Transcription
Well, thank you for joining us, everyone. I'm Father Chris AAR, here at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. And it's, uh, wonderful to have you with us today. Um, we have a special saint because tomorrow is our Feast Day. Although Sundays, we don't celebrate them liturgically, is St. Filamina. And this is a saint, the only saint in the history of the Church, that there's something about that we're going to talk about today. And so we're going to explain to you her, uh, incredible role, why she's important today, and what you need to know, um, and what the Church says. So, praise be to God that you are with us.
And let us start with a prayer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, through the intercession of St. Filamina, we ask that you purify our hearts and our minds and our bodies to follow you in complete purity, to be able to have purity of intention, and to be able to ask all that is Your will to be done in our life. We ask all this through Christ Our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Okay, as you can see on your screen, St. Faustina is holding a boat anchor. She usually holds arrows. We're going to tell you why. And she is the only saint in history recognized as a saint solely on her intercessory miracles, not about the fact of her life. We really don't even know. She's the only saint that is, is a saint in the history of the Church solely on her intercessory miracles. And we'll talk about that, not because of her life of virtue, because we don't know about her life. And that's usually the thing the Church requires. Okay. So she is the patron of children, adolescent youth, babies, lost causes, sterility, and virgins. So let's go to our next slide.
Now, what we know about her mainly comes from the account of St. Maria, or Sister Maria Louisa de Jesu, that who she was a nun that was a, uh, person that Filamina appeared to and revealed her whole story. And then later, all of that was confirmed when she appeared to St. John Vianney. And so it's incredible. And so this is who that nun is, St. Maria Louisa de Jesu. And let's go to our next slide, because St. Filamina told her a story, and this is incredible. So St. Filamina told this nun, and this is a picture of the story of St. Filamina. Okay.
Now, when she appeared to Sister Maria, she told her she was the daughter of a Greek king, okay, who with his wife and family had converted to the Catholic faith. Now, at 13, now Filamina, this is Filamina telling her story to this nun, at 13 she consecrated herself to God and took the vow of perpetual virginity. That's amazing for a 13-year-old. Um, the year was around early 300 AD. So they think she died in 304 AD. Okay.
So let's go to our next slide. It was at this time that the worst emperor in the history of Rome for the Christian persecutions, Diocletian, he was in power. And he threatened war against her father, the Greek king. So the Greek king took his wife and daughter, Filamina, to Rome to sue for peace. Now, seeing this beautiful young girl, Filamina, Emperor Diocletian lusted after her. She was 13. So things are crazy even back then. So Diocletian lusted after her. And when she refused his advances, he subjected her to a series of tortures that are legendary. And what happened during those tortures is legendary. In fact, we have a statue of St. Filamina here on our property, right over the hill. So those who are here today can go visit the statue. Because, and we used to have a relic at the base of it. I have to ask Father Anthony what happened to the relic. It just disappeared. And somebody stole our relic of, um, St. Paragan. If you're stealing relics of saints, you're kind of missing the point, everybody. So, uh, St. Filamina, I used to do tours here on the grounds and tell people the story of St. Filamina. And this is legendary.
So here's what St. Filamina said. She said, "Humiliated that Diocletian, um, couldn't have her, she said, 'No.' He decided to do public chastisement to disgrace my virtue. He condemned me to be stripped naked and scourged like the spouse I preferred to him, Jesus." These are his horrifying words. So this is the words of Diocletian. "Since she is not ashamed to prefer him, meaning Jesus, to an emperor like me, a criminal, he was condemned to an infamous death by his own people. She deserves that in my justice, I shall treat her just as he was treated." So he took her to be scourged. So the prison guards who were going to whip her hesitated to uncloth her. This is the natural law. And so, um, they didn't enclothe on, uh, unclothe her entirely. But they, she said, "They did tie me to a column, just like Jesus, and they went to scourge her." So they lashed her, it violently. So she's being whipped, just like Jesus, until she was covered in blood. She says, "My whole body felt like an open wound." And then she said, "They dragged me to a dungeon." Man, we, we think we have it tough. Look at these early cent martyrs. She said, "They dragged me to a dungeon, expecting me to die. And I hoped that I would join my heavenly spouse, Jesus." Two angels, then shining brightly in light, appeared and poured a soothing oil on my wounds, and they healed instantly. So all of her wounds, everywhere that were from the scourge, instantly healed.
And when the emperor Diocletian was informed of this, he sent her back to him. And he tried to persuade her that she owed her healing to the god Jupiter, because he said, "I sent the god Jupiter to heal you." What a bunch of bunk. And so she said, "Fiendishly, he attempted to complete the work of hell, which he had gone, which was probably to sexually assault her again. She's 13. But he couldn't. God was protecting her." Then the emperor lunged at me, commanding a guard to chain an anchor around my neck and throw me deep into the waters of the Tiber River. That's why the opening picture shows her, and our statue shows her holding an anchor. I was cast into the water, but as I was going down, God sent two angels, and they pushed me back up to the top of the surface, and they unfastened the anchor. The anchor fell into the river mud, where it remains to this day. So let's go to our next slide.
