Daniel Egan, a Bronx native, joined the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in 1935 and was ordained a priest. A turning point in his life came in 1952, as he was preaching in a church and noticed a woman in grave distress. She confessed that she was a drug addict struggling to kick her habit. Though Egan called every hospital in town, none would admit her: “She was shrugged off as a criminal.” He decided at that moment that he must open a home for women like her. That was the inspiration for Village Haven, a halfway house for women addicts, located across the street from the women’s house of detention.
The location was no accident. As Egan discovered, most of the women in the city jail were drug addicts. And yet few resources at the time were dedicated to recovery from addiction. Most authorities, even medical professionals, wrote off such addicts as hopeless cases. Fr. Egan believed otherwise.
Egan received permission from his order to dedicated himself full time to working with addicts, and he became such an expert in the field that he was dubbed “the Junkie Priest” – a name he happily adopted.
Jacoba of Settesoli was a young widow living in Rome. From the moment she first learned about Francis of Assisi, she longed to meet him. That opportunity arose when Francis and his companions traveled to Rome to seek the pope’s approval for their new order. After hearing the saint preach, Jacoba approached and asked how she might also follow in his path. Because she still had children to raise, Francis advised her not to give up her home. “A perfect life can be lived anywhere,” he said. “Poverty is everywhere. Charity is everywhere.”
As Francis was nearing death, he sent Jacoba a message, urging her to come quickly and to bring a shroud for his body and wax candles for his burial.
Following this counsel, Jacoba joined the Third Order of St. Francis, turned over administration of her property to her sons, and devoted herself to prayer and charitable works. She nevertheless remained close to Francis. He gave her a pet lamb, which used to follow her about. As Francis was nearing death, he sent Jacoba a message, urging her to come quickly and to bring a shroud for his body and wax candles for his burial.
She hastened to Assisi, doing as he had asked. She also brought with her a batch of his favorite almond cookies. At first there was consternation among the brothers about allowing a woman into the friary, but Francis interceded and welcomed her as “Brother Jacoba.” Thus, she was admitted and so she remained beside him until his death. Afterward he was buried in her shroud.
Jacoba remained in Assisi until her own death on February 8, 1273. She was buried near the tomb of St. Francis.
While I was praying a voice within me said, “Go, visit your father, blessed Francis, without delay, and hurry, because if you delay long you will not find him alive.”
Colette did not seek the limelight, but in doing God’s will she certainly attracted a lot of attention. Colette was born in Corbie, France. At 21, she began to follow the Third Order Rule and became an anchoress, a woman walled into a room whose only opening was a window into a church.
After four years of prayer and penance in this cell, she left it. With the approval and encouragement of the pope, she joined the Poor Clares and reintroduced the primitive Rule of St. Clare in the 17 monasteries she established. Her sisters were known for their poverty—they rejected any fixed income—and for their perpetual fast. Colette’s reform movement spread to other countries and is still thriving today. Colette was canonized in 1807. Her liturgical feast is celebrated on March 6.
Regina Christine Wilhelmine Bonzel was born in Germany to a deeply religious family. Early in life, she felt the call to religious life. She recalled:
On the day of my First Holy Communion, I was unspeakably happy. Before that I was vivacious child, ready to take part in every prank. But after I received the Lord in my heart and returned to my place, an indescribable feeling came over me. Without really knowing what I was saying, I repeated over and over again, “O Lord, I am your victim, accept me as your victim; do not reject me.”
Her parents refused to allow her to enter a religious order, but when she was twenty, she entered the Third Order of St. Francis. With a group of friends she embarked on a life of service to orphans. Eventually, they were recognized as a new congregation, the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. She became superior, taking the name Maria Theresia. As new members joined them, the order established a series of schools, hospitals, and orphanages. She was determined that her sisters always embrace the spirit of poverty, humility, and charity.
“We are the children of St. Francis. We must follow his example.”
During the Franco-Prussian War, Mother Maria’s sisters cared for over eight hundred wounded soldiers. Yet, after the war, the government instituted a series of harsh anti-Catholic measures known as the Kulturkampf. Severe restrictions were placed on all religious congregations, and the sisters were forbidden to accept new members. Mother Maria responded by sending sisters to Indiana in the United States. She herself accompanied the first six missionaries in 1875, and returned twice more to oversee their expanding work.
Mother Maria died on February 6, 1905. She was beatified in 2013.
Marthe Robin was born in 1902 in a small village near Lyons. Her early childhood was happy and unremarkable. When she was sixteen, however, she showed the first symptoms of a grave disease that would eventually leave her bedridden. On March 25, 1925, she offered a solemn prayer consecrating her life and her sufferings to God to help spread love in the world. Within three years she was totally paralyzed. That same year she entered the Franciscan Third Order. Unable to eat or drink, she was reported sustained for the rest of her life by the Eucharist alone. In time, she also received the marks of Christ’s wound on her hands and feet.
In 1936, a young priest named Georges Finet came to serve as her spiritual director. To him, she confided her vision for a new apostolic movement, the Foyers of Charity. With his help, her vision was realized. The Foyers of Charity is an international network of Catholic men and women who live, work, and pray together as a family to spread Christ’s love in the world.
Marthe lived on for many years – blind and immobilized, yet active through her prayers in the life of the Church, dispensing spiritual counsel, and showing that even when a person is stripped of everything, she still has the power to love.
She died on February 6, 1981. In 2014, Pope Francis recognized her heroic virtues and she was declared venerable.
Pedro Bautista Blásquez was born in Spain in 1542; at the age of 22 he entered the Franciscan Order and after finishing his studies and being a preacher for many years, in 1580 he left as a missionary for Mexico. Later, he was sent to the Philippines; in Manila where he founded a new Province – which today bears his name – of which he was elected Minister Provicial in 1591. During his ministry many friaries were erected and he himself, barefoot, took the Gospel to all the islands of the archipelago.
His fame as a missionary reached the King of Spain, who wanted to send him as a missionary to Japan. It was here, unfortunately, that his evangelizing work clashed with the political choices of Emperor Hideyoshi, after an initial flourishing phase, in which Peter founded friaries and hospitals in different parts of the country, it was then opposed by a rapid and inexorable decline. The local rulers were opposed to the spread of Christianity in the Empire, so Hideyoshi was forced to ban all Catholic missionaries.
For this reason, fr Peter Baptist, his five confreres and seventeen Franciscan Tertiaries, were arrested and condemned to undergo the torture of crucifixion. Taken to the city of Nagasaki, tortured and exposed to public ridicule, they suffered martyrdom on the 5th February, 1597. Together with them was Paul Miki, the Jesuit, and two of his catechists who were also martyred.
These martyrs were beatified on the 14th September, 1627 by Pope Urban VIII and canonized on the 8th June, 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
