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

33,600 lives saved since 2007

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.

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

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

"Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims"
 
Algeria, the former Kingdom of Numidia, was evangelized in the 2nd century. Already deeply Romanized, this region of North Africa had a flourishing Christian community. The conversion of Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome, in the 3rd century, increased the influence of the Church there.

At the time of the Muslim invasion in the 7th century, the Church of North Africa was one of the biggest communities of the Latin Church in the world. Algerian soil was covered with basilicas and other Christian shrines.

The Arab invasion and the spread of Islam, starting in the 7th century, were done by force.
Within a few centuries, the Church of Africa was decimated.
It was not until the French conquered Algeria in 1830 that the Church was reestablished.

An ancient land of Christianity and martyrs entrusted to Our Lady of Africa (also known as Our Lady of the Atlas), Algeria has never ceased to respect the Virgin Mary. When the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa was built in Algiers, this intercessory prayer was inscribed above the altar:
"Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims."
It has never been erased…


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  .

44 James son of Zebedee one of the Twelve Apostles 1st Apostles died as a martyr
      Angels with the Cross lance and the sponge.
      Eutropius sent by Pope Saint Clement (100) as 1st bishop Saintes evangelized inhabitants
      Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Passion" angels with the Cross lance and the sponge.

320 Basil, Bishop of Amasea Hieromartyr encouraged  comforted the Christians suffering persecution by pagans
 328  St. Alexander I, 19th Pope
; Departure of; See of St. Mark.
 686-693 Erconwald of London bishop miracles at grave reported (until the 16th century) miracles recorded touching his couch OSB
 855 Amator priest (Amateur), Peter monk & Louis lay friend preachers martyred by Saracens MM (RM)
1109 Saint Nikita former Recluse of the Kiev Caves healing of many people
1429 St. Louis von Bruck Martyred boy example of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the medieval period
1572 St. Pius V, Pope from 1566-1572 Catholic Reformation leader taught theology philosophy 16 years excessive zeal as grand inquisitor devoted to the religious life published Roman Catechism revised Roman Breviary and Roman Missal organized Battle of Lepanto

1590 St. Gerard Miles Martyr of England with Blessed Francis Dickinson
1618 Bl. Mary of the Incarnation contemplative prayer frequent ecstasies often saying "The Kingdom of God is within you" received the stigmata reserved regarding mystical illuminations and always very humble responsible for at least 10,000 conversions first Carmel established in Paris OCD Widow (AC)


April 30 - Our Lady of Africa (Algiers, 1876) - 2000:
Canonization of Sister Faustina

That man is truly humble who converts humiliation into humility. -- St. Bernard
                 
The Angelus Comes Straight From Saint Luke
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David, and the virgin's name was Mary (Lk 1:26). "Rejoice, full of grace! The Lord is with you!" (Lk 1:28). "Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb"
 (Lk 1:42).
Many Catholics still do not know this prayer by heart. Then why not memorize it and say it at least once a day at noon? It would be a beautiful gift to the Blessed Mother during the month of May, in thanksgiving for her graces!
Saint Louis de Montfort, also, wrote that every time we recite the Angelus, Mary feels the same joy as the one she felt when she received the visit of the Archangel Gabriel in Nazareth.

April 30 – Our Lady of Africa (Algiers, Algeria, 1876) - Saint Clement the Hymnographer 
 Our Lady of Africa watches over Algeria
The first bishop of Algiers, Bishop Dupuch, who was installed in 1838, went to France on a visit in 1840 (…). On March 12, 1840, he stopped at Ferrandière in Lyons to preside over a general and extraordinary assembly of the Children of Mary, of the Institute of the Sacred Heart. Their Congregation made a pledge to donate for Algiers a statue that he would choose.

When he visited the Ladies of the Sacred Heart on rue de Varenne in Paris, the bishop noticed outside in their yard a statue of the "Virgo Fidelis" by Bouchardon, which he greatly liked. Thankfully, the mold still existed, so it didn't take long to have an exact replica made for him. On May 5, 1840, the Children of Mary from Ferrandière offered it to Bishop Dupuch. (…).

In 1856, after consulting a special committee, the new bishop of Algiers, Msgr Pavy, gave the statue the name of Our Lady of Africa. On September 20, 1857, the statue was placed in a temporary chapel awaiting the construction of the future Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, which began in February 1858 (…).

A few years later, Bishop Lavigerie asked Pope Pius IX the favor of crowning Our Lady of Africa.
This took place on April 30, 1876, when she received a precious diadem on her head.
 Jacques Casier M. Afr (d. 1998)  www.mafrome.org


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.

“Can a mother forget her infant be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget I will never forget you!” (49: 15).
     St. Joseph Cottolengo, pray that we may always trust bravely in God's assistance! Father Robert F. McNamara
  44 James son of Zebedee one of the Twelve Apostles 1st Apostles died as a martyr
      Angels with the Cross lance and the sponge.
      Eutropius sent by Pope Saint Clement (100) as 1st bishop Saintes evangelized inhabitants
      Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Passion" angels with the Cross lance and the sponge.
 130 Qurinus von Neuss ein Tribun sei mit seiner Tochter Balbina von Papst Alexander getauft
       St. Aphrodisius An Egyptian priest martyr of Alexandria with 30 members of his parish
 250 St. Maximus Martyr in Ephesus ordered sacrifice to goddess Diana refused
 250 Sophia of Fermo maiden venerated there in the cathedral VM (RM)
 259 St. Marianus lector Martyr of Lambesa Numidia with James deacon & companions strengthened by a dream of his triumphant martyrdom to come
        St. Isaac (Ishaq), of Hourin
Departure of. (Coptic)
 320 Basil, Bishop of Amasea Hieromartyr encouraged  comforted the Christians suffering persecution by pagans
 328  St. Alexander I, 19th Pope
; Departure of; See of St. Mark.
 397 St. Lawrence of Novara Martyred priest aided St. Gaudentius bishop of Novara, Italy
4th v. St. Donatus Bishop of Euraea in Epirus sanctity praised by Greek writers
5th v. Hoilde "A virgin who was blotted out of existence and found again"
 536 St. Pomponius Bishop of Naples steadfast in opposition to the Arian creed
 569 St. Desideratus Hermit at Gourdon revered in the region eremetical life
6th v. St. Cynwl hermit noted for his austere life
 686-693 Erconwald of London bishop miracles at grave were reported (until the 16th century) miracles recorded touching his couch OSB B (RM)
 783 Blessed Hildegard aid to religious  patroness of the sick Empress (AC)
 807 Swithbert the Younger missionaries in Germany bishop B (AC)
 819  St. Mark II, 49th Pope of the See of St. Mark
Departure of. (Coptic)
 851 St. Michael II, 53rd Pope of the See of St. Mark
Departure of. (Coptic)
 855 Amator priest (Amateur), Peter monk & Louis lay friend preachers martyred by Saracens MM (RM)
 982 St. Forannan Irish bishop of Domhnach-Mor went to Belgium in response to a dream
1100 Genistus of Beaulieu killed by his nephew OSB M (AC)
1109 Saint Nikita former Recluse of the Kiev Caves healing of many people
1127 Gualfardus a saddler; 
Famous for miracles during his life, St Gualfardus became even more famous for them after his death. those around him regarded him as a saint hermit in the Camaldolese priory of San Salvatore OSB (AC)
1173 St. Aimo monk mystical experiences charitable kindness nursed victims of plagues with limitless devotion
1131 St. Adjutor distinguished himself in the First Crusade abbey of Tiron confessor recluse
1380 Sanctæ Catharínæ Senénsis Vírginis, ex tértio Ordine sancti Domínici, quæ ad cæléstem Sponsum transívit prídie hujus diéi.
1429 St. Louis von Bruck Martyred boy example of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the medieval period
1572 St. Pius V, Pope from 1566-1572 Catholic Reformation leader taught theology philosophy 16 years excessive zeal
as grand inquisitor wholeheartedly devoted to the religious life published Roman Catechism revised Roman Breviary and Roman Missal organized Battle of Lepanto
1590 Bl. Miles Gerard Martyr of England
1590 Bl. Francis Dickenson English convert martyr
1590 St. Gerard Miles Martyr of England with Blessed Francis Dickinson
1618 Bl. Mary of the Incarnation contemplative prayer frequent ecstasies often saying "The Kingdom of God is within
you"received the stigmata reserved regarding mystical illuminations and always very humble responsible for at least 10,000 conversions first Carmel established in Paris OCD Widow (AC)
 1625 Blessed Benedict of Urbino lawyer Capuchin effective preacher OFM Cap. (AC)
 1672 Blessed Marie of the Incarnation Martin, OSU (AC)
 1721 Argyra The holy New Martyr lived in Proussa, Bithynia jailed for her Christianity 17 years tortured endured all with great courage and patience
 1842 St. Joseph Cottolengo opened home/hospital for sick poor Piccola Casa became a great medical institution founded Daughters of Compassion Daughters of the Good Shepherd Hermits of the Holy Rosary Priests of the Holy Trinity
1922 Pandita Mary Ramabai ihr Werk leiten und den elenden Frauen Indiens helfen.








 
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.
"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)

44 Apostle James son of Zebedee brother of St John the Theologian one of the Twelve Apostles 1st Apostles died as a martyr
He and his brother, St John, were called to be Apostles by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who called them the "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17).
It was this James, with John and Peter, who witnessed the Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, the Lord's Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, and His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

St James, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, preached in Spain and in other lands, and then he returned to Jerusalem. He openly and boldly preached Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, and he denounced the Pharisees and the Scribes with the words of Holy Scripture, reproaching them for their malice of heart and unbelief.

The Jews could not prevail against St James, and so they hired the sorcerer Hermogenes to dispute with the apostle and refute his arguments that Christ was the promised Messiah Who had come into the world. The sorcerer sent to the apostle his pupil Philip, who was converted to belief in Christ Then Germogenes himself became persuaded of the power of God, he burned his books of magic, accepted holy Baptism and became a true follower of Christ.

The Jews persuaded Herod Agrippa (40-44) to arrest the Apostle James and sentence him to death (Acts 12:1-2). Eusebius provides some of the details of the saint's execution (CHURCH HISTORY II, 9). St James calmly heard the death sentence and continued to bear witness to Christ. One of the false witnesses, whose name was Josiah, was struck by the courage of St James. He came to believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. When they led the apostle forth to execution, Josiah fell at his feet, repenting of his sin and asking forgiveness. The apostle embraced him, gave him a kiss and said, "Peace and forgiveness to you." Then Josiah confessed his faith in Christ before everyone, and he was beheaded with St James in the year 44 at Jerusalem.
St James was the first of the Apostles to die as a martyr.
Apostel Jakobus Zebedäus (der Ältere) Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. April Katholische, Anglikanische und Evangelische Kirche: 25. Juli
Jakobus Major Jakobus der Ältere

Ikonenzentrum Saweljew

Das Neue Testament nennt mehrere Apostel des Namens Jakobus und die orthodoxe Kirche unterscheidet Jakobus den Jüngeren und Jakobus den Herrenbruder. Aber auch Jakobus der Jüngere und Jakobus der Ältere werden hier und da verwechselt.

Jakobus Zebedäus, der Bruder des Johannes und Sohn des Zebedäus und der Salome gehörte zu den Jüngern, die Jesus als erste am Galiläischen Meer berief (Mt. 4, 18 ff.). Da er vor Jakobus Alphäus berufen wurde, wird er der Ältere (major) genannt. Diese Bezeichnung sagt also nichts über das Alter des Jakobus aus. Er geörte zu den vier Jüngern des innersten Kreises um Jesus. Nach der Himmelfahrt wirkte er wohl in Jerusalem und erlitt als erster der Apostel 44 den Märtyrertod (Apg. 12). Einige Legenden berichten, er habe in Spanien das Evangelium verkündet. Vielleicht soll so untermauert werden, daß sich seine Gebeine in Santiago di Compostella befinden. Hierher wurden die Gebeine im 7. Jahrhundert gebracht, als Araber Jerusaelm erobert hatten.

Ursprünglich hatten Jakobus und Johannes ihren gemeinsamen Festtag am 27. Dezember. Später feierte die katholische Kirche seinen Tag am 1. Mai. Im 6. Jahrhundert wurde der Tag dann auf den 25. Juli gelegt (vgl. Jakobus den Jüngeren).
Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Passion" angels with the Cross lance and the sponge.
The icon received its name because on either side of the Mother of God are two angels with the implements of the Lord's suffering: the Cross, the lance, and the sponge.

There was a certain pious woman, Katherine, who began to suffer seizures and madness after her marriage. She ran off into the forest and attempted suicide more than once.

In a moment of clarity she prayed to the Mother of God and vowed that if she were healed, she would enter a monastery. After recovering her health, she only remembered her vow after a long time. Afraid and mentally afflicted, she took to her bed. Three times the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to her, commanding the sick woman to go to Nizhni-Novgorod and to buy Her icon from the iconographer Gregory.

After she had done this, Katherine received healing. From that time on, miracles have occurred from this icon. The Feast day of this icon is on August 13, commemorating its transfer from the village of Palitsa to Moscow in 1641. A church was built at the place where it was met at the Tver gates, and in 1654, the Strastna monastery was built.

The icon is also commemorated on April 30, and on the sixth Sunday after Pascha (the Sunday of the Blind Man) in memory of the miracles which occurred on this day. Other "Passion" icons of the Mother of God have been glorified in the Moscow church of the Conception of St. Anna, and also in the village of Enkaeva in Tambov diocese.
Eutropius sent by Pope Saint Clement (100) as first bishop in Saintes evangelized inhabitants BM (RM)
Apud Sántonas, in Gállia, beáti Eutrópii, Epíscopi et Mártyris, qui, a sancto Cleménte Papa, órdinis pontificális grátia consecrátus, in Gálliam diréctus est, ibíque, perácta diu prædicatióne, tandem, ob Christi testimónium, collíso cápite, victor occúbuit
   At Saintes in France, blessed Eutropius, bishop and martyr, who was consecrated bishop and sent to France by St. Clement.  After preaching for many years, he had his skull crushed for bearing testimony to Christ, and thus gained victory by his death.
3rd v. ST EUTROPIUS, BISHOP OP SAINTES, MARTYR   
The town of Saintes in south-west France honours as its first bishop St Eutropius, who was sent from Rome in the third century to evangelize the inhabitants and who suffered martyrdom either at their hands or by order of the Roman authorities. The story locally told is that St Eutropius accompanied St Denis to France to share his apostolic labours. The people of Saintes, to whom he preached, expelled him from their city, and he went to live in a cell on a neighbouring rock where he gave himself to prayer and to instructing those who would listen. Amongst others he converted and baptized the Roman governor’s daughter, Eustella. When the girl’s father discovered that she was a Christian he drove her from his house, and charged the butchers of Saintes to slay Eutropius. Eustella found him dead with his skull split by an axe, and she buried his remains in his cell. 
In the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii, will be found what purports to be an early Latin life of St Eutropius, but no reliance can be placed upon it. St Gregory of Tours, however, in his Gloria Martyrum, ch. 55, bears witness to the translation of the saint’s relics in the sixth century, as does Venantius Fortunatus. Cf. Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 538; and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxix (1951), pp. 55—66. Both Gregory and Venantius seem to have written the name “Eutropis”.

