October 1 - St. Therese, the Little Flower - All Saints on the ...
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October 1 – St. Therese, the Little Flower Therese died when she was 24, after having lived as cloistered Carmelite for less than ten years. She never went on missions, never founded a religious order, never performed great works. The only book of hers, published after her death, was an brief edited version of her journal called "Story of a Soul." But within 28 years of her death, the public demand was so great that she was canonized. Therese was born in France in 1873, the pampered daughter of a mother who had wanted to be a saint and a father who had wanted to be monk. The two had gotten married but determined they would be celibate until a priest told them that was not how God wanted a marriage to work! They later had nine children, the five who lived were all daughters. At the age of 11, Therese became so ill with a fever it was thought she was dying. When Therese saw her sisters praying to statue of Mary in her room, Therese also prayed. She saw Mary smile at her and suddenly she was cured. Some people thought she made the whole thing up. At the same time she had developed the habit of mental prayer. She would find a place between her bed and the wall and in that solitude think about God, life, eternity. Her life was never hard as she did little to help at home often times with outbursts of tears and tantrums. Therese wanted to enter the Carmelite convent to join two of her sisters but she was uncertain of handling the rigors of Carmelite life. Even at the age of 14, she was still being treated as a child by her family. During one incident at home, Jesus had come into her heart and done what she could not do herself. He had made her more sensitive to her father's feelings than her own. Shortly after, she entered the convent. In her autobiography she referred to a difficult Christmas as her "conversion." Therese was known as the “Little Flower” but she had a will of steel. When the superior of the Carmelite convent refused to take Therese because she was so young, she went to the bishop. When the bishop also said no, she and her father went onto the Pope. They had been forbidden to speak to him but that didn't stop Therese. As soon as she got near him, she begged that he let her enter the Carmelite convent. The Vicar General who had seen her courage was impressed and soon Therese was admitted to the Carmelite convent. She worried about her vocation: " I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places...in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...My vocation is Love!" At the age of 23 she took quite ill. Her pain was so great that she said that if she had not had faith she would have taken her own life without hesitation. One of her sisters in the same convent, journaled her final days. Her sister, Pauline put together Therese's writings and sent numerous copies to other convents. But Therese's "little way" of trusting in Jesus to make her holy and relying on small daily sacrifices instead of great deeds appealed to the thousands of Catholics and others who were trying to find holiness in ordinary lives. Within two years, Catholics move because her notoriety worked tirelessly toward gaining her canonization in 1925.
October 2 – St. Leger St. Leger led a volatile life with questions on his blessed life. Leger was raised at the court of King Clotaire II and by his uncle, Bishop Didon of Poitiers. Leger was made archdeacon by his uncle, was ordained, and in about 651, became abbot of Maxentius Abbey, where he introduced the Rule of St. Benedict. He served the Queen and helped her govern when Clovis II died in 656, being named bishop of Autun in 663. He was able to reconcile the differing factions that had torn the See apart, introduced reforms, fortified the town, and was known for his concern for the poor. On the death of Clotaire III, he supported young Childeric II for King against his brother Thierry, who had been backed by Ebroin, mayor of the palace. Ebroin was exiled to Luxeuil and became a bitter enemy of Leger. Leger became Childeric's adviser. When Leger denounced the marriage of Childeric to his uncle's daughter, he also incurred the enmity of Childeric, and in 675 Leger was arrested at Autun and banished. When Childeric was murdered, his successor restored Leger to his See. Ebroin was also restored as mayor of the palace after he had had the incumbent murdered and persuaded the Duke of Champagne and the bishops of Chalons and Valence to attack Autun. To save the town, Leger surrendered. Ebroin had him blinded, his lips cut off, and his tongue pulled out. Not satisfied, he convinced the King that Childeric had been murdered by Leger and his brother Gerinus. Gerinus was stoned to death, and Leger was tortured and imprisoned at Fecamp Monastery in Normandy. After two years Leger was summoned to court by Ebroin, deposed, and executed protesting his innocence to the end. Though the Roman Martyrology calls him Blessed and a martyr, there is doubt among many scholars that he is entitled to those honors.
October 3 – St. Ewald the Fair & the Dark
Martyred Northumbrian English brothers, one called "the Fair" and
one called "the Dark,” were educated in Ireland. They were given
the same name, known by the difference in the color of their hair
and complexions. These priests of the Benedictine Order. They were
martyred together at Aplerbeke, near Dortmund, Germany, by local
pagans about 692.
Ewald the Black was the more learned of the two, but both were
equally renowned for holiness of life. They were apparently
acquainted with St. Willibrord, the Apostle of Friesland, and were
taken with his zeal for the conversion of the Germans.
They entered upon their mission about 690. The scene of their
labours was the country of the ancient Saxons. The pagan Saxons,
witnessing the activities of the Christian priests and missionaries,
began to suspect that the Ewalds planned to convert their over-lord,
destroy their temples and supplant their religion. Inflamed with
jealousy and anger, they resolved that the Ewalds should die. An
uprising followed and both priests were quickly seized. Ewald the Fair was killed quickly by sword; Ewald the
Black was tortured and torn limb from limb, after which both their bodies were cast into the Rhine. This is
understood to have happened on 3 October at a place called Aplerbeck, today a district of Dortmund, where a
chapel still stands.
Christian sources describe various miracles after the priests'
deaths, including their martyred bodies being miraculously
carried against the stream for the space of forty miles to the
place in which the companions of the Ewalds were residing. As
they floated along, says the Catholic Encyclopedia, "a heavenly
light, like a column of fire, was seen to shine above them." One
of the martyrs appeared in vision to a monk (a companion of the
Ewalds), and told him where the bodies would be found: "that
the spot would be there where he should see a pillar of light
reaching from earth to heaven". A spring of water is said to have
gushed forth in the place of the martyrdom.
Monument of the Ewalds standing in Dortmund-Aplerbeck,
Germany
October 4 – St. Francis of Assisi In 1882 St. Francis was baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist. But his father wanted his son to be a cloth merchant. So he renamed his son Francesco. Francis had a life of wealth and permissiveness. He loved to party. Francis himself said, "I lived in sin" during that time. Even as a dreamer, Francis was good at business, but not holiness! Francis wanted to be a noble, a knight. Battle was the best place to win the glory and prestige he longed for. He got his first chance when Assisi declared war on their longtime enemy, the nearby town of Perugia. Most of the troops from Assisi were butchered in the fight. He spent a year in captivity and he was ransomed. Strangely, the experience didn't seem to change him. He continued to party with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle. Francis' conversion did not happen overnight. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis' turn to wait. Francis started to spend time in prayer. Sometimes God's grace overwhelmed him with joy. But life couldn't just stop for God. There was a business to run, customers to wait on. His search for conversion led him to the ancient church at San Damiano. While he was praying there, he heard Christ on the crucifix speak to him, "Francis, repair my church." Francis assumed this meant church with a small c -- the crumbling building he was in. He took fabric from his father's shop and sold it to get money to repair the church. His father saw this as an act of theft. He dragged Francis before the bishop and in front of the whole town demanding that Francis return the money and renounce all rights as his heir. The bishop was very kind to Francis; he told him to return the money and said God would provide. And so he did. He not only gave back the money but stripped off all his clothes -- until he was wearing only a hair shirt (a shirt of haircloth, worn by penitents.) In front of the crowd that had gathered he said, "Pietro Bernardone is no longer my father. Francis went back to where this all began and begged for stones and rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands. Soon Francis started to preach. (He was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon under his protest.) Francis was not a reformer; he preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church. Francis never wanted to found a religious order -- this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God's brotherhood. He practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person. Francis really felt that nature, all God's creations, were part of his brotherhood. The sparrow was as much his brother as the pope. In one famous story, Francis preached to hundreds of birds about being thankful to God for their independence and for God's care. The story tells us the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave. Francis was a man of action. His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds. If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. So when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III. Francis' final years were filled with suffering as well as humiliation. Praying to share in Christ's passion he had a vision receiving the stigmata, the marks of the nails and the lance wound that Christ suffered, in his own body. Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill. He began to go blind, receiving surgery. Through this suffering he wrote his beautiful Canticle of the Sun that expresses his brotherhood with creation in praising God. Francis never recovered from this illness. He died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45. Francis is considered the founder of all Franciscan orders in Umbria, in 1181.
October 5 – St.Faustina Kowalski Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was born as Helena Kowalska, in Poland on August 25, 1905. She was the third of 10 children to a poor and religious family. Faustina first felt a calling to the religious life when she was just seven-years-old and attended the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. After finishing her schooling, Faustina wanted to immediately join a convent. However, her parents refused to let her. Instead, at 16-years- old, Faustina became a housekeeper to help her parents and support herself. In 1924, Faustina experienced her first vision of Jesus. While at a dance with one of her sisters, Faustina saw a suffering Jesus and then went to a Cathedral. According to Faustina, Jesus instructed her to leave for Warsaw immediately and join a convent. She did as she was instructed, arrived in Warsaw and entered Saint James Church in Warsaw, the first church she came across, and attended Mass. While in Warsaw, Faustina approached many different convents, but was turned away every time. She was judged on her appearances and sometimes rejected for poverty. Finally, the mother superior for the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy decided to take in Faustina on the condition that she could pay for her own religious habit. Working as a housekeeper, Faustina began to save her money and make deposits to the Convent. Two years later, she finally received her habit and took the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament and in 1928, she took her first religious vows as a nun. In 1931 she was visited by Jesus, who presented himself as the "King of Divine Mercy" wearing a white garment with red and pale rays coming from his heart. She was asked to become the apostle and secretary of God's mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others, and an instrument for reemphasizing God's plan of mercy for the world. In 1965, Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, who would later become Pope John Paul II, opened up the first investigations into Faustina's life and virtues. He submitted a number of documents on her life to the Vatican and requested the official beatification process to start. St. Faustina Kowalska was beatified on April 18, 1993 and canonized on April 30, 2000, both by Pope St. John Paul II.
October 6 – St. Bruno
Bruno was born in Cologne about 1030, of the
prominent Hartenfaust family. He studied at the
Cathedral school at Rheims, but it wasn’t until he
returned to Cologne that he was ordained and
became a Canon at St. Cunibert's. He then
went back to Rheims as professor of
theology, became head of the school the
following year, and remained there until he
was appointed chancellor of Rheims by its
archbishop, Manasses. Bruno was forced to
flee Rheims when he and several other
priests denounced Manasses in 1076 as unfit
for the office of Papal Legate. Bruno later
returned to Cologne but went back to Rheims
in 1080 when Manasses was deposed, and
though the people of Rheims wanted to make
Bruno archbishop, he decided to live the life of a
eremite (hermit or recluse) under Abbot St. Robert of
Molesmes (who later founded Citeaux village, site of a
famous abbey in France. The abbey, largely through the activities of the 12th-century
churchman and mystic St. Bernard of Clairvaux, became the headquarters of the Cistercian
order, which had abbeys scattered all over Europe.) However, he moved on to Grenoble with
six companions in 1084. They were assigned a place for their hermitages in a desolate,
mountainous, alpine area called La Grande Chartreuse, by Bishop St. Hugh of Grenoble, who
became Bruno’s confessor. They built an oratory and individual cells, roughly followed the rule
of St. Benedict, and began the Carthusian Order. They embraced a life of poverty, manual work,
prayer, and transcribing manuscripts, though as yet they had no written rule. The fame of the
group and their founder spread, and in 1090, Bruno was brought to Rome, against his wishes,
by Pope Urban II (whom he had taught at Rheims) as Papal Adviser in the reformation of the
clergy. Bruno persuaded Urban to allow him to resume his eremitical state, founded St. Mary's
at La Torre in Calabria, declined the Pope's offer of the archbishopric of Reggio, became a close
friend of Count Robert of Sicily, and remained there until his death on October 6. He wrote
several commentaries on the psalms and on St. Paul's epistles. He was never formally canonized
because of the Carthusians' aversion to public honors but Pope Leo X granted the Carthusians
permission to celebrate his feast in 1514, and his name was placed on the Roman calendar in
1623.
