Saint of the Day – 21 June – Saint Ralph of Bourges (Died 866) Archbishop of Bourges. Born as Raoul in Angoumois, France and died on 21 June 866 of natural causes. He is remembered as a skillful diplomat and a proponent of ecclesiastical reform. Also known as Raoul, Radulph, Radulf or Rudolf.
Ralph’s family was prominent in the region of Angoumois, France and he, himself, possessed lands in the Limousin. He was named after his father, the count of Turenne (died 844) and he had four brothers and two sisters.
Making Christ his only inheritance, he took the Monastic habit in 822 at Solignac and was made Archbishop of Bourges in 840. He founded seven Monasteries and was indefatigable in reforming his flock increasing their knowledge of the faith and teaching them to practise it in their lives.
The Monastery of Solignac, where Rodulf began his ecclesiastical career.
For the direction of his clergy he compiled a book of Canons under the title of Pastoral Instructions.
With Bishop Stodilo of Limoges, Ralph helped found the Monastery of Beaulieu. His family provided the land for the foundation and he, himiself, Consecrated the new community under the Benedictine rule in 860. He granted the Monks the right of free election of their Abbot and pronounced excommunication on any governing authority, who molested them in the future. He even procured royal protection for them. Ralph also helped found the Convent at Cahors, where his sister, Immena, was installed as the first Abbess.
Ralph died at Bourges on 21 June 866 and was buried in the Basilica of Saint Ursinus, see below.
St Agofredus of La-Croix
St Alban of Mainz
St Apollinaris of Africa
Bl Colagia
St Corbmac
St Cyriacus of Africa
St Demetria of Rome
St Dominic of Comacchio
St Engelmund
Bl Jacques-Morelle Dupas
St John Rigby
St José Isabel Flores Varela
Bl Juan of Jesus
St Lazarus
St Leutfridus
St Martia of Syracuse
St Martin of Tongres
Bl Melchiorre della Pace
St Mewan of Bretagne
Bl Nicholas Plutzer St Ralph of Bourges (Died 866)
St Raymond of Barbastro
St Rufinus of Syracuse
St Suibhne the Sage
St Terence
St Ursicenus of Pavia
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Martyrs of Taw – 3+ saints: Three Christians of different backgrounds who were martyred together – Moses, Paphnutius, Thomas. They were beheaded in Taw, Egypt, date unknown.
Saint of the Day – 20 June – Saint John of Matera (c 1070-1139) Monk, Abbot, Mystic, renowned Preacher, miracle-worker, gifted with bilocation – born in c 1070 at Matera, Basilicata region, Italy and died in 1139 at Pulsano, Italy of natural causes. Also known as John of Pulsano, Giovanni di Matera, Giovanni Scalcione. St John is often portrayed as an abbot driving the devil away with a rod.
St John was born around the year 1070 in Matera, in the region of the Basilicata in Italy, to a noble family. He left everything behind, while still a young man and embraced the monastic life in the Monastery of St William of Vercelli OSB (1085-1142) – His life here: https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/25/saint-of-the-day-25-june-st-william-of-vercelli/
He made many enemies by his upright life and was eventually imprisoned. He was rescued from prison by Grimoald, Prince of Bari, who ordered him to give an account of his theology to prove his orthodoxy. He preached under Grimoald in Bari.
Subsequently he founded the Abbey of Pulsano after the invitation of Our Lady and Saint Michael the Archangel who had both appeared to him.
Around him were gathered monks and hermits who gave life to the “Pulsanesi,” inspired by the rule of Saint Benedict.
His life was marked by numerous angelic visions but also by ferocious attacks from the devil. Here are three citations taken from his hagiography in which the Saint guards his followers from attacks of the devil:
“A young man, to attract a young woman, sold his soul to the devil but, having become tepid, he regretted it. The demon, eager for that soul, cast him into a ravine, where a venerable monk appeared to the poor thing, admonished him and advised him to go to Pulsano to get salutary advice. Saved by a miracle from the precipice, he went there and was amazed to recognise in our Abbot, the Monk who had appeared to him down in the ravine. He took off his garments and clothed himself with a habit and lived in the Order humbly and holy and died in that way.”
And another: “Sabino, devoted to him and already very much a close friend of his, was at the end of his life. The monks around his bed were in tears waiting for his death, when he was enraptured in ecstasy. Upon returning, he recounted that it seemed to him that he was dead and was caught by two horrible devils that wanted to drag him into hell. At that point Saint John Matera appeared and with a haughty scowl he attempted to snatch away their prey. They attacked and flung themselves on him the Saint with a resolute air confronted them, the demons, given their arrogance, tried to show, while thumbing through their wicked book, that the monk deserved eternal punishment. The Priest, upon the revelation of the failings committed by him, was left perplexed. Then there appeared the Holy Virgin who noticed the servant of God, chased away the demons, liberated the
wretched man and disappeared. The Priest, meanwhile, warned the friar to admonish his two companions to repent of their sins, if they did not want to come to a bad end. Of the two, one confessed humbly all his guilt and was preserved in goodness, the other rejected and finished badly.”
On another occasion he freed his fellow friars from a diabolical infestation:
“In the forest the monks were working to knock down and square off some tree trunks; the Father was not with them. A group of soldiers appeared who threw themselves upon them. But they were not soldiers but demons. All of sudden they backed off, since Saint John Matera rushed to their aid. Imagine how they surrounded him. But the sweet Father, comforting them with gentle cautions, disappeared. The monks were astounded. One of them returned to the Monastery the next day to tell what had happened. The man of God with his arms raised thanked the Lord and reaffirmed that it was not for his merits but for the merits of their obedience that the Lord performed such a miracle.”
St John died in Foggia in 1139. He was buried in a niche in a cave in the Church at Saint Mary of Pulsano Abbey. In 1830 his relics were translated to Matera Cathedral and then in 1939 were enshrined in a new sarcophagus. St John was Canonised in 1177 by Pope Alexander III.
St Bagne of Thérouanne
St Edburga of Caistor
St Gemma of Saintonge
St Goban of Picardie
St Helen of Öehren St John of Matera (c 1070-1139)
St Macarius of Petra
Bl Margareta Ebner
St Methodius of Olympus
Bl Michelina of Pesaro
St Novatus of Rome St Pope Silverius (Died 538) Martyr Biography: https://anastpaul.com/2019/06/20/saint-of-the-day-20-june-st-pope-silverius-died-538-martyr/
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Irish Martyrs – 17 beati – This is the collective title given to the 260 or more persons who are credited with dying for the faith in Ireland between 1537 and 1714. Seventeen of them were beatified together on 27 September 1992 by St Pope John Paul II.
• Blessed Conn O’Rourke• Blessed Conor O’Devany• Blessed Dermot O’Hurley• Blessed Dominic Collins• Blessed Edward Cheevers• Blessed Francis Taylor• Blessed George Halley• Blessed John Kearney• Blessed Matthew Lambert• Blessed Maurice Eustace• Blessed Patrick Cavanagh• Blessed Patrick O’Healy• Blessed Patrick O’Loughran• Blessed Peter Higgins• Blessed Robert Meyler• Blessed Terrence Albert O’Brien• Blessed William Tirry
Martyrs of Lower Moesia:
Martyred on the Black Sea at Lower Moesia (in modern Bulgaria), date unknown.
St Cyriacus
St Paul
Martyred in Nagasaki: 9 Beati : burned alive on 20 June 1626 in Nagasaki, Japan. Their ashes were thrown into the sea and no relics remain. They were Beatified on 7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX.
• Blessed Baltasar de Torres Arias
• Blessed Francisco Pacheco
• Blessed Gaspar Sadamatsu
• Blessed Giovanni Battista Zola
• Blessed Ioannes Kisaku
• Blessed Michaël Tozo
• Blessed Paulus Shinsuke
• Blessed Petrus Rinsei
• Blessed Vincentius Kaun
Quote/s of the Day – 19 June – Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests and the Memorial of Bl Maria Rosa Flesch FSMA (1826-1906)
“We, Christians, are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His Heart, as from a Rock!”
St Justin Martyr (100-165)
Father of the Church and Martyr
Looking forward to never-ending communion, St Gertrude ended her earthly life on 17 November 1301 or 1302, at the age of about 46. In the seventh Exercise, that of preparation for death, St Gertrude wrote:
“O Jesus, You who are immensely dear to me, be with me always, so that my heart may stay with You and that Your love may endure with me, with no possibility of division and bless my passing, so that my spirit, freed from the bonds of the flesh, may immediately find rest in you. Amen”
St Gertrude the Great (1256-1302)
“If the Jewish High priest carried the names of the twelve tribes of Israel written on his shoulders and on his breast, how much more Christ, our High Priest, carries our names written on His Heart”
St John of Avila (1500-1569)
Doctor of the Church
“Do everything out of love for God, for God, with God, to get to God.”
Bl Maria Rosa Flesch FSMA (1826-1906)
“The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus”
St John Marie Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859)
Patron of Priests
“Ah! Beside You I am not afraid of anything! I snuggle up against You and, like the lost sheep, hear the beating of Your Heart. Jesus, yet again I am Yours, Yours forever. With You, I am truly great, without You, nothing but a weak reed. Upheld by You, I am a pillar!”
Saint of the Day – 19 June – Blessed Maria Rosa/Margaretha Flesch FSMA (1826-1906) (commonly known as Mother Rosa), Religious Sister and Founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels, Apostle of the sick, the poor, orphans, spiritual writer, Nurse and Teacher. Margaretha assumed the new religious name of “Maria Rosa” after she made her profession into her own order and was its first Mother Superior and of which Order, she is the Patron. Her feast is today, 19 June – the date of her solemn profession – rather than the date of her death.
Mother Maria Rosa painted by her friend Oktavie de Lasalle von Louisenthal
Margaretha Flesch was born to a poor oil-seed miller on 24 February 1826, in Schönstatt, near Koblenz, in Germany. She was the oldest of seven. When her mother died in 1832 the family moved to Niederbreitbach, in the hope of improving their financial situation. Margaretha’s father died when she was 16, leaving she and her stepmother to care for her siblings. Since no social services for the poor existed then, the family was left to fend for itself.
