In Judea, birthday of St. Matthias the Apostle.
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  Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
May, the month of Mary 
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For the Son of man ... will repay every man for what he has done.

CAUSES OF SAINTS April  2016

On midnight, MAY 14, 1948, the State of Israel came into being

The Virgin Mary showed her a large building with a school yard
What Don Bosco did for boys, Maria Domenica did for girls. With the same spirit, the same poverty, the same fervor, the same love.
Maria Domenica was born May 9, 1837 in the village of Mornese in the Italian Piedmont. From the age of thirteen, she fasted before going to Mass in the morning and listened to the teachings of a priest called Don Pestarino, who was a friend of Don Bosco, part of the same movement of religious restoration begun to counter the anti-Christian spirit of the French Revolution.
During the summer of 1860, a typhus epidemic swept through the region. Maria Domenica went from home to home caring for the sick. Soon she herself contracted the illness. Trusting in God, she received the last rites of the Church and recovered. A little while later, Maria was walking in her village and was suddenly astounded to see before her a large building with a courtyard and many girls playing and laughing. A voice said to her, “I entrust them to you.”
Gradually, she came to understand the meaning of this vision. With some other women she opened the first workshop in the village for young girls, then a second, a boarding school and a patronage.
 Just as Don Bosco had done in the outskirts of Turin.

 1900 St. Maria Dominic Mazzarello Co-foundress Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix Our Lady Help of Christians
disciple of St. John Bosco


On midnight, MAY 14, 1948, the State of Israel came into being
immediately recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union. 

American Minute with Bill Federer
State of Israel - "I deplore any attempt to take land away from Israel." -Pres. Harry S. Truman & Democrat Party Platform.  On midnight, MAY 14, 1948, the State of Israel came into being and was immediately recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union. 
A homeland for the thousands of Jews who were persecuted and displaced during World War II, Israel was attacked the next day by the Transjordanian Army, the Arab Legion, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. 
Against all odds, Israel survived.

The Armistice between Israel and her enemies was negotiated by Ralph Bunche, the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1947, Ralph Bunche set up a meeting between two members of UNSCOP
and Menachem Begin, the leader of the Irgun Jewish underground.
As he was leaving Begin's hideout, Ralph Bunche told the future Israeli Prime Minister:
"I can understand you. I am also a member of a persecuted minority."
Richard Crossman of Britain asked Bunche if his exposure to the Jews had made him anti-Semitic "yet."
Ralph Bunche answered:
"That would be impossible... I know the flavor of racial prejudice and racial persecution.
A wise Negro can never be an anti-Semite."

President Harry S Truman sent a telegram to the President of Israel, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the Provisional Council of State, Tel Aviv, October 2, 1948:" On this your first New Year's Eve as President of the Provisional Council of the State of Israel I send you warm personal greetings and congratulations. 
May the New Year bring peace to Israel and to its citizens the opportunity to dedicate themselves in tranquility to furthering the prosperity of their country."
 
For God and Country-A Handbook for the Statesman-Citizen
On November 29, 1948, President Harry S Truman wrote to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel: 
"I want to tell you how happy and impressed I have been at the remarkable progress made by the new State of Israel."  Truman added:  "I remember well our conversations about the Negeb...and I deplore any attempt to take it away from Israel.  I had thought that my position would have been clear to all the world,
particularly in the light of the specific wording of the Democratic Party platform."

The 1948 Democrat Party Platform stated:  "President Truman, by granting immediate recognition to Israel, led the world in extending friendship and welcome to a people who have long sought and justly deserve freedom and independence.  We pledge full recognition to the State of Israel.  We affirm our pride that the United States under the leadership of President Truman played a leading role in the adoption of the resolution of November 29, 1947, by the United Nations General Assembly for the creation of a Jewish State.  We approve the claims of the State of Israel to the boundaries set forth in the United Nations resolution of November 29th and consider that modifications thereof should be made only if fully acceptable to the State of Israel.  We look forward to the admission of the State of Israel to the United Nations and its full participation in the international community of nations.
 We pledge appropriate aid to the State of Israel in developing its economy and resources.
We favor the revision of the arms embargo to accord to the State of Israel the right of self-defense."

President Harry S Truman continued his letter to Israel's President Dr. Chaim Weizmann, November 29, 1948: 
"I have interpreted my re-election as a mandate from the American people to carry out the Democratic platform - including, of course, the plank on Israel."

 Get the book AMERICAN MINUTE-Notable Events of American Significance Remembered on the Date They Occurred
Democrat President John F. Kennedy remarked opening the Ouachita National Forest Road at Big Cedar, Oklahoma, October 29, 1961:
"We take our lesson...from the Bible and the story of Nehemiah, which tells us that when the children of Israel returned from captivity they determined to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, in spite of the threats of the enemy. 
The wall was built and the peace was preserved. But it was written, 'Of them that built on the wall...with one of his hands he did the work, and with the other he held the sword.'"

Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson stated in 1968:  "America and Israel have a common love of human freedom and a democratic way of life...Through the centuries, through dispersion and through very grievous trials, your forefathers clung to their Jewish identity and their ties with the land of Israel.  The prophet Isaiah foretold, 'And He shall set up an ensign for the nations and He shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from all the four corners of the earth'...History knows no more moving example of persistence against the cruelest odds."

In regards to Israel, former Democrat President Jimmy Carter stated in his book, Keeping the Faith-Memoirs of a President (published 1982, p. 274):  "The Judeo-Christian ethic and study of the Bible were bonds between Jews and Christians which had always been part of my life.  I also believed very deeply that the Jews who had survived the Holocaust deserved their own nation, and that they had a right to live in peace among their neighbors.
I considered this homeland for the Jews to be compatible with the teachings of the Bible, hence ordained by God. These moral and religious beliefs made my commitment to the security of Israel unshakable."

On March 23, 1982, to the National Conference of Christians and Jews, New York, President Ronald Reagan stated:  "A strong, credible America is also an indispensable incentive for a peaceful resolution of differences between Israel and her neighbors.  America has never flinched from its commitment to the State of Israel-a commitment which remains unshakable."

On December 10, 2001, President George Bush remarked at the White House Lighting of the Menorah:  "And as God promised Abraham, the people of Israel still live... America and Israel have been through much together...
We're reminded of the ancient story of Israel's courage and of the power of faith to make the darkness bright.
We can see the heroic spirit of the Maccabees lives on in Israel today."

In April 3, 2002, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay mentioned Israel in an address at Westminster College: 
"No one can ignore the horrible aggression in the Middle East... The State of Israel has been targeted by groups committed to her complete elimination.  And on the basis of our shared principles and democratic values, America has an undeniable obligation to stand squarely with our democratic ally against those attempting to end the State of Israel...The State of Israel has fought five major wars to defend its right to exist since 1948..." 
Congressman Tom DeLay continued:  "Israel and America are kindred nations. The founders of both countries were profoundly influenced by faith.  Both countries drafted governments that practice religious tolerance......Both countries are filled with immigrants summoned by dreams. For people fleeing the storms of persecution, both countries have been safe harbors..."  Congressman Tom DeLay concluded: "No one should expect the people of Israel to negotiate with groups pursuing the fundamental goal of destroying them...America has a clear duty to stand beside a democratic ally that is besieged by terrorists......The terrorists attempting to destroy the State of Israel should know that America will never allow that to happen."


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

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

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
Mother_of_God_the_Sweet_Kissing    

May 14 - Feast of Our Lady of Bavaria (Germany, 1330)    One Hand Pulled the Trigger, Another Guided the Bullet (II)
200 Poles brought an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa with them from Poland, and set it on the ground in front of the Pope’s chair while they prayed for him with all their might. 
The operation lasted five hours and twenty minutes. The pope’s condition was considered very serious. His tension was extremely low. Bishop Dziwisz gave him extreme unction. “But hope gradually returned during the operation. At the beginning, we were all very nervous. Then we realized little by little that no vital organ had been touched, and that the pope could survive”.
The pope had lost the three quarters of his blood, and a blood transfusion could transmit a virus to him. He remained in reanimation for a long time, but five days after the attack, adopting a Polish proverb, he declared, “One hand pulled the trigger, another guided the bullet.”

He asked the bishop of Fatima who was in Rome to come to speak to him in the hospital about the Virgin’s message and as the bells rang the Angelus the following Sunday, in a message recorded in the pope’s hospital room, he entrusted humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. One year later, on May 13, 1982, he went to give thanks to the Virgin in Fatima and one of the bullets was inserted in the crown of the statue of the Virgin. Finally, on March 25, 1984, he consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with all the bishops of the world, as requested by the Virgin.
Russia was freed without bloodshed from Communism right afterwards.

Saint Matthias
176 Saints Victor and Corona Husband and wife martyrs in Syria during the reign of Marcus Aurelius
  249 Isidor von Chios Isidor stammte aus Alexandria und lebte unter Kaiser Decius auf der Insel Chios

346 Pachomius 287 in Ägypten geboren wurde lernte als gepreßter römischer Soldat Christen kennen und ließ sich nach seiner Soldatenzeit taufen gründete 9 Männerklöster und 2 Frauenklöster
  395 St. Macarius of Alexandria Departure of  (Coptic)

  637 St. Carthach the Younger Irish hermit and bishop wrote a rule for the monastery in metrical verse, a document that is extant
1109 Saint Nikita, Hermit of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Novgorod
1355 BD Petronilla Of Moncel, Virgin: Poor Clares e first abbess of the convent of Le Moncel in Oise,
1823 The Yaroslavl (Pechersk) Icon of the Mother of God
1900 St. Maria Dominic Mazzarello Co-foundress Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix Our Lady Help of Christians disciple of St. John Bosco
May 14 – Our Lady, patroness of Bavaria (Germany) 
The prayer that “calms me, consoles me and delivers me”
Speaking of the Rosary, Benedict XVI says he prays like his parents, who loved this prayer for its simplicity. The Rosary is a Marian prayer related to the mysteries of the life of Christ
—using beads strung on a cord—whose origins date back to the Middle Ages.

“What matters is not that I follow every word spoken rationally, but instead that I let myself be carried by the calm that comes from repetition and regularity ... I think this original experience of the history of religions, repetition, rhythm, common speech, the chorus that carries me and rocks me and fills all space calms me,
consoles me and delivers me ...
This experience enables us to pray with simplicity in a Marian context and in the light of Christ, and to internalize the content of this prayer, by letting ourselves be drawn—by the words—beyond any intellectual approach. 
www.eglise.catholique.fr


In Fatima on May 13, 2000, at the time of the beatification of the two little Portuguese shepherds from Fatima, Jacinta and Francisco, he revealed the contents of the “third secret” of Fatima, concerning the sufferings of the Church and “the bishop dressed in white”, struck by the “blasts of a fire arm” - indicating
he believed the message alludes to the attempt on is life of May 13, 1981.

Again, in the presence of the original statue of the Virgin of Fatima on October 8, 2000, at the time of the Bishops’ Jubilee, the Pope proclaimed at Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican the “Act of Entrustment” to Mary, during which he entrusted the Third Millennium to the protection of the Mother of Christ.
According to the testimony of Bishop Stanislas Dziwisz, told by André Frossard in
Do not Be Afraid.
Conversations with John Paul II
(N'ayez pas peur. Dialogue avec Jean-Paul II), Robert Laffont, Paris, 1982


May 14 - Our Lady Patroness of Bavaria (Munich, Germany, 1330)
  Edel Quinn's Limitless Trust in Mary's Maternal Care
On December 15, 1994, Pope John Paul II in a special assembly of the cardinals and other members of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints made the following solemn declaration:
"It is certain that the Servant of God, Edel Mary Quinn, a secular virgin of the Legion of Mary, practiced to a heroic degree the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity towards God and her neighbor and likewise the cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude."
Edel Quinn was born in Kanturk, County Cork, Ireland, on September 14, 1907. At the age of 20 she joined the Legion of Mary in Dublin. A few years later, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In 1936, Edel was appointed Legion of Mary Envoy to Africa. She encountered great obstacles in this pioneering work, but was always joyful and never complained. As against every difficulty and her wretched health, she brought to her task an absolute faith in God's love and a limitless trust in the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin. When others faltered her invariable response was,
 "Why can't we trust Our Lady?"
Although working alone and in a state of perpetual ill-health and exhaustion, she managed to establish hundreds of Legion branches and she mobilized thousands of Africans in the service of the Church. After eight years of heroic labor, Edel died in Nairobi on May 14th, 1944, at the young age of 36. The process of her canonization is open, but one miracle attributed to her intercession is still required for her Beatification.
Read: http://www.mariedenazareth.com/1513.0.html?&L=1
   130 St. Justa Martyr of Sardinia with Justina and Henedina They were martyred at Cagliari or at Sassari.
  176 Saints Victor and Corona Husband and wife martyrs put to death in Syria during the reign of Marcus Aurelius
  249 Isidor von Chios Isidor stammte aus Alexandria und lebte unter Kaiser Decius auf der Insel Chios
  250 Maximus The Holy Martyr suffered under the emperor Decius (249-251)
  260 St. Pontius Deacon and witness to the execution of St. Cyprian of Carthage earliest Christian biography
  307 Boniface of Tarsus possessed virtues to a remarkable degree: hospitality, liberality, and compassion assist any
stranger in need wander city streets at night seeking those whose miseries he could relieve)
  346 Pachomius 287 in Ägypten geboren wurde lernte als gepreßter römischer Soldat Christen kennen und ließ sich
nach seiner Soldatenzeit taufen gründete 9 Männerklöster und 2 Frauenklöster
  395 St. Macarius of Alexandria Departure of  (Coptic)
St. Isaac El-Defrawi The Martyrdom of miracles angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision, and told him to go to the town of Towwa, district of Beba, to receive the crown of martyrdom (Coptic)

  445 St. Vincent of Lerins Monk and writer Written under the pseudonym Peregrinus the Commonitorium offered a guide to orthodox teaching and included his famous maxim, the Vincentian Canon, by which he hoped to be able to differentiate between true and false tradition: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus credituni est ("what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all").
6th v St. Boniface Bishop of Ferentino, Italy, renowned for sanctity and miracles from his childhood, commemorated by Pope St. Gregory the Great.
637
St. Carthach the Younger Irish hermit and bishop wrote a rule for the monastery in metrical verse, document that is extant
  739 St. Engelmund Benedictine abbot companion of St. Willibrord
1096 St. Engelmer Hermit near Passau, Germany known for holiness and a recluse
1109 Saint Nikita, Hermit of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Novgorod
1175 Saint Leontius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, according to St Gregory Palamas (Nov. 14), Patriarch from 1223-1261
1265 BD GILES OF PORTUGAL Friars Preachers "I shall kill you unless you amend your life!" "I will amend it!" exclaimed Giles as he awoke, and he kept his word. Without delay he burnt his magical books, destroyed the phials which contained his potions and set out on foot to return to Portugal: favoured with frequent ecstasies, and showed himself to be endowed with the gift of prophecy
1355 BD PETRONILLA OF MONCEL, VIRGIN: Poor Clares first abbess of the convent of Le Moncel in Oise,
1474 Saint Isidore Tverdislov a German ("Constant of Word"), Fool-for-Christ, Wonderworker of Rostov From his
youth, he led "an unsullied life and had a compassionate understanding."
1823 The Yaroslavl (Pechersk) Icon of the Mother of God
1835 BD MAGDALEN DI CANOSSA, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE CANOSSIAN DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY:
spent her time giving religious instruction, working in hospitals and looking after children.

1846 St Tikhon of Zadonsk incorrupt relics 
1863 Saint Michael Garicoits priest combat Jansenism by custom of frequent communion & introducing Sacred
Heart devotions Society of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Betharram a
the Holy See approved 14 years after death
1900 St. Maria Dominic Mazzarello Co-foundress of Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix or Our Lady Help of Christians
disciple of St. John Bosco

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Saint Matthias

In Judæa natális sancti Matthíæ Apóstoli, qui, post Ascensiónem Dómini ab Apóstolis in Judæ proditóris locum sorte eléctus, pro Evangélii prædicatióne martyrium passus est.
In Judea, birthday of St. Matthias the Apostle. 
After the Ascension of our Lord, the Apostles chose him, by lot, to fill the place of Judas the traitor, and he suffered martyrdom for the preaching of the Gospel.
Matthias_election.jpg
1st v. ST MATTHIAS, APOSTLE
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA says that according to tradition St Matthias was one of the seventy-two disciples whom our Lord had sent out, two by two, during His ministry, and this is also asserted by Eusebius and by St Jerome.
   We know from the Acts of the Apostles that he was constantly with the Saviour from the time of His baptism until His ascension. When St Peter soon after had declared that it was necessary to elect a twelfth apostle in place of Judas, two candidates were chosen as most worthy, Joseph called Barsabas and Matthias, After prayer to God that He would direct their choice, they proceeded to cast lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, who was accordingly numbered with the eleven and ranked among the apostles. He received the Holy Ghost with the rest soon 
after his election and applied himself with zeal to his mission.
   It is stated by Clement of Alexandria that he was remarkable for his insistence upon the necessity of mortifying the flesh to subdue the sensual appetites—a lesson he had leant from Christ and which he faithfully practised himself.

The first part of his ministry was spent, we are told, in Judaea, but he after­wards went to other lands. According to the Greeks, he planted the faith in Cappadocia and on the coasts of the Caspian Sea; he endured great persecution and ill-treatment from the savage people amongst whom he worked, and finally received the crown of martyrdom at Colchis. We know nothing for certain of the manner of his death, but the Greek Menaia and other legendary sources say that he was crucified.
His body is stated to have been kept for a long time in Jerusalem and to have been translated from there to Rome by St Helen.

Apart from the short passage in the Acts of the Apostles we possess no reliable source of information concerning St Matthias, but there is a good deal of apocryphal literature connected with his name. In particular the “Acts of Andrew and Matthias in the city of the Cannibals” is a Greek fiction, dated by some as early as the second century, which had very wide currency. We have translations in Syria Armenian, Coptic, and even an adaptation in Anglo-Saxon. Further, Origen already knew in his time an apocryphal; “Gospel of Matthias”, and there has been much discussion as to whether this is identical with a document from which Clement of Alexandria quotes a sentence or two under the name of the “Traditions”  of Matthias. See, for example, Hennecke, Handbuch zu den Neutestamentlichen Apokryphen, pp. 90-91, 238, 544.Orthodoxe Kirche 9. August  Katholische und Evangelische Kirche: 24. Februar Anglikanische Kirche: 14. Mai (oder 24. Februar)

According to Acts 1:15-26, during the days after the Ascension, Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (about 120 of Jesus’ followers). Now that Judas had betrayed his ministry, it was necessary, Peter said, to fulfill the scriptural recommendation: “May another take his office.” “Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22)

They nominated two men: Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias. They prayed and drew lots. The choice fell upon Matthias, who was added to the Eleven.  Matthias is not mentioned by name anywhere else in the New Testament.

Comment: What was the holiness of Matthias? Obviously he was suited for apostleship by the experience of being with Jesus from his baptism to his ascension. He must also have been suited personally, or he would not have been nominated for so great a responsibility. Must we not remind ourselves that the fundamental holiness of Matthias was his receiving gladly the relationship with the Father offered him by Jesus and completed by the Holy Spirit? If the apostles are the foundations of our faith by their witness, they must also be reminders, if only implicitly, that holiness is entirely a matter of God’s giving, and it is offered to all, in the everyday circumstances of life. We receive, and even for this God supplies the power of freedom.
Quote: Jesus speaks of the apostles’ function of being judges, that is, rulers. He said, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28).
Saint Matthias Apostle
Judea, Cappadocia, and Caspian Sea
How does one qualify to be an apostle?
The first act of the apostles after the Ascension of Jesus was to find a replacement for Judas. With all the questions, doubts, and dangers facing them, they chose to focus their attention on finding a twelfth apostle. Why was this important? Twelve was a very important number to the Chosen People: twelve was the number of the twelve tribes of Israel. If the new Israel was to come from the disciples of Jesus, a twelfth apostle was needed.

But Jesus had chosen the original twelve. How could they know whom he would choose?
One hundred and twenty people were gathered for prayer and reflection in the upper room, when Peter stood up to propose the way to make the choice.

Peter had one criterion, that, like Andrew, James, John, and himself, the new apostle be someone who had been a disciple from the very beginning, from his baptism by John until the Ascension. The reason for this was simple, the new apostle would must become a witness to Jesus' resurrection. He must have followed Jesus before anyone knew him, stayed with him when he made enemies, and believed in him when he spoke of the cross and of eating his body -- teachings that had made others melt away.

Two men fit this description -- Matthias and Joseph called Barsabbas. They knew that both these men had been with them and with Jesus through his whole ministry. But which one had the heart to become a witness to his resurrection. The apostles knew that only the Lord could know what was in the heart of each. They cast lots in order to discover God's will and Matthias was chosen. He was the twelfth apostle and the group was whole again as they waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

That's the first we hear of Matthias in Scripture, and the laSaint Legends like the Acts of Andrew and Matthias testify to Matthias' enthusiastic embrace of all that being an apostle meant including evangelization, persecution, and death in the service of the Lord.

How does one qualify to be an apostle?
Clement of Alexandria says that Matthias, like all the other apostles, was not chosen by Jesus for what he already was, but for what Jesus foresaw he would become. He was elected not because he was worthy but because he would become worthy. Jesus chooses all of us in the same way. What does Jesus want you to become? In His Footsteps:

Have you ever felt like an afterthought, a latecomer? Or have you ever resented someone new who was added to your group? Try to see your community as not complete without the newcomer, whether you or someone else. Welcome any newcomers to your parish, work, or family community this week as someone chosen by God. Prayer:
Saint Matthias, pray that we may become worthy witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus
 in the way we live the eternal life we have right now.


St. Matthias  May 14, 2007
According to Acts 1:15-26, during the days after the Ascension, Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (about 120 of Jesus’ followers). Now that Judas had betrayed his ministry, it was necessary, Peter said, to fulfill the scriptural recommendation: “May another take his office.” “Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22).

Apostel Matthias
Orthodoxe Kirche 9. August  Katholische und Evangelische Kirche: 24. Februar Anglikanische Kirche: 14. Mai (oder 24. Februar)
Matthias wurde nach alter kirchlicher Überlieferung in Bethlehem geboren. Er war ein Schriftgelehrter und wurde von Jesus in den Kreis der 70 Apostel berufen. Nach der Himmelfahrt Jesu wurde Matthias in den Kreis der 12 Apostel gewählt (Apg. 1, 15 ff.). Er missionierte zunächst in Judäa und ging dann mit Petrus und Andreas in das syrische Antiochia. Er ging dann nach Kappadozien, wurde hier gefangengenommen und von Andreas wundersam befreit. Er begleitete dann Andreas über 3 Jahre auf Reisen in Kleinasien. Er wirkte ausserdem nach der Überlieferung in Mazedonien und Äthiopien. Er starb den Märtyrertod, dabei gibt es einander widersprechende Berichte über die Todesart und den Ort seines Martyriums. Er soll um 63 gestorben sein. Seine Gebeine wurden im Auftrag der Kaiserin Helena nach Trier überführt. Hier befindet sich in der Abtei St. Matthias das einzige Apostelgrab auf deutschem Boden.
 130 St. Justa Martyr of Sardinia with Justina and Henedina They were martyred at Cagliari or at Sassari.
In Sardínia sanctárum Mártyrum Justæ, Justínæ et Henedínæ.
    In Sardinia, the holy martyrs Justa, Justina, and Henedina.
176 Saints Victor and Corona Husband and wife and martyrs put to death in Syria during the reign of Marcus Aurelius
In Syria sanctórum Mártyrum Victóris et Corónæ, sub Antoníno Imperatóre; ex quibus Victor a Sebastiáno Júdice váriis et horréndis afféctus est cruciátibus.  Cum autem ipsum Coróna, uxor cujúsdam mílitis, cœpísset beátum prædicáre ob martyrii constántiam, vidit duas corónas de cælo lapsas, unam Victóri et álteram sibi missam; cumque hoc audiéntibus cunctis testarétur, ipsa quidem inter árbores scissa, Victor vero decollátus est.
    In Syria, the holy martyrs Victor and Corona, under Emperor Antoninus.  Victor was subjected to diverse and horrible torments by the judge Sebastian.  Just then, as Corona, the the wife of a certain soldier, proclaimed him blessed for his constancy in his sufferings, she saw two crowns falling from heaven, one for Victor, the other for herself.  She related this to all present, and was torn to pieces between two trees, while Victor was beheaded.

249 Isidor von Chios Isidor stammte aus Alexandria und lebte unter Kaiser Decius auf der Insel Chios
Isidor von Madrid

Orthodoxe Kirche: 14. Mai Katholische Kirche: 4. und 5. Februar und 15. Mai

Isidor stammte aus Alexandria und lebte unter Kaiser Decius auf der Insel Chios. 249 wurde er zum Militärdienst eingezogen und aufgefordert, den heidnischen Göttern zu opfern. Isidor bekannte sich zu Christus und blieb auch unter Foltern standhaft. Er wurde hingerichtet und sein Leichnam unbeerdigt liegen gelassen. Ein heimlicher Christ namens Ammonius (Gedenktag 4.9.) beerdigte Isidor. Ammonius starb später in Kyzikos als Märtyrer. Die Reliquien Isidors wurden nach Konstantinopel und im 12. Jahrhundert nach Venedig überführt.

In Spanien wird der Gedenktag für Isidor von Chios am 4. oder 5. Februar begangen, da am 15. Mai Isidor von Madrid verehrt wird. Dieser Isidor war (als Knecht) in der Landwirtschaft tätig und führte ein frommes Leben. Er starb 1130 in hohem Alter und seine Gebeine wurden 1170 in die Andreaskirche in Madrid übertragen.

250 Maximus The Holy Martyr suffered under the emperor Decius (249-251)
Maximus was a layman and a merchant.
He was a devout Christian and he led many pagans to faith in Christ the Savior, and persuaded them to accept Baptism.
Once, when the pagans had gathered to offer a human sacrifice to their gods, St Maximus plucked up his courage, unable to bear the sight of such a spectacle, and rushed at them, loudly denouncing their impiety and error, calling the idols soulless creations of mankind.
The frenzied pagans stoned the martyr to death.

260 St. Pontius Deacon and witness to the execution of St. Cyprian of Carthage earliest Christian biography
Delehaye, and other modern authorities, pronounce the story to be no more than a pious fiction.
In Gállia sancti Póntii Mártyris, cujus prædicatióne et indústria postquam duo Philíppi Cǽsares ad Christi fidem convérsi sunt, ipse, sub Valeriáno et Galliéno Princípibus, martyrii palmam adéptus est.
    In France, St. Pontius, martyr.  Having by his preaching and his zeal converted to the faith of Christ the two Caesars Philippi, he obtained the palm of martyrdom under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus.
3rd v.  ST PONTIUS, MARTYR
ST PONTIUS was long believed to be an illustrious primitive martyr who suffered in the persecution of Valerian about the year 258 at Cimelia, a city afterwards destroyed by the Lombards but rebuilt in modem times as Cimiez on the French Riviera, near Nice.
According to his legendary history he was the son of a Roman senator, and was instructed in the Christian faith as a lad by Pope Pontian. Upon the death of his father he gave away his inheritance to the poor, devoting himself to good works. He was greatly esteemed by the Emperor Philip and by his son—both of whom he converted to Christianity. After the murder of his royal patron he fled to Cimella, but was arrested as a Christian and condemned to be tortured and exposed to the wild beasts. As the creatures would not attack him, the governor ordered him to be beheaded.

Here again we find in the Roman Martyrology a name which in Alban Butler’s time was reputed to be that of an “illustrious primitive martyr”. On the other hand modern hagiography, as represented by the Bollandist Father Delehaye, tells us that the “acts” (printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii) are historically worthless and cannot be of older date than the sixth century, though they pretend to have been written by a contem­porary, an eye-witness of the martyrdom. Neither in this case is there any adequate evidence of early cultus. See Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxv (1906), pp. 201—203.
A deacon of Cyprian at Carthage, Pontius followed the bishop into the exile imposed upon him during the persecution of the Church under Emperor Valerian.
Attending Cyprian’s famous martyrdom, he authored an account of the event.
The work, Vita et Passia Cvpriani, was not so much a biography of the bishop as a touching and vivid panegyric. Nevertheless, it is considered the earliest Christian biography.

307 Boniface of Tarsus possessed virtues to a remarkable degree: hospitality, liberality, and compassion. He was known to assist any stranger in need and to wander the city streets at night seeking out those whose miseries he could relieve M (RM).  
Tarsi, in Cilícia, natális sancti Bonifátii Mártyris, qui, sub Diocletiáno et Maximiáno passus, deínde Romam advéctus, via Latína sepúltus est.
    At Tarsus in Cilicia, the birthday of the holy martyr Boniface, who suffered under Diocletian and Maximian.  His body was subsequently taken to Rome and buried on the Via Latina.

306? ST BONIFACE OF TARSUS, MARTYR
ST B0NIFACE of Tarsus seems to have found no public cultus before the ninth century although he is said to have suffered in 306, and his reputed acts, even if they contain a substratum of truth, are obviously embellished with fictitious details. The story may be summarized as follows: There was living in Rome about the beginning of the fourth century a wealthy young woman named Aglae, beautiful, well-born, and so fond of attracting attention that on three occasions she entertained the city with public shows at her own expense. Her chief steward was a man called Boniface, with whom she lived on terms of undue intimacy. He was dissolute and given to intemperance, but, on the other hand, he was liberal, hospitable, and extremely kind to the poor. One day Aglae summoned him and bade him go to the East and fetch the relics of some of the martyrs. “For”, she said, “I have heard tell that they who honour those that suffer for Jesus Christ will have a share in their glory. In the East His servants daily suffer torments and lay down their lives for Him.” Boniface prepared to obey, and, having collected a considerable sum of money, he bade farewell to Aglae, adding, “I will not fail to bring back relics of martyrs if I find any, but what if my own body should be brought to you as one of them?” From that time he was a changed man, and during his long voyage he neither ate meat nor drank wine, spending much of his time in prayer and fasting.

