Janeir-4-acem Sogglem Santam

Janeir Char-acem festam; Menology Entry for January 4: 

Octave of the Holy Innocents (RM); 

Feast of the Apparitions of Our Lady of the Roses at Albano & Bergamo, in Lombardy, Italy, January 4, 1417 A.D.: 

On the night between January 3 & 4, 1417 A D., two merchants from Romagna, heading from Brescia to Bergamo, found themselves lost in a thicket in the village of Albano; Bergamo is only eight km away, but for them, lost in the darkness, among brambles & snow-covered marshes, there is no escape, they feel like they are dying of cold & fear. They therefore turned fervently to the Lord, invoked the Mother of God & vowed to build a chapel, if they can free themselves from that desperate situation. Suddenly, rays of light from the sky break the darkness & a strip of luminous dew shows them the way. With relieved & grateful spirits they follow that path that seems to say to them, "This is the way, walk in it!" until it comes out onto the main road; then, accompanied by a friendly light, they quickly reach Bergamo. Their desire is to immediately thank Our Lady in the Basilica of Our Lady at Bergamo, but this church, given the hour of the night, is still closed. They find shelter in the nearby ruined tower, ruined by the wars, left abandoned & open. They entered it with fear & uncertainty because of the thick darkness, with the desire to pray & give thanks for their deliverance, but a great light envelopes them, & they behold, quite high from the ground, sitting on a wreath of roses that completely envelope her, the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus clasped to her chest, who also holds in one hand a small bunch of white roses, in the act of offering it to His mother. The eyes of the Madonna & those of her Divine Son, are turned complacently towards the two merchants, beside themselves with that spectacle of paradise. Truly very sweet this apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a baby Jesus in her arms who offers her roses, how can one not be moved by such splendor! The place of the apparition was called, from that night, the Colle di Rosate. When day broke, the news spread like wildfire, reaching the Bishop & the civil authorities; everyone considered the prodigious event to be a sign of benevolence from heaven for the city of Bergamo afflicted by so many problems, for Italy tormented by enmities & discord, for the Church torn apart by the Great Western Schism. The Franciscan missionary St. Bernardino of Siena, who was in Bergamo at the time, considered that apparition to be a blessing from Our Lady. The same saint also had an apparition of Our Lady, again in 1417, in Siena. The Holy Virgin appeared with great splendor to him, promising to help him in his work of converting sinners. Everyone intended to erect a temple in recognition of the many graces from the Madonna, & they informed the new Pope Martin V, elected by the Council of Constance on November 11 of that same year 1417. It was Pope Martin himself who authorized its construction. The bureaucratic procedures, however, dragged on; the two merchants returned to Albano, to the site of the first vision, bought the land right at the point where the path of light joined the main road to Bergamo, & built a chapel that would attract the devotion of the faithful for 438 years. Devotion to Our Lady of the Roses, or Madonna delle Rose, was rekindled in Albano at the beginning of the cholera epidemic of 1855 A D. The parish priest not only urged his people to turn to Our Lady of the Roses, but also to make a vow to her to erect a sanctuary in place of the chapel if she stopped the contagion. The contagion stopped & on September 20, 1855 A.D. construction of the sanctuary began, which was opened for worship in 1883 (link). The great desire of the faithful would have been to see the Image of Our Lady of the Roses crowned in 1917, the fifth centenary of the Apparition, but that was prevented by WW1, postponing the solemn coronation to Sept. 14, 1920. (Fr. Mario Morra); 

(Pictured: Original, "crowned" icon of Our Lady of Treviso; Prayer Card of St. Jerome before Our Lady of Treviso, & "restored" icon with some damage due to the removal of the crowns).

