Daily Saints

Saint Angela Merici

Saint Angela Merici has the double distinction of founding the first of what are now called “secular institutes” and the first teaching order of women in the Church.

Born in Desenzano, Italy, she was orphaned in her teens. As a young woman, with her heart centered on Christ, Angela joined the Third Order of St. Francis and embraced austerity. In a visionary experience, she felt called to found a “company” of women.

Saint Angela was invited to become a live-in companion for a widow in the nearby town of Brescia. There she became the spiritual advisor of a group of men and women with ideals of spiritual renewal and service to those in need. While on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1524, Angela was struck with blindness. She proceeded to visit the sacred shrines, seeing them with her spirit. On the way back while praying before a crucifix, Angela’s sight was restored.

At age 60, Saint Angela and 12 other women began the Company of St. Ursula, named for a patroness of medieval universities and venerated as a leader of women. This constituted a new way of life: single women consecrated to Christ and living in the world rather than in a monastery. With Angela as their “mother and mistress,” Company members did not live in community, wore no special clothing, and made no formal vows.

Saint Angela Merici died in Brescia, Italy, in 1540. Clothed in the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, her body was interred in Brescia’s Church of Saint’ Afra. Four years later the Company’s Rule that Angela had composed, prescribing the practices of chastity, poverty and obedience, was approved by the pope.

In the early 1600s, Companies that had expanded into France were re-organized into the religious Order of St. Ursula, to teach girls. Angela’s words continue to inspire the Ursuline nuns’ mission of education, a mission that spread worldwide. The Company of St. Ursula also continued to exist and is federated worldwide today with members in 30 countries. Angela Merici was canonized by Pope Pius VII in 1807.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-angela-merici/

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Blessed Michal Kozal

Daily Saints

Blessed Michal Kozal was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop. He was born on September 27, 1893 to the peasants Jan Kozal and Marianna Płaczek.

Kozal commenced his education on 27 April 1905 at Krotoszyn and at one stage participated in a student strike to take action against the forced Germanization and the forced teaching of the German language. He passed his examinations in 1914 and was offered further studies but rejected the offer to instead pursue a path to the priesthood first in Poznan and then in Gniezno for theological and philosophical studies. Kozal was ordained to the priesthood in the Gniezno Cathedral in 1918.On 1 June 1920 he was appointed as the administrator of the Saint Nicholas parish until 1923 and around this time collaborated with the Catholic Action movement and the Polish Red Cross. In 1932 he became titled as a Monsignor after Cardinal Hlond sought papal approval for this.

The outbreak of World War II saw him tend to the wounded victims and those who were displaced due to the war and the Polish invasion. The Gestapo arrested him and 44 other priests and seminarians on 7 November 1939, and he was tortured and jailed in his diocese; he was later moved to Lad before being sent to both Szczeglin and Berlin before the fatal transfer to Dachau, from which he would never again leave. Kozal never shirked from his duties and spent his time in imprisonment ministering to fellow prisoners despite extensive abuse he received from the guards at the camp.

Kozal suffered from typhoid, and his situation grew worse on 17 January 1943; on 26 January the Nazi doctor Joseph Sneiss gave him a lethal injection of phenol in his right arm, and his remains were cremated in the camp’s crematorium on 30 January. His death was announced on Polish radio on 1 February.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Kozal
Saints SQPN. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
The Kozal Family. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
Santi e Beati. Retrieved 30 November 2016.

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Saint Dwynwen

Daily Saints

Saint Dwynwen, also referred to as Saint Dwyn or Donwen, is a Welsh patron saint of lovers. She is believed to have been the daughter of King Brychan and that her mother may have been Rigrawst.

According to the old tales, a young man fell in love with her but she rejected his advances. In another tale, it is she who had fallen in love with a young man but their marriage was forbidden by her father. It is said that Saint Dwynwen turned to God and prayed to him regarding her love. God grants her requests. She remain unmarried and became God’s instrument to look after all true lovers.

Saint Dwynwen retreated to solitude in a small island where she built a church known as Llandwyn. She is also the patron saint of sick animals.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwynwen
Lapa, Dmitry. "Venerable Dwynwen of Llanddwyn Island", Orthodox Christianity
Farmer, D. H., (1978) The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
FAQ on St Dwynwen Archived 27 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine from the Museum of Welsh Life, accessed 31 October 2011

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Saint Francis de Sales

Daily Saints

Saint Francis de Sales was destined by his father to be a lawyer so that the young man could eventually take his elder’s place as a senator from the province of Savoy in France. For this reason Francis was sent to Padua to study law. After receiving his doctorate, he returned home and, in due time, told his parents he wished to enter the priesthood. His father strongly opposed Francis in this, and only after much patient persuasiveness on the part of the gentle Francis did his father finally consent. Francis was ordained and elected provost of the Diocese of Geneva, then a center for the Calvinists. Francis set out to convert them, especially in the district of Chablais. By preaching and distributing the little pamphlets he wrote to explain true Catholic doctrine, he had remarkable success.

