POLITICS: Saints: Andrew, Catherine, F.Xavier, Simon, E.Campion, Bibiana, P.Chrysologus, Barbara, J.Damascene, Prophets &More

Happy Sunday! Today was the first Sunday of Advent in the Roman Catholic rite, the beginning of the season of preparation for the coming of the Messiah at Christmas. As the saints we celebrate this week did, let us hasten to adore the Christ Child.

Andrew the Apostle (Nov. 30) is spoken of as “the First-Called” among Byzantine Catholics because he was the first of Jesus’s apostles to be called to follow Jesus. “Born in Bethsaida, he was the brother of Simon Peter and a fisherman with him. He was called first from the disciples of John the Baptist at the Jordan by the Lord Jesus. Andrew followed him and even brought his brother to the Lord. After Pentecost it is said that he preached the Gospel in Achaia and at Patrae was tied to a cross. The Church in Constantinople considers him their praiseworthy and remarkable patron [ECPubs].” He is also a patron of Greece (Patras in particular), Scotland, Cyprus, Ukraine, Barbados, Romania, and Russia.

St. Catherine Labouré (Nov. 28) was born as Zoe to a 19th century French farm family. She didn’t learn to read or write but she knew she wanted to serve God. After running the house following her mother’s death and then being a waitress, she joined the Order of St. Vincent de Paul after seeing him in a vision. She is famous for the visions she saw of the Blessed Virgin, in which Our Lady instructed her to have medals made, promising special graces to those who wore them piously. So many miracles have been associated with the medal based on Catherine’s vision that it is called the Miraculous Medal. Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal is also celebrated Nov. 27.

St. Francis Xavier (Dec. 3) was born to a noble family in northern Spain and originally had worldly ambitions. The intelligent young college student’s planned life trajectory changed, however, after he gained a new roommate, Ignatius of Loyola. While it took some time for Ignatius to convince Xavier to change his life to focus on God, eventually the two became close friends and zealous priests. Ignatius, Francis, and a group of friends eventually formed a new congregation, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Xavier ended up being chosen to go off as the first Jesuit missionary, leaving his dear friend Ignatius to evangelize in India. Xavier had great success in India, where he reportedly baptized 10,000 people between November and December of 1544, and he also preached in Malaya and the Spice Islands. Xavier then went to Japan, where conversions were a little slower in coming, although he eventually managed to impress the powerful daimyo of Yamaguchi enough with a display of wealth that permission was granted for Christian missionary work. Francis later returned to India, and was on his way to China to continue his missionary work when he died in 1552.

St. Simon of Cyrene (Dec. 1) was from Cyrene in what is now Libya. A devout Jew, he was in Jerusalem at the time of Passover when Jesus was being executed, and famously was recruited by the Romans to assist Jesus in carrying the cross (see Matt. 27:32, Luke 23:26). It is believed that experience changed Simon’s life. Simon is described as “the father of Alexander and of Rufus” (Mark 15:21), who were also clerics in the early Church. Simon too became not only a Christian but a priest, and eventually the first bishop of what is now Avignon, France. He zealously spread the Gospel and was eventually martyred, reportedly by crucifixion—just like his Divine Master Whose cross he helped carry.

Our Lady of Kibeho (Nov. 28) is the name of a series of apparitions of Jesus’s Mother Mary in Rwanda, to a high school girl named Alphonsine Mumureke. Mary identified herself as “Nyina wa Jambo” or “Mother of the Word.” Two other young girls also saw the apparitions. Our Lady specifically emphasized devotion to the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary. St. Bibiana (Dec. 2): “Her parents, Saint Flavian of Acquapendente and Dafrosa of Acquapendente, were martyred in the persecutions of Julian the Apostate, and [Bibiana] and her sister Demetria were turned over to a woman named Rufina who tried to force them into prostitution. Upon her continued refusal to co-operate, [Bibiana] was imprisoned in a mad house, then flogged to death.” Patroness of the mentally ill.

