250 St. Heron Egyptian martyr with Arseinus Dioscorus Isidore.

Alexandríæ sanctórum Mártyrum Herónis, Arsénii, Isidóri, et Dióscori púeri. Horum tres primos Judex, in persecutióne Deciána, cum eos, váriis torméntis dilánians, pari armátos constántia vidéret, tradi ígnibus jubet; Dióscorus vero, multiplíciter flagellátus, divíno nutu ad consolatiónem fidélium dimíssus est.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Heron, Arsenius, Isidore, and the boy Dioscorus. In the persecution of Decius, the first three were subjected to all the refinements of cruelty by the judge, who, seeing them displaying the same constancy, ordered that they should be cast into the fire. But Dioscorus, after repeated scourgings, was set free by the intervention of Providence to the great consolation of the faithful.
Dioscorus, a young boy, was scourged and then set free. The others were burned at the stake in Alexandria, Egypt.

251 The Holy Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus miracle involving St Thyrsus
suffered for Christ under the emperor Decius (249-251) at Caesarea in Bithynia. St Leucius, having reproached the prefect Cumbricius for his unjust persecution of Christians, was executed after being tortured. As soon as his head was cut off, his soul departed to heaven.

St Thyrsus, who was still a catechumen, was nonetheless eager for martyrdom. He was sentenced to cruel tortures and torments after refusing to offer sacrifice to the idols. Citing the words of the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 2:27), he ridiculed those who worshiped wood and stone.

The saint's arms and legs were pulled out of their sockets, his eyes were plucked out, and his teeth were shattered with a hammer. He was taken to a heathen temple, where, by his prayers, he toppled a statue of Apollo. Cumbricius was enraged by this, and he ordered that greater torments be devised for the athlete of Christ. He endured them all and died peacefully after making the Sign of the Cross. The pagan priest Callinicus, seeing the bravery and the miracle involving St Thyrsus, believed in Christ and boldly confessed the true Faith, for which he was beheaded.

270 St Spiridion Bishop and Confessor of our Order.
In Cypro natális beáti Spiridiónis Epíscopi, qui unus fuit ex illis Confessóribus, quos Galérius Maximiánus, dextro óculo effósso et sinístro póplite succíso, ad metálla damnáverat. Hic prophetíæ dono et signórum glória ínclitus fuit, et in Nicæno Concílio philósophum éthnicum, Christiánæ religióni insultántem, devícit et ad fidem perdúxit.

In the island of Cyprus, the birthday of blessed Spiridion, bishop. He was one of those confessors who were condemned by Galerius Maximian to labour in the mines, after suffering the loss of his right eye and cutting of the sinews of his left knee. This prelate was renowned for the gift of prophecy and glorious miracles, and in the Council of Nicea he confounded a heathen philosopher, who had insulted the Christian religion, and brought him to the faith.

Although his feast is no longer included either the Carmelite proper or the 2004 edition of the “Martyrologium Romanum”, his name is mentioned in the Byzantine “Synaxaria”. Saint Spiridion was born in Tremithous in Cyprus in 270 AD. Son of a poor family, he had no formal education and earned his living as a shepherd. After the death of his beloved wife, he dedicated himself to the Church and eventually rose to the office of Bishop of Tremithous. During the Maximinian persecutions he was arrested and exiled, but was returned to his see after the coming to power of Constantine. He participated in the Council of Nicea, and died around 348. When the Saracens took the island, the Cypriots opened his grave in order to remove his sacred bones to Costantinople. They found that his body had remained intact, while from the grave emanated a scent of basil, true signs of the sainthood he had shown during his life. When Costantinople fell in 1453, a Corfiot elder, Georgios Kalohairetis, brought him to Corfu, where his three children acquired the Saint's relics as an heirloom. The sacred remains then passed as the dowry of his doughter Asimia into the possession of the Voulgaris family, who placed them in their private church (which was located on the site of the Pallas Cinema). The relics of the Saint were transferred to their present church when, during the fortification of the town, the original church was demolished. The Holy Relics of the St. Spiridion go out on parade in Cyprus four times each year to commemorate times when his powerful intercession was felt. He is considered to be the island's Protector.

ST SPIRIDION, BISHOP OF TREMITHUS

MANY stories are told of this Cypriot saint, who was at the same time a shepherd, married and a bishop. Sozomen, who wrote in the middle of the fifth century, says that an invisible hand stopped a gang of thieves attempting one night to carry off some of his sheep, so that they could neither steal nor make their escape. Spiridion (or better, Spyridon), finding them thus the next morning, set them at liberty by his prayers and gave them a ram, lest they should have been up all night for nothing.

The same historian says that it was the saint’s custom to fast with his family for some days in Lent without eating anything. Once during this time, when he had no bread in his house, a traveller called to rest and refresh himself on the road. Spiridion, having nothing else, ordered some salt pork to be boiled, for he saw the traveller was very tired. Then he invited the stranger to eat. He excused himself, saying that he was a Christian. Spiridion, himself setting the example by way of courtesy, replied that therefore he was quite free to eat; thereby reminding the stranger both that ecclesiastical precepts do not bind unreasonably and that to a Christian no food is in itself forbidden.

St Spiridion was chosen bishop of Tremithus, on the seacoast near Salamis, and thenceforth combined the care of sheep with the care of souls. His diocese was very small and the inhabitant’s poor, but the Christians were regular in their lives; there remained among them some idolaters. In the persecution of Galerius he made a glorious confession of the faith. The Roman Martyrology says he was one of those who lost their right eye, had the left leg hamstrung, and in that state were sent to work in the mines, and (mistakenly) that he was among the bishops at the Council of Nicaea in 325.
There is a legend in the East that on the way to the council he fell in with a party of other bishops, who were alarmed lest the rustic simplicity of Spiridion should compromise the cause of orthodoxy. So they told their servants to cut the heads off the mules of Spiridion and his deacon, which was done. When he prepared to set off before dawn the next day and discovered the crime, Spiridion was not at all discomfited. He told the deacon to put the severed heads upon the bodies, and at once they grew together and the animals lived. But when the sun rose it was found that a mistake had been made in the dark: for the bishop’s white mule had a brown head and the deacon’s brown mule had a white head. During the council a pagan philosopher named Eulogius made an attack on Christianity, and an aged, one-eyed bishop, unpolished in manner and appearance, got up to reply to the urbane scoffer. He affirmed the omnipotent God and the incarnation of the Son for the redemption of all people as things beyond proof to be held by faith: did Eulogius believe them, or did he not? After a pause the philosopher was constrained to admit that he did. “Then”, said the bishop, “come with me to the church and receive the sign of faith.” And Eulogius did so, for, he said, words and arguments cannot resist virtue, meaning thereby the power of the Holy Ghost manifested in the unlearned bishop. Later writers identify this bishop with St Spiridion, but without authority. A certain person had deposited for safety in the hands of Spiridion’s daughter Irene something of great value. This he demanded of the bishop after her death; but it was not to be found and nobody knew where it was. Whereupon, it is said, St Spiridion went to the place where his daughter was buried, called her by her name, and asked where she had put the missing article. Then she answered him, giving directions where she had hid it that it might be safer: and it was found there.

Spiridion had very little learning, but he had made the Scriptures his daily study and had learned what respect is due to the word of God. Once when the bishops of Cyprus were assembled together, St Triphyllius, Bishop of Ledra (whom St Jerome commends as the most eloquent man of his time), was preaching a sermon. Mentioning that passage, “Take up thy bed, and walk”, he said “couch” instead of “bed”, thinking that word the more elegant and suitable. St Spiridion objected against this false nicety and attempt to add graces to what was more adorned with simplicity, and asked the preacher whether the word our Lord Himself had used was not good enough for him. *{* The obvious reflection that this rebuke would sometimes apply also to Alban Butler himself is modified by the further reflection that the fashions of the eighteenth century are not ours. But there are not wanting writers and speakers to-day who might with advantage ponder this anecdote.}

The relics of St Spiridion were translated from Cyprus to Constantinople, and again to Corfu, where they are still venerated. He is the principal patron of the Catholics of Corfu, Zakynthos and Kephalonia.

Besides the relatively early references made to St Spiridion by the historians Socrates and Sozomen, it seems that a life of him was written at the beginning of the seventh century by Leontius of Neapolis. This is preserved to us only in the later adaptation of the Metaphrast (Migne, PG., vol. cxvi, pp. 417—468). There is also a memorial discourse by Theodore of Paphos (printed in part by Usener, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Legendenliteratur, pp. 222—232, and edited complete in 1901 by S. Papageorgios), but it proves to be in large part simply a plagiarism from an anonymous Life of Bishops Metrophanes and Alexander of Constantinople (see P. Heseler, Hagiographica, 1934). It is also stated that a life of St Spiridion was written in elegiacs by his pupil, Triphyllius of Ledra, but this has not survived. In Byzantine art Spiridion is recognizable by his peculiar shepherd’s cap see, for example, G. de Jerphanion, Let églises rupestres de Cappadoce (1932); and the Byzantinische Zeitschrift for 1910, pp. 29 and 107. See P. Van den Ven, La Légende de S. Spyridon (1953), “beau travail d’édition et de critique “ (Fr F. Halkin).

283 St. Justus & Abundius Martyrs of Spain.

Eódem die pássio sanctórum Justi et Abúndii, qui, sub Numeriáno Imperatóre et Olybrio Præside, conjécti in ignem, et, cum inde evasíssent illæsi, gládio percússi sunt.

On the same day, the martyrdom of Saints Justus and Abundius, who were cast into the flames in the time of Emperor Numerian and the governor Olybrius, but escaping all injury, they were smitten with the sword.

Attempts to burn them at the stake failed, so they were beheaded.

286 The Holy Martyrs Philemon, Apollonius, Arianus and Theotychus suffered for the Faith in Egypt, at the city of Antinoe

St Arianus up until his conversion to Christ was a persecutor of Christians, among whom were the martyrs Apollonius and Philemon.
St Apollonius, at first fearing to face the sufferings, asked the pagan musician Philemon to change clothes with him and offer sacrifice to the idols for him. But unexpectedly St Philemon confessed himself a Christian in front of the pagans.

St Apollonius repented and also confessed Christ. After torture, both martyrs were executed. St Philemon's body was hung upon an olive tree, and arrows were shot at him. One struck prefect Arianus in the eye, destroying it. Arianus' injured eye was healed by when he applied dirt taken from Philemon's grave. He repented and was converted to the Christian Faith and baptized together with all his household and bodyguards. Out of love for Christ they voluntarily went to torture and were sentenced to death.

The Martyr Theotychus was the eldest of the guards, and is remembered with the other saints. The Martyrs Philemon and Apollonius died on March 16, 286, and the Martyrs Arrian and Theotychus on March 4, 287. under Diocletian (284-305).

290 St. Pompeius Bishop of Pavia.

Papíæ sancti Pompéji Epíscopi. At Pavia, St. Pompey, bishop.

He suffered at the hands of Roman officials during the persecutions of the Church in the late third century.

St. Drusus Martyr with Zosimus and Theodore in Syria.
Antiochíæ natális sanctórum Mártyrum Drusi, Zósimi et Theodóri.
At Antioch, the birthday of the holy martyrs Drusus, Zosimus, and Theodore.
in Antioch. St. John Chrysostom preached on their feast day.

378 St. Viator Bishop Bergamo Italy.

Bérgomi sancti Viatóris, Epíscopi et Confessóris. At Bergamo, St. Viator, bishop and confessor.

from about 344. He is also traditionally revered as the first bishop of Bergamo and Brescia during the first century, although it is known that he lived in the fourth century.

451? SS. NICASIUS, BISHOP OF RHEIMS, AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYR
St. Nicasius Bishop of Reims martyr sister Eutropia

Rhemis, in Gállia, pássio sanctórum Nicásii Epíscopi, ac soróris Eutrópiæ Vírginis, et Sociórum Mártyrum; qui a bárbaris Ecclésiæ hóstibus cæsi sunt.

At Rheims in France, holy Bishop Nicasius, his sister, the virgin Eutropia, and their companions, martyrs, who were put to death by barbarians hostile to the Church.

and a group of clergy either by the Vandals or the Huns.
AN army of barbarians ravaging part of Gaul plundered the city of Rheims. Nicasius, the bishop, had foretold this calamity to his flock in consequence of 2 visions, and urged them to prepare for the visitation by works of penance. When he saw the enemy at the gates and in the streets, forgetting himself and solicitous only for his spiritual children, he went from door to door encouraging all to patience and constancy. When the people asked him whether they should yield or fight to the end he, knowing that the city must fall, replied, “Let us abide the mercy of God and pray for our enemies. I am ready to give myself for my people.”

Standing at the door of his church, in endeavouring to save the lives of some, he exposed himself to the swords of the infidels, who cut off his head. St Florentius, his deacon, and St Jucundus, his lector, were massacred by his side. His sister, St Eutropia, seeing herself spared in order that hers might be another fate, threw herself upon her brother’s murderer and kicked and scratched him till she too was cut down and killed.

There is a passio incorporated in Flodoard, Historia Remensis ecclesiae, for which see MGH., Scriptores, vol. xiii, pp. 417—420, and other texts in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. I and vol. v. Consult also Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. iii, p. 81. It seems probable that Nicasius was martyred by the Huns in 451, rather than by the Vandals in 407.

5th v. St. Fingar Martyr Cornwall with Phiala sister, and companions.
Irish by birth, the martyrs were slain at Hoyle, near Penzance, by pagans.

596 St. Agnellus Miracle worker and abbot.
Neápoli, in Campánia, sancti Agnélli Abbátis, virtúte miraculórum illústris, qui obséssam urbem sæpe visus est Crucis vexíllo ab hóstibus liberáre.
At Naples in Campania, St. Agnellus, abbot. Illustrious for the gift of miracles, he was often seen with the standard of the Cross, delivering the city besieged by enemies.
patron of the city of Naples, Italy.
He started his religious career as a hermit then became the abbot of San Gaudioso near Naples.

610 St. Venantius Fortunatus Gallic poet (briefly) bishop of Poitiers
France. Known in full as Venantius Clementianus Fortunatus, he was born in Trevise, near Venice, Italy, and studied at Ravenna. He suffered from some ailment of the eye, but thanks to St. Martin of Tours, he was able to embark upon a pilgrimage in 565 which brought him to Mainz, Cologne, and Trier, Gennany, and to Metz and the Moselle, France. He reached the court of King Sigebert (r. sixth century) at Metz in 566 and there was much praise for his poetry, especially his eulogies. Venantius next journeyed to Verdun, Reims, Soissons, Paris, and finaIly Tours, where he prayed at the tomb of St. Martin. Moving on to Poitiers, he entered into the service of Queen Rodegunda who was now living as a nun, acting as her secretary until her death in August 587. Shortly before his death, he was named bishop of Potiers.
A brilliant poet, considered a transitional figure in literature between the ancient and medieval periods, Venanhus was a prolific writer: six poems on the Cross, including the two famous works Vexilla Regia and Pange Lzngua Gloijosi; eleven books of poems; a metrical life of St. Martin of Tours; the prose lives of eleven Gallic saints, including the Vita Rodegundis; and the elegy DeExcidie Thui'ingiae.

605 St Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop Of Poitiers
Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus, born near Treviso about 535 and educated at Ravenna, is better known as a poet than as a saint. He was a popular man during his lifetime, admired by King Sigebert and his courtiers as well as by St Radegund and her nuns, and his writings continued to receive increasing appreciation up to the time that a sixteenth-century Italian panegyrist said that his heavenly pindaric hymns were enough to make Horace himself feel humble. After that there was a reaction, which helped the formation of a more just estimate. But it can hardly be denied that the popularity of Fortunatus was in a measure due to an obvious human weakness—his desire to please and to be pleased. St Radegund and Abbess Agnes and Duke Lupus deserved the eulogies he addressed to them; such people, as Charibert and Fredegund did not at their best.

Fortunatus left Italy when he was about thirty in order to return thanks at the shrine of St Martin at Tours for his recovery from some eye-trouble. He wrote poems to all the bishops and other distinguished people who entertained him on the road and, his visit to the court of Metz coinciding with the royal wedding, he composed an epithalamium for Sigebert and Brunehilda. At Paris he was particularly impressed by the care with which the clergy sang the Divine Office.

From Tours Fortunatus went to Poitiers, where he settled down, was ordained priest, and formed his lifelong friendship with St Radegund, Abbess Agnes, and the nuns of Holy Cross, for whom he became a sort of factotum and unofficial steward. A constant exchange of letters went on between him, his “mother” Radegund, and his “sister” Agnes, letters that were often accompanied by poems, most of which are lost. The friendship was intimate enough to be playful, and serious enough to be fruitful. One Lent Fortunatus wrote Radegund a letter in Latin verse in which he asks her not to shut herself up so closely during the penitential season: “Even though the clouds have gone and the sky is serene, the day is sunless when you are absent.” He tells her to drink wine and to eat more for the sake of her health, and thanks her for the fruit and dishes she had sent him. “You told me to eat two eggs in the evening: to tell the truth I ate four. I wish I could find my mind always as prepared to submit as my stomach is ready to obey your orders.” And he tells her he sends flowers, roses and lilies, when he can get them.

In 569 the Emperor Justin II sent a relic of the True Cross to the monastery, and we see Fortunatus in another mood. King Sigebert deputed St Euphronius of Tours solemnly to deposit it in Holy Cross (Meroveus of Poitiers, who was no friend of Fortunatus, having refused), and for that occasion Fortunatus wrote the hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt, which we now sing as a Vespers hymn at Passiontide and on feasts of the Cross.

He was at his best as a liturgical poet, and there is another hymn of the Passion of his used in the Roman liturgy, Pange Lingua gloriosi laureain certaminis; the Easter Salve festci dies is also his.

St Radegund died in 587, and Agnes also dying about that time Fortunatus mixed more in public and ecclesiastical affairs, being a welcome guest on all occasions that could be suitably celebrated in verse. He associated particularly with three holy bishops, SS. Felix of Nantes, Leontius of Bordeaux and Gregory of Tours, the last of whom encouraged him to collect and publish his poems. Ten books of them were made public during his life. His more formal works include Lives of St Martin and St Radegund and of several other saints. Sometime about the year 600 he was elected bishop of Poitiers, but governed the see for only a very short time.

Venantius Fortunatus was peculiarly, almost morbidly, alive to the sufferings and hardships of women, as may be seen in his lines on virginity, addressed to the Abbess Agnes, and elsewhere in his works. But this sensitiveness of temperament makes him the more valuable as a recorder of the part played by Christian life and thought in Merovingian Gaul, a part which in its finer manifestations was to a very considerable extent in the hands of women. The usual estimate of Fortunatus personally is that he was “an illustrious personage, a good poet and a great bishop”.

Not all judgements have been so kind, and adverse critics have asserted that he pushed tact and prudence beyond the border of mean-spiritedness and flattery, and that his guiding principle was to get as much enjoyment out of life as possible. It must be admitted that he seems often rather too anxious to please; but it must also be admitted that, properly understood, to “make the best of both worlds”, is a praiseworthy Christian ambition. No honest way of life is inconsistent with sanctity, and St Venantius Fortunatus was a cultured Roman gentleman of refined taste and rather fastidious habits. His name has not been admitted to the Roman Martyrology but several French and Italian dioceses keep his feast.

Our knowledge of Fortunatus is mainly derived from Gregory of Tours and from the poet’s own writings and correspondence. The best text of these is that edited by Leo and Krusch in MGH., Auctores antiquissimi, vol. iv. For a literary appreciation of his writings it will be sufficient to refer to M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, vol. i, pp. 170—181, with other references in the succeeding volumes. See also a long article in DAC., vol. v, cc. 1982—1997; DTC., col. vi, cc. 611—614; and DCB., vol. ii, pp. 552-553, in which last article the shortcomings of Fortunatus are perhaps a little unduly emphasized. Text and translation of five lyrics of Venantius in Helen Waddell, Mediaeval Latin Lyrics (1935), pp. 58—67. For the cultus, see Fr B. de Gaiffier in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxx (1952), pp. 262—284.

St. Jucundus & companion martyrs
An army of barbarians ravaging part of Gaul plundered the city of Rheims. Nicasius, the Bishop, had foretold this calamity to his flock in consequence of a vision, and urged them to prepare for the visitation by works of penance. When he saw the enemy at the gates and in the streets, forgetting himself and solicitous only for his spiritual children, he went from door to door encouraging all to patience and constancy. When the people asked him whether they should yield or fight to the end he, knowing that the city must fall, replied, "Let us abide the mercy of God and pray for our enemies. I am ready to give myself for my people." Standing at the door of his church, in endeavoring to save the lives of some, he exposed himself to the swords of the infidels, who cut off his head. St. Florentius, his deacon, and St. Jucundus, his lector, were massacred by his side. His sister, St. Eutropia, seeing herself spared in order that hers might be another fate, threw herself upon her brother's murderer and kicked and scratched him till she too was cut down and killed.

St. Matronian Hermit of Milan, Italy

Medioláni sancti Matroniáni Eremítæ. At Milan, St. Matronian, hermit.

His relics were enshrined in Milan’s church of St. Nazario by St. Ambrose.

1300 St. Bartholomew Buonpedoni; Leper priest; Franciscan tertiary; Bd Bartholomew of San Gimignano; this our Lord appeared to him in sleep, and told him that he would win his crown by twenty years of physical suffering rather than by becoming a monk; one of the friars wrote an account of his life and miracles; he retired to the leper-house of Celloli, of which he was made master and chaplain, and though the disease was malignant in him it never incapacitated him from celebrating Mass. He lived thus, in infinite patience and ministering to his fellow sufferers, until December 12, 1300, just twenty years after his leprosy began; He has been called “the Job of Tuscany”, and he is known always in San Gimignano as Santo Bartolo
Born in San Germiniano, Italy, Bartholomew worked as a servant for the Benedictines in Pisa. He became a Franciscan tertiary and at the age of thirty was ordained a priest. He served the village of Peccioli, Italy, until he was discovered to have leprosy. He then ministered to the lepers of the region, serving them for twenty years.

Bartholomew Buonpedo, commonly called Bartolo, was born at Mucchio, near San Gimignano in Tuscany, during the earlier part of the thirteenth century, and was destined by his father for marriage and a secular avocation. But Bartolo had other ideas, and left home to become a servant in the Benedictine abbey of St Vitus at Pisa. He worked in the infirmary and made so good an impression that it was suggested to him that he should take the habit. While he was considering this our Lord appeared to him in sleep, and told him that he would win his crown by twenty years of physical suffering rather than by becoming a monk.

Having received some training at the monastery, Bartolo, when he was thirty, was ordained priest and appointed to the parish of Peccioli. He had become a tertiary of the Order of St Francis, and he lived and fulfilled his pastoral duties in complete accord with the spirit of that saint. He took into his house a youth Vivaldo (Ubald), who after Bartolo’s death became a hermit and is venerated for his sanctity to this day.

In 1280 Bd Bartolo was smitten by a disease which was recognized as leprosy, and he remembered what our Lord had told him about twenty years of suffering. Accompanied by the faithful Vivaldo, he retired to the leper-house of Celloli, of which he was made master and chaplain, and though the disease was malignant in him it never incapacitated him from celebrating Mass. He lived thus, in infinite patience and ministering to his fellow sufferers, until December 12, 1300, just twenty years after his leprosy began. He was buried in the Augustinian church of San Gimignano, where towards the end of the century one of the friars wrote an account of his life and miracles. His tomb is still venerated in the same church. He has been called “the Job of Tuscany”, and he is known always in San Gimignano as Santo Bartolo. A local feast was approved in 1499 and the cultus was formally confirmed in 1910, the Friars Minor fixing the feast for December 14.

The decree of confirmation of cultus, printed in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. ii (1910), pp. 415—454, contains a relatively full summary of the life of this beatus, and it mentions that Prosper Lambertini (Benedict XIV) considered that the cultus had already been equivalently sanctioned in 1499 in virtue of a papal delegation of Alexander VI. Fuller details of Bartolo’s history are given in Wadding, Annales Ordinis Minorum; and in Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano (1680), vol. ii, pt 2, pp. 681—684. See also Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng. ed.), vol. iv, pp. 165—169, who appeals more directly to a life by the Augustinian, Fra Giunta, written, it is said, in the fourteenth century. There is a popular life in Italian by E. Castaldi, Santo Bartolo (1928).

1306 BD CONRAD OF OFFIDA; is said to have had the same guardian angel as St Francis, and to have often conversed with him about the seraphic founder; the chief companion of his life was Bd Peter of Treja, who accompanied him in his preaching journeys and was present in the woods on that Candlemas-day when our Lady appeared to Conrad and laid the Child Jesus in his arms; “marvellous zealot of gospel poverty and of the Rule of St Francis, of so religious a life and so deserving before God that Christ, the Blessed One, honoured him in life and in death with many miracles”.
CONRAD became a friar minor when he was fourteen years old, and was afterwards associated both with the friary founded by St Francis himself at Forano in the Apennines and with the great convent of Alvernia. Before he was ordained priest and became a preacher he was employed for years as cook and questor, and several remarkable stories are told of him.
He is said to have had the same guardian angel as St Francis, and to have often conversed with him about the seraphic founder.

Throughout his life Conrad had only one religious habit, he always went barefoot, and his love of poverty impelled him to that party in his order which at first was known as the Spirituals or Zelanti. He was closely associated with Peter John Olivi, and in sympathy with Angelo Clareno and Fra Liberato, the leaders of the “Celestine” hermits; Bd Conrad’s own ideas were more moderate, though he gave credence and circulation to the legend that St Francis had risen from the dead to encourage the Spirituals, having, it was said, been told it by Brother Leo.

But the chief companion of his life was Bd Peter of Treja, who accompanied him in his preaching journeys and was present in the woods on that Candlemas-day when our Lady appeared to Conrad and laid the Child Jesus in his arms. It was said of these two that they were “ two shining stars in the province of the Marches, like dwellers in Heaven; for between them there was such love as seemed to spring from one and the same heart and soul, so that they bound themselves, each to the other, by an agreement that every consolation that the mercy of God might vouchsafe them they would lovingly reveal the one unto the other”. The author of the Fioretti further calls Brother Conrad a “marvellous zealot of gospel poverty and of the Rule of St Francis, of so religious a life and so deserving before God that Christ, the Blessed One, honoured him in life and in death with many miracles”.

When he was sixty-five years old Bd Conrad died while preaching at Bastia, near Assisi, and was buried there. Some years later his relics were carried off to Perugia, and they now rest in the cathedral of that city beside those of Brother Giles. His cultus was confirmed in 1817.

The main outlines of his life are sketched by Bartholomew (Albizzi) of Pisa and other Franciscan chroniclers. See, for example, Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano (1680), vol. ii, Pt 2, pp. 678—681. The biography compiled by B. Bartolomasi as far back as 1807 was published by M. Faloci-Pulignani in the Miscellanea Francescana, vol. xv—xvii, but it tells us very little of Bd Conrad’s relations with the Zelanti, the great point of interest. See, however, the Historisches Jahrbuch for 1882, pp. 648—659, and for 1929, pp. 77—81, as also the Archivum Franciscanum historicum, vol. xi (1918), pp. 366—373. There is an account of Bd Conrad in Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iv, pp. 174—177.

1315 Bd Bonaventure Buonaccorsi; a leader of the Ghibellines and notorious as a desperate character. This Bonaventure was so moved by St Philip’s exhortations to peace and concord that he went to him and accused himself of being a prominent fomenter of disorder and a cause of much misery and injustice. So penitent was he that he asked to be admitted among the Servite friars; even in his lifetime he was known as il Beato, and miracles were reported both before and after his death
In the year 1276 St Philip Benizi came to Pistoia to preside at a general chapter of the Servite Order, and took the opportunity to preach to the people of the place, which was torn by factions. Among his hearers was a man, some thirty-six years old, belonging to the noble Buonaccorsi family, who was a leader of the Ghibellines and notorious as a desperate character. This Bonaventure was so moved by St Philip’s exhortations to peace and concord that he went to him and accused himself of being a prominent fomenter of disorder and a cause of much misery and injustice. So penitent was he that he asked to be admitted among the Servite friars.
St Philip was naturally a little doubtful about so sudden and complete a change, and tested the aspirant by imposing a public penance: Bonaventure had openly to make reparation for his misdeeds and personally ask the pardon of all whom he had wronged or caused to oppose him. This he did with such thoroughness and goodwill that St Philip took him from Pistoia to Monte Senario to make his novitiate at the headquarters of the order.
Bonaventure persevered in his good resolutions, and after his profession was joined to St Philip as socius and admitted to the priesthood. For the next few years he was constantly with the prior general, who with the papal legate Cardinal Latino was trying to bring peace to Bologna, Florence and other distracted cities. The spectacle of the reformed Ghibelline going about in the habit of a mendicant friar and preaching brotherly love made a deep impression.

In 1282 Bd Bonaventure was made prior at Orvieto, but on the death of St Philip was called to the side of his successor, Father Lottaringo, and was eventually made preacher apostolic, with a commission to preach missions throughout Italy, which he did with great effect. In 1303 he was made prior at Montepulciano for the second time, and there assisted St Agnes in the foundation of her community of Dominican nuns, whose director he was. From thence he was moved to his native Pistoia, where civil war had again broken out and the Florentines threatened the enfeebled city. By the diffusion of confraternities and of the Servite third order, called Mantellate, Bd Bartholomew endeavoured to bring back the people to a sense of their responsibilities as Christians, and was tireless in his preaching on behalf of peace and civic unity. He died at Orvieto on December 14, 1315, and was buried in the Servite church in the chapel of our Lady of Sorrows as a testimony of the respect in which his brethren held him. This was also testified by the fact that even in his lifetime he was known as il Beato, and miracles were reported both before and after his death. The cultus of Bd Bonaventure Buonaccorsi was confirmed in 1822.

There seems to be no mention of any separate medieval life of Bd Bonaventure, but Poccianti in his Chronicon (1567) provides the outlines of a biography, which is developed by A. Giani, Annales Ordinis Servorum, vol. i, pp. 118 seq. and passim. See also Sporr, Lebensbilder aus dem Servitenorden (1892), p. 621. Further reference should be made to the early volumes of the Monumenta Ordinis Servorum B.M. V., which began to be published in 1892.

1583 Bd Nicholas Factor; His raptures, miracles and visions were so frequent that St Louis Bertrand said he lived more in Heaven than on earth, and among many examples of supernatural knowledge was an announcement of the victory of Lepanto the day after the battle
Vincent Facto was a Sicilian tailor who came to live at Valencia in Spain, where he married a young woman called Ursula, and in 1520 their son, Peter Nicholas, was born. He was a pious child and quick at school, and when he was fifteen his father wanted him to go into the business, but Nicholas heard a call to the religious life and in 1537 joined the Friars Minor of the Observance in his native town. He made rapid progress in his order, and many times asked to be sent on foreign missions, but had to content himself with working for the conversion of the Moors in Spain: he is said twice to have offered to throw himself into a furnace if, on his coming out unhurt, his hearers would receive baptism. But the offer was refused. During the last year of his life Bd Nicholas migrated to the Capuchin Friars Minor at Barcelona, but returned to his own branch after a few months.
“I left those men, who are entirely holy”, he told the Carthusians at La Scala, “to go back to men who are also entirely holy.”
The biographers of Bd Nicholas devote most of their space to accounts of his austerities and of the marvels connected with his name. He used always to take the discipline before celebrating Mass and three times before preaching, and carried his physical mortifications to such a degree that he was delated to the Inquisition for singularity. His raptures, miracles and visions were so frequent that St Louis Bertrand said he lived more in Heaven than on earth, and among many examples of supernatural knowledge was an announcement of the victory of Lepanto the day after the battle.
He was known and revered by the great ones of Spain from King Philip II downwards, and his personal friends included St Paschal Baylon, St Louis Bertrand and Bd John de Ribera, all of whom gave evidence for his beatification. Among the characteristic stories told of Nicholas, in which there would seem to be a considerable degree of exaggeration or misunderstanding, are that our Lady through the mouth of a statue once told him to go and celebrate Mass, whereupon he was assisted in vesting by St Francis and St Dominic; that divine love so warmed his heart that cold water into which he plunged became heated almost to boiling-point; and that Satan frequently attacked him in the form of a lion, a bear, a snake and the like. Bd Nicholas Factor died at Valencia on December 23, 1583, and was beatified in 1786.

