Mary Mother of GOD
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.
June is the month of the Sacred Heart since 1873;
 2023
22,600  Lives Saved Since 2007

CAUSES OF SAINTS

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”,
showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

June 1st - Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus - Our Lady of the Star (Aquiles, Italy)


Pope Francis  PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR JUNE 2023

For the abolition of torture

 We pray that the international community may commit in a concrete way to ensuring the abolition of torture and guarantee support to victims and their families.


If Children Are Seen as a Burden, Something Is Wrong
A society that does not like to be surrounded by children and considers them a concern, a weight, or a risk, is a depressed society.  
“When life multiplies, society is enriched, not impoverished.

Children are a gift of society, never a possession. Pope Francis




 40 Days for Life  We are the defenders of true freedom.
  May our witness unveil the deception of the "pro-choice" slogan.
40 days for Life Campaign saves lives Shawn Carney Campaign Director www.40daysforlife.com
Please help save the unborn they are the future for the world

It is a great poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish -- Mother Teresa
 Saving babies, healing moms and dads, 'The Gospel of Life.

   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

Juventius:  Reverian, bishop, and Paul, priest, with ten others Pamphilus, priest and martyr St. Thespesius, martyr:  Isychrion, an army general, and five other soldiers:  The First Day of June http://www.domcentral.org/life/martyr06.htm#0601
165 Saint Justin Martyr Patron Saint of: apologists, lecturers, philosophers  Romæ sancti Juvéntii Mártyris.
309 ST PAMPHILUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS a man of remarkable sanctity and learning, and great charity to the poor
 430 ST CAPRASIUS, OR CAPRAIS sanctity was extolled by St Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, and by St Hilary of Arles
 849 ST WISTAN wonderful manifestation with which God continued to honour the martyr
1035 ST SIMEON OF SYRACUSE spent two years as a solitary in a little cave near the Red Sea; long before his death, he was venerated as a saint and a wonder-worker
1451 BD HERCULANUS OF PIEGARO Franciscan; extraordinary powers in winning souls to God. Wherever he went he spoke of the sufferings of our Lord, frequently by his eloquence reducing his hearers to tears, and by his personal holiness inspiring them to reform their lives; urged penance on others set example himself by his own great austerity.
1571 BD JOHN STOREY, MARTYR "the most noted civilian and canonist of his time" boldly opposed the Act of Uniformity;
17th v. Shio the New holy monk-martyrs, David, Gabriel and Paul labored in the David-Gareji Wilderness at the end of the 17th century.
1617 Bl. Andrew Sushinda Martyr of Japan Japanese layman sheltered Dominican missionaries, martyred at Nagasaki on October 1, 1617 Bl. Andrew Sushinda Martyr of Japan Japanese layman sheltered Dominican missionaries, martyred at Nagasaki on October 1,
1617-1632 THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN
1787 BD FELIX OF NICOSIA In private, Felix practised great austerities; in public his love of God expressed itself in charity towards his neighbours. He was endowed with the gift of healing temporal and spiritual diseases, and he delighted in tending the sick
 
June 1 – Crowning of the miraculous image of Kevelaer (Germany, 1672)   
The more that hell has been victorious in the beginning, the more shameful it will be afterwards
On many occasions Jesus spoke to the young seminarian Marcel Van—a young Vietnamese martyr who perished in a Communist jail—about the reign of his Love, for which the Lord asked for his prayers and sacrifices.
Saint Therese of Lisieux also often came to encourage Van, but on January 4, 1946, the Virgin Mary herself appeared to tell “little Van” about Christ’s kingdom:
“As Jesus told you, at the beginning of the battle my apostles will seem so weak that people will consider them incapable of standing up to hell... (…) I will have to allow that for some time so that, through this, my apostles will learn to be more humble…
However, my child, the more that hell has been victorious in the beginning, the more shameful it will be afterwards.
I will not crush the head of Satan; but I will let my children do this job for me. (…) Then, my reign will slowly be established in the world.”

  Marcel Van, In Colloques 251  Cf: Bulletin of the Friends of Van # 61, March 2014  www.amisdevan.org

The Divine Praises
Blessed be God.  Blessed be His holy name.  Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
Blessed be the name of Jesus.  Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.  Blessed be Jesus in the most holy sacrament of the altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.  Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.  Blessed be the name of Mary, virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.  Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.  Amen.

Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary
Mary's Divine Motherhood
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,
was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second 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.

Mary the Mother of God
Juventius:  Reverian, bishop, and Paul, priest, with ten others Pamphilus, priest and martyr St. Thespesius, martyr:  Isychrion, an army general, and five other soldiers St. Firmus, martyr Felinus and Gratinian, soldiers St. Proculus, martyr St. Secundus, martyr St. Crescentia, a Roman soldier St. Carassius, abbotSt. Eneco, a Benedictine abbot St. Fortunatus, priest St. Simeon, monk The First Day of June http://www.domcentral.org/life/martyr06.htm#0601
 165 Saint Justin Martyr Patron Saint of: apologists, lecturers, philosophers  Romæ sancti Juvéntii Mártyris.
      At Rome, St. Juventius, martyr.

 166 Chariton The holy martyr , his wife Charito, and others suffered with St Justin the Philosopherbeáti Pámphili, Presbyteri et Mártyris, Cæsaréæ, in Palæstína Thespésii Mártyris In Cappadócia sancti Ischyriónis In Ægypto sanctórum Mártyrum , ductóris mílitum, et aliórum quinque mílitum; qui, sub Diocletiáno
Imperatóre, pro fide
Christi, divérso mortis génere perémpti sunt.
 230 St. Thespesius martyr His name is Latin for "wondrous one" Item sancti Firmi Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne Maximiáni, acerbíssimis plagis afféctus, lapídibus percússus, ac demum cápite cæsus est.
 250 SS. Ischyrion Chaeromon Bishop of Nilopolis Egypt and other martyrs see Dec 22
 272 SS. Reverian, Bishop and Comp., MM. at AutunFelíni et Gratiniáni mílitum Perúsiæ sanctórum Mártyrum , qui, sub Décio, váriis torméntis cruciáti, martyrii palmam gloriósa morte percepérunt. Próculi Mártyris Bonóniæ sancti , qui sub Maximiáno Imperatóre passus est.  At Bologna, St. Proculus, martyr, who suffered under Emperor Maximian. Secúndi Amériæ, in Umbria, sancti Mártyris, qui, sub Diocletiáno, in Tíberim projéctus, martyrium consummávit.sancti Crescentiáni, Apud Tiférnum, in Umbria,  mílitis Románi, qui sub eódem Imperatóre, martyrio coronátus est. At Tiferno in Umbria, St.  Crescentian, a Roman soldier, crowned with martyrdom under the same emperor  sancti Caprásii  In monastério Lirinénsi, in Gállia, Abbátis.
                                        In the monastery of Lé
rins, the abbot St. Caprasius.
 290 St. Firmus & Rusticus Martyrs of Bergamo, in Lombardy, Italy, supposedly related to each other and prominent
citizens of that city. They died in Verona:  see Aug 9
sancti Enecónis In monastério Onniénsi, apud Burgos, in Hispánia, , Abbátis Benedictíni, ob sanctitátis et miraculórum glóriam  illústris.
At Burgos in Spain, in the monastery of Onia, St. Eneco, Benedictine abbot, made illustrious by his sanctity and miracles.
 
304 542 ST PROCULUS, “THE SOLDIER, AND ST PROCULUS, BISHOP OF BOLOGNA, MARTYRS: in 1584
Pope Gregory XIII sanctioned the keeping, on June 1, of an annual feast in honour of the translation.
sancti Fortunáti Apud Montem Falcum, in Umbria, Presbyteri, virtútibus et miráculis clari. At Montefalco in Umbria, St. Fortunatus, a priest renowned for his virtues and his miracles. Tréviris sancti Simeónis Mónachi, qui a Benedícto Papa Nono in Sanctórum númerum relátus est. At Treves, St. Simeon, a monk, whom Pope Benedict IX numbered among the saints.
 309 ST PAMPHILUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS a man of remarkable sanctity and learning, and great charity to the poor
 
430 ST CAPRASIUS, OR CAPRAIS sanctity was extolled by St Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, and by St Hilary of Arles
 849 ST WISTAN wonderful manifestation with which God continued to honour the martyr
  919 St. Candida
1035 ST SIMEON OF SYRACUSE spent two years as a solitary in a little cave near the Red Sea; long before his death, he was venerated as a saint and a wonder-worker
1057 Inigo, also known as Eneco hermit then monk at San Juan de Pena elected Prior drawn to both contemplative and eremitical life
1095 St Agapitus of the Caves holy Unmercenary Physician born at Kiev a novice and disciple of St Anthony of the Caves gift of healing
1150 ST THEOBALD OF ALBA A number of miracles are reported to have taken place at his tomb and led to a great development of his cultus.
1304 BD JOHN PELINGOTTO a Franciscan tertiary life of prayer and austerity; obedience to a call to serve our Lord
in His suffering members;
he went about tending the sick and seeking out the destitute poor to whom he gave the greater portion of his own food and the clothes off his back
1451 BD HERCULANUS OF PIEGARO Franciscan; extraordinary powers in winning souls to God. Wherever he went he spoke of the sufferings of our Lord, frequently by his eloquence reducing his hearers to tears, and by his personal holiness inspiring them to reform their lives; urged penance on others set example himself by his own great austerity.
1540  Angela of Merici while praying before a crucifix, her sight was restored at the same place where it had been lost
1571 Bd John Storey Martyr  "the most noted civilian and canonist of his time" boldly opposed the Act of Uniformity;
17th v. Shio the New holy monk-martyrs, David, Gabriel and Paul labored in the David-Gareji Wilderness at the end of the 17th century.
1617 Bl. Andrew Sushinda Martyr of Japan Japanese layman sheltered Dominican missionaries, martyred at Nagasaki on October 1, 1617.
1619 Bl. Andrew Tokuan Martyr of Japan layman born in Nagasaki.Arrested by authorities and refusing to deny the faith, Andrew was burned alive with Blessed Leonard Kimura November 18, 1619. Andrew sheltered missionaries.
1622 Bl. Alexius Martyr of Japan native Japanese a novice of the Dominican Order in Japan
1622 Bl. Alphonsus de Mena Dominican martyr of Japan born in Logrono in Spain Dominican Order at Salamanca
1617-1632 THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN
1787 BD FELIX OF NICOSIA In private, Felix practised great austerities; in public his love of God expressed itself in charity towards his neighbours. He was endowed with the gift of healing temporal and spiritual diseases, and he delighted in tending the sick.















165 Saint Justin Martyr Patron Saint of: apologists, lecturers, philosophers
Romæ sancti Juvéntii Mártyris.      At Rome, St. Juventius, martyr.

Born: c.100
All the voices around Justin clamored that they had the truth he sought so desperately. He had listened to them all since he first came to Rome to get his education. They each shouted that they held the one and only answer but he felt no closer to the truth than when he had started his studies.
He left the Stoic master behind but the Stoics valued discipline as truth and thought discussion of God unnecessary. He rejected the Peripatetic who seemed more interested in money than discussion.
The Pythagorean rejected him because he didn't know enough music and geometry -- the things that would lead him to truth.
He found some joy with Platonists because contemplation of ideas gave wings to his mind, but they promised wisdom would let him see God and so, where was God?

There was one place Justin always escaped to in order to get away from these shouting, confusing voices and search out the quiet inner voice that led him to truth. This place was a lonely spot; a path that seemed made for him alone in a field by the sea. So sure was he of the isolation of his retreat that he was shocked one day to find an old man following him.  The old man was not searching for truth but for some of his family. Nonetheless they began a discussion in which Justin identified himself as a philologian, a lover of reason.
The old man challenged him -- why was he not a lover of truth, a lover of deeds.
Justin told him that reason led to truth, and philosophy led to happiness. This was certainly an interesting thing for Justin to say since he had not found the truth in the study of reason or happiness in his quest among the philosophers!
Perhaps the old man sensed this for he asked for Justin's definition of philosophy and of happiness.

In the long discussion that followed, Justin spoke eloquently to the old man's searching questions but even Justin had to admit that philosophers may talk about God but had never seen him, may discuss the soul but didn't really know it.
But if the philosophers whom Justin admired and followed couldn't, then nobody could, right?

The old man told him about the ancient prophets, the Hebrew prophets, who had talked not of ideas but of what they had seen and heard, what they knew and experienced. And this was God.
 The old man ended the conversation by telling Justin to pray that the gates of light be opened to him.
Inflamed by this conversation, Justin sought out the Scriptures and came to love them. Christ words "possess a terrible power in themselves, and are sufficient to inspire those who turn aside from the path of rectitude with awe; while the sweetest rest is afforded those who make a diligent practice of them."

Why hadn't Justin known about Christianity before with as much as he had studied? He heard about it, the way other pagans of second century Rome had, by the rumors and accusations that surrounded the persecution of Christians. The fearlessness of their actions made him doubt the gossip, but he had nothing else to go by. Christians at that time kept their beliefs secret. They were so afraid that outsiders would trample on their sacred faith and descrate their mysteries that they wouldn't tell anyone about their beliefs -- even to counteract outright lies. To be honest, there was good reason for their fears -- many actors for example performed obscene parodies of Christian ritual for pagan audiences, for example.

But Justin believed differently. He had been one of those outsiders -- not someone looking for trouble, but someone earnestly searching for the truth. The truth had been hidden from him by this fear of theirs. And he believed there were many others like him. He exhorted them that Christians had an obligation to speak of their faith, to witness to others about their faith and their mysteries.
So Justin took his newfound faith to the people.
This layman became the first great apologist for Christianity and opened the gates of light for so many others.

He explained baptism and Eucharist. He explained to the pagans why they didn't worship idols and why that didn't make them atheists.
He explained to the Jews how Christians could worship the same God but not follow Jewish laws.
He explained to the Greeks and the philosophers how philosophy did not take into account the dignity of humankind.
He wrote long arguments known as apologies and traveled to other lands in order to debate publicly. His long education in philosophy and rhetoric gave him the skills he needed to match his oponents and the Holy Spirit gave him the rest.

It is not surprising that Justin was arrested during the persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Along with four others (Chariton, Charites, Paeon, and Liberianus) he was brought before the Roman prefect, Rusticus, to be accused under the law that required sacrificing to idols. When Rusticus demanded that they "Obey the gods at once, and submit to the kings," Justin responded,
"To obey the commandments of our Saviour Jesus Christ is worthy neither of blame nor of condemnation."
When Rusticus asked what doctrines he believed, Justin told him that he had learned all the doctrines available during his quest but finally submitted to the true doctrines of the Christians, even though they didn't please others. (An understatement when he was under danger of death!)

When Rusticus asked where the Christians gathered, Justin gave a response that gives us insight into Christian community and worship of the time: "Where each one chooses and can: for do you fancy that we all meet in the very same place? Not so; because the God of the Christians is not circumscribed by place; but being invisible, fills heaven and earth, and everywhere is worshipped and glorified by the faithful."

When Rusticus asked each of them if they were a Christian, they all responded the same way: "Yes, I am a Christian." When Rusticus tried to put responsibility for this on Justin, they responded that God had made them Christians.
Just before Rusticus sentenced them he asked Justin, "If you are killed do you suppose you will go to heaven?" Justin said,
"I do not suppose it, but I know and am fully persuaded of it."

Justin and his fellow martyrs were beheaded in the year 165 and went to be with the Truth Justin had longed for all his life. He is often known as Justin Martyr and his works are still available. In His Footsteps:
To download some of Justin's works and the complete story of his martyrdom see the writings of the Early Church Fathers
Today speak to at least one person about an aspect of the Catholic faith. If you don't feel comfortable discussing Catholic doctrine, read some of the Catechism of the Catholic Church or other competent resource. Prayer:  Saint Justin Martyr, pray that in our search for the Truth, God will open the gates of light for us the way God did for you and give us the wisdom no human being can give. Amen

The Holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher was born around 114 at Sychem, an ancient city of Samaria. Justin's parents were pagan Greeks. From his childhood the saint displayed intelligence, love for knowledge and a fervent devotion to the knowledge of Truth. When he came of age he studied the various schools of Greek philosophy: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, the Platonists, and he concluded that none of these pagan teachings revealed the way to knowledge of the true God.

Once, when he was strolling in a solitary place beyond the city and pondering about where to seek the way to the knowledge of Truth, he met an old man. In the ensuing conversation he revealed to Justin the essential nature of the Christian teaching and advised him to seek the answers to all the questions of life in the books of Holy Scripture. "But before anything else," said the holy Elder, "pray diligently to God, so that He might open to you the doors of Light. No one is able to comprehend Truth, unless he is granted understanding from God Himself, Who reveals it to each one who seeks Him in prayer and in love."

In his thirtieth year, Justin accepted holy Baptism (between the years 133 and 137). From this time St Justin devoted his talents and vast philosophical knowledge to preaching the Gospel among the pagans. He began to journey throughout the Roman Empire, sowing the seeds of faith. "Whosoever is able to proclaim Truth and does not proclaim it will be condemned by God," he wrote.

Justin opened a school of Christian philosophy. St Justin subsequently defended the truth of Christian teaching, persuasively confuting pagan sophistry (in a debate with the Cynic philosopher Crescentius) and heretical distortions of Christianity. He also spoke out against the teachings of the Gnostic Marcian.

In the year 155, when the emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) started a persecution against Christians, St Justin personally gave him an Apology in defense of two Christians innocently condemned to execution, Ptolemy and Lucias. The name of the third remains unknown.

In the Apology he demonstrated the falseness of the slander against Christians accused unjustly for merely having the name of Christians. The Apology had such a favorable effect upon the emperor that he ceased the persecution. St Justin journeyed, by decision of the emperor, to Asia Minor where they were persecuting Christians with particular severity. He proclaimed the joyous message of the imperial edict throughout the surrounding cities and countryside.

The debate of St Justin with the Rabbi Trypho took place at Ephesus. The Orthodox philosopher demonstrated the truth of the Christian teaching of faith on the basis of the Old Testament prophetic writings. St Justin gave an account of this debate in his work Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.
A second Apology of Saint Justin was addressed to the Roman Senate. It was written in the year 161, soon after Marcus Aurelius (161-180) ascended the throne.

When he returned to Italy, St Justin, like the Apostles, preached the Gospel everywhere, converting many to the Christian Faith. When the saint arrived at Rome, the envious Crescentius, whom Justin always defeated in debate, brought many false accusations against him before the Roman court. St Justin was put under guard, subjected to torture and suffered martyrdom in 165. The relics of St Justin the Philosopher rest in Rome.
In addition to the above-mentioned works, the following are also attributed to the holy martyr Justin the Philosopher:
1) An Address to the Greeks
2) A Hortatory Address to the Greeks
3) On the Sole Government of God
St John of Damascus preserved a significant part of St Justin's On the Resurrection, which has not survived. The church historian Eusebius asserts that St Justin wrote books entitled
The Singer
Denunciation of all Existing Heresies and
Against Marcian
In the Russian Church the memory of the martyr is particularly glorified in temples of his name. He is invoked by those who seek help in their studies.

The holy martyrs Justin, Chariton, Euelpistus, Hierax, Peonus, Valerian, Justus and the martyr Charito suffered with St Justin the Philosopher in the year 166. They were brought to Rome and thrown into prison. The saints bravely confessed their faith in Christ before the court of the prefect Rusticus. Rusticus asked St Justin, whether he really thought that after undergoing tortures he would go to heaven and receive a reward from God. Saint Justin answered, "Not only do I think this, but I know and am fully assured of it."
The prefect proposed to all the Christian prisoners that they offer sacrifice to the pagan gods.
When they refused he issued a sentence of death, and the saints were beheaded.

 June 1, 2010 St. Justin (d. 165)
Justin never ended his quest for religious truth even when he converted to Christianity after years of studying various pagan philosophies.  As a young man, he was principally attracted to the school of Plato. However, he found that the Christian religion answered the great questions about life and existence better than the philosophers.  Upon his conversion he continued to wear the philosopher's mantle, and became the first Christian philosopher. He combined the Christian religion with the best elements in Greek philosophy. In his view, philosophy was a pedagogue of Christ, an educator that was to lead one to Christ.

Justin is known as an apologist, one who defends in writing the Christian religion against the attacks and misunderstandings of the pagans. Two of his so-called apologies have come down to us; they are addressed to the Roman emperor and to the Senate.
For his staunch adherence to the Christian religion, Justin was beheaded in Rome in 165.

Comment: As patron of philosophers, Justin may inspire us to use our natural powers (especially our power to know and understand) in the service of Christ and to build up the Christian life within us. Since we are prone to error, especially in reference to the deep questions concerning life and existence, we should also be willing to correct and check our natural thinking in light of religious truth. Thus we will be able to say with the learned saints of the Church: I believe in order to understand, and I understand in order to believe. 
Quote:  "Philosophy is the knowledge of that which exists, and a clear understanding of the truth; and happiness is the reward of such knowledge and understanding" (Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 3).

Romæ sancti Juvéntii Mártyris.      At Rome, St. Juventius, martyr.
Martyr of Rome. His rel­ics were translated to the Benedictine Abbey of Chaise­Dieu, in Evreux, France
.

Justus suffered
166 Chariton The holy martyr , his wife Charito, and others suffered with St Justin the Philosopher
They were brought to Rome and thrown into prison. The saints bravely confessed their faith in Christ before the court of the prefect Rusticus. Rusticus asked St Justin whether he really thought that after undergoing tortures he would go to heaven and receive a reward from God. St Justin answered, "Not only do I think this, but I know and am fully assured of it."
The prefect proposed to all the Christian prisoners that they offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. When they refused he issued a sentence of death, and the saints were beheaded.
166 The holy martyr with St Justin the Philosopher Euelpistus, Hierax, Peonus, Valerian, and others
They were brought to Rome and thrown into prison. The saints bravely confessed their faith in Christ before the court of the prefect

beáti Pámphili, Presbyteri et Mártyris, Cæsaréæ, in Palæstína,  viri admirándæ sanctitátis et doctrínæ, atque in páuperes munífici; qui, ob Christi fidem, in persecutióne Galérii Maximiáni, primum, sub Urbáno Præside, cruciátus et in cárcerem trusus, deínde, sub Firmiliáno, íterum revocátus ad pœnas, una cum áliis martyrium consummávit.  Passi sunt étiam tunc Valens Diáconus, et Paulus, aliíque novem; quorum memória áliis diébus celebrátur.
      At Caesarea in Palestine, blessed Pamphilus, priest and martyr, a man of remarkable sanctity and learning, and great charity to the poor.  In the persecution of Galerius Maximian, he was tortured for the faith of Christ, under Governor Urbanus, and thrown into prison.  Later he was again subjected to torments under Firmilian, and he completed his martyrdom with others.  At the same time, there suffered Valens, a deacon, and Paul, and nine others, whose commemoration occurs on other days.

Thespésii Mártyris In Cappadócia sancti , qui, sub Alexándro Imperatóre et Simplício Præfécto, post ália torménta, decollátus est.
    In Cappadocia, in the time of Emperor Alexander and the prefect Simplicius, the holy martyr Thespesius, who, after undergoing many torments, was beheaded.

Ischyriónis In Ægypto sanctórum Mártyrum , ductóris mílitum, et aliórum quinque mílitum; qui, sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre, pro fide Christi, divérso mortis génere perémpti sunt.
    In Egypt, under Emperor Diocletian, the holy martyrs Ischyrion, a military officer, and five other soldiers, who were put to death in various ways for the faith of Christ.

Item sancti Firmi Mártyris, qui, in persecutióne Maximiáni, acerbíssimis plagis afféctus, lapídibus percússus, ac demum cápite cæsus est.
    Also, St. Firmus, martyr , who was scourged most severely, struck with stones, and finally beheaded during the persecution of Maximian.

Perúsiæ sanctórum Mártyrum Felíni et Gratiniáni mílitum, qui, sub Décio, váriis torméntis cruciáti, martyrii palmam gloriósa morte percepérunt.
    At Perugia, the holy martyrs Felinus and Gratinian, soldiers under Decius, who were tortured in several ways, and by a glorious death won the palm of martyrdom.

Bonóniæ sancti Próculi Mártyris, qui sub Maximiáno Imperatóre passus est.    At Bologna, St. Proculus, martyr, who suffered under Emperor Maximian.

Amériæ, in Umbria, sancti Secúndi Mártyris, qui, sub Diocletiáno, in Tíberim projéctus, martyrium consummávit.
    At Amelia in Umbria, in the reign of Diocletian, St. Secundus, martyr, who fulfilled his martyrdom when thrown into the Tiber.

