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Year with the Saints: Saint Facts

Posted on by Vermont Catholic

Do you have a fun fact about a saint or favorite saint you’d like to highlight? Send to amasker@vermontcatholic.org.

St. Patrick

Despite being patron of Ireland, Patrick was actually British. And he didn’t wear green – the original color associated with him was blue.  And those snakes he supposedly drove out?  Not true; there were no snakes in Ireland to begin with because of the cold climate.

St. Catherine of Siena

This saint was one of 25 children, although half her siblings never lived to reach maturity.  Though perhaps not identical, she also had a twin named Giovanna who died in infancy.

St. Benedict Joseph Labre

Denied entrance into any cloistered monastery, this saint decided to become a homeless beggar, living in a “cloister within the world.”  Dressed in rags, he never bathed and, if no one offered him anything to eat, he refused to beg and ate whatever he could find in the street.

St. Brigid of Kildare

According to legend St. Brigid of Kildare had a unique way of making beer; she preferred the bathtub to the usual brew house mash tub. She once quenched the thirst of an entire colony of lepers by changing the water meant for the baths into beer.

St. Andre Bessette

When Alfred Bessette went to the Holy Cross Brothers in 1870, he carried with him a note from his pastor saying, “I am sending you a saint.” At 25, he did not know how to read and write, and he became a porter in the order.

St. Zita

Zita was only 12 when she became a housekeeper in the house of a rich Italian weaver. She performed her household duties so perfectly that other servants were jealous of her.

St. Casimir

Casimir was committed to God from childhood, and he rebelled against the rich, fashionable clothes he was expected to wear, choosing instead the plainest of clothes.

St. Maximillian Kolbe

Before he was sent to a concentration camp during World War II, St. Maximillian Kolbe worked in his monastery, providing shelter for refugees, including hiding 2,000 Jews from German persecution.

Year with the Saints: Project wrap-up

Posted on by Cori Urban

As part of the Year with the Saints celebration in the Diocese of Burlington, staff members of Vermont Catholic magazine created a four-part series on church names. The last segment of the series is featured in this issue of the diocesan magazine.

Each issue has contained photos and interesting art and architecture facts about the featured churches as well as a biographical sketch of the saint (St. Luke, for example) or information about the church name (Holy Cross, for example). Art Director Mary-Margaret Carroll had the idea to feature the churches as part of the Year with the Saints. She wanted to highlight their art and architecture because, as she said, “churches should inspire reverence in our worship and should exemplify what we think of as heaven.”

She and Communication Manager Alayna Masker traveled throughout the Diocese, sometimes attending a daily Mass then meeting with pastors, parish staff members and parishioners to find out what made their churches unique. Among the features they found were a crypt at Holy Angels Church in St. Albans, a crutch from a boy who was healed of a leg injury at St. Andrew Church in Waterbury and a passageway in the reredos at St. Charles Church in Bellows Falls used to access statues for dusting.

Vermont Catholic Writer Kay Winchester provided information about the saints, feasts and other namesakes of the churches. Each church package was published in Vermont Catholic, on the diocesan website and on Facebook and Instagram before or on each particular feast day.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions associated with it, Carroll and Masker were not able to visit each church featured, so others stepped in to help. Among them were pastors and parish staff; the team expressed gratitude for this help during a difficult time.

“People like seeing their church” featured, Masker said.

Carroll hopes to replicate some of the art and architecture segments as churches make notable renovations or additions of significant items like statues, windows and relics.

—Originally published in the Winter 2020 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

Year with the Saints: Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Posted on by Vermont Catholic

Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Feast — Jan. 1

Church — Springfield

The designation “Mother of God” first began to be used by the Church to refer to Mary in the third and fourth centuries.

The title’s Greek form — Theotokos, or God-bearer — was officially confirmed at the Council of Ephesus in 431. It highlights Mary’s role in the Incarnation, when she declares

her “fiat” in response to the angel Gabriel’s invitation. Some theologians have asserted that while Jesus was “first” in God’s mind for humankind’s redemption, Mary was second, chosen from all eternity to be His mother. Celebrated on Jan. 1, this feast is also a day of prayer for world peace.

Throughout Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church (St. Mary’s) in Springfield, its rectory and its parish hall are Marian paintings, statues and rosaries. Parishioners created much of the artwork dis- played. During the Annunciation, Immaculate Conception and the Assumption feast days, the parish offers 40-hour Adoration.

However, sharing the devotion to Mary goes beyond the Springfield community. St. Mary’s is home to a replica of Our Lady of Fatima that travels throughout Vermont in May and October. The statue is given to a family for a week, and members pray the rosary with it until it is passed to the next.

—Originally published in the Winter 2020 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

Year with the Saints: Immaculate Conception

Posted on by Vermont Catholic

Immaculate Conception Church in St. Albans is the oldest Catholic church in the Diocese of Burlington that is still functioning as a Catholic church. It sits atop a prominent hill in St. Albans, with a view down to the center of the city. It is built of brick, in the neo-Gothic style that was prominent in the 1800s. The bell tower originally had a steeple. The interior features a vaulted plaster ceiling that was once ornately painted. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception teaches that Mary, from the moment of her conception and by the “grace and privilege granted by almighty God,” was “preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

Although some form of this feast existed in the Western Church as early as the 11th century, the Immaculate Conception in its present form was not made a feast in the universal Church until Pope Pius IX proclaimed it as such in 1854.

This feast is celebrated on Dec. 8. As the Immaculate Conception, Mary is the patronsaint of the United States and Brazil.

—Originally published in the Winter issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

Year with the Saints: Holy Family

Posted on by Vermont Catholic

Holy Family

Feast • Dec. 27

Church • Essex Junction

Celebrated on the Sunday within the octave of Christmas, this feast commemorates all three members of the Holy Family — Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The official recognition of this feast began in earnest in the 17th century. It quickly spread from Europe to Canada, thanks in large part to Bishop François de Laval, the first bishop of Quebec. The Redemptorist Order was also instrumental in forming confraternities under the patronage of the Holy Family in both Europe and America. On Oct. 26, 1921, the feast of the Holy Family was instituted for the Universal Church. In 2020, it is celebrated on Dec. 27.

Holy Family Church in Essex Junction was built in 1893. The first Mass in the completed church was celebrated on Christmas Day in 1893. It was the only Catholic church in all of Essex for 68 years until St. Pius X Church was completed in 1961. Holy Family Church is part of Holy Family/St. Lawrence Parish, which is part of the larger Essex Catholic Community with St. Pius X Parish. The church itself is more than 100 years old but has been expanded and renovated many times to accommodate the growth of the Essex Junction Catholic population.

—Originally published in the Winter 2020 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

Year with the Saints continues during pandemic

Posted on by Cori Urban

When the Diocese of Burlington opened its special Year with the Saints at the beginning of 2020, a worldwide coronavirus pandemic had not yet caused public Masses in Vermont to be suspended, Catholic schools to turn to remote learning or diocesan employees to conduct work from home.

Yet The Year with the Saints continued as diocesan social media presented information on saints, Vermont Catholic published stories about the saints and parish patron saints were highlighted on different platforms.

“The focus has shifted from in-person celebrations and presentations to those done online.  Interestingly, the pandemic has brought a different focus and emphasis to the saints as so many people of faith have sought to learn from their example through the years,” said Deacon Phil Lawson, executive director of evangelization, catechesis, divine worship, marriage and family and respect life. “The peace, wisdom and example offered by the saints — many of whom also dealt with plagues and pandemics in their own times — is a rich treasury for us to draw upon today.”

Many saints — including St. Charles Borromeo, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Aloysius Gonzaga — ministered to the sick during plagues. In the United States, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos volunteered to minister to the people in New Orleans during a plague there in 1886 before succumbing to it the following year. “Their responses can be instructive for us. All of them were able to manifest Christ’s peace and love to those they encountered,” Deacon Lawson said. “They did not live in fear but instead trusted in the Lord and sought to bring the light and peace of Christ to all those they encountered.”

Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne, who designated The Year of the Saints, said he hoped the special year would bring Vermont Catholics to an increased familiarity with the lives of the saints and to a greater understanding of their own call to sainthood.

Deacon Lawson suggested Vermont Catholics continue to commemorate The Year with the Saints by asking for the intercession of the saints in their daily prayers: “There is never a bad time to call upon the intercession of the saints, our elder brothers and sisters in heaven!”

—Originally published in the Summer 2020 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.