Saint of the Week Database for 2010
January 3rd
St. Genevieve
St. Genevieve was born about the year 422, at Nanterre near Paris. She was seven years old when St. Germain of Auxerre came to her native village on his way to great Britain to combat the heresy of Pelagius. The child stood in the midst of a crowd gathered around the man of God, who singled her out and foretold her future sanctity. At her desire the holy Bishop led her to a church, accompanied by all the faithful, and consecrated her to God as a virgin.
When Attila was reported to be marching on Paris, the inhabitants of the city prepared to evacuate, but St. Genevieve persuaded them to avert the scourge by fasting and prayer, assuring them of the protection of Heaven. The event verified the prediction, for the barbarian suddenly changed the course of his march.
The life of St. Genevieve was one of great austerity, constant prayer, and works of charity. She died in the year 512. Her feast day is January 3rd.
She dressed in a long flowing gown with a mantle covering her shoulders, similar to the type of garments the Blessed Mother wore. One of the symbols of this saint is a loaf of bread because she was so generous to those in need.
Catholic.Org
January 10th
ST. JOHN NEPOMUCENE NEUMANN (b. 1811 A.D./d. 1860 A.D. – Feast Day, January 5th)
St. John Nepomucene Neumann was born on March 28th, 1811 A.D., the third of six children of a stocking knitter and his wife in the village of Prachatitz, Bohemia. From his mother he acquired the spirit of piety and through her encouragement entered the Seminary at Budweis, Bohemia.
During his seminary years, he yearned to be a priest. Unfortunately, every Bishop from Prague to London turned down his request to be ordained in their Diocese due to the large amount of priests that were already ordained throughout Europe. St. John Neumann then began to write to every Bishop in America,
requesting the sacrament of ordination. He left his native land and was ordained in June of 1836 by Bishop John Dubois in New York. He spent four years in the Diocese of Buffalo and the surrounding areas
building churches and establishing schools.
In 1840, he joined the Redemptorists. Eight years later he became a United States citizen. By order of Pope Pius IX in 1852, he was consecrated as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia. His mastery of eight languages provided extremely helpful in his quest for souls. He was a pioneer promoter of the Parochial School System in America. One of the highlights of St. John Neumann’s life was his participation, in Rome, Italy, in the Proclamation of the Dogma of our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception. Through his efforts, the Forty Hours Devotion was introduced in the Philadelphia Diocese.
He also founded the first church in America for Italian speaking people.
At 48 years of age, completely exhausted from his apostolic endeavors, he collapsed in the streets of Philadelphia on January 5, 1860, suffering from a stroke. He is buried beneath the altar of the lower church in St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia.
St. Catherine’s Metalworks/Howley
January 17th
BLESSED DAMIEN JOSEPH de VEUSTER of MOLOKAI (b. January 3, 1840 A.D./d. April 15, 1889 A.D. – Feast Day, May 10th)
When Joseph de Veuster was born in Tremolo, Belgium in 1840 A.D., few people in Europe had any firsthand knowledge of leprosy (Hansen’s disease.)
By the time he died at the age of 49, people all over the world knew about this disease because of him. They knew that human compassion could soften the ravages of this disease.
Forced to quit school at the age of 13 to work on the family farm, six years later, Joseph entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, taking the name of the fourth century physician and martyr, St. Damien. When his brother, Pamphile, a priest in the same congregation, fell ill and was unable to go to the Hawaiian Islands as assigned, Bl. Damien quickly volunteered to take his place. In May, 1864 A.D., two months after arriving in his new mission, Bl. Damien
was ordained a priest in Honolulu and assigned to the island of Hawaii.
In 1873 A.D., he went to the Hawaiian government’s leper colony on the island of Molokai that was set up seven years earlier. Part of a team of four chaplains
taking that assignment for three months each year, Bl. Damien soon volunteered to remain permanently, caring for the people’s physical, medical and spiritual needs. In time, he became their most effective advocate to obtain promised government support.
Soon, his settlement had new houses and a new church, school and orphanage. The morale of the inhabitants improved considerably. A few years later he succeeded in getting the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, led by Mother Marianne Kope, to help staff this colony in Kalaupapa, Molokai.
Bl. Damien contracted Hansen’s disease and died of its complications. As requested, he was buried in Kalaupapa, but in 1936 A.D., the Belgian government succeeded in having his body moved to Belgium. A part of Bl. Damien’s body was returned to his beloved Hawaiian brothers and sisters after his beatification in 1995 A.D., by Pope John Paul II.
During the beatification homily, Pope John Paul II said: “Holiness is not perfection according to human criteria; it is not reserved for a small number of exceptional persons. It is for everyone; it is the Lord who brings us to holiness, when we are willing to collaborate in the salvation of the world for the glory of God, despite our sin and our sometimes rebellious temperament.”
When Hawaii became a state in 1960 A.D., it selected Bl. Damien as one of two representatives in the Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
January 24th
ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA (b. 1568 A.D./d. 1591 A.D. – Feast Day, June 21st)
St. Aloysius Gonzaga was named as the patron saint of youth by Pope Pius XI in 1926 A.D.
Through his father, Ferdinand de Gonzaga, marquis of Castiglione, Italy, and his mother, Martha de Tana Santena, St. Aloysius was related to the reigning Mantuan dynasty and to many an illustrious prelate. He was born at the castle Castiglione, near Brescia, Italy on March 9, 1568 A.D. His mother wished him to be a churchman; his father destined him for a career of arms, and, when he was four, made him put on soldier’s clothing and sent him to mix with the troops which he was raising for the king of Spain in the fortress of Casal. The child picked up some guardroom expressions of speech for which he never forgave himself. It was this period which he called his “life of sin.” This “life” ended when he was seven in what he called his “conversion.”
In 1577 A.D., St. Aloysius was at the Medici court in Florence; there he pronounced the vow of perpetual chastity. In 1581 A.D., he was page to the heir to the Spanish throne at Madrid; there, after having sometimes tried and failed for three hours, he succeeded in meditating for the space of an hour without distraction. His father vainly tried to turn him from a religious vocation by forcing him then to appear at the courts of Mantua, Ferrara, Parma and Turin. On November 25, 1585 A.D., St. Aloysius said farewell to the world and entered the Society of Jesus. In it he spent six years, living in turn at Rome, Naples and Milan. He died at Rome, Italy on June 21, 1591 A.D. of the plague, having always lived as an angel and mortified himself as a penitent.
Surrounded by the depravity which he witnessed as a youth in the high courts of Europe, St. Aloysius declared bluntly: “We have no right to pride ourselves on our birth; the great are dust like the poor; perhaps their dust stinks even worse, and that is all.”
Englebert/Howley
January 31st
ST. ANDREW THE APOSTLE (1st century. Feast Day/November 30th)
St. Andrew is the patron saint of fishermen and fish dealers and is invoked by women who wish to become mothers.
Although a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, St. Andrew bore a Greek name which signifies “corageous.”
Like his father Jona and his brother Simon Peter, he was a fisherman by calling and he lived on Capernaum, on the lake of Tiberias.
St. Andrew witnessed the baptism of Jesus and immediately followed Him, becoming one of the first original Disciples of Christ. St. Andrew was the one who first told his brother, Simon Peter (St. Peter), that he had discovered the Messiah and brought him to Jesus. (John 1: 35-42.)
Sts. Andrew and Peter continued to pursue their learned occupation until the day Jesus began to preach in Capernaum. Jesus spoke to Sts. Andrew and Peter directly, saying “Come and follow me; I will make you into fishers of men. They dropped their nets immediately and followed Him. (Matt. 4: 17-20.)
From then on, St. Andrew fades into the apostolic group and the Gospel does not mention him again, except in passing. (John 4: 8, John 12: 20-22 and Mark 13: 3.)
Tradition has it that St. Andrew carried the Gospel into the districts surrounding the Black Sea and died at Patras in Achaia on a cross in the form of an “X.” This kind of cross always bears his name.
Englebert/Howley
February 7th
ST. ANSELM (b. about 1033 A.D./d. 1109 A.D. – Feast Day, April 21st)
St. Anselm was born at Aosta, Italy (in Piedmont) to Gundulf, his father, who was related to the Countess Mathilda and Ermenberga, his mother, who was thought to be descended from the founder of the dynasty of Savoy.
After a childhood devoted to study and piety, St. Anselm wished to embrace the religious life but Gundulf prevented this and brought him out into the world.
The young man acquired a taste for pleasure and devoted several years to it. Meanwhile, Ermenberga died; the father and son quarreled and St. Anselm fled from his father’s castle.
With a donkey carrying his baggage, he crossed Mount Cenis where he thought he would die of hunger. He stayed some time in Burgundy, passed three years in France, became a monk at the abbey of Bec in Normandy, where flourished one of the most celebrated schools in the West and where the famed Lafranc was a teacher. St. Anselm was his pupil and afterwards his successor.
He became abbot of the monastery in 1078 A.D. and his reputation for learning and goodness quickly spread throughout Europe. “The good ordor of your virtues has reached us here,” Pope Gregory VII wrote to him. “Come as soon as possible to see us”, Pope Urban II asked, “so that we may together enjoy the affection which unites us.” As he felt the approach of death, William the Conqueror had recourse to the ministry of St. Anselm.
The interests of his abbey sometimes took St. Anselm to England. In 1092 A.D., he was constrained by King William Rufus to remain and the next year to accept the Episcopal See of Canterbury. From then on St. Anselm had to undertake frequent journeys to Rome to settle the conflicts which incessantly arose between the English court and the Holy See. It is surprising that in the midst of such diplomatic and administrative labors he was able to compose writings so numerous and so profound.
St. Anselm is considered, in fact, to be one of the great philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages. He is also the author of some admirable prayers. Pope Alexander VI canonized him in 1492 A.D. and in 1720 A.D. Pope Clement XI placed him among the ranks of Doctors of the Church.
Englebert/Howley
February 14th
ST. ANTHONY OF THE DESERT (b. 250 A.D./d. 356 A.D. – Feast Day, January 17th)
Born in Heracleus in Upper Egypt, St. Anthony lost his parents at the age of about twenty. His first action was to have his sister’s education completed. He then sold the house, furniture and a hundred acres of land which he possessed. Giving the proceeds to the poor, he joined the anchorites who lived within the neighborhood. He retired into an empty sepulcher and began a life long struggle with demonic temptation.
At the age of thirty-five, he plunged into the desert alone. For twenty years, he lived in an abandoned fort, the entrance to which he had barricaded. After a time, a number of his admirers finally broke in.
St. Anthony miraculously cured several of their sick and gave spiritual counsel to others. His special recommendation to them was to base their rule of life on the Gospel. Little by little, so many disciples came that he was able to found two monasteries, one on the right bank of the Nile River at Pispir and the other on the left bank, beside Arsinoe.
St. Anthony appeared for a few days at Alexandria, Egypt in 311 A.D. in order to comfort the victims of Maximinus’ persecution. Before his death, he had the joy of seeing his sister once again. She had also grown old in the search for perfection and directed a community of dedicated virgins. Filled with serenity, St. Anthony’s life ended at the age of one hundred and five in a cave on Mount Colzim.
St. Anthony has been called the “Father of cenobites” because it was in great part due to him that the monastic life spread in the East and later in the West. His “Life”, written by St. Athanasius, had an immense influence on both art and hagiography.
Englebert/Howley
February 21st
ST. ATHANASIUS (b. about 295 A.D./d. 373 A.D. – Feast Day, May 2nd)
Both by his writings and his heroic conduct, St. Athanasius made an unequalled contribution to the defeat of Aryanism. It can be said that the aim of his whole life was to achieve the triumph of belief in the divinity of the Savior.
Born in Egypt about 295 A.D., St. Athanasius was ordained lector in 312 A.D. and deacon in 318 A.D. He soon became secretary of the bishop of Alexandria, whom he succeeded in 328 A.D. On that occasion, the faithful acclaimed him saying: “He is a good man and an excellent Christian; he is an ascetic and a true bishop.”
St. Athanasius episcopate continued for forty-five years and was broken six times by exiles which amounted in all to nearly twenty-two years. They were instigated by the Aryans and their allies, among whom the emperor usually was at the time. Scarcely had he entered upon his episcopal duties when St. Athanasius was dismissed by Constantine to Trier, Germany. This first exile lasted from 335 to 337 A.D. The second lasted from 339 to 346 A.D. The proscription then transferred him to Rome, Italy and replaced him as bishop of Alexandria by Gregory of Cappadocia.
After ten peaceful years spent among his flock, St. Athanasius was again exiled from 356 to 362 A.D., replaced this time by George of Cappadocia.
He passed these six years in the deserts of Egypt where the monks helped him to elude the imperial envoys. Among the works which he wrote there is “The Life of St. Anthony,” patriarch of Thebaid, Egypt and his great friend, who had just died. The two last exiles of St. Athanasius too place in 363 and 365 A.D., and were of eight and six months, respectively.
His works include writings about Christ, works of exegesis, spiritual works, official and doctrinal letters, as well as several personal apologia. These are often very bitter but then what did his enemies not conceive of to harm him? At the synod of Tyre, for instance, they went so far as to accuse him of the assassination of
Bishop Arsenius of Ypsele, whose hand, they alleged, he had previously cut off. Happily, Bishop Arsenius was found alive and well in a monastery and appeared with both his hands before the members of the synod.
Among the writings wrongly ascribed to St. Athanasius there should be mentioned the creed, composed about a century after his death, known as the “Creed of St. Athanasius,” Quicmque vult.
Englebert/Howley
February 28th
ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY (b. (?)/d. 605 A.D. – Feast Day, May 27th)
St. Augustine was prior of the monastery of St. Andrew on Mount Coelius in Rome when he was appointed by Pope (St.) Gregory the Great as Superior of the forty missionaries he was sending to England. The Christian faith of England, more than any other nation of Europe, was the fruit of the labors and spiritual conquests of the ministry
of monks. Its deepest Christian roots are more ancient than the ministry of St. Augustine and his companions and date from the era of the Apostles. England, in the first century, furnished its contingent of martyrs during the persecution of Diocletian. England sent its bishops to the first Councils held after the religion of Christ became that of the Empire in 313 A.D. But in the time of St. Augustine, the Anglo-Saxon conquest had cut down almost all the branches of this tree.
When St. Augustine arrived in England, he found ruined churches and scarcely a Christian to be found to narrate a tradition. This attested to the sacrilegious and incendiary hand of paganism, despite the labors of St. Palladius and St. Germain
D’ Auxerre in the fifth century. The last Christian Britons had taken refuge in the mountains of Wales. England, the land of the Angles, had become a land of infamous slave-traders for the European continent, including Rome. In this way did Pope (St.) Gregory the Great come to purchase the English boys he saw and marketed at the Roman Forum to raise them in his house, which he had transformed into a monastery. Thus, the definitive conversion of England began, in his compassionate heart, when in the sixth year of his pontificate he chose the prior of his own monastery for the mission to England.
St. Augustine and his companions, during their journey, heard many reports of the barbarism and ferocity of the pagan English. The missionaries were alarmed and wished to turn back. Pope (St.) Gregory sent word to them saying, “Go on, in God’s name! The greater your hardships, the greater your crown. May the grace of Almighty God protect you and permit me to see the fruit of your labor in the heavenly country! If I cannot share your toil, I shall yet share the harvest, for God knows that it is not good-will which is wanting.” The band of missionaries went on in obedience, after halting briefly to deliver letters of Pope (St.) Gregory at the abbey of Lerins, France, and to the bishops of Aix, Tours, Marseille, Vienna (France,) Autun and Arles, as well as to obtain translators for the mission of monks.
Landing at Ebbsfleet, England, they sent ahead of them their translator-emissaries, to say to the king of those lands to which they were sent that they had come from Rome, to announce to him not merely good news, but the Good News of all the ages, with its promises of heavenly joy and an eternal reign in the company of the one living and true God. The met with the Saxon king Ethelbert who had been reigning for thirty-six years, and with his barons under a great oak tree in Minster, presently in the county of Kent,
announced to him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. King Ethlebert was predisposed to listen to the missionaries; his Christian wife, Bertha, was a great-granddaughter of Sts. Clothilda
and Clovis. King Ethelbert wished to deliberate for a few days nonetheless, and when they returned in procession, chanting and preceded by the Cross, he promised only to give them liberty to practice their faith unmolested. He gave them a residence in Canterbury and provided for their needs. Their good example brought many to them for instruction and the Baptism. At Pentecost in 597 A.D., King Ethelbert himself entered into the unity of the Church of Christ. His example was followed by the greater number of his nobles and people.
By degrees the Faith spread far and wide, and St. Augustine, as papal legate, set out on a visitation of Britain. He failed in his attempt to enlist the Christian Britons of the west in the work of his apostolate but his success was otherwise triumphant from south to north.
St. Augustine died after eight years of evangelical labors but his monks continued them and perpetuated them. The Anglo-Saxon Church which St. Augustine founded is still famous for its learning, zeal and devotion to the Holy See, while its calendar commemorates no fewer than three hundred Saints.
Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints by Msgr. Paul Guerin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882, Vol. # 6)/Howley
March 7th
ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (b. 354 A.D./d. 430 A.D. – Feast Day, August 28th)
St. Augustine is generally held to be the greatest doctor of Christianity. Of his ninety-six works, the greater part are held as authoritative by all the Christian churches; certain of these, like the “Confessions of the City of God,” are known to most educated people.
Some of his writings are refutations of Manichaeism, Donastism, Pelagianism, and other heresies of his time; others deal with spirituality, philosophy, history, exegesis and morals. St. Augustine preached innumerable sermons, of which four hundred have come down to us. We also have extant two hundred and seventeen of his letters.
Aurelius Augustinius was born at Tagaste, in Numidia, Algeria, North Africa, on November 13th, 354 A.D. His father, Patricius, a pagan of moderate means, was baptized on his deathbed; his mother was St. Monica (Feast Day, May 4th.) She had her son inscribed among the catechumens and instructed him in the elements of Christianity.
St. Augustine lost his faith somewhere in the course of the studies he pursued from 365 to 369 A.D. at Madaurus, Numidia, and then from 370 to 374 A.D. at Carthage, Tunisia. From the age of sixteen he was given to sensuality and about 372 A.D., formed a liaison with a woman who for a dozen years he regarded as his wife and had with her a son named Adeodatus.
From 375 to 383 A.D., St. Augustine taught rhetoric at Carthage, and from 383 to 385 A.D. at Milan, Italy. There he broke with the Manichaeans, who for nine years considered him as one of themselves. He found his faith again in 386 A.D. and was baptized with Adeodatus by St. Ambrose at the end of Lent the following year.
In the autumn of 387 A.D., St. Augustine was at Ostia, Italy, ready to return to Africa with his mother but she died unexpectedly; he stayed at Rome, Italy, for a year and only went back to Tagaste at the end of 388 A.D. He at once distributed his goods to the poor and founded a monastery in one of his former estates. Moreover, until his death, he himself led a monastic life.
St. Augustine became a priest of the church of Hippo, Algeria, at the beginning of 391 A.D., being first charged with a preaching ministry. In 395 A.D., Bishop Valerius took him on as coadjutor and the following year St. Augustine replaced him as bishop.
St. Augustine died on August 28th, 430 A.D., while the Vandals were besieging his Episcopal city, in the midst of the fall of the Roman Empire.
Englebert/Howley
March 14th
ST. BARNABAS THE APOSTLE (b. (?)/d. about 60 A.D. – Feast Day, June 11th)
Joseph, surnamed Barnabas – that is to say, Son of Consolation – was a Jew of the tribe of Levi, a native of the island of Cyprus. He came to Jerusalem and shortly after the first Pentecost we find him one of the most influential members of the newly formed Christian community. At that time he sold a field, placed the price of the sale at the feet of the apostles to serve the needs of the faithful and, like St. Paul, lived thenceforward by the labor of his hands.
It is possible that he and St. Paul were friends of long standing; it was, in any case, St. Barnabas who stood surety for the conversion of Damascus, Syria, when he had to present himself before the apostles at Jerusalem. Otherwise, all we know of his life dates from the time when he was in touch with St. Paul.
For a long time the town of Antioch in Syria, third in importance in the Roman Empire, was the scene of St. Paul and St. Barnabas’ apostolic works. From there they passed to the island of Cyprus where they made converts at Salamis and Paphos. Then they reached Asia Minor; at Perge the young John Mark left them to return alone to Jerusalem; at Antioch in Pisidia, sedition compelled them to flee. They also had to flee from Iconium and from Lystra to escape death. Derbe was the last stage of this four year journey, at the end of which the friends, retracing their steps, returned to Antioch, their point of departure. In 49 A.D., they took part in the Council of Jerusalem at which the incorporation of Gentiles into the Church was approved; then they spent a short time at Antioch; later they parted ways to follow their own separate paths, which would lead them both to martyrdom.
While St. Paul took with him Silas as a companion and went off towards Phrygia, St. Barnabas took with him John Mark, whom St. Paul no longer needed and returned to Cyprus, his native land. After that we lose track of him, but a tradition tells that he died at Salamis, victim of his zeal for Christ, stoned and burned by Jews from Syria.
Englebert/Howley
March 21st
ST. BERTILLE (d. between 705 and 713 A.D.)
Born of a landowning family near Soissons, France, St. Bertille became a nun at the abbey of Jouarre, founded by Ado, St. Ouen’s brother. There she was subject to the strict disciplines that were founded by St. Columbanus. About 658 A.D., Queen Bathilde of France appointed her director of the convent of Chelles. There she remained abbess for forty-six years and had under her guidance, in addition to a queen
and a number of Merovingian princesses, many nuns of Anglo-Saxon nobility.
Englebert/Howley
Also celebrated this day:
STS. ZACHARY and ELIZABETH (1st century)
Parents of St. John the Baptist.
ST. GIRAUD (d. 1123 A.D.)
Bishop of Beziers, France.
ST. LYE (6th century)
A spiritual recluse in Sologne and later in Beauce, France.
ST. NATALINE (?)
Her legend tells that she was second daughter of Fredelas, governor of Pamiers, France. A lieutenant of his government, Alydanus, asked for St. Natalines hand in marriage but was rejected. In anger, he reported to Fredelas that his daughter was a Christian, a fact that he was unaware of. After learning of her acceptance of the faith, he had his own daughter condemned to death.
March 28th
ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA (EGYPT) (b. (?).d. about 305 A.D. – Feast Day, November 25th)
St. Catherine is the patron saint of philosophers, apologists, theologians, scholars, millers, tanners, mechanics (and all those who work at the “wheel’,) schoolchildren and spinsters.
Born of Costus, king of Cilicia (Turkey,) and Sabinella, Samaritan princess, St. Catherine was the most beautiful girl and most learned person of her time.
Having no more to learn in the schools and libraries of Alexandria, Egypt, she left that city at the age of seventeen years and settled in Armenia. Soon, she let it be known that she was ready to marry. “Only,” she added, “I must have a husband who is as handsome and learned as I am.” This last condition sufficed to discourage the numerous princes who were already thinking of asking for her hand.
The hermit Ananias came to tell her that he had found her the spouse she dreamed of. “Let him present himself,” said St. Catherine. “He will present himself tomorrow night in your room,” replied the hermit, “provided you first address this prayer to the Virgin. ‘Our Lady, show me thy Son, I pray thee.’” St. Catherine prayed in this manner and the Virgin appeared to her with the Infant Jesus. “Do you want him?” she said. “Oh, yes,” said the girl, “I am not worth to be his slave.” “And thou,” Mary continued, addressing Jesus, “dost thou wish it?’ “Oh, no!” said the child, “she is too ugly.” Immediately the sun had risen and St. Catherine ran to the hermit. “He found me too ugly,” she said to him, weeping. “It is not the ugliness of your body but of your proud soul, of which he spoke,” replied Aanaias.
He instructed her in Christianity, baptized her, and succeeded in making her humble; then St. Catherine prayed the Blessed Virgin to return. The Blessed Virgin Mary came back with her Son. “And now,” she said to Him, indicating St. Catherine, “do you want her?” “Yes,” replied Jesus, “for I find her perfectly beautiful.”
The Virgin placed a golden ring on the finger of the humble fiancée and there took place what has been called since “the mystical marriage of St. Catherine.”
The following year, having achieved a great victory, Maximinus, Emperor of Rome, ordered that all the subjects of the Empire should offer a sacrifice to the gods. In her palace at Alexandria where she was living, St. Catherine learned that many of the Christians were apostatizing. She went to the emperor and showed him, by syllogisms and quoting the philosophers and poets, the falseness of paganism. Finding no answer to confound her, Maximinus assembled fifty of the most famous university professors. She it was who confounded them and converted them all to the last one. It was noticed that during this debate the archangel Michael stood at her side to comfort her. Maddened with rage, Maximinus had the fifty men burned alive. Two hundred soldiers, converted by their example, also suffered martyrdom, as well as the Empress Constance and the soldier Porphyrius; who having visited St. Catherine in her prison, had been persuaded to embrace the faith.
When the time had come for St. Catherine to face torture, a large number of miracles again took place. One of the learned men was seen coming down from heaven to place a crown upon her forehead. Then a machine, invented for the occasion, was brought forward. It had four wheels, armed with points and saws, which turned in opposite directions. Into it was put the beautiful body of St. Catherine, and there came forth a bleeding mass which the angels received and carried up to Mt. Sinai.
Such is the legend of St. Catherine of Alexandria, as the middle ages have handed it down to us. Of her story, properly speaking, almost nothing is known. Devotion to her seems to have started at Mt. Sinai; her feast day was put on the calendar by Pope John XXII about 1335 A.D. Formerly, there existed a custom of crowning her statue on November 25th; the privilege was reserved for maidens who alone, as the expression recalls, might “bonnet St. Catherine.”
Englebert/Howley
April 4th
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (b. 1347 A.D./d. 1380 A.D. – Feast Day, April 29th)
St. Catherine of Siena is the patroness of fire prevention and was given as patroness to the nurses of Italy by Pope Pius XII in 1943 A.D. St. Catherine of Siena has been recognized as a Doctor of the Church.
The twenty-third child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa, St. Catherine of Siena would certainly be the most famous. She was a strikingly pleasant and outgoing child, imaginative and idealistic in her devotion. She was strongly independent and her independence was a hallmark throughout her life. In a time and culture where marriage was prized, St. Catherine set her heart on Christ and vowed herself to Him at seven years of age. She grew up very close to San Domenico, Italy, a center of Dominican learning and preaching and she spent a great deal of time in the Church. When she expressed her desire to enter the Dominican Order, she was told that she would marry. To make herself less appealing, she cut off her hair. Her father soon relented and allowed her to live as she pleased.
For two years, St. Catherine lived an intense life of prayer and meditation. Around the same time she joined the Mandellate, women who were affiliated with the Order of St. Dominic and wore the habit but lived in their own homes. They served the needs of the poor and sick under the direction of a prioress and ultimately under the direction of the friars. She eventually broke with her extreme solitude and began in earnest the work of caring for the marginalized of society. She served as nurse in homes and hospitals, looked out for the destitute and buried the dead. Through all this, she still found time for silence and contemplation.
St. Catherine’s public influence reached great heights because of her evident holiness. Pope Gregory XI, while in exile, was persuaded to return to Rome due to St. Catherine’s influence.
St. Catherine was instrumental in promoting peace between Rome and Florence, then one of Italy’s “city-states.” On March 27, 1378 A.D., Pope Gregory XI died and was succeeded by Pope Urban VI. Many factions were opposed his election and the talk of a schism in the Church was prevalent. St. Catherine wrote letters to all that were involved, arguing for loyalty and unity. Although she desired to go to Rome in order to promote the ideas she felt would alleviate the problems, she did not because of the reputation she had acquired as the “woman who was ‘always’ on the road.” Pope Urban summoned her to Rome and she set out with her “family” of followers. This was to be the last journey St. Catherine was to make. She spent the last two years of her life in Rome in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Pope Urban VI and the unity of the Church.
In the last year of her life, St. Catherine could no longer eat or even swallow water. She wrote a few more letters but most of her time was spent in prayer and the offering of herself. She still found the power to drag herself the mile from her home to St. Peter’s Church each morning for Mass and spent the day there in prayer until vespers. On February 26, 1380 A.D., she lost the use of her legs and was confined to bed. St. Catherine died on April 29th, 1380 A.D., at the age of thirty-three.
While St. Catherine’s letters are a better window to her personality, she is best remembered for her work which is called “The Dialogue.” She called it, simply, “my book.” It is her bequest of all her teachings to her followers. St. Catherine’s life is a concrete example of the Dominican vocation and prayerful action.
It can be said that she was almost never removed from the state of prayer and yet she accomplished more in her brief life than many who live long lives.
Englebert/Cath.htm/Howley
April 11th
ST. CECILIA (? – Feast Day, November 22nd)
St. Cecilia is the patroness of musicians and makers of musical instruments.
The story of St. Cecilia’s martyrdom is full of doubtful details. We do not even know at what epoch she lived.
She was, it is said, a very cultivated young patrician whose ancestors were illustrious in Rome’s history.
Although she had vowed her virginity to God, her parents married her to Valerian of Trastevere. After their wedding ceremony, St. Cecilia confided to Valerian that an angel watched over her, but in order for him to see the angel, he first had to be purified.
On her advice, Valerian went to find old Urban, who lived in hiding among the Christian tombs, and received baptism from him. Upon his return, he found St. Cecilia at prayer and an angel at her side.
After the persecution of Christians became more rigorous, Valerian and his brother Tiburtius (who also received baptism) began to inter the faithful to whom the imperial police refused burial. Both Valerian and Tiburtius were arrested and decapitated for this practice. St. Cecilia was also apprehended for having interred bodies at her villa on the Appian Way. She was given no alternative but to sacrifice to the gods or to die by the prefect Almachius. She chose death and he had her beheaded.
“The Acts of St. Cecilia” contain the following passage: “While the profane music of her wedding was heard, St. Cecilia was singing in her heart a hymn of the love of Jesus, her true spouse.” It is this phrase which aroused belief in the musical talent of St. Cecilia and has made her the patron saint of musicians.
Englebert/Howley
April 18th
ST. CHARLES BORROMEO (b. (?), d. 1584 A.D. – Feast Day, November 4th)
Born on October 2, 1538 A.D., at the castle of Arona, Italy, on Lake Maggiore, of Gilbert Borromeo and Margaret de’ Medici, St. Charles studied the humanities at Milan and took the university course at Paris, France.
On December 26th, 1559 A.D., his uncle, Angelo de’ Medici, became pope under the name of Pius IV. Five days later, St. Charles Borromeo, aged twenty-two, was named cardinal and, on February 8th of the following year, archbishop of Milan. From that time on he lived at the Roman court loaded with honors and enjoying notable power. Indeed, his influence was always used in what he judged were the best interests of the Church. He played a preponderant part in the final decisions of the Council of Trent, and in the conclave which brought about the election of St. Pius V to the role of pope.
The sudden death of his elder brother in 1562 A.D. deeply affected St. Charles. Until that time he had lived virtuously; from that moment, he lived the life of a saint. Far from giving way to his family, who urged him to re-enter the world and to marry, he soon took on holy orders and was ordained priest; at that time, he planned to leave the pontifical court. His uncle’s death in 1565 A.D. restored his freedom. He returned to his diocese, the reform of which occupied him almost entirely from that time on. With his own fortune, he founded seminaries, schools, hospitals; he faced unpopularity, slander, even death; he fought and succeeded in suppressing abuses which existed among the monks and clergy; he created all kinds of institutions to revive religious fervor.
Every day, St. Charles made two meditations of an hour, said his office on his knees, fasted almost continually on bread and water, slept fully clothed on the ground. Two priests were charged with pointing out his failings to him; to have wounded him was sufficient to ensure becoming the particular object of his solicitude. He helped thousands of the poor, selling his gold plate for them and even giving them his bed. The plague of 1576 A.D. was an opportunity for him to display an act of heroism and a charity which are still famous. He died at the age of forty-six, saying “Ecce venio, Behold, Lord, I come.”
Englebert/Howley
April 25th
ST. CLEMENT OF ROME (1st Century/d. about 100 A.D. – Feast Day, November 23rd)
St. Clement of Rome is the patron saint of boatmen; he is also prayed to for the cure of sick children.
On the authority of St. Irenaeus, it is generally believed that St. (Pope) Clement I was the third successor of St. Peter and that he occupied the see of Rome during the last ten years of the 1st century. According to some he was a Jew; according to others he was a freed slave or the son of a freed slave of the household of the consul, Clemens. One thing is sure. He was well educated and that his literary training had been good. A tradition, going back to the beginning of the 4th century, says that his life ended in martyrdom.
Of all the writings that have been attributed to him, the only authentic one is his Letter to the Corinthians. It was addressed, about the year 96 A.D., to the Christian community at Corinth where troubles had broken out. In it the pope speaks as though in possession of a superior authority and charged with promoting peace throughout the whole Church. This letter ends with an admirable prayer:
“God of all flesh, who givest life and death, thou who castest down the insolence of the proud and turnest aside the scheming of men, be our help!
Oh, Master, appease the hunger of the indigent; deliver the fallen among us. God, good and merciful, forget our sins, our wrongdoing and backsliding; take no account of the faults of thy servants. Give us concord and peace, as to all the inhabitants of the earth. It is from there that our princes and those who govern us here below hold the power; grant them health, peace, concord, stability; direct their consuls in the way of goodness. Thou alone canst do all this and confer on us still greater benefits. We proclaim it by the high priest and master of our souls, Jesus Christ, by whom to thee be all glory and power, now and in endless ages.”
Englebert/Howley
ST. DIONYSIUS (OR DENIS) THE AREOPAGITE (1st Century – Feast Day, October 9th)
St. Dionysius is invoked against headaches and against the devil.
When St. Paul arrived in Athens, Greece, about the year 50 A.D., the city had fallen under the power of the Roman Empire and lost all political importance. Its inherent population of rhetoricians and philosophers had remained. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the Athenians devoted themselves largely to the fabrication and repetition of rumors of all kinds. As there were still many artists among the population, their streets and squares abounded in statues of their idols. It was of Athens that Petronius Arbiter, Roman satirist, wrote: “Our land is so full of divinities that it is easier to meet a god there than a man.” Lest any be forgotten, the Athenians had raised on the Hamaxitos Way an altar to “the unknown god.”
St. Paul had met and spoken with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of the city and they took him to Areopagus in order to have him explain his “Doctrine of Christ” to them.
St. Paul stood up in full view of the assembly at the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, wherever I look I find you scrupulously religious. Why, in examining your monuments as I passed by them, I found among them an altar that bore the inscription, ‘To the unknown God.’ It is this unknown object of your devotion that I am revealing to you. The God that made the world and all that is in it, that God who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples that our hands have made…Now, he calls upon all men, everywhere, to repent, because he has fixed a day when he will pronounce just judgment on the whole world. And the man whom he has appointed for that end he has accredited to all of us, by raising him up from the dead” (Acts XVII, 22 – 31.)
Hearing the resurrection of the dead mentioned, certain members of the Areopagus laughed at the speaker; others arranged to meet him later, and St. Paul withdrew. Among the Areopagites one, at least, was converted; he was called Dionysius, and became bishop of Athens, dying, it is said, as a martyr.
From the 6th century onwards, St. Dionysius was supposed to have been the author of certain writings such as “The Celestial Hierarchy” and “The Divine Names,” composed four centuries after his death.