Tuesday Saints of this Day March  07 Nonis Mártii. 
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!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
March is the month of Saint Joseph since 1855;
2023
22.600 lives saved since 2007

http://www.haitian-childrens-fund.org/
For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

The saints are a “cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
Surety of Sinners Theotokos Miracle working Icon

 Pope Francis  PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR MARCH 2023

 March – For victims of abuse
“We pray for those who have suffered harm from members of the Church; may they find within the Church herself a concrete response to their pain and suffering.”

“If Children Are Seen as a Burden, Something Is Wrong”
A society that does not like to be surrounded by children and considers them a concern, a weight, or a risk, is a depressed society.  
“When life multiplies, society is enriched, not impoverished.”
Children are a gift of society, never a possession. Pope Francis

March 07 - Apparition of the Madonna Del Monte Berico (Italy, 1426)
Mary Stopped the Plague in Monte Berico (I)
A precious manuscript, kept in the Bertoliana Vicenza Library of Veneto (#1430), tells in great detail the events that occurred in this city of northern Italy, "shaken and decimated" by a terrible plague between 1426 and 1430. On March 7, 1426, Vincenza Parisi, 70 years of age, saw a "lady" on the hill of Monte Berico, who had the appearance of a beautiful queen, wearing clothes more resplendent than the sun and surrounded by a thousand perfumes. Faced with so much beauty, she felt weak and fell to the ground. Then, the beautiful lady lifted her up and said, "I am the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ who died on the Cross for the salvation of mankind. I ask you on my behalf to go to the people of Vicenza and ask them to build a church here in my honor, if they want to recover their health. Otherwise the plague will not cease." Vincenza asked, "But the people will not believe me. And where shall I find, O glorious Mother, the money to do these things?"
"You must insist that the people execute my will," said the Virgin. "Otherwise they will never be freed from the plague and if the people do not obey, they will see my Son angry with them." And she continued: "As proof of what I am saying, let the people dig here and from the hard, dry rock, water will flow, and construction will barely have begun when the money to pay for everything will not fail to arrive." She drew the location where the church should be built on the ground with an olive branch. This spot is now the exact location of the shrine's main altar.
"All those who visit the church with devotion," she added, "on the occasion of my feast days and on the first Sunday of each month will receive the gift of abundant graces and God's mercy and the blessing of my maternal hand."
Vincenza went down to the city and told her story but nobody believed her;
even the bishop, Pietro Emiliani, dismissed her by saying that she had lost her mind.
According to article  Pina Baglioni, published in the magazine "30 Days" Quotation #1430, Bertoliana Vicenza Library
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

March 7 – Apparition of the Madonna Del Monte Berico to Vicenza Pasini (Italy, 1426) 
 
Honor the Virgin Mary and you will live
 From 1426 to 1430, the city of Vicenza, in northern Italy, was ravaged by the plague. On March 7, 1426, 70-year-old resident Vincenza Parisi saw, on the hill of Monte Berico, near Vicenza, "a queen wearing shining garments and surrounded by a thousand perfumes." Vincenza fainted at the sight!
The apparition raised herself up and said, "I am the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ who died on the cross for the salvation of men. I would like you to go tell the people of Vicenza on my behalf to build a church here in my honor, if they want to recover, otherwise the plague will continue to rage."
On August 25, 1428, the construction of the shrine began. The first church was finished the next fall. In 1429, the Brothers of Saint Bridget of Venice built a convent near the shrine. In 1430, the apparition was the object of an investigation that led to a positive conclusion.

Vincenza bears much significance for the Order of Servites. The image that is revered there is a "Mother of Mercy" depicting Mary in the act of protecting the faithful under her cloak.  www.mariedenazareth.com
 
March 7 – Apparition of the Madonna Del Monte Berico (Italy, 1426)
 
There is Only One Heart: "Jesus and Mary"
 Mary is compassion. She truly is, since the Son was suffering and they said that the Mother was next to Him and suffered too. Reading Saint John Eudes, I understood that there is only one Heart, that of "Jesus and Mary."
To have this spirit of compassion, we must have our heart pierced… We cannot do it to ourselves; we need to ask Mary to truly have our heart pierced. It is important to ask Mary, as she constantly stands by the Cross of the Lord,
suffers, and offers her compassion for Him.
She teaches us to be compassionate.  Pierre Goursat (1914-1991)
Founder of the Emmanuel Community in France.
Paroles (Collected Words), gathered and presented by Martine Catta. Editions de l’Emmanuel, Paris 2011.

I wish they would work as hard at this as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them.  This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God's will and his choice. They would cry out with all their heart:
Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do? -- St Francis Xavier
        Carthágine natális sanctárum Perpétuæ et Felicitátis Mártyrum
 308 Adrian and Eubulus of Caesarea  duo martyred at Caesarea, Palestine
 309 Basil, Ephraim, Eugene, Elpidius, Agathodorus, Aetherius, and Capiton Hieromartyrs
 339 St. Paul the Simple “Pride of the Desert,” hermit disciple of St. Anthony read minds cured sick
       Saint Emilian of Italy (in the world Victorinus)
       Pelúsii, in Ægypto, sancti Pauli Epíscopi
 445 Gaudiosus of Brescia bishop B (RM)
 520 St. Enodoch Welsh saint of the line of the chieftain Brychan of Brecknock  
 576 St. Drausinus Bishop of Soissons fostered monastic life shrine visited by St. Thomas Becket before his martyrdom
 688 Esterwine of Wearmouth celebrated for his gentleness  
       St. Deifer Welsh abbot and founder of Bodfare in Clwyd Wales
 840 St. Paul of Prusa  Bishop of Prusa in Bithynia, Asia Minor
 843 St. Ardo Benedictine abbot from Languedoc accompanied St. Benedict
 845 St. Theophylact Bishop of Nicomedia (in modern Turkey) an Asian charitable works and goodness
 850 Saint Paul the Confessor bishop of Prusa in the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor
1132 Blessed Volker of Siegburg missionary monk martyred by Obotrites
1170 Blessed Reinhard of Reinhausen headmaster of the abbey school
1178 Blessed Frowin II an ascetical writer of distinction Benedictine of Saint Blasien in the Black Forest
1274 St. Thomas Aquinas Philosopher, theologian, doctor of the Church (Angelicus Doctor), patron of Catholic universities, colleges, and schools.
        Floréntiæ, in Etrúria, sanctæ Terésiæ Margarítæ Redi, Vírginis
1544 Bl. John Ireland English martyr chaplain to St. Thomas More
1544 Blessed Jermyn Gardiner, martyr for opposing the religious supremacy of King Henry VIII of England
1850 Surety of Sinners Icon of the Mother of God  first glorified by miracles at the St Nicholas Odrino men's monastery of the former Orlov gubernia.

Carthágine natális sanctárum Perpétuæ et Felicitátis Mártyrum; e quibus Felícitas, cum esset prægnans (ut sanctus Augustínus ait), juxta leges exspectáta ut páreret, dum parturiébat, dolébat, objécta feris gaudébat.  Passi quoque sunt cum eis Sátyrus, Saturnínus, Revocátus et Secúndulus; quorum últimus quiévit in cárcere, réliqui omnes a váriis béstiis sunt vexáti, ac demum gladiórum íctibus confécti, sub Sevéro Príncipe, Sanctárum vero Perpétuæ et Felicitátis festum prídie hujus diéi recólitur.
      At Carthage, the birthday of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs.  St. Augustine relates that Felicity being with child, her execution was deferred , according to the law, until after her delivery.  He states that while she was in labour, she mourned, and when cast to the beasts, she rejoiced.  With them suffered Satyrus, Saturninus, Revocatus, and Secundulus, the last of whom died in prison; the others were delivered to the beasts, all during the reign of Severus.  The feast of Saints Perpetua and Felicity was celebrated yesterday.
 
March 7, 2010 Sts. Perpetua and Felicity (d. 203?) 
“When my father in his affection for me was trying to turn me from my purpose by arguments and thus weaken my faith, I said to him, ‘Do you see this vessel—waterpot or whatever it may be? Can it be called by any other name than what it is?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘So also I cannot call myself by any other name than what I am—a Christian.’”

So writes Perpetua, young, beautiful, well-educated, a noblewoman of Carthage, mother of an infant son and chronicler of the persecution of the Christians by Emperor Septimius Severus.
Despite threats of persecution and death, Perpetua, Felicity (a slavewoman and expectant mother) and three companions, Revocatus, Secundulus and Saturninus, refused to renounce their Christian faith. For their unwillingness, all were sent to the public games in the amphitheater. There, Perpetua and Felicity were beheaded, and the others killed by beasts.
Perpetua’s mother was a Christian and her father a pagan. He continually pleaded with her to deny her faith. She refused and was imprisoned at 22.
In her diary, Perpetua describes her period of captivity: “What a day of horror! Terrible heat, owing to the crowds! Rough treatment by the soldiers! To crown all, I was tormented with anxiety for my baby.... Such anxieties I suffered for many days, but I obtained leave for my baby to remain in the prison with me, and being relieved of my trouble and anxiety for him, I at once recovered my health, and my prison became a palace to me and I would rather have been there than anywhere else.”
Felicity gave birth to a girl a few days before the games commenced.
Perpetua’s record of her trial and imprisonment ends the day before the games. “Of what was done in the games themselves, let him write who will.” The diary was finished by an eyewitness.
Comment: Persecution for religious beliefs is not confined to Christians in ancient times. Consider Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who, with her family, was forced into hiding and later died in Bergen-Belsen, one of Hitler’s death camps during World War II. Anne, like Perpetua and Felicity, endured hardship and suffering and finally death because she committed herself to God. In her diary Anne writes, “It’s twice as hard for us young ones to hold our ground, and maintain our opinions, in a time when all ideals are being shattered and destroyed, when people are showing their worst side, and do not know whether to believe in truth and right and God."
Quote: Perpetua, unwilling to renounce Christianity, comforted her father in his grief over her decision, “It shall happen as God shall choose, for assuredly we depend not on our own power but on the power of God.“     
308 Adrian and Eubulus of Caesarea s duo martyred at Caesarea, Palestine M (RM)
Cæsaréæ, in Palæstína, pássio sancti Eubúli, qui fuit sócius sancti Hadriáni, atque, bíduo post illum, laniátus a leónibus et gládio trucidátus, martyrii corónam, últimus ómnium in ea civitáte, accépit.
       At Caesarea in Palestine, the passion of St. Eubulus, who was a companion of St. Adrian.
  Two days after the latter's death, he was mangled by the lions and put to death by the sword.  He was the last of all those who received the crown of martyrdom in that city.
This is the other half of the Adrian and Eubulus duo martyred at Caesarea, Palestine, when visiting Christians there.
309 Basil, Ephraim, Eugene, Elpidius, Agathodorus, Aetherius, and Capiton Hieromartyrs
They carried the Gospel of Christ into the North Black Sea region from the Danube to the Dniepr, including the Crimea. They were bishops of Cherson at different times during the fourth century, and they sealed their apostolic activity with martyrdom. Only Aetherius died in peace.

Long before the Baptism of Rus under St Vladimir, the Christian Faith had already spread into the Crimea, which in antiquity was called Tauridia and was ruled by the Roman Emperor. The beginning of the enlightenment of Tauridia is attributed to the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (November 30).

The Church's enemies unwillingly contributed to the further spread of Christianity. The Roman emperors often banished traitors to this area. During the first three centuries, Christians were regarded as traitors because they would not follow the state religion. In the reign of Trajan (98-117), St Clement, Bishop of Rome (November 25), was sent to work in a stone quarry near Cherson. There he continued his preaching, and suffered martyrdom.

The pagans inhabiting the Crimea stubbornly resisted the spread of Christianity. But the faith of Christ, through its self-sacrificing preachers, grew strong and was affirmed. Many missionaries gave their lives in this struggle.

At the beginning of the fourth century a bishop's See was established at Cherson. This was a critical period when Cherson served as a base for the Roman armies which constantly passed through the area. During the reign of Diocletian (284-305), the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent many bishops to preach the Gospel in various lands. Two of them, Ephraim and Basil, arrived in Cherson and planted the Word of God there.

The holy emperor Constantine sent Bishop Capiton to Cherson to replace St Aetherius. The Christians met him with joy, but the pagans demanded a sign from the new bishop, so they might believe in the God Whom he preached. Placing all his hope on the Lord, St Capiton put on his omophorion and went into a burning furnace. He prayed in the fire for about an hour, and emerged from it unharmed. "Shall anyone bind fire in his bosom, and not burn his garments?" Solomon asks (Prov. 6:27). St Capiton carried red-hot coals in his phelonion, yet neither his body nor his garments were scorched. Many of the unbelievers were then persuaded in the power of the Christian God.

This miracle and the great faith of St Capiton were reported to St Constantine and the holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council (325), and they all glorified God.

After several years St Capiton journeyed to Constantinople on business, but the ship encountered a storm at the mouth of the Dniepr River. The local people (pagans) seized the ship and drowned all those on board, including St Capiton. Although this occurred on December 21, St Capiton is commemorated with the other hieromartyrs of Cherson on March 7.

Later on, St Ephraim went to the peoples living along the Danube, where he underwent many tribulations and sorrows. He was beheaded at the start of the persecution. The preaching at Cherson was continued by St Basil, St Ephraim's companion. He set many idol-worshippers on the path of truth. Other wayward inhabitants of the city, enraged at his activity, rose up against him. The saint was arrested, mercilessly beaten and expelled from the city.

He went to a mountain and settled in a cave, where he unceasingly prayed to God for those who had driven him out, asking that He might illumine them with the light of true knowledge. And the Lord provided the unbelievers with a miracle. The only son of an important citizen of Cherson died. The dead child appeared to his parents in a dream and said that a certain man named Basil could resurrect him from the dead by his prayers.

When the parents had found the saint and entreated him to work the miracle, St Basil replied that he himself was a sinful man and had not the power to raise the dead, but the Lord Almighty could fulfill their request if they were to believe in Him. For a long time the saint prayed, invoking the Name of the Holy Trinity. Then he blessed water, and sprinkled it on the dead one, who was restored to life. The saint returned to the city with honor, and many believed and were baptized.

Soon, by order of the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), the persecution against Christians spread with renewed force. The Christ-haters rose up also against St Basil. On March 7, 309 he was dragged from his house during the night. They tied him up, dragged him along the streets and beat him to death with stones and rods. The body of the saint was thrown out of the city to be eaten by dogs and birds, and for many days it was left unburied, but remained untouched. Then Christians secretly buried the body of the holy martyr in a cave.

A year after the martyrdom of St Basil, three of his companions, Bishops Eugene, Elpidius and Agathodorus, ceased their preaching in the Hellespont, and arrived at Cherson to continue his holy work. They endured many hardships for the salvation of human souls. All three bishops shared the fate of their predecessor: they were stoned to death by the pagans on March 7, 311.

The memory of the holy hieromartyrs of Cherson is celebrated on March 7.

Pagans inhabiting the Crimea stubbornly resisted the spread of Christianity. But the faith of Christ, through its self-denying preachers, grew strong and was affirmed. Many missionaries gave their lives in this struggle.

At the beginning of the fourth century a bishop's See was established at Cherson. This was a critical period when Cherson served as a base for the Roman armies which constantly passed through the area. During the reign of Diocletian (284-305), the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent many bishops to preach the Gospel in various lands. Sts Ephraim and Basil preached the Gospel of Christ in Cherson.
Pelúsii, in Ægypto, sancti Pauli Epíscopi, qui, eándem ob causam, exsul occúbuit.  
       At Pelusium in Egypt, St. Paul, bishop, who died in exile for the same cause.
Saint Emilian of Italy (in the world Victorinus)
A Roman by birth, and until he was an old man, he led a sinful life. He finally repented, withdrew to a monastery, and became a monk with the name of Emilian. For the remainder of his days he humbly served God, astounding the brethren by his uncomplaining obedience and strict fasting. The monks noticed that at night Emilian secretly visited a cave near the monastery. Once, the igumen followed him and found St Emilian in the cave, praying with tears of contrition, and illumined by an unearthly light. He heard a Voice saying, "Emilian, your sins are forgiven."

Deeply moved by all that had happened, the igumen after morning services asked the Elder to tell the brethren his secret, and the saint told everyone of God's great mercy toward him. Then the igumen said to the brethren, "The Lord could have forgiven him his sin in secret, but for our sake He revealed His mercy with light and a voice, so that we might behold His grace and mercy toward sinners who repent."

St Emilian spent the remainder of his days in spiritual joy, and peacefully departed to the Lord.
339 St. Paul the Simple “Pride of the Desert,” hermit disciple of St. Anthony; read minds, cured sick
 In Thebáide sancti Pauli, cognoménto Símplicis.
  In Thebais, St. Paul, surnamed the Simple.
Paul had long been a humble farmer in Egypt when, at the age of sixty, he discovered that his wife was unfaithful. Leaving her, he set out for the desert and went to Anthony to become a follower. Anthony at first refused him, owing to Paul’s advanced years and because he doubted Paul’s sincerity. As Paul was persistent, Anthony gave him a host of demanding and arduous tasks which Paul fulfilled with such humility, obedience, and simplicity that Anthony allowed him entry into the community. Paul was termed by Anthony the ideal monk and the so called “Pride of the Desert,” bearing with honor the title “the Simple.” The monk and historian Rufinus and the historian Palladius both made reference to Paul. By tradition, he could read minds and cure the sick.

339 ST PAUL THE SIMPLE
PAUL, surnamed “the Simple” on account of his childlikeness, is not to be confused with St Paul, the first hermit, of whom an account has been given under January, 15. This second Paul, also an anchorite, became one of the most eminent of the early followers of St Antony in the Egyptian Thebaid. Up to the age of sixty he had lived the life of a labourer, but the misconduct of his wife, whose infidelity he had surprised, contributed to wean him from all earthly ties. Leaving her without a word, the old man went an eight days’ journey into the desert to seek St Antony and to beseech him to accept him as a disciple and to teach him the way of salvation. The great patriarch, judging him to be too old to enter upon a hermit’s life, repulsed him, bidding him return to the world to serve God by hard work, or at any rate to enter some monastery where they would put up with his stupidity. He then shut the door. Paul, instead of obeying, remained outside, fasting and praying con­tinuously until the fourth day, when Antony opened the door and discovered him still there. “Go away, old man”, he exclaimed, “Why are you so persistent You cannot remain here.”—“I cannot die anywhere but here”, replied his would-be disciple. Realizing that Paul had had no food, and fearing lest he should actually have the old man’s death on his conscience, Antony admitted him rather reluctantly, saying, “You can be saved if you are obedient and do what 1 enjoin.” The reply was, “I will do whatever you command.”

The neophyte was thereupon subjected to a course of training which was calculated to discourage anyone less determined. First he was bidden to stand outside and pray until he was told to stop—and he obeyed, undisturbed by the heat of a scorching sun and without having broken his fast. Next he was invited to enter the cave and to weave mats and hurdles as he saw St Antony do. This also he performed, praying all the while. When he had made fifteen mats he was told that they were badly made and that he must take them to pieces and start over again. He complied without a murmur, although he was still fasting. This done St Antony bethought him of another test, telling him to moisten with water four six-ounce loaves of bread—the bread being exceedingly hard and dry. When the food was ready, instead of eating, he instructed Paul to sing psalms with him and then to sit down beside the loaves until the evening, when it would be time to eat. At night they would pray together and then take a short rest, rising at midnight for further prayers which continued until daybreak. After sunset each one would eat a loaf and Antony would ask his disciple if he would like another, receiving the reply, “Yes, if you do.” To Antony’s rejoinder, “It is enough for me; I am a monk", the old man would meekly reply, “Then it is enough for me I also wish to be a monk.” The same routine was repeated day after day, but some­times the training would take another form. Paul would have to spend the time drawing water and pouring it away, or weaving rushes into baskets and undoing them, or sewing and unsewing his garments; but whatever lie was told to do he did it cheerfully and promptly. Once St Antony overturned a pot of honey and told him to collect it all from the ground without picking up any dust.

On another occasion, when there were guests at the hermitage and a general conversation was going on, Paul asked if the prophets were before Jesus Christ or Jesus Christ before the prophets. St Antony, mortified at his disciple’s display of ignorance, told him sharply to hold his tongue and go away. Paul at once did so, and continued to keep silence until the matter was reported to Antony, who had forgotten all about it. When he had elicited the fact that Paul’s silence was simply a question of obedience, he exclaimed, "How this monk puts us all to shame He immediately obeys man’s simplest order, while we often fail to listen to the word which comes to us from Heaven.” When the training was deemed complete, Antony established Paul in a cell at a distance of three miles from his own, and there he was wont to visit him. He recognized in the old man singular spiritual gifts and certain powers of healing and exorcising greater than his own. Often when he could not effect a cure, he would send the sufferer on to St Paul, who would restore him at once. Another divine gift he possessed was the power to read men’s thoughts. As each one came into church he could tell by glancing at his face what was in his mind and whether his thoughts were good or bad. By such signs of God’s predilection St Antony came to esteem his aged follower above all his other disciples, and frequently held him up to them as a model.

The substance of all that precedes is to be found in the 22nd chapter of Palladius’s Lausiac History, with a few additions from the Historia Monachorum as translated by Rufinus. Seeing that Palladius wrote sixty or seventy years after the death of Paul the Simple it is likely that his account is embellished by some legendary accretions. A detailed account of Paul may also he found in Bremond, Les Pères du desert, vol. i, pp. xli—xliii and 94--96.
Paul the Simple, Hermit (RM) feast day formerly March 16. An old Egyptian farmer, Saint Paul left his unfaithful wife when he was sixty, sought out Saint Antony, and became one of his first disciples.  At first, Antony refused to accept him because of his advanced age but was so impressed by Paul's persistence that he took him in. Antony subjected Paul to an arduous training in an attempt to discourage him, but was convinced by Paul's humility, eagerness, and obedience, and assigned a cell to him.

There Paul performed miracles of healing, revealed his power to read men's minds, and so impressed Antony that he referred to him as the ideal of what a monk should be. Paul was surnamed 'the Simple' because of his childlike innocence. His prompt obedience and disposition were referred to as "the pride of the desert. He is mentioned in the writings of Palladius and Rufinus (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Gill, Waddell).

Saint Paul the Simple of Egypt also lived in the fourth century and was called the Simple for his simplicity of heart and gentleness. He had been married, but when he discovered his wife's infidelity, he left her and went into the desert to St Anthony the Great (January 17). Paul was already 60 years old, and at first St Anthony would not accept Paul, saying that he was unfit for the harshness of the hermit's life. Paul stood outside the cell of the ascetic for three days, saying that he would sooner die than go from there. Then St Anthony took Paul into his cell, and tested his endurance and humility by hard work, severe fasting, with nightly vigils, constant singing of Psalms and prostrations. Finally, St Anthony decided to settle Paul into a separate cell.

During the many years of ascetic exploits the Lord granted St Paul both discernment, and the power to cast out demons. When they brought a possessed youth to St Anthony, he guided the afflicted one to St Paul saying, "I cannot help the boy, for I have not received power over the Prince of the demons. Paul the Simple, however, does have this gift." St Paul expelled the demon by his simplicity and humility.

After living for many years, performing numerous miracles, he departed to the Lord. He is mentioned by St John, the Abbot of Sinai (Ladder 24:30): "The thrice-blessed Paul the Simple was a clear example for us, for he was the rule and type of blessed simplicity...." St Paul is also commemorated on October 4.
445 Gaudiosus of Brescia bishop B (RM)
Bríxiæ sancti Gaudiósi, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
 At Brescia, St. Gaudiosus, bishop and confessor.
Gaudiosus was the bishop of Brescia, where his relics are venerated (Benedictines).
520 St. Enodoch Welsh saint of the line of the chieftain Brychan of Brecknock.
also called Wenedoc. Enodoch is believed by some historians to have been a woman, called Qendydd.
Enodoch (AC) (also known as Wenedoc) Enodoch was a Welsh saint of the Brychan race. Some writers identify him with Saint Enoder, others state that she was a daughter--instead of a son--of Brychan and call her Saint Qwendydd. The traditions are very confused (Benedictines).
576 St. Drausinus Bishop of Soissons; fostered monastic life; shrine visited by St. Thomas Becket just before his own martyrdom
France, also called Drausius. Educated by St. Anseric, Drausinus fostered monastic life in his diocese. He built a monastery at Rethondes, two churches, and a convent at Soissons. Drausinus’ shrine was visited by St. Thomas Becket just before his own martyrdom.

Drausius of Soissons B (AC) (also known as Drausin, Drausius) He even enlisted the services of the tyrant Ebroin for the building of a convent near Soissons. For this reason he is invoked against the machinations of enemies, and Saint Thomas a Becket is said to have visited his shrine before returning to England for the last time (Benedictines).

674 ST DRAUSIUS, OR DRAUSIN, BISHOP OF Soissons
ONE of the treasures now preserved in the museum of the Louvre in Paris is an interesting and beautiful Romano-Gallic sarcophagus which is actually the tomb of St Drausius, though the relics it contained were scattered at the time of the Revolution. Up to that period it had stood in the cathedral of Soissons, where the saint’s shrine was held in the utmost veneration. Five foot six in length, the tomb is made of hard stone, dug out for the body and adorned with sculptures outside.

Drausius was educated by St Anseric, Bishop of Soissons, and was appointed archdeacon by Anseric’s successor. So highly did Bishop Bettolin esteem his young subordinate that when he himself was about to retire, on the plea that his election had not been valid, he urged that Drausius should be chosen in his place. The new bishop soon proved himself a most zealous administrator, whilst by his sermons and instructions he gained many to Christ. His abstinence was such that his life was one constant fast, and although he suffered nearly all his life from most painful maladies, he added to his sufferings by voluntary mortifications.

He founded two religious houses, one for men and the other for women, to serve as havens of rest in those troublous times, and also that through the prayers of the communities the blessing of God might descend upon the city. From Bettolin he bought land beside the Aisne, and there he built his monastery for men at Rethondes. The nunnery was at Soissons itself, and in establishing it St Drausius was greatly assisted by Leutrude, the wife of Ebroin, mayor of the palace. In 664 the church of Notre-Dame de Soissons was completed and dedicated.
Already at this date a single church was not considered sufficient for the needs of a great community, and St Drausius therefore built two other chapels, one for the abbess and obedientiaries, and another for sick nuns, guests and the poor whom they received. The holy bishop only lived long enough to complete his work, and died on March 5 about the year 674.

St Drausius’s fame extended to other countries, and it is recorded that St Thomas of Canterbury had recourse to him before returning to England, where he foresaw martyrdom awaiting him. As it was supposed that those who spent a night in intercession at the tomb of the saint became invulnerable against all hostile machinations, Italians and Burgundians, when they had war in their own country, were wont to make pilgrimages to the shrine of St Drausius to enable them to bid defiance to their enemies. All this comes to us on the authority of John of Salisbury who, writing in 1166, remarks that Robert de Montfort had passed a night at the shrine in prayer before his encounter with Henry, Earl of Essex.

There is a short Latin life of St Drausius which has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum (March, vol. i). See also Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. iii, p. 90, from whom we may learn that in signing his name the saint wrote variously Drusio, Draucio, and Drauscio.
6th v. St. Deifer Welsh abbot and founder of Bodfare in Clwyd Wales. 
688 Esterwine of Wearmouth celebrated for his gentleness OSB, Abbot (AC)
(also known as Easterwine) The noble Northumbrian Esterwine, spent his youth at court, and then entered the monastery of Wearmouth, where he was professed under his kinsman Saint Benedict Biscop. He succeeded Saint Benet as abbot of Wearmouth and ruled four years, dying before its founder. He was celebrated for his gentleness (Benedictines, Gill).

686 ST ESTERWINE, ABBOT

ST ESTERWINE spent his early years at the court of Northumbria where his noble birth, handsome looks and gracious speech seemed to offer him every chance of advancement. Feeling called, however, to the religious life, he betook himself to the abbey of Wearmouth, lately founded by his kinsman, St Benedict Biscop. The high qualities which had endeared him to the court were no less conspicuous in the monastery, and his exceptional abilities, coupled with his piety and humility, made him eminently fitted for a post of authority. When St Benedict, finding that duty often called him away, decided that it would be to the interest of the monastery that another abbot should be appointed to rule. In his absence, his choice fell upon St Esterwine, who held office wisely and successfully for four years—until his death, which took place whilst Benedict was still absent in Rome. Though aware that his sickness was mortal, St Esterwine lay in the common dormitory of the monks until four days before the end, when he caused himself to be carried to a quiet spot where he could prepare himself for death. He passed away while his monks were singing the night office.
Nearly all that is to be known concerning St Esterwine will be found in the text and notes of Plummer’s Bede. The older Historia Abbatum should be consulted, as well as Bede’s own narrative. Cf. also Stanton’s Menology, p. 106.
840 St. Paul of Prusa  Bishop of Prusa in Bithynia, Asia Minor
 Pelúsii, in Ægypto, sancti Pauli Epíscopi, qui, eándem ob causam, exsul occúbuit.
      At Pelusium in Egypt, St. Paul, bishop, who died in exile for the same cause.
A vigorous opponent of the Iconoclast policies of the Byzantine emperors of the time. As he refused to give up his devotion to the icons, Paul was exiled by imperial decree to Egypt. He died in exile.
843 St. Ardo Benedictine; abbot from Languedoc; accompanied St. Benedict
France, originally baptized Smaragdus. He became a Benedictine, took the name Ardo, and served under St. Benedict of Aniane. Ardo directed the monastery school at Aniane and accompanied St. Benedict on his journeys. In 814, Ardo became St. Benedict's successor when the abbot was named superior of the Aachen monastery in Germany. Ardo wrote the biography of St. Benedict of Aniane.

