SAINT THOMAS
Apostle (New Testament)

WE "recognize" Saint Thomas the Apostle the moment we read his story in the Gospel of Saint John. His skepticism his unwillingness to believe anything but what his senses told him was so-is a trait so common in our own times that he seems to belong as much to our age as to his own. When we are told how, upon his arrival in the Upper Room late on the first Easter Sunday, he scoffed when his fellow apostles insisted that the Lord had risen and had appeared to them, he comes to life before our eyes; the wry smile of his disbelief is familiar. "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails . . . " He might be a scientist recognizing the qualities of the human soul and then demanding material evidence to support its existence.

We know almost nothing of Thomas' background, except that he was a Jew, probably a Galilean of poor family. His name is the Syriac word for "twin," corresponding to his Greek name, Didymus. What he did for a living before he became one of the Twelve, or how he happened to be called by Christ at all, will probably never be known to us in this world. But if a man's character and manner are the most significant elements for a knowledge of him, then we know Saint Thomas.

The first noteworthy reference to him is in the Fourth Gospel, at a point fairly late in the narrative of our Lord's public life. Jesus had tarried along the road back to Judea from the area beyond the Jordan, delaying His arrival at Bethany and the bedside of His friend Lazarus. Suddenly He announced that He was ready to go to the dying man, but the apostles feared for Him and themselves: would He go to Judea, where lately the Jews had tried to stone Him to death? It seemed foolhardy; it seemed that this was asking for trouble.

It was Thomas who, unwittingly, recalled his companions to their courage. "Let us also go," he remonstrated, "that we may die with him" (John 11:16). But was it the true zeal of the martyr that spoke in Thomas? It would seem more likely that it was natural attachment to the Master, and not saintly abandonment, that made him bold. Still, no other apostle had ever before spoken so bravely-or so impetuously.
Saint John focuses our attention on Thomas again at the Last Supper, during Christ's final discourse to the apostles. Jesus had been telling them that He would ascend into heaven "And where I go you know, and the way you know"- when Thomas interrupted: "Lord, we do not know where thou art going, and how can we know the way?"

Jesus' answer to this is perhaps as familiar to us as any statement He ever made. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:5-6). The literal Thomas, always wanting things to be spelled out plainly, received from the lips of Christ an entire Christian theology, with Christ as the divine Mediator, drawing men to God through Himself. But, having his answer, did he truly understand the mystery of which the Master spoke?
made humble, echo still upon the prayerful lips of the faithful: "My Lord and my God! (John 20:25, 28).

Legends have flourished around the later life of Saint Thomas, all the more so since nothing certain is known of him after the day of Pentecost. One tradition says that he preached in the Near East, and the Roman Martyrology implies that he was martyred there. The most interesting story of all has it that he journeyed to India and died for the faith there after many marvelous adventures. This tale is all the more curious because there is to this day in India a group of more than half a million Christians, with an obscure and very ancient history, who say that they were led from unbelief to faith by him whose faith was made firm by Christ Himself. The tradition of these Saint Thomas Christians is that the saint founded seven churches in Malabar, was martyred near Madras, and buried at Mylapore.

ELIZABETH was the daughter of King Pedro III of Aragon, the granddaughter of Emperor Frederick II, and the wife of King Denis of Portugal; but she wore her crown lightly and, like the biblical Esther, found no delight in the wealth and grandeur of her position. She gave her heart to prayer and penance and her energy to the poor.
Her husband may have been a just, brave, and generous king, but be was a poor husband. Elizabeth bore his unfaithfulness silently, praying always for his soul, and caring for his illegitimate children as if they were her own. In the end, her sweetness and cheerfulness won his repentance, and he had a most edifying death.

One story of his conversion includes a near miracle. Believing a story of an evil-speaking page, King Denis arranged for the murder of his supposed rival for the queen's affection. By mistake, the accuser was thrown into the lime-kiln instead of his intended victim, and Elizabeth's honor was vindicated. This story actually has no basis in fact, but it does mirror the intrigues with which the queen was continually surrounded. Her good example rankled consciences and won her enemies in the immoral court.

They had two children, Alfonso and Constantia. The son, Alfonso, so resented the favors shown to the king's illegitimate sons that he rebelled, and war was declared between him and his father. Elizabeth rode in person between the two armies, reconciled the father and son, and thus began to earn her title, "the Peacemaker."
She continually used her family connections in the cause of peace. She stopped or averted war between Ferdinand IV of Castile and his cousin, who claimed the crown, and between that prince and her own brother, James II of Aragon.

Her husband died in 1325 and, after making a pilgrimage to the shrine to Saint James at Compostella, she became a tertiary of Saint Francis, living in a house next to a convent of Poor Clares that she had founded. She spent her days supporting and protecting large numbers of poor people.
The last act of her life was again that of a peacemaker. In 1336 her son, now Alfonso IV, marched his army against the king of Castile, who had mistreated his wife, Alfonso's daughter. Although ill, Elizabeth made the tiring journey to Estremoz to put an end to the conflict. After bringing about a lasting peace between the two, Elizabeth died in peace on July 4, 1336. She was buried at Coimbra, which became the scene of many miracles attributed to her intercession.

SAINT ANTHONY MARY ZACCARIA
Confessor, c.1502-1539

THE early period of the "Protestant Reformation", before the Council of Trent had worked out a plan for reform within the Church and organized for defense against the new enemy outside, was one of the saddest periods of the Church's history. Northern Italy was in a deplorable condition. Frequent wars had devastated the country. The Lutheran soldiery had ransacked the countryside, leaving plague and famine in their wake. Spiritual life was at a low ebb, and the clergy were often lax, if not immoral.

But, always, when the spirit of the Church seems near to suffocation, revival seems to spring from within her. Saint Anthony was called to be the father of one of those religious families which arose in such numbers during the sixteenth century to repair the ruins of the house of God.
Anthony's father died while he was very young and his mother compensated for this loss by inculcating in Anthony a love of God and a special love of the poor. The boy was always allowed to take charge of dispensing his mother's alms. After graduating with distinction from the school of medicine at the University of Padua, he decided he was meant to heal souls as well as bodies, and in 1528 was ordained a priest.

So successful was Anthony's ministry to souls and bodies that he was sent to the plague-stricken city of Milan. There he founded an order of priests to minister to the needs of the people and to provide a counterattack against Lutheran propaganda. He also directed the organization of a group of women called the Angelicals, who worked for the protection and rescue of girls who had fallen into evil ways. Anthony's order of priests was called the Clerks Regular of Saint Paul, but they are better known as the Barnabites, from the name of their motherhouse, the Church of Saint Barnabas.

In addition to his other duties, Anthony walked about the streets of Milan with a crucifix in his hand, preaching for a return to sanctity. The city, desolate and war-torn, responded eagerly to his words of hope, and there was a religious revival. He especially urged devotion to the Eucharist and it is believed that he may have originated the Forty Hours' Devotion.
Perhaps the secret of Anthony's sanctity can be read in one of his own sayings: "It belongs to great hearts to desire to serve without recompense, to do battle without pay and without assured provisions." The Lord in whose service he was, was Christ crucified.

In 1539, worn out by his fasting and ministry, he became very ill, and had himself taken to his native city, Cremona, where he died in the arms of his mother at the age of thirty-seven. Twenty-seven years after his death, his body was found to be still incorrupt.

6 July

SAINT MARIA GORETTI
Virgin and Martyr, c.1890-1902

AT the dawn of the century stands a child. Before the century is half over, her name appears in the roll of saints. Maria-her name is the symbol of purity, her emblem the lily.
Maria Goretti was born in 1890 at Corinaldo, a village in the north of Italy. It was a bright, sunny place, where her parents found joy in their work. Her father, Luigi Goretti, was a farm laborer, and her mother Assunta, an unlearned orphan. They were very poor, but they loved each other deeply and counted their wealth in their six children.

Reluctantly, Luigi took his family to the Pontine Marshes, southeast of Rome, to work as a tenant farmer. Life would not be so pleasant there. It was swampy, and they would need to share a house with his partner, Giovanni Serenelli, and his son Alessandro. But perhaps there would be more food for the children. Assunta comforted her worried husband, "We will still have each other." But there was not more food; the work was backbreaking and unprofitable. And soon they did not even have each other. In 1900, overworked and stricken by the malaria which infested the marshes, Luigi died.

With a heavy heart, Assunta took upon her own shoulders the work which had killed her husband. It was a task she could not have accomplished except for the help of her daughter. Maria took over the work of the house, caring for her brothers and sisters, cooking, washing, and sewing for both the families.
The harder Assunta worked, the larger their debts seemed to grow. Maria did not add to her mother's worries. She did not tell her mother that she was afraid of the son of her father's partner; the way he looked at her, and the things he said. Maria kept her fears to herself, and Assunta did not suspect that the nineteen-year-old Alessandro regarded her daughter as anything but a twelve-year-old child.

Maria herself could not know how immediate her danger was. She could not know that Alessandro, in his anger at her rebuffs, had fashioned a dagger, sharp and slender, over nine inches long. This would be his final argument.
On a hot afternoon in July of 1902, Maria was working quietly at home, mending a shirt, when Alessandro came back alone from the fields and dragged her into the kitchen. There were only two choices, submission to his lustful desires or death. For Maria there was no wavering. Assunta had done her work well. Her child's fear of the knife was not nearly so intense as her fear for the soul of Alessandro. Half-maddened by her determination, he struck her again and again. Amid her screams, there were no pleas for herself, only for him. "No, no, you must not! You will go to hell." She cried it over and over, until she could cry no longer, and Alessandro fled into his bedroom.

Maria was carried quickly to the hospital at Nettuno, but it was evident that she could not live. She suffered two deaths really. First there was the terror of the plunging knife and violent struggle, and now there was the slow painful death, continuing over twenty-four hours. She suffered terribly from thirst and, because she was bleeding internally, it could not be assuaged. She met the regretful refusals of water with gentle resignation, remembering the thirst of the crucified Savior.

She was concerned solely for her sorrowing mother, and the children who would have no one to care for them. There was only one thing more necessary for a perfect death, and she gave it with all her heart. She answered the priest's question simply, "Yes, for the love of Jesus, I forgive him . . . and want him to be in paradise with me." She received the last sacraments with childlike reverence and died after kissing the cross her mother had placed in her hands.
Alessandro, being so young, was spared the death penalty, and was sentenced to thirty years in prison. For eight years he was bitter, sullen, silent, still hating the little girl who had refused him. Then he had a dream. He seemed to see Maria with her arms laden with lilies. At first, he shrank from her, but she smiled and gave him the flowers, which, one by one, seemed to turn to pure white flames and consume themselves. At last he repented. He declared that he hoped for heaven because a saint was praying for him.

After his release Alessandro went to Assunta to be forgiven. The mother and the murderer knelt side by side to receive Communion near the shrine built in Maria's honor.
After testifying, as only he could, to the perfect innocence of Maria, at the inquiry for her beatification, Alessandro became Brother Stephano. He works, even today, as a lay-brother in the garden of the Capuchin friars at Ascoli Piceno.
On June 24, 1947, Maria Goretti was solemnly canonized before the largest crowd that had ever gathered to witness such an event. Assunta was the first woman ever to be present at the canonization of her own child, and the great square rang with cries of "Viva la Mamma!" as she passed along.

The proud, sophisticated world kneels humbled and awed at the shrine of a saint who preached no sermon and saw no visions. It was not by accident that the first saint of our century was Maria, dedicated to the Holy Virgin, martyred for the virtue of purity.

SAINT BENEDICT
Abbot and Confessor, c.470-547

WHAT does it take to live like a Christian? The life of Saint Benedict is one answer to this question, and such an effective one that it made history. The saint was born in the Italian town of Nursia, about the year 470, and as a young boy was sent by his family to be educated at Rome. An education in Rome at that time was "liberal" in more than the academic sense. Student life was one long dissipation, and Benedict soon realized that, unless he wanted to be drawn into the debauchery, he would have to leave the city.

Benedict had come to Rome with an elderly family nurse, sent along to look after his needs. With the old woman, he went eastward from Rome into the Sabine Mountains, stopping at the small village of Enfide. His stay there was short because of a miracle he worked for his nurse, the mending of an earthenware sieve. This was only the first miracle of many that were to attract people to Benedict, and when the people of Enfide heard of this particular occurrence they began to visit him in crowds.

Realizing that he was about to become a public exhibit, Benedict decided to move. This time he went alone, climbing higher into the mountains. Benedict finally found himself in a desolate region called Subiaco. A few monks lived in the area, and one of them helped Benedict install himself in a cave high up in the wall of a cliff, where he remained for the next three years. His only contact with the world was through the friendly monk, who occasionally lowered food to him in a basket.

Prayer and penance were Benedict's main activities during this time. It was a trying period, made harder by terrible temptations to return to the pleasures of the world. But Benedict mastered himself and at the end of three years decided that God wished him to continue living in solitude as a monk. As God arranged it, Benedict was to continue living as a monk but not by himself.
Monks from the nearby monastery of Vicovaro had heard of this unusual young recluse and, when their abbot died, they sent a deputation to Benedict, requesting him to be their new abbot. Benedict agreed; but when he arrived at the monastery and began some much-needed reforms, trouble began. Most of the monks enjoyed their loose ways and decided to have no more of the young abbot's reforms-indeed, to have no more of him at all. One evening, poison was put into Benedict's cup of wine. When the wine was brought to him and Benedict made his usual sign of the cross over the cup, it shattered immediately as if it had been hurled against a rock. With a reproachful look, Benedict told the monks to find an abbot more to their liking, left the monastery, and returned to his cave.

But a solitary existence was impossible for him now; his reputation had grown and crowds of people flocked to see him. Most of these were serious-minded men who were concerned with leading a Christian life in a society that had little use for Christianity. Benedict saw that these men needed guidance and consented to leave his cave to become their leader. Founding twelve monasteries in the neighborhood of Subiaco, he settled his followers in them and established himself in the monastery of Saint Clement. Later, he went to Monte Cassino, southeast of Rome, and there founded the monastery that was to become the largest and best known in Europe.

When Benedict began to organize his monks at Subiaco and Monte Cassino, he realized that something different was needed from the general type of monasticism then prevalent. This was of Eastern origin and had degenerated into a very haphazard affair. Monks had no common life, they tried to outdo each other in austerities, and they wandered about from monastery to monastery as their fancy dictated. In place of all this, Benedict substituted a life centered around a common task-the chanting of the Opus Dei, or Divine Office -and dedicated to useful labor, both intellectual and physical, as well as to private prayer and reasonable forms of penance.

At Monte Cassino Benedict wrote his regulations for monastic life in his Rule, which was to become one of the most important documents in the history of Europe. This Rule, which is summarized in the Benedictine motto of ora et labora (pray and work), was to become the inspiration of most of the monasticism of the West. European civilization itself was largely preserved through the work of Christian monks who had Benedict as their spiritual father, and by others who adapted the wisdom of Benedict's way of life to their own circumstances in the world.

The saint lived his last years at Monte Cassino, and Saint Gregory the Great (whose Dialogues are the only source we have for Benedict's life) informs us that sometime about the year 547, not long after a last visit with his sister, Saint Scholastica, Benedict died a most happy death, surrounded by his monks and looking toward heaven.

SAINT HENRY
Emperor and Confessor, c.972-1024

IT is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God . . . . (but) all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:25-28). Henry the Good, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, became a saint. His sanctification is a living proof that God's grace extends to both the mighty and the lowly.
The son of Henry, duke of Bavaria, and Gisella of Burgundy, Henry was born in 972. In 995 he succeeded his father in the duchy of Bavaria, and in 1002, upon the death of his cousin Otto III, he was chosen emperor. He was, in the same year, crowned King of Germany and two years later King of Italy.

It was not always easy for Henry to live up to his title, the Good. " He knew that his were the temptations of those having power. He worked continually for the welfare of the
Church and the peace and happiness of his people. He refused to support ecclesiastical power in temporal concerns, while always maintaining the Church's proper authority; nevertheless, at times he made use of the Church for political ends.
Henry worked for the unity of the empire and, since this unity was considered advantageous to the unity of the Church, his work was truly a service of the Church. He had to engage in numerous wars for this unity, but was always able to forgive his enemies, often returning their wealth and titles and demanding only that they pledge him their loyalty. In 1014, after having waged several successful wars, Henry went in triumph to Rome, where he was crowned emperor by Pope Benedict VIII.

Henry made frequent journeys through his dominions to promote religion, to relieve the poor, to make strict inquiry into public disorders and abuses, and to prevent unjust oppression. He was the first secular ruler on the continent to consider seriously the question of reform of the secular clergy. More than pope and archbishop, he was the inspiring force in synods he held to revive Church discipline and to forbid, under severe penalties, simony and clerical marriage and concubinage. In 1006 he founded the see of Bamberg and built a cathedral there in honor of Saint Peter. Until his death on July 13, 1024., he identified himself with the ideas of monastic reform that were spreading from the Abbey of Cluny. In all his good works for his country and the Church he had the gentle encouragement of his devout wife Cunegunde, who also has been canonized. Henry fulfilled God's will by doing well and honestly the tasks required by his state in life. He was a saint because he was a good husband and a good emperor, all for the greater honor and glory of God.

14 July

SAINT CAMILLUS DE LELLIS
Confessor, c.1550-1614

GOD can make a saint out of any kind of raw material. Out of the sort of life that breeds criminals came Saint Camillus. His mother had died when he was a child, and he grew up absolutely neglected. An illiterate giant, over six-and-a-half feet tall, he became a soldier in the service of Naples and later of Venice. From the beginning, his career as a soldier was handicapped by an overpowering addiction to gambling, which kept him penniless. When he was reduced to taking a job as a servant at the Hospital of San Giacomo at Rome, he was dismissed for unruliness.

God thus allowed Camillus to reach the depths of poverty and shame, so that, having nothing of this earth to cling to, he would turn entirely to his Creator. While working as a laborer on the new Capuchin buildings at Manfredonia, he was so moved by the preaching of one of the friars that he fell on his knees in tears, deploring his past life. From the time of his conversion at the age of twenty-five, he never ceased to do penance.
Camillus was not permitted to make his vows after being admitted to the novitiate of the Capuchins because of an unhealed wound, a souvenir of the Battle of Lepanto, which had formed painful abscesses on one leg.

He therefore returned to the Hospital of San Giacomo to work among the sick, and especially the dying. So intense was his zeal that he was appointed superintendent of the hospital.
It was clear to Camillus that the laymen working at the hospitals were very slack, and he determined to found an order of men who would tend the sick out of charity. To further this end, he received holy orders and, in 1584, left the hospital to found the Fathers of a Good Death, later called the Ministers of the Sick.

The members of the order vowed to devote themselves to the plague-stricken, both in hospitals and in homes. Pope Sixtus V approved the congregation in 1586, and Pope Gregory XIV erected it as a mendicant religious order in 1591. As the congregation spread, Camillus founded many hospitals. In 1595 and 1601, he sent some of his religious with the papal troops into Hungary and Croatia; these men, clad in black habits marked with a red cross, staffed the first field hospital of modern times, the forerunner of the Red Cross.

Aman's last moments are the most precious in his life. On them depends his eternal destiny. Camillus condemned the careless lack of attention to the spiritual needs of patients, and dedicated himself to the dying. He disposed them to receive the last sacraments with the most perfect fervor and to make their death a voluntary sacrifice to God. Afflicted with many physical sufferings himself, Camillus would leave his own bed to serve the dying.
He resigned the generalship of his order in 1607, so that he might have more leisure to serve the poor. He founded religious houses throughout Italy and sent his subjects to all places afflicted with the plague.

In Genoa, on July 14, 1614, at the age of sixty-four, he died. just before his death, when he knew the end was near, Camillus spoke: "I rejoiced because they said to me, 'We will go up to the house of the Lord'." (Ps. 121:1)."O Lord, I confess I am the most wretched of sinners, most undeserving of Thy favor; but save me by Thy infinite goodness." He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746, and was declared patron of the sick (along with Saint John of God) by Pope Leo XIII. He was named patron of nurses and nursing associations by Pope Pius XI. In every suffering man Camillus had seen Christ and served Him.

SAINT BONAVENTURE
Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church, c.1221-1274

SAINT BONAVENTURE, the Seraphic Doctor, is spoken of, along with Duns Scotus and Saint Thomas Aquinas, as one of the three greatest theologians of the Middle Ages. He was born at Bagnorea, Italy, in the year 1221; his parents were Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella, and he was named Giovanni Fidanza for his father. It is not known how he acquired the name Bonaventure ("worthy venture").
After entering the Franciscan Order, he studied and taught in Paris from 1243 to 1257. In 1257, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas received their degrees of doctor of theology together. The lives of the Seraphic Doctor and the Angelic Doctor were often to interweave.

