NEW AND OLD FRIENDS IN HEAVEN

St. Paul VI

St. Oscar

On Sunday  (Oct. 14)  the Holy father will canonize seven new saints.  Two of whom we already know are  ST POPE PAUL VI  (see Blog 2/7/2018)   and ST OSCAR ROMERO. The others are less known to us in the USA.   

ST VINCENT ROMANO   was born in 1751 and ordained a priest in 1775. He had studied the writings of St. Alphonsus de Liguori and developed a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He spent his whole life as a priest in Torre del Greco and was known for his simple ways and his care for orphans. He worked to rebuild his parish, often with his bare hands, after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1794. He died in December 1831 of pneumonia and was beatified by Paul VI in 1963.

St. Vincent

ST  FRANCESCO SPINELLI   was born in Milan in 1853 and was ordained a priest in 1875. He began his apostolate educating the poor, also serving as a seminary professor, spiritual director, and counselor for several women's religious communities. In 1882, Fr. Spinelli met  (St.) Caterina Comensoli (see Blog 9/25/2018), with whom he would found the Institute of the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. The sisters dedicated themselves to Eucharistic adoration day and night, which inspired their service to the poor and suffering.

He died in 1913. Today his institute has around 250 communities in Italy, Congo, Senegal, Cameroon, Colombia, and Argentina. Their ministries include caring for people with HIV, orphans, drug addicts, and prisoners.

St. Francesco

ST NUNZIO SULPRIZO  (see Blog 12/31/2013) was born in Pescosansonesco, Italy in 1817. He lost both of his parents at age six and was brought up by an uncle who exploited him for hard labor. Fatigued and often given dangerous assignments, he developed gangrene and eventually lost his leg. Despite his tremendous suffering, he would reportedly make statements such as: “Jesus suffered a lot for me. Why should I not suffer for Him? I would die in order to convert even one sinner.”

He recovered from the gangrene and dedicated himself to helping other patients before his health deteriorated again. He died of bone cancer in 1836, when he was only 19 years old.

ST NAZARIA IGNACIA MARCH MESA  was born in 1889 in Madrid, Spain,  the fourth of 18 children. Growing up, her family was indifferent and sometimes even hostile to her desire to enter religious life. Eventually she led several family members back to the Church when she entered the Franciscan Third Order. Her family moved to Mexico in 1904, and Nazarie met sisters of the Institute of Sisters of the Abandoned Elders, who inspired her to join their order. In 1915, she chose to take perpetual vows with the order in Mexico City and was assigned to a hospice in Oruro, Bolivia for 12 years.

St. Nazaria

Beginning in 1920, she felt a call to found a new order dedicated to missionary work. In 1925, she founded the Pontifical Crusade, later renamed the Congregation of the Missionary Crusaders of the Church, with the mission to catechize children and adults, support the work of priests, conduct missions, and to print and distribute short religious tracts. Many opposed her work, but Bl. Nazaria pressed on. Her order cared for soldiers on both sides of the 1932-35 war between Paraguay and Bolivia, and she herself survived persecutions in Spain during the Spanish Civil war. She died in July 1943.

ST MARIA KATHARINE KASPER  was born in Dembach, Germany in 1820. She attended very little school because of poor health. Despite this, she began to help the poor, the abandoned, and the sick at a young age. Her mother taught her household chores, as well as how to spin and weave fabric. After her father died when she was 21, Catherine worked the land as a farm hand for about 10 cents a day. Her helpfulness toward others attracted other women to her, and she felt a call to the religious life, but knew she needed to stay and support her mother, who was in poor health.

After her mother died, Catherine started, with the approval of the bishop of Limburg, Germany, a small house with several friends who also felt the call. In 1851 she and four other women officially took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and formed the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ. Catherine, known in the religious community as Mother Mary, served five consecutive terms as superior of the house and continued to work with novices and to open houses for their order all over the world.  She died of a heart attack in February 1898.