We welcome to our parish for the month of August, Fr. Vincent D’Souza. Father was ordained a priest in 1981 for his diocese in India. Father D’Souza is a pastor now but spent years in different apostolates within his own diocese. 
 
Father is no stranger to Rockland. For many years he was the summer help at St. Catharine’s, Blauvelt and for the past month he was at St. Augustine in New City. Welcome Father!
 Those of us who are old enough remember a regular broadcast on ABC by Paul Harvey, called The Rest of the Story. The Rest of the Story consisted of stories presented as little-known or forgotten facts on a variety of subjects with some key element of the story (usually the name of some well-known person) held back until the end. The broadcasts always concluded: "And now you know...the rest of the story." 
 The Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6^th owes its place on the Church's calendar, at least in part, to the courageous actions of Dracula! 
 
This Wednesday is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. In fact, this sacred event is celebrated twice, once on the Second Sunday of Lent and on August 6^th. The Transfiguration foretells the glory of Jesus as God, and His Ascension into heaven. It is one of the central events recorded in the gospels. Immediately after the Lord was recognized by His apostles as the Messiah, He told them that “He must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things .. .and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Mt 16). The announcement of Christ’s approaching passion and death was met with indignation by the disciples. And then, after rebuking them, the Lord took Peter, James and John up to a high mountain, Mount Tabor by tradition, and was “transfigured before them.” 
 
In the Transfiguration, the apostles see the glory of God present in majesty in the person of Christ. Moses and Elijah appeared with the Lord. They are not only the greatest figures of the Old Testament, who now come to worship the Son of God in glory, these two figures actually stand for the Old Testament itself: Moses for the Law and Elijah for the Prophets. They also stand for the living and dead, for Moses died and his burial place is known, while Elijah was taken alive into heaven in order to appear again to announce the time of God’s salvation in Christ the Messiah. 
 
Now the interesting part of the story: Pope Callixtus III added the Feast of the Transfiguration to the calendar on August 6^th to celebrate the important victory of the Hungarian nobleman Janos Hunyadi and the elderly priest Saint John of Capistrano at the Siege of Belgrade in July 1456. Breaking the siege, their troops reinforced the Christians at Belgrade, the Muslim Turks were overpowered, and Islam was stopped from advancing any farther into Europe. 
 
With the exception of Saint John of Capistrano, Hunyadi could not find any significant allies to accompany him to Belgrade. Eventually, he did enlist the help of a young prince, Vlad III the Impaler. The young prince agreed to guard the mountain passes into Romania, thus cutting off the Turks. Without the help of Vlad the Impaler, the battle might not have been won. 
 
Prince Vlad was a brutal man whose actions earned him immortality. Vlad the Imapler was his nickname, his real name was Vlad Dracul and his life and brutality inspired a young Irish writer to write a book about a fictional vampire from Transylvania, who was named after Dracula Vlad Dracul.
 
Now you know the rest of the story!