Month: November 2026

Posted in MARIAN TITLES

Solemnity of All Saints, Virgen de la Palma / Our Lady of the Palm, Algeciras, Spain (1755) and Memorials of the Saints – 1 November

Posted on by AnaStpaul

All Saints Day (Solemnity) – (a Holy Day of Obligation) Instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown. It owes its origin in the Western Church to the dedication of the Roman Pantheon in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs by Pope Saint Boniface IV in 609, the anniversary of which was celebrated at Rome on 13 May. Pope Saint Gregory III consecrated a Chapel in the Vatican Basilica in honour of All Saints, designating 1 November as their feast. Pope Gregory IV extended its observance to the whole Church. It has a Vigil and Octave and is a Holy Day of Obligation – the eve is popularly celebrated as Hallowe’en. Patronage – Arzignano, Italy.

Virgen de la Palma / Our Lady of the Palm, Algeciras, Spain (1755) – 1 November:

The Church of Our Lady of the Palm preceded by many years, the miracle which made it famous. The miracle for which it is best remembered, took place during an earthquake and a tidal wave on the 1November, 1755. There had been an extremely strong earthquake on that day that was reported to have been felt throughout all of Europe. Algeciras is a seaport of Spain exposed to the Atlantic Ocean in the Province of Cadiz and was directly in the path of the tidal wave, said to be more than 90 feet high. The recently reported tsunamis in Asia pales in comparison to that wave. Lisbon, with 275,000 inhabitants, lost 90,000 people and had 85% of its buildings destroyed by the wave. The water penetrated as much as 8 kilometers inland, mainly striking Portugal, Spain, and Africa.

The townspeople of Algeciras were in terror and were on the point of abandoning the Town when two unidentified men – thought later to be the Patron Saints of the City – closed the water gates and urged the people to go to the Capuchin Church of Our Lady of the Palm. Here a Mass was in progress. The Priest calmly finished the Mass, seized a banner with a picture of Our Lady on it and went out into the street where the wall of water was already advancing upon them. He planted the banner in the street almost in the shadow of the great wave and called out in a loud voice, “Thus far, my Mother.”

The water advanced as far as the banner and then miraculously stopped its forward progression, even though, up until that point, it had destroyed everything in its path. Then, as the Priest walked boldly forward toward the wall of water with the banner in his upraised hand, that gigantic wave receded from him and turned away from the face of Mary to return placidly to the ocean.

An anniversary procession was established, along with a confraternity of Our Lady of the Palm. With the exception of 1837, when there was a Civil War, the procession is held annually. The Rosary is recited along the route of the tidal wave and prayers of thanksgiving said.

Many years after the first miracle, another storm caused the people to remember Our Lady of the Palm. Ships were wrecked in the harbour and the ocean was violently disturbed. The people demanded a procession of Our Lady of the Palm and when the procession was finished, the storm abated. Hail Glorious and Blessed Mother, where is our faith today!

St Amabilis of Auvergne
St Austremonius
St Benignus of Dijon
St Cadfan
St Caesarius of Africa
St Caesarius of Damascus
St Ceitho
St Cledwyn of Wales
Bl Clemens Kyuemon
St Cyrenia of Tarsus
St Dacius of Damascus
St Deborah the Prophetess
St Dingad
Bl Dionysius Fugixima
St Floribert of Ghent
St Gal of Clermont
St Genesius of Lyon
St Germanus of Montfort
St Harold the King
St James of Persia
St Jerome Hermosilla
St John of Persia
St Julian of Africa
St Juliana of Tarsus
St Lluís Estruch Vives
St Marcel of Paris
St Mary the Slave
St Mathurin
St Meigan
St Nichole
St Pabiali of Wales
St Pere Josep Almató Ribera Auras
St Peter Absalon
Bl Peter Paul Navarra
Bl Petrus Onizuka Sadayu
St Rachel the Matriarch
Blessed Ranieri Rasini OFM (c 1250-1304 Lay Friar of the Order of Friars Minor
St Ruth the Matriarch
St Salaun of Leseven
St Severinus of Tivoli
St Valentin Faustino Berri Ochoa
St Vigor of Bayeux

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 1 November – Saint Deborah the Prophetess

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint Deborah the Prophetess, also known as Deborah the Judge, Deborah the Matriarch, Debbora, was a Old Testament prophetess and judge, the only female judge mentioned in sacred scripture. She was married to a man called Lappidoth (lightning/torch).

She rendered her judgments beneath a date palm tree between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel in the land of Ephraim.

The people of Israel had been oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose capital was Hazor, for twenty years. Stirred by the wretched condition of Israel she sends a message to Barak, the son of Abinoam, at Kedesh in Naphtali, and tells him that the Lord God had commanded him to muster ten thousand troops of Naphtali and Zebulun and concentrate them upon Mount Tabor, the mountain at the northern angle of the great plain of Esdraelon. At the same time she states that the Lord God of Israel will draw Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army, to the Kishon River. Barak declines to go without the prophet. Deborah consents, but declares that the glory of the victory will therefore belong to a woman.

As Deborah prophesied, a battle is fought (led by Barak), and Sisera is completely defeated, thereafter there was peace for 40 years.

Posted in Our MORNING Offering

Our Morning Offering – 1 November – Grant us Your Light, O Lord

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Grant us Your Light, O Lord
By St Bede (673-735)
Father and Doctor of the Church

Grant us Your light, O Lord,
so that the darkness of our hearts,
may wholly pass away
and we may come at last,
to the Light of Christ.
For Christ is that morning star,
who, when the night of this world has passed,
brings to His saints,
the promised light of life
and opens to them,
everlasting day.
Amen

Posted in ONE Minute REFLECTION

One Minute Reflection – 1 November – A pure soul possesses every power

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 1 November – The Solemnity of All Saints, Readings: Ps 32:1, Apoc 7:2-12, Matt 5:1-12

Blessed are you when men reproach you, and persecute you, and, speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you, for My sake. Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in heaven.

Matt 5:1-12

REFLECTION – There is nothing so beautiful as a soul that is pure. If we understood this, we would be incapable of losing our purity. A pure soul is like a beautiful pearl. So long as it is concealed in a shell at the bottom of the sea no one thinks of admiring it. But if you display it in the sun then this pearl shines and draws people’s eyes. Purity comes from heaven: we have to ask God for it. If we ask for it we shall get it. We must take great care not to lose it. It closes our hearts to pride, sensuality and every other passion.

Children, we cannot understand the power that a pure soul has over the Good God: it gets all it wants. Before God a pure soul is like a child before its mother: it caresses her and hugs her and its mother returns its caresses and embraces.

To preserve our purity there are three things: the Presence of God, prayer and the sacraments.

St John Vianney

PRAYER – Father, All-Powerful and ever-living God, today we rejoice in the holy men and women of every time and place. May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love. Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, our trusted guide and loving mother and all you holy Saints of the Church Triumphant, pray for us! We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, in union with the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.

Posted in CATHOLIC Quotes

Quote/s of the Day – 1 November – Saints

Posted on by AnaStpaul

In those days, behold, I John, saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, who had it in their power to harm the earth and the sea, saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

Apoc 7:2-12

All the rich among the people shall supplicate thy face from age to age, and particularly at the end of the world; that is to say, the greatest Saints, the souls richest in graces and virtues, shall be the most assiduous in praying to our Blessed Lady, and in having her always present as their perfect model to imitate, and their powerful aid to give them succour. They shall be little and poor in the world’s esteem, and abased before all, like the heel, trodden underfoot and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body.

St Louis de Montfort

God makes those who are open to Him exceedingly beautiful, famous among nations for their beauty, perfect and queenly. It is a beauty which He alone bestows, for it is His own beauty.

The Fire Within

The Heavenly Spouse grants the petitions of all chaste souls.

Fr Spirago

Dear daughter, you must know that it is necessary that at different times and different places you must be crowned with both these crowns. Choose then, which you prefer: to be crowned during your life on earth with the crown of thorns, and I will keep the other for you for the life without end, or to receive the precious one now and to have the crown of thorns reserved for you after your death.

Jesus Christ to St Catherine of Siena

The fear of God is a sign of predestination.

St Augustine

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY

Thought for the Day – 1 November – All Saints

Posted on by AnaStpaul

The happiness of the saints is something so great and so far above human thoughts that Saint Paul says, when he speaks of it, Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has the heart of man ever conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. It is, he says, the hidden wisdom of God, which he has prepared before all ages for our glory. We know, says Saint John, that when Jesus appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

What a joy for the saints to be made like God through participation in his nature and in the divine perfections! There God is truly in the saints by a holy sharing in his greatness, and the saints are in God, because their entire being is penetrated by God so that they can think and love only God. Today, pay homage to the saints, but let it be in God, because it is in him that you find them all. Admire how great is the happiness they enjoy in heaven, how wonderful is this glory they recieve, and beg them to obtain from God for you the grace to share in their glory after death.

But no matter what hope you can have to share in the glory of the saints, it will have no effect unless you work to become a saint by using the same means they used to achieve this. They endured great combats, says Saint Paul, in the various kinds of afflictions they suffered. They served as a spectacle to the world because of insults and ill-treatment. With joy they saw themselves despoiled of all their goods, knowing that they had more excellent goods that would never perish. Elsewhere he says they endured mockeries, scourgings, chains, and prisons, some were stones, others sawed in two, some were put to death by the sword, others wandered about garbed in sheepskins and goatskins, being abandoned, tormented, and persecuted, others, finally, of whom the world was not worthy, passed their life wandering in deserts and on mountains, living in dens and caves of the earth.

All these saints, tormented in various ways, were unwilling to rescue their present life but chose to find a better one in the resurrection. For, adds the same Apostle, these are only the afflictions that produce the eternal weight of glory to which we are destined in the next life. Yearn then, for sufferings every day, as did many of the saints, in the desire and the hope of being clothed with them one day with the immortality of heaven.

St John Baptiste de La Salle

Posted in NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY

Devotion for the Month of November – The Holy Souls in Purgatory

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Requiescant in Pace

Fr Richard Clarke

On All Souls’ Day we offer this prayer for those who are not only saints, but saints on the very threshold of paradise, waiting to be admitted to the immediate presence of God. It is always a privilege to do a service to the friends of God, it is so above all when those who need our help will in a short time behold His face in heaven, and will gratefully remember to all eternity each little prayer offered on their behalf.

These saints waiting for heaven cry out to us to help them. They have a claim on us by reason of the intensity of their suffering. No words can tell what they suffer, and their very love for God increases their pain. Every compassionate heart will desire to do something to relieve them and to shorten the time of their banishment. Yet how little I do for them!

They are moreover, unable to help themselves. If we saw one whom we knew to be a saint enduring some affliction in which he could do nothing in his own behalf, we should be eager to assist him. The holy souls are utterly helpless, their own prayers avail them nothing. To us they look for aid, to us for an abridgement of their time of punishment. Do I respond to their appeal as I ought?

ETERNAL REST

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
and may perpetual light shine upon them
and may the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen