Pope Francis called on Christians to follow Christ’s path of humility, meekness and poverty
during the Advent season, “so that he can come to save us, to free us.”

Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
December is the month of the Immaculate Conception.
2022
22,810 lives saved since 2007

Pope Francis  PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR  December 2022

Volunteer Not-for-profit Organisations
We pray that volunteer non-profit organisations committed to human development find people dedicated to the common good and ceaselessly seek out new paths to international cooperation.

Universal: – For a Life of Prayer
We pray that our personal relationship with Jesus Christ
be nourished by the Word of God and a life of prayer.


Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List  Here
Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday   Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
  
Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday   Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War
Goodbye Vern Bartholomew 1917-2017 on All Saints/All Souls day  Requiescat in pace;
Thanks for being such a great Dad

Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
How do I start the Five First Saturdays?
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

December 9 – First apparition at Guadalupe (Mexico, 1531) 
Are you not happily within my fold?  
Twelve years after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1531 in Mexico, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, a 57-year-old Aztec, and said, among other things:
“…I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth.”
“I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows.”
“And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me; you will accurately relate all you have seen and admired, and what you have heard. Be assured that I will be most grateful and will reward you, because I will make you happy and worthy of recompense for the effort and fatigue in what you will obtain of what I have entrusted. Behold, you have heard my mandate, my humble son; go and put forth all your effort.”
“Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything.”
Source: The Nican Mopohua, first published in 1649 by Luis Lasso de la Vega, www.sancta.org
Adapted from Jean Mathiot, Chrétiens Magazine #282, October 2015


December 9
December 9 – First apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico, 1531)
– Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548)

The day Our Lady of Guadalupe gave Juan Diego proof
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin was born in 1474 in Cuautlitlán, a district of Mexico City. He was baptized at the age of 50 by the first Franciscan priests that arrived in Mexico.
December 9, 1531, as Juan Diego was on his way to church, the Virgin Mary appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, outside of what is now Mexico City. She urged him to go to the bishop and request the construction of a shrine on the site, promising to give graces to those who invoked her there.
The shrine, now called Our Lady of Guadalupe, draws crowds from all over the world. But at the time, the bishop did not believe Juan Diego and asked for proof. On December 12th, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac and there, the Virgin told him to climb to the top of the hill and gather flowers.
Although it was winter, he found some roses that the Virgin then arranged for him in the fold of his tilma or cloak, telling him to take them to the bishop. When he opened his tilma, the flowers scattered on the floor, leaving an imprint of her image the way she looked when she appeared on Tepeyac Hill. Juan Diego was canonized on July 31, 2002, by Pope John Paul II.
Holy Prophetess Hannah dwelt in marriage with Elkanah son she named Samuel (which means "Asked from God")
St Anna mother of the Virgin Mary The youngest daughter of the priest Nathan from Bethlehem, descended from the tribe of Levi.  
Anna maried St Joachim (September 9, who was a native of Galilee

 St. Restitutus, bishop and martyr At Carthage, on whose feast St. Augustine delivered a discourse to the people in which he set forth his praises.
Item in Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Petri, Succéssi, Bassiáni, Primitívi et aliórum vigínti.
Peter, Successus, Bassian, Primitivus, and twenty others. Also in Africa, the holy martyrs
St Syrus of Pavia You'll recognize St. Syrus in art as a bishop enthroned between two deacons; sometimes with St. Juventius BM (RM)
St. Peter Martyr of Africa 
3rd v. St. Julian of Apamea Bishop of Apamea Syria.
303 St. Leocadia Martyr of Spain, suffering in Toledo.
304 Marytrs of Samosata Hipparchus and his companions, the seven martyrs
320 St Proculus Bishop of Verona who confessed the faith during the Diocletian persecutions B (R M)
   4th v. Saint Sophronius Archbishop of Cyprus gift of wonderworking by the Lord
375 St. Gorgonia daughter of St. Gregory Nazianzus the Elder & St. Nonna
586 St. Cyprian A hermit near Perigueux. France, whose life and miracles were recorded by St. Gregory of Tours.
6th v. Budoc or Beuzec, abbot
7th v St. Balda Benedictine abbess in Jouarre, in Meaux,
7th v St. Budoc Bishop and hermit
912 Saint Stephen the New Light over fifty years he constantly increased his ascetic efforts
St. Valeria Maiden converted to Christianity by St. Martial of Limoges and martyr.
The "Unexpected Joy" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
1548 St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin On December 9, 1531 passed Tepeyac Hill, he heard music and saw a glowing cloud encircled by a rainbow. A woman's voice called him to the top of the hill:  first indigenous American saint
1742 St. Francis Fasani Franciscan mystic.
1610 St. John Roberts  Benedictine 1/40 Martyrs of England and Wales
1640 St. Peter Fourier Founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame


  Holy Prophetess Hannah dwelt in marriage with Elkanah son whom she named Samuel (which means "Asked from God")
but she was childless. Elkanah took to himself another wife, Phennena, who bore him children. Hannah grieved strongly over her misfortune, and every day she prayed for an end to her barrenness, and vowed to dedicate her child to God.

Once, as she prayed fervently in the Temple, the priest Heli thought that she was drunk, and he began to reproach her. But the saint poured out her grief, and after she received a blessing, she returned home. After this Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son, whom she named Samuel (which means "Asked from God").

When the child reached the age of boyhood, the mother herself presented him to the priest Heli, and Samuel remained with him to serve before the Tabernacle (1 Kings/1 Samuel 2: 1-21).

St Anna mother of the Virgin Mary
   The youngest daughter of the priest Nathan from Bethlehem, descended from the tribe of Levi.
She married St Joachim (September 9), who was a native of Galilee.
    For a long time St Anna was childless, but after twenty years, through the fervent prayer of both spouses, an angel of the Lord announced to them that they would be the parents of a daughter, Who would bring blessings to the whole human race.

The Orthodox Church does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin (death, corruption, sin, etc.) at the moment of her conception by virtue of the future merits of Her Son. Only Christ was born perfectly holy and sinless, as St Ambrose of Milan teaches in Chapter Two of his Commentary on Luke. The Holy Virgin was like everyone else in Her mortality, and in being subject to temptation, although She committed no personal sins. She was not a deified creature removed from the rest of humanity. If this were the case, She would not have been truly human, and the nature that Christ took from Her would not have been truly human either. If Christ does not truly share our human nature, then the possibilty of our salvation is in doubt.

The Conception of the Virgin Mary by St Anna took place at Jerusalem. The many icons depicting the Conception by St Anna show the Most Holy Theotokos trampling the serpent underfoot.
"In the icon Sts Joachim and Anna are usually depicted with hands folded in prayer; their eyes are also directed upward and they contemplate the Mother of God, Who stands in the air with outstretched hands; under Her feet is an orb encircled by a serpent (symbolizing the devil), which strives to conquer all the universe by its power."

