Daily Saints

Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, Priest and Martyr

1891–1927; Invoked by the Mexican Church and in times of political persecution; Beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988

Catholicism arrived in Mexico with the Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s and rapidly grew, especially following the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531. By 1810, anti-Catholic sentiments had set in after Mexico’s independence from Spain when the Church became intimately intertwined with civil governance. The new Mexican Constitution in 1857 was the initial attempt by the newly independent state to limit the Church’s influence. Anti-Catholicism and anti-clericalism reached their peak in the 1920s under President Plutarco Elías Calles, leading to the Cristero Wars that took the lives of an estimated 50,000–250,000 Mexicans and brought the martyrdom of at least 40 priests. Of those priests, Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, whom the Church honors today, was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988. Additionally, Saint Christopher Magallanes and his twenty-four companions, whose memorial is on May 21, were canonized by Pope John Paul II in the jubilee year 2000.

José Ramón Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Miguel Pro) was born in 1891, just before this painful period of anti-Catholicism in Mexico’s history. He was born in Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico, the third of seven surviving children. When Miguel was still an infant, his family moved to Mexico City and would move around to various towns in the north over the next twenty years. Miguel’s parents were devout Catholics. His father was a respected and experienced mining engineer who often had a heavy workload and employed help from his children at times. As a youth, Miguel had a lively and attractive personality, along with a good sense of humor. He loved to tell stories and entertain others, and had a deep faith from an early age. He was especially close to his sister, María de la Concepción, with whom he made a pact that he would become a Jesuit priest and she a nun. They both fulfilled that pact. Later in life, letters exchanged between the two reveal their deep faith and respect for each other.

At the time of Miguel’s birth, the 1857 anti-Catholic Mexican Constitution had been in place for about twenty-five years. President Porfirio Díaz permitted the Church to operate independently and freely, while leaving the laws on the books. By the time Miguel turned twenty, political instability had risen, leading to Díaz’s resignation and exile in 1911. In that same year, Miguel entered the Jesuit novitiate in El Llano, Michoacán, Mexico. The next three years saw two short-term presidents, and in 1914, Venustiano Carranza seized power and took the title of “First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army.” The Jesuit novitiate in El Llano was closed as part of renewed anti-Catholic persecutions. Brother Miguel fled to the United States, then to Spain, and finally to Belgium. For the next ten years, Brother Miguel studied as he moved, preparing for priestly ordination that took place in Belgium in 1925. Though his formation was fraught with illness, exile, and concern for his homeland, he kept his eyes upon God’s will and embraced the gift of the priesthood with great joy. “I could not hold back the tears on the day of my ordination, above all at the moment when I pronounced, together with the bishop, the words of the consecration.”

During the period that Father Miguel was outside Mexico in formation, things went from bad to worse for the Mexican Church. In 1917, a new Mexican constitution imposed more stringent restrictions on the Church. The education of youth was restricted to secular schools. Religious ceremonies were prohibited from taking place outside of churches. Religious organizations were prohibited from owning any property other than churches, leading to widespread confiscation. Monastic vows were prohibited. Clergy could not inherit property and were stripped of citizenship, the right to vote, and the ability to participate in politics. Finally, only native-born clergy were allowed to minister; foreign clergy were forced to leave.

In 1925, Plutarco Elías Calles was elected president and soon after ushered in a more intense era of anti-Catholic and anti-clerical persecutions. He enforced the 1917 constitution and, in 1926, enacted the “Law for Reforming the Penal Code,” also known as the “Calles Law,” which required stricter enforcement of the Constitution. All forms of public worship were outlawed, the remaining Church property was confiscated, all forms of religious education (even private) were forbidden, and priests were expelled from the country. This led to a peasant revolt called the Cristero Wars, which lasted until 1929. “¡Viva Cristo Rey! ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!”—“Long live Christ the King! Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe!”—This was the cry of the Cristeros in the face of oppression.

As the 1926 persecution began in earnest, the newly ordained Father Miguel Pro could do nothing from Belgium, except pray. He devised a plan to return to Mexico and live publicly as a well-dressed businessman, mechanic, or even beggar, while at the same time carrying out a clandestine ministry. He had never lived in Mexico as a priest, so he believed he could escape the notice of the civil authorities. He arrived in Mexico on July 8, 1926, and made his way to Mexico City where he began his priestly service. His naturally joyful personality and sense of humor helped inspire many and lifted the heavy burden of the oppression they were experiencing. He conducted Masses in secret, heard confessions, administered the other sacraments in private homes, and moved around to avoid getting caught by the authorities. After a few months of his clandestine ministry, Father Miguel was arrested on suspicion that he wrote pamphlets and attached them to 600 balloons that were released over the city to share the Gospel with the people. After being interrogated, he was released because there was insufficient evidence to hold him. When another arrest warrant was issued for him shortly after, he remained in seclusion but resumed his secret ministry once his superiors gave their consent.

Less than a year later, in November 1927, an assassination attempt resulted in the wounding of the former president Álvaro Obregón. The authorities traced the car that was used to Father Miguel’s brother, who had nothing to do with the plot. Nonetheless, the authorities moved in and not only arrested Father Miguel’s two brothers but also Father Miguel. Another man confessed to the crime, stating that he acted on his own, without any involvement by the Pro brothers. After the brothers were questioned in Mexico City by the Detective Inspector, President Calles himself gave the order to execute Father Pro and his brothers, despite there never having been a trial. President Calles gave further orders that the execution was to be photographed and printed in the papers the following day as a way of deterring the Cristeros in their revolution.

On November 23, 1927, Father Miguel Pro walked from his cell to the courtyard where the firing squad awaited, with the photographer ready at hand. The pictures show a confident and courageous Father Miguel Pro, kneeling before his executioners, facing them without a blindfold, forgiving them, blessing them, holding a rosary in one hand, and a crucifix in the other. He cried out, “May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, You know that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!” He then rose, faced the firing squad, extended his arms as if on a cross, and prayed in a loud voice, “Viva Cristo Rey!” After the shots rang out, Father Pro was still alive, so one of the soldiers came forward and shot him point-blank.

When the pictures and story appeared the following day, the Mexican people were deeply inspired by their young martyr. Though publication in the papers was meant to be a deterrent to the Cristeros, the pictures and story had the opposite effect. An estimated 40,000 people lined the streets for Father Pro’s funeral procession. Even though neither a Catholic funeral Mass nor the rites of burial were permitted, an estimated 20,000 Cristeros prayed at the cemetery as his body was buried.

Blessed Miguel Pro fell in love with his Lord during a time of extreme persecution. Rather than shying away from his faith, he prayed and fulfilled his priestly ministry with courage and love. His life culminated with a choice either to be bitter or to forgive and hope in his God. He chose the latter. May his life and witness inspire all who are persecuted for their faith, and may his prayers assist you on your own journey when times are rough.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-23—blessed-miguel-agustn-pro-priest-and-martyr—optional-memorial/

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Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Daily Saints

Late Second or Early Third Century; Patron Saint of bodily purity, composers, luthiers, martyrs, music, musicians, musical instrument makers, poets, and singers; Pre-Congregation canonization

An ancient tradition holds that Pope Urban I, who served as the Holy Father from about 222–230, built a church in Rome over the house of a virgin martyr named Cecilia. By the fifth century, the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere had been either rebuilt or expanded, as it was also in the ninth and sixteenth centuries. The fact that today’s martyr had a church built in her honor, over the house in which she lived and died, helps explain how she has become so revered and honored throughout the many centuries since her death, despite the fact that little is known about her.

All we know for certain about Saint Cecilia is that she lived, was a follower of Christ, and died a martyr. Even the year of her death is disputed. Some place it as early as during the rule of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (176–180); others place it later, during the rule of Emperor Alexander Severus (222–235); still others place it somewhere in between. Though we do not have historical facts, we have an inspiring legend that was written down around the fifth century in a book called The Passion of Saint Cecilia. It is from that legend that this reflection on the life of this holy martyr is based.

Cecelia was born into a wealthy and noble family in the city of Rome during a time when Roman emperors and local prefects often persecuted Christians. Cecilia was not only a Christian with a very deep faith, she fasted, performed other penitential acts, and pledged her life to Christ and Him alone as His bride.

As a young woman, Cecilia’s father gave her in marriage to a nobleman named Valerian against her wishes. Young women at that time did not have the final say about whom they would marry. Like most Romans at that time, Valerian adhered to the Roman pagan religious practices. During their wedding, as the music played, Cecilia sang her own hymn in her heart. It was a hymn of praise to God, a beautiful prayer to her true Spouse in Heaven, which is why she later became the patron saint of musicians. After their wedding, before Valerian attempted to sleep with her, Cecilia revealed to her new husband that she was a Christian and that she had made a vow of virginity to her true heavenly Spouse. What’s more, Cecilia told Valerian that an angel of God was sent to her to guard her virginity, and the angel would deal fiercely with anyone who tried to violate it. Valerian asked to see the angel and Cecilia informed him that there was only one way. He had to go see Pope Urban I, receive catechetical instruction, and be baptized. Pope Urban had been in seclusion, living within the catacombs to avoid persecution and death from the Roman prefect. Valerian found him, was instructed in the faith, and baptized. When he returned to Cecilia, Valerian not only saw the angel who guarded her, he also saw her angel place on her head a dual crown of white lilies, symbolizing her purity, and red roses, symbolizing her martyrdom.

As a new Christian, Valerian shared his faith with his brother, Tiburtius, who also converted and was baptized. Valerian and Tiburtius then became very active with the underground Christian community, devoting themselves to good works, such as burying those who were martyred for their faith. Eventually, they came to the attention of the Prefect Almachius who ordered them to offer sacrifice to the Roman god Jupiter. When they refused, a Roman officer named Maximus was commanded to behead them. When Maximus attempted to carry out the command, he had a heavenly vision that led to his instant conversion. Once he professed his faith, he, too, was martyred with Valerian and Tiburtius by beheading, and Cecilia buried them.

Shortly afterward, Cecilia was arrested. The Prefect Almachius tried to convince her to save her life by offering sacrifice to the Roman gods, but she refused. Almachius was afraid that there might be backlash if he killed her publicly, since she was a beloved member of the community, so he ordered the guards to take her to her home, lock her in her bathroom, and boil water so that the steam would suffocate her, and her death could be blamed on an accident of her own making. The plot backfired and Cecilia survived. Outraged, Almachius ordered her beheading in her home. The soldier was dispatched and struck her neck once, twice, and a third time, but she remained alive, though badly injured. Roman law did not permit a fourth attempt at beheading, so the soldiers left her alone to die.

Cecilia remained alive for the next three days, during which time the Christian community flocked to her home. She distributed all of her money and property to the poor, and donated her house to the pope so he could transform it into a place of Christian worship. Toward the end, she was in such great suffering that she could no longer speak. So, to honor God, she held up her thumb and two fingers to represent the Most Holy Trinity, and her index finger on the other hand to represent the one divine nature they shared.

When she died, she was buried in the Catacomb of Saint Callistus, and Pope Urban transformed her house into a church. Centuries later, in 821, Pope Paschal I moved her mortal remains from the catacomb to the church built by Pope Urban and later expanded. In 1599, in preparation for the jubilee year, Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfrondati had her body exhumed, and she was found miraculously preserved. Her tomb is now under the main altar with a marble sarcophagus on top, made by the artist Stefano Maderno, who is said to have seen her miraculously preserved body in 1599. The sarcophagus depicts what he saw. She is clothed in a silk and gold dress; her face is turned to the ground. On one hand her three fingers honor the Trinity; on the other, her one finger honors Their shared divinity.

Despite the legendary nature of her story, God has used Saint Cecilia to inspire many through the centuries, and there is little doubt that the details of her life were passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, until they were finally put in writing. Her name was inserted into the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I), along with other saints and Roman martyrs. The Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere remains a revered church in Rome to this day, where many enter to pray and beseech her intercession and are inspired as they kneel before the marble sarcophagus depicting her young martyred body awaiting her final resurrection with Christ, her divine Spouse.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-22—saint-cecilia–memorial/

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Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Daily Saints

There are three “gospels” which are believed to have heavily influenced today’s memorial—the Protoevangelium of James, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary. The earliest of these writings was the Protoevangelium of James (also called the “Apocryphal Gospel of James”), which was most likely written sometime in the second century. It is not considered to be part of the inspired word of God, i.e., the canon of Scripture, because it does not appear to have actually been written by the Apostle James. Nonetheless, like many early Christian documents, this apocryphal gospel held great influence in the early Church. It is from this writing that the Church takes the traditional names of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents—Saints Joachim and Anne—since that is the only record of their names we have.

The Protoevangelium of James gives a detailed account of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s life. It details her Immaculate Conception, birth, presentation in the Temple, and her life in the Temple where she prayed continuously and was ministered to by angels until the age of twelve. The story continues with her miraculously arranged marriage to Saint Joseph, Jesus’ birth, Herod’s encounter with the Magi, the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, and the martyrdom of Zechariah, Saint John the Baptist’s father. Though the Apocryphal Gospel of James does not contradict anything in the canonical Gospels, many more details are added that could be true.

At the time of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was not uncommon for some children to be presented in the Temple at a young age, to be raised there, and to enter into service at the Temple. They assisted the priests and acted as servants of charity. Though every firstborn boy was ritually presented to the priest in the Temple eight days after birth so as to be consecrated to God, sometimes girls were also presented, but for the purpose of entering into the Temple’s service. Saint Alphonsus Liguori, an eighteenth-century Doctor of the Church who wrote extensively on the Blessed Virgin Mary, offers this description of her presentation in the Temple, which mirrors the aforementioned apocryphal gospel accounts:

Having barely reached the age of three years, the holy child Mary entreated her parents that she might be placed in the temple according to the promise they had made. The appointed day having arrived, the immaculate young Virgin left Nazareth with St. Joachim and St. Anne, accompanied by a host of angels attending that holy child destined to become the mother of their Creator…Upon their arrival at the temple in Jerusalem, the holy child turned to her parents. Kneeling, she kissed their hands, asked for their blessing, and then, without looking back, ascended the steps of the temple. There, renouncing the world and all it could offer her, she wholly offered and consecrated herself to God. From then on, Mary’s life in the temple was a continuous exercise of love, offering her entire being to her Lord…As a young virgin in the temple, Mary did nothing but pray, desiring to be the servant of the blessed Virgin chosen to be the mother of God (Glories of Mary, On the Feast of the Presentation of Mary).

It is believed that this feast originated in the Eastern Byzantine liturgy around the sixth century at the time that Byzantine Roman Emperor Justinian I built a church in Jerusalem near the ruins of the Temple called the Basilica of Saint Mary the New. By the ninth century, several monasteries in the Latin Church began to observe this feast, and it was added to the Universal Church calendar in the fifteenth century.

In 1953, Pope Pius XII tied this memorial of the Presentation of Mary to an annual commemoration of the World Day of Cloistered Life. He did so because of the belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not only presented in the Temple as a child, she then lived out her childhood in constant prayer and solitude, becoming the most excellent model for those in the cloister.

In 1974, Pope Saint Paul VI wrote a beautiful apostolic exhortation, Marialis Cultus (For the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary), in which he speaks of the development of Marian devotion in the life of the Church. Regarding feasts like today’s, which come to us in part from apocryphal sources, he says, “There are still others [feasts] which, apart from their apocryphal content, present lofty and exemplary values and carry on venerable traditions having their origin especially in the East.”

As we celebrate the liturgical memorial of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, we especially honor the fact that, regardless of the lack of certainty of the historical details, the Blessed Virgin Mary lived a life of profound prayer and contemplation from her earliest years and continued to do so throughout her life. She always has been, and continues to be, the Immaculate One, the sinless Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the first contemplative, and one who dedicated her whole life to the service of the will of God. Even if the account of her presentation and childhood service in the Temple is not accurately represented in these early sources, the spiritual reality of her total dedication to the will of God throughout her life is an indisputable dogma of our faith.

As we ponder the early life and dedication of the Blessed Virgin Mary to God’s will today, reflect upon the fact that every child is capable of a profound faith and commitment to God’s will. For those who are entrusted with the guardianship and raising of children, allow your prayerful reflection on the holy life of Blessed Mary as a child to inspire you to help all young people imitate her profound faith and holiness.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-21—presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary–memorial/

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Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin

Daily Saints

1769–1852; Invoked for perseverance amid adversity and against the opposition of Church authorities; Canonized by Pope John Paul II on July 3, 1988

Rose Philippine Duchesne was born into an upper-class family in the city of Grenoble in the Kingdom of France. She was the second of eight children, seven girls and one boy. As a child, Rose’s education took place at home by private tutors. When she was eight, she was inspired by the preaching of a Jesuit missionary who spoke about the ripe new mission field of the Americas. This planted a seed within her heart that began to grow. At the age of twelve, she attended school at a convent of Visitation nuns in Grenoble. While there, she became intimately drawn to their life of contemplation within the walls of the cloister. When she informed her father that she wanted to join the community, he firmly opposed the idea and withdrew her from the school to keep her from considering it further, so she continued her education at home from tutors.

As events unfolded that would lead to the French Revolution, Rose came up with a secret plan to become a nun. In 1788, she asked her aunt to accompany her on a visit to the Visitation sisters. Once there, Rose requested permission to enter the convent. Permission was granted immediately, and Rose entered. Her aunt returned home and informed Rose’s father and the rest of her family what Rose had done. Sister Rose spent the next four years with the sisters, growing deep in prayer and being nurtured through the community and rule of life.

Once the French Revolution entered into full force, the Church became a central target. With the formation of a new National Assembly, church property was seized and clergy were forced to choose between swearing an oath of allegiance to the state or arrest and possible execution. Public worship and monastic vows were outlawed, and chaos ensued. In 1792, the monarchy was abolished, and the First French Republic was proclaimed. In that same year, the Visitation convent in Grenoble was seized by the state and turned into a prison, and the sisters were forced to disband. For the next nine years, Sister Rose lived in her family home where she attempted to continue practicing her religious vocation, along with two aunts who were also Visitation nuns.

In late 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte led a coup and disbanded the revolutionary French government, becoming the First Consul of the new French Consulate. A little more than a year later, Napoleon and Pope Pius VII signed the Concordat of 1801, which acknowledged Catholicism as the religion of the majority of the French and permitted its public practice to continue under certain state regulations. At that time, Sister Rose and some of her disbanded sisters attempted to return to their convent, but it was in disrepair due to its interim use as a military barracks and prison. Nonetheless, some of the sisters moved in with Sister Rose who was made superior. By 1804, due to the difficult living conditions at the convent, only three sisters remained with Sister Rose.

In 1804, Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat (who was canonized in 1925), the founder of a new religious order called the Society of the Sacred Heart, invited the small convent of Visitation sisters into her order. The sisters agreed, and, in November of that year, Mother Barat traveled to Grenoble to receive them. Once the Visitation convent merged with the Society of the Sacred Heart, Sister Rose made her final vows and was made superior of the new convent, known henceforth as Mother Duchesne. For the next eleven years, tensions remained high in France due to the ongoing Napoleonic Wars that lasted until the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, in which Napoleon was defeated and exiled. During this chaotic period, Mother Duchesne managed life at the convent, reopened a school, and founded new convents and schools.

In 1815, Mother Barat invited Mother Duchesne to found a new convent in Paris that would function as the novitiate for the order, as well as operate a school. In 1817, a French missionary named Father William Dubourg returned to Europe from the United States to recruit missionaries for the new territory gained by the Louisiana Purchase. Father Dubourg had been appointed Apostolic Administrator of the territory in 1812, but it lacked priests and religious. Upon his return, Pope Pius VII appointed him as Bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas and ordained him in Rome. He then spent the next two years traveling through Europe to recruit missionaries. In Paris, he met Mother Duchesne whose heart was immediately inflamed with a desire to assist. This desire had been in her heart since her childhood, and now it was on the verge of becoming a reality. With the approval and blessing of Mother Barat, the forty-eight-year-old Mother Duchesne and four of her sisters set sail for New Orleans in 1818 to become missionaries on the new frontier of the United States of America.

Upon their arrival, they learned that Bishop Dubourg had moved to Saint Louis out of concern for his safety, and he had not made any arrangements for the newly arrived sisters in New Orleans. The sisters then boarded a steamboat and traveled up the Mississippi to Saint Louis, settling in the nearby town of Saint Charles, where they founded their first convent (a log cabin) in the United States. It was one of the most remote parts of the country at that time and brought with it many hardships, uncertainties, and trials. But the sisters persevered, opened a free school for the poor, established their community life of prayer, and persevered in their work of building the Kingdom of God in mission territory.

Over the next thirty-four years, Mother Duchesne became a tireless founder. The next convent was founded in Florissant, which would become the mother house and novitiate for the congregation in the United States, and also served a free school. She founded new convents and schools in Saint Louis, New Orleans, and other parts of Louisiana as her order continued to grow.

Throughout her first twenty years, Mother Duchesne always had a strong desire to minister to the native tribes but was unable to do so. In 1841, her dream became a reality when she was invited to found a convent to serve the Potawatomi tribe in Sugar Creek, Kansas. Since she was seventy-one at that time, she wasn’t an ideal candidate for the job and further was unable to learn the Potawatomi language. Nonetheless, the Jesuits who were leading the expedition insisted she come for prayer support, which she did to the greatest degree. In fact, she prayed so long and so often that the natives gave her the affectionate name “Quah-kah-ka-num-ad,” which means, “Woman-who-prays-always.” One story relates that the children were so impressed by her prayerfulness that they would often place pebbles on the hem of her garment as she knelt in prayer at night and then return the next morning to see if the pebbles were still in place, and they usually were, giving a powerful witness to the mystical nature of her all-night vigils.

After about a year in Sugar Creek with the Potawatomi, Mother Duchesne’s health took a turn for the worse, compelling her to return to the mother house near Saint Louis to rest and be cared for. Just as she was the “woman who prays always” while among the Potawatomi, so she spent the final decade of her life in continuous prayer, uniting her sufferings to Christ, and spiritually mentoring the younger sisters as the community grew.

This courageous woman gave up all that she knew and all that she had, except for her religious habit and the companionship of a few sisters, so that she could bring the Gospel to the frontier of the United States as the people slowly moved West. Her deepest desire to share the faith with the natives became a reality because of her perseverance and reliance on prayer. As we honor Saint Rose today, we honor her as a true spiritual mother who saw everyone as her children whom she needed to nurture in love by instilling faith and hope. In imitation of her, allow the desire to be a missionary to be enkindled within your heart. Though you might not be called to travel the seas to share the faith, you will certainly be called to share the love of Christ in accord with your own vocation. Submit yourself fully to that mission, and God will use you, as He used Mother Duchesne, for glorious things.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-18—saint-rose-philippine-duchesne/

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Saint Margaret of Scotland

Daily Saints

c. 1045–1093; Patron Saint of learning, parents of large families, parents who have lost a child, queens, and widows; Canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1251

Margaret of Wessex was born into English royalty. Her grandfather was King Edmund the Ironside, who reigned as king for less than a year. After King Edmund’s death, Margaret’s father, Edward, might have been sent to the court of the King of Sweden for protection, and later to Kyiv when he was only an infant. For that reason, he is commonly referred to as Edward the Exile. In 1046, Prince Andrew of Hungary became King of Hungary, and Edward the Exile entered into his service, eventually marrying Agatha and having three children: Margaret, Christina, and Edgar Ætheling. Little is known about Agatha, but one theory is that she was the granddaughter of Saint Stephen, King of Hungary, and the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II. Agatha and Edward the Exile were good parents to their three children, seeing to it that they were well educated and raised in a strong Catholic home.

In 1042, Edward the Confessor became King of England—and was later canonized, the only English king to become a saint. King Edward the Confessor did not have any heirs to whom he could pass on the crown, so he called Edward the Exile (Margaret’s father) and his family back to England where they entered the royal court. Edward the Exile died soon afterward, making Margaret’s brother, Edgar Ætheling, a potential heir to the throne.

In 1066, when King Edward the Confessor died, conflict arose as to who had the right of succession. During the confusion, the nobles quickly chose Harold II and had him crowned as king. However, a distant relative, William of Normandy (also known as William the Conqueror), made a claim to the throne. William offered many reasons, including a claim that Harold had sworn an oath to him to support him as King of England and had sworn the oath over the relics of a saint, making it binding. Even the pope agreed with William’s claim. Shortly after Harold II was crowned as king, William attacked England, and Harold II was killed in battle. The nobles supported Edgar Ætheling, Margaret’s brother, as the next king, but when William rode into London, the nobility surrendered and Edgar relinquished his claim to the throne, never having been crowned.

In 1068, the widowed Agatha decided to protect her children from the Norman conquerors and from potential chaos that might result from a rebellion against them. She boarded a ship with Edgar, Margaret, and Cristina, and set sail for her home, probably Hungary. Legend has it that the ship was tossed off course and wrecked on the shores of Scotland. In Scotland, King Malcolm III welcomed the exiled royal family and provided for their safety.

Since childhood, Margaret had grown in a profound love of God. She lived a very strict and ordered life, studied the Sacred Scriptures and other pious books, and grew in a keen understanding of the things of God. Her earliest biographer described her as another Mary of Bethany, who sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to His Word and pondering it in her heart.

When this royal family arrived in Scotland, the young King Malcom, a widower with two sons, immediately noticed Margaret’s beauty. Her physical beauty was greatly enhanced by the beauty of her soul, manifested in her piety, virtue, and intelligence. It didn’t take long before the two fell in love and were married, making Margaret Queen of Scotland.

Queen Margaret quickly realized that the power and influence she had received ought not be used for her own selfish purposes but for the betterment of Scotland and, especially, for the increase of the Kingdom of God. As queen, Margaret quickly won the love and admiration of the people. As her first biography stated, “Nothing was firmer than her fidelity, steadier than her favor, or juster than her decisions; nothing was more enduring than her patience, graver than her advice, or more pleasant than her conversation.”

Prior to Margaret’s arrival in Scotland, the Scottish Church followed the old Celtic traditions. When the Romans withdrew from Britain in the fifth century, the Scottish Church became isolated from the Roman Empire and the Church’s development. In Scotland, abbots of monasteries provided the main source of Church influence and governance, rather than bishops of dioceses. Liturgical practices differed, including the liturgical calendar and customs.

Queen Margaret had been raised within the Roman tradition through her mother’s influence. She was immediately aware of the differences between the Celtic practices of the Scots and the rest of the Roman Catholic world. Therefore, with loving reverence, strength, and virtue, she began to initiate change in the Church of Scotland. She was said to have had a great influence over her husband on account of her goodness and clarity of thought, so he supported her in the reforms. She was said to have regularly read to him from the Bible, since he was unable to read.

Queen Margaret convened synods to address the different practices of the Celts from the rest of the Roman Catholic Church, such as the time in which Lent and Easter were observed, the way Mass was celebrated, observance of the Lord’s Day, and the laws on marriage. In doing this, she strengthened ties to the pope in Rome, freeing the Scottish from their lengthy isolation. In addition to synods, Queen Margaret refurbished dilapidated churches, built new ones, and introduced Benedictine monks to Scotland by building the renowned Dunfermline Abbey, in which several Scottish monarchs were later buried. She is also known for her exceptional charity by which she fed the hungry, stooped down and washed the feet of the poor, cared for orphans, and organized religious education throughout the kingdom.

King Malcolm and Queen Margaret had eight children together, six sons and two daughters. Three of their sons went on to become kings of Scotland, one became an abbot, and a daughter became the Queen of England. In 1093, King Malcolm and Margaret’s oldest son, Edward, were killed in battle. When the forty-nine year old Margaret, bedridden in Edinburgh Castle due to ill health, heard the news, she died of grief three days later.

Jesus holds those with power and wealth to high standards: “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). Saint Margaret was as rich as one could be in her day, but she overcame the temptations of earthly wealth and power, and prayerfully devoted her life to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. She was a fitting representation on earth of the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, and she especially provides those of wealth and influence with an example they can follow.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-16–st-margaret-of-scotland/

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Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Daily Saints

After Emperor Constantine the Great legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313, he began to construct churches, particularly in Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. In Rome, he constructed four basilicas: Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s on Vatican Hill, Holy Cross of Jerusalem, and Saint Paul Outside the Walls. Today, the Church celebrates the dedication of two of those basilicas: Saint Peter’s on Vatican Hill and Saint Paul Outside the Walls.

The foundation of these two churches goes back to the first century when Peter and Paul shed their blood and were buried where the basilicas stand today. In 64, a great fire destroyed much of the city of Rome. Many historians believe Emperor Nero set the fires himself so he could have an excuse to rebuild portions of the city as he desired. Nero blamed the fire on the Christians and implemented the first organized persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Among the many who were arrested and martyred were Saints Peter and Paul.

Peter was the Prince of the Apostles and Bishop of Rome. He is believed to have been crucified upside-down in the Circus of Nero near the ancient Egyptian obelisk that now stands in the center of Saint Peter’s Square. He was buried in the nearby cemetery on Vatican Hill, and his grave became a place of pilgrimage for early Christians. After Constantine legalized Christianity, he became aware of the reverence with which this Prince of the Apostles’ grave was held, so he constructed what is now referred to as Old Saint Peter’s Basilica to help foster devotion and encourage pilgrimages to the site. The first basilica was dedicated by Pope Sylvester around the year 324 or 326 and remained for more than a millenia, with additions and reconstructions taking place during that time.

Until 1305, popes lived at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, not at Saint Peter’s. When Pope Clement V was elected to the papacy, he moved the entire papal court to Avignon, France in 1309, where it remained until Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome from Avignon in 1377. At the time of the pope’s return to Rome, the Lateran Palace was in disrepair due to two fires, so the pope built a new papal palace next to Old Saint Peter’s on Vatican Hill, where every subsequent pope has resided. By the turn of the sixteenth century, Old Saint Peter’s was in serious disrepair, so in 1505, Pope Julius II ordered its demolition and began a process of reconstruction that spanned twenty-one subsequent papacies and was completed 120 years later. In 1626, the present-day Basilica of Saint Peter’s at the Vatican was dedicated by Pope Urban VIII.

Saint Paul was the tireless evangelist and the Church’s preeminent theologian, spreading the Gospel far and wide, and directly establishing and nourishing numerous Christian communities. He is also recognized as one of the earliest and most important converts to the faith. After an exceptional ministry of evangelization, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem. Because he was a Roman citizen, he appealed to the Roman emperor. He was subsequently imprisoned and two years later transported to Rome for his trial. When Nero’s persecutions were enacted shortly afterwards, Paul was beheaded on or around the same day that Saint Peter was crucified. Paul’s beheading is believed to have taken place just outside the walls of the city on the Ostian Way. He was buried near that spot.

Like the Old Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls was built by Emperor Constantine over the grave of Saint Paul and dedicated by Pope Sylvester in 324. Over the next 1,500 years, successive popes added on to the basilica, renovated it, and decorated it. In 1823, almost the entire basilica was destroyed by a fire. Over the thirty years that followed, the church was redesigned and reconstructed into the church we have today. It was completed and dedicated in 1854 by Pope Pius IX.

As we honor the dedication of these two Roman basilicas, we honor much more than churches; we honor the apostles to whom they are dedicated. On June 29 each year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, honoring their unique and foundational ministries. Today, on November 18, we honor these two saints once again as we commemorate the dedication of the basilicas dedicated to them, which were built upon their graves.

Symbolically, as their graves stand as a foundation for these two churches, so their lives and ministry stand as a foundation for the entire Church. Saint Peter was the first pope and source of unity who was given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and of whom Jesus said, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Saint Paul was the great evangelist to the Gentiles and is a symbol of the Church missionary life and theological articulation of the faith, due to his extensive writings that make up most of the New Testament. Though we are centered and unified by Saint Peter the Rock, we must go forth to the ends of the earth, sharing the Gospel with all, like Saint Paul. Because of the significance of these apostles, every bishop throughout the world is obliged to make an “ad limina apostolorum” visit to Rome once every five years, during which time he gives a report to the pope about his diocese and visits the tombs of these two apostles.

As we honor these two great saints and revere their graves, ponder the fact that we are all called to become foundations on which the Church continues to be built. Our lives must become a source of unity for those who believe and a means by which God sends forth His Word to others. Renew today the dedication of your own life to the mission of Christ so that you more fully imitate the heroic and holy lives of these two men of God.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-18—dedication-of-the-basilicas-of-saints-peter-and-paul-apostles/

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Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious

Daily Saints

1207–1231; Patron Saint of Third Order Franciscans, bakers, beggars, brides, charitable societies and workers, exiles, falsely accused people, homeless people, hospitals, lacemakers, nursing homes, nursing services, people ridiculed for their piety, widows; Invoked against in-law problems, the death of children, and toothache; Canonized by Pope Gregory IX on May 27, 1235

Elizabeth was born to King Andrew II and Queen Gertrude of Hungary. Her aunt on her mother’s side was Saint Hedwig, Duchess of Silesia. As was the common practice at that time for nobility, marriages were arranged at an early age to secure alliances between powerful ruling families. When Elizabeth was only four, knights arrived to take her to Thuringia, about five hundred miles away, where she was brought up in the court of Hermann I, Landgrave (ruler) of Thuringia. Her upbringing was alongside Hermann I’s eleven-year-old son, Louis IV, to whom Elizabeth was betrothed in marriage, which took place ten years later. Elizabeth’s mother was from the powerful House of Andechs and had similarly married King Andrew for political reasons. Because Queen Gertrude was not from Hungary, she was queen consort, meaning she was queen by virtue of marriage, not enjoying direct authority in Hungary on account of her royal lineage. Nonetheless, Gertrude regularly exerted her influence within Hungary’s royal court, causing conflict among the nobles and royal family. As a result, Queen Gertrude was assassinated when her daughter, Elizabeth, was six years old.

Two years before, a large entourage and dowry from her father had accompanied Elizabeth to the court of the Landgrave of Thuringia. There, she received a Catholic upbringing, an excellent education, and was cared for by attendants (ladies-in-waiting). She learned culture, manners, and royal protocol; attended banquets; wore fine clothing; and witnessed the intrigue and power struggles common in the royal court. The Castle of Wartburg in which she lived was a magnificent castle, and the Landgrave of Thuringia one of the richest in the empire. Life was extravagant, with poets and musicians, fine meals and social gatherings, and the best of what the world at that time had to offer. Behind the scenes, many factions plotted and formed alliances, seeking power and favors. Despite the challenges and worldly temptations she was thrust into at such a young age, Elizabeth grew in faith. She prayed, practiced mortification, and fell deeply in love with her Lord.

During the first ten years in Wartburg Castle, Elizabeth and her future husband, Louis IV, were raised together and formed a deep personal and spiritual bond. Though the marriage was arranged, they put their minds, hearts, and wills into what would soon become their future together. Louis’ father died when he was sixteen years old, and Louis became the Landgrave of Thuringia. Four years later, Elizabeth and Louis were wed.

From the very beginning, Elizabeth did not fit in with the courtly life. She was sensitive to the poor, sought virtue, and preferred simplicity, which made her an object of gossip and slander among the more “refined” members of the court. In Louis, however, she found a strong support. He admired her virtues and goodness and dismissed any criticism that came to his ears, defending her before all.

About two years after their marriage, when Elizabeth was sixteen, Franciscan friars arrived at the castle to care for the spiritual needs of the royal court. The holy Friar Conrad of Marburg became Elizabeth’s spiritual director. Through him, she learned about the saintly life of Saint Francis who probed the highest heights of holiness, even being pierced with the stigmata at the end of his life by a Seraphim, the highest of the choirs of angels, earning him the revered title “the Seraphic Father.” Stories of Saint Francis, the influence of the friars, and her own devotional life drew her deeper into the mysteries of faith. One story relates that one time, while praying in the castle chapel, she took off her royal crown, placed it before the Crucifix, and then lay prostrate before her Lord in prayer. When her mother-in-law saw this, she chastised Elizabeth, telling her such a gesture was beneath her dignity. Elizabeth responded, “How can I, a wretched creature, continue to wear a crown of earthly dignity, when I see my King Jesus Christ crowned with thorns?”

Elizabeth’s heart was inflamed with a desire for charity and justice. If she saw an injustice, she quickly sought to remedy it. Rather than eat food that was unjustly obtained, she preferred to go hungry. If the poor were cheated, she paid the debt owed them out of her own money. She loved to go down to the villagers, especially the poor, and bring them food, clothing, and whatever else they needed. She distributed these goods personally, in the company of her maids. This humility and generosity won her the love and respect of the peasant class, despite the ongoing ridicule of the nobility. When the nobility complained to her husband, he continued to support her and her charitable works.

One day, when Elizabeth was secretly bringing bread from the castle to the poor, she encountered her husband in the street. He had been told that she was stealing from the castle, so he asked her what she was carrying in her apron. When she opened it, beautiful roses appeared, to the delight of Louis who saw that as a sign of divine favor that humbled her detractors. On another occasion, she brought a leper into her own bedroom and laid him on her bed to care for him. Later, when Louis was told what Elizabeth did by her indignant mother-in-law, Louis went to strip the infected sheets from their shared bed. When he did so, he either saw in a vision, or was given an infused spiritual intuition that it was Christ Himself Whom Elizabeth cared for in the person of the leper. This only deepened Louis’ admiration for his young wife.

In 1227, at the age of twenty-six, Louis joined the army of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II for the sixth crusade against the Muslims to take back the Holy Land which had been lost in 1187. On the way, disease spread through the troops and Louis fell ill, dying shortly afterwards. News of her husband’s death was devastating to the twenty-year-old Elizabeth. She and Louis had previously made vows to each other not to remarry if either of them died, so Elizabeth turned her eyes more fully to Chirst, devoting herself to His mission, no matter where He led.

Elizabeth and Louis had three children together. Their youngest, Gertrude, with whom Elizabeth was still pregnant when Louis died, grew up and became abbess of Altenburg Abbey. Their middle child, Sophie, married Henry II, Duke of Brabant. Their oldest, Hermann, initially succeeded his father as Landgrave of Thuringia when he was only four. Though Elizabeth acted on her son’s behalf in the governance of the Landgrave, Louis’ brother, Henry, seized control as regent for young Hermann and ran Elizabeth and her children out of the castle, causing many of the nobles to reject her. Hermann died unexpectedly several years later before he could make his claim as Landgrave, and Henry assumed full control.

Wandering for a while with two of her handmaids, Elizabeth entrusted her children to the care of some of Louis’ sympathetic family members. Eventually, the family members were able to secure Elizabeth refuge in the Castle of Marburg where, with the guidance of Friar Conrad, she fully dedicated herself to God’s service with private vows, took a gray habit, and formed a small community with other friends. Louis’ family secured for her the remainder of her dowry, which she used to build a hospital for the poor. She spent the next three years caring for the sick in the humblest of ways. In 1231, at the age of twenty-four, Elizabeth came down with a high fever and after days of suffering, offered herself to God. When the people heard of her illness, they flocked to her in prayer. Soon after her death, miracles were attributed to her intercession. People became so devoted to her that only four years after her death, Pope Gregoy IX canonized her and built a church in Marburg in her honor.

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary was given all the privileges and wealth this world had to offer her at a very young age, yet in her heart, none of that compared to the privilege of serving her Lord, especially as he was present to her in the sick and poor. She chose the better part and will forever rejoice with her God in Heaven.

As we honor this saintly noblewoman, ponder her choice to follow Christ in the midst of so many temptations and trials. As you do, follow her example by making the will of God the greatest treasure of your life.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-17st-elizabeth-of-hungary/

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Saint Gertrude the Great, Virgin

Daily Saints

1256–1302; Patron Saint of nuns; Invoked for poor souls in Purgatory; Equivalent canonization in 1606; Added to the Universal Roman Calendar by Pope Clement XII in 1677

Saint Gertrude the Great is the only female saint to be given the title “the Great,” which Pope Benedict XIV bestowed on her in the mid-eighteenth century as a way of highlighting her extraordinary contribution to mystical theology. Nothing is known about Gertrude’s early childhood or family origin, other than that she was born in Eisleben, Thuringia, in the Holy Roman Empire, modern-day Germany. At the age of five, she was entrusted to the Monastery of Saint Mary in the neighboring town of Helfta, which was later moved to Hackeborn property. Why she entered the convent at such a young age is not known. Most likely, either her parents offered their daughter to God in this then-customary way, or Gertrude might have been an orphan.

When little Gertrude entered the convent, the abbess was of the same name, Gertrude of Hackeborn (now Blessed Gertrude of Hackeborn). Abbess Gertrude was an outstanding woman who governed the monastery for forty-one years, helping it to flourish and produce much good fruit. It is often called “the crown of German convents.” She was exceptionally devout and saw to it that the sisters regularly contemplated the boundless love of Christ, were serious about their souls’ journey toward divine union, had a profound love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and manifested a deep devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist. Daily life at the monastery consisted of singing, praying the Divine Office, celebrating the Mass, and studying Scripture and the Church Fathers. In addition, the sisters engaged in ascetical practices, manual labor, community life, and menial daily duties. When little Gertrude entered the convent, Abbess Gertrude was around twenty-nine years old. Also in the convent was the abbess’s younger sister, Matilda of Hackeborn (now Saint Matilda), who was about twenty, and to whose care the five-year-old Gertrude was entrusted. Sister Matilda went on to become her dearest friend and spiritual mentor.

Sister Matilda had been at the convent since she was very young, and she quickly grew in sanctity and virtue, eventually probing the highest heights of holiness. This had a profound impact upon the community and drew the other sisters into deeper prayer. After young Gertrude had been at the convent for about ten or fifteen years, Sister Matilda began to have visions of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, angels, and saints in which she became intimately aware of the finest and most splendid details of their lives, especially the life and Passion of Christ and the life of the Blessed Mother. She also was infused with profound knowledge and insights into the mysteries of our faith, such as the Sacraments, virtues, and the end of time. Finally, she was the recipient of many beautiful prayers. Unbeknownst to her, her sisters, under the direction of Abbess Gertrude, began to write down everything Sister Matilda experienced and received.

Around the same time, another Matilda—of Magdeburg—moved into the convent in Hackeborn at the age of sixty-five. Matilda of Magdeburg had lived a solitary life of prayer and charity and was also a mystic. At the age of twelve she had her first vision, a vision of the Holy Spirit, and later began writing these visions down. By the time she moved into the convent in Hackeborn, she had written six volumes. At Hackeborn she completed her seventh book, The Flowing Light of Divinity.

This bigger picture of life at the Monastery of Saint Mary paints the background for Saint Gertrude the Great, whom we honor today. Sister Gertrude was blessed with a holy and disciplined mother abbess. Her mentor and dear friend, Sister Matilda of Hackeborn, was a mystic. When the aged Matilda of Magdeburg moved into the convent (most likely not taking formal vows), she was in the presence of another mystic. What could she do but become a mystic herself? The problem was that up until that point, Sister Gertrude had not yet fully given herself to Christ. She was an excellent student with a strong desire to study all the sciences and other subjects of that time. She excelled in literature, music, and art. She prayed and was also strong-willed and determined in all she did. However, as she aged, she began to see the futility of the things of this world and grieved over her lukewarmness.

In January 1281, when Sister Gertrude was twenty-five years old, she had her first mystical vision. Jesus, in the form of a most beautiful young man about sixteen years old, appeared to her saying, “Your salvation is at hand; why are you consumed with grief?…I will save you, I will deliver you; fear not.” After that, the youthful Jesus placed His hand on her to ratify His promise. Jesus then said to her, “You have licked the dust with My enemies, and you have sucked honey amidst thorns; but return now to Me—I will receive you, and inebriate you with the torrent of My celestial delights.” She then saw a thorny hedge that divided her and Jesus, representing her many sins, and she saw Jesus stretch out His hand, which bore the marks of the nails but communicated to her His promise to draw her to Himself. Of this encounter she later wrote:

By these and other illuminations, You did enlighten and soften my mind, detaching me powerfully, by an interior unction, from an inordinate love of literature and from all my vanities. I only despised those things which had formerly pleased me; and all that was not You, O God of my heart, appeared vile to me. You alone were pleasing to my soul. And I praise, bless, adore, and thank from my inmost soul, as far as I am able, but not as far as I ought, Your wise mercy and Your merciful wisdom. You, my Creator and Redeemer, did endeavor in so loving a manner to submit my unconquerable self-opinionatedness to the sweetness of Your yoke, composing a beverage suitable to my temperament.

For the next twenty-one years, Sister Gertrude lived a life of ongoing mystical prayer, especially during the Divine Office and the Holy Mass. She began to have regular visions and received spiritual knowledge, writing much of it down. She turned from interest in the vain things of this world to the exclusive contemplation of God and experience of mystical prayer, aided by her study of Scripture and the Fathers of the Church.

The legacy of Saint Gertrude the Great is one of the most important ones from the thirteenth-century mystics. During her final twenty-one years of life, she entered into deep union with God and shared those experiences in numerous writings, some of which have been lost. Her most important surviving work is The Herald of Divine Love, consisting of five chapters, the second of which she herself wrote and the rest which were written by other nuns, recording her life, spiritual experiences, and insights as she related them. Her book, Spiritual Exercises, a compilation of prayers, meditations, and spiritual practices, helps the reader grow in devotion, virtue, a love for the Eucharist, and devotion to the Sacred Heart, to which she was especially faithful. Saint Gertrude also learned from Jesus about the importance of praying for the poor souls in Purgatory. He gave her a prayer that we will use to conclude this reflection in honor of Jesus’ command to her.

Saint Gertrude was never formally canonized, and her writings were nearly lost until they were discovered centuries after her death. In the seventeenth century, she was honored by the Church and received an “equivalent” canonization. In the eighteenth century she was placed on the Universal Roman Calendar, and her prayers and revelations began to be more widely known. It might be that God especially wanted to use her to reveal His inner life to the Church today, many centuries after her death. Consider learning more about this mystic and her writings so that God can infuse you with some of the same insights and grace He gave to her.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-16—saint-gertrude-the-great-virgin/

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Saint Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor

Daily Saints

c. 1200–1280; Patron Saint of scientists, medical technicians, natural sciences, philosophers, schoolchildren, and theology students; Canonized by Pope Pius XI on December 16, 1931; Declared a Doctor of the Church (Universal Doctor) during his canonization

One of the greatest minds in the history of the Church was born in the Holy Roman Empire around the turn of the thirteenth century in the town of Lauingen, modern-day Germany. Different sources date his birth in various years between 1193 and 1206. He was known as Albert of Lauingen when born, but even before his death he was often referred to as Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus).

Albert was born into a noble family, with some accounts identifying his father as a count. Because of his noble status, he enjoyed the blessing of an excellent education, either at home from private tutors or in a neighboring school. At some point after completing his elementary studies, he was sent to the University of Padua to study the liberal arts and was also introduced to the philosophy of Aristotle that would become foundational for his later writings. Around 1223, Albert joined the Dominican order, possibly as a result of an apparition in which the Blessed Virgin Mary instructed him to do so. He continued his studies in important schools in Padua, Paris, and Cologne to complete his education in philosophy and theology.

Around the time that Brother Albert finished his studies, he was ordained to the sacred priesthood and was assigned to various teaching posts throughout Europe, most notably in Cologne for several years. Around 1245, Father Albert earned the distinction of “Master of Theology” from the prestigious Saint-Jacques at the University of Paris, where he also was given the Chair of Theology.

It is difficult to know what was taking place within the mind and soul of Father Albert during these first twenty-two years as a Dominican, but it is clear from the abundant good fruit borne from his life that he was intimately united to God. Later biographers describe him as having a voracious appetite for sacred knowledge, with the heavens opening up upon him, filling his mind with divine light. Unique to his thought was the incorporation of Aristotle’s philosophical principles in logic and metaphysics with theology. Before Father Albert, no one had thoroughly incorporated the two strains of thought. This was partly due to the fact that all of Aristotle’s works had only recently been translated into Latin from ancient Greek.

Father Albert was not only a philosopher and theologian, he was a walking encyclopedia who seemed to have mastered all subjects. The compilation of his writings fills thirty-nine encyclopedic volumes and covers a multitude of topics, including logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology, phrenology, justice, law, politics, economics, friendship, and love. One might ask what most of these have to do with theology. Father Albert would reply that they all have to do with theology because they all come from God and are all in perfect harmony with each other. Today some suggest that science and faith contradict each other. Father Albert would be the first to challenge that belief and would thoroughly defend his position. The simple answer is that if God is the source of all the natural sciences, logic, revelation, law, and order, and all that is true, then God cannot contradict Himself. He cannot create the natural sciences with one truth and then reveal in theology another truth. What is true is that which is in the mind of God, no matter the subject, and that which is in the mind of God is perfectly harmonious. All creation reveals and glorifies God in its own perfect way!

Though Father Albert was one of the most prolific and profound writers in the Church, God also used him to help form a man who became the Church’s greatest theologian: Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor. Father Thomas Aquinas was about twenty-five years younger than Father Albert but died five years before him. It was in Paris that the twenty-year-old Father Thomas became Father Albert’s student. Their teacher-student bond grew into a profound mutual respect and friendship. In many ways, Father Albert laid the foundation for Father Thomas by helping him embrace and “Christianize” Aristotelian logic and metaphysics. Father Albert was the first of the Church’s theologians to write upon every aspect of Aristotle, and Father Thomas soaked it all up, later building upon it to produce what is arguably the most important theological work ever written: the Summa Theologiae (“Summary of Theology” or “Compendium of Theology”).

Together, these men were among the greatest theologians to show that faith and reason are not exclusive of each other; rather, they are intimately interwoven and inseparable. When pure human reason is used to analyze the content of divine revelation (faith), the mind is able to extrapolate deeper truths and bring them to their logical conclusion, even to the highest degrees of abstraction. The bond and respect between Fathers Albert and Thomas was so deep that when Father Albert was transferred to Cologne in 1248, Father Thomas followed him.

In 1254, Father Albert was made the provincial superior of the Dominican Order, adding administrative duties to his academic pursuits. In 1260, Pope Alexander IV appointed him as the Bishop of Regensburg, where he remained for the next three years. During that time, though Bishop Albert was among the greatest minds in the Church, his humility won the hearts of his people, and he was able to bring healing to divisions that plagued that diocese. After Bishop Albert resigned his position, the pope employed him for diplomatic missions while Bishop Albert continued his academic pursuits.

Because Bishop Albert and Father Thomas Aquinas were groundbreakers in the use of Aristotelian logic and metaphysics, there were some who criticized them. In 1277, two years after Father Thomas died, the Bishop of Paris issued an edict condemning 219 theological propositions that were deduced from Aristotelian logic by various theologians, stating that God’s Almighty Power was so transcendent that the propositions violated God’s Omnipotence. Twenty of those 219 were from Father Thomas. Some stories state that despite his age (about seventy-seven), Bishop Albert traveled to Paris to personally defend his saintly student. In the end, both teacher and student became saints and Doctors of the Church, thus pointing to the true omnipotence of God.

Saint Albert the Great was a man with a mind on fire with the Holy Spirit. Mere human intellectual capacity could never achieve what he achieved. Some saints are filled with the fortitude necessary to die as martyrs, some are mystics whose lives reveal the the holiness of God, some are founders who build up the Church through new charisms and religious communities, and some, like Saints Albert and Thomas, receive the gift of intellect, infused with the highest degree of the virtues of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and prudence, by which they are able to leave the Church a solid theological foundation upon which it can continue to be built.

As we honor the “Great” Saint Albert, Doctor of the Church, who was designated as Universal Doctor because he mastered every subject, ponder the simple fact that, despite his having one of the greatest minds in the history of thought, his proficiency is but a drop of water in the ocean compared to the mind of God. This humble truth is something Saint Albert would have readily professed, yet it never stopped him from striving to become that one drop, given that it was one small way of comprehending and articulating what God has revealed to us. And that which comes from God, no matter how small in comparison to the Reality, has infinite value. Seek to imitate Saint Albert by renewing your commitment to the study of your faith so that your mind will experience but a drop of the grace given to this greatest of men.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-15—saint-albert-the-great-bishop-and-doctor/

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Saint Lawrence O’Toole

Daily Saints

Profile

Lawrence was the son of the chief of Hy Murray. He was taken as a hostage by King Dermot McMurrogh Leinster in 1138 when he was ten years old; Dermot later married Lawrence’s sister, Mor. He was released in 1140 at age twelve to the Bishop of Glendalough, Ireland. and raised and educated at the monastic school there. He became a monk at Glendalough, and an abbot in 1153. He declined the bishopric of Glendalough in 1160, citing his unworthiness. He ordered to accept the archbishopric of Dublin, Ireland in 1161, and became the first native-born Irishman to hold the see.

Lawrence reformed much of the administration and clerical life in his diocese. He worked to restore and rebuild Christ Church cathedral. As archbishop, he accepted the imposition onto Ireland of the English form of liturgy in 1172. Noted for his personal austerity, he wore a hair shirt under his ecclesiastical robes, made an annual 40 day retreat in Saint Kevin‘s cave, never ate meat, fasted every Friday, and never drank wine – though he would color his water to make it look like wine and not bring attention to himself at table. He acted as peacemaker and mediator at the second seige of Dublin in 1170.

In 1171, Lawrence traveled to Canterbury, England on diocesan business. While preparing for Mass there, he was attacked by a lunatic who wanted to make Lawrence another Saint Thomas Beckett. Everyone in the church thought Lawrence had been killed by the severe blow to the head. Instead, he asked for water, blessed it, and washed the wound; the bleeding stopped, and the archbishop celebrated Mass.

Lawrence negotiated the 1175 Treaty of Windsor which made upstart Irish king Rory O’Connor and vassal of king Henry II of England, but ended in combat. He attended the General Lateran Council in Rome, Italy in 1179. He was the Papal legate to Ireland. He died while travelling with King Henry II, a trip taken as a peacemaker and on behalf of Rory O’Conner. It resulted in his imprisonment and ill-treatment by the king who decided he had had his fill of meddling priests.

Born

1128 at Castledermot, County Kildare, Ireland

Died

14 November 1180 at Eu, diocese of Rouen, Normandy, France of natural causes
buried at the abbey church at Eu
so many miracles were reported at his tomb that his relics were soon translated a place of honour before the altar
his heart was removed and returned to Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland

Canonized

1225 by Pope Honorius III

Patronage

archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-lawrence-otoole/

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Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, Priest and Martyr

1891–1927; Invoked by the Mexican Church and in times of political persecution; Beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988

Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Late Second or Early Third Century; Patron Saint of bodily purity, composers, luthiers, martyrs, music, musicians, musical instrument makers, poets, and singers; Pre-Congregation canonization

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin

1769–1852; Invoked for perseverance amid adversity and against the opposition of Church authorities; Canonized by Pope John Paul II on July 3, 1988

Saint Margaret of Scotland

c. 1045–1093; Patron Saint of learning, parents of large families, parents who have lost a child, queens, and widows; Canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1251

Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious

Saint Gertrude the Great, Virgin

1256–1302; Patron Saint of nuns; Invoked for poor souls in Purgatory; Equivalent canonization in 1606; Added to the Universal Roman Calendar by Pope Clement XII in 1677

Saint Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor

c. 1200–1280; Patron Saint of scientists, medical technicians, natural sciences, philosophers, schoolchildren, and theology students; Canonized by Pope Pius XI on December 16, 1931; Declared a Doctor of the Church (Universal Doctor) during his canonization

Saint Lawrence O’Toole

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