أعياد القديسين
9
ايلول - سبتمبر
لاتيني
September 03
Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Teacher of the Church
He was born in the city of Rome in 540 AD from a family engaged in political life, and after the death of his father, he was elected governor of the city while he was young. Then he renounced everything and embraced the monastic life. He was ordained a deacon and appointed papal ambassador in Constantinople. On the third of September, in the year 590, he was elected bishop of the Petrine dam. He was a good shepherd, who cared very much about the poor. Despite his poor health, he accomplished a tremendous job. His pastoral duties did not distract him from prayer and meditation. It was he who sent Saint Augustine, Bishop of Canterbury, to preach to England. He organized the divine service and the Gregorian weather. It was he who called himself “the servant of the servants of God,” with the aim of teaching, in humility, a beautiful lesson to one of the arrogant men of his time. Popes, after him, adopted this title. He wrote many books on ethics, theology, and spirituality, including “Books of Dialogues,” where he mentions the biography of Saint Benedict.
September 09
Saint Peter Claver, priest
He was born near the city of Barcelona in Spain in 1580 AD. He entered the Society of Jesuit Fathers and was appointed as a missionary in Colombia to take care of the slaves who were kidnapped and transported from Africa to the new continent. He devoted his whole life to them and called himself "the permanent servant of the negroes." He was associated with a spiritual friendship with his spiritual teacher, Saint Alphonse Rodrigues, who was a gatekeeper in the same monastery. This saint cared about the food and treatment of the enslaved because of the injustice and neglect they were suffering from, and overwhelmed them with his compassion. He preached the Christian faith to the pagans, taught them the evangelical virtues, and helped them discover the true freedom that comes from being children of God. It is said that he baptized three hundred thousand of them. He contracted the plague and endured the disease as well as the abuse of his nurse, who was a Negro. He rested in the Lord in 1654, in Cartagena (Colombia). Pope Leo XIII declared him the intercessor for missionaries to Africa.
September 17th
Saint Robertus Bellermino, Bishop and Teacher of the Church
He was born in Italy in 1542 AD, from a large and wealthy family. He entered the Jesuit Order and was ordained a priest. He taught theology in Louvain (Belgium) and in Rome, and St. Louis Gonzaga was one of his students. He was elected bishop of the city of Capua in southern Italy, then appointed a cardinal. He wrote many books in defense of the Catholic faith, interpretation of the Bible, catechism, and spirituality. He sought to apply the teachings of the Catholic Reformation that were published by the Council of Tridentine at the time. Participated in the review of the Latin translation of the Bible (Vulgata). He lived a life of austerity, fasting and prayer, as he cared for the poor, leaving them everything he owned. In the last period of his life, he became an advisor to Pope Paul V, and contributed to resolving a number of thorny issues. He rested in the Lord in Rome in 1621. Among his sayings: “If you are wise, you will understand that you were created for the glory of God and for your eternal salvation. This is your destination, this is the center of your soul, this is the treasure of your heart. If you reach this goal, you will be blessed, and if you stray from it, you will be the most wretched of the wretched.”
September 21st
Saint Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist
Matthew is a Hebrew name (Mathea) meaning “the gift of the Lord.” He is one of the twelve apostles. He was also called Levi the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2: 14; Luke 5: 27, 29). He is a resident of Capernaum, he used to occupy the job of a tax collector when Jesus called him to follow him, so he left everything and followed him, then he wanted to express his joy in the forgiveness he received and in the new life, so he invited Jesus to dinner with many tax collectors and sinners (which aroused the Pharisees' surprise and suspicion 9: 9-13). We do not find much about him in the New Testament, except that he was among those who gathered in the upper room after the ascension of Christ (Acts 1:13). The first Gospel written in the Aramaic language is attributed to him. In it we find an emphasis on the close link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christ is the new Moses who gives the law of the Beatitudes, and he is the one who fulfilled, with his life, death and resurrection, the prophecies of the Holy Books. Tradition says that Saint Matthew preached in the countries of the East, especially the Jews of his people.
September 23rd
Saint Pius of Piarrhelcina, priest
He was born in the town of Piatralcina, in southern Italy, in 1887 AD, from a simple and poor family, in which he received a good Christian upbringing. He entered the Order of the Capuchin Fathers at the age of sixteen, then was ordained a priest in 1910. His health conditions forced him to stay for several years in his village. Then he moved later to the monastery of “John Rotondo” and stayed there, leaving it rarely. During his priestly life, he practiced various social and humanitarian activities. He also established a hospital he called "Pain Relief House" to care for patients. People flocked to him to confess their sins, because of the spiritual gifts he enjoyed, and he used to spend long hours in the confessional. In the midst of World War II, he taught the believers to arm themselves with prayer, so he established prayer groups that spread all over the world, and they still exist to this day. In 1918, he received the blessing of “the marks of Christ,” which remained bloody and caused him pain for fifty years, until he passed away in 1968. Pope John Paul II declared him a saint in 2002. Among his sayings: “Stay close to the Catholic Church at all times, for only the Church can To give you the true peace, since it is with her alone that you find Jesus, the true prince of peace, and that is in the Holy Eucharist.
September 27th
Saint Mansour de Paul, priest
He was born in France in 1581 AD from a poor family. He had to work in his childhood shepherd pigs to be able to pay for his studies. He was ordained a priest at the age of nineteen. Some pirates kidnapped him, while he was on a journey, and sold him as a slave in Tunis. There his master freed him after he was guided to the Christian faith. This painful experience motivated him to have a strong desire to serve the poor and the oppressed. He became one of the greatest pioneers of spiritual life in France in the seventeenth century, and a champion of Christian love, which sees the face of Christ in every suffering person. After he was appointed to one of the parishes of Paris, he established the “Priests of the Mission” institution, that is, the Lazarus Fathers, to educate seminarians and help the poor, and the “Sisters of Charity” institution, Saint Louisa de Mariac assisted him in this mission. He rested in the Lord in Paris in 1660. Among his sayings: “Serving the poor must be preferred over everything, and we must do it without delay or postponement. If you are compelled, at the time of prayer, to carry a remedy or provide some assistance to the poor, do so with a reassuring soul, but you must do so, as you offer God an offering, as if you are persevering in prayer.
September 29th
Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels
The Bible mentions the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, in its narration of the tasks that God entrusted to them in the history of salvation. Michael: means “Who is like God!” He is the angel who fights Satan and his supporters and defeats them (see Zech 13: 1-2; Revelation 12: 7), and guards God’s friends (Dan 10: 13, 21) and protects the people from dangers (Dan 12: 1). Gabriel: means “the power of God.” He is one of the spirits appearing before God (Luke 1: 19), revealed to the Prophet Daniel the secrets of God’s plan (Dan 8: 16; 9: 21-22), and announced the birth of Zacharias, his son John the Baptist (Luke 1: 11-20), and the birth of the Virgin Mary. Christ the Savior (Luke 1: 26-38). Raphael: means "God's healing." He is also one of the seven spirits present before the throne of God (Tobit 12: 15; see Revelation 8: 2). He accompanied Tobias on his travels and healed his father Tobit from blindness.