早於431年厄弗所大公会议，已宣认天主之母（诞神女）的信道，强调耶稣基督是真天主，也是真人。 天主子耶稣基督为了我们的得救，从天降下；他因圣神，由圣母玛利亚取得肉躯，而成为人。
同时，这信道也阐明天主的救世计划，也需要人的合作。 圣母玛利亚，也就是天主救世计划的合作者；她是我们的典范。
1931年教会为纪念厄弗所大公会议1500周年，遂把「天主之母」庆日，移於圣诞後第八天（一月一日）庆祝。
（一月一日本来是罗马神Janus的狂欢节日，教会移风易俗，以「天主之母节」取而代之。）
根据路加福音２：１６－２４，耶稣诞生後八天，便被带去圣殿行割损礼，取名叫耶稣， 从此，圣经上就称玛利亚为「耶稣的母亲」，通常我们在圣经上看到的就是这样。 圣经从来没直接称玛利亚为「天主之母」，虽然圣母领报的时候，天使曾经说过你所生的要称为天主的儿子， 但始终圣经没直接提到圣母是「天主之母」，但很奇怪，教会自第二个世纪以来，一直都是这样称呼圣母为「天主之母」， 甚至在圣经还未被教会肯定之前，就已经这样称呼了。 教会称呼圣母是「天主之母」一定有一个好深的意思，今日我先介绍一下「天主之母」这样的一个称呼在信理上的意义是甚麽， 然後，大家一齐反省：为甚麽这个时代还会这样称呼圣母？这个称呼对我们这个时代的人还有甚麽意义？
首先，很简单地介绍一下「天主之母」在信理上的意义。教会早就知道天主是无始无终的， 这个无始无终的天主是没有母亲的，但教会同时肯定一件事，就是天主降生成人。 圣经上很清楚地说：生於女人（迦４：４），而玛利亚就是耶稣的母亲。 为了肯定耶稣祂既是天主又是人，有真的天主性又有真的人性，教会在这个意义之下称呼圣母为「天主之母」。 所以要小心，当我们讲「天主之母」的时候，其实最主要是想显示出耶稣的身份：祂是真天主又是真人。 圣经上显示耶稣的天主性和祂的人性是很清楚的，无人可以否认。 耶稣作为一个人，在圣经上可以看见耶稣会疲倦、要睡觉、会肚饿、会口渴，祂很多时会伤感， 当祂朋友死时祂会流泪，这是人性的表现，所以很少人会否认耶稣是一个人； 至於作为天主，在圣经上我们见到耶稣会显奇迹，特别是祂宽赦人的罪 － 只有天主才会宽赦人的罪！ 祂又派遣圣神来临，因着祂这个天主性的身份，并且清楚祂自己的身份是怎样，当权的人认为祂亵渎天主， 所以才定祂死罪，至少当权的人给祂的罪名是这样。 所以，圣经上清楚反映出耶稣祂是一个真的人，亦同时是一个真的天主。
初期的基督徒对基督的经验是很新的，所以不难接受耶稣这一个特别的身份 － 在世界上找不到另一个这样的人物，祂是一个真的人又同时是天主。 但是过了几个世纪，早期的基督徒已死光了，基督徒慢慢就能够对耶稣基督的天主性发生怀疑，事实上在自己教会里是发生了。 耶稣作为一个人，大概很少人会否认，但作为天主，却能够对祂的身份发生怀疑， 有些人就会认为这一定是初期的门徒夸大了耶稣所做的一切，所以在第五世纪的时候， 就有一个君士坦丁的主教，名叫聂斯多略（ＮＥＳＴＯＲＩＵＳ），他就认为天主圣子只是暂时寄居在一个名叫耶稣的人身上， 所以，耶稣这个人并不是真天主，只不过是天主子暂时寄居在他身上而已，所以圣母只是耶稣的母亲，不是天主的母亲， 在当时有个这样的讲法，但是教会很清楚，抨击这种将耶稣的身份分裂的讲法，称它为异端。在第五世纪的时候， 有一个大公会议肯定了耶稣的身份，并宣称「天主之母」这一个东西方教会都同时肯定的信理， 主要就是想告诉基督徒耶稣的真正身份是怎样：祂是一个真天主亦是真人。
很简单地介绍了「天主之母」在信理上的意义，可能你听了之後仍是似懂非懂，在听了我们教会历史上有关这个名衔的争论之後， 可能你仍然会质疑：在这个时代再讲「天主之母」还有甚麽意思呢？这个名衔对我的信仰生活有甚麽帮助？ 给我的信仰生活有甚麽启示呢？ 我觉得这一点可能更重要。 过去有关信理上的争论，教会订出了的一些东西，很可能我们就是这样接受了，但是我们要问的也许是第二点， 我觉得我们在这个时代有许多人都像圣多默宗徒那样：见了才信。 我们这个时代就是如此，因为科学太成功了，科学带来的成就太大了，我们个个都感受到并且正享用科学的成果， 所以每个人（起码大部份的人）对科学都有一种崇拜，太相信它，甚至崇拜到有时近乎迷信的地步。 即使我们的宗教信仰都受到这种相信科学的心态影响，许多时我们为了适应这种时代的人的要求， 甚至会将自己的信仰加上一个科学的包装，因为加上一个科学的包装，其可信性就高了，人家就会接受你的信仰， 所以，许多时我们这个时代的人又喜欢说奇迹！我特别记得，在意大利有一件似乎每年都发生的事，就是一个圣人的血， 本来已经是凝固了的，但到了某一个时辰，特别是在他的瞻礼日那天，当拿出这凝固了的血的时候，它就会在你的面前， 甚至在许多电视机镜头对着之下，变成了液体。这件事似乎每年都会发生的。 我们这一代的人特别喜欢看这一类型的东西，看着它变的时候，基督徒就松一口气，啊！ 又灵验了！我们会是这样，很喜欢听这些事，假如那一年不变的话，又会给一个藉口说： 「定是今年有些不幸的事情会发生！」总之，我们要将这些东西加上一块神秘的面纱，令到科学好似无能为力， 或者说要过到科学这一关，我们的宗教信仰才是可信的。 如果有些东西过不到科学这一关，它的可信性就减低了，比方，当那说了很长时期的圣殓布过不到科学一关的时候，它的可信性就立刻低了许多。 许多时我们其实是很笨的，因为将自己的信仰放在科学之下，你会被它牵着鼻子走！所以大家要反省这一点。
为甚麽今日要提出这一点呢？当我们说「天主之母」是想突出耶稣基督真天主真人的身份，但这个身份是无需科学去鉴证的， 如果我们又拿科学出来，鉴证过才相信，我们的信仰就很糟糕了。 我们对耶稣基督这份信仰，不需要一些科学的包装，亦不需要拿一些耶稣显灵的照片出来。 有人喜欢将耶稣某一次显现拍成照片拿出来，好像要拿出来才能使那对耶稣基督的信仰的可信性增高的。 这有一个危险性，就是太崇拜科学，认为一定要这样鉴证才成。 要时常记得这一点： 我们的信仰不是建筑在科学上，而是建筑在耶稣基督的说话上，建筑在耶稣基督的门徒的作证上， 他们用自己的血去证实耶稣所讲所做的一切是真的，我们的信仰的根基是在这里，而不是在科学的鉴证上，愿意大家记得这一点。 所以相信耶稣基督真天主真人这端道理，完全是对耶稣基督的信仰。
「天主之母」这个称呼，虽然说主要是肯定耶稣基督的身份，但不要忘记它始终是对圣母的一个称呼 － 「天主之母」。 教会肯定对圣母这个称呼的时候，是希望我们偕同圣母走向耶稣基督，在今日的福音就有一句说话很值得我们带回家去，就是： 「玛利亚把这一切牢记在心中，反覆思索。」（参阅路２：１９）这是一句很深的说话，即是说，圣母在当时对於发生的事并不是很明白， 所以我自己就不相信圣母一开始就完全懂得天主降生奥迹的道理。开始时是不懂的，就好像我们许多人在信仰早期一样。 耶稣基督是真天主真人这个信理，圣母大概一开始都是不懂的，不要忘记圣母是一个普通的女孩子， 不是一个很会思想，读了许多书的人，她是一个很简单的人物，她面对着一个这麽深的信理，大概她当时都是不明的， 起码圣经上有几次说她将这些东西默存在心里，反覆思量，作为她日後整个信仰生活反省的材料。 许多时在当时是不明白的，但她相信天主的话，这就是她有福的地方，这正如依撒伯尔对她所说的： 「那相信天主的话而会完成的，是有福的。」（参阅路１：４５）而圣母就是这样的一个人物，很值得我们效法的也就是这一点。 许多信仰上的东西，也许我们不太明白，特别在慕道的早期，甚至是在我们现在的信仰阶段， 好可能你对自己信仰上许多道理都是一知半解，圣母今日就教我们，将这些话放在自己的心里，在生活上反覆思量， 让天主的恩宠慢慢在你身上产生作用，有一天你会豁然贯通，这一天在甚麽时候来，我们不清楚， 好可能在你生命里很後期的时间才出现，使你突然之间懂得天主降生等等的道理， 但是愿意将这些话放在自己心里，相信耶稣基督的话，这个是我们信仰的根基。 所以我们今日的人既然是这麽受科学影响，好可能我们对许多在自己信仰上的东西仍然是会怀疑的， 可能我们间中都会怀疑一下究竟有没有天主存在？ 究竟圣经上所说的奇迹是不是真的？耶稣是不是天主？ 有一套电影说耶稣基督的最後的诱惑，这都是现代人只强调耶稣人性而产生的结果，就是不太相信祂天主性的一面。
今日我们不单只向圣母学习，将东西放在心里反覆思量，还可以向她祈求，圣母不但是「天主之母」， 而且还是「教会之母」，亦是我们每一个基督徒的母亲，做母亲的特别知道自己子女需要的是甚麽东西， 这正如在圣经上加纳婚筵里，（参阅若２：１－１２） 圣母很快便认出别人的需要是甚麽，她主动为他们祈求：「他们没有酒了。」 酒有一个象徵性的意义，能够代表着天主的恩宠，所以加纳婚筵这个奇迹，结果并不但是使到这对新人不用丢脸， 最主要的、起码圣经说它的结果，就是他们相信了耶稣， 所以，因着圣母的祈求，结果就是相信耶稣，我们都求圣母帮助我们能够相信耶稣基督。 不知你们有没有注意你们经常念的圣母经，它的下半截是甚麽东西？下半截呼求「天主圣母玛利亚」， 其实就是「天主之母」玛利亚，这个就是再重覆早期教会对圣母的称呼，肯定自己的信仰：圣母是「天主之母」 ，你是向「天主之母」玛利亚呼求。求甚麽呢？ 你若看清楚便知道原来圣母经没告诉你求甚麽东西，只是求圣母为我们祈求而已， 所以，我们今日在「天主之母」这个瞻礼中，用圣母经向我们天上的母亲呼求： 「天主之母」玛利亚，求你现在和我们临终时，为我们罪人祈求天主，赏赐信仰基督的恩宠。亚孟。因父及子及圣神之名，亚孟。
资料取自：
吴智勋神父，「和平纶音：主日圣道礼仪（丙年）」之二，天主之母节录音带，思维出版社，１９９５
（文稿由李宏基主教教友培育中心整理，未经讲者审阅）
Born to a Roman senatorial family. Well educated. Provincial fiscal procurator and lieutenant governor of Byzacena. He became a monk early in life, led to the religious life by the writings of Saint Augustine of Hippo, whose work remained a touchstone for him in the rest of his life. Priest. Abbot. Bishop of Ruspe (modern Kudiat Rosfa, Tunisia) in 508, an illegal election in the Arian controlled land following the invasion of the Vandals led by Thrasimund.
Exiled with 60 other bishops to Sardinia. There they built a monastery, and continued to write, pray, and study. He returned to Carthage in 515 to debate with Arians; he was so convincing that he was exiled again in 518. King Hilderic succeeded Thrasimund in 523, and permitted the exiles to return. Fulgentius preferred to return to his monastery and resume his studies, but he was such a popular preacher, he was kept busy in the pulpit until his death.
“Hold most firmly and never doubt in the least that the Only-begotten God the Word Himself become flesh offered Himself in an odor of sweetness as a Sacrifice and Victim to God on our behalf; to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, in the time of the Old Testament animals were sacrificed by the patriarchs and prophets and priests; and to whom now, I mean in the time of the New Testament, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom He has one Godhead, the Holy Catholic Church does not cease in faith and love to offer throughout all the lands of the world a sacrifice of Bread and Wine … In those former sacrifices what would be given us in the future was signified figuratively; but in this sacrifice which has now been given us, it is shown plainly. In those former sacrifices it was fore-announced that the Son of God would be killed for the impious; but in the present it is announced that He has been killed for the impious.” (The Rule of Faith [62])
教父丶圣师 主保：医院管理者
圣巴西略说道：「你未曾食用的面包，就是饥渴者的面包；你悬挂在衣柜里的长袍，就是赤身露体者衣服； 你不穿的鞋子，就是赤足者的鞋履；你保持深锁的钱财，就是穷人的钱财；你不愿践行的爱德，就是诸多你所干犯的罪过。」
圣人330年时诞生於小亚细亚的凯撒肋雅（ Caesarea 今日土耳其的东南方）。 他的父母皆出生贵族，且信仰甚笃，後来亦被教会册封为圣人。 这个圣善的家庭育有十个子女，其中就有四位是教会公开列品的圣人 （除了圣巴西略外，还包括与圣巴西略丶圣额我略纳齐盎齐名的圣额我略尼沙 St. Gregory of Nyssa 335-394）。
圣人年轻时在君士坦丁堡求学，後来在雅典学习时，认识了圣额我略纳齐盎 （St. Gregory Nazianzen 330-390，素有「神学家」的称号），二人结为莫逆之交，後来都成了伟大的学者。 当越来越多的人慕名前来聆听圣人的宣讲时，圣人意识到一种骄傲的思想在他心内升起。 於是，他变卖所有财物，施与穷人後，便决定到旷野隐修去了。 他先在旷野中拜访隐士们，然後将他们组织起来，并发展出一套完整的隐修规则与制度。 当时，他创建了极可能是小亚细亚的第一座隐修院。为东方的隐修制度而言，圣巴西略的地位就如同圣本笃之於西方教会一样。 他所订下的原则，至今对东方教会的隐修制度仍有着莫大的影响。 当圣人决定按福音的贫穷劝谕开始修道生活时，他已走在一条成为知名教师的路上了。
圣人被祝圣为司铎後，先担任凯撒肋雅总主教的助理，随後，自己也成了该地的总主教（370）。 不过，在他任内，曾有几位副主教反对他，或许是因为这些人已预先看到那以後要来的革新吧！
亚略异端是教会历史中最危险的邪说之一，它否认基督的天主性，为正统信仰有极大的危害。 在圣人的时代，此番论述正达顶峰。当时的帝国皇帝华伦斯 （Valens） 迫害着具有正统信仰的信众，并对巴西略施以压力，要求圣人对迫害保持沉默，并强迫他接受亚略与教会的共融。 巴西略坚持不从，华伦斯只好放弃，但问题却依然存在。当伟大的教师圣亚大纳修 （St. Athansius 295-373） 辞世後，教会对抗亚略异端的重责大任就落在圣人的肩上了。 他付出极大的努力，将那些因暴政或内部分歧而四散的团体凝聚在一起，然而，却因此被误解丶造谣中伤，且被控以邪说与野心。 在这样的处境下，他虽求助於教宗的协助，却未获得任何的回应。他说：「因着我的罪过，每一件事都看似失败。」
圣人在牧灵关怀上总是孜孜不倦，他一日向群众讲道二次， 且创建了一座被称为「一个世界的惊奇」的医院（圣人年轻时曾为安顿饥荒者组织过一小团体，并亲自在厨房中从事煮汤食的工作）； 并且，为救助人灵，圣人也努力对抗卖淫业者。
圣人的雄辩之才极负盛名；他的着作，在圣人尚在人世时，并未在教会内获得应有的地位。 然而，在他过世72年後，加采东大公会议 （the Council of Chalcedon, 451）描述他为：「伟大的巴西略，将真理传布至整个世界的恩宠管理者。」 圣人於主後三七九年的一月一日辞世，着作等身为他在教会内赢得「圣师」的头衔； 他所制定的隐修规则，则成为东方教会隐修院的圭臬。
“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.”
Basil was on his way to becoming a famous teacher when he decided to begin a religious life of gospel poverty. After studying various modes of religious life, he founded what was probably the first monastery in Asia Minor. He is to monks of the East what St. Benedict is to the West, and his principles influence Eastern monasticism today.
He was ordained a priest, assisted the archbishop of Caesarea (now southeastern Turkey), and ultimately became archbishop himself, in spite of opposition from some of his suffragan bishops, probably because they foresaw coming reforms.
One of the most damaging heresies in the history of the Church, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ, was at its height. Emperor Valens persecuted orthodox believers, and put great pressure on Basil to remain silent and admit the heretics to communion. Basil remained firm, and Valens backed down. But trouble remained. When the great St. Athanasius (May 2) died, the mantle of defender of the faith against Arianism fell upon Basil. He strove mightily to unite and rally his fellow Catholics who were crushed by tyranny and torn by internal dissension. He was misunderstood, misrepresented, accused of heresy and ambition. Even appeals to the pope brought no response. “For my sins I seem to be unsuccessful in everything.”
He was tireless in pastoral care. He preached twice a day to huge crowds, built a hospital that was called a wonder of the world (as a youth he had organized famine relief and worked in a soup kitchen himself) and fought the prostitution business.
Basil was best known as an orator. His writings, though not recognized greatly in his lifetime, rightly place him among the great teachers of the Church. Seventy-two years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon described him as “the great Basil, minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole earth.”
“We should not accept in silence the benefactions of God, but return thanks for them.”
“Eternal Son of the living God, Whom I here acknowledge really present! I adore Thee with all the powers of my soul. Prostrate with the Angels in the most profound reverence, I love Thee, O my Savior, Whom I now behold on the throne of Thy love! O dread Majesty, O infinite Mercy! Save me, forgive me! Grant that I may never more be separated from Thee.”
额我略．纳齐安与巴西略同年出生於纳齐安附近。为求学起见，多次远行。 在旷野中，与巴西略为友，亦先後祝圣为司铎和主教。 公元三八一年当选为君士坦丁堡主教；因教区内发生党派纠纷，乃返纳齐安； 三八九或三九○年一月二十五日安逝於该城，圣人博学善辩，故有「神学家」之称。
“Cease not to pray and plead for me when you draw down the Word by your word, when in an unbloody cutting you cut the Body and Blood of the Lord, using your voice for a sword.” (Letter to Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, ca. 383 A.D.)
主显节是圣诞庆祝期的高峰：庆祝基督最初的几次显示，包括： 显示给东方贤士（三王来朝），表示了天主子向万民显露了自己的身分； 主受洗时，将天主子的身分显示出来；以及在加纳婚宴中，藉变水为酒的记号，显示新纪元的来临。
主显节尤以基督向万民（由东方贤士代表）显示自己，作为核心意义，重申了基督乃万民的救主； 他来是为召叫普世人类，成为天主的新选民，生活在主的慈爱丶平安和光明当中。
一月六日本是埃及尼罗河的河汛，埃及教友趁机以耶稣受洗，及加纳婚宴的事件，来显扬基督是天主子丶人类的救主。 罗马教会采用了这埃及教会的节日後，加上了贤士来朝的故事。
今日罗马教会在日课中的对经，把这三件「主显示自己」的事件，连成一个救恩事迹，让我们体味：
「今天教会与她天上的净配结合； 因为基督在约但河受洗，除去了她的罪过，贤士带着礼品迅速前来，奔赴王家的婚宴，变水为酒，使宾客喜形於色，亚肋路亚！」 （晨祷赞主曲对经）
「我们庆祝由三个奥迹所装饰的圣日，今日异星引导贤士，来到马槽前， 今日在婚宴之中水变成酒，今日基督为拯救我们，愿在约但河中，接受若翰的洗礼。亚肋路亚！」（晚祷谢主曲对经）
「耶稣」的名，是阿辣美语（Yeshua），解释「天主拯救」。正是天主经天使，转告玛利亚（路1:31）和若瑟（玛1:21），要 给婴孩所起的名。这个名字说明耶稣的使命。教会常宣扬耶稣的名号，明认他是救主。
自圣伯纳定（St Bernardine of Siena，1380-1444）提倡，耶稣的名号更常受颂扬，且常以IHS为标记，显扬耶稣圣名；又在圣母经加上「你的亲子耶稣，同受赞 颂」。
IHS乃「耶稣」之希腊文IHΣOYΣ的首三个字母；另一说法则以IHS为拉丁文Jesus Hominum Salvator，意思是「耶稣丶人类救主」。
依丽莎白一七七四年八月二十八日生於纽约市一家基督新徒望族。 她的父亲是一位知名的内科医生兼皇家医学院解剖学教授，她的母亲卡德琳•贝兰是一位基督新教主教的女儿。 依撒伯尔很小的时候，她母亲即与世长辞，父亲将她养大成人。 她从父亲接受了很好的教育和品德的修炼。她从孩提时代就特别关心穷人和病人。她侍候病人体贴入微。 人们称她是一位「基督徒爱的天使。」她的着述洋溢着沁人心脾的崇高思想和炉火纯青的神修品德。
她十二三岁的时候，就懂得神修操练，根本不需要她的爸爸为她操心，她佩带十字架，天天做反省丶阅读《师主篇》和圣经。
一七九四年八月二十五日，她嫁给了一个青年商人，名叫威廉•梅及•丝彤，他们生了五个孩子， 後来威廉财运不佳，严重的影响了他的健康，人们劝他换换环境，改变改变思想。 意大利莱根有一个朋友名叫斐里奇邀请他和妻子丶孩子远渡重洋来意大利。 他们於一八三Ｏ年抵达莱根，然而六个星期之後，威廉逝於比隆。
依丽莎白在斐里奇这家天主教家庭里度过了她一个月的寡妇生涯。在此，她了解了天主教的信仰，很感兴趣。 这一家拥有一所家庭圣堂，而且特别敬礼圣母，她参与了他们的全部宗教活动，当她返回美国的时候，她的内心已经是一位天主教徒了。
一八Ｏ五年三月四日，她加入了天主教会。 为此她的基督新教亲友群起反对，甚至剥夺了她的生活必需品，面对这一切遭遇，她默默地予以忍受。 後来她应巴帝毛修院长杜邦神父的邀请，前往加拿大，在帕卡街上圣玛丽修院附近办一所女子学校。 她接受了这一任务，很快就有许多妇女前来献身做她的助手，很多学生前来就学，而且一致要求将学校改为修院。 巴帝毛教区主教帮她制定了修会的会规，并且指导她接受女生度修女生活。 主教接受了她的意愿，允许她度 修女的生活，委任她为该团体的领导。
一八Ｏ九年她迁往玛利兰的一个小村庄依米兹堡，在这里她遵照圣文生保禄的会规培育仁爱会的修女。 她奠定了美国教区学校体系的基础，培训了教师，编订了教材，并拟写了许多神修论文。 她看顾病人，周济穷人，她开办了费城和纽约的孤儿院，感化了许多人改邪归正。
她积劳成疾，於一八二一年一月四日闭上了双目，离开了尘世。 一九七五年九月十四日教宗保禄六世为她圣品。 由於她是一位经历了一个女性所能经历的青春丶处女丶婚姻丶寡妇和神修各个阶段，教廷把她的立品日定为妇女节。
警言：「她的崇高的品质是对穷苦罪人的同情与宽容，她的爱德使她一贯坚持对人从不批评而为别人开脱或者沉默不语。」----- 安东尼奥•斐里奇。
“The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.”
Mother Seton is one of the keystones of the American Catholic Church. She founded the first American religious community for women, the Sisters of Charity. She opened the first American parish school and established the first American Catholic orphanage. All this she did in the span of 46 years while raising her five children.
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is a true daughter of the American Revolution, born August 28, 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence. By birth and marriage, she was linked to the first families of New York and enjoyed the fruits of high society. Reared a staunch Episcopalian by her mother and stepmother, she learned the value of prayer, Scripture and a nightly examination of conscience. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, did not have much use for churches but was a great humanitarian, teaching his daughter to love and serve others.
The early deaths of her mother in 1777 and her baby sister in 1778 gave Elizabeth a feel for eternity and the temporariness of the pilgrim life on earth. Far from being brooding and sullen, she faced each new “holocaust,” as she put it, with hopeful cheerfulness.
At 19, Elizabeth was the belle of New York and married a handsome, wealthy businessman, William Magee Seton. They had five children before his business failed and he died of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed, penniless, with five small children to support.
While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805.
To support her children, she opened a school in Baltimore. From the beginning, her group followed the lines of a religious community, which was officially founded in 1809.
The thousand or more letters of Mother Seton reveal the development of her spiritual life from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the death of loved ones (her husband and two young daughters) and the heartache of a wayward son. She died January 4, 1821, and became the first American-born citizen to be beatified (1963) and then canonized (1975). She is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton received great solace by bringing her sorrows to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and speaking heart to heart with Him there: “How sweet, the presence of Jesus to the longing and harassed soul! He is instant peace and balm to every wound.”
"God is everywhere, in the very air I breathe, yes everywhere, but in His Sacrament of the Altar He is as present actually and really as my soul within my body; in His Sacrifice daily offered as really as once offered on the Cross,"
“There is a mystery, the greatest of all mysteries—not that my adored Lord is in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar—His word has said it, and what so simple as to take that word which is truth itself?—but that souls of His own creation, whom He gave His life to save, who are endowed with His choicest gifts in all things else, should remain blind, insensible, and deprived of that light without which every other blessing is unavailing!”
widow, mother, secular Franciscan
Source: http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0104.shtml
Born in Foligno (near Assisi), Italy, Blessed Angela was self-indulgent early in life, living a worldly life of riches. She was quite young when she married, and when she was widowed about 1290. Around that time she experienced a conversion and joined the Third Order of Saint Francis. Once her husband and all her children had died, she gave herself up completely to God. Consistent with a life dedicated to penance, she donated all her possessions to the poor and lived only on charity.
Angela is remembered as a mystic, a form of spirituality that gained prominence in the Western Church around the mid-11th century. Mysticism is an attempt to reach a knowledge of and union with God directly and experientially. The mystic renounces his senses and the images they offer of God, called the via negativa, in order to allow God to replace them.
Mysticism is characterized by an abnormal psychic state which may culminate in ecstasy. Such states are sanctified when the individual is perfectly united with God and the whole personality is fully free; otherwise, it may simply be a sign of psychosis. True mystical experience leads the individual to an ever more passionate love of God. As a rule, mystics exhibit extraordinary self-knowledge.
At the request of her confessor, Friar Arnold, Angela dictated to him an account of her visions and ecstasies in which she reveals herself as one of the greatest mystics. Authentic transcriptions of the visions and messages of Blessed Angela are now housed in Assisi, Subiaco, and Rome. These originals are much more vivid than the logical arrangements made from them in the 15th century and reproduced by the Bollandists. They make it possible to sense the overwhelming religious ecstasy of Blessed Angela.
In them it is especially the Passion that we relive with her: a vision of absolute torture in which even the words of Christ seem to be heard:
"Then, as He was showing me all that He had endured for me, He said to me: 'What can you do which suffices you?' . . . He showed me His torn beard, His eyebrows and His head; He enumerated the entire list of His sufferings of the scourging . . . and He said: 'I suffered all that for you . . .' and He said: 'What can you do for me which suffices you?' And then I wept and moaned so ardently that the tears burnt my flesh. Then I had to pour cold water on myself to cool off."
". . . When I had arisen for the prayer, Christ appeared to me on the Cross . . . And He called me and told me to put my mouth on the wound on His side. And it seemed to me that I saw and drank His blood flowing from His side . . . and He purified me. And then I experienced a great joy, although contemplating the Passion I felt very sorrowful. And I prayed to God to have me, as He Himself had done, shed all my blood."
"And He began by saying to me: 'My daughter, sweet to me, my daughter, my delight, my temple, my daughter, love me, for you are greatly loved by me, more than you love me.'."
"And I swooned and lost the use of my speech. And it seemed to me that my soul entered into the side of Christ; and it was not sadness, but a kind of indescribable joy."
"On Thursday of Holy Week I went to meditate upon the incarnate Son of God . . . and a divine voice spoke to my soul, saying: 'I did not love you as a joke.' These words caused me mortal pain for immediately the eyes of my soul were opened and I saw all that He suffered in life and death . . . and that it was not as a joke but because of perfect and tender love that He loved me. And I say that it was just the opposite with me; for I only loved Him as a joke and not really. And it caused me mortal pain and such unbearable suffering that I thought I would die.
"And after He had said: 'I did not love you as a joke' . . . He said: 'I did not serve you by pretending. . . .' My soul then exclaimed: 'Oh master, what you say is not in your heart fills mine completely. For I never wished to approach You in truth so as to feel the pains you bore for me. And I served You only through simulation and falsehood.' . . . And on seeing just the opposite in me such pain and suffering filled my heart that I thought I would die; and I felt as if the sides of my chest were being disjoined and that my heart would burst . . . And He continued, saying: 'I am closer and more intimate with your soul than your soul is with itself!' And this increases my suffering."
This is just a small sampling of Blessed Angela's writing about her mystical experiences.
The collection of the Rotuli is enriched by a large number of letters or notes that Angela wrote to her disciples and in which she develops her spiritual doctrine. Through poverty and detachment, she lead them to the contemplation of the Passion. In the midst of the doctrines of the so-called Spirituals, among whom she lived, Angela defended orthodoxy. She and her group trace out a road on which all the ardor of human love as well as contemplation aspire to be united to divine wisdom. She died surrounded by many of these male and female disciples whom she loved as children. Considered by her contemporaries as a saint, Angela became the subject of a faithful cultus immediately after her death--a cultus that has been approved by the Church (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Harrison, Martindale).
“If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude.”
“My soul, if you wish to penetrate the depths of this Mystery, your gaze must be illumined by Love! You need to see and understand! Contemplate the Last Supper: see Jesus Who knows that He will soon be separated from the body of His humanity, and yet wishing to be united to us forever; contemplate the Love by which He institutes this Sacrament which permits Him to be corporeally and forever united to mankind. O Inextinguishable Love! O Love of Christ! O Love of the human race! What a true Furnace of Love! O Jesus, You already saw the death which awaited You; the sorrows and atrocious tortures of the Passion were already breaking Your Heart, and yet You offered Yourself to Your executioners, and permitted them, by means of this Sacrament, to possess You forever as an Eternal Gift, O You, Whose delights are to be with the children of men!”
“O my soul, how can you refrain from plunging yourself ever deeper and deeper into the love of Christ, who did not forget you in life or in death, but who willed to give Himself wholly to you, and to unite you to Himself forever?”
“O God, O Creator, O Spirit of Life overwhelming Your creatures with ever new graces! You grant to Your chosen ones the gift which is ever renewed: the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!”
“O Jesus, You instituted this Sacrament, not through any desire to draw some advantage from it for Yourself, but solely moved by love which has no other measure than to be without measure. You instituted this Sacrament because Your love exceeds all words. Burning with love for us, You desired to give Yourself to us and took up Your dwelling in the consecrated Host, entirely and forever, until the end of time. And You did this, not only to give us a memorial of Your death which is our salvation, but You did it also, to remain with us entirely and forever.”
“It is the Sacrament of Love that excites the soul to ardent prayer. It stirs up the virtue of impetration and, as it were, forces God to grant our petition. It deepens the abyss of humility, above all it enkindles the flame of love in the heart; hence the Sacrament is the Gift of gifts, and the Grace of graces.”
“O Jesus Christ true God and true Man! My soul rejoices to find You in the Blessed Sacrament, You the uncreated God who became man, a creature! In this sacrament, O Christ, I find both Your humanity and Your divinity; from Your humanity I rise to Your divinity; and from it I go back to Your humanity. I see Your ineffable divinity which contains all the treasures of wisdom, of knowledge, of incorruptible riches. I see the inexhaustible fountain of delights which alone can satisfy our intelligence. I see Your most precious soul, O Jesus, with all the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, a holy and unspotted oblation; I see Your sacred Body, the price of our redemption; I see Your Blood, which purifies and vivifies us; in brief, I find treasures which are so precious and so great that I cannot comprehend them.”
“This Sacrament really contains You, O my God, You whom the Angels adore, in whose presence the Spirits and mighty Powers tremble. Oh! if we could only see You clearly as they do, with what reverence would we approach this Sacrament, with what humility would we receive You.”
“O Most Holy Trinity, You instituted this Sacrament in order to obtain the object of Your love, that is, to attract to Yourself the soul of Your creature, and detaching it from all earthly things, to unite it to Yourself, the uncreated God. In doing this, You make it die to sin and give it spiritual life, eternal life. O Blessed Trinity, this Sacrament was instituted by Your infinite goodness that we might be united to You and You to us; that we might receive You into ourselves and be received by You; that at the same time we might hold You within ourselves and be held by You.”
纽曼於一八一一年三月二十八生於捷克波希米亚。他家六个孩子，他是老三，他在中学学习的时候，就表现出非凡智力。 中学毕业以後，一八三一年进入教区修院并在布拉格大学上课，对生物学和天文学很感兴趣。 由於政府的干预，推迟了他晋铎的时间，他决定到北美传教区去工作。
一八三六年六月二十五日到达纽约之後，他从杜波主教手中接受了神品。 做了四年传教工作，他加入了救世主会，该会是圣亚丰索.利高烈创立的，不久他被选为美国救世主会副会长。
由於他杰出的工作，一八五二年教宗比约九世擢升其为费城主教，他为发展教区学校历尽艰辛。 他努力吸引修士女教师到他的教区来服务，除此之外，他还开发了大批堂口并开始修建总堂，美国移民的宗教信仰工作也委任他来管理。 他编写了《教友问答手册》，这本小册子於一八五二年出版，日後在美国广为使用。他的一生是勤劳的一生。 他於一八六Ｏ年一月五日逝世，教宗保禄六世於一九七七年将他列入圣品。
他常常说：「人必须时时刻刻做好准备，因为随时随地都可以来临。」
Feastday: January 5
This American saint was born in Bohemia in 1811. He was looking forward to being ordained in 1835 when the bishop decided there would be no more ordinations. It is difficult for us to imagine now, but Bohemia was overstocked with priests. John wrote to bishops all over Europe but the story was the same everywhere no one wanted any more priests. John was sure he was called to be a priest but all the doors to follow that vocation seemed to close in his face.
But John didn't give up. He had learned English by working in a factory with English-speaking workers so he wrote to the bishops in America. Finally, the bishop in New York agreed to ordain him. In order to follow God's call to the priesthood John would have to leave his home forever and travel across the ocean to a new and rugged land.
In New York, John was one of 36 priests for 200,000 Catholics. John's parish in western New York stretched from Lake Ontario to Pennsylvania. His church had no steeple or floor but that didn't matter because John spent most of his time traveling from village to village, climbing mountains to visit the sick, staying in garrets and taverns to teach, and celebrating the Mass at kitchen tables.
Because of the work and the isolation of his parish, John longed for community and so joined the Redemptorists, a congregation of priests and brothers dedicated to helping the poor and most abandoned.
John was appointed bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. As bishop, he was the first to organize a diocesan Catholic school system. A founder of Catholic education in this country, he increased the number of Catholic schools in his diocese from two to 100.
John never lost his love and concern for the people -- something that may have bothered the elite of Philadelphia. On one visit to a rural parish, the parish priest picked him up in a manure wagon. Seated on a plank stretched over the wagon's contents, John joked, "Have you ever seen such an entourage for a bishop!"
The ability to learn languages that had brought him to America led him to learn Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch so he could hear confessions in at least six languages. When Irish immigration started, he learned Gaelic so well that one Irish woman remarked, "Isn't it grand that we have an Irish bishop!"
Once on a visit to Germany, he came back to the house he was staying in soaked by rain. When his host suggested he change his shoes, John remarked, "The only way I could change my shoes is by putting the left one on the right foot and the right one on the left foot. This is the only pair I own."
John died on January 5, 1860 at the age of 48.
Jesus speaking to St. John Neumann on establishing Forty Hours Devotion - “(I shall) pour out my grace in the Blessed Sacrament without prejudice to My honor. Fear no profanation, therefore; hesitate no longer to carry out your design for my glory.”
St. John Neumann's favorite prayer during the solemn 40-hours
exposition:
How much I love You, 0 my Jesus. I wish to love You with my whole
heart; yet I do not love You enough.
My lack of devotion and my sloth make me anxious. I have one
desire, that of being near you in the Blessed Sacrament. You are
the sweet bridegroom of my soul, my Jesus, my love, my all; gladly
would I endure hunger, thirst, heat and cold to remain always with
You in the Blessed Sacrament.
Would that in your Eucharistic presence I might unceasingly weep
over my sins. Take entire possession of me. To you I consecrate
all the powers of my soul and body, my whole being. Would that I
could infuse into all hearts a burning love for You. What great
glory would be given to You here on earth, if every heart were an
altar on which every human will were laid in perfect conformity
with Your will to be consumed by the fire of Your love.
Quote:
"All people of whatever race, condition or age, in virtue of their dignity as human persons, have an inalienable right to education. This education should be suitable to the particular destiny of the individuals, adapted to their ability, sex and national cultural traditions, and should be conducive to amicable relations with other nations in order to promote true unity and peace in the world. True education aims to give people a formation which is directed towards their final end and the good of that society to which they belong and in which, as adults, they will have their share of duties to perform." (Declaration on Christian Education, 1, Austin Flannery translation).
圣安德烈贝塞(St Andre Bessette)，也被称为蒙特利尔的圣安德烈(St Andre of Montreal)，1845-1937。 在他对圣若瑟的强大信任启发下，他向每一个受折磨的人推荐这位圣人的敬礼。 他经常探访病人，会建议病人向圣若瑟祈祷，并会用小许从他学校的教堂里，圣若瑟祭台前常明灯处取的油，为病人傅油。 人们声称，他们因这位善良修士和圣若瑟的代祷而得到痊愈，并感谢他们的代祷 被垂听。 1924年，他开始了蒙特利尔圣若瑟小教堂的施工。
Biography:
Br. André Bessette called himself St. Joseph’s little dog. He was born in Saint-Grégoire d’Iberville Québec, Canada, August 9, 1845, and raised in a devout French Catholic family. By the time Br. André was twelve, both of his parents had died, and he was sent to live and work with relatives. Br. André’s father was a carpenter like St. Joseph and his mother had a great devotion to St. Joseph which she passed on to little André, who was a sickly child. Br. André “had already often thought of Saint Joseph watching over the Child Jesus and he had made up his mind to imitate this saintly Workman, for he also was to watch over the Infant God Whom he carried at all times in his soul by divine grace and Whom he received with such deep piety in Holy Communion” (Br. André: The Wonder Man of Mount Royal, H. P. Bergeron, CSC, 15).
Br. André faced many challenges, especially as he tried to become a Holy Cross Brother. He grew in holiness and received the great gifts of compassion for the sick and healing, through the intercession of St. Joseph. He wanted to build a Shrine to St. Joseph on Mt. Royal across from the college where he worked as a doorkeeper, in Montréal, Québec. He began with poor health, little education and no money and even his own Brothers’ said it was impossible. Still, Br. André placed total faith in God and the assistance of St. Joseph. A medal of St. Joseph was buried in the ground, where Br. André wished to build the Shrine, and countless prayers were offered. Miracles happened. A small Church was built, then a larger one. When the walls stood and there was no money for a roof, Br. André placed a statue of St. Joseph in the middle and said that the Saint would provide his own shelter; with Br. André’s help and hard work he did. St. Joseph’s home kept growing!
Br. André led weekly Stations of the Cross and a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration in the small chapel. So great was Br. André’s love for the Blessed Sacrament that he often spent his nights in prayer before Jesus. Br. André’s bedroom, in which he cared for the sick and dying throughout the night, overlooked the chapel. Br. André cut out a window in his room so he could look at the tabernacle and pray to Him day and night.
It is often said that a dog is a man’s best friend. Br. André, St. Joseph’s little dog, certainly deserves the title of his best friend. Sometimes it was as if he was speaking with St. Joseph, said those who saw him in prayer. Br. André’s advice to those wanting cures was simple: “Rub yourself with the blessed medal [of St. Joseph] and with St. Joseph’s oil. Make a novena”. Br. André encouraged novenas of Holy Communions, the Sacrament of Confession and the Stations of the Cross.
Br. André died on January 6, 1937, on the Feast of the Epiphany. A million people traveled to Montréal in the cold and snow to pay their respects to Br. André. Above all, Br. André desired for people to grow close to God and be healed. He was willing to offer up any sacrifice for the conversion of one soul. Br. André cared deeply about the sick, poor and suffering of the world. Today, when visiting the St. Joseph’s Oratory, it is amazing to see the thousands of crutches and braces left behind by those who were cured. People continue to pray, through the intercession of St. Joseph and Br. André, for their many needs. In the words of Br. André: “Seldom have I met someone who has come to the shrine and left without consolation, without feeling better about life.” “Place yourself in God’s hands. He will not abandon you.” Yearly, over two million people visit St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, the largest shrine in the world to St. Joseph! Br. André is entombed there.
St. Andre Bessette often spent long nights in adoration of our beloved Lord. From this he consoled and healed thousands of people while remaining a simple doorkeeper as a Brother for the Congregation of The Cross. Let us imitate him and sign up for at least a weekly Holy Hour of adoration at our local Eucharistic Adoration program.
“What would your wife say if you were a whole month without showing her any marks of affection? She would say that you do not love her. You would cause trouble in your home. Well, when you do not receive Communion God says to Himself that you do not love Him. And there is trouble in your soul.”
“If you ate only one meal a week would you survive? It is the same for your soul. Nourish it with the Blessed Sacrament.”
“Receive the Holy Communion often. Our Lord cannot refuse you anything when He is there in your heart. You will find strength and solace in this act.”
“O Holy angels, make me see God on the altar as you see Him in heaven.”
若主显节在1月7-8日，主受洗节则移於翌日星期一。
主受洗节本来是主显节的内容之一；梵二後，成为结束圣诞期的节日，也是常年期的开始，因为主的受洗，是他公开传教生活的开始。
主保：教会法编撰者
1175年，圣雷孟诞生於西班牙的巴塞隆纳附近；由於他是西班牙的贵族成员之一， 因此从小便接受了极完备的教育，且很早就对圣母怀有一份温柔的爱与崇敬。 圣人20岁时，已是一位名闻遐迩的哲学教师，他在30岁时同时取得了教会法与民法的博士学位。 然而，他却抛开一切世俗的光荣，毅然地 在41岁时加入了「道明会」。
当时的教宗额我略九世非常赏识他，将圣人召唤至罗马为他工作，并成为教宗的个人告解神师。 他在罗马的主要工作是：汇整过去教会历史中，所有教宗与大公会议的典章律例，这巨大的工程在圣人接手前已进行了80个年头。 最後，圣人编出了一套五本名为《教会律例大全－Corpus decretalium》的教会法典汇编。 1917年新的教会法典汇编出版前，这部「教会律例大全」是最好的教会法典参考。 稍早，他也曾写过一部助人善行告解的着作，名为《个案大全－Summa de casibus poenitentiae》， 那不仅是一部条列罪与补赎的着作，还更是讨论教会道理与法律的书籍，是听告解神师必备的工具书之一。
60岁时，圣人被教宗指定为Aragon首都Tarragona的总主教， 但他并不喜欢如此的尊荣，後来藉病重之名，二年後辞去了主教的职务。 然而，圣人却无福享受平静的生活，因为隔年即被自己的同会弟兄选为道明会的总会长。 於是，圣人只好努力地工作，徒步拜访所有的道明会士，且修订会宪，允许总会长於任内辞去职务。 新会宪通过的那一年，圣人时年65岁，他也顺利地辞去了总会长的职务。
生命的最後35年，圣人致力於对抗异端邪说与劝说摩尔人（Moors）皈依的工作。 他为人极其谦和，且非常亲近天主；他常做克苦，其良善与仁慈也常为天主赢得罪人们的灵魂。 圣人与Aragon的国王James丶St. Peter Nolasco一起创建了「Our Lady of Ransom」修会， 该修会致力於从摩尔人的手中救回被俘的可怜基督徒。
James国王本是位秉性良善的人，可惜，他却常随自己的偏情私欲而行。 一次，圣人与他一同前往玛约卡岛（the Island of Majorca）宣讲耶稣基督， 但King James却立了坏榜样，因为王在该岛上与一位妇女有着苟且的关系， 圣人命令王遣走那妇女，王虽口头答应，却未信守承诺，於是圣人便离开了那座岛。 王盛怒，便下令：凡载送圣人回巴塞隆纳的船长，都应受严厉的惩罚。 圣人只好全心信赖上主，於是他将自己的上衣平铺在海面上， 将其中的一端绑上木柴做帆，划了十字圣号之後，便脚踏自己的上衣，一路航行了六小时，最後安抵巴塞隆纳。 国王被此神迹所感动，於是对自己的行为深感愧疚，并且认真地追随圣人的教导。 最後， 圣人一百足岁之时，天主才让圣雷孟完全地从人世间退休。
「你们的纯洁和虔诚要求应得的报酬；因为你们为天主所悦纳，愿你们的纯洁由於不断的打击，而愈加纯洁，直到完美的境界。 如果你们一而再，再而三地受天主的利剑打击，应视其为圆满的喜乐丶是天主爱你们的标记。
天主的利剑内外锋利：外有战争，内有恐惧；天主再再地磨练你们，是因为狡猾的恶神常以诡计和阴谋扰乱你们的内心。 这一切的攻守，你们已有相当的体验，否则便不会获致内心如此美好的平静与安宁。…
切望慈爱与和平的天主亲自使你们心灵安宁，并加速你们现世的旅程。 也愿祂将你们暂放在祂的身旁，远离他人的骚扰，直到把你们安置在圆满的光荣中为止。 在那里，你们将永远安居在平安的光荣中，和安全的帐幕中，安祥地享用无尽的富裕。」
（节选自一月七日《诵读日课》──圣雷孟司铎书信集选读）
Founder of many Monasteries and Hospices in Italy
Saint Victorian of Asan (Spanish: San Vitorián de Asan, in Aragonese San Beturián) was a Spanish saint. A native of Italy, he founded monasteries and hospices there before settling briefly in France.
