Daily Saints

Blessed Pierre de Castelnau

Blessed Pierre de Castelnau was born in the diocese of Montpellier. He became archdeacon of Maguelonne, and in 1199 was appointed by Pope Innocent III as one of the papal legates for the suppression of the Cathar heresy in Languedoc. In 1202, he made profession as a Cistercian monk at the abbey of Fontfroide, Narbonne, and by 1203 was confirmed as papal legate and chief inquisitor, first in Languedoc, and afterwards at Viviers and Montpellier.
In 1207, Blessed Pierre was appointed was in the Rhone valley and in Provence, where he became involved in the strife between the count of Baux and Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse. Castelnau was assassinated on 15 January 1208, possibly by an agent of Raymond, but this was never proven. Nevertheless, Pope Innocent III held Raymond responsible and Pierre’s murder was the immediate cause of Raymond’s excommunication and the start of the Albigensian Crusade.
Blessed Pierre was beatified, through papal order, in 1208 by Pope Innocent III. The relics of Pierre de Castelnau are interred in the church of the ancient Abbey of St-Gilles.

Sources:

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5303
Graham-Leigh, Elaine (2005). The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge.
Madaule, Jacques (1967). The Albigensian Crusade: An Historical Essay. Fordham University Press.
Oldenbourg, Zoe (2015). Massacre At Montsegur: A History Of The Albigensian Crusade. Hachette UK.
Ryan, James D. (2004). "Missionary Saints of the High Middle Ages: Martyrdom, Popular Veneration, and Canonization". The Catholic Historical Review. 90, No. 1 (Jan.): 1–28

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Saint Felix of Nola

Daily Saints

Saint Felix of Nola was a Christian presbyter at Nola near Naples in Italy. He sold off his possessions to give to the poor, but was arrested and tortured for his Christian faith during the persecution of Roman Emperor Decius (r. 249–51). He was believed to have died a martyr’s death during the persecution.

When bishop Maximus fled to the mountains to escape the persecution of the Roman emperor Decius, Felix was arrested and beaten for his faith instead. He escaped prison, according to legend being freed by an angel. After Maximus’s death, the people wanted Felix to be the next bishop of Nola, but he declined, favoring Quintus, a “senior” priest who had seven days more experience than Felix. Felix himself continued as a priest. He also continued to farm his remaining land, and gave most of the proceeds to people even poorer than himself.

Much of the little information we have about Felix comes from the letters and poetry of Saint Paulinus of Nola. When at length peace was obtained, he returned home and in poverty lived a withdrawn life until old age, an unconquered confessor of the faith”.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_of_Nola
"Felix of Nola", Orange County Catholic, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, January 18, 2018
Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 112
Butler, Alban. "The Lives of the Saints", Vol.I, 1866". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2014-02-20
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=639

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Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Daily Saints

This staunch defender of the divinity of Christ was a gentle and courteous man, devoted to writing some of the greatest theology on the Trinity, and was like his Master in being labeled a “disturber of the peace.” In a very troubled period in the Church, his holiness was lived out in both scholarship and controversy. He was bishop of Poitiers in France.

Raised a pagan, he was converted to Christianity when he met his God of nature in the Scriptures. His wife was still living when he was chosen, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France. He was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ.

The heresy spread rapidly. Saint Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia. Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West.”

While writing in exile, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him, the Arians, dreading the meeting and its outcome, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people.

Sources:

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

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Saint Tatiana of Rome

Daily Saints

Saint Tatiana of Rome was the daughter of a Roman civil servant who was secretly Christian, and raised his daughter in the faith. This was dangerous, and one day the jurist Ulpian captured Tatiana and attempted to force her to make a sacrifice to Apollo. She prayed, and miraculously, an earthquake destroyed the Apollo statue and part of the temple.

Tatiana was then blinded, and beaten for two days, before being brought to a circus and thrown into the pit with a hungry lion. But the lion did not touch her and lay at her feet. She was then sentenced to death, and after being tortured, Tatiana was beheaded with a sword on January 12, around AD 225 or 230.

The miracles performed by Saint Tatiana are said to have converted many people to the fledgling religion. Her skull was translated in 1955 from Bistrița Monastery to the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Craiova, Romania, and is enshrined with the relics of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and those of Patriach Nephon II of Constantinople.
Saint Tatiana is patron saint of students. In Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, Tatiana Day is semi-formally celebrated as “Students’ Day.”

Sources:

Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2161
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatiana_of_Rome

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Blessed William Carter

Daily Saints

Born in London, William Carter entered the printing business at an early age. For many years he served as apprentice to well-known Catholic printers, one of whom served a prison sentence for persisting in the Catholic faith. William himself served time in prison following his arrest for “printing lewd pamphlets” as well as possessing books upholding Catholicism.

But even more, he offended public officials by publishing works that aimed to keep Catholics firm in their faith. Officials who searched his house found various vestments and suspect books, and even managed to extract information from William’s distraught wife. Over the next 18 months, William remained in prison, suffering torture and learning of his wife’s death.

He was eventually charged with printing and publishing the Treatise of Schisme, which allegedly incited violence by Catholics and which was said to have been written by a traitor and addressed to traitors. While William calmly placed his trust in God, the jury met for only 15 minutes before reaching a verdict of guilty. William, who made his final confession to a priest who was being tried alongside him, was hanged, drawn, and quartered the following day: January 11, 1584.
He was beatified in 1987.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/blessed-william-carter/

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Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Daily Saints

The son of two saints, Basil and Emmilia, young Gregory was raised by his older brother, Saint Basil the Great, and his sister, Macrina, in modern-day Turkey. Gregory’s success in his studies suggested great things were ahead for him. After becoming a professor of rhetoric, he was persuaded to devote his learning and efforts to the Church. By then married, Gregory went on to study for the priesthood and become ordained (this at a time when celibacy was not a matter of law for priests).

