Matthew 16:18
Verse:
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Daily Saints
Saint Peter Regalado
Saint Peter Regalado lived at a very busy time in history. The Great Western Schism (1378-1417) was settled at the Council of Constance (1414-1418). France and England were fighting the Hundred Years’ War, and in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was completely wiped out by the loss of Constantinople to the Turks. At Peter’s death, the age of printing had just begun in Germany, and Columbus’s arrival in the New World was less than 40 years away.
Saint Peter came from a wealthy and pious family in Valladolid, Spain. At the age of 13, he was allowed to enter the Conventual Franciscans. Shortly after his ordination, he was made superior of the friary in Aguilar. He became part of a group of friars who wanted to lead a life of greater poverty and penance. In 1442, he was appointed head of all the Spanish Franciscans in his reform group.
Saint Peter Regalado led the friars by his example. A special love of the poor and the sick characterized Peter. Miraculous stories are told about his charity to the poor. For example, the bread never seemed to run out as long as Peter had hungry people to feed. Throughout most of his life, Peter went hungry; he lived only on bread and water.
Immediately after his death on March 30, 1456, his grave became a place of pilgrimage. Saint Peter Regalado was canonized in 1746.
Source:
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-peter-regalado/
Saint Peter Regalado Read More »
Saint Gwynllyw
Saint Gwynllyw, also known as Gwynllyw Filwr, was a Welsh king and religious figure. He was King of Gwynllŵg in South Wales and is the legendary founder and patron saint of the City of Newport living around the 5th century. According to medieval tradition he was a feared warlord and raider who knew King Arthur, but later found religion and became a hermit founding St Woolos Cathedral in Newport. He was the father of one of the most revered Welsh saints, Saint Cadoc the Wise.
Saint Gwynllyw was the son of King Glywys, whose powerful kingdom of Glywysing was centred on Glamorgan. The kingdom was split on Glywys’ death amongst his sons, of whom Gwynllyw was the eldest and most powerful, and he was overlord over the others. The central area of his rule consisted of the cantref of Gwynllwg that was named after him and later known in English as Wentloog hundred.
The saints’ lives portray King Gwynllyw as an active and merciless warrior who attacked and raided nearby kingdoms. He was described as “very partial to thieves, and used to instigate them somewhat often to robberies” but other accounts of his life insists he was a just and fair ruler.
King Gwynllyw then had a dream in which an angel spoke to him and he saw a vision of a white ox with a black spot on its high forehead. Gwynllyw went forth and when he saw the same ox as in his dream he founded a hermitage there on what is now Stow Hill in Newport, South Wales which he built out of wood. Gwynllyw said of the spot: “There is no retreat in the world such as in this space which I am destined now to inhabit. Happy therefore is the place, happier then is he who inhabits it.” Saint Gwynllyw’s decision to abandon his kingship and retire to a religious life seems to have been a common theme amongst Welsh saints and even his violent past was not unusual.
Saint Gwynllyw entered into a hermit’s life with his wife, Gwaldys. For a while they lived together on Stow Hill, fasting, eating a vegetarian diet, and bathing in the cold waters of the Usk to prove their piety. A miraculous fountain started on the hill when Gwynllyw prayed for water. Later they moved further apart, Saint Gwladys founding her own hermitage at Pencarn.
When Gwynllyw was dying he was attended both by his son Cadoc and by Saint Dubricius, who administered the last sacrament to him.
Saint Venturino of Bergamo
Saint Venturino of Bergamo received the habit of the Order of Friars Preachers at the convent of St. Stephen on January 22, 1319.
From 1328 to 1335 he won fame preaching in all the cities of upper Italy. In February, 1335, he planned to make a penitential pilgrimage to Rome with about thirty thousand of his converts. His purpose was misunderstood, and Pope Benedict XII, then residing at Avignon, thought that Venturino wished to make himself pope. He wrote letters to Giovanni Pagnotti, Bishop of Anagni, his spiritual vicar, to the Canons of St. Peter’s and St. John Lateran’s, and to the Roman senators empowering them to stop the pilgrimage.
This complaint to the Dominican Master General resulted in an ordinance of the Chapter of London (1335) condemning such pilgrimages. The pope’s letters and commands, however, did not reach Venturino, and he arrived in Rome, 21 March 1335. He was well received, and preached in various churches. Twelve days later he left Rome, without explanation, and the pilgrimage ended in disorder.
In June, he requested an audience with Benedict XII at Avignon; he was seized and cast into prison (1335–43). He was restored to favour by Pope Clement VI, who appointed him to preach a crusade against the Turks, 4 January 1344; his success was remarkable.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturino_of_Bergamo
Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, I (Paris, 1719), 620;
Leander, De viris illustribus Ord. Praed., V
Saint Venturino of Bergamo Read More »
Saint Rupert
Saint Rupert, also known as Rupert of Salzburg, was Bishop of Worms as well as the first Bishop of Salzburg and abbot of St. Peter’s in Salzburg. He was a contemporary of the Frankish king Childebert III.
Saint Rupert was a scion of the Frankish royal Merovingian dynasty and a likely descendant of Count palatine Chrodbert II. As bishop at Worms, Rupert was first accepted as a wise and devout dignitary, but the mostly pagan community came to reject him and forced him out of the city by the end of the 7th century.
Saint Rupert then moved to Altötting, where he started his missionary work by preaching to the locals. He would sail down the Danube river, visiting many towns, villages and forts. Soon he had converted a large population along the Danube, reaching southeastward to the Bavarian border with the Pannonian lands, which were under the rule of the Avar Khaganate.
As in Lorch, Rupert was able to build on early Christian traditions that were already in place. He re-established the monastic community at St. Peter’s Abbey and laid the foundations of Salzburg Cathedral, which was finished by his successor Vergilius. He also founded the Benedictine nunnery of Nonnberg beneath the Festungsberg fortifications (later Hohensalzburg Fortress), where his niece Erentrude became the first abbess.
Saint Rupert is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. He is also patron saint of the Austrian state of Salzburg.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_of_Salzburg
"St. Rupert". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. Robert Appleton Company
"Orthodox Europe :: Austria". www.orthodoxengland.org.uk.
Saint Margaret Clitherow
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar d
Saint Margaret Clitherow was married to John Clitherow, a wealthy butcher and a chamberlain of the city. In 1574, Saint Margaret Clitherow converted to Roman Catholicism. Her husband, who belonged to the Established Church, was supportive and paid her fines for not attending church services. But in 1577, Saint Margaret was imprisoned for failing to attend church, which was followed by two more incarcerations at York Castle.
Saint Margaret risked her life by harbouring and maintaining priests, which was made a capital offence by the Jesuits. She provided two chambers, one adjoining her house and, with her house under surveillance, she rented a house some distance away, where she kept priests hidden and Mass was celebrated through the thick of the persecution. Her home became one of the most important hiding places for fugitive priests in the north of England. In March 1586 the Clitherow house was searched. A frightened boy revealed the location of the priest hole.
Saint Margaret was arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Catholic priests. She refused to plead, thereby preventing a trial that would entail her three children being made to testify, and being subjected to torture. She was sentenced to death. Although pregnant with her fourth child, she was executed on Lady Day.
Saint Margaret Clitherow is the patroness of the Catholic Women’s League. She was an English saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic Church, known as “the Pearl of York”. She was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
apibus leo.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Clitherow
"Saint Margaret Clitherow", Britannica.com
Rayne-Davies, John (2002). Margaret Clitherow: Saint of York. Beverley : Highgate of Beverley.
Camm, Bede. "St. Margaret Clitherow." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
Saint Margaret Clitherow Read More »
Feast of the Annunciation
The feast of the Annunciation, now recognized as a solemnity, was first celebrated in the fourth or fifth century. Its central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death.
Mary has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity, God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation. Because Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.
Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.
Sources:
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/annunciation-of-the-lord/
Feast of the Annunciation Read More »
Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero
Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop of Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago de María, and finally as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador.
Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero received his early education in the local public school. After finishing public school, he was privately tutored by Anita Iglesias, until he was 13 years old. He was trained by his father in carpentry and had exceptional skills, however, he wanted to pursue further studies for priesthood. At the age of 13, he entered the minor seminary. When his mother became ill, he left the seminary and returned home for three months. When he graduated, he enrolled in the national seminary and then finally completed his studies at the Gregorian University in Rome.
In 1942, he was finally ordained. After his ordination, he pursued a doctorate in theology in Italy. However, before finishing his doctoral degree, he was summoned back home by the bishop. On his journey back home, he was detained and was placed in a series of internment camps. They were eventually released from Cuban custody and sailed on to Mexico, then traveled to El Salvador.
Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero was first assigned to serve as a parish priest in Anamoros, and then was moved to San Miguel where he worked for over 20 years. He promoted various apostolic groups, started an Alcoholics Anonymous group, helped in the construction of San Miguel’s cathedral, and supported devotion to Our Lady of Peace.
As archbishop, Romero spoke out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and left-wing insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civil War. In 1980, Romero was shot by an assassin while celebrating Mass. Latin American church groups often proclaim Romero an unofficial patron saint of the Americas and El Salvador. Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero is one of the ten 20th-century martyrs depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero
"Oscar Romero, patron of Christian communicators? (in Spanish)". Aleteia.
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-oscar-arnulfo-romero/
Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero Read More »
Matthew 6:34
Verse:
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” - Matthew 6:34
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart with Your holy gifts.
Let my weakness be penetrated with Your strength this very day that I may fulfill all the duties of my state conscientiously, that I may do what is right and just.
Let my charity be such as to offend no one, and hurt no one's feelings; so generous as to pardon sincerely any wrong done to me.
Assist me, O Holy Spirit, in all my trials of life, enlighten me in my ignorance, advise me in my doubts, strengthen me in my weakness, help me in all my needs, protect me in temptations and console me in afflictions.
Graciously hear me, O Holy Spirit, and pour Your light into my heart, my soul, and my mind. Assist me to live a holy life and to grow in goodness and grace.
Amen.
Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo
Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo is one of the first known saints of the New World. He served the Lord in Peru for 26 years.
Saint Turibius was born in Spain and educated for the law, he became so brilliant a scholar that he was made professor of law at the University of Salamanca and eventually became chief judge of the Inquisition at Granada. He succeeded too well. But he was not sharp enough a lawyer to prevent a surprising sequence of events.
When the archdiocese of Lima in Peru required a new leader, Turibius was chosen to fill the post: He was the one person with the strength of character and holiness of spirit to heal the scandals that had infected that area.
He cited all the canons that forbade giving laymen ecclesiastical dignities, but he was overruled. Turibius was ordained priest and bishop and sent to Peru, where he found colonialism at its worst. The Spanish conquerors were guilty of every sort of oppression of the native population. Abuses among the clergy were flagrant, and he devoted his energies and suffering to this area first.
He began the long and arduous visitation of an immense archdiocese, studying the language, staying two or three days in each place, often with neither bed nor food. Turibius confessed every morning to his chaplain, and celebrated Mass with intense fervor. Among those to whom he gave the Sacrament of Confirmation was the future Saint Rose of Lima, and possibly the future Saint Martin de Porres. After 1590, he had the help of another great missionary, Francis Solanus, now also a saint.
Though very poor his people were sensitive, dreading to accept public charity from others. Turibius solved the problem by helping them anonymously.
Sources:
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-turibius-of-mogrovejo/
Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo Read More »
