Sept. 23 Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, OFM Capuchin

St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, OFM Capuchin (1887-1968)

September 23

            “The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against ego; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain.” (a saying of Padre Pio) Padre Pio was able to see his personal suffering as his response to the call to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            Francesco Forgione was born to peasant farmers in southern Italy. His father traveled twice (in 1898-1903 and again in 1910-17) to Jamaica, New York, to provide for the family. Francisco joined the Capuchin order at age fifteen and took the name Pius/Pio. Even early in his life as a Franciscan, Padre Pio experienced both serious illness and religious ecstasy. Other friars would report that they heard strange, concerning noises coming from his room. Padre Pio frequently spoke about how he was attacked by the devil, and it was in his cell that these battles took place. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1910.

When drafted during World War One, he served in the medical corps.  He had extreme stomach pain and was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis. He was eventually permanently discharged. In 1917 he was assigned to San Giovanni Rotundo friary, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Padre Pio had great devotion to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus and to His Sacred Heart. As he was making his thanksgiving after Mass one day on September 20, 1918, he had an encounter with Jesus that left him with the signs of the crucifixion on his hands, feet, and side. He would actually bleed from the wounds. Referred to as the “odor of sanctity,” the blood that came from Padre Pio’s wounds is said to have smelled like perfume or as having a floral aroma.  In the beginning, Padre Pio was embarrassed and humiliated by the wounds on his body. The visible stigmata brought him intense and severe pain, but he welcomed it. He offered this pain for the good of all humanity. The authenticity of his stigmata was questioned with official investigations in 1924 and again in 1931. During this time of inquiry, he was not permitted to say Mass publicly or hear confessions. That decision was soon reversed.

Church authorities, doctors, and spectators by the busloads came to see the good father. He then became the most famous stigmatist of the twentieth century. Over time his ministry of reconciliation became legendary. His typical daily schedule went like this:

            1. Each morning after a 5AM Mass in a crowded church, he heard confessions until noon.

            2. He would take a break to bless the sick and all others who came to see him.

            3. In the afternoon, he would continue to hear confessions. Sometimes he would spend up to 12 or even 15 hours a day in the confessional! Many have claimed that Padre Pio could read souls and knew details of their lives which they had not revealed to anyone.

            The saint once said: “Confession is the soul’s bath. You must go at least once a week. I do not want souls to stay away from confession more than a week. Even a clean and unoccupied room gathers dust; return after a week, and you will see that it needs dusting again!”

Those who participated at his Masses came away edified; even curiosity seekers were deeply moved by experiencing him, his preaching, and his example.  However, like St. Francis, Padre Pio sometimes had his habit torn or cut by souvenir seekers.

He had the gift of bilocation, meaning that he could be in more than one place at a time. Multiple eyewitness accounts attest to the ability of Padre Pio to be in multiple places at once. Fellow friars remember seeing him in prayer outside when they knew he was still in his room. Some accounts come from others who claim to have seen him on different continents all over the world. As to how Padre Pio experienced such feats, the closest he ever came to an explanation of bilocation was to say that it occurred “by an extension of his personality.”

            Padre Pio also had great compassion for the sick and suffering. In the 1940’s he established a “House for the Alleviation of Suffering” (Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza) that had 350 beds near Mount Gargano. The hospital is now known for its state-of-the-art facilities and services.

Miraculously, a few days before his death in September 1968, all these wounds on Padre Pio’s body disappeared. Countless experts and doctors who carefully and closely examined the wounds were unable to provide any medical or scientific explanation.

Pope John Paul II presided over both his beatification on May 2, 1999, and three years later, Padre Pio’s canonization as a saint on June 16, 2002.

 

Pope Saint Linus, the second after St. Peter, is also honored on Sept. 23^rd.

In 2026, this marks the fifth anniversary of the death of LA artist John August Swanson. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. 

Sept. 18 St. Joseph of Cupertino

 

St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663)

September 18

Was chosen as the patron of aeronautics, astronauts, pilots, and flying because he levitated when at prayer!

QUOTE: “Clearly, what God wants about all is our will, which we received as a free gift from God in creation and possess as though our own. When a person trains themselves to acts of virtue, they do this with the help of grace from God from whom all good things come. The will is what a person has as their unique possession.” (St. Joseph of Cupertino)

            Levitating and ecstatic visions may be extraordinary signs of holiness, but Joseph is also remembered for the ordinary things he did: He prayed even in times of inner darkness. He lived out the Sermon on the Mount. He used his free will as a “unique possession” to praise Divinity. For 35 years of his adult life as a priest, he practiced severe asceticism, usually eating solid food only twice a week. He was humble, patient, and obedient, even though at times he was tempted greatly and felt forsaken by God.

            He began his Franciscan life as a Capuchin, but then joined the Conventuals. Following a brief assignment caring for the friary mule, Joseph then began his studies for the priesthood. He was a terrible student. He struggled immensely with the required academic studies. Joseph’s strength was in a prayerful spiritual life. He was ordained a priest in 1628.

