44 Saint Thaddeus, Apostle of the Seventy; preached in Syria and Mesopotamia; many miracles;
By descent a Hebrew, and he was born in the Syrian city of Edessa. The holy Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy must be distinguished from St Jude, also called Thaddeus or Levi (June 19), who was one of the Twelve Apostles.

When he came to Jerusalem for a feastday, he heard the preaching of John the Forerunner. After being baptized by him in the Jordan, he remained in Palestine. He saw the Savior, and became His follower. He was chosen by the Lord to be one of the Seventy Disciples, whom He sent by twos to preach in the cities and places where He intended to visit (Luke. 10: 1).

After the Ascension of the Savior to Heaven, St Thaddeus preached the good news in Syria and Mesopotamia. He came preaching the Gospel to Edessa and he converted King Abgar, the people and the pagan priests to Christ. He backed up his preaching with many miracles (about which Abgar wrote to the Assyrian emperor Nerses). He established priests there and built up the Edessa Church.

Prince Abgar wanted to reward St Thaddeus with rich gifts, but he refused and went preaching to other cities, converting many pagans to the Christian Faith. He went to the city of Beirut to preach, and he founded a church there. It was in this city that he peacefully died in the year 44. (The place of his death is indicated as Beirut in the Slavonic MENAION, but according to other sources he died in Edessa. According to an ancient Armenian tradition, St Thaddeus, after various tortures, was beheaded by the sword on December 21 in the Artaz region in the year 50).

3rd v. St. Quadratus Martyr Utica bishop taught both clergy and laity to confess Christ praised by St. Augustine.

Item sancti Quadráti Epíscopi. Also, St. Quadratus, bishop.

France. He was praised by St. Augustine. The Christians in Utica suffered severely under the Romans, and Quadratus and most of his flock were martyred and subsequently deeply revered by St. Augustine and others in the African Church. 3rd cent. Bishop of Utica in North Africa who taught both clergy and laity to confess Christ. They were all martyred. St Quadratus was greatly revered in Africa.

249 St. Cyriaca Widowed Roman martyr patroness of St. Laurence church @ Caelian (Coelian) Hill (one of 7 famous hills of Rome) is called Santa Maria in Domnica sometimes called Dominica.
Romæ, in agro Veráno, sanctæ Cyríacæ, Víduæ et Mártyris; quæ, in persecutióne Valeriáni, cum se súaque ómnia in Sanctórum ministéria impendísset, demum, martyrium pro Christo súbiens, vitam quoque ipsam libénter impéndit.
At Rome, in the Agro Verano, St. Cyriaca, widow and martyr. In the persecution of Valerian, after devoting herself and all her goods in the service of the saints, she gave up her life by suffering martyrdom for Christ.

St. Laurence, deacon and martyr, used Cyriaca’s villa in Rome to distribute alms to the poor. She was scourged to death for the faith. The church of St. Mary in Dominica was named after her.

St. Cyriaca Also called Dominica, this Roman widow of wealth was scourged to death - apparently for harboring and distributing alms to the persecuted Christians. [Yonge] (The story of Pudentiana is similar to that of the this wealthy matron of a century later.)

Domnica is a Latinized version of Cyriaca - both variously being inferred to mean "dedicated" to the Lord or the Lord's Day. The Chandlery book is the only source found which also references this as the site where the wealthy matron Cyriaca had her palatial home.

St. Domnica is referenced to have died in prison in Cilicia in the year 286. That date is suspect, although it's known that various governor's did have general authority to harass Christians regarding their refusal to follow pagan customs.

Laurence, Almoner of St. Cyriaca The Chandlery book has an abundance of 'legend', including photographs of old paintings, which tie this St. Cyriaca into the history of St. Laurence. The legend makes enough sense to be believable but hasn't been substantiated by direct reference in any of the ancient writings found, so far. One church atop the Caelian (Coelian) Hill (one of the seven famous hills of Rome) is called Santa Maria in Domnica.

Her martyrdom in 249 would make her a premature victim of the persecution of Emperor Decius who assumed power in October, 249, and didn't begin the 7th cycle of persecutions with an edict against Christians until January 250. In it, he ordered Bishops put to death and others tortured until they recanted their faith. (This is the edict St. Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, managed to avoid by retiring to a safe hiding place. On his return, he took offence at those still alive - obviously for their not having kept the faith.)

The date of her death makes more sense as 259 - toward the end of the GREAT persecution (8th) of Valerian begun in 257. Page 199 of the Clarke book summarizes the final edict:
"... in August, A.D. 258, ... Valerian had sent a new rescript ... ordering that bishops, presbyters, and deacons by summarily put to death; that senators, men of rank, and Roman knights be deprived of both their rank and their property, and, if afterwards they presisted in being Christians, be executed; that matrons lose their property and be banished; that all imperial officials who have either confessed before or confess now have their property confiscated, be reduced to slavery, and sent to work on the imperial estates."
Page 185 of the Healy book emphasizes that, "Although the edict expressly stated that the punishment to be inflicted on Christian matrons was confiscation and banishment, there were several women of noble birth who paid the extreme penalty." The supposedly extremely wealthy widow and matron Cyriaca may have been among them. (The motives of the Empire regarding confiscation should be obvious. Nowhere does there appear to be evidence that such confiscations were turned over to those running the "pagan temples" - the supposed, preferred alternative.)

She must be the "widow" who buried St. Laurence on 'her' "Ager Veran" estate in 'her' cemetery. It's no coincidence that's the area were the poor people were buried.
She may be the one who began the process at that location next to her cemetery.

She can't be the almost 66 year old female apparently buried along with the Popes and Cecilia in the oldest, most revered part of Callistus after 300, unless that dating is late by at least 41 years. She may have been the matriarch of the extended Cyriac family and highly revered role model for many other wealthy females of Rome. She may have been among the wealthy Roman women called 'Lucina' during the persecutions who seem not to exist other than as references to various clandestine activities associated with underground burials. Lucina, the light, may have been the 'pseudonym' given to wealthy female patrons who made the underground burials possible, primarily through their ownership or control of the land surrounding Rome where the catacombs were built.

In other words, given that all this activity was illegal, the real names of the private individuals involved were never used. When asked where the resources came from, the answer may have been, "from Lucina." (Ask the average citizen who the Vice-President of the United States is to get an idea of how easy it would be, even now, to pass off a fictitious name for some individual known to insiders but not yet to the general populace.)

"DASVMIA QVIRIACE BONE FEMINE PALVMBRA SENe FELlE . . . QVÆ VIXIT ANNOS LXVI DEPOSITA IIII KAL MARTIAS IN PACE"

"Cyriaca, a member of the noble Dasumian family, who died at the age of sixty-six years, is called a 'dove without bitterness'.":
a eulogy that is found on other female graves.
Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Roman Catacombs - Catacomb of Callistus, 4th century.

255 St. Paternus Martyred Egyptian.
Fundis, in Látio, sancti Patérni Mártyris, qui, ab Alexandría Romam venit ad Apostolórum memórias; et inde in agrum Fundánum secéssit, atque ibi, cum Mártyrum córpora sepelíret, a Tribúno comprehénsus est, et in vínculis exspirávit.
At Fundi in Campania, St. Paternus, a martyr, who came from Alexandria to Rome to visit the tomb of the apostles. Thence he retired to the neighbourhood of Fundi, where, being seized by the tribune while he was burying the bodies of the martyrs, he died in captivity.
From Alexandria. He went to Rome and was arrested at Fondi, Italy, where he died in prison.

274 St. Anastasius Cornicularius Martyr Roman tribune.
Salónæ, in Dalmátia, sancti Anastásii Corniculárii, qui, cum vidéret beátum Agapítum constánter torménta perferéntem, convérsus est ad fidem, et, pro confessióne nóminis Christi, jubénte Aureliáno Imperatóre, interémptus, Martyr migrávit ad Dóminum.
At Salona in Dalmatia, St. Anastasius, a law officer, who was converted to the faith by seeing the fortitude with which blessed Agapitus bore his torments, and being put to death by order of Emperor Aurelian for confessing the name of Christ, went to our Lord, a martyr.who was converted by the death of St. Agapitus. Anastasius was a Roman tribune, or cornicularius, hence the name. He suffered martyrdom as a result of his conversion at Salone, near Rome.

303 St. Luxorius Cisellus and Camerinus soldier Martyr of Sardinia Sicily, Italy, with Camerinus and Cisellus.
In Sardínia natális sanctórum Mártyrum Luxórii, Cisélli et Cameríni; qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, sub Délphio Præside, gládio cæsi sunt.
In Sardinia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Luxorius, Cisellus, and Camerinus, who were put to the sword in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Delphius.

According to the unreliable acta of these martyrs Luxorius was a Roman soldier who, being able to read, had seen a psalter and was greatly impressed by its contents. When he read in Psalm 85, "There is none among the gods like unto thee, 0 Lord, and there is none according to thy works. All the nations thou hast made shall come and adore before thee, 0 Lord, and they shall glorify thy name ; for thou art great and dost wonderful things: thou art God alone ", he saw that such a god was none other than the Christians' God. He made the next verse his own, "Conduct me, 0 Lord, in thy way and I will walk in thy truth ", clumsily he made the sign of the cross upon himself, and made his way to a church, and there heard them singing Psalm 118: "Give bountifully to thy servant, enliven me, and! shall keep thy words. Open thou my eyes...He borrowed more of the sacred books, and learned the psalms and the words of the prophets by heart, and when at last he was permitted to read the gospels his soul was enlightened by faith, and he believed in Jesus Christ and was baptized.
At that time the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian broke out and Delphius the prefect began to enforce the imperial decrees in Sardinia, where Luxorius was stationed. The soldier was one of the first to be brought before him, and with him two young boys, Cisellus and Camerinus, still wearing the white garments of baptism. Delphius ordered Luxorius to deny Christ, and he refused. So he was tied to a post and scourged, and while this was done he sang psalms, to glorify God, to keep his mind off his own sufferings, and to put heart into his two small companions. And when he could not move them, Deiphius had them all three put to death by the sword. This martyrdom took place at Forum Trajanum.

It is to be feared that we can be assured of nothing more than the fact of the martyr's existence and early cultus. The story of the two boy companions who suffered with Luxorius seems to be a mere embellishment. The place of martyrdom, Forum Trajanum, makes one think of Rome, but it is the name of a township in Sardinia now known as Fordingiano. See the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iv; and CMH., pp. 454-455.

They were beheaded. Luxorius was a soldier. Camerinus and Cisellus were newly baptized youths.
Luxorius, Cisellus and Camerinus Martyrs in Sardinia beheaded under Diocletian.

Luxorius had been a soldier in the imperial army, the other two were boys whom he helped to accept martyrdom.

304 St. Bassa and Companions Martyrs in Edessa encouraging their bravery and loyalty to the end her sons remained unharmed from fire, water and beasts. When they brought her to a pagan temple, she shattered the statue of Zeus; miracle of the whirlpool.
Edéssæ, in Syria, sanctórum Mártyrum Bassæ, ac trium ejus filiórum, id est Theogónii, Agápii et Fidélis; quos, in persecutióne Maximiáni, pia mater exhórtans, martyrio coronátos præmísit ad palmam, et, truncáto cápite, gaudens secúta est cum victória.
At Edessa in Syria, during the persecution of Maximian, the holy martyrs Bassa, and her sons Theogonius, Agapius, and Fidelis, whom their pious mother exhorted to martyrdom and sent before her bearing their crowns. Being herself beheaded, she joyfully followed them and shared their victory.
Bassa was the wife of a pagan priest. When her sons, Theogonius, Agapius, and Fidelis were condemned during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian, Bassa joined them, encouraging their bravery and loyalty to the end.

The Martyress Bassa with her sons Theognios, Agapios and Pistos, lived in the city of Macedonian Edessa and she was married to a pagan-priest. From childhood she had been raised in the Christian faith, which she passed on to her sons. During the time of the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), the husband reported to the governor on his wife and children. All of them, in spite of threats, refused to offer sacrifice to idols. They took the eldest son, Theognios, and tore at him with iron claws. They flayed the skin of the lad Agapios from head to chest, but the martyr did not utter a sound. Finally, they began to torture also the youngest son Pistos. The mother did not hesitate to encourage them to endure the suffering for Christ. Then they beheaded the lads. (By one account, the three martyred brothers suffered at Edessa in Macedonia; by another account -- at Larissa in Thessaly their homeland). They locked up Saint Bassa in prison and exhausted her with hunger, but an Angel strengthened her with heavenly food. Under successive tortures she remained unharmed from fire, water and beasts. When they brought her to a pagan temple, she shattered the statue of Zeus. Then they threw the martyress into a whirlpool in the sea. But to everyone's surprise a ship sailed up, and three radiant men pulled her up (the Monk Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain suggested, that these were her children, martyred earlier). After 8 days Saint Bassa came by ship to the governor of the island of Alona, not far from Kyzika, in the Prepontid or Marmora Sea. After a beating with canes they beheaded her.

It is known, that around the year 450 there already existed at Chalcedon a church in honour of the holy Martyress Bassa.

363 Ss. Bonosus and Maximian, Martyrs; The Emperor Julian the Apostate commanded the cross and monogram of Jesus Christ which Constantine had placed on the standard of the army to be struck off, and had the standards reduced to the form used under the pagan emperors. There were in the Herculean cohort at Antioch two officers, zealous Christians, named Bonosus and Maximian, who refused to change their standard.

Eódem die sanctórum Mártyrum Bonósi et Maximiáni. On the same day, the holy martyrs Bononus and Maximian.

The emperor's uncle, Count Julian, commanded them to give their troops the new ensign, and to worship the same gods which he and the emperor worshipped. Bonosus answered, "We cannot worship gods which have been made by the hands of men", and refused to give up the standard to be altered. The comes ordered him to be tied up, and three hundred lashes to be given him. Under this Bonosus only smiled, and made no answer when asked if he would obey. The comes then turned to Maximian, who said, "Let your gods first hear and speak to you, and then we will worship them". Julian then had them both racked, but when he asked again if they would obey, they answered, "We cannot obey the emperor in these matters, because we have before our eyes the invisible God in whom we trust". Count Julian threatened the martyrs in a second and a third interrogation, but they answered they were Christians and were determined to continue such. The comes was for having them tortured again; but the prefect Secundus, himself a pagan, absolutely refused to hear of it; Julian therefore condemned Bonosus and Maximian to be beheaded.
There is tacked on to the narrative of the trial and death of these martyrs an account of the last days of Count Julian, in its details manifestly false. He is represented as suffering from a disease as revolting as it is impossible; his Christian wife tells him in effect that it serves him right, and urges him to bear the, hand of the Lord gladly; and he dies miserably, but calling on the name of the one God. Alban Butler takes the opportunity for a dissertation on the death of a sinner, which is here omitted together with the occasion of it.

Although the text of this Latin passia is printed by Ruinart amongst his Acta sincera, we lack any satisfactory guarantee of its authenticity. There seems to be no oriental cultus, though the martyrs suffered at Antioch. See, however, P. Allard, Julien l'Apostat, vol. iii, p. 153. Dom Leclercq, in his collection Les Martyrs, vol. iii, pp. 99-104, has printed a translation of the whole document.

480 St. Apollinaris Sidonius Bishop and classical scholar
Arvérnis, in Gállia, sancti Sidónii Epíscopi, doctrína et sanctitáte conspícui.
In Auvergne in France, St. Sidonius, bishop, noted for learning and holiness.

Sts_Sidonius_Apollinaris_Clermon_Avitus_of_Clermon_Mamertus_of_Vienne_11_May.jpg

Apollinaris Sidonius (Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius) , fl. 455-75, Latin writer, b. Lyons. He had a minor role in imperial politics and was bishop of Clermont. Although his panegyric poetry is of little consequence, his letters are an interesting historical source. Canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, he is called St. Sidonius.

479 St Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop or clermont
Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, soldier, poet, statesman, country gentleman, and eventually bishop, was born at Lyons about the year 430, and was of one of the most noble families in Gaul, where his father and grandfather, both named Apollinaris, had been prefects of the praetorium. He was educated in arts and learning under the best masters, and was one of the most celebrated orators and poets of the age in which he lived. From his letters it is clear that he was always religious, extremely affectionate, beneficent and compassionate; on the other hand, he was no rigorous censor, for at a time when Salvian was writing so fiercely of the corruption of southern Gaul, St Sidonius did not raise his voice in vituperation of the iniquities of his times.
He married Papianilla, by whom he had a son and three daughters. Papianilla was daughter of Avitus, who was raised to the imperial throne at Rome in 455; Sidonius wrote a panegyric in honour of his father-in-law, who returned the compliment by putting a statue of him among the poets in the Forum of Trajan. Avitus, a weak person if no worse, was made to resign the purple after a reign often months, and he died on the road to Auvergne. Majorian, his successor, captured Lyons and threatened severe treatment for the citizens but after a time of eclipse and uncertainty Sidonius wrote a panegyric of him too. The new emperor was slain in 461 by Ricimer the Goth, who placed the diadem upon the head of Severus. Upon this revolution Sidonius left the court, and retired to Auvergne. Severus was poisoned by Ricimer after a reign of four years, and Anthemius was chosen emperor in 467.
Sidonius went again to Rome, on business of his province; and hoping for a revival of the empire he wrote another very encouraging panegyric. The feeble emperors of this age were peculiarly susceptible to compliments, and the poet was made prefect of the city. But his hopes of .Anthemius came to nothing, the position in Rome was difficult, and he returned to Gaul, to his wife and family and the enjoyment of his estates.
Sidonius was soon called from these secular dignities to responsibilities in the Church. The bishopric of Arvernum, since called Clermont in Auvergne, falling vacant, the people of that diocese and the bishops of the country demanded that he should fill the episcopal office; they were conscious not only of his high character and abilities, but also of the fact that he was the man best qualified to uphold Gallo-Roman power against the Visigoths. St Sidonius was very unwilling, deploring his unfitness, but eventually acquiesced; and from that moment he renounced lighter poetry, which till then had been his delight, to apply himself to those studies which were more required by his ministry. He was no stranger to them whilst a layman, and he soon became an authority whom other bishops consulted in their difficulties; he was always reserved and unwilling to decide things and referred them to others, alleging that he was not capable of acting the part of a teacher among the brethren whose direction and knowledge he himself stood in need of. St Lupus of Troyes, who had always loved and honoured him, on his being made a bishop wrote a letter of congratulation and advice, in which among other things he told him: "It is no longer by show and a stately household that you are to keep up your rank, but by deep humility of heart. You are placed above others, but must see yourself as below the meanest and last in your flock. Be ready to kiss the feet of those whom formerly you would not have thought worthy to sit at your own. You must make yourself the servant of all."