In the same year Bonaventure was made general of his order, and worked at the difficult task of finding a middle road between the friars who had become too extremely rigorous and those who had become too lax. In trying to show what their founder really intended, he wrote The Greater Legend, a life of Saint Francis which superseded everything which had been written before. He did much to give a definite rule to the Franciscan Order, encouraged study, and developed devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

Bonaventure was appointed to several bishoprics, which he refused. Finally, in 1273, Pope Gregory X commanded him to accept appointment as bishop and cardinal of Albano. As a cardinal he attended the Council of Lyons (1274), at which the reunion of the Eastern and Western Churches was for a time realized. Since Saint Thomas died en route to the council, the weight of the work fell on Bonaventure. He sent monks to Constantinople to negotiate with the Orthodox, and was the outstanding figure of the assembly.

Eight days after the conclusion of the council the Seraphic Doctor died at Lyons, on July 14, 1274. The pope, the king of Aragon, the cardinals, and the conciliar fathers attended his funeral in the Church of the Franciscans at Lyons. Peter of Tarentaise, afterwards Pope Innocent V, said of Bonaventure: ". . . he was gentle, courteous, humble, pleasing to all, compassionate, prudent, chaste, and adorned with all virtues. "
As a leader, he did much for the Church, but it is as philosopher and theologian that he has been remembered through the centuries. His works fill many volumes, the most important being his Commentary on the Sentences, which deals with almost every important question of theology. Though their ideas sometimes disagree, Bonaventure and Thomas complement each other: Aquinas followed Aristotle, while Bonaventure was a disciple of Plato and Augustine; Thomas was a teacher of the schools, Bonaventure of the practical life; Thomas enlightened the mind, Bonaventure enflamed the heart; Thomas had a love of theology, Bonaventure had a theology of love.

In looking at these two great lights of the Church we can see that their careers were very different. Bonaventure was in positions of authority in his order from the very year he received his degree, while Thomas' career took him to and fro across Europe to teach, preach, and take part in theological disputations. Thomas was undoubtedly the foremost scholar of the time, perhaps of all time, and his theological and philosophical achievements remain the model and guide of Catholic studies. To Bonaventure, on the other hand, we owe the most complete synthesis of Christian mysticism that has ever been achieved.

These two men, along with Duns Scotus and Saint Albert the Great, earn for the thirteenth century its fame as the golden age of philosophy and theology, a time which has not since been equaled.

SAINT MARY MAGDALENE
Holy Woman, (New Testament)

THREE saints," said our Lord to Saint Brigid of Sweden in a vision, "have been more pleasing to me than all the others: Mary my mother, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene." These two women had stood at the cross: Mary who through Christ's merits never sinned, and Mary Magdalene who through His merits repented.
In popular Western tradition various episodes in the New Testament have been referred to Mary Magdalene: that of the sinner who anointed the feet of Jesus while He sat at dinner with Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50); that of Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus; and that of the woman from whom seven devils had been driven out and who thereafter followed Christ and was present at His crucifixion, and who is the first person mentioned in the Gospel to whom the risen Christ appeared. This identification, however, has never been held by Eastern Catholics, nor is it agreed upon by Western biblical scholars. We need not be concerned with this controversy; the important facts of Mary Magdalene's life are her conversion and her closeness to Christ; on these there is no dispute.

Saint Luke mentions the women from Galilee who followed Christ and provided for Him and the apostles (Luke 8:2). Among them was a certain Mary, called the Magdalene. Magdala was a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Whatever may have been the early life of this woman, it was in the first months of His public life that she passed from the darkness of sin and ignorance into the light of Christ. He had found her possessed of seven devils-seven standing for completion-a victim wholly delivered to the powers of darkness.

The compassionate Savior set her free. It was for fallen man that He had come. From the moment of her release she belonged to Him, and with deep and courageous love and devotion followed Him to the bitter agony of Calvary and after. It is easy to see why Christians have been inclined to think she was the repentant sinner of whom Saint Luke speaks (Luke 7:36-52), who poured out her precious ointment to anoint the feet of Jesus and her abundant tears to wash them (Luke 7:36-50), but Luke does not so identify her. This is certainly an unforgettable scene. It stands forever as a symbol for the penitent love of all those who having been touched by the sinless Son of God abandon themselves wholeheartedly to His service.