St. Peter Chrysologus (Dec. 4, Latin Mass) was the 5th century bishop of Ravenna, Italy, when it was the capital of the Western Roman Empire. His zealous but short sermons combatted paganism and the Monophysite heresy (which denied two distinct natures, human and divine, in Christ) and taught the faithful. They were not only effective in his day, which is why he was called Chrysologus (“Golden-Worded”), but are still so excellent that he has been declared a Doctor of the Church. One of his famous warnings against sin was, “The man who wants to play with the devil will not be able to rejoice with Christ.”

St. Edmund Campion (Dec. 1) was a brilliant youth, who went to Oxford University on a scholarship at age 15 and attracted such high-ranking notice as the Earl of Leicester and Queen Elizabeth. While he did sign the Oath of Supremacy, thus allying himself with the Anglican Church, he doubted the truth of Anglicanism and eventually returned to Catholicism. He later fled England after Queen Elizabeth’s anti-Catholic persecution in reaction to her excommunication from the Vatican. Campion joined the Jesuits in France and was ordained a priest, teaching in Prague. He was among the first Jesuits chosen to return to England, where he ministered covertly to British Catholics, though the publication of his “Brag”—a justification of his beliefs—led to an aggressive manhunt for him. Campion was eventually betrayed, captured, imprisoned, tortured, and—after turning down a lucrative offer from the queen in exchange for becoming Protestant—brutally executed for his Catholicism by hanging, drawing, and quartering in 1581. Campion’s friend Cuthbert Mayne, a Protestant minister who became a Catholic priest and martyr, is celebrated on Nov. 30.

Share

St. John of Damascus (Dec. 4) or John Damascene lived in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. He was “a priest celebrated for his holiness and learning, He strove diligently by his word and writings in favor of the veneration of Holy Images against the Emperor Leo III, the Isaurian. Having been made a monk in the monastery of St. Sabbas near Jerusalem, he composed sacred hymns and there reposed in the Lord.”

On Dec. 1 were other English martyrs, including Ralph Sherwin, a scholar and convert to Catholicism who returned to his England as a priest and converted other prisoners while in jail. Alexander Briant, another priest with a special devotion to Jesus’s cross, Richard Langley, and John Beche (an abbot who opposed Henry VIII) are celebrated on the same day, as are all the Catholics who studied at Oxford and were later killed for their faith, known as the Martyrs of Oxford University.

St. Barbara (Dec. 4) was an early Roman martyr. She is said to have been very beautiful, but was locked up by her father because she refused marriage on account of her vow of virginity. While her father was on a journey, she had three windows installed in his bathhouse to honor the Trinity. Later, infuriated by her Christian faith, her father turned her in to the emperor for torture—and later killed her himself, it is said in the very bathhouse with the Trinitarian windows. Her father was struck down by lightning after martyring her. Barbara was formerly wildly popular, venerated as one of the 14 Holy Helpers.

Three Old Testament prophets were celebrated this week. Nahum the Prophet (Dec. 1) “preached that God rules the course of times and judges the people with justice [ECPubs].” Read more in the Bible. And Habakkuk the Prophet (Dec. 2), “who, in the face of the iniquity and violence of the people, announced not only the judgment of the Lord, but also his mercy, saying, ‘But the just will live by his own faith.’ [ECPubs]” Read his prophecy in the Bible. Also Zephaniah or Sophonias (Dec. 3), “who in the days of Josiah, king of Judah, announced the destruction of the ungodly on the day of the wrath of the Lord and strengthened the host of poor and needy people in the hope of salvation [ECPubs].” Read his prophecy in the Bible.

There were two commemorations of Jesus’s Mother Mary this week. Our Lady of Beauraing (Nov. 30) appeared dozens of times in visions to a group of children in a Belgian village in the early 1930s, dressed in white with a golden heart. Our Lady of Liesse (Dec. 2) is the name of an ancient statue of Mary and Jesus brought from North Africa to France during the age of Crusades. It is said that three knights who refused to convert to Islam managed to escape from jail with the Sultan’s daughter, who saw a vision of Mary. The group was miraculously transported to France, where the princess was baptized and the statue of Mary that looked like the visionary Mary, reportedly given to the knights by angels, was enshrined there. The original statue was destroyed in the French Revolution, but a replica was installed in Liesse in the mid-1800s.

