So I'm still revising my book. The chapter on evangelization is not too bad, but I feel it could be rounded off with a few more anecdotes.
If anyone knows any good anecdotes related to the saints and evangelization, please feel free to email me at Maolsheachlann@gmail.com or to leave them in the comments.
I'm looking especially for more modern saints (or blesseds)-- post-Tridentine at least. And less-well known ones, too. Thank you!
Thanks again for your suggestions Séamus. I do actually include the miracle you mention, although I'm trying to go light on miracles because they purpose the book is to inspire readers with the example of the saints, and miracles aren't in our own power.
ReplyDeleteI'm not looking for funny anecdotes so much-- I have another chapter on humour and the saints-- it's more inspiring stories I'm looking for, reflecting the zeal of the saints for evangalization, determination in the face of obstacles and their own limitations, etc.
I meant, "the purpose of the book is to inspire, etc." It's a pain that you can't edit comments.
DeleteThanks for those Séamus! I truly appreciate the effort of looking up that book for me. The first saint's story is a bit too samey with a lot of other stories...this is a problem I've faced, that I don't want to simply have a lot of stories that are similar. (This is especially a problem with earlier saints since, as you know, hagiography tends to have definite patterns.)
ReplyDeleteThe second saint you mention is very interesting, I will look into that! Thank you! I think that could be worth putting in.
I did come across the ship story, but I decided not to use it-- I can't remember why. Maybe I should put it in after all.
There's one more of possible interest, but the tale is similar,
ReplyDeleteST JOHN NEUMANN "left (Europe) April 1836... On the way (the ship) sailed through.... raging storms, had to wait out a calm and evaded dangerous icebergs. After it arrived in New York harbour it had to stay there for another week in quarantine....it was pouring rain and when John reached Manhattan, shabbily dressed with only a few francs in his pocket. (my note:I don't know know how a Czech had francs in his pocket but perhaps he can pray for France during this election, as some candidates want a return to the franc) the next day he learnt where the bishop's residence was and he went there. Those at the residence were a bit dubious...because of his shabby appearance but he was finally admitted"
I always find it fascinating that that particular Saint had to learn Gaelic to communicate with the Irish immigrants to US.
John Masias 1585-1645 might have been a good candidate for the loser variety also, he was a bit of a poor drifter before finally becoming a Dominican lay brother at 37, perhaps considered quite an old vocation asset that time. Even as a saint he's greatly overshadowed by the two others, Martin and Rose, who lived in Lima at the time. Despite coming over as a object of sympathy to many people, Martin dePorres was actually quite educated; being born out of wedlock was really the main reason he could never become a priest, mixed race a lesser factor.
These people suffer and toil and the two of us enjoy ourselves centuries later communicating about it!
I do actaully mention St. John Neumann speaking Gaelic-- a detail that is obviously of particular interest to me.
DeleteJohn Masias is interesting but he seems to have been well-known as a counsellor (I'd never heard of him before). There are so many saints in that sort of category; Brother André is another. I'd never heard of John Masias before, though.
I think they used to carry some stuff in him at Parnell Square,a while ago anyway
ReplyDeleteI think you would find many really good stories, not least in the field of evangelization, among other Redemptorist saints and blessed too! (and reading this post today I vaguely recall some story about someone somewhere in the US in the era just after the Civil War, just outside the states in the wild west or some border state there, but cannot remember now if it was a lady or and Red Indian or both or none... only that it was an unusual story, and an unknown person, think I saw a short article in L´Osservatore Romano English edition perhaps a year ago or so, this is not much help but if it could be any help it might be to google on words like "unknown", "Catholic", "sister","Kansas"???).
ReplyDelete(googling myself I found two names, "Mother Bridget Hayden—The Medicine Woman" an Irish-born religious, and Sister Blandina Segale, the latter not yet fully studied for sainthood, you can find an article in Crisis magazine about her.)
ReplyDeleteAn addendum-
ReplyDeleteThe story of Francis X Seelos going to Abraham Lincoln to ask unsuccessfully for an exemption from conscription for priests and seminarians is interesting also.
There's always something fascinating about the meeting of historical figures, the profane with the sacred.
In Perth the famous example is Matthew Gibney-I forget what part of Ireland he had been from-who eventually became Bishop of Perth. As a younger priest he'd been present in Victoria(can't remember why) when the Kelly gang were captured and ministered to them and especially to Ned Kelly before his execution, visiting him in prison often. He told Ned also about Ursula Frayne, who brought the Sisters of Mercy to Australia, first to Perth, then to Melbourne. The outlaw wanted much to met her, but there were strict rules about women in male prisons at the time. The forward of a scholarly biography of Mother Ursula states "she wrote to Queen victoria, met Florence Nightingale, Pius IX and the earl of Shrewsbury and tried to meet Ned Kelly who tried to meet her"
ps I tried hard to send this to the gmail address but every account I started got stuffed up ,I officially have about four email addresses now and can't remember the password I put in for any of them
Yes, Attila the Hun and Pope Leo the Great come to mind!
DeleteI'm sorry about the gmail account. Do you not have an email account at all? That's impressive, in today's world...