The Church at that period enjoyed peace in the West, but in the East the persecution inaugurated under Diocletian was being continued under Galerius Maximian and Maximinus Daia. It raged most fiercely in Cilicia under an inhuman governor of the name of Simplicius. Boniface accordingly directed his steps to Tarsus, the capital of that province. On arriving at the city he went straight to the court of the governor. Simplicius was found sitting on the judge­ment-seat, and twenty Christians were being tortured before him. Boniface ran towards them, exclaiming, “Great is the God of the Christians! Great is the martyrs’ God! and you, servants of Jesus, pray for me that I may join with you in fighting the Devil !” The angry governor caused him to be arrested and ordered that sharpened reeds should be thrust under his nails and molten lead poured down his throat. The people, revolted by so much cruelty, began to cry out, “Great is the God of the Christians!” Simplicius, in some alarm, hastily withdrew, fearing a tumult; but the following day he called for Boniface again and condemned him to be cast into a cauldron of boiling pitch from which, however, he emerged unscathed. Finally, a soldier cut off the martyr’s head with his sword. The body was bought by his servants, embalmed and conveyed back to Italy. Half a mile from Rome, on the Latin Way, it was met by Aglae, accompanied by a procession bearing lighted torches. In that place she erected a church to enshrine the sacred relics, and when she herself died, after leading a penitential life for fifteen years, her remains were laid beside his. In 1603 their reputed relics were found, with those of St Alexius, in the church which formerly bore the name of St Boniface, but is now known as Sant’ Alessio.
The account here given, abbreviated from Alban Butler, was published by him, apparently without the least misgiving, as a narrative derived from “the authentic acts” of the martyr. Delehaye, and other modern authorities, pronounce the story to be no more than a pious fiction. The “acts” are to be found in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. See further Duchesne, Mélanges d’Archéologie, 1890, pp. 2—10, and the Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia crist., vol. vi (1900), pp. 205—234. The story was very popular in the middle ages and gave rise to much folklore; on which consult Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch des deut. Aber­glaubens, vol. i, pp. 1475 seq.

Bonifatius von Tarsus Aglaida (Aglaia) die Römerin

Orthodoxe Kirche: Aglaia - 19. Dezember Orthodoxe Kirche: Bonifatius - 14. Mai und 19. Dezember Katholische Kirche: Bonifatius - 14. Mai

Saint Boniface was the chief steward of a beautiful, young and socially ambitious Roman noblewoman, named Aglae. Several times she entertained the entire city with public shows. Aglae held lascivious plans for her steward. Although Boniface was an alcoholic and addicted to debauchery, he also possessed virtues to a remarkable degree: hospitality, liberality, and compassion. He was known to assist any stranger in need and to wander the city streets at night seeking out those whose miseries he could relieve.

After several years of working for Aglae, she, moved by Divine grace, said to him, "You must realize how deeply mired we are in vice. We have not considered that we must appear before God to give an account of all our actions. I have heard it said that they who honor those that suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ shall have a share in their glory. In the East, the servants of Jesus Christ every day suffer torments, and lay down their lives for His sake. Go there and bring me the relics of some of those conquerors, that we may honor their memories, and be saved by their assistance."

Before he left he told Aglae: "I won't fail to bring back with me the relics of martyrs, if I find any; but what if my own body should be brought to you for that of a martyr?" She reproved him for joking about so serious a matter. Thus, Boniface travelled East to secure relics for his mistress, a man renewed in spirit and finally convicted in his faith. Sorrow for his past sins grew as he travelled, and so did his acts of penance.

He went to Tarsus in Cilicia, where the persecution of Christians was raging under governor Simplicius. Immediately upon arrival Boniface left his horses in the charge of his servants and went to the court, where he found Simplicius seated in his tribunal and many martyrs suffering. One was hung by his feet over a fire, another racked, a third being sawed apart, and another 17 suffering various cruel tortures. Boniface boldly saluted these champions of Christ, "Great is the God of the Christians, great is the God of the holy martyrs. I beseech you, the servants of Jesus Christ, to pray for me, that I may join with you in fighting against the devil."

This, of course, was considered an insult to the governor, who angrily asked who he was. Boniface replied that he was a Christian, and that having Jesus Christ for his master, he feared nothing the governor could inflict to make him renounce that sacred name. With that the enraged Simplicius ordered sharp reeds to be thrust under his nails and boiling lead to be poured into his mouth. Boniface called upon Jesus for assistance, then begged the prayers of the other martyrs, who all joined in petitioning God for him. The people, disgusted by so much cruelty, began to raise a tumult, and cried out, "Great is the God of the Christians." Alarmed, Simplicius withdrew.

But the next day he ordered Boniface to be brought before him a second time. The martyr appeared constant and undaunted. The judge commanded that he be cast into a caldron of boiling pitch; but he came out without receiving any hurt. Finally, Boniface was condemned to beheading. After saying a short prayer for the pardon of his sins and the conversion of his persecutors, he cheerfully presented his neck to the executioner.

Meanwhile his servants had gone searching for him. They finally ran into the jailer's brother who told them that a stranger had been beheaded the day before for his faith in Christ. They identified Boniface's dead body and head, and requested that they be allowed to take them home. This was permitted upon payment of 500 pieces of gold. They had the body embalmed and carried it back to Aglae, who met them outside Rome with priests, candles, and perfume in order to give him a Christian burial. Later she built a chapel on the site of his tomb. From that time Aglae led a secluded, penitential life and, dying fifteen years after, was buried near the relics of Boniface.

The body and head of Boniface were found in Rome in 1603. His relics are enshrined under the high altar in the church of SS. Alexius and Boniface on the Aventine, formerly called Saint Boniface. These acta are not entirely reliable; they are not contemporary sources (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

Bonifatius von Tarsus Aglaida (Aglaia) die Römerin
Orthodoxe Kirche: Aglaia - 19. Dezember Orthodoxe Kirche: Bonifatius - 14. Mai und 19. Dezember Katholische Kirche: Bonifatius - 14. Mai

Über Aglaia (Aglaida) und Bonifatius kennen wir nur Legenden. Danach waren sie Heiden und lebten in Rom. Nach orthodoxer Überlieferung war Bonifatius Diener (oder Sklave) von Aglaia. Beide hatten ein Verhältnis miteinander. Aglaia beauftragte Bonifatius, in Kleinasien Reliquien zu sammeln. Bonifatius erlebte in Tarsus das Martyrium der Christen und bekannte sich zum christlichen Glauben. Er wurde dann schwer gefoltert und enthauptet. Er starb um 305. Seine Reisegefährten kauften seinen Leichnam für 500 Goldstücke und brachten ihn nach Rom zurück.
Aglaia erbaute ihm zu Ehren eine Kirche (heute Chiesa dei Santi Bonifacio e Alessio), verteilte ihre Habe an die Armen und lebte 18 Jahre im Kloster. Ihr wurde die Gabe geschenkt, unreine Geister auszutreiben.
St. Isaac El-Defrawi The Martyrdom of miracles angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision, and told him to go to the town of Towwa, district of Beba, to receive the crown of martyrdom (Coptic)

On this day, St. Isaac El-Defrawi was martyred. He was born in the city of Defra, district of Tanta. When he grew up, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision, and told him to go to the town of Towwa, district of Beba, to receive the crown of martyrdom. He instantly went to his parents to bid them farewell, they wept and forbade him from doing that. The angel of the Lord appeared to him again and took him out of the town. When he arrived to Towwa, he professed his faith before the Governor saying: "I believe in the Lord Christ". The Governor placed him under guard until he had returned from the city of Nakyos.

It happened when St. Isaac was passing by, with the soldier, a blind man, was sitting on the wayside, asked him to give him sight. He said to him: "Do not say give me, but let it be according to your faith", and then he prayed to the Lord Christ for his sake, and the man was given sight straightaway. When the soldier saw that, he believed. When the Governor returned, the soldier confessed the Lord Christ before him, he ordered to cut off his head, and received the crown of martyrdom.

The Governor became angry at St. Isaac, and tormented him severely, then sent him to the city of El-Bahnasa to be tortured there. It happened when he was in the boat, he asked for a drink, and a sailor gave him little of water, and the man was with one eye. The Saint took some of the water and poured it over him, and the man received the sight in his blind eye immediately. When the Saint arrived to El-Bahnasa, the Governor tortured him severely, but the Lord comforted and healed him and finally the Governor ordered him to be beheaded, and he received the crown of life. Some of the faithful took his body and carried it to his town Defra and buried him there. Then they built a church after his name.
May his intercession be with us. Amen.
346 Pachomius 287 in Ägypten geboren wurde lernte als gepreßter römischer Soldat Christen kennen und ließ sich nach seiner Soldatenzeit taufen gründete 9 Männerklöster und 2 Frauenklöster
Orthodoxe und Evangelische Kirche: 15. Mai Katholische Kirche: 14. Mai
Pachomius, der 287 in Ägypten geboren wurde, lernte als gepreßter römischer Soldat Christen kennen und ließ sich nach seiner Soldatenzeit taufen. Es gab zu dieser Zeit Mönche, die nicht in Gemeinschaft, sondern jeweils als Einsiedler lebten. Pachomius lebte zunächst auch als Einsiedler, wollte aber in Gemeinschaft leben. Deshalb gründete er 320 auf einer Nilinsel ein Kloster. Mit dieser Gründung und mit seiner Regel legte er die Keimzelle für alles klösterliche Leben. Die neue Form mönchischen Lebens zog schnell die Menschen an. Pachomius gründete 9 Männerklöster und 2 Frauenklöster, die alle wirtschaftlich selbständig waren und sich selbst versorgten. Bei seinem Tod lebten fast zehntausend Menschen in zahlreichen Klöstern nach seiner Ordnung. Pachomius starb am 14. Mai 346.
395 St. Macarius of Alexandria Departure of  (Coptic)
On this day also of the year 395 A.D., the blessed father St. Macarius of Alexandria departed. He was a contemporary of St. Macarius the great (Senior), the father of the monks, and for this reason, he was called St. Macarius, the Junior. He became a monk at one of the monasteries near by Alexandria. For his asceticism, he became the father and the spiritual guide for all the monk's cells in the area that near by Alexandria, so he was also called the father of the cells.

He practiced many worships and possessed many virtues in his ascetic life. Among these practices, he once stayed for five days with his thoughts in heaven, occupied with early Saints, prophets, angels, apostles and the Lord Christ, while he was standing on his sleeping mat. After two nights, the devils started to scratch his feet, twisting themselves as snakes around his feet. They also showed him fire in his cell, however with patience, the fire and the phantoms disappeared. On the fifth day, he could not control his thoughts with regards to the needs of life. This happened so that he would not become proud of what he had spiritually achieved. He said to himself: "I have remained in the ascetic life for 50 years, and they had not been like these five days." After he had managed the schools of those were seeking to be baptized, he lived alone (Recluse) in the year 335 A.D. in el-Natroun desert, where he became the abbot of all the monasteries in this desert.

It happened that he walked in the desert for several days in unpaved road, and was placing sticks of reed during the way to help him recognize the way to come back. When he wanted to return, he found the devil had removed all the sticks to mislead him. When he became thirsty, God sent him a wild cow, and he drank from its milk, until he returned to his cell.

One day a hyena came to him and pulled his garment. He followed her to her den, and it brought out her three young ones. He found that they were all malformed, and was amazed from the intelligence of the animal. He prayed and put his hands on them, and they were healed. The hyena disappeared for a while, and she came back with a sheep skin which he used to sleep on until his departure.

At one time, the thoughts of pride disturbed him until he was weary of it. These thoughts invited him to come to Rome to heal the sick there, instead of them suffering the travel to him. He slept in his cell, and extended his feet outside the cell, and said to his thoughts: "You can travel now if you can." When his thoughts went on disturbing him, he carried on his shoulder a basket full of sand, and walked in the desert until he became physically tired, the thoughts of pride left him, and he rested.

Once, he went to the monastery of St. Pachomius in a layman's garment, and stayed there during the forty days of Lent. No one saw him eating or sitting down. He was making baskets of palm leaves while he was standing. The monks said to St. Pachomius: "Cast out this man from here, for he is not human." He asked them to be patient until God reveals his story to them. St. Pachomius inquired of God about him, and God told him that he was St. Macarius of Alexandria. They were all happy to hear that, they welcomed him and received his blessings. When he found that his virtues have been revealed, he returned to his monastery.

It happened that it did not rain for some time in Alexandria, and the Patriarch called him. When he arrived to Alexandria, the rain started to fall, and it continued to rain until they asked him to stop it. He prayed and God stopped it.
Emperor Valens exiled him with St. Macarius the great to one of the islands. They guided its people to the Christian faith, and then they returned to their monasteries.

He considered that the virtue that was revealed and became known to everyone, was rendered useless. When he heard that someone had a virtue that he did not have, he practiced this virtue until he mastered it more than him.
He completed his life in a good spiritual conduct until he reached a good old age, and departed in peace. 
May his prayers be with us. Amen.

445 St. Vincent of Lérins Monk and writer Written under the pseudonym Peregrinus the Commonitorium offered a guide to orthodox teaching and included his famous maxim, the Vincentian Canon, by which he hoped to be able to differentiate between true and false tradition: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus credituni est ("what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all").
Born to a noble family of Gaul (modern France), he was probably the brother of St. Lupus of Troyes. Vincent initially served as a soldier but gave it up to become a monk on the island of Lé
rins off the southern French coast near Cannes. He was ordained there and in about 434 authored his famous work the Commonitorium.
Written under the pseudonym Peregrinus the Commonitorium offered a guide to orthodox teaching and included his famous maxim, the Vincentian Canon, by which he hoped to be able to differentiate between true and false tradition: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus credituni est ("what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all").
He believed that the ultimate source of Christian truth was Holy Scripture and that the authority of the Church was to be invoked to guarantee the correct interpretation of Scripture. A proponent of Semi-Pelagianism, he opposed the Augustinian model of Grace and was probably the recipient of Prosper of Aquitaine's Responsiones ad Capitula Objectionum Vincentianarum.
6th v St. Boniface Bishop of Ferentino, Italy, renowned for sanctity and miracles from his childhood, commemorated by Pope St. Gregory the Great.
Ferénti, in Túscia, sancti Bonifátii Epíscopi, qui (ut refert beátus Gregórius Papa) sanctitáte et miráculis a puerítia cláruit.
    At Ferentino in Tuscany, Bishop St. Boniface, who was renowned for sanctity and miracles from his childhood as is told by the blessed Pope Gregory.
Boniface of Ferentino B (RM) 6th century. Bishop Boniface of Ferentino, Tuscany, Italy, reigned during the time of Emperor Justin and was commemorated by Saint Gregory the Great (Benedictines).
637 St. Carthach the Younger Irish hermit and bishop; sanctity and miracles of Carthach, wrote a rule for the monastery in metrical verse, a document that is extant also called Carthage, Cuda, or Mochuda.
637 ST CARTHAGE, CARTHACH, OR MOCHUDA, Bishop
ST CARTHACH appears to have adopted the name of his master, St Carthach the Elder, who for his part called his disciple Mochuda, “my Cuda”—Cuda being presumably the younger man’s actual name.
   A native of Castlemaine in Kerry, he is said to have been employed as a swineherd for his father, when he came under the care of St Carthach the Elder, from whom he received his monastic training, and by whom he was afterwards ordained priest. About the year 590, he went to live as a hermit at a place called Kiltulagh, but the jealousy of two neighbouring bishops caused him to withdraw, and he spent a year at Bangor under the direction of St Comgall. He then visited other monasteries, and by the advice of St Colman Elo, with whom he made some stay, he decided to establish himself at Rahan in Offaly. There, about the year 595, he founded a monastery in which he gradually assembled (it is said) over eight hundred monks. For these disciples he drew up a rule which is still extant, and remains one of the great treasures of the Irish Church. It is in the form of a metrical poem, 420 to 580 lines long, and is divided into nine sections; but the form in which it has survived cannot possibly go back to the seventh century.
   The monks, who lived almost entirely on the vegetables they cultivated themselves, led a most austere life, not unlike that afterwards adopted by the Cistercians. Among them were a number of Britons, two of whom, thinking it was time they had a new abbot, attempted to drown their holy founder in the river Cloddagh.

Besides having charge of this monastery, St Carthach seems to have been bishop over the Fircall district; but after forty years of existence there the settlement at Rahan came to an end. The abbot-bishop and his monks were expelled by the chieftain Blathmac through considerations of local politics, not uninfluenced by neighbouring monasteries jealous of the prosperity and repute of Rahan.
At Easter 635 St Carthach led his community out to seek a new home. After some wandering, the great party arrived at the banks of the river Blackwater, where the prince of the Decies gave them a tract of land for a new monastery. St Carthach remained with them for two years, laying the foundation for the great abbey and school of Lismore, which was to become famous throughout Christendom. But he found the noise of the building operations so troublesome that he had to with­draw to a cave in the glen called Mochuda’s Inch. He died on May 14, 637.

St Carthach is regarded as the founder of the episcopal see of Lismore, which was united to that of Waterford in 1363. From the lustre shed upon it by the sanctity and miracles of Carthach, Lismore came to be regarded in after-ages as a holy city—a reputation well sustained by its great school and monastery. Thither flocked from all parts of Ireland and England crowds of eager young students, and many older men who desired to end their days within its hallowed walls. The saint’s feast is kept throughout Ireland.
Materials for the life of St Carthach are relatively speaking abundant. There are two Latin lives, both of which are printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, while the longer has been re-edited by C. Plummer in his VSH., vol. i, pp. 170—199. There is also an Irish life (not a direct translation of either of these) which may be found in Plummer’s Bethada Náem nÉrenn, vol. i, pp. 295—299, with an English translation in vol. ii. The Rule mentioned above has been printed with an English translation in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 4th ser., vol. xxvii (1950), pp. 495—557, and elsewhere. See also Kenney, Sources for the Early History of Ireland, vol. i, pp. 473—475, and especially Plummer’s preface to VSH., pp. lxv—lxviii. There is a very useful book by a Cistercian, Fr Carthage, The Story of St Carthage (1937).

Originally a swineherd, Carthach was ordained and then became a hermit about 590 in Kiltulagh and then in Bangor, under St. Comgall.(Born in Ulster, Ireland, c. 517; died at Bangor, Ireland, in 603)
Carthach traveled to Offaly, where he founded a monastery, ruling more than eight hundred monks. He wrote a rule for the monastery in metrical verse, a document that is extant. He is believed to have served as the bishop of Fircall until he and his monks were expelled by some local lord. Carthach founded another monastery at Lismore on the banks of the Blackwater, and lived in a nearby cave. He died on May 14.

Carthage the Younger, Abbot (AC) (also known as Carthach, Mochuda) Born at Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland; died near Lismore, Ireland, on May 14, c. 637; cultus confirmed in 1903. This swineherd was probably named Cuda. He became a disciple of Saint Carthach the Elder (c.540 )who ordained him and from whom he took his name. About 590, he became a hermit at Kiltlaugh and then at Bangor under Saint Comgall.

After visiting several monasteries, Carthage settled for a time at Rahan in Offaly, and then in 595 he founded a monastery there and ruled over 800 monks, two of whom were Britons who tried to drown him because they felt it was time for the monastery to have a new abbot. Carthage wrote a rule in metrical verse, a later version of which still exists. He also was probably a bishop at Fircall.

After 40 years, the foundation provoked the jealousy of monasteries on adjacent lands, and Carthage and his monks were driven away by Blathmac, a local ruler. He led his monks to the banks of the Blackwater and founded a new monastery at Lismore, where he survived long enough to give his monks a firm foundation to what was to become one of the most famous of all Irish monastic schools. One of its students was Saint Cathal, who was elected bishop of Taranto, Italy, during his return from the Holy Land.

Saint Carthage was exceptionally strict about the holding of property; at Rathan he would not allow the community to have horses or oxen to help in the tillage. Nevertheless, the Lismore Crozier is a treasured item of Irish art--now residing in the National Museum at Dublin. The saint retired to a cave near Lismore where he spent his last years as a hermit (Attwater, Benedictines, Carthage, Delaney, Montague).
672 St.  Erembert original monastery, Fontenelle, where he died as a simple monk.

672 ST EREMBERT, BISHOP OF TOULOUSE
AMONGST the many good men who received the Benedictine habit at Fontenelle Abbey from the hands of its founder St Wandrille one of the most distinguished was a youth called Erembert, a native of Waucourt, near Poissy, in the department of Seine-et-Oise. He was not, however, suffered to remain undisturbed in his monastic retreat, for King Clotaire III summoned him to become bishop of Toulouse.
One incident in his episcopal life alone has come down to us. He was on a visit to his brother Gamard in his birthplace when a fire broke out which threatened to destroy the town. St Erembert prostrated himself in prayer in the church of St Saturninus and then emerged holding his pastoral cross erect. Immediately the wind veered, the flames died down, and the people flocked to the church praising God. Ill-health induced St Erembert to resign office in 668. He retired to Fontenelle, and there he remained until his death. His brother Gamard, with his two sons, afterwards entered Fontenelle, upon which they bestowed all the family estates.

A Latin life compiled at Fontenelle a century and a half later is not historically of much value. It has been printed by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, and it was re-edited in 1910 by W. Levison in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. v, pp. 652 seq. See also Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. i, p. 307.
Benedictine bishop of Toulouse, France, appointed in 656 by King Clotaire III. After 12 years he resigned because of ill health and returned to his original monastery, Fontenelle, he died a simple monk.
739 St. Engelmund Benedictine abbot companion of St. Willibrord
He was born in England where he ruled an abbey. Then he went to Friesland, in the Netherlands.
1096 St. Engelmer Hermit near Passau, Germany known for holiness and a recluse
slain by a treasure hunter. He was the son of a poor laborer and was known for his holiness and for being a recluse. He is listed as a martyr.
1109 Saint Nikita, Hermit of the Kiev Caves, Bishop of Novgorod
 The memory of St Nikita was celebrated on May 14 at Novgorod, where his relics are located.
The saint is also commemorated on January 31, the day of his repose
and on April 30, the day of the Uncovering of his Relics (1558).

1175 Saint Leontius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, according to St Gregory Palamas (Nov. 14), he was Patriarch from 1223-1261
His life was similarly described by Theodore, a monk of Constantinople.

This Life was translated from Greek into the Russian language in an abridged form.
It was translated a second time more fully by St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (July 14), who says the death of the Patriarch actually occured in 1175.

1265 BD GILES OF PORTUGAL Friars Preachers "I shall kill you unless you amend your life!" "I will amend it!" exclaimed Giles as he awoke, and he kept his word. Without delay he burnt his magical books, destroyed the phials which contained his potions and set out on foot to return to Portugal: favoured with frequent ecstasies, and showed himself to be endowed with the gift of prophecy
DURING the reign of Sancho the Great, King of Portugal, one of the monarch's most trusted counsellors was Rodrigues de Vagliaditos, the governor of Coimbra. This nobleman had several sons, of whom the third, Giles, or Aegidius, was destined for the Church, and he was sent to study at Coîmbra, where he at once attracted attention by his brilliant abilities. The king bestowed upon him a canonry and other benefices, but the young man himself was far more concerned with experimental science than with theology. He therefore elected to go to Paris to qualify for medicine. He had started on his journey and had proceeded but a little way when he fell in with a stranger, whom he afterwards considered to be the Devil. The man induced him to go to Toledo instead of to France. In that city Giles took up his abode, and not only studied alchemy and physics but also became deeply interested in necromancy and the black arts. He appears to have plunged into every form of evil, and he so completely turned his back upon religion that he drew up a document which purported to be a pact with Satan and sealed it with his blood.
After seven years in Toledo Giles reverted to his original design, and in Paris practised as a physician with considerable success. Before long, however, his conscience began to prick him. One night he had an alarming dream in which a gigantic spectre threatened him, crying out, "Amend your life". Upon awaking he tried to disregard the warning as a mere nightmare, but the vision was repeated a night or two later. This time the spectre shouted, "I shall kill you unless you amend your life!" "I will amend it!" exclaimed Giles as he awoke, and he kept his word. Without delay he burnt his magical books, destroyed the phials which contained his potions and set out on foot to return to Portugal.
After a long journey he arrived, footsore and weary, at Valencia in Spain, where he was hospitably received by the Dominican friars. There Giles sought absolution for his sins of the past and there he received the habit. The rest of his life was edifying in the extreme. He had indeed to face fierce trials from the powers of darkness, and the memory of his iniquitous pact often tempted him to despair of salvation, but he persevered in prayer and mortification. After seven years he was granted a vision in which our Lady restored to him the sinister document, and his anxiety on that score was allayed for ever. Soon after his profession Bd Giles was sent to Santarem in Portugal; at a later date he spent some time in the Parisian house of his order, where he contracted a warm friendship with Bd Humbert de Romans, the future master general of the Friars Preachers. Giles was elected prior provincial for Portugal, but he soon laid down the charge on the score of age. In his last years, which were spent at Santarem, the holy man was favoured with frequent ecstasies, and showed himself to be endowed with the gift of prophecy. His cultus was approved in 1748.
The resemblance which this story bears to such popular legends as that of Cyprian and Justina (September 26), not to speak of Faust and other fictions of similar purport, renders its more sensational elements very open to question. The lengthy narrative which the Bollandists (Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii) have borrowed from Father Resendio seems to lack any reliable corroboration. The same type of story is to be found in Procter, Lives of Dominican Saints, pp. 130-133.
1355 BD PETRONILLA OF MONCEL, VIRGIN: Poor Clares first abbess of the convent of Le Moncel in Oise,
VERY little seems to be known about Bd Petronilla except that she belonged to the family of the counts of Troyes, and that she was the first abbess of the convent of Le Moncel in Oise, founded by King Philip le Bel, but not completed for occupation until the reign of Louis of Valois. Down to the time of their dispersion at the French Revolution, the Poor Clares of Moncel regarded Bd Petronilla as their special protector and patroness, and the Franciscans still observe her feast.
See H. L. Fautrat, "L'Abbaye du Moncel", in Mémoires com. archéo. Senlis, vol. vi (1892), pp. 1-24; Gallia Christiana (nova), vol. ix, pp. 852-856.
1474 Saint Isidore Tverdislov German ("Constant of Word"), Fool-for-Christ, Wonderworker of Rostov From his youth, he led "an unsullied life and had a compassionate understanding."
He was born in Germany of rich parents. From his youth, he led "an unsullied life and had a compassionate understanding."

Leaving his parental home and "desiring the Kingdom of God," St Isidore distributed his wealth to the poor. Taking up the staff of a wanderer, he visited many lands and cities.

It is not known where he accepted the holy Orthodox Faith, but he was raised in Catholicism.
Finally, he arrived in Russia and decided to live in Rostov. Here St Isidore, "in filth and snow and rain and cold" and "enduring every outrage," settled in a rickety wooden hut that he himself had made.

He chose a foolish manner of life for the sake of Christ, which St Paul describes in his Epistle" (1 Cor.4:10-13).

St Isidore spent all his time at unceasing prayer, not allowing himself much sleep or rest. "He stood at all night vigil and praise" to dedicate his body "everlastingly to God."  By day the blessed one made the rounds of the city, acting like a fool. "Like Job of old in his patience," Blessed Isidore, while still alive, was "an earthly angel and a heavenly man," "a compassionate soul, and pure of thought, and vigilant heart and faith unassailed, and true love without pretense." During his life he received the grace to work miracles.

St Isidore reposed in the year 1474. They learned of his death only when passing by his hut they noticed a special fragrance. At the place of his burial in the city of Rostov the church of the Ascension of the Lord was built, in which his relics rest in a crypt as a source of miracles to the present day.

Blessed Isidore is termed "Tverdislov" ["Constant of Word"] since that he spoke constantly. [The title "Tverdislov" seems unique to St Isidore. This supplemental account of him is from Bulgakov's NASTOLNAYA KNIGA (1900).]

1846 St Tikhon of Zadonsk incorrupt relics
The incorrupt relics of St Tikhon of Zadonsk were first uncovered in May 1846, during the construction of the new cathedral at Zadonsk.
They were found beneath the altar of the old church.
St Tikhon is also commemorated on August 13.

1823 The Yaroslavl (Pechersk) Icon of the Mother of God
In the city of Yaroslavl the townswoman Alexandra Dobychkina suffered terribly for seventeen years from emotional and bodily illness. In 1823 she saw in a dream a church with an icon of the Mother of God. She decided to seek out the Yaroslavl temple and icon she had seen in the vision.

This church turned out to be the temple in honor of the Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross of the Lord (August 1), under the belltower of the archbishop's residence. Entering the church, the afflicted Alexandra saw on the wall the depiction of the Kiev Caves Mother of God. Suddenly she had a powerful attack of fever, after which there was some relief at first, and later a full healing from the grievous illness. From that time, miraculous healings took place when people prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos.

1835 BD MAGDALEN DI CANOSSA, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE CANOSSIAN DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY: spent her time giving religious instruction, working in hospitals and looking after children.
IN the foothills of the Appenine mountains, some eighteen miles from Parma, stand the few remains of the once mighty castle of Canossa. It was here, while the guest of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the winter of 1076-77, that Pope St Gregory VII received that ostensible submission of Henry IV of Germany whose circumstances have been so much exaggerated and significance misunderstood. And it was the family of this Countess Matilda that seven hundred years later produced Magdalen Gabriela, Marchioness of Canossa, a "valiant woman" of a somewhat different stamp.
Her parents were the Marquis Ottavio and his wife Teresa Szlukhe, and her birth was at Verona, in 1774. There is still in existence a portrait of Magdalen at the age of four, an attractive, rather imperious-looking child, with strongly marked features, dressed in the complicated clothes of a grown woman as was the eighteenth-century (and later) way with children. After looking at it, one is not surprised to learn that little Magdalen, while frank and straightforward, was also stubborn, wilful and quick-tempered. Her nurse remarked in later years, "It's a marvel to me how that naughty little thing has changed. I didn't think she would ever be tamed."
A boy and two more girls were born to Magdalen's parents and then, when he was only thirty-nine, her father died. This was a sad blow to Magdalen, and it was followed two years later by another: her mother married again and went to live with her new husband, the Marquis Zanetti, in Mantua, leaving her children to the care of their uncles.
   Magdalen, who was now eight, with her elder sister Laura, was put in charge of a governess, a woman who "took out" on Magdalen a spite she had for someone who had criticized her inadequate religious instruction of the children. It was six years before Uncle Jerome found out how badly his second niece was being treated, and dismissed the governess. Apparently Magdalen had never said a word, and would not let her sisters do so. Perhaps these years of domestic tyranny had something to do with the period of painful sickness that followed them, during which Magdalen "took stock" with herself: she was definite that she did not wish to marry, but was not sure that she wanted to be a nun, which in those days still generally meant joining an enclosed order. She did eventually go into the Carmelite convent at Conegliano, but it was soon recognized that she had no vocation for that life, and she returned home again.
During the revolutionary wars the Canossas went to Venice for a time, and after they had returned they were visited by Napoleon Bonaparte at their mansion in Verona. Napoleon showed respect and indeed admiration for the marchioness, and she felt encouraged to ask a favour of him: it was that he would assign to her the empty convent of St Joseph in Verona, as a centre for work for poor people and neglected children, whose sad state she set vividly before him. And he granted the request.
The reason for this action went back to the time when she was in Venice. There Magdalen had had a vision, or a dream as she herself called it, in which she saw our Lady surrounded by six religious in a brown dress; it then seemed to her that our Lady took the religious two by two to a church filled with girls and women, to a hospital, and to a hall full of ragged children, telling them to work there, but especially in the third. Magdalen at once took this as a divinely appointed programme, and henceforward spent her time giving religious instruction, working in hospitals and looking after children. She was soon joined by other young women; but she saw that if the work was to go on and be made permanent by means of a congregation it was necessary to have a proper house for the purpose. And at a time when he was turning monks and nuns out of their convents, Napoleon made this possible by his own gift.
Magdalen was now thirty-four years old, and it was not easy for her to leave the Canossa household, where among other responsibilities was an orphaned baby cousin. Her family looked on her projects as rather undignified for one of her birth. Pope Pius XI seems to have been glancing sideways at this when, in his address at the reading of the decree which declared Magdalen di Canossa's virtues to have been heroic, he quoted the great man "who was humble enough to serve the poor at table with his own hands, but not quite humble enough to sit at table with them". A remark which, as his Holiness added, "suggests a lot of things and goes a long way".
Magdalen's brother Boniface was especially sad that she should leave them. But it was done, and on May 8, 1808 Magdalen and her few companions opened the doors of their house to the poor girls of the San Zeno quarter, Verona's "east end". They began by teaching them the simplest prayers and the elements of the Christian faith, with a little reading, writing and sewing, and within a few months the effects of this centre of goodness and decency were seen in the quarter.
Good news spreads no less than bad, and before long Venice asked for a centre like Verona's. By this time other associates had joined Sister Magdalen and, after some hesitation, she extended the work accordingly. Over a period of twenty-five years other foundations followed, at Milan, Bergamo, Trent and elsewhere in northern Italy and, especially in the early days, the sisters were often too few for the work; it was the foundress herself who would come to the rescue, working in the scullery or anywhere with what she called her two servants-by which must be understood her own two hands. She had a predilection for the dirtiest and most troublesome children, and would look after them from the combing of their hair to the brushing of their minds, so that to this day a specially difficult child is known in the congregation as "One of our holy foundress's".
In amplifying his words quoted above Pope Pius XI said that "Many are charitable enough to help and even to serve the poor, but few are able deliberately to become poor with the poor", and that that is exactly what Bd Magdalen did. Such a life can only grow from a rooted interior humility, and it was through no will of hers that others came to know how she had to struggle with her quick imagination and keen senses-to say nothing of unavoidable external distractions- to attain the degree of religious recollection that was hers. In fact she reached a high state of contemplation: on several known occasions she was rapt in ecstasy and at least once was seen to be lifted from the ground. Such an intense life of the soul was not inconsistent (only through misunderstanding could it be supposed to be) with a life of daily cares in which it was possible, for example, for her to be held up at pistol-point in the parlour. This actually happened. Mother Magdalen found a refuge for a penitent girl who had been seduced. The young man concerned threatened her with a pistol to disclose the girl's whereabouts. "If you want to kill me, here I am", she replied. "But are you really brave enough?" He slunk away, leaving the weapon behind, and before long he too had answered the call to repentance.
Bd Magdalen told her Daughters of Charity that their mission on earth was to make Jesus Christ known to little children, and they primarily concerned themselves with those who were poor and neglected. But she also opened high-schools and colleges, made special provision for the deaf-and-dumb, and organized closed retreats for women and girls. After her death the congregation also undertook work on the foreign missions. At Venice in 1831 Bd Magdalen even launched a small congregation of men, which carries on similar work among boys.
At the end of 1834 Bd Magdalen was taken ill at Bergamo; she struggled back to the mother house at Verona, and by passion-week in the following year she knew she was dying. Nobody else, neither her religious nor her medical advisers, thought so; but she asked for the last sacraments, and having received them the end came suddenly.
For some years Mother Magdalen had been bent almost double and could sleep only in a sitting position. On the evening of April 10, 1835 she asked to be helped to her knees while she joined in her daughters' prayers, and thus, with an exclamation of joy, she died, leaning on the arms of Mother Annetta.* [* As a little girl Annetta had declared she would rather burn down the convent than be a nun. Whereupon Mother Magdalen had foretold, "One day you will be one of us. And you will be there to help me when I die."]
She was beatified in 1941.
There are several biographies in Italian, but the above account relies on A Short Life of the Venerable Servant of God Magdalen, Marchioness of Canossa, written by a sister of her congregation and published at Bangalore in India in 1933. It includes translations of the decree of 1927 pronouncing the heroism of Mother Magdalen's virtues and of the address given by Pope Pius XI to the Canossian Daughters of Charity to mark that occasion.
1863 Saint Michael Garicoits, priest, combat Jansenism by the custom of frequent communion & introducing Sacred Heart devotions; Society of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Bétharram was approved by the Holy See  14 years after his death
In pago Bethárram, diœcésis Bajonénsis, sancti Michaélis Garicoïts, Confessóris, Congregatiónis Presbyterórum Missionariórum a Sacro Corde Jesu Fundatóris, apostólico zelo insígnis, quem Pius Papa Duodécimus Sanctórum fastis adscrípsit.
    In the town of Betharram in the diocese of Bayonne, St. Michael Garricoits, confessor, and founder of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, renowned for his apostolic fervour.  Pope Pius XII added him to the roll of saints.
1863 ST MICHAEL GARICOITS, FOUNDER OF THE PRIESTS OF THE SACRED HEART OF BÉTHÁRRAM
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, and in the early part of the nineteenth, there was living in the Lower Pyrenees, at the hamlet of Ibarra, a family of poor peasants named Garicoits. Their cottage was humble enough to human eyes, but God's blessing must have rested upon it because its hospitable door was always open to receive the proscribed priests who, from time to time during the French Revolution and the years immediately following, came to minister in secret to the faithful.
Here on April 15, 1797, there was born to Arnold and Gratianne Garicoits their eldest son Michael. Life is hard in those mountain regions, and the boy was a mere child when he was hired out to be shepherd-boy to a farmer. His own often expressed desire was to be a priest, but his parents always replied, "No, we are too poor".
The old grandmother thought otherwise. One day she went to talk the matter over with the parish priest of Saint-Palais, who in times past had often found a hiding-place in the Garicoits' cottage. Through his efforts the boy was received first into the College of S. Palais and afterwards at Bayonne, arrangements having been made that he should be no charge upon his parents but should earn his expenses by working out of school hours for the clergy and in the bishop's kitchen. It was a strenuous time for the young peasant, but he was clever and healthy. Moreover, he was working to attain his heart's desire. Philosophy he studied at Aire and theology in the grand séminaire at Dax, where he was nicknamed "Our Aloysius Gonzaga". Whilst still a seminarist he took a class in a preparatory school near by, and in December 1823 he was ordained priest in Bayonne cathedral by Bishop d'Astros.
Michael's first parochial experience was gained at Cambo, whithere he was sent to act as vicaire to the curé, who was in feeble health. In the two years he remained there he did much to revive religion, combating Jansenism by the custom of frequent communion as well as by introducing Sacred Heart devotions. He tackled freethinkers with so much fervour that one of them was heard to exclaim, "That devil would give his life to save the soul of an enemy!" Father Garicoits' next call was to a professorship in the senior seminary for priests at Bétharram, and then to be superior-a congenial post which he filled with conspicuous ability and success. The bishop, however, suddenly decided to merge the seminary with that of Bayonne, and Michael Garicoits found himself with two other priests left alone to carry on the services.
During this period, when he was more or less stranded, there began to take shape in his mind a scheme for training priests to do mission work among the people. With two or three companions he started to live a community life, and then, in order that he might better know God's will, he went to Toulouse to attend a retreat given by Father Le Blanc, a Jesuit. To this good priest he opened his heart, and was encouraged to persevere. "You will be the father of a congregation that will be our sister", said the Jesuit, and Father Garicoits drew up in 1838 a constitution largely based on that of the sons of St Ignatius. Like them, his missionaries were to take life vows and to spread far and wide. Associates gathered round him at Bétharram, and all seemed promising, when a check came from an unexpected quarter. The bishop who had been his patron and had ordained him was replaced by another, who viewed with disapproval this idea of founding a new congregation. His constitutions were subjected to a fundamental revision, he was told to confine himself to the diocese, and to work only under the direction of the bishop.
   Not till 1852 was the community allowed to choose its own superior, and even then it was tied down by regulations which hampered its activity. Father Garicoits submitted, but with a heavy heart. "What pangs accompany the birth of a congregation!" he once said to one of his sons; but generally he bore his trials in silence. He died on Ascension-day, May 14, 1863.
Fourteen years later the Society of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Bétharram was approved by the Holy See on the lines the founder had laid down. St Michael Garicoits, who was at one time spiritual director of the Basque house of the Daughters of the Cross at Igon, received much encouragement in his foundation from St Elizabeth Bichier des Ages (Aug 26), and he was all his life a close friend of her congregation in the Basque country. Both of them were canonized in the year 1947.
The brief of beatification, which contains a detailed biographical summary, will be found in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. xv (1932), pp. 263—269. Lives of the saint have been written in French by B. Bourdenne (1921) and the Abbé Bordachar (1926); there is a life in English by C. Otis-Cox (1935), another by J. F. Makepeace, and a brief sketch, The Saint of Bétharram (1938), by Fr P. E. Collier. See also P. Mazoyer, Lourdes et Bétharram (1895), especially pp. 272 SS.
Michael was born on April 15, 1797, the eldest son of Arnold and Gratianne Garicoits. They were poor and Michael was hired out as a shepherd boy to a farmer. His desire to become a priest always met with "No, we are too poor" by his parents, but his grandmother talked the matter over with the parish priest Through his efforts Michael earned his expenses for college by working after school hours for the clergy and in the bishop's kitchen. In December 1823 he was ordained priest in Bayonne cathedral by Bishop d'Astros.
Michael's first assignment was at Cambo where he remained two years. He did much to revive religion there, combat Jansenism by the custom of frequent communion as well as by introducing Sacred Heart devotions. Father Garicoits' next call was to a professorship in the senior seminary for priests at Betharram, and then to be superior. In 1838, Father Garicoits drew up a constitution largely based on that of the sons of Saint Ignatius. Like them, his missionaries were to take life vows and to spread far and wide.

Associates gathered round him at Betharram, and all seemed promising, when the bishop disapproved of his idea of founding a new congregation.

Not till 1852 was the community allowed to choose its own superior, and even then it was tied down by regulations which hampered its activity. Father Garicoits submitted, but with a heavy heart. He died on Ascension day, May 14, 1863. Fourteen years later the Society of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Betharram was approved by the Holy See on the lines the founder had laid down. Saint Michael Garicoits, who was at one time spiritual director of the Basque house of the Daughters of the Cross at Igon, received much encouragement in his foundation from Saint Elizabeth Bichier des Ages, and he was all his life a close friend of her congregation in the Basque country. Both of them were canonized in the year 1947.

1900 St. Maria Dominic Mazzarello; Co-foundress of Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix or Our Lady Help of Christians, disciple of St. John Bosco
Níciæ, in Subalpínis, sanctæ Maríæ Domínicæ Mazzaréllo, Confundatrícis Institúti Filiárum Maríæ Auxiliatrícis, quæ humilitáte, prudéntia et caritáte præclára, in album sanctárum Vírginum a Pio Papa Duodécimo fuit reláta.
    At Nizza Monferrato in Italy, St. Mary Dominica Mazzarello, co-founder of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and renowned for her humility, prudence and charity.  She was added to the book of Virgins by Pope Pius XII.
1881 ST MARY MAZZARELLO, VIRGIN, CO-FOUNDRESS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS
MORNESE is a mountain village in the south of Piedmont, near the border of Liguria and not far from Genoa. There lived there in the first half of the nineteenth century a certain energetic, hard-headed and honest peasant named Joseph Mazzarello and his wife Maddalena Calcagno, and to them was born in 1837 the first of several children, who was christened with the names Mary Dominica. Six years later the family moved to a new home on a hill, the Valponasca, some way out of Mornese, and here Mary was brought up, working long hours in the fields and vineyards so that she developed considerable physical toughness and strength.
From the Valponasca to Mornese church is a long and hard walk, even by the short cut, but Mary Mazzarello was assiduous in her attendance there and assisted at Mass daily whenever it was possible for her to do so. When the parish priest, Don Pestarino, started a Marian sodality she was one of the five foundation members, and her example attracted others, for her gentleness, modesty and lively mind made her a popular young woman. This sodality of Daughters of Mary Immaculate, with its rule of life, was a result of an interview that Don Pestarino had with Don Bosco at Turin, thereby making the first link in the chain that was to bind St John Bosco with St Mary Mazzarello. This was in 1855, when she was seventeen. Five years later the spiritual quality of the sodalists was put to the test, for a fierce epidemic of typhoid broke out in Mornese. Mary was asked to go and nurse her uncle and his family, who had sickened. She was rather frightened at the prospect, but she went, and when she had carried out the task “like a Sister of Charity”, herself caught the fever and was near to death.
During her long convalescence Mary began to realize that she would not be strong enough to work in the fields again, and with her friend Petronilla she decided to learn dressmaking. This they did, and started a small business in the village which was so successful that they soon were taking the local girls as pupils and assistants. And so, seemingly by accident, these two peasant girls in a remote village began to do for girls what Don Bosco was doing for boys, and with the same spirit and methods. “Laugh and play and dash about as much as you like”, they said to their younger pupils, “but be ever so careful not to do or say anything that would be displeasing to God.” And on an autumn evening in 1865 Don Bosco himself with some of his boys came on a holiday excursion to Mornese. The Daughters of Mary Immaculate knelt for his blessing, and Mary Mazzarello said, “I feel that Don Bosco is a saint”.
On that saint’s advice, the parish priest, Don Pestarino, put up a building for a boys’ college in Mornese. But Don Bosco had been talking with Pope Pius IX about his project for a congregation of nuns to carry out among girls the educational work that the Salesians were doing for boys; and it so happened that the bishop of Acqui, Mgr Sciandra, for good reasons of his own, did not want a college in Mornese. Accordingly, on May 29, 1872, the people of Mornese woke up to find that the new building was occupied by a community of nuns. Its nucleus was drawn from among the local Daughters of Mary Immaculate; Mary Mazzarello, now thirty-five years old, was the superioress, and the convent was on the very site where, years before, she had had some sort of vision of a building filled with children being looked after by habited religious. Thus began the congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady Help of Christians, sometimes called Salesian Sisters.
They did not have an easy start. The villagers were indignant that their college had not materialized and that the building had been given to nuns, “usurpers” drawn from the ranks of the village sodality. In the words of St John Bosco, they were subjected to annoyances, mocked at, and cold-shouldered even by their own relatives. Two months later he and the bishop visited the new establishment, and Sister Mary, Sister Petronilla and nine others took triennial vows; and Don Bosco preached. John Bosco was a saint, an educationist, and on any showing a very great man. He chose as head of his new congregation a country sempstress who, on her own testimony, could hardly write. “Wisdom is justified of her children.” By 1878 six of the Mornese sisters were found suitable to accompany the second Salesian mission to the Indians of the Argentine, and in the following year the Mornese community had outgrown its accommodation. The mother house was therefore reconstituted in a former Capuchin friary at Nizza Monferrato, and Mother Mary left her home in tears.
During the lifetime of St Mary Mazzarello thirteen other convents of the congregation were opened in Italy and France (within sixty years there were over 800 throughout the world), and in each one the spirit and methods of St Francis of Sales and St John Bosco were faithfully followed. Their principal work was teaching, but as time went by any work for the good of the young came to engage their attention and activity, and a simple naturalness and gentleness distinguishes it all—encouragement and guidance, not repression; the example of Christ, not the stick. Continual busyness, in however good work, calls for a certain firmness and simplicity of character, else it may degenerate into “activism” and the fullness of really Christian life be smothered: the plain hard-working peasant upbringing of Mother Mary Mazzarello must have been of very great value to her in guiding the destinies of her congregation in its early days. She would attribute all her success to God; but others may remember that God allows Himself to be dependent in some measure on the grace-strengthened quality of the instruments whom He chooses.
Early in 1881 Mother Mary accompanied some of her nuns to Marseilles, to see them off to South America. She found the voyage from Genoa trying, and the miserable lodging at Marseilles worse, and she was plainly ill. She took Don Bosco’s advice in going to a convent of the congregation between Marseilles and Toulon, and was in bed there for six weeks, very ill indeed. She was able at length to get back to Nizza Monferrato, but before doing so had asked Don Bosco whether she was ever likely to recover. He answered in a parable, of which the meaning was, “No; it is the office of a superior to lead, even in death”. She grasped his hand, and said nothing.
On April 27 she received the last anointing, and observed cheerfully to the priest, “Now you’ve given me my passport I can go any time, can’t I?” But a few days before the end she suffered a grievous temptation to despair; she emerged shaken and weak, but steadfast, singing faintly to herself the hymn Chi ama Maria contento carà, “Those who love Mary shall be happy”. A few days later, on May 14, 1881, Mother Mary of Mornese died, at the age of only forty-four. She was canonized in 1951, and her body is now enshrined side by side with that of St John Bosco in Turin.
Maria Mazzarello Life and Times, by the Rev. Dr H. L. Hughes (1933), consists, as to three-quarters, of “times”, i.e. historical background the remaining quarter, of “life” is also useful. A pamphlet by Father J. B. Calvi (Salesian Press, Battersea) adds a few more facts. See also the numerous biographies of St John Bosco. The official life of St Mary of Mornese was written by Don Ferdinand Maccono, under the title Suor Maria Mazzarello, and there is a full-length study by Don Eugenio Ceria.

She was born near Genoa, Italy, and joined the Pious Union of Mary Immaculate while young. Her institute formed slowly, aided by St. John Bosco, despite her bout with typhoid.
St. Maria Dominic Mazzarello was the first superior general in 1872 when St. John Bosco received approval from Pope Pius IX. The Salesian Sisters, as they are called, spread rapidly. By 1900, there were nearly eight hundred foundations. St. Maria Dominic Mazzarello died on April 27 at Nizza Monferrato and was canonized in 1951 by Pope Pius XII.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 5

Praise the name of the Lord: bless the name of Mary, His Mother.

Be diligent in prayer to Mary: and she will raise up for you eternal delights.

Let us come to her in a contrite soul: and sinful cupidity will not besiege us.

He who thinks of her in tranquillity of mind: shall find sweetness and the rest of peace.

Let us breathe forth our souls to her in our end: and she will lay open to us the courts of them that triumph.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Pasqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
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