St. Nicholas: Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa

News excerpt and photo from Catholic Online

By Peg Luksik

HARRISBURG, PA. (Catholic Online) - Years ago, a little girl named Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the editor of the New York Sun asking if Santa Claus was real.  His answer, which spoke of skeptical men in a skeptical age who only believed in what they could see, is as relevant today as it was when Frank Church wrote it.

The name and face of Santa has been plastered over advertising, billboards, movies and television.  We have single Santa's looking for wives, reluctant Santa's trying to escape their destinies, drafted Santa's to replace one who is "retiring", and even bad Santa's.  The stories all have happy endings, with the magic of the North Pole somehow saving the day.

Thankfully, none of them is Santa.  Because Saint Nicholas, like every saint, is real.

He was born in Asia Minor and was bishop of the town of Myra in the fourth century.  When he died he was buried in the cathedral there.  When the Saracens conquered Myra in the early eleventh century, his remains were moved to the Italian city of Bari in 1087. His tomb is visited by thousands every year, even to this day.

His bones exude a clear liquid, called the "manna of Saint Nicholas", which is extracted from the shrine every year on May 9 in a formal ceremony conducted by the Rector of the Basilica in Bari, in the presence of the delegate of the Pope, the Archbishop of Bari, an Orthodox Bishop, civil authorities, the local clergy and the faithful.  This has happened every year since 1980.  The manna is distributed and is considered a relic with healing properties.

Nicholas is the patron saint of children, Russia, Greece, Sicily, sailors, prisoners, bakers, and pawnbrokers.  His image is second only to Mary's in religious icons of both the Eastern and Western churches.

The stories of his generosity and kindness are legendary.

Santa Claus is a translation of his name.

Saint Nicholas is a person who made that connection.  When people pretend to be Santa, they act with levels of generosity and charity and kindness that they do not normally exhibit.  In other words, they get closer to God.  In doing so, they discover happiness.

And even in the convoluted versions of Santa being pushed by today's secular media, that message of happiness through goodness continues to resonate.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He is not just an idea.  He was, and is, a saint.  A saint who reminds us that we are loved without limits.  A saint who challenges us to remove the limits on how we love others.  A saint who calls us to holiness as we prepare to celebrate the greatest gift mankind has ever received.

Read more: Saint Nicholas

St. Anthony of Padua - Saint of the Day for June 13

Photograph by Loci B. Lenar

Biographical Information from Catholic Online

Saint Anthony was canonized (declared a saint) less than one year after his death.

There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26 years old. The reason he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the five Franciscan protomartyrs -- St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St. Adjutus -- who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in the year 1220, in Morocco, in North Africa, and whose headless and mutilated bodies had been brought to St. Anthony’s monastery on their way back for burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of shedding his own blood and becoming a martyr. He lived only ten years after joining the Franciscan Order.

So simple and resounding was his teaching of the Catholic Faith, so that the most unlettered and innocent might understand it, that he was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Saint Anthony was only 36 years old when he died. He is called the “hammer of the Heretics” His great protection against their lies and deceits in the matter of Christian doctrine was to utter, simply and innocently, the Holy Name of Mary. When St. Anthony of Padua found he was preaching the true Gospel of the Catholic Church to heretics who would not listen to him, he then went out and preached it to the fishes. This was not, as liberals and naturalists are trying to say, for the instruction of the fishes, but rather for the glory of God, the delight of the angels, and the easing of his own heart. St. Anthony wanted to profess the Catholic Faith with his mind and his heart, at every moment.

He is typically depicted with a book and the Infant Child Jesus, to whom He miraculously appeared, and is commonly referred to today as the "finder of lost articles."

***
Prayers for St. Anthony's Intercession

Statue of St. Anthony photographed inside the Hall of Candles at the Shrine of Saint Joseph.  The Catholic Shrine is located on Long Hill Road, Stirling, NJ, USA.

Photograph Copyright Loci B. Lenar

Saint Rocco: Patron Against all Contagious Diseases

St. Rocco - Photo by Loci B. Lenar

The following excerpt about the life of St. Rocco (1340-1378) is published by St. Bonaventure Church in the booklet, Franciscan Saints Surround Us.

By Fr. Daniel Grigassy, O.F.M.

St. Rocco is venerated by people from Southern Itlay and Sicily. Still their descendents who came to America hold Rocco in high esteem. During his life and after his death, he protected the people from the ravages of a cholera epidemic that swept across Southern Italy. People still turn to St. Rocco for protection against plagues, illnesses, and other dilemmas in life.

Rocco was born of nobility in France. His parents died when he was twenty years old and left him an orphan under the care of an uncle. Soon he decided to distribute his wealth among the poor and join the Secular Franciscan Order. Rocco had a birthmark on the left side of his chest in the form of a red cross. This blemish served to identify him throughout his life. Exchanging the clothes of a nobleman for those of a pilgrim, he departed for Rome to visit the tombs of the Apostles. Along the way Rocco stopped in plague-stricken towns and attended the needs of victims. Legend has it that everywhere he visited, the dreaded scourge of the plague disappeared with his prayer and the sign of a cross. The stained glass window displays such a scene.

St. Rocco Stained Glass Window
Photo by Loci B. Lenar

During his travels Rocco himself contracted the plague. In most images, though not in this stained glass window, he is shown with an open sore on his leg. He did not want to become a burden to anyone, so he left the city and found refuge in a cave, slept on leaves, and drank water from a stream. Legend has it that a dog refused to eat and brought Rocco his own bread to sustain him. One day a nobleman who owned the dog followed him into the woods and discovered Rocco. He brought Rocco to his castle where he was cared for and cured.

St. Rocco is patron against all contagious diseases.

Prayer for St. Rocco's Intercession

The stained glass window can be seen inside of St. Bonaventure Church, 174 Ramsey Street, Paterson, NJ.

Photographs Copyright 2012 Loci B. Lenar
www.Christian-Miracles.com

St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas

Stained Glass Window - Photo by Loci B. Lenar

The following excerpt is from Catholic Online:

St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Feast day-July 15)

 

St. Bonaventure (Giovanni di Fidanza), known as "the seraphic doctor," was born at Bagnorea in Tuscany, in 1221. He received the name of Bonaventure in consequence of an exclamation of St. Francis of Assisi, when, in response to the pleading of the child's mother, the saint prayed for John's recovery from a dangerous illness, and, foreseeing the future greatness of the little John, cried out "O Buona ventura"-O good fortune!

 

At the age of twenty-two St. Bonaventure entered the Franciscan Order. Having made his vows, he was sent to Paris to complete his studies under the celebrated doctor Alexander of Hales, an Englishman and a Franciscan. After the latter's death he continued his course under his successor, John of Rochelle. In Paris he became the intimate friend of the great St. Thomas Aquinas. He received the degree of Doctor, together with St. Thomas Aquinas, ceding to his friend against the latter's inclination, the honor of having it first conferred upon him. Like St. Thomas Aquinas, he enjoyed the friendship of the holy King, St. Louis.

 

At the age of thirty-five he was chosen General of his Order and restored a perfect calm where peace had been disturbed by internal dissensions. He did much for his Order and composed The Life of St. Francis . He also assisted at the translation of the relics of St. Anthony of Padua. He was nominated Archbishop of York by Pope Clement IV, but he begged not to be forced to accept that dignity. Gregory X obliged him to take upon himself a greater one, that of Cardinal and Bishop of Albano, one of the six suffragan Sees of Rome. Before his death he abdicated his office of General of the Franciscan Order. He died while he was assisting at the Second Council of Lyons, on July 15, 1274.

 

*** 

 

The stained glass window of St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas can be seen inside St. Bonaventure Church, 174 Ramsey Street, Paterson, NJ.

Join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Christian-Miraclescom/174742155915715

Photograph Copyright 2012 Loci B. Lenar

St. Maria Goretti

St. Maria Goretti, originally uploaded by Loci Lenar.

The following biography is from Catholic Online:

Maria Goretti was Born in Corinaldo, Ancona, Italy, on October 16 1890; her farmworker father moved his family to Ferrier di Conca, near Anzio. Her father died of malaria and her mother had to struggle to feed her children.

In 1902 an eighteen-year-old neighbor, Alexander, grabbed her from her steps and tried to rape her. When Maria said that she would rather died than submit, Alexander began stabbing her with a knife.

As she lay in the hospital, she forgave Alexander before she died. Her death didn't end her forgivness, however.

Alexander was captured and sentenced to thirty years. He was unrepentant until he had a dream that he was in a garden. Maria was there and gave him flowers. When he woke, he was a changed man, repenting of his crime and living a reformed life. When he was released after 27 years he went directly to Maria's mother to beg her forgiveness, which she gave. "If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withold forgiveness," she said.

When Maria was declared a saint in 1950, Alexander was there in the St. Peter's crowd to celebrate her canonization. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950 for her purity as model for youth.

She is called a martyr because she fought against Alexander's attempts at sexual assault. However, the most important aspect of her story is her forgiveness of her attacker -- her concern for her enemy extending even beyond death. Her feast day is July 6. St. Maria Goretti is the patroness of youth and for the victims of rape.

***

The statue of St. Maria Goretti is displayed inside the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, (Blue Army Shrine) which is located on the grounds of The World Apostolate of Fatima, Washington, NJ, USA.

Photograph Copyright 2011 Loci B. Lenar

Biography of John Paul II - Cartoon for Children

Gloria.tv: JOHN PAUL II- Cartoon for children

A cartoon biography of Pope John Paul II which runs for about 26 minutes.  Children will enjoy the video!