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Saint for Today - St Cajetan

8/7/2014

Cajetan was born at Vicenza of the noble family of the lords of Tiene, and was forthwith dedicated by his mother to the Virgin Mother of God. From his childhood such wonderful innocence shone in him that all called him the Saint. He took the degree of Doctor in Civil and Canon Law at Padua, and afterwards went to Rome, where Julius II gave him a place among the Prelates. Having taken Priest's Orders, he became so full of the fire of the love of God, that he left the Court, that he might be free to work entirely for God. He founded hospitals at his own expense, and nursed the sick, even such as were suffering from the plague, with his own hands. He laboured with such constant earnestness for the salvation of his neighbours that he got the name of the Hunter of souls.

From a desire to restore the corrupted discipline of the clergy to the mould of the Apostolic life, he founded a Congregation of Clerks Regular, who should give up all care of earthly things, neither keeping any income, nor begging the needful things of life from the faithful, but living only on such alms as might be given them unasked. For this end, and with the approval of Clement VII, Cajetan himself, together with John Peter Carafa, Archbishop of Chieti (afterwards Pope Paul IV), and two other men of eminent godliness, took solemn vows at the High Altar of St. Peter's Church in the Vatican. When the city of Rome was sacked by the troops, Cajetan was most cruelly ill-used to make him reveal his wealth, which had long before been laid up for him in heaven by the hands of the poor, and he endured with unconquered patience stripes, torture, and imprisonment. He held on bravely in the way of life he had taken up, trusting altogether to the Providence of God, whose unfailing care of him was sometimes attested by miracles.

He was a great advancer of care in the worship of God, of splendour in the house of God, of exactness in the holy ceremonies, and of the often receiving of the most holy Eucharist. The hideous forms and dark convolutions of heresy he more than once unmasked and abolished. He would remain in prayer with abundance of tears as much as eight hours at a time. He was often thrown into trances, and was celebrated for the gift of prophecy. One Christmas night at Rome, when he was praying before the Lord's manger, he was deemed worthy that the Mother of God should lay the Child Jesus in his arms. He sometimes spent the whole night in whipping himself, nor could he ever be persuaded to soften the hardness of his life, but witnessed that he was fain to die in sackcloth and ashes. In the end he fell ill with grief at the offence against God, which the people of Naples committed by rebelling against the establishment of the Inquisition. Refreshed by a vision from heaven, he departed thither. His body lieth at Naples in the Church of St. Paul, where it is held in great reverence. Pope Clement X, finding him to have been illustrious for miracles, both during his life and after his death, enrolled his name among those of the Saints.

Our Lady of the Snows

8/6/2014

Today is the feast of Our lady of the Snows. For more click here, http://www.archbishoplefebvre.com/1/post/2013/08/our-lady-of-the-snows.html

Saint for Today - St Alphonsus

8/2/2014

Alphonsus Mary Liguori was born of a noble family at Naples. From his earliest days he gave no dark signs of holiness. When he was but a babe, his parents carried him to holy Francis de Geronimo, of the Society of Jesus, and holy Francis, after long prayer, said that the child would live to ninety years of age, that he would become a Bishop, and that he would be a great blessing to the Church. From his childhood, he had a strong distaste to games, and by his entreaty and example, induced the noble pages to conduct themselves with Christian decency. As a young man, he became a member of divers godly guilds, and made it among his delights to nurse the sick in the hospitals, to spend much time in prayer in the Churches, and often to receive the Holy Sacraments. With his godliness he so joined zeal for learning, that when he was scarcely sixteen years of age he took degrees in Canon and Civil Law in the University of Naples. In obedience to the wish of his father, he adopted the profession of an advocate, in which he gained great credit, but, finding dangers in the practice of the law, he entirely gave it up. He declined a very brilliant marriage which was proposed to him by his father, resigned his family inheritance as an eldest son, hung up his sword at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, styled of Ransom, and surrendered himself altogether to the service of God. He became a Priest, and made so zealous an onslaught on sin, running hither and thither in the office of an Apostle, that he accomplished the conversion of multitudes of lost creatures. The poor and the country-people most chiefly roused his compassion, and he founded the Congregation of Priests called that of the Most Holy Redeemer, to follow the Redeemer's footsteps by preaching the Gospel to the poor throughout the fields, villages, and hamlets.

