Mary Mother of GOD
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.

August 20 - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church (d. 1152) 
 Mary is the necessary ‘star’ for us to ‘navigate’ in this world
Saint Bernard knows that only God's strength is our force.
His admiration for the divine plan of salvation focuses on the mystery of the Incarnate Word.
However, for God and humankind to achieve union, the Lord has provided for the singular contribution of a creature—the Virgin Mary. This made Saint Bernard say: "Let us strive to go to the Savior by the same route he followed to come to us…" and "When we think about her, we do not stray."
The major importance of Mary derives from the fact that she helped to bring humanity closer to God and to make God more accessible to humanity. Mary's greatness also lies in terms of personal and moral responsibility in the answer—so crucial for the rest of humanity—that Mary gave on the day of the Annunciation.
Mary is the necessary ‘star’ for us to ‘navigate’ in this world.
Saint Bernard’s thought is not really new—he borrowed this thought from the Fathers of the Church. (He is sometimes considered the last Father of the Church). His enthusiastic style earned him the title of Champion of Our Lady.  
The Mary of Nazareth Team

CAUSES OF SAINTS

A wonderful story
In 1134, three French knights participating in the crusades were taken prisoner by the Sultan of Egypt.
Their captors tried to make them apostatize. The sultan even sent his very attractive daughter Ismenia to convince them. But the three men evangelized her. Converted, Ismenia asked the knights to carve for her the image of the Virgin Mary. Overnight the knights made a small statuette of black wood representing the Madonna holding her son standing on her knees. When they woke up, the statue was shining with a dazzling, miraculous light.
The next night Our Lady appeared to Ismenia and said:
"I have prayed to my Son and Lord on your behalf. He has deigned to choose you as his faithful and beloved servant. You will save my three devoted knights from prison, and will be baptized ... and later I will receive you forever in my paradise." The knights set out upon their escape. They crossed the Nile, then fell asleep from exhaustion.
To their amazement, they woke up in Liance, France! The three crusaders built a shrine there in thanksgiving.
The princess Ismenia solemnly renounced the Koran, and received the Christian name of Mary at her baptism on September 8, 1134. In the 15th century, Liance changed its name to Liesse, which means "Joy" in French,
since the Virgin Mary filled the pilgrims with so much joy at her shrine!


Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List  Here
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

           
         

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

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”, 
showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.


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'



On the Fifth day of the Afterfeast of the Dormition
 August 20 – Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church (d. 1152)
1146 B. C. Samuel, dedicated to service of the Lord before birth, prophet; the 15th and last of the Judges of Israel
During Papacy of St. Theophilus. [COPTIC] Commemoration of the Great Sign, the Lord had Manifested
  75 St. Amadour witness martyrdom of Sts. Peter Paul  miracles at the site
310 St. Lucius martyr with companions in Cyrene, Ptolemais, Africa; converted governor Dignian
362 St. Heliodorus Persian martyr King Shapur II deported 9,000 Christians 300 for torture and death.
 470 St. Maximus Abbot Founder a disciple of St. Martin of Tours
 
651 St  Oswin, Martyr;  a monastery at Gilling; incursion prayers over the body of St Oswin

 852 St. Leovigild and Christopher Martyrs of Cordoba, Spain
 960 St. Edbert King of Northumbria became a Benedictine monk
1148 WILLIAM OF ST. THIERRY: CANTOR OF LOVE
1153 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Abbot Doctor of the Church eminently endowed with the gift of miracles
1866 Bd Mary De Mattias, Virgin, Foundress of The Sisters Adorers of The Precious Blood
1912 1890 Wilhelm und Katharina Booth Anglikanische Kirche: 20. August

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.


August 20 - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux - Doctor of the Church (d. 1153)  "Full of Heavenly Dew
Now, O Mother of Mercy, the moon, humbly prostrate at your feet, devoutly implores you,
her Mediatrix with the Sun of justice, begging you by the most sincere feeling of her heart that in your light she might see light and merit the grace of your Son by your procuring.

For he truly loves you more than all others and has adorned you, dressing you in a robe of glory (cf. Sir 6:31) and placing a crown of beauty on your head." (cf. Ezek 16:12).
"You are full of graces (cf. Lk 1:28), full of heavenly dew, resting upon your beloved’s shoulder, sated with delight," (cf. Song 8/5).

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Excerpt from Sermo infra Octavam Assumptionis 14-15; PL 183, 437-38, The Sword of Simeon

Jesus Christ said, " This is my Body. " You say, " No. It is not His Body!" Who am I to believe?
I prefer to believe Jesus Christ.  
-- St. Dominic Barberi

From the House of the Holy Trinity, that is, the Virgin Mary
Thus, this Wisdom who was God's wisdom, and was God, and who came to us from the bosom of the Father, built himself a house, I am referring to the Virgin Mary his mother, and in that house he carved seven columns.

What do I mean by 'he carved seven columns in that house?' I mean that he prepared it by faith and works to be a dwelling worthy of himself. The number three is the number of the faith because of the Holy Trinity, and the number four is the number of morals because of the four principal virtues.

I say therefore, that the Holy Trinity dwelled in the blessed Mary, through the presence of her majesty, although she received only the Son when he took on the human nature: and I know it from the same heavenly messenger who revealed to her in these terms the secret of this mystery: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee... (Luke 1: 28)

Saint Bernard, Fifty-Second Sermon.
Of the House of Divine Wisdom, that is, the Virgin Mary

 
Pope Encourages Personal Relationship With Christ Points to Example of St. Bernard of Clairvaux
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).
Only Jesus is "joy to the heart," says Benedict XVI, citing words from St. Bernard of Clairvaux.  The Pope reflected today during the general audience on this 12th century saint, highlighting his personal relationship with Christ.

According to the Holy Father, "in a more than decisive way, the abbot of Clairvaux configures the theologian to the contemplative and the mystic. Only Jesus -- insists Bernard in face of the complex dialectical reasoning of his time -- only Jesus is 'honey to the mouth, song to the ear, joy to the heart.'" Ideas like this one, noted the Pontiff, won the saint his traditional title: "Doctor Mellifluus: his praise of Jesus Christ, in fact, 'runs like honey.'" Benedict XVI observed that "the abbot of Clairvaux does not tire of repeating that only one name counts, that of Jesus the Nazarene. 'Arid is all food of the soul,' [the saint] confesses, 'if it is not sprinkled with this oil; insipid, if it is not seasoned with this salt. What is written has no flavor for me, if I have not read Jesus.' And he concludes: 'When you discuss or speak, nothing has flavor for me, if I have not heard resound the name of Jesus.'"
The Pope said Bernard's concept of true knowledge of God consists in a "personal, profound experience of Jesus Christ and of his love.  And this, dear brothers and sisters," he said, "is true for every Christian: Faith is above all a personal, intimate encounter with Jesus, and to experience his closeness, his friendship, his love; only in this way does one learn to know him ever more, and to love and follow him ever more. May this happen to each one of us."

Gaze At the Star! Aug 20 - Saint Bernard
O man, whoever you are, carried along by the tide of this world, tossed adrift among its storms and tempests,
never take your eyes from the light of this star.
When the winds of temptation are unleashed upon you, when you are washed up on the reefs of adversity,
fix your eyes on the star, and call to Mary!
If you are tossed on the waves of pride, ambition or jealousy, look at the star and cry out for Mary!
If anger or greed or the beguiling charms of the flesh rock the vessel of your soul, gaze at Mary.
When, racked by the enormity of your sins, ashamed that your conscience is sullied or in terror of the threat of judgment, you are swallowed up by the abyss of sorrow or plunged into the depths of despair, think of Mary.
When you are in danger, distress or desperate situations, call for Mary, cry out to Mary!
Oh, that her name may never leave your lips, may never leave your heart; never cease to imitate her life so that you may obtain the favor of her prayers. (...)
And your own experience will show you the rightness of calling out that word: the name of the virgin was Mary!
St Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) Excerpt from his second homily "Super Missus"

August 20: OUR LADY OF BERNARD'S « AVE » (12th Century)
Why Would Human Weakness be Afraid to Draw Near Mary?
Why would human weakness be afraid to draw near Mary? There is nothing austere or terrible in her,
she is all sweetness and has only milk and wool to offer us.
Read attentively the whole Gospel story and if you find in Mary a single word of reproof, a single harsh word, the smallest mark of indignation, I will allow you to suspect her for the rest, and to be afraid to go near her. But on the contrary, if you find her instead, on every occasion, as you will indeed, full of grace and kindness,
full of mercy and sweetness, give thanks to Him who, in his infinitely sweet mercy,
gave you a mediatrix such that you will never have anything to fear from her.
After all, she made herself completely available to all, and through her immense charity, obliging fools as well as wise.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (+1152) Doctor of the Church
Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of the Assumption of Mary

1146 B. C. Samuel, dedicated to service of the Lord before birth, prophet; the 15th and last of the Judges of Israel
During Papacy of St. Theophilus. [COPTIC] Commemoration of the Great Sign, the Lord had Manifested
  75 St. Amadour witness martyrdom of Sts. Peter Paul  miracles at the site
           
Marytrs of Thrace; a group of 37 martyrs who suffered in Thrace, in modern northern Greece.
300 Romæ beáti Porphyrii, qui fuit homo Dei, et sanctum Mártyrem Agapítum (Aug 19) erudívit in fide et doctrína Christi.
310 St. Lucius martyr Martyrs with companions in Cyrene, Ptolemais, Africa; converted the governor Dignian
362 St. Heliodorus Persian martyr King Shapur II deported 9,000 Christians but kept 300 for torture and death.
406 In Judæa sancti Samuélis Prophétæ, cujus sacra ossa (ut beátus Hierónymus scribit) Arcádius Augústus Constantinópolim tránstulit, et prope Séptimum collocávit.
 470 St. Maximus Abbot Founder a disciple of St. Martin of Tours
 