At 35, he became bishop of Geneva. While administering his diocese he continued to preach, hear confessions, and catechize the children. His gentle character was a great asset in winning souls. He practiced his own axiom, “A spoonful of honey attracts more flies than a barrelful of vinegar.”

Besides his two well-known books, the Introduction to the Devout Life and A Treatise on the Love of God, he wrote many pamphlets and carried on a vast correspondence. For his writings, he has been named patron of the Catholic Press. His writings, filled with his characteristic gentle spirit, are addressed to lay people. He wants to make them understand that they too are called to be saints. As he wrote in The Introduction to the Devout Life: “It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman…. It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world.”

In spite of his busy and comparatively short life, he had time to collaborate with another saint, Jane Frances de Chantal, in the work of establishing the Sisters of the Visitation. These women were to practice the virtues exemplified in Mary’s visit to Elizabeth: humility, piety, and mutual charity. They at first engaged to a limited degree in works of mercy for the poor and the sick. Today, while some communities conduct schools, others live a strictly contemplative life.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-francis-de-sales/

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Saint Marianne Cope

Daily Saints

Mother Marianne’s generosity and courage were celebrated at her May 14, 2005, beatification in Rome. She was a woman who spoke “the language of truth and love” to the world, said Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. Cardinal Martins, who presided at the beatification Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, called her life “a wonderful work of divine grace.” Speaking of her special love for persons suffering from leprosy, he said, “She saw in them the suffering face of Jesus. Like the Good Samaritan, she became their mother.”

On January 23, 1838, a daughter was born to Peter and Barbara Cope of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. The girl was named after her mother. Two years later the Cope family emigrated to the United States and settled in Utica, New York. Young Barbara worked in a factory until August 1862, when she went to the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York. After profession in November of the next year, she began teaching at Assumption parish school.
Marianne held the post of superior in several places and was twice the novice mistress of her congregation. A natural leader, three different times she was superior of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, where she learned much that would be useful during her years in Hawaii.

Elected provincial in 1877, Mother Marianne was unanimously re-elected in 1881. Two years later the Hawaiian government was searching for someone to run the Kakaako Receiving Station for people suspected of having leprosy. More than 50 religious communities in the United States and Canada were asked. When the request was put to the Syracuse sisters, 35 of them volunteered immediately. On October 22, 1883, Mother Marianne and six other sisters left for Hawaii where they took charge of the Kakaako Receiving Station outside Honolulu; on the island of Maui they also opened a hospital and a school for girls.

In 1888, Mother Marianne and two sisters went to Molokai to open a home for “unprotected women and girls” there. The Hawaiian government was quite hesitant to send women for this difficult assignment; they need not have worried about Mother Marianne! On Molokai she took charge of the home that Saint Damien de Veuster had established for men and boys. Mother Marianne changed life on Molokai by introducing cleanliness, pride, and fun to the colony. Bright scarves and pretty dresses for the women were part of her approach.

Awarded the Royal Order of Kapiolani by the Hawaiian government and celebrated in a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother Marianne continued her work faithfully. Her sisters have attracted vocations among the Hawaiian people and still work on Molokai.

Mother Marianne died on August 9, 1918, was beatified in 2005, and canonized seven years later.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-marianne-cope/

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Saint Blaesilla

Daily Saints

Saint Blesilla was a Roman widow at the age of 18 and a disciple of Jerome. She was born into a wealthy senatorial family in Rome, the eldest daughter of Paula of Rome and sister of Eustochium, who were members of a group of wealthy Christian women who followed the teachings of Jerome.

After a life-threatening fever, became “a changed woman” and a severe ascetic, practicing fasting as a spiritual discipline. Her fasts dramatically weakened her, and she died within four months, at the age of 20. Blaesilla’s death caused “bitter controversy” in Rome; many Romans blamed Jerome for her death and demanded that he be removed from Rome. Eventually, Jerome left Rome, with Blaesilla’s mother and sister, to live as an ascetic in the Holy Land.

Most of the knowledge about Blaesilla’s life comes from the writings of Jerome, in which he described her piety and virtue. She also inspired Jerome to translate the book of Ecclesiastes.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaesilla
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1797
Cruz, Joan Carroll (2015). Lay Saints: Ascetics and Penitents. Charlotte, North Carolina: TAN Books. ISBN 978-0-89555-847-3. OCLC 958120637.
Hooper, Finley; Schwartz, Matthew (1991). Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. p. 206.

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Saint Germanicus of Smyrna

Daily Saints

Saint Germanicus was a youth who was arrested and martyred for his faith in Smyrna during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus. As Germanicus stood in the arena, facing a wild beast, the Roman proconsul pleaded with him that in view of his youth he should deny his faith to obtain a pardon. But the young man refused to apostatize, and willingly embraced martyrdom.

Germanicus was praised for his courage facing the wild beasts used to kill him, and was referenced in the Martyrdom of Polycarp.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanicus_of_Smyrna
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3557
St. Germanicus Catholic Online
Page 653 A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines

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Saint Margaret of Hungary

Daily Saints

Saint Margaret of Hungary Hilario Barbal was a Dominican nun and the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. She was the younger sister of Kinga of Poland (Kunegunda) and Yolanda of Poland and, through her father, the niece of the famed Elizabeth of Hungary.

Saint Margaret was born in Klis Fortress in the Kingdom of Croatia, the eighth and last daughter (9th of 10 children) of the royal couple. The three-year-old Margaret was entrusted by her parents to the Dominican monastery at Veszprém in 1245. Six years later she was transferred to the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on Nyulak Szigete (Rabbit Island) near Buda (today Margaret Island, named after her, and a part of Budapest; the ruins of the monastery can still be seen). She spent the rest of her life there, dedicating herself to religion and opposing all attempts of her father to arrange a political marriage for her with King Ottokar II of Bohemia.
She appears to have taken solemn vows when she was eighteen years old. In marked contrast to the customs of her Order, she received the Consecration of Virgins along with some other royals to prevent further attempts on the part of her father to have her vows dispensed by the pope for marriage.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_of_Hungary_(saint)

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=727

[Klis – A gateway to Dalmatia] (PDF). Građevinar (in Croatian). Zagreb: Croatian Society of Civil Engineers. 53 (9): 605–611. September 2001. ISSN 0350-2465. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18.
"Margaret's Isle, Budapest, Hungary, Austro-Hungary". World Digital Library. 1890
Aldásy, Antal. "Bl. Margaret of Hungary." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company,

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Saint Anthony of Egypt

Daily Saints

The life of Saint Anthony of Egypt will remind many people of Saint Francis of Assisi. At 20, Anthony was so moved by the Gospel message, “Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor” (Mark 10:21b), that he actually did just that with his large inheritance. He is different from Francis in that most of Anthony’s life was spent in solitude. He saw the world completely covered with snares, and gave the Church and the world the witness of solitary asceticism, great personal mortification and prayer. But no saint is antisocial, and Anthony drew many people to himself for spiritual healing and guidance.
At 54, he responded to many requests and founded a sort of monastery of scattered cells. Again, like Francis, he had great fear of “stately buildings and well-laden tables.”
At 60, he hoped to be a martyr in the renewed Roman persecution of 311, fearlessly exposing himself to danger while giving moral and material support to those in prison. At 88, he was fighting the Arian heresy, that massive trauma from which it took the Church centuries to recover. “The mule kicking over the altar” denied the divinity of Christ.
Saint Anthony of Egypt is associated in art with a T-shaped cross, a pig and a book. The pig and the cross are symbols of his valiant warfare with the devil—the cross his constant means of power over evil spirits, the pig a symbol of the devil himself. The book recalls his preference for “the book of nature” over the printed word. Anthony died in solitude at age 105.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-anthony-of-egypt/

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Saint Fursey

Daily Saints

Saint Fursey was educated under Brendan the Navigator, Fursey later became a monk at the monastery of Clonfert, in County Galway, and was ordained priest. He later founded a monastery at Rathmat (probably in modern County Clare), which became one of Ireland’s major monastic centres. The extent of his apostolate is evident in places named for him in Galway, Louth, and Cork.

After 630, Saint Fursey left Ireland with his brothers Foillan and Ultán for Britain, where they were welcomed by the Christian king Sigeberht of East Anglia. They assisted Sigeberht and Felix in Christianizing the kingdom and in introducing monasticism. About 640, Fursey founded the monastery of Cnoberesburgh, near modern Yarmouth, Norfolk, which became the centre of his ministry. He sailed to Gaul some time between 640 and 644 and established himself in Neustria (in present-day Normandy), where he was well received by Clovis II. About 644 he founded a monastery at Lagny, near Paris. On a later journey he died, and afterward his body was transferred to Péronne, where his shrine became a great pilgrimage site; the monastery there remained an Irish centre through the 8th century.

Saint Fursey’s visions, which he was said to have experienced throughout his life, became widely known through accounts by the Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (8th century), which also contains the earliest life of Fursey, written by an anonymous contemporary monk; and by Aelfric Grammaticus (10th century). The visions included demoniac assaults, conversations with angels, divinations, and glimpses of heaven and hell; the accounts of visions influenced medieval vision literature, of which they are considered a prototype.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Fursey

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3491

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Saint Angela Merici

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Blessed Michal Kozal

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Saint Dwynwen

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Saint Francis de Sales

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Saint Marianne Cope

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Saint Blaesilla

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Saint Germanicus of Smyrna

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Saint Margaret of Hungary

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Saint Anthony of Egypt

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Saint Fursey

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