Author: Lisa-Marie Glive

Gabriel Taurin Dufresse, of Lezoux, France, was ordained a priest of the Society for Foreign Missions of Paris at the age of twenty-four.

In 1776 he arrived in China to undertake his missionary labors in the country's Szechwan Province. The renewed persecution of Chinese Christians in 1784 led to Father Dufresse's arrest. He soon escaped from prison and was taken in by a Chinese Catholic family.

In obedience to his religious superior, Fr. Dufresse subsequently surrendered himself to the pagan authorities after an auxiliary bishop instructed all the priests staying with families to turn themselves in rather than expose their hosts to the danger of arrest. Father Dufresse was imprisoned and then exiled to Macao.

In 1789 he managed to return to Szechwan Province. In the years that followed, his missionary labors were blessed with increasing success. In 1800 he was consecrated an auxiliary bishop and appointed apostolic vicar of Szechwan, and in 1803, at a time of relative peace, he presided over the first synod in China. This synod would have great importance for the future development of the Chinese church.

The resumption of intense anti-Christian persecution in 1805 put Bishop Dufresse in so much danger that he had to change his place of residence almost daily. A decree in 1811 condemned to death all leaders of European religions and in 1815 Dufresse’s identity was discovered.

In May of 1815, he was re-captured. Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop Dufresse to his martyrdom on September 14, 1815 at Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The Chinese soldier was so inspired by Bishop Dufresse that he himself was baptized and became a priest. Later, he was martyred together with 119 companions for their faith in Jesus. Their feast day is on 9 July.

Sentenced to death by beheading, St. Gabriel Taurin Dufresse earned the crown of martyrdom on September 14, 1815. The saintly bishop’s head was attached to a pole and his body left exposed for three days as a warning to others. This body was later buried by local Christians.

Pope Leo XIII declared him as venerable on 2 July 1899 and beatified him on 27 May 1900. He was Canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000.

Patron Saint of Anderlecht, Belgium; against mad dogs; against rabies; bachelors; epileptics; horned animals; laborers; protection of outbuildings, stables, and sheds; sacristans; work horses.

On September 12, Catholics celebrate the feast day of Saint Guy of Anderlecht, a Belgian Christian known as the “Poor Man of Anderlecht.” Rich in the love, generosity, and grace of God, Saint Guy was poor in material possessions throughout his life. He worked tirelessly at the most menial of tasks, and gained a reputation for almsgiving, despite his own lack of the most basic needs. Although he never joined a particular religious order, Saint Guy was visited for spiritual direction by many, and through his model, brought many closer to Christ.

Guy was born in Anderlecht, Belgian, a small village outside of Brussels. Raised by pious parents, he demonstrated great devotion to the Lord and to Our Blessed Mother Mary. Throughout his childhood, he gave away all he had, and spent his days visiting the sick and elderly of the town. It is said that when he worked the fields of his parents, an angel came and pushed the plow so that he might better pray undisturbed. From the time of his youth he wished to count himself among the special flock of Christ—the poor—for his entire life, dedicating himself to a life of poverty and service to those who had nothing.

Like his Lord before him, Guy “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2: 52) He spent hours in prayer each day, traveling frequently to the church of Our Lady at Laeken, outside Brussels. There he demonstrated such devotion to Mary that the priest approached him, and asked him to stay and serve the Church. Saint Guy joyfully remained in the church, constantly cleaning, sweeping, polishing the altars, and attending to the most menial needs during the day—stopping only to befriend and serve those who were poor and came on foot to the church looking for assistance.

After a hard day’s labor, he spent each night in prayer, rarely sleeping, but instead could be found kneeling at the foot of the cross, praying for the poor.

One day a merchant from Brussels sought to take advantage of Guy, convincing him that through making more money, he could help more people. Seeing only the benefit in helping others, Guy left his post. The first ship bearing a cargo in which Guy had an interest, however, was lost. Realizing his mistake, Saint Guy humbly returned to the church only to find his position filled.

For seven years Guy engaged in severe acts of penance; he traveled on pilgrimage—on foot—visiting Rome and then the Holy Land, returning to Belgium and serving as a guide at the holy shrines.

Eventually, in his early sixties, Guy returned to Anderlecht, and died soon thereafter. In death, a golden light shone around him, and a heavenly voice was heard my many, proclaiming his eternal reward in heaven. He was buried in Anderlecht, and many miracles were attributed to his intercession at his grave.

Roberto Bellarmino was born into impoverished Tuscan nobility at Montepulciano on October 4, 1542. He was the third of ten children born to Vincenzo Bellarmino and Cinthia Cervini, a sister of Cardinal Marcello Cervini, who later became Pope Marcellus II. Educated at the Jesuit College in Montepulciano, he entered the Society of Jesus at the age of eighteen.

Saint Robert Bellarmine was ordained a priest in Flanders and quickly obtained a reputation both as a professor and a preacher, attracting Catholics and Protestants alike by his sermons.

In 1576 he was recalled to Italy, and entrusted with the chair of Controversies recently founded at the Roman College. He proved himself equal to the arduous task, and the lectures he delivered were later compiled into his most renowned work, “De Controversiis” - Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith.

Hammer of Heresies

Bellarmine's monumental work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various controversies of the time, and made an immense impression throughout Europe. It dealt such a blow to the Reformation.

So numerous were the conversions wrought by it that Queen Elizabeth I of England decreed that anyone who was not a doctor in theology was forbidden to read Bellarmine’s writings under penalty of death. In recognition of his work, Benedict XV gave Bellarmine the title of “Hammer of Heresies” in 1921.

At the death of Pope Sixtus, the new pope, Gregory XIV, granted to Bellarmine’s work the distinction of a special approbation. Saint Robert Bellarmine resumed his work as Spiritual Father, and had the consolation of guiding the last years of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, known for his asceticism.

Many years later he had the further consolation of successfully promoting the beatification of the saintly youth. It was also at this time that he sat on the final commission for the revision of the Vulgate translation of the Holy Scriptures.

Becoming a Cardinal

In 1597 Clement VIII recalled him to Rome and made him his own theologian making him a Cardinal in 1599.

Upon growing elderly, he was made the chief advisor of the Holy See in the theological department of its administration.

Death and Canonization

His death in the summer of 1621 was most edifying and a fitting end to a life which had been no less remarkable for its virtues than for its tremendous achievements. Accordingly, there was a general expectation amongst those who knew him intimately that his cause would be promptly introduced and swiftly concluded. However, reality proved to be otherwise.

Although he was declared Venerable in 1627, technical obstacles arose in regards to the beatification process, delaying the progress of his cause for 300 years. Venerable Robert Bellarmine was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930 and declared a Doctor of the Church and patron saint of catechists the following year.

His Eminence Robert Bellarmine became one of the most important figures of the Counter-Reformation and the period will be forever marked by his method of confronting heresy.

John – later surnamed Chrysostomos, meaning “golden-mouthed” so called on account of his eloquence – was born in Antioch in Syria around 347. Raised by his widowed mother, he studied under Libanius, a famous orator of the period.

In 374, he joined a community of hermits in the mountains south of Antioch. After four years under the direction of a Syrian monk, he left them, and for the next two years he lived as an anchorite in a cave. The conditions of his crude abode and the severity of his mortifications caused him to become dangerously ill, and he was obliged to return to Antioch in 381. John was ordained a deacon that same year and for twelve years afterwards he served as a deputy to Bishop Flavian.

Upon the death of Nectarius, Archbishop of Constantinople, John was selected for that see by Emperor Arcadius. In this position, Chrysostom did away with many expenses which some of his predecessors had considered necessary to the maintenance of their dignity and devoted the money saved thereby to the relief of the poor and the support of hospitals for the sick and infirm.

He also undertook the reformation of the clergy of his diocese by means of zealous exhortations and disciplinary actions which, though very necessary, were somewhat tactless in their severity. John added effect and force to these endeavors, by conducting himself as an exemplary model of what he desired so ardently to impress upon others.

Chrysostom was banished from Constantinople in 403 after he delivered too zealous a sermon against immodesty and vanity. The Empress Eudoxia took his words as a direct insult against herself. His exile was of short duration however, because a slight earthquake that shook the city was taken as a terrifying sign by the superstitious lady.

Shortly afterwards he was again banished for preaching against the disorder, impropriety, and superstition occasioned by the public games commemorating the raising of a silver statue of Eudoxia in front of the great church dedicated to the Divine Wisdom.

He was exiled to a remote place called Cucusus in the Taurus Mountains of Armenia, where he suffered greatly from the heat, fatigue, and the cruelty and brutality of his guards. The local bishop, however, vied with his people in showing the aging patriarch every mark of kindness and respect.

When a council was called by Pope Innocent and the Emperor Honorius to restore him to his see, Chrysostom’s enemies instead imprisoned the appointed papal legates, and sent him into further exile in Pityus at the eastern end of the Black Sea. He suffered intensely from his forced travel in the scorching heat and wet weather. When he and his escorts reached the Church of St. Basiliscus in Comana in Cappadocia, the clergy there, seeing he was close to death, took him in, changed him into white garments and administered Extreme Unction to him.

He died the next day, September 14, 407, with the words "Glory to God in all things" on his lips.

Born Isabel Flores y de Oliva on April 20, 1586, in Lima, the capital city of Peru, her nickname, “Rose,” came from a childhood incident in which a household servant attested to having seen the child’s face turn into a mystical rose.

She took the name formally as her own, at her confirmation in 1597 by the saintly Archbishop of Lima, Turibio de Mogrovejo.

Remarkable, even as a child, for her great reverence and love for all that related to God, she developed an intense devotion to the Infant Jesus and His Holy Mother, and gave herself up to a life of prayer and mortification. Industrious and adept, she became very proficient in the arts of sewing, embroidery and lace-making, and used her needle to help support her home and family, and as a means to assist the many poor who came to depend on her generous alms.

In imitation of St. Catherine, whom she took as a saintly role model, she fasted three times a week, wore rough clothing, and roughened her face and hands to combat the temptations to vanity. She spent hours on her knees before the Blessed Sacrament and contrary to the usual practice of the time, was a daily communicant.

Assailed by tremendous temptations against the Faith and the virtue of purity, which caused her excruciating agony of mind and desolation of soul, she multiplied her mortifications and prayers, and with her confessor’s approval, took a vow of virginity.

In this last resolve, Rose had to combat the opposition of her parents, who wished her to marry. The battle of wills continued for ten years until, won over by her patience and prayer, they gave their consent to her decision.

At the age of twenty, Rose received the habit of St. Dominic as a tertiary Dominican. From that moment onwards, the severity and variety of her mortifications redoubled.

With her brother’s help, she built herself a little cell from sun-dried bricks in the garden behind their home. Here she would retire at night for solitude and prayer and take whatever rest she permitted her body on a bed of broken glass and pottery, rough stones and thorns. She took to wearing an iron chain around her waist and a metal-spiked crown concealed about her head. Entire days without food would be followed by sleepless nights spent in prayer. During her suffering, Our Lord fortified her with the knowledge of His presence and consoled her with His love, frequently revealing Himself to her and drawing her soul into ecstasies that lasted for hours.

During these sublime embraces with God, she offered Him all her penances and mortifications in reparation for the offences against His Divine Majesty, for the sins of idolatry, for the conversion of sinners, and for the souls in Purgatory.

During her last illness, her constant prayer was "Lord, increase my sufferings, and with them increase Your love in my heart.” Rose died August 24, 1617 at the age of thirty-one years.

She was beatified by Clement IX in 1667 and canonized in 1671 by Clement X, thus becoming the first American-born saint.

St. Clare was co-foundress of what is known today as the Order of the Poor Clares, Abbess of San Damiano

As a child she was very pious, devoted to prayer and penance. At the age of 18 she met St. Francis who had come to preach at the church of San Giorgio. Inspired by his words and example, Saint Clare went to him to ask him to help her live a religious life of poverty. St. Francis, who at once recognized in Clare one of those chosen souls destined by God, promised to assist her.

Leaving home in secret, she met with St. Francis and his disciples whereupon St. Francis clothed her in a rustic tunic. Her father of Noble Ascent tried to persuade her to return to marry. After resisting her father’s attempt to drag her home, he finally relinquished, whereupon St. Francis provided her a dwelling next to the Chapel of San Damiano. Thus, was founded the first community of the order of Poor Clares.

Given the special privilege to practice total poverty in her order by Pope Gregory IX she heroically continued her mission to preach poverty throughout.

Saint Clare's miracles too were talked of far and wide. Here is a magnificent example:

Once, during an enemy attack against Assisi, the fierce Saracens invaded San Damiano, entered the confines of the monastery and even the very cloister.

Fainting in terror, their voices trembling with fear, they cried out to their Mother, Saint Clare. What happened next was recorded by the Franciscan friar, Tommaso da Celano:

“Saint Clare, with a fearless heart, commanded them to lead her, sick as she was, to the enemy, preceded by a silver and ivory case in which the Body of the Saint of saints was kept with great devotion.

And prostrating herself before the Lord, she spoke tearfully to her Christ:

‘Behold, my Lord, is it possible You want to deliver into the hands of pagans Your defenseless handmaids, whom I have taught out of love for You? I pray You, Lord, protect these Your handmaids whom I cannot now save by myself.’

Suddenly a voice like that of a child resounded in her ears from the tabernacle:

‘I will always protect you!’

‘My Lord,’ she added, ‘if it is Your wish, protect also this city which is sustained by Your love.’

Christ replied, ‘It will have to undergo trials, but it will be defended by My protection.’

Then the virgin, raising a face bathed in tears, comforted the sisters:

‘I assure you, daughters, that you will suffer no evil; only have faith in Christ.’

Upon seeing the courage of the sisters, the Saracens took flight and fled back over the walls they had scaled, unnerved by the strength of she who prayed.

Then, Saint Clare immediately admonished those who heard the voice I spoke of above, telling them severely: ‘Take care not to tell anyone about that voice while I am still alive, dearest daughters.’”

The miracles performed during her life by this first spiritual daughter of St. Francis were indeed numerous. Her confidence in her divine Spouse was total and unconditional. Having once renounced all earthly possessions for love of Him, she tenaciously thwarted every attempt – even by several well-meaning popes – to mitigate the absolute poverty she and her religious sisters had so willingly embraced.

After St. Francis’ death in 1226 and until her own in 1253, Clare continued to hold fast to the counsels St. Francis had given her and to direct the order in the true spirit of its founder: total renunciation of all earthly possessions and an unconquerable faith and confidence in Divine Providence.

St. Lawrence, one of the deacons of the Roman Church, was one of the victims of the persecution of Valerian in 258, like Pope Sixtus II and many other members of the Roman clergy.

At the beginning of the month of August, in the year 258, the Roman emperor issued an edict, commanding that all bishops, priests, and deacons should be put to death.

This imperial command was immediately carried out in the city of Rome. On the 6th Pope Sixtus II was apprehended in one of the catacombs, and executed without delay.

As he was led to execution, Lawrence followed him. “Father, where are you going without your deacon?" he said. "I am not leaving you, my son," answered the Pope, "in three days you will follow me." Two other deacons, Felicissimus and Agapitus, were put to death the same day.

Three days later, on the 10th of August of that same year, Lawrence, the last of the seven deacons, also suffered a martyr’s death.

St. Ambrose of Milan and the poet Prudentius, give particular details about St. Lawrence’s death.

Ambrose relates that when St. Lawrence was asked to bring forth the treasures of the Church as being archdeacon of Rome Lawrence was entrusted to the care of the treasury and riches of Church, but mind you, also the distribution of alms to the poor. In response, Lawrence hastily traveled throughout the city, gathering the poor.

On the third day, he brought them to the prefect, who believed the Church had treasure hidden away, and said, “These are the treasures of the Church." The disappointed prefect angrily condemned Lawrence to death.

The saint was stripped of his clothing and tied on top of a gird-iron over a slow fire that roasted his flesh little by little.

Defiant in spite of his intense suffering, the holy deacon audaciously commanded his executioners “Turn me over. That side is cooked.” The holy audacity of this deacon-martyr inspires noble souls until today.

John Vianney was born in France in 1786, just three years before the beginning of the French Revolution. He grew up assisting a local priest offer the holy mass in secret, as religious persecution forced many of the Vianney’s and other Catholics into hiding.

At eighteen, John realized his vocation to the priesthood. Two years later he began studying in preparation for holy orders, but studying did not come easily to him. Instead of becoming a priest, he was drafted into the army in 1809.

Soon after, he found himself an accidental deserter: he was tricked by some fellow soldiers into abandoning his unit. He immediately reported to the mayor of the commune, who advised him to remain in hiding.

John lived dangerously, often narrowly escaping capture by concealing himself in hay bales. He returned home fourteen months later when the king proclaimed an amnesty for all defectors.

In 1813 he entered the seminary, after much hardship in his studies, John was ordained a deacon, then a priest on August 13, 1815.

In 1818 he was given care of a dilapidated parish in a remote part of France called Ars-en-Dombes.

The 230 parishioners in Ars had become lax in their faith, and John preached relentlessly to them for twenty-five years about the importance of practicing modesty, avoiding blasphemy, profanity and obscenity, and unlawful work on Sunday.

Not only did Ars become a model Christian town, but his influence reached far beyond the confines of the country village.

He remained at Ars for a total of forty-one years. The year before he died, over 100,000 pilgrims visited Ars to see the holy man, who had become known as the Cure of Ars.

His three attempts to escape to live in the quiet seclusion of a monastery failed, and he died at Ars August 4, 1859. Over a thousand came to his funeral including the Bishop and all the priests of the diocese. Here lay their model.

John Mary Vianney was canonized on May 31, 1925 by Pius XI. Four years later, the same pope named him patron saint of parish priests throughout the world.

At the time miracles were performed during the time he was at Ars, he constantly gave credit to St. Philomena.

Saint John Mary Vianney’s incorrupt body is to be found at the shrine of the Curé de Ars, just north of the city Lyon.

Inigo de Loyola was born in 1491 in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa in northern Spain.

Of the noble family of Loyola, as a boy he was sent as a page to serve the treasurer of the kingdom. There, he had access to court and developed a taste for all its ways, including the ladies.

Life as a Soldier

Intelligent, of a fiery temperament and handsome, Inigo, or Ignatius, harbored dreams of romance and worldly conquests. He was addicted to gambling, and wasn’t above sword play, once getting into serious trouble.

At age thirty we find him a soldier defending the fortress of Pamplona against the French. Hugely outnumbered, the Spanish commander wished to surrender but Ignatius egged him to fight on. As the fight continued, Ignatius’ leg was fractured by a canon shot. Honoring his courage, the French allowed him to be treated at his castle of Loyola rather than in prison.

After enduring an operation without anesthetics, it was found that there was a bone protruding from under his knee. The thought of not being able to wear the slimming leggings of the time was unendurable, so he had doctors saw off the bone – without anesthetics. Still, he always limped as one leg remained shorter than the other.

Conversion of St. Ignatius

Convalescing, he asked for romance novels, but was given to read the only books in the castle: a life of Christ and lives of the saints. As he begrudgingly picked up the volumes, he began to notice that while his thoughts of romance and fantasy left him restless and agitated, these books gave him peace and a sense of true accomplishment and well-being. Slowly moved by what he read; he made a powerful conversion.

Shedding his fineries and donning a poor habit, he ultimately came to the cave of Manresa by a river where he stayed for ten months. Here, he had a powerful revelation, an experience of God as He really is so that he now looked at all of creation in a new light – an experience that allowed Ignatius to find God in all things – one of the central characteristics of Jesuit spirituality.

It was in the seclusion of Manresa that ideas for his famous Spiritual Exercises began to take shape.

Priesthood and Founding of the Jesuits

After a trip to the Holy Land, the holy wanderer decided to go back to school to learn Latin with the goal of entering the priesthood. He ultimately went to the University of Paris where he met several young men whom he led in the Spiritual Exercises. Two of these men were Francis Xavier, and Peter Faber.

Once ordained, he and his group decided to place themselves at the disposition of the Pope in Rome. They taught catechism to children, worked in hospitals and instructed adults in the Spiritual Exercises.

In September of 1540, this first nucleus was approved by Pope Paul III, as the order of The Company of Jesus, an institution that was to be instrumental in countering the protestant reform of Martin Luther. They were also active in the missions, and later became unparalleled academic instructors of young men, as well as performing countless other services in the Church.

Since his early conversion days, because of indiscreet, severe penances, St. Ignatius had developed stomach troubles that plagued him for the rest of his life. In the summer of 1556 his complaint grew worse, and his health ailing, he felt the end approaching. Still, those around him were not unduly alarmed.

But shortly after midnight on July 31, the former soldier gave up his soul to God.