September 28—St. Wenceslaus, Martyr

 

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“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

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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

 

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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

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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--Servant of God 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

August 13—Bl. Michael McGivney, Priest

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“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