Posted in Saints

Memorial

15 May

Daughter of a Pagan Irish chieftain named Damon, and a beautiful devoted Christian woman whose name has not come down to us. Her mother died when Dymphna was a teenager. Her father searched the Western world for a woman to replace his wife, but none could. Returning home, he saw that his daughter was as beautiful as her mother, and maddened by grief, he made advances on her. She fought him off, then fled to Belgium with Saint Gerebernus, an elderly Priest and family friend.
Dymphna's father searched for them, and his search led to Belgium. There an innkeeper refused to accept his money, knowing it was difficult to exchange. This told Damon that his daughter was close - it would be unusual for a village innkeeper to know a lot about foreign currency, and his knowledge indicated that had recently seen it. The king concentrated his search in the area. When he found them in Gheel, he beheaded Gerebernus, and demanded that Dymphna surrender to him. She refused, and he killed her in a rage.
The site where she died is known for its miraculous healings of the  insane and possessed. There is now a well-known institution on the site, and her relics are reported to cure insanity and epilepsy.

Posted in Saints

The next few Saint posting will be the girls pick for Halloween.

St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France. On January 6, 1412, Joan of Arc was born to pious parents of the French peasant class, at the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine. At a very early age, she heard voices: those of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.

At first the messages were personal and general. Then at last came the crowning order. In May, 1428, her voices "of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret" told Joan to go to the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom. For at that time the English king was after the throne of France, and the Duke of Burgundy, the chief rival of the French king, was siding with him and gobbling up evermore French territory.

After overcoming opposition from churchmen and courtiers, the seventeen year old girl was given a small army with which she raised the seige of Orleans on May 8, 1429. She then enjoyed a series of spectacular military successes, during which the King was able to enter Rheims and be crowned with her at his side.

In May 1430, as she was attempting to relieve Compiegne, she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English when Charles and the French did nothing to save her. After months of imprisonment, she was tried at Rouen by a tribunal presided over by the infamous Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who hoped that the English would help him to become archbishop.

Through her unfamiliarity with the technicalities of theology, Joan was trapped into making a few damaging statements. When she refused to retract the assertion that it was the saints of God who had commanded her to do what she had done, she was condemned to death as a heretic, sorceress, and adulteress, and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. She was nineteen years old. Some thirty years later, she was exonerated of all guilt and she was ultimately canonized in 1920, making official what the people had known for centuries. Her feast day is May 30.

Joan was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

Posted in Saints

Athanasius was born at Alexandria, in Egypt. He was very fond of reading books about the Catholic faith and studied the classics and theology at the university in Alexandria.

He became a deacon and secretary to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, then later a priest. At that time the Arians did not believe that Jesus was God and tried to spread these false teachings. Athanasius attended the council of Nicea, fought against these teachings and got the council to accept the Nicene Creed. He spent his life proving that Jesus is truly God.

This saint became the archbishop of Alexandria when he was not yet thirty years old. For forty-six years, he was a good and brave shepherd of his flock. Four Roman emperors tried but failed to make him stop writing his clear and beautiful explanations of our holy faith.

His enemies did every thing they could to make him suffer. Five times he was sent away from Alexandria. Once, when he was sent to the city of Trier a kind bishop, St. Maximinius, welcomed him warmly.

At other times Athanasius was hunted by people who wanted to kill him. He was kept safe in the desert by some monks for seven years and his enemies just could not find him.

Once when the emperor's soldiers were chasing Athanasius down the Nile River, his friends began to panic as the soldiers began to catch up with them. But Athanasius was not worried. "Turn the boat around," he said calmly, "and row toward them." The soldiers in the other boat shouted, "Have you seen Athanasius?" "You are not far from him!" was the reply. The enemy boat quickly went past them, and the saint was safe!

The people of Alexandria loved St. Athanasius. He was a real father to them. As the years passed, they appreciated more and more how much he had suffered for Jesus and the Church.

Now the people made sure that Athanasius was protected and had some well-deserved peace. He spent the last seven years of his life safe with them. His enemies hunted but could never find him.

During that time, St. Athanasius wrote The Life of St. Anthony the Hermit who had been a close friend when Athanasius was young. St. Athanasius died quietly on May 2, 373. He remains one of the greatest, bravest saints of all time.

 

http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/kids/saints/0502.asp