SAINT FEAST DAY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 11th 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 th...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 9th of July WELCOME! SS. MARTYRS OF GORCUM Nineteen priests and religious men, who were taken by the Calvinists in Gorcum [Gorkum], after suffering many insults, were hanged on account of their religion at Bril, on July 9, 1572.  SERVING GOD WITH CHEERFULNESS Of these, eleven were Franciscan friars, called Recollects, of the convent of Gorcum, amongst whom were Nicholas Pick the guardian, and Jerome Werden, vicar of the same convent.  Nicholas Pick Nicholas Pick was thirty-eight years old, an eminent preacher, and a man endued with the primitive spirit of his order, especially the love of holy poverty and mortification. He feared the least superfluity even in the meanest and most necessary things, especially in meals; and he would often say: “I fear if St Francis were living, he would not approve of this or that.” He was most zealous to preserve this spirit of poverty and penance in his house, and he used to call pr...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 31st of July WELCOME! SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, CONFESSOR   [Founder of the Society of Jesus.] St Ignatius was born in 1491, in the castle of Loyola, in Guipuscoa, a part of Biscay, that reaches to the Pyrenean mountains. His father, Don Bertram, was lord of Ognez and Loyola, head of one of the most ancient and noble families of that country. His mother, Mary Saez de Balde, was not less illustrious by her extraction. They had three daughters and eight sons.  PAGE TO THE KING The youngest of all these was Inigo or Ignatius; he was well shaped, and in his childhood gave proofs of a pregnant wit and discretion above his years; was affable and obliging, but of a warm or choleric disposition, and had an ardent passion for glory. He was bred in the court of Ferdinand V, in quality of page to the king, under the care and protection of Antony Manriquez, duke of Najara, grandee of Spain, who was his kinsman and patron; and w...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 7th 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 tha...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 29th of July WELCOME! SAINT PAUL CHEN CHANGPIN, SEMINARIAN AND MARTYR  Paul Chen Changpin was a Chinese Catholic martyr saint, a student preparing for the priesthood. He was born April 11, 1838 in Sintchen (former province of Guizhou, Kouy-tcheou). He was martyred by beheading in Qingyang on July 29, 1861. Having become a seminarian, he was condemned and executed. His remains were translated in 1920 and lie in the Cathedral Notre-Dame of Paris, in the chapel of the Sainte-Enfance (north aisle). THE LORD'S CALL Saint Paul was born into a non-Christian family. In 1853 he entered the minor seminary where he began to learn Latin. He was baptised and confirmed on Christmas Day 1853. He made his first communion a few months later.  In 1857, his father told him to leave the seminary and his studies, but he refused. His vocation was firm. In 1860, he entered the major seminary of Tsingay - in the spring of 1861. MARTYRDOM H...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 27th 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 th...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER Saints celebrated on the 2nd of September MICHAEL ALPHONSUS SHEN FUZONG, JESUIT  Michael Alphonsus Shen Fuzong - or Fu-Tsung - was born c. 1658 in Nanking of Chinese parents  who converted to Christianity. [Apparently, he spoke Latin fluently.]  HIS TRIP TO EUROPE He travelled to Europe with a Flemish Jesuit, Fr Philippe Couplet, leaving Macao in December 1681 and reaching Paris in 1684. There they had an audience with Louis XIV at Versailles. They went on to Rome in 1685 and had an audience with Pope Innocent XI. Shen arrived in England in March 1687 and soon became a well-known figure at James II's court. THE PORTRAIT The king commissioned Shen's portrait from Godfrey Kneller shortly after his arrival. He is depicted in Chinese robes, holding a crucifix and looking towards the window as the light illuminates his face, suggesting divine inspiration. The naval surgeon, James Yonge, saw Shen at Windsor in July 1687, describing him ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 6th 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 tha...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER Saints celebrated on the 25th 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 li...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 4th 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 tha...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 4th 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 tha...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 4th of July WELCOME! ST BERTHA, ABBESS   (Saint Bertha [Berta], Widow, Abbess of Blangy in Artois.) She was daughter of count Rigobert and Ursana, related to one of the kings of Kent in England.  In the twentieth year of her age she was married to Sigefroi, by whom she had five daughters, two of whom, Gertrude and Deotila were saints.  SHE TOOK THE VEIL After her husband’s death, she put on the veil in the nunnery which she had built at Blangy in Artois, a little distance from Hesdin. Her daughters Gertrude and Deotila followed her example.  She was persecuted by Roger or Rotgar, who endeavoured to asperse her with king Thierri III to revenge his being refused Gertrude in marriage. But this prince, convinced of the innocence of Bertha, then abbess over her nunnery, gave her a kind reception, and took her under his protection.  THREE CHURCHES On her return to Blangy, Bertha finished her nunnery, and ca...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 23rd 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 th...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 23rd 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 th...