أعياد القديسين
5
ايار- مايو
ماروني
May 04
Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine
This righteous woman was born in the year 331 near the city of Cartagena, and she was from an honorable family that grew up on the fear of God and the love of virtue. Then her parents married her to a pagan young man named Tarcisius, who was rude and ill-tempered. He mistreated her and resented her kindness to the poor and her visit to the sick. She exchanged meekness, gentleness of morals, and beautiful patience with him, until she was able, with her good behavior and prayers, to tame his morals and guide him to faith. And I bore him three children: Agostinos, Navigius, and a daughter named Braithwa.
As for Agostinos, he succumbed to indiscretion when he was young, and when he was a young man, he unleashed the miles of the body and was deceived by Mani's heresy, indifferent to his mother's rebuke and advice to him. And when she despaired of fixing it, she resorted to God, entrusting his care to her son's affairs, supplicating, praying, and crying until the earth was wet with her tears.
Agostinos came to Milan, and his mother followed his request, taking care of him. He became acquainted with its bishop, St. Ambrosius, and used to frequent the church to hear his sermons and sermons. Then Monica came to St. Ambrosius telling him about her son's biography. Since then, I have devoted myself to meditation, prayer and austerity. When Augustinos intended to return to his town in Africa, his mother walked with him, and upon their arrival in the city of Ostia, she lay in his hands equipped with divine secrets in the year 387. The church prayed for her in the presence of her son, and they buried her body with honor. Since ancient times, the Church has been honoring her name and asking for her intercession.
Her prayers are with us. Trustworthy!
May 08
Saint Charbel's birthday
Saint Charbel was born in Bekaa Kafra on May 8, 1828. At the age of 23, he entered the novitiate in the Monastery of Our Lady of Mayfouk. Then he moved to the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, and then was sent to Kfifan, where he studied philosophy and theology. One of his teachers was the saintly father, Nehmallah Al-Hardini. He was ordained a priest in Bkerke on July 23, 1859. He resided in the monastery of St. Maroun in Annaya for 16 years. Then he moved to the hermitage, where he spent 23 years. God performed many verses on his hand during his life and after his death. In 1965, His Holiness Pope Paul VI raised him to the ranks of the blessed. Then the Pope himself declared him a saint on October 9, 1977. His prayers are with us.
May 09
Saint Simon the Apostle
The Bible mentioned Saint Simon among the twelve apostles. Matthew and Mark described him as legal because he is from Cana of Galilee. And Luke called him in the Acts of the Apostles jealous. He is not Simon, who is called my brother, the Lord. Humans in Egypt and in the islands of Italy. God has performed many signs through his hand, and many have returned to the Christian faith. He endured many hardships and torments. King Traianos arrested him, sent him to Rome, and there he died crucified, so he obtained a wreath of testimony in the late first century.
His prayers are with us. Trustworthy.
May 10
The memory of the beatification of Father Nematallah Al-Hardini
His birth:
Yusuf Kassab (Father Ni'matullah) was born in 1808 or 1810, according to different sources. His father, Gerges Kassab, is from the house of Kassat - Hardin. His mother, Maryam, is the daughter of Father Youssef Yacoub, from Tannourine.
his family:
The origin of the Kassab family goes back to Qalaiat in Keserwan, from which the stocks of Yusuf’s grandmother to his father, Kanaan Sadeq Tarabay from Tannourine, were displaced, following the murder of her husband, Salhab Kassab, along with her children: Gerges, Sadeq and Bashir, to Tannourine in 1769, to Hardin, where she bought a farm east of the town known later "In a farm or in the neighborhood of a kassab's house."
He has four brothers: Assaf, Elias, who is the imprisoned father, Elisha Kassab, Tanios, who was ordained a priest, and Jacob. He also has two sisters, Christiana, who became a monk in the monastery of Saint John Harash and Mariam.
May 15th
The Lady of the Plants
Since ancient times, our fathers have designated this day as a special feast for our Lady, the Virgin Mary, to seek her blessing on the heads of crops and the fruits of trees, to protect her from plagues and to remove pests from her. In accordance with what they have ordained, we resort today to our compassionate mother, Her Holiness, imploring her to beg her beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to bless our crops, fertilize them, and protect them from all harm.
May 22
Saint Rita
Antonio Mancini and Amata Fari are a married couple from Cassia, Italy; have reached old age without having a son; But their frequent prayers, without getting bored, made the Lord take pity on them, so He blessed them with a child, whom they called Margarita, and they loved Rita.
That was on May 22, 1381. They baptized her and thanked God for His gift to them. In her childhood, some miracles occurred that the villagers kept transmitting for a long time, including that the bees put honey in her mouth without harming her.
And Rita began to grow in virtue and love according to the upbringing of her virtuous parents. When she reached the age of marriage, her family thought of marrying her off. However, she was living an inner love for the Lord Jesus, and she wanted to dedicate herself to Him. She began to struggle with the factors of fulfilling her vow and obedience to her parents.
She submitted to the will of her parents, so she married the man they chose for her, and she began to give him all her tenderness, love and prayers. Rita's parents chose a rich young man and a brave knight for their daughter to protect her from the evil of poverty. But this young man lacked humanity and tenderness. His concern is duel and self-expression, even at the expense of others. So he did not hesitate to insult her, but he often assaulted her with painful beatings. Nevertheless, she was constantly praying to the Virgin to help her bear her affliction, and she did not tell her family, so as not to make them feel the twinge of conscience over their choice to marry her.
This prayer of hers and her death found a listening ear with the Lord. So the husband went back to his conscience little by little until Jesus entered his heart and became a person who knew the meaning of Christian marital life.
