St. Bernardine of Siena

Feast date: May 20

The Catholic Church honors St. Bernardine of Siena on May 20. A Franciscan friar and preacher, St. Bernardine is known as “the Apostle of Italy” for his efforts to revive the country’s Catholic faith during the 15th century.

Bernardine Albizeschi was born to upper-class parents in the Italian republic of Siena during 1380. Misfortune soon entered the boy’s life when he lost his mother at age three and his father four years later. His aunt Diana cared for him afterward, and taught him to seek consolation and security by trusting in God.

Even at a young age, Bernardine demonstrated a remarkable concern for the poor as an outgrowth of his love for God. Having become accustomed to fasting, he preferred at times to go without any food in order to help someone in greater need. From the ages of 11 to 17 he focused on his studies, developing the eloquence and dedication that would serve his future work as an evangelist.

Before becoming a preacher, however, Bernardine spent several years ministering to the sick and dying. He enrolled in a religious association that served at a hospital in the town of Scala, and applied himself to this work from 1397 to 1400.

During that time, a severe plague broke out in Siena, causing a crisis that would eventually lead to the young man taking charge of the entire hospital. Inside its walls, up to 20 people were dying each day from an illness that also killed many of the hospital workers. The staff was decimated and new victims were coming in constantly.

Bernardine persuaded 12 young men to help him continue the work of the hospital, which he took over for a period of four months. Although the plague did not infect him, the exhausting work left him weak and he contracted a different sickness that kept him in bed for four months.

After recovering, he spent over a year caring for his aunt Bartholomaea before her death. Then the 22-year-old Bernardine moved to a small house outside the city, where he began to discern God’s will for his future through prayer and fasting.

He eventually chose to join the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in 1403, embracing an austere life focused on poverty and humility. During this time, while praying before a crucifix, Bernardine heard Christ say to him: “My son, behold me hanging upon a cross. If you love me, or desire to imitate me, be also fastened naked to your cross and follow me. Thus you will assuredly find me.”

After Bernardine was ordained a priest, his superiors commissioned him to preach as a missionary to the Italians who were falling away from their Catholic faith. The Dominican evangelist St. Vincent Ferrer, just before leaving Italy, preached a sermon in which he predicted that one of his listeners would continue his work among the Italians –  a prophecy Bernardine heard in person, and went on to fulfill.

Bernardine’s personal devotion to God, which amazed even the strict Franciscans, made his preaching extremely effective. He moved his hearers to abandon their vices, turn back to God, and make peace with one another. He promoted devotion to the name of Jesus as a simple and effective means of recalling God’s love at all times.

When other priests consulted him for advice, Bernardine gave them a simple rule: “In all your actions, seek in the first place the kingdom of God and his glory. Direct all you do purely to his honor. Persevere in brotherly charity, and practice first all that you desire to teach others.”

“By this means,” he said, “the Holy Spirit will be your master, and will give you such wisdom and such a tongue that no adversary will be able to stand against you.”

Bernardine’s own life attested to this source of strength in the face of trials. He patiently suffered an accusation of heresy –  which Pope Martin V judged to be false – and refused to abandon his bold preaching when a nobleman threatened him with death.

But Bernardine was also widely admired throughout Italy, and he was offered the office of a bishop on three occasions. Each time, however, he turned down the position, choosing to fulfill the prediction of St. Vincent Ferrer through his missionary work. Bernardine preached throughout most of Italy several times over, and even managed to reconcile members of its warring political factions.

Later in his life, Bernardine served for five years as the Vicar General for his Franciscan order, and revived the practice of its strict rule of life. Then in 1444, forty years after he first entered religious life, Bernardine became sick while traveling. He continued to preach, but soon lost his strength and his voice.

St. Bernardine of Siena died on May 20, 1444. Only six years later, in 1450, Pope Nicholas V canonized him as a saint.

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Daily Meditation

 

Why do you do the good you do in your life? That question comes to me as I read today’s Mass readings. All of them point to doing good for the love of God. And yet, as we see in the first reading, charitable deeds can be attributed to self if we allow them to. And this is where we run into trouble. Honorable deeds can range from daily care of family, fulfilling our usual work duties, and treating strangers with kindness to the extraordinary care of loved ones who cannot care for themselves. 

In today’s first reading, Paul and Barnabas rush into the crowd shouting that they are not gods and proclaim that it is by the hand of the Almighty God that healing occurs. It is easy these days to turn the good we do into gods. Our action becomes the focus instead of the people we are serving. It can happen in families, businesses, and parish ministries. The task takes on greater importance than the service we are called to embrace. The tasks can sometimes take on greater importance than the people.

The Psalmist reminds us, “Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give the glory,” (Ps 115:1). An adjustment of both attitude and desire is needed. Who or what do I serve? Is my work meant to glorify God or myself? Granted, some work is drudgery. I think of repetitive tasks that almost all work entails. Cleaning the kitchen, data entry for reports, grading papers, grocery shopping, and bill paying are necessary but can be tedious, but we can begin to offer up those tedious tasks for others’ pain or suffering. Dedicate the work you dislike for someone in need or simply give it to Our Blessed Mother who will send it where it is needed.

Even Jesus came to this world to do the will of the one who sent him. The Father sent him to save us. His passion, death, and resurrection give us new life. Yet Jesus has great humility. He reminds us that the words He gave us were not His, but the Father’s words. He further tells us that the Holy Spirit will come to be our guide. 

Jesus, who gave His all for us, does not stand and point to Himself as the greatest of all time. No, He points to the Father, the One who sent Him to us. The One who created us. The One who loves us. That is what we are called to do also. In all that we do and say, we are to point to the Father. As we continue to celebrate Easter and await the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, let us pray for a greater understanding of how we can do all things for the glory of God.

Contact the author

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Saint of the Day

 

Feast date: May 19

St. Ives was born at Kermartin, near Tréguier, Brittany, October 17, 1253 and was the son of Helori, lord of Kermartin, and Azo du Kenquis. In 1267, Ives was sent to the University of Paris where he graduated with a degree in civil law, and he then went on to Orléans in 1277 to study canon law. Upon his return to Brittany, having received minor orders, he was appointed as the “official”, or ecclesiastical judge, of the archdeanery of Rennes (1280).

In the meantime, he ardently studied Scripture, and there is strong evidence suggesting that he joined the Franciscan Tertiaries sometime later at Guingamp. He was soon invited by the Bishop of Tréguier to become his “official”, and accepted the offer in 1284. He displayed great zeal and rectitude in the discharge of his duty and did not hesitate to resist the unjust taxation of the king, which he considered an encroachment on the rights of the Church. Through his charity Ives gained the title of “advocate and patron of the poor.” Having been ordained, he was then appointed to the parish of Tredrez in 1285, and eight years later to Louannee, where he died May 19, 1303.

He was buried in Tréguier, and was canonized in 1347 by Clement VI, his feast being kept on May 19.

He is the patron of lawyers, though not, it is said, their model, for — “Sanctus Ivo erat Brito, Advocatus et non latro, Res miranda populo.”

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Daily Meditation

 


Saint Celestine V, Pope

Feast date: May 19

Celestine is a saint who will always be remembered for the unique manner in which he was elected Pope, for his spectacular incompetence in that office, and for the distinction of being the first pontiff ever to have resigned.

Pietro di Murrone was born in born 1215 in the Neapolitan province of Moline to a poor family. He became a Benedictine monk at the age of seventeen and was eventually ordained priest at Rome. His love of solitude led him first into the wilderness of Monte Morone in the Abruzzi, whence his surname, and later into the wilder recesses of Mt. Majella. He was strongly influenced by the life of John the Baptist, and took him as his model in his religious life. His hair-cloth was roughened with knots, he wore a chain of iron encompassing his emaciated frame, and he fasted every day except for on Sunday. Each year he kept four Lents, passing three of them on bread and water only, and he consecrated the entire day and a great part of the night to prayer and labour.

As generally happens in the case of saintly anchorites, Peter’s great desire for solitude was not destined to be gratified. Many kindred spirits gathered about him eager to imitate his rule of life, and before his death there were thirty- six monasteries, numbering 600 religious, and bearing his papal name, Celestini.

The order that developed amongst those that gathered around him was approved as a branch of the Benedictines by Urban IV in 1264. This congregation of Benedictine Celestines must not be confused with other Celestines, Franciscans, who are extreme Spirituals that Pope Celestine permitted to live as hermits according to the Rule of St. Francis in 1294, but were pendent of the Franciscan superiors. In their gratitude they named themselves after the pope (Pauperes eremitæ Domini Celestine), but were dissolved and dispersed (1302) by Boniface VIII, whose legitimacy the Spirituals contested.

In 1284, Pietro, weary of the cares of government, appointed a certain Robert as his vicar and plunged again into the depths of the wilderness. It would be well if some Catholic scholar would devote some time to a thorough investigation of his relations to the extreme spiritual party of that age, for though it is certain that the pious hermit did not approve of the heretical tenets held by the leaders, it is equally true that the fanatics, during his life and after his death, made copious use of his name.

In July 1294, his pious exercises were suddenly interrupted by a scene unparalleled in ecclesiastical history. Three eminent dignitaries, accompanied by an immense multitude of monks and laymen, ascended the mountain, and announced that Pietro had been chosen as the new Pope by a unanimous vote of the Sacred College and humbly begged him to accept the honor.

Two years and three months had elapsed since the death of Nicholas IV on April 4, 1292 without much prospect that the conclave at Perugia would unite upon a candidate. Of the twelve Cardinals who composed the Sacred College six were Romans, four Italians and two French. The factious spirit of Guelph and Ghibelline, which was then epidemic in Italy, divided the conclave, as well as the city of Rome, into two hostile parties of the Orsini and the Colonna, neither of which could outvote the other.

During a personal visit to Perugia in the spring of 1294, Charles II of Naples, who needed the papal authority in order to regain Sicily, only exasperated the situation. Hostile words were exchanged between the Angevin monarch and Cardinal Gaetani, who was at that time the intellectual leader of the Colonna, and later, Pope Boniface VIII, their bitter enemy. When the situation seemed hopeless, Cardinal Latino Orsini admonished the fathers that God had revealed to a saintly hermit that if the cardinals did not perform their duty within four months, He would visit the Church with severe chastisement. All knew that he was referring to Pietro di Murrone.

The proposition was seized upon by the exhausted conclave and the election was made unanimous. Pietro received the news of his elevation with tears, but after a brief prayer, obeyed what seemed the clear voice of God, commanding him to sacrifice his personal inclination on the altar of the public welfare. Flight was impossible, even if he had contemplated it, for no sooner did the news of this extraordinary event spread abroad than multitudes (numbered at 200,000) flocked about him. His elevation was particularly welcome to the Spirituals, who saw in it the realization of current prophecies that the reign of the Holy Spirit ruling through the monks was at hand, and they proclaimed him the first legitimate Pope since Constantine’s donation of wealth and worldly power to “the first rich father” (Inferno, Canto XIX).

King Charles of Naples, upon hearing of the election of his subject, hastened with his son Charles Martel, titular King of Hungary, to present his homage to the new Pope, but, in reality, to take the simple old man into honourable custody. Had Charles known how to preserve moderation in exploiting his good luck, this windfall might have brought him incalculable benefits. As it was, he ruined everything by his excessive greed.

In reply to the request of the cardinals, that he should come to Perugia to be crowned, Pietro, at the instigation of Charles, summoned the Sacred College to meet him at Aquila, a frontier town of the Kingdom of Naples. Reluctantly they came, and one by one, Gaetani being the last to appear. Seated humbly on a simple donkey, the rope held by two monarchs, the new pontiff proceeded to Aquila, and although only three of the cardinals had arrived, the king ordered him to be crowned, and the ceremony had to be repeated in traditional form some days later, instancing the only double papal coronation.

Cardinal Latino was so grief- stricken at the course which affairs were evidently taking that he fell sick and died shortly after the coronation. Pietro took the name of Celestine V. As one of his first acts of Pope, being urged by the cardinals to cross over into the States of the Church, Celestine, at the behest of the king, ordered the entire Curia to repair to Naples.

It is wonderful how many serious mistakes the simple old man crowded into five short months. We have no full register of them, because his official acts were annulled by his successor. On September 18, he created twelve new cardinals, seven of whom were French, and the rest, with one possible exception, Neapolitans, thus paving the road to Avignon and the Great Schism. Ten days later he embittered the cardinals by renewing the rigorous law of Gregory X, regulating the conclave which Adrian V had suspended.

He is said to have appointed a young son of Charles to the important See of Lyons, but no trace of such appointment appears in Gams or Eubel. At Monte Cassino on his way to Naples, he strove to force the Celestine hermit-rule on the monks, which they humoured him with while he was with them. At Benevento he created the bishop of the city a cardinal, without observing any of the traditional forms. Meanwhile he scattered privileges and offices with a lavish hand. Refusing no one, he was found to have granted the same place or benefice to three or four rival suitors. He also granted favours without a second thought.

In consequence, the affairs of the Curia fell into extreme disorder. Upon his arrival in Naples, he took up his abode in a single apartment of the Castel Nuovo, and on the approach of Advent had a little cell built on the model of his beloved hut in the Abruzzi. But he was ill at ease. Affairs of State took up time that ought to be devoted to exercises of piety, and he feared that his soul was in danger. The thought of abdication seems to have occurred simultaneously to the pope and to his discontented cardinals, whom he rarely consulted.

That the idea originated with Cardinal Gaetani, the latter vigorously denied, and maintained that he originally opposed it. But a serious canonical doubt arose: Can a pope resign? As he has no superior on earth, who is authorized to accept his resignation? The solution of the question was reserved to the trained canonist, Cardinal Gaetani, who, basing his conclusion on common sense and the Church’s right to self-preservation, decided affirmatively.

It is interesting to notice how curtly, when he became Boniface VIII, he dispatched the delicate subject on which the validity of his claim to the papacy depended. In the “Liber Sextus” I, vii, 1, he issued the following decree: “Whereas some curious persons, arguing on things of no great expediency, and rashly seeking, against the teaching of the Apostle, to know more than it is meet to know, have seemed, with little forethought, to raise an anxious doubt, whether the Roman Pontiff, especially when he recognizes himself incapable of ruling the Universal Church and of bearing the burden of the Supreme Pontificate, can validly renounce the papacy, and its burden and honour: Pope Celestine V, Our predecessor, whilst still presiding over the government of the aforesaid Church, wishing to cut off all the matter for hesitation on the subject, having deliberated with his brethren, the Cardinals of the Roman Church, of whom We were one, with the concordant counsel and assent of Us and of them all, by Apostolic authority established and decreed, that the Roman Pontiff may freely resign. We, therefore, lest it should happen that in course of time this enactment should fall into oblivion, and the aforesaid doubt should revive the discussion, have placed it among other constitutions ad perpetuam rei memoriam by the advice of our brethren.”

When the report spread that Celestine contemplated resigning, the excitement in Naples was intense. King Charles, whose arbitrary course had brought things to this crisis, organized a determined opposition. A huge procession of the clergy and monks surrounded the castle, and with tears and prayers implored the Pope to continue his rule. Celestine, whose mind was not yet clear on the subject, returned an evasive answer, whereupon the multitude chanted the Te Deum and withdrew. A week later, on December13, Celestine’s resolution was irrevocably fixed.

Summoning the cardinals on that day, he read the constitution mentioned by Boniface in the “Liber Sextus”, announced his resignation, and proclaimed the cardinals free to proceed to a new election. After the lapse of the nine days enjoined by the legislation of Gregory X, the cardinals entered the conclave, and the next day Benedetto Gaetani was proclaimed Pope as Boniface VIII. After revoking many of the provisions made by Celestine, Boniface brought his predecessor, now in the dress of a humble hermit, with him on the road to Rome. He was forced to retain him in custody, lest an inimical use should be made of the simple old man.

Celestine yearned for his cell in the Abruzzi, and managed to escape at San Germano, and to the great joy of his monks reappeared among them at Majella. Boniface ordered his arrest, but Celestine evaded his pursuers for several months by wandering through the woods and mountains. Finally, he attempted to cross the Adriatic to Greece but, driven back by a tempest, and captured at the foot of Mt. Gargano, he was delivered into the hands of Boniface, who confined him closely in a narrow room in the tower of the castle of Fumone near Anagni (Analecta Bollandiana, 1897, XVI, 429-30).

Here, after nine months passed in fasting and prayer, closely watched and attended by two of his own religious, though rudely treated by the guards, he ended his extraordinary career in his ninety-first year. That Boniface treated him harshly, and finally cruelly murdered him, is a calumny. Some years after his canonization by Clement V in 1313, his remains were transferred from Ferentino to the church of his order at Aquila, where they are still the object of great veneration. His feast is celebrated on May 19.

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Daily Meditation

 

Happy Easter! Happy Fifth Sunday of Easter, to be specific, but Happy Easter just the same! The Church, in its wisdom, knows the glory of the Resurrection cannot be contained in just one day, or one week, or one month, not even in the multi-week Easter season of each year’s Liturgical Calendar. The glory of the Resurrection continues to this day, but it continues even further – into eternity.

Thus, today’s readings are a kind of roadmap for us impatient children of God, sitting here with our “Are we there yet?” attitudes. Luke, writing about the first missionary journey of Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, John at Patmos writing his visions in the Book of Revelation, and the same John sharing his recollections of Jesus at the Last Supper, give us a few directives to help us get to where we hope to be going, and to reassure us while we are getting there.

Paul tells the disciples the hard truth: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Faith requires perseverance and, unfortunately, too many decide the journey is too hard, failing to recognize the glory that awaits those who do persevere.

John’s vision in Revelation reminds us of that glory, a new Jerusalem where we, the bride, will be adorned for our husband, Jesus Christ, risen and ascended and seated on His glorious throne. Then John tells us something that should bring us joy: “God’s dwelling is with the human race.” That’s right, God will be with us! We lowly creatures who have believed and have faith and persevere will belong to God and be with God, who will “make all things new.”

Jesus tells us plainly in John’s Gospel how we get to that point: “love one another.”  Jesus says this is a new commandment, but hasn’t God been telling us to love one another all through the books of the Old Testament? The difference, the newness, is in Jesus’ next line: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” 

How Jesus has loved us is everything here. Completely. Selflessly. Despite His divinity, becoming human for us. Despite His humanity, becoming heavenly food for us. Despite His greatness so far above us, becoming a sacrifice for us to save us from our sins. Jesus loved us so much that He laid down his life for us, making “all things new.” Jesus is calling us to love others so much that we would be willing to do the same. The reward, then, is that newness bestowed on us in His heavenly presence forever. The road may be long and difficult, but please, dear Lord, grant us the grace we need to get there.

Contact the author

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Saint of the Day

 


St. John I, Pope

Feast date: May 18

On May 18, the Catholic Church honors the first “Pope John” in its history. Saint John I was a martyr for the faith, imprisoned and starved to death by a heretical Germanic king during the sixth century.

He was a friend of the renowned Christian philosopher Boethius, who died in a similar manner.

Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians also honor Pope St. John I, on the same date as the Roman Catholic Church.

The future Pope John I was born in Tuscany, and served as an archdeacon in the Church for several years. He was chosen to become the Bishop of Rome in 523, succeeding Pope St. Hormisdas.

During his papal reign Italy was ruled by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric. Like many of his fellow tribesmen, the king adhered to the Arian heresy, holding that Christ was a created being rather than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

Arianism had originated in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire during the fourth century, and subsequently spread among the Western Goths. By the sixth century the heresy was weak in the East, but not dead.

In 523, the Byzantine Emperor Justin I ordered Arian clergy to surrender their churches into orthodox Catholic hands. In the West, meanwhile, Theodoric was angered by the emperor’s move, and responded by trying to use the Pope’s authority for his own ends.

Pope John was thus placed in an extremely awkward position. Despite the Pope’s own solid orthodoxy, the Arian king seems to have expected him to intercede with the Eastern emperor on behalf of the heretics. John’s refusal to satisfy King Theodoric would eventually lead to his martyrdom.

John did travel to Constantinople, where he was honored as St. Peter’s successor by the people, the Byzantine Emperor, and the Church’s legitimate Eastern patriarchs. (The Church of Alexandria had already separated by this point.) The Pope crowned the emperor, and celebrated the Easter liturgy at the Hagia Sophia Church in April of 526.

But while John could urge Justin to treat the Arians somewhat more mercifully, he could not make the kind of demands on their behalf that Theodoric expected.

The gothic king, who had recently killed John’s intellectually accomplished friend Boethius (honored by the Church as St. Severinus Boethius, on Oct. 23), was furious with the Pope when he learned of his refusal to support the Arians in Constantinople.

Already exhausted by his travels, the Pope was imprisoned in Ravenna and deprived of food. The death of St. John I came on or around May 18, which became his feast day in the Byzantine Catholic tradition and in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, he is celebrated on May 27, the date on which his exhumed body was returned to Rome for veneration in St. Peter’s Basilica.

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Daily Meditation

 

God, powerful and ever-living, Creator of all, mighty and all-knowing — this same God is seeking you. He is seeking your friendship. That truth can be difficult for us to accept, just as it was difficult for Phillip to accept.

At this point in John’s Gospel, Jesus has just told His disciples that in knowing him, they know the Father, but Phillip doesn’t seem to understand. “Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” So Jesus patiently explains to Phillip and the rest of the disciples, that we come to know God by coming to know his Son. “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

It’s not the first time Jesus has shared this message. Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus talks with Nicodemus and explains, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) This oft-quoted Scripture paves the way for a new relationship between Creator and created. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking to His disciples at the Last Supper. His time on earth is growing short; He is offering them a masterclass in all He has taught during his ministry. And He’s giving us the same.

God wanted a relationship with humankind, so he sent Jesus. Then He sent the Holy Spirit to continue to inspire Scripture and to remain with us. As Christians, we can generally wrap our minds around that. Harder to accept sometimes, though, is the truth that God still wants a relationship with humankind.

God knows each of us, and He wants each of us to know Him, so much so that He sent His Son to walk among us. Today’s Gospel message is clear: know the Son, know the Father. Now, 2,000 years after that message was delivered, the Holy Spirit remains, stirring in our hearts so that we can also come to know the Son as though we were sitting with Him at that Last Supper. 

God wants friendship and connection with YOU. God so loves YOU that he gave His only-begotten Son. God has offered His hand in friendship to each of us, and all we need to do is take that hand to get to know his Son. How? Invite the Holy Spirit into your heart as you read Sacred Scripture and as you receive the Sacraments. Come to personally know Jesus, and come to personally know God, powerful and ever-living, Creator of all, mighty and all-knowing. Mind-boggling, indeed.

Contact the author

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Saint of the Day

 


St. Pascal Baylon

Feast date: May 17

Pascal was born at Torre-Hermosa, in the Kingdom of Aragon, on May 24, 1540. He was born on the Feast of Pentecost, which in Spain is called “the Pasch of the Holy Ghost”, which is why he received the name Pascal. He died at Villa Reale, May 15, 1592, on Whitsunday.

His parents, Martin Baylon and Elizabeth Jubera, were virtuous peasants. The child began very early to display signs of that surpassing devotion towards the Holy Eucharist, which forms the salient feature of his character.

From his seventh to his twenty-fourth year, he led the life of a shepherd, and during the whole of that period exercised a salutary influence upon his companions. He was then received as a lay brother amongst the Franciscan friars of the Alcantarine Reform. In the cloister, Paschal’s life of contemplation and self-sacrifice fulfilled the promise of his early years.

His charity to the poor and afflicted, and his unfailing courtesy were remarkable. On one occasion, in the course of a journey through France, he triumphantly defended the dogma of the Real Presence against the blasphemies of a Calvinist preacher, and in consequence, narrowly escaped death at the hands of a Huguenot mob. Although poorly educated, his counsel was sought for by people of every station in life, and he was on terms of closest friendship with personages of eminent sanctity. Pascal was beatified in 1618, and canonized in 1690.

His cultus has flourished particularly in his native land and in Southern Italy, and it was widely diffused in Southern and Central America, through the Spanish Conquests.

In his Apostolic letter, Providentissimus Deus, Leo XIII declared St. Pascal the especial heavenly protector of all Eucharistic Congresses and Associations. His feast is kept on 17 May. The saint is usually depicted in adoration before a vision of the Host.

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Daily Meditation

 


Blessed Antonia Mesina

Feast date: May 17

Antonia Mesina was born into a poor family in a small town in Sardinia, Italy, in 1919. She was the second of 10 children and she had to leave school after only four years to help her bed-ridden mother who suffered from a heart condition tend to the house and the other children.

Despite her heavy responsibilities at home, Antonia became a very active member of Catholic Action, an Italian Catholic organization for the laity, at the age of 10. When she was 16, she was attacked while out gathering wood after mass. He friend ran away, trying to find help. Antonia was beaten and murdered by a would-be rapist, fighting him off to her last breath. She suffered 74 strikes with a stone before she died. On 5 October 1935 the Catholic Action member Venerable Armida Barelli – who had met Antonia once – met with Pope Pius XI and informed him of Antonia’s activism and her murder. Antonia was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987 as a martyr of purity. She is a patron of rape victims.

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Daily Meditation

 


St. Andrew Bobola

Feast date: May 16

Andrew Bobola is a Polish-born martyr. He was born in Sandormir, Poland, in 1591 to a noble family. He was ordained a Jesuit in 1622 and three years later became a parish priest in Vilna, Lithuania, the town in which he had studied. He also served as superior of the Jesuit community for a time. He worked extensively with the sick and made and even stronger efforts to help them during a plague outbreak, but he is best known as a successful missionary to the Orthodox. He did this for almost 20 years, preaching along the roads and converting whole villages to Catholicism.

However, he was captured after Mass on May 10, 1657 by the Cossacks and brutally tortured. Six days later, he died a martyr, refusing to denounce his Catholic faith.

His tomb was opened in 1719 and his body was found incorrupt. He is now entombed in a Jesuit church in Krakow, Poland.

He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1938.

catholicnewsagency.com

Daily Reading

 

Daily Meditation

 

© 2025 Saint Gregory the Great Catholic Church | San Diego, CA Privacy Policy Made with by Diocesan