MEMORIAL OF SAINT GOTHARD, BISHOP; SAINT JUDITH (JUTTA) OF PRUSSIA, RELIGIOUS; SAINT ANGELUS OF JERUSALEM, PRIEST AND MARTYR AND BLESSED CATERINA CITTADINI, RELIGIOUS ~ FEAST DAY: MAY 5TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Gothard, Bishop; Saint Judith (Jutta) of Prussia, Religious; Saint Angelus of Jerusalem, Priest and Martyr and Blessed Caterina Cittadini, Religious. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying, we particularly pray for those who are suffering from cancer and other terminal diseases. We pray for God’s Divine healing upon them. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle souls of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. For vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for the youths, for persecuted christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen 🙏🏽
SAINT GOTHARD, BISHOP: St. Gothard (960 – May 5, 1038 AD), also known as Gothard or Godehard the Bishop, was a German abbot and archbishop, who helped foster the development of Hildesheim and who played an important role in the imperial campaign to reform and reorganize the Bavarian church. St. Gothard was born in the Bavarian village of Reichersdorf about 960. St. Gothard was educated by the Canons of that area and showed so much promise that he attracted the attention of Archbishop Frederick of Salzburg. He became a priest and in 990 when the Benedictine Rule was restored to the Abbey of Heidr-Altaich he received the monastic habit. He became Prior and eventually Abbot of the Abbey. There was such good discipline under St. Gothard that the Emperor, St. Henry II, entrusted him with the reform of other monasteries. Over the course of twenty-five years he formed nine Abbots for various houses, and when St. Bernward died in 1022, St. Gothard was made Bishop of Hildesheim in his place, despite his pleas of age and lack of suitable qualifications.
In typical fashion, this dedicated servant of God set about reforming his diocese with all the vigor of a young man. He built and restored churches, fostered education, especially in the Cathedral school, established order throughout the diocese, and erected a hospice for the poor and sick at the edge of Hildesheim. St. Gothard died on May 5, 1038. The pass and railroad tunnel from Switzerland into Italy takes its name from this Saint in whose honor the nearby hospice for travelers and its chapel were dedicated. He was Canonized in 1131, Rheims by Pope Innocent II. He is the Patron Saint of travelling merchants; invoked against fever, dropsy, childhood sicknesses, hailstones, the pain of childbirth, and gout; invoked by those in peril of the sea.
PRAYER: God, You made St. Gothard an outstanding exemplar of Divine love and the Faith that conquers the world, and added him to the roll of saintly pastors. Grand by his intercession that we may persevere in Faith and love and become sharers of his glory. Amen 🙏🏽
SAINT JUDITH (JUTTA) OF PRUSSIA, RELIGIOUS: St. Judith of Prussia (13th c.), also known as St. Jutta, Jutta of Kulmsee, Jutta of Thuringia and Jutta of Sangerhausen, was a German aristocrat who became a hermit on the frontier of Prussia and is honored as the patron saint of that region. St. Judith was born to a wealthy family in Thuringia in what is now Germany. She desired to model her life after another noble saint from her country, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who lived in the previous century. St. Judith married young at the age fifteen to a man of equal rank, and together they raised a family. She had several children, all of whom embraced a religious life, in various Orders. Despite their great wealth, St. Judith desired that they should live in a simple way and share their fortune generously with the poor. Her husband was at first displeased with her because he desired a lifestyle according to their means and rank. However, Judith persevered and eventually won him over to join her in a life of greater humility and piety.
St. Judith’s husband later died while on a pilgrimage to Palestine, the Holy Land, leaving St. Judith to raise her children alone. Once her children were grown, St. Judith rid herself of her costly clothes, jewelry, and other possessions and joined the Third Order of St. Francis. She committed herself to serving the poor and the sick, especially lepers for which she incurred mockery due to her noble rank in society. She was favored with visions. In the final years of her life she relocated to Prussia to live as a hermitess in a simple hut. There she spent her days in prayer and penance for the conversion of the pagan Prussians. After she died many miracles occurred at her grave, and she became the Patron Saint of Prussia, in Eastern Germany. Her feast day is May 5th.
Saint Judith (Jutta) of Prussia, Religious ~ Pray for us 🙏🏽
SAINT ANGELUS OF JERUSALEM, PRIEST AND MARTYR: St. Angelus of Jerusalem (1185-1220), priest, martyr, hermit, mystic, reformer, thaumaturge, missionary, convert from Judaism and a professed Priest of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. He is also known as St. Angelus of Sicily and St. Angelo. St Angelus was born in Jerusalem to a Jewish family in 1145 and died by being stabbed to death in 1220 at Licata, Sicily. His mother converted to Christianity and Angelo, along with his twin brother John, were Baptised and converted along with her. His parents died while he was in his childhood and the Patriarch Nicodemus oversaw their education until the twins turned eighteen. He and his brother John entered the Carmelites then, at the Saint Anne convent near the Golden Gate to commence their novitiate. They were well learned and already spoke Greek, Latin and Hebrew. When he was twenty-six, Angelo was Ordained in Jerusalem and travelled throughout Palestine. Various miraculous cures were attributed to him as he travelled. His “Acta” tells us that he sought to avoid fame and when he was becoming known for his miracles, he withdrew from society to a hermitage to avoid the pilgrims who were following him. St. Angelus withdrew to a hermitage on Mount Carmel, until he was instructed by Christ in a vision, to leave Mount Carmel for Italy to preach against the Albigensians, Bulgars and other heresies.
He set off on a Genoese ship on April 1, 1219 and stopped first in Messina before heading off to Civitavecchia before he ended up in Rome to meet with the pope. The friar preached in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran while in Rome where he met both Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Dominic. He foretold that Francis would receive the stigmata while Francis foretold his premature death. From there he was a guest of the Basilians in Palermo where he was for about a month, before preaching in Agrigento for over a month before settling in Licata. He had healed seven lepers and the ailing Archbishop of Palermo Bernardo de Castanea while in Palermo. He settled on the Sicilian island though his fame as a wonderworker caused crowds to flock to him. He also had success in converting some Jews though most Jews in Palermo came to despise him for this since he himself was once Jewish. He wanted to convert a Knight named Berenger. Catholic tradition states that Berenger was living in incest and that St. Angelo convinced the knight’s companion to leave him. Berenger became enraged and arranged to have him attacked and murdered, in front of the Church of Saints Filippo and Giacomo in Licata. He didn’t die from the attack until four days after the attack and during that time, he prayed for his assassin and asked the civil authorities to pardon him. He showed the ultimate in forgiveness, setting an example for all those that he preached to. He was buried at Saints Filippo and Giacomo Church. His sepulchre at Licata quickly became a site of Pilgrimage. The Carmelites venerated him as a saint from 1456 and Pope Pius II Canonised him in 1459. His relics were translated to a new Church in Licata, Saint Maria del Carmine. It was through St Angelo’s intercession that the plague in the Kingdom of Naples was halted.
Saint Angelus of Jerusalem, Priest ~ Pray for us 🙏🏽
BLESSED CATERINA CITTADINI, RELIGIOUS: Bl. Caterina Cittadini was an Italian Roman Catholic religious from Bergamo who established the Ursuline Sisters of Saint Jerome Emiliani. The order was dedicated to the education of girls in Bergamo and in the surrounding areas and has since expanded outside of the Italian nation. Bl. Caterina was a daughter of Giovanni Battista and Magherita Lanzani. Her mother died when Caterina was seven, and her father abandoned the girl and her younger sister Giuditta. They were accepted and grew up at the orphanage of the Conventino of Bergamo. There she developed a strong faith, a big sister’s sense of responsibility, and a devotion to Our Lady and Saint Jerome Emiliani. The sisters left the orphanage in 1823 to live with their cousins Giovanni and Antonio Cittadini, both parish priests at Calolzio, Italy. Caterina became a teacher at a girl‘s public school in Somasca in 1824. The sisters felt a call to the religious life; their spiritual director recommended that they should stay in Somasca, and become the basis of a new congregation.
In 1826 the sisters rented a house in Somasca, bought and furnished a building, and in October opened a boarding school for girls. Bl. Caterina taught religion, managed the school, and instituted the oratory style of education for her girls. Word of her success spread, attracting more students. The sisters established another “Cittadini” private school in 1832, and another in 1836. Giuditta directed these new schools until her sudden death in 1840. Bl. Caterini’s cousin, Father Antonio Cittadini, died in 1841, followed quickly by her spiritual director from the orphanage. The rapid succession of tragedy ruined Bl. Caterina’s health, and she fell gravely ill, but was cured through the intercession of Saint Jerome Emilani. Bl. Caterina quit her public teaching position in 1845 to manage the schools, care for the orphans, and guide the three companions who help her. To help organize the work and lives of her companions, she wrote the beginnings of a new rule similar to that of religious orders. In 1850 she obtained permission to build a private oratory to keep the Blessed Sacrament at her boarding school. In 1851 she applied for approval of her new religious family. In 1854 her bishop encouraged her work, and told her to write the rules of the new order; her first attempt, based on the Constitution of the Ursulines of Milano was rejected. A second attempt was accepted on September 17, 1854 under the title Orsoline Gerolimiane (Ursuline Sisters of Somasca). On December 14, 1857, six months after her death, the bishop of Bergamo gave his approval; the order achieved papal recognition on July 8, 1927. The order’s mandate is to teach, and to care for the abandoned; today they work in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Brazil, Bolivia, India, and the Philippines. Bl. Caterina died on May 5, 1857 in Somasca, Bergamo, Italy of natural causes.
Blessed Caterina Cittadini, Religious ~ Pray for us 🙏🏽