Today is the Feast of Blessed Stanley Rother, martyr.
As Pope Francis said on the occasion of his beatification in 2017, ““[Yesterday], in Oklahoma City, the missionary priest, Stanley Francis Rother, killed in hatred of the faith for his work of evangelization, and work to promote the human dignity of the poorest people in Guatemala, was proclaimed Blessed. May his heroic example help us to be courageous witnesses to the Gospel, committed to working [on] behalf of the dignity of man.”
Blessed Charles de Foucauld will become SAINT. The Pope approved the miracle attributed to his intercession.
In addition to St Bede and St Philip Neri, the Church recalls the memory of St Alban, the first Christian martyr of Britain, today. The list of saints commemorated on any given days is always interesting and worth our time in knowing and praying for their assistance.
The Byzantine Church recalls Alban’s memory today while the Latin Church will claim him on June 22. The year of his death is disputed.
The entry for Alban’s life reads thusly for one of the typicons:
“Our venerable father, Alban, protomartyr of the English.
Since the island of Britain was under Roman rule, Diocletian’s persecution accounts for Alban’s martyrdom some time around 287.
Alban, of Latin-Briton stock, gave shelter to a fleeing Christian priest. After hearing his guest describe his belief in Christ, Alban requested baptism. When soldiers traced the priest to Alban’s house, they discovered Alban dressed in the priest’s clothes. This enabled the priest to escape, but gave the authorities an excuse to execute Alban.
He was beheaded on a hill outside a town now known as St Albans in Hertfordshire. A monastery was founded on the site in the 8th century and became a famous Benedictine abbey. (NS)
On the liturgical calendar of the Church in Poland today is Blessed Celestyna Faron, IHM (1913 – 1942) a Religious Sister of the Congregation of the Little Sister Servants of the Immaculate Conception. Within the Congregation she served variously as a teacher and catechist. In history she was known as Katarzyna Stanisława Faron 24 April 1913 born in Zabrzez, Malopolskie, [southern] Poland and died on Easter morning, 9 April 1944 in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Blessed Celestyna’s biography reveals that before her first profession of vows, she wrote to the Mother General saying, “Through my vows I long to belong entirely to Jesus Christ as a total sacrificial offering. I always desire to walk the way of love and devotion so that I can approach the Immaculate Lamb.”
Faron is remembered for her charity and courage, even in the face of death. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II with other 107 other Polish Martyrs of World War II on 13 June 1999. The collective feast day of the martyrs is 12 June.
The Little Sister Servants of the Immaculate Conception published this brief reflection on Blessed Celestyna AND there is this biographical note on the Blessed which includes some witnesses on the Blessed making her person better known.
I didn’t know about Blessed Celestyna until this morning when my friend Bill brought her to my attention.
As a side note, the Little Sister Servants of the Immaculate Conception (USA) have several witnesses of holiness from their ranks: 5 sisters who cause for canonization is being studied, in addition to the founder Blessed Edmund Bojanowski and Blessed Celestyna. Let’s pray for Edmund and Celestyna’s canonization.
May Blessed Celestyna intercede for us before the Throne of Grace asking for the gifts of charity, courage, poverty of spirit and the ability to sacrifice ourselves for the Lord of Life. Blessed Celestyna, pray for us.
Today we remember St. Phocas the Gardener. He is the patron of farmers, fieldworkers, agriculture, and gardeners. He was a man connected to his land and to his neighbor, and who understood ecology in the deep sense of not living just for oneself but for all. He was both a bishop and a simple farmer, and he devoted everything he grew to be given to the poor.
He is also the patron of hospitality. When soldiers came looking for him to execute him for being a Christian, he welcomed them with open arms, and practicing the command of Christ to love one’s enemies, he fed them and treated them as Christ himself. The soldiers did not realize that their host was the same Phocas they were to execute, and St. Phocas promised them that he would help them find their target.
When Phocas revealed himself to them, they were reluctant to kill him. Phocas, however, refused to fight them or to hinder their duty, and instead invited the soldiers to do what they were there to do, offering his neck. For this he was martyred.
St. Phocas is also the patron of sailers. There is an old sailing custom whereby at each meal, a portion is set aside called ‘St. Phocas portion.’ This portion is sold and the money collected is donated to the poor whenever port is reached. In this way, Phocas’ love for strangers, enemies, the poor, the land, and his neighbors continued to extend even past his death.
Holy Phocas, pray for us!
thanks to In Communion
The liturgical memorial of St. Rita of Cascia (1381-1457) is today. Several years ago when I was visiting a friend in Italy we visited the Benedictine monks at Norcia and by surprise, we were taken to Cascia to venerate the relics of St. Rita and imbibe the monastic house. At that time I didn’t really have a devotion to St. Rita even though her personal narrative is quite interesting; only recently two friends, independent of one another, told me of St Rita’s love and affection for honey bees. As a beekeeper I am always looking for divine intercession as I care for the bees.
Due various things in her life, Rita eventually became an Augustinian nun giving witness to the meaning of forgiveness, prayer, humility, patience, and perseverance. She dedicated her life to heroic charity and penance as she closely united herself and her life of deep suffering to Christ. Notice in the image that Rita has something in her forehead. While praying before a crucifix, St. Rita mystically received a thorn in her forehead (stigmata) from Jesus’ Crown of Thorns.
