20th Century Martyrs & Holy Men in the Papal Artifacts Collection, & A Reflection on Devotions to the Saints from Fr. Kunst, Curator

The Papal Artifacts’ Collection is primarily dedicated to artifacts connected to the papacy.  Individual popes, their biographies and multiple items belonging to them, including first and second class relics, make up the majority of this Collection.  But that isn’t all it is.

Father Kunst has a deep devotion to the saints as can be readily seen in viewing the Saints & Blesseds section of this site. We invite you to visit Papal History/Saints & Blesseds to view the many canonized and beatified men and women who make up this section of the Collection.

Another category is also included with this Collection: Notable Individuals.  These are people significantly associated with the Catholic Church who have not been canonized but contributed in outstanding ways to the church.

 We invite you to view these featured images and small glimpses into the lives of these important 20 century martyrs and several beatified and notable men whose lives of heroic opposition to the fascist and communist influences of their time make them gifts to our Church.  Pope Francis referred to Cardinal Ernest Simoni of Albania (still alive) as a, “living martyr.”

Perhaps that could be said of all of them.

Visit the Saints & Blesseds pages & the Notable Individuals pages for more information on each of these men.

We thank them for the gifts of their lives to our Lord and to our Church.

You Are Not Alone in an Empty Church
Father Richard Kunst

Here is a little Catholic Theology 101: We don’t know much about heaven, and even if we did, we could not comprehend it anyhow, but we do know that heaven is a state of being in full and complete union with God. We will not lose our identity, we are not assumed into God, but we will be in complete union with him.

As Catholics we have professed from biblical times forward that the Eucharist is the fullness of God the Son’s divine presence. The fullness of the deity of God the Son is hidden in the forms of bread and wine. It is, as the Second Vatican Council said, “the source and summit of our faith,” which means, as I have written in columns past, that when we go to Mass, we are not alone.

When we go to Mass, or even go into an empty Catholic church with the reserved Eucharist in the tabernacle present, all the saints are there as well. If heaven is complete union with God, and God the Son is present in the Eucharist, then necessarily that means that the saints (and even the angels) are there as well. That is worth pondering for a while.

Like most priests these days, I am the pastor of more than one church. I have St. James the Less in Duluth, which I am convinced is the most beautiful church around, and I have St. Elizabeth, a much smaller parish in the far West End of Duluth. St. Elizabeth in its very design reflects this reality that the saints are among us while we celebrate the heavenly liturgy of the Eucharist. All up and down the nave of this pretty little church are stained glass windows of different saints. It acts as a tangible reminder that these very people who are the Gospels lived are worshiping right along with us.

One of the windows, as you might expect, is of St. Therese of Lisieux, “The Little Flower,” since she is still one of the most popular saints in the church. Therese, who died of tuberculosis on Sept. 30, 1897, at the age of 24, famously said, “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.” And she has kept that promise. Saints, in order to be declared saints, have to do good things on Earth from heaven, because there have to be verified miracles through their intercession before they can be canonized.

But there are few saints who are better known for having prayers answered through their intercession than St. Therese! When I was growing up, I remember my grandmother getting “Leaves Magazine,” which is a small, 20-page booklet published every other month by the Mariannhill Fathers out of Michigan. This magazine, which is still published, reports stories of prayers answered through the intercession of the saints. Though I have not read this little magazine for a while, it seemed to me as I looked at my grandma’s copies that over half of the stories were about St. Therese’s intercession, making the point that The Little Flower has indeed been spending her heaven doing good on Earth.

At this point, if you are a Protestant and reading this column, you might be thinking, “Those silly little Catholics praying to the dead to do favors for them.” But it is not just the Catholics! Even our older brothers and sisters in the Jewish faith believe the same thing, and it is right in the scriptures. In the 48th chapter of the Old Testament book of Sirach, the author praises the greatness and glory of the two greatest prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Speaking of Elisha, the author says this: “Nothing was beyond his power; beneath his flesh was brought back into life. In life he performed wonders, and after death, marvelous deeds” (Sirach 48:14).

If God worked marvels through the intercession of the Prophet Elisha (even before Jesus rose from the dead), then why would we think he doesn’t allow it anymore? The saints are in complete, perfect union with God in heaven and are with us at every Mass. Of course it just makes logical sense that they would pray for us. After all, we are all members of the same body, the church.

If you do not have a favorite saint, you should get one. Saints are our companions on our pilgrim journey. They are our models of the Gospels lived, and they are our intercessors. And because there are thousands of canonized saints, there is one for everyone. Learn about their stories and find one that draws you in and one that you can identify with, and next time you are in Duluth, go and visit St. Elizabeth’s parish to see the tangible way the saints are with us at Mass.

Not technically martyrs, but lives of extraordinary heroism in the face of Fascism & Communism

At 6.30 pm, on Monday  March 24, 1980, the Archbishop of San Salvador was celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Divine Providence hospital. A car pulled up outside, and a single gunman fired a single shot from the doorway straight into Oscar Romero’s heart. 

Moments earlier, the Archbishop had been speaking about how “Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grain of wheat that dies…”. 

The Franciscan friar, Maximilian Mary Kolbe, died in the Auschwitz concentration camp on August 14, 1941. Two weeks earlier, a prisoner had gone missing. The commandant, Karl Fristsch, announced the penalty to the entire camp: ten men would die in the starvation bunker. As his name was called, Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out, “My wife, my children!” Father Maximilian stepped forward and offered to take his place. He and the other nine men were tossed naked into a concrete hole in Building 13.

In 1952, Pope Pius XII elevated Stepinac to the cardinalate. He did not go to Rome for the investiture ceremony, knowing he would not be permitted to return home.

Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac was declared a martyr, having been slowly poisoned while in prison. Pope John Paul II beatified him on October 3, 1998.

On the evening of December 1st, 1916, he was killed by a band of marauders who were struggling against the imposition of French rule.

Perhaps the simplest, most profound statement ever uttered by Father Charles de Foucauld is the one on which a person could live his/her whole life: No matter what is being encountered, he said, It is JESUS in this situation.