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![]() Henry II, surnamed the Pious, became successively Duke of Bavaria, King of Germany, and the Emperor of the Romans. His hope soared beyond the short enjoyment of a fleeting kingdom, and he aimed at the possession of an unfading crown by living as the loyal servant of the Eternal King. After he became Emperor, he earnestly set himself to the furtherance of the cause of godliness. He restored with new splendour the Churches which had been ruined by the unbelievers, and enriched them with many offerings and possessions. Monasteries and other godly places he either built himself, or endowed them with allowances. He founded out of his own family inheritance the Bishoprick of Bamberg, and made it tributary to Blessed Peter and to the Bishop of Rome. When Benedict VIII, who had set on his head the Imperial crown, was an exile, he hospitably received him, and afterwards restored him to his See. ![]() When he was struck down with a grievous sickness in the Monastery of Monte Cassino, he was healed by an evident miracle through the intercession of St. Benedict. He was princely benefactor to the Church of Rome, for the defence of which he entered into a war against the Greeks, and took again from them the province of Apulia, which they had long possessed. He never undertook anything until he had made it a subject of prayer. And in battle he once saw the Angel of the Lord and the Holy Martyrs his patrons under whose protection he had placed his army, fighting for him in front of his line. With the help of God, he prevailed against the tribes of savages more by prayer than by arms. He gave his sister in marriage to King Stephen of Hungary, whom he induced to be baptized, and so brought all that country to believe in Christ. His marriage with the holy maiden Cunegunda is one of the rare instances of the union of two virgins. When he drew near to death, he gave her back inviolate to her kinsfolk. ![]() He managed with great wisdom whatever could tend to the honour and usefulness of the Empire. He left in France, Italy, and Germany, splendid monuments of his godly munificence. The perfume of his saintly life spread its sweetness far and wide, and the glory of his holiness outshone the splendour of his crown. When the work of his life was done, he was called by the Lord to the possession of an eternal kingdom in the year of salvation 1024. His body was buried in the Church of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul at Bamberg, and God glorified him by the miracles which began forthwith to take place at his grave. The same being duly proved, Eugene III numbered him among the Saints. ![]() Doctor of the Church, Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, Minister General of the Friars Minor, born at Bagnorea in the vicinity of Viterbo in 1221; died at Lyons, 16 July, 1274. Nothing is known of Bonaventure's parents save their names: Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella. How his baptismal name of John came to be changed to that of Bonaventure is not clear. An attempt has been made to trace the latter name to the exclamation of St. Francis, O buona ventura, when Bonaventure was brought as an infant to him to be cured of a dangerous illness. This derivation is highly improbable; it seems based on a late fifteenth-century legend. Bonaventure enjoyed especial veneration even during his lifetime because of his stainless character and of the miracles attributed to him. It was Alexander of Hales who said that Bonaventure seemed to have escaped the curse of Adam's sin. And the story of St. Thomas visiting Bonaventure's cell while the latter was writing the life of St. Francis and finding him in an ecstasy is well known. "Let us leave a saint to work for a saint", said the Angelic Doctor as he withdrew. When, in 1434, Bonaventure's remains were translated to the new church erected at Lyons in honour of St. Francis, his head was found in a perfect state of preservation, the tongue being as red as in life. This miracle not only moved the people of Lyons to choose Bonaventure as their special patron, but also gave a great impetus to the process of his canonization. Dante, writing long before, had given expression to the popular mind by placing Bonaventure among the saints in his "Paradiso", and no canonization was ever more ardently or universally desired than that of Bonaventure. That its inception was so long delayed was mainly due to the deplorable dissensions within the order after Bonaventure's death. Finally on 14 April, 1482, Bonaventure was enrolled in the catalogue of the saints by Sixtus IV. In 1562 Bonaventure's shrine was plundered by the Huguenots and the urn containing his body was burned in the public square. His head was preserved through the heroism of the superior, who hid it at the cost of his life but it disappeared during the French Revolution and every effort to discover it has been in vain. Bonaventure was inscribed among the principal Doctors of the Church by Sixtus V, 14 March, 1557. His feast is celebrated 14 July. ![]() Anacletus also called Anencletus, successor to Pope St. Linus. Pope St. Anacletus reigned from c. 79 until c. 92. Anacletus was an Athenian who governed the Church in the time of the Emperor Trajan. He ordained that a Bishop should be consecrated by three Bishops and no less, that clerks should be publicly ordained to Holy Orders by their own Bishop, and that in the Mass, after the Consecration, all should afterwards communicate. He adorned the grave of Blessed Peter, and ordered a place for burying the Popes in. He held two ordinations in the month of December, wherein he ordained five Priests, three Deacons, and six Bishops. He sat as Pope nine years, three months, and ten days. He received the crown of his testimony, and was buried on the Vatican Hill. ![]() The woman of Jerusalem who wiped the face of Christ with a veil while he was on the way to Calvary. According to tradition, the cloth was imprinted with the image of Christ's face." Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence or scriptural reference to this event, but the legend of Veronica became one of the most popular in Christian lore and the veil one of the beloved relics in the Church. It is displayed for veneration on the fifth Sunday of Lent in St. Peter's Bascillica According to tradition, Veronica bore the relic away from the Holy Land, and used it to cure Emperor Tiberius of some illness. The veil was subsequently seen in Rome in the eighth century, and was translated to St. Peter's in 1297 by command of Pope Boniface VIII. Nothing is known about Veronica, although the apocryphal Acts of Pilate identify her with the woman mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew who suffered from an issue of blood. Her name is probably derived from Veronica , as was reported by Giraldus Cambrensis. The term was thus a convenient appellation to denote the genuine relic of Veronica's veil and so differentiate from the other similar relics, such as those kept in Milan. The relic is still preserved in St. Peter's, and the memory of Veronica's act of charity is commemorated in the Stations of the Cross. While she is not included in the Roman Martyrology, she is honored with a feast day. Her symbol is the veil bearing the face of Christ and the Crown of Thorns. ![]() John Gualbert was the son of noble family at Florence. In accordance with the wishes of his father, he became a soldier. While he was in that profession, his only brother, Hugh, was slain by a cousin. On a certain Good Friday, John, armed and accompanied by soldiers, met the murderer, alone and defenceless, in a narrow way, where neither could turn aside. As he was at the point to kill him, the wretch fell on his knees, and stretched out his arms in the form of the Cross, adjuring him, for the sake of that sign, to forgive him; and out of reverence for the Cross he had mercy on him and spared his life. After pardoning his enemy, he went into the Church of St. Minias, which was hard by, to pray. And there he saw the image of Jesus crucified, which had that day received the worship of the faithful, bow its head to him. By this miracle John was so moved, that he laid aside soldiering, even against his father's wishes; cut off his hair with his own hands, at the Convent of St. Minias, and clad himself in the garb of a monk. In a short while he so shone with all godly and monkish graces, that he became a pattern of excellency to many. When the Abbot of that house died, the monks all chose John to succeed him. But the servant of God desired to obey, more than to command, and, being kept by God for greater things, he betook himself to one Romuald, a dweller in the hermitage of Camaldoli. Through Romuald he received a revelation from heaven, and forthwith founded an Order of his own under the Rule of St. Benedict, in the valley called Vallombrosa. Many gathered themselves to him, drawn by the fame of his holy life. Them he took for his comrades, and laboured earnestly among them to cleanse the Church in those parts from the pollution of heresy and simony, and spread abroad the Apostolic Faith. He and his had to fight with almost countless hardships. Certain enemies broke by night into the monastery of San Salvi, to destroy John and his monks, set the church on fire, pulled down the huts, and mortally wounded all the monks; but the man of God perfectly healed them all by the sign of the Cross. One of his monks named Peter also passed unhurt through a vast and raging fire. At length John and his disciples got the peace which they longed for. He purged Tuscany of the pollution of simony, and restored the faith throughout all Italy to its first purity.ill him, the wretch fell on his knees, and stretched out his arms in the form of the Cross, adjuring him, for the sake of that sign, to forgive him; and out of reverence for the Cross he had mercy on him and spared his life. After pardoning his enemy, he went into the Church of St. Minias, which was hard by, to pray. And there he saw the image of Jesus crucified, which had that day received the worship of the faithful, bow its head to him. By this miracle John was so moved, that he laid aside soldiering, even against his father's wishes; cut off his hair with his own hands, at the Convent of St. Minias, and clad himself in the garb of a monk. In a short while he so shone with all godly and monkish graces, that he became a pattern of excellency to many. When the Abbot of that house died, the monks all chose John to succeed him. But the servant of God desired to obey, more than to command, and, being kept by God for greater things, he betook himself to one Romuald, a dweller in the hermitage of Camaldoli. Through Romuald he received a revelation from heaven, and forthwith founded an Order of his own under the Rule of St. Benedict, in the valley called Vallombrosa. He entirely built several monasteries, and furnished them and others with buildings. He restored in them the strict observance of the Rule, and gave them holy laws. He sold the furniture of the Church to feed the poor, and found the very elements subject to him to bend stubborn hearts withal. He used the Cross like a sword to drive out devils. In his old age, worn out by abstinence, watching, fasts, prayers, and punishing of the flesh, his strength utterly gave way, and he often repeated the words of David: My soul thirsteth for God, for the mighty God, for the living God―when shall I come and appear before God? When he was at the point of death, he gathered his disciples together and exhorted them to love one another, and, after a little while, ordered the following words to be written down, which he wished should be buried with him: I, John, do believe and confess that Faith which the Holy Apostles preached, and which the Holy Fathers have ratified in the four Councils. At length, at Passignano, where he is held in the highest reverence, after a vision of angels which lasted three days, he passed away to be with the Lord, upon the 12th day of July, in the 78th year of his own age, and in that of salvation 1073. He is illustrious for countless miracles, and Celestine III enrolled his name among those of the Saints. ![]() Sts. Nabor and Felix Martyrs during the persecution of Diocletian (303). The relics of these holy witnesses to the faith rest in Milan, where a church has been erected over their tomb. St. Ambrose extolled the virtues of these two martyrs. In later times, legendary Acts of these saints have appeared, which are imitated from the Acts of other martyrs (Victor, Firmus, and Rusticus). According to these legends, which are without historical value, Nabor and Felix were soldiers in the army of the Maximian Herculeus, and were condemned to death in Milan and beheaded in Lodi. Their feast is celebrated on 12 July. ![]() Pius, the first of that name, the son of Rufinus, was from Aquilia, and was a priest of the holy Roman Church when he was made Supreme Pontiff. He lived under the Emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He held five ordinations in the month of December, wherein he ordained twelve bishops and eighteen priests. There remain several eminent ordinances of his, notably that which ruleth that the Resurrection of the Lord be not observed upon any day of the week save Sunday. He turned the house of Pudens into a church, and on account of its eminence above the other churches, as being that where the Bishop of Rome dwelt, he dedicated it under the name of the Shepherd. Here he often celebrated, and baptized and numbered among the faithful many converts to the faith. While he strove to do the work of a good shepherd he shed his blood for his sheep, and for the chief Shepherd Christ. He was crowned with martyrdom upon the 11th day of July, and buried upon the Vatican Hill. From Wikipedia St Pius I governed the Church in the middle of the 2nd century during the reigns of the Emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He was the ninth successor of Saint Peter. He decreed that Easter should only be kept on a Sunday. Although being credited with ordering the publication of the Liber Pontificalis, compilation of that document was not started before the beginning of the 6th century. He is said to have built one of the oldest churches in Rome, Santa Pudenziana. St Pius I endured many hardships during his reign. The fact that Saint Justin taught Christian doctrine in Rome during the pontificate of St Pius I and that the heretics Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion visited Rome at the same time, is an argument for the primacy of the Roman See during the 2nd century. Pope Pius I opposed the Valentinians and Gnostics under Marcion, whom he excommunicated. ![]() In the persecution at Rome under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, there were seven brethren, sons of the holy woman Felicity, whom the Prefect Publius first essayed to cajole by kindness, and then to shake by fear, to deny Christ and worship the gods; but, by their own bravery and the exhortation of their mother, they remained firm in their confession, and were all put to death in divers ways. Januarius was lashed to death with whips loaded with lead; Felix and Philip were beaten to death with cudgels; Silvanus was thrown over a precipice; Alexander, Vitalis, and Martialis were beheaded. Their mother gained the same palm of martyrdom four months afterwards. The seven Brethren gave up their souls to God upon the 10th day of July. The virgin sisters, Rufina and Secunda, were Romans. Their parents had betrothed them to Armentarius and Verinus, but they both consecrated their virginity by vow to Christ, and refused marriage. They were arrested in the reign of the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus. The Prefect Junius failed to change their minds either by promises or threats, and then ordered Rufina to be scourged. While the lashing was going on, Secunda said to the Judge: Why dost thou judge my sister to honour and me to dishonour? Be pleased to whip us both together, for we both together declare that Christ is God. The Judge was angered at these words, and ordered them both to a dark and stinking dungeon; but it was presently filled with a bright light and a sweet savour. They were then shut up in a hot flue of a bath, but they came forth from it unharmed. Stones were next tied to their necks and they were cast into the river Tiber, but an Angel delivered them therefrom. In the end they were beheaded on the Aurelian Way, at the tenth mile-stone from the City. The Lady Plautilla buried their bodies upon her own farm, but they were afterwards brought into the city, and laid in the Cathedral Church of the Most Holy Saviour, hard by the Baptistery. ![]() Maria Goretti was born Maria Teresa Goretti on October 16, 1890 in Corinaldo, in the Province of Ancona, then in the Kingdom of Italy, to Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini. She was the third out of six children. Her sisters were named Teresa and Ersilia; her brothers were Angelo, Sandrino, and Mariano. By the time she was six, her family had become so poor that they were forced to give up their farm, move, and work for other farmers. Soon, Maria's father Luigi became very sick with malaria, and died when Maria was just nine. While her brothers, mother, and sister worked in the fields, Maria would cook, sew, watch her infant sister, and keep the house clean. It was a hard life, but the family was very close. They shared a deep love and faith for God. She and her family moved to Le Ferriere, near modern Latina and Nettuno in Lazio, where they lived in a building, "La Cascina Antica," they shared with another family which included Giovanni Serenelli and his son, Alessandro. On July 5, 1902, eleven-year-old Maria was sitting on the outside stairs of her home, sewing and watching her infant sister Teresa, while Alessandro was threshing beans in the barnyard. Knowing she would be alone, he returned to the house and threatened her with death if she did not do as he said; he was intending to rape her. She would not submit, however, protesting that what he wanted to do was a mortal sin and warning Alessandro that he would go to hell. She desperately fought to stop Alessandro, a 19-year-old farmhand, from abusing her. She kept screaming, "No! It is a sin! God does not want it!" Alessandro first choked Maria, but when she insisted she would rather die than submit to him, he stabbed her eleven times. The injured Maria tried to reach for the door, but Alessandro stopped her by stabbing her three more times before running away. Teresa awoke with the noise and started crying, and when Serenelli's father and Maria's mother came to check on the little girl, they found the bleeding Maria and took her to the nearest hospital in Nettuno. She underwent surgery without anesthesia, but her injuries were beyond the doctors' help. Halfway through the surgery, Maria woke up. She insisted that it stay that way. The pharmacist of the hospital in which she died said to her, "Maria, think of me in Paradise." She looked at the old man: "Well, who knows, which of us is going to be there first?" "You, Maria," he replied. "Then I will gladly think of you," said Maria. Maria also expressed concern of her mother's welfare. The following day, twenty hours after the attack, having expressed forgiveness for her murderer and stating that she wanted to have him in Heaven with her, Maria died of her injuries, while looking at a picture of the Virgin Mary, and clutching a cross to her chest. On the evening of the beatification ceremonies in Saint Peter's Basilica, April 27, 1947, Pope Pius XII walked over to Assunta. She almost fainted. "When I saw the Pope coming, I prayed, Madonna, please help me. He put his hand on my head and said, blessed mother, happy mother, mother of a Blessed!" They both had eyes wet with tears. Three years later, on June 24, 1950, Pius XII canonized Goretti as a saint, the "Saint Agnes of the 20th century." Assunta was again present at the ceremony, along with her four remaining sons and daughters. Some sources assert she was the first mother ever to attend the canonization ceremony of her child. However, at least one source identifies her as the second, after Luigi Gonzaga's mother attended his canonization in the sixteenth century, in spite of the fact that Gonzaga was canonized in the eighteenth century, long after his mother's death. Alessandro Serenelli was also present at the canonization. Owing to the huge crowd present, the ceremonies associated with the canonization were held outside of Saint Peter's Basilica, in the Piazza San Pietro. Pius XII spoke, not as before in Latin, but in Italian. "We order and declare, that the blessed Maria Goretti can be venerated as a Saint and We introduce her into the Canon of Saints". Some 500,000 people, among them a majority of youth, had come from around the world. Pius asked them: "Young people, pleasure of the eyes of Jesus, are you determined to resist any attack on your chastity with the help of grace of God?" A resounding "yes" was the answer. All three of her brothers would claim that she intervened miraculously in their lives. Angelo heard her voice telling him to emigrate to America. Sandrino was reportedly miraculously given a sum of money to finance his own emigration to join Angelo. Sandrino died in the United States in 1917, and Angelo died in Italy when he returned there in 1964. The third brother, Mariano said he heard her voice telling him to stay in his trench when the rest of his unit charged the Germans in World War I. Mariano, the only survivor of that charge, lived until 1975 and had a large family. Her body is kept in the crypt of the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie e Santa Maria Goretti in Nettuno, south of Rome. It has been often reported that her body is incorrupt but this is not the case. Her remains are kept inside a statue which is lying down beneath the altar, which has been mistakenly believed by some to be her entire body. ![]() Elisabeth, of the royal race of Aragon, was born in the year of Christ 1271, and it was an omen of her saintly life, that her father and mother, contrary to the usual custom, caused her to be baptized, not by the name of her mother or grandmother, but by that of her mother's aunt, the holy Lady Elisabeth of Thuringia. As soon as ever she was born, her destiny of being a peacemaker between kings and kingdoms began to appear, for the joy of her birth put an end to the ruinous quarrels of her father and grandfather. As she grew up, her father, delighted with her disposition, was used to foretell that his Elisabeth would in herself excel all the daughters of the kingly house of Aragon, and that the happiness of his own home and kingdom was all owing to this one damsel, whose heavenly life he venerated for her indifference to bodily finery, her abstinence from pleasures, her many fasts, her instancy in prayer to God, and her activity in doing works of charity. This illustrious maiden was sought in marriage by many princes, and was wedded with Christian rites to Denis, King of Portugal. As a wife, she gave herself up as much to the education of her children, as to her own improvement, striving in all ways, next to God, to please her husband. For nearly half the year, she was used to live on bread and water, and once, when she was ill, God changed the water into wine, which the physicians had ordered her to drink, but which she was unwilling to take. Once when she kissed a disgusting ulcer in a poor woman, it was immediately healed. One winter-time when she was giving some money to the poor, and was fain her husband should not see her alms, the coins changed into roses. She gave sight to a maiden who had been born blind, and healed many other persons of grievous sicknesses by the Sign of the Cross. The miracles of this kind, which she worked, were many. She not only built, but richly endowed convents, schools, and churches. She had a wonderful skill in making peace between kings, and toiled unweariedly to lighten all suffering, whether public or private. King Denis died and Elisabeth, who in her maidenhood had been a pattern to virgins, and in her married life to wives, now, in her loneliness, was an ensample to widows. Clad in the raiment of the nuns of St. Clare, she faithfully attended at the King's funeral, and soon after went to Compostella, where she offered many precious gifts, of silk and gold, and silver, and precious stones, for the benefit of his soul. Thence she returned home, and spent in holy and godly uses everything that remained to her that was dear and costly, eager to relieve every kind of suffering. She lived, not for herself, but for God, and to be useful to mankind. She finished the convent for nuns, right worthy of a Queen, which she had founded at Coïmbra. She fed the poor, defended widows, protected orphans. A war being lighted up, between her son Alphonsus IV, King of Portugal, and her grandson Alphonsus XI, King of Castile, she resolved to set out to reconcile them, and went to the famous city of Estremoz. On the journey she caught a violent fever, of which, after a vision of the Virgin Mother of God, she died a saintly death on the 4th day of July, in the year 1336. She became illustrious for miracles after her death, especially for the sweetness of the savour of her body, which hath now remained uncorrupt for well-nigh three hundred years, and she hath always been spoken of as the Holy Queen. At length, in the year of our salvation 1625, which was that of the Jubilee, Urban VIII, all Christendom gathered together and approving, formally enrolled her name among those of the Saints. |
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