Franciscan saints & blesseds: October 2009 Archives

Lord, Your strength gives joy to the just. They greatly delight in Your saving help. You have granted them their heart's desire.

Poor Saint John gets associated with the migration of the swallows. How unfortunate to have your life and life's project get linked with the fowl. There is always a back story. He studied law, a civil servant, was married but the marriage was annulled with the wife's permission because as it was never consummated, a priest, a very effective preacher, healer and reformer and ecclesial servant. A disciple of Saint Bernardine of Siena and therefore had a devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus and promoted it. See the Wiki article on Saint John and Catholic encyclopedia article on him is here. A Franciscan hagiographical piece on the saint is noted here. Reading all this I'd say the birds didn't reveal the saint's importance.

May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through it the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

A brief bio

Note: in some calendars the liturgical memorial Blessed James is noted for June 1 but in the ordo for the Friars Minor October 20 is the date of observance.

God, our Father, You endowed Saint Seraphin with the manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit, and made him an admirable witness of the riches of Christ. Through his intercession make us grow in knowledge of You that we may walk faithfully before You according to the truth of the gospel.

Pope John Paul understood Saint Seraphin's place in the daily call we all face to turn toward Christ...see what he had to say. Saint Seraphin is an excellent guide to holiness that we all need to heed (of course what saint do we not need to crawl with to God?).

Any time I hear the word "and companions" I wonder about the identities of these people. Knowing the names of the unmentioned saints is not mere curiosity. I figure that these men laid their lives on the line for Christ and the Church under great great persecution they ought to be known. Obviously they are important because the Church infallibly declared these men saints. And it would be too clumsy to name each person in the group in the Mass/Divine Office we simply say "and companions." The martyrology lists the companions as being Samuel, Angelus, Domnus, Leo, Nicholas, Hugolinus, and Elias.

The Minister General and the General Definitory of the Friars Minor gave his worldwide brothers (and to the rest of us) a letter on the feast of holy father Saint Francis. It can be read Letter for St Francis feast 2009.pdf.

May I invite you to read the homily for this feast of Francis given/posted by my friend and classmate, Capuchin Father Charles, who serves as a curate at the nearby Sacred Heart Church. His perspective into the person Francis is worth the time.

The author of a recent book on Francis speaks on an American Magazine podcast. I don't know the reliability of the author's work, but it sounds interesting, especially in these days of Christian-Islam exchange.