List of Vincentian Saints

Francis Regis Clet

Justin De Jacobis
Catherine Labouré
Louise de Marillac
Gianna Beretta Molla
John Gabriel Perboyre
Agostina Pietrantoni
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Joan Antida Thouret
Vincent de Paul

St. Francis Regis Clet

Birth August 19, 1748
Death February 18, 1820
Birthplace Grenoble France
Beatified May 27, 1900
Canonized October 1, 2000
Memorial February 18

Francis Regis Clet, the tenth of 15 children, was born into a farm family in Grenoble in
the southwest corner of Francis in 1748 and was named for the recently canonized
fellow-Grenoblian, Jesuit Jean Francois Regis. After completing studies at the Royal
College (founded by the Jesuits), he followed his elder brother and sister into vowed
religious life. In Lyons in 1769, he entered the Congregation of the
Mission (Vincentians). After ordination, Francis served as professor of moral theology at
the Vincentian seminary in Annecy where he was affectionately called "the walking
library" because of his encyclopedic knowledge and academic discipline. In 1786, he
became Rector of Annecy and two years later, Director of Novices in Paris.
Francis Regis petitioned to go to China as a missionary several times, but his superiors
did not accede to his request until 1791. At the age of 43, he replaced another priest
who had to withdraw from the assignment at the last minute. A confrere, in writing about
Clet's assignment to China, noted: "He has everything you could ask for: holiness,
learning, health and charm."

After a six month sea journey from France and some transition time in Macao, which
included assuming the dress and customs of the Chinese people, the new missioner
arrived in Kiang-si in October of 1792 as the only European in the area. Clet's
acculturation was hampered by his life-long difficulty with the language. In 1793 Clet
joined two Chinese confreres in Hou-Kouang in the Hopei Province where both of his
companions died within his first year, one in prison and one from exhaustion. In that
year, Clet became superior of an international group of Vincentian missioners scattered
over a very large territory, and he himself pastored an area of 270 thousand square
miles. In that leadership capacity, he developed standards so that there would be a
uniform approach to ministry (sacramental and catechetical) among the missioners.

In 1811, the anti-Christian persecutions in China intensified with the Christians being
accused of inciting rebellion against the ruling dynasty. For several years, Clet endured
abuse and attacks, which frequently forced him to find refuge in the mountains. In 1819,
with a generous reward on their heads, Clet and a Chinese confrere became fugitives.
Like Jesus, he was finally betrayed by one of his own, a Catholic schoolmaster whom
Clet had challenged for his scandalous behavior. Like the missionary St. Paul, Clet
endured ignominy and forced marches in chains over hundreds of miles.

On January 1, 1820, Clet was found guilty of deceiving the Chinese people by
preaching Christianity and was sentenced to strangulation on a cross. On February 18,
after approval of his sentence by the Emperor, Francis Regis Clet was executed. As in
the case of Jesus, Christians took his body and buried it on a hillside where it rested
until it was returned to the Vincentian motherhouse in Paris several decades later and is
now honored at St. Lazare.

John Gabriel Perboyre

Birth January 6, 1802
Birthplace Montgesty, France
Death September 11,1840
Beatified November 10, 1889
Canonized June 2, 1996

John Gabriel Perboyre (1802-1840) priest, martyr of the Congregation of the Mission
(Adapted from Biography on the Vatican site.)

Nothing happens by chance. Neither life, nor death, nor vocation. JOHN GABRIEL
PERBOYRE was born in Montgesty, near Cahors, in southern France, on 6 January
1802 into a family which gave three missionaries of St. Vincent and two Daughters of
Charity to the Church. Such an environment exuded faith, simple and healthy values,
and the sense of life as gift.
The one who "calls by name" seemed to ignore him as a teenager. The call came to his
younger brother Louis for entrance into the seminary. John Gabriel was asked to
accompany his younger brother for a time, while waiting for him to get adjusted to the
surroundings. John Gabriel's presence at the seminary, then, happened by chance and
he should have left quickly. But chance revealed to the astonished eyes of the young
man unexpected horizons: that in the seminary he had found his path.

The Church of France had at that time just emerged from the throes of the French
Revolution with the red-colored garments of martyrdom for some, and with the pain of
the apostasy of many. The panorama at the beginning of the 1800's was desolate:
buildings destroyed, convents sacked, people without pastors. Thus, it was no accident
that the ideal of the priesthood appeared to the young man not as a feeble arrangement
for life, but as the destiny of heroes.

His parents, surprised, accepted the choice of their son and accompanied him with their
encouragement. Not by chance, his paternal uncle Jacques was a missionary of St.
Vincent. This explains why in 1818 the missionary ideal matured in the young John
Gabriel. At that time, the missions meant principally China. But China was a faraway
mirage. To leave meant never to find again the home milieu, taste its flavors, enjoy its
affections. It was natural for him to choose the Congregation of the Mission founded by
St. Vincent de Paul in 1625 for the evangelization of the poor, the formation of the
clergy, but above all to push those very missionaries toward holiness. The mission is not
propaganda. The Church has always demanded that the proclaimers of the Word be
spiritual persons, mortified, full of God and charity. In order to illuminate the darkness in
people, a lamp is not sufficient if there is no oil.
John Gabriel did not think in half-measures. If he was a martyr it is because he was a
saint. From 1818 to 1835 he was a missionary in his own country. First, in his formation
period, he was a model novice and student. After his priestly ordination (1826), he was
charged with the formation of seminarians.

