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

Hierosólymis Præsentátio beátæ Dei Genitrícis Vírginis Maríæ in Templo.
 In the temple at Jerusalem, the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
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Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary .

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November 21 - Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple  Mary in the Temple (I)

Today the Virgin is introduced in House of the Lord
November 21 - Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple –
November 21 – 1798 Our Lady of Lavang (Vietnam, 1798)
– Our Lady of Soufanieh (Syria, 1982) – The Virgin of Quinche (Ecuador)  
Une Minute avec Marie 
 Making Mary Known and Loved    
 
She asked all of us to appear cheerful
 Oral tradition recounts that in 1798, in a forest in central Vietnam, the Virgin Mary, surrounded by two angels, appeared to a group of persecuted Christians.

"She was wearing a beautiful oriental coat, and was holding the Baby Jesus in her arms,” told one witness. “She just stood on the grass, like a mother among her children ... She asked all of us to appear cheerful for being chosen to suffer for our faith.” She said, “I have already granted your prayers. From now on everyone who comes to beseech me in this place will have their prayers answered.” That is how the Shrine of La Vang came into being.
Healings and conversions occurred there.

In 1901, a church was built and blessed in the presence of 12,000 pilgrims. On this occasion, Our Lady of La Vang was declared protector of Catholics in Vietnam. The church was enlarged in 1928.
In 1962, Saint Pope John XXIII elevated the church to the rank of Minor Basilica.

August 15, 1998, about 70,000 faithful prayed together at Our Lady of La Vang for the 200th anniversary of the apparition. A pilgrimage and an uninterrupted prayer tradition continue there to this day.
 
  November 21
90 St. Rufus A Roman disciple of St. Paul
Mentioned by the him in his Letter to the Romans 16:13:
“Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.”
He is also considered in some traditions son of Simon of Cyrene mentioned in Mark 15:21 and served as bishop.
  900 St. Amelberga Benedictine abbess of Susteren
1045 St. Hilary Benedictine abbot of San Vincenzo
1180 Blessed Nicholas Giustiniani family man and monk OSB (AC)
1193 St. Albert of Louvain maratyred Cardinal knight son of Duke Godfrey III
1541 Wolfgang Capito Evangelische Kirche:
1798 Our Lady of Lavang

Proclamation of Mary as "Mother of the Church" by Paul VI in the middle of Vatican II (1964)  
 
All the people loved her
 The Presentation of Mary in the Temple is an episode in the life of the Virgin Mary that is not found in the four Gospels, but in an apocryphal book known as the "Protoevangelium of James."  Both the popular devotion and Marian spirituality have been influenced by this writing, which stresses Mary’s openness to the divine will. The feast of the Presentation of Mary has enjoyed great popularity in the East as in the West.
Mary was destined to become the living temple of the divinity.
Her Presentation was a simple affair, according to the apocryphal Gospel: Anne and Joachim, Mary’s parents, wishing to thank God for the birth of their child, consecrated her. When she turned three, Mary was brought to the Temple; there a priest greeted her with words that evoke the Magnificat, and the child sat on the steps of the altar. "All the people of Israel loved her." This feast is attested as early as the sixth century.   Roman Martyrology
 
"The most pure temple of the Savior, the precious bridal chamber and Virgin, the sacred treasure of the glory of God, enters the House of the Lord, bringing the grace of the Divine Spirit.
The angels of God praise her: Truly this woman is the heavenly tabernacle."
   The Feast of the Presentation of Mary at the Temple (or "Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple" for the Orthodox), comes from an ancient tradition historically linked to the dedication of a basilica in honor of Mary. The building was ordered by Elias, bishop of Jerusalem, and finished at the expense of Emperor Justinian (527-565). It is located near the Temple area, where the Blessed Virgin spent her childhood, consecrated to the divine service. This church was dedicated on November 21, in the year 543, and named "New Church" to distinguish it from the old one in honor of the Nativity of Mary, the Probatica. In the course of the 8th century the feast spread to all the Oriental churches, highly favored by the people of God. It became part of the twelve great feasts of the year, still celebrated today in the East with a preparatory vigil and prolonged until November 25.
   Feast of the Presentation of Mary
Archangel Michael Commemoration of the  Coptic
Departure of St. Anna (Hannah), the mother of the Theotokos. Coptic
90 St. Rufus A Roman disciple of St. Paul
        Sts. Celsus and Clement MM (RM)
  270 St. Heliodorus Martyr with companions in Pamphylia
       Sts. Demetrius and Honorius martyrs who suffered at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber River
4th v. St. Maur, Bishop & Martyr
5th v. St. Digain Prince of Cornwall England confessor
  496 St. Gelasius I, Pope Roman African son of Valerius learning justice holiness charity; 492 496 Pope St. Gelasius I feast Nov 21 conspicuous for his spirit of prayer, penance, and study. He took great delight in the company of monks, and was a true father to the poor
   600 St. Maurus Bishop hermit
  616 St. Columbanus Junior disciple of the founder of Luxeuil, Saint Columbanus M (AC)
  900 St. Amelberga Benedictine abbess of Susteren
1045 St. Hilary Benedictine abbot of San Vincenzo
1180 Blessed Nicholas Giustiniani family man and monk OSB (AC)
1193 St. Albert of Louvain martyred Cardinal knight son of Duke Godfrey III
1541 Wolfgang Capito Evangelische Kirche:
1798 Our Lady of Lavang

November 21 - Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple 
 When the little girl turned 3
On the day of the feast of the Presentation of Mary, the liturgy refers to non-canonical texts. As the Gospels do not mention the Virgin’s childhood, some unknown authors have told the story …

The most important of these texts was translated in the 16th century by the French scholar Postel, who titled it Protoevangelium (First gospel of James.) It is possibly the oldest Infancy gospel, probably composed in the 2nd century in Egypt ... (This text, presented as the work of the Apostle James the Lesser, was mentioned early on by Saint Justin (d. ca.165) in the Dialogue with Tryphon and Origen refers to it explicitly in the Commentary of St Matthew.

When the girl was three years old, Joachim said: “Call the Hebrew girls of pure descent, and let them each carry a torch.” They obeyed and went together to the Temple of the Lord. The priest greeted the child and took her in his arms. He blessed her, saying, “She has glorified thy name, O Lord, in all generations. It is in you in the last days that He will reveal the Redemption that He grants to the son of Israel!”  missel.free.fr
 
Mary, "Mother of the Church" (I) November 21 - 1964:
Mary Proclaimed "Mother of the Church" by Paul VI during the Vatican II Council
When he proclaimed the Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen Gentium" at the Second Vatican Council on November 21, 1964, Pope Paul VI declared the Virgin Mary "Mother of the Church." Here is the official text of the pontifical declaration during the Council: "By the promulgation of today's Constitution, which has as its crown and summit a whole chapter dedicated to Our Lady, we can rightly affirm that the present session ends as an incomparable hymn of praise in honor to Mary. It is the first time, in fact--and saying it fills our souls with profound emotion--that an Ecumenical Council presents such a vast synthesis of the Catholic Doctrine regarding the place which the Blessed Virgin Mary occupies in the mystery of Christ and of the Church.
"(...) Very many Council Fathers made their own, pressing for an explicit declaration at this Council of the motherly role of the Virgin among the Christian people. To achieve this aim, We have felt it opportune to Consecrate in this very public Session a title which was suggested in honor of the Virgin from various parts of the Catholic world and which is particularly dear to us because it sums up in an admirable synthesis the privileged position reorganized by the Council for the Virgin in the Holy Church.
"Therefore, for the glory of the Virgin Mary and for Our own consolation, We proclaim the Most Blessed Mary Mother of the Church, that is to say of all the people of God, of the faithful as well as of the Pastors, who call her the most loving Mother. And We wish that the Mother of God should be still more honored and invoked
by the entire Christian people by this most sweet title." Pope Paul VI  Saint Peter of Rome, November 21, 1964
Pope Benedict XVI recalled the fact that 21 November, the liturgical feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, also marks "por orantibus" Day, an initiative dedicated to cloistered religious communities. "Let us thank the Lord", he said, "for the sisters and brothers who have embraced this mission dedicating themselves completely to prayer, and who live off what they receive from divine Providence. Let us in our turn pray for them and for new vocations, and undertake to support the material needs of monasteries, Dear sisters and brothers, yours is an indispensable presence in the Church and in the world. I remain close to you and I bless you with great affection". Benedict XVI then went on to mention "in a special way all those who have died as a result of traffic accidents. We pray for their eternal rest and for the consolation of their families who grieve their loss... I implore everyone - drivers, passengers and pedestrians - to heed carefully the words of St. Paul in the liturgy of the Word today: 'stay sober and alert'. Our behaviour on the roads should be characterised by responsibility, consideration and a respect for others. May the Virgin Mary lead us safely along streets and highways throughout the world", he concluded.  ANG/CLOISTERED RELIGIOUS/...VIS 081117 (240)
November 21 - The Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple
  The Virgin is also the True Temple
Introduced in Avignon in the 14th century, the Feast of the Presentation was recognized by Pope Gregory XI in 1372, but only added to the liturgical calendar in the West in 1585, by Pope Sixtus V. The possible symbolic interpretation of this feast is that Mary is the model of the Church, who, like her, dedicates herself to the service of her God through a total gift of herself.

The Virgin is also the true Temple, where God will make his dwelling at the time of the Annunciation. This prefigures the heavenly Jerusalem, for whom the Lamb standing in her midst is the only lamp (Rev 21:23). This feast thus makes a connection between the ancient Temple of stone and the Ark of the New Covenant, which is the most pure womb of the Virgin, on whom the Shekhinah, the glory of the living God, will soon descend.

If we prolong our reflection in the light of Saint Paul's teaching, “You are the temple of God” (1 Cor 3:16), it seems fair and right to “take Mary into our home” (Jn 19:27), so she may continue, in the Temple of our hearts, to serve the living God to whom she consecrated herself in the Temple of Jerusalem when she was a child.

Father Joseph Marie Verlinde Homily for the Presentation of Mary (excerpt)

Kontakion mode 4 for the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos in the Temple
    Charles de Foucald, founder of the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, said: "One must pass through solitude and dwell in it to receive God’s grace.   It is there that one empties oneself, that one drives before oneself all that is not God, and that one completely empties this little house of our soul  to leave room for God alone. In doing this, do not fear being unfaithful toward creatures.   On the contrary, that is the only way for you to serve them effectively"
(Raphael Brown, Franciscan Mystic, p. 126).

 Feast of the Presentation of Mary  
Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honor of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century.
Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church.
As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature.
In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the Protoevangelium of James tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was three years old.
This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.
Though it cannot be proven historically, Mary’s presentation has an important theological purpose.
It continues the impact of the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the birth of Mary.
It emphasizes holiness conferred on Mary from beginning of her life on earth continued through early childhood / beyond.
Comment:
    It is sometimes difficult for modern Westerners to appreciate a feast like this. The Eastern Church,
however, was quite open to this feast and even somewhat insistent about celebrating it.
Even though the feast has no basis in history, it stresses an important truth about Mary: From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God. She herself became a greater temple than any made by hands. God came to dwell in her in a marvelous manner and sanctified her for her unique role in God's saving work.
At the same time, the magnificence of Mary redounds upon her children.
They, too, are temples of God and sanctified in order that they might enjoy and share in God's saving work.
Quote:
 "Hail, holy throne of God, divine sanctuary, house of glory, jewel most fair, chosen treasure house, and mercy seat for the whole world, heaven showing forth the glory of God. Purest Virgin, worthy of all praise, sanctuary dedicated to God and raised above all human condition, virgin soil, unplowed field, flourishing vine, fountain pouring out waters, virgin bearing a child, mother without knowing man, hidden treasure of innocence, ornament of sanctity, by your most acceptable prayers, strong with the authority of motherhood, to our Lord and God, Creator of all, your Son who was born of you without a father, steer the ship of the Church and bring it to a quiet harbor"
 (adapted from a homily by St. Germanus on the Presentation of the Mother of God).

The Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple (II)   November 21 - PRESENTATION OF OUR LADY -
Proclamation of Mary "Mother of the Church" by Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council (1964)
By her admirable intelligence of the Scriptures, by her daily and hourly conformity to the smallest teachings and prescriptions of the Mosaic rituals, Mary discovered and adored the Messiah under the letter everywhere; she united herself to him, immolated herself to him in each one of the victims immolated before her eyes; and thus she was paying the God of Sinai the homage - never rendered Him before - of a Law duly understood, obeyed, and as fruitful as the Legislator had planned for it to be.

 Then Jehovah was able to say in complete truth: As the rain comes down from heaven and doesn't return to it, but inebriates the earth and causes it to produce its fruits; so will my word be: it will not come back to me barren, but it will have all the happy effects that I willed.                   Dom Prosper Gueranger The Liturgical Year
The Twenty-first Day of November  The Martyrology of the Sacred Order of Friars Preachers
At Jerusalem, the Presentation in the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. A totum duplex feast.
On the same day, the birthday of Blessed Rufus, whom St. Paul the Apostle mentions in his Epistle to the Romans. (5)
At Rome, the suffering of SS. Celsus and Clement.
At Rheims in Gaul, St. Albert, Bishop of Liege and martyr, who was killed for defending the liberty of the Church.
Near Ostia, the holy martyrs Demetrius and Honorius.
In Spain, the holy martyrs Honorius, Eutychius, and Stephen.
In Pamphylia, St. Heliodorus, martyr, in the persecution of Aurelian, under the governor Aetius. After his execution, his executioners themselves were converted to the faith and were drowned in the sea.
At Rome, Pope St. Gelasius I, famed for his learning and holiness.
At Verona, St. Maurus, bishop and confessor.
In the monastery of Bobbio, the death of St. Columban, abbot. He founded many monasteries and was the spiritual father of a very great number of monks. Eminent for his many virtues, he died peacefully at a good old age.


 Feast of the Presentation of Mary
Hierosólymis Præsentátio beátæ Dei Genitrícis Vírginis Maríæ in Templo.
    In the temple at Jerusalem, the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honor of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church.

As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the Protoevangelium of James tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was three years old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.

Though unhistorical, Mary’s presentation has an important theological purpose. It continues the impact of the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the birth of Mary. It emphasizes that the holiness conferred on Mary from the beginning of her life on earth continued through her early childhood and beyond.

Comment:   It is sometimes difficult for modern Westerners to appreciate a feast like this. The Eastern Church, however, was quite open to this feast and even somewhat insistent about celebrating it. Even though the feast has no basis in history, it stresses an important truth about Mary: From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God. She herself became a greater temple than any made by hands. God came to dwell in her in a marvelous manner and sanctified her for her unique role in God's saving work. At the same time, the magnificence of Mary redounds upon her children. They, too, are temples of God and sanctified in order that they might enjoy and share in God's saving work.

Quote:   "Hail, holy throne of God, divine sanctuary, house of glory, jewel most fair, chosen treasure house, and mercy seat for the whole world, heaven showing forth the glory of God. Purest Virgin, worthy of all praise, sanctuary dedicated to God and raised above all human condition, virgin soil, unplowed field, flourishing vine, fountain pouring out waters, virgin bearing a child, mother without knowing man, hidden treasure of innocence, ornament of sanctity, by your most acceptable prayers, strong with the authority of motherhood, to our Lord and God, Creator of all, your Son who was born of you without a father, steer the ship of the Church and bring it to a quiet harbor" (adapted from a homily by St. Germanus on the Presentation of the Mother of God).
Commemorated on November 21

According to Holy Tradition, the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple took place in the following manner. The parents of the Virgin Mary, Sts Joachim and Anna, praying for an end to their childlessness, vowed that if a child were born to them, they would dedicate it to the service of God.

