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Our Lady appeared to the 14-year old Bernadette Soubirous 18 times, between 11 February and 16 July 1858, in the Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes. She asked Bernadette to become her messenger and to cooperate with her in the conversion of sinners. She also made some requests: to make the Grotto a place of prayer and pilgrimage and spoke to her about the dogma proclaimed by Pius IX in 1854.
Scholastica, the twin sister of Saint Benedict of Nursia, is inextricably linked to her brother’s name. She served God in contemplation and communal life. Saint Gregory the Great’s Second Book of Dialogues, which focuses on Benedict’s life, contains only a few hagiographical accounts of her life.
She was a happy girl from a fairly well-off animist family that lived in Olgossa, in Sudan’s Darfur region. In 1878, when she was nine years old, she was abducted by slave traders and her life soon turned into a nightmare. The resulting trauma was so profound that she could no longer remember her name, and her captors mockingly called her “Bakhita”, which means “lucky”.
Elected at the age of 54, Pius IX holds the record for the longest pontificate in history: 32 years, even longer than the one tradition attributes to Saint Peter.
He served the Church with great zeal, imitating the Good Shepherd, promoted missions and fostered the formation of the clergy and religious life. He is responsible for furthering devotion to the worship of the Eucharist, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. With the help of numerous social institutions, he was charitable towards the poor. He accepted the misunderstandings, the loneliness and the adversities brought on by the enemies of Christ and the Church, with Christian patience.
Young Agatha is one of the most well-known and venerated martyrs of early Christianity. She was killed during the persecution of Christians, ordered by Emperor Decius (249-251) in Catania.
Information about her can be found in Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend (1261-1268) and in the Acta Sanctorum (1643-1648), as well as in writings by Methodius I, Patriarch of Constantinople, from the ninth century, and by Symeon Metaphrastes from the 10th century.
There is not much reliable information on Saint Blaise of Sebaste. What is known comes from the Acts of Saint Blaise, which were written in Greek. Blaise studied philosophy as a young man and was a respected physician in Sebaste, Armenia, his hometown. Following the death of the city’s Bishop, he was elected as his successor by popular acclaim.
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Profound sorrow for the death of Pope Francis
Sr. Raffaella Petrini, Archbishop Emilio Nappa and Atty. Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi, respectively President and the Secretary Generals of the Governorate, together with Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President Emeritus, join the entire Church in mourning for the passing of beloved Pope Francis, whose papacy was a blessing for the whole world.
He is remembered as a promoter of peace who, with great authority, defended freedom and human dignity, firmly opposing armed conflict as a means of resolving international disputes.
Throughout his pontificate, Francis promoted interreligious and intercultural dialogue, constantly calling all people to seek what unites rather than what divides them, pointing to the values of solidarity and civility in building societies that are more human-centered. He showed particular attention to friendship and love of neighbor, always keeping a special focus on the poor, forgotten and most vulnerable.
The State’s governing bodies, together with all the employees of the Governorate of the Vatican City State in all its Departments and Offices, join with the Church’s liturgy for the departed, lifting their prayers to God for the late Pontiff.