Saint of the day and Feast days.

[Shin]

St. John of Sahagun ora pro nobis!

Happy Pentecost odhiambo!!! 

[odhiambo]

June 13
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Anthony of Padua
Among many other saints.

[odhiambo]

June 13
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Anthony of Padua
Among many other saints.

Saint Anthony of Padua
Doctor of the Church.
Saint Anthony gets his name "Padua" from the Italian city of Padua where he made his last home and where his relics are venerated.
He was born in the year 1195 A. D. at Lisbon, Portugal. His given name was Fernando Martin de Bulhorn. His father was a knight of the court of King Alfonso II. (Other sources say the father was a captain in the royal army)
His childhood was uneventful. His parents placed him at an early age with the clergy of the cathedral of Lisbon to be educated.
At the age of fifteen, he entered the Augustinian Order and spent all his time in prayer and study, with the result that he acquired an extraordinary knowledge of the Bible.
When he was twenty-five years old, he learnt about some Franciscans who had been martyred by the Moors in Morocco. From then on, he felt a strong desire for martyrdom.
In 1221, he joined the Franciscans and obtained permission to come to Africa to preach to the Moors. Soon after arriving in Africa, however, Anthony fell seriously ill and had to return to Europe for treatment and recuperation. The ship on which he sailed was driven off course by strong winds and Anthony found himself in Messina in Sicily. He made his way to Assisi where he attended the general meeting of the order in Assisi in 1221.
At the close of the general meeting, Anthony was appointed to a lonely hermitage of San Paolo near Forli.
In his great humility, Anthony kept his talents hidden so that no one in the Order knew what a brilliant intellectual he was.
One day, at a gathering of many priests, the one assigned to give the sermon fell sick; no other priest seemed willing to give it so Anthony was asked to give it. When he too, excused himself in a most humble manner, his superior ordered him by virtue of the vow of obedience to give the sermon. St. Anthony began to preach. At first, he spoke in a very reserved manner; soon, however, his manner of preaching changed. He spoke with such eloquence, such learning and such knowledge that everybody was amazed. Their eyes were opened to the fact that they had in their midst, one with learning, eloquence and a  great power of persuasion. To cap it all, Anthony was blessed with a sonorous voice which carried far, and he had a burning zeal for souls.

When Saint Francis was informed of the event, he gave Saint Anthony the mission to preach throughout Italy.
While spending a night with a friend in Padua one night, his host saw brilliant rays of light streaming from under the door of Anthony's room. Looking through the keyhole, he saw Baby Jesus standing upon a book which lay open on the table and clinging with both arms around Anthony's neck. The host watched reverently until Jesus disappeared. For this reason Saint Anthony is often depicted with the Infant Jesus in his arms.
Anthony settled in Padua, reformed the city, abolished the debtors' prison and aided the poor.
In 1231, he suffered from exhaustion and dropsy. He went to Camposanpiero to recover. On his return to Padua, he collapsed and died at a Poor Clare convent at Arcella, on June 13, 1231.
He was only thirty six years old. Soon the children in the streets of the city of Padua were crying: "The saint is dead, Anthony is dead."
He was canonized in 1232 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1946.

Saint Anthony of Padua,
Pray for us!

Ref--Our sunday----
Saints for all----
Eternal Word Television Network

[odhiambo]

Anthony was called:
"the Hammer of the Heretics"
"the Living Arc of the Covenant"
"the Wonder-Worker"
The last title was for his many reported miracles. He preached to crowds in the rain, but his audiences remained dry despite the downpour.

He was hailed as a thaumaturgist after healing a man with a severed leg and restoring life to another man so that he could testify in a murder case.
Saint Anthony is a popular saint for retrieving lost items.
Ref:
Our Sunday Visitor Encyclopedia Of Saints.
By Matthew Bunson, Stephen Bunson, Margaret Bunson:

[martin]

Another of my favorite saints whom I have on my daily list of helpers. 
May he bless us all from heaven on this his feast day.

Saint Anthony of Padua ora pro nobis.

[Shin]

'Consider every day that you are then for the first time beginning; and always act with the same fervor as on the first day you began.'

