Christmas Song Aims to Inspire Peace in the Holy Land Pope’s Message of Hope Launched into Space to Orbit Earth Here is Pope Francis’ Schedule for World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon Marian Apparitions Must Always Point to Jesus The 22-year-old was beatified as a “martyr to chastity,” six decades after she was murdered while resisting rape (CNS photo/courtesy Romanian bishops’ conference) By Jonathan Luxmoore • Catholic News Service • Posted September 25 Poland (CNS) — A 22-year-old Romanian peasant has taken a step closer to sainthood as a “martyr to chastity,” six decades after she was murdered while resisting rape during the communist-era repression of the Catholic Church prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes said Veronica Antal’s fate was similar to that of persecuted Christians in ancient Rome who had asked the same question: “Who will separate us from the love of God?” was the first Romanian woman to be beatified and first Romanian layperson formally honored as a martyr from the time of communist rule the oldest of four children in Romania’s Moldavia province Antal was taught the faith by her grandmother Each day Antal walked five miles to Mass in the nearest church at Halaucesti she took vows of chastity as a Franciscan tertiary Unable to become a nun because all religious orders had been suppressed by the communists she created a prayer cell near her parents’ house from where she visited the sick and needy and helped prepare children for confirmation Antal stayed to sweep the church after a Mass who stabbed her 42 times when she refused sex and left her to die in a cornfield Although her grave at Halaucesti’s cemetery immediately became a place of pilgrimage a beatification process was launched by the Conventual Franciscans only after the 1989 collapse of communist rule using material secretly stored by Franciscan Father Anton Demeter concelebrated by 350 priests and bishops from Romania was attended by Antal’s brother and sister and former neighbors which included a delegation from Romania’s predominant Orthodox Church Cardinal Becciu said Antal had prayed for all persecution victims in her makeshift prayer cell and offered an example of “serenity and courage” to contemporary young people “The communist regime claimed to eliminate God; (it) destroyed churches and formed young generations for atheism but could not erase faith from the hearts of many families,” the cardinal said “The beatification of this 22-year-old is a happy occasion to confirm the Catholic community’s mission in this country — to preserve and transmit the heritage of faith and attachment to human and spiritual values with new courage and missionary impetus.” Beatification is one of the final steps toward sainthood A miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Antal would be needed before she could be declared a saint CatholicPhilly.com works to strengthen the connections between people families and communities every day by delivering the news people need to know about the Catholic Church you and hundreds of other people become part of our mission to inform form in the Catholic faith and inspire the thousands of readers who visit every month Please join in the church's vital mission of communications by offering a gift in whatever amount that you can ― a single gift of $40 Your gift will strengthen the fabric of our entire Catholic community and sustain CatholicPhilly.com as your trusted news source PREVIOUS: Pope prays for victims of ferry disaster in Tanzania NEXT: Abuse crisis is like fire purifying church USCCB: Statement of USCCB on Vatican’s Document Addressing Pastoral Blessings Pope Francis’ May 2023 Prayer Intention | Watch Video Catholic Charities of Philadelphia Returns to Roots Dan Tarrant Brings God to the World Through Catholic Filmmaking In 2010, a charity founded by Anita Roddick honoured her memory with its work in Romania. Cahal Milmo reported from Iasi How Ceausescu’s lost souls were given a new start in lifeIn 2010, a charity founded by Anita Roddick honoured her memory with its work in Romania. Cahal Milmo reported from Iasi When British volunteers arrived at Orphanage One in Halaucesti 20 years ago they were greeted with a scene of Dickensian squalor Shaven-headed toddlers were tied to their urine-soaked beds by supervisors who patrolled the corridors with sticks up their sleeves ready to beat their charges babies were not picked up; their bottles were pushed through the bars of their cots Among the 44 infants in this barbarous “Casa de Copii”, or Children’s House, in a village deep in the impoverished northeast corner of Romania was a small She had been surrendered at birth to Orphanage One by a mother whose alcoholic husband had abandoned her with her five other children; the woman was so poor she could not afford to feed the newest arrivals Like thousands of Romanian women “encouraged” to bear at least five offspring under the erratic despotism of the country’s late Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu Roxana’s mother consigned her daughter to a state that systematically reduced the children it cared for to a loveless silence it simply gives up and withdraws from the world that surrounds it it is hard to reconcile the Roxana of today – a confident with a liking for Enrique Iglesias and a proficiency at karate – with her diabolical beginning to life emaciated waifs of 1990 have survived the horrors of the Halaucesti orphanages (among the worst in the country) and The secret suffering of Ceausescu’s babies: read the report that sparked a 20-year story this young woman whose life was once considered barely worth sustaining will graduate from Romania’s oldest university with a degree in physiotherapy and a cabinet full of trophies testifying to her sporting prowess; she is a former Romanian national karate champion and a keen footballer Such a transformation is due in large part to the work of Children on the Edge, the charity founded by Body Shop entrepreneur Dame Anita Roddick and one of the three charities in this year’s Independent Christmas Appeal Roddick was moved by the images of Romania’s orphanages that shot around the world in 1990 in the aftermath of the short bloody revolution that ended the lives of Ceausescu and his equally-hated wife Some 24,000 children remain in institutionalised care in Romania and concern persists about the quality of care in some state-run homes But today’s orphanages bear little relation to the satanic mills that by 1990 housed 160,000 minors as a result of Ceausescu’s malign pressure to produce a cheap workforce from children parents could not keep joined the convoys of aid heading towards the former Eastern Bloc country But while others stopped within a few hours of the capital, Bucharest the Body Shop’s three lorries and 20 volunteers pressed further north to the district of Iasi which even now remains Romania’s most impoverished region the group asked to be directed to the neediest and most isolated orphanages They were