Category: Saints, Blesseds, and other Holy People

Dom Bettinelli’s got a good idea here, but I’d extend it: St. Columba should be the patron of the open source software movement. “Information wants to be free” and all that.

From time to time, you may have noticed on this blog some beautiful prayers written by the esteemed theologian and professor Jean Galot, S.J. of the Gregorian University. Fr. Galot passed away on April 18 at the age of eighty-nine, and one can only congratulate him now at drawing nearer, ever nearer, to the Sacred Heart of our Lord.
Take me, O Heart of Christ!
Take me, O Heart of Christ, in all that I am,
take me in all that I have and that I do,
in all that I think and all that I love!
Take me in my spirit, that it may cling to Thee;
take me in my willing, that it will but Thee;
take the depth of my heart, that it love only Thee!
Take me, O Heart of Christ, in my secret desires
so that you be my dream and only goal,
my one affection and my complete happiness!
Take me for the work of Thy great mission,
for a complete gift toward my neighbor’s salvation,
and for every sacrifice in service of your people!
Take me, O Heart of Christ, without limits, without end;
take even what I’ve failed to offer Thee;
and never give back to me what you have taken in hand!
Take for eternity all that is in me,
that one day I may, O Heart, possess Thee,
in the embrace of Heaven take Thee and keep Thee!
–by Jean Galot, S.J.
I’ve set up a little web site dedicated to translations of his prayers.

The Venerable Sister Rita Amada de Jesus (1848-1913) was beatified today in her native diocese of Viseu, Portugal. Living in the 1800s, when Masonic governments persecuted the Church and forbade religious institutes to accept new novices, this “Apostle of the Rosary” founded the Institute of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, a community dedicated to teaching poor children, and began to operate schools in spite of government harassment.
In 1910, intensified pressure from the government forced religious institutes to operate underground and led Rita Amada to send sisters to South America, giving her community the missionary dimension she had long desired.

A physics web site has an item about a Greek Orthodox monk whose body was found to be incorrupt fifteen years after his death.
We may have a case of incorruption here in Boston too: a 25-year-old priest named Patrick Power died of consumption in 1869, but when some healings were reported through his intercession in 1929, a million visitors thronged to his grave until the site was closed by order of Cardinal O’Connell.
88-year-old Fr. Bernard Shea was 12 years old at the time, and related the events in a lecture at my parish Sunday: the body was relocated to a nearby site in the same cemetery, and placed under a new monument surrounded by an iron fence. During the transfer, the body was found to be intact, though the simple casket containing it had long decayed.
Pilgrims still come to Fr. Power’s grave to pray and ask for prayers.

A seminarian writes:

Please pray for the repose of this priest, recently ordained, having been graduated from the Mount this past May. He is remembered by all for his holiness; he suffered from cancer while he was in seminary but made a recovery. Apparently the cancer returned rapidly in the past couple of weeks and he succumbed today during the 3:00 hour. Fr. Darin Didier, requiescat in pace. (death notice below)
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 8:32 PM
Subject: Fr. Darin Didier
Fr. Darin Didier (Seminary Class of 2005 and a priest of the Diocese of Fargo) died this afternoon during the 3 o’clock hour. He received the Sacraments of the Anointing of the Sick, Viaticum, and the Apostolic Pardon.
Fr. Terry Dodge, a classmate of Fr. Darin here at Mount and a priest of the Diocese of Fargo, shared the news with members of the administration this evening.
Fr. Darin was very much devoted to the Divine Mercy Devotion and active in promoting Divine Mercy Sunday on campus. So it is significant that he entered eternal life during the Hour of Mercy.
As the spiritual director for the Legion of Mary and University Chaplain, I am grateful for the privilege of serving with him. He was the longtime president of the Legion of Mary on campus and the chaplain to the track and cross country teams.
Please pray for the repose of his soul and the consolation of his family, parish and friends.