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

From 2007 to 2020 16,894 lives saved

For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

Mary asked the children to pray the rosary
for world peace, for end of World War I, for sinners and conversion of Russia.

At the beginning of 2003, the third visionary, Lucia dos Santos, was still living as a Carmelite nun. Mary gave the children three secrets. Since Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta the following year, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927, concerning devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of hell. Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See's Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a 'bishop in white' who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981.

St. Jeremiah the Prophet On this day, the prophet Jeremiah, one of the major prophets, the son of Hilkiah the priest, was martyred
Sancti Robérti Bellarmíno, e Societáte Jesu, Cardinális atque olim Epíscopi Capuáni, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris
Romæ Dedicátio Ecclésiæ sanctæ Maríæ ad Mártyres
Sunday_of_the_Blind_Man He opened the eyes of a man "who was blind from his birth (John 9:1). the blind man St Celidonius who lacked both sight and eyes
177 Saint Glyceria {means Sweet} Martyred virgin of Trajanopolis, in Greece destroyed a statue of Jupiter protected by an angel
372 Alexandrian Martyrs at the time of Saint Athanasius's fifth exile
686 Erconwald of London founded Chertsey monastery in Surrey convent Barking Essex invoked against gout OSB
850 George The Holy Confessor suffered for veneration of holy icons at Constantinople under emperor Theophilus
1028 Euthymius the Illuminator performed many miracles translated from Greek into Iberian (Karthvelian) Bible 60 writings of the Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem, Gregory the Great, John Cassian), biblical commentaries, lives of the saints, and liturgical books Abbot (RM)
1423 Bl. Juliana of Norwich Benedictine English mystic anchorite In 1373 experienced 16 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
1621 ST Robert Belarmine, Archbishop of Capua Cardinal, Doctor of the Church one of the greatest polemical theologians the Church has ever produced, and her foremost controversialist against the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation
1917 Our Lady of Fatima three Portuguese children received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon Between May 13 and October 13

Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List
Joyful Mystery on Monday Saturday Glorius Mystery on Sunday Wednesday
Sorrowful Mystery on Friday Tuesday Luminous Mystery on Thursday Veterens of War

Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

How do I start the Five First Saturdays?

Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

The message of Fatima is simple: Pray

Sister Lucia has agreed that Pope John Paul II's public consecration in St. Peter's Square on March 25, 1984,
fulfilled Mary's request. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prepared a June 26, 2000, document explaining the “third secret” (available at www.vatican.va).

May 13 - First Apparition in Fatima: “I am from Heaven” (Portugal, 1917) -
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt (1981)

The assassination attempt and the secret

Pope John Paul II had asked to read the third secret after the attempt on his life on May 13, 1981, and today the bullet that was extracted from his abdomen forms part of the crown of the statue of the Virgin, to whom he also offered the ring of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński (former Primate of Poland).

Indeed, on May 13, 1981, at 5:17 pm, the hand of Ali Agca pulled the trigger but "someone else" diverted the bullet, in the opinion of John Paul II himself, who saw the intervention of the Virgin Mary: it was the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.

Blessed John Paul II also wished that the text of the secret be published on May 13, 2000, for the beatification of the two young shepherds Jacinta and Francisco. The message of the Virgin Mary was entrusted to the third visionary, Lucia, who became a Carmelite nun in Coïmbra and died not long before John Paul II, on February 13, 2005.

In this visit, John Paul II gave the ring that Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski had given him to the Virgin of Fatima,
on which the words Totus Tuus (totally yours) were inscribed. May 13, 2013 (Zenit.org)

May 13 - First Apparition in Fatima (Portugal) - Our Lady of the Rosary (1917)

I Am from Heaven

Sister Lucia herself told us of the first apparition of Our Lady on May 13, 1917:
"...In the Cova da Iria....we saw what seemed to be a flash of lightning. (...) There before us on a small oak tree, we beheld a Lady all dressed in white. She was more brilliant than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water, when the rays of the burning sun shine through it.
... 'Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm. (...) I am from heaven. (...) I am here to ask you to come here for six months in succession, on the 13th day, at this same hour. Later on, I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterwards, I will return here yet a seventh time.' (...) 'Will I go to heaven too?' 'Yes, you will.' 'And Jacinta?' 'She will go also.' 'And Francisco?' 'He will go there too, but he must say many Rosaries.' 'Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and as an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners?' (...)'Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.'
We fell on our knees, repeating in our hearts:
'O Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the most Blessed Sacrament!'
... Our Lady spoke again: 'Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war.'"

Tell the children about God and His Saints. During the holy time of Lent, speak to them of their suffering Savior. During Paschal time, of His glorious Resurrection. During Christmas time, of His Birth.
You will see what a profound impression it will make on the minds of your children. -- St. John Vianney

May 12 - Humility of Our Lady
Marian Apparitions in France Recognized Marian apparitions to Benôite (Benedicta) Rencurel -- Laus

See http://www.mariedenazareth.com/8112.0.html?&L=1

Bible 60 writings of the Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem, Gregory the Great, John Cassian), biblical

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

The Cross

It Makes No Sense Not To Believe In GOD
Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel

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 trust and do not love Thee.
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

(See February 20 entry for Blessed Jacinta and Francisco Marto).
Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners and for the conversion of Russia. At the beginning of 2003, the third visionary, Lucia dos Santos, was still living as a Carmelite nun. Mary gave the children three secrets. Since Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta the following year, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927, concerning devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The second secret was a vision of hell.
Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See's Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a 'bishop in white' who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him.
Many people linked this to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981.
Comment: The message of Fatima is simple: Pray.
Unfortunately, some people—not Sister Lucia—have distorted these revelations, making them into an apocalyptic event for which they are now the only reliable interpreters. They have claimed that Mary's request the world be consecrated is been ignored.
Sister Lucia has agreed that Pope John Paul II's public consecration in St. Peter's Square on March 25, 1984, fulfilled Mary's request. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prepared a June 26, 2000, document explaining the “third secret” (available at www.vatican.va).

Quote: “Throughout history there have been supernatural apparitions and signs which go to the heart of human events and which, to the surprise of believers and non-believers alike, play their part in the unfolding of history. These manifestations can never contradict the content of faith, and must therefore have their focus in the core of Christ's proclamation: the Father's love which leads men and women to conversion and bestows the grace required to abandon oneself to him with filial devotion. This too is the message of Fatima which, with its urgent call to conversion and penance, draws us to the heart of the Gospel” (The Message of Fatima, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 26, 2000).The feast of Our Lady of Fatima was approved by the local bishop in 1930; it was added to the Church's worldwide calendar in 2002.

Sancti Robérti Bellarmíno, e Societáte Jesu, Cardinális atque olim Epíscopi Capuáni, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, cujus dies natális décimo quinto Kaléndas Octóbris recensétur.
St. Robert Bellarmine, of the Society of Jesus, cardinal and one time bishop of Capua, confessor and doctor of the Church, whose birthday is kept on the 17th of September.
Robert Bellarmin

Katholische Kirche: 17. September Robert Bellarmine
Robert wurde am 4.10.1542 in Montepulciano (Italien) geboren. Hier ging er in die Jesuitenschule und trat in den Jesuitenorden ein. Robert erwies sich als hochbegabter Theologe. Er studierte in Rom, Padua und Löwen, hielt hier auch bereits Vorlesungen, die auch bei Nichtkatholiken auf Interesse stießen. Nach der Priesterweihe 1570 wirkte Robert als Dozent in Löwen, bis er 1576 von Papst Gregor XIII. als Kontroverstheologe an die Gregoriana in Rom berufen wurde. Er war auch mit der Erziehung des Ordensnachwuchses betraut. Zu seinen Schülern gehörte Aloisius Gonzaga. 1586 erschien der erste Band seiner Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei (Gespräche über die Gegensätze des christlichen Glaubens), das Hauptwerk der Gegenreformation, das Jahrhunderte hinweg unverändert übernommen wurde und heute noch verwendet wird.
Robert hielt aber auch mit Kritik am Papst und der Kurie nicht zurück. 1588 wurden deshalb seine Bücher indiziert und er selber in die Provinz versetzt. Clemes VIII. wurde 1592 zum Papst gewählt, er holte Robert zurück nach Rom. Hier gab er 1593 den dritten Band seiner Controversii heraus; 1594 wurde er nach Neapel strafversetzt und mit der Leitung der Ordensprovinz der Jesuiten betraut. 1597 wurde er wieder nach Rom zurückberufen. Hier verfaßte er seinen Katechismus, der noch heute gültig ist. 1599 wurde er zum Kardinal ernannt, fiel dann aber erneut in Ungnade und wurde 1602 als Erzbischof nach Capua gesandt. Hier wirkte er bis 1605 segensreich in seiner Diözese. Der neue Papst Leo XI. holte Robert als seinen theologischen Berater nach Rom zurück. Hier starb er am 17.9.1621. Heiliggesprochen wurde Robert 1930. Er war mit Philippo Neri und Franz von Sales befreundet. Er soll auch ein Anhänger der Lehren von Galileo Galilei gewesen sein.

May his prayers be with us and glory be to God forever. Amen.

2nd v. Saint Abban of Magheranoidhe, subsequently known as "Abbanstown," today, Adamstown founded an abbey at Rosmic-treoin, or New Ross came from Ireland to England where he was baptized about 165 AD

(Magheranoidhe is also rendered Murneave or Murnevin). Nephew of Saint Ibar, the apostle of Wexford (a predecessor and contemporary of Saint Patrick), flourished 570-620. He was the son of Cormac, King of Leinster, and he founded numerous churches in the district of Ui Cennselaigh, almost conterminous with the present County Wexford and Diocese of Ferns. His principal monastery was at Magheranoidhe, subsequently known as "Abbanstown," today, Adamstown; but he also founded an abbey at Rosmic-treoin, or New Ross, which afterwards became famous as a scholastic.

Abban of Abingdon (AC) (also known as Abben) 2nd century. This early saint gave his name to Abingdon, formerly Abbendun, in Berkshire England. The use of -dun (fortress or seat) indicates a Celtic origin, which, if true, would make Abban the earliest Irish saint. He is saint to have come from Ireland to England, where he was baptized about 165 AD. He preached effectively and received a generous land grant in Berroccense (Berkshire) on which he founded a monastery. Another monastery, funded by Prince Cissa and founded by Hean, replaced this one in 685 (D'Arcy, Fitzpatrick, Montague, O'Hanlon).

Saint Abban resided in Abingdon, England before the era of Saint Patrick served as model for European monasticism and faith unknown. Irish hermit whose life is largely undocumented. Born in Ireland,. Abban is part of the great panorama of early Irish Christians who served as models for European monasticism and faith. He is especially revered in Abingdon, England.

177 Saint Glyceria {means Sweet} Martyred virgin of Trajanopolis, in Greece destroyed a statue of Jupiter protected by an angel
Heracléæ, in Thrácia, sanctæ Glycériæ, Mártyris Románæ, quæ, sub Antoníno Imperatóre et Sabíno Prǽside, cum fuísset plúrimis ac diris tentáta supplíciis et ab his divína ope incólumis evasísset, tandem feris est objécta, earúmque una, morsum córpori ipsíus infigénte, spíritum Deo réddidit.
At Heraclea in Thrace, St. Glyceria, a Roman martyr who suffered many severe torments under Emperor Antonius and the governor Sabinus. By the help of God having escaped them all unharmed, she was finally thrown to the wild beasts, and when the first one had bitten her body, she rendered her soul to God.

177 ST GLYCERIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
THE Greek “acts” which are our sole authority for the life of St Glyceria, are unfortunately quite unreliable, and all that can be asserted definitely is that she was a Christian maiden who suffered martyrdom at Heraclea in the Propontis towards the close of the second century. The legend follows conventional lines: She is said to have been the daughter of a Roman official of senatorial rank living at Trajanopolis in Thrace. She openly avowed her faith, in the presence of Sabinus the prefect, who caused her to be led to the temple of Jupiter that she might sacrifice. Instead of doing so, she threw down the statue of the god and broke it. She was hung up by the hair and beaten with iron rods, but sustained no harm. Deprived of food by her jailers in prison, she was fed by an angel. When placed in a hot oven the fire was promptly extinguished. Her hair was then dragged out and she was exposed to wild beasts, but she died before they could reach her. A splendid church was set up to her honour at Heraclea.

In his Origines du Culte des Martyrs (pp. 244—245) Delehaye remarks that nothing could be more clearly demonstrated than the early cultus of St Glyceria at Heraclea. The Emperor Maurice visited the shrine in 591 and Heraclius in 610, while there is mention of St Glyceria’s tomb as a centre of devotion in the Passion of the Forty Martyrs of Heraclea. On the other hand the story printed with the Greek text in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, is, as stated above, no more than a pious fiction. Cf. also the Byzantinische Zeitschrift, vol. vi (1897), pp. 96—99.

Glykeria Orthodoxe Kirche: 13. Mai
Saint Glyceria suffered as a martyr for her faith in Christ in the second century, during a persecution against Christians under the emperor Antoninus (138-161). She came from an illustrious family, and her father Macarius was a high-ranking Roman official. Later, the family moved to the Thracian city of Trajanopolis. St Glyceria lost both her father and mother at an early age. Falling in with Christians, she converted to the true Faith, and she visited the church every day. Sabinus, the prefect of Trajanopolis, received the imperial edict ordering Christians to offer sacrifice to the idols, and so he designated a certain day for the inhabitants of the city to worship the idol Zeus.
St Glyceria firmly resolved to suffer for Christ. She told the Christians of her intention, and she begged them to pray that the Lord would give her the strength to undergo the sufferings. On the appointed day St Glyceria made the Sign of the Cross on her forehead, and went into the pagan temple. The saint stood on a raised spot in the rays of the sun, and removed the veil from her head, showing the holy Cross traced on her forehead. She prayed fervently to God to bring the pagans to their senses and destroy the stone idol of Zeus.

In a rage, the prefect Sabinus and the pagan priests commanded the people to pelt St Glyceria with stones, but the stones did not touch the saint. They locked St Glyceria in prison, where the Christian priest Philokrates came to her and encouraged the martyr in the struggle before her. In the morning, when the tortures had started, suddenly an angel appeared in the midst of the torturers, and they fell to the ground, overcome with terror. When the vision vanished, Sabinus, who was hardly able to speak, ordered them to throw the saint into prison.
They shut the door securely and sealed it with the prefect's own ring, so that no one could get in to her. While she was in prison, angels of God brought St Glyceria food and drink. Many days afterwards, Sabinus came to the prison and he himself removed the seal. Going in to the saint, he was shaken when he saw her alive and well.
Setting off for the city of Heraclea in Thrace, Sabinus gave orders to bring St Glyceria there also. The Christians of Heraclea came out to meet her with Bishop Dometius at their head, and he prayed that the Lord would strengthen the saint to endure martyrdom.
At Heraclea they cast St Glyceria into a red-hot furnace, but the fire was extinguished at once. Then the prefect, in a mindless fury, gave orders to rip the skin from St Glyceria's head. Then they threw the martyr into prison onto sharp stones.

She prayed incessantly, and at midnight an angel appeared in the prison and healed her of her wounds.

When the jailer Laodicius came for the saint in the morning, he did not recognize her. Thinking that the martyr had been taken away, he feared he would be punished for letting her escape. He wanted to kill himself, but St Glyceria stopped him.

"Follow Christ and you will be saved," the holy martyr replied. Laodicius placed upon himself the chains with which the saint was bound, and at the trial he told the prefect and everyone present about the miraculous healing of St Glyceria by an angel, then he confessed himself a Christian. The newly chosen one of God was beheaded by the sword. Christians secretly took up his remains, and reverently buried them. St Glyceria was sentenced to be eaten by wild beasts.

Finally, the saint prayed to the Lord, imploring that He take her unto Himself. In answer she heard a Voice from Heaven, summoning her to heavenly bliss. At that moment, another lioness was set loose upon the saint. It pounced upon the martyr and killed her, but did not tear her apart. Bishop Dometius and the Christians of Heraclea reverently buried the holy martyr Glyceria. She suffered for Christ around the year 177. Her holy relics were glorified with a flow of healing myrrh.

Slain at Heraclea in the Propontis. Tradition states that she was the daughter of a Roman senator. Arrested as a Christian, Glyceria destroyed a statue of Jupiter. Tortured, she was thrown to the wild animals but died before they could harm her.
Glyceria of Trajanopolis VM (RM). The Roman maiden Glyceria lived with her father at Trajanopolis, Greece. She was martyred at Heraclea in the Propontis (Benedictines).

Glykeria Orthodoxe Kirche: 13. Mai
Glykeria lebte im 2. Jahrhundert. Sie war eine Tochter des römischen Stadtpräfekten Macarius, der nach Trojanopolis in Thrakien gekommen war. Als ihre Eltern starben, schloß sich Glykeria der christlichen Gemeinde an. Unter Kaiser Antonius (138-161) wurden alle Menschen aufgefordert, den heidnischen Göttern zu opfern. Glykeria ging an dem festgesetzten Tag in den Zeustempel und bekannte sich dort zu Christus. Ihre Gebete sollen die Zeusstatue zerstört haben. Sie wurde ergriffen und gefoltert und in eine Zelle gesperrt, in der sie verhungern sollte. Von einem Engel gespeist blieb sie am Leben. Der Gefängniswärter Laodicius bekannte sich daraufhin zu Christus und wurde sofort hingerichtet. Glykeria aber wurde in einen glühenden Ofen geworfen. Auch diese Folterung überstand sie unbeschadet. Sie wurde dann nach Heraklia in Thrakien gebracht und dort (nach weiteren Folterungen) wilden Tieren vorgeworfen. Sie bat Gott um Erlösung von ihrem Leiden und ein Löwe tötete sie, ließ ihren Leichnam aber unversehrt. Die Christen von Heraklia unter Bischof Dometius bestatteten sie. Ihr Leichnam sonderte ein heilkräftiges Öl ab.

She prayed incessantly, and at midnight an angel appeared in the prison and healed her of her wounds.

Delehaye, in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912), pp. 163—187 and 225—232, devotes considerable space to St Mucius. He first prints the best text of the “acts” together with the panegyric of a certain Michael, and then points out that the obviously fictitious acts do not detract from the historic character of the martyr himself. There undoubtedly was a church dedicated to Mucius in Constantinople at the end of the fourth century, and this may have been built by the Emperor Constantine. Further, it is pretty certain that the martyr is mentioned at about the same date in the ancient Syriac martyrology, though his name, one knows not how, has been transformed into “Maximus”. He is also mentioned in the Hieronymianum.

Alexander Holy Martyr suffered for Christ; soldier serving tribune Tiberian at Rome; By night a fearsome angel appeared to Tiberian with sword in hand; miracles; healings
at the beginning of the fourth century. He was a soldier serving in the regiment of the tribune Tiberian at Rome. When he was eighteen, the Roman emperor Maximian Hercules (284-305) issued an edict that all citizens were to go to the temple of Jupiter outside the city on a designated day to offer sacrifice. The tribune Tiberian assembled his soldiers and he ordered them to go to this festival, but Alexander, raised from childhood in the Christian Faith, refused and said that he would not offer sacrifice to devils.

