John Bosco

Saint John Bosco
Also known as:
Don Bosco

Memorial January 31

Our saint today was the son of Venerable Margaret Bosco, he was born 16 August, 1815 in Piedmont, Italy. John’s father died when the boy was two years old; and as soon as he was old enough to do odd jobs, he went to work to help support his family.

When I was a kid, there were various brands of syrup to make chocolate milk; Coco Marsh, Fox-UBet, and one called Bosco. I always thought of Our Saint this week whenever I saw Bosco chocolate syrup, even though I was a Fox-UBet kid. Bosco Chocolate syrup was purportedly invented in 1928 in Camden, New Jersey, by an unknown physician.[ The William S. Scull Company, founded in 1931 in Camden, acquired the manufacturing license. The Scull Company's most famous product was Boscul Coffee, which gave the product its brand name, "Bosco. " The name recalls the Ancient Greek word bosko, which means “I nourish.” So Bosco syrup has nothing to do with our saint this week…..

Anyhoo, John was fascinated by magic and would go to circuses, fairs and carnivals, to see the magicians there. He would then practice the tricks that he saw magicians perform. When he got good at them he would put on one-boy shows for his fellow guttersnipes. After his performance, while he still had an audience of boys, he would repeat the homily he had heard earlier that day in church. I think the real magic was these urchins didn’t pelt him with rotten fruit…..

To pay his way through school he worked as a baker, tailor, shoemaker and at other odd jobs. After he was ordained he was a teacher, working with young people. He was interested in finding places where they could meet, play and pray. He would use his magic to catch their attention then slip in the religion thing slyly.

His big claim to fame was the founding of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) in 1859, priests who work with and educate boys, under the protection of Our Lady, Help of Christians. He was so well respected for his work in life he was called Don (a minor informal title of nobility in many European countries, like but also unlike Don Vito Corleone.

I went to Camp Don Bosco at age 8 up in Goshen NY. I remember at lunch once a Salesian brother scolding my friend Paul, for not breaking his slice of Wonder Bread into 4 pieces before he ate it. They cared…… Ironically, at Camp Don Bosco we were never served chocolate milk. For some reason Don Bosco is also venerated by the Anglican. He died, 31 January, 1888.

His patronage includes: Christian apprentices, chocolate milk drinkers, editors, publishers, catholic schoolchildren, young people, and magicians.

Timothy

Saint Timothy

Also known as
• Timotheus
The guy next to Paul

Memorial
• 26 January

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His father was a Greek gentile, his mother Eunice was Jewish. We know that the Greek dad had his way as Tim was never circumcised as a child. The depth of his strict Jewish upbringing is debatable, but his mother and grandmother had faith which they passed on to him. He was converted to Christianity by Saint Paul the Apostle around the year 47, he became a partner, assistant and close friend of Paul accompanying him on many missions along with Titus, whose feast is also today, and Mark.

He and Paul fervently defended Gentile converts not having to undergo Mosaic Law especially circumcision in order to follow “The Way”. In Galatians 2:11-22 Paul even recounts how he rebuked Peter the Prince of the Apostles for eating with the Jewish Christian population instead of the Gentile folk in order to make a more satisfying appearance to the Jews. Yet Paul forced Timothy to get circumcised as an adult in order to placate the indigenous Jewish population because they were going to be in an area of devout Jews. Can you imagine that conversation?

“But Paul, you said…”
“I know what I said, Tim, but can you please be practical? These guys are very serious when it comes to this stuff.”
“You just got through hollerin’ at Peter for trying to make nice with these folk…..That’s easy for you to say we’re not discussing you and your anatomy are we?.…”
“I know, we can discuss this later, I’ll write you a letter...”
And so on…

In spite of the forgoing or maybe because of the forgoing Tim settled down, stopped wandering and was appointed the head (i.e. BISHOP) of the Church in Ephesus. Titus was the bishop in Crete. In the Bible we find two canonical letters from Saint Paul to Timothy and one to Titus. In the second letter he tells Timothy: “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpas at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments,” (2 Tim 4:13). When asked to provide a bible verse for reflection I give that one.

He was martyred for opposing the worship of the goddess Diana some sources say Dionysis. Does it really matter? The hunt or wine Tim still got whacked……He was stoned to death about the year 97

Patronage
• against intestinal disorders
• against stomach diseases

Benedict Biscop

Saint Benedict Biscop
Also known as
Benet Biscop
Biscop Baducing

memorial 12 January

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Benet was raised in privilege as an Anglo-Saxon noble. Grew up and held high offices in the court of the King of Northumbria.

 The rich then, and now, travel.  As I have said in the past, the thing to do in the 7^th century, with no Disney Worlds anywhere, was to go on religious pilgrimages.   Sometimes they work, and folk experience an epiphany…. For our hero, following a pilgrimage to Rome, something hit home.   He renounced his wealth and position, and dedicated himself to prayer and scripture study. He became a monk in France in 666, taking the name Benedict. In 668 the pope sent Benedict as an advisor to Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury England.

 Benedict was a guy who liked to build stuff to last.   Until his time in England churches were wooden thatched structures.   He introduced the construction of stone churches and glass church windows to England, and brought in many foreign craftsmen to do the work and teach the English.

 He tried to introduce more Universal Roman rituals to English worship, like the rest of Europe used instead of the Saxon rites and other mumbo jumbo the locals stuck to.   He founded monasteries and built a large library and scriptorium.

In late life Benedict suffered a painful paralysis, and was confined to his bed for his last three years. He continued to work from his bed, buying books, establishing the Benedictine Rule. Generally doing the Lord’s work…..

Born
c.628

Died
12 January 690 of natural causes



Patronage
English Benedictines
musicians
painters

John Nepomucene Neumann

 

Saint John Nepomucene Neumann

 Also known as

·           Jan Nepomucký Neumann

Memorial          5 January

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This is not the same guy as Blessed John Henry Cardinal Neuman, the British Saint who pronounces his last name NEW-mann.  This John was a quiet boy son of a German father and a Czech mother, born in 1811 in Bohemia; he pronounced his last name NOY-mann.   He was quite intelligent studying botany and astronomy as well as theology, graduating in 1833.

When time came for John’s ordination, his bishop was sick; the ordination was never re-scheduled as Bohemia had an over-abundance of priests.   Can you imagine… too many priests?   John decided to go to America to ask for ordination, and to work with émigrés.    He walked most of the way to France, from Bohemia then took ship for America.

 In 1836 in all of New York and New Jersey there were a total of 36 priests and 200,000 Catholics. When John arrived in Manhattan the third, and to date still the only non Irish,  Bishop of New York, John Dubois was overjoyed to see him.   Bishop Dubois quickly laid on the hands so John was ordained and quickly shuffled off to Buffalo.   

Once in Buffalo the other parish priest offered John the choice to work in the city itself (before the wings or the Anchor Bar were invented) or in the rural areas.    John chose the more difficult country area.

  He stayed in small towns with various church buildings in different stages of completion.   He built himself a small log cabin, rarely lit a fire, slept little, often lived on bread and water, and walked miles to visit farm after remote farm.   John spoke 12 languages and was able to communicate with the diverse population in the region.  New York State back then was a real melting pot.  

 John joined the Redemptorists, the first Redemptorist to take vows in the U.S. (These are the dudes with C.Ss.R. after their name)

He did various jobs and held many offices throughout the east: Home missioner in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; Rector of Saint Philomena church in Pittsburgh; Vice-regent and superior of the Redemptorists in America.    John became a naturalized citizen of the United States in Baltimore on February 10, 1848, renouncing allegiance to the Emperor of Austria.   On his 41st birthday, he was consecrated bishop of Philadelphia by Archbishop Francis Kenrick at St. Alphonsus Church in Baltimore, in 1852.  

Those of Italian extraction remember Bishop Neumann as the founder of the first national parish for Italians in the United States.  At a time when there was no priest to speak their language, no one to care for them, Bishop Neumann, who had studied Italian as a seminarian in Bohemia, gathered them together in his private chapel and preached to them in their mother tongue. 

In total Bishop John built fifty churches and a cathedral; He opened almost one hundred schools; and the number of parochial school students in his diocese grew from 500 to 9,000.   He wrote newspaper articles, two catechisms, and many works in German. He was always humble and self effacing so he probably would not even mention all he has done, or he would credit everyone else.   He was the first American man and first American bishop to be canonized. 

 On 5 January, 1860, the Bishop of Philadelphia was on his way to his new Cathedral on Logan Square when the Archangel Uriel finally caught up to him.    He lay crumpled in the snow only a few blocks away.    By the time a priest reached him with the holy oils, Bishop Neumann was dead.   He had a stroke on the corner of 13^th and Vine Streets in Philly.   This before cheese steaks.     

 At his own request Bishop Neumann was buried in a basement crypt in Saint Peter's Church, in Philadelphia.   The Saint is still in the basement, though now it is a lower church. The slab that lay over his tomb still rests in the floor. His remarkably incorrupt body, however, lies beneath the main altar under glass. People still come right up and press their hands against the glass of the altar to better see the saint.  

His name is misspelled in the church where his body lies in Philly (Neuman) and in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (Newman).   He was Canonized 19 June 1977 by Pope Paul VI; the first American Man and Bishop canonized

 Readings

Since every man of whatever race is endowed with the dignity of a person, he has an inalienable right to an education corresponding to his proper destiny and suited to his native talents, his cultural background, and his ancestral heritage. At the same time, this education should pave the way to brotherly association with other peoples, so that genuine unity and peace on earth may be promoted. For a true education aims at the formation of the human person with respect to the good of those societies of which, as a man, he is a member, and in whose responsibilities, as an adult, he will share. - Saint John Neumann

A man must always be ready, for death comes when and where God wills it. - Saint John Neumann