St John the Apostle, Blessed Sara Salkahazi

St John

John, son of Zebedee and Salome, was one of the Twelve Apostles. John was called to be an Apostle by Jesus in the first year of His public ministry. He is believed to be the same person as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos and the Beloved Disciple. John's older brother was St James the Great, another one of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus referred to the brothers as 'Boanerges' meaning 'sons of thunder.' John is believed to be the longest living apostle and the only one who did not to die a martyr's death.

John, along with Peter and James, were the only witnesses of the raising of Daughter of Jairus, and the closest witnesses to the Agony in Gethsemane. John was the apostle who told Jesus they had 'forbidden' a non-disciple from casting out demons in Jesus' name. The Lord told him: "he who is not against us is on our side."

John and Peter were the two apostles sent by Jesus to make preparations for the final Passover meal, the Last Supper. During the meal, St John sat next to Jesus, leaning on him rather than lying along the couches.

John was the only one of the Twelve Apostles who did not forsake the Saviour in the hour of His Passion. He stood faithfully at the cross when Jesus told him to him to take care of His Mother Mary.

After the Assumption of Mary, John went to Ephesus, according to Church tradition. He was later banished by the Roman authorities to the Greek Island of Patmos; this is where he allegedly wrote the Book of Revelation. It is said John was banished in the late 1st century, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering no injuries. It is also said that all those who witnessed the miracle in the Colosseum were converted to Christianity. Emperor Domitian was known for his persecution of Christians.

John is known as the author of the Gospel of John and four other books in the New Testament - the three Epistles of John and the Book of Revelation. The authorship of the Gospel is credited to the 'disciple whom Jesus loved,' and John 21:24 claims the Gospel of John is based on the 'Beloved Disciple's' testimony. However, the true authorship has been debated on since 200. In his Eclesiastical History, Eusebius states the First Epistle of John and the Gospel of John are agreed upon as John's. Eusebius continues to state the second and third epistles of John are not John the Apostle's.

In the Gospel of John, the phrase 'the disciple whom Jesus loved,' or 'the Beloved Disciple' is used five times, but is not used in any other New Testament accounts of Jesus.

St John is called the Apostle of Charity, a virtue he had learned from his Divine Master, and which he constantly inculcated by word and example. The 'beloved disciple' died in Ephesus after AD 98, where a church was erected over his tomb. It was later converted into a mosque.

St John is the patron saint of love, loyalty, friendships, and authors. He is often depicted in art as the author of the Gospel with an eagle, symbolising 'the height he rose to in his gospel.' In other icons, he is shown looking up into heaven and dictating his Gospel to his disciple.

and Blessed Sara Salkahazi

Hungarian journalist who became a religious sister, rescued many Jewish people during World War II, and was killed by the Nazis.

Sara was born on 11 May 1899 to Leopold and Klotild Schalkhaz, owners of the Hotel Schalkhaz in Kassa (now Slovakia). The family was of German origin. Her father died when she was two years old. Her brother described her as "a tomboy with a strong will and a mind of her own."

She trained as a primary school teacher but soon left the classroom and went into journalism, and edited the official paper of the National Christian Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia. For a time she she flirted with atheism. She was once engaged to be married but broke it off.

When she met the Sisters of Social Service, Sara felt overcome by a sense of calling, but they were reluctant to accept the chain-smoking journalist. It took her a year to kick the habit, after which she was accepted into the order. She joined the congregation in 1929, and took her first vows on Pentecost 1930.

Her first assignment was at the Catholic Charities Office in Kosice, where she supervised charity works, managed a religious bookstore, and published a periodical entitled Catholic Women.

At the request of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Slovakia she organized all the various Catholic women's groups into a national Catholic Women's Association, and established the National Girls' Movement.

As national director of the Catholic Working Girls' Movement, She built the first Hungarian college for working women, near Lake Balaton.

In Budapest, she opened Homes for working girls and organized training courses.

Sara also wrote a play on the life of Margaret of Hungary, who as canonized on 19 November 1943.

Still, she didn't quite fit. She was too loud, too big, too much. The Sisters thought she was trying to draw attention to herself when she was just trying to be who God made her to be.

She wasn't permitted to make vows with the rest of her group and was even told not to wear the habit for a year, the Sisters not wanting to be associated with this problem-like-Maria.

Around this time, Sr Sara wrote:

I am short-tempered, vehement, nervous and passionate but still I love you!

I am disobedient, stubborn and defiant, yet I love you!

I am restless, hasty and confused but I love you!

I am dark, envious and making comparison but I love you!

Her motto from the prophet Isiah 'Here I am! Send me! Is 6:8b

Her boundless energy was misunderstood by the other sisters as an attempt to draw attention to herself. Her superiors doubted her vocation and refused to allow her to renew her temporary vows, or to wear the habit for a year. She considered leaving. Nevertheless, she continued to live the life of a Sister of Social Service without vows.

The Hungarian Benedictines in Brazil were asking for Sisters to work there in mission, and Sara was eager to go, but World War II intervened.

Sara opened the Working Girls' Homes to provide safe haven for Jews persecuted by the Hungarian Nazi Party.

In 1943 she smuggled a Jewish refugee from Slovakia, disguised in the habit of the gray sisters, and the woman's son, out of the Sisters' house in Kassa, which was being searched by the Gestapo, and brought them temporarily to Budapest.

During the final months of World War II, she helped shelter hundreds of Jews in a building belonging to the Sisters of Social Service in Budapest. About 100 were aided by Sara herself, who was the national director of Hungarian Catholic Working Women's Movement. As the sister responsible for the house, she secretly made a formal pledge to God in presence of her superior to be prepared to sacrifice herself if only the other sisters were not harmed during the war. The text of the pledge was preserved in her journals.

Betrayed to the authorities by a woman working in the house, the Jews she had sheltered were taken prisoner by members of the Hungarian pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party. Sara was not in the house when the arrests took place and could have fled, yet she chose to return. The prisoners were lined up on the bank of the Danube River on 27 December 1944 and shot, together with four Jewish women and a Christian co-worker who was not a member of her religious institute. Her body was never recovered.

The killings came to light in 1967, during the trial of some Arrow Cross members.

In 1969, her deeds on behalf of Hungarian Jews were recognized by Yad Vashem after she was nominated by the daughter of one of the Jewish women she was hiding, who was killed alongside her.

On 17 September 2006, Sara was beatified in a proclamation by Pope Benedict XVI, read by Cardinal Peter Erdo during a Mass outside St Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, which said in part: "She was willing to assume risks for the persecuted ... in days of great fear. Her martyrdom is still topical ... and presents the foundations of our humanity."

This was the first beatification to take place in Hungary since that of King Stephen in 1083 along with his son Imre and the Italian Bishop Gerard Sagredo, who were instrumental in converting Hungary to Christianity.

If Sara Salkahazi is canonized, she will be the first non-royal Hungarian female saint.

Speaking at the Mass, Rabbi Joszef Schweitzer said: "I know from personal experience ... how dangerous and heroic it was in those times to help Jews and save them from death. Originating in her faith, she kept the commandment of love until death."

Read more about Blessed Sarah Salkahazi here:
https://aleteia.org/2016/09/12/a-hidden-catholic-gem-blessed-sara-salkahazi-rescuer-of-jews-from-the-nazis/