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!)
RDeo grátias. R.  Thanks be to God.
November is the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory since 1888;
2023
23,658  Lives Saved Since 2007 

CAUSES OF SAINTS

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

Acts of the Apostles

Nine First Fridays Devotion to the Sacred Heart From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
How do I start the Five First Saturdays?
Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary

November 26
 399 St. Siricius, Pope 384 -399 known for his learning and piety, clerical celibacy and also the earliest papal decree survived in its entirety (RM)
1388 Saints Athanasius "the Iron Staff" St Sergius of Radonezh disciple; built church honoring Most Holy Trinity
1618 St. John Berchmans miracles were attributed to him after his death
1731 Saint Innocent, Bishop of Irkutsk, miracles occurred not only at Irkutsk, but also in remote places of Siberia, for those who flocked to the saint with prayer; incorrupt
1751 St. Leonard of Port Maurice Franciscan Sacrament proponent Stations of the Cross Immaculate Conception
1839 St. Dominic Doan Xuyen Martyr of Vietnam
   The Consecration of the Church of the Great Martyr George at Kiev:
   Saint_James_the_Hermit
   Cyrrhus in Syria gift of healing and even of raising the dead

If you have done nothing, or if what you have done has been fruitless because it was done for a human motive, begin immediately to do good works so that at death you will be able to offer something to Jesus Christ in order that He may give you eternal life. -- St John Vianney

The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.

November 26 – Our Lady of Los Remedios (Philippines)
  “It is painful for me to look upon thee…”
O, if we might only know the love of the most holy Mother of God for all who keep the commandments of Christ, and how she pities and sorrows over sinners who do not reform! I had experience of this myself.
Of a truth I say, speaking before God, Whom my soul knoweth: in spirit I know the Most Pure Virgin. I never beheld her but the Holy Spirit gave me to know her and her love for us. Were it not for her compassion I would have perished long ago but she was minded to come to me and enlighten me, so that I should not sin. This is what she said: 'It is painful for me to look upon thee, at what thou doest.' And her words, soft, quiet and gentle, wrought upon my soul.
Over forty years have gone by since then but my soul can never forget those sweet words, and I know not what return to make for such love towards my sinful self, nor how to give thanks to the good and forbearing Mother of God.


Saint Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938)
Excerpt from: Saint Silouan the Athonite, XI, On the Mother of God, by archimandrite sophrony (Sakharov),  translated from the Russian by Rosemary Edmonds, Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, Essex, 1991, p. 390-393
 

Mary's Humility at the Visitation (III) Nov. 26 - OUR LADY OF REMEDIES (Philippines, 1624)
Better men go to weaker men to give them some advantage by their visits. Thus the Savior came to John to sanctify John's baptism. And as soon as Mary heard the angel announce that she would conceive the Savior and that her relative Elizabeth was with child, "she rose up in haste and went into the mountain country, and entered Elizabeth's house." Jesus was in her womb, and He hastened to sanctify John, who was still in his own mother's womb.
Origen, Homily on the Gospel of Luke VII, 1. Taken from Origen,
by Joseph T. Lienhard; Catholic University of America Press, 1996.
http://www.mariedenazareth.com/13297.0.html?&L=0

An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth   November 26 – Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Philippines)

Victory through the Rosary 
The Philippines welcomed its first missionaries in 1565. Catholics now account for 83% of the population.
Why is the Rosary so important in that country? First of all, because it was the link that preserved the unity and faith of Christians in these islands that went for years without seeing any missionaries.


There is also a historical reason: in 1646, two small galleons engaged in battle near Manila against Dutch Calvinist forces, fifteen battalions strong. Before the battle, the Catholic sailors (Spanish and Filipino) recited the Rosary, and continued to pray silently in combat.
At the most critical hour of the battle, they made a solemn vow to hold a feast in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary if they were victorious. And they did win. Their vow was for one particular time only, but the country has continued to celebrate that feast of victory the second Sunday of October.
Since 1974, "Rosary Blocks" have formed. These are groups of families who pray the Rosary together in individual homes all over the Philippines.  The Mary of Nazareth Team


November 26 - Our Lady of Los Remedios (Philippines)   Mary in the Temple (VI)
She spent her time praying and meditating on the Law
At only three years of age, her demeanor was so assured, her speech so perfect, and she applied herself so ardently to praising God, that one would have taken her for a grown-up person and not a little girl. She prolonged her prayers and her face shone like snow so much so that one could hardly look at her. No one ever saw her angry, no one ever heard her speak ill of someone. All her words were so full of grace that one recognized God on her lips. She spent her time praying and meditating on the Law. She was all-attentive towards her companions, so that none might fall into sin.
Apocryphal Book of Pseudo-Matthew
 
The Alexandrian priest, Faustus, and bishops Didius, Ammonius, Phileas, Hesychius, Pachomius, and Theodore
were among the 660 Egyptians martyred under Maximian Galerius (Benedictines).
             St. Amator Bishop of Autun France
    307 St. Phileas Martyr Egyptian bishop Thymus
    310 St. Catherine of Alexandria Amazing wisdom debating skills many became Christians about 200 soldiers members of the emperor’s family All of them were martyred
    311 St. Faustus priest Egyptian martyr + 650 other
    311 St. Peter of Alexandria martyred Bishop of Alexandria from 300 natives
    349 St. Marcellus of Nicomedia M (RM)
    399 St. Siricius, Pope
384 -399 known for his learning and piety, clerical celibacy and also the earliest papal decree survived in its entirety (RM)
6th v. Saint Stylianus love of children, and he would heal them of their infirmities, Even after death
7th v. Egelwine of Athelney a prince of the house of Wessex, lived at Athelney in Somersetshire
   620 St. Basolus hermit miracles worker
    640 Saint Alypius the Stylite born Adrianopolis Paphlagonia relics healed many his church honors Martyr Euphemia
         St. Martin of Arades Confessor to Charles Martel
   975 St. Conrad  gave inheritance to poor renovated churches avoided secular affairs
   998
St. Nicon Missionary called Metanoeite because of his common use of penance as a theme for his sermons noted for his miracles Armenian preacher to Crete, 
1151 St. Bellinus  Devoted bishop of Padua who was murdered while performing his duties
1178 BD PONTIUS OF FAUCIGNY, ABBOT small pieces of bone, said to have been the occasion of miracles
1180 Blessed Walter of Aulne followed Saint Bernard to Clairvaux OSB Cist. (AC)
1267 St. Silvester Gozzolini vision of Saint Benedict, he organized the disciples Blue Benedictines he had attracted;  His tomb was the scene of many miracles, and in 1275 his relics were enshrined in the abbey church at Monte Fano (where they still are). Clement VIII in 1598 ordered the name of Silvester Gozzolini to be added to the Roman Martyrology and Leo XIII gave his feast to the whole Western church. The Silvestrines are now a very small order, whose monks are distinguished by a dark blue habit.  OSB Abbot (RM)
1311 Blessed Albert of Haigerlochf prior and parish priest  OSB Monk (AC)
1338 Blessed James Benfatti a master in theology and a holy priest; Nearly 150 years after his death, when repairs were being made in the church where he was buried, an accident opened his tomb, and people were startled to find his body completely incorrupt. Again in 1604, the same phenomenon was noted. worked many miracles among his flock. At his death in 1338, many remarkable miracles occurred OP B (AC)
1388 Saints Athanasius ("the Iron Staff") disciple of St Sergius of Radonezh built church honoring Most Holy Trinity
1618 St. John Berchmans miracles were attributed to him after his death
1731 Saint Innocent, Bishop of Irkutsk, miracles occurred not only at Irkutsk, but also in remote places of Siberia, for those who flocked to the saint with prayer; incorrupt
1751 St. Leonard of Port Maurice Franciscan Blessed Sacrament proponent Stations of the Cross as well as the Immaculate Conception
1839 St. Dominic Doan Xuyen Martyr of Vietnam
   The Consecration of the Church of the Great Martyr George at Kiev:
   Saint_James_the_Hermit
   Cyrrhus in Syria gift of healing and even of raising the dead

November 26 - Our Lady of Los Remedios (Philippines) The Apparitions at Rue du Bac in Paris (I)
It would be impossible for me to describe what I experienced. I felt the sweetest emotion in my life.
    The Blessed Virgin told me how I should behave at difficult times. She pointed to the foot of the altar with her left hand, and said that I should prostrate myself there and give my heart to God, adding that I would receive all the consolations I would need right there.
    Then she said, “My child, I want to charge you with a mission; you will have crosses to bear and many difficulties to overcome, but you will surmount them because of your the inner certainty that it is for the glory of God.
      You will be faced with contradictions, but great graces will come your way. Do not fear; tell everything that occurs within you to your confessor, with simplicity and confidence.

     You will see amazing things; you will be inspired in your prayers, tell everything to your confessor.”
I then asked the Blessed Virgin for more explanations.
   She replied, “My child, there will be bad times to come. Misfortunes will come crashing down on France. The throne will be toppled. The whole world will be turned upside-down by misfortunes of all kinds. (The Blessed Virgin seemed very sad when she said this.)
    But come to the foot of this altar. There, graces will be poured out on all those, great or small, who ask for them, with confidence and fervor.”

“A time will come when everything will seem lost. I will be with you, have confidence; you will recognize my visit, (...) Have confidence; do not be discouraged, I will be with you! There will be victims in other communities.
(The Blessed Virgin had tears in her eyes when she said these words.)
    There will be victims in the clergy of Paris, Monsignor the Archbishop will die (with these words, her tears flowed again). My child, the cross will be scorned. It will be thrown on the ground. Blood will flow. Our Savior’s side will be opened anew. The streets will run with blood. The whole world will be plunged into gloom.” (...) I cannot say how long I remained with the Blessed Virgin.
All I know is that after she had spoken to me for a long time, she left the chapel, disappearing like a shadow. 
Told by Saint Catherine Labouré, About the Apparitions at Rue du Bac in Paris in 1830

The Church Comes from Mary November 26 - Our Lady of the Remedies (Philippines)
The mystery of the Virgin is the first after-effect of the Incarnation. The mystery of the Virgin is like the ripple effect of a stone thrown in the water: the first wave causes all the others. This first concentric circle is the Virgin Mary in relation to the Incarnation. The waves will continue until the end of times, and they are the Church.
Charles Cardinal Journet
  Conversations about Mary - Parole et Silence 2001 
399 St. Siricius, Pope 384 -399 known for his learning and piety, clerical celibacy and also the earliest papal decree
          survived in its entirety (RM)
384-399 Pope St. Siricius; lector then Roman Church deacon during Liberius (352-66) pontificate; After death of Damasus, Siricius unanimously elected successor.
  Pope Benedict XIV  1740-1758 added the name of St Siricius to the Roman Martyrology, with the statement that he was “distinguished for his learning, piety and zeal for religion, condemning various heretics and strengthening ecclesiastical discipline by very salutary decrees”.
 A letter, questions asked on 15 different points concerning baptism, penance, church discipline, and the celibacy of the clergy, came to Rome addressed to Pope Damasus by Bishop Himerius of Tarragona, Spain. Siricius answered this letter on 10 February, 385, and gave decisions, exercising full consciousness his supreme power of authority in the Church (Coustant, "Epist. Rom. Pont.", 625 sq.). This letter of Siricius is of special importance because it is the oldest completely preserved papal decretal (edict for the authoritative decision of questions of discipline and canon law).   In all his decrees the pope speaks with the consciousness of his supreme ecclesiastical authority and of his pastoral care over all the churches.  Siricius was also obliged to take a stand against heretical movements; Jovinian & 8 followers condemned /excluded from communion with the Church; Bishop Bonosus of Sardica (390), accused of errors in the Trinity dogma & false doctrine that Mary was not always a virgin; He sharply condemned episcopal accusers of Priscillian because of that execution; took severe measures against Manichæans at Rome; In the East Siricius interposed to settle the Meletian schism at Antioch; At Rome Siricius with basilica over the grave of St. Paul on Via Ostiensis rebuilt by the emperor as a basilica of five aisles during pontificate of Siricius dedicated by in him 390; Siricius's name is still to be found on a pillar not destroyed in the fire of 1823, and now stands in the vestibule of the side entrance to the transept.

3rd v. St. Amator Bishop of Autun France.
Augustodúni sancti Amatóris Epíscopi.    At Autun, St. Amator, bishop.
 Amator of Autun B (RM). Bishop Amator of Autun (Benedictines).
310  St. Catherine of Alexandria  Amazing wisdom debating skills many became Christians about 200 soldiers members of the emperor’s family All of them were martyred
According to the Legend of St. Catherine, this young woman converted to Christianity after receiving a vision. At the age of 18, she debated 50 pagan philosophers. Amazed at her wisdom and debating skills, they became Christians—as did about 200 soldiers and members of the emperor’s family. All of them were martyred.

