Daily Saints

Pope Saint Siricius

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Son of Tiburtius. Lector. Deacon. Friend of Saint Ambrose of Milan. Unanimously elected 38th pope in 384. He was opposed by the anti-pope Ursinus, but the pretender could not get any support, and nothing came of it. Expanded papal power and authority, decreeing that any papal documents should receive widespread distribution. Held a synod at Rome, Italy on 6 January 386 which re-affirmed a variety of canon laws and disciplines for both clergy and laity. A separate synod in 390 to 392 re-affirmed the merits of fasting, good works, and the need for celibate life among the religious and clergy. Opposed the Manicheans. Settled the Meletian schism at Antioch.

Born

c.334 at Rome, Italy

Papal Ascension

December 384

Died

26 November 399 of natural causes
buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria, Rome, Italy

Canonized

by Pope Benedict XIV

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

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Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr

Daily Saints

Patron Saint of apologists, apprentice milliners and seamstresses, archivists, attorneys, barbers, potters, spinners, the dying, educators, girls, jurists, knife sharpeners, librarians, maidens, mechanics, millers, nurses, old maids, philosophers, preachers, scholars, schoolchildren, scribes, secretaries, tanners, teachers, theologians, and unmarried girls

As a member of a noble family, Catherine received an excellent education and became well versed in literature, poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, music, mathematics, and medicine. Catherine was also of exceptional physical beauty and high moral virtue. Though many noblemen proposed to her, she rejected them all.Unable to find a suitable mate, she sensed within her soul that she was called to something greater.

One day, Catherine’s mother, who was secretly a Christian, introduced her to a holy Christian monk. This monk, in turn, introduced her to her future husband, her Lord Jesus Christ, the future Bridegroom of her soul. In Him, she discovered a man of the greatest wisdom and beauty, whose moral character was unmatched and whose nobility was above all. After speaking about Jesus in detail, the monk gave Catherine an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding her young Son.

That night, Catherine had a dream in which she beheld the Blessed Mother holding her Son. Catherine tried to see the face of the Child, but He kept turning away. She realized that it was because she was not yet baptized that the Christ Child could not bear to look upon her. Soon after, she returned to the monk who had catechized her, and she received baptism.

After Catherine’s baptism, the holy monk encouraged her to beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary. She spent all night doing so and fell asleep while praying. In her dream, the Blessed Mother appeared to her with her Child who took great delight in Catherine and chose her as His bride, giving her a ring, and calling her to embrace earthly virginity. When she awoke, the ring was still on her finger.

A few years later, Emperor Maximinus decreed that all citizens had to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods in the temple. Catherine showed up during the sacrifices and was immediately noticed for her beauty and disposition. She sent word to the emperor that she had vital information for him. Once in the emperor’s presence, Catherine chastised him for his heathen practices and for his decree requiring worship of the false gods. The emperor was not only stunned at her beauty and character, he was also struck by the depth of her wisdom and elegant speech.

The emperor was so impressed that he knew her wisdom needed a response in order to justify his continued persecution of Christians. He then gathered fifty of the wisest men from across the empire to debate Catherine and prove her error. Just the opposite happened. Catherine’s wisdom was so great that she prevailed and won over many of the wise men. She cited the best Greek philosophers to prove her points and to support the truth that Jesus was the Savior and that the Trinity was the One God. Many of the wise men converted, and, as a result, the emperor had them killed.

The emperor then took another approach. He tried to seduce Catherine, offering her half of his kingdom and a place within the royal palace. She refused. The emperor then had her scourged until her blood covered the ground, and he imprisoned her.

While in prison, a dove brought food to Catherine, keeping her healthy and strong. The emperor decided to try one more time to convince her to give up her Christian faith and worship the gods. This time, he threatened her with torture on a large wheel meant to stretch her entire body and spin her to the point of death. Before Catherine was tied to the wheel, an angel made it spin out of control and shatter before everyone’s eyes. The empress then came out and chastised her husband, revealing that she had become a Christian after listening to the wisdom of Catherine. The emperor was so enraged that he had his wife beheaded on the spot.

The following day, Catherine was brought before the emperor again, and this time he ordered her execution by beheading. Within an hour of her execution, angels came and took her body away, laying it on the heights of Mount Sinai where it remained undisturbed and undefiled. A few centuries later, a holy monk in the monastery at the base of Mount Sinai, which was built around the burning bush, had a dream that led him to discover Catherine’s relics. He took her body and buried it in the monastery chapel where she lies today.

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-25—saint-catherine-of-alexandria–optional-memorial

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Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest and his companions, martyrs

Daily Saints

From the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, an estimated 130,000 to 300,000 men, women, and children; bishops, priests, and religious suffered martyrdom in Vietnam because they refused to renounce their Catholic faith. They were arrested, brutally tortured, and killed. Their torture was methodical, diabolical, and orchestrated to impose the maximum pain over the longest period of time possible.

