Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
December is the month of the Immaculate Conception.
2021
20,000 lives saved since 2007


Vigília Nativitátis Dómini nostri Jesu Christi.
The Vigil of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

CAUSES OF SAINTS April  2014  

Oh Mary pray for us sinners who have recourse to thee.

Acts of the Apostles

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






Advent Weekday
First Reading
2 SAMUEL 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16 ; 1 Now when the king dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round about, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent." 3 And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart; for the LORD is with you." 4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 "Go and tell my servant David, `Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men; 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.'"

Responsorial Psalm
PSALMS 89:2-5, 27, 29 ; 1 I will sing of thy steadfast love, O LORD, for ever; with my mouth I will proclaim thy faithfulness to all generations. 2 For thy steadfast love was established for ever, thy faithfulness is firm as the heavens. 3 Thou hast said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: 4 `I will establish your descendants for ever, and build your throne for all generations.'" [Selah] 26 He shall cry to me, `Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.' 28 My steadfast love I will keep for him for ever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.

Gospel
LUKE 1:67-79 ; 67 And his father Zechari'ah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, 68 "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, 74 to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. 76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."




December 24
(800 bc) 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16; Psalms 89:2-5, 27, 29;  Luke 1:67-79;
Mary in the Midst of Israel's Waiting (XIII)
"A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son" (Is 7:14)


1898 Charbel Makhlouf the Maronite, Hermit; After death many favors and miracles through his intercession in heaven.
4th v. St. Gregory, Patriarch of the Armenians Departure of; cast into a pit fifteen years for the faith;
 581 St. Tarsilla saw heaven;  at the hour of her death she saw Jesus coming to her; niece of Pope St. Felix IV
Let us keep our eyes fixed on the New Jerusalem, where death will be no more.


Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List
Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday   Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
   Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday   Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War

Son of Mary and Son of the Most High - Our Lady of Bethlehem
       
"The time came for Mary to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (Lk 2:6f.). These words touch our hearts every time we hear them. This was the moment that the angel had foretold at Nazareth: "you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High" (Lk 1:31).

This was the moment that Israel had been awaiting for centuries, through many dark hours-the moment that all mankind was somehow awaiting, in terms as yet ill-defined: when God would take care of us, when he would step outside his concealment, when the world would be saved and God would renew all things. We can imagine the kind of interior preparation, the of love with which Mary approached that hour.

The brief phrase "she wrapped him in swaddling clothes" allows us to glimpse something of the holy joy and the silent zeal of that preparation. The swaddling clothes were ready, so that the child could be given a fitting welcome. Yet there is no room at the inn.

In some way, mankind is awaiting God, waiting for him to draw near. But when the moment comes, there is no room for him. Man is so preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and all the time for his own things, that nothing remains for others-for his neighbor, for the poor, for God. And the richer men become, the more they fill up all the space by themselves. The less room there is for others.

(...) In the stable at Bethlehem, Heaven and Earth meet. Heaven has come down to Earth.
For this reason, a light shines from the stable for all times; for this reason joy is enkindled there;
for this reason song is born there. (...)
Heaven does not belong to the geography of space, but to the geography of the heart.
And the heart of God, during the Holy Night, stooped down to the stable: the humility of God is Heaven. And if we approach this humility, then we touch Heaven. Then the Earth too is made new.
With the humility of the shepherds, let us set out, during this Holy Night, towards the Child in the stable! Let us touch God's humility, God's heart! Then his joy will touch us make the world more radiant. Amen.
Homily, Dec. 24, 2007  Pope Benedict XVI

December 23 – Our Lady of the Rouvre (France)
 
Her name was Mary like the Mother of God 
A missionary father shared this story: "Five-year-old Fatima was a Muslim girl from Tanzania who attended the Luagala’s mission school. One day, I happened upon her just outside the chapel. I asked her what she was doing. She said, "I want to see the Mother of God but I am not allowed to go inside the church, because my parents forbid me to."
So I carried her to the statue of the Virgin, and explained to her that
Mary is the Mother of all men, who should all love her.
A few days later, Fatima fell sick. At the hospital where she was sent, she asked one of the religious sisters to tell her about the Mother of Heaven. She also asked to be baptized. Since her condition was incurable, she was baptized on the spot, before her family could be notified. Fatima, who chose the name of Mary at her baptism, was glowing with joy:
 "My name is Mary like the Mother of God. I will see her soon in heaven."
The next day, on August 15th, Fatima-Mary died. Her grieving mother told me:
"Father, the death of our daughter was strange. I was holding her on my lap, when she started to gaze up towards the ceiling. She was beaming and she said, 'Mommy look at that beautiful star; it’s getting bigger, and brighter... Oh, the Mother is calling me... Yes, I’m coming.’ Then she bowed her head, and died. The Blessed Virgin herself came to take her."
Testimony given by Father Winfried Schneider Hahn OSB
Story told by Brother Albert Pfleger
In Fioretti de la Vierge Marie, Ephèse Diffusion

 
Eve of the Nativity of our Lord
In Slavic practice, on the eve of the Nativity of the Lord, the liturgical services consist of the Royal Hours with the Typika, Vespers, and the Divine Liturgy of St Basil the Great.
At Vigil in the evening, Great Compline is followed by Matins.
If the Nativity falls on Sunday, however, the Royal Hours with the Typika are read on the preceding Friday. On Friday evening, the office of the Forefeast, December 24. The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom is served on Saturday morning. At Vigil in the evening, Great Compline is followed by Matins.
On Sunday morning, the Liturgy of St Basil is celebrated.

If the Nativity falls on a Monday, Royal Hours with the Typika are read on Friday December 22. On Saturday evening and Sunday morning we follow the order for the Sunday before the Nativity with the office of the Forefeast for December 24. On Sunday morning the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom is served. Vigil on Sunday evening consists of Great Compline is followed by Matins.
On Monday morning the Liturgy of St Basil is celebrated.

On the eve of the Nativity, instead of three readings from the Old Testament at Vespers, there are eight readings (from Genesis, Numbers, Micah, Isaiah, Baruch, Daniel, and two more readings from Isaiah).
The entrance is made with the Gospel.

At the end of Liturgy the priest places a lighted candle in a candlestick in the center of the church.
Then the troparion and kontakion of the Feast are sung.
At Vigil on the evening of the twenty-fourth, Great Compline is followed by Matins.
December 24 - Chaste Nuptials of Our Lady and Saint Joseph
 Mary in the Midst of Israel's Waiting (XIII)

"For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given" (Is 9:6)
The fact that an entire nation awaited the coming of the Messiah foretold by a long series of prophets over the period of many centuries is something truly extraordinary, never seen before in the history of the world. This expectation is fulfilled by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Christmas. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the power to rule shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his rule and of peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even forever (Is 9:6-7).

Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, accomplished and exceeded all expectations of Israel and all the promises of God, by freeing us from sin and death and by opening the gates of the kingdom of heaven for us. By hosting the Father's Son in her womb, the only-begotten Son of God, true God from true God, the Virgin also performed all that was foretold in the Old Covenant which may concern her: She is the Ark of the New Covenant, the Dwelling of the Lord (cf. Ex 25), the New Tree of Life, which gives immortality (cf. Gen 2), "the Morning Star among the clouds, like the Moon at the full" (Si 50:6), Noah's Dove bringing back the crown of peace (cf. Gen 8:11), the Burning Bush of the revelation blazing but not being burnt up (cf. Ex 3:2), the Garden of Eden and the Paradise of the Son of God on earth (cf. Gen 2), the Rainbow or "sign of the covenant" between God and humanity (Gen 9:13), the Temple Mountain which "the peoples will stream to" (Mi 4:1), Noah's Ark bringing the worl d's salvation (cf. Gen 6), Jacob Ladder uniting heaven and earth (cf. Gen 28:12), Gideon's Woolen Fleece covered with the dew of Heaven (cf. Judg 6:36), the Temple and the Holy of Holies reserved for the glory of the Lord (cf. 1 Kings 6:19), the Golden Jar filled with manna from the desert (cf. Ex 16:33). As Jael and Judith, she struck down the enemy of mankind.

As with Esther, the King approves of the powerful intercession of the Queen, who seduces him. In contrast to Sarah, she always had faith in God's promises. She surpasses Deborah, Myriam, Rebecca, Rachel or the mother of the Maccabees: she is truly the strong woman of Israel (cf. Prov 31:29).

1898 Charbel Makhlouf the Maronite, Hermit

       Adam and Eve (SS)
 246 St. Lucian African martyr confessor at Carthage
304 ST GREGORY OF SPOLETO, MARTYR
 Antiochíæ natális sanctárum Vírginum quadragínta, quæ, in Deciána persecutióne, per divérsa torménta martyrium consummárunt. At Antioch, the birthday of forty holy virgins who suffered martyrdom by divers torments in the Decian persecution.
3rd v. The Holy Martyr Eugenia; She and her companions were baptized by Bishop Elias (July 14), who learned about her in a vision. He blessed her to pursue asceticism at the monastery disguised as the monk Eugene; By her ascetic labors, St Eugenia acquired the gift of healing.
4th v. St. Gregory, Patriarch of the Armenians Departure of; cast into a pit fifteen years for the faith;
 404 St. Delphinus Bishop of Bordeaux Paulinus corresponded with St. Ambrose attended Synod of Saragossa, 380
 423 St. Venerandus Bishop of Clermont Auvergne Evangelist 
       St. Euthymius, martyr, At Nicomedia,
 581 St. Tarsilla saw heaven;  at the hour of her death she saw Jesus coming to her; niece of Pope St. Felix IV
 550 St. Emiliana of Rome saintly life, visions  V (RM)  aunt of St. Gregory the Great

 669 St. Caranus Scottish bishop 
 730 St. Adele Widow Abbess ruling with holiness prudence compassion
 754 St. Adela Abbess foundress disciple of St. Boniface
10th v. Blessed Alberic of Gladbach, OSB (AC) 
1050 Bruno a Benedictine lay-brother at Ottobeuren Abbey OSB (AC)
1473 St. John Cantius distributed to the poor all the money/clothes he had slept little on the floor, ate very sparingly, total abstainer from meat
1865 BD PAULA CERIOLI, WIDOW, Foundress OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE HOLY FAMILY OF BERGAMO
1898 Charbel Makhlouf Maronite, Hermit After death many favors and miracles through his intercession in heaven.

