BELLUM CONTRA HÆRÉTICOS

"Take Mary's affection". Saint Catherine's invitation to Marian devotion Keep in mind, father, and never leave your heart or memory or soul that you were offered and given to Mary. Pray therefore that she will represent you and give to her sweet Jesus her Son and she will represent you as sweet Mother and kind Mother of mercy.

Saint Catherine of Siena, "the greatest woman who formed Catholicism" The woman, who in paganism had fallen to the lowest degree of abjection, was elevated by Christianity to such dignity that she deserved in Catherine to be made a participant with the Supreme Hierarch in the universal government of the Church and to enter almost arbitrator and moderator in the destinies of the world. What is certain is that in gazing at the very lofty mission and the virtues and marvelous works of Catherine, she appears to us as the greatest woman to whom Catholicism has formed.

Catherine sided in favor of Urban VI, who had such esteem for this holy virgin, that he chose her for various missions. Finally, after having distinguished herself for every kind of virtue, for the gift of prophecy and made famous for a great number of miracles, she had come to the end of her run; she was thirty-three years old, when on the Sunday after the Ascension, the 29th of April 1380, in Rome, the celestial Spouse welcomed her into the bed of Paradise. Her virgin body was buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome and is still preserved there under the high altar. Glorious for miracles, Pius II Piccolomini decreed her the honors of the saints on the 29th of June 1461 and set the feast on the first Sunday in May. Clement VIII transferred it to April 30, the day following her death. Urban VIII had the Office restored with new prayers. Pius IX counted her among the Patrons of Rome in 1866. Pius XII established her, together with St. Francis of Assisi, Patroness of Italy on 18th of June 1939.

In 1363, after she saw a dove hovering over her head while she was in ecstasy, her father agrees as long as she joined the Mantellate of the Third Order of St. Dominic (Sisters of Penance). Her job was to help the poor and the sick. The Lord HImself appeared to her in the guise of a beggar and Catherine gifted Him her cloak: she got it back adorned with precious stones. At the end of the Carnival of 1367 she was mystically married to Jesus Christ. Her abstinence was extreme and the austerity of her life admirable. Sometimes she saw her fasting prolonged from the day of the Ashes until the Ascension of the Lord, content with the Eucharistic communion alone. She struggled very frequently with the demons, and suffered much from their mistreatment; she was plagued by burning fevers and various other diseases. The name of Catherine was so famous and venerated that sick and tormented by evil spirits were brought to her from all over. She commanded diseases and fevers in the name of Christ, and forced the demons to come out of the bodies of the possessed. Her doctrine was infused and not acquired: she read and wrote despite being illiterate and, questioned by distinguished doctors on very difficult theological questions, she answered without any effort. No one approached her without her getting better off again. Around 1370, the so-called " Gabel Brigade " also gathered around her, a group of men and women who followed her, watched her in her long ecstasies, helped her in every way in charitable activities and also in the correspondence that people of every part entertained with her. Because of this popularity, some murmured so in 1374 she was called to appear before the General Chapter of the Dominican Order in Florence: she was found without fault and as personal confessor she was assigned Bro Raymond of Capua (future blessed). On Palm Sunday of 1375, while she was staying in Pisa, after receiving celestial nourishment (Communio), she was rapt in ecstasy, she saw the crucified Lord come to her with a great light, and five rays out of five descend from the scars of his wounds. parts of his body; whereby, understanding its mystery, and praying the Lord that the stigmata would not be seen, the rays immediately changed the color of blood into a marvelous splendor, and in the form of very pure light they reached her hands, feet and heart; and the sensitive pain she felt from it was so strong that, if God had not lessened it, she would soon have thought she would die. The most loving Lord thus added new grace to this grace, making her feel pain for the Sacred Stigmata received, but that the bleeding scars did not appear. Thus she was fully conformed to her divine Spouse. What happened to her, the servant of God told her confessor Bro Raymond, and the pious industry of the faithful, to visibly represent Him, painted on the images of Blessed Catherine some luminous rays falling on the five aforementioned parts. But while immersed in the meditation of divine things, she was nevertheless a mediator of peace in the political events of her time, having correspondence with the most important personalities of her time, including the Pope. To obtain peace for the Florentines, who were in disagreement with the Holy See and therefore struck by interdiction, she went to Avignon to the Supreme Pontiff Gregory XI. Arrived on 18th of June 1376 at the papal court of Avignon, she also showed the Pontiff that she had known by revelation the vow, known to God alone, that he had made to return to Rome: and also following her advice, the Pontiff decided to return personally to take possession of his see in Rome, widow of her Pastor for too many years; as he really did. However, serious problems arose when Gregory's successor was elected: some cardinals, mostly foreigners, had declared the election of Urban VI invalid and on the 20th of September 1378 they elected another antipope Clement VII in Fondi, who was then forced to flee to Avignon with the cardinals who had elected him.

SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, VIRGIN, PRIMARY PATRONESS OF ITALY Catherine, the one who could be rightly called the novel Debora, mother of the people and defender of the Church, was born in Siena, in the Fontebranda district, on the 25th of March 1347, by the pious dyer Jacopo Benincasa and the pious Lapa di Puccio de 'Piacenti, second last of 25 children. From early childhood she was entirely consecrated to Christ, Who appeared to her in a mantle and tiara (ornaments of the Roman Pontiff) at the age of six. At seven, she took a vow of perpetual virginity and began to mortify her body. At twelve she cut her hair to make her parents understand that it was her serious intention not to want to get married to anyone but Jesus.

1) The eastern heterodox are not United in doctrine. They disagree on purgatory, the immaculate conception, and even the filioque. Though these are western doctrines in origin, the veracity and theological coherence of these doctrines are debated. They also disagree on Re-baptism. 2) the eastern heterodox are not holy as they have no proven miracles. The alleged “holy fire” in Jerusalem is NOT a real miracle. It is a proven fraud and the Pope has even forbid Catholics from participating in it. The extent of their holiness ends with their valid liturgies (which are illicit). 3) the eastern heterodox are not catholic as they lack representation from the Latins, Alexandrians, Antiochenes, Eddesseans, or even the Armenians. Furthermore the Eastern heterodox tradition is Byzantine, which did not exist prior to the reign of Constantine. 4) the 4th mark is the only mark the eastern heterodox possess. The eastern heterodox are not a true church of Christ.

Sancte Petre Martyre, ora pro nobis!

He dipped his finger into the wound, and wrote on the arena: Credo in unum Deum as if he said: I die for defending God. Sublime testament, to which only those assassins and the Angels of Heaven were witnesses, who led to eternal triumph the soul of the generous athlete of Christ. But that testament, written with his own blood, will last in the memory of men as long as the world will last, and in the eternity of heaven as long as God will last.

In the religion his virtues shone of great splendour: he conserved the body and the soul in such purity, that he never felt polluted from any stain of mortal sin. He tormented the flesh with fasting and vigils; and exercised the spirit in contemplation of the divine things. He assiduously occupied himself in bringing salvation to souls. Because of his holiness of life and proven faith, he was charged with the eradication of the Manichean heresy that was wreaking havoc in the whole of Northern Italy: Gregory IX in 1232 sent him as Inquisitor against the Cathars in Lombardy. He then worked in Tuscany and finally in 1252, by mandate of Innocent IV, he returned to Lombardy as Inquisitor of Milan and Como. He refuted the heretics with such force that it was particular gift of grace, and he had so much efficacy in preaching, that flocked to listen to him countless multitudes of men and many converted to penance. The ardour of the faith enflamed him so much, that he desired to suffer death for such, and constantly requested God such grace. Therefore the heretics made him die just as he had predicted a little earlier in a sermon. As he was exercising the holy office of Inquisitor, while returning to Milan from Como, in the forest of Seveso he was reached by two heretical assassins (one of which, the blessed Carino, converted) who ferociously hit him on the skull with two strikes of sickle (falcastrum). And although half dead, before giving up his spirit the Martyr dipped his finger in the blood and on the ground wrote "Credo in unum Deum", the beginning of the Symbol of faith that he had already professed and defended with manly courage since he was a child. Then pierced again with the sword at his sides, he went to heaven to receive the palm of martyrdom, on the 6th of April in the year of salvation 1252. Illustrious by many miracles, Innocent IV enrolled him in the group of holy martyrs on the 24th of March 1453 with the bull Magnis et crebris, in which we read: «A bunch chosen from the vineyard of the Church has filled the royal chalice with its generous juice; the branch from which it was detached with iron was one of the most adherent to the divine stock». Sixtus V commanded the celebration of the feast by the whole Church.

SAINT PETER, MARTYR Peter, born in Verona toward 1205 from parents infected of the errors of the Manicheans (Cathars), since nearly the youth he fought heresies. Young child of seven years old, frequenting school, was questioned once by his paternal uncle, heretic, of what he finally learned, he answered that he learned the symbol of the Christian faith; neither the caresses nor the threats of the father and of the uncle could never shake his firm constancy in the profession of the Catholic faith. Adolescent he went to Bologna to continue the studies; where, called by the Holy Spirit to a kind of more perfect life, he joined the Order of the Friars Preachers, receiving the habit from the Patriarch himself St. Dominic.