January 2—Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church

*  +

Jeopardy! time: This heresy from the third and fourth century taught Jesus was not God, but the first creature created by God. The correct Jeopardy! question: What is Arianism? Next Jeopardy! answer: These two bishops, along with St. Gregory of Nyssa, are known as the Cappadocian Fathers and opposed Arianism, which was condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381, which provided the final version of the Nicene Creed. The correct Jeopardy! question: Who are Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen. 

Sts. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were instrumental in contributing to the definition of the Trinity. They preached, taught, debated, and worked strenuously to bring the faithful who had been misled into thinking Jesus was not God and the Holy Spirit was not God back to the truth. God is “one substance (ousia) in three persons (hypostases)”. What this means is that the Father is God, Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, three persons, one God. But they are three persons in relationship to each other: The Father is NOT the Son; the Son is NOT the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is NOT the Father. They are in relationship with each other in a divine dance of love unified in the godhead. 

St. Basil, born in 330, first became a hermit, then later a monk, and eventually became Bishop of Caesarea in 370, dying in 379. Born in 329, St. Gregory Nazianzen, friend of St. Basil, is also called St. Gregory the Theologian for his advancement of the Trinity. He became a priest in 361, then Bishop of Sasima, and finally Bishop of Constantinople, dying in 390. Both men advanced the true faith through their teaching and holiness. They gave us a better understanding of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!

* https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Basil_of_Caesarea.jpg  Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

+ https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Gregor-Chora_%28cropped%29.jpg  Unknown authorUnknown author, Copyrighted free use, via Wikimedia Commons

December 26--St. Stephen, Deacon and First Martyr

 *

On the first day of Christmas, we receive the gift of the birth of Jesus, the source of all salvation. On the second day of Christmas, we have the feast of the first martyr, St. Stephen. What we know of St. Stephen comes to us directly from the Acts of the Apostles. He was chosen as one of the seven deacons, who then served the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. But there is more to the story of St. Stephen.

He came to the attention of the Sanhedrin. He then explained the history of Israel to them and told them how Jesus fulfilled all that had been prophesied. “When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and when he said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:54-60). 

The feast of St. Stephen is immediately after Christmas to show us what discipleship truly means, the sacrifice of oneself in love of God for others, namely, martyrdom. May every day remind us of our call to discipleship. St. Stephen, pray for us.

* https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/St_stephen.jpg  Jacopo & Domenico Tintoretto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
 

December 23--St. John of Kanty, Priest

 *

It’s Christmas! Let’s celebrate! Wait, we have two days left and today’s a saint’s feast day! But why is there a feast day right before Christmas? Let’s look at the saint and find out. Our saint is St. John of Kanty, also known as St. John Cantius, a priest, philosopher, physicist, and theologian. He was born in 1390 in Kanty, Poland, became a priest and then a professor of theology at his alma mater at what would later be called the Jagiellonian University, where St. John Paul II graduated. As a physicist, he helped develop a theory of falling objects. He made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome. He died on December 24, 1473 at the age of 83. This doesn’t speak a whole lot to sainthood! 

But wait, there’s more. Sainthood is based on holiness, not on achievement! St. John Cantius became “well known in the city for his generosity and compassion toward the poor, especially needy students at the university. He subsisted on what was strictly necessary to sustain his life, giving alms regularly to the poor.” His first biographer pointed out his extreme humility and charity by citing his motto: “Beware disturbing: it’s not sweetly pleasing,/Beware speaking ill: for taking back words is burdensome.” He became a popular saint in Poland, which was transferred to America by Polish immigrants. 

So, what we have here is a man who lived his life, did his work, ministered to others, and followed Jesus in the way Jesus called him. Thus, what we have here is a disciple of Christ, a saint! Humility and charity could be our watchwords to becoming “hidden” saints, those who are not necessarily famous, but are holy in all we think, say, and do. He’s a perfect saint for two days before Christmas! Have a blessed Christmas!

By image/photo was taken by Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons user Ludwig Schneider.I would appreciate being notified if you use my work outside Wikimedia.Do not copy this image illegally by ignoring the terms of the license below, as it is not in the public domain. If you would like special permission to use, license, or purchase the image please contact me to negotiate terms.When reusing, please credit me as: Ludwig Schneider / Wikimedia. - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11934694

December 13—St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr

*

If you are a fan of C. S. Lewis, you may remember one of the main characters in his classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy Pevensie. It was Lucy who brought the other Pevensie children to the magical land of Narnia and met its ruler, Aslan, the lion, who is an allegorical figure for Christ. She was the first to believe in Aslan and sometimes saw him when the rest didn’t. The name Lucy is from the Latin word, “lux”, meaning light. It is also the name of today’s saint. 

St. Lucy was one of the virgin martyrs mentioned in the Church’s Eucharistic canon. She was born about 283 and died during the worst persecution of Christians in the early Church under the Emperor Diocletian in 304. After her father’s death, her mother arranged for a marriage with a young man from a wealthy pagan family. However, St. Lucy had consecrated her virginity to God. Her dowry was distributed to the poor, but her betrothed objected and denounced her to the Governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Lucy was ordered to sacrifice to the emperor’s image. Upon refusal, she was sentenced to be defiled in a brothel. When guards came to take her away, she was unmovable. She was then killed by a sword to her throat. According to some legends her eyes were gouged out, leading to her patronage of the blind. 

So how does this relate to Lucy Pevensie? Both could SEE what others could not, Jesus, who said of himself: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). Both followed Jesus, one in a magical land, the other to the land of eternal life. St. Lucy, pray for us.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Santalucia.jpg

December 9—St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Holy Man

 

*

“On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was winter time, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the Bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac.” (vatican.va) 

Pope St. John Paul II, when he canonized St. Juan Diego in 2002, said: “Happy Juan Diego, true and faithful man! We entrust to you our lay brothers and sisters so that, feeling the call to holiness, they may imbue every area of social life with the spirit of the Gospel. Bless families, strengthen spouses in their marriage, sustain the efforts of parents to give their children a Christian upbringing. Look with favor upon the pain of those who are suffering in body or in spirit, on those afflicted by poverty, loneliness, marginalization or ignorance. May all people, civic leaders and ordinary citizens, always act in accordance with the demands of justice and with respect for the dignity of each person, so that in this way peace may be reinforced.” (vatican.va)

Miguel Cabrera, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/MIguel_Cabrera_-_Fiel_retrato_do_vener%C3%A1vel_Juan_Diego.jpg This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.

November 28—St. Catherine Labouré, Religious

*

Many Catholics have a profound devotion to the Blessed Mother. We say rosaries, Memorares, and so forth, beseeching her intercession. One of those devotions is the Miraculous Medal, developed and promoted by today’s saint, St. Catherine Labouré. St. Catherine was born May 2, 1806 in the Burgundy region of France as the ninth of eleven children. She entered the novitiate of the Daughters of Charity, a religious order founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1830.

Very soon after entering the convent, “she woke up after hearing the voice of a child calling her to the chapel, where she heard the Virgin Mary say to her, ‘God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your spiritual director all that passes within you. Times are evil in France and in the world.’” Later that year, she reported that Mary “displayed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe; rays of light came out of her hands in the direction of a globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.’” She was told to take the images she saw to her confessor so they could be imprinted on medallions and given to the faithful. The medal became popular and is worn by millions of faithful Catholics. It became an important role in the declaration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary because of its declaration about Mary, “conceived without sin”. She died in 1876 and was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1947. Let us wear this medal as a sign of our devotion to our Blessed Mother and her efforts to bring the world to her Son.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Catherine_Laboure.jpg  Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

November 23—Bl. Miguel Augustín Pro, Priest and Martyr

*

Martyrdom is the supreme sacrifice a person can offer to God, the sacrifice of one’s own life in witness to the love of God for humanity. Today’s saint was a witness to the love of God in Mexico. Bl. Miguel Pro was born in 1891 and joined the Jesuits, being ordained in 1925 in Belgium. He was in Europe for his training because the Mexican government had oppressed religious orders causing the Jesuits to flee Mexico. When he returned to Mexico in 1926, he had to go underground to serve faithful Catholics. He was arrested and released in October 1926 but kept under watch by the government. In November 1927, an assassination attempt on a Mexican government official gave the state an opportunity to arrest Bl. Miguel and his brothers. The President of Mexico gave orders that Bl. Miguel be executed without trial. 

On November 23, 1927 he was led to a courtyard and faced a firing squad. “He blessed the soldiers, knelt, and briefly prayed quietly. Declining a blindfold, he faced his executioners with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other and held his arms out in imitation of the crucified Christ and shouted out, ‘May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!’ Before the firing squad was ordered to shoot, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted, … ‘Viva Cristo Rey!’ – ‘Long live Christ the King!’. When the initial shots of the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier shot him at point-blank range.” Bl. Miguel was beatified in 1988 by Pope John Paul II. Martyrdom may not be required of us yet, but we need to be ready to witness for Christ.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Miguel_Pro%27s_execution_%281927%29.jpg  Grentidez, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

November 17—St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Holy Woman

*

For someone to be canonized within five years of death is amazing! That means the person not only lived a life of great holiness but was also an example of God’s love to a great multitude of faithful Catholics. St. Teresa of Calcutta was canonized nineteen years after her death; St. John Paul II, nine years after his. Today’s saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, was canonized in 1235, less than four years after her death in 1231. She is the patron of Catholic Charities and the Third Order of St. Francis. 

So who was she and why was she so beloved? St. Elizabeth was born in 1207, the daughter of the king of Hungary. She was married to the ruler of the Thuringia, in present-day Germany, at the age of fourteen, and had three children. In 1223, the Franciscans arrived, and she learned and lived by the ideals of St. Francis of Assisi, distributing alms to the poor. Her husband died on his way to the Sixth Crusade, when she was only 20. After this, her life became very difficult on account of her brother-in-law, who was regent for her five-year-old son. She took vows like those of a nun, which made her a political liability for her family, being unwilling to marry again. Her dowry was returned to her, and she built a hospital for the poor and the sick, where she and her companions cared for them. She died at the age of twenty-four. Soon after her death miracles were reported at her grave, which helped her cause for canonization in 1235. 

St. Elizabeth of Hungary is esteemed for her holiness and charity and dedication to serving others. Hers was the life of a saint in the world doing the will of God. St. Elizabeth, pray for us.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Marianne_Stokes_St_Elizabeth_of_Hungary_Spinning_for_the_Poor.jpg

November 8—Bl. John Duns Scotus, Priest and Religious

*

It only took 685 years for today’s saint to be beatified after his death! John Duns was a Franciscan priest and friar born about 1265/66 and died in 1308. He is called Duns Scotus meaning Duns the Scot because he was from Scotland. He was a philosopher and theologian graduating from Oxford University. He is called “the Subtle Doctor” because of his complex and nuanced thought. He taught a metaphysical argument for the existence of God through the concepts of cause and effect. He also advocated for free will by stating that a person cannot stop what the person is doing if there is no free will; and yet people can stop what they are doing! 

He also defended the teaching of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, following St. Anselm of Canterbury’s principle: “God could do it, it was appropriate, therefore he did it!” In other words, according to Bl. Pope Pius IX, who infallibly defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854: “At the moment of her conception, Mary was preserved free from the stain of original sin, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ.” 

