Dear Parishioners,

Last week we began to look at the Celebrations for the month of November, and so we’ll continue with that. On November 10th we have the Feast Day of St. Leo the Great who was Pope in the 6th century, and is most remembered for saving Rome from the Huns. He rode out of the city on a donkey unarmed and asked to speak to Attila the leader of the Huns. Attila received him and Pope Leo convinced him not to invade, sack and plunder the city.

On the 11th we have Veteran’s Day which originally was called Armistice Day—the day on which the Versailles Treaty was signed ending World War I. We should pray for peace and an end to all war, and honor our veterans all of whom have made great sacrifices for our well-being, some even the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.

On the 12th we celebrate St. Josaphat who almost single-handedly ended the Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and brought many dioceses of the Ukraine, and Belarus back into the Catholic Church. The following day we celebrate an American Saint: Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. She was born in Italy and wanted to join the sisters who educated her but they told her she was too frail. So she started an orphanage on her own and formed the young ladies into a new religious order: the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Pope Leo XIII asked her to go to the United States to help Italian immigrants. She did and in a few decades had established 67 institutions across the USA; I guess she was too frail?