5 August – Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major: Our Lady of the Snows – Patronage – Italy, Reno, Nevada, diocese of, Conco, Italy, Rovereto, Italy, San Marco in Lamis, Italy, Susa, Italy, Torre Annunziata, Italy, Utah.
Today, 5 August, we celebrate the feast (optional memorial) of the Dedication of the Papal Basilica of Mary Major (Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore) in Rome. This grand basilica is also known as the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Snow (Santa Maria ad Nives ) due to a miraculous snowfall occurring there during the hot summer months and the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Crib (Santa Maria ad Præsepe), from the relics of the holy crib or manger of Bethlehem, in which Christ was laid at His birth, housed within.
Saint Mary Major takes it’s name from two references to greatness (“major”): first, it is the largest church in the world dedicated to Our Blessed Mother; second, that it is one of four Papal (or major) basilicas. Together with Saint Lawrence outside the Walls, these four basilicas were formerly referred to as the five “patriarchal basilicas” of Rome, associated with the five ancient patriarchal sees of Christendom.
Saint John Lateran: represents Rome, the See of Peter Saint Paul outside the Walls: represents the See of Alexandria Saint Peter: represents the See of Constantinople Saint Lawrence outside the Walls: represents the See of Jerusalem Saint Mary Major: represents the See of Antioch, where Mary spent the majority of her life.
Also known as the Liberian Basilica, as it was presided over by Pope Liberius, this Basilica housed one of the earliest Christian congregations of Rome. It is also the only Roman basilica that retained the core of its original structure(432-440), left intact despite several construction projects and damage from the great earthquake of 1348.
The beginnings of Saint Mary Major date to the Constantinian period (300s AD), under the direction of Pope Liberius. According to Holy Legend, as recounted in the Breviary:
“Liberius was on the chair of Peter (352-366) when the Roman patrician John and his wife, who was of like nobility, vowed to bequeath their estate to the most Holy Virgin and Mother of God, for they had no children to whom their property could go. The couple gave themselves to assiduous prayer, beseeching Mary to make known to them in some way what pious work they should subsidizse in her honour. Mary answered their petition and confirmed her reply by means of the following miracle. On the fifth of August — a time when it is unbearably hot in the city of Rome — a portion of the Esquiline would be covered with snow during the night. During that same night the Mother of God directed John and his wife in separate dreams to build a church to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary on the site where they would see snow lying. For it was in this manner that she wanted her inheritance to be used. John immediately reported the whole matter to Pope Liberius and he declared that a similar dream had come to him. Accompanied by clergy and people, Liberius proceeded on the following morning in solemn procession to the snow-covered hill and there marked off the area on which the church in Mary’s honour was to be constructed.”
Each year on August fifth, a solemn Mass is offered to celebrate the Miracle of the Snows. During the Mass, white rose petals are dropped from the coffered ceiling, covering the floor, celebrating and re-creating the miraculous snowfall of the fourth century. At sunset on the same day, an artificial “snowfall” is staged as a tourist attraction in the square outside the basilica.
Following construction of the grand basilica, Pope Liberius presided over Masses for the congregation. Under Pope Sixtus III (432-440) the basilica was rebuilt. Following the Council of Ephesus, led by St Cyril of Alexandria, Mary was definitively declared the Theotokos —the Divine Mother of God—and the basilica was consecrated in her honour. The basilica was decorated with mosaics from the lives of Christ and Our Blessed Mother, which have survived until today. Also present is the oldest surviving image of the Blessed Virgin. Known as the Salus Populi Romani, (The Health of the Roman People), this icon is credited with saving Rome from the plague. Thought to have been painted by John the Evangelist, radiocarbon dating has placed the age of this icon at approximately two thousand years old.
As early as the end of the fourth century a replica of the Bethlehem nativity grotto had been added, including relics of the manger of Christ. On this account the edifice became known as “St. Mary of the Crib.” The crib resembles an ordinary manger but is kept in a case of silver and in it lies an image of a little child, also of silver. On Christmas day the holy manger is taken out of the case and exposed. It is kept in a subterraneous chapel in this church and throughout history, saints, including Saint Jerome, have written about this holy relic—both when it resided in Bethlehem and after its relocation to Rome.
The Basilica of Saint Mary Major – (no Catholic church can be honoured with the title of “basilica” unless by apostolic grant or from immemorial custom. St Mary Major is one of the only four that hold the title of “major basilica) is important to Christendom for three important reasons:
1) The basilica stands as a venerable monument to the Council of Ephesus (431), during which the dogma of Mary’s divine Motherhood was solemnly defined. The definition of the Council occasioned a most notable increase in the veneration paid to Mary.
2) The basilica is Rome’s “church of the crib,” a Bethlehem within the Eternal City. It also is a celebrated station church, serving, for instance, as the center for Rome’s liturgy for the first Mass on Christmas. In some measure every picture of Mary with the divine Child is traceable to this church due to the surviving Salus Populi Romani.
3) Saint Mary Major is Christendom’s first Marian shrine for pilgrims. It set the precedent for the countless shrines where pilgrims gather to honour Our Blessed Mother throughout the world. Here was introduced an authentic expression of popular piety that has been the source of untold blessings and graces for Christianity in the past as in the present.
Our Lady of Copacabana: A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary standing four feet tall, made of plaster and maguey fiber, and created by Francisco Tito Yupanqui. Except for the face and hands, it is covered in gold leaf, dressed like an Inca princess, and has jewels on neck, hands and ears. There is no record of what the image looks like under the robes, the carved hair has been covered by a wig, and the image never leaves the basilica. On 21 February 1583 it was enthroned in an adobe church on the peninsula of Copacabana, which juts into Lake Titicaca nearly 3 miles above sea level. In 1669 the viceroy of Peru added a straw basket and baton to the statue, which she still holds today. The present shrine dates from 1805. The image was crowned during the reign of Pope Pius XI, and its sanctuary was promoted to a basilica in 1949. It has been the recipient of many expensive gifts over the years, most of which were looted by civil authorities in need of quick cash.
Patronage – Bolivia, Bolivian navy.
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St Abel of Rheims
St Addai
St Aggai of Edessa
Bl Arnaldo Pons
St Cantidianus
St Cantidius
St Cassian of Autun
St Casto of Teano
Bl Corrado of Laodicea
St Emidius of Ascoli Piceno
St Eusignius
St Gormeal of Ardoilen
Bl James Gerius
St Margaret the Barefooted
St Mari
St Memmius of Châlons-sur-Marne
St Nonna
St Oswald of Northumbria
St Paris of Teano
Bl Pierre-Michel Noël
St Sobel
St Theodoric of Cambrai-Arras
St Venantius of Viviers
St Viator
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Martyrs of Fuente la Higuera: A group of Augustinian priests and clerics who were martyred together in the Spanish Civil War. 5 August 1936 in Fuente la Higuera, Valencia, Spain. They were Beatified on 28 October 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI.
10 Beati:
• Anastasio Díez García
• Ángel Pérez Santos
• Cipriano Polo García
• Emilio Camino Noval
• Felipe Barba Chamorro
• Gabino Olaso Zabala
• Luciano Ramos Villafruela
• Luis Blanco Álvarez
• Ubaldo Revilla Rodríguez
• Victor Gaitero González
Martyrs of the Salarian Way: Twenty-three Christians who were martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian.
303 on the Salarian Way in Rome, Italy.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
Bl Eduardo González Santo Domingo
Bl Jaume Codina Casellas
Bl Joan Gibert Galofré
Bl José Trallero Lou
Bl Lluís Domingo Mariné
Bl Manuel Moreno Martínez
Maximino Fernández Marinas
Bl Pau Virgili Monfá
Bl Pere Massó Llagostera
Bl Salvi Huix Miralpeix
Bl Victor García Ceballos
When Pope Benedict XVI announced a special Year for Priests to be observed in the Church (June 19, 2009 — June 19, 2010), he noted that the timing was not arbitrary. The year coincides, he said, with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, “a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ’s flock.”
It is, therefore, appropriate that we pray for all our priests today:
Gracious and loving God, we thank your for the gift of our priests. Through them, we experience your presence in the sacraments.
Help our priests to be strong in their vocation. Set their souls on fire with love for your people.
Grant them the wisdom, understanding, and strength they need to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Inspire them with the vision of your Kingdom.
Give them the words they need to spread the Gospel. Allow them to experience joy in their ministry.
Help them to become instruments of your divine grace.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns as our Eternal Priest.
The people were careless about practicing their faith, so they were not happy with this priest who was eager to draw them back to God and Christian living. Some caused trouble by lying about John, by acting violently against him and by refusing to cooperate with him. They hoped that he would give up and leave. Instead, Father Vianney increased his prayers, fasting, and penances.
Gradually, people came to celebrate the sacraments and listen to his homilies. Within a few years, Father Vianney was spending 10–16 hours a day in the confessional. People from all over France and other countries came to consult him. The government built a railroad line to Ars to accommodate all the pilgrims. Father Vianney just continued his hard, yet simple, way of prayer, fasting and penance. He was strict with his parishioners but a hundred times stricter with himself. John gave away his furnishings, his belongings and the gifts of clothes and food that the neighbours brought him. Once he received a black velvet cape as an award and sold it to buy food for those who were poor.
Indifference toward religion, coupled with a love for material comfort, seem to be common signs of our times. A person from another planet observing us would not likely judge us to be pilgrim people, on our way to somewhere else. St John Vianney on the other hand, was a man on a journey, with his goal before him at all times – if he could overcome all obstacles, so can we!
“You must accept your cross. If you bear it courageously, it will carry you to heaven.”
“Here is the rule for everyday life. Do not do anything which you cannot offer to God.”
“The priest is not a priest for himself – he is for you. After God, the priest is everything.”
“It is by battles against hell and by resistance to temptations, that we give God proofs of our love.”
“His look rests on you alone.”
“The sign of the cross is the most terrible weapon against the devil. Thus the Church wishes not only, that we have it continually in front of our minds, to recall to us just what our souls are worth and what they cost Jesus Christ but also that we should make it at every juncture ourselves: when we go to bed, when we awaken during the night, when we get up, when we begin any action, and, above all, when we are tempted.”
“The Devil writes down our sins – our Guardian Angel all our merits. Labour that the Guardian Angel’s book may be full and the Devil’s empty.”
Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you…..James 4:10
REFLECTION – “Humility is like a pair of scales: the lower one side falls, the higher rises the other. Let us humble ourselves like the Blessed Virgin and we shall be exalted.”………St John Vianney
PRAYER – Lord God, light of the faithful and shepherd of souls, who gave blessed John Vianney to Your Church to feed Your flock by his teaching and form them by his example, grant that by his intercession, we may keep the faith which he taught and follow in the way he walked, through our Lord Jesus Christ, in union with the Holy Spirit. St John Vianney, pray for us, amen.
I love You, O my God.
My only desire is to love You, until the last breath of my life.
I love You, O infinitely loveable God
and I prefer to die loving You,
rather than to live for an instant without You.
I love You, O my God
and I desire only to go to heaven,
to have the happiness of loving You perfectly.
I love You, O my God
and my only fear is to go to hell
because one will never have the sweet solace of loving You there.
O my God, if my tongue cannot say at all times that I love You,
at least I want my heart to repeat it to You as many times as I breathe.
Ah! Do me the grace: to suffer while loving You,
to love You while suffering.
And, that when I die: I not only will love You
but experience it in my heart.
I beg You that the closer I come to my final end,
You will increase and perfect my love for You. Amen
Saint of the Day – 9 August – St Jean-Baptiste Marie Vianney TOSF (1786-1859) – The Curé of Ars (Parish Priest of Ars) – Confessor Priest and Tertiary – (8 May 1786 at Dardilly, Lyons, France – 4 August 1859 at Ars, France of natural causes) His body is interred in the Basilica of Ars. He was Canonised on 31 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI. Patronages – Confessors, Priests (proclaimed on 23 April 1929 by Pope Pius XI), Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, Dubuque, Iowa, Archdiocese of, Kamloops, British Columbia, Diocese of, Kansas City, Kansas, Archdiocese of, Lafayette, Louisiana, Diocese of, Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Archdiocese of. St John Vianney’s body is incorrupt.
St John Vianney was born on 8 May 1786, in the French town of Dardilly, France (near Lyon) and was baptised the same day. His parents, Matthieu Vianney and his wife Marie (Belize), had six children, of whom John was the fourth. The Vianneys were devout Catholics, who helped the poor and gave hospitality to St Benedict Joseph Labre, the patron saint of tramps, who passed through Dardilly on his pilgrimage to Rome.
St Benedict Joseph Labre
By 1790, the anticlerical Terror phase of the French Revolution forced many loyal priests to hide from the regime in order to carry out the sacraments in their parish. Even though to do so had been declared illegal, the Vianneys traveled to distant farms to attend Masses celebrated by priests on the run. Realising that such priests risked their lives day by day, Vianney began to look upon them as heroes. He received his First Communion catechism instructions in a private home by two nuns whose communities had been dissolved during the Revolution. He made his first communion at the age of 13 (normal in those times). During the Mass, the windows were covered so that the light of the candles could not be seen from the outside. His practice of the Faith continued in secret, especially during his preparation for confirmation.
The Catholic Church was re-established in France in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, resulting in religious peace throughout the country, culminating in a Concordat. By this time, Vianney was concerned about his future vocation and longed for an education. He was 20 when his father allowed him to leave the farm to be taught at a “presbytery-school” in the neighbouring village of Écully, conducted by the Abbé Balley. The school taught arithmetic, history, geography and Latin. Vianney struggled with school, especially with Latin, since his past education had been interrupted by the French Revolution. Only because of Vianney’s deepest desire to be a priest—and Balley’s patience—did he persevere.
St Vianney’s studies were interrupted in 1809 when he was drafted into Napoleon’s armies. He would have been exempt, as an ecclesiastical student but Napoleon had withdrawn the exemption in certain dioceses because of his need for soldiers in his fight against Spain. Two days after he had to report at Lyons, he became ill and was hospitalised, during which time his draft left without him. Once released from the hospital, on 5 January, he was sent to Roanne for another draft. He went into a church to pray and fell behind the group. He met a young man who volunteered to guide him back to his group but instead led him deep into the mountains of Le Forez, to the village of Les Noes, where deserters had gathered. St Vianney lived there for fourteen months, hidden in the byre attached to a farmhouse and under the care of Claudine Fayot, a widow with four children. He assumed the name Jerome Vincent and under that name, he opened a school for village children. Since the harsh weather isolated the town during the winter, the deserters were safe from gendarmes. However, after the snow melted, gendarmes came to the town constantly, searching for deserters. During these searches, Vianney hid inside stacks of fermenting hay in Fayot’s barn.
An imperial decree proclaimed in March 1810 granted amnesty to all deserters, which enabled Vianney to go back legally to Ecully, where he resumed his studies. He was tonsured in 1811 and in 1812 he went to the minor seminary at Verrières-en-Forez. In autumn of 1813, he was sent to the major seminary at Lyons. Considered too slow, he was returned to Abbe Balley. However, Balley persuaded the Vicar general that Vianney’s piety was great enough to compensate for his ignorance and the seminarian received minor orders and the subdiaconate on 2 July 1814, was ordained a deacon in June 1815 and was ordained priest on 12 August 1815 in the Couvent des Minimes de Grenoble. He said his first Mass the next day and was appointed the assistant to Balley in Écully.
Curé of Ars
In 1818, shortly after the death of Balley, Jean-Marie Vianney was appointed parish priest of the parish of Ars, a town of 230 inhabitants. As parish priest, he realised that the Revolution’s aftermath had resulted in religious ignorance and indifference, due to the devastation wrought on the Catholic Church in France. At the time, Sundays in rural areas were spent working in the fields, or dancing and drinking in taverns. He spent time in the confessional and gave homilies against blasphemy and paganic dancing. If his parishioners did not give up this dancing, he refused them absolution. Abbe Balley had been St Vianney’s greatest inspiration, since he was a priest who remained loyal to his faith, despite the Revolution. He felt compelled to fulfill the duties of a curé, just as did Balley, even when it was illegal. With Catherine Lassagne and Benedicta Lardet, he established La Providence, a home for girls. Only a man of vision could have such trust that God would provide for the spiritual and material needs of all those who came to make La Providence their home.
Later years
Fr Vianney came to be known internationally and people from distant places began travelling to consult him as early as 1827. “By 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached 20,000 a year. During the last ten years of his life, he spent 16 to 18 hours a day in the confessional. Even the bishop forbade him to attend the annual retreats of the diocesan clergy because of the souls awaiting him yonder”. His work as a confessor is John Vianney’s most remarkable accomplishment. In the winter months he was to spend 11 to 12 hours daily reconciling people with God. In the summer months this time was increased to 16 hours. Unless a man was dedicated to his vision of a priestly vocation, he could not have endured this giving of self day after day.
Many people look forward to retirement and taking it easy, doing the things they always wanted to do but never had the time. But John Vianney had no thoughts of retirement. As his fame spread, more hours were consumed in serving God’s people. Even the few hours he would allow himself for sleep were disturbed frequently by the devil, who physically attacked and tormented St John and kept him from sleeping.
St Vianney had a great devotion to St. Philomena. He regarded her as his guardian and erected a chapel and shrine in honor of the saint. During May 1843, he fell so ill he thought that his life was coming to its end. St John Vianney attributed his cure to her intercession.
He yearned for the contemplative life of a monk and four times ran away from Ars, the last time in 1853. St John Vianney read much and often the lives of the saints, and became so impressed by their holy lives that he wanted for himself and others to follow their wonderful examples. The ideal of holiness enchanted him. This was the theme which underlay his sermons. “We must practice mortification. For this is the path which all the Saints have followed,” he said from the pulpit. He placed himself in that great tradition which leads the way to holiness through personal sacrifice. “If we are not now saints, it is a great misfortune for us: therefore we must be so. As long as we have no love in our hearts, we shall never be Saints.” The Saint, to him, was not an exceptional man before whom we should marvel but a possibility which was open to all Catholics. Unmistakably did he declare in his sermons that “to be a Christian and to live in sin is a monstrous contradiction. A Christian must be holy.” With his Christian simplicity he had clearly thought much on these things and understood them by divine inspiration, while they are usually denied to the understanding of educated men. He was a champion of the poor as a Franciscan tertiary and was a recipient of the coveted French Legion of Honour.
On 4 August 1859, Vianney died at the age of 73. The bishop presided over his funeral with 300 priests and more than 6,000 people in attendance. Before he was buried, Vianney’s body was fitted with a wax mask.
On 3 October 1874 Pope Pius IX proclaimed him “venerable”; on 8 January 1905, Pope Pius X declared him Blessed and proposed him as a model to the parochial clergy. In 1925 John Mary Vianney was canonized by Pope Pius XI, who in 1929 made him patron saint of parish priests.
In 1959, to commemorate the centenary of John Vianney’s death, Pope John XXIII issued the encyclical letter Sacerdotii nostri primordia. St Pope John Paul II visited Ars in person in 1986 in connection with the anniversary of Vianney’s birth and referred to the great saint as a “rare example of a pastor acutely aware of his responsibilities … and a sign of courage for those who today experience the grace of being called to the priesthood.”
In honour of the 150th anniversary of Vianney’s death, Pope Benedict XVI declared a Year of the Priest, running from the Feast of the Sacred Heart 2009–2010. The Vatican Postal Service issued a set of stamps to commemorate the 150th Anniversary. With the following words on 16 June 2009, Benedict XVI officially marked the beginning of the year dedicated to priests, “…On the forthcoming Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19 June 2009 – a day traditionally devoted to prayer for the sanctification of the clergy –, I have decided to inaugurate a ‘Year of the Priest’ in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the dies natalis of John Mary Vianney, the Patron Saint of parish priests worldwide…” In the Holy Father’s words the Curé d’Ars is “a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ’s flock.”
There are statues and stained glass windows of St John Vianney in many French churches and in Catholic churches throughout the world. Also, many parishes founded in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are named after him. Some relics are kept in the Church of Notre-Dame de la Salette in Paris.
St John Mary Vianney (Memorial) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc3kd25BqeY
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St Agabius of Verona
St Aristarchus of Thessalonica
St Crescentio of Rome
St Eleutherius of Bithynia
St Epiphanes of Besançon
St Euphronius of Tours
St Francesc Mercader Rendé
Bl Frédéric Janssone
St Hyacinth of Rome
St Ia of Persia
St Isidore of Besançon
St Justin of Rome
St Lua of Limerick
St Onofrio of Panaia
St Perpetua of Rome
St Protasius of Cologne
St Rainerio of Split
St Sithney
St Tertullinus of Rome
Bl William Horne
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Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
Bl Gil Rodicio y Rodicio
Bl Gonzalo Gonzalo y Gonzalo
Bl Josep Batalla Parramon
Bl Josep Colom Alsina
Bl Josep Rabasa Betanachs
Bl Luis Quintas Durán
Bl Antonio Arrue Peirano
Bl Riccardo Gil Barcelon
Saints of the Day – 3 August – The Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War 1931-1939
Fifty thousand Spanish people attended the Beatification ceremony of 498 Martyrs, victims of religious persecution in 1930’s Spain. These 498 people were killed only for their faith in Jesus Christ and their ideals, their killing being part of the anti-Catholic plan of the Republican government in power since 1931. The figures of this persecution are beyond comprehension and a complete and hate-filled attack on all Catholics whilst the world watched the violence: 13 Bishops, 4,154 Priests and Seminarians, 2,365 Religious, 283 Nuns and about 4,000 Laymen killed for helping or hiding Nuns or Priests.
As Monsignor Vicente Carcel Orti, the Spanish historian who has been living in Rome for forty years and who worked for the Curia, points out, the Spanish Church did not seek any confrontation with the Republic, but was persecuted in spite of her neutrality. The government persecuted the Church in legislative terms, while Republican extremists used violence against people and things. Anti-clerical violence was unleashed by Freemasons and Communists. Persecution started long before the civil war. According to Monsignor Carcel Orti, the shameful history of the Spanish Republic, a puppet in the hands of the Stalinist regime, has been concealed on account of its follow-up: the long winter of Franco’s dictatorship has, in a way, justified a distorted and mythicized reading of those tragic years.
This not too-long and highly informative interview with the Spanish historian is meant to throw light on this dramatic period in the history of the Spanish Church in order to achieve a better understanding of what is going on in present-day Spain.
Twentieth-century Spain was a nation of Martyrs. What was the political and ideological context in which the persecution of the Church and the martyrdom of believers occurred?
MONSIGNOR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: It was a slow process which began with a great anticlerical movement in the 19th century. In 19th century Spain the Church was closely linked to the monarchy by means of concordats. Catholicism was, in practice, the state religion, like the Orthodox religion in Greece and Romania and Anglicanism in England. In the 1920’s King Alphonse XIII handed power over to Primo de Rivera, who set up a military dictatorship (we are talking about the age of dictatorships: there was Mussolini in Italy, Stalin in Russia and Hitler in Germany). The military regime, on the one hand, dissolved parliament, trade unions and political parties; on the other hand it ushered in a period of security and economic growth, through public works amongst other things. Unfortunately economic growth came to a sudden halt with the 1929 world crisis. The following year the Republicans won the municipal elections. Thus General Primo de Rivera relinquished his power while the king left the country, though without abdicating. It was under these circumstances that the Republicans seized power on April 14th, 1931, and proclaimed the Republic.
Why did the Republic persecute the Church and Catholic believers?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: The Republicans had built up so much hatred for the monarchy and everything relating to it, the Church included, that, once they seized power, they began to hit their enemies. Their first and easiest target was the Church, being defenseless. The new regime made laws against the Church; in the meantime anarchists, socialists and Communists began to use violence against people and things.
What was the role of Freemasonry in this anti-Catholic campaign?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Freemasonry played a key role in the anti-Catholic campaign since Freemasons were present in political institutions, in the government and the “Cortes” (the Spanish parliament), where they had at least 183 deputies. Spanish Freemasonry, therefore, played a major role in the making of anti-Catholic laws and in the defamatory campaign against the Church.
What kind of persecution was the Church faced with from 1931 to 1936?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: As historians have ascertained, a growing number of measures against the Catholic Church and religious practice were taken between 1931 and 1936. These oppressive laws aimed at a radical and antidemocratic conception of the separation between Church and State. Numberless examples could be quoted: the Jesuits were dissolved in January 1932; in May 1933 a law against ecclesiastical property deprived the Church of all her possessions, which were handed over to civil authorities; a law was passed against the teaching of religion in schools, and the clergy was forbidden to teach. Violent persecution proper began in 1934 with the “Turon martyrs,” who have already been canonised and many other believers murdered during the Communist Revolution of the Asturias, when priests, religious and seminarians, 37 in all, were killed and 58 churches were burned. After 1936 in all the main cities, cathedrals, religious communities and parish churches were attacked, ransacked and burned. These persecutions aimed at erasing all traces of Catholic tradition in Spain. Hatred for the faith went even beyond murders and found expression in thousands of sacrilegious acts:tabernacles were emptied, consecrated particles were eaten, shot at, strewn in the streets and trodden on; churches were used as stables, altars were demolished, priests and nuns were held at gunpoint in the attempt to force them to recant their faith. Let us remember that persecutions started years before the beginning of the civil war, and the Church could be accused of supporting Franco’s Falangists, referred to as “rebels.”
But wasn’t the Church hostile to the Republican government?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Spanish bishops recognised the legitimate Republican government from the start. The problem, however, was that the Republican authorities had always been openly hostile to Catholics. After the events of the Asturias, in the summer of 1936, socialists, Communists and anarchists started the most violent persecution in the history of Spain, aimed at the physical elimination of the Church, of both people and things; this persecution lasted until 1939.
Could you quote any figures?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Albeit incomplete, the figures are impressive: 18 bishops, 4,184 between priests and seminarians, 283 nuns and about 4,000 laymen were killed for helping or hiding priests or nuns. It must be emphasized that in the part of the country occupied by Franco’s troops, no harm was done to the clergy nor were the churches destroyed.
Some critics of Franco say that he had 16 Basque Priests executed?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: It is true that when the nationalist troops entered Bilbao, 16 priests were shot, not because they were priests but for political reasons with other people. I have found the documentary evidence of this along with the witness of the bishop who had asked those priests to refrain from being involved in political activities. Such political activities triggered off Franco’s repression, which also involved 16 priests. When the Pope learned about this, he immediately sent a telegram to Franco, who promised that events like that would never happen again. The martyrdom of priests, however, only occurred in the “red” areas. In addition, the Republicans destroyed churches and monasteries (in my diocese, the diocese of Valencia, over 1000 churches and other sacred buildings were destroyed).
When did the Beatification causes of the Spanish Martyrs begin?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: At the end of the civil war in 1939, the Holy See demanded that all information about the persecution available to parishes and dioceses be collected. Once all the necessary material had been collected, bishops gradually started the diocesan phase of the beatification cases. These cases began in the 1940’s and continued into the 1950’s. At the end of the diocesan phase, all documents were sent to Rome for the “Roman” phase, to be held by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. Yet Paul VI stopped the cases, as he thought it would be best to wait until fifty years had passed from those dramatic events. Also, he posed a condition: Spain was to have a democratic government (the military regime was still in power in 1960’s Spain). At the beginning of John Paul II’s pontificate Spain was already a democracy; the Spaniards therefore asked the Pope to proceed with the beatification cases but he did not comply with their request, since fewer than fifty years had passed since the end of the civil war. John Paul II waited until 1987 to celebrate the first beatification case of martyrs who were victims of religious persecution (three Carmelite nuns from Guadalajara). This marked the beginning of the beatifications of our martyrs. On October 18th we celebrated sixteen beatifications, raising 979 martyrs to the altars. As far as I know, the Congregation is now examining another 2000 cases so that 2000 martyrs will probably be beatified in six or seven years’ time.
The Church has sometimes been accused of opening up an old sore with the Beatification of the Martyrs of the civil wa?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: It is a specious dispute with a strong ideological and political orientation. The victims beatified and canoniSed have never been referred to as “martyrs of the civil war,” but victims of religious persecution; the Church has always paid tribute to martyrs of faith and always will. Civil and military institutions commemorate “soldiers killed in war” or “victims of political repression,” both on the Republican and on the Nationalist sides but this doesn’t mean opening up an old sore, even though political parties sometimes clearly exploit past events.
How can these Martyrs become a mark of reconciliation?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Nowadays the word “martyr” is abused; in common speech it is used in several senses, but its original and most proper use refers to someone suffering or dying for God’s sake, bearing witness to their faith, forgiving and praying for their executioners, as Jesus Christ did on the cross. Others can be called “heroes” or “victims” for various causes, sometimes questionable, but are referred to as “martyrs,” since this word is abused, being extended to those suffering for somebody or something.
“Christian martyrs” have no ideological or political motivation except their faith in God and love of their neighbors. These martyrs never waged or fomented any war; they were never involved in party strife. They brought an everlasting message of peace and love, which lightens our faith and feeds our hope.
The Beatification of these martyrs coincides with the Spanish Parliament’s decision to commemorate the victims of Franco’s regime. Who were they?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: They were people killed in the civil war and in the ensuing wave of repression. This involved the winners’ ideological enemies. Franco’s reaction was violent but did not last too long. Republicans were tried, though by court-martials and documents of these trials have come down to us.
A point must be made: those who fought for the Republic at that time did not fight for freedom or democracy but to set up a regime like the one in power in the Soviet Union. Franco was therefore right when he said that he was making war on Communism. If he had not won, there would have been the Spanish Soviet Union.
All over the world left-wing parties have always idealised the Spanish Republicans and depicted Franco as the incarnation of evil.
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Franco saved the Church from total destruction. Without his intervention the Church would probably have been blotted out. Yet no one knew at the time that he would become a dictator.
Franco also saved Spain from the Second World War.
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: This is another very important element. At the end of the civil war, Hitler paid a visit to Franco and asked his permission for the German army to cross Spain as far as Gibraltar (he intended to conquer North Africa and occupy the whole Mediterranean). Franco did not give his consent on the grounds that the country had been devastated by the civil war and could not afford to be involved in another conflict.
Pius XI, who was in contact with Franco, warned him against Hitler (Franco declared himself a Catholic, Hitler was a pagan).
At the end of the Second World War Franco established relations with the U.S.A. and brought his country into the U.N. Spain was recognised by all states. When certain circles demand that the Spanish Church apologise for her relations with Franco’s regime,I therefore ask myself: “What do we have to apologize for? For having ten thousand martyrs?” Such requests are made by the ideological heirs of those who persecuted the Church. They do everything to erase all memories of her martyrdom.
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI:These requests are only demagogical. In addition, the Spanish Church produced a document many years ago, recognising that mistakes had been made and forgiving her persecutors. In this document it was also pointed out that no other course of action was possible under those circumstances.
Why is the struggle against Franco still a myth to the whole of the Left, a symbol of the fight for democracy against dictatorship?
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI:Most of the European Left was and is Communist. Since Franco was the only one to defeat Communists on the battlefield, these have reacted by presenting the fight of the International Brigades as the fight for freedom against dictatorship. Unfortunately Communist organizations are the most backward and the most conservative ones nowadays; they are unable to revise their past or make any self-criticism.
Socialist, Communist and Masonic parties are in power in Spain nowadays. They see the Church in the same way as the Republicans who tried to destroy her 70 years ago. Needless to say, nobody kills priests and nuns or burns religious buildings but the Church is perceived as a hindrance to the real progress of Spain and the whole of mankind, as an institution to marginalize and reduce to silence, being the holder of a conservative vision of man, an ideological adversary. Zapatero seems to be willing to create a new world, a new man in Spain.
MSGR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: This is typical of all left-wing totalitarian regimes. Stalin too intended to create a new man; so did Pol Pot. Freedom is at risk in Spain, as the state is trying to interfere with people’s private lives, to impose a given way of life, to decide how they must bring up their children, etc. It is not enough for laws to be passed by a parliament to be right. As there is only one voice to defend man’s good, attempts are being made to hush it. Yet, whilst politicians are voted into and out of power, the Church remains.
Martyrs Born Various Died 1934, 1936-1939 Venerated in Roman Catholicism Beatified 29 March 1987 1 October 1989 29 April 1990 25 October 1992 10 October 1993 1 October 1995 4 May 1997 10 May 1998 7 March 1999 11 March 2001 by Pope John Paul II 29 October 2005 28 October 2007 23 January 2010 17 December 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI[1] 13 October 2013 1 November 2014 5 September 2015 3 October 2015 21 November 2015 23 April 2016 8 October 2016 29 October 2016 25 March 2017 6 May 2017 21 October 2017 11 November 2017 by Pope Francis Canonised 4 May 2003 in Madrid by Pope John Paul II Feasts – Various
St Abibas
St Anthony the Roman
St Aspren of Naples
Bl Augustine Gazotich
Bl Benno of Metz
St Dalmatius
St Euphronius of Autun
St Gamaliel
St Gaudentia
Bl Godfrey of Le Mans
Bl Gregory of Nonantula
St Hermellus
St Nicodemus
St Senach of Clonard
St Trea of Ardtree
St Waltheof of Melrose
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Martyrs of Vercelli – 4 saints (below)
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAioTwJ0BMA
BlAndrés Avelino Gutiérrez Moral
Bl Antonio Isidoro Arrué Peiró
Bl Eleuterio Mancho López
Bl Eugenio Remón Salvador
Bl Federico López y López
Bl Francisco Bandrés Sánchez
Bl Geronimo Limón Márquez
Bl Jose Guardiet y Pujol
Bl Patricio Beobide Cendoya
Bl Ricardo Gil Barcelón
Bl Salvador Ferrandis Seguí
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is one of the best ways to spend time with Jesus. There is so much noise around us these days. Spending a quiet hour with Jesus in humble adoration will bring many graces and blessings to you. Things that you have never even considered before will now be made present to you. Bad things that would have happened to you will now not happen. Here are some thoughts about what Jesus is asking you during this time. As He told Peter, “Could you not spend one hour with me?”St. Peter Julian Eymard tells us all how to spend an hour in Adoration!
“MY CHILD, you need not know much in order to please Me; only love Me dearly. Speak to Me as you would talk to your mother, if she had taken…
Thought for the Day – 2 August – The Memorial of St Peter Julian Eymard “Apostle of the Eucharist”
“I can remember very clearly that afternoon when I ran out of this room, down the stairs and out the front door. I ran into the church with all the energy of a five-year-old. It was empty. I did something so out of place. I climbed and sat on the table of the altar and I just leaned my head against the tabernacle. My sister, Marianne, asked me, “What are you doing there?” I quickly answered, ‘I am near Jesus and I’m listening to him.’”
Anticipating the renewal brought about by the Second Vatican Council, Saint Peter Julian Eymard had a vision of Eucharistic communities of priests, deacons, brothers, sisters and lay people living lives of total dedication to the spiritual values that are inspired by the celebration of the Eucharist and deepened through prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
His life was a true journey to Christ in the Eucharist, a journey begun intuitively on that day when a small boy wandered away from his family home to go to church―to listen to Jesus in the tabernacle.
Prayer to Saint Peter Julian Eymard
St Peter Julian,
the Lord has given you,
as he once did to Jacob, His servant,
an ever-searching faith.
All your life long, you have sought the way
to deepen your union with God
and to satisfy the hungers of humanity.
In the Eucharist, you have discovered the answer to your searching:
God’s love was there for you and for all humanity.
Answering this gift of love,
you made the gift of yourself to God
and you have given of yourself to the service of His people.
Your life, modeled on that of the Cenacle,
where Mary and the apostles were united in prayer,
inspired your disciples to live in an atmosphere of prayer.
Their apostolic zeal caused them to build Christian communities
where the Eucharist is the center and source of life.
Saint Peter Julian,
accompany us on our journey of faith.
May our ardent prayer and our generous service
help us to contribute to the establishing of a world
where there is justice and peace.
May our celebrations of the Eucharist
proclaim the liberating love of God
for the renewal of His church
and the coming of His kingdom.
Amen.
Quote/s of the Day – 2 August – The Memorial of St Peter Julian Eymard “Apostle of the Eucharist”
“During the days of His mortal life, Jesus was present in one place only. He dwelt in one house only. Few persons were privileged enough to enjoy His presence and listen to His words. But today in the Blessed Sacrament, He is, we may say, everywhere at one and the same time. In a way, His humanity shares the prerogative of His divine immensity which fills all things. Jesus is present in His entirety in an infinite number of temples and in each one of them. Since all the Christians scattered throughout the world are members of His Mystical Body, it does seem necessary that He, as the soul of it, should be everywhere present throughout the whole body, giving it life, and sustaining it in each one of His members.”
“Have a great love for Jesus in His divine Sacrament of Love; that is the divine oasis of the desert. It is the heavenly manna of the traveller. It is the Holy Ark. It is the Life and Paradise of love on earth.”
“When we work hard, we must eat well. What a joy, that you can receive Holy Communion often! It’s our life and support in this life – receive Communion often and Jesus will change you into Himself.”
“Eucharistic adoration is the greatest of actions. To adore is to share the life of Mary on earth when she adored the Word Incarnate in her virginal womb, when she adored Him in the Crib, on Calvary, in the divine Eucharist.”
…..At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love…1 Corinthians 12-13
REFLECTION – “We believe in the love of God for us. To believe in love is everything. It is not enough to believe in the Truth. We must believe in Love and Love is our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. That is the faith that makes our Lord loved. Ask for this pure and simple faith in the Eucharist. Men will teach you; but only Jesus will give you the grace to believe in Him. You have the Eucharist. What more do you want?”… St Peter Julian Eymund
PRAYER – Lord our God, help us to imitate the constancy and love of St Peter Julian in proclaiming the Real Presence and Love of Jesus Christ, who remains waiting for us all in the Holy Eucharist. By living the love and faith in the Holy Eucharist as St Peter Julian did, may we come to share the life of our Lord Jesus, Your Son, who waits and loves and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. St Peter Julian Eymard, pray for us, amen.
Our Morning Offering – 2 August – The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
EXCERPT from the ‘Our Father’ Paraphrase By St Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868) “Apostle of the Eucharist”
Our Father Who art in Heaven
In the heaven of the Eucharist …
Grant me the grace to find
all my joy in wanting You alone,
in desiring You alone
and in thinking of You alone.
Grant that by denying myself,
I may find light and life
in obeying Your good,
acceptable and perfect Will.
I will, what You will.
I will it because You will it.
I will it, as You will it.
I will it, as long as You will it.
Keep my thoughts and desires purely
from You,
for You
and in You.
In You, O Lord Jesus, have I hoped,
let me not be confounded forever.
You alone are good.
You alone are powerful.
You alone are eternal.
To You alone be honour and glory,
love and thanksgiving,
forever and ever.
Amen
And here is the full Prayer:
PRAYER OF ST PETER JULIAN EYMARD Our Father Paraphrased
Our Father Who art in Heaven
In the heaven of the Eucharist,
to You Who are seated
on the throne of grace and love,
be benediction,
and honour,
and power and glory forever and ever!
Hallowed be Your Name
first in myself,
through the spirit of Your humility,
obedience and charity.
May I, in all humility and zeal, make You known,
loved and adored by all men in the Holy Eucharist.
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Eucharistic kingdom.
Rule forever over us
for Your greater glory
through the power of Your love,
the triumph of Your virtues
and the grace of a Eucharistic vocation
in my state as a layman.
Grant me the grace of Your love
so that I may be able to effectively
extend Your Eucharistic kingdom everywhere
and realise the desire You expressed: “I have come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I but that it be kindled!”
O, that I might be the incendiaries of this heavenly fire!
Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven
Grant me the grace to find
all my joy in wanting You alone,
in desiring You alone
and in thinking of You alone.
Grant that by denying myself,
I may find light and life in obeying Your good,
acceptable and perfect Will.
I will, what You will.
I will it, because You will it.
I will it, as You will it.
I will it, as long as You will it.
Keep my thoughts and desires purely from You,
for You and in You.
Give us this day our daily bread
You are our Eucharistic Lord
and You alone will be my food and clothing,
my riches and glory,
my remedy in illness
and my protection against all evil.
You will be all things to me.
And forgive us our trespasses
Forgive me Jesus,
for I am sorry for all my sins
just as they stand in Your eyes.
As we forgive those who trespass against us
For anyone who has offended me in any way,
with my whole heart I forgive them
and desire for them the gifts of Your love.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Deliver me Jesus,
from the demon of pride,
impurity, discord and complacency.
Deliver me, from the cares and worries
of life, so that with a pure heart
and a free mind, I may joyfully spend my life
and devote all that I am
and all that I have,
in the service of You, my Eucharistic Lord.
Amen
In You, O Lord Jesus, have I hoped;
let me not be confounded forever.
You alone are good.
You alone are powerful.
You alone are eternal.
To You alone be honour and glory,
love and thanksgiving forever and ever. Amen Amen!
Saint of the Day – 2 August – St Peter Julian Eymard SSS (1811-1868) – “Apostle of the Eucharist” – (4 February 1811 at La Mure, France – 1 August 1868 at La Mure, Isère, France following a stroke). He was Canonised on 9 December 1962 by Pope John XXIII. Priest, Religious, Founder of two religious institutes, Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers and Brothers and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. Attributes – Eucharist, Monstrance, Eucharistic Adoration, Eucharistic Congress, Cope Humeral Veil Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.
He once described himself as “a little like Jacob, always on a journey,” always seeking. But, in truth, it was there from the beginning―the great love and the driving passion of his life: Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
One day, young Peter Julian Eymard [pronounced A-mard], just five years of age, wandered off from the family home. His sister and half-sister searched frantically for the boy and finally located him in the parish church, standing on a stool close to the tabernacle of the high altar. In response to their anxious questioning, he answered simply, “I am here listening to Jesus.”
The Early Years – 1811-1839
Like all of us, Peter Julian Eymard was conditioned by his familial and cultural background as well as by the social and political milieu of his time.
Life in France during the first half of the nineteenth century was difficult. Years earlier, the French Revolution had radically altered the political, social and religious landscape of the country. As a teenager, Eymard would experience the Industrial Revolution which swept across Europe. As a young man, he witnessed the dawning of the Age of Romanticism in art, music, and literature.
Peter Julian’s road to the priesthood, as well as his life as a priest, was shadowed by the cross. An intransigent anti-clericalism marked French society and his father, having seen several sons die, did not want his only surviving son to become a priest. His first attempt to pursue the priesthood ended in serious illness. Following his father’s death, he tried once again and on July 20, 1834, at age 23, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Grenoble.
The church of Eymard’s day was greatly affected by Jansenism, a religious movement which focused on the gravity of human sinfulness and a corresponding belief in the unworthiness of human motivation and activity. Thus, in his seminary years and first years of ministry, Father Peter Julian Eymard was influenced by a predominantly reparation spirituality. He would struggle his whole life to seek that inner perfection that would enable him to offer the gift of his entire self.
Perhaps it was the intensification of this spiritual struggle along with his lifelong devotion to Mary that led him to enter religious life. On August 20, 1839, Father Eymard professed vows as a member of the Society of Mary (the Marists).
The Marist Years – 1839-1856
Throughout his life, Peter Julian had an intense devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. He knew about the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette and enjoyed traveling to various Marian shrines. It was Father Eymard’s apostolic work for the Society of Mary that would put him in contact with the various currents of eucharistic piety that were flowing through the French church and elsewhere in Europe.
Despite persistent health issues, Peter Julian was an amazingly energetic and hardworking priest and religious. Naturally drawn to contemplation, the demands of his ministry, especially his preaching schedule and the various administrative duties assigned to him, made it impossible for him to live a purely contemplative life. He was an outstanding organiser of lay societies, a zealous educator, a well-prepared preacher and something of a prophetic figure in his Marist community and even to his superiors.
Father Eymard was especially effective at preaching eucharistic devotions, very popular at the time. It was on one such occasion, on Corpus Christi, May 25, 1845, that he had a powerful experience that would change the course of his life. While carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession at Saint Paul’s Church in Lyons, he felt an intense attraction to Christ in the Eucharist and resolved to“bring all the world to the knowledge and love of our Lord; to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ eucharistic.”
This grace would gradually consume his life and his energies over the next several years. When responsibility for writing a rule for the new Third Order of Mary was entrusted to him by Father Jean Claude Colin, the Marist founder, Peter Julian asked permission to write a eucharistic rule. Father Colin answered that this was not the charism of the Society of Mary. Nevertheless, the idea for such a rule had already been written in the mind and heart of Father Eymard, and, in 1856, he made the painful decision to leave the Marists in the hope of a founding a religious congregation dedicated to the Eucharist.
The Years of Founding – 1856-1868
Founding the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament was not an easy task. Faithfully following the Holy Spirit’s inspiration brought Father Eymard relational conflicts, situations of personal embarrassment, financial troubles and physical exhaustion. The first hurdle was getting approval for the new eucharistic institute.
The work of preparation for First Communion, especially among adults, was the aspect of Eymard’s vision that interested Archbishop Marie Dominique Auguste Sibour of Paris when the two met and the priest shared his project. Eucharistic communities and organisations were springing up throughout France―many of them emphasising only prayer and reparation―but Archbishop Sibour rightly perceived that Eymard’s intuition into the Eucharist was not limited merely to adoration but to reaching out to those who were estranged from the church and evangelising them. He gave approval on May 13, 1856.
Father Eymard immediately directed his ministry to the young workers, the “rag pickers” and the other barely employable men who made up a large segment of the labour force of Paris. No sooner did he attract a few men to join him than he had to close the house and move to another location. This happened twice within the span of a few years. At times, the Eymardian communities were so poor that a neighbouring convent of sisters fed the priests and brothers. Not being able to provide food and shelter did not help Father Eymard attract vocations!
“Gift of Self”
As early as 1845―and perhaps owing to the grace of his experience at Saint Paul’s in Lyons on Corpus Christi―Father Eymard began to move away from a spirituality of reparation to a spirituality which emphasised the love of Christ. In 1865, just three years prior to his death, he made a long retreat in Rome. During this retreat, he was struck by the overwhelming realisation of Christ’s love for him, a love which he felt was taking over his entire life. In response, he wished to make the “gift of self:” of his will, his personality and his affections, to God and to Christ in the Eucharist.
In 1858, together with Marguerite Guillot, he founded the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a contemplative congregation for women. He is quoted as saying, “You take communion to become holy, not because you already are.”
Eymard was a friend and contemporary of Saints Peter Chanel, Marcellin Champagnat, and Blessed Basil Moreau.
He died at the age of fifty-seven in La Mure on 1 August 1868, of complications from a stroke.
He was declared venerable in 1908, beatified by Pope Pius XI on 12 July 1925 and canonised by Pope John XXIII on 9 December 1962. St Pope John Paul II named Eymard “Apostle of the Eucharist.”
St Eusebius of Vercelli (Optional Memorial)
St Peter Julian Eymund (Optional Memorial)
—
Our Lady of the Angels: The image of Our Lady of the Angels is only about 10 cms high and is carved in a simple fashion on dark stone. She has a round, sweet face, slanted eyes and a delicate mouth. Her colouring is leaden, with scattered golden sparkles. She carries the Christ Child on her left arm. Only the faces of Mary and the Child are visible; the rest is covered by a cloak that is gathered in pleats. The statuette is displayed in a large gold monstrance that surrounds it and enlarges its appearance. While searching for firewood on 2 August 1635, the feast of the Holy Angels, a poor mestizo woman named Juana Pereira discovered this small image of the Virgin sitting beside the footpath near Cartago, Costa Rica. Juana took it home with her but it soon disappeared only to be re-discovered at the same place beside the same path. The statue repeated this behaviour five more times – taken to homes and then the parish church – and returning on its own to the site where Juana found it. The locals finally took this to mean that Our Lady wanted a shrine built there, and so it was.
The shrine soon became a point of pilgrimage, especially for the poor and outcast. The image was solemnly crowned in 1926. In 1935 Pope Pius XI declared the shrine of the Queen of Angels a basilica. The stone on which the statue was originally sitting is in the basilica and is being slowly worn away by the touch of the hands of the pilgrims. A spring of water appeared from beneath the stone and its waters carried away to heal the sick.
Patronage – Costa Rica, diocese of Getafe, Spain.
—
St Auspicius of Apt
St Betharius of Chartres
St Centolla of Burgos
St Etheldritha of Croyland
Bl Frederic Campisani
Bl Giustino Maria Russolillo
Bl Gundekar of Eichstätt
Bl Joanna of Aza
Bl John of Rieti
St Maximus of Padua
St Pedro de Osma
St Plegmund
St Rutilius
St Serenus of Marseille
St Sidwell
St Pope Stephen I
—
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
Bl Ceferino Jimenez Malla
Bl Felipe de Jesús Munárriz Azcona
Bl Fernando Olmedo Reguera
Francesc Company Torrelles
Francisca Pons Sarda
Bl Francisco Calvo Burillo
Francisco Manzano Cruz
Bl Francisco Tomás Serer
José Peris Ramos
Bl Juan Díaz Nosti
Bl Leoncio Pérez Nebreda
Bl Leoncio Pérez Ramos
Martí Anglés Oliveras
Bl Miguel Amaro Rodríguez
Thought for the Day – 1 August – The Feast of St Peter Faber S.J.
Annuncio vobis gaudium magnum! On 13 November 2013 Pope Francis announced the canonisation of Pierre Favre, SJ, aka Peter Faber (1506-46). For many Catholics the response was probably, “Who?”
For most Jesuits, though, the response was probably, “Finally!” For Pierre Favre has been a Blessed since…1872. Francis has announced this as an “equivalent canonization,” as Pope Benedict XVI had done with the canonization of St Hildegard of Bingen. In these cases the devotion to the saint is already well established.
In the Pope’s recent interview in America, he singled out for praise the man often called the “Second Jesuit.” The Pope was asked the reason for his devotion to this “First Companion” of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. “[Pierre Favre’s] dialogue with all,” said the pope, “even the most remote and even with his opponents; his simple piety, a certain naïveté perhaps, his being available straightaway, his careful interior discernment, the fact that he was a man capable of great and strong decisions but also capable of being so gentle and loving.” Favre spent a great deal of his Jesuit life working with Protestants during the explosive time of the Reformation; and, as the pope intimated, he always did so with great openness and charity–during a time when they were called “heretics.”
One of my favorite quotes from Pierre–no, my favorite–is: “Take care, take care, never to close your heart to anyone.”
Favre was said by St. Ignatius to be the man best suited to direct others in the Spiritual Exercises–quite an accolade from the author of the Exercises. But, surprisingly, Favre’s story is not nearly as well known as those of his two famous college roommates, Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier. (When I once asked an elderly Jesuit why Favre was still a Blessed and not a saint, he said, “Even in heaven he is humble! He doesn’t want to place himself on par with Ignatius and Xavier.”) Many Jesuits are devoted to this humble spiritual master: the new Jesuit residence at Boston College for men in formation is named after him–though they may have to sandblast the “Blessed” on the stone sign in front of the house. But he still languishes in relative obscurity. Or will for another month. Indeed, that so many writers can’t even agree on a standard way of referring to the man–you will see, variously, the original French “Pierre Favre,” the somewhat modified Anglo-French “Peter Favre,” and the totally Anglicized “Peter Faber”–is an indication of the lack of attention given him. That of course changes with the canonisation.
For Favre, a man troubled all his life by a “scrupulous” conscience, that is, an excessive self-criticism, Ignatius was a literal godsend. “He gave me an understanding of my conscience,” wrote Favre. Ultimately, Ignatius led Peter through the Spiritual Exercises, something that dramatically altered Favre’s worldview.
This happened despite some very different backgrounds. And here is one area where Ignatius and his friends highlight an insight on relationships: friends need not be cut from the same cloth. The friend with whom you the least in common may be the most helpful for your personal growth. Ignatius and Peter had, until they met, led radically different lives. Peter came to Paris at age 19 after what his biographer called his “humble birth,” having spent his youth in the fields as a shepherd. Imbued with a simple piety toward Mary, the saints, relics, processions, and shrines and also angels, Peter clung to the simple faith of his childhood. Ignatius, on the other hand, had spent many years as a courtier and some of them as a soldier, undergone a dramatic conversion, subjected himself to extreme penances, wandered to Rome and the Holy Land in pursuit of his goal of following God’s will.
One friend had seen little of the world; the other much. One had always found religion a source of solace; the other had proceeded to God along a tortuous path.
Ultimately, Ignatius helped Peter to arrive at some important decisions through the freedom offered in the Spiritual Exercises. Peter’s indecision before this moment sounds refreshingly modern, much like the frustrating indecision of any college student today. He wrote about it in his journals:
“Before that–I mean before having settled on the course of my life through the help given to me by God through Inigo–I was always very unsure of myself and blown about by many winds: sometimes wishing to be married, sometimes a doctor, sometimes a lawyer, sometimes a professor of theology, sometimes a cleric without a degree–at times wishing me to be a monk.”
In time, Peter decided to join Ignatius on his new path, whose ultimate destination was still unclear. Peter, sometimes called the “Second Jesuit,” was enthusiastic about the risky venture from the start. “In the end,” he writes, “we became one in desire and will and one in a firm resolve to take up the life we lead today….”His friend changed his life. Later, Ignatius would say that Favre was the most skilled of all the Jesuits in giving the Spiritual Exercises. From The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything.
So dear humble St Peter, we ask of you to pray that we too may become humble in the service of our Lord. Please pray for us!
Quote/s of the Day – 1 August – Memorials of St Alphonsus Liquori and of St Peter Faber S.J.
“Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, ‘Ask, and you shall receive,’ but He has revealed to His servants, that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace.”
“Your God is ever beside you – indeed, He is even within you.”
“St Augustine and St Thomas define mortal sin to be a turning away from God: that is, the turning of one’s back upon God, leaving the Creator for the sake of the creature. What punishment would that subject deserve who, while his king was giving him a command, contemptuously turned his back upon him to go and transgress his orders? This is what the sinner does; and this is punished in hell with the pain of loss, that is, the loss of God, a punishment richly deserved by him who in this life turns his back upon his sovereign good.”
“Let us thank God for having called us to His holy faith. It is a great gift and the number of those, who thank God for it is small.”
St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
“Seek grace in the smallest things and you will find also grace, to accomplish, to believe in and to hope for the greatest things.”
May the Lord…make you overflow with love for one another and for all.1 Thessalonians 3:12
REFLECTION – “The means for attaining perfect love is to accomplish frequent acts of love.
Fire is kindled by the wood that we cast into it and love is enkindled by acts of love.”….St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Loving Father, grant me the grace to strive after perfect love. Help me to bring forth frequent acts of love, to all and sundry, to each of my neighbours, so that I may grow in this greatest of virtues. St Alphonsus Liguori pray for us, amen.
Morning Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church Doctor zelantissimus (Most Zealous Doctor)
My most sweet Lord,
I offer and consecrate to You this morning
all that I am and have:
my senses,
my thoughts,
my affections,
my desires,
my pleasures,
my inclinations,
my liberty.
In a word,
I place my whole body and soul in Your hands. Amen
Saint of the Day – 2 August – St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori C.Ss.R. – Doctor of the Church-Bishop, Confessor, Founder, Spiritual Writer, Composer, Musician, Artist, Poet, Lawyer, Scholastic Philosopher and Theologian. Born on 27 September 1696 at Marianelli near Naples, Italy and died on 1 August 1787 at Nocera, Italy of natural causes. He was Canonised on 26 May 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists). In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti. Patronages – against arthritis, against scrupulosity, of Confessors (given on 26 February 1950 by Pope Pius XII), final perseverance, moral theologians, moralists (1950 by Pope Pius XII), scrupulous people, vocations, Diocese of Acerra, Italy, Diocese of Agrigento, Italy,l Pagani, Italy, Sant’Agata de’ Goti, Italy. Attributes – chaplet, praying with a monstrance in his hands, pen, quill, crucifix, writing, bishop with his chin on his chest (due to his arthritis).
St Alphonsus learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. Myopia and chronic asthma precluded a military career so his father had him educated for the legal profession. He was taught by tutors before entering the University of Naples, where he graduated with doctorates in civil and canon law at 16. He remarked later that he was so small at the time that he was almost buried in his doctor’s gown and that all the spectators laughed. When he was 18, like many other nobles, he joined the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy with whom he assisted in the care of the sick at the hospital for “incurables”.
He became a successful lawyer. He was thinking of leaving the profession and wrote to someone, “My friend, our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death”. At 27, after having lost an important case, the first he had lost in eight years of practicing law, he made a firm resolution to leave the profession of law. Moreover, he heard an interior voice saying: “Leave the world, and give yourself to me.”
In 1723, he decided to offer himself as a novice to the Oratory of St. Philip Neri with the intention of becoming a priest. His father opposed the plan but after two months (and with his Oratorian confessor’s permission), he and his father compromised: he would study for the priesthood but not as an Oratorian and live at home. He was ordained on 21 December 1726, at 30. He lived his first years as a priest with the homeless and the marginalised youth of Naples. He became very popular because of his plain and simple preaching. He said: “I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand”. He founded the Evening Chapels, which were managed by the young people themselves. The chapels were centres of prayer and piety, preaching, community, social activities and education. At the time of his death, there were 72, with over 10,000 active participants. His sermons were very effective at converting those who had been alienated from their faith.
Liguori suffered from scruples much of his adult life and felt guilty about the most minor issues relating to sin. Moreover, the saint viewed scruples as a blessing at times and wrote: “Scruples are useful in the beginning of conversion…. they cleanse the soul and at the same time make it careful”.
In 1729, Alphonsus left his family home and took up residence in the Chinese Institute in Naples. It was there that he began his missionary experience in the interior regions of the Kingdom of Naples, where he found people who were much poorer and more abandoned than any of the street children in Naples. In 1731, while he was ministering to earthquake victims in the town of Foggia, Alphonsus claimed to have had a vision of the Virgin Mother in the appearance of a young girl of 13 or 14, wearing a white veil.
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (The Rdemptorists) – On 9 November 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, when Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa told him that it had been revealed to her that he was the one that God had chosen to found the congregation. He founded the congregation with the charism of preaching popular missions in the city and the countryside. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. They also fought Jansenism, a heresy that supported a very strict morality: “the penitents should be treated as souls to be saved rather than as criminals to be punished”. He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent.
A gifted musician and composer, he wrote many popular hymns and taught them to the people in parish missions. In 1732, while he was staying at the Convent of the Consolation, one of his order’s houses in the small city of Deliceto in the province of Foggia in Southeastern Italy, Liguori wrote the Italian carol “Tu scendi dalle stelle” (“From Starry Skies Descending”) in the musical style of a pastorale. The version with Italian lyrics was based on his original song written in Neapolitan, which began Quanno nascette Ninno (When the child was born). As it was traditionally associated with the zampogna, or large-format Italian bagpipe, it became known as Canzone d’i zampognari the (“Carol of the Bagpipers”).
Bishop Alphonsus was consecrated Bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti in 1762. He tried to refuse the appointment by using his age and infirmities as arguments against his consecration. He wrote sermons, books and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. He first addressed ecclesiastical abuses in the diocese, reformed the seminary and spiritually rehabilitated the clergy and faithful. He suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes and sold his carriage and episcopal ring to give the money to the poor. In the last years of his life, he suffered a painful sickness and a bitter persecution from his fellow priests, who dismissed him from the Congregation that he had founded.
Death In 1775, he was allowed to retire from his office and went to live in the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy, where he died.
Veneration and legacy He was beatified on 15 September 1816 by Pope Pius VII and canonized on 26 May 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.
In 1949, the Redemptorists founded the Alphonsian Academy for the advanced study of Catholic moral theology. He was named the patron of confessors and moral theologians by Pope Pius XII on 26 April 1950, who subsequently wrote of him in the encyclical Haurietis aquas.
Moral theology Alphonsus’ greatest contribution to the Church was in the area of moral theology. His masterpiece was The Moral Theology (1748), which was approved by the Pope himself and was born of Alphonsus’ pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and his contact with their everyday problems. He opposed sterile legalism and strict rigoururism. According to him, those were paths closed to the Gospel because “such rigour has never been taught nor practiced by the Church”. His system of moral theology is noted for its prudence, avoiding both laxism and excessive rigour. Since its publication it has remained in Latin, often in 10 volumes or in the combined 4-volume version of Gaudé. It saw only recently its first publication in translation, in an English translation made by Ryan Grant and published in 2017 by Mediatrix Press. The English translation of the work is projected to be around 5 volumes.
Mariology His Mariology, though mainly pastoral in nature, rediscovered, integrated and defended that of St Augustine of Hippo, St Ambrose of Milan and other fathers; it represented an intellectual defence of Mariology in the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, against the rationalism to which his often flaming Marian enthusiasm contrasted:
The Glories of Mary Marian Devotion Prayers to the Divine Mother Spiritual Songs The True Spouse of Jesus Christ
Other works Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection The Way of Salvation and of Perfection The Way of the Cross, Preparation for Death, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ The Holy Eucharist Victories of the Martyrs
Feast of Saint Peter in Chains: The feast was originally kept in Rome, Italy to commemorate the dedication of the Church of Saint Peter on the Esquiline Hill built by Eudoxia Licinia in 442 and rebuilt by Adrian I in the 8th century. When the chains which Saint Peter had worn in prison and from which he was freed by angelic intervention, Acts 12:1-19, were later venerated there, the feast received its present name. The date when these chains were brought from Jerusalem is disputed; some claim they were brought in 116 by travellers sent in search of them by Saint Balbina and her father Saint Quirinus, while others think Saint Eudoxia brought them in 439. Pope Saint Leo the Great united them to the chains with which Saint Peter had been fettered in the Mamertine Prison, forming a chain about two yards long which is preserved in a bronze safe and guarded by a special confraternity.
—
Bl Aleksy Sobaszek
St Alexander of Perga
St Almedha
St Arcadius
St Attius of Perga
St Benado Vo Van Due
St Buono
St Brogan
St Charity
St Ðaminh Nguyen Van Hanh
St Ethelwold of Winchester
St Exuperius of Bayeux
St Faith
St Faustus
St Felix of Gerona
St Friard
Bl Gerhard Hirschfelder
St Hope
St Jonatus
St Justin of Paris
St Kenneth of Wales
St Leontius of Perga
Bl Maria Imelda of the Eucharistic Jesus
Bl Maria Stella of the Most Blessed Sacrament
St Maur
St Nemesius of Lisieux
Bl Orlando of Vallombrosa
St Peregrinus of Modena
St Peter Faber
St Rioch
Bl Rudolph
St Secundel
St Secundus of Palestrina
St Sophia
St Verus of Vienne
Saints Faith, Hope and Charity: The daughters of Saint Sophia. While still children, they were tortured and martyred for their faith in the persecutions of Hadrian. They were scourged, thrown into a fire and then beheaded.
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Holy Maccabees: Jewish dynasty which began with the rebellion of Mathathias and his five sons against the Syrian king, Antiochus IV (168 BC) and ruled the fortunes of Israel until the advent of Herod the Great. Syrian attempts to force Greek paganism on the Jews, the profanation of the Temple at Jerusalem, and the massacre which followed, brought the nation to arms under Mathathias, a priest of the sons of Joarib. At the death of Mathathias, Judas Machabeus, his third son, drove the Syrians and Hellenists out of Jerusalem, rededicated the Temple, and began an offensive and defensive alliance with the Romans. Before the treaty was concluded, however, Judas, with 800 men, risked battle at Laisa with an overwhelming army of Syrians under Bacchides, and was slain. He was succeeded in command by his youngest brother, Jonathan (161 BC). Jonathan defeated Bacchides, revenged the death of his brother, and made peace with Alexander who had usurped the throne of Demetrius, the successor to Antiochus. A period of peace followed in which Jonathan ruled as high priest in Jerusalem, but Tryphon, who was plotting for the throne of Asia, treacherously captured him at ptolemais and later put him to death. The captaincy of the armies of Israel then fell to Simon, the second son of Mathathias. Under him the land of Juda flourished exceedingly. He obtained the complete independence of the country and a grateful people bestowed upon him the hereditary kingship of the nation. His rule marked five years of uninterrupted peace. He was treacherously slain by his son-in-law, Ptolemy, about the year 135 BC After Simon the race of the Machabees quickly degenerated. In 63 BC the Romans thought it necessary to interfere in the fratricidal war between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. With this interference and the advent of Herod the Great the scepter passed forever from the land of Juda. The story of the Machabees is written in the two books of the Old Testament which bear that name.
Martyrs of Nowogrodek – 11 beati: A group of eleven Holy Family of Nazareth nuns who were murdered by Nazis in exchange for the release of 120 condemned citizens of Nowogrodek, Belarus.
• Adela Mardosewicz
• Anna Kukolowicz
• Eleonora Aniela Józwik
• Eugenia Mackiewicz
• Helena Cierpka
• Jadwiga Karolina Zak
• Józefa Chrobot
• Julia Rapiej
• Leokadia Matuszewska
• Paulina Borowik
• Weronika Narmontowicz
They were murdered on 1 August 1943 by the Gestapo in Novogrudok, Hrodzyenskaya voblasts’, Belarus and
Beatified on 5 March 2000 by St Pope John Paul.
Martyrs of Philadelphia – 6 saints: A group of six Christians martyred. No information about them has survived but the names – Aquila, Cyril, Domitian, Menander, Peter and Rufus. They were martyred on an unknown date in Philadelphia (modern Alasehir, Turkey).
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
Bl Benito Iñiguez de Heredia Alzola
Bl Francesc de Paula Soteras Culla
Bl Joan Bonavida Dellá
Bl José de Miguel Arahal
Bl Justino Alarcón Vera
Sebastià Tarragó Cabré
Vicente Montserrat Millán
Nicholas de la Torre Merino
Here is a delightful poem for your prayerful contemplation as you remember and celebrate the life of Iñigo López de Loyola.
Ignatius boy-soldier hoodlum courtier day-old dreamer smashed up good in war convalescent convert cannonball Christian crippled companion with a knack for re-routing attacks
lend us your gift for woundedness that turns a shot around then takes its aim at holiness
think of all the saints you could socialise if only you hobbled now into Syria and taught the fallen your techniques
we’ve got sufficient lead and bloodshed to gild the whole world with your inside-out-going alchemy.
Greg Kennedy, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic, in his third year of Theological Studies at Regis College, Toronto.
Image | Ignatius at Manresa by Montserrat Gudiol (1991). The painting is at Manresa.
Thought for the Day – 31 July – The Memorial of St Ignatius
Ignatius was a true mystic. He centered his spiritual life on the essential foundations of Christianity—the Trinity, Christ, the Eucharist. His spirituality is expressed in the Jesuit motto, Ad majorem Dei gloriam—“for the greater glory of God.” In his concept, obedience was to be the prominent virtue, to assure the effectiveness and mobility of his men. All activity was to be guided by a true love of the Church and unconditional obedience to the Holy Father, for which reason all professed members took a fourth vow to go wherever the pope should send them for the salvation of souls.
Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg in 1517. Seventeen years later, Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society that was to play so prominent a part in the Catholic Reformation. He was an implacable foe of Protestantism. Yet the seeds of ecumenism may be found in his words: “Great care must be taken to show forth orthodox truth in such a way that if any heretics happen to be present they may have an example of charity and Christian moderation. No hard words should be used nor any sort of contempt for their errors be shown.” ( Fr Don Miller, OFM)
“Be generous to the poor orphans and those in need. The man to whom our Lord has been liberal ought not to be stingy. We shall one day find in Heaven as much rest and joy as we ourselves have dispensed in this life.”
“If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy.”
“If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of Divine Love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the Cross, which the infinite charity of the Saviour used to finish His sacrifice. All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ. That is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ…..If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He certainly intends to make you a saint.”
My brothers, I implore you by God’s mercy, to offer your very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance, the worship offered by mind and heart………Romans 12:1
REFLECTION – “We must speak to God as a friend speaks to his friend, servant to his master; now asking some favour, now acknowledging our faults and communicating to Him all that concerns us, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires and in all things seeking His counsel.”…St Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
PRAYER – Almighty God, grant that the example of Your saints may spur us on to perfection, so that we who are celebrating the feast of St Ignatius, may follow him step by step in his way of life to reach You in heaven. St Ignatius, pray for us, amen.
Eternal Lord of All By St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
Eternal Lord of all things, I come before Thine Infinite Goodness and before Thy glorious Mother and all Saints of the heavenly court, to make my offering, with Thy help and favour, it is my wish, desire and determination, provided that it would be for Thy greater service and praise, to imitate Thee in suffering injury, insults and poverty, actual as well as spiritual, should Thine most Holy Majesty choose to receive me, in such a way of life. Amen
Saint of the Day – 31 July – St Ignatius Loyola sj (1491-1556) Spanish: Ignacio de Loyola; c 23 October 1491 at Loyola, Guipuzcoa, Spain as Inigo Lopez de Loyola – 31 July 1556 at Rome, Italy of fever) was a Spanish Basque Priest, Mystic Founder and Theologian, who founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and became its first Superior General. Ignatius was beatified in 1609 and Canonised on 12 March 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. Patronages – soldiers,The Society of Jesus, Retreats (proclaimed on 25 July 1922 by Pope Pius XI), Spiritual Exercises (by Pope Pius XI), Basque country, Diocese of Bilbao, Spain, military ordinariate of the Philippines, álava, Spain, Bizkaia, Spain, Gipuzkoa, Spain, Guipuscoa, Spain, Guipúzcoa, Spain, Vizcaya, Spain. Attributes – apparition of Our Lord, book, chasuble, Holy Communion.
The Early Years
Iñigo Lopez de Oñaz y Loyola, whom we know as St. Ignatius, was born in the Castle Loyola, in the Basque country of northeastern Spain, in 1491, during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Iñigo was the youngest of 13 children, raised in a family culture of high Catholic piety but lax morals. He experienced the contradictions between the ideals of church and crown and the realities of his own family. His father had several children by another woman and his grandfather’s lawless behaviour led to the top two floors of the Loyola castle being demolished by order of the crown. Iñigo hardly knew his mother, Marina Saenz de Licona y Balda Maria; she died when he was a child. His father, Don Beltrán Yañez de Oñaz y Loyola, died when he was 16. One of his brothers went on the second voyage of Columbus and another died in battle also far away. Iñigo was raised to be a courtier and diplomat in service to the crown, having received a chivalric yet academically sparse education typical of his class. He spent some time as a page at court. Winning personal glory was his passion. He was a fancy dresser, an expert dancer, a womanizer, sensitive to insult and a rough punkish swordsman who used his privileged status to escape prosecution for violent crimes committed with his priest brother at carnival time.
The Soldier
In the spring of 1521, a very large French army attacked the fortress town of Pamplona. A tiny band of Spanish soldiers trying to defend the town were ready to surrender; all of them except Iñigo de Loyola. He would hold off the French single-handedly. But a French cannonball shattered his leg and put an end to his stand. The French admired the courage of the man. They carried him on a litter back home to his castle of Loyola. His leg was not the only thing that had been shattered. His image of himself as a handsome, dashing courtier – everything that he had ever lived for – was shattered, too. The broken leg was not properly set. The bone protruded in a way that would show through the tight hose that a courtier wore, “so much as to be something ugly.” Iñigo insisted on having the leg re-broken and re-set; there was, of course, no anesthetic. In the end one leg was still shorter than the other; Iñigo limped the rest of his life. To pass the time while he recovered, he asked for the kind of books he enjoyed reading: romances of chivalry. But the only reading available in the house was an illustrated Life of Christ and a book of saints’ legends. He spent hours dreaming. He dreamed of the exploits he would do in service to his king and in honour of the royal lady he was in love with. But he would also dream about the exploits he could do to imitate St. Francis of Assisi and St Dominic in fidelity to his heavenly Lord. Gradually, he began to reflect on these experiences; he noticed what was going on within. Both kinds of daydreams engaged him completely but after the romantic chivalry dreaming was over, he felt empty and dissatisfied, whereas after the spiritual dreaming ended, he still felt a deep peace, a quiet happiness. “[H]e did not consider nor did he stop to examine this difference until one day his eyes were partially opened and he began to wonder at this difference and to reflect upon it. From experience he knew that some thoughts left him sad while others made him happy and little by little he came to perceive the different spirits that were moving him…” Here we see the beginning of his powers of discernment, of decision making. He realised God was leading him by his feelings, drawing him toward an entirely new way of life.
The Pilgrim
As soon as Iñigo had healed enough to walk, he began a journey to Jerusalem so that he could “kiss the earth where our Lord had walked.” He traveled through the town of Montserrat, Spain where he gave away his fine clothes to a poor man. Then, in an all-night vigil before the Black Madonna in the church of the Benedictine abbey there, he hung up his sword and dagger. Effectively, his old life was over and his new life had begun. Barcelona was the port from which to embark on a passage to Rome and then to the Holy Land. Not wanting to see his old friends, who might be in conflict with his new values, he went instead to the nearby town of Manresa with the intention of staying there a few days. But those “few days” turned into ten months.
The “Pilgrim,” as he referred to himself in his autobiography, asked for lodging at a hospital for the poor located outside the town’s walls. In exchange for his bed, he did chores around the hospital; and he begged for his food in the town. As we see him here, he spent much of his time in a cave, in prayer with God-praying as much as seven hours a day. He was blessed with powerful insights into himself and about who God was for him. Still, for extended periods, he experienced doubts, anxieties, scruples, severe depression; he even contemplated suicide to end his psychic pain. He recorded his experiences in a notebook and would soon find his jottings helpful in guiding others. These notes which he continued to revise and expand over time as he listened to people became his Spiritual Exercises. Eventually, they were published and then reprinted again and again and translated into many languages as they spread around the world. An example of a spiritual exercise might be to reflect on the ways you have been loved, or on what your personal gifts are and how you use them and for whom, or to imagine yourself present in one of the gospel scenes-for example, Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. Today, nearly 500 years later, Jesuits and other priests and sisters and brothers, and an ever larger number of professional men and women use these Spiritual Exercises to guide others toward spiritual transformation, to a deeper relationship with God.
Visiting the Holy Land
The Pilgrim did manage to beg passage on a ship to the Holy Land. But instead of being able to fulfill his great dream to remain there for the rest of his life, trying to convert the so-called “infidel,” he was told by church authorities to return to Europe after only a few weeks. They had enough trouble there without him and his conversion scheme. Another dream of Iñigo shattered. When it came time for him to set sail and head back to the western Mediterranean, he ran back to the Mount of Olives to see which way the “footprint of Jesus” was facing. Pious legend had it that the mark in a certain rock there was left by Jesus as he ascended into heaven. Now what may interest us here is not the historical credibility of the legend but rather what this action of the Pilgrim tells us about his own inner life, his imaginative life. He was in the habit of entering imaginatively into all the various gospel stories and scenes, and, in this way, he made them very concrete and real and immediate to himself. He wanted to be in an intimate relationship with Jesus and every detail about Jesus was precious to him.
A Non-traditional Student
Although Iñigo was unable to preach and serve God in the Holy Land as he had hoped, he was still determined to meet this goal in some fashion. He decided that he needed to get an education in order to “help souls.” He returned to Barcelona and attended a free public grammar school to prepare himself for entrance into a university. This meant that beginning at the age of 33 and for two years, he was studying Latin grammar and other basics with classmates who were 8 to 14 years old. He may have felt some discomfort at the age difference but it was at this time that he had the “most beloved” teacher in his entire academic career-Master Jeronimo Ardevol.
Ignatius in Prison
After this initial schooling in Barcelona, Iñigo moved to Spanish university towns-first Alcala, near Madrid and then Salamanca in the north. In both places, he spent nearly as much time engaging people in conversation about spiritual matters as he did studying and attending lectures. Such conversations got him into trouble with the Spanish Inquisition and he was put in prison three times for interrogation. The charge was always the same: that he dared to speak of theological matters when he did not have a theology degree. Further, he was not ordained. In the end, he was always exonerated, but he decided to avoid further harassment by the Inquisition. He left his homeland and headed north to the premier university of sixteenth-century Europe.
Higher Education in Paris
At the age of 38, the Pilgrim attended the College Ste. Barbe of the University of Paris, considered the heart of the French Renaissance. He knew little French and he was not very fluent or correct in Latin. Still he made progress, little by little. In those days, students rose at 4:00 a.m.; classes-lectures-began at 5:00 am. There were also classes for several hours in the later afternoon. The university curriculum-in the Parisian style-was much more orderly than he was used to in Spain. There was progression; there were prerequisites. As a result, he started all over again with grammar, language and the humanities and only then moved on to the sciences, philosophy and theology. The present-day notion of levels or classes–freshman, sophomore, junior, senior– is a Jesuit legacy to education based on the experience with this Parisian style of learning. Eventually, he earned a master’s degree. The name on his diploma was not Iñigo, but “Ignatius,” which he adopted in Paris and used for the rest of his life. (It is speculated that he named himself after a saint he admired – Ignatius of Antioch.) When he applied for doctoral studies, he was turned down as too old; he was 44, and too ill, from stomach ailments that he attributed to the extreme penances he practiced during his time in Manresa.
The First Companions
While at the University of Paris, Ignatius roomed with Peter Faber, a young man from Savoy in the south of France, and Francis Xavier, a nobleman from the eastern end of the Basque country.
Gradually a whole circle of “Friends in the Lord,” as they called themselves, formed around Ignatius. What bonded them closely together was the fact that one after another they were led through the Spiritual Exercises. Most were guided by Ignatius himself. In a deep sense, they all became “companions of Jesus” and companions of one another. Ignatius also shared with them his dream of going on mission to the Holy Land; yet this time he was a bit wiser and more practical. If the Holy Land dream fell through, they would go to Rome and put themselves at the disposition of the pope. The pope, as universal pastor, should know where the greatest needs were. They waited in Venice a whole year for a ship to take them to the Holy Land. As Providence would have it, just that one year because of war between Venice and the Turks, no ship sailed. So they went to Rome, and there they entered into an extended period of communal discernmen. They were about to be sent all over Europe and all over the world. Spread out like that, how would they secure the bond among them? Their decision was to form themselves into a religious order. They called it the Company (meaning the companionship) or Society of Jesus. Outsiders disparagingly nicknamed them the “Jesuits” but the name caught-on and eventually was used by all alike. “On the morning of the 15th of August, 1534, in the chapel of church of Saint Peter, at Montmartre, Loyola and his six companions, of whom only one was a priest, met and took upon themselves the solemn vows of their lifelong work.” Later, they were joined by Saint Francis Borgia, a member of the House of Borgia, who was the main aide of Emperor Charles V, and other nobles. Ignatius obtained a master’s degree from the University of Paris at the age of forty-three. In later life he was often called “Master Ignatius” because of this.
The Founder
The Society of Jesus was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 and thus became an official Catholic religious order. Ignatius was elected their first leader. He declined after the first vote. He felt unworthy for the position because of the vanity and licentiousness of his earlier life and because he felt that others were more theologically knowledgeable. After much discernment, he accepted the position and served until his death sixteen years later.
As the Superior General, he sent companions all over Europe and around the world. He called them to “hurry to any part of the world where…the needs of the neighbor should summon them.” And he counseled them to serve “without hard words or contempt for people’s errors.” In addition to writing the Constitutions of the fledgling order, with the help of his assistant Juan Polanco, he wrote nearly 7,000 letters. He wrote to high and low in church and state and to women as well as men. But most of these letters were to his Jesuit companions, thus forming a vast communication network of friendship, love, and care. When companions were sent on various missions by the pope, Ignatius remained in Rome, consolidating the new venture but still finding time to found homes for orphans, catechumens, and penitents. He founded the Roman College, intended to be the model of all other colleges of the Society.
Ignatius was a true mystic. He centered his spiritual life on the essential foundations of Christianity—the Trinity, Christ, the Eucharist. His spirituality is expressed in the Jesuit motto, Ad majorem Dei gloriam—“for the greater glory of God.” In his concept, obedience was to be the prominent virtue, to assure the effectiveness and mobility of his men. All activity was to be guided by a true love of the Church and unconditional obedience to the Holy Father, for which reason all professed members took a fourth vow to go wherever the pope should send them for the salvation of souls.
At the time of his death, there were 1,000 Jesuits, a good number of them involved in the 35 schools that had been founded. Twenty-five years later the number of schools rose to 144, and another 35 years after that, it approached 400. In contrast to the ambitions of his early days, the fundamental philosophy of the mature Ignatius was that we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created – to praise, reverence, and serve God through serving other human beings.
He prayed:
Teach us, good Lord, to serve You as you deserve; to give, and not to count the cost, to fight, and not to heed the wounds, to toil, and not to seek for rest, to labour, and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we are doing Your will.
At the age of 38, the Pilgrim attended the College Ste. Barbe of the University of Paris, considered the heart of the French Renaissance. He knew little French and he was not very fluent or correct in Latin. Still he made progress, little by little. In those days, students rose at 4:00 a.m.; classes-lectures-began at 5:00 am. There were also classes for several hours in the later afternoon. The university curriculum-in the Parisian style-was much more orderly than he was used to in Spain. There was progression; there were prerequisites. As a result, he started all over again with grammar, language and the humanities and only then moved on to the sciences, philosophy and theology. The present-day notion of levels or classes–freshman, sophomore, junior, senior– is a Jesuit legacy to education based on the experience with this Parisian style of learning.
Gradually a whole circle of “Friends in the Lord,” as they called themselves, formed around Ignatius. What bonded them closely together was the fact that one after another they were led through the Spiritual Exercises. Most were guided by Ignatius himself. In a deep sense, they all became “companions of Jesus” and companions of one another.
AnaStpaul 
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