Blessed Emilie Tavernier-Gamelin and Walsingham
The Church in Canada venerates a number of Canadian saints and blesseds, almost all of them from Quebec, since the rest of Canada was officially and mostly Protestant, and the Church is not permitted to beatify members of other religions, for obvious reasons, even if they die with a reputation for holiness.
Such today is Blessed Emilie Tavernier Gavelin (+1851), born at the very beginning of the 19th century, and going to her eternal reward 51 years later. In the midst of pondering a religious, consecrated life (writing that she was giving up the ‘dandies’ and the pomps of this world), Emilie married a 50 year-old bachelor, Jean-Baptiste Gamelin, at the age of 23, from which union three children were born, two dying in infancy, and the third soon after M. Gamelin’s untimely death four years later.
As a now 27 year old widow, with some financial means, Emilie devoted herself for the rest of her life to good works; after a novitiate under the bishop, she helped to found the Sister of Providence of Montreal, dedicated to social needs whatever they might be, not least, ahead of her time, the care of the elderly, who even back then Emilie found to be suffering from extreme and debilitating loneliness (and things have gotten much worse since then), as well as the insane (and mental instability is also now a near-epidemic). But they also, amongst other tasks, taught and cared for the sick, and now work in nine countries across the world.
It was while caring for the victims during a cholera outbreak that Emilie died after a brief illness, her last words being ‘humility, simplicity, charity…above all, char…’
Indeed. The greatest of these is love, and we could do with more true charity in this world, and in this nation, rather than the fake, emotionalist variety, which quickly grows lukewarm, cold and indifferent. Only a vibrant faith and a life of prayer and self-gift (which implies some self-denial) can love burn bright.
Today is also the official feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, the primary Marian shrine of merrie England, destroyed by the troops of Henry VIII, and now flourishing once again in these days when England needs her spiritual Mother the most. See my reflections on my own pilgrimage there.
The feast of the Canadian Martyrs is coming up on Friday, and I will post something on them, but in the interim, if you are inclined, pray to them for this nation the Catholic faith of which was nourished by their blood. See the posted novena, .
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→