He became the founder and abbot of the monastery of Asan (now called San Vitorián). Asan was situated in the Aragonese. Victorian was praised in the writings of Venantius Fortunatus (Benedictines).
St. Victorian had a great devotion to the Eucharist and spent many hours in Eucharistic Adoration outside of Mass as was reflected in the biography of St. Victorian: “In this (chapel), more frequently and fervently, (St. Victorian daily) poured forth his prayers before that indescribably Sacrament of Divine Goodness, and commended to God the health of the whole Church.”
Founder of the Congregation de Notre-Dame
Congregation de Notre-Dame: http://www.cnd-m.org/en/home/
Source: http://www.marguerite-bourgeoys.com/en/chapel/marguerite-Bourgeoys.asp
Marguerite was born in Troyes in the Champagne region of France in 1620. At the age of 20, she experienced a profound change in herself during a church procession that led her to set aside the frivolous things of life. By the time she met Monsieur de Maisonneuve, her qualities of leadership and her ability to gather people together for a common cause were well recognized.
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Governor of Montreal in New France, asked his sister Louise Chomedey (a sister in the cloistered Congregation de Notre-Dame of Troyes and director of an extern group of women) for help in finding a teacher for the settlement, Louise suggested Marguerite, the leader of the group of young women who taught the children of the poor.
Marguerite Bourgeoys listened to Maisonnneuve’s request and agreed to accompany the recruitment of 1653 that would shore up the defences of Ville-Marie and its fifty-some inhabitants against the constant attacks of the Iroquois. During the treacherous sea voyage to the New World, she became nurse, confidante, support and firm friend to the men and women whose arrival tripled the population of Montreal.
Marguerite joined Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance, the hospital administrator, as an equal in the affairs of the settlement. She understood that the women of the colony had a significant role to play in the future of Canada. Ever practical, she opened workshops where ordinary women learned skills that enabled them to earn a living. She welcomed the filles du roi whose coming provided stable families and guaranteed the survival of the country. She lived with them, prepared them for their new role and witnessed their marriage contracts.
In 1655, she rallied the inhabitants of the town to help realize her dream of building a chapel of pilgrimage within easy walking distance of the settlement. After delays and some uncertainty, in 1675 Montreal’s first stone chapel was erected.
In the stable-school opened in 1658, the children of the colony learned the basics of their faith, as well as counting, reading and writing. The older girls learned household skills to prepare for their responsibilities as wives and mothers. And traditionally, on the feast of Saint Catherine in November, they all made taffy!
Once the school had opened, Marguerite Bourgeoys returned to France to find companions who shared her vision. Together they formed the nucleus of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, a community of uncloistered women. Ecclesiastical approval for such a radical lifestyle for women, unheard of at the time, was not granted until just two years before Marguerite’s death in 1700. Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys was canonized in 1982. A pioneer woman who worked in an outpost of the French empire, she built houses and established a farm, and opened schools for native children as well as for children of the colony. She was deterred by neither bishop nor king in the pursuit of her mission. The Church presents her to us now as a model for modern times. In a moving ceremony in May 2005, the sisters of her community and the people of Montreal brought her mortal remains in procession to Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours through the neighborhood where she had lived and worked and died, back to her chapel. A woman of courage, vision, compassion and deep spiritual strength remains with us today, part of the fabric of our lives.
圣人於第四世纪初在法国保堤埃出生。约於公元三五○年被选任为该城主教，竭力攻斥亚略异端，为君士坦丁皇帝所迫害，流徙异地。 生平着作充满智慧与思想，是坚强信德丶诠解圣经不可多得之着述。圣人安逝於三六七年。
Hilary was born around 315 in Poitiers, France. He was a member
of a distinguished family, raised in paganism, and trained in the
classics and philosophy. He was already married and father to a
daughter, Abra, when he converted to Christianity. The sublime
descriptions of God found in the Bible, which contrasted sharply
with the materialism of pagan mythology, moved him to his
conversion.
Around 350, over his own objections, he was elected Bishop of
Poitiers and was immediately involved in the Arian controversy.
Arianism taught that, before all else, God created first a Son who
neither equal nor eternal with the Father, and that Jesus Christ
was a supernatural creature, not quite human and not quite divine,
Hilary supported St. Athanasius in the movement against Arianism
and as a result was exiled to Phyrygia (Turkey) in 356. During his
exile he finished the remaining nine of twelve books of his De
Trinitate, the first extensive study of the doctrine of the
Trinity written in Latin. During his exile, he was so persuasive
in his arguments against Arianism that the Arians requested the
Emperor send him back to France.
He composed allegorical interpretations of the Bible, sacred poetry and hymns. He authored numerous treatises, including De Synodis, Opus Historicum and Liber Mysteriorum and was the first Latin writer to acquaint Western Christendom with the vast theological treasures of the Greek Fathers. In 1851, Pope Pius IX declared St. Hilary a “doctor of the Universal Church.”
St. Hilary died at Poitiers around 367.
真福和德理一二八六年出生於意国东部，一个极热心的教友家庭中。长大後入方济会，堪称模范会士；後向会长要求赴远方传教。 先到小亚细亚一带，後经印度，最後来到中国传教，在北京首任总主教孟高维诺领导下传教三年，皈依者甚多。 总主教派遣他回国晋见教宗，回国後不幸因病逝世，时在 一三三一年一月十四日 。
Egyptian Monk and Hermit
When, by decree of Emperor Constantine in 325, the persecution of Christians largely ceased, there was cause for rejoicing. Official sanction, however, brought its own temptations-laxity and worldliness-inspiring a great exodus into the desert which provided fertile soil for the ascetic exploits of those who thirsted, like the martyrs, to lose their life for Christ. Among the most renowned of these early desert-dwellers was St. Macarius the Great. So lofty was his spiritual attainment that in recording his Life one of his biographers feared it would be regarded as a fabrication.
St. Macarius was born in Egypt in 300, of Christian parents. Even as a child he had a sensitive conscience: once he ate a fig which a playmate had stolen and he mourned this sin the rest of his life. Withdrawing to the desert at the age of thirty, he sought out and was discipled by St. Anthony the Great until he reached sufficient maturity for solitary life, whereupon his abba sent him to the remote desert of Scetis. There Macarius' labors incited the fury of the demons, who attacked him physically and mentally in a variety of guises-as monsters, brigands, angels. The Saint was not deceived. Like the Prophet King, he called upon the name of the Lord and warded them off. The demons themselves admitted defeat. Once, when gathering palm branches in the desert, he encountered a demon who said to him: “I suffer great sorrow in being unable to conquer you. Everything that you do I do also: you fast-I eat nothing at all; you keep vigil-I never sleep. In one thing only do you surpass me-in humility.”
Wrapping his mind in God and sternly disciplining his body with vigils and fasting, Macarius rapidly ascended the ladder of perfection, garnering in the process a wealth of spiritual gifts: of healing, discernment, interpretation of Scriptures, prophecy, exorcism of demons, even the power to raise the dead.
There soon gathered around him a group of monks, and Macarius was ordained to the priesthood.
The community was besieged by people seeking to be cured of various afflictions. The Saint purposely delayed applying his power of healing in order that these people would benefit the more by being detained for a few days in the monastery. To find relief from his numerous visitors he dug a subterranean passageway to a cave where he would retire for solitude.
His gift of wonder-working was truly extraordinary. When one of his disciples was in town selling baskets, the Saint saw with his spiritual eyes that the monk was in danger of succumbing to the attraction of a harlot, and had him instantly transported back to his cell. Once a certain heretic by the name of Hierax came to the desert, sowing confusion by mocking the Christian faith in the resurrection of the dead. To prove the power of God, St. Macarius took the heretic to the cemetery and called forth a dead monk from his grave.
Saint Macarius taught a wonderful simplicity. “Christians,” he said, “should judge no one, neither an open harlot, nor sinners, nor dissolute people, but should look upon all with simplicity of soul and a pure eye. Purity of heart, indeed, consists in seeing sinful and weak men and having compassion for them and being merciful.” On the subject of prayer he counseled, “It is enough if you will often repeat from your whole heart, ‘Lord, as it pleases Thee and as Thou knowest, have mercy on me.’ And if temptation comes upon you: 'Lord, help me!' The Lord knows what is profitable for us and has mercy on us.” Saint Macarius reposed at the age of ninety.
“(Jesus) said: ‘This is my Body’; therefore the Eucharist is not the figure of his Body and Blood, as some have said, talking nonsense in their stupid minds, but it is in very truth the Blood and Body of Christ.”
来华传教的西方教士中第一个为主殉道者是圣刘方济，殉道地：福建福安。
圣刘方济原名Francisco de Capillas O.P.， 方济各嘉彼来1607年生於西班牙西北部的巴伦西亚，八月十五日受洗，取名方济。 由於他生长在圣善的家庭中，受着公教德馨的陶冶，所以从小就爱慕德行，热心事主。 童年时期与人游玩，不知何故，常口中喊叫：『福安！福安！』同伴和父母都听惯了，只当儿歌。 後来他在中国传教，在福安为主致命的消息一传到西班牙故乡，众人都惊讶不已， 原来天主在他的童年，已把他为主殉道地方的名字，放在他口里任他呼唤。
嘉彼来大学毕业後，弃俗修道。1623年入道明会初学，其时他十六岁，谨小慎微，恪守会规。 初学後依照严格的会规要求，开始研读一切高深的圣学，直到1631年领受了大品。 其时，传教士在远东本来缺乏，再加上日本教难大作，成千累万的司铎和教友，前仆後继地致命于刑场，因此更需要大批的传教士来补充。 嘉彼来修士为主致命之情热切，这位年轻人决心成圣的志向，促使他在仍是六品时就自愿前往菲律宾。 随同道明会的三十位修士，离开故乡向远东出发，那是163l年6月l9日，经过将近一年的海程旅行，备受艰辛，于1632年6月底抵达马尼拉。 就在马尼拉晋升铎品，那是同年的6月月5日。
嘉彼来神父从1632—1641年的九年的工夫，在菲岛的北部传教，在那里奔波劳碌，向当地人民宣传福音。 在这段时间里，他做过助理本堂，也当过本堂主任司铎，但他无论居何地位，总是始终如一，用全副精神，来尽他司铎的职务。 施行圣事，讲解教理，常是欣勤殷切，心力倾注; 而个人起居，严肃圣善，同在会院无异。嘉彼来总是跪着祈祷，在屋内工作也是跪着，因为时间过久，有时两膝的外皮破裂， 但他竟视若罔觉，不以为苦，他的苦修功夫，乃因他效法会祖圣道明的祈祷丶苦修精神，也即『与主秘谈，与人论道』， 嘉彼来体会到唯有具备深刻的与主契合神修体验，才能发挥道明会士弘道明德，普渡众生的淑世情怀。
嘉彼来神父在菲期间，早已渴望来华传教， 这位年轻神父在菲律宾北部的嘉牙茵省渡过了十年艰苦的福传洗练，炎热丶蚊虫和异端使这位外国人痛苦异常， 然而『天之将大任於斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，所以动心忍性，增益其所不能。』 於是历尽千槌百炼的他，雄心万丈地要求长上派他去一个传教最困难的地区，也许他和当时许多年轻的会士一样， 极欲被派到当时迫害最厉害的日本。後来他被派到中国的福建省。
嘉彼来获准於1641年7月23日到达台湾，并遇着同会的徐神父。 在他到达台湾的第二年，得了内渡的机会，踏进了中国大陆福建省，那是1642年4月。
在闽东的仇教运动，福安尤为突出，始于1631年，福安城内陡起仇教暴动，多人窜入堂内，推毁圣堂，搜捕施自安会长及徐神父， 幸亏他们早已闻风逃走。1646年，福安圣堂两次被劫。 1647年，仇教分子趁官府仇恨白莲教之危，捏造种种莫须有罪名，诬告教士，以为天主教更属于禁止之列。 所以，福安知县就在禁止白莲教的诏令下，加批数语: "查得天主洋教，教义乖张，教规败坏，有碍风化，嗣後严禁传播，传教士着即驱逐"。 因此，在闽东地区掀起了一场教难。
刘方济神父与施自安会长躲藏到顶头，但因要关照教友的终傅圣事，故刘神父去福安城关，为教友行病人傅油圣事。 但在返回途中，被官兵发现，束手就擒。营官查明真相後，转交县官发落，知县本来偏听谤言，怀恨教士。 再加上仇教分子趁机贿赂，欲致刘神父于死地。故此三番两次地对神父施加重刑。刘神父倚靠天主圣宠的助佑，不屈不挠。 刘方济在法庭上辨释他们对教士的误会，及排解天主教的要理。他以极大的勇气，忍受这些人对他的残忍待遇。
法官们看见他平静如常，於是对他的信仰也就有点好奇起来。他们虽以财富，权力和自由引诱他放弃信仰，但是他却宁死不屈。 他们对他施以各种不同的刑罚，但是他却利用时间来感化狱卒和同房的犯人。甚至官员也到狱中来劝他放弃信仰。 官员们对他这种乐意为主受苦的说法愤怒异常，命令手下加重用刑，但这样却使他更为高兴。 最後他们使用各种毒辣的手段，决意致死刘神父;在严刑拷打之後，又以饥饿和寒冻来折磨他。 但是，刘神父为主忍难，无怨无尤，而且神乐非常，不惜以身殉道，并用言语劝化了许多同囚的犯人。 1648年(顺治五年)l月16日黄昏在福安湖山被斩首处决。 官方的判决书是这样写的：『在经过长时间痛苦後，他被斩首，这样可以和他那位在同样情形下被处死的主见面。』
圣刘方济在生时，天主就屡次赏过他格外的神恩，如预知未来，洞烛人灵状态等。 致命升天後，天主圣宠的雨露，因着他的转求，不断的降到世人身上。 一九四三年，在西班牙亚味拉城—圣女德肋撒的家乡，曾举行极盛大的三日庆典，敬礼圣刘神父， 这时圣人的首级，也特地从华拉达里城迎了过来，受人瞻仰。 参与盛典的信友，肩磨踵接，道明会会士的圣堂内，万头钻动。 事後许多信友，互相诉说这三日内，自己获得的特殊恩宠，都异口同声的归功于圣刘方济神父在天的转求。 天主为光荣他的忠仆，曾屡次显神迹，叫人在急难时，投奔祈求他。现在我们只把进行宣圣品时，经过考察证明的神迹，写在下面：
第一是他的遗体不朽不毁：刘方济殉道後，遗体丢在坑内，两月之久，没有收敛。 後来开坑收敛时，除了腹部开始有点腐烂外，其馀各部器官和肌肉，都丝毫没有腐朽，至於同坑的其他尸首，都不外两种现象； 或被野兽吞食，或已完全腐化，只留下残骸而已。 圣人的肉身固然完好如初，就是和它接触的尸体，也都保存无损。 据当时开坑收敛的人说，圣死後不久，就有一个青年教友，也被处死，尸首同样的丢在这坑内。 丢下时，他的一只手臂，不知怎样竟横置在圣的胸部。 两个月後，他的尸首都已全部朽坏，只有这只手臂，依然保存如昔。
圣人的遗体收敛以後，原是寄存在外教人家里。 可是过不多久，这家就发生火灾，他的房子以及屋内的器皿什物，都焚化一空； 只有圣的棺柩，虽在热火之中；仍丝毫无损，这不能说不是奇事。
第二是赐人超性神恩：在菲律滨，有位同会的会士玛定黎亚，多年来，肉情猛烈，无法遏止。虽用尽各种办法，邪情仍有增无减。 这样使他日夜烦恼，坐卧不安。当圣致命的消息，传到马尼拉时，他就怦然心动，觉得最後办法，只有把自己托给圣人。 於是热心的求他拯救自己，出此肉情难关。 求後不久，就觉得多年退不去的诱惑，竟已烟消雾散，无影无踪。
第三是治愈病痛： 那时马尼拉总主教区的代牧若望斐迪南博士，多年患着膀胱炎，小便阻塞，疼痛异常，全马尼拉的名医都诊治过，结果徒然。 有一天，两位道明会的神父，为着进行圣列品事，向他陈述圣的生平事迹；以及致命的前後经过。 他一听倾心，等到俩神父出门後，他就跪倒在地，至诚至恳的将自己托给圣，求他医治自己的病苦。 说也奇怪，晚上睡觉时，他在梦中，觉着自己的疾病，已经霍然脱体；醒来以後，果然小便畅通，疼痛全消，他的多年宿疾， 竟是不药而愈。
刘方济神父殉道後，福安地区信友都奉他为主保。 刘方济死後被誉为中国的首位殉道者，是在中国传教的西方教士中第一位为主而殉道的烈士， 教廷在调查过刘方济的一生事迹丶言行丶圣德和灵迹後，由教宗比约十世在一九零九年封他为真福， 教宗若望保禄二世於主历2000年10月1日册封刘方济为圣人。
旷野隐修的始祖
圣安当的一生，总让人想起圣方济亚西西。
251年时，圣人诞生於埃及北部的苛玛城（Coma），他的双亲是非常富有的基督徒，安当则是他们的独子。 为避免受到异教徒的影响，圣人的双亲只好在自己家中教育安当。20岁生日之前，他的父母双双过世， 圣人於是继承了父母的大笔资产，且担负起照顾妹妹的责任。
安当的父母过世後约莫六个月，在偶然的机会下，他听到圣堂内正宣读着福音，内容是基督对富贵少年所说的话： 「你若愿意是成全的，去！变卖你所有的，施舍给穷人，你必有宝藏在天上；然後来跟随我」（玛十九21）。 当下，圣人觉得此话正是基督对他所说的，於是便立即将自己绝大部分的土地都送给了邻人，并将妹妹托付给圣善的贞女们照管， 自己则到旷野中作一位隐士去了。 圣人在自家附近退隐达十五年之久，在那里，他力行祈祷与苦行，并向住在附近的隐士们学习如何善度神修的生活。 圣人并非一朝即成的，安当也是；他对天主的忠信常受到严厉的试炼。 撰写圣人生平的圣亚大纳削(St. Athanasius)曾提及， 圣安当常遭受魔鬼的可怕诱惑，这些魔鬼常以野兽的样式出现，无情地把圣人鞭打得半死。 但是，藉着祈祷，安当学会了如何不去注意这些魔鬼，且获得了很好的效果。
当圣人35岁时，他决意离开自己的家乡去过一个完全独修的生活。 於是，他渡过尼罗河，走到东岸的古老旷野中，在一座名叫庇斯比尔（Mt. Pispir）的山上定居了下来。 他的圣德很快地就吸引了许多人来求教於他，以致他渴望的独修生活并未持续很久。 这些来寻求圣人指导的人们就散居在庇斯比尔山附近，後来都成了圣人的门徒， 他们就住在天然形成的洞穴或小屋内独修，圣人则固定地予以会晤并指导，这样维持了五至六年。 随後，圣人又退隐到尼罗河与红海间的克津山（Mt. Colzim）旷野，在那里度过了他最後的45年半独修生活。 尽管，圣人宁愿过着完全独修的生活，但他对此世的「责任」，却使得他时常往来於自己的小室与庇斯比尔山之间， 甚至在311年时，他还一年二度前往亚历山大。 教会从未有过反社会性的圣人，圣安当也是，面对那些时常前来求助於他的人们，圣人时常给予他们灵性上的指引与教导。
罗马皇帝Maximinus兴起教难期间，圣人鼓励信友为坚持信仰而殉道； 约355年时，他与圣亚大纳削致力於对抗当时盛行的亚略邪说；次年，圣人便过世了。 由於圣人担心自己死後遗骸会成为後人敬礼的对象，因此严厉地嘱咐其弟子不可泄漏其安葬之地的所在。
在东方教会里，圣安当独修生活的操练与教导，仍有许多人遵守； 西方教会中，则以嘉都先会（the Order of Cathusians）为代表。 圣安当不仅可以说是隐修的始祖，更可说是各种修道生活的始祖。
在圣像中，安当常被描绘成一位手持着T型或十架型手杖的隐士，另一手则拿着一本书，然後身後会紧随着一只猪或其他牲畜。 十架与猪象徵着圣人他一生与邪魔的争战－「十架」是他持续克胜邪魔的工具，而「猪」则是邪魔自身的象徵。 「书」让人忆起他曾为一本名为「本性之书－the Book of Nature」写过注释。 圣人辞世时享有105岁的高寿。
「一日，安当进入圣堂时，正有人在诵读福音，他听见吾主向富家少年说： 『你若愿意成为完善的人，就要去变卖你所有的，施舍给穷人，你必有宝藏在天上；然後来跟随我。』
安当想到这段福音好像是为他而诵读的，便立刻走出圣堂，把祖产全部赠送给村中的人，以免这些产业连累了他和他的妹妹。 他也变卖了一切其他财产，把所得的大量现金賙济穷人，只为他妹妹留下一小部份。
又有一次，他进入圣堂，听见主在福音中说：『你们不要为明天而忧虑。』 於是他再无法安心留在圣堂内，走出圣堂，把所存留的那一小部份现金也完全施舍给更贫穷之人了。 他把妹妹托付给巴德诺女修院照管後，便在自己的住宅附近，专务苦修，度着克己苦身的生活。
安当靠手工维生，因为他曾听说过：『谁若不肯工作，就不该吃饭。』他所赚来的钱，一部分用来买面包糊口，其馀的都賙济穷人了。
他不断祈祷，因为他曾学习应独自祈祷，并应不断祈祷。他专心听念福音，一字一句都不遗漏地牢记一切； 以後，他的记忆就替代了书本。」
Anthony was born in the year 251 in Egypt. Our Lord spoke to him
saying: “If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell, what thou hast, and
give to the poor.
He gave away all he had tried and stated learning how to live a
holy life. He lived in the desert, where he lived the life of a
hermit for many years. He devoted himself to prayer and penance.
For more than twenty years Anthony was tempted by the devil, but
he overcame temptation by prayer and sacrifice. Many people
flocked to him for advice. He consented to guide them in holiness.
He started the first monastery, so people call him the father of
monastic life and the patriarch of monks.
His miracles drew so many people so he left and went into the
desert again, where he lived by hard work and prayer.
In 305, Anthony founded a religious community of hermits who lived in separate cells. He died in 356 at the age of one hundred and five.
Bishop and Confessor; Franciscan
Blessed Matthew of Girgenti, born at Girgenti on the island of Sicily, entered the Franciscan Order when he was still quite young. When he had completed his studies and had been ordained a priest, the desire to enter upon a more perfect observance of the Franciscan rule led him to transfer to the Observant reform which was being promoted by St Bernardine of Siena.
St Bernardine soon perceived the outstanding qualities of the young religious and took him with him as a companion on the missions that he was then giving throughout Italy. By his ardent zeal Matthew was instrumental in the conversion of numerous sinners, and in rekindling the flame of piety where it had long since grown cold. In imitation of his master Bernardine, he did all in his power to promote devotion to the holy name of Jesus.
Believing that religious perfection is particularly meritorious before God, Matthew strove earnestly to promulgate the perfect observance of the rule of St Francis. He went to Spain, where he was successful in introducing the observance in many convents. Then he went to his own country of Sicily, where, with the approval of the Holy See, he established several convents and labored with much success among the people. In honor of the name of Jesus and that of His Blessed Mother, Matthew gave every convent he founded the title of St Mary of Jesus.
About this time the bishop of Girgenti died, and clergy and laity joined in the request to have Matthew as their chief pastor. He resisted at first, but Pope Eugene IV commanded him to accept the appointment. Blessed Matthew of Girgenti then discharged his office so well that his diocese was soon in a flourishing condition. He took vigorous action against prevalent vices and disorders. As a result powerful enemies denounced him to the pope. The gold was to be tried in the fire.
Blessed Matthew of Girgenti was called to Rome by Pope Eugene IV, to answer the charges brought against him. But the inquiry resulted in such a clear justification of the bishop that the pope declared him innocent and sent him back with honor to his diocese. However, not long after, Matthew, worn out by his labors, voluntarily resigned his office in order to return to a Franciscan convent and prepare himself for death.
For several years Matthew then suffered from severe maladies and, thus purified, he entered the eternal bliss of heaven. He died in the convent at Palermo in 1451. His body was taken to the Church on an open stretcher. When the procession arrived before the high altar, to the amazement and terror of all present, the deceased prelate raised himself on the litter, adored the Blessed Sacrament with folded hands, and then lay back again.
Numerous miracles occurred at his grave, and the people honored him as a saint from the time of his demise. Pope Clement XIII confirmed the veneration paid to him, and later Pope Pius VII renewed this confirmation.
*from: The Franciscan Book of Saints, ed. by Marion Habig, ofm
When Blessed Matthew of Girgenti's body was in the church for his funeral Mass, his hands joined in adoration toward the Eucharist.
Franciscan Priest known as the Apostle of Sublacense Italy
Thomas of Cori, priest, O.F.M. Born in Cori (Latina) on June 4, 1655, Thomas knew a childhood marked by the premature loss first of his mother and then of his father, thus being left alone at the age of 14 to look after his younger sister. Shepherding sheep, he learned wisdom from the simplest things. Once his sister was married, the youth was free to follow the inspiration that for some years he had kept in the silence of his heart: to belong completely to God in the Religious Life of a Franciscan. He had been able to get to know the Friars Minor in his own village at St. Francis convent. Once his two sisters were settled in good marriages and he was rendered free of all other preoccupations, he was received into the Order and sent to Orvieto (PG) to fulfill his novitiate year. After professing his vows according to the Rule of St. Francis and completing his theological studies, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1683. He was immediately nominated vice master of novices at Holy Trinity convent in Orvieto, since his superior recognized at once his gifts.
After a short time, Fr. Thomas heard of the hermitages that were beginning to bloom in the Order and the intention of the superiors of the Roman Province to inaugurate one at the convent at Civitella (today Bellegra). His request was accepted, and the young friar thus knocked at the door of the poor convent in 1684, saying, “I am Fr. Thomas of Cori, and I come here to become holy!” In speech perhaps distant from ours, he expressed his anxiousness to live the Gospel radically, after the spirit of Saint Francis.
From then, Fr. Thomas lived at Bellegra until death, with the exception of six years in which he was Guardian at the convent of Palombara, where he initiated the Hermitage modeled after the one at Bellegra. He wrote the Rule first for one and then for the other, observing it scrupulously aid consolidating by word and example the new institution of the two Hermitages.
St. Thomas did not close himself up in the Hermitage, forgetting the good of his brothers and sisters, and the heart of the Franciscan vocation, which is apostolic. He was called with good reason the Apostle of Sublacense (the Subiaco region), having crossed the territory and its villages with the indefatigable proclamation of the Gospel, in the administration of the sacraments and the flowering of miracles at his passage, a sign of the presence and nearness of the Kingdom. His preaching was clear and simple, convincing and strong. He did not climb the most illustrious pulpits of his time; his personality was able to give its best in an ambit restricted to our territory, living his Franciscan vocation in littleness and in the concrete choice of the poorest.
Exquisite charity. St. Thomas of Cori was to his brothers a very gentle father. In face of the resistance of some brothers before his will to reform and his radicality in living the Franciscan ideal, the Saint knew how to respond with patience and humility, even finding himself alone to mind the convent. He had understood well that every true reform initiates itself. The considerable correspondence that is here annexed demonstrates St. Thomas' attention to the smallest expectations and needs of his Friars, and of numerous friends, penitents and Friars who turned to him for his counsel. In the convent, he demonstrated his spirit of charity in his availability for every necessity, even the most humble.
Rich in merits, he fell asleep in the Lord on January 11, 1729. St. Thomas of Cori shines among us and in Rome, of which he is the co-patron, above all in his thirst for a Christian and Franciscan ideal that is pure and lived in its essentials. A provocation for all of us not to take lightly the Gospel and its all-encompassing exigencies.
Mass and Eucharistic Adoration was extremely important to St. Thomas of Cori, at the very core of his spiritual life, from which he would go forth to preach the Gospel, administer the sacraments and work miracles in Italy.
圣人於公元二三六年被选任罗马主教，积极发展教会生活，为更有效地服务穷人而把罗马分作七个执事区。 教宗於二五○年在罗马德西乌斯皇教难初期壮烈殉道，葬於加利斯都墓。
圣人原为罗马禁卫军队长，信德甚为坚强。戴克里先(Diocletian)教难初期於罗马殉道，时在二八八年一月二十日；葬於一地窟内。
圣巴斯弟盎是教友最喜爱的圣人之一，他的画像是一位壮年人，被绑在树上，全身插满了箭。
圣人在米兰成长，受到了良好的宗教教育。 他本来对於军职有一种反感，但由於从军的关系，能帮助遭受迫害的教友，便前往罗马充当兵士，时在公元二八三年。 因为他勇敢过人，品行端方，很快便出人头地。 戴克里先皇帝对他的勇敢大加赏识，特擢升他为御林军长，这一职位给予他更多的方便与机会， 以坚立信友们的信德，使他们不怕残酷的邢罚，而誓死不背弃天主。
一天，有弟兄二人：一名玛尔谷(Marcus)，一名圣玛策林(Marcellian)被判斩首之刑，他们的父母求得了缓刑三天。 巴斯弟盎便到监狱去看望两兄弟，向他们作了一次动人的训话，连旁听的人都获得了极大的神益： 有十六个囚犯，还有狱卒立刻请求领洗入教。 巴氏便去请了一位神父，给他们讲解道理，并给他们付洗； 玛氏弟兄的老父亲唐贵连患有病症，领洗时圣水滴在他身上，便立占勿药，霍然而愈。 当时罗马市长也患有同样的病，听到这个消息，并因巴斯弟盎而获得痊愈，他便立刻要求领洗圣事， 他下令释放狱中的教友，并使他的奴隶获得自由。 最後他必须辞去市长的职位；这也是他早就料到的。
有人在皇帝面前控告巴斯弟盎是教友，皇帝当面责斥他，说他忘恩负义，不忠於君王。 巴氏反驳说：「谁能比我更善尽公民的天职呢？ 此外，我每天都祈求天主，赏赐我国国势昌隆！」 这几句话深深地困惑了戴克里先，最後下命令弓箭手用乱箭射死他； 但是弓箭手平日都敬重巴氏，便不把箭射中他的要害，虽然满身鲜血淋漓，却没有死去。
一位热心的太太名伊莱纳的前来收尸，以便埋葬，可是看到巴斯弟盎还没有死，便把他抬到家中，治疗他的创伤。 不久以後，巴氏想自己有足够的力量面见出巡的皇帝。 皇帝一见巴氏，不禁大吃一惊，他想巴氏早已死了多时，自忖这一定是鬼怪。 使皇帝更为惊慌失措的是巴氏含有谴责和威胁的话： 「升下若愿国泰民安，请立刻停止使无辜的人流血！」 皇帝听了怒不可 ，命人用乱杖打死了巴斯弟盎，并把他的尸体投入阴沟。
圣巴斯弟盎是着名的罗马致命者之一。 公元四世纪初，圣教会得享自由，圣人的芳名便列入圣人录； 一座大堂为了恭敬圣人而兴建，这是罗马最美丽的圣堂之一，圣堂坐落在罗马南郊古啊庇亚路旁，故称之为「城外之圣巴斯弟盎」。 在圣堂的地下室中，现在仍保存着圣人的主要圣髑 。
公元六八 O 年罗马瘟疫流行，居民敬捧圣巴斯弟盎的圣髑游行市街，天主因圣人的转达而使瘟疫停止。 此後各国都来请求圣巴斯弟盎的圣髑，教宗恩仁二世（Eugene II)（八二四－八二七在位）便把在罗马的圣髑分送给许多地方： 如义大利丶法国丶德国等地都供友圣人的圣髑，同时也把在瘟疫盛行时恭捧圣髑游行的敬礼传遍欧洲各处。 最着名的圣迹是一五七五年在米兰，一五九九在里斯本： 当时在这两座城中瘟疫蔓延，死人众多，居民游行呼求圣人的转达，瘟疫就此停止。 我们要注意，这并非只是外表的游行，而是教友内心的活泼信德获得了圣迹。
主保：玛丽亚的子女丶贞洁丶园丁丶小女孩丶订婚男女丶遭玷污者与贞女
圣女的名字，在希腊文中有「纯洁」之意；在拉丁文中则让人想起「羔羊－Agnus」。
对於这位圣女，我们除了知道她在第三世纪末，以约12丶13岁的稚龄殉道致命之外，其他几乎一无所知，仅有一些传说流传下来。 传说中，圣女致命的方式有数种说词：有斩首丶焚烧或是绞刑等说法，莫衷一是。
根据传说，圣女是罗马贵族的後裔，在13岁时因坚持信仰而殉道致命。 依搦斯年幼之时，曾向天主誓许永保童贞，她爱主至深，痛恶罪恶甚於死亡！ 由於圣女容貌甚美，因此许多年轻人皆想娶依搦斯为妻，但圣女的回覆总是：「耶稣基督是我唯一的夫君。」
一位罗马官长的的儿子名叫Procop，因圣女的拒绝而恼羞成怒，他曾试图以丰厚的礼物与许诺为条件，欲说服圣女成为他的妻子。 但是，这位美丽的女孩还是说：「我已向万有之主许下承诺。 祂的光辉胜过太阳与星辰，且绝不离弃我。」 Procop在盛怒下控告她是一位基督徒，并且将圣女带到官长他父亲那里去。 这位官长怂恿圣女说，若她愿意背弃上主，将可获得许多珍贵的礼物。但是，圣女还是予以回绝。 之後，这位罗马官长欲以捆绑胁迫的方式，试图改变圣女的心意，但她可爱的脸庞却流溢着喜乐， 连外教民众都不忍见此美丽的女孩受死而偷偷哭泣着。然而，圣女的表情却有如待嫁般地喜乐。 她并未留意那些求她留住自己性命者的呼求，只回答说： 「若取悦你们，我就冒犯了我的净配；祂选我在先，所以应先拥有我。 祂以恩宠与美德来妆点我的灵魂，因此我只属於这位天使们所服事 的天主。」说完，圣女即低头等候致命的大刀了。
据载，圣女被囚禁的期间，曾有一位男子带着情欲的眼目注视着圣女，结果瞬间双目失了明，赖圣女代求，才又使该名男子恢复视力。
又有一种传说这样描述：由於罗马法律不许处决贞女，所以在执刑前，罗马官长命人先将圣女予以玷污。 然而，圣女贞洁的荣冠却奇迹地被保留了下来。之後，当士兵将圣女拖至外头，准备施以火刑时，乾柴却无法点燃。 无奈之下，官长只好命兵士拔出剑来，砍击圣女的头部，依搦斯遂光荣致命了。 圣女致命後被葬在罗马附近的地下墓穴之中。君士坦丁大帝的女儿为她盖了一座大殿，以尊崇这位圣女。
按欧洲部份地区的习俗，据闻只要在圣女庆日的前夕举行特定的仪式，少女们就能看见自己未来夫婿的相貌。 这种迷信的行为，在若望基德（John Keat）的诗中「The Eve of Saint Agnes」曾被提及。
圣女是贞洁丶园丁丶小女孩丶订婚男女丶遭玷污者与贞女的主保。 圣女的主要庆日是在1月21日，但在罗马教会的礼仪里，也常在1月28日纪念这位圣女。
在圣像中，圣女常被描绘成手持棕榈树枝，脚旁则伴有一只羔羊，或怀中抱着羔羊的一位少女。
St. Agnes was a Roman girl who was only thirteen years old when she suffered martyrdom for her Faith. Agnes had made a promise, a promise to God never to stain her purity. Her love for the Lord was very great and she hated sin even more than death! Since she was very beautiful, many young men wished to marry Agnes, but she would always say, "Jesus Christ is my only Spouse."
Procop, the Governor's son, became very angry when she refused him. He had tried to win her for his wife with rich gifts and promises, but the beautiful young girl kept saying, "I am already promised to the Lord of the Universe. He is more splendid than the sun and the stars, and He has said He will never leave me!" In great anger, Procop accused her of being a Christian and brought her to his father, the Governor. The Governor promised Agnes wonderful gifts if she would only deny God, but Agnes refused. He tried to change her mind by putting her in chains, but her lovely face shone with joy. Next he sent her to a place of sin, but an Angel protected her. At last, she was condemned to death. Even the pagans cried to see such a young and beautiful girl going to death. Yet, Agnes was as happy as a bride on her wedding day. She did not pay attention to those who begged her to save herself. "I would offend my Spouse," she said, "if I were to try to please you. He chose me first and He shall have me!" Then she prayed and bowed her head for the death-stroke of the sword.
圣人是西班牙撒拉高撒(Saragossa)教会的一位执事， 戴克里先(Diocletian)迫害教会时，他在西班牙瓦伦西亚(Valencia)城， 饱受苦刑而为主殉道。
圣白小满，贵州省水城县人，一八二一年生，一八五三年正月二十五日殉道。 圣人受难时，仍嘱妻子谨守十诫，把圣教会道理教给女儿。一九○○年由教宗良十三世宣布他为真福。 教宗若望保禄二世於 二○○○年十月一日 宣布他为圣人。
On January 23, 1838, a daughter was born to Peter and Barbara Cope of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. The girl was named after her mother. Two years later the Cope family emigrated to the United States and settled in Utica, New York. Young Barbara worked in a factory until August 1862, when she went to the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York. After profession in November of the next year, she began teaching at Assumption parish school.
Marianne held the post of superior in several places and was twice the novice mistress of her congregation. A natural leader, three different times she was superior of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, where she learned much that would be useful during her years in Hawaii.
Elected provincial in 1877, Mother Marianne was unanimously re-elected in 1881. Two years later the Hawaiian government was searching for someone to run the Kakaako Receiving Station for people suspected of having leprosy. More than 50 religious communities in the United States and Canada were asked. When the request was put to the Syracuse sisters, 35 of them volunteered immediately. On October 22, 1883, Mother Marianne and six other sisters left for Hawaii where they took charge of the Kakaako Receiving Station outside Honolulu; on the island of Maui they also opened a hospital and a school for girls.
In 1888, Mother Marianne and two sisters went to Molokai to open a home for “unprotected women and girls” there. The Hawaiian government was quite hesitant to send women for this difficult assignment; they need not have worried about Mother Marianne! On Molokai she took charge of the home that St. Damien de Veuster [May 10, d. 1889] had established for men and boys. Mother Marianne changed life on Molokai by introducing cleanliness, pride and fun to the colony. Bright scarves and pretty dresses for the women were part of her approach.
Awarded the Royal Order of Kapiolani by the Hawaiian government and celebrated in a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother Marianne continued her work faithfully. Her sisters have attracted vocations among the Hawaiian people and still work on Molokai.
Mother Marianne died on August 9, 1918 and was beatified in 2005. A second miracle was officially confirmed in December 2011; Mother Marianne's canonization is on October 21 2012.
Archbishop of Toledo
Doctor of the Virginity of Mary, Archbishop of Toledo, and recipient of a blessed priestly vestment from Our Blessed Mother, in reward for his zeal and love for her. Saint Ildephonsus is highly venerated in Spain, and considered a precursor in establishing the later official Vatican doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Our Blessed Mother. He was the first to establish the feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ildephonsus was born to a noble and distinguished family in Toledo, Spain. He was the nephew of Saint Eugenius, who proceeded him as Bishop of Toledo, and a pupil of Saint Isidore of Seville. While very young, he entered the Benedictine monastery at Agalia, much against the wishes of his father. He embraced the monastic life, being ordained a deacon at the age of 23, and later becoming Abbot of the monastery. Eventually, following his attendance at the Councils of Toledo in 653 and 655, King Reccesyinth selected him to succeed Saint Eugenius as Archbishop of Toledo. It was in this capacity that he served the city and it’s inhabitants for nine years, performing his duties with diligence and sanctity until his death.
Saint Ildephonsus is a favorite saint of medieval artists, hymnographers, and poets, largely due to two famed events which occurred during his life. In one occasion, Saint Ildephonsus was praying before the relics of Saint Leocadia. It is said that during his prayers, the martyred saint rose from her grave, thanking him for the devotion he showed towards the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On a separate occasion, Our Blessed Mother herself appeared to Saint Ildephonsus, presenting him with a priestly vestment in thanks for his devotion to her. On the feast of the Mother of God, Ildephonsus and the clergy found the church engulfed in a radiant light upon arriving to celebrate Matins. All but Ildephonsus and two deacons fled, deeply afraid. When the three entered the church, there, seated on the Archbishop’s throne, was Our Blessed Mother surrounded by choirs of angels and holy virgins. Our Blessed Mother spoke to Ildephonsus, saying: “Thou art my chaplain and faithful notary. Receive from me this chasuble, which my Son sends you from His treasury.” Having said this, the Immaculate Virgin clothed Ildephonsus in the chasuble, and instructed him to wear it for the Holy Sacrifice on her festivals.
Saint Ildephonsus was also a prolific writer, and his literary works are better known than the details of his life. While only four of his works have survived, they include his treatise on the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin, and an important document of the history of the Spanish Church during the first two-thirds of the seventh century, entitled Concerning Famous Men.
Saint Ildephonsus wrote several prayers in honor of Our Blessed Mother.
“O Jesus, here present in the Holy Eucharist, Thy Heart is all aglow with love for me! Thou dost call me, Thou dost urge me to come to Thee.”
Marian prayer of St. Ildephonsus
Virgin Mary, hear my prayer: through the Holy Spirit you became the Mother of Jesus; from the Holy Spirit may I too have Jesus.
Through the Holy Spirit your flesh conceived Jesus; through the same Spirit may my soul receive Jesus.
Through the Holy Spirit you were able to know Jesus, to possess Jesus, and to bring him into the world. Through the Holy Spirit may I too come to know your Jesus.
Imbued with the Spirit, Mary, you could say: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word;” in the Holy Spirit, lowly as I am, let me proclaim the great truths about Jesus.
In the Spirit you now adore Jesus as Lord and look on Him as Son; in the same spirit, Mary, let me love your Jesus.
