Text Box: AUGUST August 1 – St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop & Doctor of the Church. lawyer; founder of the Redemptorists Fathers (1732); stressing Christ’s love and St. Mary’s intercession; patron of confessors and moral theologians. Died 1787. August 2 – St. Eusebius of Verecelli. – considered the founder of the Canon Regular in the West; defender of St. Athanasius; exiled to Palestine by Constancius; with St. Hilary an opponent of Arianism. SAME DAY – Peter Julian Eymard founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament; devoted to the worship and apostolate of the Eucharist as the center of the life of the Church and society. In 1858 founded also the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a contemplative women’s community; influenced the founding of the Eucharistic Fraternity for the laity, the Association of Priest Adorers, and international Eucharistic Congresses. August 4 – St. John Mary Vianney, priest. – universally known as the “Cure of Ars”; compassionate spiritual counselor who spent usually no fewer than eleven hours every day in the confessional in the winter, sixteen in the summer; patron of priest and confessors. August 5 – The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. – Following the declaration of Mary as THEOTOKOS – “God – Bearer” by the Council of Ephesus in 431, Pope Sixtus III erected in Rome this oldest basilica in the West dedicated to the Mother of God. August 6 – Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. – Celebrated by 5th c. East Syrians, this feast was inserted into the general calendar in 1457 by pope Callistus III to celebrate the defeat, announced in Rome on 6 August, of the Turks at Belgrade. August 6th occurs 40 days before the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, September 14th. The purpose of this feast is to celebrate that glorious event in the life of Jesus Christ, the Transfiguration, which some Holy Fathers call the second Epiphany of the Lord. The observance of this feast goes back to the 4th century. At that time, St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, built a church on Mt. Tabor in honor of the Lord’s Transfiguration. At the end of the 11th century, the Crusaders founded several churches and monasteries on Mt. Tabor. From the early Church history, there was a custom of blessing grapes and other fruits. August 8 – St. Dominic de Guzman – born in Caleruega, Spain; founded the Order of Preachers known as Dominicans; today numbering some 6,550 religious; an elective, fraternal form of community life devoted to contemplation, study and preaching; sought to bring Albigensians back into the Church through preaching and living evangelical poverty. Died August 6, 1221; canonized in 1234. August 9 – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Virgin and Martyr. – Born of Jewish parents in 1891; influential philosopher and convert to Catholicism; entered the Discalced Carmelites in 1933; arrested by the Nazis in 1942 and transported by cattle train to the death camp of Auschwitz where she died in the gas chamber. August 10 – St. Lawrence; deacon & martyr – four days after four other deacons and Pope Sixtus II (August 7, 258) were killed; cared for the temporal welfare of the Roman Church; said to have been Text Box: burned alive on a gridiron; after Sts. Peter and Paul is venerated as patron of Rome; mentioned in the Roman Canon. August 11 - St. Clare, virgin. – Disciple of St. Francis; founded the Poor Clares whose first convent at Assisi she directed as abbess for 42 years; led an austere life, rich in the practice of charity and loving care. August 13 – Pontian; pope, martyr – Bishop of Rome banished by Emperor Maximinis Thrax to Sardinia where he was reconciled with Hippolytus; before dying, he abdicated his office (first pope to do so) to make way for a successor (St. Anterus); buried in the cemetary of Callistus in 235 & Hippolitus; priest & martyr – authored Apostolic Tradition; Roman priest and stern rigorist; exiled to Sardinia with Pontian; source of Eucharistic Prayer II; The same day 91 anniversary of the fourth Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima. August 14 – St. Maximilian Kolbe; priest & martyr – Born in Poland 1894; Franciscan priest. Arrested by Nazis and sent to concentration camp in Auschwitz. He offered to take the place of another prisoner to die in hunger barrack. Beatified by Pope Paul VI October 17, 1971; Canonized October 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II. August 15 – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – came to be celebrated as early as the 5th century in the East and in Rome; Patroness of France, Paraguay, Jamaica, South Africa and New Caledonia. August 16 – St. Stephen of Hungary – as the first Christian king of Hungary he united and Christianized the Magyar people; received the “holy crown” from Pope Sylvester II in 1000; renowned for his charity to beggars; known as the “Apostolic King and Apostle of Hungary. August 18 – St. Jane Frances de Chantal (Jane Fremiot) – from Dijon; married to Baron de Chantal; mother of 6 children; as a widow, with St. Francis de Sales, her spiritual director, she founded in 1610 at Annency in Savoy the Visitation nuns; established some 85 monasteries before her death. She died on December 13, 1641. Beatified Aug. 21, 1751 by Pope Benedict XIV. August 19 – St. John Eudes – priest - founded in 1643 the Congregation of Jesus and Mary for training the clergy; also founded The Sisters of the Good Shepherd to assist morally-endangered women, especially prostitutes; promoted devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Died 1680. August 20 – St. Benard, abbot and doctor of the Church – Cistercian Abbot of Clairvaux; reformer and spiritual author of sermons; founder of 68 monasteries. Patron of Gibraltar. Died 1153. August 21 – St. Pius X , pope – undertook liturgical and canonical reforms especially communion for children and frequent communion for adults; condemned Modernism in Lamentabili ties and Pascendi dominici gregis (1907); wished “to renew all things in Christ”; patron of sick pilgrims. August 22 – The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary – This was prescribed in 1954 by Pope Pius XII for 31 May, and is now celebrated on the octave of the Assumption. This is also the patronal feast of Our Diocese. August 23 – St. Rose of Lima – Her real name was Isabel de Oliva; Peruvian mystic; nicknamed “Rosa” because of her beauty; O.P. tertiary who lived a life of penance and solitude, caring for the