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267 A.D.
Death of Saint Satyrus, Arabian-born martyr who died for his faith in Antioch after an idol had been destroyed when he made the sign of the cross over it.
302 A.D.
Death of Saint Arcadius of Mauretania who offered himself in exchange for other Christians who had refused to worship Roman idols. He was brutally beaten and his legs and arms chopped off. Rather than crying out in pain he looked fondly on his severed limbs, "You are happy, my members. Now you really belong to God. You have all been sacrificed to Him" and then exclaimed to his persecutors just before he died, "Learn from my torments. Your gods are nothing. The only true God is the One for Whom I suffer and will die for. To die for Him is to live."
494 A.D.
Death of Saint John of Ravenna, Bishop of Ravenna for 42 years who, before Pope Saint Leo the Great turned Atilla the Hun away from the gates of Rome, John had interceded with the "Scourge of God" to save the people of Ravenna.
530 A.D.
Death of Saint Caesaria of Arles, French abbess of the Benedictine convent in Arles which was founded by her brother Saint Caesarius of Arles.
560 A.D.
Death of Saint Victorian. This Italian-born Benedictine abbot migrated to France and then to the Pyranee region of Aragon where he founded the Monastery at Asan.
591 A.D.
Death of Saint Probus of Verona, holy Benedictine Bishop of Verona, Italy.
625 A.D.
Death of Saint Salvius of Amiens, bishop who was renowned for his miraculous healings and conversions and is remembered for founding the remains of Saint Firmin.
690 A.D.
Death of Saint Biscop, Anglo-Saxon bishop who did much in evangelizing the faith in England and made numerous trips to Rome consulting with three Popes and several saints of his day. He died at Wearmouth, England on this date at around the age of 70.
750 A.D.
Thirty-eight Irish monks are slaughtered in Iona, Ireland by pagan attackers.
752 A.D.
Forty-two Benedictine monks are murdered at Ephesus by Iconoclast radicals retaliating against the those religious who continued to maintain icons and statues.
1203 A.D.
Death of Saint Martin of Leon, Augustinian priest who was a prolific writer on aesthetics and theology. He died at Saint Isidore abbey in Leon, Spain.
1737 A.D.
Death of four Jesuit missionary martyrs in in the village of Tonkin, Vietnam. Fathers Emmanuel d'Abreu, Bartholomew Alvarez, Vincent da Cunha and Blessed Joh Gaspard Cratz were all beheaded by a pagan court from a Vietnamese tribe.
1777 A.D.
Blessed Father Junipero Serra founds the mission of Santa Clara of Assisi in northern California.
1819 A.D.
Death of Saint Antony Mary Pucci, Servite Friar who devoted his life to parish work through his holy pastoral care for his parishioners, especially the sick and those afflicted with the plague. He worked closely with Pope Pius IX in advancing the curial office of the Propagation of the Faith and upgraded accommodations for nursing homes, especially for children. After his death many miracles at his tomb were documented and in 1962 Pope John XXIII canonized him.
In July 1988, the new Archbishop of Lima was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Ayacucho, at that time the stronghold of the bloody Maoist "Shining Path" rebels. At Ayacucho, Archbishop Cipriani displayed both a strong stand against violence which earned him several life threats and a pastoral and social stance in favor of displaced peasants and the poor. In late 1996, after MRTA rebels stormed into the Japanese embassy, the group's leader Nestor Cerpa requested the mediation of a representative from the Catholic Church and Archbishop Cipriani was accepted by both sides.
As mediator, the Archbishop unleashed a consuming effort to achieve an agreement that would avoid a violent end. However 126 days later, despite his efforts, President Alberto Fujimori launched a military assault on the embassy that ended with the death of one hostage and all MRTA members and the safe release of the remaining hostages.
Noticias Eclesias reported that in what can be considered as his first declaration after his appointment to the position of Archbishop of Lima, Monsignor Juan Luis Cipriani, yesterday, highlighted some of the main areas to which he will be dedicating special attention in the prime archdiocese. Pointing out the necessity to "continue the great effort of reconciliation that has begun in the country," Monsignor Cipriani affirmed the importance of increasing the number of vocations to the priesthood. "Lima is such a big and numerous city that it needs of abundant and select vocations," pointed out the elected Archbishop. "I believe that is one of the tasks to which I will dedicate more efforts," he added.
He also manifested great concern for the families, "that are the basic cell of society and that today are wounded and disoriented. The family requires a very big effort of the Church in order to confirm them in their trust and hope, and in that great task of bringing children, of educating children and of forming men for our Peruvian society," he pointed out. The youth is also among the main challenges, he said, manifesting a special concern and hope in his pastoral works with the youth of Lima.
Monsignor Juan Luis Cipriani will follow Cardinal Augusto Vargas Alzamora in the position, who was named Archbishop of Lima by the Holy Father in 1990. On Saturday the news of the new appointment was made public in Rome, after the Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Cardinal Vargas after having reached the age limit, according to what is specified by the Code of Canon Law. The Prelate of Lima wished for success in the tasks of the new Archbishop. Manifesting his desire of a personal meeting, Cardinal Vargas affirmed that "one of the things that I am going to say to him is that he can count on me for whatever he wishes, that I can continue working, I can be just another auxiliary." He also, recommended Archbishop Cipriani "to be always aware of what God may inspire in you in order to do what is good."
The police chief of Magdalena province, Col. Octavio Grajales, quoted Father Giovanni San Juan of Playon de Orozco village as saying most of the victims had been attending a baptism at the local church when they were selectively dragged outside by the gunmen and shot to death. The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group was blamed for the deaths. Fourteen people were killed in San Pablo in Bolivar province, some of them women. All were dragged from their homes before dawn and shot execution-style in the street.
The AUC had declared an 18-day ceasefire over the Christmas and New Years holidays, but it ended at midnight last Wednesday and the anti-Communist paramilitaries began their killing spree with 48 deaths on Thursday and Friday. The attacks appeared to be revenge for an attack by the Marxist Armed Force of Colombia (FARC) rebels who killed 30 people in a raid on a paramilitary stronghold on December 27.
The archdiocese said the site operated by Seth Warshavsky and his Internet Entertainment Group confused Internet users seeking information on the Holy Father's January 26-27 visit to St. Louis and infringed on the archdiocese's trademark. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday to determine whether the order should be made permanent. IEG said the company plans to fight the restraining order.
While the site featured information on the Holy Father's visit, his life, and his writings, it also included alleged details of illicit sex in the Church as well as advertisements for IEG's pornographic web sites. The site did include a message advising parental discretion and noting that it is not affiliated with the Catholic Church or the archdiocese, although a new "papal visit" page on IEG's primary site no longer includes such information.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski said the Polish parliament will consider a law to preserve the Nazi-era concentration camps as memorials and empower authorities to intervene if any controversy regarding the sites appears. Catholic Poles began placing hundreds of crosses in a field near the Auschwitz camp after rumors circulated that a large cross erected at the site where Pope John Paul II prayed in 1979 would be removed. Jewish groups have protested the placement of any religious symbol near the camps as an affront to the nearly 1 million Jews killed there.
Kwasniewski also said he hopes a dispute over a former Carmelite convent near the site will also be soon resolved. He did not promise explicitly that the convent -- now converted into a church -- would be closed, but he said "Poland feels responsible that the memory of the Holocaust victims be properly protected." The country's bishops have said they believe all of the crosses except for the large papal cross should be removed and that the church should be allowed to remain.
