INCARNATION MAGAZINE

JULY 2015
This smaller version of Incarnation Magazine
is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
chief patron of the Order, who appeared to
Saint Simon Stock on July 16, 1251, with the
small Brown Scapular and this promise:
"Take this Scapular, it shall be a sign of salvation, a
protection in danger and a pledge of peace. Whosoever
dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire."

"One of the most remarkable effects of

sacramentals is the virtue to drive away evil spirits whose mysterious and
baleful operations affect sometimes the physical activity of man. To combat
this occult power the Church has recourse to exorcism, and sacramental."
(The Catholic Encyclopedia., 1913, VXIII, p. 293) The promise of Our Lady to
those who wear the Brown Scapular is a traditional sacramental of the Roman
Catholic Church, believed to impart efficacious grace to those who enroll in
the Scapular Confraternity or who simply choose to wear one.

Saint Pope John Paul II wore a Brown

Scapular his entire life. In the photo to the
left is Karol Wojtyla as a young factory
worker wearing his Brown Scapular.
When Saint Pope John Paul II was shot
and operated on in 1981, he asked the
doctors not to remove his Brown Scapular.
IN THIS ISSUE

Not all of the new Saints and Blesseds of the Carmelite Calendar are
represented in this issue: Bl. Candelaria of St. Joseph, Bl. Teresa Maria
Manetti of the Cross, St. Joachina de Vedruna de Mas, Bl. Maria
Crocifissa de Curcio, Bl. Josepha Naval Girbes, Bl. Maria Mercedes
Prat, Bl. Maria Teresa Scrilli, St. Henry de Osso, and Bl. Kuriakos
Chavara. Look for them and others in future issues of
INCARNATION MAGAZINE!
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SAINT MARY OF
JESUS CRUCIFIED

Everything passes here on earth. What are we?

Nothing but dust, nothingness, and God is so
great, so beautiful, so lovable and He is not
loved. St. Mary
Holy Spirit, inspire me. Love of God consume
me. Along the true road, lead me. Mary, my
good mother, look down upon me. With Jesus,
bless me. From all evil, all illusion, all danger,
preserve me. St. Mary
Mary Baouardy was born in 1846 in Abellin, near Nazareth. She was
the first surviving child of Georges and Mary Baouardy, poor powdermakers who had lost twelve boys in infancy. Mary was born in answer
to a novena to the Blessed Virgin in Bethlehem, with the promise that
she would be named for her. Two years later, her brother Paul was
born, and then, tragically, both parents died of an infectious disease,
leaving Mary and Paul orphaned. They went to live with different
relatives, and never saw each other again. These events were only the
first of many sufferings in store for little Mary. Her wealthy uncle
treated her well, but as was the custom during those times, he had
arranged a marriage for her when she was only thirteen. Mary had
always loved Jesus and the Virgin, and she did not want to marry. She
prayed. The night before her wedding, Jesus spoke to her, telling her
that He would help her. She cut off her beautiful long braids, wrapped
the jewels she had been given in them, and sent them to her
uncle. This made him furious, and from that day Mary was treated as
a household slave. In her anguish, she befriended another servant, a
man who was a Muslim. He promised to help her to deliver a letter to
her brother in a different town. But when she went to his home with
the letter, he tried to force her to renounce her faith in Christ. This she
refused to do, and the angry man slit her throat. The next thing Mary
remembered was a beautiful woman in blue came to her and gave her
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a delicious broth that gave her strength. The woman dressed her
wound, and then told her that she would enter a Carmelite monastery,
make her vows in another, and die in another. This prediction proved
true, because Mary later entered the Carmel of Pau, France. She
assisted a foundation in India where she made her vows, and she died
in the Carmel that she had helped to found in Bethlehem. Awaking in
a confessional in a Franciscan church located in Jerusalem, Mary
began working as a domestic. A series of positions led her to the family
that brought her to France, where she began her religious life as a
Sister of St. Joseph of the Apparition, but her mystical graces alarmed
the sisters, and they did not accept her there. Her novice mistress
brought her to the Carmel of Pau, where she was accepted and given
the name Mary of Jesus Crucified. She died in the Carmel
of Bethlehem from a fall that wounded her leg in 1878. Mary of Jesus
Crucified was just canonized by Pope Francis on May 17, 2015.

St. Mary is shown here as a novice and as a professed

nun of the black veil. Although she made her profession
as a lay nun, that is, a sister who does not chant in
the choir and wears a white veil, she was given the black
veil. Mary of Jesus Crucified, also known as the Little
Arab, received many gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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SAINT
TERESA OF
THE ANDES
Jesus alone
is beautiful.
He is my
only joy.
I call for
Him, I cry after Him, I search
for Him within my heart.
St. Teresa of the Andes
Born in Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900, Juanita Fernandez
Solar, one of six children of devoted Catholic parents, began
her life with Jesus at an early age. At the age of fifteen, she
made a private vow of virginity, which she renewed
continually until she entered the Carmel of the Holy Spirit in
the town of Los Andes at the age of eighteen. Juanita had been
praying for many years, and had worked to overcome her
difficult personality traits such as pride and anger. Her
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prioress recognized holiness in her new postulant, who

confided to her that Jesus had told her that she would die
young. Within a few months after her clothing day, Juanita,
now Sister Teresa of Jesus, contracted typhus and died in her
convent. Her prioress allowed her to make her solemn
vows on her deathbed. Juanita was not yet twenty years of
age. She was beatified in 1987 and canonized in 1993 by Saint
Pope John Paul II, who proposed her example as a model for
youth. She is the first Chilean canonized saint. Her feast day
is celebrated on July 13th, the day of her birth.

