SAINT OF THE DAY SUNDAY, 3 AUGUST, 2025 SAINT LYDIA OF PHILIPPI (LYDIA PURPURARIA) (First Century) Lydia is the first recorded person in Europe to become a follower of Jesus Christ. She was Saint Paul's first baptized convert at Philippi. What we know of Lydia is found in the Acts of the Apostles. She was from Thyatira, an industrial center located in what is now western Turkey. She was a wealthy business-woman; a manufacturer and seller of purple dyes and fabrics for which the city of Thyatira was noted. Lydia was part of a high value industry. Purple goods were luxury items, used by emperors, high government officials, and priests of the pagan religions. At the time of the narrative in Acts, Lydia and her household had moved to the city of Philippi, a Roman colony on the Rome-to-Asia trade route. This is where she had her first encounter with Paul on his second missionary journey about the year 50. While visiting Philippi for the first time, Paul and his party came upon Lydia and a group of women gathered by the river that ran through the city center. He sat down and shared the gospel with them. Lydia listened intently, took the gospel message to heart, and she and her family were then baptized in the river. Lydia insisted on providing hospitality to Paul and his companions, so they made their home with her while in Philippi. She continued to help them even after they were jailed and released. As a successful businesswoman, her home would have been spacious enough to welcome guests and to become a place for community gatherings and liturgies. Paul cherished the members of the Christian community at Philippi and called them his “joy and crown.” Undoubtedly, Lydia's generous hospitality and leadership in the founding of this early Christian community contributed to Paul's affection. PATRON: Cloth dyers. PRAYER: Pour out upon us, Lord, the spirit of knowledge and love of you, with which you filled your handmaid blessed Lydia, so that, serving you sincerely in imitation of her, we may be pleasing to you by our faith and our works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I would so love to have met Lydia, she sounds like the most amazing person. A very strong woman indeed. But the seed of the Gospel fell in very good ground when it fell in rich soil of her heart . How wonderful to think that in heaven we will have a chance to meet all these wonderful people and to become friends with them, to hear their story and be in their company. But of course we can do this, even here below.
SAINT OF THE DAY MONDAY, 4 AUGUST, 2025 SAINT JOHN MARIE VIANNEY PRIEST AND CONFESSOR (8 May 1786 - 4 August 1859) Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, known as John in English, was born May 8, 1786 in Dardilly, France and was baptized the same day. He was the fourth of six children born to Matthieu and Marie Vianney. John was raised in a Catholic home and the family often helped the poor and housed St. Benedict Joseph Labre when he made his pilgrimage to Rome. In 1790, when the anticlerical Terror phase of the French Revolution forced priests to work in secrecy or face execution, young Vianney believed the priests were heroes. He continued to believe in the bravery of priests and received his First Communion catechism instructions in private by two nuns who lost their convents to the Revolution. At 13-years-old, John made his first communion and prepared for his confirmation in secrecy. When he was 20-years-old, John was allowed to leave the family farm to learn at a "prsbytery-school" in Écully. There he learned math, history, geography and Latin. As his education had been disrupted by the French Revolution, he struggled in his studies, particularly with Latin, but worked hard to learn. In 1802, the Catholic Church was reestablished in France and religious freedom and peace spread throughout the country. Unfortunately, in 1809, John was drafted into Napoleon Bonaparte's armies. He had been studying as an ecclesiastical student, which was a protected title and would normally have excepted him from military services, but Napoleon had withdrawn the exemption in some dioceses as he required more soldiers. Two days into his service, John fell ill and required hospitalization. As his troop continued, he stopped in at a church where he prayed. There he met a young man who volunteered to return him to his group, but instead led him deep into the mountains where military deserters met. John lived with them for one year and two months. He used the name Jerome Vincent and opened a school for the nearby village of Les Noes' children. John remained in Les Noes and hid when gendarmes came in search of deserters until 1810, when deserters were granted amnesty. Now free, John returned to Écully and resumed his ecclesiastic studies. He attended a minor seminary, Abbe Balley, in 1812 and was eventually ordained a deacon in June 1815. He joined his heroes as a priest August 12, 1815 in the Couvent des Minimes de Grenoble. His first Mass was celebrated the next day and he was appointed assistant to Balley in Écully. Three years later, when Balley passed away, Fr. John Vianney was appointed parish priest of the Ars parish. With help from Catherine Lassagne and Benedicta Lerdet, La Providence, a home for girls, was established in Ars.When he began his priestly duties, Fr. Vianney realized many were either ignorant or indifferent to religion as a result of the French Revolution. Many danced and drank on Sundays or worked in their fields. Fr. Vianney spent much time in confession and often delivered homilies against blasphemy and dancing. Finally, if parishioners did not give up dancing, he refused them absolution. He spent 11 to twelve hours each day working to reconcile people with God. In the summer months, he often worked 16-hour days and refused to retire. His fame spread until people began to travel to him in 1827. Within thirty years, it is said he received up to 20,000 pilgrims each year. He was deeply devoted to St. Philomena and erected a chapel and shrine in her honor. When he later became deathly ill but miraculously recovered, he attributed his health to St. Philomena's intercession. By 1853, Fr. Vianney had attempted to run away from Ars four times, each attempt with the intention of becoming a monk but decided after the final time that it was not to be. Six years later, he passed away and left behind a legacy of faith and was viewed as the champion of the poor. On October 3, 1873, Pope Pius IX proclaimed Fr. Vianney as "venerable" and on January 8, 1905, Pope Pius X beatified him. St. John Vianney was canonized on May 31, 1925. His feast day was declared August 9 but it was changed twice before it fell to August 4. St. John Vianney would often say: "Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire, it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that." PATRON: Parish priests, Priests. PRAYER: Almighty and merciful God, who made the Priest Saint John Vianney wonderful in his pastoral zeal, grant, we pray, that through his intercession and example we may in charity win brothers and sisters for Christ and attain with them eternal glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
