Saint of the day and Feast days-Part 2

[odhiambo]

Blessed Mary of the Angels Ginard Martí.

Angela Ginard Martí was born on 3 April 1894 in Llucmajor, Majorca, Spain. She was the third child of her parents, Sebastiano Ginard Garcia and Margherita Martí Canals.
She was baptized two days after her birth and given the name “Angela”. Angela had two aunts who were nuns. Her mother used to visit them frequently. About the time of her First Holy communion which was on April 14, 1905, Angela felt drawn to the religious life and decided that she too, would become a nun.
When she was still young, the family moved to Palma de Mallorca. It was here that she began to earn money by embroidering and making women’s hats. She also
did household chores and cared for her younger brothers and sisters. She taught her younger siblings to pray; she read the Bible to them and taught them the catechism.
When she was twenty, she sought permission from her parents to enter the convent. They did not refuse but ask her to wait and think about it some more. She heeded their advice. A few years passed before she again asked her parents permission to become a religious. This time there was no hesitation. Her parents gave her their blessings and on 26 November 1921, she entered the Congregation of the Zealous Sisters of Eucharistic Adoration.
Her new life was centered on adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. She adapted easily to this life and in no time, was a model of goodness, simplicity, piety and obedience to the other Sisters.
In time she took her vows becoming a full fledged nun.
Between 1926 and 1929 she lived and worked in the house of the Sisters in Madrid where she had been sent by her superiors. She returned to Madrid in 1932 where she spent the last four years of her life.
In 1936 when the Spanish Civil War broke out therefore, Sister María de los Ángeles was in Madrid at the congregation’s convent in the Dehesa de la Villa.
With the war came religious persecution manifested with the burning of churches and convents and threats to priests, religious and Catholic faithful.
On 20 July 1936 the Sisters were forced to flee from their convent. They managed to escape dressed as lay people. Sister Mary of the Angels encouraged them with these words:
“All they can do to us is to kill us, nothing more”.

Sister Mary of the Angels was forced to hide in the home of a family who lived nearby the convent. Sadly, however, she watched from their home the destruction of the church, her convent and many religious objects.
On the afternoon of Aug. 25, 1936, denounced by a porter of the dwelling where she had been given refuge, members of the military came to the home.
On entering the house, they immediately arrested the landlord’s sister, who had given Sr. Mary of the Angels sanctuary…
With great courage and charity, Sr. Mary told the troops: “The woman you have taken hold of is not a Religious; I am the only Religious here”.
With these words, she saved the life of another and was destined to be a martyr.
The troops seized her, bound her up and led her away. The following day, on 26 August 1936, she was forced to walk to her place of execution, the locality of Dehesa de la Villa.
Here, Sr. Mary of the Angels was shot and killed by firing squad.
Her mortal remains now rest in the chapel of the convent of the Zealous Sisters of Eucharistic Adoration, in Madrid.
Sr. Mary of the Angels was pronounced venerable on 19 April 2004 by Pope John Paul II ; beatified on 29 October 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI

Canonized:
pending; if you have information relevant to the canonization of Blessed Maria, contact:
Blanca de Navarra, 9
28010 Madrid, Spain

Bl. Mary of the Angels Ginard Martí

Blessed Mary of the Angels Ginard Martí,
Pray for us!

 

[odhiambo]

August 27

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Monica
Among many other Saints.

http://www.s9.com/images/portraits/20979_St-Monica.jpg

 

[odhiambo]

Saint Monica of Hippo
Patron of Wives and Abused Victims
Saint Monica was born in 322 at Tagaste in northern Africa, precisely, present day Algeria. She was born of Christian parents and raised in piety. At the age of 20, she was given in marriage to a man SQPN describes as ** “a bad-tempered, adulterous pagan named Patricius”. **
Monica suffered much at the hands of this “rough and angry” man as Saint Augustine describes is father in his book -the Confessions of Saint Augustine. The copy I have and love, is a very, very simplified and shortened copy by Father Malachy Cullen O.S.A. for Saint Paul Publications- Africa. I would like to quote from it a paragraph which gives some insight into the life Monica had with her husband Patricius:

My father was Patricius, a pagan and a rough and angry man. My mother Monica was a Christian, one of the sweetest and best of women. At that time, husbands often used to beat their wives. When the wives came to draw water at the well, they used to cry and show one another the marks of their beatings. They wondered why my mother never had any marks to show. They said , “ Monica, your husband is a very angry kind of man and he commits adultery with other women. Yet you never quarrel and he never beats you. Why is this?”
My mother answered, “the one thing I want is peace in our home. I know that he follows other women but I do not abuse him. When he is angry with me, I am silent. I just pray to God in my heart until he has finished shouting. Later on when he is quiet, I tell him why I did this or that. That is my secret”

Wow! What a woman!
They had three children. Augustine, Navigius and Perpetua, with Augustine being the eldest child, the first born.
Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert Patricius who reportedly converted on his death bed. Patricius mother also converted at the same time as his son.
Patricius died in 371, one year after his conversion.
Following the death of her husband, Augustine, her eldest son, became her sole preoccupation. When Augustine was seventeen, he went to study at Carthage. From that time, he abandoned God, embracing Manichaeism instead and living altogether, a wayward life that included a mistress.
Monica prayed earnestly for Saint Augustine’s conversion. Her hope and consolation were the words of a Bishop she had turned to and begged “ with floods of tears” to talk to her son. This is what the Bishop reportedly said to her:
“ It is impossible that the son of so many tears will be lost.”
Indeed Saint Augustine himself talks of his mothers tears in the book mentioned above when he was describing his mother’s prayers on his behalf:

“ She prayed for me at Mass every morning and at Evening Prayer and at every hour of the day. When she prayed, she used to lie flat on the ground and press her face against it and water it with her tears. And you of God of mothers, did not despise her tears.”

Monica followed Augustine to Rome in 383 and then to Milan in 386 where in 387, he was baptized at Easter.
She lived with Augustus and his son, Adeodatus.
Her mission successfully accomplished, Monica was on her trip to Africa but she died at Ostia, Italy in 387 as they were awaiting a ship to take them back to Africa.
Monica is the patroness of married women and is regarded as a model for Christian mothers.
Saint Monica,
Pray for us!

 

[odhiambo]

August 28
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Augustine
Among many other Saints

 

[odhiambo]

Saint Augustine
Bishop of Hippo
Father and Doctor of the Church
Doctor of Grace.
Augustine was born on 13 November 354 at Tagaste, in Algeria, northern Africa. He was the first born of Patricius, a pagan Roman official and Monica, a Christian woman. He was given the name Aurelius Augustinus. His parents had two other children after him; a boy named Navigius and a girl, Perpetua. The children were raised in the Faith by their mother. Saint Augustine tells us in his confessions that his mother taught him as soon as he could speak and she also taught him to fear death and judgment. He was not baptized as a child because in those days it was the custom for parents to put off baptism of their children. They were afraid that during the growing up period, the child may be so sinful that it would “spoil” his baptism. So they put it off until he was a man and had got over his youthful and sinful ways.
When he was a school boy, he fell very ill and there was a chance that he could die. Saint Augustine says in his book that he begged his mother for baptism. She sent for the priest but before he came, he got better so she again put off the baptism for later.
Augustine had his primary school near home. At the age of 13, he went to secondary school far away from home ( ? at Madura). There is where, as per his confessions, he fell in with bad companions. From his simplified Confessions by Malachy Cullen O.S.A., I quote:

“…I became an animal. I burned for all the pleasures of hell. All my thoughts were of lust and impurity .And though I was rotten inside, I was clean outside. I wore fine clothes, used perfume and thought myself a very fine person….”

After secondary school, he stayed at home for sometime while his father raised the funds to send him to the University of Carthage to study law.
At the age of seventeen, Augustine went to University of Carthage in Tunisia with the aim of studying Law and becoming a Lawyer but once there, he gave up Law, turning instead to Literary interests such as Public Speaking which he loved and excelled in, as indeed he did in all things.
Augustine, abandoning his faith completely, took a mistress with whom he lived for 15 years and who bore him a son, Adeodatus, in 373.
Augustine and his friend Honoratus, joined a party in the University that called themselves Manichaeans. This group did not believe in God. They were the “intellectuals”, clever people who knew it all and believed only what they can prove by reasoning. ( ? Modernists).
After the death of his father, Augustine returned home and opened his own school at Tagaste. When his best friend died, he packed up and went back to Carthage. After teaching at Carthage for some years, Augustine went to Rome in 383 and from there he went to teach in Milan.
In Milan, Augustine met Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. He described saint Ambrose as the “most learned man of his time and the greatest orator in Italy” Augustine started going to Mass to hear Ambrose preach, not for what he said, but for the way he said it. Gradually, his heart began to open to the Truth of the Church. His mother joined him in Milan. With the influence of Saint Ambrose, Augustine returned to his Christian Faith and was baptized on the Eve of Easter in 387.
Together with his mother, brother and several others, he lived a community life of prayer and meditation.
Later in 387, he started back to Africa; unfortunately Monica died at Ostia.modern Italy where they had gone to board a ship that would take them to North Africa.
Overcome with grief for his mother, Augustine stayed in Italy for a time, writing and praying.
At home in Tagaste, in 388, Augustine sold all his possessions and distributed the money to the poor. He founded a monastery for himself and his followers, and led a life of apostolic poverty in prayer, a life of penance. He studied and did charity work among the poor. His son, Adeodatus died in 389.
In 391, while visiting Hippo Regius , a city in North Africa, he was seized by a crowd, carried to the Bishop Valerius and ordained a priest. He was allowed to preach by the Bishop.
Saint Augustine next became coadjutor to Bishop Valerius and when the old bishop died around 395, he succeeded to the See of Hippo. He occupied this seat for 34 years. During his Bishopric, Saint Augustine had to confront numerous crises caused by the heresies of the time, viz:
The Donatists, Pelagians, the Manichaeans and other heresies.
Saint Augustine is known as the Doctor of Grace for his defense of Church doctrine concerning grace against the Pelagians.
He is honored as the patron of theologians, printers and brewers, and is invoked against sore eyes.
When Augustine was an old man, a savage tribe from Spain, the Vandals, invaded North Africa. They killed Christians, burnt towns and cities in their wake. They surrounded Hippo where Augustine lay dying.
The Saint prayed to God. He asked God to save the city and to quickly end his life here on earth. God did as requested. Hippo was saved.
Saint Augustine, in final preparation to meet God, asked his brothers to write down Psalm 51 in big letters and to hang it on the wall beside his bed. This is part of the Song of Sorrow King David made for his sins:

Have mercy on me O God, in your goodness.
In your mercy, wipe away my guilt.
Purify me from my sins…

With these words on his lips, Saint Augustine died on 28 August 430.
He was 76 years old.
Saint Augustine,
Pray for us!

 

[odhiambo]

Augustine was a voluminous writer. His works include
113 Books
218 Letters
500 Sermons
His earliest writings were the Dialogues, composed before his baptism.
One of his best known work is Confessiones (Confessions), a personal account of his earlier life.

 

[odhiambo]

Prayer to Saint Augustine
Holy Augustine,
Sinner and saint,
Pray for us sinners.
Help us to follow your way.
Make us know the truth of the words
that you spoke to God:
“Late have I loved you,
O Beauty so ancient and so new,
Late have I loved you….
You have made us for yourself,
O Lord, and our hearts are restless
until they rest in You.”

Father Malachy Cullen O.S.A.
Saint Paul Publications-Africa

 

[odhiambo]

“Late have I loved you,
O Beauty so ancient and so new,
Late have I loved you….

“Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you”

Saint Augustine.

Just beautiful prayers this. Ever since I read them, they have become my prayers too!

 

[kelvinf]

Augustine was a voluminous writer. His works include
113 Books
218 Letters
500 Sermons
His earliest writings were the Dialogues, composed before his baptism.
One of his best known work is Confessiones (Confessions), a personal account of his earlier life.

Great saint! Hope to read Confessions one day.