When the Most Holy Virgin reached the age of three, the holy parents decided to fulfill their vow. They gathered together their relatives and acquaintances, and dressed the All-Pure Virgin in Her finest clothes. Singing sacred songs and with lighted candles in their hands, virgins escorted Her to the Temple (Ps. 44/45:14-15). There the High Priest and several priests met the handmaiden of God. In the Temple, fifteen high steps led to the sanctuary, which only the priests and High Priest could enter. (Because they recited a Psalm on each step, Psalms 119/120-133/134 are called "Psalms of Ascent.") The child Mary, so it seemed, could not make it up this stairway. But just as they placed Her on the first step, strengthened by the power of God, She quickly went up the remaining steps and ascended to the highest one. Then the High Priest, through inspiration from above, led the Most Holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest entered once a year to offer a purifying sacrifice of blood. Therefore, all those present in the Temple were astonished at this most unusual occurrence.

After entrusting their child to the Heavenly Father, Joachim and Anna returned home. The All-Holy Virgin remained in the quarters for virgins near the Temple. According to the testimony of Holy Scripture (Exodus 38; 1 Kings 1: 28; Luke 2: 37), and also the historian Josephus Flavius, there were many living quarters around the Temple, in which those who were dedicated to the service of God dwelt.

The earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos from Her infancy until She was taken up to Heaven is shrouded in deep mystery. Her life at the Jerusalem Temple was also a secret. "If anyone were to ask me," said St Jerome, "how the Most Holy Virgin spent the time of Her youth, I would answer that that is known to God Himself and the Archangel Gabriel, Her constant guardian."

But there are accounts in Church Tradition, that during the All-Pure Virgin's stay at the Temple, She grew up in a community of pious virgins, diligently read the Holy Scripture, occupied Herself with handicrafts, prayed constantly, and grew in love for God. From ancient times, the Church has celebrated the Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Indications that the Feast was observed in the first centuries of Christianity are found in the traditions of Palestinian Christians, which say that the holy Empress Helen (May 21) built a church in honor of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple.

St Gregory of Nyssa, in the fourth century, also mentions this Feast. In the eighth century Sts Germanus and Tarasius, Patriarchs of Constantinople, delivered sermons on the Feast of the Entry.

The Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple foretells God's blessing for the human race, the preaching of salvation, the promise of the coming of Christ.

DISCOURSE ON THE FEAST OF THE ENTRY OF OUR MOST PURE LADY THEOTOKOS INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES by Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica

If a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree bears good fruit (Mt. 7:17; Luke 6:44), then is not the Mother of Goodness Itself, She who bore the Eternal Beauty, incomparably more excellent than every good, whether in this world or the world above? Therefore, the coeternal and identical Image of goodness, Preeternal, transcending all being, He Who is the preexisting and good Word of the Father, moved by His unutterable love for mankind and compassion for us, put on our image, that He might reclaim for Himself our nature which had been dragged down to uttermost Hades, so as to renew this corrupted nature and raise it to the heights of Heaven. For this purpose, He had to assume a flesh that was both new and ours, that He might refashion us from out of ourselves. Now He finds a Handmaiden perfectly suited to these needs, the supplier of Her own unsullied nature, the Ever-Virgin now hymned by us, and Whose miraculous Entrance into the Temple, into the Holy of Holies, we now celebrate. God predestined Her before the ages for the salvation and reclaiming of our kind. She was chosen, not just from the crowd, but from the ranks of the chosen of all ages, renowned for piety and understanding, and for their God-pleasing words and deeds.

In the beginning, there was one who rose up against us: the author of evil, the serpent, who dragged us into the abyss. Many reasons impelled him to rise up against us, and there are many ways by which he enslaved our nature: envy, rivalry, hatred, injustice, treachery, slyness, etc. In addition to all this, he also has within him the power of bringing death, which he himself engendered, being the first to fall away from true life.

The author of evil was jealous of Adam, when he saw him being led from earth to Heaven, from which he was justly cast down. Filled with envy, he pounced upon Adam with a terrible ferocity, and even wished to clothe him with the garb of death. Envy is not only the begetter of hatred, but also of murder, which this truly man-hating serpent brought about in us. For he wanted to be master over the earth-born for the ruin of that which was created in the image and likeness of God. Since he was not bold enough to make a face to face attack, he resorted to cunning and deceit. This truly terrible and malicious plotter pretended to be a friend and useful adviser by assuming the physical form of a serpent, and stealthily took their position. By his God-opposing advice, he instills in man his own death-bearing power, like a venomous poison.

If Adam had been sufficiently strong to keep the divine commandment, then he would have shown himself the vanquisher of his enemy, and withstood his deathly attack. But since he voluntarily gave in to sin, he was defeated and was made a sinner. Since he is the root of our race, he has produced us as death-bearing shoots. So, it was necessary for us, if he were to fight back against his defeat and to claim victory, to rid himself of the death-bearing venomous poison in his soul and body, and to absorb life, eternal and indestructible life.

It was necessary for us to have a new root for our race, a new Adam, not just one Who would be sinless and invincible, but one Who also would be able to forgive sins and set free from punishment those subject to it. And not only would He have life in Himself, but also the capacity to restore to life, so that He could grant to those who cleave to Him and are related to Him by race both life and the forgiveness of their sins, restoring to life not only those who came after Him, but also those who already had died before Him. Therefore, St Paul, that great trumpet of the Holy Spirit, exclaims, "the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45).

Except for God, there is no one who is without sin, or life-creating, or able to remit sin. Therefore, the new Adam must be not only Man, but also God. He is at the same time life, wisdom, truth, love, and mercy, and every other good thing, so that He might renew the old Adam and restore him to life through mercy, wisdom and righteousness. These are the opposites of the things which the author of evil used to bring about our aging and death.

As the slayer of mankind raised himself against us with envy and hatred, so the Source of life was lifted up [on the Cross] because of His immeasurable goodness and love for mankind. He intensely desired the salvation of His creature, i.e., that His creature would be restored by Himself. In contrast to this, the author of evil wanted to bring God's creature to ruin, and thereby put mankind under his own power, and tyrannically to afflict us. And just as he achieved the conquest and the fall of mankind by means of injustice and cunning, by deceit and his trickery, so has the Liberator brought about the defeat of the author of evil, and the restoration of His own creature with truth, justice and wisdom.

It was a deed of perfect justice that our nature, which was voluntarily enslaved and struck down, should again enter the struggle for victory and cast off its voluntary enslavement. Therefore, God deigned to receive our nature from us, hypostatically uniting with it in a marvelous way. But it was impossible to unite that Most High Nature, Whose purity is incomprehensible for human reason, to a sinful nature before it had been purified. Therefore, for the conception and birth of the Bestower of purity, a perfectly spotless and Most Pure Virgin was required.

Today we celebrate the memory of those things that contributed, if only once, to the Incarnation. He Who is God by nature, the Co-unoriginate and Coeternal Word and Son of the Transcendent Father, becomes the Son of Man, the Son of the Ever-Virgin. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8), immutable in His divinity and blameless in His humanity, He alone, as the Prophet Isaiah prophesied, "practiced no iniquity, nor deceit with His lips" (Is. 53: 9). He alone was not brought forth in iniquity, nor was He conceived in sin, in contrast to what the Prophet David says concerning himself and every other man (Ps. 50/51: 5). Even in what He assumes, He is perfectly pure and has no need to be cleansed Himself. But for our sake, He accepted purification, suffering, death and resurrection, that He might transmit them to us.

God is born of the spotless and Holy Virgin, or better to say, of the Most Pure and All-Holy Virgin. She is above every fleshly defilement, and even above every impure thought. Her conceiving resulted not from fleshly lust, but by the overshadowing of the Most Holy Spirit. Such desire being utterly alien to Her, it is through prayer and spiritual readiness that She declared to the angel: "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord; be it unto Me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38), and that She conceived and gave birth. So, in order to render the Virgin worthy of this sublime purpose, God marked this ever-virgin Daughter now praised by us, from before the ages, and from eternity, choosing Her from out of His elect .

Turn your attention then, to where this choice began. From the sons of Adam God chose the wondrous Seth, who showed himself a living heaven through his becoming behavior, and through the beauty of his virtues. That is why he was chosen, and from whom the Virgin would blossom as the divinely fitting chariot of God. She was needed to give birth and to summon the earth-born to heavenly sonship. For this reason also all the lineage of Seth were called "sons of God," because from this lineage a son of man would be born the Son of God. The name Seth signifies a rising or resurrection, or more specifically, it signifies the Lord, Who promises and gives immortal life to all who believe in Him.

