MEMORIAL OF SAINT JUAN DIEGO, HERMIT; SAINT PETER FOURIER, PRIEST AND SAINT LEOCADIA OF TOLEDO, VIRGIN AND MARTYR – FEAST DAY ~ DECEMBER 9TH: Today, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we also celebrate the Memorial of Saint Juan Diego, Hermit; Saint Peter Fourier, Priest and Saint Leocadia of Toledo, Virgin and Martyr. 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 Mothers, children and family, the Clergy and Christians all over the world. Amen🙏
SAINT JUAN DIEGO, HERMIT: St. Juan Diego (1474–1548) was an indigenous Mexican Catholic convert whose encounter with the Virgin Mary began the Church’s devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. St. Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name “Cuauhtlatoatzin” (“the talking or singing eagle”) in Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico. He was a poor and humble peasant of the lowest class of Aztec Indians living in now Mexico. He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. Though raised according to the Aztec pagan religion and culture, he showed an unusual and mystical sense of life even before hearing the Gospel from Franciscan missionaries. In 1524, at the age of 50, Cuauhtlatoatzin and his wife converted and entered the Catholic Church. He was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr. Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries and received the Christian name of Juan Diego.
The farmer now known as Juan Diego was committed to his faith, often walking long distances to receive religious instruction. In December of 1531, he would be the recipient of a world-changing miracle. On December 9, 1531, Juan Diego was hurrying to Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But the woman he was heading to church to celebrate came to him instead. The Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. In the native Aztec dialect, the radiant woman announced herself as the “ever-perfect holy Mary, who has the honor to be the mother of the true God.” She said, “I am your compassionate Mother, yours and that of all the people that live together in this land,” she continued, “and also of all the other various lineages of men.” She asked Juan Diego to make a request of the local bishop. “I want very much that they build my sacred little house here” — a house dedicated to her son Jesus Christ, on the site of a former pagan temple, that would “show him” to all Mexicans and “exalt him” throughout the world.
She was asking a great deal of a native farmer. Not surprisingly, his bold request was met with skepticism from Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. Juan Diego said he would produce proof of the apparition, after he finished tending to his uncle whose death seemed imminent. Making his way to church on December 12th to summon a priest for his uncle, Juan Diego again encountered the Blessed Virgin. She promised to cure his uncle and give him a sign to display for the bishop. On the hill where they had first met he would find roses and other flowers, though it was winter. Doing as she asked, he found the flowers and brought them back to her. The Virgin Mary then placed the flowers inside his tilma, the traditional cloak-like garment he had been wearing. She told him not to unwrap the tilma containing the flowers until he had reached the bishop.
When he did, Bishop Zumárraga had his own encounter with Our Lady of Guadalupe – through the image of her that he found miraculously imprinted on the flower-filled tilma. The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress. She is supported an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be “born” again among the peoples of the New World, and is a message as relevant to the “New World” today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego. The Mexico City basilica that now houses the tilma has become, by some estimates, the world’s most-visited Catholic shrine.
The miracle that brought the Gospel to millions of Mexicans also served to deepen Ju byan Diego’s own spiritual life. For many years after the experience, he lived a solitary life of prayer and work in a hermitage near the church where the image was first displayed. Pilgrims had already begun flocking to the site by the time he died on December 9, 1548, the 17th anniversary of the first apparition. He was beatified on May 6, 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City and canonized him on July 31, 2002. He’s the Patron Saint of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
PRAYER: Lord God, through St. Juan Diego You made known the love of Our Lady Of Guadalupe toward Your people. By his intercession, grant that we who follow the counsel of Mary, our Mother, may strive continually to do Your will. Amen 🙏
SAINT PETER FOURIER, PRIEST: Saint Peter Fourier (1565-1640) was born in 1565, a native of Mirecourt, Lorraine, France. He was the Parish Priest of Mattaincourt, Reformer of the Canons of Saint Augustine, Founder of the Canonesses of Notre Dame. He was educated at the University of Pont-a-Mousson, entering at age 15. Tutor to the sons of many noble families. Augustinian Canon Regular at the abbey in Chaumousey, France. Ordained in 1589. He returned to university, became a master of patristic theology, and could recite the Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas by heart. Reforming priest at Mattaincourt, Vosges, France, an area noted for corruption and lax attitudes to heresy; he revitalized the spiritual life of the district, and established charities and banks for the poor. Spiritual teacher of Blessed Alix le Clerc. In 1598 he founded the Daughters of Our Lady for the education of girls. Founded the Sodality of the Immaculate Conception, or Children of Mary. His attempt to found a parallel order to teach boys failed. In 1621 he was ordered to reform his order in Lorraine. In 1625 he was sent to Salm to preach missions and work against Calvinism; within six months all the fallen away Catholics had returned to the Church. Helped found the Congregation of Our Saviour in 1629 and served as its superior general in 1632.
When the French government ordered him to swear allegiance to King Louis XIII he refused, and spent the rest of his life in exile in the town of Gray, Haute-Saone, France. Saint Peter Fourier died in exile as an effect of the difficulties and political problems of the 1630’s; he found shelter in a province which was at that time under the Spanish crown, and there he died in 1640. His spiritual sons, his spiritual daughters, the good people of Gray in Bourgogne, who had welcomed him and whom he had served admirably during an epidemic of the pestilence, all wanted the honor of possessing his mortal remains. But so did also the parish of Mattaincourt. To the reformed Order of Saint Augustine this privilege was granted officially, but the pious women of Mattaincourt, blocking the church door, would not permit the Canons to resume their journey with the coffin, after they had stopped in his former parish for a day or so. His heart had already been left to the parish of Gray. Miracles have abounded at his tomb, as they did during his lifetime, by his prayers. He was Beatified in1730 by Pope Benedict XIII and Canonized in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII
Saint Peter Fourier, Priest ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT LEOCADIA OF TOLEDO, VIRGIN AND MARTYR: Saint Leocadia was the fervent daughter of an illustrious Christian family of Toledo, apprehended and martyred in 303 by an order of Dacian, the cruel governor under Diocletian. When Dacian arrived in Toledo, she was soon denounced. Summoned before his tribunal, she replied to his contemptuous words concerning the true religion that she considered herself infinitely happy to serve God and His Son Jesus Christ, and that nothing whatsoever would be able to make her renounce her religion. She was flogged until covered with blood, then imprisoned with threats. She went to the prison with joy, consoling the Christians along the route who deplored her condition, telling them to rejoice in the grace she received to suffer for her Lord and Spouse. It was in this prison that she heard of the incredibly cruel martyrdom inflicted on her compatriot, Saint Eulalia, and she was so grieved by these cruelties, and by the condition of the true servants of God in those days, that she prayed to be retired from this world. Her prayer was heard, and she expired peacefully there on December 9, 303, kissing a cross which the touch of her hand imprinted on the hard rock of the prison wall.
A church was built over her tomb, in which several archbishops of Toledo chose to be buried. Two other famous churches in Toledo bear her name, one built over the site of the prison, and the other at that of the paternal home. Saint Leocadia is honored as the principal patroness of the city. Her relics were kept in that church with great respect, until during the incursions of the Moors, they were conveyed to Oviedo, and again elsewhere, then they were eventually carried back to Toledo with great pomp, and placed in the great church there on the 26th of April, 1589. She’s the Patron Saint of the City of Toledo, Spain and Archdiocese of Toledo, Spain.
Saint Leocadia of Toledo, Virgin and Martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