Category Archives: Franciscan Saints

Faith, Franciscan Saints, patron saints, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Feast Day Nov. 17

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St. Elizabeth of Hungary by Moroder Public Domain Image
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
by Moroder

 

 

The feast day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary is celebrated on November 17.  Elizabeth was a Princess born in 1207 to King Andrew II of Hungary.  St. Elizabeth of Hungary  is the patron saint of widows, charities, bakers and young brides.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary was born in 1207 in Hungary. She was the daughter of Alexander II who was the King of Hungary. She was betrothed at the age of four to be married to Louis of Thuringa (a German principality). At the age of 14 she married Louis who was 21.

Elizabeth was very pious from a young age.  Louis, also was quite religious. Their marriage was a happy and fruitful union. They had three children.  Louis was a brave soldier. While he was away Elizabeth devoted herself to charity. She helped to build a hospital which had 12 beds.

He encouraged her works of charity. After six years of marriage Louis was killed during the crusades while she was pregnant with their third child at the age of 20. Elizabeth’s relatives resented how generous she was with the family’s money. They mistrusted her and eventually threw her out of the palace.

Upon hearing the news of her husband’s death, Elizabeth cried out,

“The world with all its joys is now dead to me.”

After finding care for her children, Elizabeth left the castle and became a Third Order Franciscan, joining them on Good Friday. She devoted herself entirely to helping the sick and poor. A Franciscan hospital was built in which she was able to care for the sick and suffering.

St. Elizabeth died at the age of 24 in 1231. Soon after her death miracles of healing were reported at her grave site

A legend exists that her husband met her unexpectedly as she went secretly on an errand to help the poor. The bread she was carrying was turned into roses. Pictures of St. Elizabeth often show her carrying bread or roses.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary died  at the age of 24 in 1231 at Marburg, Germany of natural causes.  She was canonized on May 27, 1235 by Pope Gregory IX.

 

“How could I bear a crown of gold

when the Lord bears a crown of thorns?…

and bears it for me!”

Quote of St. Elizabeth of Hungary

 

November is the Month of the Holy Souls

St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Art

November is the Month of the Poor Souls

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Franciscan Saints, Martyr, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: Bl. Maria Restituta, Feast Day October 29

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Bl. Maria Restituta
Bl. Maria Restituta

 

The feast day of Bl. Maria Restituta is celebrated on October 29.  She was martyred by the Nazis when she refused to remove crucifixes from the hospital walls.

Helen Kafka was born in Vienna, Austria in 1894.  Her father was a shoemaker.  Helen’s first job was that of a salesgirl.  She then became an assistant caregiver at the Lainz public hospital.  It was at the hospital that she met the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity.  She joined the Order at the age of 20.  She took the name Restituta who was a marty in the 4th century.

Sister Restituta became a surgical nurse in 1919 working at the Moulding hospital.  After the Nazi invasion of the country she became an opponent of the Nazis.  When they ordered her to remove all the crucifixes on the walls of the hospital, she refused.  The Nazis then arrested her and charged her for “aiding and abetting the enemy in the betrayal of the fatherland and for plotting high treason”.

The last days Sister Restituta spent in prison were spent caring for other prisoners.  Even the communist prisoners spoke highly of her.  She was offered freedom if she left her religious order but she refused.

Bl. Maria was beheaded at the age of 48 on March 30, 1943 in Vienna.  Pope John Paul II beatified her on June 21, 1998.

 

“I have lived for Christ.

I want to die for Christ.”

Last words of Bl. Maria Restituta

 

October is the Month of the Most Holy Rosary

 

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Franciscan Saints, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: Bl. Bonaventure of Potenza, Feast Day October 26

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San Damiono Cross
San Damiono Cross

 

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: Bl. Bonaventure of Potenza,

Feast Day October 26

Bl. Bonaventure was born Jan. 4, 1651 in Naples, Italy into a poor family.  He studied Latin from a priest and became a Franciscan at the age of 15.  He was sent to Amalfi to study and was ordained a priest.

As a priest Bl. Bonaventure was known for his simple but powerful sermons.  When an epidemic broke out he served all who were sick without concern for his own health.  He was known for miraculous cures.  Bl. Bonaventure was a very effective priest.  His humility was admired and his spirituality was focused on humility, service and obedience.

After 45 years of service as a priest he died from gangrene after asking for forgiveness for his faults.  He was given a crucifix and died peacefully on October 26,  after receiving the last sacrament.

Pope Pius VI beatified Bl. Bonaventure in 1775.

 

“No none has the right to sit down and feel helpless, there’s too much to do.”

Quote of Dorothy Day, Servant of God

 

October is the Month of the Most Holy Rosary

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Faith, Franciscan Saints, patron saints, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: St. John Capistrano, Feast Day October 23

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St. John of Capistrano
St. John of Capistrano

 

The feast day of St. John Capistrano is celebrated on October 23.  He is the patron saint of chaplains, military chaplains and judges.

St. John was born in 1386.  He was the son of a German knight.  He was well educated studying civil and church law.  By the age of 26 he became governor of Perugia.   When a battle broke out against the Malatestes he tried to broker peace.  He became a prisoner of war.  During his time in prison, he encountered St. Francis of Assisi in a dream and experienced a conversion.  When released from prison he joined the Franciscans of Perugia.  Four years later he was ordained a priest.

St. John Capistrano was known for his preaching.  Great crowds gathered to hear him.  He was instrumental in reviving the faith.  He was a student of St. Bernadino of Siena who introduced him to the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus.

During the crusades he preached in Hungary.  He visited the kings of Europe uniting them and their armies against invading forces.  In 1456, he led a Christian army to Belgrade.  When it appeared that they would be overpowered by the Muslims, he ran to the front line holding a crucifix crying

“Victory, Jesus, Victory!“

The Christian army won a great victory and Belgrade was freed from the siege.  Several months later,  St. John died at Villach in Austria after a painful infection.  He was canonized in 1724.

The following quote is taken from the treatise written by St. John Capistrano called “Mirror of the Clergy”.

Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life.  They must completely remove from their lives the filth and uncleanness of vice.  Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind.  The brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world that brings light to others.  They must learn from their eminent teacher, Jesus Christ, what he declared not only to his apostles and disciples, but also to all the priests and clerics who were to succeed them, when he said:  “You are the salt of the earth.  But what if salt goes flat?  How can you restore its flavor?  Then it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

 

Quote of St. John Capistrano

October is the Month of the Most Holy Rosary.

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Franciscan Saints, patron saints, Pope, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: Pope John XXIII, Feast Day October 11

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St. John XXIII Public Domain Image
St. John XXIII

The feast day of St. John XXIII is celebrated on October 11.  He was known also known as “Good Pope John”.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in 1881 near Borgano, Italy.  He was the oldest of 13 children.  Angelo joined the Secular Franciscan Order.  After he was ordained a priest in 1904, he returned to Rome to study canon law.  He became the bishop’s secretary, Church history teacher in the seminary and publisher of the diocesan paper.

During World War I, he served as a stretcher bearer for the Italian army.  During World War II  he was a papal diplomat, serving in Bulgaria, Turkey and France.  With the help of Germany’s ambassador in Turkey, Archbishop Roncalli, he helped save approximately 24,000 Jewish people from death.

In 1953 he was named a cardinal and Bishop.  He was elected Pope at the age of 77, taking the name of John.  He soon called an ecumenical council and presided over the first session of the Second Vatican Council.  The purpose of the Council was to bring the church into the modern world.  It also was an effort to end hostilities between religions.  Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant religious leaders were invited to attend.

One quote he is remembered for is:

“The Church has always opposed errors.  Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.”

Pope John XXIII earned the title Good Pope John because of his kind and cheerful demeanor.

He died on June 3, 1963.  He was beatified November 15, 1881 by Pope John Paul II.  He was canonized on the same day as Pope John Paul II by Pope Benedict on April 27, 2014.

 

In the Blessed Sacrament a heavenly school is open to me, with the best teacher one can possibly imagine…Jesus Christ himself.

Quote of Bl. John XXIII

 

October is the Month of the Most Holy Rosary

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Franciscan Saints, patron saints, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: Bl. Mary Angela, Feast Day October 10

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Bl. Mary Angela Public Domain Image
Bl. Mary Angela

 

The feast day of Bl. Mary Angela is celebrated on October 10.

Bl. Mary Angela Truszkowska was baptized as Sophia Camille after she was born in Kalisz, Poland on May 16, 1825.  Her parents were well educated and devout Catholics.

As a child Sophia’s health was frail due to contracting tuberculosis.  She was tutored at home. After the family moved to Warsaw in 1837, Sophia enrolled for a short time at the Academy of Madame Guerin until she withdrew due to health issues.  She studied at home using her father’s library.  She developed a great interest in social justice.

Sophia was drawn to a strong prayer life. She attended daily Mass and had a devotion to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  When she was 23 she experienced a conversion which changed her life.  She considered joining the cloistered Visitation Sisters but was advised by her confessor not to leave her ailing father.

While traveling with her father in Germany, Sophia felt called by Our Lord to serve the suffering poor and aging.  She became a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  She was constantly searching for God’s will while she served the poor.  Eventually, Sophia began to teach the poor children and help the aging and homeless.  Together with her cousin Clothilde they rented an attic with her father’s help and began the “Institute of Sofia Truszkowska”.

Both Clothilde and Sophia became Lay Franciscans.   Sophia took the name Mary Angela.   Their Franciscan spirituality led them to start a new order.  On the feat day of the Presentation of the Bl. Virgin Mary, they dedicated themselves before an icon of Our Lady of Czestvehowa and founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice.  St. Felix was the first Capuchin Franciscan to be canonized.  The purpose of the order was that “in all and by all”  God may be known, loved and glorified”.  They became known as the “Felician Sisters”.  Their ministry ranged from teaching to hospitals and caring for the poor and aging.

Mother Angela served for over 30 years.   The suffering she experienced from progressive deafness, malignant tumors and terrible headaches was mostly unknown by those she served.  Her Eucharistic spirituality inspired many.  She always tried to imitate Mary and was known for her great love.

Today the Congregation of Sisters of St. Felix are known for their devotion to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Mother Angela died on October 10, 1899.  Her face changed from one of suffering to an expression of peace.

 

“Jesus wants us to serve Him with a joyful heart”

Quote of Bl. Mary Angela

 

October is the Month of the Most Holy Rosary

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