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[edit] August 1 2007
Saint Alphonsus Liguori (27 September 1696 – 1 August 1787) was an Italian Doctor of the Catholic Church, spiritual writer, and founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer or Redemptorists, an influential religious order.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori was born in Marianella, in the Kingdom of Naples. Liguori finished school and went to law school at age sixteen. Eleven years later, after having lost an important case, he decided to give up his career because of the corruption in the courts of Naples.
In 1723, he began his seminary studies. He was ordained a priest on 21 December 1726, at the age of 30. He lived his first years as a priest with the homeless and marginalized youth of Naples. He founded the "Evening Chapels". Run by the young people themselves, these chapels were centers of prayer, community, the Word of God, social activities and education. At the time of his death, there were 72 of these chapels with over 10,000 active participants.
On 9 November 1732 Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as Redemptorists. This order's goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. They also fought Jansenism which was a heresy that denied humans free will and didn't allow many Catholics to reicieve the Eucharist. He gave himself entirely to this new mission. A companion order of nuns was founded simultaneously by Sister Maria Celeste.
Alphonsus was consecrated bishop of the diocese of Sant'Agata dei Goti in 1762. He tried to refuse the appointment because he felt too old and too sick to properly care for the diocese. During this time he wrote sermons, books, and articles to encourage the devotion of the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1775 he was allowed to retire from his office and went to live in the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy where he died on 1 August 1787. He was canonized in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI, proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1871 by Pope Pius IX, and Patron of Confessors and Moralists in 1950.
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Patronage: confessors, moralists, theologians, vocations
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[edit] August 2 2007
Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868) was a French Catholic priest, founder of two religious orders, and a canonized saint
Eymard was born 4 February 1811 at La Mure d'Isère, Grenoble, France. His first attempt as a seminarian ended when he departed because of poor health. Nevertheless, on 20 July 1834, he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Grenoble. In 1839, he joined the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers and Brothers) where he worked as a well-respected spiritual advisor with seminarians and priests. He worked with the Third Order of Mary and other lay organizations promoting devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Eucharist, particularly in the Forty Hours. He rose to the position of Provincial of the Marist Order at Lyon in 1845. In 1856, Eymard founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and in 1858, together with Marguerite Guillot, he founded the lay Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a congregation for women.
The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament began working with children in Paris to prepare them to receive their First Communion. It also reached out to non-practicing Catholics, inviting them to repent and begin receiving Communion again. Eymard was a tireless proponent of frequent Holy Communion, an idea given more authoritative backing by Pope Pius X in 1905.
Eymard overcame a number of difficulties to reach his goals, including poverty in his family and in his newly founded order, his father's initial opposition to his only son’s desire to be a priest, years of serious illness and pain, a Jansenistic striving for inner perfection and the difficulties of getting diocesan and later papal approval for his new religious community. Eymard was a contemporary and a friend of other saints including Peter Chanel, John Vianney and Marcellin Champagnat.
Eymard died on 1 August 1868.
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[edit] August 3 2007
Nicodemus (Greek: Νικόδημος) was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, who, according to the Gospel of John, showed favour to Jesus. He appears three times in the Gospel: the first is when he visits Jesus one night to listen to his teachings (3:1-21); the second is when he states the law concerning the arrest of Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles (7:45-51); and the last follows the Crucifixion, when he assists Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the corpse of Jesus for burial (19:39-42).
The discussion with Jesus is the source of several common expressions of contemporary Christianity, specifically, the descriptive phrase born again used to describe the experience of believing in Jesus as Saviour, and John 3:16, a commonly quoted verse used to describe God's plan of salvation.
An apocryphal work under his name — the Gospel of Nicodemus — was produced at some point in the medieval era, and is mostly a reworking of the earlier Acts of Pilate, which recounts the harrowing of Hell.
Though there is no clear source of information about this Nicodemus outside the Gospel of John, the Jewish Encyclopedia and many Biblical historians have theorised that he is identical to Nicodemus ben Gurion, mentioned in the Talmud as a wealthy and popular holy man reputed to have had miraculous powers. Christian tradition asserts that Nicodemus was martyred sometime in the first century.
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[edit] August 4 2007
Saint Dominic (Spanish: Domingo), also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo de Guzmán Garcés (1170 – August 6, 1221) was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers (OP), a Catholic religious order. Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers and the Dominican Republic.
Dominic was born in Caleruega, in Old Castile, Spain. In 1194, around twenty-five years old, Dominic became a canon regular, in the diocese of Osma.
A small group of priests formed around Dominic, but soon left him since the challenge and rigours of a simple lifestyle together with demanding preaching discouraged them. Finally Dominic gathered a number of men who remained faithful to the vision of active witness to the Albigensians as well as a way of preaching which combined intellectual rigour with a popular and approachable style.
In 1215, Dominic established himself, with six followers, in a house given by Pierre Seila. He subjected himself and his companions to the monastic rules of prayer and penance; and meanwhile bishop Foulques gave them written authority to preach throughout the territory of Toulouse. Thus the scheme of establishing an order of Preaching Friars began to assume definite shape in Dominic's mind. He dreamed of seven stars enlightening the world, which represented himself and his six friends.
Dominic was granted written authority in December 1216 and January 1217 for an order to be named "The Order of Preachers" (Ordo Praedicatorum, or O.P., popularly known as the Dominican Order). This organizations have as motto "to praise, to preach, to bless".
Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, although he traveled extensively.
In January 1218, a convent was established at Bolognia. Saint Dominic died there on 6 August 1221.
Attributes: Chaplet, dog, star
Patronage: Astronomers; astronomy; Dominican Republic; falsely accused people; Santo Domingo Indian Pueblo; scientists
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[edit] August 5 2007
Saint Afra (died 304) was a Christian martyr.
Although many different accounts of her life exist, the most widely known is that of an unreliable Carlovingian version, the Acts of St Afra, set down many centuries later. According to this source, she was originally a courtesan in Augsburg, having come there from Cyprus, maybe even as the daughter of the King of Cyprus. She possibly ran a brothel in that town, or worked as a prostitute in the Temple of Venus. As the persecution of Christians during the reign of Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian began, Bishop Narcissus of Gerona (in Spain) arrived there and lodged with Afra and her mother, Hilaria. The bishop did not know their profession, but soon converted them. She continued to hide the bishop from the authorities, but was arrested, and condemned to be burnt to death. Her mother and her maids Ligna, Eunonia and Eutropia later suffered the same fate, for interring her in a burial vault.
In an alternative, and earlier document, it is stated that she was beheaded, rather than burnt. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum (a compilation of martyrs) mentions Afra as having "suffered in the city of Augsburg" and as being "buried there".
Her cult was widespread in Bavaria, and the town of Täferrot takes its name from her.
Attributes: depicted being burnt to death
Patronage: Augsburg; converts; martyrs; penitent women
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[edit] August 6 2007
Saint Joachim was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of the Virgin Mary, and therefore is ascribed the title of "forebearer of God." The canonical Gospel accounts in the New Testament do not explicitly name either of Mary's parents, but some argue that the genealogy in Luke 3 is that of Mary rather than Joseph, thereby naming her father as Eli. Catholic and Orthodox theologians who hold to this say "Eli" may be short for "Eliakim," which is similar to "Joachim." The story of Joachim and Anne appears in the apocryphal Proto-gospel of James.
Joachim is described as a rich and pious man who regularly gives to the poor and to the temple. However, as his wife is barren, the High Priest rejects Joachim and his sacrifice, his wife's childlessness being interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure. Joachim consequently withdraws to the desert where he fasts and does penance for forty days. Angels appear to both Joachim and Anne to promise them a child. Joachim returns to Jerusalem and embraces Anne at the city gate. The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne were included in the Golden Legend and remained popular in Christian art until the Council of Trent restricted the depiction of apocryphal events. Traditional depictions (vestibular statuary, etc) of Joachim show him bearing a shovel.
Attributes:Lamb, doves, with Saint Anne or Mary
Patronage:Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, fathers, grandparents
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[edit] August 7 2007
Saint Albert of Trapani (Albert of Sicily, Albert degli Abbati) (ca. 1250 - August 7, 1306) is a Sicilian saint. Born in Trapani, he entered the Carmelite monastery there at a very young age and was later transferred to the Carmelite house at Messina.
He worked as a mendicant preacher to the Sicilians.
The lifting of a siege at Messina is attributed to him. In 1301, the city was under siege and blockaded by Duke Robert of Calabria. Responding to please for succor, Albert celebrated Mass. As he finished, three ships loaded with grain ran the blockade. Saved from starvation, the city was saved as Robert lifted the siege.
His cultus was confirmed in 1454 and he was canonized on May 31, 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV.
The Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin contains some of his relics. On his feast day (August 7), a relic of the saint is dipped into the water of St. Albert's Well and is said to grant healing of body and mind those who use the water. However, Albert's skull is contained in a silver statue crafted in the 18th century by the engraver Vincenzo Bonaiuto of Trapani for the saint's altar in the basilica of Trapani.
Attributes: lily, book, the Devil; depicted alongside Saint Angelus
Patronage: Trapani; Carmelite Order; Carmelite schools
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[edit] August 8 2007
Saint Cyriacus is a saint who lived under Roman Emperor Diocletian.
A Roman nobleman, Cyriacus converted to Christianity during his adult life and renounced his material wealth, giving it away to the poor. He spent the rest of his life ministering to the slaves who worked in the baths of Diocletian.
He is considered one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Cyriacus is credited with exorcizing demons from two girls, both daughters of influential Romans at the time. The first was Artemisia the daughter of Emperor Diocletian; which resulted in both Artemisia and her mother Saint Serena converting to Christianity. He is also credited with driving demons out from Jobias the daughter of Shapur I of Persia (reigned 241 - 272), which led to the conversion of the King's entire household.
Under the reign of Western Roman Emperor Maximian, Cyriacus among others (including Saint Largus and Saint Smaragdus) was tortured and put to death, beheaded on the Via Salaria in 303, where he was then buried. It is claimed his relics were later moved to Santa Maria in Via Lata in Rome, and the Saint Cyricus Abbey in Alsace.
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Patronage: temptation on the deathbed, Saint-Cierges, Switzerland, eye disease
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[edit] August 9 2007
Edith Stein or Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (her Carmelite monastic name)(October 12, 1891 – August 9, 1942) was a German philosopher, a Carmelite nun, martyr, and saint of the Catholic Church, who died at Auschwitz.
Stein was born in Breslau, in the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia, into an Orthodox Jewish family.
At the University of Göttingen, she became a student of Edmund Husserl, whom she followed to the University of Freiburg as his assistant. In 1916, she received her doctorate of philosophy there with a dissertation under Husserl, "On The Problem of Empathy." She then became a member of the faculty in Freiburg.
It was her reading the autobiography of the mystic St. Teresa of Ávila on a holiday in Göttingen in 1921 that caused her conversion. Baptized on January 1, 1922, she gave up her assistantship with Husserl to teach at a Dominican girls' school in Speyer from 1922 to 1932. In 1932 she became a lecturer at the Institute for Pedagogy at Münster, but anti-Semitic legislation passed by the Nazi government forced her to resign the post in 1933. In a letter to Pope Pius XI, she denounced the Nazi regime and asked the Pope to openly denounce the regime "to put a stop to this abuse of Christ's name."
She entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery at Cologne in 1934 and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. There she wrote her metaphysical book "Endliches und Ewiges Sein," which tries to combine the philosophies of Aquinas and Husserl.
To avoid the growing Nazi threat, her order transferred Stein to the Carmelite monastery at Echt in the Netherlands.
The Dutch Bishops' Conference had a public statement read in all the churches of the country on July 20, 1942, condemning Nazi racism. In a retaliatory response on July 26, all Jewish converts, who had previously been spared, were arrested. Stein and her sister Rosa, also a convert, were captured and shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they died in the gas chambers on August 9, 1942.
Attributes: Yellow Star of David
Patronage: Europe; loss of parents; martyrs; World Youth
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[edit] August 10 2007
Saint Lawrence (c. 225 – 258) (Latin: Laurentius - "laurelled") was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome who were martyred under the persecution of Roman Emperor Valerian in the year 258.
Early legends made Lawrence a native of Huesca (Roman Osca) in Hispania Tarraconensis who had received religious instruction from Archdeacon Sixtus in Rome. When Sixtus became Bishop of Rome in 257, Lawrence was ordained a deacon and was placed in charge of the administration of Church goods and care for the poor.
In the persecutions under Valerian in 258, numerous priests and bishops were put to death. Pope St Sixtus II was one of the first victims. A legend says that Lawrence met the Pope on his way to his execution, where he is reported to have said, "Where are you going, my dear father, without your son? Where are you hurrying off to, holy priest, without your deacon? Before you never mounted the altar of sacrifice without your servant, and now you wish to do it without me?" The Pope is reported to have prophesied that "after three days you will follow me".
After the death of Sixtus, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church. Lawrence worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the poor as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to give up the treasures of the Church, he presented the poor, the crippled, the blind and the suffering, and said that these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, "The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor." This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom.
It is said that Lawrence was burned or "grilled" to death. Legend says that he was so strong-willed that instead of giving in to the Romans and releasing information about the Church, at the point of death he exclaimed "I am done on this side! Turn me over and eat."
Attributes: Usually holding a gridiron and wearing a dalmatic
Patronage: Rome, Birgu (Malta), San Lawrenz (Gozo), Canada, Sri Lanka, comedians, librarians, students, tanners, chefs
Prayer: The fire within him enabled him to withstand the external fire.
[edit] August 11 2007
Saint Clare of Assisi, born Chiara Offreduccio (July 16, 1194 – August 11, 1253) was an Italian saint, one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi and founded the Order of Poor Ladies to organize the women who chose to embrace monastic life in the Franciscan vision.
Clare was born in Assisi, Umbria, as the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife Ortolana. In 1210, Clare heard Francis preaching in the streets of Assisi about his new mendicant order. On March 20, 1212, Clare's parents had decided she would marry a wealthy young man. In desperation Clare left her home and sought refuge in St. Francis, who received her into religious life. She lived at the Church of San Damiano where she founded an order of nuns. She had their hair cut short and put on rough tunics to indicate her acceptance of the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and stayed first with a nearby monastery of Benedictine nuns. Later, she moved to San Damiano, where they founded the Order of Poor Ladies (also then known as the Order of San Damiano).
Saint Clare's sisters lived in enclosure, since an itinerant life was hardly conceivable at the time for women. Their life consisted of manual labour and prayer.
After a time when the order was directed by Francis himself, in 1216, Clare accepted the role of abbess at San Damiano. Clare also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure: she took care of him during his illnesses at the end of his life, until his death in 1226.
On August 9, 1253, the Papal bull Solet annure of Pope Innocent IV confirmed that Clare's Rule would serve as the governing rule for the Order of Poor Ladies. Two days later, on August 11, Clare died at the age of 59.
Attributes: monstrance, pyx
Patronage: clairvoyance, eyes, eye disease, goldsmith, laundry, embrodiers, gilders, gold, good weather, needleworkers, Santa Clara Pueblo, telephones, telegraphs, television
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[edit] August 12 2007
Radegund (also spelled Rhadegund) was born to King Berthar, one of the three kings of Thuringia (a kingdom located in present day Germany), some time in the first half of the 6th century.
Radegund's uncle, Hermanfrid, killed Berthar in battle, orphaning her. Then, after allying with the Frankish King Theuderic, Hermanfrid defeated his other brother Baderic. However, having crushed his brothers and seized control of Thuringia, Hermanfrid reneged on his deal with Theuderic to share sovereignty.
In 531 Theuderic returned to Thuringia with his brother Clotaire I. Together they defeated Hermanfrid and conquered his kingdom. Clotaire I also took charge of Radegund, taking her back to Merovingian Gaul with him and making her his wife.
Radegund was one of Clotaire I’s four wives (the other three being Chunsina, Ingund and Ingund’s sister Aregund). She bore him no children, and, after Clotaire I had her brother assassinated, she turned to God, founding a nunnery in Poitiers.
Her chaplain was the poet Venantius Fortunatus and she was a friend of Gregory of Tours. She died on 13 August 586 and her funeral, which both men attended, was three days later.
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[edit] August 13 2007
Saint Don Bosco, born Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco,(August 16, 1815 – January 31, 1888), was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and recognized pedagogue, who put into practice the dogma of his religion, employing teaching methods based on love rather than punishment. He placed his works under the protection of Francis de Sales; thus his followers styled themselves the Salesian Society. He is the only Saint with the title "Father and Teacher of Youth".
Giovanni Bosco was born in Cascina Biglione, a frazione of Castelnuovo d'Asti, in Piedmont (then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia), to Francesco Bosco and his second wife Margherita Occhiena of Capriglio. His father died two years later.
Don Bosco began as the chaplain of the Rifugio ("Refuge"), a girls’ boarding school founded in Turin by the Marchioness Giulia di Barolo. But he had many ministries on the side such as visiting prisoners, teaching catechism and helping out at country parishes. A growing group of boys would come to the Rifugio on Sundays and feast days to play and learn their catechism. They were too old to join the younger children in regular catechism classes in the parishes, which mostly chased them away. This was the beginning of the “Oratory of St. Francis de Sales”.
