Saint Catherine of Siena

On the Extraordinary calendar, today is the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, virgin, mystic, and Doctor of the Church.  Hardly any known child of Christ is as great as she!

Blessed Villana de'Botti

Today is the feast of Blessed Villana de'Botti according to the Domincan Ordo. (It is Feb. 28 in the Ordinary calendar of the Roman Rite.) Bl. Villana tried to enter religious life by running away to a convent when she 13 years old.  Expectedly, she was turned away.  This prompted her father to arrange an early marriage for her to a wealthy man.  She gave into a worldly life of the idle rich.  Eventually, she saw the effects of how her turning away from God had sullied her soul.

She sought the help of the nearby Dominican Fathers of Santa Maria and made herself right with God.  She became a third-order/lay Dominican, living the rest of her short life in a holy marriage while also given to prayer, doing penance, and studying.  She was publically ridiculed but remained strong in her spiritual life and duties.  She was only 30 years old when died in AD 1361.  Beacause of the constant amounts of mourners, it was a month before the Dominican Fathers could bury her.      

Prayer

 

O God, our merciful Father, you called Blessed Villana back from the emptiness of the world and aroused in her a spirit of humility and true penitence. Recreate in our hearts the power of your love and, filled by that same spirit, may we serve you in newness of life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Tomb of Bl. Villana de'Botti

Saint Zdislava of Lemberk

Today the Dominicans remember St. Zdislava of Lemberk a.k.a. Zdislava Berka and Zedislava Berkiana. She is one of the earliest of Dominican tertiaries (Lay Dominican). It wasn't until 1907 she was beatified by Pope St. Pius X. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

Born of a warrior race to noble parents, Zedislava lived in a fortified castle on the borders of Christendom, in an age when the fierce Mongol hordes were the world's worst menace. Her whole life was spent within the sound of clashing arms, and the moans of the dying. The gentleness and purity of her life stand out in surprising beauty against the dark background of a warlike and materialistic people.

Zedislava learned Christian charity early in life from her mother, who taught her not only the secrets of preparing medicinal herbs but also the healing balm of prayer. Going each day to the castle gate with alms and medicines for the poor and the wretched who crowded there for help, she was soon well acquainted with human misery. Cheerful, prayerful, and alert to see the sorrows of others, the child became a light of hope to the miserable. Because of her sweetness and natural charm, she was able to teach many lessons to those about her.


As a child, she is said to have fled from her home for a time to live as a hermit, but she returned to live a more normal life that included an early marriage to a soldier, the duke of Lemmberk, who, like her own father, was a rich nobleman in command of a castle on the frontier. The couple produced four children. Zedislava cared judiciously for her own family and lavished great care on the poor, especially the fugitives and victims of the Tartar invasions.

Her husband was a good man, but a rough and battle-hardened soldier who liked nothing better than the clash of swords. He may have treated Zedislava badly and he certainly tried his young wife's patience and obedience in a thousand ways. He insisted that she dress in her finest gowns and attend the long and barbarous banquets that pleased him so. (In return, she tried his patience because of her generosity towards the poor.)

Being of a retiring disposition and much given to prayer--and, moreover, having a family and a large castle to care for--she found this a real sacrifice. However, obedience and patience had been an important part of her training, and she taught herself to spiritualize the endless trials that would beset the mother of four children in a medieval fortress.

The Polish missionaries, Saint Hyacinth and Blessed Ceslaus, brought Zedislava the first knowledge of the new religious order which had begun but a few years before. Saint Dominic, a Spaniard, had met them in Italy, where he had gone to have his order approved. Begun in France, the Dominican Order was already international, and with the profession of Zedislava as the first Slavic Tertiary, its world-wide scope became apparent.

Enchanted with the possibilities of an order that allowed her to share in its benefits and works while caring for her family, Zedislava threw herself into the new project with enviable zeal. She encouraged her husband to build a hostel for the many poor pilgrims who came homeless to the gate. She visited the prisoners in the frightful dungeons, and used her influence to obtain pardons from the severe sentences meted out to them. She fed and cared for the poor, taught catechism to the children of the servants, and showed all, by the sweetness of her life, just what it meant to be a Christian lady and a Dominican Tertiary. On the occasion of a Mongol (Tartar) attack, when homeless refugees poured into the castle stronghold, her calm, invincible charity was a bulwark of strength to all.

