PARISH MADNESS

Just 2 more weeks until Lent begins? Are you ready to vote on your favorite Bible Heroes and Stalwart Saints? Voting is already open here. It will begin on our Facebook page on Ash Wednesday. Votes for Round 1 need to be in by noon on Monday, March 10th. In the meantime, let's look at this week's featured Saints and Heroes.

Susanna:  Susanna was the beautiful wife of a wealthy man.  One day, two elders conspired together to force Susanna to sleep with both of them.  They threatened to accuse her of adultery, punishable by death, if she would not consent.  Susanna stated that she would rather fall into the hands of God than evil men, and the men publicly accused her of having a secret lover.  In answer to Susanna’s prayer, God gave the prophet Daniel the wisdom to trap the elders in their lies and exonerate Susanna.

St. Catherine of Sienna:  Dedicated to a simple life of seclusion, prayer, and contemplation, Catherine was one of the great visionaries and mystics of the Church.  Her prayers and wisdom helped to solve the Great Schism of 1378 when the Church had three popes.  Her letters have provided spiritual instruction and guidance to many generations, and her influence is so great that she was declared a doctor of the Church in 1970.

Esther:  Chosen by King Ahasuerus of Persia to be his queen, Esther could have relied on her position to keep herself safe.  However, when the king’s second-in-command, Haman, tricked the king into signing an order of execution for all the Jews living in the region, Esther took action.  At the risk of her own life, she went directly to the king, wooed him with banquets, and presented her case, revealing Haman’s plot and saving the Jewish people.

St. Perpetua:  Had she renounced her Christian faith, Perpetua, a noblewoman of Carthage, would have been saved.  Instead, she chronicled her separation from her infant son, imprisonment with other Christians, and the events leading up to her execution in the Roman public games.  The account of her death in the amphitheater was added by someone who found her diary after her death.

Timothy:  A companion of St. Paul on his missionary journeys, Timothy was already a second-generation Christian, having been raised in the faith by his mother and grandmother who were early converts.  Timothy suffered imprisonment along with Paul and was sent as Paul’s ambassador to multiple churches as a problem-solver.  Timothy also served Paul in Rome during Paul’s final imprisonment, and served briefly as the bishop of the church at Ephesus.

St. Damien of Molokai:  Damien ended up in the Hawaiian Islands because he volunteered to take the place of his brother, who had fallen ill.  Ordained on the island of Hawaii, Damien also volunteered to remain permanently on the island of Molokai, where the Hawaiian government had established a leper colony.  There, he cared for the people’s physical, medical, and spiritual needs, built houses, a church, school, and orphanage, and advocated for government support.  He contracted leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) and died there among his beloved people.

Jeremiah:  Called as a youth to be a prophet, Jeremiah brought an unpleasant message to the people of Jerusalem: “Turn back to God, or God will allow the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem.”  Not only did the people not listen to Jeremiah, but they imprisoned him in a dungeon and tried to drown him in a cistern.  Rescued from the cistern by his faithful scribe, Baruch, Jeremiah continued to preach the message from God.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux:  A renowned Scripture scholar and theologian, Bernard wrote and gave hundreds of sermons which are still published today.  After revitalizing the monastery at Clairvaux, he became a renowned counselor and spiritual advisor and went on to heal a schism in Rome involving the papacy.