New Christian Year – September

At the center of the month of September is the mystery of redemptive pain: the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows. It is not surprising that, around the Martyr of Calvary and the Sorrowful Mother, there are many martyrs in this month: the largest group of martyrs beatified together - and at the same time the first martyrs beatified in the third millennium - are the 233 martyrs of Valencia, to which must be added the groups headed by Saint Melchior Grodzieccki, Blessed Alfonso Navarrete, Blessed Apolinar Franco, Saint Andrew Kim, Saints Lorenzo Ruiz and Domingo de Erquicia... Special mention should be made of the biblical characters, from the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, to Moses, Judith, Joseph, Tobit, Zechariah, Jonas... Among the great saints of Christian antiquity, the apostle Matthew stands out first of all, and the holy fathers Jerome, John Chrysostom and Gregory the Great. Alongside them, saints of the stature of Cornelius and Cyprian, Cosmas and Damian, with such deep roots in piety and liturgy. Saints of our own time, in addition to the young martyr from Lleida Francisco Castelló, Brother Gárate, Father Pío, Mother Teresa of Calcutta... On this cover, we are left with the giant of charity and the proclamation of the Gospel that was SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL: he set in motion some of the most revolutionary forms of loving and serving, which remain in full force in the third millennium.

JOSÉ A. MARTÍNEZ PUCHE

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