Denver, Colo., Mar 11, 2020 / 03:01 am (CNA).- By this time in the coronavirus outbreak, you may have cruised the empty toilet paper aisles and pasta shelves at your local grocery store, and could have had moments of panic, or at least heightened anxiety.
With 13 U.S. states having declaring a state of emergency over COVID-19, what was once an overseas worry is now stateside. And for the general population, being a part of something like this is a new, and disconcerting, experience.
But it’s not a new experience in the life of the Church.
In the middle of the 14th century, the plague – also called “The Black Death” – also also called “The Greatest Catastrophe Ever” – ravaged Europe, killing 50 million people, or about 60% of the population (a vastly higher death rate than coronavirus), within a few years.
Lacking the advances of modern medicine today, and layering dead bodies in pits like “lasagne with layers of pasta and cheese,” the people had no choice but to cling to their faith.
It was at this time that the Fourteen Holy Helpers – Catholics saints, all but one of whom were early martyrs – came to be invoked by Catholics against the plague and other misfortunes.
According to New Liturgical Movement, devotion to these 14 saints started in Germany at the time of the plague, and they were called “Nothelfer,” which in German means “helpers in need.”
As bouts of the plague resurfaced over the decades, devotion to the Holy Helpers spread to other countries, and eventually Nicholas V declared that devotion to the saints came with special indulgences.
According to New Liturgical Movement, this introduction to the feast of the Holy Helpers (celebrated Aug. 8 in some places) can be found in the Cracow Missal of 1483:
“The Mass of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, approved by Pope Nicholas…it is powerful on their behalf, however so much one is in great illness or anguish or sadness, or in whatsoever tribulation a man shall be. It is powerful also on behalf of the imprisoned and detained, on behalf of merchants and pilgrims, for those that have been sentenced to die, for those who are at war, for women who are struggling in childbirth, or with a miscarriage, and for (the forgiveness of) sins, and for the dead.”
The collect for their feast in the Missal of Bamberg reads: “Almighty and merciful God, who didst adorn Thy Saints George, Blase, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, Christopher, Denis, Cyriacus, Acacius, Eustace, Giles, Margaret, Barbara and Catherine with special privileges above all others, so that all who in their necessities implore their help, according to the grace of Thy promise, may attain the salutary effect of their pleading, grant to us, we beseech Thee, forgiveness of our sins, and with their merits interceding, deliver us from all adversities, and kindly hear our prayers.”
Here’s a bit about each of the Fourteen Holy Helpers:
Saint George: While little is known definitively about his life, St. George was a fourth-century martyr under the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. A soldier in Diocletian’s army, St. George refused to arrest Christians and offer sacrifices to Roman gods. Despite bribes from Diocletian to change his mind, St. George refused the order and was tortured and eventually executed for his offenses. He is invoked against skin diseases and palsy.
St. Blase: Another 4th-century martyr, St. Blase’s death is very similar to that of St. George. A bishop in Armenia during a time of Christian persecution, St. Blase was eventually forced to flee to the forest to avoid death. One day a group of hunters found St. Blase, arrested him and brought him back to the authorities. At some point after his arrest, a mother with a son who had gotten a fishbone perilously stuck in his throat visited St. Blase, and at his blessing, the bone dislodged and the boy was saved. St. Blase was ordered by the governor of Cappadocia to denounce his faith and sacrifice to pagan gods. He refused, and was brutally tortured and eventually beheaded for this offense. He is invoked against diseases of the throat.
St. Erasmus: A 4th-century bishop of Formia, St. Erasmus (also known as St. Elmo) faced persecution under the emperor Diocletian. According to legend, he fled to Mount Lebanon for a time to escape persecution, where he was fed by a raven. After he was discovered, he was arrested and imprisoned, but made multiple miraculous escapes with the help of an angel. At one point he was tortured by having part of his intestines pulled out by hot rods. Some accounts say he was miraculously healed of these wounds and died of natural causes, while others say that this was the cause of his martyrdom. St. Erasmus is invoked by those suffering from stomach pains and disorders, and by women in labor.
St. Pantaleon: Another 4th-century martyr persecuted under Diocletian, St. Pantaleon was the son of a rich pagan, but was instructed in Christianity by his mother and a priest. He worked as a physician to the emperor Maximinianus. According to legend, St. Pantaleon was denounced as a Christian to the emperor by his peers who were jealous of his rich inheritance. When he refused to worship false gods, St. Pantaleon was tortured and his murder was attempted by various methods – burning torches on his flesh, a bath of liquid lead, being thrown into the sea tied to a stone, and so on. Each time, he was rescued from death by Christ, who appeared in the form of a priest. St. Pantaleon was only successfully beheaded after he desired his own martyrdom. He is invoked as a patron saint of physicians and midwives.
St. Vitus: Also a 4th-century martyr persecuted by Diocletian, St. Vitus was the son of a senator in Sicily and became Christian under the influence of his nurse. According to legend, St. Vitus inspired many conversions and performed many miracles, which angered those who hated Christianity. St. Vitus, and his Christian nurse and her husband, were denounced to the emperor, who ordered them to be put to death when they refused to renounce their faith. Like St. Pantaleon, many attempts were made at killing them, including releasing them to lions in the Colosseum, but they were miraculously delivered each time. They were eventually put to death on the rack. St. Vitus is invoked against epilepsy, paralysis, and diseases of the nervous system.
St. Christopher: A 3rd-century martyr originally called Reprobus, he was the son of pagans and had originally pledged his service to a pagan king and to Satan. Eventually, the conversion of a king and the instruction of a monk led Reprobus to convert to Christianity, and he was called on to use his strength and muscles to help carry people across a raging stream where there was no bridge. Once he was carrying a child who announced himself as Christ, and declared the Reprobus would be called “Christopher” – or Christ-bearer. The encounter filled Christopher with missionary zeal, and he returned home to Turkey to convert nearly 50,000. Angered, the Emperor Decius had Christopher arrested, imprisoned and tortured. While he was delivered from many tortures, including being shot with arrows, Christopher was beheaded around the year 250. He is invoked against epilepsy and toothache, and is the patron of a holy death.
St. Denis: There are conflicting accounts of St. Denis, with some accounts claiming he was converted to Christianity in Athens by St. Paul, and then became the first Bishop of Paris sometime in the first century. Other accounts claim he was a Bishop of Paris but a martyr of the third century. What is known is that he was a zealous missionary who eventually came to France, where he was beheaded on Montmartre – the Mount of Martyrs – a place where many early Christians were killed for the faith. He is invoked against demonic attacks.
St. Cyriacus: Another 4th century martyr, St. Cyriacus, a deacon, was actually favored by the emperor Diocletian after he cured the emperor’s daughter in the name of Jesus, and then the friend of the emperor. According to the Catholicism.org and The Fourteen Holy Helpers, by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer, O.F.M., after Diocletian died, his successor, emperor Maximin, increased the persecution of Christians and imprisoned Cyriacus, who was tortured at the rack and beheaded for refusing to renounce Christianity. He is the patron of those who suffer from eye diseases.
St. Acacius: A fourth-century martyr under the emperor Galerius, St. Acacius was a captain in the Roman army when he heard a voice telling him to “Call on the help of the God of Christians,” according to tradition. He obeyed the voice and immediately sought baptism in the Christian faith. He zealously set about converting the soldiers of the army, but was soon denounced to the emperor, tortured, and sent before a tribunal for questioning, before which he again refused to denounce his faith. After many more tortures, from some of which he was miraculously healed, St. Acacius was beheaded in the year 311. He is the patron saint of those who suffer from headaches.
St. Eustace: Little is known about this second-century martyr, persecuted under the Emperor Trajan. According to tradition, Eustace was a general in the army who converted to Christianity after a vision of a Crucifix that appeared between the antlers of a deer while he was hunting. He converted his family to Christianity, and he and his wife were burned to death after refusing to participate in a pagan ceremony. He is invoked against fires.
St. Giles: One of the later Holy Helpers and the only one definitively known to not be a martyr, St. Giles became a seventh-century monk in the area of Athens, despite his birth to nobility. He eventually retreated to the wilderness to found a monastery under the rule of St. Benedict, and was renowned for his holiness and the miracles he performed. According to Catholicism.org, he also once counseled Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, to confess a sin that had been weighing on him. Giles died peacefully around the year of 712, and is invoked against crippling diseases.
St. Margaret of Antioch: Another fourth-century martyr persecuted by Diocletian, St. Margaret, like St. Vitus, converted to Christianity under the influence of her nurse, angering her father and causing him to disown her. A consecrated virigin, Margaret was tending flocks of sheep one day when a Roman spotted her and sought to make her his wife or concubine. When she refused, the Roman had Margaret brought before a court, where she was ordered to denounce her faith or die. She refused, and she was ordered to be burned and boiled alive, and miraculously she was spared from both. Eventually, she was beheaded. She is invoked as a patron of pregnant women and those suffering from kidney diseases.
St. Barbara: While little is known of this third-century martyr, St. Barbara is thought to have been the daughter of a rich and jealous man who sought to keep Barbara from the world. When she confessed to him that she had converted to Christianity, he denounced her and brought her before local authorities, who ordered that she be tortured and beheaded. According to legend, her own father did the beheading, for which he was struck by lightning shortly thereafter. St. Barbara is invoked against fires and lightning storms.
St. Catherine of Alexandria: A fourth-century martyr, St. Catherine was the daughter of the Queen of Egypt, and converted to Christianity after a vision of Christ and Mary. The Queen also converted to Christianity before her death. When Maximinus started persecuting Christians in Egypt, St. Catherine rebuked him and attempted to prove to him that his gods were false. After debating with the emperor’s best scholars, many of whom converted due to her arguments, Catherine was scourged, imprisoned, and eventually beheaded. She is the patron saint of philosophers and young students.
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It would be wise for the Bishops to avoid endorsing politicians. Politicians lie. Neither party deserves an endorsement.
“Neither party offers a platform”. Sigh. Really? If the church bent over backwards any further to avoid being critical of leftist democrats it would split in half. The most clearly dangerous ideas attacking religion and freedom for individuals in general come from the left. One need only view the history of religious suppression in other nations as they followed the path to socialism and then communism. Its true that neither party is specifically Catholic as this is a secular society, not a religious one. Yet the very reason for this article is the recent loosening of laws saying churches had no right to speak out pro or con regarding politicians whose interests conflicted with any church. Lets notice that this loosening came during a republican administration. Its CERTAIN it would not have happened in a democrat one. Ditto the revised Roe v Wade decision.
Maybe it would be smart of the church higher ups to point out to their congregations which party is the more freedom and religion friendly. But then again so many church higher ups mistake socialism for Christianity. No matter. Some of us, at least, actually CAN see reality when it is right in front of us.
@LJ, great comments!
If facts mattered, there’d be no Democrats … And many fewer clergy.
My friend, don’t forget what the far right Nazis did to religion. Let not history repeat itself.
More NDS…Nazi Derangement Syndrome.
Br. Jaques, try harder.
An ignorant statement. The Nazis were socialists. Socialism is a left wing ideology, not a right wing ideology.
they were tyrants – like building all those concrete bunkers with slave labor
Didn’t we help some of them to S America?
It’s best to stick to principles that never change, rather than to politicians and parties that will betray your trust.
Dear, dear bishops at the USCCB: The People of God have superceded your failed leadership. They’ve taken matters of politics into their own hands. They hardly pay attention to you, if you haven’t noticed.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei, eh?
No, you surely don’t mean that, because — whatever your politics — your side does not always win, and you would not want to say that it was God’s will for your side to lose.
Maybe Vox DiogenesRedux, Vox Dei was what you had in mind?
No. Vox populi, vox Dei is not what DioRe wrote. Neither did DioRe purport, suggest, insinuate, or otherwise imply that he speaks for anyone other than himself.
The ‘People of God’ is ‘defined’ in Gaudium et Spes. Highly recommended reading.
Your statement is parallel to the claim by the Beatles that they were “more popular than Jesus”. The claim was made before I was born, but I never much doubted it. So much the worse for popular opinion! Popular opinion 2000 years ago was, “Crucify Him!” It’s not much different today.
Disappointed by this, with hope that local bishops will see through the progressive perspective of the USCCB. Why wouldn’t we want priests citing defiance of Catholic social doctrine by calling out those candidates who promote abortion, euthanasia, homosexual relations and so on.
Stephen: Did Jesus, St. Peter (our first Pope) or St. Paul say one word against the evil Roman Empire that eventually brutally killed them?
“Church will not endorse candidates…”
Send that memo to Tobin and Cupich and McElroy and Stowe. I am sure that will be news for them
@jpfhayes, AMEN!
A memo to Burk and Strickland might also be in order. Just saying! 🤔
Dormez-vous, Frere Jaques?
Retired members of the hierarchy and those who hold no governing post in a US diocese are not considered active members of the USCCB. Cdl. Burke and Bp. Strickland need no memo. You, however, do.
Good one!
While the USCCB’s reaffirmation of its stance not to endorse political candidates is consistent with canon law and Church tradition, it highlights a deeper pastoral failure: the widespread malformation of Catholic consciences. Many Catholics, influenced by a narrow reading of pro-life teaching, are not truly pro-life in the holistic sense but merely pro-birth or anti-abortion. This reductionist view neglects the Church’s full vision of a consistent ethic of life—from conception to natural death—that includes care for the poor, the marginalized, migrants, the elderly, the environment, and all victims of injustice. In failing to seriously teach and apply Catholic Social Teaching, especially in election seasons, the USCCB has left voters unequipped to exercise informed prudential judgment—the moral reasoning that weighs not only a candidate’s position on abortion, but the full range of life issues. True conscience formation demands helping Catholics discern which candidate or party best reflects the widest range of life-affirming principles, not just anti-abortion rhetoric. Without this, many Catholics vote based on a single issue, often ignoring policies that harm life after birth. If the Church refuses to endorse, it must all the more boldly educate and form—lest Catholics vote in ways that contradict the Gospel’s call to protect all human life and dignity.
Right, Deacon Dom. The Democrats’ murdering of more than a million children a year for the past fifty-two years is offset by the Republicans’ canceling of the school lunch program.
I got it.
So the experiment is complete. It’s undeniably true, there is no issue so evil or insane that it will convince Catholics not to vote for Democrats.
Murdering babies, allowing terrorists to enter across our open borders, legalizing drugs, sexualizing children, promoting sodomy, denying the existence of women — nothing on this list has impacted Catholics’ insistence on voting for Democrats.
You’re known as ‘Deacon Dom’ hereabouts. But, I have to say, you sound more like a bishop.
And — trust me — that’s not a compliment.
brineyman, well said. My guess he’s bucking for a promotion in the ranks. Who knows, maybe even Pope Francis II.
No one is really expecting the Catholic Church to endorse one political candidate or another. Why, the Church hierarchy has a difficult enough time speaking in one voice about Church Teaching let alone weighing in on the merits of political points of view.
I think the IRS ruling simply was addressing something about allowing political candidates EAQUAL ACCESS to Church membership on Church property to propose their ideas. This is something the protestant churches have been doing for a hundred years but the Catholic Church unwilling so as not to jeopardize their sacrosanct tax-exempt status. Once again, the USCCB seems quite adept at obfuscation.
An most unexpected exhibition of wisdom.
Perhaps more of a rice bowl issue that funds initiatives dear to their progressive hearts. The traditional Church enjoy few if any similar revenue streams. One would think that the Church should have a funding stream, strictly charitable donations from within the Church and reject all federal and state revenue with their terms and conditions which is politics at the grass root level.
To understand the USCCB politics, follow the money.
AFCz: You speak more common sense than most of us are acquainted with these days. Thanks.
The USCCB may have made its best decision ever. Otherwise, the divisions among them will dethrone what little credibility and authority they still retain. I’m praying for a saint to emerge from among them……waiting…waiting…waiting…
meiron: A saint among them will appear only when they show a willingness to die for the Faith. When was the last American bishop martyred?
Deacon,
I didn’t know of any off the top, so I asked AI. It replied with Oscar Romero. Discounting that as a technical error, I kept reading, and discovered this fellow named Francis Xavier Ford.
He was a Maryknoll missionary, a bishop, imprisoned and martyred in China in 1952.
meiron, yes, he was American but martyred by the ChiComs. That said, in 250 years we’ve never had an American bishop martyred in America. We did have a Bishop from NY who was imprisoned for his ProLife activities. I guess they didn’t think to kill him in prison.
This is welcome news!
(“Church will not endorse political candidates despite IRS shift.”)
Thank you bishops!
May St. Thomas More intercede for the Catholic Church – political candidates and non-candidates – Catholics one and all.
I am saddened and ashamed to read some of the ultra-snarky, uncharitable and judgmental comments from some of my fellow Catholics who apparently think their “version” of Catholicism is the one and only true version of the faith. Those who take offense at the statement, “Today in the United States, neither political party offers a platform that would serve as a foundation for a true home for faithful Catholics,” show their reluctance to discern the truth about current USA politics. Certainly there were and are Democratic policies that bear much criticism, but to deny that the current MAGA administration is undertaking a variety of cruel and unjust programs that cause much pain and suffering is to look away from the truth. As I see it, the collective wisdom of our US Bishops far supersedes the holier-than-thou musings of some of those snarky commentators on this site.
per Catholic.org: (this priest spoke against tyrants) …….Parishioners offered to escort Father Jerzy by car back to Warsaw, but he was used to being followed and it was late. He and his bodyguard would go alone. The secret police overtook them on a deserted road about a half hour from the town. They held the bodyguard at gunpoint. The captain dragged Father by the cassock to the Fiat. “What are you doing, Gentleman? How can you treat someone like this?”
In a cold fury, the kidnappers beat him with fists and clubs, smashing his skull and face. Unconscious, he was bound, gagged and thrown into the trunk. As they headed for a lonely stretch of woods, the bodyguard hurled himself from the Fiat in a desperate attempt to escape. He made it to a nearby workers hostel and quickly raised the alarm. When they reached the hospital emergency ward, another squad of secret police and a state prosecutor were waiting to take him away. But for the authorities it was too late. The bodyguard had already alerted the Church.
The secret police Fiat sped on with Father Jerzy in the trunk The captain’s men were arguing now, and downing quick shots of vodka. The kidnappers were so terrified that they would be identified that they wanted to leave the priest in the woods. “No,” said another angrily, “the priest must die.”
With the bodyguard’s escape, news of the abduction had swept across Poland. Shock and outrage were nationwide. The parish church overflowed with thousands of people. Every night, larger crowds came to the Masses, praying for Father’s deliverance. Massive security forces surrounded the Warsaw steelworks, where the men were praying at work. Throughout Poland, there were mass meetings in factories and spontaneous prayers in schools. The national crisis mounted. Other churchmen denounced the kidnapping, but Cardinal Glemp refused to comment. The Holy Father declared himself “deeply shaken,” condemning the shameful act and demanding Father Jerzy’s immediate release.
After ten days of waiting, the nation’s patience ran raw. Authorities dispatched large security forces and imposed emergency measures in cities and towns. The last Sunday of October, a record 50,000 people engulfed the parish church at a cold, outdoor Mass for the Homeland. They listened to a tape of Father Jerzy’s last sermon. They hoped and prayed to see him again.
When smiling security officers pulled the battered corpse of Father Jerzy from a reservoir on the river Vistula, about eighty miles from Warsaw, it was tortured beyond recognition. A sack of rocks hung from his legs. His body had been trussed from neck to feet with a nylon rope so that if he resisted he would strangle himself. Several gags had worked free and lay across his clerical collar and cassock, soaked with the priest’s vomit and blood.
Officially, Father spent less than two hours with his kidnappers, but his torture was much too extensive and systematic to have in inflicted in that brief time. Family members present at the autopsy described a body covered head to foot with deep, bloody wounds and marks of torture. His face was deformed. His eyes and forehead had been beated until black. His jaws, nose, mouth were smashed. His face was deformed, and both hands were broken and cut, as if the priest had been shielding it from blows. His fingers and toes dark red and brown from the repeated clubbing. Part of his scalp and large strips of skin on his legs had been torn off.
The autopsy showed a brain concussion and damaged spinal cord. His muscles had been pounded again and again until limp. Internal injuries from the beatings had left blood in his lungs. One of the doctors that performed the post-mortem reported that in all his medical practice he had never seen anyone mutilated internally. The kidneys and intestines were reduced to pulp, as in others cases of prolonged police torture in Poland. When his mouth was opened, the teeth were found completely smashed. In place of his tongue, there was only mush.
A group of priests tried to identify the body, but could not recognize their friend. Identification was finally made by Father’s brother from a birthmark on the side of his chest. Making the full autopsy report public was deemed too explosive by regime and Church officials, who continue to suppress it. Church and independent sources familiar with the report have said it details an even more horrifying picture suffered by the defenseless priest.
“The worst has happened,” declared Lech Walesa, Solidarity’s leader. In Rome, the Holy Father reacted with shock, following the news late into the night. At the parish church in Warsaw, a priest made several attempts to get the mourning population to say the Our Father. When he reached “Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us” the congregation refused to pray with him. It took several more attempts before the people would utter that line, and when they did, they prayed it with great force.
Just as was feared, when the state trial was held for the perpetrators, only the mid-level criminals were sentenced. Those who masterminded the plot got off scott-free. Because they were afraid that Father Jerzey’s final resting place would become a shrine, the state officials pressured his parents to bury him in their distant village. The faithful demanded a huge funeral and that he be buried in the parish cemetery. It was the pleading of Father’s mother that he be buried at the parish church in Warsaw.
Father’s mother had continued to wear a red shawl as long as she believed her son was alive. Now, for the funeral, she wore her black shawl. On the day of the funeral ten thousand steelworkers in hard hats marched past secret police headquarters, chanting “We forgive,” “Greetings from the underground,” and “No freedom without Solidarity.” Half a million people filled the streets leading up to the parish church. Scattered throughout were the forbidden Solidarity banners of factories, schools and offices from every corner of Poland. One read “A strike at the heart of the nation,” another proclaimed, “But they can’t kill the soul.”
Father Jerzy knew that his death would have immense power. “Living I could not achieve it,” he once said when the danger rose. The parish church, Saint Stanislaw’s has become a national shrine. As of the writing of this piece by James Fox in 1985, and unending river of pilgrims flow past Father’s grave. Great mounds of flowers are put there. Even communists visited the grave. A thousand-man volunteer force guards the church yard in teams around the clock.
The murder of the holy, defenseless priest emboldened the populace and encourage many conversions and vocations. All the while the regime continued to defame the priest.
Today, Poland, as the rest of the former Iron Curtain countries of Europe, is a free country and a proud ally of our own country. The enemies of Christ rule Europe no more.
***Author’s note: It was by chance that I was looking for reading material when I happened upon this Reader’s Digest of May, 1985. I could not sleep thinking that Father Jerzy’s story must be made widely known. The title of the original article was “Do you hear the Bells, Father Jerzy?” The author of the piece is John Fox.
Father Jerzy, may you rest in peace.
More nonsense from our spineless American bishops. OF COURSE they will continue to endorse political candidates, in the same manner as they have been doing for the past 50 years at least. They will continue to glad-hand, chuckle, laugh, and pose for photographs with every scandalous “catholic” politician on the left. They will continue to excuse every pro-death, anti-family and anti-religious vote and policy of the “catholic” Democrats. They will continue to scold every Catholic Republican politician for imaginary offenses against Catholic teaching. The political positions of the Catholic bishops of America will continue to be crystal clear and unmistakable. They will ALWAYS have the backs of their Democrat Party financiers.