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"He was a Roman by birth, and succeeded St. Dionysius in the government of the Church in 269. Paul of Samosata, the proud bishop of Antioch, to the guilt of many enormous crimes added that of heresy, teaching that Christ was no more than a mere man, in whom the Divine Word dwelt by its operation, and as in its temple, with many other gross errors concerning the capital mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. Two councils were held at Antioch to examine his cause, but by various arts and subterfuges, he escaped condemnation. However, in a third, assembled at the same place in 269, being clearly convicted of heresy, pride, and many scandalous crimes, he was excommunicated and deposed; and Domnus was substituted in his place. Paul still maintained himself in the possession of the episcopal house. The bishop therefore had recourse to the Emperor Aurelian; who, though a Pagan, gave an order that the house should belong to him to whom the bishops of Rome and Italy adjudged it.

The persecution of Aurelian breaking out, St. Felix, fearless of dangers, strengthened the weak, encouraged all, baptized the catechumens, and continued to exert himself in converting infidels to the faith. He himself obtained the glory of martyrdom, after governing the Church five years.

Pray for the present pope, bishop of that holy see, that he may be divinely assisted with all necessary helps for satisfying the duties of his charge. Pray for all that suffer for their faith, that God would be their comfort and support. Pray for patience for yourself in all troubles. Every day brings its trials: be not overcome by small ones, and prepare for greater. To suffer with humility and patience, is the disposition of a martyr. This you are to pray for on the days of martyrs, and be solicitous to practise something of it: for why should your life be a contradiction to your prayers? The example of Christ, and of all his saints, ought to encourage us under all trials to suffer with patience and even with joy." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

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Offerings to the Divine Incarnate Word of His own Most Precious Blood

"O most Holy Word! I offer Thee Thy priests, and in their behalf I offer thee whatever is most dear to Thee in heaven and on earth, in union with all Thy Most Precious Blood: and I pray Thee to enable them fitly to conceive of the high degree to which they are exalted, and to hold in extreme abhorrence whatever can dishonor their dignity or contaminate their lives." ( St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi. Confraternity of the Precious Blood)

"God complains of his servants, because they neglect to recommend sinners to his mercy, He once said to Mary Magdalen de Pazzi,"See, my child, how sinners are in the hands of the devil: if my elect, by their prayers, did not deliver them, they should be devoured." The Almighty desires, in a particular manner, that priests and religious pour fort their prayers in favor of sinners. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi used to say to her sisters in religion, "My dear sisters, God has separated us from the world, not only to sanctify ourselves, but also to appease his wrath against sinners." (...)
She prayed especially for priests; because their virtues ensure the salvation of many, and their bad example causes the ruin of thousands. Hence, she frequently begged of God to punish her for their sins saying, "Lord, put me to death frequently, and make me return to life, that by frequently suffering the pangs of death, I may satisfy Your justice for them." It is related in her life, that she liberated numberless souls from the hands of Lucifer." A Short Treatise on Prayer by St. Alphonsus of Liguori

Biography:

THE HOLINESS OF CHILDHOOD.-A philosopher has said; "A man is trained on his mother's knees." In like manner it might be said, it is at the knees of the mother that saints are formed. The young Cyril had learned from his mother to pronounce the name of Jesus, to love the sweet Saviour, and to long for the advantages of Heaven. But his father, hardened in idolatry, drove him from his roof, that he might no longer hear repeated a name which provoked his anger. The governor of Cæsarea, informed of these facts, caused Cyril to be brought before him, and strove to gain him over by caresses and promises; but perceiving how vain were his efforts, he had him led to the place of execution, where the instruments of torture were placed before his eyes. The child was overjoyed at being at length able to die so as to go to Heaven; when he was led before the judge; "I do not fear death," he exclaimed, "and I wish for Heaven; you could never make up to me on earth for the advantages I should lose by your sparing me. To the work then speedily, for I am a Christian, and intend always to remain one.' The judge thereupon delivered him to the executioners. The martyrdom is generally believed to have occurred under the reign of the emperor Decius.

MORAL REFLECTION.-Parents should keep in memory that it is "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings that God has perfected praise."-(Psa. viii. 3.)

"ST. AUGUSTIN was sent to preach the Gospel to our Saxon ancestors by the Pope St. Gregory the Great, in the sixth century. At that time, King Ethelbert was the powerful king of Kent, and had extended his dominions as far as the river Humber. When he had been informed of the object of the saint's visit to England; he received him very graciously. He invited him and his companions to his capital city of Canterbury, and was full of admiration at the innocence of their lives, and the miracles with which it pleased God to confirm their doctrine.

The holy men came to him at first in the Isle of Thanet, in procession, carrying for their banner a silver cross, and an image of our Saviour painted on a board; and singing the litany as they walked, made humble prayer for themselves, and for the souls of those to whom they came. The king listened to them attentively; but answered that their words and promises indeed were fair, but new and to him uncertain: however, that since they had come a great way for his sake, they should not be molested, nor hindered from preaching to his subjects.

St. Augustin and his companions imitated the lives of the apostles, serving God in prayer, watching and fasting; despising the things of this world, as persons who belonged to another, and ready to suffer or die for the faith which they preached.

King Ethelbert was after some time converted, and the greater part of the people followed his example, and became Christians; and the holy missionaries had leave to go every where, and build churches wherever they could. St. Augustin was consecrated bishop, and afterwards appointed by the pope, archbishop of Canterbury; and received also from St. Gregory a fresh supply of holy men to assist in his glorious work. At length, having laboured successfully, and seen the faith of Christ widely diffused on every side, St. Augustin ended his days in peace, and passed to life eternal on the 26th of May, in the year 604.

Give thanks to God for the happy conversion of our forefathers, by which we also have been blessed with the true faith. Pray to the holy apostle of your country to intercede still in its behalf, that the faith which he planted may again flourish among us, and that all in error and sin may happily return to the paths of truth and virtue." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

Prayer:

O Jesus, our Risen Lord! You are the Life of Nations, as you are the Life of our souls. You bid them know and love and serve you, for they have been given to you for your inheritance, and at your own appointed time each of them is made your possession (Psalm ii. 8). Our own dear country was one of the earliest to be called and, when on your Cross, you looked with mercy on this far island of the West. In the second Age of your Church you sent to her the heralds of your Gospel, and again in the Sixth, Augustine, your Apostle, commissioned by Gregory, your Vicar, came to teach the way of Truth to the new pagan race that had made itself the owner of this highly favoured land. How glorious, dear Jesus, was your reign in our fatherland! You gave her Bishops, Doctors, Kings, Monks and Virgins whose virtues and works made the whole world speak of her as the “Island of Saints,” and it is to Augustine, your disciple and herald, that you would have us attribute the chief part of the honour of so grand a conquest. Long indeed was your reign over this people whose faith was lauded throughout the whole world. But, alas, an evil hour came and England rebelled against you. She would not have you to reign over her (Luke xix. 14). By her influence she led other nations astray. She hated you in your Vicar. She repudiated the greater part of the truths you have revealed to men. She put out the light of Faith and substituted in its place the principle of Private Judgement which made her the slave of countless false doctrines. In the mad rage of her heresy, she trampled beneath her feet and burned the relics of the Saints who were her grandest glory. She annihilated the Monastic Order to which she owed her knowledge of the Christian Faith. She was drunk with the blood of the Martyrs. She encouraged apostasy and punished adhesion to the ancient Faith as the greatest of crimes

She, by a just judgement of God, has become a worshipper of material prosperity. Her wealth, her fleet, and her colonies —these are her idols and she would awe the rest of the world by the power they give her. But the Lord will, in His own time, overthrow this Colossus of power and riches and as it was in times past when the mightiest of kingdoms was destroyed by a stone which struck it on its feet of clay (Daniel ii. 35), wo will people be amazed when the time of retribution comes to find how easily the greatest of modern nations was conquered and humbled. England no longer forms a part of your kingdom, O Jesus! She separated herself from it by breaking the bond that had held her so long in union with your Church. You have patiently waited for her return, yet she returns not. Her prosperity is a scandal to the weak, so that her own best and most devoted children feel that her chastisement will be one of the severest that your Justice can inflict. Meanwhile, your mercy, O Jesus, is winning over thousands of her people to the Truth, and their love of it seems fervent in proportion to their having been so long deprived of its beautiful light. You have created a new people in her very midst, and each year the number is increasing. Cease not your merciful workings that thus these faithful ones may once more draw down upon our country the blessing she forfeited when she rebelled against your Church.

