroyed.  His life, brilliant in virtues and miracles, was written by Pope St. Gregory.
IN view of the immense influence exerted over Europe by the followers of St Benedict, it is disappointing that we have no contemporary biography of the great legislator, the father of Western monasticism; for St Benedict, it has been said, “is a dim figure, and the facts of his life are given us in a clothing which obscures rather than reveals his personality”. The little we know about his earlier life comes from the Dialogues of St Gregory, who does not furnish a connected history, but merely a series of sketches to illustrate the miraculous incidents in his career.
Benedict was of good birth, and was born and brought up at the ancient Sabine town of Nursia (Norcia). Of his twin sister Scholastica, we read that from her infancy she had vowed herself to God, but we do not hear of her again until towards the close of her brother’s life. He was sent to Rome for his “liberal education”, being accompanied by a “nurse”, probably to act as housekeeper. He was then in his early teens, or perhaps a little more. Overrun by pagan and Arian tribes, the civilized world seemed during the closing years of the fifth century to be rapidly lapsing into barbarism: the Church was rent by schisms, town and country were desolated by war and pillage, shameful sins were rampant amongst Christians as well as heathens, and it was noted that there was not a sovereign or a ruler who was not an atheist, a pagan or a heretic. The youths in schools and colleges imitated the vices of their elders, and Benedict, revolted by the licentiousness of his companions, yet fearing lest he might become contaminated by their example, made up his mind to leave Rome. He made his escape without telling anyone of his plans excepting his nurse, who accompanied him. There has been considerable difference of opinion as to his age when he left the paternal roof, but he may have been nearly twenty. They made their way to the village of Enfide in the mountains thirty miles from Rome. What was the length of his stay we do not know, but it was sufficient to enable him to determine his next step.