Long accounts of Bd Nicholas may be found in all the Franciscan chroniclers. For example, in Mazzara’s Leggendario Francescano (1680), he fills pages 718 to 749 in vol. ii, pt 2; and in the Croniche of Leonardo da Napoli, pt 4, vol. ii, more than 120 closely printed pages are devoted to him. The best biography is probably that of G. Alapont, Compendio della Vita del B. Niccolô Fattore, which claims to be based upon the process of beatification and was printed in 1786. A short life in English was included in the Oratorian Series in the middle of the last century, and see also Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iv, pp. 178—191.

1591 St. John of the Cross Carmelite St Teresa of Avila asked him to help
Ubédæ, in Hispánia, natális sancti Joánnis a Cruce, Presbyteri et Confessóris, sanctæ Terésiæ in Carmelitárum reformatióne sócii; quem, a Summo Pontífice Benedícto Décimo tértio Sanctis adscríptum, Pius Papa Undécimus Doctórem universális Ecclésiæ declarávit. Ipsíus tamen festívitas ágitur octávo Kaléndas Decémbris.
At Ubeda in Spain, the birthday of St. John of the Cross, priest and confessor, and the companion of St. Teresa in the reform of the Carmelites. Pope Benedict XIII placed him on the list of the saints, and Pope Pius XI declared him a doctor of the universal Church. His feast, however, is observed on the 24th of November.

John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz) (24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591), born Juan de Yepes Álvarez, was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Catholic saint, Carmelite friar and priest, born at Fontiveros, Old Castile.

Saint John of the Cross was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, as a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. He is also known for his writings. Both his poetry and his studies on the growth of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and one of the peaks of all Spanish literature. He was canonized as a saint in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII. He is one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church. When his feast day was inserted into the General Roman Calendar in 1738, it was assigned at first to 24 November, since his date of death was impeded by the then existing octave of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This obstacle was removed in 1955 and in 1969 his feast day was moved to his date of death, 14 December.

1591 Nov 24, moved to Dec 14 St John Of The Cross- Doctor Of The Church At twenty-one he took the religious habit among the Carmelite friars at Medina, receiving the name of John-of-St-Matthias. After his profession he asked for and was granted permission to follow the original Carmelite rule, without the mitigations approved by various popes and then accepted in all the friaries. It was John’s desire to be a lay brother, but this was refused him. He had given satisfaction in his course of theological studies, and in 1567 he was promoted to the priesthood. The graces, which he received from the holy Mysteries, gave him a desire of greater retirement, for which purpose he deliberated with himself about entering the order of the Carthusians. Miracles
Born in Spain 1542
John learned the importance of self-sacrificing love from his parents. His father gave up wealth, status, and comfort when he married a weaver's daughter and was disowned by his noble family. After his father died, his mother kept the destitute family together as they wandered homeless in search of work.
These were the examples of sacrifice that John followed with his own great love -- God.

When the family finally found work, John still went hungry in the middle of the wealthiest city in Spain. At fourteen, John took a job caring for hospital patients who suffered from incurable diseases and madness. It was out of this poverty and suffering, that John learned to search for beauty and happiness not in the world, but in God.

After John joined the Carmelite order, Saint Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform movement. John supported her belief that the order should return to its life of prayer. But many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John's own order kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell six feet by ten feet and beaten three times a week by the monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling. Yet in that unbearable dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but God -- and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell.

After nine months, John escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the guard. Taking only the mystical poetry he had written in his cell, he climbed out a window using a rope made of stirps of blankets. With no idea where he was, he followed a dog to civilization. He hid from pursuers in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the nuns.

From then on his life was devoted to sharing and explaining his experience of God's love.

His life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to a compassionate mystic, who lived by the beliefs that "Who has ever seen people persuaded to love God by harshness?" and "Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love." John left us many books of practical advice on spiritual growth and prayer that are just as relevant today as they were then. These books include: Ascent of Mount Carmel Dark Night of the Soul A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and Bridegroom Christ

Since joy comes only from God, John believed that someone who seeks happiness in the world is like "a famished person who opens his mouth to satisfy himself with air." He taught that only by breaking the rope of our desires could we fly up to God. Above all, he was concerned for those who suffered dryness or depression in their spiritual life and offered encouragement that God loved them and was leading them deeper into faith.

"What more do you want, o soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfaction and kingdom -- your beloved whom you desire and seek? Desire him there, adore him there. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and you won't find him, or enjoy him more than by seeking him within you." -- Saint John of the Cross
In His Footsteps:
John of the Cross believed it was just as dangerous to get attached to spiritual delights as worldly pleasures. Do you expect to get something -- a good feeling, a sense of God -- from prayer or worship? Do you continue to pray and worship when you feel alone or dry?
Prayer:
Saint John of the Cross, in the darkness of your worst moments, when you were alone and persecuted, you found God.
Help me to have faith that God is there especially in the times when God seems absent and far away. Amen

Founder (with St. Teresa) of the Discalced Carmelites, doctor of mystic theology, born at Hontoveros, Old Castile, 24 June, 1542; d. at Ubeda, Andalusia, 14 Dec., 1591. John de Yepes, youngest child of Gonzalo de Yepes and Catherine Alvarez, poor silk weavers of Toledo, knew from his earliest years the hardships of life. The father, originally of a good family but disinherited on account of his marriage below his rank, died in the prime of his youth; the widow, assisted by her eldest son, was scarcely able to provide the bare necessities. John was sent to the poor school at Medina del Campo, whither the family had gone to live, and proved an attentive and diligent pupil; but when apprenticed to an artisan, he seemed incapable of learning anything. Thereupon the governor of the hospital of Medina took him into his service, and for seven years John divided his time between waiting on the poorest of the poor, and frequenting a school established by the Jesuits. Already at that early age he treated his body with the utmost rigour; twice he was saved from certain death by the intervention of the Blessed Virgin.
Anxious about his future life, he was told in prayer that he was to serve God in an order the ancient perfection of which he was to help bring back again. The Carmelites having founded a house at Medina, he there received the habit on 24 February, 1563, and took the name of John of St. Matthias. After profession he obtained leave from his superiors to follow to the letter the original Carmelite rule without the mitigations granted by various popes. He was sent to Salamanca for the higher studies, and was ordained priest in 1567; at his first Mass he received the assurance that he should preserve his baptismal innocence. But, shrinking from the responsibilities of the priesthood, he determined to join the Carthusians.

However, before taking any further step he made the acquaintance of St. Teresa, who had come to Medina to found a convent of nuns, and who persuaded him to remain in the Carmelite Order and to assist her in the establishment of a monastery of friars carrying out the primitive rule. He accompanied her to Valladolid in order to gain practi cal experience of the manner of life led by the reformed nuns. A small house having been offered, St. John resolved to try at once the new form of life, although St. Teresa did not think anyone, however great his spirituality, could bear the discomforts of that hovel. He was joined by two companions, an ex-prior and a lay brother, with whom he inaugurated the reform among friars, 28 Nov., 1568. St. Teresa has left a classical discription of the sort of life led by these first Discalced Carmelites, in chaps. xiii and xiv of her "Book of Foundations". John of the Cross, as he now called himself, became the first master of novices, and laid the foundation of the spiritual edifice which soon was to assume majestic proportions. He filled various posts in different places until St. Teresa called him to Avila as director and confessor to the convent of the Incarnation, of which she had been appointed prioress. He remained there, with a few interruptions, for over five years. Meanwhile, the reform spread rapidly, and, partly through the confusion caused by contradictory orders issued by the general and the general chapter on one hand, and the Apostolic nuncio on the other, and partly through human passion which sometimes ran high, its existence became seriously endangered.

St. John was ordered by his provincial to return to the house of his profession (Medina), and, on his refusing to do so, owing to the fact that he held his office not from the order but from the Apostolic delegate, he was taken prisoner in the night of 3 December, 1577, and carried off to Toledo, where he suffered for more than nine months close imprisonment in a narrow, stifling cell, together with such additional punishment as might have been called for in the case of one guilty of the most serious crimes. In the midst of his sufferings he was visited with heavenly consolations, and some of his exquisite poetry dates from that period. He made good his escape in a miraculous manner, August, 1578. During the next years he was chiefly occupied with the foundation and government of monasteries at Baeza, Granada, Cordova, Segovia, and elsewhere, but took no prominent part in the negotiations which led to the establishment of a separate government for the Discalced Carmelites. After the death of St. Teresa (4 Oct.,1582), when the two parties of the Moderates under Jerome Gratian, and the Zelanti under Nicholas Doria struggled for the upper hand, St. John supported the former and shared his fate. For some time he filled the post of vicar provincial of Andalusia, but when Doria changed the government of the order, concentrating all power in the hands of a permanent committee, St. John resisted and, supporting the nuns in their endeavour to secure the papal approbation of their constitutions, drew upon himself the displeasure of the superior, who deprived him of his offices and relegated him to one of the poorest monasteries, where he fell seriously ill. One of his opponents went so far as to go from monastery to monastery gathering materials in order to bring grave charges against him, hoping for his expulsion from the order which he had helped to found.

As his illness increased he was removed to the monastery of Ubeda, where he at first was treated very unkindly, his constant prayer, "to suffer and to be despised", being thus literally fulfilled almost to the end of his life. But at last even his adversaries came to acknowledge his sanctity, and his funeral was the occasion of a great outburst of enthusiasm. The body, still incorrupt, as has been ascertained within the last few years, was removed to Segovia, only a small portion remaining at Ubeda; there was some litigation about its possession. A strange phenomenon, for which no satisfactory explanation has been given, has frequently been observed in connexion with the relics of St. John of the Cross: Francis de Yepes, the brother of the saint, and after him many other persons have noticed the appearance in his relics of images of Christ on the Cross, the Blessed Virgin, St. Elias, St. Francis Xavier, or other saints, according to the devotion of the beholder. The beatification took place on 25 Jan., 1675, the translation of his body on 21 May of the same year, and the canonization on 27 Dec., 1726.

He left the following works, which for the first time appeared at Barcelona in 1619.
1. "The Ascent of Mount Carmel", an explanation of some verses beginning: "In a dark night with anxious love inflamed".
This work was to have comprised four books, but breaks off in the middle of the third.
2. "The Dark Night of the Soul", another explanation of the same verses, breaking off in the second book. Both these works were written soon after his escape from prison, and, though incomplete, supplement each other, forming a full treatise on mystic theology.
3. An explanation of the "Spiritual Canticle", (a paraphrase of the Canticle of Canticles) beginning "Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?" composed part during his imprisonment, and completed and commented upon some years later at the request of Venerable Anne of Jesus.
4. An explanation of a poem beginning: "O Living Flame of Love", written about 1584 at the bidding of Dona Ana de Penalosa.
5. Some instructions and precautions on matters spiritual.
6. Some twenty letters, chiefly to his penitents. Unfortunately the bulk of his correspondence, including numerous letters to and from St. Teresa, was destroyed, partly by himself, partly during the persecutions to which he fell a victim.
7. "Poems", of which twenty-six have been hitherto published, viz., twenty in the older editions, and recently six more, discovered partly at the National Library at Madrid, and partly at the convent of Carmelite nuns at Pamplona.
8. "A Collection of Spiritual Maxims" (in some editions to the number of one hundred, and in others three hundred and sixty-five) can scarcely count as an independent work, as they are culled from his writings.

