TWO TO INSPIRE US

 

The main theme of this Blog is sanctity- that of others, as well as our own. How you may ask can we ever hope to be like someone who reached perfection in this life? We tend to forget that they were human with all the negative traits we possess. Some knew sin before a conversion, some experienced depression, discouragement, hopelessness. Others dealt with hatred, lack of care of others, selfishness. For every problem we experience in our own life, there is a saint who experienced the same suffering in their life.

In April 2019, we considered the life of a young nun who died in an earthquake in Ecuador. She, along with an American Benedictine nun, is now being considered for canonization.  In her short life she knew sin, hated in her Irish town, and had a major conversion, even though she thought she wanted to be “famous”.

SISTER CLARE CROCKETT’s early life was like so many teenagers today – caught up in the fast pace, fun loving world, oblivious of where they were being led.

 At a retreat in Spain (she thought she was going for the “entertainment”), she found her true calling.

 “I don’t know how to explain exactly what happened. I didn’t see the choirs of angels or a white dove come down from the ceiling and descend on me, but I was certain that the Lord was on the cross, for me.”

For more on her life, I highly recommend the 90 minute movie  "All or Nothng"  which can be viewed on Youtube.The postulator of the cause  of Sister Clare is Sister Kristen Gardner, a member Sister Clare’s order,  the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother.  In 2020 she wrote a biography about Sister Clare titled "Sister Clare Crockett: Alone with Christ Alone". 

 Father Gerard Mongan, parish priest of Sr. Clare’s native parish of St. Columba’s, in Derry, said she is already credited with bringing many back to the faith through her conversion story.

 “The people of Derry and beyond are overwhelmed by the possibility that one day, they will have their own saint. In particular, she has been an inspiration to many young people who have been inspired by her life, especially her infectious joy.She has already brought countless people back to the practice of their faith. We all look forward to the official opening of her cause when she will become (a) servant of God. Exciting times ahead!”

Perhaps a less typical, hopefully soon to be saint, is the Benedictine nun, SERVANT OF GOD SISTER ANNELLA ZERVAS (see Blog June 24, 2017) from Moorhead, Minnesota., She was born in 1900, the second of six children into a devoutly Catholic family.

 At age 15 (not too young in those days), she entered the convent of the Benedictine Sisters in St. Joseph, Minnesota. She was given the name Annella, to which her mother said:  there is no saint with this name. The young nun answered: “Then I shall have to be the first one.” She made her final vows in 1922.

 A year later, Sister Annella began experiencing a chronic and debilitating skin disease that caused extreme itching and other serious discomforts.  It was diagnosed as pityriasis rubra pilaris.

 I have always said that itch is worse than pain, and yet this young nun, who was musically inclined, taught music in Bismarck, North Dakota. She  was known for her good humor,  offering up her suffering in union with the suffering of Jesus, finding in the Eucharist her “greatest consolation.”

 Her body began to swell from head to toe, her skin turning a deep red and burning with an insatiable itch.  She developed sores and her skin sloughed off in chunks and strips, with "thornlike stickers" developing within her pores, which had to be painfully removed. At the time, there was no significant treatment or cure.

 She died at age 26 in 1926 on the eve of the solemnity of the Assumption, which was fitting since she had a great devotion to Our Lady. 

After her death, people began to report receiving favors and miracles through her intercession.

Patrick Norton, a Minnesota man, born in 1962 in India, was rescued from the streets of Mumbai by sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation of (St.) Mother Teresa. He was adopted by a wealthy couple from Fairfield, Connecticut, and raised Catholic along with 13 adopted siblings.

He claims to have had a vision in 2010 while working at Sister Annella’s grave and was inspired to spread devotion to her. A father of three from Avon, he has dedicated his life to sharing her story by reprinting and distributing booklets about her life as well as giving talks.

 "I'm a nobody, I'm just a painter. All I know is paint brushes and drop cloths; I've never promoted a saint. But I am promoting her. I said to the Lord, 'Let me promote her through my deafness, my uselessness, my nobody. Let me live each day for you, and I will tell the people (of her) through my nothingness. " 

She certainly is one to pray to for any skin ailment.

Sister Clare and Sister Annella’s short lives can be an inspiration on how each of us can pursue holiness in our own life, reminding us that God calls each of us to sanctity in a unique way- no two saints are alike!  

FRIEND TO SAINTS, POPES AND THE POOR

 

 

In the previous Blog, we mentioned ST. LUIGI ORIONE, who was instrumental in Bl. Teresa Grillo Michel’s work in South America.

St Luigi was born in Piedmont, Northern Italy, at Pontecurone, a village near Tortona in 1872. His father was a road digger and his mother was a woman of deep faith and well-educated. 

The young Luigi felt he wanted to be a priest and joined the Franciscans, but had to leave due to ill health. He was welcomed by St. John Bosco, but left the Salesians after a few years to become a seminarian in his own Diocese of Tortona.

While still a student, he started his lifelong work for those he loved most, namely the poor. He catechized a small group of boys who readily followed him. Dom Orione drew people to himself throughout his life. They came to be with him; some to help him, others to be helped.

Dom Orione loved everybody but the poor, the young, the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities were his special friends.

At just 20 years of age, he had great insight into the problems and needs of his age. “There is a supreme need and a supreme remedy for healing the wounds of this poor country that is so beautiful but so unfortunate! Take hold of the hearts and affections of the people and enlighten the youth: pour into everyone the great idea of Catholic redemption with and for the Pope. Souls! Souls!"

At his first Mass in 1895, he prayed that those who came to him would always be granted “bread, peace and paradise”.

He established a number of religious and lay groups, each with a different charism. The Hermits of Divine Providence followed the motto of St. Benedict Ora et Labora, staffing agricultural schools in rural areas.

After the December 1908 earthquake that left 90,000 dead among the ruins, Dom Orione went to Reggio Calabria and Messina to help, especially the orphaned children and became a promoter of civil and religious works of reconstruction.  At the express wish of Pope Pius X he was appointed Vicar General of Messina diocese.

Three years later he left Sicily, dedicating himself to the formation and development of the Congregation. In December 1913, he sent the first expedition of missionaries to Brazil. He again carried out heroic activity aiding those affected by the earthquake of January 1915 that shook Marsica and left almost 30,000 victims. 

During the early years of the First world War, Dom Orione travelled the length and breadth of Italy many times to support various charitable activities, to give spiritual and material aid to people at all levels of society, and to support and nurture priestly and religious vocations. 

He had the personal esteem of Popes Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII and authorities at the Holy See who entrusted him with many delicate tasks for resolving problems and healing wounds both within the Church and in its relationship with civil society. 

He worked with prudence and charity on issues of modernism, promotion of Conciliation between Church and State in Italy, and taking in and rehabilitating “lapsed” priests in the Italian Church. He was a preacher, confessor and tireless organizer of pilgrimages, missions, processions, ‘live’ Christmas nativity scenes and other popular manifestations of faith.

 He had a great devotion to the Blessed Mother and the ideal of his life was to live and to die for the spiritual welfare of people, serving Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother Church and its head, the Pope. His motto was, “Do good always, to all, evil to none”.

 He travelled far and wide, started new foundations at home and abroad and followed their progress. He died in San Remo (one of my favorite places in Italy)  March 12, 1940 after sending a loving message to the Holy Father. His last words were, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus". His body is incorrupt and can be venerated in Tortona.

 At his canonization on May 16, 2004, Pope (St.) John Paul II said of him,

Passion for Christ was the soul of his bold life, the interior thrust of an altruism without reservations, the always fresh source of an indestructible hope. This humble son of a man who repaired roads proclaimed that only charity will save the world, and to everyone he would also say that perfect joy can only be found in perfect dedication of oneself to God and man, and to all mankind.

His feast is March 12.

WIDOW-NUN

 

They say we are known by the company we keep.  The next two Blogs show us once again, how saints influenced one another in the same time frame. Unlike so many of our modern-day “heroes” whom we admire from afar, the saints challenge us and in many cases they show us how they influenced  one another, showing them the way to holiness.

BLESSED TERESA GRILLO MICHEL was born in Spinetta Marengo, (Sardinia) Italy, in 1855. She was the fifth and last child of Giuseppe, the head physician at the Civil Hospital of Alessandria, and of Maria Antonietta Parvopassau, a descendent of an illustrious family of Alessandria. At Baptism she was given the name of Maddalena.

After the death of her father, the family moved to Turin, where Maddalena attended elementary school and her mother supervised the university studies of Francesco, her elder brother. When Maddalena finished elementary school, she was sent to a boarding school run by the Ladies of Loretto in Lodi, where she passed her final exams at the age of 18.

After leaving school, she returned to Alessandria, where under her mother's guidance, she was introduced to society. It was here that she met her future husband, Giovanni Michel, a cultured and brilliant captain of the Bersaglieri. After their wedding on 2 August 1877, they moved first to Caserta, then to Acireale, Catania, Portici and, lastly, Naples.

 After her husband died of sunstroke during a Naples parade in 1891, Teresa sank into a depression which bordered on total despair. Her sudden, almost unexpected recovery, due to reading the life of the Ven. Cottolengo and the help of her cousin, Monsignor Prelli, led her to aiding the poor and needy.

Teresa began to open the doors of her family home to poor children and people in need. At the end of 1893, seeing that the numbers of the poor continued to grow, she sold the Michel family home and purchased an old building on Via Faa di Bruno. Here she began her work of rebuilding, adding an upper floor and buying some modest dwellings nearby. Thus began the "Little Shelter of Divine Providence". The work Teresa had begun was had many difficulties, which came not only from the authorities but  from friends and relatives.

Nevertheless, the solidarity and affection of the poor, of generous persons and of the women who worked with her were evident. Following many requests to the ecclesiastical authorities, in 1899 Teresa Grillo was clothed with the religious habit in the small chapel at the Little Shelter, together with eight of her co-workers, founding the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Divine Providence.

In her remaining 45 years, her primary concern was to spread and build up the institute. In fact, immediately after its foundation, her community opened houses at various places in Piedmont, and soon spread to the Veneto, Lombardy, Liguria, Apulia and Lucania.

In 1900 the institute was extended to Brazil, and in 1927, at the request of St. Luigi Orione, she established houses in Argentina. Our blessed also knew and befriended Bl.Clelia Merloni (see Blog Nov. 2018), supporting her initiatives and encouraging Bl. Clelia after she was ousted from her own religios order. The two would meet whenever Bl. Teresa was in Rome.

Sparing no effort, Bl. Teresa inspired and encouraged her sisters with her caring and charismatic presence in the community. As many as eight times she crossed the ocean to visit Latin America, where at her request numerous foundations sprang up with nurseries, orphanages, schools, hospitals and homes for the elderly. She made her eighth voyage in 1928, at the age of 73.

On 8 June 1942 the Holy See granted the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Divine Providence apostolic approval. Hard to imagine in the middle of a world war!

She died two years later in Alessandria, at the age of 89. By then her institute had 25 houses in Italy, 19 in Brazil and 7 in Argentina. At her beatification in 1998, Pope John Paul noted: The Eucharist was the heart of her spiritual life...and she wanted its image to be seen on her religious habit".

Her feast is celebrated January 25.

BLESSED ARE THE SAINTS

 

“For the Saints are sent to us by God as so many sermons. We do not use them, it is they who move us and lead us, to where we had not expected to go.” Charles Cardinal Journet (1891-1975) 

ALL SAINTS DAY

Blessed are they whose baby-souls are bright,

Whose brows are sealèd with the cross of light,
Whom God Himself has deign’d to robe in white—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they who follow through the wild
His sacred footprints, as a little child;
Who strive to keep their garments undefiled—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they who commune with the Christ,
Midst holy angels, at the Eucharist—
Who aye seek sunlight through the rain and mist—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they—the strong in faith and grace—
Who humbly fill their own appointed place;
They who with steadfast patience run the race—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they who suffer and endure—
They who through thorns and briars walk safe and sure;
Gold in the fire made beautiful and pure!—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they on whom the angels wait,
To keep them facing the celestial gate,
To help them keep their vows inviolate—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they to whom, at dead of night,—
In work, in prayer—though veiled from mortal sight,
The great King’s messengers bring love and light—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they whose labors only cease
When God decrees the quiet, sweet release;
Who lie down calmly in the sleep of peace—
Blessed are they!
Whose dust is angel-guarded, where the flowers
And soft moss cover it, in this earth of ours;
Whose souls are roaming in celestial bowers—
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they—our precious ones—who trod
A pathway for us o’er the rock-strewn sod.
How are they number’d with the saints of God!
Blessed are they!

Blessed are they, elected to sit down
With Christ, in that day of supreme renown,
When His own Bride shall wear her bridal crown—
Blessed are they!

 

Ada Cambridge, later known as Ada Cross, 

was an English- born Australian writer (d. 1926)

EVEN THE CATS!

 

                      OUR  CAT ZARAH  WANTS  A TREAT!!

UNITY IN UKRAINE

 

As we near the third year of the invasion of Ukraine, with seemingly no end in sight for the poor people of this country, and the many who have had to flee to other nations, I find a lesser- known saint. 

In 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. Our saint was to dedicate his life, and die for this cause.

Born in what is now Ukraine, John Kunsevich, who took the name (ST.) JOSAPHAT  in religious life, went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the 1596 Union of Brest. He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and an ascetic.

