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Hope you enjoy reading about some Saints and Feasts Days we have selected to share with you for the week of: March 7 to March 13, 2010.
March 7, July 10
Sts. Perpetua and Felicity
At 22, in the year 203, Vibia Perpetua made the decision to become a Christian, even though she knew she would be imprisoned and probably killed for declaring this. She was a well-educated, high-spirited woman with a baby son. She was married, but since her husband is never mentioned, many historians assume she was a widow.
Saturus, their catechist, had been imprisoned. Perpetua was arrested with four other catechumens including two slaves Felicity and Revocatus, and Saturninus and Secundulus. Perpetua was known for her gift of "the Lord's speech" and receiving messages from God. She tells us that at the time of her baptism she was told to pray for nothing but endurance in the face of her trials.
When she and the others were taken to be examined and sentenced, her father followed, pleading with her and the judge. The judge, out of pity, also tried to get Perpetua to change her mind, but when she stood fast, she was sentenced with the others to be thrown to the wild beasts in the arena.
Perpetua and Felicity continued to pray for others while in prison.
Bears, leopards, and wild boars attacked the men. Perpetua and Felicity were thrown into the arena so roughly that they were bruised and hurt. Perpetua, though confused and distracted, still was thinking of others and went to help Felicity up. The two of them stood side by side as all five martyrs had their throats cut.
March 8 St. John of God
At eight years old, John heard a visiting priest speak of adventures that were waiting with new worlds being opened up. That very night he ran away from home to travel with the priest and never saw his parents again.
Reading gave him so much pleasure he decided that he should share this joy with others. He became a book peddler, traveling from town to town, selling religious books and holy cards. A vision at age 41 brought him to Granada where he sold books from a little shop. (For this reason he is patron saint of booksellers and printers.)
At some point in his life, he had become so distraught; he was hospitalized and interned with the lunatics. John suffered the standard treatment of the time -- being tied down and whipped daily. When John was better, he moved to a better part of the hospital.
John of God could never see suffering without trying to do something about it, and still a patient himself, he got up and began to help the other sick people around him. One day he decided to start his own hospital. His first hospital was the streets of Granada.
Throughout his life people who didn’t like the fact that his impulsive love embraced anyone in need without asking for credentials or character witnesses criticized him.
Yet his impulsive wish to help saved many people in one emergency. When a Hospital was on fire, he dropped everything to run there, He rushed into the blazing building and carried or led the patients out. He fell through the burning roof. All thought they had lost their hero until John of God appeared miraculously out of smoke. (For this reason, John of God is patron saint of firefighters.)
John of God is patron saint of booksellers, printers, heart patients, hospitals, nurses, the sick, and firefighters and is considered the founder of the Brothers Hospitallers.
March 9 St. Frances of Rome
Frances was born in the city of Rome in 1384 to a wealthy, noble family. From her mother she inherited a quiet manner and a pious devotion to God. From her father, however, she inherited a strong will. She decided at eleven that she knew what God wanted for her -- she was going to be a nun.
Her father had already promised her in marriage to the son of another wealthy family. But just as he wouldn't listen to her, Frances wouldn't listen to him. She gave in to the marriage -- reluctantly. Her future husband Lorenzo Ponziani was noble, wealthy, a good person and he really cared for her.
One day in the garden, Vannozza, her sister-in-law, found her crying bitterly. When Frances poured out her heart to Vannozza, it turned out that this sister-in-law had wanted to live a life devoted to the Lord too. They became close friends and worked out a program of devout practices and services to work together.
They decided their obligations to their family came first. Frances was a wonderful mother to her three children. The two spiritual friends went to mass together, visited prisons, served in hospitals and set up a secret chapel in an abandoned tower of their palace where they prayed together.
Frances gave orders that no one asking for alms would be turned away and she and Vannozza went out to the poor with corn, wine, oil and clothing. With Lorenzo's support and respect,
Frances started a lay order of women attached to the Benedictines called the Oblates of Mary. The women lived in the world but pledged to offer themselves to God and serve the poor. Eventually they bought a house where the widowed members could live in community.
After her husband died, Frances moved into the house with the other Oblates and was made superior. At 52 she had the life she dreamed of when she was eleven. She had been right in discerning her original vocation -- she just had the timing wrong. God had had other plans for her in between.
March 10 St. Macarius of Jerusalem
Bishop of Jerusalem, Israel, who aided St. Helena in identifying the True Cross. He became the bishop of Jerusalem in 314 and was a foe of the Arian heresy. He was also one of the signers at the Council of Nicaea. When St. Helena discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem, Macanus suggested that a seriously ill woman be touched with each of the crosses to identify the real one. One cured the woman instantly. At the command of Emperor Constantine, Macanus built a church over Christ’s sepulcher which was consecrated as a basilica on September 13
March 13 St. Roderic
Roderic, also known as Ruderic, was a priest at Cabra, Spain during the persecution of Christians by the Moors. He was beaten into unconsciousness by his two brothers, one a Mohammedan and the other a fallen-away Catholic, when he tried to stop an argument between them. The Mohammedan brother then paraded him through the streets proclaiming that he wished to become a Mohammedan. He escaped but was denounced to the authorities by the same brother as an apostate from Mohammedanism and imprisoned through he denied he had ever given up his Christianity. While in prison, he met a man named Solomon, also charged with apostasy, and after a long imprisonment, they were both beheaded. His feast day is March 13th.
Information gained from:
Saints and Feast Days, Loyola University Press, 1985
http://www.catholic.org/saints/