Subj : October 21st - St. Wendelin To : All From : rich Date : Sat Oct 20 2018 08:34:14 From: rich October 21st - St. Wendelin Also known as Wendel, Wendolinus, Wendelinus Died c. 607 Wendelin was one of those many Irish ascetics and monks who originated in a= nd immigrated from Ireland. He was the son of one of Ireland's pett= y kings, born towards the middle of the sixth Century. A pious young man, W= endelin made pilgrimage to Rome. Traveling home thereafter through Germany,= he decided to settle down there as a hermit. The place he chose was Westri= cht in the German diocese of Trier, between the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. When he had been there a while as a lone hermit, living in his little hermi= tage and spending most of his time in prayer, a local German landowner, evi= dently an exponent of the =E2=80=9Cwork ethic=E2=80=9D rebuked him for bein= g a =E2=80=9Cdo-nothing=E2=80=9D. Wendelin seems to have feared the attitud= e of this man who had no appreciation of the contemplative life, so he aske= d him for a job. The landowner put him in charge of his pigs. Eventually, h= owever--through a miracle, it is said--Wendelin was released from this time= -consuming task, and allowed to return to his professional life of prayer. = Gradually his German neighbors began to realize that this was indeed a holy= man, truly industrious in the spiritual sense. Indeed, people began to mov= e into his vicinity, and Benedictine monks set up a monastery nearby at Tho= ley. Their town was eventually called Sankt Wendel. After Wendelin's death, miracles began to be worked through his hea= venly patronage, so a chapel was built to enshrine his tomb. In 1320 the co= mmunity prayed to him for preservation from the plague. The plague passed t= heir town, so the archbishop of Treves, in gratitude, rebuilt the holy man= 's chapel. This building was in turn replaced by a great gothic shr= ine-church. The people of that whole district, chiefly farmers by calling, = adopted St. Wendelin as the official patron saint of their work and their l= ocality. In the early decades of the 19th century, economic and social conditions be= gan to deteriorate in the Rhineland. Consequently, many people from the dio= cese of Treves decided to move to America and start all over again. A fair number of the Wendelians settled in the northwestern part of Steuben= County, New York, and became active in growing the potatoes for which that= district is noted. The first group arrived as early as 1832 in the town of= Dansville, then a part of Steuben County. In 1834, two-thirds of the Germa= n community there fell victim to cholera. Nevertheless, by 1840, 40 men had= arrived from Germany, many with their families. In 1838, the 17 pioneer fa= milies received a =E2=80=9Cchurch lot=E2=80=9D on Sandy Hill, south of the = present Perkinsville. Here they built a simple log church, surrounded by a = graveyard. Begun in 1839, it was dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary o= n October 2, 1844. For a while this church served all the German Catholics = in the neighboring countryside, by then numbering as high as 1,000. But by = 1845 the Dansville Germans acquired their own St. Mary's Church, an= d in 1850, Perkinsville, in the valley below Sandy Hill, built the Church o= f the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Sacred Heart Church at Perk= insville is that parish's second church building, dating from 1884)= ... The Sandy Hill Church was abandoned around 1851. The site of this church an= d cemetery is now marked by a large cross. The lifestyle at Perkinsville was as much like that of Sankt Wendelin in Ge= rmany as it was possible to make it. The people kept up their public euchar= istic processions on the feast of Corpus Christi. They had their own paroch= ial school, taught by German-speaking teachers, usually nuns. In fact, the = village was so German that when its team played baseball with the team from= Dansville, they played it in German as late as 1900! If the Perkinsville church was not named after St. Wendelin, at least it ha= d a statue of him. In 1897, the German-born pastor, Father Alois Huber, obt= ained a relic of St. Wendelin--a portion of his bones--from Bishop Felix Ko= rum of Trier. Thus Irish-born St. Wendelin established his physical presenc= e among his German devotees who had moved their farms from the Moselle Rive= r country to the Cohocton River country. May he continue to take care of th= eir many descendants! Bible Quote: who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from t= he dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?[a] = Romans 8:34 RSVCE Saint Quote: Let us establish a permanent Spring season in our heart through =E2=80=98ye= s' often repeated to all of God's permissions and wills. --Saint Frances de Sales <><><><> Reflection Blessings and woes are two sides of the same spiritual coin: How can we = possibly find happiness in poverty, hunger and mourning or persecution? The= joy of the heaven that awaits us will more than compensate for our sufferi= ngs, troubles and hardships of this world. But those deprived of spiritual joy seek wealth, honors, worldly and carnal pleasures have rewarded themselves here on Earth. Let us pray that we are worthy to receive the joys and blessings that Jesus has promised. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .