Daily Saints

Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs

Saint Perpetua: c. 182–203; Patron Saint of cattle and martyrs; Invoked against the death of children

Saint Felicity: Unknown–203; Patron Saint of martyrs, help to have male children, and widows; Invoked against sterility and the death of children; Pre-Congregation canonizations

The first records of martyrdom in North Africa took place in 180 when twelve Christians were tried and put to death for their faith. After those first martyrs, the Christian faith in North Africa grew stronger and new converts became commonplace. In an attempt to slow the growth of Christianity, Roman Emperor Septimius Severus issued a decree forbidding subjects of the Roman Empire to convert. If they did, they were given the opportunity to renounce their faith and honor the Roman gods. If they refused, they were put to death. In 203, five catechumens preparing for baptism were arrested in the Roman city of Carthage (modern-day Tunisia). Among those catechumens were the two martyrs we honor today. 

Vibia Perpetua was a twenty-two-year-old married noblewoman at the time of her arrest. She was also a mother, having recently given birth to a son whom she was still nursing. Her father was a pagan, but her mother and a brother were baptized Christians. A second brother was preparing for baptism alongside Perpetua, and a third brother had already died as a pagan. Perpetua had been touched by Christ and decided to become a Christian, but she was arrested before her baptism. Her pagan father came to her in prison and pleaded with her to renounce the Christian faith and refuse baptism to save her life so she could raise her son. Perpetua records that conversation as follows: “‘Father, do you see this vessel lying here to be a little pitcher, or something else? Can it be called by any other name than what it is?’ And he said, ‘No.’ ‘Neither can I call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian’” (Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity). A few days later, Perpetua was secretly baptized in prison.

While in prison, Perpetua’s heart yearned for her baby. To her joy, the infant was brought to her so she could nurse him. When that happened, she said, “My prison suddenly became a palace to me and I would rather have been there than anywhere else.”

Felicity, a slave, was also a young woman and pregnant at the time of her arrest. One eyewitness stated, “Felicity had feared that she might not be allowed to suffer with the rest, because pregnant women were not sent into the arena. However, she gave birth in the prison to a daughter whom one of their fellow Christians at once adopted.”

When these brave women stood before their judge, Perpetua’s father showed up with her baby, pleading with her to renounce Christ, save her life, and be there for her son. The judge also encouraged her: “Spare your father’s white hairs. Spare the tender years of your child. Offer sacrifice for the prosperity of the emperors.” Perpetua refused. When asked directly if she were a Christian, she responded, “Yes, I am.” At that, her father violently inserted himself into the situation but was struck by the guard. When Perpetua saw this, her heart broke. She later recounted, “I felt this as if I myself had been struck, so deeply did I grieve to see my father treated thus in his old age.” The judge passed sentence and all were condemned to death by wild beasts. Still, they were filled with great joy as they returned to their prison. After the sentencing, Perpetua was no longer allowed to see her baby boy.

On the day of their martyrdom, Perpetua and Felicity walked to the arena with heads high and joyful spirits. With them were Revocatus, a fellow slave with Felicity, and two freemen, Saturninus and Secundulus. The men were sent into the arena first to be devoured by a leopard, a wild boar, and a bear. Saturnius was the last standing. When a second leopard attacked and blood poured out, the crowd cried out, “He is well baptized now!”

Perpetua and Felicity were then placed in the arena, and a wild cow was let loose as a way of mocking them as nursing mothers. The beast gravely wounded them but did not kill them, so an executioner was dispatched. Perpetua cried out to her brother, “Stand fast in the faith, and love one another. Do not let our sufferings be a stumbling block to you.” She then noticed the fear in the eyes of the executioner so she guided his sword to her neck and the young women received their eternal reward.

Perpetua and Felicity were both new young mothers at the time of their martyrdom. They loved their newborn babies with tender love. But they also loved their God Whom they had both recently come to know. They were forced to choose. Either reject Christ and be there to raise their babies or remain Christian and leave their babies. With heroic courage and faith, they remained true to both. They remained faithful to Christ, dying as martyrs, and they fulfilled their greatest motherly duty by giving heroic witnesses of faith to their babies. We can only hope that as their children grew and were told the stories of their mothers’ love of God, those children were inspired and sought to imitate their mothers’ Christian faith.

Place yourself in that same situation. Would you have had the courage to face death? Would you be able to stay true to your profession of faith under such extreme emotional and familial pressures? Pray to these saintly mothers and be reminded that the greatest gift we can pass onto others is the witness of our faith in Christ. Life is empty unless Christ is loved and professed, and death loses its sting when our lives are Christ’s.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/march-7-saints-perpetua-and-felicity-martyrs/

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Saint Colette

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Colette was a carpenter‘s daughter whose parents were near 60 at her birth. She was orphaned at age 17, and left in the care of a Benedictine abbot. Her guardian wanted her to marry, but Colette was drawn to religious life. She initially tried to join the Beguines and Benedictines, but failed in her vocation.  She was a Franciscan tertiary and a hermitess. On 17 September 1402, at age 21, she became an anchoress – walled into a cell whose only opening was a grilled window into a church.

Colette had visions in which Saint Francis of Assisi ordered her to restore the Rule of Saint Clare to its original severity. When she hesitated, she was struck blind for three days and mute for three more; she saw this as a sign to take action.

Colette tried to follow her mission by explaining it, but had no success. Realizing she needed more authority behind her words, she walked to Nice, France, barefoot and clothed in a habit of patches, to meet Peter de Luna, acknowledged by the French as the schismatic Pope Benedict XIII. He professed her a Poor Clare, and was so impressed that he made her superioress of all convents of Minoresses that she might reform or found, and a missioner to Franciscan friars and tertiaries.

She traveled from convent to convent, meeting opposition, abuse, slander, and was even accused of sorcery. Eventually, she made some progress, especially in Savoy, where her reform gained sympathizers and recruits. This reform passed to Burgundy in France, Flanders in Belgium and Spain.

Colette helped Saint Vincent Ferrer heal the papal schism. She founded seventeen convents; one branch of the Poor Clares is still known as the Colettines.

Colette was known for a deep devotion to Christ’s Passion with an appreciation and care for animals. She fasted every Friday, meditating on the Passion. After receiving Holy Communion, she would fall into ecstasies for hours. She foretold the date of her own death.

Born

  • 13 January 1381 at Corbie, Picardy, France as Nicolette Boilet, named in honor of Saint Nicholas of Myra

Died

  • 6 March 1447 at Ghent, Belgium of natural causes
  • relics at the Monastère Sainte-Claire, Poligny, France

Beatified

  • 1604 by Pope Clement VIII (grant of liturgical office)
  • 23 January 1740 by Pope Clement XII (beatification)

Canonized

  • 24 May 1807 by Pope Pius VII

Patronage

  • against eye disorders
  • against fever
  • against headaches
  • against infertility
  • against the death of parents
  • carpenters
  • craftsmen
  • Poor Clares
  • servants
  • Corbie, France
  • Ghent, Belgium

Representation

  • birds
  • lamb
  • woman being carried to heaven by an angel
  • woman delivering a soul from purgatory
  • Poor Clare nun holding a crucifix and a hook
  • Poor Clare nun visited by Saint Anne, Saint Francis of Assisi, and/or Saint Clare of Assisi in a vision
  • Poor Clare nun walking on a stream

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-colette/

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Ash Wednesday

It was a common practice within the early Church that those who were found guilty of grave public sin needed to do public penance before they were admitted back into communion with the Church and admitted to the Most Holy Eucharist. The public sinners came forward in sackcloth forty days before Easter and were sprinkled with ashes, in keeping with many Old Testament examples of public penance. They fasted and prayed for forty days and then, on Easter, were readmitted into full communion with the Church. Eventually, prior to the end of the first millennium, this practice was extended to the entire Church as a way of highlighting everyone’s need for penance. One of the earliest mentions of this practice becoming universal comes from an English Benedictine monk who wrote:

We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast.

Today, as a sign of our ongoing need to repent of our sins and do penance, the faithful are invited to come forward to be marked with ashes as a sign of their commitment to the penitential season of Lent, so as to celebrate with great joy the Solemnity of Easter. Lent is forty-six days long. Forty of those days are penitential days, and six of them are Sundays. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes with the Easter Vigil. The forty penitential days are an imitation of Jesus’ forty days in the desert.