This is a drawing of it. The angels, she said, transported me in full view of tons of people, people on the riverbank. They saw I was unharmed and not even wet. That's like Fatima, right? The rains were pouring and the mud, and the people after the miracle weren't even wet or muddy. Uh, when many embraced Christianity, she said, that's what happened after that. They saw this. So many on the riverbank embraced Christianity by proclaiming their belief in God. Then Diocletian got even more angry and attributed her her preservation to secret magic. He accused her of being a witch. Then the emperor had me drag through the streets of Rome and then shot with a bunch of arrows. Now, the arrows hit. My blood flowed, but I never fainted. She said, Diocletian again thought that I was dying and commanded the guards to carry me back again to the dungeon. He's not learning his lesson, is he? I fell into a deep sleep, and I found myself upon awakening with no wounds. So now, not only did he scourge her and whip open her wounds with whips, she goes to the dungeon, the angels pour the oil on her, the wounds are healed. Now Diocletian shoots her with arrows again. Diocletian thinks she's going to die. He sends her back to the dungeon, and again the angels come, and all of her wounds, she fell asleep, all of the holes in her body from the, the arrows were gone, completely cured.
Now Diocletian learns about this again, and he says in a fit of rage, "Well, then let her be pierced with sharp darts a second time, and let her die in her torture." So let's go to the next slide. Because here we see Filamina holding the arrows that were shot at her. So again, the archers bent their bows, but the arrows went around her. They never went into her. In a rage again, notice the theme here, the emperor Diocletian called her a magician. And thinking that the final way to do away with her was to put the arrows on fire so that they would burn her as a witch. So they set the arrows on fire to destroy this witch. And he ordered the darts inflamed and then shot at her. But the arrows went, and were fired at her, went around her, and the arrows came back and slew the men who fired the arrows. So each archer who fired the flaming arrow, the arrow shot at Filamina came back around and came back and slew the archer who shot the arrow. Now, don't be discouraged. God's not vengeful. Because some of the archers survived, and the ones that survived all converted on the spot to Christianity. So this emperor is trying to do away with her, and he can't. Six of the archers were killed. The ones who survived immediately renounced paganism, and the people began to render public testimony to the power of God who protected me, Filamina said, because these archers then worshiped God, the ones that survived. So all of a sudden, this is spreading everywhere. And so all the murmurs and the acclamations infuriated Diocletian. So now he was determined to hasten her death by ordering her head cut off. Do you notice that? That's the way they actually, when God finally says, um, I'll accept your martyrdom, he gave all those witnesses of the scourging, wounds being healed, the arrow wounds being healed, even the arrows killing the archers. But then she asked for martyrdom. She asked to be a witness. And so then Diocletian, um, ordered that her head be cut off, and it was. That was the final one. God allowed. At this time, she asked for it. And she said, "My soul took flight towards my heavenly spouse, who pleaded, who placed me with the crown of virginity and the palm of martyrdom." You ever see saints holding palms? That's a sign of martyrdom. If you see a saint with a crown, that's the crown of virginity. And she said, "I was placed in a distinguished place among the elect in heaven." Wow. I'm lucky if I get in the back door, or if I'm in the basement. And, and I, I'll even be outside, Lord, even just let me be outside, but please, Lord, help me to get there. And so she said, "That day was so happy for me, and saw me enter into glory." Guess what? It was a Friday at 3:00 when she died. And she died on August the 10th, which is today, right? Is today August the 10th? Yeah, today. So she died the same day, Friday, as our Lord, at the same time, 3:00, as our Lord. And she died on August the 10th, which is today. Now, her feast is actually August 11th. I'll explain that. But anyway, she died the third hour after midday, the same hour that saw my Divine Master expire.
Now, what's interesting, these are all things that are believable. And it's noteworthy because we have several accounts, historical accounts, that this evil emperor Diocletian, who I believe, I haven't confirmed this, but I think he put to death more Christians than any other emperor. It seems like in our Divine Office, every time I read it about a saint, it says he was martyred by Diocletian. But it says, um, he was known for executing Christians by arrows. He was known for this. And Diocletian was also known for killing Christians by tying anchors around their necks and having them thrown into the Tiber River. So this account seems to fit in exactly with historical evidence.
So who was Filamina? Okay, devotion of St. Filamina and everything about her, uh, really began on May 25th, 1802, right around the time of St. John Vianney. We'll talk about that. It happened during the excavations of the catacombs of Priscilla in Rome, when the bones of a girl, they figured to be 13 years old, were discovered with a vial, a container containing liquid, believed to be her blood. Let's go to our next slide.
This is very important. Now, see if you can read this. Look at your screen. The space was closed by three tiles on which were inscribed the words: "LUMINA," which means light. "POX," "POX," which means peace. "T," and then there is a dash, "KUMI." Okay, okay. So this is important. So this is the tiles that were found on her grave. Okay. It was believed, though, that the tiles had been inadvertently inverted. So that the inscription should have read, let's go to our next slide. "POX TEUM F LUMINA." So this is now what they have: "POX TEUM F LUMINA." Now, that is "Peace be with you, Filamina." And so Lumina means light. And so the young martyr's name here appears to be in English, St. Filamina, but in Latin, with an F, F, and then Lumina, of light. And so it's important to note that Filamina being first named Lumina, which means light, and then being given her second name, Filumina, in baptism, would be consistent with the way her name was depicted on the tiles, Lumina first, and then combined with the last tile to become Filomina. Fascinating. And so this is what we see. So engraved also on the tiles were a palm branch, which means martyrdom, typically used to symbolize martyrdom; arrows, which she said were shot at her, makes sense; a lily, meaning purity, uh, or virginity; and an anchor, which makes sense, that's how she was drowned. This meant she was an early, early martyr, going back to the first centuries.
Now, there was a priest who, learning upon this, was convinced that Filamina would be a powerful, or was a powerful saint in heaven. So he had her relics enshrined in a parish church in Italy. Okay. So let's go to our next slide. Here is St. These are many miracles have happened here at the Shrine of Filamina in Mugnano, Italy. Reports from all over the world. I was there, uh, a couple of years ago. Fascinating. And so immediately upon the arrival of these relics on, guess what date, August 10th, today, 1805, bishops and parish priests of the region began to officially document a number of miracles. As soon as the relics of Filamina entered the church, at that time was called Our Lady of Graces, not Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Graces, that was the parish church. The church bells started ringing on their own. One time that happened here at the shrine, I freaked out. They just started ringing all by themselves at like 2:00 in the morning. It's like, uh oh, is this to announce the Lord's coming? So the town paralytic, there's a paralyzed man in the town, Angelo Bianchi, upon hearing the bells, was instantly cured, ran into the church, and the amazement spread around the whole town's people. So within the first week of her coming there, her relics, a mother of a blind son dipped her fingers into the oil of the lamp that was burning beside her relics and placed the oil on the eyes of her son, and he was instantly cured. So this was just the first week, and all of this is officially documented in the archives of Our Lady, Lady of Graces Church in Mugnano, Italy. And it's been confirmed by the local Bishop of Nola. So this is all approved.
Now, over the next few years, the fame of Filamina spread throughout Italy and beyond to all of Europe. Now, today, devotion to St. Filamina is spreading like wildfire. It's been rekindled, and it's spreading everywhere. There is a reason for this, and I'll tell you at the end what that reason is. Miracles followed. But we know that the saints, remember, saints have no power on their own. We Catholics can get carried away here. Saints have no power on their own. Well, then Father, why do we pray to them? Why do Catholics do this? Okay, our request for the help from any saint in heaven rests on the simple fact that they are in heaven, looking upon the face of God. They are much closer to Him than we are. We ask for the saints to help us precisely because they are closer to God than we are, not because they are God themselves or gods. They aren't. And so they are there. They've already paid their dues. They're already with God. It's kind of like, do you ever, do you ever say, well, if somebody's going to be with so and so, ask them to put in a good word for me? This is exactly what it is. You're, you're going to meet Barry Sanders, greatest football player of all time, put in a good word for me. He's got a big fan in Father Chris. So we've always done this. Now, the lesson is, we should want to, to, to walk in the footsteps of these saints, these holy men and women, to lead holy lives, and to beg the Lord to rain down grace and miracles. When we can do that and get to heaven, that we can help others on Earth. And so let's go to our next slide.
However, Filamina is not listed in the Martyrology of the Romanum of the Catholic Church. Martyrology of the, uh, Romanum of the Catholic Church is the official calendar of the saints and the blessings. Now, she's not in it. So what do you make of that? After all, it's difficult to be certain of her status as a martyr based on just a few relics found in the catacombs. We don't know for sure. So there was controversy that came about her. So later historians cast out on the version of the events related by Sister Maria Louisa de Jesu. Now, they claim that the absence of the word "martyr" on those tiles spoke against her martyrdom. And it was discovered that the vial thought that was, was filled with her blood, contained instead perfumes typically used in the burials of the first Christians. Some suggested that the tiles covering her tomb had been reused, and they weren't even her relics. This argument rested, though, on the conclusions of one archaeologist, Aressio Marucchi, in 1903. He said that this, there was apparent misordering of the three tiles on the grave, and it alleged to be Filamina, starting with "Lum," "Lum," on the first tile instead of "Pox," that proved that the tiles had come from another earlier grave and had been reused in her grave. Okay. Now, therefore, he argued, the grave and the remains discovered back in 1802, 100 years earlier, were not this Filamina or F Lumina.
When all is said and done, the name and historical details of this young virgin martyr, however, are not as important as the vast quantity of her miracles. We're going to talk more about her miracles. Heaven's own testimony to her reality and sanctity is through her miracles. And she's the only saint in the history of the Church canonized by her miracles alone, not by her life of virtue. The only saint in history of the Church canonized by her miracles alone and not by her life of virtue, because we don't know her life. It shows she is so loved by God. She's been granted the ability to intercede for us in a special way with all these miracles. Because we don't know all the historical facts about it, doesn't mean they didn't happen. On account of these doubts, Filamina was removed from the calendar during the changes, uh, to the order of liturgical worship after Vatican II in the early 1960s. St. Christopher, he got removed as well, because of a lack of, of definite evidence of his existence, although popular piety and tradition says he, he did exist.
