July 18, 2024 • 37 mins
🕊️✨ Join Fr. Arthur, Br. Justin and Br. Gustavo as they explain how the Intercession of Saints is supported by Biblical sources, the early Church Fathers, and historical traditions. Discover the top 10 Powerful b you need in your prayer life, including insights into their lives. Growing in devotion to these Saints will deepen your prayer life.
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(00:00):
since when there is the intercession of saints?How come that you Catholics pray to saints
and so on? So today we wanted to explain verywell why the intercession of saints from the
Magisterium, from the biblical sources, andalso from tradition. In the same way that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the intercession betweenthe Father and us, and because our Lord Jesus
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Christ was asked to imitate him, we also haveto be intercessors. St. Paul in his letters,
he always begins and ends them with an exhortationfor the church to pray for him, pray for the
mission, pray for another church. And he alwayshas this element where he says the church where
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he's at is praying for you. Welcome to SalveMaria, the podcast of the Heralds of the Gospel.
Salve Maria Fr. Arthur. Salve Maria. Salve MariaFr. Justin. Salve Maria. A big welcome to our
audience for Salve Maria, the podcast of theHeroes of the Gospel. As advertised, today
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we have a very, very interesting topic becausethere has been also a lot of arguments and
discussions for people saying, since when thereis the intercession of saints? How come that
you Catholics pray to saints and so on? So todaywe wanted to explain very well wide intercession
of saints from the magisterium, from the biblicalsources, and also from tradition, which are
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the main foundations. And also, so wide intercessions,and then to propose our audience, Father, 10
saints that should be there in your prayer book.So if we start, I don't know, I would like
to start, Father, biblical foundations on theintercession of the saints. And we brought
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two quotes, if you allow me, I read here, isSt. James 5.16 that says, it's beautiful, it
says, therefore confess your sins to one another,well that's already complicated for some people,
and pray for one another so that you may behealed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful
and effective. So how can we deny this Father?This is so, so beautiful. This is the best
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interpretation of what is a social life. Weare born to live in society. Therefore, we
are born to do a relationship with others. Andwhich is the best relationship with others
is to do the good to others. So what is thebest good that we can do to somebody else is
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to pray for him, is asking God to do somethinggood for him. When we say, God bless you. What
we are saying, we are asking God to say somethinggood, something, a blessing, a benedicere,
it comes from Latin, it means that God willsay something good to you. So, in the same
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way that the Lord Jesus Christ is the intercessionbetween the Father and us, and because our
Lord Jesus Christ was asked to imitate Him,we also have to be intercessors between somebody
else and our Jesus Christ and God himself. St.Paul in his letters, he always begins and ends
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him with an exhortation for the church of thatlocale to pray for him, pray for the mission,
pray for another church. And he always has thiselement where he says the church where he's
at is praying for you. So we had intercessionof saints. And it refers to him as the saints.
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So when you say that, where is it seen or whereis it ever heard? It's in the Acts of the Apostles.
It's in the letters of St. Paul. It's prettyevident. So you might have an allergic reaction
to it, but it's your autoimmune issue, not anyoneelse's. How can we say this is an invention
of the Catholic Church? But also the book ofRevelation, the book of Revelation has something
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very beautiful. And again, we don't The bookof Revelation five eight says, when he had
taken the scroll, the four living creaturesand the 24 elders fell before the lamp, each
holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense,which are the prayers of the saints. So no,
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the prayers of the saints are there. They saythey're powerful and effective. It's a- But
the same ones who have issues with the prayerveneration of saints. also have a problem with
ritual. And the book of Revelation is full ofritual. So you have incense, right? Remember,
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at this point, people were dying for puttingincense in front of emperors, but we have in
the book of Revelation, heaven filled with incense.Bowls of incense here, bowls of incense there.
So it's pointed in the right direction, it'sgood. Pointed in the wrong direction, it's
not. But these are exactly this instance representsthe prayers of the saints. So, you know, they
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are important. They are central in our life.Well, I mean, another part has it that the
witnesses, the martyrs are under the altar withthe lamb. Of course. We go right there in a
moment. Actually, Brother Justin, I would liketo pass this one to you because we also have
a connection, right Father, with the early fathersof the church, which is the magisterium. And
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the early fathers of the church are full ofcomments about the saints as well. This is
not an invention of our own church. It is actuallysomething that is very well founded from the
beginning, correct? Well, absolutely. I thinkI'm only working with three early fathers,
but we could be here all day because it's somethingwhich has its basis in the early apostolic
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writings. So we're talking about the shepherdof Hermes. We're talking about the Didache.
We're talking about many other of the... earlyletters that are going around, the letter of
St. Clement. We're talking about a lot of thatat his film. But we're looking at St. Jerome.
St. Jerome is actually, on a side note, is hilarious.He was the guy who would be very striking and
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very straightforward with people who he feltwere on the wrong path. But here we have St.
Jerome, he says the following. If the apostlesand martyrs, while still in the body, can pray
for others. At a time when they must still beanxious for themselves, how much more after
their crowns, victories, and triumphs are won?So they're in heaven, we can invoke them, right?
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And again, we have all these letters of themartyrs. We have like Ignatius of Antioch,
and they're saying, I am praying for you. Hewas a saint already, okay? They all acknowledged
that during his days, he was a saint. He's saying,I'm praying for you. He's interceding to God
on their behalf. So when he dies, does it stop?Oh, it increases. So it stops. Oh yeah, we
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don't do it anymore. He disconnects from thechurch. Now, it's obvious that these prayers
are connected with our Lord Jesus Christ, correct?Because they're not independent. They're not
independent. They are, they are important elements.Again, we're going to go in a moment to attain
main saints that we can quote and invoke. andhow beautiful this is. God wants to hear from
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us about the others and he's pleased to kindof hear our opinion, our prayers is our opinion
that we are doing to God in the sense that weare saying to God that we want to intercede
for the person, we want to help the person.We were in the gospel, the Greeks heard about
Jesus and they weren't certain if Jesus spokeGreek. So they went and looked for an intercessor.
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They went and they found Philip. Philip spokeGreek. And Philip then went to our Lord. That's
the role of intercession. Exactly. There yougo. Right, and it wasn't condemned. You didn't
get, our Lord did anathema. He's interfering,he's interfering. Philip wasn't blasted because
he did that. It's stated, that's why it wasdone. So the next one we're gonna look at is
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Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine of Hippo, right?Latin speaking, father of the church. First
we had a Croat, now we have a North African.So here we go, in his work of the city of God,
a seminal work, beautiful work, and he laysthings out about what his vision of the future
would be, and it was the Middle Ages that hewas envisioning. And he says the following,
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for they were men of such great holiness oflife. that they were thought worthy to be given
the power of intercession. Wow. Okay, I don'tknow what to do with that. There you go. I
mean, more than that. I mean, he's saying Godgave him, gave them that power. So. And Martin
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Luther being an Augustinian, how come, you know,that all of a sudden he can well, even say
that Augustine was wrong. St. Augustine, St.Augustine and him have very little to work
together. Impressive. But Father, if you'llpermit, we're going to go to tradition now.
And this part is about liturgical practices.So how the saints are part of the liturgical
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practices. And again, you know, people who accusethe Catholic Church of interfering in all these
scriptural bases and so on may say that, ofcourse, that is an invention of the Roman Church.
OK, so tradition means that this comes fromthe early times and also that although it's
not in the scripture. was adopted as a commonbelief from the beginning and continues, right,
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continues growing throughout history. So wehave, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the
part of the liturgy already having evolved andhaving the saints there. And the saints as
part of the liturgical year. And at this point,I know, people are gonna come and say, oh,
the Middle Ages, so Brother Gustavo were just,you know, they were just inventing now the
church that didn't exist in the beginning. Well,actually, no. because by the year 1000, which
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is the Middle Ages, it was already fully structured.But this comes from the, for instance, the
Council of Nicaea, which was in 325. And thatwas the moment when the liturgy actually adopted,
the saints in a more, in a stronger manner.What's important to remember about Nicaea is
that it wasn't the beginning of the church,because some of them like to say that the church
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began at Nicaea. The reality was it was overa thousand bishops representing over probably
tens of thousands of churches. And probablyat least a million Catholics at that time.
Right, so there was a massive amount of peopleand that's the church of the whole Mediterranean
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basin. It wasn't just of, because the idea thatthey have is that it was founded by Constantine
at the Council of Nicaea. Kind of like how theProtestant groups are, they found their churches
at a conference. Right, that's not how the churchfounded it. It was a reality that already existed.
Absolutely, absolutely. But here comes the point,because somebody will say, oh yes, then Brother
Justin, right, what they say, no? Oh, so inthe year 325 is when the church is really starting
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inventing. No, here comes, because since thesecond century was a common practice for Christians
and for priests to celebrate mass at the tombof the martyrs and at the tomb of saints. So
we're talking about second century is 150, 140,130. Right at the beginning of Christendom,
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the whole Christianity believed that the saintswere such powerful intercessors that they would
celebrate mass in that. If you deny the notionof intercession, you're basically denying the
family. Because why do we intercess one forthe other? Because we're part of the same family.
So we feel the other as part of ourselves, becausewe are united in one goal, in one God, in one
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intention, in one faith, et cetera. So we prayfor the others as if we were praying for ourselves
because the others are part of us. We are united,and we're not members isolated. You know, this
vision of that each one is an isolated person,it doesn't correspond to reality. And look
at how powerful the intercession of martyrswas. because people already recognize that
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they died a holy death. And so they wanted theirintercession in heaven. The reason why we have
relics of martyrs, early church martyrs, wasnot because the Romans saved their bodily parts
and their items, was that the church itselfrecognized they were saints and saved them.
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Of course. Hid them. So. that idea that somehowit was protected by some other power. There
was no other powers. They wanted to snuff itout. They wanted to destroy it. So remember
the church, the voice of faith comes from thepeople. The people acknowledge this. It's very
different. That's why the church consists, thechurch in three levels. We have the church,
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the glorious church, which is already in eternity,in paradise. We have the militant church, which
is on earth. And we have the church that isdoing expiation or reparation that is a church
in purgatory. But it's one church. Yes. Andit's necessary to note that there is no church
in hell. No. Because once the judgment happensthat you have been be gone from me, you have
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been expelled from the church. Exactly, exactly.So once we have established by the scripture,
by magisterium, by tradition, that the intercessionof saints is super important, now we would
like to recommend to our audience today, 10saints, you. cannot go without, right? I think
they're the most famous ones, or at least themost, the most prayer tune, huh? So we start
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with- Popular. We start with Our Lady, rightFather? Of course, she is the number one by
far. And- Very biblical too. Yes, of course.She is the mother of the Messiah, the mother
of the Savior, so she's related to our salvation.She's the mother of our salvation. as the mother
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of our Savior. So she's the one who is constantlyinterceding in regard to whom? To her son.
And the son always will do the will of the mother.So she's a wonderful intercessor. And not only
because she's a mother, but because she lovesus, because she loves our Lord Jesus Christ,
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she loves us also. That's another thing I findvery, very perplexing looking at the comments
that pop up on YouTube and other social mediaplatforms is that how unbiblical people are
concerning Our Lady. If you want to know whatOur Lady is, just look at Luke's gospel. She's
blessed amongst all women. Does that mean justat that moment? Probably not, right? She's
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gonna be venerated by all generations. So unlessscripture isn't truthful, and it's not easily
understood. Maybe that part is not literal,no? Well, it's not true. So if we're gonna
do that, then I don't know where we're gonnago. But if there is one of those invocations
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about our lady that, you know, if, I mean, there'sso many, but if we could recommend, father,
maybe our lady could counsel. Of course. Because,you know, Professor Blanco-Rolivera, we were
listening the other day, an old... conferenceby him and he was saying this, no, that everybody
needs counsel. So how much nowadays, no, weneed counsel. To have a good counselor, there's
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nothing better than that. She will tell youwhat to do, how to solve all your problems
of your life, et cetera. So it's a wonderfulthing. We always running out of time. So right
now I think we have to go to a short break,but we come back with nine more saints that
you have to have, right? your prayer book. SalveMaria, I'm Father Ryan Murphy of the Heralds
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of the Gospel and I'm delighted to extend aninvitation to each and every one of you. In
the midst of our busy lives, it's crucial totake a moment of reflection, of soulless end
of prayer. That's why I would like to personallyinvite you to join us every day at 3 p.m for
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a special and powerful devotion. the DivineMercy Chaplet. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is
a beautiful prayer that embodies the boundlesscompassion of our Lord. It's a time to come
together as a community, regardless of wherewe are, and lift up our intentions, our hopes,
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and even our burdens to the heart of Jesus.Imagine all around the world, countless voices,
uniting in prayer at this very hour. It's amoment of connection. of spiritual unity, and
of seeking God's mercy in a troubled world.So mark your calendars, set your alarms, and
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make a commitment to join us each day at 3 pm.Tune in and experience the transformative power
of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Let this be a sanctuaryof peace amidst the noise of life. Thank you
for being a part of our Herald's Canada YouTubechannel. Together, let's embark on this journey
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of faith, hope, and mercy. I'm looking forwardto praying with you every day at 3 p.m. May
God's love and mercy shine upon you always.And until we meet again, may Almighty God bless
you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,amen. So then we are restarting with nine other
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saints out of 10 that we're recommending today.And Father here is the specialist of St. Joseph
nowadays because here in Canada, we have celebrationof St. Joseph, the book about St. Joseph that
is really very, very beautiful. We're also havinga course about St. Joseph and the staircase
to St. Joseph, that is about to launch, followus there. And so Father, St. Joseph, well,
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he... obviously is the saint number two afterMary, because he is the head of the Holy Family.
