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[edit] January 1
Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (Thelepte, 462 or 467 — 1 January 527 or 533) was bishop of the city of Ruspe, North Africa, in the 5th and 6th century who was canonized as a Christian saint. Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius was born into a noble family of Carthage, which had been cut off from the Roman Empire some thirty years earlier by the Vandals.
His father died while Fulgentius was still quite young. He quickly gained wide respect for his conduct of the family affairs, as well as for the respect he showed his mother. This reputation helped him to acquire a post as a civil servant in the government of Rome, as a procurator of Byzacena. He quickly grew tired of the material life.
Determined to become a monk, he applied to Faustus, a bishop who had been forced from his diocese by the Vandal king Huneric and later set up a monastery at Byzacena. Renewed attacks on the area forced Fulgentius to leave for another nearby monastery. The abbot there, Felix, gave Fulgentius the duty of managing the termporal affairs of the monastery, while he himself managed the spiritual affairs. The two of them worked quite well together, and, in 499, during another Arian persecution in the area, fled for Sicca Veneria. There they preached the Chalcedonian teaching regarding the dual nature of Jesus. Upon learning of this, a local Arian priest had them arrested and tortured.
Upon being released, Fulgentius planned to go to Alexandria, but changed his mind upon hearing the Arians had taken control of Egypt. He opted instead to go to Rome, where he prayed at the tombs of the apostles. He then returned to Byzacena, where he built a monastery, electing himself to live in an isolated cell. Fulgentius's reputation quickly spread, and he was frequently offered the post of bishop of one of the dioceses which had been vacated through the actions of the Arian king Thrasamund. He chose not to accept these offers, knowing Thrasamund had specifically ordered that only Arians be permitted to fill those sees.
Fulgentius was ultimately persuaded to take the post of bishop of Ruspe in Tunisia. He made a strong impression on the people of his new diocese with his obvious virtues, but was soon banished to Sardinia with some sixty other bishops who did not hold the Arian position. Pope Symmachus knew of their plight and sent them annual provisions of food and money. Later, Fulgentius retired for a monastery on the island of Circinia. He was however recalled to Ruspe, and served there until his death on 1 January, 533.
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[edit] January 2
Saint Basil of Caesarea, also called Basil the Great (between 329 and 333 - January 1, 379) (Greek: Άγιος Βασίλειος ο Μέγας; Latin: Basilius), was the Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and an influential 4th century Christian theologian. Theologically, Basil was a supporter of the Nicene faction of the church, in opposition to the Arians on one side and the Appollanarians on the other. His ability to balance his theological convictions with his political connections - especially with the Arian Emperor Valens - made Basil a powerful advocate for the Nicene position.
In addition to his work as a theologian, Basil was known for his care of the poor and underpriveleged. He is considered a saint by the traditions of both Eastern and Western Christianity.
Basil, Gregory Nazianzus, and Basil's brother Gregory of Nyssa are collectively referred to as the Cappadocian Fathers. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches have given him, together with Gregory Nazianzus and John Chrysostom, the title of the Three Great Hierarchs, while the Roman Catholic Church has named him a Doctor of the Church.
Basil established guidelines for monastic life which focus on community life, liturgical prayer and labor.
Basil was given the title Doctor of the Church for his contributions to the debate initiated by the Arian controversy regarding the nature of the Trinity, and especially the question of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Basil was responsible for defining the terms ousia (nature) and hypostasis (being or person), and for defining the classic formulation of three Persons in one Nature. His single greatest contribution was his insistence on the divinity and consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.
Basil of Caesarea holds a very important place in the history of Christian liturgy, coming as he did at the end of the age of persecution.
Attributes: Vested as bishop, wearing omophorion, holding a Gospel Book or scroll. St. Basil is depicted in icons as thin and ascetic with a long, tapering black beard.
Patronage: Cappadocia, Hospital administrators, Reformers, Monks, Education, Exorcism, Liturgists
Prayer: Your voice resounded throughout the world that received your word by which, in godly manner, you taught dogma, clarified the nature of beings, and set in order the character of people. Venerable father, Royal Priesthood, intercede to Christ God to grant us great mercy.
[edit] January 3
Saint Geneviève (Nanterre near Paris, c. 419/422 - Paris 512) is the patron of Paris.
Geneviève's history describes her as a peasant girl of Nanterre. One day Saint Germain of Auxerre came to Nanterre, and Genevieve confided in him that she wanted to live only for God. He encouraged her in her pursuit, and, at the age of fifteen, Genevieve became a nun.
On the deaths of her parents, she went to live with her godmother Lutetia in Paris ("Lutetia", being the former name of the city of Paris, has a symbolic weight), where she became admired for the extremes of her piety and her devotion to works of charity, which included her severe corporal austerities, and a vegetarian diet which allowed her to sup but twice per week. She did encounter opposition and criticism for her activities, both before and after she was once again visited by Germanus.
Like many of her Gallic neighbors, Geneviève had frequent communication with the other world and reported her visions and prophesies, until her enemies conspired to drown her; through the intervention of Germain of Auxerre, their animosity was finally overcome. The bishop of the city appointed her to look after the welfare of the virgins dedicated to God, and by her instruction and example she led them to a high degree of sanctity.
Genevieve died in 512.
Attributes: a shepherdess with crook and wallet, as aristocratic virgin with devil and angel or with a burning light or two keys (of Paris) in the hand
Patronage: Paristhe religious order and clubs, named after her, women, shepherds, hatters, wax-chandlers, vine dressers, against war, dryness, pest, fever and sickness of the eyes
Prayer: Saint Genevieve, you who by the days before, penance and prayer, ensured the protection of Paris, intercede near God for us, for our country, for the devoted Christian hearts. You who cured the sick and fed the hungry, obtain the light of God and make us stronger to reject temptation. You who had the concern of the poor, protect the sick, the abandoned, and the unemployed. You who resisted the armies and encouraged the besieged, give us the direction for truth and justice. You who through the centuries never ceased taking care of your people, help us to keep the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. May your example be for us, an encouragement to always seek God and serve him through our brothers and sisters. Amen.
[edit] January 4
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821) was the first native-born United States citizen to be canonized.
She was born to the prominent Bayley family of New York City, and raised in the Episcopal Church. At the age of nineteen, she married William Magee Seton, a wealthy business man. Five children were born to the marriage, which ended with her husband's death in 1803, shortly after becoming bankrupt. Two years later she converted to Roman Catholicism, on March 14, 1805.
Due to her conversion she lost the support of her friends and family. After some trying and difficult years, Elizabeth was able to establish a community in Emmitsburg, Maryland dedicated to the care for the children of the poor. The remainder of her life was spent in leading and developing the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's which she had founded, along with the Sulpician priests of Baltimore.
She was described as a charming and cultured lady. Her connections to New York society and the accompanying social pressures to leave the life she had created for herself did not deter her from embracing her religious vocaiton and charitable mission. She established St. Joseph's Academy and Free School in order to educate young girls to live by religious values. The greatest difficulties she faced were actually internal, stemming from misunderstandings, interpersonal conflicts, and the deaths of two daughters, her loved ones, and young sisters in community. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 46 in St. Joseph's House (the White House), Emmitsburg.
Seton helped found the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, New York City's first private charity organization. In 1810, Seton established Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School, a school dedicated to the education of Catholic girls. St. Joseph's Academy developed into Saint Joseph College which closed in 1973. She founded the first religious community of apostolic women of the United States, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's.
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Patronage: Catholic Schools; Shreveport, Louisiana; and the State of Maryland
Prayer: "We must pray literally without ceasing--without ceasing--in every occurence and employment of our lives . . . that prayer of the heart which is independent of place or situation, or which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him."
[edit] January 5
Saint John Nepomucene Neumann (German: Johannes Nepomuk Neumann; March 28, 1811 – January 5, 1860) was a Bishop of Philadelphia (1852-60) and the first American bishop to be canonized. His surname is properly pronounced "Noi-mahn" as opposed to "New-man," although he is said to have come to prefer the latter, "English," pronunciation.
Neumann was born in Prachatice, Bohemia. He attended school in Budweis before entering seminary there in 1831. He intended to be ordained, but his bishop, in 1835, decided there would be no more ordinations, as Bohemia had a high number of priests already.
In 1836, he arrived in the United States and was ordained to the priesthood there. He was assigned to work with recent German immigrants in mission churches in the Niagara Falls area, where he visited the sick, taught catechism, and trained teachers to take over when he left. After four years of service there, he applied to the Redemptorists. He was accepted, and entered the novitiate of the order in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In January, 1842, he took the vows to enter the order in Baltimore, Maryland, and became the first Redemptorist in the New World. After six years of difficult but fruitful work with the order, he was appointed the order's provincial superior in the United States. Neumann was naturalized as a citizen of the United States in Baltimore on February 10, 1848.
In March 1852, Neumann was consecrated in Baltimore, as Bishop of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the first to organize a Catholic diocesan school system and increased the number of Catholic schools in his diocese from one to two hundred. He also introduced the School Sisters of Notre Dame to the New World to assist in religious instruction and staffing the orphanage.
Neumann was not a popular bishop and received criticism. He had to deal with the Know Nothings, a political group determined to deprive foreigners and Catholics of their civil rights; the group burnt down convents and schools. Discouraged, Neumann unsuccessfully wrote to Rome and asked for someone else to take his place. Neumann wrote in many Catholic newspaper and magazine articles.
In 1860, Neumann died due to a stroke at the age of 48 while walking down a street in Philadelphia. After his death people began to talk of how great he had been.
Attributes: Redemptorist habit, Episcopal vestments
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[edit] January 6
The "Three Wise Men", The Three Holy Kings or "Kings from the east", Caspar (or Kaspar or Gaspar), Melchior and Balthasar, are sometimes considered to be Median, who were also proficient in astrology from Ancient Persia. The Gospel of Matthew states that they came "from the east to Jerusalem" to worship the Christ, "born King of the Jews". According to Matthew, they navigated by following a star which came to be known as the Star of Bethlehem. As they approached Jerusalem, Herod tried to trick them into revealing where Jesus was, so that he might be put to death. Upon finding Jesus, the Magi gave him three highly symbolic gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Because three gifts were recorded, it is traditionally said to have been three Magi.
Many different theories of the meaning and symbolism of the gifts have been advanced. They generally break down into two groups:
- That they are all ordinary gifts for a king — myrrh being commonly used as an anointing oil, frankincense as a perfume, and gold as a valuable.
- That they are prophetic — gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of priestship, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. Sometimes this is described more generally as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer, and myrrh symbolizing suffering.
The Magi were then warned in dreams that revealed Herod's deadly intentions for the child and decided to return home by a different route, in order to thwart them. This prompted Herod to resort to killing all the young children in Bethlehem, an act called the Massacre of the Innocents, in an attempt to eliminate a rival heir to his throne. Jesus and his family had, however, escaped to Egypt beforehand. After these events, the Magi return home and passed into obscurity. The story of the nativity in Matthew glorifies Jesus, likens him to Moses, and shows his life as fulfilling prophecy.
One of the most important changes was their rising from astrologers to kings. The general view is that this is linked to Old Testament prophesies that have the Messiah being worshipped by kings in Isaiah 60:3, Psalm 72:10, and Psalm 68:29.
Attributes: with rich oriental clothes, with presents in front of the crib, one of them with dark skin color
Patronage: town of Cologne, travelers, pilgrims, furriers, producers of playing cards, against storm and epilepsy
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[edit] January 7
Saint Raymond of Peñafort, O.P. (c. 1175 – 1275) (Catalan: Sant Ramon de Penyafort, Spanish: San Raimundo de Peñafort) was born in Vilafranca del Penedès, a small town near Barcelona, Catalonia, around 1175. He was educated in Barcelona and also at the University of Bologna in Italy, where he received doctorates in civil law and canon law. From 1195 to 1210, he taught canon law. In 1210, he moved to Bologna, where he remained until 1222, including three years occupying the chair of canon law at the university. He was chaplain to Pope Alexander IV, and confessor of James I of Aragon.
He was instrumental in the founding of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. When approached by Peter Nolasco, Raymond encouraged and assisted him in obtaining the consent of James I for the foundation of the Order. Returning to Barcelona in 1222, he entered the Dominican Order. Gregory IX summoned him to Rome in 1230, to help in the re-arranging and codifying of Canon law. Canon laws, which were previously found scattered in many publications, were organized into one set of documents. Being pleased with Raymund's efforts, the pope announced the new publication in a Bull directed to the doctors and students of Paris and Bologna in 1231, commanding that the work of St. Raymond alone should be considered authoritative, and should alone be used in the schools. His collection of canon law became a standard for almost 700 years. When Raymond completed his work the pope appointed him Archbishop of Tarragona, but he declined the honour. Raymond followed this with the publication of a work on penitential discipline, Summa casuum, which is widely considered an authoritative work on the subject.
Raymond returned to Spain in 1236. He was made General of the Dominican order in 1238, but resigned in 1240. Having reached his sixtieth year, Raymund retired in Barcelona. There, his principal aim became to convert Jews and Muslims to Christianity. He exercised great influence over King James, and succeeded in persuading him to order a public debate, concerning Judaism and Christianity, between Moshe ben Nahman, called also El Rab de España or Bonastruc de Porta, a rabbi in Gerona, and Fra Pablo, or Pablo Christiani, a baptized Jew of Montpellier who belonged to the Dominican order.
Raymond died in 1275 and was canonised by Clement VIII in 1601 as St. Raymond of Peñafort.
Attributes: as a dominican, on the sea, with his cloak as a boat and sail
Patronage: canon lawyers; all types of lawyers (Spain)
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[edit] January 8
Saint Gudula is often connected by name to a variety of places where she is venerated or which are relevant to her biography: Moorsel (where she lived), Brussels (where a chapter in her honour was founded in 1047) and Eibingen (where the relic of her skull is conserved). In Brabant she is usually callede Goule (Latin: Gudula, Dutch: Sinte Goedele, French: Sainte Gudule).
Gudula was born in the county of Brabant (in present-day Belgium) and according to her 11th century biography (written in Lobbes Abbey between 1049-1053), daughter of a Duke of Lotharingia (which is an anachronism) called Witger and Amalberga of Maubeuge. She probably lived in the seventh century.
Her mother, Saint Amalberga embraced the religious life in the abbey of Maubeuge. According to tradition, she received the veil from the hands of St. Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai (d. about 668). Gudula had two sisters, St. Pharailde and St. Reineldis. She had one brother, the mission bishop Saint Emebertus.
From an early age Gudula proved herself a worthy child, and with Reineldis and Emebertus lived in an atmosphere of piety and good works. She was educated in the convent of her cousin, Gertrude of Nivelles. She then moved to live with her parents near Hamme, spending her time in good works and religious devotions. She frequently visited the church of Moorsel, situated some two miles from her parents' house. She was buried at Hamme (Brabant). About a century after her death, her relics were removed from Hamme to the church of Sint-Salvator in Moorsel, where the body was interred behind the altar. Under Duke Charles of Lotharingia (977-992), or (more exactly) between 977 and 988, the body of the saint was taken from the church of Moorsel and transferred to the chapel of Saint Géry at Brussels. Count Lambert II Balderic of Louvain (+1054) founded a chapter in 1047 in honour of Saint Gudula and asked Bishop Gerardus I of Cambrai (+1051) for permission to translate her relics to the church of Saint Michel in Brussels. On the feast day of the saint in 1330, great indulgences were granted to all who assisted in the decoration and completion of the church of St. Gudula at Brussels. On 6 June 1579, the collegiate church was pillaged and wrecked by the Protestant Gueux (Beggars), and the relics of the saint disinterred and scattered.
Attributes: depicted as a woman with lantern which the devil tries to blow out, sometimes with a bellows
Patronage: Brussels, Belgium; single laywomen
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[edit] January 9
Saint Adrian (or Hadrian) of Canterbury (died 710) was a famous scholar and the Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury in the English county of Kent.
According to Bede, he was a Berber native of Greek-speaking North Africa, and abbot of a monastery near Naples, called Monasterium Niridanum (perhaps a mistake for Nisidanum, as being situated on the island of Nisida). He was offered the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury, by Pope Vitalian (twice), but modestly declined the appointment. He first recommended that it should be given to Andrew, a monk belonging to a neighbouring nunnery, who also declined on the plea of advanced years. Then, when the offer was again made to Adrian, he introduced to the pontiff his friend Theodore of Tarsus, who then chanced to be at Rome, and who consented to undertake the charge. Vitalian, however, stipulated that Adrian should accompany the new archbishop to Britain. He gave as his reasons that Adrian, having twice before made a journey into Gaul, knew the road and the mode of travelling, and to ensure that Adrian's presence might prevent Theodore, who was of the Greek communion, from introducing anything contrary to the orthodox faith into the church over which he was to preside.
The two set out from Rome on May 27, 668. There voyage was slowed down by Ebroin, who ruled parts of Gaul as Mayor of the Palace, for the minor king Clotaire III. Immediately on his arrival, he was made abbot of the monastery of St. Peter (afterwards called St. Augustine's Abbey) at Canterbury, an appointment which was in conformity with instructions given by the pope to Theodore. Adrian was known to be a man learned in the Bible, as well as Greek and Latin, and an excellent administrator. Under his direction the abbey came to have substantial, far-reaching influence.
Bede describes Adrian as not only a distinguished theologian, but eminently accomplished in secular learning; he and Theodore, we are told, traversing all parts of the island, gathered multitudes of scholars around them wherever they appeared, and employed themselves daily with equal diligence and success in instructing those who flocked to them not only in the truths of religion but in the several branches of science and literature then cultivated.
Adrian is said to have lived for thirty-nine years after he came to England, continuing till his death to preside over the monastery at Canterbury.
Attributes: as a bishop
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[edit] January 10
Pietro I Orseolo (Peter Urseolus) (928-987) was the Doge of Venice from 976 to 978. He was born near Undine to one of the more powerful families in Venice. At the age of 20 he was named commander of the Venetian fleet, performing distinguished service as a soldier, and waging successful campaigns against the Dalmatian pirates. He also demonstrated a true devotion to the Church.
In 976, the sitting doge, Pietro IV Candiano, was killed in a revolution that protested his attempts to create a monarchy. According to a statement by St. Peter Damian, Orseolo himself had led a conspiracy against Candiano. This statement however cannot be verified. Peter was elected to take his place.
As doge, Peter demonstrated a good deal of talent in restoring order to unsettled Venice and showed remarkable generosity in the treatment of his predecessor's widow. He built hospitals and cared for widows, orphans and pilgrims. Out of his own resources he began the reconstruction of St. Mark's Cathedral and the doge's palace, which had been destroyed during the revolution, along with a great part of the city. Two years later, on September 1, 978, seemingly without notifying anyone, not even his wife and children, he left Venice with Abbot Guarin and three other Venetians (one of whom was St. Romuald) to join the Benedictine (now Cistercian) abbey at Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa (Catalan: Sant Miquel de Cuixà) in Prades, southern France.
Here he led a life of great asceticism, performing the most menial tasks. There is some evidence that he had been considering such an action for some time. His only contact with Venice was to instruct his son Otto (who had become doge in 1008) in the life of Christian virtue. After some years as a monk at the abbey, probably with the encouragement of Saint Romuald (who later went on to found the Camaldolese branch of the Benedictines), Orseolo left the monastery to become a hermit in the surrounding forest, a calling he followed for seven years until he died. His body is buried in the Prades church.
Forty years after his death, he was officially recognized as a saint by the local bishop. He is still venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, having been canonized in 1731, and his feast day is January 10.
Attributes: habit of a monk or clothes of the doge
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[edit] January 11
Saint Paulinus II (between 730 and 740 - 802) was an Italian ecclesiastic, scholar and poet who served as the Patriarch of Aquileia.
Paulinus was born at Premariacco, near Cividale in the Friuli region of north-eastern Italy, probably of a Roman family during Lombard rule. After ordination to the priesthood, he became master of the town's school. Paulinus' education won him the favour of Charlemagne who invited Paulinus to France in 776, to be "royal master of grammar".
In 787, Charles appointed Paulinus to be consecrated as the Patriarch of Aquileia. As patriarch, Paulinus took a more prominent part in the important matters of his day. In his relations with the churches of Istria, or with the Patriarch of Grado, the representative of Byzantine interests, he showed the greatest prudence and pastoral zeal. Paulinus obtained diplomas for the free election of the future patriarchs, and other privileges for the Church of Aquileia, viz. the monastery of St. Mary in Organo, the church of St. Lawrence of Buia, the hospitals of St. John at Cividale and St. Mary at Verona. He helped in preparing the new Christian legislation, and we find some canons of his synods.
He was present at several councils, which condemned the heresy of Adoptionism taught by Eliphand and Felix, Bishop of Urgel. Paulinus expounded the Catholic doctrine about the Blessed Trinity, especially about the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. At this synod fourteen "canons" on ecclesiastical discipline, and on the sacrament of marriage, were framed and a copy of the Acts was sent to the emperor.
In 798, Paulinus was one of Charlemagne's "Missus Dominicus" at Pistoia. Afterwards he traveled to Rome as imperial legate to the Pope Leo III.
The activity of Paulinus as metropolitan is clear from the "Sponsio Episcoporum ad S. Aquileiensem Sedem . Among his works are: Libellus Sacrosyllabus contra Elipandum; Liber Exhortationis; Libri III contra Felicem.
Paulinus was also a poet, and we still possess some of his poetical productions: "Carmen de regula fidei ; the rhythmus or elegy for the death of his friend, Duke Eric of Friuli; another rhythm on the destruction of Aquileia; eight rhythms or hymns to be sung in his own church for Christmas, the Purification, Lent, Easter, St. Mark, Sts. Peter and Paul, the dedication, and "Versus de Lazaro". He died in 802, revered as a saint.
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[edit] January 12
Benedict Biscop (c. 628 - 690) (also known as Biscop Baducing) was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory.
He was born of a good Northumbrian family and was for a time a thegn of King Oswiu.
At the age of 25, Benedict made his first of five trips to Rome. He made a second journey twelve years later. Benedict stopped at Lérins, an island off the French coast in the Mediterranean, instead of returning to England. During his two year stay from 665 to 667, he underwent a course of instruction and took monastic vows. There he took the name of "Benedict".
Following the two years in Lérins, he made his third trip to Rome. At this time, he was commissioned by the pope to accompany Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus to Canterbury in 669. On their return, Benedict was appointed abbot of SS. Peter and Paul's, Canterbury.
King Egfrith granted Benedict land in 674 to build a monastery. He brought masons from the continent, who could build a monastery in the Romanesque style. From another trip to Rome in 679 he also brought back books, saintly relics, stonemasons, glaziers, and a grant from Pope Agatho granting his monastery certain privileges.
In 682, the King gave him more land in Jarrow to build a second monastery. Benedict erected a sister foundation (St Paul) at Jarrow. His idea was to build a model monastery for England, sharing his knowledge of the experience of the Catholic Church in Europe. It was the first ecclesial building to be built in stone, and the use of glass was a novelty for many in 7th-century England. It eventually possessed what was a large library for the time. The library became world-famous.
For the last three years of his life, Benedict was bed-ridden. He suffered his affliction with great patience and faith.
In his life time he had seen the Church change from being divided between the Roman and Celtic Churches and threatened by a resurgent paganism, to becoming a strong united and growing Roman Catholic Church, united with the worldwide church. His monastery was the jewel in the crown, under the direct patronage of the Pope and ushered in a Golden Era for Christianity in England.
Attributes: a Benedictine abbot dressed as a bishop standing by the Tyne with two monasteries nearby; with the Venerable Bede
Patronage: English Benedictines, musicians, painters, city of Sunderland
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[edit] January 13
Hilarius or Hilary (ca. 300 – 367) was bishop of Poitiers and considered an eminent doctor of the Western Christian Church. He was sometimes referred to as the malleus Arianorum ("hammer against Arianism") and the “Athanasius of the West”.
He was born at Poitiers about the end of the 3rd century A.D. His parents were pagans of distinction. He studied the Old and New Testament writings, with the result that he abandoned his Neoplatonism for Christianity, and with his wife and his daughter (traditionally named as Saint Abra) received the sacrament of baptism.
About 353, although still a married man, he was unanimously elected bishop (clerical celibacy was not required by the church until the late Middle Ages). Arianism was threatening to overrun the Western Church; to repel the disruption was the great task which Hilary undertook. He wrote to the emperor Constantius II a remonstrance against the persecutions by which the Arians had sought to crush their opponents. His efforts were not at first successful, for at the synod of Biterrae (Béziers), Hilary was by an imperial rescript banished to Phrygia, in which exile he spent nearly four years.
Thence, however, he continued to govern his diocese; while he found leisure for the preparation of two of the most important of his contributions to dogmatic and polemical theology, the De synodis or De fide Orientalium, an epistle, expounding the true views of the Eastern bishops on the Nicene controversy, and the De trinitate libri XII, composed in 359 and 360, in which, for the first time, a successful attempt was made to express in Latin the theological subtleties elaborated in the original Greek.
He was occupied for two or three years in combating Arianism within his diocese; but in 364, extending his efforts once more beyond Gaul, he impeached Auxentius, bishop of Milan, as heterodox. Summoned to appear before the emperor Valentinian I at Milan and there maintain his charges, Hilary had the mortification of hearing the supposed heretic give satisfactory answers to all the questions proposed; nor did his denunciation of the metropolitan as a hypocrite save himself from an ignominious expulsion from Milan.
The later years of his life were spent in comparative quiet, devoted in part to the preparation of his expositions of the Psalms; of his Commentarius in Evangelium Matthaei; and of his no longer extant translation of Origen's commentary on Job. He died in 367.
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[edit] January 14
Saint Mungo is the commonly used name for Saint Kentigern (also known as Cantigernus (Latin) or Cyndeyrn Garthwys (Welsh)). He was the late 6th century apostle of the Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in modern Scotland, and patron saint and founder of the city of Glasgow.
In Wales and the southern Brythonic regions of modern England, this saint is known by his birth and baptismal name: commonly Kentigern, more correctly Cyndeyrn. The name means 'chief prince'. In Scotland and the Northern Brythonic areas of modern England, he is called by his pet name of Mungo, meaning 'dear one'.
Mungo's mother, Denw, was the daughter of the Brythonic king, Lleuddun (Latin, Leudonus), who ruled in the Haddington region of what is now Scotland, probably the Kingdom of Gododdin in the Old North.
Mungo was brought up by Saint Serf who was ministering to the Picts in that area. It was Serf who gave him his popular pet-name. At the age of twenty-five, Mungo began his missionary labours on the Clyde, on the site of modern Glasgow. Christianity had been introduced to the region by Saint Ninian and his followers welcomed the saint and procured his consecration by an Irish bishop. He built his church at the confluence of the Clyde and the Molendinar Burn, where the present medieval cathedral now stands. For some thirteen years, he laboured in the district, living a most austere life in a small cell and making many converts by his holy example and his preaching.
A strong anti-Christian movement in Strathclyde, headed by a certain King Morken, compelled Mungo to leave the district, and he retired to Wales, via Cumbria, staying for a time with Saint David at St David's, and afterwards moving on to Gwynedd where he founded a cathedral at Llanelwy (now St Asaph). While there, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. However, the new King of Strathclyde, Riderch Hael, invited Mungo to return to his kingdom. He decided to go and appointed Saint Asaph as Bishop of Llanelwy in his place.
For some years, Mungo fixed his Episcopal seat at Hoddom in Dumfriesshire, evangelising thence the district of Galloway. He eventually returned to Glasgow. It was nearby, in Kilmacolm, that he was visited by Saint Columba, who was at that time labouring in Strathtay. The two saints embraced, held long converse, and exchanged their pastoral staves. In old age, Mungo became very feeble and his chin had to be set in place with a bandage. He is said to have died in his bath, on Sunday 13 January.
Attributes: bishop with a robin on his shoulder; holding a bell and a fish with a ring in its mouth
Patronage: Glasgow; Scotland; those accused of infidelity; against bullies
Prayer:
[edit] January 15
Saint Ita, also known as Saint Ida or Saint Ides, Deirdre, Ita of Killeedy, Meda, Mida and Ytha (c. 475 – January 15, 570), was an Irish nun.
Ida, called the "Brigid of Munster", was born named Deirdre in the present County of Waterford. She was the daughter of Cennfoelad or Confhaola, a descendant of Felim the lawgiver and his wife Necta. It is said, that, when a rich man wanted to marry her, after fastening and praying for three days, she succeeded to convince her father, to let her live the life of a virgin.
She became a nun, settling down at Cluain Credhail, a place-name that has ever since been known as Kileedy--that is, "Church of St. Ita"--in County Limerick. There, she was the head of a community of women. That group seems to have had a school for little boys where the boys were taught "Faith in God with purity of heart; simplicity of life with religion; generosity with love". Her pupils are said to have included Saint Brendan. Her legend places a great deal of emphasis on her austerities are told by St. Cuimin of Down, and numerous miracles are recorded of her. She is also said to be the originator of an Irish lullaby for the infant Jesus, an English version of which was set for voice and piano by the American composer Samuel Barber. She probably died of cancer though contemporary chroniclers describe how her side was consumed by a beetle which eventually grew to the size of a pig, understandable given the early medieval conflation of sanctity and suffering. The particular species of beetle is not described.
She was also endowed with the gift of prophecy and was held in great veneration by a large number of contemporary saints, men as well as women. When she felt her end approaching she sent for her community of nuns, and invoked the blessing of heaven on the clergy and laity of the district around Kileedy. Not alone was St. Ita a saint, but she was the foster-mother of many saints, including St. Brendan the Navigator, St. Pulcherius (Mochoemog) and Cummian. At the request of Bishop Butler of Limerick, Pope Pius IX granted a special Office and Mass for the feast of St. Ita, which is kept on January 15.
Attributes:
Patronage: Diocese of Limerick, Ireland
Prayer:
[edit] January 16
Saint Honoratus (ca. 350 – 6 January 429) was Archbishop of Arles.
There is some disagreement concerning his place of birth, and the date of his death is still disputed, being according to certain authors, 14 January or 15 January. It is believed that he was born in the north of Gaul and that he belonged to an illustrious pagan family.
Converted to Christianity with his brother Venantius, he embarked with him from Marseilles about 368, under the guidance of a holy person named Caprasius, to visit the holy places of Palestine and the lauræ of Syria and Egypt. But the death of Venantius, occurring suddenly at Methone, Achaia, prevented the pious travellers from going further. They returned to Gaul through Italy, and, after having stopped at Rome, Honoratus went on into Provence and, encouraged by Leontius, bishop of Fréjus, took up his abode in the wild Lérins Island today called the Île Saint-Honorat, with the intention of living there in solitude.
Numerous disciples soon gathered around him, including Lupus of Troyes, Eucherius of Lyon, and Hilary of Arles. Thus was founded the Monastery of Lérins, which has enjoyed so great a celebrity and which was during the fifth and sixth centuries a nursery for illustrious bishops and remarkable ecclesiastical writers. Honoratus's reputation for sanctity throughout the south-eastern portion of Gaul was such that in 426 after the assassination of Patroclus, Archbishop of Arles, he was summoned from his solitude to succeed to the government of the diocese, which the Arian and Manichaean heresies[neutrality disputed] had greatly disturbed. He appears to have succeeded in re-establishing order and orthodoxy, while still continuing to direct from afar the monks of Lérins. However, the acts of his brief pontificate are not known. He died in the arms of Hilary, one of his disciples and probably a relative, who was to succeed him in the See of Arles.
His various writings have not been preserved, nor has the rule which he gave to the solitaries of Lérins. John Cassian, who had visited his monastery, dedicated to him several of his "Conferences".
Attributes: represented as a bishop over the island of Lérins with a phoenix below, or drawing water from a rock with his mitre near him
Patronage: against drought; against misfortune; against rain; for rain
Prayer:
[edit] January 17
Saint Anthony the Great (c. 251–356), also known as Anthony Abbot, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Abba Antonius and The Father of All Monks.
Anthony the Great was an Egyptian Christian saint and the prominent leader among the Desert Fathers, Christian monks in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Anthony lived in Alexandria, Egypt for much of his notable career.
Anthony was born near Herakleopolis Magna in Lower Egypt in 251 to wealthy landowner parents. When he was about eighteen years old, his parents died. In 285 Anthony gave away the family estate and became the disciple of a local hermit.
Anthony is notable for being one of the first ascetics to attempt living in the desert proper, completely cut off from civilization. Saint Anthony headed out into the alkaline desert region called the Nitra, about 95 km west of Alexandria, some of the most rugged terrain of the Western Desert. Here he remained for some thirteen years. He moved to a tomb, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. Later, he went further out, to a mountain by the Nile, called Pispir. There he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some twenty years.
Then one day he emerged from the fort with the help of villagers to break down the door. Anthony went to the Fayyum and confirmed the brethren there in the Christian faith, then returned to his old Roman fort. In 311, Anthony wished to become a martyr and went to Alexandria.
He left Alexandria to return to the old Roman fort upon the end of the persecutions and even went further into the Eastern Desert of Egypt, where now stands the monastery of Saint Anthony the Great. There, he anticipated the rule of Benedict of Nurcia, "pray and work", by engaging himself and his disciple or disciples in manual labor.
In 338, he was summoned by Athanasius of Alexandria to help refute the teachings of Arius. Saint Anthony the Great lived for 105 years and departed on the year 356.
Attributes: bell; pig (in the West); book; crutch; hermit; Saint Anthony's cross; tau cross with a bell on the end
Patronage: against pestilence; amputees; animals; basket makers; basket weavers; brushmakers; Burgio, Sicily; butchers; Canas, Brazil; cemetery workers; domestic animals; eczema; epilepsy; epileptics; ergotism; erysipelas; gravediggers; graveyards; hermits; hogs; Hospitallers; monks; Mook, Nederlands; pigs; relief from pestilence; shingles (Saint Anthony's fire); skin diseases; skin rashes; swine; swineherds
Prayer:
[edit] January 18
Saint Margaret (Castle of Klisa, January 27, 1242 – St.Margaret Island, near Buda, January 18, 1271) was a nun and the daughter of King Béla IV and Maria Laskarina. She was the niece of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and the younger sister of Saint Kinga and Blessed Yolanda.
She was born as the eighth and last daughter (9th of 10 children) of the royal couple, when they lived in exile in Croatia during the Mongol invasion of Hungary (1241–42). Her parents vowed that if Hungary was liberated from the Mongols, they would dedicate the child to religion. Four-year-old Margaret entered the Dominican convent of Veszprém in 1245. Six years later she was transferred to the Convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on the Nyulak szigete ("Rabbits' Island") near Buda (today Margaret Island, named after her, and a part of Budapest. The ruins of the convent can still be seen.) She spent all her life here, dedicating herself to religion and opposing all attempts of her father to arrange a political marriage for her with King Ottokar II of Bohemia. She appears to have taken solemn vows when she was eighteen years old. Much of the details of her life are known from the Legend of Saint Margaret, written probably in the 14th century and translated from Latin to Hungarian in the 15th. The only remaining copy of the legend is in the Margaret Codex copied by the Dominican nun Lea Ráskay around 1510. According to the legend, Margaret chastised herself from early childhood, wore an iron girdle, hair garments and shoes spiked with nails. She also performed the dirtiest works in the convent.
She was venerated as a saint already in her lifetime, e.g., a stone church was dedicated to her in Bocfolde, Zala county, and steps were taken for her canonization shortly after her death, at the request of her brother King Stephen V. The necessary investigations were taken up between 1271 and 1276, but the canonization process was not completed, even though seventy-four miracles were ascribed to her, most of them referring to her curing illnesses and awakening someone from death. Among those giving testimony were twenty-seven in whose favour the miracles had been wrought. She was finally canonized in 1943.
When the Dominican monastery was suppressed in 1782, her remains were given to the Poor Clares. They were kept in Pozsony (today Bratislava) and Buda. The relics were partly destroyed in 1789 (seven years after the suppression of all religious orders by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, but some portions were preserved and are now kept in Esztergom, Győr, and Pannonhalma.
Attributes: depicted in a nun's habit, with a white lily and holding a book in her hand
Patronage:
Prayer:
[edit] January 19
Saint Henry (pyhä Henrik or piispa Henrik in Finnish, Biskop Henrik or Sankt Henrik in Swedish, Henricus et cetera in Latin; died allegedly 20 January circa 1150[1]) was a medieval Swedish clergyman. According to legends, he conquered Finland together with King Eric the Saint of Sweden and died as a martyr, becoming a central figure in the local Roman Catholic Church. However, the authenticity of the accounts of his life, ministry, and death are widely disputed.
The officially accepted legend of Bishop Henry's life, or his Vita, was written at the end of the 13th century. It contains little concrete information about Henry. He is said to have been an English-born Bishop of Uppsala at the time of King Eric the Saint of Sweden in the mid-12th century, ruling the peaceful kingdom with the king in heavenly co-existence. To tackle the perceived threat from the non-Christian Finns, Eric and Henry were forced to battle them. After they had conquered Finland, baptized the people and built many churches, the victorious king returned to Sweden while Henry (Henricus) remained with the Finns, more willing to live the life of a preacher than that of a high bishop.
The legend draws to a conclusion as Henry attempted to give a canonical punishment to a murderer. The accused man became enraged and killed the bishop, who was thus considered to be a martyr.
In the legend, Henry is strictly said to have been a Bishop of Uppsala, not a Bishop of Finland (renamed as the Bishop of Turku by 1259) which became a conventional claim later on, also by the church itself.[2] Henry stayed in Finland out of pity, but was never appointed as a bishop there. The legend does not state whether there had been bishops in Finland before his time or what happened after his death; it does not even mention his burial in Finland. The vita is so void of any concrete information about Finland that it could have been created anywhere. The Latin is scholastic and the grammar is in general exceptionally good.
Henry's Vita is followed by the more local miracula, a list of eleven miracles that various people were said to have experienced sometime after the bishop's death. With the exception of a priest in Skara who had gotten a stomach ache after mocking Henry, all miracles seem to have taken place in Finland. The other miracles occurred, following prayer to Bishop Henry.
Most versions of Henry's legend only include a selection of these miracles.
Attributes: a bishop
Patronage: Catholic Cathedral of Helsinki
Prayer:
[edit] January 20
Pope Saint Fabian and Saint Sebastian were both roman Saints, who lived in the third century.
Pope Saint Fabian was pope, or bishop of Rome, from January 236 to January 20, 250, succeeding Pope Anterus. Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. Vi. 29) relates how the Christians, having assembled in Rome to elect a new bishop, saw a dove alight upon the head of Fabian, a layman and stranger to the city, who was thus marked out for this dignity, and was at once proclaimed bishop by acclamation, although there were several famous men among the candidates for the vacant position.He is said to have baptized the emperor Philip, to have improved the organization of the church in Rome, and to have appointed officials to register the deeds of the martyrs. According to "later accounts" he sent out the "apostles to the Gauls" to Christianize Gaul after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian communities.
Attributes: Book and a sword
Patronage:
Prayer:Pope Saint Fabian, it's so easy to believe that peace means a life without conflict or suffering. Help us to see that the only true peace is the peace Christ brings. Never let us as a Church or as individual Christians choose to deny our beliefs simply to avoid an unpleasant situation. Amen
Saint Sebastian (died 287) was a Christian saint and martyr, who is said to have been killed while the Roman emperor Diocletian engaged in the persecution of Christians in the 3rd century.Sebastian was a man of Gallia Narbonensis who was taught in Milan and appointed as a captain of the Praetorian Guard under Diocletian and Maximian, who were unaware that he was a Christian. His aura cured a woman of her muteness, and the miracle instantly converted seventy-eight people. Diocletian reproached Sebastian for supposed betrayal. On the emperor's command, the archers shot at Sebastian till he was as full of arrows, leaving him there for dead. The widow of St. Castulus, St. Irene of Rome, went to retrieve his body to bury it, and found he was still alive. She brought him back to her house and nursed him back to health. When he made the sign of the cross on the head of a deaf and blind girl, she could see and hear. Sebastian then stood on a step and harangued Diocletian as he passed by; the emperor had him beaten to death and his body thrown in a privy.
Attributes: tied to a post and shot with arrows
Patronage: Soldiers, plagues, arrows, athletes;(unofficial): youth
Prayer:
[edit] January 21
Saint Agnes (291–304; feast day: January 21) is a virgin martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. She is also acknowledged in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion as well as in Eastern Orthodoxy. She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims and virgins.
She is also known as Saint Agnes of Rome and Saint Ines (or Santa Ynez). Her feast day is January 21. She formerly had a second feast on January 28, which was suppressed in the reform of the Church's calendar following the Second Vatican Council. Hundreds of churches are named in honour of Saint Agnes, including two major well-known churches and one Anglican cathedral in Kyoto, Japan. She is depicted in art with a lamb as her name resembles the Latin word agnus, which means "lamb." The name "Agnes" is actually derived from the feminine Greek adjective hagnē (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste, pure, sacred." Hrosvit of Gandersheim wrote a play about Saint Agnes in the 10th century. According to tradition, Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born c. 291 and raised in a Christian family. She suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve during the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian, on January 21, 304. The prefect Sempronius wished Agnes to marry his son, and on Agnes' refusal he condemned her to death. Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins, Sempronius had a naked Agnes dragged through the streets to a brothel. As she prayed, her hair grew and covered her body. It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and struck off her head, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat. A few days after Agnes' death, a girl named Emerentiana was found praying by her tomb; she claimed to be the daughter of Agnes' wet nurse, and was stoned to death after refusing to leave the place and reprimanding the pagans for killing her foster sister. Emerentiana was also later canonized. Agnes' bones are conserved in the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over the catacomb that housed Agnes' tomb.
Attributes: lamb
Patronage: betrothed couples; chastity; Children of Mary; Colegio Capranica of Rome; crops; engaged couples; gardeners; Girl Scouts; girls; rape victims; virgins; the diocese of Rockville Centre, New York
Prayer:
[edit] January 22
Saint Vincent of Saragossa, also known as Vincent of Huesca, is the patron saint of Lisbon. His feast day is January 22 Catholic; November 11 Orthodox. He was born at Huesca and martyred under Diocletian in 304.
He was born at Huesca but lived in Zaragoza (Saragossa in English; also in the Aragon region of Spain) and is also known as Saint Vincent the Deacon. The title "deacon" (diakonos) means minister or servant.
Vincent served as the deacon of Saint Valerius, bishop of Saragossa. Imprisoned in Valencia for his faith, and tortured on a gridiron — a story perhaps adapted from the martyrdom of another son of Huesca, Saint Lawrence— Vincent, like many early martyrs in the early hagiographic literature, succeeded in converting his jailer. Though he was finally offered release if he would consign Scripture to the fire, Vincent refused.
The earliest account of Vincent's martyrdom is in a carmen (lyric poem) written by the poet Prudentius, (348 – after 405), who wrote a series of lyric poems, Peristephanon ("Crowns of Martyrdom"), on Hispanic and Roman martyrs, including Lawrence. Prudentius describes how Vincent was brought to trial along with his bishop Valerius, and that since Valerius had a speech impediment, Vincent spoke for both, but that his outspoken fearless manner so angered the governor that Vincent was tortured and martyred, though his aged bishop was only exiled.
Three elaborated hagiographies, all based ultimately on a lost 5th century Passion, circulated in the Middle Ages.
Though Vincent's tomb in Valencia became the earliest center of his cult (it has been the subject of recent archeological research), he was also honored at his birthplace and his reputation spread from Saragossa. The city of Oviedo in Asturias grew about the church dedicated to Saint Vincent. Beyond the Pyrenees, he was venerated first at Régimond near Béziers, and at Narbonne. Castres became an important stop on the international pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela when the relics of Vincent were transferred to its new abbey-church dedicated to Saint Benoit from Saragosse in 863, under the patronage of Salomon, count of Cerdanya.
When the Catholic bishops of Visigothic Iberia succeeded in converting King Reccared (586–601) and his nobles to Trinitarian Christianity they built the cathedral of Córdoba in honor of St Vincent the Deacon. When the Moors came, in 711, the church was razed and its materials incorporated in the Mezquita, the "Great Mosque" of Cordoba.
Attributes: Usually pontifical, episcopal, etc. insignia, tools of martyrdom and so forth
Patronage: Portugal; Vicenza, Italy, vinegar makers, wine makers.
Prayer:
[edit] January 23
Saint Ildefonsus or Ildephonsus (rarely Ildephoses; died 23 January 667) was the metropolitan bishop of Toledo from 657 until his death. He was a Visigoth and his Gothic name was Hildefuns, which evolved into the Castilian name Alfonso. Ildefonsus, however, is known as San Ildefonso in Castilian and there are several places named after him. He was canonised and his feast day is 23 January, the date of his death. His writings were less influential outside of Hispania, but he remained a potent force in the peninsula for centuries. Like several of his seventh-century predecessors, Ildefonsus was a monk from Agali, and specifically abbot, before being raised to the metropolitan see of Carthaginiensis.
Theologically, Ildefonsus regarded the Nicene Creed as sufficientem scientiam salutarem (sufficient knowledge for salvation) and as a foedus (compact) between believer and God. Like Isidore of Seville before him, he regarded the creed as foming "two pacts" between God and believer: that renouncing the devil and the statement of belief itself. Ildefonsus encouraged frequent Communion, implying that normal practice was infrequent, and insisted upon preparation, which may have discouraged many.
Ildefonsus' De viris illustribus emphasises the monasticism of the earlier bishops of Toledo. Nonetheless, the "pastoral concern" and emphasis on praedicatio (preaching) is noted by modern editors.
Ildefonsus' most important work, however, is his De perpetua virginitate Mariae contra tres infideles, which imitated an earlier work of Jerome's. In it he utilises the "synonymous method" of Isidore for theological purposes, introducing the so-called Synonyma Ciceronis, wherein he repeats every phrase several times in different, purportedly identical, ways. The identifications reveal the arguments in a rhetorically strong way. The synonyms Ildefonsus uses are of interest to lexicographers.
Ildefonsus himself was included in a continuation made to the De viris illustribus by his later successor, Julian. His immediate successor was Quiricus, the dedicatee of Ildefonsus' De perpetua virginitate.
Attributes: a bishop or a monk with virgin mary giving him a white cloth
Patronage:
Prayer:
[edit] January 24
Saint Francis de Sales (in French, St François de Sales) (21 August 1567 - 28 December 1622) was bishop of Geneva, Switzerland and a Roman Catholic saint. He worked to convert Protestants back to Catholicism, was an accomplished preacher. He is known also for his writings on the topic of spiritual direction and spiritual formation (including Introduction to the Devout Life), and other religious subjects.
Francis de Sales was born at Thorens into a Savoyard noble family. In 1579, Francis was engulfed in a personal crisis when after attending a theological discussion about predestination became convinced that he was damned to Hell. In December 1586 his despair was so great that he was physically ill and even bed ridden for a time. In January 1587 he visited the Church Saint-Etienne des Gres with great difficulty. There his crisis ended, and he decided to dedicate his life to God.
At university, he studied both law and Theology. At the University he made up his mind about becoming a priest. In 1592 he ended his studies with the promotion to doctor certified in both law and theology. Then he made the pilgrimage to Loreto before going home. At home his father had already secured a variety of positions for his son, one of which was a position on the Senate of Chambéry. It was difficult for Francis' father to accept that his son had already chosen another career.
After studying the humanities, rhetoric, theology, and law at La Roche, Annecy, Paris, and Padua, he famously refused to marry the wealthy heiress his father had chosen as his bride, preferring a clerical career.
In 1602, Francis was consecrated bishop of Geneva. During his years as bishop, he garnished a reputation as a spellbinding preacher and something of an ascetic; in particular, he was known as a friend of the poor, a man of almost supernatural affability and understanding. He died on 28 December 1622 in Lyon, while he travelled in the entourage of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy.
Attributes: Heart of Jesus, Crown of Thorns
Patronage: Baker, Oregon; Cincinnati, Ohio; Catholic press; Columbus, Ohio; confessors; deaf people; educators; Upington, South Africa; Wilmington, Delaware; writers; journalists
Prayer:O love eternal, my soul needs and chooses you eternally! Ah, come Holy Spirit, and inflame our hearts with your love! To love -- or to die! To die -- and to love! To die to all other love in order to live in Jesus' love, so that we may not die eternally; but that we may live in your eternal love, O Savior of our souls, we eternally sing, "Live, Jesus! Jesus, I love! Live, Jesus, whom I love! Jesus, I love, Jesus who lives and reigns forever and ever. AMEN
[edit] January 25
Saint Maurus (French: Maur, Italian: Mauro) was the first disciple of St. Benedict of Nursia. He is mentioned in St. Gregory the Great's biography of the latter as the first oblate; offered to the monastery by his noble Roman parents as a young boy to be brought up in the monastic life. Four stories involving Maurus recounted by Gregory formed a pattern for the ideal formation of a Benedictine monk. The most famous of these involved St. Maurus's rescue of Saint Placidus, a younger boy offered to St. Benedict at the same time as St. Maurus. The incident has been reproduced in many medieval and Renaissance paintings.
A long Life of St. Maurus appeared in the late 9th century, supposedy composed by one of St. Maurus's contemporaries. According to this account, the bishop of Le Mans, in western France, sent a delegation asking Benedict for a group of monks to travel from Benedict's new abbey of Monte Cassino to establish monastic life in France according to the Rule of St. Benedict. The Life recounts the long journey of St. Maurus and his companions from Italy to France, accompanied by many adventures and miracles as St. Maurus is transformed from the obedient disciple of Benedict into a powerful, miracle-working holy man in his own right. According to this account, after the great trek, St. Maurus founded Glanfeuil as the first Benedictine monastery in France. It was located on the south bank of the Loire river, a few miles east of Angers. The nave of its thirteenth-century church and some vineyards remain today (according to tradition, the chenin grape was first cultivated at this monastery.)
Scholars now believe that this Life of Maurus is a forgery by a 9th-century abbot of Glanfeuil, named Odo. It was composed, as were many such saints' lives in Carolingian France, to popularize local saints' cults. The bones of St. Maurus had supposedly been found at Glanfeuil by one of Odo's immediate predecessors. By the mid-9th century, the abbey had become a local pilgrimage site supplementing (or rivalling) the nearby abbeys of Fleury, which claimed to have the bones of St. Benedict himself, and Le Mans, which had supposedly obtained the bones of St. Benedict's sister, St. Scholastica.
Attributes: crutch; weighing scale; young man in the garb of a monk, holding an abbot's cross and a spade.
Patronage: cripples; invoked against rheumatism, epilepsy, gout, hoarseness, cold; Azores; charcoal burners; cobblers; coppersmiths; shoemakers
Prayer:
[edit] January 26
Saint Paula (347–404) was an ancient Roman saint. A member of one of the richest "senatorial" families which frivolously claimed descent from Agamemnon, Paula was the daughter of Blesilla, from the great clan of the Furii Camilli. At the age of 15, Paula was married to the nobleman Toxotius, with whom she had four daughters, Bl(a)esilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Rufina and a boy, also named Toxotius.
At the age of 32, Paula was widowed. She continued to dedicate herself to her family, but became more interested in religion as time went on.
Through the influence of St. Marcella and her group, Paula became an enthusiastic member of this semi-monastic group of women. In 382, she met Saint Jerome, who had come to Rome with St. Epiphanius and Bishop Paulinus of Antioch.
The death of Blesilla and that of Pope Damasus I in 384 completely changed the manner of life of Paula and Jerome. In September 385, Paula and Eustochium left Rome to follow the monastic life in the East. Paula first made in great detail the pilgrimage of all the famous places of the Holy Land, afterward going to Egypt to learn from the practices of the anchorites and cenobites, and finally took up her residence at Bethlehem, as did St. Jerome. Then began for Paula, Eustochium, and Jerome their definitive manner of life.
Two monasteries were founded, one for men, the other for women. Paula and Eustochium took a larger share in the exegetical labours of Jerome, and conformed themselves more and more to his direction.
They were involved in the events of the day, first the controversy concerning Origenism which influenced their relations with Bishop John II of Jerusalem, and later Paula's need of money (she was extravagant in her gifts to charity and left Eustochium with debt).
Paula died at the age of 56 and was buried beneath the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem.
Attributes: Depicted as a Hieronymite abbess with a book; depicted as a pilgrim, often with Jerome and Eustochium; depicted prostrate before the cave at Bethlehem; depicted embarking in a ship, while a child calls from the shore; weeping over her children; with the instruments of the Passion; holding a scroll with Saint Jerome's epistle Cogite me Paula; with a book and a black veil fringed with gold; or with a sponge in her hand.
Patronage: widows
Prayer:
[edit] January 27
Saint Angela Merici (1474–1540) was an Italian religious leader and saint born in Desenzano del Garda, Brescia, Lombardy. She founded the Order of Ursulines in 1535 in Brescia. Merici was beatified in 1768 by Clement XIII and canonized in 1807 by Pius VII. She is buried in the Church of St. Afra at Brescia and her Catholic feast day is January 27.
St. Angela was born on March 21, 1474 at Desenzano, a small town on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy. She and her older sister were left orphans when she was about ten years old. Together they came to live with their uncle in the town of Salo. Young Merici was very distressed when her sister suddenly died without receiving the last sacraments. She joined the Third Order of St. Francis, and increased her prayers to God so her sister’s soul could rest in peace. Legend says that she was satisfied by a vision of her sister in the company of the saints in heaven.
Her uncle died when she was twenty years old and she returned to her previous home in Desenzano. Merici believed that better Christian education was needed for young girls; she then dedicated her time teaching girls in her home, which she had converted into a school. She later allegedly had another vision that revealed to her that she was to found an association of virgins who were to devote their lives to the religious training of young girls. This was a success and she was invited to start another school in the neighboring city, Brescia. She happily accepted this offer.
According to legend, though not substantiated by any documentation, in 1524, while traveling to the Holy Land, Merici became suddenly blind when she was on the island of Crete. Despite this, Merici continued her journey to the Holy Places and was ostensibly cured of sightlessness on her return, while praying before a crucifix, at the same place where she was struck with blindness a few weeks before.
In 1525, she came to Rome to gain the Indulgences. While doing this task, Pope Clement VII, who had heard of her virtue and success with her school, invited her to remain in Rome. Because Merici disliked publicity, she returned to Brescia. On November 25th, 1535, she chose twelve virgins and started the foundation of the Ursulines near the church of St. Afra in a small house in Brescia. Five years later, she died on January 27th.
Attributes: cloak, ladder
Patronage: sickness, handicapped people, loss of parents
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[edit] January 28
Thomas Aquinas, O.P.(also Saint Thomas Aquinas, Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino; c. 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Catholic priest in the Dominican Order, a philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis and Doctor Communis. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology.
Aquinas was born around 1225 at his father Count Landulf's castle of Roccasecca in the kingdom of Naples, in the present-day Regione Lazio. Through his mother, Aquinas was related to the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman emperors.
When he was 16, he went to the University of Naples, where he studied for six years. Aquinas had come under the influence of the Dominicans, who wished to enlist the ablest young scholars of the age. The Dominicans and the Franciscans represented a revolutionary challenge to the well-established clerical systems of Medieval Europe.
His superiors saw his great aptitude for theological study. In late 1244, they sent him to the Dominican school in Cologne, where Albertus Magnus was lecturing on philosophy and theology. In 1245, Aquinas accompanied Albertus to the University of Paris, where they remained for three years. Aquinas then graduated as a bachelor of theology. In 1248, he returned to Cologne, where he was appointed second lecturer and magister studentium.
In 1252, Aquinas went to Paris for his master's degree.
In 1256, began to lecture on theology in Paris and Rome and other Italian towns. From this time on, his life was one of incessant toil. Aquinas continually served in his order, frequently made long and tedious journeys, and constantly advised the reigning pontiff on affairs of state.
Its reported that Aquinas heard a voice from a cross that told him he had written well. On one occasion, monks claimed to have found him levitating.
In January 1274, Pope Gregory X directed Aquinas to attend the Second Council of Lyons. Aquinas's task was to investigate and, if possible, settle the differences between the Greek and Latin churches. Far from healthy, he undertook the journey. On the way, he stopped at the castle of a niece and there became seriously ill. After a lingering illness of seven weeks, Aquinas died on March 7, 1274.
Attributes: a dominican with a book and a church
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[edit] January 29
Saint Juniper (Italian: San Ginepro, Fra Ginepro) (died 1258), called "the renowned jester of the Lord," was one of the original followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. Not much is known about Juniper before he joined the friars. In 1210, he was received into the order of the Franciscans by St. Francis himself. "Would to God, my brothers, I had a whole forest of such Junipers," Saint Francis would pun.[1]
St. Francis sent him to establish "places" for the friars in Gualdo Tadino and Viterbo. When St. Clare of Assisi was dying, Juniper consoled her. Juniper is buried at Ara Coeli Church at Rome. His feast day is celebrated on January 29.
Junípero Serra (1713-1784), originally Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer, took his new name in honor of Saint Juniper.
Several stories about Juniper in the Little Flowers of St. Francis (Fioretti di San Francesco) illustrate his generosity and simplicity. Perhaps the most famous of these is the tale of the pig's feet.
When visiting a sick brother, Juniper asked if he could perform any service for the man. The brother asked Juniper simply for a meal of pig's feet, and so Juniper happily ran off to find some. Capturing a pig in a nearby field, he cut off a foot and cooked the meal for the sick brother.
When the pig's owner found out about this, he came in great wrath and abused St. Francis and the other Fransiscans, calling them thieves and refusing repayment. St. Francis reproached Juniper and ordered him to apologize to the pig's owner and make amends. Juniper, not understanding why the owner should be upset at so charitable an action, went to him and cheerfully retold the tale of the pig's foot, as though he had done the man a favor.
When the man reacted with anger, Juniper thought that he had misunderstood him, so he simply repeated the story with great zeal, embraced him, and begged the man to give him the rest of the pig for the sake of charity. At this display the owner's heart was changed, and he gave up the rest of the pig to be slaughtered as Juniper had asked.
The story of Juniper and the pig's feet was depicted in Roberto Rossellini's film The Flowers of St. Francis (1950).
Attributes: a Franciscan monk
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[edit] January 30
Saint Hyacintha Mariscotti or Hyacintha of Mariscotti ((Italian) Giacinta Marescotti or Giacinta Mariscotti) was a religious of the Third Order of St. Francis and foundress of the Sacconi. She was born in 1585 of a noble family at Vignanello, near Viterbo in Italy and died 30 January, 1640, at Viterbo. Her feast is 30 January; in Rome, 6 February (Diarium Romanum).
Her parents were Marc' Antonio Mariscotti (Marius Scotus) and Ottavia Orsini. At baptism she received the name Clarice and in early youth was remarkable for piety, but, as she grew older, she became frivolous, which not even the almost miraculous saving of her life at the age of seventeen could change, nor her education at the Convent of St. Bernardine at Viterbo, where an older sister had taken the veil.
At the age of twenty she set her heart upon marriage with the Marquess Cassizucchi, but was passed by in favour of a younger sister. Disappointed, she at last joined the community at St. Bernardine, receiving the name Hyacintha, but admitted that she did this only to hide her chagrin and not to give up the luxuries of the world. She kept her own kitchen, wore a habit of the finest material, received and paid visits at pleasure.
For ten years, she kept up this life, in defiance of her vows, but at the same time, retained a lively faith, was regular in her devotions, remained pure, always showed a great respect for the mysteries of religion, and had a tender devotion to the Virgin Mary. At length she saw the folly of the past and brought about a complete change in her life. She made a public confession of her faults in the refectory, discarded her costly garments, wore an old habit, went barefoot, frequently fasted on bread and water, chastised her body by vigils and severe scourging, and practised mortifications to such an extent that the decree of canonization considers the preservation of her life a continued miracle. She established two confraternities, whose members were called Oblates of Mary or Sacconi. One of these, similar to our Society of St. Vincent de Paul, gathered alms for the convalescent, for the poor who were ashamed to beg, and for the care of prisoners; the other procured homes for the aged.
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[edit] January 31
Saints Cyrus and John (Italian: Ciro e Giovanni) (d. ca. 304 AD) are venerated as martyrs. They are especially venerated by the Coptic Church and surnamed thaumatourgoi anargyroi because they healed the sick for free.
Their feast day is celebrated by the Copts on the sixth day of Tobi, corresponding to 31 January, the day also observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church (see January 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)); on the same day they are commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrate also the finding and translation of the relics on 28 June.[3]
The principal source of information regarding the life, passion and miracles of Sts. John and Cyrus is the encomium written by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 638). Of the birth, parents, and first years of the saints we know nothing. According to the Arabic "Synaxarium", compiled by Michael, Bishop of Athrib and Malig, Cyrus and John were both Alexandrians; this, however, is contradicted by other documents in which it is said that Cyrus was a native of Alexandria and John of Edessa.
Cyrus practised the art of medicine, and had a work-shop (ergasterium) which was afterwards transformed into a temple dedicated to the three boy-saints, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias. He ministered to the sick gratis and at the same time laboured with all the ardour of an apostle of the Faith, and won many from pagan superstition. This took place under the Emperor Diocletian. Denounced to the prefect of the city he fled to Arabia where he took refuge in a town near the sea called Tzoten. There, having shaved his head and assumed the monastic habit, he abandoned medicine and began a life of asceticism.
John belonged to the army, in which he held a high rank; the "Synaxarium" cited above adds that he was one of the familiars of the emperor. Hearing of the virtues and wonders of Cyrus, he betook himself to Jerusalem in fulfillment of a vow, and thence passed into Egypt where he became the companion of St. Cyrus in the ascetic life. During the persecution of Diocletian three holy virgins, Theoctista (Theopista), fifteen years old, Theodota (Theodora), thirteen years old, and Theodossia (Theodoxia), eleven years old, together with their mother Athanasia, were arrested at Canopus and brought to Alexandria.
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