Calendar of Saints

4 August	• yesterday • tomorrow
Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest

Saint John Mary Vianney

Also known as

• Curé of Ars
• Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney
• Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney
• Jean-Baptiste Vianney
• John Baptist Vianney

Profile

Born to a farm family. In his youth John taught other children their prayers and catechism. Ordained in 1815, though it took several years of study - he had little education, was not a very good student, and his Latin was terrible. Assigned as a parochial vicar to Ecully, France. In 1818 he was assigned to the parish of Ars-sur-Formans, France, a tiny village near Lyons, which suffered from very lax attendance. He began visiting his parishioners, especially the sick and poor, spent days in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, did penance for his parishioners, and leading his people by example. Had the gifts of discernment of spirits, prophecy, hidden knowledge, and of working miracles. Tormented by evil spirits, especially when he tried to get his 2-3 hours of sleep each night. Crowds came to hear him preach, and to make their reconciliation because of his reputation with penitents; by 1855 there were 20,000 pilgrims a year to Ars. Spent 40 years as the parish priest.

Born

8 May 1786 at Dardilly, Lyons, France

Died

• 4 August 1859 at Ars, France of natural causes
• interred in the basilica of Ars

Canonized

31 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI

Patronage

• confessors
• priests (proclaimed on 23 April 1929 by Pope Pius XI)
• Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney
• Dubuque, Iowa, archdiocese of
• Kamloops, British Columbia, diocese of
• Kansas City, Kansas, archdiocese of
• Lafayette, Louisiana, diocese of
• Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, archdiocese of

Video

• YouTube PlayList
• Sermons of the Cure d'Ars (audio book)
• The Man Who Fought the Devil (audio book)

Readings

Man is a beggar who needs to ask God for everything. - Saint John Vianney

All our religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God, if we have not that universal charity for everyone - for the good, and for the bad, for the poor and for the rich, and for all those who do us harm as much as those who do us good. - Saint John Vianney

If people would do for God what they do for the world, what a greatnumber of Christians would go to Heaven. - Saint John Vianney

You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God. - Saint John Vianney

I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the Cross than in serving the world and its pleasures. - Saint John Vianney

You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions. - Saint John Vianney

We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter. - Saint John Vianney

We should consider those moments spent before the Blessed Sacrament as the happiest of our lives. - Saint John Vianney

My little children, reflect on these words: the Christian's treasure is not on earth but in heaven. Our thoughts, then, ought to be directed to where out treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man's happiness lies. Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can every pull apart. This union of god with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding. My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. Some men immerse themselves as deeply in prayer as fish in water, because they give themselves totally to God. O, how I love these noble souls! How unlike them we are! How often we come to church with no idea of what to do or what to ask for. And yet, whenever we go to any human being, we know well enough why we go. And still worse, there are some who seem to speak to the good God like this: "I will only say a couple of things to you, and then I will be rid of you." I often think that when we come to adore the Lord, we would receive everything we ask for, if we would ask with living faith and with a pure heart. - from the catechetical instructions by Saint John Mary Vianney

Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself. - Saint John Vianney

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-john-mary-vianney/

Blessed Enrico Angelo Angelelli Carletti

Profile

Son of Italian immigrants. He entered the seminary of Our Lady of Loreto at age 15, studied in Rome, Italy, and then was ordained a priest on 9 October 1949 at Rome for the diocese of Córdoba, Argentina. He served as a parish priest in Córdoba, founded youth groups, and ministering to the poor in their own neighborhoods.

Chosen Auxiliary Bishop of Córdoba and Titular Bishop of Lystra by Pope John XXIII on 12 December 1960. He became involved in renewal of the faith and parish life, and in labor union conflicts; this led to his arrest. Part in the first, third, and fourth sessions of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, 1964, and 1965. In 1965, to get him away from conflict with the civil authorities, he was relieved of part of his duties and exiled to serve as chaplain to a convent of Adoratrices at the Colegio Villa Eucharistica.

Chosen bishop of La Rioja, Argentina on 3 July 1968 by Pope Paul VI. There he encouraged the working classes to unionize, form co-operatives, farm idle lands, and generally join together to improve their lot, even against the prerogatives of the ruling class.

On 13 June 1973 Bishop Enrico was forced to abandon a church and flee when a mob broke in during services and began to stone him in retaliation for his work. He declared an interdict against the leaders and their supporters; he received the full support of his priests, but not his national conference of bishops, and the papal nuncio openly sided with those under interdict. Angelelli knew he was being targeted for assassination by the military for his opposition to the government, and he was right. On 4 August 1976 while driving a truck home with Father Arturo Pinto, coming from a Mass in El Chamical that had been celebrated for two murdered priests, Father Carlos de Dios Murias and Father Gabriel Longueville, Angelelli was intentionally wrecked by other vehicles, and then beaten to death in the road. His was one of many murders committed during the Argentinian Dirty War, was listed as a traffic accident, and it wasn't until a decade later, on 19 June 1986, when a new, more democratic government was in power, that the death was officially declared a murder. The investigation and court battles continued for decades more before finally, on 5 July 2014, Commander Menéndez and Luis Estrella, who had headed the Air Force base and torture center at El Chamical, were sentenced to life for Angelelli's murder.

Born

18 July 1923 in Córdoba, Argentina

Died

beaten to death in the road 4 August 1976 at Punta de los Llanos, Sañogasta, Chilecito, La Rioja, Argentina

Beatified

• 27 April 2019 by Pope Francis
• beatification recognition celebrated in La Rioja, Argentina, presided by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu

Readings

It's my turn next. – Blessed Enrico discussing the possibility of being murdered for his work

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-enrico-angelo-angelelli-carletti/

Blessed Frédéric Janssone

Also known as

• Frédéric de Ghyvelde
• Frédéric de Saint-Yves
• Frédéric-Cornil
• Frédéric-Yves

Profile

Youngest of 13 children in a wealthy farm family, Frederic grew up in France but his language at home was Flemish. His father died when the boy was nine. Frederic felt an early call to the priesthood, and entered the junior seminary in his diocese, but dropped out to become a travelling salesman, working to support his family. His family obligations finally fulfilled, Frederic joined the Franciscans in his early 20's. Ordained in 1870. Miliary chaplain in the Franco-Prussian War. Assigned to the Holy Lands, he re-built the Stations of the Cross in the streets of Jerusalem, built a church in Bethlehem, and negotiated agreements between Roman, Greek and Armenian church authorities about the use of sanctuaries in Jerusalem. He first travelled to Canada in 1881 on a fund-raising trip, but returned to stay in 1888 where he worked for the next 28 years. Helped develop the shrine of Our Lady at Cap-de-la-Madeleine in Quebec, and witnessed the vision of a statue of Mary opening its eyes. Wrote biographies of the saints, newspaper articles, and, calling on his childhood training, sold religious books door to door including thousands of copies of his Manual for the Third Order. His work effectively re-established the Franciscan secular order in Canada.

Born

19 November 1838 in Ghyvelde, Nord, France

Died

• 4 August 1916 in the Franciscan Infirmary in Montreal, Quebec, Canada of stomach cancer
• buried in the friary chapel in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec

Beatified

25 September 1988 by Pope John Paul II

Patronage

Secular Franciscan Regional Fraternity of Eastern Canada

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-frederic-janssone/

Blessed Ioan Bãlan

Profile

Studied theology in Budapest, Hungary and in Vienna, Austria. Ordained a Romanian Greek-Catholic Rite priest on 7 July 1903. Served in Blaj, Romania, and then Bucharest, Romania in 1909, and then back to Blaj in 1919. Cathedral canon. Rector of the theological academy in 1921. Appointed bishop of Lugoj, Romania on 29 August 1936. Arrested by the Communist authorities in 1948 for remaining in the outlawed Catholic church. Confined first in monasteries, he was eventually sent to Sighet prison. Martyr.

Born

11 February 1880 in Teius, Alba, Romania

Died

• 4 August 1959 in Bucharest, Romania
• buried in the Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest

Beatified

2 June 2019 by Pope Francis

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-ioan-balan/

Saint Sithney

Blessed Gonzalo Gonzalo y Gonzalo

Additional Memorial

Beatified

11 March 2001 by Pope John Paul II

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-josep-batalla-parramon/

Blessed Gil Rodicio y Rodicio

Profile

Born to pious family. Joined the Salesians in Sarria, Barcelona, Spain in 1908. Worked as distributor of the bakery in Sarria, giving not just of the work of his house but his own sources to the poor. Teacher. Martyred in the Spanish Civil War.