Saint Peregrine Laziosi

Also known as: Peregrinus

Born: Forli, Italy 1265

Died: Forli, Italy May 1, 1345

Beatified: September 11, 1702 by Pope Clement XI

Canonized: December 27, 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII

Patronage: Cancer patients; against cancer; AIDS sufferers; breast cancer; open sores; sick people; skin diseases; Forli,Italy

Saint Peregrine was born wealthy, and spent a wild, worldly youth, and became involved in politics. He was initially strong anti-Catholic. At the time, Forli was governed by the Pope as part of the Papal States, and Peregrine's family was involved in the opposition to the Papal rule. The city was under the Church penalty of interdict which meant that Mass and the Sacraments could not be celebrated there. Saint Philip Benizi had gone to Forli to preach reconciliation, and the impetuous Peregrine struck him across the face, and Saint Philip Benizi, calmly turned the other cheek, prayed for Peregrine, and Peregrine converted.

Peregrine received a vision of Our Lady who told him to go to Siena, Italy and join the Servites. After training and ordination he was assigned to his home town. He lived and worked in silence and in solitude as much as possible, and without sitting down for 30 years as penance for his youthful life. When he did speak, he was an excellent orator, fervent preacher, and gentle confessor.

At the age of 60, as a result of his penance from all those years of standing, he developed varicose veins which deteriorated into an open, running sore on his leg, which was eventually diagnosed as cancer. The sore became so obvious, odorous, and painful, that Peregrine was scheduled to have the leg amputated. All night long the night before the operation, he prayed before the image of the crucified Christ. He received a vision of Christ coming down from the Cross and touching and healing his leg. Upon awakening, he found the sore healed, and his leg saved. He lived another 20 years before dying of natural causes at the age of 80. The people of Forli chose him as the Patron Saint of their city.

Copyright © 2005 Steve Smith. All rights reserved.

Saint Jude Thaddeus-Apostle and Martyr

Saint Jude Thaddeus

Memorial:28 October (Roman Church); 19 June (Eastern Church)

Patronage: desperate situations; forgotten causes; hospital workers; hospitals; impossible causes; lost causes diocese of Saint Petersburg, Florida

Representation: axe; bearded man holding an oar; boat; boat hook; book; club; square rule; sword; nearly every image depicts him wearing a medallion with a profile of Jesus, and usually with a small flame above his head; often carries a pen or sits at a writing location to make reference to the canonical Epistle.

Saint Jude Thaddeus was one of the Twelve Apostles. He was a a brother of Saint James the Lesser, nephew of Joseph and Mary, and a blood relative of Our Savior, and reputed to look a lot like him. He may have been a fisherman. He preached in Judea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia with Saint Simon. He wrote an Epistle (letter) which is in the New Testament.

He is the patron of lost or desperate causes, and several reasons are given for this patronage. The first, is that early Christians often confused him with the traitor Judas, and as a result of the confusion between the names, never prayed to him, and devotion to him became something of a lost cause. The second comes from his Epistle where he stressed that the faithful should persevere in the harsh and desperate environment faced by Christians in those times.

Jude was the one who at the Last Supper, asked the Lord why He would not manifest Himself to the world after His resurrection. Not much more is known of his life. He was martyred in Armenia which was then controlled by the Persians. He was beaten to death with a club, then beheaded postmortem. His relics are at Saint Peter's, Rome, at Rheims, and at Toulouse, France .

Copyright © 2005 Steve Smith. All rights reserved.

SAINT MARIA GORETTI

Saint Maria Goretti 1890-1902

Martyr of Purity

Patronage : against impoverishment, against poverty, girls, loss of parents, martyrs, rape victims, young people in general.

A girl’s real beauty is within. It is a thing of her soul, shining through her pure eyes and radiating her whole body. It is something by which she makes men aware of the truth and beauty and goodness of God by reflecting that beauty and goodness in herself.


The daughter of humble sharecroppers, Maria and her family moved to the little town of Ferriere, Italy in 1899 in search of work . Misery followed them but hope was adamant. Desperately seeking to support his family, Luigi Goretti struck up a bargain with Signor Serenelli, who had a son named Alessandro. The two families lived together in a building.

Maria quickly matured in grace and holiness in the eyes of friends and other acquaintances. After losing her father to malaria, she developed great strength and maturity. Her charming modesty, cheerful obedience and the serious, but free acceptance of a hundred thankless home chores distinguished her from the other children who would play in the dusty streets of Ferriere. The highlight of her life was her First Holy Communion, which she dutifully prepared for and awaited with great anticipation. She truly seemed to be advancing "in wisdom, and age and grace before God and men."

Lured by the passions of his day and nurturing the dark side of his soul with impious reading and thoughts Allesandro had been a thorn in lovely Maria's side. He propositioned her on several occasions and harassed her with impure suggestions. On July 5, 1902, he would be denied no longer. As she once again rebuffed his sexual advance, shouting, "No! It is a sin! God does not want it!". He tried to choke her into submission, then stabbed her fourteen times. She resisted until the very end.

Doctors in Nettuno tried to save Maria's life to no avail. On her dying bed her soul was ready for her final tryst with God but there was one last deed to be done. She reflected on the crucifix on the wall and said “for the love of Jesus I pardon him and I want him to be with me in Heaven”

After 20 painful hours of suffering during which she forgave and prayed for Alessandro, Maria entered Heaven fortified with the Last Sacraments. The priest who came to give Maria her Last Sacrament placed a medallion of the Blessed Mother around her neck. She kissed the picture of the Holy Virgin on the medallion and prayed in the words that Catharine Labouré was given by Our Lady:

MARY CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN, PRAY FOR US WHO HAVE RECOURSE TO THEE"

Her last earthly gaze rested upon a picture of the Blessed Mother on July 6, 1902.

Maria Goretti died a martyr before her twelfth birthday. Young as she was, she made a choice, a choice based on her faith. The Church holds up to the world the life, death and the faith of Maria Goretti

While in prison for his crime, Allessandro had a vision of Maria. He saw a garden where a young girl, dressed in white, gathered lilies. She smiled, came near him, and encouraged him to accept an armful of the lilies. As he took them, each lily transformed into a still white flame. Maria then disappeared. This vision of Maria led to Alessandro's conversion, and he later testified at her cause for beatification.

Almost fifty years later on June 24, 1950, Pope Pius XII stood on the steps of St. Peter's in Rome and pronounced Maria Goretti a Saint and Martyr of the Universal Church to half a million people. He proposed her as the Patroness of Modern Youth and set July 6th as her feast Day. Her mother, and her murderer, attended the canonization ceremony together.

This was the triumph of the little girl who loved God and hated sin. Maria Goretti had led a very ordinary life. But in spite of her simplicity, her great faith and love for God made her truly extraordinary. She is the voice of Mary recalling the church to Prayer and Penance and Heroic Virtue. In addition, it was her special vocation to live the uncompromising absolute: to choose to die rather than to sin, and to become the shining lovely saint of Purity. Everything in her life prepared her to be the special instrument of the Holy Virgin.

Although she was poor and deprived of a school education, Maria, who was not yet 12 years old had a strong and mature personality, shaped by the religious instruction she had received in the family. This shows the importance of teaching our children the faith and it made her capable not only of defending herself with heroic chastity, but even of forgiving her murderer.

Each generation is taught by an earlier generation...if we are skeptical we shall teach only skepticism to our pupils, if fools only folly, if vulgar only vulgarity, if saints sanctity, if heroes heroism...Nothing which was not in the teachers can flow from them into the pupils. (C.S.Lewis )

Her martyrdom reminds us that the human being is not fulfilled by following the impulses of pleasure but by living life with love and responsibility. Her martyrdom reminds us that the human being is not fulfilled by following the impulses of pleasure but by living life with love and responsibility Maria was given the name of Our Lady. May the purest of human creatures help the men and women of our time, and especially young people, to rediscover the value of chastity and to live interpersonal relations in reciprocal respect and sincere love.

Maria's story is powerful. It echoes Pope John Paul II's cry to today's youth- "do not be afraid to be saints!" We must not be afraid to learn who Christ is, to forgive like Him, to see our own sexuality and personal integrity in the light of Christ even if that is different to our contemporaries.