MEMORIAL OF SAINT HUGH OF GRENOBLE, BISHOP; SAINT VALERY OF LEUCONE, ABBOT AND BLESSED ANACLETO GONZÁLEZ FLORES– FEAST DAY: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Hugh, Benedictine Bishop of Grenoble, France (Patron of St. Bruno and Patron Saint against headaches); Saint Valery of Leucone, Abbot and Blessed Anacleto González Flores. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick, especially those who suffer with headaches, we pray for God’s divine healing and intervention. May the Saints pray for us that we will persevere despite the challenges placed before us. Amen🙏
SAINT HUGH OF GRENOBLE, BISHOP: St. Hugh of Grenoble (1053-1132), also known as Hugh of Châteauneuf was born in 1053 in Châteauneuf, Dauphiné, France. Saint Hugh showed piety from a very young age. While still a layman, he was appointed a canon (priest assigned to a cathedral) in Valence. He served as an aid to Bishop Hugh of Die. He very actively helped Bishop Hugh of Die fight against the buying and selling of church offices. At the Council of Avignon, in 1080, he was elected as the Bishop of Grenoble, even though he was not yet ordained. (The bishop of Grenoble had fallen into a very poor state of health.) A personal represenative of the pope escorted Hugh to Rome where he was ordained by Pope Gregory VII, himself. Upon Saint Hugh’s return, Hugh immediately set out to reform the see by denouncing simony (buying and selling of offices) and usury (charging interest to borrowers of money, especially at high rates of interest). After he was successful in doing this and promoting devotion (approximately two years), Saint Hugh attempted to resign being bishop to enter the Benedictine monastery at Cluny (France). The pope declined to accept his resignation and ordered him to continue his work in the diocese he was at.
For the rest of the 11th century, Saint Hugh’s diocese continued having a violent conflict with Count Guigues III of Albon about the church land in Grésivaudan (a valley in the French Alps). St. Hugh alleged that the Count tried to seize the land with the help of Bishop Mallen of Grenoble. An agreement was finally reached in 1099 and the Count agreed to relinquish the disputed land as long as Saint Hugh recognized the Count’s temporal (earthly) authority within Grenoble. Saint Hugh attempted to resign many times to which the pope would never accept his resignation because of Hugh’s great abilities. It was to St. Hugh that St. Bruno and his six companions addressed themselves in their design of forsaking the world, and the holy Bishop directed them to the desert of Chartreuse, where they founded the Carthusian Order.
After several years of service and attempts at reform, the long and penitential life of St. Hugh came to a close, St. Hugh died on April 1, 1132 in Grenoble, France of natural causes, interred in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Grenoble relics burned by the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion (between the Catholics and Protestants, inspired by John Calvin, called the Huguenots), the Huguenots burned Saint Hugh’s body in the 15th century. He was canonized on April 22, 1134; just two years after his death, by Pope Innocent II during the Council of Pisa. He’s the Patron Saint against headaches; Grenoble, France.
PRAYER: God, Light and Shepherd of souls, You established St. Hugh as Bishop in Your Church to feed Your flock by his word and form it by his example. Help us through his intercession to keep the Faith he taught by his word and follow the way he showed by his example. Amen.🙏
Saint Hugh of Grenoble, Bishop ~ Pray for us🙏
SAINT VALERY OF LEUCONE, ABBOT: St. Valery (565-622) also known as Valerian, Walaricus or Walericus was born at Auvergne, France in the sixth century, he died in Leucone, Picardy, France, on December 12, c. 622; feast of his translation is December 12. St. Valery discovered Benedictine life at Issoire, developed it at Auxerre, fructified it at Luxeuil under Saint Columbanus (f.d. November 21) and multiplied it with missionary work at Leuconnais (Leuconay), in the Somme region of northern France. St. Valery was a son to a gentleman of Auvergne, and in his childhood kept his father’s sheep. He grew up a peasant and a shepherd, but out of an ardent desire of improving himself in spiritual knowledge, privately learned to read, and got the psalter by heart. He was yet young when he took the monastic habit in the neighbouring monastery of St. Antony. From the first day such was his fervour that in his whole conduct he appeared a living rule of perfection, and, by sincere humility, esteeming himself below all the world, he meekly and cheerfully subjected himself to every one. Seeking the most perfect means of advancing in the paths of all virtues, he passed from this house to the more austere monastery of St. Germanus of Auxerre, into which he was received by St. Aunarius, bishop of that church.
The reputation of the penitential lives of the monks of Luxeu, and of the spiritual wisdom of St. Columban, drew St. Valery afterwards thither, and he spent many years in that community, always esteeming himself an unprofitable servant and a slothful monk, who stood in need of the severest and harshest rules and superiors; and, next to sin, he dreaded nothing so much as the applause of men or a reputation of sanctity. Upon the departure of St. Columban, the care of protecting the monastery from the oppressions of men in power, was committed to St. Valery, till he was sent by St. Eustasius with Vandolen, a fellow monk, to preach the gospel to idolaters. The two apostolic men travelled into Neustria, where King Clotaire II. gave them the territory of Leucone, in Picardy, near the mouth of the river Somme. There, with the leave of Bertard, bishop of Amiens, in 611, they built a chapel and two cells. St. Valery, by his preaching and the example of his virtue, converted many infidels, and assembled certain fervent disciples with whom he laid the foundation of a monastery. His fasts he sometimes prolonged for six days, eating only on the Sunday; and he used no other bed than twigs laid on the floor. His time was all employed in preaching, prayer, reading, and manual labour. By this he earned something for the relief of the poor, and he often repeated to others: “The more cheerfully we give to those who are in distress, the more readily will God give us what we ask of him.”
The saint went to receive the recompense of his happy perseverance on the 12th of December, in 622. When St. Valery died, cures took place at his tomb and his veneration grew, which eventually spread to England during the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror exposed Valery’s relics for public veneration. He was invoked for a favourable wind for the expedition in 1066, which sailed from Saint-Valery. He is honoured in France on the 1st of April and on the 12th of December, feast of his translation. St. Valery is honoured at Chester Abbey in England and in France, where a famous monastery arose from his cells. Two towns in the Somme district are called Saint-Valery after him and there are several dedications to him in England as well.
Saint Valery of Leucone ~ Pray for us🙏
BLESSED ANACLETO GONZALEZ FLORES: Bl. Anacleto González Flores (1888–1927) was a Mexican Catholic layman and lawyer who was tortured and executed during the persecution of the Catholic Church under Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles. Bl. González was beatified by Benedict XVI as a martyr on November 20, 2005. Bl. Anacleto Gonzalez Flores was the second of twelve children born to a poor family in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico on July 13, 1888. He was baptized the day after his birth. As he grew, a priest recognized his intelligence and recommended that he enter the seminary. Bl. Anacleto studied there for a time before discerning that he was not called to the priesthood. Instead he became an attorney, husband, and father, as well as an activist for his Catholic faith. He was greatly involved in social and religious activities and was an enthusiastic member of the Catholic Association of Young Mexicans (ACJM). He taught classes in catechism, was dedicated to works of charity and wrote articles and books with a Christian spirit. In 1922 he married María Concepción Guerrero and they had two children. He was a prolific writer and dedicated catechism teacher, and attended daily Mass.
As a member of the Catholic Association of Young Mexicans (ACJM), he also in addition started another Catholic lay organization committed to resisting the fierce persecution of the Catholic Church under the infamous Mexican dictator, President Plutarco Elías Calles. Initially he participated only in the non-violent, passive resistance against Calles, until four members of the ACJM were murdered in 1926. Their deaths spurred Bl. Anacleto to joined the cause of the National League for the Defence of Religious Freedom, lending support to the armed resistance movement. Bl. Anacleto did not take up arms but instead gave speeches to encourage Catholics to support the Cristeros, the Catholic army fighting against Calles. In January 1927 guerrilla warfare spread throughout Jalisco and from his many hiding places Bl. Anacleto wrote and sent bulletins and studied major strategies. The young man was captured on the morning of April 1, 1927 in the home of the Vargas González family, along with the two Vargas brothers. He was taken to the Colorado jail, where his torture included being hung by his thumbs until his fingers were dislocated and having the bottom of his feet slashed. He refused, however, to supply his captors with any information. Bl. Anacleto González Flores was condemned to death by firing squad and was shot together with the Vargas González brothers and Luis Padilla Gómez on that same day, April 1, 1927 at Guadalajara, Mexico. Bl. Anacleto González Flores was beatified as a martyr on November 20, 2005 at Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico by Pope Benedict XVI, recognition celebrated by Portuguese cardinal José Saraiva Martins.
Blessed Anacleto González Flores ~ Pray for us🙏