St. Anthony of Padua

'Earthly riches are like the reed. Its roots are sunk in the swamp, and its exterior is fair to behold; but inside it is hollow. If a man leans on such a reed, it will snap off and pierce his soul.'

St. Anthony of Padua

And not to forget the sermon to the fishes! 

 

[odhiambo]

June 14

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Basil the Great
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Basil the Great.
Bishop of Caesarea and
Doctor of the Church.

Basil was born in Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia in Asia Minor about the year 330 A.D.
He was born in a remarkably holy family, for the Church honors his parents , Saint Basil the Elder, and his mother , Saint Emelia ( the daughter of a martyr), his brothers,  saints Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste, his sister, Saint Macrina the Younger , as well as both the parents of his father!
Basil was one of ten children. His early years were spent at the country house of his grandmother , Saint Macrina the Elder, whose example and teaching, he never forgot.
He studied letters at Caesarea, rhetoric and philosophy at Constantinople, and astronomy and geometry as well as medicine at Athens.
In Athens, Basil had as fellow students Saint Gregory Nanzianzen who became his inseparable friend, and Saint Julian, the future emperor and apostate.
Basil and Gregory associated with the most serious-minded of their contemporaries and, reportedly the two streets they knew best were those leading to the Church and to the schools!
With his brother Saint Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Saint Gregory Nanzianzus, Basil is one of the “The Three Cappadocians” who distinguished themselves in Church history.
As soon as Basil had learned all that his masters could teach him, he returned to Caesarea. For some years he taught rhetoric in the city, but , on the very threshold of a brilliant career, he abandoned the world, through the influence of his saintly sister Macrina the Younger and his friend Gregory. He became a monk.
He visited some monasteries and hermits in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia in 357. On his return, he lived as a hermit, devoting himself to prayer and study for some five years. Numerous followers, including his brother Peter, kept attaching themselves to him, until he founded a monastic colony on his family property, on the river Iris in Pontus. He composed for them the famous Rule of Saint Basil ( manual labor, study and prayer), which gained rapid acceptance everywhere and made him the “Father of Eastern monasticism” . Basil’s Rule is followed to this day by all the orthodox monks.
Basil was ordained priest in 364 by Archbishop Esebius of Caesarea. He played a major role in the administration of the diocese of Caesarea under Esebius. Six years later, in 370, when the Archbishop died, he was elected to succeed him.
Saint Basil actively fought against Arianism and defended the poor. His concern for the destitute, led him to establish poor-houses in various districts of the diocese. In a suburb of Caesarea, he erected the famous “Basilios”, a magnificent and extensive complex of buildings in which the sick, the poor, the helpless, the aged, the ostracized lepers and homeless strangers could be cared for or given medical attention by resident physicians and nurses.
There were also shops where unskilled workers could receive technical training. All work was supported by an aroused social responsibility of the wealthy. Basil himself practiced the Christian precept of poverty and continued to live in ascetic austerity. His entire inheritance was spent to support the starving population during a famine.
Saint Basil is the patron of Russia and hospital administrators. He is numbered among the greatest figures in the history of the Church.
The Greeks venerate him as one of the three great ecumenical doctors, the others being Saint Gregory Nanzianzen and Saint John Chrysostorm.
Outstanding among his doctrinal writings is his famous work on the Holy Spirit.
Well known also , is his able defense of the Catholic faith before Emperor Valens, and the Eucharistic liturgy which he formulated and which is still named after him.
Saint Basil died on 1 January 379 at the age of 50.

Saint Basil the Great,
Pray for us

[odhiambo]

