Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
March is the month of Saint Joseph since 1855;
2022-23
22,500 lives saved since 2007

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

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

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

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


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

The Sanctity and the Dignity of the Blessed Virgin
March 16 - Our Lady of the Fountain (Constantinople, A.D. 460) - Palm Sunday
I conceive it impossible... for those who believe the Church to be one vast body in heaven and on earth, in which every holy creature of God had its place, and of which prayer is the life, when once they recognize the sanctity and dignity of the Blessed Virgin, not to perceive immediately, that her office above is one of perpetual intercession for the faithful militant, and that our very relation to her must be that of clients to a patron, and that, in the eternal enmity which exists between the woman and the serpent, while the serpent's strength lies in being the tempter, the weapon of the Second Eve and Mother of God is prayer.

Our Lord died for those heathens who did not know Him; and His Mother intercedes for the Christians who do not know her; and she intercedes according to His will, and, when He wills to save a particular soul, she at once prays for it. I say, He wills indeed according to her prayer, but then she prays according to His will.
The Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman (d. 1890)
Excerpt from Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching,
1874, LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.

Avoid evil practices; indeed, preach against them. Hear your bishop, that God may hear you. Work together in harmony,: struggle together, run together, suffer together, rest together, rise together, as stewards, advisors and servants of God. So be patient and gentle with one another, as God is with you. -- St. Ignatius of Antioch

March 16 – Our Lady of the Fountain (Constantinople, 460)
 
“The flames caused no damage to the house”
The violent forest fires that ravaged the Turkish coast south of Ephesus in 2006 stopped suddenly, as if "by divine intervention," just 5 meters from the house of the Mother of God known as Meryemana,
according to the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.
Tradition believes that it was in this house, located southeast of Ephesus on Mount Bulbul, that the Dormition of the Mother of God took place. "On our return to the House of Mary, we found a divine miracle:
the flames that burned everything all around caused no damage to the house," said Sister Antonia Velasco.
Meryemana is one of the few Christian sites in Turkey that has not been left in disrepair by the Turkish authorities.
A magnificent statue of the crowned Virgin has even been brought to the site and left undisturbed on the road leading to Mary’s House, kept, appropriately, by the Franciscan Custody. Salve Regina!
 The Mary of Nazareth Team
Source: Miracle marial en Turquie


Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos). Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.
  119 The Hieromartyr Alexander, Bishop of Rome
1st v. St. Aristobulus Martyred disciple of Christ
Sabinus
 284 St. Hilary Martyr with Denis, Felix, Largus, and Tatian
 287 Sabinus The Holy Martyr was administrator of the Egyptian city of Hermopolis
        Trophimus and Thallus,
Holy Martyrs brothers and presbyters of Syria, served in Carian Laodicea
 300 Papas of Lycaonia M (RM)
 302 St. Julian of Anazarbus  Martyr  sacred relics of physical and spiritual ills cured
         Agapius, Publius, Timolaus, Romulus, Alexander, Alexander, Dionysius Holy Martyrs
 305  Cyriacus erlitt vermutlich das Martyrium um 305 unter Diokletian.
 307 St. Patrick Bishop of Malaga, Spain
       St. Aninus A hermit of Syria, who was greatly revered for his austerities; also venerated for miracles
 366  St. Abraham Kidunaja Hermit apostle gave away his large inheritance then converted Beth-Kiduna after 3 years of penance for them
 5th v. Abban of Kill-Abban contemporary of Saint Patrick nephew of Saint Ibar Abbot
 560 St. Finian Lobhar Irish abbot disciple of St. Columba
VII v. St. Dentlin Seven-year-old confessor little son of Saint Vincent Madelgar and Saint Waldetrudis
 620 St. Abban Abbot Irish missionary Irish prince a contemporary of Saint Patrick
 635 St. Finian Munnu Irish abbot disciple of St. Columba and St. Seenell
 680 Eusebia of Hamay, OSB, Abbess wise and capable, re-establishing discipline as in the days of St Gertrude, (AC)
  794 St. Megingaud Benedictine bishop abbot
1000 Gregory Makar monk  bishop of Nicropolis B Born in Armenia combining the severe life of a solitary with the missionary zeal of a great preacher, retired to Italy & France, healing miracles (AC)
1090 Malcoldia of Asti; Benedictine nun hermit near the abbey church of Saint Anastasia in Asti
1022 Heribert of Cologne a devoted chief pastor of his flock performed miracles, one of which caused a heavy rainfall
1111 Christodoulos erhielt Christodoulos die Insel Patmos geschenkt und errichtete ein Kloster nahe der Höhe, in der Johannes die Apokalypse niedergeschrieben haben soll
1177 Blessed John Sordi, OSB BM (AC) (also known as John Cacciafronte)
1260 Benedicta, Poor Clare V
1281 Blessed Torello of Poppi, OSB Vall. Hermit (AC). Born in Poppi, Tuscany, Italy, in 1201; cultus confirmed by Benedict XIV.
1286 St. Monaldus of Ancona Franciscan martyr with Anthony of Milan and Francis of Fermo missionaries in Armenia
1589 Bl. John Amias Priest martyr in England
1589 Bl. Robert Dalby English martyr priest convert from the Protestant ministry
1642-49 North American Martyrs (RM) All born in France
1830 St. Clement Maria Hofbauer Redemptorist preacher reformer devoted to Jesus 
March 16 – Our Lady of the Fountain (Constantinople, 460)  
The city had been consecrated to Mary
 The first Christian chapel in Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey) was built over a sacred spring in the middle of the 5th century, by the order of the Christian Empress Pulcheria, to house the sacred relic of the tunic and robe of the Virgin (which remained there until 1204, when the Crusaders invaded Istanbul and stole it). It is known today as the Church of Blachernae.
The Virgin extended her protection to that city several times, particularly in AD 678, when the Ottoman fleet led by the Caliph of Damascus laid siege to Constantinople. The city had been consecrated to Mary, and its citizens remembered it—the massive Ottoman armada fell back before the resistance of the inhabitants and their ardent prayers!

After the people of the city experienced the protection of the Mother of God, they thanked her by standing up all night singing the Akathistos, the great Akathist hymn to the Mother of God (author unknown).
The Mary of Nazareth Team  Cf www.istanbulguide.net


1st v. St. Aristobulus Martyred disciple of Christ
Eódem die natális sancti Aristobúli, Apostolórum discípuli, qui, cursu prædicatiónis perácto, martyrium consummávit.
        The same day, the birthday of St. Aristobulus, a disciple of the apostles, who completed by martyrdom a life spent in preaching the Gospel.
0ne of the seventy-two sent out into the world by the early Church. He is possibly mentioned by St. Paul and is identified with Zebedee, the father of Sts. James and John.

Aristobulus preached in Britain, although no documentation supports this or his martyrdom in the British Isles.

Aristolubus M (RM) 1st century. Saint Aristolubus is said to have been one of the 72 disciples commissioned by our Lord Jesus to preach the coming of the Kingdom. Saint Paul mentions him in Romans 16:11. He has been identified with Zebedee, the father of the "sons of Thunder," Saints James and John. Legend says that after the Resurrection of Jesus, he evangelized Britain and died a martyr's death (Benedictines).

119 The Hieromartyr Alexander, Bishop of Rome
served for ten years as the archpastor of Rome. He was burned alive on May 3, 119 by order of the emperor Hadrian (117-138).

Alexander (I.) von Rom Orthodoxe Kirche: 16. März Katholische Kirche: 3. Mai

Alexander wurde wohl 105 Bischof von Rom. Er hatte das Amt 10 Jahre inne und soll am 3. Mai 115 unter Kaiser Trajan enthauptet worden sein. Nach anderen Quellen soll er 119 mit den Priestern Eventius und Theodulus unter Kaiser Hadrian verbrannt worden sein. Möglicherweise handelt es sich um einen anderen Alexander. Als weiterer Märtyrer wird Quirinus genannt, der Patron von Neuss (Gedenktag 30.3. und in Köln 30.4. vgl. Quirinus-Münster). Von ihm wird berichtet, er sei der Kerkermeister Alexanders gewesen und von diesem bekehrt worden.

284 St. Hilary Martyr with Denis, Felix, Largus, and Tatian
 Aquiléjæ natális beáti Hilárii Epíscopi, et Tatiáni Diáconi, qui, sub Numeriáno Imperatóre et Berónio Præside, post equúleum atque ália torménta, una cum Felíce, Largo et Dionysio, martyrium terminárunt.
      
At Aquileia, in the time of Emperor Numerian and the governor Beronius, the birthday of the holy bishop Hilary, and the deacon Tatian, who were martyred with Felix, Largus, and Denis, after being subjected to the rack and other tortures.
Hilary, also called Dionysius, was the bishop of Aquileia, Italy. Tatian was a deacon and the others laymen. They were beheaded.
Hilary, Tatian, Felix, Largus & Denis MM (RM) Hilary was a bishop of Aquileia, Tatian his deacon, and the rest laymen. All were beheaded under Numerian {Numerianus (283-284 A.D.)} (Benedictines).
287 The Holy Martyr Sabinus was administrator of the Egyptian city of Hermopolis
During a persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), St Sabinus and some like-minded companions hid in a remote village.
His hiding place was revealed by a certain ungrateful beggar who had brought him food. The saint used to feed him and help him with money, but the man betrayed him for two pieces of gold. Sabinus was seized with six other Christians, and after torture they were all drowned in the Nile in 287.
Sabinus der Ägypter Orthodoxe Kirche: 16. März 
Sabinus war Gouverneur der ägyptischen Stadt Hermopolis. Als die Verfolgungen unter Diokletian einsetzten verbarg er sich mit mehreren Gefährten in einem verlassenen Haus, wurde aber von einem Bettler, den er unterstützt hatte, für zwei Goldstücke verraten. Sabinus und sechs weitere Christen wurden gefoltert und im Nil ertränkt. Als Todesjahr wird 287 angegeben.
300 Papas of Lycaonia M (RM)
 In Lycaónia sancti Papæ Mártyris, qui, ob Christi fidem, verbéribus cæsus, úngulis férreis lacerátus, clavátis cálceis incédere jussus est; deínde árbori alligátus, eándem árborem, migrans ad Dóminum, ex stérili réddidit fructuósam.
       In Lycaonia, the holy martyr Papas, who was scourged for the Christian faith, had his flesh torn with iron hooks, and was compelled to walk with shoes pierced with nails, and was finally bound to a barren tree.  In leaving this world to go to God, he rendered this same tree fruitful.   A martyr of Lycaonia in Asia Minor under Diocletian (Benedictines).
302 St. Julian of Anazarbus  Martyr  sacred relics cured physical and spiritual ills
 Anazárbi, in Cilícia, sancti Juliáni Mártyris, qui, sub Marciáno Præside, diutíssime cruciátus, demum, in sacco una cum serpéntibus inclúsus, in mare demérsus est.
       At Anazarbum in Cilicia, under the governor Marcian, the martyr St. Julian, who was a long time tortured, then put into a sack with serpents, and cast into the sea.

ST JULIAN OF ANTIOCH, MARTYR
AMONGST the many St Julians who are registered as martyrs in the Roman Martyrology, perhaps the most important is the Cilician saint from Anazarbus who is honoured on this day. From the fact that his body— one knows not how or wherefore—was afterwards conveyed to Antioch, he is often referred to as St Julian of Antioch in the church dedicated to him just outside that city. St John Chrysostom preached a panegyric which is still preserved, and the great orator appeals to the marvellous effects which, as all men might witness, were produced by his relics in the exorcising of evil spirits, as evidence of the glory of the martyr and his power with God. What we learn from the panegyric and from the synaxaries about St Julian’s history is not very much or probably very reliable. He is said to have been subjected to almost every form of torment which malignity could devise, and to have been paraded for a whole year as a kind of show through the various cities of Cilicia. In the end he was sewn up with scorpions and vipers in a sack and thrown into the sea. We are not told, however, at what period this happened or how the body was recovered. But the cultus of the martyr at Antioch in Chrysostom’s time was clearly very real and vigorous, and portions of his relics seem to have been conveyed to distant parts of the world.

Our main authority is the panegyric of St Chrysostom mentioned above (Migne, PG., vol. I, cc. 665—676). The Greek synaxaries give an account of St Julian under March 16 the “Hieronymianum” mentions him both under December 26 and February 14. See also Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs (1933), pp. 166, 200; Synax. Const., p. 541 CMH.,
His remains were enshrined in Antioch. He was born in Anazarbus, Cilicia, in modern Turkey, and was arrested as a Christian of senatorial rank. For a year Julian was put on display in cities all over Cilicia. He was then sewn into a sack filled with vipers and scorpions and hurled into the sea.
Julian of Antioch M (RM) (also known as Julian of Anazarbus) Born in Anazarbus, Cilicia; date unknown though some say c. 302. Saint Julian was a Christian of senatorial rank, who suffered under Diocletian. According to unreliable reports, Julian was subjected to brutal punishments, paraded daily for a whole year through various cities of Cilicia, then sewn up in a sack half-filled with scorpions and vipers, and cast into the sea to drown at an unknown location.
Antioch claimed to have recovered and enshrined his relics in the basilica, and Saint John Chrysostom preached a homily there in his honor. Chrysostom eloquently tells how much these sacred relics were honored, affirms that no devil could stand their presence, and that men were cured of physical and spiritual ills by them. The people of his time celebrated Saint Julian's feast with special devotion at Antioch (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
Saint Julian is portrayed as being cast into the sea in a sack full of serpents and scorpions. He may also be shown (1) as his coffin floats with four angels seated on it or (2) led bound on a dromedary (Roeder).
The Hieromartyr Julian of Anazauria suffered for Christ in Antioch, Syria under the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311). His relics were glorified by miracles in the time of St John Chrysostom.  Chrysostom mentions the martyr in his 47th homily.
St. Aninus hermit of Syria greatly revered for his austerities venerated for miracles.
The Holy Martyrs Trophimus and Thallus, brothers and presbyters of Syria, served in Carian Laodicea
During a persecution under the emperor Diocletian (284-305) and his co-emperor Maximian (284-305), the brothers were taken under guard and brought before the governor Asclepiodotus. He ordered the holy brothers to be stoned, but the stones which they threw at the saints returned and struck those who threw them.

After a second interrogation, the holy brothers were sentenced to be crucified. Going to execution, they glorified God because they were found worthy of dying on a cross, as the Savior did. The holy martyrs of Christ continued to preach from the cross, and their brave mother stood nearby.

A certain Jewess bowed to the saints and cried out, "Blessed is the mother who gave birth to such sons." When the martyrs surrendered their souls to God, the prison guard said that he saw the souls of the holy brothers being carried upwards to heaven in the company of three angels.

The people stayed with the bodies of the holy martyrs all night, and in the morning the wife of the torturer Asclepiodotus came to the place of execution with her bejeweled veil.
She told the people that in a dream she saw the holy martyrs and the angels sent to punish her husband.
The mother of the martyrs and two Christians, Zosimus and Artemon, buried the holy brothers in their native city of Stratonikea, Lydia. The torturer Asclepiodotus soon fell ill and died a horrible death
 Romæ pássio sancti Cyríaci Diáconi, qui, post longam cárceris maceratiónem, liquáta pice perfúsus et in catásta exténsus, attráctus étiam nervis et fústibus cæsus, ad últimum, cum Largo et Smarágdo et áliis vigínti, jubénte Maximiáno, cápite truncátus est.  Sanctórum vero Cyríaci, Largi et Smarágdi festívitas sexto Idus Augústi recólitur, quo die a beáto Marcéllo Papa córpora eorúndem vigínti trium Mártyrum leváta sunt ac venerabíliter tumuláta.
At Rome the martyrdom of the deacon St. Cyriacus, who, after a long imprisonment, had melted pitch poured over him, was stretched on the rack, had his limbs pulled with ropes, was beaten with clubs, and finally was beheaded by order of Maximian, together with Largus, Smaragdus, and twenty others.  Their feast, however, is kept on the 8th of August, the day on which these twenty-three martyrs were exhumed by blessed Pope Marcellus and reverently entombed.

305  Cyriacus erlitt vermutlich das Martyrium um 305 unter Diokletian.
Sanctórum Mártyrum Cyríaci Diáconi, Largi et Smarágdi, qui, cum áliis vigínti Sóciis, passi sunt décimo séptimo Kaléndas Aprilis.  Eórum córpora, via Salária a Joánne Presbytero sepúlta, sanctus Marcéllus Papa in prædium Lucínæ, via Ostiénsi, hoc die tránstulit; quæ póstea, in Urbem deláta, in Diaconía sanctæ Maríæ in via Lata fuérunt recóndita.
 The holy martyrs Cyriacus, deacon, Largus, and Smaragdus, with twenty others who suffered on the 16th of March, during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian.  Their bodies were buried on the Salarian Way by the priest John, but were on this day translated by Pope St. Marcellus to the estate of Lucina, on the Ostian Way.  Afterwards they were brought to the city and placed in the church of St. Mary in Via Lata.

Orthodoxe Kirche: 7. Juli Katholische Kirche: 8. August
Cyriakus erlitt vermutlich das Martyrium um 305 unter Diokletian. In einer alten Märtyrerliste werden fünf Gefährten genannt, ab dem 13. Jahrhundert werden Largus und Smaragdus angegeben. Cyriacus gehört zu den 14 Nothelfern.

Ss. Cyriacus, Largus And Smaragdus, Martyrs
The legend of St Cyriacus and his companions is a romance devoid of historical value. It relates that Cyriacus was a deacon who, with Sissinius, Largus and Smaragdus, succoured the Christians who were being forced to work on the construction of the baths of Diocletian. Having been arrested, Cyriacus cured the emperor's daughter, Artemia, of demoniac possession, and was rewarded with the present of a house  herein he established a place of worship, the titulus Cyriaci.   He was then sent to Persia at the request of its king, whose daughter suffered in the same way as Artemia, and her also he cured. After his return to Rome he was apprehended by order of Maximian, together with Largus and Smaragdus, and on March ib, in company with a score of others, he Was tortured and beheaded at a spot on the Salarian Way.   On August 8 Pope St Marcellus I  (308-309) translated the bodies to a burial-place, which received the name of Cyriacus, on the road to Ostia.
  That Cyriacus was an authentic martyr, honoured on this day in Rome from an early date, is proved from the Depositic Martyrum of 354.  Therein he is said to rest close beside the seventh milestone on the road to Ostia in company with Largus,    “ Ixmaracdus, and three others, who are named. Delehaye shows that this Cyriacus has been confused with another Cyriacus, the founder of the titulus Cyriaci, and that a fictitious story was later evolved which is best known to us as an episode in the spurious Acts of Pope St Marcellus.
See on the whole question Delehaye in CMH, p. 425 (with which cf. ibidem pp. 190 and 431-433); and Duchesne in Mélanges d'archéologie a d'histoire, vol. xxxvi, pp. 49-56 .
307 St. Patrick Bishop of Malaga, Spain
 Arvérnis, in Gállia, deposítio sancti Patrícii Epíscopi.      
In Auvergne, the death of St. Patrick, bishop.
His life is relatively obscure, but it is believed that he fled to Auvergne, France, during a persecution, where he died. He is still honored in Spain.
Patrick of Auvergne B (RM) Date unknown. Saint Patrick is registered in the Roman Martyrology as bishop of Auvergne, but his name is not to be found in the lists of the sees of Auvergne. Quite probably the copyists wrote Arvernia for Hibernia, i.e., Ireland, and thus duplicated the apostle of that country who is celebrated on March 17. At Malaga, Spain, a feast is kept on March 16 for Saint Patrick, a native and bishop of that city, who, according to the local tradition, fled to Auvergne, and died there c. 307 (Benedictines).
St. Aninus A hermit of Syria, who was greatly revered for his austerities. He was also venerated for miracles.
4th v. Agapitus of Ravenna Bishop B (RM)
 Ravénnæ sancti Agapíti, Epíscopi et Confessóris.     At Ravenna, St. Agapitus, bishop and confessor.
Bishop of Ravenna, Italy. In art, Saint Agapitus is a bishop standing between a miter and a suit of armor (Benedictines, Roeder).
366  St. Abraham Kidunaja Hermit apostle gave away his large inheritance then converted Beth-Kiduna after 3 years of penance for them
 In Syria sancti Abrahæ Eremítæ, cujus res gestas beátus Ephræm Diáconus conscrípsit.
       In Syria, St. Abraham, hermit, whose life has been written by the blessed deacon Ephrem.
who faced the pagan priests of Edessa in Mesopotamia.

6th v. ST ABRAHAM KIDUNATA
THE birthplace of St Abraham was near Edessa in Mesopotamia, where his parents occupied an important position, being possessed of great riches. They chose for him a bride, and although he felt called to a celibate life he did not dare to oppose their wishes. In accordance with the custom of the time and country, a seven-days’ festivity preceded the actual marriage, and on the last day Abraham ran away to conceal himself in the desert. A search was made for the fugitive, who at length was discovered absorbed in prayer. All appeals and entreaties having failed to shake his resolution, his friends finally withdrew, and he walled up the door of his cell, leaving only a little window through which food could be passed.
When his parents died, he inherited their riches, but he commissioned a friend to distribute all his goods to the poor. His only remaining possessions were a cloak, a goatskin garment, a bowl for food and drink, and a rush mat on which he slept. “He was never seen to smile”, says his biographer, “and he regarded each day as his last. And yet he preserved a fresh complexion and as healthy and vigorous a body (although he was naturally delicate) as though he were not leading a penitential life…And, what is even more surprising, never once, in fifty years, did he change his coat of goatskin, which was actually worn by others after his death.”

Not far from Abraham’s cell there was a colony of idolaters who had hitherto resisted with violence all attempts to evangelize them, and who were a source of constant grief to the bishop of Edessa. The bishop accordingly appealed to him to leave his hermitage and preach to the people. Reluctantly St Abraham allowed himself to be ordained priest and did as he was bidden. Coming to the town which was called Beth-Kiduna he found the citizens determined not to listen, and on all sides were signs of idolatry and appalling abominations. He asked the bishop to build a Christian church in the midst of the pagan settlement, and when it was completed, the saint felt that his time had come. After praying earnestly, he went forth and cast down the altars and destroyed every idol he could see. The in­furiated villagers rushed upon him, beat him and drove him from the village. During the night he returned, and was found in the morning praying in the church. Going out into the streets he began to harangue the people and to urge them to give up their superstitions, but they again turned on him, and seizing him dragged him away, stoned him and left him for dead. Upon recovering consciousness he again returned, and though constantly insulted, ill-treated and sometimes attacked with sticks and stones, he continued for three years to preach, without any apparent result.
Suddenly the tide turned: the saint’s meekness and patience convinced the people that he was indeed a holy man, and they began to listen. “Seeing them at last so well disposed, he baptized them all in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, to the number of a thousand persons, and thenceforth he read the Holy Scriptures assiduously to them every day while instructing them
in the principles of faith, of Christian justice and of charity.” Thus for a year he continued to build up his converts, and then, fearing that he himself was becoming too much absorbed in the things of this world, he determined to leave his flock to the care of others and stole away at night to hide himself once more in the desert. St Abraham lived to the age of seventy. At the news of his last illness, the whole countryside flocked to receive his benediction, and after his death each one sought to procure some fragment of his clothing.

To the story of Abraham, which is in substance perhaps authentic, is attached the unhistorical legend of his niece Mary, to which in all probability the narrative owes the wide popularity it enjoyed both in the East and in the West. Mary is said to have been only seven years old when she became an orphan and was sent to her uncle, her sole surviving relation. For her he built a little cell near his own, and trained her in learning and piety until she had reached the age of twenty. She was then seduced by a false monk who came under pretence of receiving instruction from St Abraham, and having left her cell secretly she made her way to Troas, where she led the life of a common prostitute. Her uncle did not know what had become of her, and for two long years he ceased not to weep and to pray for her. Learning the truth at last, he resolved to seek out the lost sheep and to reclaim her if possible. He borrowed a horse and disguised himself in a soldier’s uniform. He found where Mary was living, and sent word inviting her to sup with him, but not dis­closing his identity. She made her appearance in a garb and with a lightness which plainly indicated her degradation, but she did not recognize her uncle, although she felt embarrassed in his presence. When the meal was over, laying aside his dis­guise, he grasped her hand and made a moving appeal until she was overcome with sorrow. Then, filled with hope and joy, he began to comfort her, undertaking to take all her sins upon himself if only she would return with him and resume her former holy life. Mary promised that henceforward she would obey him in all things, and Abraham led her back into their solitude after three years God showed her that she was pardoned by granting her the gift of healing and of working miracles, the legend relates.

In accord with the Roman Martyrology, Alban Butler and one or two modern writers, notably Mgr Lamy, St Ephraem has been spoken of as the author of the narrative just summarized this attribution seems now to be definitely rejected and the saint assigned to the sixth century. See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. x (1891), pp. 5—49, where a Syriac text is printed, and vol. xxvi (1907), pp. 468—469; Delehaye’s Synax. Const., under October 29 DHG., vol. i, cc. 175—177 A. Wilmart on the Latin versions of the story in the Revue Bénédictine, vol. 1 (1938), pp. 222—245 and especially E. de Stoop in Musée beige, vol. xv, pp. 297—312.

Born in that city, Abraham refused to enter into a marriage arranged by his prosperous parents and went out into the nearby desert to live in a sealed cabin. Food was provided for him through a single opening by disciples, and his influence attracted other hermits to the region. When Abraham's parents died, he gave away his large inheritance. Soon after, he was asked by the bishop of Edessa to start a hermitage at Beth-Kiduna, near the city. The pagans in the region persecuted him after he destroyed their idols, but Abraham won them over and claimed the area for the Church. He then returned to his hermitage, where he is reported to have reached the age of seventy before dying.


Abraham Kidunia (RM) (also known as Abraham Kidunaia) Born near Edessa, Mesopotamia; died there, c. 366; feast day on the Byzantine Calendar is October 29. Abraham's surnamed "Kidunaia" derives from the name of his parish at Beth-Kiduna. He was born into a wealthy family near Edessa. Although Saint Abraham felt called to the religious life, he bowed to the wishes of his parents to marry. Immediately after the wedding feast, which led up to the ceremony, he informed his bride of his vocation, and fled from a life of privilege and a promising marriage to live as a hermit in the nearby desert. His friends, who searched for him for 17 days, found him in his cell at prayer. He begged them to leave him there. When they agreed, he walled up the door to his cell, except for a small window through which he could receive the food needed for sustenance.
He spent his whole time in adoring and praising God, and tearfully imploring his mercy. He sole earthly possessions consisted of a cloak, a piece of sackcloth which he wore, and a little vessel out of which he both ate and drank. He lived alone in this penitential state for fifty years, daily drawing renewed vigor from them and growing in wisdom. Eventually he attracted many who sought his spiritual guidance. Ten years after he had retired to the desert, his parents died leaving him their great estates. Abraham commissioned a virtuous friend to distribute the revenues to the poor.

At the entreaty of his bishop, Abraham was ordained a priest and appointed as a missionary preacher to Beth-Kiduna, a pagan hold- out. After enduring ill-treatment at the hands of the towns inhabitants, he succeeded in completely converting them to Christianity through his prayers, tears, and patient endurance after three years. He was always afraid of getting too involved in the world, so after a year of instructing the neophytes and ensuring they were supplied with priests and other ministers, he went back to his cell.

A popular cultus sprang up immediately upon his death. His life was written by Saint Ephrem, who was his personal friend and admirer. The episodes connected with his niece Saint Mary are now considered spurious (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
Saint Abraham is painted as an old man with a flowing beard, clothed in skins. At times, he may be shown in his cell with his niece, Saint Mary, in the adjoining cell (Roeder).
Orthodoxe Kirche: 29. Oktober Katholische Kirche: 16. März
Abraham lebte im 4. Jahrhundert in Kiduna nahe Edessa. Schon als Jugendlicher zog er sich in die Einöde zurück und lebte fernab weltlicher Verlockungen. Sein asketisches leben zog viele Gläubige an, eine Zeitlang missionierte er auch unter der heidnischen Bevölkerung in der Umgebung. Er lebte etwa 50 Jahre als Einsiedler und starb um 360. Ephräm der Syrer berichtet von seinem Leben.

5th v. Abban of Kill-Abban contemporary of Saint Patrick and nephew of Saint Ibar Abbot founded Kill-Abban Abbey in Leinster and the convent for Saint Gobnait of Ballyvourney (AC)
The Irish Saint Abban was a contemporary of Saint Patrick and nephew of Saint Ibar. He founded Kill-Abban Abbey in Leinster and the convent for Saint Gobnait of Ballyvourney (Benedictines, Montague).

560 St. Finian Lobhar Irish abbot disciple of St. Columba

ST FINNIAN LOBUAR, ABBOT
THE records we have of this St Finnian are conflicting and untrustworthy, and even the century of his birth is uncertain; On his father’s side he was descended from the kings of Munster, but his mother’s family came from Leinster, and it was in Bregia on the east coast of Leinster that he appears to have been born. He was called Lobhar, ‘the Leper”, from a painful scrofulous affection from which he suffered for many years—the name of leprosy being attached by the Irish (and others) to various forms of skin trouble.
He is said to have been a disciple of St Columba, but it is possible that he lived much later and was only educated at one of the houses of the Columban observance. On reaching manhood he set out for the south of Ireland, where Bishop Fathlad conferred holy orders upon him and perhaps raised him to episcopal rank. In any case his virtues and miracles began to make him famous, and people flocked to him to be cured of their diseases. It is related that a woman brought her small boy, who was blind, mute and a leper from birth, and that the saint prayed earnestly that the child might recover. It was revealed to him that if he wished his prayer answered he must bear the leprosy himself. He cheerfully agreed, and was covered with ulcers from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. One day, as he sat reading by a lake, his book fell in and sank. The water was too deep for anyone to recover it, but presently it rose to the top and was restored to the saint undamaged. In that place he built a church and made a cemetery. Some writers identify the spot with the famous Innisfallen, and regard Finnian as the founder of the abbey.

If we may believe the “acts”, the saint afterwards went to a place later called Clonmore, where he suffered greatly from his infirmity, and then, wishing to revisit his own country, he came to Swords, where he found St Columba, who gave over Swords abbey to Finnian and took his departure. The new abbot ruled for many years, exercising hospitality, healing the sick and living a life of great austerity. For one quarter of each night he sat in cold water to sing the psalms, the rest of the night he lay on the bare ground. Elsewhere, however, we read that St Finnian spent the last thirty years of his life presiding over Clonmore monastery, which had been founded by St Maidoc.

See the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii, whose account is largely based upon Colgan’s Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, pp. 627—629, and upon a late Latin life which they consider to be of English origin. If we may trust the verses attributed to St Moling (seventh century) by the glossator of the Félire, St Finnian Lobhar rested at Clonmore in the same grave with St Onchu.
He was born in Bregia, Leinster, Ire­land. Tradition credits him with founding a church at Innisfallen and a monastery there as well. After a stay in Clonmore, Finian Lobhar became abbot of Swords Abbey near Dublin. He may have returned to Clonmore in his later years and was called Lobhar, “the Leper,” but apparently did not have that disease. He acquired the name when he contracted leprosy from a young boy whom he cured of the disease.

Finnian Lobhar, Abbot (AC) (also known as Finan the Leper) Born at Bregia, Leinster, Ireland; died February 2, c. 560. Little is authentically known about Saint Finnian because the records of his life are conflicting. He is said to have been the son of Conail and descendent of Alild, king of Munster. He may have been a disciple of Saint Columba (or perhaps he was trained at one of Columba's foundations); others, that he was a disciple of Saint Brendan. He was ordained by Bishop Fathlad, and may have been consecrated by him.

Finnian built a church that is believed to have been at Innisfallen in County Kerry and so is considered by some scholars to have been the founder of that monastery. Later he lived at Clonmore Abbey in Leinster and then went to Swords near Dublin, where he was made abbot by Columba when he left. Another account has him abbot of Clonmore Monastery, where he was buried, for the last thirty years of his life.

Lobhar means "the Leper," a name he acquired when he reputedly assumed the disease of a leper to cure a young boy of an illness. As is evident, much of the information about Finnian is uncertain and conflicting, and it is not even certain what century he lived in (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Husenbeth).

VII v. St. Dentlin Seven-year-old confessor little son of Saint Vincent Madelgar and Saint Waldetrudis
called also Dentilin or Denain. He was the son of St. Vincent Madelgarus and St. Waldestrudis A church in Cleves, in Germany, was named for him.

Dentlin (AC) (also known as Denain, Dentelin) 7th century. The little son of Saint Vincent Madelgar and Saint Waldetrudis, and brother of Bishop Saint Landericus and two other saintly siblings, Saint Dentlin died when he was seven. A church in the duchy of Cleves is dedicated in his honor (Benedictines). The child Saint Dentlin usually is depicted with his elderly father covering him and his brother with a cloak. Dentlin has a dove on his finger (Roeder).

620 St. Abban Abbot Irish missionary Irish prince a contemporary of Saint Patrick
Abban was the son of King Cormac of Leinster. He is listed as the nephew of St. Ibar. Abban founded many churches in the old district of Ui Cennselaigh, in modern County Wexford and Ferns. His main monastery is Magheranoidhe, in Adamstown, Ireland. This monastery's fame is attributed in some records to another Abban, that of New Ross. Abban is also associated with Kill-Abban Abbey in Leinster, serving as abbot there until March 16, 620. He is revered in Adamstown, which was once called Abbanstown.
Abban of Kill-Abban, Abbot (AC) 5th century. The Irish Saint Abban was a contemporary of Saint Patrick and nephew of Saint Ibar. He founded Kill-Abban Abbey in Leinster and the convent for Saint Gobnait of Ballyvourney (Benedictines, Montague).

635 St. Finian Munnu Irish abbot disciple of St. Columba and St. Seenell called St. Mundus in Scotland.
He stayed in Cluain Inis, in Ireland, for eighteen years and then went to Iona, Scotland. Returning to Ireland, he founded Taghmon in Wexford and became its abbot. Developing Taghmon into a famous monastery, Finian attended the Magh Lene Synod in 630, defending Celtic liturgical practices. In his later years he suffered from a terrible skin disease, possibly a form of leprosy.

680 Eusebia of Hamay, OSB, Abbess wise and capable, re-establishing discipline as in the days of St Gertrude, (AC)
680 ST EUSEBIA, ABBESS
ST EUSEBIA was the eldest daughter of St Adalbald of Ostrevant and of St Rictrudis. After the murder of her husband, Rictrudis retired to the convent of Marchiennes with her two younger daughters, and sent Eusebia to the abbey of Hamage, of which her great-grandmother St Gertrude was abbess. Eusebia was only twelve years old when St Gertrude died, but she was elected her successor, in compliance with her dying wishes and in accordance with the custom of the times, which required that the head of a religious house should, when possible, be of noble birth, so that the community should have the protection of a powerful family in tithes of disturbance.
St Rictrudis, who was now abbess of Marchiennes, not unnaturally considered Eusebia far too young to have charge of a community, and bade her come to Marchiennes with all her nuns. The little abbess was loath to comply, but she obeyed, and arrived with her community and with the body of St Gertrude, when the two communities were merged into one and all settled down happily, except Eusebia. The memory of Hamage haunted her, until one night she and some of her nuns stole out and made their way to the abandoned buildings, where they said office and lamented over the non-fulfilment of St Gertrude’s last in­junctions
.
Though this escapade did not go unpunished, St Rictrudis, finding that her daughter was still longing for Hamage, consulted the bishop and other devout men, who advised her to yield to Eusebia’s wishes.
She therefore consented to her return and despatched her back with all her nuns. She had no reason to regret
her action for the young abbess proved herself wise and capable, re-establishing discipline as in the days of St Gertrude, whom she strove to imitate in all things. No special incidents appear to have marked Eusebia’s afterlife. She was only in her fortieth year when she had a premonition of her impending end, and gathering her nuns round her, gave them her parting instructions and blessing. As she finished speaking a great light spread throughout her room and almost immediately her soul ascended to Heaven.

See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; Destombes, Vies des Saints de Cambrai, i, pp. 349-343 and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xx (1901), pp 461—463.
The eldest daughter of Saints Adalbald and Rictrudis, Saint Eusebia was placed by her mother in the abbey of Hamage (Hamay) which had been founded by her grandmother Saint Gertrude. When Saint Eusebia succeeded as abbess at the age of 12, her mother objected and summoned her daughter to Marchiennes. Eusebia and her entire community answered her mother and moved to Marchiennes. Later they were allowed to return to Hamage, where Eusebia continued to rule her convent in peace (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
691 St. Begga daughter of Pepin of Landen mayor of the palace and St. Itta.
 Andániæ, apud Septem Ecclésias, in Bélgio, beátæ Beggæ Víduæ, quæ fuit soror sanctæ Gertrúdis.
     At Andenne, at the Seven Churches, blessed Begga, widow, the sister of St. Gertrude.
693 ST BEGGA, WIDOW
PEPIN of Landen, mayor of the palace to three Frankish kings, and himself commonly called Blessed, was married to a saint, Bd Itta or Ida, and two of their three children figure in the Roman Martyrology: St Gertrude of Nivelles and her elder sister, St Begga. Gertrude refused to marry and was an abbess soon after she was twenty, but Begga married Ansegisilus, son of St Arnulf of Metz, and spent practically the whole of her long life as a nobleman’s wife “in the world”. Of this union was born Pepin of Herstal, the founder of the Carlovingian dynasty in France. After the death of her husband, St Begga in 691 built at Andenne on the Meuse seven chapels representing the Seven Churches of Rome, around a central church, and in connection therewith she established a convent and colonized it with nuns from her long-dead sister’s abbey at Nivelles. It afterwards became a house of canonesses and the Lateran canons regular commemorate St Begga as belonging to their order. She is also venerated by the Béguines of Belgium as their patroness, but the common statement that she founded them is a mistake due to the similarity of the names. St Begga died abbess of Andenne and was buried there.
A life of St Begga, together with some collections of miracles, has been printed in Ghesquière, Acta Sanctorum Belgii, vol. v (1789), pp. 70—125 it is of little historical value. See also Berlière, Monasticon Belge, vol. i, pp. 66—63 and DHG., vol. ii, cc. 1559— 1560. There can he little doubt that the word beguinae, which we first meet about the year 1200 and which, as stated above, has nothing to do with St Begga, was originally a term of reproach used of the Albigensians: see the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. i, cc. 1341-1342.
She married Ansegilius, son of St. Arnulf of Metz, and their son was Pepin of Herstal, founder of the Carolingian dynasty of rulers in France. On the death of her husband in the year 691, she built a church and convent at Andenne on the Meuse River and died there. Her feast day is December 17th.
794 St. Megingaud Benedictine bishop abbot
also listed as Mengold or Megingoz. He was a Frank who entered Fritzlar Monastery in Germany in 738. After serving as abbot there, Meginggaud succeeded St. Burchard as bishop of Wurzburg, Germany, about 754. In 787 he retired to Neustadt Abbey.

Megingaud of Würzburg, OSB B (AC) (also known as Mengold, Megingoz). Born of a Frankish family, Saint Megingaud became a monk at Fritzlar (738) and, after some years as teacher in the abbey school, was elected abbot. About 754, he succeeded Saint Burchard as bishop of Würzburg. In 787, he resigned and retired to the abbey of Neustadt where he died (Benedictines).

1000 Gregory Makar monk  bishop of Nicropolis; Born in Armenia combining the severe life of a solitary with the missionary zeal of a great preacher, retired to Italy & France, healing miracles (AC)

1010 ST GREGORY MAKAR, Bishop of Nicopolis
ST GREGORY MAKAR, it is said, was born in Armenia and, desiring to serve God in solitude in a land where he was not known, he found, his way to a monastery near Nicopolis in Little Armenia and joined the community. The bishop of Nicopolis after some time attached him to his own person, ordaining him priest and en­couraging him to preach against prevailing heresies. Thus when this bishop died the clergy and people chose Gregory to be their shepherd. In that capacity he shone not only by his virtue and eloquence, but also as a wonder-worker, especially in healing the sick. Nevertheless he was not satisfied: he still longed for a solitary life and he feared that the adulation of his people would lead him to vainglory. He therefore left the city secretly, and in the company of two Greek monks made his way westwards, first to Italy and then to France.

At Pithiviers in the diocese of Orleans Gregory felt inspired to settle, and he built himself a hermitage and set about leading the life of a recluse after the Eastern manner, hitherto little practised in France. He abstained from all food on Mon­days, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and even on Tuesdays and Thursdays never ate till after sundown. His ordinary food was a handful of lentils, steeped in water and exposed to the sun, supplemented by a little barley bread and sometimes by a few roots eaten raw. Much as St Gregory wished to live in solitude, it soon became known that a holy hermit had settled at Pithiviers, and visitors began to throng to his cell. He worked many miracles of healing and gave wise spiritual counsel. The faithful brought him offerings, but these for the most part he distributed to the poor. For seven years St Gregory lived in his hermitage, combining the severe life of a solitary with the missionary zeal of a great preacher, and when he died the whole countryside was filled with lamentations.

The Latin Life of St Gregory has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii. See also Cochard, Saints de l’Eglise d’Orléans, pp. 384—393.

Died in Pithiviers, France, c. 1000-1010. Saint Gregory became a monk at a monastery near Nicropolis, Little Armenia. He was a successful preacher after his ordination by the bishop of Nicropolis, and chosen bishop of Nicropolis on the death of his predecessor. Desirous of living as a solitary, he went to Italy and then to France, where he lived as a recluse at Pithiviers in the diocese of Orléans. His reputation for spiritual wisdom and as a miracle healer spread and attracted crowds of people. He spent the last seven years of his life at Pithiviers and died there (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney).
1022 Heribert of Cologne a devoted chief pastor of his flock performed miracles, one of which caused a heavy rainfall  B (RM)
 Colóniæ Agrippínæ sancti Heribérti Epíscopi, sanctitáte célebris. 
     At Cologne, St. Heribert, bishop, celebrated for sanctity.
(also known as Herbert) Born in Worms, Germany; died in Cologne on March 16, 1022.

1021 ST HERIBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF COLOGNE
ST HERIBERT, one of the most distinguished of the prelates who have ruled over the diocese of Cologne, was born in the town of Worms in the Palatinate of the Rhine, and as he showed himself eager to learn he was sent to the celebrated abbey of Gorze in Lorraine. There he would fain have entered the Benedictine Order, but his father had other ambitions for him and recalled him peremptorily to Worms, where the young man was given a canonry and was raised to the priesthood. Heribert gained the confidence of the Emperor Otto III, whose chancellor he became, and in 998 he was raised to the see of Cologne amid general approval.

The one dissentient was Heribert himself, who declared and honestly believed that he was quite unfitted for the high dignity. From Benevento, whither he was summoned by Otto, he passed on to Rome, and there received the pallium from Pope Silvester II. He then returned to Cologne, which he entered humbly with bare feet on a cold December day, having sent the pallium on before him. It was on Christmas eve that he was consecrated archbishop in the cathedral of St Peter, and from that moment he devoted himself indefatigably to the duties of his high calling. State affairs were never allowed to hinder him from preaching, from relieving the sick and needy, and from acting as peacemaker throughout his diocese. He did not despise the outward splendour which his position required, but under his gold-embroidered vesture he always wore a hair-shirt. The more the business of the world pressed upon him, the more strenuously did he strive to nourish the spiritual life within.

Soon after taking possession of his see, Heribert accompanied the emperor on another visit to Italy, which was to prove Otto’s last, for he died there, probably of smallpox, not, as alleged, by poison. In accordance with his master’s last wishes St Heribert brought his body back to Aachen, where it was buried. He also bore with him the imperial insignia for he foresaw that there would be a contest for the imperial crown, and he felt in duty bound to retain possession of the insignia with which he had been entrusted until he could hand them over to the properly constituted sovereign. Unfortunately the nearest claimant, Duke Henry of Bavaria, misinterpreted his attitude and concluded that the archbishop would have preferred to see some other sovereign chosen. The consequence was that St Heribert was in disfavour with the duke, and continued to be so long after St Henry II had been duly elected king and emperor, and in spite of the fact that the prelate had immediately yielded up the insignia, proving himself on every occasion one of the emperor’s most loyal supporters. Henry does not appear to have taken from him the chancellorship, for his name appears appended to edicts of the years 1007 and 1008, but it was only towards the close of Henry’s reign that the emperor learned to appreciate the virtue and good faith of the great archbishop, and there was a public and moving reconciliation between the two saintly men who had been so long estranged.

St Heribert would gladly have freed himself from secular business to be at liberty to devote the rest of his life to the spiritual needs of his diocese and people. On the opposite side of the Rhine, at Deutz, he and Otto III had begun a monastery and church which he afterwards completed with the help of money which that emperor had bequeathed to him. His own income he habitually divided between the Church and the poor, reserving for his personal use only what was absolutely necessary. He would often steal away and seek out the sick and poor in their homes and in hospitals; he relieved them, washed their feet, and by his example inspired others to do likewise. Not did he confine his charity to Cologne, but sent money to priests he could trust in other towns to be spent on assisting the destitute. At a time of great drought the archbishop instituted a penitential procession from the church of St Severinus to that of St Pantaleon, and exhorted the multitude to do penance and to trust in God. Some of those present declared that they saw a white dove flying close to the saint’s head as he walked with the procession. Entering the church of St Severinus Heribert went up to the high altar and, bowing his head in his hands, gave himself to earnest prayer for his people. Scarcely had he risen from his knees when a torrential rain poured down upon the city and the countryside, and the harvest was saved, Another procession which he instituted to avert plague and famine took place round the walls of the city in Easter week and was kept up each year until the end of the eighteenth century. He is still invoked for rain.

Zealous for the maintenance of discipline amongst the clergy, Heribert was assiduous in his visitations, and it was when visiting Neuss for one of these pastoral visits that he contracted a fever which he soon recognized as destined to be fatal. With great fervour the saint received viaticum and then suffered himself to be borne back to Cologne. After being laid at the foot of the crucifix in the cathedral of St Peter and commending himself and his flock to the mercy of God, he was carried to his own house, and shortly afterwards he breathed his last.

His body was laid at Deutz, where in after years many miracles were attributed to his intercession.
The archbishop had been the founder of the abbey and minster of Deutz, and the monks were naturally solicitous that his memory should be held in veneration. A short biography of him was accordingly written by Lantbert, one of the monks, and it has been printed both by the Bollandists and in vol iv of MGH (Scriptores). This life, rewritten and somewhat expanded by the more famous Rupert of Deutz, will also be found in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii, and in Migne, PL., vol. clxx, cc. 389—428. The text of what purported to be a bull of canonization, issued seemingly by Pope Gregory VII, was at one time accepted without suspicion, but of late years it has been shown to be almost certainly a forgery of the seventeenth century. See the Analecta Bollandia vol. xxvii (1908), p. 232 and vol. xxxii (1913), p. 96. There is a long account of St Heribert in Kleinermanns, Die Heiligen auf den erzb. Stuhl von Koln, vol. ii.

As a boy, Saint Heribert was sent to the monastery at Gorze in Lorraine for his studies. Upon his return to Worms, he was given a canonry and ordained. Like so many prelates of his time, he was actively engaged in secular as well as church affairs and not much is known of his personal life. Heribert developed into one of the strongest and most distinguished German statesman of the age: by 994, he had become chancellor to Emperor Otto III.
Heribert was elected archbishop of Cologne in 998. In the depths of winter he took off his shoes and walked into the city where he was consecrated on Christmas Eve 999, and from that time on he always wore a hair shirt underneath the rich robes of an archbishop.
Even as archbishop his duties as chancellor did not end. As imperial chancellor, he travelled with the Otto to Italy and brought back the dead Otto's body to Aachen for burial.

He incensed the ambitious men who wanted to succeed Otto by refusing to hand over the imperial insignia until a new emperor had been properly appointed. Heribert was even imprisoned for a time by Duke Henry of Bavaria for his obstinacy. This man, who became Emperor Saint Henry II, bore a grudge against Heribert for many years, but in the end came to acknowledge the saint's wisdom and probity to the point that Heribert became Henry's chancellor, too.
At a time when many clerical statesmen forgot or neglected their spiritual duties under the pressure of serving the state, Heribert was a devoted chief pastor of his flock.
As archbishop he was a rich man; but his entire income was divided between the church and the poor, save for the little that was absolutely necessary for his own needs.

Heribert built the Benedictine monastery at Deutz (outside Cologne) on the Rhein (where he was buried on his death in 1021), was an active peacemaker, maintained strict clerical discipline, and is reputed to have performed miracles, one of which caused a heavy rainfall ending a severe drought and that causes him to be invoked for rain. Already during his lifetime Heribert was looked upon as a saint; after his death, his cultus was encouraged by the monks of Deutz. But the bull of formal canonization, attributed to Pope Saint Gregory VII, is now known to be a forgery, produced in the 17th century (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney).
In art, Saint Heribert is an archbishop calling down rain by his prayers. Sometimes he is shown with Emperor Saint Henry, kneeling before him (Roeder).
Heribert von Köln
Orthodoxe, Katholische und Evangelische Kirche: 16. März Katholische Kirche auch 30. August (Übertragung der Gebeine - in Köln)

Heribert, Sohn des Grafen Hugo von Worms, wurde 970 geboren. 994 ernannte ihn Otto III. zu seinem Kanzler für Italien, 998 übertrug ihm Otto auch die Amtsgeschäfte für Deutschland. 999 wurde Heribert zum Erzbischof von Köln ernannt. 1002 wurde er zu dem todkranken Otto nach Italien gerufen. Er geleitete Otto auf seinem Sterbeweg und brachte den Leichnam und die Reichsinsignien nach Deutschland zurück. Sein Verhältnis zu Heinrich II., dem Nachfolger Ottos war schlecht und von Mißtrauen auf Seiten Heinrichs geprägt. Erst als Heinrich Heribert wegen angeblicher Befehlsverweigerung vor sein Gericht zitierte, erkannte er, daß Heribert ein totkranker Mann war und versöhnte sich mit ihm. Heribert gründete die Benediktinerabtei Deutz. Er starb am 16.3.1021 in Deutz. Seine Gebeine ruhen heute in der Heribertkirche in Deutz.  Biographische Quellen
1111 Christodoulos erhielt Christodoulos die Insel Patmos geschenkt und errichtete ein Kloster nahe der Höhe, in der Johannes die Apokalypse niedergeschrieben haben soll
Orthodoxe Kirche: 16. März und 21. Oktober
Johannes Christodoulos wurde im 11. Jahrhundert in Bithynien geboren. Er wurde Mönch und ging dann in das Inselkloster von Kos. 1089 erhielt Christodoulos die Insel Patmos geschenkt und errichtete ein Kloster nahe der Höhe, in der Johannes die Apokalypse niedergeschrieben haben soll. 1110 mußte Christodoulos mit seinen Mönchen vor Seeräubern nach Euböa fliehen. Hier starb er 1111, sein Leichnam wurde von den Mönchen nach Patmos überführt. Die Übertragung der Gebeine wird am 21.10. in der griechisch-orthodoxen Kirche gefeiert. Christodoulos ist der Patron von Patmos.
Aus dem Leben von Christodoulos  Das Johannes Theologos Kloster in Patmos
1183 Bl. John Cacciafronte Bishop martyr
Born John Sordi in Cremona, he entered the Benedictines and became abbot of St. Lawrence in Cremona in 1155. When the papacy entered into its Struggle with Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, John sided with the Holy See and was banished.
He retired and became a hermit near Mantua, but in 1174 was elevated to the office of bishop of Mantua after its bishop was deposed. After several years, John resigned in favor of the deposed bishop who desired to come back, and in 1177, John went to Vicenza where he was killed by a disgruntled man.

1183 BD JOHN, BISHOP OF Vicenza, Martyr
JOHN was a native of Cremona and a member of the family of Sordi or Surdi; the name of Cacciafronte, by which he was generally known, was that of his stepfather, who wished the boy to adopt it. At the age of fifteen John was made a canon of Cremona, but the following year he entered the Benedictine abbey of St Laurence. Eight years later he became prior of St Victor and in 1155 he was recalled to be abbot of St Laurence. It was said by the monks that obedience was no hardship under his rule, for he was the first to practise what he enforced, and he made the spiritual and temporal welfare of the community his constant care. Bd John espoused the cause of Pope Alexander III against Octavian, Cardinal of St Cecilia, who, under the title of Victor IV, claimed to occupy the chair of St Peter. For his zeal in organizing penitential processions and urging the people of Cremona to remain loyal to Alexander, the good abbot was banished by the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, who favoured the antipope. He lived for several years the life of a solitary in Mantuan territory and was then called upon to fill the bishopric of Mantua. He continued to practise great austerity, his food, clothing and furniture being of the plainest, and he daily fed the poor at his own table. He did much to remedy abuses and kept a strict watch over church property, although he was so indifferent to his own possessions and position that he wrote to urge the pope to reinstate Bishop Graziodorus, his predecessor, who had abandoned Mantua to follow the antipope, but who had afterwards repented. The Holy See acceded to his request and John resigned Mantua, but was soon given the see of Vicenza, where he became as popular as he had been in Mantua.

His death was due to an act of revenge. It was usual to farm out ecclesiastical property to tenants, whose rent formed part of the episcopal revenues. Amongst the farmers on the estates of the bishopric of Vicenza was a man called Peter, who not only would not pay his dues but also treated the property as his own. The bishop expostulated with him—gently at first, and then more severely. Remon­strance proving ineffectual, excommunication followed. Peter thereupon waylaid Bd John and killed him with a dagger, the holy man exclaiming with his last breath, “Do thou forgive him, Lord”. The people of Vicenza were filled with grief and anger. Determined to punish the murderer, they set fire to his house he managed to escape, but was never heard of again.

Two interesting documents containing a brief report of the official inquiry made at Cremona In 1223 and at Vicenza in 1224 into the life of Bd John are printed by the Bollandists in an appendix to the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; see also A. Schiavo, Della vita e del tempi del B. Giovanni Cacciafronte (1866).
1177 Blessed John Sordi, OSB BM (AC) (also known as John Cacciafronte)
Born in Cremona, Italy; died in Vicenza, Italy, 1183. John joined the abbey of Saint Lawrence in Cremona and became abbot in 1155. He is described as most loyal to and gentle with his monks. He sided with the pope against the emperor Barbarossa, by whom he was banished from his abbey.
Thereafter, he was forced to live as a hermit near Mantua until, in 1174, he was raised to the episcopacy of that city upon the deposition of the incumbent by the pope. Three years later the former bishop repented and Blessed John asked permission to resign in his favor. He was transferred to Vicenza in 1177, where killed by a man whom he had rebuked for embezzling episcopal revenues (Benedictines).
1260 Benedicta, Poor Clare V
She succeeded Saint Clare as abbess of the Poor Clares in Assisi (Gill).

1281 Blessed Torello of Poppi, OSB Vallumbrosan Hermit (AC). Born in Poppi, Tuscany, Italy, in 1201; cultus confirmed by Benedict XIV.
Born in Poppi, Tuscany, Italy, in 1201; cultus confirmed by Benedict XIV. Although Saint Torello led a dissolute life in bad company, he experienced a sudden conversion. After repenting he received the habit of a recluse from the Vallumbrosan abbot of San Fedele. He lived as an austere recluse, walled up in his cell near Poppi, for 60 years. Both Vallumbrosans and Franciscans claim him. It seems certain that he was, at any rate, a Vallumbrosan oblate (Attwater2, Benedictines).

1282 BD TORELLO
The town of Poppi in the Casentino was the birth place of Bd Torello, who under parental care passed an almost blameless youth. After his father’s death, however, he was led away into evil courses, until one day, when he was playing at bowls with some of his dissolute companions, a cock flew out from a hen-roost and, perching upon his arm, crowed three times—as though to wake him from the sleep of sin. Torello stood stock-still in amazement, convinced that this was a divine warning.

 Thereupon he sought out the abbot of San Fedele, at whose feet he poured forth his confession and from whom he received absolution and good advice. Torello then left Poppi, and striking out into the woods wandered about for eight days. At length he reached a great rock, under the shelter of which he remained for another eight days, subsisting on herbs and three little loaves which he had taken with him. Upon that rock he resolved to build himself a hermitage in which to serve God for the rest of his life, and he therefore returned to Poppi to distribute to the poor all his property except the little he required to carry out his plan.
He bought a small parcel of land about the rock for a garden and had a hut built just large enough to contain him, and there he lived a most penitential life. He wore next his skin a half-shaven pigskin garment with bristles so prickly that they cut into his flesh. He allowed himself barely three hours for sleep, and often he would go for two days without food, whilst his ordinary fare consisted of four ounces of bread and a little water. His manner of life was hidden from all but one chosen friend. Against temptations he would lacerate his body until the blood flowed and stand in cold water till he trembled with shivering fits. Increasing age and illness compelled him to eat more and to mix a little wine with the water he drank. Death overtook him at the age of eighty as he knelt in prayer.; he had spent over fifty years in his hermitage. Many miracles were attributed to Torello—notably the rescue of a boy from a wolf and the taming of the wolf, who used afterwards to sleep at the entrance of the hermitage. Bd Torello is sometimes claimed as a Vallom­brosan and sometimes as a Franciscan, but though he took the habit of a penitent from the abbot of Poppi he belonged to no order. His cultus was approved by Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758).
The text of a short Latin Life of Torello is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii.  Also, in the eighteenth century, when his cultus was confirmed, several biographical sketches were published in Italian or Latin by Maccioni, Soldani, Cirnatti, Bellogrado and others.
1589 Bl. Robert Dalby English martyr priest convert from the Protestant ministry
Born at Hemingborough, Yorkshire, he was a Protestant minister before he converted to Catholicism and left England to become a priest. Ordained in 1588 after studies at Douai and Reims, France, he returned home. The next year he was arrested and hanged, drawn, and quartered at York on March 16, with Blessed John Amias. He was beatified 1929.

Blessed Robert Dalby MM (AC) Born in Hemingborough, Yorkshire, England; died at York in 1589; beatified in 1929. Blessed Robert was a convert from the Protestant ministry and was ordained a priest at Rheims in 1588. He was hanged for his priesthood with Father John Amias (Attwater2, Benedictines).


1589 BB. JOHN AMIAS AND ROBERT DALBY, MARTYRS
JOHN AMIAS (or Anne) and Robert Dalby were two Yorkshire men who, after being educated in the Douai College at Rheims, were ordained priests, were sent on the English mission, and suffered death together in 1589. Amias, a widower and formerly a clothmonger at Wakefield, had ministered for seven or eight years in England before he was captured, whereas Dalby, who had been a Protestant minister, had only come back to England the year before he was apprehended. Not much detail as to their labours seems to be extant, but we have a graphic description of their death in Dr Champney’s manuscript history as quoted by Challoner. He says: “This year on March 16, John Amias and Robert Dalby, priests of the College of Douai, suffered in York as in cases of high treason, for no other cause but that they were priests ordained by the authority of the See of Rome, and had returned into England and exercised there their priestly functions for the benefit of the souls of their neighbours. I was myself an eye-witness of the glorious combat of these holy men, being at that time a young man in the twentieth year of my age; and I returned home confirmed by the sight of their constancy and meekness in the Catholic faith, which by God’s grace I then followed. For there visibly appeared in those holy servants of God so much meekness, joined with a singular constancy, that you would easily say that they were lambs led to the slaughter.”

After describing the execution Dr Champney adds: “The sheriff’s men were very watchful to prevent the standers by from gathering any of their blood or carrying off anything that had belonged to them. Yet one, who appeared to me to be a gentlewoman, going up to the place where their bodies were in quartering, and not without difficulty making her way through the crowd, fell down upon her knees before the multitude, and with her hands joined and eyes lifted up to heaven, declared an extraordinary motion and affection of soul. She spoke also some words, which I could not hear for the tumult and noise. Immediately a clamour was raised against her as an idolatress, and she was drove away; but whether or no she was carried to prison, I could not certainly understand.”

See MMP., pp. 152—153, and J. H. Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs, pp. 329-331.
1589 Bl. John Amias Priest martyr in England
Also called John Anne. He was born and married near Wakefield where he became a cloth dealer. When his wife died, he went to Reims and was ordained a Priest in 1581. Returning to England, he worked until his arrest by English authorities. Hanged, drawn, and quartered at York with Blessed Robert Dalby, he was beatified in 1929.

Blessed John Amias M (AC) (also known as John Anne) Born near Wakefield, England; died at York in 1589; beatified in 1929. Blessed John began life as a clothier (or clothmonger) at Wakefield. He married, but on his wife's death, studied for the priesthood at Rheims and was ordained in 1581. He was executed for his priesthood at York together with Blessed Robert Dalby (Attwater2, Benedictines).

1642-49 North American Martyrs (RM) All born in France
 In dicióne Canadénsi sanctórum Mártyrum Joánnis de Brébeuf, Gabriélis Lalemant, Antónii Daniel, Cároli Garnier et Natális Chabanel, Presbyterórum Societátis Jesu, qui in Hurónica Missióne, hac aliísque diébus, post multos labóres et sævíssimos cruciátus, mortem pro Christo fórtiter obiérunt.
In the territory of Canada, Saints John de Brébeuf, Gabriel Lalemant, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, and Noel Chabanel, priests of the Society of Jesus, who in the mission of the Hurons, on this and other days, after many labours and most cruel torments, bravely underwent death for Christ.
 died 1642-49; canonized in 1930. The main feast day on the Roman calendar is September 26; however, the Jesuits commemorate six priests (Antony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Gabriel Lalemant, Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, and Noel Chabanel) and two laybrothers (John Lalande and René Goupil) on March 16.
They were working among the Hurons when they met their deaths at the hands of the Iroquois, the mortal enemies of the Hurons. The Iroquois were animated by bitter hatred of the missionaries, whom they subjected to indescribable tortures before putting them to death. Further information and biographies of each are presented for their main feast (Attwater, Benedictines, Parkman, Wynne).

1820 St. Clement Mary Hofbauer second founder of the Redemptorists "the apostle of Vienna,"
(1751-1820)
Clement might be called the second founder of the Redemptorists, as it was he who carried the congregation of St. Alphonsus Liguori to the people north of the Alps.
John, the name given him at Baptism, was born in Moravia into a poor family, the ninth of 12 children. Although he longed to be a priest there was no money for studies, and he was apprenticed to a baker. But God guided the young man's fortunes. He found work in the bakery of a monastery where he was allowed to attend classes in its Latin school. After the abbot there died, John tried the life of a hermit but when Emperor Joseph II abolished hermitages, John again returned to Vienna and to baking. One day after serving Mass at the cathedral of St. Stephen, he called a carriage for two ladies waiting there in the rain. In their conversation they learned that he could not pursue his priestly studies because of a lack of funds. They generously offered to support both him and his friend, Thaddeus, in their seminary studies. The two went to Rome, where they were drawn to St. Alphonsus' vision of religious life and to the Redemptorists. The two young men were ordained together in 1785.

Newly professed at age 34, Clement Mary, as he was now called, and Thaddeus were sent back to Vienna. But the religious difficulties there caused them to leave and continue north to Warsaw, Poland. There they encountered numerous German-speaking Catholics who had been left priestless by the suppression of the Jesuits. At first they had to live in great poverty and preached outdoor sermons. They were given the church of St. Benno, and for the next nine years they preached five sermons a day, two in German and three in Polish, converting many to the faith. They were active in social work among the poor, founding an orphanage and then a school for boys.

Drawing candidates to the congregation, they were able to send missionaries to Poland, Germany and Switzerland. All of these foundations had eventually to be abandoned because of the political and religious tensions of the times. After 20 years of difficult work Clement himself was imprisoned and expelled from the country. Only after another arrest was he able to reach Vienna, where he was to live and work the final 12 years of his life. He quickly became "the apostle of Vienna," hearing the confessions of the rich and poor, visiting the sick, acting as a counselor to the powerful, sharing his holiness with all in the city. His crowning work was the establishment of a Catholic college in his beloved city.

Persecution followed him, and there were those in authority who were able for a while to stop him from preaching. An attempt was made at the highest levels to have him banished. But his holiness and fame protected him and the growth of the Redemptorists. Due to his efforts, the congregation, upon his death in 1820, was firmly established north of the Alps.
He was canonized in 1909.
Comment:   Clement saw his life’s work meet with disaster. Religious and political tensions forced him and his brothers to abandon their ministry in Germany, Poland and Switzerland. Clement himself was exiled from Poland and had to start all over again. Someone once pointed out that the followers of the crucified Jesus should see only new possibilities opening up whenever they meet failure. He encourages us to follow his example, trusting in the Lord to guide us.
1830 St. Clement Maria Hofbauer Redemptorist preacher reformer devoted to Jesus
Vindobónæ, in Austria, sancti Cleméntis-Maríæ Hofbauer, Sacerdótis proféssi Congregatiónis a sanctíssimo Redemptóre nuncupátæ, plúrimis in Dei glória et animárum salúte promovénda ac dilatánda ipsa Congregatióne exantlátis labóribus insígnis; quem, virtútibus et miráculis clarum, Pius Décimus, Póntifex Máximus, in Sanctórum cánonem rétulit.
      At Vienna in Austria, St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, a priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, renowned for his great devotion in promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and in extending that order.  He was canonized by Pope Pius X.

1820 ST CLEMENT HOFBAUER
ST CLEMENT MARY H0FBAUER sometimes called second founder of the Redemptorists, because it was he who first planted the congregation of St Al­phonsus Liguori north of the Alps. To him is due the further credit of having done more than any other individual to bring about the collapse of “Josephinism”, that Austrian counterpart of Erastianism which treated ecclesiastics as functionaries of the state and subject to secular control. Born in 1751 in Moravia, St Clement, whose baptismal name was John, was the ninth of the twelve children of a grazier and butcher who had changed his Slavonic surname Dvorak, to the German equivalent Hofbauer.

Even as a child the boy longed to become a priest, but poverty stood in the way, and, at the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to a baker. Later he was employed in the bakery of the Premonstratensian monastery at Bruck, where his self-sacrifice during a time of famine won him the favour of the abbot, who allowed him to follow the classes of the Latin school attached to the abbey. After the abbot’s death, the young man lived as a solitary, until the Emperor Joseph’s edict against hermitages obliged him to take up his old trade again, this time in Vienna. From that city he twice made pilgrimages to Rome, in company with his friend Peter Kunzmann, and on the second occasion they obtained per­mission from Bishop Chiaramonti of Tivoli (Pope Pius VII) to settle as hermits in his diocese. Within a few months, however, it was borne in upon him that his work was to be that of a missioner, not a solitary, and he accordingly returned to Vienna. One day, after he had been serving Mass at the cathedral of St Stephen, he offered to fetch, a carriage for two ladies who were detained in the porch by a downpour of rain, and this chance meeting led to the accomplishment of his heart’s desire, for the two ladies, discovering that he had not the means to prosecute the necessary studies for the priesthood, paid not only for him but also for his friend Thaddeus Hübl. As the University of Vienna was tainted with rationalistic teaching, they returned to Rome, and there, being greatly attracted by the Redemptorists, they both sought admission into the novitiate. St Alphon­sus himself, who was still alive at the time, rejoiced greatly when he heard of the new-comers from the north, foreseeing the establishment of his congregation in Austria.

The two friends were professed and ordained in 1785, Clement being then already 34 years old. They then were sent back to Vienna, but since the Emperor Joseph II, not content with the overthrow of the Jesuits, had already suppressed several hundred monasteries belonging to other orders, it was useless to think of making a new foundation there. He was then charged by his superiors to begin a mission in Courland, and started northwards with Thaddeus Hübl. On the way St Clement met his old friend Emmanuel Kunzmann, who had continued to live in the hermitage at Tivoli, but was then on a pilgrimage. Their encounter seemed providential. Kunzmann soon determined to join the other two as a lay-brother, and became the first Redemptorist novice to be received north of the Alps. At Warsaw the papal nuncio placed at their disposal the church of St Benno. There were several thousand German Catholics in the city who, since the suppression of the Jesuits, had had no priest who knew their language. In his anxiety to retain the Redemptorists, the nuncio wrote to Rome and obtained the postponement of the mission to Courland in view of the work to be done in Warsaw. They began their labours in the utmost poverty: they had no beds, and the priests slept upon the table while Brother Emmanuel rested in a chair. They borrowed their cooking utensils, and as the lay-brother knew nothing of cooking, Clement was obliged to help him. In the early days they preached in the streets, but when the government prohibited outdoor sermons, they remained in St Benno’s, which became the centre of a continuous mission. Between the years 1789 and 1808 the work done by St Clement and his brethren was extraordinary: five sermons were preached every day, three in Polish and two in German, for although St Clement’s work lay primarily with the Germans, he wished to help all, and the work amongst the Poles received a great impetus after the reception of the first Polish novice, John Podgorski. The church of Holy-Cross-in-the-Fields was handed over to Clement and served from St Benno’s. Numbers of Protestants were brought to the church, and St Clement was particularly successful in the conversion of Jews. In addition to this apostolic ministry the holy man also accomplished a great social work. The constant wars had left the lower classes in great misery, and the condition of many of the children was pitiful. To provide for them, he opened an orphanage near St Benno’s and collected alms for their support. On one of his begging expeditions, a man who was playing cards in a tavern replied to his appeal by spitting in his face. St Clement, undeterred, said, “That was a gift to me personally; now please let me have something for my poor children”: the man who had insulted him afterwards became one of his regular penitents. A school for boys was also founded, while confraternities and other associations helped to ensure the permanence of the good work thus begun. As his community increased, he began to send out missionaries and to establish houses in Courland as well as in Poland, Germany and Switzerland—but they all had eventually to be abandoned, owing to the difficulties of the times. After twenty years of strenuous labours, St Clement had to give up his work in Warsaw also, in consequence of Napoleon’s decree suppressing the religious orders. The previous year the saint had lost his beloved friend Father Hübl, who had died of typhus contracted when he was giving the last sacraments to some Italian soldiers. A police-agent risked his life to warn the Redemptorists of their impending expulsion. They were therefore prepared for the official visitation when it came on June 20, 1808, and surrendered themselves without delay. They were taken to the fortress of Cüstrin on the banks of the Oder and there imprisoned; but such was their influence on their fellow prisoners and on the people outside who used to crowd round the prison to listen to the Redemptorists’ hymns, that the authorities decided not to keep them there lest their presence should cause too many conversions. It was decided that the community should be broken up and that each member should return to his native country. St Clement, however, determined to settle in Vienna, in the hope of founding a religious house there in the event of the repeal of the laws of Joseph II, and after great difficulties, including another imprisonment on the Austrian frontier, he succeeded in reaching the city where he was to live and work for the last twelve years of his life.

At first he laboured quietly, helping in the Italian quarter, but before long the archbishop appointed him chaplain to the Ursuline nuns and rector of the public church attached to their convent. There he was free to preach, to hear confessions and perform all priestly duties, and soon from this centre fresh vigour was infused into the religious life of Vienna. His confessional was besieged not only by the poor and simple, but by ministers of state and university professors. As one of his biographers remarks “ By the sheer unaided force of his holiness, he, a man to whom the opportunity of acquiring anything like wide intellectual culture had been denied, gained such an ascendency over the minds of his contemporaries that he came to be regarded as an oracle of wisdom by leaders of thought both in the world of politics and letters.” It was actually St Clement Mary Hofbauer and his friends and penitents, one of whom was Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, who were mainly responsible for defeating at the Congress of Vienna the attempt to create a national German church independent of the pope. The saint interested himself specialty in the diffusion of good literature, but perhaps his crowning work was the establishment of a Catholic college, which proved an inestimable boon to Vienna, supplying many priests and monks as well as well-instructed laymen who afterwards occupied important positions in every civic career. All through his life St Clement had a great devotion to the sick, whom he loved to visit, and he is said to have been present at two thousand death-beds. He was summoned to rich and poor alike, and never refused a call. He was a particularly good friend to the Catholic Armenian Mekhitarist monks who had come to Vienna not long before; and in his dealings with Protestants he was much helped by his realization that, as he wrote in a letter to Father Perthes in 1820, “If the Reform in Germany grew and main­tained itself it was not through heretics and philosophers, but through men who truly aspired after interior religion in spite of all his good works and public spirit St Clement was the object of frequent persecution by the supporters of “Josephinism”, and the police kept an unwearying eye on him. They reported in 1818 that, “Pietism and bigotry are increasingly becoming the fashion of the day. The confessional, however, is the decisive factor in keeping this fashion alive” ; and it indeed seems that his work as a confessor and director was a principal source of the influence that made of St Clement Hofbauer “the apostle of Vienna”. Once he was forbidden to preach, and his opponents, after the failure of their attempts at the Congress of Vienna, accused him of being a spy who reported to Rome all that was done in the Empire. The Austrian chancellor asked that he should be expelled, but Francis I heard such a good report of Clement from the archbishop and from Pope Pius VII, that he not only forbade any further annoyance of the Redemptorists, but in an interview with the saint spoke encouragingly of the prospect of a legal recognition of his congregation.

The saint’s two great objects were now practically attained the Catholic faith was once more in the ascendant, arid his beloved congregation was about to be firmly planted on German soil. He did not live to see the actual realization of his hopes, but he was perfectly satisfied. “The affairs of the con­gregation will not be settled until after my death”, he said. “Only have patience and trust in God. Scarcely shall I have breathed my last when we shall have houses in abundance.” The prophecy was soon to be fulfilled. Towards the end, in 1819, St Clement was suffering from a complication of diseases, but he worked as hard as ever. On March 9 he insisted upon walking through a storm of snow and wind to sing a requiem Mass for the soul of Princess Jablonowska, who had helped him greatly when he was living at Warsaw. He nearly fainted at the altar, and on his return home took to his bed, from which he was not again to rise. There, six days later, he breathed his last in the presence of many of his friends. All Vienna crowded the streets to do him honour when his body was borne by twelve of his dearest disciples into the cathedral through the great doors, which were only opened on solemn occasions; and in 1909 he was canonized.

There are excellent biographies in German by A. Innerkofler, M. Meschler and M Haringer (this last was translated into English by Lady Herbert of Lea), but the best is that of J. Hofer, Der heilige Klemens Maria Hofbauer Ein Lebensbild (1921). Much information may be gleaned from Fr H. Castle’s Life of St Alphonsus Liguori, and there are English accounts by Fr O. R. Vassall-Phillips and Fr J. Carr. See also an article by W. C. Breitenfeld in The Tablet, January 5, 1952, pp. 7—9, and E. Hosp, Der hl. K. M. Hofbauer (1951).