That he might not turn aside from his work, he bound himself by a vow never to lose any time. Inflamed with the love of souls, he toiled to gain them to Christ and to amend their lives, not only by preaching of the word of God, but also by writings full of holy learning and godliness. It is a marvel how many hatreds he stilled, and how many backsliders he led again into the paths of salvation. He was eminently devoted to the Mother of God, published a book on her glories, and when he was earnestly speaking thereof in his sermons, it happened more than once that all the people openly saw a strange brightness fall upon him from her image, till all his countenance shone, and he was rapt in an ecstasy. The sufferings of the Lord and the Holy Eucharist were ever before his eyes, and to them he spread abroad a wonderful love. When he was praying before the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament, or celebrating the Holy Liturgy, which he never failed to do every day, through the seraphic violence of his love, he wept burning tears, or shook with strange movements, or became altogether beside himself. He joined a wonderful innocence and purity, which he never polluted by the stain of deadly sin, to a wonderful depth of repentance, and chastised his body with hunger, iron chains, hair-cloth, and scourgings even to blood-shedding. Among all these things he was remarkable for the gift of prophecy, the power of seeing into the hearts of men, the ability to be in more places than one at the same time, and other miracles.

He firmly and perseveringly refused all high places in the Church which were offered him, but Pope Clement XIII absolutely commanded him to take the Bishoprick of the Church of Santa Agata dei Goti. On becoming a Bishop, the only change which he made in the hardness of his life was that of his outer raiment. There remained, too, the same simplicity of meats, the same strong zeal for Christian discipline, the same determined will to put down sin and keep out false doctrines, and the same earnestness in all the duties of a shepherd of souls. In his tenderness to the poor, he spent among them all the revenues of his Church, and in a year of famine sold the furniture of his own house to feed his starving people. He was all things to all men; and brought nuns to lead a more perfect life, while he saw to it that a monastery was opened for nuns attached to his own Congregation. On account of grievous and continual sickness, he resigned his Bishoprick, and poor as when he had left them, poor he returned among his disciples. On the 1st day of August, in the year 1787, he peacefully died at Nocera-dei-Pagani, amid the tears of his followers. He was then ninety years of age; his body was worn out with old age and hard work, and with chronic gout, and other painful maladies, but the freshness of his mind never failed to the last, in talking and writing on heavenly things. In the year 1816 Pope Pius VII, finding him famous on account of his good works and miracles, enrolled his name among those of the Blessed. God still glorified him by new signs and wonders, and on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, in the year 1839, Gregory XVI, with solemn pomp, numbered him among the Saints of the Church. Lastly, Pope Pius IX, in accordance with a resolution of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, gave him the title of Doctor of the Universal Church.

The Holy Macabees

8/1/2014

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Gregory of Nazianzus

What were the Machabees? For it is under their name that the Festival at which ye are this day assembled is kept. It is true that many persons do not hold them in honour, because they fought before the coming of Christ; nevertheless they deserve to be venerated by all men, for they bore themselves bravely and faithfully in defence of the laws and ordinances of their people. They that underwent martyrdom before Christ came, what would not have been their deeds, if they had suffered persecution after he came, and had had before them for a pattern the Death which he embraced for the sake of man's salvation? With no ensample to lead them, their bravery was what it was; had they had the ensample before their eyes, would they not have gone down with double nerve to the battle? There is a mystic and subtle idea, which seemeth very likely to me and to all lovers of God, that none of those who were crowned with martyrdom before Christ came, could have been so, unless they had had faith in Christ.

St Peter in Chains

8/1/2014

At that time: When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

Sermon by St. Augustine the Bishop

Peter was the only one of the Apostles who was worthy to hear the words: Verily, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Worthy indeed must he be, who, when the nations are to be built up into a Temple of God, is chosen as the ground-stone whereon the building is to stand: the pillar whereby it is to be held up, and the key wherethrough entrance is to be made into the kingdom. Concerning him the Word of God saith: That they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and counches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. If the shadow of his body then could give help, how much more shall the fulness of his strength give help now? If the very air, as he passed by, was then profitable to such as besought him, how much more shall his favour profit where now he abideth? It is with reason that, throughout all the Churches of Christ, the iron chains wherewith he was afflicted are reckoned more precious than gold.

If his shadow as a visitor was so healthful, what is his chain now that he bindeth and looseth? If his empty image in the air had healing power, how much power must have been contracted from his body by those chains, whose iron weight sank into his holy limbs during his suffering? If, before he testified, he was so mighty to aid them that called upon him, how much mightier is he now since his victory? Blessed were the links, doomed to be changed from fetters and shackles, into a crown, which by touching the Apostle, made him a Martyr. Blessed were the chains, whose prisoner left them for the Cross of Christ, and which brought him thither, not as the instruments of condemnation, but of sanctification.

Saint of the Day - St. Ignatius

7/31/2014

Ignatius was a Spaniard by nation, and was born of the noble Biscayan family of Loyola. He followed first the Court and then the army of the Most Catholic King. At the siege of Pampeluna he received a severe wound which laid him up with a long and dangerous illness. During this time he chanced to read some godly books, and conceived from them a burning desire to follow in the footsteps of Christ and his Saints. He betook himself to Montserrat, and there entered himself for the heavenly warfare, by hanging up his weapons, and watching them for a night before the Altar of the Blessed Virgin. Thence he withdrew to Manresa, clad in sackcloth, for he had before given his costly raiment to a beggar. At Manresa he lived upon bread and water, begging the bread, and fasting every day except the Lord's Day.

Saint for Today - St Martha

7/29/2014

Martha was the daughter of noble and wealthy parents, but is best known as having been the hostess of the Lord Christ. After that he was ascended into heaven, Martha, along with her brother Lazarus, her sister Mary Magdalene, her waiting-woman Marcella, Maximin, who was one of the seventy-two disciples of the Lord Christ, and who had baptized the whole of the family, and many other Christians, was taken by the Jews, and turned adrift upon the open sea in a ship without sail or oars, to meet with certain wreck, but by the governance of God the ship came to land at Marseilles with all safe.

Through the miracle and the preaching of the Saints, the people of Marseilles first, and then those of Aix, and of the uttermost tribes, believed in Christ, and Lazarus was made Bishop of Marseilles, and Maximin Bishop of Aix. Mary Magdalene sat still at Jesus' feet being altogether given to prayer and the contemplation of heavenly blessedness, that that good part which she had chosen might not be taken away from her, withdrew herself to a great cave in an exceeding high mountain, where she lived for thirty years, utterly cut off from all conversation with men, and every day during that time carried up by Angels into the air, to listen to them that dwell in heaven praising God.

Martha, by the wondrous holiness and charity of her life, drew upon herself the love and wonder of all the inhabitants of Marseilles. She withdrew herself in company with some other honourable women into a place out of the way of men, where she lived long, with great praise for godliness and discretion. She foretold her own death long before, and at last, illustrious for miracles, passed away to be ever with the Lord, upon the 29th day of July. Her body is held in great worship at Tarascon.

Saint for Today - St Anne

7/26/2014

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. John of Damascus

The home of Anne is set before us, wherein to see an ensample both of married and of maiden life, the one in the person of the mother, the other in that of the daughter, whereof the one hath but now ceased to be barren, and the other is in a little while destined, beyond the course of nature, to become the Mother of the Messiah by a singular birth, specially designed by God to build up anew our nature. It is with reason then that Anne, filled with the Holy Ghost, with joyful and jubilant spirit singeth aloud: Rejoice with me, for out of my barren womb I have borne the bud of promise, and, as I have longed, I nourish at my breasts the fruit of benediction. I have laid aside the mournful garments of barrenness, and put on the joyful raiment of fruitfulness. Let Hannah the adversary of Peninnah make merry with me, and join with me for fellow-feeling, in singing of this new and unhoped-for wonder that is wrought in me.

Let Sarah be glad that was joyfully pregnant in her old age, and was a shadow cast before of my conception that hitherto have been barren. Let all the barren and fruitless break forth into singing, when they behold in what wondrous wise I have been visited from heaven. Let all mothers likewise, that like Anne are gifted with fruitfulness, say: Blessed be he that gave their desire unto them that besought him, that gave fruitfulness unto her that was barren, and that granted unto her that from her should bud forth the joy-bringing Virgin, who, according to the flesh, was Mother of God, and whose womb was a heaven wherein he dwelt whom no place can contain. Let us also with them offer our praises to her that was called barren, but now is become the mother of a maid-child; let us say unto her in the words of Scripture: O how blessed is the house of David from whence thou art sprung, and from that womb wherein God hath fashioned the ark of his holiness, that is, her, by whom he was himself conceived without man's seed.

Right blessed art thou and thrice blessed, whom God hath so blessed as to make thee to bring forth, as his own gift, the babe Mary, whose very name is highly honourable, out of whom Christ, the Flower of life, blossomed; a maiden whose rising is glorious, and whose delivery is worth more than the world. We also, O woman most blessed, do wish thee joy. In sooth thou hast brought forth what we have all hoped for, and God hath given us, namely, the babe of promise. Blessed indeed art thou, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. The tongues of all the godly do magnify thine offspring, and every glad word is spoken concerning her of whom thou art delivered. Meet in truth is it, and most meet to praise her who received a revelation from the goodness of God, and bore for us such and so great a fruit, from whom sweet Jesus sprang.

Saint for Today - St James

7/25/2014

James, the Son of Zebedee and brother of the Apostle John, was a Galilean, and with his brother one of the first of his Apostles whom the Lord called, whileas they were in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets―and immediately left the ship, and their father, and followed him. And he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder. Peter, and James, and John, were the three Apostles whom the Saviour loved best; them he took and brought up into a high mountain apart and was transfigured before them; when he went to the house of the ruler of the synagogue to raise his daughter from the dead, he suffered no man to follow him save Peter, and James, and John; and at the last, just before the Jews took him, when he cometh unto a place called Gethsemane.

After that Jesus Christ was ascended into heaven, James preached how that he was God, and led many in Judea and Samaria to the Christian Faith. A while afterward, he went to Spain, and there he brought some to Christ, of whom seven were afterwards ordained Bishops by Blessed Peter, and were the first such sent into that country. From Spain, James went back to Jerusalem, where he taught the Faith to divers persons, and, among others to the Magian Hermogenes. Thereupon Herod Agrippa, who had been raised to the kingdom under the Emperor Claudius, to curry favour with the Jews, condemned James to death for his firm confession that Jesus Christ is God. The officer who led James to the judgment-seat, at sight of the courage wherewith he was ready to offer up his testimony, declared himself also to be a Christian.

As they were being hurried to execution, this man asked pardon of James, and the Apostle kissed him, saying, Peace be unto thee. James healed a paralytic, and immediately afterwards both the prisoners were beheaded. The body of the Apostle was afterwards taken to Compostela, where his grave is very famous. Multitudes of pilgrims from all parts of the earth betake themselves thither to pray, out of sheer piety or in fulfillment of vows. The birthday of James is kept by the Church upon this day, which is that of the translation of his body to Compostela. It was about Easter-time that he bare witness to Jesus Christ with his blood, at Jerusalem, being the first of the Apostles so to do.

St. James the Moor Slayer (Santiago Matamoros)

Saint for Today - St Apollinaris

7/23/2014

Apollinaris came from Antioch to Rome with the Prince of the Apostles, and was by him ordained a Bishop, and sent to Ravenna to preach the Gospel of the Lord Christ. He had already converted a great number of persons to the Christian Faith, when the idolatrous priests caught him and gave him a sharp flogging. A second riot was got up against him on account of one Boniface, a nobleman who had long been dumb, speaking, and his daughter being delivered from an unclean spirit. On this occasion Apollinaris was flogged again, and made to walk barefoot over hot embers. The fire did him no harm, and he was expelled from the city.

Apollinaris lay hid for a while with certain Christians. Thence he went to Emília, where he restored to life the dead daughter of the Patrician Rufinus, so that the whole household of Rufinus might believe in Jesus Christ. This affair greatly incensed the Prefect, who sent for Apollinaris, and earnestly dealt with him to induce him to cease spreading the Christian Faith in that city. As Apollinaris paid no heed to the Prefect's orders, he was tortured on the rack, boiling water poured on his wounds, and his mouth bruised with a stone, after which he was ironed and cast into prison. On the fourth day he was put on board a ship and sent into banishment. The ship was wrecked, and he so came to Mysia, thence to the shores of the Danube, and afterwards into Thrace.

However, the devil in the temple of Serapis declared that he could not give oracles, while the disciple of the Apostle Peter abode in these parts, and after a long search Apollinaris was found and commanded again to take ship. Thus he went back to Ravenna, where he was denounced by the same idolatrous priests as before, and given into the keeping of a centurion. This centurion was a secret worshipper of Christ, and in the night he let Apollinaris go. When it became known some of the officers of justice followed him, caught him on the road, beat him till they thought he was dead, and left him. Some Christians took him up, but on the seventh day, still exhorting them to stand firm in the Faith, he departed this life with the glorious splendour of martyrdom. His body was buried hard by the wall of the city.