Hope has been the sole companion of my life,
the greatest aid in doubts, the strongest assistance in my weakness;
hope, but not the hope in men,
such as is thought to bring greater happiness and instead
brings greater disaster,
but hope in Christ, supported by the celestial promise that
He will strengthen the weakest of men
with a greatness of soul and divine help.
Pope St. Pius X
the greatest aid in doubts, the strongest assistance in my weakness;
hope, but not the hope in men,
such as is thought to bring greater happiness and instead
brings greater disaster,
but hope in Christ, supported by the celestial promise that
He will strengthen the weakest of men
with a greatness of soul and divine help.
Pope St. Pius X
More
and more people began to blame Nero for the desolation. Alarmed, the
emperor shifted the blame to the Christians, and had them seized and
tortured to death in public. Some were burned as living torches at
evening banquets, some crucified and others were fed to wild animals.
Peter,
who was named Simon, was a fisherman from Galilee. Jesus gave him the
name Peter, which means ‘Rock,’ because he was to become the rock upon
which Christ would build His Church. Among the Twelve, Peter was the
first to recognize the divinity of Christ and to publicly profess that
Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Chosen by Our Lord to shepherd His
flock, he led the Apostles as the first Pope.
Saul
continued to Damascus, where he was baptized and his sight was
restored. He took the name Paul and spent the remainder of his life
preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.
The
more the devil labors to destroy souls, the more we shall be inflamed
with desire to save them, O Heart of Jesus, zealous Lover of souls!
Irenaeus
was born around the year 125 in a province in Asia Minor. He was a
brilliant student and well versed in the Holy Scriptures, which led him
to serve as a priest under St. Pothinus, the first bishop of a local
church.
In
428, Cyril discovered that the priest/monk Nestorius, the Archbishop of
Alexandria, was preaching heretical theology. Cyril sent the heretic a
mild expostulation, but to no avail. Both parties then appealed to Pope
St. Clementine, and Cyril was appointed to depose Nestorius. In 431,
Cyril presided over the Third General Council at Ephesus, attended by
some two hundred bishops, which condemned all the tenets of Nestorius
and his followers. However, upon the arrival of Archbishop John of
Antioch and forty-two followers who believed Nestorius to be innocent,
they held a council of their own and deposed Cyril. Emperor Theodosius
II had both Cyril and Nestorius arrested but released Cyril on the
arrival of papal legates who confirmed the council's actions against
Nestorius and declared Cyril innocent of all charges leveled against
him.
William
was born in 1085 at Vercelli in the Piedmont region of Italy of noble
and wealthy parents. When he was still very young, he determined to
renounce the world and become a hermit.
The
Church usually observes the day of a saint's death as his feast,
because that day marks his entrance into heaven. To this rule there are
two notable exceptions, the birthdays of Blessed Mary and of St. John
the Baptist, both born free of original sin (as John was cleansed of
original sin in his mother’s womb). “I tell you, among those born of
woman no one is greater than John…” Jesus said.
Born
in 1575 in the Southwark section of the City of London, Thomas was the
son of Richard Garnet, a Confessor of the Faith, and nephew of the
famous Jesuit missionary and martyr, Father Henry Garnet.
Sir
Thomas More was a distinguished statesman in the English Parliament.
First and foremost, however, he was a faithful Catholic, a loving
husband, and a devoted father. More was widely known for his “unfailing
moral integrity, sharpness of mind, his open and humorous character, and
his extraordinary learning." He was a close friend and confidant of
Henry VIII, and the King himself eventually promoted Thomas to the
prominent office of Lord Chancellor. However, the two were alienated
when Thomas refused to compromise his conscience and faith when Henry
openly defied Church teachings and divorced his wife to marry Anne
Boleyn, choosing instead to renounce the King’s friendship, his own
public career, wealth and worldly prestige. Thomas was consequently
imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually condemned and beheaded
on July 6, 1535. He was named patron saint of statesmen and politicians
by Pope John Paul II.
A
friend of St. Thomas More’s, St. John Fisher also had a close
connection to Henry VIII, having once been his tutor, and was a friend
of the royal family. As the Bishop of Rochester, he was known as a man
of great leaning and deep and unshakable faith. He was supported by the
King and appointed to the lifetime position of Chancellor of the
University of Cambridge. However, he too fell into disfavor with Henry
when he also opposed the King’s unlawful divorce of Queen Catherine of
Aragon. Bishop Fisher courageously warned Parliament of Henry’s
encroaching powers over the Church in England in direct disregard of the
Papal audit, and publicly preached against the divorce from the pulpit
at the same time as Sir Thomas More was resigning his high office. By
thus calling down the King’s fury on himself, the holy Bishop of
Rochester suffered multiple imprisonments in the Tower, during which
time he was made a Cardinal by the authority of Pope Paul III – an
appointment which Henry rejected. Fisher was condemned to be hung, drawn
and quartered; and, although originally sentenced to be killed on June
24, the feast of St. John the Baptist, the King had a superstitious fear
of executing him on that feast because of the strong resemblance of the
deaths of these two saints, and instead had him beheaded – ironically
just like John the Baptist after all – two days earlier, on June 22,
1535.
Aloysius
was born in the Italian province of Lombardy in 1568, the first-born
son of a Marquis and the lady of honor to the Queen of Spain. When he
was seven, he experienced a spiritual awakening: he made a vow of
perpetual virginity, keeping his eyes downcast in the presence of women
to safeguard himself from possible temptation, and dedicated most of his
time to prayer, especially the Office of Our Lady.
By
age fourteen, Aloysius had resolved to join the Society of Jesus and
become a missionary. He was to suffer much from his family's strenuous
opposition to this decision, particularly from his father, who hoped
Aloysius would join the military. However, he persevered, and his father
finally relented.
Historically,
devotion to Mary Most Holy in the form of her Immaculate Heart first
occurs in the thirteenth century with St. Mechtilde, St. Gertrude, St.
Bernardine of Siena and others. In the seventeenth century, St. Francis
de Sales was an exponent of this devotion. But it was St. John Eudes the
great apostle of the Immaculate Heart (1601-1680), who gave the
decisive impulse to the practice. 
In
the second apparition of Fatima, Our Lady showed the seers, Lucia,
Francisco and Jacinta, her heart encircled by thorns. Later, on December
10, 1925, in a private apparition to Sister Lucia, she asked for the
devotion of reparation of the Five First Saturdays.
Silverius
soon incurred the wrath of the Empress Theodora. He refused to accept
and recognize the heretical Eutychian patriarchs – Anthimus of
Constantinople, Severus of Antioch, and Theodosius of Alexandria – who
had all been excommunicated and deposed from their episcopal sees by the
previous pope. Silverius is said to have remarked that by his signing
the letter of refusal to Theodora's imperial request, he was also
signing his own death warrant. And so it proved to be.
Romuald
was born into a noble Italian family in 956. He spent his youth wildly
in comfort and laziness. One day, when he was twenty, he saw his father
kill another man in a duel. He fled to a monastery in disgust, and he
stayed there for three years before deciding to travel, and spending the
next thirty years building monasteries and hermitages in Italy.
Come to my aid for I commend myself to you.
Gregory
Barbarigo was born in 1625, of a very ancient and distinguished
Venetian family. A brilliant student, he embraced a diplomatic career
and accompanied the Venetian Ambassador, Contarini, to the Congress of
Munster in 1648. He was later ordained to the priesthood and became the
first Bishop of Bergamo consecrated by Pope Alexander VII. Eventually he
became a Cardinal with authority over the diocese of Padua. Through his
efforts the seminaries of both Padua and Bergamo were greatly
increased.
Born
on August 20, 1845, Albert belonged to a wealthy, aristocratic Polish
family. Involved in politics from a young age, at eighteen he lost his
leg during an uprising against Czar Alexander III of Russia.
Born
in the Netherlands in 1182, Lutgardis was sent to a Benedictine convent
at the age of twelve because her merchant father had lost the money
meant for her dowry, and marriage without it seemed unlikely.
Germaine
was born in 1579 in Pibrac, a village in southern France. Her mother
died soon after her birth, leaving the child in the care of her husband.
Germaine’s father, who had no love for her on account of her right hand
being paralyzed and deformed, eventually remarried. Her new step-mother
was abusive, forcing her to sleep in the stable or in a cupboard under
the stairs. She gave the sickly girl scraps and isolated her from her
healthier step-siblings.
In
815, during the second outbreak of the iconoclastic persecution, the
movement against the veneration of icons, Methodius was sent to Rome as a
representative of Patriarch Nicephorus, who was exiled by Emperor Leo V
the Armenian for refusing to yield to the imperial decrees on the
destruction of icons. The holy man spoke in favor of the reverence for
holy images, seeking acceptance and approval for the icons, but he
returned to Constantinople unsuccessful.
It
was after his ordination to the priesthood that Fernando first came
into contact with some Franciscan friars who settled near his monastery.
From the beginning, Fernando was strongly attracted to the simple,
evangelical lifestyle of the friars. However, it was not until the news
came of the first martyrs of their order – five Franciscans beheaded in
Morocco – and Fernando saw their mutilated bodies, which had been
ransomed, being buried in the Abbey of Santa Cruz, that he obtained
permission to leave the Augustinian Order and join the Franciscans,
where he received the new name of Anthony. So inspired was he by the
martyrs’ example that he set out for Morocco himself, with the hope of
becoming a martyr too. However, he fell seriously ill en route and was
forced to return to Portugal to regain his health. According to the
designs of Divine Providence, on the return voyage, the ship was blown
off course and landed in Sicily.
Paula
often assisted her brother in teaching poor children at his parish, and
soon realized her vocation as an educator. In 1834, she and six other
women began a school for the poor, and became known as the Sisters of
St. Dorothy. The congregation grew quickly, and the schools eventually
spread across Italy, then to Europe and Africa, Asia and onto the
Americas, many of which remain open to this day.
Though
Barnabas, a Jew of Cyprus, was not one of the Twelve chosen by Our
Lord, he is still considered an apostle. He was closely involved with
the apostles after Pentecost, and was principally responsible for their
accepting Paul, who was a recent convert, into their midst.
We
know very little about St. Ithamar, but we do know that he was
consecrated to the see of Rochester after the death of St. Paulinius.
Ephrem
was born about the year 306 in Nisibis in Mesopotamia and is the only
Syrian Doctor of the Church. He was a vigorous defender of the Faith,
taking it upon himself to expose and combat many false doctrines of his
time.