Julh-18-acem Sogglem Santam
July 18: Feast of Our Lady of Good Deliverance or Notre Dame de la Bonne Delivrance. (Nossa Senhora do Bom Livramento).
«In the chapel of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Thomas of Villeneuve (open to the public), 52 Blvd. d'Argenson, Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside of Paris, 14th century, is a revered holy image of Our Lady replacing the original 11th century version of The Black Virgin of Paris. Like the original, it is a 150 cm tall, painted limestone, statue. France, known as "the Eldest Daughter of the Church" is a country rooted in Catholicism, where her love of the faith is depicted in its magnificent Cathedrals, literature, sacred music, artistic works of paintings, frescoes and sculptures. Prayer books contain Illuminations penned in gold leaf and plant colors, and the very air holds the fragrance of religion. In France, Marian devotion runs deep in the hearts of the faithful. One of the first recorded apparitions of our Lady was at Le-Puy, France in the year 70 A.D. A Shrine at LePuy was erected and has drawn many saints and faithful throughout the centuries. Today in France, there is still a distinct dedication to Our Lady of Good Deliverance. This devotion refers to a classic fourteenth century gothic statue of the Virgin holding the Child Jesus, both coal black in color. The Virgin wears a white veil and a dark blue mantle dotted with fleur-de-lis over a red robe. A Confraternity in honor of Our Lady of Good Deliverance was established in 1533 by Jacques Olier, and numbered thousands of members, which included aristocratic and common members alike. The society was dedicated to honor God and his "very dignified Mother, the glorious Virgin Mary to keep a singular devotion alive in all real Christian men and women." The group organized processions and aided prisoners, paying their debts when possible. Our Lady of Good Deliverance was invoked in all needs, tragedies and sufferings, spiritual and temporal. In 1587 the young St Francis de Sales knelt before her in desperation, believing he was destined for the eternal fires. He prayed the Memorare prayer that was set before the statue and instantly his darkness left him and he was filled with joy and consolation. He immediately made a vow of celibacy before God and the Virgin Mary. Many other French saints came to ask for Our Lady’s help, including St Vincent de Paul and Jacques Olier, founder of The Sulpicians. The Statue had been situated in the church "St Etienne des Grès" (St Stephen of the Graces) but that church was destroyed during the "Revolution." A rich, pious lady named Madame de Carignan bought the statue and venerated it in her private home until she was arrested during the Reign of Terror. While she was in jail, she prayed to Our Lady of Good Deliverance with others who had been arrested for their faith, including the Sisters of St Thomas. When they were all freed in 1806, Madame de Carignan retrieved the statue and donated it to the Sisters in thanksgiving to Our Lady for having survived imprisonment. The statue is now located in the Thomasian Convent ata Neuilly-sur-Seine. The Sisters of St Thomas pray every day in the chapel on behalf of families, the sick, religious vocations, those who have entrusted themselves to the Virgin, and peace in the world.»
July 18: Feast of Our Lady of Trockerousa in the Byzantine Rite.
July 18, 1666: Consecration of New France to the Holy Family.
July 18, 1830: During the night between July 18 and July 19, the Mother of God appeared to St. Catherine Labouré for the first time. This vision is often referred to as "Virgin of the Chair."
Major Feast: St Camillus of Lellis, confessor, founder of the Clerks Regular ministering to the sick, whose birthday in the Lord, is July 14, but today is his Liturgical feast. Pope Leo XIII declared him Celestial Patron of hospitals and the infirm. (RM).
Major Feast: St Arnulf of Metz, also called Arnoul. A courtier who retired to live as a hermit, and was made bishop of Metz, he is also the progenitor of the Arnulfings, from whom the Pepinids and subsequently the Carolingians, are descended. He was illustrious for holiness and the gift of miracles. (He is one of my Patron Saints). (RM) See Appendix.
COLLECTIVE OF MARTYRS
The Holy Martyrs of Tivoli St Symphorosa, wife of the martyr St Getulius, with her seven sons, Saints Crescens, Julian, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justinus, Stacteus, and Eugenius, martyrs under Emperor Hadrian. Their mother, because of her invincible constancy, was first buffeted a long time, then suspended by her hair, and lastly thrown into the river with a stone tied to her body. Her sons had their limbs distended by pulleys and bound to stakes, and terminated their martyrdom by different kinds of death. The bodies were subsequently taken to Rome, and were found in the sacristy of St. Angelo in Piscina in the time of Pope Pius IV. (RM).
COLLECTIVE OF NON-MARTYRS
Saints Edburga and Edith of Aylesbury, or of Bicester, sisters, virgins, Anglo-Saxon princesses, daughters of King Penda of Mercia, who became nuns at Aylesbury. (I&CS).
INDIVIDUAL SAINTS
St Aemilianus or Emilianus, martyr, his birthday today in the Lord. He was cast into a furnace, at Dorostorum in Mysia, now Silistria in Bulgaria, in the time of Julian the Apostate and the governor Capitolinus, and thus received the palm of martyrdom. (RM).
St Arnulf of Aquiline, also called Arnoul, martyr, preached the faith among the Franks after St Remigius had baptized King Clovis. He suffered much in his apostolic labours, and was at length martyred in the Aquiline forest between Paris and Chartres, about the year 534. His name is highly reverenced at Paris, Rheims, and over all France. (AB).
St Bruno, bishop of Segno, and confessor. (RM).
St Cobhthach, abbot of Kildare in Ireland. (I&CS).
St Frederick, bishop of Utrecht, his birthday in the Lord as a martyr today. (RM).
St Goneri was exiled from Britain to Brittany, where he was a hermit near Treguier. (I&CS).
St Gundenes, virgin, martyred at Carthage today. By order of the proconsul Rufinus, she was four different times stretched on the rack for the faith of Christ, horribly lacerated with iron hooks, confined for a long time in a filthy dungeon, and finally put to the sword. (RM).
St Marina, virgin, her birthday in the Lord today as a martyr in the Iberian Galicia. (RM).
St Maternus, bishop of Milan. For the faith of Christ and the Church entrusted to him, he was thrown into prison and often scourged in the time of Maximian. Finally he went to his rest in the Lord with a great renown for his repeated confession of the faith. (RM)
St Minnborinus, an Irishman, abbot of St Martin's abbey at Cologne. (I&CS).
St Odulph, Canon of Utrecht, Confessor, his birthday in the Lord is June 12, he was a close collaborator of St Frederick of Utrecht, Martyr, he is probably celebrated today in conjunction with him. (AB).
St Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, who in speech and writing combated heretics, especially the Arians, from whom he suffered much. Finally, he died in peace, today, renowned for miracles. (RM)
St Ruffillus, bishop of Forlimpopoli, in Aemilia (Emilia Romagna). (RM)
St Teneu or Thenew, also Theneva, Tannoch, Thaney, Thanea, Denw, etc. is a saint who is venerated in Glasgow, Scotland. She was a sixth-century Brittonic princess of the ancient kingdom of Gododdin (in what became Lothian) and the mother of Saint Kentigern, apostle to the Britons of Strathclyde and founder of the city of Glas Ghu, now Glasgow. She and her son are regarded as the city's co-patrons, and Glasgow's St Enoch Square marks the site of a medieval chapel dedicated to her, built on or near her grave. "St Enoch" is in fact a corruption of "St Teneu." She has been described as "Scotland's first recorded rape victim, battered woman and unmarried mother." Her son was conceived when the Welsh prince Owain mab Urien raped her. Owain was disguised as a woman, and after sexually assaulting the naive princess, he confused her by saying, "Weep not, my sister, for I have not known thee as a man is used to know a virgin. Am I not a woman like thyself?" Upon discovering her pregnancy, her angry father King Lleuddun (King Lot, or Loth, Lothian is named for him), sentenced her to death and she was hurled down from the hill of Traprain Law. Miraculously she survived the fall; when discovered alive at the foot of the cliff, she was set adrift in a coracle and travelled across the Firth of Forth to Culross, where she was given shelter at the community of St Serf. There she gave birth to and raised her son Kentigern, whom Serf nicknamed "Mungo," or "very dear one." (I&CS).
APPENDIX
I hadn't known that St Arnulf of Metz is the Patron Saint of Beer!
Arnulf of Metz (c. 582 – 645) also known as Arnoul, Arnoulf and Arnold, was an advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia, made bishop of Metz. He later retired to the Abbey of Remiremont. The Vita Sancti Arnulfi, written shortly after the saint's death, states that he was of Frankish ancestry, from "sufficiently elevated and noble parentage, and very rich in worldly goods." Shortly after 800, most likely in Metz, a brief genealogy of the Carolingians was compiled. According to this source, Arnulf's father was a certain Arnoald, also a bishop of Metz, who in turn was the son of Ansbertus and Blithilt or Blithilde, an alleged and otherwise unattested daughter of Chlothar I. Under Salic Law no children of Blithilde would be recognized as legitimate heirs to the dynasty, so an event like this would hardly be recorded, least remembered after many centuries. Arnulf was identified as a Frank in contemporary documents, whereas Arnoald was identified by St Paul the Deacon as a Roman. Based on the Vita Gundolphi Arnulf's father was Bodegisel, a Frankish noble. There is evidence that Arnulf was descended in the male line from an ancient Roman senatorial family, the Ferreolii, related to Emperor Avitus, but that the Gaulish branch had deeply integrated into the Franks, even marrying into the Merovingian Dynasty, which was later supplanted by the Peppinids / Carolingians descended from St Arnulf. Arnulf was born to an important Frankish family near Nancy in Lorraine around 582. The family owned vast domains between the Moselle and Meuse rivers. As an adolescent, he was called to the Merovingian court of king Theudebert II (595–612) of Austrasia where he was educated by St Gondulf of Provence. Arnulf was later sent to serve as dux at the Schelde. Arnulf gave distinguished service at the Austrasian court under Theudebert II. He distinguished himself both as a military commander and in the civil administration; at one time he had under his care six distinct provinces. Arnulf was married ca 596 to a noblewoman whom later sources give the name of Dode or Doda, (born ca 584), the paternal aunt of St Glodesind of France, an abbess of a convent in Metz. Chlodulf of Metz was their oldest son, but more important is his second son Ansegisel, who married St Begga daughter of Pepin I, Pepin of Landen. Arnulf is thus the male-line grandfather of Pepin of Herstal, great-grandfather of Charles Martel and 3rd great-grandfather of Emperor St Charlemagne. Around 611, he and his friend Romaricus, likewise an officer of the court, planned to make a pilgrimage to the Abbey of Lérins. Chlothachar, who appreciated Arnulf's administrative skills, offered him the vacant see of Metz, the capital of the Autrasian kingdom. His wife took the veil as a nun in a convent at Treves, and Arnulf saw it as a sign of God and became a priest and bishop thereafter. Arnulf continued to serve as the king's steward and courtier. The rule of Austrasia came into the hands of Brunhilda, the grandmother of Theudebert, who ruled also in Burgundy in the name of her great-grandchildren. In 613 Arnulf joined with Pepin of Landen and led the opposition of Frankish nobles against Queen Brunhilda. The revolt led to her overthrow, torture, and eventual execution, and the subsequent reunification of Frankish lands under Chlothachar II. Chlothachar later made his son Dagobert I king of Austrasia, which he ruled with the help of his adviser Arnulf. Pepin of Landen, became the Mayor of the Palace. In 624 Pepin and Arnulf encouraged Dagobert in the murder of Chrodoald, an important leader of the Frankish Agilolfings family. In 625 Arnulf took part in a council held by the Frankish bishops at Reims. Arnulf was tormented by the violence that surrounded him and feared that he had played a role in the wars and murders that plagued the ruling families. Obsessed by these sins, Arnulf went to a bridge over the Moselle river. There he took off his bishop's ring and threw it into the river, praying to God to give him a sign of absolution by returning the ring to him. Many penitent years later, a fisherman brought to the bishop's kitchen a fish in the stomach of which was found the bishop's ring. Arnulf repaid the sign of God by immediately retiring as bishop and becoming a hermit for the remainder of his life. At the moment Arnulf resigned as bishop, a fire broke out in the cellars of the royal palace and threatened to spread throughout the city of Metz. Arnulf, full of courage and feeling unity with the townspeople, stood before the fire and said, "If God wants me to be consumed, I am in His hands." He then made the sign of the cross at which point the fire immediately died out. In 628 he retired to a hermitage at a mountain site in his domains in the Vosges to become a monk. His friend Romaric, whose parents had been killed by Brunhilda, had preceded him to the mountains around 613. Romaric and Amatus had already established Remiremont Abbey there. During an outbreak of the plague, a monk named Arnold, who had established a monastery in Oudenburg, persuaded people to drink beer in place of water and when they did, the plague disappeared. Arnold spent his holy life warning people about the dangers of drinking water because beer was safe and water wasn't. "From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world," he would say. There is reason to believe that this Arnold is not the same as St Arnulf but have been conflated due to their mutual connection with beer. After the death of Chlothachar in 629, Arnulf settled near Habendum, where he died some time between 643 and 647. He was buried at Remiremont. In July 642, it was very hot when the parishioners of Metz went to Remiremont to recover the remains of their former bishop. They had little to drink and the terrain was inhospitable. At the point when the exhausted procession was about to leave Champigneulles, one of the parishioners, Duc Notto, prayed, "By his powerful intercession, St Arnold will bring us what we lack." Immediately the small remnant of beer at the bottom of a pot multiplied in such amounts that the pilgrims' thirst was quenched and they had enough to enjoy the next evening when they arrived in Metz. For this reason he is known as the patron saint of Brewers.