He was born on December 26,1751, at Taswitz, Moravia, the ninth child of a butcher and his wife and was baptized John. His family name was originally Dvorak, but was changed to the German Hofbauer. He was apprenticed as a baker in his youth, and later became a hermit near Bruck, Austria. As part of his so-called Josephinist policies, Austrian Emperor Jo­seph II abolished hermitages, and Clement went to Vienna, where he and a friend, Peter Kunzmann, received permission from Bishop Chiaramonti of Tivoli, Italy, to live in a hermitage. Bishop Chiaramonti later became Pope Pius VII.

After studying at the university of Vienna, Austria, and in Rome, Clement and another friend, Thaddeus Hubl, entered the Redemptorist Order and were ordained in 1785. They were stationed in Vienna, but Emperor Joseph II closed religious foundations, so they were sent to Courtland. Peter Kunzmann joined Clement as a lay brother, and the three were sent to St. Benno’s Church in Warsaw, Poland, to begin two decades of missionary labors. Clement preached, built orphanages and schools, and established a vast Redemptorist presence in the city. Napoleon suppressed all religious institutions, and Clement and the Redemptorists were imprisoned in 1808, each one then exiled to his own native land. Clement went to Vienna, where he became the chaplain of the Ursulines and pastor of the adjoining parish. He became known for his holiness and zeal. He founded a Catholic college and began to reform and revitalize the Catholic faith of Austria and Germany. Prince Rupert of Bavaria aided Clement in defeating a move to establish a German national Church. Clement also fought against Josephinism and was about to be expelled from Austria for his opposition to such secular control, when, surprisingly, Emperor Joseph’s successor, Emperor Francis I, defended him. Clement died in Vienna on March 15. He was canonized in 1909.

Clement Maria Hofbauer, C.SS.R. (RM) (ne John Dvorák) Born in Tasswitz, Moravia, December 26, 1751; died in Vienna, Austria, March 15, 1820; canonized in 1909 by Pius X, who named him patron of Vienna in 1914.
"O My Redeemer, will that terrible moment ever come when but few Christians shall be left who are inspired by the spirit of faith, that moment when Your indignation shall be provoked and Your protection shall be taken from us? Have our vices and our evil lives irrevocably moved Your justice to take vengeance, perhaps this very day, upon Your children?
"We beg You, the Beginning and the End of faith, with contrite hearts, not to let the light of faith be extinguished in souls.
"Remember Your mercies of old, turn Your eyes in compassion upon the vineyard planted by Your own right hand, and watered by the tears of the Apostles, by the precious blood of countless martyrs, and made fruitful by the prayers of so many confessors and innocent virgins.
"O divine Mediator, look upon those zealous souls who raise their hearts to You and pray without ceasing for the maintenance of that most precious gift of Yours, the True Faith. Keep us safe in the true Catholic and Roman Faith. Preserve us in Your holy faith, for if we are rich with this precious gift, we shall gladly endure every sorrow and nothing shall ever be able to change our happiness. Without this great treasure of faith, our unhappiness would be unspeakable and without limit.
"O Good Jesus, Author of our faith, preserve it pure within us; keep us safe in the bark of Peter, faithful and obedient to his successor, and Your vicar here on earth, so that the unity of the holy Church may be maintained, holiness fostered, the Holy See protected in freedom, and the Church universal extended to the benefit of souls.
"O Jesus, Author of our faith, humble and convert the enemies of Your Church; grant true peace and concord to all Christian kings and princes and to all believers; strengthen and preserve us in Your holy service to the end, that we may live with You and die in You.
"O Jesus, Author of our faith, let me live for You and die for You. Amen." --Saint Clement-Maria Hofbauer

John Dvorák was the youngest of the nine children of a Czech butcher and a German mother. His father changed the family name from the Moravian Dvorák to the German Hofbauer. John was raised in a humble, pious family. As a baker's apprentice and then as a journeyman baker, as a servant at the Premonstratensian Klosterbruck, and as a student, he strove to draw nearer to his constant goal: the priesthood. However, neither he nor his family could afford the cost of educating him for service to the Church.
Unable to attain his goal of the priesthood, he became a hermit. When Emperor Joseph II abolished hermitages in Austria, Hofbauer became a baker in Vienna.

On a pilgrimage to Rome, he received the habit of a hermit at the hands of the Bishop Chiaramonti of Tivoli, the future Pope Pius VII, who changed John's name to Clement. Thus, he again became a hermit with a friend, Peter Kunzmann, but found that he was more suited to an active life than to that of a recluse. One day after Mass, Hofbauer struck up a friendship with two ladies who agreed to pay for his studies at the University of Vienna and in Rome.

During this second pilgrimage to Rome, Hofbauer and his friend, Thaddeus Hubl, became acquainted with the Redemptorist order and entered it in 1784, while Saint Alphonsus Liguori was still alive. At that time Hofbauer took the name Maria.

In 1785, he and Hubl were ordained; and, after two years of further study, they were sent to Vienna to found a Redemptorist house, but under the regime of Joseph II it was impossible to found a monastery in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During all of Clement's life, the influence of the Enlightenment and Joseph II's anti-papal Erastianism were at their height. So, the two friends were sent to Courland.

En route Clement's old friend Kunzmann joined them as a lay brother. At the request of the papal nuncio, they went to Warsaw, Poland, and, in 1787, founded the first Redemptorist house beyond the Alps. Hofbauer's untiringly zealous work in Warsaw from 1787 to 1808 in the German national church of Saint Benno was profoundly effective, although it was somewhat retarded by the Napoleonic Wars. Five times each day he and his companions preached in Polish and German. During his stay in Poland he established other houses, initiated many charitable and educational (including a free school for 350 poor children, and a high school) enterprises, preached so well that both Jews and Protestants were converted, and sent Redemptorist missionaries to Germany (the first house was built at Jestetten near Schaffhausen in 1802) and Switzerland.

In 1808, the French government had him removed and imprisoned with his companions at the fortress of Kuestrin, and after four weeks each was sent to his homeland. Thus, Hofbauer ended up back in Vienna, where he spent the last 12 years of his life firmly planting the Redemptorist Institute in Germanic lands. His work led to the establishment of the order in Belgium, Ireland, England, and the Commonwealth. Hofbauer, the propagator of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer north of the Alps, is venerated by his order as a second founder.

In Vienna the saint became the center of a group of German romantics, who gave a decisive impulse to the 19th century. To this circle belonged men like Adam von Mueller, Friedrich von Schlegel, and Zacharias Werner. The saint had no advantage of birth or general education, but he earned a great reputation for wisdom in religious and social matters.

He worked unobtrusively in the Italian quarter and later was chaplain to Ursuline nuns and rector of their church. Again, he became widely known as a preacher and director of souls. Hofbauer's confessional was crowded not only with humble folk, who venerated him as the father of the poor, but also with men and women of the highest rank, influential government officials, statesmen of the Congress of Vienna, leading scholars and artists.

In Vienna, Hofbauer founded a Catholic college and became enormously influential in revitalizing the religious life of the German nations. Hofbauer and Prince Rupert of Bavaria even thwarted a plan at the Congress of Vienna to set up a German Church independent of the papacy. Clement also fought the whole concept of Josephinism, that is secular domination of the Church and hierarchy by the secular ruler. Hofbauer was accused by the Austrian chancellor of being a Roman spy, but the archbishop of Vienna supported him, knowing the value of Hofbauer's contribution to the Catholic revival, so Emperor Francis I forbade his expulsion. Hofbauer also tirelessly cared for the sick and the dying and showed sensitive consideration to devout and conscientious Protestants because he had a deep understanding of the causes of the Protestant Reformation and its religious motives among the German peoples.

In 1819, he was mortally ill of several diseases. He died the next year after participating in the funeral of a notable benefactor. His funeral in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral was attended by thousands. Soon afterwards the cause for which he had long labored, the founding of Redemptorist houses in Austria, became a reality. His friend Werner said that he knew only three men of superhuman energy--Napoleon, Goethe, and Clement Hofbauer (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Hofer, Schamoni).

Klemens Maria Hofbauer Katholische Kirche: 15. März
Klemens Maria Hofbauer wurde 1751 in Tasovice (Tschechische Republik) geboren. Er war Bäckerlehrling in Znaim, zog sich dann aber als Einsiedler zurück. Hier erkannte er seine Berufung und ging nach Rom. Er trat in den Redemptoristenorden ein und wurde 1785 zum Priester geweiht. Er wurde nach Wien gesandt und versuchte hier vergeblich, eine Niederlassung der Redemptoristen zu errichten. 1787 konnte er mit zwei Gefährten in Warschau eine Armenschule und ein Waisenhaus einrichten. In der Gemeinde entstand ein Seelsorgezentrum mit großem Zulauf. Hofbauer gründete eine Laiengemeinschaft und versuchte Niederlassungen in der Schweiz und in Süddeutschland zu errichten. Diese Versuche scheiterten aber an Widerständen der staatlichen und kirchlichen Gewalten. 1808 wurde auch die Gemeinschaft in Warschau von Napoleon verboten. Hofbauer ging wieder nach Wien, wo er 1813 Beichtvater der Ursulinen und Direktor der Kirche St. Ursula wurde und neue auf die besonderen Bedingungen der Großstadt eingehende Formen der Seelsorge einführte. Seine umfangreiche Tätigkeit trug ihm den Beinamen Apostel Wiens ein. Hofbauer starb am 15.4.1820, er sollte in aller Stille beerdigt werden, aber der Leichenzug entwickelte sich zu einem Triumphzug. Hofbauer wurde auf dem Romantikerfriedhof bestattet, der Leichnam wurde 1862 in die Wiener Redemptoristenkirche überführt. 1909 wurde Hofbauer heilig gesprochen und 1914 zum Stadtpatron von Wien erklärt.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 286

The Lord hath reigned, let Mary rejoice: in all the empire under her rule.

Adore her, all ye citizens of the heavenly commonwealth: exalt her, ye fair virgins, her daughters.

For she is raised above principalities and dominations: she is exalted above angels and the embassies of archangels.

Patriarchs and prophets, break forth in her praise: make a harmony, Apostles and martyrs of Christ.

Confessors and virgins, sing canticles to her from the songs of Sion:
and congratulate her, holy monks, for the triumphs she has won.

Let every spirit praise Our Lady

Rejoice, ye Heavens, and be glad, O Earth: because Mary will console her servants and will have mercy on her poor.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning and will always be.

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea.  As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences.  Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heavenonly saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Pasqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
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China
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May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
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Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, PSALTER  BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 286 2023