South Africa Needs Our Lady

South Africa Needs Our Lady

Winning the heart and soul of South Africa for Mary by spreading the Fatima Message

Winning the heart and soul of South Africa for Mary by spreading the Fatima Message

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Our Lady of the Candles

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Feast Day: 17 September

 

When white men came to the Canary Islands for the first time, the natives presented them with a mystery that no one has ever solved, even to this day – the presence on the islands of a statue of Our Lady!

The natives had discovered the statue of Our Lady of the Candles in the year 1400, as it had been found in a cave by two shepherds who had entered the cave seeking refuge from a storm. Neither of them had ever seen a statue before and so thought it was a living being.

The sheep would not enter the cave, seemingly out of fear of the statue, so at first the two shepherds motioned for the stranger to go away. When the statue did not move or respond, one of the men picked up a rock to throw at it. Instantly his arms stiffened so that he could not move, and his arms began to throb in pain. The other shepherd moved in close to the statue, and although it seemed to watch him, yet still it neither moved nor spoke. Puzzled, he took out his knife and tried to cut its finger – but instead of marking the statue, his own finger received the wound he had attempted to inflict and then began to bleed profusely! Terrified, the two men fled the scene, leaving their sheep and everything else behind them.

The men reported what had happened to their chief, relating their belief that a great god lived in the cave. The chief commanded them to bring this being to him. Overcoming their fear, the two shepherds returned to the cave and found the statue had not moved. When the first of them reached out to take hold of it, as soon as he had touched the statue, he found his finger was instantly healed of the wound he had received.

The men reverently carried the statue to a house where their chief directed and tried to show it honour in the best way they knew how. A few nights later they were surprised to hear beautiful music, and to see strange beings, all glowing and alight, setting candles around the strange “god” and lighting them. The natives had never seen candles.

A special house was built for the statue, and for fifty years there was beautiful music, light, and a lovely fragrance surrounding the statue that no one could explain. The natives made offerings of fruit and flowers and noted that the light “beings” kept the candles burning around the crude altar.

In 1520 a native boy was captured and taken to Spain; he returned after a few years and told the natives about Christianity. When missionaries came, the people were prepared to receive them and the True Faith.

Christians who had recently arrived and lived on a nearby island, recognized whom the statue must represent. At first, they begged the natives of Tenerife to let them have it, though the pagan natives refused, claiming she had brought them good fortune. The Christians decided to steal the statue of Our Lady of the Candles, feeling it was only proper that it should be in Christian hands. They succeeded in their plan, and brought the statue to their church, setting it on the high altar and surrounding it with burning candles.

Returning in the morning, they found that the statue had turned its back to the congregation, and no amount of pulling could get it turned to the front again. A serious sickness then invaded the island, and, repentant and frightened, the Christians took the statue back. Surprisingly, the natives had not noticed that it had been taken. The incredible explanation was that another statue, and exact duplicate to Our Lady of the Candles, had stood in its place during the entire time the original had been away.

Not surprisingly, devotion to Our Lady of the Candles spread rapidly through Spanish countries to South America and the Philippines.

The original statue of Our Lady of the Candles was made of heavy reddish wood, which had never been identified. It is 3 ½ feet high. The eyes of the statue seem to follow the beholder, and the colour of the cheeks sometimes changes. The hair is uncovered, golden and worn in braids. The Babe has a golden bird in its hands. Our Lady holds a candle in her hand.

Since there are no bees on the island, the candles are also a mystery. A few days before the feast of Candlemass in the year 1497, great quantities of a particularly pure wax were found at various places on the island. Several times since, the same thing has happened. People gather the wax and save it for pious souvenirs. It is sometimes found in the shape of loaves, weighing ten or twelve pounds. Another mystery concerns the candle stumps which even today are found near the cave. Some are set up on the rocks of the beach. Wax and wicks are of strange materials, which the good people of the neighbourhood insist could only have come from heaven.

As seen on: The Woman in Orbit & Marian Calendar, roman-catholic-saints.com

Gabriel Garcia Moreno

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6 August

Faith, Order & Progress

1821 – 1875

There is an entirely false idea that is often repeated and promoted by modern secularists that the Catholic Church is and has always been contrary to progress. The Catholic Church, with its incomparable doctrines and immutable moral positions, is portrayed consistently as an old-fashioned institution incapable of coping with the tremendous changes of the modern era. This has even led false Catholics to challenge the Church’s view regarding anything that does not deal with faith. These misled people forget that the Church’s confident stance on complicated moral issues has been developed over the last 2000 years with divine help and its decisions have all been subjected to the vigorous and unforgiving test of time.

A quick perusal of any modern history book gives the impression that when the Church became involved in the moral guidance of nations the result was misery for the poor, gross corruption by the clergy and industrial stagnation. These same history books are sure to contain lurid tales about crimes committed by the Spanish Inquisition, yet they gloss over the horrific crimes of the French Revolution, Stalin’s purges or Pol Pot’s re-education camps. The truth about history is that whenever the Church’s guidance was replaced in civil society by the “will of the people” chaos was the rule of the day. Ecuador’s history is a good example of the radical contrast between the Catholic and so-called liberal rule.

Battle of Guayaquil

In the Midst of Turmoil . . .

Ecuador, in the middle of the nineteenth century, was a piteous country with bloody civil wars and public corruption being the order of the day. Ecuador was coming apart at the seams as one unelected president after the other made himself and his cronies rich at the expense of the national treasury. Things went from bad to worse under anti-clerical dictators like Juan José Flores and José María Urbina, and there was no end to the rampant atrocities. Rich and poor alike were robbed regularly and sometimes killed by marauding bands of irregular soldiers, religion was brutally repressed and the press was completely silenced. Such were the bitter fruits resulting from the actions of men who boasted loudly that liberty and equality were their supreme goals.

Battle of Guayaquil

Then in 1859, at the height of the misery and chaos, there came a ray of hope for Ecuador. A young man with a profound faith and tremendous willpower appeared on the political scene wishing to bring the bandits to task. Gabriel Garcia Moreno had long been involved in Ecuador’s politics without actually entering government. His early activism was limited to attacking the governing party’s corruption in the press, resulted in his being exiled twice. However, events forced him to lay his pen aside and defend his high ideals with the sword. Although untrained in war, he clearly understood that armies win battles not by using brute force alone but by extraordinary valour and good leadership.

After gaining an unlikely military victory in the uprising against the dictator Urbina, he was voted to head a triumvirate charged with reforming the constitution and voting procedure. Upon completion of this task, he stepped down, only to be elected unanimously by the people as their new president despite his protests. The next fifteen years were a period of remarkable progress. Although Garcia Moreno did not remain in office for the entire time, his contributions to Ecuador’s peace and development were manifest.

Bringing Order Out of Chaos

Garcia Moreno’s first agenda was to put down the rebellions crippling Ecuador. This he did with such tact and forceful energy that soon his mere presence without troops in any part of Ecuador was enough to put the rebels into a panic. The military was reformed gradually to become a small but well-trained force of dedicated men instead of a ruthless band of poorly paid rogues. Military discipline was imposed with severe penalties for misconduct and disrespect of authority. Under these conditions the tiny army finally became an asset rather than a liability to Ecuador.

Next, Garcia Moreno cracked down on corrupt judges who had long abused their power and then reformed the system for governmental appointments. Positions of power were given to competent men of proven honesty rather than to the highest bidder, and the rampant practice of nepotism was limited severely. Garcia Moreno led the fiscal reform in government by refusing any payment for his services during his first term. His response when pressed by his friends to take a salary was, “I am president, not to enrich myself but to serve my country.”1 Finally, several unjust taxes were repealed and the massive foreign debts of his unethical predecessors were repaid, thereby restoring foreign trust in the Ecuadorian economy.

Garcia Moreno ruled with a compassionate iron hand. He was inflexible and his judgments were swift toward those found guilty of brigandage, murder and rebellion. However, he was forgiving to a fault the minute he sensed remorse. For example, having captured the chief of a notorious band of bandits, he had the wretch brought in chains to the presidential palace. The man was shaking when Garcia Moreno approached but instead of a severe sentence, the bandit was offered a reprieve. Garcia Moreno promised the bandit total amnesty on the condition he would return to his band and convince them to give themselves up. If they did, all their crimes would be pardoned, and every effort would be made to reintegrate them into society. Soon the threat hanging over travellers for so long had dissolved. So effective were his methods of reforming criminals that by 1875 there were only 50 convicted prisoners remaining in Quito’s jail.

Uniting the Country

The common people, so long used to political instability and strife, understood they had a paladin in Garcia Moreno and began to work the land again. Therefore, to take full advantage of the fruits of this era of peace and prosperity, Garcia Moreno set an audacious goal to connect Guayaquil and Quito with a highway. Facing criticism and opposition from his friends and enemies, Garcia Moreno not only completed the highway in ten years but opened four other major roads to the rest of the country at the same time. Father Berthe in his biography of Garcia Moreno wrote, “Agriculture and commerce, finding these openings for their produce, at once devoted themselves to production and Ecuador woke up from a sleep [that] had lasted a thousand years.”2

Presidential Charity

As a good Catholic, Garcia Moreno was solicitous to the poor, the sick and his enemies. Having been given a large sum of money to entertain the diplomats and senators by his wife, Garcia Moreno proceeded to the poorest hospital in Quito and bought a delicious meal for all the patients. On another occasion he arrived unannounced at a hospital that was notorious for its tasteless food. Finding the food indeed unpalatable he promptly had the problem corrected to the point it rivalled the food on his own table. It is a matter of historical record that his entire presidential salary was given over to charities, and after his death it was discovered he had arranged for the upkeep of the aged mother of his worst political enemy.

The Basilica Quito, Ecuador

A National Consecration to the Sacred Heart

Garcia Moreno’s secret to success can be found in this simple phrase of Christ, “Seek ye first the kingdom of Heaven and all other things will be given to thee.”3 He achieved his audacious goals by ordering all things according to the will of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He believed, as does the Church, that any civil society that does not acknowledge the King of Heaven cannot truly progress. Thus in 1874, in an official ceremony attended by the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, Ecuador was consecrated officially to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The liberals protested that this act was a step backward and would ruin Ecuador. However, Ecuador did not regress and from that point on all undertakings seemed to flourish in an incredible way.

Because of the constant upheavals during his predecessors’ reign, the state of public education was at a nadir when Garcia Moreno began to tackle the problem. He first started with primary education, making it mandatory for all children older than eight years to attend school. To alleviate the pressure upon the various religious orders caused by this expansion, he opened a college to train laity for the teaching profession. Then he sent for teaching orders from Europe, like the Christian Brothers, to work in secondary schools. He finally focused his attentions on the college level by inviting the Jesuits to open a university in Quito and later colleges in the other major cities. His zeal was infectious, and the nation finally began to shake off its liberal coma and take a serious attitude toward public education.

A quick look at the numbers is illuminating. In 1873, there were approximately 8,000 children in the primary schools but just two years later, thanks to Garcia Moreno’s efforts, there were over 32,000 children attending school. After six years of intensive schooling, there was more real progress in Ecuador than had occurred in the previous 50 years of revolutionary rule. Sadly, after Garcia Moreno’s death, Ecuador returned to a primitive state of schooling by expelling most religious orders from their schools and replacing them with revolutionary teachers. The poor and the Indians, who had gained the most from the dedication of the religious orders, were relegated again to second-class citizenship without the benefit of public education.

Economic Development

The national finances under Garcia Moreno improved dramatically since trustworthy individuals were placed in positions of authority. Whereas previous liberal regimes had thrived upon rampant corruption, under Garcia Moreno’s firm hand, public officials soon realized that such infractions were not tolerated. Thus, the treasury was filled for the first time in Ecuador’s history and the lot of the common people improved dramatically. Again, some numbers may help. “Between 1852 and 1890, Ecuador’s exports grew in value from slightly more than US$1 million to nearly US$10 million. Production of cacao, the most important export product in the late nineteenth century, grew from 6.5 million kilograms to 18 million kilograms during the same period.”4 Under no other ruler in its entire history has Ecuador developed economically at the pace it did during the reign of its truly Catholic president.

Presidential Palace at Ecuador

The Leftists React

So, what was the response of the high-minded liberals in face of such obvious progress? Was it to put aside prejudice and admit that a truly Catholic state could indeed bring a nation forward? Of course not. Modern liberals will never admit that anything good can exist outside of their twisted and perverse parameters of absolute equality and liberty. When faced with proof of evident progress by a Catholic society, the liberals’ response to all the benefits Garcia Moreno had bestowed upon Ecuador was to plot his ruin. But Garcia Moreno was not afraid, for he had learned long ago from Our Lord’s divine example that true glory cannot be attained in this world, and so he prepared himself for the blow.

On August 4, 1875, Garcia Moreno sent an acquaintance a letter in which was written these prophetic words, “¡Adios! We shall never meet again on earth . . . I am about to be assassinated but I am happy to die for my Faith.”5

Two days later, Garcia Moreno returned home before going to the presidential palace. Sinister men shadowed Garcia Moreno’s every move and arranged themselves throughout the main plaza facing the Palace. Leaving home unattended, Garcia Moreno then made his way to the Cathedral to adore the Blessed Sacrament. The assassins, noting that he was spending a long time in prayer, sent a messenger into the church to call him out. Seemingly oblivious to the mortal danger, Garcia Moreno had only one aide-de-camp with him.

“God Does Not Die!”

With savage cruelty, a man named Faustino Rayo attacked Garcia Moreno with a machete and struck a terrible blow on the head. Reeling and blinded by his own blood, Garcia Moreno tried vainly to draw his pistol while the other assassins shot him. After striking Garcia Moreno twice more, severing his left arm and right hand, Rayo and his vile band again levelled their pistols. Garcia Moreno was knocked into the street motionless. Rayo, however, was not satisfied, for he attacked Garcia Moreno once again shouting, “Die, destroyer of liberty!”6 Garcia Moreno’s dying words for all to hear were: “God does not die!” 7

Painting of Moreno's Death

Garcia Moreno’s Story

Modern liberals clamour loudly for social justice, harmony and peace. Garcia Moreno brought all these to Ecuador. His reward was a cruel death at their hands. He did not believe in absolute liberty, rather he believed that freedom was necessary for good to flourish. One of his most memorable quotes says it all, “Liberty for everyone and for everything, except for evil and evil doers.” 8

In a truly Christian civilization, evil has no rights and those who practice evil lose their rights. In our modern neo-pagan society, it would seem that not only does evil have rights but people who practice evil do so without reprisal. However, though modern society looks with benevolence upon every type of sin, the God of justice is neither blind nor deaf to the cries of the innocent.

The story of Garcia Moreno’s heroic life, so full of Catholic spirit and charity, does not grace the pages of any American history book.

Ecuadorians may forget his deeds one day. Liberalism has influenced us to such a degree that some may even think him to have been too anachronistic and backwards for the modern era and therefore deserving of his fate.

But even liberals cannot deny that Garcia Moreno strove mightily to bring to fruition that prayer of Our Lord in the Our Father, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In these dark days, it is a consolation to remember the faith professed in his last words:

“God does not die!”

Photo of the Deceased Moreno

References:

  1.  Father Augustine Berthe, Garcia Moreno (London: Burns and Oates, 1889), 278.
  2.  Ibid., 276.
  3.  Ibid., 278
  4.  “The Era of Conservatism, 1860-1895,” https://www. hipecuador.net/ecuador/history/the-era-of-conservatism.html.
  5.  Father Augustine Berthe, Garcia Moreno (London: Burns and Oates, 1889), 320.
  6.  Ibid., 322.
  7.  Ibid
  8.  ”Gary Potter, “Gabriel Garcia Moreno—Catholic Statesman and Martyr,” https://www.acla-inc.org/moren… (excerpts from an article that originally appeared in From the Housetops magazine).

Our Lady of Angels

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Feast Day: 2 August 

 

Our Lady of Angels, or of the Portiuncula, is located six hundred yards from the city of Assissium, in Italy. It was a desolate locality, and apparently an unsettled one where robbers and the lawlessness flourished, for the Benedictines who had lived at the monastery felt it was too hazardous to remain there. They abandoned the monastery, relocating to Mount Subasio, which was a fortified monastery.

The original chapel is thought to date from the 4th Century and was built by holy hermits who had come from the Valley of Josaphat. It is said that they brought relics of the Blessed Virgin with them to the region when they constructed the chapel.

The history of the feast is inspiring. St. Francis of Assisi, in the early days of his conversion, while he was still uncertain as to what path to pursue, was praying earnestly for enlightenment before the crucifix at the Church of San Damiano, when he heard within him the command of the Crucified: “Build up my house, for it is nearly falling down.” Taking the words literally, Francis began to restore San Damiano and other dilapidated churches in and near Assisi. The most famous of these was the church of Our Lady of the Angels.

Some time after the restoration of this little chapel, an angel told St. Francis to come to the Church of Our Lady of Angels, or Portiuncula. There he found Our Lord, His Blessed Mother, and the Angels waiting for him. Our Lord commended Francis because of his zeal for the salvation of souls and promised to grant him whatever he should ask on behalf of sinners. St. Francis asked for this great favour: that all those who came to this church to pray and, truly sorry for their sins, confessed them, should “Obtain in perpetuity a plenary indulgence” so that they would have nothing to account for when God called them. This was the great favour he asked, but Our Lord granted it to him through Mary.

When Saint Francis came upon the little, run down and abandoned chapel of Our Lady of Angels, or Santa Maria degli Angelis, in the year 1208, it was almost completely hidden in shrubs and brush. Saint Francis entered the hidden church, which measured only twenty-two feet by thirteen feet, and saw the ancient fresco that had been placed above the main altar. It was an image of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin surrounded by angels. Some say that this is why the chapel was named Our Lady of Angels, although there are also legends that angels could often be heard singing there.

The place took its name, the Little Portion, or Portiuncula in the native Italian, from the small section of fertile land that was gifted to the monks for them to work for their support. It is said that this was the place where Saint Francis first understood his vocation, received visions, and was also where the saint desired to live. The Benedictines had lived at that location for hundreds of years, but the Benedictine monks gave this chapel to Saint Francis upon his request. It was certainly here that the Franciscan Order was founded.

At first Saint Francis wished the convent which he built there to be the principal one of his order. He assembled the first General Chapter there, where there were five thousand religious. It was also where he yielded up his spirit on October 3rd in the year 1226, the twentieth of his conversion, and the forty-fifth of his age. The cell in which the poor man of Assisi died can still be seen where it rests against one of the columns of the cupola under the choir bay.

Santiago de Compostella Pilgrimage 2026

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One of the 12 young men who, over Easter 2026, completed the 10-day hike from northern Portugal to Santiago de Compostela – the iconic Cathedral where lie the bones of the great apostle St James – was our very own Dominic Tuffin.  

The walk became a marvellous retreat from the modern chaos with lively and elevated conversation, great camaraderie, and countless prayers, visits to beautiful churches, etc. See below a personal testimony of Dominic to the grandeur of this Spanish escapade.

The Camino de Santiago was an absolutely phenomenal experience!

It was a time of prayer, of contemplation, of soul searching, and some suffering! It was a journey back through time, a look at 20 centuries of the Catholic Faith in Spain. It was a journey of following in the footsteps of many Saints, holy people, and fellow Catholics, starting with St James and going through history to the present time.

My fellow pilgrims and I started walking the Camino de Santiago on April 3rd, Good Friday. We had spent nearly a week travelling Spain prior to starting the Camino, admiring the monuments our Catholic brothers built in honour of God’s Glory over the centuries, and visiting holy sites and homes of Saints.

