Day: October 20, 2026

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 20 October – Saint Artemius Megalomartyr

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint Artemius Megalomartyr, also known as Artemios of Antioch, Artemois the Greatmartyr, Challita, Shallita (‘The empowered one’). Artemius was a noted soldier and military leader under Emperor Constantine the Great. Imperial prefect of Egypt and Duke of Alexandria, appointed by Emperor Constantius; he used his position to spread the faith.

During the reign of Julian the Apostate, Artemius became a fanatical Arian heretic, hunting and persecuting monks, nuns and bishops, including Saint Athanasius. However, through prayer and the horror of the persecutions, Artemius returned to orthodox Christianity, supported the Faith, and turned on pagans, including Julian. He was accused by heathens of destroying idols, arrested, taken to Antioch, tortured and martyred. Julian had Artemius tortured in various fashions while exhorting him to renounce his Christianity, but Artemius repeatedly confirmed his faith, and ultimately had his head cut off.

The coming executioner was instantly looked for who should strike through that devoted neck of the most sacred victim; and thus, in the daily expectation of dying, every day was to him as if the crown might be attributed to each.

Life and Passion of St. Cyprian (Pontius)

Posted in MARIAN TITLES

Dedication of the Abbey of Our Lady, Pontigny, France (1114) and Memorials of the Saints – 20 October

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Dedication of the Abbey of Our Lady, Pontigny, France (1114) – 20 October:

The Abbot Orsini wrote: “The Dedication of the Church of Pontigny, four leagues from Auxerre, under the title of Our Lady. This Abbey was founded in 1114 by Thibaud, Count of Champagne.”

The former abbey of Pontigny is nestled in the Serein valley in the north of Burgundy, and is one of the oldest sites of the Cistercian order. Being only the second Cistertian monastery, it was established in the year 1114 by Blessed Hugh of Macon, the companion of Saint Bernard, in this valley north of Auxerre in the French Department of Yonne. It is notable, that Hugh later became the Bishop of Auxerre.

The Monks valued the land, the woods and streams they were surrounded by and cultivated large farms around their Abbey. They raised various crops, bread pigs and sheep and made terracotta bricks. It was that strong economic base that enabled them to construct the great Romanesque style Church that reached an impressive length of 120 metres that still stands intact today.
In the year 1164 the Abbey received the Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of England St Thomas à Becket while he was an exile due to his opposition to King Henry and in 1206 the Queen of France, Alix de Champagne, was buried in the choir of the Abbey.

The wealthy Abbey was looted and burned by the Huguenots in about 1529 during the Wars of Religion. During the French Revolution the Abbey was suppressed, and its buildings largely sold or destroyed, save for the Church. Unlike most Churches during the time of the French Revolution, the Abbey of Pontigny is completely preserved and is now thought to be the largest Cistercian Church in France. The Church is notable for its arches and columns with twin bays, its vaults on two columns and portal with tympanum cross and wrought iron hinges.

Known as the Church of Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Edme Pontigny, or Our Lady of Saint Edmond of Pontigny, the old Church Abbey monastery became the Parish Church of the village of the same name after the French Revolution.
The church of Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Edme Pontigny is now abandoned and it is used simply as a kind of cultural meeting place.

St Acca (c 660-742) Bishop, Abbot, Missionary, Theologian, Musician.

St Adelina
St Aderald
St Aidan of Mayo
St Andrew of Crete
St Artemius Megalomartyr
St Barsabias
St Bernard of Bagnorea
St Bradan
St Caprasius of Agen
St Cornelius the Centurion (1st Century) traditionally believed to have become th First Bishop of Caesarea

Bl Gundisalvus of Silos
St Irene

Blessed James Strepar OFM (c 1340-1409) Archbishop of Halicz, Poland from 1392 until his death Religious Priest of the Order of Friars Minor, Missionary. St Pius X proclaimed Blessed James, along with St Anthony of Padua, the Patrons of the Conventual Franciscan Order of Krakow Province. He was given the title of “Protector of the Kingdom, Defender and Guardian of the Homeland,” for his exceptional merits, including civil ones. Such was he considered by all. He was Canonised by by Pope Pius VI on 11 September 1791. His body is incorrupt.

St John of Kanty/Cantius (1390-1473) Priest, Theologian, Scholastic Philosopher, Physicist, Teacher, Confessor, Philosopher, Apostle of Charity – Patron of Poland and Lithuania.

St Martha of Cologne
St Maximus of Aquila
St Orora
St Saula of Cologne
St Sindulphus of Rheims

St Usthazanes
St Vitalis of Salzburg

Posted in Our MORNING Offering

Our Morning Offering – 20 October – Dies Irae

Posted on by AnaStpaul

The Hymn of the Church, in Meditation of the Day of Judgment (An indulgence of three years for each recitation and a plenary indulgence for reciting the prayer daily for a month.)

That day of wrath,
that dreadful day,
shall heaven and earth in ashes lay,
as David and the Sybil say.

What horror must invade the mind
when the approaching Judge shall find
and sift the deeds of all mankind!

The mighty trumpet’s wondrous tone
shall rend each tomb’s sepulchral stone
and summon all before the Throne.

Now death and nature with surprise
behold the trembling sinners rise
to meet the Judge’s searching eyes.

Then shall with universal dread
the Book of Consciences be read
to judge the lives of all the dead.

For now before the Judge severe
all hidden things must plain appear;
no crime can pass unpunished here.

O what shall I, so guilty plead?
and who for me will intercede?
when even Saints shall comfort need?

O King of dreadful majesty!
grace and mercy You grant free;
as Fount of Kindness, save me!

Recall, dear Jesus, for my sake
you did our suffering nature take
then do not now my soul forsake!

In weariness You sought for me,
and suffering upon the tree!
let not in vain such labor be.

O Judge of justice, hear, I pray,
for pity take my sins away
before the dreadful reckoning day.

You gracious face, O Lord, I seek;
deep shame and grief are on my cheek;
in sighs and tears my sorrows speak.

You Who did Mary’s guilt unbind,
and mercy for the robber find,
have filled with hope my anxious mind.

How worthless are my prayers I know,
yet, Lord forbid that I should go
into the fires of endless woe.

Divorced from the accursed band,
o make me with Your sheep to stand,
as child of grace, at Your right Hand.

When the doomed can no more flee
from the fires of misery
with the chosen call me.

Before You, humbled, Lord, I lie,
my heart like ashes, crushed and dry,
assist me when I die.

Full of tears and full of dread
is that day that wakes the dead,
calling all, with solemn blast
to be judged for all their past. Amen.

Lord, have mercy, Jesus blest,
grant them all Your Light and Rest. Amen.

Posted in ONE Minute REFLECTION

One Minute Reflection – 20 October – Dies irae

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 20 October – “Month of the Most Holy Rosary” – Readings: Sir 18:12-13, Ps 1:1, James 2:12-17, Luke 12:35-40

So speak and so act as men about to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to him who has not shown mercy; but mercy triumphs over judgment. What will it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but does not have works? Can the faith save him?

James 2:12-17

REFLECTION – Mark the agreement of prophet with prophet. Acquaint yourself also with another prophet who expresses himself in like manner. For Amos prophesied of the same things in a manner quite in accordance: Thus says the Lord, forasmuch therefore as you have beaten the poor with the fist, and taken choice gifts from him: you have built houses, but you shall not dwell in them: you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions, in trampling justice beneath your foot, and taking a bribe, and turning aside the poor in the gate from their right.

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time. Learn, beloved, the wickedness of the men of that time, how they spoil houses and fields, and take even justice from the just; for when these things come to pass, you may know that it is the end. For this reason are you instructed in the wisdom of the prophet, and the revelation that is to be in those days. And all the prophets, as we bare already said, have clearly signified the things that are to come to pass in the last times, just as they also have declared things of old.

Pseudo-Hippolytus

PRAYER – Holy Father, grant me an operative faith, a faith that will move mountains. Enlighten my soul with Your Light, Goodness, Power and Wisdom. Let my faith be an image of You by lively deeds and love and by conforming myself to Your Will in all things. Blessed Mother, you longed only to serve the God of all, teach us by your prayer, to serve God alone with upright hearts and fight by the Truth against all tyranny and evilh, through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.

Posted in Uncategorized

Quote/s of the Day – 20 October – Hell

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent.

Ps 1:1

Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels

Matthew 25: 41

First Point – I have deserved hell. Oh, how this realization ought to animate me! Second Point – I have deserved hell. Oh, how this knowledge ought to excite me to penance! Third Point – I have deserved hell, and perhaps I still deserve it. Oh, how I should fear!

Fr François Nepveu

There is, alas! a difference between the sufferings of this world and the torments of hell. The sufferings of this world are limited, and do not affect the whole man, the mind suffers only in proportion to its union with the body, and one member alone endures pain in proportion to its sympathy with the brain: but the tormenting fires of hell enter into every power of the soul, and every member of the body.

Fr Biroat

How is it that you are complaining that your animals are dying? Undoubtedly you must have forgotten all those sins which have been committed in your outhouses and stables during the five or six months of winter. You have forgotten that the Holy Ghost has said that everywhere this sin shall be committed, the curse of the Lord will fall.

St John Vianney

All the senses of the reprobate have each their peculiar punishment; their reason, or intellect, is punished by the pain of loss, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, a punishment far surpassing that of the senses. The memory of the reprobate is tormented by ” the worm that dieth not,” that is by a most keen and constant remorse of conscience, which will give them no rest.

Fr Martin Von Cochem

The life in hell, is a life from which there is a total absence of sympathy and love. The life in hell is also a life of terror, and a life too, without pauses, diminutions, or vicissitudes. No angels ever wings his way thither on an errand of consolation. Yet this is the bright side of hell! This is hell, without the hell left out, the crowning woe, the loss of God.

Fr Faber

Posted in OCTOBER - The HOLY ROSARY and The HOLY ANGELS

Thought for the Day – 20 October – To have great confidence in the angels

Posted on by AnaStpaul

The Glories of the Holy Angels

Venerable Henri Boudon, Archdeacon of Evreux

PRACTICE SEVENTH

To have a great Confidence in the Angels, and recur to them in all necessities.

“They who trust in the Lord are as mount Sion; God encompasses them with his holy mountains.” These mountains, spoken of by the Psalmist, are the Holy Angels. O! how happy is that soul, whose humble confidence merits such protection! She shall not fear the arrow flying in the dark, nor the noonday devil.

After all we have said, it would seem that you should not want a great confidence in the Angels. “Why would you fear,” says St. Bernard, “having such faithful, wise, and potent friends as the Angels?” “May joy be always with you,” said Raphael to Tobias; “I shall conduct you thither, and reconduct you hither.” The Angels are incessantly watching over us; wherever we go, we are surrounded by these blessed Spirits. Why, then, do we fear? While asleep, there are more eyes open to guard us than there are stars in the heavens; when awake, and in the midst of danger, there are more angels armed in our defence than there are rays in the sun or atoms in the air.

But, unhappy creatures !—nothing moves us but what strikes our senses. Here I must confess my utter astonishment at the little confidence of men in the protection of Heaven. O ! the avariciousness of the human heart! said our Lord once to St. Teresa. It seems to it that the whole world cannot supply its wants; it feels nothing but inquietude, both for temporal and spiritual things. Although there were no Providence, we could not place more reliance on human means. What a pity to see even spiritual persons counting so much on their own industry, and so much occupied with what concerns them. Let us place all our hope in the Lord, and all our confidence in his Providence. Let us beg of him to open our eyes to the protection of the Angels, as he did those of the servant of Elias.

Then seeing that “there is more for us than against us’ we cannot help confiding in such powerful patronage, nor fail to lift our hands, in our spiritual and corporeal dangers, to those holy mountains which the Lord has set for our defence, and appointed for our protection, through a marvellous excess of incomprehensible love.