Missionary Attraction
Fr. Perboyre wrote of many miracles among the devout Catholics, especially in
connection with the use of the Miraculous Medal of Mary.
A new factor, certainly not haphazard, modified John Gabriel's life. The protagonist was
once again his brother Louis. He also had entered the Congregation of the Mission and
had asked to be sent to China where the sons of St. Vincent had had a new martyr in
the person of Blessed Francis Regis Clet (18 February 1820). During the voyage,
however, the young Louis, only 24 years of age, was called to the mission in heaven.

All that the young man had hoped for and done would have been useless if John
Gabriel had not made the request to replace his brother in the breach.

John Gabriel reached China in August of 1835. At that time the Occident knew almost
nothing about the Celestial Empire, and the ignorance was reciprocal. The two worlds
felt a mutual attraction, but dialogue was difficult. In the countries of Europe one did not
speak of a Chinese civilization, but only of superstitions, of "ridiculous" ceremonies and
customs. The judgments were thus prejudices. China's appreciation of Europe and
Christianity was not any better.

There was a dark gap between the two civilizations. Someone had to cross it in order to
take on himself the evil of many, and to consume it with the fires of charity.

After getting acclimated in Macau, John Gabriel began the long trip in a Chinese junk,
on foot, and on horseback, which brought him after eight months to Nanyang in Henan,
where the obligation to learn the language imposed itself.

After five months, he was able to express himself, though with some trouble, in good
Chinese, and at once threw himself into the ministry, visiting the small Christian
communities. Then he was transferred to Hubei, which is part of the region of lakes
formed by the Yangtze kiang (blue river). Even though he maintained an intense
apostolate, he suffered much in body and spirit. In a letter he wrote: "No, I am no more
of a wonder man here in China than I was in France ... ask of him first of all for my
conversion and my sanctification and then the grace that I do not spoil his work too
much..." (Letter 94). For one who looks at things from the outside, it was inconceivable
that such a missionary should find himself in a dark night of the soul. But the Holy Spirit
was preparing him in the emptiness of humility and the silence of God for the supreme
testimony.
In chains for Christ
Unexpectedly in 1839 two events, apparently unrelated, clouded the horizon. The first
was the renewed outbreak of persecution which flowed from the decree of the
Manchurian emperor, Quinlong (1736-1795), which had proscribed the Christian religion
in 1794.

The second was the outbreak of the Chinese-British War, better known as the "Opium
War" (1839-1842). The closure of the Chinese frontier and the pretence of the Chinese
government to require an act of dependence from the foreign ambassadors had created
an explosive situation. The spark came from the confiscation of loads of opium stowed
in the port of Canton; this action harmed the merchants, most of whom were English.
The British flotilla intervened, and the war began.

The missionaries, obviously interested only in the first event dealing with the
persecution of Christians, were always on their guard. As often happens, too many
alarms diminished the vigilance. And that is what happened on 15 September 1839 at
Cha-yuen-ken, where Perboyre lived. On that day he was with two other European
missionaries, his confrere, Baldus, and a Franciscan, Rizzolati, and a Chinese
missionary, Fr. Wang. They were informed of the approach of a column of about one
hundred soldiers. The missionaries underestimated the information. Perhaps the
soldiers were going elsewhere. Instead of being wary, the missionaries continued
enjoying a fraternal conversation. When there was no longer any doubt about the
direction of the soldiers, it was late. Baldus and Rizzolati decided to flee far away.
Perboyre hid himself in the surroundings because the nearby mountains were rich with
bamboo forests and hidden caves. As Fr. Baldus has attested for us, however, the
soldiers used threats to force a catechumen to reveal the place where the missionary
was hiding. The catechumen was a weak person, but not a Judas.

Thus began the sad Calvary of John Gabriel. The prisoner had no rights, he was not
protected by laws, but was at the mercy of the jailers and judges. Given that he was
arrested it was presumed that he was guilty, and if guilty, he would be punished.

A series of trials began. The first was held at Kou-Ching-Hien. The replies of the martyr
were heroic: - Are you a Christian priest? - Yes, I am a priest and I preach this religion. -
Do you wish to renounce your faith? - No, I will never renounce the faith of Christ.
They asked him to reveal his companions in the faith and the reasons for which he had
transgressed the laws of China. They wanted, in short, to make the victim the culprit.
But a witness to Christ is not an informer. Therefore, he remained silent.

The prisoner was then transferred to Siang-Yang. The cross examinations were made
close together. He was held for a number of hours kneeling on rusty iron chains, was
hung by his thumbs and hair from a rafter (the hangtze torture), was beaten several
times with bamboo canes. Greater than the physical violence, however, remained the
wound of the fact that the values in which he believed were put to ridicule: the hope in
eternal life, the sacraments, the faith.

The third trial was held in Wuchang. He was brought before four different tribunals and
subjected to 20 interrogations. To the questioning were united tortures and the most
cruel mockery. They prosecuted the missionary and abused the man. They obliged
Christians to abjure, and one of them even to spit on and strike the missionary who had
brought him to the faith. For not trampling on the crucifix, John Gabriel received 110
strokes of pantse.

Among the various accusations, the most terrible was the accusation that he had had
immoral relations with a Chinese girl, Anna Kao, who had made a vow of virginity. The
martyr defended himself. She was neither his lover nor his servant. The woman is
respected not scorned in Christianity, was the sense of John Gabriel's reply. But he
remained upset because they made innocents suffer for him.

During one interrogation he was obliged to put on Mass vestments. They wanted to
accuse him of using the privilege of the priesthood for private interests. But the
missionary, clothed in the priestly garments, impressed the bystanders, and two
Christians drew near to him to ask for absolution. The cruelest judge was the Viceroy.
The missionary was by this time a shadow. The rage of this unscrupulous magistrate
was vented on a ghost of a man. Blinded by his omnipotence the Viceroy wanted
confessions, admissions, and accusations against others. But if the body was weak, the
soul was reinforced. His hope by now rested in his meeting God, which he felt nearer
each day.

When John Gabriel told him for the last time: "I would sooner die than deny my faith!,"
the judge pronounced his sentence. John Gabriel Perboyre was to die by strangulation.
With Christ priest and victim
Then began a period of waiting for the imperial confirmation. Perhaps John Gabriel
could hope in the clemency of the sovereign. But the war with the English erased any
possible gesture of good-will. Thus, on 11 September 1840, an imperial envoy arrived at
full speed, bearing the decree confirming the condemnation.

With seven criminals the missionary was led up a height called the "Red Mountain." As
the criminals were killed first, Perboyre reflected in prayer, to the wonderment of the
bystanders.

When his turn came, the executioners stripped him of the purple tunic and tied him to a
post in the form of a cross. They passed a rope around his neck and strangled him. It
was the sixth hour. Like Jesus, John Gabriel became like a grain of wheat. He died, or
better was born into heaven, in order to make fall on the earth the dew of God's
blessing.

Many circumstances surrounding his last year of life (the betrayal, the arrest, the death
on a cross, its day and hour), are similar to the Passion of Christ. In reality, all his life
was that of a witness and a faithful disciple of Christ. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote: "I
look for him who died for us; I yearn for him who rose for us. Behold, the moment is
near in which I will be brought forth! Have compassion on me, brothers! Do not prevent
me from being born to life!"

John Gabriel "was born to life" on 11 September 1840, because he always had sought "him who
died for us." His body was brought back to France, but his heart remained in his adopted
homeland, the land of China. There he gave his witness to the sons and daughters of St.
Vincent who also wait to be born to heaven after a life spent for the gospel and for the poor.

St. Catherine Labouré

Birth May 2, 1806
Death December 31, 1876
Birthplace Fain-lès-Moutiers, Burgundy, France
Beatified May 28, 1933
CanonizedJuly 27, 1947
Memorial: Nov. 28
Life
Saint Catherine Labouré was born at Fain-lès-Moutiers, Burgundy, France to the
farmer Pierre Labouré, the ninth of 11 children. When Catherine was nine years old, her
mother died on October 9, 1815. Pierre's sister suggested that she care for his two
youngest children, Catherine and Tonine, and after he agreed, the sisters moved to their
aunt's house at Saint-Rémy, Côte-d'Or|Saint-Rémy, a village 9 km from their home.
As a young woman she became a member of the Congregation of the Daughters of
Charity, an community founded by St. Vincent de Paul. She was extremely devout, of a
somewhat romantic nature, she chose the Daughters of Charity after a dream about St.
Vincent. Having lost her mother at an early age she was very fond of the Blessed Virgin
Mary.
On the night of July 19, 1830, the Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, she woke up after
hearing a voice of a child calling her to the chapel, where she heard the Virgin Mary say
to her, "God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not
fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your spiritual director all that
passes within you. Times are evil in France and in the world."

On November 27, 1830, Catherine reported that the Blessed Mother returned during
evening meditations. She displayed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe,
wearing many rings of different colours, most of which shone rays of light over the
globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words "O Mary, conceived without
sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." As Catherine watched, the frame seemed to
rotate, showing a circle of twelve stars, a large letter M surmounted by a cross, and the
stylized Sacred Heart of Jesus and Sacred Heart of Mary underneath. Asked why some
of her rings did not shed light, Mary reportedly replied "Those are the graces for which
people forget to ask." Catherine then heard Mary ask her to take these images to her
father confessor, telling him that they should be put on medallions. "All who wear them
will receive great graces."

Catherine did so, and after two years' worth of investigation and observation of
Catherine's normal daily behavior, the priest took the information to his archbishop
without revealing Catherine's identity. The request was approved and medallions began
to be produced. They proved to be exceedingly popular. The doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception wasn't official yet, but the Medal with its "conceived without sin" slogan was
probably influential in popular approval of the idea. Pope John Paul II used a slight
variation of the reverse image as his coat of arms, a plain cross with an M underneath
the right-hand crossbar.

