Saints of the Month: November
Go to Mary
Copyright: by E. Phang.
Saints of the Month: November Copyright © E. Phang. All Rights Reserved.
Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................... i Main Body .............................................................................................. 2 1 All Saints Day ................................................................................ 3 2 All Soul's Day ................................................................................. 5 3 Saint Martin de Porres .................................................................. 7 4 Saint Charles Borromeo ................................................................ 9 5 Saint Elizabeth of the Visitation .................................................. 11 6 Saint Leonard of Noblac .............................................................. 13 7 Feast of Order of Preachers ........................................................ 15 8 The Four Crowned Martyrs ......................................................... 17 9 Saint Benignus of Armagh ........................................................... 20 10 Pope Saint Leo I (The Great) ..................................................... 22 11 Saint Martin of Tours ................................................................ 24 12 Saint Josaphat Kuncevyct .......................................................... 26 13 Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini .................................................... 31 14 Saint Giovanni Liccio ................................................................. 33 15 Saint Albert the Great ............................................................... 35 16 Saint Gertrude the Great ........................................................... 37 17 Saint Elizabeth of Hungary ....................................................... 39 18 Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne ................................................ 41 19 Saint Barlaam of Antioch ........................................................... 44 20 Blessed Maria Fortunata Viti .................................................... 45 21 Feast of the Presentation of Mary ............................................. 47 22 Blessed Maria Franciszka Siedliska .......................................... 49 23 Saint Cecilia .............................................................................. 51 24 Saint Clement of Rome .............................................................. 53 25 Saint Columbanus ..................................................................... 55 26 Saint Catherine of Alexandria ................................................... 57 27 Saint John Berchmans ............................................................... 59 Saints of the Month: November
28 Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal ............................................ 29 Saint Catherine LabourĂŠ ........................................................... 30 Blessed Denis of the Nativity .................................................... 31 Saint Andrew the Apostle ..........................................................
63 66 68 69
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Introduction
Saints for the month of November. For more information see www.gotomary.com
For Our Lady’s intentions
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Main Body
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1
All Saints Day
Painting by Fra Angelico
The 1st of November is All Saints Day. It is also known as All Hallows’ Day, Hallowmas, Feast of All Saints, or Solemnity of All Saints. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: THE Church pays, day by day, a special veneration to some one of the holy men and women who have helped to establish it by their blood, develop it by their labors, or edify it by their virtues. But, in addition to those whom the Church honors by special designation, or has inscribed in her calendar, how many martyrs are there whose names are not recorded! How many humble virgins and holy penitents! How many just and holy anchorites or young children snatched away in their innocence! How many Christians who have died in grace, whose merits are known only to God, and who are themselves known only in heaven! Now should we forget those who remember us in their intercessions? 3
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Besides, are they not our brethren, our ancestors, friends, and fellow-Christians, with whom we have lived in daily companionship—in other words, our own family? Yea, it is one family; and our place is marked out in this home of eternal light and eternal love. Reflection.—Let us have a solicitude to render ourselves worthy of “that chaste generation, so beautiful amid the glory where it dwells.”
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2
All Soul's Day
All Souls’ Day by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
The 2nd of November is All Soul’s Day. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: THE Church teaches us that the souls of the just who have left this world soiled with the stain of venial sin remain for a time in a place of expiation, where they suffer such punishment as may be due to their offences. It is a matter of faith that these suffering souls are relieved by the intercession of the Saints in heaven and by the prayers of 5
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the faithful upon earth. To pray for the dead is, then, both an act of charity and of piety. We read in Holy Scripture: “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” And when Our Lord inspired St. Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, towards the close of the tenth century, to establish in his Order a general commemoration of all the faithful departed, it was soon adopted by the whole Western Church, and has been continued unceasingly to our day. Let us, then, ever bear in mind the dead and offer up our prayers for them. By showing this mercy to the suffering souls in purgatory, we shall be particularly entitled to be treated with mercy at our departure from this world, and to share more abundantly in the general suffrages of the Church, continually offered for all who have slept in Christ.
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3
Saint Martin de Porres
Portrait of St. Martin de Porres, c. 17th century, Monastery of Rosa of Santa Maria in Lima.
The 3rd of November is the feast day of Saint Martin de Porres. He is the patron saint of the Diocese of Biloxi, Vietnam, Mississippi, black people, hair stylists, innkeepers, lottery, lottery winners, mixed-race people, Peru, poor people, public education, public health, public schools, race relations, social justice, state schools, television, Mexico, and Peruvian Naval Aviators. Saint Martin de Porres lived between 1569 and 1639 and born in Lima, Peru. His nobleman father did not acknowledge his illegitimate son for 8 years, and his mother was a freed slave woman from Panama, of an 7
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African or Native American descent. His father eventually abandoned the family when Martin’s sister was born. He was raised in poverty, and as a young man worked as an assistant to a barber-surgeon, learning medicine and caring for the sick. At the age of 15 he joined the Dominican friars, becoming a Lay Brother. He nursed the sick in the Dominican inďŹ rmary and the sick among the townspeople. He even gave his own bed to a sick man. He worked as an almoner as well, and begged for money, using the money to help with his work to tend the poor and sick. An orphanage was founded by him, and he tended to African slaves and gave alms to those in need. He demonstrated miraculous powers, healing the sick, bilocating, levitating, expressing hidden knowledge, and communicating with animals. His sanctity was well known with many people coming to him for spiritual direction.
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4
Saint Charles Borromeo
Carlo Borromeo, by Giovanni Figino
The 4th of November is the feast day of Saint Charles Borromeo. He is the patron saint of against ulcers; apple orchards; bishops; catechists; catechumens; colic; intestinal disorders; Lombardy, Italy; Monterey California; cardinals; seminarians; spiritual directors; spiritual leaders; starch makers; stomach diseases; and São Carlos, a city in Brazil. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: ABOUT fifty years after the Protestant heresy had broken out, Our Lord raised up a mere youth to renew the face of 9
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His Church. In 1560 Charles Borromeo, then twenty-two years of age, was created cardinal, and by the side of his uncle, Pius IV., administered the affairs of the Holy See. His first care was the direction of the Council of Trent. He urged forward its sessions, guided its deliberations by continual correspondence from Rome, and by his firmness carried it to its conclusion. Then he entered upon a still more arduous work—the execution of its decrees. As Archbishop of Milan he enforced their observance, and thoroughly restored the discipline of his see. He founded schools for the poor, seminaries for the clerics, and by his community of Oblates trained his priests to perfection. Inflexible in maintaining discipline, to his flock he was a most tender father. He would sit by the roadside to teach a poor man the Pater and Ave, and would enter hovels the stench of which drove his attendants from the door. During the great plague he refused to leave Milan, and was ever by the sick and dying, and sold even his bed for their support. So he lived and so he died, a faithful image of the Good Shepherd, up to his last hour giving his life for his sheep. Reflection.—Daily resolutions to fulfil, at all cost, every duty demanded by God, is the lesson taught by St. Charles; and a lesson we must learn if we would overcome our corrupt nature and reform our lives.