There are also icons in which St Anna holds the Most Holy Virgin on her left arm as an infant. On St Anna's face is a look of reverence. A large ancient icon, painted on canvas, is located in the village of Minkovetsa in the Dubensk district of Volhynia diocese. From ancient times this Feast was especially venerated by pregnant women in Russia.

St. Restitutus, bishop and martyr At Carthage, on whose feast St. Augustine delivered a discourse to the people in which he set forth his praises.
Carthágine sancti Restitúti, Epíscopi et Mártyris, in cujus solemnitáte sanctus Augustínus de ipso ad pópulum sermónem hábuit.
According to a legend of the fifteenth century, St. Restitutus, first Bishop of St-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, was the man born blind, mentioned in the Gospel.
Syrus of Pavia You'll recognize St. Syrus in art as a bishop enthroned between two deacons; sometimes with St. Juventius BM (RM)
Papíæ sancti Syri, qui fuit primus ejúsdem civitátis Epíscopus, atque apostólicis signis et virtútibus cláruit.
    At Pavia, St. Syrus, first bishop of that city, who was renowned for apostolic signs and virtues.
1st century first bishop of Pavia and said to have been sent there by the apostles. He is the principal patron of Pavia, Italy. See also under Juventius (Benedictines). You'll recognize St. Syrus in art as a bishop enthroned between two deacons; sometimes with St. Juventius (Roeder).

St. Peter Martyr of Africa 
who was put to death with Successus, Bassian, Primitivus, and companions during the Roman persecutions. Nothing is known of them with any certainty. 
3rd v. St. Julian of Apamea Bishop of Apamea Syria. \
Apaméæ, in Syria, beáti Juliáni Epíscopi, qui, témpore Sevéri, sanctitáte refúlsit.
    At Apamea in Syria, blessed Julian, bishop, who flourished in holiness in the time of Severus.
He was a fierce opponent of Montanism and other heretical movements of the time
303 St. Leocadia Martyr of Spain, suffering in Toledo.
Toléti, in Hispánia, natális sanctæ Leocádiæ, Vírginis et Mártyris; quæ, in persecutióne Diocletiáni Imperatóris, a Præfécto Hispaniárum Daciáno inclúsa cárcere ac dire maceráta, in eo tandem, cum gravíssimos beátæ Euláliæ et reliquórum Mártyrum cruciátus audísset, impollútum spíritum, génibus in oratióne pósitis, Christo réddidit.
    At Toledo in Spain, the birthday of the holy virgin Leocadia, a martyr in the persecution of Emperor Diocletian.  She was condemned to a cruel imprisonment by Dacian, prefect of Spain, and was pining away when, hearing of the barbarous tortures of blessed Eulalia and the other martyrs, she knelt down to pray and yielded up her undefiled spirit to Christ.

304 ST LEOCADIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
THE Spanish poet Prudentius does not mention St Leocadia in his hymns on the martyrs written at the end of the fourth century, but there was a church dedicated in her honour at Toledo at the beginning of the seventh, so her cultus has a respect­able antiquity. But her acta are late, and not reliable. They state that Leocadia was a noble maiden of Toledo, who during the persecution of Diocletian was tortured and remanded to prison by the fierce governor Dacian. While there she heard of the passion of St Eulalia at Mérida and, moved by her example, prayed that she also might be accounted worthy to die for Christ. God granted her prayer, and she succumbed in prison to the sufferings she had undergone. If the reference to St Eulalia be authentic and if that martyr suffered on December 10, then this traditional date of Leocadia’s feast cannot be the day of her death, unless we are to suppose that she lingered for twelve months (but cf. reference below). A well-known legend about St Leocadia is narrated herein in the account of St Ildephonsus (January 23). She is the principal patroness of Toledo, and three old churches there are dedicated under her name, on the alleged sites respectively of her tomb, her prison and her house.
The quite untrustworthy passio of St Leocadia is printed in H. Florez, España Sagrada, vol. vi, pp. 315—317 and in La Fuente, Hist. eccl. de España, vol. i (1873), pp. 335—337; on which cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xvii (1898), p. 119. We have no reason to doubt the fact of the martyrdom. Her name occurs in the Hieronymianum on December 13; see Delehaye’s commentary p. 646, and also his Origines du Culte des Martyrs, p. 369, with the references there indicated.
Her cult dates from the fifth century in Spain, and in France she is revered as St. Locaie. Leocadia, virgin and martyr  patron of Toledo Spain.
 304 Marytrs of Samosata Hipparchus and his companions, the seven martyrs

297 or 308? Ss. Hipparchus and his Companions, The Seven Martyrs Of Samosata
When the caesar Galerius returned from his campaign against Persians (or when Maximinus was ruling in Syria), he celebrated a festival at Samosata upon the banks of the Euphrates, and commanded all to assist at the sacrifices which were to be made to the gods. Hipparchus and Philotheus, magistrates of the city, had some time before received the Christian faith, and in the house of Hipparchus they made an image of the cross, before which they worshipped the Lord Christ. Five friends, young men, named James, Paregrus, Abibus, Romanus and Lollian, coming to visit them, found them in this room praying before the cross; and they asked them why they prayed at home at a time when by the emperor’s orders all were assembled in the temple of Fortune. They answered that they worshipped the Maker of the world.
“Do you take that cross for the maker of the world?” they asked, and Hipparchus answered, “We worship Him who hung upon the cross. We confess Him to be God, and the Son of God. It is now the third year since James, a priest of the true faith, who now gives us the body and blood of Christ, baptized us. We therefore find it unlawful to stir out of doors during these three days, for we abhor the smell of the offerings with which the whole city reeks.”
   After much discussion the five young men declared that they also desired to be baptized, and Hipparchus sent a messenger to the priest James with a letter. James forthwith covered the sacred vessels with his cloak, and coming to the house found the seven men. Saluting them he said, “Peace be with you, servants of Jesus Christ, who was crucified for His creatures”. James and his fellows fell at his feet and said, “Have pity on us and give us the mark of Christ, whom we worship”. When they had prayed together the priest, saluting them, said, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all”. When they had made a confession of their faith and abjured idolatry he baptized them, and immediately gave them the sacred Body and Blood. This being done, he took up the holy vessels and, again covering them with his cloak, made haste home, fearing lest the pagans should discover them together; for the priest was an old man in ragged garments, while Hipparchus and Philotheus were men of rank and the other five also of good birth.

