Saint of the day and Feast days - Part 2

[Poche]

Today is Our Lady, Help of Christians
 

[odhiambo]

Prayer To Our Lady, Help Of Christians
Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christian,
how sweet it is to come to your feet
imploring your perpetual help.
If earthly mothers cease not to remember their children,
how can you, the most loving of all mothers forget me?
Grant then to me, I implore you,
your perpetual help in all my necessities,
in every sorrow, and especially in all my temptations.
I ask for your unceasing help for all who are now suffering.
Help the weak, cure the sick, convert sinners.
Grant through your intercessions many vocations to the religious life.
Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians,
that having invoked you on earth we may love and eternally thank you in heaven.

By St. John Bosco

[Poche]

Today is the feast of St Philip Neri. St. Philip Neri was well known for his sense of humor. To honor him today try to laugh at yourself when something annoying happens, try to make someone else happy by your cheerful disposition.

[Poche]

Happy feast of St Augustine of Canturbury, apostle to the English

Of course this would not have happened were it not for Pope Gregory. It all started before he was pope when he was at the market. There were two young boys who were up for sale as slaves. Gregory asked them who they were. They said we are angles. Greegory said, "No not Angles, but angels." From that point he concieved a great desire to go to England to bring Christianity to the people there, but his election as pope put a delay in that. Instead he sent Augustine. 

[James - a humble servant]

Venerable Pierre Toussaint 
(1766 - 1853)

Born in modern-day Haiti and brought to New York City as a slave, Pierre died a free man, a renowned hairdresser and one of New York City’s most well-known Catholics. 

Pierre Bérard, a plantation owner, made Toussaint a house slave and allowed his grandmother to teach her grandson how to read and write. In his early 20s, Pierre, his younger sister, his aunt and two other house slaves accompanied their master’s son to New York City because of political unrest at home. Apprenticed to a local hairdresser, Pierre learned the trade quickly and eventually worked very successfully in the homes of rich women in New York City. 

When his master died, Pierre was determined to support his master’s widow, himself and the other house slaves. He was freed shortly before the widow’s death in 1807.

Four years later he married Marie Rose Juliette, whose freedom he had purchased. They later adopted Euphémie, his orphaned niece. Both preceded him in death. He attended daily Mass at St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street, the same parish that St. Elizabeth Seton attended. 

Pierre donated to various charities, generously assisting blacks and whites in need. He and his wife opened their home to orphans and educated them. The couple also nursed abandoned people who were suffering from yellow fever. Urged to retire and enjoy the wealth he had accumulated, Pierre responded, “I have enough for myself, but if I stop working I have not enough for others.” 

He was originally buried outside St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, where he was once refused entrance because of his race. His sanctity and the popular devotion to him caused his body to be moved to St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. 

Pierre Toussaint was declared Venerable in 1996.


QUOTE:
Emma Cary, one of Pierre’s customers, said: “His life was so perfect, and he explained the teaching of the Church with a simplicity so intelligent and courageous that everyone honored him as a Catholic. He would explain the devotion to the Mother of God with the utmost clearness, or show the union of the natural and supernatural gifts in the priest.”

[James - a humble servant]

May 28 –


Bl. Mary Bartholomew Bagnesi
(Lay Dominican & Virgin)

Blessed Mary Bartholomew Bagnesi was born in
Florence on August 15, 1514, and there received the
habit of a Sister of Penance in 1547. For 45 years she
was confined to her bed and with great courage bore
the pains she suffered. By her spirit of faith and
acceptance of God’s will, she was able to encourage
and console many who came to her. She died on
May 28, 1577, and was buried at the Carmelite
monastery in Florence.

[Poche]

Today is teh Ascension in most of the world.
 

[James - a humble servant]

May 30 –


Bl. James Salomonio
(Friar & Priest) (M)

Born in Venice of the noble
Salomonio family in 1231, James
gave his patrimony to the poor
and entered the Order of Preachers
at the age of 14. He lived most of
his Dominican life at Forli where
he was known for his austere and
virtuous life.
Because of his charity to the poor he was called
“Father of the Poor.” He is a patron of cancer
patients and apostle of the afflicted. He died on
May 31, 1314.

[James - a humble servant]

St. Joan of Arc
(1412 - 1431)   

Burned at the stake as a heretic after a politically-motivated trial, Joan was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.

