Most Holy Name of Jesus

The Holy Name of Jesus refers to the theological and devotional use of the name of Jesus. The reverence and affection with which Christians have regarded the Holy Name of Jesus goes back to the earliest days of Christianity.

The devotions and venerations also extend to the IHS christogram (a monogram of the Holy Name), derived from the Greek word IHOUS for Jesus, or referring to Iesus Hominum Salvator, Jesus savior of mankind) representing the Holy Name.

The Gospel of Matthew provides a specific meaning and intention for the name Jesus (as the one who "saves his people from sin") and indicates that it was selected by Heavenly guidance. For centuries, Christians have invoked the Holy Name, and have believed that there is intrinsic power in the name of Jesus.

The feast has been celebrated in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, at least at local levels, since the end of the fifteenth century. The veneration of the Holy Name was extended to the entire Roman Catholic Church on 20 December 1721, during the pontificate of Pope Innocent XIII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

St. Josephine Bakhita, virgin

Bakhita was born into a well-to-do family of the Daju tribe of south-western Sudan. Her father was the brother of the village chief. He owned a lot of land and had hired servants working for him.

At the age of approximately seven years, Bakhita was kidnapped by slave traders and consequently endured many years of physical, emotional and spiritual deprivation. There were long forced marches in slave caravans from her village of Olgossa to the slave markets in El Obeid and then on to Khartoum. Bakhita was sold and re-sold four times in a ten-year period. During this time she was tattooed all over her body with over one hundred incisions. Salt was poured into the wounds to make the pattern of scars stand out. This torture left her immobile from the bleeding and pain for over a month during which time she almost bled to death.

The name "Bakhita" comes from the Arabic language and means "The lucky one." This name was given to her by the slave traders since, in the trauma of abduction, she had forgotten her own name.

As a young adult woman she was taken on a trip to Italy with the last family who "owned" her even though they treated her well. During her stay there Bakhita came to know the Catholic faith through the Canossian Daughters of Charity. She decided to be baptized and held firm against returning to the Sudan with her "owners". With the help of the sisters and some good friends Bakhita gained her freedom. She decided to join the sisters who had taught her about the God she had already experienced in her trials and in her wonderment at the beauty of creation.

Bakhita died in Schio on 8 February 1947. She was declared "Blessed" on 17 May 1992, and proclaimed "Saint" on 1 October 2000 in Rome.

http://www.canossiansisters.org.au/

St. Louis Mary de Montfort, priest

Louis's life is inseparable from his efforts to promote genuine devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus and mother of the Church.Totus tuus(completely yours) was Louis's personal motto; Karol Wojtyla chose it as his episcopal motto.

Born in the Breton village of Montfort, close to Rennes (France), as an adult Louis identified himself by the place of his Baptism instead of his family name, Grignion. After being educated by the Jesuits and the Sulpicians, he was ordained as a diocesan priest in 1700.

Soon he began preaching parish missions throughout western France. His years of ministering to the poor prompted him to travel and live very simply, sometimes getting him into trouble with Church authorities. In his preaching, which attracted thousands of people back to the faith, Father Louis recommended frequent, even daily, Holy Communion (not the custom then!) and imitation of the Virgin Mary's ongoing acceptance of God's will for her life.

Louis founded the Missionaries of the Company of Mary (for priests and brothers) and the Daughters of Wisdom, who cared especially for the sick. His book, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, has become a classic explanation of Marian devotion.

Louis died in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, where a basilica has been erected in his honor. He was canonized in 1947. He is considered as one of the early proponents of the field of Mariology as it is known today, and a candidate to become a Doctor of the Church.

http://www.americancatholic.org/

Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of Fátima is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary with respect to reported apparitions of her to three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13. The three children were Lúcia Santos and her cousins, siblings Jacinta and Francisco Marto. The title of Our Lady of the Rosary is also sometimes used in reference to the same apparition, because the children related that the apparition specifically identified herself as the "Lady of the Rosary". The events at Fatima gained particular fame due to their elements of prophecy and eschatology, particularly with regard to possible world war and the conversion of Russia.

An estimated 70,000 people assembled to witness the last of the promised appearances of the Lady in the Cova da Iria on 13 October 1917. The widely reported miracle of the sun was a factor that led to Fatima quickly becoming a major centre of pilgrimage. Two million pilgrims visited the site in the decade following the events of 1917.

The Catholic Church has endorsed the Fatima Message since 1930. Five successive Popes have publicly indicated their approval of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima and Her message. Two Popes went to Fatima on Pilgrimage. Pope John Paul II went there twice, once on May 13, 1982 and again on May 13, 1991.

http://en.wikipedia.org

Sts. Christopher Magallanes, priest and martyr, & Companions, martyrs

"Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe!"

