Notre-Dame-de-Bonne Délivrance / Our Lady of Good Deliverance, Schwarzen Madonna / Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Switzerland (853) and Memorials of the Saints – 18 July

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost +2021

Notre-Dame-de-Bonne Délivrance / Our Lady of Good Deliverance (14th Century): 18 July
Since the 1000s, the Church of Saint-Etienne-des-Grès in the old Latin Quarter of Paris had a chapel to Our Lady of Good Deliverance, where, across the centuries, pilgrims sought the Virgin’s help in their of sufferings. During the Wars of Religion and counter-Reformation, her Confraternity had 12,000 members, including the King and Queen of France.
About:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/07/18/saint-of-the-day-18-july-our-lady-of-good-deliverance/

Schwarzen Madonna / Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Switzerland (853) – First Sunday after Our Lady of Mount Carmel:

“Einsiedeln” means “hermitage.” It was the home of St Meinrad (c 797–861) Martyr, a Benedictine Monk who retreated to this place in the pine woods to live in solitude, with a pair of tame crows for company. Abbess Hildegarde of Zurich gave him a Statue of the Madonna for the forest Chapel built in 853, which soon became a place of pilgrimage. In 863, hoping to get his stash of pilgrim donations, two thieves murdered the Saint, who was living in poverty. The crows alerted people, who found and buried the body and executed the killers. St Meinrad’s life here: https://anastpaul.com/2021/01/21/saint-of-the-day-21-january-saint-meinrad-of-einsiedeln-osb-c-797-861-martyr/

In 948, Benedictines built a Church on the site of St Meinrad’s hermitage. On 14 September, the night before Bishop Conrad was to bless the new Church, he dreamed that Jesus Himself was blessing it. In the morning, when he began the ceremony, everyone heard a voice say, “Stop, for the Church has been Consecrated divinely.” In 1028 the first of five fires destroyed everything but the Chapel containing the Statue. These miracles increased popular devotion to the Shrine, which was repeatedly rebuilt.

Although tradition holds the present Statue to be the original, it is unlike any that remain from the Ottonian period. Carved of dark wood, the graceful, sweet-faced Madonna, her right knee slightly bent, stands a little over three feet tall, holding the Divine Child in her left arm. This is a typical late Gothic work of the mid-1400s, possibly installed after the third fire in 1465. Displayed before a great aureole of golden rays,the Statue has worn elaborate vestments in colours matching those of Priests for each liturgical season. The Feast of Our Lady of Einsiedeln is 16 July but is usually celebrated on the Sunday following. Even greater pilgrimages occur on 14 September in honour of the Church’s miraculous Consecration.

St Aemilian of Dorostorium
St Alanus of Sassovivo
St Alfons Tracki
Blessed Angeline of Marsciano
Bl Arnold of Amiens
St Arnold of Arnoldsweiler
St Arnoul the Martyr
St Arnulf of Metz (c 580-640) Bishop
St Athanasius of Clysma
Bl Bernard de Arenis
Bl Bertha de Marbais

St Bruno of Segni OSB (1049-1123) Benedictine Bishop, Confessor, Missionary, Papal Advisor, Theologian.
About St Bruno:
https://anastpaul.com/2017/07/18/saint-of-the-day-18-july-st-bruno-of-segni-o-s-b/

St Ðaminh Ðinh Ðat
St Edburgh of Bicester (Died c 620) Abbess, Nun, Pr5incess
St Elio of Koper

St Frederick of Utrecht (c 815 – c 838) Martyr Bishop
Biography:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/07/18/saint-of-the-day-18-july-st-frederick-c-815-c-838-martyr/

St Goneri of Treguier
St Gundenis of Carthage
Bl Herveus
Bl Jean-Baptiste de Bruxelles
St Marina of Ourense
St Maternus of Milan
St Minnborinus
St Pambo of the Nitrian Desert
St Philastrius of Brescia
St Rufillus of Forlimpopoli
St Scariberga of Yvelines

St Simon (Szymon) of Lipnica OFM Cap (1435/1440-c 1482) Priest of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.
His Story:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/07/18/saint-of-the-day-18-july-saint-simon-of-lipnica-1435-1440-c-1482/

St Theneva
St Theodosia of Constantinople
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Martyrs of Silistria – 7 saints: Seven Christians who were martyred together. No details about them have survived but the names – Bassus, Donata, Justus, Marinus, Maximus, Paulus and Secunda. They were martyred in Silistria (Durostorum), Moesia (in modern Bulgaria), date unknown.

Martyrs of Tivoli – 8 saints: A widow, Symphorosa and her seven sons ( Crescens, Eugene, Julian, Justin, Nemesius, Primitivus and Stracteus) martyred in Tivoli, Italy in the 2nd-century persecutions of Hadrian.