An ornate Holy Week float in preparation for a procession later on. We found it when visiting the church St. Teresa was baptized in.
During the Middle Ages, the walls of Avila were an archetypical symbol of strength. Reconstructed in the 11th century and boasting 87 turrets, it was considered one of the safest cities in Europe and was never conquered. Without a doubt, St. Teresa would have walked around its walls. Here, we can imagine part of what she would have been envisioning when she wrote "The Interior Castle."
The pilgrims stand by the equestrian statue of "El Cid." His legendary acts of bravery and Crusader idealism have been recounted and passed down through many centuries of history. We pray to be made ever-faithful knights of Mary and serve her even as "El Cid" served his King.

We arrived in Madrid at 6am on a cold early spring morning, and set off immediately to Toledo, traditionally famous for its sword making, spending a few hours there visiting various churches, the Alcazar, and a traditional sword shop.

Then on to Avila, famous as the home of the great St Teresa of Avila. Avila is the best-preserved example of a fortified Medieval city in the world and is truly magnificent. There we witnessed a beautiful Procession through the streets of Avila, with a float of Our Lord Crucified and the Sorrowful Mother, attended Palm Sunday Mass in the Avila Cathedral, and went to all the sites connected with St Teresa.

Leaving on Easter Monday morning, we went to Burgos, to see the magnificent Gothic styled Burgos Cathedral, wherein lies El Cid, one of Spain’s most famous heroes.

Our Lady of Covadonga in the Holy Cave.
Group photo by the Statue of Don Pelayo, leader of the Catholic army. In the centre front is Dominic from South Africa.
The Cathedral at Covadonga

Tuesday morning found us on our way to Covadonga, the birthplace of the great Spanish Reconquista, the 700-year long war to rid Catholic Spain from the Moslems who had invaded and taken control in 711. It was truly a special place, and a personal highlight of the trip. The sense of peace and grace one senses in that blessed place is indescribable and truly remarkable. We spent two nights there, climbed a nearby peak to get a fantastic view of Covadonga from above, experienced the local cuisine, and prayed the Little Office of Our Lady in the cave of Covadonga, in front of the beautiful statue of Our Lady of Covadonga.

On Holy Thursday we left Covadonga and set off on the 6-hour journey to Porto, Portugal, where we started the Camino! Everyone was very excited to start walking, and I do not think anyone slept very well that night. We started before sunup on Good Friday, and entrusting ourselves to Our Lord, Our Lady, and St James, we set off on our nine day, 230km hike.

These beautiful staffs were handmade for the pilgrims. They were measured to fit the individual and have hand carved quotes that were chosen by each person.
It can be a curiosity for others to see a group of Catholics venerate relics of saints kept in a museum display or pray in a church considered more historic rather than sacred. Sometimes the simple truths are the ones we most easily forget.
In Oviedo, to the left of the cathedral's main altar, is a niche bearing a large container made of stone. There is no sign or inscription, but this is a relic of the Holy Land. It is one of the water jars from the wedding feast at Cana which Our Lord used to turn water into wine.

We spent the morning walking out of the city and into the countryside, all the time following the beautiful Portuguese coastline north of Porto. We started on a small detour of the main trail, so by mid-morning we arrived on the official main trail heading up from Lisbon to Santiago. There we officially started our Camino by reading our 10 Commandments of the Camino, which were the rules that we would abide by as pilgrims over the next nine days. We also read out all our official intentions, primarily reparation for the sin of abortion in the world, as well as many other prayers, hopes, and intentions we were bringing with us from our various homelands, as well as those of the individual pilgrims on the trail.

The sixth day of Camino ended in Pontevedra, where we visited the Convento de San Francisco. The Franciscan's vow of poverty was seen as a way of self-perfection. He made sacrifices regarding those things that pertained to his person, but looked towards enrichment when it came to the question of giving homage and worship to God. The sanctuary here reflects this in its Gothic beauty. Though there is something that seems to be missing. Where the statue of St. Francis now stands, there once would have been a beautiful high altar.
We walked to the very top of the hill where the preaching spot of St. James is found. Below, you can see the town of Padron. We send it a few staircases, and then a few more, and then a few more. Abstracting from the physical discomforts of the climb, it is fitting for such a place to be found on high. To think that St. James chose to ascend this hill to preach without "human respect" is an example of what spirit we should have to proclaim the truth in a pagan world.
The Cruceiro de Santiaguiño do Monte stands above the piles of rocks on which St. James stood to preach. In a nearby grotto, St. James hid from persecution. After we prayed here, each pilgrim climbed the rocks and gave the statue of St. James an "abrazo."
A Bench and a Berm The pilgrims look out upon the road to Redondela after conquering the final hill of the day.
We woke up to a path of stones surrounded by fields of gold and purple flowers celebrating the Resurrection.
The pilgrims sang the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The next nine days on the trail were really meaningful and very blessed. We visited churches, passed through old towns, travelled across the bright sunny Portuguese countryside, crossed the border back into Spain, and learned bits of Portuguese and Spanish. We suffered in the early spring heat and hiked for two days in the rain and cold. We attended Easter Sunday Mass in a church overflowing with Portuguese Faithful. We enjoyed the immense hospitality of the Portuguese who treated us like long-time friends the moment we appeared and were invited to join a house blessing ceremony on Easter Monday, being treated to food and drink at the same time.