This was the slogan of the "Cristero" uprising in the 1920's against the anti-Catholic government of Mexico in the 1920’s which had instituted and enforced laws against the Church in an absurd attempt to eradicate the Catholic faith in Mexico, even going so far as to ban all foreign clergy and the celebration of Mass in some regions.

St. Christopher Magallanes and 21 other priests and three lay companions were martyred between 1915 and 1937, by shooting or hanging, throughout eight Mexican states, for their membership in the Cristero movement. Magallanes erected a seminary in Totatiche and he and his companions secretly preached and ministered to the faithful.

The last words heard spoken by Magallanes were from his cell, when he shouted, "I am innocent and I die innocent. I forgive with all my heart those responsible for my death, and I ask God that the shedding of my blood serve the peace of our divided Mexico".

Pope John Paul II beatified the Cristero martyrs in 1992 and canonized them in 2000.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/

St. Rita of Cascia, religious

Born at Roccaporena in central Italy, Rita wanted to become a nun but was pressured at a young age into marrying a harsh and cruel man. During her 18-year marriage, she bore and raised two sons. After her husband was killed in a brawl and her sons had died, Rita tried to join the Augustinian nuns in Cascia. Unsuccessful at first because she was a widow, Rita eventually succeeded.

Over the years, her austerity, prayerfulness and charity became legendary. When she developed wounds on her forehead, people quickly associated them with the wounds from Christ's crown of thorns. She meditated frequently on Christ's passion. Her care for the sick nuns was especially loving. She also counseled lay people who came to her monastery.

Beatified in 1626, Rita was not canonized until 1900. She has acquired the reputation, together with St. Jude, as a saint of impossible cases. Many people visit her tomb each year.

http://www.americancatholic.org/

Sts. Augustine Zhao Rong, priest & martyr, & Companions, martyrs

Saint Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese diocesan priest who was martyred with his 119 companions in 1815. Among their number was an eighteen year old boy, Chi Zhuzi, who cried out to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: "Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian."

Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China's relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly.

The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Most of them (eighty-seven) were born in China and were children, parents, catechists or laborers, ranging from nine years of age to seventy-two. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests.

The thirty-three foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse (Paris Foreign Mission Society) to his martyrdom in Beijing. Augustine was baptized and not long after was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815.

Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized in Rome on October 1, 2000.

http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/

St. Apollinaris, Bishop & Martyr

One of the first great martyrs of the church. He was made Bishop of Ravenna by St. Peter himself. The miracles he wrought there soon attracted official attention, for they and his preaching won many converts to the Faith, while at the same time bringing upon him the fury of the idolaters, who beat him cruelly and drove him from the city.

He was found half dead on the seashore, and kept in concealment by the Christians, but was captured again and compelled to walk on burning coals and a second time expelled. But he remained in the vicinity, and continued his work of evangelization. We find him then journeying in the province of Aemilia.

A third time he returned to Ravenna. Again he was captured, hacked with knives, had scalding water poured over his wounds, was beaten in the mouth with stones because he persisted in preaching, and then, loaded with chains, was flung into a horrible dungeon to starve to death; but after four days he was put on board ship and sent to Greece. There the same course of preachings, and miracles, and sufferings continued; and when his very presence caused the oracles to be silent, he was, after a cruel beating, sent back to Italy.

All this continued for three years, and a fourth time he returned to Ravenna. By this time Vespasian was Emperor, and he, in answer to the complaints of the pagans, issued a decree of banishment against the Christians. Apollinaris was kept concealed for some time, but as he was passing out of the gates of the city, was set upon and savagely beaten, probably at Classis, a suburb, but he lived for seven days, foretelling meantime that the persecutions would increase, but that the Church would ultimately triumph.

It is not certain what was his native place, though it was probably Antioch. Nor is it sure that he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, as has been suggested. The precise date of his consecration cannot be ascertained, but he was Bishop of Ravenna for twenty-six years.

http://www.newadvent.org/

St. Sharbel Makhluf,Priest

Saint Charbel , or Sharbel, born as Youssef Antoun Makhlouf in Bekaa Kafra in northern Lebanon, was a Maronite Catholic monk and priest, now venerated as a saint.

Joseph Zaroun Maklouf was raised by an uncle because his father, a mule driver, died when Joseph was only three. At the age of 23, Joseph joined the Monastery of St. Maron at Annaya, Lebanon, and took the name Sharbel in honor of a second-century martyr. He professed his final vows in 1853 and was ordained six years later.

Following the example of the fifth-century St. Maron, Sharbel lived as a hermit from 1875 until his death. His reputation for holiness prompted people to seek him to receive a blessing and to be remembered in his prayers. He followed a strict fast and was very devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. When his superiors occasionally asked him to administer the sacraments to nearby villages, Sharbel did so gladly.

He died in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve. Christians and non-Christians soon made his tomb a place of pilgrimage and of cures. Pope Paul VI beatified him in 1965 and canonized him 12 years later.

Pope John Paul II has often said that the Church has two lungs (East and West) and it must learn to breathe using both of them. Remembering saints like Sharbel helps the Church to appreciate both the diversity and unity present in the Catholic Church.

http://www.americancatholic.org/

St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest

Eymard (pronounced 'Ay-mard') was a French priest who had ministered in the diocese of Grenoble before joining the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers) in 1839. By 1844 he was provincial in charge of Marist communities in France and overseas.

Throughout his life, Eymard had a strong attraction to the eucharist. As a priest, he opposed the backward thinking of his day which suggested that communion was a reward for the virtuous, not to be received often or by anyone 'unworthy'.

'You take communion to become holy, not because you already are,' he preached.

Eymard became familiar with the practice of sustained eucharistic worship during a visit to Paris in 1849, when he met with members of the Association of Nocturnal Adorers who had established exposition and perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Basilica of Our Lady of Victories. After praying at the Basilica of Fourvière on 21 January 1851, Eymard moved to establish a Marist community dedicated to eucharistic adoration.

On 13 May 1856, the Paris bishops consented to Eymard's plans for a 'Society of the Blessed Sacrament'. After many trials, Eymard and de Cuers established public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris on 6 January 1857 in a run-down building at 114 rue d'Enfer (which literally meant 'street of hell').

In 1863, the Congregation had twenty-eight members, among them the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). Their mission was not confined to exposition and perpetual adoration. It included a ministry to priests, and to the poor and working classes, and particularly to the destitute children or ‘ragpickers’ who were living in the ghettoes of Paris. Eymard also established an association of lay people called the Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament, and he collaborated with Marguerite Guillot to found a eucharistic congregation for women now known as the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. Peter Julian Eymard was canonised a saint on 9 December 1962 and is known today as the 'apostle of the eucharist'.

http://www.stpeterjulianhaymarket.org.au/

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Born at Breslau on 12th October 1891, on the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, the youngest of seven children, she did her first studies in philosophy in her native city. Later she moved to Gottingen to follow Edmund Husserl, philosophical genius and father of phenomenology. At his school Edith was to take no further interest in religion. Through the study of phenomenology, however, she began gradually to discover the religious world and Christianity, later becoming a Catholic.

A turning point in her life was her reading of the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila. On a mysterious June night in 1921, finding herself a guest in the house of a philosopher friend, she received a profound intuition of God-Truth. All became light for her: she was baptised on January 1st 1922, receiving at the same time a vocation to Carmel.

Despite family opposition Edith became a Carmelite nun, taking the name of Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was quickly to feel the weight of the "cross" on her shoulders. Following the discovery by the authorities of her non-Aryan origins, she was no longer safe behind monastery walls; so in the early hours of New Year's Day 1939 she was taken to Holland, to the Carmel of Echt. While she was writing her book on the doctrine of St John of the Cross, significantly entitled The Science of the Cross, two officials of the occupation forces came to the monastery. She had to go with them, together with her sister Rose, also a convert.

Before being deported to Auschwitz, Edith was able to send a message to Carmel. Then with the convoy which brought them to Auschwitz, the Stein sisters entered the shadow of death. On August 9th, 1942, the holocaust of Edith reached its consummation in the gas chambers. Pope John Paul II who already in 1987 had publicly proclaimed the sanctity of this daughter of St Teresa, and the martyrdom of this Jewess returned to the bosom of the Church, on 11th October 1998 solemnly canonized her at Rome.

http://www.helpfellowship.org/

Most Holy Name of Mary

Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, or simply Holy Name of Mary is a feast day in the Roman Catholic Church celebrated on 12 September to honour the name of Mary the mother of Jesus. It has been a universal Roman Rite feast since 1684, when Pope Innocent XI included it in the General Roman Calendar to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.

The entry in the Roman Martyrology about the feast speaks of it in the following terms: The Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a day on which the inexpressible love of the Mother of God for her Holy Child is recalled, and the eyes of the faithful are directed to the figure of the Mother of the Redeemer, for them to invoke with devotion.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was an Italian Capuchin friar and mystic. He died in 1968 at the age of 81. Saint Pio was credited with thousands of miraculous cures during his lifetime, and is still venerated as a miracle-worker.

Pio is revered for having borne stigmata: permanent wounds on his hands and feet like those Christ suffered at the crucifixion. He lived for decades with these bleeding wounds.

Even before his canonisation, Padre Pio's former monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo had become a major site of pilgrimage for Catholics from around the world. His shrine there receives eight million visitors a year. Pio's image is displayed in homes, shops, garages - even on the backs of trucks - in many parts of Italy.

Pio was canonised by the late Pope John Paul II in 2002. John Paul II was said to have a special affection for Padre Pio, and as a young man travelled to his monastery in southern Italy for confession.

Pio was said to have known what penitents would confess to him. He reportedly wrestled with the devil in his cell.

In granting him sainthood, the Church officially recognised two of his miracles: the curing of an 11-year-old boy who was in a coma and the medically inexplicable recovery of a woman with lung disease.

BBC Religions: http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Sts. Lawrence Ruiz & Companions, martyrs

Lorenzo Ruiz was born in Binondo, Manila, of a Chinese father and a Tagalog mother. Both of his parents were Roman Catholics.

Ruiz married and had two sons and a daughter. In 1636, while working as a clerk at the Binondo Church, Ruiz was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard. Due to the allegation, Ruiz sought asylum on board a ship with three Dominican priests: Saint Antonio Gonzalez; Saint Guillermo Courtet; Saint Miguel de Aozaraza, a Japanese priest; Saint Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz; and a layman named Saint Lazaro of Kyoto, a leper. Ruiz and his companions left for Japan on June 10, 1636, with the aid of the Dominican fathers and Fr. Giovanni Yago.

Upon arrival in Okinawa, the missionaries set out to fulfill their mission in the forbidden country. They proceeded secretly and cautiously. But not many days after their arrival, their presence was discovered and they were identified as believers.

At that time, Christians were persecuted in Japan; the Tokugawa shogunate had banned the religion due to increasing fears of European colonialism. Under pain of death, Japanese Christians were forced to renounce Christianity; some complied, some refused and were thus martyred, while others continued to practice their religion in secret

One of the forms of punishments imposed on Christians was "hanging in the pit" on the hills of Nagasaki. The victims feet were tied to a beam, his body hanged upside down, and his head occupying the amount of the pit. Lorenzo Ruiz went through this agonizing punishment when he refused to renounce his faith.

When he was investigate as a Christian, he answered: "I'm a Christian and I will remain a Christian even to the point of death. Only to God will I offer my life. Even if I had a thousands lives, I would still offer them to him. This is the reason why I came here in Japan, to leave my native land as a Christian, offering my life to God alone.

He was told that he would be put to death if he did not renounce his faith, but his stuck to his belief. It was on September 23, 1637 that he begun to undergo "hanging in the pit".

Lorenzo Ruiz was canonized and declared a Saint on October 18, 1987 in Rome.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Sts. Andrew Dũng-Lạc, priest and martyr, & Companions

The Vatican estimates the number of Vietnamese martyrs at between 130,000 and 300,000. John Paul II decided to canonize those whose names are known and unknown, giving them a single feast day.

The Vietnamese Martyrs fall into several groupings, those of the Dominican and Jesuit missionary era of the 17th century, those killed in the politically inspired persecutions of the 19th century, and those martyred during the Communist purges of the 20th century. A representative sample of only 117 martyrs — including 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish Dominicans, and 10 French members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society were beatified on four separate occasions: 64 by Pope Leo XIII on May 27, 1900, eight by Pope Pius X on May 20, 1906, 20 by Pope Pius X on May 2, 1909, 25 by Pope Pius XII on April 29, 1951. All these 117 Vietnamese Martyrs were canonized on June 19, 1988. A young Vietnamese Martyr, Andrew Phú Yên, was beatified in March, 2000 by Pope John Paul II.

The tortures these individuals underwent are considered by the Vatican to be among the worst in the history of Christian martyrdom. The torturers hacked off limbs joint by joint, tore flesh with red hot tongs, and used drugs to enslave the minds of the victims. Christians at the time were branded on the face with the words "ta dao" ("Left (Perverse) religion") and families and villages which subscribed to Christianity were obliterated.

The letters and example of Théophane Venard inspired the young St. Theresa of Lisieux to volunteer for the Carmelite nunnery at Hanoi, though she ultimately contracted tuberculosis and could not go. In 1865 Vénard's body was transferred to his Congregation's church in Paris, but his head remains in Vietnam.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/

St. Catherine of Alexandria

St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr is the patroness of philosophers and preachers.

St. Catherine is believed to have been born in Alexandria of a noble family. Converted to Christianity through a vision, she denounced Maxentius for persecuting Christians. Fifty of her converts were then burned to death by Maxentius.

Maxentius offered Catherine a royal marriage if she would deny the Faith. Her refusal landed her in prison. While in prison, and while Maxentius was away, Catherine converted Maxentius' wife and two hundred of his soldiers. He had them all put to death.

Catherine was likewise condemned to death. She was put on a spiked wheel, and when the wheel broke, she was beheaded. She is venerated as the patroness of philosophers and preachers. St. Catherine's was one of the voices heard by St. Joan of Arc.

Maxentius' blind fury against St. Catherine is symbolic of the anger of the world in the face of truth and justice. When we live a life of truth and justice, we can expect the forces of evil to oppose us. Our perseverance in good, however, will be everlasting.

Catholic Online: http://www.catholic.org