To escape that fate, all those arrested had to do was renounce their faith, step on a crucifix, or blaspheme Christ. If they did, they were granted kindnesses by the imperial courts. If they didn’t, their suffering grew more intense until they died.

Today’s memorial honors 117 martyrs who were initially beatified in separate groups: sixty-four in 1900, eight in 1906, twenty in 1909, and twenty-five in 1951. In 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized all these martyrs together, symbolizing the countless unnamed individuals who also gave their lives for their faith.

Though the communist government of Vietnam failed to send delegates to the canonization of these holy martyrs, many thousands of exiled Vietnamese showed up in Saint Peter’s Square, and the very act of canonization resounded through the hearts and minds of the faithful within Vietnam. The group of 117 was made up of ninety-six Vietnamese, eleven Spaniards, and ten French. It includes eight bishops, fifty priests, and fifty-nine laypeople. Among the laypeople was a nine-year-old child, Saint Agnese Le Thi Thành.

As we honor this huge cloud of witnesses who gave their lives for their faith in a harsh and cruel environment, enduring some of the worst tortures ever committed in the history of the world, we are reminded that no matter how difficult life is, no matter how much we must endure, it is all worth it in the end.

One of the martyrs who died in these persecutions was Father Jean-Théophane Vénard. He first became known through the writings of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux who had a deep devotion to him and was greatly inspired by his letters which were circulating at the time she was in the convent.

Let’s conclude with a quote from Saint Théophane that Saint Thérèse copied and treasured: “I can find nothing on earth that can make me truly happy; the desires of my heart are too vast, and nothing of what the world calls happiness can satisfy it. Time for me will soon be no more, my thoughts are fixed on Eternity. My heart is full of peace, like a tranquil lake or a cloudless sky. I do not regret this life on earth. I thirst for the waters of Life Eternal.”

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-24—saint-andrew-dung-lac-and-his-companions-martyrs–memorial

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Saint Clement I, Pope and Martyr

Daily Saints, Verse

Patron Saint of sailors, mariners, sick children, and stonecutters

“Concerning the things pertaining to our religious observance which are most profitable for a life of goodness to those who would pursue a godly and righteous course, we have written to you, men and brethren, at sufficient length.

For concerning faith and repentance and true love and continence and soberness and patience, we have touched upon every passage, putting you in mind that you ought in righteousness and truth and long-suffering to be well-pleasing to Almighty God with holiness, being of one mind—not remembering evil—in love and peace with instant gentleness, even as also our fathers forementioned found favor by the humility of their thoughts towards the Father and God and Creator and all mankind.

And of these things we put you in mind with the greater pleasure, since we were well assured that we were writing to men who were faithful and of highest repute and had peered into the oracles of the instruction of God.”

~Pope Saint Clement, Letter to the Corinthians

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-23—saint-clement-i-pope-and-martyr—optional-memorial

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Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Daily Saints

Patron Saint of bodily purity, composers, luthiers, martyrs, music, musicians, musical instrument makers, poets, and singers

Almachius urged, “Set aside your delusions and worship the gods.”
Cecilia responded, “You’re blinded. What you call gods, we see as mere stones. Touch them, and you’ll understand what your eyes can’t see.”

Furious, Almachius ordered her to be taken to her house and burned in a hot bath. However, she felt it as if it were a cool, refreshing place. Hearing this, Almachius ordered her beheading there. The executioner struck her three times but failed to behead her. By law, a fourth strike wasn’t allowed. Thus, she was left, half alive.

Over the next three days, she donated her belongings to the poor, preached her faith, and directed new believers to Urban for baptism, saying, “I’ve been granted three days to guide these souls to you and wish my home to become a church.” After three days, she passed away. Saint Urban and his followers buried her with respect, turning her home into a church, which still operates today.

~from the Golden Legend

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-22—saint-cecilia–memorial

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Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Daily Saints

And the child was three years old, and Joachim said: Invite the daughters of the Hebrews that are undefiled, and let them take each a lamp, and let them stand with the lamps burning, that the child may not turn back, and her heart be captivated from the temple of the Lord.

And they did so until they went up into the temple of the Lord. And the priest received her, and kissed her, and blessed her, saying: The Lord has magnified your name in all generations. In you, on the last of the days, the Lord will manifest His redemption to the sons of Israel.

And he set her down upon the third step of the altar, and the Lord God sent grace upon her; and she danced with her feet, and all the house of Israel loved her. And her parents went down marveling, and praising the Lord God, because the child had not turned back. And Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there, and she received food from the hand of an angel. ~Protoevangelium of James

Source: https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/november-21—presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary–memorial

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St. Edmund the Martyr

Daily Saints

King of East Anglia, born about 840; died at Hoxne, Suffolk, 20 November, 870.

The earliest and most reliable accounts represent St. Edmund as descended from the preceding kings of East Anglia, though, according to later legends, he was born at Nuremberg (Germany), son to an otherwise unknown King Alcmund of Saxony.

Though only about fifteen years old when crowned in 855, Edmund showed himself a model ruler from the first, anxious to treat all with equal justice, and closing his ears to flatterers and untrustworthy informers.

In his eagerness for prayer, Edmund retired for a year to his royal tower at Hunstanton and learned the whole Psalter by heart, in order that he might afterwards recite it regularly.

In 870, Edmund bravely repulsed the two Danish chiefs Hinguar and Hubba who had invaded his dominions. They soon returned with overwhelming numbers, and pressed terms upon him which as a Christian he felt bound to refuse.

In his desire to avert a fruitless massacre, Edmund disbanded his troops and himself retired towards Framlingham; on the way, he fell into the hands of the invaders. Having loaded him with chains, his captors conducted him to Hinguar, whose impious demands he again rejected, declaring his religion dearer to him than his life. His martyrdom took place in 870 at Hoxne in Suffolk.

After beating him with cudgels, the Danes tied him to a tree, and cruelly tore his flesh with whips.

Throughout these tortures Edmund continued to call upon the name of Jesus, until at last, exasperated by his constancy, his enemies began to discharge arrows at him. This cruel sport was continued until his body had the appearance of a porcupine, when Hinguar commanded his head to be struck off.

From his first burial-place at Hoxne, Edmund’s relics were removed in the tenth century to Beodricsworth, since called St. Edmundsbury, where arose the famous abbey of that name.

His feast is observed on 20th November, and he is represented in Christian art with sword and arrow, the instruments of his torture.

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05295a.htm

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Saints Rasiphus and Ravennus

Daily Saints

Saints Rasiphus and Ravennus were natives of Britain who fled their country during the Anglo-Saxon invasions. They settled in Gaul and became hermits.

According to an account of their lives, the two saints founded their hermitage near the site of the current building, near a miraculous spring of water.

Since little is known about their lives, there are multiple versions of their martyrdom. According to one version, they were tossed against a great block of sandstone. Their heads dented the stone but the two saints were not hurt. They were then decapitated and buried near the present grounds of St-Aubin de Macé; a tombstone marks the site of their former grave.

Accounts also attribute many miracles to the Saints Rasiphus and Ravennus. They were venerated as great healers.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasyphus_and_Ravennus#:~:text=Their%20feast%20day%20is%2023%20July.

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Saint Wandrille

Daily Saints

Saint Wandrille, also known as Saint Wandregisel, was a Frankish courtier, monk, and abbot. He was born around 605 and educated at the Frankish court in Metz.

Saint Wandrille was part of a group of young courtiers who served Dagobert I. In 629, he retired from court to become a monk at Montfaucon under the guidance of Saint Balderic.

Saint Wandrille soon withdrew to live as a hermit in complete solitude at Saint-Ursanne in the Jura. He spent some time at the monastery of Saint Columban at Bobbio in northern Italy in 635. From there, he wished to travel to Ireland but got only as far as the abbey of Romainmôtier.

Saint Wandrille founded Fontenelle Abbey in Normandy. Fontenelle Abbey followed the rule of Saint Columbanus, and the abbey became an important center of learning. Saint Wandrille died on July 22, 668.

Sources:

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

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Saint Victor of Marseilles

Daily Saints

Saint Victor of Marseilles was an Egyptian Christian martyr. He was a Roman army officer in Marseille, who publicly denounced the worship of idols.

Due to denouncing the worship of idols, he was brought before the Roman prefects, Asterius and Eutychius, who later sent him to the Emperor Maximian. He was then racked, beaten, dragged through the streets, and thrown into prison, where he converted three other Roman soldiers, Longinus, Alexander, and Felician, who were subsequently beheaded.

After refusing to offer incense to a statue of the Roman god Jupiter, Victor kicked it over with his foot. The emperor ordered that he be put to death by being ground under a millstone, but the millstone broke while Victor was still alive. He was then beheaded.

Saint Victor’s feast day, along with Saints Longinus, Alexander and Felician, is celebrated on July 21. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_of_Marseilles#:~:text=Saint%20Victor's%20feast%20day%2C%20along,is%20celebrated%20on%20July%2021.

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Pope Saint Siricius

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest and his companions, martyrs

Saint Clement I, Pope and Martyr

Patron Saint of sailors, mariners, sick children, and stonecutters

Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Patron Saint of bodily purity, composers, luthiers, martyrs, music, musicians, musical instrument makers, poets, and singers

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

St. Edmund the Martyr

Saints Rasiphus and Ravennus

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Saint Wandrille

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Saint Victor of Marseilles

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