Apud Tiférnum, in Umbria, sancti Crescentiáni, mílitis Románi, qui sub eódem Imperatóre, martyrio coronátus est.
    At Tiferno in Umbria, St. Crescentian, a Roman soldier, crowned with martyrdom under the same emperor.

In monastério Lirinénsi, in Gállia, sancti Caprásii Abbátis.    In the monastery of Lerins, the abbot St. Caprasius.

In monastério Onniénsi, apud Burgos, in Hispánia, sancti Enecónis, Abbátis Benedictíni, ob sanctitátis et miraculórum glóriam illústris.
    At Burgos in Spain, in the monastery of Onia, St. Eneco, Benedictine abbot, made illustrious by his sanctity and miracles.

919 St. ST WITE, OR CANDIDA
THIS unknown saint is included herein for the same reason as St Afan (November 16), namely, the contemporary existence in Great Britain of a tomb bearing the name.
The village of Whitchurch Canonicorum in Dorset, mentioned in the will of King Alfred as Hwitan Cyrcian, presumably takes its name from St Wite, and its church is dedicated in her honour (the Latin form Candida is not recorded before the sixteenth century). In the north transept of the church is her shrine. On a thirteenth-century base with three openings there rests a fourteenth-century coffin, covered by a slab of Purbeck marble the whole is plain and without inscription, but has always been called locally the shrine of the titular saint. While repairs to the transept were being carried out in 1900 the coffin was opened at the end, and within, beside odd pieces of bone, teeth, wood and lead, was found a large leaden casket. On it, in twelfth/thirteenth-century raised letters, was the inscription Hic Reqesct Re1iqe Sce Wite; inside was a considerable number of bones, which the finders with commendable piety did not disturb. The coffin was cleaned out, all returned to its place, and the end sealed up.
Who was St Wite, who (if the relics be really hers) shares with St Edward the Confessor the distinction of still resting in her shrine, undisturbed by the storms of the Protestant Reformation? It is not known, and there are no solid grounds for speculation. It is usually assumed that she was some West Saxon woman of whom all other records have perished. Another suggestion is that when in 929—920 some Bretons fled to England, bringing saints’ relics with them, and King Athelstan gave the relics of some Breton saints to various churches in Wessex, he gave those of a certain St Gwen (i.e. White) Teirbron to Whitchurch, which his grandfather Alfred had founded. Were this surmise true it would raise a fresh problem for who then was the saint in whose honour Alfred’s church was founded? Or did he call it “white” for some other reason
A third suggestion makes St Wite a man (William of Worcester was confused about the saint’s sex), and identifies him with St Witta (Albinus), an Anglo-Saxon monk who died bishop of Buraburg in Hesse C. 760. Local place-names are invoked, connecting the neighbouring St Reyne’s hill and farm with Witta’s contemporary, Reginfred or Reinfred, bishop of Cologne. This theory is based partly on the mistaken idea that Witta and Reginfred were martyred with St Boniface. It is suggested that their bodies were brought home to Wessex for burial.
Though it has been used in support of the Witta theory (cf Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, vol. iii, p. 392), it may not be without other significance that the patronal feast of St Wite’s church was formerly on or about Whitsunday.

The village Whitchurch Canonicorum in Dorset, mentioned in the will of King Alfred as Hwitn Cyrcian, presumably takes its name from St. Wite, and its church is dedicated in her honor (the Latin form "Candida" is not recorded before the sixteenth century). In the north transept of the church is her shrine. On a thirteenth century base with three openings there rests a fourteenth century coffin, covered by a slab of Purbec marble; the whole is plain and without inscription but has always been called locally, the Shrine of the Titular Saint. While repairs to the transept were being carried out in 1900 the coffin was opened at the end, and within, beside odd pieces of bone, teeth, wood and lead, was found a large leaden casket. On it, in twelfth-thirteenth raised letters, was the inscription Hic Reqesct Relique Sce Wite; inside was considerable number of bones, which the finders with commendable piety did not disturb. The coffin was cleaned out, all returned to its place, and the end sealed up.

See William of Worcester’s Itinerary, pp. 90—91 of the 1778 edition Dr Hugh Norris in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological Society, vol. xxxvii (189,), pp. 44—59 a booklet on the church of St Wite by the Rev. E. H. H. Lee (c. 1928) and LBS., vol. iii, pp. 169—171. There is an interesting reference to the relics of “St Vita” in John Gerard’s autobiography, 1951 edn., p. 50.

Who was St. Wite, who (if the relics be really hers) shares with St. Edward the Confessor, the distinction of still resting in her shrine, undisturbed by the storms of the Protestant Reformation? It is not known, and there are no solid grounds for speculation. It is usually assumed that she was some West Saxon woman of whom all other records have perished. Another suggestion is that when in 919-920, some Bretons fled to England, bringing saints' relics with them, and King Athelstan gave the relics of some Breton saints to various churches in Wessex, he gave those of a certain saint Gwen (i.e. White) Teirbron to Whitchurch, which his grandfather Alfred had founded. Were this surmise true, it would raise a fresh problem: for who then was the saint in whose honor Alfred's church was founded? Or did he call it "White" for some other reason?

A third suggestion makes St. White a man (William of Worcester was confused by the saint's sex), and identifies him with St. Witta (Albinus), an Anglo-Saxon monk who died Bishop of Buraburg in Hesse c. 760. Local place names are invoked, connecting the neighboring St. Reyne's hill and farm with Witta's contemporary, Reginfred or Reinfred, Bishop of Cologne. This theory is based partly on the mistaken idea that Witta and Reginfred were martyred with St. Boniface. It is suggested that their bodies were brought home to Wessex for burial.

Though it had been used in support of the Witta theory (cf. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, Vol. III, p. 391), it may not be without other significance that the patronal feast of St. Wite's Church was formally on or about Whitsunday
1095 St Agapitus of the Caves holy Unmercenary Physician was born at Kiev a novice and disciple of St Anthony of the Caves gift of healing
Lived during the eleventh century. If any of the monastic brethren fell ill, St Agapitus came to him and selflessly attended to the sick one. He fed his patient boiled herbs which he himself prepared, and the person recovered through the prayers of the saint. Many laymen also turned to the monastic physician with the gift of healing.

In Kiev at this time was an experienced Armenian physician, who was able to diagnose the nature of the illness and even accurately determine the day of death just by looking at a patient. When one of these doomed patients turned to St Agapitus, the grace-bearing healer gave him some food from the monastery trapeza (dining area), and the patient became well. Enflamed with envy, the physician wanted to poison St Agapitus, but the Lord preserved him, and the poison had no effect.
St Agapitus healed Prince Vladimir Monomakh of Chernigov, the future Great Prince of Kiev (1114-1125), by sending him boiled herbs. The grateful prince went to the monastery and wanted to see his healer, but the humble ascetic hid himself and would not accept gifts.
When the holy healer himself became sick, that same Armenian physician came to him and after examining him, he said that he would die in three days. He swore to became an Orthodox monk if his prediction were not fulfilled. The saint said that the Lord had revealed to him that He would summon him only after three months.
St Agapitus died after three months (on June 1, not later than 1095), and the Armenian went to the igumen of the Caves monastery and received monastic tonsure. "It is certain that Agapitus was a saint of God," he said. "I well knew, that it was impossible for him to last three days in his sickness, but the Lord gave him three months." Thus did the monk heal sickness of the soul and guide to the way of salvation.

17th v. Shio the New The holy monk-martyrs, David, Gabriel and Paul labored in the David-Gareji Wilderness at the end of the 17th century.
Shio Gabriel Paul David
St. Shio was from the village of Vedzisi in the Kartli region. His parents, Papuna and Tamar, were wealthy and highly influential people. They had eight children: five sons and three daughters. After their parents died, Shio’s brothers quarreled so intensely over their inheritance that the eldest brother finally killed the youngest.

Deeply disturbed by this tragedy, blessed Shio sought to withdraw from the vanity of the world—a world in which brother can murder brother and a son can murder his father. Shio confessed his desire to his spiritual father, and he was advised to journey to the David-Gareji Monastery and be tonsured a monk. In fact, the abbot, Fr. Onopre (Machutadze), had invited Shio to the monastery several times before, saying, “Come, brother Shio, and let us finish our lives here.”

With great joy Onopre received Shio, who was already revered by many for his faith and chastity. He directed him to a cell and clothed him as a novice.

Blessed Shio’s tireless labors, humility, and manifest love for his brothers inspired many to seek his counsel. The abbot himself often trusted Shio to administer the affairs of the monastery in his absence.

Once Fr. Onopre departed to attend to some matters outside the monastery, leaving Shio in charge. After Vespers and a meal, the exhausted brothers were settling down to rest when a band of Dagestani robbers suddenly stormed the monastery grounds. They ransacked the monastery and captured Hieromonk Shio and the monks David, Gabriel and Paul and killed them. Some of the brothers who remained tried to flee, but they were caught and brutally slain.

The cells of the David-Gareji Monastery were soaked with blood. Then the Dagestanis, yet unsatisfied, seized and destroyed nearly all the monastery’s property. They stole some of the clerical vestments, and the rest they cut in pieces and tossed in a well. Then they hacked the holy icons to pieces with their axes.

With the blessing of the catholicos and by order of the king, the mutilated relics of the holy martyrs were buried in the courtyard south of the grave of St. David of Gareji.

1617 Bl. Andrew Sushinda Martyr of Japan Japanese layman who sheltered Dominican missionaries, he was martyred at Nagasaki on October 1, 1617.

1619 Bl. Andrew Tokuan Martyr of Japan layman born in Nagasaki.Arrested by authorities and refusing to deny the faith, Andrew was burned alive with Blessed Leonard Kimura on November 18, 1619. Andrew had sheltered missionaries.

1622 Bl. Alexius Martyr of Japan native Japanese a novice of the Dominican Order in Japan
On September 10, 1622, he was burned alive at Nagasaki.

1622 Bl. Alphonsus de Mena Dominican martyr of Japan born in Logrono in Spain Dominican Order at Salamanca
A nephew of Blessed Peter Navarrete, Alphonsus accompanied him to Japan where he worked in the Dominican missions. On September 10, 1622 Alphonsus was burned alive by the Japanese in a group of martyrs, led by Blessed Charles Spinola at Nagasaki.


230 St. Thespesius martyr His name is Latin for "wondrous one"
In Cappadócia sancti Thespésii Mártyris, qui, sub Alexándro Imperatóre et Simplício Præfécto, post ália torménta, decollátus est.
    In Cappadocia, in the time of Emperor Alexander and the prefect Simplicius, the holy martyr Thespesius, who, after undergoing many torments, was beheaded.
He died during the persecutions of Emperor Severus Alexander
250 SS. Ischyrion Chaeromon Bishop of Nilopolis Egypt and other martyrs see Dec 22
In Ægypto sanctórum Mártyrum Ischyriónis, ductóris mílitum, et aliórum quinque mílitum; qui, sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre, pro fide Christi, divérso mortis génere perémpti sunt.
    In Egypt, under Emperor Diocletian, the holy martyrs Ischyrion, a military officer, and five other soldiers, who were put to death in various ways for the faith of Christ.
When the persecution was instituted by Emperor Trajanus Decius, Chaeromon was quite elderly. He and several companions fled into the Arabian desert and were never seen again. The bishop and his companions are listed as martyrs.

St Dionysius of Alexandria in his letter to Fabian of Antioch, speaking of the Egyptian Christians who suffered in the persecution under Decius, refers to the many who were driven or fled into the desert, where they perished from hunger, thirst and exposure, by wild beasts and by men as wild many also were seized and sold into slavery, of which only some had been ransomed at the time he wrote. He singles out for mention by name Chaeremon, a very old man and bishop of Nilopolis, who with one companion had taken refuge in the mountains of Arabia and had never been seen or heard of again search was made by the brethren but not even their bodies were found. St Dionysius also mentions Ischyrion, who was the procurator of a magistrate in some city of Egypt, traditionally Alexandria. His master ordered him to sacrifice to the gods, but he refused and neither abuse nor threats could move him. So the enraged magistrate had him mutilated and impaled. Both these martyrs are named in the Roman Martyrology today.
These again are martyrs whose names are only rescued from oblivion by an extract that Eusebius (bk vi, ch. 42) made from a letter of St Dionysius of Alexandria.
272 SS. Reverian, Bishop and Comp., MM. at Autun
Augustodúni sanctórum Reveriáni Epíscopi, et Pauli Presbyteri, cum áliis decem, qui, sub Aureliáno Príncipe, martyrio coronáti sunt.
    At Autun, the Saints Reverian, bishop, and Paul, a priest, along with ten others, who were crowned with martyrdom under Emperor Aurelian.