October 7 – St. Artaldus
Artaldus (also called Arthaud)
was born in the castle of
Sothonod in Savoy, a region in
the Western Alps. At the age of
eighteen, he went to the court
of Duke Amadeus III, but a year
or two after, he became a
Carthusian priest at Portes.
After many years, being
a priest and an experienced and
holy religious, he was sent by
the prior of the Grande
Chartreuse to found
a charterhouse near his home,
in a valley in the Valromey
significantly called "the
cemetery". Here Artaldus
established himself with six of
his brethren from Portes. The
community was no sooner
settled in and built, when there
buildings were destroyed by
fire, and St. Artaldus had to
begin all over again. He chose a fresh site on the Arvieres River, and his second foundation was
soon built and occupied. But a Carthusian cell could not contain the ever-increasing reputation
of Artaldus: like his master St. Bruno, he was consulted by the Pope, and when he was well over
eighty, he was called from his monastery to be bishop of Belley, in spite of his vehement and
reasonable protest. However, after less than two years of his appointment as Bishop, his
resignation was accepted, and he thankfully returned to Arvieres, where he lived in peace for
the rest of his days. During his last years, he was visited by St. Hugh of Lincoln, who had come
into France, and who, while he was prior of the charterhouse of Witham, had induced Henry
II to become a benefactor of Arvieres. The Magna vita of St. Hugh recorded a gentle rebuke
administered by Hugh when Artaldus asked him for political news in the presence of the
community who had turned their backs upon the world to give themselves entirely to God. The
cultus of St. Artaldus, called simply Blessed by the Carthusians, was confirmed for
the diocese of Belley in 1834. He was 105 years old when he died.
October 8 – St. Pelagia (Margaret) Pelagia, more often called Margaret, on account of the magnificence of the pearl jewelry she loved and wore. She was an actress of Antioch and thought of as a loose woman, she was equally celebrated for her beauty, her wealth and the disorder other life. During a synod at Antioch, she passed Bishop St. Nonnus of Edessa, who was struck with her beauty; the next day she went to hear him preach and was so moved by his sermon that she asked him to baptize her which he did. She gave her wealth to Nonnus to aid the poor and left Antioch dressed in men's clothing. She became a hermitess in a cave on Mount of Olivette in Jerusalem, where she lived, performing penances and known as "the beardless monk. " Pelagia died as a result of extreme asceticism (her severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence), which had emaciated her to the point she could no longer be recognized. According to Orthodox tradition, she was buried in her cell. Upon the discovery that the renowned monk had been a woman, the "holy fathers" tried to keep it a secret, but the gossip spread and her relics drew pilgrims from everywhere. Though a young girl of fifteen did exist and suffer martyrdom at Antioch in the fourth century, the story here told is a pious fiction, which gave rise to a whole set of similar stories under different names. Pelagia died as a result of extreme asceticism (her severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence), which had emaciated her to the point she could no longer be recognized. According to Orthodox tradition, she was buried in her cell. Upon the discovery that the renowned monk had been a woman, the "holy fathers" tried to keep it a secret, but the gossip spread and her relics drew pilgrims from everywhere.
October 9 – Sts. Denis, Rusticus & Eleutherius
The first mention we have of these three
martyrs who died around 258 A.D. comes in
the sixth century in the writings of Saint
Gregory of Tours.
Denis (or Dionysius as he is also called) is the
most famous of the three. Born and raised
in Italy, he was sent as a missionary to Gaul
(now France) circa 250 A.D. by Pope St.
Clement along with five other bishops.
Denis made his base of missionary activity
an island in the Seine near the city of Lutetia
Parisorium -- what would become Paris. For this reason he is known as the first bishop of Paris and
the Apostle of France. There he was captured by the Parisians along with Rusticus and Eleutherius. Later writers
have referred to these as Denis' priest and deacon, or his deacon and sub deacon, but we have no further
information on them.
After a long imprisonment and several aborted executions, the three martyrs were beheaded with a sword and
their bodies were thrown into the river. Denis' body was retrieved from the Seine by his converts and buried.
The chapel that was built over his tomb grew into the abbey of Saint-Denis.
In the ninth century, Denis' story and identity became fused and confused with Dionysius the Areopagite and
Pseudo-Dionysius, but later scholarship has re-established his identity as a separate saint. Recognized since
the time of St. Gregory
as a special saint of
Paris, Denis is the
patron saint of France.
Denis is pictured as he
was martyred --
headless (with a vine
growing over the neck)
and carrying his own
mitered head and not
pictured with Saints
Rusticus & Eleutherius.
Saint Eleutherius Saint Rusticus
October 10 – Francis Borgia
Francis was a young nobleman at the court of the King of Spain. He became a Duke when he was
only thirty-three and lived a happy, peaceful life with his wife Eleanor and their eight children.
But unlike so many other powerful nobles, Francis was a perfect Christian gentleman, a
true man of God and his great joy was to receive Holy Communion often.
This happy life ended
when his beloved wife
died. Francis did
something that
astonished all the
nobles of Spain; he
gave up his Dukedom
to his son Charles and
became a Jesuit
priest. So many
people came to his
first Mass that they
had to set up an altar
outdoors.
His Superior tested him by treating him in exactly the opposite way he had been used to all his
forty-one years of life. He who had once been a Duke had to help the cook, carrying wood for
the fire and sweeping the kitchen. When he served food to the priests and brothers, he had to
kneel down in front of them all and beg them to forgive him for being so clumsy! Still he never
once complained or grumbled. The only time he became angry was when anyone treated him
with respect as if he was still a Duke. Once a doctor who had to take care of a painful wound
Francis had gotten said to him: "I am afraid, my lord, that I have to hurt your grace." The saint
answered that he would not hurt him more than he was right then by calling him "my lord" and
"your grace." It was not too long before the humble priest accomplished wonderful works for
God's glory as he preached everywhere and advised many important people. He spread
the Society of Jesus all over Spain and in Portugal. When he was made Superior General of the
Jesuits, he sent missionaries all over the world. Under his guidance, the Jesuits grew to be a very
great help to the Church in many lands. Through all such success, Borgia remained completely
humble.October 11 – St. John XXIII
The man who would be Pope John XXIII was born in the small village of Sotto il Monte
in Italy, on November 25, 1881. He was the fourth of fourteen children born to poor
parents who made their living by sharecropping. Named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli,
the baby would eventually become one of the most influential popes in recent
history, changing the Church forever.
Roncalli's career within the Church began when he graduated from university with
a doctorate in theology. He was ordained a priest thereafter and soon met Pope
Pius X in Rome.
By the following year, 1905, Roncalli was appointed to act as secretary for his
bishop, Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi. He continued working as the bishop's secretary
until the bishop died in August 1914. The bishop's last words to Roncalli were, "Pray for
peace."
These words mattered in August 1914 as the world was on the brink of World War I. Italy was eventually drawn
into the war and Roncalli was drafted into the Italian Army as a stretcher bearer and chaplain.
Roncalli did his duty and was eventually discharged from the army in 1919. Free to serve the Church in new
capacities he was appointed to be the Italian president of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith,
handpicked by Pope Benedict XV.
Then in February 1925, Roncalli was summoned to the Vatican and given a new mission. This time he was sent
to Bulgaria as the Apostolic Visitor to that country. Later, he was appointed aspostolic delegate to Turkey and
Greece and made archbishop of Mesembria.
Beginning in 1935, racial tensions and anti-Jewish sentiment began to explode
into actual acts of violence against the Jews and other ethnic minorities.
Roncalli started using his influence to save what people he could from the
depredation of both local authorities and later the Nazis. During his tenure as
archbishop, Roncalli saved thousands of Jews, enough that he was named a
"Righteous Gentile" following the war.
In late 1944, the Church was anxious to remove clergy in France that had
collaborated with the Nazis in various forms. Roncalli was appointed as the new
papal Nuncio and sent to France to negotiate the retirement of bishops who
were involved with the Nazis.
In 1952, Roncalli was offered a new position, this time as Patriarch of Venice. At the same time he assumed his
new title, Roncalli became the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca. He assumed his new responsibilities in 1953.
Roncalli's papal predecessor died on October 9, 1958 and he was soon summoned to Rome where he was to
participate in the process of selecting a new pope. The College eventually settled on Roncalli for election and
he accepted, saying "I will be called John," a surprising choice because of that name's association with schism.
He was Beatified September 3, 2000 by Pope John Paul II and Canonized April 27, 2014 in Saint Peter's Square,
Vatican City by Pope Francis.October 12 – St. Wilfrid Born in Northumberland England in 634, St. Wilfrid was educated at Lindesfarne and then spent some time in Lyons and Rome. Returning to England, he was elected abbot of Ripon in 658 and introduced the Roman rules and practices in opposition to the Celtic ways of northern England. In 664, he was the architect of the definitive victory of the Roman party at the Conference of Whitby. He was appointed Bishop of York and after some difficulty finally took possession of his See in 669. He worked very hard and founded many monasteries of the Benedictine Order, but he was obliged to appeal to Rome in order to prevent the subdivision of his diocese by St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. While waiting for the case to be decided, he was forced to go into exile, and worked hard and long to evangelize the heathen south Saxons until his recall in 686. In 691, he had to retire again to the Midlands until Rome once again vindicated him. In 703, he resigned his post and retired to his monastery at Ripon where he spent his remaining time in prayer and penitential practices, until his death in 709. St. Wilfrid was an outstanding personage of his day, extremely capable and possessed of unbounded courage, remaining firm in his convictions despite running afoul of civil and ecclesiastical authorities. He helped bring the discipline of the English Church into line with that of Rome. He was also a dedicated pastor and a zealous and skilled missionary; his brief time spent in Friesland in 678-679 was the starting point for the great English mission to the Germanic peoples of continental Europe.
October 13 – St. Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor was the son of King Ethelred III and his Norman wife, Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy. He was born at Islip, England, and sent to Normandy with his mother in the year 1013 when the Danes under Sweyn and his son Canute invaded England. Canute remained in England and the year after Edward’s father’s death in 1016, Canute married Emma, who had returned to England, and he became King of England. Edward remained in Normandy, was brought up a Norman, and in 1042, on the death of his half-brother, Hardicanute, son of Canute and Emma, and largely through the support of the powerful Earl Godwin, he was acclaimed king of England. In 1044, he married Godwin's daughter Edith. His reign was a peaceful one characterized by his good rule and remission of taxes, but also by the struggle, partly caused by his natural inclination to favor the Normans, between Godwin and his Saxon supporters and the Norman barons, In the same year, Edward banished Godwin, who took refuge in Flanders but returned the following year with a fleet ready to lead a rebellion. Armed revolt was avoided when the two men met and settled their differences. Edward's difficulties continued after Godwin's death in 1053 with Godwin's two sons: Harold who had his eye on the throne since Edward was childless, and Tostig, Earl of Northumbria. Tostig was driven from Northumbria by a revolt in 1065 and banished to Europe by Edward, who named Harold his successor. After this Edward became more interested in religious affairs and built St. Peter's Abbey at Westminster, the site of the present Abbey, where he is buried. His piety gained him the surname "the Confessor". He died in London on January 5, and he was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III.
