Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!  (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)
R.  Deo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
November is the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory since 1888;
2023
23,658  Lives Saved Since 2007

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




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

Acts of the Apostles

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

How do I start the Five First Saturdays?

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

6 Canonized Feast of Christ the King
CAUSES OF SAINTS


  Goodbye Vern Bartholomew 1917-2017 on All Saints/All Souls day  Requiescat in pace;
Thanks for being such a great Dad


Before prayer, endeavor to realize whose Presence you are approaching, and to whom you are about to speak. We can never fully understand how we ought to behave towards God, before whom the angles tremble.-- St. Teresa of Avila

The dedication of the basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
the first of which was built by the emperor Constantine on the Vatican hill over the grave of Saint Peter but having fallen into ruins in days of old, was rebuilt on a larger scale and re-consecrated on this very day; the second, built on the Ostian Way by the emperors Theodosius and Valentinianus lamentably destroyed by fire and re-consecrated on the tenth day of December after the interior was restored.  The brotherhood of the Apostles and the unity of the Church are in some way expressed in their common celebration. 

Burning the candle at both ends for God's sake may be foolishness to the world, but it is a profitable Christian exercise-for so much better the light. Only one thing in life matters. Being found worthy of the Light of the World in the hour of His visitation. We need have no undue fear for our health if we work hard for the kingdom of God; God will take care of our health if we take care of His cause.  In any case it is better to burn out than to rust out.
-- Bishop Fulton Sheen

November 18 – Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá (Venezuela)
An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth  
November 18 – Our Lady of Chiquinquira (Venezuela, 1749)

Miraculousy restored 
Our Lady of Chiquinquira is the queen and patroness of Colombia. Chiquinquira, whose name means place of mists and marshes, is in a region of the Andes located more than 6,500 ft above sea level.  The history of this temple dates back to 1560. A painting of the Madonna, commissioned by the Spanish Dominicans to inspire the faith of Indians and settlers, then hung in a chapel. There, it slowly deteriorated, to the point that only the frame remained, empty of its original image of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  A few years later, that image miraculously reappeared inside, with no signs of damage or deterioration. This marked the beginning of the series of miracles attributed to Our Lady through this image. The typology of the icon of Chiquinquira belongs to the "Hodigitria" Madonnas, the one who points to the Child Jesus.  The Marian Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquira, where this icon is venerated, is in the care of the Dominicans. Saint John Paul II visited it in 1986.  www.chretiensmagazine.fr

We must be a reflection of Mary to help disheartened souls
We must help disheartened souls as there are so many. Let us follow the path that Our Lord made ready for us, by faithfully responding to grace, and fighting the good fight of the Lord. When we speak of prayer, sacrifice, or Eucharistic adoration, it does not resonate in people’s hearts anymore. God has been abandoned for pleasure and material wealth.
Jesus, who is everything to Mary, is everything to us as well. Mary is completely His. She gave up everything—her life and her whole being—she sacrificed everything for Him and for us. May our lives belong totally to Him, following Mary's example.
Mother Mary of the Cross (Maria Nault) 1901-1999, Textes choisis (Selected Works), volume 5:
Avec Marie vivre le combat spirituel, Entretiens spirituels B6 -Noël 40
   November 18 – Our Lady of Chiquinquira (Venezuela, 1749)
The dedication of the basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

November 18 –  – Our Lady of Alttöting
The Virgin Mary brought two children back to life  
Our Lady of Alttöting, which dates from the end of the Carolingian era (10th century), is the most famous and oldest Marian shrine in Bavaria, Southern Germany.
The shrine became famous in 1489 when the first miracle occurred. A little 3-year old boy drowned in a creek, and his body was removed but a half an hour later. His mother, in tears, carried him running to the chapel. There she placed the body of her child on the altar and begged the Virgin Mary to bring him back to life. And suddenly the miracle happened—God did choose to bring the child back to life.
Shortly afterwards, a second miracle happened. This time a little 6-year old boy fell from a horse that was pulling a large cart. As it could not be stopped in time, the cart crushed the child. The child was dead and there was no hope of saving him. His parents turned to Our Lady of Altötting and prayed, and the next day the boy was alive again.
 Moreover, his body kept no traces of his injuries.
Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger went to that church regularly from the age of 7 with his family, then as a seminarian, priest, teacher, Cardinal-Archbishop, and as Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith.
 
The Mary of Nazareth Team
Source : nova.evangelisation.free.fr

Pope Francis  PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR November 2023

Pope Francis releases his prayer intention for the month of November,
asking the faithful to pray that the Lord will bless him.

“If Children Are Seen as a Burden, Something Is Wrong”
A society that does not like to be surrounded by children and considers them a concern, a weight, or a risk, is a depressed society.   “When life multiplies, society is enriched, not impoverished.”
Children are a gift of society, never a possession. Pope Francis.
THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
  Dedication of St. Peter and Paul
   303 St. Hesychius of Antioch Martyred Roman soldier
  304 St. Romanus and Barula 7yr old  Martyrs of Syria
  378 St. Maximus 19th bishop of Mainz revered scholar
  430 St. Oriculus and Companions  Martyrs in Carthage
  450 St. Nazarius monk and abbot of the community of Lerins 
6th v.St. Mawes Welsh hermit and abbot
6th v.St. Keverne Saint of Cornwall
  588 St. Frigidian of Lucca B (RM) (also known as Frediano, Frigdianus) Miraculously, the river followed him
  690 St. Mummolus Benedictine abbot and Irish companion of St. Fursey
  750 St. Anselm Benedictine abbot in Lerins
  782 St. Thomas of Antioch Syria Hermit saint for relief against pestilence
  952 St. Odo spread Cluny's influence to monasteries
1619 Bl. John Shoun Martyr of Japan a Japanese from Meako
1619 St. Leonard Kimura Martyr of Japan with companions
1852 St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne Virgin dream of serving Native Americans
November 18 - The Rosary Virgin of Chiquinquira (Venezuela, 1749)
Mary lights up a humble home  Our Lady of Chiquinquira (Columbia, 1586).
According to tradition, one day in the year 1749, a humble laundress went to the shores of Lake Macaraibo to wash her laundry. Suddenly, she saw a piece of wood floating on the water and she brought it home with her thinking she could use it to cover the jar of water she kept in the corridor of her home.
   The next morning, the woman heard something banging as if someone were calling for help. She went to see what had happened and noticed to her stupefaction that the piece of wood she had left in the corridor was now shining and that upon its surface now appeared Our Lady of Chiquinquira (Columbia, 1586). The woman ran into the street and cried, “It’s a miracle!” Crowds came to admire the miracle. The poor woman’s humble home soon became a Marian shrine.
    Later, the Macaraibo authorities decided to transfer the miraculous image to the cathedral. However during the procession, the small painting became so heavy that the two men who were carrying it could no longer advance. All efforts to move the painting were in vain, until someone, with Divine inspiration, suggested that "
Our Lady did not desire to go to the cathedral, but preferred to be placed in a church dedicated to Saint John of God.
   Immediately after the new direction was taken the image returned to its normal weight again and the procession was allowed to continue.
   On May 18, 1920, Pope Benedict XV declared the Church of Saint John of God a minor basilica.
One hundred and ninety-three years after the first miracle, on November 18, 1942, the image of the Rosary Virgin of Chiquinquira of Maracaibo was canonically crowned and the day was declared a national feast day.
Adapted from: www.chinitademaracaibo.4t.com

November 18 - Our Lady of Chiquinquirá (Colombia, 1562) The Virgin of the Rosary "La Chinta"
In the mid-16th century a Spanish painter created a portrait of the Virgin of the Rosary, known as "La Chinta". He used pigments from the soil, herbs and flowers of the region of Colombia, and his canvas was a rough cloth woven by Indians. The image of Mary is about a meter high. She has a small, sweet smile, both her face and the Christ Child's are light colored, and she looks as if she is about to take a step. She wears a white toque, a rose-colored robe, and a sky blue cape. A rosary hangs from the little finger of her left hand, and she holds a scepter in her right hand. She cradles the Christ Child in her left arm, and looks towards him. Christ has a little bird tied to his thumb, and a small rosary hangs from his left hand.
In 1562, the portrait was placed in a rustic chapel, exposed to the air. The roof leaked and soon the damage caused by humidity and sunlight completely obscured the image. In 1577, the damaged painting was moved to Chiquinquirá and stored in an unused room. Later, Maria Ramos, a pious woman from Seville, cleaned up the little chapel and hung the faded canvas in it. Though the image was in terrible shape, she still loved to sit and contemplate it.
On Friday, December 26, in the year 1586, the faded and damaged image was suddenly restored. Its colors were now bright, the canvas cleaner, the image clear and seemingly brand new. The healing of the image continued as small holes and tears in the canvas self-sealed. It still bears traces of its former damage, for instance the figures appear to be brighter and clearer from a distance than up close. For 300 years the painting hung unprotected. Pilgrims touched thousands of objects against the frail cotton cloth. This rough treatment should have destroyed it, but repaired itself somehow and goes on unscathed. Pope Pius VII declared Our Lady of Chiquinquirá patroness of Colombia in 1829, and granted a special liturgy in her honor. In 1897, a thick glass plate was added to protect it from the weather and the excessive touching of the faithful. The image was canonically crowned in 1919, and in 1927 her sanctuary was declared a Basilica.     Adapted from www.catholic-forum.com/saints/mary
The Caliph Who Defied the Coptic Church (II) November 18 - The Rosary Virgin of Chiquinquira (Venezuela, 1749)

Simon the Tanner's existence could have remained unknown, if an incident at the court didn't cause a local earthquake, figuratively and effectively. The Caliph was known to invite different religious leaders to debate in his presence. His Islamized Jewish vizier and Pope Abraam were present at one of those meetings and the pope got the upper hand. The Jew sought to embarrass Abraam and quoted the famous verse where the Lord, Jesus Christ, said in Saint Matthew (17:20): "Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Caliph Al-Muizz saw a unique opportunity in this debate and ordered Abraam to prove that Christ's words were true by moving Mokattam Mountain to the east, which would permit the expansion of the new town of Cairo. If he refused or was unable to accomplish this feat he would face two alternatives: either convert to Islam or leave Egypt. The patriarch asked in consternation and obtained an allotted time of three days before giving him an answer. He prayed God to inspire him and appealed to the Coptic people to fast with him for three days, from dawn to dusk, and to pray fervently that God would ward off this test.
The third day at dawn the Virgin Mary appeared to Abraam in a dream and said to him:
 "Do not fear, faithful shepherd."  The tears that you shed in this Church, the fasts and prayers you and your people have offered will not be in vain. Get up and go to the iron gate opening onto the market place. There you will find a one-eyed man carrying a water jar. Through him the miracle will occur."
Adapted from an article by Mohamed Salmawy published in the weekly AL-AHRAM, March 8, 2000.
November 18 - THE ROSARY VIRGIN OF CHIQUINQUIRA (1749)
The Infancy Gospel According to Saint Matthew (IV)
Women didn't have a place in the genealogies of that time. They were not held as 'begettors' nor counted as 'generation'. Of them one said that they conceived and gave birth to - at the most that they begot for their husband, in reference to him (in Lk 1:13 we examined this particular point).
Here Matthew is unusual and contrasts with Luke - in a strange way, because the latter, who shed much light on the women of the Gospel more than the other evangelists, doesn't breathe a word about Mary in his genealogy (3: 23-28). It is a genealogy without the mother.
So why does Matthew, who is more influenced by masculine prejudices, give Mary a key role? He doesn't say that Mary begot Christ. If he mentions her, it is less as the biological origin of Christ than as the sign and witness of God's transcendent action expressed in 1:18 and 20. It is in that respect that he points out her role, without telling us anything of her person, her grace, feelings, and merits, unlike Luke 1. In a significant manner, he situates her as sign of God and the unique human origin of Christ, in a sense that doesn't explain but outlines.
Matthew leaves the place of the begettor empty, to link Christ only to God his Father (...).
Mary is mentioned and counted in the genealogy of Matthew as the human sign of this exclusive paternity, more than the human and biological origin of Christ. Matthew considered Mary in a singular and profoundly theological way.
Rene Laurentin The Gospels of Christmas, Desclee, 1999

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


Dedication of St. Peter and Paul
 Romæ Dedicátio Basilicárum sanctórum Petri et Pauli Apostolórum.  Eárum primam, restitútam in ampliórem formam, Summus Póntifex Urbánus Octávus consecrávit hac ipsa recurrénte die; álteram vero, miserándo incéndio pénitus consúmptam, ac magnificéntius reædificátam, Pius Nonus die décima Decémbris solémni ritu consecrávit, ejúsque ánnuam commemoratiónem hodiérna die agéndam indíxit.
    At Rome, the dedication of the basilica of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.  The former, having been enlarged, was on this day solemnly consecrated by Urban VIII; while the latter, more beautifully rebuilt after its total destruction by fire, was solemnly dedicated on the 10th of December by Pius IX, though the feast in commemoration of that event was transferred to this day.
THE DEDICATION OF THE BASILICAS OF ST PETER AND OF ST PAUL
AS the commemorative feast of the dedication of the Archbasilica of the Lateran is kept by the whole Western church, so also is that of the other greater patriarchal basilicas at Rome, St Mary Major on August 5, and St Peter’s and St Paul’s together on this day. Amongst all the places that the blood of martyrs has rendered illustrious, that part of the Vatican Hill, which was consecrated with the blood and enriched with the relics of the Prince of the Apostles, has always been the most venerable. “The sepulchers of those who have served Christ crucified” says St John Chrysostom, “surpass the palaces of kings; not so much in the greatness and beauty of the buildings (though in this also they go beyond them) as in other things of more importance, such as the multitude of those who with devotion and joy repair to them. For the emperor himself, clothed in purple, goes to the tombs of the saints and kisses them; humbly prostrate on the ground he beseeches the same saints to pray to God for him; and he who wears a royal crown looks on it as a great privilege from God that a tentmaker and a fisherman, and these dead, should be his protectors and defenders, and for this he begs with great earnestness.”
   The martyrdom of St Peter took place according to tradition at the circus of Caligula in Nero’s gardens on the Vatican Hill, and he was buried nearby. It is held by some that in the year 258, to avoid desecration during the persecution of Valerian, the relics of St Peter, together with those of St Paul, were translated for a time to the obscure catacomb now called St Sebastian’s. But they came back to their original resting-place, and in 323 the Emperor Constantine began the building of the basilica of St Peter over the tomb of the Apostle. For nearly twelve hundred years this magnificent church remained substantially the same, a great papal establishment gradually growing up between it and the Vatican Hill. This was made the permanent residence of the popes on their return from the exile at Avignon, and by the middle of the fifteenth century the old church was found to be inadequate.
   In 1506 Pope Julius II inaugurated a new building, designed by Bramante, whose erection was carried on over a period of a hundred and twenty years, undergoing many alterations, additions and modifications at the hands of various popes and architects, especially Paul V and Michelangelo. The new basilica of St Peter, as we see it today, was consecrated by Pope Urban VIII on November 18, 1626, the day of its original dedication. The high altar was set up over the Apostle’s resting-place, which until 1942 had been inaccessible for many centuries. Though St Peter’s must always yield in dignity to the cathedral of St John Lateran, it has nevertheless for long been the most important church of the world, both in fact and in the hearts of Catholic Christians.

