Saint of the day

[Colin]

(From ICN)

6th July - Saint Maria Goretti



Martyr. Born in Ancona, Italy, in 1890, Maria was the eldest daughter of a peasant family, known for her cheerful and devout nature. When she was just ten her father died. Two years later, a young neighbour, Alessandro Serenelli, became obsessed with Maria and started constantly pestering her. One day he tried to rape her. When she fought him off he stabbed her several times. She was taken to the hospital, but she died the next day, after forgiving him.

Her murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was 20 at the time. After eight years he underwent a religious conversion and repented of his crime. When he was released from prison 27 years later he was a changed man. He visited Maria's mother begging forgiveness, which she readily granted.

On Christmas Day 1937 Allessandro received Holy Communion side by side with Maria's mother. In 1950 Maria was canonised as a martyr for the Christian life. Alessandro became a lay brother in a monastery, eventually dying peacefully in 1970. He is often cited as an example by those campaigning against the death penalty.

Maria was beatified in 1947, and canonized in 1950. Her mother attended both ceremonies.

Saint Maria Goretti , pray for children who are victims of abuse .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

7th July - Saint Sunniva




A 10th century Irish princess and nun. According to legend, she set sail from Ireland with several companions in search of a haven in which to live lives consecrated to Christ. The group reached an uninhabited island called Seije off the west coast of Norway and settled there in caves, praying and living off fish.

One day a Viking called Jarl Haakon landed and started looking for them. They hid in caves. Huge boulders crashed down and blocked all the entrances and they died there.

When the Christian king Olaf Tryggvason had the cave excavated in 996, the body of Sunniva was allegedly found intact. Later a Benedictine monastery, Selje Abbey, was built at the site, the ruins of which can still be seen.

Around 1170 the legend of Sunniva was written down in a Latin hagiographic work titled Acta sanctorum in Selio. The legend is also recorded in the Old Norse-Icelandic tale Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu.

In 1170 her relics were moved to Bergen. Several churches, some of them ruined, still exist on the island.

Saint Sunniva is the patron saint of the Norwegian Diocese of Bjørgvin, as well as all of Western Norway.

Saint Sunniva , pray for the people of Norway .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

8th July - Saint Kilian





A 7th century Irish missionary and martyr, St Kilian left from Mullagh for Germany with 11 companions. They crossed the North Sea, arriving at Ascaffenburg on the Rhine then sailed up the Rhine and the Main to Werzburg, where Kilian converted the local ruler. He then visited Pope Conon who is said to have asked him to form a mission to Thuringia and Eastern Franconia in about 686.

St Kilian probably met a violent death. A huge cult grew around him in northern Europe. He is the principle patron of Wurzburg where a mystery play about his life is performed every year.

His figure appears on coins and seals and there are several hymns about him. He is celebrated in Ireland, Austria and Germany on this day.

St Kilian , pray for the people of Ireland , Austria and Germany .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

9th July - The Martyrs of Gorkum

These were a group of nineteen Dutch religious, including Franciscans, Dominicans Premonstratensian Canons and diocesan priests who were hanged by militant Dutch Calvinists at Briel in 1572 during the war of independence with Spain.

After imprisonments and tortures, a mob hauled them before the fanatical pirate Admiral Lumey. William of Orange ordered their release and the local authorities deplored the arrest but to no avail. When the group refused to deny Catholic teaching on the Eucharist and the Papacy, they were tortured and hanged at a deserted monastery near Briel.

A shrub bearing 19 white flowers is said to have sprung up at the site of the martyrdom. Many miracles have been attributed to the intercession of the Gorkum martyrs, especially the curing of hernias.

The beatification of the martyrs took place on 14 November 1675, and their canonization on 29 June 1865. For many years the place of their martyrdom in Brielle has been the scene of numerous pilgrimages and processions. The reliquary of their remains is now enshrined in the Church of Saint Nicholas, Brussels, Belgium.

Martyrs of Gorkum , pray for the people of Belgium .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

10th July - Saints Rufina and Secunda





Martyrs. These early Christian saints were the daughters of Asterius, a Roman senator. He arranged for them to marry Armentarius and Verinus and, because all four were Christian, the matches seemed perfect.

However, when the Emperor began persecuting Christians, the two young men renounced their faith. The women refused to do this and ran away. They were captured and scourged at the orders of a prefect named Junus Donatus, before being beheaded.

A pagan lady named Plautilla buried their bodies in a spot called the Black Forest outside Rome. It was renamed the White Forest after the sisters. A church was built in their honour.

Saint Rufina and Saint Secunda , pray for persecuted Christians .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

11th July - Saint Benedict



Abbot and founder of Subiaco and Monte Cassino; author of the Rule which bears his name; Patriarch of Western Monasticism; and patron of Europe.

St Benedict was born at Nursia in Umbria around 480 and was educated in Rome. At about the age of 20, he went to live as a hermit in a cave in the mountains of Subiaco. Many men followed his example and he set up twelve monastic communities, each with 12 monks.

In 529 St Benedict set out for Monte Cassino with a small group. There they established a monastery which was to become the most famous in Western Christendom, and a model for thousands which followed.

The monasteries became centres of learning, agriculture, hospitality and medicine in a way St Benedict probably never foresaw.

There is no evidence that St Benedict was ever a priest. As his communities grew his reputation spread and towards the end of his life he was even visited by the Gothic king Totila.

Another kind of visitation came one night, when when he was standing praying by a window. It is written: 'the whole world seemed to be gathered into one sunbeam and brought thus before his eyes.'

When death was at hand, in 550, he was carried into the chapel where he received communion and died. He was buried in the same grave as his sister St Scholastica.

St Benedict said: "If you are really a servant of Jesus Christ, let the chain of love hold you firm in your resolve, not a chain of iron."

His emblems are a broken cup, (which contained poison) and a raven (which flew away with it).

St Benedict , pray for those who live the monastic life , and for the peoples of Europe .

 

[Colin]

12th July - Saint Veronica

Traditionally, St Veronica was a woman of Jerusalem who was so filled with compassion when she saw Jesus carrying his cross on the way to Golgotha, that she wiped his face with her veil. Legends say an image of his face was left on the cloth.

There are many stories about St Veronica. One associates her as the woman suffering from an issue of blood who Jesus healed. Another claims she was Martha, sister of Lazarus. One story described her as the wife of Zacchaeus, or of a Roman officer. Most accounts originate several hundred years after the time in which she is meant to have lived. Veronica means 'true image' .

A cloth said to be the Veil of Veronica has been kept at St Peter's in Rome since the eighth century.

St Veronica is a patron saint of photographers, pictures and laundry workers.

St Veronica , pray that this day we may grant charity to any needy who come our way .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

13th July - Saint Mildred

Abbess. This early English saint was the daughter of Merewald, king of Mercia and Ermenburga, princess of Kent.

St Mildred went to a convent school near Paris. Her parents wanted to arrange a marriage for her, but she refused and became a nun at Minster-in-Thanet. The abbey had been built by her mother on land provided by Egbert of Kent in compensation for murdering her brothers.

St Mildred became Abbess around 694. She was known for her tranquil nature and generosity towards the poor, especially women and children - 'a comforter for all in affliction.'

An old story is recorded that one night, while she was praying in the church of her monastery, the devil blew out her candle, but an angel drove him away and relighted it for her.

Before the Reformation her tomb was a place of pilgrimage. There are Benedictine nuns at Minster again today.

St Mildred , pray that we be comforters for those in affliction.

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

14th July - Saint Camillus



Patron of nurses and the sick. Born in Naples in 1550, St Camillus was very tall, (six foot six) and, as a young man, hot-tempered and a wild gambler. He spent some time in the Venetian army fighting the Turks before contracting a disease which left him lame in one leg. He then lost everything through gambling. For a few months he worked as labourer for the Franciscans. During this time, he experienced a change of heart and tried to join the order, but his health prevented this. Instead he offered himself to the hospital of San Giacomo in Rome. In time he became bursar there.

Later, on the advice of St Philip Neri, Camillus offered himself for the priesthood. He was ordained on Pentecost of 1584 by Lord Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St Asaph, Wales, (and the last surviving Catholic bishop of Great Britain.) Camillus then retired from his service at the hospital, and he and some companions moved to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, where they assumed responsibility for the care of the patients there.

His nursing order later became known as the Camillians.

Members of the Order devoted themselves to victims of Bubonic plague, in their homes, in hospitals and prisons. Some rowed out to look after galley slaves on war ships, others went to the battlefields of Hungary and Croatia, setting up the first recorded 'military ambulance unit'. The large, red cross on their cassock remains a symbol of the Congregation today. This was the original Red Cross, hundreds of years before the International Red Cross Organization was formed.

St Camillus was a pioneer in insisting on fresh air, suitable diets and the isolation of patients with contagious diseases. He set up 15 houses and eight hospitals working in them personally himself. He suffered a number of serious illnesses himself, but continued working almost until the day he died, in Genoa in 1614. He was canonised in 1746.

St Camillus , pray for the sick and those nursing them .

 

[Colin]

15th July - Saint Bonaventure



Franciscan friar, bishop and cardinal. St Bonaventure was born at Bagnoreggio, near Orvieto in 1218. A brilliant philosopher, he was made head of the Franciscans at a time when the order was expanding very quickly and there were many differences of opinion as to how it should be organised. St Bonaventure always worked for peace and reconciliation. Though a man of the highest intellectual attainments, he lived simply and rejected most honours.

St Bonaventure often said that a fool's love and knowledge of God may be greater than that of a humanly wise man.

When the Pope's envoy came to visit him at the friary of Mugello - to bring him his cardinal's hat - he asked him to hang it on a tree, and wait a few minutes because his hands were wet as he was washing the community's dishes.

St Bonaventure died during the second Council of Lyon in 1274. He was canonised in 1482 and made a doctor of the church in 1588. His emblem is a cardinal's hat.

St Bonaventure , pray that we may live a simple life .

Also St Swithun



Bishop. Not much is known about this ninth century saint. He was a trusted counsellor to kings Egbert and Ethelwulf and known for his care for the poor. He also had a reputation as a healer. St Swithun was made bishop of Winchester in 852 and died in 862.

He had asked to be buried in the cathedral churchyard, but a hundred years later his remains were moved into the cathedral, where his shrine became a centre for pilgrimage. It was rebuilt several times through the centuries, but destroyed at the Reformation. The cathedral authorities restored the shrine in 1962.

There are 58 ancient churches in England dedicated to St Swithun.

According to tradition, if the weather is good, or poor, on his feast day we can expect the same for the next forty days.

St Swithun , pray that we have good weather today .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

16th July

 - Our Lady of Mount Carmel



This is the patronal feast of the Carmelites , the patronal feast of our Diocese of Salford , and a special feast for our local high school , dedicated to our Lady of Mount Carmel . The Order of Carmelites takes its name from Mount Carmel in Israel, which was the first place dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and where a chapel was erected in her honour before her Assumption into heaven.

16 July is also the feast of the 'Scapular of Mount Carmel' On that day in 1251, pious tradition says, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint Simon Stock, General of the Carmelites at Cambridge in England, showed him the scapular and promised supernatural favours and her special protection to his Order and to all persons who would wear her scapular.

To obtain the indulgences and other benefits promised to those who wear the Carmelite scapular, a person must be invested by a priest who has the requisite faculties and must lead a consistent Christian life.

Prayer:

Lord, let the motherly prayer of the glorious Virgin come to our help. Through her support help us reach the true mount which is Christ. Amen.

Another prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the Flos Carmeli (Flower of Carmel) composed by Saint Simon Stock.

O Beautiful Flower of Carmel, most fruitful vine, splendour of heaven, holy and singular, who brought forth the Son of God, still ever remaining a pure virgin, assist us in our necessity! O Star of the Sea, help and protect us! Show us that you are our Mother! Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us!

Our Lady of Mount Carmel , pray for the parents , children , and teachers of Mount Carmel High School .

 

[Colin]

17 July -Saint Alexis



Called the 'Man of God'. According to a contemporary account, he was a nameless man who died at the hospital of Edessa in Mesopotamia in 430. Later poems in Greek and Latin call him Alexis.

He had lived by begging and shared the alms he was given with other poor people. He is also said to have performed many healings. After his death it was learned that he was the son of a Roman patrician who had left a wealthy bride on their wedding day and gone on a long pilgrimage to Rome.

Many years later he is said to have returned to his father's house, where he spent his last 17 years as a beggar unrecognised, sleeping in a corner under the stairs.