Alexander was asleep, but an angel woke him and warned him of his impending martyrdom, saying that he would be with him during this time. When the soldiers arrived, Alexander came out to meet them. His face shone with a light so bright that the soldiers fell to the ground when they saw him. The saint upbraided them and told them to carry out their orders.
Standing before Maximian, St Alexander boldly confessed his faith in Christ and he refused to worship the idols. He said that he was not afraid of the emperor, nor of his threats. The emperor tried to persuade the young man with promises of honors, but Alexander remained steadfast in his confession, and denounced the emperor and all the pagans.

Maximian remanded St Alexander to the tribune Tiberian, who was being sent to Thrace to persecute Christians there. So they brought the martyr to Thrace, fettered in chains.

They subjected him to torture before the eyes of his mother, and then they took the prisoner on his final journey, walking behind Tiberian's chariot. The brave Pimenia asked the soldiers to let her go to her son, and she encouraged him to undergo torments for Christ.

The angel appeared to the martyr several times, strengthening him.

In the city of Philippopolis, Tiberian retried St Alexander in the presence of the city dignitaries gathered for this event. At this trial St Alexander remained steadfast. During his grievous journey the holy martyr had been repeatedly subjected to cruel tortures. He was strengthened by God, however, and he endured all the torments.

The holy martyr said to her, "Do not weep , my mother, for the day after tomorrow, the Lord shall help me finish matters."

The saint prayed and asked God to remove the angels, since he wanted to go to the Lord.

Healings began to take place at the grave of St Alexander.

384 Saint Servatus; Bishop of Tongres (in the modern Low Countries) host of Saint Athanasius during his exile; prophesied the Hun invasion of France
Apud Trajéctum sancti Servátii, Tungrénsis Ecclésiæ Epíscopi; ad cujus méritum ómnibus demonstrándum, dum témpore híemis ómnia in circúitu nix repléret, sepúlcrum ejus numquam opéruit, donec, ex indústria cívium, Basílica super illud ædificáta est.
At Utrecht, St. Servatius, bishop of Tongres, whose grave, as a public sign of his merit, was free from snow during winter (although everything around was covered with it), until the inhabitants built a church over it.

384 ST SERVATIUS, OR SERVAIS, BISHOP OF TONGRES
IT is recorded of St Servatius, supposed to be an Armenian by birth, that he gave hospitality to St Athanasius during his banishment, and that he defended the great patriarch’s cause and the Catholic faith at the Council of Sardica. After the murder of Constans, the usurper Magnentius sent him and another bishop as envoys to Alexandria to plead his cause with the Emperor Constantius. Nothing came of the embassy, but Servatius was able, while in Egypt, to renew his intercourse with St Athanasius. In the year 359 we find him at the Council of Rimini, valiantly holding out, together with St Phoebadius, Bishop of Agen, against the Arian majority, and equally deceived by the formula there signed, until enlightened by St Hilary of Poitiers.

St Gregory of Tours relates that St Servatius foretold the invasion of Gaul by the Huns, and that he strove to avert the calamity by fasting and prayer and a pilgrimage to Rome. This penitential journey he undertook with the object of commending his flock to the care of the two great apostles. Almost immediately after his return to Tongres he contracted fever and died, either in his episcopal city or, according to some authorities, in Maestricht. That same year Tongres was plundered and partially destroyed in a raid; it was not, however, till seventy years later, when Attila with his Huns overran and ravaged the country, that the supposed prophecy was completely fulfilled.

The cultus of St Servatius was very considerable during the middle ages in the Low Countries, and many legends grew up about him. His relics are preserved in a beautiful ancient reliquary at Maestricht, where his staff, his drinking cup and his silver key are also treasured. According to tradition the key was given to him when in Rome by St Peter in a vision, but it is actually one of the “Claves Confessionis S. Petri”, which popes have from time to time bestowed on those they wished to honour; and which contained filings from the chains of St Peter. The drinking cup, on the other hand, was popularly supposed to have been the gift of an angel and to have the property of healing fever.

The “acts” of St Servatius, printed in part in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, are only a compilation of Herigerus, Abbot of Lobbes, in the tenth century. Several older texts, however, have since been discovered and have been edited in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. i (1882), pp. 88—112, and in G. Kurth, Deux Biographies de St Servais (1881). See also G. Kurth, Nouvelles Recherches sur S. Servais (1884) ; A. Proost, Saint Servais (1891) F. Wilhelm (1910), G. Gorris (1923) ; Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. iii, p. 188; and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lv (1937), pp. 117—120. There has undoubtedly been a very widespread cultus of St Servais and the literature is considerable. On St Peter’s keys, cf. DAC., vol. iii, c. 1861.

Servatius Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 13. Mai
Servatus of Tongres B (RM) (also known as Servais) Died in Tongres, Belgium, May 13, 384. Bishop Servatus of Tongres (Belgium) hosted Saint Athanasius, when the latter was an exile in the West because of the Arian persecutions. He strenuously defended his friend and the cause of orthodoxy, especially at the council of Sardica (Sofia convoked by the Emperors Constans and Constantius at the urgent entreaty of Pope Julius held most probably in 343). Saint Gregory of Tours (Born at Clermont-Ferrand, c. 538; died at Tours c. 596.) relates that Servatus foretold invasion of Gaul by the Huns and implored the divine mercy to avert that scourge by watching, fasting, prayers, many tears, and a pilgrimage to Saint Peter's tomb in Rome in 382. Regardless of his pleading with the Almighty, God revealed to him that punishment was necessary. Still weeping, he hastened back to Tongres, where he sickened and died soon after. Gregory testifies that many miracles occurred at his tomb, which caused a church to be built over the relics of the man who had governed the diocese for 37 years. Most of his relics are housed in the collegiate church in Maestricht. Shortly after his death, the city of Tongres was plundered by Attila. Some have claimed that Servatus moved his see to Maestricht, but the translation was made only after the destruction of Tongres (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

In art, Saint Servatus is generally a bishop with three wooden shoes. He may sometimes be portrayed (1) at a reading desk with a shield by him with three wooden shoes; (2) being met at the city gate by burghers as he holds the key and is attended by an angel; (3) with a key in one hand, placing his crozier on a dragon; (4) striking water; or (5) with an eagle fanning him as he sleeps in the sun dressed as a pilgrim (Roeder). Servatus is invoked against foot troubles, lameness, rheumatism, rats, and mice (Roeder).

Servatius Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 13. Mai
Servatius (oder Servatus) ist vielleicht die latinisierte Form des Namens Saratios. Unter diesem Namen nahm Servatius an dem Konzil von Sardica teil. Kurz nach dem Konzil wurde er Bischof von Tongern (nahe Lüttich). Er war ein eifriger Gegner der Arianer. Gregor von Tours berichtet, Servatius habe den Einfall der Hunnen vorhergesagt und zu einem großen Fasten aufgerufen, um die drohende Invasion abzuwenden. Servatius starb am 13.5.384. An seinem Grab sollen sich viele Wunder ereignet haben, so daß eine Kirche über dem Grab gebaut wurde. Bei dem Einfall der Vandalen 406 wurde Tongern zerstört und die Reliquien von Servatius wurden nach Maastricht überführt. Die Servatiuskirche, in der sie sich auch heute befinden, wurde besonders nach den Einfällen der Hunnen unter Attila ein vielbesuchter Wallfahrtsort. Heute wird die Servatiuswallfahrt alle sieben Jahre durchgeführt, der nächste Termin ist im Juli 2004. Servatius ist einer der Eisheiligen.

6th v. Saint Mael A hermit of Wales disciple of Saint Cadfan
sometimes called Mahel. He was a disciple of Saint Cadfan (Died probably at Bardsey in the early 6th century), whom he accompanied from Brittany, France, to Wales and then to the island of Bardsey.
Mael of Bardsey (AC) (also known as Mahel) 6th century. Saint Mael followed Saint Cadfan from Brittany into Wales, where he became one of the solitaries of the isle of Bardsey (Benedictines).

558 Saint John the Silent Bishop of Colonia in Palestine reputation for sanctity hermit John saw a bright cross in the air and heard a voice say, "If you want to be saved, follow this light." to the laura of Saint Sabas near Jerusalem 75 years a silent recluse
In Palæstína sancti Joánnis Silentiárii, qui, Coloniénsi in Arménia Episcopátu dimísso, in sancti Sabbæ laura monásticam vitam duxit, et sancto fine quiévit.
In Palestine, St. John the Silent, who resigned the see of Colonia in Armenia and retired to the monastery of St. Sabbas until his saintly death.

558 ST JOHN THE SILENT
ST JOHN derived the surname by which he is designated from his great love of silence and recollection. *[* At least by the first half of the seventh century this name, “Hesychast”, had become a technical term for those who followed a certain spiritual tradition in the East. John is sometimes called the Sabaite.]

He was born in the year 454, at Nicopolis in Armenia, of a family which had supplied generals and governors for that part of the empire. After the death of his parents he built a monastery in which, at the age of eighteen, he shut himself up with ten companions. Here, under the direction of their youthful superior, the little community led a most edifying life of devotion and hard work. The great reputation St John acquired for sanctity and leadership led the archbishop of Sebaste to consecrate him bishop of Colonia in Armenia, much against his will, when he was only twenty-eight. For nine years he exercised his episcopal functions, zealously instructing his flock, depriving himself of even the necessaries of life that he might relieve the poor, and continuing to practise as far as possible the austerities of his former life. Then his inability to remedy certain evils, combined with a strong desire for a secluded life, decided him to lay down his charge. Instead of returning to Armenia he quietly went to Jerusalem—uncertain as to his future vocation.

His biographer assures us that whilst John was watching one night in prayer he saw before him a bright cross in the air and heard a voice which said, “If thou desirest to be saved, follow this light”. The cross then moved before him, and at length directed him to the laura (monastery) of St Sabas. Convinced that he now knew God’s will, St John immediately betook himself to the laura, which contained one hundred and fifty monks. He was then thirty-eight years old. St Sabas at first placed him under the steward to fetch water, carry stone, and serve the workmen in building a new hospital. John came and went like a beast of burden, remaining ever recollected in God, always cheerful and silent. After this test, the experienced superior made him guestmaster; the holy man served everyone as though he were serving Christ Himself. By this time St Sabas recognized that his novice was on the road to perfection and, in order to give him opportunities for uninterrupted contemplation, he allowed him to occupy a separate hermitage. During five consecutive days of the week, which he passed fasting, John never left his cell; but on Saturdays and Sundays he attended public worship in church. After three years spent in this eremitic life, he was made steward of the laura. The business which this office entailed was no distraction to him: so great was his love for God that his mind was fixed on Him continually and without effort.

Four years later St Sabas thought him worthy of the priesthood and decided to present him to the Patriarch Elias. Upon their arrival at the church of Mount Calvary, where the ordination was to take place, John said to the patriarch, “Holy father, I have something to impart to you in private: afterwards, if you judge me suitable, I will receive holy orders”. The patriarch granted him a private interview, and St John, when he had bound him to secrecy, said, “Father, I have been consecrated bishop: but on account of my many sins I have fled and have sought out this desert to await the coming of the Lord”. Elias was startled, and having summoned St Sabas, declared, “I cannot ordain this man, because of certain particulars he has communicated to me”. St Sabas returned home deeply grieved because he feared that John must have committed some terrible crime, but in answer to his earnest prayer the truth was made known to him by revelation. He was, however, directed not to divulge the secret to others.

In the year 503 the factious spirit of certain turbulent monks obliged St Sabas to leave his laura; St John at the same time withdrew into a neighbouring desert, where he spent six years. When St Sabas was recalled to his community, St John returned to the laura and there lived in his cell for forty years.

Experience had taught him that a soul accustomed to speak to God alone finds only bitterness and emptiness in worldly intercourse. Moreover his love of obscurity and his humility made him desire more than ever to live unknown. Nevertheless the fame of his sanctity made it impossible for him to realize his ambition, and he now no longer refused to see those who resorted to him for advice. Amongst these was Cyril of Scythopolis, who wrote the saint’s life when he had reached the great age of 104, whilst still preserving the vigour of mind which had always characterized him. Cyril relates that he himself in early manhood had consulted the hermit as to his choice of a career. St John advised him to enter the monastery of St Euthymius. Instead, Cyril went to a small monastery on the bank of the Jordan. There he at once contracted a fever of which he nearly died. But St John appeared to him in his sleep and, after a gentle reprimand, told him that if he repaired at once to St Euthymius he would regain his health and win God’s favour. The next morning, he set out for the aforesaid monastery, and found that he had entirely recovered. The same author also describes how, in his presence, St John exorcized an evil spirit from a child by making on its forehead the sign of the cross with oil.

Both by example and precept St John led many souls to God, and continued in his hermitage to emulate, as far as this mortal state will allow, the glorious employment of the heavenly spirits in an uninterrupted exercise of love and praise. He passed to their blessed company in A.D. 558—having lived in solitude for seventy-six years, interrupted only by the nine years of his episcopate.

Cyril of Scythopolis, the biographer from whom we derive all our knowledge of St John, seems to have entered the monastery of St Euthymius in 544 and to have passed on to the laura at Jerusalem in 554. Though credulous, like all men of his generation, and delighting in marvels, he was a conscientious reporter of what he believed to be the truth. The biography he wrote is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. See also Ehrhard in the Römische Quartalschrift, vol. vii (1893), pp. 32 seq.; and the text of Cyril in E. Schwartz, Kyrillos von Skythopolis (1939).

Born in Nicopolis, Armenia, he established a monastery at the age of eighteen. Appointed a bishop at the age of twenty-eight, he spent nine years in his office before retiring to Jerusalem to embrace the eremitical life. Through a vision, he found his way to the monastery, or laura, of Saint Sabas, asking to be walled up and living for 75 years a silent recluse.

John the Silent B (RM) Born at Nicopolis, Armenia, in 454; died near Jerusalem, 558. At the death of his prominent parents and he was 20, John founded a monastery and become a monk with ten companions in his native city. Despite their youth, the little community led a most edifying life of devotion and hard work. As their leader, John acquired a reputation for sanctity that led to the archbishop of Sebaste's choosing him, at age 28, as bishop of Colonia (Taxara), Armenia, against his will. Nevertheless, for nine years he executed his episcopal functions with zeal, even to the point of depriving himself of the necessities of life in order to relieve the poor. As much as possible, he continued to lead the life of a monk. Then his inability to remedy certain evils combined with the pull of a secluded life. He resigned his position and headed quietly for Jerusalem.

His vita says that in prayer one night, John saw a bright cross in the air and heard a voice say, "If you want to be saved, follow this light."
At length he followed it to the laura of Saint Sabas near Jerusalem. Hiding his episcopal dignity, he entered the monastery of 150 monks, where he spent the rest of his life. At first Saint Sabas assigned him under the steward to fetch water, carry stone, and serve the workmen building a new hospital. Having obediently carried out his work in this position, Sabas made him guest-master.
When Sabas recognized that his novice was on the road to Christian perfection, he allowed John to occupy a separate hermitage. John left his cell only on Saturdays and Sundays to attend public worship in the church. After three years as a hermit, he was chosen to be steward of the laura.

Four years later, Saint Sabas thought John was worthy of ordination to the priesthood. Upon their arrival at the church of Mount Calvary, where John was to be presented to Patriarch Saint Elias for ordination, he turned to the patriarch and said, "Holy father, I have something to tell you in private: afterwards, if you judge me suitable, I will receive holy orders." During the private interview and after he bound the bishop to secrecy, John revealed: "Father, I have been consecrated bishop. But on account of my many sins I have fled and sought out this desert to await the coming of the Lord."

Elias reported to Sabas that he would be unable to ordain John because of what he had revealed. As they returned to the laura, Sabas was deeply grieved because he feared that John must have committed a terrible crime.

In 503, both Sabas and John were forced to leave the laura for the nearby desert. Six years later, when Sabas was recalled, John also returned and lived in his hermitage for another forty years. Although his humility and love of obscurity would have made the hidden life preferable, John's sanctity and wisdom drew numerous people seeking his advice. He now saw it was God's will to lead others to God. When alone he occupied himself with uninterrupted exercises of love and praise until his death (Benedictines, Walsh).

In art, Saint John is portrayed as a bishop with his finger on his lips (Roeder).

Our most reliable authority is Bede, Eccl. History, iv, 6 ; but some further information may be gleaned from charters and other sources. See DCB., vol. ii, pp. 177—179 ; DNB., vol. xvii, p. 390; and Stanton’s Menology, pp. 187 and 189, and supplement.

751 Natalis of Milan bishop from about 740 governed in the strained period of Italian and Church history when Lombards were being converted to the orthodox faith

Natalis was bishop of Milan from 740 to 751 (Benedictines). In art, Natalis is a bishop near a child who is holding a book. He can be confused with Saint Ambrose (Roeder).
Saint Natalis 740 Bishop of Milan from about 740 governed in the strained period of Italian and Church history when Lombards were being converted to the orthodox faith. B (AC)

850 George The Holy Confessor suffered for the veneration of holy icons at Constantinople under emperor Theophilus
in the first half of the ninth century. The emperor Theophilus demanded that St George renounce the veneration of holy icons, but the brave confessor refused the order and told the impious emperor that in venerating holy icons, we offer worship to their eternal Prototype [i.e. Christ the Logos].
For his disobedience, the emperor ordered St George's property to be taken away and seized, and to drag him through the streets of Constantinople with a rope about his neck, and then cast him into prison. After this, St George was sent into exile with his wife Irene and their children.

St George died after suffering many afflictions in exile.

970 Saint Merewenna first Abbess of Romsey in Hampshire monastery prospered and attracted princesses

England. She is also called Merwenna and Merwinna. King Edgar the Peaceful of England restored Merewenna’s abbey.

Merewenna of Rumsey, OSB Abbess (AC) (also known as Merwenna, Merwinna); original feast day was February 10, feast of translation is October 23. Merewenna was the first abbess of Rumsey convent in Hampshire, when it had been restored under King Edward the Peaceful (or Edgar?) refounded it in 967. Under her direction the monastery prospered and attracted princesses, including Saint Elfleda (Died 1134) by whom she lays in the abbey church (Benedictines, Farmer).

1028 Euthymius the Illuminator performed many miracles He translated from Greek into Iberian (Karthvelian) the Bible 60 writings of the Fathers

(Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem, Gregory the Great, John Cassian), biblical commentaries, lives of the saints, and liturgical books Abbot (RM)

The venerable Euthymius of Mt. Athos was the son of St. John of Mt. Athos, a military commander during the reign of King Davit Kuropalates, who abandoned the world to enter the monastic life. While St. John was laboring on Mt. Olympus, the Byzantine emperor returned a large portion of the conquered Georgian lands, but in exchange for this benefaction he ordered that the children of certain eminent aristocrats be taken to Constantinople as surety. Among his hostages was St. John’s young son, Euthymius. When John discovered that his son was being held captive in Constantinople, he departed immediately to appeal to the emperor for his release. Eventually John’s request was granted, and he took Euthymius back with him to the monastery. However, by this time the young Euthymius had already forgotten his native language.

1028 ST EUTHYMIUS THE ENLIGHTENER, ABBOT
This Euthymius was the son of that St John the Iberian who is noticed herein on July 12. As there narrated, Euthymius accompanied his father on his retirement to Mount Athos, and helped him in the foundation there of the famous monastery Iviron for monks from their native Iberia (Georgia).* [* The homeland of Joseph Stalin, vere Yugashvili, who was born near Tiflis.]

On the death of John about the year 1040, Euthymius succeeded him as abbot.