I want to be athirst with love so that other souls may

possess this love. I would die to creatures and to
myself so that He may live in
me. -- St. Teresa of the Andes

Juanita at her First

Communion.
Juanita at eighteen months.
Sr. Teresa after her death.

Is there anything good, beautiful or true that would not be

in Jesus? He is my unending wealth, my bliss, my heaven.
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SAINT
EDITH STEIN
(SR. TERESA
BENEDICTA
OF THE CROSS)

JULY 2015

Born on the holiest day of the Jewish

calendar, Yom Kippur (Day of
Atonement), the youngest of eleven
children of an observant Jewish family
in Breslau, Germany, in 1891, "smart Edith" as she was called by
friends and family renounced her faith as a young girl. Her
search for truth led her to the study of philosophy, at which she
excelled at the University of Gottingen and the University of
Freiburg. In 1916, she received her doctorate at the University of
Freiburg with her dissertation On the
Problem of Empathy. She became a member
of the faculty and worked as assistant to the
phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, a
Protestant Christian. After reading the Life of
Saint Teresa of Avila, Edith was baptized a
Catholic on January 1st, 1922. She taught at a
Dominican Catholic school in Speyer until
1931, and then served as a lecturer at the
Catholic affiliated Institute for Scientific Pedagogy in
Munster until forced to resign in 1933 by Nazi persecution. In
October of 1934, she entered the Carmelite monastery in
Cologne, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
(Blessed of the Cross). In obedience to superiors, Sr. Teresa
Benedicta continued her contribution to the field of philosophy
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with the work Finite and Eternal Being, an exploration of the

possibilities of a Catholic phenomenology by combining the
teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas and Husserl. As Nazi
persecution increased, Sr. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa,
who had become a Catholic and was serving the monastery as an
extern sister, took shelter in the Carmelite monastery of Echt,
Holland where she wrote The Science of the Cross, a study of
Saint John of the Cross. In June of 1939, Sr. Teresa Benedicta
requested permission of her prioress to offer her life for her
people, for the Church, for the salvation of Germany and for the
peace of the world. "I beg the Lord to take my life and my

death....for all concerns of the sacred hearts of Jesus

and Mary and the holy Church, especially for the
preservation of our holy Order, in particular the
Carmelite monasteries of Cologne and Echt, as
atonement for the unbelief of the Jewish people, and
that the Lord will be received by His own people, and
His kingdom shall come in glory, for the salvation of
Germany and the peace of the world; at last for my own
loved ones, living or dead, for all that God gave to me:
that none of them will go astray. By August of the
following year, the Nazis had invaded the Netherlands. Sister
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and her sister Rosa were
arrested along with two hundred and forty-three baptized Jews
living in the Netherlands. Several days later, at the notorious
Auschwitz concentration camp, Saint Edith Stein was martyred
together with her sister Rosa and many other Jewish Christians.

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SAINT
MARIA
MARAVILLAS
OF JESUS

The St. Teresa Association is

a group of monasteries of
Discalced Carmelite Nuns

formed in 1975 to strengthen

one another in living our
contemplative vocation in the Church. Membership is
based on spiritual affinity rather than geographical
boundaries, and we share a common desire to bear
witness in these times to the charism and spirit of the
Order of Discalced Carmelite Nuns founded by Saint
Teresa of Avila in 1562. Maria de las Maravillas was born

in Madrid, Spain, on November 1, 1891 to Luis and Christina

Pidal, devout Catholics. Her father was the Spanish Ambassador
to the Vatican. Maria was a deeply religious child who made a
vow of chastity at the age of five. She wanted to enter the Carmel
of Madrid after reading the works of St. John of the Cross and St.
Teresa of Avila, but her entrance was delayed until the age of
twenty-seven after her father's death. Before making her solemn
vows in 1924, Sr. Maria had already founded a Carmelite
monastery six miles south of Madrid, in Getafe. This was the
first of many Teresian Carmelite Monasteries founded by Mother
Maravillas, who served as prioress throughout her life. In 1972,
she received permission from the Holy See to establish the
Association of Saint Teresa as members of the Order of
Discalced Carmelites. Although beginning in Spain, there are
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now at least ten monasteries of the Association in Canada and

the United States. The monasteries belonging to the Association
keep the observance as established by St. Teresa of Avila in 1582.
After a life of service, Mother Maravillas died peacefully in one
of the Carmels she had founded in Aldehuela, Spain, at the age
of eighty-four, on December 11, 1974.

