Portsmouth Abbey

September Saint and Feasts

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ST PETER CLAVER
- Feast Day: September 9th
  
  A native of Spain, the young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland forever in 1610, arriving in the New World at Cartagena, in the Caribbean. Ordained there in 1615, Claver declared himself “the slave of the Negroes forever.” During the forty years of his ministry, Claver instructed and baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves. (see franciscanmedia.org). Peter Claver has inspired the Knights of Peter Claver, the largest African-American lay organization in the United States, whose mission is “to render service to God and His Holy Church, render aid and assistance to the sick and disabled, and promote social and intellectual association among our members.” (see kofpc.org)
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
- Feast Day: September 12th
  
  John, the great preacher – his name means “golden-mouthed” – was brought to Constantinople from Antioch after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, being made bishop in 398. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial politics. If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.
  
  (source: franciscanmedia.org)
EXALTATION OF THE CROSS
- Feast Day: September 14th
  
  The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates two historical events: the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena in 320 under the temple of Venus in Jerusalem, and the dedication in 335 of the basilica and shrine. However the feast, more than anything else, is a celebration of God's greatest work: his salvific death on the Cross and His Resurrection
  (source: catholicnews agency.com).
CORNELIUS AND CYPRIAN
- Feast Day: September 16
  
  These third century popes presided over a church divided and under persecution. Cornelius sought to end a schism rooted in competing visions of mercy and whether the Church could receive back those who had apostatized in the face of martyrdom. Cyprian similarly steered a middle course between those who refused to accept the lapsed and those diminishing the need for penance. Both ended up martyred under the persecutions.
HILDEGAARD OF BINGEN
- Feast Day: September 17
  
  This medieval Benedictine mystic was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Benedict XVI in 2012: “This great woman truly stands out crystal clear against the horizon of history for her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching… Hildegard asks herself and us the fundamental question, whether it is possible to know God: This is theology’s principal task. Her answer is completely positive: through faith, as through a door, the human person is able to approach this knowledge."
THE KOREAN MARTYRS
- Feast Day: September 20
  
  These martyrs include the first Korean priest, Andrew Kim, as well as Chong Ha Sang, one of the lay leaders of the persecuted 19^th century Korean church. Canonizing the group, which includes French missionary priests, in 1984 at a great open-air Mass in Seoul, Pope St. John Paul II quotes them in his homily: “Listen to the last words of Teresa Kwon…: ‘Since the Lord of Heaven is the Father of all mankind and the Lord of all creation, how can you ask me to betray him? Even in this world anyone who betrays his own father or mother will not be forgiven. All the more may I never betray him who is the Father of us all.’ A generation later, Peter Yu’s father Augustine firmly declares: ‘Once having known God, I cannot possibly betray him.’”
saint mathew
- Feast Day: September 21
  
  This apostle is commonly known as a self-acknowledged example of Christ’s teaching: “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).
PADRE PIO PIETRECLINA
- Feast Day: September 23
  
  The Capuchin friar Pio of Pietrelcina died in 1968, and was canonized in 2002 by John Paul II. Paul VI draws us to his simple witness: “Look what fame he had, what a worldwide following gathered around him! But why? Perhaps because he was a philosopher? Because he was wise? Because he had resources at his disposal? Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk and was – it is not easy to say it – one who bore the wounds of our Lord. He was a man of prayer and suffering.” (20 Feb 1971)
CEOLFRID
- Feast Day: September 25
  
  We honor Ceolfrid, a Benedictine abbot today. The Venerable Bede writes in his Lives of the Holy Abbots of this 7^th century Northumbrian abbot: “He was a man well skilled in the knowledge of Holy Scripture of most excellent manners, of wonderful continence, and one in whom the virtues of the mind were in no small degree depressed by bodily infirmity, and the innocency of whose heart was tempered with a baneful and incurable affection of the lungs.”
COSMOS AND DAMIAN & POPE PAUL VI
- Feast Day: September 26
  
  Cosmos and Damian, whose names are familiar to us from the Canon of the Mass, were twin brothers who suffered martyrdom together with three of their brothers, in the Diocletian persecution of the third century. Paul VI, charged with shepherding the church through the challenging 1960's and 70's, and canonized just last October, is also now commemorated this day.
VINCENT DE PAUL
- Feast Day: September 27
  
  Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), whose name is well-known from the eponymous charitable society, himself established confraternities for the relief of the poor and sick in each parish. This learned and revered saint remained focused on simplicity, and is known for his direct teachings: “Humility is nothing but truth, pride is nothing but lying,” and, “Go to the poor, and you will find God.” The name “Vincentian” now encompasses both an order of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as one of the largest Catholic lay organizations in the world, with over 190,000 members.
jerome
- Feast Day: September 30
  
  Pope Benedict XVI tells us: “What can we learn from St Jerome? …this above all: to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. St Jerome said: ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ’. It is therefore important that every Christian live in contact and in personal dialogue with the Word of God given to us in Sacred Scripture.” (November 11, 2007)