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.
February is dedicated to the Holy Family since the 17th century and by Copts from early times.
2023
22,600 lives saved since 2007
http://www.haitian-childrens-fund.org/

For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us that a life of Christian perfection is not impossible.

Read some chapter of a devout book....It is very easy and most necessary,
for just as you speak to God when at prayer, God speaks to you when you read. -- St. Vincent de Paul


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

Acts of the Apostles
Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
How do I start the Five First Saturdays?

Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

February 24 – Our Lady of Verdelais (France) – 8th apparition of Lourdes (1858)
 
‘‘I will go with you and guide your boat’’
 In the Fiji Islands in the 19th century, a pagan woman of humble condition
told the following story to Father Bréhéret, a missionary priest:
"I live 60 miles from Ovalau (the main island of the archipelago of Fiji). This is where I was born. One day a beautiful woman came to me and said: ‘Take your boat and go to Ovalau right away’ – ‘But I do not know the way to that island,’ I answered. The Lady said to me: ‘I will go with you and guide your boat to Ovalau, do not be afraid. When you get there, go inside the first hut that you see. You will find a white man, and you will do what he tells you. Go now!’"
Father Bréhéret took her to visit the chapel set up inside a hut in Ovalau, where she saw a picture of the Virgin.
She instantly recognized the apparition, and soon asked to be baptized, taking the Christian name of Marie Rose.
 Dom G. Lefebvre  In Mois de Marie mis en rapport avec la liturgie, Apostolat liturgique,
Abbey of Saint-André, Société liturgique, Paris, 1930

 
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, none other than the Father's eternal Son, the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).

Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.

Leander of Seville Bishop monk consubstantiality 3 Persons of the Trinity 1st introduce Nicene Creed at Mass
also suggested Gregory write commentary on the
Book of Job called the Moralia.

February 24 – Our Lady of Verdelais (France) – 8th apparition of Lourdes (1858)  
 Our Lady of Verdelais, Consoler of the Afflicted for the past 900 years  
 Verdelais is a small village amidst the Bordeaux vineyards, near Langon, France. It has had a Marian shrine since 1112, when a knight named Gerald de Graves, who had participated in the First Crusade, became a hermit and settled in the local forest where he built a chapel to house a statue of the Virgin Mary he claimed to have brought back from the Holy Land.
At his death, a community of monks came to keep the devotion going and welcome pilgrims. Many miraculous graces attracted a growing number of faithful. The shrine of Verdelais has survived for nine centuries, witnessed wars and revolutions, and was successively run by Marist monks, Passionists, and since 2007, Marianists, sons of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade.
From whichever direction pilgrims arrive at Verdelais, a golden statue of the Immaculate Virgin welcomes them, visible over the trees, perched atop the highest tower of the basilica dedicated to Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted. From the basilica, one can go up to the top of Mount Cussol through a monumental Stations of the Cross leading to a large cross.
People come here in pilgrimage from March to November, especially for Marian feasts, on August 15th and September 8th, the patronal feast.  www.ars-sanctuaires-catholiques.fr


  The_Second_Finding of Saint John the Baptist
     In Judæa natális sancti Matthíæ Apóstoli
       Hierosólymis prima Invéntio cápitis sancti Joánnis Baptístæ, Præcursóris
       Domini. {see second finding 452}
        Romæ sanctæ Primitívæ Mártyris.
        Rotómagi pássio sancti Prætextáti, Epíscopi et Mártyris.
 
304  Cæsaréæ, in Cappadócia, sancti Sérgii Mártyris, cujus gesta præclára
       habéntur.
      Apud Stylum, in Calábria, sancti Joánnis, cognoménto Therísti,
       monásticæ vitæ laude, et sanctitáte insígnis.
        St. Alexander Martyr with Abundius & others
 360 Miracle of St Theodore the Recruit on the first Saturday of Great Lent
      and the boiled wheat to eat cooked wheat with honey (kolyva)
452 St John the Baptist celebrated as the Second Finding appears to
       Archimandrite Marcellus
586 ST PRAETEXTATUS, OR PRIX, BISHOP OF ROUEN, MARTYR
 616  In Anglia sancti Edilbérti, Regis Cantiórum, quem sanctus Augustínus,
       Anglórum Epíscopus, ad Christi fidem convértit.
 918  St. Betto Benedictine bishop of Auxerre
1129 Tréviris sancti Modésti, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
1129 St. John Theristus slave of the Saracens escaped and became a monk
1137 St. Adela Benefactor and English princess famed for endowing churches and monastic institutions youngest
        daughter of William the Conqueror
1160 Saint Erasmus of the Kiev Caves monastic fathers Anthony and Theodosius have appeared; he  used everything
        he possessed for adornment of the monastery church donated many icons even now seen over the altar
1285 Blessed Luke Belludi nobleman talented, well-educated asked for the Franciscan habit St. Anthony recommended
         him to St. Francis;
gift of miracles
February 24 - The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady (Italy, 1879) - Paul Claudel (d.1955)
Thank You, Mother of Jesus Christ
"It's twelve noon. The door of the church is open. I must enter. Mother of Jesus Christ, I'm not coming to pray. I have nothing to offer and nothing to ask for. I come only to look at you, Mother. To look at you, cry out of happiness, knowing that I am your son and you are there. Just for a moment while everything stops. It's noon and I'm with you, Mary, in this place where you are. I say not a word; I just look at your face and let my heart sing its own language. I say not a word, but I only sing because my heart is so full. Like the swallow following his own idea in sudden melodies.