In 1859, Bosco formed the “Society of St. Francis de Sales”. This was the nucleus of the Salesians, the religious order that would carry on his work. In 1871, he founded a group of religious sisters to do for girls what the Salesians were doing for boys. They were called the “Daughters of Mary Help of Christians”. In 1874, he founded yet another group: the “Salesian Cooperators”. These were mostly lay people who would work for young people like the Daughters and the Salesians, but would not join a religious order.
Don Bosco died on January 31, 1888.
Attributes: Educator, Minister
Patronage: Christian apprentices, editors, and publishers
Prayer: Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christian, how sweet it is to come to your feet imploring your perpetual help. If earthly mothers cease not to remember their children, how can you, the most loving of all mothers forget me? Grant then to me, I implore you, your perpetual help in all my necessities, in every sorrow, and especially in all my temptations. I ask for your unceasing help for all who are now suffering. Help the weak, cure the sick, convert sinners. Grant through your intercessions many vocations to the religious life. Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians, that having invoked you on earth we may love and eternally thank you in heaven.
[edit] August 14 2007
Kolbe, the son of a Polish family with partial German origin, was born in 1894 in Zduńska Wola, at that time part of Russian Empire, as the second son of Juliusz Kolbe and Marianna Kolbe (née Dąbrowska).
In 1907, Kolbe joined the Conventual Franciscan Order. In 1910, Kolbe was allowed to enter the novitiate. He professed his first vows in 1911, adopting the name Maximilian, and the final vows in 1914, in Rome, adopting the names Maximilian Maria, to show his veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 1912, he was sent to Kraków, and, in the same year, to Rome, where he studied philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics. He took a great interest in astrophysics and the prospect of space flight. He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1915 at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and the doctorate in theology in 1919 at the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure. In 1918, he was ordained a priest.
In 1919, he returned to Poland, where he was very active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, a seminary, a radio station, and several other organizations and publications. Between 1930 and 1936, he took a series of missions to Japan, where he founded a monastery at the outskirts of Nagasaki, a Japanese paper, and a seminary.
During the Second World War, in the friary, Kolbe provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.
On February 17, 1941, he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and, on May 25, was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670.
In July 1941, a man from Kolbe's barrack had vanished, prompting the Lagerführer (i.e., the camp commander), to pick 10 men from the same barrack to be starved to death in Block 11 (notorious for torture). One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
During the time in the cell, he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe was still alive. Finally he was executed with an injection of carbolic acid.
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Patronage: 20th century, Pro-Life Movement, drug addiction, drug addicts, power workers, families. amateur radio
Prayer: A Prayer for the Intercession of St. Kolbe O Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "greater love than this no man has that a man lay down his life for his friends," through the intercession of Saint Maximilian Kolbe whose life illustrated such love, we beseech you to grant us our petitions...
[edit] August 15 2007
St. Tarcisius (or Tarsicius) (Italian and Spanish: San Tarsicio or Tarcisio) was a martyr of the early Christian church who lived in the 3rd century. The little that is known about him comes from a metrical inscription by Pope Damasus I, who was pope at least a century later. He preferred death at the hands of a mob rather than deliver to them the Blessed Sacrament, which he was carrying. As Damasus compares him to St. Stephen, who was stoned to death, this may have been the manner of his end. His story was greatly expanded by Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman, who portrays him as a young acolyte in his novel Fabiola, or the Church in the Catacombs (pub. Burns and Oates, London, undated but circa 1836).
His relics rest in the San Silvestro in Capite church in Rome. His feast day is celebrated on 15 August, but, since that day is occupied by the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, he is not mentioned in the General Roman Calendar, but only in the Roman Martyrology.
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Patronage: altar servers and first communicants.
Prayer:
[edit] August 16 2007
Saint Roch (Latin: Rochus; Italian: Rocco; French: Roch; Spanish and Portuguese: Roque; c. 1295 – traditionally 16 August 1327) was a Christian saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August; he is specially invoked against the plague.
He was born at Montpellier as the son of the noble governor of that city. Even his birth was accounted a miracle, for his noble mother had been barren until she prayed to the Virgin Mary. Miraculously marked from birth with a red cross on his breast that grew as he did, he early began to manifest strict asceticism and great devoutness.
On the death of his parents in his twentieth year he distributed all his worldly goods among the poor; though his father on his deathbed had ordained him governor of Montpellier— and set out as a mendicant pilgrim for Rome. Coming into Italy during an epidemic of plague, he was very diligent in tending the sick in the public hospitals at Acquapendente, Cesena Rimini, Novara and Rome, and is said to have effected many miraculous cures by prayer and the sign of the cross and the touch of his hand. Ministering at Piacenza he himself finally fell ill. He was expelled from the town; and withdrew into the forest, where he made himself a hut of boughs and leaves, which was miraculously supplied with water by a spring that arose in the place; he would have perished had not a dog belonging to a nobleman named Gothard supplied him with bread.
On his return incognito to Montpellier he was arrested as a spy (by orders of his own uncle) and thrown into prison, where he languished five years and died on 16 August 1327, without revealing his name, to avoid worldly glory.
Attributes: Wound of thigh, dog offering bread
Patronage: pilgrims, against diseases (especially the plague), gravediggers, second-hand dealers, dogs
Prayer:
[edit] August 17 2007
Saint Hyacinth, Święty Jacek, Jacek Odrowąż (b. c. 1185 in Kamień Śląski (Ger. Groß Stein) near Opole (Ger. Oppeln), Upper Silesia – d. August 15, 1257 in Kraków, Poland of natural causes) was educated in Paris and Bologna. A Doctor of Sacred Studies and a priest, he worked to reform convents in his native Poland. While in Rome, he witnessed a miracle performed by Saint Dominic, and became a Dominican. He brought the Dominican Order to Poland, then evangelized throughout Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Russia, Turkey, and Greece.
During an attack on a monastery, Hyacinth managed to save a monstrance (or possibly a ciborium, it is unknown exactly which) containing the Blessed Sacrament and statue of Mary, though the statue weighed far more than he could normally have lifted; the saint is usually shown holding these two items.