As we come forward to receive ashes, the minister traditionally says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This line is taken from the Book of Genesis when God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He told Eve that she would suffer the pains of childbirth and be subjected to her husband. God told Adam that he would labor for his food through sweat and toil. To both of them, God said this curse would last “Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Thus, the final curse of original sin is death: “…to dust you shall return.”

As we come forward to receive ashes, we should hear God saying to us, as He said to Adam and Eve, that we also suffer the consequences of original sin and will die. But that curse must be seen in the light of God’s final plan of salvation. Today, we acknowledge that the curse of death will endure but also hold onto the hope of resurrection made possible through Christ. Lent is a time of repentance for our sin and hope in redemption. Ash Wednesday is our liturgical and public statement that we have chosen both repentance and redemption.

As you come forward to receive the ashes today, don’t just go through the motions. Make this act a prayer and one of deep interior devotion. Call to mind your sins and the sins of your whole life, as best you can. Acknowledge the just punishment of eternal death that you deserve for your sins. But then call to mind the infinite and unmerited mercy of God. Remember that even though you are an undeserving sinner, God has reached down from Heaven to offer you the gift of eternal salvation. He has invited you to receive this gift through your repentance and humility. Humble yourself today in “sackcloth and ashes,” and as with those public sinners of old, God will use this Lent to more fully unite your soul with His through His glorious death and resurrection.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/ash-wednesday/

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Saint Casimir

1458–1484; Patron Saint of Poland, Lithuania, and Lithuanian youth; Believed to have been canonized by Pope Leo X in 1521 or Pope Adrian VI in 1522; Canonization confirmed by Pope Clement VIII in 1602

King Casimir IV was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. His wife, Queen Elizabeth, was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Albert II. Their marriage was arranged primarily for political reasons, giving King Casimir IV greater influence in Bohemia and Hungary, but their marriage also bore great spiritual fruit. They had thirteen children, the third being the saint we honor today, Saint Casimir, named after his father.

Saint Casimir was born on October 3, 1458, the second son and third child in the Polish royal family. King Casimir IV’s father had converted to Catholicism from paganism and introduced Christianity to Lithuania. King Casimir IV was, therefore, raised in a good Catholic home which he also provided to his children. A faithful Catholic herself, Queen Elizabeth was the loving mother of her thirteen children.

As children born into royalty, Casimir and his siblings were well educated. From the age of nine until sixteen, Casimir and his older brother were tutored by a Polish priest named Father Jan Długosz. This good priest taught the boys Latin, German, law, history, rhetoric, and classical literature.

Casimir had no desire for power, war, riches, or nobility. Father Długosz had taught him well, and Casimir had fallen in love with his God and the Blessed Virgin. He prayed frequently, often slept on the floor, engaged in other penitential practices, spent entire nights meditating on the Passion of our Lord, dressed simply, and desired to live a life of chastity. He was charitable to the poor, manifested the virtues, and edified all who encountered him. He especially had a deep devotion to our Blessed Mother and each day sang an ancient hymn called, “Daily, Daily Sing to Mary.”

When Casimir was only thirteen, the King of Bohemia and Hungary died and King Casimir IV asserted his right to name a successor. The Bohemians agreed and accepted Vladislaus, the King’s firstborn son, as their king, but some of the Hungarians did not, preferring a godless tyrant named Matthias Corvinus. With the support of some of the Hungarian nobles, King Casimir IV decided to name his son Casimir to the Hungarian throne by force. Casimir was sent to lead the Polish army in battle against the Hungarians and take the throne. Casimir agreed out of obedience to his father, but his heart was not in it. He opposed the war, and in time the effort failed and Casimir returned to Poland. His opposition grew even stronger when he heard that Pope Sixtus IV had asked his father not to go to war. Upon Casimir’s arrival home, his father was furious and imprisoned him in a tower for three months. Those three months, however, were just what Casimir longed for.

