Monday Saints of this Day May 08 Octavo idus Maii

Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас! (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)

R. Deo grátias. R. Thanks be to God.
May, the month of Mary

2023
22,600 lives saved
From 2007 to 2021

Haitian Help Funding Seeds Haitian Geology AND Haitian Paintings
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For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

St John this day The Church commemorates because the annual pilgrimage to grave miracle of red dust

193 St. Dionysius Bishop of Vienne, in Dauphine, France, successor of St. Justus 1/of 10 missionaries sent with St. Peregrinus to Gaul, by Pope St. Sixtus I.
350 St Nikolaus von Myra Bischof von Myra in Lykien (heute Demre/Türkei) condemned Arianism
496 St Michael Archangel appeared on Mount Gargano {San Giovanni Rotondo is there} in Apulia, South Italy, in the days of Pope Gelasius to bishop of Siponto
515 St Abran Hermit and his brothers and sisters were all declared saints Ireland
615 Boniface IV, Pope student under Gregory the Great converted Roman temple of gods {Pantheon} into a Christian church dedicated to Our Lady and all saints corresponded with Saint Columba (RM)
618 ST DEUSDEDIT, POPE
652 Bl Ida of Nivelles built a double monastery at Nivelles OSB Widow (AC)
685 St Benedict II, Pope Scripture scholar and an expert in sacred chants amended the process to speed approval of papal elections by having the exarch of Ravenna confirm Papal elections patron saint of Europe brought to orthodoxy Macarius, ex-patriarch of Antioch, from Monothelitism, restored Roman churches upheld cause of Saint Wilfred of York
1079 St. Stanislaus noted for his preaching Bishop of Cracow killed by excommunicated King
14th v. St Arsenius the Lover of Labor gift of wonderworking
1416 Julian von Norwich 'Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love' niederschrieb
15-16 th v The Monks Zosima and Adrian of Volokolamsk, founders of the Sestrinsk monastery on the banks of the River Sestra
1785 Monk Arsenii of Novgorod, Fool-for-Christ transfer relics and "Saints-name-in-common" ("tezoimenitstvo") of this day
1835 St. Maria Magdalen of Canossa Foundress of the Daughters of Charity at Verona, Italy saw the Blessed Mother surrounded by six religious dressed in brown She herself tended the poorest and dirtiest children witnesses observed her rapt in ecstasy, seen levitating.

Do you want our Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him often. Do you want Him to give you few graces? Visit Him seldom. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are powerful and indispensable means of overcoming the attacks of the devil. Make frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the devil will be powerless against you.

The Rosary is made up of two things: mental prayer and vocal prayer. In the Holy Rosary mental prayer is none other than meditation of the chief mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother.

Vocal prayer consists in saying fifteen decades of the Hail Mary, each decade headed by an Our Father, while at the same time meditating on and contemplating the fifteen principal virtues which Jesus and Mary practiced in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary.

In the first five decades we must honor the five Joyous Mysteries and meditate on them; in the second five decades the Sorrowful Mysteries and in the third group of five, the Glorious Mysteries. So the Rosary is a blessed blending of mental and vocal prayer by which we honor and learn to imitate the mysteries and virtues of the life, death, passion and glory of Jesus and Mary.

(B) All truly penitent Christian faithful who, in church or oratory, devotedly attend Holy Mass and offer prayers to Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mould them to His Heart, are granted Plenary Indulgence, on the condition that they have expiated their sins through Sacramental Confession and prayed in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

This may be done on the opening and closing days of the Year of Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Marie Vianney, on the first Thursday of the month, or on any other day established by the ordinaries of particular places for the good of the faithful.

The elderly, the sick and all those who for any legitimate reason are unable to leave their homes, may still obtain Plenary Indulgence if, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin and with the intention of observing, as soon as they can, the usual three conditions, "on the days concerned, they pray for the sanctification of priests and offer their sickness and suffering to God through Mary, Queen of the Apostles".

Partial Indulgence is offered to all faithful each time they pray five Our Father, Ave Maria and Gloria Patri, or any other duly approved prayer "in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to ask that priests maintain purity and sanctity of life"

496 Pope St. Gelasius I feast Nov 21 conspicuous for his spirit of prayer, penance, and study. He took great delight in the company of monks, and was a true father to the poor

684-685 Benedict II, Pope Scripture scholar and an expert in sacred chants amended the process to speed approval of papal elections by having the exarch of Ravenna confirm Papal elections patron saint of Europe brought back to orthodoxy Macarius, the ex-patriarch of Antioch, from his Monothelitism, restored several Roman churches upheld the cause of Saint Wilfred of York (RM)

608-615 Boniface IV, Pope student under Gregory the Great converted Roman temple of gods {Pantheon} into a Christian church dedicated to Our Lady and all saints corresponded with Saint Columba (RM)
Romæ sancti Bonifátii Papæ Quarti, qui Pántheon in honórem beátæ Maríæ ad Mártyres dedicávit.
At Rome, Pope St. Boniface IV, who dedicated the Pantheon to the honour of our Lady and the martyrs.
St. Boniface IV 608-615 25 May converted Pantheon into a Christian Church, the temple by Agrippa to Jupiter the Avenger, to Venus, and to Mars consecrated by the pope to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs. (Hence the title S. Maria Rotunda.) the first instance at Rome of a pagan temple into a place of Christian worship.

684-685 Pope St. Benedict II distinguished knowledge of the Scriptures and by his singing, and as a priest was remarkable for his humility, love of the poor, and generosity; Many of the churches of Rome were restored by him; and its clergy, its deaconries for the care of the poor, and its lay sacristans all benefited by his liberality.

"The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints. They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties, how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious." 1913 Saint Barsanuphius of Optina
God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR benefit of others.

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.

St John on this day The Church commemorates because of the annual pilgrimage to his grave miracle of red dust

When St John was more than one hundred years old, he took seven of his disciples and went to a spot outside the city of Ephesus.
There he told them to dig a grave in the form of a cross. Then he climbed into the grave and told his disciples to cover him with earth. Later, the grave was opened and the saint's body was not there.
Each year on May 8 a red dust would arise from the grave which the faithful collected in order to be healed of their illnesses.
St John's main Feast is on September 26.

Orthodoxe Kirche: 8. Mai
Orthodoxe Kirche: 26. September - Niederlegung der Gebeine
Orthodoxe Kirche: 20. Juni - Übertragung der Gebeine und Kleider (in die Apostelkirche in Konstantinopel)
Katholische, Anglikanische und Evangelische Kirche: 27. Dezember

Das Neue Testament berichtet uns, dass Johannes und sein Bruder Jakobus Söhne des Zebedäus und der Salome waren und mit ihrem Vater als Fischer am See Genezareth arbeiteten. Nach außerbiblischer Überlieferung soll Salome eine Verwandte Marias gewesen sein und Jakobus soll der älteste, Johannes dagegen der jüngste Jünger Jesu gewesen sein. Johannes war wie Andreas wohl ein Schüler Johannes des Täufers. Johannes, der Lieblingsjünger Jesu ist neben Petrus sicher der wichtigste Apostel. Beide sind die Führer der Jerusalemer Gemeinde nach der Himmelfahrt Jesu. nach dem Apostelkonzil verläßt auch Johannes Jerusalem. Er ist wohl nach Kleinasien gegangen und hat von Ephesus aus die neu entstandenen Gemeinden geleitet, insbesondere jene sieben Gemeinden, die in der Offenbarung genannt sind. Vielleicht hat er auch in Persien unter den Parthern missioniert. Unter Diokletian wurde Johannes nach Patmos verbannt. Eine alte Legende berichtet, er sei vorher in Rom zum Tode verurteilt und in einen Kessel mit siedenden Öl geworfen worden, sei aber unversehrt geblieben (Gedenktag 6.5.). Unter Kaiser Nero soll Johannes nach Ephesus zurückgekehrt sein und Nachfolger des Bischofs Timotheus geworden sein. Her schrieb er nun sein Evangelium und die drei überlieferten Briefe. Johannes starb in hohem Alter um 100. In der theologischen Wissenschaft ist (und bleibt vielleicht) ungeklärt, ob Johannes der (alleinige) Verfasser des Evangeliums, der Briefe und der Offenbarung war.

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian occupies an unique place in the ranks of the chosen disciples of Christ the Saviour. Often in iconography the Apostle John is depicted as a gentle, majestic and spiritual elder, with features of innocent tenderness, with the imprint of complete calm upon his forehead and the deep look of a contemplator of unuttered revelations. Another main trait of the spiritual countenance of the Apostle John is revealed through his teaching about love, for which the title "Apostle of Love" is preeminently designated to him. Actually, all his writings are permeated by love, the basic concept of which leads to the comprehension, that God in His Being is Love (1 Jn. 4: 8). In his writings, Saint John dwells especially upon the manifestations of the inexpressible love of God for the world and for mankind, the love of his Divine Teacher. He constantly exhorts his disciples to mutual love one for another.

The service of Love -- was the entire pathway of life of the Apostle John the Theologian.

The qualities of calmness and profound contemplation were in him combined with an ardent fidelity, tender and boundless love with intensity and even a certain abruptness. From the brief indications of the Evangelists it is apparent, that he was endowed in the highest degree with an ardent nature, and his hearty passionateness sometimes reached such a stormy zealousness, that Jesus Christ was compelled to give the admonishment, that it was discordant with the spirit of the new teaching (Mk. 9: 38-40; Lk. 9: 49-50, 54?56) and He called the Apostle John and his brother by birth the Apostle James "Sons of Thunder" ("Boanerges"). During this while Saint John shows scant modesty, and besides his particular position among the Apostles as "the disciple whom Jesus loved", he did not stand out among the other disciples of the Saviour. The distinguishing features of his character were the observance and sensitivity to events, permeated by a keen sense of obedience to the Will of God. Impressions received from without rarely showed up in his word or actions, but they penetrated deeply and powerfully into the inner life of the holy Apostle John. Always sensitive to others, his heart ached for the perishing. The Apostle John with pious tremulation was attentive to the Divinely-inspired teaching of his Master, to the fulness of grace and truth, in pure and sublime comprehending the Glory of the Son of God. No feature of the earthly life of Christ the Saviour slipped past the penetrating gaze of the Apostle John, nor did any event occur, that did not leave a deep impression on his memory, since in him was concentrated all the fulness and wholeness of the human person. The thoughts also of the Apostle John the Theologian are imbued with suchlike an integral wholeness. The dichotomy of person did not exist for him. In accord with his precepts, where there is not full devotion, there is nothing. Having chosen the path to service to Christ, to the end of his life he fulfilled it with complete and undivided devotion. The Apostle John speaks about wholistic a devotion to Christ, about the fulness of life in Him, wherefore also sin is considered by him not as a weakness and injury of human nature, but as evil, as a negative principle, which is completely set in opposition to the good (Jn. 8: 34; 1 Jn. 3: 4, 8-9). In his perspective, it is necessary to belong either to Christ or to the devil, it is not possible to be of a mediocre lukewarm, undecided condition (1 Jn. 2: 22, 4: 3; Rev. 3: 15-16). Therefore he served the Lord with undivided love and self-denial, having repudiated everything that appertains to the ancient enemy of mankind, the enemy of truth and the father of lies (1 Jn. 2: 21-22). Just as strongly as he loves Christ, just as strongly he contemns the Anti-Christ; just as intensely he loves truth, with an equal intensity does he contemn falsehood, -- for light doth expel darkness (Jn. 8: 12; 12: 35-36). By the manifestation of the inner fire of love he witnesses with the unique power of spirit about the Divinity of Jesus Christ (Jn. 1: 1-18; 1 Jn. 5: 1-12).

