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St. Francis Di Girola

"It would be superfluous to enlarge upon the particular virtues of our saint; his public life being rather the subject of this history. Yet are we unwilling to pass over unnoticed, his great and fervent love of Jesus Christ. Especially he honored and worshiped him in his divine infancy, his sacred passion, and his adorable sacrament. When he meditated upon these mysteries, he was always absorbed and penetrated with love; and when he approached the sacrament of the altar, his countenance glowed, as though he stood before a fire. Nothing provoked his indignation, or drew down his severe rebuke, so much as disrespect towards the blessed Eucharist. He removed many abuses: he would not suffer any levity in the church; and once reproved a lady of quality who had remained seated during the consecration. In like manner he was tenderly devoted to our blessed Lady. For twenty-two years he preached a sermon in her praise and honor every week."

Source: EWTN

Public Domain wikimedia

"Justice and Divine Mercy: When God has resolved to punish the world by great calamities, He raises up saints, who, by means of their prayers, may disarm His justice, and who, by their charity, will satisfy the wants of the poor. St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, was of this heavenly temper. The plague had dealt destruction throughout his diocese in 1448; this was followed by a desolating famine, the town and suburbs were in part destroyed but the earthquakes occurring in 1453 and the two succeeding years. Antoninus lavished every care on the dying, and induced his clergy to act in like manner. Of an exemplary simplicity in his tastes, he economized his income for the benefit of the poor, whom he truly loved, being all gentle and affable, and knowing well how to win their affection. Holding in no account whatever he possessed, he gave everything away with liberal hand; and when he had parted with all, he set about collecting more, that he might still give. He was wont to pray with the fervor of an anchorite; and hence it was generally said that Florence owed its preservation to the favor with which God regarded the archbishop. He died in 1459, full of days, and honored with abundant miracles.
Moral reflection: Thus it is in God are found centering "severity and mercy, justice, and peace." (Psa. Lxxxiv.11.)"
Pictorial half hours with the Saints, Abbe Auguste Francois Lecanu 1865

Prayer:

"Pray, O holy Pontiff, for the descendants of them that were faithless to the promise sealed on the very altar on which your hands so often offered up the Sacrifice of unity and peace. Disciple of the great Dominic, inheritor of his burning zeal, protect the holy order which he founded and of which you are so bright an ornament. Show that you still love it. Give it increase and procure for its children the holiness that once worked such loveliness and fruit in the Church.

Holy Pontiff, be mindful of the faithful who implore your intercession at this period of the Year. Your eloquent lips announced the Pasch, so many years, to the people of Florence, and urged them to share in the Resurrection of our Divine Head. The same Pasch, the immortal Pasch, has shone once more upon us. We are still celebrating it. Oh pray that its fruits may be lasting in us, and that our Risen Jesus, who has given us Life, may, by His grace, preserve it in our souls for all eternity." Dom Prosper Guéranger

St. Catherine of Siena, Wake Forest, NC

Prayer for the Church and Priests

My Lord, do not look upon my sins, but hear Thy servant through the clemency of Thine inestimable charity. When Thou left us Thou didst not leave us orphans, but Thou left us Thy vicar and Thy ministers who give us the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and not only once, but always, through Thy holy power they wash our souls from sin.

O eternal Piety, may Thy vicar and all ministers be hungry for souls, may they burn with holy desires for Thy honor, may they remain with thee always, because Thou are the almighty and the eternal goodness. Once again, eternal God, sanctify these Thy servants so that, with simplicity of heart and a perfect will they may follow Thee and Thee alone. Do not look upon my misery, but place them in the garden of Thy will.

I know, eternal God, that Thy arm is so strong as to be able to free the Church and Thy people, to pull them out of the devilʼs hands, and to cease all persecutions against the Church. I know that the wisdom of Thy Son, which is one with thine, can illuminate the eye of my intellect, that of Thy people and lift the darkness from Thy spouse the Church.

I thus supplicate Thy almighty power, O eternal Father, the wisdom of Thine Only-begotten Son, the clemency of the Holy Ghost, fire and abyss of charity, so that Thy mercy may be given to the world and that there may be the warmth of charity with peace and union in the holy Church. I pray that Thine infinite goodness will lead Thee not to close the eye of Thy mercy upon Thy holy spouse. Sweet Jesus, loving Jesus.
Amen.
St. Catherine of Siena

"Obtain for us, O holy Martyr, a keen appreciation of the precious gift of Faith — that element which keeps us in the way of salvation. May we zealously do everything that lies in our power to preserve it, both in ourselves and in them that are under our care.

