There have been so many great Catholic contributions to mass communications:
Posted on 04/05/2002 12:57:16 PM PST by father_elijah
The Catholic Caucus of Freepers are in need of our own patron saint. We seem to be quickly developing into something of an apostolate of our own. So I think we should take time to post our ideas about who our patron saint(s) should be for our work here on FreeRepublic.
Also remember that this Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday.
There have been so many great Catholic contributions to mass communications:
Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thy image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thank you. Now I remember. Of course. The great encyclopaedist. A natural. And I had to write a paper on him in college.
Hmmm...I'll have to think about this.
My first gut reaction would be St. Paul.
Why St. Paul? When was the last time any of you actually asked him for intercession? And really, his Epistles have been adopted by our foes as an anti-Catholic curmuedgeon, when in reality they are thoroughly Catholic in nature.
Finally, I used to think he was a bit of a self agrandizing saint (please don't think I'm being sacriligious) but in the end he was just right for the times, speaking the Truth in season and out, even invading the very temples of the pagan gods with the Gospel of Christ.
We need to be bold, and even obnoxiously so if necessary, refusing to be silenced by the enemies of Christ and His Church.
I think St. Paul is a good candidate, even if he "lacks" the flair and romance of a more modern saint, whose life is better known.
If not him, how about Father Miguel Pro: Heroic Mexican Martyr.
"Viva Cristo Rey!"
Sergius and Bacchus Martyrs, d. in the Diocletian persecution in Coele-Syria about 303. Their martyrdom is well authenticated by the earliest martyrologies and by the early veneration paid them, as well as by such historians as Theodoret. They were officers of troops on the frontier, Sergius being primicerius, and Bacchus secundarius. According to the legend, there were high in esteem of the Caesar Maximianus on account of their bravery, but this favour was turned into hate when they acknowledged their Christian faith. When examined under torture they were beaten so severely with thongs that Bacchus died under the blows. Sergius, though, had much more suffering to endure; among other tortures, as the legend relates, he had to run eighteen miles in shoes which were covered on the soles with sharp-pointed nails that pierced through the foot. He was finally beheaded. The burial-place of Sergius and Bacchus was pointed out in the city of Resaph; in honour of Sergius the Emperor Justinian also built churches in honour of Sergius at Constantinople and Acre; the one at Constantinople, now a mosque, is a great work of Byzantine art. In the East, Sergius and Bacchus were universally honoured. Since the seventh century they have a celebrated church in Rome. Christian art represents the two saints as soldiers in military garb with branches of palm in their hands. Their feast is observed on 7 October. The Church calendar gives the two saints Marcellus and Apuleius on the same day as Sergius and Bacchus. They are said to have been converted to Christianity by the miracles of St. Peter. According to the "Martyrologium Romanum" they suffered martyrdom soon after the deaths of Sts. Peter and Paul and were buried near Rome. Their existing Acts are not genuine and agree to a great extent with those of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus. The veneration of the two saints is very old. A mass is assigned to them in the "Sacramentarium" of Pope Gelasius.
I could go with St. Isidore.
Not sure about the good Dr.'s suggestion of Tomas de Torquemada - might offend some - kind of a sore point. ;-)
St Paul for evangelism
There are so many of them, how do we choose?
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| This site updated: 20 January, 2001. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| **"A Man for All Seasons": | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| A Saint for Our Times | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| **(descriptive quote by Robert Whittenton " More is a man of an angelic wit and singular learning; I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness, and affability? And as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and past-time, and sometimes of sad gravity. A Man for all Seasons.") |
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| Former Chancellor of England, author of "Utopia", a ground breaking work that gave the world the name for societies built on dreams, Thomas More is well known in historical circles. Within the Church he loved and ultimately died to defend, he is less known, most people not even realizing that he was canonized for more than being a martyr of the Tudor "reformation". St. Thomas is called the patron of lawyers, since that is how he made his living. Christian humanists are fond of quoting him, as are secular humanists, who think he is one of them. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Most Catholics, if they know of St. Thomas, know of him mostly as a martyr who lost his head on July 6, 1535, because he wouldn't deny the supremacy of the Pope, Many know of him from watching a movie called "A Man for All Seasons" written as a play in two acts by Robert Bolt. But Sir Thomas More was more; St. Thomas More is more. He was a man of strong faith and deep conviction. His prayer routine was a daily ritual lasting anywhere from two to seven hours a day. He made time for prayer by sleeping less. He believed deeply in practicing penance, both in the forms of almsgiving, frequent confession, and self mortification. While imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy that would have declared Henry VIII the supreme head of the Church in England, Thomas, instead of giving in to family and friends to ignore his conscience and take the oath, turned his own imprisonment to good use by meditating on the Passion of our Lord, and then writing a book about his meditations. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Come and meet Sir Thomas More, who, when all of the rest of society was taking the easy way out because "everyone else did it", followed his conscience. His reply to those who asked what his conscience mattered and why he couldn't just follow along with everyone else, "for fellowship's sake"? "...when you are all rewarded with heaven for following your conscience, and I am condemned to hell for NOT following mine, will not ye not all join me, for fellowship?" The man who said, "I do none harm, I think none harm, I say none harm, and if this be not enough to leave a man live, then in truth I long not to live" It wasn't enough, they killed him. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Saint Paul .... when we're dealing with the fundies, Calvinists, and other trying protestants.
Saint John of the Cross ..... when we need perseverance as Catholics
Blessed Padre Pio ..... when we need to engage the sins of the secular age and present the changeless truth of Christ and his Church.
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