Absence from the temptations of Rome, he soon realized, was not enough; God was calling him to be a solitary and to abandon the world, and the youth could no more live a hidden life in a village than in the city—especially after he had miraculously mended an earthenware sieve which his nurse had borrowed and had accidentally broken.
In search of complete solitude Benedict started forth once more, alone, and climbed further among the hills until he reached a place now known as Subiaco (Sublacum, from the artificial lake formed in the days of Claudius by the banking up of the waters of the Anio). In this wild and rocky country he came upon a monk called Romanus, to whom he opened his heart, explaining his intention of leading the life of a hermit. Romanus himself lived in a monastery at no great distance, but he eagerly assisted the young man, clothing him with a sheepskin habit and leading him to a cave in the mountain. It was roofed by a high rock over which there was no descent, and the ascent from below was rendered perilous by precipices as well as by thick woods and undergrowth. In this desolate cavern Benedict spent the next three years of his life, unknown to all except Romanus, who kept his secret and daily brought bread for the young recluse, who drew it up in a basket let down by a rope over the rock. Gregory reports that the first outsider to find his way to the cave was a priest who, when preparing a dinner for himself on Easter Sunday, heard a voice which said to him, “You are preparing yourself a savoury dish whilst my servant Benedict is afflicted with hunger”. The priest immediately set out in quest of the hermit, whom he found with great difficulty. After they had discoursed for some time on God and heavenly things the priest invited him to eat, saying that it was Easter day, on which it was not reasonable to fast. Benedict, who doubtless had lost all sense of time and certainly had no means of calculating lunar cycles, replied that he knew not that it was the day of so great a solemnity. They ate their meal together, and the priest went home. Shortly afterwards the saint was discovered by some shepherds, who took him at first for a wild animal because he was clothed in the skin of beasts and because they did not think any human being could live among the rocks. When they discovered that he was a servant of God they were greatly impressed, and derived much good from his discourses. From that time he began to be known and many people visited him, bringing such sustenance as he would accept and receiving from him instruction and advice.
Although he lived thus sequestered from the world, St Benedict, like the fathers in the desert, had to meet the temptations of the flesh and of the Devil, one of which has been described by St Gregory. “On a certain day when he was alone the tempter presented himself. For a small dark bird, commonly called a blackbird, began to fly round his face, and came so near to him that, if he had wished, he could have seized it with his hand. But on his making the sign of the cross, the bird flew away. Then such a violent temptation of the flesh followed as he had never before experienced. The evil spirit brought before his imagination a certain woman whom he had formerly seen, and inflamed his heart with such vehement desire at the memory of her that he had very great difficulty in repressing it; and being almost overcome he thought of leaving his solitude. Suddenly, however, helped by divine grace, he found the strength he needed, and seeing close by a thick growth of briars and nettles, he stripped off his garment and dast himself into the midst of them. There he rolled until his whole body was lacerated. Thus, through those bodily wounds he cured the wounds of his soul”, and was never again troubled in the same way.
Between Tivoli and Subiaco, at Vicovaro, on the summit of a cliff overlooking the Anio, there resided at that time a community of monks who, having lost their abbot by death, resolved to ask St Benedict to take his place. He at first refused, assuring the community, who had come to him in a body, that their ways and his would not agree—perhaps he knew of them by reputation. Their importunity, however, induced him to consent, and he returned with them to take up the government. It soon became evident that his strict notions of monastic discipline did not suit them, for all that they lived in rock-hewn cells; and in order to get rid of him they went so far as to mingle poison in his wine. When as was his wont he made the sign of the cross over the jug, it broke in pieces as if a stone had fallen upon it. “God forgive you, brothers”, the abbot said without anger. “Why have you plotted this wicked thing against me? Did I not tell you that my customs would not accord with yours? Go and find an abbot to your taste, for after this deed you can no longer keep me among you.”  With these words he returned to Subiaco—no longer, however, to live a life of seclusion, but to begin the great work for which God had been preparing him during those three hidden years.
Disciples began to gather about him, attracted by his sanctity and by his miraculous powers, seculars fleeing from the world as well as solitaries who lived dispersed among the mountains; and St Benedict found himself in a position to initiate that great scheme, evolved perhaps or revealed to him in the silent cave, of “gathering together in this place as in one fold of the Lord many and different families of holy monks, dispersed in various monasteries and regions, in order to make of them one flock after His own heart, to strengthen them more, and bind them together by fraternal bonds in one house of the Lord under one regular observance, and in the permanent worship of the name of God”. He therefore settled all who would obey him in twelve wood-built monasteries of twelve monks, each with its prior. He himself exercised the supreme direction over all from where he lived with certain chosen monks whom he wished to train with special care. So far they had no written rule of their own: but according to a very ancient document “the monks of the twelve monasteries were taught the religious life, not by following any written rule, but only by following the example of St Benedict’s deeds”. Romans and barbarians, rich and poor, placed themselves at the disposal of the saint, who made no distinction of rank or nation, and after a time parents came to entrust him with their sons to be educated and trained for the monastic life. St Gregory tells us of two noble Romans, Tertullus the patrician and Equitius, who brought their sons, Placid, a child of seven, and Maurus, a lad of twelve, and devotes several pages to these young recruits (see St Maurus, January 15, and St Placid, October 5).
In contrast with these aristocratic young Romans, St Gregory tells of a rough untutored Goth who came to St Benedict and was received with joy and clothed in the monastic habit. Sent with a hedge-hook to clear the thick undergrowth from ground overlooking the lake, he worked so vigorously that the head flew off the haft and disappeared into the lake. The poor man was overwhelmed with distress, but as soon as St Benedict heard of the accident he led the culprit to the water’s edge, and taking the haft from him, threw it into the lake. Immediately from the bottom rose up the iron head, which proceeded to fasten itself automatically to the haft, and the abbot returned the tool saying, “There! Go on with your work and don’t be miserable”. It was not the least of St Benedict’s miracles that he broke down the deeply rooted prejudice against manual work as being degrading and servile: he believed that labour was not only dignified but conducive to holiness, and therefore he made it compulsory for all who joined his community—nobles and plebeians alike.
We do not know how long the saint remained at Subiaco, but he stayed long enough to establish his monasteries on a firm and permanent basis. His departure was sudden and seems to have been, unpremeditated. There lived in the neighbourhood an unworthy priest called Florentius, who, seeing the success which attended St Benedict and the great concourse of people who flocked to him, was moved to envy and tried to ruin him. Having failed in all attempts to take away his character by slander, and his life by sending him a poisoned loaf (which St Gregory says was removed miraculously by a raven), he tried to seduce his monks by introducing women of evil life. The abbot, who fully realized that the wicked schemes of Florentius were aimed at him personally, resolved to leave Subiaco, lest the souls of his spiritual children should continue to be assailed and endangered. Having set all things in order, he withdrew from Subiaco to the territory of Monte Cassino. It is a solitary elevation on the boundaries of Campania, commanding on three sides narrow valleys running up towards the mountains, and on the fourth, as far as the Mediterranean, an undulating plain which had once been rich and fertile, but having fallen out of cultivation owing to repeated irruptions of the barbarians, it had become marshy and malarious.
   The town of Casinum, once an important place, had been destroyed by the Goths, and the remnant of its inhabitants had relapsed into—or perhaps had never lost—their paganism. They were wont to offer sacrifice in a temple dedicated to Apollo, which stood on the crest of Monte Cassino, and the saint made it his first work after a forty days’ fast to preach to the people and to bring them to Christ. His teaching and miracles made many converts, with whose help he proceeded to overthrow the temple, its idol and its sacred grove. Upon the site of the temple he built two chapels, and round about these sanctuaries there rose little by little the great pile which was destined to become the most famous abbey the world has ever known, the foundation of which is likely to have been laid by St Benedict in the year 530 or thereabouts. It was
from here that went forth the influence that was to play so great a part in the christianization and civilization of post-Roman Europe: it was no mere ecclesias­tical museum that was destroyed during the second World War

It is probable that Benedict, who was now in middle age, again spent some time as a hermit; but disciples soon flocked to Monte Cassino too. Profiting no doubt by the experience gained at Subiaco, he no longer placed them in separate houses but gathered them together in one establishment, ruled over by a prior and deans under his general supervision. It almost immediately became necessary to add guest-chambers, for Monte Cassino, unlike Subiaco, was easily accessible from Rome and Capua. Not only laymen but dignitaries of the Church came to confer with the holy founder, whose reputation for sanctity, wisdom and miracles became widespread. It is almost certainly at this period that he composed his Rule, of which St Gregory says that in it may be understood “all his manner of life and discipline, for the holy man could not possibly teach otherwise than he lived”. Though it was primarily intended for the monks at Monte Cassino, yet, as Abbot Chapman has pointed out, there is something in favour of the view that it was written at the desire of Pope St Hormisdas for all monks of the West. It is ad dressed to all those who, renouncing their own will, take upon them “the strong and bright armour of obedience to fight under the Lord Christ, our true king”, and it prescribes a life of liturgical prayer, study (“sacred reading”) and work, lived socially in a community under one common father. Then and for long afterwards a monk was but rarely in holy orders, and there is no evidence that St Benedict himself was ever a priest. He sought to provide a school for the Lord’s service” intended for beginners, and the asceticism of the rule is notably moderate. Self-chosen and abnormal austerities were not encouraged, and when a hermit, occupying a cave near Monte Cassino, chained his foot to the rock, Benedict sent him a message, saying, “If you are truly a servant of God, chain not yourself with a chain of iron but with the chain of Christ”.