St. Rita is the patron saint of impossible causes, difficult marriages, abuse victims, and honey bees. Can we model St. Rita’s perseverance today?
On the Eastern liturgical calendar we have our father among the saints, Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica. The Liturgy speaks of Simeon in this manner:
By the light of your wisdom and virtue, O holy father, Simeon, the spirit of God revealed you as a true shepherd of Salonica and a divinely inspired master of the mysteries of grace. Because of this, we look upon you as a teacher sent by God himself, and in our joy we exclaim: Glory to Christ for glorifying you. Glory to him who crowned you. Glory to him who gives us grace through you.
The point of the troparion is to highlight Simeon’s gifts of being a shepherd and a teacher of the divine mysteries. Gifts we ought to beg the Holy Spirit to bestow upon us. The faith community is desperate to have great shepherds and teachers again! Yet, St Simeon has often gifts we aspire to live by.
A New Skete hagiographical sketch of the archbishop says thus. “Simeon was a native of Constantinople, where he also became a monk. In 1416 he was made archbishop of Thessalonica. During most of his episcopate, the city was under a vise-like threat from Venetians on one side and Turks on the other. In those years of turmoil, all looked to Simeon for his pastoral prudence and courage under stress.
Simeon was a successor to Gregory Palamas in the see of Thessalonica, and heir to his theology, refracted through the humanism of Nicholas Cavasilas: “He was the noblest of the latter’s pupils. Simeon never claimed to be a mystic himself, but like his master, he believed that the highest mystical experience was to be found in the liturgy. And though he argued against the Latins, he clearly longed to reach an understanding with them. His peacemaking attitude and compassionate administration made him so well loved in his diocese that when he died, six years after the city had been sold to the Venetians and four months before it fell to the Turks, not only did the Italians mourn him along with the Greeks, but the Jews, a race that seldom had cause to love Byzantine hierarchs, joined sincerely in the mourning.
From Simeon’s writings we have descriptions of the last use of the cathedral rites of Byzantium, which in his day had been replaced in Constantinople herself by Palestinian monastic forms. While the archbishop lamented the change, he made practical pastoral adjustments in his own churches to accommodate the new forms.
In addition to his liturgical works, his writing spanned political, historical, canonical, dogmatic, apologetic, moral, and pastoral themes as well. He may be considered the last true theologian of the Byzantine period.
After his death in September, 1429, he was revered by many as a saint. But, perhaps because of the centuries of Turkish occupation, it was not until modern times that he was officially canonized. This occurred in his own cathedral in Thessalonica in 1981.
Yesterday, 7 November 2018, Pope Francis received in audience Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, where it was decided that James Alfred Miller was a martyr for the faith.
James Alfred Miller – in religion he was Leo William and known also as Brother Santiago. He was a professed member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Miller was a native of Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Brother Santiago was a missionary in several Central America countries and over the years his life was threatened. The Brothers of the Christian Schools sent to him to teach agricultural studies and give witness to Jesus Christ. On February 13, 1982, Brother Santiago’s life was sacrificed for the faith as he was shot several times by three hooded men and he died instantly. Pope Francis and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized that Brother Santiago was indeed a martyr.
You may read a brief biography of Brother Santiago here.
Saint Denys, first bishop of Paris, and a 3rd century martyr. Since 1568, Denys has been on the Roman liturgical calendar for today.
Saint Denys is one of two patron saints of Paris. He is commonly thought to be one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is regularly invoked to intercede with God for those who live with headaches.
Saint Denys, pray for us.
This is my first introduction to St. Christina of Bolsena. Her hagiographer does, in fact, give some astonishing points of her life. For me, it is good know what her patronage is: those with mental illness and disorders, mental health workers, psychiatrists, and therapists.
St. Christina of Bolsena (1150-1224) was born to a peasant family in Belgium. She was orphaned as a child and raised by her two older sisters. When she was 21 she had what was believed to be a severe seizure, and was pronounced dead. At her funeral she suddenly revived and levitated before the bewildered congregation. She said that during her coma she had been to heaven, hell, and purgatory and had been given the option to either die and enter heaven, or return to earth to suffer and pray for the holy souls in purgatory.
Christina chose the greater act of charity. From then on she lived in extreme poverty: wearing rags, sleeping on rocks, and begging for her food. She is called “Astonishing” because she did the most bizarre things and suffered the pains of inhuman feats without being physically harmed by them. She would roll in fire and hide in hot ovens; she would stand in freezing water for hours in the dead of winter; she allowed herself to be dragged under water by a mill wheel; she spent much time in graveyards. She would also climb trees to escape the strong odor of sin in those she met.
Many thought her to be possessed by demons or insane, but many devout people recognized and vouched for her sincerity, obedience, and sanctity. They believed that she was a living witness to the pains that souls experience in purgatory, willingly suffering with them and for them. Christina the Astonishing is the patron of those with mental illness and disorders, mental health workers, psychiatrists, and therapists.
(Thanks to DG for alerting me to this saint.)