From the Office of Mission & Identity: An October Message from Fr. Bill Muller, S.J.

October 2024 North American Jesuit Martyrs Jesuit and Catholic and Brophy A Reflection From Fr. Bill Muller, S.J. Vice President for Mission and Identity If you check out the “Some Dates in October to Note” at the bottom, you’ll discover that there are a number of feasts and memorials for significant Saints — Theresa of Lisieux and Teresa of Avila — two remarkable women worth knowing; Simon and Jude, the namesakes and patrons of our Phoenix Cathedral; Luke, the doctor and evangelist; Ignatius of Antioch; Francis of Assisi; and our Guardian Angels.   There are three Jesuit feasts as well. (I hope you will read up on these Jesuit saints to find out more about them!) Francis Borgia was born into nobility (you’ve heard of the Borgias, I’m sure), the great-grandson of a king and a pope and the son of a duke. When his father died, he became the fourth Duke of Grandia. He married and he and his wife had eight children. When his wife died, he renounced his titles and fortune and entered the newly formed Society of Jesus. He was instrumental in establishing the Gregorian University and the Roman College, both still wonderfully important in Rome for the Church, and founded a dozen colleges in Spain. Diego Laynez became the Jesuits' Superior General when Ignatius Loyola died; Francis Borgia became the third Superior General in 1565 until his death in 1572.   Between the years 1625-1649, Jesuit missionaries were sent from France to New France to evangelize the Huron and Iroquois nations. As most missionary activities are, it was difficult. The Jesuit mission was to witness to populations of indigenous peoples who spoke different languages, were violent enemies and were proficient in the use of torture. Despite the hardships and dangers, Jesuits begged to be sent to North America. In the last eight years of the Jesuits' missionary activities there, eight Jesuits were martyred — Jean de Brebeuf (56), Antoine Daniel (47), Charles Garnier (43), Gabriel Lalemant and Isaac Jogues (both 39), Noel Chabarell (36), Rene Goupil (34) and Jean de Lalande (age unknown). They are celebrated as the Canadian Martyrs, or the North American Martyrs. The final day of the month is the feast of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, a Jesuit brother who was the porter at a Jesuit college in Spain for 46 years, from 1571 to his death at age 85 in 1617. A gentle soul, a wise spiritual director, opening the door of the college and opening people’s hearts. The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, captures why Alphonsus is a saint and so beloved by Jesuits. Honour is flashed off exploit, so we say; And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field, And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day. On Christ they do and on the martyr may; But be the war within, the brand we wield Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled, Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.   Yet God (that hews mountain and continent, Earth, all, out; who, with trickling increment, Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more) Could crowd career with conquest while there went Those years and years by of world without event That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.  _____________________________ Some October Dates to Note Breast Cancer Awareness Month World Blindness Awareness Month 1 – Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (Lisieux) 2 – Feast of the Guardian Angels 3 – Feast of St. Francis Borgia, S.J. 4 – Feast of St. Francis Assisi Pope Paul VI Visit to the U.N. 1965 7 – Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary 11 – Vatican II Opened 1962 15 – Feast of St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila) 16 – Pope John Paul II Elected 1978 Birthday of Oscar Wilde 1854 17 – Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch 18 – Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist  19 – Feast of the North American Jesuit Martyrs  24 – United Nations Founded 1945 26 – Shoot Out at the OK Corral 1881 28 – Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude Harvard University Founded 1636 31 – Feast of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, S.J. All Hallows' Eve Pope Francis’ Prayer Intention for October  For a Shared Mission http://popesprayerusa.net/popes-intentions/     EN ESPAÑOL   BROPHY COLLEGE PREPARATORY MISSION & IDENTITY » Unsubscribe Brophy College Preparatory 4701 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85012