(The Tridentine Calendar included the feast day of Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus on 8 August as a Semidouble. In 1955 this rank was lowered to that of Simple, then reduced to a commemoration in 1960 and removed in 1970)
Cyriacus the Deacon was long kept in prison with Sisinius, Largus, and Smaragdus, and wrought many wonderful works. Among other things he by his prayers freed from a devil Arthemia, a daughter of Diocletian, and being sent to Sapor, King of the Persians, also delivered his daughter Jobia from a foul spirit. He baptized the King, her father, and four hundred and thirty others, and afterwards returned to Rome. He was arrested by command of the Emperor Maximian, and dragged in chains before his chariot. Then after four days he was brought forth from prison, had boiling pitch poured upon him, was stretched on a block, and at last was slain with the axe, along with Largus, Smaragdus, and twenty others, at the the gardens of Sallust, on the Salarian Way in 303 AD. On this Way were their bodies buried by John the Priest, on the 16th day of March, but afterwards, on the 8th of August, Pope Marcellus and the noble lady Lucina took them and wrapped them in linen, and embalmed them with costly ointments, and carried them to the farm belonging to the said lady Lucina, at the seventh milestone from Rome on the road to Ostia.
(The Tridentine Calendar included the feast day of Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus on 8 August as a Semidouble. In 1955 this rank was lowered to that of Simple, then reduced to a commemoration in 1960 and removed in 1970) Mary Helen MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842 in what is now the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria (at the time part of an area called Newtown in the then British colony of New South Wales) to Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. Although she continued to be known as "Mary", when she was baptised six weeks later she received the names Maria Ellen. Fr Woods had been very concerned about the lack of education and particularly Catholic education in South Australia. In 1866, he invited MacKillop and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola and to open a Catholic school.[8] Woods was appointed director of education and became the founder, along with MacKillop, of a school they opened in a stable there. After renovations by their brother, the MacKillops started teaching more than 50 children. At this time Mary made a declaration of her dedication to God and began wearing black. On 21 November 1866, the feast day of the Presentation of Mary, several other women joined Mary and her sisters. Mary adopted the religious name of Sister Mary of the Cross and she and Lexie began wearing simple religious habits. The small group began to call themselves the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart[8] and moved to a new house in Grote Street, Adelaide. There they founded a new school at the request of the bishop, Laurence Bonaventure Sheil OFM. Dedicated to the education of the children of the poor, it was the first religious institute to be founded by an Australian. MacKillop founded a convent and base for the Sisters of St Joseph in Petersburg on 16 January 1897. "On January 16th, 1897, the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, Mother Mary of the Cross,[19] arrived in Petersburg to take over the school. She was accompanied by Sister Benizi (who was placed in charge of the school), Sister M. Joseph, Sister Clotilde and Sister Aloysius Joseph. They were met at the station by Rev. Father Norton who took them to the newly blessed convent, purchased for them on Railway Terrace."The property at 40 Railway Terrace is identified as the convent by a plaque placed by the Catholic diocese of Peterborough. After the death of Mother Bernard, MacKillop was once more elected unopposed as superior general in 1899,a position she held until her own death. During the later years of her life she had many problems with her health which continued to deteriorate. She suffered from rheumatism and after a stroke in Auckland, New Zealand in 1902, became paralysed on her right side. For seven years, she had to rely on a wheelchair to move around, but her speech and mind were as good as ever and her letter writing had continued unabated after she learned to write with her left hand. Even after suffering the stroke, the Josephite nuns had enough confidence in her to re-elect her in 1905. She died on 8 August 1909 in the Josephite convent in North Sydney. The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Moran, stated that: "I consider this day to have assisted at the deathbed of a Saint." She was laid to rest at the Gore Hill cemetery, a few kilometres up the Pacific Highway from North Sydney. After her burial, people continually took earth from around her grave. As a result, her remains were exhumed and transferred on 27 January 1914 to a vault before the altar of the Virgin Mary in the newly built memorial chapel in Mount Street, Sydney. On 19 December 2009, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a papal decree formally recognising a second miracle, the complete and permanent cure of Kathleen Evans of inoperable lung and secondary brain cancer in the 1990s. Her canonisation was announced on 19 February 2010 and subsequently took place on 17 October 2010. This made her the first Australian to be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church.
The Miracle of Saint Donatus
Donatus was the child of a father and mother who had both been slain for Jesus Christ's sake. He fled with the monk Hilarinus to Arezzo in Tuscany, of which city he afterwards became Bishop. On 4 February 362, Julian promulgated an edict to guarantee freedom of religion. This edict proclaimed that all the religions were equal before the law, and that the Roman Empire had to return to its original religious eclecticism, according to which the Roman State did not impose any religion on its provinces. Christian chroniclers considered that it had as its purpose the restoration of paganism at the expense of Christianity. Catholic tradition states that Julian also persecuted individual Christians, and that Donatus’ parents, as well as his teacher Pymenius, would die during these persecutions. Donatus escaped to Arezzo and would work with a monk named Hilarian to preach the Christian faith, as well as perform penances and miracles. Severinus' Passio states that Donatus brought back to life a woman named Euphrosina; fought and slew a dragon who had poisoned the local well; gave sight back to a blind woman named Syriana; and exorcised a demon that had been tormenting Asterius, the son of the Roman prefect of Arezzo. Donatus was ordained a deacon and priest by Saint Satyrus of Arezzo, bishop of that city, and continued to preach in the city and in the surrounding region. At the death of Satyrus, Donatus was appointed a bishop by Pope Julius I. A man named Anthimus was Donatus' deacon. During a celebration of Mass, at the moment of the giving of Communion, in which a glass chalice was being administered, some pagans entered the church and shattered the chalice in question. Donatus, after intense prayer, collected all of the fragments and joined them together. There was a piece missing from the bottom of the cup; miraculously, however, nothing spilled from the cup. Astounded, seventy-nine pagans converted to Christianity. A similar legend is told of Saint Nonnosus, but the object is a shattered glass lamp. A month after this episode, the prefect of Arezzo, Quadratian, arrested Hilarian the Monk and Donatus. Hilarian was martyred on July 16, 362 and Donatus was beheaded on August 7 at Arezzo.
Pope Sixtus with St. Lawrence
Ss. Sixtus II, Pope, Felicissimus and Agapitus Pope Sixtus II was an Athenian, who, from a philosopher, became a disciple of Christ. In the persecution under Valerian he was accused of openly preaching Christ, and was seized and haled to the temple of Mars, where he was given the choice of death or offering sacrifice to the idol. He firmly refused to commit that wickedness, and as he was being led away to seal his testimony, holy Lawrence ran up to him and his grief said to him: Father, whither goest thou without thy son? Holy Priest, dost thou fare hence without a Deacon? Sixtus answered him: I am not leaving thee, my son; there awaiteth thee for Christ's truth a sterner wrestling than mine; yet three days, and thou shalt follow me, the Deacon behind the Priest; and in the meanwhile, if thou hast anything in the treasury, give it to the poor. Sixtus was accordingly slain upon that day, and with him the Deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus, and the Subdeacons Januarius, Magnus, Vincent, and Stephen. He was buried in the cemetery of Callistus, and they in the cemetery of Prætextatus upon the 6th day of August. He sat in the throne of Peter eleven months and twelve days. During that time he held one ordination in the month of December, wherein he made four Priests, seven Deacons and two Bishops. He was a pagan of Trier who became a Christian. He travelled to Rome and cured the paralytic daughter of his host Gratianus, who had let him stay with him at his house on Tiber Island. Gratianus' family then converted to Christianity. Emygdius also cured a blind man. The people of Rome believed him to be the son of Apollo and carried him off by force to the Temple of Aesculapius on the island in the Tiber, where he cured many of the sick. Emygdius declared himself a Christian, however, and tore down the pagan altars and smashed into pieces a statue of Aesculapius. He also converted many to Christianity; this enraged the prefect of the city. He was made a bishop by Pope Marcellus I (or Pope Marcellinus), and sent to Ascoli Piceno.
Raising a child from the dead
St. Dominic (1170-1221). Son of Felix Guzman and Bl. Joan of Aza, he was born at Calaruega, Spain, studied at the Univ. at Palencia, was probably ordained there while pursuing his studies and was appointed canon at Osma in 1199. There he became prior superior of the chapter, which was noted for its strict adherence to the rule of St. Benedict. In 1203 he accompanied Bishop Diego de Avezedo of Osma to Languedoc where Dominic preached against the Albigensians (heresy) and helped reform the Cistercians. Dominic founded an institute for women at Prouille in Albigensian territory in 1206 and attached several preaching friars to it. St. Lydia of Philippisia was born in Asia Minor in the city of Thiatira in the first century. Looking for work, she traveled to the city of Philippi in Greek Macedonia. St. Luke writes that St. Lydia was a “porfiropolis,” that is a merchant of purple cloth, an expensive type of Roman clothing. She was also a religious woman, showing great respect to the pagan gods. However, the One True God decided to make her the first Christian in Greece, and the first Christian in Europe . During this same time, St. Paul was preaching in the area of Troy when he had a dream. In it, a man told him, “Come to Macedonia and help us.” St. Paul, along with Silas, traveled to Philippi through Samothrace. At the Gaggitis River, they discovered a crowd praying to the pagan gods. Leading the group in prayer was St. Lydia. After learning from St. Paul of Our Savior Jesus Christ, St. Lydia was baptized in the Gaggitis River and many idolaters became Christians. St. Lydia made her home a place for Christian meetings. She converted her family as well as many in the area to Christianity through her teachings. Her feast day is August 3. In the reign of the Emperor Honorius, a Priest named Lucian received a message from God, in consequence of which discovery was made of the bodies of the Saints Stephen the Protomartyr, Gamaliel, Nicodemus, and Abibon, which had long been lying unknown and unheeded. Lucian was asleep when Gamaliel appeared to him in a dream as a tall comely old man of worshipful presence, told him where the bodies were lying, and bade him go to John, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and deal with him that they might have more honourable burial. When the Patriarch of Jerusalem heard it, he called together Bishops and Priests from the neighbouring cities, and betook himself to the place, where he found the tombs hewn in the rock, and a right sweet savour flowing forth from them. The thing being noised abroad, a great multitude of people came together, and many that were sick and weak of divers diseases returned home whole. The sacred body of holy Stephen was then carried with great pomp to the holy Church of Sion. Under the Emperor Theodosius the Younger it was taken to Constantinople; and during the Popedom of Pelagius I it was brought to Rome, where it hath been laid in the sepulchre of the holy Martyr Lawrence in the Veranian Field. When the Bishop Projectus brought some relics of that most glorious Martyr Stephen to Tibilis, a great multitude came together and went out to meet the shrine. A blind woman prayed to be led to the Bishop who was bearing the hallowed deposit. She laid on the relics the flowers which she was carrying, took them up again, touched her eyes with them, and forthwith saw. She went forward rejoicing, at the head of the amazed procession, choosing her own path, and needing no more that any should lead her. I remember also the shrine of this same Martyr which hath been placed in the town of Synica, hard by this city of Hippo. Lucillus, Bishop of that place, was carrying it, with a multitude going before and following after; when, all of a sudden, by bearing this hallowed burden, he was healed of the emerods, from which he was even then suffering, and which were being treated by a physician, an intimate friend of his, who was about to cut them. Let us pray. Grant us, we beseech thee, O Lord, to imitate what we venerate, that we may learn to love even our enemies; for we celebrate the Invention of him who knew how to plead for his persecutors even unto our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. R. Amen. He was consecrated around the12 May, 254, and that he died 2 August, 257. According to the most ancient catalogues, he was a Roman by birth, and the son of Jovius, and there is no reason to doubt the assertion of the "Liber Pontificalis" that Lucius I, when about to be martyred, made over the care of the Church to his archdeacon Stephen (254). Most of what we know regarding Pope Stephen is connected directly or indirectly with the severe teachings of the heretic Novatus. Concerning his most important work, his defence of the validity of heretical baptism against the mistaken opinion of St. Cyprian and other bishops of Africa and Asia, there is no need to speak now, as the history of this important controversy will be found under BAPTISM and SAINT CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE. Suffice it here to call attention to certain newly discovered letters on the subject by St. Dionysius of Alexandria ("Eng. Hist. Rev.", Jan., 1910, 111 sq.), and to note, with the late Archbishop Benson of Canterbury, that Stephen "triumphed, and in him the Church of Rome triumphed, as she deserved" [E.W. Benson, "Cyprian, His Life, His Times, His Works", VIII (London), 1897, 3]. Alphonsus Mary Liguori was born of a noble family at Naples. From his earliest days he gave no dark signs of holiness. When he was but a babe, his parents carried him to holy Francis de Geronimo, of the Society of Jesus, and holy Francis, after long prayer, said that the child would live to ninety years of age, that he would become a Bishop, and that he would be a great blessing to the Church. From his childhood, he had a strong distaste to games, and by his entreaty and example, induced the noble pages to conduct themselves with Christian decency. As a young man, he became a member of divers godly guilds, and made it among his delights to nurse the sick in the hospitals, to spend much time in prayer in the Churches, and often to receive the Holy Sacraments. With his godliness he so joined zeal for learning, that when he was scarcely sixteen years of age he took degrees in Canon and Civil Law in the University of Naples. In obedience to the wish of his father, he adopted the profession of an advocate, in which he gained great credit, but, finding dangers in the practice of the law, he entirely gave it up. He declined a very brilliant marriage which was proposed to him by his father, resigned his family inheritance as an eldest son, hung up his sword at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, styled of Ransom, and surrendered himself altogether to the service of God. He became a Priest, and made so zealous an onslaught on sin, running hither and thither in the office of an Apostle, that he accomplished the conversion of multitudes of lost creatures. The poor and the country-people most chiefly roused his compassion, and he founded the Congregation of Priests called that of the Most Holy Redeemer, to follow the Redeemer's footsteps by preaching the Gospel to the poor throughout the fields, villages, and hamlets. |
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