Oct. 10 Saint Daniel and Companions, martyrs

Martyrs: Saint Daniel Fasanella and Companions died 1227

October 10

Martyrs remind us of the high price that Jesus paid for preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Remembering the martyrs helps us to persevere in living out the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is this gospel that Francis and his followers vowed to observe and spread through their witness and preaching.

Inspired by the example of the first set of Franciscans martyred in Morocco (St. Berard and Companions honored on January 16^th), seven Friars Minor went to preach the gospel in Muslim North Africa. They were led by Daniel Fasanella, OFM provincial of Calabria in southern Italy. They ended up in the city of Ceuta, Morocco, where the Christian merchants of the city warned them against preaching.

The friars, however, spoke openly and were thus imprisoned for eight days. Bribes and threats to make them renounce their faith were useless. Like the early Christians persecuted by Rome, they went to their deaths singing hymns. They were beheaded and their bodies were taken to Spain. They were canonized in 1516.

A note as we are now ten days into the month of October: The Pope's intention for the month of October is that mental health ministry be established throughout the Church, helping to overcome the stigma and discrimination of persons with mental illness. 

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.

Franciscan Martyrdom

As we remember the death of John the Baptist by beheading, I am reposting about some Franciscan martyrs who are celebrated in January.

OFM protomartyrs: St. Berard and Companions d.1220

January 16

            In 1219 it was ten years after the first Rule for the Order had been put into place. With the blessing of St. Francis, Berard, who spoke Arabic, left Italy with five companions: Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. They specifically wanted to convert Muslims. While en route in Spain, Vitalis became sick and encouraged the other friars to continue in their mission without him.

            They preached in Seville, then in Muslim hands, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached openly in the marketplace. They refused to leave the country when the friars were apprehended. The sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the martyrs were beheaded at Marrakesh by the sultan himself on January 16, 1220.

            These were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths, he exclaimed, “Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!” Their relics were brought to Portugal, where they prompted a young Augustinian canon named Anthony to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year.

In the Rule of 1223, Chapter 12, Francis wrote: “If any of the friars is inspired by God to go among the Saracens or other unbelievers, he must ask permission from his provincial minister. The ministers, for their part, are to give permission only to those whom they see fit to be sent.” Preaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one’s homeland and adjusting to new cultures, governments, and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom sometimes caps all the other sacrifices. The death of Berard and his companions sparked a missionary vocation in Saint Anthony of Padua and many others.

These five martyrs were canonized in 1481. There have been many, many Franciscans who have responded to Francis’ challenge. Proclaiming the gospel can be fatal, but that has not stopped Franciscan men and women who even today risk their lives in many countries throughout the world.

Prayer

Lord God,

you consecrated the infancy of the Franciscan Order

by the glorious martyrdom of Berard and his four companions;

grant that as they died heroically for you

so we may grow in persevering faith.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Protomartyr of the USA: Juan de Padilla (1492-1542)

January 21

Juan didn’t know where preaching the gospel of Jesus would lead him, but he trusted God to give him the strength to match a missionary vocation. Juan’s vocation led to his martyrdom in Kansas, part of the New World “discovered” by Columbus the year he was born. His martyrdom happened about 100 years before that of the “North American Martyrs” in New York and Canada. 

            Juan came from southern Spain where he also became a Franciscan, a member of the Andalusian province. In 1526 he left for New Spain (Mexico), where he worked as a missionary in the modern states of Hidalgo and Jalisco. In 1540 he accompanied Coronado’s expedition to what would become the state of New Mexico in the USA. Friar Juan along with Fr. Juan de la Cruz, Brother Luis de Ubeda or Escalona, remained to work among the natives after the other explorers returned to Mexico. The next year De Padilla continued to journey north-east to Kansas; there he met the Ouichita or Wichita natives in a village known as Quivera.

            Juan was killed by several Wichita Indians as he made his way to the Kaws, traditional enemies of the Wichita. The exact locality of his martyrdom is uncertain. He was the first of at least 78 Franciscans martyred in the United States of America.

Father Don Miller, OFM, writes that “Juan de Padilla was motivated more by a desire to spread the Gospel than by fear for his own life. He reminds us that we do not have much choice about how we will die; however, we have a lot of choice about how we shall live.”

We are sometimes uncomfortable when people mention martyrs for the faith. How could people do that? Do they have mental health issues? Juan de Padilla was motivated more by a desire to spread the gospel than by fear for his own life. He reminds us that we do not have very much choice about how we will die; however, we have a lot of choice about how we shall live.

Posted on August 29th: The Passion of Saint John the Baptist (Mission San Juan Bautista)

August 14 St. Maximilian Kolbe

 

St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe (1894-1941)

August 14

            Raymund Kolbe was born in Poland. He and his brother Francis went to the Conventual Franciscan seminary in the city of Lwow. Raymond entered the order of little friars and took the name Maximilian. He was then sent to Rome where he studied philosophy and theology. While there, Maximilian established an organization dedicated to recognizing Mary as the Queen and Mother of human society called the "Army of the Immaculate One."  Maximilian was then ordained a priest in 1918.

            He was not in the best of health, but in 1927 near Warsaw, he established the "City of the Immaculate." (In Polish: Niepokalanów.) This grew to be a large Franciscan community of 738 members engaged in printing religious publications.  Their magazine called Knight of Mary Immaculate had a circulation of almost one million. The fantastic growth of this apostolate occurred during the worst years of the worldwide depression of the 1930’s. During most of that decade, Maximilian was establishing another City of the Immaculate near Nagasaki, Japan.

            From the writings of Father Maximilian: “Dear brother, see the greatness of human dignity conferred by God’s mercy. By obedience we surmount, so to speak, the limits imposed upon us by our weakness; we are made conformable to God’s will which in God’s infinite wisdom and prudence guides us to act correctly. As a matter of fact, by clinging to God’s will which no creature can resist, we surpass everything in power. This is the way of wisdom and prudence; this is the only way we can render the greatest glory to God.  If there were another and more suitable way, Christ surely would have shown it to us by his own words and example.”

            Before World War II began, he returned to Poland. The German Nazis who were occupying Poland soon restricted his activities and then halted publication of the Knight completely. He was arrested in February 1941 and sent to Auschwitz in May. Though very sick himself, he encouraged his fellow prisoners not to let the Nazis lead them to despair of God.

            One Franciscan source recounts that another prisoner, Dr. Joseph Stemler, wrote in his memoirs: “Like many others, I crawled at night in the infirmary on the bare floor to the bed of Father Maximilian. The greeting was moving. We exchanged some impressions of the frightful crematorium. He encouraged me, and I confessed. Discouragement and doubt threatened to overwhelm me; but I still wanted to love. He helped me to strengthen my belief in the final victory of good. ‘Hatred is not creative,’ he whispered to me. ‘Our sorrow is necessary that those who live after us may be happy.’ His reflections on the mercy of God went straight to my heart. His words to forgive the persecutors and to overcome evil with good kept me from collapsing into despair.”

            On July 30, 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz, and the Nazis retaliated by randomly choosing ten men to be executed by starvation. Father Maximilian offered to take the place of one of those ten, a Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek, who was a father and family man.  Maximilian led the men in prayer in their starvation bunker. During the third week of the ordeal, Maximilian and the other remaining survivors were killed with injections of carbolic acid.

Maximilian was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982. He is venerated as the patron saint of amateur radio operators, drug addicts, political prisoners, and journalists. His cell at Auschwitz is a place of pilgrimage. Saint Edith Stein, who was also killed at Auschwitz in 1942, is commemorated a few days prior on August 9^th. As a Discalced Carmelite nun, she took the religious name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Together, these two Catholic saints stand as witnesses against the atrocities and horror of Nazism.

Fray Luis Jaime, OFM, California protomartyr

 

“Jaime/Jayme/Jaume” translates as JAMES in Spanish, thus I am posting about this martyr of the Solemn Feast of James: Santiago de Compostela!

Father Luis Jayme OFM (1740-1775)

"Melchor Jayme was born in the farming village of San Juan, Majorca on October 18, 1740. When he was 15, he enrolled in the St. Bernadine School where Father Serra had studied as a youth.  He became a Franciscan five years later.  Father Jayme was ordained to the priesthood and taught philosophy for five years at the Convento de Francisco, which was the motherhouse for all the Franciscans in Majorca.

Like Fr. Serra, Fr. Jayme dreamed of becoming a missionary in the New World.  In 1770, he arrived in New Spain after a long and difficult journey.  He attended a special training course that taught survival on the frontier and conditioned them for living a life of hardship and deprivation. In October of 1770, Fr. Jayme set out for Alta California to begin his ten-year commitment to the California Missions. He assumed his post as pastor of the Mission San Diego de Alcalá and eagerly looked forward to working with the Native Americans.

The priests and neophytes on Presidio Hill (the first location of Mission San Diego) tried to establish a successful mission at that site, but in 1774, Fr. Jayme recommended that the Mission site be moved inland.  The crops were failing, the water was scarce and hard to get, and the soldiers were a bad influence on the Native Americans.  Fr. Serra approved the move.  The padres and neophytes moved to the present site in August of 1774 and built temporary huts out of wood, tule, manure, and thatch.  Eleven adobe structures were built during the first year. Crops were planted, Native Americans from the Nipaguay village were being baptized, and everything was going well – until November 5, 1775.  In the early morning hours of that day, Fr. Jayme was awakened from his sleep and heard a commotion outside his quarters. Indians were raiding the mission.  Approximately 800 Native Americans from the Yuma area, together with several neophytes, looted the church. As an open fire erupted, the Kumeyaay natives shot flaming arrows into the buildings, burning the huts down.  Instead of running or hiding, Fr. Jayme went out to greet them and, with his arms outstretched, said, “Love God, my children.”  He was subsequently dragged down to the river and murdered.  Because of Fr. Jayme’s self-sacrifice, dedication, faith, and love, he became California’s first Christian martyr.  The large white cross out front of the Mission on the east side is dedicated to his memory and is located near the spot where he was martyred.  His remains are buried in the sanctuary of the church. Surviving residents of the mission went to the Presidio to live until things settled down and it was safe to return to the Mission."

Written by Msgr. I.B. Eagen, former pastor of Mission San Diego  

https://www.missionsandiegohistory.org/father-luis-jayme

(Click on the image to enlarge for reading)

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 10 Damascus Martyrs and St. Veronica Giuliani

July 10 After honoring Franciscan Martyrs on July 9th, it continues on July 10th. But we also have a Poor Clare who bore the stigmata! Since these three days of July are filled with saints, the Franciscans try to honor them on separate days, although the Roman Martyrology lists St. Veronica on the date of her death July 9th. 

Franciscan Martyrs of Damascus, Syria  died 1860

The Martyrs of Damascus were eleven Catholic saints martyred while praying inside a Franciscan-run parish in Damascus. They consist of the Massabki Brothers: Abdel Moati Massabki, Francis Massabki, and Raphael Massabki who were Maronite Catholics. Manuel Ruiz Lopez and Companions are Franciscans: seven from Spain including Carmelo Bolta Bañuls, Nicanor Ascanio Soria, Nicolás María Alberca Torres, Pedro Nolasco Soler Méndez,  Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, and Juan Jacob Fernández, with Engelbert Kolland from Austria.

Their martyrdom took place in the night between the ninth and tenth of July 1860, and they were beatified in 1926. All eleven were canonized on October 20, 2024.

St. Veronica Giuliani, 2^nd Order (1660-1727)

July 10

            Veronica’s desire to be like Christ crucified was answered with the stigmata. There are many saintly women who follow in the footsteps of Saint Clare.  This example was diligent in her monastic responsibilities while holding a mystical relationship with Jesus in her heart and soul.  She was born in Mercatelli. It is said that as her mother Bernedetta was dying, she called her five daughters to her bedside and entrusted each of them to one of the five wounds of Jesus. Veronica was entrusted to the wound below or through Christ’s Most Sacred Heart.

            At the age of 17, Veronica joined the Poor Clares directed by the Capuchins. Her father had wanted her to marry, but she convinced him to allow her to become a nun. In her first years in the monastery, she worked in the kitchen, infirmary, sacristy, and served as portress. At the age of 34, she was made novice mistress, a position she held for 22 years. When she was 37, Veronica received the stigmata. Life was not the same after that.

            Rome wanted to test Veronica’s authenticity and so conducted an investigation. She lost the office of novice mistress temporarily and was not allowed to attend Mass except on Sundays or holydays. Through all of this Veronica did not become bitter, and the investigation eventually restored her as novice mistress.

            Though she protested against it, at the age of 56 she was elected abbess, a task she held for eleven years until her death. Veronica was very devoted to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart. She offered her sufferings for the missions. Veronica was canonized in 1839.

            Why did God grant the stigmata to Francis and to Veronica? God alone knows the deepest reasons, but as Thomas Celano points out, the external sign of the cross is a confirmation of the fact of the saints’ commitment to the cross in their lives. He says of St. Francis, “All the pleasures of the world were a cross to him, because he carried the cross of Christ rooted in his heart. And therefore the stigmata shone forth exteriorly in his flesh, because interiorly that deeply set root was sprouting forth in his mind.” (2 Celano, #211) The stigmata which appeared in Veronica’s flesh had taken root in her heart many years before. It was a fitting conclusion for her love of God and her charity towards her sisters.

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, the 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.

“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).

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.