Prayer to St. Irenaeus

St. Irenaeus, Second Century Bishop of Lyon, missionary, and unapologetic apologist for the One True Church, pray for us who struggle to defend and preserve the Church and God's churches here below! Let the Son of God be praised in each and every church in the Diocese of Camden! St. Irenaeus, help us to always see the Light that shineth in the darkness, and let us not be deceived by the darkness of the world.

• "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness..." Matthew 8:12

• "And seeing the multitudes, he had compassion on them: because they were distressed, and lying like sheep that have no shepherd." Matthew 9:36

Dear St. Irenaeus, please pray for all those who are lost and in need of the guidance only the Good Shepherd may provide. Pray that we will never put ourselves in the place of God, the grave sin of Adam and Eve which caused us to be born in sin. Similarly, oh holy saint, please pray for our priests and bishops and their growth in holiness and subjection to God's will. Pray that all lukewarmness be banished from our hearts! Help us all to know and grow in our Faith, separate Truth from error, and remain on the narrow path of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.


Here are a few interesting snippets from the great saint's most important work. We recommend reading St. Irenaeus as well as the other Fathers. In this way we may be affirmed that the Church has its foundation from the earliest of times. In fact She has survived countless storms, as promised by Our Lord to St. Peter, but not without constant defense and even the shedding of blood.

From Against Heresies, Book IV:

The skill of God,  therefore, is not defective, for He has power of the stones to raise up children to Abraham, but the man who does not obtain it is the cause to himself of his own imperfection. Nor, [in like manner], does the light fail because of those who have blinded themselves; but while it remains the same as ever, those who are [thus] blinded are involved in darkness through their own fault. The light does never enslave any one by necessity; nor, again, does God exercise compulsion upon any one unwilling to accept the exercise of His skill. Those persons, therefore, who have apostatized from the light given by the Father, and transgressed the law of liberty, have done so through their own fault, since they have been created free agents, and possessed of power over themselves.

From Book V:

The devil, however, as he is the apostate angel, can only go to this length, as he did at the beginning, [namely] to deceive and lead astray the mind of man into disobeying the commandments of God, and gradually to darken the hearts of those who would endeavor to serve him, to the forgetting of the true God, but to the adoration of himself as God.

On my traditional Catholic calendar I saw that tomorrow's saint was Anthony Mary Zaccaria, a saint I knew nothing about. Since I like to learn about the more obscure saints, I thought I'd look him up. Although I haven't explored it at length yet, I stumbled on wonderful site dedicated to him. (I have sent you to the "preface" section. There is also a novena, a thirteen-part "spiritual theme" section, a ten-part "life of" section [actually 12 if you count the preface and intro], a "daily lesson in holiness" section for everyday devotions, pictures, and more.) This saint is especially relevant since our Holy Father declared the Year of St. Paul, and St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria founded religious and lay societies dedicated to St. Paul. The website and book put online were both put together by Fr. Robert B. Kosek, CRSP, PhD. It is a treasure. Do check it out.


About the saint: After having finished medical school at the young age of 22, he became a priest and founded the Congregation of the Regular Clerks of St. Paul, sanctioned by Pope Clement VII in 1533. Their rule bound them to "regenerate and revive the love of the Divine worship, and a truly Christian way of life by frequent preaching and the faithful administration of the sacraments." He also founded an order of nuns called the Angelicals of St. Paul and also the Laity of St. Paul. The saint also helped reform certain nuns, helping bring their congregations into a stricter and more rigorous religious life. "Not everyone in Milan was pleased with the zeal of this new spiritual family. Its members were threatened. They were accused of Pelagianism" and other heresies.* The saint responded thusly:

Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ, who can boast about our sufferings, because those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones God has chosen to show up those who are everything. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who endured the cross, disregarding its shamefulness and we shall prove that we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering, prepared for honor or disgrace, taken for impostors while we are genuine.*

Notably, heresies were running rampant in northern Italy at this point in time, including the Lutherans. St. Anthony and his fellow missionaries sought to correct these heresies, preaching often. He predicted his own death and his body was incorrupt. (I'm not sure if it still is.) To read more about his life, go to the newadvent entry, the site dedicated to him (see above), or the Barnabite Fathers' own bio (possibly the best).

*From the Barnabite's website


...no matter how excellent a quality knowledge is, it, too, is of very small advantage, as Solomon can prove to you by his own story. For, notwithstanding his great public and world wide reputation for having superior knowledge, he is believed by some to have ended up at the bottom of hell. Even if this were not true, he cannot be cleared of the fact that, despite all his great wisdom, he committed countless and grave sins of lust and of idolatry. Indeed, the servant who knows his master's will and does not do it, will be punished more severely, as Christ says (Luke 12:47). (From the saint's fourth sermon)

Since we have chosen such a great apostle Paul as our guide and father and claim to follow him, we should try to put his teaching and example into practice in our lives. (St. Anthony to the Barnabites)

You have decided to give yourselves to Christ and I desire that you do not fall victims to lukewarmness, but rather that you grow more and more fervant. (Letter to Mr. Bernardo Omodei and Madonna Laura)