And in that sense, his position is a littlebit competitive with Mary, because even though
Mary was the mother of Jesus, it's extremelyimportant for him, but God wanted that somebody
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else will be as the head of the family and hewill obey him. In spite of being God, he will
obey one person, Saint Joseph. So Saint Josephhas a tremendous power on our Lord Jesus Christ
because our Lord Jesus Christ loves him so much.And he is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ
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because he decided to have a father. So it'sout of the will of Jesus. that he will be the
husband of Mary and Jesus had to be born ina family. Without that marriage, there will
be no holy family and maybe there will be noredeemer. So he married Mary and he became
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the head of the family and he is the one whotakes care of all of us because we are part
of that family. we are part of the Holy Family.So he is our Father in that sense. So of course
we have to pray a lot to him. Of course, anda quick reminder Father that he's a patron
saint of fathers, carpenters, workers of theUniversal Church. And he's also invoked for
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a happy death and he's a protector of the HolyFamily as you were saying. So those titles
make him maybe very dear to our. Next one, numberthree, Saint Michael the Archangel. He became
famous because he took such a lead in that greatbattle in heaven between the angels, the bad
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angels and the good angels, and he became numberone because of his love and of his dedication
and... following of God. So He is the one whois going to help us in all the battles of our
life. Our life is a succession of battles andthe battles as we grow, normally also they
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get more and more and more intense. So we needsomebody who's going to fight for us. And of
course St. Michael's is number one. Who likeGod? He's the one who is going to lead us in
our battles that we need to fight in order toobtain our salvation. He's patron saint of
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soldiers, police, doctors, and is also, of course,invoked against evil spirits, devils, demonic
actions. Michael Del Cangelo is one of them.That's very important, because today there's
a lot of... of bad influence of the devils,and he's number one angel that's going to help
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us in those battles. Exorcism is a topic thatis on the rise all the time. Oh yes, it is.
Very good. Tis one brother, just to pass itto you, Saint Peter, number four in the list.
Okay. Saint Peter. So we have Saint Peter, heis the vicar of Christ on earth, after our
Lord's passing. He's the one who... states toour Lord that he loves him more than anyone
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else. He also seems to be one of the weakestones. So we have someone that we can look towards
with some understanding. And what is he knownfor? Well, he's the first pope. He's the first
head of the church. And even though it seemsSaint Paul was given more gifts, he bows his
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head to Peter's decisions. So we end up withthe confession of Peter, his faith. We have
his redemption and we have the fall of his duringthose days of the passion. In a sense, we all
kind of look at Peter and say, that's me, there'sme, and there's hope for me. But what's a resounding
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element is after the gift of the Holy Spirit,is poured out on the apostles and our lady,
Saint Peter then is taken up with that graceand he shows us what is possible with God's
grace. Right, we end up with that element ofChrist selecting him. You are Peter and upon
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this rock I will build my church and the gatesof Hades will never prevail against you. That's
really important because we live in a worldwhere everything seems to be broken and falling
down and we need to cling to a person like Peter.and with those keys to hold on to in the difficult
moments. Our Lord puts him as the head of hischurch. So he is our head. If you don't obey
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Peter, you're cutting your head. You're cuttingyour head off. So it's completely different.
I mean, we have to be like Paul. We also haveto be like John. John runs to the tomb. He
arrives first. He waits for Peter to arrive.So Saint Peter is of course, patron of the
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papacy, patron of Rome, but he's also patronsaint of fishermen and shipbuilders. If there
are any fishermen or shipbuilders that are watching,people in Nova Scotia, I'm sure that, you know,
those here in Canada, if they are watching,Saint Peter, great saint there. Of course.
Next one on the list, number five, Saint Paul,of course. Saint Paul the Apostle. he's called
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the Apostle because he converted more peoplethan all the other Apostles together. Exactly
and St Paul, all the letters are absolutelybrilliant, but there is one passage of the
first letter to the Corinthians which is amongthe writings of St Paul, it's made one of most
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famous writings in which he is going to tryto describe what is love. Love is so essential,
so important in the church. Love is the thingthat united us. That's why we have to be united.
If we love each other, we are united. If not,we're not loving each other. And we are not
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loving our Lord Jesus Christ. And this passageabout love. that I'm sure that you have heard,
but it's very nice to listen every time. It'sa beautiful feeling that you have. Listen to
St. Paul saying that love is patient, love iskind. He tries to describe the attributes of
love. How is love? Love is not jealous. Lovedoes not brag and is not arrogant. Love is
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gentle. Does not act... Unbecomingly, it doesnot seek its own will. So love is not selfish.
He wants the good of the others. He intercedesfor the others. It's not provoked. Love does
not take into account a wrong suffered. Doesnot rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices
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with the truth. Bears all things, believes allthings, hopes. all things, endures all things.
So, it's so inspired. And what a fire is so,we need to ask that same grace that St. Paul
had to be able to transmit the faith to otherstoo, right? Exactly, exactly. St. Paul is patron
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saint of missionaries, evangelists, writers,all those who are writing there, journalists
and public workers, but also because of hisextensive travels, all those who are traveling
and going to places and so on can invoke St.Paul. And St. Paul has a long list of everything
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that happened to him, you know, from shipwrecksto being flogged, to all kinds of things. Prison,
everything. Prison. So, very adventurous. Nextone on the list, and our Italian audience are
already clapping here because they were saying,even when we presented the list to somebody,
some people say, ah, there we go, San Antonioof... Oh, he's really popular. But there is
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a problem with this too, because he's born inLisbon. Yeah, he's Portuguese. I mean, we also
have... There's actually a fresco in the oldpart of the Basilica in Padua of him. And he
looks very Portuguese. Yes. You look at himlike very Portuguese. Short, stout, bald head.
Big appetite. Oh, big appetite. So he's notthat thin, young version. No, no, he's Portuguese.
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Well, he's known about the Patron Saint of lostitems, because people invoke him about that.
But it's not only that. He went, for instance,and was such a big preacher that when a city,
entire city did not want to listen to him, hesaid, okay, you don't want to listen, you'll
see what happens. He turns towards the sea andthen he starts preaching and all the fish come
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out. Imagine what kind of preacher we have,right? So very charismatic preaching in the
good sense, not in some other meanings, buthe's also patron saint of preaching, of lost
things, and he is considered a patron saintof the poor and pregnant women, that's why.
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So very important. I know we're cutting a lothere because we have so many saints and this
is designed to invite people to go and investigatemore and eventually grow in devotion to all
these saints. So allow us to just be short oneach one of them. But next one on the list,
number seven, Saint Francis of Assisi. SaintFrancis of Assisi, he's a fascinating individual
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and I think he's much maligned in our today'sday.
One of the things that touched me very deeplywhen I went to Assisi was how beautiful Assisi
was, but how glorious their churches were. Becauseyou have this miserable-ism aspect that comes
down to us, and you see that he was very poor.but liturgy was not. He personally was poor,
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but he was very clean. They have his tunic thereand it's patches on patches on patch. But it's
incredibly clean. No, St. Peter confused someFrancis with some sort of hippie that goes
around without any form of discipline or completeanarchy. That's something that's very clear
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and you receive that very quickly. You see,you still have the fragrance of Francis in
a CC. He came from a very rich family. He abandonedeverything. But... He received back everything.
Much more. But not for him, but for the church.
And he receives that revelation, that visionthat our Lord asks. Build my church. Preserve
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my church. And that's beautiful. He does that,and he's known for the thing. He suffers with
Christ. He receives the stigmata. He suffers.The remainder of his life is a life of suffering.
And that renunciation was necessary at thatmoment. And that ends up allowing Italy and
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Europe to arrive at a new level of sanctity,the mendicant orders, the begging orders, and
that element of them being in the streets, livingwith the people, and then bringing the people
to a higher level of piety.
that element was something that was needed withinthe church in the Middle Ages. So much so that,
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I mean, Francis goes to speak to Saladin. Yes.Right? And Saladin is impressed with Francis.
Very much, yeah. He convinced the Sultan toallow the Christian to recuperate some of the
lands, you know, of... The shrines. The shrinesand the holy lands. Next one, Saint-Thérèse
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of Lycee. The little flower. So that one isvery, very popular saint. But Father, what
is the point that maybe you recommend that weshould look into her as an example for most
of our audience? She is amazing in the sensethat she is somebody who died very young. She
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almost never went anywhere other than her houseand the convent. And nevertheless, as soon
as she dies, she becomes extremely popular allover the world. And she's paid the incentive?
Of missionaries. Of course. And he never wentanywhere. She just went to Rome in a trip in
order to speak with the pope for her to enterthe Carmelite convent. Cloistered convent.
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Yeah, cloistered. She never went anywhere, butshe became extremely popular. Because she.
will explain that it is through love that youdo the things. And she is the one who will
explain to her generation and the generationto come after her that you don't need to do
great things in order to love God. Even doingvery little things, but you do them with love
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of God, have a tremendous importance. And thatmoves the heart of God. So that's probably
what we need to end. I encourage everybody tofollow in. And we read the story of the soul
and you see a very young person who has an incrediblymature spiritual life. Absolutely. Next one,
number nine, we are running out of time here.Saint George. And why we choose Saint George,
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Father, is because we did extensive researchon the internet and he is one of the most popular
saints. No, no, I see. The patron of England.And other places. Exorcistic too. Also Port
de l'Or. Georgia. His famous, his confrontationwith the devil, right? And so. Under the form
of a dragon. So, I mean, his fights with thedragon were, they could have been real, but
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most likely they were what the stories have,is that the demons were tempting people in
an area and he fought them off. But he was asoldier, a captain of the Emperor, of Dioclesian,
and in the Praetorian Guard. and he faced theemperor and he died for his faith. So he really,
and he became extremely popular and to be lovedby everyone. Last but not least, St. Nicholas
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of Bari or of Myra here as well. That is wherehis body is. But Justin, you have that one
there because you're always saying that he wentto a council. And then he fought, he had a
fist fight with Herod. We don't know for certain,but I like to imagine my Santa Claus punching
out Arius. There's a story, a pious story, we'renot sure if it's true or not, but it's very
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beautiful. Arius stood up with his insolenttongue and said that Jesus was a creature less
than God. And Nicholas had enough. And he justwent up to him and just knocked him out. Punch
him. Now. He was a bishop. Nicholas was a bishop.Arius was a priest. And the pro-Arians got
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him, said he acted not like a bishop. So theyhad him thrown in jail and defrocked. So he
lost it. So he's in jail, sad with the situation.He won't be able to do anything. And all of
a sudden...
Our Lord appears to him at night and he's ina third century jail, it's a nasty place. And
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our Lord appears and says, Nicholas, what areyou here for? What are you doing here? And
he goes, I was too zealous for your name. Andhe says, receive the gospel. Now that was part
of the ordination process of a bishop was toreceive the gospel. So our Lord gives him the
gospel. Beautifully manuscript, illuminatedmanuscript. And then who comes in next? Well,
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it's our lady. Our lady says, what are you doinghere? And because I was too zealous for your
son. And then she dresses him in the vestmentsof a bishop. And then they both show him out.
Now, next day he pops up in the council's chambers.Now, they didn't have stores at this time.
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So he shows up clean and the most glorious bishopsvestments conceivable. walking around with
this illuminated gospel, they're like, okay.And no one bothered him again. But he was known
for doing so many works of mercy, so many goodthings. He was known for saving people, saving
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the destitute, charitable acts. I mean, he isan amazing saint. So his patron saint. He's
called the wonder worker. He's also. known aswonderful. Amazing miracles. Exactly. But also
he's played the sense of sailors again, of merchants,of repentant thieves, of children, brewers,
people who make beer and everything else, pawnbrokersand students. So. He was born in the Middle
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East, but then after that they took his bodyto the West. So he became also popular in the
West. Partly Italian. Yes. So I hope with thisFather we just encourage our audience to investigate
more about the saints and also to kind of openthe appetite. Absolutely, absolutely. But you
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touch these saints and you look at their storiesand you want to become like them and you can
ask for their intercession. And they want tointercede for us. So we are going to, with
their intercession, we're going to give theblessing to all of you. The blessing of Almighty
God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, come upon you,remain with you forever. Amen.
since when there is the intercession of saints?How come that you Catholics pray to saints
and so on? So today we wanted to explain verywell why the intercession of saints from the
Magisterium, from the biblical sources, andalso from tradition. In the same way that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the intercession betweenthe Father and us, and because our Lord Jesus
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Christ was asked to imitate him, we also haveto be intercessors. St. Paul in his letters,
he always begins and ends them with an exhortationfor the church to pray for him, pray for the
mission, pray for another church. And he alwayshas this element where he says the church where
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he's at is praying for you. Welcome to SalveMaria, the podcast of the Heralds of the Gospel.
