Benedictus Deus

Over in the side bar, under “Pages” at the top, there is now a link called Purgatorian Manual. Several years ago I was library book sale, and picked up a pocket sized leather bound book from 1930 called the Purgatorian Manual. It was published by the Redemptorist Fathers.

The Manual is a devotional aid in praying for the Holy Souls. For every day of the month it has a short meditation on some aspect of Purgatory, a related prayer for the Holy Souls, a special intercession for the Holy Souls, and a practice for the day. It was originally published in 1930 by the Redemptorist Fathers. As far as I know it is in the public domain. The original manual had a bunch of extra prayers in addition to the daily entries, but most of those are easy enough to find elsewhere, so I did not reproduce them here.

I have found this to be an outstanding resource, and as the Holy Souls are so neglected today, I wanted to make this more widely available.

It’s not fancy, and someday I would like to make it look nicer, maybe add some illustrations. But for now, am happy I got a least the basic text up during the month of the Holy Souls.

To wrap up our unofficial Octave of All Saints focusing on the Fourteen Holy Helpers, here are a couple pictures of the Grünewald altarpiece, by Matthias Grünewald.

Our last pair of Holy Helpers are Sts. Giles patron of cripples, and of making a good confession among many other things,  and Vitus patron against epilepsy.  I never knew anything about St. Giles before I happened to read the Liturgical Year entry on him this year (Sept 1st).  I guess I missed it every other year.  Tuns out he used to be hugely popular.  His shrine in France in the town of St-Gilles-du-Gard was one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Europe right up there with Rome, and Compostela.  There were countless churches, abbeys and hospitals named after him all over Europe.  Among his many patronages, he is also the patron of children when they are scared at night, especially when they have had nightmares (I only found that in LY, it’s not mentioned anywhere else I looked).  So the kids have quickly taken a liking to St. Giles.

Today, during our unofficial Octave Of All Saints, we are featuring St. Dionysius patron against headaches, and St. Margaret of Antioch, patroness of safe child birth.  Remember, St. Dionysius was the one who was martyred by having his head cut off, then, just to show them who is boss, he picked up his head and walked off with it.  Most of us would have just died like a sissy.  But not St. Dionysius.

Next up, probably the most popular after Sts. Christopher and George, are Sts. Blaise of throat blessing fame and Catherine of Alexandria patron against sudden death (like St. Christopher).

Today we have St Barbara, and one of my favorites, St. Eustace.  I knew St. Eustace was the patron of hunters, but I didn’t realize he is also the patron saint of family discord.  So I figured it was good to group him with St. Barbara since she was killed by her father.  I also never realized that St. Barbara is the patron of everything having to do with artillery.  Apparently this due the part of legend that tells how after her father killed her, he was struck by fire from heaven and killed.  So be became associated with anything “death from above”-ish.

Our next pair of Holy Helpers, Sts. Cyriacus, patron against temptations at the time of death, and Erasmus (not to be confused with the snarky renaissance guy), patron against intestinal ailments.

Today we have two lesser known Auxiliary saints.  Saint Agathus of Byzantium, patron against headaches, and Saint Pantaleon patron of physicians and against cancer,  tuberculosis among other things.

Happy All Saints day to everyone.  The Alleluia for the Mass is one of my favorite verses: “Come to Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” (Matt. xi. 28.)  There is a lot of garbage in this world.  Many things can drag you down.  We all mess things up, sometimes we let our friends and loved ones down, sometimes they let us down.  Sometimes its easy to get overwhelmed with all the rot in the world, and even in the Church.  There all manner of other problems, financial, medical, and so on.  I try to be the kind of person who appreciates the good things in life, and rolls with the bad, and mostly that works.  But we all get ground down sometimes and need to be refreshed.  So it always pleasant to hear that verse, especially in the full beauty of a High Mass.

This feast day is also a great reminder that we can make it through the meat grinder, and indeed there are many helpers for us in Heaven.  So in honor of the old Octave of All Saints I am going to celebrate this feast for eight days.  Each day I will try to post some classic art work featuring the Church Triumphant.  In particular I am going to focus on the Fourteen Holy Helpers.  I’ll start with two that don’t need any explanation from me, Sts Christopher and George:

From the commentary on the Feast of Christ the King in the St. Andrew Missal:

The Pontiff points out in his encyclical letter on this occasion that people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any pronouncement, however weighty, of the teaching of the Church…  The Church’s teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both the mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man’s nature.

It seems so obvious, but so many today want to push our festivals and other devotions out of the way, so we can just blend in with the secular, pluralistic society.  All of us need to do all we can to promote the feasts of the Church and integrate them into our homes, parishes and communities.