Mary Magdalene's service is faithful and heroic. She follows Christ during the hopeful days of His early preaching, and in the terrifying time when the Pharisees and the other rulers of the nation plot His destruction, and is there on Calvary with His Mother when the earth itself rocks with the heinous crime of the crucifixion of the just One.
She stood by as the sacred body of her Beloved was laid in the tomb, and then before dawn was back with the other women, bringing spices. It is upon Mary Magdalene that the most vivid impression is made; when she sees the empty tomb she rushes away to tell Peter and John, distraught at the thought that the body of the Lord has been stolen. Peter and John come and go, but Mary lingers there weeping. Her mind and heart filled with this latest sorrow, and her eyes dimmed with tears, she is not comforted by the angel but turns away to put her anguished question to the first person she sees-she thinks he is a gardener. "Woman, why art thou weeping? Whom do you seek?" She doesn't even name Him-doesn't all of Jerusalem know who was laid in this tomb? "Sir, if you have removed him, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." "Mary," He says quietly; and the voice of the Good Shepherd who knows His own is enough to lift her from tragic sorrow to wild joy. She falls on her knees and clings to His feet, but He assures her He will not disappear. Jesus knows she is her old faithful and reliable self again, and sends her away to bear the great news of His resurrection to the apostles. What awe and joy is in her voice as she rushes in to the disconsolate group "I have seen the Lord!" So Mary Magdalene became the announcer of our joy, telling the good news of Christ's victory over sin and death.

After Pentecost, according to Eastern tradition, Mary went with the Blessed Virgin and Saint John to Ephesus, where she died and was buried. It is said that in the middle of the eighth century Saint Willibald visited her shrine there, and that in 899 her relics were removed by the emperor Leo VI to Constantinople. According to the tradition of France, however, which identifies Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, the Magdalene with Lazarus, Martha, and others, preached throughout Provence. It is said that she spent the last thirty years of her life in a cave high up in the Maritime Alps, and was transported miraculously to the chapel of Saint Maximin, where she received the last sacraments from that saint and was buried by him.

Whatever her later history may be, the story of Mary Magdalene as told in the Gospels is an impressive one. It is one of the greatest divine love stories of all time, following perfectly the definition of love, human or divine, given by Saint Thomas Aquinas: "Love is wanting the best for the beloved." This did Mary desire for her Cord, and for this she received Himself, the greatest gift, as will all who offer themselves to Him in faith and love.

SAINT JAMES THE GREATER
Apostle, (New Testament)

SONS of thunder" was the name our Lord gave the brothers James and John. They were Galileans, typical of those energetic, religious, quick-tempered people. When the people of a Samaritan village refused to allow Jesus and His disciples to pass through, the brothers did not hesitate to suggest calling down fire from heaven to consume the town.
Their ideals were not always purely spiritual. Their mother, Salome, very seriously asked our Lord to give her sons the first places in His kingdom. If they had faults, however, they were those of impetuosity, never mediocrity. They had a tremendous capacity for love, and their gentle Master was patient in teaching them the road to humility.

Even when they joined their mother in expressing a desire to sit at His right and left side, our Lord turned their desire for glory into proper paths. He told them that they did not understand what they requested, and asked if they were able to drink of His cup of suffering. They answered typically, without hesitation, "We can," and did not dream that their hopes for a glorious Messiah would be dashed away in the terrible tragedy to come, and that their own destiny was to be one of pain and struggle. Nor did Christ forget His promise. James the Greater was the first of the apostles to suffer martyrdom when Herod Agrippa killed him about the year 44., and John, though he did not die a martyr, was tormented by the pagans for his faith.

They were the sons of Zebedee and Salome. Along with Peter and his brother Andrew, they worked as fishermen for their father. It was a prosperous business, but once they fished all night and caught nothing. They had met Christ before, had been present at His baptism by Saint John the Baptist. They believed in Him and traveled with Him from time to time.
Thus they were not surprised that morning when He came and asked about their fishing. Nor did they hesitate when Christ told them to put the nets down once more. Peter and Andrew pulled up so many fish that the nets were breaking, and they called James and John to help them. From that day forward, they left boats and nets, family and friends, and followed Jesus.

The three apostles Peter, James, and John were always mentioned first among the apostles. if they needed to be rebuked most often, they were also the closest to Christ. They alone were admitted to be witnesses of His glorious Transfiguration, and they alone were taken to the innermost recesses of Gethsemani on the night of agony at the beginning of His Passion.
Saint James is called "the Greater" to distinguish him from another apostle, James the Less, who was much younger than he, or perhaps smaller in stature. James and his younger brother, the beloved apostle John, had been chosen by Christ at the beginning of His public life, had traveled up and down Palestine with Him. With the other apostles they received the command to teach all nations and at Pentecost received the Spirit, whom Christ had promised to send. To John was entrusted the care of Mary, and with Peter he was a leader of the little Christian community. Of James nothing is recorded after Pentecost, but with the other apostles he undoubtedly preached throughout Palestine. He was prominent enough to serve Herod Agrippa as the means of showing his favor to the Jews; he condemned James to death for openly proclaiming Jesus Christ to be God, hoping to appease the fanatical Jews who were plotting insurrection.

Though his voice was heard by but a handful of disciples before his death, James fully earned the name of Son of Thunder. In his martyrdom his voice became a thunderclap. His shrine at Compostella, Spain, attracted pilgrims from all of Western Europe. The body of this patron of Spain is said to have been transferred to Compostella in the Middle Ages, and this belief is supported by a Bull of Pope Leo XIII (1884).
It may have taken James some time to understand the cup which his Master offered him, but once he understood, he accepted and drank of it deeply.

Sts. Joachim and Ann
Joachim, Father of Our Lady, first century before Christ

THE lives of some saints must always remain hidden; so it is with Joachim, the husband of Saint Anne and the father of the Blessed Virgin. (Picture) With no certain knowledge about him, we are forced to rely on such apocryphal documents as the Book of James, which, unlike the canonical Scriptures, often mixes fiction with fact. This Book of James tells that Joachim and Anne were a rich, childless couple living in Jerusalem and far advanced in age. When Joachim was reproached by his fellow Jews for not having "raised up seed in Israel," he went into the desert to fast and pray, begging God to grant him a child. His wife prayed for the same blessing, and after Joachim returned to Jerusalem, their prayers were answered; Anne conceived and gave birth to a child, the girl Mary. There are other apocryphal details about the life of Joachim, but like the rest their authenticity is doubtful. The lone fact that he was the father of the mother of God makes him worthy of veneration. Joachim must have been a man wealthy in virtue to be chosen as the father of Mary, who was destined to be the mother of God's Son.

Mother of Our Lady, first century before Christ

ANNE and her husband Joachim had no child. Great was their sorrow, and they were publicly reproached, for childlessness was considered among the Jews a sign of God's disfavor. According to legend, Joachim went into the desert to fast, and Anne, sitting beneath a laurel tree, poured out her prayer. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by, and said to her, "Anne, God has heard thy prayer; thou shalt conceive and bear a child, and thy fruit shall be honored throughout the whole inhabited earth." (Picture)

In due time, Anne brought forth a daughter and called the child Mary. In this conception was wrought the mystery that brings joy to heaven, rage to Satan, and triumph to the world. Within Anne's body was hidden the one whom God had chosen to be His Mother. Yet she did more than give Mary life, Into the hands of Saint Anne were placed the education, the training, and direction of this child.
Anne was the starting point of the Redemption; through her the dawn began to break; in her the morning star was conceived, free from Adam's sin. Through our relation to Christ and His Mother, we become her grandchildren. She was barren, and now her descendants cover the face of the earth. Gone is the Synagogue that reproached her barrenness. Through her, not through the leaders of the nation, the rod of Jesse flowered.

There was little written about Saint Anne in the first two centuries of the Church. The details of her life, even her name, come to us through unreliable sources in which fact and fiction are intermingled. By the fourth century, devotion to Anne was widespread in the East, and several of the early Fathers of the Church sang her praises. Her fame expanded throughout the West after the Crusades and grew to great heights, especially in France. Her best-known shrines are still Saint Anne d'Auray in Brittany and Saint Anne de Beaupre in Canada.

By many miracles at these and other places, God has been pleased to testify how highly He regards devotion to this saint, the model of all women in the married state and charged with the rearing of children.
Anne is honored today with the official title "Mother of the most holy -Mother of God."

SAINT MARTHA
Virgin, (New Testament)

AFTER Jesus left His Mother's home and went out to preach the good tidings of salvation, He was dependent upon the hospitality of others and the Gospels tell us that a group of women from Galilee soon began to provide for Him and for the little group of His disciples. Although "the foxes have dens, and the birds of the air have nests . . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20).

During the last year of His public mission, Christ was welcomed into a home that from that time on was a haven for Himself and His disciples, and into the hearts of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. it was in the town of Bethany, on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. Martha, being the eldest sister, was the mistress of this household. On one occasion when she was preparing a meal for Jesus and His companions-perhaps there were more guests than usual Martha became a little flustered and looked about for her sister Mary to lend a hand. But where is Mary? In a secluded corner, sitting at the feet of the Master, and absorbed in His words. Jesus is their friend and has been a frequent guest; Martha does not hesitate to approach Him and ask if He doesn't see that Mary is leaving her all the work of serving, begging Him to send her along to help. What she receives is a gentle rebuke for her anxiety and troubled mood, perhaps also for her elaborate preparations, for Jesus and His companions are satisfied with simple fare and would be embarrassed at putting their hostess to so much trouble.

Martha is His faithful and loving friend; she must learn to serve without being immersed in a multiplicity of details, to keep her soul in peace and tranquillity. When Simon the Leper entertains Jesus at a banquet in the town she is there again, helping to serve. And no doubt her home is the refuge at Bethany to which Jesus returns after He rides into Jerusalem amid the shouts of Hosanna on Palm Sunday, and again after He drives the money-sellers out of the Temple.
After Lazarus had died, it was Martha who cried out that fervent profession of faith, worthy of Saint Peter, "Yes, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who hast come into the world" (John 11:27).

Martha does not appear in the accounts of the Passion and Resurrection; this can perhaps be explained by the fact that her brother Lazarus is in danger, for the priests and the Pharisees have been plotting his death. In her motherly way she would have watched over him at home. Surely in the next few years she would have often gone down to Jerusalem to meet with the little Christian community, and must often have recalled the beloved memories of Christ's visits with all those who had known Him. Of her last years nothing is known, but in later generations her home and the tomb of Lazarus at Bethany were pointed out to pilgrims.

SAINT PETER CHRYSOLOGUS
Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church, c.406-450

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS, a native of Imola, Italy, was baptized, educated, and ordained a priest by Cornelius, the bishop of that city. In many of his writings Peter speaks of Cornelius with affection and gratitude as his spiritual father. Peter was elected bishop of Ravenna sometime between 425 and 429. The city was the imperial residence of Galla Placidia, mother of the emperor Valentinian III. From this time it began to be an important civil, political, and ecclesiastical center.

