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[edit] October 1 2007
Saint Thérèse de Lisieux (January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897), or more properly Sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte Face ("Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face"), born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, was a Roman Catholic nun who was canonized as a saint, and is recognized as a Doctor of the Church. She is also known by many as "The Little Flower of Jesus."
St. Thérèse of Lisieux was born in Alençon, France, the daughter of Louis Martin, a watchmaker, and Zélie-Marie Guérin, a lacemaker. Zélie died of breast cancer in 1877, when Thérèse was only four years old, and her father moved to Lisieux.
At age of 15, the Bishop of Bayeux authorized the prioress of the carmelite of Lisieux to receive Thérèse, and in April 1888 she became a Carmelite nun. Thérèse is known for her "Little Way." In her quest for sanctity, she realized that it was not necessary to accomplish heroic acts or "great deeds" in order to attain holiness and to express her love of God. This "Little Way" also appeared in her approach to spirituality.
Thérèse's final years were marked by a steady decline that she bore resolutely and without complaint. On the morning of Good Friday, 1896, she began bleeding at the mouth due to a pulmonary hæmoptysis; her tuberculosis. In July 1897 she was moved to the monastery infirmary, where she died on September 30, 1897, at age 24.
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Patronage: AIDS sufferers; Anchorage, Alaska; Australia; aviators; bodily ills; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Fairbanks, Alaska; Fresno, California; Juneau, Alaska; Pueblo, Colorado; florists; France; illness; Kisumu, Kenya; loss of parents; missionaries; Russia; tuberculosis; Witbank, South Africa <br /Prayer: "For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy
[edit] October 2 2007
Saint Leodegar or Leger, Bishop of Autun (c. 615 – Sarcing, Somme October 2, 679), was the great opponent of Ebroin— the mayor of the Palace of Neustria— and the leader of the faction of Austrasian great nobles in the struggles for hegemony over the waning Merovingian dynasty. His torture and death made him a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church, which embraced the cause of the Austrasian mayors of the palace, the Arnulfings, in the following century, anointed as the Carolingian dynasty.
Leodegar, son of Bobilo was of high rank among the Frankish nobility. Leodegar, was raised in Paris at the court of Clotaire II, king of all the Franks. In or about 650, after he became a priest and was made abbot of the monastery of St Maxentius, (Saint-Maixent) in Poitou. At the abbey he introduced the Benedictine rule, one of his Vitae relates.
In 656, he was called to the Neustrian court to assist in the government of the united kingdoms and in the education of the royal children. Then in 659 he was named to the see of Autun, in Burgundy. He made reforms among the secular clergy and in the religious communities, and had three baptisteries erected in the city. The church of Saint-Nazaire was enlarged and embellished, and a refuge established for the indigent. On the death of Clotaire III in 673, Ebroin raised Theoderic to the throne, but Leodegar and the other bishops supported the claims of his elder brother Childeric II, who was made king. When he was murdered in 673, Theoderic III was installed as king in Neustria. Ebroin became mayor once again.
About 675, at Ebroin's instigation, Leodegar's eyes were gouged out and the sockets cauterized, and his tongue was cut out. Some years later, near Sarcing he murdered by Ebroin's order.
Attributes: man having his eyes bored out with a gimlet; bishop holding a gimlet; bishop holding a hook with two prongs
Patronage: millers; invoked against blindness; eye disease; eye problems; sore eyes
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[edit] October 3 2007
Saints Ewald (or Hewald) were Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair, martyrs in Old Saxony about 695. Both bore the same name, but were distinguished by the difference in the colour of their hair and complexions. They are now honoured as saints in Westphalia.
The two priests were companions, both natives of Northumbria, England. According to the example of many at that time, they spent several years as students in the schools of Ireland. Ewald the Black was the more learned of the two, but both were equally renowned for holiness of life. They were apparently acquainted with St. Willibrord, the Apostle of Friesland, and were animated with his zeal for the conversion of the Germans.
They entered upon their mission about 690. The scene of their labours was the country of the ancient Saxons, now covered by the dioceses of Münster, Diocese of Osnabrück, and Paderborn. At first the Ewalds took up their abode in the house of the steward of a certain Saxon earl or ealdorman (satrapa). The steward entertained his two guests for several days, and promised to conduct them to the chieftain. They intended to convert him and so affirmed they had a message of considerable importance to deliver to him.
Meanwhile, the Ewalds omitted nothing of their religious exercises. They prayed often, recited the canonical hours, and celebrated Mass, for they carried with them all that was necessary. The pagan Saxons, witnessing these activities of the Christian priests and missionaries, began to suspect that the Ewalds planned to convert their over-lord, destroy their temples and supplant their religion. An uprising followed and both priests were quickly seized. Ewald the Fair was killed quickly by sword. Ewald the Black was tortured, because he was the spokesman and showed greater boldness. He was torn limb from limb, after which both their bodies were cast into the Rhine.
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[edit] October 4 2007
Saint Francis of Assisi (September 26, 1181 – October 3, 1226) was a Roman Catholic friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.
Francis was born to Pietro di Bernardone, a prominent businessman. He was baptized as Giovanni di Bernardone in honor of Saint John the Baptist, in the hope he would grow to be a great religious leader. Pietro decided to call him Francesco (Francis), in honor of the child's maternal heritage.
Francis spent most of his youth lost in books (ironically, his father's wealth did afford his son an excellent education, and he became fluent in reading several languages including Latin). He was also known for drinking and enjoying the company of his many friends, who were usually the sons of nobles.
On February 24, 1209), Francis heard a sermon that changed his life. Francis was inspired to devote himself wholly to a life of poverty.
Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. Many companions joined Francis. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest, and the community lived as "fratres minores", in Latin, "lesser brothers".
In 1209 Francis led his first 11 followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. From then on, his new order grew quickly with new vocations.
Francis is said to have had a vision on or about 14 September 1224, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as a result of which he received the stigmata. He died on the evening of 3 October 1226 singing Psalm 141. His feast day is observed 4 October.
Attributes: Dove, Stigmata, poor Franciscan habit, cross, Pax et Bonum
Patronage: animals, merchants, Italy, Meycauayan, Philippines, Catholic Action, the environment
Prayer: Prayer for Animals God Our Heavenly Father, You created the world to serve humanity's needs and to lead them to You. By our own fault we have lost the beautiful relationship which we once had with all your creation. Help us to see that by restoring our relationship with You we will also restore it with all Your creation. Give us the grace to see all animals as gifts from You and to treat them with respect for they are Your creation. We pray for all animals who are suffering as a result of our neglect. May the order You originally established be once again restored to the whole world through the intercession of the Glorious Virgin Mary, the prayers of Saint Francis and the merits of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ Who lives and reigns with You now and forever. Amen.
[edit] October 5 2007
Mary Faustina Kowalska, commonly known as Saint Faustina, born Helena Kowalska (August 25, 1905, Głogowiec, then in Russian Empire – October 5, 1938, Kraków, Poland) was a Polish nun and mystic, now venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as a saint.
Helena Kowalska was the third of ten children born to a poor family. At the age of fifteen, having attended just three years of school, she started work to support her family. Around this time she was considering a vocation in the Catholic church. She claimed that God himself was calling her to be a nun. Helena left for Warsaw, and applied to various convents in the capital, only to be turned down each time. She was finally accepted at the convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She was eventually initiated as a nun on April 30, 1926, with the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.
Sister Faustina claimed to have visited Purgatory, and to have seen and spoken to Jesus and Mary several times. Later on, Jesus allegedly revealed her purpose; to spread the devotion of the Mercy of God. On February 22, 1931, Jesus was said to have appeared as the 'King of Divine Mercy', wearing a white garment.
In 1936, Faustina became extremely ill, speculated to be from tuberculosis. She was moved to the sanatorium in Pradnik. The last two years of St. Faustina’s life were spent working as much as she could between visits to the sanatorium and time spent sick in bed in the convent. St. Faustina died on October 5 1938.
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[edit] October 6 2007
Saint Bruno of Cologne (Cologne, c. 1030 – October 6, 1101), the founder of the Carthusian Order, personally founded the order's first two communities. He was a celebrated teacher at Reims, France and a close advisor of his former pupil, Pope Urban II.
His funeral elegies celebrate his eloquence, his poetic, philosophical, and theological talents; and his merit as a teacher is reflected in the merits of his pupils, amongst whom were Eudes of Châtillon, afterwards Pope Urban II, Rangier, Cardinal Bishop of Reggio, Robert, Bishop of Langres, and a large number of prelates and abbots.
In 1075 Bruno was appointed chancellor to the Diocese of Reims.
Bruno's first thought on leaving Reims seems to have been to place himself and his companions under the direction of an eminent solitary, Saint Robert, who had recently (1075) settled at Sèche-Fontaine, near Molesme in the Diocese of Langres, together with a band of other hermits, who were later on (in 1098) to form the Cistercian Order. After a short stay he went with six of his companions to Saint Hugh of Châteauneuf, Bishop of Grenoble. The bishop installed them himself in 1084 in a mountainous and uninhabited spot in the lower Alps of the Dauphiné, in a place named "Chartreuse", not far from Grenoble. With St. Bruno were Landuin, Stephen of Bourg and Stephen of Die, canons of St. Rufus, and Hugh the Chaplain, and two laymen, Andrew and Guerin, who afterwards became the first lay brothers. They built a little retreat where they lived isolated and in poverty, entirely occupied in prayer and study, for these men had a reputation for learning, and frequently honored by the visits of St. Hugh who became like one of themselves.
At the time, Bruno's pupil, Eudes of Châtillon, had become pope as Urban II (1088). Resolved to continue the work of reform commenced by Gregory VII, and being obliged to struggle against an antipope Guibert of Ravenna, and the Emperor Henry IV, he was in dire need of competent and devoted allies and called his former master to Rome in 1090. The place chosen in 1091 for his new retreat was in the Diocese of Squillace. Bruno died October 6, 1101.
Attributes: skull that he holds and contemplates, with a book and a cross
Patronage: Calabria
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[edit] October 7 2007
Saint Justina (Justine) of Padua ((Italian) Santa Giustina) is a Christian saint who was said to have been martyred in 304 AD. Justina was said to have been a young woman who took private vows of chastity and was killed during the persecutions of Diocletian. She is a patron saint of Padua.
Medieval legends described her as a disciple of Saint Peter the Apostle. Thus, Saint Prosdocimus, the first bishop of Padua, is said to have been Justina's spiritual father; his legend states that he was sent from Antioch by Peter.
The abbey and the basilica of Santa Giustina, in Padua, houses art dedicated to the saint, including the Martyrdom of St. Justine by Paolo Veronese. The complex was founded in the 5th century on Justine's tomb, and in the 15th century became one of the most important monasteries in the area, until it was suppressed by Napoleon in 1810. In 1919 it was reopened. The tombs of several saints are housed in the interior, including those of Justina, St. Prosdocimus, St. Maximus, St. Urius, St. Felicita, St. Julianus, as well as relics of the Apostle St. Matthias and the Evangelist St. Luke.
Charles Borromeo dedicated a college at Pavia to her.
Attributes: young woman setting a cross on the head of the devil while holding a lily in her hand; young woman with a crown, palm, and sword; young woman with a palm, book, and a sword in her breast; young woman with a unicorn, symbolizing virginity, and palm; young woman with both breasts pierced by one sword; young woman with Saint Prosdocimus; depicted as nun; young woman with Saint Scholastica
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[edit] October 8 2007
Saint Pelagia is an Antiochene saint, a virgin of fifteen years, who chose death by a leap from the housetop rather than dishonour. She is mentioned by Ambrose (De virg. iii. 7, 33; Ep. xxxvii. ad Simplic.), and is the subject of two sermons by Chrysostom.
The legend of the Saint Pelagia (sometimes called Margarito) who was a courtesan is famous. She was a celebrated dancer and courtesan, who, in the full flower of her beauty and guilty sovereignty over the youth of Antioch, was suddenly converted by the influence of the holy bishop Saint Nonnus, whom she had heard preaching in front of a church which she was passing with her gay train of attendants and admirers. Seeking out Nonnus, she overcame his canonical scruples by her tears of genuine penitence, was baptized, and, disguising herself in the garb of a male penitent, retired to a grotto on the Mount of Olives, where she died after three years of strict penance. This story seems to combine with the name of the older Pelagia some traits from an actual history referred to by Chrysostom (Horn. in Matth. lxvii. 3).
In associating St Pelagia with Saint Marina, St Margaret and others, of whom either the name or the legend recalls Pelagia, Hermann Usener has endeavoured to show by a series of subtle deductions that this saint is only a Christian travesty of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. But there is no doubt of the existence of the first Pelagia of Antioch, the Pelagia of Ambrose and Chrysostom.
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[edit] October 9 2007
Saint Denis of Paris (also called Dionysius, Dennis, or Denys) is a Christian martyr and saint. In the third century, he was bishop of Paris. He was martyred in approximately 250, and is venerated especially in the Roman Catholic Church as patron of Paris, France and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The modern name "Denis" derives from the ancient name Dionysius, "servant of Dionysus".
Gregory of Tours states that Denis was bishop of the Parisii and was martyred by being beheaded by a sword. It appears from the Passio that Denis was sent from Italy to convert Gaul in the third century, forging a link with the "apostles to the Gauls" reputed to have been sent out under the direction of Pope Fabian. This was after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian community at Lutetia. Denis, with his inseparable companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, who were martyred with him, settled on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine.
Denis, having irritated the tempers of heathen priests for his many conversions, was executed by beheading on the highest hill near Paris (now Montmartre), which was likely to have been a druidic holy place. The martyrdom of Denis and his companions gave it its current name, which in Old French means "mountain of martyrs". According to the Golden Legend, after his head was chopped off, Denis picked it up and walked several miles, preaching a sermon the entire way. This is the iconographic detail by which he may be identified, whether in the thirteenth-century sculpture at the Musée de Cluny (illustration, left) or in the nineteenth-century figure in the portal of Nôtre Dame de Paris, part of Viollet-le-Duc's restorations (illustration, right).
Attributes: carrying his severed head in his hands; a bishop's mitre; city; furnace
Patronage: France; Paris; against frenzy; against strife; headaches; hydrophobia; possessed people; rabies
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[edit] October 10 2007
Saint Paulinus (born c. 584; died 10 October 644) was the first Bishop of York and Bishop of Rochester in England.
Paulinus was a monk at St Andrew's Monastery in Rome, when, in 601, Pope Gregory I sent him to join Mellitus and others in the second group of missionaries to England. Writing in 731, Bede described Paulinus as "a tall figure, slightly bent, with black hair, a thin hooked nose, and an emaciated face." He was in Kent until 625, when he was consecrated as bishop by Justus on July 21. He then accompanied Æthelburg, the sister of King Eadbald of Kent, to Northumbria where she was to marry King Edwin.
According to Bede, Paulinus eventually convinced Edwin to convert to Christianity, baptizing him and many of his followers at York in 627. Gregory desired York to be England's second metropolitan see. So Paulinus built a small wooden church there and, with the support of Edwin, he greatly expanded the church throughout Northumbria.
