Mary the Mother of God
  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 
2022
22,600 lives saved From 2007 to 2020
Haitian Help Funding Seeds Haitian Geology AND Haitian Paintings
http://www.haitian-childrens-fund.org/

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

CAUSES OF SAINTS April  2016

There are over 10,000 named saints beati from history and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources

http://www.worldpriest.com/

THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI

Morning Prayer and Hymn   Meditation of the Day

May 15 – Our Lady of the Light (Mexico)  
 How Mexico has remained true to its Catholic faith 
 The religious fervor of the Mexican people for the Virgin Mary dates from the very origins of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
It was the Franciscan missionaries who first evangelized this part of the American continent. They were followed by Dominicans, Augustinians, Jesuits, Carmelites, Mercedarians, and many more recent Marian Congregations such as the Congregation of the Mission, which introduced the devotion to the Miraculous Medal.
Today, devotion to Mary is so strong in Mexico that no diocese or major city is without at least one shrine dedicated to the Mother of God. We find that the Virgin is venerated there under at least 200 different names, some of which are known worldwide.
The reality is that in Mexico, devotion to the Virgin Mary was greatly instrumental in the successful evangelization of the country. It is also thanks to its deep love of Mary that Mexico is still today a country that has remained true to its Catholic faith.
 
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Called in the Gospel "the Mother of Jesus," Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the Mother of my Lord" (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.

You are firmly convinced about our Lord, who is truly of the race of David according to the flesh, Son of God according to the will and power of God, truly born of a virgin,. . . he was truly nailed to a tree for us in his flesh under Pontius Pilate. . . he truly suffered, as he is also truly risen. -- St. Ignatius of Antioch

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

1st v. Saint Torquatus Christian missionary in Spain martyred w/others each disciples of Apostles Peter, Paul sent to Spain to spread faith
250
Saint Isidore of Chios A martyr of Chios under Decius M (RM)

330 Saint Achillas attended 1st Council of Nicaea relics venerated Presba gift of healing sickness, especially demonic possession, and he worked many miracles (Achilli) Bulgaria
558 Saint Hilary Hermit respected by  Ostrogoth King Theodoric spared monastery the land as well
925 Saint Nicholas the Mystic oldest member of the mystic, or secret, council of the Byzantine court
1130 Saint Isidore the Farmer celestial visions angels sometimes helped him appeared in a vision to King Alphonsus of Castile in 1211 show him an unknown path used to surprise and defeat the Moors patron of farmers his master saw angels and oxen helping him 
1465 Blessed Mary Magdalen Albrizzi prioress remarkable for her promotion of frequent communion among her nuns was endowed with supernatural gifts which precluded her from remaining as unknown as she could have wished. She healed the sick and foretold the future, while her trust in God was so perfect that many miracles were wrought in immediate response to her prayers
1719 ST JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, FOUNDER OF THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Eboræ, in Lusitánia, sancti Máncii Mártyris.    At Evora in Portugal, St. Mancius, martyr.


May 15 – Nuestra Señora de la Luz (Mexico)-  
The vision of the third part of the secret ends with an image of hope  
Concerning the vision of the martyrs of the Church by the children of Fatima, Cardinal Ratzinger explained:
“The vision of the third part of the secret, so distressing at the beginning, ends with an image of hope:
no suffering is in vain, a suffering Church, a Church of martyrs, becomes a signpost for a person who seeks God.

The loving hands of God receive not only suffering persons like Lazarus, who found great consolation, and in a mysterious way represents Christ who wished to become for us the poor Lazarus; it is more than that: from the suffering of witnesses comes a force of purification and renewal, because it is the very suffering of Christ that is made present, still transmitting today its salvific power.”   Saint Michel Garicoïts 


May 15 - Our Lady of France (1860)
Prayer to Our Lady of the Smile
O Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother too, who once by a visible smile didst graciously console and cure thy child Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, we beseech thee, come to us also to console us in the troubles of this life.
Detach our hearts from earth, give us health of soul and body, make us strong in hope, and obtain for us at last,
that we may enjoy forever in Heaven, thy maternal and enrapturing smile.  Amen.

1st v. Saint Torquatus Christian missionary in Spain martyred w/others each disciples of Apostles Peter/Paul sent to
Spain to spread faith

250 Saint Isidore of Chios A martyr of Chios under Decius M (RM) 
251 Saint Peter Hellespont native Peter was put to death at Troas with Sts. Andrew, Dionysia, and Paul 
251 Saint Andrew in Lampsacus Martyr Companions Peter and Nichomachus in Lampsacus Mysia w/Dionysia a young man, appeared glittering with light diffusing itself over the whole house protected her
260 Saint Cassius, Victorinus, Maximus, & Companions MM (RM)
304 Saint Simplicius of Sardinia martyred in Sardinia M (RM) 
330 Saint Achillas attended 1st Council of Nicaea relics venerated Presba  gift of healing sickness, especially demonic
possession, and he worked many miracles (Achilli) Bulgaria

330 Saint Achillas attended 1st Council of Nicaea relics venerated Presba (Achilli) Bulgaria
348 Saint Pachomius the Great was a model of desert dwelling with Sts Anthony the Great, Macarius the Great, and
Euthymius the Great, founded cenobitic monastic life in Egypt

4 thv Saint Silvanus of Tabennisi actor abandoned world to be a monk Hermit sentiments of contrition helped him
progress in virtue a holy abbot proposed him as model of humility to the rest favored with a spirit of prophecy
he
explained the dreadful judgments which threaten those that mock God

558 Saint Hilary Hermit respected by  Ostrogoth King Theodoric spared monastery the land as well
6thv. Saint Colman McO'Laoighse, Abbot (AC)
650 Saint Dymphna Many miracles have taken place at her shrine on the spot where she was buried in Gheel, Belgium Patron of those suffering for nervous and mental affictions
7thv. Saint Gerebernus aged Irish priest Gerebernus accompanied Saint Dympna, he baptized in infancy to Belgium shared in her martyrdom at Ghee M (AC)
7th v Saint Gerebrand Martyred Irish priest
7th v. Saint Waldalenus Abbot founder brother of Saint Adalsindis founded the monastery of Beze 
733 Saint Britwin fostered monasticism and culture
9thv. Saint Bertha founded several hospices for the poor 
925 Saint Nicholas the Mystic oldest member of the mystic, or secret, council of the Byzantine court B (AC)
1043 Saint Hallvard martyr for his defense of an innocent person and is the patron saint of Oslo
1090 ST ISAIAS, BISHOP OF Rostov; His preaching is said to have been reinforced by many miracles
1115 Saint Isaiah of the Kiev Caves was one of the saints known for his quietness and his unflagging toil, for which he is named a "lover-of-labor."
1130 Saint Isidore the Farmer celestial visions angels sometimes helped him appeared in a vision to King Alphonsus of Castile in 1211 show him an unknown path used to surprise and defeat the Moors patron of farmers his master saw angels and oxen helping him 
         Saint Nicholas the Mystic Patriarch of Constantinople
1250 Blessed Leonard of Camaldoli monk-hermit OSB Camb. Hermit (AC)
         Saint Caesarn Virgin recluse
1384 Saint Pachomius of Nerekhta construction of a monastery build a church in the Name of the Holy Trinity
1450 Blessed Andrew Abellon, OP (AC)
1465 Blessed Mary Magdalen Albrizzi prioress remarkable for her promotion of frequent communion among her nuns was endowed with supernatural gifts which precluded her from remaining as unknown as she could have wished. She healed the sick and foretold the future, while her trust in God was so perfect that many miracles were wrought in immediate response to her prayers
1481 St Euphrosynus of Pskov The Rule of St Euphrosynus generalized advice for monks proceeding on the monastic path built a church in honor of the Three Holy Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, who appeared to him, and St Onuphrius the Great
1719 ST JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, FOUNDER OF THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Eboræ, in Lusitánia, sancti Máncii Mártyris.    At Evora in Portugal, St. Mancius, martyr.

1st v. Saint Torquatus Christian missionary in Spain martyred w/others each disciples of Apostles Peter/Paul  "Varones Apostolicos," sent to Spain to spread the faith First Century
In Hispánia sanctórum Torquáti, Ctesiphóntis, Secúndi, Indalétii, Cæcílii, Hesychii et Euphrásii; qui Romæ a sanctis Apóstolis Epíscopi ordináti, et ad prædicándum verbum Dei in Hispánias dirécti sunt.  Cum autem hi váriis úrbibus evangelizássent, et innúmeras multitúdines ad Christi fidem perduxíssent, divérsis in ea província locis quievérunt; scílicet Torquátus Acci, Ctésiphon Vérgii, Secúndus Abulæ, Indalétius Urci, Cæcílius Illíberi, Hesychius Cartéjæ et Euphrásius Illitúrgi.
    In Spain, the Saints Torquatus, Ctesiphon, Secundus, Indaletius, Cecilius, Hesychius, and Euphrasius, who were consecrated bishops at Rome by the holy apostles, and sent to Spain to preach the word of God.  When they had evangelized various cities, and brought innumerable multitudes under the yoke of Christ, they rested in peace in different places in that country: Torquatus at Cadiz, Ctesiphon at Vierco, Secundus at Avila, Indaletius at Portilla, Cecílius at Elvira, Hesychius at Gibraltar, and Euphrasius at Anduxar.
1st v. SS. TORQUATUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
THE first Christian missionaries to attempt the evangelization of Spain are said to have been seven holy men who had been specially commissioned by St Peter and St Paul, and sent forth for that purpose. According to the legend the party kept together until they reached Guadix in Granada, where they encamped in a field whilst their servants went into the town to buy food. The inhabitants, however, came out to attack them, and followed them to the river. A miraculously-erected stone bridge enabled the Christians to escape, but it collapsed when their pursuers attempted to cross it. Afterwards the missionaries separated, each one selecting a different district in which he laboured and was made bishop. Torquatus chose Guadix as the field of his labours, and is honoured on this day in association with his companions, all six of whom, however, have also special feasts of their own. St Torquatus and the other bishops appear to have suffered martyrdom.
For this story we have only the authority of a set of medieval breviary lessons, printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. There is no trace of early cultus to confirm it. See J. P. Kirsch, Kirchengeschichte, vol. i, p. 307, n. 25.

With Ctesiphon, Secundus, Indaletius, Caccilius, Hesychius, and Euphrasius. According to tradition, they were each disciples of the Apostles Peter and Paul and were sent to Spain to spread the faith. The majority of them suffered martyrdom in various parts of the Iberian peninsula, and each is honored on the same feast day.
The Mozarabic rite also gives a common feast for them in its liturgy. Torquatus worked in the area around Granada.

Torquatus and Companions MM (see list) (RM) 1st century. According to a relatively modern legend, Saint Torquatus was one of the first seven missionaries, known as "Varones Apostolicos," sent out by Peter and Paul to evangelize Spain.
The others were Caecilius at Granada, Ctesiphon at Verga (Vierzo?), Euphrasius at Andujar, Hesychius at Gibraltar, Indaletius at Urci near Almeria, and Secundius at Avila.

 Torquatus worked with great success at Guadix near Granada. Apparently all seven were martyrs, Torquatus at Cadiz. The relics of Euphrasius were taken to Samos in Galicia for safety when the Saracens invaded Spain. The Mozarabic liturgy had a common feast for all seven. Euphrasius is the patron of Corsica and Ajaccio, possibly because of a second translation of his relics (Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer).

250 Isidore of Chios A martyr of Chios under Decius M (RM)
In ínsula Chio natális beáti Isidóri Mártyris, in cujus Basílica exstat púteus, in quem fertur fuísse injéctus, de cujus aqua infírmi potáti sæpius sanántur.
    In the island of Chio, the birthday of blessed Isidore, martyr, in whose church is a well into which he is said to have been thrown.  By drinking of the water of this well, the sick are frequently cured.
251? ST ISIDORE OF CHIOS, MARTYR
THE Isidore named in this day's martyrology appears to have been a native of Alexandria. We are told that he was a commissariat officer in the army of the Emperor Decius, and went to Chios with the fleet, which was under the command of Numerius. Whilst he was staying in the island he was discovered to be a Christian, and was denounced to Numerius by his captain. Placed on trial, he showed great constancy, threats and promises proving equally unavailing. As he refused to sacrifice, his tongue was cut out and he was beheaded. His body was sunk in a well, but it was recovered by the Christians. It was then interred by a soldier called Ammianus, who was afterwards martyred at Cyzicus, and by a woman, St Myrope, who is said to have been flogged to death because of her charity in giving Christian burial to martyrs.
The well became famous for its healing properties, and over the tomb of St Isidore a basilica was erected. In the fifth century, as the result of a vision or dream, St Marcian, who was at that time treasurer of the cathedral of Constantinople, dedicated to St Isidore a chapel in a church he was building in honour of St Irene. From Constantinople the cultus of St Isidore spread to Russia. In 1525 Christian merchants conveyed the relics of St Isidore to San Marco in Venice, where they are said to be still preserved.
It is to be feared that in this case again the passio (printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii) is no better than a pious romance. But the cultus is relatively early and identified with Chios. St Isidore was known even to St Gregory of Tours. See Delehaye, Origines du Culte des Martyrs, pp. 225, etc.; and Recueil des historiens des Croisades, Occident, vol. v, pp. 321--334.
(Benedictines). Saint Isidore is depicted in art as a bearded early Christian layman dragged over the rocks by a horse. At times he may be shown (1) in a ship with two companions, (2) being met by three ladies at the gates of Chios, (3) arguing with the devil, (4) baptizing a woman, or (5) being beheaded (Roeder). He is venerated at Chios and Venice (Roeder).
251 Saint Andrew Martyr Companions Peter and Nichomachus in Lampsacus Mysia w/Dionysia -- a young man, appeared glittering with light diffusing itself over the whole house protected her
Lampásci, in Hellespónto, pássio sanctórum Petri, Andréæ, Pauli et Dionysiæ.
    At Lampascum in the Hellespont, the martyrdom of the Saints Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Dionysia.
Andrew and his fellow Christians were arrested during the persecutions conducted by Emperor Trajanus Decius. Nichomachus is recorded as having denied Christ under torture. Andrew and Peter stood firm in the faith. Nichomachus was scolded by a sixteen year-old woman named Dionysia, and she suffered martyrdom as well. Andrew and Peter were stoned to death.

Peter of Lampsacus, Paul, Andrew, Dionysia & Decius MM (RM). Peter was a young man of Lampsacus on the Hellespont, who was martyred at Troas together with SS. Paul, Andrew, Dionysia, and Decius. Peter was remarkable for his physical beauty and the natural endowments of his mind, as well as his faith and virtue. He was captured and brought before

Proconsul Optimus who said, "You have before your eyes the edicts of our invincible princes: sacrifice to the goddess Venus, as they command."
Peter answered: "I am surprised that you should endeavor to persuade me to sacrifice to an infamous lewd woman, whose actions modesty forbids me to mention, and are such as are punishable by your own laws."
Optimus ordered him to be extended on a wheel, with pieces of wood so disposed and bound on his body with iron chains, that the wheel being put in motion it might gradually occasion the breaking of his bones.
The martyr, turning his eyes towards the heavens, said, with a cheerful countenance: "I praise and thank you, O Lord Jesus Christ, for vouchsafing me patience to overcome this cruel tyrant." Optimus, seeing his unshaken resolution, ordered his head to be struck off.

After this execution, three other Christians, Andrew, Paul, and Nicomachus, were brought before him. He asked their origin and religion Nicomachus answered loudly with impatience, "I am a Christian." When ordered to sacrifice to the gods, Nicomachus answered: A Christian must not sacrifice to devils." The proconsul gave orders that he should be hung on the rack and tortured. When he was just ready to expire under his torments, he unhappily lost his crown, and cried out: "I never was a Christian, and am ready to sacrifice to the gods."

The proconsul immediately caused him to be taken off the rack, but no sooner had the miserable man offered sacrifice than he was seized by the devil, fell on the ground, and beat it with his head in violent agonies, in which he expired. God afforded his other two servants a comfort under their affliction for this loss.

Dionysia, a tender virgin about sixteen years old, who was standing by, was struck at this misfortune, and said: "Unfortunate wretch! Why did you bring upon yourself eternal torments for the sake of a moment's ease?" Optimus, hearing these words, asked if she was a Christian: she confessed she was. He then required her to sacrifice, and threatened to expose her to prostitution, and burn her alive in case of refusal.

Finding his threats made no impression on her constancy, he ordered her to be put into the hands of two young men to be deflowered. They took her with them to their lodgings, but she resisted so strenuously that she tired them out. About midnight they were surprised at the appearance of a young man, glittering with light, which diffused itself over the whole house. Seized with fear, they threw themselves at the feet of the holy virgin. She raised them up, and told them not to be afraid, saying: "This is my guardian and protector." They asked her to intercede for them that they would not be harmed.

The next morning, the mob, stirred up by the priests of Diana, beset the house of the proconsul, demanding in a tumultuous manner to have Andrew and Paul delivered up to them. The proconsul, to humor them, had them brought forth and commanded them to sacrifice to Diana. Upon their refusal, Optimus had them scourged and then threw them to the rabble who stoned them to death.

When Dionysia heard the raucous noise surrounding their execution, she began to weep and wail bitterly. She escaped her guards and ran to the place where they were. Upon seeing her fellows, she cried out: "That I may live with you eternally in heaven, I will die with you on earth." The proconsul being informed of the wonderful preservation of her chastity, her escape, and desire to die with the martyrs, ordered her to be taken away from Andrew and Paul, and to be beheaded at a distance (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
251 Saint Peter Hellespont native Peter was put to death at Troas with Sts. Andrew, Dionysia, and Paul
3rd century Martyr during the brutal persecutions of the Church under Emperor Trajanus Decius.  A Hellespont native Peter was put to death at Troas with Sts. Andrew, Dionysia, and Paul.

251 PETER OF LAMPSACUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
DURING the persecution under Decius there was living at Lampsacus on the Hellespont a young Christian of lofty character and noble appearance called Peter. Brought before Olympius, the proconsul, and bidden to sacrifice to Venus, he refused, and made a spirited attack upon the worship of so licentious a deity, the
words of which are quoted in his "acts". He was tortured on the wheel and then beheaded. Immediately afterwards at Troas the same proconsul had to deal with three other Christians, whose names were Nicomachus, Andrew and Paul. They declared themselves to be Christians, but under torture Nicomachus abjured his faith. Dionysia, a girl of sixteen, who was present, exclaimed in horror at his defection; she was promptly arrested, and on being questioned avowed herself a Christian. As she refused to sacrifice, she was condemned like Andrew and Paul to die on the morrow. In the meantime she was given over for the night to the tender mercies of two young men, who were allowed to insult her as they would. But by the mercy of God she was protected from harm. The following morning Andrew and Paul were taken from prison, delivered to the mob, and stoned outside the city walls. Dionysia followed, desiring to die with them, but by order of the proconsul she was brought back and beheaded within the city.
Whatever be thought of this rather suspicious document (printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii), these martyrs found their way into the Hieronymianum see Delehaye's commentary, p. 256. The fact that they, or at least one of the group, suffered at Lampsacus can hardly be doubted.
260 Cassius, Victorinus, Maximus, & Companions MM (RM)
Arvérnis, in Gállia, sanctórum Mártyrum Cássii, Victoríni, Máximi et Sociórum.
    In the Auvergne in France, the holy martyrs Cassius, Victorinus, Maximus, and their companions.
These saints were martyred at Clermont, Auvergne, France at the hands of Chrocas, chief of the invading Teutonic barbarians (Benedictines).
304 Simplicius of Sardinia martyred in Sardinia M (RM)
Fausínæ, in Sardínia, sancti Simplícii, Epíscopi et Mártyris, qui, Diocletiáni témpore, sub Bárbaro Prae'side, perfóssus láncea martyrium consummávit.
    At Fausina in Sardinia, in the time of Diocletian and the governor Barbarus, Bishop St. Simplicius, who was pierced with a lance and thus gained martyrdom.
Saint Simplicius was martyred in Sardinia by being buried alive during the reign of Diocletian (Benedictines).
330 Saint Achillas attended 1st Council of Nicaea relics venerated Presba  Bulgaria, gift of healing sickness, especially demonic possession, and he worked many miracles (Achilli) Bulgaria
Saint Achilles, Bishop of Larissa, lived during the fourth century, during the reign of St Constantine the Great. Glorified for his holiness of life and erudition, he was made Bishop of Larissa in Thessaly.
St Achilles participated in the First Ecumenical Council, where he boldly denounced the heretic Arius. In his city he strove to promote Christianity, destroyed idolatrous pagan temples, and he built and adorned churches.
St Achilles had the gift of healing sickness, especially demonic possession, and he worked many miracles. The saint died peacefully in about the year 330. His relics have been in Prespa, Bulgaria (now the village of Akhila, renamed in honor of the saint) since 978.

Metropolitan bishop, also called Achilles or Achillius. He was metropolitan of Larissa in Thessaly, Greece, serving humbly with courage and wisdom. He is reported as attending the first Council of Nicaea. Since 978, Achillas' relics have been venerated at Presba in Bulgaria.
Achilles of Thessaly B (AC) (also known as Achillius). Metropolitan Achilles of Larissa (Thessaly) is supposed to have attended the Council of Nicaea. His relics have been venerated at Presba (Achilli) in Bulgaria since 978 (Benedictines).

348 St Pachomius the Great was a model of desert dwelling with Sts Anthony the Great, Macarius the Great, and Euthymius the Great, founded cenobitic monastic life in Egypt:  see also Butler, May 09

  292 - 346 St. Pachomius Egypt Emperor's army anchorite extreme austerity, total dedication to God; miracles of healing took place at his intercession.,  began monasticism as we know it today.
In Ægypto sancti Pach
ómii Abbátis, qui plúrima eréxit in ea regióne monasteria, et régulam Monachórum scripsit, quam ab Angelo dictánte didícerat.
    
In Egypt, the abbot St. Pachomius, who founded many monasteries in that country, and wrote a rule for monks which he had learned from the dictation of an angel.







348 ST PACHOMIUS, ABBOT
ALTHOUGH St Antony is often reckoned
the founder of Christian monasticism, that title belongs more properly to St Pachomius, called “the Elder”, for he was the first—not, indeed, to gather round him communities of Christian ascetics on a large scale—but to organize them and draw up in writing a rule for their common use.

He was born of heathen parents in the Upper Thebaid about the year 292, and when he was twenty was conscripted for the emperor’s army. As he and other recruits were being conveyed down the Nile under wretched conditions, they received great kindness from the Christians of Latopolis (Esneh), who were moved with compassion for them. This disinterested charity Pachomius never forgot; and as soon as the army was disbanded, he made his way back home to Khenoboskion (Kasr as-Syad), where there was a Christian church, and enrolled himself among the catechumens.
   After his baptism his one preoccupation was how best to correspond with the grace he had received. Having heard that an old hermit called Palaemon was serving God with great perfection in the desert, he sought him out and begged him to receive him as a disciple. The old man set before him the hardships of the life, but Pachomius was not to be deterred. Having promised obedience, he received the habit. The life they led together was one of extreme austerity: their diet was bread and salt; they drank no wine and used no oil; they always watched half the night and frequently passed the whole of it without sleep. Sometimes they would repeat the entire psalter together; at other times they would occupy themselves in manual labour accompanied by interior prayer.
One day when Pachomius was visiting, as he occasionally did, a vast uninhabited desert on the banks of the Nile called Tabennisi, he is said to have heard a voice bidding him begin a monastery there, and about the same time he had a vision of an angel who gave him certain instructions regarding the religious life.*[* Some rationalist critics, laying stress upon the fact that the saint is said before his baptism to have resided in a little temple of Serapis, have sought to draw the inference that the whole monastic idea was an importation from paganism but, as Ladeuze and others have pointed out, Pachomius lived there after his thoughts had been turned to Christianity. The building referred to was probably only an abandoned shrine.]
These revelations he imparted to Palaemon, who accompanied him to Tabennisi about the year 318, helped him to construct a cell and remained with him for some time before returning to his solitude.
   The first disciple to receive the habit at Tabennisi from St Pachomius was his own eldest brother John others followed, and within a comparatively short time the number of his monks exceeded one hundred. He led them to an eminent degree of perfection, mainly through his own fervent spirit and example. He passed fifteen years without ever lying down, taking his short rest sitting on a stone, and from the moment of his conversion he never ate a full meal. Yet his rule for others was graduated according to their capacity, for he refused no applicant on the score of age or weakliness. He established six other monasteries in the Thebaid, and from the year 336 resided often at Pabau, near Thebes, which became a larger and even more famous community than Tabennisi. He built for the benefit of the poor shepherds a church in which for some time he acted as lector, but he could never be induced to offer himself for the priesthood, or to present any of his monks for ordination, although he was always prepared to give the habit to men who were already priests. He zealously opposed the Arians, and in 333 had a visit from St Athanasius. For the benefit of his sister whom, however, he never would see, he built a nunnery on the opposite side of the Nile. Cited to appear before a council of bishops at Latopolis to answer certain accusations, he displayed such humility in his replies to his calumniators that all present marvelled. Humility and patience were indeed virtues which he practised in a heroic degree; and miracles of healing took place at his intercession.
Pachomius died on May 15, 348, of an epidemic disease which had already carried off many of his brethren. He had lived to see three thousand monks in the nine monasteries under his charge. Cassian tells us that the larger his communities were, the more perfect was the observance of discipline, all obeying the superior more readily than any single person could be found to do elsewhere. To help in maintaining this discipline St Pachomius had a system of registering each monk in one of 24 lettered categories: “i”, for example, indicated a simple, innocent type, “x”, a difficult and stubborn character. The monks lived together three in a cell, grouped according to trades, and assembled together for the two night offices and for Mass on Saturdays and Sundays. Much emphasis was laid on Bible-reading and learning passages by heart; in general the monks were drawn from rough and rude material.
The story of the angel who appeared to Pachomius, bidding him gather young monks about him at Tabennisi, has not everywhere found acceptance; and still more difficulty has been raised over the brass tablet which the angel is supposed to have brought him said to have been inscribed with a summary of the rule he was to follow. None the less, such an account of its contents as we read in the Lausiac History of Palladius cannot have been a mere burlesque of the practices observed by the monks. The source of the rule may be legendary and it may be difficult to determine what its authentic provisions actually were. But there is a fair measure of resemblance among the texts handed down in Greek or in Ethiopic when compared with the amplified Sahidic original, which St Jerome translated by means of an interpreter and which we only know through this translation.
There is probably some foundation for that mitigation of austerity according to the capacity of the subject which Palladius makes so prominent. The angel-borne tablet is said to have enjoined: “Thou shalt allow each man to eat and drink according to his strength; and proportionately to the strength of the eaters appoint to them their labours. And prevent no man either from fasting or eating. However, assign the tasks that need strength to those who are stronger and eat, and to the weaker and more ascetic such as the weak can manage.” So, too, we have probably a glimpse of the practice actually followed, when Palladius quotes further: “Let them sleep not lying down full length, but let them make sloping chairs easily constructed and put their legs on them and thus sleep in a sitting posture”. Or again: “As they eat, let them cover their heads with their hoods, lest one brother see another chewing. A monk is not allowed to talk at meals, nor let his eye wander beyond his plate or the table.”
What is certain is that St Benedict’s Rule, which has shaped nearly all surviving monasticism in the West, borrowed a good deal from Pachomius. Abbot Cuthbert Butler, in his edition of the Regula S. Benedicti, makes thirty-two references to St Jerome’s Pachomiana, and several phrases in the rule can be traced to Pachomian sources, while the spirit of the so-called Angelic Rule is even more noticeable therein.

