The Saints

Saints

January 1 - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  Octave Day of Christmas.
                     Today we honor our Blessed Mother as Mother of God, Our Savior.
                    
January 2 – Memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and Doctors of the Church.
                     Both men were friends and fourth century bishops, Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Constantinople. Basil is honored as the father of eastern monasticism. He fought courageously against the Arian heresy. Gregory is one of the Church’s greatest speakers. He led both an active and a contemplative faith life. Both saints are Doctors of the Church.

January 3 – Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
                     Jesus is Savior.  His Most Holy Name was told to the Blessed Virgin by the angel Gabriel.  “You shall call His name Jesus,” he said.  The same was said to St. Joseph in a dream: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”  A name is greatly important to each person, as is the name of Our Lord.  We bow our heads when it is pronounced, and honor it when written.  We often use the monogram IHS, the first three letters of Jesus’s name in Greek.

January 4 – Memorial of Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious.
                     Wife and mother of five children, Elizabeth Ann Seton converted to Catholicism in 1805 from her Episcopal upbringing after her husband died from illness.  Her long-standing concern for the poor blossomed first in Baltimore, MD where she was invited to found a girls’ school, and later, received approval for herself and her assistants to establish a religious order based on St. Vincent de Paul’s Daughters of Charity. As head of the American Sisters of Charity, St. Elizabeth helped open Catholic schools around the country, ministered to the poor, and founded orphanages.  Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first American born saint, canonized in 1975. 

January 5 – Memorial of St. John Neumann, bishop.
                     St. John was born in Bohemia, (now in the Czech Republic) in 1811, and learned Catholic piety from his mother.  Fulfilling his ardent wish to be a missionary priest in America, John sailed to the new United States, and was ordained there.  He launched his life of fervent service in Buffalo, setting up schools and building churches.  In the middle of the century, John became a U.S. citizen, joined the Redemptorist order, and was ordained bishop of Philadelphia.  Fluent in several languages, St. John gathered souls in the young country, and helped institute the parochial school system.  He counted himself privileged in 1854 to attend in Rome the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.  He died when he was 48 years old, unexpectedly collapsing in the street, worn out from his work for the Catholic faith.

January 6 – Optional Memorial of St. André Bessette, religious. 
                     We consider André Bessette our local saint, because he lived, worked, and fashioned his holy life in nearby Quebec.  In fact, some Vermonters can claim kinship with him.  He also was greatly devoted to our Cathderal’s patron saint, St. Joseph, whose title “Patron of the Universal Church” was new when André was a young man.  Overcoming his orphan state, poor health, and lack of education, André brought his great faith to religious life as a brother with Congregation of the Holy Cross in Montréal.  For 40 years, Brother André was doorkeeper at the Collège de Notre Dame, receiving visitors, becoming good friends with many of them, and praying for them.  Grateful devotees credited him with their healing miracles, although he attributed these events to St. Joseph.  He also helped found and became caretaker of  St. Joseph’s Oratory.  St. André’s life was humble and pious, just as Our Lord asked.

Sunday – The Epiphany of the Lord.
               Jesus today is adored as Light to the Nations and to the Gentiles, represented by the Magi, or three kings, who came to worship him with costly gifts at the Holy Family’s home in Bethlehem.
                                             
January 7 – Optional Memorial of St. Raymond of Penafort, priest.
                     St. Raymond was a Spanish-born Dominican, renowned as a canon law expert, superbly interpreting and defending the Church’s decrees.  His writing on the Sacrament of Penance still stands today as a great work.  St. Raymond set a fine example of modesty and piety and concern for the poor.  He helped found and championed the order requested by Our Lady to ransom Christian captives held by Muslims.  A miracle story affirms that the saint sailed more than a hundred miles back home to Barcelona from the island of Majorca by riding over the sea on his spread cloak. St. Raymond lived to 100 years old.

January 13 – Optional Memorial of St. Hilary of Poitiers, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                                      Affluent and well-educated, Hilary was born in present day France in 310 A.D.  While the Church at that time was free of state persecution, another enemy assailed it:  the heresy of Arianism, which denied Christ’s divinity.  St. Hilary, appointed bishop, fought the powerful untruth, and was exiled.  He returned to continue his combat against the widespread heresy.  St. Hilary is remembered for his 12-volume work on the Holy Trinity, affirming Jesus as Second Person.  His invigorating quotes include: “Servants of the trust ought speak the truth”, and that the faith “triumphs when attacked.”

January 17 - Memorial of St. Anthony, abbot.
                       Like many saints, third-century Anthony could have enjoyed an easy, comfortable life in his native Egypt.  At about the age when today, many young men go off to college, Anthony obeyed the Gospel words “sell all,” and retired to the desert.  He spent his time in prayer, and in fighting attacks by the devil.  He ate and slept little.  This Anthony is called the father of monks, as he started the pattern of life that led to Western monasticism.

January 20 – Optional Memorials of St. Fabian, pope and martyr; St. Sebastian, martyr.
                        Pope St. Fabian reigned for 14 years in the mid third century.  The Church enjoyed freedom to practice the faith during the first part of his pontificate, when St. Fabian organized the Roman church into seven diaconates to better serve the poor, beautified churches and cemeteries, and improved Church management.  This tranquil flourishing ended under Roman Emperor Decius, who persecuted Christians and imprisoned the Holy Father, who died in captivity.

                        St. Sebastian, who also lived in the third century, usually is pictured with St. Fabian.  Sebastian was a Roman solider who became a Christian and fell under the Emperor Diocletian’s horrific persecution.  He was shot with many arrows but survived to endure a second execution attempt which killed the courageous military officer.  St. Sebastian won great veneration during the Middle Ages.  He is the patron saint of archers, and of athletes for his great endurance.

January 21 – Memorial of St. Agnes, virgin and martyr.
                        St. Agnes is one of the renowned fourth-century martyrs who died under Roman persecution.  We read the accounts of her heroic conduct in the midst of her final sufferings.  She is called the lamb and the pure one, her life ending when she was in her early teenaged years.

January 22 – Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children.
                        Today we are invited and urged to do penance through prayer for helpless, silent unborn people.  January 22, 1973 was the day that the U.S. Supreme Court decided that abortion was legal in all states.  The annual Vermont Rally for Life, which includes a short parade of supporters, usually takes place in Montpelier on the Saturday nearest this date. The national March for Life in Washington, D.c. also takes place on or close to this infamous anniversary.

January 23 - Optional Memorials of St. Vincent of Saragossa, deacon & martyr; St. Marianne Cope.
                       Another Spanish saint, St. Vincent labored for the Church in the area of Saragossa in the third century, when many Catholic martyrs met their ends at the hands of the Roman Emperors.  Vincent is hailed as one of the three greatest deacons of the Church, along with Stephen and Lawrence.  He suffered great torture but refused to renounce his faith.

                       We celebrate St. Marianne Cope for her quiet, heroic service to the Hawaiian lepers.  St. Marianne came to this country from Germany, joining the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, NY, where she founded the state’s first Catholic hospitals.  Then came the call from Hawaii, to which Mother Marianne answered, “I am hungry for the work … I am not afraid of any disease, hence it would be my greatest delight to minister to the abandoned …”  She and six sisters from her order traveled to the Pacific to nurse the poor, and the outcast leprosy patients in the Hawaiian Islands.  Folllowing in the footsteps of St. Damian DeVeuster, whose labors continued during her time, St. Marianne and her religious sisters cared for the destitute sick and for leprosy victims, including lepers on Molokai.  She and her sisters never contracted the disease. 

January 24 – Memorial of St.  Francis de Sales, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                        In the religious tumult of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, St. Francis de Sales hurled himself into that spiritual breach and tirelessly sought to convert souls to back to the Catholic faith.  He won 70,000 penitents.  Francis also mastered his own fiery temperament, finally showing a gentle and mild disposition.  He was St. Jane de Chantal’s spiritual director and with her, founded the Order of the Visitation.  Francis leaves us his great spiritual work, Introduction to the Devout Life.

January 25 – Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle.
                       Saul, a zealous Pharisee Jew and Roman citizen, “breathing threats of slaughter,” as the Bible tells it, was on his way to Damascus (Syria) to arrest Christians when the Lord cast him down and blinded him, asking, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  Saul submitted to his conversion, as “there fell from his eyes something like scales,” an expression we use today for dramatic reversals of opinion.  Saul, renamed Paul, became the great Apostle to the Gentiles, traversing the Middle East, Asia Minor, and parts of Europe, writing the famous letters or epistles that we read throughout the year at Mass.  Paul was beheaded in in 66 A.D.

January 26 – Memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus, bishops.
                                       These two saints were close companions of St. Paul.  They traveled with the great Apostle to the Gentiles and received their episcopates from him.  Timothy was bishop of the large city of Ephesus in today’s Turkey.  He was stoned to death for denouncing pagan worship.  Titus’s see was Crete.  Both men showed the zeal, compassion, and steadfast faith that Paul prized and rewarded with his affection and admiration.  St. Paul wrote two New Testament letters to Timothy and one to Titus. 

January 27 – Optional Memorial of St. Angela Merici, virgin.
                       This inspiring woman was born in Italy in the late fifteenth century.  She was a deeply devout young woman, dedicated to Our Lord’s service.  In her home, she taught girls and later started the Order of St. Ursula or the Ursulines, a religious order for teaching girls.  Angela traveled to the Holy Land as a pilgrim, both losing and regaining her eyesight during that journey. She returned to Italy to continue her work and died a natural death in the mid-sixteenth century.

January 28 – Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and Doctor of the Church.
                       The Angelic Doctor, who lived and died in the glorious thirteenth century, is one of the greatest theologians, philosphers, and writers of all time.  His Summa Theologica is unsurpassed.  We remember St. Thomas also for his beautiful hymns, among them “Panis Angelicus” (“Bread of Angels”), “Tantum Ergo” (“Down in Adoration Falling”), “Adoro Te Devote” (“Humbly We Adore Thee”) and “O Salutaris Hostia” (“O Saving Victim, Open Wide”). An innocent and mild mannered soul, the heavyset St. Thomas was jokingly called “Dumb Ox” by his Paris university classmates.  His faith writings, however, showed his vast intellect, and belied that derisive nickname. 

January 31 – Memorial of St. John Bosco, priest.
                       Our nineteenth-century Italian saint came from a humble background, but in spite of poverty, received a sound Catholic education and entered the seminary with the help of funds from a generous donor.  After his ordination, John Bosco strove, against strong criticism, to help the many new workers generated by the Industrial Revolution.  The saint taught these crowds of uneducated young men, who thronged the factory centers.  John Bosco founded the Salesians, named for St. Francis de Sales.  This order today assists the poor in countries worldwide.  Our saint first began his outreach with tricks and jokes, which attracted groups of young people, who then stayed to hear cathechesis woven into the young priest’s performance.

February 2 – Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas). 
                       This feast of light takes place 40 days after Christmas, when the Blessed Mother obeyed Jewish law to present herself at the temple for purification.  As she held the Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph saw an old devout man approach, Simeon, who foretold Our Lady’s long and deep sufferings as if a sword pierced her heart, and the coming Messiah in the infant in her arms.  “Now thou dost dismiss they servant … Because my eyes have seen,” said Simeon in the first words of his canticle.  The prophetess Anna also came forward to see the Holy Face.  She and Simeon exemplify the precious value of prayer and contemplation.  Processions and blessings with candles, symbols of Jesus as light to the nations, often take place on Candlemas, which used to be the end of the Christmas cycle.

February 3 – Optional Memorial of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr; St. Ansgar, bishop.
                       This Armenian bishop and doctor lived in the third and fourth centuries.  He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. We often receive a throat blessing on this day in memory of St. Blaise’s healings of people and animals.  Today’s blessings grew from his saving a choking child.  Persecuting pagans arrested, tortured and beheaded St. Blaise for his faith.

                       St. Ansgar is the Apostle to the North, or Scandinavia.  Born in the ninth century, he spent his early life in France and Germany, ordained as a priest, and was sent to Denmark and Sweden to convert the northern people.  His efforts won few Christians but he returned in later years and brought many more northern folk to Christianity.  Pagan invasions undid some of St. Ansgar’s work, but his self-denying life, his miracles, his holiness, and his great eloquence continued to gain converts.  Paganism again covered those lands after the saint’s death, until Christian missionaries renewed the faith in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

February 5 - Memorial of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr. 
                       Agatha was a third-century Christian and one of the most beloved early virgin martyrs.  She fell into disfavor with a local official, whose marriage proposal she refused, telling her suitor she was dedicated to Christ alone.  Stories of Agatha recount her terrible sufferings at this authority’s hands to force her to renounce her faith.  She held fast, one story saying she was healed by St. Peter himself.  She died a young martyr.

February 6 - Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, martyrs. 
                                     This revered group of sixteenth-century martyrs is said to have gone joyfully to their deaths.  Twenty-six martyrs were canonized for their sacrifice on the Holy Mountain in Nagasaki, Japan.  Paul Miki was a Japanese Jesuit seminarian.  He and 25 lay and religious Japanese and foreigners were tied to crosses and pierced with spears.  The persecution drove Japanese Catholics to worship in secret until missionaries again preached openly in the 1800s.

February 8 - Optional Memorials of St. Jerome Emiliani, priest; St. Josephine Bakhita, virgin.
                       St. Jerome began his life as a carefree and careless solider for the sixteenth-century Italian city-state Venice.  Captured in battle, Jerome pondered his future while in jail, and turned to the Lord.  He escaped his prison, and reformed, tending to family duties and seeking priestly ordination.  His religious life led him to work among the poor and sick, as famine and disease swept the land.  St. Jerome cared for orphans, abandoned children, and all those who were ill or destitute, and died serving them.

                       St. Josephine Bakhita, born in 1869, was a Sudanese child when she was kidnapped and sold into slavery, suffering under cruel masters and mistresses who beat and disfigured her.  Her life improved under an Italian owner, and when his wife traveled for a visit to another country, St. Josephine stayed behind to live with the Canossian Sisters of Charity.  Through these religious, she learned her precious faith and eventually won her freedom.  She joined the sisters, doing convent housekeeping but also mothering school children.  St. Josephine endured terrible physical torments during her final illness and died calling on Our Lady.

February 10 – Memorial of St. Scholastica, virgin.
                          St. Scholastica was the sister of St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism and a great and powerful saint in his own right.  These twins lived in the fifth and sixth centuries.  St. Benedict founded the magnificent monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy. St. Scholastica was a member of a women’s order at a neighboring abbey.  The pair were close, and visited each other once a year.  It’s said that when Scholastica died, St. Benedict saw his sister’s soul fly to heaven as a dove.

February 11 – Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.
                          The Church recognizes the apparitions at this shrine, and the healing miracles that have astounded the world since 1858.  On this day in that year, young Marie Bernade Soubirous encountered a beautiful, white gowned lady speaking to her from a cave in a wild, rural place.  The ethereal woman, a blue sash around her waist and a golden rose on each foot, told Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”  The Church had proclaimed that dogma four years earlier, in 1854.  The Lady also instructed the girl to drink from a spring that burst forth from the ground.  That spring flows today, and pilgrims flock to the great shrine and its basilica seeking healing of body and soul.  A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes graces our Burlington cathedral.

February 14 – Memorial of Sts. Cyril, monk, and Methodius, bishop.
                          These two saints were brothers, who through their spreading the Gospel in the ninth century, were known as the Apostles to the Slav.  The brothers labored in the Balkan and other eastern European countries.  They developed the Cyrillic alphabet and translated the Mass into this language for the faithful in that region.  Both men were ordained bishops, and persevered in spite of opposition to their mission.

February 17 – Optional Memorial of Seven Founders of the Order of Holy Servites.
                          This feast day marks the gathering in the thirteenth century of seven Italian noblemen who dedicated their lives to penance and poverty.  The small group prayed together, especially meditating on Our Lord’s passion and on the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady.  Their order later took on the name of the Order of Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Members today serve worldwide, helping the suffering and sorrowful, in particular, cancer patients.

February 21 – Optional Memorial of St. Peter Damian, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                          Peter Damian, scholar, hermit, fervent penitent, reformer, showed the eleventh-century world an astounding example of holiness and humility.  He spent years in relative solitude, devoted to prayer, study, and subduing the flesh.  Church superiors called him out of contemplation to preach, teach, and lead the faithful and the clergy to greater holiness as a bishop.  Peter Damian collaborated with popes of that time to stop Church abuses and elevate priests and bishops.

February 22 – Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle.
                          Today we celebrate the unity of the Universal Church and the authority of its earthly leader, the pope, who follows in an unbroken line from St. Peter, the first pope, the rock upon which Christ built his church.  Tradition says St. Peter celebrated his first Mass in Antioch, Turkey on this day in the first century.  The actual chair of St. Peter in Rome is encased in marble, bronze and other fine materials.

February 23 – Optional Memorial of St. Polycarp, bishop and martyr.
                          This saint is one of the greatest of the early Church.  Polycarp was converted to Christianity by St. John the Apostle.  He was ordained bishop of Smyrna, now in Turkey, and was shepherd of that see for almost 70 years.  Polycarp railed against the rampant heresies of the day, and finally, as an old man, was sentenced to execution for failure to renounce his faith.  Said the saint, "For eighty-six years I have served Him and he has never wronged me. How can I renounce the King who has saved me?"  Accounts say miracles blossomed as his assailants failed to take his life by various means.  Polycarp at last succumbed, insuring his place as one of the most astounding martyrs of the Church.

March 3 – Optional Memorial of St. Katharine Drexel, virgin. (USA)
                  Born to wealth and a high social position in Philadelphia in the mid-nineteenth century, Katharine gave up her luxurious life to help Native and African Americans.  She went West and founded schools with her teaching order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored.  An array of mission centers followed.  St. Katharine and her followers suffered persecution, but persevered.  She established Xavier University in New Orleans.  St. Katharine spent her last 20 years in retirement, devoting her time to prayer.  She died in 1955.

March 4 - Optional Memorial of St. Casimir of Poland.
                  Casimir was a fifteenth-century prince, son of Poland’s king.  From his youth, Casimir denied himself comforts, exacted stiff penances on himself, and spent a great deal of time in prayer and devotions.  He refused to wage an unjust war, returning to his piety, and died in his mid-twenties.

March 7 – Optional Memorial of Sts. Felicity and Perpetua, martyrs.
                  These two young women died in a gruesome public execution before a voracious crowd in third -century Carthage, martyred for their Christian faith.  The lady Perpetua was a gentle-born matron with a baby; Felicity, a pregnant slave.  Imprisoned for their faith in Christ, they suffered for their children:  Perpetua mourned her separation from her baby, but rejoiced when the Lord allowed a couple to bring the infant to her in prison.  Felicity was in anguish that she would be denied a martyr’s death because she carried a child.  She gave birth and handed the baby over to foster parents before her execution.  Both women were mauled by a wild animal in the arena, and then beheaded.

March 8 – Optional Memorial of St. John of God, religious.
                   This sixteenth-century Spanish saint spent many years ministering to the patients in a mental hospital where he was a resident.  John was committed there because of the astounding fervor of his faith conversion, inspired by St. John of Avila (or St. John of the Cross).   St. John of God turned his attention to his fellow patients who suffered greatly from the time’s cruel treatments.  A story tells how John heroically rescued patients, and then their belongings, from a terrible fire at the institution, obeying the prompts of the Holy Spirit to act quickly without little regard for his own safety.  After St. John died, followers formed the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John (of God), approved by Pope St. Pius V.

March 9 – Optional Memorial of St. Frances of Rome, religious.
                    Following the path of other saintly, wealthy noblewomen, St. Frances gave generously to the poor.  Growing up in fifteenth-century Rome, she had set her heart on joining a religious order, but obeyed her father’s wish and married.  Many years later, Frances’s husband died and she relinquished her riches for the poverty of religious life.  St. Frances of Rome is said to have had lifelong contact with her guardian angel and other angels.

March 17 – Optional Memorial of St. Patrick, bishop and confessor.
                             St. Patrick’s famed story is the history of a man who returned to his place of bondage to spread the faith, his love of God overcoming his justified aversion to that scene of suffering.   Born in the British Isles in the fifth century, the boy Patrick was kidnapped and sold into slavery by Irish raiders.  He escaped back to his home and family in Britain, where he became a priest and was ordained a bishop.  Patrick sailed back to the Emerald Isle, bringing his most precious gift, Christianity.  He converted many of the pagan Irish, founding monasteries and building churches throughout the land.  St. Patrick handed down to us his Breastplate prayer and his autobiography, Confessions.  After the fall of the Roman Empire, Ireland heroically preserved Western texts and culture, bridging the time of barbaric rule and the Middle Ages, when Western culture again flourished. 

March 18 – Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop, confessor, and Doctor of the Church.
                     From his childhood, fourth-century St. Cyril studied the Scriptures intently.  He became a deacon, then a priest in the Holy Land, when the Arian heresy sprouted, spread, and came to power. This false teaching said that Christ was not divine.  St. Cyril now was bishop of Jerusalem, and in his relentless opposition to the dominant Arians, was three times driven into exile.  Cyril lived long enough to see the heresy condemned by the Council of Constantinople.  His great scholarly and solidly faithful Scripture work produced treatises instructing catechumens, who during Lent study the faith as they prepare to join the Church at Easter.  Most of these priceless ancient texts have survived.

March 19 – Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
                     In this month of St. Joseph, today we celebrate the silent saint’s feast day.  No words of Joseph are recorded in the Bible, but his life speaks volumes of holiness.  Church scholars through the ages have mined great insights from the little information we have on Christ’s earthly father.  This simple carpenter bore his cross as he took his wife, the Blessed Mother into his home, and protected her and the Divine Son through the journey to Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the rearing of Jesus in the humble home there.  St. Joseph is patron and protector of the Universal Church, patron of the dying, of workers, and of our cathedral. 

March 23 – Optional Memorial of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, bishop.
                             St. Turibius was the first male saint of the New World.  A brilliant law scholar in late sixteenth-century Spain, Turibius’s carefully formed legal arguments against his appointment to a Peru archbishopric failed, and he was ordained and sent to South America.  He labored there for several decades, defending the native peoples and settlers.  He also reformed the Church there, rooting out abuses by clergy, returning religious life to holiness and purity.  St. Turibius ministered to St. Rose of Lima, and was assisted in his work by St. Francis Solano.  He founded the first seminary of the Americas in Lima. 

March 25 – Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord.
                    Today we mark the magnificent entry of God into human life and time, the conception of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the lowly Virgin Mary.  Conceived without sin, Mary bowed her head to the will of God, and accepted the sword of suffering, and the joys and glory that awaited her as Mother of Our Lord.  We are told of important parallels with Eve and her yielding to temptation by the fallen angel Lucifer in the garden of Eden.  There, some accounts say, a woman spoke with an angel and erred.  Today, another woman spoke with an angel and pronounced the great saving, “Yes,” to God’s will, countering Eve’s terrible “No,” to obeying God.  
                    
April 2 – Optional Memorial of St. Francis of Paola, hermit.
               This Italian Franciscan spent five of his teenaged years as a hermit, then founded a new order of the Friars Minor that he said was humbler and more austere than the Little Brothers.  Francis worked miracles, including walking over the sea to Sicily.  His motto was, “Out of love.”  He served at the deathbed of King Louis XI of France.

April 4 – Optional Memorial of St. Isidore, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                 This seventh-century Spanish saint is famed for his vast knowledge.  He also is credited with restoring the Spanish Catholic Church, ravaged by barbarian invasions.  A great archbishop and miracle worker, Isidore was the most renowned figure of his century.

April 5 – Optional Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer, priest.
                 This fourteenth-century Spanish saint was on fire for the faith:  he knew the Bible by heart and his blazing preaching converted hardened sinners and penitents from other faiths.  He is called the Angel of the Judgment for his clarion call to men to remember their death.  St. Vincent Ferrer performed many miracles and helped end the Avignon papacy.
                
April 7 – Optional Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle.
                 This seventeenth-century French saint founded the Christian Brothers order and its schools, and introduced fresh, improved teaching methods.  Students all over the world credit De La Salle and his teaching brothers with the uplifting education that changed their lives.
                
April 11 – Optional Memorial of St. Stanislaus of Cracow, bishop and martyr.
                  An eleventh-century Polish saint, Stanislaus is the patron of his country.  He is a great model of courageous opposition to tyranny and personal immorality.  Stanislaus early in his life rose to high positions in the Polish church.  He aligned with Polish nobles who opposed King Boleslaus’ autocracy and dissolution.  The saint as bishop confronted the king with his grave sins, but far from repenting, the monarch threatened Stanislaus life.  When his soldiers fled from carrying out the murder, Boleslaus himself stabbed the bishop to death as he celebrated Mass.  The pope placed the country under interdict, halting many religious activities.  Boleslaus was ousted, and sought refuge and did penance in a monastery.

April 13 – Optional Memorial of St. Martin I, Pope and Martyr.
                  Martin was a seventh-century pope who stood fast against a heresy that said Christ had only one will, a divine will.  Martin’s synod denouncing this belief aroused the anger of the Byzantine Emperor, who sent invaders to Rome to seize the sickly pontiff.  The ailing Martin was brought to Constantinople and placed on trial.  He laughed at the false witnesses who swore to fabricated tales of his disloyalty to God.  The emperor prevailed, and sentenced Martin to public scourging and execution.  A powerful churchman convinced the monarch to simply send Pope Martin away.  Martin perished from harsh conditions in a Crimean prison.  His steadfast opposition to false teaching won him the martyr’s crown and sainthood.  Martin I’s statue stands on the colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

April 21 – Optional Memorial of St. Anselm, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                  St. Anselm built his impressive reputation as theologian, scholar, and able, courageous shepherd of the Church’s flock during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries.  Born in Italy, Anselm rose to prominence when he guided the Church in England from the French Benedictine Bec monastery.  St. Anselm was ordained Archbishop of Canterbury, enacting reforms and defending the Church against royal encroachment.  Finally driven out of the British Isles, Anselm returned to Italy, applying himself to strenuous study and writing, and to shaping his life according to the faith knowledge he gained.

April 23 – Optional Memorial of St. George, martyr, and St. Adalbert, bishop and martyr.
                  We often associate St. George with the British Isles:  their flag displays the red St. George cross and he is England’s patron saint.  The British revere his chivalry and bravery, which they celebrated during the Crusades and the Hundred Years’ War.  St. George was a Roman soldier, born in the Middle East in the third century.  He was martyred by the Roman emperor for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.  St. George is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.   A favorite story is the legend of St. George and the dragon.

St. Adalbert labored for the faith in tenth-century Czechoslovakia and Poland.  Bishop of Prague, he struggled mightily against opposition from noblemen and from indifference among the populace.  He left his see to return to Rome, awaiting the directives of his pope.  The pontiff sent him back to Hungary where he founded a great monastery, Brevnov.  Persecution and general apathy again drove him back to Rome, where the Holy Father allowed him to go to Pomerania (northern Poland) to spread the faith.  Although a friend of the Holy Roman emperor, St. Adalbert suffered continued attacks by the nobility, who eventually murdered the saint and some of his missionaries.

April 24 – Optional Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest and marty r.
                  St. Fidelis of Germandy gave his life for the faith in the turbulent seventeenth century. Christendom was split asunder, and spreading the true faith could cost one his life among the great European civilizations.  Fidelis practiced law and great charity before he joined the Capuchins, newly founded earlier in the sixteenth century.  With the Friars Minor, Fidelis moved unbelievers to faith and the faithful to greater depths of piety and charity.  His works of mercy are remarkable: Fidelis ministered to the Austrian Army when plague swept through the ranks;  he was greatly devoted to the Blessed Mother; he led a mission to convert heretics in Switzerland and there was martyred.

April 25 – Feast of St. Mark, evangelist.
                  John Mark wrote the second and shortest Gospel about 50 A.D.   He was the son of the woman, Mary who owned the Cenacle, the Upper Room, where the apostles and Blessed Mother awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit after the Ascension of Our Lord.  Mark went on to become a close friend and aide to St. Paul and to St. Peter.  His Gospel relates a great deal about the prince of the apostles and speaks to Roman Gentiles as they converted to the new Christianity.  Mark was martyred when he served as bishop of Alexandria.  His remains are entombed at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy.  His Gospel symbol is the lion or winged lion, referring to his opening lines that describe St. John the Baptist as the voice crying in the wilderness, like a roaring lion.

April 28 – Optional Memorial of St. Peter Chanel, priest and martyr; Optional Memorial of St. Louis Mary de Montfort, priest.
                                 Born in the early nineteenth century, St. Peter Chanel was a parish priest who was inspired by missionary zeal to journey to the South Pacific islands to spread the faith with the Society of Mary or Marists.  The missionaries’ lot was difficult:  conditions were hard, the islanders were hostile, and converts were few.  The local chief’s son then asked for Baptism, touching off his father’s fury, with warriors descending on St. Peter, who was killed.  Two years later, the entire island was Catholic.  St. Peter Chanel is called the Apostle of Oceania.
                                        
                  St. Louis de Montfort is famous for his devotion to the Blessed Mother.  He chose to take the town of his baptism as part of his name, leaving off his given surname. “Grignion.”  He wrote the classics True Devotion to Mary and The Secret of the Rosary.  The saint’s motto was “Totus Tuus,” all for you, adopted by Pope St. John Paul II.  St. Louis de Montfort preached missions throughout France, and founded religious orders for men and women, both dedicated to Our Lady.  He encouraged frequently receiving the Eucharist, consecration to Mary, and praying the rosary every day.

April 29 – Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, virgin and Doctor of the Church.
                  St. Catherine is extraordinary among the remarkable company of saints.  She began to draw closer to the Lord as a child, growing up in a large prosperous family in fourteenth-century Siena.  When she was six years old, Catherine saw a vision of Christ over a church.  Our Lord smiled at and blessed the little girl, who felt herself enveloped in mystical graces, and wished never to leave this state.  She grieved her family by refusing to marry and took up her life of prayer and charity as a Third Order Dominican, who did not take vows or live in community, but pursued their vocations at home.  St. Catherine saw the Lord many times, and received a betrothal ring from Him, a token visible only to herself.  She also received the stigmata, Christ’s five wounds from the nails of the cross and the centurion’s spear.  Catherine, while uneducated, dictated many letters and wrote her famous Dialogue, as she drew around her many disciples.  St. Catherine is well-remembered for her strenuous efforts to reunite the papacy, divided between Avignon, France, and Rome, although she preferred a retired life.  She died at 33 years old.

April 30 - Optional Memorial of St. Pius V, pope.
                  This poor shepherd boy Michael Ghislieri, who joined the Dominicans, reigned as Pope Pius V amidst the tumult of the sixteenth century, when Christendom divided and great tracts of Europe fell to the conquering Islamic Ottoman Empire.  The Dominican friar’s greatest achievement saw the reconvening and conclusion of the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent, whose widespread corrections he strove to apply to the Universal Church in the face of the Protestant challenge.  Pius V also is renowned for his role in the great naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571.  In this Greek Islands bay, the Christian Holy League, summoned by the Holy Father, came to grips with the Moslem fleet.  The Pope invoked the aid of the Blessed Mother, calling on all Christians to pray the Rosary, adorning the battleships with crucifixes and images of Our Lady.  The League drove back the enemy, the victory gratefully credited to Our Mother Mary, first under the title Our Lady of Victory, later Our Lady of the Rosary, a feast day celebrated October 7. 
                               
May 1 – Optional Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker.
               Today, during this year of St. Joseph, we celebrate him as the patron of workers, and model of the dignity of work.  St. Joseph provided for the Holy Family through his carpentry, and taught these skills to his foster Son.  Work not only is necessary for payng for food, shelter, and clothing, but it allows us to discover and develop the talents Our Lord gives to us.  On this feast day we contemplate both the duty and the right to work.

May 2 – Memorial of St. Athanasius, Doctor of the Church. 
              This august fourth-century saint fought a fifty-year battle against the formidable Arian heresy which denied Christ’s divinity. Athanasius suffered exile five times during his 46-year reign as bishop of Alexandria (Egypt).  He stood staunchly for Christ against five emperors who sought his life. Once the saint hid in a deep, dry water tank, his whereabouts a sworn secret known by only one person. 

May 3 – Feast of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles.
               Philip is the apostle who delighted in bringing the skeptical Nathaniel to Jesus.  Nathaniel asked, “can any good come out of Nazareth?” on hearing that this inspiring new rabbi hailed from that small, obscure town.  Philip replied simply, firmly, and fervently, “Come and see.”  Philip also was incredulous when Our Lord asked how to buy bread for the hungry multitude, saying it would require an enormous sum of money. Jesus also chided Philip when he asked to see the Father, about whom Our Lord spoke.  Jesus told the apostle that whoever sees the Christ, sees the Father.  In Turkey where he traveled to bring the Good News, Philip was crucified upside down.  St. James the Lesser was a relative of Jesus and brother of the apostle St. Jude.   He met with St. Paul and St. Peter after Our Lord’s resurrection, and was bishop of Jerusalem.  St. James was murdered by a mob of enemies to the new Christian faith.

Mother’s Day.
               America first celebrated this holiday in 1914, when President Wilson established it on the second Sunday of May.  We honor our mothers, and women who mothered us, and remember their gift of life and nurturing, in the pattern of our Blessed Mother, Mary.
                      
May 10 – Optional Memorial of St. Damien de Veuster, priest; Optional Memorial of St. John of Avila, Doctor of the Church.
                  Damien de Veuster, born Joseph in Belgium in the mid-nineteenth century, shared the inspiration of many saints to missionary work.  De Veuster later took the name Damien when he joined the missions of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  He replaced his ill missionary brother for the journey to serve the natives of the Hawaiian Islands, where he was ordained.  Father Damien volunteered for service to the lepers marooned on Molokai.  He spent 16 years there, caring for their spiritual and physical well-being.  St. Damien was able to say to his spiritual children, “we lepers,” when he caught the disease, and died from it.   The Eucharist, he said, was his and his fellow lepers’ salvation: "It is at the foot of the altar that we find the strength we need in our isolation..."

                 St. John of Avila recently was named a Doctor of the Church.  He was a fellow Spanish mystic with St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.  St. John was a great orator whose homilies drew crowds to the churches where he spoke.  He exhorted his flocks to reform their lives and cleanse the Church of abuses.

May 12 – Optional Memorial of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs; Optional Memorial of St. Pancras, martyr.
              Sts. Nereus and Achilleus were first-century Roman soldiers baptized by St. Peter.  They abandoned their armor and weapons to worship Christ.  The two converts served the high-born St. Domitilla, who also was martyred for her Christian faith.  Nereus and Achilleus were betrayed to Roman authorities and executed for their allegiance to Jesus Christ.

                  St. Pancras was a fourth-century youth from a noble family in present-day Turkey.  He refused to worship pagan gods and bravely suffered death for his faith.  He gives us a shining example of fidelity to oaths and vows.

May 13 - Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima.
                Today we honor Mary as Our Lady of Fatima, the beautiful woman who, in 1917, appeared to three shepherd children near a village in Portugal.  Our Blessed Mother told the children to pray the rosary, do penance for sins, and pray for sinners.  For six months, the Queen of Heaven appeared to Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, with this message, her apparitions drawing larger and larger crowds, spreading her message worldwide.  At the final appearance in October, 1917, a miracle of the sun took place, with stupendous light and movement of the blazing star.  Fatima now is a great shrine, crowned by a majestic basilica, where pilgrims flock to pray and petition Our Lady.  The Cathedral parish enjoys the presence of a Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the lower chapel.  The statue also travels to Vermont parishes for special missions.

May 14 – Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle and martyr.
                The remaining eleven apostles chose Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot after the Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord, before the Holy Spirit descended.  Matthias had followed Jesus as one of the 72 disciples.  He was blessed to receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  Matthias suffered persecution in Jerusalem with his brother apostles, and set out to bring the faith to eastern lands.  He was martyred during his missions.  A holy man who lived during the apostle’s time handed down this saying of Matthias: “It behooves us to combat the flesh, and make use of it, without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.”
                       
May 15 – Optional Memorial of St. Isidore.
                  This twelfth-century Spanish farmer was admired for his holy and humble  life, as he tended fields and flocks.  His wife Maria De La Cabeza, also is a saint. Isidore used his time behind the plow and in the fields to speak to and listen to God.  He was generous to the poor and stood up for humane treatment of animals.

May 18 – Optional Memorial of St. John I, pope and martyr.
                  The sixth-century pope died in prison in Ravenna (Italy), sentenced there by the Arian King Theodoric after a mission to the Emperor Justin in Constantinople. Jealous of Pope John’s magnificent reception at the imperial court and furious at Emperor Justin’s opposition to the Arian heresy, the King threw Pope John in prison, where the elderly pontiff died a few days later.

May 20 - Optional Memorial of St. Bernardine of Siena, priest.
                  The Holy Name of Jesus won great honor and adoration from this fourteenth-century Italian saint, who created the symbol of the letters IHS surrounded by sun rays.  In his youth, Bernardine nursed the sick during an epidemic and when of age, joined the Franciscans.  Bernardine’s superior sent him out to preach, in spite of his throat ailment.  The Lord cured the problem and Bernardine traveled all over his country to spread the Word and devotion to the Holy Name.  He carried out important Church reforms and drew many saintly followers.  Lay people and clergy displayed the Holy Name in churches and on public buildings.

May 21 – Optional Memorial of St. Christopher Magallanes, priest and martyr, and his companions, martyrs.
                 Today we honor 24 Mexican martyrs, most of them clergy, a few laypeople, who resisted the anti-Catholic regimes of post-Revolutionary Mexico in the 1920s.  These martyrs practiced their forbidden faith with armed rebels who call themselves the Cristeros.  Their battle cry was “Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King!”  The martyrs were arrested and executed throughout Mexico.
                               
May 22 – Optional Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, religious.
                  St. Rita traded a simple, solitary, devout youth for marriage to a violent husband, whose two sons shared his bad disposition.  After 18 years, St. Rita’s husband repented of his sins and begged forgiveness.  He was killed in a feud and both sons died from illness. Rita sought to join the religious life and was granted a miracle to enter a convent.  The rest of her life heaped physical suffering on the holy nun when she asked for and received a wound from Christ’s Crown of Thorns.  Her order forbid her mingling with the community because of the festering gash.  Miracles, however, occurred when out-of-season roses and figs appeared at her request.  When she died, her body gave off a sublimely sweet fragrance and remains incorrupt.  St. Rita is the saint of the impossible.

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.
                          This new feast honors Our Lady as the nurturing parent of the Universal Church.  We all turn to Mary in prayer and petition, and she shepherds us to her Son, and to holiness.  This feast falls on the Monday after Pentecost.

May 25 - Optional Memorial of St. Bede the Venerable, priest and Doctor of the Church.  Optional Memorial of St. Gregory VII, pope.  Optional Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, virgin. 
                St. Bede was a seventh- and eighth-century English Benedictine monk and historian, called Venerable during his life because of his fervent, sound, and eloquent writings on the Scripture and Catholic doctrine.  St. Bede brought the wisdom of the early Church to this period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages.  A great scholar, St. Bede studied all subjects and sciences, and translated sacred texts and Scripture for his English brethren.

               St. Gregory VII was an eleventh-century Benedictine monk, cardinal and pope, who contended with the Holy Roman Emperor, strove to cleanse the Church of abuses, and defend her before civil authorities.  A famous account shows a penitent King Henry IV making a painful pilgrimage, the Walk to Canossa (the pontiff’s residence), to the Pope, who reinstated the monarch in the Church’s good graces.  That peace, however, failed and the Emperor finally exiled Gregory from Rome.  He died the next year in Salerno , Italy .

                Born in the sixteenth century, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi died in 1607.   This saint was a Carmelite nun and mystic who experienced many spiritual ecstasies and practiced great austerities in her life.  Her motto was “Suffer, not die!”  Her incorruptible body is displayed in a glass coffin at the Carmelite church in Florence, Italy.

May 26 – Memorial of St. Philip Neri, priest.
                 Sixteenth-century St. Philip is our saint of humor, laughter, and joy.  He loved a good joke.  St. Philip also practiced great love for neighbor, spreading healing with miracles for the body and soul, and tended the sick and destitute.  St. Philip founded the first oratory, a home for priests united in faith and charity.  This ground-breaking oratory was the model for the British oratories founded by Saint John Henry Newman in the nineteenth century.  Oratories are found today throughout the world.  Saint Philip Neri also is the patron saint of the U.S. Army Special Forces and of the city of Rome .

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. 
                 Forty days after Easter, we celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord to His place at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.  While He no longer walks the earth, He is present Body and Blood, soul and divinity in the Blessed Sacrament, which we may adore, pray to, and receive daily in Holy Communion.  On leaving His apostles, Our Lord exhorted them to go out to all the world to spread the Good News and to baptize.  He promised to be with them till the end of time.

May 27 – Optional Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, bishop.
                 A seventh-century priest, Augustine was sent by Pope St. Gregory the Great from Rome with other Benedictine monks to convert the English peoples.  The monks’ mission bore rich fruit:  English royalty and nobles converted to Christianity, bringing their subjects into the Church.  St. Augustine was the first Archbishop of Canterbury and also is known as Augustine of Kent. 

May 29 – Optional Memorial of Pope St. Paul VI.
                 Italian archbishop and cardinal, Pope Paul was born at the end of the nineteenth century.  He succeeded Pope Saint John XIII in 1963.  Paul VI completed the Second Vatican Council and set in place many changes, including a new Roman Missal.  He also issued Humanae Vitae, On Human Life, the landmark papal encyclical that rejected artificial contraception. Pope Paul VI died in 1978, succeeded by Pope John Paul I, who died only a month after his election as pope.

May 31 – Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
                 Today we again honor our Blessed Mother in the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.  We see her hastening to visit her relative after the Annunciation.  She calls a greeting to her cousin Elizabeth, who is carrying St. John in her womb, and is sublimely uplifted at the voice of her young kinswoman, bearing Our Lord.  St. John leaps for joy at the presence of the Lamb of God, and is sanctified.  Mary sings her great Magnificat.

Memorial Day.
                 On this Memorial Day, we honor and give thanks to the men and women who have died in the service of our country, to protect our freedom and civil liberties, including the right to religious freedom.  It’s a day to decorate graves and pray for veterans.

June – Month of The Sacred Heart.
            Throughout this month, we adore Christ’s Sacred Heart, burning with love for mankind.  This devotion has a long Church history, greatly strengthened by the seventeenth-century revelations from Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French nun.  We also celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

June 1 - Memorial of St. Justin, martyr. 
              Born in Jerusalem of Greek background, Justin was a second-century scholar and writer.  He immersed himself in philosophy, a pursuit that led him to the truth of the Christian faith.  Justin composed two famous defenses of the faith, the Apologies, addressed to two persecuting Roman emperors.  A royal edict stopped the oppression but a cruel official arrested Justin and sentenced him to torture that allowed him his heartfelt wish to shed his blood for Christ.  St. Justin Martyr left many precious writings, some of them describing the rites of the early Church.
                             
June 2 – Optional Memorial of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, martyrs.
               Peter was an exorcist and Marcellinus a priest imprisoned for their faith under the fourth-century Emperor Diocletian.  In their Roman captivity, these two early Christians continued to aid and convert fellow prisoners, until they were threatened with torture and beheaded.  We hear their names in the Canon of the Mass.

June 3 - Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, martyrs. 
               Nineteenth-century Charles and 21 other young Ugandan men, who served at the royal court, were martyred by order of their king for their Catholic faith.  A convert to Christianity, Charles led the royal pages, a handsome, athletic, upright young man, who protected his young charges from palace predators.  His king fell victim to evil councilors who convinced him that the Christians were enemies, and ordered the execution of the 22 pages and Lwanga.

Pentecost Sunday.
                                Today we complete the Redemption with the descent of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, upon the disciples and the Blessed Virgin, in Jerusalem, in the upper room where Jesus had celebrated the Passover.  It is 50 days after Easter.  Our priest wears red vestments.  The Gospel tells the well-loved story of the great sound and wind of the Spirit’s descent, and the tongues of fire which came to rest over each disciple.  The Spirit fired their faith and zeal, and they went out to teach and baptize, as bidden by their Lord, all but one of the 12 apostles, unto death.  We also end the Easter season today, and tomorrow return to Ordinary, or numbered, Time, during the weekdays.

June 5 – Memorial of St. Boniface, century bishop and martyr.
               St. Boniface was an eighth-century Benedictine monk and a great medieval figure.  He came from England as apostle to, and later patron of Germany, where he was martyred, sent to convert those peoples by Pope Gregory II.  St. Boniface is buried at the renowned Fulda Abbey.

June 6 - Optional Memorial of St. Norbert, bishop.  
               Norbert lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.  Norbert transformed his life after a dramatic conversion, and became a great archbishop in his native Germany.

June 9 – Optional Memorial of St. Ephrem, deacon and Doctor of the Church.
               This fourth-century saint also is called “Harp of the Holy Spirit.”  He was Syrian and lived in a time of rampant heresy and armed conflict among neighboring nations.  Ephrem composed hymns and poems, and was devoted to the Blessed Mother.  He refused the priesthood out of humility, and denied himself many comforts.  He wrote and preached, especially in Eastern tongues, valiantly defending the Church. 

June 11 - Memorial of St. Barnabas, apostle. 
                Although not one of the original twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, St. Barnabas is included in their company because of his zeal and preaching in the time after Christ’s death and resurrection.  Barnabas was a friend and companion of St. Paul .

June 13 - Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, priest and Doctor of the Church. 
                 Born in Portugal , St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost things and revered as a miracle worker.  He joined the Franciscans and was a firm defender of the faith, especially throughout Italy.  He also was a great friend to the poor - St. Anthony’s Bread, a money collection, is named in his honor.

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
                              Christ revealed this devotion to French Visitation nun Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673.  Pope Pius IX declared the feast day in 1856, placing it at the end of the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi.  Catholics had worshipped the Sacred Heart in earlier times, but devotion spread widely after the revelations to Sister Margaret Mary, when Jesus showed her His Sacred Heart surrounded by flames. “My Heart is so full of love for men,” Christ said, “that It can no longer contain the flames of Its burning love. I must discover to men the treasures of My Heart and save them from perdition." In 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated mankind to the Sacred Heart.  Within this devotion, Christ also bestowed the Twelve Promises, and the graces and blessings of Nine First Fridays. 

Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Right after the great feast of Jesus’s Sacred Heart, we honor His mother’s deep love for the human race in today’s holiday.  Mary’s heart often is shown with a ring of roses and a circle of fire with daggers.   Our Mother suffers for her children and extends her pure and beautifully loving heart to them, drawing them closer to her Son, to their salvation, and their everlasting happiness.   We devote all of the month of August to the Immaculate Heart.  From our devotions to these two sources of supernatural love, the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, we receive choice blessings and grow in holiness.  This devotion to our Blessed Mother has a long history in the Church.  Most recently, Pope Pius XII dedicated the entire world to Our Lady’s protection during World War II and decreed a feast day of consecration to her Immaculate Heart. 

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.
                                It is in the name of the Holy Trinity that we receive Baptism and it is a great pillar of our Catholic faith.  Its place after Pentecost and the end of the Easter season reflects its supreme importance as the fulfillment of our redemption, through each person of the Triune God.  We adore and thank the Three Persons for their love of us, their creatures. 
                                In the Act of Faith, we affirm, “I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

June 19 – Optional Memorial for St. Romuald, Abbot. 
                  Eleventh-century Italian St. Romuald is honored for his great humility, practicing severe penances and praying fervently.  He founded the Camaldolese order of Benedictine monks, who combined solitary, or eremitical (hermit’s) life with life in a monastic community.  The order is named for a great monastery established at Camalduli in Italy.  Romuald advised his monks, "Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms—never leave it."
      
June 21 – Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, confessor.
                 St. Aloysius died a young man, 23 years old, revered for his purity, which he had consecrated to God when he was a child.  The boy, however, also enjoyed the affluent social life to which he was born, but shunned immoral pleasures.  Aloysius was born of warrior stock: he wanted to be tough, but forced punishments on himself to win self-control.  He joined the Jesuits as a youth, and came under the spiritual direction of St. Robert Bellarmine.  The mentor ordered Aloysius to stop his extreme penances, and work on perfecting the prayer life of his order.  Aloysius conquered his aversion to sickness, and died nursing plague victims.  He is the patron saint of AIDS caregivers and patients, and of teenagers.

June 22 – Optional Memorial of St. Paulinus of Nola, bishop and confessor; Optional Memorial of Sts. John Fisher, bishop and martyr and Thomas More, martyr.
                 Paulinus was born of a prominent, wealthy family in fourth-century France.   He was well educated and served in high public positions, including governor of an Italian province.  There, Paulinus came to the Christian faith through St. Felix of Nola.  Paulinus returned to France, married, and suffered the death of his first child.  Devastated, Paulinus and his wife sought the religious life.  Paulinus was ordained a priest and later a bishop.  He is revered for his great charity.

                 Sts. John Fisher, bishop and martyr, and Thomas More, martyr.
                 Both of these saints were men of letters: scholars and writers. Thomas More also was England’s King Henry VIII’s Chancellor. John Fisher was a bishop and Cambridge University chancellor, and was named a cardinal before his death.  He staunchly defended the Church against heresy.  Both men refused to obey their king and declare his first marriage to Queen Catherine invalid, and Henry head of the Church in England.  Fisher and More both were executed in the summer of 1535, within two weeks of each other.

June 24 – Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist.
                 We celebrate only three birthdays in the official Church calendar:  Our Lord, the Blessed Mother, and St. John.  A relative of Jesus, John recognized the Christ in the womb of Mary at the Visitation and leapt for joy.  He baptized the Savior and proclaimed Him the Lamb of God, whose sandal he was unworthy to loosen.  St. John was the voice crying in the desert, calling sinners to repentance.  He admonished King Herod for his immoral marriage, and was imprisoned for speaking this truth.  Later, Herod reluctantly held to his own impulsive compliment to his captivating stepdaughter, and ordered the beheading of John.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi.
                 Today’s feast day allows us to celebrate with proper joy what Christ instituted at the Last Supper, the Holy Eucharist.   St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “What more wondrous than this holy sacrament! In it bread and wine are changed substantially, and under the appearance of a little bread and wine is had Christ Jesus, God and perfect Man. In this sacrament sins are purged away, virtues are increased, the soul is satiated with an abundance of every spiritual gift.” 

June 27 – Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                  This great defender of the faith is hailed as one of the Church’s Greek fathers.  Fifth-century Cyril was bishop of Alexandria.  He stood unwavering against heretics who denied Christ’s dual nature as human and divine.  St. Cyril headed the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., an august gathering that affirmed Jesus as True God and True Man, and the oneness of Christ.  The Ephesus declaration verified Our Blessed Mother as Theotokos, the Mother of God.  St. Cyril also left the Church a treasure trove of writing.

June 28 – Memorial of St. Irenaeus, bishop and martyr.
                  This second-century saint tirelessly defended the Christian faith against the rampant heresies of his time.  Irenaeus grew in faith and wisdom under the magnificent spirit and knowledge of St. Polycarp.  Irenaeus took up the cross to journey to Lyons, France and spread the faith there, assisting an aging bishop and succeeding him in that see.  He won great success, converting many souls.  He preached and wrote, refuting every point of pagan and heretical thought.  His diocese practiced the deepest piety and charity.  Irenaeus won the crown of martyrdom in a time of persecution by the Roman emperor.

June 29 – Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles.
                 Saint Peter, the Rock, the first pope, prince of the apostles, was martyred in Rome in 66 or 67 A.D., crucified upside down, because he said he was unworthy to be executed in the same position as his Lord and Master, Jesus the Christ. Saint Peter was buried on the Vatican hill where his tomb and the great basilica that bears his name stand. Saint Paul, born Saul, and a ferocious persecutor of the first Christians, was executed in Rome around the same time as Saint Peter. This apostle to the Gentiles received a dramatic conversion call from Our Lord after Our Savior’s time on Earth, and traveled to many countries to spread the Gospel, writing his famous letters to the various fledgling Christian communities.

June 30 – Optional Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church.
                 Following the great feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, we remember the early Christian martyrs who were condemned to death in that same era, through the crazed cruelty of Emperor Nero.  Christians were hunted and executed as culprits in the massive fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64 A.D.  From the blood of those martyrs grew the seeds of the Christian Church.

July – Month of the Most Precious Blood.
           During July, after the Month of the Sacred Heart, we honor the great sacrifice of Our Lord’s Precious Blood. Sometimes we are able to take His Precious Blood in the Holy Eucharist. July 1, and later, the first Sunday in July, formerly were feasts of the Precious Blood. The first celebration was established by Pope Pius IX in 1849 when he was living in exile away from Rome during the First Italian War for Independence. One of the pope’s companions was Don Giovanni Merlini, Superior General of the Fathers of the Most Precious Blood. Don Merlini asked the Holy Father to declare a feast day to the Precious Blood to hasten an end to the war.  There are many devotions and prayers to the Precious Blood, whose powerful intercession we beg in fervent petitions.

July 1 – Optional Memorial of St. Junipero Serra, priest.
              Baptized Miguel José Serra, our saint took the name of Saint Francis of Assisi’s friend Brother Juniper when he joined the Franciscans.  He preached and taught at the University of Padua until he was 35 years old, when, like other saints, he obeyed an urgent personal call to leave his rich and secure faith life and become a missionary.  Junipero wished to bring Jesus to the American Indians in the Spanish territories of the American West.  The following decades brought him physical danger from friends, countrymen, and strangers, as he pursued the arduous and valiant task of spreading the faith in Mexico, then founding Catholic missions up and down the California coast, converting the Native Americans there.  St. Junipero Serra pressed for a Bill of Rights for the Indians, to guard their health and welfare.  He is buried at Mission San Carlo Borromeo in Carmel, California.

July 3 – Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle. 
              Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, is best known for doubting Jesus’s resurrection until he had seen and touched the risen Lord’s side and hands.  The Gospel tells how Our Lord appeared when Thomas was present, and invited him to touch his sacred wounds.  Thomas cried out, “My Lord and My God!”  We may recite this interjection to ourselves at the elevation of the Host at the Consecration at Mass.   During our Lord’s earthly ministry, Thomas urged his fellow apostles to return with Jesus to Bethany, near Jerusalem where Our Lord had been threatened, saying, “Let us also go and die with Him.” At Bethany , Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  Thomas traveled to Asia to spread the Gospel and was martyred there.

July 5 – Optional Memorials of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, priest; St. Elizabeth of Portugal.
               This St. Anthony showed great piety as a child.  Born of an affluent Lombardy, Italy family, Anthony’s youthful charity to the poor showed his love of God through love of neighbor.  Academic excellence complemented Anthony’s devotion to his faith and he became a doctor of medicine and a scholar of philosophy.  He discerned God’s call to the priesthood, and was ordained while continuing to teach, practice his deep piety, and help the poor.  St. Anthony Zaccaria founded the Society of Clerks Regular or Barnabites to help him in his work. 

               Optional Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal.
               Elizabeth was a fourteenth-century Spanish princess.  She married a Portuguese king who succeeded in statecraft but failed in marriage. He assisted his wife, however, to help those in need:  children, the sick, the hungry, travelers.  In spite of her husband’s sinful behavior, Elizabeth showed joy and strength amidst her trials.  Her husband repented on his deathbed and the widow Elizabeth joined the Third Order Franciscans.  She continued to serve her fellow man, striving to reconcile her hostile family members, until her natural death.  Her body has been incorruptible.

July 6 – Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr.
               This eleven-year old Italian saint died defending her own chastity and that of her assailant.  Before she died, she forgave Alessandro Serenelli who stabbed her to death for refusing his advances.  This murderer reformed his life, and was present at her canonization in 1950. Maria Goretti grew up in poverty and hardship, but loved God and feared to offend him.  Her toilsome life drew her to Our Lord as her only solace and strength.  She is a model for young people to shun the easy, sinful pleasures of this world, and to take great care to preserve one’s innocence and chastity.

July 9 – Optional Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, priest and companions, Chinese martyrs.
               This group comprises more than 100 laypeople, foreign missionaries, and diocesan priests who died for their Catholic faith in China, from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.  Augustine Zhao Rong was a priest in that company.  He was executed in 1815.   These saints include women, children, and elders.

July 11 – Memorial of St. Benedict, abbot.
               Born in Nursia, Italy in the late fifth century, Benedict was educated in Rome, but rejected city life and sought refuge in the wilderness, living as a hermit for several years while attracting many followers.  He was persuaded to found monasteries and lead them as abbot.  He later established the great cliff-side monastery of Monte Cassino, where he wrote his famous rule.  Benedictine monks reside at the Weston Priory and Benedictine nuns live at the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Westfield , VT.

July 12 – Optional Memorial of Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin.
                 This couple was the father and mother of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower, or Thérèse of Lisieux.  Zélie died when Thérèse was a little girl.  Louis was a watchmaker and Zélie a lace maker by trade.  They also were parents to four more daughters who became Carmelite sisters.  Four other children died young. The couple modeled holiness for their children after they gave up youthful desires to enter religious life.  

July 13 – Optional Memorial of St. Optional Memorial of St. Henry.
                 This king wore a worldly crown and strove to merit a celestial one.  Henry was a tenth-and eleventh-century prince of present-day Germany.  During his reign, he restored churches destroyed by invading pagans.  He built monasteries and entreated the help of the Lord in his battles.  Henry was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany.  He is renowned for spreading his royal wealth throughout his kingdoms in service to the Church.  Many conversions and a great increase in piety followed. 

July 14 – Memorial of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin.
                The Lily of the Mohawks lived her pious, suffering life in seventeenth-century America and Quebec.  Through French Franciscan missionaries, she converted to Catholicism and endured persecution from her people.  At the end of her short life, she lived in a Native American Christian community near Montreal.   She served the Lord in great humility, through worship and aid to her neighbor.  She died when she was 24 years old, her disease-disfigured face and body healed in death.   
July 15 – Memorial of St. Bonaventure, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                This great Franciscan, “the Seraphic Doctor,” flourished in the high Middle Ages, the thirteenth century, contributing his scholarship, zeal, and profound wisdom to the faith.  St. Bonaventure fulfilled St. Paul’s dictum that all faith, works and talents must be infused with love:  his admirable leadership and intellect combined with a mild, winning personality and a “heart full of love,” as the Council of Lyons described him.

July 16 – Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
                This feast day honors the Carmelite religious order.  In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah put the pagan prophets to shame when he prayed on Mount Carmel for rain to end a terrible drought.  After his entreaty to God, the heavens opened with blessed showers for the parched land.  Hermits long dwelled on this majestic peak rising above Israel’s Mediterranean shore.  They were formed into a papal-approved order in the 1200s after a long-awaited petition to the Holy Father finally was granted.   The monks had turned to the Blessed Mother to further their cause.  Our Lady appeared in 1251 to the order’s superior Simon Stock, bestowing on him the brown scapular with the promise, “This shall be the privilege for you and for all the Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall be saved.” St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. John of the Cross and other great saints were Carmelites.  The lower chapel of our Cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel with a fine statue flanking the sanctuary.

July 18 – Optional Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, priest.
                 Our saint is patron of hospitals, nurses, hospital workers, and sick people.  For all of his life, Camillus suffered from an incurable leg wound.  He was committed to a hospital for hopeless cases, which, in sixteenth-century Rome, were places of despair.  This saint, who had indulged his youth in immoral living, turned to caring for his fellow patients in body and soul.  He studied for the priesthood when he was in his mid-thirties, sometimes attending classes with children.  Camillus founded the order of Ministers of the Sick, whose members did not shrink from nursing plague patients.     

July 20 – Optional Memorial of St. Apollinaris, bishop and martyr.
                 St. Apollinaris was ordained a bishop by St. Peter in the first century.  Apollinaris traveled to Ravenna, Italy, to convert that city and region.  Pagan enemies dealt him terrible beatings from which he recovered, sometimes miraculously.  Apollinaris was driven into exile for his tireless efforts to spread the new Christian faith, which succeeded in making many converts.  He performed miracles, and survived torture and shipwreck, succumbing to a final dreadful assault.

July 21 – Optional Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, priest and Doctor of the Church.
               Christened Julius Caesar, St. Lawrence took his religious name when he joined the Capuchin Franciscans.  He was born in the mid-1500s in the Italian town of Brindisi.  Lawrence mastered languages and is known among the Church Doctors for his superb linguistic abilities.  He used his facility in other tongues to preach far and wide, his sermons described as greatly elevating.  Lawrence also was a diplomat, bringing enemies to peace.  He fought for the Church in the Counter-Reformation, implementing the reforms of the Council of Trent.  St. Lawrence spread the Capuchin order, founding and supervising the many houses throughout Europe.  His towering legacy included bountiful charity to the poor and sick.

July 22 – Feast of St. Mary Magdalene.
                Known as the “apostle to the apostles,” Mary Magdalene was the first person to announce Christ’s resurrection to His apostles, as they waited in fear and hope that first Sunday. She and a group of women came to tend the Lord’s body that morning; all of them except Mary left when the angel told them the Lord had risen. Mary stayed behind and amidst her grieved weeping, mistook the risen Christ for the gardener, begging Him to tell her where the Lord’s holy remains had been taken. “Mary!” said Christ. She recognized Him and fell at His feet. The Lord then urged her to go in haste to bear the joyful tidings to “my brothers.” “I have seen the Lord!” she exclaimed to the apostles, and Peter and John leaped up and ran to the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene is described in the Bible as a follower of Jesus, out of whom seven devils were driven. She also was one of the three Marys under the cross at Jesus’s crucifixion.

July 23 – Optional Memorial of St. Bridget, religious.
                 St. Bridget was a fourteenth-century Swedish noblewoman who led a holy and pious life from her childhood.  She married a prince and reared eight children including a daughter Catherine who became a saint.  She gave generously to the poor and opened a home for the sick, nursing them herself with great tenderness.  Bridget received visions from Our Lord and especially meditated on Christ’s passion.  After her husband’s death, she founded the Bridgettines, the Order of the Most Holy Savior and established a monastery at Vadstena.  A famous devotion is the 15 prayers of St. Bridget, honoring the blows Jesus received on his arrest, torture, and Way of the Cross.  She is the patron saint of Sweden.

July 25 – Feast of St. James, apostle.
                 James, also called the Greater, perhaps because he was taller than his fellow apostle, James the Lesser, was brother to St. John the Evangelist and Apostle.  Both were sons of Zebedee, and were fishermen, like their father.  In an endearing gesture, Our Lord called them Sons of Thunder, for their convincing evangelizing or their outspokenness, we are unsure.  James witnessed the Transfiguration, and kept vigil with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.  James was said to have spread the faith in Western Europe before he was martyred.  From his legendary efforts there, we have the great Way of St. James of Compostela, a pilgrimage that ends at the majestic cathedral in Compostela, Spain.  James’s symbol is the seashell.                      

July 24 – Optional Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhluf, priest.
                 St. Sharbel lived as a hermit for the last 20 years of his life.  Born Joseph in 1828 in a Lebanese mountain village, he was a monk and ordained priest devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Holy Eucharist.  He spent his time in simplicity and austerity, prayer, and charity, a model of monastic holiness.  Many miracles are credited to St. Sharbel.

July 26 – Memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary.
                Sts. Joachim and Anne are the grandparents of Jesus.  We honor them for the holiness that formed their daughter, Mary, whom they dedicated to God when she was a child.  In nearby Quebec, many of us have traveled to the great shrine, St. Anne de Beaupré, where we see awe-inspiring proof of miraculous physical healings in the scores of crutches left behind by cured pilgrims.  Another great pilgrimage site is St. Anne d’Auray in Brittany, France.  Our Cathedral’s lower chapel displays a statue of St. Anne teaching the little girl Mary.  St. Anne’s Shrine in Isle La Motte also is dedicated to the mother of Our Lady.

July 29 – Memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
                 Today’s feast is new to the Church’s calendar: it used to be the memorial of St. Martha.  This family of brother and sisters showed great hospitality to Our Lord during his ministry years.  We remember Lazarus raised from the dead.  Martha is the saint who received our Lord’s gentle correction when she admonished him to tell her sister Mary to help serve the meal instead of sitting at Jesus’s feet, listening to his teaching. “Martha, Martha,” Jesus said. “Mary has chosen the better part.” Martha later showed her great faith when she went out to meet the Lord after her brother Lazarus’s death. “I have come to believe that you are the Christ,” she told Jesus. Tradition says that Martha was banished with Lazarus, Mary, and others to certain death in a ship set adrift without sails or oars. The Lord miraculously guided the ship to Marseilles, France, where Martha brought many people to the faith. Her tomb lies at her shrine in Tarascon, France.

July 30 – Optional Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                 “The Man of Golden Speech” was archbishop of Ravenna, Italy, the Roman Empire’s capital at that time.  This fifth-century saint is renowned for his eloquence. Peter Chrysologus rooted out heresy and abuses within the Church.  Two hundred of his sermons have been handed down to us.  One of his famous sayings is "if you jest with the devil, you cannot rejoice with Christ."

July 31– Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest, founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.
               Ignatius was a sixteenth-century Spanish soldier. He suffered a serious leg wound in battle and spent his long convalescence reading holy works. When he recovered, he transformed his life, hanging up his weapons, and devoting himself to penitence and the faith, improving himself through more education. He founded the Society of Jesus, whose priests became courageous and zealous missionaries, giving their lives everywhere, in the New World, in England, fighting heresy and restoring piety.  St. Ignatius composed the Spiritual Exercises for his new-found order, and spent his life in extraordinary works of piety and charity. 

August 2 – Optional Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop; Saint Peter Julian Eymard, priest.
                    St. Eusebius was a courageous Roman bishop of the fourth century.  He was a formidable leader, founding dioceses and the canons regular, priests living under a rule similar to monastic orders of that time and engaged in pastoral work.  Eusebius staunchly defending the faith against the powerful Arian heresy, which denied Christ’s divinity and enlisted myriad religious and lay to its destructive ranks.   St. Eusebius withstood terrible threats from his enemies, instead exhorting them to adopt the true faith.  He stood with the great St. Athanasius who railed against the heretics and suffered their persecution.  Eusebius, after a horrific exile to Palestine where the Arians mistreated him, returned at the Emperor Julian’s order and continued to combat heresy and build up the faith. 
                                   
 First a parish priest in nineteenth century France, St. Peter Eymard later joined the Marists (Society of Mary), a missionary order dedicated to the Blessed Mother. Over the years, St. Peter deepened his devotion to the Eucharist, promoting and leading the Forty Hours Devotion.  His adoration of Our Lord’s Body and Blood led to his founding the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.  Its members prepared children for First Communion, invited lapsed to repent, seek absolution and the Eucharist, and encouraged frequent Communion, bolstered by the 1905 decree of Pope Pius X allowing the faithful to receive Our Lord more often.

August 4 – Memorial of St. John Vianney, priest.
                  Our saint today is fondly remembered as the curé of Ars (France).  John Vianney grew up in the shadow of persecution during the French Revolution. Later, with only average intellectual talents, the young Vianney, however, showed great gifts of piety, spiritual knowledge, and dedication to the conversion of souls. He was ordained a priest in spite of his difficulties in school, and became a fervent shepherd of his flock. Vianney was famous for the many hours he spent in the confessional, for his extreme humility, and his inspiring instruction in the tenets of the faith. He drew penitents and converts from far and wide. St. John Vianney is the patron saint of priests.

August 5 – Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
                    Built in the fifth century, this great basilica is one of four Roman mother churches of the universal Church. It is called Major because it is the largest church in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Mother. St. Mary Major stands as a monument to Our Lady’s title as Mother of God, affirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431.  The splendid edifice also is regarded as a Bethlehem or “church of the crib” and as the first Marian site for pilgrims. Tradition tells the story of a miraculous snowfall on this date, before which the Blessed Mother appeared in a dream to the pope, Liberius, and asked him to build a church for her. The Holy Father traced the church’s outline in the snow, and later broke ground there for the church. St. Mary Major is the home of many extraordinary art treasures.

August 6 – Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. 
                  On this day, Scripture tells us, Christ climbed Mount Tabor with his apostles Peter, James and John, and there revealed Himself in radiant glory. The vision stunned the three disciples, Peter exultantly asking that the Lord remain there in this exalted state, with patriarchs Moses and Elijah who appeared with Jesus. A cloud covered the mountaintop and the voice of God stupefied the apostles when the Almighty told them, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” After the vision, Our Lord told His three followers to keep this event to themselves until after His passion, death and resurrection.  Christ veils his glory from us, allowing us to gaze on it in his creation, and in the Blessed Sacrament.  The glory of Mount Tabor reminds us of the splendor that awaits us in Heaven.

August 7 – Optional Memorials of Sts. Sixtus II, Pope; and Companions, Martyrs; St. Cajetan, Priest. 
                    Pope Saint Sixtus II was martyred in the third century during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Valerian. He had evaded the authorities while holding services in secret but was arrested and martyred with Christian companions.  His execution took place in the catacombs where he had been presiding over devotions.  His deacon St. Lawrence was executed a few days later.  St. Sixtus II’s name is recited in the Canon of the Mass.

                    St. Cajetan was a humble and pious priest of the 16th century. To improve the priesthood, he founded the Congregation of Clerks Regular, a community devoted to prayer, penance, and service to the poor. So great was his holiness that he was privileged to enjoy a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to hold the Christ Child in his arms. During the sack of Rome in 1527, a result of a war between the Holy Roman Emperor and the pope, Cajetan was thrown in prison and tortured. He died about 20 years later amidst the grievous divisions in the Church and in Christendom. St. Cajetan is the patron saint of unemployed people.

August 8 – Memorial of St. Dominic, priest.
                   This great Spanish mystic founded the Order of Friars Preachers, (O.P.), the Dominicans, at a time when the dangerous Albigensian heresy raged, a movement which taught that the world is governed by two equal and opposing forces, good and evil. St. Dominic also received the first form of the holy rosary from the Blessed Mother.

August 9 – Optional Memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, virgin and martyr.
                   St. Teresa also is well-known as Edith Stein, the brilliant young German philosophy student embarking on a promising academic career during the prelude to World War II.  Edith left her family’s Jewish faith in her youth, but grace stepped in to introduce her to Catholicism through a chance reading of St. Teresa of Avila.  After she devoured the saint’s autobiography in an all-night reading session, Miss Stein summed up her intense fascination: “This is the truth!” she declared, and was on the path to conversion and eventually, martyrdom.  Edith took her inspiration’s name in religious life and joined the Spanish mystic’s Carmelite order.  She and her sister fled their convent in their native Germany as the Nazi shadow spread over Europe.  Their safe haven in the Netherlands, however, crumbled when the Catholic bishops there denounced Nazism, and Jewish-born converts were arrested.  St. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa were deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, and both died there in the gas chamber.
                                
August 10 – Feast of St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr.
                     Lawrence is highly honored, ranking first among seven deacons of the third-century church at Rome. He served Pope Sixtus II, the martyred pontiff whose feast day we observed last week.  Lawrence was placed in charge of distributing charity and caring for the goods of the Church. Under Emperor Valerian, both Lawrence and the Holy Father were arrested. Pope Sixtus went first to his martyrdom, at which St. Lawrence begged, “Father, where are you going without your son?” Three days later, Lawrence was taken into custody. Knowing the young deacon was steward of the Church’s valuables, Roman authorities demanded these treasures from Lawrence. The deacon gathered and presented the Church’s great wealth: its poor and sick. Returned to prison, Lawrence performed miracles, restoring sight to blind penitents, these acts inspiring his jailer’s conversion. Lawrence suffered martyrdom by slow burning. Local geographic features, the St. Lawrence River and Valley for example, and institutions, St. Lawrence University, are named for this St. Lawrence.

August 11 – Memorial of St. Clare, virgin.
                     Founder of the contemplative Order of Poor Clares, Clare was the first woman follower of St. Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century. She left behind her noblewoman’s life of luxury to embrace the poverty and devotion of a religious. She led the first Poor Clare monastery for 42 years. A famous story tells how invading Saracens fled when Clare prayed over the vessel containing the Blessed Sacrament.

August 12 – Optional Memorial of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, religious.
                                   St. Jane, or Jeanne in French, was a wealthy seventeenth-century French noblewoman, wife, and mother of seven children. After her husband’s accidental death, she came under the spiritual direction of St. Francis de Sales. St. Jane entrusted her younger children to the care of others, but continued to visit them and supervise their upbringing. She founded the contemplative Order of the Visitation of Mary or the Visitation nuns.

August 13 – Optional Memorial of Saints Pontian, pope and martyr, and Hippolytus, priest and martyr.
                      These third-century martyrs suffered in exile together under an emperor’s persecution, and died from the same cruel conditions in the infamous labor mines of Sardinia. Pontian, however, was a holy and faithful Vicar of Christ, while the priest Hippolytus led a schism. He reconciled with the Church before his death, and urged his followers to return to their true mother the Church.

August 14 – Memorial of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, priest and martyr.
                     A twentieth-century martyr, St. Maximilian Kolbe died at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941. He was locked in a starvation cell with other prisoners after Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan priest, took the place of another inmate who was a husband and father. The saint led his fellow condemned men in prayer and hymns during their ghastly torture, and was killed by lethal injection when he survived the agony. Before his arrest by the Nazis, St. Maximilian Kolbe was a missionary in Japan and established the Militia of the Immaculata as part of his great devotion to Mary, the Blessed Mother. Taking advantage of the technology of the day, the Militia distributed printed materials far and wide to spread the word of their apostolate. In a vision, St. Maximilian Kolbe asked the Blessed Mother for both the white crown of purity and the red crown of martyrdom.

August 15 – Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
                     This sublime dogma was defined in November, 1950 by Pope Pius XII, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, “Most Bountiful God.” The pope proclaimed the Assumption of Mary in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven."  Our Lady’s Assumption, however, was celebrated since ancient times.  This feast marks God’s completion of His great work on earth with the Mother of God.  We honor Mary at her conception, birth, maternity, her title as Mother of God, and on other special occasions such as the Feasts of Our Lady of Sorrows and of the Holy Rosary.  In a week, we celebrate Mary’s Queenship, as she reigns over Heaven and Earth.

August 16 – Optional Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary.
                     This duke’s son and later king is known as the apostolic king and apostle to Hungary.  Stephen brought Christianity to his nation, founding archbishoprics and monasteries, and reorganizing the life of his people to follow Christian tenets.  Stephen gave generously to the poor – his right hand, which distributed the alms for his stricken subjects, is incorrupt.  St. Stephen was crowned, with the pope’s approval, on Christmas Day, in the year 1000 A.D.  He died on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1038, having led his people with prayer, meditation, fasting, and charity.

August 19 – Optional Memorial of St. John Eudes, priest.
                       St. John lived in seventeenth-century France during the Jansenist heresy which declared that man has no free will and that Christ died only for those predetermined to be good. John was ordained a priest, and became well-known for his care of plague victims during epidemics in the 1620s and 30s. When the sickness subsided, St. John devoted himself to parish missions, traveling the countryside to preach and teach to towns and villages. He also was inspired to establish more seminaries to elevate the spiritual life of the clergy. To work toward this end, he left his religious community and founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (the Eudists). Later, St. John started the Sisters of Charity of the Refuge for prostitutes. He is best known for his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Christian life.

August 20 – Memorial of St. Bernard, abbot and Doctor of the Church.
                     This Burgundian saint, who lived from the late-eleventh to the mid-twelfth centuries, was blessed with many spiritual gifts, as we see in the variety of titles he received: Doctor of the Church, apostle to the Crusades (Second Crusade, mid-twelfth century), the second founder of the Cistercians, the Mellifluous Doctor, the miracle-worker, the reconciler of kings, the leader of peoples, the counselor of popes. As a young scholar who wished to escape the evils of secular life, he joined the Cistercians at their Citeaux (France) monastery and convinced 30 of his fellow young noblemen to enter the religious order. At his abbot’s request, the exceptionally devout young monk founded a new monastery at Clairvaux. Bernard spent his life teaching, preaching, advising, writing, and practicing great penances.

August 21 – Memorial of St. Pius X, pope.
                     Born Joseph Sarto in a humble Italian home, Pope Saint Pius X spent many years as a parish priest and local bishop before he was promoted to Patriarch of Venice. He was elected Pope in 1903. Pope Pius X is remembered for promoting early First Communion and frequent receiving of the Blessed Sacrament. He also championed Gregorian chant as part of the liturgy, worked to reform Vatican offices, and warned against Modernism, all in keeping with his motto, “to renew all things in Christ.” He died in 1914 a few days after the beginning of World War I, grieved by the terrible outbreak of hostilities.

August 22 – Memorial of the Queenship of Mary.
                     Today we remember when the Blessed Virgin, assumed body and soul into Heaven, was crowned by her glorious Son Queen of Heaven and Earth.

August 23 – Optional Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, virgin.
                     St. Rose is the first saint of the Western Hemisphere.  She passed her extraordinary life of charity and penance in Peru as a Third Order Dominican, living at home, practicing piety and kindness in the world and in seclusion.  Rose lamented the terrible oppression of the South American Indians and prayed for their conversion.   St. Martin de Porres assisted her and she inflicted severe penances on herself in reparation for the conquerors’ sins.  One story relates pirates bursting into a church to desecrate it; there they beheld Rose ablaze with celestial fire, holding a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament exposed.  The brigands fled to their ships and sailed away. The saint also suffered abuse from her family, attacks from the devil, physical ailments, and agonizing spiritual dryness.  The Blessed Mother and Rose’s guardian angel comforted her before she was released to heavenly joys. 
                                      
August 24 – Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle and martyr.
                     Christ called this apostle early in His public ministry, saying Bartholomew was “an Israelite in whom there is no guile.” St. Bartholomew, also called Nathaniel in the Bible, was a friend of the apostle St. Philip. Bartholomew also was among the seven disciples fishing on the Sea of Galilee after the Resurrection, when our Lord called to them from the shore and awarded them a large catch of fish. Bartholomew traveled to Asia Minor, India, and Armenia to bring the Gospel message, and was martyred in Armenia. He is that country’s patron saint.

August 25 – Optional Memorial of St. Louis of France; St. Joseph Calasanz, priest.
                     Louis IX of France was crowned in 1226 when he was only 12 years old. The strong faith handed down from his mother, Blanche of Castile, enabled Louis to lead as a kind, noble, pious, and peace-making monarch. After a serious illness, he led a crusade to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule. He defeated the Saracens in battle but was taken prisoner and ransomed after a plague decimated his forces. He died from a plague during a second crusade. King Louis was a Third Order Franciscan, and showed great charity toward the poor and toward other religious orders. One of his symbols is the fleur-de-lis.

                   We remember seventeenth-century St. Joseph Calasanz for his zeal in educating children. Spanish-born, he journeyed to Rome after he was ordained, and founded the Poor Clerks Regular, the Piarists. St. Joseph risked his life to nurse plague victims when that terrible epidemic swept through the city. His order dwindled for a time then enjoyed a renewal and continues today.

August 27 – Memorial of St. Monica.
                                   Born in fourth-century Algeria, Monica held fast to her Christian faith in the face of her husband’s pagan beliefs, and her son Augustine’s waywardness. Augustine gradually shed his heretical beliefs and immoral life, and was baptized a Christian before his mother died. It is said that Monica wept for 20 years over her son’s lack of faith before she saw the reward of his conversion.

August 28 – Memorial of St. Augustine, bishop, confessor and Doctor of the Church.
                     Augustine was a university professor and a member of the Manichean sect (which divided the world between Good – Spiritual and Bad – Physical), before he converted, through the influence of St. Ambrose and his mother, Monica, living out his own words, “our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” He was ordained a priest, and later a bishop and wrote and taught throughout his life, leaving behind great works such as City of God and Confessions, as well as homilies, treatises, and commentaries. Augustine battled the heresies of his day, and is the spiritual head of the Augustinian order.

August 29 – Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist.
                     Today we remember the death of the forerunner of Christ, his earthly cousin who declared himself unfit to loosen Jesus’s sandals. John died in prison, beheaded at the order of King Herod, who gave in to his devious wife’s schemes against the Baptist. Herodias demanded the life of St. John as Herod’s favor, when the king pledged to give half his kingdom to Herodias’s daughter for her beguiling dance before a banquet hall of courtiers. The Church commemorates the birth and death only of Our Lord, His Mother Mary, and St. John.

September 3 – Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, pope and Doctor of the Church. 
                          Gregory truly earned his title “great” through the many impressive talents he bestowed on the Church:  missionaries, liturgy, clerical health, music, and writing.  Living through the sixth and into the turn of the seventh centuries, Gregory displayed his exceptional qualities at a young age, becoming a Roman official before he reached the age of thirty.  He gave up the post a few years later to join the Benedictines and establish more monasteries.  Gregory later was named a cardinal and elected pope in 590.  Moved by the plight of enslaved English children, the Holy Father sent monks, including St. Augustine of Kent, to teach and convert the Angles.  The Pope also supervised discipline of the clergy.  He wrote prayers for the Mass and promoted Gregorian chant.  Gregory the Great is buried at St. Peter’s in Rome.
                  
September 5 – Optional Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta .
                           Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Albania in 1910, Mother      Teresa entered religious life when she was 18 years old.  After 20 years with the Sisters of Loreto, including years of work with the order in India, Mother Teresa received the call from Jesus to labor for the poor.  The congregation of the Missionaries of Charity won approval in 1950, and Mother carried her work and message worldwide, helping society’s most destitute.   She died in India in 1997, was beatified in 2003 and canonized in 2016.

September 8 – Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
                         Our Lady’s birthday is one of three in the Church calendar, along with Our Lord’s Nativity December 25 and the Birth of St. John the Baptist June 24.  We mark Mary’s day with honor and love to our Blessed Mother, who was conceived without sin, bore our Savior, stood at the foot of his cross, rejoiced in his Resurrection, and was joined with Him in Heaven where she was crowned Queen.

September 9 – Memorial of St. Peter Claver, priest.
                          This Spanish Jesuit saint lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, spending his life in South America toiling for the wretched Negro captives arriving in the great seaports aboard the dreadful slave ships, and where they were sold into abject servitude. 
                           "We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips,” Peter declared, and brought the newcomers food, drink, medicine, and clothing, then spoke to them of Christ, His love and His healing, and converted many of these poor souls. 
                           To his final ordination vows, Peter had added, “Peter, slave of the slaves forever.”   Saint Peter Claver died September 8, 1654.

 September 12 – Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary.
                           We honor Our Lady’s name, calling on her in our distress, thanking her when we recognize her intercession through her Son, and sheltering under her protection at all times.
                           Mary received her name several days after her birth, following Jewish custom of the time. 
                           She is known by many titles, Mother of God, Mother of Our Savior, Star of the Sea, among the long list which we find in prayers and litanies.                

September 13 – Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                           St. John received the great gift of a classical education thanks to his widowed mother, who dedicated herself to his upbringing.  The fourth-century Antioch patriarch Meletius also took John under his wing, shepherding the young man through his faith preparation.  John retreated to the life of a hermit, but foundered under the difficult austerity, and returned to active Church service.  After his priestly ordination, St. John began preaching, astonishing congregations and earning his name as “Golden Mouth.”  Ordained bishop of the royal capital, Constantinople, St. John strove against the vices, heresies, and political intrigues of his time, but was exiled and died far away from his diocese.

September 14 – Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
                            A triumphant feast, this day venerates the cross, a sign of our salvation.  We recall Moses raising the bronze snake in the desert for all to look at and be saved from the serpent’s bite.  We make the sign of the cross frequently, at prayer, when entering church, at benedictions.  We also are called to carry our crosses like our Savior.
                           The feast also recalls the story of St. Helena finding the True Cross in Jerusalem .

September 15 – Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.
                          Today we meditate on the sufferings of the Blessed Mother, commemorated throughout this month, and the evils of sin.  We may pray the devotion to the Seven Sorrows, or Dolors, sing the Stabat Mater (The Mother Was Standing), or make the Stations of the Cross, among the many ways to honor this day.  Today’s memorial dates from the seventh century and was placed on September 15 in 1913.

September 16 - Memorial of Sts. Cornelius, pope and martyr, and Cyprian, bishop and martyr.
                           These third-century friends, one a pope, the other a bishop, suffered martyrdom during Roman persecutions.  Pope Cornelius opposed the first anti-pope Novatian who claimed that apostates who wished to return to the Christian faith must be refused reconciliation with the Church.  Cyprian converted to Christianity and later received Holy Orders.  As Bishop of Carthage, he also fought against schism and heresy in the Church, and is known for his great store of preaching and writing.

September 17 - Optional Memorials of St. Robert Bellarmine, bishop and Doctor of the Church, and St. Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church.
                           St. Robert was born in Italy on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi , October 4, 1542.  Bellarmine’s feast day also falls on the day St. Francis received the stigmata in 1224.  St. Robert joined the Society of Jesus and became an ardent defender of the faith, through his strong opposition to the heresies of the day, his greatly popular catechism, his counsel to popes, and his adherence to purity, obedience and humility during his long and illustrious life.  Bellarmine also was spiritual director to St. Aloysius Gonzaga, and helped St. Francis De Sales obtain approval for his Visitation Order.

                           St. Hildegard Von Bingen.
                           This Benedictine abbess of many talents - writer, theologian, composer, and mystic - was born in present-day Germany at the end of the eleventh century.  From her youth, she received visions from the Lord and wrote down and illustrated these profound encounters.  She counseled popes and spoke far and wide to audiences of the faithful.  Hildegard studied and advanced holistic medicine long before the Green Revolution.  Today, we still hear her ethereal music, performed through the centuries.

September 19 – Optional Memorial of St. Januarius, bishop & martyr.
                            Januarius was an Italian bishop of the third and fourth centuries, and another martyr to persecution by a Roman emperor.  A vial of his congealed blood, preserved at the Vatican , becomes liquid again three times a year.  The miracle is said to predict good or evil for the coming year.  If the vial liquefies, no great disaster will ensue; if the blood remains solid, some calamity is likely.  St. Januarius is credited with interceding to prevent an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius .
                           
September 20 - Memorial of Sts. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Priest, and Paul Chong Ha-sang, and Companions, martyrs.
                           Today’s 103 martyrs were Korean Catholics, who gave up their lives for the faith in an isolated country where Christianity entered through lay foreigners in the sixteenth century but grew slowly in a place that shunned the outside world.  When a few lay missionaries brought Catholic teaching in the eighteenth century, they found a few thousand faithful who had never seen a priest and who suffered constant persecution.  Martyr Andrew Kim Tae-gon was the first Korean priest, who traveled far way to China to study for the priesthood.  Ordained, he returned to Korea and was arrested when he tried to bring missionaries into the country.  Paul Chong Ha-Sang was a lay teacher.  Most of today’s martyrs were laymen and women; several who died were bishops and priests.  The seeds of their martyrdom bore fruit with Korea embracing religious freedom in 1883.

September 21 – Feast of the St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.
                           Christ called Matthew unexpectedly one day as the hated and shunned tax collector sat at his post.  “Follow me,” said the Lord, and Matthew rose from his counting table, left everything, and became one of the Twelve Apostles.  His Hebrew name was Levi, “Adhesion”; his new name means “Gift of God.”  The Bible tells us Matthew promptly feasted Our Lord, who told a skeptical guest that He came to call despised sinners like Matthew.  Matthew wrote his Gospel, preached in foreign lands, and is honored as a martyr.  His Gospel sign is the man, referring to the beginning of his Gospel which relates the human lineage of Our Savior, and was written to convince the Jews that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.  The accompanying artwork by Caravaggio (16^th century Italian master) shows an astonished Matthew answering the summons of Christ.

September 23 – Memorial of St. Padre Pio, St. Pius of Pietrelcina, priest.
                           This twentieth-century Italian Capuchin priest and mystic bore the stigmata, Christ’s wounds, and is credited with supernatural abilities.  He spent many hours in the confessional, and was said to read the hearts of penitents.  Witnesses said he levitated and bi-located (appeared in two places at the same time) and could heal by touch.  St. Padre Pio founded a hospital, the House for Relief of Suffering.  He died in 1968 and today enjoys great popularity.  One piece of advice from the saint is, “Pray, hope and don’t worry.”
       
September 26 - Optional Memorial of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, martyrs.
                           Our saints today were fourth century physicians martyred under the Roman Emperor Diocletian.  Faithful venerated them early in Church history, and reported healing miracles attributed to the two doctors.  Cosmas and Damian practiced their medicine free of charge.  Priceless murals depicting their lives adorn their basilica in Rome .  Fra Angelico also painted a series of great pictures about the two early martyrs.

September 27 - Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, Priest.
                           St. Vincent is called a great apostle of charity.  He spent his life serving the poor, sick, slaves, and ignorant.  Born in sixteenth-century France, St. Vincent as a young priest became a slave to Muslim kidnappers but was released when his owner converted to Catholicism.  St. Vincent founded a priestly order dedicated to charitable work, now known as the Vincentians.  He and St. Louise de Marillac established a women’s order, the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity, later the Sisters of St. Vincent.  St. Vincent de Paul died in the mid-seventeenth century in the Vincentians main house.  His motto was “God sees you.”  You’ll find a St. Vincent de Paul thrift store at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Winooski.

September 28 – Optional Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, martyr; St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, martyrs; St. Simón de Rojas O.SS. ( Spain )
                           St. Wenceslaus was born in the early tenth century in Bohemia, which now is part of the Czech Republic.  He is patron of that nation.  Wenceslaus received his kingly crown when he was 18 years old, taught carefully in the Catholic faith by his grandmother St. Ludmilla.  Wenceslaus gave generously to the poor, and was a kind and able monarch to his people.  We remember his great charity in the Christmas song, “Good King Wenceslaus,” which relates the tale of the king bringing food, drink and fuel to a destitute peasant.  Violent religious rivalries, pagans vs. Christians, plagued his rule, and he was martyred by his brother as he traveled to Mass one day, dying at age 22.
           
                           St. Lawrence Ruiz was a seventeenth-century martyr and the first Filipino saint.  Lawrence learned his faith from Dominicans in the Philippines, and later traveled to Japan with other missionaries where a persecution took his life and the lives of his companions.

                           St. Simon Rojas was a great sixteenth-century theologian, university professor, and contemplative, overseeing various monasteries throughout his native Spain.  With a deep devotion to our Blessed Mother, St. Simon founded the Slaves of the Sweet Name of Mary, a congregation dedicated to honoring the Blessed Virgin through prayer and works of charity.  This order continues today in Spain.
   
September 28 – Optional Memorial of St. Wenceslaus, martyr; St. Lawrence Ruiz and
                            Companions, martyrs; St. Simón de Rojas O.SS. (Spain)
                             Saint Wenceslaus was born in the early tenth century in Bohemia , which now is part of the Czech Republic .  He is patron of that nation.  Wenceslaus received his kingly crown when he was 18 years old, taught carefully in the Catholic faith by his grandmother Saint Ludmilla.  Wenceslaus gave generously to the poor, and was a kind and able monarch to his people.  We remember his great charity in the Christmas song, “Good King Wenceslaus,” which relates the tale of the king bringing food, drink and fuel to a destitute peasant.  Violent religious rivalries, pagans vs. Christians, plagued his rule, and he was martyred by his brother as he traveled to Mass, dying at age 22.

 September 29 - Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels.
                           Today we celebrate the feast day of these three powerful messengers: Michael, who, Revelation tells, us overthrew Satan; Gabriel, who brought messages to Daniel, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Zachariah, father of St. John the Baptist; and Raphael, the healer.  This day also is called Michelmas, for the first of the three angels.  We often recite the prayer to St. Michael after the end of Mass, and the Angelus at Noon, and of course, the Hail Mary prayer begins with Gabriel’s greeting.  Learning about the angels brings about gratitude to God for his sending us these protectors, and comfort that they watch over and defend us.  The wild asters – usually shades of purple – that bloom at this time of year are known as Michelmas daisies.

September 30 – Memorial of St. Jerome, priest and Doctor of the Church.
                            A great scholar, especially a Biblical scholar, of the fourth century, Jerome was a diligent student throughout his rigorous education, but later sought seclusion as a hermit, to pray and study.  He was ordained a priest and was secretary to Pope Damasus, who commissioned him to revise the Latin Bible, producing the Latin Vulgate.  Forced out by enemies after the pope’s death, Jerome founded a monastery in the Holy Land , where he continued his scholarly research and intense prayer life until he died in the early fifth century.

October 1 - Memorial St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and Doctor of the Church. 
                  “The Little Flower” died September 30, 1897.  Thérèse was a Carmelite nun at the monastery at Lisieux , France .   Her sisters also entered religious life, but Thérèse the youngest received special permission to be admitted to Carmel at the early age of 15.  She wrote her memoir, Story of A Soul, laying out her “little way” of obeying and pleasing God, winning fame throughout the Catholic world after her death from illness when she was only 24 years old.  She declared she would be “spending her Heaven doing good upon earth, of letting fall from Heaven, a shower of roses.”

October 2 – Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels. 
                      Today we honor and show gratitude to our personal angelic protectors, and to Our Lord for granting us these supernatural companions.  We might recite the “Angel of God” prayer and learn to say it each morning. 

October 4 – Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, religious.
                     While St. Francis loved animals and nature and wrote a hymn to them, he was on fire for the Lord, working and sacrificing for his Savior.  Born to a wealthy cloth merchant at the turn of the thirteenth century, Francis enjoyed a privileged, expensive, rollicking youth.  His adventurous enthusiasm took him into the army and the fierce rivalry among Italian city states.  Imprisoned after a battle, the wayward young man faced the truth of his dissolute life and sold it for the pearl of great price:  obedience and homage to the Lord.  Francis founded the order of Little Brothers, or Friars Minor, who begged for their sustenance.  Francis rebuilt the little church of San Damiano. He tamed wild animals, established a women’s order, the Poor Clares, with St. Clare, and a Third Order for laypeople.  He visited enemies to entreat them to make peace.  In a fiery encounter with God, Francis received Christ’s Five Wounds, the stigmata. 

October 5 – Optional Memorial of Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos; St. Faustina Kowalska, virgin.
                    Father Seelos was born in Germany in 1819.  During his theological studies, he was inspired by the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists, to become a missionary to German immigrants in the United States .  He traveled here, and able to speak both English and German, assisted St. John Newmann in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, shepherding the struggling immigrants of those Catholic parishes.  Francis Xavier Seelos was ordained in Baltimore and headed the Redemptorists schools for seminarians.  During the Civil War, President Lincoln granted the Redemptorist students exemptions from military service. Later in life, Fr. Seelos was relieved of his seminary duties and journeyed about, preaching the faith.  He died of illness in New Orleans at age 48.  He was known for his simple living and preaching, and his kindness, with his confessional open to all.

                    St. Faustina Kowalska.  Some places mark the feast day of this Polish nun to whom was granted the devotion of Divine Mercy.  Beginning in 1931, Sr. Faustina received many visitations from Our Lord, and suffered greatly from illness, others’ skepticism, and opposition to spreading the Divine Mercy message.  This devotion, however, triumphed, and now is widespread.  “Jesus, I Trust in You!” is the famous petition we make as part of this message.

October 6 - Optional Memorial of St. Bruno, priest; Bl. Marie Rose Durocher, virgin.
                   St. Bruno founded the exceptionally austere order of monks, the Carthusians.  Born in Germany in the tenth century, Bruno was the son of St. Matilda.  He studied in Rheims , France and became a renowned university theology professor, yet he sought the contemplative life and joined the Cistercians.  With a gift of land in France, Bruno established the Carthusians at their first monastery, La Grande Chartreuse, (we say “Charterhouse” in English), named for the surrounding green hills.  Bruno reluctantly left his cloister to serve the pope, then returned to his monastic solitude and died early in the eleventh century.  Vermont is blessed with the only Carthusian monastery in North America, located on Mt. Equinox .  Visitors are not allowed, but one may find Carthusian materials at the mountain gift shop.

                  Bl. Marie Rose Durocher was born in Quebec, October 6, 1811, the youngest in a large family.  For many years, she was housekeeper for her brother, a parish priest.  Her devotion to the faith led her to found the first Canadian parish sodality for young women, a lay society for charity and piety.  Bl. Marie Rose also established a religious order, the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary, dedicated to Christian education.  This order came to the United States in 1859.  Bl. Marie Rose Durocher died October 6, 1849.

October 7 – Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary.
                     Today, in this month of the Holy Rosary, we honor this cherished series of prayers and meditations, the crown of roses.  Praying and pondering the mysteries of each decade brings us closer, through Our Lady, to Our Lord.  We turn to our beads in times of distress, sadness, and even when we can’t sleep at night.  St. Louis De Montfort wrote The Secret of the Rosary, and was a great devotee.  This day originally honored Mary as Our Lady of Victory for the great Battle of Lepanto, October 7, 1571, a Christian triumph of the Holy League comprising Spanish, Italian, and papal fleets, over the superior Turkish naval forces. 

October 9 - Optional Memorial of St. Denis, bishop and martyr and companions, martyrs; St. John Leonardi, priest; St. John Henry Newman (Eng/Wales).
                     St. Denis was a third-century martyr, born in Italy.  He and his companions were taken captive and executed for their missionary work in what is now France.  St. Denis also is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, saints whose aid is specially invoked in times of need.  He is the patron saint of Paris , and of the entire nation of France .  Pictures and statues often show the saint holding his own head, a depiction of his martyrdom by beheading.

                     St. John Leonardi was a great champion of the Catholic faith during the terrible upheaval of the sixteenth century.  His mentor was St. Philip Neri.  St. John preached and taught the faith vigorously, and suffered many trials, including exile.  He founded an order for diocesan priests, Order of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca, and later the first institute that became the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.  He died from the plague while nursing victims of the disease.

                    Saint John Henry Newman was canonized in 2019.  He was a pivotal figure of nineteenth-century Britain, a convert from the Anglican Church.  Newman preached and wrote extensively, giving up his university position to join the Catholic Church.  He was a priest and cardinal, and founded the Birmingham Oratory, a community of priests who do charity work and minister to local faithful, after the example of St. Philip Neri’s Italian sixteenth-century oratories.
                                             
October 11 – Optional Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII.
                        St. John XXIII celebrates his feast on the anniversary of the opening day of the Second Vatican Council that he inaugurated in 1962.  The Council’s work is the hallmark of St. John’s pontificate.  Giuseppe Roncalli came from humble roots, a farming family.  After his ordination, he served in Church roles of increasing authority, at one time in Bulgaria and later in Turkey and France.  In 1958, Roncalli was elected pope after the death of Pope Pius XII.  The Council continued under Pope St. Paul VI and its fruits reverberate throughout the Church to this day.

October 14 - Optional Memorial of St. Callistus I, pope and martyr.
                       A third-century pontiff who gave his life for the faith, Callistus was born in Rome of a Christian slave.  After years of hard labor for financial crimes, he was ransomed and became a deacon. The reigning pope appointed him supervisor of a catacomb cemetery for Christians on the Appian Way, a great Roman highway. The burial place still bears his name.  Callistus was elected the sixteenth pope in 217 A.D. He fought heresy, but welcomed penitent sinners back into the Church.  He was arrested, tortured and executed by orders of the Roman emperor.
           
October 15 – Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, virgin and Doctor of the Church.
                                     St. Teresa of Avila was a great sixteenth-century Spanish mystic who brought the Catholic faith to new heights and carried reform to the Carmelite order during the tumult of the sundering of Christendom.  She was aided in her work by fellow Carmelite St. John of the Cross.  The Church calls her “seraphic virgin” and “mystical doctor.”   St. Teresa wrote her famous Autobiography, as well as The Interior Castle and Way of Perfection.  Later in her life, she enjoyed mystical union with God, and suffered a supernatural wound of her heart, called the transfixed heart.  The saint gave us these comforting lines:
“Let nothing affright thee,
Nothing dismay thee.
All is passing,
God ever remains.”
                                          She founded the Order of Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites.

October 16 - Optional Memorial of St. Hedwig, religious; St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, virgin.
                     St. Hedwig was a noblewoman, born in Bavaria, Germany in the twelfth century. She married and reared seven children.  With her husband’s help, she used her wealth to found a monastery at Trebnitz and gave generously to the poor.  She also lived in imitation of poverty and practiced great piety.  When her husband died, she entered the Trebnitz order, where her daughter was abbess.  This St. Hedwig is different from Queen St. Hedwig of Poland who lived in the fourteenth century.  Today’s St. Hedwig is the patroness of Poland.  Her niece was St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
           
                    A French Visitation nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received the devotion to the Sacred Heart in visitations by Our Lord in the seventeenth century.  She was a pious child and saw the Lord many times before she entered religious life and took on the community’s lowest tasks.  The Lord revealed to this daughter his great desire to spread devotion to the immense love and ocean of mercy of his Sacred Heart, at a time of heresy and division in the Church.  With charity and wisdom, Margaret Mary persevered in advancing this teaching, aided by St. Claude de la Colombière, her convent’s confessor.   Jesus asked her to tell the faithful to offer a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the day of Our Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, to receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month, and to observe the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

October 17 –Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr.
                       St. Ignatius was appointed bishop of Antioch by St. Peter himself.  He is renowned for his astounding faith that led him to write seven priceless letters, as a sort of Way of the Cross, as he traveled to his execution in Rome.  Ignatius anticipated his death with great joy, writing, “Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God's wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread.”  His letters, still preserved today, instructed and encouraged the Christian communities through which he passed.

 October 18 – Feast of St. Luke, evangelist.
                        Physician, artist, missionary and Gospel author, St. Luke, however, was not among the Twelve Apostles, nor did he know Our Lord.  This first-century evangelist achieved his greatness as a friend of St. Paul, and accompanied the great apostle to the Gentiles on his missionary journeys.  Luke also kept Paul company in prison.  It’s believed Luke died a martyr.  He is credited with painting the portrait of Our Lady, and his Gospel hands down to us the precious gift of her words and actions.  His Gospel symbol is the ox, often depicted as winged.

October 19 – Memorial of Sts. Isaac Jogues and John de Brébeuf, priests and martyrs and companions, martyrs.
                       This group of French Jesuits, priests and laymen, came to the New World in the mid-seventeenth century to convert the native people and help establish Catholic New France.  They suffered terrible abuse among some of the American Indians of the Iroquois and Huron tribes, but were willing and eager to suffer for Our Lord and His Church.  The eight men were martyred over about seven years.  Their shrine, the North American Martyrs, is in Auriesville, New York, a three to four-hour drive from points in Vermont.  A few years later, St. Kateri Tekakwitha was born in the village where the men met their deaths.

October 20 - Optional Memorial of St. Paul of the Cross, priest.
                      Italian St. Paul lived from the end of the seventeenth century to the last quarter of the eighteenth, giving up his soul to God in 1775.  He was a pious and fervent believer from childhood.  In a vision, the Lord directed Paul to found an order of priests, and showed the habit he intended for this congregation.  Paul established this order dedicated to the Passion of Jesus Christ, or the Passionists, and founded monasteries to spread their work. The members, serving in countries all over the world, live a life of poverty and austerity, and preach, teach, and serve the poor according to their rule.  St. Paul’s nickname arose from the crucifix he carried to remind him of Christ’s passion.  He drew great crowds and the Lord lavished generous gifts upon him, including miracles.

October 22 – Optional Memorial of St. John Paul II, pope.
                        Karol Wojtyla was elected pope in October, 1978, succeeding Pope John Paul I who reigned only one month before he died unexpectedly.  Pope John Paul II was a Polish archbishop and cardinal who lived through his country’s struggles with Nazi and then Soviet Communist domination, forced to secretly pursue his seminary training during World War II.  Karol lost his mother, brother, and father as a boy and young man.  He worked in a factory during the Second World War and resisted the destruction of Polish culture through an underground theater group that performed classic Polish works.  He reigned as Supreme Pontiff for 26 years until his death in 2005.  Pope John Paul II visited many countries, wrote books, and issued many revered papal documents.  He survived an assassination attempt, inaugurated World Youth Day, ushered in the new millennium, and oversaw the revised Catechism of the Catholic Church.

October 23 - Optional Memorial of St. John of Capistrano, priest.
                       St. John was born in Capistrano, Italy in the late fourteenth century, studied law, married, and governed the city of Perugia. After his wife died, he joined the Franciscans, with St. Bernardine of Siena as his mentor.  St. John traveled and preached widely, founding Franciscan communities and working miracles.  St. John lived during a time of great upheavals in the Church, including heresies and the Plague.  The pope asked him to lead a Crusade against the Moslem Turks, who were defeated at the battle of Belgrade in 1456.  One of the Californian missions is named for this saint, and carries the yearly miracle of swallows leaving and returning to the mission on the same dates:  the birds migrate away near or on St. John’s feast day, October 23, and reappear around St. Joseph’s feast day, March 19.
           
October 24 – Optional Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, bishop.
                                     Anthony Mary Claret was born in the early nineteenth century in Spain, and died in exile in the French monastery of Fontfroide in 1870.  He founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Claretians.  Anthony became a renowned pastor, preaching widely and publishing many books on the Catholic faith.  He gathered a small group of priests to form the Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and was appointed archbishop of the then Spanish possession, Cuba.  There, Anthony toiled against slavery, led many great charitable works, and spread and strengthened the faith, his activities arousing deep enmity including death threats.  He returned to Spain at the queen’s request to be her confessor, and left the country for exile in the 1868 rebellion.  After carrying out various posts outside of Spain, Anthony Mary Claret spent the end of his life at Fontfroide.

October 28 – Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles.
                       Like their brother apostles, Sts. Simon and Jude were martyred as they proclaimed the Gospel in foreign countries.  St. Jude is honored as the saint of hopeless cases. He also is called Jude Thaddeus, was a cousin or Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and brother of another apostle, St. James the Lesser.  The flame above his head signifies his presence at Pentecost.  The New Testament includes a letter from St. Jude. 
                       St. Simon often is named “the Zealot,” which could simply mean he was fervent.  He is believed to have evangelized in countries to the east, and suffered martyrdom there.  St. Simon sometimes is shown holding a saw, as the weapon of his martyrdom.

October 31 - Halloween – All Hallows Eve.
                       The vigil of the great Holy Day, All Saints, we now celebrate as a popular holiday for costumed and masked revelers, usually children, to ask for candy and other treats at neighbors’ houses throughout the evening.

  November – Month of the Holy Souls.
                      As we end the liturgical year, November is our month to pray for the faithful departed and think about our own worldly end.  Every day we can remember deceased loved ones and others who need our prayers, offer Masses, recite special devotions, and make sacrifices for them, sending up our daily sufferings, large and small, to Our Lord for their benefit.  The month begins with two great feasts, which grant special indulgences.  The Cathedral displays a Book of Remembrance containing the names of our deceased from the past year.

November 1 – Solemnity of All Saints.
                         All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation. Today we pray for the all the souls in Heaven, the Church Triumphant, and think about death, our own death, and the wisdom and comfort of our faith around the end of life.  We might recite the Litany of the Saints and Psalm 130, Out of the Depths, De Profundis. 
                          During the Octave of this feast day, November 1-8, the Church grants a plenary indulgence to anyone who visits a cemetery, prays for the dead, and performs the other essential acts for this special grace.  In addition to visiting a graveyard, one must go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, offer at least a couple of prayers for the Holy Father’s monthly intentions, and free oneself from any attachment to sin.  It’s best to fulfil all the requirements on the same day, but Confession, Communion, and prayer for the pope’s intentions may take place with a few days before or after the cemetery visit.

November 2 - Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed - All Souls’ Day.
                         Today we pray for the Church Suffering or Penitent, the souls in Purgatory, to help them on their way to everlasting happiness.  You may bring to church parish envelopes or your own listing the names of people to pray for this month, and place them in the collection basket.  You also may write their names in the Book of Remembrance displayed before the altar.
                          Another plenary indulgence will be granted today for visiting a Catholic church and praying there an Our Father and the Creed for the Holy Souls.  The usual conditions apply – Confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the Holy Father, and detachment from sin – carried out within a few days of All Souls’ Day.

November 3 – Optional Memorial of St. Martin de Porres, religious.
                        St. Martin was born and grew up in Peru.  He was a devout child, and when he reached young adulthood, joined the Dominicans, insisting on performing the lowest duties.  St. Martin fed the hungry and nursed the sick, inflicting on himself great deprivations.  He is credited with many miracles, such as multiplying the daily food supply for beggars, appearing in two places at the same time, and traveling through the air.  Among his many titles, he is patron saint of racial harmony.

November 4 – Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, bishop.
                        St. Charles was a great leader of the sixteenth-century Church reform, centered on the Council of Trent.  As bishop of Milan, St. Charles advanced the Council’s vital changes in the Church, and enforced them resolutely in his diocese.  He also spent his fortune to care for plague victims when that illness ravaged the land, and fed, clothed, and sheltered his flock during famine, also bringing prayer and sacraments.

November 9 – Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica.
                         This church is the Pope’s cathedral.  It used to be known as the Archbasilica of the Holy Savior.  It is named for St. John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist.  Dedicated in 324 A.D., St. John Lateran is the oldest and highest ranking of the four Roman basilicas, and is the Church’s mother church.  It originally was the palace of the Laterani family.  Fire and earthqukes ravaged the basilica several times over the centuries, but always the great building rose again, beautifully restored.  This feast day celebrates the worldwide unity of the Catholic Church.

November 10 – Memorial of St. Leo the Great, pope and Doctor of the Church.
                           Pope Leo I reigned as pontiff during the fifth century.  He is credited with elevating the dignity of the papacy, and confirming the apostolic succession from St. Peter.  Pope Leo the Great also pronounced the sublime teaching of Christ’s two natures, divine and human, at the great Council of Chalcedon.  Leo also incredibly turned back the attacks of Attila the Hun and Genseric the Vandal as they stood ready to conquer and sack Rome.  The Hun excused his retreat saying not only did the pope bar his path and pray for the powers of Heaven to deliver the city from the foes, but Attila also saw a priestly figure with a drawn sword standing next to the Holy Father. Pope Leo has left us many prayers, sermons and other holy writings.

 November 11 – Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, bishop.
                          St. Martin was first a fourth-century soldier in the service of the Roman emperors.  We recall the story of Martin cutting his military cloak to give half to a beggar, who asked for alms in Christ’s name.  In a dream, Christ appeared as the beggar, and praised Martin for his gift.  St. Martin was baptized when he was 18 years old, and later was named bishop of Tours, France. He lived and led the faithful when the Church began to grow after receiving official recognition, ending persecution.  He was able to discern spirits, or recognize demons who appeared to him in holy disguise.  Martin also built and led a monastery, and was able to miraculously heal the sick.  His feast day falls at the time of fall grape harvest, so wine is often associated with him. 

November 12 – Memorial of St. Josaphat, bishop and martyr.
                           Josaphat lived from the end of the sixteenth through part of the seventeenth centuries.  A pious child, he is said to have been pierced by a celestial arrow and suffered a wound in his heart. He was a deeply austere and penitent monk of an Eastern Catholic rite, and later became bishop.  In that role, St. Josaphat worked hard to reunite the Orthodox and Catholic churches, divided by the great schism of 1054 A.D.  Josaphat was killed by an angry mob for his efforts. 

November 13 – Memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin. (USA)
                           St. Frances Cabrini was born in Italy but was the first American citizen to be canonized.  She taught school and managed an orphanage in her native land, and at the request of her bishop, founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, which flourished and opened a school for girls.  Moved by the struggles of Italian immigrants in the United States, the saint journeyed to New York City.  Frances went to work on landing, tending to the faith, health, and welfare of the crowds of newly-arrived foreigners.  School, orphanages and hospitals sprang up over the course of St. Frances’s life.  Her order circles the globe.

November 15 – Optional Memorial of St. Albert the Great, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                           Albertus Magnus spread his stupendous intellectual gifts throughout the Church during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries of the High Middle Ages. Born in present day Germany, Albert joined the newly formed Dominicans.  He studied at the University of Paris, one of the intellectual jewels of that era, and taught St. Thomas Aquinas among his students.  Albert was truly a walking encyclopedia of knowledge.  His voluminous talents led the Pope to name him a bishop, and he taught and wrote throughout Christian Europe.  Albert bequeathed a vast compendium of scholarly Christian writing.  All of these impressive accomplishments earned him the title “Great,” and “Doctor of the Church.”

November 16 – Optional Memorial of St. Margaret of Scotland.  Optional Memorial of St. Gertrude, virgin.
                           St. Margaret was the Scottish queen to King Malcolm in the eleventh century and a great niece of England’s King Edward the Confessor.  Margaret grew up in Hungary with her exiled family.  She returned to the British Isles but fled when the Normans invaded, and ended up in Scotland, where she married the Scots king.  Margaret showed great piety and devotion:  her richly decorated book of the Gospels resides at Oxford University.  Her love of neighbor and generosity to the poor was lavish.  St. Margaret reared eight children with careful attention to their education and to the development of their precious Christian faith.  She and her husband set an example of pious and virtuous family life.

                           St. Gertrude, virgin.
                           We know this saint from her famous prayer through which she was allowed to release to heaven a throng of souls from Purgatory.  This holy woman of the thirteenth century, called “Great,” was a Cistercian nun of the Helfta convent in present-day Germany.  She received mystical visits by Our Lord, and described them in her renowned book, Revelations.  Devotion to the Sacred Heart was born with St. Gertrude the Great, whose piety for this mystery was reawakened and spread by Jesus’s appearances to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque four hundred years later.  St. Gertrude’s writings contain beautiful poetry, clarity, and deep, solid faith.
                
November 17 – Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, religious.
                          This saint lived her short life of 24 years in her native Hungary in the thirteenth century.  She was the daughter of the king, and spent her childhood at the court of her prospective husband, a Hungarian nobleman.  Elizabeth was a model wife, mother and faithful Catholic Christian, nursing the sick, feeding, sheltering, and clothing the hungry, and living a simple and deeply devout life.  After her husband’s death in war, she and her children suffered great privation when they were denied their rightful inheritance.  Elizabeth won back her wealth but turned away from the world for religious life before her death in her mid twenties.

November 18 – Optional Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul, apostles.  Optional Memorial of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, virgin (USA).
                           We all are familiar with the stupendous St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, with its magnificent double curved colonnades.  The cathedral occupies the site of the Roman Emperor Nero’s circus arena where St. Peter was crucified and where now his remains lie entombed with great honor.
                           St. Paul Outside the Walls was built near where St. Paul was executed.  The cathedral fell to fire in the nineteenth century and was rebuilt by Popes Gregory XVI and Pius IX.  Pius dedicated the basilica December 10, 1854, the date of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
 
                           St. Rose Philippine Duchesne grew up during the French Revolution and its Reign of Terror.  She was forced to leave the Visitation nuns who educated her when the sisters closed their community during the Revolution.  Later St. Rose answered the call to serve in the fledgling American New Orleans diocese which encompassed St. Louis, Missouri.  St. Rose was almost fifty years old when she crossed the ocean to her new mission and right away, founded a convent of the Society of St. Charles.  She suffered through dreadful conditions at the new diocese – cold, hunger, illness, and hostility, but persevered.  St. Rose established the first free school west of the Mississippi River enrolling American Indians along with white classmates.  Her work in Missouri flourished but she was intent on working with Indians on the frontier.  She traveled to Kansas and established a tent convent there, teaching and evangelizing the Indians amid a severe climate and poverty.

November – Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (last Sunday in the liturgical year – next Sunday, Advent begins!)
                    Today we rejoice in the mystical kingship of Our Lord, celebrating him as king of our hearts and souls, of our Church, of our lives, and of all creation.  He is supreme, universal, eternal, and spiritual.   We also proclaim Christ’s triumph over all adversity, and reaffirm our faith in His goodness toward we who are suffering and wayward souls here in earth.

November 21 - Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
                          As we do for her Son, we celebrate with special holidays Our Lady’s birth, her holy name, and her presentation in the temple.  We believe Mary’s parents, St. Anne and St. Joachim, entrusted their daughter to the care of teachers at the great Jerusalem temple where Mary was only a few years old.  This feast day reminds us to surrender our lives to Christ, and especially to ensure that our children receive their sacraments and sound catechesis.

November 22 – Memorial of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr.
                          Cecilia lived and died in the early ages of the Church, probably in the third century.  She, her husband, and his brother all were betrayed to the Roman authorities for their Christian faith, and all three died martyrs’ deaths.  Cecilia won a great following during that time, and was highly venerated.  Her body, buried in the Catacombs, was found incorrupt many years later and moved to a Roman church named in her honor.  She is the patron saint of music: many musical societies and ensembles bear her name. St. Cecilia is honored in the Canon of the Mass, or the First Eucharistic Prayer.

November 23 – Optional Memorials of St. Clement I, pope & martyr; St. Columban, abbot;
                          Bl. Miguel Pro, S. J., priest and martyr.
                          Pope St. Clement I was a first century pontiff.  He wrote a famous letter to the Corinthians, the Church at Corinth, which was divided and contentious.  He is the subject of miracle stories – that in exile with a large community of banished Christians, he prayed for and was granted a fountain near the settlement, ending the settlers’ long daily trudges for water.  Clement is said to have been martyred by drowning, weighted by a large iron anchor.  His followers called upon the Lord to return his body; the sea receded and revealed the saint’s remains enclosed in a stone coffin within a marble chapel, with the anchor resting nearby.  Clement’s relics today lie in his Roman church, remarkable for its ancient liturgical décor.
 
                        A great sixth-century Irish monk, St. Columban founded many monasteries – Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontes – as he ranged across Europe in his missionary travels.  Rulers welcomed and honored, or opposed and banished Columban.  His final flight shipwrecked him in Italy where he established his last monastery at Bobbio.  These communities earned reknown as centers of great faith, learning, and culture.  Columban left a treasury of sermons, poetry, and arguments against the dangerous Arian heresy. 

                      Blessed Miquel Agostin Pro, S. J.,  was a young priest martyr of the 1910 – 1920 Mexican Revolution.  He grew up in a pious family, a high spirited, jolly youngster.  Miguel left the country in the middle of the civil conflict to study abroad for the priesthood.  After he was ordained a Jesuit priest, ill health drove Miquel back to his family in Mexico, where revolution raged, with its strong anti-Church element. Father Miquel practiced the faith in secret and in disguise to elude the authorities.  He was arrested, however, on a false charge of taking part in an assassination plot.  The young priest won fame for his brave demeanor and words before the firing squad, forgiving his enemies, spreading his arms as if on the cross and calling out, “Viva Cristo Rey!” (Long live Christ the King!)

November 24 – Memorial of St. Andrew Dung-Lac, priest and martyr, and Companions, martyrs.
                     St. Andrew was a Vietnamese diocesan priest martyred in 1839 in his native land.  Today’s memorial honors 117 martyrs of the Catholic faith who died in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862.  Some of them were Spanish and French missionaries; most, probably 96, were Vietnamese lay people, bishops, and priests.  Andrew Dung-Lac learned his faith and studied for the priesthood, traveling to preach and administer the sacraments.  He was arrested with another priest, both tortured and beheaded.

November 25 – Optional Memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria, virgin and martyr.
                           St. Catherine is one of the 14 Holy Helpers.  We know little about her life, (she was born in the third century and died in the early fourth century) but her story relates her staunch faith in the face of powerful efforts to turn her from Christ.  Her end came after terrible torture, including impalement on a wheel studded with sharp blades.  St. Catherine’s remains were said to lie in the monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt.

 November 30 – Feast of St. Andrew, apostle.
                                          St. Andrew was brother to the Prince of the Apostles, St. Peter.  Both were fishermen.  Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus, saying, “We have found the Messiah!”  After Pentecost, Andrew is believed to have traveled east to spread the Gospel, and to suffer martyrdom in southern Greece, on an x-shaped cross, known today as St. Andrew’s cross.  This cross adorns the Union Jack and the flag of Scotland.  Today we begin the St. Andrew prayer that we repeat 15 times each day through Christmas Eve, December 24.

December 1 – December, Month of the Immaculate Conception.
                          This month, we honor the great dogma of the conception of our Blessed Mother free from original sin, and sinless throughout her life.  We will celebrate this mystery with a Holy Day of Obligation December 8.  It is fitting in this season which culminates in the Savior’s birth that we venerate the purity of His Holy Mother.  “I am the Immaculate Conception,” Mary told St. Bernadette in the grotto at Lourdes in 1858.  Pope Pius IX had declared the dogma in 1854.


December 3 – Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, priest, S. J.
                          St. Francis was one of the first Jesuits under Society of Jesus founder St. Ignatius of Loyola.  He was born in the sixteenth century of a noble family, when terrible division and heresy rocked the Church, along with incursions by the Moslem Turks.  Francis was ordained and at St. Ignatius’s orders, took his missionary zeal to India, then to the South Pacific islands, and finally to Japan.  He died from illness before he could reach China, his next missionary field.

December 4 –Optional Memorial of St. John Damascene, priest and Doctor of the Church.
                       John of Damascus handed down to us a great treasury of catechesis from the Greek fathers of the Church. This eighth century monk and theologian also strongly opposed the iconoclasts, who railed against and destroyed artwork depicting the three persons of the Holy Trinity.  St. John wrote hymns that we still sing today.  His vast theological works earned him the title, “Doctor of the Church.”

December 6 – Optional Memorial of St. Nicholas, bishop.
                        The history of St. Nicholas is filled with delightful tales and legends, but the truth of this saint’s life story is inspiring.  Nicholas lived in the fourth century, when Christianity still was subject to persecution by Roman authorities.  He was bishop of Myra in modern-day Greece, and gave the faithful of his see an example of great holiness, including fighting the Arian heresy and working miracles.  Nicholas inherited impressive wealth when his parents died, and determined to help the poor.  From this fervent wish comes our Santa Claus, Father Christmas, and similar figures.  Bishop Nicholas secretly endowed three sisters who had no marriage money, throwing bags of coins through their window.  Now we wait for this bishop or jolly Christmas elf to bring presents on Christmas Eve. 

December 7 – Memorial of St. Ambrose, bishop and Doctor of the Church.
                          St. Ambrose was a Church father in the fourth century, born in present-day Germany. He was Bishop of Milan, and schooled himself in Holy Scripture and theology.  We often read his sermons in the Divine Office.  St. Ambrose helped convert St. Augustine, and opposed the Roman emperor and other civil authorities who interfered with the Church.  He fought the Arian heresy.  His beautiful preaching reflected his name, “Ambrosia,” or honey.

December 8 – Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
                        Today we honor the patroness of our diocese and of our country, Mary, the Blessed Mother, Ever Virgin, the Immaculate Conception. 

December 9 –Optional Memorial of St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (USA).   
                       St. Juan Diego, whose name means “the talking eagle”, is the unwitting hero of the sixteenth-century Our Lady of Guadalupe story.  He was truly the Blessed Mother’s dear little son as she called him in her meetings with the Indian Christian on Mount Tepeyac near today’s Mexico City.  The artless and unquestioning St. Juan obeyed this beautiful lady and asked his bishop to build the shrine she requested.  When the perplexed bishop requested more proof before embarking on this unusual project, St. Juan brought him an armful of out-of-season roses. But the astounding sight of these fresh, summer flowers was far surpassed by a second miracle:  the incredible picture of Our Lady imprinted down the front of the Indian’s poor garment.   The bishop could only fall to his knees and humbly comply. The shrine was built, and the image of Our Lady still hangs today in the great Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

December 10 – Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Loreto.
                          This memorial is new, declared by Pope Francis in 2019.  This feast commemorates the small holy dwelling where Our Lady received the Annunciation and where the Word was made flesh.  Tradition says angels carried the precious homely structure from the Holy Land to Loreto, Italy, where it rests today inside a sumptuous basilica which draws crowds of pilgrims.

December 11 – Optional Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope.
                          This late fourth-century pontiff won election to the Holy See amid great turmoil, including riots and the opposition of a rival pope.  The Roman emperor stepped in to expel the antipope and Damasus assumed his seat on the throne of Peter.  During his 18-year reign, Damasus continued to defend and elevate the papacy. He is acclaimed for his exceptional work with the Holy Bible, collecting into one volume the many scattered books, and encouraging St. Jerome to finish his Latin translation.  This devout pope also won high praise for his preservation of the catacombs. 

December 12 – Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
                          We mark today another Marian feast during this great Advent season, Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas.  The Blessed Virgin appeared to a pious Mexican Indian in 1531 near modern Mexico City.  On Tepeyac Hill, Our Lady greeted and spoke with the wondering but believing Juan Diego.  Three times he visited his bishop, carrying Our Lady’s message to build a church on the hill, for the conversion of souls and consolation of the faithful.  On the third and last meeting, Juan Diego presented his excellency with irrefutable evidence:  a tunic full of freshly picked roses in cold December.  But wait, there was more!  A fantastic painting of Our Lady covered the front of the poor penitent’s robe!  That miraculous picture still hangs at the Guadalupe shrine, intact after 500 years, a gift from the radiant woman from heaven who crushes the serpent.

December 13 – Memorial of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr.
                          This fourth-century young virgin is a favorite among the Communion of Saints.  She faced torture and death with great courage, when she held to her devotion to the Lord, and suffered the torments brought down on her by a jilted suitor.  Lucy, whose name, means light, is the patron saint of blind people.  Some countries celebrate her feast day with coffee and buns served by a young lady of the house, the December darkness broken by the crown of candles worn by the girl.

December 14 – Memorial of St. John of the Cross, priest and Doctor of the Church.
                          Spanish St. John grew up in poverty in the sixteenth century, which saw terrible schism in the Church.  John could not afford to learn a trade, so worked in a hospital, serving the poor.  The Carmelites welcomed him and ordained him a priest.  Fellow Carmelite mystic St. Teresa of Avila persuaded John to help her reform the order.  As prior, John suffered great persecution among his own monks for his efforts to correct abuses.   For his profound theological writings, he earned the title “Doctor of the Church.”  St. John is well known for The Dark Night of the Soul and Ascent of Mount Carmel, among his many works.

December 16 – The Christmas Novena begins through Christmas Eve.
                                                    
December 17 – O Antiphons.
                           Today we begin the last seven days until Christmas Eve by urging Our Lord to come, come, come soon in these daily aspirations, each a majestic title for the Messiah.  We recite one each day until the Christmas vigil.  The phrases are verses in the Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!”.  Our first prayerful entreaty is “O Come, Wisdom!”, or “Sapientia” in Latin.  The list is: Dec. 17 - O Sapientia (Wisdom), Dec. 18 - O Adonai (Lord and Ruler), Dec. 19 - O Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse), Dec. 20 - O Clavis David (Key of David), Dec. 21 - O Oriens (Dawn of the East), Dec. 22 - O Rex Gentium (King of the Gentiles), and Dec. 23 – O Emmanuel (God With Us). 

December 21 – Optional Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, priest and doctor of the Church.
                           St. Peter was among the great reformers of Catholicism during and after the devastating wave of Protestant defection in the sixteenth century.  Born in Holland, St. Peter Canisius was one of the first members of the new, groundbreaking Jesuit order.  St. Peter spent his life in tireless and strenuous efforts to improve the Church.  He founded many universities and seminaries to educate the faithful and the clergy.  He wrote letters and essays explaining the faith, and catechisms to enlighten Holy Mother Church’s disparate flocks throughout Europe, shoring up and spreading the Catholic faith.  St. Peter lent his impressive intellect and understanding to the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent and advised popes and clergy all over the Continent.  

December 23 – Optional Memorial of St. John of Kanty, Priest.
                           St. John was born in the Polish town whose name became part of his own, St. John Cantius.  He taught at the University of Krakow, then was ordained a priest and headed a parish.  He returned to teaching and fervently practicing love of neighbor.  His charity extended to robbers whom he pursued to add a hidden cache of coins from his clothing.  He gave away all his goods, lowering his cassock to drag on the ground to hide his shoeless feet.  St. John Cantius’s wise motto was "Guard against causing trouble and slandering others, for it is difficult to right the evil done."

December 24 – Christmas Eve.  Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord.
                          The wait is almost over; tomorrow, Our Lord is born, a son is given.  The Christmas season is about to begin.  Prepare to open the doors to the Savior.
                        
 
Friday, December 25 - Christmas Day.  Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord.
                                      Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth, Peace to Men of Good Will!  For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the lord!

The Christmas Season - December 25 – Baptism of the Lord
                                The Church’s official Christmas season begins on Christmas Day and lasts through the Sunday on which we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. 

Octave of Christmas – Octaves are marked officially in the Church at Easter and at Christmas.  We say the Gloria each day at Mass, and celebrate numerous feast days during these eight days, ending with the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God January 1.
                              
Saturday, December 26 – Feast of St. Stephen.  Second Day in the Octave of Christmas.
St. Stephen is the first Christian martyr, stoned outside Jerusalem by an angry    crowd, incensed over Stephen’s words of faith.  As he fell before their blows, Stephen, filled with grace, looked up to a vision of heaven and forgave his assailants.  A figure named Saul is described in the Gospel, a witness to Stephen’s death: Saul, a scourge of the early Church, and later, Paul, a great apostle and martyr himself.

Sunday, December 27 – Feast of the Holy Family.  Sunday in the Octave of Christmas.
                                Today, the first Sunday after Christmas, we celebrate the model family life of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, about whose daily existence we hear little in the Gospels, except for the momentous events of the Presentation and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple.  Popes Leo XIII and Benedict XV in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries promoted and established this feast in part to help families of that time down through today to copy the Holy Family, and imitate the life of faith filled love, humility, and obedience that bound them. 
                               
December 27 - Feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist.
                  We think of St. John as a young man whom, the Bible tells us, Jesus loved.  We see him leave his fishing nets with his brother and fellow apostle James, the two named by Jesus, “Sons of Thunder.”  He is among the three apostles, with James and Peter, who witnessed the Transfiguration and watched with Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. John is the only one of the Twelve to stand at the foot of the cross.  After the Resurrection, John eventually settled in Ephesus, in present-day Turkey, taking the Blessed Mother into his home as he promised Our Lord.  He was exiled by Roman authorities to the island of Patmos where he wrote the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation.  He also wrote a Gospel and three letters.

December 28 – Fourth Day in the Octave of Christmas.  Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs.
                                Even as we celebrate the Nativity with feasting and festivity, we pause on this day to remember the sad history of the baby boys sacrificed to the terrified power lust of King Herod in the time of Jesus’ birth.  “Herod the King,” laments the Coventry carol, “in his raging, charged he hath this day, his men of might, in his own sight, all children young to slay.”  We may counter that dreadful edict with a protective blessing on our children, young and old: "Bless you, my child, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." 
                                               
December 29 – Fifth Day in the Christmas Octave.  St. Thomas Becket, bishop and martyr.
                          Twelfth century St. Thomas Becket fell from royal favor with England’s King Henry II to become his prince’s staunch opponent, defending the Church’s independence from encroachment by the crown.  Thomas was first the king’s chancellor, then Archbishop of Canterbury.  In his episcopal role, Thomas barred the way to threats against the Church, suffering prison, exile and martyrdom.  He was murdered by a band of courtiers who attacked him in his cathedral.  Devotion to St. Thomas immediately sprang up and spread.  He was canonized in 1173, only three years after his death.
                                                    
December 30 – Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas. 

December 31 –Vigil, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. St. Sylvester I, pope.
                   St. Sylvester was elected pope as the fourth century opened, when Constantine was Roman emperor, and the Church threw off the shackles of persecution and became the established religion.  Sylvester presided over the Church in a period of peace.  He supported the Council of Nicaea, and promoted its teachings.  Sylvester’s reign saw the building of magnificent churches and cathedrals in Rome, including the Basilica of the Lateran, the Basilica of Santa Croce, and the old Church of St. Peter in the Vatican.