The legend of Alexis was very popular in mediaeval times. In the eleventh century a long epic poem was written about him. In 1370, he was chosen as patron of the Alexian brothers, a nursing order.

Saint Alexis , pray that we be generous in almsgiving .

 

[Colin]

18 July Saints Edburga of Bicester and Edburga of Winchester


Saint Edburga of Bicester


Shrine of Saint Edburga of Winchester

These were two early English saints. St Edburga of Bicester died around 650. She was a nun and probably an abbess. The base of a shrine dedicated to her can still be seen in the church at Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire.

Her namesake, St Edburga of Winchester, lived 300 years later. She was a daughter of Edward the Elder, King of Wessex and grand daughter of King Alfred the Great. She became a nun at the Abbey of St Mary's in Winchester and was known for her gentle and kind nature. A cult formed around her after her death, celebrated particularly in Wessex and Westminster. Pilgrims flocked to her shrine at Pershore Abbey until the Reformation.

Saint Edburga of Bicester and Saint Edburga of Winchester , pray for us .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

19 July Saint Arsenius



Monk. Born in Rome, in 354, Arsenius is said to have been a deacon, and later a tutor to the Emperor Theodosius' children in Constantinople.

He was rewarded with money, servants and possessions and lived a luxurious life. But after ten years he felt God calling him, gave everything away to join a group of desert monks near Wadi Narun in Egypt.

When barbarian invasions came, he went to live quietly on a rock called Petra.

St Arsenius died around 412. Always self-deprecating, he said: "I know a great deal of Greek and Latin learning. I have still to learn even the alphabet of how to be a saint."

Saint Arsenius , pray for us as we strive to be saints .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)


20 July Saint Kinga

Princess. St Kunigunde or Kinga, was born in 1226 in Hungary. Her family was distinguished for its political power as well as its holy women. Her aunts included St Elizabeth of Hungary, St Hedwig and St Agnes of Prague. Her sisters included St Margaret and Blessed Yolande.

At the age of 15 she became engaged to the man who was to become the next King of Poland, Boleslaw V. Soon after their wedding, they both took vows of chastity before the bishop and lived out their promises during their 40 years of married life. Queen Kunigunde spent her time caring for her young sister and visiting the poor and sick in hospitals.

When her husband died in 1279, she was expected to take over the reins of government, but she gave up her royal life and joined the Poor Clares, living in a convent she and her husband had established. She died 13 years later surrounded by her community. Many miracles are said to have occurred at her tomb.

In 1715, Pope Clement XI chose her as the special patron of Poles and Lithuanians.

St Kunigunde was canonized by Pope John Paul II in June 1999. More than half a million people attended the ceremony in a field outside the small town of Stary Sacz.

St Kinga , pray for the peoples of Lithuania and Poland .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

22 July Saint Mary Magdalene

Patron of repentant sinners and the contemplative life.

One of the followers of Christ, Mary Magdalene has been identified as the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with a precious oil. She was the first person to see the Risen Christ. On Easter Day she was weeping near the empty tomb when she saw a man who she thought was a gardener. He asked her why she was weeping. She replied: "Sir if you have carried him away tell me where to and I will come and take him."

The man was Jesus. He told her to go and tell the others what she had seen.

There are many apocryphal legends about Mary. In France it said that she evangelised Provence with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus. Hundreds of churches across Europe are dedicated to her.

Saint Mary Magdalene , pray that we be witnesses of the Risen Christ .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

23 July Saint Bridget of Sweden

Visionary. Bridget was born in Sweden in 1303. From the time she was a child, she was greatly devoted to the passion of Jesus. When she was only ten, she seemed to see Jesus on the cross and hear him say: "Look at me, my daughter." "Who has treated you like this?" cried little Bridget. "They who despise me and refuse my love for them," answered Jesus.

When she was fourteen, she married eighteen-year-old Ulf. Like Bridget, Ulf had set his heart on serving God. They had eight children, of whom one was St Catherine of Sweden. Bridget and Ulf served the Swedish court. Bridget was the queen's personal maid. She also tried to advise King Magnus and Queen Blanche from time to time.

All her life, Bridget experienced visions and heard messages from God.

In obedience to them, she visited many rulers and important people in the Church. She explained humbly what God expected of them. After her husband died, Bridget left the court to become a nun. Later, she started the order of the Most Holy Saviour, also known as Bridgettines.