            70 incidents of levitation are documented in the official records leading to his canonization. Joseph’s tendency to levitate during prayer, which could occur during Mass or the praying of the Divine Office, gained him a reputation for holiness but also piqued people’s curiosity and amusement. Due to the disruption the levitation caused, he was sometimes confined to a small cell and forbidden to join in any public gathering of the community. Because the phenomenon of flying or levitation was widely believed to be connected with witchcraft, Joseph was denounced to the Inquisition. He was exonerated, but this led to his being transferred several times.

His final years were spent at a Conventual community in Osimo, where he died on the 18^th of September 1663, at age 60. Joseph was beatified in 1753. On July 16, 1767, he was canonized by Pope Clement XIII. The Reluctant Saint, a 1962 movie, is based on the story of Joseph of Cupertino. Although he’s a native of Cupertino, Italy, many people recognize “Cupertino” because Apple, Inc. is headquartered in Cupertino, California, a city near San Jose and Santa Clara that is indeed named for St. Joseph.  

Sept. 17 Stigmata of Francis

STIGMATA: On September 17, Franciscans celebrate the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi, to recall Francis's body being wondrously marked with the wounds of Christ. The Chapel of the Stigmata at the Franciscan Sanctuary of La Verna in Tuscany, Italy, is perched on the edge of the same sheer precipice where St. Francis stood two years before his death and was swept up into the mystery of God’s overwhelming love for him and for humanity. He had made the journey in the summer of 1224 to a favorite hermitage on Mount Alverna in preparation for the feast day of St. Michael. His purpose was to go apart at this critical stage in his life with a few companions to observe the "Lent of St. Michael" — a forty-day retreat devoted to prayer and fasting from the Assumption to the feast of the Archangel. On one particular day, Francis had gone apart from the others to meditate more intently on the Passion of Christ when something happened.

St. Bonaventure, in his Life of St. Francis, describes Francis as being more inflamed than usual with the love of God as he began a special time of prayer: “His unquenchable fire of love for the good Jesus,” Bonaventure writes, “was fanned into such a blaze of flames that so many waters could not quench so powerful a love” (see Song of Songs 8:6–7).

Vision of a Seraph

Bonaventure goes on: “While Francis was praying on the mountainside, he saw a Seraph with six fiery and shining wings descend from the height of heaven. And when in swift flight the Seraph had reached a spot in the air near the man of God, there appeared between the wings the figure of a man crucified, with his hands and feet extended in the form of a cross and fastened to a cross. Two of the wings were lifted above his head, two were extended for flight, and two covered his whole body.”

“When Francis saw this, he was overwhelmed, and his heart was flooded with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He rejoiced because of the gracious way Christ looked upon him under the form of a Seraph, but the fact that he was fastened to a cross pierced his soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow.”

When the vision disappeared, writes Bonaventure, Francis was left with a “marvelous ardor” in his heart. At the same time, there “was imprinted on his body markings that were no less marvelous.”  These markings were the stigmata, the wounds of Christ crucified.

More about the Seraph

There are two things to dwell on here. First is the Seraph. Seraphs are angels closest to God, burning with love as they bow before God, shouting, “Holy, holy, holy!” Their fiery wings suggest the flaming intensity of God’s love that Christ communicated to Francis, which, in turn, set Francis’ heart afire. The word seraphic is often used to describe Francis’ passionate style of relating to God and is often applied to the Franciscan Order, which is sometimes called the Seraphic Order.

Second, we focus on “the gracious way that Christ looked upon him.” This is something of a repeat of the vision Francis had in the beginning of his spiritual life in which “Jesus appeared to him fastened on a cross. Francis’ soul melted at the sight, and the memory of Christ’s passion was so impressed on the innermost recesses of his heart that from that hour whenever Christ’s crucifixion came to mind, Francis could scarcely contain his sighs…” (Bonaventure’s Life of St. Francis).

Suffering for Christ

In themselves, sickness and suffering are tragic and senseless. But Christ has sanctified even the wounds of human nature. This terrible scourge can be changed into a blessing by being united to the sufferings of Christ. Many people feel that this sublime privilege does not count for them. They are not good enough. Their sickness is not that important. They believe it is a punishment. But Christ wants to take your individual suffering and unite it to his.

Of all the statements about our continuing Christ’s life, none is more astounding that this: “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Colossians 1:24). Francis received the highest proof of Christ’s love and need of him when his body was literally put on a cross with Christ by the reality of the five wounds of the stigmata.

The stigmata of St. Francis stands as a powerful reminder of the transformative power of the Cross. It is a call to each of us to embrace the suffering in our lives as a means of growing closer to Christ and to bear witness to God’s love in the world. The wounds that Francis bore on his body were not signs of defeat but of victory—victory through suffering, victory through love.

 As we reflect on this profound event in the life of St. Francis, let us ask for his intercession, that we might learn to embrace the Cross in our own lives with the same spirit of humility, joy, and love. May we, too, become living witnesses of Christ crucified, bringing the light of Christ to a world in need of healing and hope. Through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, may we be granted the grace to live more fully in the spirit of the Cross, finding in it not only the source of our redemption but the path to eternal glory. Amen.

Mostly by Leonard Foley, OFM. Retrieved from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-tradition-and-resources/the-stigmata-of-st-francis/

Also on 9/17 Doctor of the Church and mystic: Saint Hildegard of Bingen

Sept. 15 Our Lady of Sorrows/Mater Dolorosa/Our Lady of Solitude

 

Our Lady of Solitude is another aspect of the Sorrowful Mother. Most especially seen in Mary on Holy Saturday, alone following the crucifixion. Devotion under this title developed in Spain and Portugal, where several different statues can be found promoting this title of the BVM. 

Mission Soledad is named after Our Mother of Sorrows under this alternative title of Solitude. (Mission Delores in San Francisco is nicknamed as such based on a creek that used to run nearby, but it is officially named after San Francis of Assisi, however.) Today, Mission Soledad is aptly named, as the archaeological remains and the rebuilt replica chapel sit off isolated by themselves in the midst of farmland.

Sept. 14 Exaltation of the Holy Cross/Santa Cruz -CA Mission

EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, also known as the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, commemorates three historical events: the discovery of the True Cross in 326, its initial exaltation for public veneration in 335, and the recovery of the Cross from the Persians in 628. Nowadays, this feast also celebrates the boundless impact of Christ’s Cross upon all of creation.

We celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14th, because this is the day in 335 when the relics of the true Cross, which had been miraculously rediscovered nine years earlier, were brought outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem for public veneration. This church (also called the Church of the Resurrection) had just been dedicated the day before.

Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.  Her son Constantine then built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot.

To this day, the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica’s dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off 14 years earlier in 614. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.

The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession or worn as jewelry. However, to the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome’s authority—including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods. Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in early Christian art unless disguised as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine’s edict of toleration in 314.

Although we commemorate these three historical events today, the core of our celebration is not the physical wood of the Cross or the holy sites where Jesus died and was buried. Our primary focus is the infinite love shown through the selfless and perfect Sacrifice of the Son of God and the boundless mercy that has poured forth upon the world as a result. The Cross itself is a cruel instrument of torture and death. The fact that it is now the symbol of God’s perfect love only further magnifies that love and showcases God’s infinite power to use the worst for the best: to use death to bring life and to transform the greatest act of cruelty ever known into the greatest act of mercy ever bestowed upon the world. Today, the cruelty of the Cross is not what is exalted, but the Love that God manifested to humanity by accepting death on the Cross: “Who, though in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. This is the glory of the Cross of Jesus!” (Pope Francis)

“Jesus said to Nicodemus: ‘No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.’ For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:13-17).

Stop turning in on ourselves

“Being Christian,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event.” The Gospel the liturgy offers us on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross suggests that God wants to enter into a relationship of love with everyone. This is offered in His Son, Jesus, lifted up on the Cross.

Lifting up our gaze to God expresses a very important truth: we are invited to enter back into relationship with Divinity. We need to stop turning in on ourselves, uselessly nurturing a sense of guilt and forgetting that “in whatever our hearts condemn, God is greater than our hearts” (1 John 3:20). Let us lift up our eyes toward the stars (remember Abraham and the promise of many descendants), knowing how to cast every worry onto God.

Wonder and gratitude

Lifting up our gaze should not enkindle fear, but gratitude, because that elevation is the measure of the love with which God loves His children, in God’s Son. It is the Mercy of God, therefore, which, as is the case with Nicodemus, illuminates the darkness of our lives and allows us to continue on our journey.

Sept. 11 Franciscan example of service & sacrifice

Mychal Fallon Judge, OFM (May 11, 1933-Sept. 11, 2001)

was an American Franciscan friar and Catholic priest who served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. While serving in that capacity, Father Judge was killed, becoming the first certified fatality of the September 11 attacks.

Saints called “the Great”

 Saints given the appellation “the Great”

[An unofficial title given by popular acclamation, not an official proclamation of the Church. Note the one female saint, although Mary is acknowledged as "Blessed be the Great Mother of God" and so might be included in this list as well.]

James the Great-er/Major: one of the Twelve, as opposed to James the Less

Anthony the Great (c.251-356): father of monasticism

Basil the Great (330-379) honored on January 2^nd w/Gregory of Nazianzen; brother to Gregory of Nyssa: Byzantine Greek theologians

Armenians:

Nerses I the Great (c.310-373)patriarch

Isaac the Great (c.345-439) catholicos leader

Euthymius the Great (377-473) monk

 

Arsenius the Great (c.354 -c.455) Orthodox Egyptian monk

Bruno the Great (925-65) archbishop of Cologne, Germany

Albert Magnus (1193-1280) philosopher, scientist, teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas

Gertrude the Great (1256-1301) German Cistercian nun, mystic and stigmatist

Popes

Leo I (reigned 440-461)

Gregory I (c.540 – reigned 590-604)

Nicholas (c.800 - reigned 858-67)

?! John Paul II (1920 - reigned 1978 -2005)

In studying about Pope Saint Gregory the Great during Tuesday morning "Coffee with the Saints," the question of how many "Great" saints came up! And here is the list in answer!