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5
Saint Elizabeth of the Visitation
Elizabeth (left) visited by Mary, the Visitation, by Philippe de Champaigne
The 5th of November is the feast of Saint Elizabeth of the Visitation. She is the patron saint of pregnant women. The following is from Catholic Encyclopedia: Elizabeth (God is an oath—Ex., vi, 23), Zachary’s wife and John the Baptist’s mother, was “of the daughters of Aaron” (Luke, i, 5), and, at the same time, Mary’s kinswoman (Luke, i, 36), although what their actual relationship was, is unknown. St. Hippolytus (in Niceph. Call., Hist. Eccles., II, iii) 11
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explains that Sobe and Anna their mothers were sisters, and that Sobe had married a “son of Levi”. Whether this indication, probably gathered from some apocryphal writings, and later on adopted by the compilers of the Greek Menologium, is correct, cannot be ascertained. Elizabeth, like Zachary, was “just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame” (Luke, i, 6). She had been deprived, however, of the blessings of motherhood until, at an advanced age, a son was promised her by the Angel Gabriel (Luke, i, 8-20). When, five months later, Elizabeth was visited in her home by the Virgin Mary, not only was her son sanctified in her womb, but she herself was enlightened from on high to salute her cousin as “the mother of my Lord” (Luke, i, 43). According to some modern critics, we should even attribute to her the canticle “Magnificat”. After the birth and circumcision of John the Baptist, the Gospels do not mention Elizabeth any more. Her feast is celebrated on September 8 by the Greeks, and November 5 in the Latin Church. CHARLES L. SOUVAY
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6
Saint Leonard of Noblac
Wooden statue of Saint Leonard, Abbot of Noblac
The 6th of November is the feast day of Saint Leonard of Noblac. He is the patron saint of political prisoners, imprisoned people, prisoners of war, and captives, women in labour, as well as horses. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: LEONARD, one of the chief personages of the court of Clovis, and for whom this monarch had stood as sponsor in baptism, was so moved by the discourse and example of St. Remigius that he relinquished the world in order to lead a more 13
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perfect life. The Bishop of Rheims having trained Leonard to virtue, he became the apostle of such of the Franks as still remained pagans; but fearing that he might be summoned to the court by his reputation for sanctity, he withdrew secretly to the monastery of Micy, near Orleans, and afterwards to the solitude of Noblac near Limoges. His charity not allowing him to remain inactive while there was so much good to be done, he undertook the work of comforting prisoners, making them understand that the captivity of sin was more terrible than any mere bodily constraint. He won over a great many of these unfortunate persons, which gained for him many disciples, in whose behalf he founded a new monastery. St. Leonard died about the year 550. Reflection.—”The wicked shall be taken with his own iniquities, and shall be held by the cords of his own sin.”
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7
Feast of Order of Preachers
Allegory of the Virgin Patroness of the Dominicans by Miguel Cabrera
The 7th of November is the feast day of All Saints of the Order of Preachers, who are also known as the Dominicans. They were founded by Saint Dominic de Guzman during the early 13th century in France. The order has 14 canonised saints and 215 people who are beatiďŹ ed. Their charism is to study and preach with the intention to save souls. Their martyrs also count in the ten of thousands, including the Martyrs of Nagasaki and the Martyrs of Vietnam. Famous saints include, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Martin de Porres, Pope Saint Pius V, Saint Vincent Ferrar, Saint Hyacinth, Saint Louis de Montfort, Saint Albert the Great, Saint Louis Bertrand, Saint 15
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Catherine de Ricci, Saint Hyacinth, Saint Margaret of Hungary, Saint Peter Martyr and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
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8
The Four Crowned Martyrs
The Four Crowned Saints, Nanni di Banco,Orsanmichele, Florence, ca. 1415.
The 8th of November is the feast day of the Four Crowned Martyrs. They are the patron saints of sculptors, stonemasons, stonecutters; against fever; and cattle. The following is from Catholic Encyclopedia: The old guidebooks to the tombs of the Roman martyrs make mention, in connection with the catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus on the Via Labicana, of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Quatuor Coronati), at whose grave the pilgrims 17
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were wont to worship (De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, I, 178-79). One of these itineraries, the “Epitome libri de locis sanctorum martyrum”, adds the names of the four martyrs (in reality five): “IV Coronati, id est Claudius, Nicostratus, Simpronianus, Castorius, Simplicitus”. These are the names of five martyrs, sculptors in the quarries of Pannonia (now a part of Austria-Hungary, south-west of the Danube), who gave up their lives for their Faith in the reign of Diocletian. The Acts of these martyrs, written by a revenue officer named Porphyrius probably in the fourth century, relates of the five sculptors that, although they raised no objections to executing such profane images as Victoria, Cupid, and the Chariot of the Sun, they refused to make a statue of Æsculapius for a heathen temple. For this they were condemned to death as Christians. They were put into leaden caskets and drowned in the River Save. This happened towards the end of 305. The foregoing account of the martyrdom of the five sculptors of Pannonia is substantially authentic; but later on a legend sprang up at Rome concerning the Quatuor Coronati, according to which four Christian soldiers (cornicularii) suffered martyrdom at Rome during the reign of Diocletian, two years after the death of the five sculptors. Their offence consisted in refusing to offer sacrifice to the image of Æsculapius. The bodies of the martyrs were interred at St. Sebastian and Pope Melchiades at the third milestone on the Via Labicana, in a sandpit where rested the remains of others who had perished for the Faith. Since the names of the four martyred soldiers could not be authentically established, Pope Melchiades commanded that, the date of their death (8 November) being the same as that of the Pannonian sculptors, their anniversary should be celebrated on that day, under the names of Sts. Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorianus, Castor, and Simplicius. This report has no historic foundation. It is merely a tentative explanation of the name Quatuor Coronati, a name given to a group of really authenticated martyrs who were buried and venerated in the catatomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, the real origin of which, however, is not known. They were classed with the five martyrs of Pannonia in a purely external relationship. Numerous manuscripts on the legend as well as the Roman Martyrology give the names of the Four Crowned Martyrs, Saints of the Month: November
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supposed to have been revealed at a later date, as Secundus, Severianus, Carpoforus, and Victorius. But these four martyrs were not buried in Rome, but in the catacomb of Albano; their feast was celebrated on 7 August, under which date it is cited in the Roman Calender of Feasts of 354. These martyrs of Albano have no connection with the Roman martyrs described above. Of the four Crowned Martyrs we know only that they suffered death for the Faith and the place where they were buried. They evidently were held in great veneration at Rome, since in the fourth and fifth century a basilica was erected and dedicated in the Caelian Hill, probably in the neibourhood of spot where tradition located their execution. This became one of the titular churches of Rome, was restored several times and still stands. It is first mentioned among the signatures of a Roman council in 595. Pope Leo IV ordered the relics removed, about 850, from the Via Labicana to the church dedicated to their memory, together with the relics of the five Pannonian martyrs, which had been brought to Rome at some period now unknown. Both group of maryrs are commemorated on 8 November. J. P. KIRSCH
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Saint Benignus of Armagh
Detail of the stained glass window of St. Benen (also named Benin or Benignus).
The 9th of November is the feast day of Saint Benignus of Armagh. The following is from Catholic Encyclopedia: Date of birth unknown; d. 467, son of Sesenen, an Irish chieftain in that part of Ireland which is now County Meath. He was baptized by St. Patrick, and became his favorite disciple and his coadjutor in the See of Armagh (450). His gentle and lovable disposition suggested the name Benen, which has been Latinized as Benignus. He followed his Saints of the Month: November
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master in all his travels, and assisted him in his missionary labors, giving most valuable assistance in the formation of choral services. From his musical acquirements he was known as “Patrick’s psalm-singer”, and he drew thousands of souls to Christ by his sweet voice. St. Benignus is said not only to have assisted in compiling the great Irish code of Laws, or Senchus Mor, but also to have contributed materials for the “Psalter of Cashel”, and the “Book of Rights”. He was present at the famous synod which passed the canon recognizing “the See Of the Apostle Peter” as the final court of appeal in difficult cases, which canon is to be found in the Book of Armagh. St. Benignus resigned his coadjutorship in 467 and died at the close of the same year. His feast is celebrated on the 9th of November. Most authorities have identified St. Patrick’s psalm-singer with the St. Benignus who founded Kilbannon, near Tuam, but it is certain, from Tirechán’s collections in the Book of Armagh, that St. Benignus of Armagh and St. Benignus of Kilbannon were two distinct persons. The former is described as son of Sesenen of County Meath, whilst the latter was son of Lugni of Connaught, yet both were contemporaries. St. Benignus of Kilbannon had a famous monastery, where St. Jarlath was educated, and he also presided over Drumlease. His sister, Mathona, was Abbess of Tawney, in Tirerrill. CAPGRAVE, Nova Legenda Angliæ (1516), fol. 36, for the oldest lives of the saint; see also HARDY, Descriptive Catalogue, etc., 1, 89; WARE-HARRIS, Antiquities of Ireland. 1, 34. II 6:O’HANLON, Lives of Irish Saints (9 November), XI; WHITLEY STOKES (ed.), Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, Rolls Series (London, 1887), in index s. v. BENÉN, BENIGNUS; Bibl. Hagiogr. Lat. (1898), 172, 1324; FORBES in Dict. of Christ. Biog., 1, 312. The very ancient Leabhar-na-gceart or Book of Rights, said to have been compiled by BENIGNUS was edited by O’DONOVAN for the Celtic Society (Dublin. 1847). BENIGNUS is also said to have been the original compiler of the Psalter of Cashel (see CASHEL). W. H. Grattan-Flood.
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Pope Saint Leo I (The Great)
Saint Leo Magnus by Francisco Herrera the Younger, in the Prado Museum, Madrid.
The 11th of November is the feast day of Pope Saint Leo I (The Great). The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: LEO was born at Rome. He embraced the sacred ministry, was made archdeacon of the Roman Church by St. Celestine, and under him and Sixtus III. had a large share in governing the Church. On the death of Sixtus, Leo was chosen Pope, and consecrated on St. Michael’s day, 440, amid great joy. It was a time of terrible trial. Vandals and Huns were wasting Saints of the Month: November
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the provinces of the empire, and Nestorians, Pelagians, and other heretics wrought more grievous havoc among souls. Whilst Leo’s zeal made head against these perils, there arose the new heresy of Eutyches, who confounded the two natures of Christ. At once the vigilant pastor proclaimed the true doctrine of the [paragraph continues] Incarnation in his famous “tome;” but fostered by the Byzantine court, the heresy gained a strong hold amongst the Eastern monks and bishops. After three years of unceasing toil, Leo brought about its solemn condemnation by the Council of Chalcedon, the Fathers all signing his tome, and exclaiming, “Peter hath spoken by Leo.” Soon after, Attila with his Huns broke into Italy, and marched through its burning cities upon Rome. Leo went out boldly to meet him, and prevailed on him to turn back. Astonished to see the terrible Attila, the “Scourge of God,” fresh from the sack of Aquileia, Milan, Pavia, with the rich prize of Rome within his grasp, turn his great host back to the Danube at the Saint’s word, his chiefs asked him why he had acted so strangely. He answered that he saw two venerable personages, supposed to be Sts. Peter and Paul, standing behind Leo, and impressed by this vision he withdrew. If the perils of the Church are as great now as in St. Leo’s day, St. Peter’s solicitude is not less. Two years later the city fell a prey to the Vandals; but even then Leo saved it from destruction. He died A. D. 461, having ruled the Church twenty years. Reflection.—Leo loved to ascribe all the fruits of his unsparing labors to the glorious chief of the apostles, who, he often declared, lives and governs in his successors.
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Saint Martin of Tours
St Martin leaves the life of chivalry and renounces the army (fresco by Simone Martini)
he 10th of November is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours. He is the patron saint against poverty; against alcoholism; Baħrija, Malta; beggars; Beli Manastir; Archdiocese of Bratislava; Buenos Aires; Burgenland; cavalry; Church Lads’ and Church Girls’ Brigade; Dieburg; Edingen equestrians; Foiano della Chiana; France; geese; horses; hotel-keepers; innkeepers; Kortrijk; diocese of Mainz; Montemagno; Olpe; Ourense; Pietrasanta; Pontifical Swiss Guards; quartermasters; reformed alcoholics; riders; Taal, Batangas; Bocaue, Bulacan; Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart; soldiers; tailors; Utrecht; vintners; Virje; wine growers; wine makers; and Wissmannsdorf and Villadoz. Saints of the Month: November
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The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: WHEN a mere boy, Martin became a Christian catechumen against his parents’ wish; and at fifteen was therefore seized by his father, a pagan soldier, and enrolled in the army. One winter’s day, when stationed at Amiens, he met a beggar almost naked and frozen with cold. Having no money, he cut his cloak in two and gave him the half. That night he saw Our Lord clothed in the half cloak, and heard Him say to the angels: “Martin, yet a catechumen, hath wrapped Me in this garment.” This decided him to be baptized, and shortly after he left the army. He succeeded in converting his mother; but, being driven from his home by the Arians, he took shelter with St. Hilary, and founded near Poitiers the first monastery in France. In 372 he was made Bishop of Tours. His flock, though Christian in name, was still pagan in heart. Unarmed and attended only by his monks, Martin destroyed the heathen temples and groves, and completed by his preaching and miracles the conversion of the people, whence he is known as the Apostle of Gaul. His last eleven years were spent in humble toil to atone for his faults, while God made manifest by miracles the purity of his soul. Reflection.—It was for Christ crucified that St. Martin worked. Are you working for the same Lord?
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Saint Josaphat Kuncevyct
Saint Josaphat Kuncevyct
The 12th of November is the feast day of Saint Josaphat Kuncevyct. He is the patron saint of Ukraine. The following is from Catholic Encyclopedia: &nbspMartyr, born in the little town of Volodymyr in Lithuania (Volyn) in 1580 or — according to some writers — 1584; died at Vitebsk, Russia, 12 November, 1623. The saint’s birth occurred in a gloomy period for the Ruthenian Church. Even as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century the Florentine Union had become a deadSaints of the Month: November
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letter; in the case of the Ruthenian Church, complete demoralization followed in the wake of its severance from Rome, and the whole body of its clergy became notorious alike for their gross ignorance and the viciousness of their lives. After the Union of Berest’ in 1596 the Ruthenian Church was divided into two contending parties — the Uniates and those who persevered in schism — each with its own hierarchy. Among the leaders of the schismatic party, who laboured to enkindle popular hatred against the Uniates, Meletius Smotryckyj was conspicuous, and the most celebrated of his victims was Josaphat. Although of a noble Ruthenian stock, Josaphat’s father had devoted himself to commercial pursuits, and held the office of town-councilor. Both parents contributed to implant the seeds of piety in the heart of their child. In the school at Volodymyr Josaphat — Johannes was the saint’s baptismal name — gave evidence of unusual talent; he applied himself with the greatest zeal to the study of ecclesiastical Slav, and learned almost the entire casoslov (breviary), which from this period he began to read daily. From this source he drew his early religious education, for the unlettered clergy seldom preached or gave catechetical instruction. Owing to the straitened circumstances of his parents, he was apprenticed to the merchant Popovyc at Vilna. In this town, remarkable for the corruption of its morals and the contentions of the various religious sects, he seemed specially guarded by Providence, and became acquainted with certain excellent men (e.g. Benjamin Rutski), under whose direction he advanced in learning and in virtue. At the age of twenty-four (1604) he entered the Basilian monastery of the Trinity at Vilna. The fame of his virtues rapidly spread, and distinguished people began to visit him. After a notable life as a layman, Rutski also joined the order, bringing with him a wide erudition. When Josaphat reached the diaconate, regular services and labour for the salvation of souls had been already begun; the number of novices steadily increased, and under Rutski — who had meanwhile been ordained priest — there began the regeneration of religious life among the Ruthenians. In 1609, after private study under the Jesuit Fabricius, Josaphat was ordained 27
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priest. He subsequently became superior in several monasteries, and on 12 November, 1617, was reluctantly consecrated Bishop of Vitebsk, with right of succession to the Archbishopric of Polotsk. He became archbishop in 1618. While each succeeding year saw fresh evidence of his fruitful labours, it also witnessed the steady growth of the hatred of the schismatic party. Finally on 12 November, 1623, an axestroke and a bullet brought Josaphat his martyr’s crown. After numerous miracles had occurred, a commission was appointed by Urban VIII in 1628 to inquire into the cause of Josaphat, and examined on oath 116 witnesses. Although five years had elapsed since Josaphat’s death, his body was still incorrupt. In 1637 a second commission investigated the life of the martyr, and in 1643 — twenty years after his death — Josaphat was beatified. His canonization took place in 1867. Great were the virtues of the saint. As a boy he shunned the usual games of childhood, prayed much, and lost no opportunity of assisting at the Divine services. Children especially regarded him with the greatest affection, and found in him a worthy model. As an apprentice, he devoted every leisure hour to prayer and study. At first Popovyc viewed this behaviour with displeasure, but Josaphat gradually won such a position in his esteem, that Popovyc offered him his entire fortune and his daughter’s hand. But Josaphat’s love for the religious life never wavered. At first without a human guide along the paths of virtue, he received all spiritual direction immediately from the Holy Ghost. His favourite pious exercise was to make a poklony (i.e. a reverence, in which the head touches the ground) with the ejaculation: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a poor sinner.” Never eating meat, he fasted much, wore a hair-shirt and an angular chain, slept on the bare floor, and chastised his body until the blood flowed. The Jesuits frequently urged him to set some bounds to his austerities. From his zealous study of the liturgical books he drew many proofs of Catholic truth, using his knowledge in the composition of several works — “On the Baptism of St. Saints of the Month: November
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Volodymyr”; “On the Falsification of the Slavic Books by the Enemies of the Metropolitan”; “On Monks and their Vows”. As deacon, priest, and bishop, he was distinguished by his extraordinary zeal in the service of souls. Not alone in the church did he preach and hear confessions, but likewise in the fields, hospitals, prisons, and even on his journeys. Even where his words of instruction might by themselves have failed, his entreaties and tears ensured him success. This zeal, united with his kindness and extraordinary love for the poor, won numbers to the Catholic Faith. Among his converts were included many important personages such as Ignatius, Patriarch of Moscow, and Emmanuel Cantacuzenus, who belonged to the family of the Greek Emperor Palæologus. As archbishop he restored the churches; issued a catechism to the clergy with instructions that it should be learned by heart; composed rules for the priestly life, entrusting to the deacons the task of superintending their observance; assembled synods in various towns in the dioceses, and firmly opposed the Imperial Chancellor Sapieha, when he wished to make many concessions in favour of the schismatics. Throughout all his strivings and all his occupations, he continued his exemplary life as a religious, and never abated his zeal for self-mortification and prayer. He awaited death with a certain yearning, refusing to avail himself of the opportunity of flight afforded him. After his death his influence was still greater: conversions were numerous, and veneration for him continued to extend. His feast is kept on the first Sunday after 12 November, according to the Julian Calendar. [Note: His feast is currently kept on November 12 on the Universal Calendar.] GUÉPIN, Un Apòtre de l’Union des Eglises en XVIIe siècle (2 vols., Paris, 1898); CONTIERI, Vita di S. Giosafat Arcivescovo e Martire Ruteno dell’ Ordine di S.Basilio il Grande (Rome, 1867); S USZA, Cursus vitæ et certamen martyrii B. Josaphat Kuncewicz (Rome, 1665), ed. MARTINOV (Paris, 1865); S USZA, Saulus et Paulus Ruthenæ Unionis sanguine B. Josaphat transformatus (Rome, 1666); G UÉPIN AND K ALINKA, Zywot S. Józafata Kuncewicza, meczennika, arcybiskupa polockiego (Lemberg, 1885); KOZANEVYC, Zytje sv. Svjašcenomucenyka Josafata Kuncevyca (Zovkva, 1902); URBAN, Swiety Józafat Kuncewicz, biskup i meczennik 29
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(Krakow, 1906) — the two last-mentioned are popular works.
JOSAPHAT J. MARKEVYC
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Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
The 13th of November is the feast day of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. She is the patron saint of Immigrants, hospital administrators, and Lincoln. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini lived between 1850 and 1917 and was the 13th child. Her farming family lived near Milan, Italy and her father would read them stories on the lives of the saints from a book. Saint Frances became inspired by the stories of missionaries working in the Orient and wanted to become a missionary herself, though during at that time, the role was only for men. She was rejected from becoming a nun because of her bad health, so she turned to her patron saint Francis Xavier, praying at his tomb. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart was approved by Pope 31
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Leo XIII and she was sent to America to serve the growing European immigrant population. There, she became an American citizen, living in New York and founded 67 institutions which included schools, orphanages, and hospitals throughout the Western Hemisphere. In 1946 she became the ďŹ rst United States citizen to be canonised as a saint.
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14
Saint Giovanni Liccio
Painting from 1787 – Francesco Manno.
The 14th of November is the feast day of Saint Giovanni Liccio, he is also known as John Licci. He is the patron saint of Caccamo and against head injuries. Saint Giovanni Liccio lived between 1400 till 1511 and was born to a poor peasant farmer near Palermo, Sicily. His mother died during childbirth, and his father had no choice but to leave the child alone at home while he worked in the fields. A neighbour heard the cries of the baby and brought him home to care for him. Her husband was paralysed, but when she brought the child next to her husband while he was on the bed, he was miraculously cured. Giovanni’s father brought the baby back home, but 33
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the neighbour’s husband paralyses returned. Giovanni’s father thought this was a sign from God that He wanted the neighbour to take care for his son. Giovanni would work many miracles throughout his life. In 1415, he joined the Dominican Order and was a friar for 96 years which was the longest period known for any religious to wear the habit. During his life, he would miraculously multiply building materials used for a convent he founded, miraculously fed a poor widow and her six children, raised a dead boy to life, and cure three people whose heads were crushed in accidents. He is the longest living saint, dying at the age of 111.
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15
Saint Albert the Great
Saint Albertus Magnus, a fresco by Tommaso da Modena (1352), Church of San Nicolò, Treviso, Italy
The 15th of November is the feast day of Saint Albert the Great, also known as Albertus Magnus. He is the patron saint of Cincinnati, Ohio; medical technicians; natural sciences; philosophers; scientists; and students. Saint Albert the Great lived between 1206 till 1280 and was born in Bavaria, Germany. His father was a powerful military count and Saint Albert was his first son. He studied in the University of Padua and entered the Dominican order as a mendicant friar. He gained a Master of Theology degree, the first Dominican to do so, and was sent to lecture in the 35
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University of Paris and launched a Dominican house of studies in Cologne. He taught the works of Aristotle which influenced St Thomas Aquinas, helping him to establish his philosophy. He was called by his contemporaries as “the teacher of everything there is to know,” as he wrote an encyclopedia of all human knowledge in that point in history. He was one of the most famous preachers in his day and was a papal theologian in Rome. In 1931 he was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Piux XI.
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16
Saint Gertrude the Great
Saint Gertrude of Helfta
The 16th of November is the feast day of Saint Gertrude the Great. She is the patron saint of the West Indies. Saint Gertrude the Great lived between 1256 till 1302 and is also known as Gertrude of Helfta. She was born on the feast of Epiphany in Thuringia which is now modern Germany. At the age of four or ďŹ ve years old, she was sent to the Benedictine monastery in Helfta to be educated. She was a bright student studying secular studies though she was negligent in her prayer life. She received visions of Christ when she was 26, where He chastised her for not leaving room for God in her studies. Saint Gertrude abandoned her secular studies and studied Sacred Scripture and the 37
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Church Fathers in response. She became one of the great writers and mystics of the 13th century and is the only female saint to have the title “The Great.� She also helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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17
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary T.O.S.F.
The 17th of November is the feast day of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, also known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia or Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia. She is the patron saint of hospitals, nurses, bakers, brides, countesses, dying children, exiles, homeless people, lace-makers, widows and the Third Order of Saint Francis. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: ELIZABETH was daughter of a king of Hungary, and niece of St. Hedwige. She was betrothed in infancy to Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, and brought up in his father’s court. 39
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Not content with receiving daily numbers of poor in her palace, and relieving all in distress, she built several hospitals, where she served the sick, dressing the most repulsive sores with her own hands. Once as she was carrying in the folds of her mantle some provisions for the poor, she met her husband returning from the chase. Astonished to see her bending under the weight of her burden, he opened the mantle which she kept pressed against her, and found in it nothing but beautiful red and white roses, although it was not the season for flowers. Bidding her pursue her way, he took one of the marvellous roses, and kept it all his life. On her husband’s death she was cruelly driven from her palace, and forced to wander through the streets with her little children, a prey to hunger and cold; but she welcomed all her sufferings, and continued to be the mother of the poor, converting many by her holy life. She died in 1231, at the age of twenty-four. Reflection.—This young and delicate princess made herself the servant and nurse of the poor. Let her example teach us to disregard the opinions of the world and to overcome our natural repugnances, in order to serve Christ in the persons of His poor.
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18
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne
The 18th of November is the feast day of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne. She is the patron saint of perseverance amid adversity and the Diocese of SpringďŹ eld-Cape Girardeau. The following is from Catholic Encyclopedia: Founder in America of the ďŹ rst houses of the society of the Sacred Heart, born at Grenoble, France, 29 August, 1769; died at St. Charles, Missouri, 18 October, 1852. She was the daughter of Pierr-Francois Duchesne, an eminent lawyer. Her 41
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mother was a Périer, ancestor of Casimir Périer, President of France in 1894. She was educated by the visitation Nuns, entered that order, saw its dispersion during the Reign of Terror, vainly attempted the re-establishment of the convent of Ste-Marie-d’en-Haunt, near Grenoble, and finally, in 1804, accepted the offer of Mother Barat to receive her community into the Society of the Sacred Heart. From early childhood the dream of Philippine had been the apostolate of souls: heathen in distant lands, the neglected and poor at home. Nature and grace combined to fit her for this high vocation; education, suffering, above all, the guidance of Mother Barat trained her to become the pioneer of her order in the New world. In 1818 Mother Duchesne set out with four companions for the missions of America. Bishop Dubourg welcomed her to New Orleans, whence she sailed up the Mississippi to St. Louis, finally settling her little colony at St. Charles. “Poverty and Christian heroism are here”, she wrote, “and trials are the riches of priests in this land.” Cold, hunger, and illness; opposition, ingratitude, and calumny, all that came to try the courage of this missioner, served only to fire her lofty and indomitable spirit with new zeal for the spread of truth. Other foundations followed, at Florissant, Grand Côteau, New Orleans, St. Louis, St. Michael; and the approbation of the society in 1826 by Leo XII recognized the good being done in these parts. She yearned to teach the poor Indians, and old and broken as she was, she went to labour among the Pottowatomies at Sugar Creek, thus realizing the desire of her life. Stirred by the recitals of Father De Smet, S.J., she turned her eyes towards the Rocky Mountain missions; but Providence led her back to St. Charles, where she died. Thirty-four years of mission toil, disappointment, endurance, self-annihilation sufficed, indeed, to prove the worth of this valiant daughter of Mother Barat. She had opened the road, others might walk in it; and the success hidden from her eyes was well seen later by the many who rejoiced in the rapid spread of her order over North and South America. Sincere, intense, generous, austere yet affectionate, endowed with large capacity for suffering and work, Mother Duchesne’s was a stern character that needed and took the moulding of Mother Barat. Preliminary steps for her beatification have already been taken. Saints of the Month: November
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Catherine M. Lowth
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Saint Barlaam of Antioch
Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II, Cod. Vat. Gr. 1613, Sheet 187, Vatican Apostolic Library
The 19th of November is the feast day of Saint Barlaam of Antioch. Saint Barlaam of Antioch died in 304 A.D. He was an uneducated, elderly peasant living in a village near Antioch. During the persecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, he was arrested and detained for a long time in a dungeon. He was eventually sent before a judge who at his trial had him severely scourged, bound him on the rack and had him tortured to force him to renounce his faith in Christ as well as sacrifice to the idols. Instead, he was meek in answers and showed joy in his countenance. The judge then had an altar lit with a fire and had Barlaam’s right hand held over the hot coals. This he hoped, would force Barlaam to recoil his hand and the incense he held to fall on the pagan altar which will be an act of sacrifice to the idols. Instead of doing this, Barlaam endured the pain and held his hand steady until it burnt completely off. The judge then ordered his immediate death. Saints of the Month: November
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20
Blessed Maria Fortunata Viti
An English engraving of a Benedictine nun: Sr. Maria Fortunata lived as a nun for more than seventy years.
