 Section 70 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, Able to June. 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 2, Able to June by John Gilmari Shea. Section 70, June 9, Saints Primus and Felicianus, Martyrs, and Saint Columa or Column Kil, Avert. June 9, Saints Primus and Felicianus, Martyrs. These two Martyrs were brothers and lived in Rome towards the latter part of the 3rd century for many years, mutually encouraging each other in the practice of all good works. They seemed to possess nothing but for the poor and often spent both nights and days with the confessors in their dungeons or at the places of their torments and execution. Some they encouraged to perseverance, but this who had fallen they raised again and they made themselves the servants of all in Christ that all might attain to salvation through him. Though their zeal was most remarkable, they had escaped the dangers of many bloody persecutions and were grown old in the heroic exercises of virtue when it pleased God to crown their labours with a glorious martyrdom. The pagans raised so great an outery against them that they were both apprehended and put in chains. They were inhumanly scourged and then sent to a town 12 miles from Rome to be felt the chastised as about enemies to the gods. There they were cruelly tortured, first both together afterwards separately. But the grace of God strengthened them and they were at length both beheaded on the 9th of June. Reflection A soul which truly loves God regards all the things of this world as nothing. The loss of goods, the disgrace of the world, torments, sickness and other afflictions are better to the senses but appear light to him that loves. If we cannot bear our trials with patience and silence it is because we love God only in words. One who is slothful and lukewarm complains of everything and calls the lightest precepts hard, says Thomas Aquinas. Saint Columba or Column Kill, Abbott. Saint Columba, the apostle of the Picts, was born of a noble family at Garten in the county of Turconel, A.D. 521. From early childhood he gave himself to God. In all his labours, and there you were many, his chief thought was heaven and how he should secure the way thither. The result was that he lay on the bare floor with a stone-fizz pillow and fasted all the year round. Yet the sweetness of his countenance told of the holy soul's interior serenity. Though austere he was not morose and often as he longed to die he was untiring in good works throughout his life. After he had been made Abbott his zeal offended King Dermot and in 565 the saints departed for Scotland where he founded a hundred religious houses and converted the Picts who in gratitude gave him the island of Iona. There Saint Columba founded his celebrated monastery for school of apostolic missionaries and martyrs and for centuries the last resting place of saints and kings. Four years before his death our saint had a vision of angels who told him that the day of his death had been deferred four years in answer to the prayers of his children where at the saint wept bitterly and cried out woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged for he decide above all things to reach his true home. How different is the conduct of most men who dread death above everything instead of wishing to be dissolved and to be with Christ. On the day of his peaceful death in the 77th year of his age surrounded in choir by his spiritual children the 9th of June AD 597 he said to his disciple Dermot this day is called the sabbath that is the day of rest and such will it truly be to me for it will put an end to my ladders. Then kneeling before the altar you received the beatacum and sweetly slept in the Lord. His relics were carried to down and laid in the same shrine with the bodies of Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget. Reflection. The thought of the world to come will always make us happy and yet strict with ourselves and all our duties the more perfect we become the sooner shall we behold that for which Saint Columba sighed. End of Section 70. Section 71 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April through June. 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 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June 10, Saint Margaret of Scotland. Saint Margaret's name signifies pearl. A fitting name says the adorak, her confessor, and her first biographer, for one such as she. Her soul was like a precious pearl. A life-spentimus, the luxury of a royal court, never dimmed its luster or stole it away from him who had bought it with his blood. She was the granddaughter of an English king, and in 1070 she became the bride of Malcolm and reigned Queen of Scotland until her death in 1093. How did she become a saint in a position where sanctity is so difficult? First she burned with zeal for the house of God. She built churches and monasteries. She busied herself in making vestments. She could not rest till she saw the laws of God in his church observed throughout her realm. Next, amidst a thousand carers, she found time to converse with God, ordering her piety with such sweetness and discretion that she won her husband to sanctity like her own. He used to rise with her at night for prayer. He loved to kiss the holy book she used, and sometimes he would steal them away and bring them back to his wife covered with jewels. Finally, with virtue so great, she wept constantly over her sins and begged her confessor to correct her faults. St. Margaret did not neglect her duties in the world because she was not of it. Never was a better mother. She spared no pains in the education of her eight children, and their sanctity was the fruit of her prudence and her zeal. Never was a better queen. She was the most trusted counselor of her husband, and she labored for the material improvement of the country. But in the midst of the world's pleasures, she sighed for the better country and accepted death as a release. On her deathbed she received the news that her husband and her eldest son were slain in battle. She thanked God, who has sent this last affliction as a penance for her sins. After receiving holy viaticum, she was repeating the prayer from the missile, O Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy death does give life to the world, deliver me. At the words deliver me, says her biography, she took her departure to Christ, the author of true liberty. Reflection. All perfection consists in keeping a guard upon the heart. Wherever we are we can make a solitude in our hearts, detach ourselves from the world, and converse familiarly with God. Let us take Saint Margaret for our example and encouragement. End of Section 71. Section 72 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April through June. 