290 St. Firmus & Rusticus Martyrs of Bergamo, in Lombardy, Italy, supposedly related to each other and prominent citizens of that city. They died in Verona.
Verónæ sanctórum Mártyrum Firmi et Rústici, qui, témpore Maximiáni Imperatóris, sub Anolíno Júdice, cum sacrificáre idólis renuérunt et constánter in Christi fide persísterent, ambo jussi sunt, post ália superáta supplícia, fústibus cædi et cápite amputári.
    At Verona, the holy martyrs Firmus and Rusticus.  When they refused to sacrifice to idols and remained constant in confessing Christ, after they had overcome many other torments, they were condemned to be scourged and beheaded by Anolinus, a judge, during the reign of Emperor Maximian.


Firmus and Rusticus MM (RM). The stories that have come down to us about these kinsmen are unreliable. It is said that they were prominent citizens of Bergamo, who were martyred at Verona under Maximian. It is possible that the relics of two African martyrs of these names were translated to Verona and appropriate stories developed to make them local heroes (Benedictines)
.
304 542 ST PROCULUS, “THE SOLDIER “, AND ST PROCULUS, BISHOP OF BOLOGNA, MARTYRS: in 1584 Pope Gregory XIII sanctioned the keeping, on June 1, of an annual feast in honour of the translation.
Bonóniæ sancti Próculi Mártyris, qui sub Maximiáno Imperatóre passus est.
    At Bologna, St. Proculus, martyr, who suffered under Emperor Maximian.

POPULAR veneration to the “soldier”, St Proculus of Bologna, goes back to a very early date, and he was formerly regarded as the principal patron of that city. He suffered martyrdom for the faith—probably about the year 304. According to one tradition he was beheaded, but St Paulinus of Nola, in one of his poems, states that he was crucified. He is generally held to have been an officer in Diocletian’s army, and to have suffered under Diocletian’s colleague Maximian. Nothing, however, is actually known of his history.

Nearly two hundred and fifty years after the death of the “soldier” saint, a second Proculus was martyred in Bologna. He was a native of the town, who was raised to the bishopric in 540. Two years later he was put to death, with numerous other Catholics, by order of Totila the Goth. When the Benedictines at the end of the fourteenth century built a church upon the site of the subterranean chapel of St Sixtus, their Abbot John caused the relics of the two saints to be translated to the new basilica, which received the name of St Proculus, or San Proclo. Both bodies were placed in the same tomb, in 1536 they were enshrined anew, and in 1584 Pope Gregory XIII sanctioned the keeping, on June I, of an annual feast in honour of the translation.
The cultus of St Proculus spread to other Italian cities, and Father Delehaye suggests that St Proculus of Pozzuoli and St Proculus of Ravenna may perhaps be identified with St Proculus the soldier-saint of Bologna, while St Proculus, bishop of Terni, who is said also to have been put to death by King Totila, may quite possibly be none other than St Proculus, bishop of Bologna.

In the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, will be found collected what little information is obtainable regarding these saints, and the matter is treated still more at length in the preliminary dissertation to the first volume for July (see pp. 47—65 in the original edition of 1719). Delehaye deals with the question in his Origines du Culte des Martyrs, pp. 300—301, 316, 328, and also in his CMH., pp. 482, 563.
309 ST PAMPHILUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS a man of remarkable sanctity and learning, and great charity to the poor
Cæsaréæ, in Palæstína, beáti Pámphili, Presbyteri et Mártyris, viri admirándæ sanctitátis et doctrínæ, atque in páuperes munífici; qui, ob Christi fidem, in persecutióne Galérii Maximiáni, primum, sub Urbáno Præside, cruciátus et in cárcerem trusus, deínde, sub Firmiliáno, íterum revocátus ad pœnas, una cum áliis martyrium consummávit.  Passi sunt étiam tunc Valens Diáconus, et Paulus, aliíque novem; quorum memória áliis diébus celebrátur.
    At Caesarea in Palestine, blessed Pamphilus, priest and martyr, a man of remarkable sanctity and learning, and great charity to the poor.  In the persecution of Galerius Maximian, he was tortured for the faith of Christ, under Governor Urbanus, and thrown into prison.  Later he was again subjected to torments under Firmilian, and he completed his martyrdom with others.  At the same time, there suffered Valens, a deacon, and Paul, and nine others, whose commemoration occurs on other days.
IN the section of his Ecclesiastical History devoted to the Palestinian confessors, Eusebius describes his master Pamphilus as “the most illustrious martyr of his day for philosophical learning and for every virtue”. This is not mere conventional panegyric. There is an unmistakable note of sincerity in the phrases which the historian uses when he speaks of “my lord Pamphilus”, for he adds, “it is not meet that I should mention the name of that holy and blessed man without entitling him ‘my lord’”. In grateful veneration he had himself assumed what he calls “that name thrice dear to me”, styling himself Eusebius Pamphili, and he had written his hero’s biography in three volumes which were known to St Jerome but which are now no longer extant. Pamphilus, who came of a rich and honourable family, was born at Berytus (Bairut) in Phoenicia. After distinguishing himself in all branches of secular knowledge in his native city, itself renowned as a centre of learning, he went to Alexandria where he studied in the great catechetical school and came under the influence of Origen’s disciple Pierius. The remainder of his life was spent at Caesarea, at that time the capital city of Palestine. There he was ordained priest; there also he collected a splendid library which survived until the seventh century, when it was destroyed by the Arabs. He was the greatest biblical scholar of his age, and the founder of a school of sacred literature. With infinite pains and after examining and correcting many manuscripts he produced a more correct version of the Holy Scriptures than any of those then current.
This he transcribed with his own hand, and disseminated by means of copies made in his school which he bestowed upon worthy recipients, in many cases gratis—for, besides being the most generous of men, he was always anxious to encourage sacred study. An indefatigable worker, he lived a most austere, self-denying life and was remarkable for his humility. He treated his slaves and dependants as brothers and distributed to his relatives, his friends and the poor the wealth which came to him from his father. So exemplary a life found a fitting culmination in a martyr’s death. In the year 308 Urban, the governor of Palestine, caused him to be apprehended, cruelly tortured and imprisoned for refusing to sacrifice to the gods. During his captivity he collaborated with Eusebius, who may have been his fellow prisoner, in writing an Apology for Origen, whose works he had greatly admired and had copied. Two years after his arrest, he was brought before Firmilian, the successor of Urban, for examination and judgement, together with Paul of Jamnia, a man of great fervour, and Valens, an aged deacon of Jerusalem, who was credited with having committed the whole of the Bible to memory. Finding them staunch in the faith, Firmilian passed upon them the sentence of death. As soon as the verdict had been pronounced, Porphyrius, a gifted young scholar whom Pamphilus had cherished as a son, boldly asked the judge for permission to bury his master’s body.
Firmilian inquired if he were also a Christian, and upon receiving an answer in the affirmative directed that he should be delivered to the torturers. Although his flesh was torn to the bone and his vital organs were exposed, the youth never uttered a groan. He ended his martyrdom by slow fire, invoking the name of Jesus. After him a Cappadocian named Seleucus, who brought news of the triumph of Porphyrius and applauded his constancy, was condemned to be decapitated with the rest. So infuriated was the tyrant that even his own household was not spared for, having been informed that his favourite servant, the aged Theodulus, was a Christian and had embraced one of the martyrs, he had him crucified forthwith. That same evening, for a similar offence, a catechumen named Julian was burnt at a slow fire. The other confessors, Pamphilus, Paul, Valens and Seleucus, were beheaded. Their bodies, which were thrown out but left untouched by the wild beasts, were afterwards rescued and buried by the Christians.
The principal source is Eusebius, De Martyribus Palaestinae. The Greek text of the later and fuller recension was first edited in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xvi (1897), pp. 113—139; but cf. also vol. xxv (1906), pp. 449—502. See also Violet, in Texte und Unter­suchungen, vol. xiv, part 4 (1895) Harnack and Preuschen, Altchrist. Literatur geschichte, vol. i, pp. 543—550, and ii, pp. 103—105 DCB., vol. iv, pp. 178—179. Pamphilus is com­memorated both in the early Syriac Breviarium and in the Hieronymianum (pp. 100—101, in Delehaye’s commentary). The proper day is February 16, and as the two years’ imprison­ment spoken of by Eusebius would not have expired in 309, some authorities assign the martyrdom to the following year, but Harnack and others hold fast to 309. Compare also Bardenhewer, Altkirchliche Literatur, vol. ii, pp. 287—292.
430 ST CAPRASIUS, OR CAPRAIS sanctity was extolled by St Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, and by St Hilary of Arles
In monastério Lirinénsi, in Gállia, sancti Caprásii Abbátis.   In the monastery of Lerins, the abbot St. Caprasius.

THE spiritual master and guide of St Honoratus of Lerins was a gifted and learned man named Caprasius, who had given up great worldly prospects to lead the life of a solitary in Provence. Honoratus and his brother Venantius, then very young men, were amongst those who visited him, to learn from him the way of perfection. Becoming convinced that they were called, like Abraham, to abandon their home and country, they resolved to go to the East, and Caprasius consented to accompany them. They accordingly set forth, but their health was seriously affected by the hardships and privations they had to bear. At Modon in Greece, Venantius succumbed, and after his death his companions returned to Gaul. In the deserted island of Lerins they embarked upon a mode of life which rivalled that of the fathers in the desert. Disciples came, and for them St Honoratus founded the monastery and rule which afterwards became famous throughout Christendom. St Caprasius is commonly reckoned among the abbots of Lerins-presumably because he continued to be the director of St Honoratus, and thus indirectly of the community. He does not seem actually ever to have been superior, for St Honoratus, the first ruler, was succeeded by St Maximus, who was still abbot when St Caprasius died in 430. His sanctity was extolled by St Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, and by St Hilary of Arles who had been present at his deathbed and who, in a panegyric he delivered on St Honoratus, spoke of St Caprasius as being already a saint in Heaven.
 St Caprasius has already been mentioned in the account given of St Honoratus (January 16). All we know about him is derived from the laudatio of St Hilary of ArIes; but see the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i; H. Moris, L'Abbaye de Lerins (1909); A. C. CooperMarsdin, History of the Islands of the Lerins (1913).
849 ST WISTAN wonderful manifestation with which God continued to honour the martyr
ST WISTAN is named in a calendar of the medieval abbey of Evesham, where he was eventually buried. He was a grandson of King Wiglaf of Mercia, and according to the Evesham tradition was assassinated for opposing marriage between his godfather and his widowed mother on account of their spiritual relationship. But others allege dynastic reasons.
A very extravagant miracle was believed to take place every year at Wistanstow in Shropshire on the spot where he was murdered. Immediately after his death, a shaft of light penetrating to the heavens was observed for thirty days to proceed from the place where he had been struck down. But more wonderful still, on every first day of June for centuries afterwards a crop of human hair, in commemoration apparently of the manner in which the martyr had been scalped, grew up among the grass surrounding the spot. It was visible for an hour only, and then disappeared. The case is interesting because we have what purports to be a contemporary account of the verification of the miracle. Thomas Marleberge, abbot of Evesham and reputed a man of credit, reports that Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, wishing to know the truth, sent two deputies to Wistanstow, Paul, abbot of Leicester, and a relative of his own who was prior of Kirkby. They waited there three days with fasting and prayer, and after this they saw the hair, felt it with their hands and kissed it. This they reported to the archbishop of Canterbury and his clergy, who made great rejoicings over the wonderful manifestation with which God continued to honour the martyr!
The principal source available is the short legend just quoted, written at the beginning of the thirteenth century by Thomas Marleberge. The" martyr's" body was at Evesham, having been transferred thither from Repton at the command of King Canute. The text is printed in the Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, in the Rolls Series, pp. 325-337. A somewhat earlier notice is provided by William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum (Rolls Series), pp. 297-298, and by Florence of Worcester, s.a. 850. See also the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, and an important paper by D. J. Bott, “The Murder of St Wistan ", in Transactions of the Leicestershire Arch. Soc., vol. xxix (1953).
1035 ST SIMEON OF SYRACUSE spent two years as a solitary in a little cave near the Red Sea; long before his death, he was venerated as a saint and a wonder-worker
Tréviris sancti Simeónis Mónachi, qui a Benedícto Papa Nono in Sanctórum númerum relátus est.
    At Treves, St. Simeon, a monk, whom Pope Benedict IX numbered among the saints.
THE history of St Simeon reads like a tale of adventure, but it rests on excellent authority, for it was written within a short time of his death by his friend Eberwin, abbot of Tholey and St Martin's at Trier, at the request of Poppo, archbishop or· Trier, who was engaged in promoting his cause at Rome.
   St Simeon was born at Syracuse in Sicily, of a Greek father, who took him when he was seven to Constantinople to be educated. Upon reaching manhood he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he decided to settle. At first he lived with a hermit by the Jordan; then he took the monastic habit at Bethlehem, and from thence he passed to a monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. With the abbot's permission, he spent two years as a solitary in a little cave near the Red Sea, and later on he withdrew for some time to a hermitage on the top of Mount Sinai. After his return to the monastery he was charged with a task which he accepted very reluctantly. He was to go with another monk to Normandy to collect from Duke Richard II a promised tribute urgently needed for the support of the community. They set out, but their ship was captured by pirates, who murdered the passengers as well as the crew. Simeon jumped into the sea and swam to shore. On foot he made his way to Antioch. There he met Richard, abbot of Verdun, and Eberwin, abbot of St Martin's, both on the way home from Palestine; a warm friendship ensued and they agreed to travel together.
At Belgrade, however, they had to separate, for Simeon and a monk called Cosmas, who had joined him at Antioch, were arrested by the governor, who would not suffer them to proceed with the French pilgrims. As soon as they were set free, the two religious attempted to retrace their steps in the direction of the sea, encountering robbers and many other perils before they succeeded in finding a ship which took them safely to Italy. From Rome they passed to the south of France, where Cosmas died. Simeon made his way alone to Rouen-only to discover that Duke Richard was dead and that his successor refused to continue the tribute. Loth to go back to the monastery empty-handed, Simeon went to visit Abbot Richard of Verdun, and Abbot Eberwin of Trier. Here he became acquainted with Archbishop Poppo, who persuaded him to accompany him as his guest and companion on a pilgrimage to Palestine. Doubtless the prelate foresaw in him an admirable cicerone.
   After their return to Trier, St Simeon felt once more the call to a solitary life. He chose for his retreat a tower near the Porta Nigra-afterwards known as St Simeon's Gate-and the archbishop carried out the enclosure. The rest of the saint's life was spent in prayer, penance and contemplation, though he had to endure assaults from the Devil and from men. The rumour that he was a magician practising the black art led the populace at one time to attack his tower with stones and missiles; but, long before his death, he was venerated as a saint and a wonder-worker. His eyes were closed by Abbot Eberwin, and his funeral was attended by the entire population. He was raised to the altars of the Church seven years after his death, being the second recorded solemn papal canonization if we regard that of St Ulric, bishop of Augsburg, as having been the first.