The martyrdom of St Paul took place some seven miles from that of St Peter at Aquae Salviae (now called Tre Fontane) on the Ostian Way. He was buried about two miles from there, on the property of a lady named Lucina, in a small vault. Early in the third century, according to Eusebius (Hist. ecci., ii, 25, 7), a Roman priest, Caius, refers to the tombs of SS. Peter and Paul: “I can show you the trophies [tombs] of the apostles. If you go to the Vatican or on the road to Ostia you will see the trophies of those who founded this church.” Constantine is said to have begun a basilica here too, but the great church of St Paul-outside-the-Walls was principally the work of the Emperor Theodosius’ I and Pope St Leo the Great. It remained in its primitive beauty and simplicity till the year 1823, when it was consumed by fire. The whole world contributed to its restora­tion, non-Christians as well as non-Catholics sending gifts and contributions. During the course of the work the fourth-century tomb was found, with the inscription PAULO APOST MART: To Paul, apostle and martyr; it was not opened. Pope Pius IX consecrated the new basilica, on the lines of the old one, on December 10, 1854, but the annual commemoration was appointed for this day, as the Roman Martyrology records.

The reader may be referred to Cardinal Schuster, The Sacramentary (Eng. trans.), vol. v, pp. 280-287; to 0. Marucchi, Basiliques et églises de Rome (1902), and Ch. Hülsen, Le chiese di Roma (1927). The martyrdom and burial-places of SS. Peter and Paul have already been touched upon, with further references, herein under June 29; and Cf. the first entry under November 9.  

“We do not”, says St Augustine, “build churches or appoint priesthoods, sacred rites and sacrifices to the martyrs, because, not the martyrs, but the God of the martyrs, is our God. Who among the faithful ever heard a priest, standing at the altar set up over the body of a martyr to the honour and worship of God, say in praying: We offer up sacrifices to thee, Peter, or Paul, or Cyprian?  We do not build churches to martyrs as to gods, but as memorials to men departed this life, whose souls live with God. Nor do we make altars to sacrifice on them to the martyrs, but to their God and our God.”
St. Peter’s is probably the most famous church in Christendom. Massive in scale and a veritable museum of art and architecture, it began on a much humbler scale. Vatican Hill was a simple cemetery where believers gathered at St. Peter’s tomb to pray. In 319 Constantine built on the site a basilica that stood for more than a thousand years until, despite numerous restorations, it threatened to collapse. In 1506 Pope Julius II ordered it razed and reconstructed, but the new basilica was not completed and dedicated for more than two centuries.

St. Paul’s Outside the Walls stands near the Abaazia delle Tre Fontane, where St. Paul is believed to have been beheaded. The largest church in Rome until St. Peter’s was rebuilt, the basilica also rises over the traditional site of its namesake’s grave. The most recent edifice was constructed after a fire in 1823. The first basilica was also Constantine’s doing.

Constantine’s building projects enticed the first of a centuries-long parade of pilgrims to Rome. From the time the basilicas were first built until the empire crumbled under “barbarian” invasions, the two churches, although miles apart, were linked by a roofed colonnade of marble columns.

Comment: Peter, the rough fisherman whom Jesus named the rock on which the Church is built, and the educated Paul, reformed persecutor of Christians, Roman citizen and missionary to the Gentiles, are the original odd couple. The major similarity in their faith-journeys is the journey’s end: Both, according to tradition, died a martyr’s death in Rome—Peter on a cross and Paul beneath the sword. Their combined gifts shaped the early Church and believers have prayed at their tombs from the earliest days.
Quote: Quote: “It is extraordinarily interesting that Roman pilgrimage began at an…early time. Pilgrims did not wait for the Peace of the Church [Constantine’s edict of toleration] before they visited the tombs of the Apostles. They went to Rome a century before there were any public churches and when the Church was confined to the tituli [private homes] and the catacombs. The two great pilgrimage sites were exactly as today—the tombs, or memorials, of St. Peter upon the Vatican Hill and the tomb of St. Paul off the Ostian Way” (H.V. Morton, This Is Rome).

On the day of 18 November
The dedication of the basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, the first of which was built by the emperor Constantine on the Vatican hill over the grave of Saint Peter, but having fallen into ruins in days of old, was rebuilt on a larger scale and re-consecrated on this very day; the second, built on the Ostian Way by the emperors Theodosius and Valentinianus, was lamentably destroyed by fire and re-consecrated on the tenth day of December after the interior was restored. The brotherhood of the Apostles and the unity of the Church are in some way expressed in their common celebration.
303  St. Hesychius of Antioch Martyred Roman soldier.
Item Antiochíæ sancti Hesychii Mártyris, qui, cum esset miles, et præcéptum audísset ut quisquis non sacrificáret idólis, cíngulum milítiæ depóneret, repénte cíngulum solvit; ob quam causam, ingénti saxo in déxtera ejus ligáto, in flúvium præcipitári jussus est.
    Also at Antioch, the holy martyr Hesychius, a soldier.  Hearing the order that anyone refusing to sacrifice to idols should lay aside his military belt, he immediately took off his.  For this reason he was cast into the river with a large stone tied to his right hand.
He declared himself a Christian and threw away his military belt. For this he was drowned in the Orontes River, in Syria.
304 St. Romanus and Barula 7yr old  Martyrs of Syria.
Antiochíæ natális sancti Románi Mártyris, qui, témpore Galérii Imperatóris, cum Asclepíades Præféctus in Ecclésiam irrúmperet eámque fúnditus conarétur evértere, céteros Christiános hortátus est ut ei contradícerent, ideóque, post dira torménta et abscissiónem linguæ (sine qua tamen Dei præcónia loquebátur), in cárcere strangulátus láqueo, célebri martyrio coronátur.  Passus est étiam ante ipsum puérulus, nómine Bárula, qui, cum fuísset ab eódem interrogátus Præfécto utrum mélius esset unum Deum cólere an plures deos, atque in unum Deum, quem Christiáni colunt, credéndum esse respondísset, proptérea, verbéribus cæsus, jussus est decollári.
    At Antioch, the birthday of St. Romanus, martyr, in the time of Emperor Galerius.  When the prefect Asclepiades attacked the Church and attempted to destroy it, Romanus exhorted the Christians to resist him.  After being subjected to severe torments and the cutting out of his tongue (without which, however, he spake the praises of God), he was strangled in prison and crowned with glorious martyrdom.  Before him suffered a young boy named Barula, who being asked by him whether it was better to worship one God or several gods, and having answered that we must believe in the one God whom the Christians adore, was scourged and beheaded.
ST ROMANUS OF ANTIOCH, MARTYR
THE passion of Romanus, a deacon of the church of Caesarea, is related by Eusebius in his account of the martyrs of Palestine because, though he suffered at Antioch, he was a native of Palestine. We have also a panegyric of St John Chrysostom on this saint, and a poem in his honour by Prudentius. When the persecution of Diocletian broke out he went about exhorting the faithful to stand firm; and at Antioch, in the very court of the judge, observing certain Christian prisoners about to sacrifice through fear, he cried out in rebuke and warning. At once hands were laid on him and, after he had been scourged, the judge condemned him to be burnt alive. The fire was put out by a heavy rainstorm, and the emperor, who was in the city, ordered the martyr’s tongue to be plucked out by the roots. This was done, yet Romanus still spoke, urging his hearers to love and worship the true and only God. The emperor had him sent back to prison, his legs to be stretched in the stocks to the fifth hole and his body raised off the ground. He suffered this torture a long time, and finished his martyrdom by being strangled in prison. Prudentius (who begs that, as he stood amongst the goats, he might by the prayers of Romanus pass to the right hand and be placed amongst the sheep) mentions an unnamed boy of seven who, encouraged by St Romanus, confessed one God, and was scourged and beheaded. Under the name of Barula he is mentioned with St Romanus in the Roman Martyrology, but Eusebius says nothing about him.
In CMH. (pp. 605-606) Delehaye points out that besides the account in Eusebius, the panegyric of St John Chrysostom and the poem of Prudentius, we have a very reliable testimony to the cult of St Romanus in the mention made of him in the Syriac breviarium of the early fifth century. Furthermore, Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, at the beginning of the sixth century was consecrated in a church dedicated to him and preached several sermons in his honour. Prudentius seems to have been the first to mention the boy com­panion. The tangle is too complicated to discuss here, but Delehaye shows that Barula almost certainly represents an authentic Syrian martyr, Baralaha or Barlaam, whose name by some juxtaposition in the ancient lists became attached to that of Romanus. See also the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxii (1903), pp. 129—145 vol. xxxviii (1920), pp. 241—284 and especially vol. 1 (1932), pp. 241—283. In this last article Delehaye lays stress upon the important part played in this development by the “Homilia de Resurrectione”,  which A. Wilmart proved to be the work of Eusebius of Emesa (d. 359).

Romanus was born in Palestine and served as a deacon in Caesarea and Antioch. He was arrested and put to death after giving encouragement to Christian prisoners in resisting the demands of the Romans to sacrifice to the gods. Romanus died with a companion, named Barula, a seven year old boy. Nothing is known of Barula with any certainty. It is considered likely by scholars that he was actually a Syrian martyr possibly called Bralaha or Barlaam, who became associated with Romanus. Romanus was burned, strangled, and then beheaded.
378 St. Maximus 19th bishop of Mainz revered scholar.
Mogúntiæ sancti Máximi Epíscopi, qui, témpore Constántii multa passus ab Ariánis, Conféssor occúbuit.
    At Mainz, St. Maximus, bishop, who suffered greatly at the hands of the Arians, and died a confessor in the time of Constantius.
Germany, from about 354 to 378. persecuted by the Arian heretics.
430 St. Oriculus and Companions  Martyrs in Carthage.
Eódem die sanctórum Orículi et Sociórum, qui, in persecutióne Wandálica, pro fide cathólica passi sunt.
    On the same day, St. Oriculus and his companions, who suffered for the Catholic faith in the Vandal persecution.
Africa, by theArian Vandals for refusing to abjure the orthodox Christian faith.
450 St. Nazarius monk and abbot of the community of Lerins.
 He was part of the great monastic expansion of the period.
588 St. Frigidian of Lucca B (RM) (also known as Frediano, Frigdianus) Miraculously, the river followed him
Lucæ, in Túscia, Translátio sancti Frigdiáni, Epíscopi et Confessóris.     
   At Lucca in Tuscany, the translation of St. Frigidian, bishop and confessor.

Born in Ireland; feast day formerly March 15. In spite of the Italian name Frediano, by which he is usually called, St. Frigidian was an Irishman, the son of King Ultach of Ulster. He was trained in Irish monasteries and ordained a priest. His learning was imparted by such flowers of the 6th century Irish culture as Saint Enda and Saint Colman.

St. Frigidian arrived in Italy on a pilgrimage to Rome and decided to settle as a hermit on Mount Pisano. In 566, he was elected bishop of Lucca and was persuaded by Pope John II to accept the position. Even thereafter, the saint frequently left the city to spend many days in prayer and solitude. As bishop he formed the clergy of the city into a community of canons regular and rebuilt the cathedral after it had been destroyed by fire by the Lombards.

His most famous miracle is certainly legendary. The River Serchio frequently bursts its banks, causing great damage to the city of Lucca. The citizens reputedly called on their bishop for aid. He asked for an ordinary rake. Fortified by prayer, Frigidian commanded the Serchio to follow his rake. He charted a new, safer course for the water, avoiding the city walls, as well as the cultivated land outside. Miraculously, the river followed him.

Sometimes there is confusion between Saint Finnian of Moville and St. Frigidian. They could perhaps be the same person but the links have never been well established. Frigidian is still greatly venerated in Lucca (Attwater, Bentley, Encyclopedia).

In art, St. Frigidian walks in procession as the Volto Santo crucifix is brought to Lucca on an ox cart. He may also be shown changing the course of the Serchio River or as a bishop with a crown at his feet (Roeder).
690 St. Mummolus Benedictine abbot and Irish companion of St. Fursey.
also called Momble, Mumbolus, and Momleolus. He succeeded St. Fursey as abbot of Lagny.
6th v. St. Mawes Welsh hermit and abbot.
also called Maudetus and Maudez. He lived as a solitary near Falmouth, in Cornwall, England, where his name is still venerated. He then went to an island off the coast of Brittany, France, where he is revered as St. Maudez. He is believed to have founded monasteries and churches in Coruwall and Brittany.
ST MAWES, OR MAUDEZ, ABBOT
IF we may judge from the number of churches dedicated in his honour St Maudez (Maudetus) was the most popular of the saints of Brittany after St Ivo, but very little is known about him. Although his name is British, he is said to have been an Irishman who went to Brittany in the days of Childebert I. With a few disciples he settled off the coast of Leon, on an island, Ile Modez, which he cleared of snakes and vermin by firing the grass earth from this island is still supposed to be useful for the same and similar purposes. Both in Cornwall and Brittany St Maudez was traditionally regarded as a monk who spent much time teaching his pupils in the open air. Except for this, recorded by Leland, there are no other traditions whatever of St Maudez in Cornwall, or any indication of how the village chapel and well of St Mawes in Roseland came to bear his name. No doubt hewas a zealous missionary throughout Armorica as the number of his dedications suggests; and there is topographical evidence that he and St Budoc were monks and missionaries from Wales, or elsewhere in Britain, who founded churches and monasteries in Cornwall and Brittany and were in some way connected with Dol.
There are two medieval lives of this saint, both of which have been printed by A. de Ia Borderie in his volume Saint Mauder (1891). From a historical point of view they are of little value. Canon Doble has included St Mawes in his series of monographs on Cornish saints (1938), and this is probably the most thorough investigation which has been attempted. See, however, F. Duine, Memento (1918), pp. 97—99 ; L. Cougaud, Les saints irlandais hors d’Irlande (1936), pp. 135—139 and LBS., vol. iii, pp. 441~449. Dom Cougaud, in the book just mentioned, tells us something of the popular devotion to St Maudez in Brittany and the folklore practices associated with it.
6th v. St. Keverne Saint of Cornwall.
England. a friend of St. Kieran.
782 St. Thomas of Antioch Syria Hermit saint for relief against pestilence.
Antiochíæ sancti Thomæ Mónachi, quem Antiochéni, ob sedátam ejus précibus pestem, solemnitáte ánnua coluérunt.
    At Antioch, St. Thomas, a monk honoured with an annual solemnity by the people of Antioch, for bringing the end of a plague by his prayers.
Thomas spent most of his life as a hermit in the area near Antioch (modern Syria).
According to tradition, he is a special saint for relief against pestilence.
750 St. Anselm Benedictine abbot in Lerins.
France. He is reported as a co-worker of St. Amandus of Lerins.
952 St. Odo spread Cluny's influence to monasteries
Turónis, in Gállia, tránsitus beáti Odónis, Abbátis Cluniacénsis.
    At Tours in France, the passing of blessed Odo, abbot of Cluny.

942 ST ODO OF CLUNY, ABBOT (A.D.)
FROM the middle of the tenth century until the beginning of the twelfth the abbey of Cluny in Burgundy was the most powerful influence in the monasticism of western Europe and played a part in religious affairs second only to that of the papacy itself; as the centre and directing authority of a vast monastic reform.   It affected the life and spirit of the monks of St Benedict for a far longer period, and its influence can be traced even till today. Cluny owed its driving-power and achievements principally to seven of its eight first abbots, of whom St Odo was the second. He was brought up in the family of Fulk II, Count of Anjou, and afterwards in that of William, Duke of Aquitaine, who founded the abbey of Cluny. At nineteen Odo received the tonsure, and was instituted to a canonry in St Martin’s church at Tours, and he spent some years studying in Paris. Here he gave much time to music, an enthusiasm that was shared by his master, Remigius of Auxerre. One day, in reading the Rule of St Benedict, Odo was shocked to see how much his life fell short of the rules of perfection there laid down, and he determined to embrace the monastic state. He some time after went to the monastery of Baume­les-Messieurs in the diocese of Besançon, where the abbot, Berno, admitted him to the habit in 909.

The abbey of Cluny was founded in the following year by Duke William, and was committed to the care of St Berno, who put St Odo in charge of the monastery school at Baume. It is recorded that on one occasion while Odo was on a journey the daughter of his host for the night appealed to him secretly to help her she was going shortly to be married, against her will. He could not resist her tears and entreaties, and enabled the girl to escape from her home, taking her with him to Baume. Not unnaturally, the abbot was indignant at his subject’s rashness, and ordered Odo to look carefully after the girl and make proper provision for her safety. Accordingly, after taking her meals to her daily and instructing her in the religious life, he found a place for her in a convent of nuns. With age came more prudence and, when he was about forty-eight, St Odo was appointed to succeed St Berno as abbot of Cluny.

Berno had already undertaken the reformation of a number of monasteries from Cluny, and under Odo the number grew apace, among them being the famous house of Fleury on the Loire, which was destined to have a considerable influence in England. Of Odo’s school at Cluny it was said that, “A boy is brought up as well there as a prince in his father’s castle”. But it was no life of ease. A monk had once complained to St Odo that St Berno ruled Baume with a rod of iron, but a hard and rigid discipline was required to keep order among the vigorous spirits of the tenth century, and Cluny was no exception. Odo also ruled with a rod of iron, and would intimidate refractory monks with stories yet more terrific than his own discipline. But not always. In exhorting them to deeds of charity he told one day of a young student who, while entering the church for Matins early one cold winter’s morning, saw a half-naked beggar, freezing under the porch. The student took off his cloak and wrapped it round him, and went into the cold church for the long office. After Lauds he lay down on his bed to get warm, and as he rolled the blankets round himself found a gold piece, more than sufficient to buy a new cloak. “I did not then know the name of the hero of this incident”, says the biographer, “but I have found it out since.” It was, of course, Odo himself who at Tours had learned the spirit of St Martin.

In 936 St Odo made his first visit to Rome, called thither by Pope Leo VII. Hugh of Provence, who called himself king of Italy and who had considerable respect for St Odo, and it was to try to conclude a peace between him and Alberic, “Patrician of the Romans”, that Odo had been summoned, was besieging the city. His first, temporary success was the negotiation of a marriage between Alberic and Hugh’s daughter. At the abbey of St Paul-outside-the-Walls he “regulated the spiritual life of the monastery in an apostolic way and by his words kindled faith, piety and love of truth in all hearts.” The spirit of Cluny had been carried beyond the borders of France, and the influence of St Odo was felt in the monasteries of Monte Cassino, Pavia, Naples, Salerno and elsewhere in Italy.

Once an attempt was made on his life, a peasant, who said the monks of St Paul’s owed him some money, attempting to brain him with a stone. Odo paid the man and thought no more about it, till he heard that Alberic had sentenced him to lose his right hand for his intended crime. Thereupon the saint went to the prince and got the sentence annulled, and the man set free. Twice more within six years Odo had to go to Rome to try and keep the peace between Hugh and Alberic for the distracted pope, and on each occasion he extended the sphere of his reforming zeal. Meanwhile in France the work went on, secular nobles handing over to him monasteries over which they had exercised an un-canonical control and superiors inviting him to visit their abbeys and prescribe for their communities. As usual there were plenty of monks who resented being jolted out of their easy-going ways, and put every obstacle in the way of the reformer. At one house it was made a grievance against the Cluny monks that they washed their underclothes after Vespers on Saturday. When they made no reply but went on with their washing, the critic exclaimed, “I was not made a snake to hiss or an ox to low, but a man with a human voice. Is this how you come to teach us the Rule of St Benedict ?” and departed in indignation to complain to the abbot. At Fleury St Odo was received at first with swords and stones, some monks even threatening his life if he entered the monastery. He talked gently to them, gave them three days to cool down, and then rode up to the entrance on his donkey as if nothing had happened. “They received him like a father and his escort had nothing to do but to go away.”

In the year 942 St Odo went to Rome for the last time, and on his return called at the monastery of St Julian at Tours. After assisting at the solemnities of the feast of his patron, St Martin, he took to his bed, and died on November 18. One of his last actions was to compose a hymn, still extant, in honour of St Martin. In spite of his full and very active life St Odo found time to write, as well as another hymn and twelve metrical antiphons for St Martin, three books of moral essays, a Life of St Gerald of Aurillac, and a long epic poem on the Redemption. There is also a tradition, mentioned by all his biographers, that he wrote several works on ecclesiastical music; but they have not come down to us, though some falsely bear his name.

John, a monk of Cluny, and another monk named Nalgodus both wrote lives of Abbot Odo. These are printed in Mabillon, vol. v, and in Migne, PL., vol. cxxxiii. E. Sackur in Neues Archiv, vol. xv, pp. 105—112, has called attention to another recension of the life by John, but it is later in date. There is a good modern biography by 0. Ringholz (1885), and an attractive, but rather inaccurate, account, Saint Odon, by Dom du Bourg in the series “Les Saints”. See also Sackur, Die Gluniacenser, vol. i, pp. 36—120 ; A. Hessel in the Historische Zeitschrzft, vol. 128 (1923), pp. 1—25 ; and for the relations of Cluny with England, L. M. Smith, The Early History of the Movement of Cluny (1925) and D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (1949), cap. viii; Watkin Williams, Monastic Studies (1938), pp. 24-36.

Born near Le Mans, France was raised in the households of Count Fulk II of Anjou and Duke William of Aquitaine, received the tonsure when he was nineteen, received a canonry at St. Martin's in Tours, and then spent several years studying at Paris, particularly music, under Remigius of Auxerre. Odo became a monk under Berno at Baume-les-Messieurs near Besancon in 909, was named director of the Baume Monastery school by Berno, who became abbot of the newly founded Cluny, and in 924 was named abbot of Baume. He succeeded Berno as second abbot of Cluny in 927, continued Berno's work of reforming abbeys from Cluny, and in 931 was authorized by Pope John XI to reform the monasteries of northern France and Italy. Odo was called to Rome by Pope Leo VII in 936 to arrange peace between Alberic of Rome and Hugh of Provence, who was besieging the city, and succeeded temporarily by negotiating a marriage between Alberic and Hugh's daughter; Odo returned to Rome twice in the next six years to reconcile Alberic and Hugh. Odo spread Cluny's influence to monasteries all over Europe, encountering and overcoming much opposition, and successfully persuaded secular rulers to relinquish control of monasteries they had been illegally controlling. He died at Tours on the way back to Rome on November 18. He wrote hymns, treatises on morality, an epic poem on the Redemption, and a life of St. Gerald of Aurillac.
ST. ODO: CHANGE OF LIFESTYLE BASED ON HUMILITY, AUSTERITY
VATICAN CITY, 2 SEP 2009 VIS
In this morning's general audience, held in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, the Pope resumed his series of catecheses on the great writers of the mediaeval Church in East and West. The Holy Father arrived in the Vatican by helicopter from Castelgandolfo, and returned there following his audience.
  Focusing his remarks on St. Odo, Benedict XVI explained how the saint was born around the year 880, eventually becoming the second abbot of the famous abbey of Cluny. "From that centre of spiritual life, he was able to exercise a vast influence on the monasteries of the continent", fomenting a lifestyle and a spirituality inspired by the Rule of St. Benedict. He died in 942.

  The Pope mentioned some of the saint's virtues, highlighting his
"patience, ... detachment from the world, zeal for souls, commitment to peace, ... observance of the commandments, concern for the poor, education of the young and respect for the elderly.  One aspect that merits particular attention is the devotion to the Body and Blood of Christ which Odo - in the face of a widespread negligence that he vigorously deplored -cultivated with conviction. He was, in fact, firmly convinced of the real presence of the Body and Blood of the Lord under the Eucharistic species, by virtue of the 'substantial' conversion of the bread and wine".
  St. Odo said that "only those who are spiritually united to Christ can worthily receive His Eucharistic Body;
in any other case, eating His flesh and drinking His blood would not be beneficial, but harmful".
  The Holy Father highlighted how "St. Odo was a true spiritual guide, both for the monks and for the faithful of his time. Faced with the 'immensity of vices' spread throughout society, the remedy he proposed ... was that of a radical change of lifestyle founded upon humility, austerity, detachment from the ephemeral and adherence to the eternal.  With the profound goodness of his soul, Odo diffused around him the joy with which he himself was filled. ... Through his resolute activities he nourished in the monks, and in the lay faithful of his time, a desire to proceed rapidly along the path of Christian perfection".

  Benedict XVI concluded his remarks by expressing the hope that "the goodness of St. Odo, the joy that derives from faith, ... may touch our hearts and that we too may discover the source of happiness that comes from the goodness of God".
AG/ST. ODO/... VIS 090902 (430)
1619 Bl. John Shoun  Martyr of Japan a Japanese from Meako.
baptized at Nagasaki. Seized for being a Christian, he was burned alive at Nagasaki and was beatified in 1867.
1619 St. Leonard Kimura Martyr of Japan with companions.
A Japanese noble, Leonard became a temporal coadjutor of the Jesuits. He was arrested for his faith and association with the Jesuits, and was burned to death in Nagasaki, Japan.
1769 St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne Virgin dream of serving Native Americans.
Born in Grenoble, France, in 1769, Rose joined the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1818, when she was forty-nine years old, Rose was sent to the United States. She founded a boarding school for daughters of pioneers near St. Louis and opened the first free school west of the Missouri. At the age of seventy-one, she began a school for Indians, who soon came to call her "the woman who is always praying". Her biographers have also stressed her courage in frontier conditions, her singlemindedness in pursuing her dream of serving Native Americans, and her self-acceptance. This holy servant of God was beatified by Pope Pius XII in 1940 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988.
1852 BD PHILIPPINE DUCHESNE, VIRGIN
UNDER May 25 herein there is printed an account of St Madeleine Sophie Barat and the foundation of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In the course of it there are references to a certain Mother Duchesne, who introduced the newly established congregation to North America; and this Mother Duchesne was beatified in 1940. She was born in 1769, at Grenoble in Dauphiny, her father being the head of a prosperous mercantile family. At her christening she was given the names Rose Philippine, of which the first was a veritable augury, for St Rose of Lima, on the eve of whose feast she was born, was the first canonized saint of the New World. There was nothing especially remarkable about her childhood she had a strong and rather imperious nature (characteristic of her father’s family), she was of a serious disposition, and she early showed interest in history. At the age of eight a Jesuit who had worked in Louisiana and told the Duchesnes stories about the Indians kindled her first enthusiasm for missionary life and the American land. Philippine went to school with the Visitation nuns of Sainte-Marie-d’En-haut and also was taught by a tutor with her cousins the Périers, and she became uncommonly well-educated. Then when she was seventeen, and her parents were looking around for a husband for her, she announced her intention of being a nun; and after some opposition she was allowed to join the community with which she had been at school. Eighteen months later, however, her father forbade her profession—and for a sound reason he did not like the outlook for the future in France. And sure enough, in 1791, the Visitandines of Grenoble were expelled, and Philippine returned to her family, who were now living in the country.

Throughout the years of revolution Philippine did her best to live in a way in all respects befitting a religious. She looked after her family; she tended the sick and confessors of the faith and others in prison, and above all was concerned for the education of children. When the Holy See concluded its concordat with Napoleon in 1801, she was enabled to acquire the buildings of her old convent of Sainte-Marie-d’En-haut. Philippine had always hoped to be instrumental in re-establishing the Visitandine community of which she had been a member, but now she found the undertaking even more difficult than she had expected indeed, it proved to be impossible. On a day in August, 1802—it was in fact the 21st, the feast day of the foundress of the Visitation nuns, St Jane Frances de Chantal— it was decided to abandon the venture; and a few days later Philippine and another sister were left alone in the convent. Unkind outsiders were not slow to say that it was another example of the “stiffness “ of the Duchesne character, that Sister Philippine made things difficult in community life. Philippine decided to offer Sainte-Marie-d’En-haut to Mother Barat, who not long before had begun the first house of the Society of the Sacred Heart, at Amiens. The proposal was agreed, and on December 31, 1804, Philippine and four others were admitted as postulants at Sainte-Marie. Thus were brought together, as novice-mistress and as novice, these two souls, “one of marble, the other of bronze”, St Madeleine Sophie Barat and Bd Philippine Duchesne. Less than a year later the novice was professed. The months of preparation had seen a growing-together of foundress and aspirant, a better understanding of discipline on the part of the young nun who had been so much “on her own”-perhaps her hardest struggle was to give up personal mortifications and penances at the word of her mother in religion.

Early in 1806 Sainte-Marie-d’En-haut was visited by the abbot of La Trappe, Dom Augustine de Lestrange, who three years before had sent the first Cistercian monks to North America; and this visit served to inflame Bd Philippine’s desire to be a missionary in that land. Nowadays we do not think of the United States as mission territory; but a hundred and forty years ago{quote from 1960} far the greater part of that huge country was still unsettled by Europeans, or indeed by anybody; the frontier was only gradually moving west, and the Indians were still a notable proportion of the population. But though Mother Barat approved in principle, it was still to be another twelve years before Mother Duchesne achieved her ambition, years during which the instrument was to be prepared and tempered, both spiritually and in the handling of affairs. At last the appointed time came. Mgr Dubourg, Bishop of Louisiana, called on Mother Barat and asked her to let him have some of her religious as soon as they could be spared from France. She promised to do so, but would perhaps have put the enterprise off indefinitely had it not been for the direct and impetuous intervention of Mother Duchesne. And so, in March 1818, five religious of the Sacred Heart left Bordeaux for the New World.  Mother Duchesne, to her great regret, had been appointed their superioress.

After a trying voyage (“Seasickness is really evil”, wrote Bd Philippine, “It affects the head as well as the stomach, and makes one useless for anything”) the little party landed at New Orleans on May 29, the feast of the Sacred Heart. They went up the Mississippi to Saint Louis, then a town of about 6,000 inhabitants, in what is now Missouri. Here Mgr Dubourg, who found them a house for their first establishment at Saint Charles, welcomed them: it was a small log cabin. And here, among the children of the poor, was started the first free school west of the Mississippi. The white population was in majority Catholic, and composed of French, Creole, English and others, many of them bi-lingual; the nuns had been studying English ever since they were assigned to America, but Bd Philippine never really mastered the language. Two passing remarks of hers throw light on the sort of people they had to work among:

“Some of our pupils have more gowns than chemises or, above all, pocket-handkerchiefs”, and “At Portage-des-Sioux the walls [of the church] were adorned with representations of Bacchus and Venus... put up out of sheer ignorance”. As for the Indians, “We used to entertain the pleasing thought of teaching docile and innocent savages, but the women are idle and given to drink as much as the men”. After a hard winter the bishop decided to move the community to Florissant, nearer Saint Louis. A three-storied brick building was provided, and into this the nuns moved on the two days before Christmas, 1819;

St. Ferdinand's Convent, built in 1819 under the supervision of Mother Duchesne. This convent became the first Mother House of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart outside of France; the site of the first Catholic school for Indian girls in the United States; the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi; and the first novitiate for women in the upper Louisiana Purchase Territory.