651 St  Oswin, Martyr;  a monastery at Gilling; incursion prayers over the body of St Oswin, whose shrine was made illustrious by miracles, was translated to Tynemouth
 662 St. Haduin founded Norte Dame d'Evron
 685 St Philibert, Abbot; founder; miracles
 852 St. Leovigild and Christopher Martyrs of Cordoba, Spain
 960 St. Edbert King of Northumbria became a Benedictine monk
1148 WILLIAM OF ST. THIERRY: CANTOR OF LOVE
1153 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Abbot and Doctor of the Church eminently endowed with the gift of miracles see Also John of Salisbury introduced Bernard JOHN OF SALISBURY: NATURAL LAW MUST INSPIRE POSITIVE LAW
1155 St. Bernard of Valdeiglesias Patron saint of Candelada, Spain; a monk at Valdeiglesias, possibly a Cistercian.
1158 St. Ronald martyr warrior chieftain fulfilling the pledge by erecting the cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall.
1180 St. Herbert Hoscam Archbishop Patron saint of Conze, Italy; English by birth served as prelate of Basilicata area.
1240 St. Manetto On Mount Senario in Tuscany, the birthday of, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who died as he was repeating a hymn to her.  His feast, with that of his companions, is kept on 12 February.
1866 Bd Mary De Mattias, Virgin, Foundress of The Sisters Adorers of The Precious Blood
1912 1890 Wilhelm und Katharina Booth Anglikanische Kirche: 20. August



1146 B. C. Samuel, (which means "besought from God")
dedicated to service of the Lord before birth, prophet; the 15th and last of the Judges of Israel
In Judæa sancti Samuélis Prophétæ, cujus sacra ossa (ut beátus Hierónymus scribit) Arcádius Augústus Constantinópolim tránstulit, et prope Séptimum collocávit.
    In Judea, the holy prophet Samuel, whose holy relics (as is related by St. Jerome) were taken to Constantinople by Emperor Arcadius, and deposited near Septimum.

Samuel, who was dedicated to the service of the Lord before his birth, became a prophet. He anointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. During his lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. Every year, Samuel used to go on a circuit judging for Israel between Ramah, Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh. He lead Israel against the Philistines in Mizpeh.

In the Old Testament, the Lord was instructing the children of Israel in dreams and visions to His prophets and priests. There were several periods during which the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord by worshipping idols. During those periods the word of the Lord became rare and there were not many visions. The Lord also delivered them to the hands of their enemies until they repented and returned to Him. He then gave them prophets and judges to lead them to His way and to rescue them from their oppressors.

 The Prophet Samuel was the fifteenth and last of the Judges of Israel, living more than 1146 years before the Birth of Christ. He was descended from the Tribe of Levi, and was the son of Elkanah from Ramathaim-Zophim of Mount Ephraim. He was born, having been besought from the Lord through the prayers of his mother Hannah (therefore he received the name Samuel, which means "besought from God"). Even before birth, he was dedicated to God. Her song, "My heart exults in the Lord," is the Third Ode of the Old Testament (1 Sam/1 Kings 2:1-10).

When the boy reached the age of three, his mother went with him to Shiloh and in accord with her vow dedicated him to the worship of God. She gave him into the care of the High Priest Eli, who at this time was a judge over Israel. The prophet grew in the fear of God, and at twelve years of age he had a revelation that God would punish the house of the High Priest Eli, because he did not restrain the impiety of his sons. Eli's whole family was wiped out in a single day.

The prophecy was fulfilled when the Philistines, having slain in battle 30,000 Israelites (among them were also the sons of the High Priest, Hophni and Phinees), gaining victory and capturing the Ark of the Covenant. Hearing this, the High Priest Eli fell backwards from his seat at the gate, and breaking his back, he died. The wife of Phinees, upon hearing what had happened in this very hour, gave birth to a son (Ichabod) and died with the words: "The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God is taken away" (1 Sam/1 Kgs 4: 22).

Upon the death of Eli, Samuel became the judge of the nation of Israel. The Ark of God was returned by the Philistines on their own initiative. After returning to God, the Israelites returned to all the cities that the Philistines had taken. In his old age, the Prophet Samuel made his sons Joel and Abiah judges over Israel, but they did not follow the integrity and righteous judgment of their father, since they were motivated by greed.

Then the elders of Israel, wanting the nation of God to be "like other nations" (1 Sam/1 Kgs 8: 20), demanded of the Prophet Samuel that they have a king. The Prophet Samuel anointed Saul as king, but saw in this a downfall of the people, whom God Himself had governed until this time, announcing His will through His chosen saints. Resigning the position of judge, the Prophet Samuel asked the people if they consented to his continued governance, but no one stepped forward for him.

After denouncing the first king, Saul, for his disobedience to God, the Prophet Samuel anointed David as king. He had offered David asylum, saving him from the pursuit of King Saul. The Prophet Samuel died in extreme old age. His life is recorded in the Bible (1 Sam/1 Kgs; Sirach 46:13-20).
In the year 406 A.D. the relics of the Prophet Samuel were transferred from Judea to Constantinople.
During Papacy of St. Theophilus. [COPTIC] Commemoration of the Great Sign, the Lord had Manifested

On this day, the church celebrates the commemoration of the great miracle which God performed during the papacy of St. Theophilus, the twenty-third pope of Alexandria. There was in the city of Alexandria, a Jewish man whose name was Philexinos. He was very rich, feared God and practiced the Law of Moses. There was also in the city two poor Christian men, one of them blasphemed saying, "Why do we worship Christ and remain poor, while this Jewish man Philexinos is very rich?" The other man answered him saying, "The possessions of this world are nothing before God, for if it was, He would not give it to the worshippers of idols, adulterers, thieves, and murderers. The prophets were poor and persecuted, as also the apostles were, and the Lord said, 'the least of these my brethren'" (Matthew 25:40). Satan, the enemy of good, would not permit that man to accept any of the words of his friend. The rebellious friend went to Philexinos the Jew and asked him to accept him as his servant. Philexinos replied, "It is not lawful for me to employ anyone unless he believes in my faith, but if you want alms, I can give some to you." This miserable man replied, "Take me to your house, and I will adopt your faith and I will do whatsoever you command me."

Philexinos took him to the synagogue and the chief of the Jews asked him before all the Jewish congregation saying, "Is it true that you have denied your Christ and become a Jew like us?" He replied, "Yes," and that debased man rejected Christ the Lord before the Jewish congregation. Thus to poverty in money he added poverty in Faith. Then the chief of the Jews commanded them to make for him a cross of wood. They gave him a reed, on the top of which was a sponge full of vinegar, and a spear. Then they said to him, "Spit upon this cross, offer to him this vinegar, and pierce the cross with this spear and say, 'I pierce you O Christ.'" That debased man did everything as they commanded him. When he pierced the honorable cross with his sinful hand, blood and water flowed forth, and ran down on the ground. Then this apostate dropped dead instantly, and dried up like a rock.

Great fear fell upon all those who were present, many of them believed and cried, saying, "One is the Lord God of the Christians, and we believe in Him." Then they took the blood, and anointed their faces and eyes with it. Philexinos took also some of the blood and sprinkled it on his daughter who was born blind, and she saw straightway. He believed as well as his household, and many others of the Jews. Afterwards, they informed Pope Theophilus about this incident. He took Abba Kyrellos (Pope Kyrellos I), many of the priests and people, and went to the synagogue of the Jews, where he saw the cross, the blood and water. The Pope took the blood and water, blessed himself and also blessed the people. He wiped the blood from the floor, and laid it in a vessel for blessing. He ordered the wooden cross carried to the church. Afterwards those present confessed their faith before the Pope who baptized them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and blessed them. Then they went to their homes giving thanks to the Lord Christ and glorifying his Holy Name.
Glory be to our God forever. Amen
75 St. Amadour witness martyrdom of Sts. Peter Paul miracles happening at the site
ST AMADOUR  is honoured in Quercy and the Limousin as founder of the shrine of our Lady now known as Rocamadour, and as the first hermit of Gaul. There is in fact nothing whatever known about him, neither of the events ol his life nor the age in which he lived, nor even that he ever existed. His legend was first written some time after the discovery at Rocamadour in 1166 of an incorrupt body.  The hypothesis that St Amadour was an early solitary in the valley of Alzou and gave his name to the spot is not supported by a shadow of evidence.
  According to the fiction, Amadour was a servant of the Holy Family: afterwards married St Veronica. Driven from Palestine by persecution, they landed in Gaul and, under the direction of St Martial (who lived not in the first but in the third century), evangelized the neighbourhood of Bordeaux and Cahors.  Amadour was sent to Rome to report Martial's progress to St Peter, where he was present at the martyrdom of the Apostles; on his return he continued his preaching, founded monasteries, and, after the death of Veronica, retired to his lonely cell in Quercy where he built the chapel of our Lady which became the great sanctuary. 
In the fifteenth century a fresh turn was given to this legend when St Amadour was gratuitously identified with the Zaccheus of St Luke xix. The finding of the incorrupt body of  St Amadour" is remembered in the popular saying, "With skin and bones like Amadour."

The curious and manifestly incredible legend of St Amadour, owing to popularity of the shrine and pilgrimage of Rocamadour, has attracted much attention in France. The subject has been critically and soberly dealt with by E. Rupin, first in his monograph Roe-Amadour; étude historique et archéologique (1904); and then in his Légende de Saint Amadour (1909).  In this last he replied convincingly to the booklet Notre-Dante de Roc-Amadour (1908) written by an uncritical assailant, J. T. Layral.  Cf. also the article of E. Albe, "La vie et les miracles de S. Amator" in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxviii (1909), pp. 57-90.  In this the fictitious character of the whole tradition is made apparent by another line of argument.