And how precisely exact is this parallel! Seth was born of Eve, as she herself said, in place of Abel, whom Cain killed through jealousy (Gen. 4:25); and Christ, the Son of the Virgin, was born for us in place of Adam, whom the author of evil also killed through jealousy. But Seth did not resurrect Abel, since he was only a type of the resurrection. But our Lord Jesus Christ resurrected Adam, since He is the very Life and the Resurrection of the earth-born, for whose sake the descendents of Seth are granted divine adoption through hope, and are called the children of God. It was because of this hope that they were called sons of God, as is evident from the one who was first called so, the successor in the choice. This was Enos, the son of Seth, who as Moses wrote, first hoped to call on the Name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26).

In this manner, the choice of the future Mother of God, beginning with the very sons of Adam and proceeding through all the generations of time, through the Providence of God, passes to the Prophet-king David and the successors of his kingdom and lineage. When the chosen time had come, then from the house and posterity of David, Joachim and Anna are chosen by God. Though they were childless, they were by their virtuous life and good disposition the finest of all those descended from the line of David. And when in prayer they besought God to deliver them from their childlessness, and promised to dedicate their child to God from its infancy. By God Himself, the Mother of God was proclaimed and given to them as a child, so that from such virtuous parents the all-virtuous child would be raised. So in this manner, chastity joined with prayer came to fruition by producing the Mother of virginity, giving birth in the flesh to Him Who was born of God the Father before the ages.

Now, when Righteous Joachim and Anna saw that they had been granted their wish, and that the divine promise to them was realized in fact, then they on their part, as true lovers of God, hastened to fulfill their vow given to God as soon as the child had been weaned from milk. They have now led this truly sanctified child of God, now the Mother of God, this Virgin into the Temple of God. And She, being filled with Divine gifts even at such a tender age, ... She, rather than others, determined what was being done over Her. In Her manner She showed that She was not so much presented into the Temple, but that She Herself entered into the service of God of her own accord, as if she had wings, striving towards this sacred and divine love. She considered it desirable and fitting that she should enter into the Temple and dwell in the Holy of Holies.

Therefore, the High Priest, seeing that this child, more than anyone else, had divine grace within Her, wished to set Her within the Holy of Holies. He convinced everyone present to welcome this, since God had advanced it and approved it. Through His angel, God assisted the Virgin and sent Her mystical food, with which She was strengthened in nature, while in body She was brought to maturity and was made purer and more exalted than the angels, having the Heavenly spirits as servants. She was led into the Holy of Holies not just once, but was accepted by God to dwell there with Him during Her youth, so that through Her, the Heavenly Abodes might be opened and given for an eternal habitation to those who believe in Her miraculous birthgiving.

So it is, and this is why She, from the beginning of time, was chosen from among the chosen. She Who is manifest as the Holy of Holies, Who has a body even purer than the spirits purified by virtue, is capable of receiving ... the Hypostatic Word of the Unoriginate Father. Today the Ever-Virgin Mary, like a Treasure of God, is stored in the Holy of Holies, so that in due time, (as it later came to pass) She would serve for the enrichment of, and an ornament for, all the world. Therefore, Christ God also glorifies His Mother, both before, and also after His birth.

We who understand the salvation begun for our sake through the Most Holy Virgin, give Her thanks and praise according to our ability. And truly, if the grateful woman (of whom the Gospel tells us), after hearing the saving words of the Lord, blessed and thanked His Mother, raising her voice above the din of the crowd and saying to Christ, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps Thou hast sucked" (Luke 11:27), then we who have the words of eternal life written out for us, and not only the words, but also the miracles and the Passion, and the raising of our nature from death, and its ascent from earth to Heaven, and the promise of immortal life and unfailing salvation, then how shall we not unceasingly hymn and bless the Mother of the Author of our Salvation and the Giver of Life, celebrating Her conception and birth, and now Her Entry into the Holy of Holies?

Now, brethren, let us remove ourselves from earthly to celestial things. Let us change our path from the flesh to the spirit. Let us change our desire from temporal things to those that endure. Let us scorn fleshly delights, which serve as allurements for the soul and soon pass away. Let us desire spiritual gifts, which remain undiminished. Let us turn our reason and our attention from earthly concerns and raise them to the inaccessible places of Heaven, to the Holy of Holies, where the Mother of God now resides.

Therefore, in such manner our songs and prayers to Her will gain entry, and thus through her mediation, we shall be heirs of the everlasting blessings to come, through the grace and love for mankind of Him Who was born of Her for our sake, our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory, honor and worship, together with His Unoriginate Father and His Coeternal and Life-Creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
This feast is popularly associated with a story that the parents of our Lady brought her to the Temple at Jeruselem when she was three years old and left her there to be brought up, related in several of the apocryphal gospels, e.g. in the Protevangelium of James.
      And the child was two years old, and Joachim said, "Let us take her up to the Temple of the Lord, that we may pay the vow that we have vowed, lest perchance the Lord send to us and our offering be not received ".  And Anne said, " Let us wait for the third year, in order that the child may not seek for father or mother ".  And Joachim said, " Let us so wait ". And the child was three years old...and they went up into the Temple of the Lord, and the priest received her and kissed her and blessed her, saying, The Lord has magnified thy name in all generations.  In thee, on the last of the days, the Lord will manifest His redemption to the sons of Israel."     And he set her down upon the third step of the altar, and the Lord God sent grace upon her; and she danced with her feet and all the house of Israel loved her. And her parents went down marvelling, and praising the Lord God because the child had not turned back.   And Mary was in the Temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there.
  It is not stated anywhere in the liturgy of the Roman church that this is the occasion of the presentation eelebrated in today's feast.  The festival is not a very ancient one, even in the East where it originated: the Entrance of the All-holy Mother of God into the Temple.    It seems probable that its origin was in the commemoration of the dedication of New St Mary's church at Jerusalem in 543.  In the West the first, and sporadic, observance of it was in the eleventh century, in England.  Here it was, to quote Edmund Bishop, a real liturgical feast and was actually observed in practice. Assurance of the fact is supplied by the Canterbury Cathedral Benedictional.  In its proper place in this Benedictional (i.e. between the feasts of St Martin, November 11, and St Cecily, November 22) is a "Benedictio de presentatione sancte Marie ". This is that feast of the Presentation which after appearing in our English books of Winchester and Canterbury only to disappear again, was started in Latin Christendom in the later decades of the fourteenth century our English essay of 350 years earlier being forgotten by all the world usque in hodiernum diem (Liturgica Historica, p. 257).
  The feast won general acceptance only gradually and was not finally admitted to the Western calendar till the pontificate of Sixtus V (1585).
See Keliner, Heortology, pp. 265-266 Schuster, The Sacramentary, vol. v, pp. 290-291 Holweck, Calendarium Liturgicum (1925), p. 386; S. Beissel, Verehrung Marias in Deutschland, vol. i, p. 306  voL ii, p. 281. It is curious that in none of these sources is any mention made of the fact that as early as the eleventh century the feast of the Presentation of our Lady was liturgically celebrated in England, and that at Canterbury itself see the Henry Bradshaw Society's edition of the Canterbury Benedictional, p. 116.  This celebration seems to have had some diffusion in England. It is found in the calendar of an East Anglian Horae (Christ's Coil. Camb., MS. 6, early thirteenth century) in the form "Oblacio B.M.V.". In this form also it occurs in two Worcester books of the same date see The Leofric Collector, vol. ii, p. 599.  That the feast was somehow introduced from the East may be inferred from the fact that we find it attached to this same day (November 21) in the Greek synaxaries (the text is printed in Delehaye's edition, cc. 243-244) and these synaxaries certainly date from the tenth century. In the Henry Bradshaw Society's reprint of the Missale Romanum of 1474 (vol. ii, pp. 255-253) is an interesting note which, while pointing out that the Presentation feast does not occur in the calendar or text of the 1474 edition, prints a Mass for the feast from a Roman missal of 1505. This includes a long sequence so barbarously worded that one can readily believe that St Pius V thought it better to suppress the feast altogether-as he did-rather than tolerate the continued recitation of such doggerel.  For later references to the feast's origins, see M. J. Kishpaugh, The Feast of the Presentation (1941)  E. Campana, Maria nel culto cattolico, vol.  (5943), pp. 207-214  and N. Chirat, Mélanges (1945), pp. 127-143.
Commemoration of the Honored Archangel Michael.  Coptic

On this day the church celebrates the feast of the honored Archangel, Michael, the head of the hosts of heaven, who stands at all times before the great throne of God, interceding on behalf of the human race.

Joshua, the son of Nun, saw him in great glory and was frightened by him and fell on his face to the earth and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" So he said, "No; but as Commander of the army of the Lord... I have given Jericho into your hand, ... and its king." (Joshua 5:13-15, 6:2)

The Archangel Michael was with all the saints and martyrs. He strengthened them and enabled them to endure patiently until they finished their strife. Festivals of commemoration are held and alms offered in his name on the twelfth day of each Coptic month.

An example of one of his wonders: A God-fearing man whose name was Dorotheus and his wife Theopista, held a festival of commemoration for the honored angel Michael on the twelfth day of each month. It happened that this righteous family fell on hard times and had nothing to celebrate with for the commemoration of the honored Michael. They took their clothes to sell so that they might have a feast. Michael the Archangel appeared to Dorotheus and commanded him not to sell his clothes, but to go to a sheep-master and to take from him a sheep worth one-third of a dinar. He was also to go to a fisherman and to take from him a fish worth one-third of a dinar but Dorotheus was not to slit open the fish until he came back to him. Finally, he was to go to a flour merchant and to take from him as much flour as he needed.

Dorotheus did as the Angel commanded him. He invited the people, as was his custom, to the feast honoring the Archangel Michael. When he went into his storeroom looking for wine for the offering, he found that all the containers had been filled with wine and many other good things. He marvelled and was astonished.

After they had finished the celebration and all the people had departed, the Archangel appeared to Dorotheus as before and commanded him to cut open the belly of the fish. He found 300 dinars of gold and three coins each is a third of a dinar. He told him these three coins were for the sheep, the fish and the flour, and the 300 dinars were for him and his children. God had remembered them and their oblations and had rewarded them here, in this world and in the kingdom of heaven on the last day. As Dorotheus and his wife were astonished at this matter, the Archangel Michael said to them, "I am Michael the Archangel who delivered you from all your tribulations and I have taken your oblations and alms up to God, you shall lack no good thing whatsoever in this world." They prostrated themselves before him and he disappeared and went up into heaven. This was one of the innumerable miracles of this honored Angel.
His intercession be for us and Glory be to our God, forever. Amen.
Departure of St. Anna (Hannah), the mother of the Theotokos.  
On this day, the pious and righteous St. Anna (Hannah), the mother of our Lady, the holy virgin St. Mary, the Mother of God, departed. This holy woman was the daughter of Matthan, the son of Levi, the son of Melki, who was a descendant of Aaron the priest. Her mother's name was Mary (Mariam) and she was from the tribe of Judah.
Matthan had three daughters. The first was called Mary after her mother, and she was the mother of Salome, the midwife. The second was Sophia, the mother of Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist. The third was St. Anna (Hannah), the wife of the righteous man Joachim, who was of the tribe of Judah. She was the mother of our Lady, the holy virgin St. Mary, the Mother of the Savior of the world. That makes our Lady the Virgin St. Mary, Salome, and Elizabeth cousins. Although we know little about St. Anna, having been chosen to be the mother of the Mother of God in the flesh is an indication of her virtues and righteousness, which distinguished her from other women to have this great grace.
Because she was barren, she entreated God to take away her shame. So the Lord gave her a daughter that delighted her eyes and the eyes of all mankind; she is the Virgin St. Mary, the Mother of the Savior of the world.
Her intercession be for us all. Amen.  {COPTIC}
90 St. Rufus A Roman disciple of St. Paul 1st century
Eódem die natális beáti Rufi, de quo sanctus Paulus Apóstolus ad Romános scribit.
    Also, the birthday of blessed Rufus, mentioned by the apostle St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans.
was mentioned by the him in his Letter to the Romans 16:13: “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.”
He is also considered in some traditions son of Simon of Cyrene mentioned in Mark 15:21 and to have served as a bishop.
Rufus of Rome B (RM). The disciple who Saint Paul greets in Romans 16:13. Some identify him with the son of Simon of Cyrene mentioned in Mark 15:21. A later tradition makes him a bishop in the East (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Sts. Celsus and Clement MM (RM)
Romæ pássio sanctórum Celsi et Cleméntis.    At Rome, the martyrdom of the Saints Celsus and Clement.
Roman martyrs of whom the names only have come down to us (Benedictines).
Sts. Demetrius and Honorius martyrs who suffered at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber River MM (RM)
Apud Ostia Tiberína natális sanctórum Mártyrum Demétrii et Honórii.
    At Ostia, the holy martyrs Demetrius and Honorius.
Old Roman manuscripts describe these saints as martyrs who suffered at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber River (Benedictines).
Honorius, Eutychius & Stephen MM (RM). Spanish martyrs, who suffered at Asta, in Andalusia, under Diocletian.
270 St. Heliodorus Martyr with companions in Pamphylia.
 In Pamphylia sancti Heliodóri Mártyris, in persecutióne Aureliáni, sub Aétio Præside.  Post eum vero ipsi tortóres, convérsi ad fidem, in mare demérsi sunt.
    In Pamphylia, St. Heliodorus, martyr, in the persecution of Aurelian under the governor Aetius.  After his death his executioners were converted to the faith and were cast into the sea.
Heliodorus and Companions MM (RM). Saint Heliodorus ad his companions suffered martyrdom under Aurelian in Pamphylia (Benedictines).
4th v. St. Maur, Bishop & Martyr
Verónæ sancti Mauri, Epíscopi et Confessóris.    At Verona, St. Maur, bishop and confessor.
martyred during the Diocletian persecution when he was Bishop of Parenzo, Croatia.
In 6th v. his body was transferred first into the city's cathedral and then to chapel near the baptistry of the Lateran basilica by Pope John IV.
5th v. St. Digain Prince of Cornwall England confessor
He was the son of Constantine, chieftain of Cornwall. Llangerew, in Clwyd, Wales, honors Digain.
Digain of Cornwall (AC) 5th century. The memory of Saint Digain, a son of King (or chieftain) Constantine of Cornwall, is perpetuated in Llangernw in Denbigshire (Benedictines).
496 St. Gelasius I, Pope; Roman, African son of Valerius learning justice holiness charity.
Romæ sancti Gelásii Papæ Primi, doctrína et sanctitáte conspícui.
    At Rome, Pope St. Gelasius, distinguished for learning and sanctity.

496 ST GELASIUS I, POPE
THE successor of Pope St Felix II in 492 was a capable and vigorous pontiff, "famous all over the world ", says a contemporary, "for his learning and holiness Gelasius maintained the firm attitude of his predecessor to the " Acacian schism arising out of the monophysite troubles; at Constantinople the Patriarch Euphemius, Acacius being dead, was anxious to heal the breach, but the emperor, Anastasius I, upheld the condemned Henotikon, and, till this document was repudiated and the condemnation of Acacius recognized, communion could not be restored. "We shall certainly come to the great judgement-seat of Christ, brother Euphemius", wrote the pope, "surrounded by those by whom the faith has been defended. It will there be proved whether the glorious confession of St Peter has been lacking in anything for the salvation of those given him to rule, or whether there has been rebellion and obstinacy in those who were unwilling to obey him." On several other occasions, especially in his letters, St Gelasius emphasized the supremacy of the see of Peter, notably in a passage of a letter to the Emperor Anastasius wherein he expounds the right relation between religious and secular authority.  But when he referred to the bishop of Constantinople as "an unimportant suifragan of Heraclea " the pope displayed a better sense of past history than of actuality.   He was emphatic on the duty of bishops to devote a quarter of their revenue to charity, and strongly opposed an attempt to revive the pagan Lupercalia festival. An interesting declaration of St Gelasius was when he insisted on communion in both kinds: this was aimed at the Manicheans, who regarded wine as an unlawful drink and therefore abstained from the eucharistic cup.
Gelasius is believed to have been a prolific writer, but little has survived. A contemporary priest, Gennadius, informs us that he compiled a sacramentary; but the Gelasian Sacramentary so called today belongs later. A decree upon which writings are canonical books of Holy Scripture has often been attributed to St Gelasius, but is now recognized not to be his.   Our chief sources of information are the Liber Pontificalis (Duchesne's edition), vol. i, pp. 254-257, and the pope's letters, which may be found in Thiel, Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum, supplemented by Löwenfeld, Epistolae Pontificum Romanorum ineditae (1885).  See also A. Roux, Le Pape St. Gélase (1880); Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste, vol. i, pp. 452-457; and Hefele-Leclercq, Conciles, vol. ii, pp. 940 seq. As for the famous Decreeum de libris redpiendis et non redpiendis it is now generally admitted that this cannot be attributed to Pope St Gelasius : the form in which it is preserved to us dates from the sixth century, and is a compilation of pieces of varied origin, some perhaps emanating from Pope Damasus, others from Hormisdas, etc.  See the monograph of E. von Dobschutz, in Texte und Untersuchungen, vol. xxxviii, Pt 3 ; Abbot Chapman in the Revue Benedictine, vol. xxx (1913), pp. 187-207 and 355-333 ; and DAC., vol. vi, cc. 722-747. The standard edition of the " Gelasian " Sacramentary is that edited by H. A. Wilson (1894), but see also Mohlberg and Baumstarlc, Die alteste erreichbare Gestalt des Liber Sacramentorum (1927), and E. Bishop in Liturgica Historica, pp. 39-61.

Later, ordained a priest, he was elected Pope on March 1st, 492.  Gelasius had a reputation for learning, justice, holiness, and charity. However, he was burdened with difficulties caused by a conflict with Euphemius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, over the Acacian heresy.
He protested encroachments by Constantinople on Alexandria and Antioch.
Gelasius was influential in setting aside Roman pagan festivals. Moreover, in opposition to the Manichaeans, he ordered reception of the Eucharist under both species. Gelasius is known to have composed liturgical Prefaces and Orations for Sacramentaries, which may be part of the Leonine Sacramentary. However, he had nothing to do with the Gelasian Sacramentary or the Gelasian Decree (listing the Canonical books of the Bible) - which have been erroneously attributed to him. He died at Rome on November 21.

Gelasius I, Pope (RM) Born in Rome; died there on November 21, 496. Born in Rome the son of an African named Valerius, Pope Gelasius I, ruled the papal see from 492 to 496. Prior to his elevation on March 1, 492, he had been secretary to the two previous popes (Saint Felix II and Saint Simplicius), and as a pope he still liked to dash off letters in his own hand--many of which still exist.

Although he governed the Church for only four years, eight months, and 18 days, he showed himself a vigorous, active, and capable pontiff--in fact, one of the greatest in a century of great popes-- and a great Christian. According to Dionysius Exiguus, Gelasius was known for his holiness, justice, charity to the poor, and learning. Facundus of Hermione wrote a few years after the pope's death, "He was famous over the whole world for his learning, and the sanctity of his life."

Gelasius ordered the reception of the Eucharist in both forms, thus opposing the Manichaeans, who preached that wine was impure and sinful. Among many rules which he established for the ministers of the church, Gelasius declares that its revenues are to be exactly divided into four parts: one is for the bishop, another for his clergy, the third for the poor, and the fourth for building. He also attempted to suppress simony.

He tried to compile a trustworthy list of saints and martyrs. He drew up a compendium of the important decrees of the synods of the church, not only including western ones but incorporating judgments of eastern synods where he thought them relevant. Gennadius tells us that Gelasius composed many sacred hymns, but these have been lost. The Decretum de libris...,listing the canonical books of the Bible, also long attributed to him, is no longer credited to him.
Although he is not the author of the Gelasian Sacramentary, published in Rome in 1680 from a 900-year-old manuscript, it probably contains many of the reforms he researched and instituted. Among other things found in the ancient sacramentary are the solemn veneration of the cross on Good Friday; the reservation of the Eucharist offered on Holy Thursday for communion on Good Friday; the blessing of the holy oils, the anointing, and other ceremonies used at baptism; blessing of holy water; prayers for entering new houses and other blessings; several Masses for the feasts of saints, expressing their invocation, and the veneration of their relics; votive Masses for travelers, for obtaining charity and other virtues, for marriage with the nuptial benediction, for birthdays, for the sick, and for the dead.

Gelasius was convinced that the supreme power of earth was the Church. This he saw summed up in the power of the papacy. Alongside the papacy, the role of the Byzantine emperor was nothing.

Gelasius made little attempt to heal the split between Rome and the East, started when Acacius was Patriarch of Constantinople (471- 489) and ended only in 518. His aim was different: to assert the superiority of the bishop of Rome over the patriarch of Constantinople. In fact, soon after his election, Gelasius ran into difficulties with Euphemius, patriarch of Constantinople, over the matter of the Acacian heresy when Euphemius refused to remove Acacius's name from the diptychs (registers of dead bishops named at the altar) in the churches of his see. (The name of Acacius was erased from the diptychs in 518 by Patriarch John of Constantinople.)

Saint Gelasius also defended the rights of the patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch against the encroachments of Constantinople and eloquently defended the rights of the Church against Emperor Anastasius in a famous letter to the emperor.

In his day, as the pope realized, Christianity remained only superficial among many converts. For instance, each February Christians still celebrated the feast of Lupercalia in honor of the Roman god Pan. Through it they hoped to influence for good the animal and vegetable world. Gelasius vigorously tried to suppress it, publicly writing a refutation of a senator named Andromachus who supported the rites (Against Andromachus) (Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
600 St. Maurus Bishop hermit
He was the twelfth bishop of Verona, Italy. Maurus resigned his see to become a hermit.
Maurus of Verona B (RM). The relics of Saint Maurus, twelfth bishop of Verona, Italy, rest in his cathedral city. Towards the end of his life he resigned and became a hermit (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
616 St. Columbanus Junior disciple of the founder of Luxeuil, Saint Columbanus M (AC)
In monastério Bobiénsi deposítio sancti Columbáni Abbátis, qui, multórum cœnobiórum Fundátor, plurimórum Monachórum éxstitit Pater, multísque virtútibus clarus, in senectúte bona quiévit.
    In the monastery of Bobbio, the death of St. Columban, abbot who founded many monasteries and governed a large number of monks.  He died at an advanced age, celebrated for many virtues.
Saint Columbanus Junior, a disciple of the founder of Luxeuil, Saint Columbanus, where he was a monk. He is listed as a martyr, but with no further details (Benedictines).
900 St. Amelberga Benedictine abbess of Susteren
Netherlands. Two daughters of the king of Lorraine, France, were educated in her abbey.
Amelberga of Susteren, OSB Abbess (AC). Abbess Saint Amelberga educated two of the daughters of the king of Lorraine in her convent (Benedictines).
1045 St. Hilary Benedictine abbot of San Vincenzo
Volturno, Italy. He is noted for restoring the abbey.

Hilary of Volturno, OSB Abbess (PC) Born at Matera, Italy; died c. 1045. Saint Hilary became abbot of San Vincenzo at Volturno in 1011. During his long abbacy, which lasted until his death, Hilary revived the ancient glory of his monastery (Benedictines).
1180 Blessed Nicholas Giustiniani family man and monk OSB (AC)
Born in Venice, Italy. Son of the noble Venetian family of the Giustiniani, Nicholas donned the Benedictine habit at the monastery of San Niccolo del Lido. After all his brothers had been killed in battle at Constantinople the doge obtained from the pope a dispensation for Nicholas to marry and beget heirs for the family.

He accordingly married and had six sons and three daughters. In his old age Nicholas returned to the abbey. He has always been venerated at Venice (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
1193 St. Albert of Louvain martyred Cardinal knight;  son of Duke Godfrey III  
Rhemis, in Gállia, sancti Albérti, Epíscopi Leodiénsis et Mártyris; qui pro tuénda ecclesiástica libertáte necátus est.
    At Rheims, St. Albert, bishop of Liege and martyr, who was put to death for defending the liberty of the Church.