FEAST OF THE DAY TUESDAY, 5 AUGUST, 2025 DEDICATION OF THE BASILICA OF SAINT MARY MAJOR FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS We celebrate today the dedication of one of the four most illustrious churches of Rome. While each diocese and parish keeps its own dedication anniversary, the Church universal commemorates the consecration of the four great Roman basilicas, the mother churches, we may call them, of Christendom, viz., St. John Lateran, St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major. By means of these feasts the Church seeks to link all Christians with the Holy See. OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS This feast commemorates the miracle of the snowfall that occurred during the night of August 4-5 in the year 358 on the site where the basilica now stands. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to two faithful Roman Christians, the patrician John and his wife, as well as to Pope Liberius (352-366), asking that a church be built in her honor on the site where snow would fall on the night of August 4-5. Pope Liberius traced the outlines of the church in the snow and the first basilica was built on that site. It was completed about a century later by Pope Sixtus III (432-440), after the Council of Ephesus in 431 during which Mary was declared to be the Mother of God. In Rome the Basilica of St. Mary Major will hold its traditional triduum from August 1 to 3 and two days of celebration on August 4 and 5. During the pontifical Mass and the second vespers, the traditional shower of flower petals will descend from the ceiling of the basilica to commemorate the August snowfall in 358. ST. MARY MAJOR IS IMPORTANT TO CHRISTENDOM FOR 3 REASONS: (a) It stands as a venerable monument to the Council of Ephesus (431), at which the dogma of Mary's divine Motherhood was solemnly defined; the definition of the Council occasioned a most notable increase in the veneration paid to Mary. (b) The basilica is Rome's "church of the crib," a kind of Bethlehem within the Eternal City; it also is a celebrated station church, serving, for instance, as the center for Rome's liturgy for the first Mass on Christmas. In some measure every picture of Mary with the divine Child is traceable to this church. (c) St. Mary Major is Christendom's first Marian shrine for pilgrims. It set the precedent for the countless shrines where pilgrims gather to honor our Blessed Mother throughout the world. Here was introduced an authentic expression of popular piety that has been the source of untold blessings and graces for Christianity in the past as in the present. PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS Our Lady of the Snows, Immaculate Queen of the Universe, from this privileged sanctuary, Thou has bestowed so many countless graces and pledges of love upon the hearts and souls of millions. O Mother, from this cradle of Christianity, this Mother Church of all churches, deign to shower forth the graces of thine Immaculate Heart upon the remnant Faithful throughout the world, wherever they may be, and grant them the graces of a childlike love and unwavering fidelity to the holy truths of our Faith. Grant, good Mother, to the faithful Bishops of the Church the grace to defend Her Sacred Teachings, and to persevere courageously against all the enemies of the Holy Church. Amen.
FEAST OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 6 AUGUST, 2025 TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD Our divine Redeemer, being in Galilee about a year before His sacred Passion, took with him St. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, Sts. James and John, and led them to a retired mountain. Tradition assures us that this was Mount Tabor, which is exceedingly high and beautiful, and was anciently covered with green trees and shrubs, and was very fruitful. It rises something like a sugar-loaf, in a vast plain in the middle of Galilee. This was the place in which the Man-God appeared in His glory. Whilst Jesus prayed, he suffered that glory which was always due to his sacred humility, and of which, for our sake, He deprived it, to diffuse a ray over His whole body. His face was altered and shone as the sun, and his garments became white as snow. Moses and Elias were seen by the three apostles in his company on this occasion, and were heard discoursing with him of the death which he was to suffer in Jerusalem. The three apostles were wonderfully delighted with this glorious vision, and St. Peter cried out to Christ, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tents: one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias" Whilst St. Peter was speaking, there came, on a sudden, a bright shining cloud from heaven, an emblem of the presence of God's majesty, and from out of this cloud was heard a voice which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" The apostles that were present, upon hearing this voice, were seized with a sudden fear, and fell upon the ground; but Jesus, going to them, touched them, and bade them to rise. They immediately did so, and saw no one but Jesus standing in his ordinary state. This vision happened in the night. As they went down the mountain early the next morning, Jesus bade them not to tell any one what they had seen till he should be risen from the dead. PRAYER: O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration of your Only Begotten Son confirmed the mysteries of faith by the witness of the Fathers and wonderfully prefigured our full adoption to sonship, grant, we pray, to your servants, that, listening to the voice of your beloved Son, we may merit to become co-heirs with him. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
SAINT OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 7 AUGUST, 2025 SAINT CAJETAN CONFESSOR (1480 - 1547) In 1523, the Church was in sad shape. People could not get the spiritual nourishment they needed from the large numbers of uneducated and even immoral priests who took their money but returned nothing. When good priests and laypeople turned to the hierarchy for help, they found leaders at best apathetic and indifferent to their concerns. How should a good Catholic respond to this situation? We all known how Luther and others responded -- by splitting away from the Catholic Church when their pleas went unheard. Cajetan took a different route. Just as concerned as Luther was about what he observed in the Church, he went to Rome in 1523 -- not to talk to the pope or the hierarchy but to consult with members of a confraternity called the Oratory of the Divine Love. When he had first come to Rome many years before, he had felt called to some unknown great work there. A few years later he returned to his hometown of Vicenza -- his great work seemingly unrealized. He had however studied for the priesthood and been ordained and helped re-establish a faded confraternity whose aims were promoting God's glory and the welfare of souls. In the years he had been gone from Rome, he had founded another Oratory in his home town and Verona where he had promoted spiritual life and care for the poor and sick not only with words but with his heroic example. He told his brothers, "In this oratory we try to serve God by worship; in our hospital we may say that we actually find him." But none of the horrors he saw in the hospitals of the incurables depressed him as much as the wickedness he saw everywhere he looked. In his former confraternity, he found other clergy who felt the way he did. They didn't want to split off from the Church, they wanted to restore it. So they decided to form an order based on the lives of the apostles in the hopes that these lives would inspire them and others to live holy lives devoted to Jesus. In order to accomplish this they would focus on moral lives, sacred studies, preaching and pastoral care, helping the sick, and other solid foundations of pastoral life. This new order was known as Theatines Clerks Regular because it was an order of the regular clergy and because a bishop known as Theatensis was their first superior general (although Cajetan is considered the founder). Not surprisingly, they didn't find thousands of formerly greedy and licentious priests flocking to their door. But Cajetan and the others persevered even in the face of open opposition from laity and clergy who didn't want to reform. It was his holy example that converted many as well as his preaching. Worn out by the troubles he saw in his Church and his home, Cajetan fell ill. When doctors tried to get him to rest on a softer bed then the boards he slept on, Cajetan answered, "My savior died on a cross. Let me die on wood at least." He died on August 7, 1547. PATRON: workers; gamblers; job seekers; unemployed people; Albania; Italy; Malta; Argentina; Brazil; El Salvador; Guatemala. PRAYER: Saint Cajetan, when we see things that trouble us in our Church, help us to continue to love her. Guide us to the positive steps we need to take to work within the Church for renewal. Help us to be examples of holiness to all. Amen.
SAINT OF THE DAY FRIDAY, 8 AUGUST, 2025 SAINT DOMINIC GUZMAN PRIEST AND CONFESSOR (1170 - 1221) In Calaruega, Spain, in the year AD 1170, Jane of Aza, a noblewoman, felt her unborn child leap in her womb. She had ardently prayed at the Benedictine Abbey of Silos, asking St. Dominic if he would intercede on her behalf for the blessing of another son even though she did not yet know if it was a boy or a girl. The following night, Jane had a dream in which a large dog jumped out of her belly while holding a lit candle. He lit the world on fire with this torch. She went to the Santo Domingo de Silos monastery and enquired of a monk as to what it signified. He said that the unborn child will grow up to be a renowned preacher, who would set the world ablaze with the fire of his words," Soon after, she and her husband had a boy, whom they named Dominic after the 11th-century saint, St. Dominic of Silos, in honor of whom the abbey she had visited was named. After seven years, Jane sent Dominic to study with her brother, the archpriest of Gumiel d'Izan, with immense parental satisfaction. The youngster seemed to be a voracious student who responded favorably to his instruction. Sacred Scripture, particularly the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistles of Paul, was his favorite subject to study. He was enthralled by the call to make disciples of all countries found in Matthew 28:19 as well as by Paul's unwavering fervor for sharing the Gospel with everyone. He studied the passage from Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats with great interest since it explained how those who served others were truly serving Christ secretly. As a result, Dominic was motivated to sell even his most priceless books at the University of Palencia in order to help the less fortunate. Dominic even made an attempt to sell himself into slavery to the Moors as a teenager in an effort to free others. After completing his theological studies at Palencia, he was named a canon of the cathedral chapter in Osma and, in 1201, was selected as the community's prior. Dominic eventually received the blessing to be ordained as a priest and started his career as a regular canon in Osma. Dominic was not first exposed to the Albigensian heresy until 1203, when he traveled with Bishop Diego of Osma on a king's mission in southern France. A ostensibly Christian sect known as the Albigenses (also known as Cathars) held the view that the physical world was evil. Manicheanism, an ancient heresy, was being revived, and it gained favor in part because locals saw the priests' material prosperity and rejected it as anti-Christian. Like the Apostles, the Cathar perfecti (the equivalent of priests) would walk the countryside preaching to the people while taking nothing with them.Those who preached and lived in poverty in accordance with the Gospels were driving poor people away from the True Faith; perhaps it was more their way of life than their preaching that drew the people. Dominic and Diego stayed at an inn run by an Albigensian heretical family while they were traveling. Dominic learned this and started to probe the innkeeper. According to reports, the two of them debated doctrine and scripture the entire night. By dawn the following morning, Dominic had so tenderly trained this guy that he fell on his knees, confessed his heresy, and begged the good father's pardon. Dominic revealed to Diego his plans to start a preaching order following this encounter. This order would travel around like the Cathars did, begging for their living and engaging in direct dialogue with the populace, as well as restore church discipline in southern France. Dominic, however, would preach the Truth of Christ and His Church—he would fight this tremendous heresy one person at a time—in contrast to the Cathars. Following the completion of their royal mission, Diego and Dominic traveled to Rome to get permission from the pope to form this new preaching order. Diego was highly interested by Dominic's concept. However, Innocent III rejected their plan and requested that they work with the Cistercians in Languedoc, whom he had already assigned the job of putting an end to the Albigensian heresy. Dominic and Bishop Diego went back to France eager to comply, only to discover that the Cistercians had made conditions worse. The Cistercians' opulent lifestyle had successfully persuaded the populace that the Cathars were correct: their lack of destitution was interpreted as proof that they lacked faith and an understanding of Christ. As a result of Dominic and Diego's prompt correction of their brother priests, the Cistercians gradually realized their error. Noble families had been sending their daughters to convents for education for years in France, only to discover that the convents had fallen prey to heresy and the women had never received the correct instruction in the faith. Dominic established a monastery in Prouille in the year 1206, with the intention of providing nuns who had renounced the Albigensian heresy with a safe haven. He gave these ladies the assignment to pray for his preaching mission. As a result, the community that would eventually give rise to the Second Order of Dominicans was founded. Dominic had a deep love for Our Lady and saw in her a powerful patroness for his order. Dominic used to spend a entire nights in prayer, and once Mary came to see him and showed him a vision of heaven: His spirit was suddenly rapt before God, and he noticed Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin seated to His right. Dominic had the impression that Our Lady wore a cape blue in color. Dominic wept bitterly and stood far away, not daring to approach the Lord and His mother, as he could see religious of all the orders gathered around the throne of God except for his own. Our Lady then signaled for him to approach. However, he resisted until Our Lord Himself called him as well. Blessed Dominic then threw himself in front of them while wailing vehemently. However, after commanding him to stand, Our Lord questioned him, "Why are you weeping so?" I'm crying because I don't see any indication of my own order among the numerous orders present. "Do you want to see your Order?" the Lord asked him. to which he said, "Yes, Lord." Then Our Lord remarked to Dominic, "I have given your Order to my Mother," placing his hand on the shoulders of the Blessed Virgin.Then he questioned him once more, "Do you still wish to see your Order?" and once more he responded, "Yes, Lord." Dominic observed a sizable number of the brethren under the Blessed Virgin's spread-out cape, which appeared to be large enough to cover the entirety of heaven. Dominic then bowed down and thanked God and Blessed Mary, His Mother. Saint Dominic was distressed in 1214 because his efforts to persuade the Albigensian Cathar heretics to change their ways were failing. St. Dominic attributed this to the seriousness and depth of the heretics' wickedness as well as the poor conduct of Catholics. To quell the wrath of the All-Powerful God, he went into the forest by himself and cried and prayed nonstop for three days. He scourged his flesh and flogged his body. He fell into a coma as a result of fasting, pain, and exhaustion. While in a coma, Dominic saw an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which eternally established a connection between Saint Dominic and the rosary. "Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?" the Immaculate Mary asked St. Dominic when she arrived with three angels. Dominic replied that because the Blessed Mary is a vital element of our salvation, she knew better than he did. The Angelic Psalter*, which is the cornerstone of the New Testament, has always served as the battering ram in this type of conflict, Mary retorted. Therefore, preach my Psalter if you want to reach these hardened souls and convert them to God. He taught the Holy Rosary to the unconverted Albigenisan heretics not long after this apparition. The Saint Dominic Rosary's design was created to alter the Paternoster (150 Our Fathers) and in accordance with the revelation in the apparition. He separated the fifteen rosary mysteries into three groups of five decades each. Joyous Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries, and Glorious Mysteries were the names given to the divisions. The Albigensian heretics used this design to better comprehend and emulate the moral behavior of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Immaculate and Blessed Mary. The 150 Psalms make up the Psalter, and the "Angelic Salutation" is the "Hail Mary" prayer. She therefore requested 150 Hail Marys, or the Holy Rosary's 15 decades of Hail Marys and its 15 accompanying Mysteries. With six companions, Dominic moved into a home provided by wealthy Toulousen Peter Seila in 1215. In order to meet the spiritual demands of the era's expanding cities, Dominic recognized the need for a new kind of organization—one that would combine commitment and systematic instruction with greater organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy. Bishop Foulques granted him and his companions written permission to preach across Toulouse's realm once they submitted to the monastic precepts of prayer and penance. Dominic and Foulques traveled to Rome in 1215, the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, to win Pope Innocent III's support. After Dominic returned to Rome a year later, Honorius III, the new pope, eventually gave him official permission in December 1216 to found the Ordo Praedicatorum (the "Order of Preachers"). (continued next...)
(continued...) William of Montferrat, who joined Dominic as a monk in the Order of Preachers and became a close companion, and Dominic first met in the winter of 1216–1217 at the home of Ugolino de' Conti. Dominic passed away at the age of 51, "exhausted with the austerities and labors of his career." He arrived "weary and sick with a fever" in the convent of St. Nicholas in Bologna, Italy. Dominic "made the monks lay him on some sacking stretched upon the ground," and "the little time that remained to him was spent in admonishing his disciples to have charity, to guard their humility, and to make their treasure out of poverty." On August 6 at noon, he passed away.[10] In 1233, his corpse was placed to a straightforward tomb. Dominic was declared a saint in 1234 by Pope Gregory IX. The shrine was built by Nicola Pisano and his workshop for the Church of St. Dominic in Bologna, and Dominic's relics were transferred there in 1267. PATRON: Astronomers; astronomy; scientists; falsely accused people. PRAYER: O glorious St. Dominic, filled with a burning zeal for the salvation of souls, and armed with a powerful preaching, you bore witness to the truth and spread abroad the light of the Gospel. Obtain for us a share in your love for God and man, so that, following your example, we may work with tireless energy to bring all people to the knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
St Dominic , the hound of heaven. I think they often show him with a star over his head because they thought he would be placed in the highest choir of angles the Seraphs. This got said about several of the saints and they were sometimes told by Our Lord that this would be so. For instance Saint Francis of Assisi and St Margaret Mary Alocoque. Quite a compliment. Maybe a great lesson of Dominic would be that we convert people more by who and what we are rather than by what we say. But that what we say counts too.
https://www.op.org/the-table-of-st-...h-of-santa-maria-della-mascarella-in-bologna/ I love reading this story. God will move mountains for us (or send us angels with bread and figs) if only we have faith. St. Dominc, pray for us!
SAINT OF THE DAY SATURDAY, 9 AUGUST, 2025 SAINT TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS (EDITH STEIN) VIRGIN AND MARTYR (1891 - 1942) On August 9 the Catholic Church remembers St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as St. Edith Stein. St. Teresa converted from Judaism to Catholicism in the course of her work as a philosopher, and later entered the Carmelite Order. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942. Edith Stein was born on October 12, 1891 – a date that coincided with her family's celebration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish “day of atonement.” Edith's father died when she was just two years old, and she gave up the practice of her Jewish faith as an adolescent. As a young woman with profound intellectual gifts, Edith gravitated toward the study of philosophy and became a pupil of the renowned professor Edmund Husserl in 1913. Through her studies, the non-religious Edith met several Christians whose intellectual and spiritual lives she admired. After earning her degree with the highest honors from Gottingen University in 1915, she served as a nurse in an Austrian field hospital during World War I. She returned to academic work in 1916, earning her doctorate after writing a highly-regarded thesis on the phenomenon of empathy. She remained interested in the idea of religious commitment, but had not yet made such a commitment herself. In 1921, while visiting friends, Edith spent an entire night reading the autobiography of the 16th century Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Avila. “When I had finished the book,” she later recalled, “I said to myself: This is the truth.” She was baptized into the Catholic Church on the first day of January, 1922. Edith intended to join the Carmelites immediately after her conversion, but would ultimately have to wait another 11 years before taking this step. Instead, she taught at a Dominican school, and gave numerous public lectures on women's issues. She spent 1931 writing a study of St. Thomas Aquinas, and took a university teaching position in 1932. In 1933, the rise of Nazism, combined with Edith's Jewish ethnicity, put an end to her teaching career. After a painful parting with her mother, who did not understand her Christian conversion, she entered a Carmelite convent in 1934, taking the name “Teresa Benedicta of the Cross” as a symbol of her acceptance of suffering. “I felt,” she wrote, “that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take upon themselves on everybody's behalf.” She saw it as her vocation “to intercede with God for everyone,” but she prayed especially for the Jews of Germany whose tragic fate was becoming clear. “I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death,” she wrote in 1939, “so that the Lord will be accepted by his people and that his kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.” After completing her final work, a study of St. John of the Cross entitled “The Science of the Cross,” Teresa Benedicta was arrested along with her sister Rosa (who had also become a Catholic), and the members of her religious community, on August 7, 1942. The arrests came in retaliation against a protest letter by the Dutch Bishops, decrying the Nazi treatment of Jews. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. Blessed John Paul II canonized her in 1998, and proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe the next year. PATRON: Europe; loss of parents; martyrs. PRAYER: God of our Fathers, who brought the Martyr Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross to know your crucified Son and to imitate him even until death, grant, through her intercession, that the whole human race may acknowledge Christ as its Savior and through him come to behold you for eternity. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Australia's Saint Mary McKillop makes me smile. Not many nuns got to get excommunicated and move on to be declared a saint. Like so many, many saints (such as Padre Pio) she was fiercely attacked by clerical high powers to be (Clerical paedophiles). Bless her, I love a strong woman who can stand up for herself. She reminds me of EWTN'S Mother Angelica. She had the most Beautiful eyes, she reminds me of St Gemma Galgani. Nailed to the Cross from childhood through sufferings, a woman of incredible determination.
SAINT OF THE DAY SUNDAY, 10 AUGUST, 2025 SAINT LAWRENCE OF ROME DEACON AND MARTYR (c. 225 - August 10, 258) This young deacon and heroic martyr is numbered among those saints who were most highly venerated by the ancient Roman Church. Next to the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, that of St. Lawrence ranked highest in the Roman sanctoral cycle. "From the rising of the sun unto its setting," says St. Leo, "whenever the glory of Levites beams forth in splendor, Rome is deemed no less illustrious because of Lawrence than Jerusalem because of Stephen." Legendary Acts tell how Lawrence was a disciple of Pope Sixtus II (257-258), who dearly loved him because of his special talents, but principally because of his innocence; in spite of his youth, the Pope numbered him among the seven deacons of Rome and raised him to the position of archdeacon. As such, Lawrence had the immediate care of the altar and was at the side of the saintly Pope whenever he offered the holy Sacrifice; to him also was confided the administration of the goods of the Church and the responsibility of caring for the poor. During the persecution of Emperor Valerian (253-260), Sixtus II and his four deacons were martyred. Very ardently Lawrence desired to die with his spiritual father and therefore said to him: "Father, where are you going without your son? Where are you hastening, O priest, without your deacon? Never before did you offer the holy Sacrifice without assistants. In what way have I displeased you? In what way have you found me unfaithful in my office? Oh, try me again and prove to yourself whether you have chosen an unworthy minister for the service of the Church. So far you have been trusting me with distributing the Blood of the Lord." This loving complaint of joyous self-oblation Sixtus answered with words of prophecy: "I am not forsaking you, my son; a severer trial is awaiting you for your faith in Christ. The Lord is considerate toward me because I am a weak old man. But for you a most glorious triumph is in store. Cease to weep, for already after three days you will follow me". After these comforting words he admonished him to distribute all the remaining Church goods allocated to the poor. While Lawrence was dispersing these items in the house of a certain Narcissus, a blind man named Crescentius asked for healing help by the imposition of hands. The holy deacon made the Sign of the Cross over him and the man began to see. From his relations with Pope Sixtus, it was known that he acted as the steward over the Church's property. He was arrested therefore and placed under the watch of a certain Hippolytus. There in prison Lawrence cured the blind Lucillus and several other blind persons; impressed thereby, Hippolytus embraced the faith and died a martyr. Ordered by the authorities to surrender the treasures of the Church, Lawrence asked for two days time during which to gather them. The request was granted and he brought together in the house of Hippolytus the poor and the sick whom he had supported. These he led to the judge. "Here are the treasures of the Church!" Lawrence was tortured, scourged, and scorched with glowing plates. In the midst of excruciating pain he prayed: "Lord Jesus Christ, God from God, have mercy on Your servant!" And he besought the grace of faith for the bystanders. At a certain point the soldier Romanus exclaimed: "I see before you an incomparably beautiful youth. Hasten and baptize me." He had observed how an angel dried the wounds of Lawrence with a linen cloth during his passion.Again during the night he was dragged before the judge and threatened with immediate death. But he replied: "My God I honor and Him alone I serve. Therefore I do not fear your torments; this night shall become as brightest day and as light without any darkness." When placed upon the glowing gridiron, he jested with his executioners and the cruel tyrant. "Now you may turn me over, my body is roasted enough on this side." Shortly after this had been done, he cried again: "At last I am finished; you may now take from me and eat." Then turning to God in prayer: "I thank You, O Lord, that I am permitted to enter Your portals." To comfort him during his torments God said to him: "My servant, do not be afraid. I am with you." He was put to death upon the Viminal Hill and buried on the Tiburtinian Way. Such the passion and death of this Christian hero, a story that in the Roman Breviary is told by the antiphons and responsories. Already in Constantine's time there was erected over his grave a church that belonged to the seven major basilicas of Rome, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls. - Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch PATRON: Archives; archivists; armories; armourers; brewers; butchers; Ceylon; comedians; comediennes; comics; confectioners; cooks; cutlers; deacons; fire; glaziers; laundry workers; librarians; libraries; lumbago; paupers; poor people; restauranteurs; Rome; schoolchildren; seminarians; Sri Lanka; stained glass workers; students; tanners; vine growers; vintners; wine makers. PRAYER: O God, giver of that ardor of love for you by which Saint Lawrence was outstandingly faithful in service and glorious in martyrdom, grant that we may love what he loved and put into practice what he taught. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The really big thing about Saint Lawrence is that the ancient Catholics believed that his sufferings were so huge that they considered his terrible death led to stopping of the persecution of the Church. Just imagine this. A kind of super hero martyr and saint. This is what we call the sense of the faithful, "sensus fidelium" in Latin. The Church considers this very,very important so if thousands of good living Catholics have an opinion about something we should take it seriously. So with Padre Pio the Sense of the Faithful considered him a saint and the Vatican wanted to bury him. Or with Pope John Paul 2 at his funeral cried subito santo, make him a saint quickly before the Vatican declared it to be so. So the sense of the faithful was that St Lawrence is a really , really big deal and we should pay attention to this.
SAINTS OF THE DAY MONDAY, 11 AUGUST, 2025 1) SAINT CLARE OF ASSISI 2) SAINT PHILOMENA _ 1) SAINT CLARE OF ASSISI ABBESS AND VIRGIN (16 July 1194 - 11 August 1253) The Breviary says of her: "Following the example of St. Francis, she distributed all her possessions among the poor. She fled from the noise of the world and betook herself to a country chapel, where St. Francis himself sheared off her hair and clothed her with a penitential garb (on March 18, 1212, at the age of eighteen). Then she resided at the Church of St. Damian, where the Lord provided for her a goodly number of companions. So she established a community of nuns and acted as their superior at the wish of St Francis. For forty-two years she directed the nunnery with zeal and prudence, her own life serving as a constant sermon for her sisters to emulate. Of Pope Innocent IV she requested the privilege that she and her community live in absolute poverty. She was a most perfect follower of St. Francis of Assisi. "When the Saracens were besieging Assisi and were preparing to attack the convent, St. Clare asked to be assisted as far as the entrance, for she was ill. In her hand she carried a vessel containing the blessed Eucharist as she prayed: O Lord, do not deliver over to beasts the souls that praise You! (Ps. 73). Protect Your servants, for You have redeemed them by Your precious Blood. And in the midst of that prayer a voice was heard, saying: Always will I protect you ! The Saracens took to flight." Heroic in suffering (she was sick for twenty-seven years), she was canonized only two years after her death. Thomas of Celano coined the saying: Clara nomine, vita clarior, clarissima moribus. Clare was the first flower in the garden of the Poor Man of Assisi. Poor in earthly goods, but rich in her utter poverty, she was a replica of Jesus, poor in the crib and on the Cross. At her time the Church generally and many Church men were enmeshed in financial matters and political maneuvering. Through the renewal of the ideal of poverty, St. Francis effected a "reform of Christian life in head and members." PATRON: Embroiderers; eye disease; eyes; gilders; goldsmiths; gold workers; good weather; laundry workers; needle workers; Santa Clara Indian Pueblo; telegraphs; telephones; television; television writers. PRAYER: O God, who in your mercy led Saint Clare to a love of poverty, grant, through her intercession, that, following Christ in poverty of spirit, we may merit to contemplate you one day in the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. _ 2) SAINT PHILOMENA VIRGIN AND MARTYR On May 25, 1802, excavators in the ancient Catacomb of St. Priscilla in Rome came upon a well-preserved shelf tomb sealed with terra-cotta slabs in the manner usually reserved for nobility or great martyrs. The tomb was marked with three tiles, inscribed with the following confusing words: LUMENA / PAXTE / CUMFI. However, if one places the first tile last and separates the words properly, the very intelligible sentence emerges: "Pax tecum, Filumena", which is, "Peace be with you, Philomena" Also inscribed on the tiles were symbols: a lily, arrows, an anchor and a lance, which would appear to indicate virginity and martyrdom. Inside the coffin there were discovered the remains of a girl of about twelve or thirteen years of age, along with a vial or ampulla of her dried blood. Transferred to the Treasury of the Rare Collection of Christian Antiquity in the Vatican, the remains were soon forgotten by the public, especially since no record existed of a virgin martyr named Philomena. But in 1805, a Neapolitan priest, Don Francesco di Lucia, traveling to Rome with his newly appointed bishop, requested and, after a brief delay, received the relics of this martyr "Philomena" to enshrine in his village church at Mugnano, near Naples. Immediately upon the official donation of St. Philomena's sacred remains, signal favors began to be granted through her intercession and unusual events to occur. The favors, graces and even miracles started to increase, even before her enshrinement at Mugnano, and they steadily grew in number thereafter-such that this virgin martyr soon earned the title, "Philomena, Powerful with God." In 1837, only 35 years after her exhumation, Pope Gregory XVI elevated this "Wonder-Worker of the Nineteenth Century" to sainthood. In an act unprecedented in the history of Catholicism, she became the only person recognized by the Church as a Saint solely on the basis of her powerful intercession, since nothing historical was known of her except her name and the evidence of her martyrdom.But truly, as her devotees have discovered, no case, of whatever matter is too trivial or too unimportant to concern her. Among her most devoted clients was St. John Vianney (the Cure D'Ars) whose childlike devotion to this virgin Saint played an intimate part in his daily life. Other Saints who were always devoted to her, prayed to her and sang her praises were : St. Peter Julian Eymard, St.Peter Chanel, St. Anthony Mary Claret, St. Madelaine Sophie Barat, St. Euphrasia Pelletier, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. John Nepomucene Neumann, Blessed Anna Maria Taigi and Ven. Pauline Jaricot. A number of Popes have also shown remarkable devotion to Philomena as well: Pope Leo XII (1823-1829) expressed the great admiration for this unknown child-saint and gladly gave his permission for the erection of altars and churches in her honor. Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846), who authorized her public veneration showed his esteem and devotion to the Saint by giving her the title of "Patroness of the Living Rosary." A Mass and proper Office in her honor were approved by him in 1834 or 1835. This is extraordinary privilege granted to comparatively few Saints. Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) proclaimed her "Patroness of the Children of Mary." Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) made two pilgrimages to her shrine before his election to the papacy. After he had become the Vicar of Christ, he gave a valuable cross to the sanctuary He approved the Confraternity of St. Philomena and later raised it to an Arch-confraternity (which is still headquartered at her shrine at Mugnano, Italy). Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914) spoke warmly of her and manifested his devotion to her in various ways. Costly gifts were given by him to her shrine. - From 'TAN Books and Publishers', Inc. PATRON: against barrenness, against bodily ills, against infertility, against mental illness, against sickness, against sterility, babies, children, Children of Mary, desperate causes, forgotten causes, impossible causes, infants, lost causes, Living Rosary, newborns, orphans, poor people, priests, prisoners, sick people, students, test takers, toddlers, young people, youth. PRAYER: O Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, whom God glorifies by so many miracles, whom the Vicar of Jesus Christ has named the Protectress of The Living Rosary and the Children of Mary, manifest, more and more plainly from the heights of Heaven, that a voice holy as thine cannot be denied and that we have the right to rely upon thine aid. Obtain for us the grace to be faithful to Jesus Christ, even to death. Amen.
SAINT OF THE DAY TUESDAY, 12 AUGUST, 2025 SAINT JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL FOUNDRESS (28 January 1572 - 13 December 1641) Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal was the foundress of the Order of the Visitation of Mary. She was born in 1572 and came from a noble family, her father gave her in marriage to the Baron von Chantal in 1592. As mother she most zealously instructed the children in the ways of virtue and piety and in the observance of every divine precept. With great generosity she supported the poor and took special joy in seeing how divine Providence often blesses and increases the smallest larder. Therefore she made a vow never to refuse anyone who asked for alms in the Name of Christ. The death of her husband, who was accidentally shot while on the chase (1601), she bore with Christ-like composure and with all her heart forgave the person who had killed him; then she acted as sponsor for one of his children in order to show her forgiveness openly. There was a holy friendship between her and her spiritual guide, Francis de Sales; with his approval she left her father and children and founded the Visitation nuns. Thus, too, it should be with us—firm yet forgiving, and each at the proper place and in the proper measure. Our zeal must not make us hard, fanatic; neither may love degenerate into sentimentalism. In fundamentals, in faith, and in the commandments we must be firm, immovable, with no trace of tolerance; but in our contacts with men, patient, forgiving, tender, conciliatory. The Christian ought be firm and resolute as a father, mild and self-sacrificing as a mother. This tension between complementary virtues we find exemplified in a heroic degree in St. Jane Frances de Chantal. PATRON: Forgotten people; in-law problems; loss of parents; parents separated from children; widows. PRAYER: O God, who made Saint Jane Frances de Chantal radiant with outstanding merits in different walks of life, grant us, through her intercession, that walking faithfully in our vocation, we may constantly be examples of shining light. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I was just thing about St Clare tonight at Mass. A good way of looking at her is that she climbed into a tabernacle as a young girl and never climbed out again. She just stayed in there keeping the Lord company her whole life..
SAINTS OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 13 AUGUST, 2025 1) SAINTS PONTIAN AND HIPPOLYTUS 2) SAINT CASSIAN OF IMOLA 3) THE HOLY “SLEEP” OF THE MOTHER OF GOD _ 1) SAINTS PONTIAN AND HIPPOLYTUS POPE AND MARTYR (PONTIAN) AND PRIEST AND MARTYR (HIPPOLYTUS) (Late Second Century – c. 235) St. Pontian succeeded St. Urban in the Pontifical See in 230. He is chiefly known for convening a Roman Synod which confirmed a prior condemnation of the Egyptian theologian Origen. Like so many other bishops of his era, Pontian also dealt with divergent positions over how the Church should re-integrate Christians who had abjured their faith during a persecution. Should they be re-baptized, do public penance, or be welcomed back privately? Tensions over this issue perdured for many decades and deeply wounded Church unity. After the assassination of Alexander Severus in 235, Pontian was exiled by the Emperor Maximus to the mines of Sardinia. But he first graciously resigned in 235 so that a successor pope could be elected. For this magnanimous act, he was remembered as “distinguished” in contemporary documents. He bore his suffering and persecution patiently for Christ and attained the crown of martyrdom in that same year. Exiled together with St. Pontian was a priest named Hippolytus, one of the most important 3rd-century theologians of the Roman Church. Born about 170, he was already a priest and a personage of note when Origen heard him preach at Rome in 202. During the first part of his life he produced the Scriptural writings that constitute the best part of his works (he wrote the earliest commentary on Scripture, that of the Book Daniel), and defended the faith. He wrote on Scripture, dogma, law, apologetics, Christ, and also authored a comprehensive polemical work entitled A Refutation of All Heresies. About 215m he wrote the Apostolical Tradition (for which he is probably best known), which preserves some of the most ancient liturgical texts of the primitive church. The original of the Apostolic Tradition does not exist, and later translated fragments are of dubious provenance, making the work a fluid, composite text of different eras. Nevertheless, the core document is a one-of-a-kind artifact, allowing a modern Christian to peek through the keyhole into the liturgy of the early, praying Church. Hippolytus doesn't just describe the words and actions of the liturgy, as the earlier Didache and Saint Justin Martyr did. Instead, he writes down the actual prayers. The Apostolic Tradition contains the earliest known rite of ordination. The ordination rite of a bishop used today by the Catholic Church still largely adopts this ancient text. Hippolytus provides the first example of the Virgin Mary being invoked in liturgical prayer. And Hippolytus' prayers for the Eucharistic banquet include the third century words of consecration! This text is the source for a significant portion of today's Eucharistic Prayer II, perhaps the most commonly used Eucharistic prayer at Mass. When the faithful throughout the world hear the familiar cadence of Eucharistic Prayer II each Sunday, they are hearing the distant echo of priestly voices from the third century.As he did on so many significant Roman tombs, Pope Damasus (366-384) wrote an inscription on the tomb of Hippolytus more than a century after the saint died. Part of it reads: “Wherever he was able to go, he had spoken of the Catholic faith so that all might follow it. Thus our martyr deserves to be acknowledged.” Indeed. And at the entrance of the forever-closed catacombs of Saint Hippolytus, a personalized graffiti from an ancient pilgrim is carved into the wall, the tender petition invoking today'saint: “Hippolytus, keep Peter the sinner in mind.” Saint Hippolytus, keep all of us in mind. PATRON : Saint of Montaldo Scarampi, Italy (Pontian) and prison guards (Hippolytus). PRAYER: Saints Pontian and Hippolytus, you lived at a time of exiles, persecution and martyrdom, a most crucial period in the history of the Church. Yet, you proclaimed and gave public witness to your faith, leading to exile and death. Your leadership of the Church led to your tragic ends. You were isolated, suffering for lack of essentials and died as a result. May we realize the extent of the hardships you endured for Christ's sake, thus helping us gain courage when under duress, in Jesus' Name. Amen. 2) SAINT CASSIAN OF IMOLA MARTYR (4th Century) St. Cassian was a schoolmaster at Imola in northeast Italy. He died a martyr during the Roman persecutions under Diocletian, probably in the third century. Cassian had apparently been a schoolteacher for some time. Then a widespread persecution of Christians commenced. Roman officials arrested him because he was known, or at least suspected, to be a Christian. He was taken before the governor, and the governor demanded, as usual, that he offer sacrifice to the gods. Naturally, Cassian refused to perform this act of apostasy, so he was condemned to death. Now, the Romans had many set types of execution to choose from, but sometimes they invented others. Knowing that Cassian was a schoolmaster, the governor decided that it would be a clever novelty to have him stabbed to death by his own pupils! The schoolmaster was therefore stretched out on the ground and fixed down securely. Then Cassian's former students were brought in. They had not particularly liked their teacher because he had been strict with them. Given the signal, therefore, they set about with a fiendish joy to torment him. They broke their wooden writing tablets over his head, carved their initials carefully on his flesh, and finally stabbed him all over with their pens. Cassian meanwhile accepted their blows with much patience and no malice. He died bloodied with a thousand little wounds. PATRON: Imola, Mexico City, schoolteachers, shorthand-writers, parish clerks. St. Cassian of Imola: pray for us!
3) THE HOLY “SLEEP” OF THE MOTHER OF GOD Anticipating the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God on the fifteenth of August, today, the thirteenth we celebrate her death or “dormition.” Dormition is a Latin word that means “sleep.” Several places in holy scripture death is referred to as “a sleep”. Jesus Himself spoke of the death of His friend Lazarus as a sleep. “Lazarus our friend sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep” (John 11:11). When He went to the home of Jairus, a ruler of a synagogue, to cure his daughter, who had died before he arrived, Our Lord told the mourners to “Weep not; the maid is not dead, but sleepeth” (Luke 8:52). Saint Paul, likewise, in his First Letter to the Thessalonians wrote of those “who sleep in death” and have “fallen asleep” who await the resurrection of the dead (4:13ff). Interesting, too, is that our word “cemetery” is originally from the Greek word koimeterion, which means a “sleeping place.” So, the question arises: Was Our Lady “sleeping” the moment before she was resurrected and assumed body and soul into heaven? Or, had she actually died? Remember, Our Blessed Mother had no original sin, therefore, she was exempt from the penalty of death due to that sin. This, however, does not mean that her body was immortal by nature, but it would have been by privilege. A fortiori, Jesus had no sin, nevertheless, to redeem us and save us, He suffered and died. Such was the will of the Father. Mary, on the other hand, is not God, nor our Savior. She is, however, our co-redemptrix, and, as such, she chose to experience death herself, both to be one with us, as our Mother, and to imitate — or shall I say, participate in — the death and burial of her Son. “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35). Mary, too, in union with her Son, would spend, just as did Jesus, forty hours in the tomb, from which place (in the Garden of Gethsemani near the tomb of Saint Joseph her spouse) her soul went forth for three days to comfort the souls in purgatory. Mary's Heart was one with Jesus' Heart. She willed to be like Him in all things, even in death, although her death was from an overabundance of love, not from any sickness or bodily affliction. Jesus surrendered to death because it was His will to do so in obedience to His Father. “No man taketh it away from me,” Jesus said to the Pharisees, “but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:18). There is nothing contrary to the Faith to hold the minority opinion that the Blessed Virgin did not die, but was merely asleep before her Assumption. And I will refrain from providing all the testimony from tradition and the fathers and doctors, affirming that the Mother of God did die. Suffice it to say that this far more common belief was held from the early centuries; Saints John Chrysostom and Ephrem in the East believed she died and most of the Latin doctors also did right up and including Saint Alphonsus. However, we must distinguish in the early western Church between the more common belief concerning Our Lady's true death and the less common belief concerning her Assumption. Saints Ambrose, Epiphanius, and Isidore of Seville, for example, offered their opinions as to the location of Our Lady's tomb, but they are surprisingly silent concerning her bodily Assumption. In defining the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, Pope Pius XII phrased the dogma succinctly: “The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory” (Munificentissimus Deus on Nov. 1, 1950). With these words he avoided any censoring of those fathers who piously assumed that the Savior would have exempted the spotless soul of His Mother from ever exiting her most pure body.Before I close, I would like to add a word about Saint Thomas the Apostle. There has always been a tradition in the universal Church that the Apostles and Saint Paul were summoned, by Saint John no doubt, to come home from their labors, and be present in Jerusalem for the “dormition” of their Mother. It has even been held that some of them were miraculously transported. Be that as it may, one of the Apostles was not miraculously transported, arriving late, after the Holy Virgin had been placed in her tomb. This tradition, which is found in a collection from pious apocryphal sources called Transitus Mariae (The Passage of Mary), attributed to Bishop St. Melito of Sardis (circa 180), enjoyed popularity by the fifth century. In fact, Saint John Damascene (d. 749) recorded this story: “St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria [Saint Pulcheria], who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of Saint Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom (sic) the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.” (Father William Saunders, Dormition of Mary, Catholic Education Resource Center) The year of Our Lady's Dormition was 58. She was seventy-two years old. At that time all of the Apostles were engaged in bringing the gospel to the nations. Saint James the Greater had been martyred sixteen years before by Herod Antipas. My opinion, concerning Saint Thomas, is this: He who, to his great sadness, did not accept the testimony of his fellow Apostles concerning the Resurrection of Christ, was chosen to be the first one to “see” the empty tomb of the Mother of God and, thereby, to be the first evangelist of her resurrection and Assumption. It was on account of Saint Thomas' request to see his Mother Mary's body that the Apostles went to the tomb and removed the stone cover. The fact that he did not arrive in Jerusalem until the third day after Mary's death also supports the tradition that “the Doubter” was far far away on the east coast of India preaching the Faith there in the year 58. His journey back to Jerusalem, with whatever notice he was sent of the Virgin Mother's approaching death, would be more difficult than the other Apostles because of the remoteness of his field of labor. Hence, in the providence of God, he was meant to arrive late, so that the Church would know that the body of the Mother of God, just as that of Christ her Son, was not to see corruption. Finally, in regard to Our Lady's bodily Assumption, if, after Our Lord's Resurrection, “the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose, coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, came into the holy city, and appeared to many” (Matt. 27:53, my emphasis), it would be inconceivable that she who bore the Holy One who saw no corruption should herself see corruption: “Thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption” (Acts 13:35). The Eastern Church celebrates the Dormition of Mary together with the feast of the Assumption on August 15th. The Western Church does not have a Mass in her liturgy today (August 13) specifically for the “Dormition,” but, in honoring Mary's actual death on her calendar, she awaits the major feast on the fifteenth by anticipation. Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with Thee Blessed art though amongst women & Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen!
