Saint of the day and Feast days.

[odhiambo]

June 19

Today is also the Feast day of
Saint Romuald
Among many other saints,

[odhiambo]

Saint Romuald

Romauld was born in Ravenna, Italy around the year 950. He was the son of an illustrious ducal family of the house of Onesti (Honesti). His youth was spent frivolously, in the persuit of worldly pleasures. It took a murder to bring him to his senses. This is what happened.

When Romauld was 20 years old, his father Sergius had a land dispute with a relative. To settle the matter, they agreed to a duel. Sergius, wanted his young son to witness the fight. The duel was fought, Sergius killed the relative and Romauld watched it all. He was so horrified at the slaying that he entered the Benedictine monastery of Appollinaire at Classe, about four miles from Ravenna, in the hope of atoning
for his father's sin. The atonement was to last for 40 days. He performed great austerities, and prayed and wept in repentance. When the 40 day period ended, Romauld, found he now desired to lead a religios life. He stayed on for three years then went to live as a hermit near Venice. He put himself under the direction of a severe ascetic named Marinus who lived there .
He was joined by Peter Urseolus, Duke of Venice, and together they led a most austere life and were frequently assaulted by the evil spirits.

After living as a hermit for 10 years, Romauld return to Ravenna to encourage his father Sergius who had also become a monk and was inconsolable over the murder. By now Romauld's reputation had spread. He was named by Emperor Otto III as the abbot of San Appollinaire in Classe in 996. He served for only two years then resigned in 998 to resume his hermitic life. The Saint, a born wanderer, wondered throughout northern Italy and the Pyrenees. He founded several hermitages and monastaries in central and northern Italy, chief among these was the monastery he founded at Camaldoli, a wild desert place near Arezzo. Here he built a church, which he surrounded with a number of separate cells for the solitaries who lived under his rule.This became the motherhouse of the Camaldolese ( as his disciples are called), Order.
He is said to have seen here a vision of a mystic ladder, and his white-clothed monks ascending by it to heaven. This is the explanation for his liturgical artistic representation as a monk pointing at a ladder on which other monks are ascending to heaven,
Among his first disciples were Sts. Adalbert and Boniface, apostles of Russia, and Sts. John and Benedict of Poland, martyrs for the Faith.
Romauld tried several times to travel to Hungary to evangalize the Slavs, but he was not successful in this venture.
He died on the 19th of June, 1027 at his monastery of Val Castro,
in Marquisate of Ancona. He died from natural causes. On 7 February 1481 his incorrupt remains was translated to Fabriano, Italy, where it is now enshrined.
Prior to 1969 his feast was held on this date of translation of his relics in 1481.
He was canonized in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.

Saint Romauld,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

I begin to learn more about geography reading about the various places the saints come from!

A saint of the saints.. St. Romauld, ora pro nobis..! 

[odhiambo]

June 20
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Silverius
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Silverius, Pope and Martyr.

Silverius was born in 480 at Frosinone , Italy. He was the Son of Pope Hormisdas. The Pope had married and raised a family before he became a priest. Silverius himself had followed into the footsteps of his father and joined the religious life. In 536, he was serving as a subdeacon in Rome, when news arrived that Pope Saint Agapitus I  had died in Constantinople. Silverius was unexpectedly elected to the papacy (after he was consecrated bishop). His election had some undercurrents. King Theodaha the Ostrogoth, wanted an ally against the Byzantines, whose invasion of Italy was imminent. He chose Silverius as that ally. Rome did fall and the pope became a victim of court intrigues of the Byzantines. Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian, and an avowed Monophysite, schemed and plotted to have the pope deposed and replaced by Vigilius who was then papal representative to Constantinople. In their scheme, Vigilius had promised that in return for this favour, he would restore the heretical patriarch, Anthimus. Pope Silverius was arrested on trumped up charges of conspiring with the Goths. Forged letters were produced which were used as evidence to condemn him. He was declared deposed then exiled to the far off island of Patara in Asia Minor. There, the bishop of Patara was convinced of his complete innocence and communicated the facts of the matter to the Emperor Justinian.  The latter ordered Silverius to be returned to Rome for a fair trial. As soon as he landed at Naples, however, he was kidnapped on the orders of Vigilius and Theodora. He was taken to the island of Palmaria, near Naples (I am not sure if Palmaria island is the same as the island of Ponza, as both are mentioned).
 On this tiny island, the pope was brutally treated by his guards. On November 11, 537, he was forced to abdicate. He died soon after from starvation and abuse, a death, considered by the Church as that of a martyr. He was given a simple burial on the island.
 
Pope Saint Silverius,
Pray for us!
Ref: Our Sunday Visitor Encyclopedia Of Saints.
By Matthew Bunson, Stephen Bunson, Margaret Bunson.
 

[odhiambo]

June 21

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.

Aloysius was born on the family estate on 9 March 1568 in Castiglione castle in Italy.He was the eldest son of the Marquis Ferdinand of Gonzaga. He was Duke of Mantua, Prince of the Roman Empire. As such, Aloysius was expected to one day become a great statesman and a soldier.
He was brought up piously by his mother. At the age of 10, Aloysius began to impose on himself a pitiless discipline and severe fasts in order to conquer his perceived weaknesses viz: a quick temper and a tendency to criticize others.

When he was eight years old, he was sent with his brother to serve as page in the court of Francesco de’ Medici in Florence, Italy. Here, Gonzaga came under the Spiritual guidance of Saint Charles Barromeo. It was indeed Saint Charles Barromeo, then Acrhbishop of Milan, from whom he received his First Holy Communion at the age of 12.
Aloysius wanted to dedicate his life to God. He resigned his title in favour of his brother and decided to become a religious priest. But his father vehemently opposed his son's plans. Aloysius was even sent to the court of Philip II of Spain to have his mind diverted from becoming a religious. So it was that in 1581, he served as page in the court of King Philip II of Spain.

He, however, remained firm in his desire for the religious life. At first he wanted to join the Discalced Carmelite, but changed his mind in favor of the Jesuit Order.
In 1584, now aged 17, Aloysius returned to Italy to try again to get his father’s approval to renounce his title and inheritance. This time the father consented and with the blessings of his devout other, he presented himself to Claudius Acquaviva, the father general of the Society of Jesus on November 25, 1585 to enter the Jesuit novitiate. He worked very hard at his studies. During this period of his novitiate, Aloysius was singled out for his intellect and piety.

As a student he wrote "I am a twisted piece of iron and have entered religion in order to get straightened out."
His motto was “I was born for greater things”

On November 25, 1587, he made his vows and began his theological studies.

In 1590, Aloysius had a premonition of his death. He received a vision that declared he would die within a year. In the vision, the Archangel Gabriel led Aloysius and Saint Anthony of Padua to heaven. Subsequent to this vision, Aloysius turned over his theological and spiritual notes, the only material things he was attached to, to his rector.

In that same year, a great famine broke out in Italy, and a kind of plaque swept across the land. The Jesuits built an emergency hospital. Aloysius cared for the victims. In March, 1591, Aloysius himself took ill. He died on June 21, 1591, after receiving the Last Rights from Saint Robert Bellarmine.
His shrine is at the Church of Saint Ignatius in Rome. His relics are entombed under the altar in this church
He was canonized on 31 December 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII who also declared him protector of young students.
Pope Pius XI declared him patron of youths, especially of young Catholic students.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga,
Pray for us!

Ref
Our Sunday Visitor Encyclopedia Of Saints.
By Matthew Bunson, Stephen Bunson, Margaret Bunson.

[Patricia]

St Aloysius, pray for us!  I'm reading his biography at present.  Very prayerful youth disinterested in the pomp and riches of his position or in the young ladies who vied for his attention.

[odhiambo]

St Aloysius, pray for us!  I'm reading his biography at present.  Very prayerful youth disinterested in the pomp and riches of his position or in the young ladies who vied for his attention.

Yes, he rejected the world.

[odhiambo]

June 22

Today is the Feast day of
Saint John Fisher, bishop and martyr.
Saint Thomas More, martyr.
Among Many other saints.

Today we celebrate the memorial of two outstanding Englishmen: John Fisher was the only bishop who resisted King Henry VIII on the question of dissolving his marriage and did not accept him as head of the Church. While he was in prison, Pope Paul III made him a cardinal.
Thomas More, was the Chancellor of King Henry VIII. Like Bishop John Fisher, he too, refused to take the Oath of Succession that proclaimed King Henry VIII head of the Church of England. Both were executed in 1535 for their loyalty to the Church.
Saint John Fisher,
Following is the biography of each of these two martyrs of the Church.

[odhiambo]

Saint Thomas More

Thomas More was born in Milk Street, London, England, on 6 February, 1478. His father was Sir John More, a prominent lawyer and judge of the King’s Bench. At the age of twelve, Thomas served as a page in the household of John Morton, archbishop of Canterbury.
Thomas was first educated at St Anthony's School in London. He then went on to study at Oxford University. During this time, he wrote comedies and studied Greek and Latin literature.
Around 1494 Thomas returned to London to study law, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1496, and became a barrister in 1501.
While still at Lincoln’s Inn, Thomas, who was a deeply religious man, was torn between joining the
Civil service, or becaming a monk. There was a monastery nearby and Thomas used to join them in prayers, fasting, penance, etc. These good habits became part of his life. Eventually, however, he decided he would serve his country best in the field of politics. Accordingly, he entered Parliament in 1504. The following year, he married Jane Colt, the daughter of an Essex gentleman, Colt of New Hall.
God blessed them with three daughters and a son. It was a happy marriage but in 1511, Jane died in childbirth, leaving Thomas with four young children. Within a few weeks of Jane’s death, Thomas married another woman, Alice Middleton. She was a widdow.
Around this time also Thomas met and became close friends with Desiderius Erasmus, a brilliant Dutch Catholic priest and a theologian .
From around 1510, a year or so after the succession of King Henry VIII, Thomas began a meteoric rise in politics and attracted the attention of the King.
He helped the King in writing his Defence of the Seven Sacraments, a repudiation of Luther. He also wrote an answer to Luther's reply under a pseudonym.
He held many important positions, including the following:
In 1515, he was a participant in a mission to Flanders to help clear disputes about wool trade. In 1557, he was also instrumental in quelling an uprising in London, against foreigners.
He was companion to King Henry on his trip to the continent, including his encounter with Emperor Charles V on the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520....
He was knighted in 1521, becoming Sir Thomas More. In 1523, he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons and finally in 1529, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of England in succession to Cardinal Wolsey who had fallen out of favour and power when he failed to secure a divorce between Henry and Queen Catherine of Aragon. The couple had no male heirs and Henry wanted to divorce Catherine, with whom he had lived for nearly twenty years, and marry Anne Bolyn. Here is where problems started for Saint Thomas.
Henry VIII sought an annulment of his marriage from Pope Clement III, but the Pope bluntly refused and rightly too. Henry was furious. He insisted that his divorce should proceed without the approval of the Pope. To this end, he had a subservient Parliament pass a new succession law that proclaimed him head of the Church of England. Thomas resigned his chancellorship in protest and retired to his estate in Chelsea.
When he refused to take the new Act of Succession, and to swear to the Oath of Supremacy, he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London on April 17, 1534. During his imprisonment, Thomas began to write the "Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation", said to be the best of his spiritual works. He remained in prison until July 1535 when he was tried and condemned for treason, largely through the perjury of a man named Richard Rich, who later became chancellor himself. The jury, under pressure from the king judged More guilty of treason. He was beheaded alongside Bishop Fisher on July 6, 1535.
His final words on the scaffold were: "The King's good servant, but God's First."
It is said that his head was parboiled and then displayed on London Bridge for a month as a warning to other “traitors”. A woman, Margaret Roper bribed the man who was supposed to throw it into the river to give it to her instead. In 1824 a lead box was found in the Roper vault at Saint Dunstan’s Church Canterbury, England. The box contained a head which was presumed to be that of Thomas.
His body was taken to Saint Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London, England where it rests.
Thomas was famously described by Robert Whittington as “a man for all seasons”
Thomas was beatified with other English martyrs in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized in 1935 by Pope Pius XI and he was declared patron of politicians on on October 31, 2000, by Pope John Paul II.

Saint Thomas More,
Pray for us!

Ref: Our Sunday Visitor Encyclopedia Of Saints.
By Matthew Bunson, Stephen Bunson, Margaret Bunson:
Saint Companions for Each Day
By A.J.M. Mausolfe
And J.K. Mausolfe.

[odhiambo]

Saint Thomas more is said to be one of the greatest interlectuals of his age. He was also a prolific writer.
His works include:
1: Utopia, his most renown book. It is a criticism of his English society.
2: Treatise On The Blessed Sacrament. This was written in defense of King Henry's Treatise 'Assertio Septem Sacramentorum', which had been written in defense of the Sacraments against Martin Luther.
3: The Four Last Things.
4; Dialogue Concerning Heresies and Confutation of Tindale's Answer. This was directed against the writing of Protestant reformer Matthew Tyndale.
5: Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, said to be the best of his spiritual works as mentioned earlier.
6: The unfinished treatise on the Passion which was composed during his imprisonment.
And more.

Many portraits exist of Thomas, the most famous is that of Holbein, the original of which is housed in the Frick Meuseum in New York City.

[odhiambo]

June 22


Saint John Fisher.

Also known as
John of Rochester
John Fisher of Rochester
John was born in 1469 at Beverley, Yorkshire in England. His father died in 1477 when he was just about 8 years old. About the year 1482, John was admitted to Cambridge University where he distinguished himself as a scholar. He was ordained in 1491. Special permission was obtained for this since he was only 22 years old.
After studying theology for ten years, he became vice -chancellor at the University. Some years later, he was elected chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The same year, John was also appointed bishop of Rochester by King Henry VIII. He became famous for his writings, including his efforts to resist the spread of Protestantism.
Among his notable works was a defense of the Real Presence in the Eucharist. He is also reputed to be the actual author of Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (Defense of the Seven Sacraments) written in 1521 and attributed to Henry VIII.
In 1529, John was named counselor to Queen Catherine of Aragon, leading the opposition against the King's expressed desire to divorce Catherine. This opposition and his rejection of Henry's claim to be head of the Church in England, earned him royal retribution. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534 for his opposition; he spent 14 months in prison without trial. While in prison he was appointed cardinal in 1535 by Pope Paul III largely as a gesture of papal support. This, however, so infuriated the king that he hurried forward the proceedings against the new cardinal.
The following excerpt from Catholic Information Network best describes how our saint of today met his martyrdom.

"The Supremacy Act and a new Statute of Treason were passed while John Fisher and Sir Thomas More were in the Tower. Treason was now made to cover anything said against the king's titles, so that to refuse to recognize him as Supreme Head of the church of England became treason. Neither of the prisoners would give him that recognition, for to do so was to deny the authority of the pope. Each, however, was careful not to put that refusal in words that could be used against them; they begged to be excused. Many attempts were made to get them to say the fateful words. At length Richard Rich, the solicitor-general, visited John Fisher in the Tower and told him that the king 'for the satisfaction of his own conscience' wished to know the bishop's opinion on the Supremacy; Rich assured the prisoner that whatever he said would not be used against him but would remain private to the king. Thereupon John Fisher declared 'that the King was not, nor could be, by the law of God, Supreme Head of the church of England.' As a priest he could not refuse to answer a question of conscience, but he had fallen into a trap, and the words he had spoken were used against him at his trial on June 17th, 1535. In spite of his protest at this breach of trust, he was condemned as a traitor.

He was beheaded on Tower Hill on June 22nd, 1535. His naked corpse was left on the scaffold all day until it was hastily buried without ceremony in the nearby churchyard of All Hallows. His head was displayed on London Bridge until July 6th when it was thrown into the Thames to give place to the head of his fellow martyr. Sir Thomas More was buried within the church of St. Peter ad Vincula within the Tower; at the same time, the remains of John Fisher were removed to the same resting place.
John Fisher and Thomas More were beatified in 1886 and canonized in 1935. Their feast is kept jointly."

Ref.1:Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
2:Catholic Information Network

Saint John Fisher,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

June 23
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Etheldreda
Among many other saints.

[odhiambo]

Saint Ethreldreda.
Abess of Ely
also known as Audrey, or Ediltrudis.

Saint Etheldreda was born around the year 636, in Northumbria, the daughter of King Anna of the East Anglia. She was brought up in a God-fearing household, a house full of saints. She was sister to Saints Ethelburga, Erkenwald, Sexburga, and Withburga.( "The burgas" one might say  ) Her mother too is said to be a saint. From an early age, Etheldreda had just one goal in mind, and that was to consecrate herself entirely to the Lord by joining a religious order.
Her father, however, had other plans for her. He had Etheldreda married at a very young age and for his own political advancement, to a prince of a local tribe of Saxons named Tonbert. From this marriage, Ethreldreda gained a track of land on the Isle of Ely. For three years the couple lived together, and due to her young age and commitment to sanctity, Tonbert refrained from intimacy with her. Etheldreda was thus able to maintain her purity. Fortunataly or unfortunataly, depending how you look at it, Tonbert died unexpectedly. The Saint relocated to the Isle of Ely, where she intended to devote herself to God as she had all along desired.
It was not to be. The father again interfered in his daughter's life. He arranged a second marriage for her, again for his own political opportunism. This time it was to Egfrith, the young son of a powerful king of Northumbria. Again, Etheldreda obeyed her father but on condition that her status in the palace would be more of a sister to the young boy, rather than that of a wife. This condition was quickly agreed to as Egfrith , at the time, was still a child.
At the age of twenty-four, Egfrith ascended to the throne of Northumbria, becoming king.
As Queen, Etheldreda took care to invite and attract to her, those most distinguished for learning and piety. Among these was St. Cuthbert, the young Prior of Lindisfarne, and Saint Wilfrid, her confessor.
Etheldreda became friends with Saint Wilfrid. When the King now demanded his conjugal rights, Etheldreda refused, saying she had dedicated herself to God. The case was referred to Saint Wilfrid who upheld her claim and convinced the king to allow her to retire to the Convent at Coldingham Abbey. There, she became a nun, receiving the veil from Saint Wilfrid himself.
In 672 she returned to Ely, and founded there a double monastery, one for nuns and the other for monks. Saint Wilfrid appointed her abbess, of the nunnery and she governed the abbey for many years. She died in 679.
Her body remained incorrupt after death and her head is preserved in Ely.
Saint Ethreldreda,
Pray for us

[Shin]

Saints Wilfrid, Cuthbert, Etheldreda, Ethelburga, Erkenwald, Sexburga, Withburga, and family pray for us!

I love families of saints! What a family to be raised in. . . what priests and confessors to have..  It brings tears to my eyes to think of it. . living like that. . .

And yet with that entire family of saints they had a father who troubled them. It reminds me of a story I heard once of a nun in a convent talking to another nun who was bothered by, yet another nun.. The nun that bothered her did things that troubled folks, and yet the one that was bothered was told by her sister, "If we did not have one like this we would have to search, search, search and find one!" reminding me of St. Camillus de Lellis and the poor, and dig, dig, digging to find them! Because people of such stripes prove and help, what is the word for hardening metal? Temper? their sanctity.