Daily Saints

Saint Hunna

Saint Hunna was born in Alsace in eastern France. She was the daughter of a duke and born into “a privileged life”. She married Huno of Hunnaweyer, a nobleman and aristocrat. They had one son.

Her family was influenced by the former bishop and hermit Saint Deodatus of Nevers, who inspired her to serve her poor neighbors. In addition to caring for her family, home, and estate while her husband traveled for political and diplomatic reasons, she spent her time in prayer and visited her neighbors daily, caring for the sick and providing them with religious instruction, cooking, cleaning, bathing, and childcare, as well as washing and replacing their clothes, which earned her the name the “Holy Washerwoman”.

Scholar Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg placed Hunna in the tradition of what she called the “domestic saint” or “holy housekeeper”, pious and noble women in the Middle Ages, who like Hunna, conducted public roles such as founders and abbesses of convents, but whose “popular and local fame rested on her pious activity of washing the clothing of the poor”, from where she received her nickname. Hunna is the patron of laundresses

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunna
Dunbar, Agnes B.C. (1901). A Dictionary of Saintly Women. 1. London: George Bell & Sons. p. 397.

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Saint Bénézet

Daily Saints

Saint Bénézet was a shepherd boy who saw a vision during an eclipse in 1177 which led him to build a bridge over the Rhône River at Avignon.

He was told that angels would watch over his flocks in his absence. He built the bridge single-handedly; ecclesiastical and civil authorities refused to help him. Bénézet, it is said, lifted a huge stone into place, and announced it would be the start of the foundation. This would become the Pont Saint-Bénézet.

According to the legend, there were shouts of “Miracle! Miracle!” when Bénézet had laid the first stone. Eighteen miracles occurred in total: the blind had their vision restored, the deaf could hear again, cripples could walk; and hunchbacks had their backs straightened. Bénézet thus won support for his project from wealthy sponsors who, it is claimed, formed themselves into the Bridge-Building Brotherhood to fund its construction.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9n%C3%A9zet

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Ecclesiastes 7:10

Daily Saints

Verse:

“Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.” - Ecclesiastes 7:10

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Saint Teresa of Los Andes

Daily Saints

One needn’t live a long life to leave a deep imprint. Teresa of Los Andes is proof of that.

As a young girl growing up in the early 1900’s in Santiago, Chile, Juana Fernandez read an autobiography of a French-born saint—Thérèse, popularly known as the Little Flower. The experience deepened her desire to serve God and clarified the path she would follow. At age 19 Juana became a Carmelite nun, taking the name of Teresa.

The convent offered the simple lifestyle Teresa desired and the joy of living in a community of women completely devoted to God. She focused her days on prayer and sacrifice. “I am God’s,” she wrote in her diary. “He created me and is my beginning and my end.”

Toward the end of her short life, Teresa began an apostolate of letter-writing, sharing her thoughts on the spiritual life with many people. At age 20 she contracted typhus and quickly took her final vows. She died a short time later, during Holy Week.

Known as the “Flower of the Andes,” Teresa remains popular with the estimated 100,000 pilgrims who visit her shrine in Los Andes each year. Canonized in 1993 by Pope John Paul II, she is Chile’s first saint.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-teresa-of-los-andes/

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Saint Stanislaus of Krakow

Daily Saints

Saint Stanislaus of Krakow was born at Szczepanów, a village in Lesser Poland. He was the only son of the noble and pious Wielisław and Bogna. He was educated at a cathedral school in Gniezno (then the capital of Poland) and later, probably at Paris.

On his return to Poland, Stanislaus was ordained a priest by Lambert II Suła, Bishop of Kraków. Following his ordination, he was given a canonry in Kraków and became known for his preaching. He was subsequently made pastor of Czembocz near Kraków, canon and preacher at the cathedral, and later, vicar-general.

After the bishop’s death (1072), Stanislaus was elected his successor but accepted the office only at the explicit command of Pope Alexander II. Stanislaus was one of the earliest native Polish bishops. He also became a ducal advisor and had some influence on Polish politics.

Stanislaus’ major accomplishments included bringing papal legates to Poland, and reestablishment of a metropolitan see in Gniezno. He was the Bishop of Kraków known chiefly for having been martyred by the Polish king Bolesław II the Generous. Stanislaus is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Stanislaus the Martyr.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislaus_of_Szczepan%C3%B3w
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Saint Stanislaus of Kraków". Encyclopedia Britannica
Fr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI (1997). "St. Stanislaus". My First Book of Saints. Sons of Holy Mary Immaculate - Quality Catholic Publications. pp. 80–81.

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Saint Michael de Sanctis

Daily Saints

Saint Michael de Sanctis was born as Michael Argemir. He was also known as Michael of the Saints. At the age of twelve, he came to Barcelona and asked to be received into the monastery of the Trinitarians there.

After a three-year novitiate, he took his vows at that order’s monastery of St. Lambert at Zaragoza in 1607. After meeting a Discalced Trinitarian one day, he felt drawn to that congregation’s more austere lifestyle and, after much deliberation and the permission of his superior, he entered the congregation of the Discalced Trinitarians at Madrid as a novice. He then took his vows at Alcalá, became a priest, and was twice elected superior of the monastery at Valladolid.

During his life, Michael de Sanctis led a life of prayer and mortification. He was devout towards the Holy Eucharist, and is said to have been experienced ecstasies several times during Consecration.

Sources:

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

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Saint John Baptist de La Salle

Daily Saints

Complete dedication to what he saw as God’s will for him dominated the life of John Baptist de La Salle. In 1950, Pope Pius XII named him patron of schoolteachers for his efforts in upgrading school instruction. As a young 17th-century Frenchman, John had everything going for him: scholarly bent, good looks, noble family background, money, refined upbringing. At the early age of 11, he received the tonsure and started preparation for the priesthood, to which he was ordained at 27. He seemed assured then of a life of dignified ease and a high position in the Church.

But God had other plans for John, which were gradually revealed to him in the next several years. During a chance meeting with Monsieur Adrien Nyel, he became interested in the creation of schools for poor boys in Rheims, where he was stationed. Though the work was extremely distasteful to him at first, he became more involved in working with the deprived youths.

Once convinced that this was his divinely appointed mission, John threw himself wholeheartedly into the work, left home and family, abandoned his position as canon at Rheims, gave away his fortune, and reduced himself to the level of the poor to whom he devoted his entire life.

The remainder of his life was closely entwined with the community of religious men he founded, the Brothers of the Christian School (also called Christian Brothers or De La Salle Brothers). This community grew rapidly and was successful in educating boys of poor families, using methods designed by John. It prepared teachers in the first training college for teachers and also set up homes and schools for young delinquents of wealthy families. The motivating element in all these endeavors was the desire to become a good Christian.

Yet even in his success, John did not escape experiencing many trials: heart-rending disappointment and defections among his disciples, bitter opposition from the secular schoolmasters who resented his new and fruitful methods, and persistent opposition from the Jansenists of his time, whose moral rigidity and pessimism about the human condition John resisted vehemently all his life.

Afflicted with asthma and rheumatism in his last years, he died on Good Friday at age 68, and was canonized in 1900.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-john-baptist-de-la-salle/

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Pope Sixtus I

Daily Saints

Pope Sixtus I was the bishop of Rome from c. 115 to his death. He succeeded Alexander I and was in turn succeeded by Telesphorus.

According to the Liberian Catalogue of popes, he served the Church during the reign of Hadrian “from the consulate of Niger and Apronianus until that of Verus III and Ambibulus”, that is, from 117 to 126.

Like most of his predecessors, Sixtus I was believed to have been buried near Peter’s grave on Vatican Hill, although there are differing traditions concerning where his body lies today.

Pope Sixtus I instituted several Catholic liturgical and administrative traditions. According to the Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne, I.128), he passed the following three ordinances:

That none but sacred ministers are allowed to touch the sacred vessels;
That bishops who have been summoned to the Holy See shall, upon their return, not be received by their diocese except on presenting Apostolic letters;
That after the Preface in the Mass, the priest shall recite the Sanctus with the people

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sixtus_I
George L. Williams (2004). Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes. p. 9. ISBN 9780786420711.
"Pope St. Sixtus I". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1912.

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Saint Vincent Ferrer

Daily Saints

Saint Vincent Ferrer was a Valencian Dominican friar and preacher, who gained acclaim as a missionary and a logician. He is honored as a saint of the Catholic Church and other churches of Catholic traditions.

Saint Vincent Ferrer began his classical studies at the age of eight, and his study of theology and philosophy at fourteen. Four years later, at the age of eighteen, Ferrer entered the Order of Preachers, commonly called the Dominican Order. As soon as he had entered the novitiate of the Order, though, he experienced temptations urging him to leave. He prayed and practiced penance to overcome these trials. Thus he succeeded in completing the year of probation and advancing to his profession.

For a period of three years, he read solely Sacred Scripture and eventually committed it to memory. He published a treatise on Dialectic Suppositions after his solemn profession, and in 1379 was ordained a Catholic priest at Barcelona. He eventually became a Master of Sacred Theology and was commissioned by the Order to deliver lectures on philosophy. He was then sent to Barcelona and eventually to the University of Lleida, where he earned his doctorate in theology.

He preached to Colette of Corbie and her nuns, and it was she who told him that he would die in France. Too ill to return to Spain, he did, indeed, die in Brittany in 1419. Breton fishermen still invoke his aid in storms, and in Spain he is the patron of orphanages.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Ferrer
"Archdiocesan Shrine & Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer". www.facebook.com
"Sant Vicent Ferrer, patró de l'antic Regne de València", by Àngel Canet Català, Vilaweb, 31 March 2008, reprinted in Normalització, (in Catalan). The author of this article references El gran llibre dels sants, by Roger Costa Solé, Ara Llibres, Barcelona, 2007, as his source. Consulted 2016-12-18.
Dress, Clayton J. The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300–1500: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press, 2001. ISBN 0-313-30588-9. (p. 490)

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Saint Isidore of Seville

Daily Saints

The 76 years of Isidore’s life were a time of conflict and growth for the Church in Spain. The Visigoths had invaded the land a century and a half earlier, and shortly before Isidore’s birth they set up their own capital. They were Arians—Christians who said Christ was not God. Thus, Spain was split in two: One people (Catholic Romans) struggled with another (Arian Goths).

Isidore reunited Spain, making it a center of culture and learning. The country served as a teacher and guide for other European countries whose culture was also threatened by barbarian invaders.

Born in Cartagena of a family that included three other sibling saints—Leander, Fulgentius and Florentina—he was educated by his elder brother, whom he succeeded as bishop of Seville.

An amazingly learned man, he was sometimes called “The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages” because the encyclopedia he wrote was used as a textbook for nine centuries. He required seminaries to be built in every diocese, wrote a Rule for religious orders, and founded schools that taught every branch of learning. Isidore wrote numerous books, including a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a history of Goths, and a history of the world—beginning with creation! He completed the Mozarabic liturgy, which is still in use in Toledo, Spain. For all these reasons, Isidore has been suggested as patron of the Internet. Several others—including Anthony of Padua—also have been suggested.

He continued his austerities even as he approached age 80. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities so much that his house was crowded from morning till night with the poor of the countryside.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-isidore-of-seville/

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Saint Hunna

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Saint Bénézet

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Ecclesiastes 7:10

Verse:

Saint Teresa of Los Andes

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Saint Stanislaus of Krakow

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Saint Michael de Sanctis

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Saint John Baptist de La Salle

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Pope Sixtus I

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Saint Vincent Ferrer

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Saint Isidore of Seville

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