We climbed up mountains, we climbed down mountains, crossed rivers and walked through forests, and hiked an average of 25km per day. Most important of all, we spent each day in prayer, contemplation, and good conversation. We stopped at every road-side shrine to say an Ave Maria or a Salve Regina. We entered every church on the way to visit the Blessed Sacrament and say some prayers. In many churches we sang the Salve Regina, much to the surprise and delight of locals and fellow pilgrims alike. And above all, we kept our focus on the true meaning of the Camino, that we were doing a pilgrimage in reparation for sin and for the betterment of our souls.

For the first time, the pilgrims glimpse the distant steeples of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. After over a week of walking, it was a sight to behold.
We had finished nine full days. Nine days of walking, praying, and sacrificing. What an immense grace to arrive at Santiago de Compostela! After this, we entered to visit the relics of St. James to pray for your intentions. And before leaving the Cathedral, we gave St. James's statue the traditional abrazo.

We arrived in Santiago on Saturday, 11 April 2026. We had seen the steeples of the Cathedral of Santiago from several kilometres away earlier in the day, so the anticipation and excitement was at an all-time high as we finally made it into the city, wending our way through the crowded, narrow streets toward the steeples we could see rising up above the other buildings. It was a most incredible feeling to finally arrive in the square in front of the Cathedral, to look up at the impressive facade, and to think back on all nine days of hiking that it took to get here. It was absolutely phenomenal!

A close up of the main statue of St. James. Made in the Spanish Baroque style, It originally did not have a halo. It was the custom that when pilgrims would embrace St. James, they would also place their own hat on his head. The halo was only added in recent years.
In the same spirit, the sanctuary also has three central statues of St. James: as the apostle, as a pilgrim, and as Matamoros (atop the canopy held by four massive angels).
The intentions sent with the pilgrimage were all put in the hands of St. James. We kept these intentions in our prayers and sacrifices throughout the trip, but especially here!

After dropping our backpacks at our accommodation, we proceeded straight to the Cathedral to visit St James and give him the traditional “abrazo,” where pilgrims climb up behind the statue and give St James a hug. We also went below the main altar where the remains of St James are kept and placed our intentions there. I placed there all the intentions of the SANOL supporters who had sent intentions to be taken along and said a prayer to St James that he would answer the prayers, hopes, and pleas of our Nation, and bountifully bless all those who requested his intercession. We spent two days in Santiago, visiting the Cathedral multiple times and exploring the city.

With a little regret we left early on Monday morning with a 6-hour trip ahead of us to the airport where we would all split up once more and go our different ways back to our respective homes across the globe.

At the Franciscan monastery in Santiago de Compostela, we obtained our "Franciscan Compostela" marking in another way the end of our Camino. According to tradition, St. Francis actually made the Camino himself. Franciscans, and any Catholic from around the world, can receive this document after having walked the Camino in the footsteps of Saint Francis.
One does not visit the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela without noticing the Bota Fumeiro hanging from the ceiling. They never publicize the times that this massive thurible is used, but if you befriend one of these men, he might just tell what you are looking to find out.

We were very fortunate to have the privilege of doing the Camino de Santiago. It was a really epic journey through time, and almost a ‘refresher course,’ on what it means to be Catholic and just what a privilege it is to have the Faith. It was highly beneficial to all of us, psychologically, physically, and most important of all, spiritually. We all departed Spain with our spiritual ‘batteries’ recharged and ready to continue the fight for the preservation of Christian Civilization and the Glory of God!

I would like to specially thank everyone who donated toward this journey and helped make it possible. Your support is greatly appreciated, and I prayed a daily Rosary on the Camino especially for your intentions, and that Our Lady would bless you immensely.

Please keep the works of SANOL in your prayers, that we may continue in God’s service to bring the Reign of Christ on our troubled world.

Viva Cristo Rey!

Dominic Tuffin.

Watch a short video below and listen to the prayers and chants the pilgrims sang along the way at various churches and shrines. 

Our Lady of Molanus

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Feast Day 15 July

 

In the year 1099, the Christian armies arrived at Jerusalem, overjoyed that they had survived to reach their objective. Their joy turned nearly to despair, however, as they ran short of food and suffered greatly with a plague during the siege of the city.

The leaders of the crusade concluded that they could not win without courting the Divine Assistance. It was agreed by all that they should march together barefoot around the city while singing litanies to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This they did, as the Jews had done centuries before at Jericho, while praying, fasting, and giving alms. Eight days later Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to breach the walls and set foot in Jerusalem, which was then swiftly taken.

The Turks were finally defeated after what had been a long and difficult siege, and the First Crusade ended with a Christian victory. Now that the city was in Christian hands, the Crusaders desired that they should have a king for the new Kingdom of Jerusalem. The nobleman Raymond of Saint Gilles was offered the crown, but he refused, as it did not seem proper to him to be named king in that holy place. Next, Robert Courte-Heuse also refused. Finally, Godfrey of Bouillon, who had so distinguished himself in the taking of Jerusalem, was asked to accept the crown.

Godfrey of Bouillon was a good man, the son of Blessed Ida of Bouillon, whose father was the Duke Godfrey of Lorraine, himself a descendent of Blessed Charles the Great. Although Godfrey agreed to be made king, still, as they were about to crown him King of Jerusalem, Godfrey pushed aside the crown, saying, “I cannot wear a diadem in the place where my Lord wore a crown of thorns.” Instead, as he had prayed at Our Lady at Boulogne-sur-mer before leaving on the Crusade, he credited the Blessed Virgin Mary with the victory and symbolically gave the crown to Our Lady of Molanus.

After the victory, clad in white garments, the crusaders expressed in solemn procession, hymns and prayers, their gratitude to the Mother of God for giving them this singular victory over the enemies of the Church. The annual celebration in remembrance of the victory occurred each July 15th with a Mass offered to Our Lady of Molanus. Formerly the feast of this event was celebrated with a double office and octave.

Godfrey of Bouillon

Saint Bonaventure

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Patron Saint of Bowel Disorders

Feast Day 15 July

 

St. Bonaventure, “The Seraphic Doctor”, was born Giovanni di Fidanza in the vicinity of Viterbo, Tuscany in 1221. Nothing is known of his childhood except the name of his parents: Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Fidella.

Legend has it that when seriously ill as a child, his mother took him to St. Francis of Assisi. As the saint prayed over him, he was shown the infant’s future spiritual greatness and exclaimed, “O, buona ventura!” O good fortune!”

He entered the Franciscan Order at age twenty-two and after taking his vows, was sent to Paris to study under the great Alexander Hale, and then John de la Rochelle.

In Paris he became close friends with St. Thomas Aquinas, and both received their doctorate at the same time. Like St. Thomas, Bonaventure was held in high esteem by King St. Louis IX.

Already while in Paris he was a great preacher and discourser and wrote Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, a work covering the whole field of scholastic theology.

He wrote extensively on philosophy and theology throughout his life.

It is said of St. Bonaventure that he united in himself two elements: tender piety and profound learning, from whence proceeded all that is most noble, sublime, great and beautiful in the Middle Ages.

At thirty-five Bonaventure was chosen General of the Franciscans, and restored peace in the place of disturbances generated by internal dissensions. While some friars were for an inflexible severity, others were for a more relaxed rule.

The saint steered the wise road of balance, reforming and restoring the spirit of his order and writing a life of St. Francis. It is said that St. Thomas Aquinas once entered Bonaventure’s cell while he was writing this biography and found him in ecstasy, “Let’s leave a saint to write about a saint,” said the Angelic Doctor.

In 1265, Pope Clement IV nominated Bonaventure to the archbishopric of York, which the saint humbly turned down to the acquiescence of the Pope.

But in 1273 Pope Gregory X elevated him to ecclesiastical dignity, and made him Cardinal, Bishop of Albano. At the Council of Lyons, he was the Pope’s right hand in preparing the matters to be addressed. Before the council began, St. Bonaventure abdicated the office of minister general of his order.

The Council of Lyons was instrumental in the effective reunion of the Greeks, a union desired by Emperor Michael Palaeologus. St. Thomas died on the way to this council, and St. Bonaventure was the council’s outstanding figure. But amidst his triumph, Bonaventure died rather suddenly during the night of July 14-15. According to the chronicle of his secretary, Peregrinus of Bologna, discovered in 1905, Bonaventure was poisoned.

He was canonized in 1482 and declared Doctor of the Church in 1588.

St Augustine Zhao Rong

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One of 120 Chinese Martyrs canonized in 2000

Feast Day 9 July 

 

Augustine Zhao Rong, is one of a group of 120 Catholics, among many more who were martyred between the years 1648 and 1930 in China.

Having come to China through Syria in the seventh century, down through the centuries Christianity has in turn thrived or gone into hiding, contingent upon the relations of China with the outside world.

Of the 120 martyrs mentioned above, eighty-seven were Chinese, ranging in age from nine to seventy-two, and four of them were priests. Thirty-three were foreign-born, mostly priests or women religious. Though the missionaries and religious tried to distance themselves from foreign policies, the Chinese government did not differentiate and saw them all as westerners.

The martyrdoms of China are most moving, each person having died heroically though many of them suffered torture and cruel deaths. Fr Francis Li, grandson of a Chinese martyr, describes his grandfather going to his death joyfully saying to his brother and son, “Let’s go, we are going to heaven today!”

Zhao Rong was a bailiff of a county jail. During the persecution of 1772, he was moved by the words of Fr Martinus Moye to his fellow Catholic prisoners, and, ultimately converted. He later became a priest, and when in 1815 another persecution broke out, he was arrested and tortured, and being aged, died of the ill treatment.

The group of 120 martyrs celebrate today headed by St Augustine Zhao Rong was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 1 October 2000.

Our Lady of Coutances

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Feast Day 9 July

 

This feast day commemorates the dedication of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Coutances, by Bishop Geoffry de Mombray, in the year 1056.

Coutances, once known as Cosedia when it was the capital city of the powerful Unelles tribe, it was conquered by one of Julius Caesar’s generals in the year 58 BC. The city’s name was changed to Coutances in honour of the Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus. Due to its strategic location, it quickly rose to a place of great significance in the Empire.

According to tradition, the knowledge of salvation came to Coutances in the 5th century through Saint Ereptiolous. It is known that he built a church on the site where there had once been a pagan temple.

After the destruction of the Western Roman Empire, Coutances suffered from invasions by the Scandinavians and Normans in the 9th century. The church was razed, the city abandoned, and the bishop forced to flee for safety to Rouen. They did not go back to Coutances until nearly one hundred and sixty years later, when they returned with the assistance of Duke Richard the Fearless.

In the year 1030, Bishop Robert began the construction of a new cathedral, Our Lady of Coutances, which was begun in the Romanesque style. He died shortly after the labour of love had begun, and it was left to Bishop Geoffry de Mombray, who had been appointed in 1048. He completed the cathedral in the year 1056.

Bishop Geoffry was a close companion to William, Duke of Normandy, and so invited him to attend the consecration of the cathedral that year. Ten years later, the bishop would accompany the Duke of Normandy to England, where William conquered the island and earned the title of William the Conqueror. A short time later he assisted Ealdred, the archbishop of York, at the coronation ceremony that took place in Westminster Abbey.

Bishop Geoffry came from a wealthy family, who generously gave to the prelate for the good of the Church, while also providing much of the funding for the cathedral. Before the bishop was finished with the construction, he had added two towers nearly 100 feet tall to the west end, and a central tower that was famed for its gilded rooster. Bishop Geoffry died of old age in the year 1093.

Our Lady of Kazan

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Feast Day 8 July

 

This miraculous icon, also known as the Theotokos of Kazan, is thought to have originated in Constantinople in the 13th century before it was taken to Russia. When the Turks took Kazan in 1438, the icon may have been hidden. Ivan the Terrible liberated Kazan in 1552, and the town was destroyed by fire in 1579.

The icon was eventually found in the ruins of a burnt-out house at Kazan on the River Volga on 8 July 1579. According to tradition, the location of the icon was revealed during a dream by the Blessed Virgin Mary to a ten-year-old girl named Matrona. Matrona told the local bishop of her dream, but he did not believe her. There were two more similar dreams, after which Matrona and her mother went to the place indicated by the Blessed Virgin and dug in the ruins what had been a house until the uncovered the icon. It appeared untouched by the flames, with the colours as vivid and brilliant as if it were new.

The bishop took the icon to the Church of Saint Nicholas, and immediately there was a miracle of a blind man’s sight being restored to him. A monastery was built over the place where the icon had been found.

Known as the Holy Protectress of Russia, the icon was stolen on 29 June 1904. The thieves were later caught and claimed that they had destroyed the icon after taking the gold frame and jewels attached to the image. In any event, the original has never been found, though there are many copies in existence, thanks to the popularity of the icon. Many of the copies are known to be miracle working.

The Russian peasantry attributes the rise of Communism in their country to the loss of the image of their heavenly protectress. There is a legend that a copy of the image of Our Lady of Kazan was taken in procession upon the fortifications of Leningrad to assist the defenders in defeating the Nazis during the Siege of Leningrad.

Before the revolution, perhaps still, sometimes a Russian mother would give a copy of this picture to her daughter at her wedding, as a blessing on her and her new home.

There is a Russian feast of Mary under this title as a commemoration of its founding on July 8th. There are many replicas of this picture, of which the best known was in the church of Our Lady of Kazan at Moscow.

The Byzantine chapel of the Oriental Institute at Rome is dedicated in honour of Our Lady of Kazan.

 

As seen on: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-kazan.html

Saint Withburga

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Founded a Monastery at Dereham in Norfolk

Feast July 8

 

Withburga was the youngest of the four daughters of King Onna of East Anglia, a devout Christian ruler. All of his daughters and one son are canonized.

Onna was killed in battle against Penda of Mercia, and after her father’s death Withburga went to Dereham in Norfolk where she gathered a few young girls and started a small convent.

She eventually built a church, and the story goes that not having much nourishment to give to the workers, Our Lady appeared to her telling her to send two nuns to the stream where they would find two does that could be milked.

And so the nuns had regular milk to add to their daily sustenance. As news of this marvel spread, people began to flock to the convent to the point that a leader in Dereham became jealous of Withburga’s popularity. He set out on his horse to kill the does, but the horse threw him and he broke his neck. This story is depicted on a large sign in the town of Dereham.

Withburga died on 17 March 743 shortly after the completion of the church. Fifty years later, her body was found perfectly incorrupt.

In 974, on being moved to Ely near the bodies of her two sisters, it was still found whole and pliable. The people of Dereham tried to bring their saint back, but being unsuccessful, found at their return that a well had sprung in the empty tomb of Withburga.

They took it as a sign from their saint for their consolation. This spring has never dried up.