Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
April is dedicated to devotion of the Holy Eucharist and to the Holy Spirit.
2023
From 2007 to 2021 22,600 lives saved

Haitian Help Funding Seeds Haitian Geology AND Haitian Paintings
http://www.haitian-childrens-fund.org/

For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

Apparitions of the Virgin in Zeitoun from April 2 to June 15, 1968 (Egypt)

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,

showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

St Pothinus, (87-177 AD) >

Our Lady of Fourvieres, a sanctuary dating from the time of St Pothinus, (87-177 AD) was a martyr and bishop of Lyon. He was martyred along with Alexander, Attalus, Espagathus} erected on the site of a temple of Venus, is a popular place of pilgrimage in the diocese. In 1643 the people of Lyons consecrated themselves to Our Lady of Fourvieres and pledged themselves to a solemn procession on the 8th of December of each year, which still continues to this day.


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

It is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish -- Mother Teresa
 Saving babies, healing moms and dads, 'The Gospel of Life'

April 19 – Our Lady of the Country (Italy, 1559) –
Apparitions of the Virgin in Zeitoun from April 2 to June 15, 1968 (Egypt)  
The Virgin seen by Christians and Muslims alike
Located between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, Egypt can boast of being the country where the Holy Family took refuge from the persecution of Herod, just months after the birth of the Incarnate Word in Bethlehem.
Even at that time, in the biblical history of the Hebrews, Egypt was known as the country where the Chosen People had lived for more than 400 years. Under the leadership of Moses, Israel returned to Palestine after 40 years spent in the desert.
Christians, especially the Copts, are a minority today in the land of the ancient pharaohs and pyramids, but their fervor, especially their Marian fervor, is still ardent after over two millennia and has been rewarded by the Virgin herself. Indeed, shrines born at the scenes of miracles and Marian apparitions abound in Egypt.

In particular, let us mention the recent apparitions of the Virgin in Zeitoun, a suburb of Cairo, in 1971. What is interesting here is that the Virgin wanted to be seen by Christians and Muslims alike—the latter being the country’s religious majority.   
Mary of Nazareth Team


CAUSES OF SAINTS April

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
.

April 19 – Our Lady of the Countryside (Italy, 1559) 
 
The niche is empty but …  
The following story may sound unbelievable, but it is true. Although there is no statue of Our Lady in the niche above the altar of the chapel of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Alta Gracia (Argentina), we can see her image—even though the niche in question is actually empty.
Both the Christians and non-Christians who flock to the shrine claim they see the image. It appears even on photographs and it is distinctly visible from the front entrance. Then, strangely, it gradually disappears as we approach the altar.
This chapel, built and blessed in 1927, used to have a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in a niche above the altar.
In August 2011, the statue was removed from the niche to be restored.
The Discalced Carmelites brothers subsequently issued a press release stating that "the apparition of the image of the Blessed Virgin does not have, to date, a logical explanation. We interpret it as a sign to increase and deepen the Christian faith of God’s people." ...MDN Team


1st v. St. Timon 1/7 Deacons chosen by the Apostles to minister to Nazarene of Jerusalem
 275 Socrates and Dionysius Martyrs of Pamphylia MM (RM)
         St. Paphnutius Martyred priest of Jerusalem
 304  St. Vincent of Collioure Martyr
4th v. St. Hermogenes Armenian martyr w/others at Melitene
 396  St. Crescentius A disciple of St. Zenobius and St. Ambrose
 713  St. Ursmar Benedictine abbot-bishop missionary organized exceedingly successful in Flanders Belgium

 814  George of Antioch monk bishop of Antioch Pisidia BM (RM)
10th v. Saint Lazarus an Oriental king travelled to Rome pilgrimage to Gaul
 978   St. Gerold nobleman hermit gave his lands to Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland

1054    Leo IX "the pilgrim pope" - reformer deacon a stern bishop holy man & army officer  Pope (RM)
1164 Blessed Burchard of Bellevaus a favorite disciple of Saint Bernard OSB Cist Abbot (PC)

1289 Blessed Conrad de'Miliani evangelize Libya advisor to cardinal Masci (later Pope Nicholas IV) OFM (AC)  great a devotion to the Sacred Passion that he was sometimes allowed to behold our Lord crowned with thorns and to take part in His sufferings
1374   St. Pavoni, Anthony Dominican Inquisitor murdered at Bricherasio
1404    Blessed James of Oldo priest a Franciscan tertiary w/wife  turned their home into a church OFM Tert. (AC)

1602 St. James Duckett, Blessed bookseller imprisoned 9 years Martyr of England for his faith

We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.-- Council of Chalcedon
 
Our Lady of Fourvieres April 19 - (Lyons, France, 1643)            
Our Lady of Fourvieres, a sanctuary dating from the time of St Pothinus, (87-177 AD) was a martyr and bishop of Lyon. He was martyred along with Alexander, Attalus, Espagathus} erected on the site of a temple of Venus, is a popular place of pilgrimage in the diocese. In 1643 the people of Lyons consecrated themselves to Our Lady of Fourvieres and pledged themselves to a solemn procession on the 8th of December of each year, which still continues to this day.
It was in Lyons that sixty Gallic tribes erected the famous altar to Rome and Augustus. It was also the center from which Christianity gravitated throughout Gaul. Brutal persecution arose under Marcus Aurelius. Its victims at Lyons numbered forty-eight, half of them of Greek origin, half Gallo-Roman; among them were St Blandina and St Pothinus, first Bishop of Lyons, sent to Gaul by St Polycarp about the middle of the second century. The letter addressed to the Christians of Asia and Phrygia in the name of the faithful of Vienne and Lyons, and relating the persecution of 177, is considered one of the most extraordinary documents possessed by any literature; it is the baptismal certificate of Christianity in France. The successor of St Pothinus was the illustrious St Irenæus (d. 202).
Read: BENNETT, Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words, Ignatius, 2002.

April 19 - Our Lady of Campania (Italy, 1559)
 – Apparitions of Zeitoun, Egypt, from April 2 to June 15, 1968 
 
Mary embodied the whole Church
On this Holy Saturday, “Tradition tells us that Mary somehow embodied the whole Church: she is the Credentium collectio universa (the universal gathering of the faithful). Thus, the Virgin Mary standing near the tomb of her Son is the icon of the Virgin Church who stays awake at her Spouse’s tomb and awaits the celebration of the Resurrection.

This intuition of such a close relationship between Mary and the whole Church comes from the pious exercise called ‘The Mother's Hour.’ While the Body of the Son is still resting in the tomb and his Soul has descended to hell “to announce to the forebears in the faith, who are still in the shadow of death, their imminent liberation, the Virgin, anticipating and personifying the Church, awaits the victory of her Son over death, showing an unshakeable faith”
(cf: Directory of Popular Piety # 146-147, Vatican City, December 2001).
 notredamedesneiges
notredamedesneiges.over-blog.com


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

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

1st v. St. Timon 1/7 Deacons chosen by the Apostles to minister to Nazarene of Jerusalem
 275 Socrates and Dionysius Martyrs of Pamphylia MM (RM)
         St. Paphnutius Martyred priest of Jerusalem
 304  St. Vincent of Collioure Martyr
4th v. St. Hermogenes Armenian martyr w/others at Melitene
 396  St. Crescentius A disciple of St. Zenobius and St. Ambrose
 713  St. Ursmar Benedictine abbot-bishop missionary organized exceedingly successful in Flanders Belgium
8th v. Saint John of the Ancient Caves Bethlehem, near Dead Sea labored in fasting, vigil, and prayer ordained priest glorified by his ascetic life
 814  George of Antioch monk bishop of Antioch Pisidia BM (RM)
10th v. Saint Lazarus an Oriental king travelled to Rome pilgrimage to Gaul
 978   St. Gerold nobleman hermit gave his lands to Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland
11th v. Saint Emma favored with the gift of working miracles
1012   St. Alphege Archbishop "1st Martyr of Canterbury." famed for care of poor and austere life incorrupt in 1105
1054    Leo IX "the pilgrim pope" - reformer deacon a stern bishop holy man & army officer  Pope (RM)
1164 Blessed Burchard of Bellevaus a favorite disciple of Saint Bernard OSB Cist Abbot (PC)
1182    Blessed Bernard the Penitent Many miraculous cures occurred at his tomb OSB Monk (AC)
1260 Blessed Luchesio and Buonadonna they set in motion the Secular Franciscan Order
1275    Wernher the Glass-Blower 14 yr-old M (AC)
1289 Blessed Conrad de'Miliani evangelize Libya advisor to cardinal Masci (later Pope Nicholas IV) OFM (AC)  great a devotion to the Sacred Passion that he was sometimes allowed to behold our Lord crowned with thorns and to take part in His sufferings
1374   St. Pavoni, Anthony Dominican Inquisitor murdered at Bricherasio
1404    Blessed James of Oldo priest a Franciscan tertiary w/wife  turned their home into a church OFM Tert. (AC)
1602 St. James Duckett, Blessed bookseller imprisoned 9 years Martyr of England for his faith
    ST EXPEDITUS in fact it is more than doubtful whether the saint ever existed. We may own that in the “Hieronymianum” the name Expeditus occurs among a group of martyrs both on the 18th  and the 19th of April, being assigned in the one case to Rome, and in the other to Melitene in Armenia;
"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)

1st v. St. Timon century 1/7 Deacons chosen by the Apostles to minister at Nazarene of Jerusalem
Corínthi natális sancti Timónis, qui fuit unus de septem primis Diáconis.  Hic primo apud Berœam Doctor resédit, ac deínde, verbum Dómini disséminans, venit Corínthum; ibíque, a Judǽis et Græcis (ut tráditur) injéctus flammis, sed nihil læsus, demum, cruci affíxus, martyrium suum implévit.
    At Corinth, the birthday of St. Timon, one of the first seven deacons, who was first a teacher at Berea.  Afterwards, while preaching the word of the Lord at Corinth, he was delivered to the flames by the Jews and the Greeks, but remaining uninjured, he ended his martyrdom by crucifixion.

