Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) was born in Turin, Italy, to a wealthy and prominent family. He was a vibrant, joyful, and athletic youth with an adventurous spirit and a strong zest for life. He loved mountain climbing, the theater, opera, and literature. He also had a deep spiritual life and a strong devotion to the Holy Eucharist and the Virgin Mary, even while his piety provoked criticism from his parents. He challenged his friends to a life of virtue, leading them in spiritual exercises such as daily Mass and the rosary. He joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society in 1918 and became a Lay Dominican in 1922. He was also politically active in resisting fascism and communism; he took part in public demonstrations and joined religious-political organizations such as the Catholic Students Federation and Catholic Action. He also spent much time caring for the sick and poor to a heroic degree, yet his parents punished him when they caught him giving away his money and possessions. While ministering to the sick he contracted polio and died just six days later at the age of 24. His family, thinking he suffered from a mild sickness, did not realize the seriousness of his condition until it was too late. At his funeral his parents were shocked to find thousands of the city’s poor, whom their son had helped in some way, arrive to pay their respects. Pope St. John Paul II called Pier Giorgio Frassati a “man of the beatitudes” at his beatification in 1990. His feast day is July 4th.
St. Bernardino Realino (1530–1616) was born in Italy to a noble family. He grew into an accomplished “Renaissance Man” of his day; he studied law and medicine, had a successful career as an attorney and judge, and served as the mayor of three cities. At the age of 34 he completed an eight-day retreat with Jesuit priests, and during this time he discerned a call to the religious life. He entered the Jesuit order and was ordained a priest in 1567. As a priest he preached, taught, and visited the sick and poor in the areas of Naples and Lecce. He was much loved and venerated by the people he ministered to, especially because of the miracles he performed. It was commonly believed among the people that he was a living saint. Even public scandal and civil strife were calmed due to his holy influence. While he was on his death bed, the city leaders of Lecce came to request of him that he become the official patron saint of their city once he entered heaven. After St. Bernardino’s death, vials of his blood were kept for veneration, which were observed to liquefy and exhibit unusual phenomena for more than a century. St. Bernardino Realino’s feast day is July 2nd.
Image:The Virgin and Child with Saints Peter and Paul | Girolamo Figino
Saints Peter and Paul’s Story
Peter (d. 64?) Saint Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding, and the opposition of many to Jesus. Now Peter makes his great confession of faith: “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29b). It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter’s life, beginning with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee to become a fisher of men for Jesus.
The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with him. With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of a dead child to life, and the agony in Gethsemane. His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus’ death. His name is first on every list of apostles.
And to Peter only did Jesus say, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:17b-19).
But the Gospels prove their own trustworthiness by the unflattering details they include about Peter. He clearly had no public relations person. It is a great comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of Jesus.
He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard, “What are we going to get for all this?” (see Matthew 19:27). He receives the full force of Christ’s anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23b).
Peter is willing to accept Jesus’ doctrine of forgiveness, but suggests a limit of seven times. He walks on the water in faith, but sinks in doubt. He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, then wants his whole body cleansed. He swears at the Last Supper that he will never deny Jesus, and then swears to a servant maid that he has never known the man. He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus’ ear, but in the end he runs away with the others. In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him, and he goes out and sheds bitter tears. The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John 21:15-17).
Paul (d. 64?) If the most well-known preacher today suddenly began preaching that the United States should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution, the angry reaction would help us understand Paul’s life when he started preaching that Christ alone can save us. He had been the most pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate.
Paul’s central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can save humanity. No human effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which we can bring to God as reparation for sin and payment for grace. To be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil, and from death, humanity must open itself completely to the saving power of Jesus.
Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God’s chosen people, the children of the promise.
Reflection
We would probably go to confession to Peter sooner than to any of the other apostles. He is perhaps a more striking example of the simple fact of holiness. Jesus says to us as he said, in effect, to Peter: “It is not you who have chosen me, but I who have chosen you. Peter, it is not human wisdom that makes it possible for you to believe, but my Father’s revelation. I, not you, build my Church.” Paul’s experience of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus was the driving force that made him one of the most zealous, dynamic, and courageous ambassadors of Christ the Church has ever had. But persecution, humiliation, and weakness became his day-by-day carrying of the cross, material for further transformation. The dying Christ was in him; the living Christ was his life.