Because you are beautiful, because you are immaculate, the woman finally returned to grace, the creature in her prime honor and final flourish - just as she came out of God on the morning of her original splendor: ineffably intact because you are the mother of Jesus Christ, who is truth in your arms, and the only hope and fruit. Because you are the woman, the Garden of Eden of former tenderness forgotten, whose eyes look straight into my heart and cause all the accumulated tears to flow. Because you saved me, because you have saved France, because you thought of both France and myself, because at a time when the end was near, it was you who intervened. You saved France once again, because it's noon, because we are in this day and age, because you are there forever, just because you are Mary. Thank you simply because you exist, Mother of Jesus Christ."
Paul Claudel Converted to Catholicism in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary at Notre Dame of Paris (Christmas, 1886)
February 23 – Apparition of Mary, the Immaculate Mother of Victory 1938
 to Cäcilia Geyer
(Wangen/Wigratzbad, Germany, 1938), approved by the Church 
 ‘‘I will trample the head of the infernal serpent’’
 
Wigratzbad is a village close to Bavaria, Germany. It is an important place of pilgrimage, known mainly because of the Marian apparitions. There, Our Lady is venerated under the title of "The Immaculate Conception, Mother of Victory."

The apparitions began during the octave of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, on December 15, 1936, while Hitler was already at the head of Germany. The Virgin first appeared to Antonie Rädler, who was cured of the Spanish flu, and on February 22, 1938, to Cäcilia Geyer. The Virgin asked Cäcilia: "Build a chapel for me here, and I will trample the head of the infernal serpent. People will come here in droves, and I will pour upon them a torrent of graces."

On June 17, 1938, the German government authorized the construction of the chapel dedicated to "Mary Mother of Victory." The inauguration was scheduled for December 8th, for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, but Antonie was arrested by the Nazis on November 21 ... However, during the night of December 7, 1938, the Virgin appeared to her and told her about her imminent release. Antonie was freed on December 18, 1938. As a result, Wigratzbad’s popularity increased.
Adapted from an article by Paulette Leblanc
nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:
 "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1). 


In Judæa natális sancti Matthíæ Apóstoli, qui, post Ascensiónem Dómini ab Apóstolis in Judæ proditóris locum sorte eléctus, pro Evangélii prædicatióne martyrium passus est.
In Judea, birthday of St. Matthias the Apostle. 
After the Ascension of our Lord, the Apostles chose him, by lot, to fill the place of Judas the traitor, and he suffered martyrdom for the preaching of the Gospel.
Matthias_election.jpg
1st v. ST MATTHIAS, APOSTLE
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA says that according to tradition St Matthias was one of the seventy-two disciples whom our Lord had sent out, two by two, during His ministry, and this is also asserted by Eusebius and by St Jerome. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that he was constantly with the Saviour from the time of His baptism until His ascension. When St Peter soon after had declared that it was necessary to elect a twelfth apostle in place of Judas, two candidates were chosen as most worthy, Joseph called Barsabas and Matthias, After prayer to God that He would direct their choice, they proceeded to cast lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, who was accordingly numbered with the eleven and ranked among the apostles. He received the Holy Ghost with the rest soon after his election and applied himself with zeal to his mission. It is stated by Clement of Alexandria that he was remarkable for his insistence upon the necessity of mortifying the flesh to subdue the sensual appetites—a lesson he had leant from Christ and which he faithfully practised himself.

The first part of his ministry was spent, we are told, in Judaea, but he after­wards went to other lands. According to the Greeks, he planted the faith in Cappadocia and on the coasts of the Caspian Sea; he endured great persecution and ill-treatment from the savage people amongst whom he worked, and finally received the crown of martyrdom at Colchis. We know nothing for certain of the manner of his death, but the Greek Menaia and other legendary sources say that he was crucified. His body is stated to have been kept for a long time in Jerusalem and to have been translated from there to Rome by St Helen.

Apart from the short passage in the Acts of the Apostles we possess no reliable source of information concerning St Matthias, but there is a good deal of apocryphal literature connected with his name. In particular the “Acts of Andrew and Matthias in the city of the Cannibals” is a Greek fiction, dated by some as early as the second century, which had very wide currency. We have translations in Syria Armenian, Coptic, and even an adaptation in Anglo-Saxon. Further, Origen already knew in his time an apocryphal

“Gospel of Matthias”, and there has been much discussion as to whether this is identical with a document from which Clement of Alexandria quotes a sentence or two under the name of the “Traditions”  of Matthias. See, for example, Hennecke, Handbuch zu den Neutestamentlichen Apokryphen, pp. 90-91, 238, 544.
Hierosólymis prima Invéntio cápitis sancti Joánnis Baptístæ, Præcursóris Domini.
       At Jerusalem, the finding for the first time of the head of St. John the Baptist, Precursor of the Lord.
 Romæ sanctæ Primitívæ Mártyris.
       At Rome, St. Primitiva, martyr.
259  In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Montáni, Lúcii, Juliáni, Victórici, Flaviáni et Sociórum, qui discípuli fuérunt sancti Cypriáni, et, sub Valeriáno Imperatóre, martyrium consummárunt.
       In Africa, the holy martyrs Montanus, Lucius, Julian, Victoricus, Flavian, and their companions.  They were disciples of St. Cyprian and suffered martyrdom under Emperor Valerian.
St. Montanus 259
Martyr with Flavian, Julian, Lucius, Victoricus, and five others at Carthage. They were disciples of St. Cyprian of Carthage. Victoricus was a priest. These martyrs were tortured and then beheaded.

259 SS. MONTANUS, LUCIUS, and THEIR Companions, Martyrs
THE persecution raised by Valerian had raged for two years, during which many received the crown of martyrdom, including St Cyprian in September, 258. The proconsul Galerius Maximus, who had pronounced sentence on him, died soon after, but the procurator Solon continued the persecution; an insurrection against him broke out in Carthage, and in it many were killed. Solon, instead of making search for the guilty, vented his fury upon the Christians and arrested eight of them, all disciples of St Cyprian and most of them clergy. The following graphic account of the proceedings is taken from the acta of these martyrs: "As soon as we were apprehended, we were given in custody to the officers of the quarter. When the governor's servants told us that we should be condemned to the flames, we prayed fervently to God to be delivered from that punishment, and He in whose hands are the hearts of men was pleased to grant our request. The governor modified his first intention and committed us to a very dark and incommodious prison where we found the priest Victor and some others: but we were not dismayed at the filth and darkness of the place, for our faith and joy in the Holy Ghost reconciled us to our sufferings, though these were such as cannot readily be described in words. However, the greater our trials the greater is He who overcomes them in us. In the meantime, our brother Renus had a vision in which he saw several of the prisoners going out, each preceded by a lighted lamp, whilst others, who had no such light, stayed behind. He identified us in the vision and assured us that we were of those who went forth with lamps. This gave us great joy, for we understood that the lamp represented Christ, the true light, and that we were to follow Him by martyrdom.
"The next day we were sent for by the governor to be examined. It was a triumph to us to be conducted as a spectacle through the market-place and the streets with our chains rattling. The soldiers, who did not know where the governor would hear the case, dragged us from place to place, until at length he ordered us to be brought into his closet. He put several questions to us: our answers were modest but firm. At length we were remanded to prison, and here we prepared ourselves for new conflicts. The sharpest trial we endured was hunger and thirst, the governor having commanded that we should be kept without meat and drink for several days, so that even water was refused us after our work yet Flavian, the deacon, added great voluntary austerities to these hardships, often bestowing on others that little refreshment which was most sparingly allowed us at the public charge. God was pleased to comfort us in this our extreme misery by a vision which He vouchsafed to the priest Victor, who suffered martyrdom a few days after.
"I saw last night," said he, "a child whose countenance was of a wonderful brightness enter the prison. He took us to all parts to find a way of release, but there was no exit. Then said he to me, "Thou art still concerned at being here, but be not discouraged for I am with thee : carry these tidings to thy companions and let them know that they shall have a more glorious crown." I asked him where Heaven was, and he replied, "Out of the world". 'Victor said, Show it to me'. The child answered, 'Where then would be thy faith?' Victor said, 'I cannot remember what thou commandest me: tell me a sign that I may give them'. He answered, 'Give them the sign of Jacob, that is, his mystical ladder reaching to the heavens'. Soon after this, Victor was put to death. This vision filled us all with joy.
God gave us, the night following, another assurance of His mercy by a vision to our sister Quartillosia, a fellow prisoner whose husband and son had suffered death for Christ three days before, and who followed them by martyrdom a few days after. 'I saw', said she, 'my son who suffered: he was in the prison, sitting on a vessel of water, and said to me, "God has seen your sufferings". Then entered a young man of wonderful stature, and he said, 'Be of good cheer, God hath remembered you.'"

