Daily Saints

Saint Athanasia of Aegina

Saint Athanasia of Aegina was the daughter of Christian nobles, Niketas and Irene, and experienced the mystical union of a star merging with her heart while weaving at the loom when she was a young girl. She wanted a spiritual life, but an imperial edict required all single women of marriageable age to marry soldiers.

At 16 years old, at her parents urging, she complied and married a young officer. Sixteen days after her wedding, her husband was killed in a battle with raiding Arabs. She again married, this time to a deeply religious man who wished to become a monk and left to do so with her blessing.

St. Athanasia then gave away the bulk of her possessions, converted their home into a convent, and began building churches. She served as an abbess and was known for her miraculous healing of the sick and those seen as possessed. Her community later moved to Timia near the ancient church of Stephen the Protomartyr. Here crowds flocked to see her. As her fame grew, she moved to Constantinople seeking solitude as an anchoress in a cell for seven years. While walled away, she was an adviser to the Empress Theodora II. After seven years, she returned to Aegina where she died of natural causes three days later at Timia on 14 August 860.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasia_of_Aegina
Kirk, Martha Ann (2004). Women of Bible lands : a pilgrimage to compassion and wisdom. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press. ISBN 0814651569.

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Saint Anecitus

Daily Saints

Saint Anecitus, or Pope Anicetus, was a Syrian from the city of Emesa.

According to Irenaeus, it was during his pontificate that the aged Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of John the Evangelist, visited Rome to discuss the celebration of Easter with Anicetus. Polycarp and his Church of Smyrna celebrated the crucifixion on the fourteenth day of Nisan, which coincides with Pesach (or Passover) regardless of which day of the week upon this date fell, while the Roman Church celebrated Easter on Sunday—the weekday of Jesus’s resurrection. The two did not agree on a common date, but Anicetus conceded to Polycarp and the Church of Smyrna the ability to retain the date to which they were accustomed. The controversy was to grow heated in the following centuries.

According to the Annuario Pontificio, the start of his papacy may have been 153. Anicetus actively opposed Gnosticism and Marcionism. He welcomed Polycarp of Smyrna to Rome to discuss the Easter controversy. According to church tradition, Anicetus suffered martyrdom during the reign of Emperor Lucius Verus, but there are no historical grounds for this account.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Anicetus
Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7)
Campbell, Thomas (1907). "Pope St. Anicetus" in The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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Saint Bernadette Soubirous

Daily Saints

Bernadette Soubirous was born in 1844, the first child of an extremely poor miller in the town of Lourdes in southern France. The family was living in the basement of a dilapidated building when on February 11, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette in a cave above the banks of the Gave River near Lourdes. Bernadette, 14 years old, was known as a virtuous girl though a dull student who had not even made her first Holy Communion. In poor health, she had suffered from asthma from an early age.

There were 18 appearances in all, the final one occurring on the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, July 16. Although Bernadette’s initial reports provoked skepticism, her daily visions of “the Lady” brought great crowds of the curious. The Lady, Bernadette explained, had instructed her to have a chapel built on the spot of the visions. There, the people were to come to wash in and drink of the water of the spring that had welled up from the very spot where Bernadette had been instructed to dig.

According to Bernadette, the Lady of her visions was a girl of 16 or 17 who wore a white robe with a blue sash. Yellow roses covered her feet, a large rosary was on her right arm. In the vision on March 25 she told Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” It was only when the words were explained to her that Bernadette came to realize who the Lady was.

Few visions have ever undergone the scrutiny that these appearances of the Immaculate Virgin were subject to. Lourdes became one of the most popular Marian shrines in the world, attracting millions of visitors. Miracles were reported at the shrine and in the waters of the spring. After thorough investigation, Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862.

During her life, Bernadette suffered much. She was hounded by the public as well as by civic officials until at last she was protected in a convent of nuns. Five years later, she petitioned to enter the Sisters of Notre Dame of Nevers. After a period of illness she was able to make the journey from Lourdes and enter the novitiate. But within four months of her arrival she was given the last rites of the Church and allowed to profess her vows. She recovered enough to become infirmarian and then sacristan, but chronic health problems persisted. She died on April 16, 1879, at the age of 35. Bernadette Soubirous was canonized in 1933.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-bernadette-soubirous/

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Saint Hunna

Daily Saints

Saint Hunna was born in Alsace in eastern France. She was the daughter of a duke and born into “a privileged life”. She married Huno of Hunnaweyer, a nobleman and aristocrat. They had one son.

Her family was influenced by the former bishop and hermit Saint Deodatus of Nevers, who inspired her to serve her poor neighbors. In addition to caring for her family, home, and estate while her husband traveled for political and diplomatic reasons, she spent her time in prayer and visited her neighbors daily, caring for the sick and providing them with religious instruction, cooking, cleaning, bathing, and childcare, as well as washing and replacing their clothes, which earned her the name the “Holy Washerwoman”.

Scholar Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg placed Hunna in the tradition of what she called the “domestic saint” or “holy housekeeper”, pious and noble women in the Middle Ages, who like Hunna, conducted public roles such as founders and abbesses of convents, but whose “popular and local fame rested on her pious activity of washing the clothing of the poor”, from where she received her nickname. Hunna is the patron of laundresses

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunna
Dunbar, Agnes B.C. (1901). A Dictionary of Saintly Women. 1. London: George Bell & Sons. p. 397.

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Saint Bénézet

Daily Saints

Saint Bénézet was a shepherd boy who saw a vision during an eclipse in 1177 which led him to build a bridge over the Rhône River at Avignon.

He was told that angels would watch over his flocks in his absence. He built the bridge single-handedly; ecclesiastical and civil authorities refused to help him. Bénézet, it is said, lifted a huge stone into place, and announced it would be the start of the foundation. This would become the Pont Saint-Bénézet.

According to the legend, there were shouts of “Miracle! Miracle!” when Bénézet had laid the first stone. Eighteen miracles occurred in total: the blind had their vision restored, the deaf could hear again, cripples could walk; and hunchbacks had their backs straightened. Bénézet thus won support for his project from wealthy sponsors who, it is claimed, formed themselves into the Bridge-Building Brotherhood to fund its construction.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9n%C3%A9zet

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Ecclesiastes 7:10

Daily Saints

Verse:

“Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.” - Ecclesiastes 7:10

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Saint Teresa of Los Andes

Daily Saints

One needn’t live a long life to leave a deep imprint. Teresa of Los Andes is proof of that.

As a young girl growing up in the early 1900’s in Santiago, Chile, Juana Fernandez read an autobiography of a French-born saint—Thérèse, popularly known as the Little Flower. The experience deepened her desire to serve God and clarified the path she would follow. At age 19 Juana became a Carmelite nun, taking the name of Teresa.

The convent offered the simple lifestyle Teresa desired and the joy of living in a community of women completely devoted to God. She focused her days on prayer and sacrifice. “I am God’s,” she wrote in her diary. “He created me and is my beginning and my end.”

Toward the end of her short life, Teresa began an apostolate of letter-writing, sharing her thoughts on the spiritual life with many people. At age 20 she contracted typhus and quickly took her final vows. She died a short time later, during Holy Week.

Known as the “Flower of the Andes,” Teresa remains popular with the estimated 100,000 pilgrims who visit her shrine in Los Andes each year. Canonized in 1993 by Pope John Paul II, she is Chile’s first saint.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-teresa-of-los-andes/

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Saint Stanislaus of Krakow

Daily Saints

Saint Stanislaus of Krakow was born at Szczepanów, a village in Lesser Poland. He was the only son of the noble and pious Wielisław and Bogna. He was educated at a cathedral school in Gniezno (then the capital of Poland) and later, probably at Paris.

On his return to Poland, Stanislaus was ordained a priest by Lambert II Suła, Bishop of Kraków. Following his ordination, he was given a canonry in Kraków and became known for his preaching. He was subsequently made pastor of Czembocz near Kraków, canon and preacher at the cathedral, and later, vicar-general.

After the bishop’s death (1072), Stanislaus was elected his successor but accepted the office only at the explicit command of Pope Alexander II. Stanislaus was one of the earliest native Polish bishops. He also became a ducal advisor and had some influence on Polish politics.

Stanislaus’ major accomplishments included bringing papal legates to Poland, and reestablishment of a metropolitan see in Gniezno. He was the Bishop of Kraków known chiefly for having been martyred by the Polish king Bolesław II the Generous. Stanislaus is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Stanislaus the Martyr.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislaus_of_Szczepan%C3%B3w
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Saint Stanislaus of Kraków". Encyclopedia Britannica
Fr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI (1997). "St. Stanislaus". My First Book of Saints. Sons of Holy Mary Immaculate - Quality Catholic Publications. pp. 80–81.

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Saint Michael de Sanctis

Daily Saints

Saint Michael de Sanctis was born as Michael Argemir. He was also known as Michael of the Saints. At the age of twelve, he came to Barcelona and asked to be received into the monastery of the Trinitarians there.

After a three-year novitiate, he took his vows at that order’s monastery of St. Lambert at Zaragoza in 1607. After meeting a Discalced Trinitarian one day, he felt drawn to that congregation’s more austere lifestyle and, after much deliberation and the permission of his superior, he entered the congregation of the Discalced Trinitarians at Madrid as a novice. He then took his vows at Alcalá, became a priest, and was twice elected superior of the monastery at Valladolid.

During his life, Michael de Sanctis led a life of prayer and mortification. He was devout towards the Holy Eucharist, and is said to have been experienced ecstasies several times during Consecration.

Sources:

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

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Saint John Baptist de La Salle

Daily Saints

Complete dedication to what he saw as God’s will for him dominated the life of John Baptist de La Salle. In 1950, Pope Pius XII named him patron of schoolteachers for his efforts in upgrading school instruction. As a young 17th-century Frenchman, John had everything going for him: scholarly bent, good looks, noble family background, money, refined upbringing. At the early age of 11, he received the tonsure and started preparation for the priesthood, to which he was ordained at 27. He seemed assured then of a life of dignified ease and a high position in the Church.

But God had other plans for John, which were gradually revealed to him in the next several years. During a chance meeting with Monsieur Adrien Nyel, he became interested in the creation of schools for poor boys in Rheims, where he was stationed. Though the work was extremely distasteful to him at first, he became more involved in working with the deprived youths.

Once convinced that this was his divinely appointed mission, John threw himself wholeheartedly into the work, left home and family, abandoned his position as canon at Rheims, gave away his fortune, and reduced himself to the level of the poor to whom he devoted his entire life.

The remainder of his life was closely entwined with the community of religious men he founded, the Brothers of the Christian School (also called Christian Brothers or De La Salle Brothers). This community grew rapidly and was successful in educating boys of poor families, using methods designed by John. It prepared teachers in the first training college for teachers and also set up homes and schools for young delinquents of wealthy families. The motivating element in all these endeavors was the desire to become a good Christian.

Yet even in his success, John did not escape experiencing many trials: heart-rending disappointment and defections among his disciples, bitter opposition from the secular schoolmasters who resented his new and fruitful methods, and persistent opposition from the Jansenists of his time, whose moral rigidity and pessimism about the human condition John resisted vehemently all his life.

Afflicted with asthma and rheumatism in his last years, he died on Good Friday at age 68, and was canonized in 1900.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-john-baptist-de-la-salle/

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Saint Athanasia of Aegina

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Saint Anecitus

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Saint Bernadette Soubirous

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Saint Hunna

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Saint Bénézet

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Ecclesiastes 7:10

Verse:

Saint Teresa of Los Andes

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Saint Stanislaus of Krakow

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Saint Michael de Sanctis

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Saint John Baptist de La Salle

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