SAINT LUCY

 283 – 304

Feast Day: December 13

Patronage: Syracuse, the blind, cutlers, electricians, glaziers, gondoliers, oculists, peasants, writers

Invoked Against: dysentery, epidemics, eye disease, hemorrhages, throat ailments, for clarity

Symbols: holding her eyes on a dish, martyrs palms, sword, oxen, cord

 “Those who live chaste lives are temples of the holy spirit.”

            Saint Lucy 304AD

             Saint Lucy was a privileged young woman who chose a state of enlightenment over the prosperous, respectable life she was expected to lead in Roman society. One of the early virgin martyrs, her quiet but steadfast rebellion against the civil authorities earned her an excruciating death that became a triumphant example of everlasting life, hastening the overthrow of the Emperor and the legalization of Christianity.   

            Born in Siracusa, Sicily, Lucy was a young Christian  woman of Greek ancestry.  She held a deep spiritual belief that one must remain pure to be a true conduit of the Holy Spirit. Lucy secretly vowed to remain a virgin, even while her widowed mother arranged her marriage to a wealthy pagan nobleman. At this time in history, Christianity was looked upon as a threat by the Roman Emperor. So many soldiers in the Empire had converted, that officials feared they would follow the tenets of Christ over their military leaders. The state insisted that it was a man’s duty to serve his nation militarily and a woman’s duty to marry and bear children. When a girl refused to do this, she was considered a traitor to the empire. Therefore, consecrating one’s virginity to Christ, was more of a bold and revolutionary stance against the state than a  private act of devotion.

            Lucy’s mother suffered ceaseless bleeding from a uterine hemorrhage.  Her daughter insisted they make a healing pilgrimage to the tomb of the virgin martyr Saint Agatha in Catania some 50 miles away. Agatha had become the patron of Catania after her veil stopped the deadly flow of Mount Etna’s lava from entering the town. She was credited with so many miracles since her martyrdom 35 years prior, that Christians, Jews and pagans alike were drawn to her tomb to invoke her aid. Lucy and her mother spent the night in prayer outside of the tomb. Agatha visited Lucy in a dream, telling her, “You have no need to invoke me, for your faith has already cured your mother. One day you will be known as the patron of your own city.” As the day dawned, Lucy found her mother completely healed. When she confessed  her secret vow of virginity, her mother agreed not to force her into marriage.

             In 303 the Emperor Diocletian launched the most extensive and vicious anti-Christian campaign throughout the Roman Empire. This was the political atmosphere that Lucy and her mother returned home to. Since she was no longer in need of a dowry, Lucy encouraged her mother to divest herself of all the investments she had made for her daughter’s future and give the money to the poor. Lucy’s fiancé, outraged to learn that his engagement was broken, denounced her to the governor of Siracusa. Brought before this official, Lucy asked, “Why would that man want to marry me?” When the governor quipped, “Perhaps it is your lovely eyes,” Lucy ripped out her eyeballs and told him to send them to her former fiance. Her eyesight was miraculously restored the next day and the governor demanded why she so adamantly refused to marry. Lucy replied, “Those who live chaste lives are the temples of the Holy Spirit.”

            The governor then told her that he would have her taken to a brothel and repeatedly raped until she “lost the Holy Spirit.” Soldiers came to carry her off but could not move her. A thousand men were called in, to no avail. Lucy would not budge. Nor could a team of oxen drag her away.  Burning pitch was poured on her skin but nothing would break her will. Upon predicting the fall of the Emperor, Lucy was fatally stabbed in the throat.  True to her prophecy, the Emperor fell within the year and Christianity was legalized in Rome under Constantine nine years later.  

            Immediately after her death, public opinion was so swayed by Lucy’s fate that it was considered a great honor for other Christians to be buried in the catacombs of Siracusa near her. In the sixth century, the Acts of the Virgin Martyrs were given great recognition by ecclesiastical writers and Lucy’s name was entered in the Canon of the Mass. In art, she is sometimes portrayed in the company of Saints Agatha, Agnes of Rome, Barbara, Thecla and Catherine of Alexandria. All of them, legendary young girls defiant and fearless in the face of death.

