Saints celebrated on the 15th of July
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
BL. ANNE MARY JAVOUHEY, FOUNDRESS
Foundress of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny; she was born at Chamblanc, Diocese of Dijon, November 11, 1779 and died July 15, 1851.
THE SCOPE OF THE NEW CONGREGATION WAS EXTENDED
In 1819 the scope of the new congregation, which had been founded for the alleviation of the miseries consequent on the Revolution, was extended to embrace foreign mission work, and in 1822 Mother Javouhey herself established a house of the sisters at Goree, in West Africa.
SHE DEVOTED HERSELF TO THE VICTIMS OF A PESTILENCE
After two years in Senegal and vicinity, she passed to the British colony of St Mary’s, Gambia, devoting herself without stint to the victims of a pestilence then raging. On her return to Senegal she received the co-operation of the French Government in her first project for evangelising the natives, by which a certain number were to be educated in Europe and sent back as missionaries to their people.
SHE ORGANISED A SELF-SUPPORTING COLONY
French Guiana, however, was to be the scene of Mother Javouhey’s most important missionary work. Having submitted her plans for approval and received full authority, Mother Javouhey set out for Guiana in 1828, with 36 sisters and 50 emigrants, and soon had organised a self-supporting colony, in which all the useful arts were practised.
WHOLE TRIBES OF NATIVE AMERICANS ASKED FOR BAPTISM
Long before this Mother Javouhey had established a leper colony on the banks of the Accarouary. Even Native Americans came within the sphere of her influence; whole tribes were instructed in the Faith and asked for baptism.
SHE CONTINUED TO DIRECT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW MISSION HOUSES
On her return to France, in 1843, Mother Javouhey found fresh trials awaiting her, including, ecclesiastical opposition. Nevertheless she continued to direct the establishment of new mission houses of her order in all parts of the world, in addition to over thirty foundations in the various dioceses of France.
MOURNING AS FOR A PERSONAL BEREAVEMENT
When the news of her death reached French Guiana, there was general grief, and most of the inhabitants of her colonies went into mourning as for a personal bereavement.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. - Mother Anne Mary was beatified on October 15, 1950 by Pope Pius XII)
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