Pope St. Silverius I (Dec. 2) was the son of Pope St. Hormisdas (before the latter became a cleric) and followed his father into the priesthood. Silverius became pope in 536, and angered heretic Empress Theodora by condemning Monophysite Patriarch Anthimus of Constantinople. Theodora sent Gen. Belisarius to Rome to depose Silverius and install Vigilius instead. Belisarius subsequently and falsely accused the pope of treason while under siege from the Ostrogothic king. Exiled, Silverius managed to return to Rome after an appeal to Theodora’s Catholic husband Emperor Justinian, but was exiled again to Palmaria, where he was murdered.

Also on Dec. 2 were Sts. Chromatius of Aquileia and Jan van Ruysbroeck. Chromatius assisted at the anti-Arian heresy Synod of Aquileia; he then became bishop there. A great scholar and friend to more than one saint, Chromatius was called “a most learned and most holy man” by St. Jerome. Jan was born in Belgium in 1293 to a pious mother and was educated by his uncle, a priest. Jan became a priest too and wrote pamphlets against heresy. After retiring to a hermitage with his uncle, Jan’s reputation drew a group of men who became Augustinian canons, and also people seeking spiritual advice. Besides being a wise spiritual director, Jan is considered the greatest Flemish mystical writer.

St. Thaddeus Liu Ruiting was a “priest in the Sichuan region of China, he spent his ministry walking from village to village, ministering to persecuted Christians. Arrested on Pentecost Sunday 1821, he was imprisoned for two years before being martyred on November 30, 1823.” St. Clement of Alexandria (Dec. 4) was a teacher at the Alexandrian Catechetical School, and mentor of the famous theologian Origen. He later fled to Cappadocia during one of the persecutions of Christians, where he administered the diocese.

Bl. Alphonsine Anuarite Nengapeta (Dec. 1) was a convert to Catholicism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She became a nun and served as a sacristan, cook, and teacher. She was murdered by captors who were trying to rape her during the Congo civil war in 1964. St. Eligius of Noyon (Dec. 1) was a skilled metalsmith who was master of the mint for and advisor to King Clotaire II in what is now France, and very generous to the poor (he also ransomed slaves). Eligius later became a bishop in France and Belgium and won many converts in the latter; he was a miracle-worker with a particular devotion to the saints. King St. Lucius (Dec. 3) was a 2nd century British chieftain who requested missionaries, helped found dioceses, and evangelized in what is now Switzerland.

St. Castulus of Rome (Nov. 30) was Diocletian’s chamberlain, who arranged religious gatherings, sheltered Christians, converted many, and was either burned or buried alive; his wife was St. Irene of Rome. Bl. John of Vercelli (Nov. 30) was a legal scholar and sixth Master General of the Dominican Order. He traveled to most Dominican convents in Europe, assisted the Second Council of Lyons, and supported Thomas Aquinas and devotion to Jesus’s name. St. Galgano (Nov. 30) was a knight who responded to a vision of Jesus and St. Michael the Archangel exhorting penance by saying changing his life was as easy as cutting stone with a sword; he miraculously was able to thrust his sword into the stone and became a hermit.

Bl. Jerome de Angelis (Dec. 4) and Simon Yempo were both Jesuits martyred with a group of other Christians in Japan in the early 1600s. Jerome was a Sicilian priest and missionary who worked for years in central Japan before an anti-Christian edict drove him to underground ministry. Simon Yempo, a native Japanese and Jesuit brother, worked with Jerome; they were eventually imprisoned, and converted dozens of jailers and prisoners. The martyrs were burned to death.

Subscribe now

St. James of the Marches (Nov. 28) was a Franciscan monk, preacher, evangelist, legal scholar, and Inquisitor who opposed heretics. He founded monasteries in multiple countries and tried to reunite the Western and Eastern churches at the Council of Florence. James fasted every day until the pope himself told James to eat more (d. 1476).

See also

Politics

·11/09/2024·0

POLITICS: Nigel Farage Drops Trump BOMBSHELL at Explosive UK Speech! – Video

St. Stephen the Younger and companions (Nov. 28): “[ECPubs – Stephen was] at Constantinople, [8th century] monk and martyr, who, under Constantine Copronymus, was tortured by various punishments for [defending] sacred Images and confirmed the Catholic truth by his shed blood.”

