BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Saturday, Oct. 20, 28th Week in Ordinary Time
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ST. MARIA BERTILLA BOSCARDIN (Italy, 1888-1922), Nun (Sisters of St. Dorothy) and Nurse
Anna Francesca Boscardin was born to a poor peasant family in northern Italy, with a violent drunk for a father. With limited schooling and often the butt of jokes because she was simple-minded and had few talents, she joined the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Vicenza in 1904, taking the name Maria Bertilla, and was assigned to work in the kitchen, bakery and laundry, In 1907, she started training as a nurse at a children's hospital run by the sisters, where she seemed to find her true vocation. During World War I, she cared for Italian soldiers in a hospital in Treviso, staying with her patients even when the hospital was bombed, for which she was commended by local authorities. A supervisor, jealous of the nun's growing reputation, reassigned her to the hospital laundry in Vicenza. But the congregation's mother-general, hearing of this, made her supervisor of the children's ward of the hospital. She died in 1922 after suffering many years from a painful tumor. Many healing miracles were reported at her tomb. She was beatified in 1952 and canonized in 1961. Many of her former patients were present at her canonization.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102012.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

In the presence of the participants of the current Synodal Assembly on the NEw Evangelization, the Holy Father
today conferred the 2012 Ratzinger Prizes in Theology to French Prof. Remi Brague, philosopher and scholar of
the history of religions, and American Jesuit Fr. Brian Daley, scholar of Patristinc Theology. Address in Italian.

NB: I have been relying on American Catholic's 'Saints of the Day' calendar for my postings, but I have been unable to find out what is their basis for determining the 'saint of the day' on any given year, other than the 'major' saints whose feast days are universally observed. On some days, they have no 'saint of the day', and the USCCB site stopped its 'saint of the day' feature last year. Since the Church counts with thousands of canonized saints by now, not to mention Blesseds whose feasts are also observed, there is obviously more than one 'saint of the day', who must be remembered by their own places of origin. The most comprehensive online listing in English of these 'saints of the day' is on www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/saint_a.shtml (Click on 'Saint of the day' in the menu) which used to even contain illustrations of the saints, but for some reason, they discontinued the photos a few years ago. For exmaple, all the saints whose feastdays are commemorated on Oct. 20 can be found on www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1020.shtml. I chose to go with sT. Marie Bertilla who was American Catholic's pick last year, because she is a modern-day saint with a most appealing story.