Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. (Baruch 5:5-6 NRSVCE)
Meinrad of Einsiedeln
Meinrad was born into the Hohenzollern family at the end of the eighth century; he was sent at a young age to the abbey school on Reichenau, and there became a Benedictine monk. In the 820s or 830s he became a hermit, with his hermitage in Etzel Pass in the Alps, but the location turned out to be inappropriate for the eremitical life; he was deluged with visitors. He therefore moved to Einsiedeln, living there under a strictly ascetical regime from about 835 to his death in 861. Meinrad was often given gifts by travelers stopping by; his strict practice was to pass all such gifts onto the poor, but in 861 a couple of robbers, hearing rumors of some of the expensive gifts that were given to him, stabbed him to death in an attempt to rob him. His hermitage in Einsiedeln continued to be used as a hermitage, and eventually became a Benedictine church, while his previous hermitage in Etzel Pass became a common stopping-point on the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Campostela; Meinrad himself became popularly known as the Martyr of Hospitality. His feast day is January 21.
Joaquima de Vedruna Vidal de Mas
Joaquima de Vedruna Vidal de Mas was born in Barcelona in 1783; she was married to Teodoro de Mas in 1799. Joaquima had not wanted to be married -- she wanted to become a nun -- but the marriage happened to be a good one, in part because her husband also had had to marry despite wanting to join the religious life. They would eventually have nine children, and both became Third Order Franciscans. All of this came to an end, however, when Napoleon invaded Spain; Joaquima and the children were sent to safety, but Teodoro stayed as a volunteer to fight, and died in March of 1816. After his death, Joaquima devoted herself to the poor and was encouraged by the local bishop to become a Carmelite and start a congregation for that purpose, receiving help from St. Anthony Mary Claret in establishing a rule for it. The congregation would eventually become known as the Carmelite Sisters of Charity, which was quite successful. Joaquima herself became paralyzed in 1850 and died of cholera in 1854. She was beatified by Pius XII in 1940 and canonized by St. John XXIII in 1959; her feast is August 28.
Vibiana
Almost nothing is known for certain about the life of St. Vibiana, also known as Bibiana; she was a virgin martyr in Rome, and in the fifth century a church was built for her by Pope St. Simplicius. Later legends suggest that she was the daughter of a prefect banished in the reign of Julian the Apostate for being Christian, and was tortured and killed around the same time. It's very possible that she may be the same as the "innocent and pure Viviana" whose remains were discovered in 1853 in the catacombs with symbols and inscription that suggest she was a martyr. She is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California; her remains were transferred to Los Angeles, originally to the Cathedral of St. Vibiana, and now are found in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Her feast day is September 1.
Anne-Marie Rivier
Born in Montpezat-sous-Bauzon in 1768, Anne-Marie Rivier's life took a sudden turn before she was even a year and a half old when an accident led to the breaking of her hip and ankle. For the first part of her life it seemed that she would never walk, but she unexpectedly discovered that she could walk with the help of crutches in 1774. She would have a consistent problem with rickets, however, which led to stunted growth. She applied in 1785 to join the Sisters of Notre Dame, but her poor health led to her application being denied; instead she opened a school and started teaching children. It would be a dark time; with the French Revolution, religious orders were suppressed and participation in Catholic activities was severely restricted. Due to this, there was often no priest available; when Mass could not be celebrated, Anne-Marie began holding catechetical services until in 1794 the French government confiscated her school. With the help of Fr. Luigi Pontanier, she and several others founded a new school elsewhere, and a new religious order was begun to run it. Once the Concordate of 1801 lifted the restrictions on the Catholic Church, the new order flourished and became known as the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. Rivier's health never improved; she eventually began to suffer from a severe case of dropsy, but continued to be active until her death in 1838. She was beatified by St. John Paul II and canonized by Pope Francis. Her feast day is February 3.
Helier
Helier is said to have been born to pagan parents in the sixth century, somewhere around Tongeren in modern-day Belgium. According to legend, his parents had wanted a child but had difficulty conceiving; in desperation they turned to advice from a man named Cunibert. Cunibert gave them advice on how to pray to God, but on condition that if they conceived after they followed it, Cunibert would be allowed to teach the child the Christian faith. So Helier was born and taught by Cunibert; but Helier's father eventually became angry at the influence Cunibert exerted and had him killed. Helier himself wandered for a while until he joined a monastic community in the Cotentin Peninsula that had been founded by St. Marculf. It was quite a busy monastic community, and Helier did not particularly take to it, so he volunteered when a request came from the little island of Gersut, which was facing serious problems due to its vulnerability to Viking raids, and needed a priest. He and a companion named Romard arrived on the island and Helier founded a hermitage on a small tidal island. The tidal island allowed him a good view of the sea; he would keep a lookout for sails and signal the islanders when he saw them. So it went for about fifteen years; but it is thought that somewhere around 555 he was beheaded by pirates. St. Marculf is said to have founded an abbey on the island in his memory. Gersut, of course, is known today as the Isle of Jersey, of which St. Helier is the patron saint, and the whole island is filled with memorials of him; the Bailiwick of Jersey's capital and only town is named St Helier. St. Helier's feast is July 16.
Peter Ou
Peter Ou was a Chinese innkeeper who converted to the Christian faith. He had been quite successful and respected for his integrity, and became a catechist and a pillar of the local church. Catholicism, however, was illegal in China, and a harsh crackdown in 1814 led to his arrest. He is said to have led prayer services among the other detainees, and when he refused to repudiate the faith by stomping on a cross, he was executed. His feast day is November 7.
Gontrand
The third son of the Frankish King Chlothar I and Queen Ingunda was given the name Gontrand (sometimes spelled as Guntram), which means "War Raven". When his father died in 561, he received a portion of the kingdom and became King of Burgundy. He was generally competent, although he led a fairly wild life in his youth. When his older brother Charibert died in 567, he became King of Paris as well as of Burgundy. This would cause some political problems and Gontrand soon found himself at war with his brother Sigebert, the King of Austrasia, and then after Sigebert's death, which is brother Chilperic, and then with his nephew Childebert, and then with a man named Gundowald who claimed (probably falsely) to be his illegitimate half-brother. He was extraordinarily successful in most of his military endeavors. As he grew older, however, he repented his sins and began fasting, aiding the poor, and supporting the Church. After his death in 592, he very quickly began to receive local veneration, which spread throughout all the Frankish realms; because of the events of his life he became popularly regarded as the patron saint of those who were divorced and of repentant murderers. His feast day is March 28.
Theobald of Marly
Theobald, also known in French as Thibaut, was the son of a famous Crusader, Bouchard de Marly. He served for a time as a knight in the court of the King of France, Philip II, but in 1226 he became a Cistercian monk at the Abbey of Vaux-de-Cernay. He eventually became abbot, and turned out to be an extraordinary administrator, overseeing large-scale maintenance and repair projects at the abbey, as well as a large increase in the number of monks at the abbey. Because of his success, he was asked as time went on to administer a number of other abbeys, and was active in running them until he grew gravely sick and died in 1247. His feast day is July 27.
Siméon-François Berneux, Marie-Nicolas-Antoine Daveluy, Lucas Hwang Sŏk-tu
Siméon-François Berneux was born in 1814 in Château-du-Loir and was ordained a priest in 1837, spending some time as a Professor of Theology at the seminary of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. He then became involved in the missions to Asia that were run from Macau, arriving in Vietnam in 1841. There he was eventually arrested and sentenced to death for proselytism, but for political reasons the sentence was postponed, and he was released in 1843 and put on a ship sailing back to France. He never returned to France, however; at the Île Bourbon, known today as La Réunion, he was given permission to go back to Macau for a mission to Manchuria, where he arrived in 1844. He worked with the mission there for some time, but in 1854, he was consecrated Titular Bishop of Capsus and appointed Apostolic Vicar to the Vicariate of Corea. He arrived in Korea in 1856, where he met Marie-Nicolas-Antoine Daveluy, and began developing the mission. In 1866, however, he was arrested, repeatedly interrogated under torture, and then executed by decapitation on March 8 of that year.
Marie-Nicolas-Antoine Daveluy had been born in 1818 in Amiens, and after some time as a priest in Roye, he joined the Society of Foreign missions of Paris. He arrived in Macau in 1844, intending to serve in Japan, but Jean-Joseph-Jean-Baptiste Ferréol, who had recently been appointed Apostolic Vicar of Corea, convinced him to switch to Korea. Joined by St. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, the first Korean Catholic priest, they arrived in Korea in 1845. Daveluy, who had an extraordinary talent for languages, threw himself into the study of the Korean language, writing a Korean-French dictionary as well as several other works. When Ferréol died in 1853, he continued to assist Berneux, Ferréol's replacement, and after the death of Berneux, he was consecrated the Titular Bishop of Akka and appointed Apostolic Vicar. He was not in the position very long; he was soon arrested, interrogated under torture, and sentenced to death. He was executed by decapitation on March 30, 1866, which was a Good Friday.
Lucas Hwang Sŏk-tu was born in 1813 in Yonp’ung to a wealthy family. While studying in Seoul he became interested in Christianity and converted to Catholicism; while his family initially opposed his conversion, over time they came around and converted as well. He became a teacher of Chinese literature and active as a catechist in the Church. He played a significant role in the missions, co-writing works with both Berneux and Daveluy and serving as Daveluy's personal assistant in his linguistic research. He was arrested with Daveluy and executed on the same day.
Berneux's feast day is March 7, and both Daveluy and Hwang Sŏk-tu are celebrated on March 30; in addition, Berneux, Daveluy, and Hwang Sŏk-tu are memorialized with other Korean martyrs on September 30.
Lorcán Ua Tuathail
Lorcán was born in either Kilkea or Castledermot in modern-day County Kildare, Ireland, somewhere around 1128, a younger son of King Muirchertach. He spent some time in the court of Muirchertach's overlord, Diarmait Mac Murdacha, as a foster/hostage; relations between the two kings did not go well, so Lorcán's stay was more as hostage than as foster, ending up in prison for two years under harsh treatment. While in prison he developed a desire for the religious life, which he did once he became free, and he eventually became the abbot of Glendalough Abbey in 1154. He became active in reforming and renewing the spiritual life of the monastery, expanding its charitable activities and finding ways to protect the abbey from the rising dangers of piracy and banditry. In 1162 he was elected Archbishop of Dublin, where he continued his work in spiritual reform and began an active church-building campaign. Then in 1166 the Anglo-Norman invasion began, nominally to intervene in a dispute over the deposition of the King of Leinster. Throughout the entire period, Lorcán had to spend large amounts of time on diplomatic matters, working as a mediator to attempt to resolve problems without bloodshed. He played a significant role in negotiating the Treaty of Windsor of 1175 between the Irish kings and Henry II. While helping to negotiate that treaty, he visited the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury and while praying was attacked by a man with a club. He survived the attack. The stories all agree that the man who attacked him was simply insane, and apparently had taken it into his head that it would be a good idea to make another martyr at the shrine of Becket. Henry II, however, could not shake the rumors at the time that maybe he had yet again tried to get rid of an inconvenient priest. In 1179 Lorcán attended the Third Lateran Council, where he was named papal legate by Pope Alexander III. In 1180, on a diplomatic mission to Normandy, he fell seriously ill and died at the Abbey of St. Victor in Eu, on November 14, which became his feast day in very short measure, because he was canonized less than two months after his death. He is often known in English as Laurence O'Toole and in French as Laurent d'Eu.
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