MEMORIAL OF SAINT GAUCHERIUS, ABBOT; SAINT DEMETRIUS, MARTYR AND BLESSED KATARZYNA FARON, POLISH MARTYR: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saints Gaucherius, Abbot (Patron Saint of Wood Cutters); Saint Demetrius, Martyr (St. Demetrius is revered as the patron saint of Thessaloniki and was also venerated patron saint of agriculture, peasants and shepherds) and Blessed Katarzyna Celestyna Faron, Polish Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners and for all Christians during this season of Lent. We also pray for all farmers, for their health, safety and well-being, especially during these incredibly challenging times.🙏
SAINT GAUCHERIUS, ABBOT: St. Gaucherius was also known as Walter, abbot-founder and friend of St. Stephen of Grandmont. He founded St. John’s Monastery at Aureilfor and a convent for women. Saint Gaucherius, Abbot, started attracting disciples even though he was only eighteen. St. Gaucherius was born in Meulan-sur-Seine, France to the northwest of Paris, and he received a good classical Christian education and became a priest. However he felt a deep longing for solitude and a life more radically centered on God. At the age of eighteen he gave up the world and retired to Aureil to lead a solitary life. He thereupon devoted his life to God as a hermit and began with his friend, Germond, to reside in the area of Limoges. Alone and forgotten by the world, St. Gaucherius and Germond grew in holiness. Their example attracted others who built hermitages near to theirs.
Finally St. Gaucherius decided to build a monastery at Aureil and to establish two communities, one for men, the other for women, both under the rule of St. Augustine. The passage of an eremitical settlement into the canonical life was one of the principal ways through which the canons regular grew in the 11th and 12th Century. The community of Aureil is typical of these kinds of Ordo Novus canons regular. Thereafter he lived with his companions, being for all a model of sanctity. His companions and disciples who trained in this community include St. Lambert of Angouleme and St. Faucherus as well as the founder of Grandmont monastery, St. Stephen Muret. St. Gaucherius died in 1140 at the age of 80 years and was canonized in 1194 by Pope Celestine III. He’s the Patron Saint of Wood Cutters.
PRAYER: Lord, amid the things of this world, let us be wholeheartedly committed to heavenly things in imitation of the example of evangelical perfection You have given us in St. Gaucherius the Abbot. Amen🙏
SAINT DEMETRIUS, MARTYR: St. Demetrius was martyred during the persecution of Diocletian (3rd/4th century) at Sirmium in Dalmatia. Saint Demetrius, Martyr, remained fervent in faith and works for Christ, encouraging many Christians to endure persecution and even bringing many pagans to the faith. Afterward a prefect of Illyria named Leontius introduced his cult to Salonika, transferred some of his relic there, and built a temple in his honor in both cities. From the 5th century on, Salonika was the great center of the cult of St. Demetrius, and his imposing church was destroyed only in 1917.
According to a legendary history, St. Demetrius was a citizen of Salonika who was arrested for proclaiming the Faith. He was then slain without a trial as he was being detained in a room of the public baths. Other accounts make him a proconsul and a warrior-Saint, and this latter capacity he almost equaled the popularity of the great legendary figure St. George. Both of these Saints were adopted as patrons by the crusaders and a story says that they were seen in their ranks at the Battle of Antioch in 1098. St. Demetrius is still very popular in the East, and his feast is celebrated with solemnity in the Eastern Liturgy. St. Demetrius is revered as the Patron Saint of Thessaloniki and was also venerated Patron Saint of agriculture, peasants and shepherds.
PRAYER: Almighty and ever-living God, you enabled St. Demetrius to fight for justice even unto death. Through his help, grant that we may tolerate all adversity and hasten with all our might to You Who alone are life. Amen🙏
BLESSED KATARZYNA FARON, POLISH MARTYR: Bl. Katarzyna Celestyna (Catherine Celestine) Faron (1913-1944) was born in Zabrzez, Poland on April 24, 1913. At the age of five she was orphaned and raised by pious, childless relatives. From childhood she was distinguished by her love of Our Lord Jesus and devotion to the Blessed Mother and Saint Thérèse, the Little Flower. Desiring the religious life, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in 1930 at the age of Seventeen. She adopted the name Celestyna. On September 15, 1938, she took perpetual vows. She served in the community as a kindergarten teacher and catechist. After the breakout of World War II she became the leader of her religious house, ran an orphanage, and helped the poor. She was eventually arrested by the Gestapo on February 19, 1942 and charged with conspiracy against the Nazis. Sister Celestyna was imprisoned in Jaslo and Tarnów, Poland, before being sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp on the feast of Epiphany in 1943, where she was assigned to manual labor digging ditches. She praised God in all her suffering and resigned herself to following His will.
Due to the poor conditions she suffered from typhoid fever, pulmonary tuberculosis, and recurrent hemorrhages. Because she completed the nine First Fridays devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she trusted that she wouldn’t die without Holy Communion, as Our Lord promised. On December 8, 1943, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, she received Holy Communion as viaticum which was secretly brought to the camp by a prisoner priest. While on her deathbed she prayed intensely for others and for various intentions on a rosary made out of bread crumbs. According to witnesses she offered up her suffering for the conversion of a Catholic bishop, Władysław Faron, who had fallen away from the Church. The bishop eventually returned to the true Faith, Catholic Church. Bl. Katarzyn finally died from her illness on Easter Sunday morning on April 9, 1944. Her body was burned in the camps crematorium. On June 13, 1999, Sister Celestyna was beatified by Saint John Paul II in Warsaw, Poland as one of the group of 108 Polish Catholic Martyrs killed during World War II by Nazi Germany. Blessed Celestyna calls us particularly to renew the ecclesial consciousness resulting from personal union with Christ. Her feast day is April 9th.
PRAYER: O God, who willed your Son to submit for our sake to the yoke of the Cross, so that you might drive from us the power of the enemy, grant us, your servants, to attain the grace of the resurrection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Blessed Katarzyna Faron, Polish Martyr ~ Pray for us🙏