One of the Seven Deacons chosen by the Apostles to assist in the ministering to the Nazarene community of Jerusalem. He was mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (6:5), although the traditions concerning him are confusing.

Timon the Deacon M (RM) 1st century. One of the first seven deacons (Acts 6:5), Saint Timon is said to have been crucified in Corinth, though there are conflicting stories about his life (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
275 Socrates and Dionysius Martyrs of Pamphylia MM (RM)
Eódem die sanctórum Mártyrum Socrátis et Dionysii, qui lánceis confóssi sunt.
    On the same day, the holy martyrs Socrates and Denis, who were killed with spears.
who were stabbed to death under Aurelian(?) (Benedictines).
Pamphylia: ancient name for the fertile coastal plain in southern Turkey.
Pamphylia is the ancient name of the rich and fertile alluvial plain of the rivers Kestros, Eurymedon, and Melas (the modern Aksu Çayi, Köprü Çayi, and Manavgat Çayi).
 St. Paphnutius Martyred priest of Jerusalem.
Eódem die sanctórum Mártyrum Socrátis et Dionysii, qui lánceis confóssi sunt.
    On the same day, the holy martyrs Socrates and Denis, who were killed with spears. No details of his martyrdom survive.
Paphnutius of Jerusalem M (RM). A priest martyred at Jerusalem (Benedictines). Paphnutius may be shown in art with Saint Thäis (Roeder).
304 St. Vincent of Collioure Martyr
Caucolíberi, in Hispánia Tarraconénsi, pássio sancti Vincéntii Mártyris.    At Collioure in Spain, the martyr St. Vincent.
It is known with certainty that he was put to death at Collioure, Gaul (modern France), under Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305), although his Acts are considered quite unreliable.
Vincent of Collioure M (RM) A martyr at Collioure, Languedoc, under Diocletian. (Benedictines).
4th v. St. Hermogenes 4th century Armenian martyr w/others at Melitene
Melitínæ, in Arménia, sanctórum Mártyrum Hermógenis, Caji, Expedíti, Aristónici, Rufi et Galátæ, qui omnes una die sunt coronáti.
    At Melitine in Armenia, the holy martyrs Hermogenes, Caius, Expeditus, Aristonicus, Rufus, and Galatas, all crowned on the same day.
with Aristonicus, Expeditus, Galata, Gaius, and Rufus. They suffered at Melitene.

Hermogenes, Caius & Companions MM (RM). Hermogenes, Caius, Expeditus, Aristonicus, Rufus, and Galata were Armenian martyrs believed to have died at Melitene (Benedictines).
396 St. Crescentius A disciple of St. Zenobius and St. Ambrose
Floréntiæ sancti Crescéntii Confessóris, qui fuit discípulus beáti Zenóbii Epíscopi.
    At Florence, St. Crescent, confessor, a disciple of the blessed Bishop Zenobius
who served as a subdeacon of Florence, Italy. Crescentius of Florence (RM) Subdeacon to Saint Zenobius(c. 390) the bishop of Florence, Crescentius was also a disciple of Saint Ambrose (340-397)
In art, Saint Crescentius is a deacon (1) with a censer and chalice, (2) with a censer and book, or (3) tending the sick (Roeder). He is especially venerated in Florence, Italy (Roeder).
(Attwater2, Benedictines).
713 St. Ursmar Benedictine abbot-bishop exceedingly successful missionary in Flanders Belgium
In cœnóbio Laubiénsi, in Bélgio, sancti Ursmári Epíscopi.
    In the monastery of Lobbes in Belgium, the bishop St. Ursmar.
713 ST URSMAR, ABBOT AND BISHOP

From the Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
ST. URSMAR BISHOP AND ABBOT OF LAUBES, OR LOBES.
HE was horn near Avesne, in Haynault, and grew up from his cradle a model of all virtues, in which he made a continua1 progress by a life of humility, patience, and penance, and by an assiduous application to prayer, in which he usually shed abundance of tears.  What he most earnestly asked of God was the gift of an ardent charity that all his thoughts and actions and those of all men might, with the most pure and fervent intention, and the most perfect manner, he directed in all things to fulfil his holy and adorable will.    In his conversation it was his earnest desire and drift to induce persons of a secular life to fix their thoughts, as much as the condition of their state would on heavenly things, and to accompany even their worldly business with such aspirations and thoughts, and to study to withdraw their heart carts from all attachment to creatures.
    St. Landelin had then lately founded the abbey of Lobes, on the Sambre, in a territory which is now subject to the prince of Liege, though in the diocese of Cambray Ursmar here put on the monastic habit. When St. Landelin retired into a closer solitude, where he soon after built the monastery of Crespin.  He left Ursmar abbot of Lobes, in 686.   Our saint redoubled his fervor in all the exercises of penance in this dignity.  He never tasted any flesh-meat or fish, and for ten years never once touched bread, not even in a dangerous sickness. He finished the building of his abbey and church, and founded Anne and several other monasteries.  He often left his dear cell to preach the faith to idolaters and sinners.   He became the apostle of several districts in the dioceses of Cambray, Arras, Tournay, Noyon, Terouanne, Laon, Triers, Cologne, and Maastricht.   By virtue of a commission from the Holy See, he exercised the functions of a bishop: his predecessor, St. Landelin, and his two successors SS Ermin and Theodulph, were invested with the same character.  In his old age he resigned his abbacy to St.
Ermin, and died in retirement in 713, being almost sixty-nine years old, on the 18th day of April, on which he is honored as principal patron at Binche Lobes and Luxembourg; but is named on the 10th, which was the day of his burial, in the Roman and several other Martyrologies.   His relics are venerated at Binche, four leagues from Mons.   See his original life by a disciple, with the notes of Henschenius also Folenin, abbot of Laubes, in 980, in his accurate history of The Gests of the Abbots of Laubes, published by D'Achery, Spieleg. t. 6, p. 541.  See also Folcuin's appendix on the miracles wrought at the shrine of St. Ursmar, under the author's own eyes, ib., and in the Bollandists, 18 Apr, p. 564, and another life of this saint composed in heroic verse by hunger, abbot of Laubes in the year 1000.


THE abbey of Lobbes, one of the most famous in Belgium, was founded by St Landelin in 654. We do not know the name of his immediate successor, but in 689, or shortly afterwards, the government of the abbey was entrusted to St Ursmar, who may, or may not, have been already a bishop. Though various biographies. of him were written a century or two later, we learn singularly little about his early history, but conventional phrases about his sanctity, austerity and apostolic zeal occur in abundance. We are told that he consecrated the abbey church of Lobbes in honour of SS. Peter and Paul on August 26, 697, and that he afterwards built a separate church for the people upon the hill-side. Ursmar is also credited with the foundation of other monasteries, and much is said about his missionary work in evangelizing Flanders.

The various lives of St Ursmar have been printed by Mabillon in the Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., vol. iii, part i, pp. 248—355, and part 2, pp. 608—611. There are also several collec­tions of miracles. But see especially U. Berlière, Monasticon Beige, vol. i, pp. 200—201; Van der Essen, Etudes critiques . . . méroving., pp. 71—73 and 76—82; and G. Morin in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiii (1904), pp. 315—319. There is also a modem life by C. L. Declèves (1886).

Perhaps a native of Ireland, he served as abbot-bishop of the abbey of Lobbes, on the Sambre, in Flanders, Belgium, from which he organized exceedingly successful missionary efforts in the region.

