MEMORIAL OF SAINT AUGUSTINE ZHAO RONG, PRIEST AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS; SAINT MARIE AMANDINE, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYR; SAINT VERONICA GUILIANI, VIRGIN AND BLESSED ADRIAN FORTESCUE, MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 9TH Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs; Saint Marie Amandine, Religious and Martyr; Saint Veronica Giuliani, Virgin and Blessed Adrian Fortescue, Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the protection and safety of Christians all over the world and we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians and for the conversion of sinners. We also pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the poor, the needy and most marginalized, for justice, peace and unity in our families and our world.🙏
SAINT AUGUSTINE ZHAO RONG, PRIEST AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS: St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Martyr (Died + 1815) and his 119 companions or Martyrs of China (Died 1648–1930, Qing dynasty and Republic of China). St. Augustine Zhao Rong, is one of a group of 120 Catholics, among many more who were martyred between the years 1648 and 1930 in China. Some were killed while taking sanctuary inside of a church. A large number died during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, when fanatical Chinese peasants slaughtered thousands of Christian converts and foreign missionaries for no reason other than their faith and their foreignness. Some lives were ended by beheading, quickly; others by neglect in prison, slowly; and many by strangulation, painfully. Of the 120 martyrs mentioned above, eighty-seven (87) were Chinese, ranging in age from nine to seventy-two, and four of them were priests. Thirty-three (33) were foreign-born, mostly priests or women religious. Though the missionaries and religious tried to distance themselves from foreign policies, the Chinese government did not differentiate and saw them all as westerners. The martyrdoms of China are most moving, each person having died heroically though many of them suffered torture and cruel deaths. Fr. Francis Li, grandson of a Chinese martyr, describes his grandfather going to his death joyfully saying to his brother and son, “Let’s go, we are going to heaven today!” Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s, the seventh century. Depending on China’s relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly. A period of persecution in regard to the Christian religion occurred in the nineteenth century. While Catholicism had been authorised by some Emperors in the preceding centuries, Emperor Kia-Kin (1796-1821) published, instead, numerous and severe decrees against it. The first was issued in 1805. Two edicts of 1811 were directed against those among the Chinese who were studying to receive sacred orders and against priests who were propagating the Christian religion. A decree of 1813 exonerated voluntary apostates from every chastisement, that is, Christians who spontaneously declared that they would abandon their faith but all others were to be dealt with harshly. In 1815 there came two other decrees, with which approval was given to the conduct of the Viceroy of Sichuan who had beheaded Monsignor Dufresse, of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) and some Chinese Christians. As a result, there was a worsening of the persecution. St John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse, MEP, Bishop, was arrested on the 18th of May 1815, taken to Chengdu, condemned and executed on September 14, 1815.
St. Augustine Zhao Rong (d. 1815) was a Chinese soldier, a bailiff of a county jail, who was assigned to escort the captive Catholic Bishop, John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse, to Beijing where he was to be executed by beheading. The Bishop’s faith made a strong impact on St. Augustine Zhao, he was moved by his patience and then asked to be numbered among the neophytes, he then requested baptism. He took the Christian name Augustine, and later entered the seminary and not long after was ordained as a diocesan priest. During the continuing persecution of Christians in China, St. Augustine was one of thousands of Chinese Catholics who suffered martyrdom for the faith. He was arrested, tortured, and killed in 1815. Young Anna Wang, a 14-year-old, withstood the threats of the torturers who invited her to apostatize. Instead, ready for her beheading, she declared with a radiant face: “The door of heaven is open to all,” three times murmuring: “Jesus.” She was killed on July 22, 1900. And another martyr, 18-year-old Chi Zhuzi cried out fearlessly to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: “Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian.” Chi was also killed in the year 1900. The other 85 Chinese men and women of every age and state—priest, religious, and lay people—showed the same conviction and joy, sealing their unfailing fidelity to Christ and the Church with the gift of their lives. The Chinese diocesan priest Augustine Zhao Rong was Beatified on May 27, 1900 by Pope Leo XIII and November 24, 1946 by Pope Pius XII. St. Augustine Zhao Rong and 119 compatriots, all Martyrs of China killed for their Catholic faith between 1648 and 1930 were Beatified in groups at various times but these 120 Martyrs were Canonized together in Rome on October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II. The Pope said: “The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. These words of the Responsorial Psalm clearly reflect the experience of Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions. The testimonies that have come down to us allow us to glimpse in then a state of mind marked by deep serenity and joy.” The feast day of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and the Chinese Martyrs is July 9th.
PRAYER: God, through the profession of the holy Martyrs Augustine and his Companions, You strengthened Your Church in a wonderful way. Grant that Your people may be faithful to the mission entrusted to them and both receive an increase of freedom and bear witness to the truth before the world. Amen 🙏
SAINT MARIE AMANDINE, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYR: St. Marie Amandine (1872-1900), also known as Saint Amandina of Schakkebroek, was born Pauline Jeuris on December 28, 1872, Herk-de-Stad, Belgium, one of seven children to a devout family; three of her kin went into religious life. Her mom died when Pauline was seven, her dad was compelled to move to look for some kind of employment, and she was received by another devout town family. She became a Franciscan tertiary at age fifteen. Joined the Institute of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, taking the name Marie Amandine. She was a Franciscan sister of Belgian origin who served in China. Functioned as a medical attendant in Marseilles, France then in the mission emergency clinic and shelter in Taiyuanfu, China. Her profession finished during a crackdown on outside preachers during the Boxer Rebellion. St. Marie’s first assignment was to go to Marseilles to nurse the sick, also completing a sacrament. Her second was in Taiyuan to work in the mission hospital. Her humor, friendliness, and healing with laughter gained her the esteem of the Chinese, who called her “the laughing foreigner”.
In the course of the Boxer Rebellion, an edict was issued on July 1, 1900 which, in substance, said that the time of good relations with European missionaries and their Christians was now past: that the former must be repatriated at once and the faithful forced to apostatize, on penalty of death. When she heard the news that a persecution was approaching St. Amandine said: “I pray God, not to save the martyrs, but to fortify them.” With true Franciscan joy she and her companions met their deaths singing the Te Deum, the hymn of thanksgiving. Seven sisters, including St. Marie Amandine, were martyred on July 9, 1900, Taiyuan, China. She was one of the Martyrs of Shanxi and the Martyrs of China. Beatified on November 24, 1946 by Pope Pius XII and Canonized on October 1, 2000 by Pope John Paul II. She was beatified and canonized together with other martyrs of China of the Boxer Rebellion.
Saint Marie Amandine, Religious and Martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT VERONICA GUILIANI, VIRGIN: St. Veronica (1660 – 1727) whose baptismal name was Ursula, was an Italian Capuchin Poor Clares nun and mystic. St. Veronica’s desire to be like Christ crucified was answered with the stigmata. She is one of the greatest mystics in the Church. Her life was one of the cross and pain, uniting her sufferings with Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, eventually receiving the stigmata. St. Veronica was born at Mercatello in Urbino, Italy, on December 27, 1660, of a well-to-do family. Though she was a very religious person by nature, her father insisted that she marry when she came of age and paraded suitors before her. This so worried the girl that she became ill. Only then did her father realize the genuine character of her vocation and allow her to enter the Chapucin convent of Poor Clares at Citta di Castello in Umbria, at the age of seventeen. She was to remain there for the rest of her life. After her profession, St. Veronica had a vision of Jesus bearing His Cross, and she began to feel acute pain over her heart. In 1693, she had another vision, in which she was offered the chalice of Christ’s suffering. When she accepted it, after a fierce struggle, her body and soul ever afterward carried the marks of our Lord’s sufferings. The next year, the imprint of the crown of thorns appeared on her head, and on Good Friday, 1697, the impress of the five sacred wounds (i.e., the Stigmata). As a result of these mystical experiences, the Saint became the object of close vigilance on the part of her superiors and the competent religious authorities. Thus, though this caused her much distress and suffering, it also ensured that her mystical experiences were well attested, making her an outstanding case in the history of mystical phenomena. Her humble obedience convinced all of the truth of these mystical experiences.
St. Veronica also possessed a large dosage of common sense and an admirable degree of efficiency. She was novice-mistress of her convent for thirty-four years and diligently laid the foundation for her Sisters under her charge to progress in humility, obedience, and charity. She impressed her fellow nuns by remaining remarkably practical despite her numerous ecstatic experiences. St. Veronica was named abbess of the convent in 1716, eleven years before her death and labored for the convent even in its physical entity. She died on July 9, 1727, leaving behind a catalogue of her religious experiences entitled “Diary of the Passion”, written at the request of her confessor. In her Diary of 22,000 pages, we learn of her ecstatic visions of Jesus, saints, souls in purgatory and of the devil. St. Veronica was devoted to the Eucharist and Sacred Heart, trusting God totally, abandoning herself completely to His will. Her heart is incorrupt to this day. She is called one of the most extraordinary mystics of her era. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839.
PRAYER: Almighty God, You made St. Veronica glorious by the wounds of the Passion of Your Son. Through her example and prayers enable us to become like Christ, humbly embracing the Cross, so that we may rejoice in the revelation of His glory. Amen🙏
BLESSED ADRIAN FORTESCUE, MARTYR: Bl. Sir Adrian Fortescue (c. 1476 – 1539) was a husband and father, a Justice of the Peace, a Knight of the Realm, a Knight of Malta, a courtier at the court of King Henry VIII of England and a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic (Dominican Tertiary – Lay Dominican); he was at once a loyal servant of the Crown so far as he could be, but still more, he was a man of unshakeable faith, who was convicted of high treason and executed in 1539 and later beatified as a Roman Catholic martyr. Bl. Adrian Fortescue was born in 1476, the son of Sir John Fortescue of Ponsbourne Park at Newgate Street Village in Hertfordshire. He descended from Richard Fortescue, younger brother of Sir Henry Fortescue (fl. 1426), Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, and of Sir John Fortescue (ca. 1394 – ca. 1480), Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, all sons of Sir John Fortescue (fl.1422) of Whympston in the parish of Modbury, Devon, appointed in 1422 Captain of the captured Castle of Meaux, 25 miles NE of Paris. His mother Alice was the daughter of Geoffrey Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London, and great aunt to Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn.
He was made a Knight of the Bath in 1503. He spent most of his time in the country, busy with his lands and with county affairs. He lived at his wife’s family seat at Stonor Park in iOxfordshire, where he served as a Justice of the Peace. Fortescue participated in England’s wars against France in 1513 and 1523 and was present at the meeting in 1520 between Henry VIII and Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was made a Knight of the Order of St. John in 1532 and the following year became a Dominican Tertiary of the Blackfriars of Oxford. He attended the coronation of Anne Boleyn in June of that year. On 29 August 1534, he was arrested without any stated reason and taken to Woodstock, where he was questioned. He was freed after a period of months. In February 1539 he was again arrested, and in April he was among those condemned, convicted of High treason without a trial by an Act of Parliament which condemned fifty persons for unspecified acts presumably relating to hostility and opposed to Henry VIII’s ecclesiastical church policies. Bl. Adrian Fortescue was beheaded at the Tower Hill of London on Wednesday, July 9, 1539. His servants were also killed for treason on the same day but were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.
Bl. Fortescue was twice married: First marriage to Anne, daughter of Sir William Stonor; she died in 1518. By his first wife Fortescue had two daughters: Margaret, married to Thomas Wentworth, 1st baron Wentworth and Frances, married to Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th earl of Kildare. Second marriage to Anne, daughter of Sir William Rede of Boarstall, Buckinghamshire and widow of Sir Giles Greville. By his second wife he had three sons and two daughters: Sir John Fortescue of Salden, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Sir Thomas Fortescue, MP Wallingford; Sir Anthony Fortescue; Elizabeth, married to Sir Thomas Bromley, lord chancellor of England; Mary, whose son was Thomas Cavendish the circumnavigator. Anne survived her husband, and afterwards married Sir Thomas Parry, comptroller of Queen Elizabeth’s household. She was granted the manor of Great Washbourne in 1557. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem has advocated devotion to Blessed Adrian as a martyr since the 17th century and Pope Leo XIII beatified him on May 13, 1895, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. And as a layman, he ranks among the great Dominicans as an outstanding example to all Christians.
PRAYER: O God, since all things are within your power, grant through the prayers of blessed Adrian, your martyr, that we who keep his feast today may become stronger in the love of your name and hold to your holy Church even at the cost of our lives. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever… Amen🙏
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