We love to hear the stories of the lives of the saints, especially those we are not familiar with! So we owe a big thank you to
Brian O’Neel for shining the light on 39 holy unknowns in “Saint Who?”. Men and women, clerics, religious, and laity, married and single, there’s story from all walks of life. The book contains a short biography of each saint, a section on why that saint merits our attention and devotion today, and a short prayer. He also discusses with us what makes a blessed, what makes them a saint. A wonderful read.
Thousands of saints are formally recognized by the Catholic Church. While some are household names, have you heard of:
St. Bathilde, the slave queen?
St. Pietro Parenzo, the heavenly politician?
Bl. Sebastian de Aparicio, the first cowboy?
St. Mary Helen MacKillop, the excommunicated saint?
From these now-obscure saints or blesseds come amazing stories of virtue, vice, and the triumph of grace. Brian O’Neel tells these tales, often colorful and always compelling, with humor tempered by an obvious love for his subjects, explaining why they deserve our attention and devotion.
I didn’t know anything about him until I traveled to Rome and visited the Church of St. Igantius of Loyola. I encountered this beautiful altar dedicated to this young saint who died at the age of 23. I wanted to learn about this youth who was so highly venerated by the Society of Jesus, who even someone as great as St. Robert Bellarmine wanted to be buried near. His story is poignant and a strong witness to the power of grace, no wonder they love him so.
Aloysius is the Latin form of Gonzaga’s given name, Luigi. In English, the equivalent form would be Louis. The Gonzaga name is well known in Italy. Aloysius Gonzaga was born at Castiglione near Mantua, Italy, in 1568 to a celebrated family of wealth and prestige. As the first born son of his father, Ferrante, and his mother, Marta, he was in line to inherit his father’s title of Marquis. He grew up amid the violence and brutality of the Renaissance Italy and witnessed the murder of two of his brothers. In 1576, Aloysius’ parents sent him to attend the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco de’Medici, in Florence. Later, accompanied by his parents, he traveled to Spain to join the court of Philip II in Madrid.
In Spain, Aloysius decided he wanted to join the newly founded religious order, The Society of Jesus. His father resisted his decision and there followed a struggle of wills that continued after his return to Castiglione in 1584. But Aloysius eventually prevailed.
Renouncing his right to the title of Marquis and to the vast wealth he was destined to inherit, he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome on November 25, 1585. During his early studies in Rome, he would regularly go out into the streets of the city to care for victims of the plague. He himself contracted the disease as a result of his efforts for the suffering and died on June 21, 1591, at the age of twenty-three, six years short of his ordination as a Jesuit priest.
Even before his time as a Jesuit, Aloysius was known for his love of prayer and fasting. He received his First Communion from St. Charles Borromeo. As a Jesuit at the Roman College, he continued to devote his time to prayer and practices of austerity. His spiritual director was Robert Bellarmine who later was canonized and declared a doctor of the church. When Robert was dying, he asked to be buried next to the grave of Aloysius. Today, they rest next to each other in the church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Rome. Pope Benedict XIII canonized Aloysius in 1726, and three years later declared him to be the patron of youth in the Catholic Church, an honor later confirmed by Pope Pius XI in 1926.
“The lives of the saints are not limited to their earthly biographies but also include their being and working in God after death. In the saints one thing becomes clear: those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them.”(Deus Caritas est 42).
In February 2011 we published a short article on Sister Marguerite Rutan, Daughter of Charity and martyr (see www.filles-de-la-charite.org/en/news). As her beatification approaches we invite you to learn more about her life. Who is this new example of Vincentian holiness?
A presentation of her life:
Marguerite Rutan was born on 23 April 1736 in Metz in Lorraine and was baptized the same day. Marguerite was the 8th of 15 children. Marie Forat, her mother, was very Christian and her father, Charles Gaspard Rutan was an honest and courageous workman. With them she learned to live her life as a gift from God.
Her father introduced her to mathematics and linear design. Soon she was able to keep the accounts of his business. She helped with all her family until she was 21 years old.
She had the profound conviction she was being called by Jesus. With Him she looked for a way to give herself to the service of those who were poor.
In 1756, Marguerite Rutan entered the Company of the Daughters of Charity to be near those who were suffering, marginalized or excluded. She wanted to serve them. Following Christ she encouraged charity in those around her. For over 20 years she placed everything she received from God and others at the service of the poorest of the poor, no matter where she was sent by her superiors.
In 1779 she was sent to serve in the Hospital of Dax. Sr. Marguerite and her Sisters worked for 10 years relating with the townspeople. The Sisters were admired and respected.
