December 23--St. John of Kanty, Priest

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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!

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December 13—St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr

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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

 

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“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

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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

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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

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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

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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