新闻工作者的主保。
圣方济各沙雷氏生於十六世纪 (1567-1622)，是日内瓦的主教，庆日为一月二十四日，是新闻工作者的主保。
方济各沙雷氏出生法国撒瓦省於富裕家庭，长大後在着名的大学进修，并取得法律博士学位。
十八岁时，他突陷於失望的诱惑，恐怕自己丧失恩宠，死後会堕入永火地狱，但他说： 「主啊！我死後纵使无法享见你的圣容，无法爱你； 至少赐我今生能时时刻刻爱你。」接着他跪在圣母像前祈祷，失望的诱惑随之消失。
一五九三年，圣方济各沙雷氏受祝圣为神父，他是一位出色的讲道者及灵修导师。 他认为「成圣」绝不是神职人员和修道人的专利，而是所有基督徒皆可以做到的。
当时，教区内的基督教势力极大，方济各沙雷氏甘愿接受主教的派遣，劝化六万个反对教会的基督徒。 他编撰及派发了很多小册子，并且到处讲道，这份艰辛的工作使他多次处於死亡的边缘。 经过他五年的努力，信友的信仰得以坚强，皈依人数超越四万。
一六零二年，方济各沙雷氏获祝圣日内瓦主教， 对所属的圣职人员及信众，不但言教身教，树立真正善牧的模范，并且着书立说，促进信众的信德生活。 其後，协助创立圣母往见修会。一六二二年十二月二十八日安逝於法国里昂，但於1月24日安葬安内西。
查圣人的性情本是暴躁激烈的，且心神也过度活泼急剧，但得天主助佑， 经多年的修养和克制，竟变成一位慈祥和气，宅心仁厚而可亲的长者。
圣方济沙雷氏教我们成圣，他说： 「无论我们是处於甚麽境况或从事甚麽工作，我们皆能成圣。」，「生命的满全就是爱的满全，爱是生命的灵魂。」
有关个人与天主爱的计划合作，圣人说： 「（天主）并不愿意每一个人遵守所有的劝谕，但只当遵守因爱德的要求，符合不同个人丶时间丶机会丶能力的那些劝谕。 因为爱德是一切德行丶诫命丶劝谕的皇后。总括一句，爱德给予一切法律，及基督徒行为各自的位置丶秩序丶时间和价值。」 （《论天主的 爱》8,6）
“We must visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament a hundred thousand times a day.”
“As mountain hares become white in winter because they neither see nor eat anything but snow, so by adoring and feeding on beauty, purity and goodness itself in the Eucharist you will become altogether beautiful, pure, and good.”
“Nowhere do we find our Savior more tender or more loving than here (in adoration) where He, so to speak, annihilates Himself and reduces Himself to food in order to penetrate our souls and to unite Himself to the hearts of His friends.”
“By adoring and partaking of His beauty, His Goodness and His purity in this Divine Sacrament, you will become all beautiful, good and pure.”
"When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth's sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food."
"When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence."
??要捆绑他们，解送到大司祭前吗？」扫禄却更强而有力了，使侨居在大马士革的犹太人惊惶失措，因为他指证耶稣就是默西亚。 过了一些时日，犹太人就共同商议要伤害他。
两位圣人均为保禄之门生，分别治理厄弗所与克来特的教会。保禄所写给他们的书信，称为「牧函」，包括为牧者及为信友最完美的训诲。
真福雷永明神父( Bl. Gabriele M. Allegra, ofm）是意大利籍方济会士，思高圣经学会的创办人，与会士们将《圣经》新旧约全书翻译为中文，被誉为「华人的圣热罗尼莫」。
一丶出生
雷永明神父，一九０七年十二月廿六日，出生於意大利西西里岛加塔尼雅城圣若望村，父名罗撒黎约，母名若安纳， 二人热心事主，圣德非凡，永明神父诵念诸圣祷文时，常爱呼求其父其母，代己转求。 生後领洗，取名若望斯德望。其母见其生性聪敏过人，异常活泼，往往指其子而对人慨叹说： 我儿若望，来日如不流为一大盗，必将成为一位大圣。 若望选择了成圣之路，愿意在故乡过小兄弟会修会生活，遂去了阿喜勒雅肋，就读於方济会小修院。
二丶小兄弟会会士
一九二三年十二月十三日入小兄弟会，正式做初学，取名加俾额尔玛利亚兄弟。 发初愿後，继续学业，就读高中。在校期间，品行学业为全校之冠，师长寄以厚望，遂令其於一九二六年九月北上入京， 在罗马圣安多尼传教学院攻读传教学，造就自己来华从事传教工作。
一九二九年七月廿五日潜发终身大愿，永为方济会会士；一九三０年七月二十日接受铎品，永为司祭。
三丶来华传教
一九三一年五月卅一日，由布林狄息港乘船来我中华。七月三日抵达上海。 後由上海至汉口经长沙，於七月二十日，晋铎第一周年纪念日，安抵湖南衡阳教区──卅一年前范怀德主教， 安守仁神父及董文学神父为主捐躯的所在地，衡阳。抵达当日即开始学习华语，执行传教任务。 一九三二年柏长青主教委 任神父为衡阳教区小修院院长，直至一九三九年因病回国养疴。
四丶回国养疴
神父自来华後，夜以继日钻研中国文献，译述圣经典籍，操劳过度，因而成疾，须回国休养， 遂於一九三九年夏离衡赴沪，乘船返国，结束其在华初期传教生活。 在衡虽不及十载，然因神父才德出众，待人谦和有礼，兼又慈悲为怀，深为教会内外人士所器重，对其离去，莫不依依； 待其去後，时时怀念， 倍加称道。
回国後，赖家人及同会弟兄悉心照顾，於短期内健康得以恢复。 次年十一月遂已有意再度起程来华，然不能返回他心爱的衡阳教区，衡阳教区他是没有再见的机会了。 他该起程赴北平，在那里他更容易实现他的理想，来华传教的主要目的：使我中华天主教教会有全部由原文译注的圣经。
五丶再度来华成立思高圣经学会
由於战事的影响，於一九四一年四月方能成行，由葡萄牙经美国日本而抵达上海。 再由上海经南京而抵达北平，任意大利大使馆主任司铎，照顾平津一带意籍信徒，与中外人士多所接触，传教荣主救灵，甚有收获。 除此以外，一有馀暇，继续译述圣经，与着名学者研讨中国文化，甚为中国学者所赏识。 当时滞留在故都着名古生物学与人种学家德日进神父，曾一度与神父於此时作过长期的学术讨论。
一九四五年八月初二，天神之后节，神父终生萦怀的一大志愿，终於得以实现，正式成立了译注圣经的圣经学会， 奉方济会真福董思高为主保，因而命名为思高圣经学会。 真福董思高是神父一生特别敬爱崇奉的一位神学家，以他的思想和生活方式为学会人员的圭皋。
六丶学会南迁香港
由於内战，平津吃紧，学会不得不他迁，以图生存。神父高瞻远瞩，事前妥为筹划，学会终於一九四八年八月至十月，分批迁来香港。 神父压阵，最後南下，工作至一九六０年。是年因新近成立於新加坡的安道会学社需人组织领导，神父奉命前往膺任此职。 至一九六三年由星返港再主持圣经学会，从事出版全部圣经合订本及圣经辞典。此二书先後於一九六八年及一九七五年出版。 如此，神父对我中华民族，对我中华天主教教会的传教使命，引为己任的译注全部圣经工作， 终於赖在天中国之后，无玷童贞圣母的助佑，顺利完成。 神父大功告成後次年正月廿六日正午，蒙主宠召，安然与世长辞於香港嘉诺撒医院，享年六十有九。 港内外人士闻噩耗後，哀悼之馀，莫不异口同声宣称一圣人与世长辞矣。 遂争先恐後索求神父遗物，留作纪念，愿神父在天为己转求代祷，获得所需。
香港教区胡振中主教於1984年向教廷申请开始雷神父的列品案，教廷於十年後宣布他为「可敬品」， 2012年9月29日在其家乡西西里卡塔尼亚省阿基雷尔市主教座堂举行宣福礼。
七丶生前传教与学术活动
神父领导圣经学会为我中华天主教教会完成了由原文译注全部圣经的工作，因而为人誉为中华圣热罗尼莫。 除译注经典外，神父还撰写了不少学术性论文丶书评及书籍， 发挥了他对於圣经学丶圣母学丶教父学丶神修学丶神学，以及有关方济精神丶方济文献渊博精微的知识和造诣。 三次赴圣地，两次为客座 教授，在圣京耶路撒冷圣经学会教授圣经神学，其主题为若望福音与保禄书信。
神父不论在何处，敬业守职，自不待言； 但一有馀暇，必尽己所能，传教牧灵： 或听告解讲道，或主持退修，引导神职人员，修会士女，男女信众，热诚奉主，孝爱圣母，随从各自圣召，特殊身份，修德成圣，荣主救灵。 受神父感召而向化者，在所多有；对神父感恩而怀德者，遍地皆是。
八丶终生神修概畧
神父的神修，以圣保禄丶圣若望及真福董思高为导师，依循他们的神学探究宇宙君王基督及天主之母无玷童贞的奥迹， 实践他们的神学思想，全心丶全灵丶全意丶全力热爱基督君王及无玷童贞，以他们为捷径，奔向为万有万善之源的天父。
神父对无玷童贞圣母的孺慕孝爱，尤为人所共察，随时随地怀念默思圣母的痛苦； 一心一意仰承体贴圣母无玷圣心，效法自己的主保圣加俾额尔圣人和真福科耳贝，竭力推行特敬圣母痛苦和圣母无玷圣心的运动。 在远东亲自成立了圣母无玷圣心侍卫团，且为此撰写了一部情文相生，命名为「升天捷径，圣 母圣心」的专书。
神父身为方济会会士，甚具方济精神，酷爱神贫，谦和慈祥，怜贫惜孤，尤其锺爱身患残疾癞病人士，喜与他们欢度圣诞复活佳节， 自备礼物前往，团聚联欢志庆。惟其如此，故人乐与神父亲近，诉心求教。
神父潜发终身大愿之日，曾向圣母诚心恳求说： 吁，玛利亚，我甘饴的慈母，我恳求你赐我能为主捐躯，赏我能常度谦逊听命，实在的方济会生活，使我一生不求人知，不离苦架。 神父在将自己一生全然奉献给天主的那一天，就已向天上无玷童贞的慈母，提出了自己今後为生的方案。 神父一生实践了这一 方案，圣母实在赏赐了神父一生实践了这一方案。 此为诸凡与神父相逢丶相识丶相处的人士所共有的同感。
雷永明神父向圣言诵
啊！降生成人的圣言，我的天主的圣言！ 我愿意耗尽我的一生，聆听祢！
啊！天父光荣的圣言！请驱散我心灵的黑暗，使我在祢的光照下，时常履行祢的圣意！
God’s Word penetrates the human heart
Father Gabriele Allegra, our Franciscan Brother, enamored of God and God’s Holy Word, deeply understood the importance of the Bible in each Christian life. He was convinced that the Word of God, “strengthens faith, give food for the soul and provides a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life” (DV, No. 21). “Spiritual food is of two kinds,” he said, “the Holy Eucharist and the Bible.” He added, “we preach the Gospel because we firmly believe that God’s word can touch the human heart and penetrate the most unreasonable and stubborn of hearts.”
Bringing the Bible to the Chinese
For some 300 years, Chinese Catholic had almost no access to the Holy Scriptures in their own language. In his strong love for the Chinese people and their culture, Father Allegra succeeded in making the Scriptures available and relevant to them.
Allegra the man and Friar
Gabriel Allegra was born in San Giovanni la Punta, Sicily, Italy, on 26 December 1907. In October 1923, he joined the Friars Minor. In 1929, he pronounced his final vows in the Order, and in 1930, he was ordained a priest. In 31 May 1931, after having studied for five years at the Franciscan College in Rome (the Antoniamum), he left Italy for China where he worked as rector of the minor seminary for the Hengyeng Vicariate.
Very early in his life as a Franciscan friar, Allegra felt called by God to be an instrument to bring the Word of God to Chinese Catholics in a translation made from the original texts. Fortunately, Allegra was a linguistic genius, knowledgeable in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin.
He also gained a working knowledge of English and German. But, of course, to realize his aim, he knew that he had to have a thorough knowledge of biblical languages: Hebrew and Greek. Expertise in all these language was still not enough. To realize his dream of translating the Bible from its original source into Chinese, he needed more than a basic knowledge of the Chinese language.
Immersion in the Chinese language and culture
As soon as he got to China, he set out learn Chinese and Chinese characters starting with textbooks used in the first grade of primary school. By 1935, by dint of hard work and determination, he had become an outstanding Chinese scholar. He began the translation of the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek into Chinese.
Father Allegra returns to Italy
The work was exceedingly demanding. It took its toll on the devoted, tireless friar. Four years later, he suffered from nervous exhaustion and had to return to Italy for a rest. While recuperating in Italy he managed to spend one year studying at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He also went to the Holy Land to pursue further studies.
Back to China
When World War II broke out, he prayed fervently to be allowed to return to China as soon as possible. In November 1940, he flew to Madrid and then to Lisbon. On 14 February 1941, he booked passage on a ship to New York. From there he went to San Francisco and then he sailed for China via Japan arriving in Shanghai on Easter Sunday. He then boarded a train for Beijing.
On 26 April 1941 he arrived in Beijing and resided at the Italian embassy as chaplain before joining the Domus Franciscana community in 1943. Aware that he still had a great deal to learn before having sufficient proficiency in Chinese to ensure an inculturated Scripture, he enrolled at Fujen Catholic University where he immersed himself in the study of Chinese philosophy, language, history and culture.
The Work of translating the Bible
The task of translating the whole Bible into Chinese could not be the work on one person alone. Allegra realized that he needed a group of collaborators. At Fujen he met four young Chinese friars who were studying Chinese literature. When the young friars had finished their studies, the OFM delegate appointed them to assist Father. Allegra in the translation work. When the Studium Biblicum was founded in 1945, they became his assistants.
By the end of November 1944, Father Allegra had completed the incredible task of translating the whole of the Old Testament on his own. This accomplishment, however, still needed a great deal of work before it would be ready for final publication.
In training his colleagues he wrote, “Our aim is to learn how to study the Bible and China’s literary culture, it is to re-clothe the original vesture of the Bible with Chinese garments. The contents of the Bible remain what they are, but the form they take is Chinese.
Establishing the Studium Biblicum
On 2 August 1945, the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum was inaugurated in a building next to the Catholic University in Beijing. When Father Allegra first broached the idea of starting this institute, many thought the idea ill-timed and too visionary The Second World War was raging and some of the more “prudent” in the Order and outside were convinced that this was not an opportune time to open an academic society.
Father Allegra, however, felt an inner assurance that this was the will of God and threw public opinion to the wind. He felt that other Christian churched were much more zealous in preaching the Word of God, much bolder in confronting difficulties in bringing that Word to the people and more heddles in spending the money necessary to get the task done. He decided to put his faith and trust in God and Our Lady. He placed the Biblicum under the protection of Mary, the heavenly Queen of China. Since then each manuscript and page published by the Biblicum has been dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Queen of China.
The Goal of the Studium Biblicum
The stated aim of this Studium is “to make a Chinese version of the Sacred Scripture of both Testaments accompanied with good commentaries, to edit this version in a one-volume edition after a careful revision, to edit a biblical lexicon and to publish a biblical-apologetically review.”
The Studium Biblicum finds a permanent home
Over the years the Studium Biblicum has had a number of homes. Within three years of its opening on the grounds of the Catholic University in Beijing, in 1945, it was transferred to Hong Kong. It was first located on Waterloo Road in Kowloon then relocated to Kennedy Road and in 1971 to Henderson Road.
Publishing the Bible
After completing the first draft of the Old Testament, Allegra’s four Chinese collaborators set about carefully examining the translation, correcting the text, improving and enhancing it. In September 1946 the Book of Psalms was ready for publication. The Wisdom literature and the Pentateuch were published in Beijing in 1947-48.
The publication work continued at an accelerated pace. The last five volumes of the Old Testament were published in three volumes between 1949-1954. The New Testament was published in three volumes between 1957-1961. After careful revision a one-volume Bible was published in 1968, shortly after Vatican Council II.
A Chinese Biblical Dictionary with 1,357 entries was published in 1975. The year 1990 was a landmark in the work of the Studium Biblicum: the Old Testament section of the Bible was published in Beijing and within two months some 5,000 copies had already been sold. In 1993 the Bishops’ Conference of the People’s Republic of China printed 20,000 copies of the Old Testament and 200,000 copies of the Studium’s entire Bible translation.
Allegra dies in Hong Kong
Father Allegra dies on 26 January 1976, in Hong Kong. His beatification was introduced on 10 May 1994. On 15 December 1994, Pope John Paul II formally confirmed that recognition. Allegra’s remains were transferred to Acireale (Sicily) to the Friars’ Church of San Biagio in May 1986.
For Allegra, the Word of God was truly alive. He knew deep in his heart that Word speaks to all generation and to all cultures, because it speaks to the human heart. He was convinced that “God has graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remains in their entirety throughout the ages and be transmitted to all generations” (DV, No. 7), and Father Allegra felt a very personal call to transmit that Word to generations of Chinese.
圣赵荣，一七四四年生於贵州，年青时，行为放荡。听福音後，痛改前非，於一七七六年受洗，取名奥思定。一七八一年晋铎，忠於职守。 教难发生，被捕入狱，不堪折磨，遂於一八一五年死於狱中，时年七十一岁。一九○○年，由教宗良十三世宣布他为真福。 教宗若望保禄二世於二○○○年十月一日 宣布他为圣人。
圣女於公元一四七○年左右，在意大利威尼斯教区代森霞诺出生。後入圣方济第三会，集合少女们，教以实行爱德事工。一五三五年在意大利 白利塞城创立吴苏乐女修会，从事教育少女工作。一五四○年安逝。
圣教会最伟大的神学家中，首推圣多玛斯•阿奎纳。 圣多玛斯•阿奎纳出身意大利望族，生於1225年（一说1227年），兄弟四人，圣人最小，姐妹人数不详。 圣人幼时，与姐姐同在室内，风雨交作，姐姐被雷电击毙，圣人却安然无恙。所以後来的人们要求免除雷击的意外，就多求圣人转祷。
圣人五岁时，被送入喀卒诺山修院，接受启蒙教育，该修院由本笃会会士主办。年龄稍大，转入那不勒斯大学攻读文学。 那不勒斯有一座多明我会修院，圣多玛斯常到这个修院圣堂念经祈祷，并和院内会士交往。 他对多明我会的生活，非常向往，很想加入该会修道。 此时圣人年仅十六岁，院长叮嘱他再等 待数年，从长考虑。三年後，圣人初衷不变，坚决要求弃俗修道。 就在19岁那一年，加入了多明我会。
他的兄弟不愿他加入多明我会，就在路上用武力把他劫走，软禁堡垒中。 多玛斯在软禁期中，研究神学家伯多禄龙伯的着作，还潜心研究圣经。 他的兄弟威迫利诱，无法动摇他的意志，竟设法唆使妓女到多玛斯室中，用美色诱惑他。 多玛斯大怒，赤手从炉中取出燃烧的炭，将娼妓驱逐。自该时起，上主 赐他终身不再受肉情诱惑的特恩，酬报他守身如玉的英豪精神。 两年後，家人见多玛斯志不可屈，就释放他重返了修院。
圣多玛斯重入修院後，在圣大亚伯尔门下攻读神学，同学们都德行杰出，博学多才。 多玛斯秉性沉默寡言，又生得身体魁梧同学遂赐以“哑牛”绰号。一位热心的同学见他外表笨拙，就自愿替他补习。 多玛斯天性谦虚，欣然接受，每遇疑难字句，这位同学无法解释，多玛斯反倒替他讲解，头头是道。 不久，全班同学对多玛斯渐加注意，私下将多玛斯的笔记交给老师圣亚尔伯。 圣亚尔伯读後异常钦佩，相信多玛斯不是平凡之人。第二天，就叫多玛斯来面试。 考完後，对众学生说：“你们称多玛斯为哑牛，将来这位哑牛的叫声，将震动普世。”但多玛斯德圣德，比他的才学更为卓越。 他日夜祈祷，与上主密契神缔。
多玛斯才学渊博，名震全欧，受聘为巴黎大学讲师，声誉广扬，一时无反。就在这一段时期，他写了有名的《答外教人》一书。 这时多玛斯已成为国际神哲学界的权威，曾奉召赴意大利向教廷着名学者讲学。 大约在公元1266年，他着手编写士林哲学中最伟大的不朽名着《神学大全》。
1269年，多玛斯重返巴黎。此时巴黎大学各学者对圣体圣事中存留的是面饼的“依体”，还是面饼的“外形”这一问题，争说不休。 大家一致决定公请圣人解答。圣人热心祈祷後，奋笔写成“论圣体圣事”的论文一篇。在公开发表前，他先将文稿放在祭台上，供列於圣体前。 吾主耶稣为了表示他对圣人的论着的赞赏，就显现给多玛斯，对他说： “你对於我圣体圣事的那篇文章，写得很好。”圣人顿时神魂超拔，身悬空中。 在旁的会士莫不啧啧称奇，圣人晚年时，编写《神学大全》第三部分，论述耶稣苦难及复活的奥迹。 一天晚上，他跪在苦像前祈祷，突然有声音自苦像中发出，对他说：“多玛斯，你关於我所写的文章，写得好极了。 你要什麽酬报？”多玛斯答道：“主，我只望能享有您。”
1273年圣尼各老瞻礼，多玛斯献祭时，获主默示，从这时起，就搁笔停写他的《神学大全》了。
1274年，教宗额我略十世召开里昂大公会议，计划劝导东方裂教会重返圣教怀抱。 会前他特嘱咐多玛斯撰文攻斥希腊教派的谬论，并准备在大会上宣读这篇文章。多玛斯这时已患重病，但仍然抱病启程前往，出席会议。 中途体力不支，到西斯笃修院暂时休息。 院内修士对圣人慕名已久，但以前无缘亲聆教言，现在因请圣人为他们讲《雅歌》意义，圣人讲稿未竟，就不幸谢世了。
圣人自知病入膏肓，领临终圣事後，开口祝告上主说：“我一生致力学术研究工作。除了爱你以外，别无其它目标。 我这一生讲学着作，都是本於耶稣基督的信道，罗马教会的信道。我将我的一切着作文稿呈现给教会，听凭她审断处理。” 二日後，圣人离世升天，时在1274年3月7日清晨，享受寿50岁左右。 同日，圣人的老师圣大亚尔伯当时在德国高郎，但他对同院修士放声大哭道： “多玛斯弟兄，我在基督内的爱子，教会之子，今天去世了，上主将这死 讯启示给我了。”
多玛斯於1323年荣列圣品。教宗圣庇护五世封圣人为教会圣师。 1880年，教宗良十三世，封圣人为学校主保。圣人着作等身，卷帙浩繁，包罗万象，大部分是关於神哲学的论着。 他对希腊哲学泰斗亚里斯多德的思想有精深研究，详予引证，推陈出新，来阐释圣教哲学。 他的哲学论着，常用几何学的求证方法，来分析神学问题； 先将应证明的问题及各项疑难提出，然後根据圣经文字，圣教传统教理，神哲学各项规律， 用“已知”的真理，解释及证明“未知”和“有待证明”的真理，最後将各项疑点逐一解答。 所以他的论着，立论精确，前後呼应，读後顿觉豁然开朗，疑团尽释。
圣人还撰有诠解圣经各重要部分及诠解各主要经文（天主经，圣母经，信经）的文章。但最负盛誉，最有价值着作为《神学大全》。 脱利腾大公会议把多玛斯的《神学大全》与圣经和教宗诏书并列会议席上，其受教会重视的程度，由此可见一斑。 圣人不仅是神哲学权威，对文学亦富有修养。 教宗吴尔班四世钦定耶稣圣体瞻礼时，特嘱托圣人撰写该瞻礼弥撒经文。 那文情并茂的继抒咏，充盈了圣体奥迹的全部内涵，深刻而简明，实乃千古绝唱。 现在圣体游行和圣体降 福中，一般信友，都能背诵如流的两篇主要的唱词： 《O Salutalis Hostia》和《Pange lingua》(《Tantum ergo》是後者的末两首。) 就出自圣人手笔。
圣多玛斯的才学，固然出类拔萃，超人一等。但他的圣德，更为後人所景仰。他常说自己的知识是得自苦像前祈祷的远比得自个人研究的多。 他将写作与祈祷结合一体。他经常声泪俱下，哀求上主，赐他领悟圣教各端奥理。 多玛斯的谦德更是我们的模范，他常自谦才学不如他人，总是虚心求教，不耻下问。 与别人讨论问题时，也总是心平气和，从未发怒，也从不用言语讽刺对方。
Patron Saint: Universities and Students
Saint Thomas Aquinas was the son of the count of Aquino, who was allied to the kings of Sicily and Arragon. When his son was five, according to the custom of the times, Count Landulph took him to the Abbey of Monte Cassino to be instructed.
He was only ten when the abbot told his father that a boy of such intelligence should not be 'left in obscurity' and he was sent to the University in Naples. There he studied a classic 'liberal arts' curriculum of the day; the Trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric, and the Quadrivium of music, mathematics, geometry and astronomy. He soon surpassed his instructors there and could repeat all that he learned with more depth and lucidity than his masters.
At the age of nineteen, it was time for Thomas to chose the course of the rest of his life. To the surprise of all and the dismay of some, he chose the garb of a poor friar, a Dominican. His mother hurried to Naples to consult with her son, and the Dominicans sent him to Rome, on the way to Paris or Cologne. His mother, determined to turn Thomas away from the Dominicans, instructed his brothers (who were both soldiers) to capture Thomas and confine him in the fortress of San Giovanni at Rocca Secca.
There he remained for nearly two years, praying and studying while his family tried any means they could think of to lead him to abandon his vocation. His brothers even tried to damage his virtue, but Thomas drove the temptress out of his room with a burning branch he snatched from the fire. It was at this time that he received the gift of perfect chastity from God, a gift which was told to him by two angels in a dream, in answer to his prayers for purity of mind and body.
Finally, his mother relented, and Thomas was lowered over the walls in a basket and allowed to rejoin his Dominican brothers. After making his profession at Naples, and meeting with the Pope at the insistence of his family, Thomas was sent to Cologne where he studied under the celebrated Saint Albert the Great. Here he was nicknamed the 'dumb ox' because of his silent ways and large size. His preaching soon showed him to be, in fact, a brilliant student and thinker. By the age of twenty two, he was teaching at the University and writing his first books. After four year, by which time he was a priest, he was sent to Paris, where he continued to teach and received a doctorate.
This became Saint Thomas' life; praying, preaching, teaching, writing, and journeying. He was in great demand, many were anxious to hear him. He was friends with the King of France, Saint Louis, and the Popes, who frequently called on him to combat dangerous and heretical ideas, books and teachings. In the course of his life, he wrote some 40 books as well as some of the finest Latin hymns ever written. He declined appointment to bishoprics so that he could continue to study and write. His greatest work, the Summa Theologica is considered to be essential to any study of the teaching of the Catholic church.
Towards the end of his life, though, Saint Thomas ceased his writing. He experienced mystic ecstasies throughout his life, which became more frequent as he grew older. During the Mass on the Feast of Saint Nicholas, Saint Thomas had a profoundly mystical experience, one that left him dissatisfied with all his writing. 'I can do no more' he is reported to have said. 'Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be of little value.'
Thomas began to prepare for death. But when he was summoned to the Council of Lyons by Pope Gregory X, he set out. He collapsed on the way and was taken to the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova, where he lay in his final illness for a month.
When the end was near and extreme unction administered, Saint Thomas pronounced this act of faith:
If in this world there be any knowledge of this sacrament stronger than that of faith, I wish now to use it in affirming that I firmly believe and know as certain that Jesus Christ, True God and True man, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, is in this sacrament...I receive Thee, the price of my redemption, for Whose love I have watched, studied and labored. Thee have I preached; Thee have I taught. Never have I said anything against Thee: if anything was not well said, that is to be attributed to my ignorance. Neither do I wish to be obstinate in my opinions, but if I have written anything erroneous concerning this sacrament or other matters, I submit all to the judgment and correction of the Holy Roman Church, in whose obedience I now pass from this life.
He died on 7 March, 1274, and numerous miracles proved his sanctity. He was canonized in 1323. After some discussion between the monks of the house where he died and those of his Order, his remains were transferred to the Dominican church in Toulouse. The shrine built over the spot was destroyed during the French revolution and his body was then moved to the Church of Saint Semin where it is today. The chief bone of his left arm is preserved in the cathedral of Naples and a bone of his right arm in Rome.
St. Thomas used to spend many hours in adoration before our beloved Lord. He once said that he learned more from prayer before the Blessed Sacrament than from many hours of study.
“The things we love tell us who we are.”
“No other sacrament (except the Holy Eucharist) has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift.”
“It sometimes happens that such apparition comes about not merely by a change wrought in the beholders, but by an appearance which really exists outwardly. And this indeed is seen to happen when it is beheld by everyone under such an appearance, and it remains so not for an hour, but for a considerable time; and, in this case some think that it is the proper species of Christ’s body. Nor does it matter that sometimes Christ’s entire body is not seen there, but part of His flesh, or else that it is not seen in youthful guise, but in the semblance of a child, because it lies within the power of a glorified body for it to be seen by a non-glorified eye either entirely or in part, and under its own semblance or in strange guise... While the dimensions remain the same as before, there is a miraculous change wrought in the other accidents, such as shape, color, and the rest, so that flesh, or blood, or a child, is seen. And, as was said already, this is not deception, because it is done to represent the truth, namely, to show by this miraculous apparition that Christ’s body and blood are truly in this sacrament.” - St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part III, Question 76: Of the Way in Which Christ is in This Sacrament, Article 8
圣福若瑟1852年4月15日生於前奥国(今义大利)帕迪亚．沃野村的一个热心教友家庭。 当日受洗，圣名若瑟。父母务农，共生子女十三人，其中四人夭折，九人存活，若瑟排行老四。
小若瑟自幼热心乖巧，六岁上学，每天当步行山路三公里但他从不矿课。其品行成绩常是班上第一名。
十岁时，他得友人的帮助，到省城布莱森(Brixon)一所德语学校德文，并在该校以优等成绩完成高小学业。 十二岁他进入该城的小修道院，以实现他自幼想做神父的心愿。由於他天赋有好的歌喉，添为主教座堂的歌咏团团员，获得助学金。 小修道院期间，每学期他也都领奖。
二十岁时，他进入大修道院。 期间他曾听到传教士在外教国家传教救人灵魂的英勇事迹及他们牺牲奉献，犯难救人的故事，自己已有心想做个传教士。 大修道院期间，他一直是个热心及用功的好学生。他的成绩常名列前茅，每学期领奖。
二十三岁升神父，被派到圣玛尔定堂区做副堂，主要是负责管理该村的学校。 他在该地任职二年，期间一天他读到耶肋米亚先知＜孩子们要饼吃＞的故事，幻觉从远方，千万陌生的外教儿童，高呼着向他要生命之粮， 於是到外方传教的思想时常萦绕着他。 他虽在圣玛尔定极得学生爱戴，堂的信众也都称赞 他是位有德行的年轻神父，他仍决意去做个传教士。
他於1878年参加了在德国刚成立不久的传教修会圣言会。 在修会中他表现良好，遂与安治泰神父被派为第一批的中国传教士，并於1879年3月2日起程去中国。
福神父是个志向高尚，心思细密，极富情感的人。当他启程前，返回家乡和圣玛尔定的孩子们辞别的时候，他说： 「我们天堂见，地上我们见不了面了」时，孩子们都哭了，他也哭了。 尤其当他陈述他辞别父母及家人的心情时，他说： 「当我看见亲爱的老父亲和我慈爱的母亲及情同手足的八个兄弟姊妹都流着眼泪。於是请父亲降福了我，我也给他们降福。 我们一同到祭台前，缄下我们一家神圣的誓盟…之後，我快速离开帕迪亚山腰，我的家乡，也许永远不会再看见它了。」
1879年4月21日他到香港，立刻学习中国语言(广东话)。 为入境随俗，他开始穿中国衣服，留了胡子，也剃光头，留辫子，几撮黄发，挹在脑後，用黑绳绑上。 他在香港辛苦的传教两年後，由於圣言会在山东省从圣方济各会得了一个传教区， 他於1881年夏来到山东，先在省城济南府学习山东国语八个月，於1882年4月到达他的目的地，阳谷县的坡里庄。 他与安神父二人的传教辖区是山东南部的三十二个县，面积六万平方公里，人口九百万； 1898年德国占领山东胶州湾後，又增加四个县，面积一万平方公里，人口二百万。但他们到时，教友祇有坡里庄的158人。 为他们这真是个很大的挑战，但为愿做个好传教士的福神父，有那麽多的灵魂可救，太棒了。
福若瑟神父56年的生命，30年在中国，其中27年在山东传教。他曾五次做代理主教(主教出国时)，八年做圣言会中国省省会长。 山东南部的36个县，面积七万平方公里(近台湾两倍)，他几乎都工作过，且都走遍过多次。 他做过游动的传教士，也做过总铎区的领导，修道院的院长。主教不在时他更做了主教府和各地的主管。他的工作及行政经验是相当丰富的。 由於他的热心祈祷，克苦自励，努力工作，及他的富於爱心，宽以待人等美范， 在他仅27年的耕耘及他同工神父丶修士和传教员的合作下，面对各等恶劣的环境，从他开始的158个教友，能增至四万人受洗，另四万人准备受洗， 这确实是一个惊人的收获。
福神父穿中国的衣服，吃中国乡下人简单的食物，留着辫子，胡子，在没有任何交通工具的环境下，靠着一双腿步行，无论炎天寒冬， 晴天雨天，福神父都不畏艰苦地上山下乡，走遍面积七万多平方公里，人口接近一千万的鲁南教区， 为他们讲道，探访，施行圣事，最後为服务病患，而身染伤寒，於 一九○八年一月廿八日逝世，他被称为「鲁南传教区之父」。
他在家书上写着：「我愿在天堂仍是中国人，我愿为中国人死一千次，我没有其他的心愿，只希望我的尸骨埋在中国同胞中间。」 有关他的圣德和为人，凡认识他的人，莫不嘉评如潮。他受神父们的敬爱，教友们的夸赞， 甚至那些过去骂他「洋鬼子」及迫害他的外教人，也都成了他的朋友。 因为他心中有爱，他爱中 国，爱中国人，因此人也不恨他，和他的宗教了。
福神父说：「爱是教外人所懂得的唯一外国语言。」
一九七五年十月十九日 教宗保禄六世宣布他为真福。教宗若望保禄二世於 二○○三年十月五日 宣布他为圣人。
为了不要和圣多玛斯． 阿奎纳的纪念日叠加， 教会立1月29日来纪念 圣福若瑟。
圣王炳，圣名老楞佐，一八○二年生；林昭，圣名亚加大，一八一七年生；卢廷美，圣名热罗尼莫，一八一○年生；三人皆为贵州人。 贵州教难时三人同时殉道，时在 一八五八年一月二十八日，一九○九年教宗庇护十世奉三位为真福。 教宗若望保禄二世於 二○○○年十月一日宣布他们为圣人。
『独自一人成就小，偕同圣母成就大。』
〔圣若望鲍思高神父在进铎的第一台感恩祭，讲道中的一句格言〕
1815年鲍思高神父在意大利北部的都灵出生，家境清贫，两岁父亲病逝，幸有慈祥而虔诚的母亲，教授他认识天主的信仰。 他虽然出身贫寒，但藉着坚强的奋斗，聪颖的领悟力，终可接受高深的教育。晋升铎品後，从事牧灵和福传工作。 1857年创立慈幼会，不久又创立了圣母进教之佑修女会。有教无类丶作育英才是鲍思高神父办学的宗旨，特别是引导叛逆的青少年，重纳正轨。 他是教育家及青年的导师，他带给世界不可胜数的男女学童，得到新颖的知识技 能和纯洁的基督精神。 1888年1月31日鲍思高神父逝世。1943年被列入圣品，奉为现代青年的宗徒。
属於天主的非凡人物
天主不时在教会内兴起一些男男女女，为引导和鼓励祂的子民，使他们更接近祂。 鲍思高神父是宗座辖下两个国际性修会的会祖，亦创立了慈幼会第三会 (Salesian Third Order)丶 慈幼协进会 (the Pious Association of Salesian)义者，缔造具体的现实，已获教会列入圣品。
I. 早年生活
家庭生活
鲍思高神父在教宗碧岳九世的要求下撰写回忆录，并以童年生活开始。 若望麦基奥 (John Melchior)生於一八一五年八月十六日。 滑铁卢一役在该年发生，意大利和欧洲自此进入新时代，积极修复拿破仑时代的遗害，并透过王朝复辟，达致国家团结和推翻奥地利统治。 此外，秘密组织丶共济会 (Freemasonry) 及反教权运动亦如雨後春笋般冒起。
若望鲍思高在距离杜林 (Turin) 约二十哩的亚斯底新堡(Castelnuovo d’Asti) 现为鲍思高新堡Castelnuovo Don Bosco) 的碧基 (Becchi) 小村庄出生和长大。 他父亲方济类斯(Francis Louis) 与前妻育有一子一女，分别为安东尼 (Anthony) 及幼年夭折的德兰(Teresa)。 第二任妻子是来自加比利奥 (Serra Capriglio) 的玛加利大·奥其纳(Margaret Occhiena, 1788-1856)， 婚後再添两个儿子，分别为若瑟 (1813-1862) 及若望(1815-1888)。 若望生於八月十六日，於翌日在圣安德肋堂由副本堂若瑟·费斯特神父 (Don Joseph Festa)付洗， 代父母为加比利奥的奥其纳·麦基奥 (Occhiena Melchio) 与新堡的玛达肋纳·鲍思高 (Magdalene Bosco)。 若望家境清贫，家里的产业只有一座小屋丶一幅土地及一个小葡萄园。 父亲为养活妻儿，在地主毕安纳 (Biglione)的农场工作，却不幸於一八一七年五月十一日病逝。 小若望当时只有二十一个月大，但日後将成为「孤儿的慈父」。 他的祖母玛加利大朱克(Margaret Zucca) 卒於一八二六年。
若望的母亲玛加利大·奥其纳虔诚过人，为人细心丶谨慎丶冷静丶宽容丶善待贫苦者。 她不会读书写字，却熟悉教理，对反叛的继子安东尼非常忍耐。 鲍思高一家经历了比哀蒙(Piedmont)的经济危机和艰难时期。 安东尼经常违抗继母，使家里永无宁日，与小若望的关系亦日趋紧张。 小若望年仅八岁，便要在家里和农田干活，帮忙牧放牛羊。 他与村童一同嬉戏，身手敏捷，性格坚强，喜欢到市集观看和模仿小丑丶魔术师和杂技员，获得同辈甚至更年长朋友的爱戴。 他富於想象力丶敏锐丶认 真，有时显得沉默寡言。他的启蒙老师是村内一个农夫。 当时玛加利大的姊妹玛利安纳 (Mariane) 在加比利奥的拉克神父(Fr. Lacqua) 家里当管家。 在她帮助下，玛加利大约在一八二四年至一八二七年把小若望送到神父开办的学校读书，但为时只有数月。
九岁奇梦
小若望九岁时，梦见一位衣履华贵的神秘人物，劝导他以「温良和爱德」对待那些惹事生非的男青年。 这位男士亦要求小若望教导那些顽童「罪恶的丑陋和德行的美善」。接着，一位尊贵的女士出现了，她是那位男士的母亲。 她温柔地拉着小若望的手，让他看着一群野兽化为羔羊。 她对小若望说：「你应谦卑丶坚强和健壮。发生在这些野兽身上的事，你也要为我的孩子实行。」 小若望认为，耶稣和圣母藉这个奇梦告诉他，他的终身使命就是照顾被遗弃的孩子。 圣母对他说：「在适当时候，你自会明白一切。」六十年後，在他辞世前八个月，他在罗马耶稣圣心堂的圣母祭台举行感恩祭，多次因激动而落泪。 他後来解释说，当时他鲜明地忆起童年的梦境，而且已明白一切，一切都是圣母的作为！
困难重重的学习生活
安东尼和若瑟从没有机会到学校读书，因此安东尼反对小若望上课，要求小若望跟他和若瑟到农田干活。 小若望年少时喜欢聚集其他男青年，为他们讲寓言故事，表演杂技，走拉紧的绳，然後与他们一起祈祷，以及向他们重述本堂神父讲过的道理。 这些活动全获得母亲的准许。一八二六年三月二十六日， 他在新堡初领圣体，由施蒙多神父 (Don Sismondo)主持礼仪。 玛加利大协助他妥善准备自己，向天主感恩。他回忆说：「自那天起，我似乎有点改进了。」
莫利约农庄
由於安东尼一直反对小若望读书，玛加利大在一八二八年二月送小若望到八公里以外的蒙哥谷(Moncucco)村， 在莫利约(Moglia) 家族的农场干活。 他在那里每年可赚得十五里拉。 每个主日清早，他都徒步走到蒙哥谷的圣堂，找柯提诺神父(Don Cottino)办告解及领圣体， 然後与莫利约一家参与十一时正举行的感恩祭，下午则与邻家的孩子玩耍，向他们重述母亲讲过的耶稣生平事迹。 他放牛或在农场干活时，总是手 持一本拉丁文文法书。 类斯莫利约(Luigi Moglia)问他为何如此热衷学习，他答说：「因为我想当神父。」 一八二九年十一月，他对舅父弥格(Mark Michael)说，虽然他们待他不错，但他想读书。 於是，舅父把他送返碧基。
贾劳束神父的学生
过了一段日子，他在一八二九年十一月在蒲底里拉 (Buttigliera) 完成「传教工作」返家途中， 遇见莫里亚多(Morialdo) 的本堂神父若望•贾劳束神父(John Melchior Calosso)。 贾劳束神父年届七十，是神学博士。 他见这孩子能够背诵长篇的讲道内容，十分欣赏，便同意收容他，教他拉丁文，亦是若望的神师。 不幸地，贾劳束神父於一年後突然身故，卒於一八三Ｏ年十一月二十一日。 贾劳束神父临终时，把自己的六千里拉储蓄全数留给若望，作为若望进修为司铎的经费，他的亲人也没有异议， 但若望考虑片刻後，选择仰赖天主的照顾，把保管遗产的钥匙交还神父的亲人，并说：「我甚麽也不要。」
一八三一年，在安东尼结婚前，玛加利大与他分家。 她把碧基的产业留给安东尼後，带着若瑟和若望迁到邻近新堡的萨森布诺(Sussambrino)作佃农。 若望回到新堡上课，每天徒步行走五哩四次， 有时亦与韦拉诺神父(Don Virano)及莫利约神父(Don Moglia)等老师同行。
基爱里
一八三一年十一月四日， 他在距离新堡十二公里的基爱里中学(Chieri Secondary School)读书， 每月须支付十二里拉。 他极不情愿地在村内到处乞讨小麦丶水果和乳酪等物品，用作支付学费。 在前往基爱里途中，他对若望斐理培禄(John Filippelli)倾诉说： 「我想读书，我想献出整个生命照顾男青年。」当时基爱里住满神父丶学生和纺织工人。 若望在那里生活了十年。学校重视实践信仰本份，每天举行感恩祭，以告解券及品德证鼓励学生，并规定使用祈祷书。 他在朋辈间极受欢迎。
若望鲍思高记忆力强，每晚可背诵不少意大利文和拉丁文古典作品。 他最初寄住在马基肃(Marchisio)家，翌年则住在寡妇璐琦马塔(Lucia Matta)家。 为支付生活费，他须帮忙做家务，亦为马塔廿二岁的儿子补习。 其後在一八三四年，他住在若瑟·毕恒德(Joseph Pianta)家里。 若瑟·毕恒德是咖啡馆东主，若望在那里学懂制作各式各样的糕饼。 他亦曾住在裁缝多玛斯卡明诺(Thomas Cumino)的家。 有一段时间，铁匠瓦西奥沙维豪(Evasio Savio)教他使用铁锤及在炉边打铁。 日後华道谷工场开办时，他将亲自担任首名导师。 当时，他梦见自己成为司铎，负责看管许多男青年，亦明白这是他终身的工作 (参阅B.M 1, 182)。 他亦是演员丶歌手丶即兴诗人和魔术师，更组织了「同乐会」(Company of merry makers)， 与朋友轮流在各人的家里聚会，讨论信仰。 若望十八岁时，於一八三三年八月四日在蒲底里拉(Buttigliera d’Asti) 领坚振， 仪式由萨沙里 (Sassari) 的贾诺提总主教 (Archbishop John Antony Gianotti) 主持， 代父母为若瑟·马萨诺 (Joseph Marsano) 及约瑟芬梅利纳伯爵夫人 (Countess Josephine Melina)。
II. 司铎培育
修院生活
一八三四年四月十八日，若望十九岁，在神师若瑟马洛尼神父 (Canon Joseph Maloria) 反对下，决定加入基爱里的方济会，并获取录为备修生， 准备加入和平会院 (Friary of Peace)，但一个梦改变他的决定。 他谘询贾发束 (Don Caffaso) 神父後，在贾发束神父及辛泽诺神父 (Fr. Cinzano) 协助下， 於一八三五年十月三十日加入基爱里教区的神学院。他在十月二十五日领会衣时，立下七大决志。 他在神学院进修的六年内 (一八三五 － 一八四一)，每个学期都获授用作奖励最优秀学员的奬学金。 他接受的训练极为严苛，具有杨森主义色彩，亦难以接触教职员。他极为自律丶刻苦丶避免嬉戏丶慎选朋友。 後来，他後悔花时间研究异教典籍，而渐渐对圣经和教会史产生浓厚兴趣。 类斯高木禄 (Louis Comollo)是他在神学院时代的挚友，其後於一八三九年逝世，使他十分难过。
天主的司祭
他在神学院时，经常放弃早饭，每朝到圣斐理伯堂 (St. Philip’s church) 领圣体，然後准时回去上课。 他只要专心听课便可熟记内容，因此每天可用四至五小时阅读书籍，尤其是有关圣经历史及教会史的着作。 在第三学年的暑假，他已修毕第四学年的科目，获特别批准入读第五学年。 一八四Ｏ年九月十九日，他获授五品，并於翌年三月二十九日领受执事职。 若望鲍思高於一八四一年六月五日圣三主 日前夕晋铎，由弗森尼总主教(Archbishop Fransoni)在他的私人小堂主持晋铎仪式。 他当天所立的决志包括严格善用时间丶 学习圣方济沙雷(St. Francis of Sales)的温良丶 晚上只睡五至六小时丶日间不休息。 他在圣三主日於杜林圣方济亚西西堂(St. Francis of Assis)的护守天神祭台(Guardian Angel’s altar)举行首祭。 他称这天为「一生最美妙的日子」（参阅BM, I, 386）。
吸引的职务
新晋铎的若望神父比以往更渴望为青年献身。在贾发束神父建议下，他拒绝接受三个职务： 在热那亚(Genoa)一个富裕家庭担任家庭教师，年薪一千里拉；比一般薪俸高两倍的年薪在家乡莫里亚多任职本堂神父； 以及在他颇受欢迎的新堡，在辛泽诺神父担任本堂的堂区出任副本堂。 在贾发束神父建议下，他选择到杜林圣方济亚西西堂附近的司铎培养院(Convitto)， 进修为期三年的牧民课程，研习伦理神学和宣讲，「学习如何当司铎」。 玛加利大早已警告他说：「若你不幸发了财，我绝不会再见你。」 (MB I, 222) 鲍思高神父在一八四一年十一月入读司铎培养院，逐渐摆脱基爱里神学院严苛训练的阴影。 除了上课外，他亦在杜林的多个中心讲道丶听告解和讲授教理。
III. 青年的使徒
了解青年处境
有一次，鲍思高神父探访高登伦哥神父管辖的「天佑小舍」(Little House of Divine Providence)。 高登伦哥神父以先知的直觉对鲍思高神父说：「你的会衣太薄了，换一件更坚韧耐用的吧，这样孩子才不会把会衣扯破。」 他走在大街小巷，了解青年的实际生活处境，并发现市郊有许多不同年龄的孩子到处蹓躂，惹事生非，亵渎天主。 这些孩子无家可归，亦已离开堂区，陷入困境，使人惋惜。
一八四四年，比哀蒙约有七千一百四十八名十岁以下的孩童受雇於丝厂丶羊毛厂和棉厂， 亦有些是地盘的建筑工人丶泥水匠丶工匠丶油漆工人。 鲍思高神父的青年中心聚集了青年技工丶学徒丶石匠及每天清洁多至十五个烟囱的烟囱清洁工人。 工业革命迫使他们每天工作十三至十四小时，但收入微薄，六 至七个月的薪酬只有二十五至三十里拉，而欧洲其他地区的情况同样恶劣。
这位热心的年青司铎与本堂贾发束神父一同探访监狱後，尤其难过。 他看见许多年届十二至十八岁的青年，身体健康，心智聪明，但懒惰肮脏，缺乏精神和物质的食粮，使他怵目惊心。 他探访「高登伦哥机构」(Cottolengo Institute)时亦感难过，那里收容了一千八百名无父无母的青年。 鲍思高神父邀请他们说：「你们离开这里後，请来圣方济堂，我会协助你们在社会找到立足之所。」
伟大事业的开端
一八四一年十二月八日，圣母无玷始胎节，鲍思高在圣方济亚西西堂的祭衣房准备举行感祭恩时， 看见祭衣房主管高木底(Comotti)虐打一个孩子，只因为他不懂辅弥撒。 这名十六岁的少年就是禄茂·夏来理 (Bartholomew Garelli)，是个砌砖工人。 神父与孩子攀谈，发现他还没有初领圣体，亦不认识教理。 感恩祭结束後，鲍思高神父与少年成为朋友，为他讲授教理，而且 「在他身上，看见所有贫苦无依的青年在求助」 (方济维伊奥Francis Veuillot)，从而开始了他的伟大事业。 夏来理在下一个主日带来了六个同伴，来访的少年在二月初增至二十人，在三月则更增至三十人，很快因为地方有限，须把人数限制在八十人。
迁徙不定的青年中心
这些男青年来自遥远的村庄，冬天返回家乡，或住在鲍思高神父的青年中心。他开办教理班，举行礼仪，一同游戏及唱歌。 他在圣方济亚西西堂附属的房间讲授教理，并在司铎培养院的庭院玩游戏。 卡巴诺 (Carpano)丶庞德 (Ponte) 及德维鲁 (Trivero) 等年青神父亦协助他。 由於青年数目日增，鲍思高因此把青年带到广场丶大街及郊外。他们急需更合适的地方。 一八四四年，鲍思高神父离开司铎培养院， 在巴罗洛侯爵夫人 (Marchioness Barolo) 开设的「济良所」(Refuge) 出任斐洛美纳小医院 (St. Philomena hospital) 的院牧。 济良所收容了四百名少女，鲍思高神父的工作是协助包莱神父 (Don Borel)，为她们讲道和听告解。 自十月十三日起，他开始在圣方济沙雷小堂两个空置的大房间举行聚会。 然而，顽童使「济良所」的住客感到困扰。七个月後，巴罗洛夫人要求他在她的事业与男青年之间作出抉择。 虽然她给鲍思高神父时间考虑，但鲍思高神父毫不犹疑地选择服务男青年。
由於出入青年中心的男青年约有四百名，鲍思高神父自一八四五年五月起物色其他聚会场所。 其後，他们在陶拉(Dora)河畔圣玛尔定小堂(chapel of St. Martin)附近的圣伯多禄缧绁堂(St. Peter-in-chains) 找到一个荒废的坟场，在那里聚集。 鲍思高神父亦在这里遇上年仅八岁的弥额尔卢华 (Michael Rua)，他在莫雷达神父 (Don Moretta) 的私人房子租用三个房间， 最後向斐利比 (Philippi) 兄弟租借空地。 本堂神父抱怨他使青年脱离他们的操控。 市长马圭斯贾富 (Marquis of Cavour) 对鲍思高神父说，他的工作是没有用的。 包莱神父亦劝他把男青年的数目限制在约二十人。有些人认为鲍思高神父是革命者丶空想家，甚至是疯子。 他曾讲述有关青 年中心未来发展的梦境，向别人保证青年中心将设有圣堂和学校丶工场和操场。然而，情况没有改善。 两位教区神职修士文生庞渣底 (Vincenzo Ponzati) 及类斯那西 (Luigi Nasi) 在巴罗洛侯爵夫人的善意提点下， 提出付钱让鲍思高神父入住精神病院，後来他们自己反而被困，几经辛苦才可脱身。 其实是机智的鲍思高神父巧施妙计，使他们代替自己被抓进精神病院。
毕纳地木棚
一八四六年四月五日，鲍思高神父与斐利比订立的租约到期了，但找不到其他地方让青年聚集。 那是他一生最悲伤的日子之一。 潘克拉乔苏雅维 (Pancrazio Soave) 带他到方济毕纳地 (Francis Pinardi) 的木棚。 木棚十五米长，六米宽，旁边有一块空地。 鲍思高以三百二十法郎租用，并大幅改装。青年中心从此进入新阶段。 潘克拉乔原本打算用作淀粉厂的杂物房成为一所小圣堂。总主教在一八四六年四月十二日复活主日举行祝圣典礼。 青年中心继续举行礼仪丶教理班丶游戏丶音乐活动，旧仆人也回来帮忙，数以百计的男青年每个主日都在此聚集。 市长马圭斯贾富试图禁止这些聚会， 幸得国王查尔斯阿尔伯特 (King Charles Albert) 及时制此，青年中心方可继续营运。
然而，鲍思高神父的健康日渐衰退，甚至领受了傅油圣事。男青年及其他人士为他献上牺牲和祈祷，使他恢复健康。 这位良善的神父怀着感激之情，决志以馀生服务男青年。他在碧基疗养数周後，在圣德昭着的母亲陪同下，於一八四六年十一月三日返回杜林。 玛加利大当时已经五十八岁了。 她在人生最後 十载陪伴自己的司铎儿子，勇敢面对各种困难，照顾数以百计的孤儿，作他们的母亲。
主日时间表
鲍思高神父向毕纳地租用房子後，开设三间工作室，让青年在这里安顿下来。 十二月一日，他以年租七百里拉租用全幢房子。参加晚间课程的男青年约有三百人。 鲍思高神父把他的工作交托给温良及有涵养的圣方济沙雷，认为他的爱德方法丶使徒热忱及中庸之道都适合鲍思高神父充满挑战的工作。
主日和节日的时间表包括告解丶感恩祭丶讲解福音丶玫瑰经丶圣体降福丶反省圣经史或教会史丶馀暇活动丶演说丶唱歌等。 鲍思高神父尽量抽时间陪伴这些男青年，他们的数目约为四百至五百人。 他也在平日到处找寻其他男青年，邀请他们到青年中心，教他们读书写字丶数学和绘画，并提供他最重视的信仰培育。 他为青年找工作，到工厂探望学徒。他与雇主订立合约，而合约条款是工会多年所期望的。 於一八五一年十一月，他为若瑟波东尼 (Giuseppe Bordone) 与玻璃厂的嘉禄艾梅诺 (Carlo Aimino) 订立一份开创先河的合约。 鲍思高神父或许是意大利首位为青年工人举行退省的神父。各种组织开始成立，男青年藉此参与自我培育。 一八四七年，他为青年中心拟 定详细守则。 一八四八年，有人企图透过窗户射杀他，但他逃过大难，其後亦多次遇上类似的袭击。
开办寄宿学校
一八四七年五月，除了开办喜乐盈盈的青年中心，鲍思高神父亦为急需食物丶衣服和住处的青年开办首间收容所。 一晚，孤儿亚历山大•佩莫纳 (Alessander Pescarmona) 全身被雨水湿透，饥肠辘辘，请求借宿一宵。 虽然过去曾经碰壁，但鲍思高神父还是答应了他，让他成为慈幼会首名寄宿生。 鲍思高神父当时已买下整幢房子，并在天主的眷顾下，获得二万八千五百里拉购入更多物业。 由於男青年的数目日增，他得想办法提供食物丶衣服和医疗。他虽然极不愿意，但也得向富裕人家乞求，且一生也是如此。 他的母亲玛加利大甚至变卖她的嫁衣和小首饰，以装修小圣堂。 在这个动荡时期，鲍思高神父虽然受到各方施压，但仍然明智地放下政治活动。
其他中心
一八四七年，鲍思高神父在新城门区 (Portanuova) 开设圣类斯青年中心 (St. Aloysius)， 两年後在温基利亚 (Vanchiglia) 设立护守天神青年中心。 一八五一年，他开始建造新圣堂，以取代旧圣堂。 一八五二年六月二十日，他把新圣堂奉献给圣方济沙雷，而建造经费来自一次大型抽奬活 动，筹得二万六千里拉。 他共筹办了十五次同类的抽奬活动。
作家
为驳斥华而多教派 (Waldensian) 的宣讲，他发行《致公教徒的忠告》及《公教读物》。 他亦出版了《教会史》(一八四五)丶《十进制》丶《圣经历史》丶《意大利史》丶《酿酒学》 (一八四六)丶《少年良伴》一八四七)， 以及许多短篇传记和敬礼祈祷书籍。 一八四九年，他出版《少年良友》(Amico della Gioventu) 杂志，後来因经费不足而停刊，但显示他热衷推广优质读物。 他出版的《公教读物》激怒华而多教徒，他们更多次试图杀害他，但经常有一头奇犬突然扑出，吓跑行凶的人。 他称这头奇犬为「灰奇」(Grigio)。 这些小册子以各种语言出版，历时整个世纪，其後由《子午线十二》代替。 他的青年祈祷书籍《少年良友》陆续发行一百二十二版，每版刊发五万册。 他的着作包括公民史丶教会史丶教宗和圣人传记，以及道明•沙维豪等圣德昭着的男青年的生平。 根据《传记辞典》 (Dizionario Biografico) 所列，他共出版一百四十八本着作，包括神修丶文化丶学术丶戏剧和娱乐作品， 以及妥为删节及注解的意大利文丶拉丁文和希腊文着作。 他在一八七七年为慈幼协进 会出版的《慈青通讯》(Salesian Bulletin)现时以四十八种语文发行。
他最杰出的学生之一就是道明沙维豪一八五四年十月二日，这位年仅十二岁的良善少年在碧基遇上鲍思高神父， 并在十月二十九日加入庆礼院，其後於一八五七年三月九日逝世，享年十四岁， 一九五四年六月十二日，他获教宗碧岳十二世列入圣品，成为教会最年青的精修圣人。
自设工场
每年都有年青工人加入青年中心，一八五三年有十名，一八六六年有一百二十名。 鲍思高神父认为需要自设工场，因为男青年在外面很容易接触到不道德和亵渎的事物。 一八五三年，他在毕纳地的房子旁边建造一幢房屋，自行开办工场。 制鞋及裁缝工场最初设於毕纳地房子的走廊，由鲍思高神父亲自担任首位导师。 一八五四年开设钉书工场，一八五六年开设木工工场，一八六二年开设印刷及金工工场。 因此，约有三百名男青年毋须外出工作。 根据伯多禄史迪拉神父 (Fr. Pietro Stella) 所述，鲍思高神父多年来也收容寄宿生，有些更是孤儿（括号所注），在一八五四年为数三十九(八)名，一八五五年八十三(十九)名， 一八五六年九十(二十五)名，一八五七年一百一十六(四十)名，一八五八年一百一十三(三十二)名，一八五九年一百八十四(四十四)名， 一八六Ｏ年三百五十五(八十四)名，一八六一年二百九十九(六十九)名，一八六二年三百二十八(七十)名， 一八六三年三百六十(八十三)名，一八六四年二百五十七(七十九)名，一八六五年三百五十八(一百一十九)名， 一八六六年四百一十(一百四十八)名，一八六七年四百一十二(一百二十四)名，一八六八年三百六十六(九十八)名， 一八六九年三百七十五(一百Ｏ九)名。在最後数年收录的男青年更超逾八百(二百五十)名。 男青年只须支付少量费用，甚至完全毋须付费。 鲍思高神父在生时，他们的经费一直紧绌，情况有如一条用作克己的钉链，使他比禁食和穿苦衣的中古时代圣人更加痛苦。
自办学校
一八五五年，鲍思高神父请方济夏神父 (Francesia) 担任教师，於毕纳地一个房间开办学校。约在一八五九年至一八六Ｏ年，这间中学已全面营运，男青年及合资格教师人数合共约二百人。 鲍思高神父孜孜不倦地工作，希望这些男青年学有所成。 因此，一位大学教授曾评论说：「在鲍思高神父这里，你必须认真学习。」自修室弥漫着严肃宁静的信仰气氛。
告解神师
鲍思高神父旨在培育「良好的公民及虔诚的基督徒」。 他最重视良心培育，因此强调办告解和领圣体，每天听告解两至三小时，甚至在远行时亦然，也会在意想不到的场所听告解， 例如在马车上抓着缰绳听马车夫告解。 他的告解牧职可媲美圣维雅纳 (Cure d’Ars)。 一八八七年十二月十七日，在他身故前六周病重期间，他为约三十名男青年听告解。 他对神职修士费斯特 (Festa) 说：「这是我最後一次如此帮助他们了。」
培育教会圣召
比哀蒙政局动荡，以致圣召短缺。 鲍思高自推行他的事业开始，已重视培育司铎和修道圣召，尤其在贫苦阶层推行培育，不仅是为了他的工作，亦为教区及其他修会的发展。 除了培训工艺生外，他在一八四九年开始收录读书生。这些读书生有意领受圣职，就读於市内的私校。 最初，鲍圣只挑选了四名青年。 他们领了会衣，但其後全都离开了，其中两名加入教区。然而，他并没有失望。 单单在一八六一年，鲍思高神父的青年中心有三十四名读书生晋铎。 事实上，比哀蒙神学院的圣召主要来自青年中心。 他设立的「玛利亚之子」成年圣召计划，培育了不少信德坚强的伟人，尤其是远赴传教区服务的传教士。 根据估计，鲍思高神 父为教会培育了二千五百个圣召。 马赛 (Marseilles) 修士会 (Congregation of Brothers) 的会院大事年表在一八七七年记述： 「我们当中有个伟人，在三十四年内为教会培育了六千位司铎，我们深感荣幸。」(CDB, 97)
IV. 慈幼会
创立修会的想法
天主透过神梦启迪鲍思高神父，若瑟贾发束神父亦鼓励他说：「你绝对需要一个修会。」(BM V, 452)。 因此，他早在一八四七年便开始构思成立修会。他明白，为延续他的工作，他需要助手，而且这些助手须充满他的精神。 外聘教师并不可靠，他们经常剥削学生，而非帮助他们。他希望组织一群为他献身及服务青年的修道者。 鲍圣收录学生入读寄宿学校，亦是为了在贫苦阶层当中培育司铎和合作人，共同推行他的使徒工作。 事实上，这也是他每年与男青年探访碧基的原因之一。
然而，当时的政局绝不利於成立修会。政府甚至宣称有权提名主教，政教之间亦有公开冲突。 一八五五年，反教权的拉达济 (Rattazzi) 通过「有关修道者的法例」(Law regarding the Friars)， 藉此镇压三十五个修会，关闭了三百三十四个会院，驱逐五千四百五十六位司铎丶修士和修女，剥夺他们的公民权利。 「在那个时代要创立修会， 好比在地震时建屋。」（戴雷樵·卜斯可Teresio Bosco） 然而，难以置信的奇迹发生了。 反教权的拉达济竟然建议鲍思高神父成立修会，而且教他各种绕过法律的方法。 鲍思高神父的学生卢华丶贾烈劳(Cagliero)丶 方济夏(Francesia)丶 安琪沙维豪(Angelo Savio)丶 罗吉第(Rocchietti)丶 杜尔基(Turchi)及其他学生选择「留在他身边」。 鲍思高神父开始为可能加入这个修会的候选人作出「训勉」(conferences)， 但他们并不知道鲍思高神父的计划。 他们不喜欢「出家」。贾烈劳愿意留下，并不是因为他渴望修道，而是因为他深爱鲍思高神父。 一八五九年，鲍圣明言要成立修会，并请他们作出抉择。 犹豫良久後， 贾烈劳说：「我决定了，一如以往，我绝不会离开鲍思高神父……不管是否『出家』，为我没有分别！」(BM VI, 181)
一八五四年一月二十六日，鲍思高与贾烈劳丶卢华及其他两名男青年倾谈时，向他们暗示将成立修会，以延续他的青年工作。 他们先会作出许诺，期望日後可以发愿。他们采用温良的日内瓦 (Geneva) 主教的姓氏， 取名为「沙雷会士」（译按：原文为Salesiani，中文起初称为撒肋爵会士，其後改称「慈幼会会士」）。 一八五五年三月二十五日，卢华矢发圣愿，是慈幼会历史中首位发愿的会士。 阿拉索纳底 (Alasonatti) 及方济夏亦在一个月後发愿。 一八五六年十二月九日，鲍思高神父开始讨论成立修会的事宜。
慈幼会的成立
一八五八年三月，碧岳九世批准成立修会，并给予建议。 经深思熟虑後，鲍思高神父在十二月九日拟定有关计划的大纲，并分发给他的十九名助手，让他们思量及作出决定。 一八五九年十二月十八日晚上，曾参加上次会议的助手只有两名缺席，他们组成修会团体，宣发圣愿。 他们选出干事後，正式成为慈幼会成员，团结一心，追求个人成圣，继续服务青年，「尤其是极需要指导和教育的青年」 (BM. VI, 182)。 一八六二年五月十四日，共有二十二名会士宣发三年圣愿，包括两名辅理修士。鲍思高神父对他们说： 「上主一直助佑我们，若祂继续眷顾，在二十五至三十年内，将会有一千名会士。」 一八六九年三月一日，慈幼会获教会正式批准。若非有奇迹相助，这事几乎不可能实现。
新会院亦在冷照 (Lanzo，一八六四)丶 该辣士可 (Cherasco，一八六九)丶 阿拉西奥 (Alassio，一八六九)丶 瓦沙利切 (Valsalice，一八七二)丶 瓦利西亚 (Vallecrosia，一八七五)丶 法国尼斯 (Nizza，一八七五)丶 马赛 (Marseilles) 及巴黎 (一八八四) 等地设立。 根据奥弗雷 (Auffray) 所述，在一八六三年一月共有三十九名慈幼会会士， 一八六四年一月共有六十一名，一八六五年共有八十名一八七四年共有三百二十名， 於一八八八年鲍思高神父逝世时共有七百六十八名。
辅理修士
鲍思高神父原本希望慈幼会会士只须穿着端庄的衬衣（在当时是反传统的！）。 最後，他让「在俗慈幼会会士」(亦即辅理修士)如此实行，他们是他「杰作」。 他高瞻远嘱，期望他们不是传统的在俗修士，而是与司铎平起平坐的合作人丶监督和管理人，只是不能执行圣职。 鲍思高神父一生有赖许多谦卑丶低调丶忠信和慷慨的合作人协助，他们在传教区也贡献良多。 当他逝世时，慈幼会有五分之一的成员属於辅理修士。
母佑会的共同创办人玛沙利罗
玛利亚·玛沙利罗（参阅《生平》）於一九五一年六月二十五日由教宗碧岳十一世列入圣品。 她於一八六四年十月八日与鲍思高神父相遇，共 同於一八七二年创立进教之佑孝女会（即母佑会），是教会内最多修女的修会， 其前身为亚圭 (Acqui) 教区摩尔尼斯 (Mornese) 的「无原罪圣母孝女会」， 指导神师为贝思诺神父 (Fr. Dominic Pestarino)，而他後来也成为慈幼会会士。 鲍思高神父期望她们成为生活的典范，表达他对圣母的敬爱，其中有许多修女伴随慈幼会会士到传教区工作。
协进会
鲍思高神父创立的第三个精神家庭就是慈幼协进会(The Pious Union of Salesian Cooperators)， 期望他们成为「慈幼会会士的合作人，服务本堂神父及主教，一起造福人群」，亦期望他们是在俗的慈幼会会士，按慈幼会的精神生活和工作。 他们最初被视为「慈幼会会士的外援」，其後在一八七六年组成现时的第三会。他们是献身的基督徒，在鲍圣逝世时人数达至八万。
修会发展
一八六三年，除了三间在杜林运作的青年中心外，鲍圣亦在市外的米拉贝禄蒙弗辣道(Mirabello Monferrato) 设立首间会院，其後迁至圣马丁村 (Borgo San Martino)。 他的青年中心丶职业及农艺学校数目倍增。一八六四年，他在杜林开设冷照 (Lanzo) 学校。 鲍思高神父曾到意大利各地，并到访法国及西班牙，在当地建立和巩固他的事业。 他在各地备受欢迎，大家视他为施行奇迹者和圣人。他的降福医治许多病人，情景难以置信，但他全归功於圣母。 他充满人情味，亦是属於天主的人，既有人性才华，亦有超性天赋。他圣德昭着，吸引现代人。 即使遭受部分政府官员及教 会神长反对， 鲍思高神父在杜林华道谷 (Valdocco)服务贫苦青年的工作逐渐制度化， 成为国际性组织，目前已遍布五大洲逾九十五个会省。
一八八四年七月九日，鲍思高神父的修会获得与赎主会（译按：该会的使命为服务遭遗弃的贫苦者）同等的地位。 他如此总结他经历的考验： 「若我早知道成立修会须经历这麽多痛苦丶疲累丶反对及矛盾，或许我不会有勇气开始。」(MB 17, 142)
对於政府官员不断的滋扰，鲍思高神父对神职修士贾烈劳说：「这些政府官员很想毁掉青年中心，但不会成功； 他们须与更强大的那位交手，童贞圣母将摧毁他们的计划。」
传教区
虽然鲍思高神父需要各种援助，以巩固新成立的修会，但出於传教热忱，他付出极大牺牲， 在一八七五年十一月十一日派遣部分优秀的慈幼会会士在贾烈劳神父领导下， 到巴塔哥尼亚 (Patagonia) 及火地岛 (Tierra del Fuego) 传教。 他们带来极大的转变，该区在一八八四年成为宗座监牧区。鲍思高神父深谋远虑，所作的牺牲获得丰厚的回报。 在他逝世时，修会有五分之一的成员在传教区服务。目前，慈幼会在南美洲共有二十四个会省丶三位枢机及六十位慈幼会会士主教。
中介
教宗领土沦陷後，意大利比萨 (Pisa) 的科西枢机 (Cardinal Corsi) 与帕尔马 (Parma)丶 皮亚琴察 (Piacenza) 及瓜斯塔拉 (Guastalla) 等地的主教都被监禁或驱逐。 法莫 (Fermo)的德安杰利斯枢机 (Cardinal DeAngelis) 遭逮补及押往杜林， 安科纳 (Ancona) 的安东纳西枢机 (Cardinal Antonucci) 及耶西 (Jesi) 的莫里尼枢机 (Cardinal Morichini) 则被软禁在家，另有八位主教受滋扰。 在意大利南部，有七十位主教被监禁及撤职。 当时弥漫着反教宗情绪，历时十多年，而鲍思高神父成为意大利政府与教廷之间的中介，获双方信任，促成委任过百名主教填补空缺。 他亦无畏地与意大利复兴运动 (Risorgimento) 的高层官员交涉，表现诚恳丶谨慎及忠诚。 西敏 (Westminster) 的曼宁枢机 (Cardinal Manning) 在教宗指示下，就教廷与意大利政府的关系谘询鲍思高神父。 一八六六年，鲍思高神父被领进总理里卡索利 (Ricasoli) 位於比提尼(Pittini)王宫的办公室。 他站在办公室内，坚决定说： 「阁下，请您明白鲍思高神父在祭台旁是神父，在告解室是神父，在他的男青年当中是神父，在杜林是神父，在佛罗伦 斯是神父。 他在贫苦者的家是神父，在国王的宫殿里也是神父。」(BM VIII, 239) 教宗对安东尼利枢机 (Cardinal Antonelli) 说： 「鲍思高神父作了伟大的工作，没有一位枢机可比他干得更好。他善用任何机会，表现出色。」(BM, 10, 225) 当安东尼利枢机被问及为何鲍思高神父没有晋升为枢机时，他对若翰•罗里尼教授 (Prof. John Lorini) 说：「我们多次写信给他，邀请他加入枢机团，但他总不接受。」(BM, 10. 243)
鲍思高神父则说：「除了福音的政治外，天主教神父没有其他政治活动。」他的政治是「教宗的政治，我们的天父的政治」。 一八八七年十二月二十三日，在他逝世前一个月，他告诉雅里达枢机 (Card. Alimonda)： 「我已请贾烈劳告诉教宗，所有慈幼会会士必会捍卫他。」(MB 18, 491)。 他对卡沙莱的 (Casale) 费雷主教 (Ferre) 表示： 「我的神子遵从教宗支持的理论，即使他是以个人哲学家丶神学家或学者的身份支持。 这不仅是为了对教宗表达敬爱，也是因为我感到这样较为稳妥。 如此， 我不会犯错，即使犯错，亦虽错犹荣。」(BM, XV, 369)效忠教宗是慈幼会神修的重要特色 ，仅次於敬礼圣体及童贞圣母。
圣母进教之佑大殿
鲍思高神父除了设立慈幼会会院外，亦在一八五二年建造圣方济沙雷氏圣堂，并在一八八二年建成圣史若望堂。 一八四四年十月十二日，当青年中心仍迁徙不定时，他梦见一处种满玉米和马铃薯的田园，建有一座宏伟庄观的圣堂。 十八年後，他对神职修士保禄•欧培拉 (Paul Albera) 说： 「我身无分文，但既然这是天主的意愿，我们必须实行。」(MB 7, 334)
一八六三年，他意外地获得四千里拉，并以此购入该幅土地。一八六五年，大殿奠基。 承建商嘉禄•蒲切底 (Charles Buzzetti) 是他的旧生。 鲍思高神父把所有积蓄交给他，只有八个铜币。 然而，虽然困难重重和经费紧绌，但圣母显发许多奇迹，大殿终於建成，并在一八六八年六月九日祝圣， 所需的建筑成本为八十九万里拉（相当於一九八六年的二十亿）。 鲍思高神父可确实说：「这座圣殿的每一块石头也是圣母的恩宠。」(MB 18, 388; 9, 201) 「圣母为自己建造一座殿宇。」他对贾烈劳说：「至圣之母创立和支持我们的工作。」(M.B. 7, 334)
尽管病弱疲惫，鲍思高神父仍遵从教宗良十三世的意愿，同意在一八八Ｏ年建造罗马耶稣圣心堂。 一八八三年，他在一月至五月这四个月期间到访法国，四处奔走，为这座罗马教堂筹募经费。 耶稣圣心堂於一八八七年五月十四日祝圣。 他还在杜林及瓦利西亚 (Vallecrosia)另外建造了两座圣堂， 亦在拉斯佩齐亚 (La Spezia)丶 尼斯及马赛设立三间会院。 他为了筹募这一千五百万里拉（相当於一九八六的四十亿）经费，身体越来越虚弱。 一八八六年，他前往西班牙，答应 在一座俯瞰巴塞隆纳市的山上建造国家大殿。 这座山风景优美，名为「我要给你」(Tibi Dabo) （译按：魔鬼诱惑耶稣时，把他带到一座山上，将世上的国度及荣华指给他看，对他说： 「你你若俯伏朝拜我，我必把这一切交给你。」故有此名。）他 承担这任务，表示他对耶稣圣心的敬爱。
圣人的导师
鲍思高神父启发和培育了许多学生丶合作人和圣人度圣善生活，他们包括玛利亚·玛沙利罗丶道明·沙维豪丶类斯·雷鸣道丶弥额尔·卢华丶 斐理伯·李纳德丶玛达肋纳·莫兰诺丶安德肋·白德美丶奥古斯多·查托里斯基丶潘德兰等等，均获列入圣品或正待列品。 他亦与许多圣人合作，包括若瑟贾发束丶 若瑟·高登伦哥丶圣理纳蒙利亚多 (St. Leonard Murialdo)， 真福真福路易斯•瓜内尔 (Bl. Guanella) 及真福类斯奥廖内 (Bl. Aloysius Orione)。 到了今天，他的理想丶精神和神恩仍鼓舞许多人完全献身上主。
教育家
鲍思高神父的主要工作是以圣方济沙雷的精神为青年提供基督徒教育。 他的「预防教育法」正显示他的智慧，以及他在心理和超性方面的直觉。 「预防教育法」基於理智丶信仰丶仁爱丶神工丶勤领圣事丶弃用体罚，并重视亲切丶有益及关爱的临在。 一八八四年，他在罗马寄出一封九页的信函到杜林的青年中心，概述他的教育法和神修。 「我的教育法建基於爱德和敬爱天主」；「预防胜於治疗，时刻保持温良」。 「男青年不仅需要获得关爱，亦须知道自己被爱。 这里是个家，我们像家人般生活。应尽量付出时间陪伴男青年。」「对待充满怨恨的青年，应更加温良。 父母把孩子送来受教，而天主把他们送来，是让我们照顾他们 的灵魂。」
鲍圣亦称为「青年的使徒」丶「慈父及青年良友」。他在辖下的青年中心和学校运用他的教育法，培育青年为虔诚的基督徒和良好公民。 据称，他一生教育了三万名青年，其中有些成为主教丶伟大的传教士先驱丶司铎丶圣人。 他亦是勇敢的圣体使徒，勤领圣体，提倡恭敬玛利亚进教之佑， 她亦称为鲍思高的圣母 (Don Bosco’s Madonna)。 圣母在他生命中所行的事及他以圣母之名所行的奇迹，不胜枚举。他亦发了许多神梦，约有一百五十九个。
当时很少人注意传媒的影响力，但这位比哀蒙圣人明白传媒的重要，且尽力推行传媒工作。 一八八三年，他对碧岳十一世说：「鲍思高神父希望成为传媒工作的先锋。」
V. 最後阶段
与世长辞
一八八四年三月二十五日， 蒙彼利埃大学 (University of Montpellier) 的孔巴医生 (Dr. Chambal) 为鲍思高神父进行详细的身体检查，并诊断说： 「鲍思高神父，你是积劳成疾，好比一件穿得太多次的衣服，不管是平日也好，或是庆节也好，都穿在身上。 如果还要保存它，唯一的方法就是把它藏在衣橱内。 我的意思是，你最需要的药物就是好好休息。」鲍思高神父说：「医生，这是我唯一无法吃的药。」
这位青年的圣人确实是心力交瘁。一八八七年十二月十一日，他最後一次举行感恩祭，在二十日晚上卧病在床。 一八八八年一月十五日，他感到呼吸困难，并开玩笑说：「请找个懂得修理风箱的人，让他来修理我一下。」一月三十日，他说： 「愿你的圣意奉行。」在早上四时四十五分，当圣母进教之佑大殿的三钟经钟声响起时，鲍思高神父与世长辞，享年七十二岁五个月十四日。 他的遗体於二月六日下葬於瓦沙利切 (Valsalice) 会院。
圣德昭着
一八八三年五月二十九日发行的《世界报》(Le Monde) 论及鲍思高神父说： 「许多人追随他，渴望见他一面，碰碰他的衣服，因为感到他散发特殊的圣德芬芳。」
雅里达枢机称鲍思高神父为「本世纪的圣化者」，教宗碧岳九世更称他为「意大利的珍宝」。 碧岳九世与女伯爵马蒂尔德 (Countess Matilde) 谈话时提起鲍圣，问她说： 「你见过意大利的珍宝吗？」一八六七年，内政部长拉达济说：「我认为鲍思高神父或许是本世纪最伟大的奇迹。」 (MB, 8,795) 他的妻子玛利亚莱蒂希亚 (Princess Maria Letizia) 探访鲍圣後，称他为「世纪奇迹」(MB, 8. 797) 一八八一年月十六日，良十三世对部分慈幼会会士说： 「鲍思高神父是位圣者。」 比利奥枢机(Cardinal Bilio)说： 「没有人在世时获列入圣品，但鲍思高神父是位活生生的圣人。」当时，教宗微笑补充说： 「确是对的，鲍思高神父确是圣人。」(MB XV, 759-760) 鲍思高神父的雕像在圣伯多禄大殿隆重揭幕，放置於专属修会创办人圣像的圣龛。 这尊重二十二吨丶高5.87米的意大利大理石雕像由帕切利枢机(Card Pacelli)祝圣。 圣像两旁是道明•沙维豪及泽菲林·拿蒙古拉的雕像，象徵鲍圣的青年使徒工作及传教工作 (MB19, 363)。 一九五九年，教宗若望二十三世到辛纳西提 (Cinecitta) 向鲍圣的遗体致敬。 他在讲道时高呼：「鲍思高神父，全世界景仰你，全世界敬爱你。」
光荣列品
鲍思高神父的葬礼结束後不足二十四小时，卢华神父及他的议会已开始商讨是否可能尽快展开列真福的程序。 教区的调查工作於一八九Ｏ年六月四日开始，并於一八九七年四月一日完成。 一九Ｏ四年九月三日，於第十届全会代表大会举行期间，鲍思高神父的坟墓首次开启， 杜林的里基米枢机 (Card Richelmy) 当时亦在场，发现他的遗体仍然完好。 教宗碧岳十世在罗马颁令就鲍思高神父与罗伦斯嘉斯塔迪总主教(Lawrence Gastaldi)历时十载的争议进行调查。 调查程序顺利结束後，若望鲍思高获教宗碧岳十世列入可敬品，其後於一九二九年六月二日获碧岳十一世列入真福。 碧岳十一世仍为拉提 蒙席时 (Mgr Ratti) 时，曾到青年中心作客， 而碧岳十世仍为萨尔托蒙席 (Mgr. Sarto) 时亦然。 教宗在荣列圣品的仪式上说： 「圣多玛斯亚圭纳 (St. Thomas Aquinas) 的封圣诏书指出，《神学大全》的每篇文章都是一个奇迹。 现在我们可以说，鲍思高神父一生的每一年丶每一刻都是个奇迹，而且是一连串的奇迹。」 (BM X, 1) 一九三四年四月一日复活主日，鲍思高神父获这位教宗列入圣品。 一九四六年，教宗碧岳十二世称他为「公教刊物的主保」。若望保禄二世宣告他为「青年的慈父与导师」。
鲍思高神父天上的妈妈
「当你出生的时候，我将你奉献了给至圣童贞。你才开始读书，我便教你热心恭敬圣母。 现在我嘱咐你，要完全属於她，爱那些恭敬圣母的同学。 如果你将来升了神父，常要宣扬圣母的敬礼。」这番说话是他妈妈玛加利大在一八三五年十月三十日。 当若望．鲍思高要起程进入修院之前对他的嘱咐，而鲍思 高也确实一生忠实地实行了。
鲍思高神父一生也真的与圣母玛利亚结下了不解之缘，他是在圣母升天大瞻礼的翌日出生的， 而他在世的母亲也自一开始就将他献给了天上的母亲，所以他自出生便已是属於玛利亚的了，而他自小也就很热心恭敬圣母。 在他九岁的奇梦中，耶稣再一次将他交托给玛利亚，让他在玛利亚的教导下变得谦逊丶坚强和壮健以履行他日後的使命。 在他进了修院之後，他按照妈妈玛加利大的教导只与那些敬爱圣母，虔诚而勤学的同学来往。 在他晋铎之後，刻意到忧苦之慰圣母堂献祭，以感谢伟大的童贞圣母玛利亚，向她的天主圣子耶稣为他所求得的无数恩典(母院史，107页)。 一八四一年十二月八日圣母始胎无染原罪节日上，他遇见了禄茂．夏来理，就以一篇圣母经开始了他庆礼院的工作。
在他的一生中，他对圣母的敬礼从未疏忽，曾先後推动过圣母圣心的敬礼和七苦圣母的敬礼；而最为他喜爱的可算是无染原罪圣母的敬礼。 一八五四年教宗庇护九世宣布圣母始胎无染原罪为信道，这更加强了鲍思高神父对无原罪圣母的特敬，并以此鼓励青年人投奔圣母以保存洁德。
其後由於教会面对现世政权的挑战，教宗国的问题困扰着整个教会， 鲍思高神父开始将注意力转到「进教之佑」圣母的称号上，以祈求圣母玛利亚保护整个教会。 而一八六八年建成的圣殿也以进教之佑圣母作为主保； 这大殿正祭台上的壁画正是按照他的构思而画成的，反映了他对圣母玛利亚作为教友之助 佑的了解。
在鲍思高神父最後的日子里，他应费列底神父的要求留下几句说话给协进会会员时，他写道： 「圣母玛利亚，求妳转求耶稣，赏赐我们身体健康，只要对灵魂有益； 也求妳使我们能确保永生的救恩。」在他弥留时，他仍呼唤： 「快来！快来救救这些青年吧！……圣母玛利亚！救救他们吧！……母亲啊！母亲啊！」可见鲍思高神父至死对圣母的依赖都没有改变。 作为鲍思高神父的神子，我们实在也应该效法他这份对圣母的依赖，将自己完全交托於玛利亚的手中让她带领，并且努力宣扬对圣母的敬礼。
Do you want the Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him often. Do you want Him to give you few graces? Visit Him rarely. Do you want the devil to attack you? Visit Jesus rarely in the Blessed Sacrament. Do you want him to flee from you? Visit Jesus often!
Take refuge often at the feet of Jesus...My dear ones, the Visit to the Blessed Sacrament is an extremely necessary way to conquer the devil. Therefore, go often to visit Jesus and the devil will not come out victorious against you.
Trust all things to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to Mary Help of Christians and you will see what miracles are.
I beg you to recommend to everyone, first, adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and then reverence for most holy Mary.
Never omit the daily visit to the Most Blessed Sacrament, be it ever so brief. It is enough if it be constant.
Night and day Jesus awaits us...Like a most tender mother, He opens His arms to us...He is there to draw us to Himself and lead us to paradise. Let us go visit Jesus often.
There are two things the devil is deadly afraid of: fervent Communions and frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament.
Jesus could have limited his presence only to the celebration of Mass, but no! He wanted to make a permanent dwelling among us. Night and day he awaits us and offers himself to us at all times. Like a most tender mother, he opens his arms to us. He is there generously to give us his gifts. He is there to draw us to him and lead us to paradise with him. Oh! Let us go visit him often.
We envy the shepherds who went to visit the grotto of Bethlehem to see Him, kissed His little hand, and offered Him their gifts. “Lucky shepherds!” we exclaim. And yet there is no reason to envy them, for their fortune is ours, too. The same Jesus they visited in the grotto is in our tabernacle. The only difference is that the shepherds saw Him with the eyes of the body, whereas we see Him with the eyes of faith. Nothing will please Him more than our frequent visits to Him.
Go to confession and communion as often as your confessor allows, and when you can, visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Go to the foot of the tabernacle and say one ‘Our Father’, ‘Hail Mary’, and ‘Glory Be’ when you can’t do anymore. This is enough to strengthen you against temptations. If someone has faith, makes visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and makes his daily meditation, I tell you, it will be impossible for him to sin.
公元一七四三年，圣方济各•白英奇生於意大利西西里王国，自幼立志修道，但他父亲坚决反对。 圣人内心深感苦闷，不知何去何从。 他求教於圣亚丰索利高烈，认为自己确有天主圣召，就摆脱一切困难，毅然进入巴尔纳伯修会。 他对文学科学造诣极深，圣德尤为出众。 晋铎後不久，即获听告解的特权，在当时意大利尚属罕见。 他听告解时，对信友循循善导，告解亭前常常挤得水泄不通。 他积劳成疾，身体萎弱不堪，带病为信友服务。
那不勒斯教难期内，修院封闭，修士星散，圣人其时双腿肿胀，疼痛难忍，步履维艰，仇教者特准他留在院内。 修院财政困难，无法偿债，经圣人祈祷後，柜内钱币突然增多，恰够偿债所需。 这样的灵迹，先後发生了两次。 有一次着名的维苏威火山突然爆发，火焰冲天，附近居民，大祸临头。 圣人亲往山上，念经默祷，火焰立即熄灭。
圣人劝化的信友中，有一位是圣女玛利亚•方济各。 圣女生前曾对白英奇说过：我将来在你死期前三日来通知你。 公元一八一五年一月二十八日，圣女果然显现给他。 三日後，圣人即离世升天，时在一八一五年一月三十一日。
一九五一年列圣品。