As the Queen of all saints, Mary is known by many names, but Our Lady of Victory is our Ministry’s favorite title.  Pope Pius V established the feast of Our Lady of Victory to remember the victory won over the Ottoman Turks by a much smaller Christian fleet in the battle of Lepanto, on October 7, 1571.  That victory was won with the help of the Holy Mother of God whose aid was invoked through the praying of the rosary.  Later, Pope Gregory XIII changed the title to the feast of The Most Holy Rosary, celebrated each year on October 7th.

Mary and her Rosary is the Sword that can win victory for us over all our enemies, whether they are physical, spiritual or emotional/mental.  God wants to heal you, spiritually and perhaps even physically, and Mary is our most powerful intercessor to Jesus, her son.

Hospital Ministry’s tie with the Blessed Virgin Mary:
While Fr. Stefan was attending Gannon University as an undergraduate, he tried to spend at least some time (usually an hour) in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  One day in December of 1990 or January of 1991, while in front of the Eucharist, Fr. Stefan promised Jesus that he would pray a Rosary every single day of his life, and at that moment, he first knew that God was calling him to be a priest.  In the last 30 years, he has kept that promise and his devotion to Our Blessed Mother continues to grow ever stronger.

Additionally, another patron saint of the Hospital Ministry (Ven. Nelson Baker) also had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Victory, which began in 1874 when he visited Our Lady of Victories Sanctuary in Paris, France.

Most of what we know about St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus, comes from Scripture and Tradition.  Second to the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph is considered the most powerful saint in Heaven, and is the patron saint of the Universal Church, as well as of fathers, of workers, of the sick, and of a happy death.

Many saints, including St. Teresa of Avila and St. Thomas Aquinas, had a strong devotion to St. Joseph.  St. Teresa of Avila said: “To other saints, the Lord seems to have given grace to succor us in some of our necessities but of this glorious saint, my experience is that he succors us in them all and that the Lord wishes to teach us that as He was Himself subject to him on earth … just so in Heaven He still does all that he asks.”  Likewise, St. Thomas Aquinas said: “There are many saints to whom God has given the power to assist us in the necessities of life, but the power given to St. Joseph is unlimited:  It extends to all our needs and all those who invoke him with confidence are sure to be heard.”

For more information on St. Joseph, see https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/go-joseph

Hospital Ministry’s tie with St. Joseph:
During this Covid-19 crisis, Fr. Stefan spent 33 days praying with Fr. Calloway’s book “Consecration to St. Joseph” and on May 1, 2020, he consecrated himself to St. Joseph.  However, even before this, God was slowly leading Fr. Stefan on a deeper understanding and devotion to St. Joseph.  Among all of St. Joseph’s title, the one that resonates the most with the Hospital Ministry is Patron Saint of a Happy Death.  Not only was he surrounded by Jesus and Mary on earth when he died, but next to Mary, he is the most powerful saint in Heaven.  Many saints have surmised that if Jesus was obedient to him while on earth, how much more will He listen to His foster father in Heaven?

St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) is one of the greatest intercessors in the Catholic Church today.  He was a Capuchin Catholic priest from Italy (1887-1968) who became best known for bearing the stigmata (wounds of Christ), and performing many miracles and healings.  St. Pio loved to pray the rosary and encouraged others to pray it. He was also a Catholic mystic who sought union with God, and he taught that through prayer and contemplation, the soul could be brought into union with God.

Padre Pio had a special place in his heart for those who suffer, and in 1956 he founded “La Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” (the Home for the Relief of Suffering) in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.  On the day of the hospital’s opening, Padre Pio said, “A seed has been sown on the earth that will warm with the rays of His love.  A new army made of sacrifices and love will rise in God’s glory and comfort the souls and bodies of the sick” and he promised that God would bless those who bless his work.

Ten years later, Pope Paul VI praised the staff at the hospital and said, “The almighty and merciful Lord, who accepts for Himself every benefit given to his suffering brothers, will repay them many fold with generous measure and great abundance.”   The sick have much to offer.  When you offer up your suffering and give from the treasures of your pain, rest assured that God will abundantly bless you for your selflessness.

For more information on the life and intercession of St. Padre Pio, see https://www.ewtn.com/padrepio/man/biography.htm

Hospital Ministry’s tie with St. Padre Pio:
On May 23 2018, Padre Pio appeared to Fr. Stefan Starzynski in a dream.  In this dream, Padre Pio’s face appeared as large as life on the cover of the Prayer Folder that Fr. Stefan gives out to all the patients he visits at Inova Fairfax hospital.  At that moment, Fr. Stefan knew in his heart that St. Padre Pio was blessing his work of handing out Prayer Folders.

Later, when Fr. Stefan visited the Padre Pio Shrine in Barto, PA, he left a copy of his Prayer Folder with a staff member there, and to this day, that Prayer Folder remains on the seat of Padre Pio’s confessional with a “Do Not Remove” sign!  The work of Padre Pio continues with the Diocese of Arlington Hospital Ministry.

Born in rural Belgium on January 3, 1840, Jozef De Veuster was the youngest of 7 children in a pious family.  In 1863, he took his brother’s place on a mission to Hawaii, and was ordained a priest there in 1864.  Much of his ministry was helping the sick, and in 1873, he volunteered to live on the island of Molokai to help the lepers who were relocated there by caring for them physically and spiritually, building hospitals, houses, a church and school.  In 1884, he contracted leprosy himself, and died on the island in 1889.  He was canonized on October 11, 2009.

For more information on St. Damien, see http://damienchurchmolokai.org

Hospital Ministry’s tie with St. Damien of Molokai:
In the early 2000’s, while Fr. Stefan was assigned to St Mary’s in Fredericksburg, he had a dream in which he was in a palm tree and someone threw a rock at him, knocking him out of the tree.  He fell to the ground dead, but then St. Damien came to him, said a prayer, and Fr. Stefan was brought back to life.

Father initially thought that this dream meant that the hospital is like the island of Molokai and that Fr. Stefan was called to be there.  However, during this current Covid-19 crisis, Father feels as though the whole world is now the island of Molokai, and we are all on this island, needing St. Damien now more than ever.  Interestingly, St. Damien used to shout his confession from a little boat to a priest on a bigger boat, since he had to “socially distance” himself from all the healthy people.

It is also interesting to note that St. Damien’s Feast Day is May 10, and his first full day on Molokai was May 11 – the same day as Fr. Stefan’s birthday.

Barbara Koob (Cope) was born on January 23, 1838 in Heppenheim, Germany, and emigrated with her family to the United States a year later.   In 1862, she entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, NY and took the name “Sr. Marianne.”  She was a founding leader of St. Joseph’s Hospital in the city, one of the first 50 general hospitals in the country, and served as the administrator of that hospital before being asked to manage a hospital in Hawaii.

The King of Hawaii wrote to over 50 religious orders asking for help, but only one order (Sisters of St. Francis) agreed to help.  In 1883, St. Marianne Cope arrived in Hawaii with six other nuns and worked with people who had leprosy.  In 1888, she moved to Molokai to assist St. Damien in his final months, and to take care of the patients and children living there.  She lived there until her death of natural causes in 1918.  It should be noted that while St. Damien caught the disease and died of it, St. Marianne Cope and her six nuns never got the disease.  Pope Benedict XVI canonized both St. Damien (on October 11, 2009) and St. Marianne Cope (on October 21, 2012) three years later.

For more information on her, see https://www.osvnews.com/2018/08/05/the-legacy-of-st-marianne-cope

Hospital Ministry’s tie with St. Marianne Cope of Molokai:
St. Marianne was the fourth superior of the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, and Fr. Stefan’s Aunt is currently the superior of that same order in NY.  When St. Marianne Cope died, she was initially buried on Molokai but in 2005, after her beatification, her remains were returned to the motherhouse in Syracuse, NY.  In 2013, when the sisters were closing and moving to another convent, they decided to return St. Marianne Cope’s body to Hawaii, where she now rests in Honolulu’s Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace.

Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) was born on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland.  He entered the seminary in 1942 during the Nazi’s occupation of Poland, and was ordained a priest in 1946 when communists ruled the country.  In 1978, he was elected as Pope and took the name of John Paul II.  He led the Church as Pope for 26 years, and was a prolific writer, teacher and traveler.  During his Papacy, the Soviet Union dissolved and the revised Catechism of the Catholic Church was published.  He died on April 2, 2005 and was canonized a saint on April 27, 2014.

For more information about Pope St. John Paul II, see http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/biografia/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20190722_biografia.html

Hospital Ministry’s tie with Pope St. John Paull II:
From the beginning of Fr. Stefan’s chaplaincy at Inova Fairfax Hospital, he had several volunteers help him “behind-the-scenes” with creating the prayer folders that he now hands out.  During this time, one of those volunteers had a dream in which Pope JP II came out of a coffin and told her to continue this work.

Pope JP II was a great teacher and wrote numerous encyclicals, apostolic letters and other documents, but his most powerful teaching was through his example.  Six years before his death, he wrote a beautiful letter to the elderly in which he highlighted their importance to the Church and empathized with their sufferings.  He reminded them of his 1984 Apostolic Letter, Salvifici doloris (On the Meaning of Human Suffering), and in a way, was the first to envision a Silent Army of the Suffering.

In his last few years, when it was difficult for him to walk or talk, he remained as active as possible, and showed us that ALL human life is worthy of dignity, no matter what challenges (physical or mental) face us.

Bernard “Barney” Francis Casey was born on Nov. 25, 1870 on a farm near Oak Grove, Wisconsin to Irish immigrant parents.  He and his fifteen siblings shared a love for sports, hunting, fishing, swimming, skiing, and skating, and they were all raised with a deep Catholic faith.  By the time he turned 21, he knew that he wanted to be a priest and ultimately joined the Capuchin order in Detroit, Michigan.  He was given the name of Brother Francis Solanus (named after St. Francis Solano, a Spanish missionary to Peru) but that was shortened to “Solanus.”

Because the Capuchins in Detroit spoke German, Blessed Solanus struggled with his studies and barely passed them. Therefore, in July 1904, he was ordained a “simplex priest,” which meant that he could not hear confessions or preach doctrinal sermons.  However, he never showed any resentment and accepted his position with humility and surrender to God’s Will.  After his ordination, Bl. Solanus spent 20 years in New York, Harlem, and Yonkers, before he returned to St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit where he worked for 20 years from August 1, 1924-July 23, 1945.

In 1945, he returned to New York for one year at St. Michael’s in Brooklyn, but then was assigned to Huntington, Indiana from 1946 to 1956. When he was in the last year of his life, he was reassigned to St. Bonaventure in 1956.  During his final illness, he remarked: “I’m offering my suffering that all might be one. If only I could see the conversion of the whole world.” He died in Detroit at the age of 86 on July 31, 1957 and is buried at St. Bonaventure Monastery.

Father Solanus spent his life in the service of people. At the monastery door, he met thousands of people from every age and walk of life. In time of trouble and sorrow, they sought his prayers and advice.  Many people believed he had the gifts of healing and prophecy; they attributed favors to his prayers. He constantly showed his love of God by loving all of God’s people. He would often say: “I have two loves: the sick and the poor.”  He also told people to “Thank God ahead of time,” and hundreds of visitors reported miracles after visiting the holy priest.

He is sometimes called the American Padre Pio, not just because he came from the same Capuchin order as Padre Pio, but also because of his simplicity and humble ways, his love for the sick and suffering, and the healings and miracles attributed to him even while he was alive.

For more information, see https://solanuscasey.org/who-is-father-solanus

St. Philomena, whose name means “Daughter of Light,” was believed to have been a Greek princess who became a virgin martyr and died at when she was 13 or 14 years old.  St. Philomena was scourged, drowned with an anchor attached to her, and shot with arrows. Each time she was attacked, angels took to her side and healed her through prayer.  Ultimately, the Emperor Diocletian had Philomena decapitated.

Devotion for Philomena began to spread once her bones were exhumed in May 1802. After her relics were enshrined in Mugnano del Cardinale, Italy on August 10, 1805, cancers were cured, wounds were healed, and miracles occurred, all attributed to St. Philomena.  The miracles attributed to her intercession were so numerous that in 1837, Pope Gregory XVI canonized her based solely on these miracles and her martyrdom.  She became known as “The Wonder Worker“ and her feast day is August 11.  Other saints, such as St. John Vianney, St. Padre Pio, St. Damien of Molokai and St. Frances Cabrini, venerated Philomena and attributed miracles in their lives to the young martyr.

For more information on St. Philomena, see http://www.philomena.org/patroness.asp

Hospital Ministry’s tie with St. Philomena:
On October 1, 2019, Fr. Stefan visited St. James Church in Charles Town, WV to talk to the deacon about the Silent Army of the Sick and Suffering.  While where, the deacon told him about a stained-glass window that was recently installed in the Church.  In the background of the window on the right was Fairfax Hospital, and in the forefront were the images of a little girl who had serious cancer, and St. Philomena.  While in the hospital, this young lady had a vision of Saint Philomena, even though she didn’t recognize the saint at first.  She ultimately received a miracle of healing from the cancer, and in thanksgiving the family gave the Church this stained-glass window.

During his visit that day, Father happened to see the mother of that girl in the adoration chapel.  After learning who he was, the mother brought the little girl to meet Fr. Stefan and relate her miracle story and her vision of St. Philomena.  This just reinforced for Father the devotion that other saints had of this little saint, including St. Padre Pio and St. Damien of Molokai.

St. Jude Thaddeus was one of the 12 apostles and was the brother of St. James the Lesser.  He was also related to Jesus because his mother (Mary) was a cousin of the Virgin Mary, and his father (Cleophas) was a brother of St. Joseph.  In order to differentiate him from Judas Iscariot, the Bible often refers to him as St. Jude (not the Iscariot) or simply Thaddeus.  After Pentecost, he preached the Gospel to the Jews in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea for a few years, then went to Mesopotamia (current-day Iraq) to become a leader of the Church there.  He traveled with St. Simon throughout Mesopotamia, Libya, Turkey, and Persia, and is believed to have helped create the Armenian Church.  He was martyred in Persia or Syria around 65 A.D., and his body was brought to Rome and placed in a crypt that is now under St. Peter’s Basilica.

Throughout the centuries, pilgrims went to St. Jude’s grave to pray for their desperate situations, and countless people attributed miracles to his intercession, leading him to be called the patron saint of hopeless causes.  Jesus confirmed this title in a vision to St. Bridget of Sweden when He said: “In accordance with his surname, Thaddeus, the amiable or loving, he will show himself most willing to give help.”  Additionally, in the Letter of St. Jude (the shortest one in the New Testament), he urges Christians to persevere, especially in the most difficult or severe circumstance: “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude:1:20-21).

Hospital Ministry’s tie with St. Jude Thaddeus:
This saint, considered the patron saint of hopeless and impossible causes, is one of the favorite saints of Fr. Tony Appiah (current chaplain at Fairfax Hospital).  Father often recommends that people turn to St. Jude, especially in difficult cases when there seems to be no earthly hope.