Pope Francis recently declared Sister Maria Laura Mainetti, the superior of the Sisters of the Cross religious order, to have died as a martyr after she was slain by three teenage girls in a Satanic sacrifice.
Tag Archives: martyrdom
Strength
February 23
Feast of St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr (D. 155)
“Leave me as I am. The one who gives me strength to endure the fire will also give me strength to stay quite still on the pyre, even without the precaution of your nails.”
–St. Polycarp at his martyrdom Read the rest…
For Mother’s Day : A Martyrdom of Love
In January this year I sat in my kitchen early one morning, bleary-eyed after a fractured night’s sleep. (And I’m using the term “sleep” quite loosely.) The former night’s guilty parties, ages 2 and 5, lounged – in varied stages of consciousness themselves – on the couch, while I clutched a mug of coffee and scrolled through the day’s news stories. Suddenly I was wide awake, as I came upon the headlines of several Catholic sites: “Pope says Motherhood is Martyrdom.” Whoa. Read the rest…
ISIS Brings New Springtime to Christianity
Throughout the history of the Church, mass martyrdoms and persecutions have always given way to remarkable rises in Christianity, a phenomenon that will occur once again in spite of the atrocities of ISIS.
Saudis Buy Bottles of Christian Blood for $100K
A courageous German nun recently gave a riveting presentation in which she revealed the grisly details of the independent investigation she did of the treatment of Christians in Syria, including the bottling of their blood for sale.
Women of Grace: The Courageous Legacy of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity
Sts. Perpetua and Felicity died on March 7, 203
The annals of the Church are full of examples of courageous Catholic women, but few can rival the tale of a young nursing mother and a pregnant woman who showed such fierce courage in the face of death that even the hardest Roman soldiers were brought to their knees.
The story of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, whose feast we celebrate today, was recorded by the hand of Perpetua herself as well as others who knew the women. This account, known as “The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity,” was so popular in the early centuries that it was often read during liturgies. Read the rest…