Salve Maria Fr. Arthur. Salve Maria. Salve MariaFr. Justin. Salve Maria. A big welcome to our
audience for Salve Maria, the podcast of theHeroes of the Gospel. As advertised, today
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we have a very, very interesting topic becausethere has been also a lot of arguments and
discussions for people saying, since when thereis the intercession of saints? How come that
you Catholics pray to saints and so on? So todaywe wanted to explain very well wide intercession
of saints from the magisterium, from the biblicalsources, and also from tradition, which are
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the main foundations. And also, so wide intercessions,and then to propose our audience, Father, 10
saints that should be there in your prayer book.So if we start, I don't know, I would like
to start, Father, biblical foundations on theintercession of the saints. And we brought
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two quotes, if you allow me, I read here, isSt. James 5.16 that says, it's beautiful, it
says, therefore confess your sins to one another,well that's already complicated for some people,
and pray for one another so that you may behealed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful
and effective. So how can we deny this Father?This is so, so beautiful. This is the best
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interpretation of what is a social life. Weare born to live in society. Therefore, we
are born to do a relationship with others. Andwhich is the best relationship with others
is to do the good to others. So what is thebest good that we can do to somebody else is
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to pray for him, is asking God to do somethinggood for him. When we say, God bless you. What
we are saying, we are asking God to say somethinggood, something, a blessing, a benedicere,
it comes from Latin, it means that God willsay something good to you. So, in the same
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way that the Lord Jesus Christ is the intercessionbetween the Father and us, and because our
Lord Jesus Christ was asked to imitate Him,we also have to be intercessors between somebody
else and our Jesus Christ and God himself. St.Paul in his letters, he always begins and ends
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him with an exhortation for the church of thatlocale to pray for him, pray for the mission,
pray for another church. And he always has thiselement where he says the church where he's
at is praying for you. So we had intercessionof saints. And it refers to him as the saints.
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So when you say that, where is it seen or whereis it ever heard? It's in the Acts of the Apostles.
It's in the letters of St. Paul. It's prettyevident. So you might have an allergic reaction
to it, but it's your autoimmune issue, not anyoneelse's. How can we say this is an invention
of the Catholic Church? But also the book ofRevelation, the book of Revelation has something
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very beautiful. And again, we don't The bookof Revelation five eight says, when he had
taken the scroll, the four living creaturesand the 24 elders fell before the lamp, each
holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense,which are the prayers of the saints. So no,
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the prayers of the saints are there. They saythey're powerful and effective. It's a- But
the same ones who have issues with the prayerveneration of saints. also have a problem with
ritual. And the book of Revelation is full ofritual. So you have incense, right? Remember,
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at this point, people were dying for puttingincense in front of emperors, but we have in
the book of Revelation, heaven filled with incense.Bowls of incense here, bowls of incense there.
So it's pointed in the right direction, it'sgood. Pointed in the wrong direction, it's
not. But these are exactly this instance representsthe prayers of the saints. So, you know, they
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are important. They are central in our life.Well, I mean, another part has it that the
witnesses, the martyrs are under the altar withthe lamb. Of course. We go right there in a
moment. Actually, Brother Justin, I would liketo pass this one to you because we also have
a connection, right Father, with the early fathersof the church, which is the magisterium. And
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the early fathers of the church are full ofcomments about the saints as well. This is
not an invention of our own church. It is actuallysomething that is very well founded from the
beginning, correct? Well, absolutely. I thinkI'm only working with three early fathers,
but we could be here all day because it's somethingwhich has its basis in the early apostolic
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writings. So we're talking about the shepherdof Hermes. We're talking about the Didache.
We're talking about many other of the... earlyletters that are going around, the letter of
St. Clement. We're talking about a lot of thatat his film. But we're looking at St. Jerome.
St. Jerome is actually, on a side note, is hilarious.He was the guy who would be very striking and
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very straightforward with people who he feltwere on the wrong path. But here we have St.
Jerome, he says the following. If the apostlesand martyrs, while still in the body, can pray
for others. At a time when they must still beanxious for themselves, how much more after
their crowns, victories, and triumphs are won?So they're in heaven, we can invoke them, right?
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And again, we have all these letters of themartyrs. We have like Ignatius of Antioch,
and they're saying, I am praying for you. Hewas a saint already, okay? They all acknowledged
that during his days, he was a saint. He's saying,I'm praying for you. He's interceding to God
on their behalf. So when he dies, does it stop?Oh, it increases. So it stops. Oh yeah, we
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don't do it anymore. He disconnects from thechurch. Now, it's obvious that these prayers
are connected with our Lord Jesus Christ, correct?Because they're not independent. They're not
independent. They are, they are important elements.Again, we're going to go in a moment to attain
main saints that we can quote and invoke. andhow beautiful this is. God wants to hear from
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us about the others and he's pleased to kindof hear our opinion, our prayers is our opinion
that we are doing to God in the sense that weare saying to God that we want to intercede
for the person, we want to help the person.We were in the gospel, the Greeks heard about
Jesus and they weren't certain if Jesus spokeGreek. So they went and looked for an intercessor.
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They went and they found Philip. Philip spokeGreek. And Philip then went to our Lord. That's
the role of intercession. Exactly. There yougo. Right, and it wasn't condemned. You didn't
get, our Lord did anathema. He's interfering,he's interfering. Philip wasn't blasted because
he did that. It's stated, that's why it wasdone. So the next one we're gonna look at is
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Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine of Hippo, right?Latin speaking, father of the church. First
we had a Croat, now we have a North African.So here we go, in his work of the city of God,
a seminal work, beautiful work, and he laysthings out about what his vision of the future
would be, and it was the Middle Ages that hewas envisioning. And he says the following,
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for they were men of such great holiness oflife. that they were thought worthy to be given
the power of intercession. Wow. Okay, I don'tknow what to do with that. There you go. I
mean, more than that. I mean, he's saying Godgave him, gave them that power. So. And Martin
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Luther being an Augustinian, how come, you know,that all of a sudden he can well, even say
that Augustine was wrong. St. Augustine, St.Augustine and him have very little to work
together. Impressive. But Father, if you'llpermit, we're going to go to tradition now.
And this part is about liturgical practices.So how the saints are part of the liturgical
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practices. And again, you know, people who accusethe Catholic Church of interfering in all these
scriptural bases and so on may say that, ofcourse, that is an invention of the Roman Church.
OK, so tradition means that this comes fromthe early times and also that although it's
not in the scripture. was adopted as a commonbelief from the beginning and continues, right,
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continues growing throughout history. So wehave, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the
part of the liturgy already having evolved andhaving the saints there. And the saints as
part of the liturgical year. And at this point,I know, people are gonna come and say, oh,
the Middle Ages, so Brother Gustavo were just,you know, they were just inventing now the
church that didn't exist in the beginning. Well,actually, no. because by the year 1000, which
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is the Middle Ages, it was already fully structured.But this comes from the, for instance, the
Council of Nicaea, which was in 325. And thatwas the moment when the liturgy actually adopted,
the saints in a more, in a stronger manner.What's important to remember about Nicaea is
that it wasn't the beginning of the church,because some of them like to say that the church
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began at Nicaea. The reality was it was overa thousand bishops representing over probably
tens of thousands of churches. And probablyat least a million Catholics at that time.
Right, so there was a massive amount of peopleand that's the church of the whole Mediterranean
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basin. It wasn't just of, because the idea thatthey have is that it was founded by Constantine
at the Council of Nicaea. Kind of like how theProtestant groups are, they found their churches
at a conference. Right, that's not how the churchfounded it. It was a reality that already existed.
Absolutely, absolutely. But here comes the point,because somebody will say, oh yes, then Brother
Justin, right, what they say, no? Oh, so inthe year 325 is when the church is really starting
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inventing. No, here comes, because since thesecond century was a common practice for Christians
and for priests to celebrate mass at the tombof the martyrs and at the tomb of saints. So
we're talking about second century is 150, 140,130. Right at the beginning of Christendom,
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the whole Christianity believed that the saintswere such powerful intercessors that they would
celebrate mass in that. If you deny the notionof intercession, you're basically denying the
family. Because why do we intercess one forthe other? Because we're part of the same family.
So we feel the other as part of ourselves, becausewe are united in one goal, in one God, in one
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intention, in one faith, et cetera. So we prayfor the others as if we were praying for ourselves
because the others are part of us. We are united,and we're not members isolated. You know, this
vision of that each one is an isolated person,it doesn't correspond to reality. And look
at how powerful the intercession of martyrswas. because people already recognize that
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they died a holy death. And so they wanted theirintercession in heaven. The reason why we have
relics of martyrs, early church martyrs, wasnot because the Romans saved their bodily parts
and their items, was that the church itselfrecognized they were saints and saved them.
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Of course. Hid them. So. that idea that somehowit was protected by some other power. There
was no other powers. They wanted to snuff itout. They wanted to destroy it. So remember
the church, the voice of faith comes from thepeople. The people acknowledge this. It's very
different. That's why the church consists, thechurch in three levels. We have the church,
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the glorious church, which is already in eternity,in paradise. We have the militant church, which
is on earth. And we have the church that isdoing expiation or reparation that is a church
in purgatory. But it's one church. Yes. Andit's necessary to note that there is no church
in hell. No. Because once the judgment happensthat you have been be gone from me, you have
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been expelled from the church. Exactly, exactly.So once we have established by the scripture,
by magisterium, by tradition, that the intercessionof saints is super important, now we would
like to recommend to our audience today, 10saints, you. cannot go without, right? I think
they're the most famous ones, or at least themost, the most prayer tune, huh? So we start
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with- Popular. We start with Our Lady, rightFather? Of course, she is the number one by
far. And- Very biblical too. Yes, of course.She is the mother of the Messiah, the mother
of the Savior, so she's related to our salvation.She's the mother of our salvation. as the mother
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of our Savior. So she's the one who is constantlyinterceding in regard to whom? To her son.
And the son always will do the will of the mother.So she's a wonderful intercessor. And not only
because she's a mother, but because she lovesus, because she loves our Lord Jesus Christ,
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she loves us also. That's another thing I findvery, very perplexing looking at the comments
that pop up on YouTube and other social mediaplatforms is that how unbiblical people are
concerning Our Lady. If you want to know whatOur Lady is, just look at Luke's gospel. She's
blessed amongst all women. Does that mean justat that moment? Probably not, right? She's
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gonna be venerated by all generations. So unlessscripture isn't truthful, and it's not easily
understood. Maybe that part is not literal,no? Well, it's not true. So if we're gonna
do that, then I don't know where we're gonnago. But if there is one of those invocations
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about our lady that, you know, if, I mean, there'sso many, but if we could recommend, father,
maybe our lady could counsel. Of course. Because,you know, Professor Blanco-Rolivera, we were
listening the other day, an old... conferenceby him and he was saying this, no, that everybody
needs counsel. So how much nowadays, no, weneed counsel. To have a good counselor, there's
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nothing better than that. She will tell youwhat to do, how to solve all your problems
of your life, et cetera. So it's a wonderfulthing. We always running out of time. So right
now I think we have to go to a short break,but we come back with nine more saints that
you have to have, right? your prayer book. SalveMaria, I'm Father Ryan Murphy of the Heralds
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of the Gospel and I'm delighted to extend aninvitation to each and every one of you. In
the midst of our busy lives, it's crucial totake a moment of reflection, of soulless end
of prayer. That's why I would like to personallyinvite you to join us every day at 3 p.m for
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a special and powerful devotion. the DivineMercy Chaplet. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is
a beautiful prayer that embodies the boundlesscompassion of our Lord. It's a time to come
together as a community, regardless of wherewe are, and lift up our intentions, our hopes,
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and even our burdens to the heart of Jesus.Imagine all around the world, countless voices,
uniting in prayer at this very hour. It's amoment of connection. of spiritual unity, and
of seeking God's mercy in a troubled world.So mark your calendars, set your alarms, and
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make a commitment to join us each day at 3 pm.Tune in and experience the transformative power
of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Let this be a sanctuaryof peace amidst the noise of life. Thank you
for being a part of our Herald's Canada YouTubechannel. Together, let's embark on this journey
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of faith, hope, and mercy. I'm looking forwardto praying with you every day at 3 p.m. May
God's love and mercy shine upon you always.And until we meet again, may Almighty God bless
you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,amen. So then we are restarting with nine other
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saints out of 10 that we're recommending today.And Father here is the specialist of St. Joseph
nowadays because here in Canada, we have celebrationof St. Joseph, the book about St. Joseph that
is really very, very beautiful. We're also havinga course about St. Joseph and the staircase
to St. Joseph, that is about to launch, followus there. And so Father, St. Joseph, well,
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he... obviously is the saint number two afterMary, because he is the head of the Holy Family.
