So, I ask Laura how it is that she's able to put the needs of others ahead of her own. She's puzzled by my question, and wants to know why I'm asking. I tell her that lately I've really been struggling. I proceed in saying to her, "Aren't there times that you want other people to put you ahead of them....just once?!" Laura admits that, yes, there are times that she thinks that, but then realizes that the devil is the one who wants her to think that way. I know that she is right, and why is it that I'm hearing my own words smack me right in the face?! Because, I too, need to be reminded that the evil one is the one who wants to bring me down...the one who wants me to lose Hope....the one who wants me to stay as far away from God as possible. At this time, he's winning. What to do?!
Laura tells me that when she recognizes that the devil is affecting her mood, that she says a Hail Mary, and when she says another one, she starts to feel much better. Yes, there are times in my life when I remember to invoke Our Lady's, my Guardian Angel, or my Patron Saint's help. Why has this slipped so easily from my memory?
Laura talked about many of the special qualities of St. Therese, her Confirmation name. Then she asks me if I have a Patron Saint. (In high school, I dated a young Catholic gentleman....I was not a Catholic at that time, that happened several years later...another story..., and we use to go to Mass every Saturday evening prior to going out for the evening. The Church is named St. Anthony's, and was located in the town of Saint Anthony, Indiana.) My immediate response is St. Anthony. Then she asks me about my 'Confirmation Saint', and wonders if I ever invoke St. Mildred for help. I told her that I really don't know anything at all about St. Mildred. She tells me I need to find out about her. Duh!
After we arrived home, I went right on the Internet and found this lovely information:
(Died AD 732)Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet
Died: 13th July AD 732 at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent
St. Mildred was the daughter of King Merewald of Magonset and his wife, St. Ermenburga (alias Aebbe of Minster-in-Thanet); and therefore sister of SS. Milburga and Milgitha. At an early age, her mother sent her to be educated at Chelles in France, where many English ladies were trained to a saintly life.
A young nobleman, related to the Abbess of Chelles, entreated her to arrange that he might marry this English princess. The abbess tried to persuade her, but Mildred said her mother had sent her there to be taught, not to be married, and all the abbess's advice, threats and blows failed to persuade her to accept the alliance offered to her. At last the abbess shut her up in an oven in which she had made a great fire; but after three hours, when she expected to find not only her flesh but her very bones burnt to ashes, the young saint came out unhurt and radiant with joy and beauty. The faithful, hearing of the miracle, venerated Mildred as a saint; but the abbess, more infuriated than ever, threw her on the ground, beat, kicked and scratched her and tore out a handful of her hair. Mildred found means to send her mother a letter, enclosing some of her hair, torn from her head by the violence of the abbess; and Queen Ermenburga soon sent ships to fetch her daughter. The abbess, fearing that her evil deeds should be made known, would, on no account, give permission for her departure. Mildred, however, fled by night; but, having in her haste forgotten some ecclesiastical vestments and a nail of the cross of Christ which she valued extremely, she managed to return for them and brought them safely away. Upon her arrival back in England, she landed at Ebbsfleet where she found a great square stone, miraculously prepared for her to step on from the ship. The stone received, and retained, the mark of her foot and was afterwards removed to the Abbey of Minster-in-Thanet and kept there in memory of her. Many diseases are said to have been cured for centuries after, by water containing a little dust from this stone. It was often removed from its first situation, until an oratory was built for it.
With her mother's consent, Mildred joined her at her foundation of Minster-in-Thanet. She was given the veil by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, at the same time as seventy other nuns. On St. Ermenburga's death, Mildred succeeded her as Abbess of the community, to whom she set a holy example and by whom she was much beloved. An old story is recorded that one night, while she was praying in the church of her monastery, the devil blew out her candle, but an angel drove him away and relighted it for her.
Mildred died of a lingering and painful complaint, around AD 732. She was succeeded by St. Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet. During the latter's rule, it apparently happened that the bell-ringer fell asleep before the altar. The departed Mildred awoke him with a box on the ear, exclaiming, "This is the oratory, not the dormitory!"
She continued to be an extremely popular saint, eclipsing the fame of St. Augustine, in the immediate neighbourhood of her monastery, where the place that used to be proudly pointed out as that of his landing came to be better known as "St Mildred's Rock." In 1033, St. Mildred was translated to St. Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury and minor relics also passed from here to Deventer in Holland where she was honoured on 17th July; though her feast, in England, is three days earlier. There was, however, a rival set of relics which were said to have been hidden at Lyming, with those of her sister, Milgitha, during the Viking devastation. These were given to the Religious Hospital of St. Gregory in Canterbury, by Archbishop Lanfranc in 1085. Mildred is represented in art holding a church and accompanied by three geese, as she was protector against damage by such wild birds.
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Several years back, a friend advised me to look into the background of my Confirmation Saint. She told me that when she had researched her saint's name, that there were many similarities about her life that were parallel to the saint's.
Laura said it best, "Hey, Mom....it looks like you have a really great saint!" I wholeheartedly agree!
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