Saint of the Eucharist

​Hello Everyone:
I hope all had a great Corpus Christi Feast day whether you celebrated it on the traditional day of Thursday or yesterday. Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament should be celebrated always.

I spoke to my sister yesterday about my Dad's condition and in conversation, she mentioned that the Church she went to in the northern part of Michigan did not have any special celebration for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and in fact she said that the priest who distributed the Sacred Host to her was very irreverent in the way he did so. Very very sad!!  We are truly living in a cold and tepid time of history for our Catholic Church! 

Below is an article about a saint who lived in America and is now incorrupt for his love and dedication to Our Blessed Lord. I hope you enjoy it. Many have never heard of him. Oh how we need to dig up the history of these priests and present them to a crying America and to the priests out there who need a boost in their own faith.

I am leaving for Washington DC tomorrow and will be back next Sunday. I will not be adding anything to this website. I hope you choose to frequent my archives for articles posted last year. There are many. Someday, I will update the website so that it is easy to navigate according to subject matter.

I am going to see my dying friend of so many years. Pray that Our Good Lord Jesus will grace her with eternal life this Friday - the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!!  (I am not asking much - but if you do not ask - you do not get! - Please pray with me. Thank you - thank you and God bless!!)

Today I would like to share with you the life of a heroic priest found here in the United States. He was born in Germany on the feast of Our Lady Aug. 15th, 1867 and received the Franciscan Habit and took his simple vows on Dec. 8th, 1887. He was ordained on July 26th, 1891.

Father Heinrichs was first assigned to Croghan, New York where a large fire destroyed church buildings. Within two years a church, a monastery, a school and a convent stood where there had been but ashes. By God’s grace and donations of $200,000, Fr. Heinrichs saw to it that the buildings were replaced. When that was accomplished, he was sent back to Paterson NJ as pastor and vicar of the monastery. In 1907, he soon became superior of the monastery and pastor of the parish of St. Elizabeth in Denver, CO. He had already been a priest for 16 years.

 On the Sunday morning of February 23, 1908, an Italian immigrant that was a member of a secret society of anarchists named Giuseppe Alia entered St. Elizabeth’s Church in Denver, with a revolver hidden under his coat. The 6 o’clock Mass was being offered. Alia waited until time for Communion, then went to the rail with the others. When the Host was placed on his tongue, Alia spat it out, then shot the priest in the heart. Still conscious, Father Leo swayed for a moment, reached the foot of the altar of Our Lady and managed to place the ciborium safely upon it. Then he fell to the floor, helpless. Some of the Particles dropped from the ciborium, and the dying priest made an effort to pick them up, though he had not sufficient strength. In a few moments, two other friars came running in. One gave Extreme Unction and the other gathered the other two hosts that Fr. Leo could not reach. Only a few days before his death he had declared in a sermon to the young ladies of the Blessed Virgin’s Sodality: “How sweet it is to die at the feet of Mary!” He died at the foot of Her altar.

Not until after his death did even his confreres realize what a holy man he had been.
He practiced remarkable penances. He knew he had a quick temper; to control it he wore leather pronged bands around his arms and waist as reminders of charity. Nobody knew this until he was prepared for burial. It was discovered that he did not use his bed, but instead slept on a plain board hidden in his room. He slept little, spending most of his nights translating spiritual books from German into English. They, too, were found after his death.

Children and the sick were his constant concern. As a pastor, he insisted that the utmost care be given to the proper training of children. During a small-pox epidemic, he virtually moved into the quarantine world and spent endless hours comforting the sick and assisting the dying.

But it was later that the most unusual events occurred. In 1911, his remains were transferred to a new grave at Paterson, N.J., and it was found that though the coffin, its trimmings and his garb had all decayed in three years, he himself was untouched by the passage of time. Then reports arrived from people who claimed their prayers had been answered directly through his intercession. The reports increased and in 1926 preliminary investigations toward Father Heinrich’s beatification were begun. There are some forty cures attested to have been gained through the invocation of Father Leo but he is still not canonized.

HERE IS A FORGOTTEN AMERICAN PRIEST WHO IS GREATLY NEEDED TODAY – BOTH HIS PRAYERS AND HIS EXAMPLE!!  MAY WE SPREAD THE WORD AND BEG HIS INTERCESSION AT A TIME WHEN HIS OWN ORDER (Franciscans) HAS GONE CRAZY! 

OUR LADY OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT- PRAY FOR US!
GOOD ST. FRANCIS – PRAY FOR US AND YOUR ORDER!

At a funeral on Friday, Feb. 21, 1908, Father Leo offered this thought in his eulogy — "Death may come at any time and under peculiar circumstances. We must live so that when the end comes we will be at peace with God, and then to us death will have no terror, but will be merely the transition to a happier life."

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HIS LIFE

HIS ORDER