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;
 2022
22,600  Lives Saved Since 2007

 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

Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday   Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
   Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday   Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War
 

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.

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

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  .

1st v. Sts Martha and Mary the righteous sisters were believers in Christ even before He raised their brother St Lazarus (October 17) from the dead
175 Concordius The Holy Martyr son of the presbyter Gordian, was raised in piety and faith in Christ, and therefore Bishop Pius of Rome made him a subdeacon generously distributed alms to the needy
325 St. Metrophanes Bishop of Byzantium  first Patriarch of Constantinople His devotion to the faith as bishop was so remarkable that Emperor Constantine the Great was supposedly influenced by him in placing the new imperial capital at Byzantium, on the Hellespont -- Constantinople.
564 St. Petroc Welsh became a monk and with some of his friends, went to Ireland to study pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem known for his miracles
1150 St. Walter Benedictine abbot English served as a monk and then abbot of Fontenelle, France, the famed Benedictine spiritual center.  Pope Innocent II (r. 1130-1143)  noted his zeal and holiness.
1392 Saint Methodius, Igumen of Peshnosha founder of the Peshnosha monastery under guidance St Sergius of Radonezh
1847 ST VINCENTIA GEROSA, VIRGIN, COFOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF LOVERE  

June 4 – First visit of Saint John Paul II to Poland, at Czestochowa (1979) 
 In Poland, a light has always shone…
The monastery of Jasna Gora, near Czestochowa in Poland, dates from the 14th century. In the 17th century, as Poland attempted to expand to the east, a major counter-offensive led by the Russians and the Swedes ensued.
Then, in 1655, the Virgin appeared to the religious of the monastery of Czestochowa who managed to repel the Swedes’ attack.
On April 1st, 1656, the Polish King Casimir consecrated the country to Mary and proclaimed
 Our Lady of Czestochowa the Patroness of Poland.
In the 20th century, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany. The German governor in Poland wrote in his diary:
"At a time when Poland was completely submerged in darkness, a light always remained lit:
the shrine of Czestochowa and the Church."
At the end of the war, Poland regained its independence but with a communist government. It was then that Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, to mark the millennium of the evangelization of Poland, organized a house
to house pilgrimage of a reproduction of the image of Our Lady of Częstochowa.
This event had a very strong popular impact and planted the seed of resistance to Communism.
The Mary of Nazareth Team


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.


  June 4 - Our Lady of the Hill (Lombardy, Italy, 4th C.) All Holy Vessel of Honor
Saint John's Gospel (...) seems to emphasize her role as an intercessor. There we see that it was Mary who triggered Jesus' public ministry. She point out a need: the wedding feast had hardly begun, and the newlyweds had already run out of wine. Though Jesus gave no clear indication that He would fulfil her request, she remained confident He would. She said to the servants: "Do whatever He tells you" (Jn 2:5).
And Jesus turned the jars full of water into the finest wine. (...)
Christ honored His mother. That is the key to understanding the ancient Christian doctrines regarding Mary, especially her immaculate conception, her perpetual virginity, and her bodily assumption into heaven. (...)

Mary was to be filled with Christ and only with Christ.
That is the meaning of her holiness. (...) Everything in her is holy.
So, like the Temple vessels, she could not be returned to ordinary earthly use. She remained "perpetually virgin."
She had no sexual relations with her husband, Joseph. She had no children after Jesus.
This has been the constant faith of Christians.
It was held firmly by the classic reformers, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Wesley.

Excerpts from Scott Hahn, Reasons To Believe, Darton, Longmont and Todd Ltd, 2007, pp. 103, 107-108

Mary Receives the Holy Spirit (I) June 4 - Our Lady of the Hill (Lombardy, Italy)
 On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit sent the disciples rays of his sacred fire, but he especially concentrated his gifts on Mary, penetrating and kindling her with his heat. He espoused her anew, and gave himself to her more fully and more intimately than he had ever done before.
Let us not limit divine power; but we can say in truth that the Holy Spirit never communicated himself with a creature more profusely than he did with Mary, and never will.
On that day a prodigious change came upon the Apostles,
 who from the coarse and lusty men they were, became wholly spiritual and divine...
But something still greater occurred in Mary, who unlike the Apostles did not go from a state of imperfection to one of holiness,
but from a sublime degree of perfection to another more sublime degree, absolutely without comparison.
Obviously, there is nothing excessive in this statement. If we are able to comprehend that the holiness of God is infinite in itself, nothing can limit his communication to the outside world and with respect to Mary the only limit he set was to give what an essentially finite pure creature could hold. Since this capacity can always become greater, without ceasing to be finite, let us not struggle to believe that Mary surpassed the intelligence of all men and angels.
"The Most Beautiful Texts about the Virgin Mary" Father Grou (1731-1803)
Presented by Father Pie Regamey (1946)
Mary the Mother of God
1st v. sister Sts Martha and Mary the righteous sisters were believers in Christ even before He raised their brother St Lazarus (October 17) from the dead
41-54 Sts. Frontasius, Severinus, Severianus, and Silanus The Holy Martyrs suffered for Christ preach the Word of God in southern Gaul (now France) by Bishop Frontonus of Petragorium
64 St. Clateus Martyred bishop. He was one of the earliest bishops of Brescia, Italy. He died in the persecution launched by Emperor Nero.
98-117 Astius The Hieromartyr was bishop of the city of Dyrrachium (Macedonia)
175 Concordius The Holy Martyr son of the presbyter Gordian, was raised in piety and faith in Christ, and therefore Bishop Pius of Rome made him a subdeacon generously distributed alms to the needy
270 St. Aretius Roman martyr with Dacian relics of martyrs were discovered in the catacombs along the Appian Way.
308 St. Quirinus Bishop and martyr of Siscia, Croatia
St. Rutilius and Companions group of martyrs put to death at Sabaria, in the province of Pannonia during the Roman
persecutions.
St. Quirinus martyr put to death at Tivoli, Italy, and mentioned in the Roman Martyrology under the same feast day as
the Quirinus of Pannonia.
Martyrs of Niculitsel graves of Saints Zoticus, Atallus, Camisius and Philip were discovered in 1971.
325 St. Metrophanes Bishop of Byzantium  first Patriarch of Constantinople His devotion to the faith as bishop was so remarkable that Emperor Constantine the Great was supposedly influenced by him in placing the new imperial capital at Byzantium, on the Hellespont -- Constantinople.
387 St. Optatus of Milevis Bishop of Milevis, Numidia, in Africa a convert from paganism best known for his opposition to the heresy of Donatism and his six treatises composed against them
 
Martyrs of Niculitsel graves of Saints Zoticus, Atallus, Camisius and Philip were discovered in 1971.
5th v. Saint Zosimus, Bishop of Babylon, was born in Cilicia (Asia Minor) settled on Mount Sinai, and later he withdrew to a  more solitary place in Lebanon
5th-6th v. St. Breaca Disciple of St. Brigid went from Ireland to Cornwall, England, about 460 Breaca and her companions settled on the bank of the Hoyle River
 564 St. Petroc Welsh became a monk and with some of his friends, went to Ireland to study pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem known for his miracles
6th v. St. Croidan disciple of St. Petroc with St. Medan and Degan.
6th v. St. Buriana Irish hermitess of Cornwall, known for penitential practices and holiness. She is venerated at Buryan,  opposite the Isles of Scilly. 
St. Nennoc British virgin. She served as an abbess of a convent in Armorica, France, after following St. Germanus of Auxerre there.
Saint Sophia was born in Aenus, Rhodope mother of six children occupied with worldly cares and responsibilities still kept the commandments of God and lived a  virtuous life.