Ardo of Aniane, OSB Abbot (AC) Born in Languedoc, France; died in 843. Saint Ardo changed his baptismal name of Smaragdus on entering the abbey of Aniane under its first abbot Saint Benedict. He became director of the schools attached to the abbey, Saint Benedict's travelling companion and secretary--and eventually also his biographer--and his successor at Aniane when Benedict went to reside at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen, Germany). His cultus was well established at Aniane at an early date (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

843 ST ARDO
ARDO is remembered chiefly through the life he wrote of his superior, St Benedict of Aniane, “the reviver of monastic discipline, the second father of monasticism in the West”. A Frank by race, he was a native of Languedoc, but not much is known of his history, which appears to have been uneventful. He changed his name of Smaragdus to Ardo, and became one of the earliest followers of Benedict of Aniane, from whom he received the habit. He was raised to the priesthood and was made director of the schools attached to the monastery. He won the special regard of his abbot, who generally chose him as his travelling companion.
   It seems to have been on one of these journeys that he became known to Charlemagne, who presented him with a curiosity in the shape of a stone which resounded like brass.
When, in 814, St Benedict was about to leave Aniane to settle at Aachen he chose Ardo as provisional superior of Aniane. History furnishes us with no further details as to his life or death. The only one of his writings that has survived is the biography of Benedict, which he compiled at the request of his brethren.

In the ninth century all knowledge and science was kept alive by the monks, who alone saved it from extinction. Among the schools of the day that of Aniane, of which Ardo was director, was perhaps the most prominent. St Benedict, its founder, had collected a considerable library and had selected some excellent masters. We know there was a singing master, a reading master, and teachers of literature and arts, as well as experienced theologians. Several of the boys trained under Ardo became bishops, and many of the others helped to spread the method of Aniane in the schools attached to the great religious houses of France and Ger­many.

Although the Bollandists reject the claims of Ardo to be included in the register of saints, Mabillon seeks to prove that he must have been the subject of a definite cultus, because he has his own office in the Aniane Breviary and his relics were publicly venerated. See his Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., vol. iv, pt i, p. 550 where we learn also that Ardo’s head was preserved in a casket of silver-gilt, and his body in a wooden chest “wonderfully carved”.
845 St. Theophylact Bishop of Nicomedia (in modern Turkey) an Asian charitable works and goodness
An opponent of the Iconoclast policies of Emperor Leo V the Armenian (r. 813-820), he was banished to Caria where he died after some three decades of exile. Theophylact, sometimes wrongly called Theophilus, was an Asian. He was known for his many charitable works and goodness.

Theophylact of Nicomedia B (RM) Died 845. Theophylact is wrongly called Theophilus in the Roman Martyrology. An Asiatic monk, he became bishop of Nicomedia. Theophylact opposed the iconoclastic fury of Leo the Armenian by whom he was banished to Caria, where he died thirty years later (Benedictines).

845 ST THEOPHYLACT, BISHOP OF Nicomedia
St Theophylact came as a boy from Asia to Constantinople and became known to St Tarasius, who took a liking to him and gave him a good education. Finding that he had a vocation to the religious life, the patriarch sent him and another of his disciples, St Michael the Confessor, to a monastery which he had recently founded beside the Bosphorus. After they had lived there some years and had been thoroughly tested, St Tarasius raised them both to the episcopate, Theophylact becoming bishop of Nicomedia and Michael bishop of Synnada.

When Leo V revived Iconoclasm, St Nicephorus, the successor of St Tarasius in the see of Constantinople, summoned a council to maintain the Catholic doctrine in the presence of the emperor. The case was ably and eloquently argued by St Theophylact and other learned men, but Leo remained obdurate.
When all had spoken and there was a slight pause, Theophylact stood up and prophesied, saying, “I know that you are scornful of the patience and long-suffering of God. But, like a hurricane, calamity and a terrible death will overtake you, and there shall be none to deliver you.”
Leo was infuriated and ordered them all into banishment: St Theophylact was imprisoned in a fortress in Caria, where he died thirty years later. As for the words of his prophecy, they were fulfilled to the letter. When he was in his chapel on Christmas day 820, Leo was attacked by conspirators, and although he seized the cross from the altar and fought desperately with it against his foes, he was cut down and killed before assistance could arrive.

We read of the liberality of St Theophylact, his generosity to the poor, his care of widows, orphans and the insane, and of his tenderness to the blind, the lame and the sick, for whom and for travellers he established hospices.

In the Acts Sanctorum under March 8 will be found a summary of such information as it is possible to collect concerning St Theophylact, who must not, of course, be confused either with the historian Theophylact who lived in the seventh century, or with the arch­bishop and scripture commentator who wrote at the close of the eleventh. St Theophylact was duly honoured in the Greek Menuion and in the synaxaries. See Delehaye, Synaxarium Constantinopolitanum, pp. 519—522; and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. 1 (1932), pp. 67 seq.
850 Saint Paul the Confessor bishop of Prusa in the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor
Bishop at a time when the iconoclasts raged against the Church of Christ.
His zealous defense of the holy icons was based on Holy Scripture, St Paul was subjected to harassment and persecution together with St Theophylactus (March 8). The holy confessor was sent into exile, and reposed around the year 850.
1132 Blessed Volker of Siegburg missionary monk; martyred by Obotrites OSB Monk (AC).
Volker was a missionary monk of Siegburg put to death by the Obotrites, whom he was evangelizing (Benedictines).
1170 Blessed Reinhard of Reinhausen headmaster of the abbey school OSB Abbot (AC)
Reinhard was a monk and the headmaster of the abbey school of Stavelot-Malmedy. About 1130 he was appointed the first abbot of Reinhausen in Saxony (Benedictines).
1178 Blessed Frowin II an ascetical writer of distinction; Benedictine of Saint Blasien in the Black Forest; OSB Abbot
(also known as Blessed Frowin of Engelberg) A Benedictine of Saint Blasien in the Black Forest, Frowin was made abbot of Engelberg in Switzerland in 1143. He founded the monastic school and library there, and was himself the chronicler of the abbey and an ascetical writer of distinction (Benedictines).
Floréntiæ, in Etrúria, sanctæ Terésiæ Margarítæ Redi, Vírginis, Ordinis Carmelitárum Excalceatárum, vitæ puritáte ac simplicitáte admirábilis, quam Pius Papa Undécimus sanctárum Vírginum albo adscrípsit.
At Florence in Etruria, St. Teresa Margaret Redi, virgin, a member of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, of such admirable purity and simplicity that Pope Pius XI solemnly enrolled her on the scroll of holy virgins.
1274 St. Thomas Aquinas Philosopher, theologian, doctor of the Church (Angelicus Doctor), patron of Catholic universities, colleges, and schools.
In monastério Fossæ Novæ, prope Tarracínam, in Campánia, sancti Thomæ Aquinátis, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, ex Ordine Prædicatórum, nobilitáte géneris, vitæ sanctitáte et Theologíæ sciéntia illustríssimi; quem Leo Papa Décimus tértius cæléstem Scholárum ómnium catholicárum Patrónum declarávit.
In the monastery of Fossanova, near Terracina in Campania, St. Thomas Aquinas, confessor and doctor of the Church, a member of the Order of Preachers, famous for his noble family, for the sanctity of his life, and for his knowledge of theology

Born at Rocca Secca in the Kingdom of Naples, 1225 or 1227; died at Fossa Nuova.  Pope Leo XIII declared him the heavenly patron of all Catholic schools.