June 15

Today is the Feast Day of
Saint Germaine Cousin
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Germaine Cousin
Germaine Cousin is also known as Germaine of Pibrac.
She was born around the year 1579 in a little village called Pibrac, in France. She was the daughter of a peasant farmer , named Laurent Cousin. Her mother was Marie Laroche. She was born with a deformity of her right hand and was always a sickly child who suffered from a condition known as scrofula (swelling of the glands). While still an infant, her mother died and the father remarried. Her stepmother was a woman named Hortense.
The poor child was ignored by her father while her stepmother ostracized her, not wanting her to associate with her own healthy children. Hortense treated her stepdaughter with utmost cruelty. Germaine was compelled to either sleep with the sheep in the stable, or in a cupboard under the stairs. She “was fed on scraps, beaten or scalded with hot water for misdeeds, real or imagined” according to SQPN.
When she was just nine years old, Germaine was made to work as a shepherdess. Out there, in the pasture with the sheep, she found God and learnt to talk with Him. She spent much time praying, sometimes using a rosary she made from a knotted string. She went for Mass daily leaving the sheep to the care of her Guardian Angel and they never once wondered off in her many absences.
From SQPN, we read that “once she crossed the raging Courbet River by walking over the waters so she could get to church”.
One would be tempted to think that because Germaine received nothing but cruelty and abuses at home, she would be a bitter, revengeful child; far from it. She loved people and often gathered young children around her to teach them about the faith. She always did her best to help the poor, leave alone the fact that she was counted among them. She shared with beggars the little bit of food she was given to eat. One day, her stepmother accused her of stealing bread and hiding it in her apron. She threatened to beat Germaine. The child opens her apron and what fell out was not bread but flowers. By now people no longer made fun of Germaine. The holiness in her was there for all to see. They now loved and admired her. Her parents even invited her to rejoin the household, but Germaine chose to live as she had.
Then, one morning in 1601, when she was twenty-two, she was found dead on her straw mattress.
She was buried in the Church of Pibrac opposite the pulpit.
In 1644, during a renovation of the Church, the body was accidentally exhumed. It was found to be incorrupt, a sign of holiness.
We learn that there are records of over 400 miracles received through the intervention of Saint Germaine.
Examples of such miracles included cures of blindness, both congenital and acquired, cures of joint and of spinal disease, and the multiplication of food for the distressed community of the Good Shepherd at Bourges, France in 1845.
Germaine was beatified on 7 May 1864 by Pope Blessed Pius IX and canonized on 29 June 1867 by Pope Blessed Pius IX.
She is patron saint of victims of child abuse, among many other patronages.

Saint Germaine,
You who suffered neglect and abuse so patiently,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

June 16

Today is the Feast day of
Saint John Francis Regis
Among many other saints.

[odhiambo]

Saint John Francis Regis.
John Francis was born on 31 January 1597, at Fontevonverte in Norcombe, France. His father was a wealthy merchant. He began his formal studies at the age of fourteen at
the Jesuit college at Beziers and at age 18, he joined the Jesuits. John Francis was ordained at the age 34. He spent time caring for plague victims in Toulouse, France. Soon, however, he began his work as a missionary preacher. He preached in simple language, his audience being the common man, the ordinary folk. They came in large numbers to hear him.
He was such a good preacher that he was sent to evangelize in those areas that had fallen to the Huguenots, the French Protestants. He converted many of them.
He established the Confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament; and saved wayward women from the vice by providing for them refuge where they could learn an honest trade.
For the poor, the saint established a granary which sometimes miraculously refilled. He also helped them get medical treatment whenever needed.

Saint John Francis died on one of his preaching missions. He became very ill while lost at night in the woods. He died of pneumonia on December 31, 1640. He was 43 years old.
His last words were “Jesus, my Savior, I recommend my soul to You.”
From Saints SQPN

Saint John Francis,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

Forty three years old. . . We often think we may live a much longer time, but we never know.. so must always be ready..

God keep us, forgive us, bring us to true penance and salvation. . . 

[Shin]

She went for Mass daily leaving the sheep to the care of her Guardian Angel and they never once wondered off in her many absences.
From SQPN, we read that “once she crossed the raging Courbet River by walking over the waters so she could get to church”.
One would be tempted to think that because Germaine received nothing but cruelty and abuses at home, she would be a bitter, revengeful child; far from it. She loved people and often gathered young children around her to teach them about the faith. She always did her best to help the poor, leave alone the fact that she was counted among them. She shared with beggars the little bit of food she was given to eat. One day, her stepmother accused her of stealing bread and hiding it in her apron. She threatened to beat Germaine. The child opens her apron and what fell out was not bread but flowers.

So saintly.. I have read more than once of a saint that God treated in this way, turning bread into flowers. . .  And they're flowers in Heaven too.