In the solitude of imprisonment, Casimir was able to return to his life of prayer and deepen his union with God. Afterward, he continued his studies and life of devotion, vowing to remain celibate for the Kingdom of God. His father was not pleased and attempted to arrange a marriage for him, but he refused. After completing his studies at the age of sixteen, Casimir worked closely with his father, but his heart remained with God and the Blessed Mother. When Casimir was twenty, his father had to be absent from Poland for about five years, tending to matters in Lithuania. During those years, Casimir was put in charge of ruling Poland, which he did with thoughtfulness, justice, and charity. When Casimir was twenty-five, he became ill with a lung disease. His father rushed back to Poland to be with his son, and on March 4, 1484, at the age of twenty-five, Casimir died.

After his death, devotion to Casimir quickly exploded. Many people prayed to him, and many attributed miracles to his intercession. One notable miracle took place in 1519 when the Lithuanian army was engaged in battle with the Russians. It is said that Saint Casimir appeared to the Lithuanian soldiers in a vision and directed them to a place where they could best defend their city, which they successfully did. This might be the reason that Saint Casimir is the patron saint of both Poland and Lithuania.

Shortly after that miracle, it is believed that Pope Leo X carefully examined Casimir’s life and miracles and was prepared to canonize him, but might have died before he was able to do so. Therefore, his successor, Pope Adrian VI, might have been the one to canonize him. Because those questions remained for some time, Pope Clement VIII officially confirmed Casimir’s canonization in 1602, adding him to the Roman liturgical calendar for Poland and Lithuania. In 1620, Saint Casimir was added to the Roman Calendar of the universal Church.

Worldly power, riches, and honors were all within the grasp of this young prince, yet he chose the power, riches, and honors bestowed by the heavenly King instead. His heart was filled with faith from a very early age that only grew as he got older. Even after Casimir’s death, God used him to inspire many. Ponder your own ambitions in life, and seek to imitate this young prince who rejected the lies of this world, preferring only the eternal truths of the Kingdom of God.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/march-4-saint-casimir/

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Saint Katharine Drexel, Virgin

1858–1955; Patron Saint of racial justice and philanthropists; Canonized on October 1, 2000 by Pope John Paul II

On November 26, 1858, Catherine Marie Drexel was born in Philadelphia to Hannah Langstroth Drexel and her husband, Francis Drexel, an international banker and one of the wealthiest men in the United States. Her mother died when Catherine was only five weeks old, so Catherine and her older sister Elizabeth were cared for by their aunt and uncle until their father remarried in 1860. Three years later, Francis and his new wife, Emma, had a daughter, Louisa.

The three girls had what many would describe as an ideal childhood. They were lovingly cared for, lived in a large home in Philadelphia, received an excellent education from private tutors, frequently traveled with their father and stepmother throughout the United States and Europe, and were taught the Catholic faith in both word and deed. Francis and Emma Drexel were devout Catholics who regularly prayed and performed charitable works. They taught the girls that their wealth was a gift to be used for the good of others. One way they put this conviction into practice was by opening their large home to the community a few times each week, distributing food, clothing, and money for rent assistance to the poor. When widows or single women were embarrassed to come, Emma would quietly seek the women out to assist them. She often taught the girls that “Kindness may be unkind if it leaves a sting behind.” The girls also learned about prayer by witnessing their father and stepmother praying daily before an altar in their home.

When Catherine was only fourteen years old, she formulated a spiritual plan for her life with the help of her spiritual director, Father James O’Connor, who later was named the first bishop of Omaha. Catherine’s parents’ witness greatly influenced her, and she began to understand that spiritual riches were worth more than all the material wealth in the world.

After completing her formal education at the age of twenty, Catherine made her social debut and was presented to Philadelphia high society, as was the custom for young wealthy women. Her heart, however, was not drawn to the life of a social elite, but to God and care for the poor. Over the next few years, Catherine’s stepmother suffered from cancer and died on January 29, 1883, at the age of forty-nine, which helped Catherine to realize that money cannot buy health or happiness. The following year, Catherine and her sisters traveled to the Western United States with their father where they saw firsthand the poverty of the Native American community on reservations. In 1885 their father died, leaving his fortune to his three girls. Francis’ will set up trust funds that stipulated that each daughter would equally receive the income produced by his remaining $14 million estate, which translated into about $1,000 every day for each daughter. By comparison, in the year 2023, the $14 million estate would be equivalent to almost $500 million, and each daughter would receive about $35,000 per day.

Despite receiving this fortune, Catherine’s heart remained with the poor, especially the Native Americans out West, and impoverished Black communities. Over the next two years, with the help of two priests, she made substantial donations to reservations and visited them herself. In 1887, she was struggling with what she would do with her life. She felt drawn to the contemplative religious life but knew that this would make it impossible for her to use her inheritance for charitable work. During a visit to Rome, she had a private audience with Pope Leo XIII during which she begged the Holy Father to send an order of missionaries to the Native Americans. The pope lovingly said to her, “But why not be a missionary yourself, my child?” The pope’s words resonated deeply within her heart, and she soon found herself in tears outside Saint Peter’s Basilica, knowing what she must do.

In 1889, Catherine entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh, taking the name Sister Mary Katharine. The news traveled quickly among the social elite. Philadelphia’s Public Ledger printed an article with the headline: “Miss Drexel Enters a Catholic Convent—Gives Up Seven Million.” She made her final vows in 1891, and with thirteen companions founded the “Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People.” Sister Katharine was chosen as the first superior general.

Mother Katharine quickly went to work, using her inheritance to found a boarding school for Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and a school for African American girls in Virginia. Over the next sixty-four years, Mother Katharine and her sisters established forty-nine elementary schools, twelve high schools, Xavier University in New Orleans for Black students, and fifty-one convents. At the time of her death, her order had grown to more than 500 women religious.

In 1935, following a heart attack at the age of seventy-seven, Mother Katharine retreated to a life of prayer. Her original longing for a contemplative life was realized and lasted for the next twenty years. Her father’s will was set up in such a way that the income she received from the trust fund could only be passed on to her children. If she had no children, the money was to be distributed to religious organizations that her father had specified. Of course, Mother Katharine’s order was not one of them, being founded after her father’s death. Some believe that God allowed her to live until the age of ninety-six so that her annual earnings from her trust fund could be used for the ongoing charitable work of her order. She lived her last years in prayer, in personal poverty, simplicity, and charity, giving all she had and all she was to the poor. She was canonized in the year 2000, only the second person born in the United States to be canonized up to that time (after Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton).

Many people dream of being rich. Saint Katharine Drexel teaches us that money is not the source of fulfillment in life. Love is. Whether you are rich or poor, your happiness comes from lovingly serving the will of God. Be inspired by this holy woman and learn from her example by choosing the poverty of Christ over the riches of the world, and you will discover the true riches of Heaven.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/march-3-saint-katharine-drexel-virgin-usa-optional-memorial/

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Saint Luke Casali

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Lucas was educated by the abbot of the monastery of Saint Philip at Agira, Sicily, Italy. Monk at Agira. He was a priest and a reluctant abbot of his house.

Lucas eventually, for unknown reasons, went blind. One day while they were travelling to Nicosia, one of his monks tried to play a trick on the blind abbot by telling him that some townspeople were following them in hope of hearing him preach. Lucas stopped, turned to where he was told the people were standing, and began to preach to the empty field. When he finished, the stones along the road all shouted “Amen”, confounding the practical joker. A church dedicated to Lucas was later built on the spot.

Born

  • Nicosia, Sicily, Italy

Died

  • c.800 at the monastery of Saint Philip in Agira, Sicily, Italy of natural causes
  • most relics still in Agira
  • some relics in Nicosia, Sicily, Italy

Canonized

  • Pre-Congregation

Patronage

  • Nicosia, Sicily, Italy (his intervention ended a plague in 1575

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-luke-casali/

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Saint David of Wales

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David was born to the Welsh royalty, the son of King Sandde, Prince of Powys, and of Saint Non, the daughter of a chieftain of Menevia (western Wales). He was the grandson of Ceredig, Prince of Cardigan. He was the uncle of King Arthur. He was a priest. He studied under Saint Paul Aurelian and worked with Saint Columbanus, Saint Gildas the Wise, and Saint Finnigan. He was a missionary and founder of monasteries.

