Saints' Feast Days – May

• Saint Athanasius the Great Bishop & Doctor of the Church May 2^nd
• Saint Dominic Savio May 6^th
• Blessed Catherine of St Augustine May 8^th
• Saint Dymphna Martyr May 15^th
• Saint Bede the Venerable Priest & Doctor of the Church May 25^th
• Saint Philip Neri, Priest Priest May 26^th
• Saint Joan of Arc Virgin & Martyr May 30^th

Background:

St. Athanasius, the great champion of the Faith was born at Alexandria, about the year 296, of Christian parents. In 319, he became a deacon, and even in this capacity he was called upon to take an active part against the rising heresy of Arius, an ambitious priest of the Alexandrian Church who denied the Divinity of Christ. This was to be the life struggle of St. Athanasius. In 325, he assisted his Bishop at the Council of Nicaea. Five months later his bishop died and Athanasius was unanimously elected Patriarch in 326. His refusal to tolerate the Arian heresy was the cause of many trials and persecutions for St. Athanasius. He spent seventeen of the forty-six years of his episcopate in exile. After a life of virtue and suffering, this intrepid champion of the Catholic Faith, the greatest man of his time, died in peace on May 2, 373. His Feast Day is 2^nd May.

Intercessory Prayer:

Father, you raised up Saint Athanasius to be
an outstanding defender of the truth of Christ's divinity.

By his teaching and protection may we grow
in your knowledge and love.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God,
for ever and ever.

Amen.

… St Athanasius the Great, Pray for Us …

Background:

Dominic was born on 2 April; 1842and died on 9 March 1857. While still a boy he decided to become a faithful imitator of Jesus Christ and avoid anything that would distance him from the Lord. At age 12 he became a spiritual son of John Bosco. Under the personal direction of this great Salesian saint, Dominic became a tabernacle for the Lord and a model and example of God's love for all people. With his life style he was an apostle and missionary of Jesus. His Feast Day is 6^th May.

Four Simple Rules for Sainthood:

• I will go to Confession and Communion often.
• I will keep holy the feast days.
• Jesus will be my best friend.
• I would rather die than to commit a sin.

-Saint Dominic Savio

Intercessory Prayer:

Dear Saint Dominic,
you spent your short life totally for love of Jesus and His Mother.
Help youth today to realize the importance of God in their lives.

You became a saint through fervent participation in the sacraments.
We desperately need your intercession to protect today's
children from the snares of the world.

Watch over them and lead them on the narrow road to Heaven.

… St Dominic Savio, Pray for Us …

Background:

Catherine of Saint Augustine (1632-1668) was an Augustinian Hospitaller Sister of the Mercy of Jesus who volunteered to go to her community's mission in Quebec. Her family was strongly opposed to the idea. Her father even tried to get the French courts to stop her. But Catherine was firmly resolved to serve the sick and the poor of Quebec. She arrived there in 1648. Later on her father came to accept his daughter's mission there.

In spite of spiritual dryness and a debilitating long-term illness, Catherine was consistently loving, kind, and gracious toward all.

She died May 8, 1668. She was 36 years old. She is considered to be one of the founders of the Catholic Church in Canada. Her Feast Day is 8^th May.

Blessed Catherine of St. Augustine was beatified by Pope John Paul on April 1989. Pope John Paul II said of her in his homily, "Among the founders of the Church of Canada in its spiritual springtime can be numbered Marie Catherine, this Augustinian whose hand, as well as her heart, was nothing other than charity."

Intercessory Prayer:

O Glorious Blessed Catherine, virgin and missionary, I invoke your intercession from your place in heaven. Pray that we may have the strength to trust in God when our body is weak and we feel spiritual dryness. Shower prayers upon us that we may have the patience and love to bear all for the Lord. May we always listen closely to the direction of our Lord and have the grace to discern His Will for us.  Please pray for us Blessed Catherine that we may have the strength in body and spirit to follow God’s direction and the courage to follow it through as you did here on earth. Please carry our petitions before the Lord. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen

Background:

Dymphna was a seventh-century Irish princess who had to flee her home after her mother died and her father went insane with grief. His madness led him to believe that his daughter was some kind of reincarnation of his deceased spouse, and he insisted that Dymphna marry him as a replacement. Dymphna, accompanied by a chaplain, escaped to Belgium to hide out, but her father found her and gave her a choice: Marry him or die. Dymphna chose death, as did the chaplain, and a cult of devotion grew up around their tomb in the Belgian city of Geel.

