ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 14th of September
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. JULIA CROSTAROSA, VIRGIN
In 1724, soon after Alphonsus [Liguori] left the world, a postulant, Julia Crostarosa, born in Naples on October 31, 1696, and hence almost the same age as the Saint, entered the convent of Scala. She became known in religion as Sister Maria Celeste.
SHE HAD A SERIES OF VISIONS
In 1725, while still a novice, she had a series of visions in which she saw a new order (apparently of nuns only) similar to that revealed to Falcoia many years before. Even its Rule was made known to her.
She was told to write it down and show it to the director of the convent, that is to Falcoia himself.
While affecting to treat the novice with severity and to take no notice of her visions, the director was surprised to find that the Rule which she had written down was a realisation of what had been so long in his mind.
IT WAS A REALISATION OF WHAT HAD BEEN SO LONG IN HIS MIND
He submitted the new Rule to a number of theologians, who approved of it, and said it might be adopted in the convent of Scala, provided the community would accept it. But when the question was put to the community, opposition began. [...]
On October 8, 1730, Falcoia was consecrated Bishop of Castellamare. He was now free, subject to the approval of the Bishop of Scala, to act with regard to the convent as he thought best.
THE BISHOP BEGGED HIM TO RETURN
It happened that Alphonsus, ill and overworked, had gone with some companions to Scala in the early summer of 1730. Unable to be idle, he had preached to the goatherds of the mountains with such success that Nicolas Guerriero, Bishop of Scala, begged him to return and give a retreat in his cathedral.
Falcoia, hearing of this, begged his friend to give a retreat to the nuns of his Conservatorium at the same time. Alphonsus agreed to both requests and set out with his two friends, John Mazzini and Vincent Mannarini, in September, 1730.
THE BISHOP'S PERMISSION WAS OBTAINED
The result of the retreat to the nuns was that the young priest, who before had been prejudiced by reports in Naples against the proposed new Rule, became its firm supporter, and even obtained permission from the Bishop of Scala for the change.
THE CONVENT ADOPTED THE NEW RULE
In 1731, the convent unanimously adopted the new Rule, together with a habit of red and blue, the traditional colours of Our Lord’s own dress. One branch of the new Institute seen by Falcoia in vision was thus established. The other was not to be long delayed.
No doubt Thomas Falcoia had for some time hoped that the ardent young priest, who was so devoted to him, might, under his direction, be the founder of the new Order he had at heart.
ANOTHER VISION
A fresh vision of Sister Maria Celeste seemed to show that such was the will of God. On October 3, 1731, the eve of the feast of St Francis, she saw Our Lord with St Francis on His right hand and a priest on His left. A voice said "This is he whom I have chosen to be head of My Institute, the Prefect General of a new Congregation of men who shall work for My glory." The priest was Alphonsus.
Soon after, Falcoia made known to the latter his vocation to leave Naples and establish an order of missionaries at Scala, who should work above all for the neglected goatherds of the mountains. A year of trouble and anxiety followed. The Superior of the Propaganda and even Falcoia’s friend, Matthew Ripa, opposed the project with all their might.
OPPOSITION
But Alphonsus’s director, Father Pagano; Father Fiorillo, a great Dominican preacher; Father Manulio, Provincial of the Jesuits; and Vincent Cutica, Superior of the Vincentians, supported the young priest, and, November 9, 1732, the "Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer", or as it was called for seventeen years, "of the Most Holy Saviour", was begun in a little hospice belonging to the nuns of Scala.
THE CONGREGATION OF THE MOST HOLY REDEEMER
Though St Alphonsus was founder and de facto head of the Institute, its general direction in the beginning, as well as the direction of Alphonsus’s conscience, was undertaken by the Bishop of Castellamare and it was not till the latter’s death, April 20, 1743, that a general chapter was held and the Saint was formally elected Superior-General. In fact, in the beginning, the young priest in his humility would not be Superior even of the house, judging one of his companions, John Baptist Donato, better fitted for the post because he had already had some experience of community life in another institute.
[Blessed Julia died on September 14, 1755 in Foggia. She was beatified by Pope Francis on June 18, 2016]
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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