May 1
Saint Joseph, the worker
May 1
Daily Saints – 1 May
Feast of Saint Joseph, the worker
St. Joseph has two feast days on the liturgical calendar. The first is March 19 – Joseph, the Husband of Mary. The second is May 1 – Joseph, the Worker.
Joseph had been made the Patron of the Universal Church by Pope Pius IX in 1870 and the model for fathers of families. Joseph was named protector of workers by Pope Benedict XV, and in 1955, the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1 was proclaimed by Pius the XII.
Pope Pius XII instituted this feast in order to foster deep devotion to Saint Joseph among Catholics, and in response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists. This feast extends the long relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers in both Catholic faith and devotion.
It served as a reminder to the faithful of the true dignity and value of work for human beings, and the role of our labor in sanctifying us and in glorifying God with St. Joseph as our model.
Beginning in the Book of Genesis, the dignity of human work has long been celebrated as a participation in the creative work of God. By work, humankind both fulfills the command found in Genesis to care for the earth (Gn 2:15) and to be productive in their labors. Saint Joseph, the carpenter and foster father of Jesus, is but one example of the holiness of human labor.
Through his work, Joseph honored the Father in heaven and continued the act of creation. He lived in dignity. Jesus, too, was a carpenter. He learned the trade from Saint Joseph and spent his early adult years working side-by-side in Joseph’s carpentry shop before leaving to pursue his ministry as preacher and healer.
There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture but still, we know that he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter, and a man who was not wealthy. We also know that he came from the royal lineage of King David.
We can see from his actions in scripture that Joseph was a compassionate man, and obedient to the will of God. He also loved Mary and Jesus and wanted to protect and provide for them.
As the guardian and protector of the Holy Family, St. Joseph was entrusted by God with the greatest of responsibilities – earthly provision for the Son of God Incarnate and the Immaculate Conception — a very noble task indeed!
Because of his faithfulness to this responsibility, he is one of the greatest intercessors in heaven, a supreme model for doing God’s will in humility, faith, and obedience. It is also his humility and loving diligence as a hardworking yet poor provider that serves as an example to all who work to fulfill a vocation or provide for a family.
St. Joseph is the patron saint against doubt, against hesitation, accountants, attornies, barristers, bursars, cabinetmakers, carpenters, cemetery workers, children, civil engineers, confectioners, craftsmen, dying people, educators, emigrants, exiles, expectant mothers, families, fathers, furniture makers, grave diggers, happy death, holy death, house hunters, immigrants, interior souls, joiners, laborers, lawyers, married people, orphans, people in doubt, people who fight Communism, pioneers, pregnant women, social justice, solicitors, teachers, travellers, unborn children, wheelwrights, workers, working people, Catholic Church, Oblates of Saint Joseph, for protection of the Church, Universal Church, Vatican II, Papal States.
“Saint Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care. May he always guard, protect and enlighten families.” – Pope John Paul II
“The Church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide [social] changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society.” – Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens
“The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work.” – Pope Pius XII
“Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God.” – Pope John Paul II
“In many passages, the Bible shows that work is one of the original conditions of the human being. When the Creator shaped man in his image and likeness, he asked him to till the land (cf. Gn 2: 5-6). It was because of the sin of our first parents that work became a burden and an affliction (cf. Gn 3: 6-8), but in the divine plan it retains its value, unaltered. The Son of God, by making himself like us in all things, dedicated himself for many years to manual activities, so that he was known as “the carpenter’s son” (cf. Mt 13: 55).” – Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on 19 March 2006
“it is indispensable that people not allow themselves to be enslaved by work or idolize it, claiming to find in it the ultimate and definitive meaning of life…. Work must serve the true good of humanity, permitting “men as individuals and as members of society to pursue and fulfil their total vocation” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 35) …. It is necessary to live a spirituality that helps believers to sanctify themselves through their work, imitating St Joseph, who had to provide with his own hands for the daily needs of the Holy Family and whom, consequently, the Church holds up as Patron of workers. His witness shows that man is the subject and protagonist of work. – Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on 19 March 2006
“How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he finds it hard to understand. From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at every moment with loving care. As the spouse of Mary, he is at her side in good times and bad, on the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the anxious and joyful hours when she gave birth; amid the drama of the flight into Egypt and during the frantic search for their child in the Temple; and later in the day-to-day life of the home of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught his trade to Jesus.” – Pope Francis, Homily on March 19, 2013, Saint Peter’s Square
“How does Joseph respond to his calling to be the protector of Mary, Jesus and the Church? By being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply to his own…. Joseph is a “protector” because he is able to hear God’s voice and be guided by his will; and for this reason, he is all the more sensitive to the persons entrusted to his safekeeping. He can look at things realistically, he is in touch with his surroundings, he can make truly wise decisions. In him, dear friends, we learn how to respond to God’s call, readily and willingly, but we also see the core of the Christian vocation, which is Christ! Let us protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect creation!” – Pope Francis, Homily on March 19, 2013, Saint Peter’s Square
“In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!” – Pope Francis, Homily on March 19, 2013, Saint Peter’s Square
“Even Jesus, worked a lot on earth, in St Joseph’s workshop. He worked until the Cross. He did what the Father had commanded him to do. This makes me think of the many people today who work and have this dignity…Thanks be to God. We know that dignity does not give us power, money or culture. No! It is work that gives us dignity, even if society does not allow for all to work.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2013, Holy Mass, Santa Marta
“The Book of Genesis tells us that God created man and woman entrusting them with the task of filling the earth and subduing it, which does not mean exploiting it but nurturing and protecting it, caring for it through their work (cf. Gen 1:28; 2:15). Work is part of God’s loving plan; we are called to cultivate and care for all the goods of creation and in this way share in the work of creation! Work is fundamental to the dignity of a person. Work, to use a metaphor, “anoints” us with dignity, fills us with dignity, makes us similar to God, who has worked and still works, who always acts (cf. Jn 5:17); it gives one the ability to maintain oneself, one’s family, to contribute to the growth of one’s own nation.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2013, General Audience, St. Peter’s Square
“St Joseph also experienced moments of difficulty, but he never lost faith and was able to overcome them, in the certainty that God never abandons us. And then I would like to speak especially to you, young people: be committed to your daily duties, your studies, your work, to relationships of friendship, to helping others; your future also depends on how you live these precious years of your life. Do not be afraid of commitment, of sacrifice and do not view the future with fear. Keep your hope alive: there is always a light on the horizon.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2013, General Audience, St. Peter’s Square
“Joseph intends to do the will of God and decides, surely with great sorrow, to send Mary away quietly. We need to meditate on these words in order to understand the great trial that Joseph had to endure in the days preceding Jesus’ birth. It was a trial similar to the sacrifice of Abraham, when God asked him for his son Isaac (cf. Gen 22): to give up what was most precious, the person most beloved. But as in the case of Abraham, the Lord intervenes: he found the faith he was looking for and he opens up a different path, a path of love and of happiness. “Joseph,” he says, “do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:20).” – Pope Francis, December 22, 2013, Angelus, St Peters Square
“He (Joseph) was following a good plan for his life, but God was reserving another plan for him, a greater mission. Joseph was a man who always listened to the voice of God, he was deeply sensitive to his secret will, he was a man attentive to the messages that came to him from the depths of his heart and from on high. He did not persist in following his own plan for his life, he did not allow bitterness to poison his soul; rather, he was ready to make himself available to the news that, in a such a bewildering way, was being presented to him. And thus, he was a good man…. And Joseph thereby became even freer and greater. By accepting himself according to God’s design, Joseph fully finds himself, beyond himself. His freedom to renounce even what is his, the possession of his very life, and his full interior availability to the will of God challenge us and show us the way.” – Pope Francis, December 22, 2013, Angelus, St Peters Square
“The work is only the continuation of God’s work: human work is the vocation of man received from God at the end of the creation of the universe. And work is what makes man like God, because with work man is creator, he is able to create, to create so many things, even to create a family to move forward. Man is a creator and creates with work. This is the vocation. And the Bible says that “God looked at everything he had made and found it very good.” (Gen 1:31). That is, work has within itself a goodness and creates the harmony of things – beauty, goodness – and involves man in everything: in his thought, in his act, everything. Man is involved in working. It is man’s first vocation: to work. And this gives dignity to man. The dignity that makes him like God. The dignity of work.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2020, Holy Mass, Casa Santa Marta
“Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labour…. there is a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which Saint Joseph is an exemplary patron. Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion. It becomes an opportunity for the fulfilment not only of oneself, but also of that primary cell of society which is the family.” – Pope Francis, Patris Corde
“Working persons, whatever their job may be, are cooperating with God himself, and in some way become creators of the world around us. The crisis of our time, which is economic, social, cultural and spiritual, can serve as a summons for all of us to rediscover the value, the importance and necessity of work for bringing about a new “normal” from which no one is excluded. Saint Joseph’s work reminds us that God himself, in becoming man, did not disdain work. The loss of employment that affects so many of our brothers and sisters, and has increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, should serve as a summons to review our priorities. Let us implore Saint Joseph the Worker to help us find ways to express our firm conviction that no young person, no person at all, no family should be without work!” – Pope Francis, Patris Corde
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Pope St. John XXIII wrote the following prayer to St. Joseph the Worker:
O glorious Joseph!
Who concealed your incomparable and regal dignity of custodian of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary under the humble appearance of a craftsman and provided for them with your work, protect with loving power your sons, especially entrusted to you.
You know their anxieties and sufferings, because you yourself experienced them at the side of Jesus and of His Mother.
Do not allow them, oppressed by so many worries, to forget the purpose for which they were created by God.
Do not allow the seeds of distrust to take hold of their immortal souls.
Remind all the workers that in the fields, in factories, in mines, and in scientific laboratories, they are not working, rejoicing, or suffering alone, but at their side is Jesus, with Mary, His Mother and ours, to sustain them, to dry the sweat of their brow, giving value to their toil.
Teach them to turn work into a very high instrument of sanctification as you did. Amen.
Feast of Saint Joseph, the worker
St. Joseph has two feast days on the liturgical calendar. The first is March 19 – Joseph, the Husband of Mary. The second is May 1 – Joseph, the Worker.
Joseph had been made the Patron of the Universal Church by Pope Pius IX in 1870 and the model for fathers of families. Joseph was named protector of workers by Pope Benedict XV, and in 1955, the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1 was proclaimed by Pius the XII.
Pope Pius XII instituted this feast in order to foster deep devotion to Saint Joseph among Catholics, and in response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists. This feast extends the long relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers in both Catholic faith and devotion.
It served as a reminder to the faithful of the true dignity and value of work for human beings, and the role of our labor in sanctifying us and in glorifying God with St. Joseph as our model.
Beginning in the Book of Genesis, the dignity of human work has long been celebrated as a participation in the creative work of God. By work, humankind both fulfills the command found in Genesis to care for the earth (Gn 2:15) and to be productive in their labors. Saint Joseph, the carpenter and foster father of Jesus, is but one example of the holiness of human labor.
Through his work, Joseph honored the Father in heaven and continued the act of creation. He lived in dignity. Jesus, too, was a carpenter. He learned the trade from Saint Joseph and spent his early adult years working side-by-side in Joseph’s carpentry shop before leaving to pursue his ministry as preacher and healer.
There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture but still, we know that he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter, and a man who was not wealthy. We also know that he came from the royal lineage of King David.
We can see from his actions in scripture that Joseph was a compassionate man, and obedient to the will of God. He also loved Mary and Jesus and wanted to protect and provide for them.
As the guardian and protector of the Holy Family, St. Joseph was entrusted by God with the greatest of responsibilities – earthly provision for the Son of God Incarnate and the Immaculate Conception — a very noble task indeed!
Because of his faithfulness to this responsibility, he is one of the greatest intercessors in heaven, a supreme model for doing God’s will in humility, faith, and obedience. It is also his humility and loving diligence as a hardworking yet poor provider that serves as an example to all who work to fulfill a vocation or provide for a family.
St. Joseph is the patron saint against doubt, against hesitation, accountants, attornies, barristers, bursars, cabinetmakers, carpenters, cemetery workers, children, civil engineers, confectioners, craftsmen, dying people, educators, emigrants, exiles, expectant mothers, families, fathers, furniture makers, grave diggers, happy death, holy death, house hunters, immigrants, interior souls, joiners, laborers, lawyers, married people, orphans, people in doubt, people who fight Communism, pioneers, pregnant women, social justice, solicitors, teachers, travellers, unborn children, wheelwrights, workers, working people, Catholic Church, Oblates of Saint Joseph, for protection of the Church, Universal Church, Vatican II, Papal States.
“Saint Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care. May he always guard, protect and enlighten families.” – Pope John Paul II
“The Church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide [social] changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society.” – Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens
“The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work.” – Pope Pius XII
“Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God.” – Pope John Paul II
“In many passages, the Bible shows that work is one of the original conditions of the human being. When the Creator shaped man in his image and likeness, he asked him to till the land (cf. Gn 2: 5-6). It was because of the sin of our first parents that work became a burden and an affliction (cf. Gn 3: 6-8), but in the divine plan it retains its value, unaltered. The Son of God, by making himself like us in all things, dedicated himself for many years to manual activities, so that he was known as “the carpenter’s son” (cf. Mt 13: 55).” – Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on 19 March 2006
“it is indispensable that people not allow themselves to be enslaved by work or idolize it, claiming to find in it the ultimate and definitive meaning of life…. Work must serve the true good of humanity, permitting “men as individuals and as members of society to pursue and fulfil their total vocation” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 35) …. It is necessary to live a spirituality that helps believers to sanctify themselves through their work, imitating St Joseph, who had to provide with his own hands for the daily needs of the Holy Family and whom, consequently, the Church holds up as Patron of workers. His witness shows that man is the subject and protagonist of work. – Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on 19 March 2006
“How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he finds it hard to understand. From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at every moment with loving care. As the spouse of Mary, he is at her side in good times and bad, on the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the anxious and joyful hours when she gave birth; amid the drama of the flight into Egypt and during the frantic search for their child in the Temple; and later in the day-to-day life of the home of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught his trade to Jesus.” – Pope Francis, Homily on March 19, 2013, Saint Peter’s Square
“How does Joseph respond to his calling to be the protector of Mary, Jesus and the Church? By being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply to his own…. Joseph is a “protector” because he is able to hear God’s voice and be guided by his will; and for this reason, he is all the more sensitive to the persons entrusted to his safekeeping. He can look at things realistically, he is in touch with his surroundings, he can make truly wise decisions. In him, dear friends, we learn how to respond to God’s call, readily and willingly, but we also see the core of the Christian vocation, which is Christ! Let us protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect creation!” – Pope Francis, Homily on March 19, 2013, Saint Peter’s Square
“In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!” – Pope Francis, Homily on March 19, 2013, Saint Peter’s Square
“Even Jesus, worked a lot on earth, in St Joseph’s workshop. He worked until the Cross. He did what the Father had commanded him to do. This makes me think of the many people today who work and have this dignity…Thanks be to God. We know that dignity does not give us power, money or culture. No! It is work that gives us dignity, even if society does not allow for all to work.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2013, Holy Mass, Santa Marta
“The Book of Genesis tells us that God created man and woman entrusting them with the task of filling the earth and subduing it, which does not mean exploiting it but nurturing and protecting it, caring for it through their work (cf. Gen 1:28; 2:15). Work is part of God’s loving plan; we are called to cultivate and care for all the goods of creation and in this way share in the work of creation! Work is fundamental to the dignity of a person. Work, to use a metaphor, “anoints” us with dignity, fills us with dignity, makes us similar to God, who has worked and still works, who always acts (cf. Jn 5:17); it gives one the ability to maintain oneself, one’s family, to contribute to the growth of one’s own nation.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2013, General Audience, St. Peter’s Square
“St Joseph also experienced moments of difficulty, but he never lost faith and was able to overcome them, in the certainty that God never abandons us. And then I would like to speak especially to you, young people: be committed to your daily duties, your studies, your work, to relationships of friendship, to helping others; your future also depends on how you live these precious years of your life. Do not be afraid of commitment, of sacrifice and do not view the future with fear. Keep your hope alive: there is always a light on the horizon.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2013, General Audience, St. Peter’s Square
“Joseph intends to do the will of God and decides, surely with great sorrow, to send Mary away quietly. We need to meditate on these words in order to understand the great trial that Joseph had to endure in the days preceding Jesus’ birth. It was a trial similar to the sacrifice of Abraham, when God asked him for his son Isaac (cf. Gen 22): to give up what was most precious, the person most beloved. But as in the case of Abraham, the Lord intervenes: he found the faith he was looking for and he opens up a different path, a path of love and of happiness. “Joseph,” he says, “do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:20).” – Pope Francis, December 22, 2013, Angelus, St Peters Square
“He (Joseph) was following a good plan for his life, but God was reserving another plan for him, a greater mission. Joseph was a man who always listened to the voice of God, he was deeply sensitive to his secret will, he was a man attentive to the messages that came to him from the depths of his heart and from on high. He did not persist in following his own plan for his life, he did not allow bitterness to poison his soul; rather, he was ready to make himself available to the news that, in a such a bewildering way, was being presented to him. And thus, he was a good man…. And Joseph thereby became even freer and greater. By accepting himself according to God’s design, Joseph fully finds himself, beyond himself. His freedom to renounce even what is his, the possession of his very life, and his full interior availability to the will of God challenge us and show us the way.” – Pope Francis, December 22, 2013, Angelus, St Peters Square
“The work is only the continuation of God’s work: human work is the vocation of man received from God at the end of the creation of the universe. And work is what makes man like God, because with work man is creator, he is able to create, to create so many things, even to create a family to move forward. Man is a creator and creates with work. This is the vocation. And the Bible says that “God looked at everything he had made and found it very good.” (Gen 1:31). That is, work has within itself a goodness and creates the harmony of things – beauty, goodness – and involves man in everything: in his thought, in his act, everything. Man is involved in working. It is man’s first vocation: to work. And this gives dignity to man. The dignity that makes him like God. The dignity of work.” – Pope Francis, May 1, 2020, Holy Mass, Casa Santa Marta
“Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labour…. there is a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which Saint Joseph is an exemplary patron. Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion. It becomes an opportunity for the fulfilment not only of oneself, but also of that primary cell of society which is the family.” – Pope Francis, Patris Corde
“Working persons, whatever their job may be, are cooperating with God himself, and in some way become creators of the world around us. The crisis of our time, which is economic, social, cultural and spiritual, can serve as a summons for all of us to rediscover the value, the importance and necessity of work for bringing about a new “normal” from which no one is excluded. Saint Joseph’s work reminds us that God himself, in becoming man, did not disdain work. The loss of employment that affects so many of our brothers and sisters, and has increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, should serve as a summons to review our priorities. Let us implore Saint Joseph the Worker to help us find ways to express our firm conviction that no young person, no person at all, no family should be without work!” – Pope Francis, Patris Corde
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Pope St. John XXIII wrote the following prayer to St. Joseph the Worker:
O glorious Joseph!
Who concealed your incomparable and regal dignity of custodian of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary under the humble appearance of a craftsman and provided for them with your work, protect with loving power your sons, especially entrusted to you.
You know their anxieties and sufferings, because you yourself experienced them at the side of Jesus and of His Mother.
Do not allow them, oppressed by so many worries, to forget the purpose for which they were created by God.
Do not allow the seeds of distrust to take hold of their immortal souls.
Remind all the workers that in the fields, in factories, in mines, and in scientific laboratories, they are not working, rejoicing, or suffering alone, but at their side is Jesus, with Mary, His Mother and ours, to sustain them, to dry the sweat of their brow, giving value to their toil.
Teach them to turn work into a very high instrument of sanctification as you did. Amen.
Close
May 2
Daily Saints – 2 May.
Feast of St. Athanasius of Alexandria.
He is the patron of Theologians, faithful Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians.
Athanasius was born to Christian parents living in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 296. His parents took great care to have their son educated.
His talents came to the attention of a local priest who was later canonized as St. Alexander of Alexandria. Alexander witnessed him playing at administering Baptism as a young boy, with other children. Alexander called the boys over and after questioning them, he determined the baptisms were valid and decided to train them for priesthood.
He tutored Athanasius in theology, and eventually appointed him as an assistant. Athanasius received a wonderful education in Christian doctrine, Greek literature, philosophy, rhetoric and jurisprudence. He studied the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel accounts and the Christian texts.
Around the age of 19, Athanasius spent a formative period in the Egyptian desert as a disciple of St. Anthony in his monastic community. Returning to Alexandria, he was ordained a deacon in 319, and resumed his assistance to Alexander who had become a bishop.
Around this time, Athanasius wrote his first work, a theological treatise on the Incarnation which is still quoted extensively in Christian theological studies and spiritual literature.
At that time, a priest named Arius said that Jesus was not equal to God the Father. Arius denied the divinity of Jesus. Many people accepted this false belief. But Athanasius and other bishops of the church spoke out against Arianism. They wrote the Nicene Creed to make it clear what the Church teaches about the Holy Trinity.
Athanasius attended the Council of Nicea in 325 where he fought for the defeat of Arianism and acceptance of the divinity of Jesus. He formulated the doctrine of homo-ousianism which says that Christ is the same substance as the Father; Arianism taught that Christ was different from and a creation of the Father, a creature and not part of God.
Athanasius became the Bishop of Alexandria in c.328 and served for 46 years. He fought for the acceptance of the Nicene Creed.
When the dispute over Arianism spilled over from theology to politics, Athanasius suffered greatly. Over the course of his life, Athanasius was banished five times and spent 17 years of his life in exile for the defense of the doctrine of Christ’s divinity.
During his exile, he found time to read, write, and promote the Christian life along the lines of the monastic ideal to which he was greatly devoted. He wrote his Apology to Constantius, the Apology for His Flight, the Letter to the Monks, and the History of the Arians.
Among his ascetical writings, his Life of St. Anthony achieved astonishing popularity and contributed greatly to the establishment of monastic life throughout the Western Christian world.
However, the last years of his life were peaceful and he died on May 2, 373 in Alexandria, at the age of 76.
St. Athanasius, also known as Athanasius the Great and Athanasius the Confessor, was one of the great doctors of the church. He is called the “Father of Orthodoxy,” the “Pillar of the Church” and “Champion of Christ’s Divinity.”
“Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.”
“Similarly, anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first cleanse his own life, and approach the saints by copying their deeds.”
“The holy and inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves for the preaching of the truth.”
“For, indeed, everything about is marvelous, and wherever a man turns his gaze he sees the Godhead of the Word and is smitten with awe.”
“For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.”
“The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists.”
“You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.”
“For of what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker?”
“Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.”
“He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.”
“You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.”
“The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders. But for Him Who came to heal and to teach the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him, and to be manifested according as they could bear it, not vitiating the value of the Divine appearing by exceeding their capacity to receive it.”
Feast of St. Athanasius of Alexandria.
He is the patron of Theologians, faithful Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians.
Athanasius was born to Christian parents living in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 296. His parents took great care to have their son educated.
His talents came to the attention of a local priest who was later canonized as St. Alexander of Alexandria. Alexander witnessed him playing at administering Baptism as a young boy, with other children. Alexander called the boys over and after questioning them, he determined the baptisms were valid and decided to train them for priesthood.
He tutored Athanasius in theology, and eventually appointed him as an assistant. Athanasius received a wonderful education in Christian doctrine, Greek literature, philosophy, rhetoric and jurisprudence. He studied the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel accounts and the Christian texts.
Around the age of 19, Athanasius spent a formative period in the Egyptian desert as a disciple of St. Anthony in his monastic community. Returning to Alexandria, he was ordained a deacon in 319, and resumed his assistance to Alexander who had become a bishop.
Around this time, Athanasius wrote his first work, a theological treatise on the Incarnation which is still quoted extensively in Christian theological studies and spiritual literature.
At that time, a priest named Arius said that Jesus was not equal to God the Father. Arius denied the divinity of Jesus. Many people accepted this false belief. But Athanasius and other bishops of the church spoke out against Arianism. They wrote the Nicene Creed to make it clear what the Church teaches about the Holy Trinity.
Athanasius attended the Council of Nicea in 325 where he fought for the defeat of Arianism and acceptance of the divinity of Jesus. He formulated the doctrine of homo-ousianism which says that Christ is the same substance as the Father; Arianism taught that Christ was different from and a creation of the Father, a creature and not part of God.
Athanasius became the Bishop of Alexandria in c.328 and served for 46 years. He fought for the acceptance of the Nicene Creed.
When the dispute over Arianism spilled over from theology to politics, Athanasius suffered greatly. Over the course of his life, Athanasius was banished five times and spent 17 years of his life in exile for the defense of the doctrine of Christ’s divinity.
During his exile, he found time to read, write, and promote the Christian life along the lines of the monastic ideal to which he was greatly devoted. He wrote his Apology to Constantius, the Apology for His Flight, the Letter to the Monks, and the History of the Arians.
Among his ascetical writings, his Life of St. Anthony achieved astonishing popularity and contributed greatly to the establishment of monastic life throughout the Western Christian world.
However, the last years of his life were peaceful and he died on May 2, 373 in Alexandria, at the age of 76.
St. Athanasius, also known as Athanasius the Great and Athanasius the Confessor, was one of the great doctors of the church. He is called the “Father of Orthodoxy,” the “Pillar of the Church” and “Champion of Christ’s Divinity.”
“Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.”
“Similarly, anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first cleanse his own life, and approach the saints by copying their deeds.”
“The holy and inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves for the preaching of the truth.”
“For, indeed, everything about is marvelous, and wherever a man turns his gaze he sees the Godhead of the Word and is smitten with awe.”
“For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.”
“The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists.”
“You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.”
“For of what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker?”
“Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.”
“He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.”
“You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.”
“The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders. But for Him Who came to heal and to teach the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him, and to be manifested according as they could bear it, not vitiating the value of the Divine appearing by exceeding their capacity to receive it.”
Close
May 2
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria
May 3
Daily Saints – 3 May.
Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles.
St. James:
Saint James the Lesser is the patron saint of dying people, apothecaries, druggists, pharmacists, fullers, hatmakers, hatters, milliners.
James, the Lesser was the Cousin of Jesus and the brother of Saint Jude Thaddeus. He was raised in a Jewish home of the time with all the training in Scripture and Law that was part of that life. He was converted and became one of the Twelve Apostles. He was one of the first to have visions of the risen Christ.
He was the first Bishop of Jerusalem. Met with Saint Paul the Apostle to work out Paul’s plans for evangelization. He supported the position that Gentile converts did not have to obey all Jewish religious law, though he continued to observe it himself as part of his heritage. He may have been a vegetarian.
He is reported to have spent so much time in prayer that his knees thickened, and looked like a camel’s. It is said that soon after the Crucifixion, James said he would fast until Christ returned; the resurrected Jesus appeared to him, and fixed a meal for James Himself.
He was a just and apostolic man known for his prayer life and devotion to the poor. He was martyred on c.62 at Jerusalem by being thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple, then stoned and beaten with clubs, including fuller’s mallets, while praying for his attackers.
Having been beaten to death, a club almost immediately became his symbol. This led to his patronage of fullers and pharmacists, both of whom use clubs in their professions.
St. Philip:
Saint Philip the Apostle is the patron saint of hat makers, hatters, milliners, pastry chefs.
Phillip was the disciple of Saint John the Baptist. He was converted and became one of the Twelve Apostle. Saint Nathanael brought him to Christ. He was confidant of Jesus.
Little is known about him, but scriptural episodes give the impression of a shy, naive, but practical individual. Jesus called him directly, whereupon he sought out Nathanael and told him of the “one about whom Moses wrote” (Jn 1:45). Like the other apostles, Philip took a long time coming to realize who Jesus was.
On one occasion, when Jesus saw the great multitude following him and wanted to give them food, he asked Philip where they should buy bread for the people to eat. Saint John comments, “[Jesus] said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do” (Jn 6:6). Philip answered, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little [bit]” (Jn 6:7).
On another occasion, we can almost hear the exasperation in Jesus’s voice. After Thomas had complained that they did not know where Jesus was going, Jesus said, “I am the way. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (Jn 14:6a, 7). Then Philip said, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us” (Jn 14:8). Jesus answered, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9a).
Possibly because Philip bore a Greek name or because he was thought to be close to Jesus, some gentile proselytes came to him and asked him to introduce them to Jesus. Philip went to Andrew, and Andrew went to Jesus. Jesus’s reply in John’s Gospel is indirect; Jesus says that now his “hour” has come, that in a short time he will give his life for Jew and gentile alike.
Phillip preached in Greece and Asia Minor. He was martyred; stoned to death while tied to a cross c.80 at Hierapolis, Phrygia (near modern Pamukkale, Turkey).
Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles.
St. James:
Saint James the Lesser is the patron saint of dying people, apothecaries, druggists, pharmacists, fullers, hatmakers, hatters, milliners.
James, the Lesser was the Cousin of Jesus and the brother of Saint Jude Thaddeus. He was raised in a Jewish home of the time with all the training in Scripture and Law that was part of that life. He was converted and became one of the Twelve Apostles. He was one of the first to have visions of the risen Christ.
He was the first Bishop of Jerusalem. Met with Saint Paul the Apostle to work out Paul’s plans for evangelization. He supported the position that Gentile converts did not have to obey all Jewish religious law, though he continued to observe it himself as part of his heritage. He may have been a vegetarian.
He is reported to have spent so much time in prayer that his knees thickened, and looked like a camel’s. It is said that soon after the Crucifixion, James said he would fast until Christ returned; the resurrected Jesus appeared to him, and fixed a meal for James Himself.
He was a just and apostolic man known for his prayer life and devotion to the poor. He was martyred on c.62 at Jerusalem by being thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple, then stoned and beaten with clubs, including fuller’s mallets, while praying for his attackers.
Having been beaten to death, a club almost immediately became his symbol. This led to his patronage of fullers and pharmacists, both of whom use clubs in their professions.
St. Philip:
Saint Philip the Apostle is the patron saint of hat makers, hatters, milliners, pastry chefs.
Phillip was the disciple of Saint John the Baptist. He was converted and became one of the Twelve Apostle. Saint Nathanael brought him to Christ. He was confidant of Jesus.
Little is known about him, but scriptural episodes give the impression of a shy, naive, but practical individual. Jesus called him directly, whereupon he sought out Nathanael and told him of the “one about whom Moses wrote” (Jn 1:45). Like the other apostles, Philip took a long time coming to realize who Jesus was.
On one occasion, when Jesus saw the great multitude following him and wanted to give them food, he asked Philip where they should buy bread for the people to eat. Saint John comments, “[Jesus] said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do” (Jn 6:6). Philip answered, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little [bit]” (Jn 6:7).
On another occasion, we can almost hear the exasperation in Jesus’s voice. After Thomas had complained that they did not know where Jesus was going, Jesus said, “I am the way. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (Jn 14:6a, 7). Then Philip said, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us” (Jn 14:8). Jesus answered, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9a).
Possibly because Philip bore a Greek name or because he was thought to be close to Jesus, some gentile proselytes came to him and asked him to introduce them to Jesus. Philip went to Andrew, and Andrew went to Jesus. Jesus’s reply in John’s Gospel is indirect; Jesus says that now his “hour” has come, that in a short time he will give his life for Jew and gentile alike.
Phillip preached in Greece and Asia Minor. He was martyred; stoned to death while tied to a cross c.80 at Hierapolis, Phrygia (near modern Pamukkale, Turkey).
Close
May 3
Saints Philip and James, Apostles
May 4
Daily Saints – 4 May.
Feast of St. Florian of Lorch.
Patron of barrel-makers, coopers, brewers, chimney sweeps, fire prevention, firefighters, harvests, soap-boilers and against battle, against drowning, drowning victims, against fire, against flood.
Florian was born about 250 A.D. in Cetium (now in Austria). He was converted to Christianity when it was still a minority religion.
It is said that as a youth, Florian was able to put out a fire in a house through the power of his prayers alone. It is also said that he saved an entire city from flames with only a single bucket of water. Because of these events Florian has been the patron saint of firemen and chimney sweeps since the twelfth century.
Florian joined the Roman Army as a youth and, coming up through the ranks, was eventually made a high ranking officer. Near the end of his career he was made the Commander of the Fire Brigade in Noricum, now part of Austria. The Fire Brigade was an elite Roman Guard composed of 7,000 Roman Soldiers.
In spite of these achievements, when ordered to execute a group of Christians during the persecutions of Diocletian, he refused, and professed his own faith.
His legendary acts state that he gave himself up at Lorch, to the soldiers of Governor Aquilinus, when they were rounding up Christians.
After making a bold confession, he was twice scourged, half-flayed alive, and set on fire. He survived all of these torments through his unyielding faith.
Finally, Florian was thrown into the river Enns with a millstone tied around his neck. Thus he received his martyrdom c.304. His body was found by a pious woman who returned it to dry land. An eagle mysteriously watched over him until he was buried.
Feast of St. Florian of Lorch.
Patron of barrel-makers, coopers, brewers, chimney sweeps, fire prevention, firefighters, harvests, soap-boilers and against battle, against drowning, drowning victims, against fire, against flood.
Florian was born about 250 A.D. in Cetium (now in Austria). He was converted to Christianity when it was still a minority religion.
It is said that as a youth, Florian was able to put out a fire in a house through the power of his prayers alone. It is also said that he saved an entire city from flames with only a single bucket of water. Because of these events Florian has been the patron saint of firemen and chimney sweeps since the twelfth century.
Florian joined the Roman Army as a youth and, coming up through the ranks, was eventually made a high ranking officer. Near the end of his career he was made the Commander of the Fire Brigade in Noricum, now part of Austria. The Fire Brigade was an elite Roman Guard composed of 7,000 Roman Soldiers.
In spite of these achievements, when ordered to execute a group of Christians during the persecutions of Diocletian, he refused, and professed his own faith.
His legendary acts state that he gave himself up at Lorch, to the soldiers of Governor Aquilinus, when they were rounding up Christians.
After making a bold confession, he was twice scourged, half-flayed alive, and set on fire. He survived all of these torments through his unyielding faith.
Finally, Florian was thrown into the river Enns with a millstone tied around his neck. Thus he received his martyrdom c.304. His body was found by a pious woman who returned it to dry land. An eagle mysteriously watched over him until he was buried.
Close
May 4
Saint Florian of Lorch
May 5
Daily Saints – 5 May.
Feast of St. Nuntius Sulprizio (Nunzio).
He is the patron saint of workers, the disabled, Blacksmiths and Workers.