Adam and Eve (SS)
It is appropriate that the first parents of the human race should be honored the day before the birth of Our Lord to dramatically highlight the cause of our fall and our reason to rejoice. According to Sacred Scripture, Adam died at the age of 936. Other dates are given in some martyrologies, but this one is the most common (Benedictines).

In art, Adam and Eve are often shown at the Fall or during the expulsion from Paradise. But there are other images, such as Lucas Cranach the Elder's Adam and William Blake's The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve.
3rd v. The Holy Martyr Eugenia; She and her companions were baptized by Bishop Elias (July 14), who learned about her in a vision. He blessed her to pursue asceticism at the monastery disguised as the monk Eugene; By her ascetic labors, St Eugenia acquired the gift of healing.

By her ascetic labors, St Eugenia acquired the gift of healing.

She was a Roman by birth. She lived at Alexandria, where her father Philip was sent by the emperor Commodus (180-192) to be Prefect of Egypt. Eugenia received a fine upbringing and was noted for her beauty and good disposition. Many illustrious youths sought her hand, but she did not wish to marry anyone, for she was determined to preserve her virginity.

Providentially, she became acquainted with the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. She yearned with all her soul to become a Christian, but kept this a secret from her parents. At that time, Christians were banished from Alexandria by the command of the emperor. Wishing to learn more about Christian teachings, she asked permission to visit one of the family estates outside the city, supposedly to enjoy the countryside. She left in the company of her two servants Protus and Hyacinthus, dressed in men's clothes. She and her companions were baptized at a certain monastery by Bishop Elias (July 14), who learned about her in a vision. He blessed her to pursue asceticism at the monastery disguised as the monk Eugene.

By her ascetic labors, St Eugenia acquired the gift of healing. Once, a rich young woman named Melanthia turned to her for help. Seeing "Eugene," this woman burned with an impure passion, and when she was spurned, she falsely accused the saint of attempted rape. St Eugenia came to trial before the Prefect of Egypt (her father), and she was forced to reveal her secret. Her parents and brothers rejoiced to find the one for whom they had long grieved.

After a while they all accepted holy Baptism. But Philip, after being denounced by pagans, was dismissed from his post. The Alexandrian Christians chose him as their bishop. The new Prefect, fearing the wrath of the people, did not dare to execute Philip openly, but sent assassins to kill him. They inflicted wounds upon St Philip while he was praying, from which he died three days later.

St Claudia went to Rome with her sons, daughter, and her servants. There St Eugenia continued with monastic life, and brought many young women to Christ. Claudia built a wanderers' hostel and aided the poor. After several peaceful years, the emperor Galienus (260-268) intensified the persecution against Christians, and many of them found refuge with Sts Claudia and Eugenia.

Basilla, an orphaned Roman girl of imperial lineage, heard about the Christians and St Eugenia. She sent a trusted servant to the saint asking her to write her a letter explaining Christian teachings. St Eugenia sent her friends and co-ascetics, Protus and Hyacinthus, who enlightened Basilla, and she accepted holy Baptism.

Basilla's servant then told her fiancé Pompey that his betrothed had become a Christian. Pompey then complained to the emperor against the Christians for preaching celibacy and denouncing idolatry. Basilla refused to enter into marriage with Pompey, and so they killed her with a sword.

They dragged Sts Protus and Hyacinthus into a temple to make them sacrifice to the idols, but just as they entered, the idol fell down and was shattered. The holy Martyrs Protus and Hyacinthus were beheaded. They also brought St Eugenia to the temple of Diana by force, but she had not even entered it, when the pagan temple collapsed with its idol.

They threw the holy martyr into the Tiber with a stone about her neck, but the stone became untied and she remained unharmed. She also remained unscathed in the fire. Then they cast her into a pit, where she remained for ten days. During this time the Savior Himself appeared to her and said that she would enter into the heavenly Kingdom on the day He was born. When this radiant Feast came, the executioner put her to death with a sword.
After her death, St Eugenia appeared to her mother to tell her beforehand the day of her own death.
246 St. Lucian African martyr confessor at Carthage.
 Trípoli, in Phœnícia, sanctórum Mártyrum Luciáni, Metróbii, Pauli, Zenóbii, Theotími et Drusi.
       At Tripoli in Phoenicia, the holy martyrs Leucian, Metrobius, Paul, Zenobius, Theotimus, and Drusus.

Drusus Metrobius, Paul, Theotirnus, and Zenobius. They were martyred at Tripoli, Libya under emperor Decius.
4th v. St. Gregory, Patriarch of the Armenians Departure of; cast into a pit fifteen years for the faith;

This day marks the departure of St. Gregory, the Patriarch of the Armenians who was a martyr, without bloodshed (A Confessor). This saint, as it was mentioned on the 19th day of the Coptic month of Tute, was tortured by Tiridates, the Armenian king, in the year 272 A.D. for disobeying the king and refusing to worship the idols. The king cast the saint into an empty pit where he lived for 15 years, during which God took care of him.

Near the pit lived an old widow, who saw, in a vision, someone telling her to make bread regularly and cast it into this pit. She continued to do so for 15 years. Because of the length of time, no one in his congregation knew if he was alive or dead.

When the king killed Arbsima, the virgin, and all the virgins who were with her, he also ordered that their bodies be cast away on the mountains. Later on he regretted what he did for he wanted to marry Arbsima.

When the king's family and close advisers saw how he grieved for killing St. Arbsima, they advised him to go out for hunting to recreate himself. While he was riding his horse the Devil jumped on him and cast him on the ground. King Tiridates became possessed with an evil spirit and assumed the appearance and manners of a wild boar, to an extent that no one was able to go near him safely. Many of the people of his kingdom had the same fate. Great fear and crying was heard all over the palace and the kingdom as a result of what had happened to the king and many others as a result of what the king did to the virgins.

The king's sister saw a vision on three consecutive nights. A man was telling her that unless she brought St. Gregory out of the pit, the King would not be saved nor would be cured. The people were surprised, since they believed that he was dead. They went to the pit and dropped a rope and called his name. When the saint moved the rope, they knew that he was still alive, they asked him to tie the rope around him and they pulled him out.

The people took the Saint with great honor to the palace. They asked him to heal the king of his sickness. The Saint asked him if he would go back to his evil deeds. When the king expressed no intention of going back to his evil works, the saint prayed for him, and the evil spirit departed from him. His personality and his mind were restored, but he was not completely cured. The nails of his hands and feet remained like those of a boar as a punishment and as a reminder to him of what he was and in order for him not to go back to his evil works.

The saint inquired about the whereabouts of the bodies of the virgins. He went and found them undecayed and he placed them in an honorable place.

St. Gregory cured all who were sick and cast out many devils. The king and his people believed. He taught and baptized them. He built many churches, ordained bishops and priests for them and he instituted laws for them to follow.  When he completed his strife, he departed in peace.
His prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.

304 ST GREGORY OF SPOLETO, MARTYR
 Apud Spolétum sancti Gregórii, Presbyteri et Mártyris; qui, tempóribus Diocletiáni et Maximiáni Imperatórum, primo nodósis fústibus cæsus, ac deínde, post cratículam et cárcerem, cárduis férreis in génibus percússus, sed et ardéntibus lampádibus per látera incénsus, tandem est decollátus.
       At Spoleto, St. Gregory, priest and martyr.  In the time of Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, he was first beaten with rough clubs, exposed on the gridiron and imprisoned, struck on the knees with iron carding instruments, burned on the sides with firebrands, and finally beheaded. 

THIS Gregory is said to have been a priest and martyr at Spoleto, but apparently there is doubt whether he ever existed outside the pages of his fictitious passio.
This tells us that when Flaccus, the governor of Umbria, arrived at that city with an order from the Emperor Maximian to punish all Christians, its inhabitants were gathered into the forum and Flaccus asked whether they had all abandoned worship of the gods. The chief magistrate said that they had not, but that a man called Gregory was very active among them and had thrown down images. Soldiers were immediately despatched to bring him before the tribunal. When he appeared Flaccus asked, “Who is your God?” Gregory replied, “ He who made man to His own image and likeness, who is all-powerful and immortal and who will render to all men according to their works.” Flaccus told him not to talk so much and to do as he was told, to which Gregory answered, “I know not what your command implies, but I do what I am bound to do”. “If you want to save yourself “, said the governor, “ go to the temple, and sacrifice to Jove and Minerva and Aesculapius. Then you shall be our friend and receive favour from our most invincible emperors.” St Gregory retorted, “ I desire no such friendship, nor do I sacrifice to devils but only to my God, Jesus Christ.”

The judge commanded him to be hit in the face for his blasphemies and to be roasted to death. But from this he was saved by an earthquake which destroyed a quarter of the city. The next day, after further torture, he was beheaded.

The passim of this martyr, which survives in many manuscript copies, has been printed by Surius, and, subject to a curious transformation by which it has been converted into a story of the martyrdom of St George, by Father Delehaye in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxvii (1908), pp. 373—383. Delehaye points out that the passio is a mere work of fiction, and that there is no independent evidence that any such martyr as Gregory was honoured at Spoleto in the early centuries. A copy of this fabrication was in the hands of Ado and through him the notice has passed into the Roman Martyrology. Some comments on the passio will be found in Dufourcq, Etude sur les Gesta Martyrum romains, vol. iii, pp. 98—100.

404 St. Delphinus Bishop of Bordeaux Paulinus corresponded with St. Ambrose attended the Synod of Saragossa, Spain, in 380
 Burdígalæ sancti Delphíni Epíscopi, qui, Theodósii témpore, cláruit sanctitáte.
       At Bordeaux, St. Deiphinus, bishop, who was renowned for holiness in the time of Theodosius.
403 ST DELPHINUS, BISHOP OF BORDEAUX
THE first mention of this, the second bishop of Bordeaux, is his presence at the Synod of Saragossa in the year 380, when the Priscillianists and other heretics were condemned. The greatness and holiness attaching to the name of Delphinus are chiefly a matter of inference from the facts that he was a valued correspondent of St Ambrose and had strong influence with Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus, better known as St Paulinus of Nola. The conversion of the last-named was principally the work of his wife and St Delphinus, who eventually baptized him. Five of the letters of Paulinus to his spiritual benefactor have been preserved and witness to the respect in which he held St Delphinus.

Besides St Ambrose and St Paulinus (the latter is best consulted in the Vienna Corpus Scriptorum, vol. nix, on. 10, 14, 19, 20 and 35), Sulpicius Severus also makes mention of Delphinus in his Chronicle (bk ii, ch. 48). A Vie de St Delphin was published by Fr Moniquet in 1893, but it is severely criticized in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xii, pp. 460—462.

France, who converted St. Paulinus of Nola (354- 22 June 431)
He attended the Synod of Saragossa, Spain, in 380, which condemned the heresy of Priscillianism. Delphinus corresponded with St. Ambrose (340-4 April, 397).
Delphinus of Bordeaux B (RM) Delphinus, bishop of Bordeaux, was to Aquitaine what Saint Martin of Tours was to Gaul in the opinion of Saint Paulinus of Nola, whom he baptized. He was an unremitting opponent of the Priscillianists (Benedictines, Encyclopedia)
.
423 St. Venerandus Bishop of Clermont Auvergne Evangelist.
Gaul (modern France), from 385.
He led this great see and monastic center, promoting evangelization of the entire region.

 Nicomedíæ sancti Euthymii Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, cum multos ad martyrium præmisísset, et ipse, ense tranfíxus, eos secútus est ad corónam.
      
St. Euthymius, martyr, At Nicomedia, during the persecution of Diocletian, St. Euthymius, martyr, who sent many before him to martyrdom, and being pierced with a sword, followed them to share their crown.
550 Emiliana of Rome saintly life, visions  V (RM)
550 SS. THARSILLA AND EMILIANA, VIRGINS

ST GREGORY the Great had three aunts, sisters to his father, Gordian the regionarius, who led an ascetic religious life in their father’s house. Their names were Tharsilla, who was the eldest, Emiliana and Gordiana. Tharsilla and Emiliana were even more united by the fervour of their hearts and the bond of charity than by blood. They lived in their father’s house on the Clivus Scauri as in a monastery and, encouraging one another to virtue by discourse and example, made great progress in spiritual life. Gordiana joined them, but she was often impatient of silence and retirement and, being called to another way of living, married her guardian.
  Tharsilla and Emiliana persevered in the path they had chosen, enjoying divine peace and love until they were called to receive the recompense of their fidelity. St Gregory tells us that Tharsilla was visited one night with a vision of her great-grandfather, Pope St Felix 11(111), who showed a place prepared for her in heaven, saying, "Come I will receive you into this habitation of light". She fell sick soon after, and as her friends were crowding round her bed she cried out, "Away Away My saviour Jesus is coming". After these words she breathed out her soul into the hands of God on the vigil of Christmas. The skin of her knees and elbows was found to be hardened, “like the hide of a camel “, by her continual prayer. A few days later she appeared to Emiliana, and called her to celebrate the Epiphany in Heaven. Emiliana in fact died on January 5 following. Both are named, on the respective days of their death, in the Roman Martyrology.

St Gregory the Great speaks of these aunts not only in his Dialogues (bk iv, ch. 16), but also in a homily (see Migne, PL., vol. lxxvi, c. 1291). Cf. Dudden, St Gregory the Great, vol. 1,pp. 10-11, and Dunbar, Dict. of Saintly Women, vol. ii, p. 242.

Died January 5, c. 550; feast day formerly on January 5. Another of the holy family of Saint Gregory the Great. Emiliana was his aunt, who with her sister Tharsilla, lived a life of prayer and great austerity in Rome at the home of their brother, Gregory's father. She is also said to have been an abbess in Egypt. Gregory reports on her saintly life, visions, and death (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
581 St. Tarsilla saw heaven;  at the hour of her death she saw Jesus coming to her; niece of Pope St. Felix IV
 Romæ natális sanctæ Tharsíllæ Vírginis, ámitæ sancti Gregórii Papæ, de qua ipse testátur quod in hora éxitus sui Jesum ad se veniéntem víderit.
      At Rome, the birthday of the holy virgin Tharsilla, aunt of Pope St. Gregory, who writes of her that at the hour of her death she saw Jesus coming to her.
Aunt of Pope St. Gregory I the Great. She lived with her sister, Emiliana, in Rome, where they were revered for their austerity and prayers. Tarsilla died first, followed a few days later by Emiliana. Tarsilla is also called Tharsilla.
St. Gregory tells us that Tarsilla was visited one night with a vision of her great-grandfather, Pope St. Felix II (III), who showed a place prepared for her in heaven, saying, "Come; I will receive you into this habitation of light". She fell sick soon after, and as her friends were crowding round her bed, she cried out, "Away! Away! My Saviour Jesus is coming!" After these words she breathed out her soul into the hands of God on the vigil of Christmas. The skin of her knees and elbows was found to be hardened, "like the hide of a camel", by her continual prayer.

7th v. 669 St. Caranus Scottish bishop.
venerated in Aberdeen. He served in Eastern Scotland.
Caran (Caranus) of Scotland B (AC)
Died 669. Caran was a missionary bishop of eastern Scotland who is commemorated in the Aberdeen Breviary (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

St. Emiliana aunt of St. Gregory the Great
St. Gregory the Great  (540-12 March 604) had three aunts, sisters to his father, Gordian the regionarius, who led an ascetic religious life in their father's house. Their names were Tarsilla, who was the eldest, Emiliana and Gordiana. Tarsilla and Emiliana were more united by the fervor of their hearts and the bond of charity than by blood. They lived in their father's house on the Clivus Scauri as in a monastery and, encouraging one another to virtue by discourse and example, made great progress in spiritual life. Gordiana joined them, but she was often impatient of silence and retirement and, being called to another way of living, married her guardian. Tarsilla and Emiliana persevered in the path they had chosen, enjoying divine peace and love until they were called to receive the recompense of their fidelity.

A few days later she appeared to Emiliana, and called her to celebrate the Epiphany in heaven. Emiliana in fact, died January 5. Both are named, on the respective days of their death, in the Roman Martyrology.

730 St. Adele Widow Abbess ruling with holiness prudence compassion
 Tréviris sanctæ Irmínæ Vírginis, fíliæ Dagobérti Regis.       At Treves, St. Irmina, virgin, daughter of King Dagobert.

710 SS. IRMINA, VIRGIN, AND ADELA (734), WIDOW
ACCORDING to the tradition the Princess Irmina, called a daughter of St Dagobert II, was to have been married to a Count Herman. All preparations had been made for the wedding at Trier when one of the princess’s officers, who was himself in love with her, inveigled Herman to a steep cliff outside the town and there threw his rival and himself over the edge. After this tragic end to her hopes Irmina obtained her father’s permission to become a nun. Dsgobert founded or restored for her a convent near Trier. St Irmina was a zealous supporter of the missionary labours of St Willibrord, and in 698 gave him the manor on which he founded his famous monastery of Echternach. This gift is said to have been in recognition of his having miraculously stayed an epidemic that was devastating her nunnery, and is about the only thing that seems certain concerning Irmina.

St Adela, another daughter of Dagobert II, became a nun after the death of her husband, Alberic. She is probably the widow Adula, who about 691—692 was living at Nivelles with her little son, the future father of St Gregory of Utrecht. She founded a monastery at Palatiolum, now Pfalzel, near Trier ; she became its first abbess and governed it in holiness for many years. Adela seems to have been among the disciples of St Boniface, and a letter in his correspondence from Abbess Aelitled of Whitby to an Abbess Adola is addressed to her. St Irmina is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, but the cultus accorded popularly to St Adela has not been confirmed and she is not venerated liturgically. 

The story of Irmina’s early life, recounted only by the monk Thiofrid nearly 400 years after her death, is probably quite fabulous. There is evidence that part of it is based upon a forged charter. The Latin Life of St Irmina, edited by Weiland in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xxiii, pp. 48—50, is, however, the work of Thiofrid, and not of Theodoric nearly a century later. See for all this the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. viii (1889), pp. 285—286 and also C. Wampach, Grundherrschaft Echternach, vol. i, Pt (1929), pp. 113—135, and cf. the documents printed in Pt ii (1930). On Adela consult DHGr vol. i, c. 525. See further, E. Ewig in St Bonifatius (1954), p. 418 and C. Wampach, "Irmina von Oeren und ihre Familie" in Trierer Zeitschrift, vol. iii (1928), pp. 144-~I54.  

Daughter of King Dagobert II of Germany St. Adele became a nun upon the death of her husband, making provisions for her son, the future father of St. Gregory of Utrecht (707/708- d. 775/780). She founded a convent at Palatiolum near Trier and became its first Abbess, ruling with holiness, prudence, and compassion.
St. Adele seems to have been among the disciples of St. Boniface (5 June, 755/(754)), the Apostle of Germany, and a letter in his correspondence is addressed to her.
After a devout life filled with good works and communion with God, she passed on to her heavenly reward.

Adela of Pfalzel, OSB Abbess, Widow (PC) Born c. 710; died c. 730. Abbess Adela, founder of Pfalzel (Palatiolum) Convent near Trèves (Trier, Germany), was a daughter of Saint Dagobert II, king of the Franks, and a sister of Saint Irmina. She became a nun after the death of her husband. She may be the widow "Adula," who is said to have been living at Nivelles with her young son--the future father of Saint Gregory of Utrecht. Adela was also a disciple of Saint Boniface (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

734 St. Adela Abbess foundress disciple of St. Boniface (754)
Adela was a Frankish princess, the daughter of King Dagobert II (r. 656-705) and sister of St Irmina. Married to a nobleman, Alberie, she became the foundress of a monastery at Pfazel, near Trèves, France, when her husband died.

10th v. Blessed Alberic of Gladbach, OSB (AC).
He was a monk of Gladbach. Some call him Albert, while others title him a saint (Benedictines).

1050 Bruno a Benedictine lay-brother at Ottobeuren Abbey OSB (AC).
Bruno was a Benedictine lay-brother at Ottobeuren Abbey in Bavaria (Germany) (Benedictines).

1473 St. John Cantius distributed to the poor all the money/clothes he had slept little on the floor, ate very sparingly, total abstainer from meat
 Cracóviæ, in Polónia, natális sancti Joánnis Cántii, Presbyteri et Confessóris, quem, doctrína, propagándæ fídei zelo, virtútibus ac miráculis clarum, Clemens Décimus tértius, Póntifex Máximus, Sanctórum número adscrípsit.  Ejus autem festívitas tertiodécimo Kaléndas Novémbris celebrátur.
       At Cracow in Poland, the birthday of St. John Cantius, priest and confessor, celebrated for his learning, for his zeal in propagating the faith, and for his virtues and miracles, for which Pope Clement XIII added him to the number of the saints.  His feast is observed on the 20th of October.
Born at Kenty, near Oswiecim, Diocese of Krakow, Poland, 1412 (or 1403); died at Krakow, 1473, and was buried there under the church of St. Anne; his feast is on 20 October. He was the son of Stanislaus and Anne who were pious country people; he received his primary education at his native town, and then being sent by his parents to the Academy of Krakow, he soon impressed his professors and colleagues with his pleasant and amiable disposition; always happy, but serious, humble, and godly, he won the hearts of all who came in contact with him. Having made excellent progress in the study of philosophical and theological sciences, he was graduated first as bachelor, then as master and doctor, was ordained priest and then appointed professor of theology at the Academy of Krakow, from where he was sent, after a short time, by his superiors to olkusz, Diocese of Krakow, to be parish priest. Being afraid of the great responsiblity of parish work, he very soon left the parish, and was again appointed professor of Sacred Scripture at the Academy of Krakow, which position he held without interruption until his death. As testified by Michael Miechowita, the medieval Polish historian and the saint's first biographer, extreme humility and charity were conspicuous in his life; he took as his motto:
Conturbare cave: non est placare suave, Infamare cave; nam revocare grave.
He distributed to the poor all the money and clothes he had, retaining only what was absolutely necessary to support himself. He slept but little, and on the floor, ate very sparingly, and was a total abstainer from meat after he became a doctor. He made one pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the desire of becoming a martyr among the Turks, and four pilgrimages to Rome on foot. Durng his life he performed various miracles, which were multiplied after his death at his tomb. He was canonized by Clement XIII in 1767. The Roman Breviary distinguishes him with three hymns; he is the only confessor not a bishop who is thus honoured.

1865 BD PAULA CERIOLI, WIDOW, Foundress OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE HOLY FAMILY OF BERGAMO. 

CONSTANCE CERIOLI was born at Soncino, near Bergamo, in 1816, the last of the sixteen Children of Don Francis Cerioli and his wife Countess Frances Corniani, and was educated by the Visitation nuns. At the age of nineteen she was married to a wealthy widower of sixty, Gaetano Buzecchi-Tassis. He was a worthy man but misanthropic and unattractive, and in any case Constance’s agreement to the marriage was only passive. The match was made by the parents in accordance with the custom of the time and place, of which custom her biographer, Father Federici, says, “It is not so much illogical...as a usurpation”. The results in this case were certainly painful, but not tragic, for from very early years Con­stance was drawn to God and sincerely relied upon His grace. The marriage subsisted for nineteen years, and three children were born. Two died in infancy the eldest, Charles, lived to be only sixteen, and his memory was an important influence throughout his mother’s life.

Gaetano Buzecchi died in 1854, leaving his widow extremely well off. That the orphans of the countryside should be the real heirs of this fortune was finally decided by a chance word of her parish priest. Constance at once took two motherless children into her mansion of Comonte, at Senate in Lombardy; and she determined to devote herself and her estate to the welfare of orphans, boys and girls, specifically the children of peasants, who should be brought up and trained with the life of the land in view.

Her first helper and always her right-hand was Louisa Corti. Her advisers and faithful friends were Canon Valsecchi and the bishop of Bergamo, Mgr

Speranza. On the other side were those who said she was cracked”, as the bishop reported to her. “So I am”, she replied, “by the lunacy of the Cross!”

Other helpers soon joined, and in 1857 Constance Cerioli made her religious vows, taking the names Paula Elizabeth; a few months later the Sisters of the Holy Family came officially into being. They increased and prospered, and in another five years the second part of Sister Paula’s project was born a brothers’ branch of the congregation, to look after male orphans, was established at Villa Campagna, near Soncino, in the care of John Capponi, a hospital official from Leffe.

Sister Paula always resolutely confined her work to the preparation of children and young people for rural life. In those days agriculture and its workers were not the public concern that they are today, and Italy owes not a little in the matter to the Institute of the Holy Family, notably to the agricultural training given at the boys’ establishments. It is appropriate that this work should have been begun not a great way from Virgil’s Mantua.

0 fortunatos nimium, sua Si bona norint, agricolas: “How blest indeed are husbandmen, did they but know their happiness l “ It was part of Ed Paula’s vocation to help them to know it, in spite of the atrocious poverty of Italian peasant life.

