July 8, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
ST. GREGORIO MARIA GRASSI and COMPANIONS (d. 1900, China), Martyrs
About 25,000 Chinese Catholics and 43 European missionaries were martyred in the so-called Boxer Persecution of 1900.
The Boxers were a fanatical sect who hated all foreigners and especially the Catholic Church. With the approval of the
empress dowager Tzu Chi, then ruling the Chinese Empire, they went about burning churches and murdering missionaries and
their neophytes. Gregorio Maria Grassi, born in Italy in 1833, was a Franciscan missionary to China since 1856 and later
Bishop of North Shansi, he and 14 other European missionaries, along with 14 Chinese religious, were hacked
to death by the Boxers on July 1, 1900. That same week, three other Italian Franciscans were murdered in
the province of Hunan. The Boxer martyrs were beatified in 1946. On October 1, 2000, they, along with 88 others
martyred in China between 1648 and 1930, were canonized by John Paul II.
Readings for today's Mass:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070812.cfm
WITH THE POPE TODAY
Sunday Angelus - In his first summer Angelus at Castel Gandolfo this year, the Holy Father, looking
and sounding very well, said that "in today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that if we live with an open and
simple heart, nourished by true faith, we can recognize the presence of God in our lives and follow
his holy will". He is officially on vacation till the end of July.