Magdi Christian Allam stands in a long line of Christians whose witness to Christ was a matter of life and death. This testament was written by Dom Christian de Cherge, OCSO in Algiers, December 1, 1993 to be opened in the event of his death at the hands of Islamic extremists. The letter is a kind of apologia for the seven French Trappists of Tibhirine–Brothers Christian-Marie, Bruno, Célestin, Christophe, Luc, Michel, and Paul who chose to remain in Algeria despite increasing threats on their lives, the assassinations of several of their friends, and the urging of various government and Church authorities to abandon their home and their mission.
Taken hostage just before Palm Sunday, the seven, who have become known as the “martyrs of hope,” gave their final witness on May 24, 1996. The testament was read in public two days later on Pentecost Sunday, 1996.
Greek Catholic Martyr & Righteous Among The Nations
from www.vatican.va: “The Servant of God Fr Emilian Kovch was born on 20 August 1884, near Kosiv. In 1911, after graduating from the College of Sts Sergius and Bacchus in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood. In the spring of 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo for aiding Jews. On 25 March 1944 he was burned to death in the ovens of the Majdanek Nazi death camp. On 9 September 1999 he was honoured with the title “Righteous Ukrainian” by the Jewish Council of Ukraine.”
Succumbed to pneumonia on this date back in 1959 in a Czechoslovakian prison. Illness was contracted when confined to solitary confinement as punishment for singing a Christmas carol. See also my favorite photo of him - Blessed Metod Dominik Trčka in a horse-drawn cart.
Blessed Bronisław Komorowski - 1889-1940
Polish secular clergyman, killed in the Nazi concentration camp of Stutthof. One of the 106 Polish martyrs beatified by Ven. John Paul II in Warsaw June 13, 1999.
I met a gentlemen on Paltalk last night who said he was an Iraqi Christian who was now living in the US. He sent me a link to this video being hosted by the Religious Freedom Coalition (a group I know nothing about) that they say was produced by the Chaldean Church in Beirut, Lebanon. I told the gentleman I would watch it and then post a link to it here on Per Christum.
I often suffer from “compassion fatigue” due to the 24-hour news coverage and discussion in the blogosphere of all the violence and atrocities in our world. The senselessness and cruelty of events like the tragic kidnapping and death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho and persecution of our brothers and sisters have left me feeling sort of numb and distant. Watching the stories of the families in this video has helped break through some of that fog.
The man who gave me the link said he still has family in Iraq who are in harms way because they name the name of Christ. Please pray for them.
UPDATE: It seems that page has been taken down (a commenter said it was due to the number of hits the video was getting.) You can view it on YouTube as well. Below is part 1, go to the YouTube page for the rest.
We have an early, precious, almost unembellished account of the martyrdom of St. Maximilian in modern-day Algeria:
Brought before the proconsul Dion, Maximilian refused enlistment in the Roman army saying, “I cannot serve, I cannot do evil. I am a Christian.”
Dion replied: “You must serve or die.”
Maximilian: “I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world. I tell you I am a Christian.”
Dion: “There are Christian soldiers serving our rulers Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Galerius.”
Maximilian: “That is their business. I also am a Christian, and I cannot serve.”
Dion: “But what harm do soldiers do?”
Maximilian: “You know well enough.”
Dion: “If you will not do your service I shall condemn you to death for contempt of the army.”
Maximilian: “I shall not die. If I go from this earth my soul will live with Christ my Lord.”
Maximilian was 21 years old when he gladly offered his life to God. His father went home from the execution site joyful, thanking God that he had been able to offer heaven such a gift.
The Russian Orthodox Church in Communion with Rome was a rather small body that existed openly for only a few decades just before and after the Bloshevik Revolution. Totally drive underground, there are today just a handful of Russian Orthodox parishes that have made their desire for communion with Rome known, and gone under the omophor of the Latin ordinaries in Russia.
I for one would very much like to see the restoration of an exarch (bishop) for them, but at this time the Vaticak Ostpolitik is such that appeasing the Patriarch of Moscow is the order of the day. The Patriarch who rails against the presence of Latin bishops who serve diocese that serve the 600,000 Latin Catholics who are descendents of the 3 million Catholics found in the Russian empire before the Revolution.
(My thoughts on +++ALEKSY II another day - for now it will suffice to say he would do well to remember who built St. Catherines RC Church in Moscow…)
I have resolved to try to post at least one of the new saints or beati daily.
