Andre Zunino

Feast date: Nov 29

Blessed Denis was born in 1600 in Honfleur, France. He became a sailor at the age of twelve, and later on became the pilot-in-chief and cartographer of the courts of Portugal and France. In 1635 while he was in Goa, India, he took on the habit of a Discalced Carmelite Monk.

Blessed Redemptorus of the Cross was born in Portugal at the end of the 16th century. He became a soldier, but later took on the habit of the Discalced Carmelites in 1615.

Together, Denis and Redemptorus set out on mission to the king of Achin in the Malay archipelago. While on their way, they and their party were ambushed and tortured to death by Muslims on November 29, 1638.

They were beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1900.

All Saints of the Seraphic Order (Feast)

Feast date: Nov 29

On November 29, the Church celebrates the many Franciscan saints who followed in the footsteps of St. Francis. It is a special day for all Franciscans to celebrate the feast of ‘All the Saints of the Seraphic Order.’

According to tradition, St. Francis of Assisi prayed the following prayer:

“O Lord Jesus Christ, two favors I beg of you before I die. The first is that I may, as far as it is possible, feel in my soul and in my body the suffering in which you, O gentle Jesus, sustained in your bitter passion. And the second favor is that I, as far as it is possible, may receive in my heart that excessive charity by which you, the Son of God, were inflamed, and which actuated you willingly to suffer so much for us sinners.”

In response to his earnest prayer, the Lord appeared in the form of  a seraph, or a six-winged angel (They are usually considered the highest order of angelic beings, immediately above the Cherubim, and their special duty is to love God).

Then Jesus bestowed on St. Francis the wounds of his suffering. St. Francis had been marked with the love of Christ, the stigmata.

St. Francis died two years later in 1226, leaving the world the Franciscan Order, which became synonymous with the Seraphic Order. To this day, seraph wings and seraphs are symbolic of the Franciscan Order.

The final Rule of life for Franciscan friars was also approved on this day in 1223. To commemorate this, and all the saintly examples produced in the Franciscan Order, on this day all the saints of the Seraphic order are remembered at Franciscan churches.

Feast date: Nov 29

St. Saturninus was the first bishop of Toulouse. It is not known if there were Christians in the town previously, or if his preaching won many converts, but whatever the case, he founded a small church there not long after his arrival. To reach his parish, he had to pass in front of the capitol, where there was a pagan temple. The pagan priests there ascribed the silence of their oracles to his frequent passings. One day they seized him, and when he refused to sacrifice to their idols, they tied his feet to a bull which dragged him around the town until the rope broke. Two devout women gathered his remains and buried them in a deep ditch so that they wouldn’t be profaned by the pagans. His successors, Sts. Hilary and Exuperius, gave him a more honorable burial. A church was erected where the bull stopped, after dragging the dead bishop around the town. It still exists, and is called the church of the Taur (the bull). The body of the saint was transferred at an early date and is still preserved in the Church of St. Sernin (or Saturninus), one of the most ancient and beautiful of Southern France.

Saint Catherine Laboure

Feast date: Nov 28

On November 28, the Church honors St. Catherine Labouré, the humble Daughter of Charity to whom Mary appeared, requesting that the Miraculous Medal be stamped so that all who wear it would receive great graces.

Saint Catherine Labouré was born in France on May 2, 1806. She was the ninth of 11 children. Upon her mother’s death, when Catherine was eight years old, the young girl assumed the responsibilities of the household. It was said of her that she was a very quiet and practical child.

Eventually she became a Daughter of Charity, and when she was still a novice at the age of 24, the Virgin Mary appeared to her for the first time. Later, Mary appeared once again and requested that Catherine have a medal made portraying Mary just as she appeared.

It took two years before Catherine was able to convince her spiritual director to have the medal created, but eventually, he listened to her and 2,000 medals were made. Their dispersal was so rapid and effective that it was said to be miraculous itself.

After the visions ceased, St. Catherine Labouré spent the rest of her life in humble and obedient service as the portress, and worked with the sick in a convent outside of Paris. She spent that time in silence, not telling her superior that she was the one to whom Mary appeared and gave the medal until 45 years after.

She died in Paris on December 31, 1876 and was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII. Her incorrupt body lies in the crypt of the convent.