Catherine lived her remaining years as an ordinary sister. She was pleasant and well-
liked by patients and her fellow nuns. Just before her death, she revealed that she was
the sister to whom the Blessed Mother had given the images for the Medal. Exhumed in
1933, her body was found incorrupt, and it now lies in a glass coffin at the side altar of
140 Rue du Bac, Paris, one of the spots where the Blessed Mother appeared to her.
She was canonized on July 27, 1947, by Pope Pius XII.
Miraculous Medal
The devotion commonly known as that of the Miraculous Medal owes its origin to Sister
Catherine, to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared three separate times in the year
1830, at the mother-house of the community at Paris.
The first of these apparitions occurred 19 July, the second 27 November, and the third
a short time later. On the second occasion, Sister Catherine records that the Blessed
Virgin appeared as if standing on a globe, and bearing a globe in her hands. As if from
rings set with precious stones dazzling rays of light were emitted from her fingers.
These, she said, were symbols of the graces which would be bestowed on all who
asked for them. Sister Catherine adds that around the figure appeared an oval frame
bearing in golden letters the words "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who
have recourse to thee"; on the back appeared the letter M, surmounted by a cross, with
a crossbar beneath it, and under all the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the former
surrounded by a crown of thorns, and the latter pierced by a sword.

At the second and third of these visions a command was given to have a medal struck
after the model revealed, and a promise of great graces was made to those who wear it
when blessed. After careful investigation, M. Aladel, the spiritual director of Sister
Catherine, obtained the approval of Mgr. de Quelen, Archbishop of Paris, and on 30
June, 1832, the first medals were struck and with their distribution the devotion spread
rapidly.
One of the most remarkable facts recorded in connection with the Miraculous Medal is
the conversion of a Jew, Alphonse Ratisbonne of Strasburg, who had resisted the
appeals of a friend to enter the Church. M. Ratisbonne consented, somewhat
reluctantly, to wear the medal, and being in Rome, he entered, by chance, the church of
Sant' Andrea delle Fratte and beheld in a vision the Blessed Virgin exactly as she is
represented on the medal; his conversion speedily followed. This fact has received
ecclesiastical sanction, and is recorded in the office of the feast of the Miraculous
Medal. In 1847, M. Etienne, superior-general of the Congregation of the Mission,
obtained from Pope Pius IX the privilege of establishing in the schools of the Sisters of
Charity a confraternity under the title of the Immaculate Conception, with all
the indulgences attached to a similar society established for its students at Rome by
the Society of Jesus. This confraternity adopted the Miraculous Medal as its badge, and
the members, known as the Children of Mary, wear it attached to a blue ribbon. On 23
July, 1894, Pope Leo XIII, after a careful examination of all the facts by the Sacred
Congregation of Rites, instituted a feast, with a special Office and Mass, of the
Manifestation of the Immaculate Virgin under the title of the Miraculous Medal, to be
celebrated yearly on 27 November by the Priests of the Congregation of the Mission,
under the rite of a double of the second class. For ordinaries and religious communities
who may ask the privilege of celebrating the festival, its rank is to be that of a double
major feast. A further decree, dated 7 September, 1894, permits any priest to say the
Mass proper to the feast in any chapel attached to a house of the

Justin de Jacobis
Birth October 9, 1800
Death July 31, 1860
Birthplace San Fele, Italy
Beatified July 25, 1939
Canonized October 26, 1975
Memorial

Early Life
Justin de Jacobis was born on 9 October 1800 in San Fele, a village south of Naples.
His family went back 500 years and was quite wealthy. Later on, in a letter, Justin
mentions that he was disappointed in his father, but does not say why. There seems to
be some indication that his father did not manage the family finances very well, and the
family suffered as a result. They certainly had to move from their ancestral home in the
country and take up residence in the city of Naples, dropping to a lower standard of
living.
When Justin was coming to the end of his secondary education he told a Carmelite
priest, a friend of his mother’s, that he wanted to be a priest. The Carmelite decided that
the Vincentians would be a community which would suit him, and he followed this
advice. As far as is known, he had not had any previous contact with the Vincentians in
Naples. He entered the Congregation on October 17, 1818, took vows on October 18,
1820 and was ordained at Brindisi on June 12, 1824.
Early Priesthood
He was ordained in 1824. Following his ordination he was sent to Oria in southern Italy
to give missions and retreats. In 1829 he and some other Confreres were sent to open a
new house in Monopoli, also for the purpose of giving missions and retreats. There is
some evidence of conflict between him and the local superior.

In 1834 he was appointed superior in Lecce, further south. There he continued to give
missions and retreats; he had become well-known as a preacher and confessor. During
his assignment debt on the house in Lecce was eliminated. He arranged for
maintenance on the house that had been deferred because of lack of funds to be
completed.

He became director of seminarians in Naples in 1836, where he was remembered for

emphasizing personal prayer. He was among the priests who ministered during the
cholera epidemic in Naples in 1836-1837. He mentioned in a letter written at the time
that he and the other confreres were out all day, and well into the night. He says he is
writing the letter in a barber’s shop at midnight.

After two years he was appointed superior of the Provincial House in Naples, and once
again resumed the ministry of missions and retreats. In the Provincial House the
retreats were often for specific professional groups, such as doctors, surgeons, judges,
or for the Neapolitan nobility.

At that time Italy was not yet united and Naples was the capital of the Kingdom of the
Two Sicilies. King Ferdinand II heard of Justin’s reputation as a preacher of missions
and retreats, and of his ministry during the cholera epidemic. He came to appreciate
that Justin was also a man of great personal holiness, so he thought that he would
make a good bishop. Justin heard rumours that this was likely, and he was sufficiently
realistic to know that it could happen; three Vincentians had already been made bishops
in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He decided to take steps to prevent himself
becoming the fourth. His practical sense of reality also led him to admit that he would be
prepared to become a bishop in some missionary territory where there was a real need
for a bishop.

Missionary Dream
He had previously thought of going on the foreign missions, so he wrote to the
Vincentian Procurator at the Holy See to ask what were the chances of his going on the
missions. He was told that there was a chance that Algeria, recently occupied by the
French, would be assigned as missionary territory to the Vincentians. He wrote to the
Superior General, Jean-Baptiste Nozo, who told him that thinking about Algeria was
premature as it had not in fact been offered to the Congregation.

In the summer of 1838 Justin heard that there was to be an attempt to launch a Catholic
mission in Ethiopia. He wrote once again to the Vincentian Procurator at the Holy See to
offer himself, but he made it clear that he wanted to be sent by the Congregation of the
Mission and not by the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda. Because of this the cardinal
officially requested Jean-Baptiste Nozo, the Superior General, to authorise Justin to go
to the new mission. Nozo was not too enthusiastic about this. One reason was that
another Italian Vincentian, Giuseppe Sapeto, had departed, without authority, from his
mission in Syria and had gone to Ethiopia and had started mission work there, without
any official ecclesiastical authority from either the Holy See or the Superior General.
From Nozo’s point of view it seemed as if the Holy See, by sending another Italian
Vincentian to Ethiopia, was somehow endorsing the irregular conduct of Sapeto. But
there was also a second reason for Nozo’s lack of enthusiasm; Justin was not French.
The Vincentian authorities in Paris would have preferred that a new mission territory like
Ethiopia should have been under the control of French missionaries. For all the rest of
his life, during the generalship of Nozo’s successor Jean-Baptiste Etienne, Justin would
be made to feel resentment from Paris at his not being French.
Missionary in Ethiopia
The Holy See appointed Justin Prefect Apostolic of Abyssinia and all the Neighbouring
Territories. The purpose of this title was specifically to remove him and his mission from
the jurisdiction of any Vicar Apostolic in the region. He was given another Italian
confrere, Luigi Montuori, as his assistant. Montuori had been with Justin on many
missions in Italy. They departed for Ethiopia in May 1839.
Ethiopia was not like most missionary territories. It was not a country with a pagan
population who had to be converted to Christianity. It had been Christian since the 4th
century, but had slipped into schism and heresy. There had been several previous
attempts to establish the Catholic Church there but none of them had succeeded. At the
time of Justin’s arrival there was not even one Ethiopian Catholic in the country.

Justin and Montuori quickly made contact with Giuseppe Sapeto, the confrere who had
left Syria and gone to Ethiopia without any official ecclesiastical authority. The three of
them discussed what their best approach to the work would be. Sapeto was already
accepted by the people of the area where he had settled, even though they knew that
he was a Catholic priest. In theory, Catholic priests were liable to immediate execution if
discovered. For this reason the three Vincentians decided that they would not, at least
for the present, let themselves be seen celebrating Mass or praying the breviary.
Right from the start they decided to adopt the Ethiopian style of dress and
accommodate themselves to Ethiopian food. They set about learning three languages:
Amharic, the national language, Tigrina the local language of the area where they were,
and Ghe’ez the liturgical language. There is plenty of contemporary evidence that Justin
acquired a very good knowledge of these languages, and later on he even wrote some
books in Amharic. He did not participate in religious services in the local church, but did
spend long periods in the church praying by himself. He followed the Ethiopia liturgical
calendar for seasons and feastdays. He visited the sick, and when people, laity and
clergy, came to him in his house of their own accord, he would discuss religious matters
with them. He began catechism classes for the children. It was not long before he came
to the realisation that Rome’s idea that Ethiopia could be quickly converted to
Catholicism was very far from the truth.

One of Justin’s great hopes was that some of the Ethiopian clergy would become
Catholics. The first one to do this was a deacon. Then gradually others followed his
example, as well as a young man who wanted to be prepared for the Catholic
priesthood. Justin insisted that all converted clergy, as well as those studying for the
Catholic priesthood, remain in the Ethiopian Coptic Rite; they were not to be Latinised.
In this way of thinking Justin was alone; none of the other missionaries agreed with him.
It took a century, until Vatican II, for the Church to see and accept that Justin was
correct in his understanding of the missionary apostolate.
He had one very serious problem, though, and that was where to find a bishop to ordain
those whom he was forming for priesthood. The solution arrived providentially, in the
following manner. An Italian Capuchin bishop, Guglielmo Massaia, was travelling
through Ethiopia to take up his mission in an area of the country far from Justin’s
territory. The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, Propaganda, in Rome
ordered Massaia to make a stop in the important port city of Massawa, on an island just
off the Red Sea coast of Ethiopia, and there ordain any candidates whom Justin had
ready. He did this, but he realised that this was only a temporary remedy, since in a very
short time Justin would have more students for ordination. Massaia’s solution was to
suggest to the Holy See that Justin himself would make an excellent bishop for the
region. Justin was hesitant and reluctant, but Massaia overcame his reluctance by
suggesting that pride was what was behind Justin’s professed reluctance. Justin gave in
and was ordained bishop in secret in Massawa in January 1849, and then returned to
his own area.

For the remaining eleven years until his death in 1860 Justin’s life was a series of
problems, harassment, persecution, and even a spell of imprisonment, all originating in
the opposition of the Orthodox Coptic bishop. With the exception of one young confrere,
Carlo Delmonte, all Justin’s fellow-Vincentians disagreed with Justin’s missionary
methods, especially with regard to indigenous clergy. Even the confrere who was to be
his coadjutor bishop, Lorenzo Biancheri, who had the right of succession, said openly
that when he succeeded Justin he did not intend to continue Justin’s missionary
methods, especially in the matter of building up a body of indigenous clergy. He had
anticipated by more than a century what Vatican II and Paul VI’s Evangelii nuntiandi
would say about missiology.

In 1860, Kedaref Kassa became the Ethiopian King Thedore II with the backing of
Abuna Salama, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Church. In gratitude, he prohibited
Catholicism, and De Jacobis was imprisoned for several months. He was then force-
marched to the area of Halai in southern Eritrea, spending his remaining months in
missionary work along the Red Sea.

He is considered an apostle to Africa, and the founder of the Abyssinian mission.

Blessed Ghebre Michael is among the estimated 12,000 converts he made in his time.
 St. Gianna Beretta Molla
Birth October 4, 1922
Death April 28, 1962
Birthplace Magenta (Milan), Italy
Beatified April 24 1994
Canonized May 16, 2004
Memorial

t. Gianna Beretta Molla (October 4, 1922 - April 28, 1962) was born in Magenta
(Milan), Italy, the 10th of 13 children.
While a student, Gianna became a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. She
obtained degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Pavia in 1949 and the
next year opened a medical clinic in Mesero (near Magenta). In her practice, she gave
special attention to mothers, babies, the elderly and the poor.

On September 24, 1955 Gianna married Pietro Molla in Magenta's Basilica of St. Martin.
Children were born to the couple in 1956, 1957, 1959, and 1962. Toward the end of the
second month of her final pregnancy, it was discovered that a fibroma had developed in
her uterus. She was presented with three choices for treatment: abortion, complete
hysterectomy, or a surgery to remove only the fibroma. She opted for the latter, the only
choice which would both preserve the unborn child's life and allow the possibility of
future pregnancy. She continued to work for the duration of the pregnancy.

The child, a girl, was born on April 21, 1962 by Caesarean section. Prior to labor, which
had begun the previous day on Good Friday, Gianna had explained that she understood
clearly that a choice might have to be made between her life and that of the unborn
child's; in the event, her wish was that the child's life be saved. Gianna died at home on
April 28, 1962 of septic peritonitis.

Pope John Paul II beatified Gianna on April 24, 1994; she was canonized on May 16,
2004. The miracle recognized by the Church occurred when Elizabeth Comparini, 16
weeks pregnant in 2003, was found to have had a tear in the placenta. All amniotic fluid
drained; it was believed that the baby would not survive. Elizabeth prayed for Gianna's
intercession and subsequently delivered a healthy baby by Caesarean section.
St. Gianna is a patron saint for mothers, preborn children, and physicians.

[1] Canonization homily by Pope John Paul II, May 16, 2004
[2] Sito ufficiale della Fondazione Santa Gianna Beretta Molla
[3] Catholic Insight article on Saint Gianna; the article describes the dedication of a
stained glass window in the chapel of the Newman Centre of Toronto. The article
includes the text of remarks by two of Gianna's children, who spoke at the ceremony.
[4] Gianna Beretta Molla and Joseph Moscati: two phisicians, two saints by Egidio
Ridolfo s.j.

St. At. Agostina Pietrantoni

Birth March 27, 1864
Death November 13, 1894
Birthplace Pozzaglia Sabina, Italy
Beatified November 12, 1972
Canonized April 19.1999
Memorial

Olivia Pietrantoni was born and baptized March 27th, 1864 Pozzaglia Sabina, Italy to
Francesco Pietrantoni and Caterina Costantini, farmers. She was the second of eleven
children.

Olivia, later known as "Livia", was confirmed at age four and received first Holy
Communion c. 1876. From an early age she worked in fields and tended animals. At
age seven she began to work with other children who were moving sacks of stone and
sand for construction of a road from Orvinio to Poggio Moiano. When she was twelve,
she left for the winter months with other youngsters to work in the winter olive harvest in
Tivoli.
She refused offers of marriage and, believing she had a vocation to religious life,
traveled to Rome with her uncle. Some had suggested that she sought religious life to
escape hard work. To them she is said to have replied, "I wish to choose a
Congregation in which there is work both day and night." But in Rome, she was turned
away.