sent to Halaucesti and its three Casa de Copii They have been helping the 600 children they found there “They slept three to four in a bed and most of the bed linen was soiled and stained In cots were babies some of them tied by bits of material to the bars There was an overpowering smell of urine and sweat probably because of the excrement that was smeared over walls and floors “What was most noticeable and upsetting was that none of the children had individual care and attention the staff hit them and many of them walked around with sticks up their sleeves we picked the children out of the cots and hugged them So void of love and affection were they that they didn’t know how to react.” has little or no conscious memory of such grim days But she does remember vividly enjoying the fruits of the efforts of Children on the Edge – which in Romania created an offshoot named Fundatia Cote still funded by the UK charity – to improve life for the inhabitants of Halaucesti’s homes Orphanage One was closed and its inhabitants moved to a new residence that had been divided into small family units Then visits were started by Cote workers to enable siblings in other orphanages to see one another during summer camps a year older than her and who remained at the Halaucesti complex were a source of joy and lingering sadness She said: “I had a big desire to be with him Other children would visit their brothers and sisters but because he genuinely didn’t want to see me I think maybe I reminded him he had a family who didn’t want him.” Children on the Edge has pursued a strategy of seeking to reverse the damage caused by the Ceausescu-era orphanages which were deliberately sited in isolated rural villages to conceal the “shame” of their existence and that of their inhabitants Without continued support to become independent there is the risk they could fall victims of trafficking or get into crime back into the society which had rejected them the charity concentrates on helping teenagers as they leave care Roxana and her fellow inhabitants in the Pascani home became the first “orphans” (it is a particular cruelty of the Ceausescu era that very few of this generation of lost children were actually parentless) to be put into mainstream schools rather than educated within the walls of an institution Roxana remembers her school days with a shudder The playground would echo with cries of “Casa de Copii” as her classmates mercilessly targeted the new arrivals She said: “I started school when I was six They would shout these taunts and beat us and trip us up They would go on about how we had nobody to protect us the sense of stigma at being a “Casa de Copii” persists Many of the orphans are reluctant to reveal their status to those brought up in families for fear of being judged inferior Roxana bears no resentment to those responsible for her distorted upbringing the carers who struck her with a ruler if she failed to do her homework to the required standard and the mother who gave her away to the unfeeling state of Children on the Edge orphans went to university With an emotional maturity beyond her years Roxana has in her own way laid to rest the demons of her childhood Recalling the first time she met her mother at the age of 10 she said: “She was still very poor and the social worker at the home gave her some money to take me out to buy me a cake I was happy because someone was buying me a sweet “I didn’t have strong feelings about my mother As far as I was concerned it was not my mother I would get upset at how I was suffering so much Why me?’ I would put the guilt on my parents She explained about the poverty and my alcoholic father But when I saw how much she was suffering by talking about it I resolved to never ask her about it again The process of normalisation led by Cote continued when Roxana and her comrades from Halaucesti were moved as teenagers to apartments bought on behalf of the charity in the city of Iasi staying in groups of six with a foster mother or “mama sociale” to supervise them while they attended secondary school and became part of an established neighbourhood I was determined that no one should know about my background the social worker introduced me to the class as a ‘Casa de Copii’ My hopes were dashed but actually it was a new start The system of living in supervised apartments has become the cornerstone of the charity’s work as the children of the orphanages enter adulthood Roxana recalls her flatmates throwing adolescent tantrums but there is no doubting that the scheme has been a success: some 25 per cent of these once tempestuous and damaged children have gone on to do university degrees said: “Our greatest need now is to see the orphans into adulthood there is the risk they could fall victims of trafficking or get into crime.” Halaucesti was finally emptied and bulldozed flat in 2006 and for Roxana As well as planning a career in sports coaching she is beginning to overcome her long-held reticence about revealing the nature of her childhood to university friends and works as a volunteer with children in care she says: “I can understand their needs and worries much better than someone else who hasn’t been in care “They will be hugged and kissed like no other children I have worked hard to make sure that what happened to me This article first appeared in The Independent on 11 December 2010 Previous article + What little we know of Saint Bartholomew comes to us from the Gospel of John and he is commonly identified with Nathaniel (1:45-51), a “man without guile” from Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle. + According to tradition, following Pentecost, Bartholomew preached the Gospel in India and in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). According to the Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, Saint Pantaenus traveled to India in the third century and found a small group of believers and was shown a Hebrew copy of the Gospel of Matthew that was said to have been left there by Bartholomew. + Ancient tradition also tells us that Bartholomew was martyred in Armenia by being flayed alive and his supposed relics are kept in the Church of Saint Bartholomew on an island in the Tiber River in Rome. + Saint Bartholomew is honored as the patron saint of Armenia and of those suffering from neurological diseases. Because of the horrific way in which he died, he also remembered as the leather workers, book binders, and is invoked by those suffering from skin diseases. “It was clear through unlearned men that the cross was persuasive, in fact, it persuaded the whole world. Their discourse was not of unimportant matters but of God and true religion, of the Gospel way of life and future judgment, yet it turned plain, uneducated men into philosophers. How the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and his weakness stronger than men!.”—Saint John Chrysostom Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S. Would you like to read more like this?Get Aleteia delivered to your inbox