On the third day of the festival the emperor inquired whether the magistrates had all performed the duty of sacrificing on this public occasion. He was told that Hipparchus and Philotheus had for three years past constantly absented themselves from public worship. Thereupon the emperor gave orders that they should be led to the temple and compelled to sacrifice. The messengers, coming to the house of Hipparchus, found the seven above-mentioned together, but at first took only Hipparchus and Philotheus. The emperor asked them why they scorned both him and the gods, to which Hipparchus replied that he blushed to hear wood and stone called gods. The emperor commanded that he should receive fifty stripes, and promised to make Philotheus praetor if he complied. The confessor replied that honours upon such terms would be ignominy. He then began to explain the creation of the world with great eloquence, but the emperor interrupted him, saying he saw that he was a man of learning and that he would not put him to the torture, hoping that his own reason would convince him of his errors. He gave orders that he should be put in irons, and confined in a separate dungeon from Hipparchus. In the meantime an officer was sent to seize the five that were found with them. When they also refused to sacrifice the emperor urged on them that they were young, and threatened that if they persisted in their obstinacy they should be beaten and then crucified like their Master. Their answer was that they were not frightened of torture, so they were chained and kept in separate cells, without meat or drink, till the festival should be over.
The solemnity in honour of the gods being concluded, a tribune was erected in a meadow near the banks of the Euphrates, and the emperor having taken his seat the confessors were brought before him. The two old magistrates were led first by chains about their necks, and the others followed with their hands tied. Upon their refusal to sacrifice they were all stretched upon the rack and each received twenty stripes. Then they were carried back to their prison, with orders that no one should be allowed to see or help them and that they should be given just enough bread to keep them alive.
They were left thus for over two months, when they were again brought before the emperor, looking more like corpses than living men. When again invited to sacrifice, they asked him not to seek to draw them from the way that Jesus Christ had opened to them. The emperor replied with fury, “You seek death! Your desire is granted, that you may cease to insult the gods.” He then commanded that gags should be put in their mouths, and that they should be crucified. They were being hurried towards the place of execution when several magistrates represented that Hipparchus and Philotheus were their colleagues in the magistracy, who ought to settle their accounts and the public affairs which had been left in their hands, and that the others were patricians who ought to be allowed at least to make their wills they therefore begged that some respite might be granted them. The emperor assented and gave the condemned into the hands of the magistrates for the stated purposes. They led them into the porch of the circus and, having taken the gags from their mouths, said to them privately, “We obtained this liberty under pretence of settling public business with you, but in reality to have the chance of speaking to you in private to beg your intercession with God and to ask your blessing for this city and ourselves.” The martyrs gave their blessing and addressed the people that were assembled. The emperor was informed and sent a reprimand to the magistrates for letting criminals speak to the people. Their excuse was that they dare not forbid it for fear of a tumult.
The emperor ordered seven crosses to be set up near the gate of the city, and again ordered Hipparchus to obey. The old man, laying his hand upon his bald head, replied, “As this in the course of nature cannot be again covered with hair, so shall I never change and conform to your will”. Whereon the emperor had a goat’s skin fastened on his head and then jeeringly said, “Your bald pate is now covered with hair. Sacrifice, therefore, according to your own condition.” They were fastened to their crosses; and at noon several women came out and bribed the guards to let them wipe the faces of the martyrs and sponge away the blood. Hipparchus died on the cross in a short time. James, Romanus and Lollian died the next day, being stabbed by the soldiers as they hung. Philotheus, Abibus and Paregrus were taken down while they were yet alive and their heads pierced with spikes. It was ordered that their bodies should be thrown into the river, but Bassus, a Christian, redeemed them from the guards for money and buried them in the night at his farm in the country.
This Syriac passio was first printed, with a Latin translation, by S. E. Assemani in his Acta sanctorum martyrum orientalium, vol. ii, pp. 124-147. Another edition of the Syriac text is that of Bedjan in vol. iv of his Acta martyrum et sanctorum. A translation of the document in French will be found in H. Leclercq, Les Martyrs, vol. ii (1903), pp. 391—403. The name here presented as Hipparchus is also transliterated Hyperechius, or Hypericus. In the Byzantine church these martyrs were commemorated on January 29, and among the Armenians in October. In DCB., vol. iii, p. 85, Dr G. T. Stokes points out that the de­scription of the baptism of the younger disciples contains points of great liturgical interest, and he raises the question of the date and emperor concerned. 

7 martyrs who refused to join in co-Emperor Maximian’s pagan rites at Samosata. The martyrs were local magistrates Hipparchus and Philotheus and their converts: James, Paragrus, Abibus, Romanus, and Lollian. They were crucified for not celebrating Maximian’s victory over the Persians.
Two groups of martyrs put to death at Saragossa, Spain, by the Romans during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian.
(d.c. 304) Eighteen martyrs whose deaths were recorded by the fourth-century Latin poet Prudentius. They were Optatus, Lupercus, Successus, Martial, Urban, Julia, Quinitilian, Publius, Fronto, Caecilian, Felix, Eventius, Primitivus, Apodemius, and four martyrs named Saturninus. Feastday: April 16 (d.c. 304) A second group, called “the Innumerable Martyrs of Saragossa,” was slain under a Roman prefect named Dacian. He exiled all Christians from the city, and when they started toward the gates of Saragossa, they were massacred by Dacian’s Roman troops. Prudentius wrote of their sufferings. Feastday: November 3
Hipparchus and his companions, the seven martyrs of Samosata
the account in the passio that tells of the baptism by Hipparchus of five of the other soon-to-be-martyrs is of interest regarding early liturgy regarding baptism; text translated from Syriac into French in H. Leclercq, Les martyrs, vol. 2 (1903), pp. 391-403.

Item in Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Petri, Succéssi, Bassiáni, Primitívi et aliórum vigínti.
   
Peter, Successus, Bassian, Primitivus, and twenty others. Also in Africa, the holy martyrs
320 Proculus Bishop of Verona who confessed the faith during the Diocletian persecutions B (RM)
Verónæ sancti Próculi Epíscopi, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, cólaphis ac fústibus cæsus, e civitáte pulsus est, ac tandem in Ecclésiam suam restitútus, quiévit in pace.
    At Verona, during the persecution of Diocletian, St. Proculus, bishop, who was buffeted, scourged with rods, and driven out of the city.  Being at length restored to his church, he died in peace.
Bishop of Verona confessed faith during Diocletian persecutions. Ultimately died in peace in his episcopal city (Benedictines).
4th v. Saint Sophronius Archbishop of Cyprus gift of wonderworking by the Lord
Born into a Christian family on Cyprus, and he studied many sciences, but most of all he devoted himself to the reading of Holy Scripture. He became so accomplished in piety and good works, that he was granted the gift of wonderworking by the Lord.
Following the death of St Damian, bishop of Cyprus, St Sophronius was chosen to replace him. As bishop, he proved himself a true father to his flock.

375 St. Gorgonia daughter of St. Gregory Nazianzus the Elder & St. Nonna
Naziánzi, in Cappadócia, sanctæ Gorgóniæ, quæ fuit beátæ Nonnæ fília, atque beatórum Gregórii Theólogi et Cæsárii soror, cujus ipse Gregórius virtútes et mirácula conscrípsit.
    At Nazianzum in Cappadocia, St. Gorgonia, of whose virtues and miracles St. Gregory has written. 
She was the daughter of blessed Nonna and the sister of St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Caesarius.
372 ST GORGONIA, MATRON
ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN the Elder and his wife St Nonna had three children, St Gorgonia, St Gregory Nazianzen and St Caesarius, of whom Gorgonia was the eldest. She married and had three children, whom she brought up with the same care that she received herself. Twice she recovered from illness through sheer trust in the will of Almighty God: once after a bad fall, when she would not let a physician see her, and another time when she received holy communion. Her brother also tells us that once during sickness she visited the church at night and searched the altar for any crumbs of the Blessed Sacrament that might have been overlooked there in hope of a cure—in those days the bread used at the Holy Mysteries was like ordinary household bread, as it still is in most of the Eastern churches.
Gorgonia always loved the services of the church and to look after its material building, lived in a sober and God-fearing style, and was most generous to the poor; and yet, in accordance with a common custom of earlier days, she did not receive baptism till she was past middle age. Her husband received it at the same time, together with their children and grandchildren. At her funeral her brother Gregory made a long oration, which was a panegyric of her goodness, and the source of what little is known of her.

We know little or nothing of St Gorgonia except what we learn from her brother’s panegyric. It is printed in Migne, PG., vol. xxxv, pp. 789—817. On the incident of the visit to the altar at night, see H. Thurston in Journal of Theol. Studies, vol. xi (1910), pp.275—279.

The sister of St. Gregory Nazianzus the Younger and St. Caesarius. Her brother preached at her funeral, declaring her a model Christian matron.
Gorgonia, matron eldest child of St Gregory Nazianzen the Elder and his wife, St Nonna; sister of St Gregory Nazianzen (the Younger?) and St Caesarius.

586 St. Cyprian A hermit near Perigueux. France, whose life and miracles were recorded by St. Gregory of Tours.
Petragóricis, in Gállia, sancti Cypriáni Abbátis, magnæ sanctitátis viri.
    At Perigueux in France, St. Cyprian, abbot, a man of great sanctity.

6th v. Budoc or Beuzec, abbot
6th v. ST BUDOC, on BEUZEC, ABBOT
THE legend of St Budoc is a characteristic example of romantic and extravagant medieval Celtic hagiography. It is first found complete only in the late Middle Ages, in the Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc, compiled some time before 1420.
Once upon some unspecified time there was a king in Goëllo (Tréguier in Brittany) who married the beautiful daughter of the king of Brest; her name was Azenor. One day her father while hunting was bitten by a snake, which seized hold of his arm and would not let go. Whereupon Azenor, who was present, smeared her breast with milk and aromatic oil and so enticed the snake off her father on to herself; but to get rid of it she had to cut away her own breast together with the snake, and throw them into a fire. God recognized her daughterly piety, healed the wound, and gave her a breast of gold. This aggravated the ill-will of her already jealous stepmother, who accused her of being unfaithful to her husband, the king of Goëllo, whereupon Azenor was put into a cask and thrown into the sea. She prayed to God and St Brigid, and an angel came with food for her and when she gave birth to a boy St Brigid herself was the midwife. This child was Budoc, and when his mother had made the sign of the cross over him, he opened his mouth and said, “Do not be afraid, for God is with us”.
After Azenor had thus lived for five months in the cask, it was washed up on the shore of Waterford harbour and found by a peasant. He hoped it was full of wine, and was about to tap it when a child’s voice from within warned him to be careful for there was a baby inside who wanted baptism. The frightened fellow ran off to a neighbouring monastery and fetched the abbot, who opened the cask and released Azenor and her child. The next day he was baptized and named, in Brezoneg, Beuzec, because he was saved from drowning.
   The monks educated him and his royal mother took in washing. Meanwhile, the wicked stepmother died, confessing in her last moments that she had falsely accused Azenor, and the distracted king of Goëllo did not rest till he had found his wife and son. But he died in Ireland and Azenor soon followed him to the grave. Budoc, however, grew up to be abbot of the monastery, and the people called him to be both bishop and prince over them.
   After two years he tired of his hard task and, not being able to get a boat, he set out for Brittany in a stone trough or coffin. In this he landed safely near Brest, and eventually came to Dol, where St Maglorius who wanted a bishop to take his own place welcomed him. Budoc filled that office for twenty years, died and was buried at Dol: “an angelic minister, very learned, conspicuous for virtue, whom all the people of that time looked on as a support of the faith and a most firm pillar of the Church.”
There was a cultus of a saint, or saints, named Beuzec (Budoc) in the north and west of Brittany, and there was a St Budoc who was a bishop at Dol; but he can hardly have been the same who was the master of St Winwaloe on the Isle Lavret near Bréhat. In Britain his cultus was found in Devon and Cornwall, and the tradition at Budock, near Falmouth, was that he was a hermit who had come to that parish from Ireland. But his name is not Irish. It is possible that he came
from Pembrokeshire, where he was formerly honoured at and around Steynton. There was a church of St Budoc at Oxford at the time of the Conquest. It may be noted that the proximity of the island monasteries of Beuzec and Maudez near Paimpol in Brittany is repeated in the closeness of Budock to Saint Mawes in Cornwall.
It seems to be altogether a matter of speculation whether there were one or several St Budocs. The best attempt to deal with the problem is no doubt that of Canon Doble in his “Cornish Saints” series (no. 3, 2nd ed., 1937). But see also F. Duine, Memento, pp. 65—66, and LBS., vol. i, pp. 328—330.
 Some of the many miracles related in the vita deal with the mother of the saint, who was the daughter of the king of Brest; in order to distract a snake that was biting her father, she smeared her breast with milk and aromatic oil; the snake bit her breast and would not let go, so she had to cut her breast off; God, in recognition of her piety, gave her back a breast of gold.

1548 St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin On December 9, 1531 passed Tepeyac Hill, he heard music and saw a glowing cloud encircled by a rainbow. A woman's voice called him to the top of the hill:  first indigenous American saint
Cuauhtlatoatzin (talking eagle) Juan Diego was born in 1474 in the calpulli or ward of Tlayacac in Cuauhtitlan, which was established in 1168 by Nahua tribesmen and conquered by the Aztec lord Axayacatl in 1467; and was located 20 kilometers (14 miles) north of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City).

On December 9, 1531, a native Mexican named Juan Diego rose before dawn to walk fifteen miles to daily Mass in what is now Mexico City. Juan lived a simple life as a weaver, farmer, and laborer. That morning, as Juan passed Tepeyac Hill, he heard music and saw a glowing cloud encircled by a rainbow. A woman's voice called him to the top of the hill. There he saw a beautiful young woman dressed like an Aztec princess. She said she was the Virgin Mary and asked Juan to tell the bishop to build a church on that site. She said, "I vividly desire that a church be built on this site, so that in it I can be present and give my love, compassion, help, and defense, for I am your most devoted mother...to hear your laments and to remedy all your miseries, pains, and sufferings."

The bishop was kind but skeptical. He asked Juan to bring proof of the Lady's identity. Before Juan could go back to the Lady, he found out his uncle was dying. Hurrying to get a priest, Juan missed his meeting with the Lady. The Lady, however, met him on his path and told him that his uncle had been cured. She then told Juan to climb to the top of the hill where they first met. Juan was shocked to find flowers growing in the frozen soil. He gathered them in his cloak and took them at once to the bishop.

Juan told the bishop what had happened and opened his cloak. The flowers that fell to the ground were Castilian roses (which were not grown in Mexico). But the bishop's eyes were on the glowing image of the Lady imprinted inside Juan's cloak.

Soon after, a church was built on the site where our Lady appeared, and thousands converted to Christianity. Our Lady of Guadalupe was declared the patroness of the Americas. He died on May 30, 1548, at the age of 74.

Juan Diego deeply loved the Holy Eucharist, and by special permission of the Bishop he received Holy Communion three times a week, a highly unusual occurrence in those times.
Pope John Paul II praised Juan Diego for his simple faith nourished by catechesis and pictured him (who said to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf”) as a model of humility for all of us.

In His Footsteps:
Juan walked fifteen miles to attend Mass every day. Participate in Mass one day this week that is not a Sunday Mass. If this is impossible, take a long walk outside and notice the miracles of God's love during that walk. You may not see roses in the snow or hear music, but there is plenty to praise God for!
Prayer: Blessed Juan, you faced the skepticism and rejection of a bishop and the crowds to bring Mary's message to Mexico. Pray for us that when we are faced with obstacles to our faith we may show that same courage and commitment. Amen

Pope John Paul II - Homily During Juan Diego's Canonization - 31 July 2002
1. I thank you, Father ... that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was your gracious will" (Mt 11:25-26).
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
These words of Jesus in today's Gospel are a special invitation to us to praise and thank God for the gift of the first indigenous Saint of the American Continent. With deep joy I have come on pilgrimage to this Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Marian heart of Mexico and of America, to proclaim the holiness of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, the simple, humble Indian who contemplated the sweet and serene face of Our Lady of Tepeyac, so dear to the people of Mexico.

2. I am grateful for the kind words of Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City, and for the warm hospitality of the people of this Primatial Archdiocese: my cordial greeting goes to everyone. I also greet with affection Cardinal Ernesto Corripio Ahumada, Archbishop Emeritus of Mexico City, and the other Cardinals, as well as the Bishops of Mexico, of America, of the Philippines and of other places in the world. I am likewise particularly grateful to the President and the civil Authorities for their presence at this celebration.

Today I address a very affectionate greeting to the many indigenous people who have come from the different regions of the country, representing the various ethnic groups and cultures which make up the rich, multifaceted Mexican reality. The Pope expresses his closeness to them, his deep respect and admiration, and receives them fraternally in the Lord's name.

3. What was Juan Diego like? Why did God look upon him? The Book of Sirach, as we have heard, teaches us that God alone "is mighty; he is glorified by the humble" (cf. Sir 3:20). Saint Paul's words, also proclaimed at this celebration, shed light on the divine way of bringing about salvation: "God chose what is low and despised in the world ... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor 1:28,29).

It is moving to read the accounts of Guadalupe, sensitively written and steeped in tenderness. In them the Virgin Mary, the handmaid "who glorified the Lord" (Lk 1:46), reveals herself to Juan Diego as the Mother of the true God. As a sign, she gives him precious roses, and as he shows them to the Bishop, he discovers the blessed image of Our Lady imprinted on his tilma.

"The Guadalupe Event," as the Mexican Episcopate has pointed out, "meant the beginning of evangelization with a vitality that surpassed all expectations. Christ's message, through his Mother, took up the central elements of the indigenous culture, purified them and gave them the definitive sense of salvation" (14 May 2002, No. 8). Consequently Guadalupe and Juan Diego have a deep ecclesial and missionary meaning and are a model of perfectly inculturated evangelization.

4. "The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the sons of men" (Ps 33:13), we recited with the Psalmist, once again confessing our faith in God, who makes no distinctions of race or culture. In accepting the Christian message without forgoing his indigenous identity, Juan Diego discovered the profound truth of the new humanity, in which all are called to be children of God. Thus he facilitated the fruitful meeting of two worlds and became the catalyst for the new Mexican identity, closely united to Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose mestizo face expresses her spiritual motherhood which embraces all Mexicans. This is why the witness of his life must continue to be the inspiration for the building up of the Mexican nation, encouraging brotherhood among all its children and ever helping to reconcile Mexico with its origins, values, and traditions.

The noble task of building a better Mexico, with greater justice and solidarity, demands the cooperation of all. In particular, it is necessary today to support the indigenous peoples in their legitimate aspirations, respecting and defending the authentic values of each ethnic group. Mexico needs its indigenous peoples and these peoples need Mexico!

Beloved bothers and sisters of every ethnic background of Mexico and America, today, in praising the Indian Juan Diego, I want to express to all of you the closeness of the Church and the Pope, embracing you with love and encouraging you to overcome with hope the difficult times you are going through.

5. At this decisive moment in Mexico's history, having already crossed the threshold of the new millennium, I entrust to the powerful intercession of Saint Juan Diego the joys and hopes, the fears and anxieties of the beloved Mexican people, whom I carry in my heart.

Blessed Juan Diego, a good, Christian Indian, whom simple people have always considered a saint! We ask you to accompany the Church on her pilgrimage in Mexico, so that she may be more evangelizing and more missionary each day. Encourage the Bishops, support the priests, inspire new and holy vocations, help all those who give their lives to the cause of Christ and the spread of his Kingdom.

Happy Juan Diego, true and faithful man! We entrust to you our lay brothers and sisters so that, feeling the call to holiness, they may imbue every area of social life with the spirit of the Gospel. Bless families, strengthen spouses in their marriage, sustain the efforts of parents to give their children a Christian upbringing. Look with favor upon the pain of those who are suffering in body or in spirit, on those afflicted by poverty, loneliness, marginalization, or ignorance. May all people, civic leaders and ordinary citizens, always act in accordance with the demands of justice and with respect for the dignity of each person, so that in this way peace may be reinforced.

Beloved Juan Diego, "the talking eagle"! Show us the way that leads to the "Dark Virgin" of Tepeyac, that she may receive us in the depths of her heart, for she is the loving, compassionate Mother who guides us to the true God. Amen.

St. Juan Diego (1474-1548) 
Thousands of people gathered in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe July 31, 2002, for the canonization of Juan Diego, to whom the Blessed Mother appeared in the 16th century. Pope John Paul II celebrated the ceremony at which the poor Indian peasant became the Church’s first saint indigenous to the Americas.

The Holy Father called the new saint “a simple, humble Indian” who accepted Christianity without giving up his identity as an Indian. “In praising the Indian Juan Diego, I want to express to all of you the closeness of the church and the pope, embracing you with love and encouraging you to overcome with hope the difficult times you are going through,” John Paul said. Among the thousands present for the event were members of Mexico’s 64 indigenous groups.

First called Cuauhtlatohuac (“The eagle who speaks”), Juan Diego’s name is forever linked with Our Lady of Guadalupe because it was to him that she first appeare d at Tepeyac hill on December 9, 1531. The most famous part of his story is told in connection with the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12). After the roses gathered in his tilma were transformed into the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, however, little more is said about Juan Diego.

