Daily Saints

Saint Ignatius of Laconi

Saint Ignatius of Laconi was a Roman Catholic professed religious born in Sardinia, and a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He suffered a serious illness that made him vow that he would consecrate himself to God and join the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin if he managed to recover from it.

He asked for admission at the convent in Cagliari but the superiors there hesitated because of his delicate health. He made his profession on 10 November 1722. He was known for his strict and total obedience to his superiors, even when it required the denial of his own will.

He mingled with all people he met and was generous towards those who were ill. His modest demeanor was seen as a quiet sermon for all who saw him going about, which made him a noted figure. He spoke with exceptional kindness and great affection.

Despite poor health and infirmities he continued his work, however arduous. Even after he became blind in 1779, he continued to work for the benefit of those around him. He became known as a wonder worker and it was claimed that he had performed 121 miracles during his life. He died on 11 May 1781.

Sources:

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

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Saint Damien of Molokai

Daily Saints

Saint Damien of Molokai, also known as Father Damien, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He was recognized for his ministry, which he led from 1873 until his death in 1889.

Saint Damien was forced to quit school at age 13 to work on the family farm. His father sent him to a college at Braine-le-Comte to prepare for a commercial profession, but as a result of a mission given by the Redemptorists in 1858, Joseph decided to pursue a religious vocation.

Because he learned Latin well from his brother, his superiors decided to allow him to become a priest. During his religious studies, Damien prayed daily before a picture of St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionaries, to be sent on a mission. Three years later when his brother Father Pamphile (Auguste) could not travel to Hawaiʻi as a missionary because of illness, Damien was allowed to take his place.

He taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. Father Damien also cared for the patients and established leaders within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents’ ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate poi with them, providing both medical and emotional support.

After eleven years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, Father Damien contracted leprosy. He continued with his work despite the infection but finally succumbed to the disease on 15 April 1889. Father Damien has been described as a “martyr of charity”.

Sources:

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

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Saint Pachomius the Great

Daily Saints

Saint Pachomius the Great is generally recognized as the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism. At age 21, Pachomius was swept up against his will in a Roman army recruitment drive, a common occurrence during this period of turmoil and civil war. With several other youths, he was put onto a ship that floated down the Nile and arrived at Thebes in the evening.

After studying seven years with Palaemon, Pachomius set out to lead the life of a hermit near St. Anthony of Egypt, whose practices he imitated until Pachomius heard a voice in Tabennisi that told him to build a dwelling for the hermits to come to.

Pachomius established his first monastery between 318 and 323 at Tabennisi, Egypt. His elder brother John joined him, and soon more than 100 monks lived nearby. Pachomius set about organizing these cells into a formal organization.

Saint Pachomius continued as abbot to the cenobites for some forty years. During an epidemic (probably plague), Saint Pachomius called the monks and strengthened their faith. By the time Pachomius died, eight monasteries and several hundred monks followed his guidance. His reputation as a holy man has endured.

Sources:

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

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Saint Peter of Tarentaise

Daily Saints

Saint Peter of Tarentaise was born in 1102 on a farm near Saint-Maurice-l’Exil, not far from the Cistercian Bonnevaux Abbey. He was a Cistercian monk who served as the archbishop of Tarentaise (as Peter II) from 1141 until his death.

In 1132, Saint Peter, his abbot, and twelve other monks founded Tamié Abbey in a defile of the Bauges mountains, as a daughter house of Bonnevaux. Once Abbot John was satisfied that the monks had adequate shelter, he returned to Bonnevaux, leaving Saint Peter as abbot of the new monastery. In 1142, at the insistence of his superiors including Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter reluctantly accepted the position as the Archbishop of Tarentaise.

In his episcopal role he applied the Cistercian principles he had learned as an abbot to restore the diocese and met with a good deal of success since the diocese’s management had declined and discipline lax. He removed corrupt priests (and elevated good priests to important pastoral positions) and promoted education for all the faithful

He rebuilt a hospice in poor repair at Little St. Bernard Pass. He also founded a charity which distributed food to farms in the surrounding hills. This would become known as pain de Mai and became a tradition continued in the region until the French Revolution.

He longed for the simple and pious life of a monk. In 1155 he disappeared and was later found as a lay brother in a remote convent in Switzerland. After about a year, when the monks discovered who he was, they alerted the archdiocese. Saint Peter was reluctant to emerge from his newfound solitude but was welcomed back into his archdiocese with much enthusiasm on the part of the people.

Saint Peter of Tarentaise died in 1174 as he attempted to mediate between feuding monarchs after a serious but brief illness. Miracles were reported at his tomb after his death and this led Pope Celestine III to canonize Peter as a saint in mid-1191.

Sources:

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

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Saint Rose Venerini

Daily Saints

Saint Rose was born at Viterbo in Italy, the daughter of a doctor. Following the death of her fiancé she entered a convent, but soon returned home to care for her newly widowed mother. Meanwhile, Saint Rose invited the women of the neighborhood to recite the rosary in her home, forming a sort of sodality with them.

As she looked to her future under the spiritual guidance of a Jesuit priest, Saint Rose became convinced that she was called to become a teacher in the world rather than a contemplative nun in a convent. Clearly, she made the right choice: She was a born teacher, and the free school for girls she opened in 1685 was well received.

Soon the cardinal invited her to oversee the training of teachers and the administration of schools in his diocese of Montefiascone. As Saint Rose’s reputation grew, she was called upon to organize schools in many parts of Italy, including Rome. Her disposition was right for the task as well, for Rose often met considerable opposition but was never deterred.

She died in Rome in 1728, where a number of miracles were attributed to her. She was beatified in 1952 and canonized in 2006. The sodality, or group of women she had invited to prayer, was ultimately given the rank of a religious congregation. Today, the so-called Venerini Sisters can be found in the United States and elsewhere, working among Italian immigrants.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-rose-venerini/

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Saint Dominic Savio

Daily Saints

Saint Dominic Savio was an Italian student of John Bosco. His parents had ten children in all. His father was a blacksmith and his mother, a seamstress. They were poor, hardworking and pious.

His parents took great care to give him a Christian upbringing. By the age of four, Dominic was able to pray by himself and was occasionally found in solitude, praying. A chaplain at Murialdo when Dominic was five years old noted in a statement to John Bosco that he came to notice Dominic due to his regular church attendance with his mother.

At the age of five, he learned to serve Mass, and would try to participate at Mass every day as well as go regularly to Confession. Having been permitted to make his First Communion at an early age, he had much reverence for the Eucharist

When Saint Dominic’s health started to steadily deteriorate, he still spent most of his time with his friends, talking with them, and encouraging those who were experiencing troubles. He died at the age of 14, possibly from pleurisy.

He was noted for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith, and was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

Sources:

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

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Saint Hilary of Arles

Daily Saints

Born in France in the early fifth century, Saint Hilary came from an aristocratic family. In the course of his education he encountered his relative, Honoratus, who encouraged the young man to join him in the monastic life. Saint Hilary did so. He continued to follow in the footsteps of Honoratus as bishop. Saint Hilary was only 29 when he was chosen bishop of Arles.

The new, youthful bishop undertook the role with confidence. He did manual labor to earn money for the poor. He sold sacred vessels to ransom captives. He became a magnificent orator. He traveled everywhere on foot, always wearing simple clothing.

That was the bright side. Saint Hilary encountered difficulty in his relationships with other bishops over whom he had some jurisdiction. He unilaterally deposed one bishop. He selected another bishop to replace one who was very ill–but, to complicate matters, did not die! Pope Saint Leo the Great kept Saint Hilary a bishop but stripped him of some of his powers.

Saint Hilary died at 49. He was a man of talent and piety who in due time, had learned how to be a bishop.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-hilary-of-arles/

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Saint Florian

Daily Saints

Saint Florian was born around 250 AD in the ancient Roman city of Aelium Cetium, presently known as Pölten, Austria.

He joined the Roman Army and advanced in the ranks, rising to commander of the imperial army in the Roman province of Noricum. In addition to his military duties, he was also responsible for organizing and leading firefighting brigades. Saint Florian organized and trained an elite group of soldiers whose sole duty was to fight fires.

During the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians, reports reached Rome that Saint Florian was not enforcing the proscriptions against Christians in his territory. Aquilinus was sent to investigate these reports. When Aquilinus ordered Florian to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods in accordance with Roman religion, Florian refused. Florian was sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Saint Florian was a Christian holy man. He is a patron saint of firefighters, chimney sweeps, and brewers. He is invoked against fires, floods, lightning, and the pains of Purgatory.

Sources:

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

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Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

Daily Saints

Saint Athanasius I of Alexandria was also known as Athanasius the Great and Athanasius the Confessor. He was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian Christian leader of the fourth century.

In 325, at age 27, Saint Athanasius began his leading role against the Arians as a deacon and assistant to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria during the First Council of Nicaea. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had convened the council to address the Arian position that the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, is of a distinct substance from the Father. Three years after that council, Athanasius succeeded his mentor as pope of Alexandria.

Athanasius’ episcopate began on 9 May 328 as the Alexandrian Council elected Athanasius to succeed after the death of Alexander. During his first years as bishop, Athanasius visited the churches of his territory, which at that time included all of Egypt and Libya. He established contacts with the hermits and monks of the desert, including Pachomius, which proved very valuable to him over the years. Patriarch Athanasius spent over 17 years in five exiles ordered by four different Roman Emperors, not counting approximately six more incidents in which Athanasius fled Alexandria to escape people seeking to take his life.

Athanasius’ “Letter Concerning the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea” (De Decretis), is an important historical as well as theological account of the proceedings of that council. His other important works include his Letters to Serapion, which defends the divinity of the Holy Spirit. In a letter to Epictetus of Corinth, Athanasius anticipates future controversies in his defence of the humanity of Christ. Athanasius also wrote several works of Biblical exegesis, primarily on Old Testament materials. The most important of these is his Epistle to Marcellinus on how to incorporate psalm-saying into one’s spiritual practice. Excerpts remain of his discussions concerning the Book of Genesis, the Song of Solomon, and Psalms.

Gregory of Nazianzus called Saint Athanasius as the “Pillar of the Church”. His writings were well regarded by subsequent Church fathers in the West and the East, who noted their devotion to the Word-become-man, pastoral concern and interest in monasticism. Athanasius is considered one of the four great Eastern Doctors of the Church in the Catholic Church.

Sources:

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

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Saint Joseph the Worker

Daily Saints

To foster deep devotion to Saint Joseph among Catholics, and in response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker in 1955. This feast extends the long relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers in both Catholic faith and devotion. Beginning in the Book of Genesis, the dignity of human work has long been celebrated as a participation in the creative work of God. By work, humankind both fulfills the command found in Genesis to care for the earth (Gn 2:15) and to be productive in their labors. Saint Joseph, the carpenter and foster father of Jesus, is but one example of the holiness of human labor.

Jesus, too, was a carpenter. He learned the trade from Saint Joseph and spent his early adult years working side-by-side in Joseph’s carpentry shop before leaving to pursue his ministry as preacher and healer. In his encyclical Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II stated: “the Church considers it her task always to call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which that dignity and those rights are violated, and to help to guide [social] changes so as to ensure authentic progress by man and society.”

Saint Joseph is held up as a model of such work. Pius XII emphasized this when he said, “The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work.”

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-joseph-the-worker/

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Saint Ignatius of Laconi

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Saint Damien of Molokai

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Saint Pachomius the Great

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Saint Peter of Tarentaise

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Saint Rose Venerini

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Saint Dominic Savio

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Saint Hilary of Arles

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Saint Florian

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Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

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Saint Joseph the Worker

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