BREAKING NEWS: Archbishop Oscar Romero to be beatified soon!

BREAKING NEWS: The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has announced that Pope Francis has recognized the martyrdom of the Servant of God, Archbishop Oscar Romero.

HANDA KA BA MAMATAY PARA SA PANANAMPALATAYA?

Martyr of the Brown Scapular

 

Meet Blessed Isidore Bakanja, a convert to Catholicism, back when missionaries work to preach the Gospel and bring people to the One True Faith.

He was baptized at the age of 18.  He worked for the white colonizers as an assistant mason. He never forgot the lessons taught him by the Trappist missionaries;  a Christian must be recognized by the rosary and scapular (Mary's habit, as it was rendered in Isidore's native tongue).

And this he kept all his life.

He found employment in a Belgian company that controlled the rubber plantations in the region as a house boy. Many of the agents were Christian-hating atheists.  The missionaries' defense of the natives' rights and their denouncing of injustices perpetrated against them earned the ire of these atheists.

Isidore soon experienced this hatred. He was told to stop teaching his fellow workers how to pray: "You'll have the whole village praying and no one will want to work", one agent shouted at him.

Isidore was also ordered to take away his scapular. When he did not, he was twice flogged. The second time, the agent tore the scapular from around Isidore's neck and threw him to the ground. He had two servant boys hold Isidore by his hands and feet and a third one flogged him. The whip was made of elephant hide with nails protruding at the end.

Isidore asked for mercy. "My God, I'm dying".  Isidore bore all the blows patiently.

After the beatings, the bones on Isidore's back were exposed.  After the scourging, his legs were chained, and he was thrown into into a hut for processing rubber.   He was severely beaten he could barely move.

When an inspector was about to visit the plant, Isidore was moved to another village. Unable to walk, he fell by the wayside and hid in the forest.

When he heard the inspector, he dragged himself before the inspector.

The inspector himself left a written account of his impression: "I saw a man come from the forest with his back torn apart by deep, festering, malodorous wounds, covered with filth, assaulted by flies. He leaned on two sticks in order to get near me -he wasn't walking; he was dragging himself".

The agent, responsible for the beating, appeared on the scene and tried to kill "that animal". He was restrained by the inspector.

He took Isidore to his own settlement, hoping to help him heal.  But the beating was so severe, that the wounds have become infected.  Isidore felt death nearing.

He told someone who had pity on him: "if you see my mother, or if you go to the judge, or if you meet the priest, tell them that I am dying because I am a Christian".

Two missionaries spent several days with him and gave him the last sacraments.

He told them the reason for his beating: "The white man did not like Christians.... He did not want me to wear the scapular.... He yelled at me when I said my prayers".

The missionaries urged Isidore to forgive the agent.  Isidore assured the missionaries that he had already forgiven them, that he nursed no hatred for him. The missionaries urged Isidore to pray for the agent. "Certainly I shall pray for him. When I am in heaven, I shall pray for him very much". His agony - more painful than the actual flogging - lasted six months. He died on either 8 or 15 august 1909, rosary in hand and the scapular of Our Lady of Mt Carmel around his neck.

He was a convert for two and a half years but lived his life since his Baptism like he was a Christian all his life.

He was beatified by St. John Paul II in April 24, 1994 along with St. Gianna Beretta Molla and St. Elisabeth Canori Mora

His feastday is celebrated in his native country and in the Carmelite community every August 15.

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May we follow his example of boldly proclaiming the Faith.

May the Christian martyrs of the Middle East bring about the fall of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and all jihadists and Muslim extremists.

May the blood of the martyrs bring these people towards conversion.

Amen.!

Pope Francis' first canonization: 800 martyrs!

Yup!

That is the altar with ALL of the relics of the martyrs.

Nope.  Not Khmer Rouge.

It's Otranto!

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Pope Francis is preparing to canonise an estimated 800 Italian laymen killed by Ottoman soldiers in the 15th century. The canonisation service will be on May 12 in St Peter’s Square and it will be the first carried out by the Pontiff since he was elected in early March.  [The consistory announcing the canonization of these martyrs was announced by Benedict XVI along with his decision to step down as pope in February 11.]

The killing of the martyrs by Ottoman troops, who launched a weeks-long siege of Otranto, a small port town at the most eastern tip of southern Italy, took place in 1480.

When Otranto residents refused to surrender to the Ottoman army, the soldiers were ordered to massacre all males over the age of 15. Many were ordered to convert to Islam or die, but Blessed Antonio Primaldo, a tailor, spoke on the prisoners’ behalf. “We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, and for Jesus Christ we are ready to die,” he said, according to Blessed John Paul II, who visited Otranto in 1980 for the 500th anniversary of the martyrs’ deaths.

Primaldo inspired all the other townspeople to take courage, the late Pope said, and to say: “We will all die for Jesus Christ; we willingly die so as to not renounce his holy faith.” There were not “deluded” or “outdated,” Blessed John Paul continued, but “authentic, strong, decisive, consistent men” who loved their city, their families and their faith.

The skulls and other relics of the martyrs currently adorn the walls around the altar of Otranto Cathedral as a memorial to their sacrifice. [Imagine someone drooling at the sight of all those relics and would post a Facebook post of how lucky he was.  OK.  The relics are remains of the saints. OK, ok.  Take a deep breath....and ask this question.  Do you feel the same way in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament?  Simple question.  Check your temper.]  According to the archdiocese’s website, popular tradition holds that when the soldiers beheaded Primaldo, his body remained standing even as the combatants tried to push him over. Legend has it that the decapitated man stood until the very last prisoner was killed, at which point Primaldo’s body collapsed next to his dead comrades.

In 1771, the Church recognised the validity of the local veneration of Primaldo and his companions and allowed them to be called Blessed. In 2007, retired Pope Benedict XVI formally recognised [because they were not formally beatified] their martyrdom and, in 2012, he recognised a miracle attributed to their intercession. Martyrs do not need a miracle attributed to their intercession in order to be beatified. However, miracles must be recognised by the Vatican in order for them to become saints.

The miracle involved the late-Poor Clare Sister Francesca Levote. She was suffering from a serious form of cancer but was healed after a pilgrimage to pray before the martyrs’ relics in Otranto in 1980, a few months before Pope John Paul’s visit in October. She died in February 2012 at the age of 85.

In a letter published in December 2012, Archbishop Donato Negro of Otranto said that the martydom of the townnsfolk must represent a “purification of the memory of the Catholic Church and a rooting out of every possible lingering resentment, rancor, resentful policies, every eventual temptation toward hatred and violence, and every presumptuous attitude of religious superiority, religious arrogance, moral and cultural pride.”  [Uh...what now?  And I thought the glory of the martyrs show us their witness to the Gospel and their imitation to the ultimate act of giving up one's life for love....like Jesus Christ, the model of all Christian martyrs.  Now the archbishop is saying that the martyrdom calls for the "purification of the memory of the Catholic Church...."???  Good golly!  Their martyrdoms are the glory of the Church!  Why rid our history of their glorious deaths?!]

Remembering Christian martyrs is an occasion to examine one’s own life and make sure it corresponds with the Gospel call to love and forgive, he added. [Uhm... archbishop.  The occasion calls us to "if anyone wishes to follow me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me."  I think that is the first thing that needs to come to mind.  And of course forgiving those who planned your (martyr's) death like what Jesus did on the cross, and what most records of martyr's death says like of St. Thomas More, St. Maria Goretti and St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe.] 


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Tertullian once wrote that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church" and it is through the witness of their death that they mirror the death of Jesus Christ, that they inspire other Christians to offer their lives for God and for His Holy Church.

By the way, the word martyr came from the Greek word μάρτυς, mártys, which means "witness."

That comment of Archbishop Negro about the martyrs really has me scratching my head.  Really makes me wonder what all that hullabaloo was all about.

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RANT TIME!

News came from the Catholic Herald.  Unfortunately, while I scour the web for this kind of news, some smart-aleck Facebook historian just gets the link from the source and does not even acknowledge this lowly blog as the source of the news.  How did I know?

Hello!  I am the owner of the blog.  I can see who visits.

And he says he doesn't visit my blog nor does he agree with my views...

OMG!!!  Pinoy Catholic knows I am reading his blog!
Better change my drama....

A little known fact about the Titanic

Who hasn't seen the 1997 movie, huh?

Now they release it on 3D?  What new ending?

Part 2 if you ask the pirates at Quiapo and Greenhills.

What?!  The Titanic sunk again?!

Seriously.  I even saw DVDs at Quiapo being offered to me:  "The Passion of the Christ 2"

Goodness gracious.

But going back.

There is something most people don't know about the Titanic.

Yup, we all know how it sank, the aftermath, who most of the people are, but we don't know, as Catholics, this little known fact:

THERE WAS A CATHOLIC PRIEST ON BOARD TITANIC WHEN IT SANK...

AND HE DIED DOING WHAT A CATHOLIC PRIEST MUST DO:

COMFORT THE GRIEF STRICKEN AND ABSOLVE PEOPLE OF THEIR SINS.

An Apostle of the Divine Mercy on board!

Yup, the priest, according to witnesses, refused several offers to be in the lifeboats, instead helping women and children into the boats, while he stayed behind to do what he must do.

He is Rev. Fr. Thomas Byles. He was born on 26 February 1870. His birthname was Roussel Davids Byles, the eldest of seven children of a congregationalist minister. He studied theology at Oxford in 1889 and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1894. It was at Oxford that he converted to the Catholic faith, taking the name Thomas at his baptism. In 1899, he went to the Beda College in Rome to study for the priesthood, and was ordained in 1902. He was assigned to St. Helen's Parish in Chipping Ongar, Essex in 1905.

His younger brother William, who also was received into the Catholic Church, invited him to officiate his wedding at New York which prompted big brother Father Byles to make the trip via the RMS Titanic. He said Mass on the morning of the sinking, Low Sunday, 14 April 1912, for both second- and third-Class passengers in their respective lounges. Ironically, his sermon was on the need for a spiritual lifebelt in the shape of prayer and the sacraments when in danger of spiritual shipwreck in times of temptation.

Reportedly, Father Byles was strolling on the upper deck reciting his Divine Office when the Titanic struck the iceberg. As the ship was sinking, he assisted many third-class passengers up to the Boat Deck to the lifeboats. Towards the very end, Fr. Byles prayed the rosary and other prayers, heard confessions, and gave absolution to more than a hundred passengers who remained trapped on the stern of the ship after all of the lifeboats had been launched.  It was even reported that he comforted and prayed with people of other faiths while the ship was sinking.  His presence comforted the troubled crowd.  Even the Jews and Protestants were praying the Rosary with him.  (Read it about it here.)

An artist's rendition of Fr. Byles comforting the passengers

A witness said:

'Continuing the prayers, he led us to where the boats were being lowered. Helping the women and children in he whispered to them words of comfort and encouragement.'
(The Evening World, April 22 1912 Miss Bertha Moran)

Third Class passenger Ellen Mary Mockler described his actions from her position in lifeboat No.No. 16:

"After I got in the boat, which was the last one to leave, and we were slowly going further away from the ship, I could hear distinctly the voice of the priest (Byles) and the responses to his prayers. Then they became fainter and fainter, until I could only hear the strains of 'Nearer My God, to Thee' and the screams of the people left behind." - Ellen Mary Mockler

His body was never found, or even if recovered was not identified as most of the bodies taken out of sea were immediately buried without being properly identified.

Learning of his death, and his heroism, his brothers installed a stained glass window in his memory at St. Helen's Catholic Church in Chipping Ongar, Essex. A stained glass window in the same church was also inaugurated and blessed in his memory. The window dedicated shows St. Patrick, the Good Shepherd, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

 The inscription reads:

Pray for the Revd Thomas Byles, for eight years rector of this mission, whose heroic death in the disaster to SS Titanic, April 15, 1912, earnestly devoting his last moments to the religious consolation of his fellow passengers, this window commemorates.

His family reportedly had an audience with Pope St. Pius X who after learning of his heroic deed said that Fr. Byles died "a martyr."

He has three times been portrayed in films about the disaster. In the 1979 television movie S.O.S. Titanic, he was portrayed by Matthew Guinness. In the 1997 film, Titanic, he was portrayed by James Lancaster, reciting Revelation 21:4 (at right). Richard Basehart plays a thinly-disguised Father Byles in the 1953 film.

So the next time someone talks to you about the Titanic, DO NOT FORGET this priest who died, doing his duty as an ordained Roman Catholic priest and died giving his place up for somebody else.

Hmmm...wasn't that what St. Maximilian did?

Now, you know what that means.


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Read more about the life and saintly heroism of the unknown priest of the Titanic by visiting the website dedicated to his life, memory and his heroism by clicking here.