Saint of the day and Feast days.

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September 6
 
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Bega.
Among many other saints.

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Saint Bega.
Prioress of St. Bees
Prioress of Copeland.
She is also known as Saint Bee of Egremont and Begh.
 Bega was a princess of Ireland, her father was King.at some time during the  7th century  in Ireland. She was reputedly the most beautiful woman in her country. Her parents had an arranged marriage  all planned between her and the Prince of Norway, Bega had other plans for her life. All her life she had wanted to join a religious ascetic life. The night before her wedding, when everyone was making merry, she fled from her home. Tradition states that she was miraculously transported to Cumberland, in England. She lived there for a while as a hermitess .
On the grounds of security, she was advised by King Oswald (now saint Oswald), to enter the safety of a convent. She took this advice and became a nun, receiving the veil from St. Aidan, Bishop of Northumbria.
As a nun, she traveled through the countryside preaching, reaching far away places such as Kilbees in Scotland.
Eventually, Bega founded St. Bee's Monastery near her old hermitage. She served as abbess.
According to SQPN the town of Saint Bee’s Head in Cumberland, England, grew round this monastery. The saint was known for her generosity to the poor and oppressed who came to the abbey for assistance. The village of Kilbees, Scotland was also named after her.
Saint Bega died in 681 A.D
She was canonized Pre-Congregation.
Saint Bega,
Pray for us!

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September 7

Today is the Feast day of
Blessed Ralph Corby
Among Many saints and Blesseds

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Blessed Ralph Corby
also known as Ralph Corbington.
Blessed Ralph Corby was born to a devout Irish Catholic family in Maynooth, Ireland, on March 25, 1598. (Another account is that Blessed Ralph Corby was born in Dublin, where his parents had been refugees)
 He was educated at the College of Saint Omer in France, the seminary of Saint Gregory at Seville, Spain, and the Royal College of Saint Alban in Valladolid, Spain. He joined the Jesuits in 1631 and was ordained a priest. He then volunteered for the dangerous mission to minister in England at a time when it was illegal to be a Catholic priest there.
  He was given the responsibility of ministering in the area around Durham. Ralph worked here covertly for twelve years before he was discovered and arrested near Newcastle with Blessed John Duckett. He was condemned to death for being a Catholic priest. He was stripped, hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on the 7th of September 1644, along with fellow priest John Duckett.
 Of interest, is the fact that all of Blessed Ralph's family took religious vows, including his parents who decided to do so after their children had all joined various orders. Ralph joined the Jesuits, along with his two brothers. His father became a Jesuit lay brother and his mother a Benedictine nun.
He was beatified by Pope Pius IX on the 15th of December 1929.
Canonization is pending:
If you have information relevant to the canonization of Blessed Ralph, contact
         Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
         39 Eccleston Square

Blessed Ralph Corby,
Pray for us!

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September 8
 
Today we celebrate  the
Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

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Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Catholics do not normally celebrate the birthdays of the saints. We instead, celebrate the day they die, reason being that the day of death is the day they “are born into heaven”. The only exception to this is the birthday of Mary, our Blessed Mother. Her birthday is celebrated because she came into this world full of grace and because she was to be the Mother of Jesus.
 According to my book of reference, today’s feast originated in Jerusalem, late in the fifth century.
Mary did not just happen to be the Mother of Jesus; her maternity was no accident. Her choice was very well planned. God prepared generations after generations for her arrival. When the time came for God to fulfill His plan for the salvation of mankind, Mary was born to a pious couple, specially selected; only they did not know it. Mary‘s mother promised God, before the child was even conceived, that she would offer her to Him.
Mary was conceived immaculately, i.e. without the stain of original sin, according to God’s plan.
Today’s feast falls exactly nine months after the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
The story of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is found in the Protoevangelium of James written around the year A.D 150. From this source, we also learn the names of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, and the fact that the couple was childless until an angel appeared to Anna and told her that she would conceive.
 
O Mary, conceived without sin,
 pray for us who have recourse to thee.

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"The world being unworthy to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him from her."

Saint Augustine.
Father and Doctor of the Church

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September 9

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Peter Claver
Among many other saints

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Saint Peter Claver
Also known as:
The Apostle of the Negroes.
The Slave of Slaves
Saint of the Slaves
Peter Claver was born on July 26, 1580 in Verdu, near Barcelona in Spain. He was the son of a prosperous farmer. He studied at the University of Barcelona. At the age of 20, he joined the Jesuits at Tarragona in 1602.  He was sent to study at Montesione College at Palma, on the island of Majorca. Here, Peter was inspired by Saint Alphonsus Rodriquez, then a door keeper of this Jesuit College. The Later convinced him to embark on missionary work in America. To this cause, Peter decided to devote his life. After further studies at Barcelona, Peter was sent as a missionary to New Granada in 1610 and was ordained at Cartagena in present day Colombia in 1615.
Cartagena was an important center of the slave trade. There was  a vast numbers of West African slaves  who had been brought to the Americas to work in the Spanish colonies. Still vast numbers continued to poor into the city. The plight of these unfortunate people was so frightful and the conditions of their slavery so inhumane that Peter pledged himself to be “the slave of the negroes for ever". Peter joined Father Alfonse de Sandovel in trying to alleviate the horrible conditions of the slaves. He worked in the yard where they were penned after being disembarked from the ship from West Africa. He gave out food and drink to the slaves, many of whom were near crazy from the mistreatment and fear of the unknown. He ministered to the sick and the dying in the horribly fetid conditions. He instructed them in the faith and baptized them.  He endured humiliations and resistance from local officials and members of the Spanish colony society, but, he was undeterred by any of these, instead, he pleaded with slave owners to improve their lot. Peter also visited plantations around Cartagena, usually lodging in the slave quarters, to make sure that the few laws passed for their protection were enforced.
For about forty years, Peter made this port city his headquarters for missionary work among the Negro slaves. In all, it has been estimated that he baptized as many as 300, 000 Africans.
Peter was stricken with a plague that ravaged Cartagena in 1650 and never recovered from it. The plague struck the city in 1650, and Peter was one of its first victims. For four years he was bedridden in his cell, unable to work, and almost forgotten.Towards the end, Peter was anointed with the oil of the Sacrament of the Sick. When Cartagenians heard the news, they crowded into his room to see him for the last time. They treated his room as a shrine, and stripped it of everything but his bedclothes for mementos.
He died on 8 September 1654 at Cartegena, Colombia. He was beatified on 21 September 1851 by Pope Blessed Pius IX and canonized on 15 January 1888 by Pope Leo XIII.
Saint Peter Claver,
Pray for us!

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"We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips."

St. Peter Claver

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September 10
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
Among many other Saints.

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Saint Nicholas of Tolentino.
Also known as Patron of Holy Soul
Nicholas Guarutti was born in 1245 at Sant’Angelo in Ancona, Italy. His parents, Compagnonus de Guarutti and Amata de Guidiani had been childless for many years. When, in their middle age and desperate for a baby, the couple made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Nicholas of Myra at Bari, Italy. At the Shrine, his mother asked for a son whom she promised to dedicate to God's service. When her wish was granted, she named the boy Nicholas.
 As Nicholas grew up, he showed unusual signs of saintliness. It is said that as early as the age of seven, he used to hide and pray in a nearby cave just like  he had seen the hermits pray.
While still a student of 17, he so impressed his superiors with his holiness that he was made canon of Tolentino even at that young age. One day  Nicholas heard a sermon by Father Reginaldo da Monterubbiano, Prior of the Augustinian monastery in Sant'Angelo. The sermon was based on 1 John 2:15-17 which is "On Not Loving the World":
 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
After hearing this sermon, Nicholas felt a call to embrace the religious life in the Augustinian Order.
He resigned his office and entered the Order of Augustinian friars.
As a priest and religious, he was known for his charity towards his brother Augustinians as well as towards the people to whom he ministered. He visited the sick and cared for the needy. He gave special attention to those who had fallen away from the Church. Nicholas was also renowned for the eloquence of his preaching. He spent long hours in prayer and was considered a miracle worker.
He often fasted and performed other works of penance.
The story is told that, one day, having fasted for a long time, Nicholas was physically weak. While at prayer, Jesus told him to eat some bread marked with a cross and soaked in water in order to regain his strength. This was  the beginning of the Augustinian custom of blessing and distributing Saint Nicholas Bread in his memory.
Another story is told, that Nicholas, while asleep in bed, heard the voice of a deceased Friar he had known. This Friar told Nicholas that he was in Purgatory, and urged him to celebrate the Eucharist for him and other souls there, so that they would be set free by the power of Christ. Nicholas did so for seven days. The Friar again spoke to Nicholas, thanking him and assuring him that a large number of souls were now with God. Because of this Nicholas was proclaimed patron of the souls in Purgatory.
He is also considered the patron saint against epidemic disease and against fires.
During most of his adult life, Nicholas lived in Tolentine, Italy. It was there that he died on September 10, 1305. He was canonized in 1446 by Pope Eugene IV.
The remains of St. Nicholas are preserved at the Shrine of Saint Nicholas in the city of Tolentine.
St. Nicholas of Tolentino,
Pray for us!

[Patricia]

St. Nicholas, pray for us! 

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September 11

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Ambrose Edward Barlow
Among many other Saints

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Saint Ambrose Edward Barlow
One of the Fourty Martyrs of England,
Edward Barlow, was born at Barlow Hall in Manchester, England. He was born in a very devout Catholic family; the fourth son of Sir Alexander Barlow and Mary Brereton. The family lost most of his income as penalty for their faith.
Edward was baptized Catholic on 30 November 1585. He was , however, raised as a Protestant.He converted back to Catholicism as an adult.  According to the wishes of his family, Edward was educated  for the priesthood at the College of Saint Gregory, Douai, France, and the Royal College of Saint Alban in Valladolid, Spain. In 1615, he was professed as a Benedictine, affiliated by request to the Spanish abbey of Celanova.
He was sent back to work in England. This was a risky undertaking, as all Catholic priests had been banished from England under threat of arrest for treason.  For 24 years Edward worked in Lancaster. On 25 April 1641, just as he ended Easter Sunday Mass at Morley Hall near Manchester, England, he was arrested, without warrant, by a neighbouring Anglican minister and his whole angry congregation. He was brought before the local Justice of the Peace, and charged with the crime of being a priest. He freely admitted this charge. He was then sent under armed guard to Lancaster Castle, a notorious prison used for that purpose at the time.
After 4 months in detention he was tried and sentenced to death. On 10th September 1641 he was hanged, drawn and quartered, a cruel, horrible method of death reserved for "traitors" in those days.
His skull is preserved as a relic in Wardley Hall, Worsley, near Manchester. The Hall is sometimes referred to  as the House of the Skull.
     His hand is preserved at Stanbrook Abbey, Worcester, England.
He was declared venerable on 8 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI, beatified on 15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI and canonized on  25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
Saint Ambrose Edward Barlow,
Pray for us!

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September 12

Today is the optional Feast of the
Most Holy Name of Mary