Lesser-Known Saints: Saint Nicholas Owen

Born in 1550, Saint Nicholas Owen was raised in a family dedicated to the persecuted Catholic Church in England. He worked as a carpenter and mason, two of his brothers became Catholic priests, and another a printer of underground Catholic books.  Father Henry Garnet, Superior of English Jesuits, employed Nicholas to construct hiding places and escape routes in the various mansions used as priest-centers throughout England. 

By day he worked at the mansions on regular wood and stone-working jobs so that no one would question his presence; by night he worked alone, digging tunnels and creating hidden passages and rooms in the houses. Some of his rooms were large enough to hold cramped, secretive Masses, but most were a way for clerics to escape the priest-hunters. The anti-Catholic authorities eventually learned that the hiding places existed, but had no idea who was doing the work, or how many there were.

Due to the work, the danger, and the periodic arrests of the Jesuits, Nicholas never had a formal novitiate, but he did receive instruction, and in 1577 became a Jesuit Brother. In April of 1594 he was arrested in London and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for his association with Catholic priests. Not knowing who they had, the authorities released Nicholas soon after, and he resumed his work.

In 1605, Brother Nicholas and three other Jesuits were forced to hide in Hinlip Hall, a structure with at least 13 of his hiding places, to escape the priest-hunters. Saint Nicholas spent four days in one of his secret rooms, but having no food or water, he finally surrendered and was taken to a London prison. There he was endlessly tortured for information on the underground network of priests and their hiding. He was abused so violently that while suspended from a wall with weights on his ankles, his stomach split open, spilling his intestines to the floor. He survived for hours before dying from the wound.

Saint Nicholas was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.


Adapted from Saints SQPN

Visit to Cincinnati

For the long weekend, fellow seminarian Ryan Elder and I visited Cincinnati, OH.  Ryan had always wanted to visit the tomb of his great-great uncle and former Archbishop of Cincinnati, Bishop William Henry Elder:

I was also interested in the trip because of my love for history.  Before his transfer to Cincinnati, Archbishop Elder was the Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi during the War Between the States.  He was a rare native Southerner among his fellow bishops, and was one of the most prominent voices in the South.  During the War, he consistently taught that Southerners were to remain loyal to the Confederacy.  Once Federal troops occupied Mississippi, Bishop Elder was placed under house arrest for refusing to recognize Abraham Lincoln as the President.

The ride to Cincinnati:

The current Archbishop of Cincinnati, Archbishop Schnurr, hosted us at the Cincinnati seminary:

Ryan and I at the craft brew tasting on the bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio:

An altar where Archbishop Elder offered Mass in his Cathedral:

Some of Archbishop Elder's belongings:

The Archbishop's tomb:

Blessed Chiara Luce

A friend alerted me to the life of Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano, and I found her story to be quite edifying.  Blessed Chiara was beatified on September 25, 2010, and her feast day will be celebrated every year on her birthday, October 29.

The following lines are taken from Fr. John Larson's "Generation X Gets a 'Blessed.'"

Chiara's parents were a bit older, married in 1960. They wanted a child, but for 11 years they were unable to conceive. Finally, after much prayer, and in particular after the father prayed at a local shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Rocche, Chiara came along. She was to be their only child.

They became involved with a movement called "Focolare." In 1981, the parents and Chiara attended a big event in Rome called Familyfest. This had a major impact on Chiara. She wanted to commit herself to the Gospel whole-heartedly — to live it in a radical way. She started to focus on loving those around her with the love of Christ. She started to do little acts of self-denial. She wrote such things in her diary as: "One of my classmates has chicken pox and everyone is afraid to go visit her. My parents have agreed that it's okay if I bring her her homework, so she won't feel alone. I think that love is more important than fear."

In many ways she was a typical teenage girl. She experienced tension with her parents. For instance, they had to work out a compromise on how late she could stay out. She had a wide circle of friends and liked to spend the evening with her friends in coffee shops. She was involved in various sports, such as tennis and swimming. She liked to sing and dance and was considering a possible career as a flight attendant. She didn't always get perfect marks. She even failed math once.

However, her typical teenage life changed when, one day while playing tennis, she experience a sharp pain in her left shoulder. It turned out to be bone cancer. She spent some time alone in her room and essentially abandoned herself to divine providence. She wrote "The illness arrived just at the right moment because I was going in the wrong direction" and saw it as improving her relationship with God. As the painful treatments were applied, she offered all her pain up without hesitation. She would say, "It's for you, Jesus; if You want it, I want it too." This was said, no doubt, in the sense of being a victim soul and sharing in the sufferings of Christ. She focused on Jesus Forsaken — a way of looking at Christ that is promoted in the Focolare movement. She focused on consoling Jesus.

Her doctor was an atheist who was very critical of the Church. However, he was impacted by her witness. He said that because of her he found consistency in the Christian message. "Everything about Christianity makes sense to me."

Her illness lasted three years, but she remained cheerful through it all. She wrote the following to Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare movement, in July of 1990: "Medicine has laid down its arms. Since we stopped the treatment, the pain in my back has increased. But it's my Spouse who is coming to see me. I repeat with you, 'If You want it, I want it too.'"

As her suffering increased, she refused morphine saying "It reduces my lucidity, and there's only one thing I can do now: to offer my suffering to Jesus because I want to share as much as possible in His suffering on the cross."

Her last words were, "Be happy, because I am."

She died on Oct. 7, 1990. The funeral was celebrated by her bishop, and in less than 10 years he started the process toward her beatification. The process went quite well, and in 2008 she was declared a Venerable Servant of God. 

In 2001 a young boy in Italy contracted a severe case of meningitis. He was near death. His organs started shutting down — five vital organs were compromised. The doctor gave him 48 hours to live. An uncle of the boy suggested asking the help of Chiara. After a night of prayer, the boy began to improve. His cure was examined and declared outside the realm of natural causes.

In December of 2009, Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle. The stage was set for her beatification.

The Catholic News Agency reported on September 26, 2010 that after a youth celebration in Blessed Chiara's honor, Cardinal Bertone spoke of the saintly young woman as a "brilliant" and "credible” example of “authenticity and altruism.”

The cardinal recalled a conversation with the Holy Father last week on the flight back from the U.K., when the Pope told him that "this, our Blessed is a valuable example for young people."

Pope Benedict spoke of this example in his pre-Angelus catechesis on Sunday.  Speaking of Chiara's way of living as a demonstration of how Love, "with a capital 'L'," gives true happiness, he said that for everyone, she was "a ray of light, as her nickname says: 'Chiara Luce' (Clear Light)."