August 31—St. Raymond Nonnatus, Priest and Religious

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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

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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--Nicholas Black Elk, Holy Man

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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