புனிதர் செக்கரியா “விவிலியம்” (Bible) மற்றும் “திருக்குரானில்” (Quran) குறிப்பிடப்படும் நபர் ஆவார். விவிலியம் இவரை “திருமுழுக்கு யோவானின்” (John the Baptist) தந்தை எனவும் “ஆரோன்” (Aaron) குலத்தவர் எனவும் இறைவாக்கினர் எனவும் குறிக்கின்றது. இவர் இயேசுவின் தாய் “கன்னி மரியாளின்” (Virgin Mary) உறவினராகிய “எலிசபெத்தின்” (Elizabeth) கணவராவார்.
விவிலியத்தில்:
லூக்கா நற்செய்தியின்படி “அரசர் முதலாம் ஏரோதின்” (king Herod) ஆட்சியின் போது இவர் வாழ்ந்தவர். இவர் “அபியா” (Abia) வகுப்பைச் சேர்ந்த குரு ஆவார். இவர் மனைவி எலிசபெத்து. இவர்கள் இருவரும் கடவுள் பார்வையில் நன்னெறியாளர்களாய் விளங்கினார்கள் எனவும் ஆண்டவருடைய அனைத்துக் கட்டளைகளுக்கும் ஒழுங்குகளுக்கும் ஏற்பக் குற்றமற்றவர்களாய் நடந்து வந்தார்கள் எனவும் விவிலியம் குறிக்கின்றது. இவர்கள் பிள்ளைப்பேறு இல்லாதிருந்தனர். ஏனெனில், எலிசபெத்து கருவுற இயலாதவராய் இருந்தார். மேலும் அவர்கள் வயது முதிர்ந்தவர்களாயும் இருந்தார்கள்.
தம்முடைய பிரிவின் முறை வந்தபோது, செக்கரியா கடவுளின் திருமுன் குருத்துவப் பணி ஆற்றி வந்தார். குருத்துவப் பணி மரபுக்கு ஏற்ப, கோவிலுக்குள் சென்று தூபம் காட்டுவது யாரென்று அறியச் சீட்டுக் குலுக்கிப் போட்டபோது, அது செக்கரியா பெயருக்கு விழுந்தது. அவர் தூபம் காட்டுகிற வேளையில் மக்கள் கூட்டத்தினர் அனைவரும் வெளியே இறைவனிடம் வேண்டிக் கொண்டிருந்தனர். அப்பொழுது கபிரியேல் தேவதூதர் தோன்றி, அவருக்கு ஒரு மகன் பிறப்பார் என அறிவித்தார். இதனை நம்பாமல் செக்கரியா சந்தேகித்ததால், தாம் அறிவித்தவை நிறைவேறும்வரை செக்கரியாவை பேசும் சக்தியற்ற ஊமையாய் மாற்றினார். தாம் கூறியவை நிறைவேறும்வரை அவருக்கு பேசும் திறன் வராது என்றறிவித்துச் சென்றார். செக்கரியா, தம்முடைய திருப்பணிக் காலம் முடிந்ததும் வீடு திரும்பினார். அதற்குப் பின்பு அவர் மனைவி எலிசபெத்து கருவுற்றார்.
இயேசு பிறப்பின் முன்னறிவிப்பின் போது, எலிசபெத்து கருவுற்றிருப்பதை கபிரியேலின் மூலம் அறிந்த மரியாள், அவரைக் காண வந்தார். மரியாள் அவரோடு ஆறு மாதம் தங்கி உதவிபுரிந்தார் என விவிலியம் குறிப்பிடுகின்றது.
எலிசபெத்து ஒரு மகனைப் பெற்றெடுத்தார். எட்டாம் நாளில் அவர்கள் குழந்தைக்கு விருத்தசேதனம் செய்ய வந்தார்கள். செக்கரியா என்ற அதன் தந்தையின் பெயரையே அதற்குச் சூட்ட இருந்தார்கள். ஆனால் அதன் தாய் அவர்களைப் பார்த்து, "வேண்டாம், அதற்கு யோவான் எனப் பெயரிட வேண்டும்" என்றார். "குழந்தைக்கு என்ன பெயரிடலாம்? உம் விருப்பம் என்ன?" என்று செக்கரியாவை நோக்கிச் சைகை காட்டிக் கேட்டார்கள். அதற்கு அவர் எழுதுபலகை ஒன்றைக் கேட்டு வாங்கி, "இக்குழந்தையின் பெயர் யோவான்" என்று எழுதினார். எல்லாரும் வியப்படைந்தனர். அப்பொழுதே அவரது வாய் திறது, பேச்சுத் திறன் வந்தது. அவர் கடவுளைப் போற்றிப் புகழ்ந்தார்.
இஸ்லாம் சமயத்தினரின் திருமறையான "திருக்குர்ஆனிலும்" செக்கரியா பற்றிய ஆதாரங்கள் உள்ளன. இஸ்லாம் சமயத்தினர் அவரை "இறைவாக்கினர்" என்றும் "மரியாளின் பாதுகாவலர்" என்றும் விசுவசிக்கின்றனர்.
† Saint of the Day †
(September 23)
✠ St. Zechariah ✠
Priest, Prophet, Guardian of Mary, Devotee:
Born: 1st century BC
Hebron (Joshua 21:11), the Levant
Died: 1st century BC (or early AD)
Jerusalem (Matthew 23:35), the Levant
Venerated in:
Christianity
Islam
Feast: September 23
Saint Zechariah is a figure in the New Testament Bible and the Quran, hence venerated in Christianity and Islam. In the Bible, he is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron in the Gospel of Luke (1:67-79), and the husband of Elizabeth who is a relative of the Virgin Mary (Luke, 1:36).
The Holy Prophet Zachariah and the Righteous Elizabeth were the parents of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John. They were descended from the lineage of Aaron: Saint Zachariah, son of Barach, was a priest in the Jerusalem Temple, and Saint Elizabeth was the sister of Saint Anna, the mother of the Most Holy Theotokos. The righteous spouses, “walking in all the commandments of the Lord (Luke 1:6), suffered barrenness, which in those times was considered a punishment from God.
Once, during his turn of priestly service in the Temple, Saint Zachariah was told by an angel that his aged wife would bear him a son, who “will be great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:15) and “will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias” (Luke 1:17).
Zachariah doubted that this prediction would come true, and for his weakness of faith, he was punished by becoming mute. When Elizabeth gave birth to a son, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit she announced that his name was John, although no one in their family had this name.
They asked Zachariah and he also wrote the name John down on a tablet. Immediately the gift of speech returned to him, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, he began to prophesy about his son as the Forerunner of the Lord.
When King Herod heard from the Magi about the birth of the Messiah, he decided to kill all the infants up to two years old at Bethlehem and the surrounding area, hoping that the new-born Messiah would be among them.
Herod knew about John’s unusual birth and he wanted to kill him, fearing that he was the foretold King of the Jews. But Elizabeth hid herself and the infant in the hills. The murderers searched everywhere for John. Elizabeth, when she saw her pursuers, began to implore God for their safety, and immediately the hill opened up and concealed her and the infant from their pursuers.
In these tragic days, Saint Zachariah was taking his turn at the services in the Temple. Soldiers sent by Herod tried in vain to learn from him the whereabouts of his son. Then, by command of Herod, they murdered this holy prophet, having stabbed him between the temple and the altar (Mt 23: 35). Elizabeth died forty days after her husband, and Saint John, preserved by the Lord, dwelt in the wilderness until the day of his appearance to the nation of Israel.
புனிதர் எலிசபெத், லூக்கா நற்செய்திகளின்படி “செக்கரியாவின்” (Zechariah) மனைவியும், “திருமுழுக்கு யோவானின்” (John the Baptist) தாயாரும் ஆவார்.