Mother Maravillas of Jesus was canonized by

Saint Pope John Paul II in 2003.
Her feastday is December 11th.
Yesterday, Sunday, on climbing the stairs to
go to the upper choir for the sung Mass, I was
quite recollected, yet without any particular
thought, when I heard clearly within me,
"My delight is to be with the children of
men." These words which made a strong
impression on me, I understood were not
for me this time, but rather in the nature of a
request the Lord was making me to offer the
whole of myself to give Him these souls He
so much desires. It is hard to explain, but I
saw clearly, that a soul which sanctifies
itself becomes fruitful in attracting souls to
God. This so deeply moved me that I offered with my whole heart
to the Lord all my sufferings of body and soul for this purpose,
despite my poverty. It then seemed to me that this offering was
right, but what was strictly important was to surrender
myself, wholly and completely to the divine will, so that He could
do what He desired in me and likewise I would accept the pain
along with the pleasure. I seemed to understand that what
pleased Him was not the greatest sacrifice but rather the exact
and loving fulfillment in the least detail of that will. In this I
understood many things I find hard to explain, and how He
wished me to be very sensitive in this fulfillment, which would
carry me a long way in self-sacrifice and love.
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SAINT
RAPHAEL
KALINOWSKI

Canonized in 1991 by Saint Pope

John Paul II, Raphael Kalinowski
is the first male Carmelite to be
raised to the altars since St. John
of the Cross. Born in 1835 in
Vilnius, Poland, which at the time
was under Russian rule (formerly
a Polish-Lithuanian territory), Joseph was the second of nine
children of Andrew Kalinowski, who remarried twice after the
death of Joseph's mother Josephine Polanska. Like his father
who taught mathematics, Joseph excelled at math and
engineering under the patronage of the Imperial Russian
Army, which he joined at the age of eighteen. Although
promoted to Lieutenant and then Captain, Joseph resigned
from the Russian army in 1863 to join the Polish uprising in
the Vilnius region, a choice which cost him dearly. In 1864 he
was arrested and sentenced to death, but his sentence was
commuted to ten years in the labor camps after a treacherous
nine-month trek through the salt-mines of Siberia. He was
able to continue some of his scholarly work for the Russian
Geographical Society during the later years of his
imprisonment, and then he was released 1873. Exiled from
his homeland of Lithuania, Joseph went to Paris and
then returned to Warsaw, where he became the private tutor
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of Prince August Czartoryski, who later became a priest and

was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004. In 1877, Joseph
joined the Carmelites in Linz, where he was given the name
Raphael of St. Joseph. He was ordained a priest in 1882 at the
monastery in Czerna, where he served as prior beginning in
1883. From there, St. Raphael Kalinowski worked to establish
the Carmelite monastery in Wadowice, where he served as
prior. He also helped to found two Carmelite monasteries for
Discalced Carmelite nuns.
He died in Wadowice of
tuberculosis in 1907 where, fourteen years later, the future
Saint Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) was born.

The photos above show Joseph Kalinowski as an officer in the Russian army,
and later as a tutor to Prince August Czartoryski, who was beatified in 2004.

Once a desert father was asked by a certain young hermit what

books he ought to study in order to advance in holiness. The old
man replied: My practice is to read two books only. In the
morning hours I read the Gospel, and in the evening I read the
Rule. The first teaches me the way I should walk as a disciple of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The other teaches me what I should do to
be a good religious. That is enough for me.
Saint Raphael Kalinowski

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BLESSED ELIA
OF SAINT
CLEMENT

Theodora, a name meaning "gift

of God," was born January 17, 1901,
in Bari, Italy. She entered the
Carmelite monastery there at the
age of nineteen, and died seven
years later on Christmas day after
making her total offering of herself
to God in 1924. She was beatified
in 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI.

From her writings: My Delight, who could ever separate me

from You? Who could be capable of breaking these strong
chains that keep my heart attached to Yours? Perhaps the
abandonment of creatures? It is precisely this that unites the
soul to its Creator. . . . Perhaps tribulations, suffering, crosses? It
is in these thorns that the canticle of the soul that loves You is
freest and lightest. Perhaps death? But this will be nothing but
the beginning of true happiness for the soul. . . . Nothing,
nothing can separate this soul from You, not even for a brief
moment. It was created for You and is lost if it does not abandon
itself to you. My life is love; this sweet nectar surrounds me,
this merciful love penetrates me, purifies me, renews me, and I
feel it consuming me. The cry of my heart is: Love of my God,
my soul searches for You alone. My soul, suffer and be quiet; love
and hope; offer yourself, but hide your suffering behind a smile,
and always move on . . . .
I want to spend my life in deep silence, in the depths of my
heart, in order to listen to the gentle voice of my sweet Jesus.
Blessed Elia of St. Clement
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BLESSED
ISIDORE BAKANJA,
MARTYR OF THE
BROWN SCAPULAR

Isidore Bakanja (1887 1909) worked as a

mason for colonists in the Belgian Congo, now
known as Zaire. Converted to Christianity and
baptized in May of 1906 at the age of eighteen,
Isidore wore a Brown Scapular and loved to pray
the rosary. He moved to a village where there
were some Christians so as to share his love for
the faith. But this zeal eventually cost him his
life in a most cruel manner. Working as a domestic on a Belgian
rubber plantation, Isidore asked permission to go home. He was
refused, and furthermore forbidden to teach others how to pray with
the words, Youll have the whole village praying and no-one will
work! He was ordered to tear off his Scapular and to throw it away.
When he refused to do this, he as flogged twice with a whip made of
elephant hide with nails on the tip. He was chained to the ground until
an inspector came to the plantation and sent him to a different village.
Isidore tried to hide in the forest, but as his deep wounds began to
fester, he dragged himself to the inspector. The agent tried to kill that
animal, as he called him, but the inspector prevented this final
cruelty. As the inspector testified later, I saw a man come from the
forest with his back torn apart by deep, festering, malodorous wounds,
covered with filth, assaulted with flies. He leaned on two sticks in
order to get near me. He wasnt walking, he was dragging himself.
He took Isidore to his home to heal, but Isidore knew that he was
dying. If you see my mother, or if you go to the judge, or if you meet
a priest, tell them that I am dying because I am a Christian. Two
missionaries were able to give him the last sacraments, urging him to
forgive the man who had assaulted him. Isidore assured them that he
had done so. He died six months later, on August 15, 1909, with his
rosary in hand, and Scapular around his neck. He was beatified by
Saint Pope John Paul II in 1994. His feastday is August 12.
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LOUIS and
AZELIE
MARTIN
SOON-TOBE SAINTS

The parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

(Therese of Lisieux) will be canonized on
October 18th of this year. They will be the first
married couple to be canonized together. Louis
Martin (1823 1894) was born in Bordeaux, France, into a
military family. From his youth he longed for monastic life, and
attempted to join the Augustinians and later, the Carthusians, in
the hope of becoming a priest. His difficulty learning Latin and
further discernment led him to abandon these efforts. Resolved
to live piously as a single man, Louis moved to Alencon, where
he set up a successful watchmaking and jewelers shop. He lived
happily there for several years. God had other plans. One day, at
the age of thirty-five, as he was crossing the Saint-Leonard
Bridge, he noticed a young lady, who noticed him. An interior
voice spoke then to Marie-Azelie Guerin, known as Zelie. This
is he whom I have prepared for you.
Zelie Guerin Martin (1831 1877), also born into a military
family whose father served in the police force and later retired at
Alencon, had longed to be a religious sister of the Daughters of
Charity. She studied under the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration,
where she learned the delicate skill of lacemaking. Before their
marriage in 1858, Zelie had already established a successful
lacemaking business, operated from her home.
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Within three months of their providential meeting, Louis and

Zelie were married at midnight, July 13th, at the cathedral of the
Assumption in Alencon. The couple saw their marriage as a
work of God, deciding that God would always be the first
served in their home. From the beginning, they decided to try
to maintain perfect chastity, adopting an eleven-year-old child of
a distressed widower as an act of charity and parenthood. Upon
the advice of a priest-friend, after ten months the happily married
couple decided to have as many children as possible to offer to
the Lord. They were blessed with nine children, all given the
first name of Marie. But only five survived to adult life. These
five young women all entered religious life, for which their
mother Zelie had prayed fervently.
Family life at the Martin household was joyful and pious. The
family prayed together each day, with daily Mass and a reading
from the daily liturgy of the hours. Among the saints familiar to
the family were St. Louis de Montfort, St. Francis de Sales and
St. Vincent de Paul. In the city of Paris, in 1830, a young member
of the congregation of the Daughters of Charity, founded by St.
Vincent de Paul, named Catherine Laboure had received a vision
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking her to promote the use of
what is now known as the Miraculous Medal, with the words,
Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to
Thee.
The devotion was approved and spread rapidly
throughout France, although the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception had not yet been proclaimed. On the other side of
France, in the southern town of Lourdes, in 1858 a young peasant
girl named Bernadette Soubirous reported the apparition of a
beautiful lady who identified herself as the Immaculate
Conception, confirming the recent dogmatic proclamation of
Pope Pius IX. Surely these events influenced the spirituality of
the Martin family.
In the heart of the Church, my mother, I shall be love.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
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The death of Zelie in August of

1877 of breast cancer at the age of
forty-six left Louis with his five
daughters, the youngest being
only four years old. Griefstricken, he sold Zelies lacemaking business and moved the
family to Lisieux, where Zelies
brothers family also lived. His
oldest daughters Marie and
Pauline cared for the younger
girls, with the help of hired
servants. During these years,
Louis gave himself over more
and more to his first love the
Youngest daughter of Louis and Zelie
love of God even maintaining a
Martin, the future Saint and Doctor of
small hermitage on some
the Church, Therese of the Child Jesus
property in the country, where he
loved to retire for contemplation
and a bit of fishing. Therese, for whom he held a deep, fatherly
affection, calling her his little queen, would sometimes
accompany him on these excursions, and on visits to the Blessed
Sacrament.
One by one, Louis daughters left the family circle to enter
convents. First Marie entered the Carmel of Lisieux, and later
Pauline. This left three girls, Leonie, Celine and Therese, at
home. Asking for her fathers permission to enter the Carmel of
Lisieux at the age of fifteen must have been one of the most
painful sacrifices of Thereses life. Not long after she had
entered, her father confided to his three daughters in Carmel that
he had visited the church where he had married their mother.
My God, I am too happy. Its not possible to go to Heaven like
that. I want to suffer something for you. He offered himself then
to God. This was in May of 1888. Less than ten years later, his
daughter Therese would offer herself as Victim of Merciful Love.
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In 1889, after suffering two paralyzing strokes, Louis Martin was

committed to the care of the Good Savior hospital in Caen, a
decision that was enforced by his devoted brother-in-law Isidore
Guerin, who became legal guardian of the family. In 1892,
returning to the home in Lisieux paralyzed and unable to speak,
Louis was cared for devotedly by his daughters Leonie and
Celine until his death in 1894. Soon both Leonie and Celine had
entered convents. The deepest desire of Louis and Zelie Martin
had been fulfilled: all of their children on earth had been
consecrated to God.
BREAKING NEWS: Bishop Jean-Claude Boulanger of the
diocese of Lisieux announced his intention of officially
opening the CAUSE FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF LEONIE
MARTIN, third child of Louis
and Zelie Martin and SISTER
OF ST. THERESE. Leonie
Martin (Sister FrancoiseTherese) June 3, 1863 to June
16, 1941, was a Visitandine
Nun at the convent of Caen,
France, for most of her life.
Miracles have been reported to
have occurred at her
gravesite. Leonie was known
as the difficult child of the family. She attempted to join
the Poor Clares three times before finally discovering her
true vocation with the Visitation Nuns, founded by Saint
Francis de Sales and Saint Jane Frances Chantal in 1610.
It was Thereses Little Way of Spiritual Childhood, of
which Leonie was a devoted disciple, which opened up for
her a path of spiritual growth.

