Thursday 28th March 2024

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Catholic Heroes . . . St. Dominic

March 1, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Dominic

By DEB PIROCH On being threatened with death for preaching to the heretical Albigensians, they asked St. Dominic what he would have done had they captured him. His answer was:“I would have asked you not to kill me all at once, but to cut me up member by member, so as to give me a lingering martyrdom. Then, before you plucked out my eyes, I would ask you to hold before me each part you had cut from my body. After all that, you could let the rest of my body roll about in its own blood or you could kill me altogether” —First biographer, Jordan of Saxony, who knew St. Dominic.Sense of humor he must have had. Born of…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Martin Of Tours

February 22, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Martin Of Tours

By DEB PIROCH His father had been a soldier, and Roman law said he would be, too. But before called to duty, Martin would be already “drafted” by God at the young age of ten.St. Martin of Tours was actually born in Pannonia in 316, a province of the Roman Empire that today would include Hungary. Much of what we known about his life was documented by a contemporary and one of his disciples, Sulpicius Severus. With many ancient saints, we often do not have the luxury of such documentation.Christianity had only been legalized in the Roman Empire three years before Martin’s birth. Thirteen years later young Martin felt called to become a Christian. His parents did not approve, being…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . Venerable Marcello Labor

February 15, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . Venerable Marcello Labor

By DEB PIROCH “Which faith do you want from me then?” You answer me in your mysterious silence: “Faith in Jesus which makes everything possible; faith in Jesus which gives everything; faith in Jesus which wants everyone to be saved for eternity.” “Save me, then!” — Venerable Marcello Labor, Jewish convert.Msgr. Marcello Labor, born Marcello Loewy (1890-1954), was a Jewish born Hungarian physician, writer, husband, father, widower, and priest. His process for sainthood was opened under Pope St. John Paul II in 1996 and found to be without objection. In 2015 Pope Francis declared him venerable but, perhaps because he is not well known in this country, it is difficult to find information about him.He was a writer, but his…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. John The Baptist

February 8, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. John The Baptist

By DEB PIROCH When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, the latter was further along in her pregnancy than Mary was. The women met, and we know from the Gospel that her baby, the future St. John the Baptist, leapt in her womb with joy, recognizing Christ, in cousin Mary’s womb. This required the power of the Holy Ghost.John’s father, Zachary, had been visited by an angel, as Mary was, to acquaint him with the supernatural events to come. But he doubted because his faith was lacking, knowing his wife, Elizabeth, was far too old to bear a child. In consequence, he was struck dumb until the child was named. When John was born, and to be circumcised, as they had…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Colette Of Corbie

February 1, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Colette Of Corbie

By DEB PIROCH Her birth was a miracle, her mother not unlike John the Baptist’s mother, for St. Colette was conceived and born when her mother was age 60. Named Nicolette Boelle, this was shortened to “Colette” in everyday speech, Corbie being the name of the area where she lived in France. Her father, Robert, was a carpenter, who worked at the town’s Benedictine Abbey. Her mother was named Marguerite. Both were gone by the time Colette was about 18 years of age. The exact age she was when they died is not known, but her father left her care to the local priest till of age.Her family and environs were likely holy, and these found fertile ground in Colette,…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Aloysius Gonzaga

January 25, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Aloysius Gonzaga

By DEB PIROCH “A Franciscan Friar of the strict Observance went through the exorcisms. . . . Suddenly the devils began to cry out, pointing . . . to the Saint [Aloysius as a child]: ‘See that boy,’ they explained, ‘he it is who will go to Heaven, and will have great glory’ ” — The Life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga by Fr. Virgilio Cepari. + + The name means warrior and this was the will Aloysius Gonzaga’s father had for him. His given name was Luigi, the Italian form of Aloysius, and he was the eldest son, due to inherit his title, just as wealth and nobility were also his due. He was born in 1568 in a castle…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes . . . St. Vincent Mary Pallotti (1795-1850)

January 18, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes . . . St. Vincent Mary Pallotti (1795-1850)

By DEB PIROCH He lived during a different era . . . the same as the Curé of Ars. He attended a special Jesuit high school, the Collegio Romano where St. Aloysius Gonzaga had been schooled. And like his fellow alumnus, he came from a large family and was called early to religious life.One of ten, as a child Vincent played with his friends by wanting to teach them how to say the rosary, and learn the catechism. In mortification, he slept on a hard floor. By 15 he was also scourging himself and drawing blood, a concern for his mother. But his confessor said, “Leave him alone, leave him alone, the Spirit of God is working in him.” Initially…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… The Blessed Carmelites Of Compiègne

January 11, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… The Blessed Carmelites Of Compiègne

By DEB PIROCH There are those who make the capital error of equating France’s French Revolution with the American one. Bastille Day may have liberated the people from autocracy, but beyond that, the Revolution was vile. While phrases like “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” were bantered about, it was actually only one motto used and it really had nothing whatsoever to do with the true brutality of the Revolution. Some at the time added: “Unity, indivisibility of the Republic; liberty, equality or death,” as if to say, you who are not with us are against us.Yes, that was how its leader Robespierre felt, and his radical agenda included destruction of the Church. On July 14 one should celebrate the anniversary of…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Teresa Benedicta Of The Cross

January 4, 2022 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Teresa Benedicta Of The Cross

By DEB PIROCH “The great thing for us to do is to embrace the Cross” — Autobiography, St. Teresa of Avila.One evening while visiting a friend, a young German-Jewish, gifted philosopher began reading St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography. Brought up in an observant Jewish home, she had long ago ceased her belief and turned atheist. She read the whole night through. When she finished, she knew she would become Catholic.Edith Stein, gifted Jewish academic and student and teacher of philosophy, was born October 12, 1891 on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Feast of Atonement. The last of eleven children in her family, she was born in the Prussian town of Breslau in Germany, now Poland. Her father died just as Edith…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… The Magi

December 21, 2021 saints Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… The Magi

By DEB PIROCH “Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and are come to adore him” (Matt. 2:2). + + There were three wise men who came from the east, following a star over Bethlehem, seeking an infant king. Their names were Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and they came from Persia, today in the Middle East. Some today are confused when they were astrologers; this meant that they studied the wonders of the Heavens, looking for marvelous signs of what the signs above the firmament foretold.That these three are regarding as saints by the Catholic Church is not the least surprising in that we mark the Feast of the…Continue Reading