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Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Patron Saint for DiaVetes

IS THERE A PATRON SAINT FOR PEOPLE WITH DIABETES?
LOVE THE SITE, THANKS! YOU BRIGHTEN MY DAYS!
tARA


Oh, the tribulations of caplock.


Do we have a patron saint for diabetes? Is the Pope Catholic? 


We have a patron saint for absolutely everything.  Extra good news!  There are two patron saints for diabetes.


Of course, there is often a list of saintly choices for many problems, jobs, hobbies and illnesses. St. Lawrence is the patron saint of cooks, because he was famously roasted to death on a grill, but so is St. Martha, who had a little run-in with Jesus when she admonished her sister for not pitching in in the kitchen.  Both good choices.


You are equally blessed with a choice of two brand new saints!  Some of our very newest saints! A girl and a boy!


You also have your choice of someone who suffered from diabetes and a person who suffered for ten years with diabetes and then was miraculously cured.


St. Paulina of Brazil was born in Italy but moved with practically her whole town to Brazil when she was 11 years old. From then on she was one holy little girl. She went from helping those around her and dusting the pews at the local church, to getting it together to find an empty house in which to take care of women with cancer.


Who does that remind you of?  Mother Teresa!  Don't you think?


That all went so well that she founded a religious order, The Sisters of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, which eventually became the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. She took on the name Sister Paulina of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus.  She seems to have liked long names.


Eventually, her whole life went south, and I'm not referring to her hemisphere. She had enemies who removed her from being the head of her order and finally she went to just sit in the mother house and pray, poor thing. She suffered from ravages of diabetes, losing first a finger and then her arm.  Happily she had some fingers left on the remaining hand, because now that she's a saint we have three of them for relics.


Or you could go with St. Josemaria Escriva, no less than the founder of Opus Dei.  He was a lovely man, a calm fellow with a hilarious sense of humor.  He had the grand idea that everyone should strive for holiness, even people living very ordinary lives.


I think Jesus had that idea as well......


St. Josemaria changed his name several times, by the way.  For one thing, he used to spell it with a "B" instead of a "V".  He was Jose, before he was Josemaria.  Seems he liked the longer names, too.


In any case, he suffered for ten years from a rare form of diabetes and, as I mentioned, was miraculously cured.


Or....you can have them both.  I'm sure they won't have any professional jealousy there in heaven.


Prayer for Those Suffering with Diabetes
O my Jesus, you accepted Your suffering so that we might have eternal life.  Give my hardship meaning and ease my fears as you turn my suffering into a source of joy.
Your servant, St. Josemaría Escrivá, was cured after suffering with diabetes for ten years.  He used his many obstacles and physical ailments as a passageway to holiness.  Through his experiences you taught him that "sorrow is the touchstone of love."  Overcome my sorrow with Your enduring love and purify my body and soul.  I ask this through the intercession of Mary, Our Mother and St. Josemaría Escrivá.  Amen


Pretty diabetic ID bracelet on etsy

9 comments:

Becky said...

Sister Mary Martha, I sent a link to this post to a friend of mine who has diabetes who is not Catholic. She asked more questions about St Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. I am having trouble finding anything about his diabetes beyond what you said here. Do you know where I could find further information about the type of diabetes, and how he was cured? I wish there was a central database of saints with information on their lives (similar to Wikipedia, I guess)!

JP said...

Interesting!

Several years back I did a search for a patron saint for diabetics and came up blank. Well, someone did suggest St. Pancras, but it didn't wash with me.

Now that diabetes is recognized as such a big problem, the Church supplies the saints.

Very neat.

Monica said...

Hello Sr. Mary Martha, I've just found out that a teenager in our family circle (thankfully not at my house) has a problem with porn. Is there a saint/novena you can recommend for us to pray? I'm praying the rosary for him but would like to know if there's a special saint I can recommend.

CatholicGal said...

Hello Sister Mary Martha,
First, thank you for your blog! Second, can you recommend a patron saint for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or just extreme, debilitating fatigue.
Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

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God Bless You ~Ron

prayaroundtheworld said...

Here's a fun one for patron saint matching, Sister! I'm reading about all these patron saints and haven't found one who really "clicks" with me. Is there a patron saint for the overly picky?

Anonymous said...

For diabetes, you might also consider recently-canonized Saint Rafael Arnáiz Barón, a Trappist monk who suffered from diabetes.

Anonymous said...

Please tell us who is the patron saint of those who have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also called, Chronic Neuroendocrineimmunologic Syndrome. Having had it for 12 years, I can say that it is not mere fatigue -- more like permanent flu.

Thank you.

Jose Cherian said...

Saint Josemaria and Saint Paulina of Brazil, I am suffering from Diabetes and associated problems for the past 23 years. Kindly pray for me so that I can be cured for ever so that I can do more for the poor and the needy of our Lord Jesus Chris.

Jose Cherian Age 62 years