The 20th of November is the feast day of Blessed Maria Fortunata Viti. She is the patron saint against temptation; impoverishment; loss of parents; and mental illness. Blessed Maria Fortunata Viti lived between 1827 and 1922. She was the eldest daughter of nine children and was born in Italy. When she was 14 years old, her mother died, her father was also addicted to gambling and alcohol. Maria had to work as a housekeeper to earn money for the family as well as taking care of her siblings, as her father sank deeper into his addiction. Maria became a Benedictine nun at the age of 24, rejecting an 45
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oer of marriage. Though Sr Maria Fortunata was illiterate, she spent her time in the monastery as a housekeeper, washing, sewing and doing other simple tasks. She was simple of heart and her confessor said that she was often accosted by the devil with threats, physical attacks and with insults hoping to break her virtue. She was greatly devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and visited the chapel frequently as she performed her daily tasks. After she died at the age of 95, miracles were reported at her grave.
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21
Feast of the Presentation of Mary
The Presentation of the Virgin Maryby Titian (1534-38, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice).
The 21st of November is the feast day of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (as it is known in the West), or The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (its name in the East). The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: RELIGIOUS parents never fail by devout prayer to consecrate their children to the divine service and love, both before and after their birth. Some amongst the Jews, not content with this general consecration of their children, offered them to God in their infancy, by the hands of the priests in the Temple, to be lodged in apartments belonging to the Temple, and brought up in attending the priests and Levites in the sacred ministry. It is an ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was thus solemnly offered to God in the 47
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Temple in her infancy. This festival of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin the Church celebrates this day. The tender soul of Mary was then adorned with the most precious graces, an object of astonishment and praise to the angels, and of the highest complacence to the adorable Trinity; the Father looking upon her as His beloved daughter, the Son as one chosen and prepared to become His mother, and the Holy Ghost as His darling spouse. Mary was the first who set up the standard of virginity; and, by consecrating it by a perpetual vow to Our Lord, she opened the way to all virgins who have since followed her example. Reflection.—Mary’s first presentation to God was an offering most acceptable in His sight. Let our consecration of ourselves to God be made under her patronage, and assisted by her powerful intercession and the union of her merits.
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22
Blessed Maria Franciszka Siedliska
Save Blessed Maria Franciszka Siedliska
The 21st of November is the feast day of Blessed Maria Franciszka Siedliska. She is the patron saint of Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and Polish missionaries. Blessed Maria Franciszka Siedliska lived between 12 November 1842 – 21 November 1902. Her parents were wealthy and they lived in Warsaw, Poland. As she was being prepared for her First Holy Communion by a Capuchin friar, she began to desire the religious life and consecrated herself to God privately. However, her father was opposed to her joining the cloister but she was not deterred. She founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in 1875, an active apostolic Order modeled on the hidden virtues of the Holy Family. She took the name of Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd and in 1885 the Nazareth Sisters went 49
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to New York and settled near Chicago where they made their ďŹ rst foundation in the USA. In 1989 she was beatiďŹ ed by Pope Saint John Paul II.
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23
Saint Cecilia
Personification of Music by Antonio Franchi, circa 1650
The 22nd of November is the feast day of Saint Cecilia. She is the patron saint of hymns, great musicians, poets; Albi, France; Archdiocese of Omaha; and Mar del Plata, Argentina. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: IN the evening of her wedding-day, with the music of the marriage-hymn ringing in her ears, Cecilia, a rich, beautiful, and noble Roman maiden, renewed the vow by which she had consecrated her virginity to God. “Pure be my heart and 51
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undefiled my flesh; for I have a spouse you know not of—an angel of my Lord.” The heart of her young husband Valerian was moved by her words; he ‘received Baptism, and within a few days he and his brother Tiburtius, who had been brought by him to a knowledge of the Faith, sealed their confession with their blood. Cecilia only remained. “Do you not know,” was her answer to the threats of the prefect, “that I am the bride of my Lord Jesus Christ?” The death appointed for her was suffocation, and she remained a day and a night in a hot-air bath, heated seven times its wont. But “the flames had no power over her body, neither was a hair of her head singed.” The lictor sent to dispatch her struck with trembling hand the three blows which the law allowed, and left her still alive. For two days and nights Cecilia lay with her head, half severed on the pavement of her bath, fully sensible, and joyfully awaiting her crown; on the third the agony was over, and in 177 the virgin Saint gave back her pure spirit to Christ. Reflection.—St. Cecilia teaches us to rejoice in every sacrifice as a pledge of our love of Christ, and to welcome sufferings and death as hastening our union with Him.
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24
Saint Clement of Rome
Pope Clement I
The 23rd of November is the feast day of Saint Clement of Rome, also known as Pope Clement I. He is the patron saint of mariners and stonecutters. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: ST. CLEMENT is said to have been a convert of noble birth, and to have been consecrated bishop by St. Peter himself. With the words of the apostles still ringing in his ears, he began to rule the Church of God; and thus he was among the 53
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first, as he was among the most illustrious, in the long line of those who have held the place and power of Peter. He lived at the same time and in the same city with Domitian, the persecutor of the Church; and besides external foes he had to contend with schism and rebellion from within. The Corinthian Church was torn by intestine strife, and its members set the authority of their clergy at defiance. It was then that St. Clement interfered in the plenitude of his apostolic authority, and sent his famous epistle to the Corinthians. He urged the duties of charity, and above all of submission to the clergy. He did not speak in vain; peace and order were restored. St. Clement had done his work on earth, and shortly after sealed with his blood the Faith which he had learned from Peter and taught to the nations. Reflection.—God rewards a simple spirit of submission to the clergy, for the honor done to them is done to Him. Your virtue is unreal, your faith in danger, if you fail in this.