Philosophy is the handmaiden of theology! What this means is that the Church uses philosophy to help us understand what God supernaturally reveals to us by using our natural reasoning ability, which God gave to us! We are not fideists, meaning, all we do is believe blindly and not think. Nor are we rationalists, meaning, all we do is use our own unaided reason as the ultimate basis of truth or falsehood and thus not believe. We believe and we think! One is a supernatural gift, faith, and the other is a natural gift, reason. By using both we can share what we believe in a rational manner. Bl. Duns Scotus, pray for us!

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/JohnDunsScotus_-_full.jpg 

Justus van Gent, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

October 27—St. Frumentius of Ethiopia, Bishop

*

The Catholic Church was in Africa in ancient times. As a matter of Scripture, the first to evangelize Ethiopia was the court official in Acts (Acts 8:26-39) baptized by the Deacon Philip. However, today’s saint was the first bishop of Aksum, in the northern part of Ethiopia. Born in Tyre, Lebanon in the 4th century, St. Frumentius and his brother were taken as slaves to the King of Aksum from a Red Sea port. Freed shortly before the king’s death, the boys remained at court to educate his son. St. Frumentius later went to Alexandria, Egypt, and was consecrated bishop by St. Athanasius around 328 and returned to Aksum and spread Christianity throughout Ethiopia. Ethiopian tradition credits him with the first translation of the New Testament into the language of the people. He died in 383. 

Missionary efforts by the Church stretch all the way to the time of the apostles. According to tradition, St. Matthew originally evangelized in Ethiopia. Pope St. Paul VI stated in his encyclical Evangelii nuntiandi, that the Church exists to evangelize others: “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection” (EN, 14). Jesus commissioned his followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19). So what about us? We are called to spread the Word of God to others, especially those around us. Do they know our faith by the way we act and talk? We may not need to go to Ethiopia, but perhaps to our neighbor next door.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/St_Frumentius.jpg

October 21—St. Ursula, Virgin and Martyr

*

Wasn’t she removed from the Roman calendar along with St. Christopher and St. Barbara back in the late 60’s? There are some saints whose feast days are no longer promoted in the General Roman Calendar, including St. Ursula, because there is not enough historical information to corroborate their lives. However, she and her companions are still listed in the Roman Martyrology, which is the official list of saints recognized by the Catholic Church. It says: “At Cologne in Germany, commemoration of virgin saints who ended their life in martyrdom for Christ in the place where afterwards the city’s basilica was built, dedicated in honour of the innocent young girl Ursula who is looked on as their leader.” 

Therefore, let us honor the legend. According to legend, St. Ursula was from Britain who was sent to marry a pagan governor in Brittany, France. Before she would wed him, she declared she would take a pilgrimage throughout Europe. She set off for Cologne and she and her handmaidens were martyred by the Huns. St. Ursula was shot and killed with an arrow by the Huns’ leader on October 21, 383. 

So why is she recognized and honored? St. Angela Merici founded the Order of Ursulines in 1535 to teach young girls and thus St. Ursula became the patron saint of schoolgirls, spreading her name throughout the world. The Virgin Islands were named in her honor by Christopher Columbus. Even though she and her companions are legendary, what they stand for is not. They are portrayed as martyrs of the faith, who exist in every age and in every land. Martyrdom is the supreme sacrifice one can offer in witness to the love one has for God. St. Ursula and her companions, legendary or not, are symbols of faith. That works for me!

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Grandes_Heures_Anne_de_Bretagne_-_Ursule_f199v.jpg/440px-Grandes_Heures_Anne_de_Bretagne_-_Ursule_f199v.jpg

October 14—St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr

 

*

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Mt. 5:7). Today’s saint lived a life that needed mercy and he gave mercy to others. St. Callistus I was born a slave in the late 2nd century, and as a young man was put in charge of donated funds to care for Christian widows and orphans. However, he lost the funds and fled the city. He was captured and given the chance to recover the money. However, he was arrested for getting into a fight trying to collect debts. Then he was denounced as a Christian and sent to the mines. He was eventually released and taken under the wing of the pope, eventually ordained as a deacon, and put in charge of a Christian cemetery, called the Catacombs of St. Callistus, which were rediscovered in 1849. He was elected pope in AD 217. 

During his papacy he was attacked for being merciful to Christians who had violated Church or civil law: 1. He admitted to Communion those who had done public penance for murder, adultery, and fornication; 2. He held as valid marriages between free women and slaves; 3. He ruled that mortal sin was insufficient to depose a bishop; 4. He allowed apostates who denied their faith during persecution back into the Church. He was martyred in AD 222.

We live in a time when mercy is hard to come by. If we do not follow the “proper” political, social, or moral standards we are cancelled and reviled. Jesus says: “But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, … then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:35-36).

*https://live.staticflickr.com/4129/5080579818_8a38769a52_b.jpg

October 5—St. Faustina Kowalska, Virgin

 *

“Lord, let your mercy by on us, as we place our trust in you” (Ps. 33: 22). “Mercy” is the watchword of today’s saint. St. Faustina Kowalska was born in the Russian Empire on August 25, 1905, in what is now Poland. As a child she loved prayer, work, obedience, and had a sensitivity to the poor. She received little formal education but wanted to enter the convent at an early age. She eventually joined the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925 and took the name Sr. Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She lived in different convents and worked as a cook, gardener, and porter. She did not exhibit any extraordinary gifts or talents, but she was graced with an ongoing union with God that gave rise to her writings in her diary. 

“The Lord Jesus chose Sr. Maria Faustina as the Apostle and ‘Secretary’ of His Mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message, which Sr. Faustina recorded in a diary she titled Divine Mercy in My Soul. In the Old Covenant He said to her: ‘I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart.’” (Diary, 1588) 

Through her, we have the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a prayer that uses the five decades of the rosary to pray: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” She died in 1938 and was canonized by St. John Paul II in 2000. Divine Mercy Sunday is the Second Sunday of Easter. We are grateful for her. St. Faustina, pray for us.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/200px-Faustina.jpg

September 28—St. Wenceslaus, Martyr

 

*

“Good King Wenceslaus looked out/On the Feast of Stephen,/When the snow lay round about/Deep and crisp and even;/Brightly shone the moon that night/Though the frost was cruel,/When a poor man came in sight,/Gathering winter fuel.” So why do we have a Christmas carol in September? The Christmas carol was penned in 1853 to show the piety and devotion that St. Wenceslaus had for the poor. That it was a Christmas carol is due to the setting of December 26 and to the statement of what Christianity is all about, love of God and love of neighbor for the sake of God. 

Wenceslaus was born in 907 near Prague. He was the son of the Duke of Bohemia and his grandmother, St. Ludmilla, became his regent at his father’s death. However, his mother had his grandmother murdered and worked against the Christians in Bohemia. At the age of 18, Christian nobles rebelled against his mother and Wenceslaus took over the government. Nonetheless, he was opposed by his brother, Boleslaus, who had him murdered in 935 after accepting an invitation to celebrate the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian. 

St. Wenceslaus was considered a martyr and saint immediately after his murder. One holy legend about him says, “But his deeds I think you know better than I could tell you; for, as is read in his Passion, no one doubts that, rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God’s churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched.” The last verse of the carol thus states: “Ye who now will bless the poor,/Shall yourselves find blessing.”

*https://angelusnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/wenceslas.jpg 

September 24—Bl. Anton Martin Slomšek, Bishop

*

Can a Catholic be a patriot? Remembering that we are but travelers to our heavenly home, we are still members of civil society. True patriots love their country and work to make it a land of justice and truth, of service and compassion to all. Such was today’s saint, Bl. Anton Martin Slomšek, bishop of Lavant, in present-day Slovenia. In his day, Bl. Slomšek’s land was part of the Austrian Empire. Nonetheless, he was a patriot for the Slovenian people and culture. 

 Pope St. John Paul II, in his beatification homily, stated: “The new blessed was also motivated by deep sentiments of patriotism. He was concerned for the Slovenian language, called for appropriate social reforms, promoted a higher level of national culture and did all he could to have his people occupy an honorable place in the concert of other European nations. And he did this without ever yielding to sentiments of short-sighted nationalism or selfish opposition to the aspirations of neighboring peoples. 

“The new blessed is offered to you as a model of true patriotism. His projects left a decisive mark on your people's future and made an important contribution to the achievement of independence. In turning my gaze to the beloved region of the Balkans, unfortunately scarred in recent years by conflict and violence, extreme forms of nationalism, cruel ethnic cleansing and wars between peoples and cultures, I would like to call everyone's attention to the witness of this new blessed. He shows that it is possible to be sincere patriots and with equal sincerity to coexist and cooperate with people of other nationalities, other cultures and other religions. May his example and especially his intercession obtain solidarity and genuine peace for all the peoples of this vast area of Europe.” Bl. Anton, help us to be true patriots. Amen.

*Artist Joze Kramberger https://anastpaul.com/2018/09/24/saint-of-the-day-24-september-blessed-anton-martin-slomsek-1800-1862/

September 12—Servant of God Thomas Frederick Price: Priest and Missionary

 

*

Until 1908, the United States Catholic Church was a missionary church, in other words, supervised by the Propagation of the Faith headquartered in the Vatican. Three years later, today’s saint-candidate, Fr. Price and three other men founded The Catholic Foreign Missionary Society of America, to spread the Good News to other people, notably in China. Today, Maryknoll consists of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, the Maryknoll Sisters, and the Maryknoll Lay Missioners. The Maryknoll Affiliates are men and women who do educational mission service and immersion experiences within the Maryknoll Movement. 

 Fr. Price was from North Carolina and met Fr. James Walsh of Boston in 1910, as both were trying to promote a missionary society. They presented their plans to the American bishops and traveled to Rome where Pope St. Pius X gave approval in 1911. The four Maryknoll priests then went to Hong Kong, China in 1918 and began their efforts in Yangjiang on the South China Coast. Fr. Price suffered from physical ailments and developed appendicitis in 1919, dying on the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, September 12, 1919. His body was exhumed and transferred to the cemetery at Maryknoll, New York. 

 Fr. Price had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He visited Lourdes, France and learned about the apparitions to St. Bernadette. He even renamed the location of the headquarters of the CFMSA from Sunset Hill to Mary’s Knoll, giving rise to the name Maryknoll Missioners. Our Blessed Mother guides us to her son, Jesus. She intercedes for us and gives us her motherly love and protection. Our Lord, Jesus gave her to us through his beloved disciple at the cross on Calvary when he said, “Woman, behold, your son” and “Behold, your mother” (Jn. 19:26-27). Let us pray for Fr. Price’s canonization.

*https://maryknollsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/mk-fr-thomas-price-adult-portrait-lores-scaled.jpg

August 31—St. Raymond Nonnatus, Priest and Religious

*

Jesus sacrificed his life for the redemption of all humanity. That is the heart of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. As Christian disciples we also suffer each day and offer up the difficulties and trials as part of our participation in the Paschal Mystery so we may help others to come to Jesus and ourselves to heaven. But imagine a person ransoming someone with his own life, releasing another from slavery and thus becoming a slave. That happened to today’s saint. 

