St Aldericus St Cassius St Cerbonius of Populonia St Cerbonius of Verona St Clarus of Nantes Bl Demestrius of Albania Bl Edward Detkens St Eulampia St Eulampius St Florentius the Martyr St Fulk of Fontenelle St Gereon St Gundisalvus Bl Hugh of Macon
Bl Pedro de Alcantara de Forton de Cascajares St Pinytus of Crete Bl Pontius de Barellis St Tanca St Teodechilde St Victor of Xanten
Martyrs of Ceuta – 7 Beati: A group of seven Franciscan Friars Minor missionaries to Muslims in the Ceuta area of modern Morocco. Initially treated as madmen, within three weeks they were ordered to convert to Islam and when they would not they were first abused in the streets, then arrested, tortured and executed. • Angelo • Daniele di Calabria • Donnolo • Hugolinus • Leone • Nicola • Samuele They were beheaded in 1227 in Mauritania Tingitana (Ceuta, Morocco). Local Christians secreted the bodies away and gave them proper burial in Ceuta. They were Beatified in 1516 by Pope Leo X.
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
La Naval de Manila / Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary , Quezon City, Philippines (1593) – Second Sunday of October: Also known as Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario / The Grand Lady of the Philippines.
In 1593, the Governor General of the Philippines commissioned a Statue of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Dominican Church in Manila. A un-named Chinese sculptor carved the hardwood body and ivory hands and face, which has Asian features. About 4’8″ tall, the image is dressed in cloth of gold, with a crown and a halo of 24 stars and adorned with precious donated jewels. Our Lady holds the Child Jesus with her left hand and a Rosary with her right. The title “La Naval” refers to Our Lady’s help in the naval battles of Lepanto in 1571 and Manila in 1646, when a small Catholic fleet repeatedly repelled Dutch invaders. The Catholic Church in Manila first celebrated the feast of “La Naval” on 8 October 1646. Pope Pius X’s Apostolic Delegate crowned the Statue on 5 October 1907. Pope Pius XII also sent an Apostolic Letter on the occasion of the tricentenary of the Battle of La Naval de Manila on 31 July 1946. The Japanese bombing of 27 December 1941 destroyed the Church of Santo Domingo in Manila’s old walled city. Hidden for safekeeping, the holy Statue moved in 1954 to its present location in the Santo Domingo Shrine in Quezon City.
In 1646, naval forces of the Dutch Republic made several repeated attempts to conquer the Philippines in a bid to control trade in Asia. The combined Spanish and Filipino forces who fought, requested the intercession of the Virgin through the Statue prior to battle. They were urged to place themselves under the protection of Our Lady of the Rosary and to pray the Rosary repeatedly. They went on to rebuff the continued attacks by the superior Dutch fleet, engaging in five major battles at sea and losing only fifteen members of the Spanish Navy. After the Dutch retreat, in fulfillment of their vow, the survivors walked barefoot to the Shrine in gratitude to the Virgin. Later, on 9 April 1662, the Cathedral chapter of the Archdiocese of Manila declared the naval victory a miraculous event owed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, declaring:
“Granted by the Sovereign Lord through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin and devotion to her Rosary, that the miracles be celebrated, preached and held in festivities and to be recounted amongst the miracles wrought by the Lady of the Rosary, for the greater devotion of the faithful to Our Most Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Holy Rosary.“
St Cassius St Cerbonius of Populonia St Cerbonius of Verona St Clarus of Nantes Bl Demestrius of Albania Bl Edward Detkens St Eulampia St Eulampius St Florentius the Martyr St Fulk of Fontenelle St Gereon St Gundisalvus Bl Hugh of Macon St John of Bridlington OSA (1319-1379) Priest, Prior of the Monastery of the Canons Regular of St Augustine. Bl Leon Wetmanski St Maharsapor the Persian St Malo the Martyr St Patrician St Paulinus of Capua
Bl Pedro de Alcantara de Forton de Cascajares St Pinytus of Crete Bl Pontius de Barellis St Tanca St Teodechilde St Victor of Xanten
Martyrs of Ceuta – 7 beati: A group of seven Franciscan Friars Minor missionaries to Muslims in the Ceuta area of modern Morocco. Initially treated as madmen, within three weeks they were ordered to convert to Islam and when they would not they were first abused in the streets, then arrested, tortured and executed. • Angelo • Daniele di Calabria • Donnolo • Hugolinus • Leone • Nicola • Samuele They were beheaded in 1227 in Mauritania Tingitana (Ceuta, Morocco). Local Christians secreted the bodies away and gave them proper burial in Ceuta. They were Beatified in 1516 by Pope Leo X.
One Minute Reflection – 10 October – “Month of the Most Holy Rosary” – Saturday of the Twenty SeventhWeek in Ordinary Time, Readings:Galatians 3: 22-29, Psalms 105: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, Luke 11: 27-28 and the Memorial of St Paulinus of York (c 584-644) and St Francis Borgia SJ (1510-1572)
“While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.’” – Luke 11:27
REFLECTION – “Mary was more blessed in accepting the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. To someone who said, “Blessed is the womb that bore you,” he replied, “Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”
Finally, for his brothers, his relatives according to the flesh who did not believe in him, of what advantage was that relationship? Even her maternal relationship would have done Mary no good, unless she had borne Christ more happily in her heart, than in her flesh.” – St Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor of Grace – Holy Virginity, 3/
PRAYER – Almighty God and Father, you sent St Paulinus and St Francis Borgia to be Your witnesses and to bring Your Church to the pagans for the salvation of souls. Sustain us by their prayers that by our lives we may lead all to You through Holy Mother Church. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 10 October – St Paulinus of York (c 584-644) First Bishop of York, Missionary. Born in c 584 in Rome, Italy and died on 10 October 644 at Rochester, Kent, England of natural causes. Patronage – Rochester, England and Rochester Diocese. Paulinus was a member of the Gregorian mission sent in 601 by Pope Gregory I to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, Paulinus arrived in England by 604 with the second missionary group.
Paulinus, the first Christian Missionary to the kingdom of Northumbria, was a “tall man with a slight stoop, who had black hair, a thin face and a narrow, aquiline nose, his presence being venerable and awe-inspiring.”
He left Italy in 601, at the bidding of Pope Gregory the Great, to assist St Augustine of Canterbury, in his work of conversion. With Paulinus, came Mellitus, Justus, and Rufinianus, and they brought, to Augustine, a letter from Gregory, in which the Pope expressed a desire that York should become a metropolitical see with twelve suffiragans. For many years, Paulinus assisted Augustine and Justus in the south of England. However, in 625, King Edwin of Northumbria, still a pagan, married the Christian Aethelburga, daughter of King Aethelbert of Kent who had received St Augustine. Paulinus escorted her to her husband’s kingdom, having been Consecrated – on 21st July 625 – by Archbishop Justus as Bishop of the Northumbrians.
The story of Paulinus’ labours in the north and the manner in which he succeeded in effecting the conversion of Edwin and of his principal chiefs is well-known. The saint held a famous conference with the highest Northumbrian nobles, probably at a Royal Palace in Londesborough in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Here he explained to them the advantages of the Christian religion, illustrating his arguments thus:
“This is how the present life of man on Earth, King, appears to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us. You are sitting feasting with your ealdormen and thegns in winter time. The fire is burning on the hearth in the middle of the hall and all outside is warm, while outside the wintry storms of rain and snow are raging – and a sparrow flies swiftly through the hall. It enters in at one door and quickly flies out through the other. For the few moments it is inside, the storm and wintry tempest cannot touch it, but after the briefest moment of calm, it flits from your sight, out of the wintry storm and into it again. So this life of man appears but for a moment. What follows or, indeed, what went before, we know not at all.”
Having been offered hope of life after death, the nobles were won over. Even the King’s pagan high priest, Coifi – probably motivated by hopes of his own survival – rode out to the great pagan temple at Goodmanham, a very short distance from Londesborough, threw a spear into it and began it’s demolition. The present Parish Church there may possibly occupy the site. Shortly after this conference, the Baptism of Edwin took place, at York, on Easter Day (12th April) 627. Two of his children and many other persons of noble birth, were Baptised at the same time. Round the Baptistery, which had been hastily built, the King caused a small stone Church to be constructed. It stood somewhere in the vicinity of the present Minster, under which, it’s cemetery has been excavated.
The kingdom of Edwin embraced the whole country from the Humber to the Clyde and the Forth and there are traces of Paulinus and his labours in many parts of this vast district. “Paulin’s Carr” and the “Cross of Paulinus,” in the adjoining Parish of Easingwold, are both mentioned in an Inquisition of the reign of King Edward I.
In 633, King Edwin fell in the Battle of Hatfield Chase (Nottinghamshire). It was unsafe for the Queen to remain in Northumbria and Paulinus returned with her and her children to Kent. International communications were, not surprisingly, poor in those days and, unaware of this new state of affairs, Pope Honorius I wrote to King Edwin and Archbishop Honorius of Canterbury in June the following year, sending the Pallium for, now exiled, Paulinus.
St Paulinus at Rochester Cathedral
Bishop Romanus of Rochester having died, Paulinus was immediately given his see, which he presided over until his death on 10 October 644. He was buried in the chapter-house of the Cathedral there but Archbishop Lanfranc translated his relics and placed them in a beautiful silver shrine. The name of Paulinus was inserted in the Calendar and he became the great Patron Saint of Rochester.
PRAYER:Lord, through St Paulinus, Your Bishop, You brought those who had no faith out of darkness into the light of truth. By his intercession, keep us strong in our faith and steadfast in the hope of the Gospel he preached. Amen
Statues from left to right of Sts Ethelbert, Justus and Paulinus at Rochester Cathedral
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