Saint Denis of Paris and Saint John Leonardi of Lucca

Besides the great John Henry Newman, we also commemorate two other saints on this day:

Saint Denis, patron of Paris, was the first bishop of what would later be called the ‘city of lights’, and he himself was one of her greatest lights. Denis – in Latin, Dionysius – was likely martyred in the mid-third century in the Decian persecution and, as the legend goes, a cephalophore, literally, ‘one who carries his own head’: Sentenced to prison for the Faith, he was decapitated on the hill now known as Montmartre overlooking the city of Paris, where the glorious basilica of Sacre-Couer was built in 1875 (completed in 1914), which has had perpetual adoration since August 1, 1885 (there had been other chapels on the ‘mount of martyrs, including the one where Saint Ignatius and his companions made their first vows on August 15th, 1540- but that’s another story).

After Denis’ head rolled onto the ground, the good bishop then picked it up, and walked several miles, preaching repentance as he went – making him one of the many (!) such head-carriers in hagiography. On he went, until he reached the site where the great cathedral of Saint Denis to the north of Paris – ransacked in the French Revolution – now stands. As Ripley says, believe it or not. What matters most is belief in the Faith and the witness of the good bishop. We pray that France might rediscover that same Faith, and, as Pope John Paul exhorted, to live out her original Baptism, in water, and in blood.

The second saint today (besides John Henry Cardinal Newman in another post) is Saint John Leonardi (+1609) priest of the Catholic (counter)-reformation – even though it was the Catholics who were countering the tragic de-formation of those early heresiarchs, Luther, Calvin and the rest. John first trained as a pharmacist (and that professions needs lots of prayers in our era), but soon felt called to the priesthood. After studies, he was ordained in 1572, and later felt inspired to found an association, the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, or the ‘Lucca Fathers’ for short. They devoted their priestly work to the formation of youth. Father Giovanni of the Mother of God, which name John took in religion, was friends and a spiritual directee of none other than Saint Philip Neri, who esteemed ‘Father Giovanni’ highly – which is saying much, since the good Father Philp could read hearts and souls, and was not impressed lightly, nor with shallow virtue. After a life filled with good works, the holy priest died on this day, October 9th, 1609, of influenza he caught while ministering to his brethren in a plague – safety was not his highest goal, nor should it be ours. Many miracles have been attributed to his intercession, and we could use a few more good priests, and men, like him, in our own troubled time.

Saints Denis and John Leonardi, orate pro nobis! +