Saint of the day and Feast days - Part 2

[James - a humble servant]

St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions
(Lived19th century)
      
Andrew Dung-Lac was one of 117 people martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Members of this group were beatified on four different occasions between 1900 and 1951. All were canonized by John Paul II.

Christianity came to Vietnam (then three separate kingdoms) through the Portuguese. Jesuits opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615. They ministered to Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan.

The king of one of the kingdoms banned all foreign missionaries and tried to make all Vietnamese deny their faith by trampling on a crucifix. Like the priest-holes in Ireland during English persecution, many hiding places were offered in homes of the faithful.

Severe persecutions were again launched three times in the 19th century. During the six decades after 1820, between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics were killed or subjected to great hardship. Foreign missionaries martyred in the first wave included priests of the Paris Mission Society, and Spanish Dominican priests and tertiaries.

Persecution broke out again in 1847 when the emperor suspected foreign missionaries and Vietnamese Christians of sympathizing with a rebellion led by of one of his sons.

The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, executed in 1862. That year a treaty with France guaranteed religious freedom to Catholics, but it did not stop all persecution.

By 1954 there were over a million and a half Catholics—about seven percent of the population—in the north. Buddhists represented about 60 percent. Persistent persecution forced some 670,000 Catholics to abandon lands, homes and possessions and flee to the south. In 1964, there were still 833,000 Catholics in the north, but many were in prison. In the south, Catholics were enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in centuries, their numbers swelled by refugees.

During the Vietnamese war, Catholics again suffered in the north, and again moved to the south in great numbers. Now the whole country is under Communist rule.

[James - a humble servant]

St. James of the Marche
(1394-1476)

 Meet one of the fathers of the modern pawnshop!

James was born in the Marche of Ancona, in central Italy along the Adriatic Sea. After earning doctorates in canon and civil law at the University of Perugia, he joined the Friars Minor and began a very austere life. He fasted nine months of the year; he slept three hours a night. St. Bernardine of Siena told him to moderate his penances.

James studied theology with St. John of Capistrano. Ordained in 1420, James began a preaching career that took him all over Italy and through 13 Central and Eastern European countries. This extremely popular preacher converted many people (250,000 at one estimate) and helped spread devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. His sermons prompted numerous Catholics to reform their lives and many men joined the Franciscans under his influence.

With John of Capistrano, Albert of Sarteano and Bernardine of Siena, James is considered one of the "four pillars" of the Observant movement among the Franciscans. These friars became known especially for their preaching.

To combat extremely high interest rates, James established montes pietatis (literally, mountains of charity)--nonprofit credit organizations that lent money at very low rates on pawned objects.

Not everyone was happy with the work James did. Twice assassins lost their nerve when they came face to face with him. James died in 1476 and was canonized in 1726.

[Shin]

St. James of the Marche, St. John of Capistrano, St. Bernardine of Siena, Bl. Albert of Sarteano, pray for us! 

[James - a humble servant]

Bl. Mary Frances Schervier
(1819-1876)
      
This woman who once wanted to become a Trappistine nun was instead led by God to establish a community of sisters who care for the sick and aged in the United States and throughout the world.

Born into a distinguished family in Aachen (then ruled by Prussia but formerly Aix-la-Chapelle, France), Frances ran the household after her mother’s death and established a reputation for generosity to the poor. In 1844 she became a Secular Franciscan. The next year she and four companions established a religious community devoted to caring for the poor. In 1851 the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis (a variant of the original name) were approved by the local bishop; the community soon spread. The first U.S. foundation was made in 1858.

Mother Frances visited the United States in 1863 and helped her sisters nurse soldiers wounded in the Civil War. She visited the United States again in 1868. When Philip Hoever was establishing the Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis, she encouraged him.

When Mother Frances died, there were 2,500 members of her community worldwide. They are still engaged in operating hospitals and homes for the aged. Mother Mary Frances was beatified in 1974.

Comment:
The sick, the poor and the aged are constantly in danger of being considered "useless" members of society and therefore ignored—or worse. Women and men motivated by the ideals of Mother Frances are needed if the God-given dignity and destiny of all people are to be respected.

Quote:
In 1868, Mother Frances wrote to all her sisters, reminding them of Jesus’ words: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.... I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (John 15:14,17).

She continued: “If we do this faithfully and zealously, we will experience the truth of the words of our father St. Francis who says that love lightens all difficulties and sweetens all bitterness. We will likewise partake of the blessing which St. Francis promised to all his children, both present and future, after having admonished them to love one another even as he had loved them and continues to love them.”

[whiterockdove]

" The love, then, that brought Christ down from heaven to earth,
lifted Stephen from earth to heaven."

-Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe

[Shin]

St. Stephen and St. Fulgentius, pray for us to gain the love of Christ!

[James - a humble servant]

Amen.

[whiterockdove]

They saw, and we have not seen, yet we have fellowship with them because we and they share the same faith
 "...and our fellowship is with God The Father and Jesus Christ His son. And we write this to you to make your joy complete."
-complete in that fellowship, in that love and in that unity.


A Treatise by St. Augustine on the Epistle of John


  a little late as Saturday was St. John's feast day, was looking for something about him and finally found it just now

[Shin]

I have always especially loved St. John's writings out of all of Holy Scripture. 

[James - a humble servant]

Hey better late than never, right ?!  

The Gospel of John is my favorite too. First Book of the bible I read as a young teen. The first bible story I was taught was the story of Noah.  

[CyrilSebastian]

            After St. Bernadine of Sienna told St. James of the Marche to moderate his penance,     
            what did he do to moderate his penitential actions?

[James - a humble servant]

St. Paul the Hermit
(c. 233-345)
      
 It is unclear what we really know of Paul's life, how much is fable, how much fact.

Paul was reportedly born in Egypt, where he was orphaned by age 15. He was also a learned and devout young man. During the persecution of Decius in Egypt in the year 250, Paul was forced to hide in the home of a friend. Fearing a brother-in-law would betray him, he fled in a cave in the desert. His plan was to return once the persecution ended, but the sweetness of solitude and heavenly contemplation convinced him to stay.

He went on to live in that cave for the next 90 years. A nearby spring gave him drink, a palm tree furnished him clothing and nourishment. After 21 years of solitude a bird began bringing him half of a loaf of bread each day. Without knowing what was happening in the world, Paul prayed that the world would become a better place.

St. Anthony of Egypt [January 17] attests to his holy life and death. Tempted by the thought that no one had served God in the wilderness longer than he, Anthony was led by God to find Paul and acknowledge him as a man more perfect than himself. The raven that day brought a whole loaf of bread instead of the usual half. As Paul predicted, Anthony would return to bury his new friend.

Thought to have been about 112 when he died, Paul is known as the "First Hermit." His feast day is celebrated in the East; he is also commemorated in the Coptic and Armenian rites of the Mass.

Comment:
The will and direction of God are seen in the circumstances of our lives. Led by the grace of God, we are free to respond with choices that bring us closer to and make us more dependent upon the God who created us. Those choices might at times seem to lead us away from our neighbor. But ultimately they lead us back both in prayer and in fellowship to one another.

[Shin]

            After St. Bernadine of Sienna told St. James of the Marche to moderate his penance,     
            what did he do to moderate his penitential actions?

I don't know!

I looked a bit and didn't find it! How and when did this happen? Do you know CyrilSebastian?

The Lives of the Saints says this was his normal practice:

'For forty years he never passed a day without taking the discipline; he always wore either a rough hair shirt, or an iron coat of mail armed with short sharp spikes; allowing himself only three hours for sleep he spent the rest of the night in holy meditation and prayer: flesh meat he never touched, and he ate so little that it seemed a miracle how he could live. He said mass every day with wonderful devotion. Out of a true spirit of humility and penance he was a great lover of poverty, and it was a subject of joy to him to see himself often destitute of the most necessary things. He copied for himself most of the few books he allowed himself the use of, and he always wore a mean threadbare habit. His purity during the course of his whole life was spotless; and he shunned as much as possible all conversation with persons of the other gender, and made this very short, when it was necessary for their spiritual direction; and he never looked any woman in the face. In the practice of obedience he was so exact, that, once having received an order to go abroad, when he had lifted up the cup near his mouth to drink he set it down again, and went out immediately without drinking; for he was afraid to lose the merit of obedience by the least delay.'

[James - a humble servant]

January 15


St. Isidore of Alexandria, Priest and Hospitaller
(D. 403)

He was taken from his cell where he had passed many years in the desert, ordained priest, and placed in the dignity of hospitaller, by St. Athanasius. He lived in that great city a perfect model of meekness, patience, mortification, and prayer. He frequently burst into tears at table, saying: “I who am a rational creature, and made to enjoy God, eat the food of brutes instead of feeding on the bread of angels.” Palladius, afterwards bishop of Helenopolis, on going to Egypt to embrace an ascetic life, addressed himself first to our saint for advice: the skilful director bade him go and exercise himself for some time in mortification and self-denial, and then return for further instructions. St. Isidore suffered many persecutions, first from Lucius the Arian intruder, and afterwards from Theophilus, who unjustly accused him of Origenism. He publicly condemned that heresy at Constantinople, where he died in 403, under the protection of St. Chrysostom.

[Shin]

The fruit of God's gifts through St. Athanasius!

I love reading of saints who knew other saints in this life -- familes, friends!

[CyrilSebastian]

              How did St. Isidore of Alexandria see Proclus "in the very face of true philosophy"?