Preview for October 9th:

Preview for October 9th:
Optional Memorial of St. Denis, bishop and martyr and companions, martyrs; St. John Leonardi, priest; Bl. John Henry Newman (Eng/Wales)
Old Calendar: St. John Leonardi, confessor; Saints Denis, Rusticus and Eleutherius, martys; St. Louis Bertrand, priest (hist); Other Titles: Denys; Dionysius; John Leonard
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St. John Leonardi (1543-1609), a zealous Italian apostle, founded the congregation of the Mother of God, whose priest-members traveled throughout Tuscany urging the people to a stronger interest in their religion. Fr. John Leonardi longed to convert pagans, but his spiritual director, St. Philip Neri, told him to remain in Italy. So instead he founded a seminary in Rome to train young men for the priesthood from all the mission lands.
St. Denis, a third-century apostle of Gaul, and now one of the "Fourteen Holy Helpers" became first bishop of Paris. He suffered martyrdom there, together with his priest Rusticus and his deacon Eleutherius.
These feasts are celebrated today both in the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
Pope Benedict XVI beatified Bl. John Henry Newman on September 19, 2010, at Crofton Park (near Birmingham). The pope noted Newman's emphasis on the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society but also praised his pastoral zeal for the sick, the poor, the bereaved and those in prison. This feast is celebrated today in England and Wales.
Continue reading on our website.

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Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman
John Henry Newman, one of the great Christian intellectuals of the nineteenth century, was born in London in 1801. His spiritual quest having begun in adolescence, he later went on to study theology at Oxford University. Subsequently, he became an Anglican pastor, a fellow of Oriel College, and leader of the Oxford Movement which studied the Catholic roots of the faith in England. In 1842, while writing his "Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine", he began to mature his conversion to Catholicism. He was admitted into the Catholic Church in 1845 and... Continue reading on the website.

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Looking Ahead to the Next Seven Days

• Tuesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time
• Optional Memorial of St. John XXIII, pope
• Thursday of the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time
• Friday of the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time
• Optional Memorial of St. Callistus I, pope and martyr
• Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
• Optional Memorial of St. Hedwig, religious; St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, virgin; St. Marguerite d'Youville (Canada)