In 1789 the troubling period of the Revolution began. It profoundly changed the country and personally touched Sr. Marguerite with suffering and death (April 9, 1794). Her faithfulness to Christ and the Church lead her to martyrdom. The life of Sr. Marguerite was anchored in the person of Christ and his Word. Each day she profoundly encountered the love of Christ which drew her to serve as He served.
Following Christ, servant of her brothers and sisters, kneeling to wash their feet, Sr. Marguerite gave her life to serve the poor and the sick and building brotherhood with all.
Following Christ, servant of the will of the Father, Sr. Marguerite based her life on the Gospel, desiring only one thing: to do the will of God.
Following Christ, servant of the suffering, despised, persecuted, Sr. Marguerite abandoned herself totoally to God. During the revolutionary turmoil, she showed the extremity of her love.
Episode 16 – Seeking Truth with Sharon Doran, hosted by Bruce McGregor on his KVSS program “The Ninth Hour”. Ep 16 – The Virginity of the The Blessed Virgin Mary,
Sharon Doran serves as the teaching director of “Seeking Truth.” An experienced Bible Study teacher, Sharon has a passion forscripture that will motivate and challenge you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and apply His message to your every day life.
Episode 16 – Sharon and Bruce discuss the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. How is this possible? What is the significance of Mary’s silence after the annunciation? Why is the Virgin Birth so important?What do the Church Fathers have to say about this? Where is all this found in Sacred Scripture?
“Seeking Truth” is an in depth Catholic Bible Study, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Omaha in response to John Paul II’s call to the New Evangelization as well as Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for all Catholics to study scripture. To learn more go to:www.seekingtruth.net
Two weeks ago I presented St Francis of Assisi. This morning I would like to speak of another saint who belonged to the first generation of the Friars Minor: Anthony of Padua, or of Lisbon, as he is also called with reference to his native town. He is one of the most popular Saints in the whole Catholic Church, venerated not only in Padua, where a splendid Basilica has been built that contains his mortal remains, but also throughout the world. Dear to the faithful are the images and statues that portray him with the lily a symbol of his purity or with the Child Jesus in his arms, in memory of a miraculous apparition mentioned in several literary sources.
With his outstanding gifts of intelligence, balance, apostolic zeal and, primarily, mystic fervour, Anthony contributed significantly to the development of Franciscan spirituality.
He was born into a noble family in Lisbon in about 1195 and was baptized with the name of Fernando. He entered the Canons who followed the monastic Rule of St Augustine, first at St Vincent’s Monastery in Lisbon and later at that of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, a renowned cultural centre in Portugal. He dedicated himself with interest and solicitude to the study of the Bible and of the Church Fathers, acquiring the theological knowledge that was to bear fruit in his teaching and preaching activities. The event that represented a decisive turning point on his life happened in Coimbra. It was there, in 1220, that the relics were exposed of the first five Franciscan missionaries who had gone to Morocco, where they had met with martyrdom. Their story inspired in young Fernando the desire to imitate them and to advance on the path of Christian perfection. Thus he asked to leave the Augustinian Canons to become a Friar Minor. His request was granted and, having taken the name of Anthony, he too set out for Morocco, but divine Providence disposed otherwise. After an illness he was obliged to return to Italy and, in 1221, participated in the famous “Chapter of the Mats” in Assisi, where he also met St Francis. He then lived for a period in complete concealment in a convent at Forlì in northern Italy, where the Lord called him to another mission. Invited, in somewhat casual circumstances, to preach on the occasion of a priestly ordination, he showed himself to be endowed with such knowledge and eloquence that the Superiors assigned him to preaching. Thus he embarked on apostolic work in Italy and France that was so intense and effective that it induced many people who had left the Church to retrace their footsteps. Anthony was also one of the first if not the first theology teachers of the Friars Minor. He began his teaching in Bologna with the blessing of St Francis who, recognizing Anthony’s virtues, sent him a short letter that began with these words: “I would like you to teach the brethren theology”. Anthony laid the foundations of Franciscan theology which, cultivated by other outstanding thinkers, was to reach its apex with St Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Bl. Duns Scotus.
Having become Provincial Superior of the Friars Minor in northern Italy, he continued his ministry of preaching, alternating it with his office of governance. When his term as Provincial came to an end, he withdrew to a place near Padua where he had stayed on various other occasions. Barely a year later, he died at the city gates on 13 June 1231. Padua, which had welcomed him with affection and veneration in his lifetime, has always accorded him honour and devotion. Pope Gregory IX himself, having heard him preach, described him as the “Ark of the Testament” and subsequent to miracles brought about through his intercession canonized him in 1232, only a year after his death.
