Mary the Mother of Jesus

Tuesday Saints of April 04 Sancti Prídie Nonas Aprílis

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!)

R. Deo grátias. R. Thanks be to God.
April is dedicated to devotion of the Holy Eucharist and to the Holy Spirit.

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The Annunciation of the Lord (Solemnity)
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The more we are afflicted in this world, the greater is our assurance in the next;
the more we sorrow in the present, the greater will be our joy in the future. -- St. Isidore of Seville

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

Since every man of whatever race is endowed with the dignity of a person, he has an inalienable right to an education corresponding to his proper destiny and suited to his native talents, his cultural background, and his ancestral heritage. At the same time, this education should pave the way to brotherly association with other peoples, so that genuine unity and peace on earth may be promoted. For a true education aims at the formation of the human person with respect to the good of those societies of which, as a man, he is a member, and in whose responsibilities, as an adult, he will share. -- St. John Neumann

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin April 4 - Our Lady of Seven Sorrows (1897) - Francisco of Fatima (d. 1919)

1. The prophecy of Simeon. (Lk 2: 34, 35) 2. The flight into Egypt. (Mt 2:13-14) 3. The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple. (Lk 3: 43-45) 4. The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross. 5. The Crucifixion. 6. The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross. 7. The burial of Jesus.
"And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: 'Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; and thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed" (Lk 2: 34-35).

April 4 – Francisco of Fatima (d. 1919)
"What I liked the most was to see the light of Our Lady"

During the apparition of May 13, 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, Our Lady said that Francisco, one of the three young visionaries, would go to heaven, but first he would have to recite many Rosaries. Indeed, the little boy had a habit of shortening the recitation of the Rosary to go play faster.
After he heard that, the boy prayed his rosary more intently.

"I loved seeing the Angel," he said, "but what I liked most was to see the light of Our Lady."

A few weeks after the last apparition, Lucia, the oldest of three visionaries, asked Francisco:

"What would you like most, consoling Our Lord or converting sinners so that souls do not go to hell?"

"If I could choose, I would rather console Our Lord. Have you not noticed how the Blessed Virgin, even last month, became so sad when she asked us to stop offending Our Lord who is so offended?
Then, I would also convert sinners so that souls do not go to hell."

www.fatima.be

April 4 - Francisco of Fatima (+ 1919) Behold Your Mother!

The Blessed Virgin was not only the one who “advanced in her pilgrimage of faith” and loyally persevered in her union with her Son “unto the Cross”, but she was also the “handmaid of the Lord”, left by her Son as Mother in the midst of the infant Church: “Behold your mother”.

Thus there began to develop a special bond between this Mother and the Church.
For the infant Church was the fruit of the Cross and Resurrection of her Son.
Mary, who from the beginning had given herself without reserve to the person and work of her Son, could not but pour out upon the Church, from the very beginning, her maternal self-giving. After her Son's departure, her motherhood remains in the Church as maternal mediation: interceding for all her children, the Mother cooperates in the saving work of her Son, the Redeemer of the world. Holy Father John Paul II Redemptoris Mater #40

April 4 – Blessed Francisco Marto of Fatima
In Fatima, as in Lourdes, the Blessed Virgin chose children
In Fatima, as in Lourdes, the Blessed Virgin chose to give her message to children: Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia.
They received it so faithfully that they deserved not only to be recognized as credible witnesses of the apparitions,
but also to become themselves an example of evangelical life.

Lucia, their cousin who was slightly older and is still alive*, has given significant descriptions of the two new blesseds. Francisco was a good, thoughtful child with a contemplative soul, whereas Jacinta was lively, somewhat sensitive but very sweet and loving.

Their parents taught them to pray, and the Lord himself drew them more closely to himself through the appearance of an angel who, holding a chalice and a host in his hands, taught them to unite themselves with the Eucharistic sacrifice in reparation for sins.

Blessed John Paul II, General Audience of Wednesday, May 17, 2000
* Sister Lucia Santos (1907-2005)

303 St. Agathopus deacon & Theodulus doctor Martyrs for professing the faith
The Icon of the Mother of God, named "Gerontissa" ("Staritsa" -- "Nastoyatel'nitsa", "Head" -- "Elderess")
342 The Holy Martyress Pherbutha and her Sister and Servants accepted a martyr's death for Christ between the years 341 and 343
395 St. Theonas of Egypt monk in the Thebaid Egypt
397 Medioláni deposítio sancti Ambrósii Epíscopi, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris;
420 The Departure of St. Euphrasia (Eupraxia) humility and obedience daughter of noble family in Rome related to Emperor Honorius God granted her gift of healing the sick
5th v. St. Zosimus hermit took care of funeral arrangements of St. Mary of Egypt
549 Saint Tigernach monk bishop
636 St. Isidore of Seville Doctor of the Church In a unique move, he made sure that all branches of knowledge including the arts and medicine were taught in the seminaries
752 St. Hildebert Benedictine abbot martyr for his defense of the holy images
813 St. Plato Greek monk abbot at the monastery Symboleon Prayer pious reading were the delight of his soul He served as abbot of several monasteries
9th v. The Monk George lived during the IX Century at a monastery on Mount Malea in the Peloponessus
863 Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, "the sweet-voiced nightingale of the Church,"
9th v St. Gwerir Hermit of Cornwall England King Alfred the Great reportedly cured of an illness at Gwerir’s grave
1105 Blessed Aleth of Dijon Mother of Saint Bernard Widow (PC)
1115 Bl. Peter Bishop of Poitiers fearless prelate who publicly denounced the sacrilegious tyranny
1190 Blessed Henry of Gheest The relics of the Cistercian monk Henry of Villers in the diocese of Namur were solemnly raised in 1599
14th v. Saint Joseph the Much-Ailing vowed that if the Lord granted him health, he would then serve the brethren of the Kiev Caves monastery until the end of his days.
1550 The Monk Zosima of Vorbozomsk founder of a monastery in honour of the Annuniciation of the Most Holy Mother of God on an island in Lake Vorbozoma
1550 The Monk Jakov of Galich asceticised during the XV-XVI Centuries at the Starotorzhsk monastery in the city of Galich in the Kostroma district
16th v. Sainted Theon asceticised during the XVI Century on Athos, at first in the monastery of the Pantokrator
1589 St. Bendict the Black Franciscan lay brother superior obscure and humble cook holiness reputation for miracles patron of African-Americans in the United States
1726 The Departure of Pope Peter VI, the One Hundred and Fourth Pope of Alexandria.
1808 The Priest Martyr Nikita, a Slav from Albania, asceticised at the end of the XVIII Century at Athos in the Russian Panteleimonov monastery
1958 Blessed Gaetano Catanoso reputation for holiness as a parish priest crusaded for observance of liturgical feasts service to poor children, priests, and the elderly (AC)

"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him" (Psalm 21:28)

The Greek passio with a Latin translation is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i. An abridgment is to be found in the synaxaries. See also the pars posterior (1932) of the Acta Sanctorum for November, vol. ii, pp. 173—174.

420 The Departure of St. Euphrasia (Eupraxia) humility and obedience daughter of noble family in Rome related to Emperor Honorius God granted her gift of healing the sick Memorial 13 March (Roman Church); 25 July (Greek Church) today Baramhat 26 (Coptic Church)

On this day the blessed St. Euphrasia (Eupraxia) the virgin departed. She was the daughter of a noble family in the city of Rome, who was related to Emperor Honorius {probably Roman emperor Theodosius I}. Before her father's departure (Antigonus, senator of Constantinople), he asked the Emperor to care for her.
Her mother went to Egypt to collect the revenues and rent of her estates and orchards, which her husband had left her. She took her daughter, who was nine years of age, with her, and they lodged in one of the houses of virgins. The nuns of that convent were on high degree of asceticism, piety and devoutness, they never ate food with meat, oil, fruits, at no time drank wine and slept on the floor.

That nun told her: "Promise me that you will not leave this convent"; and she promised her that. When her mother finished her work that she came to achieve, her daughter refused to return with her and she said to her mother: "I have vowed myself to Christ, and I have no need for this world, for my true Bridegroom is the Lord Christ."

When Emperor Honorius heard that, he sent asking for her. She answered back saying that she had vowed her self to the Lord Christ, and she can not break her covenant.

Eupraxia contended strenuously in the ascetic life, she fasted two days at a time, then three, then four, and afterwards she fasted for a week at a time, and during the Holy Lent she did not eat anything which was cooked. Satan was jealous of her, and he smote her with an illness in her feet, gave her pain for a long time, until God had compassion on her and healed her.

One night the abbess saw in a vision crowns which had been prepared, and she asked: "Who are these for?", and she was told: "These crowns for your daughter Eupraxia, she will be coming to us after a short while." The abbess told the nuns of the vision which she had seen, and commanded them not to tell Eupraxia about it. When her time came to depart of this world, she fell sick of a slight fever. The abbess and the nuns gathered around St. Eupraxia and asked her to remember them before the Divine Throne, then she departed in peace. Then right after her departure the nun her friend departed, and shortly after, the abbess fell sick, so she gathered the nuns and told them: "Choose whom will be abbess over you, for I am going to the Lord." When they came on the following morning to visit her, they found that she had departed.

May their prayers be with us. Amen.

420 The Departure of St. Euphrasia

Roman nobility, the daughter of Antigonus, senator of Constantinople. Related to Roman emperor Theodosius I who finished the conversion of Rome to a Christian state. He father died soon after Euphrasia was born; she and her mother became wards of the emperor. When Euphrasia when only five years old, the emperor arranged a marriage for her the son of a senator. Two years later, she and her mother moved to their lands in Egypt. There, while still a child, Euphrasia entered a convent; her mother died soon after of natural causes, leaving the novice an orphan. At age twelve, she was ordered by the emperor Aracdius, successor to Theodosius, to marry the senator's son as arranged. Eurphasia reuqested that she be relieved of the marriage arrangement, that the emperor sell off her family property, and that he use the money to feed the poor and buy the freedom of slaves. Arcadius agreed, and Euphyrasia spent her life in the Egyptian convent. Noted for her prayer life, and constant self-imposed fasting; she would sometimes spend the day carrying heavy stones from one place to another to exhaust her body and get her mind off temptations. She suffered through gossip and false allegations, much of it the result of being a foreigner in her house. Held up as a model by Saint John Damascene.

5th v. St. Zosimus hermit biographer of St. Mary of Egypt
In Palæstína sancti Zósimi Anachorétæ, qui funus sanctæ Maríæ Ægyptíacæ curávit. In Palestine, the anchoret St. Zosimus, who took care of the funeral of St. Mary of Egypt.
Zosimus (d. fifth century) + Hermit. From Palestine, he settled on the Jordan River as a hermit. According to tradition, he was a close friend and the biographer of St. Mary of Egypt, the famed anchoress.

Zosimus of Palestine, Hermit (RM) 5th century. Zosimus is said to have been an old Palestinian anchorite who lived on the banks of the Jordan River. He is supposed to have discovered Saint Mary the Egyptian, brought her the Eucharist one Easter, and found her dead the next. The story goes on to say that he became her biographer, though there is no evidence of it (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia). Zosimus's portrayal in art is that of a monk bringing the Eucharist to Saint Mary of Egypt or talking to her across the River Jordan (Roeder).

The Latin life originally printed in the Acts Sanctorum, April, vol. i, has been more critically edited by Plummer, VSH, vol. ii, pp. 262—269; see also the introduction, pp. lxxxviii seq. There are also some useful references in Father John Ryan’s Irish Monasticism and in Whitley Stokes’s The Martyrology of Oengus, p. III.

636 St. Isidore of Seville Doctor of the Church In a unique move, he made sure that all

branches of knowledge including the arts and medicine were taught in the seminaries
Híspali, in Hispánia, sancti Isidóri Epíscopi, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, sanctitáte et doctrína conspícui; qui zelo cathólicæ fidei et ecclesiásticæ observántia disciplinæ Hispánias illustrávit.
At Seville in Spain, St. Isidore, bishop, confessor, and doctor of the Church. He was conspicuous for sanctity and learning, and had brightened all Spain by his zeal for the Catholic faith and his observance of Church discipline.
Isidore of Seville B, Doctor (RM) Born at Cartagena, Spain, c. 560; died in Seville, Spain, in April 4, 636; canonized by Pope Clement VIII in 1598; and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Innocent XIII in 1722.

The more we are afflicted in this world, the greater is our assurance in the next;
the more we sorrow in the present, the greater will be our joy in the future.
- St. Isidore of Seville

636 ST ISIDORE, BISHOP OF SEVILLE, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
IT was said of St Isidore by his disciple and friend St Braulio that he appeared to have been specially raised up by God to stem the current of barbarism and ferocity which everywhere followed the arms of the Goths who had settled in Spain. His father, Severian, who came from Cartagena, was probably of Roman origin, but he was closely connected with the Visigothic kings. Two of St Isidore’s brothers, Leander, who was greatly his senior, and Fulgentius, became, like himself, saints as well as bishops, and of his sisters one was St Florentina, abbess of many convents. Isidore’s education was entrusted to his brother Leander, who seems to have been a somewhat severe master. Once, the story runs, the little lad ran away to escape from his brother’s castigations and from lessons which he found difficulty in remembering; and though he returned, with a new determination, after looking at the holes worn in rock by the continual dripping of water, even then, we are told, Leander found it desirable to shut him up in a cell to prevent him from straying: but that may only mean that he sent him to complete his education in a monastery.
The system, whatever it may have been, at any rate had good results, for Isidore became the most learned man of his age and, what is even more remarkable in the circumstances, an ardent educationist. Although it is almost certain that he never was a monk, he had a great love for the religious orders, and at their request drew up a code of rules for them which bore his name and was generally followed throughout Spain. In it he insists that no distinction must be made in monasteries between freemen and bondmen—all of them are equal in the sight of God. It seems probable that he assisted St Leander in ruling the diocese of Seville, and then succeeded to it after his brother’s death. During the thirty-seven years of his episcopate, which extended through the reigns of six kings, he completed the work begun by St Leander of converting the Visigoths from Arianism to Catholicism. He also continued his brother’s practice of settling the discipline of the Spanish church in councils, the arrangement and organization of which were largely due to Leander and Isidore. As models of representative government these synods have attracted the favourable notice of those interested in the origins of the modern parliamentary system.