 1274 ST THOMAS AQUINAS, DOCTOR OF THE Church
THE family of the counts of Aquino was of noble lineage, tracing its descent back for several centuries to the Lombards. St Thomas’s father was a knight, Landulf, and his mother Theodora was of Norman descent. There seems something more northern than southern about Thomas’s physique, his imposing stature, massive build and fresh complexion.

The precise year of his birth is uncertain, but it was about 1225 and took place in the castle of Rocca Secca, the ruins of which are still to be seen on a mountain crag dominating the fertile plain of Campagna Felice and the little town of Aquino. Thomas was the youngest of four sons, and there were also several daughters, but the youngest little girl was killed by lightning one night, whilst Thomas, who was sleeping in the same room, escaped unscathed. Throughout life he is said to have been very nervous of storms, often retiring into a church when lightning was about. Hence the popular devotion to St Thomas as patron against thunderstorms and sudden death.

A few miles to the south of Rocca Secca, on a high plateau, stands the abbey of Monte Cassino, the cradle of Western monasticism and one of the holiest spots in Europe, whose abbot at this time was a kinsman of the Aquino family, Landulf Sinibaldo. As a child of five Thomas was taken here as an oblate (cf. cap. lix of St Benedict’s Rule), and he remained till he was about thirteen, living in the monastery and getting his schooling there. He was taken away probably because of the disturbed state of the times, and about 1239 was sent to the University of Naples, where for five years he studied the arts and sciences, and even began to “coach” others. It was in Naples that he became attracted by the Order of Preachers, whose church he loved to frequent and with some of whose members he soon became intimate. The friars, who saw him often absorbed in prayer in their midst, noticed on several occasions rays of light shining about his head, and one of them, Father John of San Giuliano, exclaimed, “Our Lord has given you to our order.” St Thomas confided to the prior that he ardently desired to become a Dominican, but in view of the probable opposition of his family, he was advised to foster his vocation and to wait for three years. Time only confirmed his determination, and, at the age of about nineteen, he was received and clothed in the habit of the order.

News of this was soon carried to Rocca Secca, where it aroused great indignation —not because he had joined a religious community, for his mother was quite content that he should become a Benedictine, and indeed probably saw in him the destined abbot of Monte Cassino, but because he had entered a mendicant order. Theodora herself set out for Naples to persuade her son to return home. The friars, however, hurried him off to their convent of Santa Sabina in Rome, and when the angry lady followed in pursuit, the young man was no longer to be found there. The master general of the Dominicans, who was on his way to Bologna, had decided to take Thomas with him, and the little party of friars had already set out on foot together. Theodora, not to be baulked, sent word to the saint’s elder brothers, who were serving with the emperor’s army in Tuscany, desiring them to waylay and capture the fugitive. As Thomas was resting by the roadside at Aquapendente near Siena, he was overtaken by his brothers at the head of a troop of soldiers, and after a vain attempt to take his habit from him by force, was brought back, first to Rocca Secca and then to the castle of Monte San Giovanni, two miles distant, where he was kept in close confinement, only his worldly-minded sister Marotta being allowed to visit him. They sought to undermine his determinationin every way, but after a time began to mitigate the severity of his imprisonment. During his captivity Thomas studied the Sentences of Peter Lombard, learned by heart a great part of the Bible, and is said to have written a treatise on the fallacies of Aristotle.

Other devices for subduing him having failed, his brothers conceived the infamous plan of seducing him by introducing into his room a woman of bad character. St Thomas immediately seized a burning brand from the hearth and chased her out of the place. We are told that he immediately fell into a deep sleep in which he was visited by two angels, who seemed to gird him round the waist with a cord emblematic of chastity. * [* It has been suggested that the first part of this story is simply an exaggerated version of the visit to Thomas of his sister Marotta. He certainly converted her to better ways, and she became a Benedictine nun and abbess at Capua. After her death she appeared to St Thomas, asking him to offer Masses for her in Purgatory.]

This captivity lasted two years before Thomas’s family gave up and in 1245 permitted him to return to his order. It was now determined to send him to complete his studies under St Albert the Great, and he set out in company with the master general, John the Teutonic, who was on his way to Paris; from thence Thomas went on to Cologne.
   The schools there were full of young clerics from various parts of Europe eager to learn and equally eager to discuss, and the humble, reserved new-comer was not immediately appreciated either by his fellow students or by his professors. His silence at disputations as well as his bulky figure led to his receiving the nickname of “the dumb Sicilian ox”. A good-natured com­panion, pitying his apparent dullness, offered to explain the daily lessons, and St Thomas humbly and gratefully accepted the offer; but when they came to a difficult passage which baffled the would-be teacher, his pupil explained it to him so clearly and correctly that his fellow student was amazed. Shortly afterwards a student picked up a sheet of Thomas’s notes, and passed it on to the master, who marvelled at the scholarly elucidation. The next day St Albert gave him a public test, at the close of which he exclaimed, “We call Brother Thomas ‘the dumb ox’ but I tell you that he will yet make his lowing heard to the uttermost parts of the earth”. But Thomas’s learning was exceeded by his piety, and after he had been ordained priest his union with God seemed closer than ever. His disciple and biographer William da Tocco writes that from that time he used to spend hours in prayer, both during the day and at night, and, he adds, “when consecrating at Mass, he would be overcome by such intensity of devotion as to be dissolved in tears, utterly absorbed in its mysteries and nourished with its fruits.”

There are chronological difficulties about these years of St Thomas’s life, but certainly in 1252, at the instance of St Albert and Cardinal Hugh of Saint-Cher, he was ordered to Paris to teach as a bachelor in the university. Academical degrees were then very different from what they are now, and were conferred only in view of the actual work of teaching. In Paris Thomas expounded the Holy Scriptures and the Liber cententiarum of Peter Lombard; he also wrote a commentary on these same Sentences, and others on Isaias and St Matthew’s Gospel. Four years later he delivered his inaugural lecture as master and received his doctor’s chair, his duties being to lecture, to discuss and to preach; and towards the end of the time he began the Summa contra Gentiles. From 1259 to 1268 Paris saw nothing of her most popular professor, for he was in Italy. Here he was made a preacher general, and was called upon to teach in the school of selected scholars attached to the papal court, and, as it followed the pope in his movements, St Thomas lectured and preached in many of the Italian towns. About 1266 he began the most famous of all his written works, the Summa theologiae.

In 1269 he was back again in Paris. St Louis IX held him in such esteem that he constantly consulted him on important matters of state, but perhaps a greater testimony to his reputation was the resolution of the university to refer to his decision a question upon which they were divided, viz, whether in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar the accidents remained really or only in appearance. St Thomas, after fervent prayer, wrote his answer in the form of a treatise which is still extant, and laid it on the altar before making it public. His decision was accepted by the university first and afterwards by the whole Church. It was on this occasion that we first hear of the saint receiving from our Lord’s own lips a formal approval of what he had set down. Appearing in a vision, the Saviour said to him, “Thou hast written well of the sacrament of my Body”; and almost immediately after­wards Thomas passed into an ecstasy and remained so long raised from the ground that there was time to summon many of the brethren to behold the spectacle. Later on, towards the end of his life, when the Angelic Doctor was at Salerno and was busied with the third part of his Summa which deals with Christ’s passion and resurrection, a sacristan saw him at night kneeling before the altar in ecstasy. Then a voice, which seemed to come from the crucifix, said aloud, “Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wouldst thou have?” To which he answered, “Nothing but thyself, Lord”. A story of a different kind is told of an occasion when Thomas had been invited to lunch with King St Louis. During the meal he suddenly had an idea about a matter on which he had been writing, and banging his fist on the table he exclaimed, “That’s finished the Manichean (?) heresy.”  The prior tugged at Thomas’s cappa and reminded him that he was at table with the king, and Thomas pulled himself together and apologized for his absent­mindedness.

During his second, as during his first, period in Paris the university was torn by dissensions of different kinds, and in 1272 there was a sort of  “general strike” among the faculties, in the midst of which St Thomas was recalled to Italy and appointed regent of the study-house at Naples. It was to prove the last scene of his labours. On the feast of St Nicholas the following year he was celebrating Mass when he received a revelation which so affected him that he wrote and dictated no more, leaving his great work, the Summa theologiae, unfinished. To Brother Reginald’s expostulations he replied, “The end of my labours is come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me.”

He was ill when he was bidden by Pope Gregory X to attend the general council at Lyons for the reunion of the Greek and Latin churches and to bring with him his treatise “Against the Errors of the Greeks”. He became so much worse on the journey that he was taken to the Cistercian abbey of Fossa Nuova near Terracina, where he was lodged in the abbot’s room and waited on by the monks. In com­pliance with their entreaties he began to expound to them the Canticle of Canticles, but he did not live to finish his exposition. It soon became evident to all that he was dying. After he had made his last confession to Father Reginald of Priverno and received viaticum from the abbot he gave utterance to the famous words, “I am receiving thee, Price of my soul’s redemption all my studies, my vigils and my labours have been for love of thee. I have taught much and written much of the most sacred body of Jesus Christ I have taught and written in the faith of Jesus Christ and of the holy Roman Church, to whose judgement I offer and submit everything.” Two days later his soul passed to God, in the early hours of March 7, 1274, being only about fifty years of age. That same day St Albert, who was then in Cologne, burst into tears in the presence of the community, and exclaimed, “Brother Thomas Aquinas, my son in Christ, the light of the Church, is dead. God has revealed it to me.”

St Thomas was canonized in 1323, but it was not until 1368 that the Dominicans succeeded in obtaining possession of his body, which was translated with great pomp to Toulouse, where it still lies in the cathedral of Saint-Serum. St Pius V conferred upon him the title of doctor of the Church, and in 1880 Leo XIII declared him the patron of all universities, colleges and schools. Of the holy man’s writings, which fill twenty thick volumes, this is not the place to give any detailed account they were mainly philosophical and theological. He commented much on Aristotle, whose teaching he was in some sense the first to utilize in order to build up a com­plete system of Christian philosophy. With regard to his method it has been said that he applied geometry to theology, first stating his problem or theorem, and then propounding difficulties. This he follows up with a train of relevant passages drawn from the Bible, the Church’s tradition and various theological works, and concludes with a categorical answer to all the objections made at the beginning.

St Thomas also wrote dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer, the Angelical Saluta­tion and the Apostles’ Creed, besides composing commentaries on many parts of the Holy Scriptures and treatises in answer to questions propounded to him. Of all his works the most important was the Summa theologiae, which is the fullest exposition of theological teaching ever given to the world. He worked at it for five years, but, as already stated, he never finished it. It was the greatest monument of the age, and was one of the three works of reference laid on the table of the assembly at the Council of Trent, the other two being the Bible and the Pontifical Decrees. It is almost impossible for us, at this distance of time, to realize the enormous influence St Thomas exerted over the minds and theology of his con­temporaries and their immediate successors. Neither were his achievements confined to matters of dogma, Christian apologetic and philosophy. When Pope Urban IV, influenced by the visions of Bd Juliana of Liege, decided to institute the feast of Corpus Christi, he appealed to St Thomas to compose the liturgical office and the Mass for the day. These give proof of an extraordinary mastery of apt expression, and are as remarkable for their doctrinal accuracy as for their tender­ness of thought. Two of the hymns, the “Verbum supernum” and “Pange lingua”, are familiar to all Catholics, because their final verses, “0 salutaris” and “Tantum ergo”, are regularly sung at Benediction but others of the saint’s hymns, notably the “Lauda Sion” and the “doro te devote”, are hardly less popular.

Of the many noble characteristics of St Thomas Aquinas perhaps the two which may be considered with the greatest profit are his prayerfulness and his humility. He was ever wont to declare that he learnt more at the foot of the crucifix than from books. “His marvellous science”, says Brother Reginald, “was far less due to his genius than to the efficacy of his prayers. He prayed with tears to obtain from God the understanding of His mysteries, and abundant enlightenment was vouch­safed to his mind.” St Thomas was singularly modest about his great gifts.

Asked if he were never tempted to pride or vainglory, he replied, “No”, adding that if any such thoughts occurred to him, his common sense immediately dispelled them by showing him their utter unreasonableness. Moreover he was always apt to think others better than himself, and he was extremely modest in stating his opinion he was never known to lose his temper in argument, however great the provocation might be, nor was he ever heard to make a cutting remark or to say things which would wound other people.

We are not as well informed about the life of St Thomas as we should like to be—especially about his early years—but there is a considerable amount of more or less contemporary evidence. William da Tocco, the author of the biography printed in the Acta Sanctorum, was a pupil of his, and so also was Ptolemy of Lucca, who devotes a good deal of space to him in his Ecclesiastical History. A great part of the testimony presented when evidence was taken with a view to canonization has been preserved and is printed by the Bollandists. Besides this, the letters and chronicles of the period, and Denifle’s great work, the Chartu­larium Universitatis Parisiensis, supply an abundance of collateral information. But for fuller details the reader must be referred to the Bibliographie thomiste (1921) compiled with great care by Frs Mandonnet and Destrez. For the English public we have the very copious Life and Labours of St Thomas of Aquin (1871), by Abp. ft. B. Vaughan, and smaller bio­graphies by Frs Conway and Kavanagh, and two works dealing with the more philosophic aspect of the work of the Angelic Doctor, M. Grabmann, Thomas Aquinas, his Personality and Thought (1928), trans. from the German; and Fr M, C. d’Arcy, Thomas Aquinas (1930).

Those who desire to obtain an insight into the spirituality of St Thomas, to learn, in other words, what made him a saint, may be recommended to make acquaintance with the admirable sketch of L. H. Petitot, Saint Thomas d’Aquin la vocation, L’oeuvre, hi vie spirituelle (1923). This is largely based upon the very thorough researches of Fr Mandonnet, notably his Siger de Brabant. On the other hand the contributions to the subject made by modern German scholars, notably by Endres and Grabmann, should not be neglected. Among more recent publications in English may be mentioned J. Maritain, The Angelic Doctor (1931); G: K. Chesterton, St Thomas Aquinas (1933); A. Sertillanges, St Thomas Aquinas and His Work (1928); G. Vann, St Thomas Aquinas (1940); K. Coffey, The Man from Rocca Sicca (1944). But the standard biography, in which critical science and “unction” are neatly combined, is St Thomas Aquinas (1945), by Fr Angelo Walz, tr. intd English by Fr Sebastian Bullough (1951); this has extensive bibliographies. There are anthologies of the saint’s writing by Fr d’Arcy (1939) and Fr Thomas Gilby (1951 and 1955).
1544 Bl. John Ireland  English martyr chaplain to St. Thomas More.
He became a pastor at Eltham, Kent, prior to his arrest for resisting the supremacy of King Henry VIII of England over the Church of England. Executed at Tyburn, he died with Blesseds Jermyn Gardiner and John Larke.
Blessed Jermyn Gardiner,
John Larke & John Ireland MM (AC) the first two were beatified in 1886; Ireland in 1929. Blessed Jermyn (German) was educated at Cambridge. He became secretary to Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and was executed at Tyburn near London with John Larke and John Ireland for denying the royal supremacy.
Bl. John Larke 1544  English martyr and priest. John Larke served as a pastor in Bishopgate, Woodford, Essex, and then Chelsea until his arrest for opposing the religious supremacy of King Henry VIII of England. He was executed at Tybum with John Ireland and Jermyn Gardiner.  His longtime patron was St. Thomas More.
These last two were secular priests. John Larke was rector of Saint Ethelburga's Bishopsgate, then of Woodford, Essex, and finally of Chelsea, to which he was nominated by Saint Thomas More.
John Ireland, after being chaplain to the same saint, was made rector of Eltham, Kent (Benedictines).
1850 Surety of Sinners Icon of the Mother of God first glorified by miracles at the St Nicholas Odrino men's monastery of the former Orlov gubernia
Known by this name because of the inscription on the icon: "I am the Surety of sinners for My Son Who has entrusted Me to hear them, and those who bring Me the joy of hearing them will receive eternal joy through Me." The Mother of God embraces Her Child, Who holds Her right hand with both His hands so that Her thumb is in His right hand, and Her small finger in His left hand. This is the gesture of one who gives surety for another.

Although we do not know when or by whom the icon was originally painted, it is believed that the basis of the icon is to be found in the Akathist to the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos: "Rejoice, You Who offer Your hands in surety for us to God."

This icon was first glorified by miracles at the St Nicholas Odrino men's monastery of the former Orlov gubernia in the mid-nineteenth century (The "Assuage My Sorrows Icon" commemorated on October 9 is also from this monastery). The "Surety of Sinners" icon of the Mother of God was in an old chapel beyond the monastery gates, and stood between two other ancient icons. Because it was so faded and covered with dust, it was impossible to read the inscription.

In 1843 it was revealed to many of the people in dreams that the icon was endowed with miraculous power. They solemnly brought the icon into the church. Believers began to flock to it to pray for the healing of their sorrows and sicknesses. The first to receive healing was a crippled child, whose mother prayed fervently before the icon in 1844. The icon was glorified during a cholera epidemic, when many people fell deathly ill, and were restored to health after praying before the icon.
In 1848, through the zeal of Lt. Col. Demetrius Boncheskul, a copy of the wonderworking "Surety of Sinners" Icon was made and placed in his home. Soon it began to exude a healing myrrh, which was given to many so they might recover their health after grievous illnesses. Boncheskul donated this wonderworking copy to the church of St Nicholas at Khamovniki in Moscow, where a chapel was built in honor of the icon.
A large stone church with three altars was built at the monastery in honor of the wonderworking icon.

The "Surety of Sinners" Icon is also commemorated on May 29 and on Thursday of the week of All Saints.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 277

Lady, thou art the helper of my salvation: by day and by night I have cried to thee.

Let my prayer enter into thy sight: console my sadness with the sight of thee.

Evils are multiplied in my soul: cleanse it from filth and sin.

May thy power overcome our enemies: lest they hinder our salvation.

Bestow on us thy grace to resist them: strengthen our hearts against the concupiscence of the flesh.

Grant, O Lady, that we may live in the grace of the Holy Ghost: and lead our souls to a holy end.

Let every spirit praise Our Lady

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea. 
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences. 
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves. O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven:  only saints are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html  Widowed_Saints html  Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines   India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes 1858  China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine  Loreto, Italy  Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
  Links to Related MarianWebsites  Angels and Archangels  Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell
Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates  Chalcedon
Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BC  Lay Saints  Miraculous_Icons  Miraculous_Medal_Novena Patron Saints
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800  1900 2000
Miracles 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000  
 1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900 Lay Saints

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

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos  Practical Guide to Holiness
1. Go to Mass with deepest devotion. 2. Spend a half hour to reflect upon your main failing & make resolutions to avoid it.
3. Do daily spiritual reading for at least 15 minutes, if a half hour is not possible.  4. Say the rosary every day.
5. Also daily, if at all possible, visit the Blessed Sacrament; toward evening, meditate on the Passion of Christ for a half hour, 6.  Conclude the day with evening prayer & an examination of conscience over all the faults & sins of the day.
7.  Every month make a review of the month in confession.
8. Choose a special patron every month & imitate that patron in some special virtue.
9. Precede every great feast with a novena that is nine days of devotion. 10. Try to begin & end every activity with a Hail Mary
My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
   These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.
God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.
Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
 Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
 Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.
The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)
1.    Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2.    I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3.    The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4.    It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.  Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means.  5.    The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6.    Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.  God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7.    Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8.    Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9.    I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.    The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.  11.    You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12.    I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.    I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14.    All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15.    Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.
Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

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

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.  Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine.  The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches.  The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice."  According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates.  Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor.  Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.
Meeting of the Saints  walis (saints of Allah)
Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.
So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life.  But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat 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 Indulgences  Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here.  Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.
The only replicas ever made:  in order from west to east {1932}.
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
 It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi. 
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi. 
  June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.
By Father John Corapi
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

Father Corapi's academic credentials are quite extensive. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in the seventies. Then as an older man returned to the university classrooms in preparation for his life as a priest and preacher. He received all of his academic credentials for the Church with honors: a Masters degree in Sacred Scripture from Holy Apostles Seminary and Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctorate degrees in dogmatic theology from the University of Navarre in Spain.
Father John Corapi goes to the heart of the contemporary world's many woes and wars, whether the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, or the Congo, or the natural disasters that seem to be increasing every year, the moral and spiritual war is at the basis of everything. “Our battle is not against human forces,” St. Paul asserts, “but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness...” (Ephesians 6:12). 
The “War to end all wars” is the moral and spiritual combat that rages in the hearts and minds of human beings. The outcome of that  unseen fight largely determines how the battle in the realm of the seen unfolds.  The title talk, “With the Moon Under Her Feet,” is taken from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, and deals with the current threat to the world from radical Islam, and the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in the ultimate victory that will result in the conversion of Islam. Few Catholics are aware of the connection between Islam, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Presented in Father Corapi's straight-forward style, you will be both inspired and educated by him.

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

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.
 
Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.
 
Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.
 
Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.
 
Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.
8 Martyrs Move Closer to Sainthood 8 July, 2016
Posted by ZENIT Staff on 8 July, 2016

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

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

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

On the List Are Lay Founder of a Hospital and Eastern Catholic Religious
VATICAN CITY, June 12, 2014 (Zenit.org) - Today, the Vatican announced that during the celebration of the feast of Christ the King on Sunday, November 23, an ordinary public consistory will be held for the canonization of the following six blesseds, who include a lay founder of a hospital for the poor, founders of religious orders, and two members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See:
-Giovanni Antonio Farina (1803-1888), an Italian bishop who founded the Institute of the Sisters Teachers of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts
-Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871), a Syro-Malabar priest in India who founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate
-Ludovico of Casoria (1814-1885), an Italian Franciscan priest who founded the Gray Sisters of St. Elizabeth
-Nicola Saggio (Nicola da Longobardi, 1650-1709), an Italian oblate of the Order of Minims
-Euphrasia Eluvathingal (1877-1952), an Indian Carmelite of the Syro-Malabar Church
-Amato Ronconi (1238-1304), an Italian, Third Order Franciscan who founded a hospital for poor pilgrims
CAUSES OF SAINTS July 2015.
Pope Recognizes Heroic Virtues of Ukrainian Archbishop
Recognition Brings Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky Closer to Beatification
By Junno Arocho Esteves Rome, July 17, 2015 (ZENIT.org)
Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky. According to a communique released by the Holy See Press Office, the Holy Father met this morning with Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, 277 2023