Following his contribution to the synod of Brevi in Cardiganshire, David was chosen primate of the Cambrian Church. He moved the see to Menevia. He presided at the Synod of Brefi which condemned the Pelagian heresy. He encouraged and founded monasteries. He was first to build a chancel to Saint Joseph of Arimathea‘s wattle church at Glastonbury.

After a vision in his monastery in the Rhos Valley, he set out the next day with two monks to Jerusalem to aid the Patriarch. While there, his preaching converted anti–Christians. Legend says that once while he was preaching, a dove descended to his shoulder to show he had the blessings of the Spirit, and that the earth rose to lift him high above the people so that he could be heard by them all. Another time when he was preaching to a crowd at Llandewi Brefi, people on the outer edges could not hear, so he spread a handkerchief on the ground, stood on it, and the ground beneath rose up in a pillar so all could hear.

Born

  • c.542 at Menevia (now Saint David’s), Wales

Died

  • c.601 at Mynyw, Wales of natural causes
  • interred in Saint David’s Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, Wales

Canonized

  • 1120 by Pope Callistus II

Name Meaning

  • beloved one

Patronage

  • doves
  • Wales
  • in Wales
    – Bangor
    – Llandaff

Representation

  • preaching on a hill
  • dove
  • Celtic bishop with long hair, a beard, and a dove perched on his shoulder
  • holding his cathedral
  • leek
  • man standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-david-of-wales/

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Pope Saint Hilary

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Pope Hilarius was a deacon and a trusted aide to Pope Saint Leo the Great. He was also a papal legate. He was sent to “Robber Synod” at Ephesus in 449 to report on the Monophysitism heresies of Eutyches, which denied the humanity of Christ and claimed that He had only a divine nature, a teaching condemned in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon. Eutyches’ followers attacked the legate party, and forced them to return to Rome. He became an Arch-deacon in c.455. He worked on an updated method of calculating the date of Easter. He was the chosen 46th pope in 461.

As pope, Hilary confirmed the work of several general councils, rebuilt and remodeled many churches, fought Nestorianism and Arianism, and held several Councils at Rome. He was renowned for defending the rights of his bishops while exhorting them to curb their excesses and devote themselves more completely to God. He helped define the Church‘s role in the empire, and affirmed the position of the pope, and not the emperor, as leader in spiritual matters. He continued Leo I‘s vigorous policy, strengthening ecclesiastical government in Gaul and Spain. He erected churches, convents, libraries, and two public baths, and his synod of 465 is the earliest Roman synod whose records are extant.

Born

  • on Sardinia

Papal Ascension

  • 19 November 461

Died

  • 29 February 468 at Rome, Italy of natural causes

Canonized

  • Pre-Congregation

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-hilary/

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Saint Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

951–c. 1003; Widely venerated in the Armenian Church; Declared a Doctor of the Church in 2015 and inscribed on the Church Calendar as an Optional Memorial by Pope Francis in 2021

The Apostles Saint Jude Thaddeus and Saint Bartholomew are believed to have traveled to Armenia to share the Gospel. In 301, the Armenian king was converted who, in turn, made Christianity the kingdom’s official religion, making Armenia the first nation to do so. In the centuries that followed, churches and monasteries were built, the faith was taught, liturgies were celebrated, and an extensive Christian culture emerged.

In the year 451, the Armenian Church separated from the Church of Rome over disagreements on doctrine from the Council of Chalcedon. Though the Armenian Church remained an apostolic Church, being founded by the Apostles, it became separated from the pope. Its Sacraments and life of prayer continued, but the division also continued. In recent decades, greater attempts at unification have been made, and the saint we honor today is the most recent attempt by the Roman Church to more fully unite with the Eastern Church of Armenia.

By the tenth century, the Kingdom of Armenia was celebrated for its faith, many churches, literature, art, and architecture. It was a relatively peaceful time. In the year 951, a boy named Gregory was born near Lake Van, the largest lake in the Kingdom of Armenia, modern-day Turkey. His mother died when he was young. His father was the ruling prince of the Andzevatsiq province and also an Armenian bishop and scholar. His father was vocally supportive of some of the teachings of the Council of Chalcedon and believed that the head of the Armenian Church, called the Catholicos, enjoyed only the rank of bishop. This did not sit well with the Catholicos, who later excommunicated Gregory’s father from the Armenian Church.

After their mother’s death, Gregory and his older brother were sent to live at the Monastery of Narek, under the guardianship of their maternal great-uncle Abbot Anania, the monastery’s founder. At about the age of twenty-six, Gregory was ordained a priest for the monastery and remained there for the rest of his life, teaching theology in the monastery’s school.

The loss of his mother early in life led Gregory to a deep devotion to our Blessed Mother. He would later write, “This spiritual, heavenly mother of light cared for me as a son more than an earthly, breathing, physical mother could (Prayer 75).”

Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, Gregory wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs. He also wrote commentary on the Book of Job, numerous chants, homilies, and speeches that sang the praises of holy men. Toward the end of his life, he wrote his most famous work, The Book of Lamentations, or, as it is commonly known today, The Book of Narek.

Gregory’s father had taught him to remain in a state of continuous dialogue with God, ever attentive to His divine presence. The Book of Narek seems to flow from Gregory’s ongoing dialogue. The book is a compilation of ninety-five prayers. Each prayer begins with the phrase, “Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart.” The prayers then go on to express the deepest love of God by a soul that seems troubled, and even tormented at times. The torment, however, is not despair, but an interior expression of hope from a soul who is in touch with his fallen humanity and sin, while at the same time keenly aware of God’s mercy. His prayers reflect the psalms and are similar to Saint Augustine’s Confessions. Saint Gregory states that these prayers were written “by the finger of God” (Prayer 34) and that Gregory saw God, as he says, “with my own eyes” (Prayer 27f). In one of the final prayers, Gregory states, “although I shall die in the way of all mortals, may I be deemed to live through the continued existence of this book…This book will cry out in my place, with my voice, as if it were me” (Prayer 88b; c). He believed his book was written not only for himself, his monks, or the Armenian people, but for all people, for the entire world.

Less than a century after Saint Gregory’s death, the Kingdom of Armenia was invaded by the Byzantines, then by the Turks. In the centuries that followed, these once-flourishing people suffered greatly under foreign domination. This suffering culminated in the twentieth century during the Armenian genocide when the Turks murdered an estimated 1–1.8 million Armenians. Throughout those centuries of great suffering and oppression, Saint Gregory’s book of prayers became the daily prayers of the Armenian people. Everyone had a printed copy; many people even slept with a copy under their pillow. In 2015, when the pope declared Saint Gregory a Doctor of the Church, and in 2021 when Saint Gregory was placed on the liturgical calendar for the Roman Church, his book of prayers suddenly became prayers for the entire world. They are prayers that need to be prayed by all people today so that the world will humble itself before God and become acutely aware of its sin and need for God’s mercy. Let us conclude with the conclusion of Saint Gregory’s final prayer.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/saint-gregory-of-narek/

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Saint Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz

Profile

Paula was the daughter of Ramon and Vicenta Fornes Montal. She was raised in a large and pious family in a small seaside village. Her father died when she was 10 years old. She worked as a seamstress and lace-maker, and helped raise her siblings, then helped in her parish to care for other children.

At age thirty, still single and devoting herself privately to God, she and her friend Inez Busquets opened a school in Gerona to provide a good education mixed with spiritual guidance. The school was such a success that she was able to found a college in May 1842, and another school in 1846. To staff and manage the schools, she founded the Daughters of Mary (Pious School Sisters; Escolapias) on 2 February 1847, and took the name Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz. Paula served as the leader of the congregation, and they received approval from Pope Blessed Pius IX in 1860. These schools have now spread to four continents.

Born

  • 11 October 1799 at Arenys de Mar, near Barcelona, Spain

Died

  • 26 February 1889 at Olesa de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain of natural causes

Venerated

  • 28 November 1988 by Pope John Paul II (decree of heroic virtues)

Beatified

  • 18 April 1993 by Pope John Paul II at Rome

Canonized

  • 25 November 2001 by Pope John Paul II

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-paula-of-saint-joseph-of-calasanz/

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