St Isidore presided over the second Council of Seville in 619 and again over the fourth Council of Toledo in 633, where he was given precedence over the archbishop of Toledo on the ground of his exceptional merit as the greatest teacher in Spain. Many of the enactments of the council emanated from St Isidore himself, notably the decree that a seminary or cathedral school should be established in every diocese. The aged prelate’s educational scheme was extraordinarily wide and progressive far from desiring a mere counterpart of the conventional classical curriculum, his system embraced every known branch of knowledge. The liberal arts, medicine, and law were to be taught as well as Hebrew and Greek; and Aristotle was studied in the Spanish schools long before he was reintroduced by the Arabs.
St Isidore seems to have foreseen that unity of religion and a comprehensive educational system would weld together the heterogeneous elements which threatened to disintegrate his country, and it was mainly thanks to him that Spain was a centre of culture when the rest of Europe seemed to be lapsing into barbarism.
His crowning contribution to education was the compilation of a sort of encyclopedia, called the Etymologies or Origins, which gathered into compact form all the knowledge of his age. He has sometimes been called “The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages”, and until almost the middle of the sixteenth century this work remained a favourite text-book.
St Isidore was a voluminous writer, his earlier works including a dictionary of synonyms, a treatise on astronomy and physical geography, a summary of the principal events of the world from the creation, a biography of illustrious men, a book of Old and New Testament worthies, his rules for monks, extensive theological and ecclesiastical works, and the history of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi. Of all these writings the most valuable to us at the present day is undoubtedly his history of the Goths, which is our only source of information for one period of Visigothic history. Another great service which St Isidore rendered to the church in Spain was the completion of the Mozarabic missal and breviary which St Leander had begun to adapt for the use of the Goths from the earlier Spanish liturgy.
Although he lived to be almost eighty years of age, the holy bishop would remit none of his austere practices, even after his health had begun to break down. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities to such an extent that from morning to night his house was crowded by all the poor of the countryside. When he felt that his end was drawing near, he invited two bishops to come to see him. In their company he went to the church where one of them covered him with sackcloth, while the other put ashes upon his head. Thus clad in the habit of penance, he raised his hands towards Heaven, praying earnestly and aloud for the forgiveness of his sins. Afterwards he received viaticum, commended himself to the prayers of those present, forgave his debtors, exhorted the people to charity, and distributed to the poor the rest of his possessions. He then returned to his house where he shortly afterwards peacefully departed this life.
St Isidore was declared a doctor of the Church in 1722, and he is named in the canon of the Mozarabic Mass still in use at Toledo. Some notes on St Isidore was one of the works on which the Venerable Bede was engaged just before his death.

No very satisfactory early materials exist for a biography of St Isidore. We have an account of his death by Redemptus and a panegyric by his disciple Braulio, but the life attributed to Luke, Bishop of Tuy, is a poor affair, and, being compiled many hundred years after the saint’s death, is quite unreliable. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i. For a full bibliography and for further details of his life and work, see DTC., vol. viii, cc. 98.—111 and P. Séjourné, St Isidore de Seville (1929). A Miscellanea Isidoriana, in several languages, was published in Rome in 1936.

Isidore realized that if he kept working at his studies, his seemingly small efforts would eventually pay off in great learning. He also may have hoped that his efforts would also wear down the rock of his brother's heart. When he returned home, however, his brother in exasperation confined him to a cell (probably in a monastery) to complete his studies, not believing that he wouldn't run away again. Either there must have been a loving side to this relationship or Isidore was remarkably forgiving even for a saint, because later he would work side by side with his brother and after Leander's death, Isidore would complete many of the projects he began including a missal and breviary.

In a time where it's fashionable to blame the past for our present and future problems, Isidore was able to separate the abusive way he was taught from the joy of learning.
He didn't run from learning after he left his brother but embraced education and made it his life's work. Isidore rose above his past to become known as the greatest teacher in Spain. His love of learning made him promote the establishment of a seminary in every diocese of Spain. He didn't limit his own studies and didn't want others to as well. In a unique move, he made sure that all branches of knowledge including the arts and medicine were taught in the seminaries.

When the Arabs brought study of Aristotle back to Europe, this was nothing new to Spain because Isidore's open mind had already reintroduced the philosopher to students there.

Under his direction, and perhaps remembering the tyrannies of his brother, he rejected autocratic decision- making and organized synods to discuss government of the Spanish Church.

Still trying to wear away rock with water, he helped convert the barbarian Visigoths from Arianism to Christianity. He lived until almost 80. As he was dying his house was filled with crowds of poor he was giving aid and alms to. One of his last acts was to give all his possessions to the poor. When he died in 636, this Doctor of the Church had done more than his brother had ever hoped; the light of his learning caught fire in Spanish minds and held back the Dark Ages of barbarism from Spain. But even greater than his outstanding mind must have been the genius of his heart that allowed him to see beyond rejection and discouragement to joy and possibility.

It is probably that Isidore assisted Leander in governing his diocese, because, in 601, Saint Isidore succeeded his brother Leander to the archiepiscopal see of Seville. During his long episcopate, Isidore strengthened the Spanish church by organizing councils, establishing schools and religious houses, and continuing to turn the Visigoths from Arianism. He presided over the Council of Seville in 619 and that of Toledo in 633, where he was given precedence over the archbishop of Toledo on the ground of his exceptional merit as the greatest teacher in Spain. Aware of the great boon of education, Isidore insisted that a cathedral school should be established in every diocese in Spain-- centuries before Charlemagne issued a similar decree. He thought that students should be taught law and medicine, Hebrew and Greek, as well as the classics. These schools were similar to contemporary seminaries.
For centuries Isidore was known as 'the schoolmaster of the middle ages,' because he wrote a 20-volume Etymologies or Origins, an encyclopedia of everything that was known in 7th century Europe. His Chronica Majora summarized all the events in the world from creation to his own time drawn from other church historians but with the addition of Spanish history. Another book completed Saint Jerome's work of biographies of every great man and woman mentioned in the Bible plus those of many Spanish notables. His history of the Goths and Vandals is very valuable today. He also wrote new rules for monasteries, including one that bears his name and was generally followed throughout Spain, and books about astronomy, geography, and theology.

While not an original or critical thinker, Saint Isidore's works were highly influential in the middle ages as demonstrated by the very large number of manuscripts of his writings. Dante mentions him in the Paradiso (x, 130), in the company of the Venerable Bede and the Scottish Richard of Saint-Victor. In fact, at the time of his death, Bede was working on a translation of extracts from Isidore's book On the wonders of nature (De natura rerum).
Isidore longed to convert the Spanish Goths, who were Arians. He rewrote the liturgies and breviaries of the Church for their use (known as the Mozarabic Rite, which had been began by Leander), and never wearied of preaching and teaching those in error during his 37 years as archbishop. He also sought to convert the local Jews, but by highly questionable methods. This extraordinary man loved to give to the poor, and towards the end of his life scarcely anyone could get into his house in Seville, crowded as it was with beggars and the unfortunate from the surrounding countryside.
When he felt that death was near, he invited two bishops to visit. Together they went to the church where one of them covered him with sackcloth and the other put ashes upon his head. Thus clad in the habit of a penitent, he raised his hands to heaven and prayed earnestly for forgiveness. Then he received the viaticum, asked for the prayers of those present, forgave those who had sinned against him, exhorted all to charity, bequeathed his earthly possessions to the poor, and gave up his soul to God.
The archbishop of Seville was considered the most learned man of his century. Not only for the reason that the Church was able to proclaim him Doctor a short time after his death, or because he is the author of the Etymologies, but because knowledge permeated his whole being. The nexus of sanctity and learning gladdens this heart. Learning did not turn Saint Isidore away from sanctity. Indeed, it was sanctity that surely made such a learned man of him. The saint, possessed by God, is full of gifts of the Holy Spirit; and learning is one of them. This learning, the true science which contains all other sciences, favors new discoveries and multiplies it in every domain that is approached.
Saints are most exclusively the savants of God and their private works are no less important. And savants are a type of saint because any discovery discloses something of God. The philosopher as well as the painter, the seeker as well as the poet, is a savant.
Recall another Spanish saint, John of the Cross, whose works nearly brought a contemporary philosopher to the edges of sanctity. The bird in Braque's last painting is a figure of grace. This revelation leads me to believe that the patient hand that was the means of painting could not have been anything other than that of a man on the way to sanctity. One can paint birds without making them suggest such a presence as Braque's painting does. This presence is not that of the artist, he has absolutely effaced himself; it is the presence of that which finally transcends him, the presence of God.
The most learned persons have perceived the richness, the 'odor' of sanctity. Our age may see it flower; how could it have a taste for anything else after having plumbed the depths of nothingness and despair, if, of course, it still wants something to which it can aspire. Our generation needs something solid, substantial. It is dying of weariness and thirst.

A life-giving stream is still running, all we need to do is bend down to drink it in order to renew the ancient gestures and enter humbly, without hesitation or compromise, into that which does not go out of fashion and does not age: into this Church in which today we pray to Saint Isidore, who is the patron of savants. Saint Isidore, pray for us and for them (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Walsh).
In art, Saint Isidore is an old bishop with a prince at his feet. At times he may be depicted (1) with pen and book (often his Etymologia); (2) with a beehive or bees (rare, but symbolizes oratorical eloquence); or (3) with his brothers and sister, SS. Leander, Fulgentius, and Florentina (Roeder).

For all these reasons Isidore (as well as several other saints) has been suggested as patron of the Internet. He continued his austerities even as he approached 80. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities so much that his house was crowded from morning till night with the poor of the countryside.

Comment: Our country can well use Isidore's spirit of combining learning and holiness. Loving, understanding knowledge can heal and bring a broken people back together. We are not barbarians like the invaders of Isidore's Spain. But people who are swamped by riches and overwhelmed by scientific and technological advances can lose much of their understanding love for one another. So vast was Isidore's knowledge that some moderns have proposed him as the patron of Internet users.

813 St. Plato Greek monk abbot at the monastery Symboleon Prayer pious reading were the delight of his soul He served as abbot of several monasteries
Constantinópoli sancti Platónis Mónachi, qui plúribus annis advérsus hæréticos, sanctárum Imáginum effractóres, invícto ánimo decertávit.
     At Constantinople, the monk St. Plato. For many years he combated with dauntless courage the heretics bent on destroying sacred images.

                         ST. PLATO, ABBOT. FROM LIVES OF SAINTES BY Alban Butler

HE was born about the year 734. A pestilence that raged at Constantinople depriving him of his parents when he was no more than thirteen years of age. The care of his education devolved upon an uncle, who was high treasurer. Plato, while yet young, dispatched the business of that high office for his uncle with surprising readiness and assiduity.   His remarkable dexterity in writing shorthand, may be reckoned among his inferior accomplishments, seeing by the daily progress he made in the more sublime parts of knowledge and religion, he out outstripped all his equals in age, and went beyond the greatest expectation of his masters    These eminent qualifications, joined to his elevated birth, extensive wealth, and unblemished probity, introduced him to the notice of the great, and opened to him the highest preferment’s in the state.   Persons in the highest stations at court wished to make him their son-in-law: but his whole heart being attached to heavenly things, he looked with contempt on the pomp’s and vanities of this world. Prayer and retirement were chief objects of his delight nor was he fond of paying any visits except to churches and monasteries. He prevailed on his three brothers to devote themselves to God, and live in a state of celibacy; he made all his slaves free, and having sold his large estates, he portioned his two sisters, who, marrying, became the mothers of saints: the remainder of the purchase-money he distributed among the poor.

Being thus disengaged, he bid adieu to his friends and country at twenty-four years of age.   He took with him one servant as far as Bithynia, but there sent him also back, having given him all his clothes, except one coarse black suit; and in this manner he walked alone to the monastery of Symboleon, upon mount Olympus, in that country.   From the moment he was admitted into that house, no one was more humble, more devout, more exacting every duty, or more obedient and mortified.   The holy abbot Theoctistus, to furnish him with opportunities of heroic acts of virtue, often reproved and punished him, for faults of which he was not guilty: which treatment St. Plato received with silence and joy, in patience and humility.      Prayer and reading were the delight of his soul.   In the hours allotted to labor he rejoiced to see the meanest employments assigned to him, as to make bread water the ground, and carry dung, though his most usual province was to copy books of piety. Theoctistus dying in 770 St. Plato was chosen abbot of Symboleon, being only thirty-six years old, he had opposed his exaltation to the utmost of his power, but seeing himself compelled to take upon inn that burden, he became the more humble and the more austere penitent. He never drank anything but water and this sometimes only once in two days. His diet was bread, beans, or herbs without oil and this refection he never took on even on Sundays before None. He would never eat or wear anything which was not purchased by the labor of his own hands by which he also maintained several poor.   His retreat protected him from the persecution of Constantine Copronymus the year after the death of that that Tyrant, in 775 St. Plato took a journey into Constantinople on business, where it is incredible with what esteem he was received, and how much he promoted piety in all ranks, states, and conditions how successful he was in banishing habits of swearing and other vices and inspiring both the rich and poor in the love of virtue.   The patriarch not Tarasius, as Fleury mistakes, but his predecessor, Paul, endeavored to make him bishop of Nicomedia, but such was the saint's humility, that he made all haste back to his desert of Symboleon.    He would never take holy orders and indeed     at that time the generality of monks were laymen. The whole family of his sister Theoctista, embracing a     religious state, and founding the monastery of Saccudion, near Constantinople, St. Plato was with difficulty prevailed upon to leave Symboleon, and to take upon him the direction of this new abbey, in 782; but when he had governed it twelve years, he resigned the same to his nephew, St. Theodorus.           The emperor Constantine repudiated his empress, Mary, and took to his bed Theodota, a relation of St. Plato. The patriarch, St. Tarasius, endeavored to reclaim but, by exhortations and threats but SS Plato and Theodorus proceeded to publish among the monks a kind of sentence of excommunication against him by exhortations and threats St Joseph, the treasurer of the church, and several other mercenary priests and monks, endeavored to draw over St. Plato to approve the emperor's divorce. But he resisted their solicitations, and the emperor himself to his face, and courageously suffered imprisonment and other hardships till the death, of that unhappy prince, inn 797. The Saracens making excursions as far as the walls of Constantinople, the monks of Saccudion, abandoned their settlement, and chose that of Studius which abbey had been almost destroyed by thee persecution of Constantine Copronymus. There St. Plato
vowed obedience to his nephew Theodorus, living g himself a recluse in a narrow cell in perpetual prayer anti manual labor having one foot fastened to the ground with a heavy iron chain, which he carefully hid    with his cloak when anyone came to see him.   In 1806, St Nicephorus, a layman, though a person of great virtue, was preferred to the patriarchal duty by the emperor of the same name. St. Plato judged the election of a neophyte irregular on that account opposed it. In 807 he fell under a new persecution.    Joseph, the priest who had married the adulteress to the emperor Constantine, was restored to his functions and dignity of treasurer of the church, by an order of the emperor Nicephorus. St. Plato considered this indulgence as a scandalous enervation of the discipline of the church, and a seeming connivance at his past crimes and loudly condemned it. The emperor, provoked at his zeal, caused him to be guarded a whole year by a troop of insolent soldiers amid false monks after which he obliged him to appear before a council of court bishops, by which he was unjustly condemned, and treated with many indignities, and at length, with the most flagrant injustice, pronounced guilty of the fictitious crimes laid to his charge in consequence of which sentence the emperor banished him, and commanded that he should be ignominiously conducted from place to place in the isles of Bosphorus for the space of four years.    Notwithstanding he was at the same time afflicted with many distempers, the saint endured the fatigues of his exile with an extraordinary degree of constancy and courage had such an effect on Nicephorus, that he had resolved to recall him honor, and pay him the respect such distinguished piety merited, but, unhappily, the emperor's being surprised and murdered by the Bulgarians, in 811, frustrated those good intentions. But his successor, Michael I. a lover of justice and virtue, immediately gave orders that St. Plato should be honorably discharged. The saint was received at Constantinople with all possible marks of respect and distinction but privately retired to his cell. After some time, perceiving himself near his end, he directed his grave to be dug, and himself to be carried to it and laid down by it. Here He was visited by the chief persons of the city, especially by the holy patriarch, St Nicephorus, who had satisfied him as to his conduct in receiving the priest Joseph, and who came to recommend himself to his prayers.         St. Plato happily expired on the 19th of March, in 813, near the close of the seven ty-ninth year of his age.   His funeral obsequies were perforated by the patriarch St. Nicephorus. His memory is honored both by the Latin’s and Greeks on the forth of April.
Fortitude in suffering for the sake of justice is the true test of virtue and courage and the persecution of the saints is the glorious triumph of the cross of Christ. Humility, patience, and constancy, shine principally on such occasions.    Their distresses are like the shades in fine picture, which throw a graceful light on the brighter parts of the piece, and heighten its beauties.    See the life of St. Plato, by his nephew St. Theodorus the Studite.   Also the   Commentary and Notes of Papebroke, t. 1. Apr. p. 361; Fleury, I. 45.

814 ST PLATO, ABBOT
THE parents of St Plato died in Constantinople when he was thirteen years old, and an uncle, who was the imperial treasurer, took charge of him and trained him to be his assistant; but at the age of twenty-four the young man abandoned all his worldly prospects to enter upon the religious life. He sold his estates, and, after he had divided the proceeds between his two sisters and the poor, he set out for Bithynia to the monastery of Symboleon on Mount Olympus. When he had proved himself a perfect monk by performing the meanest offices and by receiving in silence punishment for faults he had not committed, he was set to the congenial task of copying books and making extracts from the works of the fathers.

Upon the death of the abbot Theoctistus in 770 he was chosen to succeed him, although he was only thirty-six. It was a time of tribulation and danger for orthodox monks, but the secluded position of the monastery appears to have protected him from the persecution of the iconoclast emperor, Constantine Copronymus. In 775 St Plato visited Constantinople, where he was received with great honour, being offered another monastery as well as the bishopric of Nicomedia, both of which he refused: he would not even be ordained priest. Afterwards, however, he was induced to leave Symboleon to become abbot of the Sakkudion which had been founded near Constantinople by the children of his sister Theoctista. This post, which he held for twelve years, he resigned to his nephew St Theodore Studites.

This was about the time that the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus divorced his wife Mary to marry Theodota. Uncle and nephew became leaders of the monastic party which practically excommunicated the sovereign and the imperial vengeance fell upon St Plato, who was imprisoned and exiled. By the time he was released his brethren had been obliged, by the attacks of the Saracens, to leave Sakkudion for the greater security of the monastery of Studius. Thither St Plato returned to place himself once more under his nephew. He elected to live apart from the other monks in a cell where he spent his time in prayer and manual work; but he continued to oppose imperial misdoings, and suffered therefor. Eventually by the Emperor Nicephorus he was banished to the isles of the Bosphorus, although he was old and ill. For four years he bore his hardships with exemplary patience, being constantly and ignominiously moved from one place to another. In 811 Michael I gave orders that St Plato should be released. In Constantinople he was received with all possible marks of respect, but for the rest of his life he was bedridden and lived in great retirement. Among his visitors was the patriarch St Nicephorus, whose election he had formerly opposed, but who now came to commend himself to his prayers. St Plato died on April 4, 814, and St Theodore preached his funeral oration.

The only biographical account preserved to us is the panegyric by St Theodore Studites which may be found with a Latin translation in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i. But there are many references to St Plato in other documents of the period, and there has been, indirectly at least, considerable discussion of the part he played in the religious disturbances of that age; see e.g. C. Van do Vorst in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxii (1913), pp. 27—62 and 439—447 and 3. Pargoire in the Byzantinische Zeitschrift, vol. viii (1899), pp. 98—101. See also articles by Fr Pargoire in Échos d’Orient, vol. ii (1899), pp. 253 seq., and vol. iv (1901), pp. 164 Seq.

One on Mount Olympus and another near Constantinople after refusing a bishopric. His opposition to the divorce and subsequent remarriage of Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI led to many sufferings, including imprisonment. Emperor Nicephorus exiled him to an island in the Bosporus for four years. He was bedridden as a result.