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 2, April through June. By John Gilmoury Shea. June XI. Saint Barnabas, Apostle. We read that in the first days of the church, the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that ought of the things which he possessed was his own. Of this fervent company, one only is singled out by name, Joseph, a rich Levite from Cyprus. He, having land, sold it, and brought the price and laid it at the feet of the apostles. They now gave him a new name, Barnabas, the son of consolation. He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and was soon chosen for an important mission to the rapidly growing Church of Antioch. Here he perceived the great work which was to be done among the Greeks, so he hastened to fetch Saint Paul from his retirement at Tarsus. It was at Antioch that the two Saints were called to the Apostleate of the Gentiles, and hence they set out together to Cyprus and the cities of Asia Minor. Their preaching struck men with amazement, and some cried out, the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men, calling Paul, Mercury, and Barnabas, Jupiter. The Saints traveled together to the Council of Jerusalem, but shortly after this they parted. When Agabus prophesied a great famine, Barnabas, no longer rich, was chosen by the faithful at Antioch as most fit to bear with Saint Paul their generous offerings to the Church of Jerusalem. The gentle Barnabas keeping with him John, surnamed Mark, whom Saint Paul distrusted, betook himself to Cyprus where the sacred history leaves him, and here at a later period he won his martyr's crown. Reflection. Saint Barnabas's life is full of suggestions to us who live in days when once more the abundant alms of the faithful are sorely needed by the whole Church. From the sovereign Pontiff to the poor children in our streets. End of Section 72. Recording by Todd Marchand. Section 73 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April through June. 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 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June 12, St. John of St. Fagundes. St. John was born at St. Fagundes in Spain. At an early age he held several benefices in the diocese of Burgos till the reproaches of his conscience forced him to resign them all. Except one chapel, where he said mass daily, preached and catechized. After this he studied theology at Salamanca and then labored for some time as a most devoted missionary priest. Ultimately became a hermit of the Augustinian Order in the same city. There his life was marked by a singular devotion to the Holy Mass. Each night after matins he remained in prayer till the hour of celebration when he offered the adorable sacrifice with the most tender piety, often enjoying the sight of Jesus in glory and holding sweet colloquies with him. The power of his personal holiness was seen in his preaching which produced a complete reformation in Salamanca. Yet a special gift of reconciling differences was enabled to put an end to the quarrels and feuds among noblemen at that period very common and fatal. The boldness shown by St. John in reproving vice endangered his life, a powerful noble having been corrected by the saint for oppressing his vassals, sent two assassins to slay him. The holiness of the saint's aspect, however, caused by that peace which continually reigned in his soul, struck such awe into their minds that they could not execute their purpose, but humbly besought his forgiveness. And the nobleman himself falling sick was brought to repentance and recovered his health by the prayers of the saint whom he had endeavored to murder. He was also most zealous in denouncing those hideous vices which are a fruitful source of strife and it was in defense of holy purity that he met his death. A lady of noble birth, but evil life whose companion in sin St. John had converted, contrived to administer a fatal poison to the saint. After several months of terrible suffering, born with unvarying patience, St. John went to his reward on June 11, 1479. Reflection. All men desire peace, but those alone enjoy it who, like St. John, are completely dead to themselves and love to bear all things for Christ. End of Section 73. Section 74 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April through June. 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 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June 13, St. Anthony of Padua. In 1221 St. Francis held a general chapter at Assisi. When the others dispersed, they were lingered behind, unknown and neglected. A poor Portuguese friar resolved to ask for and to refuse nothing. Nine months later, Fra Antomio rose under obedience to preach to the religious assembly at Forley, when, as the discourse proceeded, the hammer of heretics, the Ark of the Testament, the eldest son of St. Francis, stood revealed in all his sanctity, learning and eloquence before his rapt and astonished brethren. Devoted from earliest youth to prayer and study among the cannons regular, Ferdinand de Boloins, as his name was in the world, had been stirred by the spirit and example of the first five Franciscan martyrs to put on their habit and preach the faith to the Moors in Africa. Denied a martyr's poem and enfeebled by sickness at the age of twenty-seven, he was taking silent but merciless revenge upon himself in the humblest offices of his community. From this obscurity was now called forth, and for nine years, France, Italy, and Sicily heard his voice, saw his miracles, and men's hearts turned to God. One night, when St. Antony was staying with a friend in the city of Padua, his hosts saw brilliant rays streaming under the door of the saint's room, and on looking through the keyhole he beheld a little child of marvelous beauty, standing upon a book which lay open upon the table and clinging with both arms round Antony's neck. With an ineffable sweetness, he watched the tender caresses of the saint and his wondrous visitor. At last the child vanished, and for Antony, opening the door, charged his friend by the love of him who he had seen to tell the vision to no man as long as he was alive. Suddenly in 1231 our saint's brief apostolate was closed, and the voices of children were her crying along the streets of Padua. Our father, St. Antony, is dead. The following year the church bells of Lisbon rang without ringers, but Rome, one of its sons, was inscribed among the saints of God. Reflection. Let us love to pray in labor unseen, and cherish in the secret of our hearts the graces of God and the growth of our immortal souls. Like St. Antony, let us attend to this and leave the rest to God. 