She did not long survive the foundation at Villa Campagna. She had always been delicate, with a slight spinal deformity, and her heart became increasingly troublesome. She died in her sleep at Comonte in the early hours of Christmas eve, 1865. She had named her foundation after the Holy Family, her devotion to St Joseph was outstanding: the day could not have been better. And the quietness of her passing was of a piece with a life that, for all its activities, was always marked by interior peace and devotion to Jesus Christ. Bd Paula Cerioli was beatified in 1950.

In addition to the documents of the beatification process there are the memoirs of Mother Corti and the writings of the beata. A biography by Mgr P. Merati was published in 1899. These were all fully used by the Rev. E. Federici in his official life of Bd Paula (1950).

1898 Charbel Makhlouf the Maronite, Hermit After his death many favors and miracles were claimed through his intercession in heaven. (RM)
(also known as Sharbel)
Born at Béqaa-Kafra, Lebanon, in 1828; died at Annaya, 1898; beatified during Vatican Council II in 1965; canonized 1977.

Charbel left the following prayer:
    Father of truth, behold your son who makes atoning sacrifice to you. Accept the offering: he died for me that I might have life.
  
Éditions Magnificat
Joseph Zaroun Makhlouf was the son of a Catholic Lebanese mule driver, who died when Joseph was in early childhood. He was raised by his uncle, who was displeased by the boy's early devotion to prayer and solitude. At the age of 23, Joseph went secretly to the monastery of Our Lady of Mayfug, a house of the Maronite Baladite order. When he was admitted to the order in 1851 he took the religious name Charbel--a 2nd century Antiochean martyr. In due course, Charbel made his solemn vows in 1853 and, in 1859, he was ordained to the priesthood, thus becoming what is known as a 'hieromonk.' This practice is more common in Roman rather than Eastern traditions.

Father Charbel traversed the divide between East and West in other ways as well. For example, one of his favorite books was the Imitation of Christ.

He lived the life of a model monk in the monastery of St. Maro at Annaya (Gibail) for 15 years--singing office in choir and working in the monastic vineyards and olive orchards with strict obedience and personal self-denial. He wished, however, to more closely imitate the Desert Fathers. To do this, in 1875, he took a hermitage near St. Peter and St. Paul.

For the next 23 years he lived an ascetic life. His home consisted of four tiny rooms and a chapel, which were shared with three others. For all these years Charbel spoke to another monk only when it was absolutely necessary. He ate but one meal of vegetables daily. He tasted no meat. He drank no wine, save a drop at the Eucharist. He ate no fruit. He also undertook four annually periods of fasting. He refused to touch money.

Instead of a bed Charbel Makhlouf had used a duvet filled with dead leaves, on top of which he used a goatskin for cover. His pillow was a piece of wood. When anyone came to inhabit the three other rooms, Charbel placed himself under obedience to them. He recited his office at midnight. During these 23 years, more and more people came to ask his counsel, prayers, and blessing.

Thus in the 19th century Father Charbel Makhlouf--along with a few other saintly men--had tried to live again the austere life of the desert fathers of the early church. He belonged to the Christian body known as Maronites, a group which traces its name back to Saint Maro, a friend of Saint John Chrysostom. This group of Christians, most of whom still live in Lebanon, have been united to the Western Church since the 12th century, thus bringing into Western Christendom traditions of great value that might readily have been forgotten. These traditions are ones of enormous self- discipline, and few have exemplified them better than Charbel Makhlouf.

After 23 years of this ascetic life, Charbel had a paralyzing stroke just before the consecration while celebrating the Eucharist in his chapel, and died eight days later on Christmas Eve. After his death many favors and miracles were claimed through his intercession in heaven. Today his tomb is visited by large numbers of people, not only Lebanese Maronites and not only Christians

It was also necessary for the Roman authorities to investigate the phenomenon of a kind of "bloody sweat" that flowed from his body during the period up to 1927 and again in 1950. Some months after his burial, the body was fresh and incorrupt and was placed in a new coffin, where a reddish perspiration flowed and caused the monks to change his clothes twice weekly. In 1927, the patriarch initiated an enquiry and the body was reburied. In 1950, after liquid was observed on the wall of the tomb, the body was found fresh and incorrupt again. Instantaneous cures and miraculous healings were claimed, some of whose beneficiaries are non- Christian. The body was reburied under concrete. This extraordinary phenomenon provides a modern, verifiable account of the types of events frequently claimed for Medieval saints (such as Enero) and frequently disregarded as superstitious (Attwater, Bentley, Farmer).


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 215

O Lady, who shall dwell in the tabernacle of God ? or who shall rest with the leaders of the people?

The poor in spirit, and the pure of heart, the meek, the peaceful, and the mourners.

Be mindful, O Lady, that thou speak for us good things:
and that thou mayest turn away the indignation of thy Son from us.

O sinners, let us embrace the footprints of Mary, and cast ourselves at her blessed feet.

Let us hold her fast, nor let her go: until we deserve to be blessed by her.

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 heavenonly saints are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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