Daily Saints

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious

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1568–1591; Patron Saint of students, Christian youth, Jesuit novices, AIDS patients and caregivers; Invoked against eye troubles and epidemics; Canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on December 31, 1726

Luigi Gonzaga was the firstborn son of eight children, and the scion to a wealthy and noble inheritance. He was born into the Duchy of Mantua, modern-day northern Italy, which was ruled by his family, the princely House of Gonzaga. Luigi was the Italian version of his name; Aloysius was the Latin version. His father, Ferrante Gonzaga, was Governor of Milan, Viceroy of Sicily, and a general in the army of the Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Philip II. As the oldest son, Luigi was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps through a military career. Ferrante began training Luigi as a soldier when Luigi was just four years old. Luigi’s mother, a devout Catholic, had different hopes for her son.

At the age of five, Luigi was sent to a military camp housing 3,000 soldiers to learn warfare and weaponry. He earned respect from the soldiers and often led them in marching, but he also picked up their rough language. When Luigi brought this language home, his mother promptly corrected him. Although the incident was somewhat innocent since he didn’t know what the words he repeated meant, his mother’s rebuke had a lasting influence on him and marked a turning point in his life. From that young age, he started to cultivate piety and a greater consciousness of moral living.

Luigi’s piety continued to flourish at the age of seven. He began to pray daily, reciting the Office of Our Lady, the penitential psalms, and many other devotions, often on his knees on a cold, hard floor. Around this time, he also endured an illness lasting about eighteen months, marked by fever and necessitating prolonged bed rest. Nevertheless, he never missed his daily prayers. Many who knew him in his childhood believed he never committed a mortal sin, given the depth of his devotion.

At the age of eight, Luigi and his younger brother were sent to Florence under the guardianship of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco I de’ Medici, a member of the influential Medici family. Florence was a thriving city, rich in culture and knowledge, exposing the boys to music, art, and science. Luigi and his brother served as pages in Francesco’s court, a role that involved household service, etiquette instruction, and establishment of important relationships for future benefits. Luigi studied Latin, literature, philosophy, and history, and was exposed to physical disciplines, such as fencing and horseback riding.

By the age of nine, however, Luigi—now using his Latin name, Aloysius—was demonstrating more interest in piety and the lives of the saints than in the worldly pursuits that made up his life at court. Most of his free time was spent learning about the faith and praying.

Ferrante brought his sons back home when Aloysius was eleven years old. After joining the court of Duke William Gonzaga of Mantua, Aloysius read a book of letters from Jesuit missionaries and was deeply moved by a letter from a Jesuit missionary from the Indies. Around this time, he made a private vow to live a celibate life devoted to God and resolved to renounce his firstborn rights. He began to embrace every virtue, especially purity, and he became so engrossed in catechetical studies and the lives of the saints that he began teaching catechism to other children.

At the age of twelve, Aloysius met then-cardinal and future saint, Charles Borromeo. After expressing his desire to be a Jesuit missionary and undergoing examination by the cardinal, Aloysius so impressed Cardinal Borromeo that he personally prepared the boy for and administered his First Holy Communion, encouraging him to receive the Eucharist frequently.

When Aloysius was thirteen, his father was required to accompany the empress of Austria to Spain and brought his children with him. The children became pages in the infant prince’s court. Aloysius continued his studies and prayer life in Spain and started to seriously consider becoming a Jesuit. His mother was thrilled when he shared this desire, but his father was enraged, even threatening physical violence. The issue was that Aloysius would need to renounce his inheritance and noble status to become a Jesuit. When some family members suggested he become a secular priest, noting that they could arrange for him to be a bishop, Aloysius refused. He felt called to the Jesuits and had no interest in the nobility’s courtly advancement, wealth, or worldly honors. When the Spanish infant prince died a year later, the family moved back to Italy.

Over the next few years, Aloysius’s piety grew, and his devotion to become a Jesuit solidified. His father and many others tried to dissuade him, even confining him for nine months. Eventually, through divine grace, hearts were softened, minds opened, and Aloysius’ father gave his reluctant consent. As a high-ranking noble, Aloysius could only renounce his inheritance and position with the emperor’s approval. Once granted, Aloysius passed his rank and inheritance to his brother and joined the Jesuit novitiate in Rome on November 25, 1585, at the age of eighteen.

Despite his noble background, Aloysius lived humbly in Rome. He advanced in prayer, often entering deep contemplation. He prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, grew in devotion to Our Lady, and always meditated on Christ’s Passion. He was obedient, manifested a pure and holy chastity, lived in poverty, and was charitable, especially towards the poor. He was also blessed to have the future Saint Robert Bellarmine as his spiritual director and teacher.

After briefly returning home to resolve a family dispute over land, Aloysius returned to Rome in 1591 when the bubonic plague was ravaging the city. Despite the widespread fear, Aloysius dedicated himself to caring for the sick, dismissing concerns for his own health. He undertook all necessary tasks to meet both the spiritual and physical needs of the sick, fulfilling his duties with profound joy. Eventually, he contracted the disease himself and endured much suffering. He embraced his suffering with much rejoicing and even prophesied the day of his death, which was revealed to him in a vision and occurred on the Octave day of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi when he was just twenty-three years old.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga was wealthy in the things of this world and was promised everything this life could offer. However, he discovered something far more valuable—God—through a life of profound prayer and devotion. The wealth he obtained through his obedience to God’s will vastly exceeded anything he could inherit in this life. As we reflect on this youthful and holy Jesuit, consider your own dreams and desires. Like Saint Aloysius, are you prepared to relinquish everything to serve God’s will? Do you pursue genuine riches? Or are you preoccupied with the fleeting wealth of this world? Imitate this young saint’s example, and you will discover the same treasures he obtained through his fidelity to God’s will.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/june-21–st-aloysius-gonzaga/

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Saint John of Pulsano

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John was a Benedictine monk. He lived with such austerity that it brought on the enmity of his brothers who felt he was setting a standard that they could not meet, making them look bad, and drawing attention to himself. He was became a monk at Montevergine Abbey under the spiritual direction of his friend Saint William of Vercelli, its founder. He was a poopular preacher in Bari, Italy. He also founded the Saint Mary of Pulsano Abbey at Pulsano, Italy where he served as abbot, and from which grew a new congregation.

Born

  • c.1070 at Matera, Basilicata region, Italy

Died

  • 1139 at Pulsano, Italy of natural causes
  • buried in a niche in a cave in the church at Saint Mary of Pulsano Abbey
  • relics translated to Matera Cathedral in 1830
  • relics enshrined in a new sarcophagus in 1939

    Canonized
  • 1177 by Pope Alexander III

Representation

  • abbot driving away the devil with a rod

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-john-of-pulsano/

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Saint Romuald, Abbot

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c. 951–1027; Invoked for reformation of the Church and monastic life; Canonized by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582

Saint Romuald was born into a noble family in Ravenna, located in modern-day northern Italy. As a youth, he was reportedly quite mischievous, and by some accounts, even vicious. It’s likely he adopted such behavior in imitation of his father. During that time, the nobility were often engaged in conflicts over control of land, political power, or in response to perceived violations of their family’s honor. When Romuald was twenty, his father, Sergius degli Onesti, found himself embroiled in such a conflict with a relative over land ownership. They resolved their dispute through a duel, which Sergius won by killing his relative. Even though Romuald was no stranger to such conflicts, he was horrified by his father’s actions. Romuald fled to the Benedictine monastery of San Apollinare-in-Classe, just south of Ravenna. Initially, he went to the monastery for a forty-day retreat of prayer and penance to atone for his father’s sin. After forty days, however, he decided to stay and become a monk.

In Romuald’s day, many European monasteries were undergoing reform. Many had become political in nature and had relaxed their emphasis on prayer. When Romuald entered the Monastery of San Apollinare-in-Classe, reforms had just started, but true reform takes a long time. Given Romuald’s newfound zeal for prayer and penance, coupled with his temper and lack of patience, he often lashed out at his fellow monks for their lax lifestyle. As a result, Romuald was not very popular among the more worldly monks. He requested and quickly received permission from the abbot to move to Venice and live as a hermit under the spiritual direction of another hermit named Marinus. For the next several years, Romuald lived a strict life of solitude, silence, prayer, and penance. Under Marinus, he developed his own monastic lifestyle, learning not only from Marinus but also directly from the Holy Spirit through his life of prayer.

Around the year 978, while in his late twenties, Romuald and Marinus moved to the border of France and Spain and built a hermitage near the Monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. For the next several years, Romuald continued to live a life of prayer, solitude, and silence, along with a period of intense study, taking advantage of the library at the nearby monastery. His studies, guided by the Holy Spirit, led him to further develop a new way of being a hermit and to a deeper understanding of the ideals of monasticism in general.

Around the age of thirty-seven, after living the hermit’s life for fifteen to twenty years and developing a new theological and practical understanding of the ideals of monasticism, Romuald began traveling across Europe. He founded new hermitages and monasteries and provided spiritual direction to existing ones in need of reform. One of his first stops was to visit his father, who had since repented of his former lifestyle and became a monk himself. Before his father died, Romuald helped him more fully embrace his new monastic vocation. Sometime after 996, Otto III ascended to the role of Holy Roman Emperor. Otto was devoted to reforms within the Church and across the empire. One story relates that when Otto heard about Romuald’s fervor and commitment to reforming monastic life, Otto asked him to become the abbot of Otto’s first monastery, San Apollinare-in-Classe. However, the monks resisted Romuald’s reform efforts so vehemently that he left in frustration within a year.

In 1012, according to legend, a man named Maldolus had a vision of monks dressed in white ascending a ladder to Heaven. Prompted by this vision, Maldolus donated a piece of land he owned in Camaldoli, near Arezzo in Tuscany, to Romuald. On this land, Romauld built five hermitages, marking the beginnings of the Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona. This new form of monasticism harmonized, for the first time, the lives of hermits and monks. Monks lived in community, sharing meals, work, and communal prayer. Hermits, in contrast, pursued their vocations mostly in solitude. Romuald’s innovative form of monasticism aimed to marry these two vocations. The monks each lived in their own hermitages in silence and solitude but would gather each day in a shared chapel for prayer. They also shared meals, though not as frequently as traditional monks, and shared a common mission and rule of life. Over the next fifteen years, Romuald founded several more monastery-hermitages, firmly establishing his new form of monastic life within the broader life of the Church.

The “Brief Rule” that Saint Romuald left his brothers is just that, brief. It is quoted above in its entirety. In its simplicity, it spells out all that Saint Romuald believed monk-hermits needed to know in order to live the life to which they are called. The Rule offers seven exercises to help grow in contemplation. The hermit-monk must love his cell, be detached, be self-observant, attentive to praying the Psalms, reverent before God, intense in asceticism, and become childlike in one’s receptivity to grace.

Saint Romuald passed away in the solitude of his cell, a place he referred to as “paradise.” Numerous miracles were reported in the years following his death by those who prayed at his tomb. According to legend, approximately 400 years later, his body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt, but being sacrilegiously unearthed, the body turned to dust. Other accounts state that his body remains incorrupt and was relocated to Fabriano, Italy, where his order had constructed another monastery. Today, this church is known as Saint Romuald’s.

The eremitical life of a hermit, while not suited for everyone, plays an essential role in the life of the Church. God calls a select number of men and women to serve as intercessors for the entire Church, as well as beacons guiding our pilgrimage toward Heaven. Their vocation underscores the importance of prayer, solitude, silence, and asceticism. As we honor the great founder of the Camaldolese Order, let us reflect on our own need for deeper interior silence, attainable only through solitude, prayer, and penance. While you might not be called to live as a hermit, you are nonetheless summoned to periods of contemplation where you can experience a glimpse of their lifestyle. Daily prayer, retreats, adoration, and the like are essential in this fast-paced and noisy world. Commit to emulating Saint Romuald and allow his witness to guide you towards a deeper union with God.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/june-19—saint-romuald-abbot/

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Saint Gregory Barbarigo

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Gregory was the son of a Venetian senator. He was educated at the University of Padua. He was a civil and canon lawyer. He worked on the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years’ War on 24 October 1648; one of his co-workers was archbishop Fabio Chigi, the future Pope Alexander VII. He was ordained on 21 December 1655. He was a domestic prelate to Pope Alexander VII. He was a referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature of Justice and of Grace. He became the Bishop of Bergamo, Italy on 9 July 1657. He was elevated as Cardinal on 5 April 1660 and the Bishop of Padua, Italy on 24 March 1664. He was part of the conclave of 1667 that chose Pope Clement IX and part of the conclave of 1676 that chose Blessed Pope Innocent XI. He supervised Catholic teaching in Rome, Italy for three years. He was part of the conclave of 1689 that chose Pope Alexander VIII and the conclave of 1691 that chose Pope Innocent XII. He was noted as a distinguished churchman and leading citizen whose charities were on a princely scale. He worked for unity of the Latin and Orthodox Churches.

Born

  • 16 September 1625 at Venice, Italy as Gregorio Giovanni Gasparo Barbarigo

Died

  • 18 June 1697 at Padua, Italy of natural causes
  • buried in the cathedral of Padua

Beatified

  • 6 July 1761 by Pope Clement XIII

Canonized

  • 26 May 1960 by Blessed Pope John XXIII

Patronage

  • Bergamo, Italy, diocese of

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-gregory-barbarigo/

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Saint Herve

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Son of the bard Hyvarnion, Herve was born blind. His father died when he was an infant. His mother, Rivanone, became an anchoress, and the boy was entrusted to the care of his uncles and a renowned holy man with whom he stayed until his teenage years. He lived for a while as a hermit and bard, then joined a monastic school at Plouvien, France which had been founded by his uncle. He was an abbot at Plouvien. He migrated with part of his community to found a new house in Lanhouarneau. He was a singer, minstrel, teacher, and a miracle worker. One of the most popular saints in Brittany, he figures in the area’s folklore. He was reported to have a special ministry of healing animals, and to have a domesticated wolf as a companion. Legend says that the wolf killed and ate the ox that Herve used to plow his fields; Herve then preached such a moving sermon the wolf repented his ways, moved to Herve’s hermitage, and ploughed Herve’s fields in place of the ox.

Born

  • Guimiliau, Brittany, France or unknown location in Wales (sources vary)

Died

  • c.556 to c.575 (sources vary) of natural causes
    interred at Lanhouarneau, Brittany, France

Canonized

  • Pre-Congregation

Patronage

  • against eye disease
  • against eye problems
  • blind people
  • in France
    – Brest
    – Plouvien

Representation

  • blind man being led by a wolf

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

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Saint Lutgardis

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A pretty girl with a fondness for clothes and no apparent religious vocation, Lutgardis was sent to the Black Benedictine convent near Saint Trond at age 12 because her dowry had been lost in a failed business venture, and there was thus little chance for a life as a normal, married lay woman. In her late teens, Lutgardis received a vision of Christ showing her His wounds, and in 1194 at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun with a true vocation. She had visions of Christ while in prayer, experienced ecstasies, levitated, and dripped blood from forehead and hair when enraptured by the Passion. She was chosen as prioress of her community in 1205, but she repeatedly refused to be abbess.

The Benedictine order was not strict enough for Lutgardis, and on the advice of her friend Saint Christina the Astonishing, in 1208 she joined the Cistercians at Aywieres (near Brussels in modern Belgium) where she lived for her remaining 30 years. She displayed the gifts of healing, prophecy, spiritual wisdom, and was an inspired teacher on the Gospels. Blind for the last eleven years of her life, she treated the affliction as a gift – it reduced the distraction of the outside world. In one of her last visions, Christ told her when she was to die; she spent the time remaining in prayer for the conversion of sinners.

Born

  • 1182 at Tongres, Limburg, Belgium

Died

  • 16 June 1246 at Aywieres (modern Awirs), Belgium of natural causes, just as night office began on the Saturday night following Feast of the Holy Trinity
  • relics transferred to Ittre, Belgium on 4 December 1796 to avoid destruction in the French Revolution

Patronage

  • birth
  • blind people
  • blindness
  • childbirth
  • disabled people
  • handicapped people
  • physically challenged people
  • Belgium
  • in Belgium
    – Flanders
    – Tongeren

Representation

  • woman with Christ showing her His wounded side
  • blind Cistercian abbess
  • Cistercian nun being blinded by the Heart of Jesus
  • Cistercian to whom Christ extends his hand from the cross
  • woman in attendance when Christ shows his Heart to the Father

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

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Saint Luigi Maria Palazzolo

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Luigi Maria was the youngest of eight boys, born to Octavius and Theresa Antoine Palazzolo; his father died when he was about 10 years old. He was ordained a priest in the diocese of Bergamo, Italy on 23 June 1850. As a parish priest, he would occasionally encounter children who were abandoned or orphaned and living on their own; he would take them in and care for them until he could get them placed somewhere caring and safe. He founded the Little House of Divine Providence to care for neglected children, and the Work of Saint Dorothy. home to care for abandoned girls. He founded the Brothers of the Sacred Family, a congregation that died out in 1928. With Venerable Maria Teresa Gabrieli, he founded the Sisters of the Poor (Poverelle Sisters; Palazzolo Institute) on 22 May 1869 to care for and educate neglected girls; the Sisters received papal approval from Pope Pius X on 25 May 1912, and continue their good work today in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Congo, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Peru and Switzerland. He founded an orphanage in Traona, Italy on 4 October 1872. Due to respiratory problems, Father Luigi had to sleep sitting up during the last year or so of his life.

Born

  • 10 December 1827 in Bergamo, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia (in modern Italy)

Died

  • in the early hours of 15 June 1886 in Bergamo, Italy of natural causes
  • he died murmuring the name “Jesus Christ” over and over
  • buried in the cemetery of San Giorgio in Bergamo
  • re-interred at the mother-house of the Poverelle Sisters, Via San Bernardino 56, Bergamo, on 4 January 1904

Venerated

  • 7 July 1962 by Pope John XXIII (decree of heroic virtues)

Beatified

  • 19 March 1963 by Pope John XXIII
  • beatification recognition celebrated in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, Italy
  • one of the beatification miracles involved the healing of a young Sardinian woman with peritonitis and tuberculosis on the afternoon of 21 July 1956 when she had a vision of Father Luigi asking her to get out of bed and go to church to thank God for her cure
  • another beatification miracle involved the 1959 healing of a 65 year old woman from a severe head injury that left her comatose; the cure followed the family praying for the intercession of Father Luigi

Canonized

  • 15 May 2022 by Pope Francis
  • the canonization miracle involved the healing of Sister Gianmarisa Perani, who had joined the Poverelle Sisters in 1950; in November 2015 was rushed into emergency surgery, experienced complications, lapsed into a coma, and two months later was declared to be terminal; the Sisters prayed for her, she soon after recovered, and is alive and well today
  • Decree on a Miracle by Blessed Aloysius Maria Palazzolo, Priest Founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Poor v.d. “Suore delle Poverelle – Istituto Palazzolo” (1827-1866)

Patronage

  • Sisters of the Poor

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-luigi-maria-palazzolo/

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Saint Protus of Aquileia

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Protus was a tutor and a catechist to Saints Cantius, Cantian and Cantianilla of Aquileia. To escape the persecutions of Diocletian, he moved with the family to Aquileia, Italy. However, the authorities there quickly ordered them to sacrifice to idols; they refused. He was a martyr.

Died

  • beheaded in 304 at Aquae-Gradatae (modern San Canzian d’Isonzo) just outside Aquileia, Italy

Canonized

  • Pre-Congregation

Patronage

  • children
  • Aquileia, Italy

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-protus-of-aquileia/

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Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church

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1195–1231; Patron Saint of amputees, animals, mail, horses, expectant mothers, fishermen, harvests, lost articles, boatmen, and travelers, as well as the elderly, oppressed, poor, and starving; Canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 30 May 1232; Declared the Evangelizing Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946

Saint Anthony of Padua is one of the most revered saints within the Catholic Church. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal and was given the name Fernando Martins de Bulhões. His parents were wealthy nobility who provided a good education for him as a youth, most likely at the Cathedral school in Lisbon. At the age of fifteen, Fernando decided to enter religious life and joined the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, not far from his home. During his two years with the canons, he excelled in his studies and prayer. However, being so close to his home led to frequent visits from family and friends, prompting Fernando to desire greater solitude to more deeply embrace his vocation. He moved to Coimbra, just over 100 miles south of Lisbon, to join the Santa Cruz Monastery. At Santa Cruz, Fernando enjoyed nine years of excellent formation, studying, praying, and growing in virtue. After completing his formation in 1220, Fernando was ordained a priest.

During his nine years of formation in Coimbra, a small group from the newly-founded Franciscan Order took up residence nearby in a hut dedicated to Saint Anthony of Egypt. Fernando came to know these friars and was impressed by their simplicity, poverty, humility, and radical dedication to Christ. The Franciscans, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi only eleven years prior to their arrival in Coimbra, were a new and rapidly growing order within the Church. They were traveling preachers, relying upon divine providence rather than the income produced by large estates. They owned nothing except for the single piece of clothing they wore.

One day, news reached Coimbra that five Franciscan missionaries had been martyred in Morocco by Muslims. The King of Portugal ransomed their bodies, which were then brought back in a solemn procession to Coimbra for burial. The courage of these martyrs, coupled with the witness of their fellow friars, so impressed Fernando that he requested and received permission to leave the Canons Regular and join the Franciscans. He took the name Anthony after Saint Anthony of Egypt, the patron of the friars’ house in Coimbra.

Desiring to emulate these five martyrs, Father Anthony sailed to Morocco to preach to the Muslims. However, he soon fell seriously ill and required medical attention, prompting his return journey to Portugal. A storm blew his ship off course, resulting in a landing in Sicily instead. Shortly after Father Anthony recovered from his illness, Saint Francis called the famous “Chapter of Mats” in Assisi. Most of the Franciscan Friars attended, including one of their newest members, Father Anthony.

In 1209, Saint Francis founded his order with twelve members. By 1221, the number of Franciscan friars had grown to about 5,000. Such rapid growth brought not only zeal and enthusiasm, but also growing pains, divisions, and the need for clarity. At the General Chapter of Mats, Saint Francis resigned as the head of the order, turning leadership over to those he felt were more qualified. He preferred a life of greater humility, poverty, simplicity, and prayer. It was at that Chapter that Father Anthony and Brother Francis likely met for the first time. Shortly afterwards, Father Anthony was assigned to the hermitage of Monte Paola in Forli.

Anthony’s initial time in Forli was spent in solitude, study, and prayer. One day, due to confusion between the Dominicans and Franciscans, no one was assigned to preach at a first Mass in the local church. At the last minute, Father Anthony reluctantly agreed to preach. His sermon left the congregation in awe of his exceptional gift for preaching, his profound knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, and his depth of holiness. From then on, Father Anthony became a well-known and sought-after preacher, changing many lives with his humble, down-to-earth, yet theologically profound preaching. He drew on the storehouse of wisdom from ancient saints but never presented himself in a proud or arrogant manner. His allegorical method of preaching sought to bring out the symbolic and hidden meanings of the text in a way that connected with people. His preaching and humble wisdom even caught the attention of Saint Francis, who was concerned about higher education for the friars, fearing that advanced studies could lead to pride and undermine the order’s mission. In Father Anthony, however, Francis found someone he could trust and put him in charge of the theological training of the friars preparing for ordination.

Father Anthony continued to preach far and wide for the next several years until his death at the age of thirty-five. One day, he was even invited to preach to the pope and the cardinals. During that sermon, Father Anthony was given the gift of tongues, enabling everyone present to understand him in his native language. Pope Gregory IX was so impressed with Anthony’s insight into Scripture that he referred to him as the “Ark of the Testament.” The pope asked Father Anthony to compose sermons for Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year, which he did in the form of outlines and commentaries on the Scriptures. It is those sermons that later led to him being named a Doctor of the Church with the unique title of “Evangelizing Doctor.”

Many other legends surround Father Anthony’s preaching and miracles. He is said to have preached to fish one day when the heretical townspeople had rejected him. When they saw the fish sticking their heads out of the water to listen attentively, the people converted. For this reason, he is often called the “Hammer of Heretics.” He is known as the patron saint of lost items because one day a friar stole a Gospel book from Father Anthony and when Father Anthony prayed for its return, the friar was so convicted in his heart that he returned it and repented.

Saint Anthony is often depicted holding the Child Jesus, a portrayal inspired by an account of a friar who reportedly saw Anthony in deep prayer, conversing with the Christ Child. Sacred Scripture is also frequently featured in art as a symbol of his profound knowledge of Scripture. Lilies, signifying his poverty and chastity, are present in many depictions.

Although Saint Anthony lived just thirty-five years, God used him in powerful ways. His life bears testament to the idea that the quality of life supersedes its length. “Quality” of life can only be attained through grace, and Saint Anthony received an abundance of grace in his life. It’s worth reflecting on the importance of seeking as much holiness as possible in life. Too often, we pursue longevity rather than holiness. However, many of the great saints, including Saint Anthony, lived on this earth for only a brief period. As we honor this great saint, remember that God wants you to spend whatever time you have left on earth dedicated to growing in holiness and serving His holy will. Doing so will imbue your life with a quality that far surpasses mere longevity.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/june-13–st-antony-of-padua/

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Saint Odulph of Utrecht

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Odulph was French nobility. He was a pious and studious youth. He was an Augustinian priest and a curate of Oresscoth in Brabant. He worked with Saint Frederick of Utrecht to evangelize the Frisons. He was canon of the cathedral at Utrecht, Netherlands where he worked to set a good example of prayer and fasting to laymen. He founded the Augustinian monastery at Stavoren.

Born

  • Brabant (in modern Belgium)

Died

  • c.855 of natural causes
  • relics stolen in 1034
  • relics turned up in London, England, and were interred at Evesham Abbey

Canonized

  • Pre-Congregation

Patronage

  • Borgloon, Belgium
  • Evesham, England
  • Stavoren, Netherlands
  • Utrecht, Netherlands

Source: https://catholicsaints.info/saint-odulph-of-utrecht/ 

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