            The people of her native city have always honored Lucy and been protective of her. In the ninth century when Siracusa fell into Muslim hands, they hid Lucy’s remains for hundreds of years until 1040 when the Byzantine army drove out the Saracens. In gratitude for their liberation, they sent their most precious possession, her body,  to Constantinople as a  gift for the Empress Theodora. Many of her relics were then distributed throughout Europe which greatly expanded the range of her cult.  In 1204, Venetian Crusaders conquered Constantinople and took Lucy’s remains back to Venice where they were installed in a church named for her. This original church was near the place where the gondolas were parked. The song “Santa Lucia” became famous among gondoliers looking forward to the end of their night’s work. When the church was torn down to make way for the new train station, the station was named for Saint Lucy and her remains were interred in the nearby Church of Saint Jeremiah.

            The name “Lucy” means light. According to the Julian calendar, her feast day, December 13 was considered the shortest day of the year. Celebrations combining Lucy’s feast day with the winter solstice began in Sicily and spread throughout Europe. It was said that the “longest of nights and the shortest of days belong to Saint Lucy”. Today, she is most celebrated in Sweden and other Scandinavian nations because when the Swedes converted to Christianity in the 11^th Century, they could most easily relate to a Saint who would gradually bring more light each day as the sun changed its course.  Saint Lucy’s day is a major holiday in that part of the world, celebrated with torchlight processions of crowned girls in white dresses. With the change to the Gregorian calendar in the 1300’s, and the shifting of the solstice to ten days later, Lucy’s feast became synonymous with the start of the Christmas season. She is associated with gifts to children because of her part in curing an eye epidemic that was blinding children in the 13^th century. When local families went on a barefoot pilgrimage to her tomb invoking her aid, she sent them home, curing the children and telling them that they would find gifts in their shoes. It became a common Christmas custom in many parts of Europe to celebrate the saint’s feast by putting  gifts in children’s shoes. In 1582 Saint Lucy was credited with ending a famine in Sicily by sending three grain loaded ships to its starving residents. The people were so hungry that they boiled and ate the grain without grinding it into flour.  To this day, Sicilians do not eat anything made with flour on Saint Lucy’s day and there are a host of traditional foods and desserts created specifically for her feast day.                  

            Lucy is a popular subject for artists, she is frequently depicted calmly holding her eyeballs on a dish, referencing her story. Because of this, she is the patron of the blind and all trades relating to the eyes. Eye strain is a common problem for writers, therefore she is their patron. Because of the success of her mother’s healing she is invoked against hemorrhage. Since she was stabbed in the throat she protects against throat ailments and cutlers because she was killed by a knife. As a true patron of her city, Syracuse, she was historically called upon to help in all epidemics, hence her aid against dysentery. Peasants claim her patronage because they depend on oxen who play a part in her story. Her final resting place is Venice so she is the patron of that city’s glassmakers and gondoliers.

Prayer to Saint Lucy of Syracuse

                                             Saint Lucy, your beautiful name signifies light.

                                        By the light of faith which God bestowed upon you,

                             Increase and preserve this light in my soul so that I may avoid evil,

                                           Be zealous in the performance of good works,

                        and abhor nothing as much as the blindness and darkness of evil and sin.

                                                       By your intercession with God,

                                           obtain for me perfect vision for my bodily eyes

                                 and the grace to use them for God’s greater honor and glory

                                                         and the salvation of all men.

                                                         Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr,

                                               Hear my prayers and obtain my petitions.

(mention your request here)

                                                                          Amen

Say this novena times in a row for nine days in a row.

Excerpted from the book, “Saints:Ancient and Modern” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua

 Painting of Saint Lucy by: Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato  1609 – 1685

SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER

 1506 – 1552

            The life of Saint Francis Xavier, a brilliant intellectual who had to learn how to trust like a child, is an illustration of the power of grace. His special novena, The Miraculous Novena of Grace, is a tool for welcoming clarity and synchronicity into our lives. It helps us surrender control to a higher power. As he attained ever more grace through prayer, Saint Francis Xavier matured from being an earnest, sheltered college professor to becoming a man at home any place in the world, able to converse in any language, with people of all levels of society.