Mother Duchesne wrote a vivid account of the bitterly cold rigors of the move, complicated by a cow that ran away. The more commodious residence raised the possibility of starting a novitiate, about which Mgr Dubourg was not too sanguine in view of the independent American character. But the ground was broken when a postulant presented herself to be a lay-sister, and the first American to receive the habit of the Society of the Sacred Heart was clothed on November 22, 1820 her name was Mary Layton.

Old St. Ferdinand's Church,the oldest Catholic church building between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. St. Ferdinand's served as the focal point of the Catholic Indian Mission movement, begun by Father De la Croix in 1820. Father DeSmet was ordained at St. Ferdinand's in 1827.

Opening of the novitiate and the progress of the school were more encouraging signs for the future, and Bd Philippine herself was getting to understand better the strange people of a strange land. It must be remembered that she was in her fiftieth year when she crossed the Atlantic—and she was very much of a Frenchwoman. Americans baffled her both in their faults and their virtues, and it has been well said, “she probably never attained, in its perfection, ‘tact in dealing with those whose customs are not European'”.

In any case she underwent some of that ‘‘mellowing” that increasing age so often brings, but without losing the old enthusiasm she could write to Mother Barat in 1821, “I thought I had reached the height of my ambition—but I am burning with desire to go to Peru. However, I am more reasonable than I was in France when I used to pester you with my vain aspirations.’’
In the same year the second house was opened, at Grand Coteau, about one hundred and fifty miles from New Orleans. Mother Duchesne’s visit to this new foundation involved probably the worst journey she ever undertook it took four weeks out and nine weeks in, and the return trip was partly made on a boat on which yellow fever broke out—a horrible experience of the neglected sick and of the callous fear of the rest. She devoted herself to the care of one stricken man, whom she baptized before he died; and it nearly cost her own life, for she too sickened and had to be put ashore at Natchez, where she could find no shelter but the bed of a woman who had herself just died of the fever.
Back at Florissant, Bd Philippine found it was a case of one grim trial after another. Temporal difficulties and the jealousy and slanders of outsiders were ruining the school—“They say everything about us, except that we poison the children”, she wrote to Mother Barat. At length there were only five pupils left but when things were looking their worst improvement came through help from a new quarter. The difficulties had been partly caused by the withdrawal of Mgr Dubourg to Lower Louisiana but in 1823 he was able to arrange for the establishment at Florissant of the novitiate of the Jesuits in Maryland. It is difficult to tell whether in the ensuing period the Society of the Sacred Heart owed more to the Society of Jesus or the fathers to the nuns. In 1826 and the following year two more houses were opened, St Michael’s near New Orleans and in Saint Louis itself; and the house at Saint Charles was refounded in 1828. With Bayou-la-Fourche there were now six houses of the society in the valley of the Mississippi. The next ten years continued to be full of trials and hardships, disappointment and ill-health, borne by Bd Philippine with trust in God but with ever-mounting fatigue. However, it was not till 1840 that her wish to resign her responsible office was granted, and then not by St Madeleine Sophie. The assistant general of the Society of the Sacred Heart came on a visitation of the American houses. She was Mother Elizabeth Galitsin, a woman of strong and imperious character, not unlike Mother Duchesne in her earlier years, and she caused a certain amount of upheaval among the nuns in America. Bd Philippine did not resist the autocratic methods of the visitor (who was twenty-eight years younger than herself); but she was made to fear that perhaps she had failed in the trust assigned to her, and she asked to be allowed to resign. Mother Galitsin agreed without demur, and Mother Duchesne returned to the Saint Louis house as a simple religious.
And now, when she was seventy-one years old, she was able to turn her attention to those people for whose sake she had originally wanted to come to America—the Indians. The famous Jesuit Father De Smet had asked Mother Galitsin to send nuns to set up a school in the mission among the Potawatomi at Sugar Creek in Kansas. Four religious were nominated to go, including Mother Duchesne “if able to travel”. She was able to travel. But she was with her beloved Indians for only about twelve months she could not master their language, the hardships of the life were too much for her failing strength. Her heart spoke of Indians among the Rocky Mountains to be converted to Christ; but her superiors spoke of the need for her to come away. “God knows the reason for this recall,” she said, “and that is enough.”

Bd Philippine’s last years were spent at Saint Charles, but the tide of her life went out on no gentle ebb. The fortunes of the Society of the Sacred Heart in America did not rise in one unwavering curve of progress; houses that Mother Duchesne had founded and nursed were threatened with dissolution; and for nearly two years correspondence between herself and her deeply loved Mother Barat was not delivered—a mystery never properly cleared up.

So, during a prolonged old age of suffering and prayer, Mother Duchesne completed her life of apostleship and self-sacrifice. She died on November 18, 1852. She was eighty-three years old. It was said of her by a contemporary “She was the St Francis of Assisi of the Society. Everything in and about her was stamped with the seal of a crucified life. She would have liked to disappear from the sight of men, and it may indeed be said that no one occupied less space in the world than Madame Duchesne. Her room was a miserable hole with a single window, in which paper supplied the place of some of the panes; her bed was a mattress two inches thick, laid on the ground by night and put away in the day in a cupboard; her only covering at night was an old piece of black stuff with a cross like a pall.” While she lay dead a daguerreotype was taken of Philippine Duchesne, “in case” as was said, “she may one day be canonized”. Less than a century later that day is within sight. This missionary of the American frontier was beatified in 1940, and her feast is kept on November 17.

Duchesne_shrine_behind_old_convent

On the death of Mother Duchesne, Father De Smet wrote, “You should publish a beautiful biography... No greater saint ever died in Missouri, or perhaps in the whole Union.” This was first most adequately done by Mgr Baunard, whose Life of Mother Duchesne was translated into English in 1879. Then in 1926 appeared Mother Philippine Duchesne by Marjory Erskine. This is a full-length work that depends of necessity largely on Baunard, but corrected in certain points and with fresh matter added. See also The Society of the Sacred Heart in North America, by Louise Callan (1937), and Redskin Trail, by M. K. Richardson (1952). {Cannonized July, 3 1988}
Testimony of Fr. De Smet
One of those who listened to Fr. De Smet speak of Mother Duchesne in 1847 made these notes of what he said:
“He said she had climbed all the rungs of the ladder of sanctity, and never had he seen a soul more ardent in love for Our Lord. In his opinion, she rivaled St. Teresa. Never had he known a person who was poorer in all that concerned her private life, and in this she imitated St. Francis of Assisi. Nor a more apostolic soul, eager for the salvation of souls, and he thought St. Francis Xavier had shared with her his zeal for the conversion of the infidels. Ending his talk he said: Now she is on the sorrowful way of Calvary to which old age and infirmities have condemned her, but no matter how hard that road may seem to her, she is climbing it with all the fervor of youth. She has struck deep roots in American soil and they will one day bear an abundant harvest. I should not be surprised if some day she were raised to our altars.” (Callan, Philippine Duchesne, pp. 462-3.) {Cannonized July, 3 1988}

This portrait of Mother Duchesne was reportedly done by an Ursuline nun in New Orleans and said to most closely resemble what she really looked like.

Duchesne Utah.
The name Duchesne was utilized for the new community. The name Duchesne is taken from the name of the river that runs through town and was likely named by fur trappers in the 1820s in honor of Mother Treasa Duchesne founder of the School of the Sacred Heart near St. Louis, Missouri.
The community of Duchesne is located just above the junction of the Strawberry and Duchesne rivers in the Uintah Basin of northeastern Utah. It was first identified as a potential town site by Father Escalante when the Dominguez-Escalante expedition camped near the present-day town 18 September 1776 while on their epic journey. Duchesne is strategically located not only due to its location at the junction of the rivers but it is also at the mouth of Indian Canyon, the major route into the Basin through the Tavaputs Plateau from Price.
The town came into being in 1905 when the United States government opened the region to homesteading under the Allotment Act. The land that forms all of Duchesne County and western Uintah County had formerly belonged to the Ute Indians as part of their reservation. A.M. Murdock, an Indian trader at Whiterocks, obtained permission from the government to set up a trading post at the site that became Duchesne City. With the assistance of several other men, he set up a large circus tent for a general store and trading post. Government surveyors laid out the streets and the survey was accepted by the government on 18 October 1905. Other settlers soon pitched their tents and built pioneer dwellings that were replaced over the next months and years with more modern buildings for homes and businesses.

The town was originally called Dora, after Murdock's baby daughter. This name was replaced for a short time by the name Theodore, in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. But when town to the east adopted the name of Roosevelt, it was thought that two towns in the same county named for the same president would be too confusing for mail delivery. The name Duchesne was utilized for the new community.

St. Philippine Duchesne:  Failures Became Her Success Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D.
Rose Philippine Duchesne was born into a prosperous and prominent lawyer in Grenoble, France in 1769. Her family was Catholic, her mother pious, but the men in the family were ambitious and liberal in their politics. Her father had become an enthusiastic supporter of the new ideas of liberty that were spreading all over France among the old aristocracy and high bourgeoisie in the last decade of the Ancien Regime. His activities in the revolutionary clubs and Masonic groups that promoted Voltairian ideas would cause great grief for Philippine and her mother. (1)

Philippine Duchesne, 1769-1852
The Duchesne blood came to the fore early in Philippine – revealing itself in strong doses of willfulness, stubbornness and independence. This served, however, to help her resist the marriage proposals her parents arranged for her, and remain faithful to the religious vocation she knew God had given to her since the “call,” as she termed it, at age 8 on her First Communion day.
1. What happened to Philippine’s father? In 1814, he died with Philippine and her sister at his side, after receiving Confession and Extreme Unction. His conversion was a triumph of the daughter’s faith, trust and prayer, made powerful by the complete sacrifice of self. Louis Callan, RSCJ, Philippine Duchesne, Frontier Missionary of the Sacred Heart (Newman Press: 1966), pp. 128-9.
We can catch a glimpse of her strong will and determination in the story of her entrance at age 18 into the Visitation Convent of St. Marie d’en Haut nearby her home. One morning she left home in the company of an aunt to visit the convent. Once there, she simply announced her intention to stay, and set her distraught aunt home alone to face her enraged father.  He rushed to the convent to confront his daughter and take her home, but left resigned to the decision of Philippine, so like him in temperament. She did, however, acquiesce to her father’s wishes that she not take her final vows until she was 25 because of the political upheaval in France.  Nor was it long before her father’s well-founded fears came to realization. In 1792, while Philippine was still a postulant, the nuns were dispersed by order of the Government. During the Reign of Terror, St. Marie Convent was used as prison for those who opposed the Revolution in the area.

Instead of returning to her family villa as expected, Philippine took a flat in Grenoble with another woman and organized the Ladies of Mercy. These ladies risked their lives to bring material and spiritual help to those imprisoned at St. Marie or to assist the priests living as fugitives. To her worried family members, she always gave the same answer: “Let me be. It is my happiness and glory to serve my Divine Savior in the person of those persecuted for His Sake.”

In 1801, after Napoleon Bonaparte had overthrown the revolutionary Directory, Philippine used her own funds to purchase the badly damaged Convent of St. Marie d’en Haut from the State. Several nuns joined her there, but soon left, complaining that the work was too difficult and Philippine too exacting in demanding compliance to the old Rule. It was the first of many failures for Philippine Duchesne, but she remained on the former Visitation grounds, convinced that God had a plan for her and her beloved Convent.

Three years later, History records the providential and touching meeting of Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart, and Philippine Duchesne. As Mother Barat, only 25-years-old, entered the Convent of St. Marie on December 13, 1804, she was met by Philippine, who fell to the ground, kissed her feet, and repeated the psalmist’s words: “How lovely on the mountain are the feet of those who bring the Gospel of peace.”
“I let her do it through pure stupefaction,” Mother Barat said as she told of that first meeting. “I was utterly dumbfounded at the sight of such faith and humility, and I did not know what to say or do.”
At age 35, Philippine Duchesne signed over her Convent to the Society and became a postulant in a new community. One year later her first vows were taken, and she finally pledged herself to poverty, chastity, and obedience.

The next years were busy ones for the fledgling community. Mother Barat quickly recognized the organizational qualities in the great and generous soul of Mother Duchesne, who became secretary general of the Order and was given charge of the new motherhouse in Paris. Had she remained in France, she would have enjoyed the honor of her community, the consolation of her close friendship with Mother Barat, and the company and support of her distinguished and prosperous family.

Instead, what took root in her heart was a great desire to bring the Gospel to the forsaken “savages” of America. After hearing a sermon from a traveling missionary in 1805, Mother Duchesne felt irresistibly drawn to the foreign missions. For twelve years, with holy impatience, she pleaded to go, offering all her works, prayers and sacrifices for the sake of her “dark souls” in America.

In January of 1817, Bishop Louis Dubourg of St. Louis, Mo. came to France to beg for sisters to be spared for the American missions. Mother Barat had neither spare funds nor sisters for the enterprise. But the indomitable Philippine intervened, for a second time throwing herself at the feet of her Superior, begging consent to go. There was a poignant moment of silence – and permission was granted.  At last, in March of 1818, Mother Philippine Duchesne, age 49, was placed as superior over a band of four other missionary sisters who set sail for the New World on the vessel Rebecca.

Failure, not success in America
The sisters arrived in New Orleans with no instructions from Bishop Dubourg. Mother Duchesne soon came to the sore realization that they had been called to America not to work with the Indians, but to educate the daughters of merchants and farmers. Months later, when the sisters finally arrived in St. Louis (MO) they were asked to establish themselves in St. Charles, 14 miles from St. Louis on the Mississippi River, which Mother Duchesne described as “the remotest village in the United States.” In a one-room shanty on a two-acre plot without a tree or blade of grass, they established the first Convent west of the Mississippi and the first free school for girls in the United States.

In her famous letter describing that first brutal winter, she reported how water froze in the pails on the way from the creek to the cabin, how food froze to the table, and how the sisters often had no fire for lack of tools to cut wood. (2) By the spring of 1819, the house in St. Charles was considered impracticable, and a new foundation with a convent, novitiate and boarding school was begun at Florissant, north of St. Louis, Mo.
2. The large correspondence of Mother Philippine Duchesne with Mother Barat, other religious, family members and friends, as well as pertinent material from the archives of the Society of the Sacred Heart, was organized in a biography by Louis Callan, R.S.C.J., published by Newman Press in 1957. The quotes and information in this article was taken from an abridged version of that biography titled Philippine Duchesne: Frontier Missionary of the Sacred Heart 1769-1852, published in 1965.
While the hardships of life might have resulted in a breakdown of discipline, Mother Duchesne insisted that the Rule and customs of the new convent be faithfully followed. When Bishop DuBourg requested certain relaxations to accommodate the more easygoing American spirit, Mother Duchesne firmly refused.

During the next years the congregation made a slow but steady progress. As American born girls joined the growing band of sisters, Mother Duchesne opened four convents and two schools in west central Louisiana. Supported by the prosperous French-speaking plantation owners, these schools saw a success that Mother Duchesne would never personally experience in her own impoverished foundations in Missouri. Finally an orphanage, academy and free school were begun in the original destination, St. Louis, Mo., and in 1828, the Sisters returned to St. Charles to cheers and applause of the townspeople. Mainly because of her perseverance and organization skills, twelve Sacred Heart schools had opened in the New World by 1850.

But Mother Duchesne felt herself a failure: she met no success with the few Indian free schools for girls she tried to establish. Because she could not learn English, she could not teach the American girls or interact with their parents. “Americans only admire those who have good looks and speak their language,” she would explain, and then tell how she was lacking in both regards. The gracious charms and formal manners of the French Old Regime, which she never changed, left her out of touch with the more egalitarian and relaxed American way of life. She brought this European formality and ceremony to the lives of the young ladies she influenced, a culture and refinement that would be a signal mark of the alumni of the Sacred Heart up until the 1960s, when the schools suffered the effects of the Cultural Revolution that entered the religious orders and Church with Vatican II.

For 22 years, Mother Duchesne was forced to bear the heavy yoke of directing those who seemed to not want her directorship. Some Sisters also resented her formal ways and insistence on Rule, although all admired her spirit of prayer and sacrifice. At council meetings, she found it difficult to make her opinion prevail, since the common issue of her enterprises was failure, while the New Orleans foundations always met with success.
When Mother Barat once suggested that she move to New Orleans, she replied in a letter: “I carry in my heart a great fear of spoiling things wherever I shall be, and this because of the words I think I heard in the depths of my soul: You are destined to please Me, not so much by success as by bearing failure.”

In 1834, at age 65, Mother Duchesne retired to Florissant, the “poorest and humblest house of the congregation.” Still burdened with the administrative functions of governing the growing congregation in the United States, she nonetheless considered herself of no practical use.

Finally, in 1840, she was permitted to resign as Superior of the American Mission. Her life became more and more the hidden work of prayer, suffering and providing whatever small service she could perform for her community and the Jesuit missionary priests who were carrying out the work of converting her beloved Indians. “All desire but that of doing God’s holy will has been extinguished in me,” she wrote to Mother Barat.

Finally, the Mission to the Indians
As soon as the Belgium missionary Jesuits arrived in Florissant, MO, in 1823, Mother Duchesne became their enthusiastic supporter and friend. Even though her own foundations were always in dire need of money and goods, she found a way to provide small gifts of money, altar linens and clothing to aid the missionary work. In turn, the priests considered her a vital partner in their missionary ventures because of her constant prayer and many acts of mortification she offered for their work.

A special friendship that lasted until her death formed with the young postulant Fr. Peter John De Smet, the future great missionary to the Indians of the Rockies. He made it a top priority to pay his respects to “good Mother Duchesne” on every return from his Indian missionary visits. “I never returned from one of these visits but with an increase of edification, with a higher opinion of her virtues and sanctified life and always under the full conviction that I had conversed with a truly living saint,” he wrote. “I always considered Mother Duchesne as the greatest protector of our Indian missions.”

In 1840, Fr. De Smet asked the Assistant General of the Society of the Sacred Heart for some nuns to open a school among the Potawatomis at Sugar Creek in present day Kansas. Although ill and weakened by a life of hardship, penances and privation, Mother Duchesne, age 72, requested permission to join the colony. A final time, Mother Barat acquiesced against all good sense to the indomitable Rose Philippine Duchesne.

In July 1841 the group arrived in Sugar Creek where they were warmly received by the Indians - who offered them gifts of human scalps. Having never mastered any Indian language, Mother Duchesne could not teach; her infirmities rendered her incapable of the hard mission work. Instead, she spent her time in prayer and small acts of charity. The Indians loved and respected the “Woman-who-prays-always,” the name they gave her. She spent fours hours in the morning and four in the afternoon motionless before the tabernacle, a spectacle that amazed the Indians and won their love and veneration.

One night when she was making an all night vigil, an Indian crept up and left some kernels of corn on the hem of her habit to see if she really remained in prayer motionless for those long hours. He returned the next morning and found the grain in the same place.

Her health continued to weaken under the hardships of life at Sugar Creek. Finally, after only one short year in the Indian mission, to her great disappointment, she was forced to return under obedience to Florissant, where she spent the last ten years of her life in poverty, mortifications, suffering and prayer.

“I feel that I am a worn-out instrument, a useless walking stick that is fit only to be hidden in a dark corner,” she wrote about these times. For her sleeping room in the Florissant Convent, she chose a narrow closet beneath a staircase. Visitors today to the Convent can still see that narrow sleeping place, a testimony to the humility and mortification of a great woman who held herself as nothing in eyes of the world.

In fact, Mother Duchesne was much more highly esteemed and venerated than she imagined. She was almost transfigured by Holy Communion. A wonderful light was seen to shine from her countenance after she had received, as if a flame were reflected on her face. The children used to wait to reverently watch her come out of the chapel after her thanksgiving.

“The clergy and laity, in fact, everyone who knew her, esteemed Rev. Mother Duchesne as a saint,” testified Mother Anne Shannon, a former student at Florissant.” She was gifted with an admirable spirit of prayer and often spent whole nights on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament, without any support whatsoever.”

The closet room under the stairway in the Florissant convent that Mother Duchesne used for her sleeping room the lat 10 years of her life
 
“Never did I leave her without the feeling that I had been conversing with a saint,” Fr. De Smet, SJ, repeated in a letter of October 9, 1872.

On November 18, 1852, the heroic life of Philippine Duchesne came to an end. She had kept the fast and early that morning, made her confession, received Communion and received Extreme Unction. She was sinking rapidly, but when she heard the invocation, “Jesus, Mary, Joseph,” she was able to answer, “I give you my heart, my soul, and my life – oh, yes, my life, generously.” These were her last words.

When Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne died at age 83 in St. Charles, Mo., Fr. De Smet wrote her religious Sisters: “No greater saint ever died in Missouri or perhaps in the whole Union.” He urged them to write a biography, but it was not done. The apostle of the Sacred Heart who came to America to work and save the souls of Indians was put aside in death, just as she was in life. Forty-three years after her death in 1852, Philippine‘s cause was officially opened at the Vatican and Pope Pius X declared her “Venerable.” On May 12, 1940, she was beatified by Pope Pius XII, and canonized 44 years later on July 3, 1988.

A lesson for Americans
What is the message for us, Americans, that Divine Providence provided by the example of the heroic life of Mother Philippine Duchesne? In my opinion, her life represented the opposite of the American way of life and points to the direction we should follow to redress our faults.

Her life was, as she defined it, a sequence of failures. The first order she entered closed; she did not feel realized in the second institution until she came to America to convert the Indians. Then, instead of carrying out this long-desired mission, she was ordered to teach girls and found convents. The work was more difficult because she never learned to speak English. She founded one convent that failed, then another that foundered. The girls there were ungrateful and worldly, and the Sisters chaffed under her governance and wanted to relax the Rule.

When she finally was permitted to go to work in an Indian mission, she was already 72-years-old, too old to work or learn the native language. But after only one year, she was denied even that great consolation - she was ordered to leave the Indian mission and return to Florissant. She died there, without having accomplished what she felt called to do.

This constant failures of her planned enterprises and a success only on the spiritual level is, in my opinion, a lesson for Americans. Often we only value the immediate success, the practical way of doing things, and a good appearance in the results.

The life of Mother Duchesne is a call for us to abandon this way of being that idolizes appearances and success. It is a call to follow the will of God when we experience incomprehension, darkness, and failure. If we will turn our eyes to the path of the Cross of Our Lord and walk on it with courage and confidence, we will transform our mentality, our country, and our people into an elect nation called to help build the Reign of Mary.


On Death and Life
"Man Needs Eternity -- and Every Other Hope, for Him, Is All Too Brief"
Пресвятая Богородице спаси нас!
   (Santíssima Mãe de Deus, salva-nos!)

Month by Month of Saintly Dedications


The Rosary html Mary Mother of GOD -- Her Rosary Here
Mary Mother of GOD Mary's Divine Motherhood: FEASTS OF OUR LADY
     of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

May 9 – Our Lady of the Wood (Italy, 1607) 
Months of Dedication
January is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus since 1902;
March is the month of Saint Joseph since 1855;
May, the month of Mary, is the oldest and most well-known Marian month, officially since 1724;
June is the month of the Sacred Heart since 1873;
July is the month of the Precious Blood since 1850;
August is the month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
September is the month of Our Lady of Sorrows since 1857;
October is the month of the Rosary since 1868;
November is the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory since 1888;
December is the month of the Immaculate Conception.

In all, five months of the year are dedicated to Mary.
The idea of dedicating months came from Rome and promotion of the month of Mary owes much to the Jesuits.  arras.catholique.fr

Pray that the witness of 40 Days for Life bears abundant fruit, and that we begin again each day to storm the gates of hell until God welcomes us into the gates of heaven.

If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Great patience occurs in two ways:
either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid.
Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because when he suffered he did not threaten;
he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth.-- St. Thomas Aquinas

We begin our day by seeing Christ in the consecrated bread, and throughout the day we continue to see Him in the torn bodies of our poor. We pray, that is, through our work, performing it with Jesus, for Jesus and upon Jesus.
The poor are our prayer. They carry God in them. Prayer means praying everything, praying the work.
We meet the Lord who hungers and thirsts, in the poor.....and the poor could be you or I or any person kind enough to show us his or her love and to come to our place.
Because we cannot see Christ, we cannot express our love to Him in person.
But our neighbor we can see, and we can do for him or her what we would love to do for Jesus if He were visible.
-- Mother Teresa
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 love Thee.  O most Holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.
 I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world,  in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended,
and by the infite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
I beg the conversion of poor sinners,  Amen Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
Mary's Divine Motherhood
Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI { 2013 } Catholic Church In China { article here}
1648 to1930 St. Augustine Zhao Rong and 120 Companions Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria -- 600s.
        Depending on China's relations with outside world,
Christianity for centuries was free to grow or forced to operate secretly.

How do I start the Five First Saturdays? 
Called in the Gospel “the Mother of Jesus,” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the Mother of my Lord” (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos). 
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.
“The Blessed Virgin was eternally predestined, in conjunction with the incarnation of the divine Word, to be the Mother of God. By decree of divine Providence, she served on earth as the loving mother of the divine Redeemer, an associate of unique nobility, and the Lord's humble handmaid. She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ.”
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 geeral and binds all the followers of Christ.

Join Mary of Nazareth Project help us build the International Marian Center of Nazareth
http://www.worldpriest.com/
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources
Miracles by Century 100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900  Miracles_BC  Lay Saints
Morning Prayer and Hymn    Meditation of the Day    Prayer for Priests    Our Bartholomew Family Prayer List  Here
We are called upon with the whole Church militant on earth to join in praising and thanking God for the grace and glory he has bestowed on his saints. At the same time we earnestly implore Him to exert His almighty power and mercy in raising us from our miseries and sins, healing the disorders of our souls and leading us by the path of repentance to the company of His saints, to which He has called us.
   They were once what we are now, travellers on earth they had the same weaknesses, which we have. We have difficulties to encounter so had the saints, and many of them far greater than we can meet with; obstacles from kings and whole nations, sometimes from the prisons, racks and swords of persecutors. Yet they surmounted these difficulties, which they made the very means of their virtue and victories. It was by the strength they received from above, not by their own, that they triumphed. But the blood of Christ was shed for us as it was for them and the grace of our Redeemer is not wanting to us; if we fail, the failure is in ourselves.
   THE saints and just, from the beginning of time and throughout the world, who have been made perfect, everlasting monuments of God’s infinite power and clemency, praise His goodness without ceasing; casting their crowns before His throne they give to Him all the glory of their triumphs: “His gifts alone in us He crowns.”
“The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: ‘But as many as received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God....’ Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles, martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord. And let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory” Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

Called in the Gospel “the Mother of Jesus,” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the Mother of my Lord” (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son,  the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting the Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.
Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart ... From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these words to me, His unworthy slave, if I mistake not:
“I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under my displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine Heart making itself their assured refuge at the last moment.”
Margaret Mary was inspired by Christ to establish the Holy Hour and to pray lying prostrate with her face to the ground from eleven till midnight on the eve of the first Friday of each month, to share in the mortal sadness.
He endured when abandoned by His Apostles in His Agony, and to receive holy Communion on the first Friday of every month. In the first great revelation, He made known to her His ardent desire to be loved by men and His design of manifesting His Heart with all Its treasures of love and mercy, of sanctification and salvation.
He appointed the Friday after the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart; He called her “the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart”, and the heiress of all Its treasures. The love of the Sacred Heart was the fire which consumed her, and devotion to the Sacred Heart is the refrain of all her writings. In her last illness she refused all alleviation, repeating frequently: “What have I in heaven and what do I desire on earth, but Thee alone, O my God”, and died pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus.
With regard to this promise it may be remarked: (1) that our Lord required Communion to be received on a particular day chosen by Him; (2) that the nine Fridays must be consecutive; (3) that they must be made in honor of His Sacred Heart, which means that those who make the nine Fridays must practice the devotion and must have a great love for our Lord; (4) that our Lord does not say that those who make the nine Fridays will be dispensed from any of their obligations or from exercising the vigilance necessary to lead a good life and overcome temptation; rather He implicitly promises abundant graces to those who make the nine Fridays to help them to carry out these obligations and persevere to the end; (5) that perseverance in receiving Holy Communion for nine consecutive First Firdays helps the faithful to acquire the habit of frequent Communion, which our Lord eagerly desires; and (6) that the practice of the nine Fridays is very pleasing to our Lord He promises such great reward, and all Catholics should endeavor to make nine Fridays.
How do I start the Five First Saturdays? by Fr. Tom O'Mahony.
On July 13,1917, Our Lady appeared for the third time to the three children of Fatima an showed them the vision of hell and made the now - famous thirteen prophecies. In this vision Our Lady said that 'GOD WISHES TO ESTABLISH IN THE WORLD DEVOTION to Her Immaculate Heart and that She would come TO ASK FOR THE COMMUNION OF REPARATION ON THE FIRST SATURDAYS...'  Eight years later, on December 10, 1925, Our Lady did indeed come back. She appeared (with the Child Jesus) to Lucia in the convent of the Dorothean Sisters in Pontevedra.
The Child Jesus spoke first:
'HAVE COMPASSION ON THE HEART OF YOUR MOST HOLY MOTHER WHICH IS COVERED WITH THORNS WITH WHICH UNGRATEFUL MEN PIERCE IT AT EVERY MOMENT, WHILE THERE IS NO ONE TO REMOVE THEM WITH AN ACT OF REPARATION.'

