I am reminded of the Scripture: Matthew 21:42 Jesus said unto them, “Did ye never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
SAINT OF THE DAY MONDAY, 27 APRIL, 2026 SAINT ZITA OF LUCCA (1218 - 27 April, 1272) Saint Zita of Lucca was a member of the Third Order of St Francis. Lucca is in Tuscany; and since the Third Order was widely propagated there after its founding, this holy servant girl of the thirteenth century would quite naturally join its ranks. Zita was born at the village of Monte Sagrati in 1218, at the time that St Francis was entering upon his career as a knight-errant of Christ. Her parents were poor, devout Christians; and older sister afterwards become a nun; and her uncle Graziano was a saintly hermit. When she was twelve years old, Zita went to Lucca, eight miles from her home, to be a servant girl of the Fatinelli family which carried on a prosperous wool and silk weaving business; and she remained in their employ until she died forty-eight years later. Her daily work became a part of her religious life. She was wont to say: “A servant girl is not pious, if she is not industrious; work shy piety is sham piety.” At the same time she led a very prayerful and penitential life. She rose nightly for prayer; and daily she attended the first Mass in the adjacent church of San Frediano. The good food she received for herself, she gave to the poor, and lived on waste scraps or fasted. She wore only the poorest clothes and never put on shoes, even in winter. For some years she had much to bear from her fellow servants, who despised her way of life and insulted her repeatedly. Though she performed her work faithfully, her employers too were prejudiced against her for a time and treated her as a common drudge. But in the spirit of the suffering Christ, she bore these trials without complaint and never lost her temper or peace of mind. During the time there was a local famine St Zita gave away beans to the poor and hungry from her master's supply of provisions. Not knowning what she was about, the master decided one day that the time had come to sell the beans for a great profit. Fearful of her master's anger, St Zita prayed to God for help. Then the master checked, finding that the supply of beans had not diminished. It could only have been a miracle of multiplication. By her patience she gradually overcame all opposition, and became the friend and advisor of the whole household, including the servants. Her master and mistress, realizing at last what a treasure they possessed in Zita, made her chief house-keeper and the children's nurse. This embarrassed her even more than the slights she had to bear during the earlier years. However, she fulfilled her duties so well that everyone fared so much better as a result. Once St. Zita stayed longer than she intended to at church. It was baking day, and as she traveled home she realized she was very far behind in her work. When she entered the kitchen to begin working, however, she found the bread placed in neat rows, ready to be baked. All she had to do was place it in the ovens. When Lucca lay under an interdict from 1231 to 1234, Zita used to go on foot into Pisan territory to receive Holy Communion. These were dangerous trips at the time; but mysterious strangers befriended Zita on the way, and she was never molested. During the later years of her life, when she was relieved of much of the domestic work, she visited and helped the poor, the sick, and the prisoners to her heart's content. Absorbed in prayer, her eyes turned heavenward, and her hands crossed on her breast, she died on April 27, 1278, at the age of sixty. At the time, a brilliant star shone above her attic room. After she had been honored as a saint for four centuries, Pope Innocent XII formally approved this cult in 1696. She is the patroness of domestic workers. PATRON: Patronage : against losing keys, butlers, domestic servants, homemakers, housemaids,lost keys,maids, manservants, people ridiculed for their piety, rape victims, servants,servers, single laywomen,waiters, waitpersons, waitresses, Lucca, Italy. PRAYER: Glorious St. Zita, Example of Christian virtues, intercede for me in this my necessity (name it). Obtain for me also diligence in all my duties and patience in all my trials, so that, following your example and being helped by your intercession in the miseries of this life, I may be united to you in the life to come, where there shall be no more weeping and sorrow, but joy and gladness and everlasting happiness. Amen.
This is so very strange. I just watched a video on St Zita last night. Her body is kept incorrupt in the Italian city of Luca which is, I think where St Gemma Galgani lived. This video concerned a scientific study of her body:
... and her miracles ◾The cause for her canonization accumulated more than one hundred and fifty miracles juridically examined by ecclesiastical commission over the decades following her death. Pope Innocent XII formally ratified the accumulated evidence and canonized her in 1696. The proceedings followed the classical canonical procedure codified before the modern period; detailed clinical records of individual cases are preserved in the historical cause documents in Rome rather than in accessible public sources. Saint Zita pray for us.
Saints are the epitome of humanity, not only in their virtues but also in their gifts, which we mere craftsmen can only imitate. They levitate - we build aircrafts They bilocate - we host Zoom calls. They glow — we switch on LEDs. They read hearts - we practise psychology. They heal — we build medical empires. They raise the dead — we perform CPR. And when they are in heaven? We are still here. A scientist, gazing at evolution, once confessed: 'We are the missing link.'
SAINTS OF THE DAY TUESDAY, 28 APRIL, 2026 1) SAINT LOUIS MARIE GRIGNION DE MONTFORT 2) SAINT PETER CHANEL 1) SAINT LOUIS MARIE GRIGNION DE MONTFORT PRIEST, AUTHOR AND FOUNDER (1673-1716) BIRTH IN MONTFORT Louis Marie Grignion was born in the hamlet of Montfort, a Breton village about thirteen miles east of Rennes, on 31 January 1673. Later, as an itinerant preacher, he preferred to drop his surname and be called simply Louis Marie de Montfort, or le Pére de Montfort, the Father from Montfort. The second of eighteen children, Louis was one of the few who survived to adulthood. He was born into a family of deep Catholic faith, in an area of France renowned for its dynamic Christian life. JESUIT EDUCATION At the age of eleven, Louis Marie set out for Rennes, the capital of Brittany, to enroll in the Jesuit College of Thomas à Becket. The young student from Montfort was considered by his teachers to be intelligent, religious, artistic in nature and somewhat shy. It was under the guidance of the Jesuits that Louis's priestly vocation matured. The decision to enter the priesthood was made, so he tells us, at the Shrine of Our Lady in the Carmelite Church in Rennes. After eight years at the Jesuit College, Louis Marie decided to pursue his theological studies at Saint Sulpice in Paris. At the age of nineteen, a new chapter opened in his life. The young man bade farewell to family and friends at the bridge of Cess on the outskirts of Rennes. STUDIES IN PARIS Having left all, he crossed the Cesson bridge to a new life of total dependence upon Divine Providence. So convinced was he that God was truly his loving Father that he gave his money, baggage and clothes to the first beggars he met. Begging for food and shelter along the way, he walked to Paris, arriving in the rags of a mendicant. For the first two years, Montfort attended classes at the Sorbonne. The following six years of theological study, however, were spent under the tutelage of the Sulpicians themselves. Like the Jesuits, they found the student from Montfort to be a talented man of deep faith, intensely studious and strongly devoted to Our Lady. He was notable for the practical love he showed for the poor, for his desire to serve the outcasts of Paris society, and for a determination to live the gospel by identifying with the most neglected. A MAN OF THE BIBLE All his life, but especially as a seminarian, Montfort was an avid reader, and thoroughly enjoyed his task as librarian at Saint Sulpice. Above all else, he was a man of the Bible. The Sacred Scriptures were his constant companion, and his sermons and writings – five major works in all – abound with biblical texts. Louis yearned to proclaim the Good News of God's love to the outcasts, to assure them of the love of Jesus and of the maternal care of Mary. FIRST MASS At the Lady Chapel in the parish church of Saint Sulpice, Father Louis Marie Grignion celebrated his first Mass on 5 June 1700. From the age of eleven, he had completed sixteen years of formal study to reach this goal. Yet Montfort's priestly ministry itself would last only a further sixteen years. UNSETTLED After a few years of preaching parish renewals and ministering to the destitute at the poor-house at Poitiers, Louis Mary was far from settled. He found it extremely difficult to discover how to implement his belief that God was calling him to serve the poor and to identify with them.MEETING THE POPE His solution was simple. This unknown young priest from western France would seek the advice of the Pope. And so he set out on foot from Poitiers, begging for food and shelter along the arduous and dangerous routes to the Holy City. In June 1706, Montfort met with Pope Clement XI (Giovanni Fancesco Albani 1700-21), pouring out his heart to the Vicar of Christ. Strangely, the Holy Father clearly saw in this young priest extraordinary gifts of God. He turned down Louis Marie's offer to proclaim the gospel in the wilds of Canada or in the Far East. Rather, the Pope named him Apostolic Missionary, telling him to return to his native land and renew the Church there. He spent the rest of his life conducting approximately two hundred missions and retreats throughout the villages and towns of western France, proclaiming the gospel of God's love with Spirit-filled power. MIXED REACTION De Montfort's bold, charismatic proclamation of God's love was heard in churches, barracks, poor-houses, and even in houses of prostitution. His preaching was a source of admiration for many, of resentment and, sadly, anger for others. His life-style as a poor, vagabond preacher, with a knapsack strung across his shoulder to carry his Bible, breviary and notebooks, was not considered dignified for a cleric. Several times the episcopal authorities forbade him to preach in one diocese or another. Always obedient, Montfort would move on. IDENTIFIED WITH THE POOR With utter disdain for human respect, this saintly man identified with the poor, and found his greatest joy in opening for them the Word of God and offering them whatever material help he could locate. Typical of his actions was the event recorded in Dinan – probably one of many similar acts on his part – when the missionary tenderly embraced a dying, leprous beggar lying in the street, and carried him to a nearby religious house, crying out to the doorkeeper: ‘Open up to Jesus Christ!' To the majority of the people, Father Louis Marie was simply the Good Father from Montfort. At times he was named the Father with the Big Rosary, for he ordinarily had a large rosary attached to the cord-like belt of his cassock. ATTRACTING THOUSANDS His preaching, flowing from his own experience of God's love and Mary's maternal care, attracted thousands back to the faith. In a Jansenistic age which harshly stressed the distance between God and his people, he recommended even daily communion, a tender devotion to the Mother of God, and a total surrender to Jesus in Mary. UNDETERRED TILL HIS DEATH Because of the style and contents of his preaching, this Elijah-like prophet was regarded by quite a few as no more than a strange misfit. He was poisoned on one occasion and, although it did not prove fatal, it caused his health to deteriorate even more rapidly. Other attempts were made on his life, yet Montfort was not deterred. The Bishop of La Rochelle, Mgr Stephen de Champflour, proved a great friend to him, although others continued to oppose him, and there was even an attempt made on his life. Together with the Bishop, he established free schools for the poor boys and girls of La Rochelle, and called Marie Louise Trichet and Catherine Brunet, who had waited patiently in Poitiers for 10 years, to come to help him. At last, they made their religious profession and the congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom was born. Soon there were others too who joined them. Worn out by hard work and sickness, Louis Marie finally came in April 1716 to Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre to begin the mission which was to be his last. During it, he fell ill and died on 28 April. Thousands gathered for his burial in the parish church, and very quickly there were stories of miracles performed at his tomb ‘SLAVES OF JESUS CHRIST' His writings call for a loving, formal acceptance of who we truly are: the slaves of Jesus Christ. The term ‘slave' always had, for Montfort, the evangelical connotation that we belong to the Lord, that we are loved by him, and that we are redeemed by the Incarnation and total offering of the Incarnate Wisdom for us.THE TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY But the surest, the easiest, the happiest, the most perfect way to Jesus Christ is through Mary. And this brings us to the great genius of Saint Louis Marie in explaining Our Lady's role in the redemption of mankind. In his treatise on True Devotion To The Blessed Virgin, he wrote, “It is through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that he has to reign in the world... It was through Mary that the salvation of the world was begun, and it is through Mary that it must be consummated... He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father.
“It is necessary for the greater knowledge and glory of the Most Holy Trinity, that Mary should be more than ever known... Mary must shine forth more than ever in mercy, in might, and in grace in these later times: 1. in MERCY to bring back and lovingly receive the poor strayed sinners who shall be converted and shall return to the Catholic Church; 2. in MIGHT, against the enemies of God, idolaters, schismatics, Jews, and souls hardened in impiety, who shall rise in terrible revolt against God...; 3. and finally, she must shine forth in GRACE, in order to animate and sustain the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of Jesus Christ who shall battle for His interests. “But the power of Mary over all the devils will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel: that is to say, her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the world's esteem... and persecuted as the heel is by other members of the body. But in return for this, they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary shall distribute to them abundantly.” Who shall these servants, slaves, and children of Mary be? The saint answers himself: “They shall be the ministers of the Lord who, like a burning fire, shall kindle the fire of divine love everywhere.” And “they shall be ‘like sharp arrows in the hand of the powerful' Mary to pierce her enemies.” HOW DOES ONE BECOME A SLAVE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN? The easiest way is by first carefully studying 'TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY', for which Pope Saint Pius X granted an Apostolic Benediction. Then by confidently making, and faithfully living by, the following: 'ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE MOTHER OF GOD' Composed by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort: In the presence of all the Heavenly Court I choose thee this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, to the greatest glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen. 2) SAINT PETER CHANEL PRIEST AND MARTYR (12 July, 1803 – 28th April, 1841) St Peter Chanel was born on 12 July 1803, the fifth of eight children in a farming family with a small holding in south-western France. The area was still troubled by the political instability that followed the Revolution. That, plus the need to help on the farm, meant his primary schooling was rather fragmented. He grew up in rural France working as a shepherd. While in school he loved to read about French foreign missionaries and wanted to emulate them. So he decided, “I will become a missionary priest!” In his early teens the parish priest helped him with special lessons in the presbytery, so that at 16 he was ready to begin his four years of secondary education at the minor seminary. He progressed to the major seminary to be ordained at 24 as a priest for the Belley diocese. For his first year of priesthood he was assistant in a medium sized town, already thinking seriously about applying for an apostolate in the foreign missions. Then followed three years as parish priest in a small country town where the Church was still in disarray a generation after the Revolution. With quiet zeal, tact and compassion he transformed it. Underlying his approach was his personal motto ˙Aimer Marie et faire l'aimer' – to love Mary and bring others to love her. In 1831, at 28, with his bishop's agreement he joined the small group of diocesan priests who had hopes of starting a Society of Mary. He was one of the three representatives who went to Rome to ask the Pope's approval for their planned Society of Mary. This approval was given in April 1836 when Marists accepted responsibility for new missions in the little-known south-west Pacific. By the end of that year Peter was one of the first band of missionaries, four priests and three catechist brothers, attached to Bishop Pompallier, who sailed from Le Havre on Christmas Eve for this pioneering mission. He became one of the founding members of the Society of Mary, the Marists. And as a Marist father, he voyaged on the high seas to at last fulfill his missionary dreams. After a prolonged journey out to the Pacific fact-finding and considering possibilities, on All Saints Day 1837 Pompallier placed Fr Peter Bataillon and Br Joseph Luzy on Wallis Island, in an island group north of Fiji. A week later he founded a second mission, leaving Fr Peter Chanel and Br Marie-Nizier Delorme 170km away on Futuna, the smaller island of the two. By then the Bishop had decided to make his base in New Zealand and, via Sydney, landed in Hokianga on 10 January 1838. For three and a half years on Futuna, Chanel and Marie-Nizier battled with language difficulties, strange customs and food, sickness, malnutrition, loneliness. Hardest to bear was the seeming lack of success in adult conversions. But they persevered, living and preaching the Gospel, in spite of the king's tolerance wearing thin. Father Chanel gave his all, at first drip by drip and then all at once. A lay brother who was with him later said of Father Chanel, “Because of his labors he was often burned by the heat of the sun, and famished with hunger, and he would return home wet with perspiration and completely exhausted. Yet he always remained in good spirits, courageous and energetic…” His apostolic labors generated few converts, but there was some progress nonetheless. Like so many missionaries, Peter had to overcome the counter-witness given by fellow European Christians trading in the area who cared little about their religion. The eventual conversion of the king's son proved to be Peter's death warrant. The king kept control of his people largely through their worship of evil spirits. His son's becoming a Christian undermined this power, so Peter had to be stopped. With the king's approval a small group of his tribal leaders clubbed Peter with an axe until his blood puddled in the dirt while Marie-Nizier was absent visiting elsewhere. It was on 28th April 1841. Father Peter was not yet forty years old when his missionary dream was fulfilled in martyrdom, giving Oceania its patron saint. When he heard the news of Peter's brutal death, Pompallier sailed to Wallis, accompanied by Fr Philippe Viard, later to be the first bishop of Wellington. Viard went ashore on Futuna, refusing any armed escort, and gathered Peter's remains which were then brought to New Zealand. These were kept reverently at Kororareka (Russell) till 1849 when they were returned to France.The island of Futuna, in which our saint had such mixed success, converted completely and totally a few years after Saint Peter's martyrdom. Musumusu (who killed St. Peter) himself repented of his crime and was baptized. The island is, even in modern times, almost one hundred percent Catholic. An impressive church is the heart and center of every small town. Saint Peter Chanel's body now rests in a large Basilica in the city of Poi. The beauty and smell of tropical flowers always adorn the church. And on the night of April 27, the vigil of his Feast Day, hundreds of Futunians sleep outside the Basilica waiting for the festivities of their saint's feast day to begin the next morning. The brief life and sudden death of Saint Peter Chanel is powerful proof of how the blood of the martyrs waters the seeds of the Church. One sows, another reaps, and still another enjoys the harvest. He was officially declared a martyr and beatified in 1889.He was declared a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954. PATRON: of Oceania. PRAYER: Saint Peter Chanel, by your suffering and death, you converted a people. You were fearless in adventuring far from home to preach the Gospel. May your blood, spilled so long ago, continue to infuse all missionaries with courage and perseverance in their labors. Amen.
My balloon is burst! I am not sure silicon masks are a good idea. It gives the wrong impression, especially in a place like Southern Italy.
https://journeysoffaith.com/blogs/n...8b1e_YYzIsz_NY67Y-J2By5k78O9C0Gi1xZ071zgdRBY7 Prophecy of Last Days by Saint Louis de Montfort “....towards the end of the world, ....Almighty God and His holy Mother are to raise up saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs.” “These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light, strengthened by her spirit, supported by her arms, sheltered under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin... “ “They will be like thunderclouds flying through the air at the slightest breath of the Holy Spirit. Attached to nothing, surprised at nothing, they will shower down the rain of God’s word and of eternal life. They will thunder against sin; they will storm against the world; they will strike down the devil and his followers and for life and for death, they will pierce through and through with the two-edged sword of God’s word all those against whom they are sent by Almighty God.” “They will be true apostles of the latter times to whom the Lord of Hosts will give eloquence and strength to work wonders and carry off glorious spoils from His enemies. They will sleep without gold or silver and, more important still, without concern in the midst of other priests, ecclesiastics and clerics. Yet they will have the silver wings of the dove enabling them to go wherever the Holy Spirit calls them, filled as they are, with the resolve to seek the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Wherever they preach, they will leave behind them nothing but the gold of love, which is the fulfillment of the whole law.” “They will have the two-edged sword of the Word of God in their mouths and the bloodstained standard of the Cross on their shoulders. They will carry the Crucifix in their right hand and the rosary in their left, and the holy names of Jesus and Mary on their heart. “Mary scarcely appeared in the first coming of Christ... But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus may be known, loved and served through her.”
..... another Saint for today and the approved miracle Saint Gianna Beretta Molla (4 October 1922 - 28 April 1962) On April 28 the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian pediatrician who died on this date in 1962, one week after giving birth to her fourth child. When a fibroma was discovered on her uterus during that pregnancy, she refused both abortion and hysterectomy, choosing instead the surgical option that preserved the child's life at the cost of her own. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 24, 1994, and canonized on May 16, 2004, with her husband Pietro present in Saint Peter's Square — the first time in the Church's history that a spouse had witnessed a partner's canonization. She is patron of mothers, physicians, and unborn children. ◾The miracle confirmed for her canonization involved a Brazilian woman, Elizabeth Comparini Arcolino, who in early 2000 was sixteen weeks pregnant when her placental membranes ruptured with total loss of amniotic fluid. Physicians in Brazil judged the fetus's survival impossible at that gestational age; aggressive intravenous hydration aimed at restoring fluid failed entirely. The family prayed to Blessed Gianna. The pregnancy continued without amniotic fluid, and on May 31, 2000, a healthy daughter was delivered. The Consulta Medica of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints studied the case on April 10, 2003, and determined that, despite the grave prognosis resulting from the total loss of amniotic fluid at the sixteenth week of gestation and the failure of medical treatment, the positive outcome for both mother and child was medically inexplicable. Pope John Paul II approved the miracle on December 20, 2003. Saint Gianna, who gave everything for the life of your child, pray for all who carry lives in danger, and for those who care for them.
SAINT OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 29 APRIL, 2026 SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA MYSTIC AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH (25 March, 1347 - 29 April, 1380) St. Catherine of Siena was born during the outbreak of the plague in Siena, Italy on March 25, 1347. She was the 25th child born to her mother, although half of her brothers and sisters did not survive childhood. Catherine herself was a twin, but her sister did not survive infancy. Her mother was 40 when she was born. Her father was a cloth dyer. At the age of 16, Catherine's sister, Bonaventura, died, leaving her husband as a widower. Catherine's parents proposed that he marry Catherine as a replacement, but Catherine opposed this. She began fasting and cut her hair short to mar her appearance. Her parents attempted to resist this move, to avoid marriage, but they were unsuccessful. Her fasting and her devotion to her family, convinced them to relent and allow her to live as she pleased. Catherine once explained that she regarded her father as a representation of Jesus and her mother as Our Lady, and her brothers as the apostles, which helped her to serve them with humility. Despite Catherine's religious nature, she did not choose to enter a convent and instead she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, which allowed her to associate with a religious society while living at home. Fellow Dominican sisters taught St. Catherine how to read. Meanwhile, she lived quietly, isolated within her family home. St. Catherine developed a habit of giving things away and she continually gave away her family's food and clothing to people in need. She never asked permission to give these things away, and she quietly put up with their criticisms. The virgin Catherine was espoused to Christ by a precious nuptial ring which, although visible only to her, always remained on her finger. In her vision, she was told to reenter public life and to help the poor and sick. She immediately rejoined her family and went into public to help people in need. Unbelievable were her austerities, her miracles, her ecstasies. The reputation of her sanctity soon spread abroad; thousands came to see her, to be converted by her. The priests associated with her, having received extraordinary faculties of absolution, were unable to accommodate the crowds of penitents. She was a helper and a consoler in every need. She often visited hospitals and homes where the poor and sick were found. Her activities quickly attracted followers who helped her in her mission to serve the poor and sick. St. Catherine was drawn further into the world as she worked, and eventually she began to travel, calling for reform of the Church and for people to confess and to love God totally. She became involved in politics, and was key in working to keep city states loyal to the Pope. She was also credited with helping to start a crusade to the Holy Land. On one occasion, she visited a condemned political prisoner and was credited with saving his soul, which she saw being taken up to heaven at the moment of his death. St. Catherine allegedly was given the stigmata, but like her ring, it was visible only to herself. She took Bl. Raymond of Capua has her confessor and spiritual director. From 1375 onwards, St. Catherine began dictating letters to scribes. She petitioned for peace and was instrumental in persuading the Pope in Avignon to return to Rome. She became involved in the fractured politics of her time, but was instrumental in restoring the Papacy to Rome and in brokering peace deals during a time of factional conflict and war between the Italian city states. She also established a monastery for women in 1377 outside of Siena. She is credited with composing over 400 letters, her Dialogue, which is her definitive work, and her prayers. These works are so influential that St. Catherine would later be declared a Doctor of the Church. She is one of the most influential and popular saints in the Church. By 1380, the 33-year-old mystic had become ill, possibly because of her habit of extreme fasting. Her confessor, Raymond, ordered her to eat, but she replied that she found it difficult to do so, and that possibly she was ill. In January of 1380, her illness accelerated her inability to eat and drink. Within weeks, she was unable to use her legs. She died on April 29, following a stroke just a week prior. St. Catherine's feast day is April 29, she is the patroness against fire, illness, the United States, Italy, miscarriages, people ridiculed for their faith, sexual temptation, and nurses. PATRON: Against fire; bodily ills; Europe; fire prevention; firefighters; illness; Italy; miscarriages; nurses; nursing services; people ridiculed for their piety; sexual temptation; sick people; sickness; Siena, Italy; temptations. PRAYER: O God, who set Saint Catherine of Siena on fire with divine love in her contemplation of the Lord's Passion and her service of your Church, grant, through her intercession, that your people, participating in the mystery of Christ, may ever exult in the revelation of his glory. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.
For the first time in history until then a mother attended the Canonisation ceremony of her child. This makes me smile because Mama Lapa was a very formidable lady indeed and herself and her daughter seem to have spent much of their lives fighting like cats and dogs. It ,ust have thrown her considerably to have met someone even more of a force of nature than herself which Catherine most certainly was. A very,very strong saint indeed. But in the end they ended up coming to more nor less terms. Well nearly. God writes straight in crooked lines.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/04/29/catherine-of-siena-sister-daughter-mother-and-saint/ When teenaged Catherine cut off her hair to make herself unmarriageable, her mother fired the household help and ordered Catherine to become the unpaid servant for the entire household. Catherine meekly accepted her punishment and served the whole family through endless domestic chores. Most of her brothers and sisters must have thought it was a funny joke, and perhaps they even made bets with one another about how long it would take for Catherine to give in to their mother’s demands and get married. But Catherine found an imaginative and holy solution to keep from becoming resentful or depressed about her difficult situation. She asked herself how she would serve Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother, and the apostles if they needed dinner or if their clothes needed mending or if their beds needed to be made. By God’s grace, she treated them all as if the Savior of the World was watching. Because, of course, He was. Catherine’s mother, Lapa, had a different temperament. Although she was a simple soul and lived an upright life, she was as strong-willed as her daughter. Sometime later, Giacomo died, and Lapa became deathly ill. However, Lapa refused to believe it was time for her to die and begged her holy daughter to ask the Lord to spare her life. Catherine obediently prayed for her mother, but she also told Lapa that our Lord was calling her home and that she should prepare for death. According to Catherine, the Lord told her that if Lapa lived, she would later regret it. Lapa continued to refuse to go to confession, became even sicker, and, according to multiple witnesses, died. But those same witnesses then heard Catherine, who had been promised by the Lord that none of the members of her household would go to Hell, tearfully remind God: “Lord, these are not the promises you made me.”1 Within minutes, Lapa came back from the dead. Lapa eventually lived a long life, but Catherine’s prediction came true. Lapa outlived many of her children and knew poverty and pain during her final years until her death at the age of eighty-nine.
A Blessed and her miracle for today Blessed Hanna Helena Chrzanowska (1902-1973), Polish lay nurse and Benedictine oblate. Death anniversary and feast day: April 29 (died April 29, 1973, in Kraków, Poland). Patroness of nurses and caregivers of the chronically ill. The miracle approved for her 2018 beatification was the healing of her friend Zofia, a nurse, who in 2001 suffered a ruptured, inoperable brain aneurysm. She lay in a coma for six weeks with no medical or surgical options. After prayers invoking Hanna’s intercession she awoke, recovered completely, and showed no neurological damage. The Vatican’s Consulta Medica declared the cure medically inexplicable. Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, pray for us."