Under his care Iviron grew and prospered, attracting recruits from Palestine and Armenia as well as Iberia, and Euthymius had to weed out a considerable number of wealthy young men whose idea of the monastic life was that it was one of elegant retirement and repose. The biography of himself and his father, written by the hieromonk George the Hagiorite about 1040, devotes a good deal of space to common-form eulogy of the virtues of these holy men, but a reasonably living picture of St Euthymius nevertheless emerges.

He appears as a firm but not severe superior, who directed more by example than by precept and who knew the importance of keeping an eye on details. Remarkably enough for those days and a wine-drinking country, he was what is now called a teetotaller; but he was none the less careful that the wine ration, which each monk had with his dinner as a matter of course, should be of good quality and not unduly watered. Another practical point was that beardless youths should not be employed as workmen around the monastery: “I know that grown men must be paid higher wages, but it is better to spend more money than to expose our brethren to possible harm”.

The work of predilection of St Euthymius was the translation of sacred books from Greek into Iberian, and George the Hagiorite names over sixty for which the Iberian church was indebted to him. Among them were biblical commentaries, writings of St Basil, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Ephrem and St John Damascene, the Institutes of St John Cassian, and the Dialogues of Pope St Gregory the Great. One of his translations, from Iberian into Greek this time, has an interest for hagiology: this was the so-called History of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat (Joasaph), imaginary people whose names Cardinal Baronius unfortunately added to the Roman Martyrology (November 27). Naturally enough, St Euthymius found that his duties as abbot seriously interfered with his work of translation, and after he had directed Iviron for fourteen years he resigned his charge, on the plea that the church of his people was crying out for more books that only he could efficiently supply.

Unfortunately his successor in the abbacy precipitated disturbances between Iberians and Greeks among the monks, and St Euthymius was summoned to Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine VIII to explain the situation. While there he was thrown from his mule and sustained injuries from which he died, on May 13, 1028. His body was taken back to Mount Athos, and eventually enshrined in the church of the All-Holy Mother of God.

For bibliographical notes, see July 12, loc. cit. A French translation of the life by George the Hagiorite was published in Irénikon, vol. vi, no. 5, vol. vii, nos. 1, 2 and 4 (1929—30). “Hagiorite” (the epithet is also given to St Euthymius’s father, St John) means Athonite, Mount Athos being commonly called in Greek Hagion Oros, the Holy Mountain. Iviron still exists as a monastery of the Orthodox Church, but Iberian monks have been long ago displaced by Greeks.

Soon St. John’s name was known in every monastery on Mt. Olympus, so the holy father withdrew with his son and several disciples to Mt. Athos, to the Lavra of St. Athanasius the Great, to escape the homage and praise. From his youth Euthymius received great grace from the Holy Spirit. While still a child he fell deeply ill, and his father, losing hope in his recovery, sent for a priest to bring him Holy Communion. Then he went into a church, knelt before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and began to pray for his son.

Euthymius told his father that a magnificent Queen had appeared to him and asked him in Georgian, “What has happened to you? What has disturbed you so, Euthymius?”
“I am dying, my Queen,” he had said.
Then the Queen embraced him, saying, “Arise, do not be afraid, but speak freely in your native Georgian tongue!”

Venerable John gave great thanks to God and explained to his son the meaning of the vision: “My son! Our country is suffering from a terrible shortage of books. But the Lord has bestowed upon you a gift, and now you must labor diligently in order to more abundantly recompence the Lord.”

St. Euthymius began his new task with great joy, and many people marveled at his success. St. Giorgi of Mt. Athos recorded the life of St. Euthymius, and his account mentions more than fifty works that he translated from the original Greek into Georgian. After St. John’s death, Euthymius succeeded him as abbot of the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos. (St. John had founded the Iveron Monastery with St. John-Tornike.) His leadership of the monastery brought with it many responsibilities, and Euthymius was obliged to continue his translations at night.

St. Euthymius performed many miracles. Once, while his father was still living, Byzantium was struck by a terrible drought. The earth became cracked, trees and vineyards withered, and all the vegetation dried up after four months without rain. St. John sent Euthymius and his brothers to the Church of the Prophet Elijah to celebrate an All-Night vigil.

(During periods of drought Orthodox Christians have traditionally turned to the Prophet Elijah
to bring rain as he did in the Old Testament.)

During the Gospel reading a dark cloud formed in the sky, and at the moment Euthymius received Holy Communion it began to rain.
Once, during the Feast of the Transfiguration, the faithful of Mt. Athos saw Fr. Euthymius embraced by divine fire. The crowd of witnesses fell on their knees before him, but the saint calmed them, saying,

“Do not be afraid, my brothers; God has looked down on us, and Christ has glorified His feast!”

But the devil could not tolerate the godly labors of the venerable Euthymius and his brothers at the monastery, so he persuaded a certain beggar, who resembled a monk, to kill the holy father. When the killer approached Fr. Euthymius’s cell, two monks blocked his way. So the assassin slashed them with his sword. Upon hearing the noise, Father Euthymius came outside and served Holy Communion to his fallen brothers. The two monks were fatally wounded and crowned as martyrs of the Church, while the killer confessed his sin and died, greatly afflicted in spirit.
Later a monastery gardener attempted to murder St. Euthymius, but when he lifted his hand to strike the saint, it withered suddenly, and only the prayers of Fr. Euthymius could heal it.

St. Euthymius labored as abbot of the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos for fourteen years. His literary endeavors demanded much time and great effort, so, according to his father’s will, he appointed a certain George (later St. George of Mt. Athos, the Builder) his successor. Then he locked himself in his cell and dedicated himself exclusively to his translations.

Once the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VIII (1027–1039) summoned Fr. Euthymius to his court. Before departing for Constantinople, the venerable father gathered his brothers, prepared for them a meal, and asked them for their prayers. Then, just before he left on his journey, he visited his childhood friend, the elder Theophan. When they were bidding each other farewell, Theophan embraced him tearfully, crying out, “What grief I am suffering, O holy Father, for I will not see you again in the flesh!” The elder’s prophecy was soon fulfilled.

The emperor received St. Euthymius with great honor. On May 8th, following the Liturgy for the feast of St. John the Theologian, St. Euthymius set off to visit a certain iconographer from whom he had earlier commissioned an icon. He was seated on a young mule and sent on his way. But along the road he was approached by a beggar, clad all in black, who asked alms of him. The venerable father reached into his pocket, but when the mule suddenly noticed the strange man by the roadside, he was frightened, lurched violently, and cast the holy father to the ground, killing him.

Born in Iberia (Georgia); died on May 13, 1028. Euthymius accompanied his father, Saint John the Iberian, to Mount Athos when his father brought him back from Constantinople, where he and other Iberian youths had been held hostage by the emperor. Euthymius helped his father build Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos for Iberian monks, and, about 1002, succeeded him as abbot.

After 14 years as abbot, Euthymius resigned to devote himself to his translations, which were of great service to the church. He translated from Greek into Iberian (Karthvelian) the Bible, some sixty writings of the Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem, Gregory the Great, John Cassian), biblical commentaries, lives of the saints, and liturgical books. Summoned to Constantinople by Emperor Constantine VIII to explain the disturbances that were occurring between the Greek and Iberian monks, Euthymius met his death en route from injuries caused by a fall from his mule (Attwater, Delaney).

1040 Blessed Fortis Gabrielli OSB Hermit in the mountains near Scheggia (AC)

Born in Gubbio, Umbria, Italy; cultus approved in 1756. Fortis was a hermit in the mountains near Scheggia, under the guidance of Blessed Ludolph, founder of Fontavellana. Later he entered that monastery and was professed as a monk-hermit (Benedictines).

1333 Blessed Imelda Lambertini patron of first communicants died of love on her first Communion day Saint Agnes came in a vision she saw a brilliant light shining above Imelda's head, and a Host suspended in the light OP V (AC)

1333 BD IMELDA, VIRGIN
THE patroness of fervent first communion, Bd Imelda, came of one of the oldest families in Bologna: her father was Count Egano Lambertini, and her mother was Castora Galuzzi. Even as a tiny child she showed unusual piety, taking delight in prayer and slipping off to a quiet corner of the house, which she adorned with flowers and pictures to make it into a little oratory. When she was nine she was placed, at her own wish, in the Dominican convent in Val di Pietra, to be trained there by the nuns. Her disposition soon endeared her to all, whilst the zeal with which she entered into all the religious life of the house greatly edified the sisters. Her special devotion was to the eucharistic presence of our Lord at Mass and in the tabernacle. To receive our Lord in holy communion became the consuming desire of her heart, but the custom of the place and time had fixed twelve as the earliest age for a first communion. She would sometimes exclaim: “Tell me, can anyone receive Jesus into his heart and not die?”

When she was eleven years old she was present with the rest of the community at the Ascension-day Mass. All the others had received their communion: only Imelda was left unsatisfied. The nuns were preparing to leave the church when some of them were startled to see what appeared to be a Sacred Host hovering in the air above Imelda, as she knelt before the closed tabernacle absorbed in prayer. Quickly they attracted the attention of the priest, who hurried forward with a paten on which to receive it. In the face of such a miracle he could not do otherwise than give to Imelda her first communion, which was also her last. For the rapture with which she received her Lord was so great that it broke her heart: she sank unconscious to the ground, and when loving hands upraised her, it was found that she was dead.

The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, inserted a notice of Bd Imelda on the ground of a long-established cultus, though the formal papal confirmation did not occur until 1826. Many devotional booklets—notably those by Lataste (1889), Corsini (1892), Wilms (1925), and T. Alfonsi (1927)—have been published concerning her; but see more especially M. C. de Ganay, Les Bienheureuses Dominicaines (1913), pp. 145—152. There is also a short account in Procter, Lives of Dominican Saints, pp. 259—262, and a devotional sketch, R. Zeller, Imelda Lambertini (1930).

Blessed Imelda, came from one of the oldest families in Bologna; her father was Count Igano Lambertini and her mother was Castora Galuzzi. Even as a tiny child she showed unusual piety, taking delight in prayer and slipping off to a quiet corner of the house, which she adorned with flowers and pictures to make it a little oratory. When she was nine, she was placed, at her own wish, in the Dominican convent in Val di Pietra, to be trained there by the nuns.
Her disposition soon endeared her to all, while the zeal with which she entered all the religious life of the house greatly edified the nuns. Her special devotion was to the Eucharistic presence of Our Lord at Mass and in the tabernacle.
To receive Our Lord in Holy Communion became the consuming desire of her heart, but the custom of the place and time had fixed twelve as the earliest age for a first communion. She would sometimes exclaim: "Tell me, can anyone receive Jesus into his heart and not die? " When she was eleven years old she was present with the rest of the community at the Ascension Day Mass. All the others had received their communion: only Imelda was left unsatisfied. The nuns were preparing to leave the church when some of them were startled to see what appeared to be a Sacred Host hovering in the air above Imelda, as she knelt before the closed tabernacle absorbed in prayer.
Quickly they attracted the attention of the priest who hurried forward with a paten on which to receive It. In the face of such a miracle he could not do otherwise than give to Imelda her first communion, which was also her last
For the rapture with which she received her Lord was so great that it broke her heart: she sank unconscious to the ground, and when loving hands upraised her, she was dead.

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 sometimes called Julian.

1423 BD JULIAN OF NORWICH, VIRGIN
APART from the autobiographical details given in the Revelations of Divine Love, history has preserved few records of the holy woman known as Dame Julian of Norwich. She lived as a strict recluse in the anchoress-house attached to the old church of St Julian, and had even in her lifetime a reputation for great sanctity. She is said to have survived to an advanced age, having two maids to wait upon her when she was old, but the actual date of her death is unknown, as is also her parentage. That she was certainly living at the age of seventy appears from a notice prefixed to a manuscript of her book purporting to have been transcribed by a contemporary, and now in the British Museum. It runs: “Here es a vision schewed be the goodenes of God to a deuoute Woman and hir name es Julyan that es recluse atte Norwyche and yitt ys on lyfe. Anno dni millmo CCCCXIII0. In the whilke Vision er fulle many comfortabylle wordes and gretly styrrande to alle thaye that desyres to be crystes looverse.”

At the beginning of her book Julian states that before she received what she calls the “shewings”, she had desired three gifts from God—that He would grant her a greater realization of Christ’s sufferings, that He would send her a severe illness which would bring her to death’s door and detach her from earthly things, and that He would give her the three wounds of “very contrition”, of “kind compassion”, and of “wilful longing towards God”. The first two aspirations in course of time passed from her mind, but the third remained ever with her.

When she was thirty and a half years old she actually did contract a malady so serious that her life was despaired of. On the fourth day she received the last sacraments, and on the seventh she seemed to be sinking. All she had strength to do was to keep her eyes fixed on the crucifix. Then, quite suddenly, all her pains left her, and between four and nine o’clock in the morning of May 8, or the 13^th, 1373, she had a succession of fifteen distinct visions or shewings, concluded by a sixteenth during the night after the following day. These visions for the most part presented different aspects of our Lord’s passion, which, while producing in her the compunction she had desired, brought her wonderful peace and joy, although their full significance did not unfold itself until long afterwards. “And from that time that it was shewed”, she writes, “I desired oftentimes to learn what was our Lord’s meaning. And fifteen years after, and more, I was answered in ghostly understanding, saying thus: ‘Wouldst thou learn thy Lord’s meaning in this thing? Learn it well: love was His meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wherefore shewed it He? For love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn therein other thing without end.’ Thus was I learned that Love was our Lord’s meaning.”

Elsewhere she speaks of being inwardly instructed for twenty years all but three months. At the time when the visions came she was, according to her own account, “a simple creature that colde no letters”, in other words, illiterate, but in the years that elapsed before she wrote her book she must have acquired a considerable knowledge of the Christian mystics, for while her style and her message are her own she often uses their terminology and adopts their distinctions.

Professor Edmund Gardner has pointed out one passage which indicates familiarity with the letters of her great contemporary St Catherine of Siena, and there are several others which appear to have been suggested by the teaching of Eckhart. It would have been strange indeed if she had remained uninfluenced by the spiritual revival on the continent, for Norwich, as the second largest city in England and the centre of the woollen trade, was in close and constant communication with the Low Countries. Anchoresses, although they never left their houses, could and did hold intercourse through a window with the outside world, and one who like Julian was famous as a saint and a visionary would undoubtedly receive many visits from strangers, ecclesiastics and layfolk. The book which she eventually produced remains perhaps the most beautiful and certainly the tenderest exposition of divine love that has ever been written in the English language. From beholding God’s charity as exhibited to mankind in the passion of our Incarnate Lord, she rises to the contemplation of His eternal, all-embracing, all-directing, all-creating love. Even what had been a sore perplexity to her—lapses into sin on the part of those called to be saints—she sees to be somehow “behovable” because God has permitted them, and because such failures can be translated through contrition into increased love and humility. To a distressful world Julian sought to pass on words of consolation with which our Lord had comforted her own soul: “I can make all thing well: I will make all thing well: I shall make all thing well: and thou shalt see thyself that ill manner of thing shall be well”.

There has been no known public cultus of Dame Julian; the epithet Blessed sometimes given to her can only be justified as a title of affection.

Four manuscripts are known of Mother Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love. That dated 1413 is shorter than the others, which were all copies made at a much later period probably it represents a primitive text which was subsequently expanded by her. The first printed edition was by Dom Serenus Cressy in 1670, reprinted in 5902 with a preface by Fr G. Tyrrell. Miss G. Warrack (1905) and Dom Roger Hudleston (1927) have edited the text afresh, and there has been a French translation (59 so). The shorter text was edited by the Rev. Dundas Harford, The Shewings of Lady Julian (1925). See further Dom D. Knowles, English Mystics (1927). For a reference to Julian in The Book of Margery Kempe, see E.E.T.S. edition, pp. 42—43.

She was a recluse of Norwich, living outside the walls of Saint Julian’s Church., she is one of the most important writers of England. She wrote on sin, penance, and other aspects of the spiritual life, attracting people from all across Europe. She is called Blessed, although she was never formally beatified.

Blessed Juliana of Norwich, OSB Hermit (PC) Born c. 1342; died in Norwich, England, c. 1423; she has never actually been beatified.

Among the English mystics none is greater than the Lady Julian, who lived near Norwich, England, in a three-roomed hermitage in the churchyard of Conisford. Absolutely nothing is known of her life before becoming an anchorite. In fact, we do not even know her name; she has been given the name of the church where she had her cell. An old English historian writes: "In 1393, Lady Julian, the anchoress here was a strict recluse, and had two servants to attend her in her old age. This woman was in these days esteemed one of the greatest holiness."

She lived in an age of startling and confusing contrasts. It was the time of the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt, Piers Plowman and Wat Tyler, when the old social patterns were breaking down. But none of this is reflected in her quiet and retired life or in the pages of her spiritual autobiography, Revelations of Divine Love, which is the most sublime of all expositions of its kind in English. Her masterpiece encompasses the love of God, the Incarnation, redemption, sin, penance, and divine consolation.

"These revelations," she writes, "were shown to a simple creature unlettered, the year of our Lord 1373, the eighth day of May." She desired above all to know the suffering of our Lord--what she called "the mind of His Passion"--and that nothing might stand between herself and God. She tells us that when at the age of 30 she was at the point of death and the curate was sent for to administer the last rites, "he set the Cross before my face and said: 'I have brought you the Image of thy Maker and Savior: Look thereupon and comfort yourself with it.'"

She spent the next 20 years meditating upon the 16 revelations that followed in a state of ecstasy, of Christ's Passion and the Trinity. She saw the red blood flow from under the Crown of Thorns; she saw the Virgin, a young and simple maid; she saw our Lord a 'homely loving.' Then God showed her a little thing--a hazel nut in the palm of her hand. She thought: what may this be? and was answered: "It is all that is made. God shaped it. God gave it life. God maintains it."

Thus, she learned the goodness of God, in which is our highest prayer and which "comes down to our lowest need." And still regarding the Crucifix, she saw the stream of God's mercy falling like showers of rain, and looked upon the tokens of His Passion. She saw our Lord dying and underwent the torments and agony of His suffering. "And thus I saw Him, and sought Him; I had Him and I wanted Him." It seemed, she said, as if He were seven nights dying, so outdrawn was His anguish, suffering the last pain, seven nights dead, continually dying, in a cold dry wind. "Thus was I taught to choose Jesus for my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that time . . . to choose only Jesus in good times and bad. . . . He shall make all well that is not well. . . . Prayer unites the soul to God."

In this way, this remarkable book pursues its course, full of deep insight and feeling: "In Christ our two natures are united." "Our soul can never have rest in things that are beneath itself." "God can do all that we need." "I knew well that while I beheld in the Cross I was surely safe." And its last word is: "Love was our Lord's meaning." At the time of her death she had a far-spread reputation for sanctity, which attracted visitors from all over England to her cell (Benedictines, Delaney, Gill).

The Bollandists (Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii) print only a Latin translation of the Spanish life by Antony Daza (1627), with some extracts from the process then instituted before the auditors of the Rota. Several Spanish biographies have since appeared, notably one by J. Infantes (1854). See also the bull of canonization issued by Benedict XIV, and many references in that pontiff’s great treatise De Beatificatione etc. Sanctorum; and Leon, Aureole Seraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 150—159. St Peter’s feast is now kept by the Friars Minor on March 30.

