From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 3rd - Saint Malachy D'armagh, Primate of Ireland   
      
   (d. 1148)   
      
   Born in the late eleventh century of a princely family, in the   
   archiepiscopal city of Armagh, Saint Malachy was raised in the fear and love   
   of God. He seemed to have the virtues of maturity hidden under the   
   appearances of childhood. Praises did not inflate him, and reproaches did   
   not sadden him. He had a horror of idleness, and a command from his   
   preceptors was always like a law for him. He would often separate from his   
   companions to converse in prayer with God. When he was still a young man, he   
   made himself the disciple of a holy hermit who had established a little cell   
   near the cathedral church of Armagh. The archbishop of Armagh made him a   
   deacon of his church, and when at the age of twenty-five he was ordained a   
   priest, commanded him to preach the Gospel and catechize his people. He   
   uprooted vices and corrected abuses, and the archdiocese derived great   
   profit from his ministry.   
      
   An episode from the life of Saint Malachy teaches us several truths   
   concerning purgatory. He had a sister who was very worldly, and whom he   
   found indifferent to his efforts to lead her to reflect on the reason for   
   her existence and her last ends. He learned one day that she had died after   
   having manifested regret for her sins, and he offered a Mass for her soul;   
   but he did not think of continuing this practice. After thirty days he heard   
   in a dream that she was standing outside the church and had not eaten for   
   one month. He began again to pray for her, and then in a dream beheld her   
   clothed in a black robe, near the door of the church but unable to enter. He   
   continued his suffrages, and on a third occasion saw her in a robe which was   
   more or less white, having entered the church but unable to approach the   
   altar. The last time he saw her she was within the church, clothed in white   
   and near the altar, in the company of the just. We learn from this how   
   serious our indifference and lack of love for God are; that our prayers are   
   efficacious in relieving our dear ones; and that it is ordinarily a little   
   at a time that souls are delivered from the bonds of their sins and   
   negligence.   
      
   Saint Malachy brought about several miracles, and manifested great devotion   
   and zeal in the reconstruction and re-establishment of a monastery whose   
   nine hundred religious had been massacred by pirates; these facts led to his   
   being consecrated Bishop of Connor, a small see whose inhabitants were   
   Christian in name but pagan in practice. The venerable pastor taught the   
   people with patience and warned them with gentleness. He endured many   
   insults and outrages, but finally the hardened hearts were softened and   
   began to listen to his voice and instructions. He remained in this see until   
   a hostile king and his army decimated the city of Connor. At that time, the   
   Archbishop of Armagh was nearing death and named him to succeed him in this   
   metropolitan see, overriding his humility and protestations of insufficient   
   virtue and competence.   
      
   Again he had a great deal to suffer in the exercise of his new charge. The   
   see of Armagh, by a longstanding abuse, had been held somewhat like a throne   
   by one single family, and it required on the part of the Saint no little   
   tact and firmness to calm the dissensions caused by his election.   
   Ecclesiastical discipline had been forgotten, and depraved morals everywhere   
   had virtually annihilated faith and piety. The good bishop who had named   
   Saint Malachy had labored to correct the abuses, and hoped his virtuous   
   successor might better succeed in the same post. Nonetheless, two years   
   passed before Malachy could even enter into the city as its archbishop;   
   troops were levied against his entry by the pretender to the same title.   
   Saint Malachy had accepted the office on the condition that he assume the   
   charge only after the death or flight of the false bishop, for he did not   
   want to cause a war and the death of those whose salvation he desired to   
   procure. The pretender and his cousin, with several others of the same   
   lineage, were struck down soon afterwards by the hand of God, and their   
   exemplary chastisements gave great credit to the Saint, and enabled him to   
   make ordinances to countermand the disorders. He divided the diocese and   
   left the larger portion, that of Connor, to a colleague, a very holy man   
   worthy of the charge. He retired to the other part, the new see of Down.   
   There he convoked synods, renewed ancient ordinances and made appropriate   
   ones; everywhere he intimidated sinners and implanted religion and piety.   
      
   We must not neglect to mention the famous prophecy of Saint Malachy, in   
   which he assigns to every Pope of the future a motto describing each   
   pontificate, from his own day until the last Pope he mentions, whom he calls   
   Petrus Romanus - Peter the Roman. After the motto attributed to the present   
   Vicar of Jesus Christ (in the year 2000), De Labore Solis, only one, De   
   Gloria Olivae - From the glory of the Olive Tree - separates us from Peter   
   II. The prophecy, which begins with Celestine II (1143-1144), was discovered   
   in 1590 and includes one hundred and eleven mottos. Many a motto has been   
   shown to have a striking exactitude in the description of its subject and   
   his pontificate. Many interpreters have labored to prove the prophecy's   
   accuracy.   
      
   Saint Malachy twice made a pilgrimage to Rome to consult Christ's Vicar, the   
   first time returning as a Papal Legate for all of Ireland, amid the joy of   
   his people. The second time, however, he was bound for a happier home; he   
   was taken ill in France at the monastery of Clairvaux, where his great   
   friend and biographer, Saint Bernard, was Abbot. He died there in the   
   monastery where he would gladly have lived, at the age of fifty-four, on the   
   2nd of November, 1148. Saint Bernard, in his Life of Saint Malachy, narrates   
   many of his miracles, one of which he himself brought about, when he touched   
   the paralyzed arm of a young boy to that of the mortal remains of the   
   bishop, while he was laid out in his coffin at Clairvaux. It was instantly   
   cured.   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13; Little Pictorial Lives of the   
   Saints, a compilation based on Butler's Lives of the Saints and other   
   sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Nothing but self-will can separate us from God.   
   -St. Alphonsus Liguori   
      
   Bible Quote   
   1 Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: let his praise be in the church of the   
   saints.  (Psalms 149:1)   
      
      
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   Prayer To Our Lady of Prompt Succor   
      
   O, Mary, Mother of God, who, amidst the   
      
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