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Saint Lawrence Martyr

by SANOL

Patron Saint of the Poor

Feast August 10

St. Lawrence, one of the deacons of the Roman Church, was one of the victims of the persecution of Valerian in 258, like Pope Sixtus II and many other members of the Roman clergy.

At the beginning of the month of August, in the year 258, the Roman emperor issued an edict, commanding that all bishops, priests, and deacons should be put to death.

This imperial command was immediately carried out in the city of Rome. On the 6th Pope Sixtus II was apprehended in one of the catacombs, and executed without delay.

As he was led to execution, Lawrence followed him. “Father, where are you going without your deacon?” he said. “I am not leaving you, my son,” answered the Pope, “in three days you will follow me.” Two other deacons, Felicissimus and Agapitus, were put to death the same day.

Three days later, on the 10th of August of that same year, Lawrence, the last of the seven deacons, also suffered a martyr’s death.

St. Ambrose of Milan and the poet Prudentius, give particular details about St. Lawrence’s death.

Ambrose relates that when St. Lawrence was asked to bring forth the treasures of the Church he hastily travelled throughout the city, gathering the poor.

On the third day, he brought them to the prefect, who believed the Church had treasure hidden away, and said, “These are the treasures of the Church.” The disappointed prefect angrily condemned Lawrence to death.

The saint was stripped of his clothing and tied on top of a gird-iron over a slow fire that roasted his flesh little by little.

Defiant in spite of his intense suffering, the holy deacon audaciously commanded his executioners “Turn me over. That side is cooked.” The holy audacity of this deacon-martyr inspires noble souls until today.

St. Lawrence is considered one of the most venerated martyrs of the Catholic Church since the fourth century.

Saint John Ogilvie

by SANOL6

Feast day 10 March

Son of a Scottish laird, John Ogilvie was brought up in a Calvinist family.

Sent to France to be educated, he ultimately converted to Catholicism. Becoming acquainted with the Jesuit Order, he requested admission, was accepted, and was ordained in 1610 in Paris.

After meeting two Jesuits who had undertaken clandestine missionary work in Scotland (since 1560 Catholicism was outlawed in the British Isles) he offered himself for the perilous mission. With orders to proceed to Scotland, he travelled under the name of John Watson, horse dealer.

Landing in Scotland in November of 1613, during nine months he provided spiritual support to clandestine Catholics and reconciled many to the Church in the region of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Betrayed, he was imprisoned and suffered various tortures, but nothing could induce him to reveal the names of those he had helped.

His patience, courage and gaiety aroused the admiration of his persecutors, but, in the end, he was condemned as a traitor who refused to acknowledge the religious supremacy of the king and was hanged in Glasgow.

John Ogilvie was canonized in 1976, the only Scottish martyr of the Counter-Reformation.

Saint Anne Line

by SANOL6

Patron Saint of Childless People, Converts, and Widows

Feast Day 27 February

Anne was the daughter of William Heigham of Dunmow, Essex, a gentleman of means and an ardent Calvinist.

When Anne and her brother converted to Catholicism, they were disowned and disinherited by their family.

In 1583, Anne married Roger Line, a convert like herself. But shortly after their marriage Roger was arrested for attending Mass and exiled to Flanders in Belgium, where he died in 1594.

Anne remained in London, where, despite her poor health, she was put in charge of two houses of refuge for priests in the city. But soon, the English authorities began to suspect the widow’s activities, and she removed herself to another location.

Then, on Candlemas Day in 1601, just as a Jesuit priest was about to celebrate Mass in Anne’s apartments, priest-catchers, men paid handsomely to root out Catholic clergy forced to celebrate Mass in secret, broke into the rooms.

On the 2nd of February, a blessing of candles traditionally takes place before Mass and a large number of people had gathered for the feast day. Quickly unvesting, Father Francis Page mingled with those in attendance as a form of concealment, but the altar prepared for the ceremony was all the evidence needed for Anne’s arrest.

She was imprisoned in Newgate Prison and later brought to trial at Sessions House. Anne was so weak from fever that she had to be carried in a chair to her trial on the 26th of February. She was indicted under Elizabeth I’s 1585 Act Against Jesuits and Seminarists (Elizabeth 27, Cap. 2) for providing haven to a Catholic Jesuit priest, and sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn.

The next day she was led to the gallows, bravely proclaiming her faith to the crowd before her sentence was carried out.

Anne had finally achieved the martyrdom for which she had prayed and is known as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Saint Lucy

by SANOL

Patron Saint of the Blind, Italy, and Syracuse

Feast Day 13 December

Saint Lucy was descended of a noble family of Syracuse, which was then regarded as the principal city of Sicily. She lost her father in her infancy; but Eutychia, her mother, took care to educate her properly, and to instruct her well in the doctrines of our holy faith. When our saint arrived at a proper age, her mother began to think of giving her in marriage, but Lucy, who had consecrated her virginity to Jesus Christ, awaited only a favourable opportunity to reveal her resolution to her mother.

The opportunity soon presented itself. Eutychia was afflicted for many years with a flux of blood, without being able to find any effectual remedy. Saint Lucy therefore, persuaded her to repair to the tomb of Saint Agatha, martyred a half century before in Catania, where the Lord was pleased to work many miracles, and there to implore her cure. When they arrived at Catania, they prostrated themselves in prayer before the sepulchre of Saint Agatha, where Lucy, perhaps from fatigue of the journey, was overpowered with sleep.

The blessed martyr appeared to her, and as we read in the Roman Breviary, said: “Lucy! Why dost thou demand through my intercession that which, by thy faith, thou canst thyself obtain for thy mother?”

She then assured Lucy that God would work the desired cure, and that, for having preserved her virginity inviolate, God would reward her in Syracuse with the same glory she herself had received in Catania.

Saint Lucy, animated by this vision, was the more confirmed in her resolution of remaining always consecrated to Jesus Christ, and told her mother to speak to her no more of marriage, but to distribute her fortune among the poor. Eutychia answered, that at her death she would bequeath all to her, and that she might do with it as she pleased; but Saint Lucy replied, that gratitude for her miraculous cure ought to induce her willingly to deprive herself during life of that which, at her death, she should necessarily leave behind.

The mother consented, and when they returned to Syracuse, they commenced to sell their property, and to distribute the proceeds among the poor. Saint Lucy’s suitor perceiving this, complained to Eutychia; but he found that his representations were totally ineffectual, and, in his rage, accused her before the governor, Paschasius, as being a Christian, contrary to the edicts of Diocletian and Maximian.

The saint was accordingly arrested and brought before the governor, who endeavoured to persuade her to sacrifice to the idols; but Saint Lucy replied, that the sacrifice most agreeable to God was the relief of the poor, in which she was actually engaged and that she was prepared to sacrifice even her life.

Paschasius replied that she ought to obey the emperor, as he did; but the saint answered: “Day and night I meditate upon the divine law; and if thou art anxious to please the emperor, I am anxious to please my God; therefore, it is that I have consecrated to him my virginity.”

Paschasius in his rage told her that she was impurity itself.

The saint replied: “No, thou art impurity, since thou dost endeavour to corrupt Christian souls, alienating them from God, to serve the devil, – wrongly preferring, as thou dost, the goods of this world to those of heaven.”

Paschasius; “Torments shall stop thy mouth.”

Lucy: “Words shall never be wanting to the servants of God, since the Lord hath promised that the Holy Ghost shall speak through them.”

Paschasius: “Then the Holy Ghost is within thee?”

Lucy: “St Paul hath said, that those who live chastely and piously are the temples of the Holy Ghost.”

“Since this is the case,” said the tyrant, “I will cause thee to be brought to an infamous place, in order that the Holy Ghost may leave thee.”

The saint replied: “The body receives no stain when the will is averse to sin; on the contrary, the violence you meditate would double my crown.”

The governor then threatened the most horrid tortures, in case she continued obstinate.

The saint intrepidly exclaimed: “Behold my body ready to suffer every torture! Why dost thou delay? Begin the execution of that which the devil, thy father, prompts thee.”

Paschasius, maddened with rage, ordered that she should instantly be brought to the place of infamy, in order that she might first lose the honour of virginity, and then be deprived of life.

The guards endeavoured to execute this command, but found that God had rendered her so immovable that all their exertions were insufficient to drag her from the spot.

Paschasius in astonishment exclaimed: “What incantation is this?”

The saint replied: “This is not an incantation, but the power of God. Why dost thou fatigue thyself? Dost thou not manifestly perceive that I am the temple of the Lord?”

Paschasius, more confused and infuriated than ever, ordered a great fire to be kindled round the saint that she might be burned.

Saint Lucy, nothing daunted, said to the tyrant: “I will pray to the Lord Jesus Christ that the fire may not injure me, in order that the faithful may witness the divine power, and that the infidels may be confused.”

The friends of Paschasius, unwilling that the people should witness any further miracle, advised him to have her beheaded; but after having been tortured in many other ways, her throat was pierced with the point of a sword.

The saint did not expire immediately; she threw herself on her knees, offered her death to God; and having foretold that peace would soon be restored to the Church, consummated her martyrdom in the year 303 or 304. Her name is inserted in the Canon of the Mass.*

She is portrayed holding a pair of eyes on a platter. Some accounts say that her eyes were tortured, others that she gouged them out to discourage her suitor. In any case, she is particularly invoked for ailments of the eyes, or eyesight problems.

The emblem of eyes on a cup or plate apparently reflects popular devotion to her as protector of sight, because of her name, Lucia (from the Latin word “lux” which means “light”).

*from Saint Alphonsus

As seen on: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/saint-lucy.html

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