1057 ST ENECO, OR INIGO, ABBOT a great reputation for austerity and the working of miracles deeply lamented even by Jews and Moors; hermit then monk at San Juan de Pena elected Prior drawn to both the contemplative and the eremitical life
In monastério Onniénsi, apud Burgos, in Hispánia, sancti Enecónis, Abbátis Benedictíni, ob sanctitátis et miraculórum glóriam illústris.
    At Burgos in Spain, in the monastery of Onia, St. Eneco, Benedictine abbot, made illustrious by his sanctity and miracles.
ABOUT the year 1010 Sancho, Count of Castile, founded a religious house at Oña, which he placed under the rule of his daughter Tigrida, who is venerated as a saint. It was probably a double monastery, but we only hear about the nuns. It seems that after a time they fell into lax observance and King Sancho the Great determined to restore discipline in his father-in-law's foundation. He was an ardent supporter of the Cluniac reform, which he had introduced into his dominions. From the abbey of San Juan de Peña, the first monastery to accept the revised rule, he drafted monks to Oña to replace the nuns, about the year 1029. Over them he appointed a disciple of St Odilo's called Garcia who, however, died before he had consolidated his work. It was therefore essential that a suitable successor, should be found. There was living at the time in the mountains of Aragon a saintly hermit named Eneco, or Iñigo, who had a great reputation for austerity and the working of miracles. Said to have been a native of Calatayud in the province of Bilbao, he had taken the habit at San Juan de Peña, According to one account he had risen to be prior, when the call came to him to resume the solitary life which he had practised in his pre-monastic days. King Sancho decided that he had all the necessary qualifications, but the efforts he made through envoys to induce Eneco to leave his retreat were unavailing. Only when he himself visited the saint did he succeed in persuading him to take up the charge.
The choice proved an excellent one. The abbey under his government increased rapidly in sanctity as well as in numbers and Sancho, well pleased by these results, showered gifts and privileges upon this favoured foundation. St Eneco's influence extended far beyond the walls of the monastery. He made peace between communities and individuals who had long been at bitter variance and he tamed men of violent passions. When a severe drought threatened a total failure of the crops, St Eneco prayed, and rain fell in abundance. On another occasion he is said to have fed a great multitude with three loaves. He was two leagues from the abbey when he was seized with the malady which was to prove fatal. He was carried home, and upon his arrival he asked that refreshment should be given to the boys who had escorted the party with torches. As no one else had seen the boys, it was concluded that they must have been angels. He passed away on June I, 1057, deeply lamented even by Jews and Moors. St Eneco seems to have been canonized by Pope Alexander III about a century later.
There is a short Latin life of St Eneco which has been printed by Mabillon and by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, but by far the most reliable information concerning him is that furnished by Fr Fidel Fita, in two contributions to the Boletin de la real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, vol. xxvii (1895), pp. 76-136, and vol. xxxviii (1901), pp. 206-213. In these articles we find evidence of a full liturgical cultus at an early date.
1057 Inigo, also known as Eneco
Born in the eleventh century, was a native of Bilbao, Spain. Early in his life he became a hermit. Next he went to Aragon where he became a monk at San Juan de Pena, and eventually he was elected Prior.
When his term was completed, Inigo again took up the life of a hermit in the Aragon mountains. However, in 1029, King Sancho the Great convinced Inigo to become Abbot of a group of monks in a monastery at Ona. The monastery, founded by Sancho's father-in-law, was in need of reform, and he wanted Inigo to lead the process. Inigo was very successful in the reform movement, and he developed a reputation as a peacemaker. Moreover, some attributed miracles to his intercession.
He died at Ona on June 1, 1057, and was canonized by Pope Alexander IV in 1259. St. Inigo from his earliest years was drawn to both the contemplative and the eremitical life. A man of God, he was able to bring peace and harmony to the monastery at Ona, and he won over others to the reasonableness and satisfaction of leading the monastic life to its fullest. What is more, the good example of the monks helped the people who lived in the area to become convinced of the beauty and satisfaction of a life lived in God's presence and love.
The Latin biography by Abbot Eberwin has been printed by Mabillon and by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i. Consult also Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. iii, and Levison's contribution on Tholey in the Historische Aufsätze Aloys Schulte gewidmet (1927). There is also some discussion of his relics and other memorials at Trier, in E. Beitz, Deutsche Kunstfiihrer an Rhein und Mosel, vol. ix (1928). For Simeon's canonization, see E. W. Kemp, Canonization and Authority (1948), pp. 60-61. See also an important paper by Fr Maurice Coens in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxviii (1950), pp. 181-196. See also Florez, España Sagrada, vol. xxvii, pp. 284-350. There is some obscurity regarding the manner and time of the canonization, but it is certain that in 1259 Pope Alexander IV granted an indulgence to those who visited the church of Oña "on the feast of Blessed Eneco, confessor, formerly abbot of the said monastery" ; see further E. W. Kemp, Canonization and Authority (1948), pp. 83-85. It would seem to have been out of devotion to the organizing genius who made Oña famous that St Ignatius Loyola received in baptism the name of Iñigo. Several early signatures of his are preserved in this form. See the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. Iii (1934), p. 448, and vol. lxix (1951), pp. 295-301.
1150 ST THEOBALD OF ALBA A number of miracles are reported to have taken place at his tomb and led to a great development of his cultus.
HONOURED throughout Piedmont as the patron of cobblers and porters, St Theobald Roggeri is specially venerated at his birthplace, Vico, near Mondovi, and at Alba, where he spent the greater part of his life. His parents were well-to-do people who gave him a good education, but the respect in which his family was held seemed to Theobald incompatible with the lowly estate to which a Christian is called. Forsaking his home, he went to Alba, where he placed himself under a shoemaker to learn the trade. So reliable and proficient did he prove himself that his master on his death-bed suggested his marrying the daughter of the house and taking over the business. Not wishing to grieve an old man whose days were numbered, Theobald returned an evasive answer. He had, however, vowed himself to celibacy and, as soon as his master was buried, he took leave of the widow to whom he handed all his earnings for distribution to the poor. Penniless, he then set forth on a pilgrimage to Compostela. Upon his return to Alba, instead of resuming his trade, he hired himself out to carry sacks of corn and other merchandise. As he made his way through the streets and alleys he came into contact with sufferers of all kinds, to whom he proved a ministering angel; two-thirds of his earnings he always gave to the poor. In spite of the strenuous character of his work he undertook severe fasts and practised other austerities. Until the day of his death he took his rest upon the bare ground. To expiate a malediction he had uttered under provocation, he undertook for the remainder of his life to sweep out the cathedral church of St Laurence and tend the lamps. A number of miracles are reported to have taken place at his tomb and led to a great development of his cultus.
In spite of a still surviving veneration in the diocese of Alba, it must be confessed that we have no reliable materials for the life of St Theobald. The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, were reduced to the necessity of printing a Latin translation of an account compiled in Italian as late as 1626 by D. Passoni. He professed to have had access to authentic documents, but as these in some mysterious way perished in that very year or shortly afterwards, it is impossible not to regard his narrative with considerable suspicion. There are a number of small devotional booklets of more recent date, but they all depend for their facts upon the story as told by Passoni.
1304 BD JOHN PELINGOTTO a Franciscan tertiary life of prayer and austerity; obedience to a call to serve our Lord in His suffering members; he went about tending the sick and seeking out the destitute poor to whom he gave the greater portion of his own food and the clothes off his back
JOHN PELINGOTTO was the son of a prosperous merchant of Urbino, but he himself from childhood cared nothing for the things of this world. He became a Franciscan tertiary and would have retired into a hermitage had it not been for the determined opposition of his parents; out of regard for their wishes he remained at home, where he lived a life of prayer and austerity. For a time he shut himself up and never went out except to church. Then, in obedience to a call to serve our Lord in His suffering members, he emerged from his retreat. During the rest of his life he went about tending the sick and seeking out the destitute poor to whom he gave the greater portion of his own food and the clothes off his back. To the mortification of his family he would sally forth in a garment made of sacking and old pieces. Regarding himself as the vilest of creatures he used odd means of attracting the contempt of his fellow men. Once on Passion Sunday he went to the cathedral with a rope tied round his neck, like a criminal, but, as he knelt in prayer in the Lady chapel he fell iiIto an ecstasy which lasted many hours, and from which he was roused with difficulty. On another occasion, when it was bitterly cold, he made his way to the market-place and spent the day amid a crowd of beggars and rogues, exposed to public derision, until at last, more dead than alive, he was discovered and rescued by his parents. In spite of all his efforts, John came to be venerated in his own city as a holy man who was also a prophet and a wonder-worker, and when, four years before his death, he went to Rome for the jubilee with two fellow tertiaries, he was saluted by a complete stranger as "the saint from Urbino".
There is a life by a contemporary, which has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i; but see also the Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum for 1918 and 1919, and Wadding, Annales Ord. Min., vol. vi, pp. 38-42. The cultus of Bd John Pelingotto was confirmed in 1918. The official decree, which contains a biographical summary, will be found in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. x (1918), pp. 513-516.
1451 BD HERCULANUS OF PIEGARO Franciscan; extraordinary powers in winning souls to God. Wherever he went he spoke of the sufferings of our Lord, frequently by his eloquence reducing his hearers to tears, and by his personal holiness inspiring them to reform their lives; he urged penance on others he set the example himself by his own great austerity.
ONE of the foremost preachers of the fifteenth century was Bd Herculanus, a native of Piegaro in Emilia. He entered the Franciscan convent of the strict observance at Sarteano, and for a time led a life of retirement and prayer. After his ordination, however, he was sent forth to preach, and at once displayed extraordinary powers in winning souls to God. Wherever he went he spoke of the sufferings of our Lord, frequently by his eloquence reducing his hearers to tears, and by his personal holiness inspiring them to reform their lives. At Lucca, he was preaching during Lent whilst the city was being besieged by the Florentines. When provisions began to fail and the inhabitants contemplated surrender, Bd Herculanus bade them hold out, promising them relief after Easter if they would do penance and reform their lives. His prophecy was fulfilled; the Florentines raised the siege and the city was delivered. If he urged penance on others he set the example himself by his own great austerity. He would go without food for days, and when he ate, i.e confined himself to a little bread and vegetables. He died in the convent at Castronovo, which he himself had founded, in Tuscany. Five years after his death his body was found to be incorrupt, although it had been buried in a damp place. Pope Pius IX beatified the holy friar in 1860.
There is a short notice of Bd Herculanus in the Acta Sanctorum in vol. vi, May; and a fuller account in the Analecta Juris Pontificii, vol. v (1861), pp. 134-139. All our information seems to be derived from the chronicle of Mariano of Florence, from whom S. Razzi, Luke Wadding, and other later writers have borrowed. See also Leon, Aureole Seraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 297-300.
Juventius Reverian, bishop, and Paul, priest, with ten others Pamphilus, priest and martyr St. Thespesius, martyr sychrion, an army general, and five other soldiers St. Firmus, martyr Felinus and Gratinian, soldiers St. Proculus, martyr St. Secundus, martyr St. Crescentia, a Roman soldier, St. Carassius, abbot. St. Eneco, a Benedictine abbot St. Fortunatus, priest St. Simeon, monk
The First Day of June http://www.domcentral.org/life/martyr06.htm#0601
At Rome, St. Juventius, martyr.
At Autun, SS. Reverian, bishop, and Paul, priest, with ten others, who were crowned with martyrdom under the Emperor Aurelian.
At Caesarea in Palestine, St. Pamphilus, priest and martyr, a man of admirable holiness, learning, and bounty to the poor. In the persecution of Galerius Maximian, under the governor Urban, Pamphilus was tortured and cast into prison because of his Christian religion. Under Firmilian, he was again subjected to torture, and in company with others suffered martyrdom. At that time, there suffered also Valens, deacon, Paul, and nine others, but their remembrance is kept on other days.
In Cappadocia, St. Thespesius, martyr. Under the Emperor Alexander and the prefect Simplicius, he was tortured and then beheaded.
In Egypt, the holy martyrs Isychrion, an army general, and five other soldiers. They were slain for their faith by different kinds of death in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian.
Likewise, St. Firmus, martyr. In the persecution of Maximian, he was subjected to a most vicious scourging, struck with stones, and at last beheaded.
At Perugia, the holy martyrs Felinus and Gratinian, soldiers. They were subjected to various tortures under Decius, and obtained by a glorious death the palm of martyrdom.
At Bologna, St. Proculus, martyr, who suffered under the Emperor Maximian.
At Amelia in Umbria, St. Secundus, martyr who, at the time of Diocletian, was cast into the Tiber, and so suffered martyrdom.
At Tifernum in Umbria, St. Crescentia, a Roman soldier, crowned with martyrdom under the same Emperor.
In the monastery of Laurence in Gaul, St. Carassius, abbot.
In the monastery of Onia at Burgos in Spain, St. Eneco, a Benedictine abbot, noted for holiness and the glory of miracles.
At Montefalco in Umbria, St. Fortunatus, priest, famed for virtue and miracles.
At Treves, St. Simeon, monk, who was numbered among the saints by Pope Benedict IX.

