St.

Dominic Savio
Patron of Choir Boys & Falsely Accused
1842 - 1857

St. Dominic Savio was born in Italy in 1842. One day

when he was just four, he disappeared and his good mother
went looking for him. She found the little fellow in a corner
praying with his hands joined and his head bowed. He already
knew all his prayers by heart! At five, he was an altar boy.
When he was seven, he received his First Holy Communion. On

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that solemn day, he chose a motto: "Death, but not sin!" and
he kept it always.

Here is a boy-saint who died at the age of fifteen, was

one of the great hopes of St. John Bosco for the future of his
congregation, and was canonized in 1954.
He was one of ten children of Carlo and Birgitta Savio.
Carlo was a blacksmith and Birgitta was a seamstress. When
Don Bosco was looking for young men to train as priests for his
Salesian Order, his parish priest suggested Dominic Savio.
Dominic became more than a credit to Don Bosco's schoolhe
single-handedly organized those who were to be the nucleus of
Don Bosco's order
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St. Dominic Savio was twelve when he met Don Bosco and
organized a group of boys into the Company of the Immaculate
Conception. Besides its religious purpose, the boys swept and
took care of the school and looked after the boys that no one
seemed to pay any attention to. When, in 1859, Don Bosco
chose the young men to be the first members of his
congregation, all of them had been members of Dominic's
Company.

For all that, Dominic was a normal, high-spirited boy who

sometimes got into trouble with his teachers because he
would often break out laughing. However, he was generally
well disciplined and gradually gained the respect of the
tougher boys in Don Bosco's school.

In other circumstances, Dominic might have become a

little self-righteous snob, but Don Bosco showed him the
heroism of the ordinary and the sanctity of common sense.
"Religion must be about us as the air we breathe," Don Bosco
would say, and Dominic Savio wore holiness like the clothes on
his back.

He called his long hours of prayer "his distractions." In

1857, at the age of fifteen, he caught tuberculosis and was
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sent home to recover. On the evening of March 9, he asked his
father to say the prayers for the dying. His face lit up with an
intense joy and he said to his father: "I am seeing most
wonderful things!" These were his last words.

Thought for the Day: "I can't do big things," St. Dominic
Savio once said, "but I want everything to be for the glory of
God." His was the way of the ordinary: cheerfulness, fidelity in
little things, helping others, playing games, obeying his
superiors. This heroism in little things is the stuff of holiness.

Reflection

Prayer to Saint Dominic Savio

Dear Saint Dominic, you spent your short life totally for love of
Jesus and His Mother. Help youth today to realize the importance of
God in their lives. You became a saint through fervent participation in
the sacraments, enlighten parents and children to the importance of
frequent confession and Holy Communion. At a young age you
meditated on the sorrowful Passion of Our Lord. Obtain for us the grace
of a fervent desire to suffer for love of Him.
We desperately need your intercession to protect today's
children from the snares of the world. Watch over them and lead them
on the narrow road to Heaven. Ask God to give us the grace to sanctify
our daily duties by performing them perfectly out of love for Him.
Remind us of the necessity of practicing virtue especially in times of
trial.

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 Saint Dominic Savio, you who preserved your Baptismal
innocence of heart, pray for us.

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St. Joan of Arc
Patron of Soldiers and France
Feastday: May 30
1412 1431

St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France.

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

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

After overcoming opposition from churchmen and

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

In May 1430, as she was attempting to relieve

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

Through her unfamiliarity with the technicalities of

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

Reflection

Prayer to St. Joan of Arc

Most extraordinary soldier,
you insistently proclaimed:
"Let God be served first!"
You began by winning many victories and
received the plaudits of princes,
but then you were given to the
enemy and cruelly put to death.
Instill in us the desire to serve
God first and perform our earthly
tasks with that idea ever in our minds.

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Blessed Jacinta and
Francisco Marto
Patron of bodily ills; captives; people ridiculed for their
piety; prisoners; sick people; against sickness
Feastday: February 20
1908 1919
Beatified By: May 13, 2000,
Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, Ftima,
Portugal, by Pope John Paul II

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 Francisco Marto (June 11, 1908 April 4, 1919) and his sister
Jacinta Marto (March 11, 1910 February 20, 1920), also known
as Blessed Francisco Marto and Blessed Jacinta Marto, together
with their cousin, Lcia dos Santos (19072005) were the children
from Aljustrel near Ftima, Portugal, who said they witnessed
three apparitions of an angel in 1916 and several apparitions of
the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917. Their reported visions of Our
Lady of Ftima proved politically controversial, and gave rise to a
major centre of world Christian pilgrimage.