In time he lived near the shrine constructed at Tepeyac, revered as a holy, unselfish and compassionate catechist who taught by word and especially by example.

During his 1990 pastoral visit to Mexico, Pope John Paul II confirmed the long-standing liturgical cult in honor of Juan Diego, beatifying him. Twelve years later he was proclaimed a saint.

Comment: God counted on Juan Diego to play a humble yet huge role in bringing the Good News to the peoples of Mexico. Overcoming his own fear and the doubts of Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, Juan Diego cooperated with God’s grace in showing his people that the Good News of Jesus is for everyone. Pope John Paul II used the occasion of this beatification to urge Mexican lay men and women to assume their responsibilities for passing on the Good News and witnessing to it.
Quote: “Similar to ancient biblical personages who were collective representations of all the people, we could say that Juan Diego represents all the indigenous peoples who accepted the Gospel of Jesus, thanks to the maternal aid of Mary, who is always inseparable from the manifestation of her Son and the spread of the Church, as was her presence among the Apostles on the day of Pentecost” (Pope John Paul II, beatification homily).
7th v St. Balda Benedictine abbess in Jouarre, in Meaux,
Her shrine is in Nesle-la-Réposte, in the diocese of Troyes.

7th v St. Budoc Bishop and hermit
also called Budeux and Beuzec. He is reported to be the son of a king of Brittany and of Azenor, the daughter of the ruler of Brest, France. Azenor was supposedly exiled in a cask, and Budoc was born at sea, attended by St. Brigid. He was raised in a monastery near Waterford, Ireland, and became first the abbot of the house and then bishop of Dol, Brittany. Budoc ruled there for twenty-six years. Another tradition claims that Budoc was an Irish hermit who settled in Budock, near Falmouth, England.

912 Saint Stephen the New Light over fifty years he constantly increased his ascetic efforts
Born at Constantinople in 838 and received a fine education. Under Patriarch Methodius, Stephen received monastic tonsure and shut himself in a cell attached to the church of St Peter in Constantinople. Later he went into seclusion, and over fifty years he constantly increased his ascetic efforts.
Toward the end of his life the saint acquired great grace from the Lord, shining in the constellation of the saints like the ancient ascetics of the Orthodox Church, so that he came to be called the "New Light." According to the Prologue, he died in the year 912 and was buried in the church of St Antipas.

1610 St. John Roberts  Benedictine 1/40 Martyrs of England and Wales
He was born in Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd, Wales, and studied at Oxford. John became a Catholic and went to Paris in 1598, Studying and becoming a Benedictine priest in 1602. He then returned to England and aided so many victims of the plague of 1603 that he became quite famous. He left England for a time to establish a seminary but then returned to London. He had many adventures until his final arrest for being a priest. With Blessed Thomas Somers, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.

1640 St. Peter Fourier -- Founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame
Graji, in Burgúndia, sancti Petri Fourier qui Canónicus Reguláris fuit Salvatóris Nostri, et Canonissárum Regulárium Dóminæ Nostræ edocéndis puéllis Institútor; atque, virtútibus ac miráculis clarus, a Leóne Décimo tértio, Pontífice Máximo, Sanctórum catálogo adjúnctus est.
    At Gray in Burgundy, St. Peter Fournier, Canon Regular of Our Saviour and the founder of the Canonesses Regular of Our Lady for the education of children.  Because of his brilliant virtues and miracles, Leo XIII placed him the catalogue of the Saints.
 

1640 St Peter Fourier, Co-Founder of The Augustinian Canonesses Regular of Our Lady   
Peter Fourier was born at Mirecourt, in Lorraine, in 1565, and at the age of fifteen was sent by his father to the university directed by the Jesuits at Pont-à-Mousson, where he must have met Bd William Lacey, the future martyr, then studying there.
   He completed a very creditable course of studies and opened a school at his home, but he had already decided against a secular career and at the age of twenty joined the Canons Regular of St Augustine at Chaumousey. In 1589 he was ordained priest; it was not till some months later that his humility and sense of unworthiness would let him celebrate his first Mass, and then his abbot sent him back to the university for further theological study. He remained there for some years, took his doctorate, and displayed an astonishing memory. When he was recalled to his monastery he was appointed procurator and vicar of the abbey parish; he carried out his duties under most disheartening conditions, for the observance of the abbey was bad and his attempts to improve it were met with ridicule.
  In 1597 he was offered the cure of souls in one of the three other parishes served by the canons, and he chose Mattaincourt, as that presented the greatest difficulties. Mattaincourt is a village of the Vosges, which at that time was contaminated by Calvinism and rotten with evil living; St Peter Fourier worked there for thirty years and is to this day remembered in the neighbourhood as “le bon père de Mattaincourt”. He served his flock first by his prayers and by his example; he never forgot that he was a canon regular, subject to the vows of religion, and always lived with an austerity, poverty and simplicity befitting the monastic life; he dispensed with a fire, except for the comfort of visitors, and never refused the needy alms or advice whether spiritual or temporal: his pupil and biographer, Father John Bedel, says that he was particularly compassionate towards those who, through bad business or theft, or other causes outside their control, were less well off than they had been. “For the benefit of such he started a fund, called St Evre’s Purse, after the patron-saint of the parish, into which he paid all charitable bequests, fines, et cetera. When any parishioner was in real difficulty, a few hundred francs were given him from this fund so that he could carry on his business, the only condition being that if he prospered it should be repaid. This scheme worked so well that it could be carried on with the interest on the fund.”
   St Peter also established three confraternities in his church: of St Sebastian for men, of the Rosary for matrons, and of the Immaculate Conception for maidens; this last was among the earliest sodalities of “Children of Mary”. The good parish priest was badly faced with what is today called the problem of “leakage”, and after much prayer and consideration he decided that the free education of children was a first necessity.
He first of all tackled the boys. But the time was not yet; God’s chosen tool for this work was John-Baptist de la Salle, not to be born for another half-century. St Peter Fourier saw at once that he had failed, wasted no more time on it, and turned his attention to four women volunteers, Alix Le Clercq, Ganthe André, Joan and Isabel de Louvroir. These he tested, put for training in the house of canonesses of Poussey in 1598, and in due course they opened a free school at Mattaincourt.
   The saint was a man of ideas in education and himself gave the mistresses a daily lesson in pedagogy. He was one of the first to use what educationists call the “simultaneous method” ; and he required that the older girls should be taught how to draw up invoices and receipts, should be given practice in composition and in writing letters, and should be able to speak correctly “the language of their province” (he knew nothing of an equivalent to “standard English”).
   He was urgent that for their own good and the welfare of the state poor children as well as others should be educated in the love of God and so much as possible in everything that would help them to live with decency and dignity, and that their schooling was to cost nothing. Knowing the value of the “dramatic method” he wrote some dialogues on the virtues and vices (with a particular eye to the shortcomings of his parishioners), which the children would recite before their elders in the church on Sunday afternoons. St Peter gave particular instructions to his nuns on how Protestant children were to be treated: “…kindly and lovingly. Do not let the other children interfere with or tease them…Do not speak harshly of their religion, but when occasion serves show them, when speaking in general terms to all your pupils, how good and reasonable are the precepts and practices of ours.”
  He used similar methods himself when, in 1625, he was commissioned to combat Protestantism in the principality of Salm. He spent as much time in urging Catholics to change their lives as in urging Protestants to change their faith, and would not provoke them by calling them heretics but referred to them as “strangers”. With Father Bedel and another Jesuit he had more success in six months than his predecessors in thirty years. The new institute of nuns in 1616 received papal approval under the title of Canonesses Regular of St Augustine of the Congregation of Our Lady, and soon spread throughout France; it is now established as well in England and other countries. In 1628 Pope Urban VIII allowed the nuns to take a fourth vow binding themselves to the free education of children. Father Fourier’s chief partner, Alix Le Clercq, was beatified as cofoundress in 1947.
St Peter Fourier having been so successful in the reformation of a country parish, he was directed to undertake a less localized and no less difficult task. Monastic life was at a low ebb in Lorraine at that time, and in 1622, having had him appointed visitor to the canons regular by the Holy See, Mgr John de Porcelets de Maillane, Bishop of Toul, called on him to re-establish discipline in the houses of his order and to unite them all into one reformed congregation. His mission was not enthusiastically received, but in the following year the abbot of Lunéville handed over his monastery to St Peter Fourier and a handful of reformed canons. By 1629 the work was done, observance was re-established, and the canons regular of Lorraine formed into the Congregation of Our Saviour. St Peter, much against his wish, was elected their superior general in 1632, saying when he entered into office, “As Jesus Christ gives Himself to men in the Blessed Sacrament, looking
for no return but the good they shall receive in communion, so do I give myself to you this day: not for the sake of any honour or advantage I may receive thereby, but only for the salvation of your souls”.
   It had been his hope all along that the reformed canons would undertake that work of educating boys which he had failed to establish in Mattaincourt, and they were quite willing to take it on. When therefore he sent representatives to Rome in 1627 to see about the recognition of the Con­gregation of Our Saviour, he told them to bring this matter up: “With regard to the schools that we want, it will be well to show that as boys who do not wish to learn Latin, and others before they enter college, have no religious order to take charge of them, at least in these parts, it looks as if there were a vacant benefice in the Church of God. Let us, then, humbly ask for it.” Ask they did, and were refused—in Rome in the seventeenth century it had been forgotten that there was nothing inconsistent with the dignity of the priesthood in teaching in “elementary schools”. But they did in fact do some educational work and had several colleges; and when the Jesuits were suppressed in the eighteenth century, those of Lorraine handed their colleges over to the canons regular.
St Peter Fourier was greatly attached to the house of Lorraine and Duke Charles IV, so that when in 1636 he was tendered the oath of allegiance to King Louis XIII he refused it and fled to Gray in Franche-Comté. Here in exile he spent the last four years of his life, as chaplain of a convent and teaching in the free school, which he caused to be opened. He died on December 9, 1640, and was canonized in 1897. His shrine at Mattaincourt is the resort of numerous pilgrims.

The Saint’s first biographer was Father Bedel, who had been his disciple and companion. Of the many lives that have since been written it will be sufficient to note those of Father Rogie, Dom Vuillemin, and the Abbé Pingaud. This last has been translated into English. A volume by Father Chérot makes excellent use of the saint’s letters, and a new life by B. Bontoux, St Pierre Fourier, was published in 1949. See also under Bd Alix Le Clercq (January 9).
A native of Mirecourt, Lorraine, France, he entered the Augustinian canons regular and received ordination in 1585. He then served as head of the deteriorated parish of Mattaincourt, striving to restore it to a flowering community. Part of his effort included establishing the Congregation of Notre Dame to educate young girls. He failed to win approval for a similar organization to teach boys, but enjoyed much success with the other community. He was canonized in 1897.

1742 St. Francis Fasani Franciscan mystic.  "Padre Maestro" ("Father Master") known for prayer and for supernatural gifts.
born Antony Fasani in 1681. He entered the Franciscans and was ordained in 1775. While serving as provincial and in other administrative positions, he was known for prayer and for supernatural gifts. Francis was canonized in 1986.
Francis Anthony Fasani (1681-1742)  priest, O.F.M. Conv. 

A study of the life of Fr. Francis Anthony Fasani shows clearly that his life was directed toward God in a singular manner from his very infancy, thanks to the Christian education received from his parents and to the workings of the grace of a religious and priestly vocation upon his soul. He was born in Lucera on August 6, 1681, the son of Giuseppe Fasani and Isabella Della Monaca. His parents had the joy of seeing their "Giovanniello" (this was the name they gave him at Baptism) grow up endowed with promising moral and intellectual gifts. He began his studies at the Franciscan friary of the Friars Minor Conventual at Lucera; there Giovanniello's understanding of his vocation became clearer-a vocation to which he gave himself with generous enthusiasm. He entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and took the names of Saints Francis and Anthony, thus expressing his fervent desire to follow their example by consecrating himself to an evangelical and apostolic life. Professing his vows in 1696, the young Friar Francis Anthony completed his liberal arts studies and followed with his philosophical studies in the seminaries of his religious province. Thereafter, he began theological studies in Agnone and continued them in the General Study Centre at Assisi near the tomb of St. Francis. It was there that Francis Anthony was ordained to the priesthood in 1705 and there, too, that he completed his theological studies in 1707.

His application to his studies, carried out with diligence and with a lively desire to assimilate the salvific value of the mysteries of faith, made him "profound in philosophy and learned in theology." The Venerable Antonio Lucci, bishop of Bovino, attests to this in the canonical hearings investigating Fasani's holiness. Bishop Lucci was a fellow student of his and imitated him in the exercise of religious virtue. At the same time, by means of an intense spiritual formation aided by enlightened spiritual masters, Francis Anthony progressed in a life of union with God, patterning himself on the Lord through religious consecration and the priestly charism.

From 1707 until his death he continued to live at Lucera for thirty-five years, always giving splendid witness to the gospel life and zealous pastoral ministry. For this reason he was admired by the faithful of Lucera and all of Daunia and Molise. Within his Franciscan Order he fulfilled offices of special responsibility. He was a respected teacher of scholastic philosophy and a revered master of novices and the professed, making notable contributions to the spiritual and doctrinal formation of his confreres. In 1709 he received a graduate degree in theology and from that time on Fr. Fasani was known to all as "Padre Maestro" ("Father Master"), a title which is still attributed to him today in Lucera. He exercised the offices of local superior and minister provincial with charity and wisdom, demonstrating that he was and effective animator of the religious life of the brethren.

