Displaying items by tag: Calendar of Feasts and Memorials
Feast of St. Albert of Trapani, Priest
7 August Feast
He was the first saint who received devotion in the Carmelite Order, and was even considered it patron and protector (or “father”), a title he shared with another saint of his time, Angelo of Sicily.
Memorial of St. Titus Brandsma, Priest and Martyr
27 July Memorial
Born in the Frisian city of Bolsward, Holland, in 1881, St. Titus Brandsma joined the Carmelites in 1898 at the age of 17. He made his first profession in 1899 and then he was ordained to the priesthood in 1905. On July 26, 1942, he was killed by lethal injection in the Dachau concentration camp by the Nazis. He was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on 3rd November 1985 and was canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, in St Peter’s Square.
A brief Biography
International Hymn for the Canonization
Mass with the Carmelite Family - St. Paul Outside the Walls
May 14, 2022
Celebrant: Míċeál O’Neill, O. Carm. - Prior General of the Carmelite Order
Watch here
Mass of Canonization - St. Peter’s Square
May 15, 2022
Celebrant: Pope Francis
Papal Homily on May 15 (in various languages):
[Arabic - English - French - German - Italian - Polish - Portuguese - Spanish]
Mass of Thanksgiving - Altar of the Chair (St. Peter’s Basilica)
May 16, 2022
Celebrant: Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht
Watch here
The Highlights of the Canonization of St. Titus Brandsma
with Fr. Roderick Stories
Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne, Protectors
The feast of the Protectors of the Order is celebrated with special solemnity that is the feast of Saints Joseph, Joachim and Anne. The names of the parents of Mary are known from the apocryphal “Proto-Gospel of James” (II century).
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Solemnity of Elijah, Prophet
Elijah's memory was kept alive especially on Mount Carmel where he challenged the people to stop hobbling first on one foot and then on the other but to choose who is God in Israel - Yahweh or Baal.
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∗ The Prophet Elijah– This statue was created by Louis Laumen (https://www.louislaumen.com/) for the Golden Anniversary of Whitefriars College in Melbourne, Australia in 2010. The statue stands at the entrance to the school chapel while the nearby Reflective Garden contains a sculpture of Mary and the adolescent Jesus, capturing the two major inspirations of Carmelite spirituality.
Memorial of Bl. Jane Scopelli, Virgin
From the Ashes, New Flames
By the second half of the 18th century, religious life had been hollowed out by the continual interference of Catholic monarchs in the Order’s internal affairs. Joachim Smet, in his monumental history of the Order, writes “the frontal attack of the French Revolution, Napoleon, and the liberal governments left only ruins.”
He continues “The enemies of the Church failed to realize that they were robbing religious not only of their material possessions but also that pearl of great price for which they had sole their all: a life of intimacy with God in prayer in the goodly company of brothers. The destruction of their life of prayer in community was the severest deprivation religious suffered. Also, by being unjustly deprived of their right to exist as corporate bodies, religious could no longer live the life of evangelical poverty to which they were committed in conscience by the most solemn promises.”
The secretary of the Congregation of the State of Religious Orders, in a preliminary report to Pope Pius IX (1847) painted a dark picture of the state to which religious life had been reduced. Yet for the Carmelite Order, now on the point of extinction, this period saw an increasing number of its members being recognized by the Church as “blesseds.” In addition to Jane Scopelli, the 15th century Carmelite nun, in 1771, the Church honored Angelus Augustine Mazzinghi (1761), Aloysius Rabata (1841), Avertanus and Romaeus (1842), Louis Morbioli (1843), Jacobinus (1845), Frances d’Amboise (1863), Archangela Girlani (1864), John Soreth (1866), and Baptist of Mantua (1885).
Read more about Blessed Jane Scopelli here
Memorial of Bl. Hilary Januszewski, Martyr
On his return to Poland he was appointed professor of Dogmatic Theology and Church History at the institute of the Polish Province in Cracow. On 1 November 1939, Fr. Eliseus Sánchez-Paredes, Provincial, appointed him prior of the community. At that time, Poland had already been occupied by the Germans a few weeks earlier. One year later, the invaders decreed the arrest of many religious and priests. On 18 September 1940 the gestapo deported four friars from the Carmel in Cracow. In December, when other friars were arrested, Fr. Hilary decided to present himself in exchange for an older and sick friar. From that day his Calvary began. He was sent to the prison of Montelupi (Cracow), then to the concentration camp of Sachsenchausen and in April 1941 to the concentration camp of Dachau. There he was a model of prayer life, encouraging others and giving hope for a better tomorrow. Together with the other Carmelites, among whom was Blessed Titus Brandsma, they often joined in prayer.
Meanwhile in barrack 25 of the concentration camp, typhus was spreading. To help the sick, 32 priests presented themselves to the authorities. A couple of days later, Fr. Hilary Januszewski spontaneously joined the group. His apostolate lasted 21 days because, infected by typhus, he died on 25 March 1945, a few days before the liberation of the concentration camp. His body was cremated in the crematorium of Dachau.
Fr. Hilary Januszewski was beatified by John Paul II on 13 June 1999, during his apostolic visit to Warsaw (Poland). On this occasion the Pope beatified 108 Polish martyrs of the Second World War, victims of Nazi persecution.
A multi-lingual book on Bl. Hilary Januszewski is available from Edizioni Carmelitane. The book, giving the reader insight into this Carmelite's life and ultimate gift of his own life for other prisoners, is written in Polish, English, Italian and Spanish and can be purchased at a special price for his feast day for only 12 EUR (shipping expenses not included).
To place your order please contact Edizioni Carmelitane:
TEL.: +39-0646201807
FAX: +39-0646201808
C.C.P.: 14069009
BIC/SWIFT: BPPIITRRXXX
IBAN: IT67 Z076 0103 2000 0001 4069 009
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Feast of St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, Virgin
Mary Magdalene bore the surname of the noble family of Pazzi in Florence. Already by the 15th century, the Pazzi family exercised great political power. She was born on 2nd April 1566, given a good education and, from her childhood, she had a deep sense of the presence of God, a great love for the Eucharist and a longing to live a penitential life. Contrary to the usual practice but, with the consent of her confessor, she was allowed to make her first communion at the age of ten years. When she was seventeen years, she was accepted by the Carmelite nuns of Saint Mary of the Angels in Florence, her native city. During her novitiate, she had a serious illness which lasted for two months and brought her close to death. As a result, she was allowed to anticipate her profession. However, she recovered and for three years she was assistant mistress of novices, then sacristan, and, for a further six years, mistress of novices. Also, for a period, she had charge of the junior professed and in 1604 she was elected subprioress. Her continuous physical sufferings and severe spiritual trials were a great burden but she was enriched by God with extraordinary graces. She died on 25th May 1607. She was beatified in 1626 and canonized on 28th April 1669.
Read more here
Blessed Archangela Girlani
Prayer
Father in heaven,
you gave the virgin Blessed Archangela Girlani
particular dedication to the mystery of the eternal Trinity.
Through her prayers
may we taste the delights of your glory
already here on earth,
and look upon you for ever in heaven.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
Blessed Angelo Paoli, priest
Angelo was born on September 1, 1642.
His life can be divided into two periods: the years spent in his religious province of Tuscany, and those spent in Rome.
Wherever he had worked during the first period of his religious life, he had given a fine impression as a religious steeped in silence, prayer and mortification, but, above all, given to the works of charity, both spiritual and corporal, in favor of the sick and the poor.
In Rome he had the care of the two hospitals (for men and for women) of St. John and established the hospice for the convalescent poor on the street that led from the Colosseum to the basilica of St. John Lateran.
His motto was: "Whoever loves God must go to find Him among the poor".
New Liturgical Calendar Approved
The Vatican has approved a new liturgical calendar for the Order. The Order was notified on November 18, 2021, by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The calendar was approved and signed by officials at the congregation on November 6, 2021, the Feast of Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira.
Fr. Michael Farrugia, the procurator general of the Order, has written a letter to the Order explaining the changes. This letter and the new calendar as well as some accompanying documents are now posted on the Order’s website.
Some modifications were made to the 1972 Proper Calendar which has been in use until now. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments revised the levels and dates of the celebrations according to the 1999 norms. The new calendar is divided into two parts: the first is intended for celebrations in the whole Order, while the second is an Appendix, for celebrations intended exclusively for local areas. In the first part the dates and levels of the celebrations are indicated: solemnity, feast, and obligatory memorial. Some ‘optional memorials’ have been moved to the Appendix, whereas previously they could be celebrated throughout the Order. Now they are allowed in certain regions.
This is further explained in Fr. Michael's letter and in the accompanying documents:
Read pdf here (121 KB) the Letter to the Order, by Fr. Michael Farrugia O. Carm.
Read pdf here (42 KB) the Decree on the Calendarium proprium
Read pdf here (16 KB) the Approval of the Calendarium proprium
Read pdf here (68 KB) the Calendarium proprium