He was elected Bishop of Nyssa in 372, a period of great tension over the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. Briefly arrested after being falsely accused of embezzling Church funds, Gregory was restored to his see in 378, an act met with great joy by his people.

It was after the death of his beloved brother Basil, that Gregory really came into his own. He wrote with great effectiveness against Arianism and other questionable doctrines, gaining a reputation as a defender of orthodoxy. He was sent on missions to counter other heresies and held a position of prominence at the Council of Constantinople. His fine reputation stayed with him for the remainder of his life, but over the centuries it gradually declined as the authorship of his writings became less and less certain. But, thanks to the work of scholars in the 20th century, his stature is once again appreciated. Indeed, Saint Gregory of Nyssa is seen not simply as a pillar of orthodoxy but as one of the great contributors to the mystical tradition in Christian spirituality and to monasticism itself.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-gregory-of-nyssa/

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=989

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Saint Adrian of Canterbury

Daily Saints

Though Saint Adrian turned down a papal request to become Archbishop of Canterbury, England, Pope Saint Vitalian accepted the rejection on the condition that Adrian serve as the Holy Father’s assistant and adviser. Adrian accepted, but ended up spending most of his life and doing most of his work in Canterbury.

Born in Africa, Adrian was serving as an abbot in Italy when the new Archbishop of Canterbury appointed him abbot of the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury. Thanks to his leadership skills, the facility became one of the most important centers of learning. The school attracted many outstanding scholars from far and wide and produced numerous future bishops and archbishops. Students reportedly learned Greek and Latin and spoke Latin as well as their own native languages.
Adrian taught at the school for 40 years. He died there, probably in the year 710, and was buried in the monastery. Several hundred years later, when reconstruction was being done, Adrian’s body was discovered in an incorrupt state. As word spread, people flocked to his tomb, which became famous for miracles. Rumor had it that young schoolboys in trouble with their masters made regular visits there.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-adrian-of-canterbury/

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Saint Pega

Daily Saints

Saint Pega is a Christian saint who was an anchoress in the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and the sister of St Guthlac. She is referred to as ‘the holy virgin of Christ Pega’.

She lived as an anchoress at what is now Peakirk (“Pega’s church”) near Peterborough, not far from Guthlac’s hermitage at Crowland. When Guthlac realised that his end was near in 714, he summoned Pega, who travelled by boat to her brother’s oratory to bury him. One year later, she presided over the translation of his remains into a new sepulchre, when his body was found to be incorrupt. At this time, Pega also used a piece of glutinous salt, which had been previously consecrated by Guthlac, to cure the eyesight of a blind man who had travelled to Crowland from Wisbech.

Pega went on pilgrimage to Rome after Guthlac’s death and died there on 8 January 719, according to a 12th-century account by Orderic Vitalis. Orderic claims that her remains were kept at a church built in Rome in her honour, and that miracles took place there.

Sources:

Bertram Colgrave. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge University Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 0-521-30926-3. OCLC 12262183.
Saints' lives. David Townsend. Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 978-0-674-05128-7. OCLC 856879271.
Ingulf; Peter, of Blois; Riley, Henry T. (1854). Ingulph's chronicle of the abbey of Croyland with the continuations by Peter of Blois and anonymous writers. University of California. London, H. G. Bohn.
Vitalis, Orderic (1990). The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis. Marjorie Chibnall. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822243-2. OCLC 21520544.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pega

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Saint Canute Lavard

Daily Saints

Saint Canute Lavard was a Danish prince. Later he was the first Duke of Schleswig and the first border prince who was both a Danish and a German vassal, a position leading towards the historical double position of Southern Jutland.

He grew up in close contact with the noble family of Hvide, who were later on to be among his most eager supporters. In 1115, his uncle, King Niels of Denmark, placed him in charge of the Duchy of Schleswig (jarl af Sønderjylland) in order to put an end to the attacks of the Slavic Obotrites. During the next fifteen years, he fulfilled his duty of establishing peace in the border area so well that he was titled Duke of Holstein (Hertug af Holsten) and became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire.

On 7 January 1131, Canute was trapped in the Haraldsted Forest (Haraldsted Skov) near Ringsted in Zealand and murdered by Magnus.

Sources:

Danmarks Konger. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
"Valdemarstiden 1157-1241". Aarhus University. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canute_Lavard

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Saint Peter of Canterbury

Daily Saints

Saint Peter of Canterbury was a native of Italy, like the other members of the Gregorian mission. Saint Peter became the abbot of the monastery that Æthelberht founded in Canterbury, originally dedicated to the saints Peter and Paul, but later rededicated as St Augustine’s, after the leader of the mission. Bede describes Peter as both abbot and presbyter, a word usually translated as priest.

Saint Peter drowned while crossing the English Channel on the way to Gaul, at a place called Ambleteuse, near Boulogne. Saint Peter’s death has traditionally been dated to around 607, but evidence suggests that he was present at a church council in Paris in 614, so he probably died after that date. He was the first abbot of the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul in Canterbury (later St Augustine’s Abbey) and a companion of Augustine in the Gregorian mission to Kent. Augustine sent Peter as an emissary to Rome around 600 to convey news of the mission to Pope Gregory I.

Sources:

Walsh New Dictionary of Saints p. 482
Hunt "Petrus (St Petrus)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Blair World of Bede p. 87
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_of_Canterbury

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Blessed Pierre de Castelnau

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Saint Felix of Nola

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Saint Hilary of Poitiers

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Saint Tatiana of Rome

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Blessed William Carter

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Saint Gregory of Nyssa

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Saint Adrian of Canterbury

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Saint Pega

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Saint Canute Lavard

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Saint Peter of Canterbury

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