Month: April 2022

Lidwina was born in Holland, on April 18, 1380.  She was one of nine children. Her father was a laborer. When she was 15, she was ice skating when she fell and broke a rib. She never recovered and became progressively disabled for the rest of her life. From then on, she developed walking difficulties, headaches, and violent pains in her teeth. By the age of 19, both her legs were paralyzed and her vision was disturbed. She became paralyzed except for her left hand and that great pieces of her body fell off, and that blood poured from her mouth, ears, and nose. Today, some people think Saint Lidwina is one of the first known people with multiple sclerosis.

After her fall, Lidwina fasted continuously and became known as a healer and holy woman.  A guard was set around her to test her fasts.  The town officials documented her complete lack of food and sleep. At first, she ate a little piece of apple, then a bit of date and watered wine, then river water contaminated with salt from the tides. They also documented she shed skin, bones, and parts of her intestines, which her parents kept in a vase and which gave off a sweet odor. This drew so much attention Lidwina had her mother bury them.  Lidwina was given credit for many acts of curing and charity.  She provided food and nourishment to the needy that miraculously multiplied and lasted longer than expected.

Lidwina died at the age of 53 on April 14, 1433.

St. Jose Sabas Reyes Salazar was born on December 4, 1883 in Jalisco, Mexico, to Norberto Reyes Lopez and Francisca Salazar Castillo.  His family was very poor and moved to Guadalajara for work.  To help his family he sold newspapers and was unable to finish elementary school.  

He entered Conciliar Seminary of Guadalajara where he was not supposed to be able to become a priest because he had not finished his elementary education.  The leaders at the seminary saw his noble and devout nature and recommended he join because the diocese needed him.  St. Sabas took holy orders and was ordained to the priesthood on December 24, 1911.  He celebrated his first Mass in Guadalajara in 1912 with his family and friends.  He was a priest in Veracruz.  In 1914, a religious persecution began.  Sabas asked to move to the Diocese of Guadalajara.  He moved again in 1919.  When worship had to be suspended, Father Sabas was left in charge of administering the sacraments, and gave the orphaned children asylum in his home.  Federal troops arrived, murdering and desecrating the Church by using it as a stable and destroying all of the holy images.  Then the troops set it on fire.  Father Sabas came to put out the fire.  HIs parishioners begged him to leave the areas, but he refused, saying if it was God’s will he would gladly accept martyrdom. 

In 1927, Father Sabas was warned that federal troops would attack again.  He went into hiding, with three orphans.  He spent his time praying the rosary.  When soldiers reached his hiding place, the homeowner denied he was there.  In order to protect her, her family, and the orphans hiding with him, he came out saying they could do as they wished with him.  They tied his arms and dragged him away to the parish church, which had been turned into a stable and to house soldiers.  He was tied to a column in the sun.  He was denied water.  For three days he was nearly starved and denied water.  They repeatedly burned his hands because they had been consecrated.  On April 12 he was tied by the hands and neck and taken to the General who interrogated him looking for other priests.  The soldiers continued to torture him.  They lit two bonfires.  One next to his face and the other next to his feet.  Occasionally, one of the soldiers would stab him with a burning stick.  At dusk on Holy Wednesday, he was dragged to a cemetery where he was shot many times.    He died April 13, 1927.

Zeno of Verona was a native of Mauretania. He taught many children of Africa about the Catholic religion and he also helped them with their school work. The children could rely on someone who could help them. Zeno was a follower of Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, who accompanied his master when the latter visited Verona in 340. Zeno’s 90 or so sermons are evidence of his African origins since Christian African writers of the time frequently used neologisms and wordplay. Many of the Sermones concern Old Testament exegesis.  Staying in the city, Zeno entered the monastic life, living as a monk until around 362, when he was elected successor asSee  Bishop of Verona after the death of Bishop Gricinus 

Zeno had a good classical education and as bishop baptized many people, won converts back from Arianism, lived a life of poverty, trained priests to work in the diocese, set up a convent for women, reformed how the Agape feast was celebrated and forbade funeral masses being accompanied by attendees’ loud groans and wailing. Zeno’s other reforms included instructions concerning adult baptism, by complete immersion, and issuing medals to people newly baptized to the Catholic faith.

One story about Saint Zeno, says one day when he was fishing on the banks of the Adige, which he did in order to feed himself.  He saw a peasant crossing the river in a horse and cart. The horses began to get strangely skittish. Zeno, believing this to be the work of the devil, made the sign of the cross, and the horses calmed down. Zeno was often said to combat the devil and is sometimes depicted treading on a demon. Another story says he exorcised a demon from the body of the daughter of the Emperor. The story says that the grateful Emperor allowed Zeno and other Christians freedom of worship in the empire.

Zeno may have suffered persecution (but not execution) during the reigns of Constantius II and Julian the Apostate.  Zeno was bishop for about ten years.  He died around April 12, 371.  

At the end of the 6th century, Saint Gregory the Great tells about miracles from the divine intercession of Zeno. In 588, the Adige flooded its banks, inundating Verona. The floodwater reached the church dedicated to Saint Zeno, but miraculously did not enter it, even though the door was wide open. The church was donated to Theodelinda, an alleged eyewitness to the miracle and wife of king Authari.

Barsanuphius was a Christian hermit and writer of the sixth century.

He was born in Egypt, and he lived in absolute seclusion for fifty years near the monastery of Saint Seridon of Gaza in Palestine. He wrote many letters, 800 of which have survived. He wrote mainly to John the Prophet, abbot of the monastery of Merosala and teacher of Dorotheus of Gaza. In his old age, he convinced the emperor to renew the relationship with the Church of Jerusalem.   He died around 545.
His relics arrived in Oria, in Italy, with a Palestinian monk in 850 AD and were placed in the present-day church of San Francesco da Paola by Bishop Theodosius. During a Moorish siege and taking of the city, the relics were lost but then later rediscovered and placed in the city’s basilica.

At Oria, he is considered to have saved the city from destruction by foreign invaders. A legend states that he repelled a Spanish invasion by appearing before the Spanish commander armed with a sword. During World War II, he is said to have spread his blue cape across the sky, thus causing a rainstorm, and preventing an air bombing by Allied Forces.