Saint Ceslaus was a close relative of Hyacinth, and may have been his brother. He was canonized on 17 April 1594 by Pope Clement VIII, and his memorial day is 17 August. In 1686 Pope Innocent XI named him a patron of Lithuania. In Spanish, he is known as San Jacinto.
Attributes: statue of the Virgin Mary; monstrance
Patronage: invoked by those in danger of drowning; Basilica of St. Hyacinth
Prayer:
[edit] August 18 2007
Flavia Iulia Helena, also known as Saint Helena, Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople (ca. 250 – ca. 330) was consort of (though may have been married to) Constantius Chlorus, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I.
Many legends surround her. She was allegedly the daughter of an innkeeper. Her son Constantine renamed the city of Drepanum on the Gulf of Nicomedia as "Helenopolis" in her honour, which led to later interpretations that Drepanum was her birthplace. Constantius Chlorus divorced her (c.292) to marry the step-daughter of Maximian, Flavia. Maximiana Theodora]]. Helena's son, Constantine, became emperor of the Roman Empire, and following his elevation she became a presence at the imperial court, and received the title Augusta.
At the age of 80, Helena was said by some accounts to have been placed in charge of a mission to gather Christian relics, by her son Emperor Constantine I, who had recently declared Rome as a Christian city. Helena travelled the 1400-plus miles from Rome to Jerusalem. Hadrian, a previous emperor, had built a Temple to Venus over the site of the Jesus' tomb, near Calvary. According to legend, Helena entered the temple and chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. Refusing to be swayed by anything but solid proof, Helena, according to the story, touched pieces of the crosses to sick men; when a man touched by a cross suddenly recovered, Helena declared the cross with which he had ben touched to be the true cross. She also found the nails of the crucifixion. Helena left Jerusalem and the eastern provinces in ca. 327 to return to Rome, and after her journey to the East Helena died in the presence of her son Constantine.
Attributes: Cross
Patronage: archeologists; converts; difficult marriages; divorced people; empresses; Helena, Montana
Prayer:
[edit] August 19 2007
Saint Louis of Toulouse (February 1274 – August 19, 1297) was a cadet of the royal French house of Anjou who was made a Catholic bishop. The California mission and city of San Luis Obispo, California, are named after him.
He was born in Brignoles, Provence, the second son of Charles of Anjou "the Lame" and Maria Arpad of Hungary. His father was appointed King of Naples, by Pope Clement IV, the former secretary to Louis IX of France. The boy was himself a nephew of St Louis and of Mary of Hungary (her great-aunt being Saint Elizabeth of Hungary).
When his father was made prisoner in Italy, during the war with King Pedro III of Aragon that followed the Sicilian Vespers, he obtained his own freedom by giving over his three sons as hostages. The boys were taken to Barcelona—Aragonese territory—where they were placed under the care of Franciscan friars for their education and held for seven years. Though still held in captivity, Louis was made archbishop of Lyon as soon as he reached his majority. When his older brother died in 1295, Louis also became heir to his father's secular titles; however, when he was freed that same year, Louis went to Rome and gave up all claims to his royal inheritance in favor of his brother Robert of Anjou and announced that instead he would take the Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
On February 5, 1297 as he took the Franciscan vows, Louis was also consecrated Bishop of Toulouse, where his uncle, Alphonse of Toulouse had until recently been Count, but had died in 1271 leaving no heir. In this ambivalently dynastic and ecclesiastical position, in a territory between Provence and Aquitaine that was essential to Angevin interests, despite the princely standing that had won him this important appointment at the age of about 22, Louis rapidly gained a reputation for serving the poor, feeding the hungry, and ignoring his own needs. After just six months, however, apparently exhausted by his labors, he abandoned the position of Bishop. Six months later, at age 23, he died of a fever, possibly typhoid, at Brignoles.
Attributes: boy bishop, often with a discarded crown by his feet; represented vested in pontifical garments and holding a book and a crosier
Patronage: Valencia; Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
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[edit] August 20 2007
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Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–August 21, 1153) was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian monastic order. "The voice of conscience, the dominating figure in the Catholic Church from 1125 to 1153", his authority helped to end the schism of 1130. Bernard was the main voice of conservatism during the intellectual revival of Western Europe called the Renaissance of the 12th century and the main opponent of rising scholastic theology. Devoted to promoting the veneration of the Virgin Mary, he was also the most influential advocate of the Second Crusade. He was canonized as a saint in 1174 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1830.
He was born at Fontaines, near Dijon, in France, into the noble class. His desire to enter a monastery was opposed by his relations, who sent him to study at Châtillon-sur-Seine in order to qualify him for high ecclesiastical preferment. Bernard's resolution to become a monk was not, however, shaken.
The little community of reformed Benedictines at Cîteaux, grew so rapidly that it was soon able to send out offshoots. One of these monasteries, Clairvaux, was founded in 1115, in a wild valley of a tributary of the Aube. There Bernard, a recent initiate, was appointed abbot.
Clairvaux became the chief monastery of the five branches into which the order was divided under the supreme direction of the abbot of Cîteaux. Though nominally subject to Cîteaux, Clairvaux soon became the most important Cistercian house, owing to the fame and influence of Bernard.
Before long the abbot, who had intended to devote his life to the work of his monastery, was drawn into the affairs of the outside world. When in 1124 Pope Honorius II was elected, Bernard was already reckoned among the greatest of French churchmen; he now shared in the most important ecclesiastical discussions, and papal legates sought his counsel.
Attributes: with the Virgin Mary, a beehive, dragon, quill, book, or dog
Patronage: farm and agriculture workers, Gibraltar, Queens' College, Cambridge
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[edit] August 21 2007
Pope St. Pius X (Latin: Pius PP. X) (June 2, 1835—August 20, 1914), born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Catholic Roman Pontiff, reigning from 1903 to 1914, succeeding Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903). He was the first Pope since the Counter-Reformation of Pope Pius V (1566–72) to be canonized.