Born of a fairly well-to-do peasant couple in Domremy-Greux (southeast of Paris), Joan was only 12 when she experienced a vision and heard voices that she later identified as Sts. Michael the Archangel, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch.

During the Hundred Years War, she led French troops against the English and recaptured the cities of Orléans and Troyes. This enabled Charles VII to be crowned as king in Reims in 1429. Captured near Compiegne the following year, she was sold to the English and placed on trial for heresy and witchcraft. Professors at the University of Paris supported Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvis, the judge at her trial; Cardinal Henry Beaufort of Winchester, England, participated in the questioning of Joan in prison. In the end, she was condemned for wearing men's clothes. The English resented France's military success–to which Joan contributed.

On this day in 1431, she was burned at the stake in Rouen, and her ashes were scattered in the Seine River. A second Church trial 25 years later nullified the earlier verdict, which was reached under political pressure.

Remembered by most people for her military exploits, Joan had a great love for the sacraments, which strengthened her compassion toward the poor. Popular devotion to her increased greatly in 19th-century France and later among French soldiers during World War I. Theologian George Tavard writes that her life "offers a perfect example of the conjunction of contemplation and action" because her spiritual insight is that there should be a "unity of heaven and earth."

Joan of Arc has been the subject of many books, plays, operas, and movies.
 

[James - a humble servant]

June 2- Memorial

~Blessed Sadoc
 (Friar & Priest, & Companions, Martyrs)

 According to tradition Bl. Sadoc received the
 habit from St. Dominic himself at the General
 Chapter of Bologna in 1221 was chosen to
 accompany Master Paul of Hungary, who had
 been commissioned to establish a province in
 Hungary. Later Bl. Sadoc moved on to Poland
 where he preached the gospel for nearly forty
 years. In 1260 he and 48 members of the
 Dominican community at Sandomierz were
 martyred by the Tartars as they were singing the
 Salve Regina at Compline. The custom of singing
 the Salve Regina at the deathbed of Dominicans
 stems from this incident.

[Poche]

Today is the feast of the African martyrs Charles Lwanga and his companions.
 

[odhiambo]

Today is the feast of the African martyrs Charles Lwanga and his companions.
 

Specifically Ugandan Martyrs

"Rather than deter the growth of Christianity, the martyrdom of these early believers seems to have sparked its growth instead.

The blood of these martyrs proved to be the seed of faith. Christianity is now the dominant faith in Buganda and Uganda as a whole.

Saint Charles Lwanga And Companions,

Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

Prayer…

Almighty Father, in your love, grant that your Church, the field that was fertilised by the blood of Saint Lwanga and his Companions, may always yield a fertile harvest for You.

Amen.

From Saints for All

Lives of Saints for Every Week.

A Paulines Publications Africa.

[James - a humble servant]

Bl. Angeline of Marsciano 
(1374 - 1435)

Blessed Angeline founded the first community of Franciscan women other than Poor Clares to receive papal approval.
Angeline was born to the Duke of Marsciano (near Orvieto). She was 12 when her mother died. Three years later the young woman made a vow of perpetual chastity. That same year, however, she yielded to her father’s decision that she marry the Duke of Civitella. Her husband agreed to respect her previous vow.

When he died two years later, Angeline joined the Secular Franciscans and with several other women dedicated herself to caring for the sick, the poor, widows and orphans. When many other young women were attracted to Angeline’s community, some people accused her of condemning the married vocation. Legend has it that when she came before the King of Naples to answer these charges, she had burning coals hidden in the folds of her cloak. When she proclaimed her innocence and showed the king that these coals had not harmed her, he dropped the case.

Angeline and her companions later went to Foligno, where her community of Third Order sisters received papal approval in 1397. She soon established 15 similar communities of women in other Italian cities.

Angeline died on July 14, 1435, and was beatified in 1825.

[Shin]

Bl. Angeline pray for us!

What an inspiring story!

[Poche]

Today is the feast of the African martyrs Charles Lwanga and his companions.
 

Specifically Ugandan Martyrs

"Rather than deter the growth of Christianity, the martyrdom of these early believers seems to have sparked its growth instead.

The blood of these martyrs proved to be the seed of faith. Christianity is now the dominant faith in Buganda and Uganda as a whole.

Saint Charles Lwanga And Companions,

Pray for us!

It was also the birthday of Jefferson Davis. Because of that some states in the southeast give their employees a paid holiday. May we by the intercession of the African martyrs have greater racial reconciliation in our nation.