When he arrived in Ravenna, Peter found the demoralizing effects of paganism ramp ant in that city. He urged his people to receive the Holy Eucharist frequently as a means of combating vice. He pressed for complete obedience to the commands of the pope, made apparent through the counsels of the priests.
Although Saint Peter's charity toward the poor of his diocese was outstanding, he is most noted for his sermons and treatises, which were collected by Felix, archbishop of Ravenna from 708 to 724. His chief works contain explanations of biblical texts and treatises defending the Incarnation, which he wrote to denounce the heresy of Eutyches. He dedicated some homilies to the Blessed Virgin, asserting the truth of the Immaculate Conception. Not so much because of his eloquence as because of the fervor and devotion of his sermons, he was given the name Chrysologus, meaning "golden speech."

Saint Peter died in 451 in the city of Imola, and was buried in the Church of Saint Cassian. Examination of his discourses and their lasting influence led Pope Benedict XIII to declare him a Doctor of the Church in 1729.
The Gradual of the Mass for a bishop and confessor serves as the highest praise for this holy priest: "Here was a great priest whose life was acceptable to God. Where shall we find another to keep the law of the Most High as he kept it?"

SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
Confessor, c.1491-1556

THE ex-soldier could not have known, as he knelt with his six companions, that his newly formed company would one day become an army. Today, thirty thousand of his followers are dispersed throughout the world. They are in the jungles, on remote islands, in cities, and in distant villages. They work in laboratories, observatories, libraries. They control a hundred institutions of higher learning and are proprietors of academies, seminaries, and missions.

There is nothing in the early life of Ignatius Loyola to indicate either his future influence or his great sanctity. He was born in the castle of Loyola in Spain in 1491, of the noble and ancient Basque family of Don Beltran Ya'fiez. One of the youngest of a dozen children, Ignatius had a choice between religious or military life. Although he received the tonsure he had no doubt that it was to be a life of adventure and chivalry for him.
At the age of twenty-four he was a full-fledged soldier, dressed extravagantly, dreaming of romance, fighting and dueling, ever jealous of his honor. In 1521 Ignatius' dreams of military glory came to an abrupt end. At the defense of the Spanish citadel of Pamplona, a cannon ball broke his leg, which was never to heal properly.

There were no romantic novels available at Loyola, where he spent his convalescence. Ignatius turned, out of boredom, to spiritual reading: a fourteenth-century life of Christ and a Spanish version of the pious tales of the Golden Legend. This was the beginning of his conversion. His mind wavered between the world and the spirit. Then he had a vision of our Lady and the Infant Christ. He made his decision.
As soon as he was able to leave, Ignatius went to the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat. There he made a general confession, left his sword and dagger before our Lady's altar, and gave away his earthly goods.

He spent a year living on alms in the town of Manresa, during which time he received many divine illuminations on matters of doctrine. Then he made a trip to the Holy Land. Ignatius soon realized that without education he would have little success in winning souls to Christ, which was now the aim of his life. He entered school, a man thirty-one years old, in the lowest class and among the youngest students. For eleven years he studied, living in the utmost poverty and be Ping his food at Barcelona, Alcala', Salamanca, and Paris, being helped and cared for by many generous people.

While Ignatius studied, he preached, and a handful of men, including Francis Xavier, became disciples. In 1534, after receiving the degree of master of arts from the University of Paris, he met with six men at the chapel on Montmartre, where they received Holy Communion from the one priest of the group, Peter Faber. They vowed a trip to the Holy Land and took vows of chastity and poverty.
The proposed trip proved impossible because of war, and in the spring of 1537, after an interview with Pope Paul III, Ignatius' group was given permission to be ordained. It was not until 1538 that the companions, who had been preaching in pairs, met again in Rome. There, after much prayer, they decided that if their plan was approved they would form themselves into a religious body.

In 1540 the Society of Jesus became a reality, and Ignatius was chosen the first general. The rule he established seemed, at the time, revolutionary. His disciples were to be ascetics in the world, not in the cloister. They were to be teachers and preachers, trained scholars able to meet argument with better argument. They were to renounce all rank, temporal or ecclesiastical. They were to live under the intense discipline and perfect obedience which has always been their distinctive characteristic. Special obedience was vowed to the Holy Father in the matter of missions.

After the foundation of the society, Ignatius never left Rome. His administrative genius was given tremendous scope, and a thousand projects occupied his agile mind. He lived to see his followers penetrate the corners of the known world.
One of his most fruitful works was the Book of Spiritual Exercises, begun at Manresa, where he had spent a year of prayer and penance. So clear and universal were the principles of prayer he laid down that some adaptation of his exercises is very often used at retreats today.

The recruits multiplied so rapidly that when Ignatius died on July 13, 1556, there were sixty-seven Jesuit houses, and over a thousand members. The miracle that began at Loyola and the grace that was given at Manresa did more than make one man a saint. They made a society of men, all with the same goal of service and sanctity. Many miracles were recorded at the canonization of Saint Ignatius Loyola. His most impressive accomplishment in the annals of history and the Church was the establishment of the Society of Jesus, the influence of which throughout four hundred years is altogether incalculable. But even without this, Ignatius would take his place among the great saints, for his heroic virtue, his absolute dedication of his life and energies to Christ, his mystic graces, and his spiritual guidance.