The youngest children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto, Francisco

and Jacinta were typical of Portuguese village children of that
time. They were illiterate but had a rich oral tradition on which to
rely, and they worked with their cousin Lcia, taking care of the
family's sheep. According to Lcia's memoirs, Francisco had a
placid disposition, was somewhat musically inclined, and liked to
be by himself to think. Jacinta was affectionate if a bit spoiled,
and emotionally labile. She had a sweet singing voice and a gift
for dancing. All three children gave up music and dancing after
the visions began, believing that these and other recreational
activities led to occasions of sin.

Following their experiences, their fundamental personalities

remained the same. Francisco preferred to pray alone, as he said
"to console Jesus for the sins of the world". Jacinta was deeply
affected by a terrifying vision of Hell reportedly shown to the
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children at the third apparition. She became deeply convinced of
the need to save sinners through penance and sacrifice as the
Virgin had reportedly instructed the children to do. All three
children, but particularly Francisco and Jacinta, practiced
stringent self-mortifications to this end.

Reflection

Prayer to Blessed Jacinta and Francisco

Marta,
Shepherds of Fatima
God of infinite goodness who loves the innocent and exalts the
humble grant that, in imitation of blessed Francisco and Jacinta,
we may serve you with purity of heart and so be worthy to enter
the kingdom of heaven. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for
ever and ever. Amen.

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 St. Therese of Lisieux
THRSE MARTIN was born in Alenon, France on January
2, 1873. Two days later, she was baptized Marie Frances Thrse
at Notre Dame Church. Her parents were Louis Martin and Zlie
Gurin. After the death of her mother on August 28, 1877,
Thrse and her family moved to Lisieux. After an intense
preparation by the Benedictine Nuns of Lisieux culminating in a
vivid experience of intimate union with Christ, she received First
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Holy Communion on May 8, 1884. Some weeks later, on June
14th of the same year, she received the Sacrament of
Confirmation.

She wished to embrace the contemplative life, as her

sisters Pauline and Marie had done in the Carmel of Lisieux.
However, she was prevented from doing this because she was
too young. During an audience granted by Pope Leo XIII, she
asked the Holy Father with childlike audacity to be able to enter
the Carmel of Lisieux at the age of fifteen.

On April 9, 1888, she entered the Carmel of Lisieux. She

received the habit on January 10th of the following year, and
made her religious profession on September 8, 1890 on the
Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Carmel she
embraced the way of perfection outlined by the Foundress,
Saint Teresa of Jesus, fulfilling with genuine fervour and fidelity
the various community responsibilities entrusted to her. In her
autobiographical manuscripts she left us not only her
recollections of childhood and adolescence but also a portrait of
her soul, the description of her most intimate experiences. She
discovered the little way of spiritual childhood and taught it to
the novices entrusted to her care. She penetrated ever more
deeply into the mystery of the Church and became increasingly
aware of her apostolic and missionary vocation to draw
everyone in her path. She completed her first autobiographical
manuscript on January 21, 1896.

Several months later, on April 3rd, in the night between

Holy Thursday and Good Friday, she suffered a haemoptysis, the
first sign of the illness that would lead to her death; she
welcomed this event as a mysterious visitation of the Divine
Spouse. From this point forward, she entered a trial of faith
which would last until her death; she gives overwhelming
testimony to this in her writings. In September, she completed
Manuscript B; this text gives striking evidence of the spiritual
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maturity which she had attained, particularly the discovery of
her vocation in the heart of the Church.

While her health declined and the time of trial continued,

she began work in the month of June on Manuscript C. New
graces led her to higher perfection and she discovered fresh
insights for the diffusion of her message in the Church, for the
benefit of souls who would follow her way. Throughout July,
August and September her suffering and trials intensified. She
accepted them with patience up to the moment of her death in
the afternoon of September 30, 1897.

Pope Pius XI canonized her on May 17, 1925. On

December 14, 1927, St. Therese was proclaimed a Universal
Patron of the Missions. After an exhaustive study into the
suitability of proclaiming St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of
the Holy Face a Doctor of the Universal Church, she was
bestowed that honor by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 1997.

Reflection

A Prayer to Saint Therese De Lisieux

for Guidance
Govern by all Thy Wisdom, O Lord,
so that my soul may always be serving

Thee as Thou dost

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 Will,
and not as I may choose.
Do not punish me, I beseech Thee,
by granting that which I wish
or ask if it offended Thy Love,
which would always live in me.
Let me die to myself,
so that I may love Thee.
Let me live to Thee,
Who art in Thyself,
the True Life.

Dear St. Therese,

guide me in your Little Way,
so that I may ascend to the heights and happiness of
Heaven.

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 St. Pedro Calungsod
Saint Pedro Calungsod of Cebu (born: 1654 died: 2 April
1672), also known as San Pedro Calungsod de Cebu or Pedro
Calonsor, is a Roman Catholic young Filipino saint and was a
migrant, sacristan and missionary catechist, who along with the
Spanish Jesuit missionary, Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores,
suffered religious persecution and martyrdom in Guam for their
missionary work in 1672.
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 While in Guam, Calungsod preached Christianity among the
Chamorro people through catechism, while baptizing infants,
children and adults at the risk and expense of being persecuted
and eventually murdered. Through Calungsod and San Vitores'
missionary efforts, many native Chamorros converted to Roman
Catholicism.

Calungsod was formally beatified on 5 March 2000 by

Blessed Pope John Paul II. Calungsod was officially canonized by
Pope Benedict XVI at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City on 21
October 2012.

Very little is known about Pedro Calungsod. Historical

records never mentioned his exact place of origin or who his
parents were. He was merely identified as a teenage native of
the Visayas in the Philippines. Historical research identifies
Ginatilan in Cebu, Hinunangan and Hinundayan in Southern
Leyte, and Molo district in Iloilo as probable places of origin.
Loboc in Bohol also makes a claim.

Moreover, no one even really knows how Calungsod looked

like. Calungsod is often depicted as a young man wearing a
camisa de chino. He holds the martyrs palm, indicating his
death, or sometimes a crucifix, catechism book or rosary,
representing his missionary work.

Few details of his early life prior to missionary work and

death are known. It is probable that he came to one of the
schools run by Jesuits, where he learned Catechism and Spanish
language.

Nevertheless, we can be certain of Calungsods

ecclesiastical provenance since the entire Visayas region was

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under the old Diocese (now Archdiocese) of the Most Holy Name
(Cebu).

Reflection

Prayer to Blessed Pedro Calungsod

Blessed Pedro Calungsod, young migrant, student,
catechist, missionary, faithful, friend, and martyr, you inspire us
by your fidelity in time of trial and adversity, by your courage in
teaching the Faith in the midst of hostility and by your love in
shedding your lifes blood for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus.

We beg you, make our cares and troubles your own [here
mention the special intention you are asking him to bring to the
Lord] and intercede for us before the throne of Mercy and Grace,
so that as we experience the help of Heaven, we may be
encouraged and strengthened to proclaim and live the Gospel
here on earth. AMEN.

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 St. Bernadette
Soubirous
Born to a very poor family on January 7, 1844, she suffered
severely from asthma and was such a poor student she was
delayed from making her First Holy Communion until 1858, when
she was 14. On February 11 of that year, the first of her visions
took place as she was gathering firewood along the river Gave.
This drama is known to most Catholics as the Apparition at
Lourdes.

On March 25, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared for the last
time and identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception." With
these words the Mother of God confirmed the pious belief which
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Pope Pius IX, 4 years earlier, had raised to the dignity of a dogma
of the infallible Church.

The Sisters of Nevers, who operated a school at Lourdes,

were later entrusted with Bernadette's care, and when she was
22, was admitted to their order. She spent the rest of her days
there, a short distance from Lourdes. After suffering heroically
for years from tuberculosis of the bone in the right knee,
including several complications, she died a holy death on April
15, 1879.

The body was first exhumed 30 years after her death. On

September 2, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed
by the postulators of the cause, 2 doctors, and the sister of the
community, the coffin was removed by workmen from the place
where it was intombed. On opening the lid, they discerned no
odor and the virginal body lay exposed, completly victorious over
the laws of nature.

The arms and face were completly unaffected from

corruption and had maintained their natural skin tone. The teeth
were barely visible through her slightly parted lips. The rosary in
her hands had become rusty, and the crucifix was coated with
verdigris.

The sisters, with the best of intentions, thoroughly washed

the body and reclothed it in a new religious habit before placing
it in a new casket. After the official documents pertaining to the
exhumation were placed beside the body, and the double casket
officially sealed, the remains were again placed in the tomb.

The second exhumation took place at the end of the Process

on April 3, 1919. The body of the Venerable was found in the
same state of preservation as 10 years earlier, except that the
face was slightly discolored, due to the washing it had undergone
during the first exhumation. A worker in wax who was
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experienced in such duties applied a coating to the face of the
Saint who had been dead 40 years.

This sacred relic was placed in a coffin of gold and glass and
can be viewed in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the
motherhouse in Nevers.

Patronage against bodily ills, against illness, against

poverty, against sickness, Lourdes, France, people ridiculed for
their piety, poor people, shepherdesses, shepherds, sick people

Reflection

Prayer to Saint Bernadette

St. Bernadette, little shepherdess of Lourdes favoured with
eighteen apparitions of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and with the
privilege of lovingly conversing with her, now that you are
eternally enjoying the entrancing beauty of the Immaculate
Mother of God, do not forsake me your devoted client, who am
still in the valley of tears. Intercede for me that I too, may walk
the simple paths of faith. Help me to imitate your example, at our
heavenly Queens request, by saying the Rosary daily and by
doing penance for sinners. Teach me to imitate your wonderful
devotedness to God and Our Lady the Immaculate Conception so
that like you, I may be blessed with the grace of lasting

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faithfulness and enjoy the happiness in heaven of the eternal
vision of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Saint Philomena
Saint Philomena is, as believed by her devotees within the
Catholic Church, a young virgin martyr whose remains were
discovered in 1802 in the Catacombs of Priscilla. Three tiles
enclosing the tomb bore an inscription that was taken to indicate
that her name (in the Latin of the inscription) was Filumena, the
English form of which is Philomena.

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 The remains were removed to Mugnano del Cardinale in 1805
and became the focus of widespread devotion, with several
miracles credited to the saint's intercession, including the
healing of Venerable Pauline Jaricot in 1835, which received wide
publicity. Saint John Vianney attributed to her intercession the
extraordinary cures that others attributed to himself.

In 1833 a Neapolitan nun reported that in a vision Saint

Philomena had revealed that she was a Greek princess martyred
at 13 years of age by Diocletian, who was Roman Emperor from
284 to 305.

From 1837 to 1961 celebration of her liturgical feast was

approved for some places, but was never included in the General
Roman Calendar for universal use. The 1920 typical edition of the
Roman Missal included a mention of her, under 11 August, in the
section headed Missae pro aliquibus locis (Masses for some
places), with an indication that the Mass to be used in those
places was one from the common of a Virgin Martyr, without any
collect proper to the saint.

On 14 February 1961, the Holy See ordered that the name of

Saint Philomena be removed from all liturgical calendars that
mentioned her. Accordingly, the 1962 Roman Missal, the edition
whose continued use as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite

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is authorized by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, also
has no mention of her.

The shrine of her relics in Mugnano del Cardinale continues to

be visited by pilgrimages from many countries, an
Archconfraternity in her honour exists, as does popular devotion
in various places around the world.

Among her most devout clients was St. John Vianney (the Cure'
of Ars), whose childlike devotion to this virgin Saint played an
intimate part in his daily life. other Saints who were always
devoted to her prayed to her and sang her praises were St. Peter
Julian Eymard, St. Peter Chanel, St. Anthony Mary Claret, St.
Madeleine Sophie Barat, St. Euphrasia Pelletier, St. Francis Xavier
Cabrini, St. John Nepomucene Neumann, Blessed Anna Maria Taigi
and Ven. Pauline Jaricot.

Reflection

Prayer to Saint Philomena

O, Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, whom God glorifies by

so many miracles, whom the Vicar of Jesus Christ has names
Protectress of the Living Rosary and the Children of Mary,
manifest, more and more plainly from the heights of Heaven, that

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a voice holy as thine cannot be denied and that we have the right
to rely upon thine aid. Obtain for us the grace to be faithful to
Jesus Christ, even to death. Amen.

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Saint Gabriel of Our
Lady of Sorrows
Francesco Possenti was born in the Italian town of Assisi on
March 1st 1838. He was baptiszd the same day in the same font
in which St. Francis of Assisi was baptized. St. Gabriel's life would
mirror that of Francis - turning from the excesses of this world to
the glory of the next. Francis would be the eleventh of thirteen

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children born to this mother Agnes and father Sante. Sante was a
legal assessor in the town of Spoleto, then part of the Papal
States under Pius IX.

Francis was just like every young boy and teenager. He become
popular for his warm and outgoing personality, his love of
dancing, hunting and the theater. He endangered himself more
than once on his hunting expeditions and during a childhood
illness had promised to become a religious if he was healed.
Twice he was healed, twice he delayed. Francis did well in school,
despite a childhood which included the death of three siblings
and his own mother. Like a normal boy of his age Francis
attracted the attention of the girls of Spoleto, where the family
had moved from Assisi.

During a procession of an icon of the Mother of Sorrows,

Francis felt Our Lady call to him that he was not meant for this
world and he was to become a religious. On the night his father
had arranged for him to become engaged, Francis left for the
Passionist noviate. The Passionists were founded by St. Paul of
the Cross and are a religious community devoted to the living
and preaching the of Our Lord's passion and death. The
Congregation is active in all continents and has the motto of 'We
preach Christ and We Preach Him Crucified', the habit, with its
Passionist heart, is distinctive.

Francis took vows in the Passionist community and he took the

name of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, reflecting the devotion,
planted in his childhood home by his mother's image of the Pieta,
he always had to Our Lady of Sorrows. Gabriel attained holiness
in a very short space of time, he was consumed with love for
Christ, through Our Lady of Sorrows. Indeed as well as the vow
made by all Passionists to spread devotion to Christ Crucified,
Gabriel took an additional vow to spread devotion to Our
Sorrowful Mother. Despite being struck with TB he maintained all

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the severe sacrifices that made up his life, he begged to be
carried to Mass and he maintained his cheery disposition despite
the painful illness. He died in the presence of the community,
hugging close an image of Our Lady of Sorrows, indeed as he
died a smile spread across his face and he tilted his head to the
right, where he saw Our Lady coming to take him to heaven. He
expired before he could be ordained a priest and died on
February 27, 1862 in the Passionist monastery at Gran Sasso in
the Abruzzi region of Italy. The region of which he is now patron.

Pope Benedict XV canonized Gabriel in 1920 and declared him

a patron of Catholic youth. In 1959, Pope John XXIII named him
the patron of the Abruzzi region, where he spent the last two
years of his earthly life. Through Gabriel's intercession many
miracles have been obtained and many have been brought back
to the True Fold of the Redeemer.

Reflection

Prayer to St. Gabriel of Our Lady of

Sorrows
O angelic young Gabriel, who, with your ardent love for Jesus
Crucified and your compassion for Our Lady of Sorrows, were on
earth a mirror of innocence and an example of every virtue; we
turn to you full of confidence to implore your aid. Oh! How many
evil things and afflictions O how many dangers, assail our young
people from every side, seeking to make them lose the faith. You,
who lived always a life of faith, who amongst the temptations of
the world maintained purity and virginity; turn your eyes to us,
cast us a compassionate and pitying glance! Help us to have the

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grace to persevere in faith; we invoke your name; we cannot
doubt the effactiousness of your patronage! In full confidence of
our hope in you, we pray, O Sweet Saint, to obtain this particular
grace for the greater glory of God and for the good of souls
(mention your request). Finally, obtain for us from Jesus Christ
Crucified, through Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, resignation and
peace so that we might always live the Christian life, throughout
all the times of this present life, so that we might one day be
happy with you in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Amen.

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St. Teresa of the
Andes
Virgin of our Order

Juana Enriqueta Josefina Fernandez Solar was born in

Santiago, Chile, on 13 July 1900. Those who knew her closely
called her Juanita. She was raised with her parents, three
brothers, two sisters, and surrounded by relatives. Her family
was well-off and faithful to their Christian faith. She awakened to
the life of grace when she was still quite young, saying in her

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diary that it was about the age of 6 where God began to claim her
heart for himself. But she had many difficult personality traits to
overcome - she was proud, self-centred and stubborn, and yet
had remarkable determination to overcome her own defects.

Juana was educated in the college of the French nuns of the

Sacred Heart. At the age of ten she made her First Holy
Communion. Understanding that God was going to dwell within
her, she set about acquiring all the virtues that would prepare
her for this great day. In the shortest possible time she managed
to transform her character completely. After her First
Communion, she bagan to receive mystical graces and interior
locutions from God.

When she was fourteen, under God's inspiration, she decided

to consecrate herself to God as a religious in the Discalced
Carmelite Nuns, and at the age of fifteen she made a vow of
virginity for 9 days, continually renewing it from then on.
Her desires were realised when she entered the Carmelite
Monastery of the Holy Spirit in the town of Los Andes on 7 May
1919. She received the Carmelite habit on 14 October the same
year and began her novitiate with the name of Teresa of Jesus.

Teresa possessed an enormous capacity to love and to be

loved, joined with extraordinary intelligance. God allowed her to
experience his presence. Knowing him, she loved him; and loving
him, she bound herself totally to him, even through many interior
trials. She knew for a long time that she would die young, and
this came to pass when she contracted typhus and died on 12th
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April, only three months short of her 20th birthday, while still a
Carmelite novice. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in
Santiago de Chile on 3 April 1987 and canonised by him on March
21st 1993 in Rome. She is the first Chilean to be declared a Saint.
She is the first Discalced Carmelite Nun to become a Saint
outside the boundaries of Europe and the fourth Saint Teresa in
Carmel (together with Saints Teresa of Avila, of Florence and of
Lisieux).

Reflection

Prayer for the Intercession of St Teresa

of the Andes

God of mercy, joy of the saints,

you set the young heart of Blessed Teresa
ablaze with the fire of virginal love
for Christ and for his Church;
and even in suffering made her a cheerful witness to charity.
Through her intercession,
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fill us with the delights of your Spirit,
so that we may proclaim by word and deed
the joyful message of your love to the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

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Saint John Berchmans
Patron Saint of Altar Boys and Jesuit Brother

St. John Berchmans was born the eldest son of a shoemaker in

1599 at Diest, Belgium. At a very young age he wanted to be a
priest, and when thirteen he became a servant in the household
of one of the cathedral canons at Malines. After his mother's
death, his father and two brothers followed suit and entered

34
religious life. In 1615 he entered the Jesuit college there,
becoming a novice a year later.

In 1618 he was sent to Rome for more study and was known
for his diligence and piety, and his stress on perfection even in
small things. That year his father was ordained and died six
months later. John was so poor and humble that he walked from
Antwerp to Rome. He died at the age of 22 on August 13. Many
miracles were attributed to him after his death; he was canonized
in 1888 and is the patron saint of altar boys.

Although he longed to work in the mission fields of China, he

did not live long enough to permit it. After completing his course
work, he was asked to defend the "entire field of philosophy" in a
public disputation in July, just after his exit examinations. The
following month he was asked to represent the Roman College in
a debate with the Greek College. Although he distinguished
himself in this disputation, he had studied so assiduously that he
caught a cold in mid-summer, became very ill with with an
undetermined illness accompanied by a fever, although some
think it now to have been dysentery, and died a week later. He
was buried in the church of Saint Ignatius at Rome, but his heart
was later translated to the Jesuit church at Louvain.

So many miracles were attributed to him after his death at the

age of 22, that his cultus soon spread to his native Belgium,
where 24,000 copies of his portrait were published within a few
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years of his death. He was known for his devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament and to Our Lady, to whom he composed a Chaplet in
honor of her Immaculate Conception. His feast day is November
26.

Reflection

Prayers to St. John Berchmans

Patron of Altar Boys

Dear St. John, you died at a very young age, but in that short
time
you learned to live an exemplary life as a member of the Society
of Jesus.
Directed by your Guardian Angel, whom you confidently invoked,
you learned to be a most humble server at the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass.
Help altar boys imitate you in their service at Eucharistic
celebrations
as well as in their conduct with others. Amen.

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