1192 ST ALBERT OF LOUVAIN, BISHOP OF LIEGE, MARTYR
DURING the twelfth century there was strong competition between the noble houses of Brabant and Hainault for possession of the extensive and powerful see of Liege, whose occupant was necessarily of great weight in the politics of the time, and it was this improper-but in those days very common-use of a bishopric as a political "strong-point" which led to the violent death of Albert of Louvain.
   He was born about the year 1166, son of Godfrey III, Duke of Brabant, and his wife Margaret of Limburg, and was brought up in his father's castle on that hill of Louvain which is now called Mont-César and whereon is now a well-known Benedictine abbey.  Albert was early destined for the clerical state and while still a school-boy of twelve was made a canon of Liege, but when he was twenty-one he renounced his benefice and asked Baldwin V, Count of Hainault (his own bitter enemy), to receive him as a knight. Baldwin agreed, and attached him to his own entourage. In view of what happened afterwards it seems a reasonable speculation that Albert wished to go crusading. For when a few months later the papal legate, Cardinal Henry of Albano, preached the crusade in Liege (and incidentally received the resignation of seventy simoniacal prelates), among those who "took the cross" was Albert-but he at the same time rejoined the ranks of the clergy and received back his canonry.  The inner history of this curious episode is not known, but certainly Albert never went to the East, either as soldier or churchman, and in the following year he was archdeacon of Brabant. Other dignities followed, but, though he was archdeacon and provost by office, Albert was still only subdeacon by orders.
  In 1191 the bishop of Liege died and two candidates were put forward to fill the vacancy: both were named Albert, both were archdeacons, and neither of them was a priest. Albert of Rethel was a deacon, cousin of Baldwin of Hainault, and uncle of the Empress Constance, wife of Henry VI. A contemporary chronicler says that at the election Liege was full of dukes, counts and men-at-arms. But there was no doubt that Albert of Louvain was the more suitable candidate and the chapter appointed him by an overwhelming majority. 
   Thereupon Albert of Rethel appealed to his relative the emperor, who was an enemy of Albert of Louvain's brother, Henry of Brabant, and the cause was appointed to be heard at Worms. St Albert was supported by practically all the clergy of Liege, Albert of Rethel by his minority of canons, but the emperor would pronounce in favour of neither of them.  He announced that he had disposed of the see of Liege to Lothaire, provost of Bonn, whom he had just made imperial chancellor in return for three thousand marks.  St Albert quietly told Henry that his own election was canonically valid, rebuked the interference with the Church's liberties, and gave notice of his appeal to the Holy See.  He set out for Rome in person and, as the emperor was trying to intercept him, travelled by a devious route and disguised as a servant. He groomed his own horse at night, helped in the kitchen, and was once told to dry and clean an inn-keeper's shoes for him. Pope Celestine III after due deliberation pronounced the election of St Albert to be valid and confirmed.
  On his return, however, Albert was unable to take possession of his see, held by the intruded Lothaire, and Archbishop Bruno of Cologne would not ordain and consecrate him for fear of the emperor (he was, moreover, old and ill).  Pope Celestine had foreseen this and had authorized Archbishop William of Rheims to carry out these duties and St Albert was made priest and bishop at Rheims. At the same time news was brought that the Emperor Henry was in Liege, vowing to exterminate Albert and his followers.
   Albert's uncle would have set off at once with a following of nobles to assert his nephew's rights, but St Albert had a better idea of the duties of a Christian and preferred to remain in exile rather than to precipitate war.  The emperor meanwhile took strong measures with the faithful clergy of Liege, forced the submission of Albert's supporters, and left the city for Maestricht, where a further plot was hatched.  On November 24, 1192, when St Albert had been nearly ten weeks at Rheims, he went on a visit to the abbey of Saint-Remi, outside the walls.  In a narrow part of the way German knights set upon and murdered him. The whole city was horrified, and St Albert was buried with honour in the cathedral.   The Emperor Henry had to do penance, and his creature, Lothaire, excommunicated, took refuge in flight.
  The history of the relics of St Albert is a matter of some interest.
What purported to be these relics were in 1612 are translated from Rheims to the church of the Carmelite convent in Brussels, and on that occasion Pope Paul V granted a Mass and Office of St Albert, bishop and martyr, to all the churches of that city and the cathedral of Rheims.
    When during 1919 the choir of the cathedral at Rheims was being cleared of the debris from the German bombardment, a tomb was opened which was supposed to be that of Odalric, a tenth-century archbishop.  An examination of its contents aroused the suspicions of the authorities, and a commission of clergy, archaeologists and medical men was appointed to go into the matter.   In 1921 this commission reported its unanimous agreement that the skeleton found in "Odalric's" tomb was that of St Albert of Louvain, and that the relics taken to Brussels in 1612 were those of Odalric.* There was no suggestion of fraud on the part of the seventeenth.century canons of Rheims.  The proceedings of the commission make it quite clear how such a mistake could easily have been made at that time, the inscriptions on the tombs being obliterated.*

In reply to the hope expressed by a Belgian member of the commission that the metropolitan chapter of Rheims would honour its promise of three hundred years before and send the relics of St Albert to Belgium, Mgr Neveux, auxiliary bishop in Rheims, said that he could not then give a definite answer, but that in his opinion "solemn engagements were not scraps of paper ". In the event, the bones of Odalric, detached portions having been called in by Cardinal Mercier, archbishop of Malines, were
sent back from Brussels ; and on November 18, 1921, the true relics of St Albert were solemnly handed over by Cardinal Luçon, archbishop of Rheims, to Mgr Van Cauwenbergh and Dom Sebastian Braun, O.S.B., deputed by the Primate, of Belgium to receive them.   A considerable relic was subsequently detached and returned to Rheims.
A reliable life by a contemporary has been printed by Heller in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xxv, pp. 137-168. For an account of the identificatioa of the true relics at Rheims, see the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xl (1922), pp. 155-170; and cf: L. Demaison, Reims al fin du xii' siècle (1925). Consult further David, Histoire de St Albert de Louvain (1848) ; B. del Marmol, St Albert de Louvain (1922) in the series "Les Saints"; and E. de Moreau, St Albert de Louvain (1946).

Son of Duke Godfrey III of Brabant and brother of Henry I, duke of Lorraine and Brabant. At the age of twelve he was made a canon of Liege, France, but resigned from that priestly honor at the age of twenty-one to become a knight of Count Baldwin V, an enemy of Brabant. Albert proposed going on a crusade but did not do so, instead resuming his clerical life. He became a canon again and then was named the bishop of Liege. His appointment did not please Count Baldwin, who had one of his own relatives in mind. He appealed to Emperor Henry VI, who deposed Albert and appointed Lothair to the see. In turn, Albert appealed to Rome, and Pope Celestine III declared his appointment valid. While in Rome, Albert was recommended to Reims, where he was ordained and made a cardinal by archbishop William of Reims. The baffle for political control of Liege continued, and in time took a deadly toll. On November 21 or 24, a group of knights from Emperor Henry's court approached Albert, who greeted them with his customary gentleness. As he turned to ask them their purpose, he was stabbed to death. Lothair was excommunicated and exiled for his role in the denial of Albert as the true bishop of Liege. Emperor Henry VI was forced to make public penance for the actions of his knights. Albert's body was taken to the cathedral of Reims, where it reposed until 1612. Then Archduke Albert of Austria had the remains transferred to the chapel of the new Carmelite convent he had founded in Brussels. In 1822, part of Albert's remains were given to the cathedral of Liege.

Albert of Louvain BM (RM) (also known as Albert of Brabant) Born at Mont César, Louvain, in 1166; died November 24, 1192; cultus confirmed 1613. Albert, son of Duke Godfrey III of Brabant and his wife Margaret of Limburg, was raised for a life in the Church in a castle on what is now called Mont-César. At age 12 he was made a canon of Liège, but renounced his benefice when he came of age.

At age 21, Albert attached himself as a knight to the entourage of his enemy Count Baldwin V of Brabant. When the papal legate preached the crusade in Liège a few months later, Albert took up the cross, and at the same time took up his canonry again. He never participated in the crusade, instead the subdeacon was quickly promoted to archdeacon, then provost.

