But in 1873 a Belgian missionary priest, born as Joseph Van Veuster but known as Father Damien of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart, was sent at his own request to Molokai to work among the lepers. He had already lived and worked among the Hawaiian people for 9 years. His heart was consumed with compassion for the sickness and suffering which had destroyed these simple people. Originating with the European travelers who had “discovered the paradise” known as Hawaii, diseases such as small pox, cholera, influenza, and tuberculosis would nearly wipe out the native people who had no immunity to these foreign viruses. The most devastating disease would be leprosy.

Father Damien requested and was granted the mission of serving exclusively on the island of Molokai. Since there was no cure for leprosy at the time, this choice meant certain death for the young priest who had just turned 33. Poet and author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote of Father Damien’s decision, “He shut to, with his own hands, the doors of his own sepulchre.”

Amidst the chaos encountered upon his arrival on the tiny island, Father Damien worked immediately to restore human dignity and respect for life to each person. He organized burial details and performed funeral rites, so that death might have some beauty. He provided medical attention for the wounds and sicknesses that could be healed. He taught them how to grow crops so they could eat better. In a small chapel on the island, he began to preach and teach about the healing and saving power of Jesus Christ. The people began to sing and pray and love each other in holiness and humility.

A small chapel on Molokai, named for St. Philomena, was soon filled to capacity each week. With the help of the island inhabitants, Father Damien built a larger one, which soon overflowed each Sunday as well. He gave the people the sacraments, baptizing, confirming, offering Confession and Last Rites. When he was able to have them, his own confessions were public. On occasion, his order would send a priest by boat who would anchor off shore from the island. Father Damien would wade as far out into the ocean as he was able. There he would yell out his transgressions so he might receive the pardon and mercy of the Father.

Father Damien contracted leprosy himself in 1885, and in those final years worked diligently to complete the works that he had begun, building orphanages, organizing clinics, constructing housing. He died on April 15, 1889. Pope John Paul II beatified him in June 1995 under the title “Blessed Father Damien, Servant of Humanity.”

Lessons

1. The example of Father Damien, missionary to the lepers — and all those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ — is a model for us to preach the good news of salvation to the despised and rejected of the earth without counting the cost to ourselves.

2. Pray for an increase in love in our own hearts, so that our love for Christ might enkindle an answering love for our neighbors.

3. Ask for wisdom to see the opportunities that Jesus provides for us to serve Him.

4. Engage our spiritual gift of courage in order to answer the call of service despite situations which make us uncomfortable.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Antonius (1459), Archbishop of Florence

Sts. Gordian and Epimachus (362), Martyrs

St. Solange (880), Virgin, Martyr, invoked in time of drought

Clothed from head to foot in beautiful garments of white silk, the Blessed Mother appeared to Catherine, a young novice of the Sisters of Charity in Paris, France. In her hands, Mary held a golden ball adorned with a cross. A voice told Catherine that the ball represented the whole world and each of the people in it. On each of Mary’s fingers appeared three rings from which great rays of light eminated. The Mother of our Lord herself stood on a white globe with a greenish serpent beneath her feet.

Catherine recounted that an oval frame appeared around the image of Mary and in letters of gold, these words appeared: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

The same voice also told Catherine to have a medal cast depicting this image and that all who wear the medal will receive great graces should it be worn about their neck. Another image was revealed showing the letter “M” surmounted by a bar and a cross and bearing beneath it the hearts of both Jesus and Mary, one crowned with thorns and the other pierced by a sword.

Catherine told no one of these visions except her confessor, a young priest. At first skeptical, his heart was soon moved to request permission of his archbishop to have the medal crafted. Fifteen hundred medals were originally minted in 1832, but within four years, more than two million varieties of the medal existed and the devotion had spread to all parts of the world. Hence, the name the “Miraculous Medal.” Miraculous works have also been attributed to the beautiful medal including cures of insanity, tuberculosis, epilepsy, paralysis, fractures, fevers, and other ailments.

In a written record of the young priest-confessor of St. Catherine, a recounting of miraculous conversions of hardened sinners, Protestants, Jews, atheists, evil-doers and lukewarm souls have been recorded.

To this day, it is not known how many millions of Miraculous Medals have been distributed throughout the world.

Prayer to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Virgin Mother of God, Mary Immaculate, we unite ourselves to you under your title of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. May this medal be for each one of us a sure sign of your motherly affection for us and a constant reminder of our filial duties towards you. While wearing it, may we be blessed by your loving protection and preserved in the grace of your Son. Most powerful Virgin, Mother of our Savior, keep us close to you every moment of our lives so that like you we may live and act according to the teaching and example of your Son. Obtain for us, your children, the grace of a happy death so that in union with you we may enjoy the happiness of heaven forever. Amen.

V: O Mary, conceived without sin,
R: Pray for us who have recourse to you.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Maximinus (460), Bishop

She married young, betrothed to a Swedish prince when she was an infant. Their marriage was happy and fruitful and they raised eight children, one of whom became a saint like her mother — Catherine of Sweden.

After her husband’s death, Bridget led an austere and celibate life. She received many prophecies from the Lord which led her to give counsel and stern warnings to several popes and kings about their worldly lives. Many saints visited her in visions providing her with guidance and revelation about the future. Despite her condemnations of the actions of both spiritual and state authorities, her pleading to return the papacy to Rome went unheeded.

She founded a monastery for women and men in which the women controlled the temporal matters of the order, while the men commanded the spiritual matters. This order became known as the Brigittines.

In a message from the pope to Mother Tekla Famiglietti, abbess general of the Order of the Most Holy Saviour of St. Bridget, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the birth of the Swedish saint, the Holy Father expressed his gratitude to the religious for their “significant apostolic work in the service of unity among Christians, especially in Europe, following the footsteps of the saint from Sweden.”

John Paul II recalled that St. Bridget “was a master in accepting the Cross as a central experience of the faith; she was an exemplary disciple of the Church, professing complete Catholicism; she was a model of the contemplative and active life and a tireless apostle in the search for unity among Christians. She also had the gift of prophetic intuition when reading the history of the Gospel and the Gospel in history.”

In a time when humanity struggles to fulfill the moral good and eradicate the moral evils of the world, the words of St. Bridget echo through time, speaking to us from the visions from Christ that she shared. From one disturbing conversation she had with Him in 1372, she revealed these words:

“O my enemies, why do you so boldly commit such sins and do other things contrary to my will? Why have you neglected My Passion? Why do you not attend in your hearts to how I ‘stood’ naked on the cross and cried out, full of wounds and clothed in blood?

“But your eyes and heart forget and neglect all these things. And so you behave like prostitutes, who love the delight of the flesh, but not of its offspring. For when they feel a living infant in their womb, at once they procure an abortion so that without losing their fleshly pleasure, they may always engage in their foul intercourse.”

St. Bridget died before seeing the Holy See return from Avignon to Rome, but she died near the tomb of Peter on July 23, 1373.

Other Saints We Remember Today

Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Marcellus and Apuleius, (3rd Century), Martyrs

Our Lady of Good Remedy

St. Pelagia (5th Century), Penitent

Helena’s parents sent her away when she was 16 years old to work as a domestic for a wealthy family. Following a particularly vivid vision, she returned home to get permission to join a convent. Her parents were opposed to this choice of vocation and refused to help her with a dowry to join a religious order – a custom of the time. Suffering for a few years under the obedience of her parents, she was finally freed to join the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925. She took the name Faustina, which means fortunate, at her first vows in 1928.

Faustina experienced many visions, prophesies, and other internal spiritual graces during her lifetime and suffered greatly from ridicule and persecution from those who did not understand. Her most intense vision came to her on the evening of February 22, 1931. In this vision, Jesus appeared to her, clutching His chest with one hand near His Sacred Heart and the other stretched forth in a blessing. From His heart emanated two rays, one red and one white. Jesus charged Faustina with the task of spreading this devotion to His Sacred Heart, called the Divine Mercy.

Jesus asked Faustina to make a painting of His image as a remembrance of her experience and for the salvation of the souls who would venerate it. Throughout her life, Jesus appeared to Faustina many times bestowing gifts of spiritual direction, prayer and guidance. He instilled in her the meaning of salvific suffering and the complete understanding of His infinite mercy. His message to this simple woman, who had only three years of formal education, contained the words and thoughts that fill a diary known today as Divine Mercy in My Soul.

Devotion to the Divine Mercy began almost immediately after Faustina’s visions and continued well after her death. However, the Church banned the devotion from 1959 to 1978 due to some misunderstandings. Pope John Paul II, who began his devotion as a young priest in Poland, was instrumental in lifting the ban. He beatified Faustina in 1993 and she was canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday (the first Sunday after Easter) in the Jubilee Year of 2000.

Faithful around the world recite the Divine Mercy prayers daily at 3 p.m., the hour of Great Mercy. The invocation, “Jesus, I trust in You!” has become a source of great appeal to His Most Sacred Heart.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Placid and Companions (541), Religious, Martyrs

Blessed Raymond of Capua (1399), Spiritual Director of St. Catherine of Siena

St. Flora of Beaulieu (1347), Virgin, Religious

Following his ordination, he was given the charge of building and reforming the monasteries throughout Belgium. Gerard began his journey at his family’s estate, known as Brogne. It was here that he built his first monastery. He became known for his strict observance of the Rule of St. Benedict and for the replacement of lukewarm religious practice with true piety. He moved from abbey to abbey, at the summons of archbishops, bishops, and political leaders, “cleaning house” and preserving the Rule for future monastics. During his life, he was the abbot of nearly twenty communities.

After 40 years of monastic reform, Gerard returned to the first monastery in Brogne to live out his days. There, in solemn prayer and contemplation, he was drawn back to God on October 3, 959. He is sometimes called the Patron of Abbots.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1897). Virgin, Doctor, Patron of all foreign missions.

Unaware of the mighty genius masked behind his frail and debilitated body, the monks, while generous in their care for him, left Herman to his own studies. By the age of twenty, it was obvious to all that Herman possessed wisdom greater than the most educated of men. He became a Benedictine monk in 1033 and continued to amaze his fellow brothers with his writings on theology, history, astronomy and mathematics. He became fluent in 4 languages, designed and fashioned musical instruments, and built tools to study the stars. As if he had some foreknowledge of his eventual blindness, Herman produced enough literature and academic writings to fill a small library.

In the secular world he is known as the most famous religious poet of the day. Within the Roman Catholic Church, he is known as the great author of one of her most beloved hymns, the Salve Regina.

He died in 1054 at the Abbey in Reichenau from causes relating to his afflictions. He was beatified in 1863.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Finbar (Barry) (633), Bishop

St. Cleophas (1st Century)

Born to a simple family in Pietrelcina, Italy in 1887, Francesco Forgione was put under the protection of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, at his baptism. He joined Francis’ order at the age of 15 and was ordained a priest in 1910. Shortly after his ordination, Padre Pio began to experience the invisible stigmata, which was soon followed by other unique gifts that amazed even the most skeptical of believers. Many lives were converted by the grace of these extraordinary charisms — bilocation, prophetic visions, healing, reading of consciences — and the stigmata, which he bore with a calm manner, yet endured with great interior and mystical suffering.

Three years to the day from receiving the invisible wounds of Christ, the deep, bloody, and painful marks of the stigmata became visible on his body and stayed with him until his death. Doctors estimated that he may have lost a cup of blood every day during the 50 years he bore the wounds. Millions of people came to see Padre Pio because of these visible manifestations of holiness on his hands, feet and side. But his real virtue resounded in his heart while listening to millions of confessions over his lifetime. From all over the world and from all walks of life, people sought him for direction. The poor, in particular, held a special place in his soul. His spiritual insight and his merciful guidance converted even the hardest of sinners.

His example of long hours in prayer and meditation, vigilant fasting, and a life of interior and exterior suffering reminds us of the Passion of Our Lord and the glory of the Cross. In Pope John Paul II’s homily at Padre Pio’s canonization, he said, "Our time needs to rediscover the value of the Cross in order to open the heart to hope. Throughout his [Padre Pio's] life, he always sought greater conformity with the Crucified, since he was very conscious of having been called to collaborate in a special way in the work of redemption. His holiness cannot be understood without this constant reference to the Cross."

Wanting to be remembered as nothing more than a "poor friar who prayed," Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968. Following his death, the tortuous wounds that were a part of his life for over half a century vanished from his flesh without even a scar. He was beatified on May 2, 1999, and canonized June 16, 2002. After Fatima and Lourdes, San Giovanni Rotondo, the location of the isolated monastery where St. Pio lived most of his life and where his tomb remains, is the most visited site for those in search of healing, hope, and renewal.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Linus (79), Pope, Martyr

St. Thecla (117). Virgin, Martyr, invoked for the dying

St. Constantius the Sacristan (1st Century)

St. Joseph lived in the 17th century and was a faithful and passionate young boy, yet he was lacking in strong intelligence and common sense. His pious qualities went unnoticed by his family and the people who lived in Cupertino, because he appeared to be an incompetent and forgetful fool. His mother was so embarrassed by his failures that she sent him away to be a servant for the Franciscans in Grotella, Italy, when he was just seventeen years old.

It was here that Joseph expressed his desire to become a priest. But he was not a good student and failed miserably in his studies. As Providence would have it, the one question asked of him at his oral test for the transitional diaconate was the one answer that he knew. And then again at his review for the candidacy to the priesthood, he was blessed by following on the heels of some very smart seminarians. They answered their questions so well that the bishop just passed the others, including Joseph, without further questions.

Joseph is considered one of the great mystics, perhaps even greater than St. Francis. Following his ordination, he was gifted with the charism of levitation at the mere glimpse of a statue of Our Lady or the mere mention of the name of the Lord. He would fall into a rapture of weightlessness and hover several feet above the ground in silent prayer. Sometimes he was seen flying around the church from balcony to balcony or from statue to statue.

For over thirty years, he was kept in seclusion at the request of Church officials, who found his "flights" embarrassing. Pope Benedict XIV disagreed and determined that his levitations and other mystical gifts met the criteria for sanctity. He was canonized in 1767 and in all seriousness (with a little laugh!) is the Patron of Students and Aviators.

St. Agricolus, also known as Agricola, was born in Avignon, around 630, the son of Saint Magnus of Avignon, who as a layman, served in the French Senate and, upon the death of his wife, became a monk and eventually a bishop.

Agricolus took his monastic professions at Lérins at the tender age of 16. When he was 32, his father, Bishop of Avignon, appointed him his coadjutor, or assistant. And at his father’s death in 660, Agricolus succeeded him as Bishop of Avignon. Dedicated to the life of the Church and its visible presence in the world, he led the construction of a great church in Avignon in which the monks of Lérins could minister to the community. He also founded a Benedictine convent.

Great miracles while he was alive can be attributed to his prayers. During an infestation of storks, a simple blessing seemed to drive the giant birds away. And during a great plague of terrible storms, good weather resulted from the bishop’s dedicated prayers.

Since his death in 700 at age 70, several miracles have been attributed to his intercession, as recorded in 15th-century documents. He is the patron saint for assistance in plague epidemics and for good weather and against rain. Saint Agricolus has also been the patron saint of Avignon since 1647. Represented in art by a stork, his feast day is September 2.

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Stephen (1038), King of Hungary

St. Ingrid of Sweden (1282), Virgin

Bartholomew initially doubted the possibility of the Messiah coming from Nazareth, but upon meeting Jesus he immediately declared Him to be “the Son of God and the King of Israel” (Jn 1:49). Early Church legends describe Bartholomew as having preached the gospel in India and Armenia, where he supposedly suffered martyrdom by being flayed alive; the historical value of these legends is open to question.

St. Bartholomew is in a sense the “unknown Apostle,” and for this reason, he can serve as a patron saint for almost all of us. Most of us will never become famous or important in the eyes of the world, but this matters little; all of us are perfectly known, and infinitely important, in the eyes of God. The simple, everyday lives we lead can, if we offer them to God, become ways of helping bring about His Kingdom. St. Bartholomew isn’t as well known as Peter, John, Thomas, or some of the other Apostles; what matters is that he responded wholeheartedly to God’s call.

Other Saints We Remember Today

Our Lady, Health of the Sick