Our Patrons
Our Patrons
Our Lady of Fatima
Fatima is a town in Portugal. Between 13th May and 13th October 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared six times to three children. The three shepherd children were Lucia Dos Santos, Jacinta and Francisco Marto.
Lucia relates that The Blessed Virgin Mary told the children that God had sent her with a message. She promised that peace from Heaven would be brought to all the world in return for prayer, penance and Acts of Reparation and she expressed the importance of praying the rosary daily.
Lucia told of ‘Three secrets of Fatima’ given to the children during the visitations and, for her final appearance, the Blessed Virgin Mary had said there would be a miracle so that all would believe. On that day, Lucia asked the crowd to look at the sun. They found they could without hurting their eyes and nearly all the crowd reported seeing a ‘miracle of the sun’. Some described the sun as dancing, others said it was changing colour and rotating. Even people from miles away reported seeing these signs.
This is a very brief summary of Our Lady of Fatima. Much more information can be found in books and from sites such as the link below
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/our-lady-of-fatima-423
St. Thomas More
St. Thomas More was born in London. He studied at Oxford and became a lawyer, after considering joining a monastery. In 1517 he began working for King Henry VIII as secretary, confidant, interpreter, diplomat and Speaker of the House of Commons. He was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1529.
It was in this role that he refused to accept Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church in England and Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He resigned and continued to fight against the King’s divorce. In 1534 he was arrested as he would not sign an oath that required him to refuse to accept the Pope but to acknowledge King Henry VIII’s divorce. He was tried for treason and executed on Tower Hill in 1535.
St. Thomas More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised by Pope Pius XI in 1935. His feast day is on 22nd June and shared with St. John Fisher, a bishop who was also beheaded on King Henry VIII’s orders for not signing the oath. Pope John Paul II declared St. Thomas more as patron saint of statesmen and politicians.
This is a very brief summary of St. Thomas More. Much more information can be found in books and from sites such as the link below:
https://www.luminarium.org/renlit/morebio.htm
Our Lady of La Salette
On September 19th 1846, the Virgin Mary appeared to two children, Maximin and Melanie at La Salette in the French Alps. She was sitting on stones with her beautiful face in her hands, crying. She wore a shining white dress with golden apron and a gold, radiant crucifix with a hammer to the left and pincers to the right.
The Virgin Mary told the children not to be afraid, that she brought good news. She asked for people to follow her Son and to keep Sunday Holy. She asked for people not to use her Son’s name in vain. She reminded the children to say their prayers each morning and night, ‘At least an Our Father and a Hail Mary. And when you can do better, more’ and she asked for this to be made known to all her people.
A secret was also confided to each of the children, though neither could hear what the other was told. In time, the children each sent their secret to Pope Pius IX.
You can find out much more about Our Lady of La Salette through the prayer book
‘Encountering Mary at La Salette’ by Fr Slawomir Jedrych MS (our old priest Fr Slawek).
Copies of the book are available through the church repository.
Words from Pope John Paul II on Our Lady of La Salette:
“The message of La Salette was given to two young shepherds in a period of great suffering. People were scourged by famine, subjected to many injustices. Indifference or hostility toward the Gospel message worsened. As she appeared, bearing upon her breast the likeness of her crucified Son, Our Lady showed herself to be associated to the work of salvation, experiencing compassion for her children…
La Salette is a message of hope – a hope sustained by the intercession of her who is the Mother of all peoples… The arm of Mary’s Son will not weigh upon, will not condemn, the people who walk humbly in the pathway of the Lord. Christ will take the outstretched hand into his own and lead to new life the sinner reconciled by the grace of the Cross…
At La Salette, Mary clearly spoke of the constancy of her prayer for the world: she will never abandon the people created in the image and likeness of God, those to whom it has been given to become children of God. May she lead to her Son all the nations of the earth”.
Pope John Paul II
May 6, 1996
Click on the link below to find out more:
