BL. GERHARD HIRSCHFELDER, PRIEST AND MARTYR

BL. GERHARD HIRSCHFELDER, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 1 AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 1st of August

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. GERHARD HIRSCHFELDER, PRIEST AND MARTYR

Blessed Gerhard Hirschfelder was born in 1907 in Glatz, Silesia. Blessed Gerhard was ordained priest in 1932. His path to ordination was strewn with difficulties because Blessed Gerhard was an illegitimate child and, according to the rules of the day, needed special authorisation to study theology and a dispensation for Holy Orders.

A DEDICATED AND EFFECTIVE MINISTER

Despite difficult beginnings, the young priest showed himself a dedicated and effective minister to youth. Realising the horrors of Nazi propaganda, he tried to protect young people from this ideology. In his homilies, Blessed Gerhard denounced the violence that was taking place and the excesses of the Nazis. The Gestapo reacted to the opposition of this priest by arresting him during one of his meetings with young people.

VERY HUMBLE

He was taken to Glatz prison for four months, during which Blessed Gerhard wrote an impressive Way of the Cross and other Catholic works. On 15th December 1941 Blessed Gerhard was taken to Dachau concentration camp. A priest who was also a prisoner in this camp described Blessed Gerhard as leaving “a very humble impression, almost timid”, adding that he “practised a noble discretion and at the same time was always ready to do a favour to others”. Blessed Gerhard died of hunger in Dachau on August 1, 1942.

FOR HUMAN DIGNITY

Pope Benedict XVI said that Blessed Gerhard’s beatification will be followed by other priests who were martyred by the Nazi regime. The Pope said that “in contemplating these martyrs it appears ever more clearly and as an example that on the basis of their Christian conviction some people are prepared to give their life for their faith, for the right to practise what they believe freely, for freedom of speech, for peace and for human dignity.

(From: Spiritual Thought From Father Chris)

WELCOME

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BL. LUKE KIRBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 30 MAY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 30th of May WELCOME! BLESSED LUKE KIRBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR 16th century houses, painted by Auguste Mayer He was born in the bishopric of Durham, according to Raissius ; others say at Richmond, in Yorkshire. He was master of arts in one of our universities; but going abroad to Douay, in Flanders, was received into the English college there, 1576, and made priest in 1577; and the year following sent upon the mission. Where he had not been long before he again went abroad, and travelled to Rome, partly for devotion, and partly for further improvement in learning. Here he remained in the English college till 1580, when he returned into England, and was not long after apprehended: for I find by a printed diary of things transacted in the Tower of London from 1580 till 1585, that on the 5th of December, 1580, Luke Kirby, Thomas Cottam , and other priests, were brought to the Tower from other prisons; and that these two, on the 10th...

BL. RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 30 MAY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 30th of May WELCOME! BLESSED RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR Richard Newport, alias Smith , was born in Northamptonshire and performed his studies abroad, partly in the college of Rheims (if he be the Richard Smith whom I find in the Douay diary sent to Rome in 1586) and partly in that of Rome, where he was made priest. From thence he was sent upon the English mission, and behaved himself in such a manner as justly to acquire the character of a laborious missionary; being withal remarkably successful in bringing home many strayed sheep to the fold of Christ, to which his apostolical way of living did not a little contribute. He was several times apprehended and cast into prison, and twice banished. His name occurs amongst those who were transported in 1606; at which time, we are told, he took that opportunity of making a pilgrimage to Rome, there to pour forth his prayers at the tombs of the apostles, in behalf of thi...

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