Saint Ursula...
and her Eleven Thousand Companions...
were martyred as well [in Cologne].
Relics were believed to heal.
There was a person, also in Bruges, whose job it was to go around...
and bring the relics around to the sick, and walk through the ward [ziekenzaal].
And the virtues were supposed to radiate, and hopefully heal people.
It seems to be a kind of heavenly setting.
The Virgin's throne room, something of that nature.
These saints lived at different times.
Saint Catherine of Alexandria had a vision...
in which she saw the Christ Child, putting a ring on her finger.
In that sense, she becomes in a way the examplar for all of the nuns...
or in this case, the hospital sisters, who are brides of Christ.
The Lady in green is Saint Barbara...
They are all martyrs, three of these saints were killed.
They tried to kill Saint John Evangelist too, they boiled him in oil, but he survived...
It is believed that you can call upon a martyr to help you have a good death!
Because martyrs have the best death of all, they are baptised with their blood.
They go directly to heaven, they do not pass purgatory.
They were assured of entry into heaven.
Barbara's tower is actually a monstrans, here.
There is a sort of cilindrical glass container within.
And you can see the circular, rounded shape of a host.
Or we could call it a ciborium...
In those they would keep the reserve hosts.
And they were sometimes called 'towers', 'turris'...
Reserve hosts are the left overs of consecrated hosts.
You would need them in the hospital, while someone might be in danger of death...
and one perhaps hasn't the time to go through the whole mass...
You remember that the Mass re-enacts the crucifixion.
An earns merits for salvation, and salvation is what it is all about.
John Evangelist...
The story goes that he had to drink wine that was poisoned.
But than he made the sign of the cross...
So there is a kind of eucharistic connection.
You have the chalice, and at the same side the tower with the host.
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Pedro Arrupe died on February 5th 1991, at 7:45pm...
the anniversary of the 26 Martyrs of Japan.
His final words had been:
'For the present, Amen.
For the future, Alleluia.'
His funeral was held in the Church of the Gesu, Rome, on February 9th...
and was attended by crowds that filled the piazza outside the church.
Also in attendance were 10 cardinals, 20 bishops, Giulio Andreotti the Prime Minister of Italy, as well as other religious and civil dignitaries.
His body, first interred in the Jesuit mausoleum at Campo Verano...
was brought back into the Church of the Gesù...
where it currently lies in a side chapel.
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On 11 July 2018, the Father General of the Society of Jesus, Arturo Sosa...
announced the beginning of the process for Arrupe's canonization.
On 14 November 2018, a website was established...
with the life, testimonials, and archive on his life.
[wiki]
After the changes following Vatican II...
there was tension within the Society as to how the life of a Jesuit was to be lived.
At the thirty-second General Congregation which convened in 1975...
Arrupe's dream of working for the poor was crystallised in the document 'Our Mission Today: the Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice.'
It stated: 'Our faith in Jesus Christ and our mission to proclaim the Gospel demand of us a commitment to promote justice and enter into solidarity with the voiceless and the powerless.'
On 20 June 1977...
the White Warriors Union death squad threatened to kill all 47 Jesuits serving in El Salvador...
unless they abandoned their work with the poor and left the country within a month.
After consulting with the Jesuit community in El Salvador, Arrupe replied 'They may end up as martyrs, but my priests are not going to leave because they are with the people.'
A few months earlier, Jesuit Rutilio Grande, a proponent of liberation theology, was assassinated in El Salvador. On 16 November 1989, six Jesuits would be murdered at the Jesuit University of Central America. Others also suffered martyrdom: the chief bishop in El Salvador Archbishop Óscar Romero was gunned down whilst celebrating the Eucharist on 24 March 1980.
Lay missionary Jean Donovan, Ursuline sister Dorothy Kazel and Maryknoll sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford were beaten, raped and murdered by non-uniformed members of the Salvadoran National Guard on 2 December 1980. They joined some 75,000 Salvadorans who were killed during this troubled period.
All the while, Arrupe continued to support and pray for those people who were willing to lay down their lives to help the poor initiate change.
Touched by the plight of the Vietnamese boat people in 1979...
Pedro Arrupe sent cable messages to some 20 Jesuit major superiors throughout the world sharing his distress at the suffering of these people. He asked them what they could do to help bring relief to refugees and displaced persons in their own regions. He received a positive response, with numerous offers of personnel, medicine, and funding.
The following year in 1980, Arrupe founded the Jesuit Refugee Service to coordinate the Society's refugee work. In a speech launching the service he said "Saint Ignatius called us to go anywhere where we are most needed for the greater glory of God. The spiritual as well as the material need of more than 16 million refugees throughout the world today could scarcely be greater. God is calling us through these helpless people."
In 2017, JRS listed 47 countries where its 10 regional offices were currently serving nearly 950,000 individuals. Over the years JRS had served an estimated 40 million refugees.
[wiki]
Father Sílvio Moreira, a Portuguese priest...
and João de Deus, a Mozambican-born priest...
were assassinated in 1985 at the Chapotera mission in Mozambique...
because they were inconvenient witnesses to the atrocities of the civil war.
The Bishop of Tete will begin the process for their cause to the sainthood on August 14th.
Below is a translation of the article by the Portuguese Jesuit website, Ponto SJ.
Father Sílvio Moreira, a 44-year-old from Portugal...
and Father João de Deus Gonçalves Kamtedza, a 54-year-old Mozambican...
were brutally murdered on October 30th 1985, by an armed group that took them from their home in Chapotera, assaulted [aanvallen,aanranden] them and left their bodies abandoned in the forest.
Although the perpetrators of the homicide were never established, Bishop Diamantino Antunes of Tete believes the two missionaries were killed because they denounced [hekelden,veroordeelden] atrocities of the war, defended the dignity of the Angonian people and were, therefore, considered ´inconvenient witnesses´ to the abuses of political and law enforcement authorities.
The diocese believes in their martyrdom, and will propose their canonization in a process set to begin on August 14th, 2021. ´The crime did not have religious motivations,´ Bishop Antunes told Ponto SJ. ´But martyrdom is not only about hatred of the faithm but also of virtues linked to faith, such as justice or charity.´
The bishop was visiting Portugal to gather information and testimonies, and to consult the archives of the Portuguese Jesuit province, in order to advance the cause of canonization for these two Jesuits.
He talked with several Jesuits and informed them of what had already happened in the process, and of what still needs to be done to elevate the two priests to the condition of martyr.
Bishop Antunes highlights the virtues of the two missionaries, who were deeply committed to the pastoral care and dignity of the people they served, even when it meant denouncing the climate of violence that was being experienced in the region, and thereby put their own lives at risk.
The existing records attest to their courage and their faithfulness to the people. Helping to bury the dead, even in the face of threats from the authorities, offering pastoral encouragement to communities, and administering the sacraments, sometimes in secret to avoid attracting the attention of the military forces...
Marriage was an example of this, says the bishop of Tete, because the priests realised that after marriage, the army would come to recruit the groom for the war, leaving the wife on her own. Therefore, one started to celebrate them in secret.
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Every year on July 30th...
the faithful of Arzamas go in procession to the Seraphim celebrations in Diveyevo.
In 2014, pilgrims from Ukraine and Kirovograd joined the procession of Arzamas.
When they also went to Suvorovo for a prayer service...
they became eyewitnesses to a real miracle:
"When we reached the village...
a rainbow suddenly appeared in the clear sky...
and four bright pillars of light emerged from the ground.
All participants in the procession and local residents witnessed this.
Many admitted that what they saw gave them goosebumps.
Perhaps skeptics will be able to explain this somehow, but we are convinced that we have witnessed a miracle.
As you know, four relics of the holy martyrs Eudoxia, Daria, Daria and Mary are buried in Suvorov.
It is their holy prayers for us sinners who ascend like pillars of fire...
to the Throne of the Most High.
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Blessed Maria Ivanovna of Diveyevo always said:
"Go more often to the grave of Dunya...
where the angels sing incessantly."
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Before the execution of the sentence...
one of the soldiers guarding her, feeling compassion for Dunya, allowed to bring in a priest and communicate with her. The father said: "They will kill you, Dunyushka!" To which she replied, "Shouldn't there be a trial?" "They have already decided everything among themselves," said the priest.
The soldiers were ready to Dunya's companions go, saying: "You can go, we will let you go." "Where's Dunya?" "She'll go where she cannot run"... But the cell attendants did not leave their beloved Dunya, saying: "And we are also with her." So, like the first Christian martyrs, with faith in the Lord and humility, they were prepared to die voluntarily.
When leaving the hut, the women prayed, after which a man rode a horse to them. Defenseless, painful, tormented Dunya was literally thrown onto the porch by the soldiers. Daria picked her up and took her to her knees. The martyr was all dried up, like a child. Blinded by hatred and malice, the soldiers whipped the defenseless martyrs.
But wonderful are the works of the Lord! Angels with white wings covered those places on the patients' bodies where the whips beat. These white wings above it were seen by many villagers.
Some of them were not afraid of the armed soldiers of the Red Army and tried to protect the innocent. People's memory has preserved their names: Peter and Fyodor Karasev, Nikifor Ulanov, Ivan Makarkin.
They said to the soldiers, "Dunya is our village woman, she has not let any deserters in." Then they started beating thém. Dunyushka said to Darya, "Look how sins pour out of them. Like leaves from a broom in a bathhouse."
As in the days of the early Christians, the martyrdom of the sufferers turned to God many eyewitnesses to those events. So the peasant Ivan Anisimov, who was not a believer before, when he saw the intervention of the heavenly forces taking place, he believed and said: "Now I would give the last cow, if only they would not be killed."
After the bullying, the women were taken on a cart to the cemetery, to a prepared communal grave. But many soldiers of the Red Army, seeing the painful, withered, beaten Dunyushka and feeling a revenge of conscience, refused to carry out the sentence. Among them was a Muslim...
There were four volleys [salvo's].
Maria was only wounded and still breathing: "And me?"
The soldier of the Red Army stabbed her with a bayonet.
Then the locals were forced to bury the martyrs.
-
The astute Dunya knew about her death in advance...
and she was very afraid that she would be 'thrown into a well' without a Christian burial.
But so it happened.
However, the Lord and the Holy Church glorify His saints after death.
Just as the wicked cannot escape their punishment, neither in our short temporal life, nor in eternity, so shall the saintly people not be without reward, and all those who have toiled and suffered for Christ the Redeemer, who created the eternal Kingdom of inheriting Heaven.
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Martyr Eudocia...
was born on February 11st or 24th, 1856...
in the Puzo village [15km ten O. van Diveyevo] into a peasant family.
Orphaned at an early age, the future saint was reared in the family of her uncle, a churchwarden [kerkvoogd]. Little Dunya [as she was called] was very pious, visited many holy sites, including Sarov Monastery and Diveyevo Convent.
From her youth, Eudocia led a life of a holy ´fool for Christ´. For example, she used to wear a warm shawl and a homespun [handgeweven] coat all year round, enduring beating and jeers [uitgejouwd worden] with great patience.
-
At the age of twenty...
Dunya was taken seriously ill and became bedridden for the rest of her life. Young maidens, care-givers, used to come to her and take care of her. Together with them, the venerable woman founded something like a monastic community.
Eudocia had five close disciples. Three of them—Daria Timolina, Daria Siushinskaya and Maria—were martyred together with her, while two others gave an account of the life and martyrdom of these saints.
Blessed Eudocia led a strict ascetic life, and taught her spiritual daughters to do the same. She took upon herself the spiritual podvig [prestatie,roeping] of ´foolishness-for-Christ’s sake´. The Lord bestowed rich gifts upon Eudocia already in her lifetime, such as clairvoyance and healing.
The saint liked to sing Church hymns together with her spiritual daughters and other visitors, and prayed very much. The village residents who knew Eudocia, venerated her as an eldress [nun].
Martyr Daria Timolina...
came to Blessed Eudocia despite her parents’ opposition. Neither beating, nor threats, nor promising her in marriage to someone by her relatives against her will, could compel the maiden to abandon her spiritual labors at Dunya’s.
Over a period of twenty years Daria never left Dunya’s cell—she even did not go out to see her relatives and did not attend church (they were given Communion at home).
Daria was a great faster and accepted everything from Dunya with joy, even when the latter scolded her. Daria’s spirit burned with the aspiration towards God. At the time of her martyrdom, she was forty years old.
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Holy Martyr Daria Siushinskaya...
practiced unceasing Jesus Prayer.
When she still lived in the world, Daria would read through the Psalter while standing, without a break, every day. She was very meek [zachtmoedig]. She lived at Dunya’s for three years. By the time of her martyrdom, she reached the age of forty as well.
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St. Maria...
was married early in life.
But after a miraculous vision of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, who healed her from a malady, Maria began wandering. It was at command of St. Nicholas that she came to Dunya. Maria served Dunya for seven years, and was as obedient as an infant.
Maria had left her beloved husband for God’s sake, and she revealed her name and surname to nobody, lest her husband and other relatives should find her.
During the last year she had a sharp pain in her leg and could hardly walk. Knowing that they would be killed, St. Maria (together with others) of her own free will came to share their mentor’s fate.
St. Eudocia and her cell-attendants were arrested in August 1919.
Godless individuals took turns beating Dunya nonstop, for more than one whole day. The atheists did not let anybody in.
When the beating stopped, the saint talked the soldier into calling a priest. Two hours before their martyrdom, St. Eudocia and her faithful disciples confessed [biechtten] and took Communion.
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Despite the austerity of the spiritual labors of a Martyr, and despite her seeming strictness and exactingness [veeleisendheid], people felt deep affection for Eudocia, and even tried to shield her from beating as she was being carried to the site of her execution.
They were executed by a firing squad on August 18th, 1919, and interred in the same grave.
The Lord glorified His saints by numerous miracles...
both on the day of their martyrdom and afterwards.
-
In August 2000...
Sts. Eudocia, Daria, Daria and Maria of Puzo were canonized in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church at the Jubilee Bishops’ Council.
After the glorification, the holy martyrs’ relics were elevated, and today they are enshrined at the Holy Dormition’s Church of Suvorovo village.
Numerous pilgrims and representatives of the clergy flock there on their feast day every year.
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