April Saints

By Kilian de Lacy

Feast: 7 April

Blessed Maria
Assunta Pallotta
(1878-1905)

Maria Assunta was born in Piceno, Italy. In her youth she was obliged to perform every manner of lowly service in order to help her impoverished parents. She attracted everybody by her modest reserve. Jesus in the tabernacle was the love of her soul.

After she had been invested with the habit of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, she formed a definite resolution which became the motto of her life: “I will become a saint!” She delighted in taking the last place.

On the journey to the Chinese missions in the spring of 1904, a severe storm arose. She was asked whether she was afraid, but she calmly replied: “I have nothing to fear. It is all the same to me whether I arrive at my goal or whether I am drowned in the depths of the sea. Just so that the will of God is accomplished”.

At the Franciscan mission of Tung-er-kow in Shansi, Maria was at once appointed to duties in an orphanage. Meanwhile, her union with God was so intimate that no external occupation could disturb it. Within a year after her arrival in China, Mary Assunta was attacked by typhus and died a victim of love on April 5, 1905, at twenty-seven years of age. Pagans as well as Christians hastened to her grave to implore her powerful intercession in the most varied needs.

Blessed Maria, obtain for us a missionary spirit.

^{Source: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/blessed-mary-assunta-pallotta.html}

Feast: 16 April

Saint Engratia
(d. 303)

Engratia was a native of Braga, Spain, who had been promised in marriage to a nobleman of Roussillon (in modern France). As her escort to Gaul, he sent her uncle Lupercius, along with sixteen noblemen and a servant called Julia.

Upon reaching Zaragoza, they learned of, and were caught up in, the persecution of Christians by the governor Dacia. Engratia attempted to dissuade the governor from his persecutions but was whipped and imprisoned when it was discovered that she was a Christian.

She survived this torture, but died soon after of her wounds, receiving a martyr’s crown along with her companions, among them, her brother Valentine.

Saint Engratia, give us the courage to endure suffering in the name of Christ.

^{Source: http://ww1.antiochian.org/node/18244}

Feast: 20 September

Saint Gaetano
Catanoso
(1879-1963)

Gaetano Catanoso was born in Chorio di San Lorenzo, Italy, the son of wealthy landowners. His parents, exemplary Christians, fostered his vocation to the priesthood. Gaetano entered the local seminary and was ordained in 1902, serving for 17 years in the rural parish of Pentidattilo.

Father Gaetano had a great devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, and began The Holy Face Bulletin. He also established the Confraternity of the Holy Face in 1920. He once wrote: “The Holy Face is my life. He is my strength”.

In 1921, he was transferred to a large parish where his versatility and ability to serve peacefully and diligently in difficult parish situations earned him a reputation for holiness. Father Gaetano drew people to Christ by reviving Eucharistic and Marian devotions. He promoted catechetical instruction and crusaded against blasphemy. He enlisted ‘flying squads’ of priests who went into individual communities to promote the faith. He felt it his duty as a priest to help children and young people who lacked role models and risked being corrupted, as well as abandoned older persons and priests who were isolated and without support. In short, he saw the Face of Christ in all who suffered.

Father Gaetano often spent hours or entire days in prayer before the tabernacle, and in the parish and beyond he promoted Eucharistic adoration. He served as confessor at religious institutes, chaplain at hospitals and spiritual director of the Archiepiscopal Seminary.

In 1934, he founded the Congregation of the Daughters of St Veronica, Missionaries of the Holy Face. Its mission: constant prayer of reparation, humble service in worship, catechesis, assistance to children, youth, priests and the elderly. He opened the first convent in Reparo, and the Congregation received its diocesan approval in 1958. Father Gaetano died in April 1963.

Saint Gaetano, teach us to look for and discover the face of Christ in everyone.

^{Source: Internet – various}