Far left, top to bottom: Ignatius of Loyola, Joseph of Arimathea, Alphonsus Liguori (with Salome next to him). Full-length, from left to right: Transfiguration, Stephen, Dominic. Beside Stephen’s head: Maccabee, with Jean Vianney below and Carlos Vidal opposite. Between Stephen and Dominic: Peter in Chains. Far right top: Gamaliel. Far right bottom: Our Lady of the Snows.
Happy Sunday! Today is the feast of Jesus’s Transfiguration, which appears in multiple New Testament books. But there are many inspiring saints whose feasts occurred this week, men and women and even children who believed in the promise of Christ’s Transfiguration and Resurrection and lived holy lives in order to attain Heaven, just as each of us should do.
Below is part of the Gospel of Matthew’s (17:1-5) description of the Transfiguration of Christ:
“And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.”
St. Stephen was the first Christian martyr. A deacon in the early Church, his brilliant arguments and preaching so infuriated those among the Jewish leaders who wanted to stop the spread of Christianity that he was arrested (Acts 6) and stoned to death. Stephen’s impassioned defense of Christianity, his vision of God, and his death are recounted in Acts 7. Saul, who held the coats of Stephen’s executioners, later became St. Paul. Stephen died with the words, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit…Lord, lay not this sin to their [the executioners’] charge.”
St. Dominic (Aug. 4) is one of the greatest saints of the Catholic Church. His Order of Preachers, also called the Dominicans, have been key in converting people and maintaining the faith for hundreds of years. His mother, Juana de Aza, whose feast is also this week (Aug. 2), is also numbered among the saints, as are Dominic’s brothers. Juana saw a vision before her son’s birth of a black-and-white dog bringing light to a darkened world with his torch, and her son Dominic, born in Spain, eventually founded the Dominican orders (for men, women, and a third order for laypeople) with their distinctive black-and-white habits.
Dominic fought the Albigensian heresy, a matter-hating and pernicious philosophy corrupting many in Europe in the 12th century, and did it with great success. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Dominic to ask him to spread devotion to the Rosary, the chaplet of prayers recited while pondering events in the lives of Jesus and His Mother.
St. Jean-Marie Vianney (Aug. 4) is the patron saint of parish priests. A very pious boy who grew up amidst the horrors of the French Revolution, he struggled greatly with his studies, and, after finally working his way to ordination, he was assigned to the small backwater town of Ars. The Curé of Ars transformed the town into a center of religious revival. His holiness, gentle wisdom, and miracles made him sought out by visitors from around the world, and it is said that he spent up to 12 hours every day hearing confessions. Up to 20,000 pilgrims came to see him every year. Vianney was also famous for his fights with the devil, who would appear in physical form to harass the saint. It is said the Devil once exclaimed to him, “If there were three such priests as you, my kingdom would be ruined!” Vianney died in 1859.
Our Lady of the Snows (Aug. 5) is a vision of Jesus’s Mother. A childless couple in 4th-century Rome wanted to leave their fortune to Jesus’s Mother, and prayed for a sign at the pope’s recommendation. Mary appeared to Pope Liberius and the couple to tell them to build a church in her honor on the Esquiline Hill, where a snowfall would occur. That August 5, snow miraculously fell on the hill’s crest in the pattern of a church, which became the famous St. Mary Major. The basilica still to this day enshrines the manger in which Jesus Christ was laid at His birth in Bethlehem.
St. Ignatius of Loyola (July 31) was a Spanish noble and soldier whose life changed when he did spiritual reading while recovering from a wound. He founded the Society of Jesus, now known as the Jesuits, in 1539, “and Loyola served as its general until his death, by which time it had branches in Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, India, and Brazil. Loyola described his mystical vision of prayer in The Spiritual Exercises. In his last years he laid the foundations of a system of Jesuit schools.” While many modern Jesuits have imbibed heretical ideas, the Jesuits for centuries were the guardians and spreaders of the most orthodox Catholicism.
Gamaliel (Aug. 3) was a “Rabbinical teacher, the mentor of St. Paul,” according to the book of Acts of the Apostles. “Gamaliel counseled the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem to release St. Peter and other apostles. He reportedly became a Christian, and the finding of his body in Jerusalem was celebrated on August 3 by early Christians.” Gamaliel’s son Abibas is also a saint.
St. Joseph of Arimathea (July 31) is mentioned in the New Testament as a “member of the [Jewish] council” and a “just man” who buried Jesus in his own tomb after the Crucifixion (Jn. 19, Mk. 15, Lk. 23). Traditions say that Joseph was entrusted with the Holy Grail, the cup in which Jesus consecrated the wine into His blood at the Last Supper. Glastonbury, England, claims that he traveled there.
You can read my full article on the heroism of the Old Testament Maccabees and the New Testament St. Peter in Chains (Aug. 1). The Maccabees were a dynasty of leaders who led the Jews in victory against their pagan oppressors and restored both the scepter and the practice of true religion to Israel. Also celebrated are martyrs killed by the pagans for staying true to Judaism, their stories recounted in the Biblical book of 2 Maccabees: Eleazar the Scribe and a mother and seven sons. St. Peter, meanwhile, was imprisoned by Herod for preaching the Gospel but was miraculously released from jail by an angel (Acts 12); his chains are still preserved in a church in Rome.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Aug. 1) accomplished many things in his life in spite of his health problems, particularly his crippling arthritis. A composer, lawyer, musician, poet, theologian, philosopher, bishop, mentor, and author, he founded the Redemptorist religious order to help the poor and abandoned and died a nonagenarian in 1787.
Dozens of martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, killed by Communists, had feast days this week, among them Carlos Lopez Vidal (Aug. 6). “Lifelong layman in the archdiocese of Valencia, Spain. Sacristan of the collegiate church of Gandia, Spain. Married to Rosa Tarazona Ribanocha in October 1923. Member of several lay apostolate groups, including Catholic Action, and known as a man of faith and prayer with a devotion to the Sacred Heart. He gave shelter [to] monks and nuns who were forced to go into hiding during the persecutions of the Spanish Civil War. The anti-Catholic militants eventually found him, as well. Martyr.” He was shot to death in 1936.
St. Salome the Myrrhbearer (Aug. 3) was the mother of the apostles James and John. She is mentioned more than once in the Gospels, and is one of the women who came to Jesus’s tomb with myrrh on Easter morning and heard the wonderful news of Jesus’s Resurrection.
Saint Stephen is my patron!
❤️☦️