The love of this holy Faith has grown cold in so many hearts, and frequent intercourse with heretics or free-thinkers has made them think and speak of matters of Faith in a very loose way.

Pray for them, O Peter, that they may recover that fearless love of the Truths of Religion which should be one of the chief traits of the Christian character. If they be living in a country where the modern system is introduced of treating all religions alike, that is, of giving equal rights to error and to truth, let them be all the more courageous in professing the truth and detesting the errors opposed to the truth.

Pray for us, O holy Martyr, that there may be kindled within us an ardent love of that Faith without which, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews xi. 6). Pray that we may become all earnestness in this duty which is of vital importance to salvation, that thus our Faith may daily gain strength within us, till at length we will merit to see in Heaven what we have believed unhesitatingly on Earth." Don Gueranger

"It is a fundamental maxim of the Christian morality, and a truth which Christ has established in the clearest terms and in innumerable passages of the Gospel, that the cross of sufferings and mortification are the road to eternal bliss. They, therefore, who lead not here a crucified and mortified like are unworthy ever to possess the unspeakable joys of His kingdom. Our Lord, Himself, our model and our head, walked in this path, and His great Apostle puts us in mind that He entered into bliss only by His blood and by the Cross."

Source: Little Pictorial lives of the Saints

Image source: Wikipedia

Fidelis was born at Sigmaringen (Germany) in 1577, of noble parents, In his youth he frequently approached the sacraments, visited the sick and the poor, and spent moreover many hours before the altar. For a time he followed the legal profession, and was remarkable for his advocacy of the poor and his respectful language towards his opponents. Finding it difficult to become both a rich lawyer and a good Christian, Fidelis entered the Capuchin Order, and embraced a life of austerity and prayer. Hair shirts, iron-pointed girdles, and disciplines were penances too light for his fervor; and being filled with a desire of martyrdom, he rejoiced at being sent to Switzerland by the newly-founded Congregation of Propaganda, and braved every peril to rescue souls from the diabolical heresy of Calvin. When preaching at Sevis he was fired at by a Calvinist, but the fear of death could not deter him from proclaiming divine truth. After his sermon he was waylaid by a body of Protestants headed by a minister, who attacked him and tried to force him to embrace their so called reform. But he said, " I came to refute your errors, not to embrace them; I will never renounce the Catholic doctrine, which is the truth of all ages, and I fear not death." On this they fell upon him with their poignards, and the first martyr of Propaganda went to receive his palm.

Reflection: We delight in decoration the altars of God with flowers, lights, and jewels, and it is right to do so; but if we wish to offer to God gifts of higher value, let us, in imitation of St. Fidelis, save the souls who but for us would be lost; for so we shall offer Him, as it were, the jewels of paradise.

Source: Little Pictorial, lives of the Saints, 1925

"Before his profession St. Fidelis wrote this testament: "In order to conform myself by perfect resignation to the charity of Jesus Christ, who when He was sweating blood and water in the Garden of Olives, and afterwards dying upon the Cross, resigned Himself into the hands of His Father; so by this my last will I offer my body and soul as a living and eternal sacrifice to the perpetual service of the Divine Majesty, and of the most holy and immaculate Virgin, and of the Seraphic Father St. Francis. And as I was born poor and naked, so, being stripped of all earthly goods, I abandon myself poor and naked into the hands of Jesus Christ my Savior." His perfect fulfillment of this resolve was seen in every act of his missionary life.

Source: Miniatures Lives of the Saints, for Every Day in the Year, Volume 1; Volumes 28-146

Saint Soter was raised to the papacy upon the death of Saint Anicetus, in 173. By the sweetness of his discourses he comforted all persons with the tenderness of a father, and assisted the indigent with liberal alms, especially those who suffered for the Faith. He liberally extended his charities, according to the custom of his predecessors, to remote churches, particularly to that of Corinth, to which he addressed an excellent letter, as Saint Dionysius of Corinth testifies in his letter of thanks, who adds that his letter was found worthy to be read for their edification on Sundays at their assemblies to celebrate the divine mysteries, together with the letter of Saint Clement, pope. Saint Soter vigorously opposed the heresy of Montanus, and governed the Church to the year 177.

