By DEB PIROCH
The first saints of the Body and Blood of Christ would have to be the apostles present at the Last Supper, who, with our Lord, spent their lives spreading our understanding of this great sacrament. No person can be a saint without a great love of the Holy Species, and so indeed, all saints must be saints of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. But it is worth mentioning here a couple more especially devoted to our Lord in this sacramental form.
Little is known about St. Tarcisius, except that in the third century he was carrying the Blessed Sacrament to those who could not receive in person. Approached by those who wished to steal the Hosts from him, he refused to relinquish them and was stoned to death in AD 257.
Pope Damasus of the period referred to him as an acolyte, a boy martyr, and he has become a model for altar boys. An inscription placed to the right of the entrance to the Church of St. Silvester in Capite, Italy, placed Tarcisius on a level with the first martyr. It reads:
“Stephen, the faithful Levite, stoned by the Jewish people, was the first to snatch the trophy of martyrdom from his enemy. Tarcisius, when carrying the Blessed Sacrament, though injured, preferred to give up his life rather than yield the Sacred Species to rabid dogs.” The dead boy was carried back to the priest who had entrusted him with the Eucharist, which the boy promised to guard with his very life. His feast is August 15, the Assumption; such a special favor that he shares the date with the Marian feast. Pope Benedict XVI spoke about his martyrdom during his Wednesday audience in August 2010:
“[Legend] claims that the Most Blessed Sacrament was not found on St. Tarcisius’ body, either in his hands or his clothing. It explains that the consecrated Host which the little Martyr had defended with his life, had become flesh of his flesh thereby forming, together with his body, a single immaculate Host offered to God.”
The boy was buried 1,800 years ago in the tombs of St. Callixtus.
Blessed Janos Maria Tobias Brenner was a Hungarian priest beatified by Angelo Cardinal Amato May 1, 2018. He was born in 1931 to a devout family in Szombathely, western Hungary, and his two other brothers would also become priests. Along with one brother, he joined the Cistercians in Zirc in 1950, and was ordained a priest in 1955. Shortly after he joined, persecution of Catholics by the Communists began. Studying was done at home to try to remain under the official radar, and later as a priest, when his life was threatened, he still told his bishop he was happy to remain wherever God wished him to be. But he would become a victim of retaliation following the 1956 failed anti-Soviet uprising.
On the night of December 14, 1957, he was asked to bring Extreme Unction to someone allegedly sick and dying in a neighboring town. He attempted the journey at night and by foot, carrying holy oil and the Eucharist. On the way, Fr. Brenner was assaulted and stabbed 32 times. When his body was discovered, he was still clutching the Eucharist. Though enemies of the Church had hoped to put fear into Catholics, this failed, as it always does. Fr. Brenner is even more widely remembered than if he had been left alone. Martyred at age 25, today he is known as the “Hungarian Tarcisius.”
When he was laid to rest in the Cistercian crypt, the Communists commanded that his image be removed from the abbey’s wall. Until 1989 his death could not be mentioned. But in 2007, Bishop Andras Veres declared a celebratory year for the fiftieth anniversary of Brenner’s death, leading to a great many lectures, meetings by young people, pilgrimages to his grave, as well as a new chapel. Fifteen thousand attended the beatification ceremony in his hometown and one of his brothers, a diocesan priest, is still living.
Fr. Brenner’s feast is December 15.
While Catholics who are well-formed realize that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of our Lord during the transubstantiation of the Mass, many today either do not realize this or simply do not believe in it. In an attempt to encourage and educate, American bishops have launched a “Eucharistic Revival” initiative. Coordinated through the USCCB, the event began this year at Corpus Christi and runs until June 11, 2023.
Despite the Protestant-sounding name, the lovely aspect is that we are able to enjoy Eucharistic processions and devotions in greater number again, in the hope they set fire to new hearts for generations to come.
“I have always thought of having my heart in Heaven and in the Tabernacle” — St. Pedro Maldonado.
One of seven children born in the Mexican town of Chihuahua City, St. Pedro Maldonado wanted to become a priest and actually began his seminary studies, only to see his seminary shut down under the socialists in 1914. He instead went to El Paso, Texas, to finish and would find it a second home of sorts. He was ordained in 1918 in the Archdiocese of Chihuahua by the bishop of El Paso, Texas. In Texas is where his first Masses were also said.
Fr. Pedro was then assigned to the neighborhood of the Mexican city in which he had grown up, but the Cristero War (1926-29) developed, prompted by the president who enacted anti-Catholic persecution across the nation. The constitution negated any right to religious education, to worship outside a church, or even for religious to wear the habit or for the Church to own property. The socialists were very violent and, in response, the Cristero War erupted, partly as a response to defend the Church. Despite a peace negotiated by the United States, the Mexican president resumed persecutions in 1931 in the area were Fr. Maldonado worked.
On Ash Wednesday, 1937, Fr. Pedro was hearing Communion and distributing ashes. He heard noise and as a bunch of violent drunks approached, he had the presence of mind to grab a pyx filled with consecrated Hosts and held it against his body, to preserve the Body of Christ from desecration. The evil men marched the priest and some parishioners to the city hall, where the mayor took him by the hair to a leader who pistol-whipped the priest and fractured his skull.
As Fr. Pedro was bleeding and left for dead, the pyx fell to the ground and the Hosts emptied out. One of the men grabbed the Hosts and shoved them all into Fr. Pedro’s mouth, yelling, “Eat this! Your last Communion!” He apparently thankfully swallowed them and died the next day at age 44.
Now canonized, among other things he is considered a patron of nighttime adoration. He have shared in our Lord’s Passion in a very real way on Ash Wednesday, and died on Holy Thursday, having protected the Body and Blood of Christ. Surely, a reward must have been waiting for Fr. Pedro in Heaven.
On the road to Emmaus, after His Resurrection, Christ made Himself known to His apostles again in the breaking of the bread. May we be react as they did, each time we receive! They said: “Was our heart not burning within us?” (Luke 24:32). Allow us to pray for worthiness and an ever-greater love of the Eucharist.
St. Pedro Maldonado’s feast is the date of his canonization, May 21.
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