Eutropius is honored as the first bishop of Saintes, in southwest France. He was sent by Pope Saint Clement(100) to evangelized the inhabitants. Aides of the Roman governor split his head open with an axe. He was buried by Eustella, the governor's daughter. Alleged to have accompanied Saint Dionysius (Bishop of Corinth about 170) to Paris. Since these dates are widely separated only one could possibly be true (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
130 Qurinus von Neuss ein Tribun Quirinius sei mit seiner Tochter Balbina von Papst Alexander getauft.  
Katholische Kirche: 30. März und 30. April (Köln translatio)

Das römische Martyrologium berichtet, ein Tribun Quirinius sei mit seiner Tochter Balbina von Papst Alexander getauft und unter Kaiser Hadrian (um 130) hingerichtet worden. Mit anderen Märtyrern wurde er in der Praetextatuskatakombe bestattet. Seine Gebeine wurden (um 1000 ?) in das Benediktinerinnenstift in Neuß übertragen. Quirinus ist einer der vier Marschälle und Patron der Stadt Neuss
St. Aphrodisius An Egyptian priest martyr of Alexandria with thirty members of his parish.  
Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Aphrodísii Presbyteri, et aliórum trigínta.
    At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Aphrodisius, a priest, and thirty martyrs.
Aphrodisius was a priest who was arrested for being a Christian. He died with thirty members of his parish.
Aphrodisius and Companions MM (RM). Aphrodisius, an Egyptian priest, was martyred at Alexandria with thirty members of his flock (Benedictines).
250 St. Maximus Martyr in Ephesus ordered sacrifice to goddess Diana refused
Ephesi sancti Máximi Mártyris, qui in persecutióne Décii coronátus est.
   At Ephesus, the martyr St. Maximus, who received his crown during the persecution of Decius.


From the Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
AD 251 ST. MAXIMUS, MARTYR.
From his original act, in Surius Baronius, Henschenius, Ruinart, Fleury, Tillemont &c

MAXIMUS was an inhabitant of Asia, and a merchant by profession. Decius having formed an impious but vain design of extirpating the Christian religion, published edicts over the whole empire to enforce idolatry, commanding all to adore idols.   Maximus having openly declared himself a Christian, he was immediately apprehended and brought before Optimus, the proconsul of Asia, who, after asking him his name, inquired also after his condition.    He replied: "1 am born free, but am the slave of Jesus Christ."    PROCONSUL.  "What is your profession ?"    Maximus. "I am a plebeian and live by my dealings."    PROCONSUL.      Are you a Christian ?" Maximus " Yes, 1 am, though a sinner."   PROCONSUL "Have not you been informed of the edicts that are lately arrived ?"      Maximus,  " What edicts, and what are their contents ?"  PROCONSUL. "That all the Christians forsake their superstition, acknowledge the true prince whom all obey, and adore his gods."    MAXIMUS.  " I have been told of that impious edict, and it is the occasion of my appearing abroad."    PROCONSUL.     "As then you are apprised of the edicts, sacrifice to the gods."   Maximus.   " I sacrifice to none but that God to whom alone I have sacrificed from my youth, the remembrance of which affords me great comfort."  PROCONSUL.  "Sacrifice, as you value your life: if you refuse to obey, you shall expire in torments." Maximus.  "`This has ever been the object of my desires it was on this very account that I appeared in public, to have an opportunity offered me of being speedily delivered out of this miserable life, to possess that which is eternal."  Then the proconsul commanded him to be bastinadoed, and in the meantime said to him," Sacrifice, Maximus, and thou shalt be no longer tormented."   Maximus    `Sufferings for the name of Christ are not torments, but comfortable unction’s:* but if I depart from his precepts contained in the gospel, then real and eternal torments would be my portion."     The proconsul then ordered him to be stretched on the rack, and while he was tortured said to him, "Renounce, wretch, thy obstinate folly, and sacrifice to save thy life."  Maximus.  ``I shall save it if I do not sacrifice I shall lose it if I do.   Neither your clubs, nor your iron hooks, nor your fire, give me any pain, because the grace of Jesus Christ dwelled in me, which will deliver me out of your hands to put me in possession of the happiness of the saints, who have already, in this same conflict, triumphed over your cruelty   it is by their prayers I obtain this courage and strength which you see in me."  The PROCONSUL then pronounced this sentence on him “I command that Maximus for refusing to obey the sacred edicts, be stoned to death, to serve for an example of terror to all Christians."    Saint Maximus was immediately seized by the executioners and carried without the city walls, where they stoned him on the 14th of May.  Thus his acts.     The Greeks honor him on the day of his death: the Roman Martyrology on the 30th of April.  He suffered in 250 or 251.

in Asia Minor, modern Turkey. When the edict condemning Christians was announced by the Emperor Trajanus Decius, Maximus, a local merchant, presented himself to the local judge. Ordered to sacrifice to the goddess Diana, Maximus refused and was tortured and stoned to death on May 14. His Acta are still extant.

Maximus of Ephesus M (RM) Died May 14, c. 251. Maximus, a citizen of Ephesus, was a merchant by profession. On the publication of the edict of Decius against the Christians in 250, he presented himself to Proconsul Optimus as a Christian and was martyred. His proconsular Acta are still state that when Optimus asked his name and state in life, Maximus responded: "I am born free, but am the slave of Jesus Christ."
Optimus: "What is your profession?"
Maximus: "I am a plebeian, and live by my dealings."
Optimus: "Are you a Christian?"
Maximus: "Yes, I am, though a sinner."
Optimus: "Have not you been informed of the edicts that are lately arrived?"
Maximus: "What edicts, and what are their contents?"
Optimus: "That all the Christians forsake their superstition, acknowledge the true prince whom all obey, and adore his gods."
Maximus: "I have been told of that impious edict, and it is the occasion of my appearing abroad."
Optimus: "As then you are apprised of the edicts, sacrifice to the gods."
Maximus: "I sacrifice to none but that God to whom alone I have sacrificed from my youth, the remembrance of which affords me great comfort."
Optimus: "Sacrifice as you value your life: if you refuse to obey, you shall expire in torments."
Maximus: "This has ever been the object of my desires: it was on this very account that I appeared in public, to have an opportunity offered me of being speedily delivered out of this miserable life, to possess that which is eternal."

Then the proconsul commanded him to be beaten, and in the meantime said to him, "Sacrifice, Maximus, and you shall be no longer tormented."
Maximus: "Sufferings for the name of Christ are not torments, but comfortable unctions; but if I depart from his precepts contained in the Gospel, then real and eternal torments would be my portion."
Next, Optimus ordered him to be stretched on the rack, and while he was tortured, said to him, "Renounce, wretch, your obstinate folly, and sacrifice to save your life."
Maximus: "I shall save it if I do not sacrifice; I shall lose it if I do. Neither your clubs, nor your our iron hooks, nor your fire, give me any pain, because the grace of Jesus Christ dwells in me, which will deliver me out of your hands to put me in possession of the happiness of the saints, who have already, in this same conflict, triumphed over your cruelty. It is by their prayers I obtain this courage and strength which you see in me."
Optimus: "I command that Maximus, for refusing to obey the sacred edicts, be stoned to death, to serve for an example of error to all Christians."
Saint Maximus was immediately seized by the executioners and carried outside the city walls, where they stoned him to death.
 The Greeks honor him on May 14; the Roman Martyrology today (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
The Holy Martyr Maximus suffered for his faith in Christ, and was run through with a sword. {oca}
250 Sophia of Fermo maiden venerated there in the cathedral VM (RM).
Firmi, in Picéno, sanctæ Sophíæ, Vírginis et Mártyris.
    At Ferno in Piceno, St. Sophia, virgin and martyr.
From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler

ST. SOPHIA, V. M.
SHE suffered for the faith in the third age, at Firmo, in Italy, where her festival is kept on the 30th of April with great devotion.  Her head is shown in a rich case in the cathedral.  See Ughelli, (in Epiac. Firmanis,) who places her martyrdom under Decius: also Ferrarius, in Catal. Sanctor.Ital. and the Roman Martyrology.


Sophia, a maiden of Fermo in central Italy, was martyred under Decius.
She is still venerated there, where her head is displayed in a rich reliquary in the cathedral (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
259 St. Marianus lector Martyr of Lambesa Numidia with James deacon & companions strengthened by a dream of his triumphant martyrdom to come
Lambésæ, in Numídia, natális sanctórum Mártyrum Mariáni Lectóris, et Jacóbi Diáconi.  Horum prior, cum infestatiónes jamprídem Deciánæ persecutiónis in confessióne Christi vicísset, íterum cum claríssimo colléga tentus est; et ambo, post dira et exquisíta supplícia, mirabíliter divínis revelatiónibus secúndo confortáti, novíssime, cum multis áliis, gládio consummáti sunt.
     At Lambesa in Numidia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Marian, a lector, and James, a deacon.  The former, after having successfully endured many trials for the confession of Christ in the persecution of Decius, was again arrested with his noble companions, and both were subjected to severe and cruel torments, during which they were twice miraculously comforted by heaven, but finally fell by the sword along with many others.


From the Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
AD 259 SS JAMES, MARIAN, AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS IN NUMJDIA.
From their authentic acts, written by a bishop, their companion, and commended by St. Austin, Serm 284.                                    T 5 p 1140

The persecution of Valerian raged nowhere with so much cruelty as in Numidia, in 259.At Lambesa, the greatest city of the province, next to Cirtha, great numbers both of the laity and clergy, suffered martyrdom.
     St. James was a deacon of that place, and remarkable for his singular chastity and austerity of life. St. Marian was only a reader, but endued with a particular eminence of grace. He had an excellent mother, called Mary, as we learn from St. Austin. They were companions, and probably relations and came from some remote province of Africa into Numidia. James received on the road a vision, that gave them previous notice of their martyrdom. They arrived at a place called Muguas, near Cirtha, the capital, where the persecution was very violent. Two bishops, named Agapius and Secundinus, who had been banished for their faith, were at the same time brought thither, from the place of their exile, to stand a second trial for their lives.
  This was a new and unprecedented injustice, practiced only against Christians, for persons already condemned to banishment to be again tried and condemned to death. As they were detained here for some days, James and Marian enjoyed their conversation, which excited them to an eager desire of martyrdom insomuch that, when the two bishops left Muguas to continue their journey, James and Marian were fully determined to follow them. Two days after their departure, pursuivants arrived at Muguas, which was looked upon as the retreat of Christians and by an order from the governor, apprehended James and Marian, and conducted them to Cirtha, together with a bishop, the author of the acts of their martyrdom, and presented them to the city magistrates, who put them to the most cruel tortures.
  James confessed boldly that he was not only a Christian, but also a deacon; though the law of Valerian, in 258, condemned to death, without hopes of pardon, even though they should deny their faith, all deacons, priests, and bishops.   They were both put to the torture and Marian in particular was hung up, act by the hands, which was the usual method of torture, but by his thumbs, which was far more painful, weights being also hung to his feet.
  Amidst his torments, the more his body suffered, the more was his soul strengthened by God. The martyrs having undergone the torture as long as the persecutors thought proper were sent to prison, with several other Christians.  Some were daily called out of this blessed company and crowned with martyrdom; and among others, the two holy bishops, Agapius and Secundinus, honored on the 29th of April. The survivors passed, sometime in the darkness and horror of the dungeons of Cirtha tormented also with hunger; but the word of God, say the acts, was a spiritual food that supported them. God was pleased; moreover, to comfort them in their prison, by a vision vouchsafed to Marian, to whom St. Cyprian appeared sitting at the right hand of a great judge, who was Christ, and presenting Marian to drink of a fountain of which that holy bishop had first drunk himself; giving Marian thereby to understand that he was also to suffer martyrdom. God gave an assurance of the same favor to this whole company of prisoners, by a second vision, with which he favored another of these confessors, called Emilian, of the Equestrian Order, near fifty years old, who had lived till that age in strict continency.  His occupation in prison was chiefly prayer. He fasted much, and often abstained from food by choice for two days successively. He acquainted this blessed company with what he had also seen in his vision; namely, that his heathen brother asked him how they liked the dark dungeons and hunger.  He answered, that the word of God served both for light and nourishment to the soldiers of Jesus Christ. His brother said: “You know that as many of you as continue obstinate can expect nothing but death.  But do you all hope for equal rewards?" Emilian* said: " Lift up your eyes to heaven: have all the stars you see there the same lustre Don’t they differ in brightness, though they have all the same light? Those in like manner who shall have suffered most, and have had the greatest difficulties to struggle with, shall receive the most glorious crown."  All these visions contributed not a little to keep up the spirits of the Christian prisoners.The magistrates of Cirtha, seeing the confessors invincible, sent James, Marian, and a great part of the prisoners to Lambesa, to the governor of the province.  They suffered much on the way, it being twenty-four miles distant from Cirtha, and the roads very rough. They were lodged in the dungeons of Lambesa, and every day some were called out to martyrdom; the laity first, whom the pagans hoped more easily to vanquish.  Among them a woman and her two little children, twins, were martyred on the 2d or 3d of May. Also Tertulla and Antonia, two holy virgins, whom St. Agapius had a singular regard for. He prayed long in prison that they might not be deprived of the glory of shedding their blood for Christ, and at length received from heaven this answer: "You need not ask by so many prayers what you have obtained by the first." St. James and the other clergy were grieved to see their victory retarded; but it was not long before he saw in his sleep the bishop Agapius preparing a great feast, and expressing much joy, and cheerfully inviting him and Marian to it, as to one of the ancient Agape, or love Feasts.  Here they met an infant who was one of the twins that had suffered with their mother three days before.  He had round his neck a crown of roses, and a very green palm in his right hand; and he bade them rejoice, for they should all sup together the day following, the same on which James, Marian, and several others of the clergy were condemned to die.
      They were accordingly brought to the place of execution, which was a valley, through which ran the river Pagydus, with hills on each side convenient for the spectators. The martyrs were placed in rows on the banks of the river that the executioner might pass conveniently from one to the other in cutting off their heads. While they had their eyes bound, they had most of them some token given them by God of their approaching felicity. Marina also foretold the wars, and other evils which threatened the empire in revenge of the innocent blood of the just. This was verified,-the persecuting emperor Valerian being taken and most barbarously treated by the Persians, in 260; and to mention the thirty tyrants, a dreadful pestilence, and other calamities which afflicted the empire.
Mary, the mother of this blessed martyr, like the mother of the Maccabees
This St Emilian occurs in the martyrologies on the 29th of April


259 SS. MARIAN and JAMES, Martyrs
These two martyrs suffered during the persecution of Valerian at Lambesa in Numidia. Marian (Marianus) was a reader, James a deacon, and they were arrested at Cirta (modern Constantine in Algeria) and put to torture. Marian was treated with special savagery, apparently because he was suspected of being a deacon too. He told the writer of his acta that, falling asleep after his torments, he had a dream in which he was invited up to the scaffold by St Cyprian, who had suffered at Carthage in the previous year. James also had a vision of his approaching triumph.
After being interviewed by the governor they were sent to Lambesa, some eighty miles away, where they were sentenced to death. The scene of their martyrdom was a hollow in a river valley, where “the high ground on either side served for seats as in a theatre”. So many others were put to death at the same time that they were drawn up in rows for execution, so that “the blade of the impious murderer might behead the faithful, one after another, in a rush of fury”. Before his turn came, Marian spoke with the voice of prophecy of the avenging misfortunes that would come upon the slaughterers of the righteous; and his dead body was embraced and kissed by his mother, “rightly named Mary, blessed both in son and name.” The Passion of SS. Marian and James and their fellows is an authentic document of great interest, written by one who shared their imprisonment. The ancient Calendar of Carthage commemorates them on May 6, but the Roman Martyrology, following the “Hieronymianum”, names them on April 30; other martyrs mentioned in the passio, e.g. SS. Agapius and Secundinus, are named on the previous day. The cathedral of Gubbio in Umbria is dedicated in honour of SS. Marian and James, and claims to have their relics.
The passio is printed by Ruinart in his Acta sincere and by Gebhardt in Acta martyrum selecta; see also P. Franchi de Cavalieri in Studi e Testi (1900). There is an English translation in H. C. H. Owen, Some Authentic Acts of the Early Martyrs (1927).
The Acta of their martyrdom are extant.
Marian, James & Companions MM (RM) Died in Africa, May 6, 259. Marian, a lector, and James, a deacon, were thrown into prison at Cirta (Constantine in Algeria) during the persecution of Valerian. They were savagely tortured to persuade them to apostatize, but each was strengthened by a dream of his triumphant martyrdom to come.

They were put to death at the military town of Lambaesis (Lambesa) in Numidia, with others victims so numerous that they were drawn up in rows and the executioner passed down the ranks striking off heads, 'in a rush of fury.' Marian and James are known from an authentic, touching account written by a man who shared their imprisonment but was later released (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia). In art, Marian is shown hung up by his thumbs with weights on this feet (Roeder).
Departure of St. Isaac (Ishaq), of Hourin. (Coptic).

On this day the holy father Anba Isaac (Ishaq) departed. He was born in the city of Hourin - Shabas, from unblemished parents. His father's name was Abraham, and his mother's name was Susannah. His mother departed when he was a child, and his father, shortly after, married another wife. In those days there was a famine, and his step-mother hated him. She only gave him a little bread, which he gave to the shepherds that he worked with. He fasted until sunset, although he was only five years old. When his father knew that, he went to see him to inquire into that. Knowing the matter, before his father came to him, he tied up three pieces of mud in his cloak, so that his father might think when he saw them from far that they were bread. When his father came and unrolled the cloak, he found three pieces of bread. The shepherds who were present testified that the boy had given them all what he had of bread, and others saw him tieing the pieces of mud in his cloak. His father marvelled and glorified God.

When Isaac grew up, he went and became a monk with a righteous man whose name was Elias, and he lived with him for many years. After the departure of Anba Elias, he went to the mount of Barnug and lived with an old man whose name was Anba Zacharias. His father went about everywhere trying to find him. When he found his son living with St. Zacharias, he asked him to return with him. His teacher Anba Zacharias advised him to obey his father and return with him.

He returned and stayed until his father's departure. He distributed all what his father left him to the poor and needy. He then built for himself a place out side the city, where he dwelt there alone. He went on asceticism and worship until he departed in peace.

They buried him in his place of worship, and the place was forgotten. After many years, God willed to reveal his body, and a great light appeared above his grave, which was seen by reapers for three consecutive days. The believers came, took his body, laid it on a camel, and journeyed with it until they came to a place between Horein and Nashrat. The camel stopped, knelt down, and would not get up again. They knew that this was the Lord's Will and they built a church for him in that place where they placed the body with great honor.  His prayers be with us. Amen.
320 Basil, Bishop of Amasea Hieromartyr encouraged and comforted the Christians suffering persecution by the pagans
Lived at the beginning of the fourth century in the Pontine city of Amasea. He encouraged and comforted the Christians suffering persecution by the pagans.
During this time the Eastern part of the Roman Empire was ruled by Licinius (311-324),
brother-in-law of the holy emperor Constantine the Great (May 21).
Licinius deceitfully signed St Constantine's Edict of Milan (313), which granted religious toleration to Christians, but he hated them and continued to persecute them.

328  Departure of St. Alexander I, 19th Pope of the See of St. Mark.
On this day also of the year 44 A.M. (April 17th., 328 A.D.) the holy father Pope Alexander (Alexandros), 19th Pope of the See of St. Mark, departed.

This Pope was born in the city of Alexandria from Christian parents, and he grew up in serving the church. Pope Maximus ordained him a reader, Pope Theonas ordained him a deacon. Pope Peter (Petros the Seal of the Martyrs) ordained him a priest, and he was virgin and chaste.

When the time of Pope Petros (Peter) martyrdom drew near, Alexander and father Archelaus, who became Patriarch before him, went to him in prison, and asked him to lift the excommunication from Arius. Anba Petros excommunicated Arius again in their presence, and informed them that the Lord Christ had appeared to him and ordered him not to receive him again and that father Archelaus will be Patriarch after him and after Abba Archelaus, Pope Alexander will be ordained. He commanded that to the priests of Alexandria and ordered them not to accept Arius, and to have no fellowship with him.

When Pope Archelaus sat on the Chair and received Arius, he only lived for six months and died. When Pope Alexandros sat, the lay leaders came and asked him to receive Arius, but he refused and added curses to what were already upon him. He told them: "Pope Petros had commanded Pope Archelaus and myself to do that, and when Pope Archelaus had received Arius, God speedily removed him from his office."

Pope Alexander expelled Arius from the country. Arius went to Emperor Constantine and complained of the unjust treatment of this Pope. Emperor Constantine assembled the Ecumenical Council of the Three Hundred and Eighteen in the city of Nicea. The council was presided by Pope Alexander. He debated with Arius and revealed his denial of Christ, then excommunicated him and those who follow his belief.

Alexander, along with the rest of the fathers, uttered the Creed, and drew up the Canon, the Law, and the Statutes that are still in the hands of Christians until this day. After he put down regulations for Lent and the feast of Easter, he returned to his Chair, victorious and triumphant. He shepherded his flock with the best of
387 St. Donatus Bishop of Euraea in Epirus sanctity praised by Greek writers miracle of the water healer
Evóreæ, in Epíro, sancti Donáti Epíscopi, qui, témpore Theodósii Imperatóris, exímia sanctitáte refúlsit.
    At Evorea in Epirus, St. Donatus, a bishop, who was eminent for sanctity in the time of Emperor Theodosius.

Donatos Orthodoxe Kirche: 30. April
Donatos lebte während der Herrschaft von Kaiser Theodosius dem Großen (370-397) und war Bischof von Eureia. In der Nähe der Stadt befand sich eine Quelle mit giftigem Wasser. Donatos reinigte die Quelle, indem er eine große Schlange, die in ihr lebte, tötete. Donatos vollbrachte weitere Wunder, unter anderem heilte er die Tochter des Kaisers. Er starb um 387.

Donatus of Euraea B (RM) Late 4th century. The sanctity of Bishop Donatus of Euraea, Epirus (Albania), was recorded by Sozomen and other Greek writers (Benedictines).

Saint Donatus lived during the reign of the holy Emperor Theodosius the Great (379-397) and was bishop of the city of Euroea (in Albania). Not far from this city, in the vicinity of Soreia, was a brackish spring of water. When the saint learned of this, he went with clergy to the spring and cast out a monstrous serpent, which died. The saint prayed, he blessed the spring and drank the water without harm. Seeing this miracle, the people glorified God.

Another time, St Donatus prayed and brought forth water from a dry and rocky place, and during a drought he entreated the Lord to send rain to the parched land.

The daughter of the holy Emperor Theodosius fell terribly ill and was afflicted by an unclean spirit. St Donatus came to the palace, and as soon as he arrived the devil left and the sick woman was healed.

A certain man, shortly before his death, repaid a loan to a money-lender. The creditor tried to extort the money a second time from the dead man's widow. The saint resurrected the dead man, who told where and when the loan had been repaid. After obtaining a receipt from the creditor, the man fell asleep in the Lord.
St Donatus reposed in peace about the year 387.
397 St. Lawrence of Novara Martyred priest aided St. Gaudentius bishop of Novara, Italy
Nováriæ sancti Lauréntii Presbyteri, et puerórum Mártyrum, quos ille suscéperat educándos.
    At Novara, the martyrdom of the holy priest Laurence, and some boys whom he was teaching.
He was martyred with a group of children whom he was instructing in the faith.
Laurence of Novara & Companions MM (RM) Laurence came from the west, either from Spain or France. He is said to have assisted Bishop Saint Gaudentius of Novara (418) in the Piedmont. He was put to death with a group of children whom he was catechizing (Benedictines).
5th v. Hoilde "A virgin who was blotted out of existence and found again" (Hou).
5th century. "A virgin who was blotted out of existence and found again" (Encyclopedia).
536 St. Pomponius Bishop of Naples steadfast in opposition to the Arian creed .
Neápoli, in Campánia, sancti Pompónii Epíscopi.
    At Naples in Campania, St. Pomponius, bishop.
During the reign of the powerful Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great who dominated Italy. As Theodoric was a devoted Arian, Pomponius faced some pressure from the Goths but was steadfast in his opposition to the Arian creed.

Pomponius of Naples B (RM) Pomponius was bishop of Naples from 508 to 536. He was a strong opponent of Arianism, then under the patronage of the Gothic king Theodoric (Benedictines).
569 St. Desideratus Hermit at Gourdon revered in the region eremetical life .
near Chalon-sur-Saone, in France. Details of his eremetical life are not known, but he was revered in the region.
Desideratus of Gourdon, Hermit (AC) A French solitary who lived at Gourdon, near Châlon-sur-Saîne (Benedictines).
6th v. St. Cynwl hermit noted for his austere life 6th century .
A hermit, the brother of St. Deinoil, noted for his austere life in southern Wales. Several churches in the region were dedicated to Cynwl.

Cynwl of Wales, Hermit (AC) 6th century. Cynwl, the brother of Saint Deiniol (Daniel), was the first bishop of Bangor. He lived an austere life in northern Wales. Many churches have been dedicated to his honor (Benedictines).
686-693 Erconwald of London bishop miracles at grave were reported (until the 16th century) miracles recorded touching his couch OSB B (RM)
Londíni, in Anglia, sancti Erconváldi Epíscopi, qui multis miráculis cláruit.
    At London in England, St. Erkenwald, a bishop celebrated for many miracles.

From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
ST. ERKONWALD, BISHOP OF LONDON, C.
HE was a prince of the royal blood, son of Annas, the holy king of the East-Angles, or, as some say, of a certain prince named Offa.
     The better to disengage himself from the ties and encumbrance of the world, he forsook his own country, and retired into the kingdom of the East-Saxons, where he employed his large estate in founding two great monasteries, one at Chertsey, in Surrey, near the Thames* the other for nuns, at Barking, in Essex, of this latter he appointed his sister, Edilburga, abbess. The former he governed with great sanctity, till he was forced out of his dear solitude by king Sebba, in 675, and consecrated bishop of London by St. Theodorus.

  He much augmented the buildings and revenues of St. Paul's, and obtained for that church great privilege from the king. Dugdale, in his history of that cathedral, proves that it had originally been a temple of Diana, from many heads of oxen dug up when the east part of it was rebuilt, and from the structure of the chambers of Diana, near that place.
  Bede bears witness that God honored St. Erkonwald with a great gift of miracles, and that his horse-litter, or chips cut off from it, cured distempers to his own time: and his sanctity has been most renowned through all succeeding ages.  He sat eleven years, according to his old epitaph, which Mr. Weever has preserved. His tomb, in the cathedral of St. Paul's, was famous for frequent miracles, as is mentioned by Bede, Malmesbury, &c. His body was removed from the middle of the church, by a solemn translation, on the 14th of November, in 1148, and deposited above the high altar, on the east wall. Dugdale' describes the riches and numerous oblations which adorned his shrine, and lament that they had lately seen the destruction of this magnificent church, which was the glory of our nation; the monuments of so many famous men torn to pieces, and their bones and dust pulled out of their graves, in which barbarous search the body of the holy king Sebba was found embalmed with perfumes, and clothed with rich robes: also several bishops in their proper habits.  But, says that diligent author, I could never hear that they found more than a ring or two with rubies, and a chalice of no great value.   He adds: Under part of the choir was the subterraneous parish church of St. Faith, called S. Fides in Cryptis.  At the change of religion, the body of St. Erkonwald disappeared, in 1533 says Weever. F. Jerom Porter, in his lives of the English saints, testifies that it was then buried at the upper end of the choir, near the wall. No mention is made of it in any accounts since the new fabric was erected.  See Wharton, Hist. Episcoporum Londin. p. 16, and Maitland, Hist. of London, b. 2, p. 486; also the news of Papebroke upon the life of St. Erkonwald in Capgrave, Apr. t. 3, p. 780, and Leland, Collect. t. 1, pp. 22 and 23.


(also known as Erkenwald) Born in East Anglia; died at Barking, April 30, c. 686-693; second feast day on May 13.
Erconwald is reputed to have been of royal blood, son of Annas or Offa. In 675, Saint Theodore of Canterbury appointed Erconwald bishop of the East Saxons with his see in London and extending over Essex and Middlesex. His episcopate was the most important in that diocese between that of Saint Mellitus(624) and Saint Dunstan(909- 988).

His shrine in Saint Paul's Cathedral was a much visited pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, where miracles were reported until the 16th century, but little is known of his life except that he founded a monastery at Chertsey in Surrey, which he governed, and a convent at Barking in Essex to which he appointed as abbess his sister, Ethelburga(647).
Erconwald took some part in the reconciliation of Saint Theodore with Saint Wilfrid
In Saint Bede's (673-735) time, miracles were recorded as a result of touching the couch used by Erconwald in his later years. At his death, Erconwald's relics were claimed by Barking, Chertsey, and London; he was finally buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, which he had enlarged. The relics escaped the fire of 1087 and were placed in the crypt. November 14, 1148, they were translated to a new shrine behind the high altar, from where they were again moved on February 1, 1326 (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer)
Erconwald is portrayed in art as a bishop in a small 'chariot' (the Saxon equivalent of a bath chair) in which he travelled because of his gout. Sometimes there is a woman touching it or he may be shown with Saint Ethelburga of Barking (Roeder).
(634-709).
 Erconwald is invoked against gout (Roeder).
783 Blessed Hildegard aid to religious  patroness of the sick Empress (AC).  
783 BD HILDEGARD, MATRON

HISTORY has but little to tell us about Bd Hildegard, the girl of seventeen whom Charlemagne married after his repudiation of the Lombard princess Hermengard.  Even her parentage is uncertain, although she was probably connected with the dukes of Swabia. She is said to have been extremely beautiful, and as good as she was fair. Of her nine children, one became Louis the Debonair and three preceded her. Hildegard was very friendly with St Boniface’s kinswoman, the abbess St Lioba. She died in 783 at Thionville (Diedenhofen) on the Moselle, and her relics were subsequently translated to the abbey of Kempten in Swabia, of which she had been a benefactress. Hildegard was greatly revered during her lifetime, and her shrine was a place of pilgrimage.

The legendary or fictitious element is very conspicuous in the life of Hildegard printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii, and the story cannot be trusted wherever it goes beyond the data furnished in the chronicles and other sources. Hildegard, of course, figures to some extent in all the modern lives of Charlemagne.

Died in Thionville (Diedenhofen), France, in 783. Said to have been the daughter of the duke of Swabia, Hildegard was known for her aid to religious and was much venerated at the time of her death. She was just 17 when Charlemagne put Hermengard aside and made her his second wife in 771. She had nine children during their 12- year marriage. She is said to have had a special fondness for Saint Lioba (742-814). Her tomb is at Kempten Abbey, of which she is considered the foundress (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia). Hildegard, who is generally shown with Charlemagne or as an empress tending the sick, is the patroness of the sick (Roeder).
807 Swithbert the Younger missionaries in Germany bishop B (AC).  

Born in England; Swithbert may have been a Benedictine monk. He joined the missionaries in Germany and eventually became bishop of Werden in Westphalia (Benedictines).
819  Departure of St. Mark 11, 49th Pope of the See of St. Mark.

On this day also, of the year 535 A.M. (April 17th., 819 A.D.), the blessed father Pope Mark (Marcus), 49th Pope of the See of St. Mark, departed.

This Pope was from Alexandria, and he a was chaste, learned, and honorable man. Pope John ordained him a deacon, and he was an eloquent speaker. His voice was sweet and all those who heard him rejoiced in him. The Pope handed him the administration of the papal place, and he did nothing without his advice. When Pope John put on him the garb of monks in the monastery, one of the elder monks shouted saying:
 "This deacon whose name is Mark shall, rightly and fittingly sit upon the throne of his father Mark, the Evangelist."
When pope John departed, the bishops unanimously agreed to choose him Patriarch. He fled to the desert, but they caught up with him, brought him back, and enthroned him Patriarch on the 2nd day of Amshir, 515 A.M. (January 26th., 799 A.D.).

He tended to the churches needs, and restored those that were in a ruinous state. He returned many of the heretics to the Orthodox faith, healed many of the sick, and cast out, of many of them, devils. He told them: "What had happened to you was because you dared to partake of the Holy Mysteries with irreverence, so keep yourselves henceforward from the evil words that come out of your mouth."

In his days, the Muslim Arabs conquered the Greek Isles, captured many of their women and children, brought them to Alexandria, and started to sell them. The Pope gathered money from the believers, and beside the funds of the monasteries that he had, he was able to pay three thousand Dinars to save and free them. He wrote for them bills of manumission and set them free. He provided those who wished to return to their country with whatever they needed, and those who wished to stay, he gave them in marriage and protected them. He took thought for the church of the Redeemer in Alexandria and restored it, but some evil men burned it, so he restored it again.

When the Lord willed to give him rest, he became sick. He prayed the Divine Liturgy and partook of the Holy Mysteries. He bade the bishops that were present farewell and departed in peace after staying on the Chair 20 years, 2 months and 21 days.

His prayers be with us. Amen.
851 Departure of St. Michael 11, 53rd Pope of the See of St. Mark.
On this day also, of the year 567 A.M. (April 17th., 851 A.D.), the holy father Pope Michael (Khail), 53rd Pope of Alexandria, departed.  This father was a righteous monk, and he was ordained hegumen for the monastery of the saint Abba John. Because of his good conduct, they chose him Patriarch, and he was enthroned in the 24th day of Hatour 566 A.M. (November 20th., 849 A.D.).
When the Holy Fast came, he went to the desert of Scetis to keep the fast there. He remembered his earlier life in the wilderness, so he asked God with tears and supplication saying: "O God, you know how much I love solitary life and I have no aptitude for the position that I am in." The Lord accepted his petition and he departed in peace after the feast of Passover. He stayed on the Chair one year, four months and twenty-eight days.  His prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.
855 Amator priest (Amateur), Peter monk & Louis lay friend preachers martyred by Saracens MM (RM).  
Córdubæ, in Hispánia, sanctórum Mártyrum Amatóris Presbyteri, Petri Mónachi, et Ludovíci.
    At Cordova in Spain, the holy martyrs Amator, a priest, Peter, a monk, and Louis.
Amator was born at Martos near Cordova, where he studied and was ordained a priest. He together with Peter, a monk, and Louis, their lay friend, were preachers who were arrested by the Saracens in a clean sweep of evangelists in Cordova (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
982 St. Forannan Irish bishop of Domhnach-Mor went to Belgium in response to a dream.  
982 ST FORANNAN, ABBOT
THE abbey of Waulsort on the Meuse must have been closely connected with Ireland in its early days, for several of its abbots came to it from that country, including St Maccallan, St Cadroe and St Forannan, who occupied for a time the Irish bishopric of Domhnach-Mor, a diocese or monastery which has not hitherto been identified. He is said to have been led to abandon his native land by a dream, in which an angel showed him a beautiful valley that was to be his home. With twelve companions he left Ireland and made his way to the mouth of the river Meuse, up which he sailed as far as Waulsort. In this beautiful spot, which charms the tourist who takes the river trip between Namur and Givet, the saint recognized the Vallis Decora of his vision. He was hospitably received by the monks there.
He appears to have been appointed abbot of Waulsort in 962. Business connected with his monastery afterwards took him to Rome, and on his way back he stayed for a time at the abbey of Gorze in Lorraine. His object appears to have been to obtain training for himself and his companions in the Rule of St Benedict, with a view to reforming the discipline of Waulsort, which had become relaxed. St Forannan raised his abbey to great sanctity and glory, and obtained from the Christian princes the privilege of the Truce of God, which gave security of life and limb to all bona-fide pilgrims to Waulsort on the annual festival and during its octave.
There is quite a lengthy life printed both by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii. See also O’Hanlon, LIS., vol. iv, pp. 552 seq., and Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity, pp. 37, 83—84, and Les saints irlandais hors d ‘Irlande, p. 103.

Ireland, no longer listed as a diocese. With twelve companions he went to Belgium and founded an abbey at Waulsort, on the Meuse River, becoming abbot in 962. Forannan introduced the Benedictine rule to Waulsort. Forannan went to Belgium in response to a dream.

Forannan, Abbot (AC) died 982. A Benedictine bishop, Saint Forannan followed a dream and left Ireland to join a community at the abbey of Waulsort on the Meuse in Belgium.
The year of his arrival (962), he was elected its abbot, perhaps because Otto I of Germany had chartered it as an Irish abbey over which an Irish monk was to rule in perpetuity as long as there was one in the community. He spent some time at Gorze studying the monastic observance established by Saint John in order to introduce it at Waulsort, which he did most successfully. The community attracted so many postulants that Forannan had to negotiate the annexation of the neighboring Hastiers Abbey. Waulsort became a sanctuary for pilgrims (Attwater2, Benedictines, D'Arcy, Gougaud, Encyclopedia, O'Hanlon).
1100 Genistus of Beaulieu killed by his nephew OSB M (AC).  
The Benedictine monk Genistus of Beaulieu, Limousin, diocese of Limoges, was killed by his nephew at Aynac-en-Quercy. He is venerated as a martyr and as patron of Aynac (Benedictines).
1109 Saint Nikita former Recluse of the Kiev Caves healing of many people
Fell asleep in the Lord in 1109, after serving as Bishop of Novgorod for thirteen years.

Bishop Nikita was glorified as a saint during the reign of Tsar Ivan Vasilievich, and his holy relics, dressed in full vestments, were uncovered on April 30, 1558. That day was marked by the healing of many people. His relics now rest in the cathedral of the holy Apostle Philip in Novgorod.

St Nikita of Novgorod is also commemorated on January 31, the day of his repose, and on May 14.


1127 Gualfardus a saddler; Famous for miracles during his life, St Gualfardus became even more famous for them after his death. those around him regarded him as a saint hermit in the Camaldolese priory of San Salvatore OSB (AC)
1127 ST GUALFARDUS or WOLFHARD
ABOUT the year 1096 there arrived at Verona, in the train of a party of German merchants, a saddler from Augsburg called Gualfardus (Wolfhard), who took up his abode in the city. All that he earned by his trade, apart from what was necessary for bare subsistence, he gave to the poor, and he led so holy a life that he was regarded with veneration. Shocked to find himself treated as a saint, he secretly left Verona to seek a spot where he could serve God unobserved by men.
   In a forest on the river Adige he lived as a hermit for years, until he was recognized by some boatmen whose vessel ran aground near his hut. The Veronese induced him to return into their midst and he eventually became a hermit-monk of the Camaldolese priory of the Holy Redeemer. There he spent the last ten years of his life. Famous for miracles during his life, St Gualfardus became even more famous for them after his death.

No other source of information seems available beside the short Latin life printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii.

(also known as Wolfhard) Born in Augsburg, Germany; feast day formerly on May 11. Saint Gualfardus was a saddler, who plied his trade in Verona, Italy, until those around him began to regard him as a saint. Then he retired to live as a hermit in the Camaldolese priory of San Salvatore near Verona (Benedictines). In art, Gualfardus is a Benedictine hermit with a stone coffin near him (Roeder). He is venerated in Augsburg, Germany, and Verona, Italy, and, because of his profession, is the patron of saddlers (Roeder).
1131 St. Adjutor distinguished himself in the First Crusade abbey of Tiron confessor recluse.  

From the Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
SAINT AJUTRE, OR ADJOUTR, C. RECLUSE, AT VERNON IN NORMANDY.
Was a Norman gentleman, who, upon motives of holy zeal and piety, followed the Christian standards in the holy war in the East. Being taken, by the Saracens, he suffered great hardships and torments, nothing being able to shake his constancy in the confession of his faith, and in the exercises of his religious duties. Having recovered his liberty, he returned home, where, having consecrated himself and his estate to God, he led anchoretical life at Vernon upon the Seine, in the assiduous practices of penance and fervent prayer.    He consummated his sacrifice by a happy death on the 30th of April, in 1131, and is commemorated on this day in the new accurate Martyrology of Bayeux, and in the calendars of many of the churches in Normandy.                                  

A Norman lord, master of Vernonsur-Seine, who distinguished himself in the First Crusade. He was captured by the Muslims during the campaign but managed to escape from slavery. He returned to France and entered the abbey of Tiron. There he became a recluse, remaining recollected until his death of April 30.

St. Ajutre or Adjoutr, confessor. He was a Norman gentleman, who, upon motives of holy zeal and piety, followed the Christian standards in the holy war in the East. Being taken by the Saracens he suffered great hardships and torments, but nothing shook his constancy in the confession of his faith, or in the exercises of his religious duties. Having recovered his liberty, he returned home, whereupon, having consecrated himself and his estate to God, he led an anchoretical life at Vernon upon the Seine, in the assiduous practices of penance and fervent prayer. He consummated his sacrifice by a happy death on the 30th of April, in 1131, and is commemorated on this day in the new accurate Martyrology of Evreux, and in the calendars of many other churches in Normandy.

Adjutor of Vernon, OSB Hermit (AC) (also known as Ajutre, Adjoutr, Ayutre) Died at Tiron, France, on April 30, 1131. Adjutor, a Norman knight and lord of Vernon-sur-Seine, participated in the First Crusade in 1095, was captured by the Islamics. While in prison he suffered many hardships and torments because he refused to abandon the faith. Finally, he escaped from prison. Consecrating himself and his estate to God upon his return to France, he became a monk at Tiron Abbey, where he led the life of a recluse during his final years (Benedictines, Delaney, Husenbeth). In art, Saint Adjutor is a crusader recluse with a chain or bird near him. Sometimes he may be shown throwing part of his chain over a precipice (Roeder). He is venerated in Vernon-sur-Seine. He is the patron of swimmers and invoked against drowning (Roeder).
1173 St. Aimo monk mystical experiences charitable kindness nursed victims of plagues with limitless devotion.  

born near Rennes, France, in a turbulent era. Aimo entered the Benedictine monastery of Savigny, in the modern region of Normandy. There he took care of two monks of the community afflicted with leprosy. Perhaps because of his fearless charity in nursing these unfortunates, Aimo was thought to be a leper as well. He served as a lay brother in the community until his superiors realized that he did not have the dreaded disease. He was then chosen for the priesthood and ordained. Aimo is remembered not only for his charitable kindness but for his recorded mystical experiences.

Aimo of Savigny, OSB (AC) (also known as Aymon, Aimon, Hamon) Born in the diocese of Rennes; died 1173. Aimo joined the abbey of Savigny (Avranches), Normandy, and was falsely suspected of having leprosy. In order to avoid being sent away, he offered to serve two religious who were actually lepers. Afterwards he was professed, ordained, and appointed to various offices. He nursed the victims of plagues with limitless devotion, perhaps because of the trials he had undergone. Aimo was also favored with mystical experiences (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1380 Sanctæ Catharínæ Senénsis Vírginis, ex tértio Ordine sancti Domínici, quæ ad cæléstem Sponsum transívit prídie hujus diéi.
    St. Catherine of Siena, virgin of the Third Order of St. Dominic, who on the previous day went to her heavenly Spouse.


From the Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler

AD 1380 ST. CATHARINE OF SIENNA, VIRGIN.
From her life by Raymund of Capua, her confessor, afterwards general of the Dominicans; also by Stephen, prior of the Carthusians, near Pavia, who had intimately known the saint, and fom other contemporary authors.  Likewise Divae Catharinae Senesnsis Vita per Joan.  Pinum, Tolosanum.  Bononiae, 4to. 1505.  See her history judiciously and elegantly compiled by F. Touroa, t. 2 a writer justly extolled in the Journal de Seavants, and honored with great encomiums by Pope Benedict XIV.  Her life by her confessor, containing things omitted in other editions, is printed in Italian at Florence, in 1477, 4to., in a Gothic character; yet this is a translation from the Latin; also another printed at Sienna, in 1524, 4to.  See also Pembroke’s Remarks. Apr. t. 3, p. 851.
                                    
St. Catharine was born at Sienna, in 1347.  Her father, James Benincan, by trade a dyer, was a virtuous man; and though blessed with temporal prosperity, always chiefly solicitous to leave to his children a solid inheritance of virtue, by his example, and by deeply instilling into them lessons of piety.  Her mother, Lapa, had a particular affection for this daughter above her other children and the accomplishments of mind and body with which she was adorned made her the darling and delight of all that knew her, anti-procured her name of Euphrosyna.
    She was favored by God with extraordinary graces as soon as she was capable of knowing him. She withdrew very young to solitude a little out of the town, to imitate the lives of the fathers of the desert.  Returning after some time to her father’s house, she continued to be guided by the same spirit.  In her childhood she consecrated her virginity to God by a private vow. Her love of mortification and prayer, and her sentiments of virtue, were such as are not usually found in so tender an age.   But God was pleased to put her resolution to a great trial.  At twelve years of age, her parents thought of engaging her in a married state.  Catharine found them deaf to her entreaties that she might live single ; and there by redoubled her prayers, watching, and austerities, knowing her protection must him, from God alone. Her parents, regarding her inclination to solitude as unsuitable to the life for which they designed her, endeavored to divert her from it, and began to thwart her devotions, depriving her in this view of' the little chamber or cell they had till then allowed her. They loaded her with the most distracting employments, and laid cii her all the drudgery of the house, as if she had been a person hired into the family for solitude. But the Holy Ghost, that interior faithful master, to whom she listened, taught her to make herself another solitude in her heart; where, amidst all her occupations, she considered herself always as alone with God; to shoes presence she kept herself no less attentive than if she had o exterior employment to distract her.  In that admirable treatise of God[s Providence, which she wrote, she saith, “That our Lord had taught her to build in her soul a private closet, strongly vaulted with the divine providence, and to keep herself always close and retired there; he assured her that by this means she should find peace and perpetual repose in her soul, which o storm or tribulation could disturb or interrupt.” Her sisters and factions of the Guelpbs and Ghibellines, who had so disturbed and divided the state of Florence, then a powerful commonwealth, united at last against the pope, to strip the holy see of the lands it possessed in Italy. The disturbance was begun in June. 1373, and a numerous army was set on foot: the word Libertas, written on the banner of the league, was the signal.  Perugia, Bologna, Viterbo, Ancona, and other strongholds, soon declared for them. The inhabitants of Arezzo, Lucca, Sienna, and other places were kept within the bounds of duty by the prayers, letters, and exhortations of St. Catharine, and generously contemned the threats of the Florentines. Pope Gregory XI., residing at Mignon, wrote to the city of Florence, but without success.  He therefore sent the cardinal Robert of Geneva, his legate, with an army, and laid the diocese of Florence under an interdict. Internal divisions, murders, and all other domestic miseries amongst the Florentines, joined with the conspiracy of the neighboring states, concurred to open their eyes and made them sue for pardon. The magistrates sent to Sienna to beg St. Catharine would become their mediatrix. She could not resist their pressing entreaties.  Before she arrived at Florence, she was met by the priors or chiefs of the magistrates; and the city left the management of the whole affair to her discretion, with a promise that she should be followed to Avignon by their ambassadors, who should sign and ratify the conditions of reconciliation between the parties at variance, and confirm everything she had done.
    The saint arrived at Mignon on the 18th of June, 1376, and was received by the pope and cardinals with great marks of distinction. His holiness, after a conference with her, in admiration of her prudence and sanctity, said to her: "I desire nothing but peace. I put the affair entirely into your hands; only I recommend to you the honor of the church." But the Florentines sought not peace sincerely and they continued to carry on secret intrigue, to draw all Italy from its obedience to the Holy See.  Their ambassadors arrived very late at Mignon, and spoke with so great insolence, that they showed peace was far from being the subject of their errand.  God suffered the conclusion or this work to be deferred in punishment of the sins of the Florentines by which means St. Catharine sanctified herself still more by suffering longer amidst a seditious people.  The Saint had another point no less at heart in her journey to Avignon.  Pope John XXII, a Frenchman, born at Cahors, bishop first of Frejus, then then of Avignon, lastly of Porto, being made pope in 1314, fixed his residence at Avignon, where John's successors, Benedict XII.,Clement VI Innocent VI.,and Urban V.,also reside.  The then pope Gregory XI., elected in1370, continued also there. The Romans complained that their bishops had for seventy-four years past forsaken their church, and threatened a schism. Gregory Xl. had made a secret vow to return to Rome; but not finding this design agreeable to his court, he consulted the holy virgin on this subject, who answered: "Fulfil what you have promised to God." The pope, surprised she should know by revelation what he had never discovered to any person on earth, was immediately determined to carry his good design into execution.  The saint soon after left Avignon.  We have several letters written by her to him, to press him to hasten his return; and he shortly after followed her, leaving Avignon on the last of September, in 1376.  He overtook the saint at Genoa, where she made a short stay. At Sienna, she continued her former way of life, serving and often curing the sick, converting the most obstinate sinners, and  reconciling the most inveterate enemies, more still by her prayers than by her words.  Such was her knowledge of heavenly things, that certain Italian doctors, out of envy, and with the intent to expose her ignorance, being come to hold a conference pressed it upon her head.  The Earnest desire and love and love of humiliations and crosses were nourished in her soul by assiduous meditation on the sufferings of our divine Redeemer.  What, above all things, pierced her heart was scandal, chiefly that of the unhappy great schism which followed the death of Gregory Xl in 1378, when Urban VI was chosen at Rome, and acknowledged there by all the cardinals, though his election was in the beginning overawed by the Roman people, who demanded an Italian pope. Urbana’s harsh and austere temper alienated from him the affections of the cardinals, several of whom withdrew and having declared the late election null, chose Clement VII with whom they rented out of Italy, and resided at Avignon.  Our saint not content to spend herself in floods of tears, weeping before God for these evils of his church, wrote the strongest and must pathetic letters to those cardinals who had first acknowledged Urban, and afterwards elected another her pressing them to return to their lawful pastor, and acknowledge Urban's title. She wrote to several countries and princes in his favor and to Urban himself exhorting him to bear up cheerfully under-the troubles he found himself involved in, and to abate somewhat of a temper that had made him so many enemies and mollify that rigidness of disposition which Christendom from acknowledging him.  The pope listened to her, sent for her to Rome, followed her directions, and designed to send her, with St. Catharine of Sweden, to Joan; queen of Sicily, who had sided with Clement. Our saint grieved to see this occasion of martyrdom snatched from her, when the journey was laid aside on account of the dangers that were foreseen to attend it. Silo wrote however to Queen Joan   likewise two letters full of holy tire to the king of France, also to the king of Hungary, and others, to exhort thern to renounce the Schism.
  We pass over the ecstasies and other wonderful favors this virgin received from heaven, and the innumerable miracles God wrought by her means. She has left us, besides the example of her life, six Treatises in form of a dialogue, a Discourse on the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, and three hundred and sixty-four Letters, which show that she had a superior genius, and wrote perfectly well. While she was laboring to extend the obedience of the three popes, Urban VI., her infirmities and pains increasing, she died at Rome on 29th of April, in 1380, being thirty three years old. She was buried in the church of the Minerva, where her body is still kept under an altar.  Her skull is in the Dominicans' church at Sienna, in which city are shown her house, her instruments of penance, and other relics. She was canonized by pope Pius II in 1461. Urban VIII. transferred her festival to the 30th of this month.

  When we read the lives of the saints, and consider the wonderful graces with which God enriched them, we admire their happiness in being so highly favored by him, and say to ourselves that their labors and sufferings bore no proportion to the sweetness of heavenly peace and love with which their souls were replenished, and the spiritual joy and consolations which were a present super abundant recompense and support. But it was in the victory over their passions, in the fervor of their charity, and in the perfection of their humility, patience, and meekness, that their virtue and their happiness chiefly consisted. Nor are we to imagine that God raised them to these sublime graces without their assiduous application to the practice both of exterior and interior mortification, especially of the latter. Self-denial prepared them for this state of perfect virtue, and supported them in it. What a pity it is to hear persons talk of sublime virtue, and to see them pretend to aspire after it, without having studied in earnest to die to themselves. Without this condition, all their fine discourses are mere speculation, and then, endeavors fruitless.


  1380 ST CATHERINE OF SIENA, VIRGIN
ST Catherine was born in Siena on the feast of the Annunciation 1347, she and a twin sister who did not long survive her birth being the youngest of twenty-five children. Their father, Giacomo Benincasa, a well-to-do dyer, lived with his wife Lapa, daughter of a now forgotten poet, in the spacious house which the piety of the Sienese has preserved almost intact to the present day. Catherine as a little girl is described as having been very merry, and sometimes on her way up or downstairs she used to kneel on every step to repeat a Hail Mary. She was only six years old when she had the remarkable mystical experience which may be said to have sealed her vocation. In the company of her brother Stephen she was returning from a visit to her married sister Bonaventura when she suddenly came to a dead stop, standing as though spellbound in the road, with her eyes gazing up into the sky, utterly oblivious to the repeated calls of the boy who, having walked on ahead, had turned round to find that she was not following. Only after he had gone back and had seized her by the hand did she wake up as from a dream. “Oh!” she cried, “if you had seen what I saw you would not have done that!” Then she burst into tears because the vision had faded—a vision in which she had beheld our Lord seated in glory with St Peter, St Paul and St John. The Saviour had smiled upon the child: He had extended His hand to bless her . . . and from that moment Catherine was entirely His. In vain did her shrewish mother seek to inspire her with the interests common to girls of her age: she cared but for prayer and solitude, only mingling with other children in order to lead them to share her own devotion.

When she had reached the age of twelve, her parents urged her to devote more care to her personal appearance. In order to please her mother and Bonaventura she submitted for a time to have her hair dressed and to be decked out in the fashion, but she soon repented of her concession. Uncompromisingly she now declared that she would never marry, and as her parents still persisted in trying to find her a husband she cut off her golden-brown hair—her chief beauty. The family, roused to indignation, tried to overcome her resolution by petty persecution. She was harried and scolded from morning to night, set to do all the menial work of the house, and because she was known to love privacy she was never allowed to be alone, even her little bedroom being taken from her. All these trials she bore with patience which nothing could ever ruffle.
Long afterwards, in her treatise on divine Providence, more commonly known as “The Dialogue”, she said that God had taught her to build in her soul a refuge in which she could dwell so peacefully that no storm or tribulation could ever really disturb her. At last her father realized that further opposition was useless, and Catherine was allowed to lead the life to which she felt called. In the small room now ceded for her use, a cell-like apartment which she kept shuttered and dimly lighted, she gave herself up to prayer and fasting, took the discipline and slept upon boards. With some difficulty she obtained what she had ardently desired—permission to receive the habit of a Dominican tertiary, and after her admission she still further increased her mortifications, in accordance with the spirit of that then rigorously penitential rule.
Sometimes now Catherine was favoured by celestial visions and consolations, but often she was subjected to fierce trials. Loathsome forms and enticing figures presented themselves to her imagination, whilst the most degrading temptations assailed her. She passed through long intervals of desolation, during which God would appear to have abandoned her altogether. “Oh Lord, where wert thou when my heart was so sorely vexed with foul and hateful temptations?” she asked our Lord, as He manifested himself once more to her after a series of such trials.
“Daughter”, He replied, “I was in thy heart, fortifying thee by my grace”; and He assured her that He would from thenceforth be with her more openly, because the time of her probation was drawing to a close. On Shrove Tuesday, 1366, while Siena was keeping carnival, she was praying in her room when the Saviour appeared to her again, accompanied by His blessed Mother and a crowd of the heavenly host. Taking the girl’s hand, our Lady held it up to her Son who placed a ring upon it and espoused Catherine to Himself, bidding her to be of good courage, for she was now armed with faith to overcome the assaults of the enemy. The ring remained visible to her though invisible to others. This spiritual betrothal marked the end of the years of solitude and preparation. Very shortly afterwards, it was revealed to Catherine that she must now go forth into the world to promote the salvation of her neighbour, and she began gradually to mix again with her fellow creatures. Like the other tertiaries she undertook to nurse in the hospitals, and she always chose for preference the cases from which they were apt to shrink. Amongst these was a woman afflicted with a repulsive form of cancer and a leper called Tecca— both of whom rewarded her loving care by ingratitude, abusing her to her face and spreading scandal about her behind her back. In the end, however, they were won by her devotion.

“I desire to become more closely united to thee through charity towards thy neighbour”, our Lord had said, and Catherine's public life in no way interfered with her union with Him. Bd Raymund of Capua tells us that the only difference it made was that “God began from that time to manifest Himself to her, not merely when she was alone, as formerly, but when she was in public”. Often in the family circle, oftener still in church after she had made her communion, she was rapt in prolonged ecstasy, and whilst at prayer she was seen by many persons upraised from the ground. Gradually there gathered round her a band of friends and disciples-her Fellowship or Family, all of whom called her “Mamma”. Prominent amongst them were her Dominican confessors, Thomas delia Fonte and Bartholomew Dominici, the Augustinian Father Tantucci, Matthew Cenni, rector of the Misericordia hospital, Andrew Vanni, the artist to whom posterity is indebted for the loveliest of all the pictures of the saint, the aristocratic young poet Neri di Landoccio dei Pagliaresi, her own sister-in-law Lisa Colombini, the noble widow Alessia Saracini, the English William Flete, an Austin hermit, and the aged recluse Father Santi, popularly known as “the Saint”, who frequently left his solitude to be near Catherine because, to quote his own words, he found greater peace of mind and perseverance in virtue by following her than he had ever found in his cell. The tenderest affection bound the holy woman to those whom she regarded as her spiritual family-children given to her by God that she might lead them to perfection. She not only read their thoughts, but she frequently knew their temptations when they were absent, and it was to keep in touch with them that she seems to have dictated her earliest letters.
As may be readily supposed, public opinion in Siena was sharply divided about Catherine, especially at this period. Although many acclaimed her as a saint, some dubbed her a fanatic, whilst others loudly denounced her as a hypocrite, even some of her own order. It may have been in consequence of accusations made against her that she was summoned to Florence, to appear before the chapter general of the Dominicans. If any charges were made, they were certainly disproved, and shortly afterwards the new lector to Siena, Bd Raymund of Capua, was appointed her confessor. Their association was a happy one for both. The learned Dominican became not only her director but in a great measure her disciple, whilst she obtained through him the support of the order. In later life he was to be the master general of the Dominicans and the biographer of his spiritual daughter.
Catherine's return to Siena almost coincided with the outbreak of a terrible epidemic of plague, during the course of which she devoted herself to relieving the sufferers, as did also the rest of her circle. “Never did she appear more admirable than at this time”, wrote Thomas Caffarini, who had known her from her early girlhood. “She was always with the plague-stricken: she prepared them for death; she buried them with her own hands. I myself witnessed the joy with which she nursed them and the wonderful efficacy of her words, which wrought many conversions.” Amongst those who owed their recovery to her were Bd Raymund himself, Matthew Cenni, Father Santi and Father Bartholomew, all of whom had contracted the disease through tending others. But Catherine's care for the dying was not confined to the sick. She made it a regular practice to visit in prison those condemned to execution, in order that she might lead them to make  their peace with God. A young Perugian knight, Nicholas di Toldo, sentenced to death for speaking lightly of the Sienese government, was the best-known example, vividly related in the best-known of the saint's letters. At her persuasion he made his confession, assisted at Mass and received the Lord's Body. The night before execution Catherine comforted and encouraged him as he leaned his head upon her breast. And on the morrow she was at the scaffold; and Nicholas, seeing her pray for him, laughed with joy, and as he murmured “Jesus and Catherine” she received his severed head into her hands.  “Then I saw God-and-man, as one sees the brightness of the sun, receiving that soul in the fire of His divine love.”
Such things as these, coupled with her reputation for holiness and wonders, had by this time won for her a unique place in the estimation of her fellow citizens, many of whom proudly called her “La Beata Popolana” and resorted to her in their various difficulties. So numerous were the cases of conscience with which she dealt that three Dominicans were specially charged to hear the confessions of those who were induced by her to amend their lives. Moreover, because of her success in healing feuds, she was constantly being called upon to arbitrate at a time when every man's hand seemed to be against his neighbour. It was partly no doubt with a view to turning the belligerent energies of Christendom from fratricidal struggles that Catherine was moved to throw herself energetically into Pope Gregory Xl's appeal for another crusade to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the Turks. Her efforts in this direction brought her into direct correspondence with the pontiff himself.
   In February 1375 she accepted an invitation to visit Pisa, where she was welcomed with enthusiasm and where her very presence brought about a· religious revival. She had only been in the city a few days when she had another of those great spiritual experiences which appear to have preluded new developments in her career. After making her communion in the little church of St Christina, she had been looking at the crucifix, rapt in meditation, when suddenly there seemed to come from it five blood-red rays which pierced her hands, feet and heart, causing such acute pain that she swooned. The wounds remained as stigmata, apparent to herself alone during her life, but clearly visible after her death.
She was still at Pisa when she received word that the people of Florence and Perugia had entered into a league against the Holy See and its French legates; and Bologna, Viterbo, Ancona, together with other cities, not without provocation from the mismanagement of papal officials, promptly rallied to the insurgents. That Lucca as well as Pisa and Siena held back for a time was largely due to the untiring efforts of Catherine, who paid a special visit to Lucca besides writing numerous letters of exhortation to all three towns. From Avignon, after an unsuccessful appeal to the Florentines, Pope Gregory despatched his legate Cardinal Robert of Geneva with an army, and laid Florence under an interdict.* [* In this unhappy business the pope hired the services and force of the English freebooter, John Hawkwood. ]
 This ban soon entailed such serious effects upon the city that its rulers in alarm sent to Siena, to accept Catherine's offer to become their mediatrix with the Holy See. Always ready to act as peacemaker, she promptly set out for Florence. The magistrates promised she should be followed to Avignon by their ambassadors, but these gentlemen set out only after a protracted delay. Catherine arrived at Avignon on June 18, 1376, and soon had a conference with Pope Gregory, to whom she had already written six times, " in an intolerably dictatorial tone, a little sweetened with expressions of her perfect Christian deference.” But the Florentines proved fickle and insincere; their ambassadors disclaimed Catherine, and the pope's peace terms were so severe that nothing could be done.
     Although the immediate purpose of her visit to Avignon had thus failed, Catherine's efforts in another direction were crowned with success. Many of the religious, social and political troubles under which Europe was groaning were to a great degree attributable to the fact that for seventy-four years the popes had been absent from Rome, living in Avignon, where the curia had become almost entirely French. It was a state of things deplored by all earnest Christians outside France, and the greatest men of the age had remonstrated against it in vain.
     Gregory XI had indeed himself proposed to transfer his residence to the Holy City, but had been deterred by the opposition of his French cardinals. Since Catherine in her previous letters had urged his return to Rome, it was only natural that the pope should talk with her on the subject when they came face to face. “Fulfil what you have promised”, was her reply-recalling to him, it is said, a vow which he had never disclosed to any human being. Gregory decided to act without loss of time. On September 13, 1376, he started from Avignon to travel by water to Rome, Catherine and her friends leaving the city on the same day to return overland to Siena. The two parties met again, almost accidentally, in Genoa, where Catherine was detained by the illness of two of her secretaries, Neri di Landoccio and Stephen Maconi, a young Sienese nobleman whom she had converted and who had become the most ardent of her followers, and perhaps the most beloved except Alessia.
   It was a month before she was back in Siena, from whence she continued to write to Pope Gregory, exhorting him to contribute by all means possible to the peace of Italy. By his special desire she went again to Florence, still rent by factions and obstinate in its disobedience. There she remained for some time, amidst daily murders and confiscations, in danger of her life but ever undaunted, even when swords were drawn against her. Finally she did indeed establish peace with the Holy See, although not during Gregory's reign, but in that of his successor.

After this memorable reconciliation the saint returned to Siena where, as Raymund of Capua tells us, " she occupied herself actively in the composition of a book which she dictated under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost".
This was the very celebrated mystical work, written in four treatises, known as the " Dialogue of St Catherine ". That she was favoured with some infused knowledge had indeed already been made clear on several occasions-in Siena, at Avignon and in Genoa-when learned theologians had plied her with hard questions, and had retired disconcerted with the wisdom of her replies. Her health had long since become so seriously impaired that she was never free from pain: yet her emaciated face habitually bore a happy and even smiling expression, and her personal charm was as winning as ever.

But within two years of the ending of the papal “captivity” at Avignon began the scandal of the great schism which followed the death of Gregory XI in 1378, when Urban VI was chosen in Rome and a rival pope was set up in Avignon by certain cardinals who declared Urban's election illegal. Christendom was divided into two camps, and Catherine wore herself out in her efforts to obtain for Urban the recognition which was his due. Letter after letter she addressed to the princes and leaders of the various European countries. To Urban himself she continued to write, sometimes to urge him to bear up under his trials, sometimes admonishing him to abate a harshness which was alienating even his supporters. Far from resenting her reproof, the pope told her to come to Rome that he might profit by her advice and assistance. In obedience to the call she took up her residence in the City, labouring indefatigably by her prayers, exhortations and letters to gain fresh adherents to the true pontiff.

Her life, however, was almost ended. Early in 1380 she had a strange seizure, when a visible presentment of the ship of the Church seemed to crush her to the earth and she offered herself a victim for it. After this she never really recovered. On April 21 there supervened a paralytic stroke which disabled her from the waist downwards, and eight days later, at the age of thirty-three, St Catherine of Siena passed away in the arms of Alessia Saracini.*[* The date of Catherine's birth, and therefore her age, was questioned by Robert Fawtier. On this point, see Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xl (1922), pp. 365-411].

Besides the Dialogue mentioned above, about 400 of St Catherine's letters are still extant, many of them of great interest and historical value, and all of them remarkable for the beauty of their diction; they are addressed to popes and princes, priests and soldiers, religious and men and women in the world, and are indeed “the most complete expression, of Catherine's many-sided personality”. Those, especially, addressed to Gregory XI show a remarkable combination of deep respect, outspokenness and familiarity- “my sweet babbo” she calls the pontiff. Catherine has been called “the greatest woman in Christendom”, and her spiritual significance can hardly be overrated; but it is perhaps open to question whether she had as much political and social influence as is sometimes attributed to her. As Father B. de Gaiffier has written: “It is Catherine's devotion to the cause of Christ's Church that makes her such a noble figure”. That Church canonized her in 1461.
Nearly all the more painstaking English biographers of St Catherine-for example, Mother Frances Raphael Drane (1887), Professor E. G. Gardner (1907), and Alice Curtayne -discuss the question of sources in some detail. The most important materials for her life are supplied by the Legenda Major of Bd Raymund of Capua, her confessor; the Supplementum by Thomas Caffarini; the Legenda Minor, which is also Caffarini's; the Processus Contestationum super sanctitatem et doctrinam Catharinae de Senis; and the Miracoli. There is also, of course, the great collection of Catherine's letters, with regard to which both the dating and the determination of the primitive text is often a matter of great difficulty, as well as many other documents of considerable, if minor, importance. Some little commotion was caused by the extremely drastic criticism to which these sources were subjected by Dr Robert Fawtier. Many of his strictures appeared in the form of articles or contributions to the proceedings of learned societies, and he himself re-edited some of the less familiar texts, e.g. the Legenda Minor, but the most notable points of attack are set out in two larger volumes under the common title, Sainte Catherine de Sienne: Essai de critique des sources. The earlier volume deals with the Sources hagiographiques (1921), the later with Les reuvres de Ste Catherine (1930). Criticisms of Dr Fawtier's many useful comments will be found in the appendix to Alice Curtayne's Saint Catherine of Siena (1929), an excellent book, where an essay of Fr Taurisano is reprinted in the original Italian. Cf. also the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xlix (1930), pp. 448-451. Other useful contributions are those of J. Joergensen, Sainte Catherine de Sienne (Eng. trans., 1938); E. de Santis Rosmini, Santa Caterina da Siena (1930); and F. Valli, L'injanzia e la puerizia di S. Caterina (1931). Among more recent books must be mentioned N. M. Denis-Boulet, La carrière politique de ste Catherine de Sienne (1939); M. de la Bedoyère, Catherine, Saint of Siena (1946); and a full popular life in Italian by Fr Taurisano (1948). La double experience de Catherine Benincasa (1948), by R. Fawtier and L. Canet, is a full statement from a different approach. Canon J. Leclercq's Ste Catherine de Sienne (1922) still retains its worth. There is an English edition of the Dialogue by Algar Thorold. There is an excellent concise account of certain problems connected with St Catherine's life, by Fr M. H. Laurent, in DHG., vol. xi, cc. 1517-1521. For the sources of the Dialogue, consult A. Grion, Santa Caterina da Siena: Dottrina efonti (1953). For other recent works, see Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxix (1951), pp. 182-191.
1429 St. Louis von Bruck Martyred boy example of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the medieval period.

sometimes listed as Ludwig. He was born in Ravensburg, Germany, to Swiss parents. Louis was reportedly murdered on Easter by Jews of the region. This account is considered an example of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the medieval period.

Louis von Bruck M (AC) (also known as Ludwig) Born in Ravensburg, Swabia, Germany; Ludwig is another of the boy martyrs claimed to have been martyred by Jews at Easter (Benedictines).
1572 St. Pius V, {SEE MAY 5th )}Pope from 1566-1572 Catholic Reformation leader taught theology philosophy 16 years excessive zeal as grand inquisitor wholeheartedly devoted to the religious life published Roman Catechism revised Roman Breviary and Roman Missal organized Battle of Lepanto commission to revise the Vulgate new edition of Thomas Aquinas Lepanto  pope had knowledge of the victory through miraculous means

One of the foremost leaders of the Catholic Reformation. Born Antonio Ghislieri in Bosco, Italy, to a poor family, he labored as a shepherd until the age of fourteen and then joined the Dominicans, being ordained in 1528. Called Brother Michele, he studied at Bologna and Genoa, and then taught theology and philosophy for sixteen years before holding the posts of master of novices and prior for several Dominican houses.
Named inquisitor for Como and Bergamo, he was so capable in the fulfillment of his office that by 1551, and at the urging of the powerful Cardinal Carafa, he was named by Pope Julius III commissary general of the Inquisition. In 1555, Carafa was elected Pope Paul IV and was responsible for Ghislieri’s swift rise as a bishop of Nepi and Sutri in 1556, cardinal in 1557, and grand inquisitor in 1558.

While out of favor for a time under Pope Pius IV who disliked his reputation for excessive zeal, Ghislieri was unanimously elected a pope in succession to Pius on January 7, 1566.
As pope, Pius saw his main objective as the continuation of the massive program of reform for the Church, in particular the full implementation of the decrees of the Council of Trent. He published the Roman Catechism, the revised Roman Breviary, and the Roman Missal; he also declared Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church, commanded a new edition of the works of Thomas Aquinas, and created a commission to revise the Vulgate.

The decrees of Trent were published throughout all Catholic lands, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the New World, and the pontiff insisted on their strict adherence. In 1571, Pius created the Congregation of the Index to give strength to the Church’s resistance to Protestant and heretical writings, and he used the Inquisition to prevent any Protestant ideas from gaining a foot hold in Italy.

In dealing with the threat of the Ottoman Turks who were advancing steadily across the Mediterranean, Pius organized a formidable alliance between Venice and Spain, culminating in the Battle of Lepanto, which was a complete and shattering triumph over the Turks. The day of the victory was declared the Feast Day of Our Lady of Victory in recognition of Our Lady’s intercession in answer to the saying of the Rosary all over Catholic Europe.

Pius also spurred the reforms of the Church by example.
He insisted upon wearing his coarse Dominican robes, even beneath the magnificent vestments worn by the popes, and was wholeheartedly devoted to the religious life. His reign was blemished only by the continuing oppression of the Inquisition; the often brutal treatment of the Jews of Rome; and the ill advised decision to excommunicate Queen Elizabeth I of England in February 1570, an act which also declared her deposed and which only worsened the plight of English Catholics. These were overshadowed in the view of later generations by his contributions to the Catholic Reformation. Pope Clement beatified him on May 1, 1672, and Pope Clement XI canonized him on May 22, 1712.

Pius V, OP Pope (RM) (also known as Michael Ghislieri) Born in Bosco (near Alessandria), Italy, on January 17, 1504; died May 1, 1572; canonized in 1712; feast day formerly on May 5. People who know nothing else about Pius V are quite apt to remember him as the Pope of the Rosary, recalling his remarkable connection with the Battle of Lepanto.

Antonio Michael was born into the distinguished but impoverished Ghisleri. His parents could not afford to educate their alert little boy, who seemed far too talented to be a shepherd. One day, as he was minding his father's small flock, two Dominicans came along the road and fell into conversation with him. Recognizing immediately that he was both virtuous and intelligent, they obtained permission from his parents to take the child with them and educate him. He left home at age 12 and did not return until his ordination many years later. After a preliminary course of studies, he received the Dominican habit at the priory of Voghera at age 14 and, as a novice, was sent to Lombardy. Here, for the first time, he met the well-organized forces of heresy which he was to combat so successfully in later years. After his ordination in 1528, he went home to say his first Mass, and he found that Bosco had been razed by the French. There was nothing left to tell him if his parents were alive or dead. He finally found them, however, in a nearby town. After he said Mass, he returned to a career that would keep him far from home for the rest of his life. He began as a lector in theology and philosophy for 16 years.

Then he served as novice-master, than as prior of several convents, Michael proved to be a wise and charitable administrator. He was made inquisitor at Como, Italy, where many of his religious brethren had died as martyrs to the heretics. By the time of Michael's appointment there, the heretics' chief weapon was the printed word; they smuggled books in from Switzerland, causing untold harm by spreading them in northern Italy. The new inquisitor set himself to fight this wicked traffic, and it was not the fault of the heretics that he did not follow his brethren to martyrdom. They ambushed him several times and laid a number of complicated plots to kill him, but only succeeded in making him determined to explain the situation more fully to the pope in Rome.

He arrived in Rome on Christmas Eve, tired, cold, and hungry, and here it was not the heretics that caused him pain, but his own brothers in Christ. The prior of Santa Sabina saw fit to be sarcastic and inhospitable to the unimportant looking friar, who said he was from Lombardy. The pope knew very well who he was, however, and immediately gave him the commission of working with the heretics in the Roman prisons.

He was a true father to these unfortunates, and he brought many of them back to the faith. One of his most appealing converts was a young Franciscan, a converted Jew of a wealthy family, who had lapsed into heresy through pride in his writing. Michael proceeded to straighten out his thinking, to give him the Dominican habit, and to assure him of his personal patronage, thus securing for the Church a splendid Scripture scholar and writer.

In 1556, Michael was chosen bishop of Nepi and Sutri. The next year he was named inquisitor general against the Protestants in Italy and Spain and was appointed cardinal, in order, as he said, that irons should be riveted to his feet to prevent him from creeping back into the peace of the cloister. In 1559, Pope Pius IV made him bishop of the war-depleted Piedmont see of Mondovi, to which he soon brought order. Insofar as possible, Michael continued to adhere to the Dominican Rule.

He constantly opposed nepotism. Michael opposed Pius IV's attempt to make 13-year-old Ferdinand de'Medici a cardinal, and defeated the attempt of Emperor Maximilian II of Germany to abolish clerical celibacy.

January 7, 1565, when the papal chair was vacant following the death of Pius IV, the cardinals, chiefly through the influence of Saint Charles Borromeo(1538-1584) elected Cardinal Ghislieri pope. With great grief, he accepted the office and chose the name Pius V. Charles Borromeo had backed Michael during the election, trusting that he would act as a much-needed reformer.
 
His judgment proved true: on Pius's coronation, the money usually distributed to the crowds was given to the hospitals and the poor, and money for a banquet for the cardinals and other dignitaries was given to poor convents. When someone criticized this, he observed that God would judge us more on our charity to the poor than on our good manners to the rich. Such an attitude was bound to make enemies in high places, but it endeared him to the poor, and it gave right-thinking men the hope that here was a man of integrity, and one who could help to reform the clergy and make a firm stand against the Lutheran heresy.
 
Pope Saint Pius V

There were massive problems of immediate urgency during the brief reign of Pius V. From within, the peace of the Church was disturbed by the several heresies of Luther, Calvin, and the Lombards, and by the need for clerical reform. In addition, England was tottering on the brink of a break with Rome. The Netherlands were trying to break away from Spain and had embraced Protestantism. The missions across the sea needed attention. And all through the Mediterranean countries, the Turkish were ravaging Christian cities, creeping closer to world conquest. In the six years of his reign, Pope Pius V had to deal with all these questions--any one of which was enough to occupy his entire time.
One of Pius's first actions was to demand that bishops should live in their dioceses and parish priests in their parishes. His efforts at regulating his see embraced issues ranging from the abolition of bullfighting, bear-baiting and prostitution, to cleaning out the Roman curia and eliminating nepotism, to cutting down the activities of bandits. He insisted that Sunday must be hallowed. Once a month he held a special court for anyone who felt they had been treated unjustly. He also brought in shipments of corn during a famine at his own expense.

In his personal life he continued to be a devout mendicant friar; as pope he set himself to enforce the decrees of the Council of Trent with energy and effect. The catechism ordered by the Council of Trent was completed during his rule (1566), and he ordered translations made. The breviary reformed (1568) and missal (1570). He also commissioned the best edition to date of the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1159); it was he who made Thomas a Doctor of the Church in 1567.

His was a rigorous character; he made full use of the Inquisition and his methods of combatting Protestantism were ruthless. Pius had hoped to convert Queen Elizabeth of England. The unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots enjoyed his sympathy and encouragement. He sent reassuring letters to her, and once, at a time when no priest was allowed to go near her, he granted her special permission to receive Holy Communion by sending her a tiny pyx that contained consecrated Hosts. It was he who finally had to pronounce excommunication on Elizabeth of England in 1570, after he had given her every possible chance of repentance.

Pius V had a high estimate of papal power in secular matters, though sometimes showing little talent for dealing with them. When he excommunicated Elizabeth I, he absolved her subjects of the allegiance to her as queen. This served only to endanger the Catholics in her realm, however, and many were accused of treason and martyred. (It is interesting to note that Elizabeth II visited Pope John XXIII at the Vatican on Pius V's original feast day, May 5, nearly four centuries later.) That he also came into conflict with Philip II of Spain shows with what consistency he applied his principles.

He encouraged the new society founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) and established the Jesuits in the Gregorian University. He consecrated three Jesuit bishops for India, gave Saint Francis Borgia (1510-1572) his greatest cooperation, and helped to finance missionaries to China and Japan. He built the church of Our Lady of the Angels for the Franciscans and helped Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595) in his establishment of the Oratory. Probably the act for which he will be longest remembered in his leadership at the time of the Battle of Lepanto.

In 1565, the Knights of Saint John defended Malta against a tremendous attack by the Turkish fleet and lost nearly every fighting man in the fortress. It was the pope who sent encouragement and money with which to rebuild their battered city. The pope called for a crusade among the Christian nations and appointed a leader who would be acceptable to all. He ordered the Forty Hours Devotion to be held in Rome, and he encouraged all to say the Rosary.

When the Christian fleet sailed out to meet the enemy, every man on board had received the sacraments, and all were saying the Rosary. The fleet was small, and numerically it was no match for the Turkish fleet, which so far had never met defeat. They met in the Bay of Lepanto on Sunday morning, October 7, 1565. After a day of bitter fighting, and, on the part of the Christians, miraculous help, the Turkish fleet--what was left of it--fled in disgrace, broken and defeated, its power crushed forever.

Before the victorious fleet returned to Rome, the pope had knowledge of the victory through miraculous means. He proclaimed a period of thanksgiving; he placed the invocation, "Mary, Help of Christians" in the Litany of Loreto and established the feast in commemoration of the victory. It was almost the last act of his momentous career for he fell victim to a painful illness that killed him in less than a year. He was attempting to form an alliance of the Italian cities, France, Poland, and other Christian nations of Europe to march against the Turks when he died. He is enshrined at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Although he was criticized for 'wanting to turn Rome into a monastery,' Saint Pius had the respect of the Roman people, who knew his personal goodness and concern for everybody's welfare. He gave large sums to the poor, lived a life of austerity and piety, and personally visited the sick in hospitals. Pius V is remembered as one of the most important popes of the Counter Reformation (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Dorcy, White).

In art, he is shown reciting a rosary; or with a fleet in the distance; or with the feet of a crucifix withdrawn as he tried to kiss them (White).

April 30, 2007 St. Pius V (1504-1572) 
This is the pope whose job was to implement the historic Council of Trent. If we think recent popes have had difficulties in implementing Vatican Council II, Pius V had even greater problems after that historic council more than four centuries ago.

During his papacy (1566-1572), Pius V was faced with the almost overwhelming responsibility of getting a shattered and scattered Church back on its feet. The family of God had been shaken by corruption, by the Reformation, by the constant threat of Turkish invasion and by the bloody bickering of the young nation-states. In 1545 a previous pope convened the Council of Trent in an attempt to deal with all these pressing problems. Off and on over 18 years, the Church Fathers discussed, condemned, affirmed and decided upon a course of action. The Council closed in 1563.

Pius V was elected in 1566 and was charged with the task of implementing the sweeping reforms called for by the Council. He ordered the founding of seminaries for the proper training of priests. He published a new missal, a new breviary, a new catechism and established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) classes for the young. Pius zealously enforced legislation against abuses in the Church. He patiently served the sick and the poor by building hospitals, providing food for the hungry and giving money customarily used for the papal banquets to poor Roman converts. His decision to keep wearing his Dominican habit led to the custom of the pope wearing a white cassock.

In striving to reform both Church and state, Pius encountered vehement opposition from England's Queen Elizabeth and the Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Problems in France and in the Netherlands also hindered Pius's hopes for a Europe united against the Turks. Only at the last minute was he able to organize a fleet which won a decisive victory in the Gulf of Lepanto, off Greece, on October 7, 1571.

Pius's ceaseless papal quest for a renewal of the Church was grounded in his personal life as a Dominican friar. He spent long hours with his God in prayer, fasted rigorously, deprived himself of many customary papal luxuries and faithfully observed the Dominican Rule and its spirit.

Comment:  In their personal lives and in their actions as popes, Pius V and Paul VI (d. 1978) both led the family of God in the process of interiorizing and implementing the new birth called for by the Spirit in major Councils. With zeal and patience, Pius and Paul pursued the changes urged by the Council Fathers. Like Pius and Paul, we too are called to constant change of heart and life.

Quote: "In this universal assembly, in this privileged point of time and space, there converge together the past, the present, and the future. The past: for here, gathered in this spot, we have the Church of Christ with her tradition, her history, her Councils, her doctors, her saints; the present: we are taking leave of one another to go out toward the world of today with its miseries, its sufferings, its sins, but also with its prodigious accomplishments, values, and virtues; and the future is here in the urgent appeal of the peoples of the world for more justice, in their will for peace, in their conscious or unconscious thirst for a higher life, that life precisely which the Church of Christ can give and wishes to give to them" (from Pope Paul's closing message at Vatican II).
1590 Bl. Miles Gerard Martyr of England.
Born near Wigan, England, he studied for the priest­hood at Reims and was ordained in 1583 . Miles was martyred at Rochester and was beatified in 1929.
1590 Bl. Francis Dickenson English convert martyr.
He was born in Yorkshire, England, and was a convert to the Church. After being ordained at Reims, France, in 1589, he returned to England and was promptly arrested. Francis was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Rochester. He was beatified in 1929.
1590 St. Gerard Miles Martyr of England with Blessed Francis Dickinson.
1590 BB. FRANCIS DICKENSON AND MILES GERARD, MARTYRS
NATIVES respectively of Yorkshire and of Lancashire, Francis Dickenson and Miles Gerard crossed over to France to be educated for the priesthood in the Douai college at Rheims. In 1589, six years after Gerard’s ordination, they were despatched on the English mission, but the ship on which they embarked was wrecked, passengers as well as crew being cast up on the Kentish coast. Either on suspicion or on information, Dickenson and Gerard were promptly arrested and cast into prison. Brought up for trial, they were condemned to death as traitors for the offence of coming to England as priests. They suffered martyrdom together at Rochester, on April 13 or 30, 1590.
See Challoner, MMP., p. 162. There is further interesting information in the state papers which preserve a record of the examinations of these two martyrs. See Catholic Record Society Publications, vol. v, pp. 171—173 and cf. Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs, pp. 314--315.

He was born in Lancashire, England, and went to Douai and Reims where he was ordained in 1583. Returning from England, he was arrested when the ship that he and Francis were using wrecked at Kent. They were arrested and hanged, drawn, and quartered at Rochester in April. They were beatified in 1929.

Blesseds Francis Dickenson and Miles Gerard MM (AC) Died at Rochester, England, 1590; beatified 1929. Francis Dickenson was born in Yorkshire and converted to Catholicism. He was educated for the priesthood at Rheims, France, ordained in 1589, and sent to the English mission, where he was martyred the following year at Rochester together with Father Gerard.
 
Miles Gerard served as a priest for a few years more than did Fr. Dickenson, perhaps because he used an alias, William Richardson. He was born near Wigan and taught school before studying for the priesthood and being ordained at Rheims in 1583 (Attwater2, Benedictines). 
1618 Bl. Mary of the Incarnation contemplative prayer frequent ecstasies often saying "The Kingdom of God is within you"received the stigmata reserved regarding mystical illuminations and always very humble responsible for at least 10,000 conversions first Carmel established in Paris OCD Widow (AC)

(also known as Madame Barbé Acarie) Born in Paris, France, in 1566; died 1618; feast day formerly April 18; beatified in 1791.
Some people wonder why God does not intervene more in the affairs of our troubled world. Perhaps He would, if there were more men and women who responded to their vocations to be saints. Nevertheless, it is wondrously amusing to see how Almighty God will insist on getting things done His way, through all sorts of individuals who unknowingly aid in the completion of his design. Barbara Avrillot, generally called Barbe, was born for a particular work to be done. Her mother, doctors and some clergy tried to put obstacles in her way, but God overcame them all.

This saintly French woman was born to well-bred Catholic parents. In fact, her father became a priest after her mother's death. Due to politics, her father lost his property. Her mother was harsh and often violent to her, so she became a timid, frightened child. Barbe was educated in a convent and wanted to be a nun, but her mother insisted on her marriage at age 16 to Pierre Acarie, formerly a King's Councillor; thus, history generally remembers Barbe as the beautiful Madame Acarie.

Pierre was a hot-headed adventurer, indolent, and critical. He censored his wife's reading and asked her confessor for a supply of books she should read on the spiritual life. This worked on behalf of God's plan by opening a new world of mystical reality to her. She was especially impressed with one sentence, "Too greedy is he for whom God does not suffice." These words transformed her whole being at age 22. She became gayer, more decisive and efficient in the management of her household. At once she reached the heights of contemplative prayer and had frequent ecstasies. These ecstasies did not sap her strength or ruin her health, nor did they interfere with her bearing six children.

Madame Acarie found it impossible to read spiritual and mystical books without immediately falling into ecstasy, so she had someone read them to her. The presence of another person generally kept her on the natural plane. As she advanced toward perfection, she gained better control over her inner life and ecstatic seizures became more infrequent. She also received the stigmata.

Her mystical life was passive, rather than active; God seized her without effort on her part. Vocal prayer, like reading, was difficult. She was very reserved regarding her mystical illuminations and always very humble.

Pierre Acarie, perhaps chagrined at his wife's spiritual progress and renown as a mystic, began studying pious books. Part II of God's plan. He had the writings of Blessed Angela de Foligno (1260-1309) translated into French for his wife, but she refused to read them. His pride hurt, he tried to make life uncomfortable for her at home and to malign her to the priests.

She never neglected her household duties. Her husband's recklessness soon reduced the family to poverty. He was always prey to get rich quick schemes. For political reasons, he was exiled (comfortably) for four years by Henry IV. Barbe used these years of independence to save her house and rehabilitate her husband's reputation. She acted on his behalf as an attorney in a legal suit and he was exonerated.

Barbe took a deep interest in her children's education, and personally trained their characters. She hated falsehood. She also did her best to combat vanity in her children. She taught her three daughters to carry themselves well and dress fashionably, for she did not want to force them into a convent. All three girls became Carmelites, and two of her sons became priests.

The grace she drew from contemplation directed and guided her in all her manifold beneficent activities and in raising her children. Her second daughter, known in religion as Marguerite du Saint- Sacrement, is regarded by the Abbé Brémond as the ideal Carmelite.

Mssr Gauthier, Councillor of State, and an intimate friend, during her canonization process said she was responsible for at least 10,000 conversions. "All who approached her were impressed by her genuine spirituality, and felt that in talking with her they were coming very close to God Himself." Therefore, she "liberated grace" in countless men and women, including many priests.

While her husband was in exile, she inspired women who often gathered in her home to form the Congrégation de Sainte- Geneviève to enable them to live a holy life in common and instruct little girls. This congregation prepared France for its first Carmelite and Ursuline houses, as most of its members joined these two new orders.

Barbe was led to write to Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) because of a vision she had of her, who told Barbe in the vision to confer with the proper authorities for the needed permission to bring the order to France. A second vision of Saint Teresa told her later to now proceed without delay. Barbe summoned her group and was joined by the visiting Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) who also fell under the spell of her sanctity. The first Carmel was established in Paris in 1606; within nine years, six more were established around France.

While she was still living with her husband, Barbe personally selected and trained many women who became Carmelites. She even counselled Carmelite superiors--ordinarily women religious do not willingly defer to a married woman; however, she had a high degree of discernment of spirits. Her home became a center for religious activity. Her husband was a troublesome interloper, and vented his irritation (probably jealousy).

Pierre Acarie died in 1613; then Barbe joined the Carmelites, but only as a lay sister, taking the name of Marie of the Incarnation. She lived in the convent of Amiens, then in Pontoise, where she died. Barbe radiated with God's love and often said, "The Kingdom of God is within you" (Benedictines, S. Delany).
1625 Blessed Benedict of Urbino lawyer Capuchin effective preacher OFM Cap. (AC).
1625 BD BENEDICT OF URBINO
THE father of Benedict of Urbino was a member of the princely family of the Passionei, and his mother was Magdalen Cibó. The little boy, Martin by name, lost both his parents before he was seven, but he was left in charge of guardians who brought him up carefully. In the University of Perugia, where he studied philosophy, as well as at Padua, where he graduated in jurisprudence, he was known as a young man of exemplary conduct. After taking his doctor’s degree he went to Rome, but finding no satisfaction in the legal career which he had chosen he decided to seek admission to the Capuchin friary at Fossombrone. This was not readily conceded on account of the opposition of his relations, but the habit was bestowed upon him at Fano in 1584. It was then that he took the name of Benedict. Even then his difficulties were by no means ended. During his novitiate he became so ill that it seemed as though he would have to leave, and although he made a good recovery it was thought that he was too delicate to be professed. That he was eventually allowed to take the vows was due entirely to the novice-master, who emphasized the extraordinary piety of the young neophyte.
Friar Benedict was for three years specially attached to the vicar general, St Laurence of Brindisi, to accompany him on his visitations in Austria and Bohemia. The missionary sermons which Benedict preached at that time brought about many conversions amongst heretics and lax Catholics. He had a great zeal for the care of God’s house, and would sometimes, even when he was a superior, take a broom and sweep out the church. He frequently preached on the passion of our Lord, upon which he meditated daily for an hour, lying on the ground with his face to the earth, and his most ardent desire was that every heart should be consumed with the fire of love which Christ came on earth to kindle. In the year 1625 he set forth in very severe weather to preach the Lenten sermons at Sassocorbaro, although he was in very poor health. He began his course on Ash Wednesday, but was too ill  to proceed. He was therefore taken back to Fossombrone, where he died on April 30.
One of Bd Benedict’s favourite sayings was: “He that hopes and trusts in God can never be lost”. He was beatified in 1867.
More than one account of his life was published in 1867, e.g. those by Eusebio a Monte­santo and Pellegrino da Forli; a later book is that of Eugenio de Potenza (1920). Cf. also Ernest-Marie de Beaulieu, Liber Memorialis O.M.Cap. (1928), pp. 258—260; and Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 147--150.

Born at Urbino, Italy; died at Fossombrone, Italy, 1625; beatified in 1867. Born into the de'Passionei family, Benedict was a lawyer in his home town before joining the Capuchins at Fano in 1584. His previous training, complemented by his faith, made him an effective preacher. He was the companion of Saint Laurence of Brindisi(1559- 1619) whom he followed to Austria and Bohemia (Attwater2, Benedictines).
1672 Blessed Marie of the Incarnation Martin, OSU (AC).

Born in Tours, France, on October 28, 1599; died in Quebec, Canada, on April 30, 1672; beatified in 1980 by John Paul II. There appears to be two beatae of the same name on this day. This Marie of the Incarnation had a very different beginning than did Mme Acarie, though she also had her roots in France.
Marie Guyard was the daughter of a baker and married a silk manufacturer named Claude Martin when she was 17. The couple had one son before Claude died two years later. Marie became a bookkeeper for her brother-in-law.

In 1629, Marie joined the Ursulines at Tours and took the name Marie of the Incarnation. Ten years later she was sent to Canada, where she laid the foundation for the first Ursuline convent in Quebec in 1641. She rebuilt the convent after fire destroyed it in 1650. As part of her apostolate, she compiled dictionaries in Algonquin and Iroquois and taught the Indians until her death.

Like Mme Acarie, Marie experienced mystical visions. She also suffered periods of spiritual aridity about which she wrote. Her letters give a valuable account of life in Quebec in 1639-71 (Delaney).
1721 Argyra The holy New Martyr lived in Proussa, Bithynia jailed for her Christianity 17 years tortured endured all with great courage and patience

She came from a pious family. She was a beautiful and virtuous woman. When she was eighteen, she married a pious Christian, and they moved into a neighborhood inhabited by many Moslems.

After only a few days, she was approached by a Turkish neighbor, the son of the Cadi (magistrate). He boldly declared his love for her, and tried to convert her to his religion. She rejected his advances, saying that she would rather die than be married to a Moslem. She did not tell her husband, fearing that he would go after the Turk and then be punished for it.

The Moslem brought her to trial and testified that she had assented to his advances, but then had laughed and said she was only joking. His lies were corroborated by false witnesses, and Argyra was sent to prison.

The saint's husband, hoping to get her a fair trial, appealed to Constantinople. There the accuser repeated his lies before the judge. St Argyra said that she was a Christian, and that she would never deny Christ. The judge ordered her to be flogged, then sentenced her to life in prison.

She was often taken from her cell, interrogated, beaten, then returned to prison. This continued for seventeen years. The saint was also insulted and tormented by the Moslem women who were incarcerated for their evil deeds. The Evil One incited them to annoy St Argyra with these torments and afflictions, but she endured all these things with great courage and patience.

According to the testimony of many Christian women who were in prison with her, she humbled her body through fasting. Her heart was filled with such love for Christ that she regarded her hardships as comforts.

A pious Christian named Manolis Kiourtzibasis sent her word that he would try to have her released, but St Argyra would not consent to this. She completed her earthly pilgrimage in the prison, receiving the crown of martyrdom on April 5, 1721.

After a few years her body was exhumed, and was found to be whole and incorrupt, emitting an ineffable fragrance. Pious priests and laymen took her body to the church of St Paraskeve on April 30, 1735 with the permission of Patriarch Paisius II.

Her relics remain there to this day, where they are venerated by Orthodox Christians from all walks of life, to the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

St Argyra's name comes from the Greek word for silver (argyre). THE NEW MARTYR ARGYRA 1688-1721 by P. Philippidou (which also contains a Service to the saint) was published in Constantinople in 1912.
1842 St. Joseph Cottolengo opened home/hospital for sick poor Piccola Casa became a great medical institution founded Daughters of Compassion Daughters of the Good Shepherd Hermits of the Holy Rosary Priests of the Holy Trinity
Chérii, apud Augústam Taurinórum, sancti Joséphi Benedícti Cottoléngo, Confessóris, Parvæ Domus a Divína Providéntia Fundatóris, summa in Deum confidéntia et caritáte in páuperes insígnis, quem Pius Papa Undécimus Sanctórum fastis adscrípsit.
    At Chieri, near Turin, St. Joseph Cottolengo, confessor, founder of the Little House of Divine Providence, full of trust in God and remarkable for his charity toward the poor, whom Pope Pius XI enrolled among the saints.

Joseph was born at Bra, near Turin, Italy. He was ordained and engaged in pastoral work. When a woman he attended died from lack of medical facilities for the poor in Turin, he opened a small home for the sick poor. When it began to expand, he organized the volunteers who had been manning it into the Brothers of St. Vincent and the Daughters of St. Vincent (Vincentian Sisters).
When cholera broke out in 1831, the hospital was closed, but he moved it just outside the city at Valdocco and continued ministering to the stricken. The hospital grew and he expanded his activities to helping the aged, the deaf, blind, crippled, insane, and wayward girls until his Piccola Casa became a great medical institution. To minister to these unfortunates, he founded the Daughters of Compassion, the Daughters of the Good Shepherd, the Hermits of the Holy Rosary, and the Priests of the Holy Trinity. Weakened by typhoid he had contracted, he died at Chieri, Italy, and was canonized in 1934.

(1786-1842)
     One day in 1827 Father Joseph Cottolengo was called upon to give the last sacraments to a young Frenchwoman who had taken ill in the city of Turin, Italy, while en route back to France with her family. Amazed at the fact that this foreign woman was dying uncared for in a slum - the only place in which she could find lodging - Cottolengo learned that there was no institution in the whole city where emergency medical care could be obtained.
     Father Joseph was a great devotee of the needy of any sort. Whenever he saw that aid was necessary, he dropped everything else until provision had been made. In this case, he at once rented five rooms in a house to serve as an emergency hospital. A good local woman supplied some beds, a doctor and a pharmacist offered their services, and soon he had five patients under care. What proved the need of such an institution was the way that the hospital grew. As more rooms were added, Father Cottolengo gathered and organized a permanent nursing staff of men and women. He called the men the Brothers of St. Vincent. The women he formed into a nursing order of nuns, the Vincentian Sisters.
     This “Volta Rossa” hospital suffered a brief setback in 1831. A cholera epidemic broke out, and the city authorities, fearing that the hospital would become a breeding ground for the disease, shut it down. Canon Cottolengo kept his cool, and simply planned to move the hospital to other quarters. Meanwhile, his nurses took care of the cholera victims in their own homes.
     The place to which the hospital was moved in 1832 was Valdocco, suburban to Turin. Not only did the transplanted emergency hospital thrive in its new locale; there soon sprang up alongside it a number of auxiliary institutions called into being by additional human needs. There was a nursing school, a building for epileptics, and others for deaf-mutes, the blind, orphans, homeless kids, prostitutes, the aged, and the mentally retarded (“My good boys and girls”, he affectionately termed his retarded children.) In the end, he had a vast complex of charitable homes.
     The most remarkable part of this “Little House of Divine Providence” is that the founder actually did leave the management completely in God's hands. He kept no books, no accounts. What he got he forthwith spent, never investing it as a cautionary or prudential measure. He even refused to put his center under royal patronage as a security, and would allow no endowments. Whenever a need arose, therefore, he trusted that the God who had allowed it to arise would provide funds to deal with it.
     Some would think it a folly to start and maintain institutions without knowing where the funds were coming from. But St. Joseph Cottolengo did know where they were coming from. If he had no source of money, he had a battery of people praying for it - various organizations and religious orders that he had founded especially to storm heaven for aid. His center was not called the Little House of Divine Providence in vain. He really did challenge God to provide for the good works. And God never failed him.
     Most of this saint's institutions continue to flourish today. That says something, doesn't it, about the wisdom of trusting in a heavenly Father? Remember, it was He who once said to His people through Isaiah: “Can a mother forget her infant be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget I will never forget you!” (49: 15).
St. Joseph Cottolengo, pray that we may always trust bravely in God's assistance!-- Father Robert F. McNamara
1922 Pandita Mary Ramabai i ihr Werk leiten und den elenden Frauen Indiens helfen.
Anglikanische Kirche: 30. April Evangelische Kirche: 5. April

Ramabai Sarasvati, Tochter eines gelehrten Brahmanen, wurde 1858 im Distrikt Mangalur geboren. Ihr Vater stand einer Frau das gleiche Recht zur geistigen Bildung zu wie einem Mann und lehrte sie die indische Weisheit und die Philosophie der Veden. Mit 16 Jahren war sie gegen alle herrschende Sitte noch unverheiratet, als ihre Eltern bei der großen Hungersnot alle Habe verloren und an Hungertyphus starben. Pandita Ramabais Bruder fand in Kalkutta eine Stellung als Lehrer und Pandita Ramabai wurde zur Vorkämpferin der indischen Frauenbewegung. Sie wies in Vorträgen aus den heiligen Büchern nach, daß die übliche Kinderheirat und das Elend der Witwen nicht im Einklang mit der alten Weisheitslehre stünden. Die gelehrten Brahmanen Kalkuttas verliehen ihr den Titel Pandita (Professor). Sie heiratete einen Juristen, der nach kurzer Ehe starb. Um ihre Aufgabe besser durchführen zu können, ging sie mit ihrer Tochter nach England und hielt hier Vorträge über das Elend der indischen Frauen und schrieb ein Buch 'Die Hindufrau höherer Kasten'. In Fulham lernte sie die Schwestern vom Kreuz kennen und beschloß, Jesus nachzufolgen.
Michaelis 1883 ließ sie sich und ihre Tochter taufen. Die zahlreichen Spenden aus Europa und Amerika ermöglichten es ihr, in Puna ein Waisenheim für Kinderwitwen einzurichten, in dem sie mit 40 bis 60 Witwen zusammenlebte. Als 1897 eine Hungersnot ausbrach, die auch die Mittel des Staates überforderte, half Pandita Ramabai, wo sie konnte. Zweihundert Mädchen und Frauen, die sie vor dem Hungertod bewahren konnte, siedelte sie auf ihrem Land in Kelagon an. In den drei Jahren der Hungersnot sammelte sie insgesamt 1.200 Menschen ein, die in dem Dorf 'Mukti' (Stätte der Rettung) eine neue Heimat fanden. Das Dorf hatte schließlich fast 2.000 Bewohner, die in handwerklichen und landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben arbeiten konnten. Ihre Tochter arbeitete als Lehrerin in ihrem Haus in Puna.
Die von Pandita Ramabai ausgebildeten Lehrerinnen und Krankenpflegerinnen waren in Indien sehr angesehen und begehrt. 1904 gründete sie außerdem eine Bibelschule um Missionarinnen auszubilden. 1905 kam es zu einer Erweckung unter den Bewohnern, über 1.000 von ihnen ließen sich taufen. Bis zu ihrem Tod am 5.4.1922 konnte Pandita Ramabai ihr Werk leiten und den elenden Frauen Indiens helfen.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 340

Lady, my heart hath not been exalted: nor have mine eyes been lifted up.

The Lord hath blessed thee in His power: who by thee hath reduced to naught our enemies.

Blessed be He who hath sanctified thee: and who hath brought thee forth pure from thy mother's womb.

Blessed be He who hath overshadowed thee: and by His grace hath given thee fecundity.

Bless us, O Lady, and strengthen us in thy grace: that by thee we may be presented before the sight of the Lord.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Pasqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
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