A Visitors' Guide to Our Saints
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A Visitors’ Guide to Our Saints Welcome to Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral We are grateful that you have decided to visit the Cathedral today and welcome you to our spiritual home. Please take a few minutes to read the following guidelines before continuing into the worship space of the church. This guide follows the order of the saint statues in their respective places, starting in the left loggia, continuing along the left perimeter of the nave, up to the left transept and around close to the sanctuary. Crossing in front of the altar, (not through) resume your path in the right transept to the right of the sanctuary, along the back wall, the near wall and then the right perimeter of the nave. Visitor Guidelines The Cathedral is a non-smoking facility and is, first and foremost, a religious space. Please respect our traditions and especially the presence of others praying or those touring the Cathedral during your visit. Additionally: ◊ No food is allowed in the church, including gum or drinks. ◊ Please keep voices low as there may be others praying. ◊ Gentlemen, please remove hats. ◊ Please refrain from using your mobile phone for purposes other than photography. ◊ Please do not enter closed areas. (The sanctuary, cathedra, altar, sacristies, choir loft and bell tower are not accessible to visitors.) ◊ Photography is not permitted during services but is allowed at all other times. 2 May 2018 St. John Vianney—August 4 [1] St. John Vianney, T.O.S.F. (1786-1859) John grew up amid the Terror of the French Revolution, so first learned and practiced the faith in secret. His lack of academic foundation made priestly studies quite difficult, but when examiners dismissed his from formation his tutor won "the most unlearned but the most devout seminarian in Lyons" admittance to priestly ordination. Academic failure belied moral knowledge, and John quickly became a popular confessor; by the end of four decades as pastor in Ars he spent 12-16 hours per day hearing confessions. He undertook harsh penance for the conversion of his parishioners, and this combined with personal visitation and vigorous preaching worked to great effect. But the swarm of pilgrims to his confessional, while attracted by his evident sanctity, was also drawn by reports of the demonic attacks he suffered, and his ability to read souls, prophesy, and work miracles (especially to keep his charities funded and fed). Despite such marvels, the pastor's holiness was perhaps most apparent in the simple advice given to penitents, such as "Love the good God very much." Patron of Parish Priests, Confessors St. Teresa of Calcutta—September 5 [2] St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997) Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu left her home in Skopje at age 18 to become a missionary with the Sisters of Loreto. Taking her religious name in honor of St. Therese of Lisieux, Teresa taught at a convent school in Calcutta for many years before perceiving a "call within a call" to "help the poor while living among them." She adopted Indian dress and sought out basic medical training so as to enter ministry in the slums, where she tended to the city's poor, sick, starving, and dying. Soon joined in her efforts by other young women, in 1950 she officially founded the Missionaries of Charity, whose purpose was ""To satiate the thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross for Love and Souls." She shared that thirst through profound spiritual darkness but bore the suffering through the help of consecration to Mary and the conviction that, should she become a saint she would "continually be absent from heaven - to light the light of those in darkness on earth." Patroness of World Youth Day St. Therese of Lisieux-October 1 [3] St. Thérèse of Lisieux, O.C.D. (1873-1897) Marie Françoise-Therese Martin was born into a devout French family; her parents Louis and Zélie are both canonized, and all her surviving sisters entered religious life. Her mother's death inaugurated a troubled childhood, but at 3 Christmas 1886 Therese underwent a conversion experience that led her to find happiness in forgetting herself for others' sake. The next year she expressed her desire to become a Discalced Carmelite; she received permission at the young age of 15. Therese devoted herself to the religious Rule and went out of her way to love the nuns she least liked. Such small acts would prove foundational to her "little way" of holiness: "Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love." She prayed and sacrificed in particular for the sake of foreign missions. Declining steadily in the years before her death at 24, she was consoled to meet Christ even in the tuberculosis that would take her life. Patroness of France, missionaries St. Catherine of Siena - April 29 [4] St. Catherine of Siena, T.O.S.D. (1347-1380) April 29 Young Catherine was both markedly joyful and pious; by age 7 she had received her first vision of Christ and vowed her whole life to God. Thus Catherine protested familial plans to see her married by fasting and cutting off her long hair. She resolved, nonetheless, to serve her family as she would Christ and His saints, and they eventually allowed her to fulfill her desire of joining the Third Order of St. Dominic. She practiced severe self-mortification and almsgiving in seclusion until she experienced a mystical marriage to Christ, who later instructed her to go forth to promote others' salvation. This she did by nursing the sick, visiting prisoners, offering spiritual direction, ending feuds, brokering peace, and prevailing upon the pope to return from Avignon to Rome. Though some of her life, like her stigmata, remained hidden, her ministry proved the truth of her admonition: "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!" For sharing her mystical gifts of wisdom and understanding she was declared a Doctor of the Church. Patroness of Europe, nurses, the sick and the tempted St. Martin de Porres - November 3 [5] St. Martin de Porres, O.P. (1579-1639) November 3 Martin's ignoble birth and mixed race excluded him from much of society in Lima, Peru, including full membership in religious orders. Nonetheless, after three years' apprenticeship to a barber Martin entered a Dominican priory as a donado, living with the community in exchange for menial service. Though considering it too great an honor, in 1603 he acceded to demands that he profess vows as a lay brother. Exhibiting skill and sanctity in cleaning, kitchen, and laundry duties, Martin eventually received charge of the house's almsgiving and infirmary. His begging provided daily necessities to the city's poor, while his fundraising secured dowries and founded and orphanage. He ministered to the sick without 4 May 2018 distinction between rich and poor, Spaniard and slave, and many miraculous cures were attributed to his aid. These and many other marvelous gifts were grounded in a life of penance and prayer, especially devotion to our Lord in the Eucharist. Patron of people of mixed race, barbers, public health workers St. Francis of Assisi - October 4 [6] St. Francis of Assisi, O.F.M. (ca. 1181-1226) The young Francis lived fashionably as merchant and soldier until captivity, illness, and mystical experiences moved him to care more earnestly for the sick and poor. At prayer in church he heard a voice: ""Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin." Understanding this literally, he sold some of his father's wares to donate toward repairs. His father beat him and brought him before the bishop's judgment, where Francis so fully renounced his father's goods that he returned the very clothes off his back. Redoubling his works of charity, Francis begged his way through the countryside exhorting others to penance, love, and peace. Followers soon gathered, whom Francis organized under a simple rule as Friars Minor, obtaining papal permission for them to preach. Francis was particularly devoted to Christ's humanity, and was the first to share our Lord's stigmata and construct a creche celebrating His birth. Francis taught his humble friars that their boast would be to glorify God "if, while serving Him faithfully, we ascribe to Him whatever He gives." Patron of Italy, animals, the environment St. John Neumann -January 5 [7] St. John Neumann, T.O.S.F (1811-1860) When John completed priestly studies in Prague at age 24, he learned that there was already an overabundance of priests at home. Accordingly, John left to be ordained for the immigrant communities of the United States. His first assignments were to the rural missions around Niagara Falls, travelling many miles on horseback to administer sacraments, visit the sick, teach catechism, and train teachers to continue his work. The isolation of this life sparked a desire for community, professing vows as a Redemptorist. After serving as parish priest and provincial he became bishop of Philadelphia in 1852, where he faced strong anti- immigrant sentiment while presiding over a rapidly expanding church. Anti- Catholicism in public schools prompted him to found a diocesan school system, the first in the country, and John recruited many religious orders both to teach and to provide social services. Bl. Paul VI canonized John with this praise, "He was close to the sick; he was at home with the poor; he was a friend to sinners.