திருவிவிலிய சரிதம்:
லூக்கா நற்செய்திகளின்படி, எலிசபெத் "ஆரோனின்" (Aaron) மகளாவார். இவரும் இவரது கணவரான செக்கரியாவும் இறைவனின் பார்வையில் நன்னெறியாளர்களாய் வாழ்ந்தனர். ஆனால், குழந்தைகளில்லாதவர்களாய் வாழ்ந்தனர். செக்கரியா ஆலய பணிகளில் இருந்தபோது “இறைதூதர் காபிரியல்” (Angel Gabriel) அவர்முன்னே தோன்றி கூறியதாவது:
"செக்கரியாவே பயப்படாதே; உமது இறைவேண்டல்கள் கேட்கப்பட்டன; உமது மனைவி கருத்தாங்கி, ஒரு ஆண் மகவை ஈன்றெடுப்பாள்; நீர் அதற்கு யோவான் என்று பெயரிடுவீர்; அவன் உங்களுக்கு ஒரு சந்தோஷமும், மகிழ்ச்சியுமாய் இருப்பான்; அவர் இறைவனின் பார்வையில் பெரியவனாய் இருப்பதால் அநேகர் அவரது பிறப்பால் மகிழ்ச்சியில் திளைப்பார்கள்; அவர் திராட்சை இரசமும் வேறு பானங்களையும் அருந்தார். அவர் பிறப்பின் முன்பே பரிசுத்த ஆவியினால் நிரப்பப்படுவார்.
~ லூக்கா 1:13–15
தாமும், தமது மனைவி எலிசபெத்தும் முதிர் வயதினர் என்ற காரணத்தால் செக்கரியா, இறைதூதர் காபிரியேலின் வார்த்தைகளில் நம்பிக்கை வைக்கவில்லை. இதையறிந்த காபிரியேல் தூதர், செக்கரியாவை நோக்கி, "உமது விசுவாசமின்மையால் நீர் வாய் பேச இயலாத ஊமையாவீர்; எமது வாக்கு நிறைவேறும்வரை நீர் ஊமையாக இருப்பீர்" என்று இயம்பி மறைந்தார்.
~ லூக்கா 1:16-23
மற்றும், லூக்கா நற்செய்திகள் (1:24–25), (1:26-40), (1:41–45), (1:46-55), (1:56–64), (1:65-80) ஆகியவற்றில் எலிசபெத் பற்றிய செய்திகள் காணப்படுகின்றன.
அதிகாரபூர்வமற்ற திருமறை ஏடுகள் (Apocrypha) :
எலிசபெத் மேலும் பல அதிகாரப்பூர்வமற்ற திருமறை ஏடுகளிலும் குறிப்பிடப்படுகிறார்.
இஸ்லாம் மத திருமறை நூலாகிய "திருக்குர்ஆனிலும்" இவர் கௌரவிக்கப்படுகிறார்.
† Saint of the Day †
(September 23)
✠ St. Elizabeth ✠
Righteous/ The Mother of St. John the Baptist:
Born: 1st century BC
Hebron
Died: 1st century BC (or early AD)
(probably Hebron)
Venerated in:
Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodox Church
Anglican Church
Lutheran Church
Islam
Feast: September 23
Patronage: Pregnant women
Saint Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist and the wife of Zechariah, according to the Gospel of Luke.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
~ Luke 1:41–42
The heartwarming narratives of Elizabeth can be found in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel. Elizabeth was a good and devout woman who had suffered many years of sad barrenness. One day, the archangel Gabriel appeared to her husband, Zechariah, and declared that Elizabeth would soon conceive and bear a son of tremendous virtue. Not long after this proclamation, Elizabeth did indeed conceive and quietly kept homebound for five months, praising God for the beautiful gift of new life.
At Elizabeth’s sixth month of expectancy, the archangel Gabriel appeared again, this time to Elizabeth’s relative Mary. Gabriel announced to Mary the forthcoming birth of Jesus and let her know of Elizabeth’s upcoming joy as well. Mary, full of amazement, journeyed to the hill country of Judea to visit her elderly kinswoman. As Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, she felt a profound quickening within her womb. She immediately knew from this reaction of her unborn son that she was in the presence of greatness―that Mary’s babe was to be a man of vast love and divine influence. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth spoke words that would one day become known as the second line of the beautiful prayer, Hail Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
After a three-month-long visit from Mary, Elizabeth gave birth to her son. All neighbours and relatives were delighted over her wondrous blessing. However, they were confused over the chosen name of John, wondering why Elizabeth would not name her son after her husband, Zechariah. Zechariah, who had been struck dumb over his disbelief at Gabriel’s earlier announcement, confirmed the name of John by writing on a tablet. At that moment of agreement, he regained his voice. The neighbours were astonished at such extraordinary events surrounding Elizabeth’s child.
Elizabeth shares the Sept. 23 feast day with her husband, Zechariah (older books might have their feast as Nov. 5). In addition, Elizabeth shares a feast day with Mary on May 31 to honour the three-month visit from Mary.
A Five-Day Retreat with St. Elizabeth:
Though not mentioned a great deal in the Bible and only in one Gospel, the few passages listed below can give us much insight into the role of St. Elizabeth in salvation history. Ready, study, and ponder these passages—see how St. Elizabeth’s example might bring you closer to the Lord.
கப்புச்சின் துறவற சபையின் குரு, துறவி, ஒப்புரவாளர்,
ஐந்துகாய வரம் பெற்ற முதல் குரு :
பிறப்பு : மே 25, 1887
பியட்ரல்சினா, இத்தாலி
இறப்பு : செப்டம்பர் 23, 1968 (அகவை 81)
சான் ஜியோவானி ரொட்டொன்டோ
ஏற்கும் சபை/ சமயம் : கத்தோலிக்கம்
அருளாளர் பட்டம் : மே 2, 1999
திருத்தந்தை இரண்டாம் ஜான் பால் - ரோம், இத்தாலி
புனிதர் பட்டம் : ஜூன் 16, 2002
திருத்தந்தை இரண்டாம் ஜான் பால் - ரோம், இத்தாலி
முக்கிய திருத்தலங்கள் :
சான் ஜியோவானி ரொட்டொன்டோ
நினைவுத் திருவிழா : செப்டம்பர் 23
பாதுகாவல் :
மக்கள் பாதுகாப்பு ஆர்வலர்கள்,
கத்தோலிக்க பதின்வயதினர்
பியட்ரல்சினா நகரின் புனித பியோ, கப்புச்சின் துறவற சபையின் குருவும், கத்தோலிக்க திருச்சபையின் புனிதரும் ஆவார். இவரது திருமுழுக்கு பெயர் பிரான்செஸ்கோ ஃபோர்ஜியொன், கப்புச்சின் சபையில் இணைந்தபோது பியோ என்ற பெயரை ஏற்றுக்கொண்டார்; குருவானது முதல் பாத்ரே பியோ என்னும் பெயரில் பொதுவாக அறியப்படுகிறார். இவர் தனது உடலில் பெற்ற இயேசுவின் ஐந்து திருக்காயங்கள் இவரை உலகறியச் செய்தன. 2002 ஜூன் 16 அன்று, திருத்தந்தை இரண்டாம் ஜான் பால் இவருக்கு புனிதர் பட்டம் வழங்கினார்.
தொடக்க காலம் :
இத்தாலியின் விவசாய நகரான பியட்ரல்சினாவில், க்ராசியோ மரியோ ஃபோர்ஜியொன் (1860–1946) - மரிய க்யுசெப்பா டி நுன்சியோ (1859–1929) தம்பதியரின் மகனாக பிரான்செஸ்கோ ஃபோர்ஜியொன் 1887 மே 25ந்தேதி பிறந்தார். இவரது பெற்றோர் விவசாயம் செய்து வாழ்ந்து வந்தனர். அங்கிருந்த சிற்றாலயத்தில், தனது சிறுவயதில் இவர் பலிபீடப் பணியாளராக இருந்து திருப்பலியில் குருவுக்கு உதவி செய்தார். இவருக்கு மைக்கேல் என்ற அண்ணனும், பெலிசிட்டா, பெலக்ரீனா மற்றும் க்ராசியா ஆகிய மூன்று தங்கைகளும் இருந்தனர். பக்தியுள்ள இவரது குடும்பத்தினர் தினந்தோறும் திருப்பலியில் பங்கேற்றதுடன், இரவில் செபமாலை செபிப்பதையும், வாரத்தில் மூன்று நாட்கள் புலால் உணவைத் தவிர்ப்பதையும் வழக்கமாக கொண்டிருந்தனர்.
