Italy / Catherine of Siena, 1347–1380,
Feast Day: April 29

Other patronages: Europe; fire prevention, nursing services; firefighters, laundresses; sick people

Invoked: against burns, miscarriage, temptation

Novena to Saint Catherine of Siena

SAINT JOSEPH

First Century

Feast Day: March 19

Patron of: Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, China, Croatia, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam,  carpenters,  Catholic Church, families, fathers, homeless, pregnant women, workers

Invoked: for family protection, to find work, for a happy death, to sell a home, against doubt, against hesitation, Symbols: Lily, Baby Jesus, Flowering branch, Carpenter’s tools

  “I know by experience that the glorious Saint Joseph assists us generally in all necessities. I never asked him for anything which he did not obtain for me.” 

            Saint Teresa of Avila

          A working man descended from royal lineage, Joseph is said to have been chosen by God to protect His greatest treasures, Jesus and Mary. In the few descriptions of him in the Gospels, Joseph never speaks. He displays the depth of his faith by listening and quietly doing what he is told. In the face of possible public scandal he marries Mary when she is pregnant with a child that is not his. When an angel tells him that the child she has conceived is of the Holy Spirit, he accepts it.

         When all citizens were required to register on the tax rolls Joseph dutifully takes a very pregnant Mary with him to Bethlehem. As the city is severely overcrowded, they cannot find a proper place to sleep and Mary is forced to give birth in a stable. The holy family settles back into Nazareth until an angel warns Joseph in a dream of the impending slaughter of the innocents, and instructs him to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt. Without hesitation Joseph relinquishes his business and home to take his wife and young son on a perilous journey to an unknown land. Following the angel’s order, they stay in Egypt for seven years, with Joseph caring for both the financial and spiritual needs of the holy family.

            The final mention of Joseph is in the story of the twelve year old Jesus straying from his family during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It is believed that Joseph died well before Jesus began his public life and his patronage for a good death stems from the probability that he was surrounded by Jesus and Mary as he lay on his death bed.

            While the gospels concern Joseph only in regard to his relationship to Jesus, other histories of Joseph passed down from the fifth century state that Joseph was a widower who had been married 49 years and had six children before his first wife died. When the priests announced that all unmarried men from the tribe of Juda were to be candidates to marry Mary, Joseph went to Jerusalem with great reluctance. He was elderly and did not think he should be seriously considered. While the other men presented themselves by putting their walking sticks on the altar, Joseph held back and did not participate.  To everyone’s amazement the tip of his staff burst into a bloom of flowers, a sign from God that he was to be named the fiancee of Mary.           This tale is where the early visual depictions of Joseph as an elderly man with a flowering branch come from.  It was also thought that since Joseph had to respect Mary’s virginity throughout their marriage, that in all probability he would have been older.

            During the beginnings of the church, only martyrs were recognized as saints. Despite the importance of Joseph in the life of Christ, his cult was only found in the East. It did not arrive in the West until the ninth century when he was honored in church as the Foster Father of Our Lord.  The Carmelite order brought his cult to Europe when they were driven out of Jerusalem during the Crusades and the first church dedicated to him was in 1129 in Bologna, Italy.             

European Evangelists recognized Joseph’s reputation as the perfect father figure as useful in gaining conversions.  Common people forced to put the needs of their family before personal ambition saw Joseph’s life mirror their own. Church mystics and scholars Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas and Bridget of Sweden all stressed the importance of Saint Joseph in their religious devotions. While reforming the Carmelite order in Spain, Teresa of Avila chose him to be the patron of her Discalced Carmelite order.  She did much to spread his public devotion spread throughout the Spanish Kingdom. During the Middle Ages when drought and famine struck Sicily, residents throughout that island prayed to Saint Joseph for help. At midnight on March 19^th rain began pouring and good weather immediately followed. Sicilians have venerated Saint Joseph ever since, by setting up altars, cooking special food and sweets which are given to friends and to the poor. These festivities were adapted by the rest of Italy where Saint Joseph is greatly revered. It is said that Saint Joseph has the power to overturn natural law, because Jesus had to obey his earthly father while he was a boy, that he would still do whatever Saint Joseph asked of him.

            With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, and the new class of laborers it produced, patronage to Saint Joseph became universal. By the end of the 19^th Century he was named patron of the Catholic Church out of gratitude for the care he took of Jesus. Because Joseph had to move on a moment’s notice with the flight into Egypt and was responsible for providing shelter for his family, he is invoked for buying or selling a home.  The tradition of burying a Saint Joseph’s statue on the grounds of a home to initiate a quick sale goes back to the 17^th Century. When Teresa of Avila was in need of more land to set up her religious houses, she had her nuns bury their Saint Joseph’s medals in the ground. Gradually, these medals evolved into a statue of Saint Joseph that would be buried upside down until the house was sold, then dug up and taken to the new home. Today, even nonCatholics do this as a superstitious rite, buying Saint Joseph’s Home Sale Kits off the internet.

            In art, Saint Joseph is always depicted with the infant Jesus. He sometimes has carpenter tools and because of his chastity he carries a lily for purity. The flowering staff became a popular attribute for him because it is also the emblem of shepherd kings who forcefully defended their flock. This staff is also the ancestor of the Bishop’s crook. An additional feast day was declared for Saint Joseph as May 1^st.  May Day to the rest of the world, the church in its attempt to combat Communism dedicated this day set aside for the working man to the Patron of Workers.

Prayer for Saint Joseph’s Intercession

                                     Remember, O most chaste spouse of the Virgin Mary,

                                That never was it known that anyone who implored your help

                                          and sought your intercession was left unassisted.

                                                     Full of confidence in your power,

                                                 I fly unto you and beg your protection.

                                            Despise not, O foster father of the Redeemer,

                                                 My humble supplication, (request here)

                                             but in your bounty, hear and answer me. 

            Amen

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

Dining with the Saints in Honor of Saint Joseph

More on Saint Joseph

Breast Disorders: Agatha

D. 251     Feast Day: February 5

A virgin martyr from Catania, Sicily, Agatha is closely identified with the protection of her homeland. When she refused to renounce her Christian faith, Agatha was tortured by having her breasts cut off. While in prison, Saint Peter came and healed her. She was later killed by being rolled in burning coals. At the same time, a great earthquake shook Catania, destroying her persecutors. Her veil is still used to ward off the eruptions of nearby Mount Etna.

Other Patronages: Malta, Burns, Pulmonary Diseases, Bell Ringers, Bell Makers, Brass Workers, Cloth Makers, Glass Workers, Wet Nurses, Nursing Mothers

Invoked Against: Fires, Volcanic Eruptions

Novena to Saint Agatha

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

1225 – 1274

Doctor of the Church

Considered more angelic than human, Saint Thomas Aquinas has the title of “Angelic Doctor”. His life is the story of someone who lived totally through his higher mind, rejecting all worldly temptations, ambitions, and pleasures in favor of intellectual pursuit. Honored in his own lifetime, he was continually invited by the Pope and the king of France to share his learning, but this never changed his disposition of the simple way he lived his life. He refused all offers of holy office in order to continue his vocation of studying, writing, and preaching. Because of this love of learning for its own sake, Saint Thomas Aquinas is the patron saint of students. He is invoked whenever there is a difficult situation regarding education, be it tackling a difficult subject or passing and entrance examination. Although this novena is written for the patronage of Catholic schools, all students should feel free to call on him.

Saint Thomas Aquinas is regarded by most historians as the greatest thinker and theologian of the Middle Ages. Yet the more knowledge he mastered, the more he realized how much he did not know. Born at Roccasecca, near Naples, he was the youngest child of the count of Aquino. At the age of five he was sent away to the Benedictines of Monte Cassino. There, at that young age, he displayed great intellectual acuity and easily surpassed all the other students in his class. His father, being a nobleman, assumed that he would be trained for a high ecclesiastical office. At the age of seventeen, Saint Thomas scandalized his family when they discovered that he had secretly joined the new order of Dominican friars. This order frequently resorted to begging in the streets to survive. His brothers then kidnapped him and locked him in the family house for the next year. Trying to get him to break his vows, they presented him with every temptation, including a beautiful prostitute. Saint Thomas chased her away with a flaming torch and from that day was freed from any sexual desires. His family finally relented and released him. In 1248 he went to the city of Cologne, where he studied under Saint Albert the Great, at that time the most brilliant professor in Europe. His lumbering presence and slow movements belied his genius, causing his fellow students to refer to Saint Thomas as “the Dumb Ox”. He began publishing his works at the age of twenty-two and then went to Paris, where he earned his doctorate in theology. He was in great demand as a university professor and became famous for his lucid writings. The great challenge of his life was to explain Christianity in Aristotelian terms.

In 1266 Saint Thomas began his greatest work, Summa Theologica. Seven years and two million years later, he quite suddenly stopped work on it, leaving it unfinished. While attending mass he had had an ecstatic vision, and afterward, he declared that compared with what he had just seen, “all that writing seemed like so much straw.” He died three months later, at the age of forty-nine. So simple, pure and ingenuos had Saint Thomas Aquinas remained in his life that his deathbed confessor declared his final confession to be akin to that of a five-year-old child.

Feast Day: January 28

Patron of: Students, Universities, Catholic Schools

Novena to Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas, patron of students and schools, I thank God for the gifts of light and knowledge God bestowed on you, which you used to build up the church in love. I thank God, too, for the wealth and richness of theological teachings you left in your writings. Not only were you a great teacher, you lived a life of virtue and you made holiness the desire of your heart. If I cannot imitate you in the brilliance of your academic pursuits, I can follow you in the humility and charity that marked your life. As Saint Paul said, charity is the greatest gift and is open to all. Pray for me that I may grow in holiness and charity. Pray also for Catholic schools and for all students. In particular, please obtain the favor I ask during this novena. Amen.

(Mention your request.)

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

Image: Detail from “The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas” by Bennozzo Gozzoli 

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