Like Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, S.J., Saint Cristóbal and his 24 companion martyrs lived under a very anti-Catholic government in Mexico, one determined to weaken the Catholic faith of its people. Churches, schools and seminaries were closed; foreign clergy were expelled. Cristóbal established a clandestine seminary at Totatiche, Jalisco. Magallanes and the other priests were forced to minister secretly to Catholics during the presidency of Plutarco Calles (1924-28).

All of these martyrs except three were diocesan priests. David, Manuel and Salvador were laymen who died with their parish priest, Luis Batis. All of these martyrs belonged to the Cristero movement, pledging their allegiance to Christ and to the Church that he established to spread the Good News in society—even if Mexico’s leaders once made it a crime to receive Baptism or celebrate the Mass.

St. Magallanes Cristóbal wrote and preached against armed rebellion, but was falsely accused of promoting the Cristero Rebellion in the area. Arrested on May 21, 1927, while en route to celebrate Mass at a farm, he gave away his few remaining possessions to his executioners, gave them absolution, and without a trial, he was martyred four days later with Saint Agustín Caloca in Colotlán, Jalisco. His last words to his executioners were “I die innocent, and ask God that my blood may serve to unite my Mexican brethren.”

These martyrs did not die as a single group but in eight Mexican states, with Jalisco and Zacatecas having the largest number. They were beatified in 1992 and canonized eight years later.

Photo credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons, Nheyob via Wikimedia Commons

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Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
John 17:20-26

Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
(30) But on the next day, wanting to discover more diligently what the reason was that he was accused by the Jews, he released him, and he ordered the priests to convene, with the entire council. And, producing Paul, he stationed him among them. (6) Now Paul, knowing that one group were Sadducees and the other were Pharisees, exclaimed in the council: “Noble brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees! It is over the hope and resurrection of the dead that I am being judged.” (7) And when he had said this, a dissension occurred between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And the multitude was divided. (8) For the Sadducees claim that there is no resurrection, and neither angels, nor spirits. But the Pharisees confess both of these. (9) Then there occurred a great clamor. And some of the Pharisees, rising up, were fighting, saying: “We find nothing evil in this man. What if a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel?” (10) And since a great dissension had been made, the tribune, fearing that Paul might be torn apart by them, ordered the soldiers to descend and to seize him from their midst, and to bring him into the fortress. (11) Then, on the following night, the Lord stood near him and said: “Be constant. For just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so also it is necessary for you to testify at Rome.”

Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
(1) The inscription of a title: of David himself. Preserve me, O Lord, because I have hoped in you. (2) I have said to the Lord: “You are my God, so you have no need of my goodness.” (5) The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup. It is you who will restore my inheritance to me. (7) I will bless the Lord, who has bestowed understanding upon me. Moreover, my temperament has also corrected me, even through the night. (8) I have made provision for the Lord always in my sight. For he is at my right hand, so that I may not be disturbed. (9) Because of this, my heart has been joyful, and my tongue has exulted. Moreover, even my body will rest in hope. (10) For you will not abandon my soul to Hell, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. (11) You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with joy by your countenance. At your right hand are delights, even to the end.

John 17:20-26
(20) But I am not praying for them only, but also for those who through their word shall believe in me. (21) So may they all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, so also may they be one in us: so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (22) And the glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, so that they may be one, just as we also are one. (23) I am in them, and you are in me. So may they be perfected as one. And may the world know that you have sent me and that you have loved them, just as you have also loved me. (24) Father, I will that where I am, those whom you have given to me may also be with me, so that they may see my glory which you have given to me. For you loved me before the founding of the world. (25) Father most just, the world has not known you. But I have known you. And these have known that you sent me. (26) And I have made known your name to them, and I will make it known, so that the love in which you have loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.”

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Please comment below to leave your prayer request. As your request will be prayed for, please also pray for the petitions of others! Remember in your prayers, those in purgatory, all those suffering around the world, and for the intentions of the Pope! Lord, hear our prayer!

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In the year 1400, a young man came to the door of the largest hospital in Siena. A plague was raging through the city so horrible that as many as twenty people died each day just in the hospital alone. And many of the people who died were those who were needed to tend the ill. It was a desperate situation — more and more people were falling ill and fewer and fewer people were there to help them.

The twenty-year-old man who stood there had not come because he was ill but because he wanted to help. And he brought not new patients but young men like himself willing to tend the dying. For four months Bernardine and his companions worked day and night not only to comfort the patients but to organize and clean the hospital. Only at the end of the plague did Bernardine himself fall ill — of exhaustion.

But that was Bernardine’s way — whatever he did, he put his whole self into it. Immediately after he recovered he was back caring for the sick — but this time, he was responsible not for a whole hospital but one person — an invalid aunt. Yet for fourteen months she got his full attention. Throughout his life, he put as much energy into caring for one person as for hundreds, as much commitment into converting one citizen as to preaching to a whole city.