The great vision, when Benedict saw as in one sunbeam the whole world in the light of God, sums up the inspiration of his life and rule.

The holy abbot, far from confining his ministrations to those who would follow his rule, extended his solicitude to the population of the surrounding country: he cured their sick, relieved the distressed, distributed alms and food to the poor, and is said to have raised the dead on more than one occasion. While Campania was suffering from a severe famine he gave away all the provisions in the abbey, with the exception of five loaves. “You have not enough to-day”, he said to his monks, marking their dismay, “but to-morrow you will have too much”. The following morning two hundred bushels of flour were laid by an unknown hand at the monastery gate. Other instances have been handed down in illustration of St Benedict’s prophetic powers, to which was added ability to read men’s thoughts. A nobleman he had converted once found him in tears and inquired the cause of his grief. The abbot replied, “This monastery which I have built and all that I have prepared for my brethren has been delivered up to the heathen by a sentence of the Almighty. Scarcely have I been able to obtain mercy for their lives.” The prophecy was verified some forty years later, when the abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed by the Lombards.

When Totila the Goth was making a triumphal progress through central Italy, he conceived a wish to visit St Benedict, of whom he had heard much. He there­fore sent word of his coming to the abbot, who replied that he would see him. To discover whether the saint really possessed the powers attributed to him, Totila ordered Riggo, the captain of his guard, to don his own purple robes, and sent him, with the three counts who usually attended the king, to Monte Cassino. The impersonation did not deceive St Benedict, who greeted Riggo with the words, “My son, take off what you are wearing; it is not yours”. His visitor withdrew in haste to tell his master that he had been detected. Then Totila came himself to the man of God and, we are told, was so much awed that he fell prostrate. But Benedict, raising him from the ground, rebuked him for his evil deeds, and foretold in a few words all that should befall him. Thereupon the king craved his prayers and departed, but from that time he was less cruel. This interview took place in 542, and St Benedict can hardly have lived long enough to see the complete fulfil­ment of his own prophecy.

The great saint who had foretold so many other things was also forewarned of his own approaching death. He notified it to his disciples and six days before the end bade them dig his grave. As soon as this had been done he was stricken with fever, and on the last day he received the Body and Blood of the Lord. Then, while the loving hands of the brethren were supporting his weak limbs, he uttered a few final words of prayer and died—standing on his feet in the chapel, with his hands uplifted towards heaven. He was buried beside St Scholastica his sister, on the site of the altar of Apollo which he had cast down.

The fact that we know practically nothing of the life of St Benedict beyond what is told us by St Gregory, or what may be inferred from the text of the Rule, has not stood in the way of the multiplication of biographies of the saint. Among those in foreign languages, the lives by Abbots Tosti, Herwegen, Cabrol and Schuster have been translated into English perhaps the best life of English origin is that by Abbot Justin McCann (1938). See also T. F. Lindsay’s St Benedict (1950) ; High History of St Benedict and His Monks (1945), by a monk of Douay; and Zimmermann and Avery’s Life and Miracles of St Benedict (1950), being bk ii of St Gregory’s “Dialogues”. For those who wish to learn something of the spirit of the saint, Abbot Cuthbert Butler’s Benedictine Monachism (1924) and Abbot Chap­man’s St Benedict and the Sixth Century (1929) may be strongly recommended, especially the first. See also P. Renaudin, St Benoit dans l’Histoire (1928). A convenient edition of the Rule, Latin and English, has been published by Abbot Hunter-Blair (1914), a critical revision of the Latin text by Abbot Butler (1933), text and translation by Abbot McCann (1952), and a commentary by Abbot Delatte (Eng. trans., 1921). See too The Monastic Order in England (1940), pp. 3—15 and passim, by Dom David Knowles, and his The Bene­dictines (1929).
610 Thomas von Konstantinopel prophezeite das Zeichen bedeute den Verfall der Kirche und Krieg mit barbarischen Völkern erbat dann seinen Tod vor diesen Ereignissen
Orthodoxe Kirche: 21. März

Thomas war Diakon und wurde von Patriarch Johannes IV. zum Sakristan ernannt. Nach dem Tod von Patriarch Kyriakos (595-606) wurde er 607 zum Patriarchen von Konstantinopel gewählt. In seine Amtszeit fiel ein wundersames Zeichen, das sich Thomas von Theodor von Sikeon deuten ließ. Dieser prophezeite, das Zeichen bedeute den Verfall der Kirche und Krieg mit barbarischen Völkern. Thomas erbat dann seinen Tod vor diesen Ereignissen. Er starb 610 vor dem Einfall der Perser in das oströmische Reich.

Saint Thomas, Patriarch of Constantinople, was at first a deacon, and later under the holy Patriarch John IV the Faster (582-595) he was made "sakellarios" [sacristan] in the Great Church (Hagia Sophia). After the death of holy Patriarch Cyriacus (595-606), St Thomas was elevated to the Patriarchal throne in 607. The saint concerned himself in every possible way about the spiritual needs of his flock.

During the patriarchate of St Thomas, an ominous portent appeared in the land of Galatia (Asia Minor). The heavy crosses which were carried during church processions began to shake and to strike against each other. The clairvoyant Elder, St Theodore Sykeotes (April 22), explained the meaning of this portent. He said that discords and disasters awaited the Church, and the state was in danger of barbarian invasion. Hearing this, the saint became terrified and asked St Theodore to pray that God would take his soul before these predictions were fulfilled.