The spiritual life of Fr. Fasani was characterized by those virtues that made him like his Seraphic Father St. Francis. In fact, it was said in Lucera: "Whoever wants to see how St. Francis looked while he was alive should come to see Padre Maestro." In imitation of St. Francis he built his religious life on the basis of a generous participation in the mysteries of Christ through the most faithful practice of the evangelical counsels, which he considered to be a radical expression of perfect charity. In his constant prayers, inflamed with seraphic love, he called out to God, saying to Him: "O Highest Love, Immense Love, Eternal Love, Infinite Love."

His fervent devotion to the Immaculate Mother of the Lord was nourished by his intense dedication to knowing ever better "who Mary is" and making her known to others, while at the same time knowing and making known the maternal role entrusted to her in the history of salvation with faith and love.

The priestly life of Father Anthony Fasani is a splendid testimony to fidelity and dedication to the mission given to all priests in the Church. It is their duty-as Vatican Council II so vigorously confirms-to promote "the glory of God the Father in Christ by their ministry and their life" (PO, 2).

In exercising this evangelical mission Fr. Fasani gave himself devotedly from the very moment of his priestly ordination, to such an extent that a witness could assert: "He allowed himself no rest in the salvation of souls." His pastoral ministry shows that he was involved zealously in many fields and forms of the apostolate according to the needs of the particular Churches in which he ministered.
 The ministry of preaching the word of God assumed a special role in his apostolic life. He preached popular missions, retreats, Lenten devotions and novenas almost constantly - at Lucera and wherever he was called. The duty which falls to all priests "to invite all people to conversion and holiness" (PO, 4) was carried out by Fr. Fasani through a type of preaching based on the scriptures that was well prepared, persuasive, and had the particular purpose, as one witness recalled, "of rooting out vices and sins and planting in their place goodness and the exercise of virtue."

As a worthy ministry of "the one who uninterruptedly exercises his priestly mission for us in the Liturgy through the Spirit" (PO, 5), Fr. Fasani dedicated himself with zeal-especially the administration of the sacrament of Penance and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. "He heard the confession of every type of person," asserted a witness, "with the greatest patience and kindness on his face". He was charitable and welcoming to all, giving as his reason the hope of being able one day to say to the Lord: "I was indulgent, I don't deny it; but it was You who taught me to be so."


The most holy Eucharist was the summit of his religious life and wholly represented the goal toward which be ordered his entire priestly ministry. In fact, he always considered the Eucharist "the source and summit of evangelization," and that the faithful were "fully incorporated into the Body of Christ through the Eucharist" (PO, 5). A fervent minister of the Eucharist, Fr. Fasani celebrated the sacrifice of the Mass with an intense ardor that lifted and nourished his spirit while at the same time it edified all who were present. In his preaching he inculcated in the faithful the love of the Eucharist, promoting even daily communion.

The poor, the sick, and the imprisoned held a privileged place in his pastoral activities. Motivated by his ideal of gospel charity ("We must be charitable."), he loved to pray with the poor and for them. Every day he personally distributed to the poor the alms of his religious community and very often he gave them as well gifts and special goods gathered from benefactors. Oftentimes his prayers obtained extraordinary interventions of divine Providence for the poor. He visited and comforted the sick, exhorting them to seek reasons for hope and resignation in the goodness of God. The spiritual care of the imprisoned, an apostolate given him by the bishop of Lucera, permitted him to visit them daily and to exhort them to trust in the merciful love of God. He was given the responsibility of assisting those condemned to death in their last moments.

The witnesses at the canonical proceedings for his holiness assure us that God rewarded the apostolic zeal of Fr. Fasani with abundant fruits of conversion and a renewed Christian life among the faithful. In this way those values of the sacred ministry were totally fulfilled in the priestly life of Fr. Francis Anthony Fasani which Vatican Council II expresses in the following terms: "Priests, whether they devote themselves to prayer and adoration, to the preaching of the Word, to offering the Eucharistic Sacrifice and administering the other sacraments, or to carrying out other ministries in the service of mankind, always contribute to the increase of the glory of God and at the same time to enriching mankind with divine life" (PO, 2).


When Fr. Fasani was taken by his final illness in 1742, he wanted to offer it to the Lord in a spirit of perfect joy, with that same expression with which he had always offered God all the actions of his life: "The Will of God: that is my Paradise." On November 2 of the same year, comforted by the holy sacraments and the protection of the Immaculate Virgin Mary for which he prayed, Fr. Francis Anthony Fasani returned his soul to God in the friary of the city where he was born and where, for thirty-five years, he showed himself a faithful witness to Christ. His body was interred in the adjoining church of St. Francis, after funeral rites in which all of Lucera participated with the cry: "Our holy Padre Maestro has died!"

The fame of the sanctity that surrounded Fr. Fasani in life witnessed an extraordinary increase after his death. Thus, already in 1746 the bishop of Lucera decided to institute proceedings to investigate the holiness of life, the virtues and the miracles of this Servant of God. There followed the Apostolic Cause of particular virtues and the decree on the heroicity of his virtues promulgated by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII on June 21, 1891. His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, having approved two miracles attributed to the intercession of Venerable Fasani, raised him to the honor of the altars on April 15, 1951.

A new miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Francis Anthony was approved with the decree of March 21, 1985, by the Holy Father, John Paul II.

The "Unexpected Joy" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
is painted in this way: in a room is an icon of the Mother of God, and beneath it a youth is kneeling at prayer. The tradition about the healing of some youth from a bodily affliction through this holy icon is recorded in the book of St Demetrius of Rostov,
The Fleece of Prayer [See Judges 6: 36-40].

The sinful youth, who was nevertheless devoted to the Theotokos, was praying one day before the icon of the All-Pure Virgin before going out to commit a sin. Suddenly, he saw that wounds appeared on the Lord's hands, feet, and side, and blood flowed from them. In horror he exclaimed, "O Lady, who has done this?" The Mother of God replied, "You and other sinners, because of your sins, crucify My Son anew." Only then did he realize how great was the depth of his sinfulness. For a long time he prayed with tears to the All-Pure Mother of God and the Savior for mercy. Finally, he received the unexpected joy of the forgiveness of his sins.

The "Unexpected Joy" icon is also commemorated on January 25 and May 1.

St. Valeria Maiden converted to Christianity by St. Martial of Limoges and martyr.
Lemóvicis, in Aquitánia, sanctæ Valériæ, Vírginis et Mártyris.    At Limoges in Aquitaine, St. Valeria, virgin and martyr.
Maiden converted to Christianity by St. Martial of Limoges and martyred by beheading.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 216

In thee, O Lady, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: receive me in thy grace.

Thou art my strength and my refuge: my consolation and my protection.

To thee, O Lady, have I cried, when my heart was in anguish:
and thou hast heard me from the heights of the eternal hills.

Thou shalt draw me out of the snares which they hid for me: for thou art my helper.

Into thy hands, O Lady, I commend my spirit: my whole life and my last day.


For thy spirit is kind: thy grace fills the whole world.

Thunder, ye heavens, from above, and give praise to her: glorify her, ye earth, with all the dwellers therein.


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

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


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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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