SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ MARCH 10TH

MEMORIAL OF SAINT MACARIUS, BISHOP; SAINT JOHN OGILVIE, PRIEST; SAINT MARIE EUGENIE OF JESUS, RELIGIOUS, AND THE FORTY HOLY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE – FEAST DAY ~ MARCH 10TH: Today, we honor the Memorial of Saint Macarius, Bishop (a defender of the faith and a key figure in the discovery of the True Cross), Saint John Ogilvie, Priest (a Jesuit martyr who gave his life for the Catholic faith in Scotland), Saint Marie Eugenie of Jesus, Religious (the foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, devoted to education and faith formation), and The Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste (Roman soldiers who embraced martyrdom rather than renounce Christ).

Through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary and these holy saints, we offer prayers today for persecuted Christians around the world. May God grant them the courage to stand firm in faith, the grace to endure trials, and the hope of eternal glory. We also pray for educators, students, and all who seek to spread the light of Christ in difficult circumstances. May the example of these saints inspire us to remain faithful in our own spiritual journeys.

Saint Macarius, Saint John Ogilvie, Saint Marie Eugenie of Jesus, and the Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste ~ Pray for us 🙏🏽

SAINT MACARIUS OF JERUSALEM, BISHOP: St. Macarius of Jerusalem (4th c.) was the Bishop of Jerusalem from 312-335 A.D. Little is known of his life before this time. He was a lifelong and staunch opponent of Arianism and fought strenuously against this pernicious heresy. He was present and took part in the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. and vigorously opposed the Arian heresy, which greatly threatened the early Church. It is believed that he was one of the bishops who plated a large role in drafting drafting the Nicene Creed. St. Athanasius, his contemporary, refers to St. Macarius as an example of “the honest and simple style of apostolical men.” After the council, St. Macarius accompanied St. Helen, the queen mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, in her successful search for the True Cross that Jesus was crucified upon. It was he who suggested to St. Helen that she would identify the real Cross by touching all three of those she found to a seriously ill woman, and observe which one brought immediate healing. Following the discovery of the True Cross in this miraculous manner, Constantine wrote to Bishop Macarius requesting that he oversee the construction of a magnificent church in Jerusalem, the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, to commemorate the sites of the Crucifixion and Burial of Christ, which still exists today as one of the most important Christian pilgrimage sites in the world. Later, he and his fellow Bishop of Palestine received another letter from Constantine to construct a church at Mamre.

PRAYER: God, Light and Shepherd of souls, You established St. Macarius as Bishop in Your Church to feed Your flock by his word and form it by his example. Help us through his intercession to keep the Faith he taught by his word and follow the way he showed by his example. Amen🙏

SAINT JOHN OGILVIE, PRIEST: St. John Ogilvie (1579-1615) was born in 1579 at Drum, Keith, Scotland. His father, Walter Ogilvie was a Scottish noble who raised his son John in the state religion of Scotland, Calvinism. St.John converted to Catholicism at the age of 17 in Louvain, Belgium. Blessed John joined the Jesuits soon after in 1597, and was ordained to the Priesthood in Paris in 1610. He was sent to work in Rouen, France. He repeatedly requested assignment to Scotland where wholesale massacres of Catholics had taken place, but by this point the hunters were searching more for priests than for those who attended Mass. The Jesuits were determined to minister to the oppressed Catholic laity. When captured, they were tortured for information, then hanged, drawn, and quartered. Ogilvie’s request was granted, and he returned to Scotland in November 1613. He worked as an underground missionary in Edinburgh and Glasgow, dodging the Queen’s priest-hunters, disguising himself as a soldier named Watson. After 11 months in the field, St. John was betrayed, imprisoned, interrogated, then tortured for the names of active Catholics. He suffered in silence. During a long imprisonment, no tortures could force him to name any fellow Catholics. Though his courage was admired by the judges he was condemned as a traitor and hanged. He died hanged on March 10, 1615 in Glasgow, Scotland. The customary beheading and quartering were omitted owing to undisguised popular sympathy, and his body was hurriedly buried in the churchyard of Glasgow cathedral. He is the Church’s only officially recorded Scottish martyr. He was canonized by Paul VI on October 17, 1976.

