July 25 St. James the Greater in Spain

 

Saint James (and St. Christopher) with Fray Luis Jayme, OFM, CA protomartyr

July 25

St. James the Greater in Spain

1.       Yes, we have St. James traveling all the way to Spain on an evangelical mission.

2.       While there, he receives a mystical visit from Mary, the mother of Jesus.

3.       The Bible records his death in Jerusalem in the book of Acts.  King Herod Agrippa had James executed "by the sword," most likely indicating beheading.

4.       Somehow his remains or relics made their way back to Spain.

“Santiago” is derived from the Latin Sancti Iacobi, with Jacob being the equivalent of James.  Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica is the reputed Spanish burial place of Saint James the Great, one of the apostles and among the most intimate circle of Jesus Christ (Peter, James & John). This James is the brother of John, with “greater” or “older” to distinguish from the other apostle James (the Less). The basilica has historically been a place of Christian pilgrimage on the Way of St. James since the Early Middle Ages. The scallop or "cockle” shell is the primary symbol of St. James and the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. It is also a symbol of baptism, used in decoration. Although there is no California Mission named after St. James, his importance to Spanish national spirituality should be noted, and the scallop shell can be found in mission artwork.

Santiago Matamoros or St. James the Moor-slayer is another Spanish title of Saint James the Great/Santiago de Compostela. As a patron saint of Spain, he plays a role in the Reconquista or reclaiming of territory within España after Islamic occupation. (See for example, St. Ferdinand, May 30!)  The iconography of James Matamoros was used in the Spanish colonization of the Americas as a rival force to the indigenous gods, and protector of Spaniards from the indigenous peoples of the Americas. He was depicted as a conquistador. ¡Santiago! or ¡Santiago y cierra España! has been the historical battle cry of Spanish armies.

Note that Our Lady of the Pillar (Spanish: Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 40 while he was preaching in what is now Spain. Those who adhere to this belief consider this appearance to be the only recorded instance of Mary exhibiting the mystical phenomenon of bilocation. Among Catholics, it is also considered the first Marian apparition and is unique because it occurred while Mary was still living on Earth.

The apparition is enshrined in Zaragoza, Spain, with a statue of the Madonna and Child that sits atop a pillar. The feast of Our Lady is celebrated on October 12^th, the day that Christopher Columbus's expedition arrived in the Americas. He went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492.

I also take this occasion to highlight Fray Luis Jaime, OFM, protomartyr of California, who died at Mission San Diego on November 5, 1775. Jaime is a form of the name James. 

July 9 Chinese Martyrs including 26 Franciscans killed in the Boxer Rebellion

 July 9

Chinese martyrs--St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions (optional memorial)

ALSO OF NOTE: Venerable Augustus Tolton, FIRST Black American Priest, d. 1897

and in Marian devotion: BVM, Mother of Divine Hope and Queen of Peace

 

The 120 martyrs in this July 9^th group died between 1648 and 1930. Eighty-seven (87) of them were born in China, and were children, parents, catechists, or laborers, ranging in age from 9 to 72 years old. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests. The 33 foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Society of Jesus, Society of St. Francis de Sales (Salesians), and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. 86 of them died during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse of the Paris Foreign Mission Society to his martyrdom in Beijing. Not long after his conversion and baptism, Augustine was ordained a diocesan priest. Martyred in 1815.

 

Boxer Rebellion

The 1890s saw a rise in anti-foreign sentiment in China; this gave rise to societies such as the "Society for Justice and Harmony" (commonly known as the "Boxers"). The Yellow River had flooded in 1898 and drought followed over the course of 1898–1900. A mixture of natural disasters, political tensions and legal wrangles led to many impoverished and disillusioned Chinese taking up martial arts and determining to make changes in their country. Anti-foreign sentiment led some Boxers to attack Christian missionaries in an attempt to drive out their foreign influence and bring a return to Chinese values.

During 1900, the movement spread and carried out actions against foreign peoples and their properties. This led to what became known as the Boxer Rebellion from May 1900 to September 1901. The month of May 1900 saw popular demonstrations against foreigners, and the following month, the Boxers received government backing to attack foreign strongholds within the country, until an alliance of foreign forces took control of Beijing in mid-August. The rebellion saw the murders of approximately 250 missionaries and their children and over 20,000 Chinese Christians.

26 Franciscan Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion

On July 9th, the Franciscan family celebrates the memory of Saints Gregory Grassi, OFM, Marie-Hermine, FMM, and Companions, martyred in China in July 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. They include fifteen European missionary religious and at least eleven native Chinese Secular Franciscans.

a) Martyrs of Shanxi, killed on 9 July 1900 (known as the Taiyuan massacre), who were Franciscan Friars Minor:

Gregorio Grassi, bishop [32]

Francis Fogolla, bishop [32]

Elias Facchini [fr], priest

Théodoric Balat [fr], priest

Andrew Bauer [fr], religious brother;

b) Martyrs of Southern Hunan, who were also Franciscan Friars Minor:

Anthony Fantosati [fr], bishop (martyred on 7 July 1900)

Joseph Mary Gambaro [fr] priest (martyred on 7 July 1900)

Cesidio Giacomantonio [fr], priest (martyred on 4 July 1900)

 

To the martyred Franciscans of the First Order were added seven Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, of whom three were French, two Italian, one Belgian, and one Dutch:

Mary Hermina of Jesus (in saeculo: Irma Grivot)

Marie de la Paix Giuliani (in saeculo: Mary Ann Giuliani)

Maria Chiara Nanetti (in saeculo: Clelia Nanetti)

Marie of Saint Natalie (in saeculo: Joan Mary Kerguin)

Marie of Saint Just (in saeculo: Ann Moreau)

Marie-Adolphine (in saeculo: Ann Dierk)

Mary Amandina (in saeculo: Paula Jeuris)

 

Of the martyrs belonging to the Franciscan family, there were also eleven Secular Franciscans, all Chinese:

John Zhang Huan, seminarian,

Patrick Dong Bodi, seminarian,

John Wang Rui, seminarian,

Philip Zhang Zhihe, seminarian,

John Zhang Jingguang, seminarian,

Thomas Shen Jihe, layman and a manservant,

Simon Qin Chunfu, lay catechist and aide to Bishop Fogolla

Peter Wu Anbang, layman,

Francis Zhang Rong, layman and a farmer,

Matthew Feng De, layman and neophyte,

Peter Zhang Banniu, layman and laborer.

To these are joined a number of Chinese lay faithful:

James Yan Guodong, farmer,

James Zhao Quanxin, manservant,

Peter Wang Erman, cook,

James Zhao Zhunsen, prison visitor

Christian missionaries have often gotten caught in the crossfire of rebellions against countries from which they have come. When the governments of Britain, Germany, Russia and France had all gained substantial territorial concessions from the Chinese in 1898, anti-foreign sentiment grew very strong in some Chinese circles.

            Gregory Grassi [head of this grouping] was born in Italy in 1833, ordained in 1856 and sent to China five years later. Gregory was later ordained Bishop of North Shansi. All [the Franciscan] martyrs were beatified in 1946. [And canonized in 2000 as part of a larger group of Chinese martyrs.]

QUOTE: “Martyrdom is part of the Church’s nature since it manifests Christian death in its pure form, as the death of unrestrained faith, which is otherwise hidden in the ambivalence of all human events. Through martyrdom the Church’s holiness, instead of remaining purely subjective, achieves by God’s grace the visible expression it needs. As early as the second century, one who accepted death for the sake of Christian faith or Christian morals was looked on and revered as a ‘martus’ (witness). The term is scriptural in that Jesus Christ is the ‘faithful witness’ absolutely (Rev. 1:5, 3:14).” (Karl Rahner, Theological Dictionary, volume 2, pp. 108-09).

COMMENT: Martyrdom is the occupational hazard of missionaries. Throughout China during the Boxer Rebellion, five bishops, 50 priests, two brothers, 15 sisters and 40,000 Christians were killed. The 146,575 Catholics served by the Franciscans in China in 1906 had grown to 303,760 by 1924, and were served by 282 Franciscans and 174 native priests. Great sacrifices often bring great results.

These last four paragraphs are by McCloskey, Patrick. Franciscan Saint of the Day. St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1981.

July 5 Our Lady of Refuge (Refuge of Sinners)

 

Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners (Latin: Refugium Peccatorum) is a traditional devotional title for the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church, emphasizing her maternal role as a powerful intercessor, protector, and source of mercy for those who have strayed from God. Taken from the ancient Litany of Loreto, the title frames Mary as a spiritual "safe haven" from temptation, vice, and despair. Two ways of depicting her have emerged: the older style is of the royally crowned Madonna and toddler Jesus. This image can be found at several of the California Franciscan missions. The second, which is also seen as Mother of Mercy, is of Mary’s mantle sheltering or perhaps even “hiding” the Faithful within it.

I am posting an essay from the Archdiocese of San Francisco website. Ironically, in 2026, July 5^th falls on a Sunday, and so Our Lady misses out this year!

Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners: the forgotten patroness of California

By Father Vincent Woo and Jacek Nowicki -posted July 5, 2025

While it is commonly known that St. Junípero Serra was instrumental in bringing the Catholic faith to California, most are unaware that Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners is actually the patroness of [both] California[s]. In fact, the feast of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners is an obligatory memorial that should be celebrated in all California dioceses on July 5 each year, unless it falls on a Sunday. The purpose of this article is to introduce the historical background of this devotion, its spiritual significance and its pastoral application.

In 1843, the first bishop of the Californias, Francisco García Diego y Moreno, designated Our Lady of Refuge as the patroness of the new diocese, alongside St. Francis of Assisi and St. Francis de Sales as secondary patrons. However, these patrons were not automatically transferred to the newly established Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1853. The papal bull establishing the Archdiocese did not indicate a patron. Evidence suggests that this feast continued to be observed on July 4 from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. However, from 1907 to the early 1980s, this feast practically disappeared from the archdiocesan liturgical calendars.

In 1981, in a memo to all the bishops of California, Cardinal Timothy Manning (then Archbishop of Los Angeles) wrote that the patronage of California under the title of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, had never been revoked. As the majority of California bishops favored the restoration of this feast, they petitioned the Vatican for authorization to observe the feast of Our Lady of Refuge on July 5 as an obligatory memorial in all California dioceses. Permission was granted in 1982, and the observance of this memorial began to reappear in the annual Ordo of all [upper] California dioceses beginning in 1983.

What is the spiritual significance of this feast? St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his book “The Glories of Mary,” wrote that in ancient times, there were cities of refuge where criminals who fled for protection would be exempt from their deserved punishments. In a similar way, Our Lady is the refuge of sinners, offering protection and intercession for all who seek her help, no matter how grave their sins. St. Thomas of Villanova said: “O Mary, we poor sinners know no other refuge than thee, for thou art our only hope, and on thee we rely for our salvation.”

Similarly, St. Antoninus related the story of a grave sinner who had a vision of himself before God at his particular judgment. The devil accused him, presenting a catalog of his sins, which outweighed all his good works on the scales of divine justice. However, Our Lady extended her hand, placing it on the balance, tipping it in favor of her devotee. Understanding that she would obtain his pardon if he changed his life, the sinner was entirely converted after this vision.

It is important to remember that devotion to Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners does not exempt us from the need to reform our lives. While she is our advocate, we must also do our part. How can we do this? The best way is to frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation regularly. Every time we examine our conscience before confession, we should ask for Our Lady’s intercession. Apart from confession, devotions such as the daily rosary are also crucial.

[Everyone] can promote devotion to Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, especially on her feast day. On July 5, this obligatory memorial should be celebrated in parishes throughout California. The Ordo states that the liturgical texts can be taken from Holy Mary, Queen and Mother of Mercy in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary…

 

May all Catholics in California rediscover the spiritual significance of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, the patroness of California.

Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, pray for us!

Father Vincent Woo is priest-secretary to Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and assistant professor at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, and Nowicki is the Archivist for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

retrieved from https://sfarch.org/our-lady-refuge-of-sinners/

May 13 and the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM)

May 13

Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament

Today we have another celebration of the BVM that “flavors” the month of May with Marian devotion: the appearance of Mary at Fatima, Portugal. There, she identified herself as Our Lady of the Rosary, but another title has also come to be associated with this day. Saint Peter Julian Eymard coined the title “Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament” in 1868. He founded his Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament at Paris on May 13, 1856, thus the connection to the day. His prayer:

Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask you to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our Eucharistic God.  Grant us, we beg of you, to know Jesus better, to love God more, and to center our lives around the Eucharist; that is, to make our whole life a constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  Amen.

V. Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

R. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come among us!

A prayer I composed to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
to be said during Eucharistic Adoration:

Contemplating this Great Mystery of Love

we look with awe and reverence upon Jesus,

the Bread of Life and Child of the Virgin Mary.

To you, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, we give thanks

for the role you play and the work

that you continue to do in the mystery of salvation.

This presence of the One who is flesh of your flesh

is the gift of God made human through your cooperation.

How wonderful this miracle!

How merciful and gracious is our God!

Join with us in our prayer and praise, O Blessed Lady.

(by Deacon Jim Cummings)

May 8th in the midst of Marian devotion

 

The eighth (8^th) of May has deep Marian connections in three titles:

1). The Virgin of Lujan, who is the patroness of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Officially declared in 1930 by Pope Pius XI, she is a 17th-century terracotta statue representing the Immaculate Conception. This particular localized devotion took on more significance or prominence with the election of Cardinal Bergoglio from Argentina as Pope Francis!

2). “Mother of Fairest Love”

“Fairest Love” is a title derived from Sirach 24:24. It states, “I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.” Pope Saint John Paul II wrote of this title in his 1994 Letter to Families, paragraph 20. St. Josemaria Escriva had a devotion to Our Lady under this title.

The "Fairest Love" devotion aligns with the Franciscan focus on her spotless nature, often celebrating her as "all fair" and without blemish. St. Bonaventure, a revered Doctor of the Church, beautifully encapsulated this devotion in his Psalter of Mary, highlighting her as the fount of clemency and sweetness of piety, adorned with the beauty of chastity, justice, and truth. Franciscans traditionally honor Mary through the "Franciscan Crown," a 7-decade rosary meditating on the Seven Joys of Mary, recognizing her as the source of "fair love" and joy.

3).  “Mediatrix of Grace”

This title speaks of Mary’s powerful intercession and mediation of heavenly grace. There is a long Franciscan tradition acknowledging Mary’s role as such.

The decree Lumen Gentium of Vatican II would caution against the title of "Mediatrix" that: "This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator." And as recently as November 2025, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church declared that the use of the titles Mediatrix, Mediatrix of all graces, and Co-Redemptrix "have limits that do not favor a correct understanding of Mary’s unique place".

A long Franciscan tradition holds that Our Lady’s unique role in the redemption is worthy of this special feast. Mary herself was redeemed by Christ, her Son. Then through her powerful intercession, she obtains for us the graces that God wishes to bestow on the human race. In the 15th century, the Franciscan friar, St Bernardine of Siena wrote: “I do not hesitate to say that she (Mary) has received a certain jurisdiction over all graces… They are administered through her hands to whom she pleases, when she pleases, as she pleases, and as much as she pleases.” In the Constitution on the Church, Vatican II states: “In the work of the Saviour, she (Mary) cooperated in an altogether singular way, by her obedience, faith, hope and burning love, to restore supernatural life to souls.”

The connection to the Immaculate Conception, a concept that was championed by Franciscan theologians, is apparent through the combination today with Our Lady of Lujan, a statue of the Immaculate Conception. In most common depictions, rays of grace emanate from the hands of Mary, and you can see in one of the following illustrations how that grace is being passed on to Mary from Jesus.