8th v. St. Alexander Bishop of Verona, Italy.
1015 St. Elsiar Benedictine monk at Saint-Savin Monastery in Lavedan.
1150 St. Walter Benedictine abbot English served as a monk and then abbot of Fontenelle, France, the famed Benedictine spiritual center.  Pope Innocent II (r. 1130-1143)  noted his zeal and holiness.
1176 St. Cornelius Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland Irishman, he joined the Augustinians at Armagh died returning from a pilgrimage to Rome
1250 St. Walter Benedictine hermit, abbot, founder and first abbot of
Serviliano monastery in the Marches of Ancona, Italy. This monastery involved in the renaissance of the spirit that was pioneered by religious orders in that er
St. Saturnina virgin martyr reportedly a maiden from Germany who journeyed to France and there died while defending herself against some attack upon her chastity.

1392 Saint Methodius, Igumen of Peshnosha founder of the Peshnosha monastery under guidance St Sergius of Radonezh
1608 St. Francis Caracciolo priest Founder of the Minor Clerks Regular with St. John Augustine Adorno

Archbishop Andronicus of Perm The holy New Martyr was an outspoken critic of the Communist decree which ordered the separation of Church and State
1847 ST VINCENTIA GEROSA, VIRGIN, COFOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF LOVERE
1886 Charles Lwanga and Companions; One of 22 Ugandan martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of tropical Africa.

June 4 - Pope John Paul II’s First Visit to Poland (Czestochowa, 1979)
Mary Has a Role in Jesus’ Saving Mission (II)
Simeon’s prophecy is followed by the meeting with the prophetess Anna:
“She began to praise God, and spoke of the child to all who were looking forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem” (Lk 2:38).
The faith and prophetic wisdom of the old woman who nurtures the expectation of the Messiah by “serving God night and day with fasting and prayer” (Lk 2:37), offer the Holy Family a further incentive to put their hope in the God of Israel. At this particular moment, Anna’s behavior would have appeared to Mary and Joseph as a sign from the Lord, a message of enlightened faith and persevering service.
Beginning with Simeon’s prophecy, Mary intensely and mysteriously unites her life with Christ’s sorrowful mission:
she is to become her Son's faithful coworker for the salvation of the human race.
Pope John Paul II  General Audience, December 18, 1996



1st v. sister Sts Martha and Mary the righteous sisters were believers in Christ even before He raised their brother St Lazarus (October 17) from the dead
< Martha                                                                                                                                   Mary >
After the murder of the holy Archdeacon Stephen a persecution against the Jerusalem Church broke out, and Righteous Lazarus was cast out of Jerusalem.
The holy sisters then assisted their brother in the proclaiming of the Gospel in various lands.

Sts Martha and Mary are also commemorated on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women.

41-54 Sts. Frontasius, Severinus, Severianus, and Silanus The Holy Martyrs suffered for Christ preach the Word of God in southern Gaul (now France) by Bishop Frontonus of Petragorium

under the emperor Claudius (41-54). They had been sent to preach the Word of God in southern Gaul (now France) by Bishop Frontonus of Petragorium. The governor, a pagan named Squiridonus, arrested them and demanded that they renounce Christ. But the martyrs firmly confessed their faith, saying they had but one desire, to either live or die for Christ. The enraged Squiridonus ordered that the saints be taken out before the city, tied to pillars, and have nails thrust into their heads like a crown of thorns. After this they were beheaded.

Tradition says that the holy martyrs continued to live by the power of God. They picked up their heads and went to the church of the Mother of God, where the holy bishop Frontonus, who had sent them preaching, was at prayer. Placing their heads at the feet of the bishop, they crossed themselves and died.
64 St. Clateus Martyred bishop. He was one of the earliest bishops of Brescia, Italy. He died in the persecution launched by Emperor Nero
Medioláni, sancti Clatéi, Epíscopi Brixiénsis et Mártyris, qui, sub Neróne Imperatóre, jussu Præfécti urbis illíus tentus, et, cum renuntiáre Christo nollet, multis verbéribus afflíctus et cápite obtruncátus est.
    At Milan, in the reign of Emperor Nero, St. Clateus, bishop of Brescia and martyr.  By order of the prefect of the city he was arrested, and when he would not deny Christ he was cruelly scourged and beheaded.
98-117 Astius The Hieromartyr was bishop of the city of Dyrrachium (Macedonia)
During the time of the emperor Trajan (98-117), a persecutor of Christians. The saint once had a dream, a foreboding of his impending suffering and death for Christ. He was arrested and beaten fiercely with leaden rods and oxhide whips, but St Astius did not renounce Christ. They smeared his body with honey, so as to increase his suffering with the stings of hornets and flies, and crucified him. The martyr's body was reverently buried by Christians.
175 Concordius The Holy Martyr son of the presbyter Gordian, was raised in piety and faith in Christ, and therefore Bishop Pius of Rome made him a subdeacon generously distributed alms to the needy
Together with his father, St Concordius fasted and prayed, and he generously distributed alms to the needy. With the permission of his father he settled not far from Rome with his kinsman Eutychius, spending his days in prayer and good deeds. The report of his pious life reached Torquatus, the head of the Tussa region. He summoned the saint and urged him to renounce Christ, promising to make him a priest of the pagan gods.

St Concordius in turn urged Torquatus to turn to the true God, Jesus Christ. They beat the martyr and threw him in prison. Bishop Anthimus, a friend of Torquatus, asked him to release the prisoner to him. St Concordius lived with him for a while and was ordained presbyter. When Torquatus again summoned the saint and asked him what he thought about his life, the saint replied that life, for him, is Christ. They bound him and locked him up in prison, chaining him to the wall by his neck and hands.

