Friday, July 14, 2006

Saints!

St. William of Breteuil
(c. 1130) Benedictine abbot of Breteuil, neai Beauvais, France. He rebuilt the monastery after it had been nearly destroyed by the Normans.

St. Libert
(c. 783) Benedictine martyr, educated by St. Rumoldus. Libert was put to death by raiders at Saint-Trond Abbey, France.

St. Phocas
Martyred bishop of Sinope, a diocese on the Black Sea. He was martyred during the reign of Emperor Trajan.

Bl. Richard Langhorne
English martyr. Born in Bedfordshire, he was educated at the Inner Temple and worked as a lawyer. He was arrested in 1667, released in 1679, then arrested again as a conspirator in the so-called “Popish Plot.” He was hanged at Tybum on July 14. Richard was beatified in 1929.

St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountian
Monk and writer. Born in Naxos, Greece, he entered the monastery of Athos in 1775 and worked with St. Macanus Nataras of Corinth to compile the Philokalia, a massive compendium of monastic life and spirituality. Nicodemus also made translations of Western spiritual writings. He was canonized by the Orthodox Greek Church in 1955.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
Kateri was born near the town of Auriesville, New York, in the year 1656, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior. She was four years old when her mother died of smallpox. The disease also attacked Kateri and transfigured her face. She was adopted by her two aunts and an uncle. Kateri became converted as a teenager. She was baptized at the age of twenty and incurred the great hostility of her tribe. Although she had to suffer greatly for her Faith, she remained firm in it. Kateri went to the new Christian colony of Indians in Canada. Here she lived a life dedicated to prayer, penitential practices, and care for the sick and aged. Every morning, even in bitterest winter, she stood before the chapel door until it opened at four and remained there until after the last Mass. She was devoted to the Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified. She died on April 7, 1680 at the age of twenty-four. She is known as the "Lily of the Mohawks". Devotion to Kateri is responsible for establishing Native American ministries in Catholic Churches all over the United States and Canada. Kateri was declared venerable by the Catholic Church in 1943 and she was Beatified in 1980. Work is currently underway to have her Canonized by the Church. Hundreds of thousands have visited shrines to Kateri erected at both St. Francis Xavier and Caughnawaga and at her birth place at Auriesville, New York. Pilgrimages at these sites continue today.

Bl. Kateri Teckakwitha is the first Native American to be declared a Blessed. Her feastday is July 14. She is the patroness of the environment and ecology as is St. Francis of Assisi.

~ catholic.org

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