சிறு வயது முதலே பக்தியில் சிறந்து விளங்கிய இவர், கடவுளுக்கு மிகவும் நெருக்கமானவராக வாழ்ந்து வந்தார். இளம் வயதிலேயே இவர் விண்ணக காட்சிகளைக் கண்டார். 1903 ஜனவரி 6 அன்று, தனது 15ஆம், வயதில் மொர்கோனில் இருந்த கப்புச்சின் சபையில் நவசந்நியாசியாக நுழைந்த இவர், ஜனவரி 22ந்தேதி தனது துறவற ஆடையைப் பெற்றுக் கொண்டு, பியட்ரல்சினோவின் பாதுகாவலரான புனித ஐந்தாம் பயசின் (பியோ) பெயரைத் தனது துறவற பெயராக ஏற்றுக்கொண்டார். இவர் ஏழ்மை, கற்பு, கீழ்படிதல் ஆகிய துறவற வாக்குறுதிகளையும் எடுத்துக்கொண்டார்.
குருத்துவ வாழ்வு :
ஆறு ஆண்டுகள் குருத்துவப் படிப்புக்குப் பின்னர் 1910ம் ஆண்டு பியோ குருவானார். இவர் இயேசு கிறிஸ்துவின் பாடுபட்ட சொரூபத்தின் முன்பாக அடிக்கடி செபிக்கும் வழக்கம் கொண்டிருந்தார். சிறிது காலம் குருவாகப் பணியாற்றியப்பின், உடல் நலம் குன்றியதால் இவர் வீட்டுக்கு அனுப்பப்பட்டார். 1916 செப்டம்பர் 4ஆம் நாள் மீண்டும் குருத்துவப் பணிக்கு அழைக்கப்பட்டார்.
1917ஆம் ஆண்டு, இவர் முதலாம் உலகப் போரில் காயம் அடைந்த வீரர்களுக்கு சேவை செய்ய அனுப்பப்பட்டார். அப்போதும் உடல்நலம் குன்றிப் பல மாதங்கள் மருத்துவமனையில் இருந்தார். உடல்நலம் தேறியதும் மக்கள் பலருக்கும் ஆன்மீக இயக்குநராக செயல்பட்டார். ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் 10 முதல் 12 மணி நேரங்கள் பாவ மன்னிப்புக்கான ஒப்புரவு அருட்சாதனம் வழங்கி வந்தார்.
இவர் உடல் நலமின்றி துன்புற்ற வேளைகளில் இயேசுவின் திருப்பாடுகளை அதிகமாக தியானம் செய்தார். இயேசு கிறிஸ்துவின் வேதனைகளுக்கு ஆறுதல் அளிக்கும் விதத்திலும் உலக மக்களின் பாவங்களுக்குப் பரிகாரமாகவும்ää பியோ தனது வேதனைகளை இயேசு நாதருக்கு ஒப்புக்கொடுத்தார். பியோ மக்களை கடவுளுக்கு நெருக்கமானவர்களாக மாற்ற பெரிதும் முயற்சி செய்தார். மக்களின் உள்ளங்களை அறியும் திறன் பெற்றிருந்த இவரிடம் பலரும் ஆன்மீக ஆலோசனை கேட்கத் திரண்டு வந்தனர்.
திருக்காய வரம் :
1918ஆம் ஆண்டு செப்டம்பர் 20ந்தேதி, ஒப்புரவு அருட்சாதனம் வழங்கிக் கொண்டிருந்த வேளையில் பியோவின் உடலில் இயேசுவின் ஐந்து திருக்காயங்களையும் இவரது உடலில் பெறும் பேறுபெற்றார். இரண்டு கைகள், இரண்டு கால்கள் மற்றும் வலது விலாப்பகுதி ஆகிய ஐந்து இடங்களிலும் இவருக்கு இயேசுவின் காயங்கள் கிடைத்தன. அவற்றிலிருந்து சிந்திய இரத்தம் இனிமையான நறுமணம் வீசியது.
அன்று முதல் இவர் இறக்கும் நாள் வரை இயேசு கிறிஸ்து சிலுவை மரத்தில் அனுபவித்த வேதனைகளை பியோ இந்த காயங்களால் தனது வாழ்வில் அனுபவித்தார். இந்த திருக்காயங்கள் சில மருத்துவர்களால் ஆராயப்பட்டு, இவரது புனிதத்தன்மைக்கு கிடைத்த பரிசு என்ற சான்று வழங்கப்பட்டது. இப்புனித காயங்களால் உடல் வேதனை மட்டுமன்றி மனரீதியாக பல இன்னல்களை சந்தித்தார், இவரது ஐந்து காயங்களை குறித்து சிலர் அவதூறு பரப்பினர், அது நாளும் தலைப்பு செய்திகளாய் இத்தாலியன் நாளிதழ்களில் வெளியாகி தந்தை பியோவின் ஆன்மீக பணிவாழ்வுக்கு தடையாய் நின்றது. ஆனால் புனித வாழ்வால் அனைத்தையும் தகர்த்தெறிந்து தனது உண்மையான வாழ்வை உலகிற்கு ஓங்கி உரைத்தார்.
இவரது காயங்களில் எப்போதும் நோய்த்தொற்று ஏற்படாதது மருத்துவ துறையால் விளக்கப்பட முடியாத அற்புதமாக இருந்தது. இவரது காயங்கள் ஒருமுறை குணமடைந்தாலும், அவை மீண்டும் தோன்றின. லுய்ஜி ரொம்னெல்லி என்ற மருத்துவர், இவரது காயங்களைத் தொடர்ந்து ஒரு ஆண்டு காலமாக ஆய்வு செய்தார். ஜியார்ஜியோ ஃபெஸ்டா, க்யுசெப்பே பாஸ்டியனெல்லி, அமிக்கோ பிக்னமி ஆகிய மருத்துவர்களும் பலமுறை அவற்றை ஆராய்ந்தனர். ஆனால் அவர்களால் எதுவும் கூறமுடியவில்லை.ஆல்பர்ட்டோ கசெர்ட்டா என்ற மருத்துவர் 1954ல் பியோவின் கைகளை எக்ஸ்ரே எடுத்து பார்த்துவிட்டு, இந்த காயங்களின் தாக்கம் எலும்புகளில் இல்லை என்று உறுதி செய்தார்.
இது இவருக்கு புகழைத் தேடித் தந்தாலும், அக்காயங்கள் இவரது வேதனையை அதிகரிப்பதாகவே இருந்தன. இவரது நிழற்படங்கள் பலவும் இவரது காயங்களிலிருந்து வடிந்த இரத்தத்தின் பதிவுகளைக் காண்பிகின்றன. 1968ல் பியோ இறந்தபோது, இவரது காயங்கள் அனைத்தும் சுவடின்றி மறைந்துவிட்டன.
புனிதர் பட்டம் :
கிறிஸ்தவ தியானத்தில் ஆழ்ந்த நம்பிக்கை கொண்ட பியோ, "புத்தகங்கள் வழியாக கடவுளைத் தேடும் ஒருவர், தியானத்தின் வழியாக அவரைக் கண்டுகொள்ள முடியும்" என்று குறிப்பிடுவார். 1960களில் பியோவின் உடல்நலம் குன்றத் தொடங்கியபோதும்,இவர் தொடர்ந்து ஆன்மீகப் பணிகளில் ஈடுபட்டார். 1968 செப்டம்பர் 22ந்தேதி, தனது இறுதி திருப்பலியை பியோ நிறைவேற்றினார்.
