Blessed Mannes de Guzman and Blessed George Thomas Rehm

Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate the memory of Bl. Mannes, the Brother of Saint Dominic
Blessed Mannes, an older brother of Saint Dominic, was born at Caleruega, Spain, about 1170. He was among his younger brother’s first followers and later assisted in establishing the priory of Saint Jacques at Paris in 1217. In 1219 he was entrusted with the care of the Dominican nuns at Madrid. According to an early source he was “a contemplative and holy man, meek and humble, joyful and kind, and a zealous preacher.” He died at the Cistercian monastery of San Pedro at Gamiel d’Izan near Caleruega about the year 1235.

likewise we also celebrate the memory of another Dominican friar, Blessed George Thomas Rehm. a French martyr of the XVIII century.
George Rehm was born in 1752 in Katzenthal, Upper Rhine and took the Dominican habit at the age of 20 in the convent-novitiate of Faubourg-St. Germain, Paris. He made solemn profession the following year as a son of the convent of Schelestad, Lower Rhine. He refused to take the schismatic oath in 1791 and when the convent was destroyed he moved to the Department of La Meurthe, where he continued to preach the Catholic faith. In 1793 he was condemned to be deported and was imprisoned by the Revolutionary Committee in Nancy and later moved with others to Rochefort, near La Rochelle. From May until August 1794 he remained a prisoner on an old boat and due to the ill treatment he received he died on August 11. His companion martyrs numbered 63.