After his aunt died, Bernardine started to think about where his life should be going. The son of a noble family, he had been orphaned at seven and raised by an aunt. We are told as a young person that he hated indecent talk so much that he would blush when he heard it. Even his schoolmates hesitated to make him so uncomfortable but apparently one adult citizen thought it would be a great joke to needle Bernardine. In a public marketplace he stopped Bernardine and started to talk to him in a shameful way. But if he had thought to get away with his cruel trick, he was surprised when Bernardine slapped him in the face. The man slunk away, shamed in front of the very crowd he’d been trying to impress.

Bernardine, who had come to Siena to study, threw himself into prayer and fasting to discover what God wanted him to do. One might have expected him to continue his work with the sick but in 1403 he joined the Franciscans and in 1404 he was ordained a priest.

The Franciscans were known as missionary preachers, but Bernardine did very little preaching with because of a voice that was weak and hoarse. For twelve years he remained in the background, his energies going to prayer or to his own spiritual conversion and preparation.

At the end of that time, he went to Milan on a mission. When he got up to preach his voice was strong and commanding and his words so convincing that the crowd would not let him leave unless he promised to come back.

Thus began the missionary life of the one whom Pope Pius II called a second Paul. As usual, Bernardine through his whole self, body and soul, into his new career. He crisscrossed Italy on foot, preaching for hours at a time, several times a day. We are told he preached on punishment for sin as well as reward for virtue but focusing in the end on the mercy of Jesus and the love of Mary. His special devotion was to the Holy Name of Jesus.

Some who were jealous denounced him to the pope by saying he preached superstition. Silenced for a short while, Bernardine was soon cleared and back to preaching.

Bernardine refused several cities that wanted him as bishop but he was unable to avoid being named vicar general of his order. All his energy during that period went to renewing the original spirit of the order.

Soon, however, Bernardine heard the call to go back to preaching which consumed his last days. As a matter of fact, even when it was clear he was dying, he preached fifty consecutive days. He died in 1444 when he was almost 64 years old.

Photo credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

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Acts 20:28-38
Psalm 68:29-30, 33-36
John 17:11-19

Acts 20:28-38
(28) Take care of yourselves and of the entire flock, over which the Holy Spirit has stationed you as Bishops to rule the Church of God, which he has purchased by his own blood. (29) I know that after my departure ravenous wolves will enter among you, not sparing the flock. (30) And from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things in order to entice disciples after them. (31) Because of this, be vigilant, retaining in memory that throughout three years I did not cease, night and day, with tears, to admonish each and every one of you. (32) And now, I commend you to God and to the Word of his grace. He has the power to build up, and to give an inheritance to all who are sanctified. (33) I have coveted neither silver and gold, nor apparel, (34) as you yourselves know. For that which was needed by me and by those who are with me, these hands have provided. (35) I have revealed all things to you, because by laboring in this way, it is necessary to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” (36) And when he had said these things, kneeling down, he prayed with all of them. (37) Then a great weeping occurred among them all. And, falling upon the neck of Paul, they kissed him, (38) being grieved most of all over the word which he had said, that they would never see his face again. And they brought him to the ship.

Psalm 68:29-30, 33-36
(29) Command by your virtue, O God. Confirm in this place, O God, what you have wrought in us. (30) Before your temple in Jerusalem, kings will offer gifts to you. (33) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth. Sing psalms to the Lord. Sing psalms to God. (34) He ascends, up to the heaven of the heavens, toward the east. Behold, he will utter his voice, the voice of virtue. (35) Give glory to God beyond Israel. His magnificence and his virtue is in the clouds. (35) Give glory to God beyond Israel. His magnificence and his virtue is in the clouds. (36) God is wonderful in his saints. The God of Israel himself will give virtue and strength to his people. Blessed is God.

John 17:11-19
(11) And though I am not in the world, these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Father most holy, preserve them in your name, those whom you have given to me, so that they may be one, even as we are one. (12) While I was with them, I preserved them in your name. I have guarded those whom you have given to me, and not one of them is lost, except the son of perdition, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. (13) And now I am coming to you. But I am speaking these things in the world, so that they may have the fullness of my joy within themselves. (14) I have given them your word, and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world, just as I, too, am not of the world. (15) I am not praying that you would take them out of the world, but that you would preserve them from evil. (16) They are not of the world, just as I also am not of the world. (17) Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. (18) Just as you have sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. (19) And it is for them that I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified in truth.

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Please comment below to leave your prayer request. As your request will be prayed for, please also pray for the petitions of others! Remember in your prayers, those in purgatory, all those suffering around the world, and for the intentions of the Pope! Lord, hear our prayer!

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Pope Saint Celestine V was the eleventh of twelve children. His father died early, and his mother raised him with an influence towards a religious vocation.  When his mother would ask, “Which one of you is going to become a saint?” little Peter would answer “Me, Mama! I’ll become a saint!”.

