MEMORIAL OF SAINT FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN, PRIEST AND MARTYR; SAINT MARY EUPHRASIA PELLETIER; SAINT BENEDETTO (BENEDICT) MENNI, PRIEST; SAINT WILFRID, BISHOP OF YORK AND SAINT MARY OF CLEOPHAS (MARY OF CLOPAS) ~ FEAST DAY: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Fidelis Sigmaringen, Priest and Martyr; St Mary Euphrasia Pelletier; St Benedetto (Benedict) Menni; St. Wilfrid, Bishop of York and St. Mary of Cleophas. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this Divine Mercy Sunday, we humbly pray for the sick, we particularly pray for those with mental illness 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 the poor and the needy and safety of all travellers, for God’s guidance and protection🙏
SAINT FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN, PRIEST AND MARTYR: St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen (1577-1622) was born at Sigmaringen in Swabia in 1577. He was born with the name Mark Rey in what is today Germany. He studied and taught law. He practiced at first as a lawyer and so took to heart the cause of the needy and became known for his charity, austerities, and great devotion to God. He gained a reputation for being “the poor man’s lawyer” because of his concern for the helpless. He eventually left his profession to join the Capuchin Friars Minor and become a Capuchin Franciscan friar and priest, taking the religious name “Fidelis,” meaning “faithful.” He was sent by the Holy See to the Grisons in order to bring back the inhabitants of this canton from Protestantism to the Catholic faith. His great influence earned him enemies. His work as a friar was fraught with danger. He lived during the Counter-Reformation, a time of great religious, cultural, and political upheaval in Western Europe. He zealously defended the teaching of the Catholic Church against the Protestant heretics. He wrote many pamphlets against Calvinism and Zwinglianism, and even traveled to Switzerland to preach against the Calvinists both in the pulpits and the public square. His untiring efforts to bring souls back to the Church was so successful that he became a threat to the heretic preachers. One day his preaching provoked a mob that confronted him and demanded he renounce his Catholic faith upon pain of death. He replied, “I came to extirpate heresy, not to embrace it,” after which he was bludgeoned to death. He was murdered at Seewis on April 24, 1622. Many miracles led to his canonization in the following century. St. Fidelis’ feast day is April 24.
PRAYER: O God, who were pleased to award the palm of martyrdom to Saint Fidelis as, burning with love for you, he propagated the faith, grant, we pray, through his intercession, that, grounded in charity, we may merit to know with him the power of the Resurrection of Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever… Amen🙏
SAINT MARY EUPHRASIA PELLETIER: St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier (1796-1868), was born Rose Virginie Pelletier. She was foundress of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, more commonly known as Sisters of the Good Shepherd, dedicated to work of supporting and promoting the welfare of women and girls experiencing poverty and marginalisation. She’s Patron Saint of travellers. On May 2, 1940, Pope Pius XII raised to the ultimate honors of the altar a most remarkable woman, Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier. As the solemn Te Deum swelled in gladness through the Vatican Basilica, its joyous strains were echoed and reechoed in quiet chapels found in virtually all the large cities of the world. Almost a hundred thousand women and girls and over ten thousand white-robed Sisters, in three hundred and fifty homes of charity, rejoiced with their Mother, the new Saint. For Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier is the Foundress and first General Superior of the large Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd of Angers, and one of the great sociologists of the ages. Rose Virginia Pelletier was born of pious parents on July 31, 1796 on the island of Noirmoutiers, during the terrible period of the French Revolution. So it was that her life began as a daughter of the suffering faith of her beloved France. Because of the suppression and expulsion of religious Orders, the education of the little girl had to be undertaken by her busy mother. At her knees Rose Virginia learned of God and His service. In 1814 she entered the Order of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge at Tours. After ten months as a postulant in this historic community at Tours, Rose Virginia received the habit and entered upon her life as a novice in September, 1815. For two years she remained in the novitiate, being formed to the religious life, studying and absorbing the history and work of her Order. Listening to the life of a Saint one day, she heard that he quickly attained sanctity by his perfect obedience. “Obedience, then,” reflected the young novice, “must be the best means to become holy. If only I might take the vow of obedience at once!” Sister Mary Euphrasia consulted her superiors, and was permitted to take a private vow of obedience. In 1817 she was professed, making then her first public vows.
In a few years her exceptional qualifications became so apparent to all that after having been Mistress of penitents, she was elected Superior of the house. A project which had been in her mind for a long time was then made a reality. She had found in many of the penitents a real attraction for the religious life, with no desire to return to the world after their conversion. Where could they go? It was very difficult, virtually impossible, to find a congregation suitable for them or willing to accept them. So Mother Euphrasia inaugurated a community called the Magdalene Sisters. She adapted the rule of Saint Teresa, drew up a set of Constitutions, and erected the first community of Magdalenes in the house at Tours. One of the greatest consolations Mother Euphrasia enjoyed in life was the sanctity attained by so many of these religious, bound by vows to a life of prayer and penance. During the thirty years she was Superior General, Mother Euphrasia sent out her Sisters from their mother house at Angers to found one hundred and ten houses in every land beneath the sun — Sisters inflamed with her own zeal, trained at her hands. She died at Angers in her seventy-second year, having welcomed death with the faith and serenity which marked her entire life. Patron Saint of travelers.
PRAYER: Lord, by Your grace, we are made one in mind and heart. Give us a love for what You command and a longing for what You promise, so that, amid this world’s changes, our hearts may be one with each other and be set on the world of lasting joy. May the prayers of St Mary Euphrasia on our behalf, help us to achieve holy love for all Your children and our brothers. Through Jesus Christ our Lord in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever… Amen🙏
SAINT BENEDETTO (BENEDICT) MENNI, PRIEST: St. Benedetto (Benedict) Menni (1841-1914) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest. He was a professed member of the Hospitallers of Saint John of God and he went on to establish his own religious congregation known as the Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. Benedict was a faithful follower of Saint John of God and, through his words and deeds, was a Herald of the Gospel of Mercy and a new Prophet of Hospitality. He was a man passionate about God and humanity, who dedicated his entire life to the practice of Hospitality in an effort to make the message of the Good Samaritan a reality. Brothers of St. John of God care for the sick and those in need. For this reason, from the very beginning, the Hospitaller Order was recognized by the Church as a Congregation of religious brothers with exception of not more than one priest in each community acting as chaplain. Saint Benedetto Menni was one exception, being an ordained priest in Rome on October 14, 1860. In those years, the Spanish branch of the Hospitallers Order died away as a consequence of some Masonic laws issued in Portugal in 1834 and in Spain in 1835. Saint Benedict was sent to Barcelona on April 6, 1867, to restore the Hospitaller Order in these countries. After a long struggle, oftentimes risky, he was not only able to gather many vocations—almost a thousand from 1867 to 1903—but also founded in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, 22 hospitals for every kind of sickness, especially for mental patients and handicapped children. Those conditions were the most neglected by the public health care at that time.
St. Benedict also founded a female branch of the Order, the Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Today, the Sisters are present in 20 countries with almost 80 communities. What is amazing in the life work of Saint Menni is the number and complexity of the undertakings he faced; but, even more so for their validity, tested for more than a century. The secret lies in his true, heroic detachment by which he always considered himself a docile instrument in the hands of God, without giving room for his personal ambitions or human plans. Sy. Benedict is the Patron Saint of Sisters Hospitaller of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; People with mental health issues; the sick and Volunteers.
Reflection: Humanization and evangelization are challenges to the new millennium. St Benedict Menni recalls to us and enlightens the words of our Lord, “I was sick and you visited me… Come, O blessed of my Father”
PRAYER: Oh God, good and compassionate Father who called and sent St Benedict (Benito) Menni to announce your gospel of mercy by word and work, give us, through his intercession, the graces that we ask for, so that by following his example we may love you above all things and always serve our needy and sick brothers and sisters in all the work we do We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord… Amen🙏
SAINT WILFRID, BISHOP OF YORK: St. Wilfrid (634-709) was a Northumbrian of noble birth. He studied at Lindisfarne and Canterbury and became infected with a love both for learning and the monastic life. When quite a young man he traveled to Canterbury and then to Rome. On his return, he founded monasteries at Ripon and Stamford, and became prominent as the successful protagonist of the Roman customs at the Synod of Whitby, 664 A.D. He was then made Bishop of York, and went to France to be consecrated. In his absence Chad was consecrated and made Bishop of York in his place, and held the see for four years. During this time Wilfrid founded a monastery at Oundle and acted as bishop in Mercia. He was then installed at York by Archbishop Theodore, and ruled the see for nine years. He also founded the Abbey of Hexham. He managed to gain the ill-will of Egfrith, King of Northumbria, and Archbishop Theodore, who divided his diocese in four parts without his knowledge or consent. St. Wilfrid journeyed to Rome, and his appeal was successful, but on his return to Northumbria he was accused of having forged the pope’s bull, and was thrown into prison. After his release he went to Sussex, and for five years preached the Gospel to its pagan inhabitants. When he went there the country was suffering from famine, the result of three years’ drought, and its inhabitants were drowning themselves in despair. Wilfrid gained their goodwill by teaching them to fish. “By this benefit the bishop gained the affections of them all, and they began more readily to hope for heavenly blessings, since by his help they had already received those which are temporal.” His labors seem to have been abundantly successful, and he added to his success by establishing a monastery at Selsey. Archbishop Theodore, now on his deathbed, became reconciled to Wilfrid, and even wished to nominate him as his successor in the See of Canterbury. This, however, Wilfrid refused, but used Theodore’s good offices to secure his return to Northumbria.
After a few years St. Wilfrid’s enemies seem to have made his position so difficult that he retired to Mercia, and when St. Chad died he succeeded to his position as Bishop of Lichfield, and labored in that diocese for ten years. He was recalled to be tried by a Northumbrian council of nobles and bishops, was once more condemned, and once more appealed to Rome. Once again his appeal was successful, and this time the Roman judgment was accepted in Northumbria. The few remaining years of his life were spent in comparative retirement, principally at Hexham and Ripon. His last public act was the consecration of Evesham Abbey; he died on his way home at his monastery at Oundle in the year 709, and was buried at Ripon. St. Wilfrid was one of the most versatile and accomplished men of his own or any other age. He was a great builder, a lover of learning, and a musician; he knew how to create splendid effects through art and through religious ceremonial. He was also a founder and a builder in men as well as stones. He was, in fact, a great creative artist. St. Wilfrid is the Patron Saint of Middlesbrough, England; diocese of Ripon, England.
St. Wilfrid, Bishop of York ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT MARY OF CLEOPHAS (MARY OF CLOPAS): St. Mary of Cleophas, Mother of St. James the Less and Joseph, wife of Cleophas (or Clopas or Alpheus). She was one of the “Three Marys” who served Jesus and was present at the Crucifixion , and accompanied Mary Magdalen to the tomb of Christ. “And there were standing by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen.” How should we understand “His mother’s sister,” literally, as in having the same parents, or in the same sense that Jesus’s “brothers” are to be understood as close relatives? The short answer is that Mary of Cleophas is probably the Blessed Virgin’s sister-in-law. Mary of Cleophas may have had a previous husband named Alpheus, or this Alpheus may have been Cleophas. The Blessed Virgin Mary, of course, only had one husband (Joseph) and remained a virgin. The long answer may be found here.
There is also a theory that Mary might have been the unnamed disciple on the road to Emmaus. Tradition reports that she went to Spain as a missionary. Mary reportedly died at Ciudad Rodrigo. Another tradition states that she went to France with St. Lazarus and his sisters.
St. Mary of Cleophas ~ Pray for us 🙏