#CatholicMartyr

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Saint Apollonia

Died: 249

Feast Day: February 9

Patronage: dentists, tooth problems

St.  Apollonia, an early Church martyr, is the patron of dentists and toothaches. A Christian persecution in 249, led many to their death. St. Apollonia would not renounce her faith and was beaten, having all her teeth knocked out. Her persecutors then threatened her with fire. She stood firm, even voluntarily jumping into the flames, to her death. Her life story was written by St. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, to Fabian, Bishop of Antioch.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[wcatradio]

Episode 86: Mary Kloska Speaks About Saints Who Died for Others (January 5, 2022)

[worldcatholicnews-blog]

Who are the #CatholicMartyr #PopeFrancis will beatify in #Colombia ?

http://worldcatholic.faith/2017/08/02/catholicmartyr-popefrancis-will-beatify-colombia/

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Saint Oscar Romero

1917-1980

Feast Day: :March 24

Patronage: El Salvador, the Catholic Diocese of San Salvador, Caritas International

Saint Oscar Romero, beatified in 2015 and declared a martyr by Pope Francis, was assassinated while saying Mass. He spoke out against human rights violations, El Salvador’s civil war victims and in solidarity with the poor. As Bishop, he was friendly to Opus Dei and a good shepherd to his people in San Salvador. The United Nations honors him on March 25th, the International Day for the Rights to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saint Margaret Clitherow

1556 - 1586

Feast Day: March 25

Patronage: businesswomen, converts, martyrs, Catholic Women's League

St. Margaret Clitherow, wife, mother and martyr, was a fearless protector of her faith. She harbored priests in her home during raids in protestant England, and for this, she was condemned to be crushed to death. “The sheriffs have said that I am going to die this coming Friday, and I feel the weakness of my flesh which is troubled at this news, but my spirit rejoices greatly.” She died on Good Friday, March 25th, 1586. Margaret’s last words were “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, have mercy on me!” 

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saint John Ogilvie

1579 - 1615

Feast Day: March 10

Patron of Scotland

Saint John Ogilvie was a Scottish Roman Catholic Jesuit martyr, born into a wealthy respected Calvinist family in 1579.  In the midst of the religious controversies and turmoil that engulfed Europe of that era, he decided to become a Roman Catholic. He joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest in Paris in 1610. After ordination, he returned to Scotland in November 1613 disguised as a horse trader named John Watson, to minister to the few remaining Roman Catholics in the Glasgow area where it was illegal to preach or otherwise endorse Roman Catholicism. In 1614, he was betrayed and arrested in Glasgow, convicted of high treason for refusing to accept the King's spiritual jurisdiction, suffered terrible tortures and was hanged. 

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saint Bibiana (Viviana, Vivian or Vibiana)

Died: 363

Feastday: December 2

Patronage: single women,  epileptics, hangovers, headaches, insanity, mental illness, torture victims

Saint Bibiana was a virgin and martyr who suffered persecution under Apronianus, Governor of Rome. After Bibiana’s parents were martyred she and her sister, Demetria, were left to suffer in poverty. Demetria died after confessing her faith, but Bibiana was left to endure greater suffering. She was sent to a woman of ill repute who in vain endeavored to seduce her and have her renounce her faith. When this failed Bibiana was then tied to a pillar and beaten with scourges until she died.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh

1781-1841

Feast Day: November 24

Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh was the only non-clergy Vietnamese of the 117 Vietnamese martyrs canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 1988. She was a married Catholic, mother of 6, who helped hide priests to avoid persecution during Emperor Minh Mang’s rule. In a raid to capture priests, she was arrested, savagely beaten, and tortured both physically and psychologically. Her aggressors once even put poisonous snakes in her clothes. St. Agnes stayed calm crediting Our Lady’s help and the snakes did not bite her. Her family begged her to relent and renounce her faith, but she refused and died of her wounds in prison.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac

1795-1839

Feastday: November 24

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, a Catholic priest and missionary in Vietnam, was one of the 117 martyrs who gave their life for the faith in the 19th century.  In 1832, Emperor Minh-Mang banned all foreign missionaries and tried to wipe out Christianity. Churches were destroyed, instructions forbidden, villages and families were obliterated. The tortures of these Christians is considered the worst in Church history. St Andrew was tortured, then beheaded in 1839 for the offense of being a Catholic priest.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saint Benjamin 329-424 Feast day: March 31

Patronage: Preachers, Evangelist

Saint Benjamin was a deacon and martyr in Persia. He was imprisoned a year for his faith (because of the indiscretion of a Christian Bishop who destroyed the pagan Temple of Fire, which started a 40-year persecution of Christians). He was released on condition that he would not preach the Gospel, which he couldn’t comply with. Once again St. Benjamin was jailed and tortured horribly. He died from the use of a knotted stake.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saints Perpetua and Felicity

Died: 203

Feast Day: March 7 (New), March 6 (Trad)

Patronage: Mothers, Expectant Mothers, rangers, butchers, Carthage

Saints Perpetua and Felicity are Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Perpetua (born around 181) was a 22-year old married noblewoman and a nursing mother. Her co-martyr Felicity, an expectant mother, was her slave. They suffered together at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa, during the reign of Septimius Severus.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saint Catherine of Alexandria

282 - 305

Feast Day: November 25th

Patronage: unmarried girls, craftsmen who work with a wheel

Saint Catherine of Alexandria also known as St. Catherine of the Wheel, was both a princess and a noted scholar, who became a Christian at 14. She converted hundreds including the Emperor Maxentius’s wife. He was so incensed at her success that he ordered her tortured and executed by the “breaking” wheel. When she touched it, the wheel shattered. Catherine was then beheaded. St. Joan of Arc identified Catherine as one of the saints who advised her in her visions.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Our Lady of Kibeho

Feast day: November 28

Our Lady of Kibeho is the name given to Marian apparitions concerning several adolescents, in the 1980s in Kibeho, south-western Rwanda.  The apparitions communicated various messages to the schoolchildren, including an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred, possibly foretelling the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Our Lady of Kibeho became the first and only Vatican-approved Marian site in Africa.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Blessed James Alberione

Founder of the Pauline Family, the Daughters of St. Paul, the Society of St. Paul and more

1884-1971

Feast Day: November 27

Beatified by St. Pope John Paul II in 2003 on Divine Mercy Sunday

Blessed James Alberione, an Italian Catholic priest, was the founder of the Pauline Family consisting of 10 religious congregations and institutions, for priests, religious and laity, that promote the Catholic faith through the media. Today in over 55 countries, they publish over 20 magazines, operate 40 publishing houses, produce radio programs in many languages, work in video and recording studios, and diffuse the Word of God in several hundred Book & Media Centers and Liturgical Centers. His vision and faith came with the help of Mary, the saints and the rosary throughout his entire life.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

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Saint John Berchmans

1599 - 1621 Feast day: November 26 Patronage: Altar boys, Jesuit scholastics, students, altar servers

Saint John Berchmans was a Jesuit novice at the Jesuit College at Malines and was known for his diligence and piety, impressing all with his holiness and stress on perfection in little things. He died there on August 13 from dysentery and fever. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)