MEMORIAL OF SAINT GEORGE, MARTYR AND SAINT ADALBERT OF PRAGUE, BISHOP AND MARTYR: As we continue to rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint George, Martyr and Saint Adalbert of Prague, Bishop and Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and  the  Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick, we particularly pray for those with skin diseases and those who are terminally ill and dying. May God in His infinite grace and mercy grant them His divine healing and intervention. We also pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners and for Christians all over the world. We pray for those in the military, Boys Scouts, farmers and field workers, we pray for God’s guidance and protection

SAINT GEORGE, MARTYR: St. George is venerated by the Eastern Church, among the Greeks St. George is called “the Great Martyr” and “standard-.” His feast is kept as a Holy Day of Obligation. His intercession was implored especially in battles, as he is said to have been a soldier. Under the first Norman kings he was chosen as Patron of England, since 800, and Edward III instituted an order of Knighthood in his honor. He belonged to the Roman army, was arrested and, probably, beheaded under Diocletian, c. 303. St. George is one of the “Fourteen Holy Helpers.”

St. George (d. 303 A.D.) was born in Palestine to noble Christian parents. Like his father, he enlisted as a soldier in the Roman army serving under Emperor Diocletian. He was renowned for his bravery and outstanding military prowess, and was a favorite of the Emperor. Many fantastical legends are ascribed to him, however, none are known to be true with any certainty. There are some who suppose that it was St. George who tore down the imperial edicts of persecution when they were first published at Nicomedia. He is generally represented as engaged in combat with a dragon. The most famous legend is St. George and the Dragon, where St. George, after making the Sign of the Cross, saved a king’s daughter from being devoured by a man-eating dragon. St. George killed the elusive dragon, and by this feat persuaded many souls to accept baptism. He also admonished the king, in gratitude for his princess being saved by Christ’s power, to support the cause of the Church. What is known with certainty is that St. George, after confessing and refusing to renounce his faith in Christ, was martyred in Palestine during the Christian persecution of Diocletian. He became a highly venerated saint in antiquity, and many early churches were dedicated in his honor.

The devotion to this holy Martyr, St. George can be traced at least to the 5th century, and it can be proven that the oldest of the churches dedicated to his honor in Constantinople was built by Constantine the Great, then certainly to a much earlier date. He died about the year 303 and is one of the Fourteen Helpers invoked for emergencies or afflictions. St. George is the Patron Saint of many causes and countries including Soldiers; Kinights; Boys Scouts;  Aragon; agricultural workers; farmers; archers; armourers; Beirut; Lebanon; chivalry; horsemen; butchers; Canada; Cappadocia; Catalonia; cavalry; chivalry; Constantinople; Crusaders; England; equestrians; farmers; Ferrara Italy; field hands; field workers; Genoa, Italy; Georgia; Germany; Gozo; Greece; horsemen; horses; husbandmen; Istanbul; knights; Lithuania; Malta; Moscow; Order of the Garter; Palestine; Palestinian Christians; Portugal; riders; saddle makers; saddlers; Teutonic Knights; Venice. He is invoked by sufferers of herpes, leprosy, lepers, skin diseases, skin rashes, syphilis, plague, and snakebites. St. George’s feast day is April 23rd.

PRAYER: Lord, we acclaim Your might and humbly pray. Just as St. George imitated the Lord’s Passion, so let him now come to the aid of our weakness. Amen
 
SAINT ADALBERT OF PRAGUE, BISHOP AND MARTYR: St. Adalbert was the Bishop of Prague and a missionary to the Hungarians, Poles, and Prussians. He was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians to Christianity. St. Adalbert (whose Czech birth name is Vojtech) was born in Bohemia around the year 956 to a family of nobility in the Central European region of Bohemia during the mid-900s. When Vojtech became seriously ill during his childhood, his parents resolved that they would offer their son to God as a priest if their prayers for his survival were granted. Vojtech survived the illness, and his parents sent him to study with Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg, a Benedictine missionary who would later be canonized in his own right. The archbishop gave the young student his own name, Adalbert at confirmation, setting an example that the boy would follow in his own life as a bishop, missionary and monk. The young Adalbert was 25 when his mentor died in 981. He returned to his native Bohemia, where Bishop Deitmar of Prague ordained him a priest two years later. On February 10, 982, only two years after his ordination as a priest and at the age of 26, Adalbert became the Bishop of Prague and entered the city barefoot and determined to make a change in the unruly city noting, “It is easy to wear a miter and carry a crozier but it is a terrible thing to have to give an account of a bishopric to the Judge of the living and the dead.” Although Adalbert could afford comfort and luxury, he lived poorly of his own free will. He was noted for charity, austerity, and zealous service to the Church. He preached the faith to the poor and visited them in their rural village homes as well as in their prison cells. His duty was difficult even in baptized Bohemia, as the pagan creed was deeply embedded in the culture. Adalbert complained of polygamy and idolatry, which still were not unusual among the Czechs. Many of the nobility did not want to be seen worshipping with the peasantry and challenged Adalbert’s work in trying to convert the poor. He had aroused enmity by his efforts to reform the clergy of his diocese and he strongly protested the participation of formally Christian inhabitants in the slave trade.

In 989, thoroughly discouraged, he resigned from his bishop’s cloth and left Prague. He went to Rome and lived as a hermit in St. Alexis Benedictine monastery with his brother, Blessed Radzim Gaudenty. Four years later, in 993, Pope John XV sent him back to Prague as the Bishop with the promised cooperation of civil rulers. Adalbert founded a monastery in Břevnov, near Prague, the first one for men in the Czech lands. Then, Adalbert went to Hungary and baptized King Gesza and his son Stephen. He was then sent to convert the heathen Prussians in what was one of the last strongholds of polytheistic paganism in Europe. Adalbert went to Poland where he was cordially welcomed by Duke Boleslaw Chrobry, who sent soldiers with Adalbert. The bishop and his followers entered Prussian territory near Gdansk and went along the Baltic Sea coast. It was a standard procedure of Christian missionaries to try to chop down sacred oak trees which they had done in many other places. The trees were worshipped and the spirits believed to inhabit the trees were feared for their powers. This was done to demonstrate that no supernatural powers protected the trees from the Christians. When they did not heed warnings to stay away from the sacred oak groves, St. Adalbert was martyred along with his two companions, Benedict and Gaudentius, on the 23rd of April 997 on the Baltic Sea coast between Gdansk and Elblag at the instigation of a pagan priest. Adalbert was impaled with seven spears and decapitated. The bodies were thrown into the river somewhere in the area of the Elbing Canal and the Nogat River. A Polish prince ransomed back St. Adalbert’s body from the pagans, exchanging his remains for their weight in gold. His relics were transferred to the Polish city of Gniezno, and kept in the church known as Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Adalbert.  In April 999, Pope Sylvester II canonized Adalbert as Saint Adalbert of Prague. He’s the Patron Saint of Bohemia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Duchy of Prussia and the Archdiocese of Esztergom in Hungary.

PRAYER: God, You bestowed the crown of martyrdom on St. Adalbert, Your Bishop, who was animated by zeal for souls. By his intercession, grant that pastors may not be without their flocks’ obedience nor flocks without their pastor’s care. Amen