The martyrs had received no nourishment the preceding day, nor had they any on the day that followed this vision; but at length Lucian (who was then a priest, but afterwards became bishop of Carthage), surmounting all obstacles, contrived to have food carried to them by the subdeacon Herennian and by Januarius, a catechumen. The acts say they brought the "never-failing food"-very possibly the Holy Eucharist is meant, but the matter is not clear. What is less open to question is the claim the martyrs make to have preserved fraternal charity in spite of difficulties. "We have all one and the same spirit", they write, "and this unites and cements us together in prayer, in mutual intercourse and in all our actions. These are those bonds of affection which put the Devil to flight, which are most pleasing to God, and which by supplication in common obtain from Him whatever is asked. These are the ties which link hearts together, and which make men the children of God. To be heirs of His kingdom we must be His children, and to be His children we must love one another. It is impossible for us to attain to the inheritance of His heavenly glory unless we keep that union and peace with our brethren which our heavenly Father has established amongst us.
Nevertheless this union suffered some prejudice in our company, but the breach was soon repaired. It happened that Montanus had some words with Julian about a person who was not of our communion, but who had found his way into our company" (probably admitted by Julian). "Montanus, on this account, rebuked Julian, 
they for some time afterwards behaved with coldness, which was, as it were, a seed of discord. But God had pity on them both and, to unite them, admonished Montanus by a dream, which he related to us as follows: ‘It appeared to me that the centurions were come to us and that they led us through a long path into a spacious field, where we were met by Cyprian and Lucius. Then we came to a very luminous place where our garments became white, and our flesh even whiter than our garments, and so wonderfully transparent that there was nothing in our hearts that was not clearly exposed to view. Looking into myself, I discerned some dirty stain in my own bosom and, meeting Lucius, I told him what I had seen, adding that the filth I had observed within my breast denoted my coldness towards Julian. Wherefore, brethren, let us love and cherish union with all our might. Let us be of one mind here in imitation of what shall he hereafter. As we hope to share in the rewards promised to the just, and to avoid the punishments wherewith the wicked are threatened—as, in short, we desire to be and to reign with Christ— let us do those things which will lead us to Him and to His heavenly kingdom.’” Up to this joint apparently we have the words the martyrs wrote in prison, but the rest of the story was compiled by certain persons present, at the recommendation of Flavian, one of the martyrs.

After suffering extreme hunger and thirst, with other hardships, during an imprisonment of many months, the prisoners were brought before the president and made a glorious confession. Valerian’s decree condemned only bishops, priests and deacons to death. The well-meaning but mistaken friends of Flavian maintained before the judge that he was not a deacon and was therefore not included in the scope of the emperor’s decree. Consequently, although he declared himself to be one, he was not then condemned, but the others were sentenced to death. They walked cheerfully to the place of execution and each one gave exhortations to the people. Lucius, a man of mild and retiring nature, was weak on account of ill health and the hardships of the prison: he therefore went on before the rest, accompanied by few people lest he should collapse in the pressure of the crowd and so not have the honour of shedding his blood. Some cried out to him: “Remem­ber us!”—“Do you also remember me”, was his reply. Julian and Victorinus exhorted the brethren to peace, and recommended to their care the whole body of the clergy, especially those who had undergone the hardships of imprisonment. Montanus, who was endowed with great strength of body and mind, cried out many times, “He that sacrificeth to any but the true God shall be utterly destroyed”. He also denounced the pride and obstinacy of heretics, telling them that they might discern the true Church by the multitude of its martyrs. A true disciple of St Cyprian and a zealous lover of discipline, he exhorted those who had fallen not to be over-hasty, but faithfully to accomplish their penance. He exhorted the virgins to preserve their purity and to honour the bishops, whom he charged to remain in concord. When the executioner was ready to give the stroke, Montanus prayed aloud to God that Flavian, who had been reprieved at the people’s request, might follow them on the third day. To express his assurance that his prayer was heard, he rent in pieces the handkerchief with which his eyes were to be covered and ordered one half of it to be reserved for Flavian, desiring that a place might be kept for his grave that they might not be separated even in the tomb. Flavian, seeing his crown delayed, made it the object of his ardent desires and prayers.

To his mother, who kept close by his side and who longed to see him glorify God by martyrdom, he said, “You know, mother, how I have longed for the privilege of dying the death of a martyr” In one of the two nights during which he survived, he was favoured with the vision of one who said to him, “Why dost thou grieve? Thou hast twice been a confessor and thou shalt suffer martyrdom by the sword.” On the third day he was brought before the governor and, it was clearly to be seen what a favourite he was with the people, for they endeavoured by all means to save his life. They cried out to the judge that he was not a deacon, although he insisted that he was. A centurion presented a note which set forth that he was not. The judge accused him of lying to procure his own death. He answered, “Is it probable? Is it not more likely that they are guilty of untruth who maintain the contrary?” The crowd then demanded that he should be tortured, in the hope that he would recant on the rack, but the judge condemned him to be beheaded. The sentence filled him with joy, and he was led to the place of execution accompanied by a great multitude, including many priests. A shower dispersed the unbelievers, and the martyr was led to a house where he had an opportunity of taking leave of the faithful without the presence of pagan onlookers. He told them that in a vision he had asked St Cyprian whether the death stroke was painful, and that the martyr had answered, “The body feels no pain when the soul gives herself entirely to God”. At the place of execution he prayed for the peace of the Church and the unity of the brethren, and appears to have foretold to Lucian that he would be bishop of Carthage—a prophecy which was fulfilled soon after­wards. When he had finished speaking, he bound his eyes with that half of the handkerchief which Montanus had left him and, kneeling in prayer, received the last stroke.

The Acts of Montanus and Lucius may be found in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. iii, and also in Ruinart, Acta sincera but the best text is that edited from a collation of several new manuscripts by Pio Franchi de’ Cavalier, in a Supplementheft (No. 8) to the Romische Quartalschrift, 1898. Taken as a whole the document may be unhesitatingly commended as a reliable narrative of contemporary date, and this is the conclusion adhered to by such critical authorities as Pio Franchi himself (see his “Note Agiografiche” in Studi Testi, vol. xxii, pp. 1—32 and 111—114) and Delehaye (Les Passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires, 1921, pp. 72—78). At the same time certain difficulties cannot be ignored. It has been pointed out that the whole construction of the story bears a close resemblance to the famous acts of that other group of Carthaginian martyrs, Perpetua and Felicity. Rendel Harris and Gifford in their edition of the latter text (Acts of the Martyrdom of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, 1890, p. 27) have in fact gone so far as to treat the history of Montanus and Lucius as a fiction or plagiarism, based upon the Perpetua document. Without going into detail, it must be sufficient to refer to the discussion of the subject by Pio Franchi and Delehaye. It is in every way probable that the compiler of the later acts, living at Carthage, would have been familiar with the written story of Perpetua and Felicity, and that he may justifiably have regarded the manner of treatment as a model to be followed. Adhémar d’Ales (in Recherches de Science religieuse, vol. ix, 1918, pp. 319—378) identifies the author of the Acts of Montanus and Lucius with the deacon Pontius, who wrote an account of the martyrdom of St Cyprian, but Delehaye (in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxix, 1921, p. 171) does not consider that a case has been satisfactorily made out.

304  Cæsaréæ, in Cappadócia, sancti Sérgii Mártyris, cujus gesta præclára habéntur.
At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Sergius, martyr, of whose life a beautiful account still exists.
304 St. Sergius  Martyred monk, He was a monk (priest) in Cappadocia, arrested put to death during persecutions of Diocletian.
360 Miracle of St Theodore the Recruit on the first Saturday of Great Lent and the boiled wheat to eat cooked wheat with honey (kolyva)
Today we remember the miracle of St Theodore and the boiled wheat.
Fifty years after the death of St Theodore, the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), wanting to commit an outrage upon the Christians, commanded the city-commander of Constantinople during the first week of Great Lent to sprinkle all the food provisions in the marketplaces with the blood offered to idols. St Theodore appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxius, ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the marketplaces, but rather to eat cooked wheat with honey (kolyva).

In memory of this occurrence, the Orthodox Church annually celebrates the holy Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit on the first Saturday of Great Lent. On Friday evening, at the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts following the prayer at the ambo, the Canon to the holy Great Martyr Theodore, composed by St John of Damascus, is sung. After this, kolyva is blessed and distributed to the faithful. The celebration of the Great Martyr Theodore on the first Saturday of Great Lent was set by the Patriarch Nectarius of Constantinople (381-397).

The Troparion to St Theodore is quite similar to the Troparion for the Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Youths (December 17, Sunday Before Nativity). The Kontakion to St Theodore, who suffered martyrdom by fire, reminds us that he also had faith as his breastplate (see I Thessalonians 5:8).  Saint Theodore is also commemorated on February 17.

452 St John the Baptist celebrated as the Second Finding appears to Archimandrite Marcellus
After the Beheading of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John (August 29), his body was buried by disciples in the Samarian city of Sebaste, and his venerable head was hidden by Herodias in an unclean place. St Joanna (June 27), the wife of King Herod's steward Chuza (Luke 8:3), secretly took the holy head and placed it into a vessel and buried it on the Mount of Olives in one of Herod's properties.

After many years, this property passed into the possession of a government official who became a monk with the name of Innocent. He built a church and a cell there. When they started to dig the foundation, the vessel with the venerable head of John the Baptist was uncovered. Innocent recognized its great holiness from the signs of grace emanating from it. Thus occurred the First Finding of the Head. Innocent preserved it with great piety, but fearful that the holy relic might be abused by unbelievers, before his own death he again hid it in that same place, where it was found. Upon his death the church fell into ruin and was destroyed.

During the days of St Constantine the Great (May 21), when Christianity began to flourish, the holy Forerunner appeared twice to two monks journeying to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to the holy places, and he revealed the location of his venerable head.

The monks uncovered the holy relic and, placing it into a sack of camel-hair, they proceeded homewards. Along the way they encountered an unnamed potter and gave him the precious burden to carry. Not knowing what he was carrying, the potter continued on his way. But the holy Forerunner appeared to him and ordered him to flee from the careless and lazy monks, with what he held in his hands. The potter concealed himself from the monks and at home he preserved the venerable head with reverence. Before his death he placed it in a water jug and gave it to his sister.

From that time the venerable head was successively preserved by devout Christians, until the priest Eustathius (infected with the Arian heresy) came into possession of it. He beguiled a multitude of the infirm who had been healed by the holy head, ascribing their cures to the fact that it was in the possession of an Arian. When his blasphemy was uncovered, he was compelled to flee. After he buried the holy relic in a cave, near Emesa, the heretic intended to return later and use it for disseminating falsehood. God, however, did not permit this. Pious monks settled in the cave, and then a monastery arose at this place. In the year 452 St John the Baptist appeared to Archimandrite Marcellus of this monastery, and indicated where his head was hidden. This became celebrated as the Second Finding.
The holy relic was transferred to Emesa, and later to Constantinople.
489  Tréviris sancti Modésti, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
At Treves, St. Modestus, bishop and confessor.
489 St. Modestus:  Bishop of Trier during the period of Frankish rule over the area from 486. His relics are enshrined in St. Matthias, Trier. Modestus suffered much during that difficult era.
St. Alexander Martyr with Abundius & others unknown.
Antigonus, and Fortunatus, probably in Rome.  Bede records the martyrdom in Thessaly.

586 ST PRAETEXTATUS, OR PRIX, BISHOP OF ROUEN, MARTYR

 Rotómagi pássio sancti Prætextáti, Epíscopi et Mártyris.
       At Rouen, the passion of St. Praetextatus, bishop and martyr.
ST Praetextatus became bishop of Rouen in 549 and occupied that see for thirty-five years. During this long episcopate he suffered grievous difficulties, exile and in the end martyrdom due to the rivalry between King Clotaire I’s sons Chilperic and Sigebert, and the deadly feud of Chilperic’s mistress, Fredegund, with Sige­bert’s wife, Brunhilda, sister to the poisoned second wife of Chilperic.
Fredegund contrived the murder of Sigebert in 575, and Chilperic threw Brunhilda into prison at Rouen, from whence she appealed for help to Meroveus, Chilperic’s son by his first wife. The young man dreaded the power of Fredegund, and was not unwilling to take up arms against his father. Furthermore, he fell in love with his step-aunt Brunhilda and married her, thus making common cause with her.
Praetextatus found himself placed in a very awkward position. Meroveus had made Rouen his headquarters and expected or exacted contributions from the Church which it was difficult to refuse. The young man was the bishop’s spiritual son—that is to say, he had been baptized by him, and the tie was then considered a very close one. Chilperic was ready to believe accusations against Praetextatus and summoned him to appear before a council of bishops in Paris on the charges of having broken the canons by marrying Meroveus to his aunt and also of fomenting the rebellion by giving aid to the prince. With regard to the first of these charges there is some uncertainty. It is thought by some that the bishop, in order to prevent a grievous scandal, judged the case suitable for a dispensation and actually married them and acknowledged that he had done so, but Gregory of Tours, who was present and who is the authority for all that happened, says that Praetextatus denied having married them.

At first the bishop would plead guilty to neither charge, but he was afterwards prevailed upon by false friends to acknowledge that he had favoured and helped Meroveus. He was thereupon condemned and banished to a little island off Coutances. His powerful enemies spared no trouble to blast his reputation, but St Gregory of Tours never wavered in his support. Meroveus and his brothers were put to death by order of the savage Fredegund, who was also suspected of causing the death of her husband to clear the way to the throne for her own son, Clotaire II.
On the death of Chilperic, Praetextatus returned to his see by order of King Gontran of Burgundy, but sorely against the wishes of Fredegund. At the Council of Macon he was formally reinstated, and he took a prominent part in the deliberations of that body. He frequently remonstrated with the wicked queen, who often resided at Rouen, and her hatred for him became greater than ever. In 586 she said to him, “The time is coming when thou shalt revisit the place of thine exile.”—“I was a bishop always, whether in exile or out of exile”, replied the saint, and a bishop I shall remain; but as for thee, thou shalt not always enjoy thy crown,” and he exhorted her to abandon her evil ways. On the following Sunday, soon after midnight, as he was saying Matins in Church, an assassin sent by Frede­gund stabbed him under the armpit. He was carried to his bed, where he died
.

Gregory of Tours is our trustworthy authority for this story of Merovingian barbarity. See also Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 206.
616  In Anglia sancti Edilbérti, Regis Cantiórum, quem sanctus Augustínus, Anglórum Epíscopus, ad Christi fidem convértit.
In England, St. Ethelbert, ruler of Kent, converted to the faith of Christ by the English bishop, St. Augustine.
616 St. Ethelbert King of Kent; b. 552; d. 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest.
He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage with Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of the Franks (see BERTHA I). A noble disposition to fair dealing is argued by his giving her the old Roman church of St. Martin in his capital of Cantwaraburh (Canterbury) and affording her every opportunity for the exercise of her religion, although he himself had been reared, and remained, a worshipper of Odin. The same natural virtue, combined with a quaint spiritual caution and, on the other hand, a large instinct of hospitality, appears in his message to St. Augustine when, in 597, the Apostle of England landed on the Kentish coast (see AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY).

In the interval between Ethelbert's defeat by Ceawlin and the arrival of the Roman missionaries, the death of the Wessex king had left Ethelbert, at least virtually, supreme in southern Britain, and his baptism, which took place on Whitsunday next following the landing of Augustine (2 June, 597) had such an effect in deciding the minds of his wavering countrymen that as many as 10,000 are said to have followed his example within a few months.

Thenceforward Ethelbert became the watchful father of the infant Anglo-Saxon Church. He founded the church which in after-ages was to be the primatial cathedral of all England, besides other churches at Rochester and Canterbury. But, although he permitted, and even helped, Augustine to convert a heathen temple into the church of St. Pancras (Canterbury), he never compelled his heathen subjects to accept baptism. Moreover, as the lawgiver who issued their first written laws to the English people (the ninety "Dooms of Ethelbert", A.D. 604) he holds in English history a place thoroughly consistent with his character as the temporal founder of that see which did more than any other for the upbuilding of free and orderly political institutions in Christendom. When St. Mellitus had converted Sæbert, King of the East Saxons, whose capital was London, and it was proposed to make that see the metropolitan, Ethelbert, supported by Augustine, successfully resisted the attempt, and thus fixed for more than nine centuries the individual character of the English church. He left three children, of whom the only son, Eadbald, lived and died a pagan.

  Apud Stylum, in Calábria, sancti Joánnis, cognoménto Therísti, monásticæ vitæ laude, et sanctitáte insígnis.
        At Stylo in Calabria, St. John Therestus, noted for his sanctity, and his high regard for the monastic life.
918 St. Betto Benedictine bishop of Auxerre.
 He was a monk at Saint-Colombe Abbey in Sens, France, and was consecrated a bishop in 889.
1129 St. John Theristus slave of the Saracens escaped and became a monk.
Benedictine monk, called Theristus or “Harvester.” He was of Calabrian lineage, born in Sicily. His mother was a slave of the Saracens. John escaped at a young age and became a monk. 
1137 St. Adela Benefactor and English princess famed for endowing churches and monastic institutions youngest daughter of William the Conqueror
Adela was the youngest daughter of William the Conqueror. In 1080 she married Stephen of Blois.
Throughout her life, Adela had an active role in English politics, & famed for endowing churches and monastic institutions.
1160 Saint Erasmus of the Kiev Caves monastic fathers Anthony and Theodosius appeared; he  used everything he possessed for adornment of the monastery church, donating many icons even now seen over the altar
St Simon, Bishop of Vladimir (May 10), wrote about him to his friend St Polycarp (July 24): "At the Caves was Erasmus the black-robed. He acquired a legacy of fame because he used everything he possessed for the adornment of the monastery church. He donated many icons, which even now may be seen over the altar.