Three days later Torquatus sent his assistant to the prison, ordering the martyr to offer sacrifice to the gods, or be condemned to death. The saint cried out, "Glory to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ," and spat on the idol of Zeus carried by the soldiers. For this, he was beheaded around the year 175. His relics rest in Italy, not far from the city of Spoleto.
270 St. Aretius Roman martyr with Dacian relics of these martyrs were discovered in the catacombs along the Appian Way
Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum Arétii et Daciáni.    At Rome, the holy martyrs Aretius and Dacian.
Under Emperor Aurelian (214-279 ad). The relics of these martyrs were discovered in the catacombs along the Appian Way.
308 St. Quirinus Bishop and martyr of Siscia, Croatia
Sísciæ, in Illyrico, sancti Quiríni Epíscopi, qui, sub Galério Præside, pro fide Christi (ut Prudéntius scribit), molári saxo ad collum ligáto, in flumen præcipitátus est; sed, lápide supernatánte, cum circumstántes Christiános, ne ejus terreréntur supplício neve titubárent in fide, diu fuísset hortátus, ipse, ut martyrii glóriam assequerétur, précibus a Deo, ut mergerétur, obtínuit.
    At Sissek in Illyria, in the time of Governor Galerius, St. Quirinus, bishop.  Prudentius relates that for the faith of Christ he was thrown into a river with a millstone tied to his neck.  But the stone floated, and he for a long time exhorted the Christians who were present not to be terrified by his punishment, nor to waver in the faith, and then obtained of God by his prayers that he should be drowned in order to attain the glory of martyrdom.
308 ST QUIRINUS, BISHOP OF SISCIA, MARTYR
OF the many martyrs who suffered in the Danubian provinces during the reign of Diocletian, one of the most celebrated was Quirinus whose praises have been sounded-by St Jerome, by Prudentius and by Fortunatus. The “acts" which record his trial, sufferings and death are substantially genuine, although they have undergone amplification and interpolations at the hands of later copyists.
He was bishop of Siscia, now Sisak in Croatia. As he had been informed that orders were out for his arrest, he left the city, but was pursued, captured and brought before the magistrate Maximus. Questioned with regard to his attempted escape he replied that he was only obeying his Master, Jesus Christ, the true God, who had said: "When they persecute you in one city, fly to another." "Do you not know that the emperor's orders would find you anywhere?”', asked the magistrate. "He whom you call the true God cannot help you when you are caught-as you must now realize to your cost." "God is always with us and can help us," declared the bishop. "He was with me when I was taken and He is with me now. He it is who strengthens me and speaks through my lips." "You talk a great deal", observed Maximus," and by talking you postpone obeying the commands of our sovereigns: read the edicts and do as they bid you!” Quirinus protested that he could not consent to do what would be sacrilege: "The gods whom you serve are nothing!" he exclaimed. "My God, whom I serve, is in Heaven and earth, and in the sea and everywhere, but He is higher than all, because He contains all things in Himself: all things were created by Him, and; by Him alone they subsist," "You must be in your second childhood to believe such fables!" declared the judge. "See, they are offering you incense: sacrifice and you shall be well rewarded; refuse and you will be tortured and put to a horrible death."
Quirinus replied that the threatened pains would be glory to him, and Maximus ordered him to be beaten. Even while the sentence was being carried out, he was urged to sacrifice and was told that if he did so he would be made a priest of Jupiter. "I am exercising my priesthood here and now by offering myself up to God", cried the martyr undaunted. "I am glad to be beaten; it does not hurt me. I would willingly endure far worse treatment to encourage those over whom I have presided to follow me by a short road to eternal life," As Maximus had not the authority to pronounce a death-sentence, he arranged to send Quirinus to Amantius, the governor of Pannonia Prima. The bishop was taken through various towns on the Danube until he reached the town of Sabaria (now Szombathely in Hungary), destined a very few years later to be the birthplace of St Martin. Here he was brought up before Amantius who, after reading the report of the previous trial, asked him if it was correct. The saint answered in the affirmative and said, "I have confessed the true God at Siscia, I have never worshipped any other. Him I carry in my heart, and no man on earth shall succeed in separating me from Him." Amantius declared himself unwilling to torture and destroy one of his venerable age, and urged him to fulfil the conditions which would enable him to end his days in peace. Neither promises nor threats, however, could move the saint. The governor therefore had no option but to condemn him,
Quirinus was sentenced to death, and thrown into the river Raab, with a stone round his neck. He did not immediately sink and was heard to utter words of prayer or of exhortation before he disappeared from sight. His body, carried a little way down the stream, was rescued by Christians. In the early fifth century, refugees driven from Pannonia by the barbarians bore the relics to Rome, where they rested in the Catacomb of St Sebastian, until in 1140 they were translated to Santa Maria in Trastevere.
The text of the passio is printed by Ruinart, and in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i. Much interest has been taken in this St Quirinus since the researches of Mgr de Waal in the Platonia and its surroundings revealed the existence of a fragment of a great inscription engraved there in honour of the saint. See de Waal's monograph, Die Apostelgruft "ad Catacumbas", printed as a "Supplementheft" to the Römische Quartalschrift (1894); and also Duchesne, "La Memoria Apostolorum de la Via Appia", in Memorie della pontificia Accademia romana di Archeol., vol. i (1923), pp. 8-10; with CMH., p. 303.

He reportedly fled his see during the persecutions of Emperor Galerius but was arrested and dragged back to Siscia. There he was ordered to make sacrifices to the gods by Maximus, the Roman magistrate. Upon his refusal, he was tortured and then given into the hands of Amantius, the governor of Pannonia Prima. Stubborn in his refusal to become an apostate, he was tied to a millstone and hurled into the Raab River, where he drowned at Sabaria. In the fifth century and the invasion of the Danube Valley by Germanic hosts, the inhabitants fled to Italy, taking the
 relics of Quirinus with them. They were eventually carried to Rome and interred in the Church of St. Sebastian on the Via Appia.
325 St. Metrophanes Bishop of Byzantium  first Patriarch of Constantinople nephew of Emperor Probus, he was a convert and entered the Church studying for the priesthood ordained by Bishop Titus of Byzantium whom he succeeded in 313.
His devotion to the faith as bishop was so remarkable that Emperor Constantine the Great was supposedly influenced by him in placing the new imperial capital at Byzantium, on the Hellespont. The new city was named Constantinople
Constantinópoli sancti Metróphanis, Epíscopi et Confessóris insígnis.
   At Constantinople, St. Metrophanes, bishop and renowned confessor.


325 ST METROPHANES, BISHOP OF BYZANTIUM
NEXT to nothing is actually known about St Metrophanes, who was bishop of Byzantium in the days of Constantine; he was probably its first bishop, for the town had previously been included in the diocese of Heraclea. He had a great reputation for sanctity throughout eastern Christendom. A church was built in his honour soon after the death of Constantine, and when it was falling into ruin in the sixth century it was restored by Justinian.
The Greek Synaxaries and the Menaia - never a very reliable authority - give his story as follows: Metrophanes was the son of Dometius, brother to the Emperor Probus. Dometius was converted to Christianity and went to live at Byzantium, where he contracted a close friendship with its Bishop Titus, by whom he was ordained, being himself invested at his death with the same dignity. Dometius in his turn was succeeded first by his two sons, Probus, who ruled the see twelve years, and then Metrophanes. The holy life of Bishop Metrophanes, it is alleged, weighed as much with Constantine in his choice of Byzantium for his capital as did the exceptionally favourable position of the city. Old age and infirmity prevented Metrophanes from attending the Council of Nicaea, but he sent his chief presbyter Alexander to represent him. Upon the return of the emperor and the clergy who had attended the council, Metrophanes was inspired to announce to them that Alexander would be his successor and that the boy reader Paul would eventually follow Alexander as bishop. His death took place a few days later.
The text of a late and quite untrustworthy life of Metrophanes has been printed by L. Gedeon, in vol. xx (1900)  
and there is also another text noticed in BHG. See, further, the notice in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, and in Nilles, Kalendarium Utriusque Ecclesiae, vol. i, p. 172. Cf. also Texte und Untersuchungen, vol. xxxi, part 3 (1903), pp. 188 seq. Metrophanes is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology, where he is described as confessor insignis.
Saint Metrophanes, Patriarch of Constantinople, was a contemporary of St Constantine the Great (306-337). His father, Dometius, was a brother of the Roman emperor Probus (276-282). Seeing the falseness of the pagan religion, Dometius came to believe in Christ. During a time of terrible persecution of Christians at Rome, St Dometius set off to Byzantium with two of his sons, Probus and Metrophanes. They were instructed in the law of the Lord by Bishop Titus, a man of holy life. Seeing the ardent desire of Dometius to labor for the Lord, St Titus ordained him presbyter. After the death of Titus first Dometius (272-303) was elevated to the bishop's throne, and thereafter his sons, Probus (303-315) and in 316 St Metrophanes.

The emperor Constantine once came to Byzantium, and was delighted by the beauty and comfortable setting of the city. And having seen the holiness of life and sagacity of St Metrophanes, the emperor took him back to Rome. Soon Constantine the Great transferred the capital from Rome to Byzantium and he brought St Metrophanes there. The First Ecumenical Council was convened in 325 to resolve the Arian heresy. Constantine the Great had the holy Fathers of the Council bestow upon St Metrophanes the title of Patriarch. Thus, the saint became the first Patriarch of Constantinople.

St Metrophanes was very old, and was not able to be present at the Council, and he sent in his place the chorepiscopos (vicar bishop) Alexander. At the close of the Council the emperor and the holy Fathers visited with the ailing Patriarch. At the request of the emperor, the saint named a worthy successor to himself, Bishop Alexander. He foretold that Paul (at that time a Reader) would succeed to the patriarchal throne after Alexander. He also revealed to Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria that his successor would be the archdeacon St Athanasius.
St Metrophanes reposed in the year 326, at age 117. His relics rest at Constantinople in a church dedicated to him.
It should be noted that the Canons to the Holy Trinity in the Midnight Office in the Octoechos were not composed by this Metrophanes, but by Bishop Metrophanes of Smyrna, who lived in the middle of the ninth century.
St. Rutilius and Companions group of martyrs put to death at Sabaria, in the province of Pannonia during the Roman persecutions
In Pannónia sanctórum Mártyrum Rútili et Sociórum.    In Hungary, the holy martyrs Rutilus and his companions.
St. Quirinus A relatively unknown martyr put to death at Tivoli, Italy, and mentioned in the Roman Martyrology under the same feast day as the Quirinus of Pannonia
Tíbure sancti Quiríni Mártyris.      At Tivoli, St Quirinus, martyr.
 Martyrs of Niculitsel graves of Saints Zoticus, Atallus, Camisius and Philip were discovered in 1971.

Lesser Scythia (modern Romania), between the Danube and the Black Sea in the northeastern territory of the Roman Empire, was a place of exile or death for Christians who refused to worship the pagan gods. During the persecutions of Decius (249-251), Diocletian and Maximilian (284-305), and Licinius (308-324) thousands of people died there from cold, hunger, or torture. The relics of those who endured martyrdom because they openly proclaimed their faith in Christ were taken by Christians and buried in secret places. Accounts of the lives and sufferings of these holy martyrs were written and preserved so they would not be forgotten. When the persecutions ended, the relics were moved from their temporary resting places and placed in special crypts (martyria). Churches were built over these crypts, and the ruins of some of them may be seen today in Dobrogea.

In September 1971 a creek overflowed its banks near the village of Niculitsel in the county of Tulcea, revealing one of the oldest of these martyria. The crypt, which is made of bricks, is divided into two rooms, one on top of the other. In the upper room, the relics of four martyrs were found in a single wooden coffin. All had been decapitated. The heads of three martyrs were found atop their necks, while the head of the fourth martyr was resting on his chest. An inscription on the left wall reads: "Christ's martyrs." The names of the four martyrs (Zoticus, Attalus, Camasius, and Philip) were scratched into the right wall.

According to the records which have been preserved, these martyrs were tried by the Roman authorities of Noviodunum (modern Isaccea) and sentenced to death. They were beheaded, then buried at Niculitsel. The exact date of their martyrdom is not known. Some believe that they were slain early in the fourth century during the persecutions of Diocletian or Licinius. Others, however, think the four men may have been martyred north of the Danube during the persecution of the Gothic king Athanaric (370-372) against the Christians.

About a hundred fragments of the bones of two men (aged between 45-50) were found in the lower crypt. It is thought that they died during the persecution of Decius, and then their relics were reinterred at Niculitsel around 370-380. The names of these martyrs are not known.

The Syrian Martyrologion and St Jerome's Martyrologion give June 4 as the date of the martyrs' execution. The Synaxaria list these four martyrs along with six others: Eutychius, Quirinus, Julia, Saturninus, Ninita, Fortunio. Twenty-five others were also beheaded with these martyrs, but are not named.  The relics of these holy martyrs were moved to the Cocosh Monastery in 1971, where they are venerated by the faithful.
387 St. Optatus of Milevis Bishop of Milevis, Numidia, in Africa a convert from paganism best known for his opposition to the heresy of Donatism and his six treatises composed against them
Milévi, in Numídia, sancti Optáti Epíscopi, doctrína et sanctitáte conspícui, quem sancti Ecclésiæ Patres Augustínus et Fulgéntius suis láudibus celebrárunt.
    At Milevi in Numidia, St. Optatus, bishop, celebrated for his learning and holiness.  The holy Fathers of the Church, Augustine and Fulgentius, prasied him highly.
387 ST OPTATUS, Bishop OF Milevis
ONE of the most illustrious champions of the Church during the fourth century was St Optatus, a bishop of Milevis in Numidia. St Augustine styles him a prelate of venerable memory who was by his virtue an ornament to the Catholic Church, and in another passage he couples him with St Cyprian and St Hilary, converts like Optatus from paganism. St Fulgentius not only honours him with the title of saint, but places him in the same rank as St Ambrose and St Augustine.
  He was the first bishop to attempt in his writings to refute the errors of the Donatists, who were rending the Church in Africa by their schism, setting up a rival hierarchy, repudiating the validity of the orders as well as of the sacraments of Catholics, and declaring that they alone were the true Church of Christ. Their claims were set forth and published in a treatise written by one of their bishops, a man of ability named Parmenian. To expose the fallacy of these claims, St Optatus, about the year 370, brought out a book, to which he added some fifteen years later, when he appears to have revised his earlier work. The treatise of Parmenian has long since perished, but that of St Optatus is extant. Written in vigorous and spirited terms, it breathes a conciliatory spirit, for the bishop, though he denounces schism as a greater sin than parricide, is primarily concerned with winning over his opponents.
Throughout he makes a clear distinction between heretics, “deserters or falsifiers of the creed”, who have no true sacraments or worship, and schismatics, rebellious Christians who have true sacraments derived from a common source. Whilst agreeing with Parmenian that there is only one church, he points out that one of its essential marks is universality, or catholicity in extension. He asks how the Donatists can claim to be The Church—cooped up as they are in one corner of Africa and in one very small colony in Rome. Another of the Church’s prerogatives is the chair of Peter “which”, says he, “is ours”. “Peter sat first in this chair and was succeeded by Linus.” He then gives a list of popes (incorrect) from the earliest times to the reigning pontiff Siricius, “with whom”, he says, “we and the world are united...It was to Peter that Jesus Christ declared ‘I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven and the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee.’ By what right do you claim the keys—you who presume to contend against Peter’s chair? You cannot deny that the episcopal chair was originally given to Peter in the city of Rome that he sat there first as head of the Apostles that this chair was one-—-unity being maintained through union with it that the other apostles did not claim rival chairs and that only schismatics have ever ventured to do so.”
In opposition to the teaching of the Donatists he sets forth the Catholic doctrine that sacraments are holy in themselves and that their operation is not dependent on the character of those who administer them.
As regards the connection between church and state, he declares that the state is not in the Church, but the Church is in the state, i.e. the Roman Empire. In treating of original sin and the necessity for baptismal regeneration, he alludes to the exorcism and anointing which took place at baptisms. He also describes the ceremonies used at Mass, which he speaks of as a sacrifice, and he mentions the penances which the Church exacted in his day and the veneration then paid to relics.
Nothing further is known of the history of St Optatus: he was living in 384, but the date of his death is not recorded. His name was added to the Roman Martyrology by Baronius.
There is a short notice of St Optatus in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, but little in­formation was obtainable regarding his personal history. His writings, however, present many points of interest, which have been discussed by scholars in recent times. See, for example, 0. R. Vassall-Phillips, The Work of St Optatus against the Donatists (1911); L. Duchesne, in Mélanges d’Archéologie et d’Histoire (1890), pp. 589—650; N. H. Baynes, in Journal of Theological Studies (1924), pp. 37—44, and (1925), pp. 404—406 P. Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l’Afrique chrétienne, vol. v; and cf. A. Wilmart iii Recherches (1922), pp. 271—302, and in Revue Bénédictine, vol. xli (1929), pp. 197—203; Gebhardt, Acta Mar­tyrum Selecta (1902), pp. 187 seq.; and Abbot Chapman in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. xi.
One of them, Against Parmenian, is still extant, and was mentioned by St. Jerome in his De Viris Illustribus as having been composed in six books.  The treatise stresses the need for unity and is conciliatory in tone, but it criticizes Donatist teachings on Baptism, and stresses that the Church cannot be limited to Africa but is “catholic.”
Optatus was much praised by such contemporaries as Augustine and Fulgentius of Ruspe.
5th v. Saint Zosimus, Bishop of Babylon, was born in Cilicia (Asia Minor) settled on Mount Sinai, and later he withdrew to a more solitary place in Lebanon
While still a youth he left the world and settled on Mount Sinai, and later he withdrew to a more solitary place in Lebanon. One time he encountered an elderly ascetic, who foretold that he would be bishop in Babylon. When Zosimus returned to Sinai, he was sent on an errand to Alexandria. The Patriarch of Alexandria made him Bishop of Babylon, and into old age he wisely guided his flock. Sensing the approach of death, he returned to Sinai and peacefully fell asleep in the Lord .
6th v. St. Buriana Irish hermitess of Cornwall, known for penitential practices and holiness. She is venerated at Buryan, opposite the Isles of Scilly.
5th-6th v. St. Breaca Disciple of St. Brigid went from Ireland to Cornwall, England, about 460 Breaca and her companions settled on the bank of the Hoyle River.
also called Breque, Branca, and Branka.
564 St. Petroc Welsh became a monk and with some of his friends, went to Ireland to study pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem known for his miracles
6th v. ST PETROC, ABBOT
THE numerous churches in Devon and several in Cornwall dedicated to God in honour of St Petroc show in how great esteem this saint was formerly held in Dumnonia. A Welshman by birth, he came south with some of his followers during the sixth century, and made his headquarters in the monastic buildings of Lanwethinoc, founded by the holy bishop Wethinoc. Afterwards, when the cultus of St Petroc displaced that of Wethinoc, Lanwethinoc became Padristowe, and ultimately Padstow. Some time before the eleventh century the monks moved to Bodmin, taking St Petroc’s body with them, and the centre of his cultus was hence-forward there. In 1177 the relics were stolen by one of the canons of Bodmin priory, who gave them to the abbey of Saint-Méen in Brittany, but King Henry II, to whom the prior of Bodmin appealed, obliged this community to restore them. Thereupon, according to the Chronicles of Roger of Hoveden and Benedict of Peterborough, “the above-named prior of Bodmin, returning to England with joy, brought back the body of blessed Petroc in an ivory shrine”.[ * The annual ‘‘riding”‘ custom at Bodmin was apparently in commemoration (If this restoration. See A. K. Hamilton Jenkin, Cornwall and Its People (1945), pp. 466—469.]
This shrine or reliquary was the gift of Walter of Coutances, and there were put therein the skull and other adjacent bones, the rest being enclosed in a wooden coffin. In the eighteenth century this reliquary was discovered in the room over the south porch of Bodmin church, where it had been hidden at the Reformation. It has now found a safe but incongruous resting-place in a local bank. The medieval life of St Petroc written at Saint-Méen seems to be simply a copy of one composed probably at Bodmin priory—a collection of legends compiled from an earlier biography, embodying a certain amount of Cornish folklore.
According to this composition St Petroc was the son of a Welsh “king”, the grandfather of St Cadoc. He and some of his friends became monks and repaired to Ireland, where they studied for some years. They then took ship to Cornwall, to the estuary of the river Camel, where St Petroc proceeded to visit first the holy hermit Samson (perhaps the St Samson) and then St Wethinoc, who yielded up his residence to him and his companions. After living a most austere life in that place for thirty years, St Petroc is said to have made a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, and even to have reached the Indian ocean, where he spent some time on a tiny island. After his return to Cornwall he spent his time in prayer and in deeds of charity to man and beast. Thus we read that he healed many sick persons, tamed a terrible and destructive monster, prescribed successfully for a poor dragon which came to him with a splinter in its eye, and not only saved the life of a stag, which took refuge with him from its pursuers, but also converted the hunter and his attendants. Another story tells that once when Petroc and Wethinoc were “conversing sweetly together about heavenly things” a handsome cloak fell between them from Heaven. And when, “‘eager to give one another precedence‘, each offered it to the other and in holy contention piled reason upon reason why the other should have it, straightway it was taken away before their eyes. And at once two cloaks appeared, one for each”.
Further particulars, some of them more convincing, can he extracted from a version of the Saint-Méen life made by a canon at Bodmin, included in a fourteenth-century manuscript found at Gotha in Germany in 1937. According to this, Petroc built a chapel and a mill at Little Petherick, near Padstow, at a spot afterwards known as Nanceventon. After his return from the East he established himself here with some of his brethren. Later he withdrew to the recesses of Bodmin Moor, where a hermit named Wronus (Guron) gave up his cell to him, and here he was again joined by some brethren. When he foresaw his end was at hand, Petroc went to say farewell to the communities at Nanceventon and Lanwethinoc; between the two places his strength failed and he turned into the house of one Rovel, where he died. The present farmhouse called Treravel must be close to the spot.