Sentenced to be executed on a spiked wheel, Catherine touched the wheel and it shattered. She was beheaded. Centuries later, angels are said to have carried the body of St. Catherine to a monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

Devotion to her spread as a result of the Crusades. She was invoked as the patroness of students, teachers, librarians and lawyers. Catherine is one of the 14 Holy Helpers, venerated especially in Germany and Hungary.

Comment:    The pursuit of God's wisdom may not lead to riches or earthly honors. In Catherine's case, this pursuit contributed to her martyrdom. She was not, however, foolish in preferring to die for Jesus rather than live only by denying him. All the rewards that her tormenters offered her would rust, lose their beauty or in some other way become a poor exchange for Catherine's honesty and integrity in following Jesus Christ.

Quote:    “Therefore I [King Solomon] prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;/ Because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire. Beyond health and comeliness I loved her, and I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep. Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands; and I rejoiced in them all, because Wisdom is their leader, though I had not known that she is the mother of these” (Wisdom 7:7-12).
307 St. Phileas Martyr Egyptian bishop Thymus.
he became bishop of his native city in the Nile Delta and was renowned for his learning and wisdom. Arrested during the persecution of Emperor Maximinus, he refused to offer sacrifices to the gods and was beheaded by the local governor. With him died Philoromus, a tribune and treasurer at Alexandria, who objected to the cruelties inflicted upon Phileas and a group of Christians.
A reliable contemporary account is extant, and Phileas was mentioned by the historian Eusebius of Caesarea.
311 St. Faustus priest Egyptian martyr + 650 others.
Passi sunt étiam Alexandríæ, in eádem persecutióne, sancti Mártyres Faustus Présbyter, Dídius et Ammónius, itémque Epíscopi quátuor Ægyptii, idest Philéas, Hesychius, Pachómius et Theodórus, cum áliis sexcéntis sexagínta, quos persecutiónis gládius evéxit ad cælos.
    There suffered also at Alexandria in the same persecution the holy martyrs Faustus, a priest, Didius, and Ammonius; likewise four bishops of Egypt, Phileas, Hesychius, Pachomius, and Theodore, with others numbering six hundred and sixty, whom the sword of persecution sent to heaven.
with Ammonius, Didius, Hesychius, Pachomius, Phileas, Theodore, and more than six hundred fifty others. Faustus was a priest of Alexandria, Egypt. Phileas, Pachomius, Hesychius, and Theodore were bishops.
Faustus, Didius, Ammonius, Phileas, Hesychius, Pachomius, Theodore & Comp. MM (RM)
The Alexandrian priest, Faustus, and bishops Didius, Ammonius, Phileas, Hesychius, Pachomius, and Theodore were among the 660 Egyptians martyred under Maximian Galerius (Benedictines).

311 St. Peter of Alexandria martyred Bishop of Alexandria from 300 native of Alexandria, Egypt.
Alexandríæ natális sancti Petri, ejúsdem urbis Epíscopi et Mártyris; qui, cum esset ómnibus virtútibus exornátus, ibídem, Galérii Maximiáni præcépto, cápite obtruncátus est.
    At Alexandria, the birthday of St. Peter, bishop of that city, graced with every virtue, who was beheaded by command of Galerius Maximian.
Peter survived the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian and served as a confessor for the suffering Christians. Made head of the famed Catechetical School of Alexandria, he was a vigorous opponent of Origenism before receiving appointment as bishop. He composed a set of rules by which those who had lapsed might be readmitted to the faith after appropriate penance, a settlement which was not to the liking of extremists of the community. Thus, in 306 when the persecutions began again, Peter was forced to flee the city. The partisans of Melitius, Peter’s chief critic, installed their favorite as bishop of Alexandria, thereby starting the Melitian Schism which troubled the see for many years. Peter returned to Alexandria in 311 after a lull in the persecutions, but was soon arrested and beheaded by Roman officials acting on the decree of Emperor Maximian.
He is called the “seal and complement of martyrs” as he was the last Christian slain by Roman authorities.
Eusebius of Caesarea described him as “a model bishop, remarkable for his virtuous life and his ardent study of the Scriptures.”
He is much revered by the Coptic Christians, although since 1969, his cult has been confined to local calendars in the Catholic Church.

ST. PETER, MARTYR, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA (A.D. 311) 
From Eusebius, Theodoret, &c. See Tillemont, t.v.; Ceillier, t. iv. p. 17; Orsi, t. iv. lib. x.) 

Eusebius calls this great prelate the excellent doctor of the Christian religion, and the chief and divine ornament of bishops; and tells us that he was admirable both for his extraordinary virtue and for his skill in the sciences and profound knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.


In the year 300 he succeeded Theonas in the see of Alexandria, being the sixteenth Archbishop from St. Mark; he governed that church with the highest commendation, says the same historian, during the space of twelve years, for the nine last of which he sustained the fury of the most violent persecutions carried on by Diocletian and his successors. Virtue is tried and made perfect by sufferings; and Eusebius observes that the fervour of our saint's piety and the rigour of his penance increased with the calamities of the church. That violent storm, which affrighted and disheartened several bishops and inferior ministers of the church, did but awake his attention, inflame his charity, and inspire him with fresh vigour. He never ceased begging of God for himself and his flock necessary grace and courage, and exhorting them to die daily to their passions, that they might be prepared to die for Christ. The confessors he comforted and encouraged by word and example, and was the father of many martyrs who sealed their faith with their blood. His watchfulness and care were extended to all the churches of Egypt, Thebais, or Upper Egypt and Lybia, which were under his immediate inspection. Notwithstanding the activity of St. Peter's charity and zeal, several in whom the love of this world prevailed basely betrayed their faith to escape torments and death.

Among those who fell during this storm, none was more considerable than Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, in Thebais. That bishop was charged with several crimes; but apostasy was the main article alleged against him. St. Peter called a council, in which Meletius was convicted of having sacrificed to idols and of other crimes, and sentence of deposition was passed against him. The apostate had not humility enough to submit, or to seek the remedy of his deep wounds by condign repentance, but put himself at the head of a discontented party which appeared ready to follow him to any lengths. To justify his disobedience, and to impose upon men by pretending a holy zeal for discipline, he published many calumnies against St. Peter and his council; and had the assurance to tell the world that he had left the archbishop's communion, because he was too indulgent to the lapsed in receiving them too soon and too easily to communion. Thus he formed a pernicious schism, which took its name from him, and subsisted a hundred and fifty years. The author laid several snares for St. Peter's life, and though by an overruling providence these were rendered ineffectual, he succeeded in disturbing the whole church of Egypt with his factions and violent proceedings; for he infringed the saint's patriarchal authority, ordained bishops within his jurisdiction, and even placed one in his metropolitical see. Sozomen tells us these usurpations were carried on with less opposition during a certain time when St. Peter was obliged to retire to avoid the fury of the persecution. Arius, who was then among the clergy of Alexandria, gave signs of his pride and turbulent spirit by espousing Meletius's cause as soon as the breach was open, but soon after quitted that party, and was ordained deacon by St. Peter. It was not long before he relapsed again to the Meletians, and blamed St. Peter for excommunicating the schismatics and forbidding them to baptize. The holy bishop, by his knowledge of mankind, was by this time convinced that pride, the source of uneasiness and inconstancy, had taken deep root in the heart of this unhappy man; and that so long as this evil was not radically cured the wound of his soul was only skinned over by a pretended conversion, and would break out again with greater violence than ever. He therefore excommunicated him, and could never be prevailed with to revoke that sentence. St. Peter wrote a book on the Divinity, out of which some quotations are preserved in the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon.[1] Also a paschal treatise, of which some fragments are extant.[2] From St. Epiphanius[3] it appears that St. Peter was in prison for the faith in the reign of Diocletian, or rather of Galerius Maximian; but after some time recovered his liberty. Maximin Daia, Casar in the East, renewed the persecution in 311, which had been considerably abated by a letter written the same year by the Emperor Galerius in favour of the Christians. Eusebius informs us that Maximin coming himself to Alexandria, St. Peter was immediately seized, when no one expected such a storm and, without any form of trial, by the sole order of the tyrant, hurried to execution. With him were beheaded three of his priests, Faustus, Dio, and Ammonius. This Faustus seems, by what Eusebius writes, to be the same person of that name who, sixty years before, was deacon to St. Dionysius and companion of his exile.

The canons of the church are holy laws, framed by the wisest and most experienced pastors and saints for the regulation of the manners of the faithful, according to the most pure maxims of our divine religion and the law of nature, many intricate rules of which are frequently explained, and many articles of faith expounded in them. Every clergyman is bound to be thoroughly acquainted with the great obligations of his state and profession; for it is one of the general and most just rules of the canon law, and even of the law of nature, that " No man is excused from a fault by his ignorance in things which, by his office, he is bound to know." That anyone amongst the clergy should be a stranger to those decrees of the Universal Church and statutes of his own diocese, which regard the conduct and. reformation of the clergy, is a neglect and an affected ignorance which aggravates the guilt of every transgression of which it is the cause, according to a well-known maxim of morality. After the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, of the articles of faith, and the rules of a sound Christian morality, everyone who is charged with the direction of others, is obliged to have a competent tincture of those parts of the canon law which may fall in the way of his practice; bishops and their assistants stand in need of a more profound and universal skill, both in what regards their own office (in which Barbosa[4] may be a manuduction), and others.

Endnotes
1 Conc. Ephes. Act. I, p. 508, Act. 7, p. 836 (Conc. t. iii.); Conc. Chalced. Act. I, p. 286.
2 Ap. Du Fresne, Lord Du Cange Pref. in Chran. Pasch. n. 7, pp. 4, 5.
3 St. Epiph. haer. 68.
4 Barbosa, De Officio Episcopi. Item De Officio Barochi.
(Taken from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler.)

Peter Martyr of Alexandria BM (RM) Born at Alexandria, Egypt; died 311. Peter was a young 'confessor' during the Decian persecution. Later he became known for his extraordinary virtue, skill in the sciences, and learning and knowledge of Scripture. Peter was named head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, and in 300 was elected patriarch of the city to succeed Saint Theonas.

As bishop Saint Peter fought Arianism and extreme Origenism and spent the last nine years of his episcopate encouraging his flock to stand fast against the persecution of Christians launched by Emperor Diocletian. As the fury of the persecutions increased, Peter, according to Eusebius, heightened the rigor of his penances. He perceived the need for some rules that would lovingly, but sternly, welcome back into the Christian fold those who--under persecution and even torture--had lapsed from the faith and then wanted to return. These rules were eventually accepted throughout the Eastern Church; but others criticized Peter of Alexandria for being far too lenient.

One of those who apostatized was Bishop Meletius of Lycopolis in the Thebaid. Meletius was convicted by a council of having sacrificed to idols and other crimes. The sentence was deposition.

About that time Peter was forced into hiding; whereupon Meletius installed himself at the head of a discontent party. He began to usurp Peter's authority as metropolitan and, in order to justify his disobedience, he accused Peter in writing of treating the lapsi too leniently. Peter excommunicated Meletius, but still hoped to reconcile him. His letter of excommunication reads: "Now take heed to this and hold no communion with Meletius until I meet him, in company with some wise and discreet men, to find out what he has been plotting." Nevertheless, this led to a schism in the Egyptian church that lasted for several generations.

Peter continued administering his see from hiding and returned to Alexandria when the persecutions were temporarily suspended. In 311, Emperor Maximinus Daia unexpectedly renewed the persecution. Peter was arrested and then executed--the last Christian martyr put to death in Alexandria by the authorities. Martyred with him were three of his priests: Dio, Ammonius, and Faustus, who appears to have been the companion of Saint Dionysius during his exile 60 years earlier. The Coptic Church calls him 'the seal and complement of the martyrs,' because he was the last Christian to die for the faith before Constantine granted religious toleration throughout the empire.

Eusebius calls him 'an inspired Christian teacher...a worthy example of a bishop, both for the goodness of his life and his knowledge of the Scriptures.' Among Peter's fragmentary writings are some regulations of great interest, drawn up in 306; they deal with the treatment of those Christians who in varying degrees had failed under persecution. Portions of a book he wrote on the Divinity are preserved in the councils of Ephesus (Act. 1 and 7) and Chalcedon (Act. 1). Several related items of interest are available on the Internet: The Genuine Acts of Peter, The Canonical Epistle, and a document entitled Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Coulson, Delaney, Husenbeth).

Saint Peter is depicted as a bishop enthroned between angels in Sienese paintings. Sometimes he is shown (1) holding the city of Siena while wearing a tiara rather than a mitre; (2) with Christ appearing to him as a child in rags; or (3) embracing his executioner. He is the patron of Siena, Italy (Roeder).

311 St Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, Martyr
Eusebius calls this prelate an excellent teacher of the Christian religion and a great bishop, being admirable for his virtue and for his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. In the year 300 he succeeded St Theonas in the see of Alexandria and he governed that church for twelve years, for the nine last of which he sustained the persecution carried on by Diocletian and his successors. He never ceased begging of God for himself and his flock necessary grace and courage, exhorting them to die daily to their own wills that they might be prepared to die for Christ. The confessors he comforted and encouraged by word and example, and was the father of many martyrs who sealed their faith with their blood. His watchfulness and care were extended to all the churches of Egypt, the Thebaid and Libya, and in this large district there were numbers of Christians who apostatized in one way or another. St Peter published fourteen canons of instruction as to how such lapsi who wished to be reconciled were to be treated, and the whole Eastern Church later adopted these canons.
   Eventually St Peter himself had to seek concealment away from Alexandria, and during his absence the Meletian Schism was formed (not to be confused with the more important Meletian Schism at Antioch, fifty years later). The exact circumstances are uncertain, but it would appear that Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, began uncanonically to exercise St Peter’s metropolitan functions, and held ordinations in sees whose occupants were living but in hiding. To justify his actions and to impose upon men by a zeal for discipline he published calumnies against St Peter and had the assurance to say that Peter was indulgent to the lapsed in receiving them too easily to communion.
Thus he formed a schism and succeeded in disturbing the whole church of Egypt when all the energy and strength of Christians was required to stand up against the persecution. Meletius being contumacious, there was nothing for St Peter to do but to excommunicate him.
From his place of hiding St Peter was able to continue to administer his church and care for the suffering faithful, and eventually he could return to his see; but almost at once Maximinus Daia, caesar in the East, renewed persecution, and Peter was seized, when no one expected it, and hurried to execution without charge or trial. The Roman Martyrology also names the four other bishops who with over 600 others “were raised to Heaven by the sword of persecution” in Egypt at this time.

In Egypt St Peter is called “the Seal and Complement of the Persecution”, because he was the last martyr put to death by public authority at Alexandria, and also sometimes, “He who passed out through the wall”. The reason for this curious designation is explained in his Greek passio, which, however, lacks all authority. It is said therein that when St Peter was arrested his prison was com­pletely surrounded by Christians who interceded for him with Heaven and would not go away, and when the order came for his execution the crowd was so great that the officers could not approach the building. It was therefore decided to massacre them all. St Peter foresaw this and, not wishing to be the occasion of such slaughter, secretly sent a message to the commandant that if a breach was made in the wall of the prison at night, he could be taken without anybody knowing. This was accordingly done, and there was such heavy rain and wind that nobody heard the noise made by the masons. St Peter urged the guards to make haste lest someone should awake, and he was executed before any of his faithful friends knew what had happened.

Various texts exist both in Greek and Latin of a supposed passio of St Peter, but they contain nothing which deserves credit; see CMH., pp. 620-621. On the other hand Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History (bks vii, viii and ix) several times makes mention of this martyr, and in the early Syriac breviarium we have an entry under November 24: “At Alexandria the Great, the bishop Peter, an ancient confessor.” Although the saint displayed great literary activity, only fragments of his works remain. There is evidence of a wide­spread cult of St Peter for example; he early found a place in the Typikon of Jerusalem. Consult also Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. v, pp. 755—757; Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchilchen Literatur, vol. ii, pp. 203—211; DTC., vol. xii, cc. 1802—1804; Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxvii (1949), pp. 117—130; and for a summary of the canons for the lapsi, DCB., vol. iv, pp. 331-332. 

349 Marcellus of Nicomedia M (RM)
Nicomedíæ sancti Marcélli Presbyteri, qui, Constántii témpore, ab Ariánis e rupe præcipitátus, Martyr occúbuit.
    At Nicomedia, in the time of Constantius, St. Marcellus, a priest, who died a martyr by being hurled from a rock by the Arians.
Marcellus, a priest of Nicomedia in Asia Minor, was seized by Arians during the reign of Emperor Constantius and killed by being hurled from a high rock (Benedictines).
399 Siricius, Pope known for his learning and piety and clerical celibacy and also the earliest papal decree that has survived in its entirety (RM)
Romæ sancti Sirícii, Papæ et Confessóris, doctrína, pietáte et religiónis zelo præclári, qui vários damnávit hæréticos, et disciplínam ecclesiásticam salubérrimis decrétis instaurávit.
    At Rome, St. Siricius, pope and confessor, celebrated for his learning, piety, and zeal for religion, who condemned various heretics and published salutary laws concerning ecclesiastical discipline.
Born in Rome, Italy; died there, November 26, 399; added to the Roman Martyrology by Pope Benedict XIV. Son of Tiburtius, Siricius became a deacon, known for his learning and piety. He was elected pope in December 384, succeeding Pope Saint Damasus. Siricius's pontificate was marked by his denunciation of the monk Jovinian who denied the perpetual virginity of Mary and for a decretal Siricius sent to Bishop Himerius of Tarragona (Spain) requiring married priests to desist from cohabitation with their wives; this is the earliest insistence on clerical celibacy and also the earliest papal decree that has survived in its entirety. He supported Saint Martin of Tours by excommunicating Felix of Trier for his role in bringing about the execution of Priscillian by the emperor (Attwater, Benedictines, Coulson, Delaney, Encyclopedia)

399 ST SIRICIUS, POPE
Pope Benedict XIV added the name of St Siricius to the Roman Martyrology, with the statement that he was “distinguished for his learning, piety and zeal for religion, condemning various heretics and strengthening ecclesiastical discipline by very salutary decrees”. The heretics referred to were principally the monk Jovinian, who denied the perpetual virginity of our Lady and the merit of virginity, and Bonosus, Bishop of Sardica, who shared these errors. A letter in which he replies to certain questions asked by Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona, strengthened discipline. This general instruction, which he ordered Himerius to publish to other bishops, is the earliest papal decretal extant in its entirety. Among its provisions it required that priests and deacons who were married should cease to cohabit with their wives, and this is the earliest known enforcement of clerical celibacy by the Roman see. Siricius sent this letter also to the church of Africa. It was this pope who supported St Martin of Tours, and excommunicated Felix of Trier for taking part with Ithacius to bring about the execution by the emperor’s order of the heretic Priscillian.

In 390 Pope Siricius consecrated the basilica of St Paul (“outside the walls”), which had been enlarged by the Emperor Theodosius I, and his name is still to be seen on a pillar salvaged from the fire of 1823. St Siricius governed for fifteen years and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla.

We know very little of St Siricius as an individual, though the Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne), vol. i, pp. 217-218, tells us something of his action as a pontiff and administrator. See also Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire des Conciles, vol. ii, pp. 68—80; Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. x; and E. Caspar, Geschicte des Papsttums, vol. i (1930), pp. 257 Seq. There is also a long notice in DCB., vol. iv, pp. 696—702.
6th v. Saint Stylianus love of children, and he would heal them of their infirmities. Even after his death
Hadrianópoli, in Paphlagónia, sancti Styliáni Anachorétæ, miráculis clari.
    At Adrianople in Paphlagonia, St. Stylian, anchoret, renowned for miracles.
Born in Paphlagonia of Asia Minor sometime between the fourth and sixth centuries. He inherited a great fortune from his parents when they died, but he did not keep it. He gave it away to the poor according to their need, desiring to help those who were less fortunate.

Stylianus left the city and went to a monastery, where he devoted his life to God. Since he was more zealous and devout than the other monks, he provoked their jealousy and had to leave.

He left the monastery to live alone in a cave in the wilderness, where he spent his time in prayer and fasting. The goodness and piety of the saint soon became evident to the inhabitants of Paphlagonia, and they sought him out to hear his teaching, or to be cured by him. Many were healed of physical and mental illnesses by his prayers.

St Stylianus was known for his love of children, and he would heal them of their infirmities. Even after his death, the citizens of Paphlagonia believed that he could cure their children. Whenever a child became sick, an icon of St Stylianus was painted and was hung over the child's bed. 

At the hour of his death, the face of St Stylianus suddenly became radiant, and an angel appeared to receive his soul.

Known as a protector of children, St Stylianus is depicted in iconography holding an infant in his arms. Pious Christians ask him to help and protect their children, and childless women entreat his intercession so that they might have children.
Patron Saint for Au Pair, or, to be more general, for child care
St. Stylianus was born in Adrianopolis, in today's northern Turkey in the 7th century. In the orthodox Christian icons he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man holding a swaddled infant. During a lengthy period of meditation in a cave (hence "the Hermit"), Stylianus, than a young priest, found his ministry. He became well-known for healing, teaching and taking care of children. In his book on Orthodox Saints, Fr. George Paulos makes the claim that "His (Stylianus') was probably the first day-care center of the world, where mothers could safely leave their children while tending to other matters of the home".
The Consecration of the Church of the Great Martyr George at Kiev: Beginning with the holy Prince Vladimir (July 15), it was the pious custom of Russian princes to build a church in honor of their patron saint. Thus, St Vladimir (in Baptism Basil) built at Kiev and Vyshgorod temples dedicated to St Basil the Great (January 1).

Prince Izyaslav I (1054-1068) (in Baptism Demetrius) built a church and monastery at Kiev in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius (October 26). Prince Yaroslav the Wise (in Baptism George) started to build a church and men's monastery in honor of his patron saint, the Holy Great Martyr George (April 23). He also built a church named for his wife's patron saint, the Holy Great Martyr Irene (May 5). The temple in honor of the Great Martyr George was consecrated by St Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kiev (October 21), and a yearly commemoration was established in honor of this event.

7th v. Egelwine of Athelney a prince of the house of Wessex, lived at Athelney in Somersetshire (AC)
Egelwine, a prince of the house of Wessex, lived at Athelney in Somersetshire (Benedictines).

620 St. Basolus hermit miracles worker born in Limoges, France, around 555.
In território Rheménsi natális sancti Básoli Confessóris.
In the district of Rheims, the birthday of St. Basolus, confessor.

   ST BASOLUS, OR BASLE (c. A.D. 620)
   BASOLUS was born at Limoges in the middle of the sixth century, and after living some time as a soldier, heard the call of God to become a monk. He went on pilgrimage to the shrine of St Remigius at Rheims, and was sent by the archbishop to the monastery of Verzy. He was an exemplary monk, but he needed a life of more solitude, so his abbot allowed him to inhabit a cell alone, near the top of a neighbouring hill. He remained there for the rest of his life. Numerous miracles were attributed to St Basolus. Among them, it is said that the count of Champagne, hunting nearby, ran a boar in the direction of the saint’s cell. The animal took refuge under the skirt of his habit, and the hounds stopped dead some yards away, refusing to come any nearer.*  {* This story with variations is, of course, a commonplace of hagiology. It is told in Wales of St Melangell, the animal in her case being a hare. She, like Basolus, received a  grant of land from the astonished hunter (May 27).}
The count was so impressed by this manifestation of the sacredness of the hermit’s home that he made him a present of a large tract of land. St Basolus had several disciples in the solitary life, one of them being St Sindulf. Both these holy hermits are named in the Roman Martyrology.
    Three short Latin lives of this religious have been printed ; the first was edited by Mabillon, vol. ii, pp. 6o—62 the second
     may most conveniently be found in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xiii, pp. 449—45 i ; the third is in Migne, PL., vol. cxxxvii, cc.
     643—658. See also E. Quentelot, St Basle et le monastère de Verzy (1892).
He became a monk in Reims, and then entered a hermitage. Basolus spent forty years on a hill overlooking Reims. Also called BasIe, the saintly hermit was known for miracles.
Basolus of Verzy, Hermit (RM) (also known as Basle) Born in Limoges, c. 555; died c. 620. Basle was a soldier before becoming a monk at Verzy, near Rheims. Then for forty years he lived as a hermit near the tomb of Saint Remy on top of a hill overlooking the city, where Saint Sindulf became one of his disciples. He was celebrated as a miracle worker (Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Encyclopedia).
640 Saint Alypius the Stylite was born in the city of Adrianopolis in Paphlagonia relics of the saint of God healed many of those who came in faith church he founded in honor of the holy Martyr Euphemia
His mother, a Christian, was widowed early, and she sent her son to be educated by Bishop Theodore. She distributed her substance to the poor, then began to live an ascetic life near the church as a deaconess.

St Alypius, from his early years, wanted to devote his life to God and yearned for the solitary life, although Bishop Theodore would not give him permission to do so. Once, when St Alypius was accompanying his bishop to Constantinople, the holy Martyr Euphemia (September 16) appeared to him in a vision, summoning St Alypius to return to Adrianopolis and found a church in her name.

With contributions offered by believers in Adrianopolis, St Alypius did build a church in the name of the holy Martyr Euphemia, on the site of a dilapidated pagan temple infested by legions of devils. Beside the church, under the open sky, the saint erected a pillar over a pagan tomb. For fifty-three years St Alypius struggled upon the pillar, praying to God and teaching those who came to him.

The demons which infested the pagan cemetery fell upon the ascetic by night and pelted him with stones. St Alypius, wanted nothing to stand in the way of the attacks of the spirits of darkness, then even took down the boards that served him as a roof, protecting him from the rain and wind. In the face of the saint's conquering steadfastness, the demons fled the place forever, which had been sanctified by his deed of voluntary martyrdom.

Fourteen years before his death, St Alypius was no longer able to stand. He was compelled to lie on his side because of the weakness of his legs, and endured grievous sufferings with humble gratitude. Around the saint's pillar two monasteries sprang up: a men's monastery on the one side, and a women's monastery on the other. St Alypius introduced strict monastic rules for both monasteries and he directed both monasteries until his death. St Alypius reposed in the year 640, at age 118. The body of the venerable stylite was buried in the church he founded in honor of the holy Martyr Euphemia. The relics of the saint of God healed many of those who came in faith.

Stylianus of Adrianopolis, Hermit (RM) (also known as Alypius)
Born in Adrianopolis, Paphlagonia, Asia Minor; died 390 (?). This date is given by the Benedictines but may or may not be wrong. The first stylite was in the 5th century; however, the record of Stylianus's life has come to us in a highly legendary form. There are some indications that he was born in the 7th century, yet this could be simply due to the accretions of the story. He was a hermit, possibly in the 4th century.

We know very little of Saint Stylianus, so called because he was a stylite, or pillar saint, which was not an easy task though the custom spread quite widely in the East during the 6th through 8th centuries.

His unreliable legend says that his birth in Adrianopolis was announced to his mother by the miraculous vision of a lamb with two flaming candles on its horns, and another vision signified the glorious future of the little child. Bishop Theodore is said to have taken charge of Stylianus at the death of his father, when the saint was three.

As soon as he came of age, his bishop made him a deacon and entrusted him with the care of the parish. But at 30 he felt called to a life of perfection and became a hermit, first in an isolated cell, fasting and mortifying himself out of his love for God. It is said that he was then led by visions to the top of a column, where he stayed for the rest of his life, which lasted almost 100 years. There he was persecuted by demons and accomplished many miracles both before and after his death.

It is said that for 53 years he remained standing, day after day, until at last his legs gave out. For 14 years thereafter, he remained on his side without once leaving his pillar. At age 93 he was delivered from the cold and isolation, from the rain and the insects, from hunger, thirst, and extreme discomfort, and, by the grace of God, ascended into the regions of light and peace.

The tradition of the stylites was begun by Saint Simeon the Ancient (died 459), a rigorous ascetic in the tradition of the Syrian monks, who was plagued by crowds of devoted or curious people. They pressed around him so closely that in order to escape them without running away, he climbed up on top of a column. In addition to solving his immediate problem, he found two other advantages: it was conducive to the stability that was so dear to the hearts of monks in retreat; and it added to his ascetic sufferings. In order to enjoy these advantages, and also to follow the example of Saint Simeon, who was greatly venerated, many other anchorites also became stylites, and thus lived solitary lives without really being solitary.

While stylites rejected the "world" in the New Testament sense of the word, unlike the desert monks, the stylites performed a prophetic ministry and were visited by many people. They preached, gave counsel, reconciled enemies, reproved sinners and led them to repentance, cast out devils, and often manifested a gift of prophecy.

The faithful came unceasingly to the foot of the column. When Simeon saw among them a native of distant Gaul, he entrusted him with an affectionate message for his sister, Saint Geneviève (died 500), the patroness of Paris.

The Pré Spirituel records the strange duel between two stylites--one a Catholic, the other a Monophysite. After long arguments the Catholic stylite, who lived about 30 miles from Aegea, Cilicia, asked the heretic to send him a sample of his eucharist. He then placed the sample in a pot of boiling water, and also added a sample of his own Eucharist. The results of the test were conclusive: Only the Catholic Eucharist was unaffected by the water and heat (It's only a legend, guys!). Another Monophysite stylite, who lived in the region of Hierapolis, admitted his defeat after a debate with Saint Ephraim.

In most cases there was a ladder reaching up to the stylites perch so that people could talk to them confidentially. If there was no ladder, then the visitor called up to the stylite, who told him to come to the foot of the column, and from there they talked to each other without being overheard.

Sometimes the stylite's followers were reluctant to leave his immediate vicinity, and in the case of Saint Stylianus two communities, one of men and the other of women, grew up nearby. Some of them, including his sister Mary, lived at the very foot of the column and his mother set up a tent nearby and did all that she could to relieve the sufferings of the ascetic so far as his piety and resolution would allow her. Services were held seven times daily, and everyone, including Saint Stylianus and his visitors took part.

It is possible that the ancient symbolism of the column as uniting heaven and earth helped to stimulate the practice of stylites, even if they themselves were not aware of the symbolism. It is equally probable that the unusual nature of this way of life played a part in its popularity. But it would be wrong to suppose that the stylites were following a pagan rite or that stylites intended to draw attention to themselves (though this was a side-effect).

Modern Christians should be able to understand the need for the stylites to escape the pressing crowds while still remaining to preach God's love; however, the true value of this kind of asceticism may by harder to understand. Yet, they followed the tendencies of Syrian asceticism in general.

The Syrian monks mortified their bodies by going without rest and sleep, without simple hygiene, and by taking only enough food to avoid suicide. Is this insanity? Not if it is understood. The purpose of such ascetic practices is to use all their powers to prevent the demands of the body from interfering with their spiritual aspirations. Clearly the idea that the body is essentially evil underlay such terrible asceticism; nor is this surprising in view of the influence Manicheeism had on the attitudes and faith of the Syrian Christians.

The rule is this: The more the body suffers, the more the spirit flowers. We can set aside the picturesque and the eccentric aspect. The prophets, too, had strange ways for the ways of the Lord are not our ways. We can also set aside the psycho- physiological aspects--the manifold extensions of the strength of the spirit and the extreme longevity of the stylites--and concentrate on essentials. The theory of the stylites, which they practiced with magnificent heroism, is faithful to the mystical theology of the Eastern Church, in accordance with which supernatural peace is to be obtained by blessed tranquility (hesychia) preceded by perfect temperance (encrateia) and impassiveness (apatheia), or in other words indifference to the needs and claims of the body. Discipline and asceticism were the means to attain these. The stylites held, very logically, that the more severe the discipline, the harsher the asceticism, the greater the hope of winning the palm that Saint Paul promised to the winner of the race (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Stylianus is the patron saint of sterile wives.
St. Martin of Arades Confessor to Charles  Martel Benedictine monk at Corbie monastery in France.
975 St. Conrad  gave inheritance to poor renovated churches avoided secular affairs
Constántiæ, in Germánia, sancti Conrádi Epíscopi.    At Constance in Germany, St. Conrad, bishop.

   ST CONRAD, BISHOP OF CONSTANCE  (A.D. 975)
         THIS saint belonged to the great Guelf family, being the second son of Henry, Count of Altdorf, founder of the existing abbey of Weingarten in Württemberg.   The boy was sent to the cathedral-school of Constance to make his clerical studies;  and soon after he was ordained priest the provostship of the cathedral was conferred  upon him. The bishop himself dying in 934, Conrad was chosen to fill the episcopal chair. St Ulric, Bishop of Augsburg, who had promoted his election,  frequently visited him and the friendship in which these two great prelates were linked together was very close. St Conrad, having dedicated himself with all that he possessed to God, made an exchange of his estates with his brother for other  lands situated nearer Constance, and settled them all upon that church and the poor, having first built and endowed three stately churches at Constance in honour of St Maurice, St John the Evangelist and St Paul, and renovated many old ones.
           Pilgrimages to Jerusalem were already frequent in those days, and St Conrad thrice visited those holy places, making his journeys truly pilgrimage of penance and devotion. Practically nothing else reliable is recorded in the lives of the saint,  all of which were written a long time after his death. In pictures and statues he is usually represented with a chalice and spider, for this reason: It happened that a large spider dropped into the chalice whilst he was celebrating Mass one Easter-day;  it was the common belief of his time that all or most spiders were poisonous, but  Conrad, out of devotion and respect for the holy mysteries, deliberately swallowed  the spider, without receiving any harm. After an episcopate of over forty years  St Conrad died in 975, and was canonized in 1123. Considering the time in which he lived, he seems to have kept somewhat aloof from secular politics, but it is recorded that he accompanied the Emperor Otto I to Italy in the year 962.         
A biography of Conrad written more than a century after his death by Udalschalk of Maissach is an unsatisfactory composition, full of legendary matter. It is printed by Pertz in MGH., Sriptores, vol. iv, pp. 430—460, and is followed by another setting of what is practically the same story. Some further material is contained in the Historia Welforum Weingartensis, also printed in Pertz, Scriptores, vol. xxi, pp. 454—477, and there are a few official documents belonging to Conrad’s episcopate in Ladewig, Regesta episcoporum Constantiensium, vol. i (1886), pp. 44—48. There was a considerable later cultus, and this was probably responsible for the violence of the Reformers who in 1526 threw his relics into the lake, though the head was hidden and preserved. See also the Freiburg Diocesan-Archiv, vol. xi, pp. 255—272, and vol. xxiii (1893), pp. 49—60; J. Mayer, Der hl. Konrad (1898); Gröber und Merk, Das St Konrads Jubilaeum (1923); and Kunstle, Ikonographie, vol. ii, pp. 385—388.
Of the famous Guelph family and son of Count Henry of Altdorf, he was educated at the cathedral school of Constance and was ordained. He was made provost of the cathedral and in 934 was elected bishop of Constance. He gave his share of his inheritance to the Church and to the poor and built and renovated many churches in his see.
He accompained Emperor Otto I to Italy in 962 though he concentrated on ecclesiastical matters and avoided secular affairs diring the forty two years he was bishop. He was canonized in 1123.

Conrad of Constance B (RM) ; canonized in 1123 (1823 per Attwater 2). Of the famous Guelph family and son of Count Henry of Altdorf, he was educated at the cathedral school of Constance, Switzerland, and was ordained. He was made provost of the cathedral and in 934 was elected bishop of Constance. He gave his share of his inheritance to the Church and to the poor and built and renovated many churches in his see.

Three times he made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and in an age when most prelates were continually involved in secular politics, he succeeded in attending exclusively to ecclesiastical interests during the 42 years of his episcopacy. Nevertheless, he accompanied Emperor Otto I to Italy in 962 (Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Delaney).

Saint Conrad is pictured as a bishop holding a chalice with a spider above or in it (Roeder). This depiction relates to the story that a spider once dropped into the chalice as he celebrated Mass. Although it was believed then that all spiders were deadly poisonous, Conrad nevertheless swallowed the Blood of Christ, out of respect (Coulson). Sometimes images of Saint Conrad contain (1) a serpent and chalice (not to be confused with Saint John); (2) asperges; or exorcising (Roeder).

998 St. Nicon Missionary called Metanoeite Armenian Pontus on the Black Sea the Preacher of Repentance
In Arménia sancti Nicónis Mónachi.    In Armenia, St. Nicon, monk.
Born at Pontus Polemoniacus at the beginning of the tenth century. He was the son of a wealthy landowner, and he was given the name Nicetas in Baptism.

Since he had no desire to take over the management of his family's wealth and estates, Nicetas entered the monastery of Chrysopetro, where he shone forth in prayer and asceticism. When he received the monastic tonsure, he was given the new name Nikon. The new name symbolizes a new life in the Spirit (Romans 7:6), and the birth of the new man (Ephesians 4:24). A monk is expected to stop associating himself with the old personality connected to his former life in the world, and to devote himself entirely to God.

   ST NIKON “METANOEITE” (A.D. 998)
         NIKON, a native of Pontus, in his youth fled from his friends to a monastery called Khrysopetro, where he lived twelve years in the practice of the most austere penance and prayer. The spiritual fruit which his conferences and exhortations produced induced his superiors to employ him in preaching the word of God to the people. He therefore went as a missionary to Crete, which island had recently been recovered from the hands of the Saracens. Here Nikon reconverted many who had apostatized to Islam. He began all his sermons with the word Metanoeite, that is, “Repent! whence this surname was given him. By teaching penitents to lay the axe to the very root of sin, St Nikon had the comfort of seeing many wonderful conversions wrought. After having preached in Crete almost twenty years, he passed to the continent of Europe, and announced the divine word in Sparta and other parts of Greece, confirming his doctrine with miracles. He died in a monastery in Peloponnesus in 998, and is honoured both in the Greek and Roman martyrologies.
The long Greek Life of St Nikon has been known since Martène and Durand published Sirmond’s Latin translation of it in their Amplissima collectio, vol. vi, pp. 837—887. In 1906 S. Lambros edited the Greek text from another manuscript at Mount Athos. The document is of considerable historic interest and we also possess what purports to be the spiritual will and testament of the saint. See also Prince Max of Saxony, Das christliche Hellas (1919), pp. 129—133, and DTC., vol. xi, cc. 655—657.
St Nikon had a remarkable gift for preaching. When he spoke of virtue and spiritual matters, his listeners were filled with heartfelt compunction and love for God. His words produced such spiritual fruit in those who heard him that he was asked to travel through the eastern regions to preach. He visited Armenia, Crete, Euboea, Aegina, and the Peloponnesus, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.