Margaretha worked as a day labourer, gathered and sold herbs and was skilled in handicrafts. The needs of the people, especially orphans and the sick were one of her major concerns, motivated as she was by strong faith in God she felt called to serve the poor, the sick and the helpless.
In Autumn 1851, Margaretha and her sister Marianne moved into the small quarters at the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Waldbreitbach. They lived parsimoniously, trusting God for their daily sustenance while serving the poor and sick of the community. In addition to working as a day labourer, Margaretha took in orphans and taught home economics in some of the nearby schools.
In 1856, Margaretha was joined by two women who also felt called to serve the poor and sick. In 1860, the local pastor invited them and the orphans to move to premises in Hausen.
These premises proved totally uninhabitable. In the Spring of 1861 they were at last able to begin building their first house on Waldbreitbach Chapel Mountain. It was to be their residence and a home where they could care for the sick. On 11 November 1861, they moved into their first “St Mary’s Home.” Her great devotion to Francis of Assisi since her childhood was instrumental in her founding her own Franciscan-branched order on 13 March 1863. During this time, Mother Rosa also built an orphanage and a hospital.
Waldbreitbach Motherhouse and Chapel
On 13 March 1863, with two other women, Margaretha professed the Evangelical Councils, publicly, in the Chapel of the Holy Cross. She took the name of Maria Rosa. She was known henceforth as Mother Rosa, the first Superior General of the Franciscan Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels.
Her Congregation increased rapidly. By 1878 there were 105 Sisters serving in 22 mission homes. It was also in that year, that she ended her term as Superior General. The Congregation thrived and when Mother Rosa died on 25 March 1908 there were 900 Sisters and 72 mission houses serving the sick and the poor, now spread as far as the Americas and in many countries of Europe.
Mother Rosa died on 25 March 1906. Her order received the decree of praise of Pope Pius X on 12 December 1912 – after her death – and later received the full papal approval of Pope Pius XI on 30 April 1928.
“It is through service to others, lovingly given,” Mother Rosa said, “that we reach a special fulfilment and union with our Lord.”
In 1957, the cause for her Beatification was introduced in Rome. … Vatican.va
Statue of Blessed Maria Rosa In Trier Cathedral
The decree on her writings was approved on 21 November 1980 and was placed under the care of theologians so that the latter, could investigate her written works, in order to ensure that each of them adhered to Church doctrine and did not contradict or oppose it. Following this the diocesan process received ratification from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1999. The miracle needed for her Beatification was investigated from 1998 until 1999 in Trier and involved the healing of Monica Schneider in the evenings of 5 and 6 September 1986. The C.C.S. approved the process of completing its work in 2001 and took possession of the boxes of documents for their own evaluation. It did not receive the approval of the Pontiff until 2007. Cardinal Joachim Meisner presided over the Beatification on 4 May 2008 on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.
Beatification Mass
The current Postulator assigned to the cause is the Franciscan Giovangiuseppe Califano.
St Lambert of Saragossa
St Lupo of Bergamo Blessed Maria Rosa/Margaretha Flesch FSMA (1826-1906)
St Modeste Andlauer
St Nazario of Koper
Bl Odo of Cambrai
St Protase
St Rémi Isoré
Bl Sebastian Newdigate
Bl Thomas Woodhouse
Bl William Exmew
St Zosimus of Umbria
Saint of the Day – 18 June – Saint Elisabeth of Schönau (1129-1164) Abbess, Mystic, Ascetic, Writer, Spiritual Adivisor – born in 1126 in Bingen, Germany and died on 18 June 1164 at Bingen, Germany of natural causes.
In the mid 12th century, Elisabeth of Schönau blurred the conventional gender roles of the time, through the dissemination of her astonishing visions. Elisabeth lived during a time when women were viewed as the weaker sex, both mentally and physically. Unless a woman were to join a convent or a religious movement, she would be expected to marry and to bear children. Elisabeth of Schönau, however, was far from powerless, as her visions led her to acquire enough fame to be known far and wide. Elisabeth became, not only a local celebrity as a result of her visions but, gained popularity throughout other parts of Germany, as well as in France and England. This enabled Elisabeth to have her own voice, to be known as an individual and to be sought after in an effort to acquire heavenly advice by high order men, including Bishops and Abbots. For men of such high order to call upon Elisabeth, a mere woman, is extremely significant given the time period in which Elisabeth lived. Elisabeth’s visions, as well as her twenty-two letters to Bishops, Abbots and Abbesses, enabled her to transcend the traditional gender roles of the time by making her widely known and giving her an individual voice.
Elisabeth was born about 1129, of an obscure noble family named Hartwig. At the age of 12 she was given to the nuns for education in the St Florin double abbey founded a few years earlier. At the age of 18 she entered the women’s Congregation. She made her profession as a Benedictine in 1147. In 1157 she became Abbess of the nuns under the supervision of Abbot Hildelin.
Her hagiography describes her as given to works of piety from her youth, much afflicted with bodily and mental suffering, a zealous observer of the Rule of Saint Benedict and of the regulation of her convent and devoted to practices of mortification. In the years 1147 to 1152 Elisabeth suffered recurrent disease, anxiety and depression as a result of her strict asceticism. St Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) Doctor of the Church admonished Elisabeth in letters to be prudent in the ascetic life. St Hildegard here: https://anastpaul.com/2018/09/17/saint-of-the-day-17-september-st-hildegard-von-bingen-osb-1098-1179-doctor-of-the-church/
At Pentecost in 1152, she first had spiritual experiences of a visionary nature, which she and the nuns and monks understood as the authentic message of God. These generally occurred on Sundays and Holy Days at Mass or Divine Office or after hearing or reading the lives of Saints. Christ, the Virgin Mary, an angel, or the special Saint of the day would appear to her and instruct her; or she would see quite realistic representations of the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, or other scenes of the Old and New Testaments.
She died on 18 June 1164 at the age of only 35 and was buried in the St Florin Abbey Church. It is extremely remarkable that she was not buried in the Monastery cemetery or in the Chapel of the nuns but in a prominent place in the Abbey Church itself. This was unusual and testifies to absolute acceptance of her mystical life, writings and deep veneration. There has never been a formal Canonisation process (pre-congregation) but every year on the day after her death, that is, on 19 June her memory is celebrated in the Monastery and surrounding towns. It was not until the late 16th century that she was officially included in the list of Saints at the request of the Archbishop of Mainz and the monks of Schönau (Martyrologium Romanum).
Shrine and Altar of St Elisabeth of Schönau (with the reliquary in which Elisabeth’s skull is kept – see below) in the Monastery Church of St Florin, Kloster Schönau im Taunus.
What Elisabeth saw and heard she put down on wax tablets. Her Abbot, Hildelin, told her to relate these things to her brother Eckbert, then a cleric at Saint Cassius in Bonn, who acted as an editor. At first she hesitated fearing lest she be deceived or be looked upon as a deceiver but she obeyed. Eckbert (who became a Monk of Schönau in 1155 and eventually succeeded Hildelin as second Abbot) put everything in writing, later arranged the material at leisure and then published all under his sister’s name.
While this relationship between brother and sister allowed for Elisabeth’s wide broadcasting of her visionary experiences, it is evident that Eckbert attempted to have a degree of authority over Elisabeth. Elisabeth’s response to Eckbert’s efforts regarding certain visions is just one example of how Elisabeth’s actions blurred the conventional gender roles. The works are published in English in a Collected Works edition.
Statue of St Elisabeth on the south wall of the choir room of St Florin.
Schönau Monastery is a popular place of pilgrimage today. The Franciscan Minor Monastery is picturesquely situated in the Saale Valley in a river arch on the Franconian Saale. Steep mountain slopes flank the Monastery and the small town of Schönau.
St Abraham of Clermont
St Alena of Dilbeek
St Amandus of Bordeaux
St Arcontius of Brioude
St Athenogenes of Pontus
St Calogero of Sicily
St Calogerus of Fragalata
St Calogerus the Anchorite
St Colman mac Mici
St Cyriacus of Malaga
St Demetrius of Fragalata
St Edith of Aylesbury St Elisabeth of Schönau (1129-1164)
St Elpidius of Brioude
St Equizio of Telese
St Erasmo
St Etherius of Nicomedia
Bl Euphemia of Altenmünster
St Fortunatus the Philosopher
St Gerland of Caltagirone
St Gregory of Fragalata
St Guy of Baume
St Jerome of Vallumbrosa
St Marcellian
St Marina of Alexandria
St Marina of Bithynia
Bl Marina of Spoleto
St Marcus Bl Osanna Andreasi OP (1449-1505) Biography: https://anastpaul.com/2019/06/18/saint-of-the-day-18-june-blessed-osanna-andreasi-op-1449-1505/
St Osanna of Northumberland
St Osmanna of Jouarre
St Paula of Malaga
Bl Peter Sanchez
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Hermits of Karden: A father (Felicio) and his two sons (Simplicio and Potentino)who became pilgrim to various European holy places and then hermits at Karden (modern Treis-Karden, Germany). (Born in Aquitaine (in modern France. ) Their relics transferred to places in the Eifel region of western Germany at some point prior to 930. They were canonised on 12 August 1908 by Pope Pius X (cultus confirmation).
Martyrs of Ravenna – 4 saints: A group of four Christians martyred together. We have no details but their names – Crispin, Cruciatus, Emilius and Felix. They were martyred in Ravenna, Italy, date unknown.
Martyrs of Rome – 3 saints: Three Christians martyred together . We have no details but their names – Cyriacus, Paul and Thomas. In Rome, Italy, date unknown.
Martyrs of Tripoli – 3 saints: Three imperial Roman soldiers, at last two of them recent converts, who were imprisoned, tortured and executed for their faith. Martyrs – Hypatius, Leontius and Theodulus. They were Greek born and they died c135 at Tripoli, Phoenicia (in modern Lebanon).
Saint of the Day – 17 June – St Hervé (c 521–c 556) Hermit, Abbot, Musician and singer, miracle-worker, blind from birth – also known as Erveo, Harvey, Herveus, Hervues, Hervé, Houarniaule, Huva – born in Guimiliau, Brittany, France or unknown location in Wales (sources vary) and died in c 556 to c 575 (sources vary) of natural causes. Patronages – the blind, bards, musician, invoked against eye problems and disease, invoked to cure sick horses. St Hervé, along with Saint Ives, is one of the most venerated of the Breton Saints and was considered a Saint during his lifetime and ever since.
Hervé was the son of a bard (a professional singer and story-teller) at the Court of one of Clovis’ successors, King Childebert 1. He would have been also the nephew of the Bourg-Blanc’s hermit Saint Urfold or, according to other sources, of Saint Rivoaré, the Patron Saint of Lanrivoaré. His father died while Hervé was still an infant.
His mother entrusted him to the care of his uncle, Urzel, a Monk, who had opened a school in Plouvein. Saint Hervé, like his uncle, would have lived in poverty and humility all his life. In time, Hervé was made superior of the school and small Monastery. He later moved the Monastery to Lanhorneau. St Hervé’s Hermitage itself, consisted of three elements – the ruins of a Chapel, a sacred fountain and a stone hut which would have been the cell of the saint, see below.
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Hervé died around 556 and was celebrated for his holiness, powerful preaching and love of music. He is honoured as one of the Patron Saints of the blind.
St Hervé is said to have had a special power over animals. It is related that he had a domesticated wolf as a pet. The dog guiding him having been devoured by a wolf, the hermit ordered the wild animal to take the role of his dog. One day Hervé’s wolf attacked and killed the ox that the Monks relied on to pull the plough in the fields. Hervé preached a powerful sermon and the wolf was so contrite it asked to be allowed to serve in place of the ox. For this reason, Hervé is often depicted with a wolf wearing a yoke.
He was joined by disciples and refused any Ordination or earthly honour, accepting only to be consecrated as an Exorcist. He died in 556 and was buried at Lanhouarneau, Brittany, France. Today there is a town in honour of him.
St Antidius of Besançon
Bl Arnold of Foligno
St Avitus of Perche
St Blasto of Rome
St Botolph of Ikanhoe
St Briavel of Gloucestershire
St David of Bourges
St Dignamerita of Brescia
St Diogenes of Rome
St Emily de Vialar
St Gundulphus of Bourges St Hervé (c 521–c 556)
St Himerius of Amelia
St Hypatius of Chalcedon
St Molling of Wexford
St Montanus of Gaeta
St Nectan of Hartland
Bl Paul Burali d’Arezzo
Bl Peter Gambacorta
St Phêrô Ða
Bl Philippe Papon Blessed Joseph-Marie /Pierre-Joseph Cassant OCSO (1878-1903) Biography:
St Prior
St Rambold of Ratisbon
Bl Ranieri Scaccero
St Theresa of Portugal
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Martyrs of Apollonia – 7 saints: A group of Christians who fled to a cave near Apollonia, Macedonia to escape persecution for his faith, but were caught and executed. The names we know are – Basil, Ermia, Felix, Innocent, Isaurus, Jeremias and Peregrinus. They were beheaded at Apollonia, Macedonia.
Martyrs of Aquileia – 4 saints: Four Christian martyrs memorialised together. No details about them have survived, not even if they died together – Ciria, Maria, Musca and Valerian. c.100 in Aquileia, Italy.
Martyrs of Chalcedon – 3 saints: Three well-educated Christian men who were sent as ambassadors from King Baltan of Persia to the court of emperor Julian the Apostate to negotiate peace between the two states, and an end of Julian’s persecutions of Christians. Instead of negotiating, Julian imprisoned them, ordered them to make a sacrifice to pagan idols and when they refused, had them executed. Their names were Manuel, Sabel and Ismael. They were beheaded in 362 in Chalcedon (part of modern Istanbul, Turkey) and their bodies burned and no relics survive.
Martyrs of Fez – 4 beati: A group of Mercedarians sent to Fez, Morocco to ransom Christians imprisoned and enslaved by Muslims. For being openly Christian they were imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and executed. Martyrs – Egidio, John, Louis and Paul. They were martyred in Fez, Morocco.
Martyrs of Rome – 262 saints: A group of 262 Christians martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian. In c303 in Rome, Italy. They were buried on the old Via Salaria in Rome.
Martyrs of Venafro – 3 saints: Three Christian lay people, two of them imperial Roman soldiers, who were converts to Christianity and were martyred together in the persecutions of Maximian and Diocletian – Daria, Marcian and Nicander. They were beheaded c.303 in Venafro, Italy. By 313 a basilica had been built over their graves which were re-discovered in 1930. They are patrons of Venafro, Italy.
One Minute Reflection – 16 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Tuesday of the Eleventh week in Ordinary Time, Year A, Readings: 1 Kings 21:17-29, Psalm 51:3-6, 11, 16, Matthew 5:43-48 and the Memorial of Bl Donizetti Tavares de Lima (1882-1961)
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?” … Matthew 5:44,46
REFLECTION – “There is in the Community, a Sister who has the faculty of displeasing me in everything – in her ways, her words, her character, everything seems very disagreeable to me. And still, she is a holy religious who must be very pleasing to God. Not wishing to give into the natural antipathy I was experiencing, I told myself that charity must not consist in feelings but in works, then I set myself to doing for this Sister, what I would do for the person, whom I loved the most. Each time I met her I prayed to God for her, offering Him all her virtues and merits. I felt this was pleasing to Jesus, for there is no artist who doesn’t love to receive praise for his works and Jesus, the Artist of souls, is happy when we don’t stop at the exterior but, penetrating into the inner sanctuary where He chooses to dwell, we admire it’s beauty.
I wasn’t content simply with praying very much for this Sister, who gave me so many struggles but I took care to render her all the services possible and when I was tempted to answer her back in a disagreeable manner, I was content with giving her my most friendly smile and with changing the subject of the conversation. … Frequently, when… I had occasion to work with this Sister, I used to run away like a deserter, whenever my struggles became too violent. As she was absolutely unaware of my feelings for her, never did she suspect the motives for my conduct and she remained convinced that her character was very pleasing to me. One day, at recreation, she asked in almost these words: “Would you tell me, Sister Therese of the Child Jesus, what attracts you so much toward me, every time you look at me, I see you smile?” Ah! what attracted me, was Jesus hidden in the depths of her soul, Jesus who makes sweet what is most bitter.” … St Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897) Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Almighty God, to whom this world, with all it’s goodness and beauty belongs, give us grace joyfully, to begin this day for Christ Your Son, in Him and with Him and to fill it, with an active love for all Your children, even those who may not like or who do us harm. Help us to love as You do, so that we may become like You. Bl Donizetti Tavares de Lima, you who spread your charity far and wide, pray for us. Through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God, forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 16 June – Blessed Donizetti Tavares de Lima (1882-1961) Priest, Apostle of the poor, the elderly and the sick, miracle-worker, known to bilocate – born on 3 January 1881 in Cássia, Brazil and died at 11.15am on 16 June 1961 in at the parish hall in Tambaú, Brazil of natural causes,he was 80 years old.
Donizetti was born in 1882 to Minas Gerais de Tristão and Francisca Cândida Tavares de Lima. He was one of eight brothers. His father worked in law and his mother worked as a professor. In 1886, the Tavares de Limas family relocated to Franca in São Paulo, where he attended school and learned music.
In 1894 he commenced his ecclesial studies where he soon became the organist at the institute where he studied and later started to teach music to the seminarians. In 1897 he moved to a college to further his education but later returned to teach music to seminarians. In 1900 he commenced a law course and in 1903 his philosophical and theological formation in preparation for the priesthood.
He received his Ordination as a Priest on 12 July 1908 from the Bishop of Pouso Alegre. He began work in the San Gaetano Parish and then spent time in the Campinas Diocese where he served as an auxiallary Priest.
In 1909, he was appointed as the Parish Priest for the Sant’Ana Church Vargem Grande do Sul in the Ribeirão Preto Diocese, where he defended the rights of the poor. This staunch advocacy for the poor led to the rich and his other detractors to accuse him of being a communist. He also helped construct Chapels to Nossa Senhora Aparecida and to Saint Benedict of Nursia. He was stationed at the Sant’Ana church from 20 April to 8 August 1909 before being transferred again. On 24 May 1926 he was appointed as the newest Parish Priest for the Church of St Anthony in Tambaú. He arrived in the town on 12 June and was inaugurated at the parish with his first Mass there on 13 June. It was there, that he oversaw the establishment of the Saint Vincent de Paul Sanatorium for the abandoned and for elderly people who lived alone. The first miracle attributed to him occurred in 1927 – torrential rain threatened a procession of a statue of Our Lady of Aparecida but the storm subsided and was quieted when Fr Donizetti led the procession himself.
In 1960, the Archbishop of Ribeirão Preto city, Dom Luiz do Amaral Mousinho, went to Tambau, to visit the parish of Saint Anthony and met Fr Donizetti. As soon as he saw the Archbishop, he told him:
“Archbishop, I had a terrible nightmare! I saw the demon entering in the Cathedral of Saint Sebastian (in Ribeirão Preto city-SP) with some priests with him and all of them were armed with picks in hand. They were walking to the side altars of the Cathedral, screaming loudly. When they reached the altar of St Anthony, the image of the holy Friar of Lisbon looked with authority to the devil and his minions, then they left the place fast. Archbishop, for goodness sake, do not let them overthrow the altars of the Cathedral!”
At that moment, the Archbishop told him that it was just a dream, a nightmare and no one would remove the altars but Fr Donizetti told again:
“No, no, Archbishop! We won’t see this disgrace (prophesying that they both would die soon) but it will come! This was not just a dream, nor a nightmare! The darkness will fall over this world! I beg you: don’t let them destroy the altars!”
Kindly, as usual he was, the Archbishop smiled and told to him: “Fr Donizetti, I promise you, I won’t let anyone destroy the altars of our Cathedral!”
A few years later, after the introduction of the New Mass, Fr Agmar Marques remembered this fact and he avoided the removal of the altars of Saint Sebastian Cathedral.
Father Horacio Longo also remembered the “nightmare of the altars” prophesied by Father Donizetti when they removed the side altars of the parish of Franca city, now the Our Lady of Conception Cathedral.
Father Saverio Brugnara reported that Father Donizetti received a picture of St Pope John XXIII in 1959. At that momen,t Fr Donizetti looked for a time at the picture, smiled and said to an acolyte that they both should pray a lot for the Pope and for the Church. One of the acolytes wanted to remove the old picture of Pope Pius XII on the wall and put the picture of the new Pope, John XXIII but Fr Donizetti said: “No, my son! Leave the picture there! Soon I will meet him! As for the new Pope’s picture, leave it there, where it is.”
The picture of Pope John XXIII was placed on a dresser and Pius XII’s picture continued on the wall, at the main place of the sacristy.
Many miracles were witness through the piety and devotion of Father Donizetti. He was just a living saint and he used to be called as “the thaumaturge of Tambau.” One of the miracles which Father Donizetti always attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida, was witnessed by one of the most respected journalists in Brazil, Joelmir Beting (1936-2012) who was born and lived in Tambau. Local officials came to him to seek out his advice on social matters. Even President Getúlio Vargas spoke with Fr Donizetti about social matters, that culminated legislation governing proper work ethics
On a radio program the journalist told that on the Easter Sunday of 1953, Fr Donizetti prayed the Mass in the church of Saint Anthony for thousands people and at the same time, he was seen by about 2 thousand people in the City of São Pedro dos Morrinhos, attending an auction of cattle to raise money for his sanatorium. This was one of the many miracles that made him known in the state of São Paulo and other states of the country.
Another famous miracle happened in 1955 when José Alexandre Braga, a boy of 5 years old, was cured of osteochondritis, a disease that prevented him from walking.
José Alexandre Braga (the child in the picture left) after he was cured. In the picture right a most recent photo.
About the miracles, Father Donizetti used to say that the most important were not the cures but the conversions to Catholicism.
Fr Donizetti died in Tambaú on 16 June 1961 due to cardiac complications and diabetic complications that had caused several hospitalisations in the past. He died in the morning at 11:15 am while seated in a chair. His remains were interred on 17 June and exhumed on 7–8 May 2009 in Tambaú for canonical inspection and relocation, which was done at night to avoid a large crowd forming. Later his body was moved to his old parish church and now attract, between 10 and 12 thousand people per month who come as pilgrims. Thousands also visit the ‘House of Father Donizetti’ (in Portuguese “casa do Padre Donizetti”). Inside the house, there are many objects related to the miracles, such as crutches, etc.
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The Priest had been hailed as a Saint his entire life and efforts to launch a Beatification process started in 1991. The cause opened towards the decade’s end and he became titled as a Servant of God. Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue on 9 October 2017 and named him as Venerable. Pope Francis also signed a decree on 6 April 2019 that recognised a miracle attributed to his intercession which made it possible for him to be Beatified in Tambaú on 23 November 2019. He was Beatified on 23 November 2019 by Pope Francis. The Beatification ceremony was celebrated by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu.
This Statue of Bl Donizetti resides in the MuseumBl Donizetti saying Mass
St Actinea of Volterra
St Aitheachan of Colpe
St Amandus of Beaumont
Bl Antoine Auriel
St Aurelian of Arles
St Aureus of Mainz St Benno of Meissen (1010-1106) Biography: https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/16/saint-of-the-day-st-benno-1010-1106/
St Berthaldus
St Ceccardus of Luni
St Cettin of Oran
St Colman McRhoi
St Crescentius of Antioch
St Cunigunde of Rapperswil
St Curig of Wales
St Cyriacus of Iconium Blessed Donizetti Tavares de Lima (1882-1961)
St Elidan
St Felix of San Felice
St Ferreolus of Besançon
St Ferrutio of Besançon
Bl Gaspare Burgherre
St Graecina of Volterra
St Ismael of Wales
St Julitta of Iconium
St Justina of Mainz St Lutgarde of Aywières (1182-1246) Her Life: https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/16/saint-of-the-day-16-june-st-lutgarde-of-aywieres-the-first-known-woman-stigmatic-of-the-church-and-one-of-the-first-promoters-of-devotion-to-the-sacred-heart/
St Maurus of San Felice
St Palerio of Telese
St Similian of Nantes
Bl Thomas Redyng
St Tycho of Amathus
—
Martyrs of Africa: A group of five Christians martyred together. We know nothing else but the names – Cyriacus, Diogenes, Marcia, Mica, Valeria. They were martyred in an unknown location in Africa, date unknown.
Martyrs of Làng Cóc: A group of five Christian laymen, four farmers and a doctor, from the same village in the apostolic vicariate of Central Tonkin (in modern Vietnam). During the persecutions of emperor Tu Duc, they were each ordered to stomp on a cross to show their contempt for Christianity; they each refused. Imprisoned, tortured and martyred.
• Anrê Tuong
• Ðaminh Nguyen
• Ðaminh Nguyen Ðuc Mao
• Ðaminh Nhi
• Vinh Son Tuong
The were beheaded on 16 June 1862 in Làng Cóc, Nam Ðinh, Vietnam and canonised on 19 June 1988 by St Pope John Paul II.
Thought for the Day – 15 June – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) and the Memorial of St Germaine Cousin (1579–1601) Shepherdess
The Divine Worker
“Let us open the Gospel of St John.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word ws God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him, was made nothing that has been made” (John 1:1-3).
The work of creation is attributed in a special way, to the Eternal Word, the Son of God.
He was the divine Worker, Who created from nothing, the sky, earth and the marvels which they contain.
Then the Eternal Word of God, became man (Jn 1:14).
But what position did He choose to occupy amongst us?
He could have been born heir to the illustrious throne of Rome, the most powerful in history.
He could have been born in Athens amongst the philosophers of the Areopagus, who handed down, through the centuries, the light of human wisdom and beauty.
But, it was not likely that the Word of God, should have abandoned, so to speak, the eternal glory of the Father, in order to wear the mantle of petty human power.
He had no need of this.
He came amongst us, to instruct us in the humility of the path to Heaven, not in the way of human greatness.
He was born, therefore, as the son of an artisan, “the carpenter’s son, (Mt 13:55) and an artisan Himself, “the carpenter, the son of Mary” (Mk 6:3).
According to the most ancient and most reliable tradition, He was one of the many carpenters in the Palestinian countryside who were prepared to adapt themselves to whatever job arose, whether it was the making of a door, a handle for a hoe, or a plough (Cf Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 88:8).
From His youth, therefore, Jesus was a carpenter’s apprentice and, when St Joseph died, He carried on His trade and earned a livelihood for His Mother Mary and Himself.
It was only after many years of manual labour that Jesus ceased to be an artisan and dedicated Himself to work of the mind and heart.
In the three years of His public life, He was an Apostle of truth and goodness.
In this way, He sanctified every type of work, manual, intellectual and spiritual.
The great lesson which Jesus wished to teach us is, that every kind of work, is good and noble.
The manual labour of the farm-hand and of the artisan, is, a co-operation in the work of the Redemption.
Both were made holy by Jesus.
Let those who work with their hands take inspiration from Jesus, Who subjected Himself, for thirty years to all the sacrifices involved in manual labour.
Let intellectuals and apostolic workers look to Jesus also, for when His Hour had come, He sacrificed Himself in His apostolate and gave His life for us.
In His regard, the peasant’s hoe and the writer’s pen, the workman’s hammer and the priest’s stole, are all noble and holy.
The only condition, is that, all should perform their duties conscientiously from the motive of the love of God and of their neighbour.”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci
Cardinal Bacci and I did not plan that this post should fall on the Feast day of little St Germaine Cousins, the Shepherdess who gave every second of her labour and her life, for the love of God and His Will. She teaches us to sanctify the meanest of tasks, to constantly remember our daily offering of each and every form of our work for the glory of God and to honour His Divine Will and Providence.
One Minute Reflection – 15 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Monday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, Year A, Readings: 1 Kings 21:1-16, Psalm 5:2-3, 4-7, Matthew5:38-42 and the Memorial of St Germaine Cousin (1579–1601)
“Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.” … Matthew 5:41
REFLECTION – “Do you grasp the excellence of a Christian disposition? After you give your coat and your cloak, even if your enemy should wish to subject your naked body to hardships and labours, not even then, Jesus says, must you forbid him. For He would have us possess all things in common, both our bodies and our goods, as with them that are in need, so with them that insult us. For the latter response comes from a courageous spirit, the former from mercy. Because of this, Jesus said, “If any one shall compel you to go one mile, go with him two.” Again He leads you to higher ground and commands you to manifest the same type of aspiration. For if the lesser things He spoke of at the beginning receive such great blessings, consider what sort of reward awaits those who duly perform these and what they become even before we hear of receiving rewards. You are winning full freedom from unworthy passions in a human and passible body.” … St John Chrysostom (347-407) Bishop, Father & Doctor (The Gospel of Matthew: Homily 18)
PRAYER – King of heaven and earth, Lord God, rule over or hearts and bodies this day. Sanctify us and guide our every thought, word and deed according to the commandments of Your law, so that now and forever, Your grace may free and save us. Teach us Lord to walk in the ways of the Cross of Your Son, our Saviour, as St Germaine Cousin so lovingly and willingly inspires us to do. Through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God, forever, amen
Saint of the Day – 15 June – Saint Germaine Cousin (1579–1601) Laywoman, Penitent, Apostle of Charity, miracle-worker – born in 1579 at Pibrac, France and died in 1601 in her parents’ home in Pibrac, France, apparently of natural causes, aged 22. Also known as Germana Cousin, Germaine of Pibrac. Patronages – abandoned people, abuse victims, child abuse victims, against poverty, disabled and handicapped, people, girls from rural areas, illness, impoverishment, loss of parents, shepherdesses, people disfigured by disease, physical therapists. Her body is incorrupt.
These two “Shepherdesses” by William-Adolphe Bougereau are believed to be depictions of St Germaine
Germaine Cousin was a 16th-century shepherdess who lived from 1579 to 1601. Born with a lame right hand and the disease scrofula (a non-tuberculous infection of the lymph nodes of the neck), she projected quite an unsightly appearance. The only child of Laurent Cousin and Marie Laroche, Germaine lived about 1.5 miles west of Pibrac, France. When she was just five years old, the plague suddenly took her dear mother and her father soon after remarried. Germaine was physically and mentally abused by her new stepmother, Armande de Rajols.
Armande’s hatred of little Germaine was so intense that she forced her to live for 17 years in the family barn and to watch the sheep near the wolf-infested La Bouconne forest, hoping the wolves would kill her. Isolated, cold and lonely, Germaine embraced a life of prayer, penance, and almsgiving, she assisted the poor and hungry, even though she herself was malnourished. She offered up her suffering to God.
By Jean F Millet artist of “The Angelus”
She is practised many austerities as reparation for the sacrileges perpetrated by heretics in the neighbouring churches. She frequented the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist and it was observed that her piety increased on the approach of every feast of Our Lady. The Rosary was her only book and her devotion to the Angelus was so great that she used to fall on her knees at the first sound of the bell, even though she heard it when crossing a stream. The villagers are said to have inclined at first to treat her piety with mild derision, until certain signs of God’s signal favour made her an object of reverence and awe.
It was while these abuses were taking place that miraculous wonders began to surround Germaine. People from the village witnessed her, on several occasions, parting the turbulent spring waters of the Courbet, which she had to cross to get to Mass in the morning.
On another occasion, Germaine had filled her apron with surplus bread from her meagre daily rations so that she may feed the poor. Her stepmother pursued her into town, hoping to expose her to the townspeople as a miscreant and a thief, who was stealing from her household pantry. After catching up with her in the public square, she forced her to reveal the contents of her apron. When Germaine opened her apron, it wasn’t bread that came flowing out but summer flowers. It was the middle of winter. Everyone was amazed and began to see Germaine in a different light. The stepmother, however, was unmoved and continued to persecute the young girl until her death. This wasn’t for much longer, as Germaine soon died alone in the barn where she had been forced to live for 17 years.
Her father at last came to a sense of his duty, forbade her stepmother henceforth to treat her harshly and wished to give her a place in the home with his other children but Germaine begged to be allowed to remain in the humbler position. At this point, when men were beginning to realise the beauty of her life, she died. One morning in the early summer of 1601, her father found that she had not risen at the usual hour and went to call her, finding her dead on her pallet of vine-twigs. She was 22 years old at the time.
Mysterious lights enveloped the barn the night she died. Two monks who were travelling from Gascony noticed the light from far off. Approaching cautiously, they witnessed angels descending upon the barn in large numbers and taking a soul robed in a virgin’s gown, up to heaven. It was only at Germaine’s deathbed that the stepmother finally began to weep bitterly for her mistreatment of the girl she eventually repented.
But, the story of Germaine’s life was soon forgotten.
In 1644, some 43 years following her death, the body of a noblewoman was being interred in front of the sanctuary of the church, when a workman accidentally exhumed Germaine’s incorrupt body from under the flagstone floor. Her body looked and smelled as fresh as the day she had passed away. News spread like wildfire throughout the town. Her body was exposed in the Church in the hopes of eliciting religious fervour.
Madame de Beauregard, a prominent lady, put a stop to this. She complained to the Parish Priest about the disgusting exhibit of a corpse near her pew. She threatened to withhold alms if Germaine’s corpse continued to be exposed. The Priest complied with her request and removed the casket. Not long after, Madame de Beauregard was stricken with a fatal disease. Distressed by his wife’s condition and her irreverence toward a possible saint, her husband pleaded for her life before the Tabernacle, requesting that Germaine intercede. Moments later, Germaine appeared in spirit to Madame de Beauregard and healed her instantly of her ailment.
Despite these apparent signs of sanctity and several attempts at initiating the cause of her Canonisation, Germaine wasn’t Beatified until May 7, 1854 – 210 years after her incorrupt body had been found. Her Canonisation finally took place on 29 June 1867 By Pope Pius IX.
Saint Germaine was forgotten, neglected and unloved for most of her life. Even after her death, it seemed that the Lord purposely kept her well hidden. Most Catholics have never heard of her and that includes Religious and Priests. In our complex and fast-paced world, Germaine’s simplicity, charity and piety don’t seem to fit in anywhere.
The reason is, that we have now brought up entire generations of entitled young people, who see themselves as central to the universe’s purpose. They are the first to complain if things don’t go their way. In recent news, is it not surprising to learn about a woman stabbing her fiancé over their wedding colour scheme? We are witnessing the consequences of a narcissistic culture that seeks pleasure without any kind of moral compass to guide the conscience.
How could Germaine’s life story fit into such a culture? It would seem, that we are not quite ready yet.
We and our children were brought up on the idea that our “self-esteem” needed to be enhanced. In this way, we’ve made an entire generation incapable of seeing it’s own darkness, empowered with the perception of its own strength and unique gifts. At the same time, this generation’s children, disconnected from any moral compass, think they can do no harm. Meanwhile, a mother in her thirties was sucker-punched while walking with her daughter. No apparent reason was reported, but the public was outraged that such random acts of violence could take place. It was part of the “knockout game,” a depraved form of entertainment for young people.
It is imperative that we begin, once again, to talk to our children about living virtuous lives of self-effacement and not self-empowerment – lives of temperance and not overindulgence. It is pressing, that we share with our children, the idea of living a simpler life that is rooted in love, penance, almsgiving and prayer.
Our children need to hear that the Lord Jesus is drawn to those who are small, hidden and pure, not just to those who are smart, rich, attractive and self-empowered.
In the book Germaine: Requiem of a Soul, Andrew St-James recounts the full history of Saint Germaine. She was a pure soul who abandoned herself completely to divine providence, who learned to surrender her will completely to God.
This inspirational story shatters all the conventional theories modern man may have about God and about the modern concepts of self-empowerment . For when Jesus approaches, He does not strengthen and empower the individual, as most Protestant evangelists claim. Instead, as Jean-Pierre de Caussade writes, “when the Lord approaches, he weakens.”
God is not distant from the suffering of man. The story of Germaine Cousin attests to that truth. The events that surround the life of Saint Germaine have been clearly documented and can be regarded as a reliable historical record of her most remarkable life. It’s a story that has been lost but it is time now for it be told to our children and loved ones. Amen
St Constantine of Beauvais
St Domitian of Lobbes
St Edburgh of Winchester
St Eigil
St Eutropia of Palmyra
St Fortunatus of Corinth St Germaine Cousin (1579–1601) Incorrupt
St Hadelinus of Lobbes
St Hesychius of Durostorum
St Hilarion of Espalion
Bl Juan Rodriguez
St Julius of Durostorum
St Landelin of Crespin
St Leonides of Palmyra
St Libya of Palmyra
St Lotharius of Séez
St Melan of Viviers
St Orsisius
Bl Pedro da Teruel
Bl Peter Snow
St Pierre de Cervis
Bl Ralph Grimston
St Tatian of Cilicia
Bl Thomas Scryven
St Trillo of Wales
St Vaughen of Ireland St Vitus (c 290-c 303) – Martyr, One of the Seven Holy Helpers His very short life: https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/15/saint-of-the-day-15-june-st-vitus/
Saint of the Day – 14 June – Saint Elisha the Prophet “My God is salvation” (c 790 BC) was a a disciple and protégé of St Elijah and after Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire, he gave Elisha a double portion of his power and he was accepted as the leader of the sons of the prophets. Elisha then went on to perform twice as many miracles as Elijah. Patronage – Prophets. St Elisha is commemorated in the calendar of saints of the Carmelite Order following a decree of the Carmelite General Chapter of 1399.
Elijah set out and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak on him. ―1 Kings 19:19
Elisha was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel. His moment of calling was rather mystical – Elisha was ploughing a field with twelve yoke of oxen when his predecessor, Elijah, came along and placed his mantle over Elisha’s shoulders―a symbol of a call to share in prophetic work. Elisha requested time to say farewell to his parents and then slew the oxen, gave the meat to the people and joined Elijah.
Elisha, whose name in Hebrew means “My God is Salvation,” was the son of Shaphat.
Before Elijah was taken up in a fiery chariot and into the whirlwind, Elisha asked to “inherit a double-portion” of Elijah’s spirit. He won the gratitude of the people of Jericho for healing it’s barren ground by adding salt to its waters.
When the armies of Judah, Israel and Edom, then allied against Mesa, the Moabite king, were being tortured by drought in the Idumæan desert, Elisha consented to intervene. His double prediction regarding relief from drought and victory over the Moabites was fulfilled on the following morning (2 Kgs 3:4-24).
“Elisha’s Spring” (Ain es-Sultan) in Jericho
To relieve the widow importuned by a hard creditor, Elisha so multiplied a little oil as to enable her, not only to pay her indebtedness but to provide for her family needs (2 Kgs 4:1-7).
To reward the rich lady of Shunam for her hospitality, he restored to life her son (2 Kgs 4:18-37).
To nourish the sons of the prophets pressed by famine, Elisha changed, into wholesome food, the pottage made from poisonous gourds (2 Kgs 4:38-41).
A Famine in Samaria (illustration by Gustave Doré from the 1866 La Sainte Bible)
During the military incursions of Syria into Israel, Elisha cured Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy by simply sending him word that he was to bathe in the Jordan seven times. At first reluctant, Naaman obeyed the Prophet and after washed seven times in the Jordan, he was healed. Jesus referred to this when he said: “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:27).
Elisha refusing the gifts offered by Naaman
Elisha’s life and activities are found in 1 and 2 Kings and he is commemorated on this date in the 2004 Roman Martyrology.
Julian the Apostate (361–363) gave orders to burn the relics of the prophets Elisha, Obadiah and John the Baptist, who were buried next to each other in Sebastia but they were rescued by the Christians and part of them were transferred to Alexandria. Today, the relics of Elisha are claimed to be among the possessions of the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Scetes, Egypt.
The miracle at the grave of Elisha. (Jan Nagel, 1596)
As Elisha’s desire was to “Make known the Divine Will of God” to the people of their times, we can benefit from that today. So many times in our lives we ask the simple question, “What is God’s Will for me?” By asking for the intercession of St Elisha, we can obtain the Grace to know more of the Divine Will God has for us, in our lives. Only by living in union with God, can we know in our hearts, we are doing what HE created us for. By asking St Elisha to help us to discern that, God’s Will can be made more clear to us.
Elijah send Elisha forth
Prayer
O God,
protector and redeemer of the human family,
whose wonders have been proclaimed through the wonders accomplished by Your chosen prophets,
You have bestowed the spirit of Elijah on Your prophet Elisha.
In Your kindness grant us too
an increase in the gifts of the Holy Spirit
so that, living as prophets,
we will bear constant witness to Your abiding presence and providence.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for all eternity.
