Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Five new Saints...

Five New Saints for the Church

On 26th April, 2009 Pope Benedict canonized five new saints as role models for the family of the Church – four are Italian and one Portuguese. Let’s have a quick look at these new saints.

The Pope spoke of the lives of each one, beginning with
Arcangelo Tadini
(1846-1912), a priest from Brescia, Italy. He helped help those suffering during the economic crisis of his time, supporting them in every way possible to grow humanly and spiritually. He founded the Society of Catholic Workers of Mutual Aid, built a spinning factory and a shelter for women labourers, and founded in 1900 the Congregation of the Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth. He did these works, with the objective to evangelize the world of work, sharing the example of the Sacred Family of Nazareth. The Pope commented: "How prophetic was the charismatic intuition of Don Tadini, and how much his example remains today, in a time of grave economic crisis."

The next new saint is
Bernardo Tolomei
(1272-1348), who was an abbot and founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto, Benedict XVI called him an "authentic martyr of charity." The saint died while taking care of the monks who had fallen ill to the great plague of 1348. "The example of this saint is for us an invitation to translate our faith into a life dedicated to God in prayer and in total surrender to service to one's neighbour, with the instinct of charity ready to take on even the supreme sacrifice," the Holy Father said.

A third new saint is
Nuno de Santa Maria Álvares Pereira
(1360-1431), an officer in the Portuguese army and a national hero in Portugal for his dedication and bravely in various battles. After the death of his wife, the saint gave away all his possessions and entered the Monastery of the Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. He dedicated himself totally to the assistance of the poor, including the task of distributing food.

A fourth new saint is
Gertrude Comensoli
(1847-1903), who founded the Institute of Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament so as to translate the charity 'contemplated' in the Eucharistic Christ into a 'lived' and real charity, dedicating herself to her neighbour in whatever circumstances they would find themselves in. The Holy Father said: "In a society disoriented and many times hurt, such as our own, Saint Gertrude indicated as a firm point of reference the God of the Eucharist who made himself our travel companion.”

The Holy Father finally presented the fifth new saint
Caterina Volpicelli
(1839-1894), Italian founder of the Institute of Handmaidens of the Sacred Heart, as one "who made an effort 'to be like Christ, so as to bring Christ' to those she encountered in Naples at the end of the 19th century, during a time of spiritual and social crisis." Caterina helped people discover God in everyone and in everything. She said that he has to be liberated from the many ‘prisons’ in which man had confined him to.

So what do you think of the new saints? Why don’t you adopt one? Perhaps you would like to get to know one or the other a bit better. Their lives and testimony show us how to be disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us give thanks for their lives and their witness!

Father Duncan McVicar SI
(Background from Zenit News

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