1621 ST ROBERT BELLARMINE, ARCHBISHOP OF CAPUA AND CARDINAL, DOCTOR OF THF CHURCH
ONE of the greatest polemical theologians the Church has ever produced, and her foremost controversialist against the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation, was Robert Francis Romulus Bellarmine, whose feast is kept upon this day. Born in 1542 at Montepulciano in Tuscany, of a noble but impoverished family, he was the son of Vincent Bellarmino and Cynthia Cervini, half-sister to Pope Marcellus II.
Even as a boy Robert showed great promise. He knew Virgil by heart, he wrote good Latin verses, he played the violin, and he could hold his own in public disputations, to the great admiration of his fellow-citizens. Moreover, he was so deeply devout that in 1559, when Robert was seventeen, the rector of the Jesuit college at Montepulciano described him in a letter as “the best of our school, and not far from the kingdom of Heaven”.
It was his ambition to enter the Society of Jesus, but he had to encounter strong opposition from his father, who had formed other plans for his son. Robert’s mother, however, was on his side, and eventually he obtained the permission he desired. In 1560 he went to Rome to present himself to the father general of the order, by whom his noviciate was curtailed to enable him to pass almost immediately into the Roman College to enter upon the customary studies.

Ill-health dogged his steps from the cradle to the grave, and his delicacy became so pronounced that, at the close of his three years of philosophy, his superiors sent him to Florence to recruit his strength in his native Tuscan air, whilst at the same time teaching boys and giving lectures on rhetoric and on the Latin poets. Twelve months afterwards he was transferred to Mondovi in Piedmont. There he discovered that he was expected to instruct his pupils in Cicero and Demosthenes.
He knew no Greek except the letters of the alphabet, but with characteristic obedience and energy he set to work to study at night the grammar lesson he was expected to give the next day. Father Bellarmine strongly objected to the flogging of boys, and himself never did so. In addition to teaching he preached sermons which attracted crowds. Amongst the congregation on one occasion was his provincial superior, Father Adorno, who promptly transferred him to Padua that he might prepare himself in that famous university town to receive ordination. Again he studied and preached, but before the completion of his course he was bidden by the father general, St Francis Borgia, to proceed at once to Louvain in Belgium to finish his studies there and to preach to the undergraduates, with a view to counteracting the dangerous doctrines which were being propagated by Dr Michael Baius, the chancellor, and others.
It is interesting to note that on his journey he had as companion for part of the way the Englishman William Allen, afterwards to become like himself a cardinal. From the time of his arrival at Louvain until his departure seven years later, Robert’s sermons were extraordinarily popular, although they were delivered in Latin, and although the preacher had no physical advantages to commend him, for he was small of stature and had to stand on a stool in the pulpit to make himself properly seen and heard. But men declared that his face shone with a strange light as he spoke and that his words seemed like those of one inspired.
After his ordination at Ghent in 1570, he was given a professorship in the University of Louvain—the first Jesuit to hold such a post—and began a course of lectures on the Summa of St Thomas Aquinas, which were at the same time brilliant expositions of doctrine and a vehicle through which he could, and did, controvert the teachings of Baius on such matters as grace, free will and papal authority. In contrast to the controversial brutality of the time he never made personal attacks on his enemies or mentioned them by name. Not content with the great labour entailed on him by his sermons and lectures, St Robert during his stay at Louvain taught himself Hebrew and embarked upon a thorough study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Fathers. To assist the studies of others he also made time to write a Hebrew grammar, which became extremely popular.
A serious breakdown in health, however, necessitated his recall to Italy and there, in spite of the efforts of St Charles Borromeo to secure his services for Milan, he was appointed to the recently established chair of controversial theology at the Roman College. For eleven years, from 1576, he laboured untiringly, giving lectures and preparing the four great volumes of his Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian faith which, even three hundred years later, the great ecclesiastical historian Hefele described as “the most complete defence of Catholic teaching yet published”. It showed such profound acquaintance with the Bible, the Fathers, and the heretical writers, that many of his opponents could never bring themselves to believe that it was the work of one man. They even suggested that his name was an anagram covering a syndicate of learned and wily Jesuits. The work was one urgently needed at that particular moment, because the leading Reformers had recently published a series of volumes purporting to show, by an appeal to history, that Protestantism truly represented the Church of the Apostles. As these were published at Magdeburg, and as each volume covered a century, the series became known as the “Centuries of Magdeburg”. The answer which Baronius set out to furnish in the field of history, St Robert Bellarmine supplied in the field of dogmatics. The success of his Controversies was instantaneous: laymen and clergy, Catholics and Protestants, read the volumes with avidity, and even in Elizabethan England, where the work was prohibited, a London bookseller declared,

“I have made more money out of this Jesuit than out of all the other divines put together”.

In 1589 he was separated for a while from his books to be sent with Cardinal Cajetanus on a diplomatic embassy to France, then in the throes of war between Henry of Navarre and the League. No tangible results came of the mission, but the party had the experience of being in Paris for eight months during the siege, when, to quote St Robert’s own words, they “did practically nothing though they suffered a very great deal”. As opposed to Cardinal Cajetanus, who had Spanish sympathies, St Robert was openly in favour of trying to make terms with the king of Navarre if he would become a Catholic, but within a very short time of the raising of the siege the members of the mission were recalled to Rome by the death of Pope Sixtus V.
Soon afterwards we find St Robert taking the leading part on a papal commission appointed by Pope Clement VIII to edit and make ready for publication the new revision of the Vulgate Bible, which had been called for by the Council of Trent. An edition had indeed already been completed during the reign of Sixtus V and under that pope’s immediate supervision, but it contained many errors due to defective scholarship and to a fear of making important alterations in the current text. Moreover, it was never in general circulation. The revised version, as produced by the commission and issued with the imprimatur of Clement VIII, is the Latin Bible as we have it to-day, with a preface composed by St Robert himself. He was then living at the Roman College, where, as official spiritual director to the house, he had been brought into close contact with St Aloysius Gonzaga, whose death-bed he attended and to whom he was so deeply attached that in his will he asked to be buried at the feet of the youthful saint, “once my dear ghostly child”.

Recognition of Bellarmine’s great qualities followed quickly. In 1592 he was made rector of the Roman College; in 1594 he was made provincial of Naples; and three years later he returned to Rome in the capacity of theologian to Clement VIII, at whose express desire he wrote his two celebrated catechisms, one of which is still in general use throughout Italy. These catechisms are said to have been translated more frequently than any other literary work except the Bible and the Imitation of Christ.

In 1598, to his great dismay, he was nominated a cardinal by Clement VIII on the ground that “he had not his equal for learning”. Though obliged to occupy apartments in the Vatican and to keep up some sort of an establishment, he relaxed none of his former austerities. Moreover, he limited his household and expenses to what was barely essential: he lived on bread and garlic—the food of the poor; and he denied himself a fire even in the depth of winter. Once he ransomed a soldier who had deserted from the army; and he used the hangings of his rooms to clothe poor people, remarking, “The walls won’t catch cold”.

In 1602 he was, somewhat unexpectedly, appointed archbishop of Capua, and within four days of his consecration he left Rome to take up his new charge. Admirable as the holy man appears in every relation of life, it is perhaps as shepherd of his immense flock that he makes the greatest appeal to our sympathy. Laying aside his books, the great scholar, who had no pastoral experience, set about evangelizing his people with all the zeal of a young missionary, whilst initiating the reforms decreed by the Council of Trent. He preached constantly, he made visitations, he exhorted the clergy, he catechized the children, he sought out the necessitous, whose wants he supplied, and he won the love of all classes. He was not destined, however, to remain long away from Rome. Paul V, who was elected pope three years later, at once insisted upon retaining Cardinal Bellarmine by his side, and the archbishop accordingly resigned his see.

From that time onwards, as head of the Vatican Library and as a member of almost every congregation, he took a prominent part in all the affairs of the Holy See. When Venice ventured arbitrarily to abrogate the rights of the Church, and was placed under an interdict, St Robert became the pope’s great champion in a pamphlet contest with the Republic’s theologian, the famous Servite, Fra Paolo Sarpi. A still more important adversary was James I of England. Cardinal Bellarmine had remonstrated with his friend, the Archpriest Blackwell, for taking the oath of allegiance to James—an oath purposely so worded as to deny to the pope all jurisdiction over temporals. King James, who fancied himself as a controversialist, rushed into the fray with two books in defence of the oath, both of which were answered by Cardinal Bellarmine. In the earlier rejoinder, St Robert, writing in the somewhat lighter vein that so became him, made humorous references to the monarch’s bad Latin; but his second treatise was a serious and crushing retort, covering every point in the controversy.

Standing out consistently and uncompromisingly as a champion of papal supremacy in all things spiritual, Bellarmine nevertheless held views on temporal authority which were displeasing to extremists of both parties. Because he maintained that the pope’s jurisdiction over foreign rulers was indirect, he lost favour with Sixtus V. and because, in opposition to the Scots jurist, Barclay, he denied the divine right of kings, his book, De potestate papae, was publicly burnt by the parlement of Paris.

The saint was on friendly terms with Galileo Galilei, who dedicated to him one of his books. He was called upon, indeed, to admonish the great astronomer in the year 1616, but his admonition, which was accepted with a good grace, amounted to a caution against putting forward, otherwise than as a hypothesis, theories not yet fully proved. Well would it have been for Galileo if he had continued to act in accordance with that advice.

It would be impossible in limited space even to enumerate the various activities of St Robert during these later years. He continued to write, but his works were no longer controversial. He completed a commentary on the Psalms and wrote five spiritual books, all of which, including the last, on the Art of Dying, were soon translated into English. When it became clear that his days were drawing to a close, he was allowed to retire to the Jesuit novitiate of St Andrew. There he died, at the age of seventy-nine, on September 17, 1621—on the day which, at his special request, had been set aside as the feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi. St Robert Bellarmine was canonized in 1930, and declared a doctor of the Church in 1931.

It hardly needs saying that the sources of information for such a career are far too copious to be specified in detail. The mere fact that the beatification was opposed, and in this way retarded, by a certain school of theologians who did not find themselves in harmony with Bellarmine’s views, has had the result of multiplying to a quite unusual extent the printed documents connected with the process. Besides these quasi-official materials and the seventeenth century lives, notably those by Fuligatti (1624) and Daniel Bartoli (1678), it will be sufficient to call attention to the brief autobiography of the saint written in 1613 at the pressing instance of Father Mutius Vitelleschi. This may most conveniently be consulted in the valuable work of Father LeBachelet, Bellarmin avant son Cardinalat (1911); Le Bachelet supplemented this with another important collection of documents, entitled Auctarium Bellarminianum (1913). For English readers the work which supersedes all others and which is as exhaustive in its range as it is attractive in treatment, is the Life of Robert Bellarmine, by Father James Brodrick (2 vols. 1928). The Congregation of Sacred Rites issued an imposing volume, De S. Roberto Bellarmino Univ. Eccl. Doctore (1931), setting out the grounds on which Bellarmine was enrolled among the doctors of the Church; this includes (pp. xxi—xxxii) what is in effect a very full bibliography. St Bellarmine’s Tor in the parish of Cardinham, Cornwall, is a curious modern corruption of St Bartholomew, titular of a neighbouring church.

1688 Transfer of the Relics of the Hieromartyr Macarius, Archimandrite of Kanev
Transferred on May 13, 1688 from Kanev to the city of Pereslavl because of the threat of enemy invasion.
The main Feast commemorating St Macarius is on September 7.

1834 ST ANDREW HUBERT FOURNET, CO-FOUNDER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE CROSS
IN studying the lives of those who have been raised to the altars of the Church we find many instances of men and women who from childhood have felt drawn to the mode of life they afterwards adopted; but occasionally we come across individuals who began by experiencing a positive aversion from what subsequently proved to be their vocation. To this latter category belonged St Andrew Hubert Fournet.

He was born on December 6, 1752, at Maillé, near Poitiers, of well-to-do parents. Possibly his good mother rather overdid her pious instructions and her laudation of the priestly office, for little Andrew was frankly bored by religion: he wished neither to pray nor to learn: all he wanted to do was to amuse himself. In a book belonging to him when a lad, and preserved as a relic, may be read the following words written in his childish handwriting: “This book belongs to Andrew Hubert Fournet, a good boy, though he is not going to be a priest or a monk!”

At school his idleness and frivolity led him into many scrapes, and one day he ran away—only to be brought back in disgrace to receive a thrashing. Later on he went to Poitiers, ostensibly to study philosophy and law, but his main study was to get as much pleasure out of life as possible. Once he enlisted and was bought out. Then his mother tried to obtain some secretarial work for him: his handwriting, however, was too bad.

Almost in despair his family sent him to an uncle, a parish priest in a lonely, poverty-stricken parish. This was the turning-point in his life.

The uncle was a holy man, who won his nephew’s confidence, and succeeded so well in drawing out the good that underlay his frivolity that before long Andrew appeared a changed character. He set himself to study theology, was ordained priest, and became his uncle’s curate. After serving a second and more strenuous cure he was nominated parish priest in his native town of Maillé in 1781. His liberality to the poor and his winning personality soon endeared him to the whole parish.

For a time he continued to entertain friends at a well-appointed table, but the casual criticism of a beggar led him to give away all his silver and every article of furniture that was not absolutely necessary. From that time forward he and his mother, his sister, and a curate led an almost conventual life in the presbytery. His simplicity soon extended itself from his manner of life to his speech. “Your Reverence used to preach so finely that no one understood you”, his sacristan remarked one day. “Nowadays we can all follow every word you say.”

This peaceful, happy existence came to an end with the French Revolution. St Andrew refused to take the oath which the new government required of the clergy, and was consequently outlawed. Only by stealth could he minister to his flock—now in the woods, now in a barn, now in a humble cottage—and always at the risk of his life. Towards the end of 1792, at the bidding of his bishop, he retired to Spain, but after an absence of five years he decided that he could no longer leave his flock unshepherded. Secretly he made his way back to his parish, which he entered at dead of night. The news of his return spread like wildfire and his ministrations were sought on all hands. The danger, however, was greater than ever; the pursuivants were constantly on his track: and on several occasions he only escaped by the skin of his teeth. Once, as he was sitting by a cottage fire, the bailiffs entered in search of him. The good woman of the house promptly boxed his ears for an idle churl, and bade him give his place to the gentlemen while he went off to mind the cattle. The ruse succeeded; but in telling the story St Andrew was wont to add: “She had a heavy hand: she made me see stars!” Another day he eluded capture by feigning to be a corpse. The officials sent in search of him drew back at the sight of a shrouded figure on a bed surrounded by candles and kneeling women.

The accession to power of Napoleon Bonaparte brought relief to the faithful, for the First Consul soon realized that it was politic to make terms with the Church. Fournet openly took control of his parish and presbytery, and set himself to rekindle the embers of religion. He gave many missions, and was untiring in the pulpit and confessional.

In all his efforts he was ably seconded by St Elizabeth Bichier des Ages, who under his guidance formed a congregation of women pledged to teach children and to look after the sick and poor. St Andrew directed the sisters and drew up their rule; they became known as the Daughters of the Cross, but the foundress liked to call them Sisters of St Andrew.

When Abbé Fournet had reached the age of sixty-eight, fatigue and increasing infirmities induced him to resign his parish work at Maillé and to retire to La Puye. Here he not only devoted himself to the new community but also gave assistance in the adjoining parishes, and became spiritual adviser to many souls, clergy as well as layfolk. In the process of beatification some remarkable evidence was given of the miraculous multiplication of food, and especially of grain, effected by the prayers of St Andrew when the nuns among whom he resided needed bread for themselves and their children. He died on May 13, 1834, and was canonized on June 4, 1933.

A biographical summary in some detail is included in the bull of canonization: it may be found in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xxv (1933), pp. 417—428. See also L. Rigaud, Vie de A. H. Fournet (1885); an anonymous Italian life, Il beato Andrea Uberto Fournet (1885); and the bibliography of St Elizabeth Bichier, on August 26.

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 133

Behold now, bless ye the Lady: all ye who hope in her holy name.

Rejoice with a great joy, you who exalt and glorify her:
because you will be rejoiced by the plentifulness of her consolations.

Behold now with an overflowing bounty she will come down upon you: to console and to make glad your hearts.

Bless her, all her servants: and let her memory be the desire of your soul.

Bless her, all ye angels and saints of God: praise her wonders forever.

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.

THE spirit and example of the world imperceptibly instil the error into the minds of many that there is a kind of middle way of going to Heaven; and so, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level of the world. It is not by this example that we are to measure the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ. All His followers are commanded to labour to become perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that we may be His children. We are obliged by the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions, by taking on the spirit of our Lord.

These are the conditions under which Christ makes His promises and numbers us among His children, as is manifest from His words which the apostles have left us in their inspired writings. Here is no distinction made or foreseen between the apostles or clergy or religious and secular persons. The former, indeed, take upon themselves certain stricter obligations, as a means of accomplishing these ends more perfectly; but the law of holiness and of disengagement of the heart from the world is general and binds all the followers of Christ.

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique each the result of a new idea.

As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints.
Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not bound by our own ideas and preferences.
Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory.
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.

Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.

The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary ) Revealed to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan)

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that soul would sanctify them by this means. 5. The soul that recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. 8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. 11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12. I shall aid all those who propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14. All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. 15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

His Holiness Aram I, current (2013) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose See is located in Lebanese town of Antelias. The Catholicosate was founded in Sis, capital of Cilicia, in the year 1441 following the move of the Catholicosate of All Armenians back to its original See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed local jurisdiction, though spiritually subject to the authority of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See was transferred to Aleppo in Syria, and in 1930 to Antelias.

Its jurisdiction currently extends to Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Greece.

Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac

The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa {Armenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name} is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206) becoming official kingdom religion.

Christian council held at Edessa early as 197 (Eusebius, Hist. Ecc7V,xxiii).

In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed (“Chronicon Edessenum”, ad. an. 201).

In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written.

Under Roman domination martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian.

In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides. Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nicæa (325). The “Peregrinatio Silviæ” (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.

Although Hebrew had been the language of the ancient Israelite kingdom, after their return from Exile the Jews turned more and more to Aramaic, using it for parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. By the time of Jesus, Aramaic was the main language of Palestine, and quite a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Aramaic.

Aramaic continued to be an important language for Jews, alongside Hebrew, and parts of the Talmud are written in it.

After Arab conquests of the seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.

Aramaic, however, enjoyed its greatest success in Christianity. Although the New Testament wins written in Greek, Christianity had come into existence in an Aramaic-speaking milieu, and it was the Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac, that became the literary language of a large number of Christians living in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and in the Persian Empire, further east. Over the course of the centuries the influence of the Syriac Churches spread eastwards to China (in Xian, in western China, a Chinese-Syriac inscription dated 781 is still to be seen); to southern India where the state of Kerala can boast more Christians of Syriac liturgical tradition than anywhere else in the world.

680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed by Shiites across the world, the 10th day of the lunar Muslim month of Muharram: the anniversary of the 7th century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints. Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the saint's shrine. The battle over a dispute about the leadership of the Muslim faith following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It is the defining event in Islam's split into Sunni and Shiite branches. The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed his blood to teach us not to give in to corruption, coercion, or use of force and to seek honor and justice." According to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions were denied water by enemies who controlled the nearby Euphrates. Streets get partially covered with blood from slaughter of hundreds of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the meat and feed it to the poor. Hussein's martyrdom recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.

Meeting of the Saints walis (saints of Allah)

Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle.

So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life. But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat 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 133 2020