FRI-SAT-SUN February 25-27, 2000 volume 11, no. 35 |
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SECTION ONE SECTION TWO SECTION THREE SECTION FOUR |
298 A.D. Death of Saint Ananias, a Phoenician priest who converted eight of his guards while he was imprisoned. They, along with Ananias, received the trophy of martyrdom at the hands of the cruel emperor Diocletian.
369 A.D. Death of Saint Caesarius, brother of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. Caesarius was a renowned physician who ministered to the emperors both spiritually and physically even though he remained a catechumen until one year before his death when he was baptized.
586 A.D. Death of Saint Prix, Archbishop of Rouen, France. He was badly maligned by the French court, so much so that besides conning the Council of Paris in 577 to have him exiled, he was stabbed to death on this date while praying the Daily Office with his peers in church. The culprit was a plant, masquerading as a priest and hired by Queen Fredegonda whom Prix constantly tried to convince to amend her life. Rather than choosing eternal life, she chose the path to hell by embracing sin over salvation.
779 A.D. Death of Saint Walburga, Benedictine Abbess who answered the call of Saint Boniface to help evangelize Germany. She founded monasteries there, both for men and women and became abbess over the nuns. Before the bishop of the diocese died, he appointed Walburga in charge of both the monks and the nuns. She was well known for her knowledge of medicine and this played a part in the people of Germany transferring the pagan feast of witches and superstitions into a Christian occasion by proclaiming May 1 as Walburga Night. For this she is considered the patron saint for fruitful harvests and those with coughs, plague or rabies are encouraged to pray to her for intercession.
1570 A.D. Pope Saint Pius V, 225th successor of Peter, excommunicates England's Queen Elizabeth for her persecution of Catholics. With this interdict the Pope absolves all English people from holding allegiance to the staunch, feminist and crazed queen.
303 A.D. Death of Saint Dionysius, First Bishop of Augsburg, Germany. Ordained by Saint Narcissus he was fleshed out by Roman soldiers and martyred during the terrible reign of Diocletian.
328 A.D. Death of Saint Alexander of Alexandria, Bishop of Alexandria who died two years after the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in which he took part and saw the fruition of his efforts to eradicate Arianism, quite prevalent in his diocese, by the Council's formal condemnation of the Arian heresy.
1154 A.D. Death of Sicilian and Anjou king Roger II Guiscard who was a constant thorn in the side of the Holy See throughout his reign.
1266 A.D. Death of Manfred, illegitimate son of the emperor Frederick Hohenstaufen whom Manfred's mother had entrusted to the Holy See to raise. But Manfred, like his father and grandfather, turned on Rome. Two years after his death the last of the Hohenstaufen's - Conradin would die and thus bring to an end the line of the house of Hohenstaufen and a chance for peace in Italy and Sicily.
1361 A.D. Birth of Wenceslaus of Bohemia who would go on to become the Holy Roman Catholic German emperor from 1378 to 1400.
1732 A.D. The first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated in the first American Catholic church in Philadelphia on this date.
1862 A.D. Death of Saint Gabriele dell' Addolorata, patron of Italian Catholic youth who died in Abruzzi, Italy at the age of 24. The eleventh of thirteen children born to the Possenti family, he was christened Francis Possenti. His family was very wealthy and he became spoiled. In his mid-teens he fell very ill and pledged to enter religious life if he was healed. He was and he fulfilled that promise, but the stronger he got, the more he procrastinated entering the Jesuit novitiate and making that final commitment. Guess what? He fell ill again and once again, in desperation, made the same pledge and this time made good on his promise, becoming a Passionist priest in 1861. Almost immediately he contracted TB and, though in great pain, offered it all up cheerfully for he had learned from his own mistakes that God allows these sufferings for good. He prayed for all and it has been documented that another Italian saint Saint Gemma Galgani was cured of her TB because of his intercession. Throughout Italy Gabriele is considered the patron saint of students, seminarians and young priests. He was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.
February 25-27, 2000 volume 11, no. 40 THIS DAY IN CHURCH HISTORY
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