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born June 2, 1835 in Riese, province of Treviso (Veneto), Italy. Giuseppe's childhood was one of poverty, being the son of the village postman. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 6 kilometers to school each day.
On September 18, 1858, Giuseppe Sarto was ordained a priest, and became chaplain at Tombolo. In 1867, he was named Arch-Priest of Salzano. He became popular with the people when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague that swept into northern Italy in the early 1870s. In 1875 he was made Canon (or Chancellor) of the Cathedral and Diocese of Treviso, holding offices such as spiritual director, rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As Chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction.
After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On November 10, 1884, he was raised to the episcopate as Bishop of Mantua.Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in a secret consistory on June 12, 1893. Three days after this, Cardinal Sarto was publicly named Patriarch of Venice.
On July 20, 1903, Leo XIII died. Cardinal Sarto was elected to the 257th Pontificate. Sarto took as his Papal name Pius X.
The pontificate of Pius X was noted for its conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and church law. Pius X reformed the Roman curia, established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.
As secular authority challenged that of the papacy, Pius X suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemned Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views.
In 1913 Pius X suffered a heart attack. He died on 20 August 1914.
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[edit] August 22 2007
According to a legend of the early fifth century, St. Symphorian of Autun was beheaded, while still a young man, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He was the son of a senator named Faustus. He studied at Autun and was brought before the provincial governor Heraclius for not worshipping the pagan goddess Cybele. Symphorian is said to have asked for tools to destroy the statue. He was arrested and flogged and because he was from a noble family, he was given a chance to recant. Symphorian was offered bribes to do so, but he declined.
His mother, the Blessed Augusta (?), encourged him on his way to execution, 22 August 178, and was present at her son's death.
According to a legendary passio of Saint Benignus of Dijon, Symphorian was a young nobleman who was converted by Benignus at Autun.
Bishop Euphronius (d. 490) built a handsome church over his grave, connected with a monastery, which belonged to the Congregation of Sainte-Geneviève from 1656 until its suppression in 1791. Abbot Germanus later became Bishop of Paris, where he dedicated a chapel to the saint. Genesius of Clermont built a church dedicated to him at Clermont.
St. Symphorian is the patron saint of Autun. His veneration spread at an early date through the empire of the Franks. His cult was especially popular at Tours; St. Gregory of Tours relates a miracle wrought by the saint.
There is a St. Symphorian's at Veryan, Cornwall and another at Durrington in Sussex, now a suburb of the town of Worthing.
Attributes: young man being dragged to martyrdom while his mother encourages him.
Patronage: Autun; children; students; against eye problems, against syphilis
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[edit] August 23 2007
Saint Rose of Lima, (20 April 1586 - 24 August 1617), the first Catholic saint of The Americas, was born in Lima, Peru.
St. Rose was born April 20, 1586 in the city of Lima, the capital of Peru. She received the baptismal name Isabel Flores de Oliva. She was from a large family. Her father, Gaspar Flores, was a Spanish soldier and her mother, Maria de Oliva, had Inca and Spanish blood.
As a child she was possessed with a deep veneration for every aspect of religion and spent hours with her attention fixed upon the image of the Madonna and Child. She gave her entire life to prayer and the most extreme self-mortification.
In emulation of St. Catherine of Siena she fasted three times a week with secret severe penances. Rose began to tell of visions, revelations, visitations and voices as her parents deplored her penitential practices more than ever. Many hours were spent contemplating the Blessed Sacrament which she received daily. Daily fasting turned to perpetual abstinence from meat. Her days were filled with acts of charity and industry.
She took the name of Rose at her confirmation in 1597. In her twentieth year she had so attracted the attention of the Dominican Order that she was permitted to enter a Dominican convent in 1602 without payment of the usual dowry. She donned the habit and took a vow of perpetual virginity. "Thereafter she redoubled the severity and variety of her penances to a heroic degree, wearing constantly a metal spiked crown, concealed by roses, and an iron chain about her waist. Days passed without food, save a draught of gall mixed with bitter herbs. When she could no longer stand, she sought repose on a bed constructed by herself, of broken glass, stone, potsherds, and thorns. Fourteen years this self-martyrdom continued without relaxation, with intervals of ecstasy (CE) until she died, August 24, 1617 at the age of 31. Her funeral was attended by all the public authorities of Lima, and the archbishop pronounced her eulogy in the cathedral, August 26, 1617.
Attributes: rose, anchor, Infant Jesus
Patronage: embroiderers; gardeners; India; Latin America; people ridiculed for their piety; Peru; Philippines; Santa Rosa, California; against vanity; Peruvian Police Force
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[edit] August 24 2007
Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus. Bartholomew comes from the Aramaic bar-Tôlmay (תולמי-בר), meaning son of Tolmay (Ptolemy) or son of the furrows (perhaps a ploughman). Many have, based on this meaning, assumed it was not a given name, but a family name.
Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve Apostles in the three Synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension (Acts 1:4, 12, 13).
In the Gospel of John (John 1:45-51), Nathanael is introduced as a friend of Philip. He is described as initially being skeptical about the Messiah coming from Nazareth, saying: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?", but nonetheless, follows Philip's invitation. Jesus immediately characterizes him as "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit". Some scholars hold that Jesus' quote "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you", is based on Jewish figure of speech referring to studying the Torah. Nathanael recognizes Jesus as "the Son of God" and "the King of Israel". Nathanael reappears at the end of John's gospel (John 21:2) as one of the disciples to whom Jesus appeared at the Sea of Tiberias after the resurrection.
Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History states that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Other traditions record him as serving as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.
Along with his fellow Apostle Jude, Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Thus both saints are considered the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There is also a local tradition that he was martyred at the site of the Maiden Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan, by being flayed alive and then crucified head down.
Attributes: One of the Twelve Apostles. Probably a close friend of Saint Philip; his name is always mentioned in the Gospels in connection with him, and it was Philip brought Bartholomew to Jesus.
Patronage: Armenia; bookbinders; butchers; cobblers; Florentine cheese merchants; Florentine salt merchants; Gambatesa, Italy; leather workers; nervous diseases; neurological diseases; plasterers; shoemakers; tanners; trappers; twitching; whiteners
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[edit] August 25 2007
Saint Joseph Calasanctius (September 11, 1556 - 25 August 1648), also known as Joseph Calasanz or Calasanz, or as he was called in religion Josephus a Matre Dei was the founder of the Piarists.
Calasanctius was born at the castle of Calasanz near Peralta de la Sal, Aragon, in what is now Spain. His parents, Don Pedro Calasanza and Donna Maria Gaston, gave him a good education. After his classical studies at Estadilla he took up philosophy and jurisprudence at Lerida and merited the degree of Doctor of Laws, and then with honours completed his theological course at Valencia and Alcalá de Henares.
His mother and brother having died, Don Pedro wanted Joseph to marry and perpetuate the family. But a sickness in 1582 soon brought Joseph to the brink of the grave. On his recovery he was ordained priest on 17 December 1583, by Hugo Ambrosio de Moncada, Bishop of Urgel.
Joseph began his labours as priest in the Diocese of Albarracín, where Bishop dela Figuera appointed him his theologian and confessor, synodal examiner and procurator.
In 1592 he embarked for Rome. Rome offered a splendid field for works of charity, especially for the instruction of neglected and homeless children, many of whom had lost their parents. Joseph joined a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and gathered the boys and girls from the streets and brought them to school.
The pastor of S. Dorotea, Anthony Brendani, offered him two rooms and promised assistance in teaching, and when two other priests promised similar help, Calasanctius, in November, 1597, opened the first public free school in Europe. In a short time Joseph had about a thousand children under his charge. In 1602 he commenced a community life with his assistants and laid the foundation of the Order of the Pious Schools or Piarist.
He died on 25 August, 1648, in Rome.
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[edit] August 26 2007
Saint Ninian (c. 360 - 432) (also Nynia) is the earliest known bishop to have visited Scotland. Neither his place and date of birth, nor his early life, are known with any certainty.
Ninian is first mentioned by Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Bede's comments are limited to two sentences. Also dating from the eighth century is a source known as "The Miracles of Bishop Nynia".
The traditional story is that he was born in Brythonic Cumbria, probably Rheged, but travelled to Rome as a young man to study Christianity. There he was made a bishop and given the task of converting the Picts by the Pope, St Siricius.
Tradition (first mentioned by Bede) states that around 397 he set up his base at Whithorn in south-west Scotland, building a stone church there, known as the Candida Casa which means the White House. From there he began work among the Northern Brythons of the surrounding area. Later he undertook a journey northwards along the east coast in order to spread Christianity among the southern Picts. The word southern is almost certainly a misnomer based on the maps of early times which mistakenly depict the east coast of Scotland as if it were the south coast,[citation needed] and it is possible that what is meant is the peoples living around the Firth of Forth. Placename evidence and local tradition suggest that he may have travelled as far as the Shetland Islands. He trained many missionaries, among whom, it is said, was the man who converted Saint Columba.
Attributes: crozier, book, holding a model of a white church
Patronage: diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada; diocese of Galloway, Scotland
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[edit] August 27 2007
Saint Monica of Hippo (332 – 387) is a Christian saint and mother of Saint Augustine.
Saint Monica was born at Tagaste (located in modern-day Souk Ahras, Algeria) Her parents brought her up as Christian and married her to an older, pagan man named Patricius. He was a man with a great deal of energy, but also a man given to violent tempers and adultery.
However, St. Monica attended church daily and found patience. She would say to other women who had bad marriages, "If you can master your tongue, not only do you run less risk of being beaten, but perhaps you may even, one day, make your husband better." Eventually, she converted Patricius to Christianity and calmed his violence.
St. Monica bore three children, among them Saint Augustine. Augustine made her very happy with his successes as a scholar and teacher, but he also made her very ashamed with his debauchery. For ten years, Augustine lived with his mistress and subscribed to Manichaeism. St. Monica sent Augustine to a bishop to be convinced of his errors. The bishop, however, was unable to prevail, and he advised St. Monica simply to continue to pray for her son. At the age of 28, Augustine received grace, according to his Confessions, and came to orthodox Christianity.
When Patricius died, St. Monica joined Augustine in Italy. When she was fifty-six, she died while in Ostia with Augustine preparing to leave for a return to Africa. This was not long after her son's baptism by St. Ambrose.
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Patronage: patience, wives, mothers, and abuse victims
Prayer: "Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray." Amen.
[edit] August 28 2007
Aurelius Augustinus, Augustine of Hippo, or Saint Augustine (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) was one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity, there considered to be one of the church fathers. He framed the concepts of original sin and just war.
Saint Augustine was of Berber descent. At the age of 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus. There he became very familiar with Latin literature, as well as pagan beliefs and practices. His revered mother, Monica, was a Berber and a devout Catholic, and his father, Patricius, a pagan. Although raised as a Catholic, Augustine left the Church to follow the controversial Manichaean religion. As a youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time and, in Carthage, he developed a relationship with a young woman who would be his concubine for over fifteen years. During this period he had a son, Adeodatus, with the young woman. In 383 he moved to Rome to establish a school there. At age thirty, Augustine was a professor of rhetoric for the imperial court at Milan.
In the summer of 386 Augustine underwent a profound personal crisis and decided to convert to Christianity, abandon his career in rhetoric, quit his teaching position in Milan, give up any ideas of marriage, and devote himself entirely to serving God and the practices of priesthood, which included celibacy. Ambrose baptized Augustine, along with his son, Adeodatus, on Easter Vigil in 387 in Milan, and soon thereafter in 388 he returned to Africa. On his way back to Africa his mother died, as did his son soon after.
Upon his return to north Africa he sold his patrimony and gave the money to the poor. The only thing he kept was the family house, which he converted into a monastic foundataion for himself and a group of friends. In 391 he was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius, (now Annaba, in Algeria). He became a famous preacher.
In 396 he was made coadjutor bishop of Hippo. He remained in this position at Hippo until his death in 430. Augustine died on August 28, 430.
Attributes: child; dove; pen; shell, pierced heart
Patronage: brewers; printers; sore eyes; theologians
|Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; Ida, Philippines; Kalamazoo Michigan; Saint Augustine, Florida; Superior, Wisconsin; Tucson, Arizona
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[edit] August 29 2007
John the Baptist (also called the Baptizer) was a 1st century Jewish preacher and ascetic regarded as a prophet by four religions: Christianity, Islam, Mandaeanism, and the Bahá'í Faith. The title of prophet is asserted in the [[Synoptic
MarGospels]], the Qur'an, and the Bahá'í Writings.
According to Luke 1:36, he was a relative of Jesus, although Geza Vermes describes this claim as 'artificial and undoubtedly Luke's creation'. He is also commonly referred to as John the Forerunner or Precursor because Christians consider him as the forerunner of Christ.
John (in Hebrew: Yochanan), whose name means "Yahweh has shown favor," an indication of John's role in salvation history, is known as "the Baptist" from his practice of preaching and baptizing Jews in the River Jordan. Most notably he is the one who recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and, according to one version, on Jesus' request, baptised him. The baptism marked the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
According to the Canonical Gospels, John the Baptist's public ministry was suddenly brought to a close, probably about six months after he had baptized Jesus. Herod Antipas jailed him, punishing John for condemning Herod's marriage to Herodias, the former wife of Herod Philip I, Herod's own brother (Luke 3:19). Some academics have argued that John was imprisoned in the Machaerus fortress on the southern extremity of Peraea, nine miles east of the Dead Sea.
Josephus states that Herod deliberately killed John to quell a possible uprising in around 36. According to some, Herod Antipas did not marry his brother's wife until his brother Herod Philip I died in 34, so as to make Josephus' dating plausible for the biblical account of John's death. His disciples, after consigning his headless body to the grave, told Jesus all that had occurred (Matthew 14:3-12). But John's death came just before the third and last Passover of Jesus' ministry, placed no later than 33.[citation needed]
Attributes: Cross, lamb, his own head
Patronage: patron saint of French Canada, Puerto Rico, Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem, Florence, Genoa, many other places
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[edit] August 30 2007
Saint Pammachius (d. ca. 409) was a Roman senator who is venerated as a saint.
In youth he frequented the schools of rehetoric with St. Jerome. In 385 he married Paulina, second daughter of St. Paula.
He was probably among the viri genere optimi religione præclari, who in 390 denounced Jovinian to Pope St. Siricius (Ambrose, Ep. xli). When he attacked St. Jerome's book against Jovinian for prudential reasons, Jerome wrote him two letters (Epp. xlviii-ix, ed. Vallarsi) thanking him; the first, vindicating the book, was probably intended for publication.
On Paulina's death in 397, Pammachius became a monk, that is, put on a religious habit and gave himself up to works of charity (Jerome, Ep. lxvi; Paulinus of Nola, Ep. xiii). In 399 Pammachius and Oceanus wrote to St. Jerome asking him to translate Origen's "De Principiis", and repudiate the insinuation of Rufinus that St. Jerome was of one mind with himself with regard to Origen. St. Jerome replied the following year (Epp. lxxxiii-iv). In 401 Pammachius was thanked by St. Augustine (Ep. lviii) for a letter he wrote to the people of Numidia, where he owned property, exhorting them to abandon the Donatist schism. Many of St. Jerome's commentaries on Scripture were dedicated to Pammachius.
After his wife's death Pammachius built in conjunction with St. Fabiola (Jerome, Epp. lxvi, lxxvii), a hospice at Porto, at the mouth of the Tiber opposite Ostia, for poor strangers.
The site has been excavated, and the excavations have disclosed the plan and the arrangement of this only building of its kind. Rooms and halls for the sick and poor were grouped around it (Frothingham, The Monuments of Christian Rome, p. 49).
The church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Rome was founded either by Pammachius or his father. It was anciently known first as the Titulus Bizantis, and then as the Titulus Pammachii.
He died about 409.
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[edit] August 31 2007
Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, the Apostle of Northumbria (died 651), was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England. A Christian missionary, he is credited with restoring Christianity to Northumbria. Aidan is the anglified form of the original Old Irish Áedán.
An Irishman, possibly born in Connacht, Aidan was a monk at the monastery on the island of Iona in Scotland.
Oswald of Northumbria had been living at the Iona monastery as a king in exile since 616 AD. There he converted to Christianity and was baptised.
Owing to his past at Iona, he requested missionaries from that monastery instead of the Roman-backed monasteries in England. At first the monastery sent a new bishop named Corman, but he returned to Iona and reported that the Northumbrians were too stubborn to be converted. Aidan criticised Corman's methods and was soon sent as a replacement in 635.
Aidan chose the island of Lindisfarne, close to the royal castle at Bamburgh, as his seat of his diocese. King Oswald, who spoke Irish, often had to translate for Aidan and his monks, who did not speak English at first. When Oswald died in 642, Aidan received continued support from King Oswine of Deira and the two became close friends.
An inspired missionary, Aidan would walk from one village to another, politely conversing with the people he saw and slowly interesting them in Christianity. By patiently talking to the people on their own level Aidan and his monks slowly restored Christianity to the Northumbrian communities.
In 651 a pagan army attacked Bamburgh and attempted to set its walls ablaze. According to legend, Aidan prayed for the city, after which the winds turned and blew the smoke and fire toward the enemy, repulsing them.
Aidan's friend Oswine of Deira was murdered in 651. Twelve days later Aidan died, on August 31, in the 17th year of his episcopate.
Attributes: Monk holding a flaming torch; stag
Patronage: Northumbria; Firefighters
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