Seven Brothers, Felicitas their mother and Ss. Rufina and Secunda, Virgins, Martyrs second century
by VP
Posted on Thursday July 10, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
St. Felicitas and her Seven Sons
"The seven brothers were the sons of St. Felicitas, a noble pious Christian widow in Rome, who brought them up in the most perfect sentiments and practice of heroic virtue. The mother and sons were apprehended, and brought before Publius, the prefect of Rome. He used the strongest inducements to bring them to sacrifice to the pagan gods; but despairing of overcoming their resolution, the prefect laid the whole process of the examination before the Emperor Antoninus. He, having read the interrogatory, gave orders that they should be condemned to different deaths. One of the brothers was scourged to death; two were beaten with clubs till they expired. Another was thrown headlong down a steep precipice. The three youngest were beheaded; and the same sentence was executed upon the mother four months after.
SS. Rufina and Secunda were sisters, who having consecrated their virginity to God, and resolutely refused all offers of marriage made by their parents, were accused for their faith in Christ; and after many torments of scourges and fire, were beheaded at Rome under Valerian. Pray for all those who are dejected in troubles; that God would give them the patience of the martyrs.
Consider what it is to want comfort; have compassion on those who stand in need of it, and pray for their relief. Humble yourself under your present troubles, and beseech God to sanctify them to you. All your disquiets avail you nothing; but a patient submission may save your soul. Pray for all those who have consecrated their virginity to God, and for those who live in that state in the world. The devil and the world are so much their enemies, and so many snares are before them, that all good Christians have reason to stand on their side. Be ever cautious in making vows; and never do it but with good advice. But if you have obliged yourself, see that you be faithful in the performance." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
"The Christian Mother: A mother has not done her entire
duty when she has trained for the world, and according to the spirit
prevailing in the world, her children as honorable citizens. A Roman
matron, name Felicitas, has inspired her seven sons with sentiments of
the purest Christianity, and the example of this excellent family
exercised so great an influence, that many pagans, at the sight thereof,
became Christians. The pagan priests denounced her to the emperor
Antoninus, and Felicitas and her sons were soon cited to appear before
the prefect Publius. No manner of remonstrance, threat, or promise did
he refrain from making to each one separately, but all in vain; and when
the generous mother beheld the moment of their sentence approaching,
she thus addressed her sons: "Look heavenward, my children, behold Jesus
Christ stretching forth His arms and battling for your souls!" They
were condemned to difference kinds of torture, and martyred at
intervals. Felicitas died with the last of her children, four months
after the death of the first who had suffered martyrdom. This glorious
event occurred in the year 164 of the Christian era.
Moral reflection:
A Christian mother should ever keep before her eyes this example, as
also that of the mother of the Maccabees, ever "to be admired above
measure, and worthy to be remembered by good men." (2 Mach.7.20) Pictorial half hours with the saints by Auguste François Lecanu
A Motherʼs Prayer
O God, grant that one of my sons may become a priest!
I myself want to live as a good Christian
and want to guide my children always to do what is right,
so that I may receive the grace, O God,
to be allowed to give you a holy priest! Amen.
Mothers of Lu (Italy)
A Mother’s Prayer for a Seminarian
O Jesus, eternal High Priest, Who hast
entrusted to priests the important work of saving souls, and Who has
deigned to inspire my child, my own flesh and blood, to strive after the
high office of the Priesthood, I pray Thee most fervently to bless and
assist him, and to make him more worthy day by day.
Give him success and perseverance in his studies and constant growth in
virtue and holiness. Help him, O Jesus, overcome all temptations arising
from the world, the flesh and the devil, which seek to frustrate his
holy vocation. Fill his heart with burning love for God and for souls
redeemed by Thy most Precious Blood.
Grant me, O Lord, the unmerited grace one day to behold my own child in
priestly garb ascending the holy altar of God, and to receive from his
consecrated hands the priestly blessing and the Bread of Life Eternal.
As long as I live, O Jesus, I shall every day offer Thee, through the
hands of Mary, the Mother of priests, all my prayers, works and
sacrifices, to call down God’s blessing upon the work of priests, and
especially upon my son.
The Catholic Standard and Times, Volume 61, Number 32, 4 May 1956
St. Laurence, MARTYR, A.D. 258.
by VP
Posted on Thursday July 10, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
O Glorious Saint Lawrence, Martyr and Deacon, who, being subjected to the most bitter torments, didst not lose thy faith nor thy constancy in confessing Jesus Christ, obtain in like manner for us such an active and solid faith, that we shall never be ashamed to be true followers of Jesus Christ, and fervent Christians in word and in deed.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
V. Pray for us, O holy Lawrence,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, the grace to quench the flames of our vices, Thou who didst enable blessed Lawrence to overcome his fiery torments. Through Christ our Lord Amen. The Raccolta, 1957
"St. Lawrence was a holy deacon at Rome; who, envying the glory of the martyrs, desired to lay down his life for Christ. Pray for this spirit, and beg of God that in all your troubles you may suffer with the patience of a martyr. He was seized by the persecutors, and after many torments, his torn body was laid on a gridiron, where he expired, giving praise and thanks to God. Pray for the love of God, which sweetened all the torments of this martyr. It is for want of this, that your troubles banish all content from your breast. Pray for remedy.
The spirit of this holy deacon is no where more manifest than in the address which he made to the holy Pope St. Xystus, who was going to martyrdom. He had often assisted him at the altar, as his deacon; and seeing him led by the executioners to give his life for Christ, he hastily made up to him with this complaint: "Father, whither art thou going without thy son? Whither goest thou, O holy priest, without thy deacon? Thou wert never wont to offer sacrifice without me thy minister. Wherein have I now displeased thee? Hast thou found me wanting to my duty? Try me now and see, whether thou hast made choice of an unfit minister for dispensing the blood of our Lord." This was his complaint to his bishop going to suffer without him. And who cannot imagine here the spirit, that moved him to this complaint? To see himself at liberty, and desire to be in chains; to see himself at liberty, and importune for the rack and the axe; to judge himself ill-treated, because he is not to die with his bishop: whence can all this proceed, but from the love of God, and the earnest desire to be with Christ? For this, he contemned liberty and life; for this, he thought of no other honor, but that of suffering for his Lord; for this, he reputed the world to be nothing, and that his happiness was in leaving it, that so he might come to the enjoyment of his God. How much do we see here to raise our admiration, and oblige us to praise the goodness of God, who in so weak vessels shewed the wonderful power of his grace? And how much do we see here to reproach ourselves with the perverse indispositions of our own hearts, who place all our comforts in the things of this life; who think nothing honorable, but what carries with it the applause of this world; and who are so far from desiring to suffer, that we dread it as a misfortune, and then only think ourselves unhappy, when we are under the trials of divine appointment? O God, what can we do, but humble ourselves at the consideration of this our misery, beg for thy mercy, and beseech thee to mould over again this unhappy clay, and quicken it with a more lively faith, and a more perfect love of thee!
It is for want of this faith and love, that we are thus miserable: for did we truly believe, as we profess, that the next life is eternal, that the goods of it are unspeakable, that the evils of this life bear no proportion with them, and that it is by patience and humility under these evils that we are to come to the possession of those eternal goods; this faith would change all the sentiments of our soul, and oblige us to frame our judgments of all the things of this world, not from their agreeableness to sense or inclination, but only from the consideration of their being helpful or prejudicial in regard of our future happiness. And, therefore, though the judgment of persecution, violent death, and all manner of troubles, as it is framed from their disagreeableness to sense, and the aversion which nature has to them, has something terrible in it, and condemns them all as real evils, which are to be avoided; yet when faith comes in and assures us, that going through all these evils is the way to eternal happiness, and the most effectual means of obtaining it, this shews their value, and that to the spiritual and Christian man, they are not evils, but real and desirable goods." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
THE TREASURES OF THE CHURCH. The holy Pope Sixtus was being dragged to martyrdom; Lawrence, his disciple and friend, the first of the Seven Deacons of Rome, followed him with streaming eyes. "Whither art thou going, O my father," he said, "whither without thy son? Priest of God, wherefore dost thou abandon thy deacon?" "Take heart, my son!" replied the martyr, "thou art reserved for a still greater combat, yet three days and thou shalt follow me." The emperor, having imagined that the Christians had amassed great treasures, despatched the Prefect of Rome with orders to take possession of them. “We have indeed great treasures!" said Lawrence to him; " but allow me sufficient time to get them together." On the following day he showed to the prefect all the suffering and infirm poor, the orphans and old people whom the Church maintained by means of alms. "Behold!" he said, " our treasures; take them into your keeping." The prefect, deeply enraged, caused his body to be lacerated by scourgings with rods and with hooks of iron, and then to be stretched on live coals. The face of the martyr was all radiant with happiness and joy. In the midst of his torture he said to his executioners, "Now turn me to the other side!" He expired, while praying for Rome, on the 10th August, 258.
MORAL REFLECTION.-“ Religion clean and undefiled is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." -(Jas. i. 27.) Pictorial Half Hours with the Saints, by Abbe Lacanu
Saint Lawrence, Martyr
By Parochial hymn book, 1881 Hymn 482
Holy Deacon! By the yearning
For the Martyr’s glorious crowns;
By thy tortures, by they burning,
By thy death of bright renown;
When the world and flesh and devil
Tempt our souls to sin and evil,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By the love that thou didst ever
To thy Pontiff-Father bear,
Pray that no base act may sever
Us from Peter’s loving care!
But when men would once more lead us
Into bonds from which Christ freed us,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By the Pontiff’s words of warning,
Bidding all thy sorrows cease,
Words foretelling bitter mourning
Leading unto lasting peace!
That to Jesus in our sadness
We may look for help and gladness,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By thy love, which knew no measure,
For the needy and the old,
Giving them the Church’s treasure -
Teaching us that alms well given
Are but treasures stored in heaven,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By thy fervent love for Jesus,
By thy strong and constant faith,
Or our sinful burdens ease us!
Help us at the hour of death!
When the fears of death confound us,
When the cleansing fires surround us,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us.
St. Elizabeth Queen of Portugal, Widow, A.D. 1336
by VP
Posted on Tuesday July 08, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"THIS saint was queen of Portugal; and in the several states of virgin, wife, and widow, was a religious example of humility, charity, piety, and mortification. She was of a most sweet and mild disposition; and from her tender years had no relish for anything, but what was conducive to piety and devotion. Esteeming virtue her only advantage and delight, she abhorred romances and idle entertainments, and was an enemy to all the vanities of the world. Being married to the king of Portugal, she found no temptation to pride in the dazzling splendour of a crown. She was abstemious in her diet, mean in her attire, humble, meek, affable in conversation, and wholly bent upon the service of God in all her actions. Charity to the poor was a distinguishing part of her character. She visited the sick, served them, and dressed their most loathsome sores. She made it her principal study to pay to her husband the most dutiful respect, love, and obedience; and bore his injuries with invincible meekness and patience. After his death, St. Elizabeth consecrated herself to the divine service in the third order of St. Francis; and continued to support a great number of poor people by her alms and protection. In her last sickness, she received the Holy Viaticum on her knees, and shortly after, Extreme Unction; from which time she continued in fervent prayer, often invoking the Blessed Virgin. She appeared overflowing with heavenly joy, and gave up her happy soul to God in the year 1336, of her age sixty-five.
Consider her life, and you will find it the reproach of your own. If you cannot submit to those humiliations which she sought; if you think happiness to be in such vanities as she despised; if you spend in these, what she distributed to the poor;
if her solitude, frequent prayer and fasting seem an aggrievance; you
have reason to blush at yourself, pray for grace and amend." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
St. Pantaenus, Father of the Church
by VP
Posted on Monday July 07, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
St. Pantaenus, PD
"Philosophy and religion: St. Pantaenus, gifted with the nobles qualities of mind and heart, had devoted himself to the study and practice of the Stoic philosophy, which was held in high esteem amongst the ancients. But when he had arrived at the knowledge of Christianity, he at once understood that philosophy was as naught in comparison with the Gospel. Having become a Christian, he was charged with the direction of the school of Christian philosophy, instituted at Alexandria by the disciples of St. Mark. He was directing it with as much talent as true learning, when the bishop of Alexandria sent him to the Indies in order to combat the doctrines of the Brahmins, and revivify the faith. With the result of his labors we are unacquainted; it is only known that he returned after an interval of some years, bringing back with him a copy, in Hebrew, of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which must have been taken thither by St. Bartholomew. The illustrious St. Cyril, of Alexandria, is to be reckoned among his disciples. St. Pantaenus died the death of the saints at Alexandria about the year 215, after having taught his followers to sanctify their lives rather than to indulge in subtle discussions.
Moral Reflection: "Have a care that none lead you astray by a vain philosophy," says the Apostle; for philosophy, indeed, apart from religion, is a vain thing. ( Colos. 2. 8.) Pictorial half hours with the saints By Abbe Auguste François Lecanu 1865
Saint Goar, Priest.
by VP
Posted on Sunday July 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
For Zealous Priests
Sanctify to Thyself, O my Lord, the
hearts of Thy priests, that, by the merits of Thy sacred humanity, they
may become living images of Thee, children of Mary, and full of the fire
of the Holy Ghost, that they may guard Thy house, and defend Thy glory,
and that through their ministry the face of the earth may be renewed,
and they may save those souls which have costs Thee all Thy blood. Amen
Queen of the Apostles, pray thy Son, the Lord of the Harvest, to send laborers into His harvest, and to spare His people.
The Prayer Book. Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch
Archbishop of Chicago, May 10, 1954.
Saint Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Confessor
by VP
Posted on Saturday July 05, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
Forum Catholique St. Anthony Zaccaria and the devotion of the forty hours
"Absorbed in meditating on the great Sacrifice and his heart burning with love for God, he went to the foot of the altar. A profound and religious silence prevailed among those present, and all eyes were turned on him, a sign of the great event about to take place. At the solemn moment of consecration, a marvelous light encircled him and a multitude of Angels descended, and surrounding him, assisted reverently at the Mass. This heavenly vision lasted until the end of Communion." Source: Barnabite Fathers
GOD'S FRIENDS AND OURS: ST. ANTHONY VERSUS LUTHER ( The Catholic Transcript, Volume LXIII, Number 9, 30 June 1960)
"In 1528 the apostate priest Martin Luther preached in Wittenberg the three sermons he was later to compile into his two catechisms: The Little Catechism for Children and Simple Folk and The Large Catechism. In the preface of the former, he charged the Church with neglecting the teaching of Christian doctrine to the poor and unlettered masses.
Hundreds of miles from Germany, in the same year, one of the many men whose lives emphatically contradicted Luther's allegation received the power of the priesthood. Today he is venerated as St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria Founder of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul, his feast falls on July 5.
He had been practicing medicine in his native Cremona for some years before he came to the realization, as the editors of Butler's Lives put it, “that his vocation was to heal souls as well as bodies " A few years after ordination, he moved on to Milan, where, in 1530, he organized a new congregation "to regenerate and revive the love of divine worship, and a properly Christian way of life by frequent preaching and faithful ministering of the sacraments." A band of his priests stood ever ready to preach at any time and in any place; in the public square, in the fields, in small chapels, in the very streets of the city. Special care was shown for the poor.
Despite the fullness of his life, Anthony Zaccaria was only thirty-seven years old when he died in 1539. His congregation (popularly called “the Barnabites" from the Church of St. Barnabas, its Milanese center) never achieved widespread fame or grew to large numbers. Like the saint himself, its members still burn out their lives quietly instructing the uninformed and indigent.
ST. Anthony Zaccaria's history provides a dramatic contrast to Martin Luther's. Both men saw the same problem: countless baptized Christians who remained theologically illiterate throughout their lives.
Open Revolution against the Church of Christ was Luther's solution. Reformation within the Church was Anthony's answer.
The Church itself, the latter knew, can never be in error. When abuses exist, they can only arise from the deficiencies or bad faith of its members. Christ guaranteed that Peter's bark is the only sure bark to salvation. But He did not guarantee that the captain, crew and passengers would necessarily avoid all personal mistakes and scandals.
O Almighty and Merciful God, who moved by Thine infinite goodness,hast deigned to call Thy servant Father [N] to the ministry of Thy altar, listen graciously to our humble prayer, that, sustained by Thy grace, he may become daily less unworthy of his holy vocation, and vouchsafe, we beseech Thee, to bless and sanctify both his words and his works, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, model of the priestly heart, have mercy.
- "St Anthony is also known for popularising and renewing, the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, known as the Forty-hour devotion. He also is said to have originated the ringing of church bells at 3:00 p.m. on Fridays, in recognition of the hour of the crucifixion of Christ." Anaspaul
Devotion of the Forty Hours. Long ago it was a very pious practice to expose the Blessed Sacrament in moments of great danger, in times of great calamity, that the people might receive the especial consolation so necessary. Attracted to the Church by the sight of the Blesed Sacrament, usually hidden in the Tabernacle, throngs of worshipers drew closer to God in the hour of their trial. What was in the beginning an inspiration on the part of the priests in charge of these afflicted parishes grew gradually into a custom.
The Forty Hours adoration was first introduced in Italy in 1556, and was at once approved by the Church. Intended as it was to correspond with the forty hours of darkness and loneliness spent by Jesus in the tomb, the devotion appealed at once to the hearts of the faithful. It is now a universal custom regulated by the Bishop of each diocese, who arranges the hours of adoration in the various churches, throughout the year, in such way as to have continuous devotion, as far as possible.
The Blessed Sacrament, consecrated at a High Mass, which opens the ceremony, is placed on Exposition, following a solemn procession through the Church. The altar of exposition is especially adorned with flowers and lights. The usual custom is to close the exposition towards evening, continue it throughout the following day, and close on the morning of the third day.
It is a time of special devotion in which special favors and graces are granted those who go to Confession and receive Communion. Large crowds are attracted to the Church and the people strive to atone as far as possible to our Blessed Lord for those lonely hours spent in the tomb previous to His resurrection.
Thanks be to God and to His Church for the abundance and the beauty of the Catholic year's array of feasts. Since these feast days constitute a succession of striking reminders telling the Catholic again and again of God and His goodness of the great plan of salvation, of God's Mother, of God's saints, and inviting him over and over to take advantage of God's grace and to serve Him truly by imitating that Mother and those saints who were human even as Himself. The lack of space and time forbid anything like an adequate treatment of the subject.
(Our faith and the facts : religion's story, what Catholics believe and practice, answers to charges made against the church, a busy person's reference work, a home library, 1925)
St. Junipero Serra, Spanish priest and Missionary
by VP
Posted on Tuesday July 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"Twenty-five leagues from Monterey he (Junipero) came upon a little stream which watered a lovely oak-studded valley inclosed by rugged mountains. The beauty of this wild and lonely place charmed him. He decided to found the mission here. The bells were accordingly unpacked and suspended from the branch of a great oak. Junipero seized the ropes and shouted with a kind of delirious rapture, "Hear, Gentiles, come, come, to the Holy Church, come, come, to receive the faith of Jesus Christ."
One of the friars, Fray Miguel Pieras, remonstrated
with him. "Why do you tire yourself in this way?" he demanded. "There
are no Indians in sight; it is a waste of time to ring the bells.""I would like these bells
to be heard by all the world," exclaimed Junípero, " or at least by all
the Gentiles who live in the mountains." Junípero Serra; the Man and His Work By Abigail Hetzel Fitch
"With no less carefulness did this servant of God try to draw his children toward the worship of the most Holy Sacrament. He instructed them to prepare and decorate arches in the road where the procession of Corpus Christi would pass. Four chapels were placed along the way with their respective altars where our Crucified Lord might rest, and after the singing in each one of them of the corresponding anthem, verse and prayer, an Indian stood up (generally a little boy) and recited a praise to the Divine Sacrament, of which two were in Spanish and two in the Pame dialect, which were very touching and increased the devotion of all. When they had returned to the church a Mass was sung and a sermon preached on this most Holy Mystery. With the same carefulness he consecrated himself to encourage in all devotion to our Lady Mary, and especially to her Most Immaculate Conception, preparing for this celebration with a Novena at which all the people were present. On the great day of the feast Mass was sung, a sermon was preached, and afterwards they chanted The Joys of the Most Immaculate Conception. Every Sunday afternoon they recited the Crown of Our Mother of Mercy, finishing it with a Hymn of Praise and the Hymn of Joy, which were sung. In order to make this the more attractive the Venerable Father had had sent out from Mexico a sculptured image of our most Sweet Lady which was put upon a platform and taken out in procession through the town every Saturday night, the illumination being made with lanterns, and with the accompaniment of the singing of the Rosary. After coming back again into the church they sang the hymn, “Tota pulchra es Maria," which our beloved servant translated into Spanish and which the Indians learned by heart and chanted with great solemnity, producing in all who heard it the greatest tenderness, especially that verse which says: "Thou art the honor of our people" and by means of which a most ardent devotion was kindled toward our Most Merciful Mother.
In the same way he tried
to impress upon their plastic hearts devotion to Saint Michael,
Archangel, to the Most Holy Patriarch, Saint Joseph; to our Holy Father,
Saint Francis, and to the other Saints in such a fashion that the whole
people were as well instructed as if they were Spaniards and had been
brought up Catholics, all this being due to the very fervent zeal of our
Venerable Fr. Junípero. In view of the most laborious service of this
model Prelate his subordinates were set to imitate him, as well as were
also the friars of the other four Missions, and through these means the
whole of the five towns became as thoroughly Christian as if they had
always been such." Francisco Palou's Life and Apostolic Labors of the Venerable Father Junípero By Francisco Palóu 1913