With her own funds, Zedislava determined to build a church (Priory of Saint Lawrence) where God might be fittingly worshipped. As an act of zeal and penance, she herself carried many of the heavy beams and materials that went into the building. She did this at night so that no one would know of her hard work. Zedislava experienced visions and ecstasies during this time. She also received Holy Communion nearly every day in an age when this was not customary.

Her death came soon after the completion of the church. The mourning people who knelt by her deathbed could see evidence of her strong Christian virtues in the monuments she had left: her children, her church, and the inspiration of a saintly wife and mother. She consoled her husband in life and appeared to him in glory after death, which strongly encouraged his desire for conversion. Numerous miracles are ascribed to Saint Zedislava, including the raising of the dead to life, though Pope Pius X did not refer to these in his approval of the cultus given to her in her native country (Benedictines, Dorcy, Farmer).

St. Joseph Khang

Today the Dominicans remember St. Joseph Khang, one of the Martyrs of Vietnam.

Catechist Joseph (Nguyen-duy-) Khang was born in the year 1832 in the Christian community of Cao-mai in the district of Tra-vi, province of Thai-binh. At age 16, after his father died, he said goodbye to his mother and entered the House of God with the intention of studying for the priesthood. The tempest of persecution that arose against the Christians changed all his plans. All the colleges and seminaries were closed.

The fate of catechist Joseph Khang was the same that befell Bishop Jerome Hermosilla with whom he was taken prisoner. His fidelity and constancy were admirable since he could have escaped. Nonetheless, he preferred to remain at the side of his master. He stated: “If the Bishop dies for the faith, so will I.” For, as the Latin poet said: “There is nothing than can be disturbed in the soul of the just man who is tenacious in his purpose,” especially if his fidelity is founded on a supernatural life.

Joseph was cruelly whipped several times and subjected to other tortures but he never let out a groan nor did he get depressed. On the contrary, he was always happy and peaceful, carrying himself with utmost dignity. He exhorted all with whom he came into contact to love God and venerate Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to whom he had a special devotion. Joseph received the habit of a Lay Dominican and accompanied Bishop Hermosilla for three years. As the Vietnamese so aptly say: “He was the hands and feet of his master, Bishop Hermosilla.”

Joseph received the palm of martyrdom by decapitation on 6 December 1861, a few days after his beloved bishop was beheaded. His apostolate as a catechist and his martyrdom are an honor to all Lay Dominicans in Vietnam.

Blessed Margaret of Savoy

Today is the memorial of Bl. Margaret of Savoy, OP on the Ordinary Roman Calendar; it is December 23 on the Extraordinary (Traditional) Calendar.

Marchioness of Montferrat, born at Pignerol in 1382; died at Alba, 23 November, 1464. She was the only daughter of Louis of Savoy, Prince of Achaia, and of Bonne, daughter of Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, and was given in marriage in 1403 to Theodore, Marquis of Montferrat, a descendant of the Greek emperors, the Palæologi, and widower of Jeanne, daughter of the duke of Bar and of Lorraine. Her piety, already great, increased after she had heard the preaching of St. Vincent Ferrer, who spent several months in Montferrat. Therefore, when she was left a widow in 1418, she decided to abandon the world. Leaving the direction of the affairs of the marquisate to Jean-Jacques, the son of her husband by his first marriage, she retired to Alba where she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic. A little later, Philip Maria, duke of Milan, asked her hand in marriage and begged the pope to relieve her of her vow. But Margaret opposed a formal refusal to this request and thoroughly resolved to give herself entirely to God: with several young women of rank, she founded a monastery and placed it under the rule of the order of St. Dominic. Redoubling her mortifications she made rapid progress in the way of perfection and died in a saintly manner. On 13 December, 1464, her remains were placed in a simple tomb; in 1481 they were transferred to a different and much more beautiful sepulchre built in her monastery at the expense of William, Marquis of Montferrat.

source: Catholic Encyclopedia

Blessed Lucy of Narni

Very many of the greatest of God's saints are lifetime examples of the lesson from Job. No matter the humiliation, false witness or wrong doing against them, these great examples of God's children retain a love that only grows as carry their crosses without complaint.

Today's Dominican blessed is one of these heavenly creatures. Blessed Lucy was born in Narni on 13 November 1476. Even as a baby inthe cradle, there were signs that she was no ordinary child; both her nurses and mother were used to seeing baby Lucy visited daily by an unknown religious dressed in the Dominican habit, taking her from her cradle, embracing her tenderly, and gaving Lucy her blessing. (It was said the visitor's majestic appearance seemed something more than human.

As a very young child she foreshadowed her holy life and devotion by being drawn to pious objects. When she was only four years old, her mother's brother, Don Simon, came on avisit to his sister's house, and brought with him from Rome various toys and presents for the children. Lucy immediately choose a rosary and a small statue of the Infant Jesus; she called it "Christarello" and it was a cherished object of her devotion.

Even at that young age, she preferred solitude during her personal devotions. Another uncle had a room in his house where the ceiling was painted with a picture of angels. It was in this room she received her life changing vision when she was only seven years old. She had the vision of Jesus, Mary, St. Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena and many other saints. It was during this vision that Jesus espoused her to Himself and St. Dominic bestowed the scapular of the Dominicans. She wore this scapular under her regular clothes secretly until she was old enough to assume it publically.

After the time of her childhood vision, she was granted many holy graces including the gift of prophesy. Later she had stigmata.

Her parents died when she was young and she was in the care of one of her uncles who wanted to "marry her off." She did not want to break her vow of virginity or betrothal to Jesus. She received a vision from Mary, St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena instructing her to marry Count Pietro of Milan but to live as Mary and Joseph did. Thus, she married and maintained a large household. The house was managed like a religious community with Lucy dressing as one of the servants as she performed the household chores with them and became a benefactress of the poor. While it appears her husband was very caring and patient, four years into the marriage saw friction and Lucy received a vision with divine instructions to pursue the life of a religious.

She returned to her mother's house and took the habit of a Dominican tertiary. In trying to help, her uncles procurred her admission in the monastery of St. Catherine of Sienna at Rome. Although she tried to hide her stigmata and other spiritual favors from even the other sisters, her piety became well known; she stayed there only a year. The General of the Dominican Order, Father Joachim Turriano, chose her as the prioress on the foundation of a new convent at Viterbo though she was only twenty years old. The General only sent five other women for the new convent but great crowds applied for admission when it became known she was the prioress of the new convent. It was during this time there was a last meeting of Blessed Lucy and her husband Count Pietro. Pietro became a Franciscan Friar Minor and lived out his life as such, becoming known for his piety.

It is from this point that the life of Blessed Lucy becomes one of constant trial and lonely burden. The accounts vary in many of the details and circumstances. To shorten some of the long details, the following is a very general summary of events most agreed upon in various accounts.

Lucy was held in universal esteem for her sanctity, miracles and prophesy. After three years at Viterbo, she was called upon to found a convent in Narni. The founding of the convent had Duke Hercules of Ferrara as its founding benefactor. Because of her fame, the Duke pursuaded the pope to order Lucy to Rome to be the convent's perpetual prioress. Pope Alexander VI granted the new convent many singular priviledges and declared Lucy to have followed the footsteps of St. Catherine of Sienna in all things. Lucy had prayed to found a convent that would observe only strict observance and it appeared at first her prayers had been answered. In this convent, her own mother received the habit from her along with many other noble ladies of Ferrara.

The first of the great disasterous situations happened because of the transfer of Lucy from Vieterbo to Narni. Vieterbo loved have a mystic celebrity to call their own and did not want Lucy to leave. The rivalry between Vieterbo and Narni over the Lucy lasted for two years in the form of bloody and lethal battles. This was a great trial for her as she had to endure the grief of the violence and loss of life done in her name while having no say.

A second burden for Lucy was the failure of many of the women to adhere to the strict holy observance she wanted greatly desired for the convent. She would call out her companions on their evils and they would later show their spitefulness toward her for their own failings.

The third great burden for Blessed Lucy was the widespread fame and attention drawn by her mystical gifts. Crowds flocked the gate of her convent. She had the extreme favor of the Duke and the Pope. The Duke of Ferrara often showed her off like a prize and insisted she expose her mystical gifts, like the wounds of her stigmata, on demand like a circus performer. Humiliated by people the likes of the Duke and embarrassed by the popular applause and fame the world was giving her, she begged Jesus to remove her stigmata since it was the cause of all her unworthy veneration. Jesus removed the wounds on her hands and feet but the wound in her side remained her entire life because it was hidden from the view of others. When her stigmata was no longer visible, unworthy and vindictive sisters in the convent claimed she had been faking her gifts all along.

The combinaton of the visibility of her stigmata with the death of the Duke of Ferrara (who was misguided but at least protected her) gave the revengeful members of her community the opportunity to conspire against her. They publicly accused her of fraud claiming they saw her trying to create stigmata wounds with a knife. They were so convincing in their false accusations that they persuaded the heads of the Dominican Order and the Pope of their lies. They demanded she be removed as prioress and a new one installed. Pope Alexander removed all priviledges formelly granted her. The Dominican provincial would not let any member of the Order see her. She was degraded from her office of prioress, deprived of everyright and voice in the community, and placed below the youngest novice in the house. She was forbidden to speak to any one (in or out of the convent, religiuos or secular) except the confessor - her regular confessor was taken from her and her new one was appointed and prejudiced against her. She was kept in a strict imprisonment and treated as if she was the one of the worst of criminals. Even when she was very ill, which was often, she was ignored by her community and left to suffer alone. Nuns in the convent who had been professed at her hands made their professions over again to the new prioress, as if their vows formerly made to her had been invalid.

She lived in this exteme state of desolation for the rest of her life, thirty nine years!

She bore her heavy cross without a murmur. She alone lived the strict observance of her convent to be a silent witness of the wickedness of her companions. Her life was a long prayer for her persecutors, and we are assured that no sorrow or regret ever seemed to shadow the deep tranquillity of her soul! The Lord at least did not let her be without consolation as she was often visited by Jesus and His saints. Her last wishes were for the well being and forgiveness of the community that has so wrongly foresaken her.

Blessed Marie Poussepin, memorial

Blessed Marie Poussepin was well remembered and long honored on this day by the Order of Preachers before her official beatification by Pope John Paul II in 1994.

Born on this day in 1653 in France, she was raised by a pious mother. Her mother was the treasurer of the Confraternity of Charity when founded by a diciple of St. Vincent de Paul in 1663. On her mother's death, she took on all her mother's domestic responsibiliies while helping with her father's knitting factory and continuing works of charity.

Inheriting her family's debt and with the factory in trouble after her father's death, she had the foresight to convert the factory from hand-knitting to machines and save the business. She learned how to operate all the machineray herself and personally trained her hired apprentices. She was also ahead of her time in her Christian treatment of employees which was not common in her time.

She became a 3rd order dominican when she was 37. She then slowly transitioned control of the family business to her brother so she could devote herselt to her calling of charitble works. In 1693 she became president of the Confraternity of Charity. When she was 42 she left her hometown of Dourdan and resettled in Sainville to establish a new Dominican 3rd order: Congregation of the Sisters of Charity (Dominicans of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin). The community received legal recognition in France from King Louis XV in 1724; the bishop of Chartes approved the rule of her order in 1738.

At the time of her death when she was 90, there we 20 communities of her order in France! Today, the congregations of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation (another name they are know as) can be found in 36 countries all over the world.

Blessed Magdalen dei Panattieri

On this day which is her memorial, Blessed Magdalen dei Panattieri still serves as an excellent model in aspects of the vocations of Lay Dominicans today.

Bl. Magdalen became a tertiary before she 20. She tried to model her life after St. Catherine of Sienna; she had a special devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus. Her tertiary chapter was mainly elderly women and widows but she thrived in their apostolate.

She was harsh in her self-discipline and mortification. She fasted frequently. She feed the poor as guests in her own house, serving them herself; she fed herself from their leftovers. She would spend all morning in Eucharistic adoration and then go out to tend to the sick in her town.

In her preaching it is said she had a great gift of influencing others and a sweet voice that people never tired of hearing. Others noted that she was also unaware of another gift where she had great powers of description and could make the truths of religion clear to simple people. It is well recorded she had a great love for children. She was given a large room in a church to use as a classroom. Her preaching and lessons there even drew other religious and priests!

As is sadly the case with many summaries of the saints in our time, her mystic experiences are rarely, if ever, mentioned. One older source gives us some insight into her deep spirituality:

She was favored with frequent rapture and apparitions; on every
festival she was granted a vision of the mystery or of the Saint honored by the
Church on that day. This was particularly the case in Holy Week when she
was admitted to a mysterious and visible participation in the sufferings of her
Divine Spouse, and in Easter Week, when her countenance appeared radiant with
celestial light. (Short Lives of the Dominican Saints, London, 1901)

Prayer

O God, who forsakest no man that trusteth in Thee, and mercifully hearest him that meekly beseecheth Thee, grant, we pray Thee, that what we cannot obtain by our own meritis, we may received throught the patronage of They Blessed Virgin, Magdalen. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

In Memoriam: Pope Pius XII

This day is the 51st anniversary of the death of Venerable Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XII, while being the greatest pope still in living memory, is second only to Pope St. Pius X as the greatest pontiff of the 20th century. He was also a 3rd order Dominican!

It was he that defined the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. He wrote 41 encyclicals. He is the pope that canonized Pope St. Pius X and many other great saints, including: St. Francis Xavier (Mother) Cabrini, St. Catherine Labouré, St. Louis Marie de Montfort, St. Maria Goretti and St. Dominic Savio.

Despite selectively forgotten history and bad revisionism, during WWII he eventually became the "lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent." (N.Y. Times, December 25, 1942, p. 10, 2-5).

Until many in the world cowardly turned on him after his death, he was considered a hero and great man, particulary by world Jewry.

The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion, which form the very foundations of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of Divine Providence in this world. -- Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Palestine, 1945

It is understandable why the death of Pope Pius XII should have called forth expressions of sincere grief from practically all sections of American Jewry. For there probably was not a single ruler of our generation who did more to help the Jews in their hour of greatest tragedy, during the Nazi occupation of Europe, than the late Pope. -- The Jewish Post

Some sites of great interest related to Pope Piux XII are:

• The Vatican's page on Pius XII.


• Sign an online petition to for the Holy See to Beatify Pius XII here or here.


• The Catholic League's collection of Pius XII articles.

2 St. Lawrences and the Martyrs of Japan

In today's liturgical rememberance of Dominican saints, we had two Lawrences.

Blessed Lawrence of Ripafratta

The first Lawrence today is the memorial of Blessed Lawrence of Ripafratta (1373-1456) on the Dominican liturgical calendar.

Bl. Lawrence entered the order at the age of twenty. Years later he was called upon to help in the Dominican Reform Movement that was lead by Bl. John Dominici!

In the early 15th century he was made Dominican novice-master for a congregation in Tuscany. It was during this time of the Great Western Schism that he trained many great Domincans in the reform of the order: St. Antoninus, Bl. Peter Capucci, and the famous artist brothers that were Dominicans, Bl. Fra Angelico and Fra Benedetto.

He preached almost continuously throughout his life and had a reputation for compassion to the poor whom he tended, taught and visited, even in time of plague.

He lived to the age of 98. After his death there was a long history of miracles at his tomb. He was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in 1851.

Dominican First Vespers
Antiphon. Strengthen by holy intercession, O Lawrence , confessor of the Lord, those here present, have we who are burdened with the weight of our offenses may be relieved by the glory of thy blessedness, and may by thy guidance attain eternal rewards.
V. Pray for us, Blessed Lawrence
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

The 16 Maryrs of Japan

The day is also set aside to remember the 16 Martyrs of Japan (not to be confused with the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki). Our second Lawrence comes from these courageous souls.

The 16 Maryrs of Japan (1633 - 1637) were all Dominican related individuals that died for the faith during the time of persecution in Japan when Christianity was outlawed.

St. Lorenzo (Lawrence) Ruiz of this group is the first Filipino martyr and saint. He was a husband, father and member of the Confraternity of the Rosary. As a child he was educated by Dominicans and sought refuge with Dominican priests before his martyrdom. His last words (translated from Togalog) were:

I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly accept death for the
Lord; if I have a thousand lives, all of them I will offer to Him.

After St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the other 15 martyrs were 9 Dominican priests, 2 Dominican Brothers, 2 tertiaries (Lay Dominicans), 2 parishioners of Dominican missions.