Celebration of Saints October thru December 2020-2021 REDUCED

When the bishop also said no, she and her father went onto the Pope.. So when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III.. In 1965, A

October 1 – St Therese, the Little Flower

Therese died when she was 24, after having lived as cloistered Carmelite

for less than ten years She never went on missions, never founded a

religious order, never performed great works The only book of hers,

published after her death, was an brief edited version of her journal

called "Story of a Soul." But within 28 years of her death, the public

demand was so great that she was canonized

Therese was born in France in 1873, the pampered daughter of a mother

who had wanted to be a saint and a father who had wanted to be monk

The two had gotten married but determined they would be celibate until

a priest told them that was not how God wanted a marriage to work!

They later had nine children, the five who lived were all daughters

At the age of 11, Therese became so ill with a fever it was thought she was dying When Therese saw her sisters praying to statue of Mary in her room, Therese also prayed She saw Mary smile at her and suddenly she was cured Some people thought she made the whole thing up

At the same time she had developed the habit of mental prayer She would find a place between her bed and the wall and in that solitude think about God, life, eternity

Her life was never hard as she did little to help at home often times with outbursts of tears and tantrums Therese wanted to enter the Carmelite convent to join two of her sisters but she was uncertain of handling the rigors of Carmelite life Even at the age of 14, she was still being treated as a child by her family

During one incident at home, Jesus had come into her heart and done what she could not do herself He had made her more sensitive to her father's feelings than her own Shortly after, she entered the convent In her autobiography she referred to a difficult Christmas as her "conversion."

Therese was known as the “Little Flower” but she had a will of steel When the superior of the Carmelite convent refused to take Therese because she was so young, she went to the bishop When the bishop also said no, she and her father went onto the Pope They had been forbidden to speak to him but that didn't stop Therese As soon as she got near him, she begged that he let her enter the Carmelite convent The Vicar General who had seen her courage was impressed and soon Therese was admitted to the Carmelite convent

She worried about her vocation: " I feel in me the vocation of the Priest I have the vocation of the Apostle Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all Charity gave me the key to my vocation I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love my vocation, at last I have found it My vocation is Love!"

At the age of 23 she took quite ill Her pain was so great that she said that if she had not had faith she would have taken her own life without hesitation One of her sisters in the same convent, journaled her final days Her sister, Pauline put together Therese's writings and sent numerous copies to other convents But Therese's

"little way" of trusting in Jesus to make her holy and relying on small daily sacrifices instead of great deeds appealed to the thousands of Catholics and others who were trying to find holiness in ordinary lives Within two years, Catholics move because her notoriety worked tirelessly toward gaining her canonization in 1925

October 2 – St Leger

St Leger led a volatile life with questions on

his blessed life Leger was raised at the court

of King Clotaire II and by his

uncle, Bishop Didon of Poitiers Leger was

made archdeacon by his uncle, was

ordained, and in about 651,

became abbot of Maxentius Abbey, where

he introduced the Rule of St Benedict He

served the Queen and helped her govern

when Clovis II died in 656, being

named bishop of Autun in 663

He was able to reconcile the differing

factions that had torn the See apart,

introduced reforms, fortified the town, and

was known for his concern for the poor On

the death of Clotaire III, he supported young

Childeric II for King against his brother

Thierry, who had been backed by Ebroin,

mayor of the palace Ebroin was exiled to

Luxeuil and became a bitter enemy of Leger

Leger became Childeric's adviser When

Leger denounced the marriage of Childeric

to his uncle's daughter, he also incurred the

enmity of Childeric, and in 675 Leger was

arrested at Autun and banished When

Childeric was murdered, his successor

restored Leger to his See Ebroin was also restored as mayor of the palace after he had had the incumbent murdered and persuaded the Duke of Champagne and the bishops of Chalons and Valence to attack Autun To save the town, Leger surrendered Ebroin had him blinded, his lips cut off, and his tongue pulled out Not satisfied, he convinced the King that Childeric had been murdered by Leger and his brother Gerinus Gerinus was stoned to death, and Leger was tortured and imprisoned at Fecamp Monastery in Normandy After two years Leger was summoned to court by Ebroin, deposed, and executed protesting his innocence to the end Though the Roman Martyrology calls him Blessed and a martyr, there is doubt among many scholars that he

is entitled to those honors

October 3 – St Ewald the Fair & the Dark

Martyred Northumbrian English brothers, one called "the Fair" and

one called "the Dark,” were educated in Ireland They were given

the same name, known by the difference in the color of their hair

and complexions These priests of the Benedictine Order They were

martyred together at Aplerbeke, near Dortmund, Germany, by local

pagans about 692

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

taken 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 The pagan Saxons,

witnessing the 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 Inflamed with

jealousy and anger, they resolved that the Ewalds should die An

uprising followed and both priests were quickly seized Ewald the Fair was killed quickly by sword; Ewald the Black was tortured and torn limb from limb, after which both their bodies were cast into the Rhine This is understood to have happened on 3 October at a place called Aplerbeck, today a district of Dortmund, where a chapel still stands

Christian sources describe various miracles after the priests' deaths, including their martyred bodies being miraculously carried against the stream for the space of forty miles to the place in which the companions of the Ewalds were residing As

they floated along, says the Catholic Encyclopedia, "a heavenly

light, like a column of fire, was seen to shine above them." One

of the martyrs appeared in vision to a monk (a companion of the Ewalds), and told him where the bodies would be found: "that the spot would be there where he should see a pillar of light reaching from earth to heaven" A spring of water is said to have gushed forth in the place of the martyrdom

Monument of the Ewalds standing in Dortmund-Aplerbeck, Germany

October 4 – St Francis of Assisi

In 1882 St Francis was baptized Giovanni after John the Baptist But his

father wanted his son to be a cloth merchant So he renamed his son

Francesco

Francis had a life of wealth and permissiveness He loved to party

Francis himself said, "I lived in sin" during that time

Even as a dreamer, Francis was good at business, but not holiness!

Francis wanted to be a noble, a knight Battle was the best place to win

the glory and prestige he longed for He got his first chance

when Assisi declared war on their longtime enemy, the nearby town of

Perugia

Most of the troops from Assisi were butchered in the fight He spent a year in captivity and he was ransomed Strangely, the experience didn't seem to change him He continued to party with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle

Francis' conversion did not happen overnight God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis' turn

to wait Francis started to spend time in prayer Sometimes God's grace overwhelmed him with joy But life couldn't just stop for God There was a business to run, customers to wait on

His search for conversion led him to the ancient church at San Damiano While he was praying there, he heard Christ on the crucifix speak to him, "Francis, repair my church." Francis assumed this meant church with a small c the crumbling building he was in He took fabric from his father's shop and sold it to get money to repair the church His father saw this

as an act of theft He dragged Francis before the bishop and in front of the whole town demanding that Francis return the money and renounce all rights as his heir

The bishop was very kind to Francis; he told him to return the money and said God would provide And so he did He not

only gave back the money but stripped off all his clothes until he was wearing only a hair shirt ( a shirt of haircloth, worn by penitents.) In front of the crowd that had gathered he said, "Pietro Bernardone is no longer my father

Francis went back to where this all began and begged for stones and rebuilt the San Damiano church with his own hands Soon Francis started to preach (He was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon under his protest.) Francis was not a reformer; he preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church

Francis never wanted to found a religious order this former knight thought that sounded too military He thought of what he was doing as expressing God's brotherhood He practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person Francis really felt that nature, all God's creations, were part of his brotherhood The sparrow was as much his brother as the pope

In one famous story, Francis preached to hundreds of birds about being thankful to God for their independence and for God's care The story tells us the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave Francis was a man of action His simplicity of life extended to ideas and deeds If there was a simple way, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it So when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight

to Rome to see Pope Innocent III

Francis' final years were filled with suffering as well as humiliation Praying to share in Christ's passion he had a vision receiving the stigmata, the marks of the nails and the lance wound that Christ suffered, in his own body

Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill He began to go blind, receiving surgery Through this suffering he wrote his beautiful Canticle of the Sun that expresses his brotherhood with creation in praising God

Francis never recovered from this illness He died on October 4, 1226 at the age of 45 Francis is considered the founder

of all Franciscan orders in Umbria, in 1181

October 5 – St.Faustina Kowalski

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was born as Helena Kowalska, in Poland on August

25, 1905 She was the third of 10 children to a poor and religious family

Faustina first felt a calling to the religious life

when she was just seven-years-old and attended

the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament After

finishing her schooling, Faustina wanted to

immediately join a convent However, her

parents refused to let her Instead, at

16-years-old, Faustina became a housekeeper to help her

parents and support herself

In 1924, Faustina experienced her first vision of

Jesus While at a dance with one of her sisters,

Faustina saw a suffering Jesus and then went to a

Cathedral According to Faustina, Jesus instructed

her to leave for Warsaw immediately and join a

convent She did as she was instructed, arrived in

Warsaw and entered Saint James Church in

Warsaw, the first church she came across, and

attended Mass While in Warsaw, Faustina

approached many different convents, but was

turned away every time She was judged on her

appearances and sometimes rejected for poverty

Finally, the mother superior for the Congregation

of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy decided to

take in Faustina on the condition that she could

pay for her own religious habit Working as a

housekeeper, Faustina began to save her money

and make deposits to the Convent

Two years later, she finally received her habit and took the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament and in 1928, she took her first religious vows as a nun In 1931 she was visited by Jesus, who presented himself as the "King of Divine Mercy" wearing a white garment with red and pale rays coming from his heart She was asked to become the apostle and secretary of God's mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others, and an instrument for reemphasizing God's plan of mercy for the world

In 1965, Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, who would later become Pope John Paul II, opened up the first investigations into Faustina's life and virtues He submitted a number of documents on her life to the Vatican and requested the official beatification process to start

St Faustina Kowalska was beatified on April 18, 1993 and canonized on April 30, 2000, both by Pope St John Paul II

October 6 – St Bruno

Bruno was born in Cologne about 1030, of the prominent Hartenfaust family He studied at the Cathedral school at Rheims, but it wasn’t until he returned to Cologne that he was ordained and became a Canon at St Cunibert's He then went back to Rheims as professor of theology, became head of the school the following year, and remained there until he was appointed chancellor of Rheims by its archbishop, Manasses Bruno was forced to flee Rheims when he and several other priests denounced Manasses in 1076 as unfit for the office of Papal Legate Bruno later returned to Cologne but went back to Rheims

in 1080 when Manasses was deposed, and though the people of Rheims wanted to make Bruno archbishop, he decided to live the life of a eremite (hermit or recluse) under Abbot St Robert of Molesmes (who later founded Citeaux village, site of a famous abbey in France The abbey, largely through the activities of the 12th-century churchman and mystic St Bernard of Clairvaux , became the headquarters of the Cistercian order, which had abbeys scattered all over Europe.) However, he moved on to Grenoble with six companions in 1084 They were assigned a place for their hermitages in a desolate, mountainous, alpine area called La Grande Chartreuse, by Bishop St Hugh of Grenoble, who became Bruno’s confessor They built an oratory and individual cells, roughly followed the rule

of St Benedict, and began the Carthusian Order They embraced a life of poverty, manual work, prayer, and transcribing manuscripts, though as yet they had no written rule The fame of the group and their founder spread, and in 1090, Bruno was brought to Rome, against his wishes,

by Pope Urban II (whom he had taught at Rheims) as Papal Adviser in the reformation of the clergy Bruno persuaded Urban to allow him to resume his eremitical state, founded St Mary's

at La Torre in Calabria, declined the Pope's offer of the archbishopric of Reggio, became a close friend of Count Robert of Sicily, and remained there until his death on October 6 He wrote several commentaries on the psalms and on St Paul's epistles He was never formally canonized because of the Carthusians' aversion to public honors but Pope Leo X granted the Carthusians permission to celebrate his feast in 1514, and his name was placed on the Roman calendar in

1623

October 7 – St Artaldus

Artaldus (also called Arthaud) was born in the castle of Sothonod in Savoy, a region in the Western Alps At the age of eighteen, he went to the court

of Duke Amadeus III, but a year

or two after, he became a Carthusian priest at Portes After many years, being

a priest and an experienced and holy religious, he was sent by the prior of the Grande Chartreuse to found

a charterhouse near his home,

in a valley in the Valromey significantly called "the cemetery" Here Artaldus established himself with six of his brethren from Portes The community was no sooner settled in and built, when there buildings were destroyed by fire, and St Artaldus had to begin all over again He chose a fresh site on the Arvieres River, and his second foundation was soon built and occupied But a Carthusian cell could not contain the ever-increasing reputation

of Artaldus: like his master St Bruno, he was consulted by the Pope, and when he was well over eighty, he was called from his monastery to be bishop of Belley, in spite of his vehement and reasonable protest However, after less than two years of his appointment as Bishop, his resignation was accepted, and he thankfully returned to Arvieres, where he lived in peace for the rest of his days During his last years, he was visited by St Hugh of Lincoln, who had come into France, and who, while he was prior of the charterhouse of Witham, had induced Henry

II to become a benefactor of Arvieres The Magna vita of St Hugh recorded a gentle rebuke administered by Hugh when Artaldus asked him for political news in the presence of the community who had turned their backs upon the world to give themselves entirely to God The cultus of St Artaldus, called simply Blessed by the Carthusians, was confirmed for the diocese of Belley in 1834 He was 105 years old when he died

October 8 – St Pelagia (Margaret)

Pelagia, more often called Margaret, on account of the magnificence of the pearl jewelry she loved and wore She was an actress of Antioch and thought of as a loose woman, she was equally celebrated for her beauty, her wealth and the disorder other life During a synod at Antioch, she passed Bishop St Nonnus of Edessa, who was struck with her beauty; the next day she went to hear him preach and was so moved by his sermon that she asked him to baptize her which he did She gave her wealth to Nonnus to aid the poor and left Antioch dressed in men's clothing

She became a hermitess in a cave on Mount of Olivette in Jerusalem, where she lived, performing penances and known as "the beardless monk " Pelagia died as a result of extreme asceticism(her severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence), which had emaciated her to the point she could no longer be recognized According to Orthodox tradition, she was buried in her cell Upon the discovery that the renowned monk had been a woman, the "holy fathers" tried

to keep it a secret, but the gossip spread and her relics drew pilgrims from everywhere

Though a young girl of fifteen did exist and suffer martyrdom at Antioch in the fourth century, the story here told is a pious fiction, which gave rise to a whole set of similar stories under different names

Pelagia died as a result of extreme asceticism (her severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence), which had emaciated her to the point she could no longer be recognized According to Orthodox tradition, she was buried in her cell Upon the discovery that the renowned monk had been a woman, the "holy fathers" tried to keep it a secret, but the gossip spread and her relics drew pilgrims from everywhere

October 9 – Sts Denis, Rusticus & Eleutherius

The first mention we have of these three

martyrs who died around 258 A.D comes in

the sixth century in the writings of Saint

Gregory of Tours

Denis (or Dionysius as he is also called) is the

most famous of the three Born and raised

in Italy, he was sent as a missionary to Gaul

(now France) circa 250 A.D by Pope St

Clement along with five other bishops

Denis made his base of missionary activity

an island in the Seine near the city of Lutetia

Parisorium what would become Paris For this reason he is known as the first bishop of Paris and the Apostle of France There he was captured by the Parisians along with Rusticus and Eleutherius Later writers have referred to these as Denis' priest and deacon, or his deacon and sub deacon, but we have no further information on them

After a long imprisonment and several aborted executions, the three martyrs were beheaded with a sword and their bodies were thrown into the river Denis' body was retrieved from the Seine by his converts and buried The chapel that was built over his tomb grew into the abbey of Saint-Denis

In the ninth century, Denis' story and identity became fused and confused with Dionysius the Areopagite and

Pseudo-Dionysius, but later scholarship has re-established his identity as a separate saint Recognized since

the time of St Gregory

as a special saint of Paris, Denis is the patron saint of France

Denis is pictured as he was martyred headless (with a vine growing over the neck) and carrying his own mitered head and not pictured with Saints Rusticus & Eleutherius

Saint Eleutherius Saint Rusticus

October 10 – Francis Borgia

Francis was a young nobleman at the court of the King of Spain He became a Duke when he was only thirty-three and lived a happy, peaceful life with his wife Eleanor and their eight children But unlike so many other powerful nobles, Francis was a perfect Christian gentleman, a true man of God and his great joy was to receive Holy Communion often

This happy life ended when his beloved wife died Francis did something that astonished all the nobles of Spain; he gave up his Dukedom

to his son Charles and became a Jesuit priest So many people came to his first Mass that they had to set up an altar outdoors

His Superior tested him by treating him in exactly the opposite way he had been used to all his forty-one years of life He who had once been a Duke had to help the cook, carrying wood for the fire and sweeping the kitchen When he served food to the priests and brothers, he had to kneel down in front of them all and beg them to forgive him for being so clumsy! Still he never once complained or grumbled The only time he became angry was when anyone treated him with respect as if he was still a Duke Once a doctor who had to take care of a painful wound Francis had gotten said to him: "I am afraid, my lord, that I have to hurt your grace." The saint answered that he would not hurt him more than he was right then by calling him "my lord" and

"your grace." It was not too long before the humble priest accomplished wonderful works for God's glory as he preached everywhere and advised many important people He spread the Society of Jesus all over Spain and in Portugal When he was made Superior General of the Jesuits, he sent missionaries all over the world Under his guidance, the Jesuits grew to be a very great help to the Church in many lands Through all such success, Borgia remained completely humble

October 11 – St John XXIII

The man who would be Pope John XXIII was born in the small village of Sotto il Monte

in Italy, on November 25, 1881 He was the fourth of fourteen children born to poor

parents who made their living by sharecropping Named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli,

the baby would eventually become one of the most influential popes in recent

history, changing the Church forever

Roncalli's career within the Church began when he graduated from university with

a doctorate in theology He was ordained a priest thereafter and soon met Pope

Pius X in Rome

By the following year, 1905, Roncalli was appointed to act as secretary for his

bishop, Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi He continued working as the bishop's secretary

until the bishop died in August 1914 The bishop's last words to Roncalli were, "Pray for

Then in February 1925, Roncalli was summoned to the Vatican and given a new mission This time he was sent

to Bulgaria as the Apostolic Visitor to that country Later, he was appointed aspostolic delegate to Turkey and Greece and made archbishop of Mesembria

Beginning in 1935, racial tensions and anti-Jewish sentiment began to explode into actual acts of violence against the Jews and other ethnic minorities Roncalli started using his influence to save what people he could from the depredation of both local authorities and later the Nazis During his tenure as archbishop, Roncalli saved thousands of Jews, enough that he was named a

"Righteous Gentile" following the war

In late 1944, the Church was anxious to remove clergy in France that had collaborated with the Nazis in various forms Roncalli was appointed as the new papal Nuncio and sent to France to negotiate the retirement of bishops who were involved with the Nazis

In 1952, Roncalli was offered a new position, this time as Patriarch of Venice At the same time he assumed his new title, Roncalli became the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca He assumed his new responsibilities in 1953 Roncalli's papal predecessor died on October 9, 1958 and he was soon summoned to Rome where he was to participate in the process of selecting a new pope The College eventually settled on Roncalli for election and

he accepted, saying "I will be called John," a surprising choice because of that name's association with schism

He was Beatified September 3, 2000 by Pope John Paul II and Canonized April 27, 2014 in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Francis

October 12 – St Wilfrid

Born in Northumberland England in

634, St Wilfrid was educated at

Lindesfarne and then spent

some time in Lyons and Rome

Returning to England, he was

elected abbot of Ripon in 658 and

introduced the Roman rules and

practices in opposition to the Celtic

ways of northern England In 664, he

was the architect of the definitive

victory of the Roman party at the

Conference of Whitby He was

appointed Bishop of York and after

some difficulty finally took possession

of his See in 669 He worked very hard

and founded many monasteries of the

Benedictine Order, but he was obliged

to appeal to Rome in order to prevent

the subdivision of his diocese by St

Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury

While waiting for the case to be

decided, he was forced to go into

exile, and worked hard and long to

evangelize the heathen south Saxons until his recall in 686 In 691, he had to retire again to the Midlands until Rome once again vindicated him In 703, he resigned his post and retired to his monastery at Ripon where he spent his remaining time in prayer and penitential practices, until his death in 709 St Wilfrid was an outstanding personage of his day, extremely capable and possessed

of unbounded courage, remaining firm in his convictions despite running afoul of civil and ecclesiastical authorities He helped bring the discipline of the English Church into line with that of Rome He was also a dedicated pastor and a zealous and skilled missionary; his brief time spent in Friesland in 678-679 was the starting point for the great English mission to the Germanic peoples of continental Europe

October 13 – St Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor was the son of King Ethelred III and his Norman wife, Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy He was born at Islip, England, and sent to Normandy with his mother in the year 1013 when the Danes under Sweyn and his son Canute invaded England Canute remained in England and the year after Edward’s father’s death in 1016, Canute married Emma, who had returned to England, and he became King of England Edward remained

in Normandy, was brought up a Norman, and in 1042, on the death of his half-brother, Hardicanute, son of Canute and Emma, and largely through the support of the powerful Earl Godwin, he was acclaimed king of England In 1044, he married Godwin's daughter Edith His reign was a peaceful one characterized by his good rule and remission of taxes, but also by the struggle, partly caused by his natural inclination to favor the Normans, between Godwin and his Saxon supporters and the Norman barons, In the same year, Edward banished Godwin, who took refuge in Flanders but returned the following year with a fleet ready to lead a rebellion Armed revolt was avoided when the two men met and settled their differences Edward's difficulties continued after Godwin's death in 1053 with Godwin's two sons: Harold who had his eye on the throne since Edward was childless, and Tostig, Earl of Northumbria Tostig was driven from Northumbria by a revolt in 1065 and banished to Europe by Edward, who named Harold his successor After this Edward became more interested in religious affairs and built St Peter's Abbey at Westminster, the site of the present Abbey, where he is buried His piety gained him the surname "the Confessor" He died in London on January 5, and he was canonized

in 1161 by Pope Alexander III

October 14 – St Callistus I

Imagine that your biography was written by an enemy of yours And that its information was all anyone would have not only for the rest of your life but for centuries to come You would never be able to refute

it and even if you could no one would believe you because your accuser was a saint

That is the problem we face with Pope Callistus I who died about 222 The only story of his life we have is from someone who hated him and what he stood for, an author identified as Saint Hippolytus, a rival candidate for the chair of Peter

Trying to weed out the venom to find the facts of Callistus' life in Hippolytus' account, we learn that Callistus himself was a slave His master, Carporphorus made him manager of a bank in the Publica Piscina sector of Rome where Callistus took

in the money of other Christians The bank failed according to Hippolytus because Callistus spent the money

on his own pleasure-seeking It seems unlikely that Carporphorus would trust his good name and his fellow Christians' savings to someone that unreliable

Whatever the reason, Callistus fled the city by ship in order to escape punishment When his master caught up with him, Callistus jumped into the sea (according to Hippolytus, in order to commit suicide) After Callistus was rescued he was brought back to Rome, put on trial, and sentenced to a cruel punishment forced labor on the treadmill Carporphorus took pity on his former slave and manager and Callistus won his release by convincing him he could get some of the money back from investors Callistus' methods had not improved with desperation and when he disrupted a synagogue by shouting for money, he was arrested and sentenced again This time he was sent to the mines Not willing to carry the case further the Pope gave Callistus an income and situation away from Rome

About nine or ten years later, the new pope Zephyrinus recalled Callistus to Rome Zephyrinus was good-hearted and well-meaning but had no understanding of theology This was disastrous in a time when heretical beliefs were springing up everywhere One-minute Zephyrinus would endorse a belief he thought orthodox and the next he would embrace the opposite statement Callistus soon made his value known, guiding Zephyrinus through theology to what he saw as orthodoxy (Needless to say, it was not what Hippolytus felt was orthodox enough.) To a certain extent, according to Hippolytus, Callistus was the power behind the Church before he even assumed the bishopric of Rome

When Zephyrinus died in 219, Callistus was proclaimed Pope over the protests of his rival candidate Hippolytus Callistus came to power during a crucial time of the Church Was it going to hang on to the rigid rules of previous years and limit itself to those who were already saints or was it going to embrace sinners as Christ commanded? Was its mission only to a few holy ones or to the whole world, to the healthy or to the sick? We can understand Hippolytus' fear that hypocritical penitents would use the Church and weaken it in the time when they faced persecution But Callistus chose to trust God's mercy and love and opened the doors By choosing Christ's mission, he chose to spread the Gospel to all

October 15 – St Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila was born Teresa Ali Fatim Corella

Sanchez de Capeda y Ahumada in Avila, Spain

As a result of her mother’s fanciful ideas, her childhood

ideas were lighthearted, despite her father’s discipline

She led a fairly ordinary life, though she was convinced

that she was a horrible sinner As a teenager, she cared

only about boys, clothes, flirting, and rebelling When

she was 16, her father decided she was out of control

and sent her to a convent At first she hated it but

eventually she began to enjoy it partly because of her

growing love for God, and partly because the convent

was a lot less strict than her father

Still, when the time came for her to choose between

marriage and religious life, she had a tough time making

the decision Teresa suffered the same problem that

Francis of Assisi did she was too charming When she

finally chose religious life, she did so because she

though that it was the only safe place for someone as

prone to sin as she was

Once installed at the Carmelite convent permanently,

she started to learn and practice mental prayer, in which she "tried as hard as I could to keep Jesus Christ present within me My imagination is so dull that I had no talent for imagining or coming up with great theological thoughts." Teresa prayed this way off and on for eighteen years without feeling that she was getting results Part of the reason for her trouble was that the convent was not the safe place she assumed it would be

Teresa fell ill with malaria When she had a seizure, people were so sure she was dead that after she woke up four days later she learned they had dug a grave for her Afterwards she was paralyzed and was never completely well Yet instead

of helping her spiritually, her sickness became an excuse to stop her prayer completely

When she was 41, a priest convinced her to go back to her prayer, but she still found it difficult As she started to pray again, God gave her spiritual signs Sometimes her whole body was raised from the ground If she felt God was going to levitate her body, she stretched out on the floor and called the nuns to sit on her and hold her down Far from being excited about these events, she "begged God very much not to give me any more favors in public."

Teresa felt that the best evidence that the signs that came from God was that the experiences gave her peace, inspiration, and encouragement "If these effects are not present I would greatly doubt that the raptures come from God; on the contrary I would fear lest they be caused by rabies."

At the age of 43, she became determined to found a new convent that went back to the basics of a contemplative order:

a simple life of poverty devoted to prayer

When plans leaked out about her first convent, St Joseph's, she was denounced from the pulpit, told by her sisters she should raise money for the convent she was already in, and threatened with the Inquisition At 51, she felt it was time to spread her reform movement

Teresa looked on these difficulties as good publicity Soon she had postulants clamoring to get into her reform convents Soon her ideas about prayer swept not only through Spain but all of Europe She is the founder of the Discalced Carmelites In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church for her writing and teaching on prayer, one of two women to be honored in this way

October 16 – St Gerard Majella

St Gerard Majella was born in 1726 in Muro, Italy to a family of seven Majella grew up in a poverty with a great respect for the poor He was just 12 when his father passed away and his mother sent him away to live with his uncle and learn to become a tailor, like his father After a few years of working as a sewing apprentice, Majella took on a job with the local Bishop of Lacedonia as a servant.Once Majella began earning money as a journeyman at the age of

21, he split his earnings with his mother, the poor of Muro and the rest in offerings for the poor souls As the days passed, Majella began to grow pale and thin, often fasting and in prayer at a nearby Cathedral

He applied to the Capuchin monastery at Muro twice, but was turned down both times Majella was told his health was not well enough for such a strenuous life However, Majella did not give up

In 1749, at the age of 23, he joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and just three years later became a professed lay brother

Majella lived with the three vows of Poverty, Chasity and Obedience He stayed close with the poor and worked many different jobs He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women Majella was often called on by the poor and the sick Wherever his presence was demanded

he graciously presented himself He was there to "do the Will of God."

Throughout his years of life, several reported miracles are tied to Majella including, restoring a boy's life after

he fell from a high cliff; blessing a poor farmer's crops, ridding it of mice; blessing a poor family's supply of wheat, causing it to last until the next harvest; and he multiplied bread for the poor on several occasions Along with his miracles effected through prayers for woman in labor, Majella's last recorded miracle is one that many credit toward his becoming the patron of expectant mothers Shortly before his death, Majella encountered a young girl He had dropped his handkerchief and she set out to return it, only to be told to keep

it Majella told her she "may need it someday." Years after Majella's passing, the young girl became married and with child She unexpectedly went into labor and was on the verge of losing her baby She called for Majella's handkerchief to be applied to her Almost immediately, her pain stopped and she proceeded to give birth to a healthy child

Even as Majella became ill with tuberculosis, he only desired to live in God's will His one last request was that

a small placard be placed on his door stating, "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills." Majella was told the Will of God wanted him to get better, and almost at once he became well However, this only lasted for a month and quickly he became very ill once again St Gerard Majella died of disease on October 16, 1755 at the age of 29, living in the religious life for only six years Due to the numerous miracles performed through Majella's prayers, proceedings for his canonization began shortly after his death In 1893, Majella was beatified by Pope Leo XIII and on December 11, 1904, Pope Pius X canonized the man of God

October 17 – St Ignatius of Antioch

Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch In the year 107, Emperor Trajan visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and the renouncing of their religion Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to be put to death in Rome

Ignatius is well known for the

seven letters he wrote on the

long journey from Antioch to

Rome Five of these letters are to

churches in Asia Minor; they urge

the Christians there to remain

faithful to God and to obey their

superiors He warns them against

heretical doctrines, providing

them with the solid truths of the

Christian faith

The sixth letter was to Polycarp,

bishop of Smyrna, who was later

martyred for the faith The final

letter begs the Christians in Rome

not to try to stop his martyrdom

“The only thing I ask of you is to allow

me to offer the libation of my blood to God I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.” Ignatius bravely met the lions in the Circus Maximus

Ignatius’s great concern was for the unity and order of the Church Even greater was his willingness to suffer martyrdom rather than deny his Lord Jesus Christ He did not draw attention to his own suffering, but to the love of God which strengthened him He knew the price of commitment and would not deny Christ, even to save his own life

October 18 – St Luke

Luke, the writer of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, has been identified with St Paul's "Luke, the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14) We know few other facts about Luke's life from Scripture and from early Church historians

It is believed that Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile Colossians 10-14

speaks of those friends who are with him It first mentions all those "of the

circumcision" in other words, Jews and does not include Luke in this

group Luke's gospel shows special sensitivity to evangelizing Gentiles It is

only in his gospel that we hear the parable of the Good Samaritan, that we

hear Jesus praising the faith of Gentiles such as the widow of Zarephath and

Naaman the Syrian (Lk.4:25-27), and that we hear the story of the one

grateful leper who is a Samaritan (Lk.17:11-19) According to the early Church

historian Eusebius Luke was born at Antioch in Syria

Scholars have argued that Luke might have been born a slave It was not

uncommon for families to educate slaves in medicine so that they would

have a resident family physician Not only do we have Paul's word,

but Eusebius, Saint Jerome, Saint Irenaeus and Caius, a second-century

writer, all refer to Luke as a physician

We have to go to Acts to follow the trail of Luke's Christian ministry We

know nothing about his conversion but looking at the language of Acts we

can see where he joined Saint Paul

Luke first joined Paul's company at Troas at about the year 51 and accompanied him into Macedonia where they traveled first to Samothrace, Neapolis, and finally Philippi Luke then switches back to the third person which seems to indicate he was not thrown into prison with Paul and that when Paul left Philippi Luke stayed behind

to encourage the Church there Seven years passed before Paul returned to the area on his third missionary journey In Acts 20:5, the switch to "we" tells us that Luke has left Philippi to rejoin Paul in Troas in 58 where they first met up They traveled together through Miletus, Tyre, Caesarea, to Jerusalem

Luke also has a special connection with the women in Jesus' life, especially Mary It is only in Luke's gospel that

we hear the story of the Annunciation, Mary's visit to Elizabeth including the Magnificat, the Presentation, and the story of Jesus' disappearance in Jerusalem It is Luke that we have to thank for the Scriptural parts of the Hail Mary: "Hail Mary full of grace" spoken at the Annunciation and "Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus" spoken by her cousin Elizabeth

Forgiveness and God's mercy to sinners is also of first importance to Luke Only in Luke do we hear the story of the Prodigal Son welcomed back by the overjoyed father, the forgiven woman disrupting the feast by washing Jesus' feet with her tears Throughout Luke's gospel, Jesus takes the side of the sinner who wants to return to God's mercy

Reading Luke's gospel gives a good idea of his character as one who loved the poor, who wanted the door to God's kingdom opened to all, who respected women, and who saw hope in God's mercy for everyone

The reports of Luke's life after Paul's death are conflicting Some early writers claim he was martyred, others say he lived a long life Some say he preached in Greece, others in Gaul The earliest tradition we have says that

he died at 84 Boeotia after settling in Greece to write his Gospel He is often shown with an ox or a calf because these are the symbols of sacrifice the sacrifice Jesus made for all the world

In 1642 the Huron country (in Canada) was in great distress Harvests were poor,

widespread sickness and even clothing was scarce Quebec was the only source of supplies, and Isaac Jogues was chosen to lead an expedition The goods were gathered and ready to transport back Jogues worked

with the Indian Nations in North America but none the less, the Iroquois were bitter enemies of the Hurons, and fiercest of all Indian tribes, who were on the war-path and ambushed the returning expedition

The story of the ill-treatment and torture of the captives was extraordinary Suffice it to say that Jogues and his assistant, Rene Goupil, were beaten to the ground and assailed several times with knotted sticks and fists, had their hair, beards and nails torn off and their forefingers bitten through

But what saddened them even more, was the cruelty practiced on

their Christian converts The first of all the martyrs to suffer death was Rene Goupil, who was tomahawked on September 29, 1642, for having made the Sign of the Cross on the brow of some children Rene was a remarkable man He had tried hard to be a Jesuit and had even entered the Novitiate, but his health forced him to give up the attempt He then studied surgery and found his way to Canada, where he offered his services to the missionaries

Jogues, Goupil, Jean de Lalande and 5 other martyred missionaries, all Jesuit priests or laymen associated with them, were Both Jogues and Goupil were beatified on June 21, 1925, in Rome, Italy by Pope Pius XI These martyrs were canonized by the Catholic Church in 1930; Sts René Goupil, Isaac Jogues and Jean de Lalande are considered the first U.S saints because they were martyred in upstate New York and are known as

"The North American Martyrs" A shrine was built in their honor at Auriesville, New York, at a site formerly believed to be that of

Interesting note: Jogues is

also credited with naming

October 20 – St Paul of the Cross

St Paul of the Cross was born at Ovada in the Republic of Genoa, Italy, January 3, 1694 As a youngster, he was kind, innocent and pius He was inspired from on high to found a congregation; in

a time that he was lifted up by God, he saw the habit which he and his companions were to wear

After consulting his director, Bishop Gastinara

of Alexandria in Piedmont, he reached the conclusion that God wished him to establish a congregation in honor of the Passion

of Jesus Christ On November 22, 1720, the bishop vested him with the habit that had been shown to him in a vision, the same that the Passionists wear at the present time From that moment the saint applied himself to repair the Rules of his institute; and in 1721 he went

to Rome to obtain the directives for his ministry from the Holy See

At first he failed, but finally succeeded when Benedict XIV approved the Rules in 1741 and 1746 Meanwhile St Paul built his first monastery near Obitello Sometime later he established a larger community at the Church of St John and Paul in Rome For fifty years St Paul he worked tirelessly in his missionary duties in Italy God lavished him the greatest gifts in the supernatural order, but he treated himself with the greatest of restraint, and believed that

he was a useless servant and a great sinner His saintly death occurred at Rome in the year 1775,

at the age of eighty-one He was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867

October 21 – St Hilarion of Gaza

Hilarion the Great (291–371) was a religious hermit who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Anthony the Great (c. 251–356) While St Anthony

is considered to have established Christian monasticism in the Egyptian desert, St Hilarion is considered by some to be the founder of Palestinian monasticism and venerated as a saint

by the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church The chief source of information regarding Hilarion is the biography written by St Jerome The life of Hilarion was written by Jerome in 390 in Bethlehem Its object was to further the ascetic life to which he was devoted It contains information that is legendary with some statements that attach to genuine history in the 4th century

Hilarion was born in Thabatha, south of Gaza in Syria Palaestina of pagan parents He successfully studied rhetoric with a grammarian in Alexandria It seems that he was converted to Christianity in Alexandria After that, he shunned the pleasures of his day—theatre, circus and arena—and spent his time attending church According to St Jerome, he was a thin and delicate youth of fragile health

After hearing of Saint Anthony, whose name (according to St Jerome), "was in the mouth of all the races of Egypt", Hilarion,

at the age of fifteen, went to live with St.Anthony in the desert for two months As Anthony's hermitage was busy with visitors seeking cures for diseases or demonic affliction, Hilarion returned home along with some monks At Thabatha, his parents having died in the meantime, he gave his inheritance

to his brothers and the poor and left for the wilderness After

he had lived in the wilderness for 22 years, he became quite famous in Syria Palaestina Visitors started to come, begging for his help The parade of petitioners and would-be disciples drove Hilarion to retire to more remote locations But they followed him everywhere First he visited Anthony's retreat in Egypt Then he withdrew

to Sicily, later to Dalmatia, and finally to Cyprus He died there in 371 The first miracle attributed to him was when he cured a woman from a Roman city in Syria Palaestina who had been barren for 15 years Later, he cured three children of a fatal illness, healed a paralysed charioteer, and expelled demons

October 22 – St Pope John Paul II

Karol J Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since his

October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in

Poland He made his First Holy Communion at age 9

and was confirmed at 18 Upon graduation he

enrolled in Cracow's Jagiellonian University in 1938

and in a school for drama The Nazi occupation

forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol

had to work in a quarry (1940-1944) and then in the

Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to

avoid being deported to Germany

In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he

began courses in the clandestine seminary of

Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha,

archbishop of Cracow At the same time, Karol

Wojtyla was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic

Theatre," also clandestine

After the Second World War, he continued his studies

in the major seminary of Cracow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Cracow on November 1, 1946

Soon after, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the topic of faith in the works

of St John of the Cross At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium and Holland

Later he became professor of moral philosophy and social ethics in the major seminary of Cracow and in the Faculty of philosophy at the Catholic University of Lubin (where he became the Director of the Chair of Ethic, and lectured for 25 years until his election for the Pope in 1978)

On July 4, 1958, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September

28, 1958, in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak On January 13, 1964, he was nominated Archbishop of Cracow by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal June 26, 1967

Besides taking part in Vatican Council II with an important contribution to the elaboration of the Constitution Gaudium et spes, Cardinal Wojtyla participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops

He was born in 1920, died in 2005 He was beatified in 2011 in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI and canonized in 2014, in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Francis Since the start of his Pontificate on October 16, 1978, Pope John Paul II has completed 95 pastoral visits outside of Italy and 142 within Italy As Bishop of Rome he has visited 301 of the 334 parishes

October 23 – St John of Capistrano

St John was born at Capistrano, Italy in 1385, the son of a former German knight

in that city He studied law at the University of Perugia and practiced as a lawyer in the courts of Naples King Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia During a war with a neighboring town he was betrayed and imprisoned Upon his release he entered the Franciscan community at Perugia in 1416 He and

St James of the March were fellow students under St Bernardine of Siena, who

inspired him to institute the devotion to the holy Name of Jesus and His Mother John began his brilliant preaching apostolate with a deacon in 1420 After his ordination he traveled throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia preaching penance and establishing numerous communities of Franciscan renewal When Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and Rome, St John, at the age of seventy, was commissioned by Pope Callistus III to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks

Marching at the head of seventy thousand Christians, he gained victory in the great battle of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456 Three months later he died at Illok, Hungary He is the patron of jurists

October 24 – St Anthony Mary Claret

It is unfortunate that some of the most holy has very little historical information to inform us of their piety St Anthony Mary Claret is one of them Anthony was born in Salient in Catalonia, Spain, in 1807, the son of a weaver He took up weaving but then studied for the priesthood, desiring to be a Jesuit His ill health prevented his entering the Order, and he served as a secular priest In 1849, he founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known today as the Claretians, and the Apostolic Training Institute of the Immaculate Conception, Claretian nuns From 1850 to 1857, Anthony served as the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba He returned to the court of Queen Isabella II as confessor, and went into exile with her in 1868 In 1869 and 1870, Anthony participated in the First Vatican Council

He died in the Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide in southern France on October 24, 1870 Anthony Mary Claret had the gift of prophecy and performed many miracles He was opposed

by the liberal forces of Spain and Cuba and endured many trials

October 25 – Sts Daria & Chrysanthus

There is very little known about her as well as St Chrysanthus like St Anthony Claret, celebrated yesterday Chrysanthus was an Egyptian, son of a Patrician

He was brought to Rome from Alexandria during the reign of Numerian, and despite the objections of his father, who had brought him to Rome, was baptized by

a priest named Carpophorus Chrysanthus refused his father's attempts to get him married, finally married Daria, a Greek and a priestess of Minerva, converted her, and convinced her to live with him in chastity When they converted a number of Romans, Chrysanthus was denounced as a Christian to Claudius, the tribune Chrysanthus' attitude under torture so impressed Claudius that he and his wife, Hilaria, two sons, and seventy of his soldiers became Christians, whereupon the Emperor had them all killed Daria was sent to a brothel, where she was defended by a lion, brought before Numerian, who ordered her execution, and was stoned and then buried alive When several followers of Daria and Chrysanthus were found praying

at their crypt, among them Diodorus, a priest, and Marianus, a deacon, they were all entombed alive

October 26 - St Bean of Scotland

On December 16, there is named in the Roman Martyrology and in certain Irish calendars a Saint Bean Kirk of Ireland, who had been confused with the St

Bean whose feast is still

Scottish diocese of Aberdeen

On October 26, as founder of the bishopric of Mortlach in Banff, which was the forerunner of that of Aberdeen we recognize St Bean of Scottish descent Nothing else is known about him The fourteenth century chronicler Fordun, states that

he was made bishop by Pope Benedict VIII, at the request

of Malcolm Canmore, who is said to have founded an episcopal monastery at Mortlach If true, this would be between 1012 and 1024; but the See of Mortlach

is generally said to date from 1063 St Bean's dwelling place is supposed to have been at Balvanie, near Mortlach (Bal-beni-mor, "the dwelling of Bean the Great")

October 27 - St Frumentius

Called "Abuna" or ‘the father' of

Ethiopia, sent to that land by St

Athanasius Frumentius was born in

Lebanon While on a voyage on

the Red Sea with St Aedesius, possibly

his brother, only Frumentius and

Aedesius survived the shipwreck

Taken to the Ethiopian royal court at

Aksum, they soon attained high

positions Aedesius was royal cup

bearer, and Fruementius was a

introduced Christianity to that land

When Abreha and Asbeha inherited

the Ethiopian throne from their father,

Frumentius went to Alexandria, Egypt,

to ask St Athanasius to send a

missionary to Ethiopia He was

consecrated a bishop and converted

many more upon his return to Aksum

The people called Frumentius Kesate Birhan (Revealer of Light) and Abba

Salama (Father of Peace) He became the first Abune, a title given to the head of

the Ethiopian Church

Frumentius and Aedesius are considered the apostles of Ethiopia The 4th-century church historian Rufinus of Aquileia, by meeting Aedesius later in Lebanon, was able to document Frumentius’ achievements, noting that the Ethiopians addressed him as abuna, or “Our Father,” a title that is still used for the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Ethiopian traditions credit him with the first Ge'ez translation of the New Testament, and being involved in the development of Ge'ez script from an abjad (consonantal-only) into

an abugida (syllabic)

October 28 - St Jude Thaddaeus

St Jude, known as Thaddaeus, was a brother of St James the Less, and a relative of Our Saviour He was one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Images of

St Jude often include a flame around his head, which represent his presence at Pentecost, when he accepted the Holy Spirit alongside the other apostles Sometimes he can also be seen holding a carpenter's ruler or is depicted with a scroll or book, the Epistle of Jude

Biblical scholars agree St Jude was a son of Clopas and his mother Mary was the Virgin Mary's cousin Ancient writers tell us that he preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Lybia According to Eusebius, he returned to Jerusalem in the year 62, and assisted at the election of his brother,

St Simeon, as Bishop of Jerusalem

Saint Jude is not the same person as Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Our

Lord and despaired because of his great sin and lack of trust in God's mercy

Jude was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection Little else is known of his life Legend claims that he visited Beirut and Edessa and could have been martyred with St Simon in Persia

He is an author of an epistle (letter) to the Churches of the East, particularly the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics Though Saint Gregory the Illuminator has been credited

as the "Apostle to the Armenians," the Apostles Jude and Bartholomew are believed to have brought Christianity

to Armenia, where Jude was rumored to have later been martyred

There is some debate about where Jude died, though most Biblical scholars agree he was martyred He is believed to have been martyred either in Armenia or Beirut

Following his death, St Jude's body was brought to Rome and left in a crypt in St Peter's Basilica Today his bones can be found in the left transept of St Peter's Basilica under the main altar of St Joseph in a tomb he shares with the remains of the apostle Simon the Zealot

Pilgrims came to St Jude's grave to pray and many reported a powerful intercession, leading to the title, "The Saint for the Hopeless and the Despaired." Two Saints, St Bridget of Sweden and St Bernard, had visions from God asking them to accept St Jude as "The Patron Saint of the Impossible."

Roman Catholics invoke St Jude when in desperate situations because his New Testament letter stresses that

the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances -just as their forefathers had done before them; therefore, he is the patron saint of desperate cases

October 29 - St Narcissus

St Narcissus was born towards the end of the first century in AD

99 He was almost 80-years-old when he was placed at the head

of the church of Jerusalem, making him the 30th bishop of that

see

In 195, he and Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine,

presided together in a council of the bishops of Palestine held at

Caesarea regarding the time Easter is celebrated It was then

decreed that the feast of Easter is to be kept always on a

Sunday

Bishop and historian, Eusebius says this particular Easter miracle

can be attributed to Narcissus "One year on Easter-eve the

deacons did not have any oil for the lamps in the church, which

was necessary at the solemn divine office on that day Narcissus

ordered those who had care of the lamps to bring him some

water from the neighboring wells This being done, he

pronounced a devout prayer over the water Then he bade them pour it into the lamps; which they did The water was immediately converted into oil, to the great surprise of all the faithful."

However, not even the veneration of all good men could shelter Narcissus from the hatred around him Three persistent sinners, fearing Narcissus' severity in the observance of religious discipline, accused him of an unimaginable crime The sinners maintained they were telling the truth by adding additional security into their claims If they were not speaking the truth, one wished he might perish by fire, another, that he might be struck with a leprosy, and the third, that he might lose his sight

Nevertheless, their accusations were found to be false and Divine Retribution was called upon them.The first was burnt in his house, along with his whole family, by an accidental fire in the night The second was struck with a universal leprosy; and the third, terrified by these examples, confessed the conspiracy and slander, and

by the abundance of tears which he continually shed for his sins, lost his sight before his death

Soon after, Narcissus decided to leave Jerusalem for a life of solitude His reasons for doing so weren't clear Some believed he left because he could not bear the shock of the bold slander, and others believed leaving had always been a wish of his He spent several years undiscovered in his retreat, where he enjoyed all the happiness and advantage which a close conversation with God can bestow After he departed, the neighboring bishops chose a new pastor for Narcissus' church until he decided to return

Once Narcissus returned, years later, the faithful rejoiced and convinced Narcissus to once again assume the administration of the diocese He accepted As Narcissus started to reach an extreme old age, he made St Alexander his coadjutor A coadjutor is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop, and often also designated

October 30 - St Alphonsus Rodriguez

St Alphonsus Rodriguez, Confessor and lay brother, was also called Alonso He was born in Segovia, Spain, on July 25,

1532, the son of a wealthy merchant, and was prepared for First Communion by Blessed Peter Favre, a friend of Alphonsus' father While studying with the Jesuits at Alcala, Alphonsus had to return home when his father died In Segovia he took over the family business, was married, and had a son That son died, had two other children, who also died, and then his wife Alphonsus sold his business and applied to the Jesuits His lack

of education and his poor health, undermined by his austerities, made him less than desirable as a candidate for the religious life, but he was accepted as a lay brother by the Jesuits on January 31, 1571 He underwent novitiate training and was sent to Montesion College on the island of Majorca There he labored as a hall porter for twenty-four years Overlooked by some of the Jesuits in the house, Alphonsus was a strong influence on many Not only the young students, such as St Peter Claver, but local civic and social leaders came to his porter's lodge for advice and direction Obedience and penance were the hallmarks of his life, as well as his devotion to the Immaculate Conception He experienced many spiritual consolations, and he wrote religious treatises, very simple in style but sound in doctrine Alphonsus died after a long illness on October 31, 1617, and his funeral was attended by Church and government leaders He was declared Venerable in

1626, and was named a patron of Majorca in 1633 Alphonsus was beatified in 1825 and canonized in September 1888 with St Peter Claver

October 31 - St Wolfgang

Wolfgang, Bishop and reformer was born in Germany He

studied at Reichenau under the Benedictines and at

Wurzburg before serving as a teacher in

the cathedral school of Trier He soon entered the

Benedictines at Einsiedeln (964) and was appointed

head of the monastery school, receiving ordination in

971 He then set out with a group of monks to preach

among the Magyars of Hungary, but the following

year he was named bishop of Regensburg by

Emperor Otto II He brought the clergy of

the diocese into his reforms, restored monasteries,

promoted education, preached enthusiastically, and was

renowned for his charity and aid to the poor, receiving the

title Eleemosynarius Major (Grand Almoner) He also served as

tutor to Emperor Henry II while he was still king Wolfgang died at Puppingen near Linz, Austria

At his request, he was carried into the chapel of Saint Othmar at Pupping, where he died His body was taken up the Danube by his friends Count Aribo of Andechs and Archbishop Hartwich

of Salzburg to Regensburg, and was solemnly buried in the crypt of Saint Emmeram Many miracles were performed at his grave

He was canonized in 1052 by Pope St Leo IX Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death 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

November 1 - St Valentine Berrio-Ochoa

There are many St Valentine’s In all, there are

about a dozen St Valentines, plus a pope He

should not to be confused with Valentinus

(Gnostic) or Valentine of Passau Unfortunately,

there is little known of St Valentine

Berrio-Ochoa

He was a Bishop and martyr of Vietnam A native

of Ellorio, Spain, he entered the Dominican Order

and was sent to the Philippines From there he

went to Vietnam in 1858, serving as

a vicar apostolic and titular bishop until betrayed

by an apostate He was martyred by beheading

with St Jerome Hermosilla and

Blessed Peter Amato, by enemies of

the Church He is the most

recently Valentine to be beatified

Pope John Paul II canonized

Berrio-Ochoa in 1988

St Victorinus of Pettau was a Bishop and martyr Born in Greece Due to its military character, Victorinus spoke Greek better than Latin, which explains why, in St Jerome's opinion, his works written in Latin were more remarkable for their matter than for their style He became bishop of Pettau, in Pannonia (later Styria, Austria) He was martyred during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian (r 284-305) Victorinus was also the author of several biblical commentaries such

November 3 - St Martin de Porres

St Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru When Martin was young his father, a Spanish nobleman, abandoned the family and left them in poverty Martin wanted to become a priest, however, Peruvian law prohibited descendants of Africans and Native Americans from becoming full members of religious orders At fifteen Martin chose to become a servant at the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima Martin eventually became a Dominican lay brother, never ordained in the Catholic church However, at that time, age 24, he spent the rest of his life caring for the sick He is also known for his work with the poor and the establishment of an orphanage and children’s hospital Martin ex-tended unconditional compassion and care to all people regardless of race or status He is the patron saint of the poor, public health, and racial harmony and his feast day is November 3rd

Who was our patron Saint Charles Borromeo? Charles Borromeo was born on October 2, 1538, near the Alps

in Lake Maggiore, Italy He was the second son of distinguished and wealthy parents who raised him in an extremely religious atmosphere When he was twelve, he was given tonsure, which is the cutting of hair on top of the head This marked him for the

priesthood and he was educated with that

goal in mind

Charles studied theology and also earned

his degree in law at the University of Pavia

in Milan Three weeks after he received his

degree, his mother’s brother became Pope

and called his brilliant young nephew to

Rome Almost immediately, Pope Pius IV

made Charles, aged 22, a Cardinal of the

be holy and make the Church, if he could, a holier place, too He made several changes: 1) rewrote the catechism that the people learned; 2) started reforms in the preparation of candidates for the priesthood; 3) ordered changes in the prayer book of the Church; and 4) asked the Pope to decree that political appointments could no longer be made in the Church Many of these reforms, and others with which Charles

is credited, grew out of the Council of Trent

In 1566, the Pope sent Charles back to Milan to be full-time Archbishop He continued his work with the people, caring for them in the streets when the plague hit Milan He nursed the sick and even saw that the curtains in his palace, his clothes and other possessions were turned into money for medicine for the poor Charles, the Archbishop of Milan, was usually seen in rags He taught catechism, found the sick and elderly places to stay, established schools and ran the diocese He lived a life of prayer, slept little and ate less He once said, “Here all kinds of poor will be housed, outsiders as well as Milanese; men, women, children because charity knows no distinction of nations, and we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord.”

Toward the end of October in the year 1584, Charles had been traveling to some outlying districts in his diocese On the way home he fell ill with a heavy fever and had to be brought back to Milan on a stretcher He died a few days later The Church that he had worked so hard to make more human recognized him as a saint

in 1610

What we know of St Elizabeth comes from the Gospel, the book of Luke, in particular In Luke, Elizabeth, a daughter of the line of Aaron, and the wife of Zechariah, was "righteous before God" and was "blameless" but childless Elizabeth is also a cousin to the Virgin Mary

Zechariah, desiring a child, went to pray in the temple and was told by the angel Gabriel, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and

he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born." (Luke 1:13-15)

Zechariah was skeptical because both himself and his wife were elderly For his skepticism, Zechariah was rendered mute until the prophecy had been fulfilled.Elizabeth became pregnant shortly thereafter and she rejoiced

Gabriel then visited the Virgin Mary at Nazareth, telling her that she would conceive of the Holy Spirit and become the mother of Jesus

Mary then visited Elizabeth, and her baby leapt in her womb Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth proclaimed

to Mary, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby

in my womb leaped for joy Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!" (Luke 1:41-45)

Mary visited with Elizabeth for three months, both women pregnant with child After Mary returned home, Elizabeth gave birth to a son and named him John This child was chosen by God to be John the Baptist John would baptize Christ as an example to all, that all must be reborn of water and spirit

Although Elizabeth's neighbors assumed the child would be named Zechariah, her husband insisted that John

be his name This astonished the neighbors for there were no men named John in Elizabeth's family, but Zechariah's insistence ended the debate At the moment, Zechariah insisted that they obey the will of God, and name him John, his speech returned

After this, there is no more mention in the Bible about Elizabeth

Saint Leonard was a Frankish (Germanic tribe) nobleman in the court of King Clovis I It was through Saint Remigius, Bishop of Reims, that Saint Leonard together with the king were converted to Christianity on Christmas day in the year 496 He has been considered the patron saint of prisoners of war because of how he sought the king’s permission to visit and liberate prisoners he found worthy of freedom during his time

Saint Leonard is also said to be the patron saint of pregnant women in childbirth labor because

of how his prayers helped the queen of the Franks safely deliver her male child As a form of gratitude, the king gave him a portion of the royal lands which he could reach by riding around

on his donkey for a day In the lands granted him, he founded a monastery, the Noblac Abbey, which grew into a town named after him- “Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat.” He spent the rest of his life evangelizing the people in that village

St Achillas was a Bishop and theologian who lived in an era of dispute in the Church Achillas was the bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, one of the most powerful cities in the world at the time Pope Theonas had ordained him priest and appointed him head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria upon the departure of Pierius Achillas was the 18th Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria , reigning from 312 to 313

When Achillas recognized the untruths in Arius' preaching, he took steps to defend the faith and was attacked by Arius and another heretical group called the Meletians Achillas remained firm in the faith A council held in Alexandria condemned Arius and forced him to flee to Palestine Achillas, however, did not live

to see this condemnation After his death, Arius nominated himself to become Bishop of Alexandria, but the clergy and the people chose Alexander instead

St Castorius is the patron saint of sculptors and his feast day is November 8th Castorius, Claudius, Nicostratus, and Symphorian are called "the four crowned martyrs" who were tortured and executed in Pannonia, Hungary during the reign of Diocletian

According to legend, they were employed as carvers IN

Yugoslavia and impressed Diocletian with their art, as did

another carver, Simplicius Diocletian commissioned them

to do several carvings, which they did to his satisfaction,

but they then refused to carve a statue of Aesculapius (is a

hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek

religion and mythology ), as they were Christians The

emperor accepted their beliefs, but when they refused

to sacrifice to the gods, they were imprisoned When an

officer of Diocletian who was trying to convince them

to sacrifice to the gods and suddenly died, his relatives

accused the five of his death; to placate the relatives, the

emperor had them executed Another story has four

unnamed Corniculari (an officer of the Roman legions who

served as the adjutant to a centurion , so named for wearing a

cornicule - a small, horn-shaped badge), beaten to death

in Rome with leaden whips when they refused to

offer sacrifice to Aesculapius They were buried on the Via

Lavicana and were later given their names by Pope

Militiades Probably they were the four Pannonian

martyrs (not counting Simplicius) whose remains were

moved to Rome and buried in the Four Crowned

Ones basilica there

Florence - Church of Orsanmichele Four Crowned Martyrs or Four Saints

November 9 - St Benignus

There is little know of the life of Benignus of Dijon Benignus proselytized openly in different parts of Gaul, and performed numerous miracles despite the persecution of Christians Denounced to the Emperor Aurelian,he was arrested and put on trial Benignus refused to sacrifice to pagan deities or to Caesar, and refused to deny Christ The authorities savagely tortured him, to which he responded with new miracles; he did not change his mind Eventually, Benignus was clubbed to death with a bar of iron and his heart pierced "He was buried in

a tomb which was made to look like a pagan monument in order to deceive the persecutors"

According to Gregory of Tours the common people reverenced his grave,

but Gregory's great-grandfather, Saint Gregory, wished to put an end to

this veneration, because he believed the grave to belong to a heathen

However, when he learned through a vision one night that the burial spot

(in a large necropolis outside the Roman city) was in fact the previously

overlooked grave of the holy martyr Benignus, the bishop had the tomb

in which the sarcophagus lay restored, and he built a basilica over it

Despite the damage to, the destruction during the French Revolution and

eventual rebuilding, a cathedral is still there, with his purported

sarcophagus can still be seen in the crypt