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BLESSED
MARIA
CANDIDA
OF THE
EUCHARIST

Maria Barba was born in

1884 and grew up in
Palermo, Sicily where her
father served as a judge. She
wanted to begin religious life
at the age of fifteen, but had
to wait twenty years. After her entrance and formation in the
Carmel of Ragusa, she was elected prioress. She worked to revive
the spirit of St. Teresa of Avila in her community. Under her
leadership the community grew enough to make a foundation in
Syracuse. She also helped to bring the Carmelite friars back to
Sicily. But she is best known for her many writings on the Holy
Eucharist: To contemplate with deep faith our Beloved in the

Sacrament, to live with Him Who comes to us every day, to

remain with Him in the depths of our hearts, this is our life! The
more intense this intimate life is the more we will be Carmelites
and make progress in perfection. This contact, this union with
Jesus is everything: what fruits of virtue will come from it! You
must have this experience. To live with Jesus and to live by
His virtues, is to listen to His beautiful voice, to His most loving
wish and immediately obey it, to please quickly Him. Our eyes
close, longing to find Him again, to contemplate Him in the
depths of our hearts: is this not the reason why He gives us Holy
Communion in the morning? Is it not the attraction for Him that
remains in the Blessed Sacrament, where He lives? I do not know
how to separate the ciborium in the sacred Tabernacle from the
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ciborium in our hearts! Oh how many times, even though we are

in the choir, before His sacred Presence, at times exposed, we
experience with our Jesus the need to go deeply into ourselves,
and there rediscover and remain! What mystery of love is this
intimacy with our Beloved! I reflect on this, sometimes with
emotion, and give praise to Him Who is Love! And with tears I
contemplate this intimacy. Everything here on this earth is
nothing for us, withdrawn as we are, far from Him Who loved us
so much; our eyes no longer see anything: we close them again
to lose ourselves in the same sacred environment, we close them
anxious to find Him again, to see Jesus! The most delightful
Mystery of Love! He allows Himself to be found by the heart that
searches for Him, by the soul that knows how to do without
many things for love of Him. To be close to our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament, like the Saints in Heaven, who contemplate
the supreme Good, is what we must do, according to our Holy
Mother Teresa. Seven times a day, we come together around the
throne (of our Good God), the sacred Tabernacle, reciting the
divine praises: oh how much faith merits such lofty activity, what
dying to self! May adoration and love accompany and beautify
everything! (from Eucharist: True Jewel of Eucharistic
Spirituality)
After serving as prioress until 1947, Mother Candida was
diagnosed with a tumor in her liver. She died on the 12th June
1949. It was the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. She was beatified
March 21, 2004, by Saint Pope John Paul II, who described Maria
Candida as "an authentic mystic of the Eucharist the unifying
center of the whole of life, following the Carmelite tradition.

"She was so in love with Jesus in the Eucharist

that she felt a constant and ardent desire to be a
tireless apostle of the Eucharist."
Saint Pope John Paul II
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BLESSED
TITUS
BRANDSMA
Born 1881 Anno Brandsma to Titus and
Tjitsje Brandsma, small dairy farmers in
Friesland, Holland. Five of their six
children entered religious life. Titus
began his studies with the Franciscans,
and entered the Carmelite novitiate in
Boxmeer in 1898, taking his father's
name Titus for his religious name. He was ordained in 1905,
studied at the Roman Gregorian University, and graduated in
1909 with a doctorate in philosophy. Titus dedicated his life to
education, particularly to Carmelite mysticism, philosophy, and
journalism. In 1923 he helped found the Catholic University of
Nijmegen in Holland, where he taught and served as
rector. In 1935, he completed a lecture tour in the United States
at various Carmelite institutions, and in the same year he was
appointed by his archbishop to serve as advisor to Catholic
journalists in Holland. In January of 1942, the Third Reich had
invaded Holland and ordered Catholic newspapers to print Nazi
propaganda. Titus hand-delivered a letter written by the Dutch
bishops to the editors of 14 newspapers asking them not to obey,
before he was arrested on the 19th of January. By the 19th of June,
he was in Dachau concentration camp, where he was
hospitalized. On the 26th of July he was killed with a lethal
injection administered by a nurse as part of the Nazi medical
experimentation on prisoners.

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Above: Titus as a boy, as a young Carmelite (left) with his family, and
as an adult. Below: Titus as a scholar and journalist; his prison cell.

Blessed Titus Brandsma was beatified by

Saint Pope John Paul II in 1985.
When we speak of and pray for the coming of the kingdom, it is
not a prayer for a kingdom based on differences of race and blood
but on universal brotherhood. In union with Him who makes
the sun rise on the good and on the evil, all men are our brothers
even those who hate us and fight us. We do not want a relapse
into the sin of the earthly paradise, into the sin of making
ourselves equal to God. We do not wish to begin a cult of heroes
based on the divinization of human nature. We acknowledge the
law of God and we submit to it.Blessed Titus Brandsma
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BLESSED
MARIA
SAGRARIO
OF SAINT
ALOYSIUS
GONZAGA

JULY 2015

Born in Lilo, Spain, to

Ricardo Moragas and Isabel Cantarero January 8, 1881,
Elvira was the first woman in Spain to become a
pharmacist, like her father, at which she excelled. She
entered a Carmelite monastery in Madrid at the age of
thirty-five, made her solemn profession of vows on
Epiphany 1920, was elected prioress in 1927 and
became novice mistress in 1930. Her desire to be a
martyr was fulfilled when, on July 20th of 1936, (a few
weeks earlier she had again been elected prioress of the
community), her convent was attacked. Mother Maria
found shelter for all of her daughters in the homes of
friends, but was herself arrested, along with another
Sister, on August 14th. Refusing to reveal the hiding
places of her daughters, Blessed Maria was shot to
death on August 15th, Feast of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Her daughters survived the
ordeal and were spared. She was beatified in 1998 by
Saint Pope John Paul II.
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BLESSEDS
MARIA
PILAR,
TERESA,
AND MARIA
ANGELES
Murdered by communists in
1936 during the Spanish Civil
War: Sisters Maria Pilar of
Saint Francis Borgia, 58 years
old, Teresa of the Child Jesus,
27, and Maria of the Angels, 31. On July 22, eighteen nuns of the
Carmelite monastery in Guadalajara went into hiding in secular
dress. These three martyrs hid in the basement of a hotel. Two
days later, making their way along a street, a woman soldier
recognized them as nuns and ordered them to be shot. Sr. Maria
of the Angels died instantly. Sr. Maria Pilar, although wounded,
cried out: "Long live Christ the King!" This infuriated the
soldiers, who shot at her and slashed her with a knife. She died
with the words, "My God, pardon them. They do not know what
they are doing." Sr. Teresa was led to a nearby cemetery where,
after her words "Long live Christ the King!" she also was shot in
the back. They were beatified by Saint Pope John Paul II on
March 29th, 1987. Their feast day is observed on July 24th, the
day of their martyrdom.

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BLESSED
HILARY
JANUSZEWSKI

Blessed Hilary was born June 12,

1907, in Krajenki, Poland, and
given the name Pawel. He
entered the Carmelite Order in
1927 in Cracow, and was ordained
priest in 1934 after completing his
studies at the International
College of Saint Albert in
Rome. As one of the best students, he obtained a lectorate in
theology from the Roman Academy of Saint Thomas, and
returned to Cracow in 1935 where he was appointed Professor of
Dogmatic Theology and Church History at the Institute of the
Polish Province. In 1939 he was appointed prior of the
community. The Nazis had invaded Poland a few weeks
earlier. Within a year, several friars had been arrested and
deported. Father Hilary offered his life in exchange for an older
and sick friar. By April of 1941 he was imprisoned in the
concentration camp at Dachau along with several other
Carmelites, including Blessed Titus Brandsma whom he joined
in prayer. In response to an outbreak of typhus in the camp,
thirty-two priests offered to help. Father Hilary joined them. On
March 25, 1945, just a few days before the liberation of the camp,
Father Hilary died of typhus at Dachau.
Along with 108 Polish martyrs of the Second World War,
Fr. Hilary Januszewski and Fr. Alfonse Maria Mazurek were
beatified by Saint Pope John Paul II in 1999.

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BLESSED
ALFONSE
MAZUREK

Blessed Alfonse Maria Mazurek

was born March 1st, 1891, in
Poland, and given the name
Jozef (Joseph). He attended
seminary school during his
youth, and joined the Carmelite
Order in 1912, where he took the
name Alfonsus Mary of the
Holy Spirit. He was placed in charge of the Minor Seminary. In 1930
he was elected prior of the Carmelite monastery in Czerna. On August
24, 1944, Nazis invaded the monastery. Father Alfonsus was separated
from the others and tortured. He was taken by military car to a dirt
path where he was kicked and forced to walk a great distance before
he was shot and wounded. He was kicked more and his mouth filled
with dirt by the Nazi guards who had mortally wounded him. Some
brother friars found him, and he received absolution before his death
on August 28th, the vigil of the martyrdom St. John the Baptist, to
whom he was devoted. The following words are from the address of
Saint Pope John Paul II: Blessed are those who are persecuted in the
cause of uprightness: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs (Matt.
5:10).To whom do these words still apply? To many, many people
throughout humanitys history, to whom it was given to suffer
persecution for the sake of justice.Even our century has written a
great martyrology. I myself, over the twenty years of my pontificate,
have elevated to the glory of the altar numerous groups of martyrs:
Japanese, French, Vietnamese, Spanish, Mexican. How many there
were during the period of the Second World War and under the
communist totalitarian system! They suffered and gave their lives in
the Hitlerian or Soviet extermination camps. The time has now come
to remember .
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BLESSED
FRANCIS
PALAU Y QUER
Blessed Francis Palau y Quer, like so
many other Carmelites, writes beautifully
of the union of the soul with God in
mystical marriage. He was born in Spain
in 1811, the seventh of nine children of Jose
Palau and Maria Antonia Quer. He entered the Order in 1832
and was ordained a priest in 1836 during a period of civil unrest
that resulted in the closing of his monastery. Blessed
Francis lived in exile and in solitude in France, coming back to
Spain in 1851 to found what he called "The School of Virtue" for
catechetical instruction. The school was suppressed in 1854,
forcing Francis into solitude again until 1860 on the rocky coast
of Ibiza where he shared mystically in the sufferings of the
Church. It was here that his writings, "The Struggle of the Soul
with God," were born.
In 1861, Francis founded the
Congregation of Carmelite Brothers and Sisters. He died at
Tarragona in 1872 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II on
April 24th, 1980. From "Fr. Francisco Palau, OCD, Letters"

