Catholic Fire

Today we celebrate the "Martyrdom" of St. John. (The feast of St. John before the Latin Gate was on the General Calendar of the Roman Rite before 1962.) According to a tradition mentioned by St. Jerome, which goes back to the second century, when St. John the Apostle was about 80 years old, he was taken to Rome under the Emperor Domitian and plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil; by a striking miracle he came out safe and sound from this torture. A church dedicated in honor of St. John was built near the Latin Gate, the spot referred to by the tradition. In the year 95, John appeared before the tribunal of pagan Rome. He was convicted of having propagated, in a vast province of the Empire, the worship of a Jew who had been crucified under Pontius Pilate. He was considered a superstitious and rebellious old man, and it was time to rid Asia of his presence. He was, therefore, sentenced to an ignominious and cruel death. A huge cauldron of boiling oil was prepared in front of ...

Image: Gloria in Excelsis Deo Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist Today's Mass Readings The Third Day of Christmas Christmas Meditation: A New Birth for Each One of Us On This Day in Catholic History 1944 - Sister Sara Salkahazi was killed by the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian allies of the Nazis, for hiding Jews in a Budapest building used by her religious order, the Sisters of Social Service. In 2006 she was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI. 1983 - Pope John Paul II pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot him. The Pope visited Mehmet Ali Agca at Rome’s Rebibbia prison and personally pardoned him for the 1981 assassination attempt. 1994 - Four Roman Catholic priests, three French and a Belgian, were shot to death in their rectory in Algiers, a day after French commandos killed four radicals who had hijacked an Air France jet from Algiers to Marseille. Birthdays 1717 - Pope Pius VI (d. 1799) 1822 - Louis Pasteur , French scientist (d. 1895) 1896 - Louis Bromfield , American wr...