Category: Jesuit saints & blesseds

Saint Francis Xavier

St Francis Xavier.jpg

The prayer for the feast is found here.
 
Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.
We entered some villages of Christians, who had been baptized about eight years ago. It is an area uninhabited by the Portugese, because of its extreme barrenness and poverty; the native Christians, having no one to instruct them in our faith, know nothing about it save only the face that they are Christians. There is no one to say Mass, no one to teach them the Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, or the Ten Commandments.
Whenever I came to one of these villages I baptized all the children who had not yet been baptized. So I baptized a great number of babies “who did know their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11). The children in these villages would not allow me any time to say my office, or to eat or sleep, until I had taught them some prayers. Then I came to realize that “of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). As it would been wrong for me to refuse so holy a request, I began with the sign of the cross, then the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father, and the Hail Mary.
I noted that they had considerable abilities and I am quite certain that they would be good Christians if only had someone to instruct them in the holy faith.
Multitudes out here fail to become Christians only because there is nobody prepared to undertake the holy task of instructing them. I have often felt strongly moved to go to the universities of Europe, especially Paris, crying out like a madman, and say to those in the  Sorbonne who have more learning than good will to employ it advantageously: “How many souls are missing heaven and going to hell through your negligence?”
If only, while they studied their humanities, they would also study the account that God will demand for the talent he has given them, many might feel the need to engage in spiritual exercises, so as to discover God’s will in their hearts and embrace it rather than their own inclinations, saying: “Lord, here I am. What would you have me to do? Send me where you will, if necessary even to India.”
An extract of two letters from Saint Francis Xavier to Saint Ignatius of Loyola dated 28 October 1542 and 15 January 1544

Saints Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell & companions



St Edmund Campion.jpeg

Almighty,
eternal God, You raised up among the people of England and Wales the holy
martyrs Edmund, Robert and their companions, and willed that they should
imitate Christ, who died to redeem the world. Grant that, by their
intercession, Your people may be strengthened by the same faith and love and
always rejoice in Your gift of unity. 

 

On Saint
Edmund Campion

On Saint
Robert Southwell, plus there’s more here. 

St Robert Southwell.jpg

 

Behold the
father is his daughter’s son,

The bird that
built the nest is hatched therein,

The old of years
an hour hath not outrun,

Eternal life to
live doth now begin,

The Word is
dumb, the mirth of heaven doth weep,

Might feeble is,
and force doth faintly creep.

 

O dying souls,
behold your living spring;

O dazzled eyes,
behold your sun of grace;

Dull ears,
attend what word this Word doth bring;

Up, heavy
hearts, with joy your joy embrace.

From death, from
dark, from deafness, from despairs

This life, this
light, this Word, this joy repairs.

 

Gift better than
himself God doth not know;

Gift better than
his God no man can see.

This gift doth
here the giver given bestow;

Gift to this
gift let each receiver be.

God is my gift,
himself he freely gave me;

God’s gift am I,
and none but God shall have me.

 

Man altered was
by sin from man to beast;

Beast’s food is
hay, hay is all mortal flesh.

Now God is flesh
and lies in manger pressed

As hay, the
brutest sinner to refresh.

O happy field
wherein that fodder grew,

Whose taste doth
us from beasts to men renew.


Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez

St Alphonsus Rodriquez.jpgI stand at the door and knock, says the Lord. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sit down to supper with him, and he with me.

O God, in the faithful service of our brother Alphonsus You have shown us the way to joy and peace. Make us ready and watchful companions of Jesus, who became the servant of all, and now lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
On the life of Saint Alphonsus Rodriquez is posted here.
In the 1990’s while reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a Jesuit, I came across his poem honoring Saint Alphonsus. It reads,
In honour of
St. Alphonsus Rodriquez
laybrother of the Society of Jesus
Honour is flashed off exploit, so we say;
And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield
Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field,
And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day.
On Christ they do and on  the martyr may;
But be the war within, the brand we wield
Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled,
Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.
Yet God (that hews mountain and continent, Earth, all, out;
who, with trickling increment,
Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)
Could crowd career with conquest while there went
Those years and years by of world without event
That in Majorca Alphonso watched the door.

Blessed Dominic Collins and companions

Bl Dominic Collins.jpg

All powerful and ever-living God, You gave us an example of marvelous courage in the blessed martyrs Dominic and his companions. For the joy that was set before them they endured the cross, despising its shame. Grant by their prayers that, faithful to Your commandments, we may bring forth the fruits of unity and peace.

Born in Cork County, Ireland c. 1566 he entered the Society of Jesus in 1598 after working on the continent. His vocation was to be a professed Jesuit brother. Captured by the English who attempted to get Dominic to reject Christ, he was tortured and hanged under the charge of being a traitor. With 16 other Irish martyrs (non-Jesuits) Brother Dominic was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992. More on Blessed Dominic’s life can be read here.

North American Martyrs


North_American_Martyrs.jpg

In the eyes of the world they suffered pain, but God was testing them and found them worthy.

Father, You consecrated the first beginnings of the faith in North America by the preaching and martyrdom of Saints John and Isaac and their companions. By the help of their prayers may the Christian faith continue to grow throughout the world.

These 8 Jesuits were martyred in North America between 1642 and 1649 after being tortured. Three were tomahawked at Auriesville, NY and five died in Canada. Six were priests and two were donnés. May we be renewed in faith in Christ through His witnesses:

St. John de Brébeuf

St. Isaac Jogues

St. Gabriel Lalemant

St. Anthony Daniel

St. Charles Garnier

St. Noël Chabanel

St. René Goupil

St. John de la Lande

Saint John Ogilvie

ogilvie2.jpgO God, You revealed the power of the Spirit in Your holy martyr John. Through his example and prayers, strengthen us to serve the Church under the banner of the cross and to carry out in every land the missions entrusted to us by the successor of Peter.

Born in 1579 to a noble Calvinist family in Scotland, he studied on the continent converting to Catholicism at the Scots College in Louvain. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1599 and was ordained priest in Paris in 1610. Returning to Scotland in 1613 his ministry lasted for 13 months before he was betrayed, arrested and imprisoned. On March 10, 1615 he was interrogated, tortured and hanged for the charge of denying the king’s supremacy in matters of religion. Pope Paul VI canonized Ogilvie in 1976. He is remembered for his fidelity to the Holy See and to the doctrine of papal primacy in matters spiritual. For more on Saint John Ogilvie, read a short bio here.