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14/12/2022

*​SAINT OF THE DAY​*

Feast Day: December 15

*St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli*

St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli was an Italian woman in a struggling marriage until the death of her husband freed her to dedicate all of her resources to serving those most in need in her community.

She was born in 1587 in Genoa to a family of nobles. Though she felt a calling to dedicate her life to prayer and service in a religious community, she was given in marriage to a well-known and wealthy young man, Gaspare.

The couple had two daughters, but Gaspare’s attention was divided by pursuits of pleasure. Living harshly shortened his life, and Virginia found herself a widow by the time she was 20. Her father tried to arrange a second marriage, but she refused and made a vow of chastity.

While she remained obedient to her father in other matters, and never disregarded the care of her own children, she began to share her available time and resources with those in need. She felt called to serve God through the poor, and dedicated half of her wealth to those who lacked what they needed for a dignified life.

When her daughters had grown and accepted marriages, Virginia turned her full attention to helping orphans, the elderly, and the sick. War, epidemics, and famine all brought many suffering people to her doorstep. She began to go a step further, traveling to disreputable areas of the city to seek out those in danger, especially women.

An empty convent stood near the town, and she was given permission to rent it to care for children who were orphaned and suffering from a plague and famine. Other women came to join her in service. Within three years, some 300 were receiving care there, and the center was recognized as a hospital.She organized the women who came to help her into a community, and spent the rest of her life supporting their work to serve God through the poor.

Nobles and government officials called upon her to help mediate differences, and she gathered people to find ways to fight systems of inequality in the region. Despite all of these engagements, she never lost sight of the poor—she always had time and assistance to offer them, and continued to seek them out. She died on this date in 1651, and was canonized by Pope. St. John Paul II in 2003.

08/11/2022

November 8: St Godfrey Bishop Confessor (1050-1115)




St Godfrey was born of prominent French parents, near Soissons. When his father became a widower, he consecrated himself to God. At the age of five Godfrey was placed in the monastery of St Quentin, under the care of the Holy Abbot Godfrey, who was his godfather.

In his youth Godfrey spent much of his time, day and night, in prayer. Ordained priest at 25, he was soon chosen Abbot of Nogent, in Ch*****ne, a monastery which was practically in ruins. He rebuilt the Abbey and caused the religious spirit to flourish once more in it. In 1103, much against his will, he was made Bishop of Amiens. He entered the city barefoot, garbed as a penitent, and lived in the Bishop’s palace like a monk. Remarkable for his meekness and patience, he showed great charity towards the poor, daily feeding 13 poor people at his own table in honour of Christ and the 12 Apostles. Frequenting the hospital of the lepers, he attended to their needs and comforted them.

St Godfrey took critically ill while on his way to Reims to confer with his Metropolitan regarding certain important matters. Having received the last sacraments he departed joyfully from this life on 8 November 1115, in the Abbey of St Crispin at Soissons, where he now lies interred.

Reflection: “Let us contend with all earnestness, knowing that we are called to the combat. Let us run in the straight road the race that is incorruptible. This is what Christ said: keep your bodies pure and your soul without spot, that you may receive eternal life” (St Clement).

08/11/2022

November 7: St Willibrord Bishop Confessor (658-739)




Born in Northumbria in 658, St Willibrord was a Benedictine monk who had his early education at the Abbey of Ripon near York. At 20, he went to Ireland and spent 12 years under St Egbert who commissioned him and 11 companions to the mission to Frisia.

When Willibrord visited Rome in 692 he received the apostolic authorization for his missionary labours. When he visited Rome a second time he was consecrated Archbishop of the Frisians by Pope Sergius I on 21 November 695 and given the name Clement, which means “merciful”.

He founded a monastery at Utreht (Holland), built a church in the city which he made his cathedral and, in 698 established an abbey at Villa Echternach.

In 716, Radbod gained possession of Frisia, forcing Willibrord into exile, destroying churches and replacing them with temples dedicated to idols. But soon after his death in 719, Willibrod returned and, with the assistance of St Boniface, undertook the repairs and rebuilding of churches and the work of conversion in Frisia.

St Willibrord died at Echternach, Luxembourg, on 7 November 739 and was buried at the abbey church which has ever since been a place of pilgrimage.

Reflection: “There are some who desire knowledge merely for its own sake; and that is shameful curiosity. And there are others who desire to know, in order that they may themselves be known; and that is vanity, disgraceful too.… But there are also some who desire knowledge, that they may build up the souls of others with it and that is charity. Others, again, desire it that they may themselves be built up thereby; and that is prudence. Of all these types, only the last two put knowledge to the right use” (St Bernard).

08/11/2022