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25
Saint Columbanus
Saint Columbanus, stained glass window, Bobbio Abbey crypt
The 24th of November is the feast day of Saint Columbanus, also known as Saint Columban. He is the patron saint of motorcyclists. Saint Columbanus lived between 543 till 615 A.D. He was born in West Leinster, Ireland and was a noble, well-educated attractive man who was pursued by many women. With the advice of a pious religious woman, and for the sake of his soul, he ed from this temptations to become a monk, though it was against the wishes of his family. There he excelled in virtue but was eventually called to become a preacher at the age of 40. He left his monastery with twelve monks hoping to spread the Gospel throughout Europe. Saint Columbanus would often withdraw from society and stay in 55
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a nearby cave, which attracted followers hoping to imitate his lifestyle. He wrote the Rule of Saint Columbanus which was approved by the Council of Macon in 627 A.D. The monastic rule emphasised obedience, silence, poverty, humility, and chastity. The rule was eventually superseded by the Rule of Saint Benedict.
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26
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Bernardino Luini – Portrait of Catherine of Alexandria (National Art Museum of Azerbaijan)
The 25th of November is the feast day of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. She is the patron saint of unmarried girls, Aalsum; apologists; craftsmen who work with a wheel (potters, spinners); archivists; dying people; educators; girls; jurists; knife sharpeners; lawyers; librarians; libraries; Balliol College; Massey College; maidens; mechanics; millers; milliners; hat-makers; nurses; philosophers; preachers; scholars; schoolchildren; scribes; secretaries; spinsters; stenographers; students; tanners; theologians; University of Oviedo; University of Paris; haberdashers; wheelwrights; Żejtun, Malta; Żurrieq, Malta; Pagbilao, Quezon, Philippines; Carcar City, Cebu, Philippines; and Katerini, Greece. 57
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The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: CATHERINE was a noble virgin of Alexandria. Before her Baptism, it is said, she saw in vision the Blessed Virgin ask her Son to receive her among His servants, but the Divine Infant turned away. After Baptism, Catherine saw the same vision, when Jesus Christ received her with great affection, and espoused her before the court of heaven. When the impious tyrant Maximin II. came to Alexandria, fascinated by the wisdom, beauty and wealth of the Saint, he in vain urged his suit. At last in his rage and disappointment he ordered her to be stripped and scourged. She fled to the Arabian mountains, where the soldiers overtook her, and after many torments put her to death. Her body was laid on Mount Sinai, and a beautiful legend relates that Catherine having prayed that no man might see or touch her body after death, angels bore it to the grave. Reflection.—The constancy displayed by the Saints in their glorious martyrdom cannot be isolated from their previous lives, but is their natural sequence. If we wish to emulate their perseverance, let us first imitate their fidelity to grace.
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27
Saint John Berchmans
Saint John Berchmans
The 26th of November is the feast day of Saint John Berchmans. He is the patron saint of altar Servers, Jesuit scholastics, and students. The following is from Catholic Encyclopedia: Born at Diest in Brabant, 13 March, 1599; died at Rome, 13 August, 1621. His parents watched with the greatest solicitude over the formation of his character. He was naturally kind, gentle, and aectionate towards them, a favourite with his playmates, brave and open, attractive in 59
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manner, and with a bright, joyful disposition. Yet he was also, by natural disposition, impetuous and fickle. Still, when John was but seven years of age, M. Emmerick, his parish priest, already remarked with pleasure that the Lord would work wonders in the soul of the child. Many are the details that reveal him to us as he was in the Society of Jesus. He was but nine years of old when his mother was stricken with a long and serious illness. John would pass several hours each day by her bedside, and console her with his affectionate though serious, words. Later, when he lived with some other boys at M. Emmerick’s house, he would undertake more than his share of the domestic work, selecting by preference the more difficult occupations. If he was loved by his comrades, he repaid their affection by his kindness, without, however, deviating from the dictates of his conscience. It was noticed even that he availed himself discreetly of his influence over them to correct their negligences and to restrain their frivolous conversation. Eager to learn, and naturally endowed with a bright intellect and a retentive memory, he enhanced the effect of these gifts by devoting to study whatever time he could legitimately take from his ordinary recreation. What, however, distinguished him most from his companions was his piety. When he was hardly seven years old, he was accustomed to rise early and serve two or three Masses with the greatest fervour. He attended religious instructions and listened to Sunday sermons with the deepest recollection, and made pilgrimages to the sanctuary of Montaigu, a few miles from Diest, reciting the rosary as he went, or absorbed in meditation. As soon as he entered the Jesuit college at Mechlin, he was enrolled in the Society of the Blessed Virgin, and made a resolution to recite her Office daily. He would, moreover, ask the director of the sodality every month to prescribe for him some special acts of devotion to Mary. On Fridays, at nightfall, he would go out barefooted and make the Stations of the Cross in the town. Such fervent, filial piety won for him the grace of a religious vocation. Towards the end of his rhetoric course, he felt a distinct call to the Society of Jesus. His family was decidedly opposed to this, and on 24 September, 1616, he was received into the novitiate at Mechlin. After two years passed in Mechlin he Saints of the Month: November
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made his simple vows, and was sent to Antwerp to begin the study of philosophy. Remaining there only a few weeks, he set out for Rome, where he was to continue the same study. After the journeying three hundred leagues on foot, carrying a wallet on his back, he arrived at the Roman College, he studied for two years and passed on to the third year class in philosophy in the year 1621. One day early in August of that same year he was selected by the prefect of studies to take part in a philosophical disputation at the Greek College, at that time under the charge of the Dominicans. He opened the discussion with great perspicuity and erudition, but, on returning to his own college, he was seized with a violent fever of which he died, on 13 August, at the age of twentytwo years and five months. During the second part of his life, John offered the type of the saint who performs ordinary actions with extraordinary perfection. In his purity, obedience, and admirable charity he resembled many religious, but he surpassed them all by his intense love for the rules of his order. The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus lead those who observe them exactly to the highest degree of sanctity, as has been declared by Pope Julius III and his successors. The attainment of that ideal was what John proposed to himself. “If I do not become a saint when I am young”, he used to say “I shall never become one”. That is why he displayed such wisdom in conforming his will to that of his superiors and to the rules. He would have preferred death to the violation of the least of the rules of his order. “My penance”, he would say, “is to live the common life… I will pay the greatest attention to the least inspiration of God.” He observed this fidelity in the performance of all his duties till the last day of his life, as is attested by Fathers Bauters, Cepari, Ceccoti, Massucci, and Piccolomini, his spiritual directors. When he died, a large multitude crowded for several days to see him and to invoke his intercession. The same year, Phillip, Duke of Aerschot, had a petition presented to Pope Gregory XV for the taking of information with a view to his beatification . John Berchmans was declared Blessed in 1865, and was canonized in 1888. His statues represent him with hands clasped, holding his crucifix, his book of rules, and his rosary. 61
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H. DEMAIN
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28
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
St. Catherine LabourĂŠ