There is a considerable literature connected with St Petroc, as the references in DNB. (under Pedrog), DCB and LBS, alone suffice to show. By far the best and most critical account of the unpromising materials is Canon Doble’s St Petroc, the 3rd edition of which (1938) takes account of the vita in the Gotha MS. See also “Grimspound, a Dartmoor Laura”, by Abbot Vonier, in The Month, March, 1928, pp. 193—200, and “St Petroc’s Cell on Bodmin Moor”, by Dom J. Stonor, in the Downside Review, no. 203 (1948), pp. 64—74.  The medieval priory at Bodmin housed Austin canons regular, so it is fitting that the same canons should have their English novitiate there to-day. The Catholic churches at Padstow and Bodmin bear St Petroc’s name. The long account in the Gotha MS. of the theft and return of the saint’s relics is translated in G. H, Doble’s The Relics of St Petroc, reprinted from Antiquity, December 1939, pp. 403—415. The text is to be printed in Analecta Bollandiana.

Born in 490 Petroc was born in Wales, possibly the son of a Welsh king. He became a monk and with some of his friends, went to Ireland to study. They immigrated to Cornwall in England and settled at Lanwethinoc (Padstow). After thirty years there, he made a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, at which time he is also reputed to have reached the Indian ocean where he lived for some time as a hermit on an island.  He then returned to Cornwall, built a chapel at Little Petherick near Padstow, established a community of his followers, and then became a hermit at Bodmir Moor, where he again attracted followers and was known for his miracles. He died between Nanceventon and Lanwethinoc while visiting some of his disciples there.
6th v. St. Croidan disciple of St. Petroc with St. Medan and Degan. 
St. Nennoc British virgin. She served as an abbess of a convent in Armorica, France, after following St. Germanus of Auxerre there.
8th v. St. Alexander Bishop of Verona, Italy
Verónæ sancti Alexándri Epíscopi.      At Verona, St. Alexander, bishop.
Saint Sophia was born in Aenus, Rhodope mother of six children occupied with worldly cares and responsibilities still kept the commandments of God and lived a virtuous life.
After her children died, she became a mother to orphans, and gave assistance to widows. She sold her property and gave the money to the poor. She led an austere life, eating bread and water. The Psalms of the Prophet-King David were always on her lips, and tears flowed continuously from her eyes. She would do without the necessities of life herself rather than allow a poor person to leave her home with empty hands.

Because of her humility and her love for the poor, God blessed her in the following way. In her home was a container of wine which she reserved for the poor. She noticed that no matter how much she took from the container, it remained full. However, as soon as she told someone about the miracle and glorified God, the container became empty. St Sophia became sorrowful, believing that the wine diminished because of her unworthiness. Therefore, she increased her ascetical efforts until her health suffered.  Sensing that the end of her life was near, she received the monastic tonsure. St Sophia fell asleep in the Lord at the age of fifty-three.

Saint Sophia  {Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America }
Every mother wins the “Mother of the Year” award in her own family, but if a vote were taken for the “Mother of the Thousand Years of the Byzantine Empire,” the unanimous choice would be a valiant woman named Sophia who turned a personal tragedy into a triumph of the spirit in the name of the Lord and so glorified His name in her every thought and deed that she was sainted by popular acclaim. She symbolizes motherhood in the purest sense, sanctifying the role all mothers play in the daily grind of raising a family, elevating the mothers of the world to a sacred level in the eyes of God and giving them their due recognition in the divine plan of the universe. A woman acquires a spark of divine grace in bearing a child, and thereafter in caring for it she labors not only for herself but for the property of the Almighty as well, for we are the children of God.

The Noble Sophia came into the world with every advantage, including wealth of beauty and intelligence, as well as an abiding faith in Jesus Christ, and at maturity she left nothing to be desired as a model wife. When she married, she took leave of her parents to make a home of her own with the prayer that she would be blessed with children, a prayer which was answered. She became the mother of six children, all of whom she loved deeply and none of whom lacked the religious fervor of their mother.

It was in her thirty-fourth year, when her happiness knew no bounds, that her greatest joy turned to stark tragedy. A plague swept over the land and she watched helplessly as one by one her children died; and when the pestilence had spent itself she had lost all of her loved ones, including her husband. In numbing grief she yearned to be stricken and join her family in death, but then her Christian faith asserted itself, reminding her that there was much she could do, not only for the Lord but in memory of her family. She returned to her empty house intent upon putting it to good use, and her life thereafter came to be a total commitment to the glory of the Savior.

She lost no time in seeking out the clergy of the community and announcing plans to dispense her wealth among the poor, keeping enough to maintain her house, which she hoped would shelter underprivileged or orphaned children. In a span of twenty years, Sophia’s house became a haven not only for little wanderers but for the dispossessed on any age as well. She actually adopted over one hundred children in this period, raising each of them as though it were her own child and sending them out into the world full of the love of Jesus Christ and quite prepared to make a useful place in society. She came to be known as the “Mother of Orphans,” marveled at by other mothers of the empire whose burdens were made lighter when they compared their cares and worries to those of the woman who had the strength and grace to make her life worthwhile after suffering a loss that would have overwhelmed the average mother.

Many stories of tenderness and sacrifice are attached to Sophia but the one that stands out as an example of her proximity to God is the one concerning the bottomless wine pitcher, if it can be called that. Her hospitality extended to all comers, and when adults sought refuge in her house she customarily poured them a glass of rare vintage from a Grecian urn. After she had first filled the urn, she noticed that no matter how much she dispensed for her guests, the wine was always at the same level when she went to use it again. At first she presumed that someone had surreptitiously refilled the urn when she was otherwise engaged, but she soon realized that it was a phenomenon that could not be explained. She mentioned it, however, to no one.
1015 St. Elsiar Benedictine monk at Saint-Savin Monastery in Lavedan.
1150 St. Walter Benedictine abbot English served as a monk and then abbot of Fontenelle, France, the famed Benedictine spiritual center. Pope Innocent II (r. 1130-1143) noted his zeal and holiness.
1176 St. Cornelius Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland Irishman, he joined the Augustinians at Armagh died returning from a pilgrimage to Rome
Also called Cornelius Mac Conchailleadh or McConchailleach. An Irishman, he joined the Augustinians at Armagh in 1140 and was made abbot in 1151. In 1174, he was made bishop. Cornelius died in Canbery, Savoy, France, while returning from a pilgrimage to Rome.
1250 St. Walter Benedictine hermit, abbot, and the founder and first abbot of the monastery of Serviliano in the Marches of Ancona, Italy. This monastery was involved in the renaissance of the spirit that was pioneered by religious orders in that era.
St. Saturnina virgin martyr reportedly a maiden from Germany who journeyed to France and there died while defending herself against some attack upon her chastity
Atrébati, in Gálliis, sanctæ Saturnínæ, Vírginis et Mártyris.    At Arras in France, St. Saturnina, virgin and martyr.
1392 Saint Methodius, Igumen of Peshnosha founder of the Peshnosha monastery under guidance St Sergius of Radonezh
In his youth he went to St Sergius of Radonezh and spent several years under his guidance. Later on, with the blessing of St Sergius, he withdrew to a solitary place and built himself a cell in the forest beyond the River Yakhroma. Soon several disciples came to him in this marshy place, wishing to imitate his life. St Sergius visited him and advised him to build a monastery and church. St Methodius himself toiled at the construction of the church and the cells, "on foot carrying" wood along the river, and from that time the monastery began to be called "the Peshnosha."

In 1391 St Methodius became igumen of this monastery. At times he withdrew two versts from the monastery and struggled in prayer. Here also St Sergius came to him for spiritual conversation, therefore this spot became known as "Beseda" ("Conversation-place").

St Methodius died in 1392 and was buried at the monastery he founded. A church dedicated to Sts Sergius of Radonezh and Methodius of Peshnosha was built over his relics in 1732. The beginning of his local veneration dates from the late seventeenth - early eighteenth centuries. 
St Macarius is also commemorated on June 14.

1608 St. Francis Caracciolo priest Founder of the Minor Clerks Regular with St. John Augustine Adorno
Agnóni, in Aprútio citerióre, sancti Francísci, ex nóbili Neapolitána família Carácciolo, Confessóris, Congregatiónis Clericórum Regulárium Minórum Fundatóris, qui mira in Deum et próximum caritáte et ardentíssimo sacræ Eucharístiæ cultus propagándi stúdio flagrávit; atque a Pio Séptimo, Pontífice Máximo, Sanctórum cánoni adscríptus est.  Ipsíus corpus Neápolim, in Campánia, translátum fuit, ibíque religiosíssime cólitur.
    At Agnone in Abruzzo, St. Francis of the noble Neapolitan family Caracciolo, confessor, and founder of the Congregation of Minor Clerks Regular.  He burned with an admirable love of God and of neighbour, and a most ardent desire to spread devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist.  His body was taken to Naples in Campania, where it is religiously honoured.  He was inscribed in the catalogue of the saints by Pius VII.
1608 ST FRANCIS CARACCIOLO, FOUNDER OF THE MINOR CLERKS REGULAR
THE saint whom the Church specially honours on this day was born on October 13, 1563, at Villa Santa Maria, in the Abruzzi. His father belonged to the Pisquizio. branch of the Neapolitan princes of Caraccioli, and his mother's family could claim relationship with St Thomas Aquinas. In his baptism he received the name of Ascanio. Well trained by pious parents, he grew up fulfilling their highest hopes, a devout and charitable young man. In other respects he lived the usual life of a young nobleman in the country, being addicted to sport, especially hunting.
When he was twenty-two, he developed a skin disease which seemed akin to leprosy and it soon assumed so virulent a form that his case was considered hopeless. With death staring him in the face, he vowed that if he regained his health he would devote the rest of his life to God and to the service of his fellow men. He recovered so speedily that the cure was held to be miraculous. Eager to carry out his promise, he went to Naples to study for the priesthood. After his ordination he joined a confraternity called the Bianchi della Giustizia, the members of which were specially concerned with caring for prisoners and with preparing condemned criminals to die a holy death. It was a fitting prelude to the career which was about to disclose itself to the young priest.
In the year 1588, John Augustine Adorno, a Genoese patrician who had taken holy orders, was inspired with the idea of founding an association of priests pledged to combine the active with the contemplative life. He consulted Fabriccio Caracciolo, the dean of the collegiate church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Naples, and a letter inviting the co-operation of another Ascanio Caracciolo-a distant kinsman-was by mistake delivered to our saint. So entirely, however, did Adorno's aspirations coincide with his own, that the recipient at once recognized in the apparent error the finger of God, and hastened to associate himself with Adorno. By way of preparation they made a forty-days' retreat in the Camaldolese settlement near Naples where, after a strict fast and earnest prayer, they drew up rules for the proposed order. Then, as soon as their company numbered twelve, Caracciolo and Adorno went to Rome to obtain the approval of the sovereign pontiff. On June I, 1588, Sixtus V solemnly ratified their new society, under the title of the Minor Clerks Regular, and on April 9 of the following year, the two founders made their solemn profession, Caracciolo taking the name of Francis, out of devotion to the great saint of Assisi. In addition to the usual three vows, the members of the new association took a fourth, viz. never to seek any office of dignity either within the order or outside it. To ensure unceasing penance, it was decided that each day one brother should fast on bread and water, another should take the discipline, and a third should wear the hair shirt. In the same manner, St Francis, either at this period or when he became superior, decreed that everyone should spend an hour a day in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
No sooner had Francis and Adorno settled their companions in a house in a suburb of Naples than the two set off for Spain in compliance with the pope's desire that they should establish themselves there, seeing that it was a country with which Adorno was well acquainted. However, the time was not yet ripe: the court of Madrid would not allow them to found a house, and they had to return without attaining their object. On the way home they were shipwrecked, but when they reached Naples they discovered that their new foundation had not been allowed to suffer in their absence. Indeed, the house could not contain all who wished to enter and soon afterwards they were invited to take over Santa Maria Maggiore, the former superior of which, Fabriccio Caracciolo, had become one of their number. The Minor Clerks Regular worked mainly as missioners, but some of them devoted themselves to priestly work in hospitals and prisons. They also had places which they called hermitages for those who felt called to a life of contemplation.
St Francis contracted a serious illness, from which he had scarcely recovered when he had the great grief of losing his friend Adorno, who died at the age of forty, shortly after his return from a visit to Rome in connection with the affairs of the institute of which he was superior. Very much against his wishes, Francis was chosen to take his place; he thought himself unworthy of holding office, and habitually signed his letters Franciscus Peccator. He insisted on taking his turn with the others in sweeping rooms, making beds and washing up in the kitchen, and the few hours he gave to sleep were passed on a table or on one of the altar-steps. The poor, whom he loved, knew that they could find him every morning in his confessional. For them he would beg in the streets, with them he would share the greater part of his scanty meals, and sometimes in winter he would even give away his outer garments. In the interest of his society he paid a second and a third visit to Spain in the years 1595 and 1598, and succeeded in founding houses in Madrid, Valladolid and Alcala.
For seven years Francis was obliged to retain the position of general superior, though it was a severe strain upon him, not only because he was a delicate man, but because in establishing and extending the order he found himself and his brethren faced by opposition, misrepresentation, and sometimes by malicious calumnies. At last he obtained permission from Pope Clement VIII to resign, and then he became prior of Santa Maria Maggiore and novice-master. He still carried on his apostolic work in the confessional and in the pulpit, discoursing so constantly and movingly on the divine goodness to man that he was called "The Preacher of the Love of God”. We are also told that with the sign of the cross he restored health to many sick persons.
In 1607 he was relieved of all administrative duties and was allowed to give himself to contemplation and to preparing for death. He chose as his cell a recess under the staircase of the Neapolitan house and was often found lying there in ecstasy with outstretched arms. It was in vain that the pope offered him bishoprics; he had never desired dignities and now his eyes and heart were directed only towards Heaven. But he was not destined to die in Naples. St Philip Neri had offered the Minor Clerks Regular a house at Agnone, in the Abruzzi, as a novitiate, and it was thought desirable that St Francis should go to help with the new foundation. On his way he visited Loreto, where he was granted the favour of spending the night in prayer in the chapel of the Holy House. As he was invoking our Lady's help on behalf of his brethren, Adorno appeared to him in a dream or vision, and announced his approaching death. He arrived at Agnone apparently in his usual health, but he himself was under no illusion. On the first day of June he was seized with a fever which rapidly increased, and he dictated a fervent letter in which he urged the members of the society to remain faithful to the rule. He then seemed absorbed in meditation until ail hour before sunset when he suddenly cried out, "Let us go ! Let us go!" "And where do you want to go, Brother Francis?" inquired one of the watchers. "To Heaven! To Heaven!" came the answer in clear and triumphant accents. Scarcely had the words been uttered when the wish was realized, and the speaker passed to his reward. He was forty-four years of age.
St Francis was canonized in 1807. His order of Minor Clerks Regular was at one time a very flourishing body, but to-day it is hardly known outside of Italy, where there are a few small communities.
A considerable number of lives of St Francis Caracciolo were published in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; for example, those by Vives (1654), Pistelli (1701), and Cencelli (1769). In more modern times we have a biography by Ferrante (1862), and in 1908 a book entitled Terzo Centenario di S. Francesco Caracciolo, by G. Taglialatela. A good account of the rise and development of the Minor Clerks Regular is given in M. Heimbucher's Orden und Kongregationen…, third edition.
He was born in 1563, a member of a noble Neapolitan family. Though he had a rare skin disease, much like leprosy, Francis became a priest, at which time his skin disease disappeared. In 1588, he co-founded the Minor Clerks Regular and spent the rest of his life as the superior. He was canonized in 1807. His cult is now confined to local calendars.
Archbishop Andronicus of Perm The holy New Martyr was an outspoken critic of the Communist decree which ordered the separation of Church and State
Upon reading the Moscow Overland Assembly's instructions on the matter, Archbishop Andronicus ordered his archdeacon to anathematize the Communists. The Archbishop was arrested, shot by two members of the Perm CHEKA, then buried on the road from Perm to Motoviliha.

Bishop Theophanes, an assistant to Archbishop Andronicus, was also arrested about this time. He was then drowned in the River Kama. When they learned of the execution of the Perm bishops, the Moscow Church Assembly sent a special commission, headed by Bishop Basil of Chernigov, to investigate their murder. The Communists, however, took steps to conceal the facts from the investigators.

As the members of the commission were on their way back to Moscow, their train was attacked by Red soldiers somewhere between Perm and Viatka. Bishop Basil and the others were killed, and their bodies were thrown from the coach. The bodies were buried by peasants, but were later dug up and burned by the Communists when pilgrims began flocking to the graves.

1847 ST VINCENTIA GEROSA, VIRGIN, CO-FOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF LOVERE
UNDER July 26 will be found an account of St Bartholomea Capitanio, foundress of the “Suore della Carità” of Lovere—an institute closely resembling both in its spirit and its activities the world-famous Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
   In the work of giving life to this project Bartholomea was assisted from the first by a companion much older than herself, who was also a native of Lovere. Catherine Gerosa—the name Vincentia only came to her when she assumed the habit of a nun—had been born in 1784 and for forty years had led a most holy life, devoted almost entirely to works of charity and the domestic duties which had devolved upon her after the early death of her parents. It seems to have been in 1823 or 1824 that she was brought into intimate contact with Bartholomea Capitanio, both of them having been deeply moved by an appeal of Mgr Nava, bishop of Brescia, who called for volunteers to help in rescue work, especially through the education of the young. This was at the time sadly neglected in that part of Italy under Austrian rule. Though Catherine Gerosa’s attrait was rather in the direction of the service of the sick and poor, she was persuaded to join forces with her younger friend who felt specially called to the work of instructing children.

In the end both aims were combined in the institute which they planned in close dependence upon the rule of the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. They would gladly have affiliated themselves to the great French order, but the political theories of the then government refused recognition of any organization which depended upon foreign control. The work prospered astonishingly, despite the lack of all resources and despite the death in 1833 of the more active of its foundresses at the early age of twenty-six. But Vincentia, though she had to carry on alone, was truly possessed by the spirit of God. She seems also to have been an admirable organizer and under her rule recruits and new foundations continued to multiply. She herself was the humblest of creatures and found the marks of respect paid to her a great trial. She turned continually to the remembrance of our Lord’s sufferings on the cross for strength and guidance. Hence she used to say, “He who has not learnt, what the crucifix means knows nothing, and he who knows his crucifix has nothing more to learn”. After a long illness most patiently borne, Mother Vincentia died on June 29, 1847. She was canonized in 1950.
Fr Luigi Mazza, s.j. who published in 1905 a full account of Bd Bartholomea Capitanio and her institute, supplemented this in 1910 with a Life of Mother Vincenza Gerosa. The decree of beatification (in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxv, 1933, pp. 300—303) includes a biographical summary. See also Kempf, The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 204—207.
1886 Charles Lwanga and Companions; One of 22 Ugandan martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of tropical Africa.
   
He protected his fellow pages (aged 13 to 30) from the homosexual demands of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga, and encouraged and instructed them in the Catholic faith during their imprisonment for refusing the ruler’s demands.

For his own unwillingness to submit to the immoral acts and his efforts to safeguard the faith of his friends, Charles was burned to death at Namugongo on June 3, 1886, by Mwanga’s order.

Charles first learned of Christ’s teachings from two retainers in the court of Chief Mawulugungu. While a catechumen, he entered the royal household as assistant to Joseph Mukaso, head of the court pages.

On the night of Mukaso’s martyrdom for encouraging the African youths to resist Mwanga, Charles requested and received Baptism. Imprisoned with his friends, Charles’s courage and belief in God inspired them to remain chaste and faithful.

When Pope Paul VI canonized these 22 martyrs on October 18, 1964, he referred to the Anglican pages martyred for the same reason.

Comment: Like Charles Lwanga, we are all teachers and witnesses to Christian living by the examples of our own lives. We are all called upon to spread the word of God, whether by word or deed. By remaining courageous and unshakable in our faith during times of great moral and physical temptation, we live as Christ lived. Quote: On his African tour in 1969, Pope Paul VI told 22 young Ugandan converts that "being a Christian is a fine thing but not always an easy one."


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 34

When I called upon thee, thou didst hear me, O Lady:
and from thy throne on high thou hast deigned to be mindful of me.

From the roaring of the wild beasts prepared to devour me:
 and from the hands of them that sought me, thy grace will deliver me.

For thy mercy is kind and thy heart loving: towards all who invoke thy holy name.

Blessed art thou, O Lady, forever: and thy majesty for evermore.

Glorify her, all ye nations in your strength: and all ye peoples of the earth, extol her magnificence.


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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


Records on life of Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, presented at Vatican
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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.
 
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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).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China
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May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
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Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, PSALTER  BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 34 2022