From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   July 26th - St. Bartholomea Capitanio   
      
   Born in Lovere (near Brescia), Lombardy, Italy, 1807; died July 26, 1833;   
   canonized in 1950; feast day was July 27. Bartholomea Capitanio, together   
   with Saint Vincentia Gerosa, founded the Institute of the Sisters of Charity   
   (Suore della carità) of Lovere, their native town. Bartholomea was the   
   daughter of a rough corn-farmer, who was an alcoholic, and a virtuous mother   
   who, together with the sisters of her convent school, taught the young girl   
   to strive for Christian perfection.   
      
   Her parents forbade her to become a nun, so she took a vow of perpetual   
   chastity and decided to devote herself to teaching. For that reason, she   
   earned a diploma to teach elementary school. In this way she consecrated her   
   life to the apostolate of the young, and organized a sodality of Saint   
   Aloysius (Lovere is near his birthplace), which spread to other districts.   
      
   Despite her extreme youth, she was the prime force behind the creation of   
   the Sisters of Charity during her lifetime. She saw the need to perpetuate   
   the good that was being done through the sodality by creating a religious   
   institute. She joined forces with (Catherine) Vincentia Gerosa, who was also   
   moved by the state of ignorance and neglect in which so many people lived.   
      
   Although the two women were very different, they melded their talents well.   
   Vincentia was already 40 when she got to know Bartholomea, and the latter   
   was only 26 when she died. Catherine's main interest was in nursing the sick   
   poor for whom she had already founded a hospital, taking on the heaviest   
   burdens herself; while Bartholomea's interest was education. Nevertheless,   
   it was a partnership of persons of remarkable determination and   
   selflessness.   
      
   Their congregation was designed to teach the young and nurse the sick. Its   
   rule is based on the principles of Saint Vincent de Paul. With the help of   
   their bishop, who encouraged them from the beginning, the institute was   
   approved by the pope in 1840, and their foundation, which has spread widely,   
   now has 500 to 600 communities.   
      
   Bartholomea also achieved fame as a writer on spiritual subjects. She never   
   spared herself, even when dying of consumption. Her endless correspondence   
   and outside activities left her no time for leisure. Four months before her   
   death, she finally obeyed her doctor's order to stop writing letters, but   
   she was already too ill to be saved (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia,   
   Walsh).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found - not hidden away in   
   corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we   
   may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably   
   the greater.   
   -St. Teresa of Avila   
      
   Bible Quote   
   1. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of   
   charity, if any society of the spirit, if any bowels of commiseration: 2.   
   Fulfil ye my joy, that you may be of one mind, having the same charity,   
   being of one accord, agreeing in sentiment. 3. Let nothing be done through   
   contention, neither by vain glory: but in humility, let each esteem others   
   better than themselves: 4. Each one not considering the things that are his   
   own, but those that are other men's. 5. For let this mind be in you, which   
   was also in Christ Jesus:   (Philippians 2:1-5)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to St. Anne:   
      
   With my heart full of the most sincere veneration, I prostrate myself   
   before thee, O Glorious St. Anne. Thou art that creature of privilege and   
   predilection, who by the extraordinary virtues and holiness didst merit   
   from God the high favor of giving life to her who is the Treasury of all   
   graces, blessed amongst women, the Mother of the Word Incarnate, the most   
   holy Virgin Mary. By virtue of so lofty a privilege, do thou deign, O most   
   compassionate Saint Anne, to receive me into the number of thy true   
   clients, for so I profess myself and so I desire to remain throughout my   
   entire life.   
      
   Shield me with thine effectual patronage and obtain for me from God the   
   power to imitate those virtues wherewith thou wast so plentifully   
   adorned. Grant that I may know and weep over my sins in my bitterness of   
   heart. Obtain for me the grace of a most active love for Jesus and Mary,   
   and a resolution to fulfill the duties of my state of life with   
   faithfulness and constancy. Save me from every danger that confronts me in   
   life, and help me at the hour of death, that so I may come in safety to   
   paradise, there to sing with thee, O most happy mother, the praises of the   
   Word of God made Man in the womb of thy most pure daughter, the Virgin   
   Mother. Amen.   
      
   Imprimatur: Francis J. Mugavero, Bishop of Brooklyn, Feb 28, 1978.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)