Reflecting on the Saints

Of the possibilities to write about this week: October 7 - Our Lady of the Rosary October 9 - St. Denis, bishop, and companions, martyrs October 9 - St. John Leonardi , priest October 11 - St. John XXIII , Pope I’ve decided to devote this week’s reflection to St. John XXIII . Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli , the future Pope John XXIII and Saint John XXIII was born in 1881 into a poor sharing cropping family living in the town of Sotto il Monte , in the Province of Bergamo in the Region of Lombardy in Northern Italy, That he came from a poor family itself is significant, because in previous centuries from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance to the Enlightenment to the beginning of the Modern Era , priests tended to come from middle class families, and bishops, let alone Cardinals and Popes tended to come from upper-class noble families.   On the one hand, massive improvements in the education of common people across the Catholic world in the 19th century allowed their childre...

  As often is the case, the current week is filled with many Saints and Feast Days worthy of reflection: Sept 30th - St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church Oct 1st - St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church Oct 2nd - The Holy Guardian Angels Oct 3rd - Blessed Maria Guadalupe Ricart Olmos, OSM, virgin and martyr Oct 4th - St. Francis of Assisi Oct 5th - St. Faustina Kowalska, Virgin Oct 6th - St. Bruno, Priest Oct 6th - Bl. Marie-Rose Durocher, Virgin Of these, I choose to write about St. Francis of Assisi . The future  St. Francis of Assisi , was born around 1181 to a quite successful cloth merchant from Assisi and his wife who he had brought back from the Provence part France at the end of one of his trips.  Indeed, Francis’ name can be understood to mean: “Little Frenchman.”  That the future St. Francis of Assisi ’s father would have been a quite wealthy merchant was a relatively new phenomenon at the time, with the Italian peninsula ...

  There are plenty of worthy saints to reflect on this week: Sept 23 Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) , Priest  Sept 26 Saints Cosmas and Damian , Martyrs Sept 27 Saint Vincent de Paul , Priest  Sept 28 Saint Wenceslaus , Martyr Sept 28 Saint Lawrence Ruiz and companions , Martyrs Sept 29 The Holy Archangels of Gabriel , Michael and Raphael I decided to pick the Holy Archangels . I did so in good part because the Holy Archangels of Gabriel , Michael and Rafael transcend our Catholic Christian tradition.  The three along with four others - Salathiel , Jegudiel , Barachiel , and Jeremiel - show up in Jewish (both biblical and rabinnic) , Islamic , Bah’ai and even Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian traditions.  (Note that in the Islamic tradition , the Holy Qur'an was dictated to the prophet Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel ) There is even a small Middle Eastern sect,  called the Yazidis , who arguably venerate an angelic figure often portrayed...