St. Raymond Nonnatus was born in Spain around 1203. The nickname Nonnatus is from the Latin meaning “not born” because he was delivered by caesarian section. He joined the Mercedarians, the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, and was ordained a priest in 1222. The purpose of the order was to ransom Christians from Muslims who were held captive because they were Christian. St. Raymond ransomed 140 Christians from slavery in Valencia and then 250 captives in Algiers, North Africa by buying their freedom. He then went to Tunis and offered himself as hostage to free 28 Christians when his money ran out as fulfillment of the orders fourth vow, which was taken from Matthew’s Gospel to free the prisoner. However, according to legend, he was prevented from preaching the Good News by having his lips pierced and then closed with a padlock, only to be opened when he ate. He suffered this torment for eight months until other Mercedarians brought the original ransom. He died in 1240 at the age of 37. 

St. Raymond lived the corporal work of mercy at that time, ransom the captive. Let us help free others from the torment that imprisons them, whether it be physical, psychological, emotional, social, or whatever. St. Raymond, pray for us.

*https://static.wixstatic.com/media/61f7a5_6b30669f682c4b0282413ca2a9f7b575~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_667,h_1004,al_c,q_85/Vicente_Carducho%2C__Martirio_de_san_Ram%C3%B3n.webp

August 25--St. Joseph Calasanz, Priest and Religious

*

Jesus taught, “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours” (Lk. 6:20). He also taught, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Mt. 25:34-36). So, what happens when someone tries to live Jesus’ teaching? Sometimes they are praised, sometimes persecuted, sometimes both.

Today’s saint is one who experienced both praise and persecution for serving the poor. St. Joseph Calasanz was born to a minor Spanish noble family in 1557. He received the benefits of wealth, but rather than enjoying those benefits for himself, he became a priest and in Rome started the “first popular and free school in Europe” for the poor and abandoned children. He founded a school system he called the “Pious Schools” in 1616. He founded an order to run the schools called the Piarists, Latin for pious, in 1617. His order took the three standard vows, plus a fourth vow “to dedicate their lives to the education of youth.” 

 However, his work caused opposition. “Many rich were threatened by the thought of underprivileged people learning new ideas.” He was a friend of Galileo and helped him when it was unpopular. His own order suffered internal strife due to the sins and power of some of its members to the point St. Joseph was pushed out as superior general. The order was suppressed in 1646. He died in 1648, “convinced that his Order and his dream would not die.” The Order was restored twenty years later, and he was canonized in 1767 and declared the “Heavenly Patron of all Christian popular schools” by Pope Pius XII in 1948.

* The Last Communion of St Joseph of Calasanz by Francisco Goya 1819 Oil on canvas, 250 x 180 cm Escuelas Pías de San Antón, Madrid

August 19--Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk, Holy Man

*

John G. Neihardt wrote Black Elk Speaks as an account of the destruction of the Native American culture with the Massacre of Wounded Knee as the final battle of the Indian Wars. But there is more to his life than the ending of a time and culture. Black Elk was a boy of nine when he had a vision where he was visited by spirits, shown the sacred tree, and called to save his people. His vision became the core of Neihardt’s book, as well as his life up to Wounded Knee.

He came from a long line of medicine men. He participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and traveled to England with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. He also fought at and survived Wounded Knee. That is where Black Elk Speaks ends with a later postscript showing Black Elk on top of Harney Peak, now named Black Elk Peak. There is no mention of how Black Elk became Nicholas Black Elk, a Catholic catechist.

Black Elk was baptized Nicholas in 1904 and was appointed a catechist on the Pine Ridge Reservation. As a catechist, he taught his people how Catholicism connects with the Lakota traditions and beliefs. He converted 400 people. At the end of his life, he wrote a book called The Sacred Pipe, whose purpose was stated: “It is my prayer that, through our sacred pipe, and through this book in which I shall explain what our pipe really is, peace may come to those peoples who can understand, and understanding which must be of the heart and not of the head alone. Then they will realize that we Indians know the One true God, and that we pray to Him continually.” His cause for canonization was opened in the Rapid City Diocese in 2017.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Elk.jpg

Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

August 13—Bl. Michael McGivney, Priest

*

“A priest walks into a bar and says to an Irishman, ‘Do you want to serve the Church and also buy some insurance to protect your family when you die?’”  Not necessarily a funny joke, but perhaps a quick and accurate assessment of what today’s saint did for the working Catholic immigrant in the late 19th century America.  Fr. Michael J. McGivney was the eldest of 13 children born to Irish immigrant parents in 1852.  His father worked in a brass mill and was joined by Michael when he was 13.  However, he entered the seminary at 16 in Quebec, leaving at one point to help his mother raise his siblings when his father died in 1873.  He eventually was ordained in 1877 and served in New Haven, Connecticut.  While there he realized how the impact of the deaths of immigrants in grueling working conditions devastated families.    

In response, he founded the Knights of Columbus, which is the world’s largest men’s charitable fraternal organization with 2 million members worldwide.  Its four degrees, or levels, of membership are based on four watchwords:  Charity, Unity, Fraternity, and Patriotism.  In 2019, the order donated $187 million and 77 million man-hours to charity.  It has over $100 billion of life insurance in force and $24 billion of assets under management.  The order has thousands of councils throughout the world and men who have been recognized for their holiness:  five Servants of God, including Fr. Flanagan of Boys Town; two Venerables, including Archbishop Sheen; six Blesseds, including Carlos Manuel Rodríguez of Puerto Rico; and seven Saints, including six Mexican priests martyred for their faith during persecutions in the early 20th century.  Bl. Michael McGivney was a man of vision, holiness, and concern for others.  He embodied the essence of priestly life through his ministry and service. 

