Daily Saints

Saint Peter of Tarentaise

Saint Peter of Tarentaise was born in 1102 on a farm near Saint-Maurice-l’Exil, not far from the Cistercian Bonnevaux Abbey. He was a Cistercian monk who served as the archbishop of Tarentaise (as Peter II) from 1141 until his death.

In 1132, Saint Peter, his abbot, and twelve other monks founded Tamié Abbey in a defile of the Bauges mountains, as a daughter house of Bonnevaux. Once Abbot John was satisfied that the monks had adequate shelter, he returned to Bonnevaux, leaving Saint Peter as abbot of the new monastery. In 1142, at the insistence of his superiors including Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter reluctantly accepted the position as the Archbishop of Tarentaise.

In his episcopal role he applied the Cistercian principles he had learned as an abbot to restore the diocese and met with a good deal of success since the diocese’s management had declined and discipline lax. He removed corrupt priests (and elevated good priests to important pastoral positions) and promoted education for all the faithful

He rebuilt a hospice in poor repair at Little St. Bernard Pass. He also founded a charity which distributed food to farms in the surrounding hills. This would become known as pain de Mai and became a tradition continued in the region until the French Revolution.

He longed for the simple and pious life of a monk. In 1155 he disappeared and was later found as a lay brother in a remote convent in Switzerland. After about a year, when the monks discovered who he was, they alerted the archdiocese. Saint Peter was reluctant to emerge from his newfound solitude but was welcomed back into his archdiocese with much enthusiasm on the part of the people.

Saint Peter of Tarentaise died in 1174 as he attempted to mediate between feuding monarchs after a serious but brief illness. Miracles were reported at his tomb after his death and this led Pope Celestine III to canonize Peter as a saint in mid-1191.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Tarentaise

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Saint Rose Venerini

Daily Saints

Saint Rose was born at Viterbo in Italy, the daughter of a doctor. Following the death of her fiancé she entered a convent, but soon returned home to care for her newly widowed mother. Meanwhile, Saint Rose invited the women of the neighborhood to recite the rosary in her home, forming a sort of sodality with them.

As she looked to her future under the spiritual guidance of a Jesuit priest, Saint Rose became convinced that she was called to become a teacher in the world rather than a contemplative nun in a convent. Clearly, she made the right choice: She was a born teacher, and the free school for girls she opened in 1685 was well received.

Soon the cardinal invited her to oversee the training of teachers and the administration of schools in his diocese of Montefiascone. As Saint Rose’s reputation grew, she was called upon to organize schools in many parts of Italy, including Rome. Her disposition was right for the task as well, for Rose often met considerable opposition but was never deterred.

She died in Rome in 1728, where a number of miracles were attributed to her. She was beatified in 1952 and canonized in 2006. The sodality, or group of women she had invited to prayer, was ultimately given the rank of a religious congregation. Today, the so-called Venerini Sisters can be found in the United States and elsewhere, working among Italian immigrants.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-rose-venerini/

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Saint Dominic Savio

Daily Saints

Saint Dominic Savio was an Italian student of John Bosco. His parents had ten children in all. His father was a blacksmith and his mother, a seamstress. They were poor, hardworking and pious.

His parents took great care to give him a Christian upbringing. By the age of four, Dominic was able to pray by himself and was occasionally found in solitude, praying. A chaplain at Murialdo when Dominic was five years old noted in a statement to John Bosco that he came to notice Dominic due to his regular church attendance with his mother.

At the age of five, he learned to serve Mass, and would try to participate at Mass every day as well as go regularly to Confession. Having been permitted to make his First Communion at an early age, he had much reverence for the Eucharist

When Saint Dominic’s health started to steadily deteriorate, he still spent most of his time with his friends, talking with them, and encouraging those who were experiencing troubles. He died at the age of 14, possibly from pleurisy.

He was noted for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith, and was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Savio

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Saint Hilary of Arles

Daily Saints

Born in France in the early fifth century, Saint Hilary came from an aristocratic family. In the course of his education he encountered his relative, Honoratus, who encouraged the young man to join him in the monastic life. Saint Hilary did so. He continued to follow in the footsteps of Honoratus as bishop. Saint Hilary was only 29 when he was chosen bishop of Arles.

The new, youthful bishop undertook the role with confidence. He did manual labor to earn money for the poor. He sold sacred vessels to ransom captives. He became a magnificent orator. He traveled everywhere on foot, always wearing simple clothing.

That was the bright side. Saint Hilary encountered difficulty in his relationships with other bishops over whom he had some jurisdiction. He unilaterally deposed one bishop. He selected another bishop to replace one who was very ill–but, to complicate matters, did not die! Pope Saint Leo the Great kept Saint Hilary a bishop but stripped him of some of his powers.

Saint Hilary died at 49. He was a man of talent and piety who in due time, had learned how to be a bishop.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-hilary-of-arles/

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Saint Florian

Daily Saints

Saint Florian was born around 250 AD in the ancient Roman city of Aelium Cetium, presently known as Pölten, Austria.

He joined the Roman Army and advanced in the ranks, rising to commander of the imperial army in the Roman province of Noricum. In addition to his military duties, he was also responsible for organizing and leading firefighting brigades. Saint Florian organized and trained an elite group of soldiers whose sole duty was to fight fires.

During the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians, reports reached Rome that Saint Florian was not enforcing the proscriptions against Christians in his territory. Aquilinus was sent to investigate these reports. When Aquilinus ordered Florian to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods in accordance with Roman religion, Florian refused. Florian was sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Saint Florian was a Christian holy man. He is a patron saint of firefighters, chimney sweeps, and brewers. He is invoked against fires, floods, lightning, and the pains of Purgatory.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Florian

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Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

Daily Saints

Saint Athanasius I of Alexandria was also known as Athanasius the Great and Athanasius the Confessor. He was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian Christian leader of the fourth century.

In 325, at age 27, Saint Athanasius began his leading role against the Arians as a deacon and assistant to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria during the First Council of Nicaea. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had convened the council to address the Arian position that the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, is of a distinct substance from the Father. Three years after that council, Athanasius succeeded his mentor as pope of Alexandria.

Athanasius’ episcopate began on 9 May 328 as the Alexandrian Council elected Athanasius to succeed after the death of Alexander. During his first years as bishop, Athanasius visited the churches of his territory, which at that time included all of Egypt and Libya. He established contacts with the hermits and monks of the desert, including Pachomius, which proved very valuable to him over the years. Patriarch Athanasius spent over 17 years in five exiles ordered by four different Roman Emperors, not counting approximately six more incidents in which Athanasius fled Alexandria to escape people seeking to take his life.

Athanasius’ “Letter Concerning the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea” (De Decretis), is an important historical as well as theological account of the proceedings of that council. His other important works include his Letters to Serapion, which defends the divinity of the Holy Spirit. In a letter to Epictetus of Corinth, Athanasius anticipates future controversies in his defence of the humanity of Christ. Athanasius also wrote several works of Biblical exegesis, primarily on Old Testament materials. The most important of these is his Epistle to Marcellinus on how to incorporate psalm-saying into one’s spiritual practice. Excerpts remain of his discussions concerning the Book of Genesis, the Song of Solomon, and Psalms.

Gregory of Nazianzus called Saint Athanasius as the “Pillar of the Church”. His writings were well regarded by subsequent Church fathers in the West and the East, who noted their devotion to the Word-become-man, pastoral concern and interest in monasticism. Athanasius is considered one of the four great Eastern Doctors of the Church in the Catholic Church.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_of_Alexandria

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Saint Joseph the Worker

Daily Saints

To foster deep devotion to Saint Joseph among Catholics, and in response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker in 1955. This feast extends the long relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers in both Catholic faith and devotion. Beginning in the Book of Genesis, the dignity of human work has long been celebrated as a participation in the creative work of God. By work, humankind both fulfills the command found in Genesis to care for the earth (Gn 2:15) and to be productive in their labors. Saint Joseph, the carpenter and foster father of Jesus, is but one example of the holiness of human labor.

Jesus, too, was a carpenter. He learned the trade from Saint Joseph and spent his early adult years working side-by-side in Joseph’s carpentry shop before leaving to pursue his ministry as preacher and healer. In his encyclical Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II stated: “the Church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide [social] changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society.”

Saint Joseph is held up as a model of such work. Pius XII emphasized this when he said, “The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work.”

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-joseph-the-worker/

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Saint Marie of Incarnation

Daily Saints

Saint Marie of Incarnation was an Ursuline nun born in France as Marie Guyart. From an early age she was drawn to religious liturgy and the sacraments. When Marie was seven years old, she recounted her first mystical encounter with Jesus Christ.

Intent on belonging to Christ, Marie, aged fourteen, proposed to her parents that she enter religious life with the Benedictines of Beaumont Abbey but her parents disregarded her desire. Instead, she was married to Claude Martin, a master silk worker in 1617. Her husband died only months after the birth of their son, leaving Marie a widow at the age of nineteen.

With her husband’s death, Saint Marie inherited his failing business which she then lost. Forced to move into her parents’ home, Saint Marie secluded herself to pursue a deepening of her commitment to spiritual growth. Free to pursue her religious inclinations after her husband’s death, Saint Marie took a vow of chastity, obedience, and poverty. On 24 March 1620, she reported a religious vision that set her on a new path of devotional intensity.

In 1631, after working with a spiritual director for many years, Saint Marie decided to enter the Ursuline monastery in Tours to answer her religious vocation. As part of a group of nuns sent to New France to establish the Ursuline Order, Saint Marie was crucial in the spread of Catholicism in New France. She was a religious author and has been credited with founding the first girls’ school in the New World.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_of_the_Incarnation_(Ursuline)

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Saint Catherine of Siena

Daily Saints

The value Catherine makes central in her short life and which sounds clearly and consistently through her experience is complete surrender to Christ. What is most impressive about her is that she learns to view her surrender to her Lord as a goal to be reached through time.

She was the 23rd child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa and grew up as an intelligent, cheerful, and intensely religious person. Catherine disappointed her mother by cutting off her hair as a protest against being overly encouraged to improve her appearance in order to attract a husband. Her father ordered her to be left in peace, and she was given a room of her own for prayer and meditation.

She entered the Dominican Third Order at 18 and spent the next three years in seclusion, prayer, and austerity. Gradually, a group of followers gathered around her—men and women, priests and religious. An active public apostolate grew out of her contemplative life. Her letters, mostly for spiritual instruction and encouragement of her followers, began to take more and more note of public affairs. Opposition and slander resulted from her mixing fearlessly with the world and speaking with the candor and authority of one completely committed to Christ. She was cleared of all charges at the Dominican General Chapter of 1374.

Her public influence reached great heights because of her evident holiness, her membership in the Dominican Third Order, and the deep impression she made on the pope. She worked tirelessly for the crusade against the Turks and for peace between Florence and the pope.

In 1378, the Great Schism began, splitting the allegiance of Christendom between two, then three, popes and putting even saints on opposing sides. Catherine spent the last two years of her life in Rome, in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Pope Urban VI and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim for the Church in its agony. She died surrounded by her “children” and was canonized in 1461.

Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church. In 1939, she and Francis of Assisi were declared co-patrons of Italy. Pope Paul VI named her and Teresa of Avila doctors of the Church in 1970. Her spiritual testament is found in The Dialogue.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-catherine-of-siena/

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Saint Zita

Daily Saints

Saint Zita was an Italian saint, born in Tuscany. She entered domestic service at the age of twelve and served the same family for almost fifty years.

Through her diligence and fidelity, she became a trusted and valued servant. She gave one-third of her wages to her parents, kept a third, and gave the rest to the poor. The mistress of the house placed Zita in charge of the household almsgiving, and allowed her to visit the sick poor in their own homes and tend to their needs.

She always rose several hours before the rest of the family and took care to hear Mass every morning before she began work. She attended to her tasks with diligence and fidelity, and studied when possible to anticipate what needed to be done. Saint Zita continued to serve the Fatinellis after the death in 1260 of Guglielmo Fatinelli when his son Pagano became the head of the family.

Saint Zita was known for her kindness and generosity to the poor. She is known as the patron saint of maids and domestic servants. She is often appealed to in order to help find lost keys.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zita#:~:text=Zita%20is%20the%20patron%20saint,of%20Saint%20Zita's%20feast%20day.
Jones, Terry. "Zita". Patron Saints Index. Retrieved 2007-03-11.

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Saint Peter of Tarentaise

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Saint Rose Venerini

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Saint Dominic Savio

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Saint Hilary of Arles

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Saint Florian

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Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

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Saint Joseph the Worker

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Saint Marie of Incarnation

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Saint Catherine of Siena

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Saint Zita

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