At a relatively young age, upon becoming both bishop of Vitebsk and archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy, and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union.

But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had “gone Latin” and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland.

Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled.

The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop’s home. Josaphat was struck with a halberd, then shot, and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome.

St. Josaphat’s death brought a movement toward Catholicism and unity, but the controversy continued, and the dissidents, too, had their martyr. After the partition of Poland, the Russians forced most Ruthenians to join the Russian Orthodox Church. 

In 1964, newspaper photos showed Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople. This marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries.  May this saint intercede for his modern day people that they may once again know unity in their homeland.

SEATTLE'S HOLY PRINCESS

 

A local native being considered for sainthood is PRINCESS ANGELINE (Kikisoblu, Kick-is-om-lo). She was born around 1820 to Chief Seattle and his first wife (a Catholic) in what is now Rainier Beach in Seattle, Washington. She was named Angeline by Catherine Broshears Maynard, the second wife of Doc Maynard, who  thought she deserved a name that would help people recognize her importance as the daughter of the city’s namesake. She named her Princess Angeline– a name she thought was “prettier” than her native name.

In 1856, during the Puget Sound War, Kiki is said to have conveyed a warning from her father to the citizens of Seattle regarding an imminent attack by a large native coalition force. Thanks to this warning, the settlers and neutral native tribespeople were able to protect themselves during the resulting Battle of Seattle.

The 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott required that all Duwamish Indians leave their land for reservations, but Kikisoblu remained in Seattle in a waterfront cabin on Western Avenue between Pike and Pine Streets, near what is now Pike Place Market and earned a living doing laundry, making baskets and collecting shellfish along the shores of Puget Sound.

She got a lot of attention as Chief Seattle’s daughter and many photographs were taken of her and used on all kinds of souvenir items. In photos, Kikisoblu most often appears wearing a red bandana, shawl, and many layers of clothing. She was photographed by many famous people such as Edward S. Curtis. She would get a dollar when someone took her photo.

The Duwamish Tribe, which was one of the largest tribes in Washington State, is now unrecognized by the federal government.

Chief Seattle was confirmed in 1864 and married in the Catholic Church in 1865. When he died in 1866, he was buried at St. Peter’s cemetery at Suquamish. But his baptismal record wasn’t found until 2018, when Joan Byrne, an archives volunteer, was translating sacramental registers written in French by missionary priests. The record shows he was baptized Noé (Noah) Siyatle on March 17, 1857, when he was about 71 years old.

Princess Angeline seemed quite a “character” and was known for always having a cigarette, but not so well known for always carrying her rosary and crucifix.  Showing her crucifix to people, she would say, “this is my friend”.

She was buried (in a canoe-shaped coffin) in Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill, next to her friend, founding father, Henry Yesler. Years later, Seattle schoolchildren raised money for a headstone.

The Chronicle of Holy Names Academy reported:

"May 29, 1896. With the death of Angeline Seattle died the last of the direct descendants of the great Chief Seattle for whom this city was named. Angeline—Princess Angeline—as she was generally called, was famous all over the world… Angeline was a familiar figure of the streets, bent and wrinkled, a red handkerchief over her head, a shawl about her, walking slowly and painfully with the aid of a cane; it was no infrequent sight to see this poor old Indian woman seated on the sidewalk devoutly reciting her beads. The kindness and generosity of Seattle's people toward the daughter of the chief… was shown in her funeral obsequies which took place from the Church of Our Lady of Good Help. The church was magnificently decorated; on the somber draped catafalque in a casket in the form of a canoe rested all that was mortal of Princess Angeline."

Due to the close relationship between Seattle's indigenous population and the region's orca population, one of the Southern resident orcas, J17, was nicknamed Princess Angeline after Kikisoblu. J17's fourth calf, J53 Kiki, was also named after Kikisoblu.

Two years ago, a rosary that belonged to Princess Angeline, was gifted to the Duwamish Tribe by the Archdiocese of Seattle.

“Because she is the daughter of our chief … to have that little rosary coming back to the tribe, that is so moving. To me, it’s really spiritual,” said Cecile Hansen, Chief Seattle’s great-great-grandniece who is a lifelong Catholic and the longtime chairwoman of the Duwamish Tribal Council.

She appears to have been eccentric, but how many saints were called so in their lifetime and even today, by us lesser mortals?

Photos: 

Top & Bottom.  Edward Curtis

 Middle:  Her "shack with her dog and walking in Seattle