The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies in the second century. He was a student, well trained no doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error.
As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics.
The circumstances and details about his death, like those of his birth and early life in Asia Minor, are not at all clear.
Reflection
A deep and genuine concern for other people will remind us that the discovery of truth is not to be a victory for some and a defeat for others. Unless all can claim a share in that victory, truth itself will continue to be rejected by the losers, because it will be regarded as inseparable from the yoke of defeat. And so, confrontation, controversy and the like might yield to a genuine united search for God’s truth and how it can best be served.
St. Josemaria Escriva (1902-1975) was born in Spain, one of six children of a devout Catholic family. Growing up, he observed his parents faithfully endure painful family trials (the death of three of their young children and devastating financial setbacks) and this had a profound effect on his own faith. As a teenager he discovered his vocation to the priesthood when he saw the path of footprints in the snow left by a barefoot Carmelite friar. He then experienced a radical conversion: he gave up his intended career as an architect and entered the seminary. He spent most of his life studying and teaching in universities, earning a doctorate in civil law and theology. Saint Josemaria Escriva’s lasting impact lies in the foundation of Opus Dei (“The Work of God”), an organization of laity and priests dedicated to the universal call of holiness and the belief that ordinary, daily life is an authentic path to sanctity. Today Opus Dei has over 80,000 members worldwide. His famous written work is The Way, a collection of spiritual and pastoral reflections on the gospels and their application to everyday life. On June 26, 1975, after glancing at an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in his office in Rome, St. Josemaría died suddenly of cardiac arrest. He was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II. His feast day is June 26th.
St. Dominic Henares (1764-1838) was born to a poor family in Spain. He joined the Dominican Order and was ordained a priest in 1790. Ten years later he was sent as a missionary to the Far East. He went from Mexico to the Philippines, and finally to North Vietnam. He became Bishop of Phunhay, Vietnam, in 1803. In 1831 the Vietnamese emperor officially prohibited Catholicism and severely persecuted the Church. Whole villages were sent into exile; priests were arrested and subjected to the most terrible tortures before they were killed. Those who helped capture them were richly rewarded. Bishop Henares was arrested and beheaded in Nam Dinh on June 25, 1838; the soldiers and villagers who participated in his arrest received generous compensation. St. Dominic Henares is one of an estimated 130,000 to 300,000 Catholics martyred for the faith in Vietnam between the 15th and 20th centuries. They were canonized together by Pope St. John Paul II in 1988. St. Dominic Henares’ feast day is June 25, and the collective memorial for 117 of the Vietnamese Martyrs is November 24.
St. Joseph Cafasso (1811–1860) was born in Castelnuovo d’Asti, Italy, to a peasant family. He was born with a physical deformity of the spine, which caused him to grow into a stunted and crippled man. Discerning a call to Holy Orders, he entered the seminary in Turin where he later met another famous saint—John Bosco. Joseph taught John Bosco and encouraged him in his mission to minister to the town’s impoverished street youth. Joseph was an excellent professor of moral theology, as well as a famed preacher and confessor. He performed his duties so well that he became known as the “Priest’s Priest.” He spent entire days preaching in prisons, offering comfort to the prisoners, hearing their confessions, and even advocating to improve the poor conditions of the prison. For this work he also earned the name, “Priest of the Gallows.” St. Joseph Cafasso is the patron saint of prisoners, prisons, and prison chaplains. His feast day is June 23rd.
His belief that no lay ruler has jurisdiction over the Church of Christ cost Thomas More his life.
Beheaded on Tower Hill, London, on July 6, 1535, More steadfastly refused to approve King Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage and establishment of the Church of England.
Described as “a man for all seasons,” More was a literary scholar, eminent lawyer, gentleman, father of four children, and chancellor of England. An intensely spiritual man, he would not support the king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Nor would he acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church in England, breaking with Rome, and denying the pope as head.
More was committed to the Tower of London to await trial for treason: not swearing to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy. Upon conviction, More declared he had all the councils of Christendom and not just the council of one realm to support him in the decision of his conscience.
Reflection
Four hundred years later in 1935, Thomas More was canonized a saint of God. Few saints are more relevant to our time. In the year 2000, in fact, Pope John Paul II named him patron of political leaders. The supreme diplomat and counselor, he did not compromise his own moral values in order to please the king, knowing that true allegiance to authority is not blind acceptance of everything that authority wants. King Henry himself realized this and tried desperately to win his chancellor to his side because he knew More was a man whose approval counted, a man whose personal integrity no one questioned. But when Thomas More resigned as chancellor, unable to approve the two matters that meant most to Henry, the king had to get rid of him.
Saint Thomas More is the Patron Saint of:
Attorneys Civil Servants Court Clerks Lawyers Politicians Public Servants
The Lord can make saints anywhere, even amid the brutality and license of Renaissance life. Florence was the “mother of piety” for Aloysius Gonzaga despite his exposure to a “society of fraud, dagger, poison, and lust.” As a son of a princely family, he grew up in royal courts and army camps. His father wanted Aloysius to be a military hero.
At age 7 Aloysius experienced a profound spiritual quickening. His prayers included the Office of Mary, the psalms, and other devotions. At age 9 he came from his hometown of Castiglione to Florence to be educated; by age 11 he was teaching catechism to poor children, fasting three days a week, and practicing great austerities. When he was 13 years old, he traveled with his parents and the Empress of Austria to Spain, and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seeking relief in learning about the lives of saints.
A book about the experience of Jesuit missionaries in India suggested to him the idea of entering the Society of Jesus, and in Spain his decision became final. Now began a four-year contest with his father. Eminent churchmen and laypeople were pressed into service to persuade Aloysius to remain in his “normal” vocation. Finally he prevailed, was allowed to renounce his right to succession, and was received into the Jesuit novitiate.
Like other seminarians, Aloysius was faced with a new kind of penance—that of accepting different ideas about the exact nature of penance. He was obliged to eat more, and to take recreation with the other students. He was forbidden to pray except at stated times. He spent four years in the study of philosophy and had Saint Robert Bellarmine as his spiritual adviser.
In 1591, a plague struck Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital of their own. The superior general himself and many other Jesuits rendered personal service. Because he nursed patients, washing them and making their beds, Aloysius caught the disease. A fever persisted after his recovery and he was so weak he could scarcely rise from bed. Yet he maintained his great discipline of prayer, knowing that he would die three months later within the octave of Corpus Christi, at the age of 23.
Reflection
As a saint who fasted, scourged himself, sought solitude and prayer, and did not look on the faces of women, Aloysius seems an unlikely patron of youth in a society where asceticism is confined to training camps of football teams and boxers, and sexual permissiveness has little left to permit. Can an overweight and air-conditioned society deprive itself of anything? It will when it discovers a reason, as Aloysius did. The motivation for letting God purify us is the experience of God loving us in prayer.
Bl. John Fenwick and Bl. John Gavan (d. 1679) were Englishmen and Jesuit priests who were martyred for their faith in England during the monarchy’s persecution of the Catholic Church. John Fenwick’s Protestant parents disowned him when he became a Catholic. The two priests, along with three other Jesuits, were falsely accused of involvement in the “Popish Plot,” a fabricated conspiracy that mounted to anti-Catholic hysteria in England over the course of three years. The men were charged with complicity to assassinate King Charles II and condemned on the charges of High Treason and subversion of the nation’s Protestant religion. During their trial, John Gavan acted as the principal spokesman for the group; one historian called him one of the ablest priests of his generation. Both priests were condemned to be hung, drawn, and quartered. It is said that the King, knowing they were innocent yet unwilling to grant them pardon, permitted them to be hanged only. After giving a rousing speech declaring their innocence, Bl. John Fenwick and Bl. John Gavan were martyred together on June 20th, 1679. They share a feast day on June 20th.
