Franciscan saints & blesseds – Page 14

Saint Didacus (Diego) of Alcalá

He humbled himself in all things and found favor with God. Great is the power of God; he is glorified by the humble.

Almighty, eternal God, in Your marvelous ordering of things You single out the weak of this world to shame the strong. Grant that by imitating the humility of Saint Didacus here on earth we may be raised up to eternal glory with him in heaven.

The liturgical memorial for Saint Didacus seems to have been moved around through the years for one reason or another. The Roman Martyrology indeed lists him on November 12. However, since I am following the Franciscan supplement to the Roman Missal, today his feast is observed on this blog in communion with the Capuchins.

Saint Didacus is the San Diego, for whom the city in California is named.

Blessed Angelo of Acri

Seek the Lord, and you will be blessed.

Loving Father, we give You thanks for Your servant Blessed Angelo of Acri. You made him a gift preacher and graced him with the ability to bring sinners back to You. Inspired by his example, and helped by his intercession, may Your power work in and through us and bring You glory.

On the life of Blessed Angelo

Blessed Bonaventure of Potenza

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

Almighty God, You have made blessed Bonaventure Illustrious in the virtue of obedience and in love for neighbor. Through his prayers and example grant us to comply with Your precepts, to rejoice in spirit, and to advance on the way of perfection.

Blessed Bonaventure’s bio

Saint John of Capistrano

They sang, O Lord, Your holy name and praised in unison Your conquering hand.

God, our Father, You raised up in Saint John to strengthen the faithful in a time of stress. Establish us in Your safe protection and keep Your Church in lasting peace.

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.

Saint Peter of Alcantara

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.

Almighty God, You were pleased to distinguish Saint Peter with the gift of remarkable penance and lofty contemplation. May his merits help us to mortify our bodies so that we may deserve to share in the gifts of heaven.

He did what we are encouraged to do today: preach on the Prophets and Wisdom books of the Bible. The Catholic encyclopedia’s entry on Saint Peter may be found here and the Wiki article may be read here.

Blessed Josephine Leroux

God our Father, You give us joy each year in honoring the memory of blessed Josephine. May her prayers be a source of help for us, and may her example and chastity be our inspiration.

The 18th century was a nasty time in history, it is also the time in which Blessed Josephine gave her life for Christ and the Church because of her call to the monastic life. A note on her background.

Blessed Contardo Ferrini

Almighty God, You made blessed Contardo admirable in combining knowledge and piety. Grant us Your servants to acknowledge You the true God and to love You above all things.

“Our life,” he said, “must reach out toward the Infinite, and from that source we must draw whatever we can expect of merit and dignity.”

Blessed Contardo is an interesting man, read his brief bio.

In some places Blessed Contardo’s memorial is on October 17, in the Friars Minor ordo the blessed is honored today.

Blessed James of Strepar

All-powerful God, You renewed the apostolic spirit in the gospel preaching of blessed James the bishop. Through his prayers may Your Church ever receive an increase in faith and in holiness.

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.

Saint Seraphin of Montegranaro

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?).

Some his story is found in this bio or here…

Saint Daniel and companions

Almighty, eternal God, You gave Saint Daniel and his companions the grace to suffer for Christ. Support our weakness with divine strength so that we may not waver in professing our faith in You, even as they did not hesitate to die for You.

Any time I hear the word “and companions” I wonder about the identities of these people who walked with their leader. 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.

More on the martyrdom of Saint Daniel and his companions may be found here.