Catholic Doctrine and Devotion
Devotion to the Fourteen Holy Helpers
Adapted from the book compiled by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer OFM.
(The following are the Legends of those Fourteen Holy Helpers whose feast days occur during the Autumn
months:)
St. Dionysius, Bishop and Martyr (Feast – October 9)
As one of the Holy Helpers, Saint Denis is invoked against diabolical possession.
When St. Paul the Apostle, in the year of Our Lord 51, came to Athens to preach the Gospel, he was summoned to the Areopagus –
the great council which determined all religious matters. Among the members of this illustrious assembly was Dionysius.
His mind had already been prepared to receive the good tidings of the Gospel by the miraculous darkness which overspread
the earth at the moment of Our Lord's death on the Cross. He was at that time at Heliopolis, in Egypt.
On beholding the sun obscured in the midst of its course, and this without apparent cause, he is said to have exclaimed:
Either the God of nature is suffering, or the world is about to be dissolved.
When St. Paul preached before the Areopagus
in Athens, Dionysius easily recognized the truth and readily embraced it (Acts 17: 23-24).
The Apostle received him among his disciples, and appointed him Bishop of the infant Church of Athens.
As such he devoted himself with great zeal to the propagation of the Gospel. He made a journey to Jerusalem to visit
the places hallowed by the footsteps and sufferings of our Redeemer, and there met the Apostles St. Peter and St. James,
the Evangelist St. Luke, and other holy apostolic men. He also had the happiness to see and converse with the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and was so overwhelmed by Her presence that he declared, that if he knew not Jesus to be God,
he would consider Her divine.
The idolatrous priests of Athens were greatly alarmed at the many conversions resulting from the
eloquent preaching of Dionysius, and instigated a revolt against him. The holy Bishop left Athens, and, going to Rome,
visited the Pope, St. Clement. He sent him with some other holy men to Gaul (France). Some of his companions
remained to evangelize the cities in the south, while Dionysius, with the priest Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius,
continued their journey northward as far as Lutetia, the modern-day Paris, where the Gospel had not yet been announced.
Here for many years he and his companions labored with signal success, and finally obtained the crown of martyrdom on
October 9, 119. Dionysius was beheaded at the advanced age of 110 years. The spot where the three Martyrs –
Dionysius, Rusticus, and Eleutherius – suffered martyrdom is the well-known hill of Montmartre.
An ancient tradition relates that St. Dionysius, after his head was severed from his body,
took it up with his own hands and carried it two thousand paces to the place where, later,
a church was built in his honor. The bodies of the Martyrs were thrown into the river Seine,
but taken up and honorably interred by a Christian lady named Catulla not far from the place
where they had been beheaded. The Christians soon built a chapel on their tomb.
St. Dionysius was not only a great missionary and Bishop, but also one of the most illustrious writers
of the early Church. Some of his works, which are full of Catholic doctrine and Christian wisdom, are still extant,
and well worthy of a convert and disciple of St. Paul, whose spirit they breathe.
Lesson
The apostolic men like St. Dionysius, who converted so many to Christ, were filled with His spirit,
and acted and lived for Him alone. They gave their lives to spread His religion, convinced that the welfare of
individuals and nations depends upon it.
On religion depends the security and stability of all government and of society.
Human laws are too weak to restrain those who disregard and despise the law of God.
Unless a man's conscience is enlightened by religion and bound by its precepts,
his passions will so far enslave him, that the impulse of evil inclinations will
prompt him to every villainy of which he hopes to derive an advantage,
if he can but accomplish his purpose secretly and with impunity.
True religion, on the contrary, insures comfort, peace, and happiness amid the sharpest trials,
safety in death itself, and after death the most glorious and eternal reward in God. How grateful, therefore,
must we be to the men who preached the true religion amid so many difficulties, trials, and persecutions;
and also to those who preach it now, animated by the same spirit. And how carefully should we avoid all persons,
books, and periodicals that revile and calumniate our holy Faith, and attempt its subversion!
Prayer of the Church
O God, Who didst confer on Thy blessed servant Dionysius the virtue of fortitude in suffering,
and didst join with him Rusticus and Eleutherius, to announce Thy glory to the heathens, grant, we beseech Thee,
that following them, we may despise, for the love of Thee, the pleasures of this world, and that we do not recoil
from its adversities. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ... Amen.
St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr (Feast – November 25)
As one of the Holy Helpers, St. Catherine is invoked against a sudden, unprovided death;
she is also invoked by philosophers, students, orators, barristers, etc.
St. Catherine was a native of Alexandria, Egypt, a city then famous for its schools of philosophy.
She was a daughter of Costis, half-brother of Constantine, and of Sabinella, queen of Egypt.
Her wisdom and acquirements were remarkable, the philosophy of Plato being her favorite study.
While Catherine was yet young her father died, leaving her heiress to the kingdom.
Her love of study and retirement displeased her subjects, who desired her to marry,
asserting that her gifts of noble birth, wealth, beauty, and knowledge should be transmitted to her children.
The princess replied that the husband whom she would wed must be even more richly endowed than herself.
His blood must be the noblest, his rank must surpass her own, his beauty without comparison,
his benignity great enough to forgive all offences. The people of Alexandria were disheartened,
for they knew of no such prince; but Catherine remained persistent in her determination to wed none other.
Now, it happened that a certain hermit who lived near Alexandria had a vision in which he saw the Blessed Virgin,
who sent him to tell Catherine that Her Divine Son was the Spouse whom she desired. He alone possessed all, and more,
than the requirements she demanded. The holy man gave Catherine a picture of Jesus and Mary;
and when the princess had gazed upon the face of Christ, she loved Him so much that she could think of naught else,
and the studies which had been her delight became distasteful to her.
One night Catherine dreamed that she accompanied the hermit to a sanctuary, whence angels came to meet her.
She fell on her face before them, but one of the angelic band bade her, Rise dear sister Catherine,
for the King of Glory delighteth to honor thee.
She rose and followed the angels to the presence of the Queen of Heaven,
who was surrounded by angels and saints and was beautiful beyond description.
The Queen welcomed her and led her to Her Divine Son, Our Lord. But He turned from her, saying,
She is not fair and beautiful enough for Me.
Catherine awoke at these words and wept bitterly until morning. She then sent for the hermit and
inquired what would make her worthy of the heavenly Bridegroom. The saintly recluse instructed her in the true Faith and,
with her mother, she was baptized. That night, in a dream, the Blessed Virgin and Her Divine Son again appeared to her.
Mary presented her to Jesus saying, Behold, she has been regenerated in the water of Baptism.
Then Christ smiled on her and plighted His troth to her by putting a ring on her finger.
When she awoke the ring was still there, and thenceforth Catherine despised all earthly things and
longed only for the hour when she should go to her heavenly Bridegroom.
After the death of Sabinella, Emperor Maximin came to Alexandria and declared a persecution against
the Christians. Catherine appeared in the temple and held an argument with the tyrant, utterly confounding him.
The emperor ordained that fifty of the most learned men of the empire be brought to dispute with her;
but, sustained by the power of God, Catherine not only vanquished them in argument, but converted them to the true Faith.
In his fury Maximin commanded that the new Christians be burned; and Catherine comforted them,
since they could not be baptized, by telling them that their blood should be their baptism and
the flames their crown of glory.
The emperor then tried other means to overcome the virtue of the noble princess; but, failing to do this,
he ordered her to be cast into a dungeon and starved to death. Twelve days later, when the dungeon was opened,
a bright light and fragrant perfume filled it, and Catherine, who had been nourished by angels,
came forth radiant and beautiful. On seeing this miracle, the empress and many noble Alexandrians declared themselves
Christians, and suffered death at the command of the emperor.
Catherine was not spared, for Maximin made a further attempt to win her. He offered to make her mistress
of the world if she would but listen to him, and when she still spurned his proposals, he ordered her to the torture.
She was bound to four spiked wheels which revolved in different directions, that she might be torn into many pieces.
But an angel consumed the wheels by fire, and the fragments flying around killed the executioners and many of the spectators.
The tyrant then ordered her to be scourged and beheaded. The sentence was carried into effect on November 25, 307.
A pious legend recognized by the Church, says that the angels bore Catherine's body to Mount Sinai,
and buried it there.
Lesson
St. Catherine, for her erudition and the spirit of piety by which she sanctified it,
was chosen the model and patroness of Christian philosophers.
Learning, next to virtue, is the noblest quality and ornament of the human mind.
Profane science teaches many useful truths, but when compared with the importance of the study
of the science of the Saints, they are of value only inasmuch as when made subservient to the latter.
The study of the Saints was to live in the spirit of Christ. This science is taught by the Church,
and acquired by listening to Her instructions, by pious reading and meditation.
Prayer of the Church
O God, Who didst give the law to Moses on the summit of Mount Sinai, and by the holy angels didst
miraculously transfer there the body of Blessed Catherine, Virgin and Martyr; grant us, we beseech Thee, to come,
through her intercession, to the mountain which is Christ. Through the same Our Lord Jesus Christ... Amen.
St. Barbara, Virgin and Martyr (Feast – December 4)
As one of the Holy Helpers, St. Barbara is invoked against lightning, fire, and sudden death.
She is also invoked by architects, builders, miners, and artillerymen.
Nicomedia, a city in Asia Minor, was St. Barbara's birthplace. Her father Dioscurus was a pagan.
Fearing that his only child might learn to know and love the doctrines of Christianity, he shut her up in a tower,
apart from all intercourse with others. Nevertheless Barbara became a Christian. She passed her time in study,
and from her lonely tower she used to watch the heavens in their wondrous beauty. She soon became convinced that the
"heavens were telling the glory of God," a God greater than the idols she had been taught to worship.
Her desire to know that God was in itself a prayer which He answered in His own wise way.
The fame of Origen, that renowned Christian teacher in Alexandria, reached even the remote tower,
and Barbara sent a trusty servant with the request that he would make known to her the truth.
Origen sent her one of his disciples, disguised as a physician, who instructed and baptized her.
She practiced her new religion discreetly while waiting for a favorable opportunity of acquainting
her father with her conversion.
This opportunity came in a short time. Some workmen were sent by Dioscurus to make another room in the tower,
and when they had made two windows she directed them to make a third. When her father saw this additional window,
he asked the reason for it. She replied, Know, my father, that the soul receives light through three windows:
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the Three are One.
The father became so angry at this discovery
of her having become a Christian that he would have killed his daughter with his sword, had she not fled to the
top of the tower. He followed her, and finally had her in his power. First he wreaked his vengeance on her in blows,
then clutching her by the hair, he dragged her away and thrust her into a hut, to prevent her escape.
Next he tried every means to induce her to renounce her Faith; threats, severe punishments,
and starvation had no effect on the constancy of the Christian maiden.
Finding himself powerless to shake his daughter's constancy, Dioscurus delivered her to the proconsul Marcian,
who had her scourged and tortured, but without causing her to deny the Faith. During her sufferings, her father stood by,
exulting in the torments of his child. Next night, after she had been taken back to prison,
Our Lord appeared to her and healed her wounds. When Barbara appeared again before him,
Marcian was greatly astonished to find no trace of the cruelties that had been perpetrated on her body.
Again she resisted his importunities to deny the Faith, and when he saw that all his efforts were in vain,
he pronounced the sentence of death. Barbara was to be beheaded. Her unnatural father claimed the privilege
to execute her with his own hands, and with one blow severed his daughter's head from her body, on December 4, 237.
Lesson
Since early times St. Barbara is invoked as the patroness against lightning and explosions,
and is called upon by those who desire the Sacraments of the dying in their last illness,
and many are the instances of the efficacy of her intercession.
We all wish for a happy and blessed death. To attain it we must make the preparation for it
the great object of our life; we must learn to die to the world and to ourselves, and strive after perfection in virtue.
There is no greater comfort in adversity, no more powerful incentive to withdrawing our affections from this world than
to remember the blessing of a happy death. Well prepared, death may strike us in any form whatsoever,
and however suddenly, it will find us ready.
We can be guilty of no greater folly than to delay our preparation for death, repentance,
the reception of the Sacraments, and the amendment of our life, from day to day, from the time of health
to the time of illness, to the very last moments, thinking that even then we can obtain pardon.
St. Augustine observes: It is very dangerous to postpone the performance of a duty on which our whole
eternity depends to the most inconvenient time – the last hour.
And St. Bernard remarks:
In Holy Scripture we find one single instance of one who received pardon at the last moment.
He was the thief crucified with Jesus. He is alone, that you despair not; he is alone, also,
that you sin not by presumption on God's mercy.
If you, therefore, wish for a happy death,
prepare for it in time.
Prayer of the Church
O God, Who among the wonders of Thy might didst grant the victory of martyrdom also to the weaker sex,
graciously grant us that we, by recalling the memory of Thy blessed Virgin and Martyr Barbara,
through her example may be led to Thee. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ... Amen.
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