Anne & Joachim

Saint Anne & Joachim
memorial
26 July

Also known as:
Anna
Ann
Joachim:
Also known as
Heli

Profile

Devotion to our saint for today goes back to the earliest times of the Church; Saint Anne (or Ann) is traditionally the name of the Mother of Our Lady. Ergo she is the Grandmother of Jesus Christ. Her husband is known as Saint Joachim, who therefore is the elderly father of the Blessed Virgin Mary; logically this makes him Grandfather of Jesus Christ. Anyone who Our Lord and Savior called grandma and grandpa is okay in my book.

The oral history and story, including the names “Anne and Joachim, ” were eventually written down for the European Church in a book called the Protoevangelium of James; an apocryphal “gospel” written in the early Middle Ages. This document is like “The Expanded Universe books” to Star Wars fans. It was written to fill out the gaps in a story loved by everyone but not really canon. In this case the story everyone loved being the Gospels of course. It was really huge in the Middle Ages, and most of our common beliefs on Anne, Joachim and Mary and the infancy of Jesus come from James…. The Protoevangelium of James is like holy “fan fiction” and not exactly heretical like some other apocryphal “gospels” like the Gospel of Thomas, but not at all scripture. With that said, everyone back then would be familiar with these writings, it’s okay, so enjoy.

Anne and Joachim were probably pretty well off for the locality and time in history; they were pious children of Israel but childless, which is considered a curse from God, and shameful to the Hebrew folk. Joacam would give three times the required or requested offerings at the temple for the Jewish people, and one day a member of the priestly caste told him he was not permitted to give anymore as he is childless and a shame on the people of Israel. And so Anna prayed regularly at the Temple for the Lord to give her a child, and promised if he answered her prayer she would have the child serve the lord forever:

“Suddenly, an angel of the Lord stood in front of her, saying, "Anna, Anna, the Lord God has heard your prayer. You will conceive and give birth and your child will be spoken of everywhere people live." And Anna said, "As the Lord God lives, whether I give birth to either a male or a female child, I will bring it as an offering to the Lord my God and it will be a servant to him all the days of its life." (Protoevangelium of James 4:1-2)

Because of this promise, It is believed that Anne and Joachim gave Mary to the service of the Temple when the girl was three years old; this formal act of giving Mary to the temple to serve, is celebrated in November; a feast called the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The order of Sisters that taught me in OLS in the Bronx, (no OLS doesn’t mean the Old Lady’s Society even though we all called it that, it means Our Lady of Solace), were from the religious order of the Presentation Sisters (OPVM), including the Sainted Sister Helen and the dreaded Sister Mary Muriel. For a brief time there was a belief that Anne remained a virgin in the conception and birth of Mary, this was condemned by the Vatican in 1677.

Devotion to her has been popular in the East from the very early days of the Church; widespread devotion in the West began in the 16th century, but many shrines have developed since.

Veneration of her was extended to the whole Church in 1584. In art and statuary, Anne looks quite a lot like the Blessed Mother. You can tell the difference because our saint today is usually seen instructing a young girl in scripture. The young girl would be the BVM. The Whip has a special devotion to Saint Anne.

The traditional tomb of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim was rediscovered in Jerusalem in 1889

Patronage
against poverty
against sterility
broommakers
cabinetmakers
carpenters
childless people
equestrians
expectant mothers
grandparents
homemakers
horse men
horse women
housewives
lace makers
lace workers
lost articles
miners
mothers
old-clothes dealers
poor people
pregnancy
pregnant women
riders
seamstresses
stablemen
turners
women in labour

Christopher

Saint Christopher

Also known as
Cristobal
Kester
Kitts
Offero
memorial
25 July
Profile
Chris was a third century martyr in the persecutions of Decius. Little else is known for sure.

The BIGGEST misconception in the Church today is that the average Catholic really doesn’t understand what the "Immaculate Conception" is but the second biggest misconception is people think the church "Took Away" Christopher's Sainthood. Or they think he is no longer a saint. Some morons even use this as an excuse for their not participating in the Church anymore, "I can't believe anything they say after what they did to Christopher." Like using Chris on the visor of your car is a dogma of Faith....