1540  Angela of Merici while praying before a crucifix, her sight was restored at the same place where it had been lost
Sanctæ Angelæ Meríci Vírginis, ex tértio Ordine sancti Francísci; quæ fuit Institútrix Societátis Vírginum sanctæ Ursulæ, et ad accipiéndam corónam immarcescíbilem, sexto Kaléndas Februárii a cælésti Sponso vocáta est.
1540 
St. Angela Merici, virgin of the Third Order of St. Francis.  She was the foundress of the Nuns of St. Ursula, and was called by her heavenly Spouse on the 27th of January in order to receive an incorruptible crown.

1540 ST ANGELA MERICI, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE COMPANY OF ST URSULA (Transferred to June 1)
THE foundress of the Ursulines-—the first teaching order of women to be established in the Church—was born on March 21, 1470 or 1474, at the little town of Desenzano, on the south-western shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy. She received a good early training from her parents, a pious couple not overburdened with this world’s goods. They both died when Angela was ten years old, leaving their two daughters and a son to the care of a well-to-do uncle living at Salo. The death of her elder sister came as a great shock to Angela when she was thirteen. To her natural grief at being separated from one who was almost a second self was added apprehension as to her actual condition; for the young girl, although she had lived an almost angelic life, had passed away before she could receive the last sacraments. Angela’s first vision—she was to have many in after years—seems to have been granted to her at this time, in order to set her mind completely at rest as to her sister’s salvation. In overflowing gratitude she consecrated herself more completely to God and soon afterwards was admitted as a Franciscan tertiary. Her life became one of extreme austerity. Striving to emulate St Francis, she wished to possess nothing of her own—not even a bed— and lived almost entirely on bread, water and a few vegetables.
After the death of her uncle when she was about twenty-two, Angela returned to Desenzano. There, as she went about amongst her neighbours, she was appalled by the ignorance which prevailed amongst the poorer children whose parents could not or would not teach them the simplest elements of religion. Gradually it was borne in upon her that she was called to do something to remedy this state of things, and she talked the matter over with her friends. They were mostly fellow tertiaries or young women of her own class with little money and less influence, but they were eager to help her if she would show them the way. Though very small of stature, Angela had all the necessary qualifications for leadership, including charm of manner and good looks. At her suggestion they set to work to gather together the little girls or the neighbourhood, to whom they gave regular and systematic instruction. The work so humbly begun prospered and developed. Angela was invited to go to Brescia to begin a similar school in that city. She consented, and was cordially welcomed into the household of a noble couple whom she had consoled when they were in distress. Through her hosts she was brought into touch with the leading families of Brescia and became the centre of a circle of devout women and men whom she inspired with her great ideals. From time to time we find her making pilgrimages to various shrines. Thus she visited the tomb of Bd Osanna at Mantua and eagerly seized an opportunity which presented itself of going to the Holy Land with a young relative, sailing under the protection of Antonio de Romanis, an elderly merchant. They had travelled as far as Crete on the outward journey when St Angela was suddenly overtaken with complete blindness. Her companions proposed abandoning their purpose, but she would not hear of their doing so. With them she visited the holy places in Palestine with as much devotion as if she could have beheld them with her bodily eyes. On the return journey, as she was praying before a crucifix, her sight was restored in the very place where she had lost it a few weeks previously.
In the holy year of 1525 Angela went to Rome to obtain the jubilee indulgence, and had the privilege of at least one private audience with the pope. Clement VII suggested that she should stay in Rome to take charge of a congregation of nursing sisters, but a sense of her true vocation as well as a shrinking from publicity led her to decline the offer. She accordingly returned to Brescia from whence, however, she was soon obliged to withdraw, for war had broken out again in Italy, and when Charles V was on the point of making himself master of Brescia it became essential that as many non-combatants as possible should leave the city. St Angela with some of her friends went to Cremona, where they remained until peace was concluded. Their return to Brescia was greeted with joy by the citizens who, besides appreciating her charity, venerated her as a prophetess and a saint. We read that as she was assisting at Mass shortly afterwards she fell into a prolonged ecstasy and was seen by a great number of persons to be upraised from the ground.
Years earlier, as a young woman at Desenzano, St Angela had seen in a vision a concourse of maidens ascending to Heaven on a ladder of light and a voice had said: “Take heart, Angela: before you die you will found at Brescia a company of maidens similar to those you have just seen”. And now the time was at hand for the fulfilment of that prophecy. About the year 1533 she seems to have begun to train a select few of her companions in a kind of informal noviciate. Twelve of them came to live with her in a house she took near the church of St Afra, but the greater number continued to live with parents or other relations. Two years later twenty-eight young women consecrated themselves with her to the service of God. She placed them under the protection of St Ursula, the patroness of medieval universities who was popularly venerated as a leader of women: hence the name of Ursulines which her daughters have always borne. This date—November 25, 1535—is reckoned as that of the foundation of the Ursuline Order. It was, however, during the lifetime of its foundress more in the nature of an association; no habit was worn, although a black dress was recommended; no vows were taken, and the sisters were not enclosed, nor did they lead a community life. They met together for classes and worship, carried out such duties as were allotted to them, and lived a holy life in the midst of their families. The idea of a teaching order of women was so novel that time was required in which to let it develop.
Yet, although many changes and modifications have taken place, the Ursulines from the period of their foundation until the present day have never lost sight of the object for which they were instituted—the religious education of girls, especially of the poorer classes. At the first election St Angela was unanimously chosen superioress, and she continued to fill that office for the last five years of her life. She was taken ill early in January 1540 and died on the twenty-seventh of the same month. In 1544 Pope Paul III issued a bull confirming the Company of St Ursula and declaring it to be a recognized congregation, and in 1807 its foundress was canonized.

The sources for the history of St Angela are very fully set out in English in the pains­taking work of Sister M. Monica, Angela Merici and Her Teaching Idea (1927). The saint’s rule, her “testament”, and her counsels were taken down in writing by her secretary, the priest Cozzano. The first sketch of her life was compiled by a notary, G. B. Nazari, in 1560 and is printed as an appendix to the volume of Giuditta Bertolotti, Storia di S. Angela Merici (1923). The earliest printed biography seems to have been that of Ottavio Gondi (1600), but it is full of legendary material that of Carlo Doneda, compiled with a view to the process of canonization, appeared in 1768, and owing to its relatively critical treatment is more reliable. See the work of the Abbe Postel (1878), in two volumes, that of W. E. Hubert in German, and that entitled Sainte Angele Merici et l’Ordre des Ursulines (2 vols., 1922) also M. Aron’s Les Ursulines (1937), and G. Bernoville’s biography (1947). There is an earlier life in English by Bernard O’Reilly, St Angela Merici and the Ursulines (1880) and a recent popular work by Mother Francis, St Angela of the Ursulines. Sister M. Monica’s book is no doubt the least unsatisfactory, but it must be confessed that the appendix on St Ursula, which appeals to .J. H. Kessel’s monograph published in 1863 as a reliable authority on the problem of the 11,000 virgins, is not a little disconcerting. A reference to the article “Ursula” in the Catholic Encyclopedia would have been more to the point (cf. October a, herein).

ANGELA MERICI 

Also known as Angela of Merici, Angela de Marici Memorial 27 January
Profile Franciscan tertiary at age 15. She received a vision telling her she would inspire devout women in their vocation.

In Crete, during a pilgrimage to Holy Land, she was struck blind. Her friends wanted to return home, but she insisted on going on, visiting the shrines with as much devotion and enthusiasm as if she had her sight. On the way home, while praying before a crucifix, her sight was restored at the same place where it had been lost.
In 1535 she gathered a group of girl students and began what would become the Institute of Saint Ursula (the Ursuline Sisters), founded to teach children, beginning with religion and later expanding into secular topics; her first schools were in Desenazno and Brescia.
Born 21 March 1474 at Desenzano, Lake Garda, Italy Died 24 January 1540 at Brescia, Italy; relics in the church of Saint Afra, Brescia, Italy; body incorrupt
Beatified 1768 by Pope Clement XIII Canonized 1807 by Pope Pius VII
Name Meaning angel; messenger (=Angela) Patronage bodily ills; disabled people; handicapped people; illness; loss of parents; physically challenged people; sick people; sickness