And so St Sidonius did. He kept a frugal table, fasted every second day and, though of a delicate constitution, seemed to carry his austerities to excess. He looked upon it as a principal duty to provide for the instruction, comfort and assistance of the poor. In the time of a great famine he maintained at his own charge, with the charitable help of Ecdicius, his wife's brother, more than four thousand Burgundians and other strangers who had been driven from their own country by misery and necessity; and when the scarcity was over he helped send them to their homes. His reputation was such that, being summoned to Bourges when that see, which was his metropolitan church, was vacant in 472, the assembled prelates referred the election of a bishop to him, and he nominated one Simplicius. He says that a bishop ought to do by humility what a monk and a penitent are obliged to do by their profession, and he gives an account of Maximus, Bishop of Toulouse, whom he had before known as a very rich man of the world he found him in his new spiritual dignity wholly changed; his clothes, mien and conversation savoured of nothing but modesty and piety; he had short hair and a long beard; his household stuff was plain; he had wooden benches, stuff curtains, a bed without feathers, and a table without a covering; and the food of his household consisted of pulse more than flesh.
Clermont being threatened by Eurik, King of the Visigoths, who then controlled the southern provinces of France, the bishop encouraged the people to oppose them. He put his brother-in-law Ecdicius in charge of defence; instituted rogation processions to implore the mercy of God. But in 474 Clermont fell; his previous activities exposed St Sidonius to reprisals of the conquerors after they were masters of the place, and for a time he was exiled to a fortress near Carcassone. Here he was lodged next door to two bad-tempered old women, who made such a noise that he could neithcr sleep nor read "Never ", complained the poor man, were two such quarrelsome, restless and abusive chatterers." When he was restored to his see he continued protection and support of his people, though grievously troubled by the Goths. He died in peace in 479, or possibly a decade later.
St Sidonius Apollinaris was one of the principal writers of the beginning of the second age of Christian literature, or he may be regarded as the last of the Gallo-Roman school. His poetry is inflated and tiresome, but his letters are a valuable witness to the life of Christian gentlemen in southern Gaul during break-up of the empire; they were sportsmen, with taste for literature and the other fine arts, whose Christianity sat rather lightly upon them but was not insincere. The saint shows us himself in his secular days in Auvergne joining in the recreations, physical and intellectual, of his neighbours; looking after his estates and the material and moral well-being of his slaves; and caring for his children: he warns his son against loose talk, forbids vaudeville in his house, and declines an invitation to go fishing because his daughter Severiana has a bad feverish cold.
Sidonius Apollinaris may at a first glance seem a surprising character to find in the Roman Martyrology; as Father M. Van Cutsem has written, he "is one of the many bishops who have reached the honours of the altar because they left no unhappy memory behind and their anniversary was entered in the Depositio episcoporum".

The greater part of our information concerning Sidonius is derived from his letters and other writings. The best text is that edited in MGH., Auctores Antiquissimi, vol. via. There is an excellent short biography by Paul Allard in the series "Les Saints" (1910) and a longer one in two volumes by the Abbe Chaix (1866). An English version of the letters of Sidonius was published by O. M.. Dalton in 1915, and another by W. B. Anderson in 1936. An unusually long article has been devoted to him in DCB., vol. iv, pp. 649-661. See C. E. Stevens, Sidonius Apollinaris and His Age (1935).

Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius was born in Lugdunum, about 423. He was from a noble family and received a brilliant education in the classical style. Entering the military, he married Papianilla, the daughter of Avitus, who became emperor of the West in 455. Living at the imperial court, Apollinaris survived the deposition of Avitus in 456 and subsequently served as the chief senator and prefect of Rome from 468 to 469. He then retired to Gaul, where he carried on a vast correspondence that gives considerable insight into the political period.

In 469, although unwilling and not yet a priest, Apollinaris was named bishop of Avernum. He was chosen because of his piety and because he was considered the only one capable of defending the people against the invading Goths, under Alaric. Apollinaris assumed the humble lifestyle of the bishopric and learned so much about ecclesiastical affairs that he was soon recognized as an authority. He opposed King Euric of the Goths in 474 and was exiled briefly. He was an outstanding orator and poet, and he introduced the days of public prayer called "Rogation Days." Twenty-four of his letters and poems survived and are a valuable resource on the period. Apollinaris is considered to be the last representative of the great classical culture of Rome which was being overrun by the Germanic invasions.

541 St. Leontius the Elder Bishop of Bordeaux
France, the predecessor of Leontius the Younger.

600 St. Avitus I of Clermont Bishop of Clermont.
Friend of St. Gregory of Tours. He was the eighteenth bishop of Clermont, France, and he ordained St. Gregory as a deacon.

1135 Bd Humbeline, Matron; her brother St Bernard, with whom she was always on terms of intimate friendship.

Bd Humbeline was born in 1092, the year after her brother St Bernard, with whom she was always on terms of intimate friendship. Like him she was of great physical beauty, and had a lovely voice and was skilled in music; in due course she married a nobleman of the house of Lorraine, Guy de Marcy. Some years after the founding of Clairvaux she went to visit Bernard there and in due course arrived, very stylishly dressed and surrounded by an imposing train of attendants. When St Bernard was told that the Lady Humbeline had come, and with what array, he was not at all pleased and refused to see her: he knew his sister and disapproved of her display, and perhaps thought she was "showing off ", travelling in that style. She at once guessed what had upset him, or, as tradition says, her brother Andrew told her, roughly enough, and she sent in a message that if he would come out she would do just as he told her; and out of enclosure St Bernard accordingly came.
Humbeline's life in the world was mote notable for dancing than devotion, and it was Bernard's opinion that the balance needed redressing; he took the opportunity presented, and gently reasoned with her, particularly reminding her of the virtuous and devoted life of their mother, Aleth. This had its effect (even a sister would hesitate about arguing with a St Bernard), and Humbeline went away, considerably chastened.
A few years later this interview at Clairvaux had a more unexpected result, when Humbeline got her husband's consent to her becoming a nun. She went to the monastery of the nuns at that fully near Troyes which is called "les-Nonnains after them; here her sister-in-law Elizabeth was abbess, and when she left to found a convent near Dijon, Bd Humbeline was appointed in her place. She practised severe physical austerities and when her nuns urged her to moderate them she replied, "That is all very well for you, my sisters, who have been serving God in religion all your lives. But I have lived so long in the world and of the world that no penance can be too much for me." In her last illness three of her brothers, Bernard, Andrew and Nivard, hurried to her bedside, and she died in Bernard's arms in 1135 (or 1136). The cultus of Bd Humbeline was approved in 1703.

There is no early life of Bd Humbeline. A short account of her is given in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iv, and she stands first in the group of holy women whose history is traced by Henriquez in his Lilia Cisterciensium (1633) but almost all lives of St Bernard devote more or less space to his relations with his only sister.

1185 Saint Gilbert French Benedictine monk

1224 St. Abraham of Smolensk Biblical scholar and monk

1221 St. Abraham of Smolensk
This Abraham has a place apart among the saints of pre-Tartar Russia. He was born at Smolensk during the later part of the twelfth century. While a youth he lost his parents, whereupon he gave away his goods to the needy and became a monk and priest of the Bogoroditskaya monastery at his birthplace. He was like St Theodosius Pechersky in reverence for St Sabas and the early monks of Palestine, in his insistence on personal poverty, and in combining the active with the contemplative life, not only doing much manual work within the monastery but preaching and helping the poor and sick outside as well.
Abraham took no part in secular affairs, and further differed from Theodosius in his studiousness. He copied manuscripts, and became a learned and industrious interpreter of the Holy Scriptures and an energetic and vigorous preacher; he was full of zeal for God's house and the beauty of divine worship, and "strictly forbade talking in church", especially during the Holy Sacrifice.

More remarkable still, for that time and place, he celebrated the eucharistic Liturgy every day.

What distinguished St Abraham from his contemporaries was his sternness and austerity, both in precept and practice: "he slept but little; kneeling and weeping abundant tears, he beat his breast and called upon God, imploring the Lord to have mercy on His people and to turn away His wrath." His preaching was marked by prophetic solemnity and concern with the "last things"; he was tireless in his calls to repentance and his warnings of the end of the world and its judgement.* {*St Abraham painted two eikons; both were concerned with the Last Judgement, the Terrible Judgement as it is called in Russia.}
The influence St Abraham exerted was very great, especially among lay people, but his teaching amused the opposition of some among the clergy and monks; and, after his abbot had forbidden him to teach and he had suffered "many annoyances" Abraham migrated to the Holy Cross monastery in Smolensk.

But here things got worse, and the whole city began to turn against him. There is no doubt that the more ignorant of the clergy were jealous of his learning and popularity as a spiritual director, and they stirred up others. Charges were made against St Abraham "on account of women", of heresy, of claiming to be a prophet, of reading impious books. Eventually he was arrested, dragged through a jeering mob, and on successive days brought before two different tribunals: the first, composed of laymen, acquitted him, and it does not seem certain that the second, of clerics, found him guilty either. But the bishop of Smolensk, Ignatius, sent him back to his first monastery and he was inhibited from celebrating the Holy Mysteries.
There were not wanting those who foretold disaster for Smolensk because of its mistreatment of an innocent and holy man; and when the city was afflicted with a serious drought Bishop Ignatius decided to re-examine the case of Abraham. The result of his deliberations was to decide that the accusations were all false, and St Abraham was reinstated, with the request that he should pray for the city. "He had not even reached his cell", writes Ephrem, "before God sent rain." The persecution had lasted five years, during which he was "insulted and vilified as if he were a felon". The bishop asked Abraham's forgiveness for the injustice to which he had been a party, and after a time made him abbot of the small monastery of the Mother of God. It was not a very desirable charge, for the monks were few and old and of poor repute; but St Abraham gladly accepted it, and there spent the rest of his life in peace.
He again took up his former work of the ministry of the word and of spiritual wisdom, and died in the year 1221, loved and respected by all. He had been a monk for fifty years, and was stern and uncompromising to the last as he "in great humility and sorrow of heart reminded himself with sighs and groans of the separation of soul from body
The contemporary biographer Ephrem says that at St Abraham's trial "God softened the hearts of the prince and the rulers, but the abbots and priests would gladly have eaten him alive". The less ignorant and malicious among these clergy were probably disturbed by some of St Abraham's biblical exegesis, for that was his great interest, especially as regards the "last things" and their practical significance for human souls.
Ephrem repeatedly refers to the divine grace that was given Abraham "not only to read but to interpret, so that nothing in the sacred writings could be hidden from him". It is not known what the challenged speculations were, nor the nature of the unorthodox books St Abraham was accused of studying, for little of his teaching has come down to us, except one sermon, on the Heavenly Powers, and it is not certain that that is his, though without doubt it reflects his spiritual background accurately, a background wherein mercilessness is regarded as almost the worst of sins and the consummation of the Last Judgement is the transfiguration of the physical earth. What remains certain is that many came to St Abraham from the city, and passed from sin to repentance.

For bibliographical notes on Russian saints, see under St Sergius on September 25, especially Fedotov's Russian Religious Mind there referred to, to which most of the above is indebted. There are in existence only two detailed vitae of pre-Mongol Russian saints, that of this St Abraham being one of them.

He who endured many trials in his lifetime. Born to a wealthy family in Smolensk, Russia, Abraham was orphaned while young and gave away his inheritance to become a monk. He entered the Bogoroditskaya Monastery and developed a genuine apostolate for the sick and poor of the region. A biblical scholar who lived austerely and preached on the Last Judgement, Abraham made many enemies in his religious community, and he eventually withdrew from his monastery and joined the monks of the Holy Cross. He was not well received there either, and charges of heresy, immorality, and pride were leveled against him. After separate trials cleared him of these charges, Abraham was ordered back to Bogoroditskaya Monastery and was denied his priestly functions by Ignatius, bishop of Smolensk.
However, when the city faced a terrible drought, the citizens of Smolensk demanded that Abraham be restored.

This clamor for reinstatement led to a second investigation, one that cleared his name. Bishop Ignatius apologized to the saint for his treatment. Abraham became the abbot of the Mother of God Monastery where he received people and was revered for his courage and humility. He remained in the Mother of God Monastery until his death.

The Monk Avraamii (Abraham) of Smolensk, a preacher of repentance and the impending Dread Last Judgement, was born in the mid-XII Century at Smolensk of rich parents, who before him had 12 daughters, and they besought God for a son. From childhood he grew up in the fear of God, he was often in church and had the opportunity to read books. The parents hoped that their only son would enter into marriage and continue their illustrious lineage, but he sought after a different life. After the death of his parents, having given away all his wealth to monasteries, to churches and to the destitute, the saint walked through the city in rags, beseeching God to show him the way to salvation.

He accepted tonsure in a monastery of the MostHoly Mother of God, five versts from Smolensk, at the locale of Selischa. Having passed through various obediences there, the monk fervently occupied himself with the copying of books, culling spiritual riches from them. The Smolensk prince Roman Rostislavich (+ 1170) started a school in the city, in which they taught not only in Slavonic, but also out of Greek and Latin books. The prince himself had a large collection of books, which the Monk Avraamii made use of. He had asceticised for more than 30 years at the monastery, when in the year 1198 the hegumen persuaded him to accept the dignity of presbyter. Every day he made Divine Liturgy and fulfilled the obedience of clergy not only for the brethren, but also for the laypeople.

Soon the monk became widely known. This aroused the envy of the brethren, and then of the hegumen also, and 5 years later the monk was compelled to transfer to the Cross-Exaltation monastery in Smolensk itself. From the offerings by the devout he embellished the cathedral church of the poor monastery with icons, and with curtains and candle-stands.
He himself inscribed two icons on themes, which most of all concerned him: on the one he depicted the Dread Last Judgement, and on the other -- the suffering of the trials of life. Lean and pale from extreme toil, the ascetic in priestly garb resembled in appearance Saint Basil the Great. The saint was strict both towards himself, and towards his spiritual children. He preached constantly in church and to those coming to him in his cell, conversing with rich and poor alike.

The city notables and the clergy demanded of Bishop Ignatii to bring the monk to trial, accusing him in the seduction of women and the tempting of his spiritual children. But even more terrible were the accusations against him, of heresy and the reading of forbidden books. For this they proposed to drown or burn the ascetic. At the trial by the prince and the bishop, the monk answered all the false accusations, but despite this, they forbade him to serve as a priest and returned him to his former monastery in honour of the MostHoly Mother of God. A terrible drought occurred in consequence of God's wrath over the unjust sentence, and only when Sainted Ignatii put forth a pardon of the Monk Avraamii permitting him to serve and preach, did the rain again fall on the Smolensk lands.

The bishop Saint Ignatii built a new monastery, in honour of the Placing of the Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God, and he entrusted the guidance of it to the Monk Avraamii, and he himself settled into it, having retired because of age from the diocese. Many were desirous to enter under the guidance of the Monk Avraamii, but he examined them very intensely and only after great investigation, so that at his monastery there were but 17 brethren. The Monk Avraamii, after the death of Saint Ignatii, having become his spiritual friend, -- even moreso than before urged the brethren to reminisce about death and to pray day and night, that they be not condemned in the Judgement by God.

The Monk Avraamii died after the year 1224, having spent 50 years in monasticism. Already at the end of the XIII Century there had been compiled a service to him, conjointly with his student the Monk Ephrem. The terrible Mongol-Tatar invasion, seen as the wrath of God for sin, not only did not stifle the memory of the Monk Avraamii of Smolensk, but rather was a reminder to people of his calling to repentance and recollection of the dread Last Judgement.

1348 St. Bernard Tolomeo Italian monk, founder of Congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Olivet
Senis, in Túscia, beáti Bernárdi Ptolomæi Abbátis, Congregatiónis Olivetánæ Fundatóris.
    At Siena in Tuscany, blessed Bernard Ptolemy, abbot and founder of the Congregation of Olivetans.

THIS holy founder was born at Siena in 1272 and was baptized John. He was educated by his uncle, a Dominican friar, and at the local university; after receiving his doctorate in law he took up public work in Siena and fulfilled several municipal offices. He was always a devout man; but he seems to have undergone some sort of sudden "conversion", for in 1312 instead of a lecture on philosophy he gave a sermon on contempt of the world, resigned his position and withdrew to a place ten miles from the city and lived there in solitude. He was joined by two other Sienese, Ambrose Piccolomini and Patrick Patrizi, and the three lived together in the desert land between Siena and the woods of Mont Amiata, where all was ash-coloured, sterile and desolate. The reputation of the sanctity of their lives was marred by malicious or mistaken rumours (some thought them mad, others subversive), which caused them to be summoned before Pope John XXII at Avignon to give an account of themselves. They were able to demonstrate their orthodoxy to the pope's satisfaction, but he instructed them to put themselves under one or other of the approved monastic riules. They thereupon consulted Guy, Bishop of Arezzo, who gave them the Rule of St Benedict and instructed a Camaldolese monk to clothe them in the monastic habit-but white instead of the usual black.
   John Tolomei, who was recognized as their leader, took the name of Bernard, their hermitage at Chiusuri was called Monte Oliveto, and the Benedictine congregation of our Lady of Monte Oliveto came into existence in 1319. It professed a primitive observance of the rule, to which a number of austerities (including, at first, total abstinence from wine) were added, and its success was instantaneous. Within a few years Bd Bernard had founded a second monastery at Siena, and others followed elsewhere; their penitential life continued to attract disciples and in 1344 the new congregation was confirmed by Pope Clement VI.
   Some time afterwards a bad epidemic of plague broke out around Siena, and the Olivetan monks gave themselves up entirely to the care of the suffering and the burial of the dead; it seemed as if they were miraculously preserved from contagion, but in August 1348 the first of them was struck down: it was their founder himself. He died at Monte Oliveto on the 20th, the feast of his patron, St Bernard of Clairvaux. In 1644 the cultus of Bd Bernard Tolomei was confirmed, and his name appears in the Roman Martyrology with the title "Blessed" ; but he is venerated by the Olivetans, who still exist as a small independent congregation of Benedictines, as "Saint", in accordance with the declaration of the Congregation of Sacred Rites that "he was worthy of veneration among the saints".

The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iv, give a long account of Bd Bernard, though there is no formal biography of early date. The most valuable contribution to the history of the founder of the Olivetani is that of Dom Placid Lugano, Origine e primordi dell' Ordine di Montoliveto Orden and Kongregationen des Kath. Kirche, vol. i, pp. 281-283.

Founder of the congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto, born at Siena in Tuscany in 1272; died in 1348. He received at baptism the name of Giovanni, but took that of Bernard out of admiration for the saintly Abbot of Clairvaux. He was educated by his uncle, Christopher Tolorneo, a Dominican, and desired to enter the religious life, but his father's opposition prevented, and he continued his studies in secular surroundings. After a course in philosophy arid mathematics lie devoted himself to the study of civil and canon law, and of theology. For a time Bernard served in the armies of Rudolph of Hapsburg. After his return to Siena he was appointed by his fellow citizens to the highest positions in the town government. While thus occupied he was struck with blindness. Having recovered his sight through the intervention of the Blessed Virgin he retired (1313) to a solitary spot about ten miles from Siena, where he led a life of the greatest austerity.

The fame of his virtues soon attracted many visitors, and Bernard was accused of heresy. He went to Avignon and cleared himself of this charge before John XXII without difficulty. Upon his return he founded the congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto, giving it the Rule of St. Benedict. The purpose of the new religious institute was a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Guido, Bishop of Arezzo, within whose diocese the congregation was formed, confirmed its constitution, (1319), and many favours were granted by Popes John XXII, Clement VI (1344), and Gregory XI. Upon the appearance of the pest in the district of Arezzo, Bernard and his monks devoted themselves to the care of the sick without any personal ill effects After having ruled the religious body he had founded for twenty-seven years Bernard died, at the age of seventy-six. His death was followed by many miracles and the congregation became a nursery of saints. In 1634 the Congregation of Rites declared that the Blessed Bernard Tolomeo was deserving of veneration among the saints. (1903), who, basing his work upon the relatively early chronicles of Antony de Barga and Alexander da Sesto, has stripped Bernard's life of its legendary accretion., notably of the story which attribute, his religious vocation to the miraculous cure of sudden blindness. On the Olivetani as a reformed congregation see Heimbucher,

1641 St Jane Frances De Chantal, Widow, Co-Foundress of The Order of The Visitation

The father of St Jane de Chantal was Bénigne Frémyot, president of the parliment of Burgundy. M. Frémyot was left a widower whilst his children were yet in their infancy; but he took such care of their education that nothing was wanting for forming them in the practice of every religious duty and preparing them for life. Jane, who at her confirmation was called Frances, profited above the rest and was tenderly beloved by her father, who gave her in marriage when she was twenty to Christopher de Rabutin, Baron de Chantal, then twenty-seven years old, an officer in the French army and an accomplished but penitent duellist; on his mother's side he was descended from Bd Humbeline, whose feast is kept on this same day. The marriage was solemnized at Dijon, and a few days after Jane Frances went with her husband to his seat at Bourbilly. She found an estate and household which since the death of her husband's mother had not been much accustomed to regularity, and the baroness made it her first care to establish order and good management.
After three children had died soon after birth, they were blessed with a boy and three girls who throve. Nothing which the world could afford was wanting to complete their happiness, and they strove to be worthy of God's blessings. When someone commented on the baroness's modest clothes -when her husband was away, she replied, "The eyes which I want to please are a hundred leagues from here"; and the remark of St Francis de Sales was as true in the early days as when he made it, "In Madame de Chantal I have found the valiant woman whom Solomon had difficulty in finding in Jerusalem."
But the happiness of Bourbilly lasted only nine years. One day in the year 1601 M. de Chantal, in company with a friend, went out shooting; the circumstances are not known, but accidentally M. d'Auldzy shot him in the thigh. He survived nine days, during which he suffered great pain from the efforts of an unskilful surgeon and received the sacraments with edifying resignation. Madame de Chantal's life, thoughts and actions were bound up in her beloved husband, and when she was left a widow at twenty-eight her grief is not to be expressed; for four months she was sunk in dejection, until she was roused by a letter from her father, who reminded her of her obligations towards her children. To testify her perfect forgiveness of him who had been the cause of her husband's death, she did him every good office in her power, and stood godmother to one of his children. She doubled her alms, and divided her time between the instruction and care of her children, her prayers and her work. It was her earnest and continual prayer that God would show her a truly holy guide, by whom she might be instructed in what manner she might best accomplish His will. One day when she was speaking to our Lord on this matter, she saw suddenly a man of the same stature and features as St Francis de Sales, dressed just as he was the first time she saw him afterwards at Dijon. Another time, being in a little wood, she seemed to be trying to get into a church that was near, but in vain. Here it was given her to understand that divine love must consume all the rust of self-love in her, and that she should meet with a great many troubles, both from within and without.

During the year of her mourning her father sent for her to his house at Dijon, where she lived with her children until she had to go with them to Monthelon, near Autun, to live with the old Baron de Chantal, who was then seventy-five. She gave up her beautiful and deeply-loved Bourbilly for an unprepossessing chateau, occupied by a vain, fierce and extravagant old man and ruled by an insolent housekeeper of bad reputation. Jane never let fall a word of complaint, and, though she was never allowed to take her rightful place in the house, her compliance in everything was cheerful and agreeable.

It happened in 1604 that St Francis de Sales came to preach the Lent at Dijon, and she went to stay with her father there that she might have the opportunity of hearing so celebrated a preacher. She at once recognized him as the person she had seen in vision and knew him to be the spiritual director she had long begged of God to send her. St Francis dined frequently at her father's house, and she gained a great confidence in him. It was her wish to put her difficulties before him, but she was hindered by a scruple on account of a vow she had made by the advice of an indiscreet religious, her director, not to address herself to any other than to himself for spiritual advice. She, however, took care to profit by the presence of the bishop, and he in his turn was greatly impressed by and attracted to her. One day, seeing her dressed better than usual, he said, "Madam, do you wish to marry again?" "No, indeed, my lord!" she replied. "Very well ", he said with a smile, "but then you should pull down your flag." She took the hint.
The perplexities about her indiscreet vow being removed, she prevailed on St Francis after some difficulty to undertake her direction. By his advice she regulated her devotions and other exercises so as to conform herself to what she owed to the world whilst she lived in the houses of her father and father-in-law. In this she was so successful that the significant remark was made, "Madam prays always, and yet is never troublesome to anybody". She followed a strict rule of life, devoting much time to her children, and visited the poor that were sick in the neighbourhood and watched whole nights by those that were dying.
The sweetness and mildness of her temper showed how she had already co-operated with the grace of God. Madame de Chantal was by nature strong, firm and forceful, but there was a certain hardness and rigidity in her character which was only removed by long years of prayer, suffering and patient guidance. This was the work, under God, of St Francis de Sales, whom she visited at Annecy and who corresponded freely with her. He strictly limited her bodily mortifications, reminding her that St Charles Borromeo, "a man with a true spirit of liberty acting from charity", did not disdain to drink toasts with his hearty neighbours, and that St Ignatius Loyola ate meat on a Friday on the bare word of his doctor, "when a narrow man would have argued about it for at least three days".
He never allowed her to forget that she was still a woman in the world, an old man's daughter, and, above all, a mother; he spoke much to her about her children's upbringing and softened her tendency to over-strictness in their regard, so that they profited almost as much from his friendship as their mother did.

For some time various considerations, including the presence of Carmelite nuns at Dijon, inclined Madame de Chantal to enter a cloister. When she had talked to St Francis about this he took some time to recommend the matter to God, and at length in 1607 he unfolded his project of forming a new establishment, a congregation of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. St Jane welcomed the proposal with joy; but the grief of her aged father, requirements of her children, and the situation of the affairs of her family, raised great obstacles and gave her much suffering. To the objection that the obligation which Madame de Chantal owed her children could not be complied with unless she remained with them in the world, St Francis replied that they were no longer infants and that in a cloister she would be able to watch over them with no less vigilance, and perhaps even with greater advantage to them, than by continuing always with them, especially as the two eldest were about to go "into the world"; and these and other objections were eventually overcome.
Before she left the world St Jane Frances married her eldest daughter to St Francis's brother, the young Baron de Thorens. Her two younger daughters she determined to take with her one died in a short time; the other she afterwards married to M. de Toulonjon. Her son, Celse-Bdnigne, was fifteen years old, and him she left under the care of her father and of tutors. At Dijon she had to bid adieu to all her friends, and as she came to leave the room Celse-Bdnigne, who had tried in vain to shake her resolution at the last moment, threw himself to the ground across the doorway in a paroxysm of grief. Here was a last inducement to choose the easier way, and stay ; she chose the harder-and stepped over his body. In the porch her aged father was waiting. She fell on her knees with streaming eyes and asked him to bless her. He laid his hands on her head and said, "I cannot blame you for what you do. You go with my consent, and I offer you to God, a daughter dear to me as ever Isaac was to Abraham. Go where God calls you. I shall be happy, knowing you are in His house. Pray for me." St Francis having provided a house, called the Gallery House, on the edge of the lake at Annecy, he inaugurated his convent on Trinity Sunday, 1610. With St Jane Frances were clothed two other sisters, Mary Favre and Charlotte de Bréchard, and a servant, Anne Coste, and they were soon joined by ten others. So far the institute had no name, and indeed the founder had no certain idea of its scope, except that it was to be a haven for those whose health, age or other considerations debarred them from the already established orders, and that he wished the sisters to be unenclosed and so more free to undertake work for souls and bodies.

