 Section 1 of Little Pictorial Eyes of the Saints, Volume 5, The American Saints. This is a LibriVox recording. While LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Little Pictorial Eyes of the Saints, Volume 5, The American Saints by John Gilmary Shea. Lives of the American Saints placed in the proper for the United States at the special petition of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. Saint Philip of Jesus, martyr patron of the city of Mexico. Philip de la Casas was born in the city of Mexico, where his parents settled after setting out for the New World from Elascas in Spain. They were earnest in all their religious duties and brought up their family piously. Two sons entering the Augustinian order, one to die by the hands of the heathen. Philip at first showed little care for the pious teaching of his parents and the example of his brothers, but at last he too resolved forsake the world and entered the reformed Franciscan convent of Santa Barbara at Pueblo. He was not yet weaned from the world and its vanities and soon left the novitiate. Grieved at the inconstancy of his son, Alonzo de la Casas sent him to the Philippian islands with a large stock of goods and money to make purchases. In vain did Philip seek to satisfy his heart with pleasure. He could not but feel that God called him to a religious life. Gaining courage by prayer, he entered the Franciscan convent of Our Lady of the Angels at Manoa and persevered, taking his vows in 1594. His novitiate had produced a great spirit of poverty, obedience and prayer, and he sought by austerity to atone for the errors of his youth. As infomerian brother Philip of Jesus beheld Our Lord in the person of the sick and attended them with holy care, the richest cargo that he could have sent to Mexico would not have gratified his pious father as much as the tidings that Philip was a professed friar. Alonzo de la Casas obtained from the commissary of the Order directions that Philip should be sent to Mexico. He embarked on the St. Philip in July 1596 with other religious. Storms drove the vessel to the coast of Japan and it was wrecked while endeavoring to enter a port. Amid the storm Philip saw over Japan a white cross and the shape used in that country, which after a time became blood red and remained so for some time. It was an omen of his coming victory. The commander of the vessel sent our saint and two other religious to the emperor to solicit permission to continue their voyage, but they could not obtain an audience. He then proceeded to Mexico to a house of his order to seek the influence of the fathers there. But the pilot of the vessel by Eid al-Bos had excited the emperor's fears of the Christians and the heathen ruler resolved to exterminate the Catholic missionaries. In December officers seized a number of the Franciscan fathers, three Jesuits and several of their young pupils. St. Philip was one of those arrested while they were in the choir seeing the office. Philip bore with heroic patience the insults of the rabble who sailed the martyrs on their way to prison and heard with holy joy that sentence of death had been passed on them all. His left ear was cut off and he offered this first fruits of his blood to God for the salvation of that heathen land. The martyrs were led through the streets of several towns with inscriptions declaring the cause of their death. They at last reached Nangasaki where crosses had been erected on a high hill near the bay. When St. Philip was led to that on which he was to die, he knelt down and clasped it. Disclaiming O happy ship, O happy galleon for Philip, loss for my gain, loss no loss for me but the greatest of all gain. He was bound to the cross but the rest under him gave way so that he was strangled by the cords. While repeating the holy name of Jesus he was the first of the happy band to receive the death stroke, the lance being driven across his body to the right shoulder and then another to the left, a third stroke being given to assure his death. The Spanish and Japanese Christians who witnessed his triumph caught his blood in their hats and in cloths to preserve his relics. Miracles attested the power before God of these first martyrs of Japan. Pope Urban VIII granted permission to say an office en masse in their honor. In Pope Pius IX formally canonized them. The devotion of St. Philip of Jesus in his native city and throughout Mexico has always been very great. A church and a convent of capuchin nuns are dedicated to him. His feast was in Spanish times kept with great solemnity in New Mexico, Texas and California and a settlement in Arizona bore his name. St. Philip died at the age of 25. He is an example to encourage those who falter in the path of God's service. His prayers will aid those who are tempted and enable them to acquire strength to recover lost ground and go on with renewed courage in the narrow way of the cross. His feast is celebrated February 5th. End of Section 1. Section 2 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 5. The American Saints. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 5. The American Saints by John Gilmary Shea. St. Toribius, Archbishop of Lima. Toribius Alphonsus Mogrobejo, whose feast The Church Honors on April the 27th was born on the 6th of November 1538 at Mallorca in the Kingdom of León in Spain. Brought up in a pious family where devotion was hereditary, his youth was a model to all who knew him. A tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the love of the poor marked this boy. He recited the rosary in the little office every day and fasted every Saturday in honor of the mother of God. As a schoolboy, he gave away his own food to relieve the poor. His life as a student at Valladolid and Salamanca showed no relaxation from his early spirit of prayer. All his leisure was given to devotion or to works of charity. His austerities were great and he frequently made long pilgrimages on foot. The fame of Toribius as a master of canon and civil law soon reached the years of King Philip II and made him judge at Granada. That monarch marked the exalted virtue and ability of Mogrobejo. About that time the Sea of Lima and Peru fell vacant and among those proposed Philip found no one who seemed better endowed than Arsene, with all the qualities that were required at that city, where much was to be done for religion. To Rome the name of the holy judge in the sovereign ponte confirmed his choice. Toribius in vain sought to avoid the honor and wrote a long treatise, which he forwarded to Rome, to show how irregular it was to appoint a layman to such a position. The pope in reply directed him to prepare to receive holy orders and be consecrated. King Philip was equally deaf to his appeals. Gileant last by direction of his confessor he prepared by a long retreat to receive minor orders in the subdeaconship and deaconship. Then he was ordained priest and consecrated. He arrived at Lima in 1587 and entered on his duties. All was soon edification and order in his episcopal city. A model of all virtue himself he confessed daily and prepared for mass by long meditation. The influences of the holy man was soon felt. Saint Toribius then began a visitation of his vast diocese which he traversed three times. His first visitation lasting seven years and his second four. He held provincial councils framing decrees of such wisdom that his regulations were adopted in many countries. Saint Toribius preached, catechized, and confirmed far and wide. He held diocese and synods and encouraged his bishops to do the same. Almost his entire revenues were bestowed on his creditors as he styled the poor. And he bore with intrepid patience the vexatious opposition raised to many of his reforms, maintaining the liberties of the church with apostolic courage. His charging was ill, his duties of priest and bishop. He was seized with a fatal illness during his third visitation and died on the 23rd of March in the year 1666 at Santa. Exclaiming as he received the sacred viaticum, I rejoiced in the things that were said to me, we shall go into the house of the Lord. His holy austere and devoted life had made the people regard him as a saint and a constant benefactor. They regarded him now as their patron in heaven, and miracles rewarded their faith. The proofs of his holy life and of the favors granted through his intercession induced Pope Innocent XI to beatify him, and he was canonized by Pope Benedict VIII in the year 1726. Saint Toribius was a model for all states, as a holy youth, as a pious and zealous layman, as a great and exemplary bishop. End of Section 2. Section 3 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 5, The American Saints. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 5, The American Saints by John Gilmary Shea. Saint Francis Solano. The diocese of Cortitova in Spain was the birthplace of the saint, who won many thousands of souls to God. From his earliest years he was characterized by a modest behavior, prudent silence and edifying meekness. While still very young he was always able to affect a reconciliation between the most bitter enemies. Once when he came upon two Spaniards who were engaged in deadly strife, he threw himself between them, and kneeling down prayed with so much fervor that the furious combatants sheathed their daggers and became reconciled to one another. His education was entrusted to the Jesuit fathers, but his desire to follow the poor and humble Jesus in perfect poverty and humility induced him to enter the order of Saint Francis. Soon he excelled everyone in the house in humility, obedience, fervor and prayer and self-denial. Sometimes he would pass the entire night on his knees before the tabernacle. If he saw a religious zealous for God's honor and love he would say to him, Brother, let us see which of us can show Jesus more proofs of love, fervor and self-denial during this week. After his ordination he preached the word of God in simple, unadorned language, but with so much fervor and heartfelt emotion that those among his numerous audience who had been traveling on the broad road of vice abandoned it and entered upon the narrow path of a virtuous life. He was no less zealous indeed than a word, for when the pestilence was raging in Granada he was untiring and fearless in his service to the plague-stricken inhabitants, tending to sick and dying with such assiduous and, as it were, maternal care that the wondering people praised God for the visible protection he manifested toward his servant. In the year 1589 he sailed for South America to preach the gospel to the Indians in Peru. On the same vessel with him were six hundred negro slaves, while still at some distance from shore the ship struck a ledge of rocks and the danger of drowning was imminent. The captain hurried the officers and principal passengers into the only boat there was and tried to induce the missionary to accompany them. But he refused to do so in these terms. Sir, you have done your duty. Now I shall do mine. I stay here." He then consoled the remaining passengers, directing their thoughts to heaven. He knelt down with them, praying fervently, exhorting those who had been baptised, instructing those who were not, and comforting all. Meanwhile the vessel was sinking and the passengers trembled with fear, but not so the zealous missionary. He alone kept up his hope in God's mercy. Thus three dreadful days were passed until at last the captain came with the lifeboat and all were taken off in safety. The missionary did not confine his ministry to Lima. He visited the forests and deserts inhabited by the Indians who were cruel and bloodthirsty by nature and who hated the Spaniards because they had often times been cruelly treated by them. But God protected his fearless servant, to whom he had given the gifts of eloquence and power over wild beasts. Lions, tigers, and snakes obeyed him, and the birds perched on his shoulder singing with him the praises of God. By degrees he won the trust of the Indians, who marveled at his kindness. They listened to his instruction, allowed him to baptise them, and followed him as grateful children followed their father. In this way nine thousand Indians were converted, and everything was in the most promising condition when the missionary was recalled by an order from his superior to Lima, which at that time was like the godless city of Nineveh. Francis preached with great effect to the hardened sinners. He carried the mission everywhere in the public streets into the shameless theatres and gambling dens where, cross in hand, he frightened the evildoers by the might of his words, which echoed like the trumpet sounds of the last judgment. The result of his labours was that the whole city became converted. He wrought many miracles on the sick and sorrowful, and was in himself the greatest miracle of all, ever busy, humble, joyful, and never uttering a single useless word. In his leisure time he composed songsh to the Christ child and his blessed mother and sung them to the accompaniment of his violin so sweetly that his hearers were enraptured. His love of his neighbour was unbounded. He never thought evil of anyone and put a good construction on every action, even when persecuted, columnated, and held in suspicion by his religious brethren. The proverb, as our life is, so shall be our death, was fulfilled in Francis's case. In his last painful sickness he prayed thus, O Jesus, how do I deserve such grace? Thou art nailed to the cross, and I am served by my brethren. Thou art stripped of thy clothes, and I am well covered. Thou dost receive blows, and I only receive good things, O my God. His last words were, God, be praised, after uttering which, his soul departed his earth on July 14, 1610. His remains were honoured by a grand funeral, and he was declared blessed by Pope Clement X in 1675 and canonized by Benedict VIII in 1726. St. Francis' Feast is held July 24. End of Section 3 End of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 5 The American Saints by John Gilmary Shea