Day: November 2, 2026

Posted in MARIAN TITLES

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – All Souls Day, Notre-Dame D’Emminont / Our Lady of Emminont. Abbeville, France (12th Century) and Memorials of the Saints – 2 November

Posted on by AnaStpaul

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – All Souls Day (Commemoration): Commemoration of the faithful departed in Purgatory. Abbot Odilo of Cluny instituted it in the Monasteries of his congregation in 998, other religious orders took up the observance and it was adopted by various Diocese and gradually by the whole Church. The Office of the Dead must be recited by the clergy on this day and Pope Benedict XV granted to all Priests, the privilege of saying three Masses of requiem –
• one for the souls in Purgatory
• one for the intention of the Holy Father
• one for the Priest’s intentions
If the feast should fall on Sunday it is kept on 3 November.
Patronage: Monselice, Italy

Notre-Dame D’Emminont / Our Lady of Emminont. Abbeville, France (12th Century) – 2 November:

The Shrine to Our Lady of Emminont, or Notre-Dame D’Emminont, is near Abbeville in France. It is much visited by pilgrims devoted to the Mother of God who at their prayers and petitions, still performs many miracles and favours for her people.

The relics of Saint Wulfram (also spelled Wulfran or Vulfran) of Sens, who died in 656, were brought to the Shrine in the year 1058. Until that time, the Church had been known as the Collegiate Church of Our Lady in Abbeville but after the relics of Saint Wulfram were interred there, the Church was rededicated in Saint Wulfram’s honour. The Church retains that name to this day.

Franciscan Friars, well-versed in wood carving, cared for the Shrine. They were consulted in 1510 concerning work on the Cathedral of Amiens. In richness of detail, Abbeville surpasses many other Cathedrals. The nave was built between the years 1488 to 1539 and the small choir between 1661 and 1663. The construction was paid for by the King of France, and Count of Ponthieu and the faithful of Abbeville. The Church is much smaller than it was originally intended to be, as the initial blueprint for the Church was never completed. The nave is quite short, has only two bays and the choir is extremely small. Still, the façade is a superb masterpiece of the flamboyant Gothic style.

During the French Revolution the Church of Saint Wulfram was profaned and given the name of a “Temple of Reason” by the unreasoning revolutionaries who sought to destroy the immutable God by demolishing priceless monuments and artifacts and even, the glory of their own history.
The Town of Abbeville was heavily bombed by the German’s during World War II, so that much of what is seen there today is of fairly modern origin. The Church was also damaged, but efforts were made to restore it to its former grandeur.

The list of favours granted by Our Lady of Emminont, is indeed very long. It includes miraculous cures, astounding spiritual and temporal favours and streams of graces and blessings.

St Ambrose of Agaune
St Ambrose of Agaune
St Amicus of Fonte Avellana
St Amicus of Rambone
St Baya of Scotland
St Domninus of Grenoble
St Erc of Slane
St Eustochium of Tarsus
St George of Vienne
Bl John Bodey
St Jorandus of Kergrist
St Justus of Trieste

St Marcian of Chalcis
Bl Margaret of Lorraine
St Mateo López y López
St Maura of Scotland
St Theodotus of Laodicea
St Victorinus of Pettau (Died c 304) Bishop Martyr

St Willebald of Bavaria
—
Martyrs of Isfahan – 5+ saints: Acindynus, Pegasius and Anempodistus were Persian priests who were imprisoned, tortured, interrogated and martyred in the persecutions of king Sapor II of Persia; he considered any Christian to be a Roman spy and anti-Persian. The three were brought back to life, miraculously healed, freed from their chains and began preaching Christianity, miraculously healing Sapor II in the process. This defiance enraged Sapor so much that he ordered them executed again; they were thrown into a cauldron of molten lead but walked out unharmed. This miracle brought one of the torturers, Aphthonius, to convert; he was immediately martyred. Other attempts were made to kill them, and they emerged each time unharmed. Senator Elpidiphorus led a group speaking in favour of the Christians for their courage and faith; he was immediately executed. In the end the original three Christians were burned to death. Martyrs all – Acindynus, Anempodistus, Aphthonius, Elpidephorus and Pegasius.
They were born in Persia and Died:
• c.350 in Isfahan, Persia
• relics transferred to Constantinople and enshrined in a church dedicated to them
• some relics taken to France in 1204 during the 4th Crusade
• relics in France were lost when hidden from anti-Christian forces in the French Revolution
• relics in France re-discovered in 1892 in Grozon.

Martyrs of Sebaste – 10 saints: A group of ten soldiers in the imperial Roman army of Emperor Licinius Licinianus who were executed together for refusing to burn incense as a sacrifice to the emperor. The only details that have survived are five of their names – Agapius, Cartherius, Eudoxius, Styriacus and Tobias. They were burned at the stake in 315 in Sebaste (in modern Turkey).

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 2 November – Saint Justus of Trieste

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint Justus of Trieste (also Justus the Martyr, Just of Trieste, Giusto, Just, Sergius) was a citizen of Trieste in Italy, known for his works and charities. When charges of being a Christian were brought against him by his fellow citizens, he was tried according to Roman law. Since he refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he was found guilty of sacrilegium and sentenced to death by drowning. In 293 he was thrown from a small boat into the Gulf of Trieste, off of the present-day promontory of Sant’Andrea.

On the night of Justus’ death the priest Sebastian was told in a dream that Justus’ body had been washed ashore in spite of the weights meant to hold it down. Sebastian gathered his fellow believers and they went searching for the body, which they found on what is today Riva Grumula. Justus was then buried not far from the shore where he had been found. In late antique times the area near Piazza Hortis in Trieste was a cemeterial one and there is a good possibility that the former basilica of the Holy Martyrs at the corner of Via Ciamician and Via Duca d’Aosta was built on Justus’ tomb.

In the Middle Ages, the body of Justus was translated to a chapel adjacent to the church of Mary Mother of God (the present-day Duomo), attested since the 6th century. When, in the 10th or 11th century, the chapel was joined to the church, the cathedral, though dedicated to Mary Mother of God, became known as the Cathedral of Saint Justus.

He is the patron saint of the city and diocese of Trieste. He is also patron saint of Albona, San Giusto Canavese and Misilmeri in Sicily.

Rusticus the prefect said to Liberianus, And what say you? Are you a Christian, and unwilling to worship [the gods]? Liberianus said, I too am a Christian, for I worship and reverence the only true God.

The Martyrdom of Justin

Posted in Our MORNING Offering

Our Morning Offering – 2 November – My Jesus, by the Sorrows You Suffered

Posted on by AnaStpaul

My Jesus, by the Sorrows You Suffered
Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory

My Jesus, by the sorrows You suffered
in Your Agony in the Garden,
in Your Scourging
and Crowning with Thorns,
on the Way to Calvary,
in Your Crucifixion and Death,
have mercy on the souls in Purgatory
and especially on those,
who are most forsaken.
Deliver them from the dire torments they endure.
Call them and admit them
to Your most sweet embrace
in Paradise.
Amen

Posted in ONE Minute REFLECTION

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 2 November – Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – All Souls Day – Readings: 4 Esd. 2:34-35, Ps 64:2-3, 1 Cor. 15:51-57), John 5:25-29

At that time, Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews, Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is here, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live.

John 5:25-29

REFLECTION – Come, Lord Jesus, seek your servant; seek your weary sheep; come, my shepherd. While you delay on the mountains, see!, your sheep is straying. So leave the ninety-nine that are safe in hand and come, look for the one that has strayed. Come, without seeking a helper, without making yourself known; it is you I am waiting for now. Take no whip; take up your love. Come with the gentleness of your Spirit. Don’t hesitate to leave the ninety-nine that belong to you on the mountains: wolves cannot reach the heights where you have set them… Come to me who have strayed far away from the flocks on high, for you had set me up there, too, but the night wolves made me leave your sheepfolds.

Seek me, Lord, since my prayer seeks you. Seek me, find me, take me up, carry me! He whom you seek, you can find; he whom you find, stoop to take up; and he whom you take up, set on your shoulders. This burden of your love is never a load for you and you unwearyingly make of yourself the toll-keeper of justice. So come, Lord, since, if it is true that I stray, yet “I do not forget your word” and still keep hoping for relief. Come, Lord, for you alone are still able to call your lost sheep and will cause no harm to those you will be leaving behind. They, too, will be happy to see the sinner return. Come! There will be redemption on earth and rejoicing in heaven.

Do not send your menservants, do not send hirelings: come and look for your sheep yourself. Take me up in that flesh that fell with Adam. By this act acknowledge in me, not the child of Eve but the son of Mary, pure virgin, virgin by grace, without stain of sin. Then carry me even to your cross, salvation of the straying, only rest for the weary, sole life of all who die.

St Ambrose

PRAYER – Merciful Father, hear our prayers and console us. As we renew our faith in Your Son, Whom You raised from the dead, strengthen our hope that all our departed brothers and sisters will share in His Resurrection, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen.

Posted in CATHOLIC Quotes

Quote/s of the Day – 2 November – All Souls

Posted on by AnaStpaul

To be saved, we must necessarily live according to the maxims of the Gospel, and the number of those who now-a-days, do so live, can the number be called great? To be saved, we must openly declare that we are disciples of our Saviour.

La Pere Croiset

Scripture knows nothing of two ways to God or two differing prayer paths, one for the many, the other for the few. This new school of thought claims that most people go to God sufficently in active, discursive prayer and that they don’t need and ought not to expect infused contemplation. This really implies a two-tired concept of sanctity. This idea is foreign to scripture and the whole of Catholic Tradition.

The Fire Within

We can never understand too clearly that every alms, small or great, which we give to the poor we give to God. He accepts it and rewards it as given to Himself. Therefore, all we do for the Holy Souls, God accepts as done to Himself. It is as if we had relieved or released Him from Purgatory. What a thought! How He will repay us!

Fr Paul O’Sullivan

Ah, my Lord, and wherefore did I leave Thee, and lose Thy grace? for pleasures that are brief and empoisoned, which vanished away ere I possessed them, and left my heart full of woe and bitterness. Ah my sins, I detest you, and curse you a thousand times ; but I bless Thy mercy, my God, which with so much patience has endured with me.

St Alphonsus Liguori

Ah, dear lord, how Christians are damned through lack of charity! No, no, my dear brethren, even if you could perform miracles, you will never be saved if you have not charity. Not to have charity is not to know your religion; it is to have a religion of whim, mood, and inclination. Carry on, carry on, you are only hypocrites and outcasts! Without charity you will never see God, you will never go to Heaven! Give away your wealth, give generous alms to those who love you or who please you, go to Mass every day, go to Holy Communion every day if you wish: you are only hypocrites and outcasts.

St John Vianney

The most terrifying, however, is Saint Jerome. At the end of his life, in the presence of his disciples, he spoke these dreadful words: “Out of one hundred thousand people whose lives have always been bad, you will find barely one who is worthy of indulgence.”

St Leonard of Port Maurice

Posted in NOVEMBER - Month of the SOULS in PURGATORY

Thought for the Day – 2 November – Treatise on Purgatory

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Treatise on Purgatory

CHAPTER I

St Catherine of Genoa

The souls in purgatory, as far as I can understand the matter, cannot but choose to be there ; and this by God’s ordinance, Who has justly decreed it so. They cannot reflect within themselves and say, ” I have done such and such sins, for which I deserve to be here; ” nor can they say, “Would that I had not done them, that now I might go to Paradise ;” nor yet say, “That soul is going out before me;” nor, “I shall go out before him.” They can remember nothing of themselves or others, whether good or evil, which might increase the pain they ordinarily endure ; they are so completely satisfied with what God has ordained for them, that He should be doing all that pleases Him, and in the way it pleases Him, that they are incapable of thinking of themselves even in the midst of their greatest sufferings.

They behold only the goodness of God, whose mercy is so great in bringing men to Himself, that they cannot see anything that may affect them, whether good or bad ; if they could, they would not be in pure charity. They do not know that their sufferings are for the sake of their sins, nor can they keep in view the sins themselves ; for in doing so there would be an act of imperfection, which could have no place where there can be no longer any possibility of actually sinning. Once, in passing out of this life, they perceive why they have their purgatory ; but never afterwards, otherwise self would come in.