2^nd July     John Francis Regis (1597 – 1640) – patron saint for relief workers?

Do you ever admire relief workers? Those hardy folk regularly appear on our TV screens, actively seeking out the disease-ridden, starving, destitute people of the world, instead of avoiding them, as most of us try and do.

John Francis Regis could be a patron saint of relief workers. It all began back in the early 1600s when he was ordained a Jesuit priest in Toulouse, a town raging with plague. Instead of fleeing for his life, John Regis decided to stay and minister to the plague victims.

Somehow he survived, and was then sent by his bishop to do mission work in Pamiers and Montpellier. For years John taught and preached Christ’s love, and also put it into action: he collected food for the hungry, clothing for the poor, visited prisoners, and even set up some homes for desperate ex-prostitutes

In mid September of 1640 John had a premonition of his imminent death. He took a three day retreat in order to calmly prepare himself for it – and then he went back to work. Over Christmas, while helping the poor, he caught a chill. By 31 December he was dying of pneumonia, but at peace: he had been granted a vision of heaven, and could not wait to get there. His was a life well lived – he was “a good and faithful servant”.

11^th July    Benedict (c.480 – c.550) - author of the famous Rule

Benedict was an abbot and author of the famous Rule that bears his name. Because of his Rule, Benedict is also the Patriarch of Western Monasticism, and Patron Saint of Europe.

Surprisingly little is known about his life: born at Nursia, Benedict studied at Rome, which he then left before completing his studies to become a hermit at Subiaco. After a time disciples joined him, whom he organised into twelve deaneries of ten. After an attempt on his life, Benedict moved on to Monte Cassino, near Naples, where he wrote the final version of his Rule.

Benedict’s Rule is justly famous and respected: not only did it incorporate much traditional monastic teaching from revered monks like Basil, but Benedict went on to modify this in a way characterised by prudence and moderation within a framework of authority, obedience, stability and community life.

Benedict’s great achievement was to produce a monastic way of life which was complete, orderly, and workable. The monks’ primary occupation was liturgical prayer, which was complemented by sacred reading and manual work of various kinds.

Bendict’s own personality shines through this Rule: wise, discreet, flexible, learned in the law of God, but also a spiritual father to his community.Benedict’s Rule came to be recognised as the fundamental monastic code of western Europe in the early Middle Ages. Because of his Rule, monasteries became centres of learning, agriculture, hospitality, and medicine. Thus Benedict came to influence the lives of millions of people

14^th August     Maximilian Kolbe - Christian witness amidst 20th century suffering

Some people’s lives seem to epitomise the suffering of millions, but also to shine with a Christian response to it. One such person was Maximilian Kolbe, 1894 - 1941, a Franciscan priest of Poland, and publisher extraordinary: 

Maximilian was born at Zdunska Wola, near Lodz, where his parents, devout Christians, worked in a cottage weaving industry. Like thousands of others at the time, the family and their village was ground into poverty by Russian exploitation. In 1910 Maximilian entered the Franciscan Order, and studied at Rome. After his ordination in 1919, Maximilian returned to Poland, where he was sent to teach church history in a seminary. But a new factor had entered his life: he diagnosed with tuberculosis.Living in post-war Poland was difficult enough, but with tuberculosis as well - most people would have quietly withered away. Not Maximilian Kolbe. Instead, the tuberculosis gave Maximilian a sense of urgency - a sense of the brief transitoriness of this life. He knew his time was slipping away

Instead of teaching history, he determined to do something to help the Christians living in Poland now, in the tatters of Europe after the First World War. And so he founded a magazine for Christian readers in Cracow, who badly needed effective apologetics to help them hold to their faith in a chaotic world

Soon, the obsolete printing presses (which were operated by Maximilian’s fellow priests and lay brothers) were working overtime - the magazine’s circulation had leapt to 45,000. Then the printing presses were moved to a town near Warsaw, Niepokalanow, where Maximilian now founded a Franciscan community which combined prayer with cheerfulness and poverty with modern technology: daily as well as weekly newspapers were soon produced. The community grew and grew, until by the late 1930s it numbered 762 friars.

Then in 1939 the Germans invaded Poland. Maximilian sent most of his friars home, to protect them from what was to come. He turned the monastery into a refugee camp for 3,000 Poles and 1,500 Jews. And the presses continued: taking a patriotic, independent line, critical of the Third Reich. Kolbe was arrested by the Gestapo along with four friars. They were taken to Auschwitz in May 1941. Their names were exchanged for tattooed numbers; and they were sent to brutal forced labour. But Maximilian Kolbe continued his priestly ministry. He heard confessions in unlikely places, and smuggled in bread and wine for the Eucharist. His sympathy and compassion for those even more unfortunate than himself was outstanding

Then came the final scene in his hard life. At the end of July, 1941, several men escaped from his bunker at the camp. The Gestapo, in revenge, came to select several more men from the same bunker who were to be starved to death. A man, Francis Gajowniczek, was chosen. As he cried in despair, Kolbe stepped forward. “I am a Catholic priest. I wish to die for that man. I am old; he has a wife and children.” The officer in charge shrugged his shoulders - and obliged. So Maximilian went to the death chamber of Cell 18, and set about preparing the others to die with dignity by prayers, psalms, and the example of Christ’s Passion. Two weeks later only four were left alive: Maximilian alone was fully conscious. He was injected with phenol and died on 14 August, aged 47.

He was beatified by Paul VI in 1971. In 1982 he was canonised by Pope John Paul II, formerly Archbishop of Cracow, the diocese which contains Auschwitz. Present at the ceremony that day was Francis Gajowniczek, the man whose life Maximilian Kolbe had saved.