BL. CONTARDO FERRINI

BL. CONTARDO FERRINI - 17 OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 17th of October

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. CONTARDO FERRINI

Blessed Condardo Ferrini, O.F.S., was born on April 5, 1859 in Milan. After receiving his First Holy Communion at the age of 12, he joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.

Contardo learned to speak several languages. He entered the University of Pavia at age 17 and, two years later, he was appointed Dean of Students. At the age of 21 he became a Doctor of Law. His thesis, which related Penal Law to Homeric poetry, was the basis of his being awarded a scholarship to the University of Berlin, where he specialised in Roman-Byzantine law, a field in which he became internationally recognised as an expert.

During Contardo’s stay in Berlin, he wrote of his excitement at receiving the Sacrament of Penance for the first time in a foreign land. Upon his return to Italy, he was a lecturer in the universities at Messina, Modena, and Pavia. He received his first professorship aged 26. Contardo attempted to discern a vocation as a secular priest, member of a religious order, or as an unmarried man. He vowed himself to God and became a member of the Third Order of St Francis in 1886.

In 1900, Contardo developed a heart problem. In the autumn of 1902 he went to his country home in order to rest. While there, he became ill with typhus. He died at age 43 on October 17, 1902. Contardo was declared Venerable by Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII beatified him on April 13, 1947.

(This article, entitled “Heroes of the Faith” was published in “The Catholic Universe”, paper edition, on Sunday May 19, 2013)

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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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