Plato of Sakkudion, Abbot (RM) Born in Constantinople, c. 734; died on March 19, 813. Saint Plato was younger than 13 when his parents were killed by a plague afflicting Constantinople. At that time, his uncle, the high treasurer of the empire, took over his education and Plato acted as his apprentice. He was accomplished at taking down business affairs in shorthand, yet even more advanced in affairs of the spirit.
Because of his high birth, virtue, and skill, he came to be regarded as a prize catch for those seeking a husband for their daughters. Plato, however, was more attracted to prayer and seclusion than marriage. He convinced his three brothers to devote themselves to God, and live in a state of celibacy. Then, seeking to free himself from worldly attachments, he freed all his slaves and sold his large estates. Before retiring to Symboleon on Mount Olympus, Bithynia, he used some of the money to obtain spouses for his two sisters--who became the mothers of saints--and distributed the rest among the poor.

Having discharged his duties, Plato bid adieu to his family, friends, and country and travelled with one servant to Bithynia (now in Turkey). There he sent his servant back to Constantinople with all his clothes except the coarse ones that he was wearing and entered the monastery Symboleon. There Plato made great progress in his spiritual growth through the practice of humility, devotion, and obedience under the guidance of the holy abbot Theoctistus.

Prayer and pious reading were the delight of his soul. In the hours allotted to labor he rejoiced to see the meanest employments assigned to him from making bread to fertilizing the fields with manure, though his skills were usually employed in copying manuscripts. When Theoctistus died in 770, the 36-year-old Plato was chosen abbot against his will. In order to ensure that such power would not corrupt him, he increased the severity of his penances: He never drank anything but water (sometimes only once in two days); his diet was bread, beans, or herbs without oil. He would never eat or wear anything which was not purchased by the labor of his own hands; by which he also maintained several poor.

After the death of the tyrant Constantine Copronymus, Saint Plato went to Constantinople on business and was received with great honor. He used this opportunity to encourage others to grow in holiness and love of virtue. The patriarch unsuccessfully tried to convince Plato to receive episcopal consecration, but Plato escaped back to his refuge at Symboleon.

In 782, his family prevailed upon him to leave Symboleon and take over the governance of Sakkudion Monastery near Constantinople, which was founded by his sister Theoctista. Her whole family embraced the religious state and it was fitting that Plato should join them. After directing Sakkudion for 12 years, he resigned in favor of his nephew, Saint Theodore Studites.

Life became difficult for Saint Plato when he opposed the actions of Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who repudiated his empress, Mary, and took to his bed Theodota, a relative of Saint Plato. Patriarch Saint Tarasius unsuccessfully threatened and exhorted the emperor against this action; Plato went further. He published a sentence of excommunication against the emperor among the monks. Joseph, the treasurer of the church, and several other mercenary priests and monks, tried to convince Plato to approve the emperor's divorce; but he resisted their solicitations and the emperor's own plea. Instead he suffered imprisonment and other hardships till the death of Constantine in 797.

When the Saracens invaded Byzantium, the monks of Sakkudion abandoned their monastery and moved to the Studium, which had been almost destroyed by the persecution of Constantine Copronymus. There Saint Plato vowed obedience to his nephew Theodore and retired to a narrow cell so that he could engage in perpetual prayer and manual labor. He chained one foot to the ground with a heavy iron chain that he carefully hid with his cloak when anyone came to see him.

When Saint Nicephorus, a layman of great virtue, was appointed patriarch of Constantinople in 806, Saint Plato opposed it because of the irregularity of naming a layman as bishop. Opposition to Plato increased when, in 807, Emperor Nicephorus appointed Joseph, the priest who had married the adulteress to the emperor Constantine, was restored his position as treasurer of the church. Plato loudly condemned the emperor's action as contrary to the discipline of the church. The emperor retaliated by placing him under house arrest for a year, before calling him to account at a council of court bishops. Then he was unjustly convicted of fictitious crimes and sentenced to banishment on an island in the Bosphorus for four years.

Although the repentant emperor died before mitigating Plato's sentence, his successor, Michael I, immediately restored the saint to grace and received him with great respect. Plato retired again to his cell and perceiving that he was near death, he asked that his grave to be dug, and himself to be carried to it and laid down by it. Here he was visited by Constantinople's dignitaries, including Patriarch Saint Nicephorus, who had been reconciled to Plato and who performed his funeral rites. Plato's vita was written by his nephew, Saint Theodore (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).

9th v. The Monk George lived during the IX Century at a monastery on Mount Malea in the Peloponessus
He pursued asceticism at a monastery on Mount Malea in the Peloponessus, and here also he died.

In the service to him, the Monk George is supplicated as an earthly Angel and wonderworker.

Georg von Malea Orthodoxe Kirche: 4. April
Georg lebte im 9. Jahrhundert. Er war Mönch in einem Kloster am Berg Malea auf dem Peleponnes. Hier starb er auch. Er wird als Engel auf Erden und Wunderwirker verehrt.

863 Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, "the sweet-voiced nightingale of the Church," vision of St Nicholas of Myra told the death of the

iconoclast Leo the Armenian Apostle Bartholomew appeared to him. At that time the Roman bishops were in communion with the Eastern Church, and Pope Leo III, who was not under the dominion of the Byzantine Emperor, was able to render great help to the Orthodox. The Orthodox monks chose St Joseph as a steadfast and eloquent messenger to the Pope. St Gregory blessed him to journey to Rome and to report on the plight of the Church of Constantinople, the atrocities of the iconoclasts, and the dangers threatening Orthodoxy.

Born in Sicily in 816 into a pious Christian family. His parents, Plotinos and Agatha, moved to the Peloponnesos to save themselves from barbarian invasions. When he was fifteen, St Joseph went to Thessalonica and entered the monastery of Latomos. He was distinguished by his piety, his love for work, his meekness, and he gained the good will of all the brethren of the monastery. He was later ordained as a priest.

St Gregory the Dekapolite (November 20) visited the monastery and took notice of the young monk, taking him along to Constantinople, where they settled together near the church of the holy Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. This was during the reign of the emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820), a time of fierce iconoclast persecution. Sts Gregory and Joseph fearlessly defended the veneration of holy icons. They preached in the city squares and visited in the homes of the Orthodox, encouraging them against the heretics. The Church of Constantinople was in a was most grievous position.

Not only the emperor, but also the patriarch were iconoclast heretics.

At that time the Roman bishops were in communion with the Eastern Church, and Pope Leo III, who was not under the dominion of the Byzantine Emperor, was able to render great help to the Orthodox. The Orthodox monks chose St Joseph as a steadfast and eloquent messenger to the Pope. St Gregory blessed him to journey to Rome and to report on the plight of the Church of Constantinople, the atrocities of the iconoclasts, and the dangers threatening Orthodoxy.
During the journey, St Joseph was captured by Arab brigands who had been bribed by the iconoclasts. They took him to the island of Crete, where they handed him over to the iconoclasts, who locked him up in prison. Bravely enduring all the deprivations, he encouraged the other prisoners. By his prayers, a certain Orthodox bishop who had begun to waver was strengthened in spirit and courageously accepted martyrdom.

