Tag: Germany

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 28 September – Saint Lioba of Bischofsheim

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint Lioba of Bischofsheim, also known as Lioba of Wimborne, Leoben, Liobgytha, Liobgetha, Truthgeba, was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine nun born in 710 in Wessex, England as Truthgeba (‘God’s gift’). A relative of Saint Boniface, she was born to noble parents who had long prayed for a child.

She was educated at the convent of Minster-in-Thanet in Wimborne in Dorset, England. She was a nun at Wimborne at a time when Saint Tetta of Wimborne served as abbess.

In 748 Lioba led a group of 30 nuns, one of whom was Saint Agatha of Wimborne, to Germany to help the missionary work of Saint Boniface and found convents. They based their work at Bischofsheim in Würzburg, Franconia, followed the Benedictine Rule, and Lioba served as abbess. This holy woman was noted for her intelligence, her endless optimism and positive attitude for the work, and her constant study of the scriptures. Her work and the houses she founded were instrumental in the conversion of Germany to Christianity.

Lioba retired from her position in 776 only to start another house Schornsheim, Mainz. She visited the court of Charlemagne in Aachen, Germany and became a close friend of Empress Hildegard.

In her later years, she retired with a few other Anglo-Saxon nuns to an estate near Mainz in Schornsheim. The estate was given by Charlemagne for her exclusive use. She died on or about 28 September 782. Saint Boniface’s will had originally designated that Leoba was to be buried in his own tomb. When Lioba died, however, she was placed in a tomb near his. She was acclaimed for many miracles: saving a village from fire; saving a town from a terrible storm by turning aside lightning; protecting the reputation of the nuns in her convent; and saving the life of a fellow nun who was gravely ill – all accomplished through prayer.

Lioba’s grave was the site of many miracles. These miracles include: freeing a man of tightly bound iron rings around his arms and curing a man from Spain of his twitching disorder. Due to these miracles, some of which were witnessed by Rudolf, her relics were translated twice to ensure their safety and are now behind an altar in a church dedicated to Mary and the virgins of Christ in Petersberg near Fulda.

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 15 September – Saint Nicetas the Goth

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint Nicetas the Goth was a soldier and martyr born in the 4th-century, in the Gothic territory north of the Danube River. Coming from the upper class of his people. He was instructed in Christianity by Theophilus of Gothia, a converted bishop, between 325 and 341 AD.

Nicetas received his Greek name on the occasion of his baptism by Theophilus, a participant in the First Ecumenical Council. Pagan Goths began to oppose the spread of Christianity, which resulted in internecine strife. Nicetas fought in the Gothic civil war between the pagan Alaric and the Christian Fritigern. After the defeat of Alaric and after the invention of Gothic alphabets by Ulfilas, Nicetas worked intensely among the Goths for their conversion.

Later, Alaric returned, defeated Fritigern, and resumed his persecution of Christians. The s aint denounced the persecutor for his cruelty and impiety, because he subjected the Christians to severe torments. Nicetas endured many tortures himself and was condemned to the stake in 372. All the while, he hept over his heart, under his robes, an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Christ Child holding the Cross, carrying this after the Blessed Virgin appeared to him to provide comfort. The devil, shaped as an angel, induced Nicetas to sacrifice to the pagan gods for saving his life; the saint, however, put him to flight by means of prayer and the assistance of St Michael. Although he died at the stake, miraculously the fire did not touch his body, which was buried in Cilicia, and later transferred to Constantinople.

The veneration of this saint gave rise to the Slavic forms of his name: Nikita, Mykyta and Mikita. St Nicetas is prayed to for the preservation of children from birth defects and he is patron of Melendugno, Lecce, Italy.

At what point, then, shall I begin — from what direction shall I approach the description of his goodness, except from the beginning of his faith and from his heavenly birth? Inasmuch as the doings of a man of God should not be reckoned from any point except from the time that he was born of God.

The Life and Passion of St Cyprian (Pontius)

Posted in MARIAN TITLES

Our Lady of Hildesheim and Memorials of the Saints – 11 September

Posted on by AnaStpaul

September 11: Our Lady of Hildesheim, Germany (11th Century):

The Abbot Orsini wrote: “Our Lady of Hildesheim, in the duchy of Brunswick, in Germany. An image is there venerated, which Louis the Meek always wore about him. One day, when he had forgotten it in a wood, it became so heavy that it was impossible to remove it, which made the king resolve to build a church there.”

The Reliquary of Mary

In 815 Emperor Louis the Pious had a reliquary that he and his hunting party lost in the woods and upon finding it were unable to free from a rosebush. The Emperor took this as a sign that the Cathedral and diocese were meant to be established at that location (Hildesheim) and dedicated to Mary. Thus, to this day, the reliquary embodies the historical identity and continuity of the diocese. At the ordination of enthronement of a new bishop of Hildesheim, it is presented to them as a special symbol of their solemn reception of the diocese from their predecessor or the Diocesan administrator.

Bishop Godehard with the reliquary in a statue from 1450 

Saint Mary’s Cathedral at Hildesheim, Germany, is a medieval cathedral built between the years 1010 and 1020. There is also a one-thousand year old rosebush climbing the wall of the cathedral’s apse. The bush survived the bombing of the cathedral in 1945, as the roots remained alive beneath the rubble, and according to legend, Hildesheim will continue to be prosperous as long as the rosebush continues to flourish.

The rosebush dating back to 815

St Adelphus of Remiremont
St Almirus
Bl Baldassarre Velasquez

Blessed Bonaventure of Barcelona OFM (1620-1684) Franciscan Friar, Reformer, Papal Adviser, Founder of Retreat houses.

Blessed Carlo (Charles) Spinola SJ (1564-1622) Priest, Martyr, Missionary to Japan.

St Deiniol of Bangor
St Didymus of Laodicea
St Diodorus of Laodicea
Bl Dominic Dillon
St Elijah Speleota OSBM (863-960) Basilian Monk and Hermit
St Emilian of Vercelli
St Essuperanzio of Zurich
St Felix of Zurich
Bl Francesco Giovanni Bonifacio
Bl Franciscus Takeya
Bl François Mayaudon
Bl Gaspar Koteda
St Gusmeo of Gravedona sul Lario
St Hyacinth of Rome

St John Gabriel Perboyre/Jean Gabriel Perboyre (1802-1840) Priest, Martyr, Missionary.

Bl John Bathe
St Leudinus of Toul
St Matthew of Gravedona sul Lario
St Paphnutius of Thebes
St Patiens of Lyon
Bl Peter Taaffe
Bl Petrus Kawano
St Protus of Rome
St Regula of Zurich
Bl Richard Overton
St Sperandea
St Theodora the Penitent
Bl Thomas Bathe
—
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
• Blessed José María Segura Panadés
• Blessed José Piquer Arnáu
• Blessed Josep Pla Arasa
• Blessed Lorenzo Villanueva Larrayoz

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 28 August – Blessed Adelindis of Buchau

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Blessed Adelindis of Buchau, also known as Adelindis of Poulagy, Adelindis of Swabia and Adelinda, Adele, Adelaide. Blessed Adelindis was the founder of the Imperial Abbey Buchau Ladies’ Convent, in today’s Bad Buchau near the Federsee lake in Swabia, Francia (Württemberg, Germany).

Adelindis kneels at right at the founding of the Abbey

Adelindis was born c. 729, the daughter of Duke Hildeprand of Spoleto, a member of the Lombard nobility, later under the protection of Charlemagne. Her mother Regarde was the daughter of Gotfrid and came from Bavaria. She married the Frankish Count Warin II around 750. In 770 she and her husband founded the Buchau Abbey.

She is not to be confused with the second Abbess, a woman of the same name and a countess who entered the convent as a nun to atone when her three sons were killed attempting to abduct their sister from it in order to marry her off.

In her memory, the Adelindis Festival, a homeland and children’s festival, is celebrated in Bad Buchau every two years on August 28.

Attributed arms of Adelindis of Swabia
Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 7 August – Saint Afra of Augsburg

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint Afra, martyr and penitent, listed in some records as the daughter of the king of Cyprus. In the late 3rd century, her pagan family journeyed from Cyprus to Augsburg. Afra was dedicated to the service of the goddess Venus by her mother, Hilaria, a service which involved ritual prostitution.

When the persecutions started in Augsburg, Bishop Narcissus of Gerona, Spain, arrived in the city and took lodging with Afra and her mother, not knowing their profession. His holiness and the doctrine of redemption he brought converted the women, who were baptised, and Afra’s uncle Dionysius was ordained as a bishop. She immediately began to give liberally to the poor. When officials came looking for the bishop, Afra hid him under a pile of flax.

Arrested for being a Christian and refusing to participate in pagan rites, she was burned to death, tied to a tree on the small island of Lech. She was buried in Augsburg and her mother erected a chapel for her tomb. Soon after, Hilaria and her serving women were also martyred, burned alive in their house. Afra’s remains were buried in a church named after her. Pilgrims visited her shrine as early as 565. In 1012, the Benedictine monastery of St. Ulrich and St. Afra displayed her sarcophagus. The Acts of Afra give an account of her martyrdom.

The judge, Gaius, said to her: “Come now, sacrifice to the gods; it is better to live than to die amid torments.”

The saint replied: “The sins which I have committed before I knew the true God are sufficient; wherefore I cannot now do that which thou commandest. I never will do so: it would be adding a new insult to my God.”

The judge having ordered her to repair to the temple, she answered with great courage: “My temple is Jesus Christ, whom I have continually before mine eyes, and to whom I every day confess my sins. Since I am unworthy to offer him any other sacrifice, I am anxious to sacrifice myself, in order that this body, with which I have offended him, may be purified by torments; this reflection shall make me suffer most willingly.”

“Since, therefore,” said Gaius, “by reason of thy wicked life thou hast nothing to expect from the God of the Christians, thou hadst better sacrifice to our gods.”

The saint replied: “My Lord Jesus Christ has said that he descended from heaven to save sinners. We read in the Gospel that a sinful woman, having washed his feet with her tears, obtained from him the forgiveness of all her offences; and, moreover, that he never rejected sinful creatures nor publicans; but, on the contrary, condescended to converse and even to eat with them.”

The iniquitous judge was not ashamed to counsel her to return to her infamous practices, in order that she might gain the favor of the gallants, and enrich herself.

“I renounce,” said the penitent Saint Afra, “that execrable gain, and look upon it with horror. That which I had, I have cast from me and given to the poor, imploring them to accept it; how, then, can I consent to earn it again?”

Afra’s martyrdom deeply influenced the Christian community in Augsburg. A church was built over her burial site, and she became the patron saint of the city. Over the centuries, her veneration grew beyond Germany, and she became known in other parts of Europe. During the Middle Ages, pilgrims visited her shrine, and her cult was promoted by the Benedictine monks who cared for the church bearing her name—St. Ulrich and Afra Abbey. Her remains are still there.