THE SAINTS THIS WEEK
4th July
St Elizabeth of Portugal
Born in 1271 into the Royal Family of Aragon. At the age of twelve she was married to the King of Portugal, and had two children. The marriage was unhappy, and led to many disputes between the families. She lived a life of penance, prayer and fasting. After her husband's death she renounced the world and lived in poverty as a member of the Third Order of St Francis. War broke out between her son and grandson, and while attempting to reconcile them, she died in 1336.
Readings
Psalm 134(135):1-6
Matthew 9:14-17
5th July
St Antony Zaccaria, priest
Born in 1502, at Cremona in Lombardy. He practised medicine for a time, and then was ordained. He worked for the reform of the clergy and the evangelisation of the people. He formed the Congregation of Clerics of St Paul, who came to be known as Barnabites, to make it possible for clergy who were not monks or mendicant friars to live by a rule and to take vows.
Readings
Psalm 122(123)
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Mark 6:1-6
6th July
St Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr
Born in 1898, at Ancona in Italy, of a poor Italian family. She was stabbed to death by a youth who was attempting to rape her. Before she died, in hospital, she declared: "I forgive him for the love of Jesus, and I pray that he may come with me to Paradise." She was canonised in 1950.
Readings
Psalm 90(91):1-4, 14-15
Matthew 9:18-26
7th July
St Hedda, bishop
An Anglo-Saxon monk and Abbot in the North of England, who became bishop of the West Saxons (AD 676) by permission of Pope St Hadrian I. He transferred his See from Dorchester in Oxfordshire to Winchester, and governed his Diocese to the advantage of both Church and State (he being a chief Councillor of King Ina of Wessex) until his holy death, AD 705. Many miracles attested his sanctity.
Readings
Psalm 16(17):1-3, 6-8, 15
Matthew 9:32-38
8th July
SS Aquila & Priscilla
A husband and wife, natives of Pontus, a province of Asia Minor bordering on the Black Sea. They were tentmakers in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Claudius and with other Jews were thence banished. On their return journey to Asia they halted at Corinth, and there met St Paul coming from Athens (Acts xviii. 3) and received him into their house. He was again their guest at Ephesus, leaving which city at about the same time as the Apostle, they returned to Rome in the fourth year of the reign of Nero. In his Epistle to the Romans St Paul sends his greeting to Aquila and Priscilla (Rom. xvi. 3, 4, 5; see also 1 Cor. xvi. 19). They are commonly believed to have returned again to Asia Minor, but there is also a tradition that they suffered martyrdom in Rome as Christians.
Readings
Psalm 32(33):2-3, 10-11, 18-19
Matthew 10:1-7
9th July
Bl Jane Scopelli, virgin [Carmelite]
Born in Regio Emilia in 1428, Blessed Jane took the Carmelite habit, living at first in her home and later in the monastery founded in that city, where she became prioress. She had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She died in AD 1491.
Readings
After the death of her parents, and after four years of prayer and effort,
she succeeded in founding a Convent which she called 'Our Lady of the
People.' She and her companions then placed themselves under the direction
of the Fathers of the Mantuan Congregation, and she was at once appointed
Superior of the house she had founded.
Her virtue was great, her austerities almost incredible; she fasted on bread
and water from the Feast of the Exaltation until Easter; she gave long hours
to prayer each day, and with such fervor that she obtained of God all she
asked of Him. She suffered from cruel attacks of the demon, who vainly
endeavored to deceive and terrify her, but she was invincible by the power
of prayer. The Church commends this undaunted courage in the prayer of her
Office, asking that we, 'steadfast in the same spirit, may defeat the snares
of the enemy and attain to the palm of victory.'
Bl. Jeanne fell ill at the age of 63, and Our Lord Himself appeared to her,
inviting her to the heavenly nuptials upon a given day. She then called her
daughters about her, telling them the exact hour of her departure, and
saying sweet words of affection and advice. She especially besought them to
be devout to the holy Scapular. Then, receiving the last sacraments, she
peacefully awaited the coming of the Bridegroom...
The fame of her holiness and miracles grew day by day, and after a year her
body was exhumed and found without a trace of corruption, distilling a
fragrant oil.
Psalm 104(105):16-21
Matthew 10:7-15
10th July
SS Placidus and Sigisbert
Sigisbert, an Irish Saint, a follower of St Columbanus, settling in the Swiss Canton of the Grisons, with the help of Placidus, lord of the district, founded, at the end of the sixth century, the famous Abbey of Dissentis. St Placidus was put to death by evildoers, described as enemies of religion, about AD 600, and was buried in the same grave with St Sigisbert, who did not long survive him.
Readings
Psalm 36(37):3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
Matthew 10:16-23
11th July
St Benedict, abbot
Born at Norcia in Umbria about 480, the young Benedict was sent to Rome to finish his education with a nurse/housekeeper. The subject that dominated a young man's study then was rhetoric.
Readings
He later set up twelve monasteries in Subiaco where monks lived in separate communities of twelve. But it was in Monte Cassino that he founded the monastery and wrote his Rule, which established the spirituality and way of life of monastic communities, and became the roots of the Church's monastic system ever since. Instead of founding small separate communities he gathered his disciples into one whole community. His own sister, Saint Scholastica, settled nearby to live a religious life.
Benedict realised the strongest and truest foundation for prayer in the community was the Word of God itself. For prayer, Benedict turned to the psalms, the very songs and poems from the Jewish liturgy that Jesus himself had prayed. This prayer, called the Divine Office, was to be chanted from the breviary at specific times of the day. If a monk could not make it to chapel, he was to immediately fall to his knees in the place where he was in the fields, in the stable, wherever he was and perform the Work of God under the vault of the sky.
The Church still believes Benedict and considers the Divine Office the prayer of the Church.
Benedict died in 547 while standing in prayer before God. He is one of the Patron Saints of Europe.
Psalm 33(34)
Matthew 19:27-29
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4th July 2009
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