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_J_McGivney.jpg

Richard Whitney, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

August 7—St. Cajetan, Priest

*

What does it mean to be “most earnest in prayer”? St. Cajetan is described as such a man. He is also described “in love of neighbor”. That is impressive! It meets the requirements Jesus set forth, when he was asked in Matthew’s Gospel (22:36-40), “‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’” 

 Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene was born in 1480 near Venice to an Italian nobleman. He received degrees in both civil and canon law and worked as a diplomat for Pope Julius II. He was ordained a priest in 1516 after Pope Julius died and went back to his hometown of Vicenza, establishing a hospital in 1522. He established another hospital in Venice in 1523, but moved back to Rome to form a congregation dedicated to the spirit of monasticism and active ministry, where he and three others began Theatine order. In Naples he founded a bank to help the poor against those who charged extremely high interest rates. He died in 1547 in Naples. He is the patron saint of the unemployed and gamblers. 

 So, how was St. Cajetan most “most earnest in prayer” as well as “in love of neighbor”? For someone to be able to do the charitable acts he did, one needs to be grounded in Jesus. A strong prayer life is essential to developing that relationship of love. St. Cajetan’s life of prayer and charity was based on his love of Jesus and thus his service to others.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_Solimena_-_Estasi_di_San_Gaetano_da_Thiene.jpg

Francesco Solimena, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

July 28—Bl. Stanley Rother, Priest and Martyr

*

There are fourteen saints, eight blesseds, 25 venerables, and 184 Servants of God with American connections. They founded religious orders, became martyrs, taught, healed, led, and served. They ministered in America and around the world. They were all holy! 

Today’s blessed is one such man, Blessed Stanley Rother, a priest and missionary from Oklahoma, martyred in Guatemala in 1981 during its civil war. He was born in 1935 near Oklahoma City and graduated from the seminary in 1963. In 1968 he was assigned, at his request, to a mission in Guatemala. He served in Santiago Atitlán until his death. Along with his regular duties, he translated the New Testament into the native language of the people and founded a small hospital. 

The civil war eventually came to his parish. “His catechists and parishioners would disappear and later be found dead, with their bodies showing signs of being beaten and tortured.” He wrote to the people of Oklahoma in December 1980 before returning to Guatemala: “This is one of the reasons I have for staying in the face of physical harm. The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.” He was told his name was on a death list but received permission to return to Santiago Atitlán. On July 28, 1981, shooters broke into the rectory and shot him twice in the head. He was one of ten priests murdered in Guatemala that year. He is buried in Oklahoma, but his heart is buried under the altar in Santiago Atitlán. 

On December 1, 2016, Pope Francis decreed that he had been killed in odium fidei, in hatred of the faith. He was beatified on September 23, 2017, the first US-born priest and martyr. Martyrdom is still a part of being Catholic. Bl. Stanley Rother, pray for us.

*http://www.catharchdioceseokc.org/history/rotherindex.htm

July 24--St. Sharbel Maklūf, Priest

*

The Catholic Church has 24 particular churches and six major rites of worship.  The largest particular church is the Latin Church.  There are 23 Eastern Catholic Churches united under the authority and leadership of the Pope.

Today’s saint is from the Maronite Catholic Church, which belongs to the West Syriac Rite.  St. Sharbel Maklūf was a priest, monk, and hermit who lived in Lebanon from 1828-1898.  He is known as the “Miracle Monk of Lebanon” due to the many miraculous healings and wonders attributed to him during his life and after, as well for his ability to unite Christians and Muslims.  He became a monk in 1853 and was ordained a priest for the Monastery of St. Maron.  He served the monastery for 19 years and then was granted permission to live as a hermit near the monastery.  He lived as a hermit for another 23 years in deep prayer with God and a life devoted to deprivation of material pleasures.

His wisdom comes through his life of holiness and his words:  “A man who prays lives out the mystery of existence, and a man who does not pray scarcely exists.”  “Success in life consists of standing without shame before God.”  “Persevere in prayer without ceasing… to understand and live according to his will, not to change it.”  “One does not have to look far to see evidence of Satan’s plan in our world today, as the family is further fragmented and divided in modern culture.”  “The family is the basis of the Lord’s plan; and all forces of evil are focusing all their evil on destroying the family because they know that by destroying the family, the foundations of the plan of God will be shaken.”  How prophetic for us, as we seek to strengthen the family against new “definitions.”

*By FOSS-the-world - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63027121

July 12—Sts. Louis Martin and Azélie-Marie “Zélie” Guérin, Holy Man and Holy Woman

*

They are the only married couple canonized together.  Both tried to enter religious life but were rejected.  They married three months after meeting each other.  Both entered marriage with the intention of living as St. Joseph and St. Mary did.  Nonetheless, they did want children and their confessor guided them.  So, they became parents to nine children with five daughters surviving and eventually entering religious life, one of whom is St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  They were successful in business; Louis being a watchmaker who quit his career to manage his wife’s more successful lace-making business.  St. Zelie died of breast cancer at the age of 45, while St. Louis died from a heart attack after a lengthy illness brought about by strokes when he was 70, surviving his wife by 17 years.  

However, there was more to their lives than just living, working, raising a family, and dying.  They were holy and devoted their lives to God through living, working, raising a family, and dying.  We know quite a bit about them from his 16 letters and her 216 letters.  She wrote to one daughter:  “As for me, I wished to have many children so that I could raise them for Heaven.”  She had great love and affection for her husband as well:  “I always get what I want without a fight; there's still a month before you go (on retreat); that's enough time for me to change your father's mind ten times.”  The years after her death were hard on him, especially after the strokes, when he suffered delirium.  When he could, he would repeat:  “Everything for the greater glory of God,” and “I have never been humiliated in my life, I need to be humiliated.”  Here are models for modern families!  Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, pray for us.

*https://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-holy-lives-and-passions-of-sts-louis-and-zelie-martin

June 26-St. Josemaría Escrivá: Priest

*

Is Opus Dei a secret cult?  Does it exert control over its members?  Does it promote physical penances?  Who is the man who founded it and why?  If we just recently read or watched The DaVinci Code these could be worthwhile questions.  That is, if we accept that it is a historical documentary, which it isn’t; it is pulp fiction and much of what is portrayed about Opus Dei is fiction.  

Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, meaning it is an institution under the direct governance of the Vatican, rather than under a local bishop or head of a religious order.  Its members include about 93,000 laypersons and about 2,000 priests with about 70% of members living in private homes, leading family lives with secular careers and 30% living celibate lives in Opus Dei centers.  Self-mortification is an ancient Catholic practice—think fasting and abstinence for Lent—but it is promoted as a part of a person’s total life.  

St. Josemaría Escrivá, who founded the society in 1928 in Madrid, Spain, wrote, “Choose mortifications that don’t mortify others.”  In other words, do penance that will lead oneself and others to love of God.  St. Josemaría founded Opus Dei to help people become holy through sanctifying ordinary life.  “Saint Josemaría explained that Christians working in the world should not live ‘a kind of double life.  On the one hand, an interior life, a life of union with God; and on the other, a separate and distinct professional, social and family life.’  On the contrary:  ‘There is just one life, made of flesh and spirit.  And it is this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God.”  This is the essence of the Catholic life; what we are called to be and do! 

* https://www.flickr.com/photos/opus-dei/13599152113

June 6—Bl. Maria Laura Mainetti, Religious and Martyr

*

Sr. Maria Laura Mainetti was declared Blessed on June 6, 2021, the anniversary of her murder in 2000 by three teenage girls, former catechism students of hers. She was stabbed 19 times, the intent being for each one to stab her six times to represent the number 666. They originally told investigators they wanted to kill her for a game, but later said it was a satanic sacrifice. All three girls were convicted and sentenced as juveniles and released by 2008. They have since changed their names and relocated to other cities, starting families. 

 Sr. Mainetti was the superior of the Sisters of the Cross convent in Chiavenna in the Italian Alps, north of Milan. She was well known for her ministry to youth and poor people. She was lured to a park because one of the girls claimed to be considering an abortion. They made her kneel, beat her with a brick and pushed her head into a wall and stabbed her to death. Throughout the attack Sr. Mainetti prayed for them and asked God to forgive them. Her last words were, “Lord, forgive them.” She was declared a martyr by Pope Francis. 

 One of the girls later wrote a letter to Sr. Mainetti’s religious community: “I can have of her only a memory of love. And in addition to this, it also allowed me to believe in something that is neither God nor Satan, but which was a simple woman who defeated evil. Now in her I find comfort and the grace to endure everything. I always pray and I am sure she will help me become a better person.” This is as enduring a testimony as any to the power of God’s love as shown through God’s witness and martyr, Bl. Maria Laura Mainetti.

*https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-maria-laura-mainetti/

Second Friday after Trinity Sunday—Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

*

The heart is a common symbol of love in our day, used in song and poetry, as well as everyday speech. So, it should be no surprise that the Church has a feast day dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the one who loves us beyond love. The most significant promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart was St. Margraret Mary Alacoque of France in the 17th century. She received apparitions of the Sacred Heart and promoted its devotion. 

The first papal approval came from Pope Innocent VI in 1353 when he instituted a Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart. Pope Pius IX authorized the feast for the whole Church in 1856. Pope Leo XIII decreed a consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1899 as well as First Friday Devotions. Pope Pius XII wrote a letter instructing the Church on the devotion to the Sacred Heart in 1956 and Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the importance of this devotion in 2006. 

Pope Benedict wrote, “When we practice this devotion, not only do we recognize God's love with gratitude but we continue to open ourselves to this love so that our lives are ever more closely patterned upon it. God, who poured out his love ‘into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us’ (cf. Rom 5: 5), invites us tirelessly to accept his love. The main aim of the invitation to give ourselves entirely to the saving love of Christ and to consecrate ourselves to it is, consequently, to bring about our relationship with God. This explains why the devotion, which is totally oriented to the love of God who sacrificed himself for us, has an irreplaceable importance for our faith and for our life in love.”

*https://live.staticflickr.com/2327/2317894926_8585f50d6b_c.jpg

March 19—Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*

Pope Francis has proclaimed a special “Year of St. Joseph.” This is in honor of the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. This provides “a wonderful opportunity to increase our love for St. Joseph and knowledge, ‘to encourage us to implore his intercession and to imitate his virtues and his zeal.’” It also offers many resources, catechetical material, and prayers/devotions to assist us in our celebration of the special year at https://www.usccb.org/saint-joseph.

One of those resources is his Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde, which means, “With a father’s heart.” He writes: “With a father’s heart: that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as ‘the son of Joseph.’” He further writes, “I would like to share some personal reflections on this extraordinary figure, so close to our human experience. … My desire to do so increased during these months of pandemic, when we experienced, amid the crisis, how ‘our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people, people often overlooked. … How many fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers are showing our children, in small everyday ways, how to accept and deal with a crisis by adjusting their routines, looking ahead and encouraging the practice of prayer. How many are praying, making sacrifices and interceding for the good of all.’ Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and of gratitude is due to them all.” Take some time this Lent to read more.  St. Joseph, pray for us.

*https://www.usccb.org/saint-joseph

February 21--St. Peter Damian, Monk, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church

*

The Church is holy due to Jesus, not us. We are still sinners. We live in a time when some priests and bishops have committed grave public sins. In the eleventh century, there were also serious sins of sexual immorality and crimes of corruption committed by the clergy. One who championed the good and right against such deviations from chastity and holiness was our saint, St. Peter Damian.

Born about 1007 in Ravenna, Italy, Peter was the youngest of a noble, but poor family. Poorly treated by one brother, he was adopted by another brother who was archpriest of Ravenna, who provided him with an education. Peter Damian was gifted in academics and became a university teacher at the age of 25. He left teaching to become a monk. As a monk he was dedicated to austerity and penance, including the discipline of self-flagellation, which he later moderated due to the imprudent zeal of others. He then assisted the Church in opposing the sins of his time as bishop and cardinal.

He was also a great advocate of clerical reform, especially against the corruption of simony, or the buying and selling of Church offices, and clerical sexual license, including concubinage and sodomy. He wrote the book Liber Gomorrhianus, or the Book of Gomorrah, which railed against clerical sins against chastity. Pope Leo IX wrote in response to St. Peter’s work: “Therefore, lest the unrestrained license of filthy lust should spread abroad, it is necessary that it be repelled by a suitable reprimand of apostolic severity and that some attempt at more austere discipline should be made [with them].” St. Peter Damian is a model of how our priests, bishops, and laity should live the gift of chastity. He died about 1072 and was named a Doctor of the Church in 1828.

*https://www.catholic.org/files/images/saints/780.jpg

February 20--Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Holy Children

                  

Our saints today are proof that age is no barrier to holiness. They were ten and nine when they died from the 1918 influenza pandemic. They are the youngest non-martyrs canonized. St. Jacinta and her brother St. Francisco along with their cousin Lúcia dos Santos were blessed with the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima on the 13th of each month May through October 1917. Mary asked them to learn to read and write and to pray the rosary “to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” They were told to pray for sinners and the conversion of Russia. After the apparitions they practiced austere self-mortifications, such as prostrating themselves to pray for hours or kneeling with their heads on the ground.

Pope Pius XI denied their causes for sainthood because he decided that minors could not fully understand or practice heroic virtue. However, in 1979 the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima asked that the world’s bishops to petition the pope for their causes. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decided that children could be blessed with the grace to be “spiritual prodigies.” Pope St. John Paul II declared them venerable in 1989 and blessed in 2000. Pope Francis canonized them on May 13, 2017, one hundred years after the first appearance of Mary to them.

Children are gifts from God to their parents. Parents are blessed to be able to share the faith with these new disciples in the haven of the domestic Church, the home. Children are God’s opportunities to bring parents closer to God so the children can also be closer to God. Holiness is both our calling and a grace from God. Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto show us that even children can know holiness. May they pray for us and our children.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/ChildrensofFatima_%28croped%29.jpg   Attributed to Joshua Benoliel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

February 8--St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin

 

*

Slavery has been outlawed in the United Sates since the 13th amendment was ratified in 1865.  It was abolished in 1888 in Brazil and in 1926 by the League of Nations.  In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the article:  "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."

So what does this have to do with today's saint?  She was a slave.  Bakhita, which means "fortunate", was born about 1869 in southern Sudan, kidnapped at the age of seven, and sold several times as a slave.  In 1883 she was sold to the Italian consul in Sudan and two years later "given" to his friend from Italy.  She then became a babysitter  to the friend's daughter, joining the Church in 1890, taking the name Josephine.  When the friend wanted to take his daughter and Josephine back to Africa, Josephine refused, and the case went to court.  The Patriarch of Venice and the Canossian sisters intervened and the judge concluded that since slavery was illegal in Italy, Josephine had been free since 1885!  She joined the Canossian Sisters in 1893 and remained with them as a gatekeeper for a compound that included a kindergarten, orphanage, recreational center, and school until her death in 1947.

St. Josephine Bakhita had many owners, but only one Master.  She wrote, "Seeing the sun, the moon, and the stars, I said to myself: who could be the Master of these beautiful things?  And I felt a real desire to see hi, to know him and to pay him homage."  God is our master, but one who has set us completely free by saving us from sin through Jesus Christ.  We are blessed beyond all telling!

*https://nunspeak.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/bakhita-01.jpg

February 4—St. Joan of Valois, Holy Woman

*

Today's saint was, for a time, Queen of France.  However, as is the case with all saints, suffering beset her throughout her life.  Jeanne de Valois was born in 1464, the second daughter of King Louis XI of France.  She was afflicted with a physical handicap, possibly curvature of the spine, which allowed others to disparage her.  She was forced into marriage with her cousin Louis, who also treated her poorly.  Nonetheless,  when Louis was rebelling against her brother, King Charles VIII and was captured by him, Joan pleaded for his life and administered the duchy.  Eventually Duke Louis was released and became King Louis XII after the death of his brother-in-law.  One would think things would get better for Joan, but Louis wanted more territory and so appealed to the pope for an annulment from his marriage to her, citing lack of consent and her deformity as a cause for lack of consummation of the marriage.  St. Joan objected but the pope granted the annulment for political reasons.

St. Joan became the Duchess of Berry and formed a community dedicated to the Annunciation in 1500.  She and her spiritual director wrote the rule, and the community was established as a branch of the Poor Clares in 1504.  She renounced her title and possession and became a nun on Pentecost, 1504.  She died less than a year later.  The nuns still have monasteries in Europe and Costa Rica and religious sisters serve in Europe, Africa, and Guatemala.

St. Joan's treatment was unjust!  She did step aside and prayed for her husband.  St. Joan accepted her annulment ordeal in the spirit of the Annunciation, saying:  "Be it done to me and her own if so it is to be."  May we be as forgiving when mistreated!  St. Joan, pray for us.

*By Jean Perréal - http://www.anuncjatki.pl/assets/images/mniszki/jeanne.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16021386