Daily Saints

Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi

Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi was an Italian Theatine Catholic priest, scholar, reformer and cardinal. His scholarship was a significant source of the reforms in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church during the 20th century. He was beatified by Pope Pius VII in 1803, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1986.

His life was oriented toward God from his first years. Formed and educated in the family home, where they did not lack riches or moral training, he gave proofs of a spirit very open to study and to piety. His parents cared greatly for this and for his own Christian formation and his instruction in the classical and modern languages, above all in the Spanish language, because he was destined by the family for the royal court of Madrid, as he was bound to inherit from his own father, as his title of nobility, that of Grandee of Spain.

But Tomasi’s own spirit aspired, even from youth, to be small in the Kingdom of God, and to serve not the kings of the earth but the King of heaven. He cultivated his pious desire in his heart until he obtained the consent of his father to follow his vocation to the religious life.

Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi taught catechism to the children of the poor in his titular church, also introducing its congregants to the use of Gregorian chant. He died in 1713, mourned by all, especially by Pope Clement, who so admired his sanctity that he had consulted him before accepting the papacy. He was buried in his titular church. The relics of his body, transferred in 1971 from the Basilica of his title of Ss. Silvestro e Martini ai Monti, are presently exposed for the veneration of the faithful in the Basilica of San Andrea della Valle of the Theatine Fathers, in Rome.

Sources:

Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Bl. Giuseppe Maria Tommasi". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Biography at The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

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Saint Melania

Daily Saints

Saint Melania was a Christian saint who lived during the reign of Emperor Honorius. She was the only child of the rich and powerful Valerius Publicola and Caeionia Albina. Her relatives from both sides of her family held the highest positions in the state.

At the age of 14, she was arranged to be marriage to Valerius Pinianus. After the early deaths of two children, she and her husband embraced Christian asceticism and maintained a celibate life thereafter. As the sole heiress of her father and paternal grandfather, she inherited their wealth and enormous estates on the death of Publicola after 7 years marriage.

Her dislike of rich apparel which had caused her so much suffering during her father’s life, now led her to give away her silken robes as church altar cloths, her gold ornaments, and everything that was rich and costly in her attire. She wore a garment of coarse wool of the cheapest kind, and fashioned rather to hide and disfigure her beautiful form. She took with her to her villa a great number of poor families and slaves, whom she treated as brothers and sisters.

Melania’s country house afforded hospitality to the pilgrims to Rome, especially numerous deputations of bishops and priests who were received with every mark of honour and respect. She dispensed lavish hospitality and spared no expense in the entertainment of her guests. She decided to dispose of her vast estates and give the proceeds to ecclesiastical institutions and to the poor.

Sources:

Schlitz, Carl (1913). "St. Melania (the Younger)". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Rampolla del Tindaro, Mariano; Leahy, Ellen Mary Agnes; Thurston, Herbert (1908). London : Burns & Oates. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918), Chapter LIV The Elder Melania
Butler, Alban (1962). Butler's lives of the saints. Vol. 4. P.J. Kenedy & Sons. p. 647. OCLC 18475812.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melania_the_Younger

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Saint Egwin

Daily Saints

Born in the seventh century of royal blood, Egwin entered a monastery, and was enthusiastically received by royalty, clergy, and the people as the bishop of Worcester, England. As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and the widowed and a fair judge.

His popularity didn’t hold up among members of the clergy, however. They saw him as overly strict, while he felt he was simply trying to correct abuses and impose appropriate disciplines. Bitter resentments arose, and Egwin made his way to Rome to present his case to Pope Constantine. The case against Egwin was examined and annulled.

Upon his return to England, Egwin founded Evesham Abbey, which became one of the great Benedictine houses of medieval England. It was dedicated to Mary, who had reportedly made it known to Egwin just where a church should be built in her honor.

Egwin died at the abbey on December 30, 717. Following his burial many miracles were attributed to him: The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the sick were healed.

Sources:

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

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3069

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Saint Aileran

Daily Saints

Saint Aileran was one of the most distinguished scholars at the School of Clonard in the 7th century.
His early life is not recorded, but he was attracted to Clonard by the fame of Saint Finnián and his disciples. He became lector of the school in 650. He died of the Yellow Plague, and his death is recorded in the Annals of Ulster. Because of his knowledge of the works of Origen, Philo, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and others, he was well versed in patristic literature.
According to John Colgan, numerous works can be ascribed to Ailerán, including the Fourth Life of Saint Patrick, a Latin litany, and the Lives of Saint Brigid and Saint Féichín of Fore. Ailerán’s best known work is his mystical interpretation of the Ancestry of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the genealogy of Jesus in Saint Matthew’s Gospel. This was published in the Benedictine edition of the Fathers, and the editors said that they published it although Aileran was not a Benedictine, because he unfolded the meaning of the Sacred Scripture with so much learning and ingenuity that every student of the Sacred Volume and especially preachers of the Divine Word will regard the publication as most acceptable.” Another work of his is titled A Short Moral Explanation of the Sacred Names, which could be a fragment of a larger work.

Sources:

Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Aileran." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 20 Sept. 2012
Ailerani Interpretatio Mystica Progenitorum Domini Iesu Christi". Archived from the original on 6 April 2012.
Monasticism in Ireland - History of West Cork". www.libraryireland.com.
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1198

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Saint Anthony the Hermit

Daily Saints

Saint Anthony the Hermit, also referred to as Anthony of Lerins was born in Valeria. When he was eight years old, his father died and he was entrusted to the care of the holy Abbot Severinus of Noricum, in modern-day Austria. Upon the death of Severinus in 482, Anthony was sent to Germany and put in the care of his uncle, Constantius, an early Bishop of Lorsch. While there, Anthony is thought to have become a monk at the age of twenty.
In 488, at about 20 years of age, Anthony moved to Italy to take up an eremitical life with a small group of hermits living on an island in Lake Como. He was eventually joined by numerous disciples seeking to emulate his holiness and he chose to seek greater solitude in Gaul. He lived in various solitary places until two years before his death he became a monk at the Abbey of Lérins, where he became well known locally for the holiness of his life and the miracles he had performed.
Anthony is honoured on 28 December by the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church and commemorated also on that same day by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Sources:

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=146
Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome
Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), p. 689

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Saint John the Evangelist

Daily Saints

It is God who calls; human beings answer. The vocation of John and his brother James is stated very simply in the Gospels, along with that of Peter and his brother Andrew: Jesus called them; they followed. The absoluteness of their response is indicated by the account. James and John “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21b-22).

For the three former fishermen—Peter, James and John—that faith was to be rewarded by a special friendship with Jesus. They alone were privileged to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemane. But John’s friendship was even more special. Tradition assigns to him the Fourth Gospel, although most modern Scripture scholars think it unlikely that the apostle and the evangelist are the same person.
John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom Jesus gave the exquisite honor of caring for his mother, as John stood beneath the cross. “Woman, behold your son…. Behold, your mother” (John 19:26b, 27b).
Because of the depth of his Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring in high regions that other writers did not enter. But the ever-frank Gospels reveal some very human traits. Jesus gave James and John the nickname, “sons of thunder.” John was with Peter when the first great miracle after the Resurrection took place—the cure of the man crippled from birth—which led to their spending the night in jail together. The mysterious experience of the Resurrection is perhaps best contained in the words of Acts: “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they [the questioners] were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
The Apostle John is traditionally considered the author also of three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation. His Gospel is a very personal account. He sees the glorious and divine Jesus already in the incidents of his mortal life. At the Last Supper, John’s Jesus speaks as if he were already in heaven. John’s is the Gospel of Jesus’ glory.

Sources:

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

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=67

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

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Saint Noel Chabanel

Daily Saints

Saint Noel Chabanel was a Jesuit missionary and one of the Canadian martyrs.

Chabanel entered the Jesuit novitiate at Toulouse at the age of seventeen, and was a professor of rhetoric at several Jesuit colleges. He was highly esteemed for virtue and learning. In 1643, he was sent to New France along with Fathers Leonard Garreau and Gabriel Druillettes. Although he studied the Algonquin language for a time, he never made much headway.He was appointed to the mission at Sainte-Marie. In his apostolic labours he was the companion of Fr. Charles Garnier.

As he felt a strong repugnance to the life and habits of the Huron, and feared it might result in him withdrawing from the work, he bound himself by vow never to leave the mission except under obedience. Chabanel was sent to help Charles Garnier among the Petun. One month later, Brébeuf and Lalemant were captured in an Iroquois raid on the St. Louis mission and taken to the nearby mission off St. Ignace where they were killed.

After the deaths of Brébeuf and Lalement, the Jesuits decided to abandon Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and burned the mission rather than risk it being desecrated or taken over by Iroquois. In early December 1649, Chabanel was directed to go to St. Joseph Island.

Chabanel was martyred on December 8, 1649, by what is described as a “renegade” Huron.

Sources:

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=795
Pouliot, Léon (1979) [1966]. "Chabanel, Noël". In Brown, George Williams (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
Campbell, T.J., Pioneer priests of North America, 1642-1710, Vol. 2, Fordham University Press, 1910, p. 367
Spillane, Edward (1908). "Noel Chabanel". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 6 February 2014.

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Saint Eugenia

Daily Saints

Saint Eugenia, also known as Eugenia of Rome, was an early Christian Roman martyr.

Her legend states that she was converted by and martyred with Protus and Hyacinth, her Chamberlains, during the persecution of Valerian. She was said to have been the daughter of Philip, “duke” of Alexandria and governor of Egypt. She had fled her father’s house dressed in men’s clothing and was baptized by Helenus, bishop of Heliopolis. She later became an abbot, still pretending to be a man. As the story goes, while she was an abbot and still dressing like a man, she cured a woman of an illness, and when the woman made sexual advances, which she rebuffed, the woman accused her publicly of adultery. She was taken to court, where, still disguised, she faced her father as the judge. At the trial, her real female identity was revealed and she was exonerated.

Her father converted to the faith and became Bishop of Alexandria but the emperor had him executed for this. Eugenia and her remaining household moved to Rome where she converted many, especially maidens, but this did not prevent their martyrdom. Protus and Hyacinth were beheaded on September 11, 258, and Eugenia followed suit after Christ appeared to her in a dream and told her that she would die on the Feast of the Nativity. She was beheaded on December 25, 258.

Sources:

Commemoration of the Virgin Eugine, her father - Philippus, her mother Klothia and her two servants". Araratian Patriarchal Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 48.

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Saint Tarsilla

Daily Saints

Saint Tarsilla was one of the aunts of Gregory the Great. She is one of the venerated virgin saints of the sixth century.

Saint Tarsilla came from a noble family in ancient Rome. Her brother, Gordian, was a senator and was a very rich patrician. Saint Tarsilla and her two other sisters devoted themselves to a religious life and led a life of virginity, fasting, and prayer. They practiced their faith in their father’s house, located on the Clivus Scauri in Rome. Although one of the sisters later abandoned this calling and is thus not venerated as a saint.

Tradition states that Felix III, an ancestor, appeared to Trasilla and bade her to enter Heaven, and on the eve of Christmas Trasilla died, seeing Jesus Christ beckoning.The legend also states that Trasilla a few days later appeared to Emiliana, inviting her to celebrate Epiphany in heaven.

Sources:

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1912
The Saints Tarsilla and Emiliana of Rome", Diocese of Oslo
Mershman, Francis. "Sts. Trasilla and Emiliana." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 29 May 2016

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Saint John Cantius

Daily Saints

Saint John Cantius was born in Kęty, a small town near Oświęcim, Poland, to Anna and Stanisław Kanty. He attended the Kraków Academy at which he attained bachelor, and licentiate. In 1418 he became a Doctor of Philosophy. Upon graduation he spent the next three years conducting philosophy classes at the university, while preparing for the priesthood.

Upon his ordination, he became rector at the school of the Canons Regular of the Most Holy Sepulcher in Miechow. While there, he was offered a professorship of Sacra Scriptura (Holy Scripture) back at his alma mater, the Kraków Academy. He obtained a doctorate in theology and eventually became director of the theology department. He held the professorship until his death in 1473. Cantius spent many hours copying manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, theological tracts, and other scholarly works.

During his time in Kraków, Cantius became well known in the city for his generosity and compassion toward the poor, especially needy students at the university. He subsisted on what was strictly necessary to sustain his life, giving alms regularly to the poor. He made one pilgrimage to Jerusalem and four pilgrimages on foot to Rome. He died while living in retirement at his alma mater on 24 December 1473, aged 83.

Sources:

The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company
St. John Kanty", Catholic Faith Community of Saint John Cantius, St. Cloud, Minnesota
Patron Saints Index: "Saint John Cantius" Archived 2008-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice 1969), p. 111

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Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi

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Saint Melania

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Saint Egwin

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Saint Aileran

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Saint Anthony the Hermit

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Saint John the Evangelist

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Saint Noel Chabanel

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Saint Eugenia

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Saint Tarsilla

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Saint John Cantius

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