Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a canonized saint in the Catholic Church who, per Christian tradition, was martyred around 305 in Alexandria, Egypt. Of course, the Church of the first Millennium was undivided. She is also recognized as the Great Martyr and Saint by the Orthodox Church. There are no surviving primary sources attesting to her existence, but the fact that her memory, and the stories about her, have been kept alive - and handed down in the tradition - certainly confirm her existence and her life of heroic virtue and holiness. The young saint was born around 287 in Alexandria, Egypt. At that time, Alexandria was one of the finest cities in the world, and a center of learning and culture as well as faith. Christian tradition states she was of noble birth, possibly a princess. As a member of the nobility, she was also educated and was an avid scholar. Around the age of fourteen, she experienced a moving vision of Mary and the infant Jesus, and she decided to become a Christian. Although she was a teenager, she was very intelligent and gifted. When Emperor Maxentius began persecuting Christians, Catherine visited him to denounce his cruelty. Rather than order her execution, Maxentius summoned fifty orators and philosophers to debate her. However, Catherine was moved by the power of the Holy Spirit and spoke eloquently in defense of her faith. Her words were so moving that several of the pagans converted to Christianity and were immediately executed. Unable to defeat her rhetorically or to intimidate her into giving up her belief, the emperor ordered her to be tortured and imprisoned. Catherine was arrested and scourged. Despite the torture, she did not abandon her faith. Word of her arrest and the power of her faith quickly spread and over 200 people visited her. Following her imprisonment, Maxentius made a final attempt to persuade the beautiful Catherine to abandon her faith by proposing marriage to her. This would have made her a powerful empress. Catherine refused, saying she was married to Jesus Christ and that her virginity was dedicated to him. The emperor angrily ordered her to be executed on a breaking wheel. The breaking wheel is an ancient form of torture where a person's limbs are threaded among the spokes and their bones are shattered by an executioner with a heavy rod. It is a brutal punishment that results in a slow and painful death, normally reserved for the worst criminals.When Catherine was presented before the wheel, she touched it and a miracle occurred that caused the wheel to shatter. Unable to torture her to death, the emperor simply ordered her beheaded. One account claimed that angels took her body to Mt. Sinai. In the sixth century, the Emperor Justinian ordered a monastery established in her name. The monastery, Saint Catherine's, remains to this day and is one of the oldest in the world. Around the year 800, a legend spread that her body has been found with her hair still growing and a constant stream of oil coming from her body. However, nothing exists to this day of her remains. During the medieval period, St. Catherine was one of the most famous saints of the Church. She was a popular subject in renaissance art and many paintings from the period are dedicated to her. Catherine is still a very popular Catholic name. The spiked wheel is a popular symbol often associated with St. Catherine. Her feast day is Nov. 25, and she is the patron of a great many professions and causes. Her patronage includes students, unmarried girls, apologists and many more as well as many places around the world.
Several groups of martyrs were slain for the faith in Vietnam from 1798 until 1861. Between 1798 and 1853, sixty-four were martyred, receiving beatification in 1900. Those who died in a second group, between 1859 and 1861, were beatified in 1909. There were twenty-eight courageous men and women who died for the faith during a long period of persecution. A Portuguese missionary arrived in Vietnam, once called Annam, Indo-China, Cochin-China, and Tonkin, in 1533. An imperial edict in Vietnam forbade Christianity, and it was not until 1615 that the Jesuits were able to establish a permanent mission there, in the central region of the country. In 1627, a Jesuit went north to establish another mission. By the time this missionary, Father Alexander de Rhodes, was expelled from the land in 1630, he had baptized 6,700 Vietnamese. In that same year, the first Christian martyr was beheaded, and more were executed in 1644 and 1645. Father Rhodes returned to Vietnam but was banished again in 1645. He then went to Paris, France, where the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions was founded. Priests arrived in Vietnam, and the faith grew. Between 1798 and 1853, a period of intense political rivalry and civil wars, sixty-four known Christians were executed. These were beatified in 1900. In 1833, all Christians were ordered to renounce the faith and to trample crucifixes underfoot. That edict started a persecution of great intensity that was to last for half a century. Some twenty-eight martyrs from this era were beatified in 1909. The bishop, priests, and Europeans were given “a hundred wounds,” disemboweled, beaten, and slain in many other grisly fashions. For a brief period in 1841, the persecution abated as France threatened to intervene with warships. However, in 1848, prices were placed on the heads of the missionaries by a new emperor. Two priests, Father Augustin Schoffier and Father Bonnard, were beheaded as a result. In 1855, the persecution raged, and the following year wholesale massacres began. Thousands of Vietnamese Christians were martyred, as well as four bishops and twenty-eight Dominicans. It is estimated that between 1857 and 1862, 115 native priests, 100 Vietnamese nuns, and more than 5,000 of the faithful were martyred. Convents, churches, and schools were razed, and as many as 40,000 Catholics were dispossessed of their lands and exiled from their own regions to starve in wilderness areas. The martyrdoms ended with the Peace of 1862, brought about by the surrendering of Saigon and other regions to France and the payment of indemnities to France and Spain. It is now reported that the “Great Massacre,” the name given to the persecution of the Church in Vietnam, resulted in the following estimated deaths: Eastern Vietnam – fifteen priests, 60 catechists, 250 nuns, 24,000 Catholic lay men and women. Southern Vietnam – ten priests, 8,585 Catholic men and women. Southern Tonkin region – eight French missionaries, one native priest, 63 catechists, and 400 more Christians slain – in all, an estimated 4,799 were martyred and 1,181 died of starvation. Some 10,000 Catholics were forced to flee the area. Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Martyrs of Vietnam on June 19, 1988.
This Christmas Season, you can help bring smiles to the faces of children. TWO groups will be conducting a Toy Drive. The Mother Theresa Group is collecting toys to be given to children in area HOSPITALS. Your donation can be brought to the rectory and labeled for Hospital Children. You can also assist children living in HOMELESS SHELTERS throughout New York City. Through December 23, you may bring to the rectory your gently used clothing, especially children and adult winter coats. Hope For Us, which is managed by Vera Acquah, will distribute them to children and people of all ages living in homeless shelters. At the same time, Hope for Us will also have its annual GIVING TREE at the back of the church, which will contain ornaments with all of the information necessary for you to buy toys for specific children living in NYC homeless shelters. Your gifts can be placed under the tree.
Radio Maria: To listen to Radio Maria in English on Radio 620AM, type www.radiomaria.us . Then, click on "Live Stream" on the bottom left where it says "24/7 Live Listening. Listen Live"
Archbishop of Canterbury England, who battled for discipline and justice, also called Edmund of Abingdon. Born in Abingdon, on November 30, 1180. he studied at Oxford, England, and in Paris, France. He taught art and mathematics at Oxford and was ordained. He spent eight years teaching theology and became Canon and treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral. An eloquent speaker, Edmund preached a crusade for Pope Gregory IX and was named archbishop of Canterbury. He became an advisor to King Henry III and presided in 1237 at Henry's ratification of the Great Charter. When Cardinal Olt became a papal legate with the patronage of King Henry, Edmund protested. A long-lasting feud between Edmund, the king, and his legate led him to resign his see in 1240. He went to Pontigny, France, where he became a Cistercian. He died at Soissons, on November 16. Edmund was canonized in 1246 or 1247. A hall in Oxford bears his name.
Born in Grenoble, France, of a family that was among the new rich, Rose learned political skills from her father and a love of the poor from her mother. The dominant feature of her temperament was a strong and dauntless will, which became the material—and the battlefield—of her holiness. She entered the Visitation of Mary convent at 19, and remained despite family opposition. As the French Revolution broke, the convent was closed, and she began taking care of the poor and sick, opened a school for homeless children, and risked her life helping priests in the underground. When the situation cooled, Rose personally rented the former convent, now a shambles, and tried to revive its religious life. The spirit was gone, however, and soon there were only four nuns left. They joined the infant Society of the Sacred Heart, whose young superior, Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat, would be her lifelong friend. In a short time Rose was a superior and supervisor of the novitiate and a school. But since hearing tales of missionary work in Louisiana as a little girl, her ambition was to go to America and work among the Indians. At 49, she thought this would be her work. With four nuns, she spent 11 weeks at sea en route to New Orleans, and seven weeks more on the Mississippi to St. Louis. She then met one of the many disappointments of her life. The bishop had no place for them to live and work among Native Americans. Instead, he sent her to what she sadly called “the remotest village in the U.S.,” St. Charles, Missouri. With characteristic drive and courage, she founded the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi. It was a mistake. Though Rose was as hardy as any of the pioneer women in the wagons rolling west, cold and hunger drove them out—to Florissant, Missouri, where she founded the first Catholic Indian school, adding others in the territory. “In her first decade in America, Mother Duchesne suffered practically every hardship the frontier had to offer, except the threat of Indian massacre—poor lodging, shortages of food, drinking water, fuel and money, forest fires and blazing chimneys, the vagaries of the Missouri climate, cramped living quarters and the privation of all privacy, and the crude manners of children reared in rough surroundings and with only the slightest training in courtesy” (Louise Callan, R.S.C.J., Philippine Duchesne). Finally at age 72, retired and in poor health, Rose got her lifelong wish. A mission was founded at Sugar Creek, Kansas, among the Potawatomi and she was taken along. Though she could not learn their language, they soon named her “Woman-Who-Prays-Always.” While others taught, she prayed. Legend has it that Native American children sneaked behind her as she knelt and sprinkled bits of paper on her habit, and came back hours later to find them undisturbed. Rose Philippine died November 18, 1852, at the age of 83, and was canonized in 1988.
Vevette Samuels was born in New York City. She was the middle child of Amzieh Samuels and Ethel Edwards. She went to school in the New York City school system and worked at Harlem Hospital for thirty years as a bookkeeper. She liked to travel and loved baseball and enjoyed the Yankees. She was a devoted and regular member of St. Helena Church for many years. She is remembered as being kind and generous. She retired in the late 1990’s and enjoyed working in her garden. She will be greatly missed.
Young, Married Catholic Couples: The Archdiocese of New York is looking for young, married, Catholic couples to be part of a new and evolving multimedia Pre-Cana day Marriage Prep program. We need your help to engage the social media generation. We are currently recruiting for two roles: Facilitator Couples, who will orchestrate the day’s program and Host Couples, who will serve as the first point of contact for couples attending the Pre-Cana day. A stipend is provided to both couples. For more information, visit: www.NYFamilyLife.org/About/WorkingWithUs.
The announcement that the Trump Administration is rescinding the Obama-era Executive Order known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is cause for great concern and anxiety for nearly 800,000 beneficiaries of the program, including an estimated 42,000 of our fellow New Yorkers. While the federal government has the right and duty to protect and secure our borders, the individuals who benefitted from DACA have done nothing wrong. The Dreamers were brought to this country as children by their parents. For many, they have known no other home. Although the President has signaled that he would like Congress to act to address the matter legislatively, there are no guarantees that this will happen. And, in the meantime, men, women and children who want nothing other than to do their part to make America great are instead being forced back into the shadows, fearful of being deported to a foreign land. The Catholic Church in New York State stands with the Dreamers. Please take a moment to urge your Congressional representatives to take the lead in delivering a bill to President Trump's desk, so that he can fulfill an earlier promise to deal with this issue with "great heart."
Join with thousands of others to work for justice in our society and to promote the values important to our faith. Stay informed and strengthen the Catholic voice. Go to: www.nyscatholic.org and click the CAN icon in the upper right corner to sign up, then go to the Take Action section to view our latest alerts. Never has advocacy been so simple.
Emergency Snow Laborers Needed for the upcoming season. Register with the DSNY between 7AM-3PM. Garage locations can be found at www.nyc.gov/sanitation. Snow laborer will be paid $15/hr. Must be at least 18 years old and be able to work in the U.S. Bring with you two small photos (1.5 sq. in.), social security card, the original and a copy of two forms of I.D. Bronx registration locations include 800 and 850 Zerega Avenue.
BLESSED JOHN DUNS SCOTUS - November 7 Bl. John Duns Scotus was a Franciscan Priest and Theologian of the Thirteenth Century. Next to St. Bonaventure, Bl. John is perhaps the most important and influential theologian in the history of the Franciscan Order. He was the founder of the Scotistic School in Theology, and until the time of the French Revolution, his thought dominated the Roman Catholic faculties of theology in nearly all the major universities of Europe. He is chiefly known for his theology on the Absolute Kingship of Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his philosophic refutation of evolution. Bl. John Duns Scotus was born in Duns, Berwickshire, Scotland, around 1265. He was immediately baptized after birth and was named after St. John the Evangelist. He grew up a good boy, healthy and pure like a little angel. He received a solid Christian formation from home and from the parish priest. He frequented the Cistercian Abbey of Melrose for his catechism lessons. There, he absorbed the ardent love for the Mother of God which St. Bernard had left as a patrimony to the Cistercians. As a little boy, Bl. John suffered very much from the obtuseness of his intellect. He wanted to read, to write and to study the profundity of the truths of the faith, but his mind just could not manage to learn or understand anything. By means of with prayers and sighs, he had recourse to Mary, the Seat of Wisdom, asking Her to heal his dullness so that he could advance in his studies. Mary appeared to him and granted his request. Going back to school, the "pea-brained" could only astonish his classmates and teachers. Bl. John resolved to make use of the heavenly gift of sublime intelligence, above all, to glorify the sweet and glorious Virgin Mary, Treasurer of every good. At the age of 15, he entered the Novitiate of the Order of Friars Minor(the Franciscans) at Dumfries, in the Kingdom of Scotland. There he made praiseworthy progress day by day in piety and in seraphic virtue. After a year he consecrated himself to God by the Religious Profession of the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. He was then sent for his studies in various theological schools of the Order. He was ordained a priest by Msgr. Oliver Sutton, Bishop of Lincoln, England, on March 17, 1291, at the church of St. Andrew of the Monks of Cluny. After his ordination, he began a series of travels between England and France to pursue advanced philosophical and theological studies. During the night of Christmas, 1299 at the Oxford Convent, Bl. John, immersed in his contemplation of the adorable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, was rapt in ecstasy. The Blessed Mother appeared to him and placed on his arms the Child Jesus who kissed and embraced him fondly. This was perhaps the occasion which inspired Bl. John to write so profoundly and fluently on the absolute primacy of Christ and the reason for the Incarnation. Christ's Incarnation, which is decreed from all eternity even apart from the Redemption, is the supreme created manifestation of God's love. After about four years of teaching at Oxford and Cambridge, at the end of 1301, Bl. John returned to Paris. He was granted his bachelor's degree in theology. Later, on the vigil of receiving his doctorate, he had to leave France suddenly, to return to England. Philip, the Fair, in a disgraceful quarrel with Pope Boniface VIII demanded all clerics, nobles religious, bishops and the University of Paris to appeal to the Council against the Pope. Bl. John Duns Scotus, among the few members of the faculty, refused to accede to the wishes of the King and chose the way of exile, sometime between the 25th and 28th of June 1303. After a year, the situation abated and Bl. John was back again at the University of Paris where he received the doctorate in theology and thus inaugurated his official professorship which was to lead him to singular glory among the great medieval scholastics. Soon the fame of his genius and learning spread abroad and students came in great numbers to attend the lectures of the new master. On account of his habit of making refined distinctions during theologic argumentation, the title "Subtle Doctor" was conferred on him by his contemporaries. Rodulphus wrote of him: "There was nothing so recondite, nothing so abstruse that his keen mind could not fathom and clarify; nothing so knotty, that he like another Oedupus, could not unravel, nothing so fraught with difficulty or enveloped in darkness that his genius could not expound." Another author wrote: "He described the Divine Nature as if he had seen God; the celestial spirits as if he had been an angel; the happiness of the future state as if he had enjoyed them; and the ways of Providence as if he had penetrated into its secrets." It was also in Paris that Bl. John came to be called as the "Marian Doctor" after he championed the privilege of Mary's Immaculate Conception. In England, Bl. John taught the truth of this Marian privilege without any opposition. But at Paris, the situation was reversed. The academic body of the University admitted only the purification of Mary in the womb of Her mother St. Anne, like St. John the Baptist. Alexander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Parisian Masters, were not able to solve the problem of the universality of original sin and of the efficacy of Christ's Redemption. They thought that even the Blessed Virgin Mary was included in this universality, and therefore subject to contract the original stain even if only for an instant, so that she may also be redeemed. Scotus in his attempt to introduce and teach a theological position different from that upheld by the university had to appear in a public dispute before the whole academic body, at the risk of expulsion from the university if he failed to defend his doctrine. Bl. John Scotus prepared himself for the event in prayer and recollection and in total confidence to the Immaculate Virgin, the Seat of Wisdom. When the fixed day of the dispute arrived, on leaving the convent, he passed before a statue of Our Lady and with suppliant voice entreated her: "Allow me to praise You, O Most Holy Virgin; give me strength against your enemies." Our Lady responded with a prodigious visible sign: the head of the statue moved and bowed slightly before him. It was as if to say: "Yes I will give you all the strength you need." Two Papal legates presided over the dispute. Then with powerful dialectic and with deep and subtle reasoning, Bl. Scotus refuted all the objections of the learned men in attendance, undermining the foundation of every argument contrary to Mary's Immaculate Conception. Bl. John Scotus pointed out: <"The Perfect Redeemer, must in some case, have done the work of redemption most perfectly, which would not be, unless there is some person, at least, in whose regard, the wrath of God was anticipated and not merely appeased."> Bl. John triumphed. From that day the University of Paris took up the same cause to defend this privilege of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Bl. John Duns Scotus had to leave the University of Paris one more time, partly for some political reasons and partly because some doubts had been cast on his theology by opponents. The Franciscan Minister General sent Scotus to Cologne, Germany, where he lectured for some time in the Franciscan house of studies until his untimely death on November 8, 1308, barely 43 years of age. He was called "blessed" almost immediately after his death. Through the centuries his tomb has been visited by large numbers of the faithful and public veneration has been offered to him in the dioceses of Edinburgh, Scotland, Nola, Italy, and Cologne, Germany, as well as throughout the Order of Friars Minor (the Franciscans). In 1854, Pope Pius IX solemnly declared that the Marian doctrine of Bl. John was a correct expression of the faith of the Apostles: "at the first moment of Her conception, Mary was preserved free from the stain of original sin, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ." The seal of the Church's approval was also placed on Bl. John's doctrine on the universal primacy of Christ when the feast of Christ the King was instituted in 1925. On March 20, 1993, Bl. John Duns Scotus was beatified by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
St. Elizabeth What we know of St. Elizabeth comes from the Gospel, the book of Luke, in particular. In Luke, Elizabeth, a daughter of the line of Aaron, and the wife of Zacharias, was "righteous before God" and was "blameless" but childless. Elizabeth is also a cousin to the Virgin Mary. Zachariah, desiring a child, went to pray in the temple and was told by the angel Gabriel, "Do not be afraid, Zachariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born." (Luke 1:13-15).What we know of St. Elizabeth comes from the Gospel, the book of Luke, in particular. In Luke, Elizabeth, a daughter of the line of Aaron, and the wife of Zacharias, was "righteous before God" and was "blameless" but childless. Elizabeth is also a cousin to the Virgin Mary. Zachariah, desiring a child, went to pray in the temple and was told by the angel Gabriel, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born." (Luke 1:13-15). Zachariah was skeptical because both himself and his wife were elderly. For his skepticism, Zachariah was rendered mute until the prophecy had been fulfilled. Elizabeth became pregnant shortly thereafter and she rejoiced. Gabriel then visited the Virgin Mary at Nazareth, telling her that she would conceive of the Holy Spirit and become the mother of Jesus. Mary then visited Elizabeth, and her baby leapt in her womb. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth proclaimed to Mary, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!" (Luke 1:41-45). Mary visited with Elizabeth for three months, both women pregnant with child. After Mary returned home, Elizabeth gave birth to a son and named him John. This child was chosen by God to be John the Baptist. John would baptize Christ as an example to all, that all must be reborn of water and spirit. Although Elizabeth's neighbors assumed the child would be named Zachariah, her husband insisted that John be his name. This astonished the neighbors for there were no men named John in Elizabeth's family, but Zachariah's insistence ended the debate. At the moment Zachariah insisted that they obey the will of God, and name him John, his speech returned. After this, there is no more mention in the Bible about Elizabeth. There are mentions of Elizabeth in the apocryphal works, but these are not within the cannon of the Bible. In the Apocrypha, it mentions that her husband, Zachariah, was murdered in the temple. St. Elizabeth's feast day is celebrated on November 5.
Venerable Antonio Provolo (17 February 1801 - 4 November 1842) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest best known for his work with deaf-mute children in Verona. He was the founder of the Institute for the Deaf as well as two religious orders dedicated to the care of deaf-mute children. Provolo was a noted musician and singer and put these skills to tremendous use during his life while also resorting to his own form of miming and sign language to better interact and educate with deaf and mute children to whom he dedicated his work. The good work of his order soon spread across the globe. Provolo's cause for sainthood commenced in 1960 under Pope St. John XXIII, and he became titled as a Servant of God; confirmation of his heroic virtue allowed for Pope Francis to name him as Venerable on February 27, 2017. The current postulator for his beatification is the Piarist priest Fr. Mateusz Pindelski, Sch.P.