October 14 – St. Callistus I
Imagine that your biography was written by an enemy of yours. And
that its information was all anyone would have not only for the rest of
your life but for centuries to come. You would never be able to refute
it -- and even if you could no one would believe you because your
accuser was a saint.
That is the problem we face with Pope Callistus I who died about 222.
The only story of his life we have is from someone who hated him and
what he stood for, an author identified as Saint Hippolytus, a rival
candidate for the chair of Peter.
Trying to weed out the venom to find the facts of Callistus' life in
Hippolytus' account, we learn that Callistus himself was a slave. His
master, Carporphorus made him manager of a bank in the Publica Piscina sector of Rome where Callistus took
in the money of other Christians. The bank failed -- according to Hippolytus because Callistus spent the money
on his own pleasure-seeking. It seems unlikely that Carporphorus would trust his good name and his fellow
Christians' savings to someone that unreliable.
Whatever the reason, Callistus fled the city by ship in order to escape punishment. When his master caught up
with him, Callistus jumped into the sea (according to Hippolytus, in order to commit suicide). After Callistus was
rescued he was brought back to Rome, put on trial, and sentenced to a cruel punishment -- forced labor on the
treadmill. Carporphorus took pity on his former slave and manager and Callistus won his release by convincing
him he could get some of the money back from investors. Callistus' methods had not improved with desperation
and when he disrupted a synagogue by shouting for money, he was arrested and sentenced again. This time he
was sent to the mines. Not willing to carry the case further the Pope gave Callistus an income and situation --
away from Rome.
About nine or ten years later, the new pope Zephyrinus recalled Callistus to Rome. Zephyrinus was good-hearted
and well-meaning but had no understanding of theology. This was disastrous in a time when heretical beliefs
were springing up everywhere. One-minute Zephyrinus would endorse a belief he thought orthodox and the
next he would embrace the opposite statement. Callistus soon made his value known, guiding Zephyrinus
through theology to what he saw as orthodoxy. (Needless to say, it was not what Hippolytus felt was orthodox
enough.) To a certain extent, according to Hippolytus, Callistus was the power behind the Church before he
even assumed the bishopric of Rome.
When Zephyrinus died in 219, Callistus was proclaimed Pope over the protests of his rival candidate Hippolytus.
Callistus came to power during a crucial time of the Church. Was it going to hang on to the rigid rules of previous
years and limit itself to those who were already saints or was it going to embrace sinners as Christ commanded?
Was its mission only to a few holy ones or to the whole world, to the healthy or to the sick? We can understand
Hippolytus' fear -- that hypocritical penitents would use the Church and weaken it in the time when they faced
persecution. But Callistus chose to trust God's mercy and love and opened the doors. By choosing Christ's
mission, he chose to spread the Gospel to all.October 15 – St. Teresa of Avila Teresa of Avila was born Teresa Ali Fatim Corella Sanchez de Capeda y Ahumada in Avila, Spain. As a result of her mother’s fanciful ideas, her childhood ideas were lighthearted, despite her father’s discipline. She led a fairly ordinary life, though she was convinced that she was a horrible sinner. As a teenager, she cared only about boys, clothes, flirting, and rebelling. When she was 16, her father decided she was out of control and sent her to a convent. At first she hated it but eventually she began to enjoy it -- partly because of her growing love for God, and partly because the convent was a lot less strict than her father. Still, when the time came for her to choose between marriage and religious life, she had a tough time making the decision. Teresa suffered the same problem that Francis of Assisi did -- she was too charming. When she finally chose religious life, she did so because she though that it was the only safe place for someone as prone to sin as she was. Once installed at the Carmelite convent permanently, she started to learn and practice mental prayer, in which she "tried as hard as I could to keep Jesus Christ present within me....My imagination is so dull that I had no talent for imagining or coming up with great theological thoughts." Teresa prayed this way off and on for eighteen years without feeling that she was getting results. Part of the reason for her trouble was that the convent was not the safe place she assumed it would be. Teresa fell ill with malaria. When she had a seizure, people were so sure she was dead that after she woke up four days later she learned they had dug a grave for her. Afterwards she was paralyzed and was never completely well. Yet instead of helping her spiritually, her sickness became an excuse to stop her prayer completely. When she was 41, a priest convinced her to go back to her prayer, but she still found it difficult. As she started to pray again, God gave her spiritual signs. Sometimes her whole body was raised from the ground. If she felt God was going to levitate her body, she stretched out on the floor and called the nuns to sit on her and hold her down. Far from being excited about these events, she "begged God very much not to give me any more favors in public." Teresa felt that the best evidence that the signs that came from God was that the experiences gave her peace, inspiration, and encouragement. "If these effects are not present I would greatly doubt that the raptures come from God; on the contrary I would fear lest they be caused by rabies." At the age of 43, she became determined to found a new convent that went back to the basics of a contemplative order: a simple life of poverty devoted to prayer. When plans leaked out about her first convent, St. Joseph's, she was denounced from the pulpit, told by her sisters she should raise money for the convent she was already in, and threatened with the Inquisition. At 51, she felt it was time to spread her reform movement Teresa looked on these difficulties as good publicity. Soon she had postulants clamoring to get into her reform convents. Soon her ideas about prayer swept not only through Spain but all of Europe. She is the founder of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church for her writing and teaching on prayer, one of two women to be honored in this way.
October 16 – St. Gerard Majella
St. Gerard Majella was born in 1726 in Muro, Italy to a family of
seven. Majella grew up in a poverty with a great respect for the
poor. He was just 12 when his father passed away and his mother
sent him away to live with his uncle and learn to become a tailor,
like his father. After a few years of working as a sewing apprentice,
Majella took on a job with the local Bishop of Lacedonia as a servant.
Once Majella began earning money as a journeyman at the age of
21, he split his earnings with his mother, the poor of Muro and the
rest in offerings for the poor souls. As the days passed, Majella
began to grow pale and thin, often fasting and in prayer at a nearby
Cathedral.
He applied to the Capuchin monastery at Muro twice, but was
turned down both times. Majella was told his health was not well
enough for such a strenuous life. However, Majella did not give up.
In 1749, at the age of 23, he joined the Congregation of the Most
Holy Redeemer and just three years later became a professed lay
brother.
Majella lived with the three vows of Poverty, Chasity and
Obedience. He stayed close with the poor and worked many
different jobs. He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great
piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of
religious women. Majella was often called on by the poor and the sick. Wherever his presence was demanded
he graciously presented himself. He was there to "do the Will of God."
Throughout his years of life, several reported miracles are tied to Majella including, restoring a boy's life after
he fell from a high cliff; blessing a poor farmer's crops, ridding it of mice; blessing a poor family's supply of
wheat, causing it to last until the next harvest; and he multiplied bread for the poor on several occasions.
Along with his miracles effected through prayers for woman in labor, Majella's last recorded miracle is one that
many credit toward his becoming the patron of expectant mothers. Shortly before his death, Majella
encountered a young girl. He had dropped his handkerchief and she set out to return it, only to be told to keep
it. Majella told her she "may need it someday." Years after Majella's passing, the young girl became married and
with child. She unexpectedly went into labor and was on the verge of losing her baby. She called for Majella's
handkerchief to be applied to her. Almost immediately, her pain stopped and she proceeded to give birth to a
healthy child.
Even as Majella became ill with tuberculosis, he only desired to live in God's will. His one last request was that
a small placard be placed on his door stating, "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God
wills." Majella was told the Will of God wanted him to get better, and almost at once he became well. However,
this only lasted for a month and quickly he became very ill once again. St. Gerard Majella died of disease on
October 16, 1755 at the age of 29, living in the religious life for only six years. Due to the numerous miracles
performed through Majella's prayers, proceedings for his canonization began shortly after his death. In 1893,
Majella was beatified by Pope Leo XIII and on December 11, 1904, Pope Pius X canonized the man of God.October 17 – St. Ignatius of Antioch Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch. In the year 107, Emperor Trajan visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and the renouncing of their religion. Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to be put to death in Rome. Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. Five of these letters are to churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith. The sixth letter was to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom. “The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.” Ignatius bravely met the lions in the Circus Maximus. Ignatius’s great concern was for the unity and order of the Church. Even greater was his willingness to suffer martyrdom rather than deny his Lord Jesus Christ. He did not draw attention to his own suffering, but to the love of God which strengthened him. He knew the price of commitment and would not deny Christ, even to save his own life.
October 18 – St. Luke Luke, the writer of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, has been identified with St. Paul's "Luke, the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14). We know few other facts about Luke's life from Scripture and from early Church historians. It is believed that Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile. Colossians 10-14 speaks of those friends who are with him. It first mentions all those "of the circumcision" -- in other words, Jews -- and does not include Luke in this group. Luke's gospel shows special sensitivity to evangelizing Gentiles. It is only in his gospel that we hear the parable of the Good Samaritan, that we hear Jesus praising the faith of Gentiles such as the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Lk.4:25-27), and that we hear the story of the one grateful leper who is a Samaritan (Lk.17:11-19). According to the early Church historian Eusebius Luke was born at Antioch in Syria. Scholars have argued that Luke might have been born a slave. It was not uncommon for families to educate slaves in medicine so that they would have a resident family physician. Not only do we have Paul's word, but Eusebius, Saint Jerome, Saint Irenaeus and Caius, a second-century writer, all refer to Luke as a physician. We have to go to Acts to follow the trail of Luke's Christian ministry. We know nothing about his conversion but looking at the language of Acts we can see where he joined Saint Paul. Luke first joined Paul's company at Troas at about the year 51 and accompanied him into Macedonia where they traveled first to Samothrace, Neapolis, and finally Philippi. Luke then switches back to the third person which seems to indicate he was not thrown into prison with Paul and that when Paul left Philippi Luke stayed behind to encourage the Church there. Seven years passed before Paul returned to the area on his third missionary journey. In Acts 20:5, the switch to "we" tells us that Luke has left Philippi to rejoin Paul in Troas in 58 where they first met up. They traveled together through Miletus, Tyre, Caesarea, to Jerusalem. Luke also has a special connection with the women in Jesus' life, especially Mary. It is only in Luke's gospel that we hear the story of the Annunciation, Mary's visit to Elizabeth including the Magnificat, the Presentation, and the story of Jesus' disappearance in Jerusalem. It is Luke that we have to thank for the Scriptural parts of the Hail Mary: "Hail Mary full of grace" spoken at the Annunciation and "Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus" spoken by her cousin Elizabeth. Forgiveness and God's mercy to sinners is also of first importance to Luke. Only in Luke do we hear the story of the Prodigal Son welcomed back by the overjoyed father, the forgiven woman disrupting the feast by washing Jesus' feet with her tears. Throughout Luke's gospel, Jesus takes the side of the sinner who wants to return to God's mercy. Reading Luke's gospel gives a good idea of his character as one who loved the poor, who wanted the door to God's kingdom opened to all, who respected women, and who saw hope in God's mercy for everyone. The reports of Luke's life after Paul's death are conflicting. Some early writers claim he was martyred, others say he lived a long life. Some say he preached in Greece, others in Gaul. The earliest tradition we have says that he died at 84 Boeotia after settling in Greece to write his Gospel. He is often shown with an ox or a calf because these are the symbols of sacrifice -- the sacrifice Jesus made for all the world.
October 19 - Sts. Isaac Jogues and Rene Goupil
In 1642 the Huron country (in Canada) was in great distress. Harvests were poor,
widespread sickness and even clothing was scarce. Quebec was the only source of
supplies, and Isaac Jogues was chosen to lead an expedition. The goods were
gathered and ready to transport back. Jogues worked
with the Indian Nations in North America but none
the less, the Iroquois were bitter enemies of the
Hurons, and fiercest of all Indian tribes, who were on
the war-path and ambushed the returning expedition.
The story of the ill-treatment and torture of the
captives was extraordinary. Suffice it to say that
Jogues and his assistant, Rene Goupil, were beaten to
St. Isaac Jogues the ground and assailed several times with knotted
sticks and fists, had their hair, beards and nails torn
off and their forefingers bitten through.
St. Renè Goupil
But what saddened them even more, was the cruelty practiced on
their Christian converts. The first of all the martyrs to suffer death was Rene Goupil, who was tomahawked on
September 29, 1642, for having made the Sign of the Cross on the brow of some children. Rene was a
remarkable man. He had tried hard to be a Jesuit and had even entered the Novitiate, but his health forced
him to give up the attempt. He then studied surgery and found his way to Canada, where he offered his
services to the missionaries.
Jogues, Goupil, Jean de Lalande and 5 other martyred missionaries, all Jesuit priests or laymen associated with
them, were Both Jogues and Goupil were beatified on June 21, 1925, in Rome, Italy by Pope Pius XI. These
martyrs were canonized by the Catholic Church in 1930;. Sts. René Goupil, Isaac Jogues and Jean de Lalande
are considered the first U.S. saints because they were martyred in upstate New York and are known as
"The North American Martyrs". A shrine was built in their honor at Auriesville, New York, at a site formerly
believed to be that of
the Mohawk village.
Interesting note: Jogues is
also credited with naming
Lake George, calling it Lac du
Saint Sacrement (Lake of the
Blessed Sacrament).October 20 – St. Paul of the Cross
St. Paul of the Cross was born at Ovada in the
Republic of Genoa, Italy, January 3, 1694. As a
youngster, he was kind, innocent and pius. He was
inspired from on high to found a congregation; in
a time that he was lifted up by God, he saw
the habit which he and his companions were to
wear.
After consulting his director, Bishop Gastinara
of Alexandria in Piedmont, he reached the
conclusion that God wished him to establish a
congregation in honor of the Passion
of Jesus Christ. On November 22, 1720,
the bishop vested him with the habit that had
been shown to him in a vision, the same that
the Passionists wear at the present time. From
that moment the saint applied himself to repair
the Rules of his institute; and in 1721 he went
to Rome to obtain the directives for his ministry
from the Holy See.
At first he failed, but finally succeeded when Benedict XIV approved the Rules in 1741 and 1746.
Meanwhile St. Paul built his first monastery near Obitello. Sometime later he established a
larger community at the Church of St. John and Paul in Rome. For fifty years St. Paul he worked
tirelessly in his missionary duties in Italy. God lavished him the greatest gifts in
the supernatural order, but he treated himself with the greatest of restraint, and believed that
he was a useless servant and a great sinner. His saintly death occurred at Rome in the year 1775,
at the age of eighty-one. He was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867.October 21 – St. Hilarion of Gaza
Hilarion the Great (291–371) was a religious hermit
who spent most of his life in the desert according to the
example of Anthony the Great (c. 251–356). While St Anthony
is considered to have established Christian monasticism in the
Egyptian desert, St Hilarion is considered by some to be the
founder of Palestinian monasticism and venerated as a saint
by the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church.
The chief source of information regarding Hilarion is the
biography written by St. Jerome. The life of Hilarion was
written by Jerome in 390 in Bethlehem. Its object was to
further the ascetic life to which he was devoted. It contains
information that is legendary with some statements that
attach to genuine history in the 4th century.
Hilarion was born in Thabatha, south of Gaza in Syria
Palaestina of pagan parents. He successfully studied rhetoric
with a grammarian in Alexandria. It seems that he was
converted to Christianity in Alexandria. After that, he shunned
the pleasures of his day—theatre, circus and arena—and spent
his time attending church. According to St. Jerome, he was a
thin and delicate youth of fragile health.
After hearing of Saint Anthony, whose name (according to St.
Jerome), "was in the mouth of all the races of Egypt", Hilarion,
at the age of fifteen, went to live with St.Anthony in the desert
for two months. As Anthony's hermitage was busy with visitors
seeking cures for diseases or demonic affliction, Hilarion
returned home along with some monks. At Thabatha, his
parents having died in the meantime, he gave his inheritance
to his brothers and the poor and left for the wilderness. After
he had lived in the wilderness for 22 years, he became quite famous in Syria Palaestina. Visitors started to come,
begging for his help. The parade of petitioners and would-be disciples drove Hilarion to retire to more remote
locations. But they followed him everywhere. First he visited Anthony's retreat in Egypt. Then he withdrew
to Sicily, later to Dalmatia, and finally to Cyprus. He died there in 371. The first miracle attributed to him was
when he cured a woman from a Roman city in Syria Palaestina who had been barren for 15 years. Later, he
cured three children of a fatal illness, healed a paralysed charioteer, and expelled demons.October 22 – St. Pope John Paul II Karol J. Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in Poland. He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 18. Upon graduation he enrolled in Cracow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 and in a school for drama. The Nazi occupation forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry (1940-1944) and then in the Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany. In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Cracow. At the same time, Karol Wojtyla was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic Theatre," also clandestine. After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Cracow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Cracow on November 1, 1946. Soon after, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange. He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the topic of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross. At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium and Holland. Later he became professor of moral philosophy and social ethics in the major seminary of Cracow and in the Faculty of philosophy at the Catholic University of Lubin (where he became the Director of the Chair of Ethic, and lectured for 25 years until his election for the Pope in 1978). On July 4, 1958, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958, in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak. On January 13, 1964, he was nominated Archbishop of Cracow by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal June 26, 1967. Besides taking part in Vatican Council II with an important contribution to the elaboration of the Constitution Gaudium et spes, Cardinal Wojtyla participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops. He was born in 1920, died in 2005. He was beatified in 2011 in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI and canonized in 2014, in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Francis. Since the start of his Pontificate on October 16, 1978, Pope John Paul II has completed 95 pastoral visits outside of Italy and 142 within Italy . As Bishop of Rome he has visited 301 of the 334 parishes.
October 23 – St. John of Capistrano St. John was born at Capistrano, Italy in 1385, the son of a former German knight in that city. He studied law at the University of Perugia and practiced as a lawyer in the courts of Naples. King Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia. During a war with a neighboring town he was betrayed and imprisoned. Upon his release he entered the Franciscan community at Perugia in 1416. He and St. James of the March were fellow students under St. Bernardine of Siena, who inspired him to institute the devotion to the holy Name of Jesus and His Mother. John began his brilliant preaching apostolate with a deacon in 1420. After his ordination he traveled throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia preaching penance and establishing numerous communities of Franciscan renewal. When Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and Rome, St. John, at the age of seventy, was commissioned by Pope Callistus III to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks. Marching at the head of seventy thousand Christians, he gained victory in the great battle of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456. Three months later he died at Illok, Hungary. He is the patron of jurists.
October 24 – St. Anthony Mary Claret It is unfortunate that some of the most holy has very little historical information to inform us of their piety. St Anthony Mary Claret is one of them. Anthony was born in Salient in Catalonia, Spain, in 1807, the son of a weaver. He took up weaving but then studied for the priesthood, desiring to be a Jesuit. His ill health prevented his entering the Order, and he served as a secular priest. In 1849, he founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known today as the Claretians, and the Apostolic Training Institute of the Immaculate Conception, Claretian nuns. From 1850 to 1857, Anthony served as the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. He returned to the court of Queen Isabella II as confessor, and went into exile with her in 1868. In 1869 and 1870, Anthony participated in the First Vatican Council. He died in the Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide in southern France on October 24, 1870. Anthony Mary Claret had the gift of prophecy and performed many miracles. He was opposed by the liberal forces of Spain and Cuba and endured many trials.
October 25 – Sts. Daria & Chrysanthus
There is very little known about her as well as St.
Chrysanthus like St. Anthony Claret, celebrated
yesterday. Chrysanthus was an Egyptian, son of a
Patrician.
He was brought to Rome from Alexandria during the
reign of Numerian, and despite the objections of his
father, who had brought him to Rome, was baptized by
a priest named Carpophorus. Chrysanthus refused his
father's attempts to get him married, finally married
Daria, a Greek and a priestess of Minerva, converted
her, and convinced her to live with him in chastity.
When they converted a number of Romans,
Chrysanthus was denounced as a Christian to Claudius,
the tribune. Chrysanthus' attitude under torture so
impressed Claudius that he and his wife, Hilaria, two
sons, and seventy of his soldiers became Christians, whereupon the Emperor had
them all killed. Daria was sent to a brothel, where she was defended by a lion,
brought before Numerian, who ordered her execution, and was stoned and then
buried alive. When several followers of Daria and Chrysanthus were found praying
at their crypt, among them Diodorus, a priest, and Marianus, a deacon, they were
all entombed alive.October 26 - St. Bean of Scotland
On December 16, there is named in the Roman Martyrology and in certain Irish
calendars a Saint Bean Kirk of Ireland, who had been confused with the St.
Bean whose feast is still
observed in the
Scottish diocese of Aberdeen.
On October 26, as founder of
the bishopric of Mortlach in
Banff, which was the
forerunner of that of
Aberdeen we recognize St.
Bean of Scottish descent.
Nothing else is known about
him. The fourteenth century
chronicler Fordun, states that
he was made bishop by Pope
Benedict VIII, at the request
of Malcolm Canmore, who is
said to have founded an
episcopal monastery at
Mortlach. If true, this would be between 1012 and 1024; but the See of Mortlach
is generally said to date from 1063. St. Bean's dwelling place is supposed to have
been at Balvanie, near Mortlach (Bal-beni-mor, "the dwelling of Bean the Great").October 27 - St. Frumentius Called "Abuna" or ‘the father' of Ethiopia, sent to that land by St. Athanasius. Frumentius was born in Lebanon. While on a voyage on the Red Sea with St. Aedesius, possibly his brother, only Frumentius and Aedesius survived the shipwreck. Taken to the Ethiopian royal court at Aksum, they soon attained high positions. Aedesius was royal cup bearer, and Fruementius was a secretary. They introduced Christianity to that land. When Abreha and Asbeha inherited the Ethiopian throne from their father, Frumentius went to Alexandria, Egypt, to ask St. Athanasius to send a missionary to Ethiopia. He was consecrated a bishop and converted many more upon his return to Aksum. The people called Frumentius Kesate Birhan (Revealer of Light) and Abba Salama (Father of Peace). He became the first Abune, a title given to the head of the Ethiopian Church. Frumentius and Aedesius are considered the apostles of Ethiopia. The 4th-century church historian Rufinus of Aquileia, by meeting Aedesius later in Lebanon, was able to document Frumentius’ achievements, noting that the Ethiopians addressed him as abuna, or “Our Father,” a title that is still used for the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Ethiopian traditions credit him with the first Ge'ez translation of the New Testament, and being involved in the development of Ge'ez script from an abjad (consonantal-only) into an abugida (syllabic).
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