Category: Against BREAST Cancer

Posted in Against BREAST Cancer, Against CANCER, Of Cancer Patients, DOMINICAN OP, Of the SICK, the INFIRM, All ILLNESS, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PRAYERS to the SAINTS, SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 31 May – Blessed James Salomoni OP (1231-1314) Father of the Poor, Apostle of the Afflicted. Patron of Cancer Patients and the Sick with an approved prayer.

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 31 May – Blessed James Salomoni OP (1231-1314) Priest of the Order of Preachers, “Father of the Poor,” “Apostle of the Afflicted,” Miracle-worker graced with the ability to cure sickness. Born as Giacomo Salomoni in 1231 at Venice, Italy and died on 31 March 1314 of cancer at Forli, Italy. Patronages – cancer patients, of the sick. Also known as James the Venetian, Giacomo Salomonio, surname spelled variously as Salomone, Salomonelli, Salomonius,

James was born in Venice, in 1231, the only child of noble parents. His father died when he was very young and his mother became a Cistercian nun, leaving him to the care of his grandmother. She did well by her orphaned grandson and James became a good and studious boy, who responded eagerly to any spiritual suggestions.

Under the direction of a Cistercian Monk, he learned to meditate and on the Monk’s counsel, James became a Dominican at the Convent of Sts John and Paul, in Venice, as soon as he was old enough. He gave most of his money to the poor and arrived at the Convent with just enough left, to buy a few books. Seeing that one of the Lay Brothers there was in need of clothing, he gave his final small sum to the him and entered empty-handed.

James wore the Dominican habit with dignity and piety, if not with any worldly distinction, for sixty-six years. He was humble and good and obedient and there was nothing spectacular about his spirituality. He was well-known for his direction of souls but he fled, even from the distinction this work brought him.

Even his retiring habits did not protect him, for the people of Venice beat a path to his door. In self -defence, he transferred to another house, that of Forli. This was a house of strict observance and very poor. Nothing could suit him better. For the remainder of his life he worked and prayed in Forli, going out to visit the sick in the hospitals and spending long hours in the Confessional. His charity to the poor and the sick gave the name ” Father of the Poor.”

God granted James the grace of miracles during his lifetime. Once, while he was hearing the confession of a pious woman, she saw the Holy Spirit, in the form of a white dove, sitting on his shoulder and whispering into his ear. Another time, a young girl was cured through his prayer for her, of a terrible cancer on her leg.

James was himself afflicted with cancer, during the last four years of his life. At his death, the cancerous wound on his chest disappeared, leaving only a faint scar and from it arose a fragrant aroma.

He died on 31 May 1314, in his eighty-third year. His relics now lie in the Basilica of Sts John and Paul in Venice.

Devotion to Blessed James has been approved and encouraged by several Popes. In 1526 he was officiallt Beatified by Pope Clement VII

Prayer

O BLESSED JAMES, during your life you received, with utmost tenderness, those who came to you with their afflictions of body and soul, consoling them even to the point of working miracles on their behalf. Now that you are in Heaven, listen to my poor prayers and out of your goodness, help me in my needs with your unfailing intercession.

(Here state your intentions)

Obtain for me, I beg you, the grace to imitate your virtues, especially your generous love of God and neighbour, your profound humility, your tender devotion to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Obtain for me too, patience in adversity, fortitude in suffering and preserve me from those dreadful ills against which you are invoked as a special protector.

May your assistance help me to live a holy life on earth, so that I may deserve to be with you some day in the glory of Heaven.
AMEN

V. Blessed James Salomoni
R. Pray for us.
Posted in Against BREAST Cancer, BRIDES and GROOMS, DOCTORS, / SURGEONS / MIDWIVES., Of GARDENERS, Horticulturists, Farmers, PATRONAGE - HAPPY MARRIAGES, of MARRIED COUPLES, SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 6 February – St Dorothy of Caesarea (Died 311) Virgin, Martyr

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 6 February – St Dorothy of Caesarea (died 311) – Virgin, Martyr – also known as Dora, Dorothea – Patronages – horticulture, brewers, brides, florists, gardeners, midwives, newlyweds, love, Pescia in Italy.  Franz_Ittenbach_Hl_Dorothea.jpg

St Dorothy is a 4th-century virgin martyr who was executed at Caesarea Mazaca. Evidence for her actual historical existence or acta is very sparse.   She is called a martyr of the Diocletianic Persecution, although her death occurred after the resignation of Diocletian himself.   She should not be confused with another 4th-century saint, Dorothea of Alexandria.   She and St Theophilus the Lawyer are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology as martyrs of Caesarea in Cappadocia, with a feast day on 6 February.   She is thus officially recognised as a saint but because there is scarcely any non-legendary knowledge about her, she is no longer (since 1969) included in the General Roman Calendar.

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St Dorothy and the Child by Edward Burne Jones

St Dorothy was a young virgin, celebrated at Cæsarea, where she lived, for her angelic virtue.   Her parents seem to have been martyred before her in the Diocletian persecution and when the Governor Sapricius came to Cæsarea he called her before him and sent this child of martyrs to the home where they were waiting for her.

She was stretched upon the rack and offered marriage if she would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused.   But she replied that “Christ was her only Spouse and death her desire.”   She was then placed in charge of two women who had fallen away from the faith, in the hope that they might pervert her but the fire of her own heart rekindled the flame in theirs and led them back to Christ.

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St Dorothy by Francisco de Zubaran

When she was set once more on the rack, Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore and asked her the cause of her joy.   “Because,” she said, “I have brought back two souls to Christ and because I shall soon be in heaven rejoicing with the angels.”

Her joy grew as she was buffeted in the face and her sides burned with plates of red-hot iron.   “Blessed be Thou,” she cried, when she was sentenced to be beheaded,-“blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls!   Who dost call me to Paradise and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber.”

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St Dorothy by Lucas Cranach the Elder

St Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter and it is said that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him “apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse.”

The Saint promised to grant his request and, just before she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses.   She bade him take them to Theophilus and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden of her Spouse.  Santa_Dorotea_e_Teofilo_E.jpg

St Dorothy had gone to heaven and Theophilus was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint when the child entered his room.   He saw that the child was an angel in disguise and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth.   He was converted to the faith and then shared in the martyrdom of St Dorothy.

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St Dorothy by Girolamo Donnini

She is regarded as the patroness of gardeners.   On her feast trees are blessed in some places.

Posted in Against BREAST Cancer, Against STORMS, EARTHQUAKES, THUNDER & LIGHTENING, FIRES, DROUGHT / NATURAL DISASTERS, Of HOSPITALS, NURSES, NURSING ASSOCIATIONS, PATRONAGE - RAPE VICTIMS, PATRONAGE-INFERTILITY & SAFE CHILDBIRTH, SAINT of the DAY, Spinsters - Single LAYWOMEN, The APOSTLES & EVANGELISTS

Saint of the Day – 5 February – St Agatha (c 231- c 251) Virgin and Martyr

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 5 February – St Agatha (c 231- c 251) Virgin and Martyr.   St Agatha was born at Catania or Palermo, Sicily and she was martyred in approximately 251 at Catania, Sicily by being rolled on coals.   She is one of seven women, who, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.   Patronages – against breast cancer, against breast disease, against earthquakes, against eruptions of Mount Etna, against fire, against natural disasters, against sterility, against volcanic eruptions, of bell-founders, fire prevention, jewellers, martyrs, nurses, rape victims, single laywomen, torture victims, wet-nurses, Malta, San Marino, 64 Cities.

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One of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity, Agatha was put to death during the persecution of Decius (250–253) in Catania, Sicily, for her determined profession of faith.   Her written legend comprises “straightforward accounts of interrogation, torture, resistance and triumph which constitute some of the earliest hagiographic literature”.   Although the martyrdom of Saint Agatha is authenticated and her veneration as a saint had spread beyond her native place even in antiquity, there is no reliable information concerning the details of her death.

Cavallino, Bernardo; St Agatha; York Museums Trust; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/st-agatha-7795

According to Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend of c 1288, having dedicated her virginity to God, fifteen-year-old Agatha, from a rich and noble family, rejected the amorous advances of the low-born Roman prefect Quintianus, who then persecuted her for her Christian faith.   He sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel.   The madam finding her intractable, Quintianus sent for her, argued, threatened and finally had her put in prison.   Amongst the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts with pincers.

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After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, represented in a sequence of dialogues in her passio that document her fortitude and steadfast devotion, Saint Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt at the stake but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where St Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds. Saint Agatha died in prison, according to the Legenda Aurea in “the year of our Lord two hundred and fifty-three in the time of Decius, the emperor of Rome.”

Saint Agatha is a patron saint of Malta, where in 1551 her intercession through a reported apparition to a Benedictine nun is said to have saved Malta from Turkish invasion.   Agatha is the patron saint of bell-founders because of the shape of her severed breasts and also of bakers, whose loaves were blessed at her feast day.   More recently, she has been venerated as patron saint of breast cancer patients. She is claimed as the patroness of Palermo.   The year after her death, the stilling of an eruption of Mt. Etna was attributed to her intercession.   As a result, apparently, people continued to ask her prayers for protection against fire.

Agatha is buried at the Badia di Sant’Agata, Catania.   She is listed in the late 6th-century Martyrologium Hieronymianum associated with Jerome and the Synaxarion, the calendar of the church of Carthage, ca. 530.438px-Catania's_duomo_and_balloons

Two early churches were dedicated to her in Rome, notably the Church of Sant’Agata dei Goti in Via Mazzarino, a titular church with apse mosaics of c 460 and traces of a fresco cycle, overpainted by Gismondo Cerrini in 1630.   Agatha is also depicted in the mosaics of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, where she appears, richly dressed, in the procession of female martyrs along the north wall.

Basques have a tradition of gathering on Saint Agatha’s Eve (Basque: Santa Ageda bezpera) and going round the village. Homeowners can choose to hear a song about her life, accompanied by the beats of their walking sticks on the floor or a prayer for the household’s deceased.   After that, the homeowner donates food to the chorus.[25] This song has varying lyrics according to the local tradition and the Basque language.

An annual festival to commemorate the life of Saint Agatha takes place in Catania, Sicily, from February 3 to 5.   The festival culminates in a great all-night procession through the city for which hundreds of thousands of the city’s residents turn out.catania_i_cannalori

St Agatha’s Tower is a former Knight’s stronghold located in the north west of Malta.  The seventeenth-century tower served as a military base during both World Wars and was used as a radar station by the Maltese army.

Burial of St Agatha, by Giulio Campi, 1537
Burial of St Agatha, by Giulio Campi, 1537