Of all the early saints of the East it is St Pachomius who seems of recent years to have attracted most attention. New discoveries have been made especially of Coptic (i.e. Sahidic) texts, though for the most part these unfortunately are only fragmentary. Other manuscripts previously neglected have now been collated in many different redactions and languages. The older generation of Bollandists (in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii) did a great deal, but in the seventeenth century no exhaustive research of oriental sources was possible. Their modern representatives, however, have published a thoroughly satisfactory edition of St Pachomii Vitae Graecae (1932), edited by Fr F. Halkin. With this great advance may be associated the not, less important study of L. T. Lefort, S. Pachomii Vitae Sahidice Scriptae (published in two parts in the Corpus Scriptorum (Christianorum Orientalium, 1933 and 1934), in the same series his edition of a Bohairic life of Pachomius (1925), and his Vies copter de S. Pacôme (1943) these are discussed in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lii (1934), pp. 286—320, and vol. lxiv (1946), pp. 258—277. A further piece of research is that of A. Boon, Pachomiana Latina (1932), an essay on St Jerome’s translation of the Rule with an appendix on the Greek and Coptic versions see also B. Albers, S. Pachomii . . . Regulae Monasticae (1923). Amongst a multitude of somewhat older studies the essay of F. Ladeuze, Le Cénobitisme Pakhômien, deserves special mention, and H. Leclercq in his long article “Monachisme” in DAC., vol. xi (1933), especially in cc. 1807—1831, has brought together a number of valuable bibliographical references. There are also biographies, with slight variations, in Syriac and Arabic. M. Amélineau, who was among the first to take account of the Coptic texts, published in 1887 an Etude historique sur S. Pacôme. After the sixteenth-centenary celebrations in Egypt in 1948 a volume of lectures, Pachomiana, by scholars of several national­ities and ecclesiastical obediences was published. For the Angelic Rule and Western monachism, see J. McCann’s St Benedict (1938), pp. 152 ss. and passim. In spite, however, of the research bestowed upon the subject, the life and work of St Pachomius still remain very much of a problem, as such an authority as Fr Paul Peeters is the first to confess.

Inducted into the Emperor's army as a twenty-year-old.  The great kindness of Christians at Thebes toward the soldiers became embedded in his mind and led to his conversion after his discharge. After being baptized, he became a disciple of an anchorite, Palemon (Died at Tabennisi, Egypt, in 325), and took the habit. The two of them led a life of extreme austerity and total dedication to God; they combined manual labor with unceasing prayer both day and night. 
Later, Pachomius felt called to build a monastery on the banks of the Nile at Tabennisi; so about 318 Palemon helped him build a cell there and even remained with him for a while.
In a short time some one hundred monks joined him and Pachomius organized them on principles of community living. So prevalent did the desire to emulate the life of Pachomius and his monks become, that the holy man was obliged to establish ten other monasteries for men and two nunneries for women.
Before his death in 346, there were seven thousand monks in his houses, and his Order lasted in the East until the 11th century.

St. Pachomius was the first monk to organize hermits into groups and write down a Rule for them. Both St. Basil (Born in Caesarea, Cappadocia, Asia Minor (now central Turkey), in 329; died there on January 1, 379; Doctor of the Church) and St. Benedict (Born in Nursia, Italy, c. 490; died at Monte Cassino, 543) drew from his Rule in setting forth their own more famous ones.  Hence, though St. Anthony is usually regarded as the founder of Christian monasticism, it was really St. Pachomius who began monasticism as we know it today.

Pachomius of Tabenna, Abbot (RM) (also known as Pachome) Born in the Upper Thebaîd near Esneh, Egypt, c. 290-292; died at Tabennisi, Egypt, on May 15, c. 346-348; feast day in the East is May 15.
"It is very much better for you to be one among a crowd of a thousand people and to possess a very little humility, than to be a man living in the cave of a hyena in pride." --Pachomius

Pachomius, son of pagan parents, was unwillingly drafted into the Theban army at the age of 20, probably to help Maximinus wage war against Licinius and Constantine. When his unit reached Thebes the officers in charge, knowing the feelings of their reluctant recruits, locked them up. They were taken down the Nile as virtual prisoners under terrible conditions. The soldier-prisoners were fed, given money, and treated with great kindness by the Christians of Latopolis (Esneh) while they were being shipped down the Nile, and Pachomius was struck by this.

When the army disbanded after the overthrow of Maximinus, he returned to Khenoboskion (Kasr as-Sayd). The kindness of the Christians to strangers caused Pachomius to enquire about their faith and to enroll himself as a catechumen at the local Christian church. After his baptism in 314 he searched for the best way to respond to the grace he had received in the sacrament. He prayed continually:

"O God, Creator of heaven and earth, cast on me an eye of pity: deliver me from my miseries: teach me the true way of pleasing You, and it shall be the whole employment, and most earnest study of my life to serve You, and to do Your will."

Like many neophytes, Pachomius was in danger of the temptation to do too much. Zeal is often an artifice of the devil to make a novice undertake too much too fast, and run indiscreetly beyond his strength. If the sails gather too much wind, the vessel is driven ahead, falls on some rock, and splits. Eagerness may be a symptom of secret passion, not of true virtue if it is willful and impatient at advice. Thus, Pachomius wanted to find a skillful conductor.

Hearing about a holy man was serving God in perfection, Pachomius finally sought out the elderly desert hermit named Saint Palaemon and asked to be his follower. They lived very austerely, doing manual labor to earn money for the relief of the poor and their own subsistence, and often praying all night. Palaemon would not use wine or oil in his food, even on Easter day, so as not to lose sight of the meaning of Christ's suffering. He set Pachomius to collecting briars barefoot; and the saint would often bear the pain as a reminder of the nails that entered Christ's feet.

One day in 318 while walking in the Tabennisi Desert on the banks of the Nile north of Thebes, Pachomius is said to have heard a voice that told him to begin a monastery there. He also experienced a vision in which an angel set out directions for the religious life. The two hermits constructed a cell there together about 320, and Palaemon lived with him for a while before returning to solitude. Pachomius's first follower was his own brother, John, and within a short time, there were 100 monks.

Pachomius wrote the first communal rule for monks (which some say survives in a Latin translation by Saint Jerome and others say is lost), an innovation on the common type of eremitical monachism. The life style was severe but less rigorous than that of typical hermits. Their habit was a sleeveless tunic of rough white linen with a cowl that prevented them from seeing one another at group meals taken in silence. (Silence was strictly observed at all times.) They wore on their shoulders a white goatskin, called Melotes. The monks learned the Bible by heart and came together daily for prayer. By his rule, the fasts and tasks of work of each were proportioned to his strength. They received the holy communion on the first and last days of every week. Novices were tried with great severity before they were admitted to the habit and profession of vows.

His rule influenced SS. Basil and Benedict; 32 passages of Benedict's rule are based on Pachomius's guidelines.
Pachomius himself went fifteen years without ever lying down, taking his short rest sitting on a stone. He begrudged the necessity for sleep because he wished he could have been able to employ all his moments in the actual exercises of divine love. From the time of his conversion he never ate a full meal. The saint, with the greatest care, comforted and served the sick himself. He received into his community the sickly and weak, rejecting none just because he lacked physical strength. The holy monk desired to lead all souls to heaven that had the fervor to walk in the paths of perfection.
He opened six other monasteries and a convent for his sister on the opposite side of the Nile (but would never visit her) in the Thebaîd, and from 336 on lived primarily at Pabau near Thebes, which outgrew the Tabennisi community in fame. He was an excellent administrator, and acted as superior general.
The communities were broken down into houses according to the crafts the inhabitants practiced, such as tailoring, baking, and agriculture. Goods made in the monasteries were sold in Alexandria. Because of his military background, Pachomius styled himself as a general who could transfer monks from one house to another for the good of the whole. There were local superiors and deans in charge of the houses. All those in authority met each year at Easter and in August to review annual accounts. Pachomius also built a church for poor shepherds and acted as its lector, but he refused to seek ordination for the priesthood or to present any of his monks for ordination, although he permitted priests to join and serve the communities.
Pachomius also had an enormous sense of justice. Although the money garnered by their labors was destined for the poor, when one of the procurators had sold the mats at market at a higher price than the saint had bid him, he ordered him to carry back the money to the buyers, and chastised him for his avarice.
The author of his vita tells us that the saint had the gift of tongues. Although he never learned Latin or Greek, he could speak them fluently when the necessity arose. Pachomius is credited with many miraculous cures with blessed oil of the sick and those possessed by devils. But he often said that their sickness or affliction was for the good of their souls and only prayed for their temporal comfort, with this clause or condition, if it should not prove hurtful to their souls. His dearest disciple, Saint Theodorus (Died April 27, c. 368) who after his death succeeded him as superior general, was afflicted with a perpetual headache. Pachomius, when asked by some of the brethren to pray for his health, answered: "Though abstinence and prayer be of great merit, yet sickness, suffered with patience, is of much greater."
One of the saints chief occupations was praying for the spiritual health of his disciples and others. He took every opportunity to curb and heal their passions, especially that of pride. One day a certain monk having doubled his diligence at work, and made two mats instead of one and set them where Pachomius might see them. The saint perceiving the snare, said "This brother has taken a great deal of pains from morning till night, to give his work to the devil." In order to cure the monk's vanity, Pachomius ruled that the proud monk do penance by remaining in his cell for five months.
Another time a young actor named Silvanus entered the monastery to do penance, but continued to live an undisciplined life by trying to entertain his fellows. Pachomius had a difficult time curbing his youthful playfulness until he explained the dreadful punishments awaiting those who mock God. From that moment divine grace touched Saint Silvanus, he led an exemplary life and was moved by the gift of tears.
Pachomius was an opponent of Arianism and for this reason was denounced to a council of bishops at Latopolis, but was completely exonerated. Though he was never ordained, he was highly respected and even visited by Saint Athanasius (Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in c. 295-297; died May 2, 373; Doctor of the Church one of the four great Greek Doctors; in the East he is venerated as one of the three Holy Hierarchs.) in 333.
By the time of his death, there were 3,000 (7,000 according to one source) monks in nine monasteries and two convents for women. He died in an epidemic. Pachomiusis one of the best-known figures in the history of monasticism (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Husenbeth, Walsh, White).
The vita of Saint Pachomius was translated into Latin from the Greek in the 6th century by the abbot Dionysus Exiguus, so called not because of height but because his great humility. Dionysus includes this story:
"At another time the cohorts of the devils plotted to tempt the man of God by a certain phantasy. For a crowd of them assembling together, were seen by him tying up the leaf of a tree with great ropes and tugging it along with immense exertion, ranking in order on the right and left: and the one side would exhort the other, and strain and tug, as if they were moving a stone of enormous weight. And this the wicked spirits were doing so as to move him, if they could, to loud laughter, and so they might cast it in his teeth. But Pachome, seeing their impudence, groaned and fled to the Lord with his accustomed prayers: and straightway by the virtue of Christ all their triangular array was brought to naught. . . .
"After this, so much trust had the blessed Pachome learned to place in God . . . that many a time he trod on snakes and scorpions, and passed unhurt through all: and the crocodiles, if ever he had necessity to cross the river, would carry him with the utmost subservience, and set him down at whatever spot he indicated" (Dionysus).
In art, Saint Pachomius is a hermit holding the tablets of his rule. He might also be shown (1) as an angel brings him the monastic rule; (2) being tempted by a she-devil; (3) in a hairshirt; (4) with Saint Palaemon (Roeder), or (5) walking among serpents (White).

St Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Sts Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic life in Egypt.

St Pachomius was born in the third century in the Thebaid (Upper Egypt). His parents were pagans who gave him an excellent secular education. From his youth he had a good character, and he was prudent and sensible.

When Pachomius reached the age of twenty, he was called up to serve in the army of the emperor Constantine (apparently, in the year 315). They put the new conscripts in a city prison guarded by soldiers. The local Christians fed the soldiers and took care of them.

When the young man learned that these people acted this way because of their love for God, fulfilling His commandment to love their neighbor, this made a deep impression upon his pure soul. Pachomius vowed to become a Christian. Pachomius returned from the army after the victory, received holy Baptism, moved to the lonely settlement of Shenesit, and began to lead a strict ascetic life. Realizing the need for spiritual guidance, he turned to the desert-dweller Palamon. He was accepted by the Elder, and he began to follow the example of his instructor in monastic struggles.

Once, after ten years of asceticism, St Pachomius made his way through the desert, and halted at the ruins of the former village of Tabennisi. Here he heard a Voice ordering him to start a monastery at this place. Pachomius told the Elder Palamon of this, and they both regarded the words as a command from God.

They went to Tabennisi and built a small monastic cell. The holy Elder Palamon blessed the foundations of the monastery and predicted its future glory. But soon Palamon departed to the Lord. An angel of God then appeared to St Pachomius in the form of a schemamonk and gave him a Rule of monastic life. Soon his older brother John came and settled there with him.

St Pachomius endured many temptations and assaults from the Enemy of the race of man, but he resisted all temptations by his prayer and endurance.

Gradually, followers began to gather around St Pachomius. Their teacher impressed everyone by his love for work, which enabled him to accomplish all kinds of monastic tasks. He cultivated a garden, he conversed with those seeking guidance, and he tended to the sick.

St Pachomius introduced a monastic Rule of cenobitic life, giving everyone the same food and attire. The monks of the monastery fulfilled the obediences assigned them for the common good of the monastery. Among the various obediences was copying books. The monks were not allowed to possess their own money nor to accept anything from their relatives. St Pachomius considered that an obedience fulfilled with zeal was greater than fasting or prayer. He also demanded from the monks an exact observance of the monastic Rule, and he chastized slackers.

His sister Maria came to see St Pachomius, but the strict ascetic refused to see her. Through the gate keeper, he blessed her to enter upon the path of monastic life, promising his help with this. Maria wept, but did as her brother had ordered. The Tabennisi monks built her a hut on the opposite side of the River Nile. Nuns also began to gather around Maria. Soon a women's monastery was formed with a strict monastic Rule provided by St Pachomius.

The number of monks at the monastery grew quickly, and it became necessary to build seven more monasteries in the vicinity. The number of monks reached 7,000, all under the guidance of St Pachomius, who visited all the monasteries and administered them. At the same time St Pachomius remained a deeply humble monk, who was always ready to comply with and accept the words of each brother.

Severe and strict towards himself, St Pachomius had great kindness and condescension toward the deficiencies of spiritually immature monks. One of the monks was eager for martyrdom, but St Pachomius turned him from this desire and instructed him to fulfill his monastic obedience, taming his pride, and training him in humility.

Once, a monk did not heed his advice and left the monastery. He was set upon by brigands, who threatened him with death and forced him to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. Filled with despair, the monk returned to the monastery. St Pachomius ordered him to pray intensely night and day, keep a strict fast and live in complete solitude. The monk followed his advice, and this saved his soul from despair.

The saint taught his spiritual children to avoid judging others, and he himself feared to judge anyone even in thought.

St Pachomius cared for the sick monks with special love. He visited them, he cheered the disheartened, he urged them to be thankful to God, and put their hope in His holy will. He relaxed the fasting rule for the sick, if this would help them recover their health. Once, in the saint's absence, the cook did not prepare any cooked food for the monks, assuming that the brethren loved to fast. Instead of fulfilling his obedience, the cook plaited 500 mats, something which St Pachomius had not told him to do. In punishment for his disobedience, all the mats prepared by the cook were burned.

St Pachomius always taught the monks to rely only upon God's help and mercy. It happened that there was a shortage of grain at the monastery. The saint spent the whole night in prayer, and in the morning a large quantity of bread was sent to the monastery from the city, at no charge. The Lord granted St Pachomius the gift of wonderworking and healing the sick.

The Lord revealed to him the future of monasticism. The saint learned that future monks would not have such zeal in their struggles as the first generation had, and they would not have experienced guides. Prostrating himself upon the ground, St Pachomius wept bitterly, calling out to the Lord and imploring mercy for them. He heard a Voice answer, "Pachomius, be mindful of the mercy of God. The monks of the future shall receive a reward, since they too shall have occasion to suffer the life burdensome for the monk."

Toward the end of his life St Pachomius fell ill from a pestilence that afflicted the region. His closest disciple, St Theodore (May 17), tended to him with filial love. St Pachomius died around the year 348 at the age of fifty-three, and was buried on a hill near the monastery.
4th v. Silvanus of Tabennisi an actor who abandoned the world to become a monk Hermit His sentiments of contrition helped him so to progress in virtue that the holy abbot proposed him as a model of humility to the rest favored with a spirit of prophecy he explained the dreadful judgments which threaten those that mock God. (AC)
Saint Silvanus was an actor who abandoned the world to become a monk at Tabennisi under Saint Pachomius (Born in the Upper Thebaîd near Esneh, Egypt, c. 290-292; died at Tabennisi, Egypt, on May 15, c. 346-348; feast day in the East is May 15.) For some time he led an undisciplined life, trying to entertain the other monks and often transgressing the rule of silence. Pachomius endeavored to reform him by remonstration, prayers, sighs, and tears, for his poor soul. It was a fruitless endeavor for a long time, but Pachomius persisted
until one day he explained to the impenitent Silvanus the dreadful judgments which threaten those that mock God.

From that moment Silvanus began to lead a life of great edification to the rest of the brethren and began to bewail his past misdemeanors. When others entreated him to moderate the floods of his tears, "Ah," said he, "how can I help weeping, when I consider the wretchedness of my past life, and that by my sloth I have profaned what was most sacred? I have reason to fear lest the earth should open under my feet, and swallow me up, as it did Dathan and Abiron. Oh! suffer me to labor with ever-flowing fountains of tears, to expiate my innumerable sins. I ought, if I could, even to pour forth this wretched soul of mine in mourning; it would be all too little for my offenses."

His sentiments of contrition helped him so to progress in virtue that the holy abbot proposed him as a model of humility to the rest. After eight years in this penitential course, God had called Silvanus to himself. Saint Pachomius was assured by a revelation, that his soul was presented by angels a most agreeable sacrifice to Christ. The saint was favored with a spirit of prophecy, and with great grief foretold the decay of monastic fervor in his order in succeeding ages.
He is especially honored among the Greeks (Benedictines, Husenbeth). In art, Saint Silvanus is a hermit watering flowers. He is venerated by the Greeks (Roeder).

558 Saint Hilary Hermit respected by  Ostrogoth King Theodoric spared monastery the land as well
558 ST HILARY OF GALEATA, ABBOT
A copy of St Paul's epistles, which came into the hands of this St Hilary when he was twelve years old, first inspired him to abandon the world in order to serve God in solitude. Shortly afterwards he heard that gospel read in church, in which our Lord says that if anyone would be His disciple he must hate father, mother and his own life. Uncertain as to the exact meaning of the words he consulted a pious old man, who hesitated to expound this counsel of perfection to a lad of his years. But the boy insisted, and received the explanation he sought. Confirmed in his previous conviction, Hilary immediately forsook his Tuscan home, crossed the Apennines, and took up his abode in a hermitage beside the river Ronco. Afterwards he fashioned a cell for himself on a neighbouring mountain peak. Gradually disciples gathered round, and for their sake he built a monastery on land granted by a nobleman of Ravenna whom he had freed from an evil spirit, and who had been converted, together with his household. This abbey, which he named Galeata, was subsequently called after him, Sant' Ilaro. He gave his monks no written rule, but they continued to observe the way of life instituted by him-a round of praise, prayer and manual work. According to a popular legend, he was always visibly protected by his guardian angel in times of danger-notably when Theodoric the Goth threatened to destroy him and his monastery because he refused to pay tribute. The conqueror was certainly favourably impressed by the saint, for he not only besought his prayers but also gave him territory for the enlargement of his abbey. St Hilary died in 558 at the age of eighty-two, and his body was translated in 1495 seven years after the time when the monastery passed into the hands of the Camaldolese Order.
There seems no reason to doubt that the short life, which purports to be written by Paul, a disciple of St Hilary, is a substantially faithful record. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii.

When King Theodoric of the Ostrogoths invaded the region, Hilary not only persuaded him to spare the monastery but the land as well. . Born in Tuscany, Italy, Hilary entered religious life at the age of twelve. He founded a hermitage, called Galeata and then Saint Ilaro, later given to the Camaldolese.

Hilary of Galeata, Abbot (AC) Born in Tuscany, Italy; died 558. Saint Hilary was first attracted to the religious life when only 12. Soon after, he left home, built a hermitage near the Ronco River, and was the founding abbot of Galeata Monastery, now known as Sant'Ilaro run by the Camaldolese. He persuaded the invading Theodoric the Goth not to destroy his monastery and even convince him to grant him land (Benedictines, Delaney).
6th v. Colman McO'Laoighse, Abbot (AC) (also known as Columbanus)
A disciple of Saint Columba (Born in Garton, County Donegal, Ireland, c. 521; died June 9, 597.) and Saint Fintan (Born in Leinster; died 603.) of Clonenagh, Saint Colman founded and governed the monastery of Oughaval (Benedictines).
650 Saint Dymphna Many miracles have taken place at her shrine on the spot where she was buried in Gheel, Belgium Patron of those suffering for nervous and mental affictions
Ghelæ, in Brabántia, sanctæ Dympnæ, Vírginis et Mártyris, fíliæ Regis Hibernórum; quæ, cum in fide Christi et virginitáte servánda permanéret immóbilis, a patre jussa est decollári.
    At Gheel in Brabant, St. Dymphna, virgin and martyr, daughter of the king of Ireland.  By order of her father, she was beheaded for the faith of Christ and the preservation of her virginity.
650? SS. DYMPNA AND GEREBERNUS, MARTYRS
IN the town of Gheel, twenty-five miles from Antwerp, great honour is paid to St Dympna, whose body, and that of St Gerebernus, buried in two ancient marble sarcophagi, were there discovered, or rediscovered, in the thirteenth century.
         Widespread interest was taken in them because the elevation of the relics of St Dympna was followed, it is alleged, by the restoration to normal health of a number of epileptics, lunatics and persons under malign influence who visited her shrine.
         Ever since then she has been regarded as the patroness of the insane, and the inhabitants of Gheel have been distinguished by the kindly provision they have made for those so afflicted. As early as the close of the thirteenth century an infirmary was built for their accommodation and at the present time the town possesses a first-class state sanatorium for the care and supervision of mental defectives, the greater number of whom lead contented and useful lives as boarders in the homes of farmers or other local residents, whom they assist by their labour and whose family life they share. The body of St Dympna is preserved in a silver reliquary in the church which bears her name. Only the head of St Gerebernus now rests there, his other remains having been removed to Sonsbeck in the diocese of Münster.
           The true history of these saints is probably lost, but popular belief, reaching back to the date of the finding of their relics, has attached to them a story which, with local variations, is to be found in the folk-lore of many European countries.
         Briefly summarized, it runs as follows. Dympna was the daughter of a pagan Irish, British or Armorican king and of a Christian princess who died when their child was very young, though not before she had been instructed in the Christian faith and baptized. As she grew up, her extraordinary resemblance to her dead mother whom he had idolized awakened an unlawful passion in her father. Consequently, by the advice of St Gerebernus, her confessor, she fled from home to avoid further danger. Accompanied by the priest and attended by the court jester and his wife, she embarked in a ship which conveyed them to Antwerp. From thence they made their way south-east, through a tract of wild forest country, until they reached a little oratory dedicated to St Martin and built on a site now covered by the town of Gheel. Here they settled, intending to live as solitaries. In the meantime, however, Dympna’s father had started in pursuit and in due time arrived at Antwerp, from whence he sent out spies who discovered the refuge of the fugitives. The clue by which they were traced was the use of strange coins similar to those which the spies themselves proffered in payment. Coming upon them unawares, the king first tried by cajolery to persuade his daughter to return with him. She refused, and as she was supported by St Gerebemus, the tyrant ordered his attendants to kill them both. The men promptly despatched the priest, but hesitated to attack the princess. Thereupon the unnatural father struck off his daughter’s head with his own sword. The bodies of the saints, which were left exposed on the ground, were afterwards buried by angelic or human hands in the place where they had perished.
           This story is treated by Delehaye in his Légendes Hagiographiques (Eng. trans., pp. g,
          105, 107) as an almost typical example of the infiltrations of folklore into hagiography. The
          text of the legend is in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. See further Van der Essen,
         