Ursmar of Lobbes, OSB Abbot B (RM) (also known as Ursmer) Abbot - bishop of Lobbes on the Sambre, Ursmar founded other monasteries (Aulne and Wallers in Belgium) and did fruitful missionary work in bringing the Gospel to Flanders (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Saint Ursmar is depicted as a Benedictine abbot casting out a devil (Roeder).
8th v. Saint John of the Ancient Caves not far from Bethlehem, near the Dead Sea labored in fasting, vigil, and prayer ordained to the holy priesthood, and glorified by his ascetic life
So called because he lived during the eighth century in the Lavra of St Chariton (September 28)
This was called the "Old," or ancient cave, since it was one the oldest of the Palestinian monasteries. The Lavra was situated not far from Bethlehem, near the Dead Sea.
St John in his early years left the world, went to venerate the holy places of Jerusalem, and settled at the Lavra, where he labored in fasting, vigil, and prayer.
He was ordained to the holy priesthood, and glorified by his ascetic life.
814 George of Antioch monk bishop of Antioch Pisidia second Council of Nicaea (797), which condemned the iconoclasts BM (RM)
Antiochíæ Pisídiæ sancti Geórgii Epíscopi, qui, ob sanctárum Imáginum cultum, exsul occúbuit.
    At Antioch in Pisidia, St. George, a bishop, who died in exile for the veneration of sacred images.  
Saint George was a monk before becoming bishop of Antioch, Pisidia. He participated in the second Council of Nicaea (797), which condemned the iconoclasts.
He stand against the heresy led him to be banished by emperor Leo V the Armenian. George died in exile (Benedictines).
10th v. Saint Lazarus an Oriental king travelled to Rome pilgrimage to Gaul
10th century. Saint Lazarus, an Oriental king, travelled to Rome with his daughter Aza. They continued their pilgrimage to Gaul, where they settled in Moyenmoutier (Encyclopedia).
978 St. Gerold nobleman hermit gave his lands to Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland
978 ST GEROLDUS
THE little village of Sankt-Gerold near Mitternach in the Wallgau continues to draw numbers of pilgrims to venerate the tomb of the tenth-century hermit who, with his two sons, lies buried in the church. Various legends have grown up about him but a few details of his life seem to be well established. Geroldus came of the Rhetian family of the counts of Sax, and he was a middle-aged man when he decided to retire from the world to live as a recluse. For years he occupied a hermitage which he had erected in the forest, on a plot of ground given him by his friend and neighbour Count Otto. His own land he had bestowed upon the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln, in which his sons Cuno and Ulric were monks, the gift having been sealed by the placing of a basketful of the soil upon our Lady’s altar. After the death of Geroldus, his sons obtained permission to occupy their father’s cell and to watch over his tomb. In later years, when the forest was cleared, the abbots of Einsiedeln, several of whom were members of the hermit’s family, established a church upon the spot. The building was desecrated and reduced to ruin at the Reformation, but in 1663 Abbot Placid of Einsiedeln enshrined the saint’s body in a new church beside the relics of Cuno and Ulric.

There is no ancient biography, but an account has been pieced together from various sources in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii; and see Ringholtz, Geschichte von Einsiedeln, vol. i.
A nobleman who became a hermit in Switzerland. He was born into the Rhaetian family of Saxony counts. Becoming a recluse, Gerold gave his lands to Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland, where his sons were monks. Gerold then became a hermit in a forest near Mitternach in the Waalgu.

Geroldus of Einsiedeln, OSB Hermit (AC) (also known as Gerold) Of the lineage of the dukes of Saxony, Saint Geroldus bestowed his property to Einsiedeln Abbey, where his two sons, Udalric and Cuno, were monks. Geroldus himself became a hermit under obedience to its abbot, in a village near Mitternach. His sons, whose feasts are not celebrated, followed him into isolation and under his direction spent their time between work and prayer. After Geroldus's death, his hermitage became a place of pilgrimage (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
11th v. Saint Emma favored with the gift of working miracles
11th century. Emma, widow of Ludger, was favored with the gift of working miracles. She supported the poor of Bremen (Encyclopedia).
1012 St. Alphege Archbishop "1st Martyr of Canterbury." famed for care of poor and austere life incorrupt in 1105
Cantuáriæ, in Anglia, sancti Elphégi, Epíscopi et Mártyris.    At Canterbury in England, St. Elphege, bishop and martyr.

From the Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
ST ALPHEGE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, MARTYR
ST. ELPHEGE, M. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
From his genuine life, written by Osbern, a monk of Canterbury, in 1070 but finished by Eadmer, as Mr. Wharton discovered who has given us a more ample and correct edition of it than either the Bollandists or Mabillon had been able to furnish. See a short history of his martyrdom in a chronicle written in the reign of Henry I, in the Cottonian library.  Vetllios, c. v. viii. Leland, Collect. t. 1, p. 22, and the history of the translation of his body from London to Canterbury, among the MSS. in the Herwleian library Cod. 624, fol 136, in the Flemish history.
                                                  A D.1012.
  St. ELPHEGE was born of noble and virtuous parents, who gave him a good education.   Fearing the snares of riches, he renounced the world while he was yet very young; and though most dutiful to his parents in all other things, he in this courageously overcame the tears of his tender mother.   He served God first in the monastery of Derherste in Gloucestershire.   His desire of greater perfection taught him always to think that he had not yet begun to live to God. After some years he left Derherste, and built himself a cell in a desert place of the abbey of Bath, where he shut himself up, unknown to men, but well known to God, for whose love he made himself a voluntary martyr of penance.  His virtue, after some time, shone to men the brighter through the veils of his humility, and many noblemen and others addressed themselves to him for instructions in the paths of perfection, and he was at length obliged to take upon him the direction of the great abbey of Bath. Perfection is more difficultly maintained in numerous houses.   St. Elphege lamented bitterly the irregularities of the tepid among the brethren, especially little junketings, from which he in a short time reclaimed them; and God, by the sudden death of one, opened the eyes of all the rest.  The good abbot would not tolerate the least relaxation in his communion, being sensible how small a breach may totally destroy the regularity of a house.  He used to say, that it would have been much better for a man to have stayed in the world, than to be an imperfect monk; and that to wear the habit of a saint, without having the spirit, was a perpetual lie, and a hypocrisy which insults, butt can never impose upon Almighty God. St. Ethelwold bishop of Winchester, dying in 981, St. Dunstan being admonished by St. Andrew, in a vision, obliged our holy abbot to quit his solitude, and accept of episcopal consecration.   The virtues of Elphege became more conspicuous in this high station, though he was more than thirty years of age when he was first placed in it.  In winter how cold soever it was, he always rose at midnight, went out, and prayed a long time barefoot, and without his upper garment. He never ate flesh unless on extraordinary occasions. He was no less remarkable for charity to his neighbor, that, severity to himself.  He accordingly provided so liberally for the indigence’s of the poor that during his time there were no beggars in the whole diocese of Winchester. The holy prelate had governed the see of Winchester twenty-two years with great edification, when, after the death of archbishop Alfrie, in 1006, he was translated to that of Canterbury, being fifty-two years of age. He who trembled under his former burden, was much more terrified at the thought of the latter: but was compelled to acquiesce.   Having been at Rome to receive his pall, he held at his return a great national council at Oenham, in 1009, in which thirty-two canons were published for the reformation of errors and abuses, and the establishment of discipline; and, among other things, the then ancient law, commanding the fast on Friday, was confirmed.
The Danes at that time made the moat dreadful havoc in England. They landed where they pleased, and not only plundered the country, but committed excessive barbarities on the natives, with little or no opposition from the weak king Ethelred. Their army being joined by the traitorous earl Edric, they marched out of the West into Kent, and sat down before Canterbury.  But before it was invested, the English nobility, perceiving the danger the place was in, desired the archbishop, then in the city, to provide for his security by night; which he refused to do, saying, that it was the part only of a hireling to abandon his flock in the time of danger. During the siege, he often sent out to the enemies to desire them to spare his innocent sheep, whom he endeavored, to animate against the wont that could happen. And having prepared them, by his zealous exhortations, rather to suffer the utmost than renounce their faith, he gave them the blessed Eucharist, and recommended them to the divine protection. While he was thus employed in assisting and encouraging his people, Canterbury was taken by storm.  The infidels on entering the city made a dreadful slaughter of all that came in their way, without distinction of sex or age. The holy prelate was no sooner apprised of the barbarity of the enemy, but breaking from the monks, who would have detained him in the church, where they thought he might be safe, he pressed through the Danish troops, and made his way to the place of slaughter.  Then turning to the enemy, he desired them to forbear the massacre of his people, and rather discharge their fury upon him, crying out to the murderers: "Spare these innocent persons.  There is no glory in spilling their blood.  Turn your indignation rather against me.  I have reproached you for your cruelties: I have fed, clothed, and ransomed these captives." The archbishop, talking with this freedom, was immediately seized, and used by the Danes with all manner of barbarity.   Not content with making him the spectator of the burning of his cathedral, and the decimation of his monks, and of the citizens, having torn his face, beat sad kicked him unmercifully, they laid him in irons, and confined him several months in a filthy dungeon.  But being afflicted with an epidemical mortal colic in their army, and attributing this scourge to their cruel usage of the saint, they drew him out of prison.  He prayed for them, and gave to their sick bread which he had blessed; by eating this sick recovered, and the calamity ceased.   Their chiefs returned thanks to the servant of God, and deliberated about setting him at liberty, but covetousness prevailing in their council, they exacted for his ransom three thousand marks of gold. He said that the country was all laid waste; moreover, that the patrimony of the poor was not to be squandered away.  He therefore was bound again, and on Easter Sunday was brought before the commanders of their fleet; which the lay at Greenwich and threatened with torments and death unless he paid the ransom demanded.    He answered, that he had no other gold to utter them than that of true wisdom, which consists in the knowledge and worship of the living God: which if they refused to listen to, they would one day fare worse than Sodom; adding, and that their empire would not long subsist in England.
    The barbarians, enraged at this answer, knocked him down with the backs of their battle-axes, and then stoned him.   The saint, like St. Stephen, prayed our Lord to forgive them, and to receive his soul. In the end, raising himself up a little, he said, "0 good Shepherd! 0 incomparable Shepherd look with compassion on the children of thy church which 1, dying, recommend to thee."   And bore a Dane that had been lately baptized by the saint, perceiving him agonizing and under torture, grieved to see him suffer in so slow and painful a manner, to put an end to his pain, clove his head with his battle-axe, and gave the finishing stroke to his martyrdom.   Thus died St. Elphege, on the 19th of April, 1012, in the fifty ninth year of his age.  He was solemnly intoned in the cathedral of St. Paul’s, in London.   In 1023, his body was found entire, and translated with honor to Canterbury:   Knut, the Danish king, and Aga both, the archbishop, went with it from St. Paul's to the river it was carried by monks down a narrow street to the water side, and put on board a vessel the king held the stern.   Queen Emma also attended with great presents, and an incredible multitude of people followed the procession from London.   The church of Canterbury, on the occasion, was most magnificently adorned.   This translation was made on the 8th of June, on which it was annually commemorated.  His relies lay near the high altar till the dispersion of relics under Henry VIII.  Hackon, Turkill, and the other Danish commanders, perished miserably soon after and their numerous fleet of above two hundred sail was almost all lost in violent storms.   St. Elphege is named in the Roman Martyrology.
  Our English Martyrology commemorates on the 1st of September another St. Elphege surnamed the Bald, bishop of Winchester, which see he governed from the death of St. Brynstan, in 935 to 953. He is celebrated for his sanctity, and a singular spirit of prophesy, of which Malmesbury gives some instances.



St ALPHEGE (Aelfheah; Elphege) when a young man entered the monastery of Deerhurst in Gloucestershire. Afterwards he withdrew to a deserted place near been refounded by St Dunstan. As an abbot Alphege would never tolerate the slightest relaxation of the rule, for he realized how easily a small concession may begin to undermine the regular observance of a religious house; he used to say that it was far better for a man to remain in the world than for him to become an imperfect monk.
Upon the death of St Ethelwold in 984, St Dunstan obliged Alphege to accept the bishopric of Winchester, although he was only thirty years of age and shrank from the responsibility. In this position his high qualities and exceptional abilities found a wider scope. His liberality to the poor was so great that during the period of his episcopate there were no beggars in the diocese of Winchester. Adhering to the austerity of his monastic days, he became so thin through prolonged fasts that men declared they could see through his hands when he uplifted them at Mass. The holy prelate had ruled his see wisely for twenty-two years when he was translated to Canterbury in. succession to Archbishop Aelfric. In order to be invested with the pallium, he paid a visit to Rome, where he was received by Pope John XVIII. 
At this period England was suffering severely from the ravages of the Danes. Joining forces in 1011 with the rebel earl Edric, they marched into Kent and laid siege to Canterbury; the leading citizens urged St Alphege to seek safety in flight. This he absolutely refused to do. The city was betrayed, when a terrible massacre ensued, men and women, old and young, being put to the sword. St Alphege hastened to the place where the worst deeds of cruelty were being perpetrated. Pressing through the crowd, he appealed to the Danes to cease their carnage: “Spare those poor innocent victims”, he exclaimed. “Turn your fury rather against me.” He was immediately seized, roughly handled, and then confined in a dungeon. Several months later he was released from prison because a mysterious epidemic had broken out amongst the Danes, but although he cured many of the sick by prayer and by giving them blessed bread, the barbarians demanded three thousand gold crowns for his ransom. The archbishop declared that the country was too poor to pay such a sum. He was therefore taken to Greenwich and upon a second refusal to pay the money demanded he was barbarously put to death, though a Dane, Thorkell the Tall, tried to save him. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle breaks into verse in recording his tragic end:
Then was he captive, who had been the head
Of the English race, and of Christendom.
There was misery to be seen, where bliss had been before
In that unhappy city. whence came to us first
Christendom and happiness, in the sight of God and man.
His body was recovered and buried at St Paul’s in London, but was translated to Canterbury with great honour by the Danish King Canute in 1023. That St Alphege did not actually die for the faith was pointed out by one of his successors, Lanfranc, to St Anselm, but the latter replied that in his opinion to die for justice was tantamount to martyrdom. The English always regarded the holy man as a martyr, and as such his name appears in the Roman Martyrology, while his feast is nowadays observed in the dioceses of Westminster, Clifton, Portsmouth and Southwark.
Wharton’s Anglia Sacra (vol. ii, pp. 122--142). As Freeman has pointed out (Norman Conquest, vol. i, pp. 658—660) Osbern cannot be regarded as a trustworthy source; the information we obtain from the Anglo-Saxon Chron­icle, Thietmar and Adam of Bremen is more reliable. See also Stanton’s Menology, pp. 164—166, where the references given to English calendars show that the cult of the martyr was general throughout the country.
He was born in 953 and became a monk in the Deerhurst Monastery in Gloucester, England, asking after a few years to become a hermit. He received permission for this vocation and retired to a small hut near Somerset, England.   In 984 Alphege assumed the role of abbot of the abbey of Bath, founded by St. Dunstan and by his own efforts. Many of his disciples from Somerset joined him at Bath. In that same year, Alphege succeeded Ethelwold as bishop of Winchester. He served there for two decades, famed for his care of the poor and for his own austere life.

King Aethelred the Unready used his abilities in 994, sending him to mediate with invading Danes. The Danish chieftain Anlaf converted to Christianity as a result of his meetings with Alphege, although he and the other chief, Swein, demanded tribute from the Anglo-Saxons of the region.   Anlaf vowed never to lead his troops against Britain again.

In 1005 Alphege became the successor to Aleric as the archbishop of Canterbury, receiving the pallium in Rome from Pope John XVIII. He returned to England in time to be captured by the Danes pillaging the southern regions. The Danes besieged Canterbury and took Alphege captive. The ransom for his release was about three thousand pounds and went unpaid.
Alphege refused to give the Danes that much, an act which infuriated them. He was hit with an ax and then beaten to death.

Revered as a martyr, Alphege's remains were placed in St. Paul's Church in London. The body, moved to Canterbury in 1023, was discovered to be incorrupt in 1105. Relics of St. Alphege are also in Bath, Glastonbury, Ramsey, Reading, Durham, Yorkminster and in Westminster Abbey. His emblem is an ax, and he is depicted in his pontifical vestments or as a shepherd defending his flock.

Elphege the Martyr, OSB BM (RM) (also known as Alphege, Aelfheah)
Born c. 954; died in Greenwich, England, in 1012. In the old Saxon Chronicle is the story of Elphege and of his martyrdom at the hands of the Danes. He came of a noble Saxon family, and against his mother's wish became a monk. He served first at Deerhurst Abbey in Gloucestershire, England, but left as a young man to become a hermit in Bath.
Elphege was made an abbot in Bath, and, over his objections, appointed as bishop of Winchester in 984, in which office he served rendered great public service for 22 years. He eliminated poverty in his diocese through his aid to the poor, and continued to live the life of great austerity.
Olaf, King of Norway, after attacking London without success, harried the southern coast and occupied Southampton, whereupon King Ethelred commissioned Elphege to act as his envoy to Olaf in the interests of peace. The mission of Elphege was successful, and he brought Olaf to the king at Andover, where a satisfactory peace was concluded, and where Olaf, already a Christian, was confirmed. The Norwegian King then withdrew his ships and never again invaded England.

In 1006, Elphege was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, and received the pallium from Pope John XVIII in Rome. Then came a series of Danish raids which lasted no less than five years and which caused widespread suffering and disorder. Canterbury itself was captured in 1011 by the invaders and besieged by Earl Edric; the cathedral was burned, the city plundered, and many of its citizens were taken as slaves, including the archbishop who had refused to leave. "The Danes went to their ships and led the archbishop with them. He was then captive who was erewhile the head of the English and of Christendom."

When an epidemic broke out, Elphege was allowed to minister to the ill; otherwise, for two years he remained their prisoner and was only released by death. The chief Witan, clergy and laity, had been detained in London until the Danes had extracted from them 48,000 gold crowns, an exorbitant sum in the money values of that age. A further sum of 3,000 gold crowns was demanded for the permanent release of the archbishop, but he refused to allow this added imposition; there was already widespread calamity and distress and he would allow no further burden. He was given a week in which to find the money and stubbornly refused.

Then the Danes, incensed with anger and inflamed with drink, led him to the scaffold, pelting him with bones and stones and subjecting him to every indignity, although one of them, Thorkell the Tall, tried to save him. Finally, Elphege sank down in weakness, and, out of pity, a Dane called Thrum, who had been converted and baptized in prison, killed him with an axe to put an end to his sufferings. It cannot be said that Elphege died for the faith; but Saint Anselm vindicated his public veneration as a martyr, and his feast is still observed.

According to tradition, Elphege's murder took place at Greenwich, where a church still stands in his name. The following day his body was received in London with great reverence, and buried in Saint Paul's. Ten years later, Danish King Canute, moved by the entreaties of his pious wife, made reparation by removing the body of Elphege to Canterbury, where over his grave by the high altar he built a costly shrine (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Gill).

In art, Saint Elphege is portrayed as a bishop with an axe, carrying loaves of bread in his chasuble. He might also be shown (1) keeping a wolf from sheep or (2) struck with the axe by the Danes (Roeder). Elphege is venerated at Greenwich and Winchester (Roeder).

1054 Leo IX "the pilgrim pope" - reformer deacon a stern bishop holy man & army officer attempted stopping the schism  (RM)
Romæ sancti Leónis Papæ Noni, virtútum et miraculórum laude insígnis.
    At Rome, Pope St. Leo IX, illustrious for his virtues and his miracles.

                                  A. D. 1054.

  THIS great pope received in baptism the name of Bruno.   He was born in Alsace, in 1002, with his body marked all over with little red crosses: which was attributed to the intense meditation of his pious mother on the passion of Christ.   He was of the illustrious house of Dapsbourgh, or Asbourgh in that province, being the son of Hugh, cousin-german to the mother of the pious emperor Conrad the Salic.  He had his education under Berthold, the virtuous and learned bishop of Toul and, after his first studies, was made a canon in that cathedral. His time was principally divided betwixt prayer, pious reading, and his studies: and the hours of recreation he employed in visiting the hospitals and instructing the poor.  When he was deacon, he was called to the court of the emperor Conrad, and was much honored by that prince. The young clergyman displayed an extraordinary talent for business but never omitted his long exercises of devotion or his usual fasts and other austere mortifications.  In 1026, he was chosen bishop of Toul. The emperor endeavored to persuade him to defer his consecration till the year following but the saint hastened to the care of the church, of which he was to give an account to God, and was consecrated by his metropolitan, the archbishop of Triers but refused to take in unjust and dangerous oath which he exacted of his suffragans, that they would do nothing but by his advice.
       Bruno began to discharge his pastoral office by the reformation of the clergy and monks, whom he considered as the most illustrious portion of the flock of Christ, and the salt of the earth.  By his care the monastic discipline and spirit were revived in the great monasteries of Senones, Jointures, Estival, Bodonminster, MiddleMoutier, and St. Mansu, or Mansuet.   He reformed the manner of celebrating the divine office, and performing the church music, in which he took great delight.  A soul that truly loves God makes the divine praises the comfort of her present exile.   The saint was indefatigable in his labors to advance the service of God and the salvation of souls. Amidst his great actions, it was most admirable to see how little he was in his own eyes. He every day served and washed the feet of several poor persons.  His life was an uninterrupted severe course of penance, by the practice of austerities, and a constant spirit of compunction.   Patience and meekness were the arms by which he triumphed over envy and resentment, when many strove to bring him into disgrace with the emperor and others.  On of devotion to St. Peter he visited once a year the tombs of the apostles at Rome.
     After the death of pope Damasus II, in 1048, in a diet of prelates and noblemen, with legates and deputies of the Church of Rome, held at Worms, and honored with the presence of the pious emperor, henry III, surnamed the Black. Bruno, who had then governed the see of Toul twenty-two years, was pitched upon as the most worthy person to be exalted to the papacy.  He being present, used all his endeavors to avert the storm from falling on his head  amid at length begged three days to deliberate upon the matter.    This term he spent in tears and prayers, and in so rigorous a last, that he neither ate nor drank during all that time.   The term being expired, he returned to the assembly, and, hoping to convince his electors of his unworthiness, made a public general confession before them of the sins of his whole life, with abundance of tears, which drew also tears from all that were present  yet no man changed his opinion,  He yielded at last only on condition that the whole clergy and people of Rome should agree to his promotion.
    After this declaration, he returned to Toul, and soon after Easter set out for Rome in the habit of a pilgrim and alighting from his horse, some miles before he arrived at the city, walked to it, and entered it barefoot.   He was received with universal acclamations, and his election ratified.   He took possession of the see on the 12th of February, 1049, under the name of Leo IX., being about forty-seven years old, he held it only five years, but they were filled with good works. He labored strenuously in extirpating simony, and the incestuous marriages which many noblemen had presumed to contract.   In a journey which he made into Germany he signalized all his steps with religious actions, held a council at Rheims, and consecrated the new church of St. Remigius belonging to the abbey, in 1049   and returned from Mentz, by mount Vosge and Riche now, to Rome. In 1050, in a council at Rome he condemned the new heresy of Berengarius archdeacon of Angers, a man full of self-conceit, and a lover of novelty, who preached against the mystery of transubstantiation in the holy Eucharist. St Leo held another council at Vercelli the same year, composed of prelates from several countries, who unanimously confirmed the censure passed at Rome on Berengarius and, his tenets, and condemned a book of John Scotus Erigena be cast into the fire.
In 1051 the pope made a second visit to his ancient see of Toni, and favored the abbey of St. Mansu with great presents and exemptions.  In 1052 he went again into Germany to reconcile the emperor Henry III and Andrew, king of Hungary.  In 1053 Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople began to renew the schism of the Greek Church, which had been formerly commenced by Photius, but again healed.   Cerularius and Leo, bishop of Acrida, wrote a joint letter to John bishop of Trani, in Apulia, in which they objected to the Latins, but they celebrated the holy Eucharist in unleavened bread, fasted on the Saturdays in Lent, refrained not from eating blood, omitted to sing halleluiah in Lent, and other such like points of discipline. Malice must be to the last degree extravagant, which could pretend to ground a schism upon such exceptions.  St. Leo answered him by an exhortation to peace, alleging for these practices of discipline the ancient law and tradition from St. Peter, especially for the use of unleavened bread in the holy Eucharist.  He sent cardinal Humbert, his legate, to Constantinople, to vindicate the Latin Church against the exceptions of the Greeks, and preserve them in union with the Latins.  He composed a learned and ample apology for this purpose; but was not able to overcome the obstinacy of Cerularius whose artifices drew the greater part of the Oriental churches into his schism.  By his factious spirit he also embroiled the state: for which Isaac Comnenus himself, whom he had raised to the throne the year before, was preparing to chastise him, when his death prevented his punishment, in 1058
 The Normans, in the eleventh century, expelled the Saracens and Greeks out of the kingdom of Naples, but became themselves troublesome and enterprising neighbors to the Holy See.  Pope Leo implored against them the succors of the emperor Henry Ill, to whom be made over Fuld, Bamberg, and other lands, which the popes then possessed in Germany, receiving in exchange Benevento and its territory in Italy.  With these succors his Holiness hoped to check the Normans, but his army was defeated by them, and himself taken prisoner in a certain village, and detained near a year, though always treated with great honor and respect.   He spent his time in fasting and prayer, wore a hair-cloth next his skin, lay on a mat on the floor with stone for his pillow, slept little, and gave large alms.  Falling sick, he was honorably sent back to Rome, as he desired. Perceiving his end to draw nigh, he made moving exhortations to his prelates; then caused himself to be carried into the Vatican church, where he prayed long, and discoursed on the resurrection on the side of his grave.  Having received extreme unction he desired to be carried to the altar of St. Peter and set down before it; where he prayed an hour prostrate: then being lifted up again upon his couch he heard mass, received the Viaticum, and soon after calmly expired, on the 19th of April, 1054, being fifty years old, and having held the pontificate five years and two months.    Miracles which followed his death, proclaimed his glory with God.    His name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology.

 The devil has ever labored with so much the greater fury to rob the church and each particular Christian soul of the most holy sacrament of the altar, or at least of its fruits, as in this adorable mystery Christ has displayed in our favor all the riches of his mercy and love, and has bestowed on us the most powerful means of grace and spiritual strength. It therefore behooves every Christian to exert his zeal in maintaining the honor of this divine sacrament, and ensuring to himself and others such incomparable advantages.
Besides the general sacred deposits of faith, here love and gratitude lay us under a particular obligation.  St. John, the disciple of love, lays open the true characteristics of this adorable mystery of love by a short introduction to his account of the last supper, soaring above the other Evangelists, and penetrating into the divine sanctuary of our Lord's breast to discover the infinite charity with which he was inflamed for us, and which prompted him to invent and institute it, saying, that Jesus, knowing the moment was come for his leaving us and returning to his Father, out of that love which he always bore us, and which he continued to bear us to the end, when it entered itself in such a wonderful manner as to seem to cast forth all its flames, he bequeathed us this truly divine legacy. Loves called him to heaven for our sake, that he might prepare us places there, and send us the holy Paraclete to perfect the great work of our sanctification.  And the same boundless love engaged him to exhaust, as it were, his infinite wisdom and power to remain always corporally among us, and most intimately units himself with us, to be our comfort and strength, and that we may most perfectly be animated by his spirit, and live by him.  Shall we receive such a present with coldness and indifference?  Shall we be so basely ungrateful to such a lover, as not to burn with zeal for the honor of this mystery of his love and grace, and unite ourselves to him in it by the most devout and frequent communion; and by our continual desire, and most frequent daily adoration of Jesus in this holy sacrament, endeavor to make him all the amends we are able for the insults he receives in it, and to appropriate to ourselves a greater share of its treasures, by a perpetual communion as it were with his Holy Spirit, and a participation of all his merits, graces, treasures, satisfaction, love, and other virtues?


                                  A. D. 1054.
1054 Leo IX
  THIS great pope received in baptism the name of Bruno. He was born in Alsace, in 1002, with his body marked all over with little red crosses: which was attributed to the intense meditation of his pious mother on the passion of Christ.  He was of the illustrious house of Dapsbourgh, or Asbourgh in that province, being the son of Hugh, cousin-german to the mother of the pious emperor Conrad the Salic.  He had his education under Berthold, the virtuous and learned bishop of Toul and, after his first studies, was made a canon in that cathedral. His time was principally divided betwixt prayer, pious reading, and his studies: and the hours of recreation he employed in visiting the hospitals and instructing the poor.  When he was deacon, he was called to the court of the emperor Conrad, and was much honored by that prince. The young clergyman displayed an extraordinary talent for business but never omitted his long exercises of devotion or his usual fasts and other austere mortifications.  In 1026, he was chosen bishop of Toul. The emperor endeavored to persuade him to defer his consecration till the year following but the saint hastened to the care of the church, of which he was to give an account to God, and was consecrated by his metropolitan, the archbishop of Triers but refused to take in unjust and dangerous oath which he exacted of his suffragans, that they would do nothing but by his advice.
      Bruno began to discharge his pastoral office by the reformation of the clergy and monks, whom he considered as the most illustrious portion of the flock of Christ, and the salt of the earth.  By his care the monastic discipline and spirit were revived in the great monasteries of Senones, Jointures, Estival, Bodonminster, MiddleMoutier, and St. Mansu, or Mansuet.   He reformed the manner of celebrating the divine office, and performing the church music, in which he took great delight.  A soul that truly loves God makes the divine praises the comfort of her present exile.   The saint was indefatigable in his labors to advance the service of God and the salvation of souls. Amidst his great actions, it was most admirable to see how little he was in his own eyes. He every day served and washed the feet of several poor persons.  His life was an uninterrupted severe course of penance, by the practice of austerities, and a constant spirit of compunction.   Patience and meekness were the arms by which he triumphed over envy and resentment, when many strove to bring him into disgrace with the emperor and others.  On of devotion to St. Peter he visited once a year the tombs of the apostles at Rome.
     After the death of pope Damasus II, in 1048, in a diet of prelates and noblemen, with legates and deputies of the Church of Rome, held at Worms, and honored with the presence of the pious emperor, henry III, surnamed the Black. Bruno, who had then governed the see of Toul twenty-two years, was pitched upon as the most worthy person to be exalted to the papacy.  He being present, used all his endeavors to avert the storm from falling on his head  amid at length begged three days to deliberate upon the matter.    This term he spent in tears and prayers, and in so rigorous a last, that he neither ate nor drank during all that time.   The term being expired, he returned to the assembly, and, hoping to convince his electors of his unworthiness, made a public general confession before them of the sins of his whole life, with abundance of tears, which drew also tears from all that were present  yet no man changed his opinion,  He yielded at last only on condition that the whole clergy and people of Rome should agree to his promotion.    After this declaration, he returned to Toul, and soon after Easter set out for Rome in the habit of a pilgrim and alighting from his horse, some miles before he arrived at the city, walked to it, and entered it barefoot.   He was received with universal acclamations, and his election ratified.   He took possession of the see on the 12th of February, 1049, under the name of Leo IX., being about forty-seven years old,    he held it only five years, but they were filled with good works.    He labored strenuously in extirpating simony, and the incestuous marriages which many noblemen had presumed to contract.   In a journey which he made into Germany he signalized all his steps with religious actions, held a council at Rheims, and consecrated the new church of St. Remigius belonging to the abbey, in 1049 and returned from Mentz, by mount Vosge and Riche now, to Rome. In 1050, in a council at Rome he condemned the new heresy of Berengarius archdeacon of Angers, a man full of self-conceit, and a lover of novelty, who preached against the mystery of transubstantiation in the holy Eucharist. St Leo held another council at Vercelli the same year, composed of prelates from several countries, who unanimously confirmed the censure passed at Rome on Berengarius and, his tenets, and condemned a book of John Scotus Erigena be cast into the fire. In 1051 the pope made a second visit to his ancient see of Toni, and favored the abbey of St. Mansu with great presents and exemptions.  In 1052 he went again into Germany to reconcile the emperor Henry III and Andrew, king of Hungary.  In 1053 Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople began to renew the schism of the Greek Church, which had been formerly commenced by Photius, but again healed.   Cerularius and Leo, bishop of Acrida, wrote a joint letter to John bishop of Trani, in Apulia, in which they objected to the Latins, but they celebrated the holy Eucharist in unleavened bread, fasted on the Saturdays in Lent, refrained not from eating blood, omitted to sing halleluiah in Lent, and other such like points of discipline. Malice must be to the last degree extravagant, which could pretend to ground a schism upon such exceptions.  St. Leo answered him by an exhortation to peace, alleging for these practices of discipline the ancient law and tradition from St. Peter, especially for the use of unleavened bread in the holy Eucharist.  He sent cardinal Humbert, his legate, to Constantinople, to vindicate the Latin Church against the exceptions of the Greeks, and preserve them in union with the Latins.  He composed a learned and ample apology for this purpose; but was not able to overcome the obstinacy of Cerularius whose artifices drew the greater part of the Oriental churches into his schism.  By his factious spirit he also embroiled the state: for which Isaac Comnenus himself, whom he had raised to the throne the year before, was preparing to chastise him, when his death prevented his punishment, in 1058
 The Normans, in the eleventh century, expelled the Saracens and Greeks out of the kingdom of Naples, but became themselves troublesome and enterprising neighbors to the Holy See.  Pope Leo implored against them the succors of the emperor Henry Ill, to whom be made over Fuld, Bamberg, and other lands, which the popes then possessed in Germany, receiving in exchange Benevento and its territory in Italy.  With these succors his Holiness hoped to check the Normans, but his army was defeated by them, and himself taken prisoner in a certain village, and detained near a year, though always treated with great honor and respect.   He spent his time in fasting and prayer, wore a hair-cloth next his skin, lay on a mat on the floor with stone for his pillow, slept little, and gave large alms.  Falling sick, he was honorably sent back to Rome, as he desired. Perceiving his end to draw nigh, he made moving exhortations to his prelates; then caused himself to be carried into the Vatican church, where he prayed long, and discoursed on the resurrection on the side of his grave.  Having received extreme unction he desired to be carried to the altar of St. Peter and set down before it; where he prayed an hour prostrate: then being lifted up again upon his couch he heard mass, received the Viaticum, and soon after calmly expired, on the 19th of April, 1054, being fifty years old, and having held the pontificate five years and two months.    Miracles which followed his death, proclaimed his glory with God.    His name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology.

 The devil has ever labored with so much the greater fury to rob the church and each particular Christian soul of the most holy sacrament of the altar, or at least of its fruits, as in this adorable mystery Christ has displayed in our favor all the riches of his mercy and love, and has bestowed on us the most powerful means of grace and spiritual strength. It therefore behooves every Christian to exert his zeal in maintaining the honor of this divine sacrament, and ensuring to himself and others such incomparable advantages.
Besides the general sacred deposits of faith, here love and gratitude lay us under a particular obligation.  St. John, the disciple of love, lays open the true characteristics of this adorable mystery of love by a short introduction to his account of the last supper, soaring above the other Evangelists, and penetrating into the divine sanctuary of our Lord's breast to discover the infinite charity with which he was inflamed for us, and which prompted him to invent and institute it, saying, that Jesus, knowing the moment was come for his leaving us and returning to his Father, out of that love which he always bore us, and which he continued to bear us to the end, when it entered itself in such a wonderful manner as to seem to cast forth all its flames, he bequeathed us this truly divine legacy.    Loves called him to heaven for our sake, that he might prepare us places there, and send us the holy Paraclete to perfect the great work of our sanctification.  And the same boundless love engaged him to exhaust, as it were, his infinite wisdom and power to remain always corporally among us, and most intimately units himself with us, to be our comfort and strength, and that we may most perfectly be animated by his spirit, and live by him.  Shall we receive such a present with coldness and indifference?  Shall we be so basely ungrateful to such a lover, as not to burn with zeal for the honor of this mystery of his love and grace, and unite ourselves to him in it by the most devout and frequent communion; and by our continual desire, and most frequent daily adoration of Jesus in this holy sacrament, endeavor to make him all the amends we are able for the insults he receives in it, and to appropriate to ourselves a greater share of its treasures, by a perpetual communion as it were with his Holy Spirit, and a participation of ail his merits, graces, treasures, satisfaction, love, and other virtues?




1054 ST LEO IX, POPE St Benedict, who touched him with a cross was completely cured severe blood-poisoning
ALSACE, at that period a part of the Holy Roman Empire, was the birthplace of St Leo IX in the year 1002.  His father Hugh, who was closely related to the emperor, and his mother Heilewide were a pious and cultured pair of whom it is recorded, as though it were somewhat unusual, that they spoke fluent French as well as their own German tongue.
At the age of five, Bruno, as he was called, was sent to a school presided over by Berthold, Bishop of Toul. He displayed exceptional abilities and was placed under the special charge of a much older cousin, Adalbert, afterwards bishop of Metz. One experience of his boyhood made a profound impression upon the future pope. He was on a visit to his home when he contracted severe blood-poisoning caused by the bite of some reptile. While he lay between life and death he had a vision of St Benedict, who touched him with a cross, and when he came to himself the boy found that he was completely cured.
His studies ended, he was appointed to a canonry of St Stephen’s, Toul. When in 1026 the Emperor Conrad II went to Italy to quell a rebellion in Lombardy, Bruno, although now a deacon, was given command of the corps furnished by the aged bishop of Toul. His success in handling the men gave him a reputation for military skill which, in the light of future events, was perhaps unfortunate. While the army was still in Italy, Bishop Heriman died and the clergy and people of Toul immediately elected Bruno to be his successor. On Ascension day, 1027, amid the rejoicings of the people, he entered Toul to be enthroned in the cathedral over which he was to rule for twenty years. His first pastoral work was to enforce a stricter mode of life amongst his clergy, regular as well as secular. Inspired, no doubt, by his grateful devotion to St Benedict, he held the religious life in the utmost veneration, and did much to revive discipline and fervour in the great monasteries of his diocese, into which he introduced the reform of Cluny.
In the summer of 1048 Pope Damasus II died after a pontificate of twenty-three days, and the Emperor Henry III chose his kinsman Bruno of Toul as his successor.  He set out for Rome, stopping at Cluny on the way, where he was joined by the monk Hildebrand, afterwards Pope St Gregory VII. His nomination having been endorsed in due form, Bruno was enthroned, taking the name of Leo IX, early in 1049.
For many years the growing evil of simony in the Church had been exercising the minds of good men, lay as well as ecclesiastical. The mischief had reached such alarming proportions that it needed a strong hand to grapple with it. But Leo had no hesitation. Shortly after his accession, he called a synod in Rome which anathematized and deprived beneficed clergy guilty of simony, besides dealing sternly with the relaxation of the rule of celibacy. The collegiate life, which as a young man he had helped Bishop Heriman to uphold at Toul, he now recommended to the secular clergy throughout the Church. Moreover, as he was quite aware that to bring about the reforms he required would necessitate something more than the mere issue of orders from Rome, he embarked upon a kind of visitation of Western Christendom in order that he might personally enforce his regulations and arouse the conscience of those in authority. Besides the reformation of morals, which was his principal theme, he urged the extension of preaching and the better rendering of the sacred chant, an object dear to his heart.
In another sphere of activity St Leo was confronted with the necessity of condemning the doctrines of Berengarius of Tours, who denied Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. Twice more did the energetic pope cross the Alps, once to revisit his former see of Toul and on the other occasion to attempt a reconciliation between Henry III and King Andrew of Hungary—well was he called Peregrinus apostolicus, “the Apostolic Pilgrim”.
Leo obtained for the patrimony of St Peter possession of Benevento and other territories in southern Italy, thus ultimately increasing the temporal power of the papacy. To himself they proved only a great embarrassment, for they were ravaged by the Normans. He led an army against the invaders, but was defeated and captured at Civitella and was detained for a while by his captors at Benevento. This was a blow to Leo’s prestige, and St Peter Damian and others criticized him severely—if battles were necessary, they said, they should be fought by the emperor, not by the vicar of Christ.
This was the time chosen by Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, to accuse the Western church of heresy on the ground of certain points of discipline and ritual practice in which it differed from the Eastern church. Pope Leo answered in a long and indignant but not immoderate letter, and it was characteristic of him that he then began to study Greek the better to understand the arguments of his accusers. But though this was the beginning of the final separation of Christian East and West, St Leo did not live to see the further developments that followed the arrival in Constantinople of the legates whom he sent thither. His health was by this time shattered. He ordered that his bed and a coffin should be placed side by side in St Peter’s, and here he passed away peacefully before the high altar on April 19, 1054.
“Heaven has opened for the pontiff that this world was not worthy to keep:
the glory of the saints is his
, declared Didier, abbot of Monte Cassino, and in so saying he was echoing the voice of the multitude. All mourned him, seventy miraculous cures were claimed within forty days of Leo’s death, and in 1087 Bd Victor III confirmed the popular canonization by ordering the mortal remains of St Leo IX to be solemnly enshrined.

It was Leo who first promulgated the proposal to vest the election of future popes exclusively in the Roman cardinals—a suggestion which became law five years after his death. Amongst the monarchs with whom St Leo maintained friendly relations was St Edward the Confessor, whom he authorized to refound Westminster Abbey in lieu of a pilgrimage he had undertaken to make to Rome. During his pontificate King MacBeth is said to have visited the Holy See—perhaps in expiation of his crimes.

The sources for the life of St Leo IX are much too varied to be enumerated in detail. It must be sufficient to give a general reference to BHL., nn. 4818—4829, and to the notice prefixed to the excellent summary of this pontificate in Mgr H. K. Mann’s Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages, vol. vi, pp. 19—182. For the ascetical aspects of the pope’s life the earlier portion of Wibert’s biography is particularly valuable, and so also are the docu­ments published by Fr A. Poncelet in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxv (1906), pp. 258—297. Though ignorant of these last-named materials, 0. Delarc’s book, Un pape alsacien (1876), may still be recommended for its thorough grasp of the conditions of the time E. Martin’s volume, St Leon IX, in the series “Les Saints”, is a convenient handbook. For anyone who wishes to make a study of the subject the works of Martens, Drehmann, Hauck and Brucker, written from quite different standpoints, would also have to be consulted. L. Sittler and P. Stintzi, St. Lion IX (1950), is a useful series of studies and excerpts, some with special reference to Alsace.
Born in Alsace, France, in 1002; died in Rome, April 19, 1054; canonized in 1087.
Pope Leo, baptized Bruno, curiously combined the life of a holy man with that of an army officer. He was a deacon when Emperor Conrad II, his cousin, invaded Italy. In spite of his holy orders, Bruno readily joined the emperor's army and fought valiantly. While still a deacon and a soldier, Bruno was chosen to be bishop of Toul in 1026 when he was visiting there.

During his 20 years as prelate of Toul, he was known as a stern bishop, who disciplined lax priests and brought order into the monasteries of his diocese. Then in 1048 he was elected pope. He took his spiritual advisor, Hildebrand (later Pope Saint Gregory VII), with him to Rome.

What he had done formerly on a small scale he attempted to apply to the whole Church.  First he began in earnest to reform the curia.  Leo combatted simony, enforced celibacy among the clergy, encouraged development of the chant and the liturgy, condemned Berengarius, and strove to prevent the schism between the Eastern and Western churches that was being engineered by Emperor Michael Coerularius.  Then, he tirelessly travelled throughout western Europe to enforce his reforms, and became known as the pilgrim pope.
Wherever he went he called together the bishops and clergy in councils, inspiring them to follow his lead.

Leo IX decided to consolidate the material position of the papacy by adding parts of southern Italy to his territories, but this proved to be his undoing. The Normans invaded these new territories; the warrior pope himself led an army in their defense- -an action that caused even Saint Peter Damian (1001dr of Church 1072) to criticize him. Unfortunately, too, the Normans defeated him. Pope Leo IX was captured at Civitella and imprisoned at Benevento. Although his captors declared themselves to be the pope's loyal subjects, they did not release Leo for several months.

In prison Leo began to learn Greek, in an attempt to understand better the teachings of the Eastern Church, which was now split from Rome.   But his health was failing. On his release, the pope ordered his bed to be placed in Saint Peter's Basilica next to a coffin. There he died (Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia).
1164 Blessed Burchard of Bellevaus a favorite disciple of Saint Bernard OSB Cist. Abbot (PC)
Burchard was a favorite disciple of Saint Bernard at Clairvaux. He was successively appointed abbot of Balerne (1136) and Bellevaux (c. 1157) (Benedictines).
1182 Blessed Bernard the Penitent Many miraculous cures occurred at his tomb OSB Monk (AC)
NOTHING is known of the early years of this Bernard except that he was born in the diocese of Maguelone in Provence, and even his contemporary biographer could never ascertain of what crimes he had been guilty beyond his participation in a rising which had resulted in the death of an unpopular governor. We have, however, the exact wording of the certificate which he obtained from his bishop before entering upon his penitential life.
John, by the grace of God Bishop of Maguelone, to all the pastors and faithful of the Catholic Church, eternal salvation in the Lord. Be it known to you all that in expiation of the horrible crimes committed by him, we have imposed upon Bernard, the bearer of this present letter, the following penance. He is to go barefoot for seven years: he is not to wear a shirt for the rest of his life:  he is to observe the forty days before the Birthday of our Saviour like a Lenten fast: he is to abstain from meat and fat on Wednesdays and from everything but bread and a little wine on Fridays. On the Fridays of Lent and Embertide he shall drink nothing but water, and on all Saturdays which are not great festivals he shall take no meat or fat unless illness requires it. Therefore we ask you of your charity in Jesus Christ, for the redemption of your souls and in a spirit of compassion, to give to this very poor penitent the necessary food and clothing and to shorten his penance so far as reason may allow. Given at Maguelone in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1170 in the month of October. In force for seven years only.
In the garb of a penitent and loaded with heavy iron fetters, Bernard undertook a number of pilgrimages, during which he endured and even courted hardships of all sorts. Three times, it is said, he visited Jerusalem, and once went as far as India to implore the intercession of St Thomas. At last one day when he arrived at Saint-Omer, it was revealed to him that his travels were now to cease. A generous citizen gave him a little house abutting on the monastery of Saint-Berth, and the monks allowed him access at all hours to their church. He was always the first at the night offices and he would stand barelegged and barefooted on the stone flags even in the depth of winter when his flesh was cracked and frozen with the cold. He loved to make himself useful by nursing the poor or by cleaning the churches.
Bernard came to be a familiar and popular figure as he passed through the streets on his errands of mercy, replying to all greetings with the words, “God grant us all a good end”. The time came when he ventured to ask the monks to give him the habit, and they welcomed him, for they regarded him as a saint. Towards the end of his life he was endowed with the gift of prophecy and many miracles were attributed to him; and after his death the church was thronged by such crowds that the monks had the utmost difficulty in proceeding with the funeral: everyone was begging for some fragment of his garments or for something he had used. Bd Bernard’s biographer testifies that he had been an eye-witness of many of the wonderful cures which he relates.

This life printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii, purports to have been written by one John, a monk of the abbey of Saint-Bertin.
Born in Provence, France; died at Saint Omer, 1182. Bernard committed some unspecified, apparently horrible, crime for which the bishop of Maguelonne (Provence) mandated seven years of public penance in 1170. Bernard performed the penance loaded with seven heavy iron bands. These he dragged from shrine to shrine-- Compostella, Rome, Palestine--until he reached Saint Bertin (Sithiu) Abbey. There he lived as a hermit until he mustered the courage to ask the monks of the abbey to receive him into their community. The monks readily welcomed him because they regarded him as a living saint. Many miraculous cures occurred at his tomb (Attwater2, Benedictines).
1260 Blessed Luchesio and Buonadonna they set in motion the Secular Franciscan Order
Luchesio and his wife Buonadonna wanted to follow St. Francis as a married couple. Thus they set in motion the Secular Franciscan Order.
Luchesio and Buonadonna lived in Poggibonzi where he was a greedy merchant. Meeting Francis—probably in 1213—changed his life. He began to perform many works of charity.
At first Buonadonna was not as enthusiastic about giving so much away as Luchesio was. One day after complaining that he was giving everything to strangers, Buonadonna answered the door only to find someone else needing help. Luchesio asked her to give the poor man some bread. She frowned but went to the pantry anyway. There she discovered more bread than had been there the last time she looked. She soon became as zealous for a poor and simple life as Luchesio was. They sold the business, farmed enough land to provide for their needs and distributed the rest to the poor.

In the 13th century some couples, by mutual consent and with the Church’s permission, separated so that the husband could join a monastery (or a group such as Francis began) and his wife could go to a cloister. Conrad of Piacenza and his wife did just that. This choice existed for childless couples or for those whose children had already grown up. Luchesio and Buonadonna wanted another alternative, a way of sharing in religious life, but outside the cloister.

To meet this desire, Francis set up the Secular Franciscan Order. Francis wrote a simple Rule for the Third Order (Secular Franciscans) at first; Pope Honorius III approved a more formally worded Rule in 1221.

The charity of Luchesio drew the poor to him, and, like many other saints, he and Buonadonna seemed never to lack the resources to help these people.
One day Luchesio was carrying a crippled man he had found on the road. A frivolous young man came up and asked, "What poor devil is that you are carrying there on your back?" "I am carrying my Lord Jesus Christ," responded Luchesio. The young man immediately begged Luchesio’s pardon.
Luchesio and Buonadonna both died on April 28, 1260. He was beatified in 1273. Local tradition referred to Buonadonna as "blessed" though the title was not given officially.
Comment: It is easy to mock the poor, to trample on their God-given dignity. Mother Teresa of Calcutta often referred to poverty as Christ’s "distressing disguise." Since it is so easy to make people feel unwanted—the poor, the sick, the mentally or physically handicapped, the aged, the unemployed— resisting that temptation indicates the level of generosity in our lives. If the followers of Francis see Christ in the poor as Luchesio and Buonadonna did, they enrich the Church and keep it faithful to its Lord.
Quote: Francis used to say, "Whoever curses a poor man does an injury to Christ, whose noble image he wears, the image of him who made himself poor for us in this world" (1 Celano, #76).
1275 Wernher the Glass-Blower 14 yr-old M (AC)
(also known as Werner) Born in Germany; Wernher was a 14-year-old boy in the service of a Jewish family at Oberwessel who was alleged to have been martyred on Maunday Thursday after he had received Holy Communion. He is venerated at Trier (Benedictines, Gill).
1289 Blessed Conrad de'Miliani evangelize Libya advisor to cardinal Masci (later Pope Nicholas IV) OFM (AC)  great a devotion to the Sacred Passion that he was sometimes allowed to behold our Lord crowned with thorns and to take part in His sufferings
1289 BD CONRAD OF ASCOLI great a devotion to the Sacred Passion that he was sometimes allowed to behold our Lord crowned with thorns and to take part in His sufferings
THE power of foreseeing the future is a gift which is seldom bestowed upon the young, but Conrad Miliani of Ascoli was a mere boy when, as we are told, he knelt before a peasant lad called Jerome Masci and greeted him, whether in jest or earnest, as destined to become pope. The prophecy was fulfilled in time, for Jerome in due course occupied the chair of St Peter as Nicholas IV. Although Conrad was of noble birth, there sprang up between the two youths a close friendship which was to prove lifelong. Together they entered the Franciscan Order, together they were professed, together they studied, and they received their doctor’s degree at Perugia on the same day.
Conrad began his public career as a preacher in Rome but, called to the mission-field, he obtained leave of Jerome, by this time minister general of the order, to attempt to evangelize Libya. His success in northern Africa was great: many thousands are said to have been converted by his teaching and miracles. His external activities were the outcome of a life of extreme austerity and of so great a devotion to the Sacred Passion that he was sometimes allowed to behold our Lord crowned with thorns and to take part in His sufferings.
Recalled to Italy, probably for reasons of health, he was selected to accompany Jerome, who was proceeding to France as papal legate; then the envoys returned to Rome, where Conrad spent a couple of years till he was sent to Paris to deliver lectures in theology. Besides attending to his professorial duties he found time to preach in the churches and to visit the sick poor in the hospitals. In 1289 Jerome, now pope, sent for his friend, whom he wished to have in the college of cardinals, but Conrad fell ill before he could reach Rome and died in his native town of Ascoli. His cultus was approved by Pope Pius VI.
There is an account of Conrad in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii, but for fuller details we have to turn to Wadding (Annales Minorum, vol. v, pp. 212—215) and the other chroniclers of the order. See also Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 83—88.
(also known as Conrad of Ascoli) Born in Ascoli Piceno; cultus confirmed by Pope Pius VI. Conrad joined the Franciscans with Jerome Masci (later Pope Nicholas IV), whose future elevation he foretold. Conrad was sent to evangelize Libya but was recalled to act as advisor to Masci, when he became a cardinal (Attwater2, Benedictines). Blessed Conrad is shown in art as a Franciscan with a cross and rosary preaching to Africans (Roeder).
1374 St. Pavoni, Anthony Dominican Inquisitor murdered at Bricherasio
Pavoni was born 1326 at Savigliani, Italy and entered the Dominicans. He was appointed the inquisitor general for Piedmont and Liguria and was murdered by several men at Bricherasio, almost certainly in revenge for some action of his in an official capacity.
1404 Blessed James of Oldo priest a Franciscan tertiary w/wife  turned their home into a church OFM Tert. (AC)
Born in Lodi, Italy; James enjoyed married life and good living. During a plague, he was converted to true faith and together with his wife became a Franciscan tertiary. They turned their home into a church and eventually James was ordained a priest.
1602 St. James Duckett, Blessed bookseller imprisoned 9 years Martyr of England for his faith
hanged at Tyburn. James was born in Gilfortriggs, Westmoreland, England. After being drawn to Catholicism, he refused to attend Protestant services and passed two terms in prison. He then took instructions and was baptized. James went to London, where he spent more time in prison and distributed Catholic materials. Arrested for his faith, he was imprisoned for nine years before his execution at Tyburn. He was beatified in 1929.

Blessed James Duckett M (AC) Born at Gilfortrigs, Skelsmergh, Westmorland, England; died at Tyburn, England, in 1602; beatified in 1929. James converted to Catholicism and settled in London as a bookseller. After being imprisoned several times (totalling nine years incarceration) for printing and selling Catholic books, James was martyred by hanging (Benedictines).
ST EXPEDITUS in fact it is more than doubtful whether the saint ever existed. We may own that in the “Hieronymianum” the name Expeditus occurs among a group of martyrs both on the 18th  and the 19th of April, being assigned in the one case to Rome, and in the other to Melitene in Armenia;
IT is perhaps necessary to mention St Expeditus, because at one time there was much talk of such a saint, and some good people were led to believe that, when there was need of haste, an undertaking committed to his patronage was likely to meet with prompt settlement.
 Without going into detail, two definite statements may be made in this matter. The first is that we have no adequate reason to think that any such saint was ever invoked in the early Christian centuries; in fact it is more than doubtful whether the saint ever existed. We may own that in the “Hieronymianum” the name Expeditus occurs among a group of martyrs both on the 18th  and the 19th of April, being assigned in the one case to Rome, and in the other to Melitene in Armenia; but there is no vestige of any tradition which would corroborate either mention, whereas there is much to suggest that in both lists the introduction of the name is merely a copyist’s blunder. Hundreds of similar blunders have been quite definitely proved to exist in the same document.
The second statement has reference to a story which pretends to explain the origin of this “devotion” by an incident of modem date. A packing-case, we are to containing a corpo Santo from the catacombs, was sent to a community of nuns in Paris The date of its dispatch was indicated by the use of the word “spedito”, but the recipients mistook this for the name of the martyr and set to work with great energy to propagate his cult. From these simple beginnings, it is asserted, a devotion to St Expeditus spread rapidly through many Catholic countries. In answer to this it should be pointed out that though the recognition of St Expeditus as the patron of dispatch depends beyond doubt upon a calembour or play upon words—there are many similar examples in popular hagiology—still the particular story about the Paris nuns falls to pieces, because as far back as 1781 this supposed martyr, St Expeditus, was chosen patron of the town of Acireale in Sicily, and because pictures of him were in existence in Germany in the eighteenth century which plainly depicted him as a saint to be invoked against procrastination.

Regarding the supposed martyr himself, see the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxv (1906), pp. 90—98, and the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. ii, part 2, p. 198. The story of the French nuns was told in the Fortnightly Review, Oct. 1906, p. 705; on which cf. The Month, Nov. 1906, pp. 544—346. Delehaye, in his Legends of the Saints, pp. 47—49, gives examples of the developments in popular devotion which have resulted from a play upon words or from a name that has been misunderstood.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 340

I cried to Our Lady when I was in trouble: and she heard me.

Lady, deliver us from all evil: all the days of our life.

Crush the head of our enemies: with the insuperable power of thy foot.

As thy spirit hath rejoiced in God thy Savior: so do thou deign to pour true joy into my heart.

Approach to Our Lord to pray for us: that by thee our sins may be blotted out.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Pasqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
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May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
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