When Edwin was defeated and killed in battle in 633, Paulinus took the queen and her children to Kent, where he spent the remainder of his life as Bishop of Rochester. He died on 10 October 644 at Rochester. Edwin's defeat led immediately to a sharp decline of Christianity in Northumbria. Although Paulinus' deacon, James, remained in the North and struggled to rebuild the Roman mission, it was monks from the rival Celtic tradition who eventually re-established Christianity in the region, York eventually becoming a mere bishopric.
Attributes: An archbishop holding a model of a small wooden church; baptizing Edwin of Northumbria
Patronage: York; Rochester; those displaced from office
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[edit] October 11 2007
Saints Andronicus, Probus (Provos), and Tarachus (Tharacus, Tarachos) were martyrs of the Diocletian persecution (about 304 AD).
There are two accounts of their martyrdom, the first account being held by Thierry Ruinart (Acta Martyrum, ed. Ratisbon, 448 sq.) to be entirely authentic. According to these Acts, Tarachus (ca. 239- 304), a Roman who was a native of Claudiopolis in Isauria and a former soldier, the plebeian Probus of Side in Pamphylia, and the patrician Andronicus, who belonged to a prominent family of Ephesus, were tried by the governor Numerian Maximus and horribly tortured three times in various cities, including Tarsus, Mopsuestia, and Anazarbus of Cilicia.
According to tradition, Tarachus was beaten on his cheeks and neck with stones. His hands were also burned. He was hanged on a post and smoke was put underneath him to choke him; vinegar was forced down his nostrils; after enduring further tortures, he was carved to pieces. Probus was thrashed with whips, his feet were burned with red hot irons, his back and sides were pierced with heated spits; finally he also was cut up with knives. Andronicus was also cut to pieces with knives.
They were then condemned to death by wild beasts, and when the animals would not touch them in the amphitheatre they were put to death with the sword.
Attributes: Tarachus is depicted as an elderly man, in the robes of a Roman citizen, with a spear. The others are depicted with crosses or spears.
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[edit] October 12 2007
Wilfrid (c. 634 - April 24, 709) was an English bishop and saint.
He was born of good parentage in Northumbria, possibly near Ripon in Yorkshire. When serving in King Oswiu's court, he attracted the notice of the queen, Eanfled who, fostering his inclination for a religious life, placed him under the care of an old noble, Cudda, now a monk at Lindisfarne. Later on Eanfled enabled him to visit Rome in the company of Benedict Biscop and Acca. On his return home in 658, Oswiu's son Alchfrith gave him a monastery at Ripon, and, before long, Agilbert, bishop of the Gewissæ, or West Saxons, ordained him priest.
His speech at the council of Whitby determined the overthrow of the Celtic party in 664. About a year later he was consecrated to the see of York, not, however, in Northumbria, since he refused consecration at the hands of the Celtic Church, but at Compiègne, Agilbert being now bishop of Paris. On his return journey he narrowly escaped the pagan wreckers of Sussex, and only reached his own country to find Ceadda (St Chad) installed in his see of York. For three years from 665 to 668 he ruled his monastery at Ripon in peace, though acting as bishop in Mercia and Kent during vacancies in sees there. On the arrival of Theodore in 669, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, he was installed finally in his see, and there spent nine years of ceaseless activity, especially in building churches, including the monastery at Hexham.
In 678, dissension broke out between King Egfrid and Wilfrid, who was driven from his see, and two bishops substituted in his stead. Wilfrid went to Rome in 679 to appeal Theodore's decision. Pope Agatho held a synod in October, 679 where he ordered his restoration. In 680, Wilfrid appeared before a Witenagemot and produced his papal bull ordering his restoration, but he was briefly imprisoned and then exiled. Once again, Egfrid and his wife's attitude towards Wilfrid heavily influenced the decision to exile the bishop. After this, he took refuge in Sussex, preaching, converting, founding Selsey Abbey and possibly baptising St Cuthman.
In 686, Wilfrid was finally recalled to York. After 687 his nephew Beornwine was given part of the Isle of Wight to help convert the island to Christianity. In 691, the subdivision issue arose once more, along with quarrels with the new king Aldfrith who was a supporter of the Celtic Church, and Wilfrid left the area for the midlands.
In 703, he resigned his post as bishop, and retired to the monastery at Ripon, where he lived in prayer and penitence until his death at Oundle, Northamptonshire, in 709.
Attributes: (1) baptizing; (2) preaching; (3) landing from a ship and received by the king; or (4) engaged in theological disputation with his crozier near him and a lectern before him
Patronage: Diocese of Middlesbrough; Ripon
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[edit] October 13 2007
St Edward the Confessor or Eadweard III (c. 1004–5 January 1066), son of Ethelred the Unready, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon King of England and the last of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 until his death.
Edward was born c. 1003, allegedly in Islip, Oxfordshire. In 1013, he and his brother Alfred were taken to Normandy by their mother Emma of Normandy, sister of Normandy's Duke Richard II, to escape the Danish invasion of England.
The Anglo-Saxon lay and ecclesiastical nobility invited Edward back to England in 1041; this time he became part of the household of his half-brother Harthacanute. Following Harthacanute's death on 8 June 1042, Edward ascended the throne. Edward's reign was marked by peace and prosperity. Edward's sympathies for Norman favourites frustrated Saxon and Danish nobles alike, fuelling the growth of anti-Norman opinion led by Godwin, who had become the king's father-in-law in 1045. The breaking point came over the appointment of an archbishop of Canterbury: Edward rejected Godwin's man and appointed the bishop of London, Robert of Jumièges, a trusted Norman.
Matters came to a head over a bloody riot at Dover between the townsfolk and Edward's kinsman Eustace, count of Boulogne. Godwin refused to punish them, Leofric and Siward backed the King, and Godwin and his family were all exiled in September 1051. Queen Edith was sent to a nunnery at Wherwell. Earl Godwin returned with an army following a year later, however, forcing the king to restore his title and send away his Norman advisors. Godwin died in 1053 and the Norman Ralph the Timid received Herefordshire, but his son Harold accumulated even greater territories for the Godwins, who held all the earldoms save Mercia after 1057. Harold led successful raiding parties into Wales in 1063 and negotiated with his inherited rivals in Northumbria in 1065, and in January 1066, upon Edward's death, he was proclaimed king.
Attributes: a king
Patronage: kings, difficult marriages, separated spouses, the British Royal Family
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[edit] October 14 2007
|Pope Saint Callixtus I or Callistus I, was pope from about 217 to about 222, during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus. He was martyred for his Christian faith and is a canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
His contemporary and enemy, the author of Philosophumena (probably Hippolytus of Rome) relates that when Callixtus, as a young slave was put in charge of a bank by his master, Carpophorus, he lost the money deposited by other Christians. Callixtus then fled from Rome, but was caught near Portus. According to the tale, Callixtus jumped overboard to avoid capture, but was rescued and taken back to his master. He was released at the request of the creditors, who hoped he might be able to recover some of the money, but was rearrested for fighting in a synagogue when he tried to borrow or collect debts from some Jews. Denounced as a Christian, Callixtus was sentenced to work in the mines of Sardinia. Finally, he was released with other Christians at the request of Marcia, a mistress of Emperor Commodus.
Callixtus was the deacon to whom Pope Zephyrinus (199-217) entrusted the burial chambers along the Appian Way, now called the Capella dei Papi.
When Callixtus followed Zephyrinus as Bishop of Rome, he established the practice of the absolution of all repented sins, for which Tertullian took him to task (De Pudicitia xxi). The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops introduction to saints notes that St. Callistus is "most renowned for the reconciliation of sinners, who following a period of penance, were re-admitted to communion with the Church." Hippolytus and Tertullian were especially upset by the pope's admitting to communion those who had repented for murder, adultery, and fornication.