Published Rome, Carmelite Missionares, 1997 (Note: Juana was

Bl. Francisco's spiritual daughter; the direction in this letter is
beautiful for any to read and ponder.) JMJ, Day of Our Lady of
Carmel, 1857, Long Live Jesus! Dearest sister in Jesus Christ,
We are celebrating the octave of our most holy Mother, Our
Lady of Carmel, and I shall spend it putting my things in order
as though these were the last days of my life. Now for your
affairs. I am awaiting your letter in order to see to your exterior
life. In the meantime, let us see the interior. God's great work in
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man takes place in the Interior. The order that appears and is
shown outside is the work and effect of the order inside. The
three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, aided by the
highest and most sublime gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as
understanding, wisdom, knowledge, and counsel, unite the
creature, the human spirit, with his God, the soul with the Word
of God. It is this sacred union that you must seek, hold and
possess; in it lie the spiritual life, health and strength, and from
it originate all the other virtues. The soul looks to God under two
aspects or forms: first as the object of all its affections, or as an
infinitely good and lovable being, and this imagining robs the
heart; and insofar as he is good, infinitely beautiful, that is,
infinitely perfect, he captures our intellectual vision, our
thoughts and meditations. In this regard, the theological virtues
and their gifts cause God and the soul to become one single thing
through love and purity of thoughts. While this divine union
takes place primarily and mainly in the soul, all the other virtues
are like aids, attendants and armies of that guard, that assist and
protect this work. This is the love of God for the soul and the love
of the soul for God. Moreover, while the said union is worked out
and ordered, another union begins; this is the one about which I
have told you many times: the soul unites first with God as its
beloved, as the center of its affection and vision, and then as its
King, Lord, master and universal governor of the whole world.
The first union turns the soul into a goddess, that is, it deifies,
divinizes and makes it God's spouse. The second one elevates it
to the dignity of queen, co-redeemer of the world, lady and
princess. The first is the love of God and the second, the love of
neighbor, and since the love of God and of neighbor sums up the
whole of God's work in the heart of men, and since this is the
work to be started, continued and perfected in us and the
fulfillment of the whole law, no one can enter the kingdom of
God if this has not been done to a degree of perfection that God
alone knows.
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BLESSEDS
JACQUES
RETOURET,
JOHN
BAPTIST,
MICHAEL
AND JAMES
priests and martyrs
for their refusal to
take the oath of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the
French Revolution which, among other things, demanded
election of future popes and bishops by popular vote. Saint Pope
John Paul II beatified 63 priests and religious on October 1, 1995,
who had been imprisoned on board two ships stationed in
Rochefort Bay, France, for ten months awaiting deportation into
slavery. The following are excerpts from Resolutions Drawn Up
by the Priests Imprisoned on the Ship Les Deux Associes: They

will never give themselves up to useless worries about being set

free. Instead, they will make the effort to profit from the time of
their detention by meditating on their past years, by making holy
resolutions for the future, so that they can find in the captivity of
their bodies, freedom for their souls ... If God permits them to
recover totally or in part this liberty nature longs for, they will
avoid giving themselves up to an immoderate joy when they
receive the news. By keeping their souls tranquil they will show
they support without murmur the cross placed on them, and that
they are disposed to bear it even longer with courage and as true
Christians who never let themselves be beaten by adversity. They
will not show grief over the loss of their goods, no haste to
recover them, no resentment against those who possess them.
They will never get mixed up in the new politics, being content
to pray for the welfare of their country and prepare themselves
for a new life, if God permits them to return to their homes.
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BLESSEDS
EUFRASIO
AND
EUSEBIO
OF THE
CHILD JESUS
Born February 8, 1897,
Eufrasio Barredo Fernandez (Eufrasio of the Child Jesus) in
Asturias, Spain, where he was martyred on October 12, 1934. He
was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on October 12, 2007. Ovidio
Fernandez Arenillas (Eusebio of the Child Jesus) was born 21
February 1888 in Castifale, Leon, Spain. He was martyred during
the Spanish Civil War, 1936, in Toledo, along with fifteen other
Carmelites who were beatified on October 28, 2007 by Pope
Benedict XVI. (Please see newsaints.faithweb.com for more
information on the martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.)

BLESSED LUKE
OF SAINT JOSEPH
As long as God preserves my
vocation, I will not lower my
head in shame for anybody
because I am a religious ... If we
die for the truth, we will have
triumphed. Fr. Luke was beatified
along with four Carmelite friars from the
California/Arizona Province on October
28th, 2007, by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. The friars are: Fathers
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Eduardo of the Child Jesus, Pedro of St. Elijah, Vincent of the

Cross, and Br. Angel of St. Joseph. The Spanish Carmelites had
established a monastery in the city of Durango, Mexico, in 1902,
but religious persecution forced them to relocate to the American
city of Tucson, Arizona, in 1912, where they established twentytwo mission churches in the surrounding mining towns and
camps. Father Luke was the first pastor of the Holy Family
Church in Tucson in 1915. He returned to Barcelona, Spain, in
1924 and in 1936, when the conflict of the Spanish Civil War broke
out, he was serving as provincial and prior of the Carmelite
monastery there. On Sunday morning of July 19th, the friars
awoke to the sounds of shouting and banging on the doors as the
monastery was invaded by anti-clerical militia.
*******************************************************
MARTYRDOM OF FATHER LUCAS AND COMPANIONS
The cavalry had set a perimeter with soldiers on the bell tower,
on windows inside the cells, and church areas.In the midst of
this chaos, the whole Carmelite community was able to celebrate
Sunday Mass and pray the Divine Office. As evening drew near,
the wounded were transferred to the library where they would be
safer and make more space for the incoming troops from the
street. Early Monday morning, the friars celebrated Mass in the
middle of gunfire, which was heavier than Sunday. Throughout
the morning, many officers and troops inside came to the
Carmelites to be enrolled in the Scapular of Our Lady of Mt.
Carmel. With no reinforcements to relieve the soldiers, it was a
matter of time before they could no longer hold down the
monastery. Seeing that surrender was inevitable, the Carmelite
community gathered in the church and knelt before the Blessed
Sacrament.
Father Lucas, the provincial, proceeded to
distribute all the consecrated hosts to be consumed. Shortly after
this, everyone was alerted that there was an agreement to
surrender, with the condition that the lives of the officers, the
troops, the wounded, and the religious be spared. One friar
recalls: ... all of us were ready to die after having received the
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From left to right: Father Eduardo of the Child Jesus, Father Pedro of St. Elijah, Father
Vincent of the Cross, Brother Angel of St. Joseph

Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. The mob had

infiltrated the monastery by breaking doors and windows. The
civil guard was able to give some of the friars a safe passage
outside, but the mob became so uncontrollable that there was no
longer any guarantee for their safety. Witnesses testify to seeing
Fr. Lucas as he came out of the monastery through the smaller
door adjacent to the tower bell with his face covered with blood,
his head bandaged with a coloured handkerchief, and
accompanied by two civil guards. The mob wanted to lynch
Father, but the soldiers forced them back telling them they
wanted to take him to the authorities . Fr. Lucas crossed
Diagonal Avenue alone under fire and took refuge before a large
portal. A patrol, armed with two rifles, pushed him ruthlessly
onto the Avenue. The patrol approached him again striking him
on the head with rifle butts. Fr. Lucas was ordered to walk down
the Avenue and with an uncertain gait, he staggers slowly down
the Diagonal, his palms joined before his breast praying. After
walking a few yards, he was shot from behind and fell to the
ground. Wounded, Fr. Lucas was able to crawl some distance
before he died near a small oak tree in front of a doctors clinic
on Diagonal Avenue. Fr. Lucas was lying on the ground with his
face turned to the Carmelite monastery until eight o'clock that
night when a Red Cross ambulance came to take away the
body. (Taken from tusconpriests.blogspot.com.)

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BLESSEDS
ANGEL PRAT
AND SIXTEEN
COMPANIONS

On July 28th, 1936, at the railway

station in Tarrega, Spain, twelve
religious belonging to the Tarrega
community were arrested and were
shot at dawn on July 29th. These
men were: Fr. ngel Maria Prat
Hostench, the prior, Father Eliseo
Maria Maneus Besalduch, novice
master, Fr. Anastasio Maria Dorca Coramina, from the community of
Olot (Girona) who had been preaching at Tarrega for the feast of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel, Father Eduardo Maria Serrano Buj, a
professor. There were also philosophy students: Bros. Pedro Maria
Ferrer Marin, Andrs Maria Sol Rovina, Juan Maria Puigmitj Rubi,
Miguel Maria. Soler Sala and Pedro-Toms MariaPrat Colledecarrara
and the lay brother Eliseo Maria Fontdecaba Quiroga, as well as the
novices, Bros. Elas Maria Garre Egea and Jos Maria Escoto Ruz.
Sister Mary of St. Joseph Bada Flaquer, an enclosed nun from the
monastery of Vic, was arrested during the night of August 13 th. She
was killed the same night defending her chastity and witnessing to her
consecration to Christ. Bro. Eufrosino Maria Raga Nadal, a sub
deacon and member of the community of Olot was killed on 3 October.
Bros. Ludovico Maria Ayet Cans and Angel Maria Presta Batlle,
Carmelites from the community of Terrassa (Barcelona) were arrested
on 21 July and imprisoned in the Modelo jail in Barcelona. On 13
August they were shot in the cemetery in Terrassa. The prior of the
community of Olot, Fr. Fernando Maria Llobera Puigsech, was killed
in the ditches of Santa Elena of Montjuic (Barcelona) after a summary
trial, and for simply being a religious. On 26 June 2006, the Holy
Father, Benedict XVI, signed the decree for their beatification. On 28
October 2007 they were declared Blesseds among a group of 498
Spanish Martyrs of the 20th Century.
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