Bl. Celestina of the Mother of God (1848-1925),         30 March 2008
Religious, Foundress of the Daughters of the Poor of St Joseph Calasanz

Marianna Donati, who became the Foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Poor of St Joseph Calasanz, known as the Calasanctian Sisters, was born at Marradi, Florence, Italy, on 26 October 1848. At the age of 13 she made her first Holy Communion and felt strongly that she was being called to religious life.

When her first attempt at discerning a vocation, in which she passed some time with the "Vallombrosane" Sisters, remained inconclusive, she returned to her family and entrusted herself to the spiritual guidance of a Piarist priest, Fr Celestino Zini, well known for his personal holiness. It was Fr Zini who perceived the spiritual richness within young Marianna and encouraged her to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

At home, when she broached the subject of living a consecrated life within the convent, her father, Francesco, could not bear the thought of being separated from his loving daughter and adamantly forbid it. Marianna resigned herself to living with private vows to God within the confines of her parents' home.

When she was 33 years old, Marianna's mother died and this led her father to become even more attached to her and rely on her presence.

At age 40, when she again expressed her will to leave home in order to take up religious life her father said that in order to leave she must take him, her aunt and sister Gemma with her. "I want you to be near me to close my eyes when my last hour strikes", he pleaded with his daughter.

Finally, in March of 1889 at the age of 41, with the counsel of Fr Zini, Marianna was joined by four young women who were ready to serve Christ in the very poor in what would later become the Congregation she had long desired to found. The first residence, where she could accommodate her relatives and first four companions, was located in Florence next to the parish Church of St Julian.

Fr Zini, who had become the Archbishop of Siena on 25 March 1889, was hesitant about the combination of family-with-religious life and earnestly sought better accommodations. Divine Providence soon provided another dwelling in a different neighbourhood and the family-community benefited from more spacious premises.

The religious spirit and profound union with the Lord of Mother Celestina, as she was now called, expressed itself in her desire to care for the physical and spiritual well-being of the many children who were victims of abandonment or abuse. She opened her first school outside Florence on 28 December 1889. This fledgling religious community sought to provide a Christian education for these poor children and thereby offer them a chance to live a better adult life, not only based on Christian principles but with practical profession skills as well, according to the teaching of St Joseph Calasanz.

But the joyful adventure of establishing a new religious Order, of training young Sisters in the service of the Lord and neighbour, of expressing maternal love in the education of poor children, also came with a heavy cross.

On 5 June 1890, at the age of 19, one of the founding Sisters and the secretary of the newborn Institute, Sr Maura, became sick with consumption and died.

Assisting her in her illness and witnessing her slow and steady decline certainly weighed on the heart of her spiritual mother and Foundress.

This illness, sorrowful though it was, proved much more bearable than the sorrowful situations of the children that landed on the Sisters' doorstep.

On 22 January 1891, a woman arrived, saying: "My daughter is in bed, completely bruised by the beating her father gave her. Yesterday evening, the poor thing was not able to sell all the matches and he reduced her to that state. She is sick and I cannot take care of her. Please take her in even for a few days. May God reward you!".

On 19 May 1892, Mother Celestina's spiritual director, co-Founder, and guide, Archbishop Zini, died. She would henceforth be the sole director of the newborn Institute. But her virtue and Fr Zini's wise counsel and Rule assisted her in governing the Institute well and in establishing various communities throughout Italy.

Years later, on a September morning in 1899, another sorrowful situation arose in Livorno. A person brought forward three children "orphaned by law", because their father was condemned to 30 years in prison and his little girls were literally left without food, a roof over their head or any support. This was the beginning of the Order's new apostolate to children of prisoners.

Mother Celestina's accomplishments were possible due to a strong spiritual life. She had great devotion to Jesus Crucified and was an ardent apostle of Eucharistic Adoration. Basing her spirituality on that of St Joseph Calasanz she dedicated herself totally to God's little ones and taught the Sisters to be attentive spiritual mothers and expert educators, guided by maternal love in their delicate duty of helping the children entrusted to their care.

She knew how to instil in her Sisters the spirit of holy poverty. Poverty, in fact, was to mark much of her religious life, especially during the period when in 1922, she undertook the establishment of the Institute at Rome, undergoing considerable financial difficulty.

She died in Florence on 18 March 1925. Her cause for Beatification was introduced on 12 July 1982; on 6 April 1998 her heroic virtues were proclaimed and she was granted the title of Venerable.

On Sunday, 30 March 2008 she was beatified during a special Mass in Florence by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, C.M.F., Prefect of Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

In 1892 he went to Alexandria, Egypt, to teach Arabic at the Christian Brothers' College, and there he felt the call to the priesthood. He entered the Capuchin Convent in Khashbau the next year. He was ordained a priest on 1 November 1901 in Beirut, Lebanon.

As an itinerant preacher from 1903 to 1914 he walked all over Lebanon proclaiming the Word of God and was given the name "the Apostle of Lebanon". He was also seen preaching in Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Turkey.

In 1919 he bought a piece of land on the hill of Jall-Eddib, north of Beirut, where he built a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Sea. Nearby he erected a great Cross.

Fr Jacques was tireless, he would help anyone in need following in the footsteps of St Francis of Assisi. In 1920, to assist him in this mission to help the sick and the poor, he founded the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Cross of Lebanon.

The modest work of Fr Jacques aroused the people's admiration, many poor and sick people began to go to the "Cross" and Fr Jacques would welcome them all. In 1950 the "Cross" became exclusively a psychiatric hospital, one of the most modern in the Near East. The movement of charity began to spread throughout Lebanon and Fr Jacques and his Sisters multiplied their works of social assistance.

In 1933 he opened the House of the Sacred Heart in Deir el-Kamar, a girls' orphanage, which later became an asylum for the chronically ill. In 1948 he opened the Hospital of Our Lady for the aged, the chronically ill and the paralyzed. In 1949 St Joseph's Hospital became one of the most important medical centres of the capital.

It was followed in 1950 by St Anthony's House in Beirut for beggars and vagabonds whom the police found on the streets and Providence House for homeless girls.

Fr Jacques was worn out by vigils, fatigue and travel. Although he suffered from numerous illnesses, became almost completely blind and was stricken with leukemia, he did not stop blessing God and working. He was lucid to the end, his last hours were an uninterrupted series of prayers invoking the Cross and the Virgin Mary until he died on 26 June 1954 in Lebanon.

His cause for Beatification was introduced in February 1979; on 24 February 1979, His Holiness Pope John Paul II signed the Decree of Introduction of the Cause for Beatification.

On Sunday, 22 June 2008, he was beatified during a special Mass in Beirut by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, C.M.F., Prefect of Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Since BI. Haddad's death additional hospitals have opened to assist those injured during the war and to assist the Kabr-Chemoun region where medical services were scarce.

At the age of 19, she joined the Franciscan Third Order which nurtured in her a spirit of simplicity and a deep prayer life. Her wish to consecrate herself to God increased as she absorbed the Franciscan spirit, but the German Kulturkampf (which sought to subject the Roman Catholic Church to State controls) made religious life impossible. When her mother was dying, Hendrina promised to care for her siblings. It began to look as though she would have to renounce the idea of religious life.

Some years later she found her way to Steyl, Holland, where German-born Fr Arnold Janssen, due to the Kulturkampf, had gone to establish a centre to train priests for mission work. Fr Janssen accepted Hendrina's request to be part of the Mission House as a kitchen maid. Her real intention, however, was to support the mission cause by her work in the kitchen. When she arrived in Steyl, she was almost 32 years old. She did not have great plans, but simply wished to do what she recognized as God's will for her at each moment.

Through her decision to live as a kitchen maid, Hendrina stepped down to the lowest rung of the social ladder. A life of hard work and renunciation began that was to last five years as she waited for the women's branch of the Mission House to be founded. On 8 December 1889, she and a few other women became postulants. The foundation of the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit had been laid. The novitiate followed and then in March 1894 she professed first vows and was given the name Josepha.

Sr Josepha was responsible for the practical matters in the house. Later on as directress of postulants she showed great understanding of human nature and was able to introduce young women into religious life with wisdom and empathy.

Sr Josepha was known above all for her love of prayer; she progressed ever more into interior quiet and true contemplation in the midst of her manifold tasks. She loved to pray the rosary and short prayers, especially "Come, Holy Spirit" which became her "mantra", leading her inward to the presence of God in the tabernacle of her heart.

In spite of the burden of work and the demands made by a large, young community, she did not lose herself in pure activity. In the depths of her heart she remained in union with God and maintained her inner peace. For Mother Josepha, religious life meant belonging to God entirely.

The final months of Sr Josepha's life were marked by serious and painful illness. On her deathbed, suffering from asthma, she bequeathed her spiritual testament to the Sisters: Every breath of a Servant of the Holy Spirit ought to be: "Come, Holy Spirit".

She died on 20 May 1903 and was beatified in Steyl, by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, C.M.F., Prefect of Congregation for the Causes of Saints, on Sunday, 29 June 2008.

Bl. Peter Kibe and 187 Companions (†1603 - 1639),               24 November 2008
Martyred in Japan

On 1 June 2008, the Holy Father signed the Decree that opened the door to the beatification of 188 Japanese martyrs: Peter Kibe and 187 companions in martyrdom. They were beatified in Nagasaki on 24 November.

These 188 martyrs all died between 1603 and 1639 — during the persecution by the 'Tokugawa shogûns supreme generals. After 350 years, their lives and deaths are still a magnificent example to our society.

At that time Japan was governed nominally by an emperor but was in fact divided into many states governed by a daimyô or feudal lord. These landowners were frequently at odds with one another, seeking to increase their property.

Although barely known elsewhere, Peter Kibe and his 187 companion martyrs are famous in the Church of Japan and in their hometowns.

The question thus naturally arises: Why are they being beatified today? Why are they so numerous? The simple answer is that when the 26 Saints were canonized in 1862, and in 1867 when the 205 martyr victims of the Tokugawa shogûns persecution were beatified, the Japanese Church as such did not exist.

The surviving Christians in Japan were forced underground but this did not save them from the last persecution during the first five years of the Meiji era (1868-73).

Indeed, St. Francis Xavier had predicted with foresight that Christianity in Japan would meet with every sort of difficulty and harsh persecution (letter 110, 5-7). This, the Saint explained, was due to the open hostility of influential Buddhist monks and power struggles among the more important daimyôs  [large estate owners]. He also foresaw that the European nations' race to establish commercial relations with Japan would give rise to serious obstacles for evangelization. St. Francis Xavier also noted that Japanese feudal society was closed to the outside world. This was partly because relations were based on the ethical values of Confucianism: the sense of belonging to the group, respect and fidelity to the head of the family, to one's ancestors and leaders of civil society. These values were perceived as a religion or "right doctrine" and therefore clashed with the dissemination of the Gospel.

Thus Francis emphasized the missionaries' need to demonstrate deep humility and friendliness, courage and fortitude in trials; he also invited them to study the local culture and religion with attention and respect.

There were no Japanese Bishops or priests in Japan who could have spoken out for that martyred Church. The number of known martyrs must easily have reached 10,000 but when the processes took place in Rome, the various religious orders that worked in Japan presented their own martyred members before their Japanese collaborators.

Hence, the Christians who suffered the full force of the persecution were left in the shade notwithstanding that they too had suffered cruel tortures, remained faithful to death for having held on to the deposit of faith handed down by the missionaries who had passed through.

The 188 Japanese martyrs beatified had a name, a family, a house and a job. Some were noble and powerful, many belonged to the respected class of the samurai. Numerous others were common people or simple peasants and many still children or adolescents.

Four of the martyrs were priests and one a religious — Peter Kibe was a Jesuit; 183 of them were lay people, two of whom were women, 33 under the age of 20 and 18 children under the age of five. Some entire families suffered martyrdom together. The martyrs came from various parts of Japan. They were esteemed and loved by the people as a source of light for society.