Augustodúni sanctórum Reveriáni Epíscopi, et Pauli Presbyteri, cum áliis decem, qui, sub Aureliáno Príncipe, martyrio coronáti sunt.
    At Autun, the Saints Reverian, bishop, and Paul, a priest, along with ten others, who were crowned with martyrdom under Emperor Aurelian.
1571 BD JOHN STOREY, MARTYR "the most noted civilian and canonist of his time" boldly opposed the Act of Uniformity;
THE life of Bd John Storey recalls in some respects the career of his more famous contemporary St Thomas More, but perhaps the contrast is even more striking than the resemblance. Born about 1504 and educated at Oxford for the law, Storey was selected to fill one of the lectureships founded by Henry VIII's commissioners on the ground that he was "the most noted civilian and canonist of his time". He thus became Oxford's first Regius professor of civil law. He was also for two years principal of Broadgates Hall, now Pembroke College. This post he resigned in 1537 to be admitted to Doctors' Commons, and to practise as an advocate. He married and entered Parliament for Hindon in Wiltshire. He had taken the oath of supremacy in the reign of Henry VIII, but in the first parliament of Edward VI he boldly opposed the Act of Uniformity, as well as the new liturgy. In an impassioned speech he exclaimed, "Woe to thee, 0 land, whose king is a child", and the House of Commons was so greatly incensed that he was committed to the Tower for three months. Soon after his liberation he retired with his family to Louvain, where he could freely practise his religion, but Mary's accession brought him back to England, and he was made chancellor of the dioceses of Oxford and London, and dean of Arches. In his capacity of chancellor he took a prominent part under Bishop Bonner in enforcing the queen's stem measures against Protestants; he was also her proctor at Cranmer's trial.
The beginning of Elizabeth's reign found him still in England, and he was the foremost opponent of the Bill of Supremacy in the new Parliament. But he was soon arrested and suffered imprisonment, first in the Fleet and afterwards in the Marshalsea. On the eve of being brought to trial he effected his escape, finding his way once more to Louvain. In his exile he and his dependants were so impoverished that he was reduced to becoming a pensioner of the king of Spain, and to accepting the office of searcher for heretical books and other contraband in English ships stationed at Antwerp. This post furnished his enemies with the means of capturing him. Storey was inveigled into a ship secretly bound for England and, as soon as he was in the hold examining the cargo, the hatches were closed, the anchor raised and he found himself trapped. At Yarmouth he was delivered to the authorities. During his trial for treason he refused to plead, asserting that he was no longer an English citizen, but a subject of the king of Spain. He was condemned to death and his execution at Tyburn was carried out with even greater barbarity than was usual.
Though Storey has been accused by Foxe, the martyrologist, and in modem times by A. F. Pollard, of being "the most active of all Queen Mary's agents in bringing heretics to trial and the stake", he was able, when this point was pressed against him before his judges, to present a very convincing defence. He said, for example: "when at one time twenty-eight were condemned to the fire ... Mr Fecknam (the last abbot of Westminster) and I laboured to the Lord Cardinal Poole, showing that they were nescientes quid fecerint. The cardinal and we did sue together to the queen ... and so we obtained pardon for them all, saving an old woman that dwelt about Paul's Churchyard; she would not convert and therefore was burned. The rest of them received absolution and that with all reverence. Search the register and you shall find it. Yea and it was my procurement that there should be no more burnt in London; for I saw well that it would not prevail, and therefore we sent them into odd comers, into the country."
The best account, based on contemporary records, of John Storey, is that contained in Camm, LEM., vol. ii, pp. 14-110. See also on the general situation in England, J. H. Pollen, The English Catholics in the Reign of Elizabeth (1920).
1617-1632 THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN, II Pope Gregory XV
IN the year 1614 a terrible era of persecution began in Japan, heralded by the decree of the former shogun, Ieyasu (still the real ruler), banishing all Christian teachers from the country. Measures taken became more and more severe, and, while there were many glorious exceptions, the number of flagrant apostasies in the families of the Christian daimyos had given terrible scandal. Hidetada, the son and successor of Ieyasu, launched edict after edict, each one more relentless than the preceding. On pain of being burned alive, all Japanese were forbidden to have the slightest relations with priests. The same punishment was extended to the women and children, and even to the neighbours of those who had rendered themselves guilty of an infraction of the law. The daimyos were rendered responsible for the Christians who were discovered in the territories they ruled.
   One of the more prominent daimyos in the early part of the seventeenth century was Date Masamune, of Sendai. Some of the missionaries believed him to be a fervent catechumen, but though he had favoured the Christians he never went so far as to receive baptism. He had, however, become very friendly with the Spanish Franciscan, Louis Sotelo, who afterwards died a martyr's death, and Sotelo, writing at a later date to Pope Gregory XV, even then describes Date as eager to have the Christian faith preached in his dominions. How far Date was sincere is an extremely doubtful matter, but in 1613, either of his own initiative or yielding to Sotelo's instances, he sent an embassy to the king of Spain and the pope. Father Sotelo himself and Hasekura Rokuyemon, Date's most trusted henchman, were the leaders, and this deputation of some 250 Japanese, who were vaguely regarded as representing the “King” of Japan, made a considerable impression both at the Spanish court and in Rome. But before the ambassadors arrived in Europe, the era of persecution had begun in their own country. When the news of this deputation overseas, about which he had not been consulted, reached Ieyasu, that crafty and extremely capable ruler, whose life-work it had been to break the feudal power of the daimyos, allowed Date Masamune to feel the full weight of his displeasure. Probably he discerned in this embassy the germ of a design on Date's part to strengthen himself against the authority of the shogun by forming a European alliance. In any case he was determined that this audacious vassal should not in future carry out a policy of toleration for Christian missionary work, and he made his will known very clearly to that effect.
   As soon, then, as the ambassadors (without Sotelo, who was detained in Mexico for many months) returned to Japan in the year 1620, it seems that under Date's orders Hasekura, who had been baptized at Madrid in the presence of the king of Spain, incontinently apostasized with all the members of the embassy. Moreover, in the course of the next few years a systematic attempt to round up the Christians was carried out in Masamune's territory.
   The imposing band of two hundred and five martyrs of this persecution, each separately mentioned by name, who were beatified by Pope Pius IX on July 7, 1867, included many Dominicans. Foremost among these was the' Spaniard, BD ALPHONSUS NAVARETTE, who left the Philippines in 1611 for the much more dangerous mission-field of Japan. At Nagasaki, in co-operation with members of other religious orders, Father Alphonsus, amid many other good works, organized confraternities for tending the sick and for the rescue of infants exposed to death by their heartless parents. The good Dominican's fervour often led him to court danger without thought of the consequences. On one occasion he boldly faced and upbraided a hostile crowd of Japanese who had laid hands upon some poor Christian women. When a new development of persecution was reported at Omura, it is said that, in the course of an ecstasy in which he was seen raised from the ground, Father Alphonsus was inspired to go thither to confirm the faith of the suffering Christians. Crowds sought his ministrations, as well as those of an Augustinian friar BD FERDINAND AYALA. The sensation thus caused drew the attention of the governor, and they were taken into custody. At first they were treated with a show of consideration, but when the Christians of the neighbourhood, including some highly-placed ladies, still continued to haunt the locality of their confinement, order was given for their execution. They were accordingly beheaded, in company with a Japanese catechist, on June I, 1617.
   There were many other heroic Dominicans who suffered in Japan, particularly on September 10, 1622, when five priests of that order, together with four scholastics, were put to death at Nagasaki by the torment of a slow fire. The victims of this refinement of cruelty numbered twenty-two in all, including many Franciscans and Jesuits, while thirty others, mostly Japanese converts, with women and children, were beheaded on the same occasion. Some account of the scene, perhaps the most dramatic in all the annals of martyrdom, which was witnessed by more than thirty thousand spectators, will be found under September 10, upon which day the Franciscan and Jesuit martyrs are commemorated.
When BD JOHN BAPTIST MACHADO as a little boy heard his elders talking about Japan, he made up his mind that some day he would go there as a missionary, and that determination never left him. He was of Portuguese origin, having been born in the Azores. His wish was fulfilled when in 1609 he was sent as a Jesuit to the Japanese mission. After working for eight years at Nagasaki, he was called to the Goto islands, but was arrested immediately after landing. He was taken back to Japan and imprisoned at Omura. The conditions were dreadful. But he had with him a Spanish Franciscan, BD PETER OF CUERVA, who had distinguished himself by the extraordinary speed with which he learned the language when preparing for the Japanese mission a dozen years earlier; and the two were able to offer Mass daily until the day appointed for their execution. On that day the two priests heard one another's confession and said the litany of the saints together, and then walked, crucifix in hand and followed by a large crowd, to the place of execution between Omura and Nagasaki. After Bd Peter had addressed the people, the martyrs embraced each other and cheerfully laid their heads upon the block. With them perished a Japanese youth called Leo, who had been Bd John Baptist's server. It was May 22, 1617: they were the first martyrs of the second great Japanese persecution.
The circumstances in which BD LEONARD KIMURA and his four companions gave final testimony of their constancy recall the scenes which must have occurred when the early Roman martyrs laid down their lives in the arena. Twenty thousand people, we are told, from Nagasaki and the neighbourhood had assembled to witness the spectacle, many of them being Christians. The five victims were burnt at five stakes on an eminence beside the sea-front. There were three Japanese, a Korean and a Portuguese, but they had no priest among them. Leonard Kimura was a Jesuit lay-brother who, though of good family and education, had refused ordination out of humility. It is stated that he was a collateral descendant of another Kimura, who had been among the first to befriend St Francis Xavier on his arrival in Japan three-quarters of a century earlier. The martyr, who in 1619 was forty-five years old, had been busy since early manhood in instructing and catechizing his heathen fellow countrymen. Even during the two and half years in which he had lain in prison he had found means to baptize ninety-six
of those who shared his confinement or had been able to visit him there. His four fellow martyrs were laymen who had been arrested for harbouring or aiding Father Charles Spinola and other priests. During a long imprisonment threats and promises were powerless to shake their constancy, and the gruesome sentence that they were to be burnt alive was received by them with demonstrations of joy. It is stated that even amid the flames they betrayed no sign of anguish. Their charred remains were thrown into the sea, but the Christians secured some fragments, though without being able to tell to which particular martyr each relic belonged. The day of their passion was November 18, 1619.
On his second, and successful, attempt to reach Japan in the opening years of the seventeenth century, Bd Charles Spinola was accompanied by BD JEROME DE ANGELIS, S.J. He was a Sicilian who, giving up the law, joined the society and was ordained priest in Lisbon. He was a successful missionary for twenty years in Japan, chiefly in the central island, Hondo. At the height of the persecution of Hidetada, in 1623, he was at Yedo (Tokyo), where he was denounced and thrown into prison, together with BD FRANCIS GALVEZ, O.F.M., and many others. Fr Francis was a Castilian; while pursuing his studies at Valencia he offered himself to the Franciscans, and in due course he was sent to the Philippine Islands, where he learnt Japanese, and three years later went to Japan. In the course of his mission he translated several religious works into Japanese, but he was soon exiled to Manila. After a time he was given permission to return to Japan if he could get there, and eventually succeeded from Macao in 1618, by disguising himself as a Negro and working his passage. He ministered secretly and in the greatest danger for five years before he was captured.
On December 4,1623, fifty Christians were taken out of Yedo to be burnt alive at slow fires on a neighbouring hill. They were led by the two priests. It is related that a Japanese nobleman riding by asked who these noble-looking criminals were, and on being told, exclaimed that he also was a Christian and ought to be among them. His example fired a number of other Christians among the bystanders to fall on their knees and make their profession of faith, so that the officers were in fear of a riot and hurried on the execution. Of these fifty martyrs Bd Jerome and Bd Francis were beatified in the decree of July, 1867, and with them was joined BD SIMON YEMPO, who suffered on the same occasion. He was one of a number of Japanese inmates of a Buddhist monastery who received baptism, and he became a catechist for the Jesuit missionaries.
     There were two beatified Jesuit martyrs named Carvalho who were put to death in Japan in the year 1624 (and an Augustinian friar of the same name in 1632). They were both Portuguese, but apparently not related. The places where they suffered were many hundred miles apart, and while one died in February from cold and exposure, the other in August was burnt alive by a slow fire. BD JAMES CARVALHO (called Diogo in Portuguese, Diego in Spanish, and often Didacus in Latin) was born at Coimbra in 1578. He left Portugal for the East in 1600, was ordained priest at Macao, and laboured for five years in the neighbourhood of Kyoto, or, as it was then called, "Miyako" (i.e. capital), until the terrible persecution broke out in 1614. Whether Father Diogo was deported or simply withdrew in obedience to the order of his superiors is not clear, but we know that at the close of 1614 he went from Macao with Father Buzomi to begin a mission in Cochin-China. Returning to Japan in 1617, he spent the rest of his days under very arduous conditions in the more northern districts of the central island. On two occasions at least, he crossed over to Yezo (now called Hokkaido) where he was the first Christian priest to offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and where he came into contact with the Ainos, of whom he left an interesting description in one of his letters.
   The persecution came to a crisis in the winter of 1623-24. Father Diogo who, with a band of fugitive Christians, had hidden himself in a remote valley among the hills, was tracked by the footsteps of the party in the snow. We have a terrible account of the barbarity with which they were treated after their capture. In spite of the fact that a blizzard was raging and that the cold was intense, they were stripped almost naked and left to wait for many hours in the open, without shelter of any kind. Eventually they were fettered and compelled to travel on foot several days' journey to Sendai. Two of the band, unable to keep up, were beheaded on the spot, and the escort tested the keenness of their blades by cutting to pieces the naked bodies.
   When they reached Sendai the weather still remained exceptionally severe, and on February 18 Father Diogo and some nine others, Japanese, were stripped of their clothing, tied to stakes, and compelled to stand and sit alternately, each in a shallow pit of freezing water which reached above their knees. After three hours they were taken out and invited to apostatize. Two of them, utterly incapable of movement, died shortly afterwards on the sand on which they had thrown themselves in helpless agony. Father Diogo, owing perhaps to the fact that a certain consideration had been shown him during the journey, gave proof of greater vitality than the rest. He sat down on his heels in Japanese fashion and recollected himself in prayer.
During an interval of four days fresh attempts were made to persuade them to renounce Christianity, but without result; and on February 22 the same torment was repeated. Seven of them died in the course of the afternoon, praying aloud as long as strength remained, and encouraged by the priest with comforting words until the last. At sunset Bd Diogo alone survived, and from some faithful Christians who hung about the piteous scene it was learnt that he expired just before midnight. [• An examination of the map shows that Sendai is in approximately the same latitude as Cordova, Messina and San Francisco. Moreover, being on the coast, it can be at no great elevation above sea-level. There is consequently no reason to suppose the existence of any extremely low temperature in February, but it was freezing, for the witnesses speak of ice forming on the water. For those already exhausted by exposure a greater cold would have meant a quicker and more merciful death. ]
In the morning the bodies of the victims were hacked to pieces and thrown into the river, but the head of Father Carvalho and those of four others were recovered and preserved as relics.
   BD MICHAEL CARVALHO was born at Braga in Portugal in 1577, entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1597, and was sent at his own request to India in 1602. There, in the College of Goa, he was found so useful as a teacher that obedience detained him for fifteen years, preparing others for the active missionary work for which his own soul thirsted. At last his desire was gratified, and after an incredibly toilsome journey (in the course of which he was shipwrecked at Malacca, made his way to Macao, and was thence recalled to Manila in the Philippines), he succeeded in getting to Japan in the disguise of a soldier. For two years, despite the persecution, he ministered to the Christians in the island of Amakusa, opposite Nagasaki. Having been summoned to hear confessions in another province, he was betrayed by a spy and captured. For more than twelve months he was kept a prisoner in irons, but managed to get letters out of prison, several of which, still preserved to us, manifest an extraordinary desire to give his life for the faith by any form of torment the persecutors might devise.
His imprisonment was shared by a Spanish Dominican priest, Bd PETER VASQUEZ, and by three Franciscans, all named Louis. Bd Louis SOTELO, also a Spaniard, is mentioned elsewhere in this notice. The Japanese Bd LOUIS SASANDA (whose father Michael also was a martyr) became a friar minor in Mexico, and was ordained in Manila in 1622. Bd LOUIS BABA was a Japanese catechist, who had been in Europe with Father Sotelo. He was clothed as a Franciscan in prison. These five were all put to death by being roasted at a slow fire, on August 25, 1624.
On June 20, 1626, a group of nine martyrs, members of the Society of Jesus or associated with it, were burned alive at Nagasaki. Their leader, Bd FRANCIS PACHECO, was a native of Portugal. From an early age he had cherished visions of attaining the crown of martyrdom in the mission field, and in 1584 he became it Jesuit. After a short stay in Japan he was recalled; but when Father Louis Cerquiera was named bishop there he took Father Pacheco with him as his vicar general. After the bishop's death in 1614 and the banishment of Christian clergy, Father Pacheco came back again disguised as a merchant. For eleven years he continued his labours, in constant danger of his life, enduring great hardships and being compelled frequently to change his abode. Shortly before his arrest he received a papal mandate to act as episcopal administrator for the whole of the Church in Japan. Father Pacheco's companions in martyrdom were Bd BALTHASAR DE TORRES and BD JOHN BAPTIST ZOLA, a Spanish and Italian Jesuit respectively, together with a Korean catechist, Bd VINCENT CAUN, two Japanese Jesuits (one a novice), Bd JOHN KINSACO and BD CASPAR SADAMAZU, and three Japanese catechists, BB. PETER RINXEI, PAUL XINSUKI and MICHAEL Tozo.
     September 6, 1627, saw the martyrdom of another Jesuit, Bd THOMAS TZUGI, a Japanese of noble family in the Umura province, who had been a Christian from his boyhood. During the persecution he carried on his work, disguised as a porter, but at one moment lost his nerve and asked to be released from his vows-but within twenty-four hours he had recovered himself. In the end Bd Thomas was betrayed by an apostate, and after a cruel imprisonment of more than a year he was sentenced to be burnt alive at Nagasaki. He refused to let his family buy his reprieve with bribes; and the courage with which he met his death, singing "Laudate Dominum, omnes gentes" amidst the flames, produced a great impression. With him suffered BD LOUIS MAKI, a Japanese in whose house he had celebrated the holy Mysteries.
   Bd LOUIS SOTELO, burnt at Simabura on August 25, 1624, was a remarkable man and a very able missionary, who went to Japan in 1603. After he had preached there for ten years, making a large number of conversions and breaking entirely fresh ground, he was, as we have seen, sent with Hasekura Rokuyemon and a large suite on an embassy to Pope Paul V and the king of Spain by Date Masamune. They travelled via Mexico, where on Holy Saturday 1614, seventy-eight members of the embassy were baptized (they all afterwards apostatized).
Bd Louis accompanied the ambassador throughout his peregrinations in Spain and Italy, an office which required much tact and earned some obloquy for the Franciscan, for behind the embassy lay considerations of both ecclesiastical and secular politics (the last named vis-a-vis the Dutch in the Far East). Bd Louis landed in Japan again in 1622, at the height of the persecution; two years later he gained his crown.
Of another Franciscan, Bd ANTONY OF Tuy, the commissary general in Japan wrote:
 “He was a tireless worker and gained very many souls for God. He worked night and day, hearing confessions, baptizing, catechizing, raising those who had fallen through fear. Within a short time he thus reconciled more than two thousand, and many of them persevered unto martyrdom. In these difficult days when Christianity was everywhere reviled and suppressed he baptized more than a thousand pagans. For the ten years of his ministry nothing could check his zeal.” Bd Antony was burned at Nagasaki on September 8, 1628, after being in prison for many months. Among the secular tertiaries included in these beati are some who are claimed equally by the Friars Minor and by the Friars Preachers, such as BB. JOHN TOMAKI and his four sons, all under sixteen; BB. LOUIS NIFAKI and his sons, aged five and two; and Bd LOUISA, an aged woman who was burnt with her husband and daughter.
The last in order of time of the martyrs in Japan beatified in 1867 were Bd ANTONY IXIDA and his companions. Antony was a native of Japan, born there in 1569. After his ordination to the priesthood as a Jesuit, he played a big part by his eloquence, energy and knowledge of his people, in reconciling apostates and making new conversions after the persecution of 1597. During the persecution that began in 1614 he continued to work among its victims in the province of Arima until the end of 1629, when, going on a sick-call to Nagasaki, he was there captured.
He was sent to Omura, but was then apparently forgotten, for he remained in gaol for two years. At the end of that time he was taken back with some companions to Nagasaki, and it was then decided to make a determined effort to induce these men to apostatize by the application of a quite ferocious form of torture. There lies between Nagasaki and Simabara a volcanic mountain called Unsen, water from the sulphurous hot springs of which produces ulceration of the human flesh. The bodies of the confessors were sprinkled with this corrosive fluid until they were covered with virulent sores, and they were then laid on beds of prickly straw. When they remained firm, the ulcers were carefully dressed by physicians, and when they had gained some degree of ease their flesh was again sprinkled. And so on. This went on for thirty-three days, until, in despair of bringing about apostasy, the persecutors slew their victims by burning on September 3, 1632 The five blessed companions of Bd Antony were three Augustinians, BB. BARTHOLOMEW GUTIERREZ (a Mexican), FRANCIS ORTEGA and VINCENT CARVALHO, and two Franciscans, a priest tertiary, the Japanese Bd JEROME, and a lay-brother, Bd GABRIEL OF FONSECA.
The object of the persecutors who perpetrated these crimes was to destroy Christianity, not Christians. And therefore, as in some other persecutions, every effort was made by the infliction of physical and moral suffering to induce apostasy; the ingenious tortures which were sometimes inflicted with this object are sickening to read, and justly deserve the epithet diabolical. Many broke down under them Many more, priests, religious, men and women, boys and girls in their teens, even small children, were faithful to the terrible and glorious end. For other martyrs in Japan, see under February 5 and September 10.
See G. Boero, Relazione della gloriosa Morte di 205 B. Martiri nel Giappone (1867); French translation, Les 205 Martyrs du Japan, 1868; L. Delplace, Le Catholicisme au Japon (1869 2 vols.); L. C. Pro fillet. Le Martyrologe de L'Église du Japon (1897, 3 vols.); L. Pages. Histoire de la religion chrétienne au Japon (1869. 2 vols.). For Navarette, see Procter. Lives of the Dominican Saints. pp. 159-162; for Machado, Broeckaert's Vie du B. Charles Spinola. pp. 133. 225-226; and for M. Carvalho. Guilhermy's Ménologe de l'Assistance de Portugal. vol. ii. pp. 172-174. See also C. R. Boxer. The Christian Century in Japan (1951).
1787 BD FELIX OF NICOSIA In private, Felix practised great austerities; in public his love of God expressed itself in charity towards his neighbours. He was endowed with the gift of healing temporal and spiritual diseases, and he delighted in tending the sick
BD FELIX was born in the Sicilian town of Nicosia, where his father was a poor cobbler. Both his parents were very devout, and the child, who seemed to have imbibed piety with his mother's milk, had from his earliest years a horror of the least shadow of sin. In the shoemaker's shop to which he was sent at the age of six, he suffered so acutely from the foul language prevalent that he would sometimes stop his ears with wool in order not to hear. A complete reform in that respect is said to have been effected as the result of a miracle which God wrought through the innocent lad. One of the workmen, who had accidentally made a cut across the leather of the upper of a shoe, swore a horrible oath. The shrinking apprentice beside him winced as though struck by a blow. Then, quickly recovering himself, he seized the shoe, passed his finger moistened with saliva across the slit, and returned the shoe undamaged and unmarked to the offender in the presence of his amazed fellow workmen. After his parents' death, when he was about twenty, James -to give him his baptismal name- applied to the Capuchins for admission, but was refused. Disappointed but undaunted, the young man held on, working, praying, mortifying himself and periodically renewing his application. At the end of seven years he was accepted at the convent of Mistreta, where he received the habit together with the name of Felix.
Upon his profession a year later he was recalled to Nicosia, to assist the questing brother on his mendicant rounds. In private, Felix practised great austerities; in public his love of God expressed itself in charity towards his neighbours. He was endowed with the gift of healing temporal and spiritual diseases, and he delighted in tending the sick. Numberless sinners were reclaimed through his efforts, including poor prisoners to whom he ministered food and consolation. Wherever he went he did good; he worked, he prayed, he offered up his penances for all without distinction. When a malignant epidemic was decimating Cerami in March 1777, the local superiors of the order, anxious to relieve the sufferers, applied for Brother Felix. He was then over sixty, but he responded eagerly to the call. Fearlessly and indefatigably he went about ministering to the sick, and his labours were crowned with abundant success. "So be it for the love of God" were the words with which he accompanied his miracles of healing, and for the love of God he may be said to have lived his whole life. Second only to love came obedience. He never did anything without permission, and when he was overtaken by his last illness he asked the guardian to give him leave to die. He passed away on May 31, 1787, at the age of seventy-two.
A brief account of Felix of Nicosia is given in P. Seeböck, Die Herrlichkeit der Katholischen Kirche in ihren Heiligen und Seligen des 19 Jahrhunderts (1900), pp. 330 seq. He was beatified in 1888, on which occasion a somewhat fuller biography was published by Fr Gesualdo da Bronte.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 22

Why have our enemies raged and our adversaries devised vain things?

May thy right hand protect us, O Mother of God:
as a line of battle terrible in aspect, confounding and destroying them.

Come ye to her, all who labor and are in trouble: and she will give refreshment to your souls.

Draw nigh to her in your temptations: and the serenity of her countenance will bring you peace and confidence.

Bless her with your whole heart: for the earth is full of her mercy.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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