1968 செப்டம்பர் 23ஆம் நாள், செபமாலையைக் கையில் பிடித்தவாறும், "இயேசு, மரியா" என்ற திருப்பெயர்களை உச்சரித்தவாறும் தனது 81வது வயதில் பியோ மரணம் அடைந்தார். இவரது அடக்கத் திருப்பலியில் சுமார் மூன்று இலட்சம் மக்கள் கலந்துகொண்டனர்.
திருத்தந்தை இரண்டாம் ஜான் பால் இவருக்கு 1999ஆம் ஆண்டு அருளாளர் பட்டமும், 2002 ஜூன் 16ஆம் நாள் புனிதர் பட்டமும் வழங்கினார். இவர் இறந்து 40 ஆண்டுகளுக்குப் பிறகு, 2008 மார்ச் 3ந்தேதி இவரது கல்லறைத் தோண்டப்பட்டபோதுகண்டெடுக்கப்பட்ட பியோவின் அழியாத உடல், சான் ஜியோவானி ரொட்டொன்டோ அருகிலுள்ள புனித பியோ ஆலயத்தில் வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.
---JDH---தெய்வீக குணமளிக்கும் இயேசு /திண்டுக்கல்.
Saint of the Day: (23-09-2020)
St. Padre Pio da Pietrelcina
St. Padre Pio was born on May 25, 1887 and his original name was Francesco. His father was Guiseppa and mother Grazio Forgiona in the village Pietrelcina in Italy. He was ordained a priest in the year 1910 and took the present name Padre Pio. On September 20, 1918, when he was kneeling down before a large crucifix for prayer, Padre Pio miraculously received the visible marks of the wounds Jesus got by nails and the spear of a Roman soldier when he was crucified, on his body. The Doctor who examined Padre Pio did not find out any natural cause for the wounds. Persons who have personal experience with him said that the blood from the stigmata had an odor like flowers or perfumes. He was ordered by the Superior of his Monastery to leave the Monastery and was also banned from administering baptism and marriage ceremonies.
Pope Pius-XI also restrained the movements of Padre Pio and was confined him in a corner of a room. But one day in 1929 a priest Father Luigi Orione saw Padre Pio kneeling before the tomb of Pope Sarto, when he was still in confinement. He was with the gift of bilocation i.e. seen in two places at the same time. Father Orione told the Pope about this incident and the Pope released Padre Pio from confinement. Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968 at the age of 81. On his death the wounds disappeared and were no longer visible. There was also no scaring and the skin was completely renewed and there is no trace of any wounds. Padre Pio also predicted 50 years ago that the wounds would disappear on his death. That exactly happened.
One of the miracles attributed to Padre Pio was reported by a lady in Montreal by name Guiditta Scalzulli that her husband had recovered after given up for dead due to heart attack, after seeing a vision of Padre Pio. So many other authentic miracles were also reported to have happened due to the intervention of St. Padre Pio. St. Padre Pio was beatified on May 2, 1999 by pope John Paul-II and also canonized by Pope John Paul-II on June 16, 2002.
Born : 25 May 1887 at Pietrelcina, Benevento, Italy as Francesco Forgione
Died :
23 September 1968 in San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy of natural causes
Canonized :
16 June 2002 by Pope St. John Paul II at Rome, Italy
Augustinian bishop. Born at Fuentellana, Castile, Spain, he was the son of a miller. He studied at the University of Alcala, earned a licentiate in theology, and became a professor there at the age of twenty-six. He declined the chair of philosophy at the university of Salamanca and instead entered the Order of St Augustine at Salamanca in 1516. Ordained in 1520, he served as prior of several houses in Salamanca, Burgos, and Valladolid, as provincialofAndal usia and Castile, and then court chaplain to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556). During his time as provincial of Castile, he dispatched the first Augustinian missionaries to the New World. They subsequently helped evangelize the area of modern Mexico. He was offered but declined the see of Granada, but accepted appointment as archbishop of Valencia in 1544. As the see had been vacant for nearly a century, Thomas devoted much effort to restoring the spiritual and material life of the archdiocese. He was also deeply committed to the needs of the poor. He held the post of grand almoner of the poor, founded colleges for the children of new converts and the poor, organized priests for service among the Moors, and was renowned for his personal saintliness and austerities. While he did not attend the sessions of the Council of Trent, he was an ardent promoter of the Tridentine reforms throughout Spain.
"St. Thomas of Villanova" redirects here. For other uses, see St. Thomas of Villanova (disambiguation).
Thomas of Villanova (1488 – 8 September 1555), born Tomás García y Martínez, was a Spanish friar of the Order of Saint Augustine who was a noted preacher, ascetic and religious writer of his day. He became an archbishop who was famous for the extent of his care for the poor of his see.
Contents
1Life
1.1Bishop
2Veneration
3Legacy
4See also
5References
6External links
Life
He was born Tomás García y Martínez in Fuenllana, Spain, in 1488.[1] His father was a miller,[2] who regularly distributed food and provisions to the poor, as did his mother.[3] He grew up and was educated in Villanueva de los Infantes, in the Province of Ciudad Real, Spain, therefore the name Thomas of Villanueva. Part of the original house still stands, with a coat of arms in the corner, beside a family chapel. In spite of his family's wealth, as a young boy he often went about naked because he had given his clothing to the poor.
At the age of sixteen years, Thomas entered the University of Alcalá de Henares to study Arts and Theology. He became a professor there, teaching arts, logic, and philosophy, despite a continuing absentmindedness and poor memory.[4] In 1516, he decided to join the Augustinian friars in Salamanca and in 1518 was ordained a priest.
He became renowned for his eloquent and effective preaching in the churches of Salamanca.[3] Thomas composed beautiful sermons, among which stands out the Sermon on the Love of God, one of the great examples of sacred oratory of the 16th century. Charles V, upon hearing him preach, exclaimed, "This monsignor can move even the stones!".[citation needed] Charles named Thomas one of his councilors of state and court preacher in Valladolid, the residence of the Emperor when on his visits to the Low Countries.[1]
His scathing attacks on his fellow bishops earned him the title of reformer.[2] Some of his sermons attacked the cruelty of bullfighting. He also had a great devotion to the Virgin Mary, whose heart he compared to the burning bush of Moses that is never consumed.
Within the Order, he successively held the positions of prior of his local monastery, Visitor General, and Prior Provincial for Andalusia and Castile. In 1533, Thomas sent out the first Augustinian friars to arrive in Mexico.[1] Charles V offered him the post of Archbishop of Granada but he would not accept it.
Bishop
Thomas of Vilanueva Heals The Sick, Murillo
In 1544 he was nominated as Archbishop of Valencia and he continued to refuse the position until ordered to accept by his superior. Given a donation to decorate his residence, he sent the money to a hospital in need of repair.[3] He began his episcopacy by visiting every parish in the Archdiocese to discover what the needs of the people were.[5] Aided by his assistant bishop, Juan Segriá, he put in order an archdiocese that for a century had not had direct pastoral government. He organized a special college for Moorish converts, and in particular an effective plan for social assistance, welfare, and charity. In 1547 he ordained as a priest Luis Beltrán, a noted missionary in South America. Thomas started Presentation Seminary in 1550.[5]
He was well known for his great personal austerity (he sold the straw mattress on which he slept in order to give money to the poor) and wore the same habit that he had received in the novitiate, mending it himself.[4] Thomas was known as “father of the poor.”[2] His continual charitable efforts were untiring, especially towards orphans, poor women without a dowry, and the sick. He possessed, however, an intelligent notion of charity, so that while he was very charitable, he sought to obtain definitive and structural solutions to the problem of poverty; for example, giving work to the poor, thereby making his charity bear fruit. "Charity is not just giving, rather removing the need of those who receive charity and liberating them from it when possible," he wrote. He established boarding schools and high schools.[6]
Thomas died in Valencia on September 8, 1555 of angina at the age of 67. His remains are preserved at the Cathedral there.[5]
Veneration
He was canonized by Pope Alexander VIIon November 1, 1658.[7][4] His feast dayis celebrated on September 22.