THE GREAT PROMISE
Our Lady then said: 'MY DAUGHTER LOOK AT MY HEART SURROUNDED WITH THORNS WITH WHICH UNGRATEFUL MEN PIERCE IT AT EVERY MOMENT BY THEIR BLASPHEMIES AND INGRATITUDE. YOU, AT LEAST, TRY TO CONSOLE ME, AND SAY THAT I PROMISE TO ASSIST AT THE HOUR OF DEATH WITH ALL THE GRACES NECESSARY FOR SALVATION, ALL THOSE WHO, ON THE FIRST SATURDAY OF FIVE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS GO TO CONFESSION AND RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION, RECITE FIVE DECADES OF THE ROSARY AND KEEP ME COMPANY FOR A QUARTER OF AN HOUR WHILE MEDITATING ON MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY, WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION TO ME.'

The Five Reasons
Lucia once asked this question of Our Lord and received as an answer: 'MY DAUGHTER, THE MOTIVE IS SIMPLE, THERE ARE FIVE KINDS OF OFFENCES AND BLASPHEMIES UTTERED AGAINST THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY: (1) BLASPHEMIES AGAINST THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: (2) BLASPHEMIES AGAINST HER VIRGINITY: (3) BLASPHEMIES AGAINST HER DIVINE MATERNITY: (4) BLASPHEMIES OF THOSE WHO OPENLY SEEK TO FOSTER IN THE HEARTS OF CHILDREN INDIFFERENCE OR EVEN HATRED FOR THIS IMMACULATE MOTHER: (5) THE OFFENCES OF THOSE WHO DIRECTLY OUTRAGE HER IN HOLY IMAGES.'
From the above, it is easy to see that each of the Five Saturdays can correspond to a specific offence. By offering the graces received during each First Saturday as reparation for the offence being prayed for, the participant can hope to help remove the thorns from Our Lady's Heart.
What Do I Have To Do?
The devotion of First Saturdays, as requested by Our Lady of Fatima, carries with it the assurance of salvation. However, to derive profit from such a great promise of Our Lady, the devotion must be properly understood and duly performed.
The requirements as stipulated by Our Lady are as follows:
(1) CONFESSION, (2) COMMUNION, (3) FIVE DECADES OF THE ROSARY, (4) MEDITATION ON ONE OR MORE OF THE ROSARY MYSTERIES FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES, (5) TO DO ALL THESE THINGS IN THE SPIRIT OF REPARATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, and (6) TO OBSERVE ALL THESE PRACTICES ON THE FIRST SATURDAY OF FIVE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS.
(1) CONFESSION: A reparative confession means that the confession should not only be good (valid and licit), but also be offered in the spirit of reparation, in this case, to Mary's Immaculate Heart. This confession may be made on the First Saturday itself or some days before or after the First Saturday within the preceding octave would suffice.
(2) COMMUNION: The communion of reparation must be sacramental duly received with the intention of making reparation. This offering, like the confession, is an interior act and so no external action to express the intention is needed.
(3) THE ROSARY: The Rosary mentioned here was indicated by the Portuguese word 'terco' which is commonly employed to denote a Rosary of five decades, since it forms a fourth of the full Rosary of 20 decades. This too must recited in a spirit of reparation.
(4) MEDITATION FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES: Here the meditation on one mystery or more is to be made without simultaneous recitation of the Rosary decade. As indicated, the meditation may be either on one mystery alone for 15 minutes, or on all 20 mysteries, spending about one minute on each mystery, or again, on two or more mysteries during the period. This can also be made before each decade spending three minutes or more in considering the mystery of the particular decade. This meditation has likewise to be made in the spirit of reparation to the Immaculate Heart.
(5) THE SPIRIT OF REPARATION: All these acts, as said above, have to be done with the intention of offering reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the offences committed against Her. Everyone who offends Her commits, so to speak, a two-fold offence, for these sins also offend her Divine Son, Christ, and so endanger our salvation. They give bad example to others and weaken the strength of society to withstand immoral onslaughts. Such devotions therefore make us consider not only the enormity of the offence against God, but also the effect of sins on human society as well as the need for undoing these social effects even when the offender repents and is converted. Further, this reparation emphasises our responsibility towards sinners who, themselves, will not pray and make reparation for their sins.
(6) FIVE CONSECUTIVE FIRST SATURDAYS: The idea of the Five First Saturdays is obviously to make us persevere in the devotional acts for these Saturdays and overcome initial difficulties. Once this is done, Our Lady knows that the person would become devoted to Her immaculate Heart and persist in practising such devotion on all First Saturdays, working thereby for personal self-reform and for the salvation of others.

Unless Russia is converted, the movement against God and for sin will continue to spread, promoting wars and persecutions, and making the attainment for peace and justice impossible for this world. One means of obtaining Russia's conversion is to practise the Fatima Message. The stakes are so great that to encourage Catholics to practise the devotion of the First Saturdays, Our Lady has assured us that She will obtain salvation for all those who observe the first Saturdays for five consecutive months in accordance with Her conditions.
At the supreme moment the departing person will be either in the state of grace or not. In either case Our Lady will be by his side. If in the state of grace, She will console and help him to resist whatever temptations the devil might put before him in his last attempt to take the person with him to hell. If not in the state of grace, Our Lady will help the person to repent in a manner agreeable to God and so benefit by the fruits of redemption and be saved.

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.
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Pope St. Clement (92-101):  Since all things lie open to His eyes and ears, let us hold Him in awe and rid ourselves of impure desires to do works of evil, so that we may be protected by His mercy from the judgement that is to come.
Which of us can escape His mighty hand? 

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

Popes mentioned in articles of Saints today
Pope Pius XII -- When Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne died at age 83 in St. Charles, Mo., Fr. De Smet wrote her religious Sisters: “No greater saint ever died in Missouri or perhaps in the whole Union.” He urged them to write a biography, but it was not done. The apostle of the Sacred Heart who came to America to work and save the souls of Indians was put aside in death, just as she was in life. Forty-three years after her death in 1852, Philippine‘s cause was officially opened at the Vatican and Pope Pius X declared her “Venerable.” On May 12, 1940, she was beatified by Pope Pius XII, and canonized 44 years later on July 3, 1988.

Paul VI Proclaims Mary "Mother of the Church" (1964) November 11


Eugenio Pacelli Proclaims the Dogma of the Assumption (1950)
A divinely revealed dogma
“After we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare wilfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.”
After the Pope proclaimed this Dogma, a ray of sunlight shined forth on Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Pius XII - Munificentissimus Deus - Defining the Dogma of the Assumption, 1 November 1950

Festívitas ómnium Sanctórum, quam in honórem beátæ Dei Genitrícis Vírginis Maríæ et sanctórum Mártyrum Bonifátius Papa Quartus, cum templum Pántheon tértio Idus Maji dedicásset, célebrem et generálem instítuit agi quotánnis in urbe Roma.  Sed Gregórius item Quartus póstmodum decrévit, eándem festivitátem, quæ váriis modis jam in divérsis Ecclésiis celebrabátur, in honórem ómnium Sanctórum solémniter hac die ab univérsa Ecclésia perpétuo observári.
    The Festival of All Saints, which Pope Boniface IV, after the dedication of the Pantheon, ordained to be kept generally and solemnly every year on the 13th of May, in the city of Rome, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and of the holy martyrs.  It was afterwards decreed by Gregory IV that this feast, which was then celebrated in many dioceses, but at different times, should be on this day kept by the whole Church in honour of all the saints.
The air which we breathe, the bread which we eat, the heart which throbs in our bosoms, are not more necessary for man that he may live as a human being, than is prayer for the Christian that he may live as a Christian.-- St. John Eudes

Solemnity of All Saints 
“'Be holy as I am holy,' says the Lord. As Christians we are all called to holiness because we are His children. Every Christian should be a saint. Indeed, for a Christian to live in a state of sin is a monstrous contradiction”. --Curé d'Ars.

It has recently been claimed that the decline in the cult of saints and in pilgrimages to holy places is spiritually beneficial for Christians, so that their attention will be turned exclusively towards Jesus. There is, however, a danger to the faith in attempting to become too intellectual and sophisticated, and thereby becoming too cold, methodical, and rational.
In the face of the divine mysteries and matters that are beyond human comprehension our minds should be kept open.
“The saints are like so many little mirrors in which Jesus Christ sees Himself. In His apostles He sees His zeal and love for the salvation of souls; in the martyrs He sees His constancy, suffering, and painful death; in the hermits He sees His obscure and hidden life; in the virgins He sees His spotless purity; and in all the saints He sees His unbounded charity.
And when we honor the virtues of the saints, we are but worshipping the virtues of Jesus Christ...”
 -- John Baptiste Marie Vianney Curé d'Ars

We render God a worship of adoration and dependence with faith, hope, love, and a profound humbling of our souls before His supreme Majesty. We honor the saints with a feeling of respect and veneration for the favors God granted them, for the virtues they practiced, and for the glory with which God has crowned them in heaven. We commend ourselves to their prayers.
“It is a most precious grace that God should have destined the saints to be our protectors and our friends. Saint Bernard said that the honor we give them is less a glory for them than a help to us, and that we may call upon them with full confidence because they know how greatly we are exposed to dangers on earth, for they remember the perils that they themselves had to face during their lifetimes.” -- Curé d'Ars.

The friendship that binds us to all the saints, and which is encouraged and commemorated by the feast-days of the Church, is not the invention of a handful of bigots or a commercial stunt manufactured by merchants of religious medallions. The communion of saints answers a definite need, and insofar as we neglect any one of the forms of spiritual life we are cutting ourselves off from a source of divine grace and making ourselves just a little blinder than we are already.
We too can be saints and we must all strive to become so.
“The saints were mortals like us, weak and subject to the passions, as we are. We have the same help, the same means of grace, the same sacraments, but we must be like them and renounce the pleasures of the world, shunning the evils of the world as much as we can and remaining faithful to grace. We must take the saints as our models or be damned, that we must live either for heaven or for hell. There is no middle way.” --Saint John Vianney.

The Church has celebrated some feast in honor of the saints from the period of primitive Christianity. There is tentative evidence of the celebration to honor all the martyrs in the writings of Tertullian (died 223) and Gregory of Nyssa (died 395). It was definitely observed at the time of Saint Ephraem (died 373), who in the Nisibene Hymnus mentions a feast kept in honor of “the martyrs of all the earth” on May 13. It should be noted that on May 13, c. 609, Pope Saint Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon of Rome in honor of our Lady and all martyrs--another instance of something pagan baptized by Christianity for a new purpose dedicated to God.
The Venerable Bede (673-735) says that the pope designed that “the memory of all the saints might in future be honored in the place which had formerly been devoted to the worship, not of gods, but of demons.”
By 411 as indicated in the Syriac Short Martyrology, throughout the Syrian Church the Friday in the Octave of Easter was celebrated as the feast of “all the martyrs.”
Chaldean Catholics still maintain Easter Friday in honor of the martyrs.

Since at least the time of Saint John Chrysostom (died 407 - - one of the Three Holy Hierarchs), the Byzantine churches have kept a feast of all the martyrs on the Sunday after Pentecost (Chrysostom, A panegyric of all the martyrs that have suffered throughout the world)
  Saint John Chrysostom.
We are not quite sure how November 1 came to be commemorated in honor of all the saints in the West. We do know that by AD 800, Blessed Alcuin of York  was in the habit of keeping the solemnitas sanctissima of All Saints on November 1, preceded by a three-day fast. His friend Bishop Arno of Salzburg had presided over a synod in Bavaria (Germany) which included that day in its list of holy days (Walsh).
Blessed Alcuin
Why has the Church included such a day in its calendar? To honor all the saints--known and unknown to us--reigning together in glory; to give thanks to God for the graces with which He crowns all the elect; to excite ourselves to humble imitation of their virtues; to implore the Divine Mercy through the help of these intercessors; and to repair any failures in not having properly honored God in His saints on their individual feast days.

Saint Bernard wrote:
  “It is our interest to honor the memory of the saints, not theirs. Would you know how it is our interest? from the remembrance of them I feel, I confess, a triple vehement desire kindled in my breast--of their company, of their bliss, and of their intercession.
“First, of their company. To think of the saints is in some measure to see them. Thus we are in part, and this the better part of ourselves, in the land of the living, provided our affection goes along with our thoughts or remembrance: yet not as they are. The saints are there present, and in their persons; we are there only in affection and desires. Ah! when shall we join our fathers? when shall we be made the fellow-citizens of the blessed spirits, of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and virgins? when shall we be mixed in the choir of the saints?
“The remembrance of each one among the saints is, as it were, a new spark, or rather torch, which sets our souls more vehemently on fire, and makes us ardently sigh to behold and embrace them, so that we seem to ourselves even now to be amongst them. And from this distant place of banishment we dart our affections sometimes towards the whole assembly, sometimes towards this, and sometimes that happy spirit. What sloth is it that we do not launch our souls into the midst of those happy troops, and burst hence by continual sighs! The church of the first-born waits for us; yet we loiter. The saints earnestly long for our arrival; yet we despise them. Let us with all the ardor of our souls prevent those who are expecting us; let us hasten to those who are waiting for us.”

Secondly, he mentions the desire of their bliss; and, lastly, the succor of their intercession, and adds:
  “Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends. You know our danger, our frail mould, our ignorance, and the snares of our enemies; you know our weakness, and the fury of their assaults. For I speak to you who have been under the like temptation; who have overcome the like assaults; have escaped the like snares; and have learned compassion from what you yourselves have suffered.--We are members of the same Head.--Your glory is not to be consummated without us...”
Bernard of Clairvaux, Serm. 5 de fest. omnium sanct., n. 5, 6.

In his sermon on the Vigil of Saints Peter and Paul, Bernard also writes: “He who was powerful on earth is more powerful in heaven, where he stands before the face of his Lord. And if he had compassion on sinners, and prayed for them while he lived on earth, he now prays to the Father for us so much the more earnestly as he more truly knows our extreme necessities and miseries; his blessed country has not changed, but increased his charity. Though now impassible, he is not a stranger to compassion: by standing before the throne of mercy, he has put on the tender bowels of mercy...”
     
November 1st - All Saints Day - OUR LADY OF THE PALM (1755, Cadiz, Spain)
Mary and the Souls in Purgatory (I): What is Purgatory?
The Holy Church of God, considered in its totality, is composed of three parts: the Church militant, the Church triumphant, and the Church suffering, or purgatory. This triple Church constitutes the mystical body of Jesus Christ, and the souls in purgatory are no less her members than the faithful on earth and the elect in heaven.
In the Gospel, the Church is ordinarily called the Kingdom of God; purgatory, just like heaven and the Church on earth, is a province of that vast Kingdom. The three sister-Churches have between them an incessant exchange, a continual communication, called the Communion of Saints. These relationships have no other object than to lead souls to glory, the final term toward which all the elect tend.
The word purgatory means sometimes a place, sometimes a state half-way between hell and heaven. It is, properly speaking, the situation of the souls who, at the time of death, find themselves in a state of grace, but haven't completely expiated their faults or attained the degree of purity necessary to enjoy the vision of God.
Purgatory is therefore a temporary state, which ends in the beatific life.
The Church teaches two things about purgatory, truths that are clearly defined as dogmas of faith: first, that there is a purgatory; secondly, that the souls in purgatory can be helped by the petitions of the faithful, especially by the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
Rev. Fr. François-Xavier Schouppe, s.j. The Dogma of Purgatory Illustrated by Facts and Private Revelations
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.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed not for the benefit of the recipients so much as for the benefit of others.

November 1, 2006 Feast of All Saints  
The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended “that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons.” (On the Calculation of Time).
But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honor all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost.

How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.
Comment: This feast first honored martyrs. Later, when Christians were free to worship according to their conscience, the Church acknowledged other paths to sanctity. In the early centuries the only criterion was popular acclaim, even when the bishop's approval became the final step in placing a commemoration on the calendar. The first papal canonization occurred in 993; the lengthy process now required to prove extraordinary sanctity took form in the last 500 years. Today's feast honors the obscure as well as the famous—the saints each of us have known.
Quote: “After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.... [One of the elders] said to me, ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9,14).

November 1 - Queen of All Saints (608)
Our Lady of Folgoët

Salaün was such a simpleton that his contemporaries of the 15th century considered him a madman. He could only say two words: "Ave Maria" (Hail Mary) and he repeated those two words over and over.

One year on November 1, Salaün was found dead near a tree trunk, by the edge of the woods, at the far end of the parish of Guic-Elleau in France and the townspeople buried him immediately on the spot. Later, a beautifully smelling lily grew up from his grave, with this inscription on it written in gold letters, the only two words he had pronounced all his life: "Ave Maria."

In 1365, the first stone was laid for a church that is now the jewel of all the churches of Brittany: Notre-Dame de Folgoët (Our Lady of the Madman of the Woods). The statue of Our Lady was crowned by the Church in 1888?

November 1 - All Saints  As the world returns to the love of Mary…
The term ‘Woman’ indicated a wider relationship to all humanity than ‘Mother.’ It meant that she (Mary) was to be not only his mother, but that she was also to be the mother of all mankind, as he was the Savior of all mankind. She was now to have many children—not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Jesus was her firstborn in the flesh in joy; John was her second-born in the spirit of sorrow; and we are her millionth and millionth born.
(…)
Every objection against devotion to Mary grows in the soil of an imperfect belief in the Son. It is a historical fact that, as the world lost the Mother, it also lost the Son. It may be that, as the world returns to the love of Mary, it will also return to a belief in the divinity of Christ.

 Venerable Fulton J. Sheen  American Bishop.
His cause for sainthood was opened in 2002
  John Paul II -- October 16 - The Purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - John Paul II becomes Pope (1978)
Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew
"Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy,
but an encounter with a person" -- Benedict XVI


1667-1669 Pope Clement IX; elected to the papacy by the unanimous Sacred College vote; idol of the Romans erudition application to business, his extreme charity, affability towards great and small; 2 days/week occupied confessional in St. Peter's church heard any one who wished to confess; frequently visited hospitals, lavish in alms to the poor; he did little or nothing to advance or enrich his family; aversion to notoriety, refused to permit his name to be placed on the buildings erected during his reign; declared blessed, Rose of Lima, first American saint, solemnly canonized S. Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi and St. Peter of Alcantara; death of the beloved pontiff was long lamented by Romans, who considered him, if not the greatest, at least the most amiable of the popes.
Pope Leo XIII

The best way to make our pleas heard 
The Rosary, a kind of prayer that seems to contain, as it were, a final pledge of affection and to sum up in itself the honor due to Our Lady… There has seemed to be no better means of conducting sacred solemnities or of obtaining protection and favors. (Encyclical Octobri Mense).
There are, of course, more ways than one to win her protection by prayer, but as for Us, We think that the best and most effective way to her favor lies in the Rosary. (Encyclical Adjutricem populi, 1895).
So that our pleas have the greatest effect… let us has recourse to Mary… through the Rosary (1891).


Mrs Adjoubei’s Rosary        Bishop Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII
As he left Bulgaria in 1934, Bishop Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, stated,
"If a Slavic, catholic or not, knocks on my door, it will be opened and he will be greeted like a true friend." Later, a Slavic arrived one day at the airport of Fiumicino who asked to see Pope John XXIII. His reply was immediate, "Let him come!"
The meeting was set for March 7th.
After the general audience, the Pope called for Mr. Adjoubei and his wife, Rada, a young woman from Khrushchev. He received them in his library and asked them to be seated.
They spoke about many things including the Saints of Russia and the beauty of Orthodox liturgy.
Then John XXIII picked up a string of rosary beads that was laid on his table.
"Madam, this is for you. My entourage taught me that I should give currencies or stamps to a non-Catholic princess; but I still give you a Rosary because priests, in addition to the biblical prayer of the psalms, also have this popular form of prayer. For me, the Pope, it is like fifteen open windows - fifteen mysteries - through which I contemplate, in the light of the Lord, the events of the world. I say a rosary in the morning, another at the beginning of the afternoon, and another in the evening.
Look, I made a great impression by telling the journalists that in the fifth joyful mystery - "he listened and questioned them" - I was really praying for... I made an impression on those people when I said that, in the third joyful mystery - the Birth of Jesus - I prayed for all the babies who are born in the past twenty-four hours, because, Catholics or not, they will find the wishes of the Pope upon their entry into life.
When I recite the third mystery, I will also remember your children, Madam."
Mrs Adjoubei, who held the Rosary in her hands, answered,
"Thank you, Holy Father, how grateful I am to you! I will tell my children what you said...
" The Pope looked at her smiling, "I know the name of your sons... the third is called Yan, or John like me...
When you are back home, give him a special hug from me... "  Rosary for the Church, #14 - 1973

Cross Not Optional, Says Benedict XVI
Reflects on Peter's "Immature" Faith CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Taking up one's cross isn't an option, it's a mission all Christians are called to, says Benedict XVI.
APOSTLES: COLLABORATORS IN TRUE JOY
VATICAN CITY, 10 SEP 2008 (VIS) - At his general audience this morning, celebrated in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope dedicated his catechesis to St. Paul's view of the meaning of apostolate.
  The Pauline concept of apostleship went "beyond that of the group of Twelve" explained the Holy Father. "It was characterised by three elements: the first was the fact of having seen the Lord, in other words of having encountered Him in a way that marked his life. ... Definitively then, it is the Lord Who confers the apostolate, not individual presumption. Apostles do not make themselves but are created so by the Lord".
  The second characteristic is that of "having been sent. In fact, the Greek term 'apostolos' means envoy, ... the representative of a principal. ... Once again the idea emerges of an initiative arising from someone else, from God in Jesus Christ, to Whom one is duty-bound", of "a mission to be accomplished in His name, putting all personal interests aside".
  "Announcing the Gospel and the consequent founding of Churches" is the third requisite. "The tile of apostle", said Pope Benedict, "is not and cannot be a merely honorary title. It truly, even dramatically, involves the entire existence of the person concerned".
  St. Paul also defined apostles as "servants of God, Whose grace acts in them", said the Pope. "A typical element of the true apostle ... is a form of identification between the Gospel and the evangeliser, both share the same destiny. Indeed no-one so much as Paul highlighted how announcing the cross of Christ is a 'stumbling block and foolishness' to which many react with misunderstanding and refusal. That happened then and it should be no surprise that the same thing happens today".
  "With the stoical philosophy of his time, Paul shared the idea of tenacious perseverance in all the difficulties he had to face; but he went beyond the merely human perspective by recalling ... God's love and Christ's. ... This is the certainty, the profound joy that guided the Apostle though all those events: nothing can separate us from the love of God, and this love is the real treasure of human life".
  "As we may see, St. Paul gave himself to the Gospel with all his life", said the Holy Father in conclusion. "He undertook his ministry with faithfulness and joy that he 'might by all means save some'. And though aware of his own relationship of paternity - even, indeed, of maternity - towards the Churches, his attitude to them was one of complete service, declaring: "I do not mean to imply that we lord it over your faith; rather, we are workers with you for your joy'. This remains the mission of all the apostles of Christ in all times: to be collaborators of true joy".
AG/ST. PAUL/...VIS 080910 (480)
JOHN PAUL I  ANGELUS  Sunday, 10 September 1978
At Camp David, in America, Presidents Carter and Sadat and Prime Minister Begin are working for peace in the Middle East. All men are hungry and thirsty for peace, especially the poor, who pay more and suffer more in troubled times and in wars; for this reason they look to the Camp David meeting with interest and great hope. The Pope, too, has prayed, had prayers said, and is praying the Lord may deign to help the efforts of these politicians.

I was very favourably impressed by the fact that the three Presidents wished to express their hope in the Lord publicly in prayer. President Sadat's brothers in religion are accustomed to say as follows:
 "there is pitch darkness, a black stone and on the stone a little ant; but God sees it, and does not forget it".
President Carter, who is a fervent Christian, reads in the Gospel;
 "Knock, and it will be opened to you; ask, and it will be given you. Even the hairs of your head are all numbered."
And Premier Begin recalls that the Jewish people once passed difficult moments and addressed the Lord complaining and saying:
 "You have forsaken us, you have forgotten us!" "No!"—He replied through Isaiah the Prophet—"can a mother forget her own child? But even if it should happen, God will never forget his people".

Also we who are here have the same sentiments; we are the objects of undying love on the part of God. We know: he has always his eyes open on us, even when it seems to be dark. He is our father; even more he is our mother. He does not want to hurt us, He wants only to do good to us, to all of us.  If children are ill, they have additional claim to be loved by their mother. And we too, if by chance we are sick with badness, on the wrong track, have yet another claim to be loved by the Lord.

With these sentiments I invite you to pray together with the Pope for each of us, for the Middle East, for Iran, and for the whole world.  © Copyright 1978 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

"Peace destroys nothing; War destroys everything" Paul VI
Paul VI_Athenagoras_05_01_1964
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1). 

"The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints.
They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties,
how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious." 
THE COMMEMORATION OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL
THE patronal feast of the Carmelite Order was originally the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15; but between 1376 and 1386 the custom arose of observing a special feast of our Lady, to celebrate the approbation of their rule by Pope Honorius III in 1226. This custom appears to have originated in England; and the observance was fixed for July 16, which is also the date that, according to Carmelite tradition, our Lady appeared to St Simon Stock and gave him the scapular. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it became definitely the "scapular feast" and soon began to be observed outside the order, and in 1726 it was extended to the whole Western church by Pope Benedict XIII. In the proper of the Mass for the day no mention is made of the scapular or of St Simon's vision, but they are referred to in the lessons of the second nocturn at Matins; and our Lady's scapular is mentioned in the proper preface used by the Carmelites on this feast

Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1).

Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew

Jesus Christ is the blessing for every man and woman ... The Church, in giving us Jesus, offers us the fullness of the Lord’s blessing. This is precisely the mission of the people of God: to spread to all peoples God’s blessing made flesh in Jesus Christ. And Mary, the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus, the first and most perfect believer, the model of the pilgrim Church, is the one who opens the way to the Church’s motherhood and constantly sustains her maternal mission to all mankind. Mary’s tactful maternal witness has accompanied the Church from the beginning. She, the Mother of God, is also the Mother of the Church, and through the Church, the mother of all men and women, and of every people. …

Let us look to Mary, let us contemplate the Holy Mother of God. I suggest that you all greet her together, just like those courageous people of Ephesus, who cried out before their pastors when they entered Church: “Hail, Holy Mother of God!” What a beautiful greeting for our Mother. There is a story – I do not know if it is true – that some among those people had clubs in their hands, perhaps to make the Bishops understand what would happen if they did not have the courage to proclaim Mary “Mother of God”! I invite all of you, without clubs, to stand up and to greet her three times with this greeting of the early Church: “Hail, Holy Mother of God!”  Pope Francis; Homily, Holy Mass on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
Chinese Catholics Celebrate Pentecost, World Day of Prayer for Church in China
Sacraments of Initiation Administered During Course of Celebrations
 Hail, Holy Mother of God -- Pope Francis
By Staff Reporter
Rome, May 27, 2015 (ZENIT.org)

Many Chinese Catholic communities celebrated the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China last Sunday, reported Fides. Pope Benedict XVI instituted this day of prayer in 2007.

The May 24 prayer day coincides with the Marian feast day of Our Lady Help of Christians, and this year it coincided with the feast of Pentecost.  At the end of last Wednesday's General Audience in the Vatican, Pope Francis remembered the prayer day for the Asian nation.

In China on the prayer day, the sacraments of Christian initiation were administered to seven catechumans, 13 infants, and 38 adults in the He Bei province's parishes of Yan Jiao and of Bao Ding, as well as in the Zhe Jiang province's parish of Long Gang in the diocese of Wen Zhou.

The feast day of Our Lady Help of Christians is celebrated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan in Shanghai and on the day, the parish of Chang Shu in the diocese of Su Zhou, along with many other communities, prayed: "Let us pray for the Church in China, that faces major challenges in the life of the Church and society. Let us pray so that the Holy Spirit guides us ... and may Our Lady Help of Christians protect us."  Four infants were also baptized during Mass in Chang Shu.

Also to celebrate, the parish of Yi Shan in the Diocese of Wen Zhou in the province of Zhe Jiang held a solemn Marian procession, so that, as observers noted, "the Church is one and united and a witness of love."

Moreover, religious and some lay people of the diocese of Nan Chong, located in the southern province of Sichuan, went on a pilgrimage not only to celebrate the special feasts of Sunday, but also to celebrate the Year of Consecrated Life. During it, those partaking exchanged their experiences of vocation, faith, mission and pastoral activity.

Pope Francis called for the Year of Consecrated Life at the end of his meeting with 120 superior generals of male institutes last November. The year started on the First Sunday of Advent, the weekend of Nov. 29, 2014, and ends on Feb. 2, 2016, the World Day of Consecrated Life. (D.C.L.)

  Popes Html link here: 
 “Where there is no honor for the elderly, there is no future for young people.” Pope Francis:
“It Is a Mortal Sin When Children Don't Visit Their Elderly Parents.”
By Deborah Castellano Lubov VATICAN CITY, March 04, 2015 (Zenit.org) –

“Where there is no honor for the elderly, there is no future for young people.”
During his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis made this strong statement while continuing his catechesis on the family, with this and next week focusing on the elderly.  Confining this week’s address to their problematic current condition, the Holy Father said the elderly are ignored and that a society that does this is perverse.
While noting that life has been lengthened thanks to advances in medicine, he lamented that while the number of older people has multiplied, "our societies are not organized enough to make room for them, with proper respect and concrete consideration for their fragility and their dignity.”

“As long as we are young, we are led to ignore old age, as if it were a disease to be taken away. Then when we become older, especially if we are poor, sick and alone, we experience the shortcomings of a society planned on efficiency, which consequently ignores the elderly.”

He went on to quote his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, who, when visiting a nursing home in November 2012, “used clear and prophetic words: ‘The quality of a society, I would say of a civilization, is judged also on how the elderly are treated and the place reserved for them in the common life.’" 
Without a space for them, Francis highlighted, society dies.
Cultures, he decried, see the elderly as a burden who do not produce and should be discarded.
“You do not say it openly, but you do it!” he exclaimed. "Out of our fear of weakness and vulnerability, we do not tolerate and abandon the elderly," he said. “It’s sickening to see the elderly discarded. It is ugly. It’s a sin. Abandoning the elderly is a mortal sin.”
“Children who do not visit their elderly and ill parents have mortally sinned. Understand?”