In the last period of his life, Anthony put in writing two cycles of “Sermons”, entitled respectively “Sunday Sermons” and “Sermons on the Saints” destined for the Franciscan Order’s preachers and teachers of theological studies. In these Sermons he commented on the texts of Scripture presented by the Liturgy, using the patristic and medieval interpretation of the four senses: the literal or historical, the allegorical or Christological, the tropological or moral, and the anagogical, which orients a person to eternal life. Today it has been rediscovered that these senses are dimensions of the one meaning of Sacred Scripture and that it is right to interpret Sacred Scripture by seeking the four dimensions of its words. St Anthony’s sermons are theological and homiletical texts that echo the live preaching in which Anthony proposes a true and proper itinerary of Christian life. The richness of spiritual teaching contained in the “Sermons” was so great that in 1946 Venerable Pope Pius XII proclaimed Anthony a Doctor of the Church, attributing to him the title “Doctor Evangelicus”, since the freshness and beauty of the Gospel emerge from these writings. We can still read them today with great spiritual profit.
In these Sermons St Anthony speaks of prayer as of a loving relationship that impels man to speak gently with the Lord, creating an ineffable joy that sweetly enfolds the soul in prayer. Anthony reminds us that prayer requires an atmosphere of silence, which does not mean distance from external noise but rather is an interior experience that aims to remove the distractions caused by a soul’s anxieties, thereby creating silence in the soul itself. According to this prominent Franciscan Doctor’s teaching, prayer is structured in four indispensable attitudes which in Anthony’s Latin are defined as obsecratio, oratio, postulatio, gratiarum actio. We might translate them in the following manner. The first step in prayer is confidently opening one’s heart to God; this is not merely accepting a word but opening one’s heart to God’s presence. Next, is speaking with him affectionately, seeing him present with oneself; then a very natural thing presenting our needs to him; and lastly, praising and thanking him.
In St Anthony’s teaching on prayer we perceive one of the specific traits of the Franciscan theology that he founded: namely the role assigned to divine love which enters into the sphere of the affections, of the will and of the heart, and which is also the source from which flows a spiritual knowledge that surpasses all other knowledge. In fact, it is in loving that we come to know.
Anthony writes further: “Charity is the soul of faith, it gives it life; without love, faith dies” (Sermones Dominicales et Festivi II, Messagero, Padua 1979, p. 37).
Glorious St Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find … which has been lost. At least restore my peace and tranquillity of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favour I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God. Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
Amen.
Mary Elizabeth Sperry, in a way fascinating way, organizes Bible topics and people into multiple lists in “Bible Top Tens: 40 Fun and Intriguing Lists to Inspire and Inform” . More than just a “trivia” book, “Bible Top Tens”, is another way to exprience the Bible.
This book is intended to open Scripture in a brand new way. By organizing important people, places, and events into lists, we can reframe our experience and understanding of God’s Word, while serving as a memory aid or providing ideas for further reading and study.
Discover the top ten Bible misunderstandings, the top ten things to know about the Bible, the top ten animal stories, the top ten angelic appearances, or the top ten miracles.
Get introduced to the top ten women with attitude, the top sibling rivalries, the heroes, the villains, or even the top ten people you should know but probably don’t.
Explore the top ten parables, promises, or challenges from Jesus.
Episode 1 -Marriage in the Lord with Deacon James Keating –
Deacon James Keating, PhD, explores the theological and spiritual meaning of the Sacrament of Marriage. Using the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a touchstone, Deacon Keating challenges listeners to go to the depths of what it means to be married in the Lord.
2364 The married couple forms “the intimate partnership of life and love established by the Creator and governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal covenant, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent.” Both give themselves definitively and totally to one another. They are no longer two; from now on they form one flesh. The covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble. “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “Marriage in the Lord”
Episode 2 -Marriage in the Lord with Deacon James Keating –
Deacon James Keating, PhD, explores the theological and spiritual meaning of the Sacrament of Marriage. Using the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a touchstone, Deacon Keating challenges listeners to go to the depths of what it means to be married in the Lord.
2331 “God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image . . .. God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion.”115
Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “Marriage in the Lord”
Episode 3 -Marriage in the Lord with Deacon James Keating –
Deacon James Keating, PhD, explores the theological and spiritual meaning of the Sacrament of Marriage. Using the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a touchstone, Deacon Keating challenges listeners to go to the depths of what it means to be married in the Lord.
In this episode, Deacon Keating reflects on the Sacrament of Marriage and the liturgy of the Church in which it is celebrated. Where the wedding occurs says much about how the couple perceives the gravitas of the marriage commitment. He then discusses the questions that are asked of the couple at the beginnings of the liturgy. Can they answer the questions with integrity.
Deacon James Keating, PhD, the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha, is making available to ”Discerning Hearts” and all who listen, his series of programs entitled “Marriage in the Lord”
From Servant Books:
