Trudie
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 Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:39 pm Post subject: August 7th - St. Cajetan of Thienna, Founder |
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August 7th - St. Cajetan of Thienna, Founder
Saint Cajetan was born in 1480 at Vicenza near Venice in Italy, of the pious and
noble family by the name of Thienna. His great-uncle, who bore the same name as
himself and was a Canon of Padua, was considered to be the prince of the
theologians of his century; and several prelates and cardinals, as well as
governors of Milan and Naples, were of the same line. His parents dedicated
Cajetan to our Blessed Lady. From childhood he was remarked for his obedience,
his temperance, and his charity towards the poor.
A distinguished student, a veritable model for all his peers, he desired a
higher perfection and left his native town, where he was in honor, to seek
obscurity in Rome. There, however, Pope Julius II, perceiving his merit, named
him an apostolic protonotary, a high office. He joined a certain Congregation or
Confraternity known as that of Divine Love and, working with its members,
introduced frequent Communion in their midst, and elsewhere through their
influence. The Pope saw to his ordination, and he then offered many fervent
Masses. About that time, on Christmas Eve at the Church of Saint Mary Major,*
when he entered the church he saw the Holy Mother; She came to him and placed
Her divine Infant in his arms. It was also Saint Cajetan who later would
introduce the Forty Hours' Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, as an antidote to
the heresy of Calvin.
He returned to Vicenza when his mother died, and began to seek out the sick poor
and transport them to the Hospital of the Incurables or of Mercy, with which he
had united the Congregation of Divine Love, established in that city also. He
served the sick in the hospital himself. He placed himself under the direction
of a holy Dominican priest, Father John Baptist de Crema, who not long
afterwards told him he should go to Venice. His obedience was perfect in this
sacrifice, which cost not only himself but those in his hospital many tears. At
Venice too, he was needed in a hospital; and the Venetians in those days of
luxury and license, soon reformed what was not correct in their conduct to
follow his holy examples.
To renew the lives of the clergy, in 1524, with Paul Caraffa, then Bishop of
Theata or Chieti in the kingdom of Naples, who later would become Pope Paul IV,
and with two other fervent Christians, Saint Cajetan founded the first group of
Regular Clerics, since known as Theatines. All had deeply regretted the state of
the Church at that time, and with ardor they devoted themselves to preaching, to
the administration of the sacraments and the careful execution of the Church's
rites and ceremonies.
When the Germans, under Constable Bourbon, sacked Rome, Saint Cajetan was
barbarously scourged to extort from him imaginary riches; his only wealth was
his good works, which he had long since securely stored in heaven. When the
Saint was on his deathbed, resigned to the Will of God, happy to suffer to
satisfy his love, and eager for death to attain to life, he again beheld the
Mother of God, radiant with splendor and surrounded by ministering seraphim.
Turning Her countenance full of majesty and sweetness upon him, She said,
"Cajetan, My Son calls you. Let us go in peace." Worn out with toil and
sickness, he went to his reward in 1547.
Reflection: Imitate Saint Cajetan's devotion to our Blessed Lady, by invoking
Her aid before every work.
Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud
et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 9; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a
compilation based on Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John
Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).
Saint Quote
However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not
indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing
himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.
-St Vincent de Paul
Bible Quotes:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray,
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) "
Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they
may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two
or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst."
(Matthew 18:19,20)
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Indulgenced Prayers
O saving Victim, opening wide
The gate of heaven to man below,
Our foes press on from every side;
Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.
To Thy great Name be endless praise,
Immortal Godhead, one in three;
Oh, grant us endless length of days
In our true native land with Thee.
Amen.
Blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord:
Hosanna in the highest.
Jesu, bread of life, protect us;
Shepherd kind, do not reject us;
In Thy happy fold collect us,
And partakers of the bliss elect us,
Which shall never see an end.
Thou, the wisest and the mightiest,
Who us here with food delightest,
Seat us at Thy banquet brightest
With the blessed Thou invitest
An eternal feast to spend.
Amen. |
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