Canonization Of Jesuit And His Devotion to The Sacred Heart Of Jesus

Later this month, Pope Benedict XVI is slated to canonize Father Jacques Berthieu, a French Jesuit who was martyred in Madagascar in 1896. Fr. Berthieu will be canonized alongside six other blesseds in an Oct. 21 ceremony on World Mission Sunday at the Vatican. The priest was born in 1838 and grew up with six siblings in a pious farming family in central France. He was ordained to the priesthood for Diocese of Saint-Flour in 1864. Fr. Berthieu then felt called to join the Society of Jesus, and did so in 1873. While in the novitiate, he became devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which had been popularized by the Jesuit St. Claude de la Colombiere. Before finishing his novitiate, he was assigned to the missions in Madagascar in 1875. In a letter to a friend dated July 28, 1875, he wrote that “I have been designated as a future apostle to the Malagasy (Madagascar)...probably to never return, which is fine with me.” The French priest became a highly successful missionary, nearly tripling the number of mission stations on the north of the island.

Link (here) to EWTN to read the full piece.

The Fervent Atmosphere Of This Way Of Life

Bl. Peter Faber recalls the end that must determine all the actions and the order that must be present in them so that they remain regulated according to God. He indicates various practices for a new life that the exercitant ought to take up: [to dedicate] a quarter hour daily of examination of conscience before retiring “into perpetuity,” to devote a determinate time to prayer, to set for oneself fixed dates for confessing and receiving communion.  He insists that they continue educating themselves religiously, recommending to them that they do it with a Catechism.  He stimulates in them a desire for the salvation of souls.  The important thing is that, for the whole length of their life, they try to “walk along the way of salvation, ordering the spiritual life according to your state” (de grado vuestro).  So that the exercitant can more easily continue living in the practice of this ideal, he proposes in his “Instruction” various principles of perfection–a lovely bouquet of the fundamental truths of the Exercises.  By refreshing these principles through reading about “this way of life” and, above all, by assimilating them in prayer and holding them as a norm for the practice of daily life, they will keep themselves easily in the “fervent atmosphere” 

Link (here) to Fr. Aaron Pidel, S.J. and his blog post, On The Feast Of St. Francis Borgia

The First Disciple Of Ignatius Loyola: Blessed Peter Favre, S.J.

So it was to be. Peter Favre was ill at Barcelona before he could sail, and was urged to delay his voyage. But he had but one idea, that of obeying the order given him to present himself to the Pope. He sailed on June 21, and was at the gates of Rome in less than a month. 

It is said that Ignatius hesitated to allow him to come at that terribly dangerous season of the year, but the other fathers listened only to their own eagerness to see Favre once more, or, in the case of many of them, for the first time, and the prudence of the General was overruled. Favre had hardly been in Rome a week, enjoying the renewal of his long disused intercourse with the "father of his soul," 

when his illness returned with malignant force, and in a few days his recovery was despaired of. Full of joy at the thought of being with his God, he calmed and encouraged his weeping friends, and prepared himself once more for that last moment for which his whole life had been a preparation. He died in the arms of St . Ignatius, in the afternoon of August 1, the feast of St. Peter's Chains, which that year fell upon a Sunday. 

Favre's latest biographer tells us how a feeling of peace and joy came over the fathers at Rome almost at the moment of their great loss; how St. Ignatius, in announcing his death to the Society, left out the usual order that Masses should be celebrated for the repose of his soul, and spoke of him as an intercessor gained to the Society in heaven; how St. Francis Xavier in the Indies, on his first voyage after receiving the news of his death, invoked his assistance in a terrible tempest; and how St. Francis Borgia at Gandia, saw him at the moment of his death, in great glory, "saying great things concerning Christ's obedience and his own, expressing the greatest happiness at having died for obedience, and promising never to cease to pour forth supplications to God for the Church." 

Ignatius, in order to calm the grief of the fathers at Rome, communicated to them at this time the hitherto secret intention of Borgia to enter the Society. Favre was counted as a saint from the first, and we find the same opinion of him held by St. Francis de Sales in the generation after his own. His name has always been great among the children of the Society, and yet it is not to them that he owes his present position in their Calendar among the beatified servants of God. It was in his own country, at Villaret, among the rugged mountains of Savoy, where he had tended his sheep as a boy, and preached like a little apostle to the villagers on the Sundays and festivals, that religious veneration was paid to him, a chapel built on the spot on which he was born, Mass celebrated solemnly on the anniversary of his death, and a pilgrimage established in his honour. 
Link (here) to the portion of original essay at The Month and (here) to the beginning of the same essay.

What Is Bound, Is Bound In Heaven

188 Japanese martyrs beatified

Christian martyrdom is the fullest expression of human freedom and reflects the supreme act of love, said a top Vatican official at a Mass beatifying 188 Japanese martyrs. "It is not the punishment or the torture that creates a martyr," but rather the fact the person suffered and died for Christ, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, former prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes, said during the beatification Mass in Nagasaki, Japan, on November 24.

The 188 17th-century Japanese martyrs were tortured and killed in different cities between 1603 and 1639 after the Japanese government outlawed Christianity. According to Vatican Radio, more than 30,000 people attended the ceremony in the city's baseball stadium in the pouring rain to celebrate the beatification of Jesuit Father Peter Kibe Kasui and 187 companions.

After his Angelus address to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square the previous day, Pope Benedict XVI said the martyrs' beatification marked a significant event for the Catholic Church and all of Japan.
The Pope asked people to "rejoice" and pray the beatified martyrs' "victory in Christ over sin and death fill us all with hope and courage”. During the Mass, which was concelebrated by 10 cardinals and bishops, Cardinal Saraiva Martins said martyrs of every age, place and time have all displayed the same dedicated faith in Jesus Christ.

Christian martyrdom "is the fullest exercise of human liberty and the supreme act of love", he said. The newly beatified, all but five of whom are lay men, women, and children, had been decapitated, crucified, burned at the stake or scalded to death in boiling water.

The beatified group included entire families who refused to renounce their beliefs. Bishop Francis Xavier Osamu Mizobe of Takamatsu, president of the Japanese bishops' commission which prepared the beatifications, said there are another 5,000 people who could have been recognised as martyrs.

He said nearly 20,000 people lost their lives in Japan because of anti-Christian persecution. It is thought that less than one per cent of almost 130 million Japanese are Christians, and only around 450,000 are Catholics.

Buddhism and Shintoism are the main religions in the country. Premier Taro Aso is reportedly the first Catholic to become prime minister. However, he rarely refers to his religion in public and did not attend the ceremony.

Link (here)

Photo is a statue of Blessed Peter Kibe Kasui, SJ

Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J. And Graham Greene

Graham Green

Baxter recalls making a find quite unexpectedly at the famous antiquarian bookstore, Maggs. They had only a few Greene editions of note. One in particular caught Baxter’s attention: an inscribed first edition of  The Lawless Roads without a dustwrapper for 150 pounds.

It wasn’t a very collectible item and without the dust jacket worth even less. But Baxter, now fully into Graham Greene, spotted something the bookshop had missed. It was dedicated, in that spidery Greene hand to the Jesuit priest (Fr. Miguel Pro) the author had dedicated “The Power and The Glory”   (here) to, making it at once precious.

Baxter snapped it up. 

Link (here) to Deccan Herald 
.

An excerpt to Graham Green's prologue in the book entitled, The Lawless Roads.

Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J.

In July 1926, Father Miguel Pro landed at Veracruz. He was twenty-five years old and a Jesuit. He came back to his own country from a foreign seminary much as Campion returned to England from Douai. We know how he was dressed when a year and a half later he came out into the prison yard to be shot, and he may well have worn the same disguise when he landed (the equivalent of Campion's doublet and hose): a dark lounge suit, soft collar and tie, a bright cardigan. Most priests wear their mufti with a kind of uneasiness, but Pro was a good actor. He needed to be. Within two months of Pro's landing, President Calles had begun the fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Elizabeth. The churches were closed, Mass had to be said secretly in private houses, to administer the Sacraments was a serious offence. Nevertheless, Pro gave Communion daily to some three hundred people, confessions were heard in half-built houses in darkness, retreats 'were held in garages. Pro escaped the plain-clothes police again and again. Once he found them at the entrance to a house where he was supposed to say Mass; he posed as a police officer, showing an imaginary badge and remarking, 'There's a cat bagged in here', and passed into the house and out again with his cassock under his arm. Followed by detectives when he left a Catholic house and with only fifty yards' start, he disappeared altogether from their sight round a corner - the only man they overtook was a lover out with his girl. The prisons were filling up, priests were being shot, yet on three successive first Fridays Pro gave the Sacrament to nine hundred, thirteen hundred, and fifteen hundred people

Link (here) to the full prologue on St. Miguel Pro, S.J. 

St. Alexander Briant, S.J., "And So Say I"

With a constant mind and pleasant countenance, said the psalm, Miserere, desiring God to forgive his tormentors ; whereat Dr. Hammond stamped and stared, as a man half beside himself, saying, what a thing is this ? if a man were not settled in his religion, this were enough to convert him.

After this he was, even to the disjointing of his body, rent and torn upon the rack, because he would not confess where Fr. Robert Parsons S.J. was, where the print was, and what books he had sold, and so was returned to his lodgings for that time ; yet the next day following, notwithstanding the great dis-temperature and soreness of his whole body, 

his senses being dead, and his blood congealed, he was brought to the torture again, and there stretched with greater severity than before ; insomuch, that supposing with himself they would pluck him to pieces, 

he put on the armor of patience, resolving to die, rather than to hurt any creature living; and having his mind raised in contemplation of Christ's bitter passion. At his racking, he swooned away, so that they were fain to sprinkle cold water on his face to revive him again ; yet they released no part of' his pain. And here,  Thomas Norton, because they could get nothing of him, asked him, whether the queen were supreme head of the church of England, or not ? To this he said—I am a catholic, and I believe in this as a catholic should do. Why, said Norton, they say the pope is ; and so say I, answered Mr. Briant. 

Link (here) to read the full biographical essay of Fr. Alexander Brian, S.J.  More (here)

Visayan Christian Martyr Worked With Jesuits In Guam

Blessed Pedro Calungsod was beatified by the late Pope John Paul II in 2000.

A teenage Visayan martyr, he was killed on April 2, 1672 by the natives of Guam where he helped Blessed Diego San Vitores teach Christianity. He was 17 years old when he volunteered to accompany Spanish Jesuit missionaries from the Philippines to Guam in 1668.

Link (here)


Painting is of the Blessed Vitores and Blessed Calungsgod

Theology On Tap and Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J.

Theology on Tap begins again

By KARA KOCZUR,

SIOUX CITY, Iowa Globe staff reporter

Saints and martyrs, Mary and the pope will all be discussed at the spring sessions of Theology on Tap, which begins March 29.

This will be the third Theology on Tap series the diocese has put on. So far, the program has gone pretty well, said Kathryn Fairchild, one of the organizers, with an average of 15 to 30 people showing up for each session.
RENEW Theology on Tap is a young adult ministry program that originated in Chicago. It is an international program for young adults, 18 to 40, single or married, and takes place at bars and restaurants. Each Theology on Tap session has a theology topic and a speaker, as well as a question and answer period, followed by time for fellowship.
“[Theology on Tap] is one of the few things we offer,” Fairchild said. “I think there’s not a lot out there for that in between age.”

The spring series is based on topic suggestions from previous attendees, Fairchild said. Besides the first session, two more Theology on Tap opportunities will occur in April and May.

“A lot of people in our generation didn’t really receive full catechism or maybe at this point they’ve forgotten some of the stuff they may have learned a long time ago,” Fairchild said. “They just know we have these saints days, [but] what do they mean? They want to know more about these people.”

Mark Thomason will help young adults learn more about them March 29 at Minerva’s with his talk on “Modern Saints and Martyrs, what can we learn from them?”
“A lot of the modern people dismiss religion as superstition,” said Thomason, diocesan director of catechesis, evangelization and RCIA. “Modern saints dispel that and prove that religion is still relevant today.”

Catholics today can also identify with the saints and still need them, he said. Modern saints are those who struggled through the post-industrial revolution. Humans live in a very different world now compared to the time of St. Francis of Assisi, Thomason said, which is one of the reasons many people ignore the saints.

There are still St. Francis’ in the world today, they just adapt to the era, he added.
“I think it’s more and more important that we live the lives of the saints and utilize the saints,” he said. “We all have our little kids’ saints books, but we drop off there. [Saints] really are the best teachers.”

Thomason will mention some of the well known and not so well known saints, such as Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Miguel Pro, S.J., and others.
“I think the big difference is the extraordinary courage of most of them,” Thomason said.

For example, Miguel Pro, S.J., had to sneak around Mexico to say Mass during the Mexican Revolution and to do so he had to wear disguises such as a clown and lawyer.

Link (here) to the full story

Photo is of Miguel Pro being executed by the Mexican Communist government

Jesuit Generals: A Glimpse Into A Forgotten Corner

Since the Renaissance there have been legions of great, dedicated Jesuits. Many are well known. It is remarkable, however, how the Generals, the successors to St. Ignatius, are today little known. This book is a modest attempt to remedy that oversight by presenting a portrait of each of the thirty three Generals along with a brief biography.

The author is Thomas E. Zeyen, S.J.

Link (here)

French Jesuit Blessed Peter Favre: On Dealing With Heretics

'Since one of the commonest errors of the Lutherans is the ascribing merit to faith alone, denying it altogether to good works, the right way to proceed in the matter of their conversion is to begin by exciting them to the performance of good works, and to come to the question of faith afterwards.

Thus, when a heretic denies the Church's power to make the hearing Mass or reciting the divine office an obligation under pain of grievous sin, we should strive to bring him to practice these and other pious exercises, because he abandoned them before forsaking the faith.

Besides this, we should remember what is the principal prop on which these leaders and teachers
of heresy rely in maintaining their errors, in opposition to the precepts of the Church and the rules of the holy Fathers.

They say that they have not sufficient strength to obey God, and that the Church's laws and precepts are intolerable to human nature.

They ought, therefore, to be encouraged to trust in God with all the energy of their minds, and so to make themselves capable, by His help and grace, not only of keeping the precepts, but of advancing to greater and more perfect things.

Link (here) to the book entitled, "The life of Blessed Peter Favre of the Society of Jesus, first companion of St. Ignatius Loyola"

More on Bl. Peter Favre (here) (here) and (here)

Padre Miguel Agustin Pro, S.J.

Loyola Producciones presenta la pelicula que narra la vida de
Miguel Agustín Pro, Sacerdote Jesuita.

Translation.
Loyola Productions presents the film tells the
life of Miguel Agustin Pro, Jesuit Priest.

Link (here) to the video in Spanish at Gloria TV

Swedish Jesuit And Others On The Various Forms Of Secularism

Secularism and other Enlightenment ideals. The ideal of secularism can be briefly summarised as holding that the best course of action in politics and other civic fields is that which flows from disparate groups’ and religions’ common understanding of the “good”. By implication, Church and State should be separated, and the laws of the state should generally only cover the “common ground” of beliefs between the various religious groups that might be present — for example the prohibition of murder, etc.

From the secularists’ point of view, it was possible to distinguish between political ideas and structures that were religious and those that were not. Catholic theologians in the mainstream argued that such a distinction was not possible, that all aspects of society had to be organized with the final goal of heaven in mind.

This was a direct counter to the thread of Humanism that had been in the forefront of intellectual thought since the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. The roots of secularism they traced to those English philosophers who attempted to create a “universal religion” based on the “common denominator” of all other religions; it was largely spread through the secret societies of the Enlightenment, including the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and the Carbonari, and its greatest threat, in the writings of this school, was the spectre of Democracy.
Link (here)


An interesting book excerpt on the subject from Malachi Martin's,
The Jesuits (here)

In a Very Secular France, Nicolas Sarkozy Is Breaking a Taboo

By Sandro Magister
.
An excerpt.

In Sweden, Germany, and France – the most secularized areas of Europe – there would seem to be signs of “a reversal of this tendency, with growing interest in religious matters.”

These words were written in regard to Sweden by Jesuit Fr. Ulf Jonsson, professor of philosophy at the University of Uppsala, in an article published in the May 6, 2006 edition of “La Civiltà Cattolica,” the authoritative Jesuit magazine printed with the prior scrutiny of the Vatican authorities.

In the article, entitled “Nuove prospettive per la religione in Svezia? [New prospects for religion in Sweden?],” Jonsson documents that “in spite of the fact that the number of participants at religious ceremonies is still very low, there is renewed attention to religion, and to Christianity in particular, in the media and public opinion: this was unthinkable in the past, when religion was relegated to the private sphere.”

Link (here)

The next time you hear that Religion caused “X” amount of violence, remind them the 20th century was the age of secularism, and the bloodiest age of human history. It was not a coincidence

Link (here)

A Jesuit victim of extremist Secularism was Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J.



Secularists for love of religion

By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

An excerpt.

American society was built in great part by groups that had fled from the system of state Churches in place in Europe, and had found their own religious accommodation in free communities of faith outside of the state Church.

The foundation of American society is therefore constituted by the free Churches, for which – because of their religious approach – it is essential that they not be state Churches, but founded on a free union of individuals.

In this sense, one can say that at the basis of American society there is a separation between state and Church that is determined, even demanded by religion; a separation, therefore, that is motivated and structured quite differently in comparison with the one imposed, under the banner of conflict, by the French Revolution and by the systems that followed it.

The state in America is nothing other than the free space for different religious communities; it is in its nature to recognize these communities in their particularity and in their non-statal identity, and to let them live.

It is a separation that intends to let religion be itself, that respects and protects its vital space distinguished from the state and from its ordinances, it is a separation conceived of positively.

Link (here)

The Jesuit Church Of St. Casimir

Founded by the Jesuits and dedicated to St. Casimir, construction of the church began in 1604. Povilas Bokša, the assistant provincial and Jan Prockowicz, a Jesuit architect oversaw the work. The church was finished and consecrated in 1635. It burned down in 1655, when the Russian army entered Vilnius. The church was twice more destroyed by fire in 1707 and 1749.

The famous architect and astronomer Tomas Žebrauskas, SJ, headed the reconstruction of the church in 1749-55. His work can be seen in the graded cupola and the main altar. From 1751 to 1753 Hans Kierner, a Prussian sculptor, decorated the interior. Frescos of St. Casimir's life were painted by the Czech artist Joseph Obst.

When the Society of Jesus was suppressed in 1773 (it was reinstated in 1814), the church was given to the Augustinians. In 1812 the French army turned the church into a grain silo, destroying the altars, statues and paintings. In 1815 the church was given to missionary priests, who cleaned up the interior and added eleven altars.

The missionaries were banished in 1832, and the church remained vacant and unused. In 1839 the Russians turned it into an Orthodox church known as St. Michael's. It was reconstructed in 1864-68 under the architect N. Chiagin, who lowered the steeples, added a larger steeple in the front, and covered all the steeples and the cupola with onion domes. The main facade was decorated in Neo-Baroque; frescos of Orthodox saints were painted in the three niches.

In 1915 the German army turned the church into a Lutheran house of worship for their army. In 1917 the church was returned to the Catholics. The German Jesuit Friedrich Muckermann energetically organized spiritual and social agencies for the people, for which work he was deported to prison in Minsk by the Bolsheviks.

In 1919 Blessed George Matulaitis returned the church to the Jesuits. Its restoration in 1925 was overseen by the architect Jan Borovski.

From 1940 the Lithuanian Jesuits worked in the church. In 1942 the crown on the cupola, a symbol of Lithuanian independence, was restored under the architect Jonas Mulokas.

In 1949 the church was again closed, this time by the Soviets, who stored grain in it. At this time the entire inventory of the church was destroyed, including the altars, organ, and bells. In 1963 the church was turned into a museum of atheism.

The church was returned to the Roman Catholic community in 1988. After intense restoration the church was reconsecrated in 1991, and the Jesuits again work in it.

Link (here) to an extensive web page of facts and history of the Jesuit Church of St Casimir

The Apostle Of Brittany

Blessed Julien Maunoir, January 28

Blessed Julien Maunoir

Saint-George de Reintembault, France, October 1, 1606 - Plévin, France, January 28, 1683

Patronage: Brittany

Roman Martyrology: In the village of Plévin in Brittany in France, Blessed Julien Maunoir, priest of the Society of Jesus, that both in towns and villages as in cities of this province to forty-two years he devoted himself entirely to the missions to the people.

Blessed Julien Maunoir is considered the ‘apostle of Brittany’, the historical region of France, for the extraordinary work missionary who played well for forty-two years. Born on October 1, 1606 in Saint-George de Reintembault fifth of seven children of a small trader of fabrics. The venerable Le Nobletz Michele (1577-1652), a popular missionary mysteriously learned of her birth and that in him God had prepared a help and a successor. Julien’s first teachers were his parents, usually happy to share with the poor the proceeds of their work. The favorite game of Julien was to bring together the partners, siding two by two in order of procession, and to repeat their prayers and songs learned in church. A priest of the parish, noting his attitude, uncommon in his peers, taught the him the basics of Latin and allowed him to attend a college of Rennes, the Jesuits between 1620 and 1625. Julien did not let himself be influenced by bad company and persuaded some of the companions of Mary congregation to burn the books perverse, not to attend the inns and to moderate the passion for the game. Hearing of businesses Jesuit missionary in China, Japan, America, and the thought that many souls are lost for lack of apostles, he meditated finally enter into the religious life.

During his novitiate he was noted in the exercise of brotherly love. Since the time of college life was proposed:

“I want to live as if there were not that God, always assuming his rescue: without that I know of nothing he can not … Always attentive to what God wants from me, think that he may want to prepare for a Jesuit to everything that require its services. Oh, how I love that God is infinitely good and love me as I want from him.”

To that end he began to punish various ways in his flesh. After the religious profession Julien studied philosophy for three years in La Flèche, until 1630. His studies of Saint Jogues who was also martyred in North America.

He had to withdraw, cultivating purity and humility, and during one of these withdrawals confessed in his diary:

“I felt pure joy with two angels as if I had extracted the heart out of the chest and have squeezed out to make all that I was of natural affection. ”

On July 15, 1628 for the whole day he felt consumed by the fire of divine love and “violently pushed to suffer for God.”

Then meditating on “two standards”, namely that of Christ the King and that of Satan, he noted: “Pativo to have so many sacrifices to be done for the Lord, and my vocation that I am destined to the salvation of souls, I became even more expensive. A voice below me repeated four or five times, with a tone of admiration: “Oh, if you knew! If you knew!. Including then that the great thing is to cooperate with Jesus to the conversion of men … To glorify my God I want suffer all the torments of hell, except for the deprivation of his love. Bramerei well the fire of purgatory: do suffer a lot, but does not prevent you from loving God. “

I had to admire excess of this young, now mystical union with the Lord, the conduct “always the same, the lovable activities without haste, the gaiety of spirits quiet, qualities which he joined in perfect obedience, a charity affable, a constant application to work so as to intellectual piety, to a recollection without contrasts and a large domain of himself. ” At the end of philosophy was intended as a professor in the College of Quimper, but he did not gave up hope of one day bringing the faith to the pagans. A brother urged him to learn the language of Brittany, but Father Maunoir replied: “Know that my mission is my school, and that I have to learn the languages Latin and Greek. If I study some other, it will be that of Canada, where I believe that God called me. “

He was again addressed the proposal to engage in missions in Brittany, but was prevented for a lack of knowledge of the language.

One day, during a pilgrimage to a Marian shrine, he had a vision of inner bishoprics of Quimper, St-Brieuc, Leon and Trétone, and came before the painting of the Madonna praying thus: “My good mother, whether you are worthy of teach Breton, the soon learn very soon and I will be able to earn the servants. ”

Then returned to the college, the brothers were not a little puzzled about his project, but the province in 1631 gave him the permission and, after two days of study, the Maunoir began in the countryside of Brittany’s work catechesis and preaching. Blessed Virgin Mary had miraculously given him the gift of language.

As soon as he received fewer orders, Julien started going every Sunday in the neighboring countries to catechizing people. Such was his enthusiasm he that got sick in 1632 and then moved above it in Tours, where the forces recovered and gave the sick catechizing the hospital, the poor of the most abandoned and the prisoners. In the College of Bourges Julien authorized presbyteral prepartion and God granted him the gift of intimate union continued with him through prayer. The withdrawal of the second year of theology, companion of St. Gabriel Lallemant, also martyred in 1646 in Canada, noted: “Our Lord says below:” I have long toiled for souls, I cried, I have suffered and died for them. ” These words commossero more I do not know that and say that the ardor felt already grew to the point that, if it was necessary to die to save one soul, I would be dead with all my heart. ” During the third year of theology an arm swell over the measure and put him briefly at the end of life. Before receiving the viaticum vote was that if he were returned to health, he would have spent all his strength to serve the people of Brittany. The answer was affirmative of Heaven and just healed Julian returned to preach and to teach the catechism.

He became a priest in 1637, was intended as a professor at the College of Nevers, but soon his request was accepted and after seven years of absence was able to return to Quimper. Died on the bishop who opposed his work, Le Nobletz invited Giuliano with him in the solitude of Conquet, made him his general confession, then summoned the faithful to church and took them Maunoir as his successor. He made him a gift of his bell and his paintings are symbolic of what used to be able to better explain to the illiterate the major mysteries of the faith.

At Quimper, many priests, after some hesitation, were attracted by the Maunoir, proposing also to preach and proclaim throughout the diocese. The governor of Quimper and the Cardinal Richelieu contained their aid with the lack of material resources. Julien Maunoir began his apostolate in the port of Douarnenez putting in harmonic “the paraphrase of the most important prayers and truth of religion. Before leaving this town, healed a paralytic by touching the forehead with an object blessed by The Nobletz. The missionary, now famous for his holiness, went to evangelize the islands of Quessant, and Molenes Sein, where thousands of followers dragged also making miracles with corn oil blessed. Despite many successes, not lacking, however, the jealous that through slander tried in vain to draw him to the College of Jesuits, denied by the witness of the islanders. Even the songs he composed were indicted and prohibitions on who knew Brittany, but the Confirmation came from the islands by catechizzate Maunoir not long to make ensure the orthodoxy. In 1642 could finally be given to press and had great success, contributing greatly to the success of the processions and sacred representations of the Gospel.

Having preached in these islands, the Maunoir traveled on foot and on horseback, the entire Lower Brittany between hazards and hardships of all sorts and in less than ten years and managed to confess catechizing about half a million people. While the need for Nobletz had almost always worked alone, the Maunoir instead aroused many vocations to the priesthood, thus creating valuable aid for his apostolic labors. Everyone followed him willingly and loved ever since he had shown “humble, wise, uplifting, mortified, poor, simple, always ready to help its neighbor to give service to its enemies and to take everything to win souls to God, it being in ‘ execution of his drawings and full of confidence in that all-powerful arm holding him up.”

Every now and Julien returned to relax a little ‘between the brothers, using the time to extend the effective action by the written word with its ascetic and biographical. In 1671 he decided to engage the work of withdrawals on that mission and the attempt succeeded successfully. There were some for periods of his illness, but finally had a revelation that was about to reach his final hours. In returning to Quimper, we had to stop Plévin now prostrated by fever and a violent pain in my side. Prepared death sighed:

“Jesus is my life, and it is a gain for me to die.”

A local nobleman would have wanted to carry him to his castle for better medical care, but he preferred to complete the earthly life as similar as possible to the poor. For many priests who flocked to his bedside recommended: “The greatest pleasure that I can do is to make or to renew the intention to work in the missions until your last breath. I do not know function holier and more useful.”

Julien Maunoir, received the last sacraments, finally died on January 28, 1683. On that cold winter evening in the eastern horizon is infuocò mysteriously. The bishop of Quimper he wanted to buried the mortal remains of the sainted missionary in the cathedral, but the inhabitants of Plévin strongly opposed this. At the tomb, a few days after the burial, a paralyzed boy suddenly regained health before the faithful who filled the church. Following the papal decree promulgated on March 4, 1951 by Pope Pius XII, May 20 following Julien could be raised to the glory of the altars and the status of protector of Brittany.

Author: Fabio Arduino

Source: Santi e Beati

Thank you The Black Cordelias (here)

Jesuit Feasts In November

Wednesday the 5th
All Members of the Society of Jesus who reign with Christ in Glory

Thursday the 13th
St. Stanislaus Kostka, S.J.

Friday the 14th
St. Joseph Pignatelli, S.J.

Wednesday the 26th
St. John Berchmans, S.J.

Japanese Martyr Burned At The Stake

BLESSED THOMAS TZUGI

Feast Day: SEPTEMBER 06, 2008

Born in Japan around 1571; martyred in Nagasaki, Japan, 1627; beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1867. Born to nobility and educated by the Jesuits of the Arima province, Thomas entered the Jesuit order on the completion of his schooling at around 17 years old. He quickly developed a reputation for excellent preaching and evangelical zeal. He was exiled to the island of Macao during a persecution of Christians, yet he managed to return to Japan in disguise and continue his priestly ministry. He was recaptured and sentenced to death, yet he refused to seek his freedom through his family’s political connections. He was burned to death at the stake in 1627. His final words were,"Praise the Lord of All Nations."

Link (here)

Engraving depicts the Martyrs of Japan

I Came To Ireland To Defend The Faith Of The Holy Roman Church, The One True Path To Salvation.

Blessed Dominic Collins (1566-1602) Irish martyr and Jesuit brother

Here in 1598 he met the Jesuit priest, Father Thomas White from Clonmel, who had earlier founded the Irish College at Salamanca and had come to La Coruña to hear the confessions of Irish soldiers during Lent. Dominic confided in Fr White his intention of joining the Jesuits. Fr White explained the difficulties of studies for the priesthood. Dominic said was happy to be a Jesuit brother. The Jesuits were reluctant to accept him, feeling that a battle-hardened soldier would not settle into religious life, but Dominic persevered and was admitted to the novitiate in Santiago de Compostela. Here he proved his mettle when the Jesuit College was struck by a plague. Dominic tended the victims, nursing some of them back to health and comforting the others in their last hours. A report sent to Rome at this time describes him as a man of sound judgment and great physical strength, mature, prudent and sociable, though inclined to be hot-tempered and obstinate......

When the Desmond rebellion was put down in 1583, Dominic Collins of Youghal became a professional soldier in the Catholic armies of Europe. Ten years later he joined the Jesuits in Santiago de Compostela. Sent back to Ireland in 1601 with the Spaniards going to Kinsale, he was eventually captured and put to death for his faith.

Taken to Youghal on 31st October 1602, he was marched by a troop of soldiers through the streets to the place of execution - the first time he had seen his home town in fifteen years.

He wore his black Jesuit gown and addressed the crowd in Spanish, Irish and English, cheerfully telling them that he had come to Ireland to defend the faith of the Holy Roman Church, the one true path to salvation. So moved were the crowd that the hangman fled and a passing fisherman was forced to do the job. Left hanging on the gallows, the rope eventually broke and Dominic’s body fell to the ground. Under cover of darkness, local Catholics took his body away and buried him with respect in a secret place.

From that day he was venerated as a martyr in Youghal and his fame quickly spread throughout Ireland and Europe. In the Irish Colleges of Douai and Salamanca the Jesuits showed his portrait and many favours and cures were attributed to his intercession. Although used to the rough life of the army camp, Dominic always kept a strange innocence and gentleness. He is one of the most attractive of all the Irish martyrs.

Link to his full bio (here)

"You Are My Witnesses That I Am Dying For The Catholic Faith."

Bl. Ignatius de Azevedo, S.J. (Portuguese: 1527-1570) was one of the Forty Martyrs of Brazil who met their death off the Canary Islands at the hands of Huguenots. Ignatius had worked in Rome as procurator for India and Brazil, then the Superior General, Francis Borgia assigned him to Brazil as Visitor to find how Rome could help the Jesuits working there. The answer was more Jesuits, so Ignatius went to visit the Spanish and Portuguese provinces of the Society to seek volunteers for the Brazil mission and succeeded in gathering 49 young Jesuit volunteers.

The 40 martyrs In spite of the clear danger of pirate ships they sailed off in two ships. Ignatius expressed his feeling: "If the Huguenots should capture us, what harm can they do? The most they can do is to send us speedily to heaven."

On July 15, 1570 as they were heading into the Port of Palms, near the Canary Islands, one of the two ships, with 40 Jesuits aboard, was overtaken by five faster pirate ships under the command of a French Huguenot, formerly a Catholic, now a declared enemy of Jesuits. When the pirates boarded the ship and saw

Fr. Azevedo in the center of the ship holding a painting of the Virgin Mary, a pirate slashed him with a sword as he protested: "You are my witnesses that I am dying for the Catholic Faith." The pirates picked up his body and hurled him overboard with the painting still held tightly in his hands.

They then hacked to death the rest of the 39 Jesuits and threw them all into the sea, leaving unharmed the rest of the passengers. (Ban, Cor, Ham, JLx, Tyl)

Painting is not of the actual incident, but I think best represents the post and what these heroic unarmed Jesuits faced.

Link (here)

Martyred Jesuit, Was Hanged, Beheaded, Bowelled And Quartered

Bl. Peter Wright (†1651)
Blessed Fr Peter Wright, S.J., of Slipton, Northamptonshire, England suffered for his priesthood, his vows of religion and his Catholic Faith at Tyburn on 19 May, 1651. His execution on Whit Monday took place before over 20 000 spectators, as Bishop Challoner relates: Having celebrated Mass with great devotion, the time drew near when he was to go down in order for execution. Hearing the knocking at the iron grate, he took it as a summons from Heaven, and cried out:

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I come, sweet Jesus, I come.
When Fr Wright was called out to the hurdle, he went with so much alacrity and speed that the officers could scarce keep pace with him; then being placed on the hurdle he made a short act of contrition; and in the midst of mutual embraces was absolved by Fr Cheney, and then drawn away to Tyburn through the streets crowded with an innumerable multitude of people. He was drawn on the hurdle more like one sitting than lying down; his head was covered, his countenance smiling, a certain air of majesty, and a courage and cheerfulness in his comportment, which was both surprising and edifying, not only to the Catholics who crowded to ask his benediction, but to the Protestants themselves, as many publicly declared. Thirteen malefactors were appointed to die with him, to whom the father endeavoured to give seasonable advice for the welfare of their souls, but was continually interrupted by the minister, and therefore desisted, betaking himself to silent prayer, in which he employed about an hour, standing with his eyes shut, his hands joined before his breast, his countenance sweet and amiable, and his whole body without motion as one in deep contemplation. When the minister took occasion to tell him it was not yet too late, and that he might save his life if he would renounce the errors of Popery:

If I had a thousand lives I would most willingly give them all up in defence of the Catholic religion. The hangman having fitted the rope to his neck, the confessor made a short speech to the spectators: Gentlemen, this is a short passage to eternity; my time is now short, and I have not much to speak. I was brought hither charged with no other crime but being a priest. I willingly confess I am a priest; I confess I am a Catholic; I confess I am a religious man of the Society of Jesus, or as you call it, a Jesuit.

This is the cause for which I die; for this alone was I condemned, and for propagating the Catholic faith, which is spread through the whole world, taught
through all ages from Christ's time, and will be taught for all ages to come.

For this cause I most willingly sacrifice my life, and would die a thousand times for the same if it were necessary; and I look upon it my greatest happiness, that my most good God has chosen me most unworthy to this blessed lot, the lot of the saints. This is a grace which so unworthy a sinner could scarce have wished, much less hoped for. And now I beg of the goodness of my God with all the fervour I am able, and most humbly entreat Him that He would drive from you that are Protestants the darkness of error, and enlighten your minds with the rays of truth. And as for you Catholics, my fellow soldiers and comrades, as many of you as are here I earnesdy beseech you to join in prayer for me and with me till my last moment; and when I shall come to Heaven I will do as much for you. God bless you all; I forgive all men. From my heart I bid you all farewell till we meet in a happy eternity.

Having spoken to this effect, he again recollected himself a while in prayer, and then the cart was drawn away, and he was suffered to hang till he quietly expired. His dead body was cut down, beheaded, bowelled, and quartered. His friends were permitted to carry off his head and quarters which were translated to Liege, and there honourably deposited in the college of the English Jesuits. He suffered aged 48, and after 22 years of religious life. He was beatified in 1929.
Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints, †

Thank you Fr. Z for the Hat Tip, reader go to the link (here) and read the comments section in Fr. Z's blog, What Does The Prayer Really Say, they are interesting.

Link (here)

The Feast Day Of Blessed Ralph Ashley, S.J.

Bl. Ralph Ashley, SJ Feast Day
Today is the feast day of Blessed Ralph Ashely, SJ who was a English Jesuit brother who was martyred on April 7, 1606. Here is a brief bit of information on him from the Catholic Online web site:

Ralph Ashley d.1606, martyr. An Englishman, he served as cook at Douai College, went to Valladolid, Spain in 1590, became a Jesuit laybrother and returned to England in 1598. He served and was captured in 1604 with Fr. Edward Oldcorne. He was frightfully tortured during two years of imprisonment in the Tower of London then was executed at Worchester on Apr. 7. He was beatified in 1929.

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May Blessed Ralph Ashley pray for us!

Link to Jesuit Brother News ( here )

Picture of the Tower of London