Amen
(The Title of the video is extremely appropriate as many of us are still living without “Sunday” in it’s holy and proper form!)
Our Lady of the Trellis:
On 14 June 1234, 53 disabled people were cured upon praying before the statue of Our Lady of the Trellis, installed behind a latticework fence in St Peter’s Collegiate Church in Lille, France.
A procession held annually on the second Sunday after Pentecost commemorates the miracles. Saved during the destruction of St Peter’s Church in the French Revolution, the statue moved afterwards to St Catherine’s Church.
Devotion to Our Lady of the Trellis revived in the mid-1800s and a grand neo-Gothic church arose in her honour, where the statue was installed in 1872 and canonically crowned in 1874.
After the theft of the original in 1959, sculptor Marie Madeleine Weerts carved the image now displayed in Lille’s Catholic Cathedral, the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Treille.
St Anastasius of Córdoba
St Burchard of Meissen
St Caomhán of Inisheer
St Castora Gabrielli
St Cearan the Devout
Bl Constance de Castro
St Cyprien
St Cyriacus of Zeganea
St Davnet
St Digna of Córdoba
St Dogmael of Wales
St Elgar of Bardsey St Elisha the Prophet “My God is salvation” (790 BC)
St Etherius of Vienne
St Felix of Córdoba
Bl Fortunatus of Napoli
Bl Francisca de Paula de Jesus Isabel
St Gerold of Evreux
Bl Hartwig of Salzburg
St Joseph the Hymnographer
St Marcian of Syracuse
St Mark of Lucera St Methodius of Constantinople (born 8th Century – 847) His Life: https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/14/saint-of-the-day-14-june-st-methodius-i-of-constantinople-8th-cent-847-defender-of-icons/
St Nennus of Arran
Bl Peter de Bustamante
St Protus of Aquileia
St Quintian
St Richard of Saint Vannes
St Rufinus of Soissons
St Thecla
St Theopista
St Valerius of Soissons
Bl Walter Eustace
Thought for the Day – 13 June – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
St Anthony
“St Anthony of Padua was not born a saint but he became one as the result of prayer, self-denial and penance, which attracted to him, God’s many graces.
On a summer evening in the year 1219, five mendicant friars arrived at the gate of the ancient Abbey of Coimbra, asking for hospitality from the Canons Regular of St Augustine.
They received a whole-hearted welcome.
When they had refreshed themselves, they revealed that they belonged to the new Religious Family founded by St Francis of Assisi.
They said that they hoped to reach Morocco, in order to convert the Saracens and, if it was God’s pleasure, to receive the palm of Martyrdom.
Amongst the Canons Regular, who were listening to them, was the youthful Anthony, who had already consecrated his life to God.
Not long afterwards, this little band of Franciscan Missionaries, was cut down by the scimitars of the infidels and became a glorious band of Martyrs.
Their bodies were brought back in triumph to the Abbey which they had visited and there they were buried with great honour.
When they were going away, Anthony had listened enthusiastically to all that they had said and felt a noble envy.
Now that he was in the presence of their hallowed remains, he experienced an urge to follow in their footsteps.
St Anthony joined the Franciscan Order and joyfully set off for the coast of Morocco in search of Missionary labour and of Martyrdom.
But, when he landed on African soil, he was struck down by a serious attack of malaria, which compelled him to return to his native land.
There is no foreseeing the designs of Divine Providence.
The boat in which Anthony was travelling was battered by a tempest and had to go ashore in Italy.
Henceforward, Italy was Anthony’s second fatherland.
It was here, that he conducted his remarkable and fruitful apostolate and slowly accomplished his Martyrdom, by the daily struggle for perfection.
This, is a headline for us!
We may not have been called to go and spread the faith amongst the infidels, at the risk of Martyrdom.
But, we have all been called to a state of holiness.
Perfection, moreover, is a gradual Martyrdom.
The heroic daily effort which is required to abstain from sin and to overcome the wayward tendencies of our nature, can fairly be said, to be, no less difficult, than a bloody Martyrdom.
This is the kind of Martyrdom which we must all endure.
St Anthony of Padua, will obtain for us the grace, to undergo it with the same generosity and constancy, which he displayed.”
Quote/s of the Day – 13 June – The Memorial of St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) Evangelical Doctor of the Church
“Damned money! Alas! … Money is the ‘droppings of birds’ that blinded the eyes of Tobit.”
“Christ, who is your life, is hanging before you, so that you may look at the Cross, as in a mirror. There you will be able to know, how mortal were your wounds, that no medicine other, than the Blood of the Son of God, could heal. If you look closely, you will be able to realise, how great your human dignity and your value are…. Nowhere other than looking at himself, in the mirror of the Cross, can man better understand how much he is worth”
(Sermones Dominicales et Festivi III, pp. 213-214)
“The devil is afraid of us when we pray and make sacrifices. He is also afraid when we are humble and good. He is especially afraid when we love Jesus very much. He runs away when we make the Sign of the Cross.”
“The spirit of humility is sweeter than honey and those, who nourish themselves with this honey produce sweet fruit.”
The Praises of Mary “Assumption” Poem by Saint Anthony
O how wondrous is the dignity of the glorious Virgin! She merited to become the mother of Him who is the strength and beauty of the angels and the grandeur of all the saints.
Mary was the seat of our sanctification, that is to say, the dwelling place of the Son who sacrificed Himself for us.
“And I shall glorify the place where my feet have stood.” The feet of the Saviour signify His human nature. The place where the feet of the Saviour stood was the Blessed Mary, who gave Him His human nature.
Today the Lord glorifies that place, since He has exalted Mary above the choirs of the angels. That is to say, the Blessed Virgin, who was the dwelling of the Saviour, has been assumed bodily into heaven.
St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
Evangelical Doctor of the Church
One Minute Reflection – 13 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year A, Readings: 1 Kings 19:19-21, Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-10, Matthew 5:33-37 and the Memorial of St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) Doctor of the Church
“Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.” … Matthew 5:36
REFLECTION – “These words of the Lord whereby He forbids us to swear by these different elements, invites a double explanation. Firstly, He wanted to draw us away from the use of oaths and the customs of human error, lest each of us through swearing by these elements, accord a creature the honour of divine veneration or, believe one has impunity in swearing falsely, if one swears by the elements of the world.
It can also be explained in this way – When one swears by heaven and earth, one swears by Him who made heaven and earth, as the Lord Himself declared elsewhere: “He who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things that are on it and, he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it.” Jesus goes on to say, “nor by Jerusalem,” for it is the city of the great King, that is, the symbol of Christ’s body, which is the spiritual and heavenly church. “Neither shall you swear,” he says, “by your head,” for according to the apostle, “the head of every man is Christ.” Therefore, the one who swears by these things makes reference to Him who is the author of all these things.” … St Chromatius of Aquileia (Died 407) Bishop, Theologian, Defender of the Faith against Arianism, Friend and supporter of St Jerome, St John Chrysostom, St Ambrose – Tractate on Matthew 24)
PRAYER – Almighty, everliving God, You gave St Anthony of Padua to Your people as a preacher and teacher and a patron in their needs. Grant that we may learn from his words inspired by Your Holy Spirit and by his prayers, grow in faith, hope and humility. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all-glorious God, now and forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 13 June – Blessed Marianna Biernacka (1888-1943) Martyr, Laywoman, Mother, Grandmother, Widow – Born as Marianna Czokala in 1888 in Lipsk, Podlaskie, Poland and died by being shot by firing squad on 13 June 1943 in Naumovichi (aka Naumowicze), Belarus. She was 54-55. She is also remembered on 12 June as one of the 108 Martyrs of World War II.
Blessed Marianna Biernacka is described, in many reports, as leading a “simple” life. But it’s my experience that there are really no simple lives. Marianna knew heartbreak. She knew fear. She knew backbreaking work. She knew loss. And she knew God’s love.
This may be or not, Blessed Marianna, sources are uncertain
Marianna was born in 1888. At the age of twenty she married a local man, Louis Biernacki. Together, they had six children, four of whom died shortly after birth. The only source of survival for the family was their family farm.
After the death of Louis in 1929, Marianna lived with her son Stanislaw. Stanislaw eventually married a young woman, Anna Szymczyk and they all lived together. Prayer and song were a large part of their lives. Soon after the couple were married, the two had a daughter.
Bishop Jerzy Mazur, Bishop of Elk, said on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the death of Bl Marianna Biernacka that “Staring at her ordinary life, we see that it was imbued with faith, love, prayer, work and suffering. Each day began with prayer and common singing Hours. Everyday life was filled with a difficult job in summer in a field and in winter, spun flax and hemp and weaving on a loom. Recitation of the Rosary prayer and devotional singing songs allowed the dignity to endure the pain of bereavement, hard work and daily poverty.”
In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. To understand, the Nazi occupation of Poland is to label it as one of the worst and most brutal genocides in the history of the world. Adolf Hitler himself is reported to have authorised his commanders to kill “without pity or mercy, all men, women and children of Polish decent or language.” When a German soldier was killed by any resistance, the Gestapo made it a practice to round up a large number of Polish civilians randomly and kill them in retaliation. It was just such an incident that brought the Nazis to the door of Marianna Biernacka.
In July of 1943, the Nazis arrested many people in and around the city of Lipsk as retribution for a German killed by the resistance. Randomly, Stanislaw Biernacka, along with his pregnant wife Anna, were selected to be killed. Nobody believed they had anything to do with the resistance but they were to be killed for events outside of their control. When the armed soldiers came to arrest them, Stanislaw’s mother, Marianna, reportedly dropped to her knees and begged the Nazis to take her instead of Anna.
“She is already in the last weeks of her pregnancy,” she pleaded. “I will go for her.”Her daughter-in-law begged her not to make this sacrifice but Marianna insisted, reportedly saying “You are young, you must live.”As the Nazis didn’t particularly care who they killed, as they were simply filling a quota, so they took Marianna and her son instead of the pregnant Anna.
The Nazis took Marianna and her son to the prison in Grodno. While in the prison, she only requested a pillow and a rosary. After two weeks in prison in which she spent much of her time praying, Marianna was shot and killed on 13 July 1943 in Naumowicze along with her son. Their bodies were thrown into a common grave.
Around that time, Anna gave birth to a son. She named his Stanislaw.
On 13 June 1999, Marianna was Beatified and recognised as a Martyr, along with 107 other victims, by Pope John Paul II. The liturgical feast day of the 108 Martyrs of World War II is June 12.
Sadly, the child, Stanislaw, only lived for about a year, according to reports. Anna lived to age 98 and her daughter, Eugenia, still lives in the family home, according to some Polish websites. She said that her mother, Anna, would often say that she had been given life twice. Once by her own mother and then from her mother-in-law.
—
Bl Achilleo of Alexandria
Bl Alfonso Gomez de Encinas
Bl Anthony of Ilbenstadt
St Aquilina of Syria
St Augustine Phan Viet Huy
St Aventino of Arbusto
St Damhnade
St Diodorus of Emesa
St Eulogius of Alexandria
St Fandilas of Penamelaria
St Felicula of Rome
St Fortunatus of North Africa
Bl Gerard of Clairvaux – was the brother of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. He was a Soldier. When he was wounded in combat at the siege of Grancy, Gerard resolved to become a monk. He became a Benedictine Cistercian monk at Citeaux. He worked with Saint Bernard at Clairvaux and became his closest confidant. He died in 1138 of natural causes.
St Lucian of North Africa
St Mac Nissi of Clonmacno
Blessed Marianna Biernacka (1888-1943) Martyr of the Nazi Regime
Below is a video I believe features Anna herself. I, of course, do not know Polish, but another website had a picture of Anna and it was the same woman, so I believe I am correct in this supposition. It’s in Polish and throughout much of the video she is singing a song. It’s quite beautiful. If any of you know Polish I’d be grateful for information about what’s she’s saying and singing or if it is in fact Anna.
St Maximus of Cravagliana
St Nicolas Bùi Ðuc The
St Peregrinus of Amiterno
St Rambert
St Salmodio
Bl Servatius Scharff
St Thecla
St Tryphillius of Leucosia
St Victorinus of Assisi
St Wilicarius of Vienne
Saint of the Day – 12 June – Blessed Lorenzo Maria of Saint Francis Xavier Salvi CP (1782-1856) (also known as Lorenzo Salvi), Priest of the Passionist Congregation – born as Lorenzo Gaetano Maria Salvi on 30 October 1782 in Rome, Italy and died on 12 June 1856 in Capranica, Viterbo, Italy of natural causes.
Lorenzo was greatly impressed by the preaching and zeal of Saint Vincent Strambi (1745-1824) (here: https://anastpaul.com/2018/09/25/saint-of-the-day-25-september-st-vincent-strambi-c-p-1745-1824/) and soon followed him into the Passionist Congregation. He became a novice at Monte Argentario in 1801, the first monastery of the Passionists. He received the religious name Lorenzo Maria of Saint Francis Xavier and professed his vows on 20 November 1802. He studied for the Priesthood at Jesuit-run the Collegio Romano in Rome, his classmates included the future Pope Gregory XVI and was Ordained a Priest on 29 December 1805. He followed closely in the footsteps of the Founder of the Passionists, St Paul of the Cross.
The anti-clerical laws of Napoleon saw the Passionist house suppressed and its members dispersed. When at last Lorenzo was able to return to Passionist life he preached missions and encouraged devotion to the Passion of Christ, these two things are the hallmarks of the Passionist life. But he also gained the reputation of a most wise and admired Superior for his ability to ably lead communities.
He had great devotion to the Infant Jesus and was steadfast in promoting, in every circumstance, prayerful devotion to the holy childhood of Jesus, not only through his untiring work but also, through his constant example and his proliferation of writings. He often wrote about and preached on the wonders of the Incarnation. Because of this great devotion, he is usually depicted in religious art with a picture of the Child Jesus.
Blessed Lorenzo died 12 June 1856 at Capranica, Viterbo, Italy. He is buried in the Passionist Church of St Angelo, Vetralla (Viterbo).
Passionist Saints
On 1 October 1989 Lorenzo Maria of St Francis Xavier was Beatified by St Pope John Paul II.
Blessed are Thou, O God our Father,
for Thy gift of Blessed Lorenzo Maria of St Francis Xavier,
for his life, his witness
and for the love Thou didst give him for the mystery of the Nativity and Infancy of Thy Son Jesus.
We ask Thee to reawaken in Thy Church,
the awareness of the great gift of the Incarnation
and the desire to imitate Jesus with simplicity of heart
and total trust in Thy Love and Thy Providence.
We thank Thee for the deep compassion
for the suffering Thou didst grant Blessed Lorenzo
and for the strength of his prayer to the Infant Jesus.
We believe that he still intercedes for us.
We confide to Thee our good desires,
for ourselves and for our neighbours,
secure to obtain Thy Grace
and the protection of Blessed Lorenzo.
Amen
Our Lady of Montalto: Shrine of Our Lady of Montalto in Messina, Italy
In 1282, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to a friar named Nicholas. During the apparition she promised to send a white dove to the Caperrina hill where she wanted a church built in her name. The cornerstone for the Shrine of Our Lady of Montalto was laid in 1295 by Queen Constance of Sicily. It was a monastery for Cistercian nuns from 1389 until 1866. The Santuario della Madonna di Montalto was severely damaged during the 1908 earthquake and rebuilt in 1930. This view of the bell tower gives you a hint at the beauty of this Gothic and Romanesque structure.
St Amphion of Nicomedia
Bl Antonia Maria Verna
Bl Antonio de Pietra
St Arsenius of Konev
St Christian O’Morgair of Clogher
St Chrodobald of Marchiennes
St Cominus
Bl Conrad of Maleville
St Cunera
St Cuniald
St Cyrinus of Antwerp
St Eskil
St Galen of Armenia St Gaspar Bertoni CSS (1777-1853) – Priest and Founder Biography:
St Gerebald of Châlons-sur-Seine
St Geslar
Bl Guy Vignotelli of Cortona St Juan de Sahagun OESA (1419-1479) BUT his Memorial has been moved to yesterday 11 June. Biography:
St Pope Leo III
St Lochinia of Ireland Blessed Lorenzo Maria of Saint Francis Xavier Salvi CP
Bl Mercedes Maria of Jesus
St Odulf of Utrecht
St Olympius of AEnos
St Onuphrius of Egypt
Bl Pelagia Leonti of Milazzo
St Peter of Mount Athos
St Placid of Val d’Ocre
Bl Stanislaw Kubista
Bl Stefan Grelewski
Bl Stefan Kielman
St Ternan of Culross
St Valerius of Armenia
Martyrs of Bologna: Three Christians who were martyred at different times and places, but whose relics have been collected and enshrined together – Celsus, Dionysius, and Marcellinus. Their relics were enshrined in churches in Bologna and Rome in Italy.
Martyrs of Rome: Four members of the Imperial Roman nobility. They were all soldiers, one or more may have been officers, and all were martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian – Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius.
They were martyred in 304 outside Rome, Italy and buried along the Aurelian Way.
Three Holy Exiles: Three Christian men who became Benedictine monks at the Saint James Abbey in Regensburg, Germany, then hermits at Griestatten, and whose lives and piety are celebrated together. – Marinus, Vimius and Zimius.
108 Martyrs of World War II:
Also known as
• Polish Martyrs
• 108 Polish Martyrs of the Nazis
• 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs
Among the millions murdered by Nazis in World War II, many were Poles killed for being Poles and many were Catholics killed for being Catholic. As emblematic of this group, 108 Polish Catholics who were murdered for their faith, and whose faithfulness was attested by by witnesses, were beatified as a group of by Pope John Paul II. They each have a separate memorial day on the calendar but they are celebrated as a group today.
• Adalbert Nierychlewski • Adam Bargielski • Aleksy Sobaszek • Alfons Maria Mazurek • Alicja Maria Jadwiga Kotowska • Alojzy Liguda • Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz • Anicet Koplinski • Antoni Beszta-Borowski • Antoni Julian Nowowiejski • Antoni Leszczewicz • Antoni Rewera • Antoni Swiadek • Antoni Zawistowski • Bogumila Noiszewska • Boleslas Strzelecki • Boniface Zukowski • Bronislao Kostkowski • Bronislaw Komorowski • Bruno Zembol • Czeslaw Jozwiak • Dominik Jedrzejewski • Edward Detkens • Edward Grzymala • Edward Kazmierski • Edward Klinik • Emil Szramek • Fidelis Jerome Chojnacki • Florian Stepniak • Franciszek Dachtera • Franciszek Drzewiecki • Franciszek Kesy • Franciszek Rogaczewski • Franciszek Roslaniec • Franciszek Stryjas • Grzegorz Boleslaw Frackowiak • Henryk Hlebowicz • Henryk Kaczorowski • Henryk Krzysztofik • Hilary Pawel Januszewski • Jan Eugeniusz Bajewski • Jan Franciszek Czartoryski • Jan Nepomucen Chrzan • Jan Oprzadek • Jarogniew Wojciechowski • Jerzy Kaszyra • Jozef Achilles Puchala • Józef Cebula • Jozef Czempiel • Józef Jankowski • Jozef Kowalski • Józef Kurzawa • Jozef Kut • Józef Pawlowski • Jozef Stanek • Jozef Straszewski • Józef Wojciech Guz • Jozef Zaplata • Julia Rodzinska • Karol Herman Stepien • Katarzyna Faron • Kazimiera Wolowska • Kazimierz Gostynski • Kazimierz Grelewski • Kazimierz Tomasz Sykulski • Leon Nowakowski • Leon Wetmanski • Ludwik Mzyk • Ludwik Roch Gietyngier • Maksymilian Binkiewicz • Marcin Oprzadek • Maria Antonina Kratochwil • Maria Klemensa Staszewska • Marian Gorecki • Marian Konopinski • Marian Skrzypczak • Marianna Biernacka • Michal Ozieblowski • Michal Piaszczynski • Michal Wozniak • Mieczyslaw Bohatkiewicz • Mieczyslawa Kowalska • Narcyz Putz • Narcyz Turchan • Natalia Tulasiewicz • Piotr Edward Dankowski • Roman Archutowski • Roman Sitko • Stanislaw Antoni Trojanowski • Stanislaw Kostka Starowieyski • Stanislaw Kubista • Stanislaw Kubski • Stanislaw Mysakowski • Stanislaw Pyrtek • Stanislaw Starowieyski • Stefan Grelewski • Stefan Wincenty Frelichowski • Symforian Ducki • Tadeusz Dulny • Wincenty Matuszewski • Wladyslaw Bladzinski • Wladyslaw Demski • Wladyslaw Goral • Wladyslaw Maczkowski • Wladyslaw Miegon • Wlodzimierz Laskowski • Wojciech Gondek • Zygmunt Pisarski • Zygmunt Sajna
Died
between 5 October 1939 and April 1945 in Germany and Nazi-occupied Poland and were Beatified on 13 June 1999 by St Pope John Paul II in Warsaw, Poland.
One Minute Reflection – 11 June -“Month of the Sacred Heart” – Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year A, Readings: Acts: 11:21b-26; 12:1-3, Psalm 98(97),1.2-3ab.3cd-4.5-6, Matthew 10:7-13 and the Memorial of St Barnabas, Apostle of Christ
Jesus said to his Apostles: “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” ... Matthew 10:7-8
REFLECTION – “It is not we who look for an apostolate – it looks for us; God, in loving us first, makes apostles of us. How could we share bread, a roof, our heart with the neighbour who is our own flesh and not be overflowing with the love of our God for him, if that neighbour does not know him? Everything is miserable without God; we cannot tolerate wretchedness for someone we love, least of all the greatest. Not be apostolic? Not be missionaries? But then what would it mean to belong to this God who has sent His Son so that the world might be saved by Him… and how?
However, we don’t “think” about being apostles; we think of being – in God’s hands, in the body of Christ, under the moving of His Spirit – the Christ we wish to become, the Christ who is never love without being light and there is no light except at the price of light. We imitate Him, badly but without stopping, we enter into Him, dissimilarly but tenaciously, how could we not be, at least in will, apostles? in all our being, disposed as, missionaries?…
How could we not preach the gospel if the Gospel is under our skin, in our hands, our hearts, our heads? We are obliged to say why we try to be what we want to be, why we try not to be what we don’t want to be, we are obliged to preach, since preaching is to say something publicly about Jesus Christ, our Lord and God and one can’t love Him and be silent.” … Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964) – Missionary to the outcasts – A vocation for God among men (The Joy of Believing)
PRAYER – O God, who decreed that Saint Barnabas, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, should be set apart to convert the nations, grant that the Gospel of Christ, which he strenuously preached, may be faithfully proclaimed by word and by deed. We pray you Lord, that by the intercession of St Barnabas, we too may grow in faith and love and live to glorify Your kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day – 11 June -Blessed Ignazio Shoukrallah Maloyan ICPB (1869-1915) Bishop and Martyr – born as Shoukrallah Maloyan on 18 April 1869 at Mardin, Turkey and died by being shot to death on 11 June 1915 by Mamdooh Bek at Zerzevan Castle, Çinar, Diyarbakir, Turkey.
Ignazio Maloyan (Shoukrallah), son of Melkon and Faridé, was born in 1869, in Mardin, Turkey. His parish priest, noticed in him signs of a priestly vocation, so he sent him to the convent of Bzommar-Lebanon; he was fourteen years old.
After finishing his superior studies in 1896, the day dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he was Ordained Priest in the Church of Bzommar convent, became a member of the Bzommar Institute and adopted the name of Ignatius in remembrance of the famous Martyr of Antioch. During the years 1897-1910, Father Ignazio was appointed as Parish Priest in Alexandria and Cairo, where his good reputation was wide-spread.
His Beatitude Patriarch Boghos Bedros XII appointed him as his assistant in 1904. Because of a disease that hit his eyes and suffocating difficulty in breathing, he returned to Egypt and stayed there till 1910.
The Diocese of Mardin was in a state of anarchy, so Patriarch Sabbaghian sent Father Ignazio Maloyan to restore order.
On 22 October 1911, the Bishops’ Synod assembled in Rome elected Father Ignazio Archbishop of Mardin. He took over his new assignment and planned on renewing the wrecked Diocese, encouraging especially the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Unfortunately, at the outbreak of the First World War, the Armenians resident in Turkey (which was allied with Germany) began to endure unspeakable sufferings. In fact, 24 April 1915 marked the beginning of a veritable campaign of extermination. On 30 April 1915, the Turkish soldiers surrounded the Armenian Catholic Bishopric and church in Mardin on the basis that they were hide-outs for arms.
At the beginning of May, the Bishop gathered his priests and informed them of the dangerous situation. On 3 June 1915, Turkish soldiers dragged Bishop Maloyan in chains to court with twenty seven other Armenian Catholic personalities. The next day, twenty five Priests and eight hundred and sixty two believers were held in chains. During trial, the chief of the police, Mamdooh Bek, asked the Bishop to convert to Islam. The Bishop answered that he would never betray Christ and His Church. The good shepherd told him that he was ready to suffer all kinds of ill-treatments and even death and in this, will be his happiness.
Mamdooh Bek hit him on the head with the rear of his pistol and ordered to put him in jail. The soldiers chained his feet and hands, threw him on the ground and hit him mercilessly. With each blow, the Bishop was heard saying “Oh Lord, have mercy on me, oh Lord, give me strength,”and asked the Priests present for absolution. With that, the soldiers went back to hitting him and they extracted his toe nails.
On 9 June, his mother visited him and cried for his state. But the valiant Bishop encouraged her. On the next day, the soldiers gathered four hundred and forty seven Armenians. The soldiers along with the convoys took the desert route.
The Bishop encouraged his parishioners to remain firm in their faith. Then all knelt with him. He prayed to God that they accept Martyrdom with patience and courage. The Priests granted the believers absolution. The Bishop took out a piece of bread, blessed it, recited the words of the Eucharist and gave it to his Priests to distribute among the people.
One of the soldiers, an eye witness, recounted this scene: “That hour, I saw a cloud covering the prisoners and from all, emitted a perfumed scent. There was a look of joy and serenity on their faces.” As they were all going to die out of love for Jesus. After a two-hour walk, hungry, naked and chained, the soldiers attacked the prisoners and killed them before the Bishop’s eyes. After the massacre of the two convoys came the turn of Bishop Maloyan.
Mamdooh Bek then asked Maloyan again to convert to Islam. The soldier of Christ answered: “I’ve told you I shall live and die for the sake of my faith and religion. I take pride in the Cross of my God and Lord.” Mamdooh got very angry, he drew his pistol and shot Maloyan. Before he breathed his last breath he cried out loud: “My God, have mercy on me, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Bl Ignazio was 46 years old. … Vatican.va
Ignazio was Beatified on 7 October 2001 at Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, by St Pope John Paul II, when he said:
“Archbishop Ignatius Maloyan, who died a Martyr when he was 46, reminds us of every Christian’s spiritual combat, whose faith is exposed to the attacks of evil. It is in the Eucharist that he drew, day by day, the force necessary to accomplish his Priestly ministry with generosity and passion, dedicating himself to preaching, to a pastoral life connected with the celebration of the sacraments and to the service of the neediest.
Throughout his existence, he fully lived the words of St Paul: “God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of courage, of love and self control” (II Tim 1,14. 7). Before the dangers of persecution, Bl Ignatius did not accept any compromise, declaring to those who were putting pressure on him, “It does not please God that I should deny Jesus my Saviour. To shed my blood for my faith is the strongest desire of my heart.” May his example enlighten all those who today wish to be witnesses of the Gospel, for the glory of God and for the salvation of their neighbour.”
Our Lady of Mantara/Awaiting: Our Lady of Mantara, also known as Our Lady of Awaiting, is a Melkite Greek Catholic Marian shrine in Maghdouché, Lebanon, discovered on 8 September 1721 by a young shepherd. The grotto, which according to a legend dates to ancient times, was subsequently cared after by Monsignor Eftemios Saïfi, Melkite Catholic bishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Sidon. The shrine consists of a tower crowned with the statue of the Virgin and Child, a cathedral, a cemetery and a sacred cave believed to be the one where the Virgin Mary rested while she waited for Jesus. Since its discovery, it has been steadily visited by families particularly each year on the occasion of the feast of the Nativity of Mary on 8 September.
St Aleydis of Schaerbeek St Blitharius of Seganne St Herebald of Bretagne Bl Hugh of Marchiennes Blessed Ignazio Shoukrallah Maloyan ICPB (1869-1915) Bishop and Martyr Bl Jean de Bracq St Juan de Sahagun OESA (1419-1479) Biography: His Memorial was on 12 June but moved in 1969. https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/12/saint-of-the-day-12-june-st-john-of-sahagun-o-e-s-a/ Bl Kasper of Grimbergen St Maximus of Naples St Parisius St Paula Frasinetti St Riagail of Bangor St Tochumra of Kilmore St Tochumra of Tuam — Martyrs of Tavira – 7 beati: Members of the Knights of Santiago de Castilla. During the re-conquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims by Christian forces, in a period of truce between the armies, the group was allowed to leave the Portuguese camp to hunt. Near Tavira, Portugal, he and his companions were ambushed and killed by a Muslim force. Making a reprisal attack, the Portuguese army took the city of Tavira. The murdered knights were considered to be martyrs as they died in an action defending the faith. They were – • Blessed Alvarus Garcia • Blessed Beltrão de Caia • Blessed Damião Vaz • Blessed Estêvão Vasques • Blessed Garcia Roiz • Blessed Mendus Valle • Blessed Pedro Rodrigues They were martyred in 1242 outside Tavira, Faro, Portugal. Their relics are enshrined under the altar of Saint Barnabas in the Church of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels (modern Santa Maria do Castelo) in Tavria
Mercedarian Martyrs of Damietta: Three Mercedarian lay knights who worked to ransom Christians enslaved by Muslims. During the 7th Crusade, a plague swept through the Christian army and these knights volunteered to work with the sick. During this work they were captured by Muslims and ordered to convert to Islam; they refused. They were tortured, taken to Damietta, Egypt where they were murdered for their faith. They were thrown from a tower in the mid-13th century in Damietta, Egypt.
Eckbert (who became a Monk of Schönau in 1155 and eventually succeeded Hildelin as second Abbot) put everything in writing, later arranged the material at leisure and then published all under his sister’s name.
![st Elijah[1].0](https://anastpaul.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/st-elijah1.0.jpg?w=840)
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