Saint Francis’ Greetings to the Blessed Virgin:
Hail, Lady and Queen, holy Mary, Mother of God,
Virgin who became the Church,
chosen by the Father in heaven,
consecrated by His beloved Son
and His Spirit, the Comforter:
in you was and remains,
the whole fullness of grace
and everything that is good.
Hail, His palace, Hail, His tabernacle, Hail, His dwelling, Hail, His robe, Hail, His handmaid, Hail, His mother!(more…)
from the film about
St. Anthony of Padua.
‘Antonio guerriero di Dio’(2006)
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.
Homily #100116 (05min) Play – St Berard and Companions were the first martyrs in the Franciscan Order when they were killed after having preached to the Mohammedans. Father explains that martyrdom is the ideal in that it is the ultimate sacrifice and so the ultimate love and sanctity. He further explains that we are all called to martyrdom but more to the martyrdom by “slow fire”.
Ave Maria! St Berard and Comp – Mass: EF – Readings: 1st: 1co 4:9-14 – Gsp: mat 10:16-22
DOCTOR SUBTILIS: THEOLOGIAN OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION and FOUNDER OF THE SCOTISTIC SCHOOL OF SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY, a FRIAR MINOR
Blessed John Duns Scotus: Defender of the Immaculate Conception
Next to St. Bonaventure, Bl. John is perhaps the most important and influential theologian in the history of the Franciscan Order. He was the founder of the Scotistic School in Theology, and until the time of the French Revolution his thought dominated the Roman Catholic faculties of theology in nearly all the major universities of Europe. He is chiefly known for his theology on the Absolute Kingship of Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his philosophic refutation of evolution.
Saint Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order, has been called “the most beautiful image of Jesus that has ever been in the Catholic Church.” He built the first Christmas crib in 1223. His great devotion was to the sorrows of Jesus. Jesus put the imprint of His wounded hands and feet and side upon Saint Francis’ body in the year. 1224. Saint Francis died in 1226 when he was only forty-four years old.
Audio (MP3)
