Mary the Mother of Jesus
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.
September is the month of Our Lady of Sorrows since 1857;
2022
22,013  Lives Saved Since 2007

What Martin Luther said about the Virgin Mary
These "great things" that God has done for her, we can neither express nor measure.
This is why we sum up the honor bestowed on her in one word, when we call her "Mother of God."
When speaking of her or addressing her, nobody can add anything to this, even if he possessed more tongues than there are leaves and blades of grass, stars in the sky and grains of sand in the sea.
One should consider with deep reflection what it means to be the Mother of God.

 
Six Canonized on Feast of Christ the King

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

His Majesty, The Lord, rewards great sevices with trials, and there can be no better reward,
for out of trials springs love for God.
-- St. Teresa of Avila

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

September 26

Amos was a shepherd of Tekoa on the edge of the desert of Judah, 1:1; belonging to no prophetic confraternity, he was divinely called from his flock and sent to prophesy to Israel, 7:14. After a brief ministry mainly, perhaps exclusively, concerned with the schismatic shrine at Bethel, 7:10f, he was expelled from Israel and returned to his former occupation.
He preached under Jeroboam II, 783-743, by material standards a glorious reign during which the Northern Kingdom expanded and grew wealthy, but during which the rich exploited the poor, and fine liturgical show disguised the lack of sound religion. A true son of the desert, rough, direct, proud, rich in the images natural to the desert dwellers, Amos in the name of God condemned corrupt city life, social injustice, the deceitful consolations of insincere ceremonial, 5:21-22. Yahweh, sovereign lord of all the world, punisher of nations, ch. 1-2, would severely punish Israel, who, being chosen by God, should practise a morality stricter than that of others, 3:2.
The 'day of Yahweh ' (the phrase occurs here for the first time in the Bible) will be one of darkness and not light, 5: 18f; wreak his dreadful vengeance, 6:8f, God summons a nation, 6:14, Assyria, which, though not named, is always in the prophet's mind.
 
Yet Amos kindles a spark of hope; he looks forward to the salvation of those who stay faithful, the 'remnant' of Joseph, 5:15 (the first use of this expression by a prophet).
   This profound doctrine of God, all-powerful and universal lord, defender of justice, is formulated without the slightest hesitation; the prophet never once gives the impression of innovating: his preaching is merely a reminder, a sharp one, of the demands of pure Yahwism.
September 26 – Our Lady of Graces (Ancona, Italy, 1836)
 Protected from the Muslims by Angels 
 In the 16th century, the shrine of Loreto near Ancona became the most popular pilgrimage in Europe, attracting hundreds of thousands of faithful. Located in central Italy across the Adriatic Sea, the shrine of Loreto is believed to be the original house where the Virgin Mary was born and grew up.
This small brick house, called the Santa Casa, was allegedly transported from Palestine to these parts (a wood of laurels, hence the name of Loreto) in 1294 by angels, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Muslims.
The shrine of Loreto became famous after 1460, shortly after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. A place of Christian witness, this holy city was fortified to escape Ottoman rule. At the same time, a basilica was built.
The Christian victory over the Turks at Lepanto, on October 7, 1571, is attributed to the Virgin of Loreto.
Source: charte.de.fontevrault.over-blog.com

Amos

The book has reached us in some disorder; the prose narrative, 7: 10-17, in particular, separating two visions, would be better placed at the end of the oracles. Certain short passages leave us in doubt about their authorship. The doxologies, 4:13; 5:8-9; 9:5-6, may have been added for liturgical recitation. The brief oracle on Judah, 2:4-5, is possibly from a different author. Further doubts have been raised by 9:8b-10 and especially by 9:11-15. There are no solid grounds for suspecting the former, but it is possible that 9:11-15 are an addition. No argument should be based on the promises of salvation which the latter passage contains, since from early times such promises had always been features of the prophets' preaching, cf. Amos in 5:15 and his contemporary Hosea. But the references to the collapsing (or already ruined) hut of David, to vengeance on Edom, and to a reinstatement or return of Israel, seem to indicate a later period, either after the Assyrian victories of 734-732, or after the fall of Jerusalem.

The Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (preserved on Mt. Athos); the icon was installed on the monastery gates. Therefore this icon came to be called "Portaitissa" or "Gate-Keeper" (October 13). This comes from the Akathist to the Mother of God: "Rejoice, O Blessed Gate-Keeper who opens the gates of Paradise to the righteous."

The Iveron Icon of the Mother of God
was kept in the home of a certain pious widow, who lived near Nicea. During the reign of the emperor Theophilus, the Iconoclasts came to the house of this Christian, and one of the soldiers struck the image of the Mother of God with a spear. Blood flowed from the place where it was struck.
The widow, fearing its destruction, promised the imperial soldiers money and implored them not to touch the icon until morning. When the soldiers departed, the woman and her son (later an Athonite monk), sent the holy icon away upon the sea to preserve it. The icon, standing upright upon the water, floated to Athos.
For several days, the Athonite monks had seen a fiery pillar on the sea rising up to the heavens. They came down to the shore and found the holy image, standing upon the waters. After a Molieben of thanksgiving, a pious monk of the Iveron monastery, St Gabriel (July 12), had a dream in which the Mother of God appeared to him and gave him instructions. So he walked across the water, and taking up the holy icon, he placed it in the church.

On the following day, however, the icon was found not within the church, but on the gates of the monastery. This was repeated several times, until the Most Holy Theotokos revealed to St Gabriel Her will, saying that She did not want the icon to be guarded by the monks, but rather She intended to be their Protectress. After this, the icon was installed on the monastery gates. Therefore this icon came to be called "Portaitissa" or "Gate-Keeper" (October 13). This comes from the Akathist to the Mother of God: "Rejoice, O Blessed Gate-Keeper who opens the gates of Paradise to the righteous."

There is a tradition that the Mother of God promised St Gabriel that the grace and mercy of Her Son toward the monks would continue as long as the Icon remained at the monastery. It is also believed that the disappearance of the Iveron Icon from Mt. Athos would be a sign of the end of the world.

The Iveron Icon is also commemorated on February 12, March 31, October 13 (Its arrival in Moscow in 1648), and Bright Tuesday (Commemorating the appearance of the Icon in a pillar of fire at Mt. Athos and its recovery by St Gabriel).

On September 26, 1989, a copy of this famous icon arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia from the Iveron Monastery on mt. Athos. This copy had been painted by the monks on Mt. Athos as a symbol of love and gratitude to the Georgian people.

September 26 - Our Lady of Victory (Tourney, 1340)

Mrs Adjoubei’s Rosary        Bishop Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII
As he left Bulgaria in 1934, Bishop Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, stated,
"If a Slavic, catholic or not, knocks on my door, it will be opened and he will be greeted like a true friend." Later, a Slavic arrived one day at the airport of Fiumicino who asked to see Pope John XXIII. His reply was immediate, "Let him come!"
The meeting was set for March 7th.

After the general audience, the Pope called for Mr. Adjoubei and his wife, Rada, a young woman from Khrushchev. He received them in his library and asked them to be seated.
They spoke about many things including the Saints of Russia and the beauty of Orthodox liturgy.

Then John XXIII picked up a string of rosary beads that was laid on his table.
"Madam, this is for you. My entourage taught me that I should give currencies or stamps to a non-Catholic princess; but I still give you a Rosary because priests, in addition to the biblical prayer of the psalms, also have this popular form of prayer. For me, the Pope, it is like fifteen open windows - fifteen mysteries - through which I contemplate, in the light of the Lord, the events of the world. I say a rosary in the morning, another at the beginning of the afternoon, and another in the evening.
Look, I made a great impression by telling the journalists that in the fifth joyful mystery - "he listened and questioned them" - I was really praying for... I made an impression on those people when I said that, in the third joyful mystery - the Birth of Jesus - I prayed for all the babies who are born in the past twenty-four hours, because, Catholics or not, they will find the wishes of the Pope upon their entry into life.
When I recite the third mystery, I will also remember your children, Madam."

Mrs Adjoubei, who held the Rosary in her hands, answered,
"Thank you, Holy Father, how grateful I am to you! I will tell my children what you said...

" The Pope looked at her smiling, "I know the name of your sons... the third is called Yan, or John like me...
When you are back home, give him a special hug from me... " 
Rosary for the Church, #14 - 1973
AMOS
John the Theologian The Holy, Glorious All-laudable Apostle and Evangelist, Virgin, and Beloved Friend of Christ
Son of Zebedee and Salome, a daughter of St Joseph the Betrothed. He was called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of His Apostles at the same time as his elder brother James. This took place at Lake Gennesareth (i.e. the Sea of Galilee). Leaving behind their father, both brothers followed the Lord.
 287 Sts. Cosmos & Damian skilled in medicine charitous
 300 St. Callistratus African martyr with 49 soldiers
  304 Ss birthday of holy martyrs Cyprian and virgin Justina; black magic and diabolical expertise to win her for himself but was repelled by her faith and the aid of Mary; He then turned to a priest named Eusebius for instruction and was converted to Christianity. He destroyed his magical books, gave his wealth to the poor, was baptized, as was Aglaides.
 400 St. Senator of the Albano catacomb is the largest and the most important of the ones outside Rome
 400 St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor at Bologna,
 506 St. Vigilius Bishop of Brescia, in Lombardy
6th v.  St. Meugant Hermit of Britain
 600 St. Amantius Patron saint of Cittá di Castello
 612 St. Colman of Elo Abbot bishop; author of the Alphabet of Devotion
1000 St. Nilus the Younger Abbot Born in Calabria
1159 St. John of Meda abbot Rule of St. Benedict to Milan
; A secular priest from Como, Italy, John joined the Humiliati, a penitential institute of laymen
13th v. BD LUCY OF CALTAGIRONE, VIRGIN special devotion to the Five Wounds; and miracles were attributed to her both before and after her death
1341 BD DALMATIUS MONER “he was...gently floating down to the ground. The lessons of his office say that he was familiarly known as 'the brother who talks with the angels':  a copy of Eymeric's work was identified and edited by Fr van Ortroy in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912), pp. 49-81. This memoir is extremely interesting because we have evidence that, unlike most hagiographical documents, it was written within ten years of the death of its subject.
1492 Saint Ephraim of Perekop, Novgorod; he persuaded his parents, Stephen and Annathem to leave the world and accept monasticism. Later, they also finished their earthly paths living as hermits; received a revelation from the Lord, commanding him to withdraw to a desolate place; St Ephraim was buried at the church of St Nicholas. In 1509, frequent floodings threatened the monastery with ruin, it was transferred to another location at the shore of Lake Ilmen. St Ephraim appeared to the igumen Romanus and pointed to the site of Klinkovo for relocating the monastery.
1642-1649 THE MARTYRS OF NORTH AMERICA
1649 St. Noel Chabanel Jesuit missionary to Hurons in Canada
1885 St. Theresa Coudere Foundress Our Lady of Retreat  Society of Our lady of the Cenacle

