I know that Harry Potter’s pet owl Hedwig died a heroic death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I didn’t realize that she’d been canonized…or that today was her feast day.

Today, Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception was canonized. She is the first officially recognized female saint from India. Please disregard the VOA News article’s inaccurate headline saying the pope “created” India’s first female saint. Obviously, God created her. And the Church’s canonization process discovers that a person is in heaven, then adds them to the official list (or “canon”) of saints that we know are there. The canonization process doesn’t put them in heaven or “create” saints. (The media rarely get religion right.)

The Travel section of today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured an article about a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. This town is the site where the young Bernadette Soubirous saw several visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858. While the Catholic Church was initially skeptical, her claims were eventually recognized as worthy of belief following a canonical investigation, and the apparition is now known as Our Lady of Lourdes. St. Bernadette was canonized in 1933.

The AJC article does not present what I think is one of the most fascinating facts of Bernadette’s story – she is one of the Incorruptables, a group of Catholic saints whose bodies have remained free from normal decomposition.

Bernadette died in 1879 at the age of 35. Exhumation is a normal part of the investigation when a person is being considered for canonization. About 30 years after her death, Bernadette’s body was exhumed with startling results:

Bishop Gauthey of Nevers and the church exhumed the body of Bernadette Soubirous on September 22, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors, and a sister of the community. They found that although the crucifix in her hand and the rosary had both oxidized, her body appeared “incorrupt” — preserved from decomposition. This was cited as one of the miracles to support her canonization. They washed and reclothed her body before burial in a new double casket.

The Church exhumed the corpse a second time on April 3, 1919. The body still appeared preserved, however, her face was slightly discolored possibly due to the washing process of the first exhumation.

In 1925, the church exhumed the body for a third time. They took relics, which were sent to Rome. A precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a light wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos. This was common practice for relics in France, as it was feared that although the body was uncorrupted, the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would make an unpleasant impression on the public. Imprints of the hands were also taken for the presentation of the body. The remains were then placed in a gold and crystal reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the mother house in Nevers. The site is visited by many pilgrims and the body of Saint Bernadette to this day remains intact despite being nearly one hundred and thirty years old.

Check out these photos of St. Bernadette’s body — and keep in mind that she died in 1879. Amazing!

Today is a key holy day on the Catholic liturgical calendar: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This day is important to Catholics because it is the day we mark Mary’s “heavenly birthday” – in other words, the day that she was received into heaven. We see Mary’s entrance into heaven as a symbol of Christ’s promise to us: that whoever “endures to the end” (Matthew 10:22) will also be received into paradise.

Scripture supports the idea that Mary was assumed into heaven. In Revelation 12:1-2, 5, Saint John describes her as appearing bodily in heaven:

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. … she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

The physical depiction of Mary is different from others in heaven who appear to only be disembodied souls, such as those mentioned in Revelation 6:9-10.

The late Pope John Paul II in his August 15, 2004 homily, also cited John 14:3 in connection with the Assumption:

And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Mary is not only Jesus’ mother, she is our mother as well, as we see in Revelation 12:17:

Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.

Let’s make sure we take the time to remember our spiritual mother on this great feast day!

It’s no surprise that Protestants outnumber Catholics here in the Deep South. But I suspect that this is due in part to some tactical errors in Catholic evangelistic strategy. As a native Georgian and a former Protestant, I think I have a unique perspective and can offer some fresh thinking on Catholic evangelistic outreach in these parts.

Not to offend any of my fellow Southerners, but one must admit that many stereotypes are at least in part rooted in reality. Let’s take the prototypical Southern male, who for the sake of this example we will name Billy Bob.

If Billy Bob starts to feel drawn by the Lord into a deeper spiritual life, he might briefly survey the various congregations in his town. And of all the prospects, the last on his list will be some church with a traditionally Catholic name, like, oh let’s say Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. No disrespect toward the founder of the Franciscan Order is intended either by me or our imaginary friend, but Billy Bob’s initial reaction upon seeing a painting or statue might be something like, “A guy named Francis? Well, he sure looks like a-sissy to me in that dress!”

My point is that the name of the local parish can have an influence on whether or not Billy Bob ever sets foot there.

Based on a quick Google search, I found that two Southern parishes have done a fine job in selecting their names, whether intentionally or not. I’m talking about Saint Cletus Catholic Church in Gretna, Louisiana and Saint Clement parish in Calhoun, Georgia. Cletus and Clem sound like good ol’ boys. The kinda fellas you might want to go fishin’ with. Name the parish after either of these men, or even both – Saints Cletus and Clem Catholic Church, for example – and we Southern boys will feel right at home, or at least feel much more welcomed. (If you don’t know, Sts. Cletus and Clement were the third and fourth Bishops of Rome, respectively – early Popes that sound like they’d fit right in here in the South.)

It would also be quite easy to further serve the needs of your local community by making mass times a bit flexible – check the local fishing forecast to make sure mass doesn’t overlap prime fishin’ times. These times will vary each day, of course (see the following):

This makes sure the avid fisherman will have time to fulfill his Sunday obligation without conflict. Employing this variable-schedule technique can improve mass attendance significantly.

If you have a hunting-and-fishing apostolate affiliated with your parish – call it something like “Fishin’ at Cletus and Clem’s” and maybe hold it in conjunction with the Lenten fish fries – you can probably anticipate an annual membership recruitment rate well into the double digits.

As I wrote earlier, today is the feast day of Saint Justin Martyr.

The writings of the early Church Fathers – Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyon – were influential in my decision to become Catholic. When it came time to select a saint’s name to take at my confirmation (March 2007), these were the four that came immediately to mind.

After a little deliberation, Justin was the name I chose. Mostly, this was because I could relate to a saint who was a layman (the others were bishops) and an apologist (I was inspired by how Justin wrote to clear up misconceptions others had about the beliefs and practices of Christians).

I also couldn’t see myself with the name Clement (call me “Clem”), Ignatius (call me “Iggy”) or Irenaeus (how do you spell that again?).

Today, June 1, is the feast day of Saint Justin, second-century convert to Christianity and noteworthy apologist of the faith. Around the year A.D. 165, he was martyred for his beliefs and as a result is frequently called Justin Martyr.

He was born in Palestine about 40 miles north of Jerusalem, in what is today called Nabius (in Jesus’ time, this was part of Samaria). His parents were Greeks living in the area.

Justin was well-educated and explored various schools of thought and philosophy. Eventually, he met a Christian and began to study the Hebrew and Christian scriptures at Ephesus. Around age 30, he converted to Christianity and was baptized.

Following his conversion, Justin continued to wear his philosopher’s garb and defended the Christian faith intellectually. Among his surviving writings are his First Apology, Second Apology, Dialogue with Trypho and fragments of other works. His First Apology includes descriptions of the Mass of the early Church.

He and six other Christians – five men and a woman – refused to offer sacrifice to the false gods at Rome and they were put to death by beheading in A.D. 165. When the Roman Prefect Rusticus commanded that he worship the idols, Justin replied, “No right minded person forsakes the truth for falsehood.”

In artwork, Justin is typically depicted with a quill pen, book or scroll in one hand (denoting his profession as a writer and philosopher) and an axe or sword in the other (in reference to his method of martyrdom).

He is the patron saint of apologists, philosophers and lecturers.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 is considered a noteworthy scripture reference for his life.