             Born into a noble family in Aragon, Spain, Francis Xavier grew up in a castle, the youngest of six children. He was doted upon by his family, and his father was delighted when he showed an early ability to write well. Francis Xavier was then set upon an intellectual path and sent to the University of Paris to complete his education. There he displayed a considerable aptitude for philosophy, and it was thought he might even become one of the world famous professors at the Sorbonne. His life changed course, however, when he met an older student named Ignatius Loyola. Though he took an instant dislike to Loyola, Francis Xavier eventually joined his new order of priests, the Society of Jesus, which was devoted to spreading Christ’s message abroad. Saint Francis Xavier became one of the six original Jesuits and was sent to Goa in India, where the Portuguese had a colony. When he arrived there he realized how horribly degrading the European influence was on the native culture. Slavery, prostitution, thievery, and gambling were practiced openly. His beautifully written and voluminous collection of letters detailing his life in Goa and the degradation of the local people are still studied today. Though Francis Xavier was of noble birth, he was still able to relate to and emphasize with the lowest-born individual. He was frequently seen chatting with prostitutes, members of the underworld, and beggars in the street. He had a miraculous ability with languages and spoke various dialects of Indian with relative ease. His theory was to teach the simplest people first. Children loved him, as did prisoners and the outcasts of society, among whom he lived. As he devoted himself fully to his mission, Francis Xavier’s gifts magnified. He is credited with the ability to speak in tongues, quiet stormy seas, heal the hopelessly ill and predict the future.

             Using Goa as a base, Francis Xavier went on to convert hundreds of thousands of people in the Far East. He was the first missionary to reach Japan, in 1544. It was his dream to go on to China, but he died, worn out from his ceaseless work, on the island of Chang-Chuen-Shan. He was forty-six years old. His body was put in quicklime and returned to Goa, where it is enshrined in an uncorrupt state. He is considered a protector by the Paravas, the indigenous people whom he saved from being decimated by both the Europeans and the higher-caste Indians. Not only is he the patron saint of foreign missions; but after his death, he often became the patron of newly discovered regions of the world.

 Feast Day: December 3

 Patron Saint of: Australia, Borneo, China, Japan, Pakistan, Foreign Missions, Sailors, Tourists

 Invoked Against: Hurricanes, Plague

(Painting by Jose de Alzibar                Mexico   18th Century)  

The Miraculous Novena of Grace

Most amiable and most loving Saint Francis Xavier, in union with you I reverently adore the Divine Majesty. I rejoice exceedingly on account of the marvelous gifts which God bestowed upon you. I thank God for the special graces he gave you during your life on earth and for the great glory that came to you after your death. I implore you to obtain for me, through your powerful intercession, the greatest of all blessings, that of living and dying in the state of grace. I also beg of you to secure for me the special favor I ask in this novena. In asking this favor, I am fully resigned to the Divine Will. I pray and desire only to obtain that which is most conducive to the greater glory of God and the greater good of my soul. 

Amen.

(Here you may mention the grace, spiritual or temporal that you wish to obtain).

 (Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, one Glory Be).

 There are two times a year when the Miraculous Novena of Grace is considered especially powerful: from March 4 to March 12 and from November 25 to December 3.

Say this novena nine times in a row for nine days in a row.

Excerpted from the book: “Novena: The Power of Prayer” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

“Mother Cabrini” 

1850-1917

            The miracles attributed to Mother Cabrini are ongoing. In the chapel that holds her remains in New York City, there is a constantly changing collection of plaques, gifts, thank-you cards, and written testimonials to answered prayers by those who have invoked her for help. She is the first American citizen ever to be named a saint, and there are three major shrines to her in the United States. Having lived among the world’s forgotten citizens and the working poor, she is especially known for her intercession in relieving the small everyday burdens and disappointments that can sometimes seem insurmountable.

             She was born Maria Francesca Cabrini in the Lombard region of Italy. She lived on a farm, the youngest of thirteen children, only four of whom survived adolescence. When she was twenty years old, both her parents died in a smallpox epidemic. Due to her own ill health, she was turned down by two convents that she tried to join. Qualified as a schoolteacher, in 1880 she was sent to Codogno to run a small orphanage. There she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the first group of missionary nuns. She took the name Frances Xavier after her idol, Saint Francis Xavier, patron of the missions. It was her dream to continue his work in Asia by opening up a mission in China. After her orphanage was closed, she went to Rome and surprised many by having the rule of the order she founded authorized by the Pope in so little time. When he learned of her desire to be sent to China, he pointed out the unmet need in America, particularly New York City, where more than fifty thousand newly emigrated Italians lived in the filthy slums. With six nuns, Mother Cabrini arrived in America in 1889, only to be told by the archbishop of New York to go home. Instead, they moved into the Italian ghetto and opened an orphanage.  Within a few short years, Mother Cabrini’s order opened a multitude of orphanages, schools, hospitals, and nurse’s homes throughout the United States, Central America, Argentina, Brazil, France, Spain, England, and Italy, all catering to the displaced and destitute.

            Mother Cabrini was gifted with an innate business sense which made her extremely successful at raising money. Thought of as a somewhat difficult personality, she was very tenacious. This is perhaps due to the nature of her ministry. She lived among the lost and abandoned and even administered to the most violent offenders in Sing-Sing prison. Her experiences with the diverse groups of people she came in contact with softened her nature. Her character mellowed and she became less narrow in her judgments. In 1909 she became an American citizen. Just as Mother Cabrini evolved as a person, she is evolving as a saint. Though she is the patroness of immigrants, orphans, displaced persons and hospital administrators, she is invoked for absolutely anything. Indeed, her popularity as an intercessionary force is growing. Mother Cabrini died of malaria on December 22, 1917, and was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Her body lies on view at the Saint Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York City.

 Her Feast Day is the anniversary of her Beatification: November 13

 Patron Saint of: Immigrants, Orphans, Displaced Persons, Hospital Administrators

Novena to Mother Cabrini

 O loving Savior, infinitely generous, seeking only our interest, from your Sacred Heart came these words of pleading love: “Come to me all you that labor and are burdened and I will refresh you.” Relying on this promise of your infinite charity, we come to you and in the lowliness of our hearts earnestly beg you to grant us the favor we ask in this novena, through the intercession of your faithful servant Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Amen.

Say this novena nine times in a row for nine days in a row.

Excerpted from the book, “Novena: The Power of Prayer” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua

SAINT MARTIN DE PORRES

 1579 – 1639

Feast Day: November 3

Patronage: Peru, barbers, black people, hairdressers, hotel-keepers, inter-racial justice, jurists, mixed race people, poor, public health, public schools, racial harmony

Invoked: against mice and rats

 “Compassion my dear brother is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.”

                                             Martin de Porres

            As a mixed race man born in Peru, Saint Martin de Porres is a representative of three continents; his mother was of African descent, his father was from Spain and he himself was born in the New World. A highly esteemed healer and friend to all living creatures, Martin is one of the most popular saints in Latin America.

            Born in Lima, Peru, Martin was the illegitimate child of a  Spanish knight and a freed black woman from Panama, whose family had been African slaves. Dark complexioned like his mother, he was not legally recognized by his father until he was older. He and his sister shared a poor and neglectful childhood and at the age of 12 he was apprenticed to a barber so that he might have a trade. In those days, in addition to cutting hair, barbers performed surgery, mixed medicines and were much sought out for cures of every ailment.

            Deeply religious, it was Martin’s habit to pray as he mixed his herbal healing potions and it was said that he healed as many with his prayers as with his herbs. He met with great success in his new profession but in his desire to serve God with childlike humility, he routinely gave all his money to the poor. By the age of 15 he wanted to become a foreign missionary and decided to enter the Dominican Rosary Convent as a Third Order Tertiary or Lay Brother. He chose to perform the lowliest house chores, all the while meditating on the Passion of Christ, a subject of much fascination for him.  As a farm laborer and gardener, Martin developed a deep attunement to nature. Animals flocked to him and he in turn,  showed them a respect and kindness which bewildered his European brothers.

            Since the majority of the Dominican priests were from Spain, they had little experience with people from other cultures. Believing in the superiority of their own civilization, they were basically in the New World to administer to the newly arrived soldiers and merchants from their own country. During a plague Martin quietly taught them the true meaning of Christian charity when he volunteered to help out in the infirmary. He ceaselessly nursed African slaves, the native population and Spanish nobility with the same grace and ardor. Because of the spectacular success of his treatments,  he was installed as head of the infirmary, a job he claimed to be unworthy of. When the infirmary was overcrowded with the sick, Martin was told not to admit anyone else. He found an Indian bleeding to death from a knife wound, immediately took him in and treated him. Martin’s Superior chastised him for this open disobedience of his order and Martin replied, “Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity.”  Martin was then given the liberty to follow his own decisions on treating patients. Martin proved to add such a valuable contribution to his religious community that at the insistence of his prior, racial stipulations were abolished so that he could be made a fully professed brother in the Dominican Order.

            As a priest, Martin put his missionary instincts to work, traveling through the city to tend the sick of Lima. He was particularly devoted to improving the lot of the poor and the racially oppressed. Having great practical instincts, he opened hospitals and orphanages, raising money from the newly wealthy Spanish elite. Because of his ability to budget and allocate the charitable donations he was given, Martin was promoted to almoner of the monastery at a time when it was floundering for financial support. He amassed steady donations totaling $2000 per week, an astounding sum at that time, to cover its operating expenses as well as the daily tradition of feeding the hungry that Martin began. Every afternoon at 12 he had the gates of the monastery opened so that he could distribute food to anyone who needed it. Regardless of the number of people waiting, no one was ever turned away.

            His charity extended to the animal kingdom and he inaugurated the first shelter for stray cats and dogs. It was his sincere belief that all creatures were equally loved by God so all were deserving of his compassion and servitude. When his prior ordered poison to be set out to end the innundation of rats and mice the monastery was suffering from, Martin went out to the garden and softly called the rodents out of their hiding places. He reprimanded them for invading the monastery and promised to feed them every day out in the garden  if they would stay away from the building. Thus both sides kept to this agreement and Saint Martin is still invoked to prevent infestations of these pests.

            If Martin’s great love for animals seemed inexplicable to his Spanish brethren, they grew to accept it as just another proof of his sanctity. He ceaselessly prayed and enjoyed menial tasks because they enabled him to keep his silent union with God. Martin’s wisdom which seemed to come from a source deep within him, was much sought after. Archbishops and students of religion came to him for spiritual guidance and direction. This was no doubt a difficult role for him, since he preferred a life of humility and anonymity. In the chapel, he would go so deeply into meditation that he would levitate off the ground. His intuitive abilities enabled him to read minds and slip through locked doors. Like other mystical saints, he was gifted with bi-location, the ability to be in two places at once, transcending all laws of time and space. Spanish traders who knew him from Lima reported meeting him in the Philippines and Japan. An African slave who Martin treated in Peru, told Martin that he was extremely happy to see him again and asked how his voyage was. When he was told by another brother that Martin never left Lima in his life, the slave vehemently disagreed. He insisted that Martin had come to the slaves in the hull of the boats as they were transported in irons, offering consolation and comfort.

            By the time of his death of a high fever, Martin de Porres was a great celebrity in Lima. The poor considered him a folk hero and called him “The Father of Charity” and he was honored by the upper classes for his good works and ability as a healer. His funeral was open to the entire city and was attended by the noblemen, ex-slaves and religious authorities who he had served and advised with equal respect in life. After his death, Martin maintained the love of the Peruvian people and his cult is particularly strong in South America.

             In art, Saint Martin de Porres is depicted in a Dominican habit with a broom, little animals at his feet as a reminder of the life of humility he led, doing menial work and his love for all of God’s creatures. The dove of the Holy Spirit is also present stressing the divine wisdom Martin had.. He carries a cross because of his devotion to Christ’s Passion. Since Martin was of mixed race, he is the patron of racial harmony. Because he began his life as a barber, barbers and hairdressers claim him. He is the patron of jurists because so many important people came to him.

Prayer to Saint Martin de Porres

                                To you Saint Martin de Porres we prayerfully lift up our hearts

                                              filled with serene confidence and devotion.

                                            Mindful of your unbounded and helpful charity

                          to all levels of society and also of your meekness and humility of heart,

                                            we offer our petitions to you. (Request here)

            Pour out upon our families the precious gifts of your solicitous and generous intercession.

                     Show to the people of every race and color the paths of unity and of justice.

                               Implore from our Father in heaven the coming of His kingdom,

                                              so that through mutual benevolence in God

                        men may increase the fruits of grace and merit the rewards of eternal life.

                                                                          Amen

Excerpted from: “Saints:Ancient and Modern” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua.