Category Archives: The Saints

Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori. St. Alphonsus was born in 1696, and he is the founder of the Redemptorists.

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St. Alphonsus said, when we think of the love our Savior has for us, in all that he suffered, our love for him should make us desire to suffer and even die for him. ‘Saints, he says, are either martyrs of the sword or martyrs of patience. Well, we can at least become martyrs of patience.

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The wonderful life of St. Alphonsus was one of extreme patience. Although he is considered one of the greatest moral theologians, there are few saints who suffered as much as he. When only 52 years old, he contracted a violent asthma that stayed with him his whole life. Two times he was given the final sacraments & funeral preparations were made, but his life continued.

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At age 72 he contracted arthritis. It went to all his joints and to his spine. His head became so bent over, that his chin rested on his chest, and his beard against his skin produced a bleeding wound. He was so hunched over when he walked, that if someone looked at him from behind, it looked as if he did not have a head. He could not lie down, nor dress nor move, nor rest, but remained seated in an arm chair day and night. For 19 years he could not raise his head.

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It was while he was in this terrible state of health, that terrible divisions erupted within his beloved Redemptorist Order. His friends, full of envy even turned against him. Unable to defend himself at age 84, his reputation was dragged through the mud, and even authorities in Rome came to believe his enemies. Powerless, he was expelled from his own order. Only after his death did the truth come out. Yet in all this he was the model of patience and kindness.

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But there is more. He lived the Dark Night of the soul for 60 years, with no consolations. Prayer felt undesirable, devotion lacking. But his trust to the end was in Jesus and Mary, and with his pen he soared to the heights of love.

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It is interesting, that even at age 54, his health was so poor, that he thought he would not live much longer. Thinking the end was near, he wrote his most beautiful book: the Glories of Mary. There he says: ‘Let us love Jesus and Mary, and become saints. ‘Farewell then, until we meet in Paradise.

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Thinking that he would soon die, he did not know that he still had 40 more difficult years to live, and his beautiful writings would multiply.

St. Alphonsus is the patron saint of confessors and of those who suffer from arthritis.

Friends in Christ, today is the feast of St. Peter Chrysologus.

In the year 433AD, the capital of the Roman Empire in the West was not Rome, it was the city of Ravenna. It was a Metropolitan see, an important city, and it was in this year that the Archbishop of that city died. A new bishop was needed. The priests and the people of the city proposed a candidate, which was the custom of that time; and so they sent Bishop Cornelius of Imola to the Pope to ask his approval for their candidate. The bishop, who went along with his deacon Peter, was surprised at the Pope’s decision. The Pope did not accept their candidate. Instead, he turned to the Deacon, Peter, and chose him.

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It seems that the night before, the Holy Father received heavenly visitors in a vision, who told him that Peter the deacon was to become the Archbishop of Ravenna. And so it was.

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Peter, who was a deacon, was first ordained a priest, and then a bishop – this was not the life he had planned, but it was God’s plan. But he put himself to the task of shepherding his people; he rooted out paganism and solidly established the Catholic Faith. He encouraged everyone to live good lives so that they could receive Holy Communion often.

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Peter became most known for his preaching, and that is why he was called ‘the golden word:’ Chrysologus Peter Chrysologus, in his sermons, normally spoke for only a short time – he was afraid of tiring the attention of his listeners. He is famous for saying: “He who wants to laugh with the devil cannot rejoice with Christ.” Sometimes Peter Chrysologus spoke with such passion, that he would become speechless from excitement!

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We still have many of his sermons. In one, he says: ‘Why man, are you so worthless in your own eyes? Was not this entire universe made for your dwelling? For you were the heavens embellished with the brilliance of the sun the moon and the stars. The earth was adorned with flowers, and the marvelous variety of lovely living things was created for you. He has made you in his image, that you might make the Creator present on earth.’

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St. Peter Chrysologus saw that each person is of value to God, and that we are created for his glory.

Although St. Peter did not plan to be a bishop, he gave all, for the glory of God.

Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Bridget. St. Bridget was born in 1303 in Sweden to a noble family. Mysterious events surrounded her birth. Her mother one time almost drowned, but an angel appeared to her and told her that she was saved because of the child to be born to her.

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As a child, Bridget did not speak until she was three years old. But when she did, it was more perfectly than most other children. At age 7, she saw a heavenly vision: a beautiful lady who offered her a crown. When she was 10, she had another vision, of Christ crucified, with blood flowing from his wounds.

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Bridget’s mother died when she was young, and so her father thought it would be best if she got married. He selected a husband for her named Ulf. She was 13, he was 18.   She resisted marriage, but nevertheless, accepted it as the will of God. She decided to love her husband, and together they had 8 children. Bridget raised her children in the love of God, and taught them to be gracious and charitable. She also made it a special mission to help girls in the town who had fallen into a life of sin.

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When her husband died, she chose a life of simplicity, fasting, and self-denial. She and her daughter did a great deal to help the poor, and in her helping the poor who lived in horrid conditions, in them she saw the face of the suffering Christ so vividly.

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Bridget had many mystical conversations with Jesus and Mary, which have been written down, and there we read of her love for the suffering Christ. Our Blessed Mother spoke to St. Bridget about the passion of her Son; Mary told her that as Jesus was being nailed to the cross, when the first blow of the hammer came, I was full of grief, and I heard the men say to each other, ‘What crime did he commit? Was it theft or rape? Others said, ‘he was a liar.’ And then a crown of thorns was pressed tight on his head, and blood flowed down his face and in his hair and eyes. Some men, as if gloating, said to me: ‘Mary, your Son is dead.’ (p.51)

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St. Bridget’s mystical revelations, especially about the Passion, show us that she had a very close relationship with Jesus and Mary, and she herself endured many afflictions and sorrows. Yet it may surprise us to know, that despite the heavy crosses and hardships of St. Bridget in her life, to those who knew her, she was best-known for her smiling face.

Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Camillus de Lellis

St. Camillus was born in 1550 to a mother who was nearly 60 years old. He was a problem child from the start, not helped by the fact that his irresponsible father went all around fighting in various armies; his father had practically every vice there is, especially gambling.

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Camillus had a violent temper and was stubborn and lazy; his mother died when he was only 12 years old. He rarely went to school, and like his father, soon became addicted to gambling. But one thing could be said for him: he never forgot his mother’s love of God. When he was 17, he joined his father as a hired soldier. By the age of 19 he knew every sin there was; like his father, he became an expert gambler. Wherever they went, father and son were the center of gambling. They hired themselves out, fighting for whoever paid them, and living as they pleased. But one day his father died, and Camillus was on his own.

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Now he had a festering wound on his leg that just would not heal, and so he went to a hospital in Rome. Lacking funds, he made a deal with them: he would work there if they would tend to his wound. For a time this worked out well, but soon he obtained a deck of cards, and involved the other workers in gambling. As duties were neglected, amid frequent quarrels, Camillus was once again sent on his way, his leg unhealed. For two more years he fought in various armies. He joined a group of soldiers under a man named Fabio, the chief attraction being, that every man there was addicted to gambling.  

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But after fighting in North Africa, their company broke up and he became nothing but a homeless tramp. He went straight to the gambling dens, and there he staked everything he had: his sword, his gun, his coat, and he lost them all. It might well have been, that there was no case more hopeless in all of Europe, than that of Camillus de Lellis.    

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But it so happened that someone saw him begging for food, and offered him work in building a monastery. He felt the goodwill of the man who had offered him work, and the monastery brought back memories of his mother, and of God. He worked hard, and turned away again and again from temptations to gamble; for almost a year he had kept from gambling, and he learned to work as he never had in his life. He returned to the hospital in Rome and was reinstated as a servant. For 4 years he worked there, and his leg finally healed. In time, he saw that the more he gave himself to helping others, the happier he was. He loved the patients, and organized groups to help the sick; seeing the need for priests in the hospital, he himself became a priest. Ordained at age 34, the rest of his life would be devoted to the sick and the dying.

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Camillus became the greatest apostle of charity. No one knew the slums and ghettos of Rome better than him. One time, he bandaged a dog’s wounded leg and said to the dog: ‘I too, once had a bad leg.’

Camillus always remembered that he was a great sinner, but at his death he never tired of thanking God for everything, through the Blood of Jesus Christ.

St. Camillus is the patron saint of hospital workers, sick people, and nurses.

Friends in Christ, in 1647, the missionaries Isaac Jogues and John Brebeuf were tortured to death by Huron and Iroquois Indians. Just a few years later in upstate New York, a little Indian girl named Kateri was born.

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Her mother was an Algonquin Indian who was a Christian; but she was taken captive by the Iroquois, and then given as a wife to the chief of the Mohawks. When she was 4 years old, little Kateri lost her parents and little brother to smallpox, and that also left her disfigured and half blind. She was adopted by an uncle, who succeeded her father as chief of the Mohawks.

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Hearing the Christian Faith preached by a Jesuit missionary, Kateri thought of converting, but she hesitated out of fear of her uncle. Nevertheless, at age 20, she announced that she would become a Catholic. She was baptized with the name Kateri, meaning Catherine, on Easter Sunday.

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Pressured to marry a Mohawk, she refused. She was therefore shunned by her relatives. Her life was filled with hardship. disowned by her family, she was treated as a slave. Yet, it was at this time that her spiritual life grew quickly; She told a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized. For 3 years she grew in holiness under the direction of a priest, giving herself to God in long hours of prayer and spending herself in helping the needy.

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At age 23 she took a vow of virginity. She found a place in the woods where she could pray an hour each day. Finally, one night she slipped away and began a 200 mile walking journey to a Christian village near Montreal.

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Kateri practiced extreme fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation, and today many Native Americans are Catholic. She was devoted to the Holy Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified, and is called the ‘Lily of the Mohawks.’ At her death, witnesses said that her emaciated face changed color and became like that of a healthy child. Even the pockmarks on her face from sickness disappeared, and the touch of a smile came upon her lips.

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Pray for us, Lily of the Mohawks, that God’s grace will bring a new flowering of the gospel in our land.  

Friends in Christ, today we remember the many Christians who were brutally executed in the early days of the Church. From the year 64 until 313, persecution of the Church was horrific. To be a good Roman citizen in those days, one had to worship the roman gods; Christians refused. And they paid for it. The apostles Peter and Paul were both martyred at the beginning of this persecution in 64AD.

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The historian Tacitus tells us, Christians were even made sport of. Thrown to the beasts in the arena, dressed up in animal outfits and then hunted for sport; One of the worst emperors at this time was Nero. At his parties, Christians were put on high poles, covered with oil, and set afire as living torches.    

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In the Book of Revelation, it refers to the Roman Empire as the ‘Beast.’ St. John says (Rev 13) ‘whoever would not worship the beast was killed … and the beast waged war against the saints.     Revelation describes the Beast (Rev 17) as having 7 heads. The seven heads are seven kings; As it is written: 5 have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. These are the succession of Roman Emperors, Nero reigning when Revelation was written.[i] St. John gives a most curious phrase: “let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, its number is 666. This is where we get the number of evil, as 666. What does it mean?

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We know that Roman letters also stand for numbers, we call them Roman Numerals. So the letter X stands for 10, the letter V stands for five, and so on. Therefore, every word adds up to a number. The ancient people used such numerology all the time. This is called ‘gematria.’ and it is used often in scripture. For example, King David’s name in Hebrew is the number 14, and this is a symbolic number. Well, the Emperor’s name, Nero Caesar, when put into Hebrew, is the number 666. So most scholars are sure that this number refers at least in one sense to the Emperor Nero, who was responsible for the martyrs of Rome that we honor today.      

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In every century, governments try to oppose the Church. It is happening here as well. By teaching the truth of right and wrong, we are at odds with present society. They are beginning to say that the church is intolerant; soon we may be considered an enemy of the State, just like the early Christians. But this is our glory: to witness to the truth.

Beloved in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua. St. Anthony is the patron of lost things, but also a hundred other causes.

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He was born in Portugal and entered the Augustinian monastery in Lisbon when he was 15. He became a priest, and it was there that he developed a great understanding of the Sacred Scriptures. Now it happened at that time, that many Christians were being martyred across the Mediterranean in Morocco. Franciscan missionaries were being killed by the Muslims. The bodies of these martyrs were for a time kept at the monastery where lived St. Anthony; one night, a monk saw Anthony kneeling at the caskets of those brave martyrs with his head resting on their caskets. He too yearned to die for Christ.

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He joined the Franciscans, and did travel to Morocco, but God had other plans. He became ill and had to return; on the voyage home his boat was driven off course, and he landed in Italy where he really began his Franciscan life. One day he was at an Ordination Mass, and it turned out, that the priest who was supposed to preach did not arrive. With no warning, Anthony was asked to preach in front of the bishop and many dignitaries. With no preparation, he stepped to the pulpit, and began to speak. His words moved the heart of everyone present. He quoted the Sacred Scriptures as if he knew the entire bible by heart – which he did. This quiet Franciscan was now discovered to have an amazing gift.

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St. Francis himself sent Anthony to preach in city after city. He went through Italy and into France as well. He was such a forceful preacher that shops closed when he came to town, and people stayed up all night, waiting for his sermons. The center of his ministry became the city of Padua, where he was beloved by the people; he died there in 1231.

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One custom on the Feast of St. Anthony is known as “St. Anthony’s Bread” and it goes back to the year 1263. In the city of Padua there lived a family in which the mother left her 20 month old son Thomas alone in the kitchen. The little boy, while playing, ended up head first in a tub of water and drowned. His mother, finding him lifeless screamed in desperation, but then composing herself, she knelt down and prayed to Saint Anthony for help. She made a promise that if he would bring her son back to life, she would donate to the poor an amount of bread equal to the weight of the child. Her prayer was answered, the boy came back to life, and she kept her promise.

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St. Anthony’s Bread involves the giving away of bread to the poor, blessing bread at church and giving it away, or giving alms to the poor. (Tonight at Mass we blessed some St. Anthony’s Bread for every one to take home. We then venerated the relic of St. Anthony.)

Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Ephrem. He was born about the year 406 to pagan parents, who, when he became a Christian as a boy was thrown out of their house. Eventually, at age 18 he was baptized, and for 25 years he assisted the work of the bishops at Nisibis through many difficult times. When the city fell to the Persians in 350AD, Ephrem retired to a cave in a rocky hill overlooking Edessa. Here he led an austere life of penance, eating little. It was in this cave that he wrote most of his spiritual works.

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Ephrem was very short, he had no hair or beard, and his fasting and penances caused him to look rather old. He was not a recluse however, and often visited the city of Edessa where he preached to the people. He had a fiery speech, and often spoke of the 2^nd coming of Christ and the final judgment, leaving the congregation in tears.

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Ephrem noticed that Gnostic heretics would often use popular songs to teach the people false ideas about the faith. Seeing the power of music, he imitated the enemy’s tactics, and introduced sacred music into the Liturgy which was sung by a women’s choir. In this way, he completely supplanted the Gnostic hymns by hymns which taught the truth of the faith.

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Late in his life, he was ordained a Deacon, and so he is known as ‘St. Ephrem the Deacon.’

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In the winter of 372AD there was a famine in the land, and his heart was breaking for the poor. The rich were refusing to offer their grain to help others because they did not trust anyone to distribute the food. Ephrem himself therefore administered the distribution and payments of all the grain. After having tended to a great many sick people, he returned exhausted to his cave, where he died in 373AD.

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St. Ephrem was a prolific writer, and he is surely the greatest poet of the patristic age. In his writings, he emphasizes the true humanity and divinity of Christ, and he is an early witness to devotion to the Blessed Virgin. His poetry is generously sprinkled with praise of Mary. He even hints, in the 4^th century, of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception: He writes: ‘Only you Jesus, and your Mother, are more beautiful than everything. For on you O Lord there is no mark; neither is there any stain on your Mother.’

Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Norbert. St. Norbert was born near Cologne, in present-day Germany, about the year 1080. His father was a Count, and he was even related to the Emperor.[i] Norbert had become a minor cleric, called a sub-deacon, and although he was in minor orders, he seemed to be interested in nothing more than a life of leisure. When he was appointed to the court of the Emperor, he easily joined in all the diversions of an easy life with little thought of God. His life was not good.

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But all of that suddenly changed. He was one day riding his horse through open land in Westphalia, when a violent thunderstorm approached. A flash of lightening struck just in front of him, at which point his frightened horse threw him to the ground. Lying on the ground unconscious for nearly an hour, God did something to him; When he came to, he said the same words as St. Paul: ‘Lord, what will you have me do?’ He seemed to hear an inner voice say: ‘Norbert, turn from evil and do good.’

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Well, he changed his life on the spot, almost as completely as did St. Paul. He then continued his studies to become a priest, but this time with seriousness. He sold off all of his wealth, keeping only a few vestments, a chalice a paten, and a mule. He then undertook a long pilgrimage of penance, walking barefoot over 650 miles, to kneel at the feet of the Holy Father, Pope Gelasius, to whom he made a general confession of his sins. The Pope then sent him on his way to preach the Gospel wherever he chose.

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Norbert preached the gospel throughout Germany and France, urging everyone to turn away from sin, to take their spiritual life seriously, to pray daily, and to follow Christ. Along with 13 others he founded the Premonstratensian Order. Since his conversion to the Lord, his whole life had been about reform of Christian life, of each person, of the clergy, and of the Church.

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St. Norbert was known to be friendly and charming with every person. He was equally at ease with the poor and the rich, the simple and the great. He knew how, like St. Paul said, to be ‘all things to all people, so that he could bring many to Jesus Christ.

We should be the same.

[i] This was part of the Holy Roman Empire