Too often Catholics begin to think of saints as something in the past… Mention “the saints” and Catholic imaginations immediately go to images of statues staring at the ceiling or icons that depict other-worldly virtue in a highly symbolic fashion. To be quite clear, there is nothing, in and of itself, wrong with that sort of imagery. Nothing at all.
But I fear too many people have a disconnect between those sorts of images and the reality that saints are real, as real as you and I are. They are, in fact, as alive as you and I are. Actually, more so still!
During the Pontificate of the Venerable John Paul the Great, well over a thousand such souls were raised to the dignity of the altar. More than a few of them, had they not suffered martyrdom, would be the same age as many of the kindly grandparents we interact with daily. I really want to highlight some of these friendly God-loving souls daily (many of whom we have photographs of, some we have in color, some we have on film!) to show that sanctity is not in the past. It is difficult but not impossible. Still having love and respect and prayers with the ones that went before our modern time, I want to put some emphasis on those who were among us on this side of the vale of tears in the last 100 years when possible. Sanctity is not something “from the old days”. It is real. It is possible. It is for today.
Really when you get to know some of these souls, I imagine a good number of them were not aware in the least that they would be named saints one day. They were humble people who just begged the grace to be faithful and made it priority #1.
(Conversely as Father Isaac Mary Relyea tells us, “If you think you’re holy, that is the first sign you’re not!”)
So given this rich, rich tapestry of sanctity found even into the modern era, I want to bring some focus on these souls for personal inspiration, and also to help other Catholics develop friendship with these powerful friends of God who have already gone before us. They love God, they love us. We love God, we love them.
For a time I had thought about starting a secondary blog with a focus just on underscoring these noble souls. As I thought more about that, however, I came to realize that I rather preferred interspersing them into the sometimes somewhat eclectic posts of PC. Just as they are very real and among us still today, I wanted to keep them in the mix of our posts and our cyber-life here. I invite my 13 other blog contributors to do the same as they see fit. Please share the saints that give you friendship and share their stories with us here.
As my pastor reminds our small flock, even when there are not a lot of people in the pews, our church is always full with the angels and saints who happily join us whenever we partake in the divine and mystical worship.
And note please that the graphic on this post is the painting “The Saints” by Fra Angelico. Fra Angelico (having been beatified by our last Holy Father) is on his way to being recognized as being in the company of the saints himself.
Going over to my grandparent’s house as a child I always liked to take a look through my Grandmother’s old Roman Missal. The book itself was filled with remarkable drawings of the (as I recall) pen & ink or wood-cut variety. I rather liked that as a child. I still like that today.
But placed throughout the missal as bookmarks of sorts were holy cards that I found beautiful and fascinating. Most of them were with prayers on the back to Our Lady or the saint depicted… Some were from funerals, with prayers to be offered for those who had passed.
Sacherine? Sure.Piously over-devotional (POD)? Of course.
Fun to trade like baseball cards? (I’ll trade you a Saint Boniface with his ax for a Santo Niño de Cebu!)? Maybe…
Beautiful momentos of our Catholic heritage and reminders that we have friends where it counts? Absolutely.
I dig it the most!
So I give you Holy Cards for your Inspiration. A simply well done beautiful blog that has an amazing array of beautiful old holy cards. You can spend a few hours going through the beautiful collection of images.
And when you find some nice ones, pick up a few. You never know whose grandchildren will one day appreciate them.
An excellent day to pray to end abortion and read the psalms. Of course, what day isn’t? And… King David Blessed Gerardo Cagnoli (Franciscan, 13th century)
Also known as Gregor Khomysyn; Hryhorij Khomyshyn; Hryhorij Khomysyn;
Hryhory Khomyshyn; Hryhory Khomysyn
Blessed Bishop Gregory (Hryhorii) was born March 25, 1865 in in November of 1893, he studied theology in Vienna, Austria. He was appointed rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv in 1902 he was consecrated bishop for the Eparchy of Stanislav in May of 1904, serving that see faithfully through WW1 and the Russian revolution.
He was arrested for his faith in 1939 by the NKVD and again in April 1945. He was deported to Kyiv where he died a martyr in prison on January 17, 1947, a few months short of his 80th birthday.
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Catholic, General, Culture Wars, Islam, Martyrs | Tagged: Algeria, Catholic, General, culture war, Islam, Martyrs, Monasticism, Muslim, Terrorisim, Trappists | 
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