Feast of Our Lady of St. Jerome of Treviso, or Madonna Granda di San Girolamo di Treviso, the Roman Tarvisium, in Friulia-Julia in Venetia: January 4 celebrates San Girolamo Miani, as he's called in the local dialect, or St. Jerome Emiliani, founder of the Congregation of Semasca, who had experienced, in a marvelous way, the mercy of Our Blessed Lady. A capable soldier, he was entrusted in 1508 A.D. with the defense of Castelnuevo, in Friulia in northeast Italy, when it was captured by his enemies (League of Cambrai, in some accounts). On Sept. 26, 1511, Jerome was imprisoned in a tower, in manacles & leg-irons, & chained to a heavy stone ball around his neck. Being a man of many vices, he began to feel remorse for his past life, almost to the point of despair. Then, he thought of Mary, the Mother of God, as the Mother of Divine Mercy, to her he turned, promising to lead a better life in the future, if this loving Mother would deliver him from his miserable condition. In an instant, Jerome beheld his prison filled with light, & the Blessed Virgin Mary descending from Heaven to loose with her own hands, the chains with which he was bound. Moreover, she handed him a key with which to open the door of the prison & escape. Eluding his captors, he directed his steps to Trevisio. When he arrived, he prostrated himself before the icon of Our Lady & laid on her altar the instruments of his torture; this is said to have happened on Jan. 4, 1512 A.D.; his manacles, leg-irons, & chains are preserved in a glass showcase in the church. He then retired to a life of penance until God sent him companions to start his order, the Congregation of Regular Clerics, at Somasca, a secluded northern Italian hamlet in the comune of Vercurago between Milan & Bergamo, the Somaschi Fathers, also known as the Company of the Servants of the Poor. He was especially concerned with the souls of homeless orphans, & so he established orphanages to care for them. He always exhorted not only these, but all with whom he came in contact, to reverence the powerful Queen of Heaven by often reciting the "Hail Holy Queen" & other Marian hymns. St. Jerome Emilani died a holy death in 1537 A.D. while caring for the victims of plague. Pope Benedict XIV proclaimed him a saint in the year 1767 A.D. The present icon, or a predecessor image, is said to have originated with a church built by St. Prosdocimus, a regionary bishop appointed by St. Peter, & who had a shrine built in the locality of Tolpada under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In that same place in 780 A.D., at the behest of Gebard, probably the first Frankish count of Treviso, the chapel of Our Lady was reconstructed, & subjected to the Benedictine monastery of Nonantola. Between 1463 & 1474, the  shrine, under the care of the Canons Regular of the Lateran of the Most Holy Savior of Venice, the building underwent an expansion project. However, soon after, in 1509 A D., the church was largely demolished to enable new fortifications for the city, as a result of the war between the League of Cambrai & Venice; however, when the demolition reached near the icon, the city rose in revolt, so that it was spared. It was rebuilt in the years 1522-23 in the Lombard Renaissance style by Zaccaria del lago of Lugano. The Church of Our Lady of Treviso is now called the Basilica of Our Lady & of St. Fosca, or, in the Italian language, La Basilica di Santa Fosca in Santa Maria Maggiore (link); The present icon, that was the object of St. Jerome's devotion, is the icon of Our Lady of Grace, or Madonna della Grazie, colloquially called "Madona Granda," in the Friulian language, a fresco attributed to Thomas Barsin or Baffin,or Thomas of Modena (Tommaso Barisini or Baffini, or Tommaso da Modena); 

St. Titus, Apostle, & regionary Bishop of Crete, appointed by the Apostle St. Paul; after having faithfully performed the duty of preaching the Gospel, he reached the end of his blessed life, & was buried in the Church of which he had been made a worthy minister by the holy Apostle (RM); Peter de Natalibus relates that, at age 94, when death approached, St. Titus saw angels coming from heaven in a glorious train to fetch his soul, that his face lit up with joy at their approach, & shone with supernatural splendour; he committed his people to God in long & earnest prayer, & then yielded up his spirit in peace to Christ his Saviour; his body, or relics, were  kept, with great veneration, in the Cathedral of Gortyna; but that city having been ruined by the Saracens, in 823 A.D., the metropolitan see was transferred to Candia, seventeen miles from the ancient Gortyna; there the head of St. Titus was preserved, till it was carried off by the Venetians when Candia was occupied by the pestilential Mahomettan Infidels, & placed by them among the sacred treasures of Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice; on May 15, 1966, the Apostate Vatican2 Sect handed over his skull relic, to the Cacodox heretics, who have placed it in their Demonarium at Heracleium or Heraklion or Candia in Crete; it is said that his feast was first added to the General Calendar of the Roman Rite in 1854 A.D., by Pope Pius IX, for February 6, it is not known when it was changed to January 4, but it was already recorded for Jan. 4 in 1914 A.D.; in 1969, the Whore Church pretended to transfer the Liturgical Feast of St. Titus, from Jan. 4, to Jan. 26, a change that cannot be observed without Grave Mortal Sin, affront to the Divine Majesty of God; 

The Holy Martyrs of Africa, Saints Aquilinus, Geminus, Eugenius, Marcianus, Quinctus, Theodotus, & Tryphonius (RM); 

The Holy Martyrs of Bologna, Saints Hermes, Aggoeus, & Caius, who suffered under the emperor Maximian (RM); 

The Holy Martyrs of Rome, Saints Priscus, a priest, Priscillianus, a cleric, & Benedicta, a religious woman, who ended their martyrdom by the sword in the persecution of Julian the Apostate (RM); 

St. Dafrosa, Martyr; the wife of the martyr St. Flavianus, after her husband had been killed, she was first banished, and then beheaded (RM); 

St. Mavilus, martyr at Adrumetum in Africa, who, being condemned by the most cruel president Scapula, in the persecution of Severus, to be devoured by wild beasts, received the crown of martyrdom (RM); 

St. Gregory, Bishop of Langres, wonderworker or thaumaturge (RM); 

St. Rigobertus, Bishop of Rheims, Confessor (RM);