Vatican Diary / A new doctor of the Church. And seventeen more on hold

The new one is Saint John of Avila, a great preacher and spiritual master of the sixteenth century. Another, Bernardino of Siena, is close to the goal. The candidates include six women. 

Vatican Diary / A new doctor of the Church. And seventeen more on hold

Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr

Saint Agatha has been honored since ancient times, and her name is included in the canon of the Mass. We have little reliable information about her, except that she was a martyr. The following is according to her Latin Acts which is from around the sixth century.

Saint Agatha was a young, wealthy and beautiful woman who lived a life consecrated to God. When the Roman Emperor Decius (Caius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius 249-251) announced his edicts against Christians, the Roman magistrate Quinctianus tried to profit by Agatha's sanctity; he planned to blackmail her into sex in exchange for not charging her. 

Saint Agatha was handed over to a brothel, but she refused to accept customers. After rejecting Quinctianus' advances, she was beaten, imprisoned, tortured, her breasts were crushed and cut off. One version says that Saint Peter appeared to her and healed her. She was imprisoned further and rolled onto live coals. She was near death when an earthquake struck. In the earthquake the magistrate's friend was crushed, and the magistrate fled. Agatha thanked God for an end to her pain, and died. Her death occurred around 250 A.D.

Legend says that carrying her veil, taken from her tomb in Catania, in procession has averted eruptions of Mount Etna. Her intercession is also reported to have saved Malta from Turkish invasion in 1551. Her popular veneration is of a very early date; her name occurs in the prayer, "Nobis quoque peccatoribus," in the Canon of the Mass, and in some places bread is blessed after the Consecration of the Mass on her feast and called Agatha bread.

Vote For the 2011 Bloggers Choice Awards

The time is right to vote for the 2011 Bloggers Choice Awards. Once again, I was nominated by some kind soul and I do appreciate it!

However, I would like to ask all of the readers to the Faith of the Fathers Blogs, to vote for my favorite Catholic blog, "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" by Father John Zuhlsdorf, known as Father Z to those who regularly read his blog. 

I never miss a day reading his blog, and in fact, I use a service to tweet his posts to my twitter account so those who follow me on twitter can read his posts, and I use the same service to share his blog posts on Facebook, too. His blog is also listed on the right hand sidebar of Faith of the Fathers Blogs under the heading "My Favorite Catholic Blogs" (they are in alphabetical order so scroll down to find WDTPRS).

To vote for Father Z's blog you can click here to vote. You will have to sign up to cast your vote, but don't worry. They don't share your email and do not send you any kind of spam or unwanted emails. So go vote for Father Z now!

And if you don't read his blog, then you are missing out my friends!

If by some chance you'd also like to vote for me (you CAN vote for more than one blog, it would be nice to see THREE Catholic blogs take the top three spots) you can vote for me by clicking here. I'd be happy to get more than the 4 or 5 votes I got last year!

Regardless of who else you vote for, please do cast a vote for Father Z's blog first. He has a strong start at the moment, and I for one would like to see him finish strong because to be honest, the man truly deserves it for all of his hard work!!