"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." This was the message of St John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2), and of Christ Himself (Matthew 4:17). This was also the message of St Nikon. Wherever he went, he would begin his sermons with "Repent," hence he was called "Nikon Metanoeite," or "Nikon, the Preacher of Repentance."

At first, people paid little heed to his message. Then gradually he won their hearts through his preaching, his miracles, and his gentle, loving nature. He stressed the necessity for everyone to repent, warning that those who utter a few sighs and groans and think that they have achieved true repentance have deluded themselves. St Nikon told the people that true sorrow for one's sins is cultivated by prayer, self-denial, almsgiving, ascetical efforts, and by confession to one's spiritual Father.

After sowing the seeds of piety, St Nikon began to see them bear fruit. People started to change their lives, but he urged them to strengthen their souls in virtue and good works so that they would not be overwhelmed by the cares of this world.

Eventually, St Nikon settled in a cave outside Sparta. Soon he moved into the city, because so many people were coming to hear him. In the center of Sparta, he built a church dedicated to Christ the Savior. In time a monastery grew up around the church.

St Nikon never ceased to preach the Word of God, and to lead people back to the spiritual life of the Church. He also healed the sick, and performed many other miracles.

St Nikon fell asleep in the Lord in 998, and his memory was honored by the people around Sparta. During the Turkish occupation of Greece, however, he was all but forgotten, except in Sparta. After the Greek Revolution in 1821, a service to St Nikon was composed by Father Daniel Georgopoulos, and was based on the saint's Life, which had been written by Igumen Gregory of St Nikon's Monastery in 1142.

St Nikon was recognized as the patron saint of the diocese of Monemvasia and Lakedaimonia in 1893 when the cathedral church in Sparta was dedicated to St Nikon, the Preacher of Repentance.

998 St. Nicon Missionary called Metanoite Armenian Pontus on the Black Sea in Asia Minor and entered a monastery at Khrysopetro. He was then sent as a preacher to Crete, and after enjoying considerable success, he went to his native country and Greece. He was given the title Metanoite because of his common use of penance as a theme for his sermons. He was noted for his miracles. He died in Peloponnesus.

Nikon Metanoite (RM) (also known as Nicon) Born in Pontus (now in Armenia); died in Peloponnesus, Greece, in 998. Nikon received his surname from the Greek 'metanoeia' (change of heart) because penance was always the theme of his preaching. In his youth, he secretly ran away from his wealthy family to an Armenian monastery called Khrysopetro (Stone of God), where he engaged in austere penance and humble prayer for 12 years. The purity of his love of God when he spoke about virtue caused his superiors to send him out into the world to preach the Word of God as a missionary, first in Armenia and later on the Saracen-held island of Crete for 20 years, then in Greece.

In imitation of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Nikon began every sermon with a call to conversion and the necessity for sincere repentance and penance. He taught that earnest prayer, mortification, alms, and holy meditation are needed to allow the resolution of conversion to take root in the heart. The sweetness with which Nikon recommended the most severe maxims of the Gospel, made our faith appear amiable to the Islamics themselves. The words he preached were confirmed by many miracles (Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Husenbeth).
Saint_James_the_Hermit Cyrrhus in Syria gift of healing and even of raising the dead
Saint James the Hermit was the disciple of St Maron (February 14). He lived in asceticism on a mountain not far from the city of Cyrrhus in Syria.

He suffered grievous ills, but he always wore chains, ate food only in the evening, and prayed constantly.
By such efforts he attained to high spiritual perfection, receiving from the Lord power over demons,
the gift of healing and even of raising the dead.

St James peacefully fell asleep in the Lord.

1180 Blessed Walter of Aulne followed Saint Bernard to Clairvaux OSB Cist. (AC)
Walter, a priest of Liège, followed Saint Bernard to Clairvaux. Later he became the first prior of the abbey of Aulne in Brabant (Benedictines).

1151 St. Bellinus  Devoted bishop of Padua who was murdered while performing his duties.
Apud villam cui nomen Fracta, in território Rhodigiénsi, sancti Bellíni, Epíscopi Patavíni et Mártyris; qui a sicáriis, cum esset Ecclésiæ júrium defénsor exímius, crudéliter impetítus ac multis illátis vulnéribus occísus est.
    In the village of Fracta, St. Bellinus, bishop of Padua and martyr.  The noble defender of the rights of the Church was cruelly attacked by assassins, inflicting many wounds upon him, and then slaying him.
Italy. Bellinus died in his see while discharging his duties. Because of the nature of his death, he was canonized three centuries later by Pope Eugene IV.
Bellinus of Padua BM (RM) (also known as Bellino); canonized by Pope Eugene IV.c(Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

1178 BD PONTIUS OF FAUCIGNY, ABBOT small pieces of bone, which are said to have been the occasion of miracles
  IN the year 1896 Pope Leo XIII confirmed the cultus of this holy abbot; he had been greatly venerated by St Francis de Sales, who opened his tomb in 1620 to examine the relics and took away several small pieces of bone, which are said to have been the occasion of miracles. Pontius belonged to a noble Savoyard family, and at twenty became a canon regular at the abbey of Abondance in Chablais. He was entrusted with the revision of the constitutions of his house and the foundation in 1144 of a new monastery at Sixt, of which he was made abbot. After ruling it with great distinction for twenty-eight years he went to fulfil the same office at Abondance, but relinquished it soon after and died a holy death in retirement at Sixt.
    Not much reliable information seems to be available regarding this abbot. Jean de Passier published in 1666 La vie du bx
   Ponce de Faucigny, but ancient records were then little studied. See, however, Mercier, “L’abbaye et la vallée d’Abondance”
   in the Mémoires et documents de l’Académje salésienne, vol. viii (1885), pp. 1—308, and DHG., vol. i, cc. 147 and 151.
   The best attempt to trace the career of Bd Pontius is that of Canon L. Albert, Le bx Ponce de Faucigny (1903).

1267 Silvester Gozzolini vision of Saint Benedict, he organized the disciples Blue Benedictines he had attracted;  His tomb was the scene of many miracles, and in 1275 his relics were enshrined in the abbey church at Monte Fano (where they still are). Clement VIII in 1598 ordered the name of Silvester Gozzolini to be added to the Roman Martyrology and Leo XIII gave his feast to the whole Western church. The Silvestrines are now a very small order, whose monks are distinguished by a dark blue habit.  OSB Abbot (RM)
Apud Fabriánum, in Picéno, beáti Silvéstri Abbátis, Institutóris Congregatiónis Monachórum Silvestrinórum.
    At Fabriano in Piceno, St. Sylvester, abbot, founder of the Congregation of Sylvestrine monks.
Born at Osimo, Italy, 1177; died at Monte Fano, 1267; equivalently canonized in 1598 by Pope Clement VIII.

1267 St Silvester Gozzolini, Abbot, Founder of the Silvesterine Benedictines
The Gozzolini were a noble family of Osimo, where St Silvester was born in 1177. He was sent to read law at Bologna and Padua, but soon abandoned his legal studies for theology and the Holy Scriptures, greatly to the anger of his father, who is said to have refused to speak to him for ten years on that account. Silvester was presented to a canonry at Osimo, where he laboured until his zeal involved him in difficulties with his bishop. This prelate was a man of disedifying life, and Silvester took it upon himself to rebuke him, respectfully but firmly. The bishop was moved only to anger, and threatened to relieve the saint of his benefice, which would not have troubled him much for he had long been strongly drawn to the contemplative life. This inclination is said to have strengthened into resolve when Silvester saw the decaying corpse of a man who had been famous for his physical beauty, a story told also of St Francis Borgia (untruly) and several other saints.
   In 1227, being fifty years old, St Silvester resigned his rich benefice and retired to a lonely spot some thirty miles from Osimo, where he lived in great poverty and discomfort till the lord of the place gave him a better hermitage. But this proved to be too damp, and he moved to Grotta Fucile where he stayed, living an extremely penitential life, till 1231, when he decided to establish a monastery for the disciples who now surrounded him. This he did at Monte Fano, near Fabriano, building it partly from the ruins of a pagan temple.
St Silvester chose for his monks the Rule of St Benedict in its most austere interpretation, but owing to his extreme stress on certain points, particularly poverty, and to the nature of the organization of his institute, it has remained separate from the other congregations of Benedictines and does not form part of
their confederation.
  Silvester governed his congregation with great wisdom and holiness for thirty-six years, and when he died at ninety, eleven monas­teries, either new or reformed, recognized his leadership. His tomb was the scene of many miracles, and in 1275 his relics were enshrined in the abbey church at Monte Fano (where they still are). Clement VIII in 1598 ordered the name of Silvester Gozzolini to be added to the Roman Martyrology and Leo XIII gave his feast to the whole Western church. The Silvestrines are now a very small order, whose monks are distinguished by a dark blue habit.

The Life of St Silvester was written by a contemporary, Andrew de Giacomo of Fabriano, who roust have penned his narrative between 1275 and 1280, some ten years after the founder’s death. His account is full and seemingly reliable. The Latin text was first printed by C. S. Franceschini, in his Vita di S. Silvestro Abate (1772). Full use was made of this valuable source in the work of Amadeo Bolzonetti, Il Monte Fano e un grande anacoreta; Ricordi stand (1906), which discusses in detail the history of the cultus of the saint. 

Born of a noble family, Saint Silvester studied law at Bologna and Padua, but, against his father's wishes, switched to the study of theology and Scripture. He was ordained and became a canon in the cathedral of his home town of Osima until he was 50. Then he respectfully, but firmly, rebuked his bishop for the dissolute life he was leading. Silvester resigned his benefice in 1227, and became a hermit 30 miles from Osimo. Here he lived in poverty and discomfort until the landowner gave him a better hermitage. This one proved to be too damp, so he moved to Grotta Fucile, where he lived an extremely penitential life until 1231.

Directed by a vision of Saint Benedict, he organized the disciples he had attracted into a monastery at Monte Fano near Fabriano in the Marches of Ancona, thus founding the Silvestrine Benedictines, known as the Blue Benedictines from the color of their habit. He taught a very strict interpretation of the Benedictine rule. The congregation was approved by Pope Innocent IV in 1247, and Silvester ruled it with "unbounded wisdom and gentleness" for 36 years until his death, by which time 11 monasteries were under his rule.
The Silvestrines still exist as a small, independent Benedictine congregation (Attwater, Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Delaney, Walsh).
1311 Blessed Albert of Haigerloch prior and parish priest  OSB Monk (AC)
From 1261 until his death, Blessed Albert, born into the family of the counts of Haigerloch in Hohenzollern (Germany), was a monk of Oberaltaich in Bavaria, where he held the offices of prior and parish priest (Benedictines).

1338 Blessed James Benfatti a master in theology and a holy priest; Nearly 150 years after his death, when repairs were being made in the church where he was buried, an accident opened his tomb, and people were startled to find that his body was completely incorrupt. Again in 1604, the same phenomenon was noted; worked many miracles among his flock. At his death in 1338, many remarkable miracles occurred  OP B (AC)
(also known as James of Mantua) Born in Mantua, Italy; died there; cultus confirmed 1859 by Pope Pius IX. James Benefatti, bishop of Mantua, was a famous man in his time; it is unfortunate that he is so little known in ours.

1338 BD JAMES, Bishop OF MANTUA
         Nicholas Boccasini, while he was master general of the Dominicans, saw and  appreciated the goodness and talents of Friar James Benefatti, and called him to his side to be his companion and adviser. He retained his services when he was created cardinal in 1298, and when five years later Nicholas became pope (Bd Benedict XI) one of the first acts of his brief pontificate was to appoint James Benefatti to the see of Mantua. This was James’s native town, and he discharged the duties of its pastor for many years with heroic energy and prudence. After his death on November 19, 1338, he was at once venerated as a saint, but devotion cooled until, in 1483, his tomb was accidentally broken up, when the body was found to be incorrupt. This fact, and the report of miracles, caused it to be solemnly enshrined, but again Bd James was almost forgotten. Then in 1604 his tomb was again opened and the body found still entire; whereupon Bishop Annibale of Mantua bore public testimony to the veneration in which Bd James had been and should be held. This cultus was confirmed in 1859.
   Not much seems to be known of this beatus, but when the confirmation of his cultus was being proceeded with at Rome a
  summary account was published in the Analecta Juris Pontificii, vol. iv (1860), CC. 1896—1897. See also A. Touron,
  Hommes illustres O.P., vol. ii, pp. 134—136; Ughelli, Italia Sacra, vol. i, C. 938; and Procter, Dominican Saints, pp.
  337—339.

James entered the Dominican convent in his home town about 1290. He was both a master in theology and a holy priest. These qualities brought him to the attention of his brother Dominican, Nicholas Boccasino, the future Pope Benedict XI. As cardinal, Nicholas chose the young Dominican from Mantua for his companion. He employed him in various offices in Rome and recommended him to other high-ranking prelates. Consequently, James found himself kept busy in diplomatic offices by several popes--Benedict XI and John XXII among them.

For 18 years after being consecrated (1303) bishop of Mantua by Pope John XXII in 1320, James occupied the see and accomplished great good among the people, meriting his title of "Father of the Poor." He rebuilt and refurnished the cathedral and worked many miracles among his flock. At his death in 1338, many remarkable miracles occurred, and he was called "Blessed James" by people who were grateful for his intercession. Nearly 150 years after his death, when repairs were being made in the church where he was buried, an accident opened his tomb, and people were startled to find that his body was completely incorrupt. Again in 1604, the same phenomenon was noted (Attwater 2, Benedictines, Dorcy).

1388 Saints Athanasius ("the Iron Staff") disciple of St Sergius of Radonezh built a church in honor of the Most Holy Trinity
 and Theodosius of Cherepovets were disciples of St Sergius of Radonezh. They settled in the region of Novgorod at the border of Cherepovets where the Rivulet Yagorba flows into the River Sheksna. Here they labored in monastic struggles. They built a church in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, and founded the Cherepovets Resurrection monastery.

The saints died in the year 1388, and were buried in the monastery's cathedral church. Their memory is also celebrated on September 25.

1618 St. John Berchmans miracles were attributed to him after his death
Eldest son of a shoemaker, John was born at Diest, Brabant. He early wanted to be a priest, and when thirteen became a servant in the household of one of the Cathedral canons at Malines, John Froymont. In 1615, he entered the newly founded Jesuit College at Malines, and the following year became a Jesuit novice. He was sent to Rome in 1618 to continue his studies, and was known for his diligence and piety, impressing all with his holiness and stress on perfection in little things. He died there on August 13. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death, and he was canonized in 1888. He is the patron of altar boys

  1621 ST JOHN BERCHMANS
         “IF I do not become a saint when I am young
, said John Berchmans, “I shall never become one.” He died when he was twenty-two and he was a saint, one of the three notable young saints of the Society of Jesus. He differed from the other two, St Aloysius and St Stanislaus Kostka, in his origins, for while they belonged to aristocratic families John was the eldest son of a master-shoemaker, a burgess of the town of Diest in Brabant.
 John was born in 1599, at his father’s shop at the sign of the Big and Little Moon in Diest, and seems to have been a good and attractive child. He was most devoted to his mother, who suffered very bad health. His early education was in the hands first of a lay schoolmaster and then of Father Peter Emmerich, a Premonstratensian canon from the abbey of Tongerloo, who taught him Latin versification and took the boy with him when he visited the shrines or clergy of the neighbourhood. This rather encouraged John’s tendency to prefer his own and his elders’ company to that of other boys, but he entered whole-heartedly with them in their festival mystery-plays, and particularly distinguished himself in the part of Daniel defending Susanna.
By the time he was thirteen his father’s affairs had become straitened and there were growing brothers and sisters to be considered, so John was told that, he must leave school and learn a trade. He protested that he wished to be a priest, and at length his father compromised by sending him as a servant in the household of one of the cathedral canons, John Froymont, at Malines, where he could also attend the classes at the archiepiscopal seminary.
           The secular canon Froymont was a different sort of man from the regular canon Emmerich, and with him young John went duck-shooting rather than visiting shrines; he is said to have learned the difficult art of teaching a dog to retrieve, and his particular duty in the house was waiting at table. In 1615 the Jesuits opened a college at Malines and John Berchmans was one of the first to enter himself there at, “not without a good deal of feeling on the part of his former master and rector, on account of which’ there was a great gulf fixed’ between them and us
, wrote his confessor and tutor in Greek, Father De Greeff. He studied with earnest application, continued to be an enthusiastic player of sacred dramas, and was sometimes found kneeling at the foot of his bed after midnight when sleep had overtaken him at his prayers. A year later, after some objection from his father, he joined the novitiate. He wrote home a week before, “I humbly pray you, honoured father and dearest mother, by your parental affection for me and by my filial love for you, to be so good as to come here on Wednesday evening at the latest, either by the Malines coach from Montaigu or by Stephen’s wagon, so that I may say. ‘Welcome and good-bye’ to you, and you to me when you give me, your son, back to the Lord God who gave me to you.
     As was expected by those who knew him best, John Berchmans was an admirable novice, and throughout his ascetical notes and other writings of that time it appears that, like another holy young religious three hundred and fifty years later, he kept before himself a way of perfection which he expressed in the phrase “Set great store on little things
. His industry in writing down his reflections was remarkable, and it extended to making an analysis of Father Alphonsus Rodriguez’s book on Christian perfection, which had been published less than ten years. Soon after his novitiate began his mother died (there is extant a touching letter from him to her during her last illness), and within eighteen months his father had been ordained priest and presented to a canonry in his native town.
   On September 2, 1618, Brother John wrote to Canon Berchmans announcing that he was about to take his first vows, and asking in a postscript, “Please send me by his reverence the precentor, eleven ells of cloth, six ells of flannel, three ells of linen, and two calf-skins to make my clothes
. Canon Berchmans died the day before his son’s profession, but John did not hear of this until he wrote to make an appointment to meet him at Malines before he set out for Rome where he was to begin his philosophy. Before leaving he wrote to his relatives expressing his astonishment and displeasure at their not having told him of his father’s death, and another to his old master Canon Froymont asking him to keep an eye on his younger brothers, Charles and Bartholomew, “whom perhaps I shall never see again.
      St John arrived in Rome on new year’s eve 1618, after having walked with one companion from Antwerp in ten weeks, and began his studies at the Roman College under Father Cepari, who afterwards wrote his biography. A professor there, Father Piccolomini, testified that, “Berchmans had good talent, capable of taking in several different subjects at the same time, and in my opinion his enthusiasm and application to work have been rarely equalled and never surpassed...He spared himself no labour or weariness thoroughly to master the various languages and branches of knowledge that go to make a learned and scholarly man.” Father Massucci, the spiritual director of the senior students, declared that, “After Blessed Aloysius Gonzaga, with whom I lived in the Roman College during the last year of his life, I have never known a young man of more exemplary life, of purer conscience, or of greater perfection than John
. And withal his brethren loved and revered him as an angel from Heaven. Among these brethren was a number of students from England, of whom the martyr Bd Henry Morse was one. For two and a half years St John continued his “little way”, without singularity or excess; “my penance, he would say, “is to live the common life, and he jotted down, “I like letting myself be ruled like a baby a day old.
    St John’s success at his examination in May 1621, caused him to be selected to defend a thesis against all corners in a public debate. But the strain of prolonged study during the heat of a Roman summer had been too much for him, and he began rapidly to fail. On August 6, though feeling unwell, he took a prominent part in a public disputation at the Greek College, but the next afternoon he had to be sent off to the infirmary. He was cheerful as usual—Father Cepari records there was always a smile playing about his mouth. When he had drunk a peculiarly nasty dose of medicine he asked the attendant father to say the grace after meals, and he told the rector that he hoped the death of another Flemish Jesuit in Rome would not cause friction between the two provinces of the Society; when the doctor ordered his temples to be bathed with old wine he observed that it was lucky such an expensive illness would not last long. After four days Father Cornelius a Lapide, the great Biblical exegete, asked if aught were on his conscience. “Nihil omnino. Nothing at all
, replied St John, and he received the last sacraments with great devotion. He lingered two more days (the doctors were at a loss to diagnose what it was that had brought him so low), and died peacefully on the morning of August 13, 1621.
    There were extraordinary scenes at the funeral, numerous miracles were attributed to John’s intercession, and the recognition of his holiness was spread so rapidly that within a few years Father Bauters, s.j., wrote from Flanders,  “Though he died in Rome, and but few of his countrymen knew him by sight, ten of our best engravers have already published his portrait and at least 24,000 copies have been struck off. This is not including the works of lesser artists and numbers of paintings.” Nevertheless, though his cause was begun in the very year of his death, the beatification of St John Berchmans did not take place till 1865, and his canonization till 1888.
By far the most valuable contribution to our knowledge of St John Berchmans is that of A. Poncelet, printed in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxiv (1921), pp. 1—227. The whole question of sources is there discussed, and attention is drawn to the work of his more accredited biographers. Among these are specially mentioned V. Cepari  (1627), L. J. M Cros (1894), R P. Vanderspecten (1886), and N. Angelini (1888). Fr Poncelet’s article also includes copies of unpublished documents and letters—many of them submitted to St John’s first biographer, Father Cepari. See further, in the series “Les Saints, the life by Fr H. Delehaye (Eng. trans., 1925). There is also an English life by Father Goldie (1873), another by J. Daly (1921), and a sketch by Fr C. C. Martindale in his Christ’s Cadets (1953).

1599-1621)The Jesuit Order has produced three admirable young saints: Stanislaus Kostka, Aloysius Gonzaga, and John Berchmans.
     Unlike the other two, St. John Berchmans was not of noble rank. His father was a master shoemaker, a prominent citizen of Dienst, Belgium. John's early schooling was in the hands of a layman and a religious-order priest, and he proved a bright student, especially gifted as an actor.
     By the time he was 13, young Berchmans had already decided that he wanted to be a priest. That year his father, faced with financial problems, told him that he would have to leave school and learn a trade to help support their family. It was then that he confided his desire for the priesthood to his parents. They reached a compromise. He was hired to be the house servant of a prominent priest at Mechelen. This would give him a chance to attend the local seminary.
     In 1615 the Jesuits opened a college at Mechelen. John was one of the first to enroll. A year later he joined the Jesuit novitiate, intent on becoming a member of the Society. This turn of events displeased his sponsors, and was accepted only reluctantly by his parents. But he lovingly assured them that they would simply be giving back to God the son that God had given to them. (When his mother died not long afterward, his father became a priest!)
     Berchmans had clearly made the right choice. He was a perfect novice. Holiness was his primary aim. (“If I do not become a saint when I am young,” he once said, “I shall never become one.”) Yet his method of growing in sanctity was beautifully balanced. He did not aim at great deeds, but, like St. Therese of Lisieux in our times, he tried to do the little things as well as possible. Well-rounded and good-humored, he was admired and respected by all.
     Because of his talents as a student, John was assigned to Rome in 1619 to begin his philosophical studies. He and one companion walked from Belgium to Rome in ten weeks. At Rome, too, his Jesuit professors and colleagues marveled at his diligence and his exemplary life. Because of his proficiency as a student he was chosen in 1621 to defend a thesis in an academic disputation. Unfortunately, soon afterward he contracted an infectious disease that would prove mortal. Since he had aspired to martyrdom anyhow, John accepted the trial with cheerful grace. As he grew worse, the great Jesuit scripture scholar, Father Cornelius a Lapide, in administering the last rites, asked him if he had anything on his conscience. “Nothing at all,” he replied.
     John Berchmans died peacefully on August 13, 1621. Miracles were reported soon after his death, but he was declared “blessed” only in 1865. There was an American angle to his canonization in 1888. One of the miracles accepted by the Holy See as verified took place in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, at a girls' academy founded in 1821 by the Religious of the Sacred Heart.
     In 1862, Mary Wilson, a 16-year-old Canadian Presbyterian, had become attracted to Catholicism while visiting St. Louis, Missouri. Having asked for instruction, she was received in the Church by the Jesuits. Her family disowned her, but rejection did not keep her from joining the Sacred Heart nuns in 1866.
     That October, however, on the day before Mary was to receive the habit, she was seized by a deathly ailment. After she had received the last rites, she prayed to Blessed John Berchmans for either cure or patience, as God willed. Then she placed on her tongue a holy card bearing his image. At once she felt a finger on her tongue and heard the words, “Sister, you will get the desired habit. Fear not.” Now she saw beside her bed a luminous figure. She asked him if he were Berchmans, and he said yes, he was sent by God's order to tell her she was cured. To the amazement of all, she had completely recovered. The official report of the miracle was duly sent to Rome and filed in the dossier on the canonization of this young Jesuit who had won heaven by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.     --Father Robert F. McNamara

John Berchmans, SJ (RM) (also known as Jan Berchmans) Born in Diest, Brabant, Flanders (Belgium), on March 13, 1599; died at Rome August 13, 1621; canonized 1888; feast day formerly on August 13.  Eldest son of a master-shoemaker, John knew early that he wanted to be a priest. His piety attracted attention even in his youth. When he was 11, his parish priest permitted him to study in the little seminary run out of the rectory. At the age of 13, he became a servant in the household of one of the cathedral canons at Malines, John Froymont, in order to pay for his education. In 1615, the Jesuits opened a college at Malines (Mechlin) and the following year John became a Jesuit novice there. After his mother's death, his father and two brothers followed suit and entered religious life.

The year his father was ordained (1618) and died six months later, John was sent to Rome for his novitiate. He was so poor and humble that he walked from Antwerp to Rome. In the seminary he was known for his diligence and piety, impressing all with his holiness and stress on perfection in little things. His kindly and cheerful nature made him popular (contemporary accounts of his attractive nature survive). In these respects he reminds us of the "little way" of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. There was nothing visibly extraordinary about him; he was one of those saints who do the ordinary things of everyday life in an uncommon manner, out of their overflowing love of God.

There are some reports that he found the regimented life of a Jesuit scholar nearly intolerable. Yet he continued in humble and cheerful obedience to his superiors and to God.

Although he longed to work in the mission fields of China, he did not live long enough to permit it. After completing his coursework, he was asked to defend the "entire field of philosophy" in a public disputation in July, just after his exit examinations. The following month he was asked to represent the Roman College in a debate with the Greek College. Although he distinguished himself in this disputation, he had studied so assiduously that he caught a cold in mid-summer, became very ill with dysentary and a fever, and died a week later. He was buried in the church of Saint Ignatius at Rome, but his heart was later translated to the Jesuit church at Louvain.

So many miracles were attributed to him after his death at the age of 22, that his cultus soon spread to his native Belgium, where 24,000 copies of his portrait were published within a few years of his death (Attwater, Attwater 2, Benedictines, Brenan, Coulson, Delaney, Delehaye, Farmer, Schamoni).

Saint John is represented as a young Jesuit kneeling in a ray of light, and pointing to a skull, with a log of wood, crucifix, book and rosary near him. He is the patron of altar boys (Roeder). The convent of Via di Tor dei Specchi (founded by Saint Frances of Rome) has two pictures of the saint, although his death mask has been lost. One was painted directly from the corpse; the other is a sweetened copy of the death portrait. The original has never been published (Schamoni).

1731 Saint Innocent, Bishop of Irkutsk, (in the world John) miracles occurred not only at Irkutsk, but also in remote places of Siberia, for those who flocked to the saint with prayer incorrupt .
   His parents moved from Volhynia to the Chernigov region in the mid-seventeenth centuryas descended from the noble Kulchitsky family. The saint was born in about the year 1680, and educated at the Kiev Spiritual Academy. He accepted monastic tonsure in 1710 and was appointed an instructor at the Moscow Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy as prefect and professor of theology.

In 1719 St Innocent transferred to the St Peterburg Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and was appointed chief naval chaplain. In 1720 he served as vice-regent of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

On February 14, 1721, hieromonk Innocent was consecrated as Bishop of Pereyaslavl and appointed to the Peking Spiritual Mission in China. But the Chinese government refused to allow him to enter the country, because the Senate Commission on External Affairs had indiscretely characterized him as "a spiritual personage, a great lord." The saint was compelled to spend three years at Selingin on the Chinese border, suffering much deprivation because of the uncertainty of his position, and grief from the disarray of the civil government in Siberia. Diplomatic blunders of the Russian Mission in China by Graf Raguzinsky, and intrigues by the Irkutsk archimandrite Anthony Platkovsky led to the appointment of Archimandrite Anthony in China. By decree of the Most Holy Synod St Innocent was named in 1727 to be Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk. And so he entered into the governance of the newly-formed dioceses.

The proximity of the Chinese border, the expanse and sparsely-settled dioceses, the great number of diverse nationalities (Buryat, Mongol, and others), mostly unenlightened by the Christian Faith, the lack of roads and the poverty - all this made St Innocent's pastoral work burdensome and his life full of deprivations. Through a strange oversight of the Senate, he did not receive any money until the time of his death, and he endured extreme want. In these difficult condition of scant funds the Irkutsk Ascension monastery still maintained two schools opened under him, one Mongol and the other Russian. The constant concern of the saint was directed towards the schools: the selection of worthy teachers, and providing the necessary books, clothing and other provisions for students.

The saint toiled tirelessly at organizing the diocese, and strengthening its spiritual life. His many sermons, pastoral letters and directives bear witness to this. In his work and deprivations St Innocent found spiritual strength, humility, and insight.

In the spring of 1728, the Baikal region began to suffer a drought. Famine from a poor grain harvest had threatened the diocese already back in 1727. With the blessing of the holy hierarch, in May within the churches of Irkutsk and the Irkutsk region they began to include a Molieben for an end to the drought at each Liturgy. On Saturdays they sang an Akathist to the Mother of God, and on Sundays they served a Molieben. "The supplications," said the saint, "should end on the Feast of St Elias" (July 20). Indeed, on that very day a storm raged at Irkutsk with such strong rains, that in the streets of the city water stood up to people's knees, and thus the drought ended.

Through the efforts of St Innocent, construction was started on a stone church to replace the wooden one at the Ascension monastery, and the boundaries of the diocese were expanded to include not only Selingin, but also the Yakutsk and Ilimsk surroundings.

The saint, not noted for robust health, and under the influence of the severe climate and his afflictions, departed to the Lord at a rather young age (51). He reposed on the morning of November 27, 1731.  In the year 1764, the body of the saint was discovered incorrupt during restoration work on the monastery's Tikhvin church. Many miracles occurred not only at Irkutsk, but also in remote places of Siberia, for those who flocked to the saint with prayer. This moved the Most Holy Synod to uncover the relics and to glorify the saint in the year 1800.  In the year 1804, a feastday was established to celebrate his memory throughout all Russia on November 26, since the Sign Icon of the Mother of God is commemorated on the actual day of his repose (November 27). St Innocent is also remembered on February 9.

In 1921, the relics of St Innocent were taken from their shrine and placed in a Soviet anti-religious museum. They were moved to another museum in Yaroslav in 1939, and were exhibited as "mummified remains of an unknown man." In 1990, they were brought to the newly-reopened Tolga Monastery in the Yaroslav diocese.
In September of 1990, the holy relics arrived in Irkutsk and were placed in the cathedral, to the joy of all the faithful.
1751 St. Leonard of Port Maurice Franciscan Blessed Sacrament proponent Stations of the Cross as well as the Immaculate Conception
Romæ sancti Leonárdi, a Portu Maurítio, Sacerdótis ex Ordine Minórum et Confessóris, zelo animárum et sacris per Itáliam expeditiónibus conspícui; quem Pius Nonus, Póntifex Máximus, in Sanctórum cánonem rétulit, ac Pius Papa Undécimus cæléstem Patrónum Sacerdótum qui ad sacras populáres Missiónes in regiónibus cathólicis ubíque terrárum incúmbunt, elégit et constítuit.
    At Rome, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, priest and confessor of the Order of Friars Minor.  He was remarkable for his zeal for souls and his holy expeditions throughout Italy.  He was canonized by Pope Pius IX, and Pope Pius XI chose and appointed him the heavenly patron of priests to the preaching of missions to the people.
devotion of the Sacred Heart, and Stations of the Cross, as well as the Immaculate Conception

1751  ST LEONARD OF PORT MAURICE
   DOUBTLESS while Alban Butler was writing these Lives of the Saints the fame often reached his ears of a Franciscan Father Leonard Casanova, whose missionary labours in Italy were at their height in the second quarter of the eighteenth century and who died five years before the publication of Butler’s work. The name by which that friar is now known is taken from his native town, Porto Maurizio on the Italian Riviera, where he was born in 1676, and baptized Paul Jerome. His father, Dominic Casanova, was a master-mariner and a good Christian man, and when his eldest son was thirteen he entrusted him to the care of his wealthy uncle Augustine at Rome, who sent the boy to the Roman College of the Jesuits. Paul soon realized that he had a religious vocation and his own inclination was towards the Friars Minor. But his uncle, who wanted him to be a physician, objected and eventually turned him out of his house; but Paul found shelter with another relative, Leonard Ponzetti, with whom he stayed until he received his father’s ready permission to become a friar.
He was clothed, when he was twenty-one, at the Franciscan novitiate at Ponticelli, taking the name of Leonard in gratitude for the kindness of Ponzetti, and completed his studies at St Bonaventure’s on the Palatine, where he was ordained in 1703. This friary was the principal house of an off-shoot of the strict Riformati branch of the Franciscans, called Riformella, and throughout his life St Leonard, both for himself and for others, combined active missionary work with a severely ascetic monastic observance and much solitude: the first that he might live for God and the last that he might live in God, as he himself expressed it.
    In 1709 St Leonard was sent with other friars, under Father Pius, to take over the monastery of San Francesco del Monte at Florence, which the Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici had presented to the Riformella. These friars lived according to the austerest principles of St Francis, refusing to accept endowments from Cosimo, or Mass and preaching stipends from the clergy and people, depending solely for material support on what they could beg as required. The community flourished and increased in numbers, and became a great religious centre whence Leonard and his companions preached with great fruit throughout Tustany. A parish-priest at Pistoia wrote to the guardian, “Blessed be the hour in which I first thought of asking for Father Leonard. God alone knows all the good he has done here. His preaching has touched everybody’s heart...All the confessors in the town have had to work hard.” The saint himself was appointed guardian of del Monte, and he established the hermitage of St Mary at Incontro in the neighbouring mountains, where individual religious might retire for a space twice in every year. “We will make a novitiate for Paradise
, he said, “I have given many missions to others, and now I am going to give one to Brother Leonard.” The regulations which he drew up for this retreat-house provided for strict enclosure, almost perpetual silence, fasting on bread, vegetables and fruit, and a daily discipline, with nine hours of the day devoted to the Divine Office and other spiritual exercises, and the rest to manual work.
     For many years St Leonard laboured in Tuscany, but after a time he was frequently called to preach further afield, and at his first preaching visit to Rome his services were so long in request that Duke Cosimo sent a ship to the Tiber to fetch him back. For six years he was conducting missions around Rome, and in 1736, when he was sixty years old, he had to take up the office of guardian at St Bonaventure’s there. From thence he preached for three weeks at Civita Vecchia, particularly to the soldiers and sailors, convicts and galley-slaves, and including a “visit to an English skipper, who wanted to see me on his ship. We found three or four of them who had been present at the sermons [he had preached from the bridge of a vessel] and seemed inclined to abandon their errors. The poor fellows had been more touched by what they saw than what they heard, for they hardly understood the language at all—which only shows that grace is the prime mover in stirring the heart.” After a year he was released from office, and preached in Umbria, Genoa and the Marches, where such crowds assembled that he had often to leave the churches, and speak in the open air. To command the attention of those who were too hard-hearted and stiff-necked to take any notice of him otherwise.

 St Leonard would sometimes discipline himself in public, but the
devotion” which he principally used was the Way of the Cross, and it is to him that its popularity today is largely due. He often gave it as a penance and preached it continually, and the setting up of the stations became a part in every mission he undertook. It is said that he set them up in 571 places in Italy. He also encouraged the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the Sacred Heart and to our Lady as conceived free from original sin, all of which were very far less wide-spread than they are to-day.

In particular did he make zealous efforts to get the Immaculate Conception defined as a dogma of faith and he was the first to suggest, what was done a century later, that the mind of the Church should be sounded on the matter without summoning a general council.
  St Leonard was for a time the spiritual director of Clementina Sobieska of Poland, the wife of him who was recognized in Italy as King James III of England. All his letters to her were destroyed.*{* One was found under her pillow when she was dead. St Leonard used to write to the most distinguished correspondents on any old piece of paper. “They know Leonard is a poor man
, he would say, “so they won’t bother to stand on ceremony.”}
But there are extant one written by James to St Leonard a month after the queen’s death in 1735, thanking him for his prayers and asking to see him, and several of direction written by the saint to one of the queen’s ladies. Pope Benedict XIV had a great regard for Leonard and his capabilities and in 1744, in concert with the Genoese Republic, the sovereign of the island, he sent him to Corsica to try and bring the people there to peace and order. He was not well received, being regarded as an agent of the doge disguised as a missioner. Admittedly there was a political aspect to his mission, for the troubles in Corsica were mainly due to discontent with the domination of Genoa.
    What with the political situation, the turbulent temperament of the Corsicans (they came to his sermons with weapons in their hands), and the mountainousness of the country, this was the most arduous of all St Leonard’s missionary tasks. He wrote numerous letters from the island, in one of which he says, “In every parish we meet with the most formidable feuds, but peace and quietness generally come to the top at last. But unless the administration of justice gets strong enough to stamp out these vendettas, the good we are doing can be only transitory.
During these years of war the people have had no instruction whatever. The young men are dissolute, wild, and don’t come near the sacraments. Many of them don’t trouble even to make their Easter duties, and, what is worse, nobody thinks of reminding or rebuking them. When I have an opportunity to meet the bishops I shall tell them what I think...   However, though the work is so exacting, the harvest is abundant...
    But the fatigue, the intrigues, the strain of constant vigilance were too much for St Leonard, who was now sixty-eight, and at the end of six months he was so ill that a ship was sent from Genoa to bring him back. He had gauged the state of Corsican affairs correctly, for the pope wrote to him soon after, “The Corsicans have got worse than ever since the mission, and so it is not thought advisable that you should go back there.
Side by side with his public missions St Leonard gave retreats to nuns and lay-people, especially at Rome in preparation for the year of Jubilee 1750. That year saw one of his ambitions realized, when Benedict XIV permitted him to set up the stations of the cross in the Colosseum, Leonard preaching to a large and fervent crowd a sermon which is still preserved. “ I am getting old
, he wrote, “My voice carried as it did two years ago, but I felt worn out. However, it is a consolation to see this Colosseum no longer a common resort but a real sanctuary...”
     In the spring of the following year, when St Leonard went off to give missions at Lucca and elsewhere, the pope told him to give up travelling on foot and to go by carriage. He had been a missioner of the most powerful energy for forty-three years, and was beginning to fail. Owing to this and to the hostility and indifference of certain places, some of these last missions were relatively unsuccessful. At length, at the beginning of November, he turned south, and he knew his work was done. His carriage broke down and he had to walk part of the way through rain to Spoleto, where the friars tried in vain to detain him. On the evening of November 26 he arrived in Rome and was carried to bed at St Bonaventure’s, and while they prepared to give him the last sacraments he sent a message to Pope Benedict that he had kept his promise—to come to Rome to die. At nine o’clock Mgr Belmonte arrived from the Vatican with an affectionate message from the pope. Before midnight St Leonard was dead.
       In spite of his amazing activity St Leonard found time during the intervals of solitude and contemplation which he prized so much to write many letters, sermons and devotional treatises. His Resolutions, for the better attainment of Christian perfection, is a work valuable both in itself and for what it tells us about its author. The cause of his beatification m 1796 was furthered by Cardinal Henry of York, son of that Queen Clementina whose director St Leonard had been sixty years before. He was canonized in 1867.
As might be expected from St Leonard’s comparatively recent date, his great reputation and his active life as a preacher, abundant materials are available for his biography. That by Fr Giuseppe da Masserano, the postulator of the cause of his beatification, was published in 1796, and has since been translated into most European languages. An English version was included in the Oratorian series in 1852. Another well-known life, by Salvatore di Ormea, appeared in 1851, and perhaps the  most popular of all, that written by Fr Leopold de Chérancé in French, in 1903. As materials for an understanding of activities and spirit of the great missioner, St Leonard’s writings and letters have considerable importance. The collectio published in Rome in 1853—1854 was far from complete. Eighty-six letters addressed to his penitent Elena Colonna were First printed in 1872, under the title Soavitd di spirito di S. Leonardo; and since then Fr B. Innocenti in 1925 and 1929, an Fr Ciro Ortolani da Pesaro in 1927 have found fresh material to publish. Many articles and notices in the Archivum Franciscanum Historicum have added to our knowledge of St Leonard. There is a good article by Fr M. Bihl in the Catholic Encyclopedia ; and a short life by Fr Dominic Devas, as well as a notice in Léon, Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iv, pp. 98—112.

He was born Leonard Casanova in Port Maurice, Porto Maurizio, Italy, and joined the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in 1697. Ordained in 1703, he began preaching all over the Tuscany region of Italy. By 1736 he was attracting huge crowds in Rome and elsewhere, and he erected almost six hundred Stations of the Cross throughout the lands. In 1744, Leonard was sent by Pope Benedict XIV to preach on Corsica, returning to Rome in 1751 after receiving a summons from the pope. Leonard died at his friary, St. Bonaventure, on November 26. He was canonized in 1867 and named patron of parish missions.


1676-1751) Father Leonard of Port Maurice he was called after his home town on the Italian Riviera. Born Paul Jerome Casanova, he made a brilliant course of theology at the Jesuit Collegio Romano in Rome. Then he joined a branch of the Franciscans noted for its austerity and its strict observance of the rule of poverty.
     After a period of illness, Leonard began the work for which he was to become famous - preaching parish missions. He started in his native area, northwest Italy. Then he moved south to Florence and from there extended his work throughout Central and Southern Italy. Pope Clement XII and Benedict XIV called him to Rome, and Benedict made him promise that he would come to Rome to die.
     St. Leonard was tremendously successful in these public missions, first because of his own reputation for holiness, and second because of his talents as a preacher and developer of mission techniques. He attracted such crowds that the churches were often too small to hold them, and he would have to adjourn to the city squares or the neighboring fields. His follow-up was important, too, in confirming his many converts in their spiritual renewal. Thus, he founded for them a number of pious societies and confraternities, and he popularized several pious practices, like devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and devotion to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Immaculate Conception would not be defined as a dogma for another century, but Leonard became one of the earliest promoters of its definition. He recommended the course that Pope Pius IX was to take in 1854 - the proclamation of the dogma by the Pope himself, after consultation with the whole Catholic hierarchy.
     The practice that Friar Leonard espoused most ardently, however, was the Stations of the Cross. It is said that he personally set up and blessed Stations in 571 places in Italy. Best known of these were the Stations he installed in 1750 in the Colosseum in Rome. To this day, each Lent the popes lead the Stations of the Cross in this great ruined amphitheater where died many of the early Christian martyrs.
     St. Leonard did not restrict his labors to any one class of people, for religion had gone into a general decline. On the one hand, he was spiritual director to Clementina Sobieska, the wife of the exiled “James III”, the English “Old Pretender.” On the other hand, he worked among soldiers, sailors, galley slaves, and run-of-the-mill Catholics. Probably his hardest papal assignment was to preach on the island of Corsica, where vendetta (feuding) ruled and those who attended his sermons came with weapons in hand.
     Obedient to his promise, Leonard, when aged 75 and ailing after 43 years of tireless preaching, returned to Rome. Arriving in the Eternal City on November 26, 1751, he sent word to the pope that he had come to Rome to die. He died that very evening. One of those who promoted his canonization was Cardinal Henry Stuart of York, grandson of exiled James II of England and the last Stuart pretender as “Henry IX of England.”
     Throughout the history of the Church, there have been times when Christian faith and Christian practice seem to be failing. Then God in his providence has raised up one or more inspired and saintly preachers to shake the faithful out of their lethargy. St. Leonard of Port Maurice was God's new John the Baptist for his own era and his own locale.
     Today Christian faith and practice again seem to be vanishing. Do we not need another army of St. Leonards? Mighty missionaries, who awaken consciences not only by their words but even more by their example of Christian holiness? Jesus himself will use them as his mouthpiece.
     We pray then the prayer of the Book of Revelations: “Come, Lord Jesus!”    --Father Robert F McNamara

Leonard of Port Maurice, OFM (RM) (also known as Leonard Casanuova)  Born at Porto Maurizio, Liguria, Italy, December 20, 1676; died in Rome, on November 26, 1751; beatified in 1796; canonized in 1867.  Captain Dominic Casanuova had his son baptized Paul Jerome Casanuova. Throughout his life, the future Saint Leonard thanked God for giving him such an excellent father. At the age of 13, Paul Jerome was sent to the Jesuit Roman College. His uncle Augustine, with whom he was living, wanted him to become a physician. Paul studied medicine, but when he refused his uncle's wish that he become a doctor and announced he had other plans, Augustine disowned him.

He joined the Franciscans of the Strict Observance at Ponticelli in 1697, taking the name Leonard, continued his studies at the Observant Saint Bonaventure's on the Palatine in Rome, and was ordained there in 1703. For five years, Leonard had to stop preaching because he was spitting blood. When healing continued to elude him even in the mild climate of Liguria, he vowed that he would devote him entire life to the conversion of sinners, if God would make him well again.

He recovered and, in 1709, he went to the San Francesco del Monte monastery in Florence and from there preached all over Tuscany with tremendous effect for the next 44 years. He became guardian of San Francesco, founded a retreat for religious at nearby Incontro, where the friars retired twice a year to practice the eremitical life.

In 1730, Leonard was appoint guardian of Saint Bonaventure's in Rome. He spent the next six years conducting missions around Rome, preaching to soldiers, sailors, convicts, and galley-slaves in addition to conducting parochial missions. His contemporary, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, said Leonard was the finest missioner of his day. In 1736, he was released from this position to continue his evangelization in Umbria, Genoa, and the Marches of Ancona. His missions now attracted such huge crowds that they were often held in the open air.

Leonard is primarily responsible for the popularity of the Stations of the Cross devotion, of which he was an ardent promoter (reputedly setting up almost six hundred Stations throughout Italy, even in the Colosseum in Rome), and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Conception.  Leonard served for a time as spiritual director of Clementina Sobieska, wife of the "Old Pretender" to the English throne, King James III, whose son Cardinal Henry of York promoted the friar's canonization.

In 1744, Leonard was sent to Corsica by Pope Benedict XIV to preach and to restore peace there but he was unsuccessful, because the Corsicans felt he was more a political tool of the Genoese who ruled the island than a missionary. (Schamoni says that he helped to reconcile the Corsicans to one another, and Attwater notes that his success was ephemeral--as soon as he left the island, the people fell back into discord.) This mission lasted only six months before the Genoese government sent a ship to rescue Leonard.
He returned to Rome from the discouraging missionary tour in 1749 to prepare the Romans for the holy year. For two weeks Leonard preached in the Piazza Navona, which ironically had once been the hippodrome of Emperor Domitian. He had to promise Pope Benedict XIV, who held him in high esteem and himself attended his sermons, that he would die in Rome.

When he was preaching a mission in the holy father's native city of Bologna in 1751, Leonard had a premonition that he would soon die. Completely exhausted from his arduous work and severer mortifications, he returned to Rome and died at Saint Bonaventure the night he arrived.
In addition to his oral evangelization, Leonard was a prolific ascetical writer. His printed works--mostly letters and sermons-- fill thirteen volumes. His most famous work is Resolutions. He is the patron of parish missions and popular missionaries (Attwater, Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Schamoni, White).
1839 St. Dominic Doan Xuyen Martyr of Vietnam
beheaded with St. Thomas Du. He was a Vietnamese Dominican canonized in 1988.



THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 217

O Lady, may thy light be the splendor of my countenance: and let the serenity of thy grace shine upon my mind.

Raise up my head: and I will sing a psalm to thy name.

Turn not away thy face from me: for from my youth up I have greatly desired thy beauty and thy grace.

I have loved thee and sought after thee, O Queen of Heaven: withdraw not thy mercy and thy grace from thy servant.

I will give praise to thee in the nations: and I will honor the throne of thy glory.


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 heavenonly saints are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces are bestowed NOT for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR the benefit of others.
There are over 10,000 named saints beati  from history
 and Roman Martyology Orthodox sources

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

Widowed Saints  html
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Of_The_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  UniateChalcedon

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

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

Join us on CatholicVote.org. Be part of a new movement committed to using powerful media projects to create a Culture of Life. We can help shape the movement and have a voice in its future. Check it out at www.CatholicVote.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Save A Life is Earthly; Saving A Soul is Eternal Donation by mail, please send check or money order to:
Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Rd. Irondale, AL 35210  USA
  Catholic Television Network  Supported entirely by donations from viewers  help  spread the Eternal Word, online Here
Mother Angelica saving souls is this beautiful womans journey  Shrine_of_The_Most_Blessed_Sacrament
Colombia was among the countries Mother Angelica visited. 
In Bogotá, a Salesian priest - Father Juan Pablo Rodriguez - brought Mother and the nuns to the Sanctuary of the Divine Infant Jesus to attend Mass.  After Mass, Father Juan Pablo took them into a small Shrine which housed the miraculous statue of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica stood praying at the side of the statue when suddenly the miraculous image came alive and turned towards her.  Then the Child Jesus spoke with the voice of a young boy:  “Build Me a Temple and I will help those who help you.” 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia Paqualina Addatis), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Addolorata, Servants of Mary (1845-1900);
– Servant of God Maria of the Incarnation (née Caterina Carrasco Tenorio), founder of the Congregation of the Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of the Flock of Mary (1840-1917);
– Servant of God , founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Family of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1851-1923);
– Servant of God Ilia Corsaro, founder of the Congregation of the Little Missionaries of the Eucharist (1897-1977);
– Servant of God Maria Montserrat Grases García, layperson of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1941-1959).
LINKS:
Marian Apparitions (over 2000)  India Marian Shrine Lourdes of the East   Lourdes Feb 11- July 16, Loreto, Italy 1858 
China
Marian shrines
May 23, 1995 Zarvintisya Ukraine Lourdes Kenya national Marian shrine    Quang Tri Vietnam La Vang 1798  
Links to Related
Marian Websites  Angels and Archangels
Doctors_of_the_Church   Acts_Apostles  Roman Catholic Popes  Purgatory  Uniates, 217 2023