To the Apostle John was given to express the last word of the Divine Revelation (i.e. the final book of the Holy Scripture), ushering in the most treasured mysteries of the Divine inner life, known only to the eternal Word of God, the Only-Begotten Son.

Truth is reflected in his mind and in his words, wherein he senses and grasps it in his heart. He has comprehension of eternal Truth, and as he sees it, he transmits it to his beloved spiritual children. The Apostle John with simplicity affirms or denies and speaks always with absolute precision (1 Jn. 1: 1). He hears the voice of the Lord, revealing to him what He Himself hears from the Father.

The theology of the Apostle John abolishes the borderline between the present and the future. Looking at the present time, he does not halt at it, but transports his gaze to the eternal in the past time and to the eternal in the future time. And therefore he, exhorting for holiness in life, solemnly proclaims, that "all, born of God, sin not" (1 Jn. 5: 18; 3: 9). In communion with God the true Christian partakes of life Divine, whereby the future of mankind is accomplished already on earth. In his explanation and disclosing of the teaching about the Economia of salvation, the Apostle John crosses over into the area of the eternal present, in which Heaven would co-incide with earth and the earth would be enlightened with the Light of Heavenly Glory.

Thus did the Galilean fisherman, this son of Zebedee, become Theologian proclaiming through Revelation the mystery of world-existence and the fate of mankind.

The celebration on 8 May of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was established by the Church in remembrance of the annual drawing forth on this day at the place of his burial of fine rose ashes, which believers gathered for healing from various maladies. The account about the life of the holy Evangelist John the Theologian is situated under 26 September, the day of his repose.

And on May 8th each year a dust arose from the grave, from which those suffering from many diseases were healed.

Martyrdom of the Great Saint Mark, the Apostle The Evangelist of the Land of Egypt. {COPTIC CHURCH}

On this day, which coincided with the 26th. of April 68 A.D., the great apostle St. Mark, the evangelist of the land of Egypt, was martyred. He was the first Pope of Alexandria and one of the Seventy Apostles.

His name was John, as the Holy Bible says: "He came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying" (Acts 12:12). He was the one that the Lord Christ, to Whom is the glory, meant when He said: "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples" (Matthew 26:18).

His house was the first Christian church, where they ate the Passover, hid after the death of the Lord Christ, and in its upper room the Holy Spirit came upon them.

This Saint was born in Cyrene (One of the Five Western cities, Pentapolis - in North Africa). His father's name was Aristopolus and his mother's name was Mary. They were Jewish in faith, rich and of great honor. They educated him with the Greek and Hebrew cultures. He was called Mark after they emigrated to Jerusalem, where St. Peter had become a disciple to the Lord Christ. St. Peter was married to the cousin of Aristopolus. Mark visited St. Peter's house often, and from him he learned the Christian teachings.

Once Aristopolus and his son Mark were walking near the Jordan river, close by the desert, they encountered a raving lion and a lioness. It was evident to Aristopolus that it would be his end and the end of his Son, Mark. His compassion for his son compelled him to order him to escape to save himself. Mark answered, "Christ, in whose hands our lives are committed, will not let them prey on us." Saying this, he prayed, "O, Christ, Son of God protect us from the evil of these two beasts and terminate their offspring from this wilderness." Immediately, God granted this prayer, and the two beasts fell dead. His father marvelled and asked his son to tell him about the Lord Christ. He believed in the Lord Christ at the hands of his son who baptized him.

After the ascension of the Lord Christ, he accompanied Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel in Antioch, Seleucia, Cyprus, Salamis, and Perga Pamphylia where he left them and returned to Jerusalem. After the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, he went with Barnabas to Cyprus.

After the departure of Barnabas, with the order of the Lord Christ, St. Mark went to Afrikia, Berka, and the Five Western cities. He preached the Gospel in these parts, and believed on his hands most of its people. From there, he went to Alexandria in the 1st. of Bashans 61 A.D.

When he entered the city, his shoe was torn because of the much walking in preaching and evangelism. He went to a cobbler in the city, called Anianus, to repair it. While he was repairing it the awl pierced his finger. Anianus shouted in Greek saying "EIS THEOS" which means "O, ONE GOD". When St. Mark heard these words his heart rejoiced exceedingly. He found it suitable to talk to him about the One God. The Apostle took some clay, spat on it and applied it to Anianus' finger, saying in the Name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the wound healed immediately, as if nothing happened to it.Moses, who brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and gave them the Law, the captivity of the children of Israel to Babylon, and the prophecies that foretold the coming of Christ.

Anianus invited him to go to his house and brought to him his children. The Saint preached and baptized them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

When the believers in the Name of Christ increased and the pagan people of the city heard that, they were raged with anger and thought of slaying St. Mark. The faithful advised him to get away for a short while for the sake of the safety of the church and its care. St. Mark ordained St. Anianus a Bishop for Alexandria, three priests and seven deacons. He went to the Five Western Cities, remained there for two years preaching, and ordained bishops, priests, and deacons.

He returned to Alexandria where he found the believers had increased in number, and built a church for them in the place known as Bokalia (The place of cows), east of Alexandria on the sea shore.
It came to pass, when he was celebrating the feast of the Resurrection on the 29th day of Baramudah, year 68 A.D., the same day coincided with the great pagan Celebration for the feast of the god Syrabis, a multitude of them assembled and attacked the church at Bokalia and forced their way in. They seized St. Mark, bound him with a thick rope and dragged him in the roads and streets crying, "Drag the dragon to the place of Cows." They continued dragging him with severe cruelty. His flesh was torn and scattered everywhere, and the ground of the city was covered with his blood. They cast him that night into a dark prison.
The angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him: "O Mark, the good servant, rejoice for your name has been written in the book of life, and you have been counted among the congregation of the saints." The angel disappeared, then the Lord Christ appeared to him, and gave him peace. His soul rejoiced and was glad.
The next morning (30th of Baramudah), the pagans took St. Mark from the prison. They tied his neck with a thick rope and did the same as the day before, dragging him over the rocks and stones. Finally, St. Mark delivered up his pure soul in the hand of God, and received the crown of martyrdom, the apostolic crown, the crown of evangelism, and the crown of virginity.
Nevertheless, St. Mark's death did not satisfy the rage of the pagans and their hatred. They gathered much firewood and prepared an inferno to burn him. A severe storm blew and heavy rains fell. The pagans became frightened, and they fled away in fear. The believers came and took the holy body, carried it to the church they built at Bokalia, wrapped it up, prayed over him and place it in a coffin. They laid it in a secret place in this church. The prayers of this great Saint and honorable Evangelist be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.

In the passio of this martyr we have the usual fantastic accumulation of torments. He is said, for example, to have been basted with molten lead, which instantaneously cooled on touching his flesh, and did him no sort of harm. Nevertheless, the fact of his martyrdom and early veneration at Milan is beyond doubt. There is quite a considerable literature concerning St Victor the Moor, for which see CMH., p. 238. Consult especially F. Savio, .I santi Martiri di Milano (1906), pp. 3—24 and 59-65. The passio is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii.

The Greek text of the Acts of Acacius is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii, and there is also an ancient Syriac version edited by P. Bedjan. See what has been written concerning this martyr by Delehaye in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912), p. 228, as well as in his Origines du Culte des Martyrs, pp. 233—236, and in his CMH., p. 239. This martyr’s name is found both in the ancient Syriac Breviarium of c. 412, and in the Spanish calendar of Carmona. Cf. also Salaville, “Les Églises de St Acace” in Échos d’Orient, vol. xi, pp. 105 seq.

Romæ, via Lavicána, tértio ab Urbe milliário, pássio sanctórum Mártyrum Cláudii, Nicóstrati, Symphoriáni, Castórii et Simplícii, qui, primo in cárcerem missi, deínde scorpiónibus gravíssime cæsi, tandem, cum ex fide Christi dimovéri non possent, a Diocletiáno jussi sunt in flúvium præcípites dari.
At Rome, on the Lavican Way, three miles from the city, the martyrdom of the Saints Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian, Castorius, and Simplicius. They were first sent to prison, then scourged with whips set with metal, but since they could not be made to forsake the faith of Christ, Diocletian ordered them to be thrown into the river.

THE Roman Martyrology has today: “At Rome, three miles from the City on the Via Lavicana, the passion of the holy martyrs Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian, Castorius and Simplicius, who were first cast into prison, then terribly beaten with loaded whips, and finally, since they could not be turned from Christ’s faith, thrown headlong into the river by order of Diocletian. Likewise on the Via Lavicana the birthday of the four holy crowned brothers, namely, Severus, Severian, Carpophorus and Victorinus, who, under the same emperor, were beaten to death with blows from leaden scourges. Since their names, which in after years were made known by divine revelation, could not be discovered it was appointed that their anniversary, together with that of the other five, should be kept under the name of the Four Holy Crowned Ones; and this has continued to be done in the Church even after their names were revealed.”

These two entries and the passio upon which they are founded provide a puzzle which has not yet been solved with complete certainty. Severus, Severian, Carpophorus and Victorinus, names which the Roman Martyrology and Breviary say were revealed as those of the Four Crowned Martyrs, were borrowed from the martyrology of the diocese of Albano, where their feast is kept on August 8. On the other hand, the Four Crowned Martyrs were sometimes referred to as Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorian and Castorius. These, with the addition of Simplicius, so far from being the names of Roman martyrs (as stated above), belonged to five martyrs under Diocletian in Pannonia.

Pray we now to God almyght
And to hys moder Mary bryght;

In the legent of sanctorum

[i.e. the book Legenda Sanctorum]
The names of quatuor coronatorum.
Their fest wol be, withoute nay,
After Alle Halwen the eyght day.

Any detailed discussion of the problems outlined above would be out of place here. In the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iii, Delehaye in 1910 devoted thirty-six folio pages to the question, editing the text of the passio of the Pannonian group, written, it is believed, by a certain Porphyry, and also the tenth-century recension of the same, due to one Peter of Naples. The Depositio martyrum of the fourth century, confirmed by the Leonine and other sacramentaries, leaves no doubt that this group of martyrs was honoured in Rome at an early date, and Delehaye, in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxii (1913), pp. 63—71, as well as in his Les passions des martyrs . . . (1921), pp. 328—344, his Etude sur le légendier romain (1936), pp. 65—73, and the CMH., pp. 590—591, adheres firmly to the view that there was only one group of martyrs, the stone-masons of Pannonia, whose relics were brought to Rome and interred in the catacomb on the Via Labicana. Other theories, however, have been propounded, notably by Mgr Duchesne in Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire, vol. xxxi (1911), pp. 231—246; by P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri in Studi e Testi, vol. xxiv (1912), pp. 57—66; and J. P. Kirsch in the Historisches Jahrbuch, vol. xxxviii (1917), pp. 72—97.

350 Nikolaus von Myra Bischof von Myra in Lykien (heute Demre/Türkei) condemned Arianism
Alle Kirchen: 6. Dezember Orthodoxe Kirche auch 9. Mai (Übertragung der Gebeine) Katholische Kirche auch 8. Mai (Übertragung der Gebeine)

Nikolaus von Myra
Legende, Brauchtum und Geschichte lassen sich bei der auch heute bekannten und beliebten Gestalt des Nikolaus kaum trennen. Der Nikolaus, den wir heute verehren, ist aber wahrscheinlich aus zwei historischen Personen entstanden, nämlich dem Bischof Nikolaus von Myra und dem Abt Nikolaus von Sion, der Bischof von Pinora war und am 10.12.564 in Lykien starb. Die nachfolgende Lebensgeschichte des Nikolaus von Myra entstand im 6. Jahrhundert. Sie konnte bisher historisch nicht belegt werden: Nikolaus wurde demnach um 300 Bischof von Myra in Lykien (heute Demre/Türkei). Während der bald darauf einsetzenden Verfolgungen wurde er um 310 gefangengenommen und im Kerker gefoltert. Unter Konstantin kam er dann frei und konnte sein Bischofsamt wieder wahrnehmen. 325 nahm er an dem Konzil in Nicäa teil. Er starb am 6. Dezember um 350 (342/343).

St. Nicholas, called "of Bari", Bishop of Myra (Fourth Century) 6 Dec. Feast day. The great veneration with which this saint has been honored for many ages and the number of altars and churches which have been everywhere dedicated in his memory are testimonials to his holiness and of the glory which he enjoys with God. He is said to have been born at Patara in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. Myra, the capital, not far from the sea, was an episcopal see, and this church falling vacant, the holy Nicholas was chosen bishop, and in that station became famous by his extraordinary piety and zeal and many astonishing miracles. The Greek histories of his life agree that he suffered imprisonment of the faith and made a glorious confession in the latter part of the persecution raised by Dioletian, and that he was present at the Council of Nicaea and there condemned Arianism. The silence of other authors makes many justly suspect these circumstances. He died at Myra, and was buried in his cathedral.

Der Kult um Nikolaus entwickelte sich etwa 200 Jahre später in Griechenland und kam dann zunächst in die slawischen Länder (Nikolaus ist der Nationalheilige Rußlands). Nachdem Nikolaus im 9. Jahrhundert bereits der am meisten verehrte Heilige der Ostkirche nach der Gottesmutter war, wurden am 8. Mai 1087 seine Gebeine von Myra nach Bari übertragen (ob sie in Myra von Seeleuten geraubt wurden oder von Kaufleuten vor anrückenden Muslimen in Sicherheit gebracht wurden, ist unklar). Sein Fest wurde nun auch in der Westkirche begangen.

Eine Legende von Nikolaus berichtet, er habe drei Töchter einer armen Familie vor dem Bordell bewahrt, indem er durch das Fenster ihres Hauses drei Beutel mit Gold warf. Diese Legende dürfte ein Ursprung unseres Brauchtums am Nikolaustag sein. Eine andere ostkirchliche Legende berichtet von drei Hauptleuten, die der Kaiser aufgrund falscher Anklagen verurteilt und in einen Turm gesperrt hatte. Die drei riefen Nikolaus um Hilfe an und wurden wunderbar befreit. Anscheinend wurde der Turm auf ostkirchlichen Ikonen im Westen als Pökelfaß interpretiert und so entstand vielleicht die Legende von den fahrenden Scholaren, die von einem Metzger eingepökelt und von Nikolaus wieder zum Leben erweckt wurden. In einigen Gegenden wird Nikolaus auch als einer der 14 Nothelfer verehrt.

The greatest popularity of St. Nicholas is found neither in the eastern Mediterranean nor north-western Europe, great as that was, but in Russia. With St. Andred the Apostle he is patron of the nation, and the Russian Orthodox Church even observes the feast of his translation; so many Russian pilgrims came to Bari before the revolution that their government supported a church, hospital and hospice there. He is a patron saint also of Greece, Apulia, Sicily and Loraine, and of many cities and dioceses (including Galway) and churches innumerable. At Rome the basilica of St. Nicholas in the Jail of Tully (in Carcere) was founded between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries. He is named in the preparation of the Byzantine Mass.

387 St. Helladius of Auxerre Bishop of Auxerre, France, for three decades. He converted his successor, St. Amator, to the religious life

Antisiodóri sancti Helládii Epíscopi. At Auxerre, St. Helladius, bishop.

Helladius of Auxerre B (RM) Helladius was bishop of Auxerre, France, for 30 years. He converted his own successor, Saint Amator, to a devout life (Benedictines).

450 Saint Arsenius the Great; deacon, Sketis monastery in the midst of the desert standing at prayer, surrounded by a flame

Arsenius der Große Orthodoxe Kirche: 8. Mai Katholische Kirche: 19. Juni

Born in the year 354 at Rome into a pious Christian family, which provided him a fine education and upbringing. He studied rhetoric and philosophy, and mastered the Latin and Greek languages. St Arsenius gave up philosophy and the vanity of worldly life, seeking instead the true wisdom praised by St James "pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits" (Jas. 3:17). He entered the ranks of the clergy as a deacon in one of the Roman churches, dedicating himself to the service of God.

The emperor Theodosius (379-395), who ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire, heard about his erudition and piety, and he wished to entrust Arsenius with the education of his sons Arcadius and Honorius. Arsenius, however, protested that he had given up secular studies in order to serve God. Against his will, but in obedience to the will of Pope Damasus (December 11), St Arsenius agreed to teach the imperial children, hoping to teach them Christian piety as well. When he arrived at Constantinople, Arsenius was received with great honor by the emperor Theodosius, who charged him to educate his sons not only in wisdom, but also in piety, guarding them from the temptations of youth.

With fervor the saint devoted himself to the education of the youths, but the high esteem in which he was held troubled his spirit, which yearned for the quietude of monastic life. St Arsenius entreated the Lord to show him the way to salvation. The Lord heard his prayer and one time he heard a voice telling him,

"Arsenius, flee from men, and you shall be saved."

And then, removing his rich clothing and replacing it with old and tattered garments, he secretly left the palace, boarded a ship for Alexandria, and he made his way to Sketis, a monastery in the midst of the desert. Arriving at the church, he asked the priests to accept him into the monastic brotherhood, calling himself a wretched wanderer, though his very manner betrayed him as a cultivated man. The brethren led him to Abba John the Dwarf

St Arsenius zealously passed through his obediences and soon he surpassed many of the desert Fathers in asceticism. The saint again heard the Voice while he was praying, (November 9), famed for his holiness of life. He, wishing to test the newcomer's humility, did not seat Arsenius with the monks for the trapeza meal. He threw him a piece of dry bread saying, "Eat if you wish." St Arsenius got down on his hands and knees, and picked up the bread with his mouth. Then he crawled off into a corner and ate it. Seeing this, Elder John said, "He will be a great ascetic!" Then accepting Arsenius with love, he tonsured him into monasticism.

"Arsenius, hide from people and dwell in silence, this is the root of virtue."

From that moment St Arsenius settled in a solitary cell deep in the desert.
Having taken on the struggle of silence he seldom left his seclusion. He came to church only on Sundays and Feast days, observing complete silence and conversing with no one. When Abba Moses asked him why he hid himself from people, St Arsenius replied, "God knows that I love you, but I cannot remain with God and with men at the same time. The Heavenly Powers all have one will and praise God together. On earth, however, there are many human wills, and each man has his own thoughts. I cannot leave God in order to live with people."

Though absorbed in constant prayer, the saint did not refuse visiting monks his counsel and guidance, giving short, but perceptive answers to their questions. Once, a monk from Sketis saw the great Elder through a window standing at prayer, surrounded by a flame.
The handicraft of St Arsenius was to weave baskets, for which he used the fronds of date palms soaked in water. For a whole year St Arsenius did not change the water in the container, but merely added a little water to it from time to time. This caused his cell to be permeated with a foul stench. When asked why he did this, the saint replied that it was fitting for him to humble himself in this way, because in the world he had used incense and fragrant oils. He prayed that after death he would not experience the stench of hell.

The fame of the great ascetic spread far, and many wanted to see him, and they disturbed his tranquility. As a result, the saint was forced to move around from place to place. But those thirsting to receive his guidance and blessing still found him. St Arsenius taught that many take upon themselves great deeds of repentance, fasting, and vigil, but it is rare for someone to guard his soul from pride, greed, jealousy, hatred of one's brother, remembrance of wrongs, and judgment. In this they resemble graves which are decorated outwardly, but filled with stinking bones.

A certain monk once asked St Arsenius what he should do when he read the Holy Scriptures and did not comprehend their meaning. The Elder answered, "My child, you must study and learn the Holy Scriptures constantly, even if you do not understand their power... For when we have the words of the Holy Scriptures on our lips, the demons hear them and are terrified. Then they flee from us, unable to bear the words of the Holy Spirit Who speaks through His apostles and prophets."

The monks heard how the saint often urged himself on in his efforts with the words, "Rouse yourself, Arsenius, work! Do not remain idle! You have not come here to rest, but to labor." He also said, "I have often regretted the words I have spoken, but I have never regretted my silence."

The great ascetic and keeper of silence was given the gift of tears with which his eyes were constantly filled. He spent fifty-five years at monastic labors and struggles. He spent forty years at Sketis, and ten years on the mountain of Troe near Memphis. Then he spent three years at Canopus, and two more years at Troe, where he fell asleep in the Lord. Our holy, God-bearing Father Arsenius reposed when he was nearly one hundred years old, in the year 449 or 450. His only disciples seem to have been Alexander, Zoilos, and Daniel (June 7).

Arsenius der Große Orthodoxe Kirche: 8. Mai Katholische Kirche: 19. Juni

Arsenius der GrosseArsenius wurde 354 in Rom geboren. Er erwarb sich ein umfangreiches Wissen, wollte aber lieber Gott dienen und wurde Diakon an einer römischen Stadtkirche. Kaiser Theodosius (379-395) hörte von der Gelehrsamkeit des Arsenius und bat ihn, die Erziehung seiner Söhne Arcadius und Honorius zu übernehmen. Arsenius lehnte diese Aufgabe ab, wurde aber von Papst Dymas 383 nach Konstantinopel entsandt. Arsenius flehte ständig zu Gott, ihm zu zeigen, wie er sein Heil finden könne. Eines Tages hörte er eine Stimme, die ihm sagte: "Arsenius, flieh die Menschen und du wirst gerettet". Daraufhin verließ er heimlich Konstantinopel und ging in ein ägyptisches Skete-Kloster. Hier hörte er nach einiger Zeit wiederum eine Stimme, die ihm sagte: "Arsenius, flieh die Menschen und bleibe in der Stille". Arsenius ging daraufhin aus dem Kloster und lebte in einer Einsiedelei. Einem Mönch, der ihn fragte, warum er sich von den Menschen fernhielte, erwiderte Arsenius "Ich liebe alle, aber ich kann nicht gleichzeitig mit Gott und Menschen zusammen sein. Ich kann aber Gott nicht im Stich lassen, um mit den Menschen zu leben". Arsenius gab den Mönchen, die zu ihm kamen, kurze aber treffende Antworten auf ihre Fragen. Als ihn immer mehr Menschen aufsuchten, zog er in eine andere Einsiedelei. Mehrmals ging Arsenius in eine neue Einsiedelei, weil ihm zu viele Menschen seinen Rat und seinen Segen suchten. Arsenius gehört zu den großen "Wüstenvätern" Er starb in hohem Alter 449 oder 450.

From the Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
MAY VIII.
THE APPARITION OF ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

In a Motu Proprio of John XXIII dated July 25, 1960, this feast was dropped from the Roman Calendar. The full text of the legend is printed in Ughelli, vol. vii, cc. 1107—1111, and in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. viii; on which cf Ebert, Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters, vol. ii, p. 358. See also K. A. Kellner, Heortology (1908), pp. 328—332, and H. Leclercq in DAC., vol. xi, cc. 903—907. There has been confusion between this feast and that of St Michael on September 29, and Pope Benedict XIV proposed to suppress to-day’s observance, which has in fact now been done in the Benedictine calendar. There can be little doubt that the story of the foundation of Saint-Michel au Peril de Mer, the famous Mont-Saint-Michel near Avranches, which is traditionally dated 709, was based on the legend of Monte Gargano. At what date St Michael’s Mount at Marazion in Cornwall received its name is not certainly known; but it may have been before Robert of Mortain presented the Mount to the monks of St Michael in Periculo Maris (Mont-Saint-Michel) c. 1086, if that charter be genuine: see T. Taylor, The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall (1916), pp. 141-168. See also Taylor’s St Michael’s Mount (1932); and J. R. Fletcher, Short History of St Michael’s Mount (1951).

The grotto of St. Michael on Mount Gargano in Italy.

The Bollandists deal with this alleged family of saints in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii, printing what purports to be their story from a medieval manuscript at Rheims. A collection of reputed miracles at the shrine after the translation to Rheims is to be found in an appendix to the seventh volume for May. Dom Gougaud, in his Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity, p. 4, seems to be right in treating the account as legendary, but these saints are still liturgically commemorated in some French dioceses, notably at Rheims itself. See also O’Hanlon, LIS., vol. v, p. 129.

The narrative printed in the Acta Sanctorum,, May, vol. ii, is of late date and unreliable; but there can be no question of the historical existence and pious activity of St Desideratus. See Duchesne, Faustus Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 28.

OF the numerous Celtic saints whose feasts occur this month Cybi was probably one of the most important, but information about him is dependent chiefly on a very unreliable Latin vita of the thirteenth century and whatever can be gleaned from the evidence of place-names and local traditions. He was born in Cornwall, we are told, the son of Selyf (“St Levan”), and two old churches in his native county are dedicated in his honour, at Duloe, near Liskeard, and at Cuby, in Tregony. The life says he learned to read at seven, and twenty years later, after the common imaginary pilgrimage to Jerusalem, became a disciple of St Hilary, by whom he was made bishop at Poitiers. This is chronologically impossible. Cybi is supposed to have left Cornwall because he would not consent to be king there, and gone into what is now Monmouthshire; there is a place there called Llangibby, on the Usk. Then, by way of St David’s Menevia, he visited Ireland and spent four years on Aranmore with St Enda. He had to leave there because of a dispute with another monk, called Fintan the Priest, about a straying co~, and he went to the south of Meath where he founded a church. But Fintan followed him and turned him out and drove him eastward across Ireland and over the sea. The crossing was made in a coracle which had the usual framework, but no hides to cover it.

The Latin life spoken of above has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iii, and the tangled story which it tells has been discussed very completely by Canon Doble in his booklet St Cuby (1929), nn. 22, in his Cornish Saints Series. See also A. W. Wade-Evans, The Life of St David (1923), pp. 98—500; and LBS., vol. ii, pp. 202—215. In his Vitae Sanctorum Brittaniae (1944) Wade-Evans gives the text and translation of the two versions of the Vita Kebii. Cf. E. G. Bowen, Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales (1954), pp. 118-120.

In the Acta Sanctorum Boniface is noticed on May 25 (May, vol. vi), but a more up-to-date account of his pontificate will be found in Mann, The Lives of the Popes, vol. i, pp. 268--279. Sec also. Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, pp. 317—318; and Laux, Der hl. Kolumban (1919), or in an earlier English form, The Life and Writings of St Columban (1914).

VERY little is known of the life and three-year pontificate of Pope Deusdedit (Adeodatus I), who was a Roman by birth and son of a subdeacon named Stephen. The times were troubled by civil disorder, war, and by an epidemic of skin disease following an earthquake; St Deusdedit was foremost in caring for the suffering (the Roman Martyrology mentions the tradition of his having healed a “leper” by a kiss), and encouraged his impoverished clergy to do the same. He is said to have been the first pope to have used the leaden seals called bullae, from which papal “bulls” get their name: one such seal dating from his time still exists. Pope St Deusdedit is called a Benedictine in ancient Benedictine calendars, but there is no certain evidence for the statement.

See Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, pp. 319—320; H. K. Mann, Lives of the Popes, vol. i, pp. 280—293.

Item Romæ sancti Benedícti Secúndi, Papæ et Confessóris. Also at Rome, St. Benedict II, pope and confessor.

The Acta Sanctorum treat Pope St Benedict II under May 7 (vol. ii). The Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne, vol. i, pp. 363—365) is our principal authority; but see also Muratori, Annales, ad. ann. 684, and Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire des Conciles, vol. iii, pp. 549 seq. Mgr Mann in his Lives of the Popes, vol. i, part a, pp. 54—63, has gathered all the available information.

7th v. St. Wiro A holy Irish bishop, who traveled to Rome with St. Plechelm, and the deacon Otger preached the faith of Christ to the pagans in the Low Countries
He afterwards preached the faith of Christ to the pagans in the Low Countries.

From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
7th V ST. WIRO,
A Holy Irish bishop, who travelled to Rome with St. Plechelm, and the deacon Otger. He afterwards preached the faith of Christ to the pagans in the Low Countries. Prince Pepin of Herstal was a great admirer of his sanctity, and bestowed on him a lonely wood, called the Mount of St. Peter, now of St. Odilia, near the river Roor, one league from Ruremund and repaired to him often barefoot to confess his sins. Broken by austerities and old age, he departed to our Lord in the seventh century. See Miraeus and his ancient life in the Bollandists, with a hymn, and several other memoirs, t. 2, Maij. p. 309.

Prince Pepin of Herstal was a great admirer of his sanctity, and bestowed on him a lonely wood, called the Mount of St. Peter, now of St. Odilia, near the river Roer, one league from Ruremund; and repaired to him often barefoot to confess his sins. Broken by austerities and old age, he departed to our Lord in the seventh century.

See Mirebus, and his ancient life in the Bollandists, with a hymn, and several other memoirs t. 2, Maij. p. 309.

ACCORDING to the Breton account and the few surviving Welsh references, Tysilio was son of Brochwel Ysgythrog, prince of Powys in North Wales. When a young man he ran away to be a monk under the abbot Gwyddfarch at Meifod in Montgomeryshire. His father sent to fetch him back, but Tysilio refused to go and fled for greater security to an islet in the Menai Straits, Ynys Suliau. At the end of seven years he came back to Meifod, where he found Gwyddfarch in spite of his great age contemplating a pilgrimage to Rome. “I know what that means”, was Tysilio’s comment. “You want to see the churches and palaces there. Dream about them, instead of going all that way.” He took the old man a long walk over the mountains and tired him out, and Tysilio did not fail to point out that Rome was a much longer journey than they had been. Then they sat down and Gwyddfarch went to sleep, and dreamed he saw all the glory of Rome, and he was satisfied. When he died, Tysilio became abbot in his place.

A lord magnificent
A prince with princes holding intercourse.
Whoso loves cruelty he sorely hates,
Whilst all whose ends are loveable he loves;
To chastisement he charity prefers.

753 St. Wiro Bishop and missionary with Sts. Plechelm and Otger (sharing the same feast day) Saint Boniface named Wiro bishop of Utrecht, Netherlands
Apud Ruræmóndam, in Géldria, sancti Wirónis, Epíscopi Scoti. At Ruremonde in Holland, St. Wiro, bishop of Scotland.

8th v. SS. WIRO AND PLECHELM, BISHOPS, AND ST OTGER
With respect to the birthplace of St Wiro we can only say that it was somewhere in the British Isles, for whereas Alcuin asserts that he was a Northumbrian, certain other writers declare that he was a Scotsman and others that he was a native of County Clare in Ireland. We read that from his earliest youth he modelled himself upon St Patrick, St Cuthbert and St Columban. After his ordination he went with another priest, St Plechelm (probably also a Northumbrian) and a deacon, St Otger, to Rome, where he and St Plechelm are said to have been consecrated to be regionary bishops. When they had laboured for some time in their native land, the three friends—perhaps at the suggestions of St Willibrord—passed over to the Netherlands, where they spent part of their time evangelizing the lower valley of the Meuse, and the rest in retirement and prayer. Pepin of Herstal gave them St Peter’s Hill, afterwards called the Odilienberg, at a league’s distance from Roermond, and there they built several cells and a church. Pepin is said to have held Wiro in such great veneration that he appointed him his director and made it a rule to repair to him barefoot every Lent, and at other times, to receive penance from him or from St Plechelm.

A medieval biography of St Wiro is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii, and of Plechelm in July, vol. iv, but they are late and unreliable. See rather Van der Essen, Etude critique et littéraire sur les vitae des saints merovingiens, pp. 105—109; J. Snieders, “L’Influence de l’hagiographie irlandaise”, in the Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique, vol. xxiv (1928), pp. 849—850; and W. Levison, England and the Continent . . . (1946), pp. 82—83.

Originally from Northumbria, England, or perhaps Scotland He went with the priest Pleehelm (also from Northumbria) and a deacon, Otger, to Rome where Wiro and Plechelm were consecrated bishops.
They labored for a time in Northumbria and then journeyed to Germany where he gave assistance to St. Boniface in his missionary enterprise. Boniface named Wiro bishop of Utrecht, Netherlands, circa 741 and with two companions Wiro founded a monastery at Odilienburg, in the lower Meuse River valley of Belgium and France, on land donated by Pepin of Heristal (r. 687-714).

Wiro, Plechelm & Otger, OSB MM (RM) (Plechelm is also known as Pleghelm & Otger as Odger or Oteger) Born in Northumbria; died c. 739 or 753 (the later date seems more probable). While Wiro is believed to have been a native of Northumbria, he might possibly be from Ireland or Scotland--the record is not clear. (The Roman Martyrology styles him Wiro, bishop of Scotiae.) His biographer tells us that he was ordained a priest and with Plechelm (a fellow Northumbrian and priest) and Otger (a deacon) went to Rome, where Wiro and Plechelm were consecrated regionary bishops. Others say that Wiro was consecrated bishop of Utrecht by Saint Boniface. He joined with Boniface in his letter of correction to King Ethelbald of Mercia in 746.

After doing missionary work in Northumbria, they went to Friesland in the Netherlands where they evangelized the inhabitants of the lower Meuse Valley under the direction of either Saint Swithbert or Saint Willibrord. They built a small church and monastery at Peterkloster (later Odilienberg) on land granted them by Pepin of Herstal. Later they were martyred by the Frieslanders while preaching the Gospel. The relics of Wiro and Plechelm were translated to the church they built at Roermond, but Otger's remained at their original burial place at Odilienberg (Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer).

Saint Wiro is portrayed as hearing the confession of the king. He is venerated in Peterkloster (Odilienberg) (Roeder).

WILLEHAD was an Englishman, a native of Northumbria, and was educated probably at York, for he became a friend of Alcuin. After his ordination the spiritual conquests which many of his countrymen had made for Christ, with St Willibrord in Friesland and St Boniface in Germany, seemed a reproach to him, and he also desired to carry the saving knowledge of the true God to some of those barbarous nations. He landed in Friesland about the year 766 and began his mission at Dokkum, the place near which St Boniface and his companions had received the crown of martyrdom in 754. (The Roman Martyrology mistakenly calls St Willehad a disciple of St Boniface.) After baptizing some, he made his way through the country now called Overyssel, preaching as he went. In Humsterland the missionaries were all put in peril of their lives, for the inhabitants cast lots whether he and his companions should be put to death; Providence determined the lots for their preservation. Having escaped out of their hands, St Willehad thought it prudent to go back to Drenthe, in the more favourable neighbourhood of Utrecht. Here, in spite of the labours of St Willibrord and his successors, there was still plenty of heathens to convert, but the promising field was spoiled by imprudent zeal. Some of Willehad’s fellow missionaries venturing to demolish the places dedicated to idolatry, the pagans were so angered that they resolved to massacre them. One struck at St Willehad with such force that the sword would have severed his head but that the force of the blow, as his biographer assures us, was entirely broken by cutting a string about the saint’s neck by which hung a little box of relics which he always carried with him. The whole incident bears a suspicious resemblance to that recorded of St Willibrord on the island of Waicheren.

Our knowledge of St Willehad is almost entirely derived from a Latin life written about the year 856 by some ecclesiastic of Bremen. It was formerly attributed to the authorship of St Anskar, but this view has now been abandoned, though Anskar seems to be responsible for the book of miracles attached to the life. The best text of both is that edited by A. Poncelet in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iii ; but they have been printed several times before, e.g. by Mabillon, and in Pertz, MGH., Scriptores, vol. ii. See also H. Timerding, Die Christliche Frühzeit Deutschlands, vol. ii (1929); Louis Halphen, Etudes critiques sur l’histoire de Charlemagne (1921); and Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. ii. Cf. W. Levison, England and the Continent . . . (1946).

1079 St. Stanislaus noted for his preaching; Bishop of Cracow, feast day April 11th.; killed by excommunicated King
Sancti Stanislái, Epíscopi Cracoviénsis et Mártyris, qui sequénti die, corónam martyrii consecútus est.
St. Stanislas, bishop of Cracow and martyr, who received the crown of martyrdom on the the previous day.
Cracóviæ, in Polónia, natális sancti Stanislái, Epíscopi et Mártyris, qui a Bolesláo, ímpio Rege, necátus est. Ipsíus autem festum prídie hujus diéi celebrátur.
At Cracow in Poland, the birthday of St. Stanislas, bishop and martyr, who was slain by the wicked King Boleslas. His feast is celebrated on this day.
Stanislaus was born of noble parents on July 26th at Szczepanow near Cracow, Poland. He was educated at Gnesen and was ordained there. He was given a canonry by Bishop Lampert Zula of Cracow, who made him his preacher, and soon he became noted for his preaching. He became a much sought after spiritual adviser. He was successful in his reforming efforts, and in 1072 was named Bishop of Cracow. He incurred the enmity of King Boleslaus the Bold when he denounced the King's cruelties and injustices and especially his kidnapping of the beautiful wife of a nobleman. When Stanislaus excommunicated the King and stopped services at the Cathedral when Boleslaus entered, Boleslaus himself killed Stanislaus while the Bishop was saying Mass in a chapel outside the city on April 11.

What Guibert of Nogent in his autobiography tells us concerning Godfrey is our most reliable source of information. The Latin life by Nicholas, a monk of Soissons, is much more detailed and in many respects valuable, but it is written in a tone of undiscriminating panegyric, and certain statements made in it are demonstrably incorrect. It was compiled about 1538, and it is printed, with the relevant passages of Guibert and an illuminating introduction, by A. Poncelet in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iii. See also A. de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d’Amiens (1899), vol. i, pp. 523—542; C. Brunel in Le moyen age, vol. xxii (1909), pp. 176—196; and J. Corblet, Hagiographie d’Amiens (1870), vol. ii, pp. 373—445.

1175 St. Peter of Tarantaise (not Pope Innocent V) Cistercian archbishop; reformer purging clergy of corrupt & immoral members, aiding poor, promoting education, Trusted advisor by popes and kings; The author of his life, who was his constant companion at this period, testifies to numerous miracles which he wrought, mainly in curing the sick and multiplying provisions in time of famine.
In monastério Bellæ Vallis, in território Bisuntíno, sancti Petri, qui ex Mónacho Cisterciénsi factus est Tarentasiénsis in Sabáudia Epíscopus.
    In the monastery of Bella Vallis, in the diocese of Besançon, St. Peter, Cistercian monk, who was made bishop of Tarantaise in Savoy.

From Lives of Saintes by Alban Butler
ST. PETER, ARCHBISHOP OF TARENTAISE, NOW CALLED MONSTIERS, IN SAV0Y.
HE was a native of Dauphine’. A strong inclination to learning, assisted by a good genius and a happy memory, carried him very successfully through his studies. At twenty years of age he took the Cistercian habit at Bonnevaux a monastery that had been, lately filled by a colony sent by St. Bernard from Clairvaux. They employed a great part of the day in hewing wood, and tilling the ground in the forest, in perpetual silence and interior prayer. They ate but once a day, and their fare was herbs or roots, mostly turnips of a coarse sort. Four hours in the twenty-four was the usual allowable sleep; so that, rising at midnight, they continued in the church till it was morning, and returned no more to rest which was the primitive custom of that order.
Peter practiced the greatest austerities with fervor and alacrity: he was most exactly obedient, obliging to all, humble, and modest. His pious parents, after the birth of four children, lived in perpetual coritinency, and the practice of rigorous abstinence, prayed much, and gave large alms their house they seemed to turn into a hospital, so great was the number of poor and strangers they constantly entertained, whom they furnished with good beds, while they themselves often lay on straw.
The father and his two other Sons at length followed Peter to Bonnevaux, and the mother and daughter embraced the same order in a neighboring nunnery. The year after Peter had taken the monastic habit, his example was followed by Amadeus, nearly related to the emperor Conrad III., and sixteen other persons of worth and distinction. Amedeus, indeed, having there made his solemn profession with the rest, by the advice of persons of great virtue and discretion, spent some time at Cluni, the better to superintend his son's education, in the school established there for the education of youth: but he returned after some time to Bonnevaux; and made it his request, at his readmission, that he might be enjoined the lowest offices in the house. To this the abbot, for his greater advancement in humility and penance, consented.   The earl of Albion, his uncle, coming one day to see him, found him in a sweat, cleaning the monks' dirty shoes, and, at the same time, so attentive to his prayers, as not to perceive him. The earl remembering in what state he had seen him in the world was so struck and so much edified at this spectacle, that he ever after retained the deep impression which it made on his mind, and published it at court. Amedeus built four monasteries of his order: among which was that of Tamies, or Stomedium, in the desert mountains of the diocese of Tarentaiso, of which he procured his intimate friend St. Peter, not then quite thirty years of age, to be appointed the first abbot, in 1128.   Amedeus worked himself with his spade and mattock in building some of these monasteries, and died at Bonnevaux, in the odor of sanctity, in 1140.
      His son Amedeus, for whose education in piety he had always the greatest concern, after having spent part of his youth in the court of his kinsman the emperor, became a Cistercian monk under St. Bernard, at Clairvaux, and died bishop of Lausanne.
    The monastery of Tamies seemed a house of terrestrial angels; so constantly were its inhabitants occupied in the employment of angels, paying to God an uninterrupted homage of praise, adoration, and love, St. Peter, by the help of Amadeus III., count of Savoy, founded in it a hospital to receive all the poor sick persons of the country, and all strangers; and would be himself its servant to attend them, In 1112, the count of Savoy procured his election to the archbishopric of Tarentaise, and be was compelled by St. Bernard and the general chapter of his order, though much against his own inclinations, to accept of that charge.   Indeed, that diocese stood extremely in need of such an apostolic pastor, having been usurped by a powerful ambitious wolf, named Idrael, whose deposition left it in the most desolate condition.   The parish-churches and tithes were sacrilegiously held by laymen; and the clergy, who ought to have stemmed the torrent of iniquity, contributed but too often to promote irregularity by their own wicked example.   The sight of these evils drew tears from the eyes of the saint, with which he night and day implored the divine mercy upon the souls intrusted to his care.   He directed all his fasts, his prayers, and labors, for the good of his flock: being persuaded that the sanctification of the people committed to his charge was an essential condition for securing his own salvation. He altered nothing in the simplicity of a monastic life, and looked on the episcopal character as a laborious employment rather than a dignity. His clothes were plain, and his food coarse; for he ate nothing but brown bread, herbs, and pulse, of which the poor had always their share. He made the constant visitation of his diocese his employ; he everywhere exhorted and instructed his whole charge with unwearied zeal and invincible patience, and besides, he provided the several parishes of his diocese with able and virtuous pastors. When he came to his bishopric, he found the chapter of his cathedral full of irregularities, and the service of God performed in a very careless manner; but he soon made that church a pattern of good order and devotion. He recovered the tithes and other revenues of the church that had been usurped by certain powerful laymen; made many excellent foundations for the education of youth, and the relief of the poor; repaired several churches, and restored everywhere devotion and the decent service of God. The author of his life, who was the constant companion of his labors, and the witness of the greatest plan of his actions after he was made bishop, assures us he wrought many miracles in several places, chiefly in curing the sick, and multiplying provisions for the poor in tunes of great distress; so that he was regarded as a new Thaumaturges. The confusion his humility suffered from the honors he received, joined to his love of solitude, made him resolve to retire from the world; and accordingly, in 1155, after he had borne the weight of the episcopal character thirteen years, having settled his diocese in good order, he disappeared on a sudden; and made his way to a retired monastery of Cistercians in Germany, where he was not known. In the meantime, his family and diocese mourned for the loss of their tender father.
Strict inquiry was made in the entire neighboring provinces, especially in the monasteries, but in vain; till, after some time; divine providence discovered him by the following accident. A young man, who had been brought up under his care, came to the monastery in which he lay concealed, and upon observing the monks as they were going out of the church to their work, he knew his bishop, and made him known to the whole community. The religious no sooner understood who he was, but they all fell at his feet, begged his blessing, and expressed much concern for not having known him before. The saint was inconsolable at being discovered, and was meditating a new escape, but he was so carefully watched, that it was not in his power; so that he was forced to go back to his diocese, where he was received with the greatest demonstrations of joy.
He applied himself to his functions with greater vigor than ever. The poor were always the object of his peculiar care. He was twice discovered to have given away, with the hazard of his own life, in extreme cold weather in winter, the waistcoat which he had on his back. For three months before the harvest he distributed general alms among all the inhabitants of the mountains, provisions being always very scarce there at that season. He founded hospitals on the Alps, for the entertainment of poor travelers; because, before that time, many perished for the want of such a succor.   To preserve in his heart the spirit of devotion and penance, be continued to practice, as much as possible, all the austerities and other rules of his order, only commuting manual labor for the spiritual functions of his charge. By his conversation with the God of peace, he, imbibed an eminent spirit of that virtue, and learned, by humility and charity, to be truly the man of peace; having also a singular talent for extinguishing the most implacable and inveterate enemies. He often reconciled sovereign princes when they were at variance, and prevented several bloody wars. The emperor Frederic I, set up Octavian, a schismatic pope, under the name of Victor, against Alexander III.   St Peter was almost the only subject of the empire who had the courage openly to oppose his unjust attempt, and he boldly defended the cause of justice in presence of the tyrant, and in many councils. The emperor, who banished others that spoke in favor of that cause, stood in awe of his sanctity: and Peter, by his mild counsels, frequently softened his fierceness, and checked the boisterous sallies of his fury, while, like a roaring lion, he spread terror on every side.
The saint preached in Alsace, Burgundy, Lorraine, and in many parts of Italy; and confounded the obstinate by numberless miraculous cures of the sick, performed by the imposition of his hands and prayer. He was ordered by the pope to go into France and Normandy, to endeavor reconciliation between the kings of England and France, who had made peace in 1169, but quarreled again to next year. Though then very old, he preached wherever he went. Louis VII sent certain gentlemen of his court to meet him at a great distance, and received him with the greatest marks of honor and respect; but honors and crowds were of all things the most troublesome to the saint. The man of God restored the use of sight to one blind in the presence the count of Flanders, and many other noblemen, who were at that time with the king of France: who, being also himself an eye-witness, examined carefully all the circumstances, and declared the miracle to be evident and incontestable. The saint went from Paris to Chaumont, on the counties of Normandy where Henry II., king of England, met him: and when he arrived in sight of the holy man, alighted from his horse, and coming up, fell at his feet. The people stole the cloak or hood of St Peter, and were going to cut it in pieces to divide the scraps, being persuaded that they would perform miracles but the king took the whole cloak for himself saying: "I have myself seen miraculous cures performed by his girdle which I already possess."   In his presence, the saint restored the use of speech to a girl that was dumb.
   On Ash Wednesday, in 1171, St. Peter being at the Cistercian abbey of Mortimer, in the diocese of Rouen, the king of England came thither with his whole court, and received ashes from his hands. The archbishop prevailed on the two kings to put an end to their differences by a treaty of peace, and to procure councils to he assembled in their dominions, in, which Alexander's title should be solemnly recognized. The holy man hereupon returned to his church, but was sometime after sent again by the pope to the king of England, to endeavor to compose the difference between him and his son but his journey had not the desired effect. He fell sick on his return, and died the death of the just, at Bellevaux, a monastery of his order, in the diocese of Besançon, in 1191 being seventy-three years old.   He was canonized by pope Celestine III., in 1191.   See his life, written nine years after his death by Geoffrey, sometime his companion, and afterwards abbot of Hautecombe, by the order of pope Lucius III.   See also Le Nain, t 2, p. 83.

1175 ST PETER, ARCHBISHOP OF TARENTAISE
ST PETER of Tarentaise, one of the glories of the Cistercian Order, was born near Vienne in the French province of the Dauphiné. He early displayed a remarkable memory, coupled with a great inclination for religious studies, and at the age of twenty he entered the abbey of Bonnevaux. With great zeal he embraced the austerities of the rule, edifying all who came into contact with him by his charity, his humility and his modesty. After a time, his father and the other two sons followed Peter to Bonnevaux, whilst his mother, with the only daughter, entered a neighbouring Cistercian nunnery. Besides these members of his own humble family, men of high rank were led by the example of Peter to become monks at Bonnevaux.
He was not quite thirty when he was chosen superior of a new house built at Tamié, in the desert mountains of Tarentaise. It overlooked the pass which was then the chief route from Geneva to Savoy, and the monks were able to be of great use to travellers. There, with the help of Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, who held him in high esteem, he founded a hospice for the sick and for strangers, in which he was wont to wait upon his guests with his own hands.
In 1142 came his election to the archbishopric of Tarentaise, and Peter was compelled by St Bernard and the general chapter of his order, though much against the grain, to accept the office. He found the diocese in a deplorable state, due mainly to mismanagement of his predecessor, an unworthy man who had eventually to be deposed. Parish churches were in the hands of laymen, the poor were neglected, and the clergy, who ought to have stemmed the general tide of iniquity, too often promoted irregularity by their evil example. In place of the cathedral clergy whom he found lax and careless, St Peter substituted canons regular of St Augustine, and he soon made his chapter a model of good order. He undertook the constant visitation of his diocese; recovered property which had been alienated; appointed good priests to various parishes; made excellent foundations for the education of the young and the relief of the poor; and everywhere provided for the due celebration of the services of the Church. The author of his life, who was his constant companion at this period, testifies to numerous miracles which he wrought, mainly in curing the sick and multiplying provisions in time of famine.
Apprehension at finding himself honoured as a wonder-worker, and the natural longing of a monk for solitude, turned his mind back to the cloister and in 1155, after he had administered the diocese for thirteen years, Peter suddenly disappeared, leaving no trace behind. Actually he had made his way to a remote Cistercian abbey in Switzerland, where, being yet unknown, he was accepted as a lay-brother. Great was the dismay throughout the diocese of Tarentaise when the departure of the archbishop became known, and diligent was the search made for him throughout the religious houses of the neighbouring provinces. Not until a year later was he discovered. His identity having been revealed to his new superiors, Peter was obliged to leave and to return to his see, where he was greeted with great joy. He took up his duties more zealously than ever. The poor were ever his first consideration: twice in bitterly cold weather he gave away his own habit at the risk of his life. He rebuilt the hospice of the Little St Bernard and founded other similar refuges for travellers in the Alps. He also inaugurated a practice, kept up until the French Revolution—and even a little after—of making a free distribution of bread and soup during, the months preceding the harvest, when food was scarce in many parts of his hilly diocese. The dole came to be called “May bread”. All his life he continued to dress and to live like a Cistercian, replacing manual labour by the spiritual functions of his office.
Essentially a man of peace, St Peter had a singular gift for allaying seemingly implacable enmities and on several occasions averted bloodshed by reconciling contending parties. His chief political efforts, however, were directed to supporting the cause of the true pope, Alexander III, against the pretensions of the antipope, Victor, who had behind him the redoubtable Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. At one time, indeed, it seemed as though the archbishop of Tarentaise was the only subject of the empire who dared openly to oppose the pretender, but it soon became apparent that he carried with him the whole of the great Cistercian Order. To establish the claims of the true pontiff, St Peter preached in Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy and many parts of Italy, the effect of his words being enhanced by miracles of healing. He also spoke out fearlessly in various councils and even in the presence of the emperor himself, who was so far impressed by his sanctity and courage as to permit in him a freedom of speech he would endure from no one else.
It was not granted to the saint to die amongst his mountain flock. His reputation as a peacemaker led Alexander III to send him in 1174 to try to effect a reconciliation between King Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. St Peter, though he was old, set out at once, preaching everywhere on his way. As he approached Chaumont in the Vexin, where the French court was being held, he was met by King Louis and by Prince Henry, the rebellious heir to the English throne. The latter, alighting from his horse to receive the archbishop’s blessing, asked for the saint’s old cloak, which he reverently kissed. Both at Chaumont and at Gisors where he interviewed the English king, St Peter was treated with utmost honour, but the reconciliation for which he laboured did not take place until after his death. As he was returning to his diocese he was taken ill on the road near Besançon, and died as he was being carried into the abbey of Bellevaux. This St Peter was canonized in 1191.

Our most copious and trustworthy source of information is the life written by the Cistercian, Geoffrey of Auxerre, Abbot of Hautecombe, in response to the request of Pope Lucius III. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, and we know that it was completed before 1185, that is, within ten years of the death of the saint. But there are besides this many references to St Peter in the correspondence, chronicles and hagiographical literature of the time. Even a man like Walter Map, who was prone to write of the Cistercians with the utmost bitterness, speaks with reverence of St Peter of Tarentaise. See The Life of St Hugh of Lincoln (Quarterly Series), pp. 625—626, and in the same work an account of the relations between St Hugh, the Carthusian, and his Cistercian brother bishop (pp. 60—64, etc.). Consult further Le Couteulx, Annales Ordinis Cartusiensis, vol. ii passim; G. Muller, Leben des hl. Petrus von Tarentaise (1892); and the biographies in French by Dom M. A. Dimier (1935) and H. Brultey (1945).

Peter was born 1102 near Vienne, in Dauphine, France, and joined the Cistercian Order at Bonneveaux at the age of twenty with his two brothers and father. Known for his piety, at age thirty he was sent to serve as the first abbot of Tamie, in the Tarantaise Mountains, between Geneva and Savoy. There he built a hospice for travelers. In 1142, he was named the archbishop of Tarantaise against his wishes, and he devoted much energy to reforming the diocese, purging the clergy of corrupt and immoral members, aiding the poor, and promoting education.
He is also credited with starting the custom of distributing bread and soup the so called May Bread just before the harvest; a custom which endured throughout France until the French Revolution. After thirteen years as bishop, Peter suddenly disappeared. Eventually he was discovered serving as a lay brother in a Cistercian abbey in Switzerland and was convinced to return to Tarantaise and resume his episcopal duties.
Trusted as an advisor by popes and kings, he defended papal rights in France and was called upon to assist in bringing about a reconciliation between King Louis VII of France and then Prince Henry II of England. Peter was canonized in 1191. He should not be confused with Peter of Tarantaise, who became Pope Innocent V.

Peter of Tarentaise, OSB Cist. B (RM) Born at Saint-Maurice (near Vienne), Dauphiné, France, 1102; died at Bellevaux, 1175; canonized in 1191. First, it should be noted that there are two saints named Peter of Tarentaise: today's bishop and one who became known as Pope Innocent V (born c. 1225).

Few bishops have both been so successful as Peter of Tarentaise and so unwilling to take up the office. His one true desire was to be a Cistercian monk. He had entered a Cistercian monastery at Bonnevaux when he was 20 (12 according to some sources), persuading his parents and brothers and sister to follow him into the religious life. Before he was 30, he was chosen to be abbot of a new Cistercian house at Tamié in the desolate Tarentaise hills, overlooking the pass which was the chief route from Geneva to Savoy. Here he was entirely happy. He struck up a fruitful friendship with Count Amadeus III of Savoy. Together they built a hospital for the sick--a place which also served as a guest house for strangers passing over the Little Saint Bernard mountain pass. Peter like nothing better than to join in conversation with those staying in this hospital, humbly waiting upon his guests with his own hands.

The whole Cistercian order decided that whatever the saint wished, they must accept. Peter's predecessor had been so incompetent and lax that he had been deposed. The diocese was in complete disorder. Reluctantly Peter set about its renovation, refusing to let his personal feelings hamper the work. Only once did he give way. He replaced the lax and careless cathedral clergy with canons regular of the Order of Saint Augustine. He regularly visited his entire diocese; recovered property that had been alienated; appointed good priests to parishes; arranged for the education of the young; made foundations to serve the poor; and made it possible to appropriately celebrate the rites of the church everywhere. The author of his vita, who was his constant companion throughout his episcopacy, recounts many miracles wrought by Saint Peter, including physical healings and the multiplication of provisions during famines.

After 13 years as archbishop, he ran off and secretly offered himself as a lay member of a Cistercian house in a remote area of Switzerland. Of course, he was found concealing himself under the guise of a novice lay brother, but not until a year had elapsed. The reluctant archbishop was forced to return to his see by his new superiors. He was greeted with joy at his homecoming. Again, he set to work with a will, founding travellers' refuges on the Alpine passes. He also endowed a charity for the free distribution of soup and bread for the hill-farmers during the lean spring months; this came to be known as pain de mai, May-bread, and continued until the French Revolution.
Peter was not completely happy outside a monastery. He often visited the Grande Chartreuse, where he was attended by a young monk later to be known as Saint Hugh of Lincoln.

Uncompromisingly Peter supported the true pope, Alexander III, against his false rivals--even though the antipope Victor was supported by no less than the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Though it seemed that he was the only subject who dared to openly oppose the pretender, Saint Peter preached in Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy, and parts of Italy in an attempt to establish the claims of the true pontiff. He spoke out fearlessly in various councils and even in the presence of the emperor himself, who was so impressed by his sanctity and courage that he permitted him to speak freely.

Such an honest man could be trusted to intercede between the warring kings of England and France. In 1174, Pope Alexander III requested that he meet with King Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. Though he was old, he set out at once and stopped to preach everywhere en route. He met both sovereigns near Chaumont in the Vexin, where the French court was being held, but did not succeed in reconciling them.

On returning to Tarentaise from this mission of peace, he became ill near Besançon and died as he was being carried into the abbey of Bellevaux (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Walsh).

14th v. Saint Arsenius the Lover of Labor e gift of wonderworking
He lived during the fourteenth century.
This ascetic was distinguished by his love for toil, and living in asceticism in the Kiev Caves monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, he knew no rest.
He prayed constantly and partook of food only at the setting of the sun.
For his humility and love of labor the Lord gave him the gift of wonderworking.
His memory is also celebrated together with the Saints of the Far Caves on August 28.

15th v 16 th v The Monks Zosima and Adrian of Volokolamsk, founders of the Sestrinsk monastery on the banks of the River Sestra
pursued asceticism during the XV-XVI Centuries.
Their remains were buried in the Uspenie-Dormition church of the monastery founded by them.

1416 Julian von Norwich 'Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love' niederschrieb
Anglikanische Kirche: 08. Mai Catholische Kirche May 13 HERE 1423 Bl. Juliana of Norwich Benedictine English mystic anchorite In 1373 experienced sixteen revelations. Her book,
Revelations of Divine Love - a work on the love of God, the Incarnation, redemption, and divine consolation.
Among English mystics none is greater

Julian von Norwich, auch Juliana genannt, wurde wohl 1342 geboren. Sie war Reklusin im Kirchgarten von St. Julian in Norwich. Hier hatte sie im Mai 1373 während einer schweren Erkrankung sechzehn Gesichte, die sie nach 1390 in den 'Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love' niederschrieb. Es gibt zwei Fassungen ihres Werkes, wobei sie in der späteren Fassung ihre Schau auch theologisch interpretiert und in anschauliche Bilder umsetzt. Wohl am bekanntesten ist ihr Bild von der Mutterschaft Gottes. Juliana starb vermutlich nach 1416.

Dame Julian of Norwich, Contemplative 8 May 1417
The Lady Juliana was born about 1342, and when she was thirty years old, she became gravely ill and was expected to die. Then, on the seventh day, the medical crisis passed, and she had a series of fifteen visions, or "showings," in which she was led to contemplate the Passion of Christ. These brought her great peace and joy. She became an anchoress, living in a small hut near to the church in Norwich, where she devoted the rest of her life to prayer and contemplation of the meaning of her visions. The results of her meditations she wrote in a book called Revelations of Divine Love, available in modern English in a Penguin Paperback edition. During her lifetime, she became known as a counselor, whose advice combined spiritual insight with common sense, and many persons came to speak with her. Since her death, many more have found help in her writings. The precise date of her death is uncertain.

She describes seeing God holding a tiny thing in his hand, like a small brown nut, which seemed so fragile and insignificant that she wondered why it did not crumble before her eyes. She understood that the thing was the entire created universe, which is as nothing compared to its Creator, and she was told, "God made it, God loves it, God keeps it."

She was concerned that sometimes when we are faced wiith a difficult moral decision, it seems that no matter which way we decide, we will have acted from motives that are less then completely pure, so that neither decision is defensible. She finally wrote: "It is enough to be sure of the deed. Our courteous Lord will deign to redeem the motive."
A matter that greatly troubled her was the fate of those who through no fault of their own had never heard the Gospel. She never received a direct answer to her questions about them, except to be told that whatever God does is done in Love, and therefore "that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

Speaking of her visions of heaven and hell, she said, "To me was shown no harder hell than sin."

Of our response to the sins of others, she said (ch. 76): "The soul that would preserve its peace, when another's sin is brought to mind, must fly from it as from the pains of hell, looking to God for help against it. To consider the sins of other people will produce a thick film over the eyes of our soul, and prevent us for the time being from seeing the 'fair beauty of the Lord'-- unless, that is, we look at them contrite along with the sinner, being sorry with and for him, and yearning over him for God. Without this it can only harm, disturb, and hinder the soul who considers them. I gathered all this from the revelation about compassion...This blessed friend is Jesus; it is his will and plan that we hang on to him, and hold tight always, in whatever circumstances; for whether we are filthy or clean is all the same to his love."

    "Glad and merry and sweet is the blessed and lovely demeanour of our Lord towards our souls, for he saw us always living in love-longing, and he wants our souls to be gladly disposed toward him . . . by his grace he lifts up and will draw our outer disposition to our inward, and will make us all at unity with him, and each of us with others in the true, lasting joy which is Jesus." -- Julian of Norwich
The following was translated by Liz Broadwell.
    And from the time that [the vision] was shown, I desired often to know what our Lord's meaning was. And fifteen years and more afterward I was answered in my spiritual understanding, thus: 'Would you know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Keep yourself therein and you shall know and understand more in the same. But you shall never know nor understand any other thing, forever.'
    Thus I was taught that love was our Lord's meaning. And I saw quite clearly in this and in all, that before God made us, he loved us, which love was never slaked nor ever shall be. And in this love he has done all his work, and in this love he has made all things profitable to us. And in this love our life is everlasting. In our creation we had a beginning. But the love wherein he made us was in him with no beginning. And all this shall be seen in God without end ...

"A reader has sent the following message, which I reproduce slightly edited."

    The (Anglican) Order of Julian of Norwich was founded in Norwich, Connecticut, by the Revd John (Julian) Swanson. It is an order for both men and women, with an emphasis on the Divine Office and work and contemplation. It seems to be holding its own in terms of new members arriving and remaining. Their Ordo includes the lessons for every day of the Year for the Daily Office, and the Mass for every day of the year with three lessons each day!. It sells for $6.00, is very useful and may be obtained by writing: The Order of Julian of Norwich, S10 W26392 Summit Avenue, Waukesha Wisconsin 53188. I would add that they are new, they are committed to poverty and thus do not and will not have endowments; and if, at this season of giving you can spare a bit, please send it to them. There was a time a year ago, I understand, when monastic poverty was not only not owning things, but nearly not eating anything either. We are fortunate to have them in the Church. John Julian has produced an annotated translation of Julian's works for devotional reading (Lesson of Love), which is stupendous.
Prayer (traditional language)
    Lord God, who in thy compassion didst grant to the Lady Julian many revelations of thy nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek thee above all things, for in giving us thyself thou givest us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Prayer (contemporary language)
    Lord God, who in your compassion granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Psalm 27:5-11 or 103:1-4,13-18 Hebrews 10:19-24 John 4:23-26 (Ep)

1835 St. Maria Magdalen of Canossa; Foundress of the Daughters of Charity at Verona, Italy saw the Blessed Mother surrounded by six religious dressed in brown: She herself tended the poorest and dirtiest children witnesses observed her rapt in ecstasy, and once she was seen levitating

1835 BD MAGDALEN DI CANOSSA, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE CANOSSIAN DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY: spent her time giving religious instruction, working in hospitals and looking after children.
IN the foothills of the Appenine mountains, some eighteen miles from Parma, stand the few remains of the once mighty castle of Canossa. It was here, while the guest of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the winter of 1076-77, that Pope St Gregory VII received that ostensible submission of Henry IV of Germany whose circumstances have been so much exaggerated and significance misunderstood. And it was the family of this Countess Matilda that seven hundred years later produced Magdalen Gabriela, Marchioness of Canossa, a "valiant woman" of a somewhat different stamp.
Her parents were the Marquis Ottavio and his wife Teresa Szlukhe, and her birth was at Verona, in 1774. There is still in existence a portrait of Magdalen at the age of four, an attractive, rather imperious-looking child, with strongly marked features, dressed in the complicated clothes of a grown woman as was the eighteenth-century (and later) way with children. After looking at it, one is not surprised to learn that little Magdalen, while frank and straightforward, was also stubborn, wilful and quick-tempered. Her nurse remarked in later years, "It's a marvel to me how that naughty little thing has changed. I didn't think she would ever be tamed."
A boy and two more girls were born to Magdalen's parents and then, when he was only thirty-nine, her father died. This was a sad blow to Magdalen, and it was followed two years later by another: her mother married again and went to live with her new husband, the Marquis Zanetti, in Mantua, leaving her children to the care of their uncles. Magdalen, who was now eight, with her elder sister Laura, was put in charge of a governess, a woman who "took out" on Magdalen a spite she had for someone who had criticized her inadequate religious instruction of the children. It was six years before Uncle Jerome found out how badly his second niece was being treated, and dismissed the governess. Apparently Magdalen had never said a word, and would not let her sisters do so. Perhaps these years of domestic tyranny had something to do with the period of painful sickness that followed them, during which Magdalen "took stock" with herself: she was definite that she did not wish to marry, but was not sure that she wanted to be a nun, which in those days still generally meant joining an enclosed order. She did eventually go into the Carmelite convent at Conegliano, but it was soon recognized that she had no vocation for that life, and she returned home again.
During the revolutionary wars the Canossas went to Venice for a time, and after they had returned they were visited by Napoleon Bonaparte at their mansion in Verona. Napoleon showed respect and indeed admiration for the marchioness, and she felt encouraged to ask a favour of him: it was that he would assign to her the empty convent of St Joseph in Verona, as a centre for work for poor people and neglected children, whose sad state she set vividly before him. And he granted the request.
The reason for this action went back to the time when she was in Venice. There Magdalen had had a vision, or a dream as she herself called it, in which she saw our Lady surrounded by six religious in a brown dress; it then seemed to her that our Lady took the religious two by two to a church filled with girls and women, to a hospital, and to a hall full of ragged children, telling them to work there, but especially in the third. Magdalen at once took this as a divinely appointed programme, and henceforward spent her time giving religious instruction, working in hospitals and looking after children. She was soon joined by other young women; but she saw that if the work was to go on and be made permanent by means of a congregation it was necessary to have a proper house for the purpose. And at a time when he was turning monks and nuns out of their convents, Napoleon made this possible by his own gift.
Magdalen was now thirty-four years old, and it was not easy for her to leave the Canossa household, where among other responsibilities was an orphaned baby cousin. Her family looked on her projects as rather undignified for one of her birth. Pope Pius XI seems to have been glancing sideways at this when, in his address at the reading of the decree which declared Magdalen di Canossa's virtues to have been heroic, he quoted the great man "who was humble enough to serve the poor at table with his own hands, but not quite humble enough to sit at table with them". A remark which, as his Holiness added, "suggests a lot of things and goes a long way". Magdalen's brother Boniface was especially sad that she should leave them. But it was done, and on May 8, 1808 Magdalen and her few companions opened the doors of their house to the poor girls of the San Zeno quarter, Verona's "east end". They began by teaching them the simplest prayers and the elements of the Christian faith, with a little reading, writing and sewing, and within a few months the effects of this centre of goodness and decency were seen in the quarter.
Good news spreads no less than bad, and before long Venice asked for a centre like Verona's. By this time other associates had joined Sister Magdalen and, after some hesitation, she extended the work accordingly. Over a period of twenty-five years other foundations followed, at Milan, Bergamo, Trent and elsewhere in northern Italy and, especially in the early days, the sisters were often too few for the work; it was the foundress herself who would come to the rescue, working in the scullery or anywhere with what she called her two servants-by which must be understood her own two hands. She had a predilection for the dirtiest and most troublesome children, and would look after them from the combing of their hair to the brushing of their minds, so that to this day a specially difficult child is known in the congregation as "One of our holy foundress's".
In amplifying his words quoted above Pope Pius XI said that "Many are charitable enough to help and even to serve the poor, but few are able deliberately to become poor with the poor", and that that is exactly what Bd Magdalen did. Such a life can only grow from a rooted interior humility, and it was through no will of hers that others came to know how she had to struggle with her quick imagination and keen senses-to say nothing of unavoidable external distractions- to attain the degree of religious recollection that was hers. In fact she reached a high state of contemplation: on several known occasions she was rapt in ecstasy and at least once was seen to be lifted from the ground. Such an intense life of the soul was not inconsistent (only through misunderstanding could it be supposed to be) with a life of daily cares in which it was possible, for example, for her to be held up at pistol-point in the parlour. This actually happened. Mother Magdalen found a refuge for a penitent girl who had been seduced. The young man concerned threatened her with a pistol to disclose the girl's whereabouts. "If you want to kill me, here I am", she replied. "But are you really brave enough?" He slunk away, leaving the weapon behind, and before long he too had answered the call to repentance.
Bd Magdalen told her Daughters of Charity that their mission on earth was to make Jesus Christ known to little children, and they primarily concerned themselves with those who were poor and neglected. But she also opened high-schools and colleges, made special provision for the deaf-and-dumb, and organized closed retreats for women and girls. After her death the congregation also undertook work on the foreign missions. At Venice in 1831 Bd Magdalen even launched a small congregation of men, which carries on similar work among boys.
At the end of 1834 Bd Magdalen was taken ill at Bergamo; she struggled back to the mother house at Verona, and by passion-week in the following year she knew she was dying. Nobody else, neither her religious nor her medical advisers, thought so; but she asked for the last sacraments, and having received them the end came suddenly. For some years Mother Magdalen had been bent almost double and could sleep only in a sitting position. On the evening of April 10, 1835 she asked to be helped to her knees while she joined in her daughters' prayers, and thus, with an exclamation of joy, she died, leaning on the arms of Mother Annetta.* [* As a little girl Annetta had declared she would rather burn down the convent than be a nun. Whereupon Mother Magdalen had foretold, "One day you will be one of us. And you will be there to help me when I die."]
She was beatified in 1941.

There are several biographies in Italian, but the above account relies on A Short Life of the Venerable Servant of God Magdalen, Marchioness of Canossa, written by a sister of her congregation and published at Bangalore in India in 1933. It includes translations of the decree of 1927 pronouncing the heroism of Mother Magdalen's virtues and of the address given by Pope Pius XI to the Canossian Daughters of Charity to mark that occasion.

Born in 1774, she was the daughter of the Marquis of Canossa, who died when Maria Magdalen was three. Her mother abandoned the family, and Maria Magdalen managed her father’s estate until she was thirty-three, then founding her institute. When she died, her Daughters of Charity were widespread. She was canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

Magdalen of Canossa, Founder (RM) Born in Verona, Italy, March 1, 1774; died there on April 10, 1835; declared venerable on January 6, 1927; beatified December 7, 1941, by Pope Pius XII; canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 2, 1988; feast day formerly on May 14.

Saint Magdalen was only five years old when her father, the marquis of Canossa, died. Two years later her mother remarried and abandoned her four children to the care of their uncles. Although they treated the children well enough, their French governess was harsh. Perhaps as a result of this ill-treatment, Magdalen suffered a painful illness when she was fifteen. Upon her recovery, she was determined to become a nun. In October 1791, she enter the Carmel for a short time before returning home to manage her father's estate until she was 33.

During the Napoleonic wars, her family took refuge in Venice. There she had a dream in which she saw the Blessed Mother surrounded by six religious dressed in brown. Our Lady led them two by two into a church filled with women and girls, into a hospital, and into a hall filled with bedraggled children. She admonished the religious to serve all three, but especially to help the poor children. Almost immediately she began tending the sick in the city's hospitals and working with children.. The family returned to Verona, where they were visited by Napoleon himself. Magdalen requested from him the empty convent of Saint Joseph, which she intended to use for the poor. Several women had already joined her in her charitable work and with the gift of the convent, they opened the first house of her institute, the Daughters of Charity. Its mission followed her vision: the education of poor girls, the service of the sick in hospitals, and the teaching of the catechism in parishes.

The doors of the house in the San Zeno district was opened to poor girls on May 8, 1808. Thereafter, community prospered and its fame spread. The Canossians were invited to open a house in Venice, then in Milan, Bergamo, Trent, and elsewhere in northern Italy. Since Saint Magdalen's death, well over 400 have been established throughout the world.

Saint Magdalen drew up the rule in Venice. The congregation received formal papal approval from Pope Pius VII in 1816 and definitive approval from Pope Leo XII in an apostolic brief dated December 23, 1828. When she was declared venerable by Pope Pius XI in 1927, he wrote that "many are charitable enough to help and even to serve the poor, but few are able deliberately to become poor with the poor."
But that is exactly what the marchioness did. She herself tended the poorest and dirtiest children. Although the congregation's primary concern was poor and neglected children, she also founded high schools and colleges, especially for the deaf and dumb. Magdalen organized closed retreats for females. In Venice, she even launched a small congregation of men to carry on similar work with boys. Following her death, the Daughters of Charity entered the mission field.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the hectic pace of her life, Saint Magdalen developed enormous powers of recollection and prayer. She attained remarkable levels of contemplation. On several occasions, witnesses observed her rapt in ecstasy, and once she was seen levitating.
Towards the end of her life, Magdalen was bent almost double and could sleep only in a sitting position. She became seriously ill in Bergamo at the end of 1834 and was taken back to the mother house in Verona. By Holy Week 1835, she knew she was dying, though none of her doctors agree with her. She asked for the last rites, then died suddenly (Benedictines, Walsh).

To Save A Life is Earthly; To Save A Soul is Eternal

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 348

O Lady, thou hast tried me and known me: my ruin and my transgression.

Thy mercy is plentiful above me: and thy clemency is great to me.

Thine eye hath beheld mine imperfect being: and thine eyebrows have known my ways.

We have from the Holy Spirit an abundance of holy desires: and the stain of sin does not trouble our conscience.

The light of thy mercy makes serene our heart: and the sweetness of thy peace recreates us.

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 heaven: only saints are allowed into heaven. The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.

There are over 10,000 named saints beati from history
and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Patron_Saints.html Widowed_Saints html Indulgences The Catholic Church in China
LINKS: Marian Shrines India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East Lourdes 1858 China Marian shrines 1995
Kenya national Marian shrine Loreto, Italy Marian Apparitions (over 2000) Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related MarianWebsites Angels and Archangels Saints Visions of Heaven and Hell
Widowed Saints html
Doctors_of_the_Church Acts_Of_The_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates Chalcedon

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

The great psalm of the Passion, Chapter 22, whose first verse “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus pronounced on the cross, ended with the vision: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him” For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.

Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic Church In China {whole article here} 2000 years of the Catholic Church in China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide to Holiness

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

My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not

O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I beg the conversion of poor sinners, Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace

The voice of the Father is heard, the Son enters the water, and the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove.

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 Nizamuddi n 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

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

James M. Reardon Publication History of the Basilica of Saint Mary 1955 {update}

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement 1362-1950 (1952);
The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922; (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;

James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872; Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;

Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.

Affiliations and Indulgences Litany of Loretto in Stained glass windows here. Nave Sacristy and Residence Here
Sanctuary spaces between them filled with grilles of hand-forged wrought iron the life of our Blessed Lady After the crucifixon

Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's earliest Basilica.
Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, Popes' cathedral and official residence first millennium of Christian history.

The only replicas ever made: in order from west to east {1932}.

Saints Simon (saw), Bartholomew (knife), James the Lesser (book), John (eagle), Andrew (transverse cross), Peter keys), Paul (sword), James the Greater (staff), Thomas (carpenter's square), Philip (serpent), Matthew (book), and Jude sword

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:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, PSALTER BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 348 2023