Subj : August 1st - Saint Agrippina Di Mineo To : All From : rich Date : Sat Jul 31 2021 10:22:14 From: rich August 1st - Saint Agrippina Di Mineo Saint Agrippina Di Mineo was a beautiful blond princess who was unmercifully tortured to death by the Emperor Valerian in 256 AD. After her death, her body was taken from Rome to Mineo, Sicily, by three holy women; Bassa, Paula and Agatonica. The Greeks also honor her and claim to have relics of her. Sant' Agrippina is the patron saint of thunderstorms, leprosy and evil spirits. Her Feast day is celebrated on the first weekend in August. Each year since 1914 a group of devoted people come together to renew their faith in her in Boston's North End, as was the custom in the land of origin, Mineo, Sicily. Each year everyone is invited to witness the respect and honor that is bestowed on this young, beautiful martyred saint. The story of the journey of the martyred body of St. Agrippina from Rome to Mineo, Sicily is full of the miraculous. The fragrance that accompanied the body of St. Agrippina wherever it went, the veneration of the sailors and the farmers, the miraculous light weight of the reliquary so that the three young girls could carry it, the quickness of the voyage from Rome to Sicily, the miraculous cloud that covered the girls and transported them and the relics at certain times of danger in the journey, the angels that protected them from harm, the devils that were defeated and swept out at the sight of the sacred relics, and the miracle of Teogonia=E2=80=94thes= e are all signs that it was the will of God that Agrippina should be the Saint of this blessed city of Mineo. As the sacred tradition affirms, the relics of St. Agrippina arrived in Mineo on Wednesday, May 17, in the year 261. Her feast day is celebrated on the first weekend in August in Boston. Each year for the past 86 years, groups of devoted people come together in Boston's North End to renew their faith in Saint Agrippina, as was the custom in Mineo, Sicily. Each year everyone is invited to witness the respect and honor that is bestowed on this young, beautiful martyred Saint. Feast Day Celebrations Since 1914, members of the St. Agrippina Di Mineo Society gather in Boston's North End to honor the Saint and raise money to help keep the churches in good repair. This is a tradition that can be traced back to Mineo, Sicily, the city where she was buried. Posters advertising the event proclaim that "twenty devoted men" will carry a one-ton statue of the saint for several hours. The statue is decked with ribbons, to which those at the festival pin dollar bills. First, a priest says a brief prayer, and unveils the statue amid fireworks and music. When the signal is given, the devoted men lift the statue on their shoulders and begin the procession. The twenty devoted men stop frequently and set the statue down, both to give themselves a rest from carrying it, and to give onlookers a chance to pin their money on the statue. Each time they set the statue down, the twenty devoted men yell out "Viva Agrippina!" several times. Sometimes they would even sing the words, "Viva Saint Agrippina!" to the tune "Deep in the Heart of Texas." The Roma Band then plays several songs while money is pinned on the statue. The devoted men then pick up the statue again, walk for about 20 feet, and then set the statue down again and repeat the whole procedure. Saint Quote We therefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allocating more time to the study of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them, and let our thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge which shows us heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and will deserve punishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and superficial. By serious and frequent meditation it must be concocted, digested, and turned into the nourishment of our affections, before it can be powerful and operative enough to change them, and produce the necessary fruit in our lives. For this all the saints affected solitude and retreats from the noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed them. --St. Apollinaris Bible Quote But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.=C2 (1 Tim 3:15) <><><><> Saint Alphonsus Liguori, from The Redeeming Love of Christ God says to each of us: "Give me your heart, that is, your will." We, in turn, cannot offer anything more precious than to say: "Lord, take possession of us; we give our whole will to you; make us understand what it is that you desire of us, and we will perform it." If we would give full satisfaction to the heart of God, we must bring our own will in everything into conformity with his; and not only into conformity, but into uniformity also, as regards all that God ordains. Conformity signifies the joining of our own will to the will of God; but uniformity signifies, further, our making of the divine and our own will one will only, so that we desire nothing but what God desires, and his will becomes ours. This is the sum and substance of that perfection to which we ought to be ever aspiring; this is what must be the aim of all we do, and of all our desires, meditations and prayers. For this we must invoke the assistance of all our patron saints and our guardian angels, and, above all, of our divine mother Mary, who was the most perfect saint, because she embraced most perfectly the divine will. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .