Saints of the Week: Visitation, Joan, M.Pole, Augustine of Canterbury, Bede, Dymphna, Angela, Justin, Erasmus &More
Today is the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus Christ suffered unimaginable pain during His Passion and death, both from the physical tortures and the weight of our sins, even to pouring out His last drop of blood. Yet He loves us so much that He left us the miracle and sacrament of the Eucharist, His Body and Blood under the appearances of bread and wine, so that we can consume Christ and become most intimately united with Him. All the saints we celebrated this past week certainly were devoted both to Christ Crucified and to the Eucharist.
On May 31, we celebrated Jesus’s Mother Mary for three reasons: as Queen, as Mediatrix of All Graces, and for her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth while they were both pregnant (see Lk.1:39-55). Jesus loved and honored His Mother, and like any good son He wants us to do the same for His sake. Read more here.
St. Joan of Arc (May 30) was a French peasant girl instructed in visions of Sts. Michael, Catherine, and Margaret to drive the English from France and take the Dauphin to Reims for coronation. The “Maid of Orleans” led the army in a string of victories and achieved the Dauphin’s coronation, but was captured by the treacherous Burgundians. The latter colluded with the English to accuse her falsely of sorcery and heresy and she was burned at the stake in 1431.
St. Augustine of Canterbury (May 27/28), a monk “sent by St. Gregory the Great to the Anglo-Saxons, is the great Apostle of England and the first Archbishop of Canterbury. He died in 604.” Augustine Christianized the better of the local customs and impressed royal and commoner alike. Bl. Margaret Pole (May 28) was of the royal English Plantagenets; the Tudors and their predecessors ended up killing most of her family, including her brother. Margaret did marry a lord high in the king’s favor, with whom she had five children, including the famous Reginald Cardinal Pole. Margaret was a beloved lady of Queen Catharine and governess of Princess Mary, but when in her old age she and her son refused to agree with Henry VIII’s heresy and divorce, she was imprisoned and later martyred in the Tower of London.
St. Bede the Venerable (May 27) “was a Benedictine, a holy monk of Jarrow, in the eighth century. He was of great learning and is famous in Christian literature. He died in 735.” Bede was a philosopher, scientist, and historian. His Ecclesiastical History of the English People is a foundational historical text. St. Dymphna (May 30) was the daughter of a 7th century pagan Irish chieftain who, driven crazy with sorrow at his wife’s death, made advances on his daughter. Dymphna fled with her confessor to Belgium, where her father eventually found her and killed her.
St. Angela Merici (June 1) was an educator, pilgrim, and mystic who saw visions and founded the Church’s first female teaching order. She “adopted the rule of St. Francis, and later founded the Order of the Ursulines uniting ‘evangelical poverty to the merit of virginity.’ She died in 1540.” St. Justin Martyr (June 1) was a Greek philosopher before he converted and became a zealous apologist for Christianity. He combined philosophy and theology in his work. Justin wrote Apologies of the Faith to the Roman emperor and Senate, but was martyred with fellow Christians in 165.
“The Bishop Erasmus was martyred in 303.”1 Erasmus (June 2) was fed by a raven and rescued by an angel while in hiding and is one of the 14 Holy Helpers. Pope St. Felix (May 30), a dedicated evangelizer, “governed the Church from 269 to 274. He commanded his priests to celebrate Mass over the tombs of Martyrs. He was martyred under Aurelian in 274.” St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi (May 29) “consecrated her virginity to Christ at the age of ten; she was a Carmelite, famous for her visions. Her motto was ‘To suffer and not to die.’ She died in 1607.” Pope St. Eugene I (June 2) was a gentle and charitable man, elected pope in 654. He opposed the heretical Byzantine emperor and consecrated 21 bishops.
St. Marcellinus (June 2), mentioned in the Mass’s Eucharistic prayer, “a Priest, and Peter, a young exorcist, were beheaded after fearful torments in 302.” Their executioner St. Dorotheus converted after seeing their souls ascend to Heaven and did penance for his role in their martyrdom. St. Petronilla of Rome (May 31) was the beautiful daughter of St. Peter, who also cured her of palsy. Various accounts say she was either martyred or died after refusing to eat while being pressured to marry a pagan king. St. Basil the Elder (May 30) and his wife St. Emmelia had ten children, five of whom are canonized saints, including Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. Basil was a rhetorician and lawyer.
St. Julius the Veteran (May 27) was a Roman soldier for almost three decades. He was, however, eventually denounced by his fellow soldiers as a Christian and, having refused bribes to apostatize, was beheaded in 302 in what is now Bulgaria. St. Maximinus of Trier (May 29) was a bishop who sheltered and honored the persecuted St. Athanasius and St. Paul of Constantinople. Maximinus warned the emperor against the Arian heresy and defended the faith at the 340s Council of Sardica. St. Ferdinand III (May 30), King of Castile and Leon, endeavored to be a wise monarch and generous to the Church. He and his pious wife had seven children. Even when at war, Ferdinand always practiced penances (d.1252).
St. Phaolo Hanh (May 28) was a Vietnamese highwayman who began to insist his band of thieves give some of their loot to the poor. The thieves betrayed him as a Christian and, after withstanding torture, Phaolo was martyred in 1859. Bl. Maria Bartolomea Bagnesi (May 28) became ill at the thought of an arranged marriage and spent years suffering at the hands of quacks brought in by her father. She nevertheless joined the Third Order Dominicans, had visions, could levitate, cared for many cats, and was sought out for her advice (d.1577). St. Nicephorus of Constantinople (June 2) was a scholar and speaker before becoming patriarch of Constantinople. A reformer and evangelizer, he was deposed and exiled to a monastery on the Black Sea for opposing the emperor’s heretical iconoclasm (d.828).
St. Ronan of Cornwall (June 1) was a 6th century Cornish missionary, ordained by St. Patrick, who evangelized pagans in France and England. St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini (June 1) was a 19th century Italian bishop and founder of the catechetical School of Christian Doctrine and the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles. Bl. Theobald Roggeri (June 1) was an Italian cobbler and porter who became a pilgrim; would give away the grain he transported to the poor (d.1150). St. Hannibal Mary di Francia (June 1) cared for orphans and the poorest people, and founded two religious congregations (d.1927). Bl. John Storey (June 1) was a married Oxford professor and Parliamentarian who, captured by Queen Elizabeth’s agents in Belgium, was martyred in 1571. St. Pamphilus of Alexandria (June 1) was a third century scholar and priest who led a famous catechetical school and collected an impressive library; martyred with companions. St. Leo Tanaka (June 1) was a Japanese catechist martyred in 1617. St. Antanansio Bazzekuketta (May 27) was a Nkima clan member martyred in 1886 in the Mwangan persecutions of Uganda.
St. Camilla Battista Varano (May 31) was an Italian Poor Clare abbess, stigmatist and visionary (d.1524). Bl. James Salomone (May 31) was a noble who gave away his money and joined the Dominicans; a miraculous healer and wise confessor (d.1314). Bl. Iacobus Chu Mun-mo (May 31) was a Chinese convert and first priest in Korea, where he evangelized, compiled a catechism, and was martyred in 1801. St. Mechtildis of Edelstetten (May 31) was a 12th century German Benedictine abbess, mystic, miracle worker, and novice mistress. St. Secundus of Troia (May 27) fled 3rd century Arian Vandal persecution in North Africa to be a bishop in Italy, where he was martyred.
St. Liberius of Ancona (May 27) was a wise fifth century cave hermit. St. Bruno of Würzburg (May 27) was a relative of nobles and of a pope, but as bishop he was most known for his scholarship, peacemaking, and charity (d.1045). St. Melangell (May 27) was a sixth century Irish princess who became an anchoress and so impressed a hunting prince whose quarry she saved that he gave her a valley for her religious community. St. Barbara Kim (May 27) was a married Korean woman imprisoned and left to die in 1839. Bl. John Hogg (May 27) was an English priest hanged in 1590 under Queen Elizabeth I. Bl. Luigi Biraghi (May 28) was a scholar and papal Domestic Prelate, who founded the educational Institute of the Sisters of Saint Marcellina.
St. Lanfranc of Canterbury (May 28) was an 11th century lawyer who became a Benedictine prior, theologian, reformer, archbishop, and founder of a famed school. Bl. Antoni Julian Nowowiejski (May 28) was a Polish archbishop abused to death by Nazis in 1941. St. William of Gellone (May 28), Count of Toulouse, a warrior and relative of Charlemagne, became a monk and is the hero of a medieval romance. St. Ursula Ledochowska (May 29) founded the Institute of Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Agony and promoted devotion to the Eucharist. Bl. Richard Thirkeld (May 29) was an English Oxford scholar and priest martyred in 1583. St. Bona of Pisa (May 29) was a mystic, pilgrim, visionary, and Augustinian tertiary who was rescued from imprisonment by Muslim pirates to lead more pilgrimages (d.c.1207). St. Conon the Elder (May 29) was a husband and father in Asia Minor who, widowed, became a hermit; tortured and martyred with his son Conon in 275.
Bl. Otto Neururer (May 30) was an Austrian priest and educator who was the first priest martyred by Nazis in a concentration camp. Bl. Carlo Liviero (May 30), the “Hammer of Socialism,” was an Italian priest who founded the Congregation of the Little Servants of the Sacred Heart (d.1932). St. Walstan of Bawburgh (May 30) gave up life as a noble to be a humble and pious farm laborer (d.1016). Bl. Sadoc of Sandomierz (June 2) was a Polish Dominican martyred in 1260 with 48 other Dominicans by Tartars as they sang the Salve Regina hymn. St. Blandina the Slave (June 2) and companions were seized by a mob, accused of cannibalism, and martyred (in her case, by wild bull) in 2nd century Roman-controlled France. St. Photinus of Lyons (June 2), an aged bishop, was one of the Christians martyred in the same persecution as Blandina. St. Nicholas Peregrinus (June 2) was an 11th century Greek youth who drew groups of children in Italy to walk the streets with him and cry “Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy).” Bl. Guido of Acqui (June 2) was an 11th century bishop and reformer who promoted the education of women.
Also celebrated this week were Barbara Yi, Richard Holiday, Dionysius of Semur, Richard Hill, Gonzaga Gonza, Restituta of Sora, Matthias of Nagasaki, Eutropius of Orange, Haarlem Martyrs, and Basil of Georgia (May 27); Luciano of Cagliari, Herculaneum of Piegaro, Germanus of Paris, W.Demski, Caraunus, John Shert, Thomas Ford, Ubaldesca Taccini, Robert Johnson, and Mary of the Nativity (May 28); Cyril of Caesarea, Giles Dalmasia, Daganus, Gerardesca, Hesychius of Antioch, Felix and Votus, John deAtares, Theodosia of Caesarea and martyrs, Eleutherius of Rocca d'Arce, and Senator of Milan (May 29); and Marie-Celine Castang, Giuseppe Marello, Thomas Cottam, Luke Kirby, Lawrence Richardson, William Scott, Matiya Mulumba, William Filby, Rich.Newport, Elisabeth Stagel, and Exuperantius of Ravenna (May 30).
You can also read about Mariano of Roccacasale, Nicolas Barre, Felice of Nicosia, Vitalis of Assisi, Robert Thorpe, Nowa Mawaggali, and Thomas Watkinson (May 31); Crescentinus, John Pelingotto, Wystan, Simeon of Syracuse, Medulph of Thiers, Alfonso Navarrete-Benito, Damian of Scotland, Gaudentius of Ossero, Jean-Baptiste-Ignace-Pierre Vernoy de Montjournal, Ferdinand Ayala, Inigo Ona, Reverie& martyrs, Giuse Tuc, and Conrad of Hesse (June 1); and Joseph Tien, Daminh Ninh, Demetrios, Adalgis, Stephen of Sweden, Giovanni de Barthulono, and Conall (June 2).
Have a blessed week!
A number of quotes in this article are from the Latin Mass Missal.