In 1191 (age 25), Albert was overwhelmingly chosen bishop of Liège by the chapter over another archdeacon, Albert of Rethel, who was cousin to Baldwin and the uncle of Empress Constance. His election was opposed by Emperor Henry VI who favored his wife's uncle. When the cause was heard at Worms, the emperor gave the see to Lothaire, provost of Bonn, whom he had just made imperial chancellor in return for 3,000 marks.

In order to appeal to Rome, Saint Albert had to travel circuitously and covertly under the guise of a servant so as to avoid interception by the emperor's men. Following Pope Celestine III's confirmation of the election, Albert returned to Liège, but found Lothaire already intruded in the see and that Archbishop Bruno of Cologne was unwilling to incur the wrath of the emperor by consecrating Albert. Meanwhile the pope had made arrangements for Archbishop William of Rheims to ordain and consecrate Albert. This was accomplished at Rheims on September 29, 1192.

When war appeared immanent between the emperor and Albert's uncle over his consecration, the saint opted to remain in exile rather than precipitate a war. Still the emperor was not satisfied. He forced the submission of Albert's clerical supporters before leaving Liège for Maestricht to hatch another plot against the lawful bishop. Just 10 weeks after his consecration, Saint Albert was murdered by three German knights as he was making a visit to the abbey of Saint-Remi outside the walls of Rheims. He was buried with honor in the cathedral (Benedictines, Walsh).

In art Saint Albert is depicted as a bishop with a knife in his head or with three swords on the ground before him. (He is easily confused with Thomas a Becket (of Canterbury), whose martyrdom was similar.) Sometimes he is shown as an enthroned cardinal holding a palm, three swords before him, or as a cardinal protecting the Archduke Albert (Roeder).
1541 Wolfgang Capito Evangelische Kirche:  
Evangelische Kirche: 21. November
Capito (Köpfel) wurde 1478 (oder 1472) im Elsaß geboren. Nachdem er zunächst Medizin und Jura studiert hatte, wurde er Pfarrer. Er wirkte in Basel und Bruchsal, wandte sich dann der Reformation zu und wurde 1519 zum Domprediger und Kanzler in Mainz berufen. 1523 wurde er Propst in Straßburg. Hier wirkte er neben Martin Bucer als Reformator, besonders als Leiter des Kirchen- und Schulwesens. Capito starb 1541. Im alten EKG fand sich noch sein Lied 'Gib Fried zu unsrer Zeit' (EKG 389).
1798 Our Lady of Lavang  
http://members.iglou.com/jvianney/ollavang.html

During much of the 18th century, the nation of Vietnam was embattled in various struggles for power and domination. The northern regions of the kingdom fell under the authority of the lords of the Trinh family, while in the southern realm the Nguyen lords took power. As the eighteenth century drew toward its close, both of their rules were shaken and threatened by peasant uprisings and emerging rebel forces.

The strongest among the many uprisings was led by the three brothers from Tay Son. In short order, they overthrew the Nguyen lords and defeated the Trinh lords to restore national unity for the first time since the decline of the Le dynasty. A Tay Son brother was enthroned to be King Quang Trung. In 1792 he passed away and left the throne to his son who became King Canh Thinh.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Anh continued his insurgency in trying to reclaim his throne. Earlier in his run from the Tay Son rebels in 1777, he found refuge on Phu Quoc Island, where Monsignor Pierre Pigneau de Behaine of the Society of Foreign Missions directed a seminary for youths from neighboring countries. The bishop persuaded him to seek help from King Louis XVI of France.

King Canh Thinh knew that Nguyen Anh received support from the French missionary and worried that the Vietnamese Catholics would also endorse his reign. He began to restrict the practice of Catholicism in the country. On August 17, 1798, King Canh Thinh issued an anti-Catholic edict and an order to destroy all Catholic churches and seminaries. A most grievous persecution of Vietnamese Catholics and missionaries began and lasted until 1886. Even after Nguyen Anh succeeded in reclaiming his throne as King Gia Long (1802-1820), his successors, King Minh Mang (1820-1840), King Thieu Tri (1841-1847) and King Tu Duc (1847-1884), the last Nguyen emperor, continued the vehement campaign against Catholics, ordering punishments that ranged from branding their faces to death by various cruel methods for Vietnamese Catholics and missionary priests.

It was amidst this great suffering that the Lady of Lavang came to the people of Vietnam. The name Lavang was believed to be originated in the name of the deep forest in the central region of Vietnam (now known as Quang Tri City) where there was an abundance of a kind of trees named La' Vang. It was also said that its name came from the Vietnamese meaning of the word "Crying Out" to denote the cries for help of people being persecuted.

The first apparition of the Lady of Lavang was noted in 1798, when the persecution of Vietnamese Catholics began. Many Catholics from the nearby town of Quang Tri sought refuge in the deep forest of Lavang. A great number of these people suffered from the bitter cold weather, lurking wild beasts, jungle sickness and starvation. At night, they often gathered in small groups to say the rosary and to pray. Unexpectedly, one night they were visited by an apparition of a beautiful Lady in a long cape, holding a child in her arms, with two angels at her sides. The people recognized the Lady as Our Blessed Mother.

Our Blessed Mother comforted them and told them to boil the leaves from the surrounding trees to use as medicine. She also told them that from that day on, all those who came to this place to pray, would get their prayers heard and answered. This took place on the grass area near the big ancient banyan tree where the refugees were praying. All those who were present witnessed this miracle. After this first apparition, the Blessed Mother continued to appear to the people in this same place many times throughout the period of nearly one hundred years of religious persecution. Among many groups of Vietnamese Catholics that were burnt alive because of their faith was a group of 30 people who were seized after they came out of their hiding place in the forest of Lavang. At their request, they were taken back to the little chapel of Lavang and were immolated there on its ground.

From the time the Lady of Lavang first appeared, the people who took refuge there erected a small and desolate chapel in her honor. During the following years, Her name was spread among the people in the region to other places. Despite its isolated location in the high mountains, groups of people continued to find ways to penetrate the deep and dangerous jungle to worship the Lady of Lavang. Gradually, the pilgrims that came with axes, spears, canes, and drums to scare away wild animals were replaced by those holding flying flags, flowers and rosaries. The pilgrimages went on every year despite the continuous persecution campaigns.

In 1886, after the persecution had officially ended, Bishop Gaspar ordered a church to be built in honor of the Lady of Lavang. Because of its precarious location and limited funding, it took 15 years for the completion of the church of Lavang. It was inaugurated by Bishop Gaspar in a solemn ceremony that participated by over 12,000 people and lasted from August 6th to 8th, 1901. The bishop proclaimed the Lady of Lavang as the Protectorate of the Catholics. In 1928, a larger church was built to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims. This church was destroyed in the summer of 1972 during the Vietnam war.

The history of the Lady of Lavang continues to gain greater significance as more claims from people whose prayers were answered were validated. In April of 1961, the Council of Vietnamese Bishops selected the holy church of Lavang as the National Sacred Marian Center . In August of 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the church of Lavang to The Basilica of Lavang. On June 19, 1988, Pope John Paul II in the canonizing ceremony of the 117 Vietnamese martyrs, publicly and repeatedly recognized the importance and significance of the Lady of Lavang and expressed a desire for the rebuilding of the Lavang Basilica to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first apparition of the Lady of Lavang in August of 1998.

On 11/27/2000 the shrine of Our Lady of La Vang, on the front lawn of St John Vianney Church, was blessed by Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly. The marble figures of Mary and the dragon were sculpted in Vietnam. The statue of Mary will be placed on top of the dragon figure and the shrine also will include walkways and benches.



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 213

The Lord rules me, O Virgin Mother of God: because thou hast turned on me thy gracious countenance.

Blessed are thy most resplendent eyes: which thou deignest to turn on sinners.

Blessed is the light and the splendor of thy countenance: blessed is the grace of thy face.

Blessed be the mercy of thy hands: blessed be the stream of thy virginal milk.

Let the prophets and apostles of God bless thee: let martyrs, confessors, and virgins sing praise to thee.

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]
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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).
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