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Dallas - Fort Worth Lay Dominicans, Irving, TX (2026)

06/04/2026

Go Preach!
Thursday, June 4

SHEMA ISRAEL
Hear O Israel…

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Mark
(12:28-34)

Glory to you, O Lord

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"

Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."

The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection:

• In today’s Gospel (Mk 12:28b-34), the scribes and the doctors of the Law want to know from Jesus which is the greatest commandment of all. Even today, many people want to know what is more important in religion. Some say that it is to be baptized. Others say that it is to go to church and to participate in the Sunday Mass. Others still say to love our neighbor and to struggle for a more just world! Others are concerned only with appearances and with tasks in the Church.

• Mark 12:28: The question of the doctor of the Law. Some time before the question of the scribe, the discussion was with the Sadducees concerning faith in the resurrection (Mk 12:23-27). The doctor who had participated in the debate was pleased with Jesus’ answer. He perceived in it His great intelligence and wished to take advantage of the occasion to ask a question to clarify something: “Which is the greatest commandment of all?” At that time, the Jews had many norms to regulate the observance of the Ten Commandments of the Law. Some said, “All these norms have the same value, because they all come from God. It is not up to us to introduce any distinction in the things of God.” Others said, “Some laws are more important than others, and for this reason, they oblige more!” The doctor wants to know what Jesus thinks.

• Mark 12:29-31: Jesus’ response. Jesus responds quoting a passage from the Bible which says that the greatest among the commandments is “to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength!” (Dt 6:4-5). At the time of Jesus, pious Jews recited this phrase three times a day: in the morning, at noon and in the evening. It was so well known among them just as the Our Father is among us. The Pharisees would even wear Tefillin (phylacteries) which were tiny scrolls with these words written on them. And Jesus adds, quoting the Bible again, “The second one is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). There is no other greater commandment than these two.” A brief but very profound response! It is the summary of everything that Jesus teaches on God and His life (Mt 7:12).

• Mark 12:32-33: The response of the doctor of the Law. The doctor agrees with Jesus and concludes, “Well said, to love your neighbor as yourself, this is far more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.” That is, the commandment to love is more important than the commandments which concern the worship and sacrifices of the Temple. The Prophets of the Old Testament already had affirmed this (Hos 6:6; Ps 40:6-8; Ps 51:16-17). Today we would say that the practice of love is more important than novenas, promises, sermons and processions.

• Mark 12:34: The summary of the Kingdom. Jesus confirms the doctor’s conclusion and says, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God!” In fact, the Kingdom of God consists in the union of two loves: love toward God and love toward neighbor. Because if God is Father/Mother, we are all brothers and sisters, and we should show this in practice, living in community. “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets!” (Mt 22:40). We, disciples, should keep this law in our mind, in our intelligence, in our heart, in our hands and feet, because one cannot reach God without giving oneself totally to one’s neighbor!

• Jesus had said to the doctor of the law, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God!”(Mk 12:34). The doctor was already close, but in order to be able to enter the Kingdom he still had to go a step forward. In the Old Testament the criterion of love toward neighbor was: “Love your neighbor as yourself”. In the New Testament Jesus extends the sense of love: “This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you! (Jn 15:12-23). Then the criterion will be “Love your neighbor as Jesus has loved us.” This is the sure path to being able to live together in a more just and fraternal way.

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Reflection Questions:

• What is the most important priority for you in exercising your religion?

• Are we (personally, our close community, our society) closer to the Kingdom of God nowadays or farther away from it than the doctor of the Law who was praised by Jesus?

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to Ocarm Lectio Divina for the reflection.

06/04/2026

The first of many, many, many Dominican Martyrs,
St. Peter Verona, O.P.
June 4.

The following reflection is part of an ongoing series about the life of St. Dominic & the Order of Friars Preachers.

