Day: September 9, 2026

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 9 September – Blessed Maria de la Cabeza

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Blessed Maria de la Cabeza, born at Uceda, Guadalajara, Spain, was a Spanish peasant woman who married Saint Isidore. She is known in Spain as Santa María de la Cabeza (“Saint Mary of the Head”) or Maria Toribia.

Ss. Isidore and Maria Torribia

Maria’s date of birth is unknown, but it was sometime near the end of the 11th century or at the beginning of the 12th century. She is believed to have been born in Caraquiz, a little village close to Uceda. She subsequently lived in Torrelaguna, where she met and married Saint Isidore the Farmer. She spent her life working on the farm, cleaning local chapels and shrines, helping the poor.

With her husband she had her only son, Illan. The child one day fell down a deep well, leaving the parents with no recourse but prayer. Miraculously, the water level suddenly rose to the level of the ground, and the floating baby was rescued unharmed. As a result of this, she and her husband committed themselves to sexual abstinence as a form of devotion, and, from that time on, lived in different homes.

One story relates that Maria always kept a pot of stew on the fireplace in their humble rural dwelling. She knew that her husband Isidore would often bring home anyone who was hungry. One day he brought home more hungry people than usual. After she served many of them, Maria told him that there simply was no more stew in the pot. He insisted that she check the pot again, and she was able to spoon out enough stew to feed them all.

Torribia outlived her husband, who died in 1130. After his death, she lived as a hermit, performed miracles, and had visions.

The title of the Head is due to her head being a relic venerated for centuries, and the need to distinguish her from so many other Saints Mary.

She died in 1175 and her relics were displayed in a Franciscan convent in Torrelaguna, Spain, before being moved to Saint Andrew’s Church in Madrid in 1645, placed with the incorruptible body of her husband. In 1769, Charles III of Spain had the remains of Saint Isidore and his wife Maria relocated to the San Isidro Church, Madrid. The sepulcher has nine locks and only the King of Spain has the master key.

She was beatified by Pope Innocent XII on 11 August 1697.

Posted in MARIAN TITLES

Santa María la Antigua / St Mary the Ancient, Panama City, Panama , 16th century and Memorials of the Saints – 9 September

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Santa María la Antigua / St Mary the Ancient, Panama City, Panama, 16th century, Patron of the Republic of Panama – 9 September:

In 1510 Martín Fernández de Enciso and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa founded a Town in Chief Cémaco’s territory on the west shore of the Gulf of Urabá, initially named La Guardia and a few months later renamed Santa María la Antigua, fulfilling a vow they made to the Virgin if they emerged alive from the confrontation with the natives.

Chief Cémaco’s house was converted into a Chapel in honour of St Mary the Ancient, named for the Madonna in the Cathedral in Fernández de Enciso’s home town of Seville, Spain. A Christian community developed there composed of native converts and Spaniards.

On 9 September 1513, Pope Leo X created the first mainland Diocese with the bull “Pastoralis Officii Debitum,” transforming the little Chapel of St Mary the Ancient into a Cathedral under the Archdiocese of Seville. Later the see moved to the newer City of Panama, whose Cathedral was dedicated to Santa María la Antigua on 4 April 1796. In 2001 the Vatican confirmed St. Mary the Ancient as Patron of the Republic of Panama, setting 9 September as her feast day for the country.

St Peter Claver SJ (1581-1654) (Memorial) Priest of the Society of Jesus, Missionary, Confessor, Patron of the missions to African peoples and Human Rights Defender, Apostle of Charity. Also known as “The Apostle of Cartagena” and “The Slave of the Slaves.”

St Alexander of Sabine

St Basura of Masil
St Bettelin
St Dorotheus of Nicomedia
Bl Gaudridus
Bl George Douglas
St Gorgonio of Rome
St Gorgonius of Nicomedia
St Isaac the Great
Bl Jacques Laval
St Kieran the Younger (c 516-c 550) Monk, Abbot, One of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
Bl Maria Eutimia Uffing
Bl Mary de la Cabeza
St Omer
St Osmanna
Bl Pierre Bonhomme
St Rufinian
St Rufinus
Bl Seraphina Sforza
St Severian
St Straton
St Teódulo González Fernández
St Tiburtius
St Valentinian of Chur
St Wilfrida
St Wulfhilda

Posted in Our MORNING Offering

Our Morning Offering – 9 September – Indulgenced Prayers

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 9 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary” – Indulgenced prayers to the Blessed Virgin

Mary!

(300 days every time said. Plenary indulgence at the point of death to those who have frequently invoked the name of Mary during life)

Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, holy Grant me strength against thine enemies.

(300 days every time said)

Thou who wast a Virgin before thy delivery, pray for us. Hail Mary, etc.

Thou who wast a Virgin in thy delivery, pray for us. Hail Mary, etc.

Thou who wast a Virgin after thy delivery, pray for us. Hail Mary, etc.

(300 days every time said)

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

(300 days every time said. The Blessed Virgin may also be invoked under any other title approved by ecclesiastical authority)

My mother, deliver me from mortal sin.

Hail Mary, etc., thrice.

(300 days every time said)

O Mary, bless this house, where thy name is ever held in benediction. All glory to Mary Immaculate, ever Virgin, blessed among women, the mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, queen of paradise.

(300 days every time said)

Mary, our hope, have pity on us.

(300 days every time said)

Mother of love, of sorrow, and of mercy, pray for us.

(300 days every time said)

Holy Mary, deliver us from the pains of hell.

(300 days every time said)

My mother, my sure trust!

(300 days every time said)

Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, make us saints.

(300 days every time said)

Mother of mercy, pray for us.

(300 days every time said)

Mary, Virgin Mother of God, pray earnestly to Jesus for me.

(300 days every time said)

O Mary, make me live in God, with God, and for God.

(300 days every time said)

Posted in ONE Minute REFLECTION

One Minute Reflection – 9 September – “Those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him”

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 9 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary ” – Readings: Ps 85:1-3, Ps 85:4, Gal 5:25-26; 6:1-10, Luke 7:11-16

And He said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And he who was dead, sat up, and began to speak.

Luke 7:11-16

REFLECTION – The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, came down to our world. Not that he had been far from it before, since no part of creation was ever without him. Together with his Father he filled all things. But he came to us full of love for us and showed himself to us openly. He took pity on our race and our weakness and was moved by the corruption that had got the better of us.

He could not allow death to rule over us any longer. Had death prevailed, creation would have perished and the Father's work in forming man would have been in vain… Therefore he took to himself a nature which was no different from ours. He built himself a temple, a body that is, in the womb of the Virgin, and so made himself an instrument in which to dwell and make himself known. In this way he took from us a body like our own and, since all are subject to the corruption of death, he surrendered his body to death for us all and led it to the Father lovingly for our sake.

St Athanasius

PRAYER – Almighty Lord and God, protect us by Your power and love throughout this day, even as You have enabled us, in Your love to begin it. Do not let us turn aside to any sin but let our every thought, word and deed be done in love for You and Your creatures, our neighbour. Teach us to love as You have loved us and may our Sorrowful and Holy Mother, show us the way. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who loved us to the end, with the Holy Spiriti, God now and for all eternity, amen.

Posted in CATHOLIC Quotes, QUOTES on ENVY

Quote/s of the Day – 9 September – Envy

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Brethren: If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not become desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Gal 5:25-26; 6:1-10

Indeed all the vices tend towards and aim at harming those whom they possess, but envy always consumes its own even more. Envy has always been the killer of its own, it strains thought-processes, it racks spirits, it torments minds, and it ruptures hearts.

St Peter Chrysologus

And why need I say more? The one who welcomes it endures his own unending punishments, because he is choosing to have his personal torturer always inside himself.

St Peter Chrysologus

Oh! ye who are envious, let me tell you, that however often you may seek for the opportunity of injuring him, whom you hate, you will never be able to do him so much harm, as you do harm to yourselves. He, whom you would pursue through the malice of your envy, may probably escape, but you will never be able to fly from yourselves. Wherever you may be, your adversary is with you, your sin rankles within.

St Cyprian

The envious man is cruel, proud, unfaithful, impatient and quarrelsome, and what is strange, when this vice gains the mastery, he is no longer master of himself, and he is unable to correct his many faults. If the bond of peace of broken, if the rights of fraternal charity are violated, if truth is altered or disguised, it is often envy that hurries him on to crime. What happiness can such a man enjoy in this world?

St Cyprian

Oh! envious man, you injure yourself, more than he whom you would injure, and the sword with which you would wound, will recoil and wound yourself. What harm did Cain to Abel? Contrary to his intention, he did him the greatest good, for he caused him to pass to a better and a blessed life, and he himself was plunged into an abyss of woe. It is ever thus, the more you envy your brother, the greater good you confer upon him. God, who sees all, takes the cause of the innocent in hand, and irritated by the injury you inflict, deigns to raise up him, whom you wish to lower, and will punish you to the full extent of your crime.

St John Chrysostom

Envy is a gnawing pain which springs from the success and prosperity of another, and this is the reason why the envious are never exempt from trouble and vexation. The envious, however, dare not speak, although envy makes them counterfeit gladness, their hearts are sore within. If you ask him what vexes him, he dare not tell the reason.

St Basil

As the shadow ever accompanies the pedestrian when walking in the sun, so envy throws its shadow on those who are successful in the world.

St Basil

Posted in SEPTEMBER-The SEVEN SORROWS of MARY and The HOLY CROSS

Thought for the Day – 9 September – The fourteen rules

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Letter to the Friends of the Cross by St Louis de Montfort

[D. Let him follow me]


But to suffer is not enough; the evil one and the world have their martyrs. We must suffer and carry our cross in the footsteps of Christ: “Let him follow me,” that is to say, we must suffer the way Jesus did.

To help you to do that, here are the rules to be followed:

[The fourteen rules]

[Not to deliberately cause crosses, by one’s own fault]

1) Do not deliberately contrive to bring crosses upon yourself. We must not do something wrong in order to bring about something good; nor must we, without a special inspiration of God, do things badly so as to draw down ridicule upon ourselves. Rather we ought to imitate our Lord, of whom it was said, “He did all things well,” not indeed out of self-esteem or vanity, but to please God and win over our fellow-men. And if you fulfil your duties as well as you can, you will find no lack of opposition, criticism and ridicule, which will be sent by divine providence without your choosing or wanting it.

[Be aware of one’s neighbour’s good]

2) If you happen to do something which is neither good nor bad in itself, and your neighbour takes scandal at it – although without reason – refrain from doing it, out of charity to him, so as to avoid the scandal of the weak. Such an heroic act of charity will be of greater worth in God’s sight than the action you were doing or intending to do. However, if what you are doing is necessary or beneficial to your neighbour, and some hypocritical or evil-minded person takes scandal without reason, refer the matter to some prudent adviser to find out whether it is really necessary or advantageous to others. If he judges it is, then carry on without worrying about what people say, so long as they do not stop you. And you can say to them what our Lord said to some of his disciples when they told him that the scribes and Pharisees were scandalised at what he said and did: “Leave them alone. They are blind men leading the blind.”

[Admire the sublime virtue of the saints without pretending to attain to it]

3) Although certain great and holy men have sought and asked for crosses, and even by their peculiar behaviour have brought sufferings, scorn and humiliations upon themselves, let us be content with admiring and praising the marvellous work of the Holy Spirit in their souls. Let us humble ourselves at the sight of such sublime virtue without attempting to reach such heights ourselves. Compared with those swift eagles and strong lions, we are timid and faint- hearted sheep.

[Ask God for the wisdom of the cross]

4) You may, and should, pray for the wisdom of the cross, that knowledge of the truth which we experience within ourselves and which by the light of faith deepens our knowledge of the most hidden mysteries, including that of the cross. But this is obtained only by much labour, great humiliations and fervent prayer. If you stand in need of this strengthening spirit which enables us to carry the heaviest crosses courageously; of this gracious and consoling spirit, which enables us, in the higher part of the soul, to take delight in things that are bitter and repulsive; of this sound and upright spirit which seeks God alone; of this science of the cross which embraces all things; in short, of this inexhaustible treasure by which those who make good use of it win God’s friendship – if you stand in need of such, pray for wisdom, ask for it continually and fervently without wavering or fear of not obtaining it, and it will be yours. Then you will clearly understand from your own experience how it is possible to desire, seek and find joy in the cross.