At age seventeen, he became a Benedictine monk at the monastery of Santa Maria di Faifoli, near Montagano, Italy. Here he began to persue a life of solitude. In 1240, he moved into a cave on Mt. Morrone, of which he received his surname.

At age 30, he moved to Mt. Majella with two other companions, where he began to apply to himself a life of strict mortification rules. He would fast for 6 days a week, long prayers, wear hair shirts and iron chains. Many would flock to him, that he founded the order of the Celestines, after himself. He continued his life here for the next 50 years and became well-known throughout most of Italy.

Following a two year conclave during which the cardinals could not decide on a pope, Peter came to them with the message that God was not pleased with the long delay; the cardinals chose Peter as Pope.

The primary objective of his pontificate was to reform clergy, many of whom were using spiritual power to obtain wordly power. Celestine sought a way to bring the faithful to the original Gospel spirit, and he settled on “Pardon” – he called for a year of forgiveness of sins, and return to evangelical austerity and fidelity.

He reigned a mere five months, and the members of the Vatican Curia took advantage of him. This led to much mismanagement, and great uproar in the Vatican. Knowing he was responsible, Celestine asked forgiveness for his mistakes, and abdicated on 13 December 1294, the last pope to do so until Pope Benedict XVI.

His successor, Boniface VIII, kept Celestine hidden for the last ten months of his life in a small room in a Roman palace. Celestine may have appreciated it – he never lost his love of the hermit’s life, and spent his last days in prayer.

Photo credit: Enrico Spetrino / Shutterstock.com

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Acts 20:17-27
Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
John 17:1-11

Acts 20:17-27
(17) Then, sending from Miletus to Ephesus, he called those greater by birth in the church. (18) And when they had come to him and were together, he said to them: “You know that from the first day when I entered into Asia, I have been with you, for the entire time, in this manner: (19) serving the Lord, with all humility and despite the tears and trials which befell me from the treacheries of the Jews, (20) how I held back nothing that was of value, how well I have preached to you, and that I have taught you publicly and throughout the houses, (21) testifying both to Jews and to Gentiles about repentance in God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (22) And now, behold, being obliged in spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, (23) except that the Holy Spirit, throughout every city, has cautioned me, saying that chains and tribulations await me at Jerusalem. (24) But I dread none of these things. Neither do I consider my life to be more precious because it is my own, provided that in some way I may complete my own course and that of the ministry of the Word, which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. (25) And now, behold, I know that you will no longer see my face, all of you among whom I have traveled, preaching the kingdom of God. (26) For this reason, I call you as witnesses on this very day: that I am clean from the blood of all. (27) For I have not turned aside in the least from announcing every counsel of God to you.

Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
(10) You will set aside for your inheritance, O God, a willing rain. And though it was weak, truly, you have made it perfect. (11) Your animals will dwell in it. O God, in your sweetness, you have provided for the poor. (20) Blessed is the Lord, day after day. The God of our salvation will make our journey prosper for us. (21) Our God is the God who will bring about our salvation, and our Lord is the Lord who has brought an end to death.

John 17:1-11
(1) Jesus said these things, and then, lifting up his eyes toward heaven, he said: “Father, the hour has arrived: glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you, (2) just as you have given authority over all flesh to him, so that he may give eternal life to all those whom you have given to him. (3) And this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (4) I have glorified you on earth. I have completed the work that you gave me to accomplish. (5) And now Father, glorify me within yourself, with the glory that I had with you before the world ever was. (6) I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given to me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me. And they have kept your word. (7) Now they realize that all the things that you have given me are from you. (8) For I have given them the words that you gave to me. And they have accepted these words, and they have truly understood that I went forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. (9) I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given to me. For they are yours. (10) And all that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine, and I am glorified in this. (11) And though I am not in the world, these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Father most holy, preserve them in your name, those whom you have given to me, so that they may be one, even as we are one.

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Please comment below to leave your prayer request. As your request will be prayed for, please also pray for the petitions of others! Remember in your prayers, those in purgatory, all those suffering around the world, and for the intentions of the Pope! Lord, hear our prayer!

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Little is known of Pope Saint John I’s life before he took office, except that he was born in Tuscany and that his father was Constantius. He was elected a week after the death of his predecessor Hormisdas.

Thanks to the recent reunification of the Eastern and Western Churches under Hormisdas, relations were very good with the Byzantine empire, but for the same reason they were strained with Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. The Byzantine emperor Justin persecuted heretics with enthusiasm, and he issued an edict against Arianism in 523. Theodoric, an Arian, distrusted the papacy’s affinity to Justin, and he pressured John to go to Constantinople and convince the emperor to withdraw the edict.

John did indeed go to Constantinople and was well-received, but the edict was not withdrawn. Upon his return to Italy, Theodoric had John arrested and imprisoned in Ravenna. Worn out by his journey and probably starved, John died in prison soon after. Pope St. John I is honored as a martyr.

Photo credit: Public Domain via getarchive

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