MEMORIAL OF SAINT NICHOLAS OWEN OF LONDON; SAINT LEA OF ROME, WIDOW AND BLESSED CLEMENS AUGUST VON GALEN, BISHOP OF MÜNSTER | Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Nicholas Owen of London; Saint Lea of Rome, Widow and Blessed Clemens August von Galen, Bishop of Münster, who was noted for his public opposition to Nazism. Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the poor and the needy, for persecuted christians, for an end to religious and political unrest, for justice and peace, love and unity in our world that is torn apart by war, terrorism, racism and countless other acts of violence against human life.🙏
SAINT NICHOLAS OWEN OF LONDON: St. Nicholas Owen (d.1606) was born in England, the son of an Oxford carpenter. He became a carpenter himself, and joined the Jesuits community living in London in the late 1500s as a lay brother during the era when Catholicism was outlawed in England. England, at that time, was suppressing and persecuting Catholics, and St. Nicholas was a skilled carpenter who built many secret passages and compartments in homes that were used to hide priests. After serving jail time for defending the martyred St. Edmund Campion, St. Nicholas began working for and traveling with the Jesuits, staying in Catholic houses where he made repairs during the day and secretly constructed well-disguised ‘priest-holes’, or hiding places for hunted priests, during the night. He was so skilled at his craft that his priest holes saved hundreds of lives over his 20 years of work. In 1594, while on a trip to London with a Jesuit priest they were betrayed by a household servant. He was arrested with other Jesuits and imprisoned in the London Tower where he was tortured in an attempt to make him give up names and locations of his Catholic friends and Jesuit brothers. He refused, and a wealthy Catholic family ransomed him from prison. The authorities let him go, thinking he was an insignificant associate of the other Jesuits they had captured. After St. Nicholas’ release he engineered and masterminded the priest’s escape from the Tower of London who was also imprisoned and being tortured. St. Nicholas also arranged for the escape of their guard, whom they had befriended, because he would face punishment for their flight. St. Nicholas strung a rope to the tower across a moat, and they successfully got away. St. Nicholas was of very small stature, and people called him “Little John.” He was, nevertheless, very strong, as much of his work had him breaking through thick stonework. He worked at night and alone, and always kept his devices and designs a secret. Authorities could search a home for a week, punching holes in walls and pulling up floors, and still not find his hiding places.
Years later, after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, St. Nicholas was again a wanted man. He hid along with a priest in one of his priest holes, and although 100 men searched for them diligently, they were not discovered. After eight days of hiding without food, St. Nicholas left the hole disguised as a priest in order to protect the real priest who was still concealed. He was captured and tortured on the rack in the Tower of London. Day after day he refused to give up any information about the underground Catholic Church in England. He died a martyr in 1606 after from his injuries after his entrails burst open. St. Nicholas of Owen was canonized in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Father John Gerard wrote of him: “I verily think no man can be said to have done more good of all those who laboured in the English vineyard. He was the immediate occasion of saving the lives of many hundreds of persons, both ecclesiastical and secular.” His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. He is included in the Feast of the English Martyrs on May 4th.
St. Nicholas Owen, the cunning carpenter who saved persecuted priests by building secret passages—pray for us!🙏
SAINT LEA OF ROME, WIDOW: Saint Lea of Rome was a fourth-century widow who left her wealth behind, entered consecrated life, and attained great holiness through asceticism and prayer. Though not well-known as a figure of devotion in modern times, she was acknowledged as a saint on the testimony of her contemporary Saint Jerome, who wrote a letter to St. Marcella giving a brief description of Lea’s life after she had died. St. Jerome, a scholarly monk best known for his Latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate), is the Church’s only source of information on St. Lea, whose biographical details are unknown. St. Jerome eulogized her in a letter written during the year 384 to his student and spiritual directee Marcella, another Roman consecrated woman who had left her aristocratic life behind after being widowed. It is clear from his letter that St. Lea was a mutual friend to both Sts. Jerome and Marcella. St. Jerome states that his account is written to “hail with joy the release of a soul which has trampled Satan under foot, and won for itself, at last, a crown of tranquility.” Jerome also contrasts the life of “our most saintly friend” with that of the late pagan public official Praetextatus, held up by Jerome as a cautionary example.
“Who,” St. Jerome begins, “can sufficiently eulogize our dear Lea’s mode of living? So complete was her conversion to the Lord that, becoming the head of a monastery, she showed herself a true mother to the virgins in it, wore coarse sackcloth instead of soft raiment, passed sleepless nights in prayer, and instructed her companions even more by example than by precept.” St. Jerome describes how St. Lea, in her great humility, “was accounted the servant of all … She was careless of her dress, neglected her hair, and ate only the coarsest food. Still, in all that she did, she avoided ostentation that she might not have her reward in this world.”
St. Jerome’s letter goes on to compare her fate to that of Praetextus – who died in the same year as St. Lea, after spending his life promoting a return to Rome’s ancient polytheistic pagan religion. The monk retells Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and Dives, with St. Lea in the place of the poor and suffering man. St. Lea, St.Jerome says, is “welcomed into the choirs of the angels; she is comforted in Abraham’s bosom. And, as once the beggar Lazarus saw the rich man, for all his purple, lying in torment, so does Lea see the consul, not now in his triumphal robe but clothed in mourning, and asking for a drop of water from her little finger.” Thus St. Lea, “who seemed poor and of little worth, and whose life was accounted madness,” triumphs in salvation. But the punishment of infidelity falls on the consul-elect – who had led a triumphant procession just before his death, and been widely mourned afterward. St. Jerome ends his letter by urging Marcella to remember the lesson of St. Lea’s life: “We must not allow … money to weigh us down, or lean upon the staff of worldly power. We must not seek to possess both Christ and the world. No; things eternal must take the place of things transitory; and since, physically speaking, we daily anticipate death, if we wish for immortality we must realize that we are but mortal.”
“Hence, I tearfully beg you to refrain from seeking the favors of the world and to renounce all that is carnal. It is impossible to follow both the world and Jesus. Let us live a life of renunciation, for our bodies will soon be dust and nothing else will last any longer.” ~ St. Jerome
PRAYER: Lord, amid the things of this world, let us wholeheartedly be committed to heavenly things in imitation of the example of evangelical perfection You have given us in St. Lea. Amen🙏
BLESSED CLEMENS AUGUST VON GALEN BISHOP, OF MÜNSTER: Bl. Clemens (1878-1946) also known as the “Lion of Munster” was Bishop of Münster (1933-1946) and beatified in 2005. He was born on March 16, 1878 in Dinklage Castle, Oldenburg, Germany, the 11th of 13 children born to Count Ferdinand Heribert and Elisabeth von Spee. His father belonged to the noble family of Westphalia, who since 1660 governed the village of Dinklage. For over two centuries his ancestors carried out the inherited office of camerlengo of the Diocese of Münster. Bl. Clemens grew up in Dinklage Castle and in other family seats. Due to the struggle between Church and State, he and his brothers were sent to a school run by the Jesuits in Feldkirch, Austria. He remained there until 1894, when he transferred to the Antonianum in Vechta. After graduation, he studied philosophy and theology in Frebur, Innsbruck and Münster, and was ordained a priest on May 28, 1904 for the Diocese of Münster by Bishop Hermann Dingelstadt. He was a Parish priest, with great concern for poor. His first two years as a priest were spent as vicar of the diocesan cathedral where he became chaplain to his uncle, Bishop Maximilian Gerion von Galen. From 1906 to 1929, Fr von Galen carried out much of his pastoral activity outside Münster: in 1906 he was made chaplain of the parish of St Matthias in Berlin-Schönberg; from 1911 to 1919 he was curate of a new parish in Berlin before becoming parish priest of the Basilica of St Matthias in Berlin-Schönberg, where he served for 10 years; here, he was particularly remembered for his special concern for the poor and outcasts. In 1929, Fr von Galen was called back to Münster when Bishop Johannes Poggenpohl asked him to serve as parish priest of the Church of St Lambert. In January 1933, Bishop Poggenpohl died, leaving the See vacant. After two candidates refused, on September 5, 1933 Fr Clemens was appointed Bishop of Münster by Pope Pius XI. On October 28, 1933 he was consecrated by Cardinal Joseph Schulte, Archbishop of Cologne; Bishop von Galen was the first diocesan Bishop to be consecrated under Hitler’s regime. As his motto, he chose the formula of the rite of episcopal consecration: “Nec laudibus, nec timore” (Neither praise nor threats will distance me from God).
Throughout the 20 years that Bishop von Galen was curate and parish priest in Berlin, he wrote on various political and social issues; in a pastoral letter dated 26 March 1934, he wrote very clearly and critically on the “neopaganism of the national socialist ideology”. Due to his outspoken criticism, he was called to Rome by Pope Pius XI in 1937 together with the Bishop of Berlin, to confer with them on the situation in Germany and speak of the eventual publication of an Encyclical. On March 14, 1937 the Encyclical “Mit brennender Sorge” (To the Bishops of Germany: The place of the Catholic Church in the German Reich) was published. It was widely circulated by Bishop von Galen, notwithstanding Nazi opposition. In the summer of 1941, in answer to unwarranted attacks by the National Socialists, Bishop von Galen delivered three admonitory sermons between July and August. He spoke in his old parish Church of St Lambert and in Liebfrauen-Ueberlassen Church, since the diocesan cathedral had been bombed. In his famous speeches, Bishop von Galen spoke out against the State confiscation of Church property and the programmatic euthanasia carried out by the regime. The clarity and incisiveness of his words and the unshakable fidelity of Catholics in the Diocese of Münster embarrassed the Nazi regime, and on October 10, 1943 the Bishop’s residence was bombed. Bishop von Galen was forced to take refuge in nearby Borromeo College. From 12 September 1944 on, he could no longer remain in the city of Münster, destroyed by the war; he left for the zone of Sendenhorst. In 1945, Vatican Radio announced that Pope Pius XII was to hold a Consistory and that the Bishop of Münster was also to be present. After a long and difficult journey, due to the war and other impediments, Bishop von Galen finally arrived in the “Eternal City.” On February 21, 1946 the Public Consistory was held in St Peter’s Basilica and Bishop von Galen was created a Cardinal. On 16 March 1946 the 68-year-old Cardinal returned to Münster. He was cordially welcomed back by the city Authorities and awarded honorary citizenship by the burgomaster. On the site of what remained of the cathedral, Cardinal von Galen gave his first (and what would be his last) discourse to the more than 50,000 people who had gathered, thanking them for their fidelity to the then-Bishop of Münster during the National Socialist regime. He explained that as a Bishop, it was his duty to speak clearly and plainly about what was happening. No one knew that the Cardinal was gravely ill, and when he returned to Münster on March 19, 1946 he had to undergo an operation. Cardinal von Galen died just three days later, on March 22, 1946. He was buried on March 28th in the Ludgerus Chapel, which has become a place of pilgrimage to this defender of the faith in the face of political oppression. He was Venerated on December 20, 2003 by Pope John Paul II (decree of heroic virtues): Beatified on October 9, 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI. Recognition celebrated by Cardinal Saraiva Martins at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Italy. The beatification miracle involved Hendrikus Nahak, a 16-year old Indonesian whose life was threatened by a particularly dangerous form of appendicitis in 1995 who was healed after his nurse called on Cardinal Galen to intercede on the boy‘s behalf.
“The right to life, to inviolability, to freedom is an indispensable part of any moral order of society.” ~ Blessed Clemens August von Galen ~ Pray for us🙏
PRAYER: O God, who wonderfully numbered among your holy shepherds Blessed Clemens, a man aflame with divine charity and outstanding for that faith that overcomes the world, grant, we pray, that through his intercession we, too, persevering in faith and charity, may merit to be sharers of his glory. 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 🙏🏽