St. Natalia of Nicomedia (Dec. 1) was a 3rd century wife whose husband was martyred; restrained from joining her husband in death, she became a recluse. St. Athanasius of Kiev (Dec. 2) was a 12th century hermit and miracle-worker who came back to life from the dead. St. Brendan of Birr (Nov. 29) was a 6th century Irish monk who advised St. Columba and befriended St. Brendan. St. Olympiades (Dec. 1) was a pagan Roman consul who fell in love with and was converted by St. Firmina, after which he was martyred. St. Isaac of Beth-Seleucia (Nov. 30) was a Persian patriarch who reunited Christians after a harsh persecution. St. Ansanus the Baptizer (Dec. 1) was a Roman youth who evangelized, baptized, and was martyred.

St. Emma of Bremen (Dec. 3) was a noble Saxon wife and mother who dedicated her fortune to charity and church construction (d. 1038). St. Saturninus of Toulouse (Nov. 29) was the first bishop of Toulouse, murdered by pagan priests. Bl. Ivan Sleziuk (Dec. 2) was a Ukrainian bishop who died after years of abuse by the Soviets. St. Galganus (Nov. 30) was converted by St. Michael the Archangel, thrust his sword into a rock, and became a hermit. St. Radbod of Utrecht (Nov. 29) was a French courtier and then a Benedictine bishop in the Netherlands (d. 917). St. Joseph Marchand (Nov. 30) was a French missionary to Vietnam tortured and martyred in 1835.

Bl. Rafał Chyliński (Dec. 2) was an 18th century Polish officer who became a friar, liturgical musician, and confessor who ministered to the poor and sick. St. Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer (Dec. 3) was an Italian-born bishop in Austria, an educator, preacher, writer, and peacemaker who tended the sick and restored churches. Bl. John Beche (Dec. 1) was an English abbot martyred by Henry VIII. Bl. Kazimierz T. Sykulski (Dec. 1) was a Polish priest martyred by Nazis in Auschwitz concentration camp. Bl. Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos (Nov. 29) was a brilliant Spanish Jesuit who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. Claudius the Martyr and his family (Dec. 3) were converts martyred with 70 soldiers in the 3rd century.

Share

Bl. Adolph Kolping (Dec. 4) was a German priest who worked with craftsmen and apprentices, and founded the International Kolping Society. Bl. Ladislao Bukowinski (Dec. 3) was a Ukrainian-born priest and teacher in Poland who was later sentenced to hard labor in modern Kazakhstan twice, after which he evangelized in a Muslim-majority region. St. Everard of Stahleck (Nov. 30) was a hermit and monk who founded a Cistercian convent for nuns. Bl. Francesco Antonio Fasani (Nov. 29) was a Franciscan philosophy teacher, confessor, preacher, and mystic. St. Trojan (Nov. 30), son of a Jewish father and Arab mother, converted and became a bishop. St. Osmund (Dec. 4) was a French nobleman who joined William the Conqueror’s invasion of England; he was then royal chaplain, chancellor of England, and finally Bishop of Salisbury.

You can also read about Sosthenes of Colophon, James Thompson, Simeon Logothete, Hilary and Quieta, Fionnchu, and Irenarcus (Nov. 28); Hardoin of Brittany, Denis of the Nativity and companions, Illuminata, Alfredo Simón-Colomina, Paramon and companions, Paphnutius of Heracleopolis, and Sadwen (Nov. 29); Frederick of Regensburg, Anders of Slagelse, Alexander Crow, Ludwik R. Gietyngier, Tudwal of Tréguier, and Maura of Constantinople (Nov. 30); Charles de Foucauld, Grwst, Didorus and companions, Liduina Meneguzzi, and Bruna Pellesi (Dec. 1); Nonnus of Edessa, Maria Angela Astorch, Oderisius de Marsi, Avitus of Rouen, Robert of Matallana, John Amero, Francisco del Valle Villar, Pimen, and Evasius of Brescia (Dec. 2); Jan Franciszek Macha, Birinus, Cassian of Tangiers, Attalia, Theodulus of Edessa, and Edward Coleman (Dec. 3); and Giovanni Calabria, Pietro Tecelano, Sigiranus, Maruthas, Christian of Prussia, John Thaumaturg, and Sola (Dec. 4).

Have a blessed week!