Nunzio was born on April 13, 1817, during a time of great famine in Pescosansonesco, a village in the province of Pescara, Italy. He was the son of Domenico and Rosa Luciani Sulprizio. He was named after his paternal grandfather.
When the child was just three, his beloved father died. His younger baby sister died roughly four months later.
Faced with the prospect of abject poverty while trying to provide for Nunzio, Rosa Sulprizio was married again in 1822 to a significantly older man. He detested young Nunzio and treated him harshly and with contempt.
Nunzio attended a school run by a local priest, Fr. De Fabiis. Along with learning the ordinary subjects of reading and writing, Nunzio developed a love for the Mass and stories about the lives of the saints.
A year later, on March 5, 1823, his mother died and Nunzio was sent to live with his maternal grandmother Rosaria. Although uneducated, she encouraged his developing Catholic faith and piety. She cared for him with great affection.
They were very happy together, and would walk and pray, attend Mass, and do housework. He continued to attend school in his new home, this one run by a Fr. Fantacci, who used to take the children to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which Nunzio loved.
When his grandmother died on 4 April 1826, Nunzio was taken by her son Domenico Luciani. He was a blacksmith and he put Nunzio to work as an apprentice blacksmith at age nine. Nunzio couldn’t continue his school studies.
Like his stepfather, Nunzio’s Uncle Domenico treated him harshly. He often beat him and verbally abused him. Such abuse left him weak and susceptible to frequents bouts of sickness. His uncle showed him no compassion.
Nunzio’s made him work very hard, and when he perceived the boy needed correction or discipline, his punishment was to not feed the boy.
If he needed an errand run or materials transported or fetched, he sent his nephew, not matter how far the distance or how heavy the burden. If he didn’t do the errand to his liking, Domenico would beat and curse him. For anyone but especially a child, this was a great burden.
Instead of despairing, however, the boy would think of Jesus as he beat on the anvil and think of how Our Lord Jesus had been beaten for mankind’s sins. As he suffered the “scourge” of inhumane work and treatment, he thought of Christ’s suffering the scourging at the pillar during His sacred Passion.
When he suffered, he offered these pains up to the One who had mastered suffering “in reparation for the sins of the world” and so that he might more perfectly “do the will of God” and to be found worthy of entering into the Son’s rest.
Because of a wound incurred during one errand on a winter morning, Nunzio’s foot became infected. He became so ill, he couldn’t rise from bed. His uncle demanded that he get to work because “if you do not work, you do not eat.”
The lack of proper care led to his contracting gangrene. Still his uncle told him, “If you can not lift the hammer, then you pull the bellows.” The boy was in so much pain by this point that every movement was torture. His sore oozed puss and required constant cleaning.
Once he went to a nearby stream to clean his wound, but a woman coming to wash her laundry chased him away saying he would pollute the water. Finally he found his own stream and would pray many Rosaries while letting the water cleanse his sores.
Finally he had to be sent to a hospital, first at L’Aquila and then Naples. All along he offered up his sufferings in union with the cross. He also helped care for other patients who were worse off than he.
It was during his hospitalization in L’Aquila that his father’s brother Francesco Sulprizio, a soldier, heard of his plight and brought him to Naples in 1832.
Shortly thereafter he acquainted his nephew with another soldier, Colonel Felice Wochinger. Col. Wochinger, known as “father of the poor” for both his faith and charity, took the youth under his wing and essentially became a second father to him.
It was at this time that a priest came to visit. A good priest asks: “Do you suffer much?”.
He responded, “Yes, I do the will of God.”
“What would you like?”
“I wish to confess and receive Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time!”
“You have not made the First Communion?”
“No, in our area, we have to wait until we are 15 years old.”
“And your parents?”
“Dead”
“Who cares for you?”
“The providence of God.”
So began Nunzio’s preparation for confession and First Holy Communion. His confessor later related that “from that day the grace of God began to work in him in way that was outside of the ordinary, so that you could see him run from virtue to virtue. His whole person breathed love of Jesus Christ.”
It was around this time that he also met St. Gaetano Errico, the Neapolitan priest who founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The holy cleric promised the teenager he could join the order when the time came.
His desire to enter the religious life stemmed out of the fact that from the time he was little, he had attended Mass of his own volition. Not only did he know the person of Jesus Christ, but he worked to mirror him to others in everything he did.
He spent two years at the hospital in Naples and at a spa in Ischia. He would read, pray in the chapel, and teach the child patients their catechism. He would tell the sick, “always be with the Lord, because from Him comes all that is good. Suffer for the love of God and with joy.”
At first Nunzio’s situation seemed to improve, but then he contracted bone cancer. Doctors believed their only recourse was to amputate his leg. This did nothing. Indeed his situation and suffering worsened, and his pain was acute.
He hoped that God might heal him, but he never lost his faith that the Lord was guiding him every step of the way. Despite his physical hardship, struggles and pain, Nunzio never lost his pleasant disposition and spiritual devotion.
He would tell visitors, “Jesus endured so much for us and for his merits awaits us eternal life. If we suffer for a while, we will enjoy in Paradise,” and, “Jesus suffered a lot for me. [So what if] I cannot stand for Him?” or, “I would die to convert even one sinner.”
One of the last things he told the colonel was, “Be cheerful. From heaven I will always be helping you.”
In early May 1836, the youth asked to make his last confession and to receive extreme unction and viaticum. On May 5, 1836, Nunzio requested a crucifix to hold and died at the age of 19 with prayer on his lips.
Feast of St. Nuntius Sulprizio (Nunzio).
He is the patron saint of workers, the disabled, Blacksmiths and Workers.
Nunzio was born on April 13, 1817, during a time of great famine in Pescosansonesco, a village in the province of Pescara, Italy. He was the son of Domenico and Rosa Luciani Sulprizio. He was named after his paternal grandfather.
When the child was just three, his beloved father died. His younger baby sister died roughly four months later.
Faced with the prospect of abject poverty while trying to provide for Nunzio, Rosa Sulprizio was married again in 1822 to a significantly older man. He detested young Nunzio and treated him harshly and with contempt.
Nunzio attended a school run by a local priest, Fr. De Fabiis. Along with learning the ordinary subjects of reading and writing, Nunzio developed a love for the Mass and stories about the lives of the saints.
A year later, on March 5, 1823, his mother died and Nunzio was sent to live with his maternal grandmother Rosaria. Although uneducated, she encouraged his developing Catholic faith and piety. She cared for him with great affection.
They were very happy together, and would walk and pray, attend Mass, and do housework. He continued to attend school in his new home, this one run by a Fr. Fantacci, who used to take the children to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which Nunzio loved.
When his grandmother died on 4 April 1826, Nunzio was taken by her son Domenico Luciani. He was a blacksmith and he put Nunzio to work as an apprentice blacksmith at age nine. Nunzio couldn’t continue his school studies.
Like his stepfather, Nunzio’s Uncle Domenico treated him harshly. He often beat him and verbally abused him. Such abuse left him weak and susceptible to frequents bouts of sickness. His uncle showed him no compassion.
Nunzio’s made him work very hard, and when he perceived the boy needed correction or discipline, his punishment was to not feed the boy.
If he needed an errand run or materials transported or fetched, he sent his nephew, not matter how far the distance or how heavy the burden. If he didn’t do the errand to his liking, Domenico would beat and curse him. For anyone but especially a child, this was a great burden.
Instead of despairing, however, the boy would think of Jesus as he beat on the anvil and think of how Our Lord Jesus had been beaten for mankind’s sins. As he suffered the “scourge” of inhumane work and treatment, he thought of Christ’s suffering the scourging at the pillar during His sacred Passion.
When he suffered, he offered these pains up to the One who had mastered suffering “in reparation for the sins of the world” and so that he might more perfectly “do the will of God” and to be found worthy of entering into the Son’s rest.
Because of a wound incurred during one errand on a winter morning, Nunzio’s foot became infected. He became so ill, he couldn’t rise from bed. His uncle demanded that he get to work because “if you do not work, you do not eat.”
The lack of proper care led to his contracting gangrene. Still his uncle told him, “If you can not lift the hammer, then you pull the bellows.” The boy was in so much pain by this point that every movement was torture. His sore oozed puss and required constant cleaning.
Once he went to a nearby stream to clean his wound, but a woman coming to wash her laundry chased him away saying he would pollute the water. Finally he found his own stream and would pray many Rosaries while letting the water cleanse his sores.
Finally he had to be sent to a hospital, first at L’Aquila and then Naples. All along he offered up his sufferings in union with the cross. He also helped care for other patients who were worse off than he.
It was during his hospitalization in L’Aquila that his father’s brother Francesco Sulprizio, a soldier, heard of his plight and brought him to Naples in 1832.
Shortly thereafter he acquainted his nephew with another soldier, Colonel Felice Wochinger. Col. Wochinger, known as “father of the poor” for both his faith and charity, took the youth under his wing and essentially became a second father to him.
It was at this time that a priest came to visit. A good priest asks: “Do you suffer much?”.
He responded, “Yes, I do the will of God.”
“What would you like?”
“I wish to confess and receive Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time!”
“You have not made the First Communion?”
“No, in our area, we have to wait until we are 15 years old.”
“And your parents?”
“Dead”
“Who cares for you?”
“The providence of God.”
So began Nunzio’s preparation for confession and First Holy Communion. His confessor later related that “from that day the grace of God began to work in him in way that was outside of the ordinary, so that you could see him run from virtue to virtue. His whole person breathed love of Jesus Christ.”
It was around this time that he also met St. Gaetano Errico, the Neapolitan priest who founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The holy cleric promised the teenager he could join the order when the time came.
His desire to enter the religious life stemmed out of the fact that from the time he was little, he had attended Mass of his own volition. Not only did he know the person of Jesus Christ, but he worked to mirror him to others in everything he did.
He spent two years at the hospital in Naples and at a spa in Ischia. He would read, pray in the chapel, and teach the child patients their catechism. He would tell the sick, “always be with the Lord, because from Him comes all that is good. Suffer for the love of God and with joy.”
At first Nunzio’s situation seemed to improve, but then he contracted bone cancer. Doctors believed their only recourse was to amputate his leg. This did nothing. Indeed his situation and suffering worsened, and his pain was acute.
He hoped that God might heal him, but he never lost his faith that the Lord was guiding him every step of the way. Despite his physical hardship, struggles and pain, Nunzio never lost his pleasant disposition and spiritual devotion.
He would tell visitors, “Jesus endured so much for us and for his merits awaits us eternal life. If we suffer for a while, we will enjoy in Paradise,” and, “Jesus suffered a lot for me. [So what if] I cannot stand for Him?” or, “I would die to convert even one sinner.”
One of the last things he told the colonel was, “Be cheerful. From heaven I will always be helping you.”
In early May 1836, the youth asked to make his last confession and to receive extreme unction and viaticum. On May 5, 1836, Nunzio requested a crucifix to hold and died at the age of 19 with prayer on his lips.
Close
May 5
Saint Nuntius Sulprizio
May 6
Daily Saints – 6 May.
Feast of Saint Dominic Savio.
He is the patron saint of boys, children’s choirs, choir boys, choirs, falsely accused people, juvenile delinquents, Pueri Cantors.
Dominic Savio was born on April 2, 1842 in the village of Riva in northern Italy. He was the second of eleven children born to Charles and Brigid Savio.
His father was a blacksmith and his mother a seamstress. His family was poor but hardworking. They were devout and pious Catholics.
When he was just two years old, Dominic’s family returned to their native village of Castlenuovo d’Asti, (today, Castlenuovo Don Bosco) near the birthplace of John Bosco.
As a small child, Dominic loved the Lord and His Church. He was very devout in practicing his Catholic faith. He said grace before every meal and refused to eat with those who did not. He was always quick to encourage others to pray.
Dominic attended Church regularly with his mother and was often seen kneeling before the Tabernacle in prayer. He even prayed outside the Church building. It did not matter to Dominic if the ground was covered with mud or snow, he knelt and prayed anyway.
Dominic was quickly recognized as an exceptional student who studied hard and performed well in school. He became an altar server. He also attended daily Mass and went to confession regularly.
Dominic asked to receive his first communion at the age of seven. This was not the practice in the Church of Italy at the time. Normally, children received their first holy communion at the age of twelve.
Dominic’s priest, Father John Lucca, was so impressed with his intelligence concerning the faith, his love for the Lord and his piety. Fr. John Lucca let him make his First Communion at the age of seven.
Dominic said that the day of his First Communion was the happiest day of his life. On the Day he received his first communion, Dominic wrote four promises in a little book. Those promises were:
I will go to Confession often, and as frequently to Holy Communion as my confessor allows.
I wish to sanctify the Sundays and festivals in a special manner.
My friends shall be Jesus and Mary.
Death rather than sin.
Dominic graduated to secondary school. He walked three miles to school each day. He undertook this chore gladly.
On one very hot day an elderly man met him and asked, “Aren’t you afraid to walk so far alone on this country road?”
“I’m not alone,” replied Dominic. “I have my guardian angel with me. ”
“But surely you find the journey long and tiresome in this very hot weather!”
“I work for a Master who pays well.”
“And who is your master?”
“God is my master.”
Although he was young, Dominic was clearly different than his peers. As a youth, Dominic spent hours rapt in prayer. His raptures he called “my distractions.” Even in play, he said that at times, “It seems heaven is opening just above me. I am afraid I may say or do something that will make the other boys laugh.”
Once a classmate committed a serious offense. This boy had a reputation for misbehavior. The culprit falsely accused Dominic of the offence. The teacher scolded the class, and threatened Dominic was expulsion, but because Dominic had never misbehaved before, he gave Dominic severe scolding before the whole class. Dominic made no reply but stood in silence head bowed.
A few days later the boy who was actually guilty was discovered. Regretting his previous harsh words, the teacher asked Dominic why he had not defended himself. His answer came slowly but simply: “I knew that the other boy was in trouble for other things. I remembered how Our Lord had been unjustly accused, and I hoped that if I kept silence he would be given another chance.”
On one occasion two boys had gotten into an argument and challenged each other to a rock duel. This was a common way young thugs and street gangs settled arguments: stones at each other until one gave up or was seriously injured.
Dominic stepped between them. One of the two shouted, “Dominic, what are you doing?”
“Do you promise you will fight under the condition I will set up?”
“Yes, now get out of the way, agreed one of the boys.”
The other shouted, “Let’s get this over with. What’s the condition?”
Taking out a small crucifix, which he used to wear around his neck, Dominic held it up. “Before you start the fight you must look at this crucifix, and throw the first stone at me.”
He strode before the angrier boy, and kneeling down said, “You start! Throw the first stone at me!”
Taken by surprise, the boy began to tremble. “No!” he protested. “Never! I have no argument with you, Dominic.”
Dominic ran over to the other boy. He too was astonished and assured Dominic he was his friend and meant him no harm.
Then Dominic stood up. Looking at them, he said with great emotion: “Neither of you is ready to hurt me because I am your friend, yet you want commit this sin over a stupid remark made at school. Christ, who was innocent, died for us rather then seek revenge from those who hated him.” Dominic stood, silent, crucifix in hand. Both boys dropped their stones, ashamed before his courageous stand.
In October 1854, Dominic was personally introduced to Fr. Bosco – along with his father. Dominic asked to Don Bosco, “Father, will you take me to Turin with you to the Oratory to study?”
“Well, you look like good material to me!” Don Bosco exclaimed.
“Good material, Father? Good for what?”
“To make a beautiful garment for the Lord, son.”
“Then take me with you, Father. You can be the tailor, and I’ll be the cloth. Make me into a beautiful garment for Our Lord.”
At the meeting, Bosco wanted to test Dominic’s intelligence and understanding of the Catholic faith. He gave Dominic a copy of The Catholic Readings, which was a pamphlet that dealt with apologetics.
He expected Dominic to provide a report the next day, but just ten minutes later Dominic recited the text and provided a full explanation of its significance. This solidified Bosco’s high opinion of Dominic.
He impressed Don Bosco with his desire to be a priest and to help him in his work with neglected boys.
At the Oratory, Dominic studied directly under Fr. Bosco. He worked diligently and always asked questions when he did not understand something. He renewed his First Communion promises that he wrote in his little book at the age of seven.
Once Dominic paid Don Bosco a visit in his office a few days after his arrival. Dominic noticed a sign in a frame hanging over the door.
“What’s the meaning of those words, Father?”
Don Bosco explained, “That is a motto, Da mihi animas caetera tolle. It is Latin. Do you understand Latin?”
“No, Father.”
“It is a saying of St. Francis De Sales, our patron. I have taken it as my motto. It is translated: Give me souls: take away the rest.”
Dominic did not fully understand meaning of the words, but a seed was planted in his heart.
Don Bosco Explained, “I am very concerned that I work hard to help people and myself save our souls by following Jesus, nothing else really matters.”
A peacemaker and an organizer, young Dominic founded a group called the Company of the Immaculate Conception which, besides being devotional, aided John Bosco with the boys and with manual work.
All the members except one, Dominic, would, in 1859, join Don Bosco in the beginnings of his Salesian congregation. By that time, Dominic had been called home to heaven.
On the second Sunday of Lent, 1855, Don Bosco was preaching to the boys of the Oratory. He exclaimed, “Every one is called to be a saint, and do you know, it is easy to be a saint. Just do this: diligently do the ordinary things of the day in an extra ordinary way.”
Dominic was profoundly impressed. He began to think most seriously about what it meant to be a saint. He became quiet and looked worried. Don Bosco stopped him one day and asked him if something was bothering him, “Dominic, do you feel all right?”
“I am fine, Don Bosco! I have been thinking about your sermon last Sunday. From now on, I am going to be very serious about becoming a saint.”
“Dominic,” explained Don Bosco, “say your prayers devoutly. Perform all your duties exactly, and above all be cheerful. The Lord loves a cheerful giver.”
Dominic’s desire to become a saint troubled him however. He wondered to himself how someone as young as he was could become a saint? In his zeal, he tried voluntary mortification and other voluntary penances, hoping that they would help him to grow closer to Jesus and help him to be less concerned with his own needs. He even made his bed uncomfortable and wore thin clothes in winter.
When Fr. Bosco observed these practices, he corrected Dominic. He explained “The way to be a saint, Dominic, is to be always cheerful, do your duties to the best of your ability, and give your classmates good example. Keep in mind that the Lord, Jesus is always with you and wants your happiness.”
He discouraged Dominic from any more physical penances. Dominic’s happy demeanor quickly returned.
After six months at the Oratory, Dominic delivered a speech on the path to sainthood. In his speech, he made three outstanding points;
it is God’s will that we all become saints,
it is easy to become a saint, and
there are great rewards in heaven for saints.
Dominic would say, “I can’t do big things. But I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.”
Every Friday he found a few minutes during recreation to go to the chapel with some friends and recite the Seven Sorrows of Mary or the Litany of the Sorrowful Virgin.
One Saturday, he invited a companion to recite Our Lady’s Vespers with him, but the lad tried to get out of it by pleading that his hands were cold. Dominic took off his own gloves and gave them to him. Another time he lent his coat to a boy to have him go to church with him for a few moments.
Dominic drew up an interesting set of stories about Mary, the mother of Jesus, to tell his schoolmates. Now and then he would drop a good hint to get someone to go to confession and Communion in honor or the Blessed Mother. He was the first to set the example. He saw the Sacrament of Penance as a good place to get advise from the priest.
When Dominic received Communion or when he made a visit to Church he became completely absorbed in prayer.
One day Dominic was missing from breakfast, from class, and from lunch. No one knew where he was. On being informed, Don Bosco guessed that he was in church as he had been at other times. His guess was right. He went into the sanctuary behind the main altar.
There was Dominic, standing as immovable as a rock. One foot was over the other; one hand rested on a bookstand, the other was pressed against his heart. His face was fixed toward the tabernacle. Don Bosco called to him, “Dominic.” He looked at Don Bosco and asked, “Is Mass over already?”
“Look, Dominic,” said Don Bosco as he showed him the time. “It’s two o’clock in the afternoon.” Dominic apologized. Don Bosco then sent him for something to eat, adding, “If anyone asks where you were, say you were doing something for me.”
Another time, Don Bosco had just finished his thanksgiving after Mass and was about to leave the sacristy when he heard someone talking in the sanctuary. He found Dominic alone but speaking as if in a conversation with some invisible person.
Don Bosco heard Dominic say, “Yes, Lord, I have said it before, and I will keep on saying it, I love you and I want to love you all my life. If you see that I am about to commit a sin, make me die first! Yes, death first, but not sin!”
One night after all had gone to bed Dominic rushed into Don Bosco’s room, waking him, “Don Bosco come with me! “What,” asked Don Bosco? “Please Don Bosco, hurry!”
With Dominic’s insistence, Don Bosco dressed quickly and followed him. They left the Oratory, hurried down one street, into another, and up a third, without saying a word, and then into another street. They walked quickly along a line of tenements, and finally Dominic stopped before one. He ran up the stairs to the third floor with Don Bosco following. Dominic stopped at one door, knocking on the door and told Don Bosco, “Here!”
The door of the apartment opened, and a woman stood before Don Bosco. “Thank God!” cried the woman, “There’s little time. My husband is dying. He left the Church, but now he wants to die a good Catholic!” The man made his peace with God. Don Bosco heard his confession and blessed him. The man died a few moments later.
Days later, Don Bosco asked Dominic how he knew about that dying man. His face clouded over with a look of distress, and tears came to his eyes. Don Bosco did not insist.
At the same time Dominic was developing his reputation as a fantastic student, his health began to fail. His health, always frail, led to lung problems. He started to lose his appetite and Fr. Bosco became concerned.
Dominic was taken to the doctor who recommended that he be sent home to his family to recover. Dominic wanted to stay at the oratory, but Fr. Bosco insisted he go home. Everybody expected Dominic to recover, except for Dominic himself who insisted he was dying.
Before he departed, Dominic made the ‘Exercise of a Happy Death’ and predicted this would be his final devotion.
After four days at home, Dominic’s health worsened. The doctor ordered him to bed rest. He then performed bloodletting, which was still performed at that time. Over the next four days, Dominic was bled ten times before the doctor was satisfied he would recover.
But Dominic was sure of his impending death. He implored his parents to bring the parish priest so he could make a last confession. They obliged him and Dominic made a confession and was given the Anointing of the Sick. He asked his father to read him the prayers for the Exercise of a Happy Death. Then he fell asleep.
Hours later he awoke and said to his father: “Goodbye, Dad, goodbye … Oh what wonderful things I see!” Dominic fell asleep and died within minutes. It was March 9, 1857 and Dominic was merely 14 year of age.
“Death, but not sin.”
“Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a Master who pays well; who rewards even a cup of cold water given for love of Him.”
“I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.”
“Mary, I always want to be your son. Let me die rather than commit a single sin against chastity.”
Feast of Saint Dominic Savio.
He is the patron saint of boys, children’s choirs, choir boys, choirs, falsely accused people, juvenile delinquents, Pueri Cantors.
Dominic Savio was born on April 2, 1842 in the village of Riva in northern Italy. He was the second of eleven children born to Charles and Brigid Savio.
His father was a blacksmith and his mother a seamstress. His family was poor but hardworking. They were devout and pious Catholics.
When he was just two years old, Dominic’s family returned to their native village of Castlenuovo d’Asti, (today, Castlenuovo Don Bosco) near the birthplace of John Bosco.
As a small child, Dominic loved the Lord and His Church. He was very devout in practicing his Catholic faith. He said grace before every meal and refused to eat with those who did not. He was always quick to encourage others to pray.
Dominic attended Church regularly with his mother and was often seen kneeling before the Tabernacle in prayer. He even prayed outside the Church building. It did not matter to Dominic if the ground was covered with mud or snow, he knelt and prayed anyway.
Dominic was quickly recognized as an exceptional student who studied hard and performed well in school. He became an altar server. He also attended daily Mass and went to confession regularly.
Dominic asked to receive his first communion at the age of seven. This was not the practice in the Church of Italy at the time. Normally, children received their first holy communion at the age of twelve.
Dominic’s priest, Father John Lucca, was so impressed with his intelligence concerning the faith, his love for the Lord and his piety. Fr. John Lucca let him make his First Communion at the age of seven.
Dominic said that the day of his First Communion was the happiest day of his life. On the Day he received his first communion, Dominic wrote four promises in a little book. Those promises were:
I will go to Confession often, and as frequently to Holy Communion as my confessor allows.
I wish to sanctify the Sundays and festivals in a special manner.
My friends shall be Jesus and Mary.
Death rather than sin.
Dominic graduated to secondary school. He walked three miles to school each day. He undertook this chore gladly.
On one very hot day an elderly man met him and asked, “Aren’t you afraid to walk so far alone on this country road?”
“I’m not alone,” replied Dominic. “I have my guardian angel with me. ”
“But surely you find the journey long and tiresome in this very hot weather!”
“I work for a Master who pays well.”
“And who is your master?”
“God is my master.”
Although he was young, Dominic was clearly different than his peers. As a youth, Dominic spent hours rapt in prayer. His raptures he called “my distractions.” Even in play, he said that at times, “It seems heaven is opening just above me. I am afraid I may say or do something that will make the other boys laugh.”
Once a classmate committed a serious offense. This boy had a reputation for misbehavior. The culprit falsely accused Dominic of the offence. The teacher scolded the class, and threatened Dominic was expulsion, but because Dominic had never misbehaved before, he gave Dominic severe scolding before the whole class. Dominic made no reply but stood in silence head bowed.
A few days later the boy who was actually guilty was discovered. Regretting his previous harsh words, the teacher asked Dominic why he had not defended himself. His answer came slowly but simply: “I knew that the other boy was in trouble for other things. I remembered how Our Lord had been unjustly accused, and I hoped that if I kept silence he would be given another chance.”
On one occasion two boys had gotten into an argument and challenged each other to a rock duel. This was a common way young thugs and street gangs settled arguments: stones at each other until one gave up or was seriously injured.
Dominic stepped between them. One of the two shouted, “Dominic, what are you doing?”
“Do you promise you will fight under the condition I will set up?”
“Yes, now get out of the way, agreed one of the boys.”
The other shouted, “Let’s get this over with. What’s the condition?”
Taking out a small crucifix, which he used to wear around his neck, Dominic held it up. “Before you start the fight you must look at this crucifix, and throw the first stone at me.”
He strode before the angrier boy, and kneeling down said, “You start! Throw the first stone at me!”
Taken by surprise, the boy began to tremble. “No!” he protested. “Never! I have no argument with you, Dominic.”
Dominic ran over to the other boy. He too was astonished and assured Dominic he was his friend and meant him no harm.
Then Dominic stood up. Looking at them, he said with great emotion: “Neither of you is ready to hurt me because I am your friend, yet you want commit this sin over a stupid remark made at school. Christ, who was innocent, died for us rather then seek revenge from those who hated him.” Dominic stood, silent, crucifix in hand. Both boys dropped their stones, ashamed before his courageous stand.
In October 1854, Dominic was personally introduced to Fr. Bosco – along with his father. Dominic asked to Don Bosco, “Father, will you take me to Turin with you to the Oratory to study?”
“Well, you look like good material to me!” Don Bosco exclaimed.
“Good material, Father? Good for what?”
“To make a beautiful garment for the Lord, son.”
“Then take me with you, Father. You can be the tailor, and I’ll be the cloth. Make me into a beautiful garment for Our Lord.”
At the meeting, Bosco wanted to test Dominic’s intelligence and understanding of the Catholic faith. He gave Dominic a copy of The Catholic Readings, which was a pamphlet that dealt with apologetics.
He expected Dominic to provide a report the next day, but just ten minutes later Dominic recited the text and provided a full explanation of its significance. This solidified Bosco’s high opinion of Dominic.
He impressed Don Bosco with his desire to be a priest and to help him in his work with neglected boys.
At the Oratory, Dominic studied directly under Fr. Bosco. He worked diligently and always asked questions when he did not understand something. He renewed his First Communion promises that he wrote in his little book at the age of seven.
Once Dominic paid Don Bosco a visit in his office a few days after his arrival. Dominic noticed a sign in a frame hanging over the door.
“What’s the meaning of those words, Father?”
Don Bosco explained, “That is a motto, Da mihi animas caetera tolle. It is Latin. Do you understand Latin?”
“No, Father.”
“It is a saying of St. Francis De Sales, our patron. I have taken it as my motto. It is translated: Give me souls: take away the rest.”
Dominic did not fully understand meaning of the words, but a seed was planted in his heart.
Don Bosco Explained, “I am very concerned that I work hard to help people and myself save our souls by following Jesus, nothing else really matters.”
A peacemaker and an organizer, young Dominic founded a group called the Company of the Immaculate Conception which, besides being devotional, aided John Bosco with the boys and with manual work.
All the members except one, Dominic, would, in 1859, join Don Bosco in the beginnings of his Salesian congregation. By that time, Dominic had been called home to heaven.
On the second Sunday of Lent, 1855, Don Bosco was preaching to the boys of the Oratory. He exclaimed, “Every one is called to be a saint, and do you know, it is easy to be a saint. Just do this: diligently do the ordinary things of the day in an extra ordinary way.”
Dominic was profoundly impressed. He began to think most seriously about what it meant to be a saint. He became quiet and looked worried. Don Bosco stopped him one day and asked him if something was bothering him, “Dominic, do you feel all right?”
“I am fine, Don Bosco! I have been thinking about your sermon last Sunday. From now on, I am going to be very serious about becoming a saint.”
“Dominic,” explained Don Bosco, “say your prayers devoutly. Perform all your duties exactly, and above all be cheerful. The Lord loves a cheerful giver.”
Dominic’s desire to become a saint troubled him however. He wondered to himself how someone as young as he was could become a saint? In his zeal, he tried voluntary mortification and other voluntary penances, hoping that they would help him to grow closer to Jesus and help him to be less concerned with his own needs. He even made his bed uncomfortable and wore thin clothes in winter.
When Fr. Bosco observed these practices, he corrected Dominic. He explained “The way to be a saint, Dominic, is to be always cheerful, do your duties to the best of your ability, and give your classmates good example. Keep in mind that the Lord, Jesus is always with you and wants your happiness.”
He discouraged Dominic from any more physical penances. Dominic’s happy demeanor quickly returned.
After six months at the Oratory, Dominic delivered a speech on the path to sainthood. In his speech, he made three outstanding points;
it is God’s will that we all become saints,
it is easy to become a saint, and
there are great rewards in heaven for saints.
Dominic would say, “I can’t do big things. But I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.”
Every Friday he found a few minutes during recreation to go to the chapel with some friends and recite the Seven Sorrows of Mary or the Litany of the Sorrowful Virgin.
One Saturday, he invited a companion to recite Our Lady’s Vespers with him, but the lad tried to get out of it by pleading that his hands were cold. Dominic took off his own gloves and gave them to him. Another time he lent his coat to a boy to have him go to church with him for a few moments.
Dominic drew up an interesting set of stories about Mary, the mother of Jesus, to tell his schoolmates. Now and then he would drop a good hint to get someone to go to confession and Communion in honor or the Blessed Mother. He was the first to set the example. He saw the Sacrament of Penance as a good place to get advise from the priest.
When Dominic received Communion or when he made a visit to Church he became completely absorbed in prayer.
One day Dominic was missing from breakfast, from class, and from lunch. No one knew where he was. On being informed, Don Bosco guessed that he was in church as he had been at other times. His guess was right. He went into the sanctuary behind the main altar.
There was Dominic, standing as immovable as a rock. One foot was over the other; one hand rested on a bookstand, the other was pressed against his heart. His face was fixed toward the tabernacle. Don Bosco called to him, “Dominic.” He looked at Don Bosco and asked, “Is Mass over already?”
“Look, Dominic,” said Don Bosco as he showed him the time. “It’s two o’clock in the afternoon.” Dominic apologized. Don Bosco then sent him for something to eat, adding, “If anyone asks where you were, say you were doing something for me.”
Another time, Don Bosco had just finished his thanksgiving after Mass and was about to leave the sacristy when he heard someone talking in the sanctuary. He found Dominic alone but speaking as if in a conversation with some invisible person.
Don Bosco heard Dominic say, “Yes, Lord, I have said it before, and I will keep on saying it, I love you and I want to love you all my life. If you see that I am about to commit a sin, make me die first! Yes, death first, but not sin!”
One night after all had gone to bed Dominic rushed into Don Bosco’s room, waking him, “Don Bosco come with me! “What,” asked Don Bosco? “Please Don Bosco, hurry!”
With Dominic’s insistence, Don Bosco dressed quickly and followed him. They left the Oratory, hurried down one street, into another, and up a third, without saying a word, and then into another street. They walked quickly along a line of tenements, and finally Dominic stopped before one. He ran up the stairs to the third floor with Don Bosco following. Dominic stopped at one door, knocking on the door and told Don Bosco, “Here!”
The door of the apartment opened, and a woman stood before Don Bosco. “Thank God!” cried the woman, “There’s little time. My husband is dying. He left the Church, but now he wants to die a good Catholic!” The man made his peace with God. Don Bosco heard his confession and blessed him. The man died a few moments later.
Days later, Don Bosco asked Dominic how he knew about that dying man. His face clouded over with a look of distress, and tears came to his eyes. Don Bosco did not insist.
At the same time Dominic was developing his reputation as a fantastic student, his health began to fail. His health, always frail, led to lung problems. He started to lose his appetite and Fr. Bosco became concerned.
Dominic was taken to the doctor who recommended that he be sent home to his family to recover. Dominic wanted to stay at the oratory, but Fr. Bosco insisted he go home. Everybody expected Dominic to recover, except for Dominic himself who insisted he was dying.
Before he departed, Dominic made the ‘Exercise of a Happy Death’ and predicted this would be his final devotion.
After four days at home, Dominic’s health worsened. The doctor ordered him to bed rest. He then performed bloodletting, which was still performed at that time. Over the next four days, Dominic was bled ten times before the doctor was satisfied he would recover.
But Dominic was sure of his impending death. He implored his parents to bring the parish priest so he could make a last confession. They obliged him and Dominic made a confession and was given the Anointing of the Sick. He asked his father to read him the prayers for the Exercise of a Happy Death. Then he fell asleep.
Hours later he awoke and said to his father: “Goodbye, Dad, goodbye … Oh what wonderful things I see!” Dominic fell asleep and died within minutes. It was March 9, 1857 and Dominic was merely 14 year of age.
“Death, but not sin.”
“Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a Master who pays well; who rewards even a cup of cold water given for love of Him.”
“I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.”
“Mary, I always want to be your son. Let me die rather than commit a single sin against chastity.”
Close
May 6
Saint Dominic Savio
May 7
Daily Saints – 7 May.
Feast of St. Rose Venerini.
Rosa was born on 9 February 1656 at Viterbo, Italy. She was the daughter of Godfrey Venerini, physician in Viterbo, Italy.
Rosa was naturally gifted with intelligence and an uncommon human sensibility. The education that she received in her family allowed her to develop her many talents of mind and heart, forming her in steadfast Christian principles.
She made a vow to consecrate her life to God at the age of seven. During the early years of her youth, she lived through a conflict between the attractions of the world and the promise made to God. Rosa overcame this crisis with trusting prayer and mortification.
At age twenty, Rosa raised questions about her own future. The women of her time could choose only two orientations for their live: marriage or the cloister. Rosa esteemed both.
Following the death of her fiance, she entered a convent. She remained in the monastery for only a few months because the sudden death of her father forced her to return to her suffering mother.
One of Rosa’s brothers, Domenico, also died at age 27. Marzia, her mother, was heartbroken and died within months.
In the wake of these family crises, Rosa invited local women to her home to pray the Rosary in a group. However, she was soon dismayed by the deficiencies she saw in their education and religious formation. This eye-opening experience shaped Rosa’s future, pointing her toward her ultimate vocation in the field of teaching.
Jesuit Father Ignatius Martinelli, her spiritual director, convinced her that she was called to be a teacher instead of a contemplative nun. Rose had the gift of ready and persuasive speech, and a real ability to teach and to teach others to teach.
In 1685, with the help of two friends and the approval of her local bishop, Rosa opened Italy’s first public school for girls. It was supported by some Church and state officials, though others resisted an educational model that was, for its time, unconventional.
Many of these critics were silenced by the school’s clear success in uplifting the character of young women. Rosa left Viterbo and founded ten schools in the Diocese of Montefiascone between 1692 and 1694. She also trained a local successor, the future Saint Lucia Filippini.
Only after several years, and one disappointing failed attempt, did Rosa manage to start a school in Rome, during 1713. Three years later, Pope Clement XI paid a visit accompanied by eight cardinals. Witnessing the work of Rosa Venerini’s teachers, the Pope personally thanked her, declaring: “With these schools you will sanctify Rome.”
Rosa often met opposition, some fierce, and some actually violent – her teachers were shot at with bows, and their houses burned. Many of these critics were silenced by the school’s clear success in uplifting the character of young women.
She was never deterred, teaching, and finding people who were willing to face the danger in order to do good. Her patience and trust overcame all obstacles.
The acceptance of Rosa’s work also increased her daily responsibilities. She undertook difficult journeys for the sake of her work, while maintaining a strong prayer life that kept her oriented toward God’s will in all of her undertakings.
Spiritual direction from Jesuit priests helped her to combine an active apostolate with a life of contemplative prayer. She cultivated a close daily relationship to God while working to found over 40 schools.
The sodality, or group of women she had invited to prayer, were ultimately given the rank of a religious congregation ‘Venerini Sisters’. Rosa died on 7 May 1728 at Rome, Italy.
“I find myself so bound to the divine will that neither death nor life is important: I want to live as he wishes and I want to serve him as he likes, and nothing more.”
Feast of St. Rose Venerini.
Rosa was born on 9 February 1656 at Viterbo, Italy. She was the daughter of Godfrey Venerini, physician in Viterbo, Italy.
Rosa was naturally gifted with intelligence and an uncommon human sensibility. The education that she received in her family allowed her to develop her many talents of mind and heart, forming her in steadfast Christian principles.
She made a vow to consecrate her life to God at the age of seven. During the early years of her youth, she lived through a conflict between the attractions of the world and the promise made to God. Rosa overcame this crisis with trusting prayer and mortification.
At age twenty, Rosa raised questions about her own future. The women of her time could choose only two orientations for their live: marriage or the cloister. Rosa esteemed both.
Following the death of her fiance, she entered a convent. She remained in the monastery for only a few months because the sudden death of her father forced her to return to her suffering mother.
One of Rosa’s brothers, Domenico, also died at age 27. Marzia, her mother, was heartbroken and died within months.
In the wake of these family crises, Rosa invited local women to her home to pray the Rosary in a group. However, she was soon dismayed by the deficiencies she saw in their education and religious formation. This eye-opening experience shaped Rosa’s future, pointing her toward her ultimate vocation in the field of teaching.
Jesuit Father Ignatius Martinelli, her spiritual director, convinced her that she was called to be a teacher instead of a contemplative nun. Rose had the gift of ready and persuasive speech, and a real ability to teach and to teach others to teach.
In 1685, with the help of two friends and the approval of her local bishop, Rosa opened Italy’s first public school for girls. It was supported by some Church and state officials, though others resisted an educational model that was, for its time, unconventional.
Many of these critics were silenced by the school’s clear success in uplifting the character of young women. Rosa left Viterbo and founded ten schools in the Diocese of Montefiascone between 1692 and 1694. She also trained a local successor, the future Saint Lucia Filippini.
Only after several years, and one disappointing failed attempt, did Rosa manage to start a school in Rome, during 1713. Three years later, Pope Clement XI paid a visit accompanied by eight cardinals. Witnessing the work of Rosa Venerini’s teachers, the Pope personally thanked her, declaring: “With these schools you will sanctify Rome.”
Rosa often met opposition, some fierce, and some actually violent – her teachers were shot at with bows, and their houses burned. Many of these critics were silenced by the school’s clear success in uplifting the character of young women.
She was never deterred, teaching, and finding people who were willing to face the danger in order to do good. Her patience and trust overcame all obstacles.
The acceptance of Rosa’s work also increased her daily responsibilities. She undertook difficult journeys for the sake of her work, while maintaining a strong prayer life that kept her oriented toward God’s will in all of her undertakings.
Spiritual direction from Jesuit priests helped her to combine an active apostolate with a life of contemplative prayer. She cultivated a close daily relationship to God while working to found over 40 schools.
The sodality, or group of women she had invited to prayer, were ultimately given the rank of a religious congregation ‘Venerini Sisters’. Rosa died on 7 May 1728 at Rome, Italy.
“I find myself so bound to the divine will that neither death nor life is important: I want to live as he wishes and I want to serve him as he likes, and nothing more.”
Close
May 7
Saint Rose Venerini
May 8
Daily Saints – 8 May.
Feast of Saint Acacius
Feast of Saint Acacius
St. Acacius was a native of Cappadocia and as a youth joined the Roman army during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. He eventually attained the rank of captain.
One day, when leading his troops against the enemy, he heard a voice saying to him, “Call on the God of Catholics!” This was the beginning of his conversion. Shortly thereafter, Acacius was instructed and received Baptism, becoming a member of the mystical Body of Christ – the Catholic Church. Filled with a zeal and love for his friends, the captain sought to share his newfound treasure with the pagan soldiers in the Roman army.
Eventually though, the emperor heard of this converting happening among his troops and he immediately had Acacius thrown into prison. But when the brave captain refused to sacrifice to the pagan idols, he was placed upon the torturer’s rack, bound to a post and scourged. When all these tortures failed to change his mind, the prisoner was brought before the tribune, or colonel, Bibianus. The pagan asked Acacius what his name was and which country he was from.
“My name is Catholic,” the saint replied, “because I am a follower of Christ, but men call me Acacius. My country is Cappadocia. There my parents lived; there I was converted to the Christian faith, and was so inspired by the combats and sufferings of the Catholic martyrs that I am resolved to shed my blood for Christ to attain Heaven.”
Then Bibianus ordered him to be beaten with leaden clubs, after which he was loaded with chains and returned to the prison. After Acacius had been in prison seven days, Bibianus was called to Byzantium. But this was not the end of Acacius’ persecution, for the tribune ordered all of his prisoners to be taken to Byzantium as well. On the journey, Acacius suffered greatly. His entire body was covered with wounds and his chains aggravated and intensified his injuries. In addition to that, the roads were very hard to travel on and the guards were especially cruel to the new Catholic. Poor Acacius felt as if he was dying.
During this painful journey, as he was praying to God for strength, a voice from the clouds answered him, “Acacius, be firm!” Everyone heard it and the soldiers of the guard were terrified. They asked each other, “What is this! How can the clouds have a voice?” Many of the other prisoners were converted by the heavenly voice. And the next day, some of the converts were given a vision of a number of men in shining armor speaking to Acacius, washing his wounds and healing them. As a result of this miraculous healing, not even a scar remained on the saint’s body.
After he arrived in Byzantium, the saint was again cast into prison, and after seven days dragged before the judge. Again, neither promises nor the most cruel torments shook the brave man’s constancy. Faced with this defeat, the judge sent the prisoner to Flaccius, the proconsul of Thracia. This would be a new pagan lord that could vent his hatred against the Catholic.
Flaccius had Acacius imprisoned for five days. During this time, the proconsul read the records of all the prisoner’s former trials and tortures. God will have the final word, though, and Acacius had already suffered enough and proven himself worthy of the reward awaiting him. There were no more torments executed on the prisoner. Instead, Flaccius simply ordered for him to be beheaded and Acacius was able to receive his long cherished desire – death for Christ! Thus his life on earth ended and his everlasting one began, the bliss of which he is still enjoying, on May 8 in the year 311.
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May 8
Saint Acacius
May 9
Daily Saints – 9 May.
Feast of Saint Pachomius of Tabenna.
Pachomius was born about 292 in the Upper Thebaid in Egypt. His parents were idolatrous, and he was educated in their blind superstition, and in the study of the Egyptian sciences.
He became a soldier in the imperial Roman army. Impressed by the kindness of Christians, he became a Christian in 313. He left the army in 314 and became a spiritual student of Saint Palaemon.
He lived as a hermit from 316. He first started out as a hermit in the desert, like many of the other men and women in the third and fourth centuries who sought the most radical expression of Christian life. There he developed a very strong bond of friendship with the hermit Palemon.
Pachomius prayed above all things, for perfect purity of heart, that being disengaged from all secret attachment to creatures, he might love God with all his affections. And to destroy the very roots of all inordinate passions, it was his first study to obtain the most profound humility, and perfect patience and meekness.
He prayed often with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross; which posture was then much used in the church. He was in the beginning often drowsy at the night office. Palemon used to rouse him, and say: “Labor and watch, my dear Pachomius, lest the enemy overthrow you and ruin all your endeavors.”
Against this weakness and temptation he enjoined him, on such occasions, to carry sand from one place to another, till his drowsiness was overcome. By this means the novice strengthened himself in the habit of watching. Whatever instructions he read or heard, he immediately endeavored fervently to reduce to practice.
One day during prayer, he had a vision in which he was called to build a monastery, and was told in the vision that many people who were eager to live an ascetic life in the desert, but were not inclined to the solitary life of a hermit, would come and join him.
His hermit friend, Palemon, helped him to build the monastery. Pachomius insisted that his cenobites were to aspire to the austerity of the hermits.
However, Pchomius knew that his idea was a radical one, because most of the men who came to live in his monastery had only ever conceived of the eremitic lifestyle.
His great accomplishment was to reconcile this desire for austere perfection with an openness to fulfilling the mundane requirements of community life as an expression of Christian love and service.
He spent most of his first years as a cenobitic doing all the menial work on his own, knowing that his brother monks needed to be gently inducted into serving their brothers in the same manner. He therefore allowed them to devote all their time to spiritual exercises in those first years.
The regime was austere, one meal a day with an optional supper, except on Wednesdays and Fridays. The day was organised around the liturgy, with time for manual work and devotional reading. This took the form of learning by heart extracts from the psalms and the Bible.
The rule that Pachomius drew up was said to have been dictated to him by an angel, and it is this rule that both St. Benedict in the west and St. Basil in the east drew upon to develop their better known rules of cenobitic life.
The movement grew rapidly and Pachomius established a second monastery. Eventually there were nine monasteries for men and two for women. He appointed local superiors in charge of each of the houses. The superiors met at Easter and August to present an account of their monastery and celebrate the liturgy together.
Pachomius considered obedience carried out with zeal more important that fasting and prayer. The monks were not ordained, nor was he himself, but a priest from outside came to celebrate the liturgy.
Though he had never learned the Greek or Latin tongues, he sometimes miraculously spoke them. He cured the sick and persons possessed by devils with blessed oil.
But he often told sick or distressed persons, that their sickness or affliction was an effect of the divine goodness in their behalf; and he only prayed for their temporal comfort, with this clause or condition, if it should not prove hurtful to their souls.
His dearest disciple, St. Theodorus, who after his death succeeded him in the government of his monasteries, was afflicted with a perpetual headache. St. Pachomius, when desired by some of the brethren to pray for his health, answered: “though abstinence and prayer be of great merit, yet sickness, suffered with patience, is of much greater.”
He chiefly begged of God the spiritual health of the souls of his disciples and others, and took every opportunity to curb and heal their passions, especially that of pride.
One day a certain monk having doubled his diligence at work, and made two mats instead of one, set them where St. Pachomius might see them. The saint perceiving the snare, said, “This brother hath taken a great deal of pains from morning till night, to give his work to the devil.”
In his last moments he exhorted his monks to fervor, and having armed himself with the sign of the cross, resigned his happy soul into the hands of his Creator in the fifty-seventh year of his age. Pachomius died of a plague in 346. A.D.
He can be called the founder of cenobitic monasticism, monks who live in community. Even though St. Antony the Great was the first to go into the desert to live a life of seclusion pursuing evangelical perfection, he lived a heremitic life, that is, a primarily solitary life.
“O God, Creator of heaven and earth, cast on me an eye of pity: deliver me from my miseries: teach me the true way of pleasing you, and it shall be the whole employment, and most earnest study of my life to serve you, and to do your will.”
Feast of Saint Pachomius of Tabenna.
Pachomius was born about 292 in the Upper Thebaid in Egypt. His parents were idolatrous, and he was educated in their blind superstition, and in the study of the Egyptian sciences.
He became a soldier in the imperial Roman army. Impressed by the kindness of Christians, he became a Christian in 313. He left the army in 314 and became a spiritual student of Saint Palaemon.
He lived as a hermit from 316. He first started out as a hermit in the desert, like many of the other men and women in the third and fourth centuries who sought the most radical expression of Christian life. There he developed a very strong bond of friendship with the hermit Palemon.
Pachomius prayed above all things, for perfect purity of heart, that being disengaged from all secret attachment to creatures, he might love God with all his affections. And to destroy the very roots of all inordinate passions, it was his first study to obtain the most profound humility, and perfect patience and meekness.
He prayed often with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross; which posture was then much used in the church. He was in the beginning often drowsy at the night office. Palemon used to rouse him, and say: “Labor and watch, my dear Pachomius, lest the enemy overthrow you and ruin all your endeavors.”
Against this weakness and temptation he enjoined him, on such occasions, to carry sand from one place to another, till his drowsiness was overcome. By this means the novice strengthened himself in the habit of watching. Whatever instructions he read or heard, he immediately endeavored fervently to reduce to practice.
One day during prayer, he had a vision in which he was called to build a monastery, and was told in the vision that many people who were eager to live an ascetic life in the desert, but were not inclined to the solitary life of a hermit, would come and join him.
His hermit friend, Palemon, helped him to build the monastery. Pachomius insisted that his cenobites were to aspire to the austerity of the hermits.
However, Pchomius knew that his idea was a radical one, because most of the men who came to live in his monastery had only ever conceived of the eremitic lifestyle.
His great accomplishment was to reconcile this desire for austere perfection with an openness to fulfilling the mundane requirements of community life as an expression of Christian love and service.
He spent most of his first years as a cenobitic doing all the menial work on his own, knowing that his brother monks needed to be gently inducted into serving their brothers in the same manner. He therefore allowed them to devote all their time to spiritual exercises in those first years.
The regime was austere, one meal a day with an optional supper, except on Wednesdays and Fridays. The day was organised around the liturgy, with time for manual work and devotional reading. This took the form of learning by heart extracts from the psalms and the Bible.
The rule that Pachomius drew up was said to have been dictated to him by an angel, and it is this rule that both St. Benedict in the west and St. Basil in the east drew upon to develop their better known rules of cenobitic life.
The movement grew rapidly and Pachomius established a second monastery. Eventually there were nine monasteries for men and two for women. He appointed local superiors in charge of each of the houses. The superiors met at Easter and August to present an account of their monastery and celebrate the liturgy together.
Pachomius considered obedience carried out with zeal more important that fasting and prayer. The monks were not ordained, nor was he himself, but a priest from outside came to celebrate the liturgy.
Though he had never learned the Greek or Latin tongues, he sometimes miraculously spoke them. He cured the sick and persons possessed by devils with blessed oil.
But he often told sick or distressed persons, that their sickness or affliction was an effect of the divine goodness in their behalf; and he only prayed for their temporal comfort, with this clause or condition, if it should not prove hurtful to their souls.
His dearest disciple, St. Theodorus, who after his death succeeded him in the government of his monasteries, was afflicted with a perpetual headache. St. Pachomius, when desired by some of the brethren to pray for his health, answered: “though abstinence and prayer be of great merit, yet sickness, suffered with patience, is of much greater.”
He chiefly begged of God the spiritual health of the souls of his disciples and others, and took every opportunity to curb and heal their passions, especially that of pride.
One day a certain monk having doubled his diligence at work, and made two mats instead of one, set them where St. Pachomius might see them. The saint perceiving the snare, said, “This brother hath taken a great deal of pains from morning till night, to give his work to the devil.”
In his last moments he exhorted his monks to fervor, and having armed himself with the sign of the cross, resigned his happy soul into the hands of his Creator in the fifty-seventh year of his age. Pachomius died of a plague in 346. A.D.
He can be called the founder of cenobitic monasticism, monks who live in community. Even though St. Antony the Great was the first to go into the desert to live a life of seclusion pursuing evangelical perfection, he lived a heremitic life, that is, a primarily solitary life.
“O God, Creator of heaven and earth, cast on me an eye of pity: deliver me from my miseries: teach me the true way of pleasing you, and it shall be the whole employment, and most earnest study of my life to serve you, and to do your will.”
Close
May 9
Saint Pachomius of Tabenna
May 10
Daily Saints – 10 May.
Feast of St. John of Avila.
John was born on 6 January 1499 at Almodovar del Campo, Toledo, Spain. He was the only son of devout Christian parents, Alonso Ávila and Catalina Gijón, who were wealthy and of high social standing.
John was sent at the age of 14 to the University of Salamanca to study law. There he had a profound spiritual experience and felt a call to religious life. He later moved to Alcala, where he studied theology and philosophy at Alcala, Spain at age 17.
John became a lawyer. Following the death of his parents, he liquidated most of his large fortune, and gave it to the poor.
John was Ordained in 1525. He wanted to be a missionary in the West Indies and Mexico. The archbishop of that city persuaded him to stay and spread the faith in Andalusia. During nine years of work there, he developed a reputation as an engaging preacher, a perceptive spiritual director, and a wise confessor.
John spoke boldly against the sins of the ruling classes, made powerful enemies, and at one point was imprisoned in Seville, Spain by the Inquisition, accused of false teachings; the charges were dismissed, John was released, and his preaching became more popular than ever.
He was the Spiritual director of Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Francis Borgia, Saint John of God, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Peter of Alcántara, and Saint Louis of Granada.
John worked closely with members of the Society of Jesus and helped their growth within Spain and its colonies. John’s mystical writings have been translated into several languages.
His work was instrumental in the establishment of seminaries to form future priests, and in the shaping the ministry of bishops in their dioceses. Building on his own experience, John also emphasized the importance of catechisms and religious education for children and adults.
Beginning in 1551, John was increasingly burdened by ill health, and, within a few years, was forced to give up his missionary endeavors. For a brief period, there was discussion with the Jesuits, including Ignatius of Loyola, of his possible entry into the Society. However, John’s failing health prevented this move.
John spent the last years of his life in semi-retirement in Montilla in the diocese of Cordoba. He continued to engage in ministry as his health permitted and wrote a vast number of letters to people in various states of life.
John died on 10 May 1569 at Montilla, Provincia de Córdoba, Andalucia, Spain of natural causes.
“Turn yourself round like a piece of clay and say to the Lord: I am clay, and you, Lord, the potter. Make of me what you will.”
“Withdraw your heart from the world before God takes your body from it.”
“The proof of perfect love of our Lord is seen in the perfect love of our neighbour”
“Your life consists in drawing nearer to God. To do this you must endeavor to detach yourself from visible things and remember that in a short time they will be taken from you.”
“Blessed be God, for so bountifully providing for us that He even bestows on us His very Self. The Son is given to us, and through Him the Holy Spirit, and with Them comes the Father. Thus, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit reside within us, and we already have a beginning here of that communion with God which will be perfect in the next life. Let us thank Him for all His mercies and prepare ourselves to receive the favors that still remain to be bestowed on us.”
“Dear brothers and sisters, I pray God may open your eyes and let you see what hidden treasures he bestows on us in the trials from which the world thinks only to flee. Shame turns into honor when we seek God’s glory. Present affliction become the source of heavenly glory. To those who suffer wounds in fighting his battles God opens his arms in loving, tender friendship. That is why he (Christ) tells us that if we want to join him, we shall travel the way he took. It is surely not right that the Son of God should go his way on the path of shame while the sons of men walk the way of worldly honor: “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant greater than his master.” – from a letter by Saint John of Avila
St. John of Avila divides the week into stages of the Passion of Christ:
• Monday think of our Lord’s agony in the garden and what passed in the house of Annas and Caiphas
• Tuesday, of the accusations, the removal from judge to judge, and the flagellation
• Wednesday, of the crowning with thorns and the mockery
• Thursday, of the washing of the feet, and the Blessed Eucharist
• Friday, of the sentence, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion and death
• Saturday, of the piercing of the side, the taking down from the cross, the burial, and the grief of the Blessed Virgin
• Sunday, of the resurrection and the state of future glory.
Feast of St. John of Avila.
John was born on 6 January 1499 at Almodovar del Campo, Toledo, Spain. He was the only son of devout Christian parents, Alonso Ávila and Catalina Gijón, who were wealthy and of high social standing.
John was sent at the age of 14 to the University of Salamanca to study law. There he had a profound spiritual experience and felt a call to religious life. He later moved to Alcala, where he studied theology and philosophy at Alcala, Spain at age 17.
John became a lawyer. Following the death of his parents, he liquidated most of his large fortune, and gave it to the poor.
John was Ordained in 1525. He wanted to be a missionary in the West Indies and Mexico. The archbishop of that city persuaded him to stay and spread the faith in Andalusia. During nine years of work there, he developed a reputation as an engaging preacher, a perceptive spiritual director, and a wise confessor.
John spoke boldly against the sins of the ruling classes, made powerful enemies, and at one point was imprisoned in Seville, Spain by the Inquisition, accused of false teachings; the charges were dismissed, John was released, and his preaching became more popular than ever.
He was the Spiritual director of Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Francis Borgia, Saint John of God, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Peter of Alcántara, and Saint Louis of Granada.
John worked closely with members of the Society of Jesus and helped their growth within Spain and its colonies. John’s mystical writings have been translated into several languages.
His work was instrumental in the establishment of seminaries to form future priests, and in the shaping the ministry of bishops in their dioceses. Building on his own experience, John also emphasized the importance of catechisms and religious education for children and adults.
Beginning in 1551, John was increasingly burdened by ill health, and, within a few years, was forced to give up his missionary endeavors. For a brief period, there was discussion with the Jesuits, including Ignatius of Loyola, of his possible entry into the Society. However, John’s failing health prevented this move.
John spent the last years of his life in semi-retirement in Montilla in the diocese of Cordoba. He continued to engage in ministry as his health permitted and wrote a vast number of letters to people in various states of life.
John died on 10 May 1569 at Montilla, Provincia de Córdoba, Andalucia, Spain of natural causes.
“Turn yourself round like a piece of clay and say to the Lord: I am clay, and you, Lord, the potter. Make of me what you will.”
“Withdraw your heart from the world before God takes your body from it.”
“The proof of perfect love of our Lord is seen in the perfect love of our neighbour”
“Your life consists in drawing nearer to God. To do this you must endeavor to detach yourself from visible things and remember that in a short time they will be taken from you.”
“Blessed be God, for so bountifully providing for us that He even bestows on us His very Self. The Son is given to us, and through Him the Holy Spirit, and with Them comes the Father. Thus, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit reside within us, and we already have a beginning here of that communion with God which will be perfect in the next life. Let us thank Him for all His mercies and prepare ourselves to receive the favors that still remain to be bestowed on us.”
“Dear brothers and sisters, I pray God may open your eyes and let you see what hidden treasures he bestows on us in the trials from which the world thinks only to flee. Shame turns into honor when we seek God’s glory. Present affliction become the source of heavenly glory. To those who suffer wounds in fighting his battles God opens his arms in loving, tender friendship. That is why he (Christ) tells us that if we want to join him, we shall travel the way he took. It is surely not right that the Son of God should go his way on the path of shame while the sons of men walk the way of worldly honor: “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant greater than his master.” – from a letter by Saint John of Avila
St. John of Avila divides the week into stages of the Passion of Christ:
• Monday think of our Lord’s agony in the garden and what passed in the house of Annas and Caiphas
• Tuesday, of the accusations, the removal from judge to judge, and the flagellation
• Wednesday, of the crowning with thorns and the mockery
• Thursday, of the washing of the feet, and the Blessed Eucharist
• Friday, of the sentence, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion and death
• Saturday, of the piercing of the side, the taking down from the cross, the burial, and the grief of the Blessed Virgin
• Sunday, of the resurrection and the state of future glory.
Close
May 10
Saint John of Avila
May 11
Daily Saints – 11 May.
Feast of Saint Ignatius of Laconi.
Patron of Students and Beggars.
Ignatius was born on December 17, 1701. He was the son of a poor farmer in Laconi, Italy. He was the second of seven children to his parents.
He was named Francis Ignatius Vincent Peis because his safe delivery through a difficult pregnancy was achieved through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. His mother promised the saint that she would name her unborn baby Francis and that he would join the Capuchins as an adult.
Since his early childhood, Francis demonstrated a capacity for hard work in the fields and a strong piety. He would often be seen in prayer and was known to wait at the church doors every morning in prayer until they were opened.
When he was about seventeen, he became very ill. He promised to be a Franciscan if he would get better. But when the illness left him, his father convinced him to wait. His father would not allow him because the family depended on his labour to survive.
A couple of years later, Ignatius was almost killed when he lost control of his horse. Suddenly, however, the horse stopped and trotted on quietly. Ignatius was convinced, then, that God had saved his life. He made up his mind to follow his religious vocation at once.
Ignatius asked for admission at the convent at Cagliari, but the superiors hesitated at first because of his delicate health. Then Ignatius looked up an influential friend who interceded for him, and he was received.
The ardor of his soul made him so strong that he could attend all the exercises of the community and even excel his brethren in perfect observance of the rule.
Brother Ignatius never had any important position in the Franciscan order. For fifteen years he worked in the weaving shed. Then, for forty years, he was part of the team who went out from house to house.
They requested food and donations to support the friars. Ignatius visited families and received their gift. But the people soon realized that they received a gift in return.
While on his rounds, Ignatius would instruct the children and urge sinners to repent. Brother Ignatius consoled the sick and cheered up the lonely. He made peace between enemies, converted people hardened by sin and advised those in trouble. They began to wait for his visits.
His modest demeanor was a quiet sermon for all who saw him going about. He seldom spoke; but when charity and the salvation of souls required it, he spoke with exceptional kindness.
There were some difficult days, too. Once in a while, a door was slammed in his face, and often the weather was bad. Always, there were miles and miles to walk. But Ignatius was dedicated.
Yet people noticed he used to skip one house. The owner was a rich moneylender. He made the poor pay back much more than they could afford. This man felt humiliated because Ignatius never visited his home to ask for donations. He complained to Brother Ignatius’ superior.
The superior knew nothing about the moneylender so he sent Ignatius to his home. Brother Ignatius never said a word, but did as he was told. He returned with a large sack of food. It was then that God worked a miracle.
When the sack was emptied, blood dripped out. “This is the blood of the poor,” Ignatius explained softly. “That is why I never ask for anything at that house.” The friars began to pray that the moneylender would repent.
Ignatius punctually obeyed his superiors, even when it required the denial of his own will. His sister had often written to him asking him to pay her a visit, so she could get his advice in certain important matters. Ignatius had no mind to heed her request, but when his superior ordered him to do so, he at once undertook the journey. But he left again as soon as he had given the required advice.
When his brother was sent to prison, it was hoped that, in view of the reputation of Brother Ignatius, the latter could obtain his brother’s release. His superior sent him to speak to the governor, but he asked merely that his brother be dealt with according to justice. Not for anything in the world would Brother Ignatius have kept anyone from doing his duty.
Ignatius was highly esteemed for his humility and charity, and adorned with many gifts from God. To those who came to him for comfort, he would advise, “Trust God.” In numerous instances, God’s healing power was channeled through this “apostle of the streets.”
Ignatius continued his task as questor, or offical beggar, for the monastery for 40 years, despite being blind for the last two years. Ignatius died at the age of eighty, on May 11, 1781.
Feast of Saint Ignatius of Laconi.
Patron of Students and Beggars.
Ignatius was born on December 17, 1701. He was the son of a poor farmer in Laconi, Italy. He was the second of seven children to his parents.
He was named Francis Ignatius Vincent Peis because his safe delivery through a difficult pregnancy was achieved through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. His mother promised the saint that she would name her unborn baby Francis and that he would join the Capuchins as an adult.
Since his early childhood, Francis demonstrated a capacity for hard work in the fields and a strong piety. He would often be seen in prayer and was known to wait at the church doors every morning in prayer until they were opened.
When he was about seventeen, he became very ill. He promised to be a Franciscan if he would get better. But when the illness left him, his father convinced him to wait. His father would not allow him because the family depended on his labour to survive.
A couple of years later, Ignatius was almost killed when he lost control of his horse. Suddenly, however, the horse stopped and trotted on quietly. Ignatius was convinced, then, that God had saved his life. He made up his mind to follow his religious vocation at once.
Ignatius asked for admission at the convent at Cagliari, but the superiors hesitated at first because of his delicate health. Then Ignatius looked up an influential friend who interceded for him, and he was received.
The ardor of his soul made him so strong that he could attend all the exercises of the community and even excel his brethren in perfect observance of the rule.
Brother Ignatius never had any important position in the Franciscan order. For fifteen years he worked in the weaving shed. Then, for forty years, he was part of the team who went out from house to house.
They requested food and donations to support the friars. Ignatius visited families and received their gift. But the people soon realized that they received a gift in return.
While on his rounds, Ignatius would instruct the children and urge sinners to repent. Brother Ignatius consoled the sick and cheered up the lonely. He made peace between enemies, converted people hardened by sin and advised those in trouble. They began to wait for his visits.
His modest demeanor was a quiet sermon for all who saw him going about. He seldom spoke; but when charity and the salvation of souls required it, he spoke with exceptional kindness.
There were some difficult days, too. Once in a while, a door was slammed in his face, and often the weather was bad. Always, there were miles and miles to walk. But Ignatius was dedicated.
Yet people noticed he used to skip one house. The owner was a rich moneylender. He made the poor pay back much more than they could afford. This man felt humiliated because Ignatius never visited his home to ask for donations. He complained to Brother Ignatius’ superior.
The superior knew nothing about the moneylender so he sent Ignatius to his home. Brother Ignatius never said a word, but did as he was told. He returned with a large sack of food. It was then that God worked a miracle.
When the sack was emptied, blood dripped out. “This is the blood of the poor,” Ignatius explained softly. “That is why I never ask for anything at that house.” The friars began to pray that the moneylender would repent.
Ignatius punctually obeyed his superiors, even when it required the denial of his own will. His sister had often written to him asking him to pay her a visit, so she could get his advice in certain important matters. Ignatius had no mind to heed her request, but when his superior ordered him to do so, he at once undertook the journey. But he left again as soon as he had given the required advice.
When his brother was sent to prison, it was hoped that, in view of the reputation of Brother Ignatius, the latter could obtain his brother’s release. His superior sent him to speak to the governor, but he asked merely that his brother be dealt with according to justice. Not for anything in the world would Brother Ignatius have kept anyone from doing his duty.
Ignatius was highly esteemed for his humility and charity, and adorned with many gifts from God. To those who came to him for comfort, he would advise, “Trust God.” In numerous instances, God’s healing power was channeled through this “apostle of the streets.”
Ignatius continued his task as questor, or offical beggar, for the monastery for 40 years, despite being blind for the last two years. Ignatius died at the age of eighty, on May 11, 1781.
Close
May 11
Saint Ignatius of Laconi
May 12
Daily Saints – 12 May.
Feast of Saint Pancras.
In the late 500s, Pope Saint Gregory the Great appointed monks to staff a small church in Rome, already almost three hundred years old, which was dedicated to Saint Pancras. In 597 the same Pope Gregory sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury on a missionary journey to England, and Augustine copied his Roman mentor and established a church in honor of Saint Pancras. About sixty years after Augustine, a different pope sent relics of Saint Pancras to England. This further spread devotion to this boy martyr, until a total of six ancient churches were dedicated to Saint Pancras in England alone, including the oldest church still used for Christian worship in that old country.
Feast of Saint Pancras.
In the late 500s, Pope Saint Gregory the Great appointed monks to staff a small church in Rome, already almost three hundred years old, which was dedicated to Saint Pancras. In 597 the same Pope Gregory sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury on a missionary journey to England, and Augustine copied his Roman mentor and established a church in honor of Saint Pancras. About sixty years after Augustine, a different pope sent relics of Saint Pancras to England. This further spread devotion to this boy martyr, until a total of six ancient churches were dedicated to Saint Pancras in England alone, including the oldest church still used for Christian worship in that old country.
Little is known with certainty about the life of Saint Pancras, but the essential facts are sufficient cause for admiration. Pancras was an orphan who traveled to Rome from the east in the company of his uncle. The pair converted to Christianity and then died for that conversion during the reign of Diocletian. Pancras was perhaps fourteen years old when he traded his earthly life for a better one in heaven. He likely became well known owing to his rare combination of youth and heroic witness. Our martyr was buried near a major Roman road, and a modest basilica was constructed over his tomb. The shrine and its catacombs became a popular pilgrimage destination, partly due to its healing bath, which was famous for its curative powers. The ravages of time and foreign armies degraded the shrine, but it was rebuilt several times over the centuries. In the seventeenth century, the Basilica of Saint Pancras was entrusted to the Discalced Carmelite Order, whose members still reside there today. Under the Basilica are extensive Roman catacombs, and a reliquary in the church contains the head of Saint Pancras. The rest of the saint’s relics were scattered to the four winds by anti-Catholic armies who occupied the church and despoiled many of its treasures.
