God’s Little One: St. Margaret of Castello.       One of the most amazing demonstrations of God’s mercy was with “Little Margaret” – St. Margaret of Castello (1287-1320). She was born unusually small – a midget – and hunched-backed, facially deformed and ugly, her right leg shorter than the left causing a dramatic limp, and she was also blind. Unfortunately, her parents treated her very badly, shunned her, and kept her hidden. When she was six, she was locked in a small cell next to a chapel in the forest on her father’s estate. She could never leave, but she could attend Mass and receive the Sacraments. Fortunately, the chaplain on the estate was a kindly priest and regularly visited Margaret.       God gave Margaret many graces of virtue. When she was locked in her cell, she told the priest how unworthy yet blessed she felt to be sharing in the Lord’s Cross in this way. Margaret had extraordinary faith in God and felt all was a gift and a blessi...

St. Anthony of Padua: the Dead Testify in Court.       St. Anthony of Padua, Italy (1195-1231), originally from Lisbon, Portugal, is one of the most well-known and loved friars of St. Francis of Assisi. God gave Anthony many spiritual gifts such as reading hearts, miracles, healings, raising the dead, bilocation, and more. He was a famous preacher (once preaching to fish who gave him their full attention – when the people would not). He had memorized the entire Bible, and was a beautiful example of the virtue of humility.       Upon St. Anthony’s death, at only 36, there were so many miracles both at his tomb and elsewhere that his cause for sainthood was introduced in the year of his death. He was canonized less than a year later with the Pope stating that he was “unwilling to withhold the honor due on earth from one whom Heaven itself has surrounded with glory.”       In fact, there were so many miracles attributed t...

St. Benedict and the Wall of Faith.       In the Book of Job in the Bible, Job says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh, I shall see my God.” We still await that great day of the General Resurrection that Job spoke of so long ago.       But meanwhile, God gives us signs.       One day St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-c. 547), the great founder of Western monasticism, was walking back to the monastery after working in the fields. A local farmer ran up to him in great distress crying, “Give me back my son! Give me back my son!”       “But I have not taken your son from you, have I?” St. Benedict replied.       “He is dead! Come! Bring him back to life!”       “Oh! Such a miracle is beyond our power. The holy Apostles are the only ones who can r...

  St. Stephen Intercedes from Heaven.       To those who say miracles do not happen, and did not happen beyond Apostolic (New Testament) times, St. Augustine  (354-430)  of Hippo in North Africa (today's  Annaba, Algeria) , would reply, “It is sometimes objected that the miracles which Christians claim, no longer happen.... However, the malice of the objection is in the insinuation that not even the earlier miracles ought to be believed.” Isn’t that certainly true with the Modernist scholars and atheists! Basilica of St. Augustine at Annaba (Hippo)       St. Augustine gives us accounts of many miracles in his time, including four dead being raised through contact with a relic of St. Stephen, the Deacon, whose martyrdom is related at the end of chapter 7 of the book of Acts in the Bible. St. Stephen's tomb was re-discovered in 415 about 20 miles outside of Jerusalem, and relics of his then disbursed to churches all over the Cath...

St. Hilary & St. Ambrose Raise the Dead.       In an earlier article we mentioned the Bishop, St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-368). He is among the “Doctors of the Church,” and was an early and great defender of the revelation of humanity’s one God in three Persons. At one point the Emperor exiled him from Gaul (today’s France) to the East, to Phrygia (in today’s Turkey). While there raised a dead man to life and worked other miracles. When allowed to return to Poitiers, Gaul, the people welcomed him back with joy. There he brought back to life an infant who had died unbaptized. St. Hilary was the inspiration and spiritual guide for St. Martin of Tours, whose story we related here recently.       Miracles of all sorts, including raising of the dead – amazing and wonderful – had a frequent occurrence not only in Apostolic times, but even in succeeding generations of Christians. These were early great saints who fought for the truth of the Gosp...

Desert Fathers Raised the Dead.       Throughout history there have always been Christians who sought a more disciplined, ascetical way of self-denial in following Christ. They sought (and today, seek) to open themselves to the Holy Spirit while closing the door to the seductions and temptations of the world, often seeking out desert or wilderness. In the Bible, Elijah had done so; so did John the Baptist; so did St. Paul for a period of time in Arabia, the Syrian desert ( Gal 1:17 ).       By the end of the Third Century (AD 200's), many ascetics were following St. Paul of Thebes (aka Paul the First Hermit) (c. 227-c. 341) and St. Antony of the Desert (251-356) into the Egyptian Desert. They were seeking God and holiness of life through self-denial, prayer, and by battle with the demons.       St. Macarius of Egypt (aka Macarius the Great) (300-390) went into the desert about 330, becoming a disciple of St. Antony. Both m...

St. Martin of Tours.       The Christian Nicene Creed states that one of the four signs of the Church is its holiness. One of the many ways holiness is present in the Church is through the holiness of believers. Like St. Paul, we call them the “saints.” To some of the saints, God gives the power to work wonderful miracles in order to bring His reality and knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ, to many people.       Last week we told the story of St. Martin of Tours (316 or 336-397) raising a young man from the dead by God’s power. St. Martin is a popular early saint of the Church, a former soldier, hermit, monastic founder, and Bishop. The favorite story of St. Martin, however, is not of a miracle but of his charity. While still a soldier, he saw a cold beggar, completely naked, freezing on a cold winter day. With his sword, Martin divided his ample military cloak and gave half to cover and warm the beggar. No doubt his company of soldiers found much...

The Community's Power to Raise the Dead.         Christians have always recognized that God gives signs by the miraculous – events out of the ordinary course of nature. God does so for many purposes, not the least of which is to wake people up to God’s reality and the fundamental realities of our existence.         Last week we quoted Church Father St. Irenaeus, writing about AD 180, as saying the raising from the dead “is oftentimes” done, especially with the prayer and fasting of the Christian community.         This prayer by the faithful as a community in raising the dead was seen in Constantinople in the AD 380's where Bishop St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), along with his congregation, prayed for a woman, who was pregnant, who fell from the gallery in their meeting place (it didn’t happen to be the formal church at that time). Both mother and child were restored to life, and the miracle wa...

Power to Raise the Dead.       Jesus, His disciples, and a great crowd went to the town of Naim. As they got there, they saw several men carrying a bier with a dead man on it, heading for burial. The man was the only son of a widow. Jesus had great compassion on her. “Do not weep,” He said. He approached the bier and said to the corpse, “Young man, I say to you arise.” The man sat up and began speaking. (Lk 7:11-17.)       Scripture tells us Jesus raised three people from the dead. In addition to this widow’s son, he raised Jarius’s daughter (Lk 8:41-42,49-56) and Lazarus of Bethany (John 11:1-45). In Israel’s history, by God’s power, the Prophet Elijah had raised the son of the widow of Zarephath after he had died (1 Kings 17:17-24), and Elijah’s successor, Elisha, likewise raised from the dead the only son of a couple from Shunem (2 Kings 4:32-35). All these “raisings” in Scripture were only the returning of natural human life after having died....