John the Theologian The Holy, Glorious All-laudable Apostle and Evangelist, Virgin, and Beloved Friend of Christ
Son of Zebedee and Salome, a daughter of St Joseph the Betrothed. He was called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of His Apostles at the same time as his elder brother James. This took place at Lake Gennesareth (i.e. the Sea of Galilee). Leaving behind their father, both brothers followed the Lord.
The Apostle John was especially loved by the Savior for his sacrificial love and his virginal purity. After his calling, the Apostle John did not part from the Lord, and he was one of the three apostles who were particularly close to Him. St John the Theologian was present when the Lord restored the daughter of Jairus to life, and he was a witness to the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor.

During the Last Supper, he reclined next to the Lord, and laid his head upon His breast. He also asked the name of the Savior's betrayer. The Apostle John followed after the Lord when they led Him bound from the Garden of Gethsemane to the court of the iniquitous High Priests Annas and Caiphas. He was there in the courtyard of the High Priest during the interrogations of his Teacher and he resolutely followed after him on the way to Golgotha, grieving with all his heart.
At the foot of the Cross he stood with the Mother of God and heard the words of the Crucified Lord addressed to Her from the Cross: "Woman, behold Thy son." Then the Lord said to him, "Behold thy Mother" (John 19:26-27). From that moment the Apostle John, like a loving son, concerned himself over the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and he served Her until Her Dormition.

After the Dormition of the Mother of God the Apostle John went to Ephesus and other cities of Asia Minor to preach the Gospel, taking with him his own disciple Prochorus. They boarded a ship, which floundered during a terrible tempest. All the travellers were cast up upon dry ground, and only the Apostle John remained in the depths of the sea. Prochorus wept bitterly, bereft of his spiritual father and guide, and he went on towards Ephesus alone.

On the fourteenth day of his journey he stood at the shore of the sea and saw that the waves had cast a man ashore. Going up to him, he recognized the Apostle John, whom the Lord had preserved alive for fourteen days in the sea. Teacher and disciple went to Ephesus, where the Apostle John preached incessantly to the pagans about Christ. His preaching was accompanied by such numerous and great miracles, that the number of believers increased with each day.

During this time there had begun a persecution of Christians under the emperor Nero (56-68). They took the Apostle John for trial at Rome. St John was sentenced to death for his confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord preserved His chosen one. The apostle drank a cup of deadly poison, but he remained alive. Later, he emerged unharmed from a cauldron of boiling oil into which he had been thrown on orders from the torturer.

After this, they sent the Apostle John off to imprisonment to the island of Patmos, where he spent many years. Proceeding along on his way to the place of exile, St John worked many miracles. On the island of Patmos, his preaching and miracles attracted to him all the inhabitants of the island, and he enlightened them with the light of the Gospel. He cast out many devils from the pagan temples, and he healed a great multitude of the sick.

Sorcerers with demonic powers showed great hostility to the preaching of the holy apostle. He especially frightened the chief sorcerer of them all, named Kinops, who boasted that they would destroy the apostle. But the great John, by the grace of God acting through him, destroyed all the demonic artifices to which Kinops resorted, and the haughty sorcerer perished in the depths of the sea.

The Apostle John withdrew with his disciple Prochorus to a desolate height, where he imposed upon himself a three-day fast. As St John prayed the earth quaked and thunder rumbled. Prochorus fell to the ground in fright. The Apostle John lifted him up and told him to write down what he was about to say. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev 1:8), proclaimed the Spirit of God through the Apostle John. Thus in about the year 67 the Book of Revelation was written, known also as the "Apocalypse," of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. In this Book were predictions of the tribulations of the Church and of the end of the world.

After his prolonged exile, the Apostle John received his freedom and returned to Ephesus, where he continued with his activity, instructing Christians to guard against false teachers and their erroneous teachings. In the year 95, the Apostle John wrote his Gospel at Ephesus. He called for all Christians to love the Lord and one another, and by this to fulfill the commands of Christ. The Church calls St John the "Apostle of Love", since he constantly taught that without love man cannot come near to God.

In his three Epistles, St John speaks of the significance of love for God and for neighbor. Already in his old age, he learned of a youth who had strayed from the true path to follow the leader of a band of robbers, so St John went out into the wilderness to seek him. Seeing the holy Elder, the guilty one tried to hide himself, but the Apostle John ran after him and besought him to stop. He promised to take the sins of the youth upon himself, if only he would repent and not bring ruin upon his soul. Shaken by the intense love of the holy Elder, the youth actually did repent and turn his life around.

St John when he was more than a hundred years old. he far outlived the other eyewitnesses of the Lord, and for a long time he remained the only remaining eyewitness of the earthly life of the Savior.

When it was time for the departure of the Apostle John, he went out beyond the city limits of Ephesus with the families of his disciples. He bade them prepare for him a cross-shaped grave, in which he lay, telling his disciples that they should cover him over with the soil. The disciples tearfully kissed their beloved teacher, but not wanting to be disobedient, they fulfilled his bidding. They covered the face of the saint with a cloth and filled in the grave. Learning of this, other disciples of St John came to the place of his burial. When they opened the grave, they found it empty.

Each year from the grave of the holy Apostle John on May 8 came forth a fine dust, which believers gathered up and were healed of sicknesses by it. Therefore, the Church also celebrates the memory of the holy Apostle John the Theologian on May 8.

The Lord bestowed on His beloved disciple John and John's brother James the name "Sons of Thunder" as an awesome messenger in its cleansing power of the heavenly fire. And precisely by this the Savior pointed out the flaming, fiery, sacrificial character of Christian love, the preacher of which was the Apostle John the Theologian. The eagle, symbol of the lofty heights of his theological thought, is the iconographic symbol of the Evangelist John the Theologian. The appellation "Theologian" is bestown by Holy Church only to St John among the immediate disciples and Apostles of Christ, as being the seer of the mysterious Judgments of God.

287 Sts. Cosmos & Damian skilled in medicine charitous
Ægéæ natális sanctórum Mártyrum Cosmæ et Damiáni fratrum, qui, in persecutióne Diocletiáni, post multa torménta, víncula et cárceres, post mare et ignes, cruces, lapidatiónem et sagíttas divínitus superátas, cápite plectúntur; cum quibus étiam referúntur passi tres eórum fratres germáni, id est Anthimus, Leóntius et Euprépius.
    At Aegea, during the persecution of Diocletian, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, brothers.  After miraculously overcoming many torments from bonds, imprisonment, fire, crucifixion, stoning, arrows, and from being cast into the sea, they were beheaded.  With them are said to have suffered three brothers: Anthimus, Leontius, and Euprepius.
SS. COSMAS AND DAMIAN. MARTYRS
COSMAS and Damian are the principal and best known of those saints venerated in the East as greek_cosmas_damian.gif , moneyless ones, because they practised medicine without taking reward from their patients. Though some writers have professed to be able to extract from their very extravagant and historically worthless acta fragments of lost and authentic originals, it is the opinion of Father Delehaye that their “origin and true history will probably always evade research”. Alban Butler summarizes the core of their story thus:
Saints Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers, born in Arabia, who studied the sciences in Syria and became eminent for their skill in medicine. Being Christians, and full of that holy temper of charity in which the spirit of our divine religion consists, they practised their profession with great application and success, but never took any fee for their services. They lived at Aegeae on the bay of Alexandretta in Cilicia, and were remarkable both for the love and respect which the people bore them on account of the good offices which they received from their charity, and for their zeal for the Christian faith, which they took every opportunity their profession gave them to propagate. When persecution began to rage, it was impossible for persons of so distinguished a character to lie concealed They were therefore apprehended by the order of Lysias, governor of Cilicia, and after various torments were beheaded for the faith. Their bodies were carried into Syria, and buried at Cyrrhus, which was the chief centre of their cult us and where the earliest references locate their martyrdom.
<>The legends pad out this simple story with numerous marvels. For example, before they were eventually beheaded they defied death by water, fire and crucifixion. While they were hanging on the crosses the mob stoned them, but the missiles recoiled on the heads of the throwers; in the same way the arrows of archers who were brought up to shoot at them turned in the air and scattered the bowmen (the same thing is recorded of St Christopher and others). The three brothers of Cosmas and Damian, Anthimus, Leontius and Euprepius, are said to have suffered with them, and their names are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. Many miracles of healing were ascribed to them after their death, the saints sometimes appearing to the sufferers in sleep and prescribing for them or curing them there and then, as was supposed to happen to pagan devotees in the temples of Aesculapius and Serapis.

Among the distinguished people who attributed recovery from serious sickness to SS. Cosmas and Damian was the Emperor Justinian I, who out of regard for their relics honoured the city of Cyrrhus; and two churches at Constantinople are said to have been built in honour of the martyrs in the early fifth century. Their basilica at Rome with its lovely mosaics was dedicated c. 530. SS. Cosmas and Damian are named in the canon of the Mass, and they are, with St Luke, the patrons of physicians and surgeons. By an error the Byzantine Christians honour three pairs of saints of this name. “It should be known”, says the Synaxary of Constantinople, “that there are three groups of martyrs of the names of Cosmas and Damian: those of Arabia who were beheaded under Diocletian [October 17], those of Rome who were stoned under Carinus [July 1], and the sons of Theodora, who died peacefully [November 1]”, but these are all actually the same martyrs.

As has been said, physicians honour Cosmas and Damian as their patrons, with St Pantaleon and after St Luke. Happy are they in that profession who are glad to take the opportunities of charity which their art continually offers, of giving comfort and corporal, if not often also spiritual, succour to the suffering and distressed, especially among the poor. St Ambrose, St Basil and St Bernard warn us against too anxious a care of health as a mark of untrustingness and self-love, nor is anything generally more hurtful to health. But as man is not master of his own life or health, he is bound to take a reasonable care not to throw them away; and to neglect the more simple and ordinary aids of medicine when they are required is to transgress that charity which everyone owes to himself. The saints who condemned difficult or expensive measures as contrary to their state were, with St Charles Borrorneo, scrupulously attentive to prescriptions of physicians in simple and ordinary remedies. But let the Christian in sickness seek in the first place the health of his soul by penitence and the exercise of patience.

The many recensions of the passio of these saints are catalogued in BHG. and BHL. The texts printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. vii, serve abundantly to illustrate their fabulous nature, though others have come to light in recent years. See with regard to the early cultus the references given in CMH., pp. 528-529; and also Delehaye, The Legends of the Saints, Les origines du culte des martyrs, and other works. The data supplied in L. Deubner, Kosmas und Damianus (1907) deserve special notice. Cf. also Fr Thurston  in the Catholic Medical Guardian. October 1923. pp. 92-95. SS. Cosmas and Damian are named in the preparation of the Byzantine Mass.
Sts. Cosmos and Damian were brothers, born in Arabia, who had become eminent for their skill in the science of medicine. Being Christians, they were filled with the spirit of charity and never took money for their services. At Egaea in Cilicia, where they lived, they enjoyed the highest esteem of the people. When the persecution under Diocletian broke out, their very prominence rendered them marked objects of persecution. Being apprehended by order of Lysias, governor of Cilicia, they underwent various torments about the year 283. Their feast day is September 26th. They are patron saints of pharmacists.  (d. 303?)  
Nothing is known of their lives except that they suffered martyrdom in Syria during the persecution of Diocletian. A church erected on the site of their burial place was enlarged by the emperor Justinian. Devotion to the two saints spread rapidly in both East and West. A famous basilica was erected in their honor in Constantinople. Their names were placed in the canon of the Mass, probably in the sixth century.

Legend says that they were twin brothers born in Arabia, who became skilled doctors. They were among those who are venerated in the East as the "moneyless ones" because they did not charge a fee for their services. It was impossible that such prominent persons would escape unnoticed in time of persecution: They were arrested and beheaded.
Comment:   For a long time, it seems, we have been very conscious of Jesus' miracles as proofs of his divinity. What we sometimes overlook is Jesus' consuming interest in simply healing people's sickness, whatever other meaning his actions had. The power that "went out from him" was indeed a sign that God was definitively breaking into human history in final fulfillment of his promises; but the love of God was also concrete in a very human heart that was concerned about the suffering of his brothers and sisters. It is a reminder to Christians that salvation is for the whole person, the unique body-spirit unity.
Quote:    "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) .
300 St. Callistratus African martyr with 49 soldiers.
Romæ sancti Callístrati Mártyris, et aliórum quadragínta novem mílitum; qui mílites, in persecutióne Diocletiáni Imperatóris, cum Callístratus, insútus cúleo et in mare demérsus, divína ope evasísset incólumis, ad Christiánam religiónem convérsi sunt, et cum eo páriter martyrium subiérunt.
    At Rome, in the persecution of Diocletian, the holy martyr Callistratus and forty-nine other soldiers who endured martyrdom together.  The companions of Callistratus were converted to Christ upon seeing him miraculously delivered from drowning in the sea, although he had been sewn up in a bag and thrown in.
They were put to death at Constantinople in the persecution conducted in the reign of Emperor Diocletian.
304 St. Justina of Antioch; birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian and the virgin Justina; black magic and diabolical expertise to win her for himself but was repelled by her faith and the aid of Mary; He then turned to a priest named Eusebius for instruction and was converted to Christianity. He destroyed his magical books, gave his wealth to the poor, and was baptized, as was Aglaides.
   Justina then gave away her possessions and dedicated herself to God
Nicomedíæ natális sanctórum Mártyrum Cypriáni et Justínæ Vírginis.  Hæc, sub Diocletiáno Imperatóre et Eutólmio Præside, cum multa pro Christo pertulísset, ipsum quoque Cypriánum, qui erat magnus et suis mágicis ártibus eam dementáre conabátur, ad Christiánam fidem convértit; cum quo póstea martyrium sumpsit.  Eórum córpora, feris objécta, rapuérunt noctu quidam nautæ Christiáni, et Romam detulérunt; quæ, póstmodum in Basílicam Constantiniánam transláta, prope Baptistérium cóndita sunt.
    At Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian and the virgin Justina.  Under Emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholmius, Justina suffered greatly for the faith of Christ, and thus converted Cyprian, who, while a magician, had endeavoured to bring her under the influence of his magical practices.  She afterwards suffered martyrdom with him.  Their bodies were exposed to the beasts, but were taken away in the night by some Christian sailors, and carried to Rome.  They were subsequently taken into the Constantinian basilica, and buried near the baptistry.

SS. CYPRIAN AND JUSTINA, MARTYRS  THE legend of this St Cyprian, distinguished as of Antioch, is a moral tale, utterly fabulous (if there ever were a martyred Cyprian and Justina on whom the story was built all trace of them has been lost), composed in order to impress on the listener or reader the powerlessness of the Devil and his angels in the face of Christian chastity defending itself with the might of the Cross. The tale has been worked up from various sources, and was known at least as early as the fourth century, for St Gregory Nazianzen identifies this Cyprian with the great St Cyprian of Carthage; the poet Prudentius makes the same mistake. The story as told by Alban Butler is as follows:

Cyprian, surnamed the Magician, was a native of Antioch who was brought up in all the impious mysteries of idolatry, astrology and black magic. In hopes of making great discoveries in these infernal arts, he left his native country when he was grown up and travelled to Athens, Mount Olympus in Macedonia, Argos, Phrygia, Memphis in Egypt, Chaldaea, and the Indies, places at that time famous for superstition and magical practices. When Cyprian had filled his head with all the extravagances of these schools of wickedness and delusion he stuck at no crimes, blasphemed Christ, and committed secret murders in order to offer the blood and inspect the bowels of children as decisive of future events; nor did he scruple to use his arts to overcome the chastity of women. At that time there lived at Antioch a lady called Justina, whose beauty drew all eyes upon her. She was born of heathen parents but was brought over to the Christian faith by overhearing a deacon preaching, and her conversion was followed by that of her father and mother. A young pagan, Aglaides, fell deeply in love with her, and finding himself unable to win her to his will he applied to Cyprian for the assistance of his art. Cyprian was no less enamoured of the lady than his friend, and tried every secret with which he was acquainted to conquer her resolution. Justina, finding herself vigorously attacked, armed herself by prayer, watchfulness and mortification against all his artifices and the power of his spells, suppliantly beseeching the Virgin Mary that she would succour a virgin in danger. Three times she overcame the assaults of demons sent by Cyprian by blowing in their faces and making the sign of the cross.

Cyprian, finding himself worsted by a superior power, threatened his last emissary, who was the Devil himself, that he would abandon his service. The Devil, enraged to lose one by whom he had made so many conquests, assailed Cyprian with the utmost fury, and he was only repulsed by Cyprian himself making the sign of the cross. The soul of the penitent sinner was seized with a gloomy melancholy, which brought him almost to the brink of despair, at the sight of his past crimes. God inspired him in this perplexity to address himself to a priest named Eusebius, who had formerly been his school-fellow, and by the advice of this priest he was comforted and encouraged in his conversion. Cyprian, who in the trouble of his heart had been three days without eating, by the counsel of this director took some food, and on the following Sunday was conducted by him to the assembly of the Christians. So much was Cyprian struck by the reverence and devotion with which their divine worship was performed that he said of it, I saw the choir of heavenly men-or of angels-singing to God, adding at the end of every verse in the psalms the Hebrew word Alleluia, so that they seemed not to be men. *[*In the course of a footnote Butler here tells a story which admirably illustrates an eighteenth-century deist's knowledge of and attitude towards Catholic worship. Lord Bolingbroke, being one day present at Mass in the chapel at Versailles and seeing the bishop elevate the host, was much impressed and whispered to his companion, the Marquess de --, If I were king of France, I would always perform that ceremony myself!
Everyone present was astonished to see Cyprian introduced among them by a priest, and the bishop was scarce able to believe that his conversion was sincere. But Cyprian gave him a proof the next day by burning before his eyes all his magical books, giving his goods to the poor, and entering himself among the catechumens.

After due instruction and preparation, he received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of the bishop. Aglaides was likewise converted and baptized. Justina herself was so moved at these wonderful examples of the divine mercy that she cut off her hair as a sign that she dedicated her virginity to God, and disposed of her jewels and all her possessions to the poor. Cyprian was made door-keeper and then promoted to the priesthood, and, after the death of Anthimus the bishop, was placed in the episcopal chair of Antioch. [No known bishop of Antioch in Syria or Antioch in Pisidia was called either Cyprian or Anthimus.] When the persecution of Diocletian began, Cyprian was apprehended and carried before the governor of Phoenicia, who resided at Tyre. Justina had retired to Damascus, her native country, which city at that time was subject to the same authority and, falling into the hands of the persecutors, was presented to the same judge. She was inhumanly scourged, and Cyprian was torn with iron hooks. After this they were both sent in chains to Diocletian at Nicomedia who, upon reading the letter of the governor of Phoenicia, without more ado commanded their heads to be struck off. This sentence was executed upon the banks of the river Gallus, after a vain effort had been made to slay the martyrs by boiling them in a cauldron of pitch.

This legend was widely popular, as the many texts in Latin and Greek, not to speak of other languages, abundantly attest. Some part of the story was certainly known before the time of St Gregory Nazianzen, for the orator, preaching about the year 379, attributes to St Cyprian of Carthage a number of incidents which are taken from the legend of Cyprian of Antioch. None the less no shred of evidence can be produced to justify the belief that any such persons as Cyprian of Antioch, the quondam magician, and Justina the virgin martyr, ever existed. See on this especially Delehaye, Cyprien d'Antioche et Cyprien de Carthage in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxix (1921), pp. 314-332. Apart from the text of the legend, which may be read in the Acta Sanctorum (September, vol. vii), and elsewhere in other forms, the story has given rise to a considerable literature. See, for example, T. Zahn, Cyprian von Antiochien und die deutsche Faustsage (1882); R. Reitzenstein, Cyprian der Magier in the Göttingen Nachrichten, 1917, pp. 38-79; and Rademacher, Griechische Quellen zur Faustsage in the Vienna Sitzungsberichte, vol. 206 (1927). This legend was taken by Calderon as the theme for one of the most famous of his dramas, El Mugico Prodigioso, and passages from this were selected by Shelley in his Scenes from Calderon.

   Cyprian was a native of Antioch who became a practitioner of sorcery and black magic. He traveled widely in Greece, Egypt, Macedonia, and the Indies to broaden his knowledge of the black arts.
  When Aglaides, a young pagan, fell in love with beautiful Justina, a Christian of Antioch, he asked Cyprian to help him win her. Cyprian tried all his black magic and diabolical expertise to win her for himself but was repelled by her faith and the aid of Mary. He called on the devil, who assailed Justina with every weapon in his arsenal, to no avail. When Cyprian realized the overwhelming power of the forces arrayed against him and the devil, Cyprian threatened to leave the devil's service; whereupon the devil turned on Cyprian, only to be repulsed by the sign of the cross made by a repentant Cyprian, who realized the sinfulness of his past life.
   He then turned to a priest named Eusebius for instruction and was converted to Christianity. He destroyed his magical books, gave his wealth to the poor, and was baptized, as was Aglaides.
   Justina then gave away her possessions and dedicated herself to God. In time Cyprian was ordained and later was elected bishop of Antioch. He was arrested during Diocletian's persecution of the Christians and tortured at Tyre by the governor of Phoenicia, as was Justina. They were then sent to Diocletian, who had them beheaded at Nicomedia
.
400 St. Senator of the Albano catacomb is the largest and the most important of the ones outside Rome
Albáni sancti Senatóris.    At Albano, St. Senator.
A virtually unknown saint said to come from Albanum, a location which could be one of several sites, including Italy and France.
The Albano catacomb is the largest and the most important of the ones outside Rome. In the central crypt there are some well-preserved wall-paintings, including the one representing  St. Senator, after whom the catacomb is named (late 4th  – early 5th cent A.D.
)
Bonóniæ sancti Eusébii, Epíscopi et Confessóris.
    St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor at Bologna,
400 Bishop of Bologna, Italy, from circa 370 and a close friend of St. Ambrose of Milan. An opponent of Arianism, he is credited with the discovery of the relics of Sts. Agricola and Vitalis.
506 St. Vigilius Bishop of Brescia, in Lombardy Italy.
Bríxiæ sancti Vigílii Epíscopi.    At Brescia, St. Vigilius, bishop.
He aided local monasteries and worked to establish a solid foundation for the diocese.
6th v.  St. Meugant Hermit of Britain
Hermit of Britain. Also called Maughan, Mawghan, and Morgan, he was a disciple of St. Illtyd and reportedly died on the island of Bardsey. He is the titular patron of churches in Wales and Cornwall
.
600 St. Amantius Patron saint of Cittá di Castello a priest distinguished for the gift of miracles.
Tiférni, in Umbria, sancti Amántii Presbyteri, virtúte miraculórum illústris.
    At Tiferno in Umbria, St. Amantius, a priest distinguished for the gift of miracles
Italy. Amantius was a parish priest in the city, venerated by Pope St. Gregory I the Great because of his sanctity.
612 St. Colman of Elo Abbot bishop;  author of the Alphabet of Devotion
also called Colman Lann Elo. He was born circa 555 at Glenelly, Tyrone, Ireland, the nephew of St. Columba, In 590, he built a monastery at Offaly. He also founded Muckamore Abbey and became bishop of Connor. Colman was the author of the Alphabet of Devotion. He died at Lynally on December 26
.
ST COLMAN OF LANN ELO, ABBOT (A.D. 611)
THERE are dozens of saints of the name of Colman who have been or are still venerated in Ireland; twelve are mentioned in calendars in this month of September alone, and of them the most important one is St Colman of Lann Elo. He belonged to a family of Meath, but was born in Glenelly in Tyrone, about the year 555. He came under the influence of St Colmcille, who was his maternal uncle. Colman visited him at Iona, and is said to have been delivered from the perils of the voyage by his uncle's prayers. About the year 590 land was given to him in Offaly, where he founded a monastery and so fulfilled the prophecy made by St Macanisius sixty years earlier. (He is sometimes referred to as Coarb of MacNisse, perhaps because he exercised some authority at Connor in Antrim, where he stayed for a time and Macanisius was buried.) Colman's famous monastery was called Lann Elo, EOW Lynally. Near the end of his life he made a pilgrimage to Clonard, where he had a vision of St Finnian, and on his return announced his approaching death to his monks. A number of miracles of a familiar type are attributed to St Colman Elo, and to him is attributed the authorship of the tract called Aibgitir in Chrabaid, the Alphabet of Devotion. He is also said to have been deprived for a while of his memory in punishment of his pride of intellect, and then to have recovered it again by a miracle.

There is both an Irish and a Latin life of St Colman Elo. The former has been edited by C. Plummer in his Bethada Naem nÉrenn (Eng. trans. in vol. ii, pp. 162-176); and the latter by the same scholar in VSH., vol. i, pp. 258-273. See also Canon E. Maguire, St Barron (1923); and J. Ryan, Irish Monasticism (1931).

1000 St. Nilus the Younger Abbot Born in Calabria southern Italy,
In agro Tusculáno beáti Nili Abbátis, qui fundátor monastérii Cryptæ Ferrátæ ac vir magnæ sanctitátis éxstitit.
    In the Tuscan plain, the blessed Abbot Nilus, founder of the monastery of Grottaferrata, a man of eminent sanctity.
ST NILUS OF ROSSANO, ABBOT (A.D. 1004)
NILUS, sometimes called  the Younger, was born of a Greek family of Magna Graecia at Rossano in Calabria about the year 910, and was baptized Nicholas. So far from being in his youth fervent in religious duties and in the practice of all virtues, as Alban Butler avers, he was at least lukewarm and careless in his early life; it has even been questioned whether the lady with whom he lived, and who bore him a daughter, was married to him. But when he was thirty she and the child died, and this double bereavement, aided by a serious sickness, recalled him to a sense of his responsibilities and brought about a complete turning to God. At that time there were a number of monasteries of monks of the Byzantine rite in southern Italy, and Nicholas received the habit at one of them, taking the name of Nilus. At different times he lived in several of these monasteries, after being for a period a hermit, and became abbot of St Adrian's, near San Demetrio Corone. The reputation of his sanctity and learning was soon spread over the country and many came to him for spiritual advice. On one occasion the archbishop, Theophylact of Reggio, with the domesticus Leo, many priests, and others went to him, rather desiring to try his erudition and skill than to hear any lessons for their edification. The abbot knew their intention, but having saluted them courteously and made a short prayer with them, he put into the hands of Leo a book in which
 were contained certain theories concerning the small number of the elect, which seemed to the company too severe. But the saint undertook to prove them to be clearly founded on the principles laid down not only by St Basil, St john Chrysostom, St Ephrern, St Theodore the Studite, and other fathers, but by St Paul and the gospel itself, adding at the close of his discourse, These statements seem dreadful, but they only condemn the irregularity of your lives. Unless you be altogether holy you will not escape everlasting torments. One of them then asked the abbot whether Solomon were damned or saved? To which he replied, What does it concern us to know whether he be saved or no? But it is needful for you to reflect that Christ pronounces damnation against all persons who commit impurity. This he said knowing that the person who put the question was addicted to that vice. And he added, I would know whether you will be damned or saved. As for Solomon, the Bible makes no mention of his repentance, as it does of that of Manasses. Euphraxus was not satisfied and continued so urgent that the saint at length gave him the habit. The governor made all his slaves free, distributed his estate among the poor, and died three days later with holy resignation. Euphraxus, a vain and haughty nobleman, was sent as governor of Calabria from the imperial court of Constantinople. St Nilus made him no presents upon his arrival, as other prelates did, and so the governor sought every occasion of mortifying the servant of God. But shortly after, falling sick, he sent for Nilus and begged his pardon and prayers, and asked to receive the monastic habit from his hands. St Nilus refused a long time to give it him, saying, Your baptismal vows are sufficient for you. Penance requires no new vows but a sincere change of heart and life.

About the year 981 the Saracen incursions into south Italy compelled St Nilus to flee, and with many of his monks this representative of Eastern monachism threw himself upon the hospitality of the headquarters of Western monachism at Monte Cassino. They were received as if St Antony had come from Alexandria, or their own great St Benedict from the dead, and after living in the house for a time and celebrating their Greek offices in the church, the Benedictine abbot, Aligern, bestowed upon the fugitives the monastery of Vallelucio. There they lived for fifteen years, and then moved to Serper i, near Gaeta. When in the year 998 the Emperor Otto III came to Rome to expel Philagathos, Bishop of Piacenza, whom the senator Crescentius had set up as antipope against Gregory V, St Nilus went to intercede with the pope and emperor that the antipope might be treated with mildness. Philagathos (John XVI) was a Calabrian like himself, and Nilus had tried in vain to dissuade him from his schism and treason. The abbot was listened to with respect, but he was not able to do much to modify the atrocious cruelty with which the aged antipope was treated.  When a prelate was sent to make an explanation to Nilus, who had protested vigorously against the injuries done to the helpless Philagathos, he pretended to fall asleep in order to avoid an argument about it. Some time after Otto paid a visit to the laura of St Nilus; he was surprised to see his monastery consisting of poor scattered huts, and said, These men who live in tents as strangers on earth are truly citizens of Heaven. Nilus conducted the emperor first to the church, and after praying there entertained him in his cell. Otto pressed the saint to accept some spot of ground in his dominions, promising to endow it. Nilus thanked him and answered, If my brethren arc truly monks our divine Master will not forsake them when I am gone. In taking leave the emperor vainly asked him to accept some gift: St Nilus, laying his hand upon Otto's breast, said, The only thing I ask of you is that you would save your soul. Though emperor, you must die and give an account to God, like other men.

In 1004 (or 1005) Nilus set out to visit a monastery south of Tusculum and on the journey was taken ill among the Alban hills. Here he had a vision of our Lady, in which he learned that this was to be the abiding home of his monks. From Gregory, Count of Tusculum, he got a grant of land on the lower slopes of Monte Cavo and sent for his community to establish themselves there. But before the work could be begun he was dead. It was carried on by his successors, especially by St Bartholomew, who died about 1050; the monastery of Grottaferrata (of which St Nilus is generally accounted the first abbot as well as founder) has existed from that day to this, peopled by Italo-Greek monks, who thus have maintained the Byzantine life and liturgy within a few miles of the heart, not merely of the Latin, but of the Catholic world.

A life of serious value as a historical source, which was written in Greek by one of his disciples, is printed with a Latin translation in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. vii. This biography has more than once been translated into Italian, e.g, by G. Minasi, San Nilo di Calabria (1893), and by A. Rocchi, Vita di San Nilo abate (1904). St Nilus was also a writer of liturgical poetry, and his compositions have been edited by Sofronio Gassisi, Poesie di S. Nilo juniore (1906). On the question of Nilus's alleged marriage see U. Benigni in Miscellanea di storia e coltura ecclesiastica (1905), pp. 494-496. His view is adverse to the existence of any legitimate union. See also J. Gay, L'Italie méridionale et l'Empire byzantin (1904), pp. 268-286.

  Born to Greek parents, he spent dissolute youth until deciding to enter the Basilian order after his mistress and their child died when he was about thirty years old. After living as a hermit for a time, he took up residence in several communities and finally was elected abbot over San Demetrio Corone.
   In 981, marauding Saracens threatened southern Italy, and Nilus fled with his monks to Monte Cassino. After spending fifteen years in the monastery of Vallelucio which had been given to the monks for their use, he founded a new community at Serpero. Later he received a grant of land from Count Gregory of Tusculum and so established the community which became the Monastery of Grottaferrata under Nilus’ disciple St Bartholomew. Nilus died at Frascati on December 27
.
1159 St. John of Meda abbot Rule of St. Benedict to Milan; A secular priest from Como, Italy, John joined the Humiliati, a penitential institute of laymen who brought the Rule of St. Benedict to the Humiliati in Milan, Italy.
A secular priest from Como, Italy, John joined the Humiliati, a penitential institute of laymen. He introduced the Little Office of Our Lady and the rule of St. Benedict. Pope Alexander III canonized him
.
ST JOHN OF MEDA
THERE is considerable discussion about the origins of the penitential association of lay-people who were in the middle ages called Humiliati, and the quite unreliable legend of St John of Meda does little but add to the confusion. In the earlier part of the twelfth century numbers of persons of good position in northern Italy, while still living in the world, gave themselves up entirely to works of penance and charity; and we are told that in the year 1134 some of the men, on the advice of St Bernard, gave up secular life altogether and began community life at Milan. At this time, it is said, there was a certain secular priest from Como, John of Meda, who had been a hermit at Rodenario and then joined the Humiliati. He belonged to the Oldrati of Milan, and was a welcome recruit for the new community. On his recommendation they chose to live under the Rule of St Benedict, which St John adapted to their needs, but they nevertheless called themselves canons. Among the peculiar observances which St John is supposed to have introduced was the daily recitation of the Little Office of our Lady and the use of a special Divine Office, called simply the Office of the Canons. Whatever the early history of the Humiliati, the order eventually went into a bad decline and was suppressed by the Holy See in 157I.

In the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. vii, the Bollandists have published a short medieval life, introducing it with lengthy prolegomena. It is much to be feared that this pretended biography and indeed the whole traditional early history of the Humiliati is no better than a romance. A review of the controversy is impossible here, but it has been excellently summarized, with abundant bibliographical references, by F. Vernet in DTC., vol. vi, cc. 307-321. It must suffice to mention the important work of L. Zanoni, Gli Umiliati nei  loro rapporti con I'Eresia (1911); the earlier investigation of Tiraboschi, Vetera Humiliatorum Monumenta (1766-1768); and the perhaps hypercritical article of A. de Stefano, LeOrigini dell' ordine degli Umiliati in the Rivista storico-critica delle scienze teologice, vol. ii (1906), pp. 851-871.

13th v. BD LUCY OF CALTAGIRONE, VIRGIN special devotion to the Five Wounds; and miracles were attributed to her both before and after her death
CALTAGIRONE, a town in Sicily well-known in later times as the home of Don Luigi Sturzo, was the birthplace of this beata, but she seems to have spent her life in a convent of Franciscan regular tertiaries at Salerno. Very little is known about her. She became mistress of novices, and instilled into her charges her own, the date of which is not known. Bd Lucy's cultus seems to have been approved by Popes Callistus III and Leo X.

See the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. vii.

1341 BD DALMATIUS MONER he was...gently floating down to the ground. The lessons of his office say that he was familiarly known as 'the brother who talks with the angels':  a copy of Eymeric's work was identified and edited by Fr van Ortroy in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912), pp. 49-81. This memoir is extremely interesting because we have evidence that, unlike most hagiographical documents, it was written within ten years of the death of its subject.

The life of this confessor of the order of Friars Preachers was passed in the obscurity of his cell and the quiet discharge of his ordinary duties; he was concerned in no public affairs whether of an ecclesiastical or secular nature. He belonged by birth to the village of Santa Columba in Catalonia and was eventually sent to the University of Montpellier. Here he had to struggle hard lest he be drawn into the disorderly life led by so many of the students; with the aid of grace he triumphed and, after finishing his studies, was accepted by the Dominicans at Gerona. Bd Dalmatius was then twenty-five and after profession was employed for many years in teaching, and became master of the novices. To those prescribed by his rule he added voluntary mortifications, such as abstaining from drink for three weeks on end and sleeping in an old chair, and he loved to pray out of doors in places where the beauty of nature spoke to him of the glory of God. It is said that one day, when Brother Dalmatius was missing and another friar was sent to find him, he was found to he literally caught up in ecstasy, and three people saw him gently floating down to the ground. The lessons of his office say that he was familiarly known as the brother who talks with the angels; but with women he would not talk at all, except over his shoulder. We are told that his personal appearance was somewhat unattractive.

It was a great desire of Bd Dalmatius to end his days at La Sainte Baume, where the legend of Provence says thirty years were spent by St Mary Magdalen, patroness of the Dominican Order, to whom he had an intense devotion. This was not to be, but he was allowed to hollow out for himself a cave in the friary grounds at Gerona and he lived in that uncomfortable place for four years, leaving it only to go to choir, chapter and refectory. Bd Dalmatius died on September 24, 1341, and his cultus was confirmed in 1721.

The Bollandists, writing of Bd Dalmatius in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. vi, were unable to procure the original Latin life of this holy ascetic which they knew had been compiled by his contemporary and fellow religious, the famous inquisitor, Nicholas Eymeric. They therefore reproduced in Latin the Spanish translation, or rather adaptation, of the original, which had been made by Francis Diego for his history of the Aragon province of the Friars Preachers. In the early years, however, of the present century a copy of Eymeric's work was identified and it was edited by Fr van Ortroy in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxxi (1912), pp. 49-81. This memoir is extremely interesting because we have evidence that, unlike most hagiographical documents, it was written within ten years of the death of its subject.

1492 Saint Ephraim of Perekop, Novgorod; he persuaded his parents, Stephen and Annathem to leave the world and accept monasticism. Later, they also finished their earthly paths living as hermits; received a revelation from the Lord, commanding him to withdraw to a desolate place; St Ephraim was buried at the church of St Nicholas. In 1509, frequent floodings threatened the monastery with ruin, it was transferred to another location at the shore of Lake Ilmen. St Ephraim appeared to the igumen Romanus and pointed to the site of Klinkovo for relocating the monastery.

Born on September 20, 1412 in the city of Kashin. In Holy Baptism he was named Eustathius. His parents, Stephen and Anna, lived not far from the Kashin women's monastery named in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Drawn to the solitary life, Eustathius left his parental home while still in his early years and settled in the Kalyazin monastery of the Most Holy Trinity. His parents wanted their son to return home, but he persuaded
his parents, Stephen and Annathem to leave the world and accept monasticism. Later, they also finished their earthly paths living as hermits.

After three years in the monastery, Eustathius, through a miraculous revelation, transferred to the monastery of St Sava of Vishersk (October 1). It was there in 1437 that he accepted tonsure with the name Ephraim. While in the monastery, St Ephraim received a revelation from the Lord, commanding him to withdraw to a desolate place.

Having received the blessing of St Sava, in 1450 he went to Lake Ilmen, at the mouth of the River Verenda, and on the banks of the River Cherna he built a cell. After a certain while the Elder Thomas and two monks came to St Ephraim, and they settled not far from his cell. From that time, other hermits also began to gather to the new monastery. At their request St Ephraim was ordained a priest at Novgorod by St Euthymius (March 11).

Returning from Novgorod, St Ephraim built a church in honor of the Theophany of the Lord on an island, at the mouth of the River Verenda. To secure a ready supply of water for the monastery, the monk dug a canal to Lake Ilmen, from which the monastery received its name "Perekop" (from "perekopat'" meaning "to dig through"). Later on, St Ephraim built a stone church named for St Nicholas the Wonderworker. Unable to find sufficient skilled builders, he sent several monks to Great Prince Basil with a request for sending stone-workers. The construction of the temple was completed in 1466.

St Ephraim reposed on September 26, 1492 and was buried at the church of St Nicholas. In 1509, because of frequent floodings that threatened the monastery with ruin, it was transferred to another location at the shore of Lake Ilmen. St Ephraim appeared to the igumen Romanus and pointed to the site of Klinkovo for relocating the monastery.

Over the saint's tomb a chapel was built, since all the monastery churches were in ruins. On May 16, 1545 the relics of St Ephraim were transferred to the site of the new monastery. On this day there is an annual celebration of St Ephraim of Perekop at the monastery, confirmed after the glorification of the holy ascetic at the Council of 1549. (The Transfer of the Relics of St Ephraim of Perekop is celebrated May 16).



1642-1649 THE MARTYRS OF NORTH AMERICA
THE good intentions of the explorer James Cartier, to whom redounds the credit of having tried in 1534 to bring Christianity to Canada, as well as the later efforts of Samuel Champlain who founded Quebec in 1608, remained without permanent result. Nevertheless by the wish of the French King Henry IV, in this same year 1608, two Jesuits, Peter Biard and Ennemond Masse, had sailed from Europe, and on their arrival in Acadia (Nova Scotia) began work among the Souriquois Indians at Port Royal (now Annapolis). Their first task was to learn the language. Masse went into the woods to live with these nomad
 tribes and to pick up what he could of their speech, while Biard stayed at the settlement and bribed with food and sweets the few Indians who remained, in order to induce them to teach him the words he required. After a year they were able to draw up a catechism and to begin to teach. They found one of the two tribes they had to do with-the Etchemins-averse to Christianity, and the Souriquois, though more favourably disposed, lacking in the religious sense. All were given to drunkenness and sorcery, and all practised polygamy. Nevertheless by the time the missionaries were joined by fresh colonists and by two more Jesuit priests, as well as by a lay-brother, the work of evangelization seemed well inaugurated. But in 1613 a raid was made from the sea by the piratical English captain of a merchant vessel, who descended with his crew on the unfortunate inhabitants, pillaged the settlement, and set adrift fifteen of the colony, including Masse. He then sailed back to Virginia with Biard and Quentin on board. Eventually the missionaries found their way back to France, but their work of preaching the gospel was brought to a standstill.
  In the meantime Champlain, now governor of New France, was continually imploring that good religious should be sent out, and in 1615 several Franciscan's arrived at Tadroussac. They laboured heroically, hut finding that they could not ohtain enough men or enough money to convert the Indians, they invited the Jesuits to come to their assistance. In 1625 three priests of the Society of Jesus landed in Quebec in time to meet the Indian traders who had just murdered the friar Vial and his catechist and had thrown them into that part of the rapids which is still known as Sault-au-Recollet- Of the three new-comers one was Masse, returning to his former labours, but the two others, Brébeuf  and Charles Lalemant, were new to the work. When John de Brébeuf  entered the Jesuit seminary in Rouen, at the age of twenty-four, his constitution was so feeble that he could not pursue the usual courses of study, nor could he teach for any length of time. It seems almost incredible that this tuberculous invalid should have developed within a very few years into the giant apostle of the Hurons, whose powers of endurance and courage were so outstanding that the Indians who killed him drank his blood to infuse themselves with his valour
 
As Brébeuf  was unable to trust himself at once to the Hurons he wintered with the Algonquins, learning their speech and their customs under conditions of appalling discomfort, dirt and occasionally of hunger. The following year he went with a Franciscan and a fellow Jesuit to the Huron country. On the journey of 600 miles they were obliged, owing to the rapids, to carry their canoes thirty-five times and to drag them repeatedly, and all their baggage had to be carried by hand at these numerous portages. The Jesuits settled at Tad's Point, but Brébeuf 's companions were soon recalled and Brébeuf  was left alone with the Hurons, whose habit of living, less migratory than that of other tribes, gave the missionaries a better prospect of evangelizing them. He soon discovered that he was a source of constant suspicion to his hosts, who blamed him for every mishap that befell them and had a superstitious terror of the cross on the top of his cabin. During that period he failed to make a single convert among them. His stay was, however, cut short. The colony was in distress: the English closed the St Lawrence to all relief from France and obliged Champlain to surrender. Colonists and missionaries were forced to return to their own country, and Canada became, for the first time and for a short period, a British colony. Before long the indefatigable Champlain brought the matter to the law courts in London, and was able to prove so conclusively that the seizure of the colony was unjust that in 1632 Canada reverted to France.

Immediately the Franciscans were invited to return, but they had not enough men, and the Jesuits took up the work of evangelization once more. Father Le Jeune, who was placed in charge of the mission, came to New France in 1632, Antony Daniel soon followed, and in 1633 Brébeuf  and Masse arrived with Champlain, the governor. Le Jeune, who had been a Huguenot in early life, was a man of extraordinary ability and of wide vision. He considered the mission not merely a matter for a few priests and their supporters, but as an enterprise in which every French Catholic ought to be interested. He conceived the plan of keeping the entire nation informed of the actual conditions in Canada by a series of graphic descriptions, beginning with his own personal experiences on the voyage and his first impressions of the Indians. The earliest reports were written and despatched to France within two months and were published at the end of the year. These missives, known as “The Jesuit Relations, continued to pass from New to Old France almost without interruption, and often embodied the letters of other Jesuits, such as Brébeuf  and Perrault. They awakened interest not only in France but in all Europe. Immediately on their appearance a stream of emigration began to flow from the old country, and religious-both men and women-soon came to labour among the Indians, as well as to render spiritual help to the colonists. Father Antony Daniel, who was to be Brébeuf ''s companion for some time, was, like him, a Norman by birth. He was studying law when he decided to become a Jesuit, and previous to his departure for the New World had been in contact with those who had much to tell about the Canadian mission.

When the Hurons came to Quebec for their annual market they were delighted to meet Brébeuf  and to be addressed by him in their own language. They wished him to go back with them, and he was eager to do so, but they were frightened at the last moment by an Ottawa chieftain, and for the time refused. The following year, however, when they came again, they agreed to take Brébeuf , Daniel and another priest named Darost, and after a most uncomfortable journey in which they were robbed and abandoned by their guides, the three Jesuits reached their destination, where the Hurons built a hut for them. Brébeuf  gave his companions lessons in Huron, and Daniel, who proved himself an apt pupil, could soon lead the children in chanting the Lord's Prayer when Brébeuf  held assemblies in his cabin. Religion, as the Indians understood it, was solely based on fear, and the missionaries found it desirable to start with what they could apprehend. As Brébeuf  writes: “We began our catechizing with the memorable truth that their souls, which are immortal, all go after death either to paradise or hell. It is thus we approach them in public or in private. I explained that it rested with them during life to decide what their future lot was to be.” A great drought parched the land and threatened famine: the sorcerers could do nothing and the Indians were in despair. Brébeuf , to whom they appealed, told them to pray, and began a novena, at the close of which rain fell in abundance and the crops were saved. The Hurons were impressed, but the older members held fast to their old traditions and the middle-aged were indifferent and fickle. The Jesuits decided never to confer baptism on adults without long preparation and proof of constancy, but they baptized the sick near to death-of whom there were always a number, owing to the prevalence of epidemics. The children, on the other hand, were teachable and well disposed, though vice was so general that it was well-nigh impossible to preserve them from the contamination of their elders. It was therefore resolved to establish a seminary at Quebec for Indians, and Daniel started back with two or three children to found the new institution which became the centre of the missionaries' hopes. Daniel himself was not only the children's father, but their teacher, nurse and playmate. For a short time Brébeuf  was again alone among the Hurons and he then wrote for those who were to come to the Huron mission an instruction which afterwards became famous.

In 1636 arrived five more Jesuits, two of whom were destined to be numbered among the martyrs-Jogues, who was to become the apostle of a new Indian nation, and Garnier. Isaac Jogues had been born at Orleans, and after entering the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen at the age of seventeen had studied at the royal college of La Fleche, which Descartes considered one of the first schools of Europe. After his ordination he was appointed to Canada and sailed with the governor of New France, Huault de Montmagny. Charles Garnier was a Parisian, educated at the Clermont college. At nineteen he became a Jesuit, and after his ordination in 1635 he volunteered for the Canadian mission. He sailed with Jogues in 1636. Garnier was then thirty years of age, Jogues was twenty-nine.

While Brébeuf  was alone with the Hurons he had gone through the excitement of a threatened invasion by their bitter enemies the Iroquois, and had to witness the horrible sight of an Iroquois tortured to death. He could do nothing to avert this; but, as he had baptized the captive shortly before, he was determined to stand by to encourage him. He saw an aspect of Indian character which was a revelation to him. "Their mockery of their victim was fiendish. The more they burned his flesh and crushed his bones, the more they flattered and even caressed him. It was an all-night tragedy." Brébeuf  was witnessing what he himself would afterwards suffer. Five of the new-comers went almost at once to join Father de Brébeuf , and Jogues, who had not been intended at first for the Huron mission, followed a few months later. An epidemic which was raging in the village prostrated most of the missionaries for a time, and although even the convalescents ministered to the Indian sick, the village sorcerer spread the suspicion-which they were only temporarily able to allay-that the foreigners were the cause of the visitation.

Nevertheless in May 1637 Brébeuf  felt free to write to the father general of his order: We are gladly heard, we have baptized more than 200 this year, and there is hardly a village that has not invited us to go to it. Besides, the result of this pestilence and of these reports has been to make us better known to this people; and at last it is understood from our whole conduct that we have not come hither to buy skins or to carry on any traffic, but solely to teach them, and to procure for them their souls' health and in the end happiness which will last for ever. Again, however, the hopes of the missionaries received a check in consequence of a new outbreak of suspicion, culminating in a tribal council of twenty-eight villages which was practically a trial of the priests. Brébeuf  defended himself and his companions with spirit, but they were informed that they must die. They drew up a last statement for their superiors, and Brébeuf  invited the Indians to his farewell feast. There he harangued them about life after death, and so wrought upon them that he was adopted by them, and his companions were left in peace.

A second mission was established at Teanaustaye, and Lalemant was appointed in charge of both stations, whilst Brébeuf  at his own wish undertook the care of a new location, called Sainte-Marie, at some distance from the Indian villages. This settlement acted as a central bureau for missions and as a headquarters for priests and their attendants, as well as for the Frenchmen who served as labourers or soldiers. A hospital and a fort were erected and a cemetery established, and for five years the pioneers worked perseveringly, often undertaking long and perilous expeditions to other tribes-to the Petun or Tobacco Indians, the Ojibways, and to the Neuters north of Lake Erie-by whom they were more often than not very badly received. The first adult to be baptized (in 1637) was followed by over eighty, two years later, and by sixty in 1641. It did not seem much, but it proved that genuine conversion was possible. Lalemant, in his relation for 1639, wrote, We have sometimes wondered whether we could hope for the conversion of this country without the shedding of blood, and at least two of the missionaries, Brébeuf  and Jogues, were praying constantly to be allowed a share in the glory of suffering-if not of martyrdom. In 1642 the Huron country was in great distress: harvests were poor, sickness abounded, and clothing was scarce. Quebec was the only source of supplies, and Jogues was chosen to lead an expedition. It reached its objective safely and started back well supplied with goods for the mission, but the Iroquois, the bitter enemies of the Hurons, and the fiercest of all Indian tribes, were on the war-path and ambushed the returning expedition. The story of the ill-treatment and torture of the captives cannot here be told. Suffice it to say that Jogues and his assistant René Goupil, besides being beaten to the ground and assailed several times with knotted sticks and fists, had their hair, beards and nails tom off and their forefingers bitten through. What grieved them far more was the cruelty practised on their Christian converts. The first of all the martyrs to suffer death was Goupil, who was tomahawked on September 29, 1642, for having made the sign of the cross on the brow of some children. This René Goupil was a remarkable man. He had tried hard to be a Jesuit and had even entered the novitiate, but his health forced him to give up the attempt. He then studied surgery and found his way to Canada, where he offered his services to the missionaries, whose fortitude he emulated.

Jogues remained a slave among the Mohawks, one of the Iroquois tribes, who, however, had decided to kill him. He owed his escape to the Dutch, who, ever since they had heard of the sufferings he and his friends were enduring, had been trying to obtain his release. Through the efforts of the governor of Fort Orange and of the governor of New Netherlands he was taken on board a vessel and, by way of England, got back to France, where his arrival roused the keenest interest. With mutilated fingers he was debarred from celebrating Mass, but Pope Urban VII granted him special permission to do so, saying, It would be unjust that a martyr for Christ should not drink the blood of Christ. Early in 1644 Jogues was again at sea on his way back to New France. Arriving at Montreal, then recently founded, he began to work among the Indians of that neighbourhood, pending the time when he could return to the Hurons, a journey which was becoming yearly more perilous because Iroquois Indians were everywhere along the route. Unexpectedly the Iroquois sent an embassy to Three Rivers to sue for peace: Jogues, who was present at the conference, noticed that no representative came from the chief village, Ossernenon. Moreover, it was clear to him that the Iroquois only desired peace with the French-not with the Hurons. However, it was considered desirable to send a deputation from New France to meet the Iroquois chiefs at Ossernenon, and Jogues was selected as ambassador, together with John Bourdon, who represented the government of the colony.

They went by the route of Lake Champlain and Lake George, and after spending a week in confirming the pact they returned to Quebec, Jogues leaving behind a box of religious articles because he was resolved later to return to the Mohawks as a missionary, and was glad to be relieved of one of his packages. This box proved the immediate cause of his martyrdom. The Mohawks had had a bad crop, and soon after Jogues's departure an epidemic broke out which they attributed to a devil concealed in the box. So when they heard that Jogues was paying a third visit to their villages, they waylaid, stripped and ill-treated him and his companion Lalande. His captors were members of the Bear clan, and although the other clans tried to protect the prisoners, the Bear family refused to allow their fate to be decided in council. Some of them treacherously invited Jogues to a meal on the evening of October 18 and tomahawked him as he was entering the cabin. His head they cut off and placed on a pole facing the route by which he had come. *[* Ossernenon, the scene of these martyrdoms, was ten years later the birthplace of Kateri Tekakwitha, the Mohawk girl whose beatification is looked forward to. {Ownkeonweke Katsitsiio Teonsitsianekaron The fairest flower that ever bloomed among red men. She is called The Lily of the Mohawks,]}

  The following day his companion Lalande and the Huron guide were likewise tomahawked and beheaded, their bodies being afterwards thrown into the river. John Lalande was, like Rene Goupil, a donné or oblate of the mission. The martyrdom of Jogues sealed the fate of the Hurons, whose only hope of peace had lain in his success as a missionary among their ferocious enemies, the Iroquois. They had begun to receive the faith in considerable numbers, and there were twenty-four missionaries working amongst them, including Father Daniel. The Hurons, in fact, were gradually becoming Christian, and with a period of peace the whole tribe would have been converted, but the Iroquois were unremitting in their hostilities. They began to attack and pillage the Huron villages, sparing no one, and on July 4, 1648, they appeared at Teanaustaye, just as Daniel had finished celebrating Mass. A great panic  ensued, but the father threw himself amongst them and baptized all he could. There were so many who cried to him that he was constrained to dip his handkerchief in water and baptize them by aspersion. When he saw that the Iroquois were becoming masters of the place, instead of escaping, as his converts urged him to do, he remembered some old and sick people he had long ago prepared for baptism, and went through the cabins to encourage them to be steadfast. Then, betaking himself to the church, which he found filled with Christians, he warned them to fly while there was yet time, and went forth alone to meet the enemy. They surrounded him on all sides, covering him with arrows till he fell dead, pierced through the breast. They stripped him and threw his body into the church, which they set on fire. As the narrator of this martyrdom writes, He could not have been more gloriously consumed than in the conflagration of such a chapelle ardente.

Within a year, on March 16, 1649, the Iroquois attacked the village at which Brébeuf and Lalemant were stationed. Gabriel Lalemant was the last of the martyrs to reach New France. Two of his uncles had been Canadian missionaries, and he, after taking his vows in Paris as a Jesuit, had added a fourth vow-to sacrifice his life to the Indians-a vow which had to wait fourteen years for its fulfilment. The torture of these two missionaries was as atrocious as anything recorded in history. Even after they had been stripped naked and beaten with sticks on every part of their bodies, Brebeuf continued to exhort and encourage the Christians who were around him. One of the fathers had his hands cut off, and to both were applied under the armpits and beside the loins hatchets heated in the fire, as well as necklaces of red-hot lance blades round their necks. Their tormentors then proceeded to girdle them with belts of bark steeped in pitch and resin, to which they set fire. At the height of these torments Father Lalemant raised his eyes to Heaven and with sighs invoked God's aid, whilst Father de Brebeuf set his face like a rock as though insensible to the pain. Then, like one recovering consciousness, he preached to his persecutors and to the Christian captives until the savages gagged his mouth, cut off his nose, tore off his lips, and then, in derision of baptism, deluged him and his companion martyrs with boiling water. Finally, large pieces of flesh were cut out of the bodies of both the priests and roasted by the Indians, who tore out their hearts before their death by means of an opening above the breast, feasting on them and on their blood, which they drank while it was still warm.

The murder of the missionaries and the havoc wrought amongst the Hurons, far from satisfying the ferocious Iroquois, only whetted their thirst for blood. Before the end of the year 1649 they had penetrated as far as the Tobacco nation, where Father Garnier had founded a mission in 1641 and where the Jesuits now had two stations. The inhabitants of the village of Saint-Jean, hearing that the enemy was approaching, sent out their men to meet the attackers, who, however, having elicited from fugitives information of the defenceless condition of the settlement, took a roundabout way and arrived at the gates unexpectedly. An orgy of incredible cruelty followed, in the midst of which Garnier, the only priest in the mission, hastened from place to place, giving absolution to the Christians and baptizing the children and catechumens, totally unmindful of his own fate. While thus employed he was shot down by the musket of an Iroquois. He strove to reach a dying man whom he thought he could help, but after three attempts he collapsed, and subsequently received his death-blow from a hatchet which penetrated to the brain. Some of his Indian converts buried him on the spot where the church had stood.

Father Noel Chabanel, the missionary companion of Garnier, was immediately recalled. He had started on his way back with some Christian Hurons when they heard the cries of the Iroquois returning from Saint-Jean. The father urged his followers to escape, but was too much exhausted to keep up with them. His fate was long uncertain, but a Huron apostate eventually admitted having killed the holy man out of hatred of the Christian faith. Chabanel was not the least heroic of the martyrs. He possessed none of the adaptability of the rest, nor could he ever learn the language of the savages, the sight of whom, their food-everything about them-was revolting to him.  Moreover, he was tried by spiritual dryness during the whole of his stay in Canada. Yet in order to bind himself more inviolably to the work which his nature abhorred, he made a solemn vow, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, to remain till death in this mission to the Indians.  Little did these noble martyrs who saw such scanty results accruing from their labours foresee that within a short time after their death the truths they proclaimed would be embraced by their very executioners, and that their own successors would visit and christianize almost every tribe with which the martyr" had been in contact.

These martyrs of North America, viz. SS. John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Antony Daniel, Gabrial Lalemant, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, Rene Goupil and  John Lalande, were canonized in 1930. Their feast is observed  throughout the United States and Canada on this day and on March 16 by the Society of Jesus.

The primary source of information concerning these martyrs must of course be the letters of the missionaries themselves. These are accessible to all and equipped with an English translation in the great series of R.G. Thwaites, Jesuit Relations (73 vols., 1897-1901). Of the many books which provide a more compendious account may be mentioned J. Wynne, The Jesuit Martyrs of North America (1925); E. J. Devine, The Jesuit Martyrs of Canada (1925); and T. J. Campbell, Pioneer Priests of North America. In French we have Rigault and Goyau, Martyrs de la Nouvelle France; and more especially H. Fouqueray, Martyrs du Canada (1930), which last may be recommended for its excellent bibliography. There are also some biographies of the individual martyrs, particularly those of Jogues, Brébeuf, and Garnier by F. Martin. Needless to say that many non-Catholic historians have also paid a generous tribute of respect to these heroic missionaries, notably Francis Parkman in The Jesuits in North America (1868). More recent American works are J. A. O'Brien, The American Martyrs; F. X. Talbot, A Saint Among the Savages and A Saint Among the Hurons; and W. and E. M. Jury, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (1953). See also L. Pouliot, Etude sur les Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France (1940); and R. Latourelle, Etude sur les écrits de S. Jean de Brébeuf (2 vols. 1953).

1649 St. Noel Chabanel Jesuit missionary to Hurons in Canada
Noel was born on February 2 near Mende, France. He joined the Jesuits in 1630 and in 1643 was sent as a missionary to the Huron Indians in Canada. He became assistant to Father Charles Garnier at the Indian village of Etarita in 1649 and was murdered on December 8 by an apostate Indian while returning from a visit to neighboring Ste. Marie. He was canonized in 1930 by Pope Pius XI as one of the martyrs of North America.
Born in Southern France, 2 February, 1613

A Jesuit missionary among the Huron Indians
Entered the Jesuit novitiate at Toulouse at the age of seventeen, and was professor of rhetoric in several colleges of the society in the province of Toulouse. He was highly esteemed for virtue and learning.
In 1643, he was sent to Canada and, after studying the Algonquin language for a time, was appointed to the mission of the Hurons, among whom he remained till his death. In these apostolic labours he was the companion of the intrepid missionary, Father Charles Garnier. As he felt a strong repugnance to the life and habits of the Indians, and feared it might result in his own withdrawal from the work, he nobly bound himself by vow never to leave mission, and he kept his vow to the end. Slain by a renegade Huron, 8 December, 1649
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1885 St. Marie Teresa Couderc Foundress Society of Our lady of the Cenacle

1885 BD TERESA COUDERC, VIRGIN, CO-FOUNDRESS OF THE CO"GREGATION OF OUR LADY OF THE RETREAT IN THE CENACLE *'*' This name has reference to the period between our Lord's Ascension and the day of Pentecost, when the Apostles “were persevering with one mind in prayer, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren”, in the upper room at Jerusalem. Cénacle is the French form of Latin cenaculum, literally a “dining-room”. “Upper room” is the traditional rendering in English.

IN the year 1824 the Reverend J. P. E. Terme and other priests were sent by their bishop to La Louvesc, in the Vivarais in south-eastern France, to do missionary work among the peasants and to look after the pilgrim shrine of St John Francis Regis. It was soon found urgently necessary to open a hostel for women pilgrims; and to look after this hostel Father Terme turned to a community of sisters whom he had established to teach school in his former parish of Aps. Three young women were accordingly sent to La Louvesc in 1827, among them Sister Teresa Couderc. Sister Teresa, born in 1805 and christened Mary Victoria, came of good farming stock at Sablières, and had been one of the first members of the community at Aps.

Father Terme said that Sister Teresa had a sound head, sound judgement, and a power of spiritual discrimination rare in a woman; and in the very next year, when she was only twenty-three, he made her superioress at La Louvesc, where under considerable difficulties (especially from the climate which, at 4000 feet up, is fierce in winter) the community was already showing signs of growth. The year after that came its turning-point. Father Terme went to a retreat at a Jesuit house near Le Puy: and on his return he announced that the Daughters of St Regis (as they were then called) should add to their work the giving of retreats for women-not, of course, with spiritual direction or anything like that, but to begin with spiritual reading and simple instruction on the fundamentals of Christianity. This was at that time a most remarkable innovation; it was an immediate success, especially among the countrywomen, and in years to come it was to spread across the world. But meanwhile, on December 12, 1834, Father Terme died.

The shrine and parish of La Louvesc had recently been taken over by the Jesuit fathers; and with their advice it was decided to separate the work of school teaching from that of retreats. Twelve carefully-chosen sisters were therefore withdrawn from the Daughters of St Regis and, with Mother Teresa Couderc at their head, installed at La Louvesc, under the direction of Father Rigaud, S.J. The giving of retreats according to the method of St Ignatius went ahead, and a new house and church for the convent soon became necessary. But the source on which reliance had been put to meet these and other expenses suddenly failed, and the community was left with very large debts and nothing to pay them with. Mother Teresa blamed herself-quite unnecessarily-for what had happened, and in 1838 she resigned her office as superioress. Thereupon the bishop of Viviers named in her place a wealthy widow who had been in the community less than a month.

Thus began a long, complex and not always edifying story, which is a matter of the history and development of the Society of the Cenacle (as it was soon to be known), rather than of its holy foundress. Mother Teresa was sent to make a new foundation at Lyons, in most difficult conditions; but she more and more dropped into obscurity, living the words she uttered on her death-bed: “I ask of God that we shall never do anything out of ostentation; but that we should on the contrary do our good in the background, and that we should always look on ourselves as the least of the Church's little ones.”

It was nearly twenty years before Mgr Guibert, bishop of Viviers, declared once and for all that the founder of the Cenacle was Father John Terme and the foundress Mother Teresa Couderc, and nobody else; and at that time she was sent to the Paris convent as temporary superioress at a moment of crisis. Then she sank into the background again, so that Cardinal Lavigerie on a visit to the nuns, at once detecting holiness in her face, had to ask who was the one that had been left out.

Bd Teresa Couderc was a foundress, yet for well over half of her eighty years her life was a hidden one, forwarding the work of her foundation in hiding as it were, with her prayers, her penances, her humiliations. In herself she saw only feebleness and incapacity, uselessness and a complete lack of virtue. No criticism was heard from her of so much that seems to deserve criticism. She was content.  God has always given me peace of soul, the grace to leave myself in His hands and to want nothing but to love Him and be ever closer to Him. The word bonté recurs on the lips of those who knew her; and in English the simple word goodness expresses the depth and nature of her quality better than all the superlatives of hagiographers.

Towards the end of her life Mother Teresa's health began to fail badly, and for the last nine months she suffered terribly in body. At Fourvière on September 26, 1885, Mary Victoria Couderc, Mother Teresa, died; and in 1951 she was beatified.

See, in French, E. M. I., La Mère Thérèse Couderc (1911); H. Perroy, Une grande humble (1928); S. Dehin, L'esprit de la vén. Mère Thérèse Couderc (1947); P. Vernion, La Cénacle et son message (1948): in English: C. C. Martindale, Marie Thérèse Couderc (1921); R. Surles, Surrender to the Spirit (1951), an American adaptation of Fr Perroy's book. See also G. Longhaye, La Société de N.-D. du Cénacle (1898), and M. de Sailly, J. P. E. Terme (1913).

Foundress of the Society of Our lady of the Cenacle at La Louvesc, France. She was born on February 1, at Masle, France. Joining Father J. Terme in his parish work in Aps, she founded the Daughters of St. Regis, the original group that became the Society. She served as superior until 1838 and then resumed the role of a simple member of the com­munity until her death on September 26. Murió el 26 de septiembre de 1885.
By the time of her death, her congregation spread rapidly. Pope Paul VI canonized her in 1970.
1885 St. Theresa Coudere Foundress Our Lady of Retreat
Foundress of the Religious of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle. She was born in Le Mas. France, in 1805 and entered a community of dedicated women that evolved into the Sisters of St. Regis in 1829. Theresa founded the Cenacle. She resigned as superior in 1838 and spent the rest of her life, except for a brief period, as a simple sister. She died at Fourviere on September 26. She was beatified in 1951 and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970
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THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PSALM 76

Unless, O Lady, thou shalt build the house of our heart: its edifice shall not remain.

Build us up by thy grace and thy power: that we may remain firm forever.

Blessed be thy word: and blessed be all the words of thy lips.

Let them be blessed by God, who shall bless thee: and let them be reckoned in the number of the just.

Bless, O Lady, them that bless thee: and never turn thy gracious countenance away from them.


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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father Corapi's Biography

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

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

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

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


God Bless you on your journey Father John Corapi


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIRACLES
– Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist (1839-1910);
– Venerable Servant of God John Sullivan, professed priest of the Society of Jesus (1861-1933);
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Nikolle Vinçenc Prennushi, O.F.M., archbishop of Durres, Albania, and 37 companions killed between 1945 and 1974;
– Servants of God José Antón Gómez and three companions of the Benedictines of Madrid, Spain, killed 1936;
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Thomas Choe Yang-Eop, diocesan priest (1821-1861);
– Servant of God Sosio Del Prete (né Vincenzo), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Congregation of the Little Servants of Christ the King (1885-1952);
– Servant of God Wenanty Katarzyniec (né Jósef), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (1889-1921);
– Servant of God Maria Consiglia of the Holy Spirity (née Emilia 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:
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