Posted on 03/09/2020 8:33:53 AM PDT by Antoninus
Today, March 9, is the feast day of Saint Frances of Rome. She was an Italian woman who lived in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. A previous post about this amazing saint may be found here. It was claimed that in 40 years of marriage, Saint Frances never once quarreled with her husband.
St. Frances was invoked as an intercessor by the people of Rome even centuries after her death.
In AD 1656, a ship entered the harbor at Barletta carrying a deadly pathogen—very likely, the Black Plague. The town was immediately infected and the impact was dramatic. By the time the plague abated a year later, about half of the town's 20,000 citizens had been killed. It is speculated that the Kingdom of Naples suffered 1.5 million deaths as a result of the plague. Read more here.
Meanwhile, it appears that the affliction was considerably less in Rome by comparison. The city suffered a mere 9,000 deaths during the same period. This reprieve is celebrated in several works of art from this period, including the one shown above by Nicholas Poussin entitled Sainte Françoise Romaine (1657). This work was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, who would later be elected Pope Clement IX. Poussin created the image to celebrate the end of the plague and interpretations of its content vary. It shows either Saint Frances appearing in a vision to a devout 17th century Roman woman begging her intercession (as per the Lourve website), or the Blessed Virgin appearing to St. Frances in response to her own prayers (as per Sheila Barker in Art, Architecture, and the Roman Plague of 1656).
In either interpretation, the artist offers a spiritual solution for those in the midst of a deadly pestilence. In the background, an archangel armed with a sword chases a personification of plague: a monstrous being who can be seen carrying off one of the victims.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Italy and the subsequent closure of all churches in Rome for a month, may Saint Frances intercede on behalf of of the Italian people and anyone who is suffering from the virus. May Christ bring swift succor to the infected, relief to those who are enduring anxiety, and comfort to those whose family members have died.
Colloidal silver
Catholic ping!
Many millions were killed in Europe in the Great Plague of 1349-50. In England a few of the great landholding families actually disappeared (e. g., the de Cornard). The Plague greatly reduced the French-Norman feudalism imposed in Britain as the farm laborers and tenants that survived achieved in their scarcity a power they had not known for centuries.
“It was claimed that in 40 years of marriage, Saint Frances never once quarreled with her husband.”
Ping
“ may Saint Frances intercede on behalf of of the Italian people
.....
Not an Apostolic teaching, and never found in sacred Scripture.
Simply paganism added by Rome.
you really got your stuff wrong —
Romans 8:35-39 - death cannot separate us from Christ.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
— we are in Christ - and death has no sting. We ask our fellow Christians who are with Christ to pray for us.
Romans 12:5 - we are one body in Christ, individual parts of one another
Romans 12:10 - love one another with mutual affection
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 – If one part is hurt (suffers), all the parts share its pain. And if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy
Galatians 6:2 - bear one another’s burdens
Galatians 6:10 - let us do good to all, especially to those in the family of faith
Ephesians 1:22-23 - he is the head of the Church, which is His Body
Ephesians 4:4 - one body, one spirit, called to one hope
Ephesians 5:21-32 - Christ is the Head of the Church, savior
Colossians 1:18, 24 - he is the head of the body, the Church Colossians 3:15 - you were called in one body
We are one Body in Christ - and HE who has conquered death brings us to life everlasting in His bosom where we pray for others still on this mortal coil.
Tobit 12:12 - angel presents Tobit and Sarah’s prayer to God Romans 15:30 - join me by your prayers to God on my behalf Ephesians 4:3 - pray for us Ephesians 6:18-19 - Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God’s holy people, and pray for me to be given an opportunity to open my mouth and fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel
2 Thessalonians 1:11 - we always pray for you
2 Thessalonians 3:1 - finally, brothers, pray for us
Revelation 5:8 - angel offers prayers of the holy ones to God. Are the saints dead? No, they are alive in Christ
You don't think that the saints in heaven intercede for those on earth? Seriously? Are they asleep until the final judgement?
St. Frances of Rome Ping!
You’ve never prayed for someone?
She gets to hear too! AMEN!
Amen!
...and St. Catherine of Sienna, another great lady who tended to plague victims.
Hah!
I am physically alive on the earth. I can communicate with others here on earth.
No Apostle ever prayed to a departed saint, nor taught it in all Scripture.
It was not believed, nor practiced before 100 ad.
Later, from paganism this practice and many others of Catholicism were added to Christianity.
Nothing in Scripture says they do. Ever.
Just another pagan belief accepted by those who bow the knee to Rome.
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