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 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June the 14th. St. Basil the Great. St. Basil was born in Asia Minor. Two of his brothers became bishops, and, together with his mother and sister, are honored as saints. He studied with great success at Athens, where he formed with St. Gregory Nazianzen the most tender friendship. He then taught oratory, but dreading the honors of the world he gave up all and became the father of the monastic life in the East. The Arian heretics supported by the court were then persecuting the church, and Basil was summoned from his retirement by his bishop to give aid against them. His energy and zeal soon mitigated the disorders of the church, and his solid and eloquent words silenced the heretics. On the death of Eusebius he was chosen bishop of Caesarea. His commanding character, his firmness and energy, his learning and eloquence, and not less his humility and the exceeding austerity of his life, made him a model for bishops. When St. Basil was required to admit the Arians to communion, the prefect finding that soft words had no effect said to him, Are you mad that you resist the will before which the world bows? Do you not dread the wrath of the emperor nor exile nor death? No, said Basil calmly. He who has nothing to lose need not dread loss of goods. You cannot exile me for the whole earth is my home. As for death it would be the greatest kindness you could bestow upon me. Horments cannot harm me. One blow would end my frail life and my sufferings together. Never, said the prefect, has anyone dared to address me thus. Perhaps, suggested Basil, you never before measured your strength with a Christian bishop. The emperor desisted from his commands. St. Basil's whole life was one of suffering. He lived amid jealousies and misunderstandings and seeming disappointments. But he sowed the seed which bore goodly fruit in the next generation, and was God's instrument in beating back the Arian and other heretics in the east and restoring the spirit of discipline and fervor in the church. He died in 379 and is venerated as a doctor of the church. Fear God, says the imitation of Christ, and thou shalt have no need of being afraid of any man. Section 76 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April through June. 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 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June 15, Saints Vitus, Crescentia, and Modestus, Martyrs. Vitus was a child nobly born, who had the happiness to be instructed in the faith and inspired with the most perfect sentiments of his religion by his Christian nurse, named Crescentia, and her faithful husband, Modestus. His father, Highless, was extremely incensed when he discovered the child's invincible aversion to idolatry, and finding him not to be overcome by stripes and such like chastisements. He delivered him up to Valerian, the governor, who in vain tried all his arts to work him into compliance with his father's will and the emperor's edicts. He escaped out of their hands, and together with Crescentia and Modestus fled into Italy. There they met with the Crown of Martyrdom in Lucania, in the persecution of Diocletian. The heroic spirit of Martyrdom, which we admire in Saint Vitus, was owing to the early impressions of piety which he received from the lessons and examples of a virtuous nurse. Of such infinite importance is the choice of virtuous preceptors, nurses, and servants about children. Reflection. What happiness for an infant to be formed naturally to all virtue and for the spirit of simplicity, meekness, goodness, and piety to be molded in its tender frame. Such a foundation being well laid, further graces are abundantly communicated, and a soul improves daily these seeds and rises to the height of Christian virtue often without experiencing severe conflicts of the passions. End of Section 76. Section 77 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April through June. 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 Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June 16. St. John Francis Regis. St. John Francis Regis was born in Laquido, A.D. 1597. From his tenderest years he showed evidences of uncommon sanctity by his innocence of life, modesty, and love of prayer. At the age of 18 he entered the Society of Jesus as soon as his studies were over he gave himself entirely to the salvation of souls. The winter he spent in country missions, principally in mountainous districts, and in spite of the rigor of the weather and the ignorance and roughness of the inhabitants, he labored with such success that he gained innumerable souls to God, both from heresy and from a bad life. The summer he gave to the towns. There his time was taken up in visiting hospitals and prisons and preaching and instructing, and in assisting all who in any way stood in need of his services. In his works of mercy God often helped him by miracles. In November 1637 the Saints set out for his second mission at Martha's. His road lay across valleys filled with snow and over mountains frozen and precipitous. In climbing one of the highest a bush to which he was claiming gave way and he broke his leg in the fall. By the help of his companion he accomplished the remaining six miles and then instead of seeing a surgeon insisted on being taken straight to the confessional. There after several hours the curate of the parish found him still seated and when his leg was examined the fracture was found to be miraculously healed. He was so inflamed with the love of God that he seemed to breathe, think, speak of that alone. And he offered up the holy sacrifice with such attention and fervor that those who assisted at it could not but feel something of the fire with which he burned. After twelve years of unceasing labor he rendered his pure and innocent soul to his creator at the age of forty-four. Reflection. When St. John Francis was struck in the face by a sinner whom he was reproving he replied, If you only knew me you would give me much more than that. His meekness converted the man and it is in that spirit that he teaches us to win souls to God. How much might we do if we could forget our own wants in remembering those of others and put our trust in God? End of section seventy-seven. Section seventy-eight of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume two, April through June. 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 two, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June seventeen, St. Avitis, Abbot. St. Avitis was a native of Orleans and retiring into Avergion took the monastic habit together with St. Calais and the Abbey of Manat. At that time very small though afterward enriched by Queen Brunholt and by St. Bonheur, Bishop of Clermont. The two Saints soon after returned to Missy, a famous abbey situated a league and a half below Orleans. It was founded toward the end of the reign of Clovis the First St. Euspecius, a holy priest honored on the fourteenth of June. And his nephew St. Maximus, or Mesmon, whose name this monastery which is now of the Cistergian Order bears. Many call St. Maximus the First Abbot. Others St. Euspecius the First. St. Maximus the Second and St. Avitis the Third. But our St. and St. Calais may not long stay at Missy, though St. Maximus gave them a gracious reception. In quest of a closer retirement St. Avitis who had seceded St. Maximus soon after resigned the abbey and with St. Calais lived a reckless in the territory now called Donoi on the frontiers of La Perchée. Others joining them St. Calais retired into a forest in Maine and King Clotaire built a church and monastery for St. Avitis and his companions. This is at present a Benedictine nunnery called St. Avit of Chateau d'Or in a situated on the Loire at the foot of the hill on which the town of Chateau d'Or is built in the diocese of Chartres. Three famous monks, Lyubin, afterwards Bishop of Chartres, Euphronius and Rusticus attended our St. to his happy death which happened about the year 530. His body was carried to Orleans and buried with great pop in that city. End of Section 78. Section 79 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April through June. 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 2 April through June by John Gilmary Shea June 18 St. Marcus and Marcellianus, Martyrs Marcus and Marcellianus were twin brothers of an illustrious family in Rome who had been converted to the faith in their youth and were honorably married. Diocletian sending the imperial throne in 284 the heathens raised persecutions. These martyrs were thrown into prison and condemned to be beheaded. Their friends obtained a respite of the execution for 30 days that they might prevail on them to worship the false gods. Crenquilinus and Martia, their afflicted heathen parents in company with their son's own wives and their little babes endeavored to move them by the most tender entreesies and tears. St. Sebastian, an officer of the emperor's household coming to Rome soon after their commitment daily visited and encouraged them. The issue of the conferences was the happy conversion of the father, mother and wives also of Nicostratus the public register and soon after of Chromatius the judge who set the saints at liberty and abdicating the magistrate retired into the country. Marcus and Marcellianus were hid by a Christian officer of the household in his apartments in the palace but they were portrayed by an apostate and retaken. Fabian who had seceded Chromatius condemned them to be bound to two pillars with their feet nailed to the same. In this posture there remained a day and a night and on the following day were stabbed with lances. Reflection. We know not what we are till we have been tried because nothing to say we love God above all things and show the courage of martyrs at a distance from the danger but that love is sincere which has stood the proof. Persecution shows who is a hireling and who a true pastor says St. Bernard. End of Section 79. Section 80 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April through June. 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 2 April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June 19 St. Juliana Falconiere. Juliana Falconiere was born in answer to prayer A.D. 1270. Her father built the splendid church of the Annunziata in Florence while her uncle Blessed Alexius became one of the founders of the Serfide Order. Under his care Juliana grew up as he said more like an angel than a human being. Such was her modesty that she never used a mirror or gazed upon the face of a man during her whole life. The mere mention of sin made her shudder and tremble and once hearing a scandal related she fell into a dead swoon. Her devotion to the sorrows of Our Lady drew her to the servants of Mary and at the age of 14 she refused an offer of marriage and received the habit from St. Philip Benzini himself. Her sanctity attracted many novices for whose direction she was bidden to draw up a rule and thus with reluctance she became foundress of the Montelei. She was with her children as their servant rather than their mistress while outside her convent she led a life of apostolic charity converting sinners, reconciling enemies and healing the sick by sucking with their own lips the ulcerous sores. She was sometimes wrapped for whole days in ecstasy and her prayer saved the Serfide Order when it was in danger of being suppressed. She was visited in her last hour by angels in the form of white doves and Jesus himself as a beautiful child crowned her with a garland of flowers. She wasted away through a disease of the stomach which prevented her taking food. She bore her silent agony with constant cheerfulness grieving only for the privation of Holy Communion. At last when in her 70th year she had sunk to the point of death she begged to be allowed once more to see and adore the blessed sacrament. It was brought to herself and reverently laid on a corporal which was placed over her heart. At this moment she expired and the sacred host disappeared. After her death the form of the host was found stamped upon her heart and the exact spot over which the blessed sacrament had been placed. Juliana died AD 1340. Reflection Meditate often says St. Paul of the Cross on the sorrows of the Holy Mother sorrows inseparable from those of her beloved son. If you seek the cross there you'll find the mother and where the mother is there also is the son. End of Section 80. Section 81 of Little Victoria Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April through June. This is a LibriVox recording. While LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Little Victoria Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea. June 20th. St. Silvarius, Pope and martyr. Silvarius was son of Pope Hermizdus who had been married before he entered the ministry. Upon the death of St. Agapitas after a vacancy of 47 days Silvarius then Sceptican was chosen pope and ordained on the 8th of June 536. Theodora, the Empress of Justinian resolved to promote the sect of the Asephali. She endeavored to win Silvarius over to her interest and wrote to him ordering that he should acknowledge Anthemus, lawful bishop, or repair in person to Constantinople and reexamine his cause on the spot. Without the least hesitation or delay Silvarius returned her a short answer by which he preemptorily gave her to understand that he neither could nor would obey her unjust demands and betray the cause of the Catholic faith. The Empress finding that she could expect nothing from him resolved to have him deposed. Virgilius, Archdeacon of the Roman Church and a man of address was then at Constantinople. To him the Empress made her application and finally him taken by the bait of ambition promised to make him pope and to bestow on him 700 pieces of gold provided he would engage himself to condemn the Council of Chalcedon and received to communion the three deposed Eotichian patriarchs Anthemus of Constantinople, Severus of Antioch and Theodosius of Alexandria. The unhappy Virgilius having assented to these conditions the Empress sent him to Rome charged with a letter to the general Belisarius commanding him to drive out Silvarius and contrived the election of Virgilius to the pontificate. Virgilius urged the general to execute the project. The more easily to carry out this project the pope was accused of corresponding with the enemy and a letter was produced which was pretended to have been written by him to the king of the Goths inviting him into the city and promising to open the gates to him. Silvarius was banished to Patara in Licea. The bishop of that city received the illustrious exile with all possible marks of honor and respect and thinking himself bound to undertake his defense repaired to Constantinople and spoke boldly to the emperor terrifying him with the threats of the divine judgments for the expulsion of a bishop of so great a sea telling him there are many kings in the world but there is only one pope over the church of the whole world must be observed that these were the words of an oriental bishop and a clear confession of the supremacy of the Roman sea. Justinian appeared startle at the atrocity of the proceedings and gave orders that Silvarius should be sent back to Rome but the enemies of the pope contrived to prevent it and he was intercepted on his road toward Rome and carried to a desert island where he died on the 20th of June 538. End of Section 81 Section 82 of little pictorial lives of the saints Volume 2, April through June 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 2, April through June by John Gilmary Shea June 21st St. Aloysius Gonzaga St. Aloysius the eldest son of Ferdinand Gonzaga Marcus of Castiglione was born on the 9th of March 1568 The first words he pronounced were the holy names of Jesus and Mary When he was nine years of age he made a vow of perpetual virginity and by special grace was ever exempted from temptations against purity He received his first communion at the hands of St. Charles Borromeo At an early age he resolved to leave the world and in no vision was directed by our blessed lady to join the society of Jesus The saint's mother rejoiced on learning his determination to become a religious but his father for three years refused his consent At length St. Aloysius obtained permission to enter the novitiate on the 25th of November 1585 He took his vows after two years and went through the ordinary course of philosophy and theology He was wont to say he doubted whether without penance grace would continue to make head against nature which when not afflicted in chastise tends gradually to relapse into its old state losing the habit of suffering acquired by the labor of years I'm a crooked piece of iron he said and I'm come into religion to be made straight by the hammer of mortification and penance During his last year of theology a malignant fever broke out in Rome The saint offered himself for the service of the sick and he was accepted for the dangerous duty Several of the brothers caught the fever and Aloysius was of the number He was brought to the point of death but recovered only to fall however into slow fever which carried him off after three months He died repeating the holy name a little after midnight between the 20th and 21st of June on the octave day of Corpus Christi being rather more than 23 years of age Reflection Cardinal Bellarmine, the saint's confessor testified that he had never mortally offended God yet he chastised his body rigorously rose at night to pray and shed many tears for his sins Pray that not having followed his innocence you may yet imitate his penance End of section 82 Section 83 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June This is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Adam Bielka Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June Section 83, June 22 Saint Paul Linus of Nola Paul Linus was of a family which boasted of a long line of senators prefects and consuls He was educated with great care and his genius and eloquence in prose and verse were the admiration of Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine He had more than doubled his wealth by marriage and was one of the foremost men of his time Though he was the chosen friend of saints and had a great devotion to Saint Felix of Nola he was still only a catechumen trying to serve two masters but God drew him to himself along the way of sorrows and trials He received baptism with drew into Spain to be alone and then in concert with his holy wife sold all their vast estates in various parts of the empire distributing their proceeds so prudently that Saint Jerome says east and west were filled with his alms He was then ordained priest and retired to Nola in Campania There he rebuilt the church of Saint Felix with great magnificence and served it night and day living a life of extreme abstinence and toil In 409 he was chosen bishop and for more than 30 years so ruled as to be conspicuous in an age blessed with many great and wise bishops Saint Gregory the Great tells us that when the vandals of Africa had made dissent on Campania Paulinus spent all he had in relieving the distress of his people and redeeming them from slavery At last there came a poor widow her only son had been carried off by the son-in-law of the vandal king Such as I have, I give thee said the saint to her We will go to Africa and I will give myself for your son Having overborn her resistance they went and Paulinus was accepted in place of the widow's son and employed as a gardener After a time the king found out by divine interposition that his son-in-law, a slave was the great bishop of Nola He at once set him free granting him also the freedom of all the townsmen of Nola who were in slavery One who knew him well says he was Meek as Moses Priest like as Aaron Innocent as Samuel Tender as David Wise as Solomon Peter loving as John Cautious as Thomas Keen cited as Stephen Fervent as Apollos He died in AD 431 Reflection Go to Campania writes St. Augustine There study Paulinus that choice servant of God With what generosity with what still greater humility he has flung from him the burden of this world's granders to take on him the yoke of Christ and in his service How serene and unobtrusive his life End of section 83 Section 84 of Little Victoria Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April through June This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Little Victoria Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April through June by John Gilmary Shea June 23 St. Ethel Trata Abbas Born and brought up in the fear of God or mother and three sisters are numbered among the Saints Ethel Trata had but one aim in life to devote herself to his service in the religious state Her parents however had other views for her and in spite of her tears and prayers she was compelled to become the wife of Convert a tributary of the Mercy and King She lived with him as a virgin for three years and at his death retired to the Isle of Eli that she might apply herself wholly to heavenly things This happiness was but short lived for Iqafred the powerful king of Northumbria Prestesuit upon her was such eagerness that she was forced into a second marriage Her life at his court was that of an aesthetic rather than a queen She lived with him not as a wife but as a sister and observing a scrupulous regularity of discipline devoted her time to works of mercy and love After twelve years she retired with her husband's consent to Coltingham Abbey which was then under the rule of St. Iba and received the veil from the hands of her husband As soon as Ethel Rada had left the court of her husband he repented of having consented to her departure and followed her meaning to bring her back by force She took refuge on a headlend on the coast near Coltingham and here a miracle took place for the waters forced themselves a passage round the hill barring the further advance of Iqafred The saint remained in this island recognizing the divine will agreed to leave her in peace God who by a miracle confirmed the saint's vocation will not fail us if with a single heart we elect for him In 672 she returned to Ila and found it there a double monastery the nunnery she governed herself and was by her example a living rule of perfection to her sisters Sometime after her death in 679 her body was found and Saint Bede records many miracles worked by her elix Reflection The soul cannot truly serve God while it is involved in the distractions and pleasures of the world Ethel Rada knew this and chose rather to be a servant of Christ her Lord than the mistress of an earthly court Resolve in whatever state you are to live absolutely detached from the world and to separate yourself as much as possible from it And section 84 Section 85 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April through June 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 2, April through June by John Gilmoury Shea June the 24th Saint John the Baptist The birth of Saint John was foretold by an angel of the Lord to his father Zachary who was offering incense in the temple It was the office of Saint John to prepare the way for Christ and before he was born into the world he began to live for the incarnate God Even in the womb he knew the presence of Jesus and of Mary and he leaped with joy at the glad coming of the Son of Man In his youth he remained hidden because he for whom he waited was hidden also But before Christ's public life began a divine impulse led Saint John into the desert there with locusts for his food and cloth on his skin in silence and in prayer he chastened his own soul Then as crowds broke in upon his solitude he warned them to flee from the wrath to come and gave them the baptism of penance while they confessed their sins At last there stood in the crowd one whom Saint John did not know till a voice within told him that it was his Lord With the baptism of Saint John Christ began his penance for the sins of his people and Saint John saw the Holy Ghost descend in bodily form upon him Then the Saint's work was done He had but to point his own disciples to the Lamb He had but to decrease as Christ increased He saw all men leave him and go after Christ I told you, he said that I am not the Christ The friend of the bridegroom rejoices because of the bridegroom's voice this my joy therefore is fulfilled Saint John had been cast into the fortress of Makyrus by a worthless tyrant whose crimes he had rebuked and he was to remain there till he was beheaded at the will of a girl who danced before this wretched king In this time of despair if Saint John could have known despair some of his old disciples visited him Saint John did not speak to them of himself but he sent them to Christ that they might see the proofs of his mission Then the eternal truth pronounced the panageric of the saint who had lived and breathed Verily I say unto you Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist Reflection Saint John was great before God because he forgot himself and lived for Jesus Christ who is the source of all greatness Remember that you are nothing Your own will and your own desires can only lead to misery and sin Therefore sacrifice every day some one of your natural inclinations to the sacred heart of our Lord and learn little by little to lose yourself in him End of Section 85 Recording by Todd Marchand Section 86 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April to June This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by S. Hamer Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April to June by John Gilmary Shea June 25th Saint Prosper of Aquitaine and Saint William of Montevergine Saint Prosper was born at Aquitaine in the year 403 His works show that in his youth he had happily applied himself to all the branches both of polite and sacred learning On account of the purity and sanctity of his manners, he is called by those of his age a holy and venerable man Our saint does not appear to have been any more than a layman but being of great virtue and of extraordinary talents and learning he wrote several works in which he ably refuted the errors of heresy Saint Leo the Great being chosen Pope in 440 invited Saint Prosper to Rome making him his secretary and employed him in the most important affairs of the church Our saint crushed the Pelagian heresy which began again to raise its head in that capital and its final overthrow is said to be due to his zeal learning and unawarried endeavors The date of his death is uncertain but he was still living in 463 Saint William having lost his father and mother in his infancy was brought up by his friends in great sentiments of piety and at fifteen years of age out of an earnest desire to lead a penitential life he left Piedmont, his native country made an austere pilgrimage to Saint James's in Galicia and afterward retired into the kingdom of Naples where he chose for his abode a desert mountain and lived in perpetual contemplation and the exercises of most rigorous penitential austerities Finding himself discovered and his contemplation interrupted he changed his habitation and settled in a place called Montevergine situated between Nola and Benevento in the same kingdom but his reputation followed him and he was obliged by two neighbouring priests to permit certain fervent persons to live with him and to imitate his aesthetic practices Thus in 1119 was laid the foundation of the religious congregation called de Montevergine the saint died on the 25th of June 1142 End of Section 86 Section 87 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by S. Hamer Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June by John Gilmoury Shea June 26 Saints John and Paul Martyrs Saints were both officers in the army under Julian the Apostate and received the crown of martyrdom probably in 362 They glorified God by a double victory They despised the honors of the world and triumphed over its threats and torments They saw many wicked men prosper in their impiety but were not dazzled by their example They considered that worldly prosperity which attends impunity in sin is the most dreadful of all judgments and how false and short-lived was this glittering prosperity of Julian who in a moment fell into the pit which he himself had dug But the Martyrs by the momentary labor of their conflict purchased an immense weight of never-fading glory Their torments were by their heroic patience and invincible virtue and fidelity a spectacle worthy of God who looked down upon them the throne of his glory and held his arm stretched out to strengthen them and to put on their heads immortal crowns in the happy moment of their victory Reflection The Saints always accounted that they had done nothing for Christ so long as they had not resisted to blood and by pouring forth the last drop completed their sacrifice Every action of our lives ought to spring from this fervent motive and we should consecrate ourselves to the divine service with our whole strength We must always bear in mind that we owe to God all that we are and after all we can do are unprofitable servants and do only what we are bound to do End of Section 87 Section 88 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by S. Hamer Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June by John Gilmoury Shea June 27th Saint Ladislas King Ladislas I son of Bella, King of Hungary born in 1041 By the pertinacious of the people, he was compelled much against his own inclination to ascend the throne in 1080 He restored the good laws and discipline which Saint Stephen had established and which seemed to have been obliterated by the confusion of the times Chastity, meekness, gravity, charity, and piety were from his infancy the distinguishing parts of his character Averus and Ambition were his sovereign aversion so perfectly had the maxims of the Gospel extinguished in him all propensity to those base passions His life in the palace was most austere He was frugal and abstemious but most liberal to the church and the poor Vanity, pleasure, or idle amusements had no share in his actions or time because all his moments were consecrated to the exercises of his religion and the duties of his station in which he had only the divine will in view and sought only God's greater honour He watched over a strict and impartial administration of justice was generous and merciful to his enemies and vigorous in the defence of his country and the church He drove the Huns out of his territories and vanquished the Poles Russians and Tartars He was preparing to command as general-in-chief the great expedition of the Christians against the Saracens for the recovery of the Holy Land when God called him to himself on the 30th of June 1095 Reflection The Saints filled all their moments with good works and great actions and whilst they laboured for an immortal crown the greatest share of worldly happiness of which this life is capable fell in their way without being even looked for by them In their afflictions themselves virtue afforded them the most solid comfort pointed out the remedy and converted their tribulations into the greatest advantages End of Section 88 Section 89 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by S. Hamer Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2, April to June by John Gilmoury Shea June 28 Saint Irenaeus Bishop Marder This saint was born about the year 120 in Greece probably a native of lesser Asia His parents who were Christians placed him under the care of the great Saint Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna It was in so holy a school that he learned that sacred science which rendered him afterward a great ornament of the church and the terror of her enemies Saint Polycarp cultivated his rising genius and formed his mind to piety by precepts and example This scholar was careful to reap all the advantages which were offered him by the happiness of such a master Such was his veneration for his tutor's sanctity that he observed every action and whatever he saw in that holy man the better to copy his example and learn his spirit He listened to his instructions with an insatiable ardor and so deeply did he engrave them on his heart that the impressions remained most lively even to his old age In order to confute the heresies of his age this father made himself acquainted with the most absurd conceits of their philosophers by which means he was qualified to trace up every error to its sources and set it in its full light Saint Polycarp sent Saint Irenaeus into Gaul in company with some priest He was himself ordained priest of the Church of Lyon by Saint Pothonus Saint Pothonus Having glorified God by his happy death in the year 177 our saint was chosen the second bishop of Lyon By his preaching he in a short time converted almost that whole country to the faith He wrote several works against heresy and at last with many others suffered martyrdom about the year 202 under the Emperor Severus at Lyon Reflection and heads of families spiritual and temporal should bear in mind that inferiors will not be corrected by words alone but that example is likewise needful Please visit LibriVox.org Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April through June by John Gilmary Shea June the 29th Saint Peter Apostle Peter was of Bethsaida in Galilee and as he was fishing on the lake was called by our Lord to be one of his apostles He was poor and unlearned eager and loving In his heart first of all grew up the conviction and from his lips came the confession Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God And so our Lord chose him and fitted him to be the rock of his church his vigor on earth the head and prince of his apostles the center and very principal of the church's oneness the source of all spiritual powers and the unerring teacher of his truth all scripture is alive with him but after Pentecost he stands out in the full grandeur of his office he fills the vacant apostolic throne admits the Jews by thousands into the fold opens it to the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius founds and for a time rules the church at Antioch and sends Mark to found that of Alexandria 10 years after the ascension he went to Rome the center of the majestic Roman empire where were gathered the glories and the wealth of the earth and all the powers of evil there he established his chair and for 25 years labored with Saint Paul in building up the great Roman church he was crucified by order of Nero and buried on the Vatican hill he wrote two epistles and suggested and approved the gospel of Saint Mark 260 years after Saint Peter's martyrdom came the open triumph of the church Pope Saint Sylvester with bishops and clergy and the whole body of the faithful went through Rome in procession to the Vatican hill singing the praises of God till the seven hills rang again the first Christian emperor laying aside his diadem and his robes of state began to dig the foundations of Saint Peter's church and now on the site of that old church stands the noblest temple ever raised by man beneath a towering canopy lie the great apostles in death as in life undivided and there is the chair of Saint Peter all around rest the martyrs of Christ Popes, saints, doctors from east and west and high over all the words Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my church it is the threshold of the apostles and the center of the world reflection Peter still lives on in his successors and rules and feeds the flock committed to him the reality of our devotion to him the purest test of the purity of our faith End of Section 90 Recording by Todd Marchand Section 91 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April through June 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 2 April through June by John Gilmary Shea June 30th Saint Paul was born at Tarsus of Jewish parents and studied at Jerusalem at the feet of Gameliel While still a young man he held the clothes of those who stoned the proto martyr Stephen and in his restless zeal he pressed on to Damascus breathing out threatenings of Christ but near Damascus a light from heaven struck him to the earth he heard a voice which said why persecutus thou me he saw the form of him who had been crucified for his sins and then for three days he saw nothing more he awoke from his trance another man a new creature in Jesus Christ he left Damascus for a long retreat to Arabia and then at the call of God the uttermost limits of the world and for years he lived and labored with no thought but the thought of Christ crucified no desire but to spend and be spent for him he became the apostle of the Gentiles whom he had been taught to hate and wished himself anathema for his own countrymen who saw his life perils by land and sea could not damp his courage nor toil and suffering and age of his heart and last he gave blood for blood in his youth he had imbibed the false zeal of the Pharisees at Jerusalem the holy city of the former dispensation with St. Peter he consecrated Rome, our holy city by his martyrdom and poured into his church all his doctrine with all his blood he left 14 epistles which have been a fountain head of the church's doctrine the consolation and delight of her greatest saints his interior life so far as words can tell it lies open before us in these divine writings the life of one who has died forever to himself and risen again in Jesus Christ in what says St. John Chrysostom in what did this blessed one gain an advantage over the other apostles how comes it that he lives in all men's mouths throughout the world is it not through the virtue of his epistles nor will his work cease while the race of man continues even now like a most chivalrous night he stands in our midst and takes captive every thought to the obedience of Christ reflection St. Paul complains that all seek the things which are their own and not the things which are Christ's see if these words apply to you and resolve to give yourself without reserve to God End of section 91 End of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints Volume 2 April through June by John Gilmary Shea