MEMORIAL OF SAINT CANUTE, KING OF DENMARK, MARTYR; SAINT FELICITY AND HER SEVEN SONS, MARTYRS; SAINTS RUFINA AND SECUNDA, MARTYRS AND SAINT AMALBERGA, RELIGIOUS AND SAINT AMELIA, RELIGIOUS ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 10TH Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Canute, King of Denmark, Martyr; Saint Felicity and her Seven Sons, Martyrs; Saints Rufina and Secunda, Martyrs; Saint Amalberga, Religious and Saint Amelia, Religious. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying, 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. And we continue to pray for the protection and safety of Christians all over the world and we pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians and for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world.🙏
SAINT CANUTE, KING OF DENMARK, MARTYR: St Canute (Knute), King of Denmark (c. 1042 – 1086 ), also known as Canute IV or Canute the Holy, was King of Denmark from 1080 until 1086. Saint Canute was an ambitious king who sought to strengthen the Danish monarchy, devotedly supported the Roman Catholic Church, and had designs on the English throne. Slain by rebels in 1086, he was the first Danish king to be canonized. St. Canute (Knute) of Denmark was born in 1042, the son of Swein Estrithson, whose uncle Canute had reigned in England from 1016 to 1035. In 1081, St. Canute became King of Denmark, succeeding his brother Harold. Denmark had been evangelized by the English and was now a Christian nation. Canute restrained the power of the earls, fostered Divine Worship, improved the condition of the clergy, decreed the payment of tithes for their livelihood, and built many churches.
In 1085, the King reasserted a claim on England that he had made previously and planned to invade that country. However, the plans went to naught when the earls rebelled against his policies and led by his brother Harold besieged him at the Church of St. Alban in Odensee. On July 10, 1086, after receiving the Sacraments of Penance and Communion, St. Canute was killed kneeling before the altar along with seventeen of his followers and his brother Benedict. Miraculous healing at his tomb led Pope Paschal II to approve his cult in 1101 and he was recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as patron saint of Denmark in 1101. He was the first Danish king to be canonized.
PRAYER: God, You enabled St. Canute, Your Martyr, to sacrifice his life in the cause of justice. Through his intercession, help us to give up our lives for Christ in this world so that we might find eternal life in heaven. Amen 🙏
SAINT FELICITY AND HER SEVEN SONS, MARTYRS: The Roman widow Felicity and her seven sons (Alexander, Felix, Januarius, Martialis, Philip, Silvanus, Vitalis) were martyred in about the year 162. St. Felicity was arrested for her faith and ordered to worship pagan gods; she refused. Her sons were arrested and given the same order; they refused. After a series of appeals, all of which were turned down, they were all ordered and executed by emperor Antoninus. Saint Felicity was a noble Roman matron, distinguished above all for her virtue. This mother of seven children raised her sons in the fear of the Lord, and after the death of her husband, served God in continence, concerning herself only with good works. Saint Felicity was devoted to charity and caring for the poor. Her good examples and those of her children brought a number of pagans to renounce their superstitions, and also encouraged the Christians to show themselves worthy of their vocation. The pagan priests, furious at seeing their gods abandoned, denounced her. She appeared with her pious sons before the prefect of Rome, who exhorted her to sacrifice to idols, but in reply heard a generous confession of faith. Wretched woman, he said to her, how can you be so barbarous as to expose your children to torments and death? Have pity on these tender creatures, who are in the flower of their age and can aspire to the highest positions in the Empire! Felicity replied, My children will live eternally with Jesus Christ, if they are faithful; they will have only eternal torments to await, if they sacrifice to idols. Your apparent pity is but a cruel impiety. Then, turning to her children, she said: Look towards heaven, where Jesus Christ is waiting for you with His Saints! Be faithful in His love, and fight courageously for your souls.
The Judge, taking the children one by one, tried to overcome their constancy. He began with Januarius, but received for his answer: What you advise me to do is contrary to reason; Jesus, the Saviour, will preserve me, I hope, from such impiety. Felix, the second, was then brought in. When they urged him to sacrifice, he answered: There is only one God, and it is to Him that we must offer the sacrifice of our hearts. Use all artifices, every refinement of cruelty, you will not make us betray our faith! The other brothers, when questioned, answered with the same firmness. Martial, the youngest, who spoke last, said: All those who do not confess that Jesus Christ is the true God, will be cast into a fire which will never be extinguished. When the interrogation was finished, the Saints underwent the penalty of the lash and then were taken to prison. Soon they completed their sacrifice in various ways: Januarius was beaten until he died by leather straps capped with lead; Felix and Philip were killed with bludgeons; Sylvanus was thrown headfirst from a cliff; Alexander, Vitalis and Martial were beheaded. Felicity, the mother of these new Maccabees, was the last to suffer martyrdom. St. Felicity was forced to watch as her children were murdered one by one; after each one she was given the chance to denouce her faith, eventually she was beheaded. Patron Saint against the death of children; against sterility; martyrs; to have male children; widows; Badia di Cava, Italy, Abbey.
Saint Felicity and her Seven Sons, Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINTS RUFINA AND SECUNDA, VIRGINS MARTYRS: St. Rufina and Secunda were sisters and Roman virgins. Daughters of a wealthy Roman senator named Asterius, who suffered in 287 during the persecution of Emperor Valerian. Their parents had betrothed them to two suitors, Armentarius and Verinus, who had apostatized from the Christian religion but they refused to marry, saying that they had consecrated their virginity to Jesus Christ. Escaping to Etruria, Sts. Rufina and Secunda were captured, apprehended and brought before a prefect during the reign of the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus. When Junius, the prefect, saw he could not shake their resolution either by promises or by threats, they were tortured, he first ordered Rufina to be beaten with rods. While she was being scourged, Secunda thus addressed the Judge: “Why do you treat my sister thus honorably, but me dishonorably? Order us both to be scourged, since we both “confess Christ to be God.”
Enraged by these words, the Judge ordered them both to be cast into a dark and foetid dungeon – immediately a bright light and a most sweet odour filled the prison. They were then shut up in a bath, the floor of which was made red-hot but ,from this also, they emerged unhurt. Next they were thrown into the Tiber with stones tied to their necks but an Angel saved them from the water and they were finally beheaded ten miles out of the City on the Aurelian Way. Their bodies were buried by a matron named Plautilla, on her estate and were afterwards translated into Rome. Their place of burial was at the ninth milestone of the Via Cornelia, as is stated in the Berne manuscript of the “Martyrologium Hieronymianum” (ed. De Rossi-Duchesne, 89). These martyrs are also recorded in the Itineraries of the seventh century, as on the road just mentioned (De Rossi, “Roma sotterranea,” I, 18283). Pope Damasus erected a Church of Sante Rufina e Secunda over the grave of the Saints in their honor in Rome. The Town on this spot named after St. Rufina, became the See of one of the Suburbicarian Diocese that was later united with Porto.
Saint Rufina and Secunda, Virgins and Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT AMALBERGA, RELIGIOUS: Saint Amalberga of Maubeuge (d. 690), also known as Amalia, or Amelia of Lobbes or Binche was a Merovingian nun and saint who lived in the 7th century. St. Amalberga was born at Brabant Belgium and was in some way related to Pepin of Landen. Whether she was a sister or niece, the Bollandists are not sure. She was married young to Count Witger and became the mother of three saints: Saint Gudula of Brussels, Saint Emebert, and Saint Reineldis, all of whom she taught herself, including religion. When the youngest was grown, both St. Amalberga and her husband ultimately withdrew from the world; he becoming a monk, and she a nun. They retired to Benedictine houses, the Count to Lobbes, Belgium, and St. Amalberga to Maubeuge Abbey where she embraced a life of asceticism and prayer. She received the veil from Saint Willibrord of Echternach. St. Amalberga died in 690 and is buried beside her husband at the Lobbes monastery. Her relics have been in Saint Peter’s abbey church in Ghent, Belgium since 1073. She is a Patron Saint of and known to protect people against arm pain, bruises, and fever.
There is very great confusion in the records of this saint, and of a virgin who came a century after. To add to the difficulty a third St. Amalberga, also a virgin, appears in the twelfth century. The first two are celebrated simultaneously on July 10.
Saint Amalberga, Religious ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT AMELIA, RELIGIOUS: St. Amelia (741-772 A.D.) was born into a noble and pious Christian family in the land of the Ardennes, bordering what is today Belgium and Luxembourg. She was a devout child of strong character who committed her virginity to Christ from a young age. However, because she was such a beautiful and virtuous woman, she was pursued for several years by the young Charlemagne who was obsessed with her beauty and virtue. She denied this young man who became known as King Charlemagne. In one account, Charlemagne accidentally broke her arm in a physical struggle to hold her hand, and afterwards her arm was miraculously healed. His romantic interest was rebuffed, and Amelia was eventually able to realize her desire to enter the convent. She spent the rest of her life in the Benedictine abbey of Münster-Bilzen in Belgium, and helped to build a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the Belgian town of Temsche. St. Amelia is said to have performed many miracles, the most famous being the one in which she crossed the Schelde River miraculously while standing on the back of a giant sturgeon fish. St. Amelia is the Patron Saint of farmers, fishermen, and those suffering from arm and shoulder pain. Her feast day is celebrated on July 10th.
PRAYER: Heavenly Patron, in whose name I glory, Pray ever to God for me; strength me in my faith; establish me in virtue; guard me in the conflict; that I may vanquish the foe malign and attain to glory evaluating. Amen. Saint Amelia, Religious ~ Pray for us 🙏
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