Reflecting on the Saints

Of the relatively few Saints commemorated this Week: Feb. 23rd – St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr Feb. 27th – St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church I’ve chosen to write about St. Gregory of Narek a still rather obscure saint to most of us in the Catholic Church.  However, he is incredibly important to Armenian Christians and in recent decades to both St. John Paul II to Pope Francis , to the point that the Vatican found a way to honor this bishop and mystic in the Catholic Church by making his feast day an optional memorial in the General Roman Calendar . So who was St. Gregory of Narek ?   He was born between 945-951 A.D. in the Armenian Kingdom of Vaspurakan centered around Lake Van in the mountainous region of today’s eastern Turkey .  His father Khosrov Andzevatsi, was a relative to the Artsruni royal family, which ruled the kingdom at the time.   Note here that St. Gregory’s story is  not unlike that of St. Francis Xavier or ...

Of the Saints or Commemorations that are celebrated this week: February 17th – The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order February 19th - Bl. Elizabeth Picenardi, OSM February  21st – St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church February 22nd – Chair of St. Peter I’ve chosen to write about Bl. Elizabeth Picenardi, OSM .  I chose to write about her because she could easily be a parishioner at any number of parishes that we staff across the Servite world. She was born in 1428 and most of her life in the town of Mantua in Lombardy , Italy .   Her father, Leonard of Cremona , Steward for the (Marquis) Gonzaga family, wished that for the sake of the family, she’d marry “up,” that is, nobility.    From early on in her life, however, she refused, becoming essentially a Servite tertiary , in a town where there apparently was no Servite community for her to join.  So she wore a Servite sisters’ habit even as she lived modestly in the home of he...

Of the various Saints and Feast Days commemorated during this week: February 10th -- Saint Scholastica, Virgin   February 11th -- Our Lady of Lourdes February 14th -- Saints Cyril, Monk and Methodius, Bishop  February 14th -- St. Valentine, Priest or Bishop and Martyr I’ve decided to write this week about St. Valentine . St. Valentine was a Christian martyr, a clergyman, though it’s unclear if he was merely a priest or a bishop, who according to the Butler’s Lives of the Saints , was “beheaded on February 14th around the year 270.”  His day was celebrated as a simple feast day on the Roman Calendar until 1955, after which it was removed, probably because there are several lives of St. Valentine in existence and except for the basic information given above the lives were contradictory. St. Valentine’s Day is of course associated with romantic love.  However, the connection here goes to pre-Christian, that is Greco-Roman Pagan times, as the annual Feast of Lupercali...

Of the Saints and Feast Days celebrated this week: February 3rd - Saint Blaise, Bishop and Martyr February 3rd - Saint Ansgar, Bishop  February 5th - Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr  February 6th - Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs  February 8th - Saint Jerome Emiliani February 8th - Saint Josephine Bakhita, Virgin I’ve chosen to write about St. Paul Miki (and his companions) .   The future St. Paul Miki was born about 1565, to a significant Japanese family.  His father Miki Handayu was a warlord during this (Sengoku) period of relative instability in Japanese history.  It was MIki Handayu who converted to Christianity (Catholicism), being baptized in 1564 and took the baptismal name of Paulo.  His son, the future St. Paul Miki was baptized at the age of five and took his father’s baptismal name as well. St. Paul Miki ’s Japanese name is unknown. The future St. Paul Miki ’s father sent him to the first (minor) seminary established in Japa...