Daily Saints

Our Lady of the Rosary

Instituted by Pope St. Pius V to give thanks for their victory at the battle of Lepanto in the 1570s. They attributed their victory to the rosary and the feast actually is a reminder of all the countless blessing bestowed upon the people through the Rosary of our Blessed Virgin Mary.

It was initially a practice developed as an imitation of 150 Psalms, by praying 150 our Fathers. There was also a practice of praying 150 Hail Marys. Then at some point, the mystery of the life of Jesus was added to each of the Hail Mary. According to legend, Mary gave the rosary to Saint Dominic. Although a legend, the development of the prayer form of the rosary can be attributed to the followers of Saint Dominic. One of the followers was even known as the “apostle of the rosary”, Alan de la Roche. He was the one who founded the first Confraternity of the Rosary. By 16th century, the rosary has already transformed into the form that we now use.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/our-lady-of-the-rosary

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2021-10-07

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Saint Bruno

Daily Saints

Born in Cologne, Germany in 1030. He became a famous teacher at Rheims and at the age of 45, he became the chancellor of the archdiocese. He took part in the fight against the decadence of the clergy and denounce the violent Archbishop Manasses de Gournai. He also founded the religious order, Carthusian Order, which symbolizes his passionate love of a life in penitence and solitude.

He always had a dream of living a life of hermitage, a life in solitary and in prayer. He was given a land by his friend which eventually became his foundation “in the Chartreuse”. He and his friends stayed there in individual cells, spending most of their time in solitude and only eating together during feasts. They mostly worked on copying manuscripts.

In 1674, Pope Clement X extended St. Bruno’s feast to the whole church despite never being officially canonized.

Sources:

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

https://catholicreadings.org/saint-bruno-of-cologne/

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St. Maria Faustina Kowalska

Daily Saints

Third among 10 children, Faustina Kowalska was born on August 25, 1905 in Poland. Her birth name was Helena Kowalska. They were poor peasants, her father was a farmer and carpenter. At a young age of seven, she already felt the call to religious life. However, even after receiving her basic education, she was not permitted by her parents to join the convent.

At the age of 16, she started working as a housekeeper to support herself and her family. It was during this time that she received the Sacrament of Confirmation. When she was 19 years old, she received a vision instructing her to join the convent in Warsaw. She went to Warsaw without the permission of her parents and started looking for convents. She had a hard time finding a convent that would accept her due to her poverty. She finally found a convent that accepted her, the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. The convent allowed her to stay as long as she worked as a housemaid to earn her keep. In 1926, she was officially admitted to the convent and finally clothed in the habit. After completing her novitiate in 1928, she took her first religious vows. Her parents were present when took her vows.

On February 22, 1931, she received a vision of the Divine Mercy of Jesus. From then on, she devoted her work to spreading the image of the Divine Mercy along with the signature “Jesus, I trust in you”.

In 1938, her health started deteriorating and she returned home to Krakow. She died on October 5th of that year. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1993. She was then canonized on April 30, 2000.

Sources:

https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/stfaustina/bio

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St. Francis of Assisi

Daily Saints

Believed to be born around 1181-1182, St. Francis of Assisi was initially baptized as Giovanni but was then renamed as Francesco. He was born into a well-to-do family– his father was a merchant and his mother was believed to be part of a French noble family. He grew up to be a popular young noble with his lavish lifestyle and exuberant personality. He was not very studious as a child and even when he grew up he did not show any interest in his father’s business. Instead he wanted to be a knight. In 1202, he joined the men of Assisi in the war between Assisi and Perugia where they were defeated. He was captured and taken in as a prisoner for almost a year. St. Francis fell ill due to the miserable conditions in the prison.

St. Francis had many episodes of receiving visions but there were two visions that were notable. These visions, among others, led him to embrace a life of poverty. He renounced all worldly possessions and dedicated himself to repairing and refurbishing churches. He listened to mass and preached to townspeople. He attracted followers and started leading a group of 12 disciples. They went to Rome to seek the approval of Pope Innocent III to recognize his order. On April 12, 1210, Pope Innocent III gave his oral approval of the Franciscan rule of life. This marked the official founding of the Franciscan order.

St. Francis became totally blind later on in his life. He was also in constant pain brought on by the stigmata. He died on October 3, 1226 at the age of 44 in Assisi, Italy. Only two years after his death, he was already canonized as a saint on July 16, 1228 by his former protector Pope Gregory IX.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Francis-of-Assisi/Franciss-vision-and-the-stigmata-of-the-Crucified

https://www.biography.com/religious-figure/saint-francis-of-assisi

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

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Saint Theodore Guerin

Daily Saints

Anne-Thérèse Guérin, known as St. Theodora, was born on October 2, 1978 in Estables, France. St. Theodora exuded piousness at a young age. Even as a child, she loved prayers. She already knew that her vocation was to become a nun. However, life circumstances did not allow her to pursue her path to becoming a nun immediately. The loss of her two siblings, and then later on her father, took a toll on her mother. St. Theodora had to take care of her mother and her remaining sisters. She had take on the responsibility of managing their household. When she turned 25, she finally received her mother’s consent to leave home and pursue her religious path. She joined the Sisters of Providence who took care of the poor, sick, and the dying. They also served God through educating children.

In 1840, St. Theodora was tasked to lead a group of missionary sisters in the United States of America to establish her order there. She pushed through with her journey despite her fragile health and crossed the Atlantic until she reached St. Mary of the Woods. When they arrived, St. Mary of the Woods was only a tiny log chapel. But St. Theodora and her band of missionary sisters persevered through extreme hardships while serving in the mission. In less than a year after they arrived, St. Theodora was able to open the first Catholic women’s Liberal Arts college in the United States. St. Mary of the Woods College is still active until today. She died on May 14, 1856 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998. In 2006, she was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.

Sources:

https://www.saintsfeastfamily.com/copy-of-st-theodore-guerin-oct-3

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Blessed Antoine Chevrier T.O.S.F.

Daily Saints

At a young age of 14, Blessed Antoine Chevrier had already realized that he wanted to be a priest. He started his studies for priesthood at 17 and was ordained on May 25, 1850 by Cardinal Louis Jacques Maurice de Bonald. He was sent to Saint-André de la Guillotière, where the poorest of Lyon resides, as an assistant priest. There he dedicated himself to helping the poor.

On Christmas Eve of 1856, as he was meditating before the Nativity creche, he was enlightened on his true mission. His calling is to not just help the poor by himself alone but to organize a religious congregation that is for the poor. He consulted with St. John Marie Vianney regarding this matter. Saint John Marie Vianney encouraged him to follow his true mission. A year after, he was permitted to leave the parish to follow his calling. He met with layman Camille Rambaud in June 1857 and he began working with and sheltering children that were poor, abandoned, sent to prison, and those that were working factories.

He also played a part in quelling the civil unrest between Lyon and Paris in 1871. The parade of the Eucharist in celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi went undisrupted by either side of the conflict.

Sources:

https://anastpaul.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/antoine-chevrier-6f27e38e-448d-4ae9-b85c-6b35cbe8020-resize-750.jpeg?w=840

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Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

Daily Saints

Born on January 2, 1873, Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin was the youngest of nine children. She was well-loved and had an idyllic childhood. However, loss came to her at a tender age of four when her mother died of breast cancer.

Brought up in a deeply religious home, St. Therese’s piousness and piety developed at an early age. Her mother wanted to be a saint and her father had wanted to be a monk before they got married. Four of her elder sisters became nuns. St. Therese herself entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux when she turned 15.

Life in the Carmelite convent consisted of prayers and rigorous domestic work. Despite her frail health, St. Therese persevered. She said that she came to the Carmel convent “to save souls and pray for priests.” She faced judgment and was the subject of gossip at times while she was in the convent. These did not deter her, instead she responded to these criticisms with the attitude of love. Her doctrine of the Little Way became known. She practiced her philosophy that what is important is not doing what is great but doing little things with the power of love.

St. Therese, also known as the Little Flower of Jesus, died of tuberculosis on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925. She was the youngest and one of only three females to be declared as Doctors of the Catholic Church.

Sources:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CXBU1iaPUAM/maxresdefault.jpg

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Saint Jerome

Daily Saints

Saint Jerome is particularly important for having made a translation of the Bible which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the most critical edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church was fortunate. As a modern scholar says, “No man before Jerome or among his contemporaries and very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well qualified to do the work.” The Council of Trent called for a new and corrected edition of the Vulgate, and declared it the authentic text to be used in the Church. After these preparatory studies, he traveled extensively in Palestine, marking each spot of Christ’s life with an outpouring of devotion. Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the desert of Chalcis so that he might give himself up to prayer, penance, and study. Finally, he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave believed to have been the birthplace of Christ. Jerome died in Bethlehem, and the remains of his body now lie buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

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Saints Michael, Gabriel, Raphael

Daily Saints

Angels—messengers from God—appear frequently in Scripture, but only Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are named.

Michael appears in Daniel’s vision as “the great prince” who defends Israel against its enemies; in the Book of Revelation, he leads God’s armies to final victory over the forces of evil. Devotion to Michael is the oldest angelic devotion, rising in the East in the fourth century. The Church in the West began to observe a feast honoring Michael and the angels in the fifth century.

Gabriel also makes an appearance in Daniel’s visions, announcing Michael’s role in God’s plan. His best-known appearance is an encounter with a young Jewish girl named Mary, who consents to bear the Messiah.

Raphael’s activity is confined to the Old Testament story of Tobit. There he appears to guide Tobit’s son Tobiah through a series of fantastic adventures which lead to a threefold happy ending: Tobiah’s marriage to Sarah, the healing of Tobit’s blindness, and the restoration of the family fortune.
The memorials of Gabriel and Raphael were added to the Roman calendar in 1921. The 1970 revision of the calendar joined their individual feasts to Michael’s.

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Saint Lorenzo Ruiz

Daily Saints

Lorenzo was born in Manila of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother, both Christians. Thus he learned Chinese and Tagalog from them, and Spanish from the Dominicans whom he served as altar boy and sacristan. He became a professional calligrapher, transcribing documents in beautiful penmanship. He was a full member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary under Dominican auspices. He married and had two sons and a daughter. He joined a Dominican missionary expedition in Japan in order to escape arrest for a crime of which he was accused. He was arrested by the Japanese authorities in Nagasaki, tortures and executed in September 1637. It was said that during his last moments, he uttered these lines to their executioners,

“I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God.Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him, shall I offer.”

In 1987, Pope John Paul II canonized these six and 10 others: Asians and Europeans, men and women, who spread the faith in the Philippines, Formosa, and Japan. Lorenzo Ruiz is the first canonized Filipino martyr.

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Our Lady of the Rosary

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Saint Bruno

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St. Maria Faustina Kowalska

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St. Francis of Assisi

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Saint Theodore Guerin

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Blessed Antoine Chevrier T.O.S.F.

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Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

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Saint Jerome

Saints Michael, Gabriel, Raphael

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz

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