The 27th of November is the feast day of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. She is the patron saint of special graces, architects, miners, and prisoners. The following is from Catholic Encyclopedia: Miraculous Medal.—The devotion commonly known as that of the Miraculous Medal owes its origin to Zoe Labore, a member of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, known in religion as Sister Catherine [Note: She was 63
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subsequently canonized], to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared three separate times in the year 1830, at the mother-house of the community at Paris. The first of these apparitions occurred 18 July, the second 27 November, and the third a short time later. On the second occasion, Sister Catherine records that the Blessed Virgin appeared as if standing on a globe, and bearing a globe in her hands. As if from rings set with precious stones dazzling rays of light were emitted from her fingers. These, she said, were symbols of the graces which would be bestowed on all who asked for them. Sister Catherine adds that around the figure appeared an oval frame bearing in golden letters the words “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee”; on the back appeared the letter M, surmounted by a cross, with a crossbar beneath it, and under all the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the former surrounded by a crown of thorns, and the latter pierced by a sword. At the second and third of these visions a command was given to have a medal struck after the model revealed, and a promise of great graces was made to those who wear it when blessed. After careful investigation, M. Aladel, the spiritual director of Sister Catherine, obtained the approval of Mgr. de Quelen, Archbishop of Paris, and on 30 June, 1832, the first medals were struck and with their distribution the devotion spread rapidly. One of the most remarkable facts recorded in connection with the Miraculous Medal is the conversion of a Jew, Alphonse Ratisbonne (q.v.) of Strasburg, who had resisted the appeals of a friend to enter the Church. M. Ratisbonne consented, somewhat reluctantly, to wear the medal, and being in Rome, he entered, by chance, the church of Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte and beheld in a vision the Blessed Virgin exactly as she is represented on the medal; his conversion speedily followed. This fact has received ecclesiastical sanction, and is recorded in the office of the feast of the Miraculous Medal. In 1847, M. Etienne, superior-general of the Congregation of the Mission, obtained from Pope Pius IX the privilege of establishing in the schools of the Sisters of Charity a confraternity under the title of the Immaculate Conception, with all the indulgences attached to a similar society established for its students at Saints of the Month: November
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Rome by the Society of Jesus. This confraternity adopted the Miraculous Medal as its badge, and the members, known as the Children of Mary, wear it attached to a blue ribbon. On 23 July, 1894, Pope Leo XIII, after a careful examination of all the facts by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, instituted a feast, with a special OďŹƒce and Mass, of the Manifestation of the Immaculate Virgin under the title of the Miraculous Medal, to be celebrated yearly on 27 November by the Priests of the Congregation of the Mission, under the rite of a double of the second class. For ordinaries and religious communities who may ask the privilege of celebrating the festival, its rank is to be that of a double major feast. A further decree, dated 7 September, 1894, permits any priest to say the Mass proper to the feast in any chapel attached to a house of the Sisters of Charity. Joseph Glass.
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Saint Catherine Labouré
Portrait of Sister Catherine at the time of the apparitions.
The 28th of November is the feast day of Saint Catherine Laboure. She is the patron saint of the Miraculous Medal, infirmed people, and the elderly. Saint Catherine Laboure lived between 1806 till 1876 and was born in Burgundy, France. She was the ninth child of a large family of seventeen children, their parents were pious and prosperous farmers. However, her mother died when she was only nine years old. After the funeral, Catherine kissed a statue of Our Lady in her home, and said: “Now You will be my mother.” After caring for her family at the age of 22, she entered the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris. On the eve of the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1830, she experienced her first Saints of the Month: November
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apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary entrusted the mission of spreading devotion to the Miraculous Medal to Catherine and revealed in a vision how it should look like. She appeared to Saint Catherine another two times and the Miraculous Medal was eventually mass-produced and was approved by the Church. Saint Catherine preferred to be anonymous and she was unknown as the visionary even to the sisters in her own convent. She took care of the sick and led a quiet life. After her death, many miracles were ascribed to her relics. Saint Catherine Laboure’s body remains incorrupt and her body is in a glass casket in the chapel where she served and had the visions of Our Lady.
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30
Blessed Denis of the Nativity
A devotional image of the Blesseds Denis and Redemptus, O.C.D. (Denis on the left)
The 29th of November is the feast day of Saint Denis of the Nativity, he is also known as Pierre Berthelot. Blessed Denis of the Nativity lived between 1600 till 1638 and was born in France. He became a sailor when he was 12 years old and was successful as a pilot-in-chief and cartographer in service to the Kings of France and Portugal. He was also knighted due to his bravery. He became a Carmelite friar taking the name of Dionysius or Denis of the Nativity. He was then sent on a mission to the Sultan of Aceh (Sumatra) by his superiors. However, once he reached there all the members of his party were seized at the instigation of the Dutch authorities. They were tortured and told to renounce their faith, forcing them to become Muslims. All refused and were martyred. Saint Denis was the last person to be martyred of the group as he desired to strengthen the others. He was killed by a blow to his head by a scimitar. “Jesus, Mary,� were his last words. Saints of the Month: November
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31
Saint Andrew the Apostle
Saint Andrew the Apostle by Artus Wolffort
The 30th of November is the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle. He is the patron saint of Scotland, Barbados, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Sicily, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Patras, San Andrés (Tenerife), Diocese of Parañaque, Telhado (pt), Amalfi, Luqa (Malta) and Prussia; Diocese of Victoria; fishermen, fishmongers and rope-makers, textile workers, singers, miners, pregnant women, butchers, farm workers, protection against sore throats, protection against convulsions, protection against fever, and protection against whooping cough. The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints: 69
Saints of the Month: November
ST. ANDREW was one of the fishermen of Bethsaida, and brother, perhaps elder brother, of St. Peter, and became a disciple of St. John Baptist. He seemed always eager to bring others into notice; when called himself by Christ on the banks of the Jordan, his first thought was to go in search of his brother, and he said, “We have found the Messias,” and he brought him to Jesus. It was he again who, when Christ wished to feed the five thousand in the desert, pointed out the little lad with the five loaves and fishes. St. Andrew went forth upon his mission to plant the Faith in Scythia and Greece, and at the end of years of toil to win a martyr’s crown. After suffering a cruel scourging at Patræ in Achaia, he was left, bound by cords, to die upon a cross. When St. Andrew first caught sight of the gibbet on which he was to die, he greeted the precious wood with joy. “O good cross! ” he cried, “made beautiful by the limbs of Christ, so long desired, now so happily found! Receive me into thy arms and present me to my Master, that He Who redeemed me through thee may now accept me from thee.” Two whole days the martyr remained hanging on this cross alive, preaching, with outstretched arms from this chair of truth, to all who came near, and entreating them not to hinder his passion. Reflection.—If we would do good to others, we must, like St. Andrew, keep close to the cross.
Saints of the Month: November
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