 

[The_Reginator]

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop
The Lord has had pity on us

Happy are we if we do the deeds of which we have heard and sung. Our hearing of them means having them planted in us, while our doing them shows that the seed has borne fruit. By saying this, I wish to caution you, dearly beloved, not to enter the Church fruitlessly, satisfied with mere hearing of such mighty blessings and failing to do good works. For we have been saved by his grace, says the Apostle, and not by our works, lest anyone may boast; for it is by his grace that we have been saved. It is not as if a good life of some sort came first, and that thereupon God showed his love and esteem for it from on high, saying: “Let us come to the aid of these men and assist them quickly because they are living a good life.” No, our life was displeasing to him; whatever we did by ourselves was displeasing to him; but what he did in us was not displeasing to him. He will, therefore, condemn what we have done but he will save what he himself has done in us.

We were not good, but God had pity on us and sent his Son to die, not for good men but for bad ones, not for the just but for the wicked. Yes, Christ died for the ungodly. Notice what is written next: One will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. Perhaps someone can be found who will dare to die for a good man; but for the unjust man, for the wicked one, the sinner, who would be willing to die except Christ alone who is so just that he justifies even the unjust?

And so, my brothers, we had no good works, for all our works were evil. Yet although men’s actions were such, God in his mercy did not abandon men. He sent his Son to redeem us, not with gold or silver but at the price of his blood poured out for us. Christ, the spotless lamb, became the sacrificial victim, led to the slaughter for the sheep that were blemished—if indeed one can say that they were blemished and not entirely corrupt. Such is the grace we have received! Let us live so as to be worthy of that great grace, and not do injury to it. So mighty is the physician who has come to us that he has healed all our sins! If we choose to be sick once again, we will not only harm ourselves, but show ingratitude to the physician as well.

Let us then follow Christ’s paths which he has revealed to us, above all the path of humility, which he himself became for us. He showed us that path by his precepts, and he himself followed it by his suffering on our behalf. In order to die for us—because as God he could not die— the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The immortal One took on mortality that he might die for us, and by dying put to death our death.

This is what the Lord did, this the gift he granted to us. The mighty one was brought low, the lowly one was slain, and after he was slain, he rose again and was exalted. For he did not intend to leave us dead in hell, but to exalt in himself at the resurrection of the dead those whom he had already exalted and made just by the faith and praise they gave him. Yes, he gave us the path of humility. If we keep to it we shall confess our belief in the Lord and have good reason to sing: We shall praise you, God, we shall praise you and call upon your name.

 

[odhiambo]

August 29
Today we remember the
Beheading of Saint John The Baptist.

 

[odhiambo]

Beheading of Saint John The Baptist.

We read about the cruel death of Saint John in the Gospels.
According to the Gospel of Saint Mark, When Herod Antipas married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip who was yet living, Saint John the Baptist boldly reprimanded him. Afraid that John’s preaching would start a revolt, Herod had him arrested and imprisoned.
Although Herod feared John, he knew John was a holy and rightous man. He had no intention of killing him. Not so, however for Herodius, a woman, full of vengeance jealousy. She looked for any chance to have him killed. This opportunity came when Herod gave a grand birthday party to the elite of Galilee and her daughter Salome danced to entertain the revellers.
Salome’s dancing so pleased Herod that he promised her anything she desired. Herodias prompted her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod granted her wish and John was killed.
Here is how the Evangelist Saint Mark puts it:

“The king was greatly distressed but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in prison. He brought the head back on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.”

Mk 6:26-29
Thus John died, beheaded at Machaerus. He was buried at Sebaste in Samaria.
His relics are in Saint Sylvester’s church, Rome, Italy, and at Amiens, France .
The day for this feast is taken from the date when the Church of St. John was dedicated at Sebaste, in Samaria. This church is located at what is traditionaly thought to be the burial site for Saint John.
Saint John the Baptist,
Pray for us!

 

[odhiambo]

August 30

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Felix and Saint Adauctus
Among many other Saints.

 

[odhiambo]

Saint Felix and Saint Adauctus
Roman Martyrs.
Felix was a priest in Rome at the time of Emperor Diolcatian’s persecution of Christians. According to SQPN, he was ordered to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods but he refused. When Felix prayed, the idols all fell down and shatterred. He was subsequently arrested and subjected to tortures. Later he was condemned to death by heheading. According to tradition, on the way to the site of his execution, Felix encountered a bystander who who was a Christian. He was so impressed by Felix’s faith that he publicy proclaimed his own Christianity. He too was ordered put to death with Felix. Both were accordingly beheaded. Since the name of this other Christian martyr is unknown, he was called Adauctus, which means " the added one" because his martyrdom was added to that of Felix.
Saint Felix,
Pray for us!
Saint Adauctus,
Pray for us!