It encountered much opposition, from the usual failure of the narrow and unimaginative to understand anything new. St Francis changed the plan of the congregation so far as to make it an enclosed religious order, under the Rule of St Augustine, to which he added constitutions admirable in their wisdom and moderation, "not too easy for the strong, nor too hard for the weak". But he refused to give up the name, "of the Visitation of Our Lady", which he had chosen for his nuns, and St Jane Frances urged him to make no concessions at all. St Francis would have the two sister virtues of humility and meekness to be the basis of the rule. "In the practice of virtues", said he to St Jane Frances and her religious sisters, "let humility be the source of all the rest; let it be without bounds; make it the reigning principle of all your actions. Let an unalterable meekness and sweetness on all occasions become by habit natural to you." He wrote specifically for St Jane and her more experienced sisters his famous treatise On the Love of God. One saint so far profited by the direction of the other saint that Mother de Chantal, who was fast progressing on the mystical road, was allowed to make a vow always to do what was the more perfect in the sight of God. And she faithfully and prudently governed her community in the spirit of their founder and director.
Affairs of her children and the foundation of new convents obliged her often to leave Annecy. The year after she took the habit, upon the death of her father, she went to Dijon and stayed there some months to settle his affairs and place her son in a college. While at Dijon St Jane Frances was tormented by her relatives to return to the world. "Why do you bury yourself like that under two yards of bombasine? "That ridiculous veil should be torn to bits" exclaimed one excitable lady. St Francis de Sales wrote the last word "If you had married again, some gentleman from the farthest end of Gascony or Brittany, you would have had to leave your family-and no one would have made a single objection..."
After convents had been established at Lyons, Moulins, Grenoble and Bourges, St Francis from Paris sent for Mother de Chantal to see about a foundation there, which she was able to bring about in 1619 in the face of open hostility and underhand intriguing; God strengthened and comforted her under it, and her meekness and patience gained her the admiration of those who had been her bitter adversaries.
She governed her convent at Paris for three years, during which St Vincent de Paul directed it at the request of St Francis, and she made the acquaintance of Angélique Arnauld, abbess of Port-Royal, who failed to get permission to resign her office and join the Visitation Order.

   In 1622 the death of St Francis was a grievous affliction to her, which her resignation to the divine will made her hear with unshaken constancy; his body was buried in the church of her convent at Annecy.
In 1627 her son was killed fighting against the English and the Huguenots in the isle of Re, in his thirty-first year, leaving his wife with a daughter not a year old, who became the celebrated Madame de Sévigné. St Jane received this news with heroic fortitude; she offered her heart to God, saying, "Destroy, cut, burn, whatever opposes thy holy will."
During the following year a terrible plague ravaged France, Savoy and Piedmont, causing great suffering to several Visitation convents. When it reached Annecy St Jane Frances refused to leave the town, put all resources of her convent at the disposal of the sick, and whipped up the local authorities to greater efforts on behalf of the sufferers.
In 1632 came the news of the death of Celse-Bénigne's widow, and then of her much-loved son-in-law, Antony de Toulonjon, and of Michael Favre, the confessor of St Francis and a close and devoted friend of the Visitandines. To these bereavements were added interior anguish, darkness and spiritual dryness which she sometimes experienced to a terrible degree, as appears from several of her letters. Thus does God suffer those souls which are most dear to Him seemingly to lose themselves and wander in mists and darkness, amid disturbance of mind. Yet these are certain and direct paths to happiness, and lead to the source and centre of all light.
    During the years 1635-36 St Jane Frances made a visitation of the convents of the order, which now numbered sixty-five and many of which had never seen their spiritual mother; and in 1641 she went into France on an errand of charity to Madame de Montmorency. It was her last journey.
She was invited to Paris by the queen, Anne of Austria, and to her distress was treated there with great distinction and honour. On her return she fell ill on the road, in her convent at Moulins. There it was that she died on December 13, 1641, being sixty-nine years old.   Her body was taken to Annecy and buried near St Francis de Sales. She was canonized in 1767.
St Vincent de Paul said of her, "She was full of faith, and yet all her life tong had been tormented by thoughts against it. While apparently enjoying that peace and easiness of mind of souls who have reached a high state of virtue, she suffered such interior trials that she often told me her mind was so filled with all sorts of temptations and abominations that she had to strive not to look within herself, for she could not bear it: the sight of her own soul horrified her as if it were an image of Hell."
"But for all that suffering her face never lost its serenity, nor did she once relax in the fidelity God asked of her. And so I regard her as one of the holiest souls I have ever met on this earth."

Apart from her own writings and correspondence and the letters of St Francis de Sales, by far the most important source for any biography of St Jane Frances is the volume of Mémoires of Mother de Chaugy. This book rightly forms the first of the eight volumes which make up the collection Sainte Chantal, sa vie et ses oeuvres (1874-79). St Francis's letters have been completely edited in the imposing series of his works (20 vols.) published by the Visitation nuns at Annecy, and these, of course, are of great importance in the light they shed upon the origins of the order. Moreover, the foundress has been fortunate in finding an almost ideal biographer in modern times: the Chantal et des Histoire de Sainte origines de la Visitation by Mgr Bougaud (Eng. trans., 1895), is generally acknowledged to be a chef d' oeuvre in hagiographical literature. Besides this there is an able sketch, Sainte Chantal, in the series "Les Saints", by Henri Bremond and the same author has devoted many pages to the saint's spiritual influence and inspiration in his Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France; see especially vol. i, pp. 68-127, and vol. ii, pp. 537-584. An interesting episode in St Chantal's story has been treated by A. Gazier, Jeanne de Chantal et Angelique Arnauld d'après leur correspondance (1915). See also a selection of her letters published in English in 1918, a short biography by Emily Bowies in the Quarterly Series, a life by E. K. Sanders (1918), and popular accounts by Janet M. Scott and H. J. Heagney (1950).

1840 St. Joseph Nien Vien Martyr of Vietnam refuse to deny Christ.
He was beheaded by anti-Christian officials for refusing to deny Christ. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988.

1914 St. Pius X "I was born poor, I have lived in poverty, and I wish to die poor"
On June 2, 1835, Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto saw the light of earth at Riesi, Province of Treviso, in Venice; on August 20, 1914, he saw the light of heaven; and on May 29, 1954, he who had become the two hundred fifty-ninth pope was canonized St. Pius X. (Italian "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament," reigned 1903-1914)

Two of the most outstanding accomplishments of this saintly Pope were the inauguration of the liturgical renewal and the restoration of frequent communion from childhood.
He also waged an unwavering war against the heresy and evils of Modernism,
gave great impetus to biblical studies,
and brought about the codification of Canon Law.
His overriding concern was to renew all things in Christ.

Above all, his holiness shown forth conspicuously. From St. Pius X we learn again that "the folly of the Cross", simplicity of life, and humility of heart are still the highest wisdom and the indispensable conditions of a perfect Christian life, for they are the very source of all apostolic fruitfulness.

His last will and testament bears the striking sentence:

"I was born poor, I have lived in poverty, and I wish to die poor."

Pope Pius X is perhaps best remembered for his encouragement of the frequent reception of Holy Communion, especially by children. The second of 10 children in a poor Italian family, Joseph Sarto became Pius X at 68, one of the twentieth century’s greatest popes. Ever mindful of his humble origin, he stated, “I was born poor, I lived poor, I will die poor.” He was embarrassed by some of the pomp of the papal court.
“Look how they have dressed me up,” he said in tears to an old friend. To another, “It is a penance to be forced to accept all these practices. They lead me around surrounded by soldiers like Jesus when he was seized in Gethsemani.”
Interested in politics, he encouraged Italian Catholics to become more politically involved. One of his first papal acts was to end the supposed right of governments to interfere by veto in papal elections—a practice that reduced the freedom of the conclave which elected him.
In 1905, when France renounced its agreement with the Holy See and threatened confiscation of Church property if governmental control of Church affairs were not granted, Pius X courageously rejected the demand.
While he did not author a famous social encyclical as his predecessor had done, he denounced the ill treatment of the Indians on the plantations of Peru, sent a relief commission to Messina after an earthquake and sheltered refugees at his own expense.
On the eleventh anniversary of his election as pope, Europe was plunged into World War I. Pius had foreseen it, but it killed him. “This is the last affliction the Lord will visit on me. I would gladly give my life to save my poor children from this ghastly scourge.” He died a few weeks after the war began.
Comment: His humble background was no obstacle in relating to a personal God and to people whom he loved genuinely. He gained his strength, his gentleness and warmth for people from the source of all gifts, the Spirit of Jesus. In contrast, we often feel embarrassed by our backgrounds. Shame makes us prefer to remain aloof from people whom we perceive as superior. If we are in a superior position, on the other hand, we often ignore simpler people. Yet we, too, have to help “restore all things in Christ,” especially the wounded people of God.
Quote: Describing Pius X, a historian wrote that he was “a man of God who knew the unhappiness of the world and the hardships of life, and in the greatness of his heart wanted to comfort everyone.”
Sancti Pii Papæ Décimi, cujus natális dies tertiodécimo Kaléndas Septémbris recensétur.
Pope St. Pius X, whose birthday is mentioned on the 20th of August .

1914 ST PIUS X, POPE
THAT distinguished historian of earlier popes, Baron von Pastor, has written of Pope Pius X:

He was one of those chosen few men whose personality is irresistible. Everyone was moved by his simplicity and his angelic kindness. Yet it was something more that carried him into all hearts: and that “something” is best defined by saying that all who were ever admitted to his presence had a deep conviction of being face to face with a saint. And the more one knows about him the stronger this Conviction becomes.

He was born in 1835, son of the municipal messenger and postman of the big village of Riese in Venetia, and was then known as Giuseppe Sarto (i.e. “Joseph Taylor “); he was the second of ten children, and the circumstances of the family were very poor. Young Joseph went to the local elementary school, from thence, through the encouragement of his parish priest, to the “grammar school” at Castelfranco, walking five miles there and back every day, and then by bursary to the seminary at Padua. He was ordained priest by dispensation at the age of twenty-three, and for seventeen years gave himself wholeheartedly to the pastoral ministry; then he became a canon of Treviso, where his hard work and generous charities were very marked, and in 1884 bishop of Mantua, a diocese then in a very low state, with a negligent clergy and two towns in schism. So brilliantly successful was he in handling this charge that in 1892 Pope Leo XIII appointed Mgr Sarto cardinal-priest of St Bernard-at-the-Baths and promoted him to the metropolitan see of Venice, which carries with it the honorary title of patriarch. Here he became a veritable apostle of Venetia, his simplicity and forthrightness standing out in a see that rather prided itself on its pomp and magnificence.

On the death of Leo XIII in 1903 it was generally believed that Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro would succeed him, and the first three ballots of the conclave so far bore this out that Cardinal Puzyna, Archbishop of Cracow, communicated to the electors the formal veto against Rampolla of the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. There was a profound sensation, and the cardinals solemnly protested against the interference: but Rampolla withdrew his candidature with great dignity, and after four more ballots Cardinal Sarto was elected.*[* It seems now to be generally agreed that Rampolla would not have been elected anyhow.]

Thus there came to the chair of Peter a man of obscure birth, of no outstanding intellectual attainments, and with no experience of ecclesiastical diplomacy, but one who, if ever man did, radiated goodness: “a man of God who knew the unhappiness of the world and the hardships of life, and in the greatness of his heart wanted to comfort everybody.”

One of the new pope’s earliest acts, by the constitution “Commissum nobis”, was to put an end once for all to any supposed right of any civil power to interfere in a papal election, by veto or in any other way; and later he took a cautious but definite step towards reconciliation between church and state in Italy by relaxing in practice the “Non expedit”.+ [+ i.e. the Holy See’s ruling that it was inexpedient for faithful Catholics to associate themselves publicly with the despoilers of the papal states,. e.g. by voting in parliamentary elections. For what a wise man thought about this policy, cf. Bd Contardo Ferrini (October 17).]

His way of dealing with the most critical situation that soon arose in France was more direct and assuredly not less effective than ordinary diplomatic methods would have been. After a number of incidents the French government in 1905 denounced the concordat of 1801, decreed the separation of church and state, and entered on an aggressive campaign against the Church. For dealing with ecclesiastical property it proposed an organization called associations cultuelles, to which many prominent French Catholics wanted to give a trial; but, after consultation with the French episcopate, Pope Pius in two strong and dignified pronouncements condemned the law of separation and forbade the associations as uncanonical. Of those who complained that he had sacrificed all the possessions of the Church in France he said, “They are too concerned about material goods, and not enough about spiritual”.

A good aspect of the separation was that the Holy See could now appoint French bishops direct, without nomination by the civil power. “Pius X”, declared the bishop of Nevers, Mgr Gauthey, “at the cost of sacrificing our property emancipated us from slavery. May he be blessed for ever for not shrinking from imposing that sacrifice on us.” The pope’s strong action caused the French government such difficulties that twenty years later it agreed to another and canonical arrangement for the administration of church property.

The name of Pius X is commonly and rightly associated with the purging of the Church of that “synthesis of all heresies”, somewhat unhappily called Modernism. A decree of the Holy Office in 1907 condemned certain writers and propositions, and it was soon followed by the encyclical letter “Pascendi dominici gregis”, wherein the far-reaching dangerous tendencies were set out and examined, and manifestations of Modernism in every field were pointed out and condemned. Strong disciplinary measures were also taken and, though there was some fierce opposition, Modernism was practically killed in the Church at one blow. It had made considerable headway among Catholics, but there were not wanting those even among the orthodox who thought the pope’s condemnation was excessive to the verge of an obscurantist narrowness.* [* Partly because of the excesses of the, inevitable groups of those who were “more Catholic than the pope”. These had on their lists of “suspects” Cardinal della Chiesa, who was to become Benedict XV.]

How far he could be from that was seen when in 1910 his encyclical on St Charles Borromeo had been misunderstood and given offence to Protestants in Germany Pius had his official explanation of the misunderstood passages published in the Osservatore Romano, and recommended the German bishops not to give the encyclical any further publication in pulpit or press.

In his first encyclical letter Pius X had announced his aim to be to “renew all things in Christ”, and nothing was better calculated to do that than his decrees concerning the sacrament of the Eucharist. These formally recommended daily communion when possible, +[+ In the middle ages, and later under the influence of Jansenism, communion was a rare occurrence for the ordinary Catholic. Daily or very frequent communion was looked on as extraordinary, and even improper. When the Catholics of the west of England rose against Protestant innovations in 1549 one of their expressed grievances was being expected to communicate more often than at Easter or thereabouts.] directed that children should be allowed to approach the altar upon attaining, the use of reason, and facilitated the communion of the sick. But there is a ministry of the word as well as of the altar, and he also strongly urged daily reading of the Bible—but here the pope’s words did not receive so much heed. With the object of increasing the worthiness of divine worship he in 1903 issued on his own initiative (motu proprio) an instruction on church music which struck at current abuses and aimed at the restoration of congregational singing of the Roman plainchant.

He encouraged the work of the commission for the codifying of canon law, and was responsible for a thorough reorganization of the tribunals, offices and congregations of the Holy See. Pius also set up a commission for the revision and correction of the Vulgate text of the Bible (this work was entrusted to the monks of St Benedict), and in 1909 founded the Biblical Institute for scriptural studies in charge of the Society of Jesus.

Pius X was ever actively concerned for the weak and oppressed. He strongly denounced the foul ill-treatment of the Indians on the rubber-plantations of Peru, and greatly encouraged the Indian missions in that country. He sent a commission of relief after the earthquake at Messina, and sheltered refugees at his own expense in the hospice of Santa Marta by St Peter’s, while his general charities, in Rome and throughout the world, were so great that people wondered where all the money came from. The quiet simplicity of his personal habits and the impressive holiness of his character were both exemplified in his custom of preaching publicly on the day’s gospel in one of the Vatican courtyards every Sunday.

Pius was embarrassed—perhaps a little shocked—by the ceremoniousness and some of the observances of the papal court. At Venice he had refused to let anyone but his sisters cook for him, and now he declined to observe the custom of conferring titles of nobility on his relatives. “The Lord has made them sisters of the pope”, he said, “that should suffice”. “Look how they have dressed me up”, he exclaimed to an old friend, and burst into tears. And to another he said, “It is indeed a penance to be forced to accept all these practices. They lead me about surrounded by soldiers like Jesus when he was seized. in Gethsemane.”

Those are not merely entertaining anecdotes. They go right to the heart of Pius’s single-minded goodness. To an English convert who wished to be a monk but had made few studies, he said, “To praise God well it is not necessary to be learned”. At Mantua infamous charges were made against him in print. He refused to take any action; and when the writer went bankrupt, the bishop privately sent him money: “So unfortunate a man needs prayers more than punishment.”

Already during his lifetime Almighty God used Pope Pius as an instrument of miracles, and these occurrences are stamped with the same perfection of modest simplicity. A man at a public audience pointed to his paralysed arm, saying, “Cure me, holy Father”. The pope smiled, stroking the arm gently: “Yes, yes, yes”, he said. And the man was healed. A paralysed child, 11-years old, at a private audience, suddenly and unprompted asked the same thing. “May God grant your wish”, said Pius. She got up and walked. A nun, in an advanced stage of tuberculosis, made the same request. “Yes”, was all Pius replied, laying his hands on her head. That evening her doctor verified her recovery.

On June 24, 1914, the Holy See signed a concordat with Serbia; four days later the Archduke Francis of Austria and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo by the midnight of August 4 Germany, France, Austria, Russia, Great Britain, Serbia, Belgium were at war: it was the eleventh anniversary of the pope’s election. Pius X had not merely foreseen this European war—many people had done that— he had foretold it definitely for the summer of 1914, but its outbreak was nevertheless a blow that killed him: “This is the last affliction that the Lord will visit on me. I would gladly give my life to save my poor children from this ghastly scourge.” After a few days’ illness he developed bronchitis on August 19: next day he was dead—the first great victim of a war called great. “I was born poor, I have lived poor and I wish to die poor”, he said in his will: and its contents bore out the truth of his words, so that even the anti-clerical press was moved to admiration.

After the funeral in St Peter’s Mgr Cascioli wrote, “I have no doubt whatever that this corner of the crypt will before long become a shrine and place of pilgrimage...God will glorify to the world this pope whose triple crown was poverty, humility and gentleness.” And so indeed it came about. The pontificate of Pius X had not been a quiet one, and the pope had been resolute in his policies. If he had no enemies—for it takes two to make an enemy—he had many critics, inside the Church as well as outside. But now the voice was unanimous: from all quarters, from high and low, came a call for the recognition of the sanctity of Pius X, once Joseph Sarto, the postman’s little boy. In 1923 the cardinals in curia decreed that his cause be introduced, Cardinal Aidan Gasquet representing England among the twenty-eight signatories; and in 1954 Pope Pius XII solemnly canonized his predecessor before a vast multitude in St Peter’s Square at Rome— the first canonized pope since Pius V in 1672.

On Pope St. Pius X A Pontificate "Characterized by a Notable Effort of Reform"

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).
Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience held at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today I would like to reflect on the figure of my predecessor St. Pius X, whose liturgical memorial will be observed Saturday, to emphasize some of his characteristics that can also be useful for the pastors and faithful of our time.

Giuseppe Sarto -- that was his name -- was born in Riese, Treviso, in 1835 to a peasant family. After studying in the Seminary of Padua, he was ordained a priest at age 23. First he was vice-parish priest in Tombolo, then parish priest in Salzano, then canon of the cathedral of Treviso with the office of episcopal chancellor and spiritual director of the diocesan seminary. During those years of rich and generous pastoral experience, the future Pontiff showed that profound love of Christ and of the Church, that humility and simplicity and that great charity toward the neediest, which were characteristics of his whole life.

In 1884 he was appointed bishop of Mantua and in 1893 patriarch of Venice. On Aug. 4, 1903, he was elected Pope, a ministry that he accepted with hesitation, because he did not think he measured up to the loftiness of such a task.

St. Pius X's pontificate has left an indelible mark on the history of the Church, and was characterized by a notable effort of reform, synthesized in the motto "Instaurare omnia in Christo," (To Renew All Things in Christ.) His intervention, in fact, embraced various ecclesial ambits. From the beginning he dedicated himself to the reorganization of the Roman Curia; then he gave a green light to the work of writing the Code of Canon Law, promulgated by his successor, Benedict XV. Moreover, he promoted the revision of studies and of the iter of formation for future priests; he also founded several regional seminaries, equipped with good libraries and competent professors.

Another important sector was the doctrinal formation of the People of God. In the years he was a parish priest, he himself wrote a catechism, and during his episcopacy in Mantua he worked to establish a single catechism, if not universal, at least Italian. As a genuine pastor, he understood that the situation of the age, also because of the phenomenon of emigration, made necessary a catechism that all the faithful could refer to, regardless of the place and circumstances of life. As Pontiff he prepared a text of Christian doctrine for the Diocese of Rome, which later spread to the whole of Italy and the world. The catechism called "of Pius X" was for many a sure guide in learning the truths of the faith because of its simple, clear and precise language and its explanatory effectiveness.

He dedicated notable attention to the reform of the liturgy, in particular sacred music, to lead the faithful to a life of more profound prayer and to fuller participation in the sacraments. In the motu proprio "Tra le sollecitudini" (1931), he stated that the true Christian spirit has its first and indispensable source in active participation in the sacred mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church (cf. ASS 36 [1903], 531). That is why he recommended the frequent reception of the sacraments, fostering daily, well-prepared reception of Holy Communion, and opportunely moving earlier children's First Communion to around 7 years of age, "when," he said, "the child begins to reason." (cf. S. Congr. de Sacramentis, Decretum Quam singulari: ASS 2 [1910], 582).

Faithful to the task of confirming brethren in the faith, St. Pius X intervened with determination in the face of tendencies that manifested themselves in the theological realm at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, condemning Modernism, to defend the faithful from erroneous concepts and to promote scientific reflection on revelation in harmony with the tradition of the Church. On May 7, 1909, with the apostolic letter "Vinea electa," he founded the Pontifical Biblical Institute. The last months of his life were embittered by the outbreak of the War. An appeal to the Catholics of the world launched on Aug. 2, 1914, to express "the acute grief" of that hour, was the suffering cry of a father who sees his children confront one another. He died shortly after, on Aug. 20, and his reputation for sanctity soon began to spread among the Christian people.

Dear brothers and sisters, St. Pius X teaches all of us that, at the foundation of our apostolic action, in the various fields in which we work, there must always be an intimate personal union with Christ, which must be cultivated and enhanced day after day. This is the kernel of all his teaching, of all his pastoral commitment. Only if we are enamored of the Lord will we be able to lead men to God and open them to his merciful love, and thus open the world to God's mercy.

[In English, he said:]
My dear brothers and sisters, today we recall Pope Saint Pius the Tenth, whose feast we celebrate this coming Saturday. He left an indelible mark in very many aspects of the Church’s life and activity, his overarching goal being to "renew all things in Christ" through our intimate personal union with our Saviour. By Pope Saint Pius’s prayers, may we grow daily in love for Christ and help open others to his love. God’s abundant blessings upon you all! © Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[At the end of the audience, the Pope made this final appeal:]
My thoughts go at this moment to the beloved peoples of Pakistan, affected recently by great floods, which have caused numerous victims and left many families homeless.
While I entrust to the merciful goodness of God all those who have passed away so tragically, I express my spiritual closeness to their families and to all those suffering because of this calamity. May these brothers of ours, so harshly tested, not lack our solidarity and the concrete aid of international solidarity.

It is not to be expected that there should be a full and frank biography of a pontiff who died so lately as 1914. A short life by Abbot Pierami, the postulator of the cause, was published in 1928: it was written in a “devotional” style that the English translation did little to modify, but it is valuable as a reliable factual record. See also Cardinal Merry del Val, Memories of Pope Pius X (1939); R. M. Huben, Symposium of the Life and Work of Pius X (1947); V. Marmoiton, Pie X (1951); and for good popular accounts in English, Katherine Burton, The Great Mantle (1951), and E. A. Forbes, Pope St Pius X (1954). See also the 2-volume work in French by Professor Fernessole (1953), and the life by H. Dal-Gal, published in English in 1954. There were of course a number of other new works in various languages during those years.

August 21, 2010 St. Pius X (1835-1914)
Pope Pius X is perhaps best remembered for his encouragement of the frequent reception of Holy Communion, especially by children.
The second of 10 children in a poor Italian family, Joseph Sarto became Pius X at 68, one of the twentieth century's greatest popes.
Ever mindful of his humble origin, he stated, "I was born poor, I lived poor, I will die poor." He was embarrassed by some of the pomp of the papal court. "Look how they have dressed me up," he said in tears to an old friend. To another, "It is a penance to be forced to accept all these practices. They lead me around surrounded by soldiers like Jesus when he was seized in Gethsemani."
Interested in politics, he encouraged Italian Catholics to become more politically involved. One of his first papal acts was to end the supposed right of governments to interfere by veto in papal elections—a practice that reduced the freedom of the conclave which elected him.
In 1905, when France renounced its agreement with the Holy See and threatened confiscation of Church property if governmental control of Church affairs were not granted, Pius X courageously rejected the demand.
While he did not author a famous social encyclical as his predecessor had done, he denounced the ill treatment of the Indians on the plantations of Peru, sent a relief commission to Messina after an earthquake and sheltered refugees at his own expense.
On the eleventh anniversary of his election as pope, Europe was plunged into World War I. Pius had foreseen it, but it killed him. "This is the last affliction the Lord will visit on me. I would gladly give my life to save my poor children from this ghastly scourge." He died a few weeks after the war began.

Comment: His humble background was no obstacle in relating to a personal God and to people whom he loved genuinely. He gained his strength, his gentleness and warmth for people from the source of all gifts, the Spirit of Jesus. In contrast, we often feel embarrassed by our backgrounds. Shame makes us prefer to remain aloof from people whom we perceive as superior. If we are in a superior position, on the other hand, we often ignore simpler people. Yet we, too, have to help "restore all things in Christ," especially the wounded people of God.Quote: Describing Pius X, a historian wrote that he was "a man of God who knew the unhappiness of the world and the hardships of life, and in the greatness of his heart wanted to comfort everyone."

St. Hardulph hermit of Leicester, England.

A hermit of Leicester, England, possibly the recluse of Breedon, mentioned in the life of St. Modwenna. A church was dedicated in his honor.

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 41

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide to Holiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting of the Saints walis (saints of Allah)

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

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

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

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

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

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

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

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

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

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

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

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

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

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

Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.

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

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

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

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

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

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

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

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

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

By Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.

Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .

The pillars of father's preaching are basically:

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, 41 2022