MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS, PRIEST AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH; SAINT NICASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS AND BLESSED MELANIE CALVAT SEERESS OF LA SALETTE, VIRGIN – DECEMBER 14TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church; Saint Nicasius, Archbishop of Rheims and his Companions, Martyrs and Blessed Melanie Calvat, Seeress of La Salette, Virgin. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints, we humbly pray for God’s grace and mercy as we prepare for the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ during this season of Advent. Praying for hope, faith, love, joy and peace in our world today, as we face these incredibly challenging times. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the safety and well-being of all those traveling during this season of Christmas. We pray for the sick and dying, especially sick children, those who are mentally and physically ill, strokes, heart diseases, those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed and we pray for all widows and widowers. We pray for torture victims, the poor, the needy and the most vulnerable in our communities and around the world. We pray for all parents and children, for peace, love, justice and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, the Bishops, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world… Amen🙏
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS, PRIEST AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH: St. John of the Cross (1542–1591), also known as San Juan de la Cruz was born Juan de Yepes (John Yepez) at Fontiberos in Old Castile, Spain, in 1542. Juan de Yepes was the Castilian son of a poor silk weaver of Fontiberos, Toledo, Spain. His father was of noble birth; he had married much beneath his rank, and for that offense he was disinherited, entirely cut off by his family. He had taken to silk weaving as a means of livelihood, but had never been able to make much of it. Soon after the birth of Juan he died, worn out with the effort to keep his wife and three children. The family was left in direst poverty; the children grew up always underfed, so that to the end of his life Juan remained dwarfed in stature. John from his tenderest infancy he evinced a marked devotion toward the Blessed Virgin, of whose Order he became one of the brightest ornaments.
Unable to learn a trade, he became the servant of the poor in the hospital of Medina, while still pursuing his sacred studies and committing himself to severe penances. Uncertain of his life’s direction, he was told in prayer that he should enter religious life in order to bring reform. In 1563, being then twenty-one, he humbly offered himself as a lay-brother to the Carmelite friars, and received permission to observe their original rule of life, quickly earning a reputation for his humility, obedience, and religious fervor, knowing his talents, he was ordained priest. He later met St. Teresa of Avila, a reforming Carmelite abbess who recognized the greatness of John’s virtue and requested his assistance to found a monastery of friars under the primitive Carmelite rule, as she had done for her nuns. Together they founded the Discalced Carmelites, a contemplative order of strict religious observance. Thus he became the first prior of the Discalced (meaning “barefoot”) Carmelites. His reforms began to spread, and as a result John was captured, imprisoned, and physically abused by his fellow friars. His sufferings helped him to write his most famous work, Dark Night of the Soul. After nine months he made a miraculous escape and he went on to found and govern several Carmelite monasteries. St. John of the Cross became an authority on the spiritual life, he successively filled the post of superior, prior, vicar-general, and definitor. In the midst of his exterior labors his heart was always intimately united to God. In his illness John had a choice between two monasteries; one of them was a pleasant residence and its prior was his intimate friend, but he chose the other, the one of Ubeda, which was poor and where prior was ill-disposed toward him. After much suffering, he died in 1591 and was canonized in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII. He is known in the Church as one of the great contemplatives and spiritual writer and teachers of Mystical Theology. His profound writings and poetry are considered among the greatest of all Spanish literature. Because of his invaluable writings he was proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI on August 24, 1926. He is the Patron Saint of contemplative life, mystical theology, mystics, and Spanish poets.
QUOTES FROM SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS:
☆”With what procrastinations do you wait, since from this very moment you can love God in your heart?”
☆”Whoever does not seek the cross of Christ doesn’t seek the glory of Christ.”
“The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light.”
☆”Lord, my God, do not turn away from those who do not turn away from you: how can they say that you are absent?”
☆”Oh cherished Cross! Through thee my most bitter trials are replete with graces!”
☆”Do not ask for anything other than the cross, and precisely without consolation, because this is perfect.”
PRAYER: God, Your Priest St. John became a model of perfect self-denial and showed us how to love the Cross. May we always imitate him and be reworded with the eternal contemplation of Your glory. Amen.🙏
SAINT NICASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS: Saint Nicasius of Rheims (French: Saint-Nicaise) (died 407) was a bishop of Rheims from 400 until his death. He founded the first cathedral of Rheims. He prophesied the invasion of France by the Vandals. He notified his people of this vision, telling them to prepare. When asked if the people should fight or not, Nicasius responded, “Let us abide the mercy of God and pray for our enemies. I am ready to give myself for my people.” Later, when the barbarians were at the gates of the city, he decided to attempt to slow them down so that more of his people could escape. He was killed by the Vandals either at the altar of his church or in its doorway. He was killed with Jucundus, his lector, Florentius, his deacon, and Eutropia, his virgin sister. His sister, St. Eutropia, seeing herself spared in order that hers might be another fate, threw herself upon her brother’s murderer and kicked and scratched him till she too was cut down and killed. After the killing of Nicasius and his colleagues, the Vandals are said to have been frightened away from the area, according to some sources even leaving the treasure they had already gathered.
One detail from the account of his martyrdom states that at the moment of his execution, Nicasius was reading Psalm 119 (Psalm 118 in the Vulgate). When he reached the verse “Adhaesit pavimento anima mea,” (my soul is attached onto dust) he was decapitated. However, the story goes that after his head had fallen to the ground, Nicasius continued the psalm, adding, “Vivifica me, Domine, secundum verbum tuum.” (revive me, Lord, with your words) Nicasius is thus part of the tradition of the cephalophores (“head-carriers”), who, like Saint Denis, carried their heads and sometimes spoke through them. A Benedictine abbey at Rheims was later named in his honor. Sometimes his date of death is given as 451, and that he was killed by the Huns rather than the Vandals. The tradition that he was killed by the Vandals in 407 is believed to be closer to the truth by some scholars.
Saint Nicasius, Archbishop of Rheims and his Companions, Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏
BLESSED MELANIE CALVAT, SEERESS OF LA SALETTE, VIRGIN: Born Françoise Mélanie Calvat (1831-1904) on November 7, 1831, was called Mathieu. A French Roman Catholic nun and Marian visionary. As a religious, she was called Sister Mary of the Cross. She and Maximin Giraud were the two seers of Our Lady of La Salette. She was the visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in La Salette on September 19, 1846. After an episcopal investigation lasting five years, the bishop of Grenoble promulgated this judgement: “We judge that the apparition of the Holy Virgin to the two shepherds, September 19, 1846, in the parish of La Salette, carries within it all the characteristics of truth, and that the faithful have reason to believe it indubitable and certain”. After the apparition in 1846, Calvat was placed as a boarder in the Sisters of Providence Convent in Corenc near to Grenoble, where there was an inquiry concerning the apparition. She became religious at the age of twenty. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Compassion in Marseille. A sister, Marie, was appointed her companion. After a stay in a Cephalonia convent, Calvet opened an orphanage and after a short sojourn at the Carmelite convent of Marseille, returned to the Sisters of Compassion for a short period. She visited the mountain at La Salette a final time on September 18, 1902, then moved to Altamura, near Bari in southern Italy and died there on December 14, 1904. Her remains are buried under a marble column with a bas-relief depicting the Virgin Mary welcoming the shepherdess of La Salette into heaven.
Blessed Melanie Calvat, Seeress of La Salette, Virgin ~ Pray for us 🙏