It is possible that Callixtus was martyred around 222, perhaps during a popular uprising, but the legend that he was thrown down a well has no historical foundation, though the church does contain an ancient well (Nyborg).
Callixtus was honored as a martyr in Todi, Italy, on August 14. He was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way and his anniversary is given by the 4th-century Depositio Martirum (Callisti in viâ Aureliâ miliario III) and by the subsequent martyrologies on 14 October. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, his relics were translated in the 9th century to the predecessor of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
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[edit] October 15 2007
Saint Teresa of Ávila (known in religion as Teresa de Jesús, baptized as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada) (March 28, 1515 – October 4, 1582) was a major figure of the Catholic Reformation as a prominent Spanish mystic and writer and as a monastic reformer. She died just as Catholic nations were making the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar which required the removal of 11 days from the calendar. She likely died on the night of October 4th but perhaps early on the morning of October 15 (in 1582 October 5-14 did not exist), which was adopted as her feast day. She was born at Ávila (85 km northwest of Madrid), Old Castile and died at Alba de Tormes (province of Salamanca). She is recognized by Roman Catholics as one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church. She is one of only three female Doctors of the Church, along with St. Catherine of Siena, made so in 1970 and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, made so in 1997.
Leaving her parents' home secretly one morning in 1534, at the age of 19, Teresa entered the Monastery of the Incarnation of the Carmelite nuns at Avila. In the cloister, she
In 1567, she received a patent from the Carmelite general, Rubeo de Ravenna, to establish new houses of her order. In all seventeen convents, all but one founded by her, and as many men's cloisters were due to her reform activity of twenty years. Her final illness overtook her on one of her journeys from Burgos to Alba de Tormes.
Attributes: habit of the Discalced Carmelites, book and quill, arrow-pierced heart
Patronage: bodily ills; headaches; lacemakers; laceworkers; loss of parents; people in need of grace; people in religious orders; people ridiculed for their piety; Pozega, Croatia; sick people; sickness; Spain
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[edit] October 16 2007
Saint Hedwig of Andechs (German: Hl. Hedwig von Andechs Polish: Święta Jadwiga Śląska, born 1174 at Castle Andechs, Bavaria - died 15 October 1243 at Trebnitz (Trzebnica), Silesia) was the daughter of Berthold III, Count of Tyrol and Duke of Carinthia and Istria (Andechs-Meran), and his wife Agnes.
One of Hedwig's sisters married king Andrew II of Hungary. Their daughter was Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, also known as Elizabeth of Thuringia. Another of Hedwig's sisters was abbess at the Benedictine convent of Lutzingen in Franconia, where Hedwig received her education.
At age 12, Hedwig married Henry I the Bearded of Silesia. In 1233 Henry also became Duke of Greater Poland.
In 1238, upon his death, Henry was buried at the Cistercian convent of Trebnitz (Trzebnica) which he had founded in 1202 on the request of Hedwig. The widow moved into the convent which was led by one of her daughters. On 15 October 1243, she died and was buried there, while relics of her are preserved at Andechs Abbey.
Hedwig and Henry had a son, Henry II the Pious who in 1241 was killed by the Mongols in the battle of Legnica.
Hedwig and Henry had lived a very pious life, and Hedwig had great zeal for religion. She always helped the poor, went barefoot even in winter, and donated all her fortune to the Church and the poor. Hedwig was canonized in 1267.
In 1773 Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, built the St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin, now the mother church of the Archdiocese of Berlin, for the Roman Catholic immigrants from Silesia. As Silesians (and other Germans) were expelled from their homes after World War II, Silesian expellees regard Hedwig as their patron saint.
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Patronage: Brandenburg, Berlin, Silesian expellees, Silesia and its capital Wrocław, Trzebnica, the Diocese of Görlitz, Andechs Abbey, Cracow
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[edit] October 17 2007
Saint Ignatius of Antioch (also known as Theophorus) (ca. 35-107)[1] was the third Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch and a student of the Apostle John. En route to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of letters which have been preserved as an example of the theology of the earliest Christians. Important topics addressed in these letters include ecclesiology, the sacraments, and the role of bishops.
Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch after Saint Peter and Evodius, who died around AD 67. Eusebius (Historia Ecclesiastica, II.iii.22) records that Ignatius succeeded Evodius. Making his apostolic succession even more immediate, Theodoret (Dial. Immutab., I, iv, 33a) reported that Peter himself appointed Ignatius to the see of Antioch.
Besides the Latin name, Ignatius, he also called himself Theophorus ("God Bearer"), and tradition says he was one of the children Jesus took in His arms and blessed. Ignatius was most likely a disciple of the Apostle John.[2]
Ignatius is generally considered to be one of the Apostolic Fathers (the earliest authoritative group of the Church Fathers) and a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and Anglican/Episcopal Church who celebrate his feast day on October 17, and the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, who celebrate his feast day on December 20. Ignatius based his authority on living his life in imitation of Christ.
Ignatius was arrested by the authorities and transported to Rome under trying conditions:
| “ | From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated. —Ignatius to the Romans, 5. | ” |
He died as a martyr in the arena. The Roman authorities hoped to make an example of him and thus discourage Christianity from spreading. Instead, he met with and encouraged Christians who flocked to meet him all along his route, and he wrote six letters to the churches in the region and one to a fellow bishop.
Attributes: a bishop surrounded by lions or in chains
Patronage: Church in eastern Mediterranean; Church in North Africa
Prayer:
[edit] October 18 2007
Luke the Evangelist (לוקא, Greek: Λουκᾶς Loukas) was an early Christian who is said by tradition to be the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the third and fifth books of the New Testament. Saint Luke was born of Greek origin in the city of Antioch.
Conservative Christian scholars attribute Luke as being author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, which is clearly meant to be read as a sequel to the Gospel account. However, other scholars are more sceptical about Luke's authorship of these books. Both books are dedicated to one Theophilus and no scholar seriously doubts that the same person wrote both works, though neither work contains the name of its author.
Attributes: Apostle of Jesus, Evangelist, Physician, Bishop book, man accompanied by a winged ox, ox, painting an icon of Blessed Virgin Mary, brush or palette (referring to the tradition that he was a painter), winged calf, or a winged ox.
Patronage: artists, bachelors, bookbinders, brewers, butchers, Capena Italy, doctors, glass makers, glassworkers, gold workers, goldsmiths, Hermersdorf Germany, lacemakers, lace workers, notaries, painters, physicians, sculptors, stained glass workers, surgeons, unmarried men
Prayer: Most charming and saintly Physician, you were animated by the heavenly Spirit of love. In faithfully detailing the humanity of Jesus, you also showed his divinity and his genuine compassion for all human beings. Inspire our physicians with your professionalism and with the divine compassion for their patients. Enable them to cure the ills of both body and spirit that afflict so many in our day. Amen.
[edit] October 19 2007
Saint Jean de Brébeuf (25 March 1593 – 16 March 1649) was a Jesuit missionary, martyred in Canada March 16 1649.
Brébeuf was born on Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy, France, a son of farmers. He was the uncle of the poet Georges de Brébeuf. He studied near home at Caen allowing him to work on the family highway. He became a Jesuit in 1617, joining the Order at Rouen. He almost was pushed from the Society due to his contraction of tuberculosis--an illness which prevented both studying and teaching for the traditional periods.
In 1622 he was ordained. Against the voiced desires of Huguenot Protestants, officials of trading companies, and some Indians, he was granted his wish and in 1625 he sailed to Canada as a missionary, arriving on June 19, and lived with the Huron natives near Lake Huron, learning their customs and language, of which he became an expert (it is said that he wrote the first dictionary of the Huron language). He has been called Canada's "first serious ethnographer."
Although the missionaries were recalled in 1629, Brébeuf returned to Canada in 1633. He was the founder of the Huron mission, a position he relinquished to Father Jérôme Lalemant in 1638.
He unsuccessfully attempted to convert the Neutral nation on Lake Erie in 1640. In 1643 he wrote the Huron Carol, a Christmas carol which is still, in a very modified version, used today. Brebeuf’s charismatic presence in the Huron country helped cause a split between traditionalist Huron and those who wanted to adopt European culture.
Montreal-based ethnohistorian Bruce Trigger argues that this cleavage in Huron society, along with the spread of disease from Europeans, left the Huron vulnerable.
In 1649, the Iroquois attacked the Wendat (Huron) village of St. Louis where Brébeuf was working along with his colleague Gabriel Lalemant, and both men were captured and tortured, mutilated, and burned to death, concluding, some say, with an act of Iroquois cannibalism on March 16, 1649. Brébeuf was fifty-six years old.
Brebeuf’s body was recovered a few days later. His body was boiled in lye to remove the bones, which became church relics. His flesh was buried, along with that of Lalemant's, at the Jesuit mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (1639-1649).
Attributes:
Patronage: Canada
Prayer:
[edit] October 20 2007
Saint Irene of Tomar (in Portuguese: Santa Iria) was a martyr of the Visigothic church in Portugal. The legend surrounding her life is very likely little more than that, a pious tale.
Legend says that Irene was born in present-day Tomar, Portugal. She was born into an influential family, and her parents, wishing to protect her, sent her to a convent school and a private tutor. The only times she ever left her house was to attend Mass or pray at the sanctuary of Saint Peter. It so happened that a young nobleman named Britald happened to see her on one of her rare outings and fell desperately in love with her. Every time she left to go to church, he would follow her. Eventually he came forward with his proposal to court her; however, Irene made it clear that she would never marry him. When Britald fell ill with depression, Irene hastened to make it clear to him that the reason for her celibacy was that she had given herself to God as a nun.
Meanwhile, her tutor, a monk named Remigius (or Remígio) made improper advances to her, and when she declined, quit and spread vicious rumors about her. When asked why he was no longer tutoring the girl, he replied that he had left upon having learned that she was pregnant. This rumor circulated around the town, and eventually Britald learned of his beloved's supposed infidelity. Enraged, he hired a mercenary soldier to kill her. So, as Irene was returning home from visiting an elderly cripple, the assassin approached from behind and killed her with a single stroke of his sword.
Her body was thrown into River Tagus. Later, it was recovered uncorrupted by Benedictines on the near the town of Scalabris. They gave her a proper burial, and spread her cultus. Eventually, so great was the reverence paid to the virgin saint, that the name of the town of Scalabis was changed to Santarém ("Saint Irene").
Attributes: as a nun, with the palm of martyrdom
Patronage: Tomar, Portugal
Prayer:
[edit] October 21 2007
Saint John of Bridlington (John Thwing, John of Thwing, John Twenge, John Thwing of Bridlington) (1319-1379) is an English saint of the 14th century. Born John Twenge in 1319 in the village of Thwing on the Yorkshire Wolds, about nine miles west of Bridlington, he was of the Yorkshire family Twenge, which family in Reformation days supplied two priest-martyrs and was also instrumental in establishing the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Bar Convent, York.
John completed his studies at Oxford and then entered the Priory of Bridlington. Charged successively with various offices in the community, he was finally despite his reluctance elected prior, which office he held until his death.
Even in his lifetime he enjoyed a reputation for great holiness and for miraculous powers. On one occasion he changed water into wine. On another, five seamen from Hartlepool in danger of shipwreck called upon God in the name of His servant, John of Bridlington, whereupon the prior himself appeared to them in his canonical habit and brought them safely to shore.
After his death from natural causes the fame of the miracles wrought by his intercession spread rapidly through the land. Archbishop Neville charged his suffragans and others to take evidence with a view to his canonization, 26 July, 1386; and the same prelate assisted by the Bishops of Durham and Carlisle officiated at a solemn translation of his body, 11 March, 1404, de mandato Domini Papae.
Attributes: fish, book, crozier, fur almice; muzzled animal at his feet
Patronage: women in difficult labour; fishermen
Prayer:
[edit] October 22 2007
Saint Donatus (Donat, Donagh) of Fiesole was an Irish teacher and poet, Bishop of Fiesole, about 829-876. His feast day is October 22.
In an ancient collection of the Vitae Patrum, of which an eleventh century copy exists in the Laurentian library of Florence, there is an account of the life of Donatus, which includes the following.
Donatus was born in Ireland, of a noble family. About 816 he visited the tombs of the Apostles in Rome with his friend, Andrew the Scot. On his journey northwards he was led by Divine Providence to the cathedral of Fiesole, which he entered at the moment when the people were grouped around their altars praying for a bishop to deliver them from the evils, temporal and spiritual, which afflicted them. Raised by popular acclaim to the See of Fiesole, Donatus instituted a revival of piety and learning in the Church over which he was placed. Donatus made Andrew his deacon.
He himself did not disdain to teach "the art of metrical composition". The "Life" is interspersed with short poems written by the saintly bishop. The best known of these is the twelve-line poem in which he describes the beauty and fertility of his native land, and the prowess and piety of its inhabitants. Donatus also composed an epitaph in which he alludes to his birth in Ireland, his years in the service of the princes of Italy (Lothair and Louis), his episcopate at Fiesole, and his activity as a teacher of grammar and poetry.
Attributes: in the garb of a bishop with an Irish wolfhound at his feet. He is also shown pointing out a church to his deacon Andrew.
Patronage:
Prayer:
[edit] October 23 2007
Saint Giovanni da Capestrano (in English, John Capistrano, June 24, 1386 – Ilok, October 23, 1456), Italian friar, theologian and inquisitor, was born in the village of Capestrano, in the diocese of Sulmona in the Abruzzi. His father had come to Italy with the Angevin court of Louis I of Anjou, King of Naples. He lived at first a wholly secular life, studied law at the University of Perugia under the legal scholar Pietro de Ubaldis, married, and became a successful magistrate. In 1412 Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia, a tumultuous and resentful papal fief held by Ladislas as the pope's champion, in order to effectively establish public order. When war broke out between Perugia and Sigismondo Malatesta in 1416, John was sent as ambassador to broker a peace, but Malatesta threw him in prison.
During the captivity, in despair he put aside his new young wife, with the claim that he had never consummated the marriage, and, studying with St Bernardino of Siena, together with St Giacomo della Marca, he entered the Franciscan order at Perugia on October 4, 1416. At once he gave himself up to the most rigorous asceticism, violently defending the ideal of strict observance and the narrowest reading of orthodoxy, following Bernardino as he preached and from 1420 onwards and preaching himself, with great effect, in many cities. Unlike most Italian preachers of repentance in the 15th century, Giovanni da Capestrano was effective in the north, in Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and Poland. The largest churches could not hold the crowds, so he preached in the piazzas: at Brescia he preached to a crowd of 126,000. When he was not preaching, he was writing tracts against heresy of every kind. While he was thus evangelizing, he was actively engaged in assisting Bernardino in the reforms of the Franciscan Order, largely in the interests of more rigorous hierarchic discipline.
Like St Bernardino of Siena he greatly proselytized devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and, together with that saint, was accused of heresy on this account. In 1429 John, together with other Observant friars, was called to Rome on the charge of heresy, and he was chosen by his companions to defend them; the friars were acquitted by the commission of cardinals. He was frequently employed on embassies by the popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V, in which he acquitted himself with implacable violence. In 1439 he was sent as legate to Milan and Burgundy, to oppose the claims of the antipope Felix V; in 1446 he was on a mission to the King of France; in 1451 he went at the request of the emperor as Apostolic nuncio to Austria. During the period of his nunciature John visited all parts of the Empire, preaching and combatting the heresy of the Hussites; he also visited Poland at the request of Casimir IV. As legate or inquisitor he persecuted the last Fraticelli of Ferrara, the Jesuati of Venice, the Jews of Sicily, Moldavia and Poland, and, above all, the Hussites of Germany, Hungary and Bohemia; his aim in the last case was to make conferences impossible between the representatives of Rome and the Bohemians, for every attempt at conciliation seemed to him to be conniving at heresy.
Attributes: habit of a Franciscan, with cross, cross flag and star, on the battlefield
Patronage:
Prayer:
[edit] October 24 2007
Saint Antonio Maria Claret i Clarà (Anthony Mary Claret (and Clara)) was a 19th-century Catalan Roman Catholic archbishop, missionary and confessor of the Spanish queen-regnant Isabella II.
Claret was born at Sallent, near Barcelona (Catalonia) on 23 December 1807, the son of a small woollen manufacturer. He received an elementary education in his native village, and at the age of twelve became a weaver. A little later he went to Barcelona to specialize in his trade, and remained there until he was twenty. Meanwhile he devoted his spare time to study and became proficient in Latin, French and engraving.
Recognizing a call to religious life, he left Barcelona. He now wished to become a Carthusian but finally entered the seminary at Vic in 1829, and was ordained on 13 June, 1835. He received a benefice in his native parish, where he continued to study theology till 1839; but as missionary work appealed strongly to him, he proceeded to Rome. There he entered the Jesuit novitiate, but finding himself unsuited for that manner of life, he returned shortly to Spain and exercised his pastoral ministry in Viladrau and Girona, attracting notice by his efforts on behalf of the poor.
Recalled by his superiors to Vic, he was engaged in missionary work throughout his native Catalonia. In 1848 he was sent to the Canary Islands where he gave retreats for fifteen months. Returning to Vic he established the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (16 July, 1849).
Pius IX at the request of the Spanish crown (queen-regnant Isabella II of Spain) appointed him Archbishop of Santiago, Cuba in 1849. His zealous works stirred up much opposition in the anti-clerical mood of the period, as had happened previously in Spain. No less than fifteen attempts were made on his life, and at Holguin his cheek was laid open from ear to chin by a would-be assassin's knife.
In February, 1857, he was recalled to Spain by Queen Isabella II, who made him her confessor. He obtained permission to resign his see and was appointed to the titular see of Trajanopolis. His influence was now directed solely to help the poor and to propagate learning; he lived frugally and took up his residence in an Italian hospice. For nine years he was rector of the Escorial monastic school where he established an excellent scientific laboratory, a museum of natural history, a library, college and schools of music and languages. His further plans were frustrated by the Revolution of 1868. When Isabella recognized the new, secular government of a united Italy, he left the Court and hastened to take his place by the side of the Pope; at the latter's command, however, he returned to Madrid with faculties for absolving the queen from the censures she had incurred for this. In 1869 he went to Rome to prepare for the First Vatican Council. Owing to failing health he withdrew to Prades in France, where he was still harassed by his Spanish enemies; shortly afterwards he retired to the Cistercian abbey at Fontfroide, Narbonne, southern France, where he expired on 24 October 1870.
Attributes:
Patronage: Textile Merchants, Weavers, Savings (taught the poor the importance of savings), Catholic press, Claretians Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Prayer:
[edit] October 25 2007
Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy (c. 1455 – October 25, 1492) was an Irish eccleasiastic, who was appointed Bishop of Ross in 1482 and Bishop of Cork and Cloyne in 1490. His feast day is October 25.
Relatively little is known of the early life of Thaddeus McCarthy. He was born in West Cork, possibly in Carriganass or Kilbrittain, about 1455 or 1456. It is probably the case that he belonged to the sept of the McCarthy Rabhach of Carbery. His mother may have been a dughter of Edward FitzMaurice, 9th. Lord of Kerry. Laurence Rehenan, Professor of Ecclesiastical History of Maynooth College, suggests that he was educated by the Franciscan Friars of Timoleague. It would appear that Thaddeus, prior to nomination to Ross, occupied a position in one of the Roman tribunals.
At the age of 27 he was appointed Bishop of Ross by Pope Sixtus IV. On May 3, 1482 Thaddeus was consecrated in the Church of Santo Stefano del Cacco in Rome. The consecrating Prelate was Stephen Teglatius (or de Taleazis), Archbishop of Antivari (the modern Bar), assisted by Daniel, Bishop of Rhosus in Cilicia, and by Julianus de Matheis (or de Maffei de Vulterris), Bishop of Bertinori.
When he returned to Munster he discovered that the see was already in the possession of Hugh O'Driscoll, who had been appointed to the see in 1473 by the same Pope Sixtus. Bishop O'Driscoll assumed Thaddeus was an imposter and complained to Rome. In 1483 Sixtus excommunicated Thaddeus.
Thaddeus assumed the excommunication to be a forgery and refused to accept it. Thaddeus, like many of the McCarthys, was a formidable man. He decided that he would make a personal walking pilgrimage to the Pope in Rome to plead his case and, having sailed to France, he did so, gathering support along the way. He was, by all accounts, a tall gaunt ascetic man with blue eyes and a silvery beard and he had a presence about him. Having walked for months, eating and sleeping in abbeys along the way, he eventually arrived in Rome, secured an audience with His Holiness.
In 1488 Pope Innocent VIII confirmed the excommunication, at which time Thaddeus appealed the decision and a commission was set up. The commission found in his favour, and the excommunication was nullified. He was then appointed Bishop of Cork and Cloyne on April 21, 1490.
Returning to Munster, Thaddeus found that Gerald FitzGerald had usurped the Diocese of Cork and Cloyne with support from local rulers. Thaddeus returned to Rome, where he obtained the excommunication of FitzGerald.
However, on his return trip he fell ill and died in Ivrea, Piedmont. The local bishop had a saintly vision of Thaddeus at the moment of his death. He was buried in the Ivrea cathedral and many miracles have been attributed to him there. In 1742, when his tomb was opened, the body was found to be perfectly preserved. Pope Leo XIII confirmed the immemorial cult of the Blessed Thaddeus in 1896.
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Patronage:
Prayer:
[edit] October 26 2007
Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki (Greek: Άγιος Δημήτριος της Θεσσαλονίκης) was a Christian martyr who is said to have lived in Thessaloniki in the early 4th century. During the Middle Ages, he came to be revered as one of the most important Orthodox military saints, often paired with Saint George. His memory is celebrated on 26 October.
The name of St. Demetrios the Megalomartyr was commonly rendered as St. Dimitrios by Byzantine scholars. This name is still used by Greek immigrants in Australia, Canada and the United States. He is known in Lebanon as Mar Dimitri or Mitri for short, which is a common name among Christian Lebanese.
The earliest written accounts of his life were compiled in the 9th century, although there are earlier images of him, and accounts from the 7th century of his miracles. The biographies have Demetrius as a young man of senatorial family who was run through with spears in around 306 in Thessaloniki, during the Christian persecutions of emperor Diocletian or Galerius, which matches his depiction in the 7th century mosaics.
The origins of his veneration are obscure; the first evidence of his systematic veneration comes about 150 years after his martyrdom. Therefore some modern scholars question the historicity of the man (Skedros 1996).
One theory is that his cult was transferred from Sirmium when Thessaloniki replaced it as the main military base in the area in 441/442. His very large church in Thessaloniki, the Hagios Demetrios, dates from the mid-5th century, so he clearly had a large cult by then. Thessaloniki remained a centre of his cult, and he is the patron saint of the city.
After the growth of his cult, Thessaloniki suffered repeated attacks and sieges from the new pagan peoples who moved into the Balkans, and Demetrius was credited with many miraculous interventions to defend the city. Hence later traditions about Demetrius regard him as a soldier in the Roman army, and he came to be regarded as an important military martyr. Unsurprisingly, he was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, and along with Saint George, was the patron of the Crusades.
For four centuries after his death, St. Demetrius had no physical relics, and in their place an unusual empty shrine called the "ciborium" was built inside Hagios Demetrios. What were claimed to be his remains subsequently appeared in Thessaloniki, but even the local archbishop (John of Thessaloniki, 7th century) was publicly dismissive of their authenticity. These are now also kept in Hagios Demetrios.
Attributes: depicted wearing the armour of a Roman soldier, often seated on a red horse
Patronage: patron of Thessaloniki, Greece; patron of the Crusades (in Catholic tradition only)
Prayer:
[edit] October 27 2007
Frumentius (Ge'ez ፍሬምናጦስ frēmnāṭōs) (died ca. 383) was the first bishop of Axum, and is credited with bringing Christianity to Ethiopia. He was a Syro-Phoenician Greek born in Tyre.
According to the 4th century historian Rufinus (x.9), who cites Frumentius' brother Edesius as his authority, as children (ca. 316) Frumentius and Edesius accompanied their uncle Metropius on a voyage to Ethiopia. When their ship stopped at one of the harbors of the Red Sea, people of the neighborhood massacred the whole crew, with the exception of the two boys, who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. The two boys soon gained the favour of the king, who raised them to positions of trust, and shortly before his death, gave them their liberty. The widowed queen, however, prevailed upon them to remain at the court and assist her in the education of the young heir, Ezana, and in the administration of the kingdom during the prince's minority. They remained and (especially Frumentius) used their influence to spread Christianity. First they encouraged the Christian merchants present in the country to practise their faith openly; later they also converted some of the natives.
When Ezana came of age, Edesius returned to Tyre, where he stayed and was ordained a priest. Frumentius, on the other hand, eager for the conversion of Ethiopia, accompanied Edesius as far as Alexandria, where he requested Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, to send a bishop and some priests to Ethiopia. By Athanasius' own account (Athanasius, Epistola ad Constantinum), he believed Frumentius the most suitable person for the job and consecrated him as bishop, traditionally in the year 328, or according to others, between 340-346. Frumentius returned to Ethiopia, erected his episcopal see at Axum, baptized King Ezana, who had meanwhile succeeded to the throne, built many churches, and spread Christianity throughout Ethiopia. The people called Frumentius Kesate Birhan (Revealer of Light) and Abba Salama (Father of Peace), and he became the first Abune — a title given to the head of the Ethiopian Church.
A letter exists from the Emperor Constantius II to King Ezana and his brother Saizanas, in which he vainly requested them to substitute the Arian bishop Theophilus for Frumentius.
The most recent (2004) edition of the Roman Martyrology succintly states, "In Aethiopia, sancti Frumentii, episcopi, qui, primum ibi captivus, deinde, episcopus a sancto Athanasio ordinatus, Evangelium in ea regione propagavit [In Ethiopia, (the feast) of Saint Frumentius, bishop, who first was a captive there, and then, as a bishop ordained by Saint Athanasius, he spread the Gospel in that region]."
Attributes:
Patronage: Ethiopia
Prayer:
[edit] October 28 2007
Jude (or Judas) is a Christian saint. He is also called Thaddaeus, Thaddeus or Judas Thaddaeus. He should not be confused with Judas Iscariot, another apostle and later the betrayer of Jesus.
In the New Testament the Apostle Jude is referred to by several names. The list given in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 mention a "Judas (the son) of James". The Gospel of John John 14:22 also mentions a disciple called Judas, who during the Last Supper asks Jesus: "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" The passage takes care to distinguish the disciple from the subsequent traitor by the wording "Judas (not Iscariot)" The lists of the Apostles given by in Matthew 10:1-4 and Mark 3:13-19, otherwise identical to the one given by Luke, mention in the same spot a "Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus" and "Thaddaeus" respectively.
Since tradition also numbered a Thaddeus among the Seventy Disciples mentioned in Luke 10:1-24, some scholars have argued that another Thaddaeus was one of the Seventy. However, the identification of the two names has been virtually universal, leading to the name of Judas Thaddaeus. But Eusebius wrote in his Historia Ecclesiastica, I, xiii: "Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, under divine impulse sent Thaddeus, who was also numbered among the seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa, as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching of Christ."
Some writers have argued that the multiplicity of names for this apostle is caused by a concern to distinguish this Apostle from Judas Iscariot:
The name by which Luke calls the Apostle, "Jude of James" is ambiguous as to the relationship of Jude to this James. Though such a construction commonly denotes a relationship of father and son, it has been traditionally interpreted as "Jude, brother of James" (See King James Version). Based on this interpretation, Jude and his supposed brother James were identified with Jude, brother of Jesus and James the Just, two of the "brethren of the Lord" mentioned in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55-57.As brother of a James, Jude was also identified with the author of the Epistle of Jude, who calls himself "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James" (Jude 1:1).
Tradition holds that Jude preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia and Libya. He is also said to have visited Beirut and Edessa, though the latter mission is also attributed to Thaddeus, one of the Seventy. He is reported as suffering martyrdom together with Simon the Zealot in Persia. The 14th century writer Nicephorus Callistus makes Jude the bridegroom at the wedding at Cana.
The legend reports that Jude was born into a Jewish family in Paneas, a town in Galilee later rebuilt by the Romans and renamed Caesarea Philippi. In all probability he spoke both Greek and Aramaic, like almost all of his contemporaries in that area, and was a farmer by trade. According to the legend, Jude was a son of Clopas and his wife Mary, a cousin of the Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that Jude's father, Clopas, was murdered because of his forthright and outspoken devotion to the risen Christ. After Mary's death, miracles were attributed to her intercession.
Attributes: axe, club, boat, oar, medallion
Patronage: Armenia, lost causes, desperate situations, hospitals, St. Petersburg, Florida, the Chicago Police Department, Clube de Regatas do Flamengo from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Prayer:
[edit] October 29 2007
Saint Colman Mac Duagh was born at Corker, Kiltartan, County Galway, Ireland, c. 550 (died 632), the son of the Irish chieftain Duac (and thus, in Irish, mac Duach). He was educated at Saint Enda's monastery in Inishmore/Árainn, the largest of the Aran Islands. Thereafter he was a recluse, living in prayer and prolonged fastings, first on Inismore, then in a cave at the Burren in County Clare, an area bordering the southern border of county Galway and thus close to what is today the village of Kilmacduagh. With King Guaire of Connaught he founded the monastery of Kilmacduagh, ("the church of the son of Duac"), and governed it as abbot-bishop. The "leaning tower of Kilmacduagh," 112 feet high, is almost twice as old as the famous tower in Pisa. The Irish round tower was restored in 1880. Such limestone constructed round towers were erected to serve as a refuge in times of attack (usually by marauding Vikings in search of gold — something Ireland had in great quantity).
There is a legend that angels brought King Guaire to him by causing his festive Easter dinner to disappear from his table. The king and his court followed the angels to the place where Colman had kept the Lenten fast and now was without food. The path of this legendary journey is called the "road of the dishes."
It is said that that St. Colman declared that no person nor animal in the dioceses of Kilmacduagh would ever die of lightning strike, something that appears true to this day.
Other tales are recounted about Saint Colman, who loved birds and animals. He had a pet rooster who served as an alarm clock at a time before there were such modern conveniences. The rooster would begin his song at the breaking of dawn and continue until Colman would come out and speak to it. Colman would then call the other monks to prayer by ringing the bells.
But the monks wanted to pray the night hours, too, and couldn't count on the rooster to awaken them at midnight and 3:00 a.m. So Colman made a pet out of a mouse that often kept him company in the night by giving it crumbs to eat. After a long day of preaching and travelling on foot, Colman slept very soundly. When he did not awake at the usual hour in the middle of the night for Lauds, the mouse pattered over to the bed, climbed on the pillow, and rubbed his tiny head against Colman's ear. Not enough to awaken the exhausted monk. So the mouse tried again, but Colman shook him off impatiently. Making one last effort, the mouse nibbled on the saint's ear and Colman immediately arose--laughing.
When he regained his composure, Colman praised the clever mouse for his faithfulness and fed him extra treats. Then entered God's presence in prayer. Thereafter, Colman always waited for the mouse to rub his ear before arising, whether he was awake or not. The mouse never failed in his mission.
The monk had another strange pet: a fly. Each day Colman would spend some time reading a large, awkward parchment manuscript prayer book. Each day the fly would perch on the margin of the sheet. Eventually Colman began to talk to the fly, thanked him for his company, and asked for his help.
One day Colman was called to attend a visitor. He pointed the spot on the manuscript where he had stopped and asked the fly to stay there until he returned. The fly did as the saint requested, obediently remaining still for over an hour. Colman was delighted. Thereafter, he often gave the faithful fly a little task that it was proud to do for him. The other monks thought it was such a marvel that they wrote it done in the monastery records, which is how we know about it.
But a fly's life is short. At the end of summer, Colman's little friend was dead. While still mourning the death of the fly, the mouse died, too, as did the rooster. Colman's heart was so heavy at the loss of his last pet that he wrote to his friend Saint Columba. Columba responded:
- "You were too rich when you had them. That is why you are sad now. Trouble like that only comes where there are riches. Be rich no more."
Colman then realized that one can be rich without any money (Curtayne-Linnane).
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[edit] October 30 2007
Saint Alphonsus (Alfonso, Alonso) Rodriguez (July 25, 1532—October 31, 1617) was a Spanish Jesuit lay brother venerated as a saint. A native of Segovia, he is sometimes confused with the Father Rodriguez who wrote Christian Perfection, who was never canonized.
Alphonsus Rodriguez was a Jesuit lay-brother who entered the Society at the age of forty. He was the son of a wool merchant who had been reduced to poverty when Alfonso was still young, leaving the business to Alphonsus when he was only twenty-three. At the age of twenty-six he married Mary Suarez, a woman of his own station, and at thirty-one found himself a widower with one surviving child, the other two having died previously. From that time he began a life of prayer and mortification, although separated from the world around him. On the death of his third child his thoughts turned to a life in some religious order.
Previous associations had brought him into contact with the first Jesuits who had come to Spain, Bl. Peter Faber among others, but it was apparently impossible to carry out his purpose of entering the Society, as he was without education, having only had an incomplete year at a new college begun at Alcalá by Francis Villanueva. At the age of thirty-nine he attempted to make up this deficiency by following the course at the College of Barcelona, but without success. His austerities had also undermined his health. After considerable delay he was finally admitted into the Society of Jesus as a lay-brother, 31 January, 1571.
Distinct novitiates had not as yet been established in Spain, and Alfonso began his term of probation at Valencia or Gandia -- this point is a subject of dispute -- and after six months was sent to the recently-founded college at Majorca, where he remained in the humble position of porter for forty-six years, exercising a marvelous influence on the sanctification not only of the members of the household, but upon a great number of people who came to the porter's lodge for advice and direction. Among the distinguished Jesuits who came under his influence was St. Peter Clavier, who lived with him for some time at Majorca, and who followed his advice in asking for the missions of South America.
The bodily mortifications which he imposed on himself were extreme, the scruples and mental agitation to which he was subject were of frequent occurrence, his obedience absolute, and his absorption in spiritual things even when engaged on most distracting employments, continual. It has often been said that he was the author of the well known "Little Office of the Immaculate Conception", and the claim is made by Alegambe, Southwell, and even by the Fathers de Backer in their Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus. Apart from the fact that the brother did not have the requisite education for such a task, Father Costurer says positively that the office he used was taken from an old copy printed out of Spain, and Father Colin asserts that it existed before the Saint's time. It may be admitted, however, that through him it was popularized.
He left a considerable number of manuscripts after him, some of which have been published as "Obras Espirituales del B. Alonso Rodriguez".
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[edit] October 31 2007
Wolfgang of Regensburg or Saint Wolfgang (c. 934 - October 31, 994) was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death. He is a saint of the Roman Catholic church (canonized in 1052). He is regarded as one of the three great German saints of the 10th century, the other two being Saint Ulrich and Saint Conrad of Constance.
Wolfgang was descended from the family of the Swabian Counts of Pfullingen. When seven years old he had an ecclesiastic as tutor at home; later he attended the celebrated monastic school at Reichenau Abbey.
Here he formed a strong friendship with Henry of Babenberg, brother of Bishop Poppo of Würzburg, whom he followed to Würzburg in order to attend the lectures of the noted Italian grammarian, Stephen of Novara, at the cathedral school.
After Henry was made Archbishop of Trier in 956, he summoned Wolfgang, who became a teacher in the cathedral school of Trier, and also laboured for the reform of the archdiocese, despite the hostility with which his efforts were met.
After the death of Archbishop Henry of Trier in 964, Wolfgang entered the Benedictine order in the Abbey of Maria Einsiedeln, Switzerland, and was ordained priest by Saint Ulrich in 968.
After their defeat in the Battle of the Lechfeld (955), a victory gained with the aid of Saint Ulrich, the heathen Magyars settled in ancient Pannonia. Wolfgang, according to the abbey annals, was "sent to the Magyars" as the most suitable man to evangelize them.
After the death of Bishop Michael of Regensburg (September 23, 972) Bishop Piligrim obtained from the emperor the appointment of Wolfgang as the new bishop (Christmas, 972). Wolfgang's services in this new position were of the highest importance, not only for the diocese, but also for the cause of civilization. As Bishop of Regensburg, Wolfgang became the tutor of Emperor Saint Henry II, who learned from him the principles which governed his saintly and energetic life.
He took part in the various imperial diets, and, in the autumn of 978, accompanied the Emperor Otto II on his campaign to Paris, and took part in the great Diet of Verona in June 983. He was a success by Gebhard I.
Towards the end of his life Saint Wolfgang withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot, now the Wolfgangsee ("Wolfgang's Lake") in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria, apparently on account of a political dispute, but probably in the course of a journey of inspection to Mondsee Abbey which was under the direction of the bishops of Regensburg. He was discovered by a hunter and brought back to Regensburg.
While travelling on the Danube to Pöchlarn in Lower Austria, he fell ill at the village of Pupping, which is between Eferding and the market town of Aschach near Linz, and at his request was carried into the chapel of Saint Othmar at Pupping, where he died.
Attributes: forcing the devil to help him to build a church; episcopal dress; depicted with an axe in the right hand and the crozier in the left; or as a hermit in the wilderness being discovered by a hunter.
Patronage: apoplexy; carpenters and wood carvers; paralysis; Regensburg, Germany; stomach diseases; strokes
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