Étude critique sui les Vies des Saints méroving., pp. 313—320 Künstle, Ikonographie, vol. ii,
          pp. 190—192 and Janssens, Gheel in Beeld en Schrift (1903). An interesting feature in the
          case is the fact that lunatics who go to Gheel to be healed are made to pass through an archway
          immediately underneath the shrine of the saint. One finds many early examples, even at
          Jerusalem itself, in which the squeezing through some narrow aperture is believed to be a
          condition for obtaining special favour. Dympna is not to -be identified with the Irish St
          Damhnait (Damnat of Tedavnet), but her feast is observed throughout Ireland.

Dymphna was fourteen when her mother died. Damon is said to have been afflicted with a mental illness, brought on by his grief. He sent messengers throughout his town and other lands to find some woman of noble birth, resembling his wife, who would be willing to marry him. When none could be found, his evil advisers told him to marry his own daughter. Dymphna fled from her castle together with Saint Gerebran, her confessor and two other friends. Damon found them in Belgium. He gave orders that the priest's head be cut off. Then Damon tried to persuade his daughter to return to Ireland with him. When she refused, he drew his sword and struck off her head.
She was then only fifteen years of age. Dymphna received the crown of martyrdom in defense of her purity about the year 620. She is the patron of those suffering from nervous and mental afflictions. Many miracles have taken place at her shrine, built on the spot where she was buried in Gheel, Belgium.

Prayer: Hear us, O God, Our Saviour, as we honor Saint Dymphna, patron of those afflicted with mental and emotional illness. Help us to be inspired by her example and comforted by her merciful help. Amen.

Dympna of Gheel VM (RM) (also known as Dymphna, Dympne) Died c. 650. Variations of the legend of Saint Dympna are to be found in the folklore of many European countries. In fact, it is a classic example of a folktale adapted as the life-story of a saint. In the early 13th century, the bones of an unknown man and woman were discovered at Gheel near Antwerp, Belgium. The name Dympna was found on a brick with the two ancient, marble coffins and may have been taken as a variation on the name Saint Damhnait (Damhnade).

Dympna is said to have been the daughter of a pagan Irish (from Monaghan?), British, or Amorican king and a Christian princess who died when she was very young, but who had baptized her daughter. As Dympna grew into a young woman, her uncanny resemblance to her dead mother aroused an incestuous passion in her father.

On the advice of her confessor, Saint Gerebernus, Dympna fled from home. Accompanied by Gerebernus and attended by the court jester and his wife, she took a ship to Antwerp. She then travelled through wild forest country until she reached a small oratory dedicated to Saint Martin on the site of the present-day town of Gheel (25 miles from Antwerp). The group settled there to live as hermits and during the several months before they were found, Dympna gained a reputation for holiness because of her devotion to the poor and suffering.
Dympna's father had pursued her to Antwerp, and he sent spies who found them by tracing their use of foreign coins. The king tried to persuade her to return, but when she refused, the king ordered that she and Gerebernus be killed. The king's men killed the priest and their companions but hesitated to kill Dympna. The king himself struck off her head with his sword. The bodies were left on the ground. They were buried by angelic or human hands on the site where they had perished.

The whole story gripped the imagination of the entire countryside especially because, according to tradition, lunatics were cured at her grave. Great interest in her cultus was renewed and spread when the translation of the relics of Dympna was followed by the cures of a number of epileptics, lunatics, and persons under evil influences who had visited the shrine. Thus, in the 13th century, a bishop of Cambrai, faced with the growing veneration of Dympna and increasing interest in mental illness, arranged for her biography to be written by a man named Pierre who collected the oral tradition. Ever since, she has been regarded as the patroness of the mentally ill.

Under her patronage, the inhabitants of Gheel have been known for the care they have given to those with mental illnesses. By the close of the 13th century, an infirmary was built. Today the town possesses a first-class sanatorium, one of the largest and most efficient colonies for the mentally ill in the world. It was one of the first to initiate a program through which patients live normal and useful lives in the homes of farmers or local residents, whom they assist in their labor and whose family life they share. The strength of Dympna's cultus is evidenced by this compassionate work of the people of Gheel for the mentally ill at a time when they were universally neglected or treated with hostility.

The body of Dympna is preserved in a silver reliquary in the church bearing her name. Only the head of Gerebernus rests there, the remains have been removed to Sonsbeck in the diocese of Muenster. Three churches in Belgium have altars dedicated to her (Attwater, Benedictines, D'Arcy, Delaney, Farmer, Kenney, Montague, O'Hanlon, White).

From Stories of the Saints by Kate Bolin
In art, Saint Dympna is a crowned maiden with a sword and the devil on a chain. Sometimes she may be shown (1) kneeling before her confessor, Saint Gerebernus, (2) kneeling at Mass while her father murders the priest Gerebernus (Roeder), (3) praying in a cloud surrounded by a group of lunatics bound with golden chains, or (4) being beheaded by the king (White). The more common image now seen of Saint Dympna (shown here and in a larger size), clearly illustrates that she is a virgin (lily) and Irish (note the shamrock on the book). For an interesting image that has larger cultural implications, see La Cadena--El Hogar.

Dympna is invoked against insanity, mental illness of all types, asylums for the mentally ill, nurses of the mentally ill, sleepwalking, epilepsy, and demoniac possession (Roeder). A lovely set of nine prayers to Saint Dymphna are worth studying.
Her feast day is kept in Ireland and Gheel. In the United States, her cultus centers on her shrine in Massillon, Ohio, which is next to one of the most modern hospitals in the world. The Franciscan Mission Associates in America conduct a world-wide correspondence in her name to fund their activities for the poor and suffering, especially in Central America (Montague).
7th v. Gerebernus aged Irish priest Gerebernus accompanied Saint Dympna, whom he had baptized in her infancy to Belgium shared in her martyrdom at Ghee M (AC)
650 SS. DYMPNA AND GEREBERNUS, MARTYRS
IN the town of Gheel, twenty-five miles from Antwerp, great honour is paid to St Dympna, whose body, and that of St Gerebernus, buried in two ancient marble sarcophagi, were there discovered, or re-discovered, in the thirteenth century. Widespread interest was taken in them because the elevation of the relics of St Dympna was followed, it is alleged, by the restoration to normal health of a number of epileptics, lunatics and persons under malign influence who visited her shrine. Ever since then she has been regarded as the patroness of the insane, and the inhabitants of Gheel have been distinguished by the kindly provision they have made for those so afflicted.
As early as the close of the thirteenth century an infirmary was built for their accommodation and at the present time the town possesses a first-class state sanatorium for the care and supervision of mental defectives, the greater number of whom lead contented and useful lives as boarders in the homes of farmers or other local residents, whom they assist by their labour and whose family life they share. The body of St Dympna is preserved in a silver reliquary in the church which bears her name. Only the head of St Gerebernus now rests there, his other remains having been removed to Sonsbeck in the diocese of Münster.
The true history of these saints is probably lost, but popular belief, reaching back to the date of the finding of their relics, has attached to them a story which, with local variations, is to be found in the folk-lore of many European countries. Briefly summarized, it runs as follows. Dympna was the daughter of a pagan Irish, British or Armorican king and of a Christian princess who died when their child was very young, though not before she had been instructed in the Christian faith and baptized. As she grew up, her extraordinary resemblance to her dead mother whom he had idolized awakened an unlawful passion in her father. Consequently, by the advice of St Gerebernus, her confessor, she fled from home to avoid further danger. Accompanied by the priest and attended by the court jester and his wife, she embarked in a ship which conveyed them to Antwerp. From thence they made their way south-east, through a tract of wild forest country, until they reached a little oratory dedicated to St Martin and built on a site now covered by the town of Gheel. Here they settled, intending to live as solitaries. In the meantime, however, Dympna's father had started in pursuit and in due time arrived at Antwerp, from whence he sent out spies who discovered the refuge of the fugitives. The clue by which they were traced was the use of strange coins similar to those which the spies themselves proffered in payment. Coming upon them unawares, the king first tried by cajolery to persuade his daughter to return with him. She refused, and as she was supported by St Gerebernus, the tyrant ordered his attendants to kill them both. The men promptly despatched the priest, but hesitated to attack the princess. Thereupon the unnatural father struck off his daughter's head with his own sword. The bodies of the saints, which were left exposed on the ground, were afterwards buried by angelic or human hands in the place where they had perished.
This story is treated by Delehaye in his Légendes Hagiographiques (Eng. trans., pp. 9, 105, 157) as an almost typical example of the infiltrations of folklore into hagiography. The text of the legend is in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. See further Van der Essen, Etude critique sur les Vies des Saints Méroving., pp. 313—320 Kunstle, Ikonographie, vol. ii, pp. 190—192 and Janssens, Gheel in Beeld en Schrift (1903). An interesting feature in the case is the fact that lunatics who go to Gheel to be healed are made to pass through an archway immediately underneath the shrine of the saint. One finds many early examples, even at Jerusalem itself, in which the squeezing through some narrow aperture is believed to be a condition for obtaining special favour. Dympna is not to be identified with the Irish St Damhnait (Damnat of Tedavnet), but her feast is observed throughout Ireland.
7th v. Gerebernus  (also known as Gereborn, Gerebrand, Genebrard) 7th century. As an aged Irish priest Gerebernus accompanied Saint Dympna, whom he had baptized in her infancy, to Belgium and shared in her martyrdom at Gheel. He is the patron saint of the village of Sonsbeck (Santbeck), Cleves, in the Rhineland, Germany, where his relics are enshrined, except for his head, which is in Gheel. Curiously, he was the subject of "holy robbers of Xanten" who specialized in stealing holy relics, although they were unable to remove those of Dympna. His intercession is sought against gout and fever (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Husenbeth).
7th v Saint Gerebrand Martyred Irish priest companion of Saint Dymphna.
He was quite elderly when he went with Saint Dymphna to Belgium, where they were slain by pagans. Gerebrand, sometimes called Gerebern, is patron of a Rhineland area.
733 Saint Britwin fosterd monasticism and culture

Benedictine abbot of Beverley, England, and friend of Saint John of Beverley, who became the bishop of York. Britwin did much to foster monasticism and culture in England.

Britwin of Beverley, OSB Abbot (AC) (also known as Brithwin, Brithun). When Saint John of Beverley resigned his bishopric at York, his good friend Abbot Saint Brithwin received him into his monastery at Beverley (Benedictines).

9th v. Saint Bertha founded several hospices for the poor
840 SS. BERTHA AND RUPERT
THE history of St Rupert and St Bertha was written and their cultus popularized some three hundred years after their death by St Hildegard, who spent the latter part of her life on the Rupertsberg. According to this account, Rupert was the son of a pagan father and of a Christian mother called Bertha, who came of the family of the dukes of Lorraine and owned much property beside the Rhine and the Nahe. Her husband having been killed in battle when their son was still an infant, Bertha devoted herself entirely to his education. So eagerly did the boy respond to the Christian instruction he received that the roles of teacher and pupil were practically reversed. "Look, mother those are all your children" he would say as ragged little beggars gathered round them, and once, in reply to his mother's suggestion of building a church, he exclaimed, "But first of all we must obey God and give our bread to the hungry and clothe the naked". These words produced such an impression on St Bertha that she immediately established several hospices for the poor.
When Rupert was twelve, he and his mother went to Rome to visit the tombs of the apostles. Upon their return they made several religious foundations and gave away the rest of their possessions. Accompanied by his mother, Rupert then retired to live as a hermit in the hilly country near Bingen, which was afterwards called the Rupertsberg. He was only twenty years of age when he died. St Bertha continued to serve God in the same place for another twenty-five years, and when she, too, passed away, she was buried beside her son in a convent which they had built beside the Nahe.
The text of St Hildegard’s narrative is in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. See also P. Bruder, St Rupertus Büchlein (1883).
Bertha was related to the Dukes of Lorraine and she owned extensive properties on the Rhine. She married a pagan, and when he was killed in battle, she devoted herself to raising her son Rupert as a Christian. She founded several hospices for the poor, and after a visit to Rome, they gave away their possessions and became hermits near Bingen (Rupertsberg), Germany. Rupert died when he was twenty years old, and she spent the remaining twenty-five years of her life there.

Bertha and Rupert (AC) 9th century. Saint Bertha was related to the dukes of Lorraine. She owned extensive properties on the Rhein, married a pagan, and when he was killed in battle, devoted herself to raising her son Rupert as a Christian. She founded several hospices for the poor, and after a visit to Rome, they gave away their possessions and became hermits near Bingen, Germany. The hill where they lived has since been called after him Rupertsberg. He died when twenty and Bertha spent the remaining 25 years of her life there. In the 12th century, Saint Hildegard fostered the cultus of both saints (Benedictines, Delaney).
925 Nicholas the Mystic oldest member of the mystic, or secret, council of the Byzantine court B (AC)

Patriarch Nicholas of Constantinople was deposed and exiled by Emperor Leo the Wise because he would not permit the monarch to marry a fourth time, which is forbidden in the Eastern Church.
He is surnamed "the Mystic" because he was the oldest member of the mystic, or secret, council of the Byzantine court (Benedictines).

1043 ST HALLVARD, MARTYR
In Norway St Hallvard (Halward) was formerly held in great honour, and its capital, Oslo, is still under his patronage. His history is shrouded in obscurity, but tradition has supplied us with an account of his death. He is said to have been the son of one Vebjörn of Husaby, and to have been engaged in trading with the various Baltic islands. He was about to cross the Drammenfjord one day when he was accosted by a woman, who besought him to receive her into his boat and save her from her enemies. As she appeared to be in terrible distress and was obviously with child, he acceded to her request. Before they could start, three men came running down to the shore demanding the surrender of the woman, whom they accused of theft. She denied the charge, and Hallvard refused to deliver her over to their vengeance, though he said he was willing to give them the value of what she was accused of stealing. Thereupon one of the men drew his bow and shot first one and then the other dead. After they had attached a heavy stone to Hallvard's neck, they flung his body into the sea, but it floated on the water; this drew attention to what had happened, and the young man was revered as a martyr in defence of an innocent person. St Hallvard's relics were afterwards taken to Oslo where a stone church was built to enshrine them early in the twelfth century.
However slight and legendary the account may seem which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, and in Storm, Monumenta historica Norvegiae, there can be no question that the church of St Hallvard at Oslo was held in great honour. See the Hacon Saga (Rolls Series), 288 and S. Undset, Saga of Saints (1934), pp. 149—162.
1130 Saint Isidore the Farmer; celestial visions, angels sometimes helped him, appeared in a vision to King Alphonsus of Castile in 1211 show him an unknown path used to surprise and defeat the Moors; patron of farmers his master saw angels and oxen helping him:   St Isidore died on May 15, 1130. His wife survived him for several years and, like him, is honoured as a saint. In Spain she is venerated as Santa Maria de Ia Cabeza
1130 ST ISIDORE THE HUSBANDMAN
In the United States of America this feast is celebrated on 25 October.

THE patron of Madrid was born in the Spanish capital of poor parents, and was christened Isidore after the celebrated archbishop of Seville. Although unable to procure educational advantages for their son, his father and mother early instilled into his mind a great horror of sin and a love of prayer. As soon as he was old enough to work, Isidore entered the service of John de Vergas, a wealthy resident of Madrid, as a farm labourer on his estate outside the city, and with that one employer he remained all his life. He married a girl as poor and as good as himself, but after the birth of one son, who died young, they agreed to serve God in perfect continence.
Isidore's whole life was a model of Christian perfection lived in the world. He would rise early to go to church, and all day long, whilst his hand guided the plough, he would be communing with God, with his guardian angel or with the holy saints. Public holidays he would spend in visiting the churches of Madrid and the neighbouring districts. Kind and helpful though he always was to others, he did not escape detraction. His fellow workmen complained that his attendance at church caused him to be late in starting work. To test the truth of this accusation, de Vergas hid himself to watch. He saw that Isidore did actually arrive after his fellow labourers, and he was advancing to upbraid him for his irregularity when he was surprised, we are told, to see a second team of snow-white oxen led by unknown figures ploughing beside that driven by Isidore. As he stood watching, rooted to the ground, the strange team disappeared and he realized that supernatural help had supplied all that was lacking. Other people also reported having seen angels assisting Isidore, and John de Vergas came to revere his servant who, it is said, -worked miracles for the benefit of his employer and his family.
The saint's liberality to the poor was so great that he was wont to share his meals with them, often reserving for himself only the scraps they left over. On one occasion, when he had been invited to a confratemity dinner, he remained so long in church absorbed in prayer that the feast was nearly over before he made his appearance-followed by a train of beggars. His hosts expostulated, saying that they had reserved for him his portion, but that they could not possibly feed the whole crowd. St Isidore replied that there would be ample for himself and for Christ's poor. So, indeed, it happened, for when the food was produced there was enough and to spare for them all. Amongst the numerous stories told of the holy man is one which illustrates his love for animals. On a snowy winter's day, as he was carrying a sack of corn to be ground, he saw a number of birds perched disconsolately on the bare branches, obviously unable to find anything to eat. Isidore opened the sack and, in spite of the jeers of a companion, poured out half its contents upon the ground. When, however, they reached their destination the sack proved to be still full and the corn, when ground, produced double the usual amount of flour.
St Isidore died on May 15, 1130. His wife survived him for several years and, like him, is honoured as a saint. In Spain she is venerated as Santa Maria de Ia Cabeza, because her head (Sp. cabeza) is often carried in procession in times of drought. Forty years after the death of St Isidore his body was transferred to a more honourable shrine, and a great impetus was given to his cultus by the report of many miracles worked through his intercession. In 1211 he is said to have appeared in a vision to King Alphonsus of Castile, then fighting the Moors in the pass of Navas de Tolosa, and to have shown him an unknown path by means of which he was able to surprise and defeat the enemy. More than four hundred years later, King Philip III of Spain was taken so ill at Casaribios del Monte that his life was despaired of by the physicians. Thereupon the shrine of St Isidore was carried in solemn procession from Madrid to the sick monarch's room; at the hour the relics were removed from the church of St Andrew, the fever left the king, and when they were brought into his presence he recovered completely. The Spanish royal family had long desired to have St Isidore formally enrolled amongst the saints, and in March 1622 he was duly canonized together with St Ignatius, St Francis Xavier, St Teresa and St Philip Neri. In Spain this holy quintet are commonly spoken of as "The Five Saints".
The foundation document upon which our knowledge of the saint is almost entirely based is a life by “John the Deacon”, probably identical with the Franciscan writer Johannes Aegidius of Zamora. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, but as it was compiled a century and a half after St Isidore’s death it cannot be regarded as a very trustworthy record. A critical edition of this Latin text was published by Fr F. Fita, in the Boletin cit La Real Academia de la Historia, vol. ix (1886), pp. 102—152. Lives in Spanish (including several poetical settings by Lope de Vega and in Italian are numerous. The best biography is said to be that by Father J. Bleda (1622), and there is a more modern account in French by J. P. Toussaint (1901). But by far the most satisfactory treatment of the points of interest in the history of St Isidore is that published by Fr Garcia Villada in Razón y Fe, January to May, 1922. He in particular supplies very full details regarding the preservation of the body of the saint it is mummified, but still entire.

Saint Isidore was born at Madrid, Spain, in the latter half of the twelfth century. For the greater part of his life, he was employed as a laborer on a farm outside the city. Many marvelous happenings accompanied his lifelong work in the fields and continued long after his holy death. He was favored with celestial visions and, it is said, the angels sometimes helped him in his work in the fields. Saint Isidore was canonized in 1622. In 1947, he was proclaimed the patron of the National Rural Life Conference in the United States.

Prayer : God, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, the holy Farmer, grant that we may overcome all feelings of pride. May we always serve You with that humility which pleases You, through his merits and example.
Saint Isidore Patron of National Rural Conference in the United States

Saint Isidore was born at Madrid, Spain, in the latter half of the 12th century. For the greater part of his life he was employed as a laborer on a farm outside the city. Many marvelous happenings accompanied his lifelong work in the fields and continued long after his holy death. He was favored with celestial visions and, it is said, the angels sometimes helped him in his work in the fields. Saint Isidore was canonized in 1622.  In 1947, he was proclaimed the patron of the National Rural Conference in the United States.

Isidore the Farmer (RM) (also known as Isidoro, Isidro) Born in Madrid, Spain, 1070; died there in 1130; canonized in 1622; feast day formerly on May 10 and March 22, and October 25 in the U.S.A.

Saint Isidore's feast is celebrated in Madrid, Spain, with ringing church bells and streets decorated for a procession in his honor. The saint was poor into a peasant family and baptized Isidore in honor of the famous archbishop of Seville. His unreliable biography was written about 150 years after his death and many concern the miracles associated with his name.

Isidore was a day laborer, working on the farm of the wealthy John de Vergas at Torrelaguna just outside Madrid. He married a poor girl, Maria de la Cabeza (Torriba), and had a son who died while still a baby. Thereafter, the couple took a vow of continence to serve God.
Isidore's life is a model of simple Christian charity and faith. He prayed while at work, and he visited many churches in Madrid and the area while on holidays. He shared what he had--even his meals--with the poor, often giving them the more liberal portions.

He was steady and hard-working, but a complaint was made against him to his employer that he arrived late to work because he attended early morning Mass each day. When charged with his offense, he did not deny it and explained to his employer: "Sir, it may be true that I am later at my work than some of the other laborers, but I do my utmost to make up for the few minutes snatched for prayer; I pray you compare my work with theirs, and if you find I have defrauded you in the least, gladly will I make amends by paying you out of my private store."

His employer said nothing, but remained suspicious, and, being determined to find out the truth, rose one morning at daybreak and concealed himself outside the church. In due course, Isidore appeared and entered the building, and afterwards, when the service was over, went to his work. Still following him, his employer saw him take the plough into a field, and was about to confront him when, in the pale, misty light of dawn, he saw, as he thought, a second plough drawn by white oxen moving up and down the furrows. Greatly astonished, he ran towards it, but even as he ran it disappeared and he saw only Isidore and his single-plough.    
Saint Isidore
When he spoke to Isidore and enquired about the second plough he had seen, Isidore replied in surprise: "Sir, I work alone and know of none save God to whom I look for strength." Thus the story grew that so great was his sanctity that the angels helped him even in his plowing. It was characteristic of Isidore's whole life. He was a simple ploughman, his speech clear and direct, his conduct honest as the day, his faith pure and steadfast. He was a poor man, but gave away what he could, with a good and generous heart, and with such sympathy and goodwill that his gifts seemed doubly blessed. Indeed, he could never neglect doing a kindness to man or beast. 

One snowy day, when going to the mill with corn to be ground which his wife had gleaned, he passed a flock of wood-pigeons scratching vainly for food on the hard surface of the frosty ground. Taking pity on the poor animals, he poured half of his sack of precious corn upon the ground for the birds, despite the mocking of witnesses. When he reached the mill, however, the bag was full, and the corn, when it was ground, produced double the expected amount of flour.

In such simple tales we find reflected the spirit of Saint Isidore, who never ruled a diocese or was martyred for his faith, but who as truly served God in the fields and on the farm as those in higher places and who bore more famous names.
St. Isidore
Folk image of Saint Isidore courtesy of Saint Charles Borromeo Church
His saintly wife survived Isidore for several years. Forty years after his death, his body was transferred to a shrine, and his cultus grew as a result of miracles attributed to his intercession. He is said to have appeared in a vision to King Alphonsus of Castile in 1211, and to have shown him an unknown path, which he used to surprise and defeat the Moors. His canonization occurred at the insistence of King Philip III, who attributed his recovery from a serious illness to Isidore's intercession (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Gill, Tabor, White).

In art, Saint Isidore is portrayed as a peasant holding a sickle and a sheaf of corn. He might also be shown (1) with a sickle and staff, (2) as an angel ploughs for him, (3) giving a rosary to children by a well, mattock on his feet, water springing from the well, (4) striking water from dry earth with an angel plowing in the background (Roeder), (5) before a cross, or (6) with an angel and white oxen near him (White).
In Spanish art his emblems are a spade or a plough (Tabor). He is the patron of Madrid, Spain (Roeder), farmers and farm laborers, and the U.S. National Catholic Rural Conference (White).
7th v. Saint Waldalenus; Abbot, founder, brother of Saint Adalsindis founded the monastery of Beze.
Saint Caesarn Virgin recluse Date unknown
Virgin recluse at Otranto in southern Italy. To defend her virtue, Cacsarea took refuge in a cave near Otranto. The site became a popular pilgrimage destination.
Caesarea V (AC) Caesarea, an Italian maiden, sought refuge in a cave near Otranto in southern Italy in order to preserve her virtue. There she lived out the balance of her days as a recluse. The cave is now a place of popular pilgrimage (Benedictines).

Saint Nicholas the Mystic Patriarch of Constantinople
He was deposed and exiled by Emperor Leo VI the Wise after he opposed the ruler’s fourth marriage, which was prohibited by the laws of the Eastern Church. His name, “the Mystic,” was de­rived from his membership on the inner council the imperial court. 

1043 Saint Hallvard martyr for his defense of an innocent person and is the patron saint of Oslo.

According to tradition, Hallvard was a Norwegian, son of Vebjorn of Husaby. He became a trader in the Baltic Islands. While defending a woman who bought sanctuary on his ship from three men accusing her of theft (he offered to make restitution to them), he was killed, with the woman, by arrows from the men. Though they attached a stone to his body when they cast it into the sea, it came to the surface, and the whole story came out. He has long been revered as a martyr for his defense of an innocent person and is the patron saint of Oslo.

Halward of Oslo M (AC) (also known as Hallvard, Hallward); feast day formerly May 14. The traditional story of Saint Halward relates nothing about his life except his death. He was the son of the royal family or a landowner at Husaby, Norway (a site familiar to the readers of Undset's Kristan Lavransdatter, "Mistress of Husaby"). One day as he was about to cross the Drammenfjord in a boat, a woman called to him for help; she had been falsely accused of stealing and was in fear for her life.

Halward took her aboard, but was unable to get clear before the woman's pursuers reached them. They called for him to give her up, but he would not, for the woman swore that she was innocent. At this, one of the pursuers shot at Halward and the woman with a bow, killing them both. Halward's body was thrown into the sea with a stone attached, but it refused to be lost and continued to float. He was revered by the people as a martyr because he died in defense of innocence; his body was later enshrined at Christ Church in Oslo, and he is still revered as the patron of the city (Attwater, Benedictines, Farmer).

In art, Saint Halward is a young prince holding a millstone. He is patron of Oslo, Norway (Roeder).

1090 ST ISAIAS, BISHOP OF Rostov; His preaching is said to have been reinforced by many miracles

THIS Isaias, a native of Kiev, was a monk in the monastery of the Caves during the lifetime of its founders, St Antony and St Theodosius. Because of his capability and exemplary piety he was called to be abbot of St Demetrius in the same city in 1062, and fifteen years later was chosen bishop of Rostov. Here he devoted all his energies to bringing the gospel to the heathen, carrying on the work of his prede­cessor, St Leontius. He not only baptized many neophytes, but concerned himself with the further instruction and confirmation in the faith of those who were already Christians. His preaching is said to have been reinforced by many miracles, and he was tireless in bodily no less than in spiritual works of mercy in every part of his eparchy. Isaias was venerated as a saint from his death in 1090, and about seventy years later his body was enshrined in the cathedral church of Rostov.
From Martynovs Annus ecclesiasticus Graeco-Slavicus in Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. xi. Cf. St Sergius, September 25, and bibliography.
1115 Saint Isaiah was one of the saints of the Kiev Caves known for his quietness and his unflagging toil, for which he is named a "lover-of-labor."
He struggled during the eleventh and twelfth centuries; known for his quietness and his unflagging toil, for which he is named a "lover-of-labor."
The holy ascetic died in the year 1115, and his relics are in the Near Caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra.
The commemoration of St Isaiah is on May 15, September 28, and on the second Sunday of Great Lent.

1250 Blessed Leonard of Camaldoli monk-hermit OSB Camb. Hermit (AC)
A monk-hermit at Camaldoli, Italy (Benedictines).

1384 Saint Pachomius of Nerekhta construction of a monastery build a church in the Name of the Holy Trinity
in the world James, was born into the family of a priest at Vladimir on the Klyazma. He was sent to school at the age of seven, since from childhood he knew the Holy Scriptures very well.

Finding the bustle of the perishing world burdensome, he was tonsured at the Vladimir Nativity monastery, fulfilling various obediences without complaint.

Yearning for the solitary wilderness life, the ascetic secretly left the monastery and went to the outskirts of Nerekhta. Here, at the River Gridenka, he found a suitable place for a monastery, a raised semi-island in the deep forest. The saint asked the people around Nerekhta to establish and build a monastery in the vicinity of Sypanovo, on the Kostroma frontier. The people of Nerekhta happily consented and helped in the construction of the monastery.
St Pachomius painted an icon of the Holy Trinity, and after singing a Molieben he carried it to the place where he was to build the church in the Name of the Holy Trinity. After the church was completed, St Pachomius organized the new monastery, which soon began to attract monks.
At the newly-formed monastery the monks had to cultivate the land themselves and feed themselves by the toil of their own hands. The saint set an example for the brethren in this matter.
He died in 1384, advanced in age, and he was buried in the Trinity church he built. One of his disciples, Irenarchus, painted an icon of the saint, and later a crypt was built for his holy relics. The dates of commemoration for St Pachomius are on May 15, his Name Day, and on March 23, the day of his repose.

1450 Blessed Andrew Abellon, OP (AC)

Born at Saint Maximin, France, in 1375; died at Aix-en-Provence on May 15, 1450; cultus confirmed in 1902. Blessed Andrew was born near the world-famous shrine of Mary Magdalen. His entire life was centered around the shrine, and it is greatly due to his efforts that devotion to the great penitential has become so well established.

As a young man, Andrew may have heard the stirring sermons of Saint Vincent Ferrer, who was at that time preaching in France. Perhaps the purity and penitential zeal for which this great preacher was renowned gave the young Andrew the pattern for his own life. He soon demonstrated his choice of purity and penance by joining the Dominicans in his home town. After a happy and holy novitiate, he made his profession and was ordained. In a few years, a preacher and a guide for souls, he turned his attention to the neglected shrine of Saint Mary Magdalen.

This rugged and penitential region of France had been honored from the time of the Apostles as the chosen retreat for Mary Magdalen, who did penance there for the sins of her youth. From earliest days, it had been a place of pilgrimage, but had no definite arrangements for the care of pilgrims, nor any way of supplying their spiritual needs. In Blessed Andrew's time, Dominican fathers from Saint-Maximin had taken over the spiritual care of the pilgrims as a mission work, but without financial help, and in the face of great trials.

Seeing the need of a permanent foundation at the shrine, Andrew set about creating one. He interested the queen in his project, and obtained enough money from her to build a monastery, which was a gem of architecture as well as a source of spiritual power. Andrew had studied art before his entry into the order, and he used his talents in building, beautifully and permanently, whatever he was called upon to do.

A lover of great beauty in the physical order, Andrew was the same in the spiritual. He was famous as a confessor, and his wise government as prior gave help to the spiritual growth of the new convent. A practical man as well as deeply spiritual, Andrew established two mills near the shrine that would provide the people with a means of earning a living while remaining there. Quite naturally, a priest who interested himself in the welfare of the people to this extent could hope for great influence with them, and this he had, both at Saint Maximin and at Aix, where an altarpiece he painted may still be seen.

1450 Blessed Andrew Abellon, OP (AC) After his death, Blessed Andrew was buried in the Church of the Magdalen. His tomb soon became a place of pilgrimage; his help especially was sought in the cure of fevers (Benedictines, Dominicans, Dorcy).
1465 Blessed Mary Magdalen Albrizzi prioress remarkable for her promotion of frequent communion among her nuns was endowed with supernatural gifts which precluded her from remaining as unknown as she could have wished. She healed the sick and foretold the future, while her trust in God was so perfect that many miracles were wrought in immediate response to her prayers.OSA V (AC)
1465 BD MAGDALEN ALERIZZI, VIRGIN
THE Albrici or Albrizzi family to which Bd Magdalen belonged ranked among the nobility, and her father was a distinguished citizen of her native city, Como. After the death of her father and mother, she decided to retire from the world, and she selected the convent of St Margaret, a house at Como which was considered suitable for a woman of her rank. She had actually reached the door, when she distinctly heard a voice say to her three times, "Magdalen, turn your steps to Brunate: that is where you must go". There existed, as she well knew, a very poor convent situated in an isolated spot up in the mountains at Brunate, and thither accordingly she betook herself. It contained only a few nuns, but after Bd Magdalen's reception the numbers increased considerably. She was soon chosen superior, and was able to affiliate the community to the Hermits of St Augustine.Lack of the bare necessities of life sometimes obliged the nuns to make begging expeditions into Como, where they were liable to be detained for the night by bad weather; so to obviate the undesirable necessity of their having to accept casual hospitality from strangers, and also to provide a hospice for young women stranded in Como without a home, Magdalen founded a kind of daughter house in the city, though she herself remained at Brunate. Hers was a hidden life, but she was endowed with supernatural gifts which precluded her from remaining as unknown as she could have wished. She healed the sick and foretold the future, while her trust in God was so perfect that many miracles were wrought in immediate response to her prayers. She also was constantly urging her nuns to frequent communion. Bd Magdalen appears to have died on May 15, 1465, at an advanced age, after a long and painful illness.

The account printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, is a transcript from the life written by Father Paul Olmo in 1484. The cult of Bd Magdalen was confirmed in 1907 and the decree may be read in the Analecta Ecclesiastica, vol. xvi (1908), pp. 19—20. A life by G. B. Melloni was published at Bologna in 1764.

Born at Como, Italy; cultus approved in 1907. Mary- Magdalen entered a convent at Brunate near Como, and later became prioress. While prioress, she affiliated the convent with the Augustinian friars. She was remarkable for her promotion of frequent communion among her nuns (Benedictines).
1481 St Euphrosynus of Pskov The Rule of St Euphrosynus generalized advice for monks proceeding on the monastic path built a church in honor of the Three Holy Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, who appeared to him, and St Onuphrius the Great
in the world Eleazar, was born in about the year 1386 in the village of Videlebo, near Pskov, the same village where St Nicander of Pskov (September 24) had also been born. His parents wanted Eleazar to marry, but secretly he withdrew to the Snetogorsk monastery (on the Snyatni hill, now in Pskov itself) and there accepted tonsure.

Around the year 1425, searching for a place where he might devote himself to more intense prayer, St Euphrosynus with the blessing of the abbot moved to a solitary cell at the River Tolva, not far from Pskov. But concern for the salvation of his neighbor impelled the saint to abandon his wilderness dwelling, and he began to receive everyone who was in need of an experienced Elder and guide. St Euphrosynus blessed those coming to him to live according to a skete rule, compiled by himself.
The Rule of St Euphrosynus presents a rather generalized advice for monks about proceeding on the monastic path, "how it befits monks to dwell." He does not address the strict regulation of all aspects of monastic life, as did, for example, the Rule of St Joseph of Volokolamsk; there is nothing at all in it concerning the order of divine services.

In 1447 at the request of the brethren, St Euphrosynus built a church in honor of the Three Holy Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, who appeared to him, and also in honor of St Onuphrius the Great (June 12). The monastery later received the name Spaso-Eleazarov. Out of humility and his love for the solitary life, the saint did not wish to be igumen, but instead nominated his disciple Ignatius for this office. He then went to live in the forest near a lake.

St Euphrosynus died at the advanced age of ninety-five, on May 15, 1481. At his crypt, by order of Archbishop Gennadius of Novgorod, was placed an icon painted by his disciple Ignatius while the saint was still alive. Also included was the last testament of the saint to the brethren on a piece of parchment, stamped with the lead seal of Archbishop Theophilus of Novgorod. This is one of very few surviving wills written by an ascetic in his own hand.

St Euphrosynus, the originator of Pskov wilderness life, taught many famed disciples, who also established monasteries, and planted the seeds of monasticism throughout the lands of Pskov. Among the disciples of St Euphrosynus were the skete Elders Sava of Krypetsk (August 28; St Dositheus of Verkhneostrov (October 8); St Onuphrius of Malsk (June 12); St Joachim of Opochsk (September 9); St Hilarion of Gdovsk (October 21); St Chariton of Kudinsk, founder and igumen of a monastery at Lake Kudina near Toroptsa; and the locally venerated brothers from Pskov Ignatius, Charalampos and Pamphilius, buried at the Spaso-Eleazar monastery.
1719 ST JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, FOUNDER OF THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Rotómagi natális sancti Joánnis Baptístæ de La Salle, Presbyteri et Confessóris, qui, in erudiénda adolescéntia præsértim páupere excéllens, et de religióne civilíque societáte præcláre méritus, Fratrum Scholárum Christianárum Sodalitátem instítuit.  Eum Pius Duodécimus, Póntifex Máximus, ómnium Magistrórum  púeris adolescentibúsque instituéndis præcípuum apud Deum cæléstem Patrónum constítuit.  Ipsíus tamen festum Idibus Maji celebrátur.
    At Rouen, the birthday [april 08] of St. John Baptist de la Salle, priest and confessor.  He was prominent in the education of youth, especially those who were poor, for which he was acclaimed both by religious and civil society.  He was the founder of the Society of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.  Pius XII, Supreme Pontiff, declared him patron of all those who teach children and young people.  His feast is celebrated on the 15th of May.
THE founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools was born at Rheims on April 30, 1651. His parents were both of noble family. From the instructions of a devout mother, the boy, John Baptist, early gave evidence of such piety that he was designated for the priesthood. He received the tonsure when he was only eleven, and became a member of the cathedral chapter of Rheims at the age of sixteen in 1670 he entered the seminary of St Sulpice in Paris, being ordained priest in 1678. A young man of striking appearance, well connected, refined and scholarly, he seemed assured of a life of dignified ease or of high preferment in the Church. But God in His providence had other designs for him—of which he himself had no presentiment, apparently not even when one of his fellow canons on his deathbed committed to his care the spiritual direction of a girls’ orphanage and school as well as of the sisters who conducted it.
But in 1679 he met a layman, Adrian Nyel, who had come to Rheims with the idea of opening a school for poor boys. Canon de La Salle gave him every encouragement, and, somewhat prematurely, two schools were started. Gradually the young canon became more and more drawn into the work and grew interested in the seven masters who taught in these schools. He rented a house for them, fed them from his own table, and tried to instil into them the high educational ideals which were gradually taking shape in his own mind. In 1681, though their uncouth manners repelled him, he decided to invite them to live in his own home that he might have them under his constant supervision. The result must have been a great disappointment. Not only did two of his brothers indignantly leave his house—a step he may have anticipated, for “ushers” were then ranked with pot-boys and hucksters—but five of the schoolmasters soon took their departure, unable or unwilling to submit to a discipline for which they had never bargained. The reformer waited, and his patience was rewarded. Other men of a better type presented themselves, and these formed the nucleus of what was to prove a new congregation. To house them the saint gave up his paternal home, and moved with them to more suitable premises in the Rue Neuve. As the movement became known, requests began to come in from outside for schoolmasters trained on the new method, and de La Salle found his time fully engrossed. Partly for that reason, and partly because he realized the contrast his disciples drew between his assured official income and their own uncertain position, he decided to give up his canonry. This he did.
The next question for consideration was the use he should make of his private fortune, which he no longer wished to retain for his own use. Should he employ it for the infant community, or should he give it away? He went to Paris to consult Father Barré, a saintly man greatly interested in education, whose advice had helped him in the past. Father Barré was strongly opposed to the idea of endowment. “Si vous fondez, vous fondrez” (“If you endow, you will founder”), he said, and the saint, after fervent prayer for light, determined to sell all he had and to distribute the proceeds to the poor—who at that time were in the direst need, as a famine was raging in Champagne. His life from that time became even more austere. He had naturally a very delicate palate, but he deliberately starved himself until hunger enabled him to swallow any food, however coarse or ill-prepared.
Four schools were soon opened, but de la Salle’s great problem at this stage was that of training teachers. Eventually he called a conference of twelve of his men, and it was decided to make provisional regulations, with a vow of obedience yearly renewable until vocations became certain. At the same time a name was decided upon for members of the community. They were to be called the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The first serious trial that befell them was illness amongst the brothers. De la Salle seems to have attributed this visitation to his own incapacity to rule, and he consequently persuaded his disciples to elect another superior. No sooner, however, did this become known than the archiepiscopal vicar general ordered him to resume his office. His wisdom and his guiding hand were indeed necessary, for external pressure was about to cause unforeseen developments in the new congregation—developments which would greatly widen its field of operation. Hitherto recruits had been full-grown men, but now applications began to be received from boys between the ages of fifteen and twenty. To reject promising lads at a malleable age might mean losing them altogether, and yet they were not old enough to be subjected to a rule framed for adults. De la Salle, in 1685, accordingly decided to set up a junior novitiate. He lodged the youths in an adjoining house, gave them a simple rule of life, and entrusted their training to a wise brother, whilst retaining supervision of them himself. But soon there appeared another class of candidate who also, like the boys, could not well be refused and who likewise required to be dealt with apart. These were young men who were sent by their parish priests to the saint with a request that he would train them as schoolmasters, and send them back to teach in their own villages. He accepted them, found them a domicile, undertook their training, and thus founded the first training-college for teachers, at Rheims in 1687; others followed, at Paris (1699) and at Saint-Denis (1709).
All this time the work of teaching poor boys had been steadily going on, although hitherto it had been restricted to Rheims. In 1688 the saint, at the request of the curé of St Sulpice in Paris, took over a school in that parish. It was the last of seven free schools founded by M. Olier, which had eventually been compelled to close for lack of satisfactory teachers. The brothers were so successful that a second school was opened in the same district. The control of these Paris foundations was entrusted to Brother L’Heureux, a gifted and capable man whom de la Salle designed to be his successor, and whom he was about to present for ordination. It had been his intention to have priests in his institution to take charge of each house, but Brother L’Heureux’s unexpected death made him doubt whether his design had been according to God’s will. After much prayer it was borne in upon him that if his order was to confine itself strictly to the work of teaching, for which it had been founded, and to remain free from “caste” distinctions the brothers must continue to be laymen. He therefore laid down the statute—perhaps the most self-denying ordinance which could be imposed upon a community of men— that no Brother of the Christian Schools should ever be a priest, and that no priest should ever become a member of the order. That regulation is in force to this day.
Troubles which had affected the work during the founder’s absence in Paris led him afterwards to take a house at Vaugirard to serve as a retreat where his sons could come to recruit body and spirit; it also became the novitiate-house. Here, about 1695, de la Salle drew up the first draft of the matured rule, with provision for the taking of life vows. Here also he wrote his manual on the Conduct of Schools in which he sets forth the system of education to be carried out—a system which revolutionized elementary education and is successfully pursued at the present day. It replaced the old method of individual instruction by class teaching and the “simultaneous method”, it insisted on silence while the lessons were being given, and it taught in French and through French—not through Latin. Up to this period the schools opened by the brothers had all been intended for poor children, but in 1698 a new departure was made at the request of King James II of England, then an exile in France. He wanted a college for the sons of his Irish adherents, and at his request the saint opened a school for fifty boys of gentle birth. About the same tune he started for the benefit of youths of the artisan class the first “Sunday academy”, in which more advanced instruction was combined with religious teaching and exercises, and it at once became extremely popular.
St John Baptist de la Salle had not been able to carry out all these schemes without experiencing many trials. He had heartrending disappointments and defections amongst his disciples, and bitter opposition from the secular schoolmasters, who resented his intrusion into what they regarded as their special preserves. At one time the very existence of the institute seems to have been jeopardized through the injudicious action of two brothers occupying posts of authority. Complaints of undue severity towards novices reached the archbishop of Paris, who sent his vicar general to make investigations. The brothers unanimously exonerated their superior from blame in the matter, but the vicar general was prejudiced and drew up an unfavourable report. The result was that St John Baptist was told to regard himself as deposed—a verdict he received without a murmur. When, however, the vicar attempted to impose on the brothers a new superior—an outsider from Lyons—they indignantly exclaimed that M. de la Salle was their superior, and that they would one and all walk out of the house rather than accept another. Though the saint afterwards induced them to make a formal submission, the fresh appointment was allowed to lapse, and the founder remained in charge of his congregation. Somewhat later than this the removal of the novitiate from Vaugirard to larger premises inside Paris, together with the opening of new schools in connection with it, led to a violent organized attack on the Paris schools in which the lay schoolmasters were joined by the Jansenists, and by those who, on principle, were opposed to education other than manual for the children of the poor. St John Baptist found himself involved in a series of law-suits, and obliged to close all his Parisian schools and houses. Eventually the storm died down, the persecution ended as suddenly as it had begun, and before long the brothers were able to resume and even extend their educational work in the capital.
Elsewhere the institute had been steadily developing. As early as 1700 Brother Drolin had been sent to found a school in Rome, and in France schools were started at Avignon, at Calais, in Languedoc, in Provence, at Rouen, and at Dijon. In 1705 the novitiate was transferred to St Yon in Rouen. There a boarding-school was opened, and an establishment for troublesome boys, which afterwards developed into a reformatory-school. From these beginnings grew the present world-wide organization, the largest teaching-order of the Church, working from primary schools to university-colleges. In 1717 the founder decided finally to resign; from that moment he would give no orders, and lived like the humblest of the brothers. He taught novices and boarders, for whom he wrote several books, including a method of mental prayer. St John Baptist lived at an important period in the history of spirituality in France, and he came under the influence of Bérulle, Olier and the so-called French “school” of de Rancé and of the Jesuits, his friends Canon Nicholas Roland and the Minim friar Nicholas Barré being specially influential. On the negative side he was distinguished by his strong opposition to Jansenism, illustrated positively by his advocacy of frequent and even daily communion. In Lent, 1719 St John Baptist suffered a good deal from asthma and rheumatism, but would give up none of his habitual austerities. Then he met with an accident, and gradually grew weaker. He passed away on Good Friday, April 7, 1719 in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
The example of St John Baptist de la Salle may well lead everyone of us to ask himself: “What have I done to help and to encourage this most necessary and divine work? What sacrifices am I prepared to make that the Christian education of our children may be carried on in spite of all the hindrances and hostilities which beset it?” The Church has shown her appreciation of the character of this man, a thinker and initiator of the first importance in the history of education, by canonizing him in 1900, and giving his feast to the whole Western church; and in 1950 Pope Pius XII declared him the heavenly patron of all school-teachers.

There is no lack of excellent lives of St John Baptist de Ia Salle, especially in French. The foundation of all is the biography by J. B. Blain, the intimate friend of the saint, which appeared in 1733. Of modern works the most important is probably that of J. Guibert, Historie de St Jean Baptiste de la Salle (1900). Shorter works are those of A. Delaire (1900) in the series “Les Saints”, F. Laudet (1929), and G. Bernoville (1944). In English, Francis Thompson’s sketch was republished in 1911, and there are other good biographies but the best and moat thorough work is Dr W. J. Battersby’s De la Salle, vol. (1945), as educational pioneer, vol. ii (1950), as saint and spiritual writer, vol. iii (1950), letters and documents.


THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM

Give praise to the Lord, for He is good: because by His most sweet Mother, the Virgin Mary, mercy is given to us.

Obtain for us, O Lady, the friendship of Jesus Christ: and keep us lest we should lose our innocence.

Repress our enemy by thy command: lest he should destroy in us the virtue of charity.

Illumine our ways and our paths: that we may know what is pleasing to God.

Preserve in us what is naturally good: and may good graces be multiplied in us.


Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

God loves variety. He doesn't mass-produce his saints. Every saint is unique, for each is the result of a new idea.  As the liturgy says: Non est inventus similis illis--there are no two exactly alike. It is we with our lack of imagination, who paint the same haloes on all the saints. Dear Lord, grant us a spirit that is not bound by our own ideas and preferences.  Grant that we may be able to appreciate in others what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord, grant that we may understand that every saint must be a unique praise of Your glory. Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.  Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts.   God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into 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  
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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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