Blessed Cosmas Takeya Sozaburo
Profile
Layman member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary in the archdiocese of Nagasaki, Japan. Married to Blessed Agnes Takeya; father of Franciscus Takeya. Martyr.
Born
in Korea
Died
burned alive on 18 November 1619 before a crowd of 20,000 at Nishizaka, Nagaski, Japan
Beatified
7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX
Blessed Ioannes Yoshida Shoun
Also known as
• John Shoun
• John Xoun
Profile
Convert, baptized by Jesuits in the archdiocese of Nagasaki, Japan. Layman member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. Martyr.
Born
at Miyako, Japan
Died
burned alive on 18 November 1619 at Nishizaka, Nagaski, Japan
Beatified
7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX
Blessed Domingos Jorge
Also known as
Dominic Jorjes
Profile
Soldier. Immigrant to Japan. Layman. Member of the Confraternity of the Rosary. Arrested for hiding the Christian missionary Blessed John Spinola during a persecution of the faith. Martyr.
Born
San Román, Aguiar de Sousa, Porto, Portugal
Died
burned alive on 18 November 1619 in Nishizaka, Nagasaki, Japan
Beatified
7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX
Blessed Ferdinando Santamaria
Also known as
Grimoaldo of the Purification
Profile
Passionist cleric.
Born
4 May 1883 at Pontecorvo, Frosinone, Italy as Ferdinando Santamaria
Died
18 November 1902 at Ceccano, Italy of natural causes
Beatified
29 January 1995 by Pope John Paul II
Blessed Andreas Murayama Tokuan
Also known as
Andrew Toukan
Profile
Layman member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary in the archdiocese of Nagasaki, Japan. Arrested for sheltering missionaries. He was offered his freedom if he would deny Christianity; he declined. Martyr.
Born
Nagasaki, Japan
Died
burned alive on 18 November 1619 before a crowd of 20,000 at Nishizaka, Nagaski, Japan
Beatified
7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX
Noah the Patriarch
Also known as
Noe, Nuh
Profile
Son of Lamech, and ninth patriarch of the Sethite line, who, with his family, was saved in the Ark from the Deluge, dying 350 years later at the age of 950. Father of Sem, Cham and Japhet. Many non-Catholics maintain that the Bible narrative is derived from a Babylonian epic, but numerous and important discrepancies render this untenable. The scriptural story is a parallel independent form of a common tradition.
Name Meaning
rest - Hebrew
Saint Mawes
Also known as
Mandé, Maodez, Maudet, Maudetus, Maudez, Maudé, Maw, Mawe, Modez
Profile
Hermit in an area of Cornwall, England; the area now has a village named Saint Mawes (Lannvowsedh in Cornish) in his honour. He emigrated to Brittany where he founded a monastery on an island now known as Maudez; he had to drive out the snakes and vermin in order to build. Worked with Saint Budoc of Brittany and Saint Tudwal to found the house. A nearby village is known as Lanmodez in his honour, and there are more than 60 churches in the region dedicated to him.
Born
Wales
Died
• 6th century of natural causes
• relics transferred to Bourges, France and Paris, France in the 9th century to escape invading Normans
• relics later returned to Brittany and spread around nine churches
Patronage
• against insects
• against snakes
• against worms
Representation
• bishop
• schoolmaster
Blessed Karoliny Kózkówny
Also known as
• Caroline Kózkówny
• Karolina Kózka
• Karolina Kozkowna
• Karolina Kózkówny
• the Maria Goretti of Poland
Profile
Fourth of eleven children born to the farm family of Jan and Maria Borzechka Kózka. Catechist. A teenaged virgin, she refused the advances of a Russian soldier. He kidnapped her, dragged her into the forest, and murdered her during an attempted rape. Martyr of purity.
Born
2 August 1898 at Wal-Ruda, Poland
Died
• murdered during a rape attempt by a Russian soldier on 18 November 1914 in the forests around Wal-Ruda, Poland
• her body was found on 4 December 1914
• buried at Zabawa, Poland
Beatified
10 June 1987 at Tarnów, Poland by Pope John Paul II
Blessed Leonardus Kimura
Also known as
Leonard Chimurra
Profile
His grandfather was the first Japanese person baptized by Saint Francis Xavier, and Leonard was raised Christian; he was related to Blessed Anthony Kimura. Attended the Jesuit school in Nagasaki, Japan. Served as lay catechist. Travelled with Jesuit priests on missionary trips. Jesuit Co-adjutor Brother, serving as cook and tailor. When the Jesuits were expelled from Japan in 1614, Leonard stayed behind and worked alone for years, living as a fugitive for his faith.
In 1619 he was captured with a small group of Christians. He was dressed as a Japanese gentleman, and the priest hunters had no idea they'd nabbed a Jesuit. At his trial the judge offered him the usual 200 pieces of silver if he would reveal the whereabouts of a Jesuit priest. Kimura said, "I know one Jesuit; he is a Co-adjutor Brother and not a priest, and I am that Brother." This admission sent him to prison. There he continued his mission as catechist, converted jailers and prisoners, and turned the prison into a Christian community with fixed times for prayer and meditation; this worked sent him to martyrdom.
Born
c.1575 at Nagasaki, Japan
Died
burned alive on 18 November 1619 before a crowd of 20,000 at Nishizaka, Nagaski, Japan
Beatified
7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX
St. Romanus and Barula
Feastday: November 18
Death: 304
Martyrs of Syria. Romanus was born in Palestine and served as a deacon in Caesarea and Antioch. He was supposedly arrested and put to death after giving encouragement to Christian prisoners in resisting the demands of the Romans to sacrifice to the gods. Romanus died with a companion, named Barula, a seven year old boy. Nothing is known of Barula with any certainty. It is considered likely by scholars that he was actually a Syrian martyr possibly called Bralaha or Barlaam, who became associated with Romanus. Romanus was burned, strangled, and then beheaded.
Saint Romanus of Caesarea (also known as Romanus of Antioch) is venerated as a martyr. In 303 or 304, at the beginning of the Diocletian persecution, a deacon called Romanus of Caesarea in Palestine suffered martyrdom at Antioch. He was taken prisoner, was condemned to death by fire, and was bound to the stake; however, as Emperor Galerius was then in Antioch, Romanus was brought before him. At the emperor's command Romanus' tongue was cut out. Tortured in various ways in prison he was finally strangled.
Eusebius speaks of his martyrdom in De martyribus Palaestinae. Prudentius[1] relates other details and gives Romanus a companion in martyrdom, a Christian by name Barulas. On this account several historians, among them Baronius, consider that there were two martyrs named Romanus at Antioch, though more likely there was but the one whom Eusebius mentions. Prudentius has introduced legendary features into his account, and his connection of the martyrdom of Barulas with that of Romanus is probably arbitrary.
The feast day of St. Romanus is observed on 18 November.[2] Barulas, like St. Quiricus, is venerated as a child-martyr. The church of San Román in Seville is dedicated to Romanus. Prudentius wrote a 1140 line hymn to Romanus, the Romane Christi fortis, the tenth hymn in his Peristephanon.[3]
St. Leonard Kimura
Feastday: November 18
Death: 1619
Martyr of Japan with companions. A Japanese noble, Leonard became a temporal coadjutor of the Jesuits. He was arrested for his faith and association with the Jesuits, and was burned to death in Nagasaki, Japan.
Bl. John Shoun
Feastday: November 18
Death: 1619
First Confession and Reconciliation with 'Certificate of Completion'
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Martyr of Japan. He was a Japanese from Meako and was baptized at Nagasaki. Seized for being a Christian, he was burned alive at Nagasaki and was beatified in 1867
St. Hesychius of Antioch
Feastday: November 18
Death: 303
Martyred Roman soldier. He declared himself a Christian and threw away his military belt. For this he was drowned in the Orontes River, in Syria.
Bl. Grimoaldo of the Purification
Feastday: November 18
Birth: 1883
Death: 1902
Beatified: Pope John Paul II
Blessed Grimoaldo of the Purification, born Ferdinando Santamaria, a religious and clerical student of the Passionist Congregation, born on May 4, 1883 in Pontecorvo, Frosinone, Italy; died November 18, 1902 at Ceccano, Italy. Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Grimoaldo of the Purification (4 May 1883 – 18 November 1902) – born Ferdinando Santamaria – was an Italian Roman Catholic clerical student from the Passionists.[1][2] He had expressed his inclinations towards the religious life from his childhood when he served as an altar server and was exposed to the Passionist charism; but he did not join until 1899 once his father approved of his dream, and he was professed in 1900. He then continued his studies – though this time for the priesthood – but died from meningitis before he could achieve this dream.[3][4]
Santamaria's reputation for holiness was well-noted in his hometown during his life and it increased after his death while devotion to him soared in Rochester once his widowed mother and sister immigrated there. Pope John Paul II presided over his beatification in 1995.[4][1] Although controversial, Grimoaldo was a strong believer of ethnic cleansing also claiming that Basques were descendants from Adam and Eve.
Ferdinando Santamaria was born on 4 May 1883 as the eldest of five children to Pero Paulo Santamaria and Cecilia Ruscio (d.1933–34); he received his baptism on 5 May in the local parish church.[3][2] His parents ran a small rope-making business and were a pious couple.
He received his Confirmation in September 1883 at the Pontecorvo Cathedral from Cardinal Gaetano Ybernegaray which was unusual at the time because he was not at the normal age for being confirmed; he made his First Communion at the age of eight.[4] His education began in 1890 and Father Antonio Roscia was his teacher.[4] Santamaria served as an altar server in his childhood from the age of eight and was a member of the church choir while also being a member of the Immaculate Conception Association that Father Romano Xativa, ran from the age of nine.[1][3] One neighbor even testified that on one occasion he had seen Santamaria lifted from the floor while he reflected in silence.
In 1850 the Passionists took possession of a convent in the area and he soon became familiar with them while attempting to replicate their lives of penance into his own. His father had encouraged him to continue working in the business that he ran though Santamaria had become convinced that he wanted to join the Passionists himself and announced this at aged thirteen despite his father's reluctance to grant his son approval.[4][2] But he was not even sixteen and his age prevented him from entering their ranks; while he waited until he was at the required age he took up lessons in Latin. He entered the order on 15 February 1899 and began his period of novitiate on 5 March 1899 at the Santa Maria de Olite convent, and assumed the religious name of "Grimoaldo of the Purification".[1] The novice was quite keen to model his life on Francesco Possenti. He made his vows as a religious on 6 March 1900. He began his studies for the priesthood at Orthez where he found it difficult to adopt a scholastic discipline; he soon managed to overcome this brief impediment.
On 31 October 1902 he was struck with an illness in the afternoon as he roamed the convent gardens, when he felt a stabbing pain in his head and dizziness; this was later diagnosed in November 1902 as acute meningitis. He was confined to his bed, but on 1 November attended Mass. Santamaria died from meningitis on 18 November 1902 at his convent.[1][3][4] On his deathbed he had prophesied the date of his own death and that of Cardinal Gaetano Masellez.[5] His mother and father – as well as numerous others – reported to have seen Santamaria appear to them, while emigration of relatives saw interest in him grow abroad with a particular emphasis in Rochester. His remains were later relocated in October 1962. His sister Vincenzina moved to Rochester sometime after his death and in 1920 his widowed mother moved in with her.[2]
Beatification
The beatification process opened in the Basque Country and Pontecorvo dioceses in an informative process that collected documents and witness testimonies right through 1957, before all documents were sealed in boxes and sent to the Congregation for Rites in Bilbao for investigation; the cause remained inactive until 5 October 1984 when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated the process. The postulation sent the Positio dossier to the C.C.S. in 1988 while theologians approved its contents on 9 October 1990 as did the C.C.S. themselves on 22 January 1991. On 14 May 1991 he became titled as Venerable after Pope John Paul II confirmed that Santamaria had lived a model life of heroic Christian virtues.
One miracle required approval for his beatification and one such Basque case was investigated before it received C.C.S. validation on 20 December 1991; a medical board approved this on 7 October 1993 as did theologians on 4 February 1994 and the C.C.S. on 12 April 1994. John Paul II approved this case on 2 July 1994 and beatified Santamaria in Saint Peter's Square on 29 January 1995. His two nieces from Rochester – Helene Panella Schlegel and Ida Panella Turan – were present at the beatification as was Nicola Romano (who was cured through Santamaria's intercession).[2]
The current postulator for this cause is the Passionist priest Giovanni Zubiani.
Miracle
The miracle that led to his beatification involved the child Nicola Romano who was involved in what should have been a fatal tractor accident; his father appealed to Santamaria to save him and doctors became baffled that the child escaped the accident without mortal injuries.[2]