I love the story about how she left her sheep in the care of her guardian angel. 

[Shin]

Today is also St. Lutgardis' day, amongst many other saints. . .

St. Lutgardis is the friend of St. Christina the Astonishing, another special saint.

"A pretty girl with a fondness for clothes and no apparent religious vocation, Lutgardis was sent to the Black Benedictine convent near Saint Trond at age 12 because her dowry had been lost in a failed business venture, and there was thus little chance for a life as a normal, married lay woman. She apparently lived there at first as a mere boarder, still open to the possibility of marriage in her future. In her late teens Lutgardis received a vision of Christ showing her His wounds, and in 1194 at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun with a true vocation. She had visions of Christ while in prayer, experienced ecstacies, levitated, and dripped blood from forehead and hair when enraptured by the Passion. Chosen as prioress of her community in 1205, she repeatedly refused to be abbess.

The Benedictine order was not strict enough for Lutgardis, and on the advice of her friend Saint Christina the Astonishing, in 1208 she joined the Cistercians at Aywieres (near Brussels in modern Belgium) where she lived for her remaining 30 years. She displayed the gifts of healing, prophecy, spiritual wisdom, and was an inspired teacher on the Gospels. Blind for the last eleven years of her life, she treated the affliction as a gift – it reduced the distraction of the outside world. In one of her last visions, Christ told her when she was to die; she spent the time remaining in prayer for the conversion of sinners. She died in the year of Our Lord 1264 at Aywieres."

From further accounts:

"So vividly did she come to realize God's presence, that when engaged in prayer she beheld our Lord with her bodily eyes. She would speak with Him familiary, and if summoned away to perform some duty she would say, quite simply, 'Wait here, Lord Jesus, and I will come back directly I have finished this task.'"

And the story of her conversion:

St. Lutgardis was visited by a young suitor once, and after he left, she had a vision of Christ who came to her and bared his breast revealing his burning Sacred Heart. He said to her, 'Look. . . this is what thou oughtest to love. Forsake the attractions of human love, and thou shalt find in my Heart ineffable delights.'

And a little of the life of St. Christina the Astonishing from various sources:

'Christina was born to a peasant family in the town of Saint-Trond in 1150 A.D. She was orphaned at fifteen, along with her two sisters, and worked as a shepherd, growing closer to God over the years. In the process of this contemplation, she seems to have neglected her body's need for sustenance; Thomas de Cantimpré writes, "she grew sick in body by virtue of the exercise of inward contemplation and she died."

During her funeral Mass, she suddenly recovered, and levitated to the roof of the church. Ordered down by the priest, she landed on the altar and stated that she had been to hell, purgatory, and heaven, and had been returned to earth with a ministry to pray for souls in purgatory.

Her life from that point became a series of strange incidents cataloged by a Thomas de Cantimpré, Dominican professor of theology at Louvain who was a contemporary recorded his information by interviewin witnesses, and by Cardinal Jacques de Vitny who knew her personally. She exhibited both unusual traits and abilities. For example, she could not stand the odor of other people because she could smell the sin in them, and would climb trees or buildings, hide in ovens or cupboards, or simply levitate to avoid contact. She lived in a way that was considered poverty even in the 13th century, sleeping on rocks, wearing rags, begging, and eating what came to hand. She would roll in fire or handle it without harm, stand in freezing water in the winter for hours, spend long periods in tombs, or allow herself to be dragged under water by a mill wheel, though she never sustained injury. Given to ecstasies during which she led the souls of the recently dead to purgatory, and those in purgatory to paradise.

People who knew her were divided in their opinions: she was a holy woman, touched of God, and that her actions and torments were simulations of the experiences of the souls in purgatory; she was suffering the torments of devils – or she was flatly insane. However, the prioress of Saint Catherine’s convent testified that no matter how bizarre or excessive Christina’s reported actions, she was always completely obedient to the orders of the prioresses of the convent. Christina was a friend of Louis, Count of Looz, whose castle she visited, and whose actions she rebuked. Blessed Marie of Oignies thought well of her, and Saint Lutgardis sought her advice. '

[Shin]

I hope someday to read Thomas de Cantimpré's records of these two saints lives so I can do their stories better justice.