Moments of great danger for the Church are also moments of great grace. In her long history, the Church has passed through, and continues to live, many such dangerous, grace-filled times. Saint Pancras’ times were precisely such. If he had stayed in his native land, he would likely have died of natural causes. But he went in search of something, perhaps wealth, fame, or family, in Rome, the big city, just as so many people search for the same in big cities today. But young Pancras found what he probably wasn’t looking for—God. And his decision to become a Christian, perhaps through the influence of a friend or priest or aunt, quickly took a very serious turn. He was threatened with death if he did not burn incense to a false god. The boy stood fast. Like other more famous young martyrs, such as Saint Agnes, the idealism of youth provoked both admiration and fury in his persecutors, and he was taken beyond the walls of Rome to be decapitated.
Our culture and its pressures are not from God. They are human constructs. But our Church, which is an object of faith, is from God. The friction caused by the collision of culture and church damages individuals, parishes, and governments. Sparks fly. Heat is generated. Objects melt. At times, wars ensue. Today’s martyr was an early victim to something far bigger than himself—the culture clash between a dying empire and a dawning religion. If he had gone to Rome just ten years later, Pancras would have lived in peace. Instead, Pancras and many others were executed, because they refused to bend to a leader who might die tomorrow in favor of a God who rose to life from a cold tomb.
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May 12
Saint Pancras
May 13
Daily Saints – 13 May.
Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
(Lady of the Rosary – she called herself that when Lucia asked her name)
It commemorates the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three children in Fatima, Portugal on the 13th of each month from May to October in 1917.
Our Lady appeared to Lucia, age 9, Blessed Francisco Marto, age 8, and Blessed Jacinta Marto, age 6, while they were tending sheep; they described her as “a woman all in white, more brilliant than the sun”.
Her message was to do reparation for sins that offend God, and to pray constantly for the conversion of sinners. She asked for devotion to the Holy Trinity, and for praying the Rosary daily for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia.
Word spread, and by the final apparition on 13 October, 70,000 people showed up to witness the Lady and the sign that she had promised; they witnessed the sun make three circles and zigzag around in the sky.
Due to the 1918 influenza epidemic, the two younger children did not live long beyond the apparition events. Francisco, ten, requested his first Communion on his deathbed and passed away the following day, April 4, 1919. Jacinta died on February 20, 1920, at age nine after an unsuccessful operation for an abscess in her chest.
Mary gave the children three secrets. Following the deaths of Francisco and Jacinta, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927. It concerned devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of hell. When Lucia grew up she became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97.
Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a “bishop in white” who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this vision to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.
On October 13, 1930, Bishop Jose Alves Correia da Silva of the Diocese of Leiria-Fatima announced the results of the investigative commission and formally approved the apparitions.
Every pope thereafter has recognized these events and has emphasized the importance of Our Lady of Fatima and the devotion to her Immaculate Heart. It was added to the Church’s worldwide calendar in 2002.
Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
(Lady of the Rosary – she called herself that when Lucia asked her name)
It commemorates the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three children in Fatima, Portugal on the 13th of each month from May to October in 1917.
Our Lady appeared to Lucia, age 9, Blessed Francisco Marto, age 8, and Blessed Jacinta Marto, age 6, while they were tending sheep; they described her as “a woman all in white, more brilliant than the sun”.
Her message was to do reparation for sins that offend God, and to pray constantly for the conversion of sinners. She asked for devotion to the Holy Trinity, and for praying the Rosary daily for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia.
Word spread, and by the final apparition on 13 October, 70,000 people showed up to witness the Lady and the sign that she had promised; they witnessed the sun make three circles and zigzag around in the sky.
Due to the 1918 influenza epidemic, the two younger children did not live long beyond the apparition events. Francisco, ten, requested his first Communion on his deathbed and passed away the following day, April 4, 1919. Jacinta died on February 20, 1920, at age nine after an unsuccessful operation for an abscess in her chest.
Mary gave the children three secrets. Following the deaths of Francisco and Jacinta, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927. It concerned devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of hell. When Lucia grew up she became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97.
Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a “bishop in white” who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this vision to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.
On October 13, 1930, Bishop Jose Alves Correia da Silva of the Diocese of Leiria-Fatima announced the results of the investigative commission and formally approved the apparitions.
Every pope thereafter has recognized these events and has emphasized the importance of Our Lady of Fatima and the devotion to her Immaculate Heart. It was added to the Church’s worldwide calendar in 2002.
Close
May 13
Our Lady of Fatima
May 14
Daily Saints – 14 May.
Feast of St. Matthias, the Apostle.
(Matthias=gift of God)
He is the patron of carpenters and tailors and against alcoholism, reformed alcoholics and against smallpox.
The story of St. Matthias starts with the Apostles choosing St. Matthias to replace Judas. The Apostles at the time were troubled with the decision of choosing the twelfth apostle.
According to Acts 1:15-26, during the days after the Ascension Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers—about 120 of Jesus’ followers. Peter urge them to propose a replacement for Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
“Therefore, it is necessary,” Peter says, “that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
“So, they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, ‘You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.’”
“Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.”
The Acts of the Apostles states that he was also one of the 72 disciples whom Jesus sent out to preach the Good News. He was suited for apostleship by the experience of being with Jesus from his baptism to his ascension.
Matthias was suddenly elevated from a regular disciple to a leadership position. The Bible makes no mention of St. Matthias protesting his selection—He presumably embraced the burden and honor of the role given to him under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
According to tradition, Matthias was born at Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah. From his early childhood he studied the Law of God under the guidance of St. Simeon the God-receiver.
When the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to the world, Matthias believed in him as the Messiah, followed constantly after him and was numbered among the Seventy Apostles, whom the Lord “sent them two by two before His face” (Luke 10:1).
After the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Matthias preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and in Judea together with the other Apostles (Acts 6:2, 8:14).
From Jerusalem he went with the Apostles Peter and Andrew to Syrian Antioch, and was in the Cappadocian city of Tianum and Sinope. Here the Matthias was locked into prison, from which he was miraculously freed by St Andrew the First-Called.
Matthias journeyed after this to Amasea, a city on the shore of the sea. During a three year journey of the Apostle Andrew, Matthias was with him at Edessa and Sebaste.
According to Church Tradition, he was preaching at Pontine Ethiopia (presently Western Georgia) and Macedonia. He was frequently subjected to deadly peril, but the Lord preserved him to preach the Gospel.
He insisted in his preaching the need for mortification of the flesh with regard to all its sensual and irregular desires.
He is said to have met his death by crucifixion in Colchis or by stoning in Jerusalem in 80. According to some traditions, he was martyred by being stoned in Jerusalem, then beheaded.
There is evidence cited in some of the early Church Fathers that there was a Gospel according to Matthias in circulation, but it has since been lost and was declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius.
This sentence is attributed to the Apostle:
“We must combat the flesh, taking what advantages we can without giving it blameworthy delights. Regarding the soul, we should develop it through intelligence and faith.”
Clement of Alexandria says that Matthias, like all the other apostles, was not chosen by Jesus for what he already was, but for what Jesus foresaw he would become. He was elected not because he was worthy but because he would become worthy. Jesus chooses all of us in the same way.
Feast of St. Matthias, the Apostle.
(Matthias=gift of God)
He is the patron of carpenters and tailors and against alcoholism, reformed alcoholics and against smallpox.
The story of St. Matthias starts with the Apostles choosing St. Matthias to replace Judas. The Apostles at the time were troubled with the decision of choosing the twelfth apostle.
According to Acts 1:15-26, during the days after the Ascension Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers—about 120 of Jesus’ followers. Peter urge them to propose a replacement for Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
“Therefore, it is necessary,” Peter says, “that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
“So, they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, ‘You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.’”
“Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.”
The Acts of the Apostles states that he was also one of the 72 disciples whom Jesus sent out to preach the Good News. He was suited for apostleship by the experience of being with Jesus from his baptism to his ascension.
Matthias was suddenly elevated from a regular disciple to a leadership position. The Bible makes no mention of St. Matthias protesting his selection—He presumably embraced the burden and honor of the role given to him under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
According to tradition, Matthias was born at Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah. From his early childhood he studied the Law of God under the guidance of St. Simeon the God-receiver.
When the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to the world, Matthias believed in him as the Messiah, followed constantly after him and was numbered among the Seventy Apostles, whom the Lord “sent them two by two before His face” (Luke 10:1).
After the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Matthias preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and in Judea together with the other Apostles (Acts 6:2, 8:14).
From Jerusalem he went with the Apostles Peter and Andrew to Syrian Antioch, and was in the Cappadocian city of Tianum and Sinope. Here the Matthias was locked into prison, from which he was miraculously freed by St Andrew the First-Called.
Matthias journeyed after this to Amasea, a city on the shore of the sea. During a three year journey of the Apostle Andrew, Matthias was with him at Edessa and Sebaste.
According to Church Tradition, he was preaching at Pontine Ethiopia (presently Western Georgia) and Macedonia. He was frequently subjected to deadly peril, but the Lord preserved him to preach the Gospel.
He insisted in his preaching the need for mortification of the flesh with regard to all its sensual and irregular desires.
He is said to have met his death by crucifixion in Colchis or by stoning in Jerusalem in 80. According to some traditions, he was martyred by being stoned in Jerusalem, then beheaded.
There is evidence cited in some of the early Church Fathers that there was a Gospel according to Matthias in circulation, but it has since been lost and was declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius.
This sentence is attributed to the Apostle:
“We must combat the flesh, taking what advantages we can without giving it blameworthy delights. Regarding the soul, we should develop it through intelligence and faith.”
Clement of Alexandria says that Matthias, like all the other apostles, was not chosen by Jesus for what he already was, but for what Jesus foresaw he would become. He was elected not because he was worthy but because he would become worthy. Jesus chooses all of us in the same way.
Close
May 14
Saint Matthias, the Apostle
May 15
Daily Saints – 15 May.
Feast of St. Isidore, the Farmer (Isidore the Laborer).
Patron saint of agricultural workers, farm workers, farmers, field hands, husbandmen, ranchers, day laborers, for rain, livestock, rural communities and against the death of children.
Isidore was born in 1070 to a peasant family near Madrid, Spain. He was baptized “Isidore” in honor of the famous archbishop of Seville.
When he was barely old enough to wield a hoe, Isidore entered the service of John de Vergas, a wealthy landowner from Madrid, and worked faithfully on his estate outside the city for the rest of his life.
Isidore married a young woman as simple and upright as himself who also became a saint—Maria de la Cabeza. They had one son, who died as a child. They became convinced it was the will of God that they not have children, and they lived together chastely the rest of their lives, doing good works.
Although his family was poor, they loved and served God. Isidore and his family believed that it was important to show love for God by helping others. They often gave away what little they had because someone else needed it more.
Isidore had deep religious instincts. He rose early in the morning to go to church and spent many a holiday devoutly visiting the churches of Madrid and surrounding areas. All day long, as he walked behind the plow, he communed with God.
His devotion, one might say, became a problem, for his fellow workers sometimes complained that he often showed up late because of lingering in church too long.
After hearing his farmhands complain about this praying worker, the land owner, Juan de Vargas, went to see what the trouble was all about. To his surprise, he saw two angels guiding the plow.
If the angels weren’t doing all the plowing in Isidore’s absence, they stood next to him and plowed along side. This way Isidore did more than twice the work he could have on his own, and while he was at Mass, his work was getting done, too.
Juan believed in the miracle he saw, and he witnessed more in his lifetime. He believed that Isidore saved his daughter’s life. He also believed that Isidore saved the life of a horse that was very important for the farming.
Isidore was known for his love of the poor, and there are accounts of Isidore’s supplying them miraculously with food. He had a great concern for the proper treatment of animals.
Isidore died on May 15, 1130.
Feast of St. Isidore, the Farmer (Isidore the Laborer).
Patron saint of agricultural workers, farm workers, farmers, field hands, husbandmen, ranchers, day laborers, for rain, livestock, rural communities and against the death of children.
Isidore was born in 1070 to a peasant family near Madrid, Spain. He was baptized “Isidore” in honor of the famous archbishop of Seville.
When he was barely old enough to wield a hoe, Isidore entered the service of John de Vergas, a wealthy landowner from Madrid, and worked faithfully on his estate outside the city for the rest of his life.
Isidore married a young woman as simple and upright as himself who also became a saint—Maria de la Cabeza. They had one son, who died as a child. They became convinced it was the will of God that they not have children, and they lived together chastely the rest of their lives, doing good works.
Although his family was poor, they loved and served God. Isidore and his family believed that it was important to show love for God by helping others. They often gave away what little they had because someone else needed it more.
Isidore had deep religious instincts. He rose early in the morning to go to church and spent many a holiday devoutly visiting the churches of Madrid and surrounding areas. All day long, as he walked behind the plow, he communed with God.
His devotion, one might say, became a problem, for his fellow workers sometimes complained that he often showed up late because of lingering in church too long.
After hearing his farmhands complain about this praying worker, the land owner, Juan de Vargas, went to see what the trouble was all about. To his surprise, he saw two angels guiding the plow.
If the angels weren’t doing all the plowing in Isidore’s absence, they stood next to him and plowed along side. This way Isidore did more than twice the work he could have on his own, and while he was at Mass, his work was getting done, too.
Juan believed in the miracle he saw, and he witnessed more in his lifetime. He believed that Isidore saved his daughter’s life. He also believed that Isidore saved the life of a horse that was very important for the farming.
Isidore was known for his love of the poor, and there are accounts of Isidore’s supplying them miraculously with food. He had a great concern for the proper treatment of animals.
Isidore died on May 15, 1130.
Close
May 15
Saint Isidore
May 16
Daily Saints – 16 May.
Feast of St. John Nepomucene.
He is known as the “martyr of the confessional.” He is patron of Confessors and Bridges and against calumnies, against floods and against slander.
John was born in the town of Pomuk (later Nepomuk) in Bohemia around the year 1345. His parents were poor folk of Nepomuc.
In his early childhood, John Nepomucene was cured of a disease through the prayers of his good parents. In thanksgiving, they consecrated him to the service of God.
After he was ordained, he was sent to a parish in the city of Prague. He became a great preacher, and thousands of those who listened to him changed their way of life.
Father John was invited to the court of Wenceslaus IV. He settled arguments and did many kind deeds for the needy people of the city.
Among those who sought his advice was the virtuous empress, who suffered much from her husband’s unfounded jealousy. When the king was cruel to the queen, Father John taught her to bear her cross patiently.
One day, about 1393, the king asked him to tell what the queen had said in confession. When Father John refused, he was thrown into prison.
A second time, he was asked to reveal the queen’s confession. “If you do not tell me,” said the king, “you shall die. But if you obey my commands, riches and honor will be yours.” Again Father John refused. He was tortured.
The king ordered to be thrown into the river. Where he drowned, a strange brightness appeared upon the water. Because of the manner of his death, he is considered as a protector from floods and drowning.
In 1719, the tongue of Saint John Nepomucene was found incorrupt.
Feast of St. John Nepomucene.
He is known as the “martyr of the confessional.” He is patron of Confessors and Bridges and against calumnies, against floods and against slander.
John was born in the town of Pomuk (later Nepomuk) in Bohemia around the year 1345. His parents were poor folk of Nepomuc.
In his early childhood, John Nepomucene was cured of a disease through the prayers of his good parents. In thanksgiving, they consecrated him to the service of God.
After he was ordained, he was sent to a parish in the city of Prague. He became a great preacher, and thousands of those who listened to him changed their way of life.
Father John was invited to the court of Wenceslaus IV. He settled arguments and did many kind deeds for the needy people of the city.
Among those who sought his advice was the virtuous empress, who suffered much from her husband’s unfounded jealousy. When the king was cruel to the queen, Father John taught her to bear her cross patiently.
One day, about 1393, the king asked him to tell what the queen had said in confession. When Father John refused, he was thrown into prison.
A second time, he was asked to reveal the queen’s confession. “If you do not tell me,” said the king, “you shall die. But if you obey my commands, riches and honor will be yours.” Again Father John refused. He was tortured.
The king ordered to be thrown into the river. Where he drowned, a strange brightness appeared upon the water. Because of the manner of his death, he is considered as a protector from floods and drowning.
In 1719, the tongue of Saint John Nepomucene was found incorrupt.
Close
May 16
Saint John Nepomucene
May 17
Daily Saints – 17 May.
Feast of St. Paschal Baylon.
He is the patron saint of cooks, shepherds, Eucharistic congresses and organizations.
Paschal was born on the feast of Pentecost in the year 1540 at Torre Hermosa in Spain. His parents were poor in but rich in piety and Christian virtue.
Paschal was joyfully attentive and obedient to the good lessons his parents taught him, and he so excelled other children of his age in understanding of the divine truths and zeal for virtue that everybody marveled at it.
Paschal, as a boy, had to tend the cattle of strangers due to his poor family situation. He taught himself to read so that he could pray the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, the popular prayer book of his day. Paschal disciplined himself to endure the harshness and loneliness of a shepherd’s work.
Although, due to his work, he took no part in the noisy life of the other boys, he was, never the less, well liked by them. They had a certain respect for him, had him settle their quarrels, and willingly accepted reprimands from him and listened to the Christian instructions he sometimes gave them.
Paschal was able to pray on the job and was especially attentive to the church bell, which rang at the Elevation during Mass. Paschal had a very honest streak in him. He once offered to pay owners of crops for any damage his animals caused!
His employer was so pleased with Paschal, who had meanwhile grown to be a strong young man, that one day he declared to him his intention to adopt him and make him his heir. But the young man answered gratefully that he wished to remain poor and was minded to consecrate himself to the service of God in the religious state.
Later, Paschal moved to another province, and at the age of 24 begged for admission at the convent of the Friars Minor at Monteforte. His request was granted.
In 1564, Paschal joined the Friars Minor and gave himself wholeheartedly to a life of penance. Though he was urged to study for the priesthood, he chose to be a brother. At various times he served as porter, cook, gardener, and official beggar.
Paschal was so humble that he considered himself last of all. At the same time he was so charitable that he cheerfully assumed the most burdensome duties from other brothers. He was so strict with his body that he would permit himself no relaxation even with the most arduous tasks.
Paschal was careful to observe the vow of poverty. He would never waste any food or anything given for the use of the friars. When he was porter and took care of the poor coming to the door, he developed a reputation for great generosity. The friars sometimes tried to moderate his liberality!
Paschal was so devoted to prayer that he spent all his spare time at it. On the road, while gathering alms, Paschal always had his rosary in his hand and God in his heart.
From youth he displayed great devotion to the Eucharist and it proved a constant means to rekindle his zeal. Paschal fostered special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he called his Mother.
In the convent church Paschal was frequently found before the tabernacle prostrate or with his arms outstretched, or even rapt in ecstasy. At such times his soul was flooded with light from above.
At any rate, the simple brother, who had never learned to read or write, could discourse about the deepest mysteries of religion with marvelous insight to the astonishment of the most learned men.
Because of his heavenly enlightenment the Father Provincial once sent Paschal from Spain on a very important matter to the general of the order, who at the time was staying in France. Paschal made the long and wearisome journey across the Pyrenees barefoot, traveling through regions infested with fanatical heretics.
While travelling in France, he defended the Real Presence against the blasphemies of a Calvinist preacher, and narrowly escaped death at the hands of a Huguenot mob. God’s angel protected him on the journey to France and back, so that he escaped all danger.
After his return, Paschal remained the same humble brother as before and advanced in every virtue until the day of his happy death.
Paschal also experienced mystical visions. On one such occasion, while he was out and unable to go to Mass at the nearby monastery, Paschal was waiting for the sound of the Consecration Bell which he always observed in prayer. In his longing to be present at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, he cried out, “My Master, My adorable Master, Oh that I might see Thee!”
Suddenly before him he saw Angels bowed down before a Chalice, with the Blessed Sacrament floating above it. In the Divine Presence of Our Lord, Paschal fell flat on his face and adored God. Then taking courage he gazed upon the beautiful vision.
During his lifetime he was known by all as “the Saint of the Holy Eucharist”. He died at Villareal, on the feast of Pentecost, the feast on which he was born, May 17, 1592.
“God is as really present in the consecrated Host as He is in the glory of Heaven.”
“Meditate well on this: Seek God above all things. It is right for you to seek God before and above everything else, because the majesty of God wishes you to receive what you ask for. This will also make you more ready to serve God and will enable you to love Him more perfectly.”
“O Father Eternal God,
Grant me faith and courage;
Son, wisdom of the Father,
grant me light and make me wise;
Holy Spirit, beloved of Father and Son,
inflame my heart and purify my soul,
that I may approach this majestic Sacrament with faith and love.”
Feast of St. Paschal Baylon.
He is the patron saint of cooks, shepherds, Eucharistic congresses and organizations.
Paschal was born on the feast of Pentecost in the year 1540 at Torre Hermosa in Spain. His parents were poor in but rich in piety and Christian virtue.
Paschal was joyfully attentive and obedient to the good lessons his parents taught him, and he so excelled other children of his age in understanding of the divine truths and zeal for virtue that everybody marveled at it.
Paschal, as a boy, had to tend the cattle of strangers due to his poor family situation. He taught himself to read so that he could pray the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, the popular prayer book of his day. Paschal disciplined himself to endure the harshness and loneliness of a shepherd’s work.
Although, due to his work, he took no part in the noisy life of the other boys, he was, never the less, well liked by them. They had a certain respect for him, had him settle their quarrels, and willingly accepted reprimands from him and listened to the Christian instructions he sometimes gave them.
Paschal was able to pray on the job and was especially attentive to the church bell, which rang at the Elevation during Mass. Paschal had a very honest streak in him. He once offered to pay owners of crops for any damage his animals caused!
His employer was so pleased with Paschal, who had meanwhile grown to be a strong young man, that one day he declared to him his intention to adopt him and make him his heir. But the young man answered gratefully that he wished to remain poor and was minded to consecrate himself to the service of God in the religious state.
Later, Paschal moved to another province, and at the age of 24 begged for admission at the convent of the Friars Minor at Monteforte. His request was granted.
In 1564, Paschal joined the Friars Minor and gave himself wholeheartedly to a life of penance. Though he was urged to study for the priesthood, he chose to be a brother. At various times he served as porter, cook, gardener, and official beggar.
Paschal was so humble that he considered himself last of all. At the same time he was so charitable that he cheerfully assumed the most burdensome duties from other brothers. He was so strict with his body that he would permit himself no relaxation even with the most arduous tasks.
Paschal was careful to observe the vow of poverty. He would never waste any food or anything given for the use of the friars. When he was porter and took care of the poor coming to the door, he developed a reputation for great generosity. The friars sometimes tried to moderate his liberality!
Paschal was so devoted to prayer that he spent all his spare time at it. On the road, while gathering alms, Paschal always had his rosary in his hand and God in his heart.
From youth he displayed great devotion to the Eucharist and it proved a constant means to rekindle his zeal. Paschal fostered special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he called his Mother.
In the convent church Paschal was frequently found before the tabernacle prostrate or with his arms outstretched, or even rapt in ecstasy. At such times his soul was flooded with light from above.
At any rate, the simple brother, who had never learned to read or write, could discourse about the deepest mysteries of religion with marvelous insight to the astonishment of the most learned men.
Because of his heavenly enlightenment the Father Provincial once sent Paschal from Spain on a very important matter to the general of the order, who at the time was staying in France. Paschal made the long and wearisome journey across the Pyrenees barefoot, traveling through regions infested with fanatical heretics.
While travelling in France, he defended the Real Presence against the blasphemies of a Calvinist preacher, and narrowly escaped death at the hands of a Huguenot mob. God’s angel protected him on the journey to France and back, so that he escaped all danger.
After his return, Paschal remained the same humble brother as before and advanced in every virtue until the day of his happy death.
Paschal also experienced mystical visions. On one such occasion, while he was out and unable to go to Mass at the nearby monastery, Paschal was waiting for the sound of the Consecration Bell which he always observed in prayer. In his longing to be present at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, he cried out, “My Master, My adorable Master, Oh that I might see Thee!”
Suddenly before him he saw Angels bowed down before a Chalice, with the Blessed Sacrament floating above it. In the Divine Presence of Our Lord, Paschal fell flat on his face and adored God. Then taking courage he gazed upon the beautiful vision.
During his lifetime he was known by all as “the Saint of the Holy Eucharist”. He died at Villareal, on the feast of Pentecost, the feast on which he was born, May 17, 1592.
“God is as really present in the consecrated Host as He is in the glory of Heaven.”
“Meditate well on this: Seek God above all things. It is right for you to seek God before and above everything else, because the majesty of God wishes you to receive what you ask for. This will also make you more ready to serve God and will enable you to love Him more perfectly.”
“O Father Eternal God,
Grant me faith and courage;
Son, wisdom of the Father,
grant me light and make me wise;
Holy Spirit, beloved of Father and Son,
inflame my heart and purify my soul,
that I may approach this majestic Sacrament with faith and love.”
Close
May 17
Saint Paschal Baylon
May 18
Daily Saints – 18 May.
Feast of Saint Felix of Cantalice.
Felix was born on 18 May 1515 at Cantalice, Abruzzi, Italy. His parents were pious peasants. He was a shepherd in his youth. At age nine, he was hired out as a shepherd in a farm at Cotta Ducale. He worked there over twenty years. A pious youth and man, Felix spent his free time in prayer.
The hard work did not make Felix coarse and worldly-minded. He was gentle and kind towards everyone. When he came home at night all tired out, he still spent much time in his little room engaged in prayer. It grieved him that he could not attend holy Mass on weekdays.
Having little education, Felix had a friend read him the lives of the early Desert Fathers. They left him torn – he wanted to live as a hermit, but feared he would give in to temptation if he had no superior.
Felix had to break to the plow a team of young oxen that were very wild. The oxen shied, and when Felix tried to stop them, they ran him down, dragging the sharp plowshare across his body. Peasants ran to the scene, certain that they would find the man dead, but Felix arose unharmed.
This incident made him to think about his vocation and gave him the courage to leave it. He went straight to his employer and begged to be released from his service. The little he possessed he gave to the poor,
He sought entrance to the Capuchins. They were hesistant, but finally accepted him as a lay brother in 1543 at Anticoli, Italy. Felix was 28 years old. But in his novitiate he was yet to experience the burden and the struggles of this earthly life.
The devil attacked him with violent temptations of all kinds. He was also seized with a lingering illness, which made it appear that he was unfit for convent life. But patience, steadfast self-control, prayer, and candor toward his superiors helped him secure admission to the vows, which he took with great delight.
He was sent to Rome in 1547. Because of his genuine piety and friendly manner, he was appointed to the task of gathering alms, which he did for all the next 42 years until his death.
Soon, Felix became known for his pious yet joyful presence on the streets of Rome, seeking donations for the friars’ ministries to the poor and sick. Walking barefoot through the streets with a sack slung over his shoulders, Felix blessed all those he met with a humble “Deo Gratias!” (=thanks be to God!). Gradually, many started to call him as “Brother Deo Gratias.”
Felix’s reputation for holiness spread quickly. He could not even read, yet theologians consulted him on spiritualality and Scripture. Sinners on the street would hide from him when it became obvious he could see their sins, and knew their hearts.
Felix preached in the street, rebuked corrupt politicians and officials, and exhorted young men to stop leading dissolute lives.
Once during Carnival, a time of open vice in the streets, Felix and Saint Philip Neri organized a procession of Capuchin friars right into the middle of the revellers. Fra Lupo, a well-known Capuchin preacher, spoke to the crowds, and Carnival ended for the year.
Felix worked with the children of Rome. His inherent simplicity and lack of education made him rather childlike, and children trusted him. He composed simple teaching canticles, and had the children gather in groups to sing them as a way to teach them catechism.
The canticles became well-known and popular, and while Felix was begging for his house, Roman citizens would invite him in to sing for them. He saw these invitations as opportunities to teach, and always jumped at them.
During the famine of 1580, the city fathers asked the Capuchins for the loan of Felix as a fund raiser; he was tireless in the work.
His friend, Saint Philip Neri, considered Felix the greatest saint then living. Saint Charles Borromeo sought Saint Philip’s help to draw up the constitutions of the Oblates of Saint Ambrose. Philip referred him to Felix as a the best advisor.
Felix slept little, ate what came to hand, attended Mass every morning. He had a great devotion to Our Lady, frequently prayed the rosary, and was sometimes swept away in ecstacy, unable to finish the prayers.
Felix received a vision of the Virgin Mary during which he was allowed to hold the Christ Child in his arms. He died on 18 May 1587 at Rome, Italy.
Acclaimed a saint by the people of Rome immediately after his death. Felix was the first Capuchin Franciscan ever canonized.
Feast of Saint Felix of Cantalice.
Felix was born on 18 May 1515 at Cantalice, Abruzzi, Italy. His parents were pious peasants. He was a shepherd in his youth. At age nine, he was hired out as a shepherd in a farm at Cotta Ducale. He worked there over twenty years. A pious youth and man, Felix spent his free time in prayer.
The hard work did not make Felix coarse and worldly-minded. He was gentle and kind towards everyone. When he came home at night all tired out, he still spent much time in his little room engaged in prayer. It grieved him that he could not attend holy Mass on weekdays.
Having little education, Felix had a friend read him the lives of the early Desert Fathers. They left him torn – he wanted to live as a hermit, but feared he would give in to temptation if he had no superior.
Felix had to break to the plow a team of young oxen that were very wild. The oxen shied, and when Felix tried to stop them, they ran him down, dragging the sharp plowshare across his body. Peasants ran to the scene, certain that they would find the man dead, but Felix arose unharmed.
This incident made him to think about his vocation and gave him the courage to leave it. He went straight to his employer and begged to be released from his service. The little he possessed he gave to the poor,
He sought entrance to the Capuchins. They were hesistant, but finally accepted him as a lay brother in 1543 at Anticoli, Italy. Felix was 28 years old. But in his novitiate he was yet to experience the burden and the struggles of this earthly life.
The devil attacked him with violent temptations of all kinds. He was also seized with a lingering illness, which made it appear that he was unfit for convent life. But patience, steadfast self-control, prayer, and candor toward his superiors helped him secure admission to the vows, which he took with great delight.
He was sent to Rome in 1547. Because of his genuine piety and friendly manner, he was appointed to the task of gathering alms, which he did for all the next 42 years until his death.
Soon, Felix became known for his pious yet joyful presence on the streets of Rome, seeking donations for the friars’ ministries to the poor and sick. Walking barefoot through the streets with a sack slung over his shoulders, Felix blessed all those he met with a humble “Deo Gratias!” (=thanks be to God!). Gradually, many started to call him as “Brother Deo Gratias.”
Felix’s reputation for holiness spread quickly. He could not even read, yet theologians consulted him on spiritualality and Scripture. Sinners on the street would hide from him when it became obvious he could see their sins, and knew their hearts.
Felix preached in the street, rebuked corrupt politicians and officials, and exhorted young men to stop leading dissolute lives.
Once during Carnival, a time of open vice in the streets, Felix and Saint Philip Neri organized a procession of Capuchin friars right into the middle of the revellers. Fra Lupo, a well-known Capuchin preacher, spoke to the crowds, and Carnival ended for the year.
Felix worked with the children of Rome. His inherent simplicity and lack of education made him rather childlike, and children trusted him. He composed simple teaching canticles, and had the children gather in groups to sing them as a way to teach them catechism.
The canticles became well-known and popular, and while Felix was begging for his house, Roman citizens would invite him in to sing for them. He saw these invitations as opportunities to teach, and always jumped at them.
During the famine of 1580, the city fathers asked the Capuchins for the loan of Felix as a fund raiser; he was tireless in the work.
His friend, Saint Philip Neri, considered Felix the greatest saint then living. Saint Charles Borromeo sought Saint Philip’s help to draw up the constitutions of the Oblates of Saint Ambrose. Philip referred him to Felix as a the best advisor.
Felix slept little, ate what came to hand, attended Mass every morning. He had a great devotion to Our Lady, frequently prayed the rosary, and was sometimes swept away in ecstacy, unable to finish the prayers.
Felix received a vision of the Virgin Mary during which he was allowed to hold the Christ Child in his arms. He died on 18 May 1587 at Rome, Italy.
Acclaimed a saint by the people of Rome immediately after his death. Felix was the first Capuchin Franciscan ever canonized.
Close
May 18
Saint Felix of Cantalice
May 19
Daily Saints – 19 May.
Feast of Saint Crispin of Viterbo.
Crispin was born in 1688 at Viterbo, Italy and was given the name Pietro. His father died when Pietro was very young.
When he was five years old his mother took him with her one day to the miraculous image of Mary of the Oak near Viterbo. She directed the attention of her little son to the Mother of God and said: “See, that is also your mother. I have made a gift of you to her. Always honor her as a good son would do.” Peter did that throughout his life.
Pietro developed an early devotion to Our Lady, calling her his other mother, and displayed such a simple and honest piety that led his neighbors to call him il Santorello (=the little saint).
As a young adult he received a little education at a Jesuit college before joining his uncle. He worked as a shoemaker for the uncle who provided for his education.
The sight of a procession of Friars Minor Capuchin woke within Pietro the realization that he was called to religious life. He became a Franciscan lay brother on 22 July 1693. He received the name of Crispin, for the holy shoemakers Crispin and Crispinian.
Crispin worked as a cook at the Viterbo Capuchin monastery. He was transferred to, and worked tirelessly at, Capuchin houses in Tolfa, Rome, and Albano.
While he was serving as a cook to the convent at Tolfa, Crispin erect in his kitchen a little altar to Mary, at which he offered his beloved Mother all his labors. Mary rewarded her faithful son with special proofs of her favor. Many a sick person was restored to health when he gave them some of the fruit which he had previously placed on his little altar after asking the Mother of God to bless them.
When Crispin was cook at the convent in Albano near Rome, one of the pope’s chamberlains, of whose recovery the doctors despaird, was brought to him. Crispin led him to his little Mary altar, and soon the sick person was cured for good.
The pope’s physician said to Crispin: “Brother, your remedies are more effective than ours.” Crispin replied: “You are a skillful physician, all Rome knows that. But then, the Blessed Virgin can do more than all the physicians in the world.”
Crispin developed a devotion to, and modelled himself after Saint Felix of Cantalice. He was a small man who looked sickly, but gave himself to all kinds of manual labor. He liked to call himself the “Capuchin Ass,” humbly thinking himself the equal to a beast of burden. He worked in the garden and cooked food.
Crispin’s simple, humble holiness brought many local lay people to him for spiritual guidance. As word of his wisdom spread, his visitors became priests, then bishops, then cardinals, and even a pope.
Crispin was noted for paying little attention to the rank or status of a visitor, either high or low, but concentrating on talking to them all as equal children of the same God.
A distinguished man, who had until recently led a bad life, lay ill and desired that Crispin should come and cure him. Saint Crispin of Viterbo went there, but said to him: “Sir, you want the Blessed Virgin to cure you. But, tell me, he who offends the Son, does he not also grieve the Mother? True veneration of the Blessed Virgin consists in not offending her Divine Son in any way.”
At the mild reproach of the holy brother, the sick man was much ashamed. He burst into penitent tears and promised to amend his life. And he faithfully carried out his promise when Crispin cured him by blessing him with a medal of the Immaculate Conception.
His superiors and brethren were edified at Crispin’s perfection. In company with several of the brothers he was once with his Father Provincial, when the latter received word that in one of their convents all the brothers were down with a contagious disease and that help was needed at once.
The superior mentioned his predicament. Whom shall he send there? At once Crispin volunteered. Father Provincial expressed his pleasure at the offer, but insisted that he would not send him against his will. Crispin replied: “Will, my Father? What will? When I entered religion, I left my will at home. Here I recognize only your will.”
When the others called his attention to the danger of death that he would encounter, Crispin said: “That is nothing. I have a marvelous preventive invented by St Francis – it is the obedience in which I set out.” He actually did return in excellent health after all the sick had got well under his care.
During several epidemics that struck the area, he helped care for the sick and was known for cures. He also took on a role begging from the local town to obtain money for the sustenance of the monastery.
Wherever Crispin went, he brought pleasure with his holy cheerfulness. He often held several charges at the same time in the friary, but when work piled up, he used to say: “That is good; Paradise is not for lazybones.”
He became well-loved by citizens there, and when he was reassigned and another was sent in his place, everyone in the town refused to offer any money. The superiors were forced to return Crispin.
His last years were spent in Rome, where he was known for his prophecies and miracles. Even at the door of death he preserved this cheerful spirit. When he was near death as a result of weakness and other bodily infirmities, and the physician drew his attention to it, he said joyfully with the Psalmist: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.” (Ps. 121,1).
Crispin died at the age of 82 on 19 May 1750 of pneumonia at the friary of the Immaculate Conception on the Via Veneto in Rome, Italy.
Feast of Saint Crispin of Viterbo.
Crispin was born in 1688 at Viterbo, Italy and was given the name Pietro. His father died when Pietro was very young.
When he was five years old his mother took him with her one day to the miraculous image of Mary of the Oak near Viterbo. She directed the attention of her little son to the Mother of God and said: “See, that is also your mother. I have made a gift of you to her. Always honor her as a good son would do.” Peter did that throughout his life.
Pietro developed an early devotion to Our Lady, calling her his other mother, and displayed such a simple and honest piety that led his neighbors to call him il Santorello (=the little saint).
As a young adult he received a little education at a Jesuit college before joining his uncle. He worked as a shoemaker for the uncle who provided for his education.
The sight of a procession of Friars Minor Capuchin woke within Pietro the realization that he was called to religious life. He became a Franciscan lay brother on 22 July 1693. He received the name of Crispin, for the holy shoemakers Crispin and Crispinian.
Crispin worked as a cook at the Viterbo Capuchin monastery. He was transferred to, and worked tirelessly at, Capuchin houses in Tolfa, Rome, and Albano.
While he was serving as a cook to the convent at Tolfa, Crispin erect in his kitchen a little altar to Mary, at which he offered his beloved Mother all his labors. Mary rewarded her faithful son with special proofs of her favor. Many a sick person was restored to health when he gave them some of the fruit which he had previously placed on his little altar after asking the Mother of God to bless them.
When Crispin was cook at the convent in Albano near Rome, one of the pope’s chamberlains, of whose recovery the doctors despaird, was brought to him. Crispin led him to his little Mary altar, and soon the sick person was cured for good.
The pope’s physician said to Crispin: “Brother, your remedies are more effective than ours.” Crispin replied: “You are a skillful physician, all Rome knows that. But then, the Blessed Virgin can do more than all the physicians in the world.”
Crispin developed a devotion to, and modelled himself after Saint Felix of Cantalice. He was a small man who looked sickly, but gave himself to all kinds of manual labor. He liked to call himself the “Capuchin Ass,” humbly thinking himself the equal to a beast of burden. He worked in the garden and cooked food.
Crispin’s simple, humble holiness brought many local lay people to him for spiritual guidance. As word of his wisdom spread, his visitors became priests, then bishops, then cardinals, and even a pope.
Crispin was noted for paying little attention to the rank or status of a visitor, either high or low, but concentrating on talking to them all as equal children of the same God.
A distinguished man, who had until recently led a bad life, lay ill and desired that Crispin should come and cure him. Saint Crispin of Viterbo went there, but said to him: “Sir, you want the Blessed Virgin to cure you. But, tell me, he who offends the Son, does he not also grieve the Mother? True veneration of the Blessed Virgin consists in not offending her Divine Son in any way.”
At the mild reproach of the holy brother, the sick man was much ashamed. He burst into penitent tears and promised to amend his life. And he faithfully carried out his promise when Crispin cured him by blessing him with a medal of the Immaculate Conception.
His superiors and brethren were edified at Crispin’s perfection. In company with several of the brothers he was once with his Father Provincial, when the latter received word that in one of their convents all the brothers were down with a contagious disease and that help was needed at once.
The superior mentioned his predicament. Whom shall he send there? At once Crispin volunteered. Father Provincial expressed his pleasure at the offer, but insisted that he would not send him against his will. Crispin replied: “Will, my Father? What will? When I entered religion, I left my will at home. Here I recognize only your will.”
When the others called his attention to the danger of death that he would encounter, Crispin said: “That is nothing. I have a marvelous preventive invented by St Francis – it is the obedience in which I set out.” He actually did return in excellent health after all the sick had got well under his care.
During several epidemics that struck the area, he helped care for the sick and was known for cures. He also took on a role begging from the local town to obtain money for the sustenance of the monastery.
Wherever Crispin went, he brought pleasure with his holy cheerfulness. He often held several charges at the same time in the friary, but when work piled up, he used to say: “That is good; Paradise is not for lazybones.”
He became well-loved by citizens there, and when he was reassigned and another was sent in his place, everyone in the town refused to offer any money. The superiors were forced to return Crispin.
His last years were spent in Rome, where he was known for his prophecies and miracles. Even at the door of death he preserved this cheerful spirit. When he was near death as a result of weakness and other bodily infirmities, and the physician drew his attention to it, he said joyfully with the Psalmist: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.” (Ps. 121,1).
Crispin died at the age of 82 on 19 May 1750 of pneumonia at the friary of the Immaculate Conception on the Via Veneto in Rome, Italy.
Close
May 19
Saint Crispin of Viterbo
May 20
Daily Saints – 20 May.
Feast of St. Bernadine of Siena.
He is the patron against hoarseness, against chest problems, against respiratory problems, lung problems, lungs, advertisers, advertising, communications personnel, gambling addicts; against compulsive gambling.
Bernardine Albizeschi was born to upper-class parents in the Italian republic of Siena during 1380. He was descended from the old knightly family of the Albizeschi of Siena. His father was a governor in the town of Massa.
Misfortune soon entered the boy’s life when he lost his mother at age three and his father four years later. His aunt Diana cared for him afterward, and taught him to seek consolation and security by trusting in God.
Even at a young age, Bernardine demonstrated a remarkable concern for the poor as an outgrowth of his love for God. Having become accustomed to fasting, he preferred at times to go without any food in order to help someone in greater need.
Bernardine loved purity above all the virtues. While he attended the secondary school in Siena, he could not hear an unbecoming word without blushing for shame, so that those who spoken it themselves blushed. When any indecent conversation was going on among his companions, they stopped as soon as they saw him coming. “Be still,” they said, “Bernardine is coming.”
From the ages of 11 to 17 he focused on his studies, developing the eloquence and dedication that would serve his future work as an evangelist.
With his great love for purity, Bernardine united a tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, whom he used to call his beloved. Out of devotion to her he daily visited an image of Mary just outside the town of Siena; he prayed there especially to learn his vocation.
Bernardine spent several years ministering to the sick and dying. He enrolled in a religious association that served at a hospital in the town of Scala, and applied himself to this work from 1397 to 1400.
During that time, a severe plague broke out in Siena, causing a crisis that would eventually lead to the young man taking charge of the entire hospital. Inside its walls, up to 20 people were dying each day from an illness that also killed many of the hospital workers. The staff was decimated and new victims were coming in constantly.
Bernardine persuaded 12 young men to help him continue the work of the hospital, which he took over for a period of four months. Although the plague did not infect him, the exhausting work left him weak and he contracted a different sickness that kept him in bed for four months.
After recovering, he spent over a year caring for his aunt Bartholomaea before her death. Then the 22-year-old Bernardine moved to a small house outside the city, where he began to discern God’s will for his future through prayer and fasting.
He eventually chose to join the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in 1403, embracing an austere life focused on poverty and humility. During this time, while praying before a crucifix, Bernardine heard Christ say to him: “My son, behold me hanging upon a cross. If you love me, or desire to imitate me, be also fastened naked to your cross and follow me. Thus you will assuredly find me.”
After two years, Bernardine was ordained a priest. For almost a dozen years he lived in solitude and prayer, but his gifts ultimately caused him to be sent to preach. His superiors commissioned him to preach as a missionary to the Italians who were falling away from their Catholic faith. He always traveled on foot, sometimes speaking for hours in one place, then doing the same in another town.
Bernardine had a keen intuition of the needs of the time, along with solid holiness and boundless energy and joy. He has a very weak and hoarse voice, miraculously improved later because of his devotion to Mary.
The Dominican evangelist St. Vincent Ferrer, just before leaving Italy, preached a sermon in which he predicted that one of his listeners would continue his work among the Italians – a prophecy Bernardine heard in person, and went on to fulfill.
Bernardine’s personal devotion to God, which amazed even the strict Franciscans, made his preaching extremely effective. He moved his hearers to abandon their vices, turn back to God, and make peace with one another.
When other priests consulted him for advice, Bernardine gave them a simple rule: “In all your actions, seek in the first place the kingdom of God and his glory. Direct all you do purely to his honor. Persevere in brotherly charity, and practice first all that you desire to teach others.”
“By this means,” he said, “the Holy Spirit will be your master, and will give you such wisdom and such a tongue that no adversary will be able to stand against you.”
Bernardine promoted devotion to the name of Jesus as a simple and effective means of recalling God’s love at all times. He devised a symbol—IHS, the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek—in Gothic letters on a blazing sun.
This was to displace the superstitious symbols of the day, as well as the insignia of factions: for example, Guelphs and Ghibellines.
The devotion spread, and the symbol began to appear in churches, homes and public buildings. Opposition arose from those who thought it a dangerous innovation. Three attempts were made to have the pope take action against him, but Bernardine’s holiness, orthodoxy, and intelligence were evidence of his faithfulness.
Bernardine’s own life attested to this source of strength in the face of trials. He patiently suffered an accusation of heresy – which Pope Martin V judged to be false – and refused to abandon his bold preaching when a nobleman threatened him with death.
But Bernardine was also widely admired throughout Italy, and he was offered the office of a bishop on three occasions. Each time, however, he turned down the position, choosing to fulfill the prediction of St. Vincent Ferrer through his missionary work.
Bernardine preached throughout most of Italy several times over, and even managed to reconcile members of its warring political factions.
Later in his life, Bernardine served for five years as the Vicar General for his Franciscan order, and revived the practice of its strict rule of life. Then in 1444, forty years after he first entered religious life, Bernardine became sick while traveling. He continued to preach, but soon lost his strength and his voice. St. Bernardine of Siena died on May 20, 1444.
“You must know that when you ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately greets you! Don’t think that she is one of those rude women of whom there are so many-on the contrary, she is utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right away and converse with you!”
“Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us.”
“As many serve the Virgin as serve God.”
“The last degree of love is when He gave Himself to us to be our Food; because He gave Himself to be united with us in every way.”
“There is a general rule concerning all special graces granted to any human being. Whenever the divine favor chooses someone to receive a special grace, or to accept a lofty vocation, God adorns the person chosen with all the gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill the task at hand.”
“When a fire is lit to clear a field, it burns off all the dry and useless weeds and thorns. When the sun rises and darkness is dispelled, robbers, night-prowlers and burglars hide away. So when Paul’s voice was raised to preach the Gospel to the nations, like a great clap of thunder in the sky, his preaching was a blazing fire carrying all before it. It was the sun rising in full glory. Infidelity was consumed by it, false beliefs fled away, and the truth appeared like a great candle lighting the whole world with its brilliant flame.”
Feast of St. Bernadine of Siena.
He is the patron against hoarseness, against chest problems, against respiratory problems, lung problems, lungs, advertisers, advertising, communications personnel, gambling addicts; against compulsive gambling.
Bernardine Albizeschi was born to upper-class parents in the Italian republic of Siena during 1380. He was descended from the old knightly family of the Albizeschi of Siena. His father was a governor in the town of Massa.
Misfortune soon entered the boy’s life when he lost his mother at age three and his father four years later. His aunt Diana cared for him afterward, and taught him to seek consolation and security by trusting in God.
Even at a young age, Bernardine demonstrated a remarkable concern for the poor as an outgrowth of his love for God. Having become accustomed to fasting, he preferred at times to go without any food in order to help someone in greater need.
Bernardine loved purity above all the virtues. While he attended the secondary school in Siena, he could not hear an unbecoming word without blushing for shame, so that those who spoken it themselves blushed. When any indecent conversation was going on among his companions, they stopped as soon as they saw him coming. “Be still,” they said, “Bernardine is coming.”
From the ages of 11 to 17 he focused on his studies, developing the eloquence and dedication that would serve his future work as an evangelist.
With his great love for purity, Bernardine united a tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, whom he used to call his beloved. Out of devotion to her he daily visited an image of Mary just outside the town of Siena; he prayed there especially to learn his vocation.
Bernardine spent several years ministering to the sick and dying. He enrolled in a religious association that served at a hospital in the town of Scala, and applied himself to this work from 1397 to 1400.
During that time, a severe plague broke out in Siena, causing a crisis that would eventually lead to the young man taking charge of the entire hospital. Inside its walls, up to 20 people were dying each day from an illness that also killed many of the hospital workers. The staff was decimated and new victims were coming in constantly.
Bernardine persuaded 12 young men to help him continue the work of the hospital, which he took over for a period of four months. Although the plague did not infect him, the exhausting work left him weak and he contracted a different sickness that kept him in bed for four months.
After recovering, he spent over a year caring for his aunt Bartholomaea before her death. Then the 22-year-old Bernardine moved to a small house outside the city, where he began to discern God’s will for his future through prayer and fasting.
He eventually chose to join the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in 1403, embracing an austere life focused on poverty and humility. During this time, while praying before a crucifix, Bernardine heard Christ say to him: “My son, behold me hanging upon a cross. If you love me, or desire to imitate me, be also fastened naked to your cross and follow me. Thus you will assuredly find me.”
After two years, Bernardine was ordained a priest. For almost a dozen years he lived in solitude and prayer, but his gifts ultimately caused him to be sent to preach. His superiors commissioned him to preach as a missionary to the Italians who were falling away from their Catholic faith. He always traveled on foot, sometimes speaking for hours in one place, then doing the same in another town.
Bernardine had a keen intuition of the needs of the time, along with solid holiness and boundless energy and joy. He has a very weak and hoarse voice, miraculously improved later because of his devotion to Mary.
The Dominican evangelist St. Vincent Ferrer, just before leaving Italy, preached a sermon in which he predicted that one of his listeners would continue his work among the Italians – a prophecy Bernardine heard in person, and went on to fulfill.
Bernardine’s personal devotion to God, which amazed even the strict Franciscans, made his preaching extremely effective. He moved his hearers to abandon their vices, turn back to God, and make peace with one another.
When other priests consulted him for advice, Bernardine gave them a simple rule: “In all your actions, seek in the first place the kingdom of God and his glory. Direct all you do purely to his honor. Persevere in brotherly charity, and practice first all that you desire to teach others.”
“By this means,” he said, “the Holy Spirit will be your master, and will give you such wisdom and such a tongue that no adversary will be able to stand against you.”
Bernardine promoted devotion to the name of Jesus as a simple and effective means of recalling God’s love at all times. He devised a symbol—IHS, the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek—in Gothic letters on a blazing sun.
This was to displace the superstitious symbols of the day, as well as the insignia of factions: for example, Guelphs and Ghibellines.
The devotion spread, and the symbol began to appear in churches, homes and public buildings. Opposition arose from those who thought it a dangerous innovation. Three attempts were made to have the pope take action against him, but Bernardine’s holiness, orthodoxy, and intelligence were evidence of his faithfulness.
Bernardine’s own life attested to this source of strength in the face of trials. He patiently suffered an accusation of heresy – which Pope Martin V judged to be false – and refused to abandon his bold preaching when a nobleman threatened him with death.
But Bernardine was also widely admired throughout Italy, and he was offered the office of a bishop on three occasions. Each time, however, he turned down the position, choosing to fulfill the prediction of St. Vincent Ferrer through his missionary work.
Bernardine preached throughout most of Italy several times over, and even managed to reconcile members of its warring political factions.
Later in his life, Bernardine served for five years as the Vicar General for his Franciscan order, and revived the practice of its strict rule of life. Then in 1444, forty years after he first entered religious life, Bernardine became sick while traveling. He continued to preach, but soon lost his strength and his voice. St. Bernardine of Siena died on May 20, 1444.
“You must know that when you ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately greets you! Don’t think that she is one of those rude women of whom there are so many-on the contrary, she is utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right away and converse with you!”
“Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us.”
“As many serve the Virgin as serve God.”
“The last degree of love is when He gave Himself to us to be our Food; because He gave Himself to be united with us in every way.”
“There is a general rule concerning all special graces granted to any human being. Whenever the divine favor chooses someone to receive a special grace, or to accept a lofty vocation, God adorns the person chosen with all the gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill the task at hand.”
“When a fire is lit to clear a field, it burns off all the dry and useless weeds and thorns. When the sun rises and darkness is dispelled, robbers, night-prowlers and burglars hide away. So when Paul’s voice was raised to preach the Gospel to the nations, like a great clap of thunder in the sky, his preaching was a blazing fire carrying all before it. It was the sun rising in full glory. Infidelity was consumed by it, false beliefs fled away, and the truth appeared like a great candle lighting the whole world with its brilliant flame.”
Close
May 20
Saint Bernadine of Siena
May 21
Daily Saints – 21 May.
Feast of St. Eugene de Mazenod.
He is the patron saint for families in difficulty and dysfunctional families.
Eugene was born on 1 August 1782 at Aix-en-Provence, southern France as Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod. He was the eldest son of Charles-Antoine De Mazenod and Marie-Rose Joannis.
His mother was of the French middle class, convent educated, and wealthy; his father was an aristocrat, classically educated, and poor. Their marriage, and Eugene’s home life, were plagued by constant family in-fighting, and interference from his maternal grandmother and a neurotic maternal aunt. The women never let his father forget that they brought the money to the family.
On 13 December 1790, at age eight, Eugene fled with his family to exile in Italy to escape the French Revolution. During his time of exile in Venice (1794-1797), a holy priest, Don Bartolo Zinelli, introduced him to the spirituality of the Company of Jesus. From him as a young boy, Eugene learned how to pray and how to practice mortification.
Don Bartolo also initiated him to a devotion to the Virgin Mary “It was there”, Eugene would later write, “that my vocation to the priesthood was born”.
After the Revolution, his mother returned to France, but his father stayed in Italy, ostensibly for political reasons.
Upon his own return to France in 1802 in an attempt to reclaim the family lands, Eugene tried to reunite his parents, but failed, and they were divorced, an unusual event in the early 19th century.
His unsupervised youth, the constant fighting at home, and the eventual break up of his family led to his patronage of dysfunctional families and those in them.
For years, Eugene struggled in himself, drawn on the one hand to the wordly life he knew from Palermo, and the beauty of the religious life he had seen in Venice with Don Bartolo. In an effort to work it out, Eugene began teaching catechism and working with prisoners in 1805.
During the adoration of the cross on Good Friday in 1807, Eugene had a special mystical experience: an experience of the love and goodness of Christ which culminated in the shedding of his blood to obtain the forgiveness of all sins.
Simultaneously conscious of his own sins and filled with a sense of profound confidence in Divine Mercy, Eugene decided to make amends through the total gift of his life to Jesus his Savior. He entered the seminary and was ordained.
During his first years as a priest, Eugene continually struggled to find a balance in his life between prayer and service to others. After a series of initial successes, there was a period of deep and painful purification.
From 1827 to 1836, Eugene was tested time and time again: conflicts, defections, bereavements, temporary loss of his French citizenship, even suspicion from the Holy See. Along with making him seriously ill, these events led to moments of discouragement and depression.
Eugene discovered, first hand, the cost of discipleship and service of the Church. He came out of this experience bruised and humbled, more understanding towards others and much stronger in his love and faith.
Eugene renounced his family’s wealth, and preferred to become a parish priest in Aix-en-Provence, working among the poor, preaching missions and bringing them the church in their native Provencal dialect, not the French used by the upper classes.
Eugene worked among the sick, prisoners, the poor, and the overlooked young. He contracted, and nearly died from, typhus while working in prisons.
Eugene gathered other workers around him, both clergy and laymen. They worked from a former Carmelite convent, and the priests among them formed the Missionaries of Providence who conducted parish missions throughout the region. They were successful, and their reputation spread, bringing requests for them outside the region.
Eugene realized the need for formal organization, and on 17 February 1826 he received approval from Pope Leo XII to found a new congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate founded on his core of missionaries. He was appointed Vicar-General of Marseille and later it’s bishop.
As Bishop, Eugene greatly increased the number of parishes and religious associations in the diocese. He not only welcome the return of Religious institutes such as the Jesuits, but also personally encouraged the founding of several new religious families. Special programs were undertaken for youth, workers, immigrants and the needy in rapidly developing port city of Marseille.
The Eucharist was his source of inspiration and renewal. He insisted on celebrating Mass daily, sometimes at great inconvenience, particularly while traveling.
The Eucharist, his privileged place of identification with Christ was also the space for gathering together friends and members of his religious family. As he himself said, the Eucharist was in fact “their living center of communication”.
Always a prolific writer, Eugene corresponded unceasingly with his missionaries. In his voluminous correspondence he reveals himself as a caring pastor, involved in all aspects of their life and mission. Always an apostolic man, he was able to encourage, advise, correct and support.
Towards the end of his life, he was diagnosed with cancer. Shortly before his death on May 21, 1861, in keeping with his temperament, the elderly and seriously ill bishop said to those around him: “Should I happen to doze off, or if I appear to be getting worse, please wake me up! I want to die knowing that I am dying”.
His last words to the Oblates were a testament that summed up his life: “Practice well among yourselves charity, charity, charity, and outside, zeal for the salvation of souls”. He died on 21 May 1861 at Marseille, France.
“I am a priest, a priest of Jesus Christ. That says it all.”
“To love the Church is to love Jesus Christ, and vice versa.”
“We glorify God in the masterpiece of his power and love…it is the Son whom we honour in the person of his Mother.”
“Learn who you are in the eyes of God.”
“Practice amongst yourselves charity, charity, charity…and zeal for the salvation of souls.”
“If priests could be formed, afire with zeal for men’s salvation, solidly grounded in virtue – in a word, apostolic men deeply conscious of the need to reform themselves, who would labor with all the resources at their command to convert others – then there would be ample reason to believe that in a short while people who had gone astray might be brought back to the long neglected duties of religion. We pledge ourselves to all the works of zeal that priestly charity can inspire… We must spare no effort to extend the Savior’s Empire and destroy the dominion of hell.”
“How should men who want to follow in the footsteps of their divine Master Jesus Christ conduct themselves if they are to win back the many souls who have thrown off his yoke? They must strive to be saints.”
Feast of St. Eugene de Mazenod.
He is the patron saint for families in difficulty and dysfunctional families.
Eugene was born on 1 August 1782 at Aix-en-Provence, southern France as Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod. He was the eldest son of Charles-Antoine De Mazenod and Marie-Rose Joannis.
His mother was of the French middle class, convent educated, and wealthy; his father was an aristocrat, classically educated, and poor. Their marriage, and Eugene’s home life, were plagued by constant family in-fighting, and interference from his maternal grandmother and a neurotic maternal aunt. The women never let his father forget that they brought the money to the family.
On 13 December 1790, at age eight, Eugene fled with his family to exile in Italy to escape the French Revolution. During his time of exile in Venice (1794-1797), a holy priest, Don Bartolo Zinelli, introduced him to the spirituality of the Company of Jesus. From him as a young boy, Eugene learned how to pray and how to practice mortification.
Don Bartolo also initiated him to a devotion to the Virgin Mary “It was there”, Eugene would later write, “that my vocation to the priesthood was born”.
After the Revolution, his mother returned to France, but his father stayed in Italy, ostensibly for political reasons.
Upon his own return to France in 1802 in an attempt to reclaim the family lands, Eugene tried to reunite his parents, but failed, and they were divorced, an unusual event in the early 19th century.
His unsupervised youth, the constant fighting at home, and the eventual break up of his family led to his patronage of dysfunctional families and those in them.
For years, Eugene struggled in himself, drawn on the one hand to the wordly life he knew from Palermo, and the beauty of the religious life he had seen in Venice with Don Bartolo. In an effort to work it out, Eugene began teaching catechism and working with prisoners in 1805.
During the adoration of the cross on Good Friday in 1807, Eugene had a special mystical experience: an experience of the love and goodness of Christ which culminated in the shedding of his blood to obtain the forgiveness of all sins.
Simultaneously conscious of his own sins and filled with a sense of profound confidence in Divine Mercy, Eugene decided to make amends through the total gift of his life to Jesus his Savior. He entered the seminary and was ordained.
During his first years as a priest, Eugene continually struggled to find a balance in his life between prayer and service to others. After a series of initial successes, there was a period of deep and painful purification.
From 1827 to 1836, Eugene was tested time and time again: conflicts, defections, bereavements, temporary loss of his French citizenship, even suspicion from the Holy See. Along with making him seriously ill, these events led to moments of discouragement and depression.
Eugene discovered, first hand, the cost of discipleship and service of the Church. He came out of this experience bruised and humbled, more understanding towards others and much stronger in his love and faith.
Eugene renounced his family’s wealth, and preferred to become a parish priest in Aix-en-Provence, working among the poor, preaching missions and bringing them the church in their native Provencal dialect, not the French used by the upper classes.
Eugene worked among the sick, prisoners, the poor, and the overlooked young. He contracted, and nearly died from, typhus while working in prisons.
Eugene gathered other workers around him, both clergy and laymen. They worked from a former Carmelite convent, and the priests among them formed the Missionaries of Providence who conducted parish missions throughout the region. They were successful, and their reputation spread, bringing requests for them outside the region.
Eugene realized the need for formal organization, and on 17 February 1826 he received approval from Pope Leo XII to found a new congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate founded on his core of missionaries. He was appointed Vicar-General of Marseille and later it’s bishop.
As Bishop, Eugene greatly increased the number of parishes and religious associations in the diocese. He not only welcome the return of Religious institutes such as the Jesuits, but also personally encouraged the founding of several new religious families. Special programs were undertaken for youth, workers, immigrants and the needy in rapidly developing port city of Marseille.
The Eucharist was his source of inspiration and renewal. He insisted on celebrating Mass daily, sometimes at great inconvenience, particularly while traveling.
The Eucharist, his privileged place of identification with Christ was also the space for gathering together friends and members of his religious family. As he himself said, the Eucharist was in fact “their living center of communication”.
Always a prolific writer, Eugene corresponded unceasingly with his missionaries. In his voluminous correspondence he reveals himself as a caring pastor, involved in all aspects of their life and mission. Always an apostolic man, he was able to encourage, advise, correct and support.
Towards the end of his life, he was diagnosed with cancer. Shortly before his death on May 21, 1861, in keeping with his temperament, the elderly and seriously ill bishop said to those around him: “Should I happen to doze off, or if I appear to be getting worse, please wake me up! I want to die knowing that I am dying”.
His last words to the Oblates were a testament that summed up his life: “Practice well among yourselves charity, charity, charity, and outside, zeal for the salvation of souls”. He died on 21 May 1861 at Marseille, France.
“I am a priest, a priest of Jesus Christ. That says it all.”
“To love the Church is to love Jesus Christ, and vice versa.”
“We glorify God in the masterpiece of his power and love…it is the Son whom we honour in the person of his Mother.”
“Learn who you are in the eyes of God.”
“Practice amongst yourselves charity, charity, charity…and zeal for the salvation of souls.”
“If priests could be formed, afire with zeal for men’s salvation, solidly grounded in virtue – in a word, apostolic men deeply conscious of the need to reform themselves, who would labor with all the resources at their command to convert others – then there would be ample reason to believe that in a short while people who had gone astray might be brought back to the long neglected duties of religion. We pledge ourselves to all the works of zeal that priestly charity can inspire… We must spare no effort to extend the Savior’s Empire and destroy the dominion of hell.”
“How should men who want to follow in the footsteps of their divine Master Jesus Christ conduct themselves if they are to win back the many souls who have thrown off his yoke? They must strive to be saints.”
Close
May 21
Saint Eugene de Mazenod
May 22
Daily Saints – 22 May.
Feast of St. Rita of Cascia.
She is known as the ‘Saint of the Impossible’.
She is the patron of desperate, forgotten, lost or impossible causes, difficult marriages, parenthood, abuse victims; spouse abuse victims and against infertility or sterility; infertile people, against loneliness, against sickness or bodily ills; sick people, against wounds; wounded people.
Rita was born in the year 1381 in the village of Roccaporena, near Cascia, Italy. Her parents, Antonio and Amata Lotti, considered her birth a very special gift from God, for Rita was born to them as they were already advancing in age.
As a young girl Rita frequently visited the convent of the Augustinian Nuns in Cascia and dreamed of one day joining their community. Her parents, however, had promised her in marriage, according to the custom of the day, to Paolo Mancini, a good man of strong and impetuous character. Rita accepted her parents’ decision, resolved to see this as God’s will for her.
The young couple was joined in marriage and soon twin boys were born to them. Rita found herself occupied with the typical concerns of a wife, mother, and homemaker of Roccaporena, while Paolo was employed as a watchman for the town.
In Cascia, as elsewhere, a great rivalry existed between two popular political factions, the Guelphs, and the Ghibellines. As a minor official of the town, Paolo often found himself drawn into the conflict, and the strain that this caused probably accounts for the tension, which he sometimes brought into the Mancini household.
By her prayer, patience, and affection, however, Rita was able to ease the stress and worry her husband experienced, but she was not able to shield him altogether from the dangers to which society exposed him.
One day as Paolo was returning home from work he was ambushed and killed. The pain which this unexpected and violent death inflicted upon Rita was only compounded by the fear she felt that her two teenage sons, moved by the unwritten law of the “vendetta,” would seek to avenge their father’s death.
The expectation of society at the time was that the boys should avenge the murder of their father to defend family honor. Rita, however, influenced by the peacemaking example of her parents, pledged to forgive her husband’s killers. She faced a steep challenge, however, in convincing her sons to do the same.
Tradition has it that she often pointed out to them the image of the crucified Christ and the fact that he forgave those who killed him. Within a year, however, both sons succumbed to a deadly illness leaving Rita not only a widow, but also childless.
Despite her great burden she could still thank God that they had died in peace, free of the poison of murder to which hatred and revenge might have otherwise drawn them.
Now alone in the world and without family responsibilities, Rita once more turned her thoughts to the desired vocation of her youth, that of joining the Augustinian Nuns of Saint Mary Magdalene Monastery.
Some of the religious of the community, however, were relatives of the members of the political faction considered responsible for Paolo’s death, and so as not to tempt the harmony of the convent, Rita’s request for admission was denied. The nuns refused because of fearing her husband’s family and their rivals.
Trusting in the providence of Almighty God, Rita set out to make peace between the families. She went to her husband’s family and exhorted them to put aside their hostility and stubbornness. They were convinced by her courage and agreed.
The rival family, astounded by this overture of peace, also agreed. The two families exchanged a peace embrace and signed a written agreement, putting the vendetta to rest forever.
Rita succeeded in reconciling with her husband’s family and their rivals, but the prioress still said no. However, Rita started a campaign of prayer which resulted in her miraculous entry.
During the night, when the doors to the monastery were locked and the sisters were asleep, her patron saints Saint John the Baptist, Saint Augustine, and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino appeared to her and miraculously transported her inside the convent.
When the nuns found her inside the convent in the morning and heard how she entered, they felt they could not turn her away. Her entry into the monastery was assured.
At the age of thirty-six Rita pledged to follow the ancient Rule of Saint Augustine. For the next forty years she gave herself wholeheartedly to prayer and works of charity, striving especially to preserve peace and harmony among the citizens of Cascia.
With a pure love she wanted more and more to be intimately joined to the redemptive suffering of Jesus, and this desire of hers was satisfied in an extraordinary way.
After hearing a homily on the Passion of Christ she returned to her cell; kneeling before her crucifix, she prayed: “Let me, my Jesus share in Thy suffering, at least of one of Thy thorns”. Her prayer was answered.
One day when she was about sixty years of age, she was meditating before an image of Christ crucified, as she was long accustomed to doing. Suddenly a small wound appeared on her forehead, as though a thorn from the crown that encircled Christ’s head had loosed itself and penetrated her own flesh.
For the next fifteen years she bore this external sign of stigmatization and union with the Lord. In spite of the pain she constantly experienced, she offered herself courageously for the physical and spiritual well being of others.
During the last four years of her life Rita was confined to bed and was able to eat so little that she was practically sustained on the Eucharist alone. She was, nevertheless, an inspiration to her sisters in religion and to all who came to visit her, by her patience and joyful disposition despite her great suffering.
One of those who visited her some few months before her death — a relative from her hometown of Roccaporena — was privileged to witness firsthand the extraordinary things wrought by Rita’s requests.
When asked whether she had any special desires, Rita asked only that a rose from the garden of her parents’ home be brought to her. It was a small favor to ask, but quite an impossible one to grant in the month of January!
Nevertheless, on returning home the woman discovered, to her amazement, a single brightly-colored blossom on the bush where the nun said it would be. Picking it, she returned immediately to the monastery and presented it to Rita who gave thanks to God for this sign of love.
Thus, the saint of the thorn became the saint of the rose, and she whose impossible requests were granted her became the advocate of all those whose own requests seem impossible as well. Probably because of her miraculous entry into the convent, her cult as the patron of the impossible flourishes widely today. She is also regarded as a patron of those suffering violence and abuse in marriage.
As she breathed her last, Rita’s final words to the sisters who gathered around her were, “Remain in the holy love of Jesus. Remain in obedience to the holy Roman Church. Remain in peace and fraternal charity.” Her last words were, “Love God above all things.”
Having faithfully and lovingly responded to God’s many invitations to her in the course of her seventy-six years, Rita returned to God in peace on May 22, 1457.
Feast of St. Rita of Cascia.
She is known as the ‘Saint of the Impossible’.
She is the patron of desperate, forgotten, lost or impossible causes, difficult marriages, parenthood, abuse victims; spouse abuse victims and against infertility or sterility; infertile people, against loneliness, against sickness or bodily ills; sick people, against wounds; wounded people.
Rita was born in the year 1381 in the village of Roccaporena, near Cascia, Italy. Her parents, Antonio and Amata Lotti, considered her birth a very special gift from God, for Rita was born to them as they were already advancing in age.
As a young girl Rita frequently visited the convent of the Augustinian Nuns in Cascia and dreamed of one day joining their community. Her parents, however, had promised her in marriage, according to the custom of the day, to Paolo Mancini, a good man of strong and impetuous character. Rita accepted her parents’ decision, resolved to see this as God’s will for her.
The young couple was joined in marriage and soon twin boys were born to them. Rita found herself occupied with the typical concerns of a wife, mother, and homemaker of Roccaporena, while Paolo was employed as a watchman for the town.
In Cascia, as elsewhere, a great rivalry existed between two popular political factions, the Guelphs, and the Ghibellines. As a minor official of the town, Paolo often found himself drawn into the conflict, and the strain that this caused probably accounts for the tension, which he sometimes brought into the Mancini household.
By her prayer, patience, and affection, however, Rita was able to ease the stress and worry her husband experienced, but she was not able to shield him altogether from the dangers to which society exposed him.
One day as Paolo was returning home from work he was ambushed and killed. The pain which this unexpected and violent death inflicted upon Rita was only compounded by the fear she felt that her two teenage sons, moved by the unwritten law of the “vendetta,” would seek to avenge their father’s death.
The expectation of society at the time was that the boys should avenge the murder of their father to defend family honor. Rita, however, influenced by the peacemaking example of her parents, pledged to forgive her husband’s killers. She faced a steep challenge, however, in convincing her sons to do the same.
Tradition has it that she often pointed out to them the image of the crucified Christ and the fact that he forgave those who killed him. Within a year, however, both sons succumbed to a deadly illness leaving Rita not only a widow, but also childless.
Despite her great burden she could still thank God that they had died in peace, free of the poison of murder to which hatred and revenge might have otherwise drawn them.
Now alone in the world and without family responsibilities, Rita once more turned her thoughts to the desired vocation of her youth, that of joining the Augustinian Nuns of Saint Mary Magdalene Monastery.
Some of the religious of the community, however, were relatives of the members of the political faction considered responsible for Paolo’s death, and so as not to tempt the harmony of the convent, Rita’s request for admission was denied. The nuns refused because of fearing her husband’s family and their rivals.
Trusting in the providence of Almighty God, Rita set out to make peace between the families. She went to her husband’s family and exhorted them to put aside their hostility and stubbornness. They were convinced by her courage and agreed.
The rival family, astounded by this overture of peace, also agreed. The two families exchanged a peace embrace and signed a written agreement, putting the vendetta to rest forever.
Rita succeeded in reconciling with her husband’s family and their rivals, but the prioress still said no. However, Rita started a campaign of prayer which resulted in her miraculous entry.
During the night, when the doors to the monastery were locked and the sisters were asleep, her patron saints Saint John the Baptist, Saint Augustine, and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino appeared to her and miraculously transported her inside the convent.
When the nuns found her inside the convent in the morning and heard how she entered, they felt they could not turn her away. Her entry into the monastery was assured.
At the age of thirty-six Rita pledged to follow the ancient Rule of Saint Augustine. For the next forty years she gave herself wholeheartedly to prayer and works of charity, striving especially to preserve peace and harmony among the citizens of Cascia.
With a pure love she wanted more and more to be intimately joined to the redemptive suffering of Jesus, and this desire of hers was satisfied in an extraordinary way.
After hearing a homily on the Passion of Christ she returned to her cell; kneeling before her crucifix, she prayed: “Let me, my Jesus share in Thy suffering, at least of one of Thy thorns”. Her prayer was answered.
One day when she was about sixty years of age, she was meditating before an image of Christ crucified, as she was long accustomed to doing. Suddenly a small wound appeared on her forehead, as though a thorn from the crown that encircled Christ’s head had loosed itself and penetrated her own flesh.
For the next fifteen years she bore this external sign of stigmatization and union with the Lord. In spite of the pain she constantly experienced, she offered herself courageously for the physical and spiritual well being of others.
During the last four years of her life Rita was confined to bed and was able to eat so little that she was practically sustained on the Eucharist alone. She was, nevertheless, an inspiration to her sisters in religion and to all who came to visit her, by her patience and joyful disposition despite her great suffering.
One of those who visited her some few months before her death — a relative from her hometown of Roccaporena — was privileged to witness firsthand the extraordinary things wrought by Rita’s requests.
When asked whether she had any special desires, Rita asked only that a rose from the garden of her parents’ home be brought to her. It was a small favor to ask, but quite an impossible one to grant in the month of January!
Nevertheless, on returning home the woman discovered, to her amazement, a single brightly-colored blossom on the bush where the nun said it would be. Picking it, she returned immediately to the monastery and presented it to Rita who gave thanks to God for this sign of love.
Thus, the saint of the thorn became the saint of the rose, and she whose impossible requests were granted her became the advocate of all those whose own requests seem impossible as well. Probably because of her miraculous entry into the convent, her cult as the patron of the impossible flourishes widely today. She is also regarded as a patron of those suffering violence and abuse in marriage.
As she breathed her last, Rita’s final words to the sisters who gathered around her were, “Remain in the holy love of Jesus. Remain in obedience to the holy Roman Church. Remain in peace and fraternal charity.” Her last words were, “Love God above all things.”
Having faithfully and lovingly responded to God’s many invitations to her in the course of her seventy-six years, Rita returned to God in peace on May 22, 1457.
Close
May 22
Saint Rita of Cascia
May 24
Daily Saints – 23 May.
Feast of St. (John Baptist de Rossi) Giovanni Battista Rossi.
John was born at Voltaggio in the Diocese of Genoa, 22 February, 1698. His parents, Charles de Rossi and Frances Anfossi, were not rich, but had solid piety and the esteem of their fellow-citizens.
John was the fourth child of their parents and through their guidance and a wonderful education, John learned to excel in his living faith, piety and gentleness.
A pair of priests, Scipio Gaetano and Giuseppe Repetto, saw great potential within John and took his early education and faith formation as a part of their apostolate, taking him under their spiritual care.
When he was 10-years-old, John met with a wealthy, noble couple from Genoa after Mass. They, too, noted his gifts and potential. So, they took him in as a page, after receiving his father’s approval. John was taken to Genoa to attend school until 1711.
In 1710, John’s father suddenly passed away. His mother pleaded for him to return home, but John was convinced that the Lord wanted him to finish his education in Genoa.
In 1711, John was called to Rome by his cousin, the canon of St. Mary in Cosmedin, Lorenzo de Rossi. Lorenzo suggested John complete his studies there at the Collegium Romanum under the guidance of the Jesuits.
John continued to thrive in his studies. His natural talents, spiritual gifts, Christian virtue and willingness to apply himself to his studies made him the model student. He studied philosophy and theology under the Dominicans at the Dominican College of Saint Thomas.
During this time, John joined the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin and the Ristretto of the Twelve Apostles. Both groups were comprised of lay Christian faithful especially dedicated to Christian prayer and service.
John led the members in the meetings and pious exercises, in visits to the sick in the hospitals and in other works of mercy, and merited even then the name of apostle.
John’s desire to grow in holiness sometimes led him to going overboard in his practices of voluntary mortification and his austerity nearly ruined his health. He also began to have fits of epilepsy. He struggled with these for the rest of his life.
John wanted dearly to become a priest. Under normal circumstances, his epileptic fits would have excluded him from the priesthood. However, he was granted a special dispensation. After ordination as a deacon, he was ordained to the priesthood on March 8, 1721.
John believed he had reached his goal and was deeply grateful to the Lord for the vocation of priesthood. So, as an expression of gratitude, he vowed to not accept any ecclesiastical benefits unless commanded to do so out of obedience to his religious superiors.
John fulfilled the duties of the sacred ministry by devoting himself to the labourers, herds, and teamsters of the Campagna, preaching to them early in the morning, or late in the evening, at the old Forum Romanum (Campo Vaccino), and by visiting, instructing, and assisting the poor at the hospital of Saint Galla.
In 1731 he established near Saint Galla another hospital as a home of refuge for the unfortunates who wander the city by night. In 1735 he became titular canon at Saint Mary in Cosmedin, and, on the death of Lorenzo two years later, obedience forced him to accept the canonry. The house belonging to it, however, he would not use, but employed the rent for good purposes.
For a number of years John was afraid, on account of his sickness, to enter the confessional, and it was his custom to send to other priests the sinners whom he had brought to repentance by his instructions and sermons.
In 1738 a dangerous sickness befell him, and to regain his health he went to Cività Castellana, a day’s journey from Rome. The bishop of the place induced him to hear confessions, and after reviewing his moral theology he received the unusual faculty of hearing confessions in any of the churches of Rome.
John showed extraordinary zeal in the exercise of this privilege, and spent many hours every day in hearing the confessions of the illiterate and the poor whom he sought in the hospitals and in their homes.
He preached to such five and six times a day in churches, chapels, convents, hospitals, barracks, and prison cells, so that he became the apostle of the abandoned, a second Philip Neri, a hunter of souls.
Once, a young man who was ill and dying from syphilis turned away from John’s attention, out of shame. However, as John showed his selfless heart and helped him with his bedpan, the man finally took the time to listen to John’s words and was able to make a good confession before his death.
Once a young man came to him who was sexually entangled with a woman who kept coming to his house under the pretense of washing and mending his clothes. A brief conversation with John Baptist broke the youth’s addiction. As a sign of his cure, the next day he brought the priest a pile of his clothes he had taken from the woman.
In 1763, worn out by such labours and continued ill-health, his strength began to ebb away. After several attacks of paralysis he died at his quarters in Trinità de’ Pellegrini, Rome on 23 May, 1764.
“Your faith should be for you a light which guides you in all things, and a shining light for those whom you instruct, to lead them on the path to heaven.”
“The shortest road to heaven was to guide others by the confessional.”
“Ignorance is the leprosy of the soul. How many such lepers exist in the church here in Rome, where many people don’t even know what’s necessary for their salvation? It must be our business to try to cure this disease. The souls of our neighbors are in our hands, and yet how many are lost through our fault? The sick die without being properly prepared because we have not given time or care enough to each particular case. Yet with a little more patience, a little more perseverance, a little more love, we could have led these poor souls to heaven.”
“The poor come to church tired and distracted by their daily troubles. If you preach a long sermon they can’t follow you. Give them one idea that they can take home, not half a dozen, or one will drive out the other, and they will remember none.”
Feast of St. (John Baptist de Rossi) Giovanni Battista Rossi.
John was born at Voltaggio in the Diocese of Genoa, 22 February, 1698. His parents, Charles de Rossi and Frances Anfossi, were not rich, but had solid piety and the esteem of their fellow-citizens.
John was the fourth child of their parents and through their guidance and a wonderful education, John learned to excel in his living faith, piety and gentleness.
A pair of priests, Scipio Gaetano and Giuseppe Repetto, saw great potential within John and took his early education and faith formation as a part of their apostolate, taking him under their spiritual care.
When he was 10-years-old, John met with a wealthy, noble couple from Genoa after Mass. They, too, noted his gifts and potential. So, they took him in as a page, after receiving his father’s approval. John was taken to Genoa to attend school until 1711.
In 1710, John’s father suddenly passed away. His mother pleaded for him to return home, but John was convinced that the Lord wanted him to finish his education in Genoa.
In 1711, John was called to Rome by his cousin, the canon of St. Mary in Cosmedin, Lorenzo de Rossi. Lorenzo suggested John complete his studies there at the Collegium Romanum under the guidance of the Jesuits.
John continued to thrive in his studies. His natural talents, spiritual gifts, Christian virtue and willingness to apply himself to his studies made him the model student. He studied philosophy and theology under the Dominicans at the Dominican College of Saint Thomas.
During this time, John joined the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin and the Ristretto of the Twelve Apostles. Both groups were comprised of lay Christian faithful especially dedicated to Christian prayer and service.
John led the members in the meetings and pious exercises, in visits to the sick in the hospitals and in other works of mercy, and merited even then the name of apostle.
John’s desire to grow in holiness sometimes led him to going overboard in his practices of voluntary mortification and his austerity nearly ruined his health. He also began to have fits of epilepsy. He struggled with these for the rest of his life.
John wanted dearly to become a priest. Under normal circumstances, his epileptic fits would have excluded him from the priesthood. However, he was granted a special dispensation. After ordination as a deacon, he was ordained to the priesthood on March 8, 1721.
John believed he had reached his goal and was deeply grateful to the Lord for the vocation of priesthood. So, as an expression of gratitude, he vowed to not accept any ecclesiastical benefits unless commanded to do so out of obedience to his religious superiors.
John fulfilled the duties of the sacred ministry by devoting himself to the labourers, herds, and teamsters of the Campagna, preaching to them early in the morning, or late in the evening, at the old Forum Romanum (Campo Vaccino), and by visiting, instructing, and assisting the poor at the hospital of Saint Galla.
In 1731 he established near Saint Galla another hospital as a home of refuge for the unfortunates who wander the city by night. In 1735 he became titular canon at Saint Mary in Cosmedin, and, on the death of Lorenzo two years later, obedience forced him to accept the canonry. The house belonging to it, however, he would not use, but employed the rent for good purposes.
For a number of years John was afraid, on account of his sickness, to enter the confessional, and it was his custom to send to other priests the sinners whom he had brought to repentance by his instructions and sermons.
In 1738 a dangerous sickness befell him, and to regain his health he went to Cività Castellana, a day’s journey from Rome. The bishop of the place induced him to hear confessions, and after reviewing his moral theology he received the unusual faculty of hearing confessions in any of the churches of Rome.
John showed extraordinary zeal in the exercise of this privilege, and spent many hours every day in hearing the confessions of the illiterate and the poor whom he sought in the hospitals and in their homes.
He preached to such five and six times a day in churches, chapels, convents, hospitals, barracks, and prison cells, so that he became the apostle of the abandoned, a second Philip Neri, a hunter of souls.
Once, a young man who was ill and dying from syphilis turned away from John’s attention, out of shame. However, as John showed his selfless heart and helped him with his bedpan, the man finally took the time to listen to John’s words and was able to make a good confession before his death.
Once a young man came to him who was sexually entangled with a woman who kept coming to his house under the pretense of washing and mending his clothes. A brief conversation with John Baptist broke the youth’s addiction. As a sign of his cure, the next day he brought the priest a pile of his clothes he had taken from the woman.
In 1763, worn out by such labours and continued ill-health, his strength began to ebb away. After several attacks of paralysis he died at his quarters in Trinità de’ Pellegrini, Rome on 23 May, 1764.
“Your faith should be for you a light which guides you in all things, and a shining light for those whom you instruct, to lead them on the path to heaven.”
“The shortest road to heaven was to guide others by the confessional.”
“Ignorance is the leprosy of the soul. How many such lepers exist in the church here in Rome, where many people don’t even know what’s necessary for their salvation? It must be our business to try to cure this disease. The souls of our neighbors are in our hands, and yet how many are lost through our fault? The sick die without being properly prepared because we have not given time or care enough to each particular case. Yet with a little more patience, a little more perseverance, a little more love, we could have led these poor souls to heaven.”
“The poor come to church tired and distracted by their daily troubles. If you preach a long sermon they can’t follow you. Give them one idea that they can take home, not half a dozen, or one will drive out the other, and they will remember none.”
Close
May 23
Saint John Baptist de Rossi
May 24
Daily Saints – 24 May.
Feast of Mary, Mother of the Chruch.
Pope Francis recently placed this Memorial on the universal liturgical calendar of the Church. He declared that it would be an annual observation on the Monday following Pentecost Sunday.
The theological roots of this title go back to the early Church. The Fathers of the Church, holy and studious bishops of the first centuries, often spoke of Mary as the New Eve. Just as the Woman Eve was “the mother of all the living” (Gen. 3:20), the Woman Mary was mother of all those living in Christ.
The title, Mother of the Church (Mater Ecclesiae) was first used by Berengaud, bishop of Treves (d. 1125) in his writings. Later authors such as St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence (d.1458) and St. Lawrence Justiniani (d.1455) also invited the church to venerate Mary as her Mother.
“She is invoked as Mother of the Church and the teacher and Queen of the Apostles” wrote Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903) in his September 1895 encyclical, Helper of the People (Adjutricem Populi). Pope John XXIII (d.1963) in an allocution in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on December 6, 1960 spoke of Mary as “Mother of the Church and our most loving Mother.” (AAS 53, 1961, 35)
On November 21, 1964, during the celebration of Mass at the conclusion of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI (d. 1978) stated, “For the glory of the Blessed Virgin and our own consolation, we proclaim the Most Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church, of the whole people of God, faithful and pastors, and we call her most loving Mother.” The Holy Father expressed the hope that this title of Mary, Mother of the church would “lead Christians to honor Mary even more and to call upon her with still greater confidence.” He decreed that “from now onward the whole Christian people should give even greater honor to the Mother of God under this most loving title.” (AAS 56, 1965, 1015)
Pope John Paul II has frequently used this title from the beginning of his pontificate in 1978 looking toward Mary in the Upper Room praying with the Apostles at Pentecost. “In the birth of the Church, the one to whom we owe the birth of Christ participates in a particular way.” (Oss. Rom. June 19, 1979).
Pope John Paul II taught us that “Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John.” (Redemptoris Mater – On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Pilgrim Church)
The eighth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (Vatican II), is titled “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church.” The Council Fathers taught that Mary’s role in the plan of salvation is connected to both Christ and the Church.
Mary likely showed as much tender concern for Christ’s mystical body as it slowly matured in its native Palestine as she did for His physical body in Nazareth. Pope Pius XII perceptively noted Mary’s dual maternity in his encyclical on the Church: “It was she who was there to tend the mystical body of Christ, born of the Savior’s pierced heart, with the same motherly care that she spent on the child Jesus in the crib.”
It is possible the Apostles held their first Council in about 49 A.D. in Jerusalem precisely because Mary still dwelled in the holy city. She was likely the young religion’s greatest living witness and pillar of unity. We can imagine her presiding over early Christian gatherings with reserved solemnity, nursing primitive Christianity just as she had Christ.
Christ is described as the Head of the Church and followers are described as the Body of the Church. As Mary is the Mother of Christ, and Christ is head of the Church, then Mary is the Mother of the Church. Mary is also seen as the model of the Church.
In all of her actions she exemplifies the mission of the Church. She agreed to God’s will to give birth to Jesus and supported and displayed her faith in her son throughout his ministry. She was with him at every stage of his work on Earth and fully supported and followed his teachings.
Pentecost occurs ten days after the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Acts of the Apostles tells us that during this time the “apostles were constantly at prayer together, and with them a group of women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus.” (Acts 1:14) The Church has traditionally portrayed the Blessed Virgin Mary together with the apostles and disciples who were gathered at that first Pentecost. She is the model of persevering prayer joined in oneness of mind and heart with the first members of the Church.
Mary had been present at the very beginnings of the Church. She was there at the Annunciation when her humble consent in purity of heart allowed the Son of God to take flesh in her virginal womb.
She was also present standing at the foot of the cross as her Son and our Savior redeemed the world as part of God’s plan. (Catechism 599-600) There she was appointed to be mother of all those who were brought to life through the death of her only Son. (John 19:26-27) Now, at Pentecost, when the apostolic mission of the Church begins, Mary is present as well. She is the perfect pattern of the church at prayer.
By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity. (CCC 967, Catechism of the Catholic Church)
“Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ’s members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.” (Pope St. Paul VI, “Credo of the People of God.”)
“Although the title “Mother of the Church” was only recently attributed to Mary, it expresses the Blessed Virgin’s maternal relationship with the Church as shown already in several New Testament texts. Since the Annunciation, Mary was called, to give her consent to the coming of the messianic kingdom, which would take place with the formation of the Church. When at Cana Mary asked the Son to exercise his messianic power, she made a fundamental contribution to implanting the faith in the first community of disciples, and she co-operated in initiating God’s kingdom, which has its “seed” and “beginning” in the Church (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 5). On Calvary, Mary united herself to the sacrifice of her Son and made her own maternal contribution to the work of salvation, which took the form of labour pains, the birth of the new humanity. In addressing the words “Woman, behold your son” to Mary, the Crucified One proclaims her motherhood not only in relation to the Apostle John but also to every disciple. The Evangelist himself, by saying that Jesus had to die “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (Jn 11:52), indicates the Church’s birth as the fruit of the redemptive sacrifice with which Mary is maternally associated. The Evangelist St Luke mentions the presence of Jesus’ Mother in the first community of Jerusalem (Acts 1:14). In this way he stresses Mary’s maternal role in the newborn Church, comparing it to her role in the Redeemer’s birth. The maternal dimension thus becomes a fundamental element of Mary’s relationship with the new People of the redeemed. (Pope St. John Paul II, General Audience, September 17, 1997)
“Indeed, the Mother standing beneath the cross (cf. Jn 19:25), accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal. She thus became the tender Mother of the Church which Christ begot on the cross handing on the Spirit. Christ, in turn, in the beloved disciple, chose all disciples as ministers of his love towards his Mother, entrusting her to them so that they might welcome her with filial affection. As a caring guide to the emerging Church Mary had already begun her mission in the Upper Room, praying with the Apostles while awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). In this sense, in the course of the centuries, Christian piety has honoured Mary with various titles, in many ways equivalent, such as Mother of Disciples, of the Faithful, of Believers, of all those who are reborn in Christ; and also as “Mother of the Church” as is used in the texts of spiritual authors as well as in the Magisterium of Popes Benedict xiv and Leo xiii. Thus the foundation is clearly established by which Blessed Paul vi, on 21 November 1964, at the conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council, declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother” and established that “the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles”. (Decree on the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, in the General Roman Calender)
Feast of Mary, Mother of the Chruch.
Pope Francis recently placed this Memorial on the universal liturgical calendar of the Church. He declared that it would be an annual observation on the Monday following Pentecost Sunday.
The theological roots of this title go back to the early Church. The Fathers of the Church, holy and studious bishops of the first centuries, often spoke of Mary as the New Eve. Just as the Woman Eve was “the mother of all the living” (Gen. 3:20), the Woman Mary was mother of all those living in Christ.
The title, Mother of the Church (Mater Ecclesiae) was first used by Berengaud, bishop of Treves (d. 1125) in his writings. Later authors such as St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence (d.1458) and St. Lawrence Justiniani (d.1455) also invited the church to venerate Mary as her Mother.
“She is invoked as Mother of the Church and the teacher and Queen of the Apostles” wrote Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903) in his September 1895 encyclical, Helper of the People (Adjutricem Populi). Pope John XXIII (d.1963) in an allocution in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on December 6, 1960 spoke of Mary as “Mother of the Church and our most loving Mother.” (AAS 53, 1961, 35)
On November 21, 1964, during the celebration of Mass at the conclusion of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI (d. 1978) stated, “For the glory of the Blessed Virgin and our own consolation, we proclaim the Most Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church, of the whole people of God, faithful and pastors, and we call her most loving Mother.” The Holy Father expressed the hope that this title of Mary, Mother of the church would “lead Christians to honor Mary even more and to call upon her with still greater confidence.” He decreed that “from now onward the whole Christian people should give even greater honor to the Mother of God under this most loving title.” (AAS 56, 1965, 1015)
Pope John Paul II has frequently used this title from the beginning of his pontificate in 1978 looking toward Mary in the Upper Room praying with the Apostles at Pentecost. “In the birth of the Church, the one to whom we owe the birth of Christ participates in a particular way.” (Oss. Rom. June 19, 1979).
Pope John Paul II taught us that “Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John.” (Redemptoris Mater – On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Pilgrim Church)
The eighth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (Vatican II), is titled “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church.” The Council Fathers taught that Mary’s role in the plan of salvation is connected to both Christ and the Church.
Mary likely showed as much tender concern for Christ’s mystical body as it slowly matured in its native Palestine as she did for His physical body in Nazareth. Pope Pius XII perceptively noted Mary’s dual maternity in his encyclical on the Church: “It was she who was there to tend the mystical body of Christ, born of the Savior’s pierced heart, with the same motherly care that she spent on the child Jesus in the crib.”
It is possible the Apostles held their first Council in about 49 A.D. in Jerusalem precisely because Mary still dwelled in the holy city. She was likely the young religion’s greatest living witness and pillar of unity. We can imagine her presiding over early Christian gatherings with reserved solemnity, nursing primitive Christianity just as she had Christ.
Christ is described as the Head of the Church and followers are described as the Body of the Church. As Mary is the Mother of Christ, and Christ is head of the Church, then Mary is the Mother of the Church. Mary is also seen as the model of the Church.
In all of her actions she exemplifies the mission of the Church. She agreed to God’s will to give birth to Jesus and supported and displayed her faith in her son throughout his ministry. She was with him at every stage of his work on Earth and fully supported and followed his teachings.
Pentecost occurs ten days after the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Acts of the Apostles tells us that during this time the “apostles were constantly at prayer together, and with them a group of women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus.” (Acts 1:14) The Church has traditionally portrayed the Blessed Virgin Mary together with the apostles and disciples who were gathered at that first Pentecost. She is the model of persevering prayer joined in oneness of mind and heart with the first members of the Church.
Mary had been present at the very beginnings of the Church. She was there at the Annunciation when her humble consent in purity of heart allowed the Son of God to take flesh in her virginal womb.
She was also present standing at the foot of the cross as her Son and our Savior redeemed the world as part of God’s plan. (Catechism 599-600) There she was appointed to be mother of all those who were brought to life through the death of her only Son. (John 19:26-27) Now, at Pentecost, when the apostolic mission of the Church begins, Mary is present as well. She is the perfect pattern of the church at prayer.
By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity. (CCC 967, Catechism of the Catholic Church)
“Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ’s members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.” (Pope St. Paul VI, “Credo of the People of God.”)
“Although the title “Mother of the Church” was only recently attributed to Mary, it expresses the Blessed Virgin’s maternal relationship with the Church as shown already in several New Testament texts. Since the Annunciation, Mary was called, to give her consent to the coming of the messianic kingdom, which would take place with the formation of the Church. When at Cana Mary asked the Son to exercise his messianic power, she made a fundamental contribution to implanting the faith in the first community of disciples, and she co-operated in initiating God’s kingdom, which has its “seed” and “beginning” in the Church (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 5). On Calvary, Mary united herself to the sacrifice of her Son and made her own maternal contribution to the work of salvation, which took the form of labour pains, the birth of the new humanity. In addressing the words “Woman, behold your son” to Mary, the Crucified One proclaims her motherhood not only in relation to the Apostle John but also to every disciple. The Evangelist himself, by saying that Jesus had to die “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (Jn 11:52), indicates the Church’s birth as the fruit of the redemptive sacrifice with which Mary is maternally associated. The Evangelist St Luke mentions the presence of Jesus’ Mother in the first community of Jerusalem (Acts 1:14). In this way he stresses Mary’s maternal role in the newborn Church, comparing it to her role in the Redeemer’s birth. The maternal dimension thus becomes a fundamental element of Mary’s relationship with the new People of the redeemed. (Pope St. John Paul II, General Audience, September 17, 1997)
“Indeed, the Mother standing beneath the cross (cf. Jn 19:25), accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal. She thus became the tender Mother of the Church which Christ begot on the cross handing on the Spirit. Christ, in turn, in the beloved disciple, chose all disciples as ministers of his love towards his Mother, entrusting her to them so that they might welcome her with filial affection. As a caring guide to the emerging Church Mary had already begun her mission in the Upper Room, praying with the Apostles while awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). In this sense, in the course of the centuries, Christian piety has honoured Mary with various titles, in many ways equivalent, such as Mother of Disciples, of the Faithful, of Believers, of all those who are reborn in Christ; and also as “Mother of the Church” as is used in the texts of spiritual authors as well as in the Magisterium of Popes Benedict xiv and Leo xiii. Thus the foundation is clearly established by which Blessed Paul vi, on 21 November 1964, at the conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council, declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother” and established that “the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles”. (Decree on the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, in the General Roman Calender)
Close
May 24
Saint Mary, Mother of the Chruch
May 25
Daily Saints – 25 May.
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen of Pazzi.
She is the patron saint against bodily ills or sickness; sick people, against sexual temptation.
Mary Magdalen was born on April 2, 1566 into a noble family in Florence. She was given the name of Caterina at the time of her birth. She was the only daughter of her parents, who both came from prominent families.
At 9, she learned to meditate from the family confessor. Caterina was drawn to the Holy Eucharist from a young age, and she resolved to serve God as a consecrated virgin shortly after receiving her First Communion at age 10.
Mary Magdalene’s first ecstasy happened at the sight of a beautiful sunset. She was so struck by the beauty of God’s creation that she trembled and became speechless.
Late in the year 1582, at 16, she entered a strictly traditional Carmelite monastery, where Holy Communion was – unusually for the time period – administered daily. Receiving her religious habit the next year, she took the name of Mary Magdalene.
In her first ecstatic experience after entering, her sisters found her weeping before a crucifix and crying out, “O Love, you are neither known nor loved.” She experienced within her soul the pain that her Beloved Jesus experiences from the rejection of so many souls on the earth.
From March to May of 1584, Mary became seriously ill and was thought to be in danger of death. On May 27 of that year, her superiors let her make her profession of vows in a private ceremony from a cot in the chapel.
Immediately after, Mary Magdalene fell into an ecstasy that lasted about two hours. This was repeated after Communion on the following 40 mornings. These ecstasies were rich experiences of union with God and contained marvelous insights into divine truths.
Mystical ecstasy is the elevation of the spirit to God in such a way that the person is aware of this union with God while both internal and external senses are detached from the sensible world. Mary Magdalen was so generously given this special gift of God that she is called the “ecstatic saint.”
In one of her experiences Jesus took her heart and hid it in his own, telling her he “would not return it until it is wholly pure and filled with pure love.”
Once, Jesus offered her a crown of flowers and a crown of thorns. She always insisted on the crown of thorns, desiring to suffer for Jesus, but He would always insist on giving her the crown of flowers. When He admonished her, “I called and you didn’t care,” she came back with, “You didn’t call loudly enough” and told the Lord to shout His love.
As a safeguard against deception and to preserve the revelations, her confessor asked Mary Magdalene to dictate her experiences to sister secretaries. Over the next six years, five large volumes were filled.
The first three books record ecstasies from May of 1584 through Pentecost week the following year. This week was a preparation for a severe five-year trial. The fourth book records that trial and the fifth is a collection of letters concerning reform and renewal.
Another book, Admonitions, is a collection of her sayings arising from her experiences in the formation of women religious.
Mary served the monastery in a series of teaching and supervisory positions, while also contributing to her community through manual work. Her fellow Carmelites respected her strict sense of discipline, which was accompanied by profound charity and practical wisdom.
Mary herself disliked the attention and would seemingly have preferred for these events to remain private. She did wish, however, to call attention to God’s love, which she saw as tragically underappreciated and unreciprocated by mankind.
Mary Magdalen is remembered for making dramatic gestures – running through the halls of her monastery, or ringing its bells at night – while proclaiming the urgent need for all people to awaken to God’s love, and respond in kind.
She read the thoughts of others and predicted future events. During her lifetime, Mary Magdalene appeared to several persons in distant places and cured a number of sick people.
It seems that God permitted her this special closeness to prepare her for the five years of desolation that followed when she experienced spiritual dryness. She was plunged into a state of darkness in which she saw nothing but what was horrible in herself and all around her.
Before this trial, Jesus told her, “I will take away not the grace but the feeling of grace. Though I will seem to leave you I will be closer to you.”
Mary Magdalen had violent temptations and endured great physical suffering. She had severe temptations against purity and to suicide. She received visions of the souls in Purgatory during her time of purification and also received the sacred stigmata invisibly, as she begged the Lord to keep it hidden.
Her experiences of suffering and temptation helped her to guide and inspire others. While experiencing excruciating suffering, our Lord consoled her with His overwhelming presence and love.
She wanted a hidden life and tried everything she could to achieve it. When God commanded her to go barefoot as part of her penance and she could not walk with shoes, she simply cut the soles out of her shoes so no one would see her as different from the other nuns. If she felt an ecstasy coming on, she would hurry to finish her work and go back to her room.
She learned to see the notoriety as part of God’s will. When teaching a novice to accept God’s will, she told her, “I wanted a hidden life but, see, God wanted something quite different for me.”
Some sisters ridiculed her, and some sisters wished they experienced ecstasy like her. She would say to those sisters that they should be thankful that they are strong enough to advance in holiness without the Lord Jesus having to give extra graces to keep them going. She was convinced of her misery and weakness because Jesus would grant her so many graces while in suffering.
Her earthly life came to an end on May 25, 1607, after an excruciating illness lasting nearly three years.
“A little drop of simple obedience is worth a million times more than a whole vase of the choicest contemplation.”
“Prayer ought to be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and accompanied with great reverence. One should consider that he stands in the presence of a God, and speaks with a Lord before whom the angels tremble from awe and fear.”
Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is not a saint because she received ecstasies and graces from God. She is a saint because of her response to those gifts — a lifelong struggle to show love and gratitude to the God who gave her those graces. In fact Mary Magdalene saw her ecstasies as evidence of a great fault in her, not a reward for holiness. She told one fellow sister that God did not give this sister the same graces “because you don’t need them in order to serve him.” In her eyes, God gave these gifts to those who were too weak to become holy otherwise. That Mary Magdalene received these gifts proved, in her mind, how unworthy she was.
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen of Pazzi.
She is the patron saint against bodily ills or sickness; sick people, against sexual temptation.
Mary Magdalen was born on April 2, 1566 into a noble family in Florence. She was given the name of Caterina at the time of her birth. She was the only daughter of her parents, who both came from prominent families.
At 9, she learned to meditate from the family confessor. Caterina was drawn to the Holy Eucharist from a young age, and she resolved to serve God as a consecrated virgin shortly after receiving her First Communion at age 10.
Mary Magdalene’s first ecstasy happened at the sight of a beautiful sunset. She was so struck by the beauty of God’s creation that she trembled and became speechless.
Late in the year 1582, at 16, she entered a strictly traditional Carmelite monastery, where Holy Communion was – unusually for the time period – administered daily. Receiving her religious habit the next year, she took the name of Mary Magdalene.
In her first ecstatic experience after entering, her sisters found her weeping before a crucifix and crying out, “O Love, you are neither known nor loved.” She experienced within her soul the pain that her Beloved Jesus experiences from the rejection of so many souls on the earth.
From March to May of 1584, Mary became seriously ill and was thought to be in danger of death. On May 27 of that year, her superiors let her make her profession of vows in a private ceremony from a cot in the chapel.
Immediately after, Mary Magdalene fell into an ecstasy that lasted about two hours. This was repeated after Communion on the following 40 mornings. These ecstasies were rich experiences of union with God and contained marvelous insights into divine truths.
Mystical ecstasy is the elevation of the spirit to God in such a way that the person is aware of this union with God while both internal and external senses are detached from the sensible world. Mary Magdalen was so generously given this special gift of God that she is called the “ecstatic saint.”
In one of her experiences Jesus took her heart and hid it in his own, telling her he “would not return it until it is wholly pure and filled with pure love.”
Once, Jesus offered her a crown of flowers and a crown of thorns. She always insisted on the crown of thorns, desiring to suffer for Jesus, but He would always insist on giving her the crown of flowers. When He admonished her, “I called and you didn’t care,” she came back with, “You didn’t call loudly enough” and told the Lord to shout His love.
As a safeguard against deception and to preserve the revelations, her confessor asked Mary Magdalene to dictate her experiences to sister secretaries. Over the next six years, five large volumes were filled.
The first three books record ecstasies from May of 1584 through Pentecost week the following year. This week was a preparation for a severe five-year trial. The fourth book records that trial and the fifth is a collection of letters concerning reform and renewal.
Another book, Admonitions, is a collection of her sayings arising from her experiences in the formation of women religious.
Mary served the monastery in a series of teaching and supervisory positions, while also contributing to her community through manual work. Her fellow Carmelites respected her strict sense of discipline, which was accompanied by profound charity and practical wisdom.
Mary herself disliked the attention and would seemingly have preferred for these events to remain private. She did wish, however, to call attention to God’s love, which she saw as tragically underappreciated and unreciprocated by mankind.
Mary Magdalen is remembered for making dramatic gestures – running through the halls of her monastery, or ringing its bells at night – while proclaiming the urgent need for all people to awaken to God’s love, and respond in kind.
She read the thoughts of others and predicted future events. During her lifetime, Mary Magdalene appeared to several persons in distant places and cured a number of sick people.
It seems that God permitted her this special closeness to prepare her for the five years of desolation that followed when she experienced spiritual dryness. She was plunged into a state of darkness in which she saw nothing but what was horrible in herself and all around her.
Before this trial, Jesus told her, “I will take away not the grace but the feeling of grace. Though I will seem to leave you I will be closer to you.”
Mary Magdalen had violent temptations and endured great physical suffering. She had severe temptations against purity and to suicide. She received visions of the souls in Purgatory during her time of purification and also received the sacred stigmata invisibly, as she begged the Lord to keep it hidden.
Her experiences of suffering and temptation helped her to guide and inspire others. While experiencing excruciating suffering, our Lord consoled her with His overwhelming presence and love.
She wanted a hidden life and tried everything she could to achieve it. When God commanded her to go barefoot as part of her penance and she could not walk with shoes, she simply cut the soles out of her shoes so no one would see her as different from the other nuns. If she felt an ecstasy coming on, she would hurry to finish her work and go back to her room.
She learned to see the notoriety as part of God’s will. When teaching a novice to accept God’s will, she told her, “I wanted a hidden life but, see, God wanted something quite different for me.”
Some sisters ridiculed her, and some sisters wished they experienced ecstasy like her. She would say to those sisters that they should be thankful that they are strong enough to advance in holiness without the Lord Jesus having to give extra graces to keep them going. She was convinced of her misery and weakness because Jesus would grant her so many graces while in suffering.
Her earthly life came to an end on May 25, 1607, after an excruciating illness lasting nearly three years.
“A little drop of simple obedience is worth a million times more than a whole vase of the choicest contemplation.”
“Prayer ought to be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and accompanied with great reverence. One should consider that he stands in the presence of a God, and speaks with a Lord before whom the angels tremble from awe and fear.”
Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is not a saint because she received ecstasies and graces from God. She is a saint because of her response to those gifts — a lifelong struggle to show love and gratitude to the God who gave her those graces. In fact Mary Magdalene saw her ecstasies as evidence of a great fault in her, not a reward for holiness. She told one fellow sister that God did not give this sister the same graces “because you don’t need them in order to serve him.” In her eyes, God gave these gifts to those who were too weak to become holy otherwise. That Mary Magdalene received these gifts proved, in her mind, how unworthy she was.
Close
May 25
Saint Mary Magdalen of Pazzi
May 26
Daily Saints – 26 May.
Feast of St. Phillip Neri.
Philip Neri was born in Florence on July 21, 1515 into a prominent family. He was one of the four children to Francesco Neri. The financial fortunes of his family had declined by the time of his birth.
Phillip was educated by the Dominican friars in Florence, where he learned to venerate the memory of the fiery Florentine friar, Savonarola.
In fact one incident almost cost him his life. Seeing a donkey loaded with fruit for market, the little boy had barely formed the thought of jumping on the donkey’s back before he had done it. The donkey, surprised, lost his footing, and donkey, fruit, and boy tumbled into the cellar with the boy winding up on the bottom! Miraculously he was unhurt.
His father was not successful financially and at eighteen Philip was sent to work with an older cousin who was a successful businessman. This uncle in San Germano, near Monte Cassino, planned to hand over his business to Philip.
It was here, while living in the shadow of the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino, that Philip gained a profound love for the sacred liturgy and an appreciation for the wisdom of the desert fathers.
Philip had little interest in taking over his uncle’s business and within a year had gone to live in Rome. When Philip came to Rome he lived with a Florentine family who gave him lodgings and food in return for teaching their two sons. Under Philip’s guidance, the two boys improved in all aspects of life and faith.
Philip spent his time in a solitary life. He also dedicated a lot of time to prayer. He ate very small meals of bread, water and a few vegetables, practicing an ascetical life.
In his early years in Rome, Philip pursued philosophical and theological studies with the Augustinians in the city, but was content to remain as layman.
Contemporaries noted his great eloquence in theological matters, but Philip didn’t see his studies as an end in themselves and happily sold his text books to give financial help to other students.
Phillip continued his studies until he thought his studies were interfering with his prayer life. He then stopped his studies, threw away his books, and lived as a kind of hermit.
Night was his special time of prayer. After dark he would go out in the streets, sometimes to churches, but most often into the catacombs of St. Sebastian to pray.
During one of these times of prayer, in 1544 Philip had a mystical experience, while praying in the catacombs of San Sebastiano, in which he felt the Holy Spirit enter him in a special way. He felt a globe of light enter his mouth and sink into his heart.
Philip was filled with such paroxysms of divine love that caused him to scream out, “Enough, enough, Lord, I can bear no more.” Philip then discovered a swelling over his heart, though it caused him no pain. From that time onwards he had a great feeling of warmth in his heart.
Philip hid this experience for most of his life, and only in his last years did he confide in his trusted friend Pietro Consolini about the experience.
This experience gave him so much energy to serve God that he went out to work at the hospital of the incurables and starting speaking to others about God, everyone from beggars to bankers.
Philip had a magnetic personality, and when he wasn’t teaching the two boys, he used to walk the streets of Rome, engaging young men in pious conversation. At that time in Renaissance Rome, there seem to have been many young men with little to do after lunch. Philip hoped that he could draw these men out of their idleness and towards the pursuit of holiness.
One of his favourite phrases was ‘when shall we begin to do good?’. During his fifteen years as a layman Philip attracted a strong following. His first companions were mainly Florentines and craftsmen, but he later attracted the attention of courtiers, artists and musicians. He used to bring these young men together for prayer, sermons and music.
When the numbers were small the meetings were informal, but as numbers grew it became more structured. These gatherings were the beginning of what would become known as the Oratory.
Philip wasn’t content only to discuss holiness, but was keen that he and his companions would live it. He was especially conscious of the needs of the sick, and he and his companions visited them in hospital. At this time, conditions in hospitals were grim and patients relied on volunteers to nurse them.
While this was a valuable work of mercy, it also served as a source of mortification for himself and his followers. Philip was more concerned to mortify the reason of his followers than their bodies, which sometimes resulted in mortifications which appeared bizarre to onlookers.
Phillip insisted on one of his followers, Tarugi, carrying Capriccio, a dog who had originally belonged to a cardinal but who became attached to Philip.
Philip often begged alms from his wealthy friends and acquaintances to redistribute to needy street children. On one occasion, he approached a man, held out his hand, and asked him, once again, for a few coins: “How about some help for the children.” The man slapped him hard across the face. Philip quickly recovered from the shock, extended his cupped hand again, and said, “That was for me, now how about something for the children?”
In 1548 Philip formed a confraternity with other laymen to minister to pilgrims who came to Rome without food or shelter. Philip had already completed his studies, and so it was possible for him to be ordained soon afterwards.
The spiritual director of the confraternity convinced Philip that he could do even more work as a priest. After receiving instruction from this priest, Philip was ordained in 1551. He went to lodge in a house for priests attached to the Church of San Girolamo.
Philip had always preached the value of frequent confession and communion, and as soon as he was ordained to the priesthood, he himself became a valued confessor.
Phillip directed many young men into religious life, but encouraged some of his penitents to remain at court, where he hoped they would have a positive influence on those around them. As a priest he spent his mornings hearing confessions and said the last Mass of the morning around noon.
Influenced by St. Francis Xavier, Philip thought of going to India to join the foreign mission field, but was dissuaded by his peers because Rome still needed Philip’s ministry and influence.
Young men especially found in him the wisdom and direction they needed to grow spiritually. But Philip began to realize that these young men needed something more than absolution; they needed guidance during their daily lives.
So Philip began to ask the young men to come by in the early afternoon when they would discuss spiritual readings and then stay for prayer in the evening. The numbers of the men who attended these meetings grew rapidly.
In order to handle the growth, Philip and a fellow priest Buonsignore Cacciaguerra gave a more formal structure to the meetings and built a room called the Oratory to hold them in.
Philip understood that it wasn’t enough to tell young people not to do something, but have to give them something to do in its place.
So at Carnival time, when the worst excesses were encouraged, Philip organized a pilgrimage to the Seven Churches with a picnic accompanied by instrumental music for the mid-day break. After walking twelve miles in one day everyone was too tired to be tempted!
In order to guide his followers, Philip made himself available to everyone at any hour – even at night. When others complained, Philip answered, “They can chop wood on my back so long as they do not sin.”
Not everyone was happy about this growing group and Philip and Buonsignore were attacked by the priests they lived with. But eventually Philip and his companions were vindicated and went on with their work.
His popularity was such that he was accused of forming his own sect, but was cleared of this baseless charge.
In 1555, the Pope’s Vicar accused Philip of “introducing novelties” and ordered him to stop the meetings of the Oratory. Philip was brokenhearted but obeyed immediately. The Pope only let him start up the Oratory again after the sudden death of his accuser.
Despite all the trouble this man had caused, Philip would not let anyone say anything against the man or even imply that his sudden death was a judgment from God.
One church, for Florentines in Rome, had practically forced him to bring the Oratory to their church. But when gossip and accusations started, they began to harass the very people they had begged to have nearby!
At that point, Philip decided it would be best for the group to have their own church. In 1575 he founded the Congregation of the Oratory, made up of secular priests and clerics.
Philip was known to be spontaneous and unpredictable, charming and humorous. He seemed to sense the different ways to bring people to God.
One man came to the Oratory just to make fun of it. Philip wouldn’t let the others throw him out or speak against him. He told them to be patient and eventually the man became a Dominican.
On the other hand, when he met a condemned man who refused to listen to any pleas for repentance, Philip didn’t try gentle words, but grabbed the man by the collar and threw him to the ground. The move shocked the criminal into repentance and he made a full confession.
Some of his lessons in humility seem cruel, but they were tinged with humor like practical jokes and were related with gratitude by the people they helped. His lessons always seem to be tailored directly to what the person needed.
One member who was later to become a Cardinal was too serious and so Philip had him sing the Misere at a wedding breakfast.
When one priest gave a beautiful sermon, Philip ordered him to give the same sermon six times in a row so people would think he only had one sermon. Humility was the most important virtue he tried to teach others and to learn himself.
Philip preferred spiritual mortification to physical mortification. When one man asked Philip if he could wear a hair shirt, Philip gave him permission – if he wore the hair shirt outside his clothes! The man obeyed and found humility in the jokes and name-calling he received.
There were unexpected benefits to his lessons in humility. Another member, Baronius, wanted to speak at the meetings about hellfire and eternal punishment. Philip commanded him instead to speak of church history. For 27 years Baronius spoke to the Oratory about church history. At the end of that time he published his talks as a widely respected and universally praised books on ecclesiastical history!
Philip did not escape this spiritual mortification himself. As with others, his own humbling held humor. There are stories of him wearing ridiculous clothes or walking around with half his beard shaved off.
The greater his reputation for holiness the sillier he wanted to seem. When some people came from Poland to see the great saint, they found him listening to another priest read to him from joke books.
Philip was very serious about prayer, spending hours in prayer. He was so easily carried away that he refused to preach in public and could not celebrate Mass with others around. But he when asked how to pray his answer was, “Be humble and obedient and the Holy Spirit will teach you.”
Towards the end of his life he became a trusted advisor of Popes and Cardinals, among others. Pope Gregory XIV tried to make him a cardinal, but Philip declined.
In later years he was beset by several illnesses, each of which was in turn cured through prayer. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, May 25, 1595, Philip was told by his physician that he was not healthy. He had not looked well for ten years. Philip realized his time had come to pass on to the Lord.
Before heading off to bed, Philip stated, “Last of all, we must die.” Around midnight of May 26, 1595, Philip suffered from a hemorrhage and passed away at 80-years-old.
“Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life. Therefore the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits.”
“Cast yourself into the arms of God and be very sure that if he wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you strength.”
“We are not saints yet, but we, too, should beware. Uprightness and virtue do have their rewards, in self-respect and in respect from others, and it is easy to find ourselves aiming for the result rather than the cause. Let us aim for joy, rather than respectability. Let us make fools of ourselves from time to time, and thus see ourselves, for a moment, as the all-wise God sees us.”
“Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast.”
“To preserve our cheerfulness amid sicknesses and troubles, is a sign of a right and good spirit.”
“A joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one.”
“The best way to prepare for death is to spend every day of life as though it were the last.”
“There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer.”
“First let a little love find entrance into their hearts, and the rest will follow.”
“The cross is the gift God gives to his friends.”
“He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.”
“The best remedy for dryness of spirit, is to picture ourselves as beggars in the presence of God and the Saints, and like a beggar, to go first to one saint, then to another, to ask a spiritual alms of them with the same earnestness as a poor fellow in the streets would ask an alms of us.”
“The Lord grants in a moment what we may have been unable to obtain in dozens of years.”
“Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing the danger. For my part, when I find a man secure of himself and without fear, I give him up for lost. I am less alarmed for one who is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions. When a person puts himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul.”
“Christian joy is a gift of God flowing from a good conscience.”
“He who is unable to spend a long time together in prayer, should often lift up his mind to God by short prayers.”
“We must sometimes bear with little defects in others, as we have, against our will, to bear with natural defects in ourselves. If we wish to keep peace with our neighbor, we should never remind anyone of his natural defects.”
“The greatness of our love of God must be tested by the desire we have of suffering for His love.”
“Heaven is not made for the slothful.”
“My children, if you desire perseverance, be devout to our Blessed Lady.”
“He who always acts under obedience may be assured that he will not have to give an account of his actions to God.”
“The great thing is to become Saints.”
“If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the Pater Noster, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.”
“Believe me, there is no more powerful means to obtain God’s grace than to employ the intercessions of the Holy Virgin.”
“Let us be humble and keep ourselves down: – Obedience! Humility! Detachment!”
Feast of St. Phillip Neri.
Philip Neri was born in Florence on July 21, 1515 into a prominent family. He was one of the four children to Francesco Neri. The financial fortunes of his family had declined by the time of his birth.
Phillip was educated by the Dominican friars in Florence, where he learned to venerate the memory of the fiery Florentine friar, Savonarola.
In fact one incident almost cost him his life. Seeing a donkey loaded with fruit for market, the little boy had barely formed the thought of jumping on the donkey’s back before he had done it. The donkey, surprised, lost his footing, and donkey, fruit, and boy tumbled into the cellar with the boy winding up on the bottom! Miraculously he was unhurt.
His father was not successful financially and at eighteen Philip was sent to work with an older cousin who was a successful businessman. This uncle in San Germano, near Monte Cassino, planned to hand over his business to Philip.
It was here, while living in the shadow of the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino, that Philip gained a profound love for the sacred liturgy and an appreciation for the wisdom of the desert fathers.
Philip had little interest in taking over his uncle’s business and within a year had gone to live in Rome. When Philip came to Rome he lived with a Florentine family who gave him lodgings and food in return for teaching their two sons. Under Philip’s guidance, the two boys improved in all aspects of life and faith.
Philip spent his time in a solitary life. He also dedicated a lot of time to prayer. He ate very small meals of bread, water and a few vegetables, practicing an ascetical life.
In his early years in Rome, Philip pursued philosophical and theological studies with the Augustinians in the city, but was content to remain as layman.
Contemporaries noted his great eloquence in theological matters, but Philip didn’t see his studies as an end in themselves and happily sold his text books to give financial help to other students.
Phillip continued his studies until he thought his studies were interfering with his prayer life. He then stopped his studies, threw away his books, and lived as a kind of hermit.
Night was his special time of prayer. After dark he would go out in the streets, sometimes to churches, but most often into the catacombs of St. Sebastian to pray.
During one of these times of prayer, in 1544 Philip had a mystical experience, while praying in the catacombs of San Sebastiano, in which he felt the Holy Spirit enter him in a special way. He felt a globe of light enter his mouth and sink into his heart.
Philip was filled with such paroxysms of divine love that caused him to scream out, “Enough, enough, Lord, I can bear no more.” Philip then discovered a swelling over his heart, though it caused him no pain. From that time onwards he had a great feeling of warmth in his heart.
Philip hid this experience for most of his life, and only in his last years did he confide in his trusted friend Pietro Consolini about the experience.
This experience gave him so much energy to serve God that he went out to work at the hospital of the incurables and starting speaking to others about God, everyone from beggars to bankers.
Philip had a magnetic personality, and when he wasn’t teaching the two boys, he used to walk the streets of Rome, engaging young men in pious conversation. At that time in Renaissance Rome, there seem to have been many young men with little to do after lunch. Philip hoped that he could draw these men out of their idleness and towards the pursuit of holiness.
One of his favourite phrases was ‘when shall we begin to do good?’. During his fifteen years as a layman Philip attracted a strong following. His first companions were mainly Florentines and craftsmen, but he later attracted the attention of courtiers, artists and musicians. He used to bring these young men together for prayer, sermons and music.
When the numbers were small the meetings were informal, but as numbers grew it became more structured. These gatherings were the beginning of what would become known as the Oratory.
Philip wasn’t content only to discuss holiness, but was keen that he and his companions would live it. He was especially conscious of the needs of the sick, and he and his companions visited them in hospital. At this time, conditions in hospitals were grim and patients relied on volunteers to nurse them.
While this was a valuable work of mercy, it also served as a source of mortification for himself and his followers. Philip was more concerned to mortify the reason of his followers than their bodies, which sometimes resulted in mortifications which appeared bizarre to onlookers.
Phillip insisted on one of his followers, Tarugi, carrying Capriccio, a dog who had originally belonged to a cardinal but who became attached to Philip.
Philip often begged alms from his wealthy friends and acquaintances to redistribute to needy street children. On one occasion, he approached a man, held out his hand, and asked him, once again, for a few coins: “How about some help for the children.” The man slapped him hard across the face. Philip quickly recovered from the shock, extended his cupped hand again, and said, “That was for me, now how about something for the children?”
In 1548 Philip formed a confraternity with other laymen to minister to pilgrims who came to Rome without food or shelter. Philip had already completed his studies, and so it was possible for him to be ordained soon afterwards.
The spiritual director of the confraternity convinced Philip that he could do even more work as a priest. After receiving instruction from this priest, Philip was ordained in 1551. He went to lodge in a house for priests attached to the Church of San Girolamo.
Philip had always preached the value of frequent confession and communion, and as soon as he was ordained to the priesthood, he himself became a valued confessor.
Phillip directed many young men into religious life, but encouraged some of his penitents to remain at court, where he hoped they would have a positive influence on those around them. As a priest he spent his mornings hearing confessions and said the last Mass of the morning around noon.
Influenced by St. Francis Xavier, Philip thought of going to India to join the foreign mission field, but was dissuaded by his peers because Rome still needed Philip’s ministry and influence.
Young men especially found in him the wisdom and direction they needed to grow spiritually. But Philip began to realize that these young men needed something more than absolution; they needed guidance during their daily lives.
So Philip began to ask the young men to come by in the early afternoon when they would discuss spiritual readings and then stay for prayer in the evening. The numbers of the men who attended these meetings grew rapidly.
In order to handle the growth, Philip and a fellow priest Buonsignore Cacciaguerra gave a more formal structure to the meetings and built a room called the Oratory to hold them in.
Philip understood that it wasn’t enough to tell young people not to do something, but have to give them something to do in its place.
So at Carnival time, when the worst excesses were encouraged, Philip organized a pilgrimage to the Seven Churches with a picnic accompanied by instrumental music for the mid-day break. After walking twelve miles in one day everyone was too tired to be tempted!
In order to guide his followers, Philip made himself available to everyone at any hour – even at night. When others complained, Philip answered, “They can chop wood on my back so long as they do not sin.”
Not everyone was happy about this growing group and Philip and Buonsignore were attacked by the priests they lived with. But eventually Philip and his companions were vindicated and went on with their work.
His popularity was such that he was accused of forming his own sect, but was cleared of this baseless charge.
In 1555, the Pope’s Vicar accused Philip of “introducing novelties” and ordered him to stop the meetings of the Oratory. Philip was brokenhearted but obeyed immediately. The Pope only let him start up the Oratory again after the sudden death of his accuser.
Despite all the trouble this man had caused, Philip would not let anyone say anything against the man or even imply that his sudden death was a judgment from God.
One church, for Florentines in Rome, had practically forced him to bring the Oratory to their church. But when gossip and accusations started, they began to harass the very people they had begged to have nearby!
At that point, Philip decided it would be best for the group to have their own church. In 1575 he founded the Congregation of the Oratory, made up of secular priests and clerics.
Philip was known to be spontaneous and unpredictable, charming and humorous. He seemed to sense the different ways to bring people to God.
One man came to the Oratory just to make fun of it. Philip wouldn’t let the others throw him out or speak against him. He told them to be patient and eventually the man became a Dominican.
On the other hand, when he met a condemned man who refused to listen to any pleas for repentance, Philip didn’t try gentle words, but grabbed the man by the collar and threw him to the ground. The move shocked the criminal into repentance and he made a full confession.
Some of his lessons in humility seem cruel, but they were tinged with humor like practical jokes and were related with gratitude by the people they helped. His lessons always seem to be tailored directly to what the person needed.
One member who was later to become a Cardinal was too serious and so Philip had him sing the Misere at a wedding breakfast.
When one priest gave a beautiful sermon, Philip ordered him to give the same sermon six times in a row so people would think he only had one sermon. Humility was the most important virtue he tried to teach others and to learn himself.
Philip preferred spiritual mortification to physical mortification. When one man asked Philip if he could wear a hair shirt, Philip gave him permission – if he wore the hair shirt outside his clothes! The man obeyed and found humility in the jokes and name-calling he received.
There were unexpected benefits to his lessons in humility. Another member, Baronius, wanted to speak at the meetings about hellfire and eternal punishment. Philip commanded him instead to speak of church history. For 27 years Baronius spoke to the Oratory about church history. At the end of that time he published his talks as a widely respected and universally praised books on ecclesiastical history!
Philip did not escape this spiritual mortification himself. As with others, his own humbling held humor. There are stories of him wearing ridiculous clothes or walking around with half his beard shaved off.
The greater his reputation for holiness the sillier he wanted to seem. When some people came from Poland to see the great saint, they found him listening to another priest read to him from joke books.
Philip was very serious about prayer, spending hours in prayer. He was so easily carried away that he refused to preach in public and could not celebrate Mass with others around. But he when asked how to pray his answer was, “Be humble and obedient and the Holy Spirit will teach you.”
Towards the end of his life he became a trusted advisor of Popes and Cardinals, among others. Pope Gregory XIV tried to make him a cardinal, but Philip declined.
In later years he was beset by several illnesses, each of which was in turn cured through prayer. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, May 25, 1595, Philip was told by his physician that he was not healthy. He had not looked well for ten years. Philip realized his time had come to pass on to the Lord.
Before heading off to bed, Philip stated, “Last of all, we must die.” Around midnight of May 26, 1595, Philip suffered from a hemorrhage and passed away at 80-years-old.
“Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life. Therefore the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits.”
“Cast yourself into the arms of God and be very sure that if he wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you strength.”
“We are not saints yet, but we, too, should beware. Uprightness and virtue do have their rewards, in self-respect and in respect from others, and it is easy to find ourselves aiming for the result rather than the cause. Let us aim for joy, rather than respectability. Let us make fools of ourselves from time to time, and thus see ourselves, for a moment, as the all-wise God sees us.”
“Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast.”
“To preserve our cheerfulness amid sicknesses and troubles, is a sign of a right and good spirit.”
“A joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one.”
“The best way to prepare for death is to spend every day of life as though it were the last.”
“There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer.”
“First let a little love find entrance into their hearts, and the rest will follow.”
“The cross is the gift God gives to his friends.”
“He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.”
“The best remedy for dryness of spirit, is to picture ourselves as beggars in the presence of God and the Saints, and like a beggar, to go first to one saint, then to another, to ask a spiritual alms of them with the same earnestness as a poor fellow in the streets would ask an alms of us.”
“The Lord grants in a moment what we may have been unable to obtain in dozens of years.”
“Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing the danger. For my part, when I find a man secure of himself and without fear, I give him up for lost. I am less alarmed for one who is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions. When a person puts himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul.”
“Christian joy is a gift of God flowing from a good conscience.”
“He who is unable to spend a long time together in prayer, should often lift up his mind to God by short prayers.”
“We must sometimes bear with little defects in others, as we have, against our will, to bear with natural defects in ourselves. If we wish to keep peace with our neighbor, we should never remind anyone of his natural defects.”
“The greatness of our love of God must be tested by the desire we have of suffering for His love.”
“Heaven is not made for the slothful.”
“My children, if you desire perseverance, be devout to our Blessed Lady.”
“He who always acts under obedience may be assured that he will not have to give an account of his actions to God.”
“The great thing is to become Saints.”
“If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the Pater Noster, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.”
“Believe me, there is no more powerful means to obtain God’s grace than to employ the intercessions of the Holy Virgin.”
“Let us be humble and keep ourselves down: – Obedience! Humility! Detachment!”
Close
May 26
Saint Phillip Neri
May 27
Daily Saints – 27 May.
Feast of Saint Augustine of Canterbury.
He is known as the ‘Apostle of the English’.
Augustine was born in Rome to a noble family. He entered monastic life as a young man. The community he joined had been recently founded by a Benedictine monk named Gregory, later known as Pope St. Gregory the Great. The friendship between Gregory and Augustine had great historical consequences.
Augustine was sent by Pope Saint Gregory the Great with 40 brother monks, including Saint Lawrence of Canterbury to evangelize the British Isles in 597.
Before he reached the islands, terrifying tales of the Celts sent him back to Rome in fear, but Gregory told him he had no choice. He got further advice and support from the Pope.
Augustine set out again. This time the group crossed the English Channel and landed in the territory of Kent, ruled by King Ethelbert, a pagan married to a Christian, Bertha. Ethelbert received them kindly, set up a residence for them in Canterbury.
Ethelbert would later convert, and eventually even be canonized as a Saint. But his initial response to Augustine’s preaching was only mildly positive: he would receive the missionaries with hospitality, and permit them to evangelize without any restriction.
The King was suspicious that Augustine might possess magical powers, insisted on meeting them outdoors, where he would not be as vulnerable.
Despite his early ambivalence, however, the king became a generous patron of the monks. They made their home in Canterbury, after dramatically entering the city in procession with the Cross and an image of Christ.
The Canterbury community lived according to the Rule of St. Benedict, as they had in Italy, but they also preached in the surrounding area in accordance with their mission. Augustine and his companions succeeded in converting King Ethelbert himself, while Queen Bertha also became more zealous in her practice of the faith after her husband’s baptism.
Augustine established and spread the faith throughout England. He was Ordained as a bishop in Gaul (modern France) by the archbishop of Arles. He became the First Archbishop of Canterbury, England.
Augustine was not always successful in his efforts to spread Christianity through all of England. The original Christians who fled to the Western part of the country to escape the Anglo-Saxons had fallen back to their pagan ways.
It was very hard to get them to reconcile with their conquerors, even though they were now Christians. Augustine never gave up. He believed that the two groups would one day be united in their love for God and their neighbor.
Augustine helped to re-establish contact between the Celtic and Latin churches, though he could not establish his desired uniformity of liturgy and practices between them. He was also worked with Saint Justus of Canterbury.
The great Pope Gregory, and the Saint Augustine, would both die during the same year, 604.
Feast of Saint Augustine of Canterbury.
He is known as the ‘Apostle of the English’.
Augustine was born in Rome to a noble family. He entered monastic life as a young man. The community he joined had been recently founded by a Benedictine monk named Gregory, later known as Pope St. Gregory the Great. The friendship between Gregory and Augustine had great historical consequences.
Augustine was sent by Pope Saint Gregory the Great with 40 brother monks, including Saint Lawrence of Canterbury to evangelize the British Isles in 597.
Before he reached the islands, terrifying tales of the Celts sent him back to Rome in fear, but Gregory told him he had no choice. He got further advice and support from the Pope.
Augustine set out again. This time the group crossed the English Channel and landed in the territory of Kent, ruled by King Ethelbert, a pagan married to a Christian, Bertha. Ethelbert received them kindly, set up a residence for them in Canterbury.
Ethelbert would later convert, and eventually even be canonized as a Saint. But his initial response to Augustine’s preaching was only mildly positive: he would receive the missionaries with hospitality, and permit them to evangelize without any restriction.
The King was suspicious that Augustine might possess magical powers, insisted on meeting them outdoors, where he would not be as vulnerable.
Despite his early ambivalence, however, the king became a generous patron of the monks. They made their home in Canterbury, after dramatically entering the city in procession with the Cross and an image of Christ.
The Canterbury community lived according to the Rule of St. Benedict, as they had in Italy, but they also preached in the surrounding area in accordance with their mission. Augustine and his companions succeeded in converting King Ethelbert himself, while Queen Bertha also became more zealous in her practice of the faith after her husband’s baptism.
Augustine established and spread the faith throughout England. He was Ordained as a bishop in Gaul (modern France) by the archbishop of Arles. He became the First Archbishop of Canterbury, England.
Augustine was not always successful in his efforts to spread Christianity through all of England. The original Christians who fled to the Western part of the country to escape the Anglo-Saxons had fallen back to their pagan ways.
It was very hard to get them to reconcile with their conquerors, even though they were now Christians. Augustine never gave up. He believed that the two groups would one day be united in their love for God and their neighbor.
Augustine helped to re-establish contact between the Celtic and Latin churches, though he could not establish his desired uniformity of liturgy and practices between them. He was also worked with Saint Justus of Canterbury.
The great Pope Gregory, and the Saint Augustine, would both die during the same year, 604.
Close
May 27
Saint Augustine of Canterbury
May 28
Daily Saints – 28 May.
Feast of Blessed Maria Bagnesi.
She is the Patron of abuse victims, against the death of parents, sick people.
Maria Bagnesi was born in Florence on 15 August 1514 to Carlo Bagnesi and Alessandra Orlandini. She was a beautiful and appealing child, with big eyes and a constant smile. Because she was tiny, she was always called Marietta, rather than Mary. Four of her sisters would end up in the religious life.
Her mother neglected her when she was a baby, leaving her to the casual care of others. The little girl was often hungry and cold. She never protested, but was always charming.
Maria Bagnesi was often cared by one of her sisters who was a nun from the Order of Preachers so she spent most of her childhood in her sister’s convent.
The sisters made quite a pet of the little girl, and she ran through the cloisters unhampered, singing for the sisters from the throne of the community-room table.
Maria Bagnesi had been managing the household since the death of her mother, and her father felt that having a home of her own would be the best thing in the world for her.
When her father proposed that she marry an eligible young man, she reacted with horror. Marietta fell into a faint, and she remained in that condition for days. When she recovered, she could not stand up, and had to be put to bed.
Maria Bagnesi’s father was fond of quack doctors, and quacks of the 16th century were really fantastic. Without protest the girl endured all the weird and frightful treatments they devised, suffering more from the treatments than she ever had from the malady. The ailments continued unabated for 34 years.
Maria Bagnesi had hoped to be a nun; four of her sisters were already in the convent. Because such a life was, of course, impossible for an invalid, her father attempted to better her spirits by having her accepted into the Third Order. She became a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in 1544.
A priest came from Santa Maria Novella and received her into the order, but he excused her from the obligation of saying the Office because of the desperate nature of her illness.
When he came the following year, in 1545, she made her profession. For a little while after her profession, she was able to get out of bed and could even walk a little. She could see and enjoy the beauties of the city.
Maria Bagnesi fell ill again and went back to bed; this time she had asthma, pleurisy, and a kidney ailment. The doctors continued their experimentation through all the years of her life.
Maria Bagnesi started to have visions. She sometimes conversed with the angels, saints, and devils, she was suspected by the neighbors of being in league with the devil. Her protests that “she had seen him all right but he wasn’t a friend of hers,” fell on deaf ears; they obtained permission to have her exorcised.
Her confessor left her; he was afraid of becoming involved. Another priest who came to her, stayed on as her confessor and directed her strange and troubled path for 22 years. Her spiritual advisor assured the locals that she was not possessed or in need of an exorcism.
People also claim to have seen her levitate. She was also granted the special privilege of having Mass celebrated in her room at times. Her little room became a sort of oratory, and troubled people came there to find peace.
Maria Bagnesi had an unusual soothing effect on animals; several pet cats made her the object of their affection. Some of the cats remained with her and even slept on her bed while guarding her pet songbirds.
If Maria Bagnesi became sick during the night they would go out to find someone to care for her. Once, when the cat felt that Maria Bagnesi was being neglected, it went out and fetched her a large cheese.
Bagnesi developed a deep devotion to Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and she assumed the name of “Bartolomea” as part of her actual name as a sort of middle name.
She also came to know Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi and shared her visions with her; the saint would herself be cured due to Maria Bagnesi’s intercession on 16 June 1584.
Maria Bagnesi received Holy Communion three to six times a week, preparing beforehand with great care and spending much time afterward in mental prayer. Her confessors were Alessandro Capocchi and Agostino Campi.
Maria Bagnesi was deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She called her “the Mother of my most sweet Spouse.” She experienced a vision of Mary in which the Madonna appeared first with the Christ Child on her lap, and afterwards as the Pieta, with the dead Christ in her arms.
In her last years, she was in almost constant ecstasy. The chaplain said Mass in her room, and she went to confession daily. She never discussed the sorrowful mysteries, because she could not do so without crying, but she often talked with great animation and a shining face, about the glorious mysteries. Once she was raised out of her bed in ecstasy.
Maria Bagnesi died in Florence on 28 May 1577 and at the end of her life five priests present at her deathbed read to her one of the Gospel accounts of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Her remains are incorrupt.
Feast of Blessed Maria Bagnesi.
She is the Patron of abuse victims, against the death of parents, sick people.
Maria Bagnesi was born in Florence on 15 August 1514 to Carlo Bagnesi and Alessandra Orlandini. She was a beautiful and appealing child, with big eyes and a constant smile. Because she was tiny, she was always called Marietta, rather than Mary. Four of her sisters would end up in the religious life.
Her mother neglected her when she was a baby, leaving her to the casual care of others. The little girl was often hungry and cold. She never protested, but was always charming.
Maria Bagnesi was often cared by one of her sisters who was a nun from the Order of Preachers so she spent most of her childhood in her sister’s convent.
The sisters made quite a pet of the little girl, and she ran through the cloisters unhampered, singing for the sisters from the throne of the community-room table.
Maria Bagnesi had been managing the household since the death of her mother, and her father felt that having a home of her own would be the best thing in the world for her.
When her father proposed that she marry an eligible young man, she reacted with horror. Marietta fell into a faint, and she remained in that condition for days. When she recovered, she could not stand up, and had to be put to bed.
Maria Bagnesi’s father was fond of quack doctors, and quacks of the 16th century were really fantastic. Without protest the girl endured all the weird and frightful treatments they devised, suffering more from the treatments than she ever had from the malady. The ailments continued unabated for 34 years.
Maria Bagnesi had hoped to be a nun; four of her sisters were already in the convent. Because such a life was, of course, impossible for an invalid, her father attempted to better her spirits by having her accepted into the Third Order. She became a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in 1544.
A priest came from Santa Maria Novella and received her into the order, but he excused her from the obligation of saying the Office because of the desperate nature of her illness.
When he came the following year, in 1545, she made her profession. For a little while after her profession, she was able to get out of bed and could even walk a little. She could see and enjoy the beauties of the city.
Maria Bagnesi fell ill again and went back to bed; this time she had asthma, pleurisy, and a kidney ailment. The doctors continued their experimentation through all the years of her life.
Maria Bagnesi started to have visions. She sometimes conversed with the angels, saints, and devils, she was suspected by the neighbors of being in league with the devil. Her protests that “she had seen him all right but he wasn’t a friend of hers,” fell on deaf ears; they obtained permission to have her exorcised.
Her confessor left her; he was afraid of becoming involved. Another priest who came to her, stayed on as her confessor and directed her strange and troubled path for 22 years. Her spiritual advisor assured the locals that she was not possessed or in need of an exorcism.
People also claim to have seen her levitate. She was also granted the special privilege of having Mass celebrated in her room at times. Her little room became a sort of oratory, and troubled people came there to find peace.
Maria Bagnesi had an unusual soothing effect on animals; several pet cats made her the object of their affection. Some of the cats remained with her and even slept on her bed while guarding her pet songbirds.
If Maria Bagnesi became sick during the night they would go out to find someone to care for her. Once, when the cat felt that Maria Bagnesi was being neglected, it went out and fetched her a large cheese.
Bagnesi developed a deep devotion to Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and she assumed the name of “Bartolomea” as part of her actual name as a sort of middle name.
She also came to know Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi and shared her visions with her; the saint would herself be cured due to Maria Bagnesi’s intercession on 16 June 1584.
Maria Bagnesi received Holy Communion three to six times a week, preparing beforehand with great care and spending much time afterward in mental prayer. Her confessors were Alessandro Capocchi and Agostino Campi.
Maria Bagnesi was deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She called her “the Mother of my most sweet Spouse.” She experienced a vision of Mary in which the Madonna appeared first with the Christ Child on her lap, and afterwards as the Pieta, with the dead Christ in her arms.
In her last years, she was in almost constant ecstasy. The chaplain said Mass in her room, and she went to confession daily. She never discussed the sorrowful mysteries, because she could not do so without crying, but she often talked with great animation and a shining face, about the glorious mysteries. Once she was raised out of her bed in ecstasy.
Maria Bagnesi died in Florence on 28 May 1577 and at the end of her life five priests present at her deathbed read to her one of the Gospel accounts of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Her remains are incorrupt.
Close
May 28
Blessed Maria Bagnesi
May 29
Daily Saints – 29 May
Feast of St. Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI was born on 26 September 1897 at Concesio, Lombardy, Italy as Giovanni Battista Montini.He was the second of three sons. His father, Giorgio, was a lawyer, editor, and eventually a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. His mother, Giuditta, was very involved in Catholic Action.
Giovanni Montini received his primary and secondary education at Brescia’s Arici Institute under the direction of the Jesuits. By temperament he was rather shy and retiring, intelligent and ascetic; physically he was somewhat frail. He was accepted at the diocesan seminary but permitted to live at home.
After ordination in 1920, Giovanni did graduate studies in literature, philosophy, and canon law in Rome before he joined the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1924, where he worked for 30 years.
Giovanni was also chaplain to the Federation of Italian Catholic University Students, where he met and became a very good friend of Aldo Moro, who eventually became prime minister. Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigade in March 1978, and murdered two months later. A devastated Pope Paul VI presided at his funeral.
He became one of Pope Pius XII’s closest collaborators, instrumental in the Vatican’s efforts to save Roman Jews from Nazi persecution during World War II.
In 1954, Fr. Giovanni Montini was named archbishop of Milan, where he sought to win disaffected workers back to the Catholic Church. He called himself the “archbishop of the workers” and visited factories regularly while overseeing the rebuilding of a local Church tremendously disrupted by World War II.
In 1958, Giovanni Montini was the first of 23 cardinals named by Pope John XXIII, two months after the latter’s election as pope. Cardinal Montini helped in preparing Vatican II and participated enthusiastically in its first sessions.
During the conclave of June 1963, Montini was elected to succeed the popular John XXIII and took the name Paul, seen as an indication that his papacy would be missionary and outward-looking.
He immediately decided to continue that Council, which had another three sessions before its conclusion on December 8, 1965.
The day before Vatican II concluded, Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras revoked the excommunications that their predecessors had made in 1054. The pope worked very hard to ensure that bishops would approve the Council’s 16 documents by overwhelming majorities.
Shortly after his installation, Paul VI sold the tiara with which he was crowned and donated the proceeds to the poor. Also quietly but systematically, he trimmed down the pomp and circumstance of the papacy, doing away with the noble guards at the Vatican, although he retained the throne that popes were carried around on.
Paul VI had stunned the world by visiting the Holy Land in January 1964, and meeting Athenagoras, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in person. He was the first pope to travel outside Italy.
The pope made eight more international trips, including one in 1965, to visit New York City and speak on behalf of peace before the United Nations General Assembly. He also visited India, Columbia, Uganda, and seven Asian countries during a 10-day tour in 1970.
In 1970, he survived an assassination attempt: a knife-wielding artist in the Philippines tried to stab him.
Also in 1965, he instituted the World Synod of Bishops, and the next year decreed that bishops must offer their resignations on reaching age 75. In 1970, he decided that cardinals over 80 would no longer vote in papal conclaves or head the Holy See’s major offices.
He had increased the number of cardinals significantly, giving many countries their first cardinal. Eventually establishing diplomatic relations between the Holy See and 40 countries, he also instituted a permanent observer mission at the United Nations in 1964.
Paul VI wrote seven encyclicals; his last one in 1968 on human life—Humanae Vitae—prohibited artificial birth control.
Pope Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo on August 6, 1978.
“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.”
“The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.”
“All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.”
“Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land. She prepares a world she will not see.”
“If you want peace, work for justice.”
“The Mass is the most perfect form of prayer.”
“Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy.”
“The Eucharistic mystery stands at the heart and center of the liturgy since it is the fount of life by which we are cleansed and strengthened to live not for ourselves but for God and to be united in love among ourselves.”
“Never reach out your hand unless you’re willing to extend an arm.”
“Liturgy is like a strong tree whose beauty is derived from the continuous renewal of its leaves, but whose strength comes from the old trunk, with solid roots in the ground.”
“Of all human activities, man’s listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.”
“The command to the Twelve to go out and proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in a different way…. the Good News of the kingdom which is coming and which has begun is meant for all people of all times. Those who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it.”
“In youth the days are short and the years are long. In old age the years are short and day’s long.”
“If you believe in peace it is possible. If it is possible it is a duty.”
“We must see to it that enthusiasm for the future does not give rise to contempt for the past.”
“This pious practice, by which the Blessed Virgin Mary is honored and the Christian people enriched with spiritual gifts, gladdens and consoles us. Mary remains ever the path that leads to Christ. Every encounter with her can only result in an encounter with Christ himself.”
“Peace is not merely the absence of war. Nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies. Nor is it brought about by dictatorship. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called “an enterprise of justice” (Is. 32:7). Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine founder, and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice.”
“Merely to remain true to the faith is not enough. Certainly we must preserve and defend the treasure of truth and grace that we have inherited through Christian tradition. … But neither the preservation nor the defense of the faith exhausts the duty of the Church in regard to the gifts it has been given. The very nature of the gifts which Christ has given the Church demands that they be extended to others and shared with others.” – Ecclesiam Suam, 1964
“The fact that we are distinct from the world does not mean that we are entirely separated from it. Nor does it mean that we are indifferent to it, afraid of it, or contemptuous of it. When the Church distinguishes itself from humanity, it does so not in order to oppose it, but to come closer to it. A physician who realizes the danger of disease, protects himself and others from it, but at the same time he strives to cure those who have contracted it. The Church does the same thing. It does not regard God’s mercy as an exclusive privilege, nor does the greatness of the privilege it enjoys make it feel unconcerned for those who do not share it. On the contrary, it finds in its own salvation an argument for showing more concern and more love for those who live close at hand, or to whom it can go in its endeavour to make all alike share the blessing of salvation.” – Ecclesiam Suam, 1964
“For if the sacred liturgy holds first place in the life of the Church, then the Eucharistic Mystery stands at the heart and centre of the liturgy, since it is the font of life that cleanses us and strengthens us to live not for ourselves but for God and to be united to each other by the closest ties of love.” – Mysterium Fidei, 1965
“To put it in a word, the edifice of modern civilization has to be built on spiritual principles, for they are the only ones capable not only of supporting it, but of shedding light on it and inspiring it. And we are convinced, as you know, that these indispensable principles of higher wisdom cannot rest on anything but faith in God.” – Address of the Holy Father Paul VI to the United Nations Organization, 1965
“Neither individuals nor nations should regard the possession of more and more goods as the ultimate objective. Every kind of progress is a two-edged sword. It is necessary if man is to grow as a human being; yet it can also enslave him, if he comes to regard it as the supreme good and cannot look beyond it. When this happens, men harden their hearts, shut out others from their minds and gather together solely for reasons of self-interest rather than out of friendship; dissension and disunity follow soon after. Thus the exclusive pursuit of material possessions prevents man’s growth as a human being and stands in opposition to his true grandeur.” – Populorum Progressio, 1967
“Now if the earth truly was created to provide man with the necessities of life and the tools for his own progress, it follows that every man has the right to glean what he needs from the earth. … All other rights, whatever they may be, including the rights of property and free trade, are to be subordinated to this principle. They should in no way hinder it; in fact, they should actively facilitate its implementation. Redirecting these rights back to their original purpose must be regarded as an important and urgent social duty.” – Populorum Progressio, 1967
“For man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns with all the strength of his spirit, unless he keeps the laws which the Most High God has engraved in his very nature.” – Humanae Vitae, 1968
“The world cannot give up its dream of universal Peace. It is precisely because Peace is always coming to be, always incomplete, always fragile, always under attack, always difficult, that We proclaim it. We proclaim it as a duty, an inescapable duty.” – Message of His Holiness Pope Paul VI for the Celebration of the Day of Peace, January 1, 1969
“True peace must be founded upon justice, upon a sense of the intangible dignity of man, upon the recognition of an abiding and happy equality between men, upon the basic principle of human brotherhood, that is, of the respect and love due to each man, because he is man. The victorious word springs forth: because he is a brother. My brother, our brother.” – Message of His Holiness Pope Paul VI for the Celebration of the Day of Peace, January 1, 1971
“Legislation is necessary, but it is not sufficient for setting up true relationships of justice and equity. In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others. If, beyond legal rules, there is really no deeper feeling of respect for and service to others, then even equality before the law can serve as an alibi for flagrant discrimination, continued exploitation and actual contempt. Without a renewed education in solidarity, an overemphasis of equality can give rise to an individualism in which each one claims his own rights without wishing to be answerable for the common good.” – Octogesima Adveniens, 1971
“At the heart of the world there dwells the mystery of man discovering himself to be God’s son in the course of a historical and psychological process in which constraint and freedom as well as the weight of sin and the breath of the Spirit alternate and struggle for the upper hand.” – Octogesima Adveniens, 1971
“Mankind today is seeking a new earth: new not because it will be filled with the superfluous luxuries that technological and industrial progress can provide; but new because the hungry will be fed, the homeless housed, the ill cared for, the illiterate educated – a world where all men can live more humanly. This will be a new earth of justice and love in which those who have been blessed with much will share what they have with those who have less. And for the Christian who has received the gift of eternal life the chance to help others becomes the occasion to express gratitude for the salvation received from the Lord.” – Letter of Paul VI to the Archbishops and Bishops of the United States of America, January 8, 1972
“For joy cannot be dissociated from sharing. In God Himself, all is joy because all is giving.” – Gaudete in Domino, 1975
“Do you really believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you really preach what you live? The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness in preaching.” – Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975
“Is it then a crime against others’ freedom to proclaim with joy a Good News which one has come to know through the Lord’s mercy? And why should only falsehood and error, debasement and pornography have the right to be put before people and often unfortunately imposed on them by the destructive propaganda of the mass media, by the tolerance of legislation, the timidity of the good and the impudence of the wicked? The respectful presentation of Christ and His kingdom is more than the evangelizer’s right; it is his duty. It is likewise the right of his fellow men to receive from him the proclamation of the Good News of salvation.” – Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975
Feast of St. Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI was born on 26 September 1897 at Concesio, Lombardy, Italy as Giovanni Battista Montini.He was the second of three sons. His father, Giorgio, was a lawyer, editor, and eventually a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. His mother, Giuditta, was very involved in Catholic Action.
Giovanni Montini received his primary and secondary education at Brescia’s Arici Institute under the direction of the Jesuits. By temperament he was rather shy and retiring, intelligent and ascetic; physically he was somewhat frail. He was accepted at the diocesan seminary but permitted to live at home.
After ordination in 1920, Giovanni did graduate studies in literature, philosophy, and canon law in Rome before he joined the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1924, where he worked for 30 years.
Giovanni was also chaplain to the Federation of Italian Catholic University Students, where he met and became a very good friend of Aldo Moro, who eventually became prime minister. Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigade in March 1978, and murdered two months later. A devastated Pope Paul VI presided at his funeral.
He became one of Pope Pius XII’s closest collaborators, instrumental in the Vatican’s efforts to save Roman Jews from Nazi persecution during World War II.
In 1954, Fr. Giovanni Montini was named archbishop of Milan, where he sought to win disaffected workers back to the Catholic Church. He called himself the “archbishop of the workers” and visited factories regularly while overseeing the rebuilding of a local Church tremendously disrupted by World War II.
In 1958, Giovanni Montini was the first of 23 cardinals named by Pope John XXIII, two months after the latter’s election as pope. Cardinal Montini helped in preparing Vatican II and participated enthusiastically in its first sessions.
During the conclave of June 1963, Montini was elected to succeed the popular John XXIII and took the name Paul, seen as an indication that his papacy would be missionary and outward-looking.
He immediately decided to continue that Council, which had another three sessions before its conclusion on December 8, 1965.
The day before Vatican II concluded, Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras revoked the excommunications that their predecessors had made in 1054. The pope worked very hard to ensure that bishops would approve the Council’s 16 documents by overwhelming majorities.
Shortly after his installation, Paul VI sold the tiara with which he was crowned and donated the proceeds to the poor. Also quietly but systematically, he trimmed down the pomp and circumstance of the papacy, doing away with the noble guards at the Vatican, although he retained the throne that popes were carried around on.
Paul VI had stunned the world by visiting the Holy Land in January 1964, and meeting Athenagoras, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in person. He was the first pope to travel outside Italy.
The pope made eight more international trips, including one in 1965, to visit New York City and speak on behalf of peace before the United Nations General Assembly. He also visited India, Columbia, Uganda, and seven Asian countries during a 10-day tour in 1970.
In 1970, he survived an assassination attempt: a knife-wielding artist in the Philippines tried to stab him.
Also in 1965, he instituted the World Synod of Bishops, and the next year decreed that bishops must offer their resignations on reaching age 75. In 1970, he decided that cardinals over 80 would no longer vote in papal conclaves or head the Holy See’s major offices.
He had increased the number of cardinals significantly, giving many countries their first cardinal. Eventually establishing diplomatic relations between the Holy See and 40 countries, he also instituted a permanent observer mission at the United Nations in 1964.
Paul VI wrote seven encyclicals; his last one in 1968 on human life—Humanae Vitae—prohibited artificial birth control.
Pope Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo on August 6, 1978.
“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.”
“The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.”
“All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.”
“Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land. She prepares a world she will not see.”
“If you want peace, work for justice.”
“The Mass is the most perfect form of prayer.”
“Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy.”
“The Eucharistic mystery stands at the heart and center of the liturgy since it is the fount of life by which we are cleansed and strengthened to live not for ourselves but for God and to be united in love among ourselves.”
“Never reach out your hand unless you’re willing to extend an arm.”
“Liturgy is like a strong tree whose beauty is derived from the continuous renewal of its leaves, but whose strength comes from the old trunk, with solid roots in the ground.”
“Of all human activities, man’s listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.”
“The command to the Twelve to go out and proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in a different way…. the Good News of the kingdom which is coming and which has begun is meant for all people of all times. Those who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it.”
“In youth the days are short and the years are long. In old age the years are short and day’s long.”
“If you believe in peace it is possible. If it is possible it is a duty.”
“We must see to it that enthusiasm for the future does not give rise to contempt for the past.”
“This pious practice, by which the Blessed Virgin Mary is honored and the Christian people enriched with spiritual gifts, gladdens and consoles us. Mary remains ever the path that leads to Christ. Every encounter with her can only result in an encounter with Christ himself.”
“Peace is not merely the absence of war. Nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies. Nor is it brought about by dictatorship. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called “an enterprise of justice” (Is. 32:7). Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine founder, and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice.”
“Merely to remain true to the faith is not enough. Certainly we must preserve and defend the treasure of truth and grace that we have inherited through Christian tradition. … But neither the preservation nor the defense of the faith exhausts the duty of the Church in regard to the gifts it has been given. The very nature of the gifts which Christ has given the Church demands that they be extended to others and shared with others.” – Ecclesiam Suam, 1964
“The fact that we are distinct from the world does not mean that we are entirely separated from it. Nor does it mean that we are indifferent to it, afraid of it, or contemptuous of it. When the Church distinguishes itself from humanity, it does so not in order to oppose it, but to come closer to it. A physician who realizes the danger of disease, protects himself and others from it, but at the same time he strives to cure those who have contracted it. The Church does the same thing. It does not regard God’s mercy as an exclusive privilege, nor does the greatness of the privilege it enjoys make it feel unconcerned for those who do not share it. On the contrary, it finds in its own salvation an argument for showing more concern and more love for those who live close at hand, or to whom it can go in its endeavour to make all alike share the blessing of salvation.” – Ecclesiam Suam, 1964
“For if the sacred liturgy holds first place in the life of the Church, then the Eucharistic Mystery stands at the heart and centre of the liturgy, since it is the font of life that cleanses us and strengthens us to live not for ourselves but for God and to be united to each other by the closest ties of love.” – Mysterium Fidei, 1965
“To put it in a word, the edifice of modern civilization has to be built on spiritual principles, for they are the only ones capable not only of supporting it, but of shedding light on it and inspiring it. And we are convinced, as you know, that these indispensable principles of higher wisdom cannot rest on anything but faith in God.” – Address of the Holy Father Paul VI to the United Nations Organization, 1965
“Neither individuals nor nations should regard the possession of more and more goods as the ultimate objective. Every kind of progress is a two-edged sword. It is necessary if man is to grow as a human being; yet it can also enslave him, if he comes to regard it as the supreme good and cannot look beyond it. When this happens, men harden their hearts, shut out others from their minds and gather together solely for reasons of self-interest rather than out of friendship; dissension and disunity follow soon after. Thus the exclusive pursuit of material possessions prevents man’s growth as a human being and stands in opposition to his true grandeur.” – Populorum Progressio, 1967
“Now if the earth truly was created to provide man with the necessities of life and the tools for his own progress, it follows that every man has the right to glean what he needs from the earth. … All other rights, whatever they may be, including the rights of property and free trade, are to be subordinated to this principle. They should in no way hinder it; in fact, they should actively facilitate its implementation. Redirecting these rights back to their original purpose must be regarded as an important and urgent social duty.” – Populorum Progressio, 1967
“For man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns with all the strength of his spirit, unless he keeps the laws which the Most High God has engraved in his very nature.” – Humanae Vitae, 1968
“The world cannot give up its dream of universal Peace. It is precisely because Peace is always coming to be, always incomplete, always fragile, always under attack, always difficult, that We proclaim it. We proclaim it as a duty, an inescapable duty.” – Message of His Holiness Pope Paul VI for the Celebration of the Day of Peace, January 1, 1969
“True peace must be founded upon justice, upon a sense of the intangible dignity of man, upon the recognition of an abiding and happy equality between men, upon the basic principle of human brotherhood, that is, of the respect and love due to each man, because he is man. The victorious word springs forth: because he is a brother. My brother, our brother.” – Message of His Holiness Pope Paul VI for the Celebration of the Day of Peace, January 1, 1971
“Legislation is necessary, but it is not sufficient for setting up true relationships of justice and equity. In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others. If, beyond legal rules, there is really no deeper feeling of respect for and service to others, then even equality before the law can serve as an alibi for flagrant discrimination, continued exploitation and actual contempt. Without a renewed education in solidarity, an overemphasis of equality can give rise to an individualism in which each one claims his own rights without wishing to be answerable for the common good.” – Octogesima Adveniens, 1971
“At the heart of the world there dwells the mystery of man discovering himself to be God’s son in the course of a historical and psychological process in which constraint and freedom as well as the weight of sin and the breath of the Spirit alternate and struggle for the upper hand.” – Octogesima Adveniens, 1971
“Mankind today is seeking a new earth: new not because it will be filled with the superfluous luxuries that technological and industrial progress can provide; but new because the hungry will be fed, the homeless housed, the ill cared for, the illiterate educated – a world where all men can live more humanly. This will be a new earth of justice and love in which those who have been blessed with much will share what they have with those who have less. And for the Christian who has received the gift of eternal life the chance to help others becomes the occasion to express gratitude for the salvation received from the Lord.” – Letter of Paul VI to the Archbishops and Bishops of the United States of America, January 8, 1972
“For joy cannot be dissociated from sharing. In God Himself, all is joy because all is giving.” – Gaudete in Domino, 1975
“Do you really believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you really preach what you live? The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness in preaching.” – Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975
“Is it then a crime against others’ freedom to proclaim with joy a Good News which one has come to know through the Lord’s mercy? And why should only falsehood and error, debasement and pornography have the right to be put before people and often unfortunately imposed on them by the destructive propaganda of the mass media, by the tolerance of legislation, the timidity of the good and the impudence of the wicked? The respectful presentation of Christ and His kingdom is more than the evangelizer’s right; it is his duty. It is likewise the right of his fellow men to receive from him the proclamation of the Good News of salvation.” – Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975
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May 29
Saint Pope Paul VI
May 30
Daily Saints – 30 May.
Feast Saint Joan of Arc.
She is the patron saint of captives, prisoners, martyrs, opposition of Church authorities, people ridiculed for their piety, rape victims, soldiers, WACs (Women’s Army Corps), WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service).
Joan was born on January 6, 1412, to pious parents of the French peasant class in the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine.
Joan was only 12 when she experienced a vision and heard voices that she later identified as Saints Michael the Archangel, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch.
Joan had a great love for the sacraments, which strengthened her compassion toward the poor.
In 1428, when she was 13 years old, she received a vision telling her to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom from the invading forces of England and Burgundy.
Overcoming opposition and convincing members of the court and of the Church, she was given a small army. She charged into battle bearing a banner which bore the names “Jesus” and “Mary” as well as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Due to her leadership and trust in God, she was able to raise the siege of Orleans in 1429. Joan and her army went on to win a series of battles. Because of her efforts, the king was able to enter Rheims. He was crowned with Joan at his side.
Eventually, Joan was captured by the forces of Burgundy in May of 1430. When her own king and army did nothing to save her, she was sold to the English. She was imprisoned for a time and then put on trial.
Bishop Peter Cauchon of Beauvais presided over her trial. His hope was that in being harsh with Joan, the English would help him become archbishop. In the end, she was condemned for wearing men’s clothes.
Joan was condemned to death on counts of heresy, witchcraft, and adultery. On May 30, 1431, she was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. She was 19 years old.
Thirty years after her death, her case was retried and she was exonerated. In 1920, she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
I am not afraid… I was born to do this.
I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God’s will.
One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.
Since God had commanded it, it was necessary that I do it. Since God commanded it, even if I had a hundred fathers and mothers, even if I had been a King’s daughter, I would have gone nevertheless.
About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter. – Saint Joan of Arc, as recorded at her trial
Feast Saint Joan of Arc.
She is the patron saint of captives, prisoners, martyrs, opposition of Church authorities, people ridiculed for their piety, rape victims, soldiers, WACs (Women’s Army Corps), WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service).
Joan was born on January 6, 1412, to pious parents of the French peasant class in the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine.
Joan was only 12 when she experienced a vision and heard voices that she later identified as Saints Michael the Archangel, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch.
Joan had a great love for the sacraments, which strengthened her compassion toward the poor.
In 1428, when she was 13 years old, she received a vision telling her to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom from the invading forces of England and Burgundy.
Overcoming opposition and convincing members of the court and of the Church, she was given a small army. She charged into battle bearing a banner which bore the names “Jesus” and “Mary” as well as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Due to her leadership and trust in God, she was able to raise the siege of Orleans in 1429. Joan and her army went on to win a series of battles. Because of her efforts, the king was able to enter Rheims. He was crowned with Joan at his side.
Eventually, Joan was captured by the forces of Burgundy in May of 1430. When her own king and army did nothing to save her, she was sold to the English. She was imprisoned for a time and then put on trial.
Bishop Peter Cauchon of Beauvais presided over her trial. His hope was that in being harsh with Joan, the English would help him become archbishop. In the end, she was condemned for wearing men’s clothes.
Joan was condemned to death on counts of heresy, witchcraft, and adultery. On May 30, 1431, she was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. She was 19 years old.
Thirty years after her death, her case was retried and she was exonerated. In 1920, she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
I am not afraid… I was born to do this.
I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God’s will.
One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.
Since God had commanded it, it was necessary that I do it. Since God commanded it, even if I had a hundred fathers and mothers, even if I had been a King’s daughter, I would have gone nevertheless.
About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter. – Saint Joan of Arc, as recorded at her trial
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May 30
Saint Joan of Arc
May 31
Daily Saints – 31 May.
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The feast of the Visitation recalls to us the following great truths and events:
1. The visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth shortly after the Annunciation;
2. the cleansing of John the Baptist from original sin in the womb of his mother at the words of Our Lady’s greeting;
3. Elizabeth’s proclaiming of Mary—under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost—as Mother of God and “blessed among women”;
4. Mary’s singing of the sublime hymn, Magnificat (“My soul doth magnify the Lord”) which has become a part of the daily official prayer of the Church.
Assuming that the Annunciation and the Incarnation took place around the time of the vernal equinox. Mary conceived Jesus Christ in late March. Saint John the Baptist was born in late June. And it was between these two bookends that pregnant Mary visited her pregnant cousin Elizabeth.
Mary left Nazareth and went over the mountains to Hebron, south of Jerusalem, to wait upon her cousin Elizabeth. Because Mary’s presence, and even more the presence of the Divine Child in her womb, according to the will of God, was to be the source of very great graces to the Blessed John, Christ’s Forerunner. (Lk1:39-57).
Feeling the presence of his Divine Saviour, John, upon the arrival of Mary, leaped for joy in the womb of his mother; at that moment he was cleansed from original sin and filled with the grace of God.
Our Lady now, for the first time, exercised the office which belonged to the Mother of God made man: that He might, by her mediation, sanctify and glorify us.
St. Joseph probably accompanied Mary, returned to Nazareth, and when, after three months, he came again to Hebron to take his wife home, the apparition of the angel, mentioned in Mt 1:19-25, may have taken place to end the tormenting doubts of Joseph regarding Mary’s maternity.
This is a fairly late feast, going back only to the 13th or 14th century. It was established widely throughout the Church to pray for unity. The earliest evidence of the existence of the feast is its adoption by the Franciscan Chapter in 1263, upon the advice of St. Bonaventure.
The present date of celebration was set in 1969, in order to follow the Annunciation of the Lord and precede the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Like most feasts of Mary, it is closely connected with Jesus and his saving work.
One of the invocations in Mary’s litany is “Ark of the Covenant.” Like the Ark of the Covenant of old, Mary brings God’s presence into the lives of other people. As David danced before the Ark, John the Baptist leaps for joy. As the Ark helped to unite the 12 tribes of Israel by being placed in David’s capital, so Mary has the power to unite all Christians in her son.
The Visitation is the first time that Mary publicly exercises her role as Mediator of the Son of God. God chose not only to become a man but to become such in the same way that all men do, through gestation and birth, with His virginal conception the sole miracle. Catholicism is a religion that believes in secondary causality. God directly intervenes in creation only rarely, instead inviting His creatures to perfect His raw creation by using their God-given talents.
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The feast of the Visitation recalls to us the following great truths and events:
1. The visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth shortly after the Annunciation;
2. the cleansing of John the Baptist from original sin in the womb of his mother at the words of Our Lady’s greeting;
3. Elizabeth’s proclaiming of Mary—under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost—as Mother of God and “blessed among women”;
4. Mary’s singing of the sublime hymn, Magnificat (“My soul doth magnify the Lord”) which has become a part of the daily official prayer of the Church.
Assuming that the Annunciation and the Incarnation took place around the time of the vernal equinox. Mary conceived Jesus Christ in late March. Saint John the Baptist was born in late June. And it was between these two bookends that pregnant Mary visited her pregnant cousin Elizabeth.
Mary left Nazareth and went over the mountains to Hebron, south of Jerusalem, to wait upon her cousin Elizabeth. Because Mary’s presence, and even more the presence of the Divine Child in her womb, according to the will of God, was to be the source of very great graces to the Blessed John, Christ’s Forerunner. (Lk1:39-57).
Feeling the presence of his Divine Saviour, John, upon the arrival of Mary, leaped for joy in the womb of his mother; at that moment he was cleansed from original sin and filled with the grace of God.
Our Lady now, for the first time, exercised the office which belonged to the Mother of God made man: that He might, by her mediation, sanctify and glorify us.
St. Joseph probably accompanied Mary, returned to Nazareth, and when, after three months, he came again to Hebron to take his wife home, the apparition of the angel, mentioned in Mt 1:19-25, may have taken place to end the tormenting doubts of Joseph regarding Mary’s maternity.
This is a fairly late feast, going back only to the 13th or 14th century. It was established widely throughout the Church to pray for unity. The earliest evidence of the existence of the feast is its adoption by the Franciscan Chapter in 1263, upon the advice of St. Bonaventure.
The present date of celebration was set in 1969, in order to follow the Annunciation of the Lord and precede the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Like most feasts of Mary, it is closely connected with Jesus and his saving work.
One of the invocations in Mary’s litany is “Ark of the Covenant.” Like the Ark of the Covenant of old, Mary brings God’s presence into the lives of other people. As David danced before the Ark, John the Baptist leaps for joy. As the Ark helped to unite the 12 tribes of Israel by being placed in David’s capital, so Mary has the power to unite all Christians in her son.
The Visitation is the first time that Mary publicly exercises her role as Mediator of the Son of God. God chose not only to become a man but to become such in the same way that all men do, through gestation and birth, with His virginal conception the sole miracle. Catholicism is a religion that believes in secondary causality. God directly intervenes in creation only rarely, instead inviting His creatures to perfect His raw creation by using their God-given talents.
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May 31
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary