Saint 
Joan de Lestonnac Feastday: February 2nd Contributor: Branwen Jones
Joande Lestonnac was born in Bordeaux in 1556 and lived to the grand age of eight-four; her long life encompassed both a 24-year marriage and 4 children as well as 37 years as nun and superior.
At the age of 17 Joan married Gaston de Montferrant; they were very happy and had 3 daughters and a son. Upon her husband’s demise in 1597 Joan’s heart turned more and more towards a religious life and in1603, aged 47, she entered the Cistercian monastery at Toulouse. The austere life of the convent saw a decline in Joan’s health but her superiors felt her great piety should not be wasted and so encouraged her to form her own order of women devoted to Our Lady.
Returning to Bordeaux, Joan’s health recovered and she gathered together a small group of girls whose first task was to tend the sick and dying when a great plague struck the city.
Recognising her piety and the need for young girls to be educated, a number of priests including Jesuit fathers Jean de Bordes and Raymond, encouraged Joan to persuade the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Cardinal de Sourdis, to support her religious order. In this manner the Congregation of Notre Dame de Bordeaux was founded and Joan became the first superior in 1606. Surviving on just the bare necessities, the sisters founded schools throughout the region and welcomed any girl who came to be educated.
Nevertheless Joan’s passage through life was not smooth as malicious rumours circulated by one sister, Blanche Hervé, were believed by the Cardinal and Joan was dismissed as superior. However her meekness and humility, despite being scorned and beaten, moved even Blanche to confess her maliciousness and the two women were reconciled. Joan did not wish to be reinstated as superior but passed the remainder of her life highly honoured by her community. She died peacefully in 1640.
In 1949 she was canonised by Pope Pius XII and her order today numbers some 2,500 nuns serving in 17 countries.
St Francis de Sales – Feast Day: 24 January
Contributor: Francoise
“Our greatest fault is that we wish to serve God in our way, not in His way.. When he wishes us to be sick, we wish to be well… when he wishes us to exercise charity, we wish to exercise humility… And this is not because the things we desire may be more pleasing to Him, but because they are more to our taste”. Francis de Sales
Errr… here’s a good point. Don’t you think? It is certainly true to my own experience.
Francis de Sales, remembered on 24 January, was born in 1567 in France, from an aristocratic family. He qualified as a Magistrate in accordance with his father’s wishes, but resolutely opposed any of his further worldly ambitions. He became priest, a preacher, converter of Protestant and Bishop of Geneva.
I am delighted to have been asked to contribute a few lines on a saint of my choice for this particular week, though I do not have any sort of qualification or experience to do so. I found it of extreme personal benefit to be reading about Francis de Sales, and my aim is just to share something of this interest with you.
On Sunday 13 January we celebrated the baptism of our Lord and reflected upon our own Christian ministry through baptism. For my part it led to a number of thoughts on the theme of a journey, which on a day to day basis feels very obscure to me. Demands and temptations take over in the course of the day, hopes and fears come into play. Only with hindsight do I perceive some of the Lord’s active presence on this journey.
I notice Psalm 39’s response, for the second Sunday in Ordinary time, which I wish I adopted with confidence every moment of my life: “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will”. Isn’t it timely, to come across St Francis’s writings: Most striking is his deep insight into the human heart and its failings and the soothing clarity of his message, as though in answer to my own dithering train of thoughts, over 400 years on.
I take heed of his stern warning: “Anxiety is a temptation in itself and also the source from and by which other temptations come”. This helped me set aside a particular burden recently. I felt a weight lifted away, enabling me to focus more on the Lord’s presence and what might his will be.
Being very irregular in my prayers, I find Francis’s wisdom a helpful reminder that they need not amount to words - “As often as you can during the day, recall your mind to the presence of God… Consider what God is doing, what you are doing. You will always find God’s eyes fixed on you in unchangeable love.” Notice, “always” – what a lesson in love!
Francis is also very practical – that’s really the sort of stuff I need: “Undertake all your duties with a calm mind and try to do them one at a time.” My mind gets so clattered at times, nothing is achieved, least of all space for growing aware of the Holy Spirit at work.
Appealing to my imagination, he depicts a typical mishap of mine after Sunday Mass, no matter how strengthened I might feel:
“Think of the little children who with one hand hold fast to their father while with the other they gather berries. If you handle the goods of this world with one hand, you must also always hold fast with the other to your heavenly Father’s hand, and turn toward him from time to time to see if you are pleasing him.” Though now mature in years, it is so soothing to imagine that in the eye of the Lord I am the little child whose hand He wants to hold.
Francis de Sales, pre-empting what happens next continues: “Above all, be sure that you never leave his hand and his protection, thinking that with your own two hands you can gather more or get some other advantage”. Here I so recognise the temptation of greed and self will pushing forth in me, which takes me along before I am even aware.
I found it extremely difficult to make a selection of Francis de Sales’ quotations, so appealing do I find them all. These may hold your interest. They are taken from Saint Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life. I don’t think I would ever had open a book with such a title had I seen it on a shelf: I can’t equate “devout” with my sort of ordinariness. How very mistaken I would have been. What I came across are suggestions and recommendations quite within my reach, and so useful to keeping up an awareness of the call to journey no matter the mistakes.
Wishing you St Francis’ protection this week.
Saint of the Week: St Vincenza Mary Lopez Y Vicuna
Feast Day: 19 January
Contributor: Kate Plowman
St Vincenza was a nineteenth century Spanish saint, little heard of nowadays, the foundress of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, formed to provide some protection for young girls working as domestic servants.
She was born in Navarre on 22 March 1847, a lawyer’s daughter. She has something to tell us about the first place that we should give to God’s will in our lives, and to place Him even above claims of family, by refusing an arranged marriage organized by her parents. In 1876, she established the Daughters and Papal approval was secured in 1888 from Pope Leo XIII (who reigned as Pope from 1878 to 1903), and Vincenza died two years later in Madrld on December 26, after intense suffering from illness. Beatified in 1950, she was canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI (Pope 1963 to 1978).
SAI
NT ADRIAN OF CANTERBURY – January 9th
Adrian’s birth-place is obscure as most sources refer to him as ‘African’ – rather a vague description in view of the size of that continent. In contrast his adult life is well documented.
In 664 he was abbot at Nerida near Naples in Italy when Pope Vitalian called upon him to succeed Deusdedit as Archbishop of Canterbury.Adrian, however, excused himself on the grounds that he was not fitted for such high office and recommended instead a Greek monk from Tarsus called Theodore. Theodore accepted the position with the proviso that Adrian accompany him as assistant and adviser, with which suggestion the saint willingly complied.
Once in England Theodore installed Adrian as Abbot of the monastery of SS Peter and Paul near Canterbury, where the saint’s great learning was best employed. Here he taught poetry, astronomy, languages and mathematics – particularly to calculate the church calendar – as well as the Bible. The Venerable Bede referred to Adrian as ‘ very learned in the Holy Scriptures, very experienced in administering the church and the monastery, and a great Greek and Latin scholar.’
It seems that Theodore and Adrian complemented each other and the church in England flourished in their time. The fame of Adrian’s school became widespread and many of his students went on to achieve renown in their own right. After 39 years of teaching, Adrian died on January 9th 710.
Saint Adrian was associated with miracles worked for boys who were in trouble with their masters, but perhaps the most revealing comment comes from the Venerable Bede, who wrote ‘Never had there been such happy times as these since the English settled in Britain.’
Contributor: Branwen Jones SIMEON STYLITES 5th January
Contributor: Andrew Jones
Simeon appears in various guises, including Simon and Simeon, Stylite and Stylitis. But whatever the name they all refer to this pioneer of pillar hermits, who lived from 390 – 459 AD in a mountainous area of Syria.
In fact, until around 30 years ago, it was quite usual to see toys and miniature statues of Simeon in shop windows or even in Christmas stockings.
Simeon began life as a humble shepherd boy, but as he grew he felt an insistent calling to join a monastic order. He considered the disciplines of the first order he joined inadequate and so moved to another. Penance, fasting and prayer were central to his life. However in the view of his fellow monks he sometimes overdid the mortification of the flesh. On one occasion he nearly died, after fastening a rope around his body so tightly that it cut into him. His brothers spent 3 days removing it and the Abbot summarily dismissed him.
Around 432 AD he began living on pillars, a period which lasted some 37 years. This was only made possible by the support of other monks who admired his tenacity.
His first, relatively small, pillar lasted Simeon just four years before he decided to build a higher one, apparently to keep himself out of sight of onlookers. The second pillar was used for a further three years, before he once more descended to build another, taller pillar, 10 metres high, again in an attempt to rise beyond the reach of bystanders. This third pillar was his home for 10 years before he decided to construct a giant pillar that was nearly 20 metres high. He lived on this final pillar for the last 20 years of his life. It had a diameter of just 2 metres.
Simeon Stylites called upon his fellow Christians to practise penance and prayer and condemned bad language and usury.
FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS - 28th December
Contributor Bill Smith
This is the Patronal Feast of our parish.
When Herod learned of the birth of the infant Jesus he was afraid that he would lose his earthly kingdom to Him.
He asked the Magi when they had found Jesus to come back to him to tell him where the place was.
But when they tricked him, and did not return, he was so angry and so determined to get rid of Jesus that he ordered the massacre of all the baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding district.
The number slain is in considerable doubt among historians – it may have been just a handful, it may have been many more - but Herod was known to have been responsible for many atrocities of which this is just one.
It is thought that Herod’s own son may have been among those he murdered.
These little boys were almost certainly the first Christian martyrs but because of their tender age it was not of their choosing or with their consent - hence the term “Innocents”. They are also sometimes referred to as “flowers”.
The exact date of their slaughter is not known and so the church links the feastday closely into the period of Christmas, as it is so much part of the story of the infant life of Our Lord.
In the early days of the English church the feast day was known as “Childermass”.
The account of these children can be found in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, ii, 16-18:
Saint Petrus Canisius (8 May 1521 – 21 December 1597) Feast day 21st December
St Canisius was an important Jesuit who fought against the spread of Protestantism in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, (Czech Republic),
and Switzerland.
The restoration of the Catholic Church in Germany after the Reformation is attributed to his work.
St Peter Canisius was beatified by Blessed Pius IX in the year 1864, and later canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church on 21 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI.
In 1969 it was moved to 21 December, the anniversary of his death and so the normal day for celebrating a saint's entry into heaven.
Saint Mary (Paula) di Rosa - Feast Day 15 December
Contributor: Branwen Jones
Born in Brescia, Italy in 1813, Paula di Rosa was just seventeen when she began her work amongst the poor and downtrodden of her native town. Of particular concern to her were the women and girls who laboured in the factories of Brescia in appalling conditions.
As well as establishing a boarding house for those girls who had no safe place to sleep, she visited hospitals on a daily basis and helped her brother with a school for the deaf and dumb.
At the age of 27 she founded the society of the Handmaids of Charity, and as its Superior she was able to organise her work more efficiently. Her order flourished, and the sisters dedicated all their time to the sick and suffering. The war with Austria in 1849 gave the sisters ample work in a nearby military hospital, but as if that was not enough, they courageously attended the battlefield to minister to the wounded and dying. Later, in 1852, a disastrous cholera epidemic meant the sisters had as much work as they could bear.
In 1855, aged 42, Saint Mary di Rosa died - frail and exhausted - but joyful that she had toiled ceaselessly to be faithful to the words of Christ that whoever helped the least of His brethren did it for Him.
SAINT NICHOLAS: Feast Day: 6 December
Contributor: Branwen Jones
One of the most venerated saints in both East and West (there are some 400 churches dedicated to him in England alone), the cult of Saint Nicholas ultimately gave rise to the institution of Santa Claus.
Nicholas was born in the fourth century in Patara in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor, into a well-to-do family. Myra, the capital, was an episcopal see and when the church fell vacant, Nicholas was chosen as bishop. He was probably imprisoned during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian and later released by the great Constantine.
Many tales and legends are associated with Saint Nicholas. Perhaps the best known concerns a citizen of Patara, who had lost his money and so could not find husbands for his three daughters because they lacked a dowry. The wretched man was reduced to giving the three girls up to prostitution, but Nicholas secretly intervened to save them from this dire fate. Under cover of darkness, the saint left three bags of gold, which he tossed through the window of the man’s house. It appears that the use of three gold balls as the pawnbroker’s sign stems from this act.
We do not know exactly when Saint Nicholas died, but he was buried in his episcopal city of Myra and his shrine became a centre of pilgrimage. When Myra was taken by the Moslems, there was great competition to acquire his relics. The Greek faction won and the saint’s relics were translated to Bari in Apulia in 1087. A superb new church was built to house them and Pope Urban II was present at the inauguration in 1095.
But Saint Nicholas’s final transformation into Santa Claus occurred amongst Protestants. He had long been claimed as the patron of many countries and classes of people, but especially of sailors in the East and of children in the West. Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (now New York) took with them the tradition of ‘Sinter Claes’ who gave presents to children on his feast day. The cult spread throughout the USA and then back into European children’s lore as Santa Claus.
ST CATHERINE LABOURÉ November 28th
St Catherine Labouré is one of the better-documented saints. She was not remarkable for great powers of oratory or for the working of miracles, neither did she undergo an exotic martyr’s death. Rather hers is a life of exemplary faith and humility, coupled with practical common sense and hard work.
Born in 1806, into a well-to-do farming family at Fains-les-Moutiers in Burgundy, Zoë as she was christened, was one of 11 children. Her mother died when she was just 9 years old and Zoë was required by her father to supervise the running of the household. At the age of 14 she felt called to the religious life, and in 1830 was admitted to the Order of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. Taking the name Catherine, she was sent to the Rue de Bac Convent in Paris, where she spent over 40 years caring for elderly men at the Hospice of Enghien.
It was in the convent chapel in the Rue de Bac in Paris that Catherine was granted a series of extraordinary visions; of the heart of Saint Vincent, of Our Lord before the Blessed Sacrament and, most especially, of Our Lady. On several occasions Our Lady requested that a medal be struck to honour the Immaculate Conception and in 1832, Catherine’s confessor, Fr. Aladel, gained permission for the first 1500 of what was to become known as the Miraculous Medal, to be minted. The self-effacing Catherine revealed her visions to no-one but her confessor; the source of the medal was kept secret for 40 years.
However to counterbalance the image that is sometime associated with visionaries such as Catherine – a pious, milk and water one – her day to day life reveals a lady of vigour and discipline when dealing with the sometimes raucous, drunken and foul-mouthed old men of Enghien. It appears she had her own (and quite amusing) method of dealing with the worst cases of inebriation. Catherine would ensure that the offender once in bed, was stripped of his clothes and left there for 3 days before being allowed to dress and go about his usual daily routine.
In this manner, Catherine continued with her duties until 1876. Assured that she would die before the end of that year only then did Catherine reveal to her Sister Superior that she had been the recipient of the visions and the instigator of the popular medal. True to her presentiment, on December 31st 1876, she died aged seventy.
Catherine’s body was exhumed in 1933 and was found to be incorrupt. Today it is visible in the Chapel of the Apparition in a glass coffin beneath a side altar in the Rue de Bac. She was canonised in 1947.
Contributor: Branwen Jones
Recommended biography: ‘Saint Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal’ by Fr Joseph Dirvin.
St. Cecilia: 22 NovemberContributor: Cecilia Skudder
From
Treasury of Catholic Stories. Compiled and edited by Gerald M Costello.
St. Cecilia (Died 177).
Little is known of her life beyond what legend and tradition tell us, but this patroness of the of Church music has been regarded as a Saint since the time of the sixth century. Here the story of her incredible fortitude is retold to make a point about the Blessed Trinity.
(Story adapted from Catechism in Stories, by Rev. Lawrence G.Lovasik, SVD, The Bruce Publishing Co. 1956.)
On the evening of her wedding day, the music of the marriage hymn ringing in her ears, Cecilia, a rich, beautiful, and noble Roman maiden, renewed the vow by which she had consecrated her virginity to God.
The heart of her young husband, Valerian, was moved by her words and he received baptism – as did his brother, Tiburtius. But the joy of the moment would not last. Within a very short time all three would be called on to seal their faith with their blood.
The charge against Cecilia was simple enough: she was accused of being a Christian, a dangerous offence in those days. But the threats of the pagan prefect failed to weaken her love for Christ.
“Do you know,” she exclaimed, “that I am the bride of my Lord Jesus Christ?”
Her captors decided on a horrible fate; death by suffocation. She was confined a full day and night to a hot – air bath, heated to seven times it usual temperature. But, to the wonderment of her guards, the heat had no power over her body. Very well then; an executioner would sever her head from her body. Three times his trembling hands delivered the three blows allowed by law, and yet she lived on.
Cecilia spent the next two days and two nights on the rough floor of her bath – fully conscious, her head nearly severed, joyfully awaiting her crown. Then on the third day her agony was over, and the virgin saint gave back her pure spirit to Christ.
The Christians buried her just as she lay in death, her head facing the floor – and three fingers of her right hand and one finger of her left hand set forward, as a proof of her faith in the truth that there is only one God in three Divine persons.
About the year 300 her body was exhumed and found in the same position – incorrupt.
St Elizabeth of Hungary: Feast Day: 17 November
Contributor: Mar
y Heady
Elizabeth was born in 1207 in Bratislava.
As with so many royal children, she was betrothed at fourteen to the ruler of Thuringia, Ludwig IV.
Fortunately the marriage was very happy and lasted six years. Elizabeth was a devout girl and was apparently rebuked by her mother-in-law for behaving in a 'non-royal' way.
She always, for instance, removed her crown and knelt at the elevation in Mass.
Neither was her continuous devotion to the poor much appreciated by the other Royals.
She had three children during her marriage but unfortunately, Ludwig died at Otranto whilst on crusade.
Legend has it that Elizabeth and her children were turned out of their castle in the middle of winter. But when she had provided for her family she entered the third Order of St Francis at Marburg in Hesse, where she continued her devotion to the poor and sick.
Her spiritual director was over-strict and treated her harshly, but she showed great resilience and humour. She served the poor, made them clothes and went fishing to feed them. Countless tales were told of her goodness, and she is one of Germany's best loved saints.
Amazingly, Elizabeth seems to have been canonised just a few years after she died at the age of twenty-six.
St Elizabeth, pray for us.
Saint Mennas – Feast Day: 11 November
Contrib
utor: Andrew Jones
Egypt hasa large and active Christian minority comprising roughly 10% of the nation, with both Arab and Greek Christian traditions. Some may have heard a recent Radio 4 programme which featured an Egyptian Christian Church in London’s Notting Hill Gate.
Mennas was born in Egypt during the second half of the third Century AD and records suggest that he was a camel driver before he enlisted in a Roman legion. In due course he sailed with the Roman army to Phrygia, part of today’s Turkey, where the soldiers were ordered to persecute the Christians under an edict of the Emperor Diocletian. Mennas soon deserted and took shelter in a cave, but his conscience began to trouble him.
Eventually he decided to give his life for his faith and headed for the annual games in Cotyaeum, where he knew there would be a large crowd. He suddenly ran into the centre of the arena and proclaimed his faith. He was offered the chance to save his life by recanting his claim, but he remained steadfast. As a result he was beheaded.
Following the battle of El Alamein in the Second World War claims were made that the intercession of Mennas had saved Egypt. In thanks the Patriarch of Alexandria organised the restoration of a seventh century shrine to his name near the battlefield
St. Winifrede 7th Century, Welsh virgin. Feast day 3rd November
Contributor: Cecilia Skudder
WINEFRIDE (Wenefred, Gwenfrewi)(7th century), Welsh virgin. The principal interest of this saint lies not in the few known facts of her life, but in the ancient, widespread, and persistent character of her cult. The earliest Life was written in the12th century and is a tissue of improbabilities. What seems certain is that the place where she lived was Holywell or Treffyn-non (Flintshire, now Clwyd) and her cult was subsidiary to that of her uncle *Beuno.
The Legend, written at Shrewsbury where her relics were translated in 1138, makes her a maiden who lived at home, whom Caradoc, the son of a neighbouring prince attempted unsuccessfully to seduce with a promise of marriage. In his rage at being refused, he pursued her and as she fled to a church, struck off her head. A fountain sprang up where her head touched the ground. Beuno raised her from the dead and for many years afterwards she was abbess of a nunnery at Holywell according to one account, but another said that when Beuno went to Clynnog, she went to Bodfari, then to Henllan and finally to Gwytherin where under St. Eleri's direction she became a nun in a remote mountain valley.
In the early Middle Ages her cult was confined to the Marches of North Wales and to Euias and Erging in the Southern ones. Evidence for this is certain from the 12th century, but this probably reflects a much earlier cult. In 1398 her feast was extended to the whole Canterbury province by Roger Walden, who was archbishop during the exile of Thomas Arundel; in 1415 his successor Henry Chichele, who, when Bishop of St. David’s, had been interested in Welsh saints, raised it to a higher rank. The development of both Holywell and Shrewsbury as pilgrimage centres to Winefride benefited from these liturgical alterations and from the important roads, which passed through both, enabling pilgrims to visit several shrines in the neighbourhood on a single visit. A guesthouse for them was built at Ludlow. The highest point came in the 15th century: Henry V made the pilgrimage on foot from Shrewsbury to Holywell in 1416; Edward 1V is reputed to have done the same, while Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry V11 built the fine chapel still standing at Holywell after the battle of Bosworth Field;(1485).
The pilgrimage and the cures at the spring of Holywell survived the Reformation: in 1629, it is claimed, 14,000 1aity with their priests visited it on her feast. Although the number is almost certainly exaggerated, it is certain that Holywell became an important recusant center with Jesuits and secular priests in more or 1ess permanent residence and that the well continued to attract pilgrims. In 1774 Dr Johnson saw people bathing there. In the 18th and 19th centuries the pilgrimages continued, as they do at the present day, in spite of the diversion of the original source of water through mining operations in 1917. The architectural complex of chapel and well forms the best-preserved medieval pilgrimage centre of its kind in Britain today. Six ancient churches are dedicated to her.
Feast: 3 November; translation 22nd June. Some Welsh calendars commemorate her on 19/20 September or 4 November
St Jude: Feast Day: 28 October
Contributor: Kate Plowman
St Jude was one of the apostles of Our Lord; today he is known as the patron saint of lost causes. This results from his authorship of the Letter of St Jude, an epistle which stresses the necessity to remain faithful through hardship to Jesus. He is of course very often confused with Judas, who is very definitely not one of the Canon of Saints!
His original name was Thaddeus and he is thought to be a first cousin of Christ. The New Testament tells us very little about him, except that he asked Jesus why He would not make Himself manifest to the world after His resurrection. Christ replied, "If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him." (John, 14.22-13) – i.e., our love for Him will help to make Christ manifest to others.
The Roman Church’s tradition is that St Jude first ministered in Macedonia, then joined St Simon in Persia (modern-day Iraq), where many came to know Christ through their ministry, and where they were martyred.
St Isaac Jogues (1607-1649), Martyr: Feast Day: 19 October
Contributor: Kate Plowman
Saint Isaac Jogues was a Jesuit martyr. He took the Gospel to the Huron Indians of Canada and is thus one of the first North American martyrs of the Church.
Isaac was born the fifth one nine children in Orleans – St Joan of Arc’s home town – and ordained a Jesuit at the age of 33, in Rouen in France. He started his missionary activity in Canada in Quebec among the Hurons – an area then called New France. He wrote to his mother on arrival, "I do not know what it is to enter Heaven, but this I know—that it would be difficult to experience in this world a joy more excessive and more overflowing than I felt in setting foot in the New World, and celebrating my first Mass on the day of the Visitation."
His mission was a tough task, however, because the locals were resistant to the Gospel and blamed all misfortune on the Jesuit ‘Blackrobes’. Isaac laboured among the ‘Tobacco Indians’, known by the nickname ‘Ondessonk’ or ‘bird of prey’.
In 1642, there was great famine in Huron country and the only source of supplies was Quebec. Isaac and his companions reached Quebec and started back with provisions for the Hurons; but they were ambushed by the Iroquois, bitter enemies of the Hurons, and the Jesuits were beaten and tortured for many months, at least one of them finally being tomakawked: i.e. killed by the war hatchet of the Tomahawk Indians. They were taken away by river to Ossernenon, where, in a remarkable piece of ecumenism for the 17th century, the local Dutch Protestant pastor of New Amsterdam arrived to try to ransom the Jesuits. This was refused by the Jesuits’ captors – possibly in the hope of gaining a higher sum.
Some of Jogues’ companions were killed for the faith at this time, and his own captivity lasted for more than a year. It made great demands on his physical, mental and spiritual endurance, but eventually, helped by the Dutch Protestants, he escaped, only voluntarily to return to incarceration when his actions seemed likely to endanger relations between the Dutch and the indigenous population. Eventually his captors were persuaded to release him for the sum of 300 livres; and after a brief return to France, he went back to Quebec in 1644. Relations seemed much better between the missionaries and natives, but, after a plague of caterpillars had destroyed the local harvest, ‘Blackcoat’ was again blamed by locals for bringing ‘bad luck’, and he was murdered, and his head was displayed, looking towards Canada, as a warning to others.
He and his companions were ordained in June 1930 by Pius XI.
St Wilfred (634-709): Feast Day: 12 October
Contributor: Freda Brighton
St Wilfred was born in Northumberland in 634 and educated as Lindisfarne. He later spent some time in Lyons and Rome, returning to England. He was elected Abbot of Ripon in 658. He introduced the Roman rules and practices as opposed to the Celtic tradition of Northern England and in 664 he was the architect of the victory of the ‘Roman’ group at the Conference of Whitby.
He was appointed Bishop of York and after some difficulties he took possession of his See in 669. He worked hard and founded many monasteries of the Benedictine Order. In time, he was forced to appeal to Rome to prevent the subdivision of his diocese by S Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. While awaiting Rome’s decision, he went into exile and spent his time converting the heathen South Saxons. Rome found in his favour and he returned to his See in 686. He eventually resigned his post in 703, and retired to his monastery in Ripon where he died in 709.
St Wilfred was an outstanding personage of his time, a man of great courage who remained firm in his convictions despite running foul of civil and ecclesiastical authorities. He was a dedicated pastor and missionary who helped to bring the English Church into line with that of Roman.
PRAYER
God, you built your Church by means of the religious zeal and apostolic care of St Wilfred. Grant by his intercession that she may ever experience a new increase of faith and holiness.
AMEN
Saint Bruno – Feast Day: 6 October
Contributor: Andrew Jones
Bruno was born around 1033 AD in Cologne, before national boundaries as we know them existed. He was ordained to the priesthood in that city and later was appointed as a canon. Some time around 1056 AD he took up the post of lecturer in Theology in the university attached to the Cathedral of Reims. This was over 200 years before today’s magnificent edifice was erected.
Gravely perturbed by the corrupt behaviour of some of the senior clergy of the diocese, Bruno vowed to commit himself to the humblest monastic life.
Leaving Reims and its prosperity behind him, he took to what roads were then in existence. He had no idea of his ultimate destination but was convinced that God would guide him. From time to time he was joined by other men of a similar disposition, until they numbered seven in all.
Eventually the time came to end their nomadic life, and in 1084 Bruno and his group called upon Bishop Hugues of Grenoble in the French Alps. Bruno asked if the Bishop could guide them to some land where they might settle. Hugues was amazed at their request and revealed that only the previous night he had dreamed of seven stars that hovered over a mountainside and then settled next to an orb. He knew exactly where the site was and led the seven men up the slopes above the little hamlet of Fourvoirie to the beautiful valley he had seen in his dream. There Bruno and his followers built the first Abbey de la Grande Chartreuse, home of the Carthusian order. Bruno was inspired by the early monks of the Levant and constructed a simple oratory with basic cells around it.
The Carthusians renounced all worldly possessions and gradually their lives diverged, some to concentrate on worship and reflection and others to minister to the poor of the neighbouring villages. Over 900 years later the order serves both local and international communities and those seven stars and the orb remain central to their décor, a reminder of Saint Bruno and his original followers.
Saint Vinc
ent de Paul September 27
The patron saint of charitable organisations was born in the small village of Pouy in the Gascony region of South-West France around 1580. Little is known about his formative years other than that he attended a Franciscan school in the peaceful town of Acqs. After that he spent a short spell as a tutor to a prosperous family before travelling to the bustling city of Toulouse, where he entered the university to study theology. Subsequently he was ordained as a priest in 1600. To that stage his life had possibly been somewhat protected and confined to mixing with the small section of society that could be considered the educated class.
A dramatic experience in 1605 was to change the entire pattern of his life and his understanding of those in need. He took a relatively brief voyage by boat from the port of Marseilles to Narbonne, a distance of only about 100 miles, but the vessel was captured by Moorish pirates who seized all the passengers as slaves and took them to market in Tunis. Somehow, after 2 years he was able to escape and returned to his work as a tutor in France. It was only later, around 1817, that he began to concentrate on his many charitable works. Amongst his great achievements was the founding of The Sisters of Charity.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was not founded until 1833, some 173 years after his death. It was the idea of Frederic Ozanam a 20 year old Catholic student and 6 fellow students, one of whom came from New Orleans, Louisiana and who returned there to found the American arm of the organisation. They asked questions like:-
What is your Church doing now?
What is she doing for the poor?
And made the statement;
Show us your works and we will believe you.
Sain
t Matthew September 21st – Contributor: Andrew Jones
Despite the Gospels recording that Saint Matthew was a tax collector, by some strange quirk of fate he has become the patron of bankers. He lived in Capernaum where he practised one of the most despised professions of the day. Under Roman rule Jews were appointed to undertake the task of tax collection on the basis that they kept a generous percentage of the proceeds for themselves. Understandably, it was a very unpopular system. Matthew is believed by some to be the same person as the tax collector called Levi, mentioned in the Gospels of both Mark and Luke.
Little else is known about him, apart from the fact that he was one of the twelve apostles and wrote the first of the Gospels, although several legends suggest that some time following the death of Christ, he travelled to various countries including Ethiopia.
Matthew wrote his Gospel in Aramaic, the Hebrew tongue said to have been spoken by Our Lord. It begins with the details of Christ’s genealogy: ‘Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham ……’ and concludes in chapter 28 verse 16 with Our Lord’s call to ‘make all nations my disciples’. Matthew’s Gospel can be dated fairly accurately between the crucifixion of Our Lord, around 33 AD, and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, for he refers to the Temple, which was destroyed at the latter date.