After the death of the holy Patriarch Thomas in 610, disorders started in the Church. St Thomas's successor, Patriarch Sergius (610-638), fell into the Monothelite heresy. Through God's dispensation, war broke out with Persia, which proved grievous for Byzantium. The Greek regions of Asia Minor were completely devastated, Jerusalem fell, and the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord was captured and taken to Persia. Thus, all the misfortunes portended by the miracle during the church procession came to pass.
Saint James Bishop Sicily Confessor life full of works fasting prayer Pious well-versed in Holy Scripture.
Inclined toward the ascetic life from his early years. St James left the world and entered the Studite monastery, where he was tonsured. He led a strict life, full of works, fasting and prayer. Pious and well-versed in Holy Scripture, St James was elevated to the bishop's throne of Catania (Sicily).

During the reign of the iconoclast emperor Constantine V Copronymos (741-775), St James was repeatedly urged not to venerate the holy icons.
They exhausted him in prison, starved him, and beat him, but he bravely endured all these torments. St James died in exile.
9th v. Isenger of Verdun  early Irish bishops of Verdun in northern Germany B 9th century (?)  
One of the early Irish bishops of Verdun in northern Germany, who hailed from the Irish monastery of Anabaric (D'Arcy, O'Hanlon). 
1176 Blessed Clementia of Oehren, OSB Widow (AC)
Clementia, the daughter of Count Adolph of Hohenburg, was a model wife until the death of her husband. Thereafter she became a nun at Oehren in Trier, Germany (Benedictines).
1289 Blessed John of Parma 1st attempt won back schismatic Greeks died on 2nd attempt 7th general minister Franciscan Order
b. 1209 The seventh general minister of the Franciscan Order, John was known for his attempts to bring back the earlier spirit of the Order after the death of St. Francis of Assisi. He was born in Parma, Italy, in 1209. It was when he was a young philosophy professor known for his piety and learning that God called him to bid good-bye to the world he was used to and enter the new world of the Franciscan Order. After his profession John was sent to Paris to complete his theological studies. Ordained to the priesthood, he was appointed to teach theology at Bologna, then Naples and finally Rome.
In 1245, Pope Innocent IV called a general council in the city of Lyons, France. Crescentius, the Franciscan minister general at the time, was ailing and unable to attend. In his place he sent Father John, who made a deep impression on the Church leaders gathered there. Two years later, when the same pope presided at the election of a minister general of the Franciscans, he remembered Father John well and held him up as the man best qualified for the office.
And so, in 1247, John of Parma was elected to be minister general. The surviving disciples of St. Francis rejoiced in his election, expecting a return to the spirit of poverty and humility of the early days of the Order. And they were not disappointed. As general of the Order John traveled on foot, accompanied by one or two companions, to practically all of the Franciscan convents in existence. Sometimes he would arrive and not be recognized, remaining there for a number of days to test the true spirit of the brothers.
The pope called on John to serve as legate to Constantinople, where he was most successful in winning back the schismatic Greeks. Upon his return he asked that someone else take his place to govern the Order. St. Bonaventure, at John's urging, was chosen to succeed him. John took up a life of prayer in the hermitage at Greccio.
Many years later, John learned that the Greeks, who had been reconciled with the Church for a time, had relapsed into schism. Though 80 years old by then, John received permission from Pope Nicholas IV to return to the East in an effort to restore unity once again. On his way, John fell sick and died.  He was beatified in 1781.

Comment:  In the 13th century, people in their 30s were middle-aged; hardly anyone lived to the ripe old age of 80. John did, but he didn’t ease into retirement. Instead he was on his way to try to heal a schism in the Church when he died. Our society today boasts a lot of folks in their later decades. Like John, many of them lead active lives. Some aren’t so fortunate: Weakness or ill health keeps them confined and lonely—waiting to hear from us.
1305 Blessed Santuccia Terrebotti Benedictine abbess OSB Widow (AC).  

1305 BD SANTUCCIA, MATRON
THE picturesque town of Gubbio in Umbria was the birthplace of Santuccia Terrebotti. She married a good man and they had one daughter, called Julia, who died young. The bereaved parents thereupon decided to retire from the world and to devote the rest of their days to God in the religious life. For some time Santuccia ruled a community of Benedictine nuns in Gubbio, but upon receiving the offer of the buildings which had once been occupied by the Templars on the Julian Way, she transferred herself and her sisters to Rome. There she inaugurated a community of Benedictine nuns who called themselves Servants of Mary, but were popularly known as Santuccie. The cultus of Bd Santuccia has never been confirmed.

See Garampi, Memorie ecclesiastiche; Spicilegium Benedictinum (1898), vol. ii; and Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii.

Born in Gubbio, Umbria, Italy; Santuccia married and bore a daughter who died young. She and her husband mutually agreed to separate and enter religious life. She became a Benedictine at Gubbio and rose to be an abbess. Under her the community migrated to Santa Maria in Via Lata, on the Julian Way, Rome. There she inaugurated a stricter adherence to live the Benedictine Rule, although the sisters are usually called the Servants of Mary, popularly called Le Santuccie (Attwater2, Benedictines).
1481 St. Nicholas von Flue Hermit Swiss political figure Renowned for his holiness and wisdom “Bruder Klaus,”
 In loco Ranft, prope Sachseln, in Helvétia, sancti Nicolái de Flüe, patris famílias, dein Anachorétæ, arctíssima pæniténtia et mundi contémptu insígnis, ab Helvétiis pater pátriæ appelláti, quem Pius Papa Duodécimus Sanctórum fastis adscrípsit.
       In the village of Ranft, near Sachseln in Switzerland, St. Nicholas of Flue, a family man who became an anchoret, famed for his most ardent penitence and contempt for the world, and known by the Swiss as the father of the fatherland.  He was numbered among the saints by Pope Pius XII.
Born near Sachseln, Canton Obwalden, Switzerland, he took his name from the Flueli river which flowed near his birthplace. The son of a peasant couple, he married and had ten children by his wife, Dorothea Wissling, and fought heroically in the forces of the canton against Zurich in 1439. After serving as magistrate and highly respected councilor, he refused the office of governor several times and, in 1467, at the age of fifty and with the consent of his wife and family, he embraced the life of a hermit, giving up all thought of political activity. Nicholas took up residence in a small cell at Ranft, supposedly surviving for his final nineteen years entirely without food except for the Holy Eucharist. Renowned for his holiness and wisdom, he was regularly visited by civic leaders, powerful personages, and simple men and women with a variety of needs.
 Through Nicholas’ labors, he helped bring about the inclusion of Fribourg and Soleure in the Swiss Confederation in 1481, thus preventing the eruption of a potentially bloody civil war. One of the most famous religious figures in Swiss history, he was known affectionately as “Bruder Klaus,” and was much venerated in Switzerland. He was formally canonized in 1947. He is considered the patron saint of Switzerland.

Saint Nicholas of Flüe (Switzerland, 1417-1487) who received several visions of the Virgin Mary 
  You are my refuge—why would you push me away?
 One day the tempter pressured Nicholas of Flue more strongly than usual while he was in deep torment.
Nicolas turned to Mary in prayer:
"Hail, O Mother of all purity, virgin undefiled, Mother of all mercy and Mother of our Savior; I come to beg you to intercede for a poor sinner with your Divine Son, that he would grant me his holy grace. The enemy relentlessly pursues me and attacks me. You once crushed the serpent's head by giving birth to our Savior—help me to overcome his wiles and deceptions. You are my refuge—why would you push me away? ...
No, O gracious Virgin! You will come to my rescue and the enemy will be defeated."
After this outpouring of his heart, full of confidence in the powerful protection of the queen of heaven, the fervent hermit stood up, energized with new courage, and his temptation was overcome. Afterwards, he related that he never invoked Mary in vain, and that he always visibly felt the effects of her protection. It is even said that he often had the good fortune of contemplating Our Lady and of receiving frequent visits from her. ...www.medaille-miraculeuse.fr
1556 Thomas Cranmer unterstützte die Reformation, er wirkte bei der englischen Bibelübersetzung mit, gab 1549 das erste Book of Common Prayer (Allgemeines Gebetbuch) heraus und verfaßte das Bekenntnis von 1553 (42 Artikel).
Anglikanische Kirche: 21. März

Thomas Cranmer wurde 1489 in Nottinghamshire geboren. Er studierte in Cambridge und wurde 1530 Archidiakon in Taunton. Er befürwortete die Scheidung Heinrichs VIII. (1509-1547) von Königin Katharina (und damit die Trennung von der römischen Kirche). 1533 wurde er zum Erzbischof von Canterbury ernannt. Auch in der Folgezeit entsprach Cranmer den Scheidungswünschen seines Königs.
Cranmer unterstützte die Reformation, er wirkte bei der englischen Bibelübersetzung mit, gab 1549 das erste Book of Common Prayer (Allgemeines Gebetbuch) heraus und verfaßte das Bekenntnis von 1553 (42 Artikel).
Nach dem Tode Eduard VI. (1547-1553) unterstützte Cranmer den Versuch, die protestantische Lady Jane Grey als Königin einzusetzen. Königin wurde aber die katholische Maria I., die Cranmer im Londoner Tower gefangen hielt und ihn zum Tod auf dem Scheiterhaufen verurteilen ließ. Cranmer widerrief daraufhin, wurde aber dennoch am 21.3.1556 hingerichtet.
1617 Blessed Alphonsus de Rojas, OFM (AC)  
feast day at Coria is celebrated March 26. Alphonsus progressed from professor at Salamanca, to tutor to a young duke, to canon of Coria, to a Franciscan friar (Benedictines).
1858 Saint Benedicta Cambiagio Frassinello profound mystical experience that left her devoted to prayer miraculously cured by St Jerome Emiliani
Also known as Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello; Benedikta Frassinello; Benedetta Cambiagio
Canonized 19 May 2002 by Pope John Paul II
Daughter of Giuseppe and Francesca Cambiagio, she grew up in Pavia, Italy. At the age of 20 she had a profound mystical experience that left her devoted to prayer and desiring a religious life. However, to go along with her family's wishes, she married Giovanni Battista Frassinella on 7 February 1816. The couple had a normal married life for two years, but Giovanni, impressed with Benedicta's holiness and desire for religious life, agreed to live continently. The two took care of Benedicta's little sister Maria until the girl's death from intestinal cancer in 1825.
Giovanni then joined the Somaschan Fathers, Benedicta became an Ursuline nun.

In 1826 ill health forced Benedicta to return home to Pavia. There she began to work with young women in the area. The work sent so well that her husband Giovanni was assigned to help. The schools continued to grow and prosper, and Benedicta was appointed Promoter of Public Instruction in Pavia. However, no matter how chastely they lived, Benedicta and Giovanni's unusual relationship drew gossip and criticism from civil and Church authorities. To insure that she did not get in the way of the work, in 1838 Benedicta turned her work over to the bishop of Pavia, and withdrew to live as a nun at Ronco Scrivia.
Not content to withdraw from the world, Benedicta began all over.
With five companions, she founded the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence dedicated to teaching, and opened another school. Living alone, the local authorities found no causes for gossip, and Benedicta spent her remaining years in prayer and service.
Born  2 October 1791 at Langasco, Italy as Benedetta Cambiagio Died 21 March 1858 at Ronco Scrivia, Italy of natural causes
Beatified  10 May 1987 by Pope John Paul II Canonized 19 May 2002 by Pope John Paul II at Rome, Italy

Saint Benedetta Cambiagio Frasinello was born on 2 October 1791 in Langasco (Genoa) Italy; she died on 21 March 1858 in Ronco Scrivia in Liguria. She was wife, religious and foundress.
She let the Holy Spirit guide her through married life to the work of education and religious consecration.
She founded a school for the formation of young women and also a religious congregation, and did both with the generous collaboration of her husband.
This is unique in the annals of Christian sanctity.
Benedetta was a pioneer in her determination to give a high quality education to young women, for the formation of families for a "new Christian society" and for promoting the right of women to a complete education.
Call to marriage, then to religious life
From her parents Benedetta received a Christian formation that rooted in her the life of faith. Her family settled in Pavia when she was a girl. When she was 20 years old, Benedetta had a mystical experience that gave her a profound desire for a life of prayer and penance, and of consecration to God. However, in obedience to the wishes of her parents, in 1816, she married Giovanni Frassinello and lived married life for two years. In 1818, moved by the example of his saintly wife, Giovanni agreed that the two should live chastely, "as brother and sister" and take care of Benedetta's younger sister, Maria, who was dying from intestinal cancer. They began to live a supernatural parenthood quite unique in the history of the Church.
Congregation founded by wife, who is supported by her husband
Following Maria's death in 1825, Giovanni entered the Somaschi Fathers founded by St Jerome Emiliani, and Benedetta devoted herself completely to God in the Ursuline Congregation of Capriolo.

A year later she was forced to leave because of ill health, and returned to Pavia where she was miraculously cured by St Jerome Emiliani. Once she regained her health, with the Bishop's approval, she dedicated herself to the education of young girls.
Benedetta needed help in handling such a responsibility, but her own father refused to help her. Bishop Tosi of Pavia asked Giovanni to leave the Somaschi novitiate and help Benedettain her apostolic work. Together they made a vow of perfect chastity in the hands of the bishop, and then began their common work to promote the human and Christian formation of poor and abandoned girls of the city. Their educational work was of great benefit to Pavia. Benedetta became the first woman to be involved in this kind of work. The Austrian government recognized her as a "Promoter of Public Education".

She was helped by young women volunteers to whom she gave a rule of life that later received ecclesiastical approval. Along with instruction, she joined formation in catechesis and in useful skills like cooking and sewing, aiming to transform her students into "models of Christian life" and so assure the formation of families.

Benedictine Sisters of Providence
Benedetta's work was considered pioneering for those days and was opposed by a few persons in power and by the misunderstanding of clerics. In 1838 she turned over the institution to the Bishop of Pavia. Together with Giovanni and five companions, she moved to Ronco Scrivia in the Genoa region. There they opened a school for girls that was a refinement on what they had done in Pavia.

Eventually, Benedetta founded the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence. In her rule she stressed the education of young girls. She instilled the spirit of unlimited confidence and abandonment to Providence and of love of God through poverty and charity. The Congregation grew quickly since it performed a needed service. Benedetta was able to guide the development of the Congregation until her death. On 21 March 1858 she died in Ronco Scrivia.

Her example is that of supernatural maternity plus courage and fidelity in discerning and living God's will.

Today the Benedictine Nuns of Providence are present in Italy, Spain, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Peru and Brazil. They are at the service of young people, the poor, the sick and the elderly. The foundress also opened a house of the order in Voghera. Forty years after the death of Benedetta, the bishop separated this house from the rest of the Order. The name was changed to the Benedictines of Divine Providence who honour the memory of the Foundress.
1949 Saint Seraphim gifts of clairvoyance and healing priestly ministry in the prison camps holy angels brought him Communion
  Born Basil Muraviev in 1865 in the town of Cheremovsky in the Yaroslavl province. His parents, Nicholas and Chione, were peasants. When Basil was ten years old, his father died, and he was left to care for his ailing mother and his sister Olga.

A kind neighbor took Basil with him to St Petersburg, and found him a job as a store clerk. The boy had a secret desire to become a monk, so one day he went to the St Alexander Nevsky Lavra to speak to one of the Elders about this. The Elder advised him to remain in the world and raise a family, then after their children had grown, he and his wife were to serve God in the monastic life.  Basil accepted these words as the will of God, and so he lived his life as the Elder had directed. Returning to the store, Basil continued to work sent money home to his family.
When he was twenty-four years old, Basil married his wife Olga.
He started his own business as a furrier, and became very wealthy. He had a son, Nicholas and a daughter, Olga.
After their daughter's death, Basil and his wife agreed to live together as brother and sister from that time forward.
When he was around thirty, Basil gave away most of his wealth, donating money to various monasteries. When Nicholas was grown, Basil and Olga went to monasteries to serve God. Olga was tonsured in 1919 with the name Christina, and lived in the Resurrection-New Divyevo Monastery in St Petersburg.
  Later, she was tonsured into the schema and was given the name Seraphima. She died in 1945.
We do not know where Basil received monastic tonsure (some say it was on Mt Athos), nor the new name he was given at that time.
In 1927, he arrived at the St Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where he became Father Confessor to the monks. There he was tonsured into the schema with the name Seraphim. Soon it became apparent that St Seraphim had received from God the gifts of clairvoyance and healing, and many people came to him seeking his help and advice.

Bishop Alexei (Shimansky) of Novgorod came to the Elder in 1927 to ask if he should leave Russia, since many bishops and priests were facing arrest and execution under the Communist yoke. Before the bishop could utter a word, St Seraphim said, "Many now wish to leave Russia, but there is nothing to fear. You are needed here. You will become Patriarch and will rule for twenty-five years."

  A time of trial came for the Lavra. Monks were arrested, exiled, and sent to labor camps. Many of them were executed. Beginning in 1929, the Elder was arrested fourteen times. He continued his priestly ministry in the prison camps, where he strengthened and encouraged his fellow-prisoners. In 1933, the Elder returned from the camps and settled in Vyritsa. This was a very beautiful place with forests and a river, and it was known for its healthy climate. St Seraphim's health had deteriorated in the prison camps, and he had been beaten many times. A wooden church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos had been built in Vyritsa in 1913 to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The upper church has two altars: one dedicated to the Kazan Icon, the other to St Nicholas. The lower church was dedicated to St Seraphim of Sarov.

After he had recovered somewhat, Fr Seraphim began to receive visitors who came seeking advice and comfort from him. Many of those afflicted with illness received healing by his prayers. The authorities soon noticed the great numbers of people who came to him. His cell was searched many times, usually at night. Once, the police came to arrest the Elder, but a doctor told them that Fr Seraphim would not survive the trip because of his many infirmities.
They decided to leave him alone, and so the Lord preserved the life of His servant.
The Germans entered Vyritsa in September of 1941, but no one was harmed, and there was no looting. During the War, Fr Seraphim became weak and now served only rarely in the chapel of St Seraphim. Starting in 1945, Fr Alexei Kibardin began serving in the Kazan church.

By the spring of 1949, St Seraphim was very weak and had to remain in bed. Still, he permitted visitors to come to him as before. Shortly before his death, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to St Seraphim and told him to receive Holy Communion every day. Fr Alexei Kibardin would bring him Communion at 2 AM, but once he overslept and did not come until 4 AM. He apologized to the Elder for his tardiness, and noticed that there was a certain radiance around the saint. The Elder said, "Father, do not worry. The holy angels have already brought me Communion."
Seeing his face, Fr Alexei knew that this was absolutely true!

The Elder told Fr Alexei to go to Moscow and inform Patriarch Alexei I that he would depart to the Lord in two weeks. When Fr Alexei relayed the message, the Patriarch turned to the holy icons and crossed himself. When he turned around again, tears were streaming down his cheeks. "I have been Patriarch for four years," he said. "Twenty-one years remain to me. This is what the holy Elder told me." Patriarch Alexei died in 1970, just as St Seraphim foretold.

St Seraphim departed to the Lord on March 21, 1949 (April 3 N.S.). In the hours before his death, he asked that the Akathists to the Most Holy Theotokos, to St Seraphim of Sarov, and to St Nicholas be read. For a week after his blessed repose, a sweet fragrance permeated Vyritsa.
St Seraphim was buried in the cemetery next to the church of the Kazan Icon in Vyritsa. Great throngs of people came for the funeral, and Vyritsa became a place of pilgrimage.
The schemamonk St Seraphim was glorified by the Church of Russia in August of 2000.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 293

O Lady, hear my prayer: and let my cry come unto thee.

Turn not thy sacred countenance away from me: nor hate me because of my uncleanness.

Forsake me not in the thought and counsel of mine enemies: and permit me not to fall in their wicked attacks.

Those who trust in thee, will not fear the tortuous snake:
and those who exalt thee in praises will escape the hand of Acheron.

By thy virginal conception give me a good confidence in thee: and by thy admirable delivery rejoice my soul.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him
For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
   These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.

Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.

O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.
 
In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides.  Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The “Peregrinatio Silviæ” (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.
Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.
Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.
After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.
Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen); to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.  Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine.  The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches.  The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice."  According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates.  Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor.  Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.
Meeting of the Saints  walis (saints of Allah)
Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.
So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life.  But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA)
1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.
801 Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This 8th century saint was an early Sufi who had a profound influence on later Sufis, who in turn deeply influenced the European mystical love and troubadour traditions.  Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq.  She was born around 717 and died in 801 (185-186).  Her biographer, the great medieval poet Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with love and longing" and that men accepted her "as a second spotless Mary" (186).  She was, he continues, “an unquestioned authority to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life in a small desert cell near Basra, where she lost herself in prayer and went straight to God for teaching.  As far as is known, she never studied under any master or spiritual director.  She was one of the first of the Sufis to teach that Love alone was the guide on the mystic path (222).  A later Sufi taught that there were two classes of "true believers": one class sought a master as an intermediary between them and God -- unless they could see the footsteps of the Prophet on the path before them, they would not accept the path as valid.  The second class “...did not look before them for the footprint of any of God's creatures, for they had removed all thought of what He had created from their hearts, and concerned themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind.  She felt no reverence even for the House of God in Mecca:  "It is the Lord of the house Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?" (219) One lovely spring morning a friend asked her to come outside to see the works of God.  She replied, "Come you inside that you may behold their Maker.  Contemplation of the Maker has turned me aside from what He has made" (219).  During an illness, a friend asked this woman if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such a question as 'What do I desire?'  I swear by the glory of God that for twelve years I have desired fresh dates, and you know that in Basra dates are plentiful, and I have not yet tasted them.  I am a servant (of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?" (162)
When a male friend once suggested she should pray for relief from a debilitating illness, she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who it is that wills this suffering for me?  Is it not God Who wills it?  When you know this, why do you bid me ask for what is contrary to His will?  It is not  well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic.  It was her custom to pray all night, sleep briefly just before dawn, and then rise again just as dawn "tinged the sky with gold" (187).  She lived in celibacy and poverty, having renounced the world.  A friend visited her in old age and found that all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled as her prayer-rug (186), for where she prayed all night, she also slept briefly in the pre-dawn chill.  Once her friends offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for the things of this world from Him to Whom the world belongs, and how should I ask for them from those to whom it does not belong?"  (186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted to give her a purse of gold.  She refused it, saying that God, who sustains even those who dishonor Him, would surely sustain her, "whose soul is overflowing with love" for Him.  And she added an ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth of someone of whom I do not know whether he acquired it lawfully or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance.  She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did.  For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision of God Himself.  The story is told that once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other.  When they asked her to explain, she said:
"I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she came from.  "From that other world," she said.  "And where are you going?" she was asked.  "To that other world," she replied (219).  She taught that the spirit originated with God in "that other world" and had to return to Him in the end.  Yet if the soul were sufficiently purified, even on earth, it could look upon God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him in love.  In this quest, logic and reason were powerless.  Instead, she speaks of the "eye" of her heart which alone could apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a bhakti, like one of Krishna’s Goptis in the Hindu tradition.  Her hours of prayer were not so much devoted to intercession as to communion with her Beloved.  Through this communion, she could discover His will for her.  Many of her prayers have come down to us:
       "I have made Thee the Companion of my heart,
        But my body is available for those who seek its company,
        And my body is friendly towards its guests,
        But the Beloved of my heart is the Guest of my soul."  [224]

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

Thus began a great adventure that would eventually result in the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a Temple dedicated to the Divine Child Jesus, a place of refuge for all. Use this link to read a remarkable story about
The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Father Reardon, Editor of The Catholic Bulletin for 14 years Lover of the poor; A very Holy Man of God.
Monsignor Reardon Protonotarius Apostolicus
 
Pastor 42 years BASILICA OF SAINT MARY Minneapolis MN
America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World
August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation
by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908
James M. Reardon Publication History of Basilica of Saint Mary 1600-1932
James M. Reardon Publication  History of the Basilica of Saint Mary 1955 {update}

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

The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;
  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and Indulgence Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary
spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the
life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 
It Makes No Sense
Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.
Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .
The pillars of father's preaching are basically:
Love for and a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary 
Leading a vibrant and loving relationship with Jesus Christ
Great love and reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist from Holy Mass to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
An uncompromising love for and obedience to the Holy Father and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.
 
Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.
 
Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”
 
Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.
 
Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.
 
Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.
 
Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.
 
Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.
 
Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.
 
Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”
 
Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.
 
Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.
 
Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.
 
Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.
 
Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

Servant of God Alfonse Gallegos of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, Titular Bishop of Sasabe, auxiliary of Sacramento; born Feb. 20, 1931 and died Oct. 6, 1991
Servant of God Rafael Sánchez García, diocesan priest; born June 14, 1911 and died on Aug. 8, 1973
Servant of God Andrés García Acosta, professed layman of the Order of Friars Minor; born Jan. 10, 1800 and died Jan. 14, 1853
Servant of God Joseph Marchetti, professed priest of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles; born Oct. 3, 1869 and died Dec. 14, 1896
Servant of God Giacomo Viale, professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, pastor of Bordighera; born Feb. 28, 1830 and died April 16, 1912
Servant of God Maria Pia of the Cross (née Maddalena Notari), foundress of the Congregation of Crucified Sisters Adorers of the Eucharist; born Dec. 2, 1847 and died on July 1, 1919
Sunday, November 23 2014 Six to Be Canonized on Feast of Christ the King.

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

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

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

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic prelate was also an ardent supporter of the Jewish community in Ukraine, going so far as to learn Hebrew to better communicate with them. He also was a vocal protestor against atrocities committed by the Nazis, evidenced in his pastoral letter, "Thou Shalt Not Kill." He was also known to harbor thousands of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries.
Following his death in 1944, his cause for canonization was opened in 1958.
* * *
The Holy Father authorized the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees regarding the heroic virtues of:
- Servant of God Andrey Sheptytsky, O.S.B.M., major archbishop of Leopolis of the Ukrainians, metropolitan of Halyc (1865-1944);
- Servant of God Giuseppe Carraro, Bishop of Verona, Italy (1899-1980);
- Servant of God Agustin Ramirez Barba, Mexican diocesan priest and founder of the Servants of the Lord of Mercy (1881-1967);
- Servant of God Simpliciano della Nativita (ne Aniello Francesco Saverio Maresca), Italian professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts (1827-1898);
- Servant of God Maria del Refugio Aguilar y Torres del Cancino, Mexican founder of the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (1866-1937);
- Servant of God Marie-Charlotte Dupouy Bordes (Marie-Teresa), French professed religious of the Society of the Religious of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (1873-1953);
- Servant of God Elisa Miceli, Italian founder of the Rural Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart (1904-1976);
- Servant of God Isabel Mendez Herrero (Isabel of Mary Immaculate), Spanish professed nun of the Servants of St. Joseph (1924-1953)
October 01, 2015 Vatican City, Pope Authorizes following Decrees
(ZENIT.org) By Staff Reporter
Polish Layperson Recognized as Servant of God
Pope Authorizes Decrees
Pope Francis on Wednesday authorised the Congregation for Saints' Causes to promulgate the following decrees:

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

HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Giovanni Folci, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Opera Divin Prigioniero (1890-1963);
- Servant of God Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish diocesan priest (1921-1987);
- Servant of God Jose Rivera Ramirez, Spanish diocesan priest (1925-1991);
- Servant of God Juan Manuel Martín del Campo, Mexican diocesan priest (1917-1996);
- Servant of God Antonio Filomeno Maria Losito, Italian professed priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (1838-1917);
- Servant of God Maria Benedetta Giuseppa Frey (nee Ersilia Penelope), Italian professed nun of the Cistercian Order (1836-1913);
- Servant of God Hanna Chrzanowska, Polish layperson, Oblate of the Ursulines of St. Benedict (1902-1973).
March 06 2016 MIRACLES authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
Pope Francis received in a private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, during which he authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Pasqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
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