In actuality the Church can't "Take Away" ANYONE'S Sainthood. What happened was this: The Church has a calendar where every day has a feast of some kind for universal (worldwide) devotion. Everyone all over the world must celebrate certain particular feast on certain particular days. In an effort to make Roman Catholicism less fun, in 1962 the church removed Christopher, and many others, from that universal calendar, because there is little factual evidence to support the centuries of oral tradition and legends that surround this great guy. He is still a saint and is available to assist you in your devotions, but the entire Church is no longer required to celebrate this feast. He remains on local church calendars and of course in our hearts and on our car dashboards and is still encouraged for personal devotions. So everyone, live it up!

He may really be a composite of as many as 4 different martyrs all of whom bore Christ as witness....does this really make a difference? He was martyred very early on in the history of the church, as such many fantastic stories grew up to enhance his personality in an effort to help educate catechumens and children in items of faith using Chris as an example.

His fame derives from the pious legend of him being a "Christ-bearer" which is what his name literally means. His birth name was Offero, he was a powerfully built man who wandered the world in search of novelty and adventure. Being a big, tough fella, this meant engaging folks in feats of strength and rasslin’. In one story he wanted to find and defeat the greatest man on earth to prove himself greater. He eventually found the devil who he defeated in a wrestling match, when the devil revealed to him that Jesus was greater than the devil, Offero set out to defeat Jesus. He came upon a hermit who lived beside a dangerous stream and served others by guiding them to safe places to cross. The hermit promised Offero he would help him find Jesus. He gave Offero instruction in the truth of the greatness of God. Moved to serve rather than fight, Offero took the hermit's place, but instead of guiding travelers, he carried them safely across the stream.

One day he carried a small child across the stream; the child's weight nearly crushed him. When they arrived on the other side, the child revealed himself as Christ; he was so heavy because he bore the weight of the world on himself. He then baptized Offero with water from the stream. Christopher's service at the stream led to his patronage of things related to travel and travelers, people who carry things, etc. So it is perfectly ok to keep him in your car next to that plastic Jesus. And as everyone knows, he is indeed, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.




Born
at Canaan as Offero
Died
martyred c.251 who knows how....





Patronage
against epilepsy
against floods
against lightning
against pestilence
against rising gas prices
archers
automobile drivers
automobilists
bachelors
boatmen
bookbinders
bus drivers
cab drivers
epileptics
fruit dealers
fullers
gardeners
hailstorms
holy death
lightning
lorry drivers
mariners
market carriers
motorists
pestilence
porters
sailors
storms
sudden death
taxi drivers
toothache
transportation
transportation workers
travelers
truck drivers
truckers
watermen


Representation
branch
giant
torrent
tree
man with Christ on his shoulders

Camillus of Lellis

Saint Camillus of Lellis
Also known as
· Camillus de Lellis
· Camillo de Lellis

Memorial
· 14 July everywhere in the world except the U.S. here, he gets bumped for Kateri Tekawitha, don’t get me started….
18 July in the U.S.

Profile

Our saint for today was the son of a military officer born 25 May 1550 Naples, Italy his mother died when Camillus was very young.

Camillus spent his youth as a soldier, it is said he was physically a large individual, perhaps as tall as 6′6″ (in the 1500’s no less) and powerfully built, but he suffered all his life from abscesses on his feet. He needed to really dry between his toes and use Desinex, I think. If your feet hurt, you can’t be happy…ask a mailman.

The Lord works in mysterious ways; Big Camillus was a gambling addict, he lost so much he had to take a job working construction on a building belonging to the Capuchins; they converted him.

Camillus entered the Capuchin noviate three times, but a nagging leg injury, received while fighting the Turks, each time forced him to give it up. He went to Rome, Italy for medical treatment where Saint Philip Neri became his priest and confessor. He moved into San Giacomo Hospital for the incurable, and eventually became its administrator.

He lacked a real education so he began studying with children and eventually was ordained a priest. He founded the Congregation of the Servants of the Sick (the Camellians or Fathers of a Good Death) who, naturally, care for the sick both in hospital and home. His experience in wars led him to establish a group of health care workers who would assist soldiers on the battlefield. This group would wear cassocks with red Crosses on them. The Red Cross on their cassock remains a symbol of the order today. Members also devoted themselves to plague victims.

It has been reported that he had the gifts of miraculous healing and prophecy. The International Red Cross copied the well-known symbol when they were founded as an organization to ensure captured soldiers were treated humanely. The modern Red Cross in the USA has monetary policies that would make Saint Camillus furious by the way, but I digress……

Died
· 14 July 1614 at Genoa, Italy of natural causes

Patronage
Against Athletes foot
· against bodily ills
Against foot diseases and disorders
Against gambling
· against illness
· against sickness
· hospitals
· hospital workers
· nurses
· sick people

Kateri Tekakwitha

St. Kateri Tekakwitha [Pronounced: Gah-deh-lee Deh-gah-quee-tah]

Also known as
• Catherine Tekakwitha
• Lily of the Mohawks
• Tegakouita
• Tegakwitha
Memorial
• 14 July in the US
17 April in Canada

Profile
The nightmare continues. The name Tekakwitha means “she who bumps into things,” in Algonquin. She was so called because of her poor eyesight (not a joke). Kateri is Native patois for Catherine; her Christian name.

Our saint today had her first and only miracle approved by The Pope December 2011. She has replaced Ann Seaton in my heart. As these things tend to go, now the story grows in the telling, a quick check on the ole' reliable Wikipedia says she has numerous miracles, and Catholic Saints online has simply copied and pasted this Wilkipedia info on their own site. So her followers are continuing to pad the heavenly resume, apparently.

Kateri was born in 1656 in Ossernenon, now called Auriesville NY, a few miles west of Amsterdam. Her mother, a Christian Algonquin, captured and enslaved by the Iroquois, and her father, a pagan Mohawk chief, both died of smallpox when she was 4 years old. A young Kateri caught the disease which damaged the girl's eyesight and scarred her face horribly, so don’t believe the holy cards, stories, or pictures you see; she was not physically pretty. Not that this matters.......Although the good Monsignor tells me her statue in the Seminary of Saint Joseph in Yonkers depicts a real stable rowboat of a person.....broad in the beam.

She was shunned and abused by relatives for her faith, and her vow of virginity. In 1679 Kateri ran away from the abusive Mowhawks through 200 miles of wilderness to the Christian Native American village of Sault-Sainte-Marie, which really was not easy when you can barely see your hand in front of your face; her eyesight was that bad. She was known for her spirituality and austere lifestyle.

On the other hand, some critics say what she really did was dovetail Native American spirit beliefs and animism into the Christian Faith....much like the Caribbean pagan Santaria belief system does to this day with Babalu and Chango. An interesting take on our saint actually….

Anecdotally, she was known as a miracle worker just apparently not verifiably. Her grave became a pilgrimage site and place of miracles for Christian Native Americans and French colonists. None of these numerous “miracles” have ever been officially recognized. Most of these miracles were cures that resemble Native American “Medicine” rituals similar to what shaman do...like wearing bags of dirt or rotten coffin wood from Kateri’s grave-site around the neck, slaughtering a chicken and smearing its blood mixed with dirt from her resting place on your situation and then hooting like a barred owl three times at the moon. Let’s face it, the natives would pray for rain at her grave and 2 months later it rained, this was considered miraculous back then.

She is the first Native American proposed for canonization; her cause was started in 1884 under Pope Leo XIII. Let’s review this shall we? To become a saint, a person first must be declared "venerable," after a review and documentation of an exemplary life, which Kateri was in 1943. Then he or she must be beatified or deemed "blessed," and then they may be considered for canonization. Since the relaxation of the canonization process, proof of two miracles must be attributed to the person – one before beatification, one after. Much like Paul VI did with Ann Seaton, Pope John Paul II waived the miracle requirement in order to beatify Kateri in 1980. Just waived it....because she was an Indian. And JP II liked makin’ saints. One must wonder what happened to all these “miracles” reported at her gravesite........

Please understand, I’m not opposed to Kateri per se, I am opposed to streamlining the process, let’s do this the right way for everybody. This way we don’t end up looking ridiculous. If we want to begin to right wrongs of the past when it comes to stuff like this, let’s go back to Pope Stephen (II). Ask me about that one someday!!! Hoo boy.

Anyhoo....Kateri's supporters submitted evidence of more “miracles” but believed Kateri's chances of sainthood died with Pope John Paul, who bestowed sainthood on more people than all other popes combined. Again one wonders what all these miracles were that were not accepted: “Look! The press is beginning to investigate the Benghazi scandal! It’s a miracle!” “Look! There is ONE MET in the Baseball Hall of Fame.....It’s a miracle!” “ Brother Dominick made 500 more sets on a Xerox! It’s a miracle!”

Then, in 2006, a 6-year-old boy, named Jake Finkbonner who is half Lummi Indian, cut his lip during a basketball game in Washington State. Overnight his lip swelled up and became infected with Streptococcus A; the so called flesh eating bacteria. While in the hospital and on IV antibiotics for a skin infection that was one day old, the family's priest asked his congregation to pray to Kateri on Jake's behalf. The priest chose Kateri because of her facial scars and Indian heritage. Because the Lummi and the Mohawk are so similar.....

The show started.....prayers started coming in from around the world, and a representative from the Society of the Blessed Kateri went to the hospital to place a pendant of Kateri on the boy's pillow. The next day, the infection stopped progressing and Jake recovered. So a 2 day old skin infection, under antibiotic therapy, is a miracle. The prayerful folk rejoiced, as did the nurses when the doctors reduced the dosage of intravenous Vancomycin.

Investigators from the Vatican researched the incident for three years, and Pope Benedict approved it as a miracle attributed to Kateri's intervention and probably also the intervention of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

Born
• 1656 at Osserneon (Auriesville), modern New York, USA

Died
• 17 April 1680 at Caughnawaga, Canada of natural causes

Beatified
• 22 June 1980 by Pope John Paul II with no miracles to her name....Let’s look into Beatifying the Amazing Randi

Patronage
ecologists
environment
exiles
Eye problems
loss of parents
Skin disorders
Powerful Intravenous Antibiotics

Maria Goretti

Saint Maria Goretti

Memorial
6 July

Profile

Our Saint today is a special patron of the Whip. As with St. Agnes, St. Lucy, St. Agatha and all the rest, our saint today was a beautiful, yet pious farm girl, in 1896 Maria’s father died of malaria, and the family was forced to move onto the Serenelli farm to survive.

In 1902 at age twelve, Maria was attacked by 19-year-old farm hand Alessandro Serenelli. Alessandro was addicted to pornography. He tried to rape the girl who fought, yelled that it was a sin, and that he would go to hell. He tried to choke her into submission, and then stabbed her fourteen times. Eleven times at first. When she tried to reach the door, Allesandro came back and stabbed her three more times.

She survived in hospital for two days; she was concerned about her mother and how she would go ahead without her help. Maria promised to remember the pharmacist in the hospital when she entered paradise. Maria also forgave her attacker, and asked God’s forgiveness of him. She died holding a crucifix and medal of Our Lady. She is counted as a martyr for purity.

Allessandro remained unrepentant, even arrogant over his crime. He was imprisoned and was a lot of trouble for officials and the guards; it seems he was a low life creep all around. While in prison for his crime, he had a vision of Maria. He saw a garden where a young girl, dressed in white, gathered lilies. She smiled, came near him, and encouraged him to accept an armful of the lilies, as he took them, each lily transformed into a still white flame. Maria then disappeared. The Holy Spirit touched Aleesandro; this vision of Maria led to Alessandro’s conversion, he later testified at her cause for beatification. Serenelli’s sentence was commuted to 30 years and on his release he later became a laybrother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, living in a monastery and working as its receptionist and gardener until dying peacefully in 1970.

Allesandro was present at Maria’s Cannonization. The ceremony was attended by 250,000 including her mother, the only time a parent has witnessed her child’s canonization. As the Pope approached the humble old woman she was dumbfounded that His Holiness Pius XII was going to speak to her.

Maria is the patron saint of our youth: in the Lower Church of Saint Clare’s in the Bronx, where the Scouts and the old “youth group” used to meet, on the arch above the sanctuary “Saint Maria Gorretti pray for our youth,” was inscribed. It seemed a little wordy to me at the time.

The feminist movement does not like Maria Gorretti. There have been published anti Maria Gorretti books. It is a shame the anger some folk have…..and can not see in themselves. The real miracle was not that Maria was a victim of a violent crime; the miracle was her forgiveness and healing of the deeply troubled Allesandro. He has no real power except to incite stuff like this; He is always at work, pray to Michael for them……

Born
16 October 1890 at Corinaldo, Ancona, Italy

Died
6 July 1902 at the age of 12

Patronage

against poverty
against the death of parents
children
Children of Mary
girls
martyrs
poor people
rape victims
young people in general

Thomas the Apostle

Saint Thomas the Apostle

Feast 3 July

Profile

Although he is my namesake I have not always identified with our saint for today. In my day, when you went to Catholic school and they told the Gospel Story of Doubting Thomas all the kids in my class would swivel their heads around and stare at me with anger. I would angrily ask my parents why they didn’t name me John, or Peter, my middle name. Peter may have denied, but at least he was in charge. For this reason alone I always identified with Thomas Beckett, a servant of the fightin’ Jesus. It was only later in life, and my further reading of the scripture I realized how really great our saint for today was.

Other than the “doubting” episode, Thomas only speaks two other times in scripture, of all the Apostles Thomas was the only one ready to die with Jesus when Christ went back to Judea on the death of Lazarus (John 11:16). In fact it is stated in the Gospel of John as a matter of fact, really, from Thomas, as the others advise Jesus not to go as he will be killed Tom says bravely: "Let us also go, that we may die with him." And again, Jesus had just explained that he was going away to prepare a heavenly home for his followers, and that one day they would join him there. Thomas was upset at the idea of Jesus leaving them and so reacted by saying, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Even at the “doubting Thomas” scene, Our Saint was the first of the Apostles to declare Jesus God: “Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28)

I believe Thomas was a very loyal but matter of fact person. He so loved Jesus, and was so miserable after the crucifixion, he didn’t want to believe in false hope, and in fact he didn’t want to live without Our Lord. He needed to see Jesus again to bring him back from despair. So when the risen Lord finally appeared to Thomas it was an act of healing and kindness….not a rebuke. But we call him the doubter, which is really just a little better than the Betrayer…and the kids in Our Lady of Solace looked at me with disgust.

His name was probably really Judas, one of three Apostles with that name. He may have borne a strong resemblance to Jesus physically, so he is called Thomas which means “Twin”. He is the only Apostle, including Paul who was a missionary outside the Roman Empire. He preached in Parthia, Persia and India. To this day he is particularly venerated in India. An old tradition says that Thomas baptized the wise men from the Nativity into Christianity.

There are non-canonical Infancy gospels attributed to Thomas which are pretty funny actually, among other things they depict a precocious young Jesus making birds out of clay and then giving them life and having them fly away to everyone’s astonishment. Although the Church rejects the birds out of clay story it is also recounted in the Koran….what we flush down the sewer, they put on their mantelpiece.

He offered to build a palace for an Indian king that would last forever; the king gave him money, which Thomas promptly gave away to the poor; he explained that the palace he was building was in heaven, not on earth. Because of this, and his building of Churches in general he is the patron Saint of builders and architects (and men named Art Vandalay).

He was martyred by being stabbed with a spear c.72 while praying on a hill in Mylapur, India

He was originally buried near the site of his death, later his relics were moved to Edessa, Mesopotamia, eventually they came to rest in Ortona, Italy in the 13th century.

In sum, I am now proud to be his namesake…..

Patronage
•against blindness
•against doubt
•architects
•blind people
•builders
•construction workers
•Ceylon
•East Indies
•geometricians
•India
•masons
•Pakistan
•people in doubt
•Sri Lanka
•stone masons
•stonecutters
•surveyors
Vandalay Industries

Reading from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas;

Chapter III.

1 Now Jesus made of that clay twelve sparrows: and it was the Sabbath day. And a child ran and told Joseph, saying: Behold, thy child playeth about the brook, and hath made sparrows of the clay, which is not lawful. 2 And he when he heard it went and said to the child: Wherefore doest thou so and profaneth the Sabbath? But Jesus answered him not, but looked upon the sparrows and said: Go ye, take your flight, and remember me in your life. And at the word they took flight and went up into the air. And when Joseph saw it he was astonished.