A very active person, she worked with the poor and sick all her life and seemed to carry on a dialogue with God.

Shortly before she died, the saint went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. At the shrines there, she had visions of what Jesus had said and done in that place. All St Bridget's revelations on the sufferings of Jesus were published after her death. She died in Rome on this day in 1373. She was proclaimed a saint by Pope Boniface IX in 1391.

St Bridget , pray for us .

 

[paul becke]

(From ICN)

22 July Saint Mary Magdalene

Patron of repentant sinners and the contemplative life.

One of the followers of Christ, Mary Magdalene has been identified as the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with a precious oil. She was the first person to see the Risen Christ. On Easter Day she was weeping near the empty tomb when she saw a man who she thought was a gardener. He asked her why she was weeping. She replied: "Sir if you have carried him away tell me where to and I will come and take him."

The man was Jesus. He told her to go and tell the others what she had seen.

There are many apocryphal legends about Mary. In France it said that she evangelised Provence with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus. Hundreds of churches across Europe are dedicated to her.

Saint Mary Magdalene , pray that we be witnesses of the Risen Christ .

What better day than to post this:

The following link leads to a beautiful potted history of St Mary Magdalene. I had thought that the account of her moving to France and her burial there were apocryphal, but, rightly or wrongly, this little vignette prompts me to revise my opinion.

http://st-mary-magdalene.org/newpage4.htm

It appears under an internal link at the site of a Litany to St Mary Magdalene that I posted here recently.

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

24th July St John Boste



Priest and martyr. John Boste was born at Dufton, in Westmoreland, and studied at Oxford. After he became a Catholic in 1576, he went to Reims and was ordained priest in 1581. 

Fr John went back to England where he worked in the north celebrating Mass and administering the Sacraments to recusant Catholics. He became the object of a massive manhunt and was finally captured and taken to London. 

There he was tortured on the rack and returned to Dryburn near Durham.

On July 24, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. John Boste was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as a martyr of Durham. He is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Saint John Boste , pray for us .

 

[Colin]

(From ICN)

25th July St James the Apostle

James was the brother of John the Evangelist. He is sometimes called James the Greater, to distinguish him from James the Lesser, who may have been shorter in stature. James and his brother John were called by Jesus as they worked with their father in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had already called another pair of brothers from a similar occupation: Peter and Andrew. "He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him" (Mark 1:19-20).

James was one of the three who witnessing the Transfiguration, the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemani.

Two incidents in the Gospels describe the temperament of this man and his brother. St Matthew tells that their mother came (Mark says it was the brothers themselves) to ask that they have the seats of honour (one on the right, one on the left of Jesus) in the kingdom. "Jesus said in reply, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?' They said to him, 'We can'" (Matthew 20:22). Jesus then told them they would indeed drink the cup and share his baptism of pain and death, but that sitting at his right hand or left was not his to give--it "is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father" (Matthew 20:23b).

It remained to be seen how long it would take to realize the implications of their confident "We can!"

The other disciples became indignant at the ambition of James and John. Then Jesus taught them all the lesson of humble service: The purpose of authority is to serve. They are not to impose their will on others, or lord it over them. This is the position of Jesus himself. He was the servant of all; the service imposed on him was the supreme sacrifice of his own life.

On another occasion, James and John gave evidence that the nickname Jesus gave them--"sons of thunder"--was an apt one. The Samaritans would not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to hated Jerusalem. "When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, 'Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?' Jesus turned and rebuked them..." (Luke 9:54-55).

St James was beheaded in Judea in the year 44 AD. Some Christians believe that his disciples carried his body by sea to Padrón on the Galician coast. They then buried his body under what is now the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

St James' relics were discovered sometime between 791 AD and 842 AD. Santiago de Compostela then became a place of pilgrimage. Pope Leo XIII asserted that the relics of St James at Compostela were authentic in a papal bull. This papal bull was published on November 1, 1884.

Common symbols of St James include a traveler's hat and a scallop shell. The scallop shell is used to mark a network of pilgrimage routes. These routes lead to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela from many European countries. The pilgrimage to Compostella is depicted in Martin Sheen's film, 'The Way'.

St James the Apostle , pray for bishops .