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Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh

Saint Agnes

Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh
Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh/6

Saint Agnes was born in North Vietnam in 1781. She was raised as a Christian, married young and raised 6 children.

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At this time, the Mandarin Emperor, Ming, was actively persecuting Christians. For many years Saint Agnes, fully aware of the danger to herself, hid the local Catholic priests who had to stay hidden even while preforming the sacraments throughout the villages. The Saint found them safe sanctuary, even hiding them in her home, and then helped them to travel under disguise.
Saint Agnes of Vietnam

At age 63, she was arrested and told that she must renounce the Christian Faith. She refused, and the magistrate ordered her to be beaten, humiliated, and jailed. When her husband came to visit her in jail he was horrified by the blood and bruises where she had been beaten on the legs with sticks. Saint Agnes said:

” Thanks to the graces of Our Lady, I can bear this pain.”

Agnes of Vietnam

The jailers then bound her legs and put poisonous snakes in her pants. Saint Agnes was in great fear, but she asked God to give her courage and was able to hold stock still so that the snakes did not bite her.

When the Saint’s daughter was allowed to visit her in jail, she began to cry piteously at the sight of her mother’s many dark red bruises. Saint Agnes comforted her daughter saying:

“Do not lament me, my daughter, these are the red roses of courage”.

She died in jail from her wounds.

Saint Agnes of VietnamShe is one of the Vatican’s estimated 130,000 to 300,000 martyrs of Vietnam.
Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh

Saint Gnes Le Thi Thanh

Agnes Le Thi Thanh

Saint Agnes Le Thi Thanh 7

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz is the Patron Saint of the Philippines

Born in Manila to a Filipino mother and a Chinese father, Saint Lorenzo was an alter boy and was educated by Dominican Friars.

He grew up, working as a calligrapher for the Dominicans, married, and fathered two sons and a daughter.
He was accused of a murder and sought asylum on a ship with three Dominican priests. He did not realize until they were underway, that the Dominicans were on a dangerous mission to Japan. At this time the Shogun was actively persecuting Christians.

 

When they landed, all were immediately thrown into prison where they remained for two years. They were then sent to Nagasaki Japan, to be tried by torture such as bamboo splinters under the fingers and waterboarding. They were found guilty of being Christian, and were hung upside down inside a pit of garbage until death.

During the torture, he was offered his life if he would recant his faith.  Saint Lorenzo’s last words are reported to be ” Had I a thousand lives , all these to him I should offer”.

Saint Lorenzo was a full member of the Co fraternity of the Holy Rosary

Saint Lucy Yi Zhenmei of China

Saint Lucy was born to Catholic parents in Sichuan in 1815. Devout and pious from a young age, she made a vow of chastity at the age of 12.

At the request of local priests, she taught the faith for many years in schools and in a convent as well as doing missionary work.

In 1862, she went with Father Wen Nair to Jiahanlong to found a mission. Many of the Friars, including Father Wen, were arrested and executed. The day after the execution, Lucy was put on trial. She refused to recant her faith, and was beheaded. Her feast day is February 19.

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Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Saint Kateri NoelSaint kateriSaint Kateri
Kateri Tekakwitha

Saint Kateri was born in Upstate N.Y. in 1656 to a Christian Algonquin woman who had been given as a captive to her father, a Mohawk chief. Her family was ravaged by smallpox when she was 4 years old and she lost both of her parents and her brother. She survived with disfiguring facial scars and such weak eyesight that she was given the name Tekakwitha, meaning ‘ she who bumps into things.’
At 18, Kateri joined the Catholic church. Her family allowed it, but they were staunchly against Christianity. Kateri was ridiculed and shamed constantly due to her faith . Because she would not work on Sundays she was not allowed to eat on that day.

Ins spite of constant pressure and derision, Kateri remained faithful to Christ.

Saint Kateri

The scorn around her built up to the point where her life was threatened and she fled, walking almost 200 miles to a Christian Native Settlement in Canada.

Saint Kateri

After suffering a long illness, she died at the age of 23. Her last words were ‘ I love you Jesus’.

It was reported by witnesses, that after her death her facial scars disappeared and she was radiant.starry-takeri-paler

She is the Patron Saint of the Environment, and is known as The Lily of the Mohawks

She is the first Native American Saint.

Saint kateri

More info http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1444
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kateri tekakwitha art for sale

Saint Augustine Zhao Rong

Saint Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop Dufresse to his martyrdom in Beijing. He was so overcome by the beauty and power of the faith, that even after directly witnessing the danger of being Christian, he had himself baptized.

 

He soon became a priest and ministered for many years. He was arrested for the crime of being a priest and tortured to death in 1815.

It is to be remembered that the persecution of Christians in China had much to do with complex historical and political events. Pope John Paul 11 apologized to China for ‘errors and limits of the past’. For more info http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3159

Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki

Saint magdalene of Nagasaki Noel

Born in 1611 to Christian parents near Nagasaki Japan.This was a time of persecution of Christians in Japan, and both of her parents were martyred when she was about 10 years old.Saint Magdalene poster

 

Saint Magdalene of nagasaki

Magdalene became a lay Augustinian and was the interpreter and catechist for two Augustinian friars who were subsequently burned alive for the crime of being Christian.

Magdalene fled to the hill country and ministered to the people and refuges there.

Seeking to inspire the people during this time of intense persecution, Saint Magdalene turned herself in to the authorities wearing her Augustinian habit and openly confessing to being a follower of Christ.Fall Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki

 

Saint Magdalene was tortured and hung upside down in a pit of garbage for 13 days. On her last day, the pit was filled with water and she drowned.

Saint Magdalene
Saint Magdalene

Her Feast day is September 28.