September 4--Bl. Martyrs of the Holy Family, Maria Stella Mardosewicz and Ten Companions

 Feast of Blessed Mary Stella & 10 Companions.

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:12-13). The Church has venerated the martyrs from her very beginnings, starting with St. Stephen and continuing even to today. Today’s blesseds were sisters who started a convent in Nowogródek, Poland, modern Belarus. They started a school, looked after the local church, and did works of charity.

At the start of World War II, Nowogródek was occupied by Soviet, then later, Nazi forces. The Gestapo then came and arrested 120 men. The sisters prayed that they may be accepted as an offering for the men. “Mother Stella led their prayers, in which the nuns asked God: ‘If sacrifice is needed, accept it from us and spare those who have families.’” They were arrested on July 31, 1943 with the intent to execute them that night. The sisters then offered themselves in place of the men, but were denied. On August 1 they “were taken to a large pine forest where an open pit had been prepared for them. They were shot to death and immediately dumped into the mass grave.” Their bodies were exhumed in 1945.

In his beatification homily, Pope St. John Paul II stated: “We thank you, O blessed martyrs of Nowogródek, for your witness of love, for your example of Christian heroism and for your trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. ‘Christ chose and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit in your lives and that your fruit should abide’ (cf. Jn 15: 16). You are the greatest inheritance of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth. You are the inheritance of the whole Church of Christ for ever!” Blessed martyrs, pray for us!

August 30--St. Euphrasia Eluvathingal, Virgin

St. Euphrasia Eluvathingal

The Church is not only Catholic, but catholic. The word catholic means universal. It was mentioned by St. Ignatius of Antioch in AD 110 to distinguish the Church from heretical groups. This is worthwhile for today’s saint because she is from India. The Catholic Church is all over the world! St. Euphrasia Eluvanthingal (1877-1952) was born in Karal State, which is on the Malabar Coast of India, where tradition has it that the apostle Thomas evangelized the people. She joined the Carmelite Order of the Syro-Malabar Church, which is an Eastern Catholic Church in union with Rome. She was a novice mistress at her convent and then Mother Superior. She became known as the “Praying Mother” due to her life of prayer and devotion to the Sacred Heart. She was canonized by Pope Francis in 2014. It is written of her: “Mother Euphrasia grew in humility, poverty and holiness as she completely obeyed the will of God every moment. The whole life of this virgin was full of continuous prayer, penance and reparation. Mother Euphrasia who found contentment in loving Jesus, her divine spouse, was always in the forefront in receiving censure and abuses. All those who approached her she helped with motherly love, prayer and good advice.”

The Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. We are united as one through our faith and baptism. Sainthood is conferred on those who have demonstrated heroic virtue and holiness in their lives, giving us models to draw from. We are catholic in that we are all called to be with Jesus in community with the Catholic Church. We are apostolic because of the continuous succession of bishops and popes from Peter and the apostles. St. Euphrasia exemplified each of these marks through her life and holiness. St. Euphrasia, pray for us!

August 19–St. John Eudes, Priest and Founder

Anonymous, St. John Eudes, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Priests are the backbone of parish life. A good pastor can help his parish grow in love for God and each other, building parish life. But how does one become a good priest? That was the problem that today’s saint, St. John Eudes, faced when he decided to found the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. He founded and staffed three seminaries. St. John Eudes (1601-1680) was ordained in 1625 in France and eight years later became a parish missionary, going from parish to parish to preach renewal, giving 110 missions.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a general audience during the Year of the Priest in 2009, said, “Prompted by a lucid awareness of the grave need for spiritual assistance in which souls lay because of the inadequacy of the majority of the clergy, the Saint, who was a parish priest, founded a congregation specifically dedicated to the formation of priests. He founded his first seminary in the university town of Caen, a particularly appreciated experience which he very soon extended to other dioceses. The path of holiness, which he took himself and proposed to his followers, was founded on steadfast trust in the love that God had revealed to humanity in the priestly Heart of Christ and in the maternal Heart of Mary. In those times of cruelty, of the loss of interiority, he turned to the heart to speak to the heart, a saying of the Psalms very well interpreted by St Augustine. He wanted to recall people, men and women and especially future priests, to the heart by showing them the priestly Heart of Christ and the motherly Heart of Mary. Every priest must be a witness and an apostle of this love for Christ's Heart and Mary's Heart.” We need good priests! St. John Eudes, pray for us!

August 13--St. Radegund, Religious

St. Radegunda, Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Daughter of a king, kidnapped at age twelve, married to the King of France as his fifth wife and subsequently mistreated by him due to her life of prayer and service, today’s saint, St. Radegund (520-587), withstood such abuse. However, her husband had her brother murdered, which prompted her to go to the bishop to allow her to become a nun. When he hesitated in fear of the king, she demanded, “If you refuse to consecrate me a deaconess, you fear man more than God, and he will require you to account for my soul.” The bishop acquiesced. After this, St. Radegund wrote, “I asked myself, with all the ardor of which I am capable, how I could best forward the cause of other women, and know, if our Lord willed, my own personal desires might be of advantage to my sisters.” She founded a double monastery–for men and women–Holy Cross in Poitiers, France. She was known for her asceticism and her learning.

Some say that the Church does not respect women because women are not ordained. Wherein does power lie? Not in ordination. Look to St. Radegund as a model of power. She founded a double monastery and served others. True power is about humility, love, and service. Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:25-28). Love is power! St. Radegund, pray for us!