  “From the beginning it has been your custom to do good to all the brethren in many ways and to send alms to many churches in every city, refreshing the poverty of those who sent requests, or giving aid to the brethren in the mines, by the alms which you have had the habit of giving from old, Romans keeping up the traditional custom of the Romans;  which your blessed Bishop Soter has not only preserved but has even increased, by providing the abundance which he has sent to the saints and by further consoling with blessed words with brethren who came to him, as a loving father his children… Today, therefore, we have kept the holy Lord’s day, on which we have read your letter, which we shall always have to read and be admonished, even as the former letter which was written to us by the ministry of Clement.”The Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Saint Soter, Master of Charity, Pray for us!

Image source: Wikiquotes

"Anselm was a native of Piedmont. When a boy of fifteen, being forbidden to enter religion, he for a while host his fervor, left his home, and went to various schools in France. At length his vocation revived, and he became a monk at Bec in Normandy.. The fame of his sanctity in this cloister led William Rufus, when dangerously ill, to take him for his confessor, and to name him to the vacant see of Canterbury. Now began the strife of Anselm's life. With new health the king relapsed into his former sins, plundered the Church lands, scorned the archbishop's rebukes, and forbade him to go to Rome for the pallium.  Anselm went, and returned only to enter into a more bitter strife with William's successor, Henry I. This sovereign claimed the right of investing prelates with the ring and crozier, symbols of the spiritual jurisdiction which belongs to the Church alone, The worldly prelates did not scruple to call St. Anselm a traitor for his defense of the Pope's supremacy; on which the Saint rose, and with calm dignity exclaimed: " If any man pretends that I violate my faith to my king because I will not reject the authority of the Holy See of Rome, let him stand forth, and in the name of God I will answer him as I ought." No one took up the challenge; and to the disappointment of the king the barons sided with the Saint, for they respected his courage, and saw that his cause was their own. Sooner than yield, the archbishop went again into exile, till at last the king was obliged to submit to the feeble but inflexible old man. In the midst of his harassing cares, St. Anselm found time for writings which have made him celebrated as the father of scholastic theology; while in metaphysics and in science he had few equals. He is yet more famous for his devotion to our blessed Lady, whose Feast of the Immaculate Conception he was the first to establish in the West. He died a.d. 1109."

Reflection: Whoever, like St. Anselm, contends for the Church's rights, is fighting on the side of God against the tyranny of Satan."

Source: the Little Pictorial, 1925

"Saint Marcellinus was born in Africa, of a noble family; accompanied by Vincent and Domninus, he went over into Gaul, and there preached the Gospel, with great success, in the neighborhood of the Alps. He afterwards settled at Embrun, where he built a chapel in which he passed his nights in prayer, after laboring all the day in the exercise of his sacred calling. By his pious example, as well as by his earnest words, he converted any of the heathens among whom he lived. He was afterwards made bishop of the people whom he had won over to Christ, but the date of his consecration is not positively known. Burning with zeal for the glory of God, he sent Vincent and Domninus to preach the faith in those parts which he could not visit in person. He died at Embrun about the year 374, and was there interred. St. Gregory of Tours, who speaks of Marcellinus in terms of highest praise, mentions many miracles as happening at his tomb.

Reflection: Though you may not be called upon to preach, at least endeavor to set a good example, remembering that deeds often speak louder than words."

Source: The Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints

"St. Elphege was born in the 954, of a noble Saxon family. He first became a monk in the monastery of Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury, England, and afterwards lived as a hermit near Bath, where he founded a community under the rule of Saint Benedict, and became its first abbot. At thirty years of age he was chosen Bishop of Winchester, and twenty-two years later he became Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1011, when the Danes landed in Kent and took the city of Canterbury, putting all to fire and sword, Saint Elphege was captured and carried off in the expectation of a large ransom. He was unwilling that his ruined church and people should be put to such expense, and was kept in a loathsome prison at Greenwich for seven months. While so confined some friends came and urged him to lay a tax upon his tenants to raise the sum demanded for this ransom. "What reward can I hope for," said he, "If I spend upon myself what belongs to the poor? Better give up to the poor what is ours, than take from them the little which is their own." As he still refused to give ransom, the enraged Danes fell upon him in a fury, beat him with the blunt sides of their weapons, and bruised him with stones until one, who the Saint had baptized shortly before, put an end to his sufferings by the blow an axe. He died on Easter Saturday, April 19, 1012, his last words being a prayer for his murderers. His body was first buried in St. Paul's, London, but was afterwards translated to Canterbury by King Canute. A church dedicated to St. Elphege still stands upon the place of his martyrdom at Greenwich.

Reflection: Those who are in high positions would consider themselves as stewards rather than masters of the wealth or power entrusted to them for the benefit of the poor and weak. Saint Elphege died rather than extort his ransom from the poor tenants of the Church lands."

Source: Little Pictorial 1925