St Joseph spent six years in prison. On the night of the Nativity of Christ in 820 he was granted a vision of St Nicholas of Myra, who told him about the death of the iconoclast Leo the Armenian, and the end of the persecution. St Nicholas gave him a paper scroll and said, "Take this scroll and eat it." On the scroll was written: "Hasten, O Gracious One, and come to our aid if possible and as You will, for You are the Merciful One." The monk read the scroll, ate it and said, "How sweet are Thine oracles to my throat" (Ps 118/119:103). St Nicholas bade him to sing these words. After this the fetters fell off the saint, the doors of the prison opened, and he emerged from it.

When he reached Constantinople, St Joseph found that St Gregory the Dekapolite was no longer among the living, leaving behind his disciple John (April 18), who soon died. St Joseph built a church dedicated to St Nicholas and transferred the relics of Sts Gregory and John there. A monastery was founded near the church.

He built a church in memory of the holy apostle. He loved and honored St Bartholomew, and he was distressed that there was no Canon glorifying the holy Apostle. He desired to adorn the Feast of St Bartholomew with hymns, but he did not dare to compose them himself. For forty days St Joseph prayed with tears, preparing for the Feast of the holy apostle. On the eve of the Feast the Apostle Bartholomew appeared to him in the altar. He pressed the holy Gospel to Joseph's bosom, and blessed him to write church hymns with the words, "May the right hand of the Almighty God bless you, may your tongue pour forth waters of heavenly wisdom, may your heart be a temple of the Holy Spirit, and may your hymnody delight the entire world." After this miraculous appearance, St Joseph composed a Canon to the Apostle Bartholomew, and from that time he began to compose hymns and Canons in honor of the Mother of God, of the saints, and in honor of St Nicholas, who liberated him from prison.

During the revival of the iconoclast heresy under the emperor Theophilus (829-842), St Joseph suffered a second time from the heretics. He was exiled to Cherson [Chersonessus] for eleven years. The Orthodox veneration of holy icons was restored under the holy empress Theodora (February 11) in 842, and St Joseph was made keeper of sacred vessels at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Because of his bold denunciation of the brother of the empress, Bardas, for unlawful cohabitation, the saint was again sent into exile and returned only after Bardas died in 867.

Patriarch Photius (February 6) restored him to his former position and appointed him Father-confessor for all the clergy of Constantinople.
Having reached old age, St Joseph fell ill. On Great and Holy Friday, the Lord informed him of his approaching demise in a dream. The saint made an inventory of the church articles in Hagia Sophia, which were under his official care, and he sent it to Patriarch Photius.

For several days he prayed intensely, preparing for death. He prayed for peace for the Church, and the mercy of God for his soul. Having received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, St Joseph blessed all who came to him, and with joy he fell asleep in the Lord (+ 863). The choirs of the angels and the saints, whom St Joseph had glorified in his hymnology, carried his soul to Heaven in triumph.

In 890, his biographer John the deacon of the Great Church wrote about the spirit and power of St Joseph's Canons: "When he began to write verses, then the hearing was taken with a wondrous pleasantness of sound, and the heart was struck by the power of the thought. Those who strive for a life of perfection find a respite here. Writers, having left off with their other versification, from this one treasure-trove, from the writings of St Joseph, began to scoop out his treasure for their own songs, or better to say, daily they scoop them out.

And finally, all the people carry it over into their own language, so as to enlighten with song the darkness of night, or staving off sleep, to continue with the vigil until sunrise. If anyone were peruse the life of a saint of the Church on any given day, they would see the worthiness of St Joseph's hymns and acknowledge his glorious life. Actually, since the lives and deeds of almost every saint are adorned with praises, is not he worthy of immortal glory, who has worthily and exquisitely known how to glorify them?

Now let some saints glorify his meekness, and others his wisdom, and others his works, and all together glorify the grace of the Holy Spirit, Who so abundantly and immeasurably has bestown his gifts on him."

Most of the Canons in the MENAION are St Joseph's work. His name may be found in the Ninth Ode as an acrostic. He also composed many of the hymns in the PARAKLETIKE.

Josef wurde 816 in Sizilien geboren. Als afrikanische Araber 831 in Sizilien einfielen, floh seine Familie nach Griechenland. In Thessaloniki trat Josef in ein Kloster ein. 840 wurde er zum Priester geweiht. Er lernte Gregor von Dekapolis im Kloster kennen, der sein Lehrer wurde. Mit Gregor ging er nach Konstantinopel. Er wurde dann von Gregor nach Rom gesandt, um die Unterstützung der römischen Kirche im Kampf gegen die Bilderstürmer zu erreichen. Sein Schiff wurde von Piraten überfallen und Josef auf Kreta gefangengesetzt. Hier in Kreta sammelte er Material über lokale Heiligem das er später in seinen Hymnen verarbeitete (z. B. Andreas von Kreta). 843 konnte er nach Konstantinopel zurückkehren. Er gründete ein Kloster und schrieb hier zahlreiche Hymnen. Nach der Absetzung von Patriarch Ignatios wurde Josef von Kaiser Michael III. verbannt, unter Kaiser Basileus I. und Patriarch Photios aber 867 wieder zurückgeholt. Er hatte das hohe Amt eines Skeuophylax an der Hagia Sophia inne und schrieb weitere Hymnen. Er starb am 3.4.886 in Konstantinopel. Einige seiner mehr als 500 liturgischen Dichtungen werden auch heute in der orthodoxen Kirche gesungen.

There is no early biography of Bishop Peter, but some information may be obtained concerning him from the chroniclers, and from the Life of Robert of Arbrissel. William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Regum (§439) calls Peter “a man of eminent holiness” and reproduces some highly laudatory verses written in his honour. See also Auber, Vies des Saints de L’Eglise de Poitiers (1858).

1550 The Monk Zosima of Vorbozomsk founder of a monastery in honour of the Annuniciation of the MostHoly Mother of God on an island in Lake Vorbozoma
Situated 23 versts to the south of Belozersk. The monastery was founded way back in the XV Century, since it is known, that in the year 1501 the head of the monastery was Hegumen Jona, a disciple of the Monk Zosima.
The monastery was among the number of those numerous wilderness-monasteries (small monasteries) which, being of the form of the so-called "Trans-Volga" monasteries, were dispersed around the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery.

See the life (Vita di San Benedetto di San Fradello) by F Giovanni da Capistrano, published in 1808; that by Father B. Nicolosi (1907); and Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), ii, pp. 14—31.

1726 The Departure of Pope Peter VI, the One Hundred and Fourth Pope of Alexandria.
On this day also the church commemorates the departure of Pope Peter VI (Petros), the one hundred and fourth Patriarch in the year 1442 A.M. (April 2nd., 1726 A.D.). This blessed father and spiritual angel was the son of pure and Christian parents from the city of Assiut. They raised him well, educated him with ecclesiastic subjects and manners and he excelled in them. His name was Mourgan, but later on he became known by the name Peter El-Assuity. The grace of God was on him since his young age, and when he came to the age of maturity, he forsook the world and what in it, and longed to the monastic life. He went to the monastery of the great St. Antonios in the mount of El-Arabah, he dwelt there, became a monk and put on the monastic garb. He exerted himself in worship, and when he achieved the ascetic life, purity, righteousness, and humility, the fathers the monks chose him to be a priest. They took him against his will to Cairo, and he was ordained a priest, for the monastery of the great Saint Anba Paula the first hermit, among others, by the hand of Pope Yoannis El-Toukhy (103), in the church of the Lady the Virgin in Haret El-Roum. He increased in virtues and he became well known among the people.

When Pope Yoannis, the above mentioned, departed, the Chair became vacant after him for two month and six days. They went on looking for whom was fit for this honorable rank so they chose some priests and monks. They wrote their names on pieces of papers, placed them over the alter and celebrated the Divine Liturgy. On the third day after asking and supplicating God to raise the one He chooses, the lot fell on this father, so they realized that he was the chosen one by God. He was ordained Patriarch for the See of St. Mark on sunday the 17th. of Mesra 1434 A.M. (August 21st., year 1718 A.D.) at the church of St. Marcurius in Old Cairo. It was a great joy for his enthronement, which was attended by the Christian mass, foreign dignitaries, Catholics, Greeks, Armenians, and the military.

Afterwards, Pope Peter went to visit the cities of Lower Egypt, visited the churches, and at the end he arrived to Alexandria to visit the church of St. Mark the evangelist in the 11th. of Baramouda year 1438 A.M. He kissed the pure holy head of St. Mark, and he did extensive renovation inside the church. When he was about to return he was informed that a group in Alexandria planning to steal the holy head so he hid it in the monastery since that time. Then he gave a lamb made of silver as a gift and lit it over the tomb of the Evangelist, and he encircled it by a partition with windows looking inside. He went to Lower and Upper Egypt and the people of Egypt rejoiced.

During the days of this father, a group of priests and deacons came, delegated by the Emperor of Ethiopia, with extravagant gifts and a letter from the Emperor, asking for a Metropolitan. He deliberated the subject with Mr. Lotf-Allah Abu-Yousif a prominent notable of Cairo and others, and they all agreed on the honorable father Khristozolo bishop of Jerusalem. He was a blessed father, and knowledgeable teacher, so Pope Peter ordained him Metropolitan, and called him Khristozolo III. They went with him to Ethiopia happy and joyful, and he cared for that parish from 1720 - 1742 A.D. Pope Peter ordained Anba Athanasius bishop for Jerusalem.

During the papacy of this Pope many churches were built and consecrated with his blessed hand. Among those churches, the church of St. Mary on the Nile in the district of El-Maady, the church of Michael the archangel in Babylon, and the church of St. Mina the wonder worker in Fum El-Khalig - Cairo. The last two churches were built by the noble and charitable Mr. Lotf-Allah Abu-Yousif by his private funds, also he built the church of the Apostles in the monastery of St. Antonios, and also assumed and paid the cost of the enthronement festivals of the Patriarch.

The days of this Pope were peaceful and tranquil, and he worked on implementing the church cannons especially he stopped the divorce, for whatever the reason. For that purpose he went to the Governor Ebn-Eiwaz and discussed the subject with the Muslim scholars, so they gave him a formal legal opinion and a decree that the No Divorce only apply to the Christians, and no one can object him for that in courts. He ordered the priests not to wed except in his presence. That was because a man, who was the son of a priest, protested against him. The man had divorced his wife and married another without the Patriarch's knowledge in the church. He ordered them to come before him so he might dissolve the illegal marriage, but the man refused and did not come. The Pope excommunicated the man, his wife and his father the priest for he had married them. This man died after sever illness in his mouth, and his father the priest went to the Pope, asked for his forgiveness, the Pope absolved him and shortly after he died.

This pope shepherded the flock of Christ with the best of care, and when he completed his strife, he fell sick for a short sickness and departed on the 26th. of Baramhat, year 1442 A.M. in the Holy Lent. His body was placed in the tomb of the Patriarchs in the church of St. Marcurius in Old Cairo. He remained on the Chair for 7 years, 7 month and 11 days. He was charitable, generous and merciful to his people as his predecessor. Pope Peter (Petros) El-Assuity was approximately forty six years old, and he was a contemporary of Sultan Ahmed III the Ottoman. The Chair remained vacant for 9 month and 11 days after him.
The year this pope departed, there was an outbreak of Plaque in the land along with severe drought, many bishops and priests departed and death befell the people from Alexandria to Aswan.

Thursday Saints of April 04 Sancti Prídie Nonas Aprílis

Holy Week: A Liturgical Explanation for the Days of Holy Week

On Great and Holy Wednesday woman who poured precious ointment on Christ's head at Simon the leper's house (Mt. 26:7)
Hymns of the Bridegroom Service remind us of the sinful woman who poured precious ointment on Christ's head at Simon the leper's house (Mt. 26:7).
The disciples complained about the wasteful extravagance, for the myrrh could have been sold and the money given to the poor.
On this same day Judas agreed to betray the Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

Because the betrayal took place on Wednesday, Orthodox Christians fast on most Wednesdays during the year.

On the other hand, the Savior declared that the woman's actions would be remembered wherever the Gospel is preached (Mt. 26:13), for she had anointed Him in preparation for His burial (Mt. 26:12).

The Annunciation of the Lord (Solemnity)

Exodus 32:7-14 ; 7 And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; 8 they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" 9 And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; 10 now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation." 11 But Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy people, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, `With evil intent did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, and didst say to them, `I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.'" 14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.

Psalms 106:19-23 ; 19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore he said he would destroy them -- had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

John 5:31-47 ; 31 If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true; 32 there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen; 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent. 39 You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from men. 42 But I know that you have not the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

Holy Week: A Liturgical Explanation for the Days of Holy Week

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

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

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

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

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

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

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

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

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

Augustin_Ravoux.html Vicar General Ravoux; Langeaux -- France; accepted Bishop Loras

invite to America from Belley in France;
Monsignor Augustin Ravoux over 60 years pioneer missionary in Minnesota, 1/11/1815 1/17/1906

Basilica_of_Saint_Mary_Minneapolis_MN.html
Monsignour James Reardon

Michael Reardon Protonotary Apostlic

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 124

I have loved the Mother of the Lord my God: and the light of her compassions she hath shined upon me.

The sorrows of death have encompassed me: and the visitation of Mary hath rejoiced me.

I have incurred grief and danger: and I have been recreated by her grace.

Let her name and her memory be in the midst of our heart: and the blow of the malignant will not injure us.

Be converted, my soul, unto her praise: and thou shalt find refreshment in thy last end.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide to Holiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting of the Saints walis (saints of Allah)

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

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

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

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

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

Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

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

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

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

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

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

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

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

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

Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.

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

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

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

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

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

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

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

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

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

By Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.

Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .

The pillars of father's preaching are basically:

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, PSALTER BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 124 2022