Your mission, then, O holy Apostle Augustine, is not yet over. The number of the Elect is not filled up and our Lord is gleaning some of these from amid the tares that cover the land of your loving labours. May your intercession obtain for her children those graces which enlighten the mind and convert the heart. May it remove their prejudices and give them to see that the Spouse of Jesus is but One, as He Himself calls her (Canticles vi. 8), that the Faith of Gregory and Augustine are still the Faith of the Catholic Church at this day, and that [five] hundred years’ possession could never give heresy any claim to a country which was led astray by seduction and violence, and which has retained so many traces of its ancient and deep-rooted Catholicity."  Dom Gueranger

Saint Germain

"ASSISTING AT THE OFFICES OF THE CHURCH.-It would be no easy matter to recount the miracles whereby the eminent sanctity of Germain, bishop of Paris, was shown forth; to enter at large into the relations existing between him and kings Childebert, Clothaire, Caribert, and Sigebert, before whom he displayed all the kindliness of a father, combined with the authority of a pastor; or, finally, to record the bountifulness of his almsgiving and his love for the poor. Let us seek rather to call to mind his zeal for the Divine worship. He recited every day the canonical office with head uncovered, even when on a journey, and however inclement the season. He assisted every night at the entire office in his cathedral church; and whereas the clerks and canons were wont to divide the time into three several watchings, he remained there alone till the dawn of day. This suffices to show what importance he attached to the holy sacrifice and public prayer being celebrated with a dignity worthy of the great God. In one particular only did he ever give way in this his ever-present aim; namely, when, for the purpose of feeding the poor, he deemed it expedient to dispose of the sacred vessels. St. Germain died in 576.

'MORAL REFLECTION.-"In the churches, bless ye God the Lord. From Thy temple, kings shall offer presents to thee."-(Psa. lxvii. 27.)" Pictorial Half Hours with the Saints by Abbe Lecanu

St. Gregory VII

"THIS saint was born in Tuscany, and educated at Rome.. He wonderfully illustrated the Church of God by his learning, sanctity, and every kind of virtue. While he was yet a youth, he entered the monastery of Cluni, and served God in a religious state with so much fervour, that he was elected prior by the holy fathers of that monastery. But Divine Providence had greater designs upon him, and he was called back to Rome, where he signalized himself by his zeal, sanctity,and learning, and preached with great reputation and fruit in the court of the pious Emperor Henry III. The holy Pope St. Leo IX. had the highest esteem for him, often followed his counsels, and made him abbot of St. Paul's. In 1054 he was sent by Pope Victor II. as legate into France, in order to abolish the practice of simony in conferring benefices in the Church. A certain bishop who was accused of this crime, denied the charge. St. Gregory bade him recite the Glory be to the Father, which he endeavoured to do, but was never able to pronounce the name of the Holy Ghost. At this miraculous conviction he was struck with remorse and confusion, and casting himself at the saint's feet, humbly confessed his crime.

"Two friends, who, as it is related by St. Gregory, entered into a desert of Italy; where they followed the example of the hermits of the East, in mortification and prayer, still united in one heart and one spirit. This was the more remarkable in them, because they were of very different tempers; the one being a man full of ardour and zeal for the salvation of others, and solicitous for glorifying God in the edification of his neighbour; the other being of a more mild and retired spirit, confining his thoughts to God and his own soul. One of them was afterwards chosen abbot of a monastery, and the other continued in his solitude: and as they had been examples of piety living, so they happily ended their days in the sixth century.

The lesson of this day is sufficiently difficult, that is, how to keep peace and a good correspondence with those who are disagreeable to you in temper and humour. And yet if you have not the practice of it, you are not yet come to the knowledge and life of charity. If then you cannot bear with the ways, words, and actions of such persons, but with inward contempt, expressions of dislike, peevish contradictions, impertinent disputes and quarrels; you must not think to justify yourself, by throwing the fault upon such provoking humours. For your being so easily provoked by them, is a certain sign that you are wanting in patience, discretion, and charity. These in any tolerable degree, would not permit you to be so easily moved, both for your own sake and for others. If you have any principles of charity or the gospel, they will teach you patience, and likewise to bear with others. Wherever there is but a moderate degree of prudence, it will oblige you to reflect, that as you yourselves are sometimes out of humour, and desire others to bear with you, so you ought to take your turn, and bear with others. Great allowances are to be made for all as to their particular way, or humour. You are not to expect every one to follow the rule which you judge best; but to preserve peace and charity by uniform patience and forbearance. Direct accordingly your prayers and endeavours." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

"Saint Rita of Cascia, whose feast is celebrated on May 22, was born at Rocca Porena in the diocese of Spoleto and the province of Umbria, Italy, about the year 1386, and died at Cascia in the year 1456. Being the daughter of parents who were advanced in years, she met with much opposition when she made known her intention of becoming a nun. Yielding to their entreaties, she married a man who, in a short time, lost his reputation on account of his cruelty. After converting him from his wicked ways, he was murdered by an enemy. Rita's two sons resolved to take revenge, but through her prayers they repented of their sins and were taken away by death. Left alone in the world, she applied several times for admission into the Augustinian Convent at Cascia. Refusal to receive her followed every application, until God Himself cleared away all obstacles and she entered the convent, made her profession and lived the life of a holy and devout Religious for forty-two years, "a shining example of every Christian virtue, pure as a lily, simple as a dove, and obedient as an angel."

That "God is wonderful in His saints" is easily proved in the life of St. Rita. On one occasion Rita requested a rose to be brought to her from her garden at Porena in the midst of winter. The rose was found in full bloom. At another time she asked for a fig, and the same was found. The report of these wonders spread far and wide, and people flocked to the convent from all parts of Europe, only to receive in return for their faith in God through the prayers of Rita many spiritual and temporal favors.

Owing to the great number of miracles wrought by St. Rita, she is often styled "The Saint of the Impossible." The Church has placed her stamp of approval on these miracles of St. Rita and has raised her to the dignity of the altar by canonizing her a saint of God on the 24th of May, 1900.

Reflection: Let us learn from the life of St. Rita to pray frequently for the conversion of sinners. There is no prayer more pleasing to God than that which has for its object the conversion of those who lead lives of sin, particularly sins against faith, such as leaving the one true Church and practicing a false religion, wilful doubt, disbelief, denial, ignorance, and those who commit sin by exposing their faith to danger." Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints.

Our Own St. Rita, Fr. Matthew Corcoran

Prayer: Holy Patroness of those in need, St. Rita, whose pleadings before thy Divine Lord are almost irresistible, who for thy lavishness in granting favors hast been called the Advocate of the Hopeless and even of the Impossible; St. Rita, so humble, so pure, so mortified, so patient and of such compassionate love for thy Crucified Jesus that thou couldst obtain from Him whatsoever thou askest, on account of which all confidently have recourse to thee expecting, if not always relief, at least comfort; be propitious to our petition, showing thy power with God on behalf of thy suppliant; be lavish to us, as thou hast been in so many wonderful cases, for the greater glory of God, for the spreading of thine own devotion, and for the consolation of those who trust in thee.

 We promise, if our petition is granted, to glorify thee by making know thy favor, to bless and sing thy praises forever. Relying then upon thy merits and power before the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we pray thee grant that [here mention your request].

By the singular merits of thy childhood,  Obtain for us our request.
By thy perfect union with the Divine Will, Obtain for us our request.
By thy heroic sufferings during thy married life, Obtain for us our request.
By the consolation thou didst experience at the conversion of thy husband,Obtain for us our request.
By the sacrifice of thy children rather than see them grievously offend God,Obtain for us our request.
By the miraculous entrance into the convent,Obtain for us our request.
By thy severe penances and thrice daily bloody scourgings, Obtain for us our request.
By the suffering caused by the wound thou didst receive from the thorn of thy Crucified Savior, Obtain for us our request.
By the Divine love which consumed thy heart, Obtain for us our request.
By that remarkable devotion to the Blessed Sacrament,on which alone thou didst exist for four years, Obtain for us our request.
By the happiness with which thou didst part from thy trials to join thy Divine Spouse, Obtain for us our request.
By the perfect example thou gavest to people of every state of life, Obtain for us our request.
Pray for us, O holy St. Rita, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us Pray:  O God, Who in Thine infinite tenderness hast vouchsafed to regard the prayer of Thy servant, Blessed Rita, and dost grant to her supplication that which is impossible to human foresight, skill and efforts, in reward of her compassionate love and firm reliance on Thy promise, have pity on our adversity and succor us in our calamities, that the unbeliever may know Thou art the recompense of the humble, the defense of the helpless, and the strength of those who trust in Thee, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

"AFTER a pious education in a seminary at Gubio, a city in the ecclesiastical states, he was made by the bishop prior of his cathedral. After some time he was consecrated bishop of Gubio, by the pope himself. He made it his whole business to adorn his high station with all the virtues of a true successor of the apostles. But the mildness and patience, by which he appeared insensible to injuries and affronts, was one of the brightest parts of his character. The two last years of his life, he laboured under a complication of painful distempers, which he bore with the patience of a saint. On Easter day, his devotion to the glorious mystery of that festival, made him forget his infirm condition, so that he got up, said Mass, and gave the people a discourse on eternal life. He continued till the feast of the Ascension to prepare himself for death, and having received the rites of the Church, expired on the 16th of May, 1160.