Legacy
Barangay Santo Tomas Lubao, Pampanga (a Kapilya or Church) in Lubao Pampanga, Philippines, dedicated to Saint Thomas De Villanueva.
Thomas is the author of various Tracts,among which is included the Soliloquy between God and the soul, on the topic of communion. Francisco de Quevedowrote his biography. His complete writings were published in six volumes as Opera omnia, in Manila in 1881.
Thomas is the namesake and patron saint of Villanova University, near Philadelphia in the United States, which was founded and is administered by the friars of his Order; Universidad Católica de Santo Tomás de Villanueva in Havana, Cuba; St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; and Villanova College, a Catholic school for boys located in Brisbane, Australia. In the Philippines, some churches and towns are dedicated in honor of the saint with grand feast or fiesta celebrations with much food on the table for the guests and visitors. He is the patron saint of the towns of Alimodian and Miag-ao, both in Iloilo. He is also the patron saint of Barangay Santolan in Pasig City.
A congregation of sisters is also named after him.[6]
Abbess and founder. She was cured of blindness while still a child by St. Eustace of Lisieux. She was twice married, first to a manwho died after two months and then a nobleman, St. Blandinus, by whom she had five children, including two saints. After some years, they agreed mutually to separate and assume contemplative lives. He became a hermit and she went into a nunnery at Poulangey; Salaberga was subsequently foundress of the conventof St. John the Baptist at Laon. She died there.
Saint Sadalberga (or Salaberga) (c. 605[1]– c. 670) was the daughter of Gundoin, Duke of Alsace and his wife Saretrude. Sadalberga founded the Abbey of St John at Laon. She is the subject of a short hagiography, the Vita Sadalbergae.
Life
Gundoin of Alsace was on close terms with Waldebert, a Frankish nobleman who later became abbot of Luxeuil. Waldebert would come to guide Sadalberga in her monastic endeavors.[2]According to her anonymous vita, Gundoin had extended hospitality to Waldebert's predecessor, Saint Eustace of Luxeuil upon the Abbot's return from Bavaria, and Eustace had cured the child Sadalberga of blindness.[3]
Although she was drawn to religious life, her parents forced her to marry. Her first husband, Richramn, died after two months.[2] Then she was wed to a nobleman, Blandinus, a close counselor of King Dagobert. She had five children, Saretrude, Ebana, Anstrudis, Eustasius (died in infancy), and Baldwin (Baudoin). Her husband Blandinus and two of her children, Baldwin (feast day October 16) and Anstrudis, became saints. Sadalberga's brother was Saint Bodo (d. 670). After some years, she and Blandinus agreed mutually to separate and assume contemplative lives. He became a hermit and she went into a nunnery at Poulangey, accompanied by Anstrudis.
Encouraged by Waldebert, Salaberga founded the abbey of St. John the Baptist at Laon.[4] One of her kinsman had been bishop there, and his successor supported her efforts. She died there c. 670,[5]and was succeeded as abbess by her daughter, Anstrudis.[6
Martyred bishop of Sinope, a diocese on the Black Sea. He was martyred during the reign of Emperor Trajan.
For the other saint of this name, see Saint Phocas.
Hieromartyr Phocas was born in the city of Sinope. During his adult years he became Bishop of Sinope. At the time of a persecution against Christians under the emperor Trajan (98–117), the governor demanded that the saint renounce Christ. After fierce torture they enclosed St Phocas in a hot bath, where he died a martyr's death in the year 117.[2]
A homily in his honour was composed by Saint John Chrysostom on the occasion of the translation of his relics to Constantinople. The translation of his holy relics from Pontus to Constantinople about the year 404 A.D. is celebrated on July 23. His primary feast is on September 22, and he is called a wonderworker.[1][2][3]
The Hieromartyr Phocas is especially venerated as a defender against fires, and also as a helper of the drowning.[
Phocas earned his living by cultivating a garden near the city gate of Sinope (now in Turkey). The quiet and beauty of the plot he cultivated proved quite conducive to his exercise of prayer in the course of his labors. He shared with the poor what he earned from his gardening, and opened his home to travelers lacking a place to stay. Phocas' Christian identity became known to the pagan Roman authorities. Soldiers were dispatched to find and arrest him. Upon nearing Sinope, they stopped at Phocas' door and received lodging from him, unaware that their host was the man they were charged to capture. At his table, they spoke openly of their mission before retiring for the night. As the soldiers slept, Phocas kept watch in prayer to prepare himself for martyrdom. The next morning, he revealed to them his identity. In a turn of events similar to the martyrdom of Saint Eudoxius (see September 5), the stunned soldiers were at first reluctant to carry out their orders against their kind host, but in the end they beheaded him. Phocas is venerated as a patron saint of both gardeners and mariners.
For the bishop-saint, see Phocas, Bishop of Sinope.
Saint Phocas, sometimes called Phocas the Gardener (Greek:Φωκᾶς), is venerated as a martyr by the Catholicand Eastern Orthodox Churches. His life and legend may have been a fusion of three men with the same name: a Phocas of Antioch, a Phocas the Gardener and Phocas, Bishop of Sinope.[2]
Contents
1History
2Veneration
3Other Gardener Saints
4Notes
5External links
History
Christian tradition states that he was a gardener who lived at Sinope, on the Black Sea, who used his crops to feed the poor and aided persecuted Christians.[3] During the persecutions of Diocletian, he provided hospitality to the soldiers who were sent to execute him. The soldiers, not knowing that their host was their intended victim, agreed to his hospitality. Phocas also offered to help them find the person they were seeking.[4]
As the soldiers slept, Phocas dug his own grave and prayed. He made arrangements for all his possessions to be distributed to the poor after his death.[3] In the morning, when the soldiers awoke, Phocas revealed his identity.
The soldiers hesitated and offered to report to their commander that their search had been fruitless. Phocas refused this offer and bared his neck. He was then decapitated and buried in the grave that he had dug for himself.[3]
Veneration
He is mentioned by Saint Asterius of Amasia (ca. 400). The name Phocas seems to derive from the Greek word for "seal" (phoke/φώκη), which may explain his patronage of sailors and mariners. A sailors' custom was to serve Phocas a portion of every meal; this was called "the portion of St. Phocas." This portion was bought by one of the voyagers and the price was deposited in the hands of the captain. When the ship came into port, the money was distributed among the poor, in thanksgiving to their benefactor for their successful voyage. He is mentioned in the work by Laurentius Surius. This tradition may be connected to a similar practice among sailors in the Baltic Sea of giving food offerings to an invisible sprite known as the Klabautermann.[5]
Other Gardener Saints
Saint Conon the Gardener (or of Pamphylia, Palestine, or Magydos)
The members of a Roman legion composed largely of Egyptians and serving in the army of co-Emperor Maximian, colleague of the famed hater of Christians, Emperor Diocletian. While serving in France, the legion marched to Agaunum, where it encamped for pagan rituals. Maurice, a commander, and Exuperius, Candidus, Innocent, Vitalis, two Victors, and the men of the legion refused to worship pagan deities, or possibly refused to massacre the local innocent populace. They were supposed to be pressured to obey by witnessing the beheading of some of their officers, but refused to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods. Reportedly, Maximian brought in another legion to slay the 6,600 Christians. A basilica, St. Maurice-en-Valais, was built from about 369-391 to commemorate this remarkable martyrdom. This cult is now confined to local calendars.
The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christianhagiography[1] as an entire Roman legion— of "six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men"[2] — who had converted en masse to Christianity and were martyredtogether, in 286, according to the hagiographies of Saint Maurice, the chief among the Legion's saints. Their feast day is held on September 22.
Contents
1The account
2Interpretations
3Historicity
4Saints associated with the Theban legion
5Gallery
6References
7External links
The account
According to Eucherius of Lyon,[3] ca. 443–450, the Legion was the garrison of the city of Thebes in Egypt. The Legion were quartered in the East until the emperor Maximian ordered them to march to Gaul, to assist him against the rebels of Burgundy. The Theban Legion[4]was commanded in its march by Saint Maurice (Mauritius), Candidus, Innocent, and Exuperius, all of whom are veneratedas saints. At Saint-Maurice, Switzerland, then called Agaunum, the orders were given— since the Legion had refused to sacrifice to the Emperor— to "decimate" it by putting to death a tenth of its men. This act was repeated twice before the entire legion was put to death.[5][6]
Statue of Saint Maurice; leader of the Theban Legion.
According to a letter written about 450 by Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon, bodies identified as the martyrs of Agaunum were discovered by Theodore (Theodulus), the first historically identified Bishop of Octudurum, who was present at the Council of Aquileia, 381and died in 391. The basilica he built in their honor attracted the pilgrim trade; its remains can still be seen, part of the abbey begun in the early sixth century on land donated by King Sigismund of Burgundy.
Coptic icon of Theban Legion
The earliest surviving document describing "the holy Martyrs who have made Agaunum illustrious with their blood" is the letter of Eucherius, which describes the succession of witnesses from the martyrdom to his time, a span of about 150 years. The bishop had made the journey to Agaunum himself, and his report of his visit multiplied a thousandfold the standard formula of the martyrologies:
We often hear, do we not, a particular locality or city is held in high honour because of one single martyr who died there, and quite rightly, because in each case the saint gave his precious soul to the most high God. How much more should this sacred place, Agaunum, be reverenced, where so many thousands of martyrs have been slain, with the sword, for the sake of Christ.
As with many hagiographies, Eucherius' letter to Bishop Salvius reinforced an existing pilgrimage site. Many of the faithful were coming from diverse provinces of the empire, according to Eucherius, devoutly to honor these saints, and (important for the abbey of Agaunum) to offer presents of gold, silver and other things. He mentions many miracles, such as casting out of devils and other kinds of healing "which the power of the Lord works there every day through the intercession of his saints."[citation needed]
In the late sixth century, Gregory of Tourswas convinced of the miraculous powers of the Theban Legion, though he transferred the event to Cologne, where there was an early cult devoted to Maurice and the Theban Legion:
At Cologne there is a church in which the fifty men from the holy Theban Legion are said to have consummated their martyrdom for the name of Christ. And because the church, with its wonderful construction and mosaics, shines as if somehow gilded, the inhabitants prefer to call it the "Church of the Golden Saints". Once Eberigisilus, who was at the time bishop of Cologne, was racked with severe pains in half his head. He was then in a villa near a village. Eberigisilus sent his deacon to the church of the saints. Since there was said to be in the middle of the church a pit into which the saints were thrown together after their martyrdom, the deacon collected some dust there and brought it to the bishop. As soon as the dust touched Eberigisilus' head, immediately all pain was gone.[7]
The tale of steadfast conduct and faith was embroidered in later retellings and figured in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine and was included among the persecution of Christians detailed in John Foxe's 1583 Actes and Monuments, an early Protestant stand-by.[8]
Accounts of the moral inculcated by the exemplum of the Theban Legion resonate with the immediate culture of each teller. The miraculous whole-hearted unanimity of the Legion to the last individual, was downplayed by Hugo Grotius, for whom the moral of the Theban Legion was employed to condemn atrocities committed under military orders.[9] For Donald O'Reilly, an apologist for the historicity of the account in 1978, it was "the moral issue of organized violence".[10]
Interpretations
Thebaei is the proper name of one particular military unit, the Legio I Maximiana, also known as Maximiana Thebaeorum, recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum.[11]
According to Samir F. Girgis, writing in the Coptic Encyclopedia, there were two legions bearing the name "Theban," both of them formed by Diocletian sometime after the organization of the original Egyptian legion, stationed at Alexandria. It is not certain which of these was transferred from Egypt to Europe in order to assist Maximian in Gaul.[12]
The monastic accounts themselves do not specifically state that all the soldiers were collectively executed; an eleventh-century monk named Otto of Freisingwrote that most of the legionaries escaped, and only some were executed.[13] It is possible that the legion was simply divided during Diocletian's re-organization of units (breaking up legions of 6000 men to create smaller units of 1000), and that some of the soldiers had been executed, and that this was where the story of the legion's destruction originated from.[13] Henri Leclercq suggests that it is quite possible that an incident at Agaunum may have had to do not with a legion, but with a simple detachment.[14]
Johan Mösch, after comparing information from the various chronicles on the events and geography of the martyrdoms of the legionaries, concluded that only a single cohort was martyred at Agaunum. The remainder of the cohorts (battalion sized units of which there were ten to a legion) were either on the march or already stationed along the Roman road that ran from Liguria through Turin and Milan, then across Alps and down the Rhine to Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne).[12]
L. Dupraz and Paul Müller, by examining the military titles and ranks of the legionnaires and thereby determining the total number of soldiers involved, estimated that the Thebans martyred at Agaunum consisted of but one cohort whose number did not exceed 520 men.[12] Thus the execution of an entire cohors is equivalent to decimation of a legion.
Historicity
Denis Van Berchem, of the University of Geneva, proposed that Eucherius' presentation of the legend of the Theban legion was a literary production, not based on a local tradition.[15] David Woods, Professor of Classics at the University College Cork, alleges that the model of Maurice and the Theban Legion based on Eucherius of Lyon's letter was a complete fiction.[16]
The strength of the account is based on the historical reputation for the first monks in the Christian tradition, the hermits of the Egyptian desert known as the "Desert Fathers", and the almost fanatical Christian following they inspired during the first two centuries. The most famous of the Desert Fathers was Anthony the Great. The persecution of high-ranking Christian nobility under Emperor Valerian following his edict in 258 and the purge of Christians from the military from 284 through 299 under Emperor Diocletian indicate that noncompliance with emperor worship was the common method for detecting Christian soldiers and eventually executing them.
Donald F. O'Reilly argues that evidence from coins, papyrus, and Roman army lists supports the story of the Theban Legion. A papyrus dated "in the sixth year of our Lord the Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Probus Pius Augustus, Tubi sixteenth" (13 January 282 CE), shows rations which would sustain a legion for about three months to be delivered to Panopolis to the "mobilized soldiers and sailors". Coins from Alexandria from the same time period were minted in a style used only when troops for a new legion were leaving port. During the trial of the martyr Maximilian, it was noted that there were Christians serving in the Roman army, and the existence of Theban Christian legionnaires in the same units as mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum was shown.[13]
Henri Leclercq also notes that the account of Eucherius "has many excellent qualities, historical as well as literary."[14] L. Dupaz countered Denis Van Berchem's assertion by sifting through the stories, carefully matching them with archeological discoveries at Agaunum, thus concluding that the martyrdom is historical and that the relics of the martyrs were brought to Agaunum between 286 and 392 through the office of the bishop Theodore.[17] Dom Ruinart, Paul Allard, and the editors of the "Analecta Bollandiana" are of opinion that "the martyrdom of the legion, attested, as it is by ancient and reliable evidence, cannot be called in question by any honest mind."[18]
Feastday: September 22 Death: 1934, 1936-1939 Beatified: Pope John Paul II
Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War is the name given by the Catholic Church to the people who were killed by Republicans during the war because of their faith. As of July 2008, almost one thousand Spanish martyrs have been beatified or canonized. For some two thousand additional martyrs, the beatification process is underway.
The martyrs of the Spanish Civil War are the Catholic Church's term for the people killed by Republicans during the Spanish Civil War for their faith.[1] More than 6,800 clergy and religious were killed in the Red Terror. As of June 2019, 1,915 Spanish martyrs have been beatified; 11 of them being Canonized. For some 2,000 additional martyrs, the beatification process is underway.
Contents
1History
1.1Pope John Paul II
1.2Pope Benedict XVI
1.3Pope Francis
2Individual cases
2.1Martyrs of Turon
2.2Saint Innocencio of Mary Immaculate
2.3Saint Jaime Hilario Barbal
2.4Saint Pedro Poveda
2.5Passionist Martyrs of Daimiel
2.6Blessed Eugenio Sanz-Orozco Mortera
2.7Blessed Bartolomé Blanco Márquez
2.8Blessed Victoria Díez Bustos de Molina
2.9Blessed Pedro Asúa Mendía
2.10Blessed Mariano Mullerat i Soldevila
3List of martyrs
3.1Beatification
3.2Canonization
4Background
5Controversy
6See also
7External links
8References
History
During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, and especially in the early months of the conflict, individual clergymen were executed while entire religious communities were persecuted, leading to a death toll of 13 bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarians, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns, for a total of 6,832 clerical victims, as part of what is referred to as Spain's Red Terror.[2]
Pope John Paul II
See also: 233 Spanish Martyrs
Pope John Paul II beatified 473 martyrs in the years 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2001. Some 233 executed clergy were beatified by John Paul II on 11 March 2001.[3] In 1999 he also canonized a Christian Brother and the nine Martyrs of Turon, the first group of Spanish Civil War martyrs to reach sainthood. Regarding the selection of Candidates, Archbishop Edward Novackfrom the Congregation of Saintsexplained in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano: "Ideologies such as Nazism or Communism serve as a context of martyrdom, but in the foreground the person stands out with his conduct, and, case by case, it is important that the people among whom the person lived should affirm and recognize his fame as a martyr and then pray to him, obtaining graces. It is not so much ideologies that concern us, as the sense of faith of the People of God, who judge the person's behavior."[4]
Pope Benedict XVI
See also: 498 Spanish Martyrs
Benedict XVI beatified 530 martyrs in the years 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011, with the biggest being the 498 Spanish martyrs in October 2007,[5] in the largest beatification ceremony in the history of the Catholic Church.[6] In this group of people, the Vatican has not included allSpanish martyrs, nor any of the 16 priests who were executed by the nationalist side in the first years of the war. This decision has caused numerous criticisms from surviving family members and several political organisations in Spain.[7]
The beatification recognized the extraordinary fate and often brutal death of the persons involved. Some have criticized the beatifications as dishonoring non-clergy who were also killed in the war, and as being an attempt to draw attention away from the church's support of Franco (some quarters of the Church called the Nationalist cause a "crusade").[8] Within Spain, the Civil War still raises high emotions. The act of beatification has also coincided in time with the debate on the Law of Historical Memory (about the treatment of the victims of the war and its aftermath) promoted by the Spanish Government.
Responding to the criticism, the Vatican has described the October 2007 beatifications as relating to personal virtues and holiness, not ideology. They are not about "resentment but ... reconciliation". The Spanish government has supported the beatifications, sending Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinosto attend the ceremony.[9] Among those present was Juan Andrés Torres Mora, a relative of one of the martyrs and the Spanish MP who had debated the memory law for PSOE .[10]
The October 2007 beatifications have brought the number of martyred persons beatified by the Church to 977, eleven of whom have been canonized as saints.[6]Because of the extent of the persecution, many more cases could be proposed; as many as 10,000 according to Catholic Church sources. The process for beatification has already been initiated for about 2,000 people.[6]
At 28 October 2007 beatifications, Pope Benedict underscored the call to sanctity for all Christians, saying it was "realistic possibility for the entire Christian people".[11] He also noted, "This martyrdom in ordinary life is an important witness in today's secularized society." [11]
Pope Francis
See also: 522 Spanish Martyrs
Pope Francis beatified 522 martyrs on 13 October 2013, at Tarragona, Spain; among them was Eugenio Sanz-Orozco Mortera from Manila, Philippines, who became the first Filipino martyr of the Spanish Civil War. He also approved additional beatifications for Spanish martyrs that took place for a priest on 1 November 2014 as well as two sets of group martyrs on both 5 September 2015 and 3 October 2015. The pope also approved the beatification of 26 Capuchin martyrs, which took place on 21 November 2015. The beatification for Valentín Palencia Marquina and his four companions took place on 23 April 2016 in Burgos.[12] The beatification for Genaro Fueyo Castañon and his three companions was celebrated in Oviedo on 8 October 2016 and the beatification of José Antón Gómez and 3 companions was celebrated in Madrid on 29 October 2016.[citation needed] The 114 Almerian martyrs were beatified on 25 March 2017, and Antonio Arribas Hortigüela and his six companions were beatified on 6 May 2017 in Girona.[13][14] The beatification of Mateo Casals Mas & 108 companions were beatified in Barcelona on 21 October 2017 and Vicenç Queralt Lloret & 20 companions as well as José Maria Fernández Sánchez & 38 companions were beatified in Madrid on 11 November 2017. The beatification of Teodoro Illera del Olmo & 15 Companions was held on 10 November 2018. The beatification of Ángel Cuartas Cristobal and his 8 companions was held in Oviedo on 9 March 2019 while María Isabel Lacaba Andia and her 13 companions were beatified in Madrid on 22 June 2019.
Individual cases
Martyrs of Turon
Main article: Martyrs of Turon
The martyrs of Turon were a group of eight De La Salle Brothers, and the Passionist priest who was with them, who were executed by striking miners at Turon in October 1934. Although this was nearly two years before the outbreak of the civil war, their deaths were part of the same violence and anti-clerical feeling of that period in Spain's history, and are regarded as martyrs of the Spanish Civil War. They were beatified by Pope John Paul II on 29 April 1990, and were canonized by him on 21 November 1999.
Saint Innocencio of Mary Immaculate
Main article: Innocencio of Mary Immaculate
Saint Innocencio of Mary Immaculate, born Emanuele Canoura Arnau, was a member of the Passionist Congregation and martyr of the Spanish Civil War. Born on 10 March 1887 in Santa Cecelia del Valle de Oro in Galicia, Spain, he died at Turon, with his eight companions, on 9 October 1934. He was beatified on 29 April 1990 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 21 November 1999.
Saint Jaime Hilario Barbal
Main article: Jaime Hilario Barbal
Jaime Hilario Barbal, born Manuel Barbal Cosán, was raised in a pious and hardworking family near the Pyrenees mountains. Entered the seminary at age 12, but when his hearing began to fail in his teens, he was sent home. Joined the Brothers of the Christian Schools at age 19, entering the novitiate on 24 February 1917 at Irun, Spain, taking the name Jaime Hilario. Exceptional teacher and catechist, he believed strongly in the value of universal education, especially for the poor. However, his hearing problems grew worse, and in the early 1930s, he was forced to retire from teaching, and began work in the garden at the La Salle house at San Jose, Tarragona, Spain. Imprisoned in July 1936 at Mollerosa, Spain when the Spanish Civil War broke out and religious people were swept from the street. Transferred to Tarragona in December, then confined on a prison ship with some other religious. Convicted on 15 January 1937 of being a Christian Brother. Two rounds of volley fire from a firing squad did not kill him, possibly because some of the soldiers intentionally shot wide; their commander then murdered Jaime with five shots at close range. First of the 97 La Salle Brothers killed in Catalonia, Spain during the Spanish Civil War to be recognized as a martyr. He was beatified on 29 April 1990, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 21 November 1999.
Saint Pedro Poveda
Main article: Pedro Poveda Castroverde
He was a priest, the founder of the Teresian Association and a Martyr of the Spanish civil war. He was beatified on 10 October 1993 and canonized on 4 May 2003.
Passionist Martyrs of Daimiel
See also: Martyrs of Daimiel
They were a group of priests and brothers of the Passionist Congregation killed by Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. They were beatified by Pope John Paul II on 1 October 1989. Eyewitnesses reported that all of the Passionists had forgiven their murderers before they died. A witness to the murder of Father Niceforo reported that after being shot the priest turned his eyes to heaven then turned and smiled at his murderers. At this point one of them, now more infuriated than ever, shouted:
What, are you still smiling?[15]
With that he shot him at point blank range.
Blessed Eugenio Sanz-Orozco Mortera
Main article: Eugenio Sanz-Orozco Mortera
Eugenio Sanz-Orozco Mortera (Jose Maria of Manila) was born on 5 September 1880 in Manila, Philippines. He was a Franciscan Capuchin priest. He died a martyr on 17 August 1936, in Madrid, Spain, during the Spanish civil war. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, which celebrates his feast on 6 November. He was beatified on 13 October 2013.
Blessed Bartolomé Blanco Márquez
Main article: Bartolomé Blanco
Bartolomé Blanco Márquez was born in Cordoba, Spain in 1914. He was arrested as a Catholic leader—he was the secretary of Catholic Action and a delegate to the Catholic Syndicates—on 18 August 1936. He was executed on 2 October 1936, at age 21, while he cried out, "Long live Christ the King!" Born in Pozoblanco 25 November 1914, Bartolome was orphaned as a child, and raised by family with whom he worked. He was an excellent student, studying under the tutelage of the Salesians.
Blessed Victoria Díez Bustos de Molina
Main article: Victoria Díez Bustos de Molina
She was a religious, the member of the same congregation and also a Martyr of the Spanish civil war. She was beatified on 10 October 1993.
Blessed Pedro Asúa Mendía
Main article: Pedro Asúa Mendía
Pedro was educated by Jesuits. Trained as an architect, graduating in 1915. he worked on schools, churches and houses for religious. He was ordained priest in the diocese of Vitoria, Spain in 1924. He was executed on 29 August 1936. He was beatified on 1 November 2014.
Blessed Mariano Mullerat i Soldevila
Main article: Mariano Mullerat i Soldevila
Mariano was a Spanish Roman Catholicdoctor who also served as the mayor for Arbeca from 1924 until March 1930. He died on 13 August 1936. He was beatified on 23 March 2019.
List of martyrs
Beatification
(*) means they are Canonized.
Canonization
Background
During the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, the Catholic Church in Spain supported and was strongly supported by and associated with the Spanish monarchy. The Second Spanish Republicsaw an alternation of leftist and conservative coalition governments between 1931 and 1936. Amidst the disorder caused by the military coup of July 1936, many supporters of the Republican government pointed their weapons against individuals they considered local reactionaries, including priests and nuns.
A paradoxic case for foreign Catholics was that of the Basque Nationalist Party, at the time a Catholic party from the Basque areas, who after some hesitation supported the Republican government in exchange for an autonomous government in the Basque Country. Although virtually every other group on the Republican side was involved in the anticlerical persecution, the Basques did not play a part.[16] The Vatican diplomacy tried to orient them to the National side, explicitly supported by Cardinal Isidro Goma y Tomas, but the BNP feared the centralism of the Nationals. Some Catalan nationalists also found themselves in the same situation, such as members of de Unió Democràtica de Catalunya party whose most relevant leader, Manuel Carrasco i Formiguerawas killed by the Nationalists in Burgosin 1938.
Controversy
A number of controversies have arisen around the beatification of some of these clerics. Some objectors oppose the notion of these priests being killed for mere religious hatred and, while not excusing their brutal murders, putting them in the context of the historical moment. Others question the appropriateness of beatification for some individuals who have less than saintly backgrounds. A third objection is the perceived partiality of the Church, where victims of the left have been proposed for beatification, while victims of the right have been ignored.
Of the first objection, one of the most notable cases has centered on Cruz Laplana y Laguna, Bishop of Cuenca, a well-known supporter of the monarchist regime. After the proclamation of the Second Republic he carried out a number of right-wing political campaigns throughout the province, and had established close contacts with military officials such as General Joaquín Fanjul, a supporter of the Nationalist rebellion. Laplana y Laguna was described by his biographer as "supreme advisor" to the general, as well as being closely involved with the Falange. In 1936 he personally endorsed Falangista leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera as a candidate in the 1936 local elections. When the Nationalist uprising in Cuenca failed, Laplana y Lagun was arrested by Republican militiamen for treason. He was tried for conspiring against the Republican government and executed on 8 August.[17]
Another is Fulgencio Martínez, a priest in the village of La Paca in Murcia, who was shot after the uprising, who was reported by many locals to be closely allied to the local landowners. Over several days before the uprising, Father Fulgencio met with these landowners in the village casino—the hub of social life for the local elites in rural Spain—to organize support for the rebellion. He offered guns and money to anyone who would join an improvised militia. On 18 July, the day of the uprising, Father Fulgencio was among the persons who went through the village streets on lorries, rallying support for the uprising with shouts of "Viva el Ejército!" ("Long live the Army") and "Viva General Queipo de Llano!"[18]
Public statements by some of these clerics have also been widely publicised as a form of criticism against their beatification. Rigoberto Domenech, Archbishop of Zaragoza, declared publicly on 11 August 1936 that the military uprising was to be supported, and its defensive actions approved, because "it is not done in the service of anarchy, but in the benefit of order, fatherland, and religion" in response to the Red Terror. Another statement was that given in November 1938 by Leopoldo Eijo Garay, Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá, regarding a possible truce between Republican and rebel forces: "To tolerate democratic liberalism... would be to betray the martyrs."[19]
Of the second, the controversy surrounding the beatification of Augustinian Friar Gabino Olaso Zabala, listed as a companion of Avelino Rodriguez Alonso, concerns his previous life. Friar Zabala was martyred during the Civil War and was beatified. Attention was called to the fact that Fr. Olaso had been a missionary in the Philippines during the Katipunan rebellion against Spanish rule, and had been accused of torturing Friar Mariano Dacanay, an alleged rebel sympathizer.[20] However this objection ignores the Church proclamation that even sinners can repent and turn into saints, such as in the case of Augustine of Hippo.[citation needed]. It also misunderstands the nature of a cause for martyrdom, where the primary factor is the person's death due to religious hatred of the faith, rather than the saintliness of his previous life.
The third objection refers to the Church's attitude to victims of Nationalist repression. Regarding the attitude of the Vatican, Manuel Montero, lecturer of the University of the Basque Countrycommented on 6 May 2007:
The Church, which upheld the idea of a 'National Crusade' in order to legitimize the military rebellion, was a belligerent part during the Civil War, even at the cost of alienating part of its members. It continues in a belligerent role in its unusual answer to the Historical Memory Law by recurring to the beatification of 498 "martyrs" of the Civil War. The priests executed by Franco's Army are not counted among them... Its selective criteria regarding the religious persons that were part of its ranks are difficult to fathom. The priests who were victims of the republicans are "martyrs who died forgiving", but those priests who were executed by the Francoists are forgotten.[21]
While much of Republican Spain was anti-clerical in sentiment, the Basque region, which also supported the Republic, was not; the clergy of the region stood against the Nationalist coup, and suffered accordingly. At least 16 Basque nationalist priests (among them the arch-priest of Mondragón) were killed by the Nationalists,[22] and hundreds more were imprisoned or deported.[23] This included several priests who tried to halt the killings.[24]To date, the Vatican has failed to consider these clergy as martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.
Benedictine abbess, a relative of St. Boniface. Born in Wessex, England, she was trained by St. Tetta, and became a nun at Wimboume Monastery in Dorsetshire. Lioba, short for Liobgetha, was sent with twenty-nine companions to become abbess of Bischofheim Monastery in Mainz, Germany She founded other houses as well and served as abbess for twenty-eight years. She was a friend of St. Hildegard, Charlemagne's wife.
Bishop of Constance in Normandy, France. His family estate became the village of Saint Lo. He is sometimes listed as Lo, Laudo, or Laudus, and he was bishop for forty years.
Phocas earned his living by cultivating a garden near the city gate of 
