Dear Friends,
A very interesting site!
Christopher Columbus WAS to have been beatified by the Pope, but this was put on hold because of an outcry against him for having brought slavery to the West.
An antipope in Spain has canonized him a saint anyway . . .
Savonarola was the Dominican Friar burned at the stake at Florence for his fiery and moralistic sermons.
There is a society to promote his canonization, the Dominicans have always venerated him privately as a saint, and the last book read by Andrew Sheptytsky was one on . . . Savonarola. Sheptytsky was one of those who petitioned Rome to move ahead with his Cause!
Edward II was the son of Edward "Longshanks" of Braveheart fame.
He died a violent death thanks to his wife since Edward did not like women . . . But kings who died violent deaths were assured of a canonization process and this went on for about fifty years before it was dropped.
The picture is the alabaster tomb of King Edward "the Martyr" at Durham Cathedral where pilgrims still come to pay their respects.
The picture with the miraculous status of the Virgin Mary that Father Silouan has in his avatar is honoured as a miraculous icon in Orthodoxy "Prybavleniye Uma" and has an Akathist in its honour.
Alex