  Hermit of legend, also called Amator. Tradition records that he was a servant in the house of the Holy Family. He is supposed to have married St. Veronica, going with her to Gaul (modern France) where they spread the Christian faith around Bordeaux. Amadour is also recorded as having gone to Rome to witness the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul. He returned to Gaul and after the death of St. Veronica he became a hermit at Quircy, France, where he built a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary. A shrine called Rocamadour did exist and was a great pilgrimage site at one time. 

Communal chief town of the canton of Gramat, district of Gourdon, Department of Lot, in the Diocese of Cahors and the ancient province of Quercy. This village by the wonderful beauty of its situation merits the attention of artists and excites the curiosity of archæologists; but its reputation is due especially to its celebrated sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin which for centuries has attracted pilgrims from every country, among them kings, bishops, and nobles.

 A curious legend purported to explain the origin of this pilgrimage has given rise to controversies between critical and traditional schools, especially in recent times. According to the latter, Rocamadour is indebted for its name to the founder of the ancient sanctuary, St. Amadour, who was none other than Zacheus of the Gospel, husband of St. Veronica, who wiped the Saviour's face on the way to Calvary. Driven forth from Palestine by persecution, Amadour and Veronica embarked in a frail skiff and, guided by an angel, landed on the coast of Aquitaine, where thy met Bishop St. Martial, another disciple of Christ who was preaching the Gospel in the south-west of Gaul. After journeying to Rome, where he witnessed the martydoms of Sts. Peter and Paul, Amadour, having returned to France, on the death of his spouse, withdrew to a wild spot in Quercy where he built a chapel in honour of the Blessed Virgin, near which he died a little later. This marvellous account, like most other similar legends, unfortunately does not make its first appearance till long after the age in which the chief actors are deemed to have lived. The name of Amadour occurs in no document previous to the compilation of his Acts, which on careful examination and on an application of the rules of the cursus to the text cannot be judged older than the twelfth century. It is now well established that St. martial, Amadour's contemporary in the legend, lived in the third not the first century, and Rome has never included him among the members of the Apostolic College. The mention, therefore, of St. martial in the Acts of St. Amadour would alone suffice, even if other proof were wanting, to prove them a forgery. The untrustworthiness of the legend has led some recent authors to suggest that Amadour was an unknown hermit or possible St. Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, but this is mere hypothesis, without any historical basis. Although the origin of the sanctuary of Rocamadour, lost in antiquity, is thus first set down along with fabulous traditions which cannot bear the light of sound criticism, yet it is undoubted that this spot, hallowed by the prayers of innumerable multitudes of pilgrims, is worthy of our veneration. After the religious manifestations of the Middle Ages, Rocamadour, as a result of war and revolution, had become almost deserted. Recently, owing to the zeal and activity of the bishops of Cahors, it seems to have revived and pilgrims are beginning to crown there again

The Black Madonna of Rocamadour
Rocamadour owes its origin to St Amadour, who, according to tradition, chose the place as a hermitage for his devotions to the Virgin Mary. This famous place of pilgrimage, is most strikingly situated. Its buildings rise in stages up the side of a cliff on the right bank of the Alzou (Dordogne - France), which here runs between rocky walls 400 ft. in height. Flights of steps ascend from the lower town to the churchesa group of massive buildings half-way up the cliff. The chief of them is the church of NotreDame (1479), containing the wooden figure of the Madonna reputed to have been carved by St Amadour.

Rocamadour (250 km east from Bordeaux) became as important pilgrimage place in the Christian West as Santiago de Compostella, thanks to the progress of the Marian cult and thanks to the discovery, in 1166, of the body of St. Amadour. Tradition records that he was a servant in the house of the Holy Family. St. Amadour, who was none other than Zacheus of the Gospel, husband of St. Veronica, who wiped the Saviour's face on the way to Calvary. Driven forth from Palestine by persecution, Amadour and Veronica embarked in a frail skiff and, guided by an angel, landed on the coast of Aquitaine, where thy met Bishop St. Martial, another disciple of Christ who was preaching the Gospel in the south-west of Gaul. After journeying to Rome, where he witnessed the martydoms of Sts. Peter and Paul, Amadour, having returned to France, on the death of his spouse, withdrew to a wild spot in Quercy where he built a chapel in honour of the Blessed Virgin, near which he died a little later. The shrine, called Rocamadour, sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin, has attracted pilgrims for centuries from every country, among them kings, bishops, and nobles.

Reports of miracles happening at the site spread rapidly. King Henry Plantagenet was one of the first pilgrims to come to Rocamadour to find a miraculous cure. St. Louis IX of France followed in the next century, and Rocamadour became as important as Mont St. Michel as a pilgrimage destination. Few people know that Rocamadour has thus become the second most visited site in France – after Mont St. Michel’s 12th century monastery.

Today’s visitors is advised to avoid the traditional activity of climbing up the 216 stone steps on one’s knees, but instead to sign up for a guided walking tour on one’s feet. This fascinating tour will take you to four of the seven medieval chapels built into the rock, one of which contains the mysterious Black Madonna, venerated for over a thousand years. You’ll hear wonderful legends of how the body of St. Amadour was miraculously preserved for 1100 years; how the ancient bell rings itself when a miracle occurs at sea; how the sword in the rock you see in front of you is really the famous sword of Roland...Near the tomb of St. Amadour is the Church of the Black Madonna and the Mircaulous Bell.
Saint Philip was Bishop of Heraclea, and suffered martyrdom with Sts Severus, Memnon, and thirty-seven others in Thrace during the third century.  He was thrown into a fiery oven after his hands and feet were amputated.

Marytrs of Thrace; a group of 37 martyrs who suffered in Thrace, in modem northern Greece.
In Thrácia sanctórum trigínta septem Mártyrum, qui, sub Præside Apelliáno, pro Christi fide, mánibus pedibúsque præcísis, in camínum ardéntem injécti sunt.
    In Thrace, in the time of the governor Apellian, thirty-seven holy martyrs, who had their hands and feet cut off for the faith of Christ, and were cast into a burning furnace.
Ibídem sanctórum Mártyrum Sevéri, et Memnónis Centuriónis; qui, eódem mortis génere consummáti, victóres abiérunt in cælum.
   Also, holy martyrs Severus, centurion Memnon, who, suffering the same kind of death, went victoriously to heaven.
Their names are Orion, Antilinus, Molias, Eudemon, Silvanus, Sabinus, Eustathius, Straton, Bosua of Byzantium, Timothy, Palmatus, Mestus, Nikon, Difilus, Dometian, Maximus, Neophytus, Victor, Rinus, Satorninus, Epaphroditus, Cercanus, Gaius, Zoticus, Cronion, Anthony, Horus, Zoilus, Tyrannus, Agathon, Panstenus [Parthenias], Achilles, Panthyrias, Chrysanthus, Athenodorus, Pantoleon, Theosebius, Genephlius of Philippopolis.  
Their feet and hands were sliced off and then they were cast into a furnace.
300 Romæ beáti Porphyrii, qui fuit homo Dei, et sanctum Mártyrem Agapítum erudívit in fide et doctrína Christi.
    At Rome, blessed Porphyry, a man of God, who instructed the holy martyr Agapitus in the faith and doctrine of Christ.

310 St. Lucius martyr Martyrs with companions in Cyrene, Ptolemais, Africa.
In Cypro sancti Lúcii Senatóris, qui, perspécta constántia Theodóri, Cyrenénsis Epíscopi, in martyrio pósiti, ad Christi fidem est convérsus, et ad eam étiam Digniánum Præsidem pertráxit; cum eóque Cyprum proféctus, ibi, cum álios Christiános pro confessióne Dómini coronári vidéret, ultro se ipsum óbtulit, et cápitis obtruncatióne eándem martyrii corónam proméruit.
    In Cyprus, St. Lucius, senator, who was converted to the faith on seeing the constancy of Theodore, bishop of Cyrene, during his martyrdom.  He also converted the governor Dignian, with whom he set out for Cyprus, where, seeing other Christians crowned for the confession of the Lord, he offered himself voluntarily, and merited the same crown of martyrdom by beheading.
Martyr Lucius, a senator, was beheaded by the sword on the island of Crete in the year 310 for confessing his faith in Christ.
362 St. Heliodorus Persian martyr King Shapur II deported 9,000 Christians but kept 300 for torture and death.
With Abdiso, Dausa, and Mariahle, martyrs of Persia.
The Martyrs Heliodorus and Dosa suffered for Christ in Persia under the emperor Sapor II, in the year 380.
406 In Judæa sancti Samuélis Prophétæ, cujus sacra ossa (ut beátus Hierónymus scribit) Arcádius Augústus Constantinópolim tránstulit, et prope Séptimum collocávit.
    In Judea, the holy prophet Samuel, whose holy relics (as is related by St. Jerome) were taken to Constantinople by Emperor Arcadius, and deposited near Septimum.
470 St. Maximus Abbot Founder a disciple of St. Martin of Tours.
In castro Cainóne, in Gállia, sancti Máximi Confessóris, qui éxstitit discípulus beáti Mártini Epíscopi.
    At Chinon, St. Maximus, confessor, disciple of the blessed bishop Martin.
called Mesme. Maximus founded Chinon Abbey in Tours.

651 St  Oswin, Martyr;  a monastery at Gilling; incursion prayers over the body of St Oswin, whose shrine was made illustrious by miracles, was translated to Tynemouth
When his father Osric, King of Deira, was killed by the British Cadwallon in 633, the young Oswin was taken into Wessex for safety, where he was baptized and educated; but after the death of the great prince St Oswald in 642 he returned to the north and took possession of his kingdom. He governed it with virtue, prudence and prosperity.
  The Venerable Bede relates how, having rebuked St Aidan for giving away to a beggar a horse the king had given him, Oswin accepted Aidan's correction and apologized. Whereupon Aidan said to his attendants in the Irish language, which the king and his courtiers did not understand, that he was assured so humble and so good a king would not live long, because the nation was not worthy of such a ruler. His prediction was soon verified.
 Oswin incurred the jealousy of his cousin Oswy, King of Bernicia, the two felt out, and Oswy declared a state of open warfare. Oswin, seeing his own weakness and being desirous to spare human blood (or, as St Bede says, from simple prudence, but doubtless for both considerations), dismissed his forces at a place called Wilfaresdon, near Catterick.  Attended with one faithful he retired to Gilling, near Richmond in Yorkshire, which estate he had lately bestowed on one Hunwald.
  Oswy ordered his reeve, Ethelwin, to find Oswin and kill him. Hunwald treacherously betrayed his guest; Oswin and his thegn were slain together, and buried at Gilling.
  Queen Eanfleda, daughter to St Edwin and wife of Oswy, founded a monastery at Gilling, in which prayers might be ever offered up for both kings.  It was afterwards destroyed by the Danes, before whose incursions the body of St Oswin, whose shrine was made illustrious by miracles, was translated to Tynemouth.  Here it was lost sight of during the Danish troubles, but in 1065 a monk of Tynemouth discovered it in consequence of a vision, and it was accordingly enshrined again in the year 1100.
We know little of St Oswin beyond what is told us in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, bk iii, ch 14. There is, however, a twelfth-century life with two homilies and some liturgical matter. This has been used by Plummer in his notes to Bede. See also Stanton's Menology, pp. 401-403 .
685 St Philibert, Abbot; founder; miracles
In Hério ínsula sancti Philibérti Abbátis.    In the island of Hermoutier, St. Philibert, abbot.
He was born about 608 in Gascony.  His father, Philibaud, having received holy orders, was made bishop of Aire, and the young Philibert was educated under the eyes of his father, who sent him to the court of Dagobert I.  Here the example and instructions of the chancellor, St Ouen, made so deep an impression on him that at the age of twenty years he took the habit in the abbey of Rebais, founded by Ouen.  He was appointed successor to St Aile in the government of this house, but left it on finding some of the monks refractory, and his own inability through inexperience to deal with them.
  After having visited many monasteries to study various observances, he retired into Neustria, where Clovis II gave him ground in the forest of Jumièges.  Here he founded a monastery in 654, and the community of Jumièges increased in a short time to a large number of monks.  He also built a monastery for women, at Pavilly. St Philibert, having some business at the court, boldly reproached Ebroin, mayor of the palace, for his many acts of injustice. This brought on him the vengeance of that minister, who slandered him to St Ouen; in consequence Philibert was imprisoned for a time at Rouen and obliged to quit Jumiêges.
 The saint then retired to Poitiers, and afterward to the little island of Herio, on the coast of Poitou, where he founded a monastery later called Noirmoutier.  He likewise founded the priory of Quincay, near Poitiers, the government of which he gave to St Achard, whom he afterwards made abbot of JumiIges.  These he peopled with monks from his first foundation.  He had a further responsibility put upon him when Ansoald, Bishop of Poitiers, founded a monastery at Luçon, which he put under the supervision of St Philibert, who was remembered for his concern for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the lay neighbours of his various houses.
There is an early life of St Philibert which has been printed both by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iv.  But the best text and the most valuable contribution to the subject is that of R. Poupardin, Monuments de l'histoire des abbayes de Saint-Philibert (1905), which contains a discussion of the authorship and recensions of the life, as well as the record of the miracles of St Philibert, and much supplementary matter .
852 St. Leovigild and Christopher Martyrs of Cordoba, Spain
Córdubæ, in Hispánia, sanctórum Mártyrum Leovigíldi et Christóphori Monachórum, qui, in Arabum persecutióne, pro Christiánæ fídei defensióne in cárcerem conjécti, ac mox, cervícibus abscíssis, igni tráditi, martyrii palmam adépti sunt.
    At Cordova, during the persecution of the Arabs, the holy martyrs Leovigild and Christopher, monks, who were thrust into prison for the defence of the Christian faith, and soon after, being beheaded and cast into the fire, thus obtained the palm of martyrdom.
Put to death under the ruler of Cordoba, Abd al-Rahman II. Leovigild a priest and Christopher a monk.
Martyrs of Córdoba From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The hagiography of the forty-eight Martyrs of Córdoba was developed in Christian Spain, describing in detail their executions for capital violations of Muslim law in al-Andalus. They were the most important new saints in Iberia in the 9th century. The martyrdoms instanced by Eulogius took place between 851 and 859; with few exceptions, the Christians invited execution by committing public offenses: some martyrs appeared before the Muslim authorities to denounce Mohammed; others, Christian children of Islamic-Christian marriages, publicly proclaimed their Christianity (Coope 1995). The lack of an interested chronicler after Eulogius' own martyrdom has given a misimpression that there were fewer episodes later in the 9th century.

Historical background
In 711 CE, a Muslim army from North Africa had invaded Visigoth Christian Spain. Under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. The Iberian Peninsula was called al-Andalus by its Muslim rulers. When the Umayyad Caliphs were deposed in Damascus in 750, the dynasty relocated to Córdoba, ruling an emirate there; consequently the city gained in luxury and importance, as a center of Iberian Muslim culture.

Once the Muslims conquered Spain, they governed it in accordance with Islamic shariah law. Christians and Jews were treated as dhimmis, or protected persons subject to a poll tax. Under many traditional interpretations of shariah, including those then current in al-Andalus, blasphemy against Islam, whether by Muslims or dhimmis, and apostasy from Islam were all grounds for the death penalty.

Though four Christian basilicas and numerous Christian monasteries mentioned in Eulogius' martyrology remained open, the Christian population was gradually becoming assimilated. Notably Reccafred, Bishop of Cordoba, taught the virtues of toleration and compromise with the Muslim authorities. To the scandal of Eulogius, whose texts are the only source for these martyrdoms, and who was venerated as a saint from the 9th century, the bishop sided with Muslim authorities against the martyrs, whom he regarded as fanatics. The closures of monasteries begins to be recorded towards the middle of the 9th century. The monk Eulogius encouraged the martyrs as a way to reinforce the faith of the Christian community. He composed tractates and a martyrology to justify the self-immolation of the martyrs, of which a single manuscript, containing his Documentum martyriale, the three books of his Memoriale sanctorum and his Liber apologeticus martyrum, was preserved in Oviedo, in the Christian kingdom of Asturias in the far northwestern coast of Hispania.
There the relics of Saint Eulogius were translated in 884 .
960 Saint Edbert King of Northumbria became a Benedictine monk
successor of St. Ceolwulph He reigned for two decades and then became a Benedictine monk at York.

St Edbert Of Lindisfarne
Bishop who always gave ten per cent of what he had to the poor. When the body of St CUTHBERT was found in an amazing state of preservation Saint Edbert Saint had it displayed on high in a church to invoke veneration
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1148 WILLIAM OF ST. THIERRY: CANTOR OF LOVE
Theologian and mystic, and so called from the monastery of which he was abbot, b. at Liège about 1085; d. at Signy about 1148. William came of a noble family, and made his studies at the Benedictine Monastery of Saint Nicaise at Reims, together with his brother Simon. Here both embraced the religious life, and were raised to the abbatial dignity, Simon of St. Nicolas-aux-Bois, Diocese of Laon, and William at St-Thierry near Reims in 1119. Prior to this William had known St. Bernard, and had formed with him a close intimacy, which lasted for life. His greatest desire was to live with the saint at Clairvaux, but the latter disapproved of the plan and imposed on him the duty of remaining in charge of the souls which Providence had confided to him. However after having assisted (1140) at St-Médard near Soissons at the first general chapter of the Benedictines, where he suggested wise regulations, William, on the pleas of long infirmities and more and more attracted to a life of retirement, resigned his dignity as abbot (1135), and withdrew to the Cistercian abbey at Signy (diocese of Reims); he did not venture to retire to Clairvaux lest his friend Bernard would refuse to accept his abdication. Here, amid almost constant suffering, he divided his free time between prayer and study. According to a contemporary annalist his death occurred about the time of the council held at Reims under Pope Eugenius; this council took place in 1148, and his death should be placed in this year or the preceding. The necrology of his abbey dates it 8 September., in any case it was prior to that of St. Bernard (20 August, 1153).

Besides his letters to St. Bernard, William wrote several works which he himself enumerates, somewhat incorrectly, in one of his letters. Among them are: "On the solitary life" (De vita solitaria); "On the contemplation of God" (De Deo contemplando), modelled on the "Confessions" and "soliloquies" ofSt. Augustine ; "The nature and dignity of Divine love" (De natura et dignitate amoris), the sequel to the preceding; "The Mirror of Faith" (Speculum fidei); "The Enigma of Faith" (Aenigma fidei); "On the Sacrament of the Altar" (De sacramento altaris liber), setting forth against the monk Rupert his views on the manner of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; "Commentaries on the Canticle of Canticles" (complete), the first according to the conferences of St. Bernard, the second according to St. Ambrose, the third according to St. Gregory the Great; "Commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans".

William was the first to deal with the errors of Abelard and to urge St. Bernard against him. He wrote "The Dispute against Abelard" (Disputatio adversus Petrum Abelardum), in which are arranged under twelve heads the errors which were condemned by the Council of Sens; the "Disputation of the Fathers against the dogma of Abelard" (Disputatio catholicorum Patrum adversus dogmata Petri Abelardi) was a reply to Abelard's apology; "On the errors of Guillaume de Conches" (De erroribus Guillelmi de Conchis) was a defence of the true idea of the Trinity. To these works should be added a life of St. Bernard, of which William wrote only the first chapters. His works were first printed by Tissier in "Bibliotheca Cisterciensis", IV (Bonofonte, 1669), and republished in P.L., CXXX (Paris, 1885).
 

VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2009 (VIS) - William of St. Thierry was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis during his general audience, celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Square.

  William, a friend and admirer of Bernard of Clairvaux, was born in Liege between the years 1075 and 1080. A member of a noble family, he was educated in the most famous schools of the time and later entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Nicaise in Reims. He subsequently became abbot of the monastery of Saint-Thierry where, however, he was unable to reform the community as he wished and abandoned the Benedictines to enter the Cistercian abbey of Signy. There he wrote a number of important works of monastic theology. 

  "De natura et dignitate amoris" (The nature and the dignity of love) contains, the Pope explained, one of William's fundamental ideas, which also holds true for us today: "The principal force that moves the human soul is love. ... The truth is that only one task is entrusted to each human being: learning to love sincerely, authentically and freely. But only at the school of God can this task be achieved and can man attain the end for which he was created". 

  "Learning to love is a long and arduous path", said the Holy Father. "In this journey people must impose an effective asceticism upon themselves ... in order to eliminate any disordered affections ... and unify their lives with God - source, goal and power of love - until reaching the summit of spiritual life, which William defined as 'wisdom'. At the end of this ascetic itinerary, we experience great serenity and sweetness". 

  William likewise attributes considerable importance "to the emotional dimension" because "our heart is made of flesh and when we love God, Who is Love, how can we not express our human feelings in this relationship with the Lord? ... The Lord Himself, becoming man, chose to love us with a heart of flesh". 

  For this Cistercian monk, love "illuminates the mind and enables a better and more profound understanding of God and, in God, of people and events". Love "produces attraction and communion to the point of effecting a transformation, an assimilation, between the lover and the loved. ... And this holds true, above all, for knowledge of God and of His mysteries, which surpass our mind's capacity to understand. God is known if he is loved", Benedict XVI affirmed.
 
  He concluded by quoting from the "Epistola aurea" addressed to the Cistercians of Mont-Dieu, a summary of William of St. Thierry's ideas on the subject of love: "The image of God present in man impels him towards resemblance; that is, towards an ever fuller identification between his will and the divine will. This perfection, which William calls 'unity of spirit', cannot be achieved through individual effort, ... but by the action of the Holy Spirit which ... purifies and ... transforms into charity all the desire for love present in the human being. ...In this way ... man becomes by grace what God is by nature".
AG/WILLIAM OF ST. THIERRY/...VIS 091202 (520)
1153 St. Bernard of Clairvaux Abbot and Doctor of the Church eminently endowed with the gift of miracles
In território Lingoniénsi deposítio sancti Bernárdi, primi Clarævallénsis Abbátis, vita, doctrína et miráculis gloriósi, quem Pius Octávus, Póntifex Máximus, universális Ecclésiæ Doctórem declarávit et confirmávit.
    In the territory of Langres, the death of St. Bernard, first abbot of Clairvaux, illustrious for virtues, learning, and miracles.  He was declared and confirmed doctor of the Universal Church by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VIII.

August 20, 2009 St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)  
Man of the century! Woman of the century! You see such terms applied to so many today—“golfer of the century,” “composer of the century,” “right tackle of the century”—that the line no longer has any punch. But the “man of the twelfth century,” without doubt or controversy, has to be Bernard of Clairvaux. Adviser of popes, preacher of the Second Crusade, defender of the faith, healer of a schism, reformer of a monastic Order, Scripture scholar, theologian and eloquent preacher: any one of these titles would distinguish an ordinary man. Yet Bernard was all of these—and he still retained a burning desire to return to the hidden monastic life of his younger days.


In the year 1111, at the age of 20, Bernard left his home to join the monastic community of Citeaux. His five brothers, two uncles and some 30 young friends followed him into the monastery. Within four years a dying community had recovered enough vitality to establish a new house in the nearby valley of Wormwoods, with Bernard as abbot. The zealous young man was quite demanding, though more on himself than others. A slight breakdown of health taught him to be more patient and understanding. The valley was soon renamed Clairvaux, the valley of light.

His ability as arbitrator and counselor became widely known. More and more he was lured away from the monastery to settle long-standing disputes. On several of these occasions he apparently stepped on some sensitive toes in Rome. Bernard was completely dedicated to the primacy of the Roman See. But to a letter of warning from Rome he replied that the good fathers in Rome had enough to do to keep the Church in one piece. If any matters arose that warranted their interest, he would be the first to let them know.

Shortly thereafter it was Bernard who intervened in a full-blown schism and settled it in favor of the Roman pontiff against the antipope.

The Holy See prevailed on Bernard to preach the Second Crusade throughout Europe. His eloquence was so overwhelming that a great army was assembled and the success of the crusade seemed assured. The ideals of the men and their leaders, however, were not those of Abbot Bernard, and the project ended as a complete military and moral disaster.

Bernard felt responsible in some way for the degenerative effects of the crusade. This heavy burden possibly hastened his death, which came August 20, 1153.

Comment: Bernard’s life in the Church was more active than we can imagine possible today. His efforts produced far-reaching results. But he knew that they would have availed little without the many hours of prayer and contemplation that brought him strength and heavenly direction. His life was characterized by a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. His sermons and books about Mary are still the standard of Marian theology.
Quote: “In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you may more surely obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps. With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection y ou have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal” (St. Bernard).
   St Bernard third son of Tescelin Sorrel, a Burgundian noble, and Aleth, daughter of Bernard, lord of Montbard. He was born in 1090 at Fontaines, a castle near Dijon, a lordship belonging to his father.  His parents had seven children, namely, Bd Guy, Bd Gerard, St Bernard, Bd Humbeline, Andrew, Bartholomew and Bd Nivard.  They were all well educated, and learned Latin and verse-making before the sons were applied to military exercise and feats of arms.
  Bernard was sent to Châtillon on the Seine, to pursue a complete course of studies in a college of secular canons.  He even then loved to be alone, largely at first because of shyness; his progress in learning was far greater than could be expected from one of his age; and he was soon alert to listen to what God by His holy inspirations spoke to his heart.
  One Christmas-eve, while waiting with his mother to set out for Matins, he fell asleep and seemed to see the infant Jesus newly born in the stable at Bethlehem; from that day he had a most tender devotion towards that great mystery of love and mercy, the manhood of Christ.
   When he was seventeen his mother died.  Bernard was greatly attached to Aleth and her loss was a heavy blow; he was in danger of
becoming morbidly despondent, till he was rallied out of his brooding and inertia by his lively sister Humbeline.
  Bernard made his appearance in the world with all the advantages and talents which can make it attractive to a young man, or which could make him loved by it.  His personal attractiveness and wit, his affability and sweetness of temper, endeared him to everybody; in these very advantages lay his chief danger, and for a time there was serious risk of his becoming lukewarm and indifferent.  But he began to think of forsaking the world and the pursuit of letters, which greatly attracted him, and of going to Citeaux, where only a few years before SS. Robert, Alberic and Stephen Harding had established the first monastery of that strict interpretation of the Benedictine rule, called after it "Cistercian".
   He wavered for some time in his mind, and one day in great anxiety he went into a church by the road and prayed that God would direct him to discover and follow His will.  He arose steadily fixed in the resolution of following the severe Cistercian life.  His friends endeavoured to dissuade him from it; but he not only remained firm-he enlisted four of his brothers as well, and an uncle.
  Hugh of Macon (who afterward founded the monastery of Pontigny, and died bishop of Auxerre), an intimate friend, wept bitterly at the thought of separation, but by two interviews was induced to become his companion.  Nor were these the only ones who, with apparently no previous thought of the religious life, suddenly decided to leave the world for the austere life of Citeaux.  Bernard induced in all thirty-one men to follow him-he who himself had been uncertain of his call only a few weeks before.
It is a happening unparalleled in Christian history.
   Bernard's eloquent appeals were irresistible; mothers feared for their sons, wives for their husbands, lest they came under the sway of that compelling voice and look. They assembled at Châtillon, and on the day appointed for their meeting Bernard and his brothers went to Fontaines to take farewell of their father and beg his blessing.  They left Nivard, the youngest brother, to be a comfort to him in his old age.  Going out they saw him at play with other children, and Guy said to him, "Adieu, my little Nivard! You will have all the estates and lands to yourself."  The boy answered, "What! you then take Heaven, and leave me only the earth.  The division is too unequal."  They went away; but soon after Nivard followed them, so that of the whole family there only remained in the world the old father and his daughter, Humbeline.

  The company arrived at Citeaux about Easter in 1112 and the abbot, the English St Stephen, who had not had a novice for several years, received them with open arms. St Bernard was then twenty-two.  He entered this house with the desire to die to the remembrance of men, to live hidden and be forgotten, that he might be occupied only with God. After three years the abbot, seeing the great progress which Bernard had made and his extraordinary abilities, ordered him to go with twelve monks to found a new house in the diocese of Langres in Champagne. They walked in procession, singing psalms, with their new abbot at their head, and settled in a place called the Valley of Wormwood, surrounded by a forest.  These thirteen monks grubbed up a sufficient area and, with the assistance of the bishop and the people of the country, built themselves a house.
  This young colony lived through a period of extreme and grinding hardship.  The land was poor and their bread was of coarse barley; boiled beech leaves were sometimes served up instead of vegetables.  Bernard at first was so severe in his discipline, coming down upon the smallest distractions and least transgressions of his brethren, whether in confession or in chapter, that although his monks behaved with the utmost humility and obedience they began to be discouraged, which made the abbot sensible of his fault. He condemned himself for it to a long silence. At length he resumed his preaching, and provided that meals should be more regular, though the food was still of the coarsest.
  The reputation of the house and of the holiness of its abbot soon became so great that the number of monks had risen to a hundred and thirty and the name of the valley was changed to Clairvaux, because it was situated right in the eye of the sun. Bernard's aged father Tescelin and the young Nivard followed him in 1117, and received the habit at his hands.  The first four daughter-houses of Citeaux became each a mother-house to others, and Clairvaux had the most numerous offspring, including Rievaulx and, in a sense, Fountains in England.

  In 1121 Bernard wrought his first miracle, restoring, while he sang Mass, power of speech to a certain lord that he might confess his sins before he died, three days after, having made restitution for numerous acts of injustice. It is related that other sick persons were cured instantaneously by his making the sign of the cross upon them; and we are also told that the church of Foigny was infested with flies till, by Bernard saying he "excommunicated" them, they all died. The malediction of the flies of Foigny became a proverb in France.
 The contemporary William of Saint-Thierry gives a most unpleasant account of the weakness of Bernard's stomach (which was aggravated by insufficient and unsuitable food), and in consideration of his ill-health the general chapter dispensed him from work in the fields and ordered him to undertake extra preaching instead. This led to his writing a treatise on the Degrees of Humility and Pride, the first of his published works. It includes a study of character which, says the Abbé Vacandard, "the most expert psychologist would not disavow".

  Notwithstanding St Bernard's love of retirement, obedience and Church's needs frequently drew him from his cell.  Like several other great saints who had in a supreme degree the gift of contemplation and wished only to live alone with God in the retirement of a monastery, he had for years on end to be about his Father's business in active and public, even political, affairs.  In 1137 he wrote that his life was "over-run in all quarters with anxieties, suspicions, cares, and there is scarcely an hour that is left free from the crowd of discordant applicants, from the trouble and care of business.  I have no power to stop their coming and cannot refuse to see them, and they do not leave me even the time to pray."
  So great was the reputation of his character and powers that princes desired to
have their differences determined by him and bishops regarded him decisions with the greatest respect, referring to him important affairs of their churches. The popes looked upon his advice as the greatest support of the Holy See, and all people had a profound respect and veneration for his person and opinion.  It was said of him that he was "the oracle of Christendom".
   For Bernard was not only a great monastic founder, theologian and preacher, he was also a reformer and "crusader" he never refused what presented itself to him as a challenge, whether it came from the abbey of Cluny or from an antipope, from the philosopher Abelard or the call to the Second Crusade.

  And he was a hard hitter; to an ecclesiastic in Languedoc he wrote:
"You may imagine that what belongs to the Church belongs to you while you officiate there.  But you are mistaken: for though it be reasonable that one who serves the altar should live by the altar, yet it must not be to promote either his luxury or his pride.  Whatever goes beyond bare nourishment and simple plain clothing is sacrilege and theft."

  After the disputed papal election of 1130 the cause of Pope Innocent II took St Bernard up and down France, Germany and Italy.  On one of his returns to Clairvaux he took with him a new postulant, a canon of Pisa, Peter Bernard Paganelli, who was to become a beatified pope as Eugenius III; for the present he was put to stoke the fire in the monastery calefactory.  After the general acknowledgement of Innocent II Bernard was present at the tenth general council in Rome, the second of the Lateran, and it was at this period that he first met St Malachy of Armagh; the ensuing friendship between the two lasted until Malachy's death in Bemard's arms nine years later.  All this time Bernard had continued diligently to preach to his monks whenever he was able, notably those famous discourses on the Song of Songs.
  In 1140 he preached for the first time in a public pulpit, primarily to the students of Paris.  They are the two most powerful and trenchant of his discourses preserved to us, in which he says much of "things hellish and horrible"; they effected some good and a number of conversions among the students, who were at first superior to their fervent "evangelicalism".
   
But no sooner was the trouble of the papal schism over than he was involved in the controversy with Abelard. If St Bernard was the most eloquent and influential man of his age, the next was the brilliant and unhappy Peter Abelard, who was moreover, of far wider learning. The two were bound to come into collision, for they represented two currents of thought which, not necessarily opposed, were not yet properly fused: on the one hand, the weight of traditional authority and "faith not as an opinion but a certitude"; on the other, the new rationalism and exaltation of human reason. St Bernard himself has since been grievously criticized for his unrelenting pursuit of Abelard: but it seemed to him he had detected in Abelard vanity and arrogance masquerading as science, and rationalism masquerading as the use of reason, and his ability and learning made him the more dangerous.  St Bernard wrote to the pope:  "Peter Abelard is trying to make void the merit of Christian faith, when he deems himself able by human reason to comprehend God entirely- the man is great in his own eyes."
THEOLOGICAL DEBATE AND DEFENCE OF THE FAITH
VATICAN CITY, 4 NOV 2009 (VIS) - Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis during this morning's general audience to the twelfth-century debate between St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Abelard, proponents, respectively, of the monastic and scholastic approaches to theology.
  The Pope began by recalling that theology "is the search for a rational understanding (in as much as that is possible) of the mysteries of Christian revelation, which are believed by faith, ... the faith that seeks intelligibility". Yet, "while St. Bernard ... places the emphasis on ... faith, Abelard ... insists ... on understanding by reason.
"For Bernard", the Holy Father added, "faith itself is endowed with an intimate certainty, founded on the testimony of Scripture and on the teaching of the Fathers of the Church. ... In cases of doubt or ambiguity, faith is protected and illuminated by the exercise of ecclesial Magisterium". Thus, for the abbot of Clairvaux, "theology has a single goal, that of promoting the living and intimate experience of God".
  "Abelard, who among other things introduced the term 'theology' as we understand it today, ... originally studied philosophy then applied the results achieved in this discipline to theology". He had a "religious spirit but a restless personality, and his life was rich in dramatic events: he challenged his teachers and had a child by a cultured and intelligent woman, Eloise. ... He also suffered ecclesiastical condemnations, although he died in full communion with the Church to whose authority he submitted with a spirit of faith".
  "An excessive use of philosophy rendered Abelard's Trinitarian doctrine dangerously fragile", said the Pope. "Likewise, in the field of morals his teaching was not without ambiguity as he insisted on considering the intention of the subject as the only source for describing the goodness or malice of moral acts, ignoring the objective moral significance and value of actions.
  "This aspect", Benedict XVI went on, "is highly relevant for our own age, in which culture often seems marked by a growing tendency to ethical relativism. Nonetheless, we must not forget the great merits of Abelard, ... who made a decisive contribution to the development of scholastic theology. ... Nor must we undervalue some of his insights such as, for example, his affirmation that non-Christian religious traditions already contain some form of preparation to welcome Christ, the Divine Word.
  "What can we learn from the confrontation ... between Bernard and Abelard and, more generally, between the monastic and scholastic approaches to theology?" the Holy Father asked. "Firstly", he went on, "I believe it shows the usefulness and need for healthy theological discussion within the Church, especially when the questions being debated have not been defined by the Magisterium, which, nonetheless, remains an ineluctable point of reference".
  "In the theological field there must be a balance between what we may call architectonic principles, which are given to us by the Revelation and which, hence, always maintain their priority and importance, and interpretative principles suggested by philosophy (that is, by reason), which have an important function, but only an instrumental one. When this balance fails, theological reflection risks becoming marred by error and it is then up to the Magisterium to exercise that necessary service to truth which is its task".
  "The theological dispute between Bernard and Abelard concluded with a full reconciliation. ... What prevailed in both men was that which we must have to heart whenever a theological controversy arises: that its, defending the faith of the Church and ensuring the triumph of truth in charity". AG/BERNARD ABELARD CONTROVERSY/...VIS 091104 (600)
    Probably about the beginning of the year 1142 the first Cistercian foundation was made in Ireland, from Clairvaux, where St Malachy had put some young Irishmen with St Bernard to be trained.  The abbey was called Mellifont, in county Louth, and within ten years of its foundation six daughter-houses had been planted out.
   At the same time Bernard was busied in the affair of the disputed succession to the see of York, set out in the account of St William of York (June 8), in the course of which Pope Innocent II died. His third successor, within eighteen months, was the Cistercian abbot of Tre Fontane, that Peter Bernard of Pisa to whom reference has been made, known to history as Bd Eugenius III.
  St Bernard wrote a charming letter of encouragement to his former subject, addressed:
"To his most dearly loved father and master, Eugenius, by the grace of God Sovereign Pontiff, Bernard, styled Abbot of Clairvaux, presents his humble service." But Bernard was also rather frightened, for Eugenius was shy, retiring, not accustomed to public life; and so he wrote also to the college of cardinals, a letter beginning: "May God forgive you what you have done.  You have put back among the living a man who was dead and buried.  You have again surrounded with cares and crowds one who had fled from cares and crowds.  You have made the last first, and behold! the last state of that man is more perilous than the first."
  Later he wrote for Pope Eugenius's guidance the longest and most important of his treatises, De consideratione, impressing upon him the various duties of his office, and strongly recommending him always to reserve time for self-examination and daily contemplation, applying himself to this still more than to business.  He proves to him that "consideration" serves to form and to employ in the heart all virtues. He reminds the pope that he is in danger of falling, by multiplicity of affairs, into a forgetfulness of God and hardness of heart:  the thought of which made the saint tremble for him, and tell him that his heart was already hardened and made insensible if he did not continually tremble for himself; for if the Pope falls, the whole Church of God is involved.
    In the meantime the Albigensian heresy and its social and moral implications had been making alarming progress in the south of France. St Bernard had already been called on to deal with a similar sect in Cologne, and in 1145 the papal legate, Cardinal Alberic, asked him to go to Languedoc.  Bernard was ill, weak and hardly able to make the journey, but he obeyed, preaching on the way.   Geoffrey, the saint's secretary, accompanied him, and relates many miracles to which he was an eye-witness.  He tells us that at Sarlat in Périgord, Bernard, blessing with the sign of the cross some loaves of bread which were brought, said,  By this shall you know the truth of our doctrine, and the falsehood of that which is taught by the heretics, if such as are sick among you recover their health by eating of these loaves".  The bishop of Chartres, who stood by, being fearful of the result, said, "That is, if they eat with a right faith, they shall be cured".  But the abbot replied, "I say not so; but assuredly they that taste shall be cured, that you may know by this that we are sent by authority derived from God, and preach His truth".  And a number of sick persons were cured by eating that bread.
  Bernard preached against the heresy throughout Languedoc; its supporters were stubborn and violent, especially at Toulouse and Albi, but in a very short time he had restored the country to orthodoxy and returned to Clairvaux. But he left too soon, the restoration was more apparent than real, and twenty-five years later Albigensianism had a stronger hold than ever.
Then came St Dominic.
On Christmas-day, 1144, the SeIjuk Turks had captured Edessa, centre of one of the four principalities of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, and appeals for help were at once sent to Europe, for the whole position was in danger. Pope Eugenius commissioned St Bernard to preach a crusade. He began at Vezelay Palm Sunday 1146, when Queen Eleanor and many nobles were the first to take the cross, and were followed by such large numbers of people, moved by the monk's burning words, that the supply of badges was exhausted and he had, to tear strips off his habit to make others. When he had roused France, he wrote letters to the rulers and peoples of western and central Europe, and then went in person into Germany. First he had to deal with a half-crazy monk, called Rudolf, who in his name was inciting the people to massacre Jews, and then made a triumphant journey through the Rhineland, confirming his appeals by an amazing succession of miracles, vouched for by his companions.
Emperor Conrad III took the cross from him, and set out with an army in the May of 1147, followed by Louis of France. This, the second, crusade was a miserable failure; Conrad's forces were cut to pieces in Asia Minor and Louis did not get beyond laying siege to Damascus.  Its ill success was in no small measure due to the crusaders themselves, of whom a great part were led by no other motive than the prospect of plunder, were lawless, and committed every kind of disorder in their march.  To those who were led by motives of sincere penance and religion, these afflictions were trials for the exercise of their virtue, but the ascetical exercise was dearly bought.  This unfortunate expedition raised a storm against St Bernard, because he had seemed to promise success.  His answer was that he confided in the divine mercy for a blessing on an enterprise undertaken for honour of the divine name, but that the sins of the army were the cause of its misfortunes further, who could judge extent of its success or failure, and
"how is it that the rashness of mortals dares reprove what they cannot understand".
Early in the year 1153 St Bernard entered on his last illness.  He had long dwelt in Heaven in desire, though this desire he by humility ascribed to weakness: "The saints ", said he, "were moved to pray for death out of a desire of seeing Christ; but I am forced hence by scandals and evil.  I confess myself overcome by the violence of the storm for want of courage." 
For a time he mended a little in the spring, and was called on for the last time to leave Clairvaux to succour his neighbour.  Inhabitants of Metz having been attacked by the duke of Lorraine, were vehemently bent on revenge.  To prevent shedding of more blood the archbishop of Trier went to Clairvaux, and implored Bernard to journey to Metz in order to reconcile the parties that were at variance.   At this call of charity he forgot his infirmity and made his way into Lorraine, where he prevailed on both sides to lay aside their arms and accept a treaty which he drew up.
  Back at Clairvaux, his illness returned with more grievous symptoms.  When he received the last sacraments and his spiritual children assembled about him in tears, he comforted and encouraged them, saying that the unprofitable servant ought not to occupy a place uselessly, that the barren tree ought to be rooted up.  His love for them inclined him to remain till they should be gathered with him to God; but his desire to enjoy Christ made him long for death. "I am straitened between two", he cried, "and what to choose I know not.  I leave it to the Lord; let Him decide."  And God took him to Himself, on August 20, 1533; he was sixty-three
years old, had been abbot for thirty-eight, and sixty-eight monasteries had been founded from Clairvaux-Bernard may indeed be counted among the founders of the Cistercian Order, who brought it out of obscurity into the centre of western Christendom.
  He was canonized in 1174; in 1830 formally declared a doctor of the Church:
 Doctor mellifluus, the Honey-sweet Doctor, as he is now universally called.
   St Bernard "carried the twelfth century on his shoulders, and he did not carry it without suffering"; he was during his life the oracle of the Church, the light of prelates, and the reformer of discipline; since his death he continues to comfort and instruct by his writings.
  The great French lay scholar of the seventeenth century, Henry Valois, did not hesitate to say
his writings are the most useful for piety among all the works of the fathers of the Church, though he is the youngest of them in time, and Sixtus of Siena, the convented Jew, said, "His discourse is everywhere sweet and ardent: it so delights and warms that from his tongue honey and milk seem to flow in his words, and a fire of burning love to glow from his breast ".
 To Erasmus he was "cheerful, pleasant, and vehement in moving the passions", and in another place "He is Christianly learned, holily eloquent, and devoutly cheerful and pleasing".
  From Pope Innocent II to Cardinal Manning, from Luther to Frederic Harrison, Catholics and Protestants of eminence have recognized the sanctity of St Bernard and greatness of his writings, in which he is equally gentle and vigorous; his charity appears in his reproaches, he reproves to correct, never to insult.
  He had so meditated on the Holy Scriptures that in almost every sentence he borrows something from their language, and diffuses the marrow of the sacred text with which his own heart was filled.  He was well read in the writings of the fathers of the Church, especially SS. Ambrose and Augustine, and often takes his thoughts from their writings and by a new turn makes them his own.
 Though he lived after St Anselm, the first of the scholastics, and though his contemporaries are ranked in that class, yet he treats theological subjects after the manner of the ancients. On this account, and for the great excellence of his writings, he is himself reckoned among the fathers.  Although he is the last among them in time, he is one of the greatest to those who desire to study and to improve their hearts in sincere religion.

Almost all the principal materials for the life of St Bernard have been printed in the Latin Patrology of Migne, vol. 185.  The most important source, known as the Vita prima -the best text is that of Waitz in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xxvi-is made up of five sections by different authors, his contemporaries, i.e. William of Saint-Thierry, Arnold of Bonneval and Geoffrey of Auxerre, supplemented by a collection of the miracles. There are other accounts of his life by Alan of Auxerre, John the Hermit, etc., and a good deal of more or less legendary matter in later compilations, notably the Exordium magnum of Conrad of Eberbach, and the Liber miraculorum of Herbert. All these sources as well as the saint's correspondence have been very carefully discussed by G. Buffer in his Vorstudien (1886) and in the first chapter of E. Vacandard's Vie de Saint Bernard (1910), which last book still remains the most authoritative biography.  More popular lives such as those by G. Goyau (1927), F. Hover (1927), and A. Luddy, Life and Teaching of St Bernard (1927), are numerous but the accuracy of the rather bulky work last named cannot always be relied upon. Many non-Catholic biographies or histories, notably those of J. Cotter Morison (1877), R. S. Storrs (1893), Watkin Williams (1935), and G. G. Coulton (Five Centuries of Religion, vol. i) aluo pay tribute to St Eernard'u greatnen. E. Gilson's Mystical Theology of St Bernard appeared in English in 1940. J. Leclercq's St Bernard mystique (1948) includes 200 pp. of passages from his writings. Dom Leclercq worked on a critical edition of the saint's works. See also the recueil of the Assoc. Bourguignonne des Societes Savantea, St Bernard et son temps (2 vols., 1928); and cf D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (1949). An English translation of the saint's letters by the Rev. B. Scott James, and a valuable volume of biographical material in French, Bernard de Clairvaux, ed. by Dom Jean Bouton, were published in 1953, among other relevant works.
St. Bernard,  St. Bernard was born of noble parentage in Burgundy, France, in the castle of Fontaines near Dijon. Under the care of his pious parents he was sent at an early age to a college at Chatillon, where he was conspicuous for his remarkable piety and spirit of recollection. At the same place he entered upon the studies of theology and Holy Scripture.

After the death of his mother, fearing the snares and temptations of the world, he resolved to embrace the newly established and very austere institute of the Cistercian Order, of which he was destined to become the greatest ornament. He also persuaded his brothers and several of his friends to follow his example. In 1113, St. Bernard, with thirty young noblemen, presented himself to the holy Abbot, St. Stephen, at Citeaux.
After a novitiate spent in great fervor, he made his profession in the following year. His superior soon after, seeing the great progress he had made in the spiritual life, sent him with twelve monks to found a new monastery, which afterward became known as the celebrated Abbey of Clairvaux. St. Bernard was at once appointed Abbot and began that active life which has rendered him the most conspicuous figure in the history of the 12th century. He founded numerous other monasteries, composed a number of works and undertook many journeys for the honor of God. Several Bishoprics were offered him, but he refused them all. The reputation of St. Bernard spread far and wide; even the Popes were governed by his advice. He was commissioned by Pope Eugene III to preach the second Crusade. In obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff he traveled through France and Germany, and aroused the greatest enthusiasm for the holy war among the masses of the population. The failure of the expedition raised a great storm against the saint, but he attributed it to the sins of the Crusaders. St. Bernard was eminently endowed with the gift of miracles. He died on August 20, 1153.
Pope Encourages Personal Relationship With Christ Points to Example of St. Bernard of Clairvaux
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).
Only Jesus is "joy to the heart," says Benedict XVI, citing words from St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The Pope reflected today during the general audience on this 12th century saint, highlighting his personal relationship with Christ.
According to the Holy Father, "in a more than decisive way, the abbot of Clairvaux configures the theologian to the contemplative and the mystic. Only Jesus -- insists Bernard in face of the complex dialectical reasoning of his time -- only Jesus is 'honey to the mouth, song to the ear, joy to the heart.'" Ideas like this one, noted the Pontiff, won the saint his traditional title: "Doctor Mellifluus: his praise of Jesus Christ, in fact, 'runs like honey.'" Benedict XVI observed that "the abbot of Clairvaux does not tire of repeating that only one name counts, that of Jesus the Nazarene. 'Arid is all food of the soul,' [the saint] confesses, 'if it is not sprinkled with this oil; insipid, if it is not seasoned with this salt. What is written has no flavor for me, if I have not read Jesus.' And he concludes: 'When you discuss or speak, nothing has flavor for me, if I have not heard resound the name of Jesus.'"
The Pope said Bernard's concept of true knowledge of God consists in a "personal, profound experience of Jesus Christ and of his love.  And this, dear brothers and sisters," he said, "is true for every Christian: Faith is above all a personal, intimate encounter with Jesus, and to experience his closeness, his friendship, his love; only in this way does one learn to know him ever more, and to love and follow him ever more. May this happen to each one of us."
JOHN OF SALISBURY: NATURAL LAW MUST INSPIRE POSITIVE LAW
VATICAN CITY, 16 DEC 2009 (VIS) - Benedict XVI focused his catechesis during this morning's general audience on the figure of John of Salisbury, a philosopher and theologian born in England towards the beginning of the twelfth century.

  Educated in Paris and Chartres, John of Salisbury acted as counsellor to various archbishops of Canterbury at whose service he placed his vast knowledge and diplomatic skills. One of these was Thomas Becket whom John followed into exile in France when that archbishop fell into dispute with King Henry II who wished to affirmed his authority over the Church and thus limit her freedom. As an elderly man, John was appointed bishop of Chartres, where he remained until his death in 1180.

  The Pope mentioned John of Salisbury's two principal works: the "Metaloghicon" (In defence of logic) and the "Policraticus" (The man of government). In the first of these John expresses the view that "believers and theologians who study the treasure of the faith deeply also open themselves to the practical knowledge which guides everyday actions; in other words, to moral laws and the exercise of virtue".
  The central thesis of the "Policraticus" is that there exists "an objective and immutable truth, the origin of which is in God, a truth accessible to human reason and which concerns practical and social activities. This is a natural law from which human legislation, and political and religious authorities, must draw inspiration in order to promote the common good". This natural law is characterised by a property "which John calls 'equity', by which he means giving each person his rights. From here arise precepts which are legitimate to all peoples and which cannot under any circumstances be abrogated".
  "The question of the relationship between natural law and positive law, as mediated by equity, is still of great importance", said Benedict XVI. "Indeed, in our own time, and especially in certain countries, we are witnessing a disquieting fracture between reason, which has the task of discovering the ethical values associated with human dignity, and freedom, which has the responsibility of accepting and promoting those values.
  "Perhaps", he added, "John of Salisbury would remind us today that the only 'equitable' laws are those that defend the sacredness of human life and reject the legitimacy of abortion, euthanasia and unrestrained genetic experimentation; the laws that respect the dignity of marriage between a man and a woman, that are inspired by a correct understanding of the secularism of the State - a secularism that must always include the safeguarding of religious freedom - and that seek subsidiarity and solidarity at the national and international level.
  "Otherwise", the Holy Father concluded: "we would end up with what John of Salisbury defined as the 'tyranny of the prince' or, as we would say, 'the dictatorship of relativism', a relativism which, as I said some years ago, 'recognises nothing as definite and has as its ultimate measure only the self and its own desires'".  AG/JOHN OF SALISBURY/...  VIS 091216 (510)
1155 St. Bernard of Valdeiglesias Patron saint of Candelada, Spain; a monk at Valdeiglesias, possibly a Cistercian.
1158 St. Ronald martyr warrior chieftain  fulfilling the pledge by erecting the cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall.
In the Orkney Islands, Scotland. According to tradition, he made a vow to build a church, fulfilling the pledge by erecting the cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall. Ronald was later murdered by a group of rebelling warriors and was venerated as a martyr at Kirkwall.
1180 St. Herbert Hoscam Archbishop Patron saint of Conze, Italy. He was English by birth but served as prelate of the Basilicata area.
Apud montem Senárium, in Etrúria, natális sancti Manétti Confessóris, e septem Fundatóribus Ordinis Servórum beátæ Maríæ Vírginis; qui, eídem hymnos dicens, exspirávit.  Ipsíus autem ac Sociórum festum prídie Idus Februárii celebrátur.
   
St. Manetto On Mount Senario in Tuscany, the birthday of, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who died as he was repeating a hymn to her.  His feast, with that of his companions, is kept on the 12th of February.
1866 Bd Mary De Mattias, Virgin, Foundress of The Sisters Adorers of The Precious Blood
When Mary de Mattias began the work that was to develop into a congregation for adoration of the Precious Blood of Christ and the education of children she met a requirement of her time, which needed, in the words of Pope Pius XI, "a general reform, especially by way of better instruction of minds and a renewed purifying of habits".
  Born in 1805, Mary was the eldest of the four children of a lawyer, John de Mattias, and Octavia de Angelis his wife, who lived at Vallecorsa on the borders of Lazio and Campania.  Shortly after her seventeenth birthday St Caspar del Bufalo gave a mission in the parish church, which was the occasion of her hearing a definite call to some special work for the good of souls.  Within a little time she had come to know the Venerable John Merlini, disciple of St Caspar and his successor at the head of the Missioners of the Precious Blood;  he became her director and adviser, and remained so for the rest of her life.
  In 1834 Mary accepted an invitation from her bishop, Mgr Lais, who was also the administrator of Anagni, to take charge of a school at Acuto in that diocese.  She went there determined not simply to be a school-mistress but to establish a religious house as well. In the following year came her first recruit, Anne Farrotti, they committed themselves to foundation of a congregation under the inspiration of the example of Canon del Bufalo's missioners.
   Mary had already begun to extend her activities from school-children to older girls and to married women. Six more recruits soon followed.  Mary de Mattias, like St Lucy Filippini, had a great gift of easy and convincing speech, which she used to much advantage in her catechetical and biblical instructions and in the girls' and women's societies that she organized; and at the end of 1837 she began to conduct "spiritual exercises" for mothers of families, which were a great success. This evoked the inevitable unfavourable comment and invoking of I Corinthians xiv 34 (though they were not in fact held in the church), but after due inquiry Bishop Muccioli approved.  When women began to attend the May devotions in the school the parish-priest objected and put a stop to it but Mary was vindicated by the rural dean, much to the joy of the mothers.
  The canonical process of her beatification makes it plain that Mary's eloquence really was such: she loved quiet and silence,  "She was not loquacious".
  In 1840 a second school was taken over, under the auspices of the Missioners of the Precious Blood, in Mary's old home at Vallecorsa, and other foundations followed, the work for adult women and girls increasing at the same time.  Between 1847 and 1851 two houses were founded in Rome itself through the interest of a Russian widow, Princess Zena Volkonska; and there two English prelates, Mgr George Talbot and Mgr (later cardinal) Edward Howard, became her good friends. It is recorded of an English member of the congregation that Mother de Mattias had gently to rebuke her for her endless boasting about English politeness "Calvary is the school of good manners ", she said.
  The rapid expansion of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood of course did not take place without difficulties and disappointments, so many trials for the faith and spiritual integrity of Mother de Mattias.  But at last hat robust energy began to tire and her health to weaken, and she died at Rome on August 20, 1866, in her sixty-first year.  At the time of her beatification in 1950 her congregation had nearly 400 establishments, many of them in the United States and other countries, including schools of all grades and kinds.
The first biography of Bd Mary de Mattias was by Don Merlini. A full official life was published in Rome in 1950, written by a Benedictine, Dame M. Eugenia Pietromarchi .
1912 1890 Wilhelm und Katharina Booth Anglikanische Kirche: 20. August

William Booth wurde am 10.04.1829 in Nottingham geboren. Mit 15 Jahren entschied er sich für Christus und trat den Methodisten bei. 1854 wurde er ordiniert und 1861 begann er seine Tätigkeit als selbständiger Evangelist. Am 2. Juli 1865 hielt er eine erste Versammlung in Whitechapel. Dieser Tag gilt als Gründungstermin der Heiilsarmee. Botth wurde der erste General de Heilsarmee, sein Sohn Bramwell und seine Tochter Evangeline folgten ihm nach. William Booth starb am 20.08.1912 in London.

Catherine Mumford, Tochter eines methodistischen Laienpredigers, wurde am 17.01.1829 in Ashbourne geboren. 1852 lernte sie ihren künftigen Ehemann kennen. Beide engagierten sich für christliches soziales Handeln. Catherine war auch in der Frauenbewegung aktiv und forderte, daß auch Frauen predigen dürften. Obwohl ihr Ehemann diese Forderung ablehnte, predigte Catherine ab 1860. Sie engagierte sich für Fabrikarbeiterinnen und Prostituierte, evangelisierte mit ihrem Mann in der Heilsarmee und zog acht Kinder auf. Sie starb am 4.10.1890 in Clacton-on-Sea.


Biographie Catherine Booth (Wikipedia)
Biographie William Booth (Wikipedia)


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 40

To thee, O Lady, will I sing mercy and judgment:
 I will sing to thee in joy of heart, when thou shalt have made my soul glad.

I will praise thee and thy glory: and thou shalt bestow refreshment upon my soul.

I have been zealous for thy love and thy honor: therefore wilt thou defend my cause before the judge of ages.

I am drawn by thy goodness and grace: I pray thee, let me not be defrauded of my hope and good confidence.

Strengthen thou my soul in my last days: and in this my flesh make me to behold my Savior.


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
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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 Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
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