Intercessory Prayer:

Good Saint Dymphna,
great wonder-worker in every affliction of mind and body,

I humbly implore your powerful intercession with Jesus through Mary,
the Health of the Sick, in my present need.

(Mention it.)

Saint Dymphna,
martyr of purity, patroness of those who suffer with nervous and mental
afflictions, beloved child of Jesus and Mary,
pray to Them for me and obtain my request.

…Saint Dymphna, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us…

Background:

Bede is one of the few saints honored as such even during his lifetime. From the time of his ordination to the priesthood at 30—he had been ordained a deacon at 19—till his death, Bede was ever occupied with learning, writing, and teaching. Although eagerly sought by kings and other notables, even Pope Sergius, Bede managed to remain in his own monastery until his death. Bede died in 735 praying his favorite prayer: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As in the beginning, so now, and forever.” His Fest Day is 25^th May.

The inspiration came suddenly again to surrender to the Mother. It was quite unexpected: And so somehow I made a surrender to the Mother. Then I had an experience of overwhelming love. Waves of love sort of flowed into me.

-Venerable Bede

Intercessory Prayer:

Bede the Venerable, we see in your life a model of commitment to one place, one idea, one love, and one Church. We ask your intercession to aid all scholars, all monks, and all who waver, to stay at their desk, their kneeler, or their work bench to fulfill the task at hand.

O God, who bring light to your church through the learning of the priest Saint Bede, mercifully grant that your servants may always be enlightened by his wisdom and helped by his merits. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you In the unity of the Holy Spirit one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Background:

Philip Neri was born in Florence in 1515. In his late teens, he was sent by his family to live with an uncle in San Germano with the understanding that he would become heir to his uncle's business and great wealth. Philip renounced the inheritance and left San Germano for Rome, where he arrived probably in 1533.

It was while he was praying in the catacombs of St Sebastian on the feast of Pentecost in 1544, that the Holy Spirit descended into him as a ball of fire and lodged in his heart. From this time onwards, Philip always felt his heart to be dilated and filled with a great heat. (After his death, an autopsy revealed that his heart had in fact been enlarged and that two of his ribs were broken to make room for it.)

He was ordained in 1551, and in 1564 he founded the Congregation of the Oratory. He is noted for his zeal to convert sinners through the Sacrament of Penance and his cheerful disposition. He was a catechist and spiritual guide of extraordinary talent.

The best remedy for dryness of spirit, is to picture ourselves as beggars in the presence of God and the Saints, and like a beggar, to go first to one saint, then to another, to ask a spiritual alms of them with the same earnestness as a poor fellow in the streets would ask an alms of us.

-Philip Neri

Intercessory Prayer:

O Holy St. Philip Neri, Patron Saint of joy,
you who trusted Scripture's promise that the Lord is always at hand and
that we need not have anxiety about anything, in your compassion heal
our worries and sorrows and lift the burdens from our hearts. We come to
you as one whose heart swells with abundant love for God and all
creation. Hear us, we pray, especially in this need…

(Share your request… )

Keep us safe through your loving intercession, and may the joy of the
Holy Spirit which filled your heart, St. Philip, transform our lives and
bring us peace. Amen.

… St Philip Neri, Pray for Us …

Background:

Joan of Arc, a peasant girl living in medieval France, believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory in its long-running war with England. With no military training, Joan convinced the embattled crown prince Charles of Valois to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orléans, where it achieved a momentous victory. After seeing the prince crowned King Charles VII, Joan was captured by enemy forces, tried for witchcraft and heresy and burned at the stake in 1431, at the age of 19. [Before being burned at the stake for her faith:] Hold the cross high so I may see it through the flames. Her Feast Day is 30^th May.

I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God's will.

-St. Joan of Arc

Intercessory Prayer:

St. Joan of Arc,
filled with compassion, for those who invoke you, filled with love for
those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I kneel
at your feet and humbly beg you, to take my present need, under your
special protection. 

(Mention your request here).

Grant to recommend it, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the
throne of Jesus. Cease not to intercede for me, until my request is
granted. Above all, obtain for me, the grace to one day, meet God face
to face, and with you and Mary, and all the angels and saints, praise
Him through all eternity.

O most powerful Saint Joan, do not let me lose my soul, but obtain for
me the grace of winning my way to heaven, forever and ever.

Amen.