A few months later, the Mother General of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne-Antide
Thouret communicated that Livia was expected at the Generalate. She arrived in Rome,
aged 22, on March 23, 1886. After postulancy and the novitiate, she received the name
"Saint Agostina" and at that time had a premonition that she would indeed become a
saint by that name.
Sister Agostina was sent to Holy Spirit Hospital, which had served the sick for seven
hundred years. The hospital was not, in fact, hospitable to religious. The Capuchins had
been forced to leave, crucifixes and other religous articles were removed and banned,
and the sisters were forbidden to speak of God. While working in the tuberculosis ward,
Sister contracted the disease, but was miraculously healed.

In the course of her work, Sister Agostina found a private corner of the hospital in which
to pray the patients, including Joseph Romanelli, an adult male patient who harrassed
her with obscenities and threatening notes. When his blind mother visited him on
occasion, Sister made a point of welcoming her. Romanelli was eventually expelled
from the hospital for harrassing women who worked in the hospital laundry. He
continued to harrass Sister Agostina, sending threats of "I will kill you with my own
hands" and "Sister Agostina, you have only a month to live."

On November 13, 1894 Joseph Romanelli attacked Sister Agostina and killed her. As
she was dying, she was heard only to utter words of forgiveness and invocations to
Mary.

Sister Agostina was beatified by Pope Paul VI on November 12, 1972 and canonized by
Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1999.

Elizabeth Ann Seton

Birth August 28, 1774
Death January 4, 1821
Birthplace New York City, New York, USA
Beatified March 17, 1963
Canonized September 14, 1975
Memorial January 4

Elizabeth Bayley Seton (28 August 1774 in New York City – 4 January 1821) was the
first United States-born canonized Saint in the Roman Catholic Church. She was the
foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's, the first community of religious
women founded in the United States. Her establishment of Saint Joseph's Academy and
Free Schoolfor girls paved the way for parochial school system in the United States
later in the nineteenth century.
Mother Seton came from a Protestant background, converted to Roman Catholicism,
and was a co-worker with John Carroll in the formative years of the Catholic Church in
the new nation of the United States. She was one of the most influential Catholic
women in the early nineteenth century; her legacy and influence continues in the
twenty-first century.

She was canonized by Pope Paul VI on September 14, 1975. Her feast day is January
4.

Biography
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born into a prominent Episcopalian family in New York City,
August 28, 1774, the second of three daughters of Dr. Richard Bayley and Catherine
Charlton Bayley. Catherine Bayley's father was Dr. Richard Charlton, rector of St.
Andrew's Episcopal Church on Staten Island. Dr. Bayley was a physician and professor
of medicine (anatomy) at King's College (now known as Columbia University). He was
one of the first health officers of New York City. Catherine Charlton Bayley died in 1777,
probably as a result of childbirth. The first child born to Richard Bayley and Catherine
Charlton Bayley was Mary Magdalene Bayley (1768-1856, married in 1790 to Dr. Wright
Post [1766-1828] of New York). The third child was Catherine Bayley (1777-1778).
In 1778, the year after the death of his first wife, Richard Bayley married Charlotte
Amelia Barclay; three daughters and four sons were born to them. One of these was
Guy Carleton Bayley (1786-1859). His son, James Roosevelt Bayley (1814-1877),
became an Episcopal priest and then converted in 1842 to Roman Catholicism. He was
ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood on March 2, 1844 in New York, became first
bishop of Newark (1853-1872) and served as eighth archbishop of Baltimore (1872-
1877).
Charlotte Barclay Bayley did not accept Elizabeth and her sister. During their father's
travel abroad for medical studies, the girls lived temporarily in New Rochelle, New York,
with his brother, William Bayley (1745-1811) and his wife, Sarah Pell Bayley. Ultimately,
the marriage of Richard Bayley and Charlotte Amelia Barclay ended in separation.

Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, scion of a wealthy New York mercantile family
with international connections, January 25, 1794, at the home of her sister, Mary Bayley
Post. Five children were born between 1795 and 1802, Anna Maria, William, Richard,
Catherine, and Rebecca. As a young society matron, Elizabeth enjoyed a full life of
loving service to her family, care for the indigent poor, and religious development in her
Episcopal faith, nurtured by the preaching and guidance of Rev. John Henry Hobart, an
assistant at Trinity Church. She and her sister-in-law, Rebecca Mary Seton, became
known as the "Protestant Sisters of Charity."
As the eighteenth century drew to a close, a double tragedy visited Elizabeth. Political
and economic turmoil took a severe toll on William Seton's business and on his health.
He became increasingly debilitated by the family affliction, tuberculosis. Hoping to arrest
the disease, Elizabeth, William, and Anna Maria embarked on a voyage to Italy. On their
arrival in Leghorn (Livorno), they were placed in quarantine; soon after, December 27,
1803, William died. At age twenty-nine, Elizabeth had become a widow with five
children.

While waiting to return to their family the the United States, Elizabeth and Anna Maria
spent several months with the Filicchi family of Leghorn, business associates of her
husband.

For the first time Elizabeth experienced Roman Catholic piety in her social equals. She
was deeply impressed, especially by the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the
Eucharist. She returned to New York in June 1804, full of faith turned to religious conflict
when the Setons heard of her inclinations.

After almost a year of searching, she made her profession of faith as a Roman Catholic
in March 1805, a choice which triggered three years of financial struggle and social
discrimination.
To support her children, she opened a school in New York City. The good reputation of
the school resulted in an invitation of several priests of the Society of Saint Sulpice to
open a school for girls next to Saint Mary's Seminary. In June, 1808 she moved with her
family to Baltimore to open the school.

Soon Catholic women from along the east coast came to join her work. Gradually, the
Sulpicians' dream of a religious congregation became a reality. The women soon moved
to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where they formally established the Sisters of Charity of
Saint Joseph on July 31, 1809. Elizabeth Seton was named first superior and served
in that capacity until her death.
As the community took shape, Elizabeth directed its vision. A Rule was adapted from
that of the French Daughters of Charity, a novitiate was conducted, and the first group,
including Elizabeth, made annual vows for the first time July 19, 1813. These vows
were: service of the poor and to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience. In 1814 the
community accepted its first mission outside Emmitsburg, an orphanage in Philadelphia.
By 1817 sisters had been sent to staff a similar work in New York.
During her years in Emmitsburg, Elizabeth suffered the loss of two of her daughters to
tuberculosis, Anna Maria in 1812 and Rebecca in 1816. By that time she herself was
weak from the effects of the disease. She spent the last years of her life directing St.
Joseph's Academy and her growing community. She died of tuberculosis January 4,
1821, at the age of forty-six.

The Elizabeth Bayley Seton Collected Writings (New City Press) offer a rich insight into
her life and her times. Her spirituality and deep personal relationships as well as the
detail of her life as widow, convert, single mother, educator and religious leader are
revealed in hundreds of letters, personal journals, meditations, and instructions to the
sisters, some never before published.
Canonization
In 1880 James Cardinal Gibbons (then Archbishop), who suceeded Elizabeth's nephew
James Roosevelt Bayley as Archbishop of Baltimore, urged that steps be taken toward
Mother Seton's canonization. After official inquiries in the cause of Mother Seton were
held in Baltimore for several years, the results were given to the postulator of the cause
in Rome on June 7, 1911. She was beatified in 1963.
On September 14, 1975, Pope Paul VI canonized Elizabeth Seton, the first native-born
saint of the United States.
St. Jeanne Antide Thouret
Birth November 27, 1765
Death August 24, 1826

Sancey-le-Long in the Doubs

Birthplace department in France

Beatified May 23, 1926

Canonized January 14, 1934
Memorial August 24

Born on November 27, 1765 in the Sancey-le-Long in the Doubs department in France,
Jeanne Antide Thouret was the fifth child of a family of eight. When she was just 15
years old, her mother died leaving the responsibility of maintaining to Jeanne Antide.

As a young girls she searched for a way that would give meaning to her life and
believed that it was important to respond to God's will for her. At 22 she left her home
and joined the Daughters of Charity, a congregation at the service of the poor founded
by St. Vincent de Paul in Paris.
In 1793, when the French Revolution was at its height, all religious congregations were
banned and Jeanne Antide was forced to leave the Daughters of Charity. She returned
to her home knowing that she would carry on what she had learned from St. Vincent de
Paul. She cared for the sick, the wounded, and the poor - all of which grew numerous
during the chaos of the French Revolution. Jeanne Antide also taught the children,
helped the priests who were forced to hide, and gathered Christians in prayer.
Because of her desire to commit herself to Christ and to her religious vocation, Jeanne
Antide fled France and escaped to Switzerland to join a different religious itinerant
community where she cared for the sick. With them she traveled across Switzerland
and Germany.

When she decided to return to France she did so on foot, alone, without a passport and
through unknown places at the risk of her own life. Jeanne Antide passed through
Einsiedeln and reached the villge of Landeron in Switzerland. It was there the
representatives from the doceses of Bescanon, also in exile, made a request of her to
continue on to France and take in young girls who she should train in the same way she
was trained. With these girls Jeanne Antide returned to Besançon, France to teach
children and to care for the sick. She accepted this request and in 1799 she opened a
school, a dispensary, and a soup kitchen for the poor in Besançon. She had founded a
new congregation.

In 1810 Jeanne Antide was called to Naples. There she and a group of sisters faced
working in a very hierachial social system where the wealthy never encountered the
poor. Jeanne Antide was in charge of the Hospital of the Incurable, the largest hospital
in the city. The sisters often visited the poor and sick in their homes.

In 1819, the Pope approved the Rule of Life, a book she used to organize her
congregation and the life of the women who had followed her. In fact, the Rule of Life is
still used today by the Sisters of Charity of St. Joan Antida.
Jeanne Antide died in Naples in 1826. In 1934, she was canonized by Pope Pius IX.