PRAYER: God our Father, fountain of all blessing, We thank you for the countless graces that come to us in answer to the prayers of your saints. With great confidence we ask you in the name of your Son and through the prayers of St John Ogilvie to help us in all our needs. Lord Jesus, you chose your servant St John Ogilvie to be your faithful witness to the spiritual authority of the chief shepherd of your flock. Keep your people always one in mind and heart, In communion with Francis our Pope, and all the bishops of your Church. Holy Spirit, you gave St John Ogilvie light to know your truth, wisdom to defend it, and courage to die for it. Through his prayers and example bring our country into the unity and peace of Christ’s kingdom. Amen🙏

SAINT MARIE OF JESUS (ST. MARIE-EUGÉNIE DE JÉSUS), RELIGIOUS: St. Marie-Eugénie de Jésus (August 25, 1817 – March 10, 1898), was a French Roman Catholic professed religious and the foundress of the Religious Sister of the Assumption. She was born Anne-Eugénie Milleret de Brou on August 25, 1817 at Metz, Moselle, Kingdom of France and was raised in a family with no faith, although she did receive first Holy Communion on Christmas 1829 which seemed to transform her into a pious and discerning individual; As a young woman, she had a conversion experience and felt called to religious life after hearing the Lenten sermons of the Dominican priest Henri Lacordaire in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris which led her to found an order dedicated to the education of the poor. Although she lived with Visitation nuns for a brief time, she did not make vows as a religious. Her religious life was not without its own set of trials, for complications prevented her order from receiving full pontifical approval due to a select few causing problems as well as the deaths of many followers from tuberculosis in the beginning of the order’s life. During a pilgrimage in 1825, she felt called to establish a teaching institute. In 1839, she founded a congregation that came to be known as the Congregation of the Assumption. The community in 1888. In the last years of her life, Mother Marie Eugenie experienced a progressive physical weakening, which she lived in silence and humility – a life totally centered on Christ. She received the Eucharist for the last time on March 9, 1898 and on the 10th, she gently passed over to the Lord. Saint Marie-Eugénie died on March 10, 1898 at aged 80 at Auteuil, Paris, Île-de-France, French Third Republic. Her beatification was celebrated under Pope Paul VI on February 9, 1975 while her canonization was later celebrated on June 3, 2007 under Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. She’s the Patron Saint of Religious of the Assumption and Students.

PRAYER: O God, who called blessed Marie-Eugénie to seek your Kingdom in this world through the pursuit of perfect charity, grant, we pray, through her intercession that we may advance with joyful spirit along the way of love. 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🙏

THE FORTY HOLY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE: The Forty Martyrs were soldiers quartered at Sebaste in Armenia, about the year 320. When their legion was ordered to offer sacrifice to idols, they refused to betray the faith of their baptism, and replied to all persuasive efforts, “We are Christians!” When neither cajolings or threats could change them, after several days of imprisonment they were chained together and taken to the site of execution. It was a cruel winter, and they were condemned to lie without clothing on the icy surface of a pond in the open air until they froze to death. The forty, not merely undismayed but filled with joy at the prospect of suffering for Jesus Christ, said: “No doubt it is difficult to support so acute a cold, but it will be agreeable to go to paradise by this route; the torment is of short duration, and the glory will be eternal. This cruel night will win for us an eternity of delights. Lord, forty of us are entering combat; grant that we may be forty to receive the crown!” There were warm baths close by, ready for any among them who would deny Christ. One of the confessors lost heart, renounced his faith, and went to cast himself into the basin of warm water prepared for that intention. But the sudden change in temperature suffocated him and he expired, losing at once both temporal and eternal life. The still living martyrs were fortified in their resolution, beholding this scene. Then the ice was suddenly flooded with a bright light; one of the soldiers guarding the men, nearly blinded by the light, raised his eyes and saw Angels descend with forty crowns which they held in the air over the martyrs’ heads; but the fortieth one remained without a destination. The sentry was inspired to confess Christ, saying: “That crown will be for me!” Abandoning his coat and clothing, he went to replace the unfortunate apostate on the ice, crying out: “I am a Christian!” And the number of forty was again complete. They remained steadfast while their limbs grew stiff and frozen, and died one by one. Among the forty there was a young soldier named Meliton who held out longest against the cold, and when the officers came to cart away the dead bodies they found him still breathing. They were moved with pity, and wanted to leave him alive, hoping he would still change his mind. But his mother stood by, and this valiant woman could not bear to see her son separated from the band of martyrs. She exhorted him to persevere, and lifted his frozen body into the cart. He was just able to make a sign of recognition, and was borne away, to be thrown into the flames with the dead bodies of his brethren. Their bones were cast into the river, but they floated and were gathered up by the faithful.

The Forty Holy Martyr of Sebaste ~ Pray for you 🙏