That social, political, military and economic errors or incidents fuelled the persecution of Christians cannot be denied. Historical documents inform us that several daimyôs who embraced the Christian faith had gates made in the precincts of their property where European traders' boats could safely land when Japan was closed to foreigners. Trade enriched these daimyôs, enabling them to improve their own armies with new weapons and to build their own naval fleet. Their wealth and the increase in their power ended when they frightened the shogûns himself.

Moreover, some daimyôs, for reasons of kinship or politics, had chosen to openly oppose the central government and others had become entangled in court intrigues and plots. This made them even more unpopular so that the shogun listed them among dangerous enemies to be eliminated, together with the leaders of the religion they professed.

Small local incidents then gave the shogûn an opportunity to issue orders against Christians, to enforce temporary forms of repression, to expel or to execute Christian groups.

To discover who secretly continued being faithful to Christianity, the shogun prescribed an annual "verification of the faith". Those tested had to stomp upon a sacred Christian image before magistrates. Many Christians refused, preferring martyrdom; others, to avoid torture and save their families, forsook Christianity. Yet others reached a compromise: they would seemingly obey, walking over the image, but remain faithful to Christ in their hearts. They trod on the image with delicately arched bare feet. They would later recite the act of contrition, make a private act of penitence in reparation and renew their baptismal promises. In this way the yearly event became a moment of confirmation in the Faith.

After the victory of Sekigahara (1600), Tokugawa Ieyasu became the real supreme leader of Japan with the title of shogûn. He usurped the emperor's political and military power, subjecting all the daimyôs to his own central authority and destroying the most powerful fiefs. Several Christian daimyôs, his opponents, paid the price. They were killed, exiled, or transferred to the outskirts with unimportant posts.

In the edict of February 1614, official for the whole country, the shogûn Ieyasu decided that the time had come to put an end to Christianity. On 27 January he issued an edict that marked the end of tolerance. It focused mainly upon "the Christians who have come to Japan, not only with their ships for trade exchanges but also in order to disseminate a wicked law, to destroy the 'right doctrine' and thus to change the country's government and take possession of our land". From that moment Christianity was always to be presented as jakyô, a "wicked religion".

The daimyôs were ordered to send all foreign missionaries to Nagasaki for deportation to Macao or Manila. Christians were forced to return to the ancient faith, renouncing their religion.

After the missionaries' departure, all of the churches were destroyed. The most visible Christians were persecuted. Takayama Ukon and Naito Tadatoshi were exiled to Manila with their families. About 70 Christians from Kyoto and Osaka were condemned to forced labour and sent to distant regions.

Ieyasu did not want bloodshed but dozens of Christians were killed by local daimyôs in Bungo, Arima and Kuchinotsu, in Kyushu, because of their personal aversion to Christianity or a desire to please the dictator. After Ieyasu's death in 1616 the persecution grew more violent.

Between 1617 and 1621, Tokugawa Iemitsu, a cruel and capricious 19 year-old, became .shogûn. He tolerated no criticism. The Christians' resistance annoyed him so he unleashed a more violent persecution against them.

Then on 6 October 1619 in Kyoto, after parading them through the streets to be mocked, 52 Christians were lined up before a statue of Buddha and burnt alive, tied to crosses. Of the 26 men and 26 women, 11 were under the age of 15. The scene of several of these children tied to a cross with their mother inspired a British merchant to recount the tenacity of the mother's faith that he witnessed that day when she cried: "Lord Jesus, receive the souls of these children".

In 1623 Iemitsu closed the country to foreign trade and extended the persecution throughout Japan. In a show of power to the daimyôs, he made them watch what would later be called the Great Martyrdom of Tokyo, during which 50 Christians were burned alive.

The people and the persecutors were astounded by the fortitude of the Christians. Irritated by their joyful, tenacious fidelity to Christ, after 1627 Iemitsu had them tortured ferociously to cause apostasy. They would be buried alive, sawn into pieces or immersed in boiling sulphurous water. In one of the most sophisticated and painful forms of torture, Christians were hung upside down so that the blood flowed to the head creating unbearable pain. The person frequently tortured in this way lost his mind and the capacity for resistance and would begin to relent, Several foreign missionaries who had stayed on in Japan or entered illegally did relent, and were held in a prison in Yedo known as "the house of the Christians".

In 1640 the Portuguese sent a ship with an embassy of. four nobles to Nagasaki to negotiate new trade openings with the Japanese Government. They were seized on arrival, tortured and killed with their crew of 57 men.

After 1644 the persecution became more acute but news of it no longer reached the West. It is known that many Christians left their native regions to live in hiding in the most remote of places, yet where the spy network would often discover them.

The details of the historical accounts may vary, but the persistent persecution of Japanese Christians is undeniable, with all ages and ranks subject to being captured, tortured, sent into forced labour and crowned by martyrdom with untold cruelty.

Statistics state that in Kyushyu, in 1649, 97 Christians suffered martyrdom, and in 1658 411 of the 608 Christians captured near Ômura were killed: 78 of them died in prison and 99 under torture. Between 1660 and 1670, again in Kyushu, more than 2,700 Christians were hunted down and the majority killed.

After pressure from Europe; countries in 1873, the Japanese Government annulled the edict of persecution. In 1888 it recognized religious freedom for its citizens and in 1899 the freedom to spread one's faith. These steps gradually led to the end of open persecution, but was only with the Constitutions 1946 that Japan recognized equal rights for all religions, finally putting an end to open and hidden discrimination against Christians.

In looking back, historians have calculated the sum total of Japan martyrs at numbers ranging from more than 3,000 to 300,000. Thus, those 188 recently beatified models of relentless faith are but few among many who emerge from the history of Christian persecution in Japan.

Bl. José Olallo Valdés (1820-1889),                        29 November 2008
Hospitaller Religious

Blessed José Olallo Valdés was born in Havana, Cuba, on 12 February 1820. Son of unknown parents, he was entrusted to the care of St. Joseph's Orphanage in Havana, where he was baptized on 15 March 1820. He lived and studied at the Children's Home and the Charity House, becoming a serious and responsible boy. When he was a young teenager he entered the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God in the community of Sts Philip and James in Havana.

Despite many obstacles, he constantly upheld his decision, making profession as a religious Hospitaller. In April of 1835 he was transferred to the city of Puerto Principe (today Camaguey), in the St. John of God Hospital, where he spent the rest of his life dedicated to serving the sick as an exemplary son of his spiritual father, St. John of God. In 54 years he was absent from the hospital only one night, and for reasons independent of his will. Initially he served as an assistant nurse, then at age 25 he became "head nurse" and later, in 1856, the community's superior.

During a period of suppression of religious Orders by liberal Spanish rule, which also brought about the confiscation of ecclesiastical property, Brother Jose lived his consecrated life facing great sacrifices and difficulties with uprightness and strength of spirit. From 1876, when his last companion Brother died, to 1889, the year of his death, he lived alone working to serve the sick, always faithful to God, to his conscience, to his vocation and charism.

During the 10 Years' War (1868-78), he proved courageous while working for the good of everyone and caring for the patients, but with preference to the most weak and poor. He put his life in jeopardy during times of difficulty, helping the slaves, defending the hospital, etc. He also defended with "sweet firmness" all those without government permission to be treated, regardless of their social or political backgrounds during a period of civil war. This gained him the respect of military authorities and thus he was able to intercede for the people of Camaguey, without succumbing to intimidation by threats or prohibitions, and in this way prevented a civil massacre.

His apostolate was aimed to assist the dying whom he accompanied in the last hours of their lives, on the journey towards eternity. For his unbounded goodness he was nicknamed "apostle of charity" and "father of the poor" which summarizes well Bl. Jose's altruism, lived in perfect conformity to the charism of hospitality.

Brother Olallo Valdes' death on 7 March 1889 was considered the death of a just man, of a Saint. With his passing the fame of his holiness increased daily, mainly among the people of Camaguey, who attributed graces and continuing help to his intercession.

Later, the recovery of a 3-year-old child. Daniela Cabrera Ramos was recognized as a true miracle by His Holiness Benedict xvi with the Decree promulgated on 15 March 2008.

Brother Olallo Valdés' beatification ceremony took place in the city of Camaguey, Cuba, on 29 November 2008, presided by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, C.M.F., Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.