Daily Saints

Saint Thomas of Villanova

Saint Thomas was from Castile in Spain and received his surname from the town where he was raised. He received a superior education at the University of Alcala and became a popular professor of philosophy there. After joining the Augustinian friars at Salamanca, Thomas was ordained and resumed his teaching despite a continuing absentmindedness and poor memory. He became prior and then provincial of the friars, sending the first Augustinians to the New World. He was nominated by the emperor to the archbishopric of Granada, but refused. When the see again became vacant he was pressured to accept. The money his cathedral chapter gave him to furnish his house was given to a hospital instead. His explanation to them was that “our Lord will be better served by your money being spent on the poor in the hospital. What does a poor friar like myself want with furniture?” In his lifetime Thomas of Villanova was already called “the almsgiver” and “the father of the poor.” He was canonized in 1658.

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Saint Matthew

Daily Saints

Matthew was born in Capernaum, and was working as a tax-collector when Jesus called him. He is thought by some scholars to have written and early version of his Gospel in Aramaic, a precursor to the Greek version we now have. He is also said to have preached in the East. Tradition differs as to the sense of his missions and as to whether he died a natural death or a martyr’s. His relics were reputedly discovered in Salerno (Italy) in 1080. His symbol is an angel, and he is a patron saint of tax collectors and accountants.

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Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions

Daily Saints

The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back in Korea, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Besides Andrew and Paul, Pope John Paul II canonized 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867, when he visited Korea in 1984. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were lay persons: 47 women and 45 men.

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Saint Januarius

Daily Saints

Little is known about the life of Januarius. He is believed to have been martyred in the Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of 305. Legend has it that Januarius and his companions were thrown to the bears in the amphitheater of Pozzuoli, but the animals failed to attack them. They were then beheaded, and Januarius’ blood ultimately brought to Naples.

“A dark mass that half fills a hermetically sealed four-inch glass container, and is preserved in a double reliquary in the Naples cathedral as the blood of St. Januarius, liquefies 18 times during the year…Various experiments have been applied, but the phenomenon eludes natural explanation….”

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Saint Joseph of Cupertino

Daily Saints

Joseph of Cupertino is most famous for levitating at prayer. Already as a child, Joseph showed a fondness for prayer. After a short career with the Capuchins, he joined the Conventual Franciscans. Following a brief assignment caring for the friary mule, Joseph began his studies for the priesthood. Though studies were very difficult for him, Joseph gained a great deal of knowledge from prayer. He was ordained in 1628. The friars transferred Joseph several times for his own good and for the good of the rest of the community. He was reported to and investigated by the Inquisition; the examiners exonerated him. He died on September 18, 1663. Joseph was canonized in 1767. In the investigation preceding the canonization, 70 incidents of levitation are recorded.

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Saint Robert Bellarmine

Daily Saints

Robert was born on 1542 in Montepulciano, in Tuscany, and became a Jesuit. He taught theology in Rome, and was active in disputation against the Protestants, where his effectiveness was increased by his charity and moderation. He was a moderating influence in the Galileo affair, and gave the latter much friendly advice. In due course he was nominated a cardinal and archbishop of Capua; but it is for his writings that he is chiefly known. He did not only write controversial works: he also wrote two catechisms and some devotional commentaries on the Psalms and on the Seven Last Words of Jesus hanging on the Cross. He died in 1621.

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Saint Cornelius & Cyprian

Daily Saints

Cornelius was made bishop of the church in Rome in the year 251. He fought against the Novatian schismatics, and established his authority with the aid of Cyprian. The emperor Gallus sent him into exile, and he died at Civitavecchia in June 253. He is buried in Rome.

Cyprian was born in Carthage and spent most of his life in the practice of the law. He was converted to Christianity, and was made bishop of Carthage in 249. in 258 the persecution of the emperor Valecian began. Cyprian was first exiled and then, on the 14th of September, executed, after a trial notable for the calm and courtesy shown by both sides. Cyprian exclaimed, “Blessed be God!”

Cornelius and Cyprian encouraged each other to lead a virtuous , self-sacrificing, and loving lives for God. As Jesus said, there is no greater gift than offering one’s life for his friend.

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Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

Daily Saints

The devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows flourished in the Middle Ages, and the hymn Stabat Mater was composed for it. For a while there were two feasts in honor of the Sorrowful Mother: one going back to the 15th century, the other to the 17th century. For a while both were celebrated by the universal Church: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday, the other in September.
The principal biblical references to Mary’s sorrows are in Luke 2:35 and John 19:26-27. The Lucan passage is Simeon’s prediction about a sword piercing Mary’s soul; the Johannine passage relates Jesus’ words from the cross to Mary and to the beloved disciple.

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Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Daily Saints

What are these Christians about, exalting an instrument of torture?
First, we rejoice that something so terrible should have been transformed into a means of redemption for the whole human race.

Second, we remind ourselves of the fact that Christianity is not an abstract and spiritual religion. It springs from God’s direct intervention in the affairs of the world, a real historical event involving real people and, in the end, a real execution on a real cross. We may theorize and theologize all we like; but all our theorizings and theologizings are nothing without the history on which they are based. Take away that history – take away the Cross – and Christianity is nonsense.

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Saint John Chrysostom

Daily Saints

The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (“Chrysostom” means golden mouth”) from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial politics. Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of imperial court life. Whether intended or not, sermons mentioning the lurid Jezebel and impious Herodias were associated with the empress, who finally did manage to have John exiled. He died in exile in 407.

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Saint Thomas of Villanova

Saint Matthew

Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions

Saint Januarius

Saint Joseph of Cupertino

Saint Robert Bellarmine

Saint Cornelius & Cyprian

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Saint John Chrysostom

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