Peter of Verona (1205 – 52) was the first canonized martyr of the Dominican Order. Born in Verona, Italy, of parents who had embraced the heresy of Cartharism, he was educated at the University of Bologna and was accepted into the Dominican Order by Dominic himself. Because the Dominicans were theologically trained preachers, the popes entrusted the Inquisition to them. In 1234 Peter was appointed inquisitor for the Milan area, and in 1251 his jurisdiction was extended to most of northern Italy. Although he attracted huge crowds with his preaching, as an inquisitor he also made enemies. He was martyred at the age of forty-seven. As he lay dying from the blow of a heretic’s ax, Peter dipped his finger into his blood and attempted to write on the ground, “I believed in one God,” His murderer Carino, renounced heresy, became a Dominican cooperator brother, and died with a reputation for sanctity.

Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (a member of the English Province) was invited by the Dominican Foundation to take pictures of some of the locations where our friars serve throughout the Northeast. During his time in Washington, D.C., Fr. Lew photographed the interior of the Church of St. Dominic. St. Dominic’s has been the church where our friars are ordained to the priesthood each May. Surrounding the church, is a collection of beautiful stained glass windows that chronicle the life of St. Dominic & the foundation of the Order of Preachers. Fr. Lew accomplished a great work by capturing the splendor of these windows, and in the process, the life of a towering saint.

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Thanks to dominicanfrairsorg for this report.

06/03/2026

Go Preach!
Wednesday, June 3

“When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven.”

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Mark
(12:18-27)

Glory to you, O Lord

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her."

Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living.
You are greatly misled."

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection

• In today’s Gospel the confrontation between Jesus and the authorities continues. After the priests, the elders and the scribes (Mk 12:1-12) and the Pharisees and the Herodians (Mk 12:13-17), now the Sadducees appear who ask a question about resurrection. It is a controversial theme, which caused argument and discussion among the Sadducees and the Pharisees (Mk 12:18-27; cf. Acts 23:6-1).

• In the Christian communities of the years seventy, the time when Mark wrote his Gospel, there were some Christians who, in order to not be persecuted, tried to reconcile the teaching of Jesus with the ideas of the Roman Emperor. The others who resisted the Empire were persecuted, accused and questioned by the authority due to neighbors who felt annoyed, bothered by their witness. The description of the conflicts of Jesus with the authority was a very great help for the Christians so as not to allow themselves to be manipulated by the ideology of the Empire. In reading these episodes of conflict of Jesus with the authorities, the persecuted Christians were encouraged to continue on this road.

• Mark 12:18-23. The Sadducees: The Sadducees were the aristocratic elite of land owners and traders. They were willing to borrow from Hellenism and believed in written, but not oral, law. They did not accept faith in the Resurrection. At that time, this faith was beginning to be challenged by the Pharisees and popular piety. It urged the resistance of the people against the dominion of the Romans, and of the priests, of the elders and of the Sadducees themselves. For the Sadducees, the Messianic Kingdom was already present in the situation of well-being in which they were living. They may have followed what we call today as the “Theology of Retribution,” which distorted reality. According to this theology, God rewards with richness and well-being those who observe the Law of God, and He punishes with suffering and poverty those who do evil. A variation of this today in some independent Christian communities is called “Prosperity Theology”. It is also related to the concept of Deuteronomist Theology, which refers to the agenda of the Deuteronomic authors. This explains why the Sadducees did not want change. They wanted religion to remain as it was, immutable like God Himself in the written law. This is why they did not accept faith in the Resurrection and in the help of angels, who sustained the struggle of those who sought changes and liberation.

• Mark 12:19-23. The question of the Sadducees: They go to Jesus to criticize and to ridicule faith in the Resurrection, to tell about the fictitious case of the woman who got married seven times and at the end she died without having any children. The so-called law of the levirate obliged the widow who had no children to marry the brother of the deceased husband. The son who would have been born from this new marriage would be considered the son of the deceased husband. Thus he would have a descendant. But in the case proposed by the Sadducees, the woman, in spite of having had seven husbands, remained without a son. They asked Jesus: “In the Resurrection, when they will rise, to whom will the woman belong? Because seven had her as wife!” This was in order to say that to believe in the resurrection was absurd.

• Mark 12:24-27: The response of Jesus. Jesus responds harshly: “Surely, the reason why you are wrong is that you understand neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Jesus explains that the condition of persons after death will be totally different from the present condition. After death there will be no marriage, but all will be as the angels in Heaven. The Sadducees imagined life in Heaven as life on earth. And at the end Jesus concludes: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living! You are in great error.” The disciples are warned: those who are on the side of these Sadducees will be on the side opposite to God.

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to Ocarm Lectio Divina for the reflection.

06/03/2026

St. Charles Lwanga and Companions,
Martyrs of Uganda
Feast Day - June 3

St. Charles and many other martyrs for the faith died between November 15, 1885 – January 27, 1887 in Namugongo, Uganda. St. Charles and his companions were beatified in 1920 and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

In 1879 Catholicism began spreading in Uganda when the White Fathers, a congregation of priests founded by Cardinal Lavigerie were peacefully received by King Mutesa of Uganda.

The priests soon began preparing catechumens for baptism and before long a number of the young pages in the king’s court had become Catholics.

However, on the death of Mutesa, his son Mwanga, a corrupt man who ritually engaged in pedophilic practices with the younger pages, took the throne.

When King Mwanga had a visiting Anglican Bishop murdered, his chief page, Joseph Mukasa, a Catholic who went to great length to protect the younger boys from the king’s lust, denounced the king’s actions and was beheaded on November 15, 1885.

The 25 year old Charles Lwanga, a man wholly dedicated to the Christian instruction of the younger boys, became the chief page, and just as forcibly protected them from the kings advances.

On the night of the martyrdom of Joseph Mukasa, realizing that their own lives were in danger, Lwanga and some of the other pages went to the White Fathers to receive baptism. Another 100 catechumens were baptized in the week following Joseph Mukasa’s death.

The following May, King Mwanga learned that one of the boys was learning catechism. He was furious and ordered all the pages to be questioned to separate the Christians from the others. The Christians, 15 in all, between the ages of 13 and 25, stepped forward. The King asked them if they were willing to keep their faith. They answered in unison, “Until death!”

They were bound together and taken on a two day walk to Namugongo where they were to be burned at the stake. On the way, Matthias Kalemba, one of the eldest boys, exclaimed, “God will rescue me. But you will not see how he does it, because he will take my soul and leave you only my body.” They executioners cut him to pieces and left him to die alone on the road, which took at least three days.

When they reached the site where they were to be burned, they were kept tied together for seven days while the executioners prepared the wood for the fire.

On June 3, 1886, the Feast of the Ascension, Charles Lwanga was separated from the others and burned at the stake. The executioners slowly burnt his feet until only the charred remained. Still alive, they promised him that they would let him go if he renounced his faith. He refused saying, “You are burning me, but it is as if you are pouring water over my body.” He then continued to pray silently as they set him on fire. Just before the flames reached his heart, he looked up and said in a loud voice, “Katonda! – My God!,” and died.

His companions were all burned together the same day all the while praying and singing hymns until they died.

There were 24 protomartyrs in all. The last of the protomartyrs, a young man named John Mary, was beheaded by King Mwanga on January 27, 1887.

The persecutions spread during the reign of Mwanga, with 100 Christians, both Catholics and Protestants, being tortured and killed.

St. Charles Lwanga is the patron saint of African Catholic Youth Action.

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Thanks to CNA for this report.

06/02/2026

Go Preach!
Tuesday, June 2

Repay to God what belongs to God.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Mark
(12:13-17)

Glory to you, O Lord

Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech. They came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a person’s status
but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?”

Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at. They brought one to him and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

They replied to him, “Caesar’s.”

So Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They were utterly amazed at him.

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection:

• In today’s Gospel, the confrontation between Jesus and the authority continues. The priests and the Scribes had been criticized and denounced by Jesus in the parable of the vineyard (Mk 12:1-12). Now, they themselves ask the Pharisees and the Herodians to set up a trap against Jesus to be able to condemn Him. They ask questions to Jesus concerning the taxes to be paid to the Romans. This was a controversial theme which divided public opinion. The enemies of Jesus want, at all costs, to accuse Him and diminish the influence that He had on the people. Groups, which before were enemies, now get together to fight against Jesus. This also happens today. Many times, persons or groups, enemies among themselves, get together to defend their privileges against those who inconvenience them with the announcement of truth and of justice.

• Mark 12:13-14: The question of the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees and the Herodians were the local leaders in the villages of Galilee. It was a long time since they had decided to kill Jesus (Mk 3: 6). Now, because of the order of the priests and of the elders, they want to know if Jesus is in favor or against the payment of taxes to the Romans, to Caesar. An underhanded or sly question, full of malice! Under the appearance of fidelity to the Law of God, they look for reasons in order to be able to accuse Him. If Jesus says, “You should pay!” they could accuse Him of being a friend of the Romans. If He said, “No, you do not have to pay!” they could accuse Him to the authority of the Romans of being subversive. This seemed to be a dead alley!

• Mark 12:15-17: Jesus’ answer. Jesus perceives their hypocrisy. In His response He does not lose time in useless discussion, and goes straight to the heart of the matter. Instead of responding and of discussing the affair of the tribute to Caesar, He asks to be shown a coin and He asks, “Whose portrait and inscription is this?” They answered: “Caesar’s!” The answer of Jesus: “Then pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”. In practice, they already recognized the authority of Caesar. They were already giving to Caesar what belonged to Caesar, because they used his currency, his money to buy and to sell and even to pay the taxes of the Temple! What interested Jesus was that they give “to God what belongs to God!, that is, that they restore the people to God, from their deviation, because with their teaching they blocked the entrance into the Kingdom (Mk 23:13). Others explained this statement of Jesus in another way: “Give to God what belongs to God!”, that is, practice justice and honesty as the Law of God demands, because your hypocrisy denies to God what is due to Him. The disciples have to be aware!

• Taxes, tributes, taxes and denarii. In Jesus’ time, the people of Palestine paid many taxes, tributes and the tenth part of their income, both to the Romans as well as to the Temple. The Roman Empire had invaded Palestine in the year 63 A.D. and they imposed many taxes and tributes. According to the estimates made, half or even more of the family salaries were used to pay the tributes, taxes and the tenth of their income. The taxes which the Romans demanded were of two types: direct and indirect.

a) The Direct tax was on property and on persons. The tax on property (tributum soli): the fiscal officers of the government verified how large the property was, the production and the number of slaves and they fixed the amount to be paid. Periodically, there was a verification through the census. The tax on persons (tributum capitis): was for the poor class who owned no land. This included both men and women, between 12 and 65 years of age. It was a tax on the force of work; 20% of the income of every person was used to pay taxes.

b) The Indirect tax was placed on transactions of different types. Crown of gold: originally, it was a question of a gift to the Emperor, but then it became an obligatory tax. This was paid on special occasions, for example: the feast and the visits of the Emperor. The tax on salt: The salt was the monopoly of the Emperor. It was necessary to pay the tribute on the salt for commercial use, for example, the salt used by fishermen to dry up the fish and to sell it. From this comes the word “salary”. A tax on buying and selling: for every commercial use 1% was paid. This money was paid to the fiscal officers during the holidays. When a slave was bought they demanded 4%. In every registered commercial contract, they demanded 2%. The tax for exercising a profession: There was need for everyone to have a license for everything. For example, a cobbler in the city of Palmira paid one denarius a month. A denarius was equivalent to the salary of one day. And even the prostitutes had to pay. A tax for the use of public utilities: Emperor Vespasian introduced the tax to be able to use the public toilets in Rome. He would say, “Money does not stink!”

c) Other taxes and obligations: toll or customs; forced work; Special expenses for the army (to give hospitality to the soldiers; to pay for the food of the troops); Taxes for the Temple and the worship.

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to Ocarm Lectio Divina for the reflection.

06/02/2026

Many, many more Holy Dominicans.
Blessed Sadoc and Companion Martyrs

Sadoc is another of the early disciples of Saint Dominic about whom the scanty records make us long to know much more. The few references to him show that he was a native of Poland, a man of good parts, and a splendid, dependable character, which caused him to be loved, as well as admired, by his confrères. They also prove that he was greatly esteemed for his holiness of life. Apparently he studied in Bologna, and afterwards entered the Order there. In 1221, it will be recalled, Dominic associated him with Paul of Hungary as a colaborer in building up the new Hungarian province of Friars Preacher, and for the conversion of the Cumans.(1)

With Paul, his superior, Sadoc journeyed through northern Italy, Tyrol, and Upper Austria into Hungary. This was in 1221. He seems to have taken charge of the three candidates whom the missionaries gained through their sermons at Enns.(2) That he was a man of zeal and eloquence is evidenced by the fact that Saint Dominic selected him for so trying a mission. As is the case with not a few most efficient workers in every age, especially if they are quiet characters, the historians rarely, if ever, mention him personally. Still the preceding sketch of Paul of Hungary aff ords some idea of Sadoc's apostolic activity. The two men must have often labored hand in hand during the years they were together. A further idea may be gleaned from the outlines of the lives of Saint Hyacinth and Blessed Ceslas, for Sadoc's last toils were in Poland.

There are indications that, because of his exemplary life, rare piety, and good judgment, our blessed was often employed in the training of candidates for the Order and in the preparation of the younger brethren for the apostolic life. Yet there are no positive records to that effect. For some years he was prior of the convent at Agram, Hungary.(3) Similarly, as will be seen, the man of God ended his earthly career in such a position.

Just when Blessed Sadoe was called, or sent, from Hungary to Poland it would be impossible to say. However, in 1260 we find him prior of Saint James' Convent, Sandomir.(4) The traditions of his wise, kindly, and spiritual government of that community which have come down to us, and which are borne out by the conduct of its members in the catastrophe soon to be recounted, lead one to fancy that he had been superior there for some years before that sad event. During this time, we can but believe, he preached not merely in Sandomir itself; for his zeal must have taken him into many places of the kingdom, if not even throughout its length and breadth.

How the holy Friar Preacher escaped death, or fared at the hands of the Tartars, in the calamitous times when Paul of Hungary and so many of his confrères received the crown of martyrdom, and Hyacinth and Ceslas were saved only by miracles, possibly will never be known. Sadoe certainly passed through that awful epoch. But, in the end, he became a victim of the same merciless marauders. Late in 1259, or early in 1260, the Tartars again overran Russia in the same way as they did in 1240 and 1241. From Russia they swept into Poland, where they sacked and burned Lublin and other cities. Carnage and devastation marked their course everywhere.(5)

Finally, under their leaders, whom the Polish historian, Rev. Martin Kromer, calls "Nogaio" and "Celebuga," the barbarians laid siege to Sandomir, a strongly fortified city on the Vistula(6) Night and day they strove to take the place by storm, but in vain. Not only did Blessed Sadoe bravely remain with his people; he kept his community there also. Together with the students, novices, and lay brothers, there were forty-nine religious of his house thus shut up within the municipal walls. While the holy prior trusted in the goodness of God, he knew that his brethren would not hesitate to purchase the crown of heaven at the price of their lives. Possibly he also felt that their blood might, in the designs of providence, bring peace and quiet to Poland, as well as redound to the good of religion.(7)

Sadoc did not permit the turmoil of the time, or his labors among the distracted faithful, to interfere with the regular exercises of the community. It was while engaged in one of these that they received their warning. After that part of the divine office called matins, the novice appointed to read the martyrology, which notes the saints whose feasts fall on the next day, suddenly faltered and stood aghast. Then, with his voice scarcely under control, he read: "At Sandomir, the sufferings of forty-nine martyrs" (Sandomiriae, passio quadraginta novem martyrum). Quite naturally, everyone was stupefied at so strange and unexpected an announcement. The superior called for the book. There were the words written in letters of gold. They disappeared after the community bad seen them.(8)

Some writers tell us that our blessed then knew by inspiration what was to happen. Be this as it may, his keen religious instinct would have revealed to him the fate of himself and confrères. When the prayers were finished, although there seemed to be no danger of the strongly fortified town being taken by the enemy, he gave his colleagues a brief conference, in which he assured them that they were all to be martyrs, and urged them bravely to prepare for the glorious conflict. He felicitated them that their fortune was to be so happy. Needless to say that his words produced a profound impression.

This extraordinary occurrence was on the first day of June; the year 1260. Meanwhile, the Tartars resorted to fraud and imposture that they might gain possession of Sandomir, which they had failed to carry by storm. At their instigation, some Russian officers who had turned traitors to their own country and accepted places in the army of the enemy arranged a parley with the leaders of the Poles. These were persuaded that, if they visited the camp of "Nogaio" and "Celebuga," easy terms of peace could be made, that neither the city would be injured, nor the people molested, and that much suffering would be spared. Hardly had they reached the place where they thought the conference would be held, when the barbarians, now that its defenders were without commanders, rushed upon Sandomir, and took it by a vigorous assault.(9)

Never did unwise trust cost more dearly. The Tartars, innately brutal, were always known to be cruel in proportion to the resistance with which they met. On this occasion both their inhumanity and their villainy were consummate. The city was pillaged and destroyed. The streets ran with blood. When the fiends grew weary of butchering with the sword, they drove crowds of people to the banks of the Vistula, where they were drowned in the river.(10)

It is now time to return to Blessed Sadoc and his community. In expectation of their baptism of blood, they prepared for the ordeal, so repugnant to the instincts of nature, by confession, prayers, communion, and thousands of acts of love. Under the noble example of their superior, they offered their lives to God as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. With the same regularity as before the choral exercises were carried out the two days and a night that intervened between the supernatural admonition and the martyrdom. On the evening of June 2, 1260, compline was sung as usual. After this, the forty-nine Friars Preacher, in accordance with the custom of their Order, marched out of the choir in procession and down the main aisle of the church, singing the Salve Regina. (11)

Possibly an expectation of rich b***y combined with their hatred of Christianity to cause the Tartars generally to begin their work of devastation, after a city had fallen into their hands, by pillaging the Catholic churches. At any rate, these sacred edifices were ever among the first structures visited and despoiled by them. So it happened in Sandomir. Blessed Sadoc and his community had just reached their places in Saint James', when the barbarians rushed upon them.(12) In a moment the forty-nine lay dead in the main aisle. Of the martyrs sixteen were priests; three deacons; four subdeacons; eight or nine in minor orders; nine or ten professed students; five still in their noviceship; and three lay brothers.(13)

Because of his zeal, virtue, and model life, Blessed Sadoc had been held in veneration wherever he labored. After death, the devotion towards him not only grew, but was also extended to his companions in martyrdom, whom he guided to a port of spiritual safety in a time of danger. Blessed John Prandota, bishop of Cracow, and Boleslaw V, king of Poland, and called "the Chaste," sent representatives to Rome that they might lay the case of these athletes of Christ before Alexander IV, as well as make known to him what the Catholics had suffered at the bands of the Tartars; for many of them had certainly died in the cause of their religion. The Holy Father, to show his sympathy and still further to quicken the faith of the people, accorded to all who visit the church of Sandomir on June 2 the same indulgences that can be gained by an attendance at Saint Mary of the Martyrs, Rome.(14)

It is worthy of note that the fact that Sadoc and his companions went to death, while engaged in the chant of the Salve Regina, gave rise to the custom in their Order of softly singing the same prayer to the Blessed Virgin at the bedside of its members in their last moments. Marvellous things have been recorded in connection with the glorious triumph of these Friars Preacher. For instance, our Lady, whose honor they died praising under the title of "Mother of Mercy," is said to have been seen to open the gates of heaven for them. Persons worthy of credence declared that they often saw the exterior of the church in which they died illuminated by forty-nine brilliant stars. Others bore witness to the same number of beautiful candles around the altar erected in honor of the martyrs, which had been lit and placed there by no human hands. Out of veneration, a large picture was painted over this altar, in which they are portrayed on their knees under the mantle of the Blessed Virgin, and holding lighted candles in token of their victory.(15)

This devotion for our athletes of the faith has continued down through the course of ages. It is especially strong in Poland and Sandomir. Pius VII not only took official recognizance of this fact, but also granted the Order to which they belonged permission to recite the divine office and say mass in their honor on June 2, the day of their martyrdom.

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Thanks to www.domcentral org for these details.

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