Home » Saints

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Mar 8, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. John of God – March 8

St. John of God (1495 -1555) was born Joao Cidade in Montemor-o-Novo (Evora) in Portugal on March 8, 1495. He spent much of his life working in Spain for the Mayoral family in Oropeza as a shepherd. Later he became a soldier of fortune, enlisting twice in the army. After his second enlistment, which had taken him to Austria to fight the Turks, he traveled through Spain and North Africa. Juan Ciudad, as he was known in Spanish, settled in Granada and became a seller of books on chivalry and religion.

In 1537, St. John of God heard a sermon by St. John of Avila and underwent an intense conversion experience. His reaction was extreme. He destroyed his book shop and acted deranged for several days. He was finally committed to the Royal Hospital of Granada, since he seemed to have gone mad. A few months later, he left, calm of spirit, and put himself under the direction St. John of Avila. After a brief pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in southern Spain, he returned to Granada and took up his work in service of the poor.

He became known as Juan de Dios, John of God, because of his great love and service to the destitute and the ill. St. John of God was given a habit by the local bishop, who also confirmed the name everyone had given him. He was very good not only at soliciting money and support for his hospital but he also created a relationship between the donors and the recipients. Volunteers provided services and the recipients were encouraged to pray for their benefactors. He was at ease with all levels of society and was especially known for listening to people’s problems and offering encouragement if nothing else. St. John of God reached out to the most despised members of society, the prostitutes, and helped many to find other ways to support themselves and lead lives of dignity.

On his birthday, March 8, 1555, a day that would become his feast day, St. John of God went to his reward. The co-workers he had attracted, formed a religious order, the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God, to carry on his work all over the world. The core of St. John of God’s spirituality is hospitality – that virtue of acceptance and care that sees Christ in the guest at the door and among those most in need.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Feb 21, 2008

Saint of the Day – St. Peter Damian – February 21

St. Peter Damian is the figure on the right, with Sts. Augustine, Anne and Elizabeth.

St. Peter Damian lived in the 11th century. He was orphaned at a young age and raised by two of his brothers. The first treated him as little more than a slave, but the second treated him kindly, took him into his own home and sent him to school. Peter took this second brother’s name, Damian, as part of his own name.

Peter Damian grew up to become a teacher and, later, became a Benedictine monk. He was always very devout and passionate about prayer, fasting, sacrifices and caring for the poor. He regularly welcomed poor people to eat with him. He spent so much time in prayer and reading Scripture that he developed insomnia. He had to learn to use his time more wisely, so that he could have the time he wanted for prayer and still get enough sleep to maintain his health.

He eventually became abbot of his monastery and founded 5 others. His reputation as a reformer of monastery life, peacemaker and troubleshooter led a series of popes to send him as their representative to settle problems in various monasteries and dioceses, as well as to be a representative of the Church with local government officials. If he saw a churchman or government official who was not living in a way that witnessed to the Gospel, he would intervene with that person and publicly call him back to a more appropriate lifestyle. He wrote passionately against practices which he saw as sinful and did not hesitate to argue with persons in authority.

Peter Damian never sought titles or office within the Church, but he was forced to accept the position of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. In this role he led the diocese and worked for reform among priests, bishops and laity. Though he had not wanted to be a bishop, he served faithfully until finally Pope Alexander II allowed him to retire. Even in retirement, he traveled extensively as the Pope’s representative. He died of a fever on his way home from a final journey to Ravenna as papal legate.

Though never officially canonized, Peter Damian is a Doctor of the Church, a title granted to him in part because of his efforts to reform the Church from within and to encourage the practice of prayer and study of Scripture. He was a prolific writer, a man of great influence in his world, and yet also a humble monk in spirit, retreating to the monastery whenever possible to live his preferred life of simplicity and prayer.

In the words of Pope Benedict XVI,

“With his pen and his words he addressed all: he asked his brother hermits for the courage of a radical self-giving to the Lord which would as closely as possible resemble martyrdom; he demanded of the Pope, Bishops and ecclesiastics a high level of evangelical detachment from honours and privileges in carrying out their ecclesial functions; he reminded priests of the highest ideal of their mission that they were to exercise by cultivating purity of morals and true personal poverty.

In an age marked by forms of particularism and uncertainties because it was bereft of a unifying principle, Peter Damien, aware of his own limitations – he liked to define himself as peccator monachus – passed on to his contemporaries the knowledge that only through a constant harmonious tension between the two fundamental poles of life – solitude and communion – can an effective Christian witness develop.”

This tension and these ideals are still the ones with which we wrestle today as we each try to fulfill the vocations to which we are called, in a world filled with controversy, using the gifts we have received for the larger community, and being renewed through prayer and Scripture.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Feb 14, 2008

Valentine’s Day Reflections 2008

February 14 is Valentine’s Day, a day focused on love. Marketers have been promoting their products for several weeks now – trying to convince us that their particular product is the best possible way to say “I love you” to that special someone in our lives. And lots of us will buy something to express our love for those special people with whom we share our lives.

I remember one year when I received a waffle iron for Valentine’s Day. The women at the shop where my husband was getting his hair cut were horrified that he would get a small kitchen appliance for me. But he was right – I was thrilled. I love waffles and the old waffle iron I’d gotten 10 years earlier at a garage sale had finally broken – metal fatigue. It was a wonderful gift. We had waffles for dinner that night!

Valentine’s Day is a feast whose origins are found in legends about holy men who lived long ago. We don’t know much about St. Valentine, or even which man he actually was – there were several Valentines who were martyred in ancient days. The name means worthy and was popular in Roman times.

Many of the traditions related to Valentine’s day had their origins in the Middle Ages. It was believed then that birds began to choose their mates in mid-February, so the day seemed appropriate for celebrating romantic love. Fr. James McSweeney, on his website, www.todayismygifttoyou.com has a couple of lovely pieces about St. Valentine and love today.

Another essay I found this morning is by Timothy Chambers, a philosophy teacher at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. He talks about love potions mentioned in old legends and about what is really necessary for love – the stuff that can’t come out of a bottle. Of course, physical attraction is important in human love (and it might conceivably be produced by a “love potion”), but even more important are memories of happy times together, trust and faith in the beloved and the free choice to love in bad times as well as in the good times.

My wish for you today is that you know love. A love deeper than the sea and higher than the sky. The love that fills your being with the unshakeable certainty that nothing can ever come between you and the Lover, between you and your Creator. You are loved and loveable because you were loved into existence and are held in existence by that same love. Just as you are. With all your gifts and faults. You are loved.

Peace be with you. Now and always. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Feb 11, 2008

Feast of the Day: Our Lady of Lourdes – February 11

“The Lady took the rosary that she held in her hands and she made the sign of the cross. Then I commenced not to be afraid. I took my rosary again; I was able to make the sign of the cross; from that moment I felt perfectly undisturbed in mind. I knelt down and said my rosary, seeing this Lady always before my eyes. The Vision slipped the beads of her rosary between her fingers, but she did not move her lips. When I had said my rosary the Lady made a sign for me to approach, but I did not dare. I stayed in the same place. Then, all of a sudden, she disappeared. I started to remove the other stocking to cross the shallow water near the grotto so as to join my companions. And we went away. As we returned, I asked my companions if they had seen anything. ‘No,’ they replied. ‘And what about you? Did you see anything?’ ‘Oh, no, if you have seen nothing, neither have I.’

“I thought I had been mistaken. But as we went, all the way, they kept asking me what I had seen. I did not want to tell them. Seeing that they kept on asking I decided to tell them, on condition that they would tell nobody. They promised not to tell. They said that I must never go there again, nor would they, thinking that it was someone who would harm us. I said no. As soon as they arrived home they hastened to say that I had seen a Lady dressed in white. That was the first time.” ^[2]

On realising that she alone had seen the apparition, and not her companions, she asked her sister Toinette not to tell anyone what had happened. Toinette, however, was unable to keep silent, and told their mother, Louise Soubirous. Both girls received a beating, and Bernadette was forbidden by her mother from returning to the Grotto again.^[3]

On Thursday February 11, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, an impoverished, uneducated, 14 year old French peasant, had an experience that would not only change her life but would make would make her home town an international destination for pilgrims. Bernadette was not unlike many of the millions of girls around the world today growing up in stark poverty. Her parents and 5 siblings lived in a one room prison cell that had been abandoned because it was no longer fit for prisoners. Bernadette’s father was a miller and her mother took in laundry.

St. Bernadette would have a total of 18 encounters with the Lady of the grotto. The last one would be July 16. In the process of these visits, a miraculous spring of water would appear. People would be healed. The Lady would refer to herself as the Immaculate Conception. The grotto would be closed by authorities and people forbidden to pray there by the mayor of Lourdes.

Today, Lourdes hosts 15 million pilgrims a year. Paris is the only city in France that has more hotel rooms. The beautiful young woman, who died at the age of 33 from tuberculosis of the bone, refused to return to the grotto seeking a cure, saying only that the water was for others. Today 150 years after the first apparition, St. Bernadette’s body is still marvelously intact and uncorrupted.

St. Bernadette and the events of Lourdes met with intense skepticism and careful investigation by religious, political, and scientific authorities. Subject to medical and scientific review, thousands of healings have been documented which do not have a natural explanation. Yet only a fraction of the sick and infirm are healed physically. The prayerfulness and the experience of a community of faith continues to draw millions every year.

There is a saying associated with Lourdes that is especially appropriate. “To those who believe no explanation is necessary; to those who do not believe no explanation is possible.”

St. Bernadette – the young girl

St. Bernadette – at rest

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Feb 8, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. Josephine Bahkita – February 8

St. Josephine Bahkita (1869-1947) was born in Olgossa in the province of Darfur, Sudan. She was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 7 and was sold 5 times in the markets of El Obeid and Khartoum. Her suffering and abuse were immense. Her fourth owner, an Ottoman army officer, had her and his other slaves tatooed and scarred to mark them as his property. Once the sons of her owner beat her so severely that she could not move from her straw pallet for a month. Her fifth buyer was the Italian consul ,who treated her more humanely, but nevertheless gave the 16 year old to one of his friends, who made her a nanny to his daughter. St. Josephine and the girl she cared for were sent to the Canossian Daughters of Charity in Venice while the parents returned to Africa.

Upon their return, St. Josephine refused to leave with them. In the ensuing court case, the Canossian Sisters and the Patriarch of Venice intervened on her behalf. The court upheld her freedom and she returned to the Canossian Sisters. She spent the rest of her life happily as the door keeper in the convent in Schio and was in frequent contact with the community. St. Josephine was known for her cheerfulness and holiness. In her later years, her order asked her to write her memoirs and to give talks about her life story. Efforts to declare her a saint began soon after her death in 1947 and she was canonized (declared a saint) in 2000.

As terrible as her story of slavery is, it might be more bearable if we could relegate it to the horrors of 19th century Africa. Unfortunately, turmoil in Darfur and human trafficking are even more prominent today. There might be some solace in St. Josephine’s designation as the patron saint of Sudan, except that genocide in Darfur is directed at Christians and animists by a hostile government in Sudan which is protected from international sanction by its commercial ties with China. The persecution of Christians has spread to other African countries in recent years as well.

St. Josephine is remarkable not only because she was able to survive such a cruel childhood and adolescence, but because she rose from it in a spirit full of happiness. Bitterness, depression, anxiety, even hostility, and self-destruction are the more likely outcomes of such an horrendous youth. Credit also has to go to the Canossian Sisters who could have turned a blind eye to the plight of an African and not opposed a prominent family. St. Josephine could have taken a certain morose refuge with the Sisters, but instead she became an unassuming beacon of holiness.

I don’t think that she would want us to forget about Darfur and the resurgence of slavery in our globalized economy. What will we say when we meet her one day? Make a donation to help out.

Image of St. Josephine Bahkita from the website of the Canossian Daughters of Charity.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Feb 5, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. Agatha – February 5

St. Agatha was a virgin martyr around the year 251 in Catania, Sicily. That is all we really know about her. She was honored widely in many parts of Europe and, centuries later, legends were written about her martyrdom. However, The Catholic Encyclopedia gives little credit to this story, since it appears that it was written much later to depict heroism and miracles without any real historical information.

The legend is almost stylized. She was a beautiful young woman from a noble family who refused the advances of a Roman official. She was tortured and put through many trials but was steadfast in her faith. While it is unfortunate that we know so very little about St. Agatha, it is telling that such a male dominated society as Rome would focus on the importance of young women and their great courage.

Women played a significant role in the development of early Christianity. St. Paul refers to the deaconness Phoebe and to other prominent women leaders. There is good historical evidence that well-to-do Greek and Roman women were among the first believers. Widows, who generally had very little power and wealth, would find a secure place in Christian communities, which saw to their needs.

Perhaps the best legacy of St. Agatha and these brave women, a legacy that we can truly celebrate, is a commitment to and a concern for the women and girls in our midst. Despite the advances made in industrialized societies, the lot and fate of women and girls is one of continued oppression and exploitation throughout the world. While I could recount some of the cultural celebrations observed on St. Agatha’s feast day or mention that she is invoked to protect people from eruptions of Mt. Etna, there is a greater import in the brief historical note that gives us her name and documents her martyrdom. The power and strength of God are manifest in the feminine.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Feb 2, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. Blaise, Bishop & Martyr – February 3

Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God protect you from all ailments of the throat and from all forms of evil. Amen.’ ~Blessing given on the feast of St.Blaise

St. Blaise was martyred for the faith around 316. That is all we actually know about him. However, his feast has been celebrated from the very early centuries. The Catholic Encylopedia and other scholarly sources reject the Acta or Deeds of the life of St. Blaise as history and regard them as legend. According to this old story, St. Blaise was bishop of Sebastea in Armenia and was tortured and executed under the persecution of Licinius after he had been discovered in the countryside. As he was being led off by his captors, a mother brought him a baby who was choking on a fish bone. St. Blaise prayed for the baby, who was immediately cured.

Consequently, St. Blaise has been associated with the relief of throat ailments, both physical and spiritual. (Spiritual aliments would include things like gossiping, coarse language and lying.) When I was a boy in the 1950s, this day was marked by the blessing of throats with crossed unlighted candles. For those of us who were altar boys, it took a little reminder that after the Last Gospel (the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel), the final blessing and the prayers for the conversion of Russia (they must have been heard after all), we had to return to the communion rail and accompany Father for the blessing of the throats. Like many of the Latin rituals, its beauty and the sweet beeswax smell of the new candles was somewhat marred by the rapid droning of the blessing and a certain assembly line efficiency, as we made several circuits of the communion rail.

As nice as it was, we never focused on his witness as bishop and martyr. There was just enough documentation to verify that St. Blaise was an historical figure and to spare him from the fate of St. Christopher, whose legend was quietly declared a myth. Everything else about St. Blaise is veiled in legend and the mists of time.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 31, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. John Bosco – January 31

St. Giovanni M. Bosco (1815-1888) is commonly known in English as St. John Bosco or as Don Bosco. The English honorific title of Don for a professor is well suited to a man who changed the teaching method from one of violence to one of encouragement and respect.

St. John Bosco was born in a cabin and grew up in poverty after the death of his father when Giovanni was still very small. He worked in the fields and as a shepherd and went to school as he could. From an early age, St. John Bosco had dreams about working with boys and bringing them to a better moral and social condition. As a young priest, he acted on this calling and started working with boys who had been imprisoned due to abandonment, neglect, abuse, and delinquency. Conditions in the mid-1800s in Italy were not unlike those chronicled by Dickens during the same period in England.

Although the bishop approved of his work, St. John Bosco met resistance and harassment from the public. He was forced to move his small chapel and school several times. The public saw these boys as a threat and as basically worthless. Finally, St. John Bosco was able to establish a school and workshop to give the boys training in printing and other trades of the early industrial revolution. The boys gravitated to him and his instruction because he showed that he cared about them and their physical well being. After grinding 12 hour days in the factories, the boys came to night classes to get the fundamentals of education and the faith. The patron of his schools, and later of the order he founded, was St. Francis de Sales – another visionary educator who focused on the love of God.

It is important to remember that Italy was going through immense turmoil at the time and the Church was losing political control of the Papal States in the center of the peninsula. Anti-clericalism was very strong as Italy made its way to political unification under a secular government. The work of St. John Bosco and his order, the Salesian Society, started a ministry based on social and economic development through technical and vocational education. Those boys and young men who had been considered disposable had their dignity restored and became productive members of society with a moral and religious foundation.

St. John Bosco’s work continues today among the lowest ranks of society all around the world in the schools and workshops of the Salesians of St. John Bosco.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 28, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. Thomas Aquinas – January 28

St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor (c. 1225 – 1274), has been and continues to be one of the most influential forces shaping Catholic theology and philosophy. He was born at Roccasecca castle, the home of his father, Count Landulf, in the Kingdom of Naples. His mother was Theodora, Countess of Theate, and was related to the Hohenstafuen dyanasty of Holy Roman emperors. St. Thomas’s uncle, Sinbald, was the abbot of the first Benedictine monastery, Monte Cassino, and the family planned for him to succeed his uncle as abbot.

At the age of 5, St. Thomas was sent to Monte Cassino to begin his studies. At 16 he was sent to the University of Naples, where he came under the influence of the Order of Preachers – the Dominicans -who were innovators in a new style of religious life very different from that of traditional orders such as the Benedictines. St. Thomas upset his family by announcing his intention of joining the Dominicans. This action not only destroyed the family’s ambition to retain the power and prestige of Monte Cassino, but it was almost akin to running off with a band of hippies. Unable to convince him to renounce this foolishness, his family kidnapped him and held him for a year in the family castle of San Giovanni. Finally, Pope Innocent IV intervened and St. Thomas joined the Dominicans at 17.

St. Thomas and the Dominicans of his time introduced an entirely new way of approaching the faith. For 12 centuries, the Church teachers of the faith appealed to the authority of the scriptures and previous teachers such as St. Augustine or other Fathers of the Church. The scholastic movement, embodied by St. Thomas and his teacher St. Albert the Great, began with an open inquiry based on logic and reason. The traditional Faith was accepted as true, but thoughtful and logical reason were presented as to why it might not be true. Ultimately, various statements of belief were upheld, not only on the authority of the Church or tradition, but by reason and logic as well.

The format of the scholastic argument is the back bone of St. Thomas’s two major works, The Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. It is hard for us as post-modern people to imagine what a daring and threatening approach this was for the time. In fact the 1200s were a time of immense change in Europe. Trade and communications with the East had been reopened and with them came a flood of new and ancient knowledge. Trade and commerce increased the power and prestige of market towns at the expense of the countryside. Monastic schools gave way to early universities. The great Cathedrals began to dominate the landscape. The traditional clergy were overshadowed by the two great orders of mendicant friars (the begging brothers) – the Dominicans and the Franciscans.

St. Thomas, and his contemporary members of the scholastic movement, absorbed and transformed Islamic and Greek philosophy, science, technology, and mathematics. In particular, the Thomistic school of scholasticism is known for reviving the philosophy of Aristotle and its logic.

Over the centuries, scholastic philosophy would evolve and change in a variety of ways and St. Thomas – contrary to his own method – became the authority. Instead of being a fresh and bold inquiry, scholasticism degenerated into a catalog of arguments and answers to be memorized and repeated. In the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, scholasticism and Thomism were disregarded by secular philosophies reliant only on reason. Thomism was also marginalized in training programs for priests.

In the late 1800s, there was a movement to restore Thomism as a defense against the secular philosophies of the Enlightenment and to renew some intellectual vigor in Catholic circles. It was an attempt to come to grips with the modern world and met heavy resistance. In the early 1900s, Thomism began to assume some prominence and neo-Thomism emerged with a renewed interest in the relationship between faith and reason. It is a long and complicated story, but it reflects the enduring importance of the work of St. Thomas and the changing moods of society and philosophy.

The core question persists. What can we know of God through reason? The second question follows. How reasonable is our faith?

If we want to honor a man who was a mystic, a saint, and an intellectual, it seems that we have to take on the openness of his inquiry and the wonder he beheld in faith.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 26, 2008

Saints of the Day – Sts. Timothy and Titus – January 26

Everybody needs friends – a real support network. St. Paul was no exception and he was very fortunate to have Timothy and Titus, not only as helpers and proteges in his missionary work, but as very close friends.

Their story, as told in the Acts of the Apostles and the Pastoral Epistles, shows their work on behalf of the Gospel. Yet there is so much more between the lines. Timothy went to be with St. Paul when he was under house arrest in Rome. St. Paul was anguished about Timothy’s own arrest. St. Paul made sure that Titus was not circumcised in Jerusalem – that he did not have to conform to that church’s notion that Baptism was not enough to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

St. Paul could be lonely, discouraged, and moody like anyone else dealing with fatigue, mistrust, and the problems of the Christian communities which he founded. Even though his vocation was startling, miraculous and public, St. Paul wavered. He bargained with God. He was thoroughly human.

Timothy caught a lot of grief for being young and having to somehow soothe the roiling in various communities of the Faith. Titus had the unenviable task of delivering letters from St. Paul which were not exactly “good news” for the recipients. Unlike the postal service, he couldn’t excuse himself and take off. He had to stay and work things out.

The French saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” applies to Christian communities from the very beginning to the present. As much as St. Paul and his friends relied on prayer, their friendship was a sacrament that many of us have experienced. Most of the time it is all too easy to forget that we are more than church members. To survive and reach past our own limitations and those of others, true devoted friends are the sacrament of God’s presence.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 25, 2008

Feast of the Day: Conversion of St. Paul – January 25

January 25 is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (Acts 22). Most of us are familiar with the story. Saul – his original name – was a Pharisee who was persecuting the very first Christians. (At that early stage believers called themselves Followers of the Way. The name Christian would come about later in Antioch)

St. Paul was on his way to Damascus with documents authorizing him to arrest and bring back Christians to Jerusalem for trial by the religious authorities. Scripture makes no reference to a horse, which is usually part of the depiction of the scene in which St. Paul is blinded by a bright light and falls to the ground. He hears a voice utter the now famous words “Saul, why are you persecuting me.” In the exchange, St. Paul asks who it is that is speaking to him – the response, “I am Jesus, the Nazarene..”

According to scripture, we know that Paul was from Tarsus and that he was also a Roman citizen. His letters to the early congregations (churches) are the oldest documents in the New Testament. They reveal a man who is thoroughly Jewish in his mode of thinking and speech. Yet he is Christianity’s link to the larger Hellenistic world.

For those who like to emphasize the important role of St. Peter in the development of the Church, it can come as a shock that he and St. Paul disagreed so strongly about the incorporation of non-Jews, or gentiles. Some of us contemporary Catholics – with a certain sense of ironic humor – see this conflict as the first among many between a Pope and a theologian.

What is most significant about St. Paul’s conversion is his acceptance by the leadership of the early Christian community. Although they had substantial reasons to distrust his sincerity, they forgave an enemy – even one who had been an accomplice in the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr. They forgave a man who arrested and imprisoned their family members and friends. The book of the Acts of the Apostles shows that the leadership and the community had their misgivings, but they helped the repentant Saul to demonstrate his conversion, acting as mentors, teachers, and friends. Some helped more than others, and many not at all, yet it was enough. And as they say… the rest is history.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 24, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. Francis de Sales – January 24

St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is an interesting counterpoint to John Calvin (1509-1564) who preceded him. Both men are united by the City of Geneva. Calvin was its spiritual leader and made it a great center of the Reformation and St. Francis de Sales would become bishop of Geneva, although his headquarters were in Annecy, since Geneva no longer permitted Catholicism. Both men were well educated. Their fathers had intended for them to be lawyers and high government officials. Both studied theology and were perplexed by the issue of predestination – that certain people were saved and others were not because it had all been determined by God from eternity.

The notion of predestination overwhelmed St. Francis as a young student at Paris and almost crushed him, because he felt that he had been damned from all eternity for all eternity. He became physically ill and depressed and could barely get out of bed. Calvin dealt with it by assuming that he and members of his Reformed Church had been predestined for salvation.

St. Francis left his bed and in prayer at church, in front of a statue of the Blessed Mother, he affirmed his belief in God as a God of love. Our salvation rests on our faith and reliance on a God of love; on God who is love. This transformative experience would lead not only to a long life spent reforming and re-establishing Catholicism, but more importantly, suffusing that Catholicism with the gentleness of the Love of God.

This focus on divine love renewed a sense of spiritual priorities as seen in the Gospels. Exterior practices and observances, including penance and mortification, were second to a conversion of the mind, heart, and spirit. He led many back to Catholicism not so much by his learned teaching and writing but by the simplicity of his life as a bishop and his comfort in visiting the small towns and the countryside of his diocese at risk of his personal safety.

It might be easy for Catholics to focus on the triumph of St. Francis as a major figure in the Counter-Reformation, but this would miss the point of his life. St. Francis called people to an authentic Christianity based on the history and tradition of the Catholic Church. Yet his focus on the faith and its sacraments was a focus on the Divine Love. It was a protest against the emptiness of a faith based on predestination and severity and it was also a re-affirmation of a joyous faith of love as presented in the Gospels. His life and teaching presented a path of profound reformation and conversion for all Christians and those who seek God with a sincere heart.

St. Francis de Sales’ spirituality became a centerpiece for the religious order of The Visitation that he would found with St. Jane Frances de Chantal and for centuries of Catholics who would follow. St. Francis de Sales also inspired the founding of the Oblates of St. Frances de Sales and the Salesians of St. John Bosco.

His great works include: Introduction to the Devout Life, Treatise on the Love of God, and The Catholic Controversy.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 22, 2008

Saint of the Day? – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) achieved a moral stature and Christian witness that continues to inspire people of all faiths across the world. His life and work is commemorated not as a feast of the Roman Calendar but of the United States, on the third Monday of January each year. The human rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was 35 at the time of his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.

Most people are familiar with his “I Have A Dream Speech” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. However his final speech, delivered on April 3, 1968, “I Have Been to the Mountain Top,” not only presaged his death, but summarized his great vision for us all. You can hear by clicking on this link. It is well worth hearing in its entirety, not only because Dr. King was one of the great masters of English rhetoric, but the actual spoken message in its wonderful cadences, rich inflections, and profound rhythms stirs the soul with their inspiration.

Is Dr. King a saint? It is ironic to pose this question in regard to a Baptist minister, whose denomination – among others – has criticized the “worship” of the saints by Catholics. Like Dorothy Day, we can probably assume that Dr. King would dissuade us from giving him the title and remind us to return to the work of serving the least among us.

What is most remarkable about Dr. King’s legacy was the Christian witness of non-violence. Very easily, Dr. King could have kept the oppression of black people in the United States on a political level and built a base of power for himself. He also could have kept it on a “spiritual” level by focusing on the “next” life. Dr. King did neither. As a result, he elevated the whole movement to one of social justice and human rights for the children of God – of the “I” encountering the “thou” of the other person.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base….

Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn’t stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his brother.

Go and do likewise. (Luke 10:37)

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.

I’m not worried about anything.

I’m not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 21, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. Agnes of Rome – January 21

St. Agnes (291-304) was a twelve year old Roman girl who was killed on January 21, 304 because she refused to marry the son of the Prefect Sempronius. Agnes was killed because she was a Christian virgin and wished to remain so. She is an early heroine of the church at Rome and is mentioned in the Eucharistic Prayer – the Great Thanksgiving – of the Mass.

There is very little we know about her except that she was a real historical person. Her faith and her strength at such a young age were seen as remarkable by Christian and non-Christian alike. In and of itself, it was considered a miracle. Agnes’s defiance of authority was not only rare, it was also foolhardy, particularly for a woman, let alone a girl, in her time and culture. In a culture which was licentious and in which the slaves and less powerful had no control of their own futures, let alone of their own bodies, Christianity would set a new standard which we take for granted today in a post-Christian world.

St. Agnes was martyred in the last great wave of persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. Within 20 years of her death, Christianity would become legalized in the Empire and the love of Christ for which she died would spread beyond her time and place throughout history. Human rights: dignity, autonomy, opportunity – the right to be whole, free, in love, caught up in the divine – were announced by the faith of a young girl of faith a long time ago.

Posted by Dcn. Randy Pozos on Jan 17, 2008

Saint of the Day: St. Anthony the Great – January 17

The feast of St. Anthony the Great (251-356) is January 17. In the Egyptian or Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic Churches, the feast day is January 30. He is also known as St. Anthony the Abbot and is an early example of the Christian monk. What we know of his life comes from a biography written by St. Athanasius, the patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt. The account was written in Latin and had a major impact on the development of monasticism in the West. Devotion to St. Anthony is less prominent in the East.

St. Anthony is best known for his literal following of the Gospel. According to St. Athanasius, St. Anthony’s parents died when he was a young man. Hearing the call of Christ in St. Matthew’s Gospel to sell everything he had and come follow Christ, St. Anthony, who had inherited a substantial estate from his parents, did just that. He spent his life in the desert, primarily alone, although toward the end of his life he did supervise some other monks who had joined him. They lived with the fundamental rule to work and pray, which would later be echoed by St. Benedict of Nursia.

What is noticeable in the account of St. Athanasius is the theme of spiritual warfare with the devil. St. Anthony overcame many temptations through prayer and faith. His life in the desert brought him the same temptations that Christ encountered during His soujourn in the desert. What is even more notable is that St. Anthony emerged from his time of testing as someone enlightened who could comfort and heal, someone people sought out not for his wisdom or knowledge, but for his goodness and genuine holiness.

As postmodern people, we have a highly developed notion of individual psychology and it can be difficult to relate to someone like St. Anthony. Our notion of self-actualization appears to get in the way of such an extreme life style of self renunciation. However, it is hard to see how such enlightenment is not the highest form of self-actualization. Today our spiritual heroes, such as Mother Teresa, have chosen a very challenging path not unlike that of St. Anthony. What desert are we being called to?

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Saint of the Day: St. John of God – March 8

Saint of the Day – St. Peter Damian – February 21

Valentine’s Day Reflections 2008

Feast of the Day: Our Lady of Lourdes – February 11

Saint of the Day: St. Josephine Bahkita – February 8

Saint of the Day: St. Agatha – February 5

Saint of the Day: St. Blaise, Bishop & Martyr – February 3

Saint of the Day: St. John Bosco – January 31

Saint of the Day: St. Thomas Aquinas – January 28

Saints of the Day – Sts. Timothy and Titus – January 26

Feast of the Day: Conversion of St. Paul – January 25

Saint of the Day: St. Francis de Sales – January 24

Saint of the Day: St. Agnes of Rome – January 21

Saint of the Day: St. Anthony the Great – January 17

Welcome to our blog

Our Vision

Our Supporters and Friends

Help Support Theologika

Topics of Interest

Past Issues

Our Visitors Around the World