It has been recorded that during his studies St. John particularly relished psychology; this is amply borne out by his writings. He was not what one would term a scholar, but he was intimately acquainted with the "Summa" of St. Thomas Aquinas, as almost every page of his works proves. Holy Scripture he seems to have known by heart, yet he evidently obtained his knowledge more by meditation than in the lecture room.
There is no vestige of influence on him of the mystical teaching of the Fathers, the Aeropagite, Augustine, Gregory, Bernard, Bonaventure, etc., Hugh of St. Victor, or the German Dominican school. The few quotations from patristic works are easily traced to the Breviary or the "Summa". In the absence of any conscious or unconscious influence of earlier mystical schools, his own system, like that of St. Teresa, whose influence is obvious throughout, might be termed empirical mysticism.
They both start from their own experience, St. Teresa avowedly so, while St. John, who hardly ever speaks of himself, "invents nothing" (to quote Cardinal Wiseman), "borrows nothing from others, but gives us clearly the results of his own experience in himself and others. He presents you with a portrait, not with a fancy picture. He represents the ideal of one who has passed, as he had done, through the career of the spiritual life, through its struggles and its victories".

His axiom is that the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God, that it must be purified of the last traces of earthly dross before it is fit to become united with God. In the application of this simple maxim he shows the most uncompromising logic. Supposing the soul with which he deals to be habitually in the state of grace and pushing forward to better things, he overtakes it on the very road leading it, in its opinion to God, and lays open before its eyes a number of sores of which it was altogether ignorant, viz. what he terms the spiritual capital sins. Not until these are removed (a most formidable task) is it fit to be admitted to what he calls the "Dark Night", which consists in the passive purgation, where God by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul had begun of its own accord. It is now passive, but not inert, for by submitting to the Divine operation it co-operates in the measure of its power.

Here lies one of the essential differences between St. John's mysticism and a false quietism.

The perfect purgation of the soul in the present life leaves it free to act with wonderful energy: in fact it might almost be said to obtain a share in God's omnipotence, as is shown in the marvelous deeds of so many saints. As the soul emerges from the Dark Night it enters into the full noonlight described in the "Spiritual Canticle" and the "Living Flame of Love". St. John leads it to the highest heights, in fact to the point where it becomes a "partaker of the Divine Nature". It is here that the necessity of the previous cleansing is clearly perceived the pain of the mortification of all the senses and the powers and faculties of the soul being amply repaid by the glory which is now being revealed in it.
St. John has often been represented as a grim character; nothing could be more untrue. He was indeed austere in the extreme with himself, and, to some extent, also with others, but both from his writings and from the depositions of those who knew him, we see in him a man overflowing with charity kindness, a poetical mind deeply influenced by all that is beautiful and attractive.

1707 Saint Hilarion, Metropolitan of Suzdal and Yuriev found the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
(in the world John) born November 13, 1631 into the family of the lower city priest Ananias. His father, famed for his piety and reading, was one of three candidates for the Patriarchal throne, together with the future Patriarch Nikon (1652-1658).

John entered a monastery in 1653. In 1655, he became founder and builder of the Phlorischev wilderness monastery not far from the city of Gorokhovetsa. In his monastic struggles, the saint wrestled with fleshly passions. When he fell down in exhaustion before the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God beseeching Her help, the Mother of God shielded him with gracious power and calmed his spirit.

Once, when St Hilarion was serving Vespers together with a hierodeacon, robbers burst into the church. They killed the deacon and started to set St Hilarion on fire, asking him where the monastery treasure was hid. They did not believe that there was no gold in the monastery. Overcome by the pain, St Hilarion turned to the wonderworking icon and said, "O All-Pure Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ! If they injure me with the fire, I shall no longer have the ability to glorify Thy Son and Thee." Suddenly the robbers heard the shouts of people searching for them, and they fled.

Another time, St Hilarion in passing by the church heard a voice: "I shall glorify thee throughout all the land." He trembled, and going into the vestibule, he found no people there. On the portico he found the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.

The ascetic fell down before the image with tears and confessed his unworthiness.

Later on, when the saint had begun the construction of a stone church, he was very sad that concerns about the construction and disagreements among the workers were distracting him from prayer. While serving in church with the brethren, he was preoccupied by these thoughts and began to regret undertaking the work. With tears he besought the Mother of God not to abandon him and to deliver him from these worries.

When he finished his prayer, St Hilarion remained alone in church and began again to think about the construction. And so he fell asleep. In a dream the Mother of God appeared to him and said, "Transfer My icon, named the Vladimir, from this hot church and put it in the newly-built stone church, and I shall be your Helper there".

St Hilarion awoke and ordered the large bell to be rung. The monks immediately assembled. All went to the hot church and, having prayed before the icon, solemnly transferred it from the portico into the temple. After serving the all night Vigil, Divine Liturgy and a Molieben, the saint told the brethren of his vision. Then in procession they transferred the icon to the church under construction, where they set it in the midst of the woods. From that time the construction went successfully and was soon completed. The saint wanted to dedicate the temple in honor of the icon, but he it was revealed to him in a vision that the temple was to be consecrated in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In the wilderness monastery he maintained a very strict community rule. In 1694, the saint sent a letter to the Phlorischev monastery in which he reminisced about his own monastic Rule at this monastery: "Under me, a sinner, no one possessed anything of his own, but all was shared in common. Many of you may remember that former cenobitic community. And you also remember that I consigned to the fire those possessions which would destroy that cenobitic community."

On December 11, 1681, the saint was consecrated as Archbishop of Suzdal and Yuriev, and in 1682 he was elevated to the dignity of Metropolitan and remained on the Suzda' cathedra until February 1705. The saint died peacefully on December 14, 1707 and was buried in the Suzdal cathedral in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. The saint was known for his unceasing concern for the poor. After his death they found only three coins.

The wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir-Phlorischev (August 26) was painted by the renowned iconographer John Chirov in 1464 at Nizhni Novgorod in fulfillment of a vow of John Vetoshnikov.

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 34

Judge, O Lady, them that harm me: arise against them and avenge my cause.

My soul will rejoice in thee: and I will devoutly exult in thy benefits.

The heavens and the earth are full of thy grace and sweetness: from every side thy kindness surrounds us.

For wherever we may walk: the fruit of thy virginal womb meets us.

Let us run, therefore, dearly beloved, and salute the noble Virgin overflowing with sweetness:
that we may rest in the bosom of her sweetness.

Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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 heaven: only saints are allowed into heaven.

The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.

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

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

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

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

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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 Nizamuddi n Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA) 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.

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

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

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

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

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

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

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

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

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

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

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

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

Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.

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

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

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

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

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

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

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

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

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

By Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.

Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .

The pillars of father's preaching are basically:

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, 34 2021