And in that sense, his position is a littlebit competitive with Mary, because even though
Mary was the mother of Jesus, it's extremelyimportant for him, but God wanted that somebody
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else will be as the head of the family and hewill obey him. In spite of being God, he will
obey one person, Saint Joseph. So Saint Josephhas a tremendous power on our Lord Jesus Christ
because our Lord Jesus Christ loves him so much.And he is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ
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because he decided to have a father. So it'sout of the will of Jesus. that he will be the
husband of Mary and Jesus had to be born ina family. Without that marriage, there will
be no holy family and maybe there will be noredeemer. So he married Mary and he became
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the head of the family and he is the one whotakes care of all of us because we are part
of that family. we are part of the Holy Family.So he is our Father in that sense. So of course
we have to pray a lot to him. Of course, anda quick reminder Father that he's a patron
saint of fathers, carpenters, workers of theUniversal Church. And he's also invoked for
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a happy death and he's a protector of the HolyFamily as you were saying. So those titles
make him maybe very dear to our. Next one, numberthree, Saint Michael the Archangel. He became
famous because he took such a lead in that greatbattle in heaven between the angels, the bad
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angels and the good angels, and he became numberone because of his love and of his dedication
and... following of God. So He is the one whois going to help us in all the battles of our
life. Our life is a succession of battles andthe battles as we grow, normally also they
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get more and more and more intense. So we needsomebody who's going to fight for us. And of
course St. Michael's is number one. Who likeGod? He's the one who is going to lead us in
our battles that we need to fight in order toobtain our salvation. He's patron saint of
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soldiers, police, doctors, and is also, of course,invoked against evil spirits, devils, demonic
actions. Michael Del Cangelo is one of them.That's very important, because today there's
a lot of... of bad influence of the devils,and he's number one angel that's going to help
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us in those battles. Exorcism is a topic thatis on the rise all the time. Oh yes, it is.
Very good. Tis one brother, just to pass itto you, Saint Peter, number four in the list.
Okay. Saint Peter. So we have Saint Peter, heis the vicar of Christ on earth, after our
Lord's passing. He's the one who... states toour Lord that he loves him more than anyone
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else. He also seems to be one of the weakestones. So we have someone that we can look towards
with some understanding. And what is he knownfor? Well, he's the first pope. He's the first
head of the church. And even though it seemsSaint Paul was given more gifts, he bows his
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head to Peter's decisions. So we end up withthe confession of Peter, his faith. We have
his redemption and we have the fall of his duringthose days of the passion. In a sense, we all
kind of look at Peter and say, that's me, there'sme, and there's hope for me. But what's a resounding
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element is after the gift of the Holy Spirit,is poured out on the apostles and our lady,
Saint Peter then is taken up with that graceand he shows us what is possible with God's
grace. Right, we end up with that element ofChrist selecting him. You are Peter and upon
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this rock I will build my church and the gatesof Hades will never prevail against you. That's
really important because we live in a worldwhere everything seems to be broken and falling
down and we need to cling to a person like Peter.and with those keys to hold on to in the difficult
moments. Our Lord puts him as the head of hischurch. So he is our head. If you don't obey
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Peter, you're cutting your head. You're cuttingyour head off. So it's completely different.
I mean, we have to be like Paul. We also haveto be like John. John runs to the tomb. He
arrives first. He waits for Peter to arrive.So Saint Peter is of course, patron of the
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papacy, patron of Rome, but he's also patronsaint of fishermen and shipbuilders. If there
are any fishermen or shipbuilders that are watching,people in Nova Scotia, I'm sure that, you know,
those here in Canada, if they are watching,Saint Peter, great saint there. Of course.
Next one on the list, number five, Saint Paul,of course. Saint Paul the Apostle. he's called
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the Apostle because he converted more peoplethan all the other Apostles together. Exactly
and St Paul, all the letters are absolutelybrilliant, but there is one passage of the
first letter to the Corinthians which is amongthe writings of St Paul, it's made one of most
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famous writings in which he is going to tryto describe what is love. Love is so essential,
so important in the church. Love is the thingthat united us. That's why we have to be united.
If we love each other, we are united. If not,we're not loving each other. And we are not
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loving our Lord Jesus Christ. And this passageabout love. that I'm sure that you have heard,
but it's very nice to listen every time. It'sa beautiful feeling that you have. Listen to
St. Paul saying that love is patient, love iskind. He tries to describe the attributes of
love. How is love? Love is not jealous. Lovedoes not brag and is not arrogant. Love is
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gentle. Does not act... Unbecomingly, it doesnot seek its own will. So love is not selfish.
He wants the good of the others. He intercedesfor the others. It's not provoked. Love does
not take into account a wrong suffered. Doesnot rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices
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with the truth. Bears all things, believes allthings, hopes. all things, endures all things.
So, it's so inspired. And what a fire is so,we need to ask that same grace that St. Paul
had to be able to transmit the faith to otherstoo, right? Exactly, exactly. St. Paul is patron
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saint of missionaries, evangelists, writers,all those who are writing there, journalists
and public workers, but also because of hisextensive travels, all those who are traveling
and going to places and so on can invoke St.Paul. And St. Paul has a long list of everything
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that happened to him, you know, from shipwrecksto being flogged, to all kinds of things. Prison,
everything. Prison. So, very adventurous. Nextone on the list, and our Italian audience are
already clapping here because they were saying,even when we presented the list to somebody,
some people say, ah, there we go, San Antonioof... Oh, he's really popular. But there is
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a problem with this too, because he's born inLisbon. Yeah, he's Portuguese. I mean, we also
have... There's actually a fresco in the oldpart of the Basilica in Padua of him. And he
looks very Portuguese. Yes. You look at himlike very Portuguese. Short, stout, bald head.
Big appetite. Oh, big appetite. So he's notthat thin, young version. No, no, he's Portuguese.
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Well, he's known about the Patron Saint of lostitems, because people invoke him about that.
But it's not only that. He went, for instance,and was such a big preacher that when a city,
entire city did not want to listen to him, hesaid, okay, you don't want to listen, you'll
see what happens. He turns towards the sea andthen he starts preaching and all the fish come
(28:43):
out. Imagine what kind of preacher we have,right? So very charismatic preaching in the
good sense, not in some other meanings, buthe's also patron saint of preaching, of lost
things, and he is considered a patron saintof the poor and pregnant women, that's why.
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So very important. I know we're cutting a lothere because we have so many saints and this
is designed to invite people to go and investigatemore and eventually grow in devotion to all
these saints. So allow us to just be short oneach one of them. But next one on the list,
number seven, Saint Francis of Assisi. SaintFrancis of Assisi, he's a fascinating individual
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and I think he's much maligned in our today'sday.
One of the things that touched me very deeplywhen I went to Assisi was how beautiful Assisi
was, but how glorious their churches were. Becauseyou have this miserable-ism aspect that comes
down to us, and you see that he was very poor.but liturgy was not. He personally was poor,
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but he was very clean. They have his tunic thereand it's patches on patches on patch. But it's
incredibly clean. No, St. Peter confused someFrancis with some sort of hippie that goes
around without any form of discipline or completeanarchy. That's something that's very clear
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and you receive that very quickly. You see,you still have the fragrance of Francis in
a CC. He came from a very rich family. He abandonedeverything. But... He received back everything.
Much more. But not for him, but for the church.
And he receives that revelation, that visionthat our Lord asks. Build my church. Preserve
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my church. And that's beautiful. He does that,and he's known for the thing. He suffers with
Christ. He receives the stigmata. He suffers.The remainder of his life is a life of suffering.
And that renunciation was necessary at thatmoment. And that ends up allowing Italy and
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Europe to arrive at a new level of sanctity,the mendicant orders, the begging orders, and
that element of them being in the streets, livingwith the people, and then bringing the people
to a higher level of piety.
that element was something that was needed withinthe church in the Middle Ages. So much so that,
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I mean, Francis goes to speak to Saladin. Yes.Right? And Saladin is impressed with Francis.
Very much, yeah. He convinced the Sultan toallow the Christian to recuperate some of the
lands, you know, of... The shrines. The shrinesand the holy lands. Next one, Saint-Thérèse
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of Lycee. The little flower. So that one isvery, very popular saint. But Father, what
is the point that maybe you recommend that weshould look into her as an example for most
of our audience? She is amazing in the sensethat she is somebody who died very young. She
(32:15):
almost never went anywhere other than her houseand the convent. And nevertheless, as soon
as she dies, she becomes extremely popular allover the world. And she's paid the incentive?
Of missionaries. Of course. And he never wentanywhere. She just went to Rome in a trip in
order to speak with the pope for her to enterthe Carmelite convent. Cloistered convent.
(32:40):
Yeah, cloistered. She never went anywhere, butshe became extremely popular. Because she.
will explain that it is through love that youdo the things. And she is the one who will
explain to her generation and the generationto come after her that you don't need to do
great things in order to love God. Even doingvery little things, but you do them with love
(33:06):
of God, have a tremendous importance. And thatmoves the heart of God. So that's probably
what we need to end. I encourage everybody tofollow in. And we read the story of the soul
and you see a very young person who has an incrediblymature spiritual life. Absolutely. Next one,
number nine, we are running out of time here.Saint George. And why we choose Saint George,
(33:29):
Father, is because we did extensive researchon the internet and he is one of the most popular
saints. No, no, I see. The patron of England.And other places. Exorcistic too. Also Port
de l'Or. Georgia. His famous, his confrontationwith the devil, right? And so. Under the form
of a dragon. So, I mean, his fights with thedragon were, they could have been real, but
(33:54):
most likely they were what the stories have,is that the demons were tempting people in
an area and he fought them off. But he was asoldier, a captain of the Emperor, of Dioclesian,
and in the Praetorian Guard. and he faced theemperor and he died for his faith. So he really,
and he became extremely popular and to be lovedby everyone. Last but not least, St. Nicholas
(34:20):
of Bari or of Myra here as well. That is wherehis body is. But Justin, you have that one
there because you're always saying that he wentto a council. And then he fought, he had a
fist fight with Herod. We don't know for certain,but I like to imagine my Santa Claus punching
out Arius. There's a story, a pious story, we'renot sure if it's true or not, but it's very
(34:45):
beautiful. Arius stood up with his insolenttongue and said that Jesus was a creature less
than God. And Nicholas had enough. And he justwent up to him and just knocked him out. Punch
him. Now. He was a bishop. Nicholas was a bishop.Arius was a priest. And the pro-Arians got
(35:09):
him, said he acted not like a bishop. So theyhad him thrown in jail and defrocked. So he
lost it. So he's in jail, sad with the situation.He won't be able to do anything. And all of
a sudden...
Our Lord appears to him at night and he's ina third century jail, it's a nasty place. And
(35:33):
our Lord appears and says, Nicholas, what areyou here for? What are you doing here? And
he goes, I was too zealous for your name. Andhe says, receive the gospel. Now that was part
of the ordination process of a bishop was toreceive the gospel. So our Lord gives him the
gospel. Beautifully manuscript, illuminatedmanuscript. And then who comes in next? Well,
(35:55):
it's our lady. Our lady says, what are you doinghere? And because I was too zealous for your
son. And then she dresses him in the vestmentsof a bishop. And then they both show him out.
Now, next day he pops up in the council's chambers.Now, they didn't have stores at this time.
(36:17):
So he shows up clean and the most glorious bishopsvestments conceivable. walking around with
this illuminated gospel, they're like, okay.And no one bothered him again. But he was known
for doing so many works of mercy, so many goodthings. He was known for saving people, saving
(36:37):
the destitute, charitable acts. I mean, he isan amazing saint. So his patron saint. He's
called the wonder worker. He's also. known aswonderful. Amazing miracles. Exactly. But also
he's played the sense of sailors again, of merchants,of repentant thieves, of children, brewers,
people who make beer and everything else, pawnbrokersand students. So. He was born in the Middle
(37:05):
East, but then after that they took his bodyto the West. So he became also popular in the
West. Partly Italian. Yes. So I hope with thisFather we just encourage our audience to investigate
more about the saints and also to kind of openthe appetite. Absolutely, absolutely. But you
(37:25):
touch these saints and you look at their storiesand you want to become like them and you can
ask for their intercession. And they want tointercede for us. So we are going to, with
their intercession, we're going to give theblessing to all of you. The blessing of Almighty
God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, come upon you,remain with you forever. Amen.
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