1st, 3rd century St. Ausonius Bishop and martyred for the faith.
He is recorded as being a disciple of St. Martial of Limoges. Ausonius was the first bishop of Angouleme, in France. He was martyred for the faith.
Ausonius of Angouleme BM (AC)
1st or 3rd century. Ausonius is said to have been a disciple of Saint Martial of Limoges, and first bishop of Angoulême (Benedictines).

120 St. Marcian of Ravenna Bishop of Ravenna

Ravénnæ sancti Marciáni, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
At Ravenna, St. Marcian, bishop and confessor.

Italy, also called San Mariano. He ruled as bishop from about 112 until his death.

Marcian (Mariano) of Ravenna B (RM) Died c. 127. From c. 112 to c. 127, Marcian was the fourth bishop of Ravenna, where he is known as San Mariano (Benedictines).

250 St. Castus & Emilius African martyrs praised by St. Cyprian and St. Augustine
In Africa sanctórum Mártyrum Casti et Æmílii, qui per passiónis ignem martyrium consummárunt. Hos (ut beátus Cypriánus scribit), in prima congressióne devíctos, Dóminus victóres in secúndo prælio réddidit, ut fortióres ígnibus fíerent qui ígnibus ante cessíssent.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Castus and Aemilius, who met their martyrdom by fire, St. Cyprian says that there were overcome by the first trial, but that in the second God made them victorious, so that those who had first weakened in the face of the fire were made mightier than the flames.
Two African martyrs praised by St. Cyprian and St. Augustine. Taken prisoners, Castus and Emilius denied Christ under torture and were released. They were arrested a second time and now, resolved to be loyal to the faith, they refused to abjure Christianity. They were burned to death.
250 CASTUS AND AEMILIUS, MARTYRS
IN a book which he wrote upon “The Lapsed”, St Cyprian mentions with sympathy the case of two African Christians, Castus and Aemilius by name, who at the time of the great persecution of Decius gave way under the stress of severe torture but afterwards repented, and gained the crown of martyrdom by confessing their faith and boldly facing death by fire. Nothing further is known about their life or the circumstances of their passion. Their names occur in several old martyrologies, and St Augustine, in a sermon preached on the occasion of their festival, says that they fell like St Peter, through presuming too much on their own strength.

The names are entered on this day in the Calendar of Carthage, a document which can hardly be dated later than the middle of the fifth century. See also the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. v, and CMH.

Castus and Aemilius MM (RM) Castus and Aemilius suffered martyrdom in Africa under Decius. The first time they were captured, they gave way under torture. Upon their release they repented of their failure to remain steadfast in their faith. On being seized a second time, they were burned to death. Their contemporary Saint Cyprian in De lapsis, and later Saint Augustine in Serm. 285, were loud in their praise of these two martyrs (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

312 St. Basiliscus Bishop martyr reappeared to St. John Chrysostom just before death
Cománæ, in Ponto, sancti Basilísci Mártyris, qui, sub Maximiáno Imperatóre et Agríppa Prǽside, férreas calceátus crépidas, ignítis clavis confíxas, múltaque ália passus, demum, cápite obtruncátus et in flumen projéctus, martyrii glóriam consecútus est.
At Comana in Pontus, under Emperor Maximian and the governor Agrippa, the holy martyr Basiliscus, who was forced to wear iron shoes pierced with heated nails, and who endured many other trials. He was finally beheaded and thrown into the river, which gained for him the crown of martyrdom.
He was the bishop of Comana, in Pontus and was beheaded. His remains were thrown into a river near Nicomedia. Basiliscus' body was taken to Comana.
Reappeared to St. John Chrysostom just before the death of that Doctor of the Church.
Basiliscus of Comana M (RM) Bishop Basiliscus of Comana, Pontus, Asia Minor, was beheaded under Maximin the Thracian (a.k.a. Maximinus Daia) and his body thrown into a river near Nicomedia. It was recovered and buried in Comana.
This was the martyr who appeared to Saint John Chrysostom on the eve of the holy doctor's death in the church dedicated to Saint Basiliscus to encourage him (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

362 Faustinus, Timothy and Venustus MM (RM)

Romæ sanctórum Mártyrum Faustíni, Timóthei et Venústi.
At Rome, the holy martyrs Faustinus, Timothy, and Venustus.

Roman martyrs under Julian the Apostate (Benedictines).

418 St. Helen Martyred virgin mentioned in the acts of St. Amator of Auxerre

Antisiodóri sanctæ Hélenæ Vírginis. At Auxerre, St. Helen, virgin.

France, as sharing his suffering.

Helen of Auxerre V (RM) Died after 418. Saint Helen is mentioned as a maiden in the Acta of Saint Amator of Auxerre as assisting him on his deathbed (Benedictines).

Helen (Elen Luyddog) of Carnarvon (AC) 4th century; another feast day is celebrated on August 25. Saint Helen was a princess, the wife of Emperor Magnus Clemens Maximus who ruled Britain, Gaul, and Spain from 383 until 388, when he died at Aquileia while en route to Rome to obtain recognition. His wife accompanied him.
Apparently they stayed at Trèves (Trier, Germany) for some time before travelling further. Welsh tradition attributes to her the making of roads (Sarn Elen or Fford Elen) and leading a military expedition into North Wales. She was reputed to have born five children, including one named Constantine. For this reason she is often confused with Saint Helena, the discoverer of the True Cross. She may be the patron of some of the Welsh churches bearing the name Helen and of Llanelen in West Gower (Farmer).

5th v. St. Quiteria virgin martyr invoked against the bite of mad dogs

In Hispánia sanctæ Quitériæ, Vírginis et Mártyris.
In Spain, St. Quiteria, virgin and martyr.

5th v. ST QUITERIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
MANY churches in southern France and northern Spain have been dedicated under the name of the virgin martyr St Quiteria, who still enjoys a wide cultus, especially at Aire in Gascony, where her reputed relics were preserved until they were scattered by the Huguenots. On the other hand, though her name appears in the Roman Martyrology, no mention of her is made in any of the ancient calendars. She is popularly supposed to have been the daughter of a Galician prince, who fled from home because her father wished to force her to marry and to abjure the Christian religion. She was tracked to Aire by emissaries from her father, by whose orders she was beheaded. Most of the details of the story, in the form in which it was most widely circulated, are fabulous, having been borrowed from the well-known legend of King Catillius and Queen Calsia, and nothing is certain about Quiteria except her name and her cultus. Because she is invoked against the bite of mad dogs, she is always depicted with a dog on a lead. It seems that Portugal is equally devout to St Quiteria, but tells a different story of her martyrdom and claims to possess her relics.

The modern Bollandists seem inclined to put faith in the Aire tradition, being influenced mainly by the researches of Abbé A. Degert, who in the Revue de Gascogne, vol. xlviii (1907), pp. 463—469, has printed the moat ancient texts of the life of this martyr. See also the same Revue, vol. xlvi (1905), pp. 333—337, and vol. xliv (1903), pp. 293—309, with the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxvii (1908), p. 457. The more commonly received account of St Quiteria may be gathered from A. Breuils, Les légendes de Sainte Quiteria (1892).

Many churches in southern France and northern Spain have been dedicated under the name of the virgin martyr St. Quiteria, who still enjoys a wide following, especially at Aire in Gascony, where her reputed relics were preserved until they were scattered by the huguenots. On the other hand, though her name appears in the Roman Martyrology, no mention of her is made in any of the ancient calendars. She is popularly supposed to have been the daughter of a Galician prince, who fled from her home because her father wished to force her to marry and to abjure the Christian religion.
She was tracked to Aire by emissaries by her father, by whose orders she was beheaded. Most of the details of the story, in the form in which it was most widely circulated, are fabulous, having been borrowed from the well known legend of King Catillius and Queen Calsia, and nothing is certain about Quiteria except her name and her cultus. Because she is invoked against the bite of mad dogs, she is always depicted with a dog on a lead. It seems that Portugal is especially devout to St. Quiteria, but tells a different story of her martyrdom and claims to possess her relics.

5th v. Julia of Corsica VM (RM)

In Córsica sanctæ Júliæ Vírginis, quæ crucis supplício coronáta est.
In Corsica, St. Julia, virgin, who won her crown by being crucified.

6th v. ST JULIA, MARTYR
THE name of St Julia appears in many ancient Western martyrologies and she is described as a martyr of Corsica. In the opinion of the Bollandists she suffered in the sixth or seventh century at the hands of Saracen pirates. Her legend, as related in her so-called “acts”, is confessedly based on a late tradition and has been freely embellished with imaginative detail. It runs as follows Julia was a noble maiden of Carthage who, when the city was taken by Genseric in 439, was sold as a slave to a pagan merchant of Syria called Eusebius. She lived an exemplary life and became so valuable a servant to her master that he took her with him on a journey he was making to Gaul as an importer of Eastern goods. Having reached the northern part of Corsica, now known as Cape Corso, their ship cast anchor. Eusebius went on shore to take part in a local heathen festival, whilst Julia remained behind, refusing to assist at the ceremonies, which she openly denounced. Questioned by Felix, the governor of the island, regarding this woman who had dared to insult the gods, Eusebius admitted that she was a Christian and his slave, but declared that he could not bring himself to part with so faithful and efficient a servant. When the governor offered four of his best female slaves in exchange for her, Eusebius replied, “If you were to offer me all your possessions, they could not equal the value of her services!” However, when Eusebius was in a drunken sleep, the governor took it upon himself to induce her to sacrifice to the gods. He offered to obtain her freedom if she would comply, but she indignantly refused, protesting that all the liberty she desired was freedom to continue serving her Lord, Jesus Christ. Her boldness enraged the governor, who gave orders that she should be beaten on the face and her hair torn out by the roots. She finally died by crucifixion. Monks, we are told, from the island of Giraglia rescued her body and kept it until 763, when it was translated to Brescia. St. Julia is patroness of Corsica and of Leghorn, which claims to possess some of her relics.

There are two texts of the passio of this martyr, one of which is printed in full in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. v. The insertion of her name on this day in the Hieronymianum affords strong presumption of her historical existence, as Delehaye notes in his commentary. See also particularly Mgr Lanzoni, both in his Diocesi d’Italia, pp. 685—686, and in the Rivista Storico-Critica, vol. vi (1910), pp. 446—543.

According to legend, Julia was of a noble Carthaginian family who was sold as a slave to a Syrian merchant named Eusebius when Genseric captured Carthage in 439. While on the way to Gaul, the ship on which she was a passenger with her master stopped at Cape Corso in northern Corsica. A heathen festival was just being observed by the islanders when the ship docked. When Julia did not disembark with her master to participate in the pagan ritual, the governor of the island, Felix, discerned that she was a Christian and ordered her to sacrifice to the gods. When she refused to do so, he offered Julia her freedom if she would apostatize. When she still refused, he had her tortured and nailed to a cross. Some scholars believe she may have lived a century or two later and was murdered by Saracen raiders. She is the patroness of Corsica (Benedictines, Delaney).

560 St. Romanus of Subiaco hermit who influenced St. Benedict of Nursia
In pago Antisiodorénsi beáti Románi Abbátis, qui sancto Benedícto ministrávit in specu; inde, in Gállias proféctus, ibi, ædificáto monastério relictísque multis sanctitátis alúmnis, quiévit in Dómino.
In the diocese of Auxerre, Abbot St. Romanus, who ministered to St. Benedict in his cave. Going later to France, he built a monastery there, and leaving many disciples and imitators of his sanctity, went to rest in the Lord.
550 ST ROMANUS
WHEN the youthful St Benedict had abandoned the world and was wandering about on the rocky height of Monte Subiaco, he came face to face with a holy monk called Romanus who belonged to a neighbouring monastery. They entered into conversation, and St Benedict opened his heart to the older man and told him he desired to live as a hermit. Romanus not only encouraged him, but showed him a cave, very difficult of access, which would make him a suitable cell. For three years the monk was the only connection the young recluse had with the outside world and kept his presence a secret. Every day he saved part of his portion of food, which he let down by a rope over a cliff to St Benedict. According to the legend, St Romanus left Italy when it was being overrun by the Vandals and betook himself to, the neighbourhood of Auxerre in France, where he founded the monastery of Fontrouge and where he died. Auxerre, Sens and Vareilles claim to possess some of his relics.

St Romanus is honoured with an elogium on this day in the Roman Martyrology and there is consequently a notice of him in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. v, which reprints a long and mainly fictitious account of his life and miracles compiled by Gislebert of Vareilles in the middle of the eleventh century. Consult further C. Leclerc, Vie de S. Romain (1893) which, though quite uncritical in the matter of his life, supplies some useful information regarding his cultus in Gaul.

Monk who influenced St. Benedict of Nursia. A hermit in the area around Subiaco, Italy, Romanus discovered the young Benedict shortly after the latter had left the world and embarked upon his heremitical lifestyle. Romanus dressed Benedict in his monastic habit, showed him the cave where Benedict lived for three years, and kept him supplied with food. According to tradition, he departed Italy to escape the invading barbarians and founded Fontrouge Abbey in Auxerre, France, where he died.

Romanus of Subiaco, OSB Abbot (RM) Died c. 560. Romanus, a monk at a monastery near Monte Subiaco, discovered the young Saint Benedict when he had first fled from the world and encouraged him. He took Benedict to the cave where the founder lived as a hermit for three years, and supplied him with food during that time. According to legend, Romanus left Italy during the invasion of the Vandals, went to France, and founded Fontrouge Abbey near Auxerre, where he died, but there is no historical evidence of his having been an abbot (Benedictines, Delaney).

600 7th century St. Boethian Benedictine martyr disciple of St. Fursey
An Irishman by birth, Boethian built the Pierrepoint Abbey near Laon, in France.
He was murdered there by rebellious monks.

Boethian of Pierrepont, OSB M (AC) Born in Ireland, 7th century. A disciple of Saint Fursey, Boethian built the monastery of Pierrepont near Laon, France. He was murdered by those whom he had felt bound to rebuke. His shrine is still a place of pilgrimage (Benedictines) .

600 St. Fulk pilgrim gave his life for others in time of plague

Apud Aquínum sancti Fulci Confessóris. At Aquino, St. Fulk, confessor.

Patron saint of Castrofuli, in southern Italy, a pilgrim who gave his life for others in time of plague. On his way to Rome, Fulk stopped at Castrofuli to help plague victims. He died of that pestilence, and his cult was approved in 1522.

Fulk of Castrofurli (RM) Died after 600; cultus approved in 1572. Fulk was a pilgrim to Rome who offered his services in the plague-stricken town of Santopadre or Castofuli near Arpino in southern Italy. He is venerated as the patron saint of that district (Benedictines) .

650 7th century St. Conall Abbot of Inniscoel Monastery in County Donegal
Ireland. A holy well there is named after St. Conall.

Conall of Inniscoel, Abbot (AC) (also known as Coel, Conald) 7th century. Abbot Conall ruled the monastery of Inniscoel in Donegal, where there is a holy well named after him. He is the most celebrated patron of that region (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

836 St. Aigulf Bishop and court counselor, known for his sanctity at an early age
836 ST AIGULF, or AYOUL, BISHOP OF BOURGES
AFTER the death of his parents, when he was still a young man, St Aigulf left his native city of Bourges to live as a solitary in a neighbouring forest. There he led a most austere life and acquired so great a reputation for sanctity that when the see of Bourges fell vacant, about the year 811, the clergy and people unanimously chose him for their bishop. Although he only accepted office with reluctance, yet he ruled the diocese wisely and successfully for twenty-four years.
He was one of the signatories at the Council of Toulouse in 829 and one of the judges selected to examine the case of Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims, and two other prelates who had been deposed for joining the Sons of Louis the Debonair in their rebellion against their father. When he felt that his last hour was approaching, St Aigulf retired to his old hermitage, where he died and was buried. Over his tomb a church was afterwards built. On the occasion of an elevation or of a translation of his body, the word “Martyr” was added to the inscription on his tomb, but this was a mistake, due probably to confusion with St Aigulf, abbot of Lérins, who was a martyr.

Little is known of St Aigulf beyond what can be gleaned from the poem which St Theodulf, bishop of Orleans, addressed to him. It is printed with some other fragments of information in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. v. See also DUG., vol. i, cc. 1142—1143.

He is called Ayoul in some lists. Aigulf was born in Bourges, France, where he became a hermit. In 811 he was named bishop of Bourges and served the people of the region faithfully. In 829, Aigulf attended the Council of Toulouse. He was also commanded by King Louis the Pious to judge the fate of his fellow prelates. These churchmen had backed the sons of King Louis in a rebellion.

Aigulf of Bourges B (AC) (also known as Aigulphus, Ayoul, Aieul, Aout, Hou) Died after 835. After obtaining an excellent education, Saint Aigulf chose to live as a hermit. In 812, he was unwillingly consecrated bishop of Bourges, which he governed until his death (Benedictines).

982 John of Parma canon abbot OSB Abbot (AC)

John was born in Parma, Italy, and early in life was made a canon of the cathedral there. He is said to have made six pilgrimages to Jerusalem and to have taken the Benedictine habit in the Holy Land. He was abbot of Saint John's at Parma from 973 to c. 982, which was then under Cluniac observance. He is a minor patron of Parma (Benedictines).

985 St. Bobo Crusader hermit fought against invading Saracens
also called Beuvon. Bobo was a knight of Provence, France, who fought against the invading Saracens and then became a hermit. He died at Pavia, in Lombardy, Italy, while on a pilgrimage to Rome.

Bobo (Beuvon) of Provence, Hermit (AC) Bobo, a knight of Provence, bravely fought the invading Saracens from Spain and Africa. Afterwards he retired to lead a life of a penitential hermit for many years. He died at Voghera near Pavia, Lombardy, Italy, while on a pilgrimage to Rome. He is held in veneration in Provence and in Lombardy (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

1153 St. Atto Vallambrosan Benedictine bishop and hagiographer

Pistórii, in Túscia, beáti Atthónis Epíscopi, ex Ordine Vallis Umbrósæ.
At Pistoia in Tuscany, the bishop, blessed Attho, of the Order of Vallombrosa.

He was born in Badajoz, Spain, in 1070, and he entered the Benedictines at Vallambrosa, Italy. In time he became the abbot-general of the Vallambrosans and the bishop of Pistoia in 1135.
Atto wrote the lives of St. Gualbert and St. Bernard of Parma, and the history of the shrine of Compostela in Spain.
Atto (Attho) of Pistoia, OSB Vall. B (RM)
Born at Badajoz, Spain; Some Italian writers claim that Atto was Florentine, but the evidence is that he was Spanish. He joined the Benedictines at Vallumbrosa and eventually became abbot- general of the congregation and bishop of Pistoia. Atto wrote the vitae of Saint John Gualbert and Saint Bernard of Parma, and a work on Compostella in Spain (Benedictines).

1199 St. Peter Pareuzi Papal legate to Orvieto suppressing the Cathars martyred
Peter was from Rome and entered the service of the papacy. Trusted as a papal representative, he was dispatched as a legate to Orvieto in 1199 with the task of suppressing the Cathars who were at the time troubling the local Church. Against these heretics, Peter instituted harsh measures, and the outraged Cathars assassinated him.

Peter Parenzi M (AC) Born in Rome, Italy; died 1199. Peter was sent to Orvieto in 1199 as papal governor to repress the excesses of the Catharist heretics. He adopted severe measures with the result that the heretics seized him and put him to a cruel death (Benedictines).

1310 Humility of Faenza, OSB Vall. Widow heroic fasting and savagely austere life (AC)
1310 ST HUMILITY, WIDOW
THE foundress of the Vallombrosan nuns was born at Faenza in the Romagna in the year 1226. Her parents, who were people of high rank and considerable wealth, called her after the town of Rosana, with which they were in some way connected, but she has always been known by the name of Humility, which she adopted when she entered religion. Her parents practically compelled her when she was about fifteen to marry a local nobleman called Ugoletto, a young man as frivolous as his bride was earnest and devout. She had the misfortune to lose both her sons shortly after their baptism, and for nine years she strove, apparently in vain, to appeal to her husband’s better nature. A dangerous illness, however, then brought him to death’s door and upon his recovery he was induced by his doctors to consent for his own benefit to his wife’s request that they should from thenceforth live as brother and sister. Soon afterwards they both joined the double monastery of St Perpetua, just outside Faenza, he becoming a lay-brother and she a choir nun.
Humility was then twenty-four years of age. She discovered before long that the rule afforded her insufficient opportunity for solitude and austerity, and she withdrew first to a house of Poor Clares and then to a cell, which was constructed for her by a kinsman whom she had cured of a painful infirmity of the feet. It adjoined the church of St Apollinaris, and into this there was an opening—what archaeologists call a “squint”—which enabled her to follow Mass and to receive holy communion. The church seems to have been served by religious from a priory dependent on the Vallombrosan abbey of St Crispin, the abbot of which, following the ceremonial provided for in such cases, solemnly enclosed her in her cell. Her life was now one of heroic mortification : she subsisted on a little bread and water with occasionally some vegetables; she wore a cilicium of bristles, and the short snatches of sleep she allowed herself were taken on her knees with her head leaning against a wall. She had never consented to see her husband after she had left the world, but he could not forget her; and in order that he might keep in touch with her, he left St Perpetua’s to become a monk at St Crispin’s, where he died three years later. After Humility had lived twelve years as a recluse, the Vallombrosan abbot general persuaded her to emerge from her retirement to organize a foundation for women. At a place called Malta, outside the walls of Faenza, she established the first Vallombrosan nunnery, of which she became abbess and which was known as Santa Maria Novella alla Malta. Long years afterwards, actually in 1501, the convent was removed for safety into the city and occupied the site once covered by the monastery of St Perpetua. Before her death St Humility founded in Florence a second house, of which she was also abbess and where she died at the age of eighty on May 22, 1310.
Tradition credits St Humility with the authorship of several treatises—she is said to have dictated them in Latin, a language she had never studied. One of these deals with the angels and in it she speaks of living in constant communion with two heavenly beings, one of whom was her guardian angel.

A contemporary life is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. v, from a manuscript notarially attested in 1332 to be an exact copy. There is a modern biography by M. Ercolani (1910), and a shorter one by Dame M. E. Pietromarchi, S. Umilta Negusanti (1935). The Latin tractates of St Humility were edited by Torello Sala at Florence in 1884; they are said to be very obscure and the Latin to be stiff and artificial.

(Also known as Humilitas, Rosanna) Born in Faenza, Romagna, Italy, in 1226; died in Florence, Italy, May 22, 1310. Humility was born to wealthy parents and baptized Rosanna. She longed to enter a convent from her earliest years, to model herself on Saint John and the Blessed Virgin who stood by Jesus on the Cross. But when she was 15 her parents insisted instead that she marry a nobleman named Ugoletto. He was apparently frivolous and uncaring, mocking his bride's spiritual ways. Her sorrows were increased when the two boys she bore died in infancy.

After a near-fatal illness of Ugoletto when Rosanna was 24, her husband was brought to conversion of heart. Chastened, he agreed to allow Rosanna to enter a convent. They chose a mixed monastery- -Saint Perpetua at Faenza--where he went to live as a brother and she as a sister, taking the name Humility.

Soon she decided that she needed even more discipline than the rules of the convent demanded. One of her relatives built her a cell against the wall of the church of Saint Apollinaris. A hole was cut into the wall, so that she could follow the services inside the church. Then she was bricked into her cell.

Her spiritual welfare was in the care of Vallombrosan monks of Saint Crispin Abbey. Each day she ate only bread and water and sometimes a few herbs. She slept on her knees, her head resting against the wall.

After 12 years of this life, she was persuaded to leave her cell by the master general of the Vallombrosan order, who begged her to become abbess of the first Vallombrosan convent, Santa Maria Novella at Malta, near Faenza. She helped to found this nunnery at Faenza, before becoming abbess of the second one in Florence. And, in spite of her heroic fasting and savagely austere life, she lived to be 80 years old (Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney).

In art, Saint Humilitas is a Vallombrosian nun in a black veil, white wimple, and grey-brown habit with a lambskin over her head (Roeder).

1457 St. Rita of Cascia wife mother widow religious community member legendary austerity prayerfulness charity
Cássiæ, in Umbria, sanctæ Ritæ Víduæ, Moniális ex Ordine Eremitárum sancti Augustíni; quæ, post sæculi núptias, ætérnum sponsum Christum únice diléxit.
At Cascia in Umbria, St. Rita, a widow and nun of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, who, after being disengaged from her earthly marriage, loved only her eternal spouse Christ.
1457 ST RITA OF CASCIA, WIDOW
IN the year 1381 there was born in a peasant home at Roccaporena in the central Apennines a little girl who, as an exemplary daughter, wife and religious, was destined to attain to great heights of holiness in this life, and afterwards to merit from countless grateful souls by her intercession in Heaven the title of “the saint of the impossible and the advocate of desperate cases”.
The child of her parents’ old age, Rita—as she was named—showed from her earliest years extraordinary piety and love of prayer. She had set her heart upon dedicating herself to God in the Augustinian convent at Cascia, but when her father and mother decreed that she should marry, she sorrowfully submitted, deeming that in obeying them she was fulfilling God’s will. Her parents’ choice was an unfortunate one. Her husband proved to be brutal, dissolute and so violent that his temper was the terror of the neighbourhood. For eighteen years with unflinching patience and gentleness Rita bore with his insults and infidelities. As with a breaking heart she watched her two Sons fall more and more under their father’s evil influence, she shed many tears in secret and prayed for them without ceasing. Eventually there came a day when her husband’s conscience was touched, so that he begged her forgiveness for all the suffering he had caused her: but shortly afterwards he was carried home dead, covered with wounds. Whether he had been the aggressor or the victim of a vendetta she never knew. Poignancy was added to her grief by the discovery that her sons had vowed to avenge their father’s death, and in an agony of sorrow she prayed that they might die rather than commit murder. Her prayer was answered. Before they had carried out their purpose they contracted an illness which proved fatal. Their mother nursed them tenderly and succeeded in bringing them to a better mind, so that they died forgiving and forgiven.
Left alone in the world, Rita’s longing for the religious life returned, and she tried to enter the convent at Cascia. She was informed, however, to her dismay that the constitutions forbade the reception of any but virgins. Three times she made application, begging to be admitted in any capacity, and three times the prioress reluctantly refused her. Nevertheless her persistence triumphed: the rules were relaxed in her favour and she received the habit in the year 1413.
In the convent St Rita displayed the same submission to authority which she had shown as a daughter and wife. No fault could be found with her observance of the rule, and when her superior, to try her, bade her water a dead vine in the garden, she not only complied without a word, but continued day after day to tend the old stump. On the other hand, where latitude was allowed by the rule—as in the matter of extra austerities—she was pitiless to herself. Her charity to her neighbour expressed itself especially in her care for her fellow religious during illness and for the conversion of negligent Christians, many of whom were brought to repentance by her prayers and persuasion. All that she said or did was prompted primarily by her fervent love of God, the ruling passion of her life. From childhood she had had a special devotion to the sufferings of our Lord, the contemplation of which would sometimes send her into an ecstasy, and when in 1441 she heard an eloquent sermon on the crown of thorns from St James della Marca, a strange physical reaction seems to have followed. While she knelt, absorbed in prayer, she became acutely conscious of pain—as of a thorn which had detached itself from the crucifix and embedded itself in her forehead. It developed into an open wound which suppurated and became so offensive that she had to be secluded from the rest. We read that the wound was healed for a season, in answer to her prayers, to enable her to accompany her sisters on a pilgrimage to Rome during the year of the jubilee, 1450, but it was renewed after her return and remained with her until her death, obliging her to live practically as a recluse.
During her later years St Rita was afflicted also by a wasting disease, which she bore with perfect resignation. She would never relax any of her austerities or sleep on anything softer than rough straw. She died on May 22, 1457, and her body has remained incorrupt until modern times. The roses which are St Rita’s emblem and which are blessed in Augustinian churches on her festival refer to an old tradition. It is said that when the saint was nearing her death she asked a visitor from Roccaporena to go to her old garden and bring her a rose. It was early in the season and the friend had little expectation of being able to gratify what she took to be a sick woman’s fancy. To her great surprise, on entering the garden, she saw on a bush a rose in full bloom. Having given it to St Rita she asked if she could do anything more for her. “Yes”, was the reply. “Bring me two figs from the garden.” The visitor hastened back and discovered two ripe figs on a leafless tree.

The evidence upon which rests the story of St Rita as it is popularly presented cannot be described as altogether satisfactory. The saint died in 1457, but the first biography of which anything is known, written by John George de Amicis, only saw the light in 1600 and we can learn little or nothing of the sources from which it was compiled. A considerable number of lives have appeared in modern times, but in spite of the diligence of their various authors they add hardly anything in the way of historical fact to the slender sketch which may be read in the Acta Sanctorum (May, vol. v), which is derived mainly from the seventeenth century life by Cavallucci. There are also many chronological problems, which, pace Father Vannutelli, still remain unsettled. In English we have a Life of St Rita of Cascia, by H. Conolly (1903), and Our Own Saint Rita, by M. J. Corcoran (1919). Of the numerous Italian biographies those by P. Marabottini (1923) and by L. Vannutelli (1925) seem most in favour.

b. 1381 Like Elizabeth Ann Seton, Rita of Cascia was a wife, mother, widow and member of a religious community. Her holiness was reflected in each phase of her life.
Born at Roccaporena in central Italy, Rita wanted to become a nun but was pressured at a young age into marrying a harsh and cruel man. During her 18-year marriage, she bore and raised two sons. After her husband was killed in a brawl and her sons had died, Rita tried to join the Augustinian nuns in Cascia. Unsuccessful at first because she was a widow, Rita eventually succeeded.
Over the years, her austerity, prayerfulness and charity became legendary. When she developed wounds on her forehead, people quickly associated them with the wounds from Christ's crown of thorns. She meditated frequently on Christ's passion. Her care for the sick nuns was especially loving. She also counseled lay people who came to her monastery.
Beatified in 1626, Rita was not canonized until 1900. She has acquired the reputation, together with St. Jude, as a saint of impossible cases. Many people visit her tomb each year.
She died on May 22 at Cascia, and many miracles were reported instantly. She is honored in Spain as La Santa de los Impossibles and elsewhere as a patron saint of hopeless causes.
Comment: Although we can easily imagine an ideal world in which to live out our baptismal vocation, such a world does not exist. An “If only ….” approach to holiness never quite gets underway, never produces the fruit that God has a right to expect.
Rita became holy because she made choices that reflected her Baptism and her growth as a disciple of Jesus. Her overarching, lifelong choice was to cooperate generously with God's grace, but many small choices were needed to make that happen. Few of those choices were made in ideal circumstances—not even when Rita became an Augustinian nun.
Quote: For the Baptism of adults and for all the baptized at the Easter Vigil, three questions are asked: “Do you reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God's children? Do you reject the glamour of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin? Do you reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness?”

Rita (Margarita) of Cascia, OSA Widow (RM) Born in Roccaporena in the Apennines near Spoleto, Italy, in 1381; died at Cascia, Umbria, Italy, May 22, 1457; canonized in 1900. Rita was born to elderly parents and showed an early vocation for religious life. She wanted to enter an Augustinian convent, but she gave into her parents' wishes and married at the age of 12.

Her husband was a cruel and brutal man, well known in the neighborhood for his rude manners and violent temper. For 18 years she lived patiently with her contemptuous and philandering husband, forced to watch her sons becoming tainted by his influence. There came a point where he repented, however, and begged her to forgive him for his ill treatment; he was murdered shortly afterward in a vendetta. When her sons vowed to avenge their father's death, Rita prayed that they might die rather than commit murder. Both fell ill, and she nursed them and brought to them a spirit of forgiveness before they died.

Rita applied three times to the Augustinian convent at Cascia but was turned away because its rule permitted only virgins. But in 1413, as a result of her persistence and strong faith, an exception was made, and she took the habit. I much prefer the version of the story that I learned in my youth: When the convent repeatedly denied her entry into the convent, Rita continued to pray until one night her prayer was answered. Miraculously, she was transported into the convent at night despite the locked doors. When the sisters found her inside they decided that it must be God's will for Rita to be accepted.

Once professed Rita enforced hard austerities upon herself, becoming known for her penances and concern for others. She cared for the other nuns when they were ill and worked to return Christians who had neglected the faith back to observance.

In 1441, she heard a sermon by Saint James della Marca on the Crown of Thorns. Soon afterward, as she prayed, she became conscious of pain, as if a thorn had become embedded in her forehead. The location developed into an open wound, and it became so unattractive that she was separated from her sisters. The wound healed enough for her to attend a pilgrimage to Rome in 1450, but it reappeared after her return and remained with her until her death of tuberculosis, necessitating that she live in seclusion.

Several miracles were attributed to her after her death. In fact, her body is said to have remained incorrupt until recent times. The earliest biography of Saint Rita was not written until nearly 150 years after her death; thus, it should be recognized that the details of her story are not well attested (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, White).

In art, Saint Rita is depicted as an Augustinian nun praying before a crucifix, a thorn from the crown wounds her brow. She may also be shown receiving a crown of roses from the Virgin and a crown of thorns from the saints (Roeder). Rita's emblem in art is roses, which are blessed on her feast day (White).

She is patron of those in desperate situations (perhaps an allusion to her own life), of parenthood, and against infertility. In Spain Rita is known as "La Abogada de Imposibles", the patron saint of desperate cases, particularly matrimonial difficulties. An Italian poll showed that her popularity is greater than that of the Madonna (White). Rita is especially venerated in Cascia and Spoleto (Roeder).

1366 Hemming of Finland canon of Abo cathedral in Helsinki bring peace to the Hundred Years War between England and France and to end the Avignon papacy miracles were reported at his tomb BM
Born at Balinge near Uppsala, Sweden, in 1290; died May 22, 1366. After studying theology in Paris, France, Hemming became a canon of Abo cathedral in Helsinki, Finland, and, in 1339, its bishop. Hemming was involved in the border disputes with Uppsala, from where Saint Henry of Finland Saint Bridget of Sweden, whom he accompanied to France. Saint Bridget and Hemming worked together to bring peace to the Hundred Years War between England and France and to end the Avignon papacy.

In 1352, Hemming convened a diocesan synod in which he demonstrated his zeal for proper celebrations of the feasts of the Church and the local saints of Scandinavia. He was also concerned with the custody of the Eucharist, the administration of Church property, and releasing poor people from the payment of stipends for dispensations or for funerals.

Saint Hemming was buried in his cathedral, where miracles were reported at his tomb. In 1514, his relics were translated and enshrined. A surviving, embroidered altar frontal survives which depicts Saints Hemming and Bridget together as an angel holds the mitre over the bishop's head (Farmer). evangelized Finland.

1397 Bl. John of Cetina Franciscan martyr of Granada
Spain. A missionary to the Muslims, he and Blessed Peter de Dueñas were executed in Granada, one of the capitals of the Moorish kingdoms in Spain.

Blessed John of Cetina and Peter de Dueñas, OFM MM (AC) Peter de Dueñas was born at Palencia, Spain, in 1378 (his feast day was formerly on May 19). John of Cetina was a Spanish Franciscan, who with Peter de Dueñas, was commissioned to evangelize the Moors at Granada, Spain. Both were beheaded in the attempt (Benedictines).

1538 Blessed John Forest reputation for wisdom and learning, OFM M (AC)
1538 BD JOHN FOREST, MARTYR
AT the age of seventeen John Forest entered the Franciscan convent of the Strict Observance at Greenwich, and nine years later he was sent to Oxford to study theology. His studies completed, he seems to have returned to his friary with a great reputation for learning and wisdom. Not only was he invited to preach at St Paul’s Cross, but he was also chosen to be Queen Catherine’s confessor when the court was in residence at Greenwich, The close relations into which he was brought with the king and queen and the uncompromising attitude taken up by the Observants with regard to Henry VIII’s schemes for divorcing Catherine, rendered his position a delicate one. At a chapter in 1525 he told his brethren that the king was so incensed against them that he had contemplated suppressing them, but that he, John, had succeeded in dissuading him. The relief, however, was only temporary. In 1534, after the pope’s decision had been made known, Henry ordered that all Observant convents in England should be dissolved and that the friars should pass to other communities. Captivity was the punishment for such as proved refractory and we know from a legal report that Bd John was imprisoned in London in the year 1534.
How long he remained there is uncertain as we have no record of the next four years. According to the testimony of his enemies he admitted to having made an act of submission “with his mouth but not with his mind”, which would appear to have gained him his liberty. On the other hand in 1538 we find him living in the house of the Conventual Grey Friars at Newgate, under the supervision of a superior who was a nominee of the crown, in a state of semi-captivity but able to minister to those who resorted to him. Because he was thought to have denounced the oath of supremacy to Lord Mordaunt and other penitents, he was arrested and brought to trial, when he was inveigled or browbeaten into giving his assent to some articles propounded to him; but when they were submitted to him afterwards for him to read and sign, and he realized that one of them would have amounted to apostasy, he repudiated them altogether. He was thereupon condemned to the stake. He was dragged on a hurdle to Smithfield and almost to the last he was offered a pardon if he would conform, but he remained unshaken. Asked if he had anything to say, he protested that if an angel should come down from Heaven and should show him anything other than that which he had believed all his life, and that if he should be cut joint after joint and member after member—burnt, hanged, or whatever pains soever might be done to his body—he would never turn from his “old sect [i.e. profession] of this Bishop of Rome”.

Owing to the wind the flames took a long time in reaching a vital part, but the martyr bore his sufferings with unflinching fortitude. With him was burnt a wooden statue of St Derfel Gadarn, much venerated in Wales, concerning which it had once been predicted that it would set a Forest on fire (see April 5).

The best documented account of this martyr is that by J. H. Pollen, contained in LEM., edited by Dom Bede Camm, vol. (1904), pp. 274—326. See also Father Thaddeus, Life of Blessed John Forest.

Born probably in Oxford, England; beatified in 1886. John Forest joined the Observant Franciscans when 17 at Greenwich, England. He studied theology at Oxford, and acquired a reputation for wisdom and learning. He returned to Greenwich, where he was Queen Catherine of Aragon's confessor and knew King Henry VIII.

He thought he had convinced Henry in 1529 not to suppress his order for their opposition to his divorce of Catherine, but when the pope denied the petition for divorce, Henry suppressed the order in 1534 and John was imprisoned for a time in London. Reportedly he gained his freedom by submitting, but in 1538, he was at a Conventual house in Newgate under what amounted to house arrest.

Accused of denouncing the Act of Supremacy, he was arrested, agreed to several propositions, but when asked to sign them refused, denying the king's ecclesiastical supremacy. He was then ordered burned at the stake, dragged on a hurdle to Smithfield, and burned to death. Also burned with him was a wooden statue of Saint Derfel of which centuries earlier it had been predicted would one day be used to set a forest afire (Benedictines, Delaney).

1614 Bl. Peter of the Assumption Spaniard martyr of Japan.
Also Peter of Cuerva, a martyr of Japan. A Spaniard from Cuerva, near Toledo, he entered the Franciscans and was sent to Japan in 1601 with fifty other members of the order. While there, he was named guardian of the Franciscan friary at Nagasaki.

Arrested by Japanese officials, he was imprisoned at Omura and, with Blessed John Machado, was beheaded at Nagasaki. Beatified in 1867, he is considered the first martyr of the second great Japanese persecution.

Blessed Peter of the Assumption, OFM M (AC) Born at Cuerva, diocese of Toledo, Spain; died at Nagasaki, Japan, in 1617; beatified in 1867. Peter went to Japan with a band of 50 Franciscan missionaries in 1601. He was appointed guardian of the friary of Nagasaki, where he was beheaded together with Blessed John Machado (above). He was the first martyr of the second great Japanese persecution (Benedictines).

1617 St. John Baptist Machado Azores Jesuit martyr of Japan
He was born in the Azores and became a Jesuit in Coimbra, Portugal. In 1609 he was sent to Japan. John and two companions were beheaded at Nagasaki. He was beatified in 1867.

Blessed John Baptist Machado, SJ M (AC) Born at Terceira, the Azores, in 1580; beatified in 1867. John Baptist Machado became a Jesuit at Coimbra, Portugal, and in 1609 went to Japan to serve in the mission field. He was beheaded at Nagasaki with two companions (Benedictines).

1622 Bl. Matthias of Arima native catechist Martyr of Japan
He was a native Japanese catechist who worked for the Jesuit provincial superior. Matthias would not testify against the Jesuit and died after long and cruel tortures. He was beatified in 1867.

Blessed Matthias of Arima M (AC) beatified in 1867. Matthias was a native Japanese catechist of the Jesuit fathers and servant of the provincial. Because he refused to betray his master, he was subjected to a most revolting martyrdom (Benedictines).

1854 ST JOACHIMA DE MAS Y DE VEDRUNA, WIDOW, FOUNDRESS OF THE CARMELITES of CHARITY
AT the end of the eighteenth century the noble family of Vedruna, well-known and respected in Catalonia, was represented in Barcelona by Lawrence de Vedruna, who had married Teresa Vidal. They had eight children, of whom the fifth, Joachima (Joaquina), was born in 1783. Her childhood and adolescence—earlier in Spain then farther north—seem to have been uneventful and not marked by anything out of the way. She was evidently a devout, serious and intelligent child, among the traits her biographers mention being that she always liked to be doing something, especially such useful work as knitting stockings; but the abounding energy of childhood has manifested itself usefully in numberless children who did not grow up to be saints. Nor was her attraction towards the life of the cloister any more unusual—though it is not every twelve-year-old girl with that idea who presents a Carmelite convent and demands to be admitted to the community, as Joachima de Vedruna did.

However, in 1798 she met the man who was to be her husband, when he was a witness at the wedding of her sister Josephine. He was a young lawyer of good family in Barcelona, Theodore de Mas, and he too had seriously thought of offering himself as a religious to the Franciscans. It is permissible to think that the biographers of Bd Joachima may have overstressed the element of parental wishes on both sides overriding an inclination to self dedication to the religious life in these young people. Certainly it would seem that Theodore de Mas went about his courting with careful deliberation. One of his granddaughters, a Visitation nun at Madrid, tells us that he was uncertain which of the Vedruna girls to marry, whether Teresa or Frances or Joachima. So, she says, he called on them armed with a box of sugared almonds. Teresa and Frances turned up their noses at such a gift—“Does he think we are children?” But Joachima exclaimed delightedly, “Oh, I should like them!” And Theodore made his choice accordingly.
On the other hand, a few days after their marriage (in 1799, when she was sixteen), Joachima was very cast down because she felt she had betrayed her true vocation. Her husband comforted her, and ended by saying that should they have children they would bring them up and launch them in life and then, if she wished, she could retire to a convent and so would he. “And so”, Joachima told her confidant years afterwards, “we consoled one another”. And children they had, eight of them. The first, Anne, was born in 1800, then Joseph in 1891, followed by Francis and Agnes, three years after the birth of whom Napoleon I invaded Spain. For greater safety—as he hoped—Theodore de Mas moved his family from Barcelona to Vich, his birthplace, and then joined the army. But when the French troops had crossed the Pyrenees and were approaching Vich, the inhabitants fled, and Joachima set out with the children for a place called Montseny, accompanied by two servants and a boy. They were going to spend the night in the plain of La Calma, but a woman with a donkey suddenly appeared and warned Joachima on no account to do so; she led them some way farther to a house where they were hospitably received, and then their guide disappeared. That night French troops bivouacked in the plain of La Calma. Nobody could identify the mysterious woman with the donkey, and Joachima always believed it was our Lady herself who had appeared to warn her.
It was during this troubled time that the fifth child, Carlotta, was born and died, and the second son, Francis, also died soon after. Then they were able to return to Vich, where in 1810 Theodora was born and in 1813 Teresa. In the same year Theodore de Mas resigned his military commission and took his family back to Barcelona, where two years later their last child, another daughter, Carmen, was born. Whatever doubts Joachima may have had about her matrimonial vocation, there is no doubt that she was a beloved wife and a devoted mother. And it is interesting to note that when the second daughter, Agnes, wanted to be a nun, Joachima said firmly, “No. God wants you to marry. Two of your sisters will be nuns.” And so it was; but Theodora was able to become a Cistercian nun only after a disappointed young man had brought—and lost—a breach of promise of marriage action against her in the episcopal court of Tarragona. There were other legal proceedings that brought great distress and loss to the Mas family, instituted by Theodore’s own brothers and other relatives. Some members of her husband’s family were not the least of Joachima’s crosses.
One day in September 1815, while Theodore and his wife were sitting at table with their children around them, suddenly and without any warning Joachima had a vivid vision of her husband lying dead, and a voice seemed to say to her, “This will happen in a few months. You will be a widow.” She said nothing of this to Theodore or anybody else, and alternately resigned herself to God’s will and tried to put the experience aside as meaningless. In the following January she was in Vich, where Theodore wrote her loving letters and seemed perfectly well. Two months later he was dead, at forty-two years old. His wife was then thirty-three.
For the first seven years of her widowhood Joachima lived in the big house at Vich, Manso del Escorial, devoting her time to her children, to prayer, and to waiting on the sick in the local hospital. She “hauled down her flag” (as Francis de Sales said to St Jane de Chantal), even so far as to dress in the Franciscan tertiary habit, and lived a life of the utmost mortification and poverty. “Poor thing” said her neighbours, “her husband’s death has driven her crazy.” In 1823 two of the children, Joseph and Agnes, got married, and shortly afterwards Joseph and his wife took the two youngest, Teresa and Carmen, into their home at Igualada. “Jesu “, wrote Joachima, “You know what I want for my dear ones. Don’t be surprised at the weakness of my heart: I am their mother—and that is why I beseech your goodness.” In the years of toil for Christ and His poor that were to follow, she never lost touch with her children; some of the birthday letters she wrote them are extant.
In 1820, in somewhat remarkable circumstances, Joachima had met the well-known Capuchin, Father Stephen (Fabregas) of Olot, who told her she must not go into any existing convent as she was destined to belong to a new congregation with the double task of teaching the young and nursing the sick. Six years later she was clothed with the religious habit by the bishop of Vich, Mgr Paul Corcuera; he had approved the formation of a community with those objects, and put it under the invocation of our Lady of Mount Carmel (this was disappointing to Father Stephen of Olot, who had hoped it would be affiliated to his own order). The interest had also been roused of an influential layman, Joseph Estrada, who to the end of his days was a devoted friend of the Carmelites of Charity, as the new sisters were to be called. Father Stephen drew up a rule, and the community started in the Manso del Escorial with six members. They were extremely poor in material resources, and their reception was not always sympathetic. When one day the noble widow de Mas asked an alms from the Marchioness Portanuova, that lady replied, “How could you be so stupid as to get involved in this absurd undertaking!” Yet within a few months a hospital had been opened at Tarrega.
From then on the new congregation continued to spread throughout Catalonia (all the foundations made during the lifetime of the foundress were in that province of Spain). Even the Carlist wars and the anti-religious activity of the so-called liberal government brought only a temporary set-back. But, after caring for the sick and wounded of both sides, some of the Carmelites of Charity had to take refuge in France. As on a previous occasion, while crossing the Pyrenees, Mother Joachima was aided in a remarkable way, this time by a mysterious young man whom she believed to be a vision of the Archangel Michael. The exile in Perpignan lasted three years, and it was not till the autumn of 1843 that the sisters were able to return to Spain, when there began the most active and fruitful period of Bd Joachima’s extension of her congregation.
Early in the following year the foundress and the senior nuns made their final profession. The delegate to receive their vows on behalf of the Church was St Antony Claret, who had an important part in the history of the Carmelites of Charity during these years of St Joachima’s life. About 1850 she felt the first warnings of the paralysis that was to strike her down, in the circumstances she was persuaded by Mgr Casadevall, vicar capitular of Vich, that it would be wise for her to resign the leadership of her congregation, and from 1851 its direction was in the hands of a priest, Father Stephen Sala; later on his place was taken by a Benedictine monk, Dom Bernard Sala. Her faculties were completely unimpaired, but the foundress accepted her relegation to the rank of a simple sister humbly and with equanimity. Father Sala was a man of fine quality, and he declared that she was still “the soul, the head, the heart of the congregation, its very self”.
For four weary years Mother Joachima was dying by inches, a complete paralysis creeping over her body. For the last few months she could neither move nor speak, and her spirit too seemed inanimate, except when holy communion was brought to her. But it was an attack of cholera that finally brought her earthly life to an end, on August 28, 1854. Her body was eventually translated to the chapel of the mother house of the Carmelites of Charity at Vich, and in 1940 she was solemnly declared blessed. *[*Descendants of Bd Joachima and twenty-five Carmelites of Charity were among the victims of secularist terrorism in Spain in 1936.]
St Joachima was married for seventeen years, and was thirty-three years old, with six children living, when her husband died, she was forty-two before the Carmelites of Charity were instituted, and she died at seventy-one after founding convents with their schools and hospitals all over Catalonia. These facts alone are enough to draw attention to her as a most remarkable woman, and to suggest the strength of her spirit of faith and love. To her have been applied Bossuet’s words about the Princess Palatine: “She buried herself in her husband’s grave, leaving human ties with his ashes, and gave herself to ceaseless prayer, pouring out all her love to the one bridegroom, Jesus Christ”. Several times when at prayer in the chapel the sisters saw her lifted from the floor in ecstasy, her head ringed with light; and it was this height of prayer, trust and selflessness that informed all her work. St Joachima de Mas y de Vedruna was a worthy successor of the great women of the past, who in widowhood gave themselves to the dedicated life, of such as Paula, Bridget of Sweden and Elizabeth of Hungary, Frances Romana, Jane de Chantal and Barbara Acarie.

Among the writers on St Joachima de Vedruna have been Cardinal Benedict Sanz y Fores and Dom Bernard Sala; but Vida y Vitudes de la Vest. M. Joaquina (1905) by Fr James Nonel, in two volumes, is outstanding for its detail. The fourth edition of a useful short account of her, Vida y Obra de..Joaquina de Vedruna de Mar, by Fr Ignatius of Pamplona was published in 1946. The official Italian biography is La Beata Gioacchina de Vedruna v. de Mas, by Don Emidio Federici (1940); whereas the first-named books were intended primarily for the members of Mother Joachima’s congregation, this last, in which full use is made of the documents of the beatification process, is for a wider public.

1857 St. Michael Ho-Dinh-Hy native Martyr of Vietnam arrested for his Christian activities
A native of Vietnam, he was born to Christian parents and was by profession a wealthy silk trader and superintendent of the royal silk mills. He did not practice the faith until late in life, becoming then protector of the Christian community. He was arrested for his Christian activities, suffering beheading. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988.

Blessed Michael Ho-Dinh-Hy M (AC) Born in Nhu-lam, Cochin-China, c. 1808; died at An-Hoa, near Hue, in 1857; beatified in 1909. Though Michael was born to Christian parents, he became a Great Mandarin and superintendent of the royal silk mills. For a long time he did not practice his faith, but he eventually became a leader to and protector of his fellow- Christians. It was for this reason he was beheaded (Benedictines).

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

THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 12

O Lady, hear my prayer: incline thine ear to my supplication.

The spiteful enemy hath persecuted my life: he hath cast on to the ground my ways.

He hath blackened me with his darkness: and my spirit is exceedingly troubled.

Turn not thy face away from me: that I may not fall together with them that tumble into the abyss.

Send forth thy light and thy grace: and repair anew my life and my conscience.

Let every spirit praise Our Lady

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide to Holiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting of the Saints walis (saints of Allah)

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

So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life. But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the holy Prophet made him refuse such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) She was first to set forth the doctrine of mystical love and who is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. An elderly Shia pointed out that during his pre-Partition childhood it was quite common to find pictures and portraits of Shia icons in Imambaras across the country.
Shah Abdul Latif: The Exalted Sufi Master born 1690 in a Syed family; died 1754. In ancient times, Sindh housed the exemplary Indus Valley Civilisation with Moenjo Daro as its capital, and now, it is the land of a culture which evolved from the teachings of eminent Sufi saints. Pakistan is home to the mortal remains of many Sufi saints, the exalted among them being Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a practitioner of the real Islam, philosopher, poet, musicologist and preacher. He presented his teaching through poetry and music - both instruments sublime - and commands a very large following, not only among Muslims but also among Hindus and Christians. Sindh culture: The Shah is synonymous with Sindh. He is the very fountainhead of Sindh's culture. His message remains as fresh as that of any present day poet, and the people of Sindh find solace from his writings. He did indeed think for Sindh. One of his prayers, in exquisite Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance rare! Beloved! All the world let share Thy grace, and fruitful be.”
Shia Ali al-Hadi, died 868 and son Hassan al-Askari 874. These saints are the 10th and 11th of Shia's 12 most revered Imams. Baba Farid Sufi 1398 miracle, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim Sufi saint scholar miracles 569 A.H. [1173 C.E.] hermit gave to poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddi n Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA) 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.

801 Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This 8th century saint was an early Sufi who had a profound influence on later Sufis, who in turn deeply influenced the European mystical love and troubadour traditions. Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq. She was born around 717 and died in 801 (185-186). Her biographer, the great medieval poet Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with love and longing" and that men accepted her "as a second spotless Mary" (186). She was, he continues, “an unquestioned authority to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life in a small desert cell near Basra, where she lost herself in prayer and went straight to God for teaching. As far as is known, she never studied under any master or spiritual director. She was one of the first of the Sufis to teach that Love alone was the guide on the mystic path (222). A later Sufi taught that there were two classes of "true believers": one class sought a master as an intermediary between them and God -- unless they could see the footsteps of the Prophet on the path before them, they would not accept the path as valid. The second class “...did not look before them for the footprint of any of God's creatures, for they had removed all thought of what He had created from their hearts, and concerned themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind. She felt no reverence even for the House of God in Mecca: "It is the Lord of the house Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?" (219) One lovely spring morning a friend asked her to come outside to see the works of God. She replied, "Come you inside that you may behold their Maker. Contemplation of the Maker has turned me aside from what He has made" (219). During an illness, a friend asked this woman if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such a question as 'What do I desire?' I swear by the glory of God that for twelve years I have desired fresh dates, and you know that in Basra dates are plentiful, and I have not yet tasted them. I am a servant (of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?" (162)
When a male friend once suggested she should pray for relief from a debilitating illness, she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who it is that wills this suffering for me? Is it not God Who wills it? When you know this, why do you bid me ask for what is contrary to His will? It is not well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic. It was her custom to pray all night, sleep briefly just before dawn, and then rise again just as dawn "tinged the sky with gold" (187). She lived in celibacy and poverty, having renounced the world. A friend visited her in old age and found that all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled as her prayer-rug (186), for where she prayed all night, she also slept briefly in the pre-dawn chill. Once her friends offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for the things of this world from Him to Whom the world belongs, and how should I ask for them from those to whom it does not belong?" (186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted to give her a purse of gold. She refused it, saying that God, who sustains even those who dishonor Him, would surely sustain her, "whose soul is overflowing with love" for Him. And she added an ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth of someone of whom I do not know whether he acquired it lawfully or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance. She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did. For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision of God Himself. The story is told that once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other. When they asked her to explain, she said:
"I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she came from. "From that other world," she said. "And where are you going?" she was asked. "To that other world," she replied (219). She taught that the spirit originated with God in "that other world" and had to return to Him in the end. Yet if the soul were sufficiently purified, even on earth, it could look upon God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him in love. In this quest, logic and reason were powerless. Instead, she speaks of the "eye" of her heart which alone could apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a bhakti, like one of Krishna’s Goptis in the Hindu tradition. Her hours of prayer were not so much devoted to intercession as to communion with her Beloved. Through this communion, she could discover His will for her. Many of her prayers have come down to us:
       "I have made Thee the Companion of my heart,
        But my body is available for those who seek its company,
        And my body is friendly towards its guests,
        But the Beloved of my heart is the Guest of my soul." [224]

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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey

Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament

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

Thus began a great adventure that would eventually result in the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a Temple dedicated to the Divine Child Jesus, a place of refuge for all. Use this link to read a remarkable story about The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Father Reardon, Editor of The Catholic Bulletin for 14 years Lover of the poor; “A very Holy Man of God.”

Monsignor Reardon Protonotarius Apostolicus
Pastor 42 years BASILICA OF SAINT MARY Minneapolis MN

America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World

August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation

by Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May 31, 1908

James M. Reardon Publication History of Basilica of Saint Mary 1600-1932

Index to Part I and Part II 1932

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

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

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

Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.

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

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

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

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

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

THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.

By Father John Corapi
THE BLESSED MOTHER AND ISLAM By Father John Corapi.

June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: Ordained Catholic Priest under Pope John Paul II;
then 2,000,000 miles delivering the Gospel to millions, and continues to do so.

By Father John Corapi

Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

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

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

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

Talk is weak. Prayer is strong. Pray! God bless you, Father John Corapi

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

About Father John Corapi.

Father Corapi is a Catholic priest .

The pillars of father's preaching are basically:

Love for and a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary
Leading a vibrant and loving relationship with Jesus Christ
Great love and reverence for the Most Holy Eucharist from Holy Mass to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
An uncompromising love for and obedience to the Holy Father and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church

God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.

Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”

Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.

Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.

Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.

Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.

Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis will beatify these martyred Greek-Catholic bishops in Romania
May 30, 2019 - 03:01 pm .- On Sunday in Blaj, Pope Francis will beatify seven Greek-Catholic bishops of Romania who were killed by the communist regime between 1950 and 1970.

Woman who served Brazil’s poorest to be canonized
May 14, 2019 - 06:53 am .- Pope Francis Tuesday gave his approval for eight sainthood causes to proceed, including that of Bl. Dulce Lopes Pontes, a 20th-century religious sister who served Brazil’s poor.

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

Pope advances sainthood causes of 17 women
Jan 15, 2019 - 11:12 am .- Pope Francis approved Tuesday the next step in the canonization causes of 17 women from four countries, including the martyrdom of 14 religious sisters killed in Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Nineteen Algerian martyrs beatified
Dec 10, 2018 - 03:08 pm .- Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.

The Algerian martyrs shed their blood for Christ, pope says
Dec 7, 2018 - 10:02 am .- Ahead of the beatification Saturday of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, Pope Francis said martyrs have a special place in the Church.
Algerian martyrs are models for the Church, archbishop says
Nov 16, 2018 - 03:01 am .- Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers has said that Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, are “models for our lives as disciples today and tomorrow.”

Francesco Spinelli to be canonized after healing of a newborn in DR Congo
Oct 9, 2018 - 05:01 pm .- Among those being canonized on Sunday are Fr. Franceso Spinelli, a diocesan priest through whose intercession a newborn was saved from death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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

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

Pope Francis creates new path to beatification under ‘offering of life’
Jul 11, 2017 - 06:22 am .- On Tuesday Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” – in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor.

Twentieth century Polish nurse among causes advancing toward sainthood
Jul 7, 2017 - 06:14 am .- Pope Francis on Friday approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse and nursing instructor who died from cancer in 1973, paving the way for her beatification.

Sainthood causes advance, including layman who resisted fascism
Jun 17, 2017 - 09:22 am .- Pope Francis on Friday recognized the heroic virtue of six persons on the path to canonization, as well as the martyrdom of an Italian man who died from injuries of a beating he received while imprisoned in a concentration camp for resisting fascism.

Solanus Casey, Cardinal Van Thuan among those advanced toward sainthood
May 4, 2017 - 10:47 am .- Pope Francis on Thursday approved decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints advancing the causes for canonization of 12 individuals, including the American-born Capuchin Solanus Casey and the Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguen Van Thuan.

Pope clears way for canonization of Fatima visionaries
Mar 23, 2017 - 06:44 am .- On Thursday Pope Francis approved the second and final miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the Fatima Marian apparitions.
Surgeon and father among sainthood causes moving forward
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:03 am .- Pope Francis recognized on Monday the heroic virtue of eight persons on the path to canonization, including an Italian surgeon and father of eight who suffered from several painful diseases throughout his life.

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

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

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

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

Sunday, November 23 2014 Six to Be Canonized on Feast of Christ the King.

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

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

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

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

October 01, 2015 Vatican City, Pope Authorizes following Decrees
(ZENIT.org) By Staff Reporter
Polish Layperson Recognized as Servant of God
Pope Authorizes Decrees
Pope Francis on Wednesday authorised the Congregation for Saints' Causes to promulgate the following decrees:

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

HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Giovanni Folci, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Opera Divin Prigioniero (1890-1963);
- Servant of God Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish diocesan priest (1921-1987);
- Servant of God Jose Rivera Ramirez, Spanish diocesan priest (1925-1991);
- Servant of God Juan Manuel Martín del Campo, Mexican diocesan priest (1917-1996);
- Servant of God Antonio Filomeno Maria Losito, Italian professed priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (1838-1917);
- Servant of God Maria Benedetta Giuseppa Frey (nee Ersilia Penelope), Italian professed nun of the Cistercian Order (1836-1913);
- Servant of God Hanna Chrzanowska, Polish layperson, Oblate of the Ursulines of St. Benedict (1902-1973).

March 06 2016 MIRACLES authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
Pope Francis received in a private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, during which he authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES

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

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

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

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

LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000) India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858
China Marian shrines May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798
Links to Related Marian Websites Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles Roman Catholic Popes Purgatory Uniates, PSALTER BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 12 2022