So what is Filamina's official status in the Church today? Monsignor Pope did, did a great job of explaining this just last year. He said, "The presence, absence, or removal of a saint on the liturgical calendar of the Church is not per se a declaration that the saint never existed or that it is wrong to have a devotion to such saints." He said she was liturgically canonized in 1837 by Pope Gregory the 16th, who, while formerly not canonizing her, permitted devotions and Mass to be said in her honor. So she was liturgically canonized. So from 1837, when this happened, all the way to 1961, when she was removed, uh, and then after Vatican II, that was before Vatican II, but after confirmed it, celebration of her liturgical feast on August the 11th, which is tomorrow, even though we won't celebrate it because it's Sunday, we don't celebrate saints liturgically on Sundays. It was permitted. But she was never on the general Roman Calendar, nor was her name in the Roman Martyrology list of canonized saints. Now, there was not any Mass specifically composed for her. In 1961, she and 14 other saints were removed from the Roman Missal. Now, the reason centered on the doubts about her real existence, the absence of her name in the Roman Martyrology, and other archaeological evidence that suggested her remains may have been from a time later than the 3rd Century Diocletian. But all of this is contested. No declaration, none, said, said she never existed, or that the vision of St. Maria Louisa de Jesu was erroneous. Nothing. At no time did the Holy See suppress devotion to St. Filamina as a saint or disband the confraternity of St. Filamina. Pius X, the 10th, said that statements about St. Filamina will always remain fixed, valid, and effective. Hence, a priest could offer a votive Mass for her honor using the common of a virgin martyr. Then August the 11th was designated her feast day, although it's a problem because tomorrow, the 11th, we don't celebrate. But August the 11th is really the obligatory memorial of St. Clare of Assisi. And so the day is really not open for Filamina. So the only place that's open for Filamina is in your heart.
So let's now go to Dr. Maraval, who teaches us, uh, at Franciscan University. He wrote, "It is time to meet St. Filamina." Here's what he said: "She has received extraordinary honor in the Church from popes, bishops, saints, and mystics. Pope Gregory the 16th referred to her as the wonder worker of the 19th century and said she is powerful with God." And the popes of the 19th century showered this young saint with numerous plenary indulgences. Okay. And so Blessed Pope Pius the 9th declared her patroness of the Children of Mary. St. John Vianney attributed all of his miracles to her, stating, "I have never asked for anything through the intercession of my little saint," that's what he called Filamina, "my little saint, without having been answered." Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, the Roman mystic, received through this saint the miraculous cure of her granddaughter and entrusted all her children to her powerful intercession. Okay.
And then let's go to our next slide. The most famous miracle of all was confirmed by Gregory the 16th. Um, this one is Venerable Pauline, uh, Jaricot. I, I think is how you pronounce it. Uh, and so this is a close friend. She was a close friend of, um, John Vianney. Okay. On her pilgrimage, she was making a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Filamina, not Faustina, Filamina. And on her pilgrimage, she stopped by the Holy See, and she saw the Pope. You know, back in those days, you could just go meet the Pope. So she asked the Pope, she was in miserable condition, and she asked the Pope that if she came back to the Vatican cured, would he approve her public honor? She was in such a mess. He described her as looking like "the walking dead." This is his mind. There's no way she could be cured of this. This is a living corpse. So he told her, "If you're cured by going to Filamina's shrine, yes, I will approve public honor of this saint." So on August 8th, 1835, Pauline arrived in Mugnano at the shrine where the relics were, looking, quote, "more like a corpse than a living person." So she came to ask for the healing of Filamina. Now, the town saw this. This is all the town's banded together back then. Remember, neighbors knew neighbors, everybody knew each other, they helped each other. Now you get yelled at if you even walk across the neighbor's grass. The town adopted a petition and went to Filamina's grave and they pounded on her grave, reminding her that her reputation was at stake. And they said, "Do you hear us, Filamina? And they're pounding on her grave, "Do you hear us, Filamina? If you do not cure this pious lady, we will pray to you no more. We will have nothing to do with you. Filamina, return her to health right now." Well, two days later, on August 10th, at the moment of Benediction, and 30 years to the day that Filamina's relics arrived at that church, Pauline was completely and instantaneously cured during Benediction, and everybody saw it. This is documented. So the next day, this huge crowd gathers, and Pauline started walking without assistance back to Rome. And so she gets to Rome, and on arrival, she went to see the Holy Father. Remember, he made that promise. So she, unannounced, she goes to the Holy Father. Gregory the 16th was so shocked. She shocked him so much that he immediately exclaimed, "Is it really you, or is this an apparition? Is this really my dear daughter, the sickest of the sick, with an impossible cure, and has she come back from the grave, or has God manifested in her a favor of the power of the Virgin Martyr, Filamina?" And so stunned, he had Pauline walk through the halls of the Vatican over and over again. And in fact, made her stay there for an entire year just to verify she was truly healed. And she was. So after a year, the Pope kept his word to Pauline. Pope Gregory the 16th, and on January 13th, 1837, in a solemn decree, based solely on the power of her undeniable miracle, raised this unknown 13-year-old early martyr named Filamina to the altar of the Church, granting a Mass in her honor and thereby giving official approval to public devotion to her, which has never left. This liturgical honor constituted the only instance of a proper office being granted to a saint from the catacombs of whom nothing else is known except her name and that she was martyred for the faith. So Filamina was now officially Saint Filamina, a liturgically canonized saint of the Catholic Church. The only one in our history that is canonized solely, or made a saint solely, based on her miracles, not her life of virtue.
So why am I talking about this saint? Because if you need a miracle in your life, she is also the patron, like St. James, right? Or, um, um, St. Jude Thaddeus, St. Rita. She's the patron of impossible causes. So she was canonized alone for her miracles, which, even though other two saints weren't. And you need a miracle in your life, pray to this saint. This saint is unique like no other in our history, based on that fact alone. And so this one, the Holy Father rightly recognized the evidence of the large number of ecclesiastically documented miracles as being of greater importance than the secondary details of knowing her personal life. In fact, the Pope acknowledged the miracles in themselves as historical facts. They were documented. Typically, without documented miracles, the, or, um, the life of the saint, the cause of an individual person does not advance past the status of servant of God, even with extensive evidence. There is, there's, it doesn't. This case shows that the Church places its greatest criteria for this saint, along with an ecclesiastical essential, I'm sorry, along with an essential testimony to this person's virtues, upon Heaven's witness of her sanctity, which is made manifest through her miracles obtained by her intercession. This is the saint of miracles. If you need a miracle, this is the saint, greater than any other. I put St. Charbel up there because if you remember my talk, St. Charbel has had one of the most, uh, is the one saint with probably the most miracles approved by the Church. So you need a miracle, St. Charbel or St. Filamina.
So beyond establishing the fact of her martyrdom, as the guidelines of the Church indicate should be done, it was above all the miracles of St. Filamina that moved the Church to proclaim her a saint. And so then Pope Leo the 12th, um, granted permission for all to be dedicated to her and chapels to be erected in her honor. Next came the greatest Pope ever. Let's go to our next slide. Leo the 13th. He commissioned the beginning of the Arch Confraternity of St. Filamina and he granted an indulgence for wearing the cord of Filamina. Now, what is the cord of Filamina? I'll show you a picture in a moment. This is a cord that's red and white, and you wear around around your waist. Our guys wear it. A lot of our Marianists wear it. It's under your clothes. Sorry, I'm not going to take my shirt off. It's, it's under the clothes. I've worn it. Um, I started wearing it when I was a novice, and I didn't, I stopped wearing it. But it's a tie, like a rope, around your waist. It's tied around your waist, and it protects your chastity. And so this is called the Filamina cord. So if you are struggling with chastity, either with yourself or with another, then this cord, the Filamina cord, is for you. Okay. The Filamina cord. We used to have them in our gift shop. I apologize. I called the gift shop this morning. We do not have any in stock. I apologize. I wish really wish we would have. But anyway, this cord is red and white in honor of the virginity, which is white, red, which is martyr. So virginity and martyrdom of St. Filamina. And was strongly promoted by St. John Vianney. This cord, some think he even invented the cord. Okay. Not only did Leo the 13th grant, this is why I love Pope Leo the 13th. I mean, everything he's done, and now he's even promoting the cord of St. Filamina. So even not only did he grant a plenary indulgence for those who wore the cord for the first time, but he granted a plenary indulgence for three liturgical times during the year associated with St. Filamina.
So Blessed Pope Pius the 9th was another. He had an exemplary devotion to St. Filamina. While still a bishop, he went on a pilgrimage seven times to her, several times to her tomb to offer Mass. And as a Pope, he declared St. Filamina the patroness of the Children of Mary, which I just mentioned a second ago. Then Pius the 9th granted upon her feast day a proper office and Mass specific to her. So now we have it. So beyond the normal common office for virgins and martyrs, she got her own Mass. This was an honor never bestowed on any other Roman martyr who lacked any historical records. Never before. So not only was she a saint unlike anybody else because we had no records, she was given her own proper office and Mass, which means office means praying the Divine Office where they're in the, in the prayer. This honor had never been bestowed on any other Roman martyr who we did not have a record of. This means she is something special, everybody. This is a special saint, unique, like unlike any other in the history of the Church. And so let's go to our next slide.
Pius the 10th, now got involved. He was a great advocate of wearing the cord of St. Filamina. And he declared, quote, "All the decisions and declarations of his predecessors or of my predecessors regarding St. Filamina should in no way ever be altered." So he was setting it in stone. And with this act, he perpetuated devotion to St. Filamina forever. He elevated the Arch Confraternity of St. Filamina to the status of a universal Arch Confraternity. In summation, 19 acts of the Holy See during the pontificates of five popes were issued in positive promotion of Filamina. This succession of papal veneration and indulgences is unprecedented in the pontifical granting of devotional privileges for any modern-day saint. You want to get a saint that has more people veneration and indulgences and is unprecedented in the pontifical granting of devotional privileges more than any modern-day saint, it's Filamina. No other.
So devotion to St. Filamina has skyrocketed. It is, there's a purpose for her. And I'm going to again tell you at the end what that is. St. Peter Chanel, the first saint and martyr of Oceania, preached on St. Filamina and said that it was she, after Our Lady, who was his principal intercessor. Let's go to our next slide. This picture always makes me just. This is Blessed, now St. Damian of Molokai. Damian of Molokai. He is the leper priest. Look at this picture. I mean, I always tell our guys, guys, let's, let's strap up our boots and let's go to war here. Oh, it's cold out today, Father. It's too hot out today, Father. I'm like, look at St. Damian. This guy is a leper, and he still went to his dying days, went to his dying days serving the people. Incredible. Look at his face. He was the one in Hawaii. I went to Molokai. I was so moved. I went to do a symposium there. Um, he was the leper priest. He dedicated his first parish and his first home to her. And if you go to the island where I did, you can go, and I celebrated Mass in St. Filamina Parish right there in Hawaii. It was built when he was there before. And I celebrated Mass there. Absolutely incredible. Another is Blessed Bartolo Longo, who was a former Satanist. This shows how powerful her intercession is. Uh, Father Don loves St. Peter Julian Eymard, who was cured of a serious illness after visiting St. John Vianney. And John Vianney told him to pray a novena to St. Filamina. So he did, and he was cured of a serious illness. Padre Pio, he called her the "little princess of Paradise." And to those who dared question her existence, he replied, "Those doubts are the fruit of Satan."
So let's go back to St. John Vianney. Let's go to our next slide. St. John Vianney attributed all miracles to the intercession of St. Filamina and her prayers, all of them. Okay. And, um, he was, uh, a French priest that France really needs right now. Pray to him for intercession for France. He was a French priest who was famous, would hear 18 hours of confession straight. He could read souls. I always laugh, don't worry about coming to me for confession, I cannot read souls. Um, he rejected any insinuation that he was responsible, uh, for the, um, many miracles that happened at his parish. He was adamant. He was adamant. Um, a lot of people have asked me, um, to come and do healing services at their church. I, I flat out tell them, I do not have the gift of healing. I do not. I do not have the gift to healing. And I got two or three letters in the last couple weeks and said, Father, are you sure? One's with our employee, his little daughter, uh, Leah, God bless her. Uh, we, um, were praying for her. She, she had bone marrow, huge, huge problems, and it looked very dire, and she was healed. And he said, Father, you do have the power of healing. I said, no, no, no. That's a saint. Whatever saint, the power comes from God. The grace comes from God. Sometimes it goes through a saint, but it's, it's, I don't have the power of healing. And that's what John Vianney said. He says, "Nothing here is from me. This is all Filamina. She's doing it from heaven." So he had a huge devotion to her. And he rejected anybody who thought he was responsible for the miracles. He said, "She is now," he called her his dear little saint. And so John Vianney said, "Tell them that everything is happening through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Filamina. The deaf are healed, the dumb are healed, the blind can see, the deaf can hear, the paralyzed can walk, and the possessed are freed." St. Filamina appeared to him, to John Vianney, the Curé d'Ars, numerous in times, including May 1843. He was critically ill. St. John Vianney, Curé d'Ars, with double pneumonia, and Father Vianney had been given up for dead after receiving the Last Rites. He asked that Mass be offered for St. Filamina on his behalf. Now, you can do that, and he could too. And immediately St. Filamina appeared to him as he was dying, and he was healed. Did you know that about St. John Vianney, the Curé d'Ars? And in the process, she revealed personal information to the Curé d'Ars, John Vianney, that confirmed the earlier account of St. Maria, or Sister Maria. I keep seeing Saint, I apologize, Sister Maria, uh, Louisa de Jesu. So all of that, according to him, was confirmed. So we can see St. Filamina is a real person in the communion of saints. Why? Because either John Vianney is a great saint, or he's gravely psychologically disturbed and a madman. One of the two. Now, if he was insane, the Church would never have canonized him, as his mystical and supernatural experiences, especially with Faustina, were a big part of his priestly life and analyzed for his canonization. If they found that to be crazy, he wouldn't have been canonized. If he was sane, then we must admit that Filamina exists, as the Curé assures us she does. And she's critical. Again, I'm going to tell you at the end why. Indeed, the Curé d'Ars once declared, "I have never asked for anything through the intercession of my little saint without having been answered."
Okay, so let's finish. We got a shorter talk today. On, they got a couple moments left here. Let's go back to this controversy. In 1961, a statement from the Congregation of Rites, Rites, causes, a misunderstanding in the Church. While engaged in a revision of the Church calendar, the Church removed many of the traditional feasts in honor of Jesus, Mary, and various saints, including the Feast of St. Filamina. Many wondered if in this calendar revision, St. Filamina had been designated by the Church, or her sainthood taken away. No. But in the 1961 instruction, this was only a liturgical directive. It was not an ecclesiastical declaration that St. Filamina was no longer a saint, nor did it prohibit the popular devotion to her by the Magisterium. There was no suspension or prohibition of the universal Arch Confraternity of St. Filamina, and to this day, public veneration of St. Filamina continues with the full approval of the Holy See. Why was St. Filamina removed from the calendar? Well, we've been saying the lack of historical evidence for the exact existence of her, despite all the numerous documented miracles and support by the popes and other saints.
So we're going to finish here by saying the 2001 Roman Martyrology would does not and never did constitute a comprehensive compilation of every saint and martyr who ever lived, recognized by the Church. That's a misconception. When I went to seminary, I had a disagreement with the students there, and I found out I was wrong. I'll say it again, I was wrong. I thought that the Roman Martyrology was a comprehensive and fully complete compilation of every single saint and martyr ever recognized by the Church. This is not the case. It was never the case. It was never introduced by the Congregation of Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments as such. And so, because a saint isn't in the Martyrology, doesn't mean that the Church doesn't recognize them as a saint. Case in point, Filamina. The Holy See continues to permit public devotion to her, showing the Church's belief in her. The universal shrine at Mugnano in Italy, that we showed you, still operates with the blessing of the local Bishop of Nola, and the universal Arch Confraternity continues with ecclesiastical approval as well. So none of this negatively affects the papally established and ecclesiastically approved popular devotion to St. Filamina that continues today with Church approval.
All right, last paragraph, everybody. The big stuff. We're going to go back to the cord of Filamina. I'm going to show you a picture of it. Let's go to our next slide. This is a picture of the cord that I told you that many of our, our priests and brothers wear around their waist. I would even wear it into the shower. This is a tie around our waist. And the cord of Filamina was a devotional practice strongly promoted by St. John Vianney. In fact, many believe that he originated it. I mentioned the cord is made of red and white wool, linen, or cloth. And as I said, tie it around the torso. I mentioned the cords are, uh, red and white, not of martyrdom and virginity. At the end of the cord are two knots that symbolize also virginity and martyrdom. Now, no ceremony, like the brown scapular. Remember the other day, or the other week, I gave a talk on the brown scapular. I said you need to be enrolled by a priest. Okay. There is no enrollment to wear the cord of Filamina. There's no ceremony required to wear the cord. But the cord needs to be blessed by a priest or deacon. Remember, a deacon in the Catholic Church can bless things. Okay. The cord is usually worn, as I said, under our clothing of the faithful. And when you wear it, you are encouraged to pray. So right now, I'm going to put on the screen the prayer that you make daily when you wear this cord. So you can have this prayer, and then you can get this cord online. I apologize, like I said, I checked with the gift shop. We don't have them right now. So let's go to our next slide.
This is a prayer that can be used daily. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh, St. Filamina, virgin and martyr, pray for us, that through your powerful intercession, we may obtain that purity of mind and heart which leads to the perfect love of God. Amen.
Now, why is this so important? Because in everything we do, the Church teaches the most important thing is not what you've done, is how you've done it. I could go build houses for the poor. I could go work in every soup kitchen. But if I don't have purity of intention, it's all for naught. It's all null and void. If you're getting that to get your picture in the paper, or your recognition, or the praise of mankind, as Jesus tells us, you've got your earthly praise, you've got nothing in heaven. And so the purity of intention of your mind and your heart is what is most important. Everything you do has to be for the right intention. And sometimes our, our, our humanness gets in the way. We do something because we want people to see it or be recognized for it. This prayer eliminates that if you open your heart to God's grace.
So why is this the saint that has been picked as the one unique in all of human history for making such a powerful intercession of miracles? And why is Filamina making such a powerful spiritual return today? This is where I finish. I believe that this rule, given to St. Filamina, was because she was a youth, a young girl. And I believe because the youth of today are in turmoil. They are sheep without a shepherd. They are being taught by indoctrinated teachers, the peer pressure of what these young kids at the click of a mouse button can see the most vile things that I never even knew existed when I was 13 years old. I believe because the youth of today need an example of heroic Christian purity. The key is purity, not only of heart, what I just described, but of body. What's happening in this world is a complete upside down of sexual morals. We saw it with that Olympic ceremony. Filamina, she's the one we need to be calling on. This is the perfect saint for the most needed time. And because the youth of today need an example of heroic Christian purity, even when they do not find support for their purity from society, no support from their friends, no support, usually the peer pressure talks them into doing things, or even sadly from their own parents. Shocking. Parents know that their high school kids are spending the night over at their girlfriend's house or having, I don't even know if they do this anymore, but unfortunately, when I was in college, K parties, you know, with drinking, and the parents don't even now stand for what's morally right. And, and please, I'm not saying everyone. Of course, there are beautiful examples, probably all of you watching, or you wouldn't be watching, are examples. The problem is, there's so few of us compared to the ones who are not doing this. And so St. Filamina is needed. She's needed for one word: purity. Purity of intention, purity of the body. That is where our world is failing our youth today. We have no purity of intention. We're all in it for ourselves. It's all about me. And we have no purity of the body. We are sexually deviant now. Now, and again, when I say no, that doesn't mean everyone. Praise be to God, we got examples of families. I meet here at the shrine all the time, beautiful kids. Um, I heard some confessions of some youth and there.
was a bunch of home School youth that came to confession. I was blown away by that confession, those confessions, the purity of those, those kids. It gave me hope. That's Filamina. Unfortunately, when you go into secular society today, that's the rarity, not the norm. That's the exception, and we need more of that. So many of today's youth are being exposed to numerous occasions of blasphemy, like the Olympic impurity through pornography, um, and peer pressure to have sexual relations, immodest clothing. Oh my. I did a talk last year on modesty. That is a lost virtue. Obscene movies, almost every movie today has some kind of innuendos or bad language, and often times, most tragically, with the consent of parents. Parents, the two things you need to instill in your children are purity of intention and purity of the body. This is why Filamina was approved by the Church as the only Saint in history to be approved alone as a saint by her miracles alone, because they all involved this powerful intercession.
So let's finish. I did forget. We are done now, but before we finish, I wanted to show a little video. Remember last week I said, uh, remember Bob and Penny Lord? I can show this 'cause they were with EWTN. I, I smiled because I said, I don't think those two ever had a fight their entire life. They're, they're, they're so gentle. They were a beautiful couple. They were on EWTN all the time. Talk about purity of intention. These two were amazing. So it's just a quick two-minute video. We'll finish the day, come back with a quick prayer and finish up the talk. So let's watch a quick video with Bob and Penny Lord.
Actually, the story of St. Philip had to be found from the relics of the saint herself. Uh, it was very interesting in that her tomb had never been disturbed over the centuries. And in 1802, uh, they were digging in the house of Priscilla and Aquila and they found the tomb of this little saint. She was in the catacombs of Priscilla, which showed that she was either of nobility, uh, a model, uh, all the symbols, or both. Or both. The symbols, there was the symbols of, um, red tiles. Red tiles. Mm. That shows martyrdom. Then there was the symbol of, uh, arrows. Then they had an anchor, which showed that she was an anchor was tied to her. She was thrown into the water to drown her. There were lilies, and that was another, see, uh, symbolically with the hieroglyphics we call it today, but symbolically they left signs of who was buried there. So that meant that she was a virgin, pure, purity, chastity. The lily is a sign of the virgin. And how did we know that this was Filamina? Even that there were tiles showing the name Filo Mina. Now, also there was the, uh, when they opened it up and found the little, her bones were in a little glass case, and they were very fragile, fine bones of a very slight girl. And so we were a young girl, able to get from that that she was a young girl, and that she was a virgin. And they still had her blood in a vial. Now, again, that was a tradition in the Church with the martyrs. You would, they would take a blood, a vial of their blood and bury it right near the head of the martyr. And that's where this vial was, uh, was found. So it was, there was no doubt that this was Fila, virgin, martyr, and saint.
Well, thank you everybody for watching that quick clip. Uh, that was Bob and Penny Lord talking about St. Filamina. And I apologize, I keep saying St. Faustina, but St. Filamina, um, an incredible advocate for us in today's day and world of lack of purity in mind and body. And so let us finish with a prayer to St. Filamina. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we ask in today's world that has lost its way, that's lost its sense of objective moral truth, and has definitely lost its understanding of the sacredness of the gift of human sexuality in the twisting and deviancy of the evil one, the gift that we have been given in our genders and in our expression of our sexuality. This has been twisted. Purity has been mocked, has been forgotten, and worst of all, not followed. St. Filamina, we ask you today, especially for our youth, to give them the purity of intention in all that they do, and to give them purity of their bodies to remain chaste and pure, that they will share only with the gift of their spouse in marriage. St. Filamina, our world is in a mess, and the lack of purity of intention and purity of the body is at the root cause. We ask through your powerful intercession to help especially our youth, but to help all of us to turn back to see the sacredness of this gift. And we ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And last slide of Brother Mark and show St. Filamina. Pray for us. And so God bless you all for joining us. Uh, I am going to show the last couple slides, um, not to do with the talk, but if you'd like to join our Maran helpers, uh, to, it costs nothing, it only takes a couple seconds. It's there on your screen. Visit M I prayers.org to be able to become part of our Maran family. There's no cost, it takes but a second, uh, but you share in the spiritual benefits of our prayers and good works. So please visit M I prayers.org. The next slide, if you like these talks that I do on Saturdays, called Explaining the Faith, you can get this wrist bracelet, which of course I forgot to bring, but it's a wrist bracelet. You can see on your screen, um, and it is, um, a slap bracelet. So you slap it on your wrist and it wraps around it, but it has a USB port, and you can download all 160 talks from the Explaining the Faith series. Uh, uh, that would be great to to keep with you that you can download to your devices, and we hope that you'll do that. And then lastly, um, our books, Understanding Divine Mercy, you can get at shop mercy.org or 8004 Maran, that's 462 7426. Also, the Jason Lewis and I, Father Jason, wrote the book After Suicide, There's Hope for them and you. It's not just about suicide, any kind of suffering or loss. You can get that as well at suicid and hope.com, but also shop mercy.org, and of course, 8004 Maran, number four, or 462 7426. And lastly, before we go, because I got more time this time, please help us to evangelize. I mentioned the other day that we Maran fathers do not, do not earn one penny, not $1 from YouTube. We do not monetize. We do not, that's why some of you get frustrated with the, the, um, ads, and we apologize for that, but we have no control over it. We do not make one penny, not $1 off of YouTube. However, we do use it to evangelize, and we ask your help. Bring souls to Christ. Please help us. If you hit subscribe, like on this video, and subscribe to our channel, the more subscriptions do not mean more money for us, because again, we do not earn a penny. But more subscribes mean that YouTube will send these videos out to more feeds of more people. And when we read our comments, we see many people say, Father, the Maran's videos just showed up one day on my feed. I knew nothing about Divine Mercy, I knew nothing about the Marans. Now, you can help. Jesus promised that if you help be his hands and feet and spread Divine Mercy, that he will personally defend you as his own at the time of your judgment. How can you do that? Well, you got to live the works of mercy, you got to get to the sacraments, but you can also evangelize by simply hitting subscribe to the channel and helping us get these videos out to the world. The more subscribes, the more they put it out there, and the more they put it out there, the more souls we bring to Christ. So instead of a bunch of videos with cats burping and beach parties, uh, in, in, in, in, in proper attire, send the message of Christ. Send the message of Christ. This is a great way to evangelize. So hit like on this video, hit subscribe on the channel, and let us get these videos out to the world.
And with that, um, I am done. Praise be to God. And may St. Filamina intercede for you. The Lord be with you. Your spirit. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace. The talk is ended. Thanks be to God. And St. Thank you. And and St. Filamina pray for us. Have a great day, everybody, and God bless you.
The image of Jesus, the Divine Mercy incarnate, represents the Lord as coming forth from the Holy of Holies in heaven to assure us of the forgiveness of our sins after having entered there to bring the offering of his life to the Father as the ransom. The dark background symbolizes the total darkness in the Holy of Holies of the earthly Tabernacle, which was illumined only by God's presence as he received the atoning sacrifice. That scene of Christ coming out of the Holy of Holies with rays emanating from his wounded side represents the blood and water, that is the Holy Spirit, as the source of life handed over, according to St. John's Gospel, at the moment of his death. As one of the prayers of St. Faustina points out, "You died, Jesus, but the source of life gushed out for the souls, and a sea of mercy opened up for the whole world."