The Pope expressed his dismay at children who go months without seeing a parent, or how elderly are confined to little tables in their kitchens alone, without anyone caring for them.  He noted that he observed this reality during his ministry in Buenos Aires.  Unwilling to accept limits, society, he noted, doesn’t allow elderly to participate and gives into the mentality that only the young can be useful and enjoy life.
The whole society must realize, the Pope said, the elderly contain the wisdom of the people.
The tradition of the Church, Pope Francis reaffirmed, has always supported a culture of closeness to the elderly, involving affectionately and supportively accompanying them in this final part of life.  The Church cannot, and does not want to, Francis underscored, comply with a mentality of impatience, and even less of indifference and contempt towards old age.
Sooner or later, we will all be old, he said. If we do not treat the elderly well, he stressed we will not be treated well either.
“We must awaken the collective sense of gratitude, of appreciation, of hospitality, which make them feel the elderly living part of his community.”

Concluding his address, Pope Francis noted how old age will come to all one day and reminded the faithful how much they have received from their elders. He also challenged them to not take a step back and abandon them to their fate.

The Church without Mary is an orphanage
 Pope Francis:
“It is  very different to try and grow in the faith without Mary's help. It is something else. It is like growing in the faith, yes, but in a Church that is an orphanage. A Church without Mary is an orphanage. With Mary—she educates us, she makes us grow, she accompanies us, she touches consciences. She knows how to touch consciences, for repentance.”
Pope Francis Speech of October 25, 2014, to the Schönstatt Apostolic Movement
on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its founding .

 "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive it, and it shall come to you. St. Mark 11:24"

Nazareth is the School of the Gospel (II)
It is first a lesson of silence.
May the esteem of silence be born in us anew, this admirable and indispensable condition of the spirit, in us who are assailed by so much clamor, noise and shouting in our modern life, so noisy and hyper sensitized. O silence of Nazareth, teach us recollection, interiority, disposition to listen to the good inspirations and words of the true masters; teach us the need and value of preparation, study, meditation, personal and interior life, and prayer that God alone sees in secret.
It is a lesson of family life.
May Nazareth teach us what a family is, with its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; let us learn from Nazareth how sweet and irreplaceable is the formation one receives within it; let us learn how primordial its role is on the social level.
It is a lesson of work. Nazareth, the house of the carpenter's son; it is there that we would like to understand and celebrate the severe and redeeming law of human labor; there, to reestablish the conscience of work's nobility; to remind people that working cannot be an end in itself, but that its freedom and nobility come, in addition to its economic value, from the value that finalize it; how we wish to salute here all the workers of the world and show them their great model, their divine brother, the prophet of all their just causes, Christ Our Lord.
Homily of Paul VI in Nazareth January 5, 1964

  Pope Francis: The Kingdom of God is found in silence, not in causing a spectacle (Video)
He explained that it can also be found in day to day life By Staff
ROME, November 13, 2014 (Rome Reports) - To view the video click here.
     
At the end of its Constitution on the Church, the Second Vatican Council left us a very beautiful meditation on Mary Most Holy.
Let me (Pope Francis) just recall the words referring to the mystery we celebrate today: “The immaculate Virgin preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things” (no. 59).
Then towards the end, there is: “The Mother of Jesus in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven is the image and the beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise, she shines forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come” (no. 68). Pope Francis
 
 
"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive it, and it shall come to you. St. Mark 11:24"

January 5 – Our Lady of Good Counsel (Bergamo, Italy)  
Pope Francis: "Place your vocation in her hands"
At the opening of the seminarians’ pilgrimage in France, which was held at Lourdes through Monday, November 10, 2014, Pope Francis sent a special message in the form of three pieces of advice:
"Mary accompanied Jesus in his mission. She was present at Pentecost when the disciples received the Holy Spirit. She accompanied the first steps of the Church in a maternal way. During these days in Lourdes, confide in her, place your vocation in her hands, and ask her to make you pastors according to God’s own heart.  Let her strengthen you on these three key points that I mentioned: brotherhood, prayer, and mission.
I wholeheartedly give you my Apostolic Blessing and I ask you to pray for me. Thank you."
www.aleteia.org

Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1).

"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive it, and it shall come to you. St. Mark 11:24"
Pope St. Clement:  Since all things lie open to His eyes and ears, let us hold Him in awe and rid ourselves of impure desires to do works of evil, so that we may be protected by His mercy from the judgement that is to come.
Which of us can escape His mighty hand?

Cross Not Optional, Says Benedict XVI
Reflects on Peter's "Immature" Faith CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
Taking up one's cross isn't an option, it's a mission all Christians are called to, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope said this before reciting the midday Angelus with several thousand people gathered in the courtyard of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.
Referring to the Gospel reading for today's Mass, the Holy Father reflected on the faith of Peter, which is shown to be "still immature and too much influenced by the 'mentality of this world.'”  He explained that when Christ spoke openly about how he was to "suffer much, be killed and rise again, Peter protests, saying: 'God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.'"
"It is evident that the Master and the disciple follow two opposed ways of thinking," continued the Pontiff. "Peter, according to a human logic, is convinced that God would never allow his Son to end his mission dying on the cross.  "Jesus, on the contrary, knows that the Father, in his great love for men, sent him to give his life for them, and if this means the passion and the cross, it is right that such should happen."
Christ also knew that "the resurrection would be the last word," Benedict XVI added.
Serious illness
The Pope continued, "If to save us the Son of God had to suffer and die crucified, it certainly was not because of a cruel design of the heavenly Father.  "The cause of it is the gravity of the sickness of which he must cure us: an evil so serious and deadly that it will require all of his blood. 
"In fact, it is with his death and resurrection that Jesus defeated sin and death, reestablishing the lordship of God."

God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.

"The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints. They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties, how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious."  1913 Saint Barsanuphius of Optina
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR benefit of others.
Non est inventus similis illis







THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 200

O Lady, in thy strength our heart shall rejoice: and in the sweetness of
thy name our soul shall be consoled.

From thy throne send us wisdom: by which we shall be sweetly enlightened in
all truth.

Give us grace to abstain from carnal desires: that the light of thy grace
may arise in our hearts.

How sweet are thy words, O Lady, to them that love thee: how sweet is the
shower of thy graces.

I will sing unto thy glory and honor: and in thy name I will glory forever.

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

Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven; give us this day our daily Bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil; Amen
Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art Thou amoung women, and Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb JESUS,  Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death; Amen

Eternal rest, grant unto them of Lord, and let Thy Perpetual Light shine upon them;  Amen.
Indulgence of 500 days for each of these prayers.

Cross Not Optional, Says Benedict XVI
Reflects on Peter's "Immature" Faith CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
Taking up one's cross isn't an option, it's a mission all Christians are called to, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope said this before reciting the midday Angelus with several thousand people gathered in the courtyard of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.
Referring to the Gospel reading for today's Mass, the Holy Father reflected on the faith of Peter, which is shown to be "still immature and too much influenced by the 'mentality of this world.'”  He explained that when Christ spoke openly about how he was to "suffer much, be killed and rise again, Peter protests, saying: 'God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.'"
"It is evident that the Master and the disciple follow two opposed ways of thinking," continued the Pontiff. "Peter, according to a human logic, is convinced that God would never allow his Son to end his mission dying on the cross.  "Jesus, on the contrary, knows that the Father, in his great love for men, sent him to give his life for them, and if this means the passion and the cross, it is right that such should happen."
Christ also knew that "the resurrection would be the last word," Benedict XVI added.
Serious illness
The Pope continued, "If to save us the Son of God had to suffer and die crucified, it certainly was not because of a cruel design of the heavenly Father.  "The cause of it is the gravity of the sickness of which he must cure us: an evil so serious and deadly that it will require all of his blood. 
"In fact, it is with his death and resurrection that Jesus defeated sin and death, reestablishing the lordship of God."

Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 “To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland”
God calls each one of us to be a saint in order to get into heaven.

"The answers to many of life's questions can be found by reading the Lives of the Saints. They teach us how to overcome obstacles and difficulties, how to stand firm in our faith, and how to struggle against evil and emerge victorious."  1913 Saint Barsanuphius of Optina
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR benefit of others.
Non est inventus similis illis
 
Paul VI_Athenagoras_05_01_1964
  Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage:  
 "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1).

March 22 - Marialis Cultus by Paul VI (1974) – Birth of Lucia of Fatima (1907) 
A culminating moment in the salvation dialogue between God and man 
 
With regard to Christ, the East and the West, in the inexhaustible riches of their liturgies, celebrate this solemnity as the commemoration of the salvific "fiat" of the Incarnate Word, who, entering the world, said: "God, here I am! I am coming to obey Your will." They commemorate it as the beginning of the redemption and of the indissoluble and wedded union of the divine nature with human nature in the one Person of the Word.

With regard to Mary, these liturgies celebrate it as a feast of the new Eve, the obedient and faithful virgin, who with her generous "fiat" became through the working of the Spirit the Mother of God, but also the true Mother of the living, and, by receiving into her womb the one Mediator, became the true Ark of the Covenant and true Temple of God. These liturgies celebrate it as a culminating moment in the salvific dialogue between God and man, and as a commemoration of the Blessed Virgin's free consent and cooperation in the plan of redemption.
Pope Paul VI
Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus on the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary §6, February 1974
 

Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy, but an encounter with a person”
 -- Benedict XVI

Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew

Benedict XVI_Archbishop_Hilarion
 Benedict XVI receives Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion n September 18th, Pope Benedict XVI;  Archbishop Hilarion, president of the Department for External Church Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
The Orthodox Archbishop is currently visiting the Vatican at the invitation of Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
This Pontifical Council underlined that the visit will confirm the ties of friendship between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, with a view to closer collaboration and to favor the presence of the Church in the lives of the peoples of Europe and the world.
In addition, a further step in ecumenical relations is scheduled for the month of October in Cyprus: the meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which will address the theme of Petrine Primacy.
Benedict XVI met with Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.  The Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning it, and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.  Benedict XVI
That testimony culminated in the twentieth century, which proved a time of Unspeakable suffering for your people. Most recently we have all been saddened by the escalation of persecution and violence against Christians in parts of the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Catholicos is based in Lebanon. That is why, the Pope said, he prays every day for peace in this country and throughout the Middle East. Benedict XVI said there will only be peace in the region when each country is free to decide its own destiny and when every ethnic and religious group accepts and respects the others. Aram I emphasized that the churches must be means for peace and to achieve that they must recognize “all” genocides, even the Armenian.. The Catholicos recalled his meeting with John Paul II, adding that this visit represents a new step for ecumenical dialogue.
Aram I Catholicos
Our meeting is an opportunity to pray and reflect together, and to renew our commitment and efforts for Christian unity.
Armenian church members from all over the world join with Catholicos in making pilgrimages to Rome.
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.



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 128

My enemies have often troubled me from my youth up: deliver me, O Lady, and vindicate my cause from them.

Give them not power over my soul: keep my interior and my exterior.

Obtain for us pardon for our sins: let it be given to us by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Make us do penance worthily and praiseworthily: that we may come to God by a blessed end.

Show us then with a gracious and serene countenance: the glorious fruit of thy womb.

For thy spirit is kind: thy grace fills the whole world.

Thunder, ye heavens, from above, and give praise to her: glorify her, ye earth, with all the dwellers therein.

 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 Nizamuddin Aulia Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah Quadri Chisty Yamani Quadeer (RA) 1236-1325 welcomed people of all faiths & all walks of life.
801 Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This 8th century saint was an early Sufi who had a profound influence on later Sufis, who in turn deeply influenced the European mystical love and troubadour traditions.  Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq.  She was born around 717 and died in 801 (185-186).  Her biographer, the great medieval poet Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with love and longing" and that men accepted her "as a second spotless Mary" (186).  She was, he continues, “an unquestioned authority to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life in a small desert cell near Basra, where she lost herself in prayer and went straight to God for teaching.  As far as is known, she never studied under any master or spiritual director.  She was one of the first of the Sufis to teach that Love alone was the guide on the mystic path (222).  A later Sufi taught that there were two classes of "true believers": one class sought a master as an intermediary between them and God -- unless they could see the footsteps of the Prophet on the path before them, they would not accept the path as valid.  The second class “...did not look before them for the footprint of any of God's creatures, for they had removed all thought of what He had created from their hearts, and concerned themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind.  She felt no reverence even for the House of God in Mecca:  "It is the Lord of the house Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?" (219) One lovely spring morning a friend asked her to come outside to see the works of God.  She replied, "Come you inside that you may behold their Maker.  Contemplation of the Maker has turned me aside from what He has made" (219).  During an illness, a friend asked this woman if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such a question as 'What do I desire?'  I swear by the glory of God that for twelve years I have desired fresh dates, and you know that in Basra dates are plentiful, and I have not yet tasted them.  I am a servant (of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?" (162)
When a male friend once suggested she should pray for relief from a debilitating illness, she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who it is that wills this suffering for me?  Is it not God Who wills it?  When you know this, why do you bid me ask for what is contrary to His will?  It is not  well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic.  It was her custom to pray all night, sleep briefly just before dawn, and then rise again just as dawn "tinged the sky with gold" (187).  She lived in celibacy and poverty, having renounced the world.  A friend visited her in old age and found that all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled as her prayer-rug (186), for where she prayed all night, she also slept briefly in the pre-dawn chill.  Once her friends offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for the things of this world from Him to Whom the world belongs, and how should I ask for them from those to whom it does not belong?"  (186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted to give her a purse of gold.  She refused it, saying that God, who sustains even those who dishonor Him, would surely sustain her, "whose soul is overflowing with love" for Him.  And she added an ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth of someone of whom I do not know whether he acquired it lawfully or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance.  She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did.  For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision of God Himself.  The story is told that once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her way with water in one hand and a burning torch in the other.  When they asked her to explain, she said:
"I am going to light a fire in Paradise and to pour water on to Hell, so that both veils may vanish altogether from before the pilgrims and their purpose may be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she came from.  "From that other world," she said.  "And where are you going?" she was asked.  "To that other world," she replied (219).  She taught that the spirit originated with God in "that other world" and had to return to Him in the end.  Yet if the soul were sufficiently purified, even on earth, it could look upon God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him in love.  In this quest, logic and reason were powerless.  Instead, she speaks of the "eye" of her heart which alone could apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a bhakti, like one of Krishna’s Goptis in the Hindu tradition.  Her hours of prayer were not so much devoted to intercession as to communion with her Beloved.  Through this communion, she could discover His will for her.  Many of her prayers have come down to us:
       "I have made Thee the Companion of my heart,
        But my body is available for those who seek its company,
        And my body is friendly towards its guests,
        But the Beloved of my heart is the Guest of my soul."  [224]
To Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation by mail, please send check or money order to:
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Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey  Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited. 
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass.  After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her.  Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy:  “Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you.” 

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

Brief History of our Beloved Holy Priest Here and his published books of Catholic History in North America
Reardon, J.M. Archbishop Ireland; Prelate, Patriot, Publicist, 1838-1918.
A Memoir (St. Paul; 1919); George Anthony Belcourt Pioneer Catholic Missionary of the Northwest 1803-1874 (1955);
The Catholic Church IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL from earliest origin to centennial achievement 1362-1950 (1952);
The Church of Saint Mary of Saint Paul 1875-1922;  (1932)
The Vikings in the American Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon Born in Nova Scotia, 1872;  Priest, ordained by Bishop Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary faculty.
Affiliations and 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}.
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 Paqualina 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
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