SAINT(S) OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ MARCH 20TH

MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENE, PRIEST AND MARTYR; SAINT PHOTINA, THE SAMARITAN WOMAN, MARTYR AND SAINT CUTHBERT OF LINDISFARNE, BISHOP AND MISSIONARY: FEAST DAY ~ MARCH 20TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint John Nepomucene, Priest and Martyr (Patron Saint of confessors and for a good confession; against calumnies or slander; against floods; against indiscretions; bridges and bridge builders; for discretion and silence); Saint Photina, the Samaritan woman, Martyr; and Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, Bishop and Missionary. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the forgiveness of sins, the conversion of sinners, and for all Christians during this sacred season of Lent.

Saint John Nepomucene, Saint Photina, and Saint Cuthbert ~ Pray for us. 🙏🏽

SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENE, PRIEST AND MARTYR: St. John Nepomucene (1345-1393) also known as St. John of Nepomuk was a Saint of Bohemia born John Wölflein or Welflin, in Nepomuk, Bohemia, in 1345, Saint John used the name of his native town for his surname instead of his family name. In his early childhood, John Nepomucene was cured of a disease through the prayers of his good parents. In thanksgiving, they consecrated him to the service of God. He studied theology and law at the University of Prague and was eventually ordained a priest. After John was ordained, he was sent to a parish in the city of Prague. He became a great preacher, and thousands of those listened to him changed their way of life. In time, he became vicar general of Archbishop John of Genzenstein at Prague.

In 1393, King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, wishing to found a new bishopric for one of his favorites, ordered that at the death of the present abbot of Kladrau Abbey, no new abbot should be elected and that the abbey church should be turned into a cathedral. The archbishop and John thwarted the king’s plan by approving the election of a new abbot immediately on the death of the old one. Upon hearing this, Wenceslaus fell into a violent rage and had the vicar-general and several cathedral officials thrown into prison. John was tortured by having his sides burnt with torches, but even this could not move him. An additional reason for John’s violent death may be because of the tale that is traditionally told about him: Father John was invited to the court of Wenceslaus IV. He settled arguments and did many kind deeds for the needy people of the city. He also became the Queen’s confessor. When the King was cruel to the Queen, Father John taught her to bear her cross patiently. One day,  the King asked the Saint to tell what the Queen had said in confession. When he refused, he was thrown into prison. A second time, Father John was asked to reveal the Queen’s confession. “If you do not tell me,” said the King, “you shall die. But if you obey my command, riches and honors will be yours.” Again Father John vehemently refused to break the seal of the confessional. He was tortured. Finally, on March 20, 1393, the king ordered him to be put in chains and led through the city with a block of wood in his mouth. His martyrdom was complete when he was then thrown from a bridge into the Moldau River at Prague. A strange brightness is said to have appeared above the spot where he drowned; because of this  St. John of Nepomucene is often portrayed in art with seven stars above his head. For this reason, St. John is also called the “Martyr of the Confessional” and is sometimes pictured with his finger to his lips. He was canonized in 1729 by Pope Benedict XIII and is honored as a Patron Saint of Bohemia and of confessors. Feast Day: Celebrated on May 16th (some traditions also cite March 20th).

PRAYER: God, we praise You for the grace You granted to St. John to offer his life in defense of the seal of confession. Grant that, through his prayers, we may use the Sacrament of Penance often and with profit. Amen🙏
 
Almighty and merciful God, who brought your Martyr blessed John Nepomucene to overcome the torments of his passion, grant that we, who celebrate the day of his triumph, may remain invincible under your protection against the snares of the enemy. 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🙏

SAINT PHOTINA, THE SAMARITAN WOMAN, MARTYR: The holy Martyr Photina (1st Century) was the Samaritan GodWoman, with whom our Saviour conversed at Jacob’s Well (John 4:5-42). Her name means “enlightened one”. St Photina was later martyred for Christ, together with her sons and her sisters, during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Nero. In both Greek and Roman tradition, she preached and converted many to Christianity, including her family and Nero’s daughter. At that time St Photina was living in Carthage (the modern Tunis), where she fearlessly preached the Gospel together with her younger son Joses. Her older son Victor was in the Roman army. After the war, Victor was appointed military commander of Attalia, where he converted many people to Christianity. When Nero was informed that St Photina and her sons were preaching Christianity, he ordered them to come to Rome to be tried. St Photina arrived in Rome with her five sisters – Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva and Kyriake. They all awaited martyrdom, as they had been told of it in advance by our Lord Jesus Christ. Nero ordered all of them to be brutally tortured, especially St Photina, but the saints did not feel any pain and remained unharmed. The holy martyrs Victor and Joses were put in prison, and St Photina and her five sisters were sent to the imperial court under the supervision of Nero’s daughter Domnina. Many people visited the saints in prison and were baptized by them.

Hearing all this, Nero ordered the saints to be crucified upside down, beaten and then left to hang for three days. On the fourth day, when the emperor’s servants came to check the martyrs, an angel of God came down from heaven, untied the martyrs, and made them completely well. The servants immediately believed in Christ and were baptized. When Nero found out about this, he ordered the martyrs be severely tortured. When St Photina was urged to make a sacrifice to the idols, the saint spit in the emperor’s face and laughed at him. She was thrown into a well, where she finally gave up her soul to God. The emperor ordered all the other martyrs including her sons Joseph and Victor, her sisters along with several other Christians to be beheaded. She died a martyr’s death and is thought of as equal to the Apostles. They were included in the Roman Martyrology by Cardinal Cesare Baronius owing to the widely held view that the head of Photina was preserved in the church of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls.

PRAYER: By the well of Jacob, O holy one, thou didst find the Water of eternal and blessed life; and having partaken thereof, O wise Photina, thou went forth proclaiming Christ, the Anointed One. Help us to follow your example, and through our lives bring glory to the Lord and believers to the Church….Amen🙏

SAINT CUTHBERT OF LINDISFARNE, BISHOP AND MISSIONARY: St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (634-687 A.D.) was born in North Northumbria, present-day Scotland to in about 634, in the same year in which Aidan founded the monastery on Lindisfarne. He came from a well-to-do English family and like most boys of that class, he was placed with foster-parents for part of his childhood and taught the arts of war. We know nothing of his foster-father but he was very fond of his foster-mother, Kenswith. According to history, he was brought up as a Christian. He was credited, for instance, with having saved by his prayers, some monks who were being swept out to sea on a raft. There is some evidence that, in his mid-teens, he was involved in at least one battle, which would have been quite normal for a boy of his social background. His life changed when he was about 17 years old. He was looking after some neighbour’s sheep on the hills. Gazing into the night sky he saw a light descend to Earth and then return, escorting, he believed, a human soul to Heaven. The date was August 31st 651AD – the night that Aidan died. Perhaps Cuthbert had already been considering a possible monastic calling but that was his moment of decision. He went to the monastery at Melrose, also founded by Aidan, and asked to be admitted as a Novice. For the next 13 years he was with the Melrose monks. When Melrose was given land to found a new monastery at Ripon, St. Cuthbert went with the founding party and was made guestmaster. In his late 20s he returned to Melrose and found that his former teacher and friend, the prior Boisil, was dying of the plague. St. Cuthbert became prior (second to the Abbot) at Melrose.

In 664AD the Synod of Whitby decided that Northumbria should cease to look to Ireland for its spiritual leadership and turn instead to the continent the Irish monks of Lindisfarne, with others, went back to Iona. The abbot of Melrose subsequently became also abbot of Lindisfarne and Cuthbert its prior. St. Cuthbert seems to have moved to Lindisfarne at about the age of 30 and lived there for the next 10 years. He ran the monastery; he was an active missionary; he was much in demand as a spiritual guide and he developed the gift of spiritual healing. He was an outgoing, cheerful, compassionate person and no doubt became popular. But when he was 40 years old he believed that he was being called to be a hermit and to do the hermit’s job of fighting the spiritual forces of evil in a life of solitude. After a short trial period on the tiny islet adjoining Lindisfarne he moved to the more remote and larger island known as ‘Inner Farne’ and built a hermitage where he lived for 10 years. Of course, people did not leave him alone – they went out in their little boats to consult him or ask for healing. However, on many days of the year the seas around the islands are simply too rough to make the crossing and St. Cuthbert was left in peace. At the age of about 50 he was asked by both Church and King to leave his hermitage and become a bishop. He reluctantly agreed. For two years he was an active, travelling bishop as Aidan had been. He seems to have journeyed extensively. On one occasion he was visiting the Queen in Carlisle (on the other side of the country from Lindisfarne) when he knew by second sight that her husband, the King, had been slain by the Picts doing battle in Scotland. Feeling the approach of death he retired back to the hermitage on the Inner Farne where, in the company of Lindisfarne monks, he died on March 20th 687AD. His body was brought back and buried on Lindisfarne. Miracles were reported at his grave; in fact, so numerous were the reported miracles that St.  Cuthbert was called the “Wonder-worker of England.” Throughout the Middle Ages the shrine of Cuthbert remained one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in northern England
 
PRAYER: Merciful God, who called Cuthbert from following the flock to be a shepherd of your people: Mercifully grant that we also may go without fear to dangerous and remote places, to seek the indifferent and the lost; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen🙏