The saint experienced great temptations after he had given away his wealth. The Evil One began to suggest to him that he should have given the money to the poor, rather than spend it on the beautification of the church. St Erasmus did not understand such thoughts, so he fell into despondency and began to live in a careless manner.

Because of his former virtue the gracious and merciful God saved him. He sent him a grievous illness, and the monk lay near death.

In this sickness Erasmus lay for seven days, unable to see or speak, and hardly breathing. On the eighth day the brethren came to him and, seeing the difficulty of his approaching death, said,"Woe to the soul of this brother, for he lived in idleness and in sin. Now his soul beholds something and tarries, not having the strenght to leave the body."

Erasmus suddenly got up, as though he had not been ill, and said to the monks, "Fathers and brethren!
It is true that I am a sinner, and have not repented, as you said. Today, however, our monastic fathers Anthony and Theodosius have appeared to me, and said: 'We have prayed for you, and the Lord has given you time for repentance.' Then I saw the All-Pure Mother of God with Christ in Her arms, and She said to me, 'Erasmus, since you adorned My Church with icons, I will also adorn you and exalt you in the Kingdom of my Son! Arise, repent, take the angelic schema, and on the third day you will be taken from this life.'

Having said this, Erasmus began to confess his sins before all without shame, then went to church and was clothed in the schema, and on the third day he died." St Erasmus was buried in the Near Caves.
His memory is also celebrated on September 28 and on the second Sunday of Great Lent.
1285 Blessed Luke Belludi nobleman talented, well-educated asked for the Franciscan habit St. Anthony recommended him to St. Francis; gift of miracles
(1200-c. 1285)
   
In 1220, St. Anthony was preaching conversion to the inhabitants of Padua when a young nobleman, Luke Belludi, came up to him and humbly asked to receive the habit of the followers of St. Francis. Anthony liked the talented, well-educated Luke and personally recommended him to St. Francis, who then received him into the Franciscan Order.

Luke, then only 20, was to be Anthony's companion in his travels and in his preaching, tending to him in his last days and taking Anthony's place upon his death. He was appointed guardian of the Friars Minor in the city of Padua. In 1239 the city fell into the hands of its enemies. Nobles were put to death, the mayor and council were banished, the great university of Padua gradually closed and the church dedicated to St. Anthony was left unfinished. Luke himself was expelled from the city but secretly returned. At night he and the new guardian would visit the tomb of St. Anthony in the unfinished shrine to pray for his help. One night a voice came from the tomb assuring them that the city would soon be delivered from its evil tyrant.

After the fulfillment of the prophetic message, Luke was elected provincial minister and furthered the completion of the great basilica in honor of Anthony, his teacher. He founded many convents of the order and had, as Anthony, the gift of miracles. Upon his death he was laid to rest in the basilica that he had helped finish and has had a continual veneration up to the present time.
Comment:  The epistles refer several times to a man named Luke as Paul’s trusted companion on his missionary journeys. Perhaps every great preacher needs a Luke; Anthony surely did. Luke Belludi not only accompanied Anthony on his travels, he also cared for the great saint in his final illness and carried on Anthony’s mission after the saint’s death. Yes, every preacher needs a Luke, someone to offer support and reassurance—including those who minister to us. We don’t even have to change our names!


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 274

We will praise thee, O Lady: and we will praise thy name: make us to delight in thy praises.

Sing ye to her, ye dwellers upon earth: and announce her praise to the peoples.

Praise and magnificence are before her: fortitude and exultation are in her throne.

Adore ye her in her beauty: glorify the Maker of her beauty.

Be mindful in eternity of her mercy: keep in mind her virtues and her wonders.


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
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 
1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.  Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine.  The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches.  The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice."  According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates.  Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor.  Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.
Meeting of the Saints  walis (saints of Allah)
Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.
So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life.  But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat 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]

To Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation by mail, please send check or money order to:
Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Rd. Irondale, AL 35210  USA
  Catholic Television Network  Supported entirely by donations from viewers  help  spread the Eternal Word, online Here
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).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China
Marian shrines
May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related
Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, 274 2023