 

[The_Reginator]

Novena of the Week: For the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

[odhiambo]

August 31

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Among Many other Saints

 

[odhiambo]

Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Cardinal, Mercedarian.
Raymond was born in 1204 at Portella, Catalonia in Spain. During his birth, his mother died and so he was delivered by emergency caesarian section. This is how he acquired the surname Nonnatus ( non natus is Latin for not born).
Raymond belonged to the Spanish nobility. He was well educated. His father wanted him to join the royal court in Aragon but Raymond had his own plans. He wanted a religious life.
He joined the young Order of Mercedarians at Barcelona under their founder St Peter Nolasco, receiving the priestly habit from him.
Remember that this Order was founded in 1218 to ransom Christian captives who were enslaved by the saracens. Raymond succeeded Peter as the second Master general of Mercedarian Order or Chief Ransomer. He went to Algeria to ransom slaves. He spent his entire estate ransoming Christians from Muslim captors. When he had no more money left he surrendered himself as hostage for several slaves. Raymond preached to his Muslim captors and succeeded in converting several of them. When the governor learned of this, he was tortured but he would not stop preaching. I read from Our Sunday Visitor Encyclopedia Of Saints that inorder to stop his constant preaching, the prison official ordered red hot spike to be driven through his lips and padlock inserted to keep him quiet. Raymond was eventually ransomed by Peter Nolasco and returned to Barcelona, in 1239. On his return , He was named Cardinal by Pope Gregory IX. He died of a fever the following year on 31 August 1240 at Cardona, a short distance from Barcelona. He was on his way to Rome. He was 36 years old. He was buried at the chapel of Saint Nicholas near his family farm.
Raymond was beatified on 5 November 1625 by Pope Urban VIII and canonized by Pope Alexander VII in 1657.
He is the patron saint of midwives.

Saint Raymond Nonnatus,
Pray for us!

 

[odhiambo]

September 1
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Giles.
Among many other Saints

 

[odhiambo]

Saint Giles.
Benedictine Abbot
One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Giles, also called Aegidius, was born in Athens, Greece. ( Our Sunday Encyclopedia of Saints opines that he was born in Province, France. So it seems that it is not certain whether the saint was a native of southern France or came there from Greece)
He was born in a wealthy and noble family. His parents died, however and Giles used his fortune to help the poor. He used to work miracles as well. He became the object of much admiration and andulation on account of his ability to work miracle as well as his kindness. Giles did not like this at all. To escape the unwelcomed and unsolicited attention, he left Athens and went to Marseilles.
He spent two years with Saint Caesarius at Arles and then he became a hermit in a cave at the mouth of the Rhone River.
Legend has it that he was fed by the milk of a deer that often came to his cave, presumably to keep him company and to feed him as well. One day, When Flavius, King of the Franks, was on a hunting expedition, they had their sights on this very deer.
They chased the deer that ran and disappeared into Giles’ cave, which was hidden behind a large thorn bush. One of the men shot an arrow into the thicket, hoping to hit the deer. When they forced their way in, they discovered Giles sitting wounded in the leg by the arrow and holding the deer. He later became disabled from this injury.
Later, King Flavius built a monastery with Giles as Abbot.
He attracted many disciples and his reputation reached Charlemagne who sent for him to serve as his confessor and spiritual advisor.
Dictionary of Saints adds that in confessing to him, the King failed to mention a sin he had committed and which an angel had revealed to Giles earlier while he was saying Mass. Giles mentioned this to the King who was amazed, admitted to the sin and repented.
These are just some of the many stories told about Saint Giles.
He died a natural death between 710 and 724 in France
He is one of the fourteen Holy Helpers.

Saint Giles,
Pray for us!

 

[odhiambo]

September 2

Today is the Feast day of
Saint William of Roskilde
Among many other saints