St. Emma of Lesum

Month of Saints - Day 30

For my final Saint post of the month, I am going back a couple of generations to remember my great-grandmother, Emma Alice Ely Trembley.

St. Emma lived in the early 11th century in the city that is now Bremen. She is the earliest female inhabitant of that city to be known by name. She was married and had one son, Imad, consecrated Bishop of Paderborn in 1051. After the early death of her husband, Emma Emma withdrew to the estate of Lesum (now Bremen-B...urglesum) and with her fortune generously supported Bremen Cathedral. She was portrayed as a great benefactress of the church, and indeed founded a number of churches in the Bremen area, although her greatest care was for the poor.

After her death, she was buried in a tomb in Bremen Cathedral. her tomb was opened. Her body had turned to dust exception for her right hand, which she used to give gifts. Her intact hand was sent to the abbey of St. Ludger at Werden.

She was venerated as a saint following her death, but there are no official dates for her beatification or canonization. Her feast is celebrated on either April 19 or December 3.

** Since this is the end of my monthly saint posts, I need to credit my sources - I often copy directly from one or more of these: Wikipedia and http://www.catholic.org/saints/ are my go to websites. I also use books: New Saints and Blesseds of the Catholic Church (mentioned yesterday) and Married Saints and Blesseds Through the Centuries, both by Ferdinand Holbock, and Saints of North America by Vincent J. O'Malley, C.M.

Bl. Karolina Kozka

Month of Saints - Day 29

One of my source books is New Saints and Blesseds of the Catholic Church by Ferdinand Holbock.  Our featured saint today comes from Volume 2.

Blessed Karolina Kozka is sometimes known as the "Maria Goretti of Poland."  She was born in 1898, one of 11 children (sources vary as to whether she was the 4th, 7th or 8th born).  She grew up in a Catholic family that prayed every day and Karolina would pray the rosary almost constantly. She devoted her time to her brothers and sisters, as well as children of neighboring families, giving them religious instruction.

In 1914, World War I broke out in Poland. The Russian army began capturing cities, and in November 1914, they controlled Wal-Ruda, where the Kozkas family lived. On November 18, an armed Russian soldier came to their house, and he ordered Karolina and her father to go with him, saying he was taking them to the commanding officer. At the edge of the forest, the father was ordered to return home.  Once he had the girl alone, the soldier attacked Karolina, attempting to force himself on her. She struggled and refused to give in. Angered, the soldier stabbed her several times with his bayonet. She escaped, running into the swamps where it was difficult for the soldier to follow, but it was too late.  She had lost too much blood and died in the swamps.  It was not until December 4, 16 days later, that her body was found.  Her tomb soon became a place of prayer and veneration for local villagers.

In 1987, Pope St. John Paul II beatified Karolina as a martyr for Christ.  Her feast day is November 18.

St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli

Month of Saints - Day 28

Since I almost forgot to post a saint story today, I thought I would log into Facebook and post a Saint for the first name I saw - that name was my Aunt Ginny.

Saint Virginia Centurione Bracelli was born in Genoa in 1587 in a noble family.  Despite her desire to live a cloistered life, she was forced into marriage to Gaspare Grimaldi Bracelli, who was a rich noble, on 10 December 1602. She had two daughters: Lelia and Isabella. The marriage did not last long, for she became a widow on 13 June 1607 at the age of 20. She refused another arranged marriage brought on due to her father's influence and took up a vow to live a chaste life.

After her husband's death she began charitable works and assisted the poor and the sick. Her ministry was a struggle because of the number of people suffering from famine and plague and declining funds given from the middle and upper classes. Virginia spent much of her life acting as a peacemaker between noble houses and continuing her work for the poor. Bracelli died on 15 December 1651 at the age of 64.

During her canonization process, the remains of Saint Virginia were found to be incorrupt.

St. Francis de Sales

Month of Saints - day . . . well what ever day it is, I seem to have missed a couple.

Today, in honor of the 12 Permanent Deacons ordained for the Diocese of Columbus yesterday, our Saint of the Day is the patron of the diocese.

St. Francis de Sales was born in 1567 into the noble Sales family of the Duchy of Savoy.  He was baptized Francis Bonaventure, after two great Franciscan Saints. His father wanted him, the first of his six sons, to attend the best schools in preparation for a career as a magistrate. To please his father, he took lessons in the gentlemanly pursuits of riding, dancing, and fencing. In 1584 Francis de Sales attended a theological discussion about predestination, convincing him of his damnation to hell. A personal crisis of despair resulted. This despair lasted for two years until he decided to consecrate himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary and dedicate his life to God with a vow of chastity. Sales ultimately concluded that God had good in store for him, because "God is love", as John's First Epistle attests. This faithful devotion to the God of love not only expelled his doubts but also influenced the rest of his life and his teachings.

Francis' father wanted him to become a magistrate and marry a wealthy heiress, but he finally gave in to his son becoming a priest when the Bishop of Geneva intervened and Francis signed  over his rights to the family succession to his younger brother.  Francis was ordained in 1593 and immediately received  promised appointment as provost of the cathedral chapter of Geneva. In his capacity as provost, Francis de Sales, engaged in enthusiastic campaigns of evangelism in an area that had become almost completely Calvinist.

This was during the time of the Protestant reformation and just over the mountains from where Francis lived was Switzerland -- Calvinist territory. Francis decided that he should lead an expedition to convert the 60,000 Calvinists back to Catholicism. But by the time he left his expedition consisted of himself and his cousin. His father refused to give him any aid for this crazy plan and the diocese was too poor to support him.

For three years, he trudged through the countryside, had doors slammed in his face and rocks thrown at him. In the bitter winters, his feet froze so badly they bled as he tramped through the snow. He slept in haylofts if he could, but once he slept in a tree to avoid wolves. He tied himself to a branch to keep from falling out and was so frozen the next morning he had to be cut down. And after three years, his cousin had left him alone and he had not made one convert.

Francis' unusual patience kept him working. No one would listen to him, no one would even open their door. So Francis found a way to get under the door. He wrote out his sermons, copied them by hand, and slipped them under the doors. This is the first record we have of religious tracts being used to communicate with people.

The parents wouldn't come to him out of fear. So Francis went to the children. When the parents saw how kind he was as he played with the children, they began to talk to him.

By the time, Francis left to go home he is said to have converted 40,000 people back to Catholicism.

In 1602, he was made Bishop of Geneva, which was in the midst of Calvinist territory, and therefore closed to him.  He  resided in Annecy (now in modern day France) and only set foot in the city of Geneva twice. In 1604, Francis saw a widow listening closely to his sermon -- a woman he had seen already in a dream. Jane de Chantal was a person on her own, as Francis was, but it was only when they became friends that they began to become saints. Along with Jane, he founded the women's Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.

Francis died of a stroke in 1622.  His feast day is January 24.

Bl. Roger Filcock

Month of Saints - Day 24

I will be leaving soon to spend the weekend with family, so this will be brief (and quoted directly from the Catholic Online website).  But first, a little history lesson:  England at one time was a strongly Catholic country. However, when Henry VIII was unable to have a son with his first wife, he declared himself head of the English Church (breaking away from the Roman Pope) so that he could divorce her. By the time Henry's daughter, Elizabeth, took the throne, the break with Rome was complete and it was illegal to be Catholic in England.  Catholic priests and those who sheltered them were subject to execution.  So this puts the following story in context:

While serving England's persecuted Catholics, the Jesuit Father Roger Filcock became the confessor of the young widow (Saint) Anne Line, who had devoted her life to the sheltering of Catholic priests who were hunted by the Protestant authorities. Arrested in 1600, Father Filcock and the Benedictine priest (Blessed) Mark Barkworth were sentenced to death for their priesthood on February 26, 1601. The next day, as the two were led to their execution, Father Barkworth sang the Easter antiphon, "This is the day the Lord has made," to which Father Filcock replied, "Let us rejoice and be glad." Upon seeing the dead body of Anne Line, executed immediately before them, hanging from the scaffold, Father Barkworth reverently kissed her hand and her dress, saying to the deceased martyr, "You have gotten the start of us, sister, but we will follow you as quickly as we may." After witnessing Father Barkworth's execution, Father Filcock invoked the intercession of his now martyred brother priest before suffering the same fate: "Pray for me to our Lord, whose presence you now enjoy, that I too may faithfully run my course."

Bl. Roger Filcock was executed on February 27, 1601.

St. Dymphna

Month of Saints - Day 23

Yesterday a friend asked me which Saint would I recommend asking the intercession of for a loved one suffering from depression.  I think today, as many of us approach the holiday season with joy, there are many for whom this is a season of loneliness, depression and heartache.  St. Dymphna is the patron Saint of depression - also of mental disorders, neurological disorders, runaways, and victims of incest.

Dymphna was born in Ireland in the 7th century.  Her father, Damon, was a king and a pagan, although her mother was a Christian. At the age of 14, Dymphna consecrated herself to Christ and took a vow of chastity.  Shortly after this, her mother died.  The king was so wrought with grief that his mental health began to deteriorate.  His counselors wanted him to remarry, but he had loved his wife so much that he refused unless a bride could be found that was as beautiful as she had been. When no suitable bride could be found, Damon started to desire his daughter because of the resemblance she had to his late wife.

When Dymphna learned of her father's intentions, she fled along with her priest confessor, a couple of servants and the king's fool.  The fled to the town of Geel in present day Belgium, where Dymphna opened a hospice for the poor and sick of the region.  It was through this use of her wealth that her father was able to trace her.  He found her there and had her priest confessor beheaded.  He tried to force his daughter to return to Ireland with him and when she refused, he drew his sword and cut off her head. She is believed to have been only 15 years old.

In 1349 a church honoring Saint Dymphna was built in Geel. By 1480, so many pilgrims were coming from all over Europe, seeking treatment for the mentally ill, that the church housing for them was expanded. Soon the sanctuary for the mad was again full to overflowing, and the townspeople began taking them into their own homes. Thus began a tradition for the ongoing care of the mentally ill that has endured for over 700 years and is still studied and envied today. Patients were, and still are, taken into the inhabitants of Geel's homes. Never called patients, they are called boarders, and are treated as ordinary and useful members of the town.

St. Dymphna's feast day is May 15.

St. Marguerite d'Youville

Month of Saints - Day 22

Today, we will head to our Northern neighbor.  Saint Marguerite d'Youville was the first native born Canadian to be canonized as a Saint.

Marguerite was born in Varennes, Quebec, in 1701.  Her father died when she was seven and, as the oldest of seven children, she helped to raise her siblings. She attended school for the first time when she entered the Ursuline Sisters Convent School in Quebec at the age of eleven.

At twenty, she married a prosperous businessman. Soon she discovered that her husband's business success consisted of selling liquor illegally to Indians.  He also had political ties from bribing the governor to overlook the illegal sales. Between this and an overbearing mother-in-law, this was not a happy marriage for Marguerite. 

After eight years of marriage, Marguerite was left a widow with two small sons - her four other children died before the age of the two. She opened up a little shop in Montreal where she sold handmade clothes and other accoutrements for the home.  She was able to support herself and her boys, educate the boys (both of whom would become priests) and pay off her husband's substantial debts.

As early as 1730 she began doing volunteer work as a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Family. She gave her time and talent by mending clothes and cleaning rooms at the local hospital. She also took the poor into her home. Three women joined her in this ministry and on December 31, 1737, they consecrated themselves to God to serve the poor.  This was considered the founding of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, known as the "Grey Nuns."

While these women dedicated their lives to serving the poor, some people wondered where they got the money to provide for these unsavory characters.  They wondered if she were still operating the liquor business that her husband had begun. People mocked the sisters by calling them, "les soeurs grises", playing on the word "grise" double meaning: grey and tipsy. Seventeen years later in designing the order's simple habits, Marguerite accepted the name given to the sisters and designed a gray religious habit.

By 1744 the association had become a religious order with a rule and a formal community. In 1747 they were granted a charter to operate the General Hospital of Montreal, which by that time was in ruins and heavily in debt. Marguerite and her fellow workers brought the hospital back into financial security, but the hospital was destroyed by fire in 1765. The order rebuilt the hospital soon after. Five years later, Marguerite suffered a stroke and died just before Christmas.  Her feast day is April 11.

St. Alphonsa

Month of Saints - Day 21

Some have asked how I choose the Saints to post about.  There are many factors that I consider, and one is that I try to balance people from various races and parts of the world, people from different centuries and stations in life and a balance of male and female.

Today's Saint is a modern woman religious from India.  St. Alphonsa was born in 1910 as Annakkutty (little Anna).  Her mother died when she was young and she was raised by her aunt.  In 1923 Anna was badly burned on her feet when she fell into a pit of burning chaff. This accident left her permanently disabled.

While still a teenager, she joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation taking the name Alphonsa.  She took her permanent vows in 1936.  She taught elementary school, but was often sick and unable to teach. She continued to struggle with health issues throughout her life. She died on July 28, 1946. Claims of her miraculous intervention began almost immediately upon her death and often involved the children of the convent school where she used to teach.

She is the first woman of Indian origin to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church, and the first canonised saint of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church of the Saint Thomas Christian community. Her feast day is July 28.

Bl. Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi

Month of Saints - Day 20

Here is another one that you probably have not heard of before - I know I hadn't.

Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi was born in Nigeria in 1903. Before his birth, there had been tensions between the British Royal Niger Company and the native people over an incident involving palm oil (a native staple and the Royal Niger Company's primary export). Many natives were taken hostage, homes were burnt and native property pillaged.  Tansi's father was one of those taken hostage and later released.  He named his son Iwene, meaning 'let malice not kill.' 

Tansi's parents were pagans and poor farmers. They sent their son to a Catholic mission school with the intention of getting him a better education so to bring the family out of poverty and ensure that they could not be taken advantage of by the foreigners again. Michael automatically became a Catholic by being enrolled and taught at the school, and he was baptized in 1913 with the Christian name of Michael. Upon graduating, he became a teacher and taught 1919-1925. He entered the seminary in 1925.

At that time, there was little enthusiasm for Blacks becoming priests in Nigeria. The Bishop, who was Irish, saw that the natives, even after conversion, were still steeped in paganism.  Tansi also received opposition from his family, who had hoped that he would go into business and help them rise out of poverty. Michael, however, heard the call of the God he had learned about in the missionary school and persevered. 

At that time in Nigeria, most parish priests were foreign missionaries who were unwilling to live in the same poverty conditions that native Nigerians endured. As Black priests became more common they often followed the lifestyle of the foreign missionaries. When Michael became a parish priest, he refused to live in this fashion. He built his own home out of traditional materials, ate poorer food than the local people ate and went by bicycle or walked most places - even in tropical rain storms. His lifestyle shocked and amazed the Nigerian Catholics, who were not accustomed to this kind of priest. He became very popular and loved by his parishioners.

While serving in his last parish, in his own hometown of Aguleri from 1949-1950, Michael began to become attracted to the religious life and was asking about becoming a monk. At that time there were no monasteries established in Nigeria, and the bishop was interested in the idea of sending some candidates to a monastery in Europe who would become monks in Europe and later would return to Nigeria to start up the first Nigerian monastery. Michael and others were selected for this project. At the monastery he joined the novitiate and took his vows, later becoming a full monk, taking the name Cyprian after the Roman martyr. Despite fears of being treated with racial prejudice, he was fully accepted by the other monks. He was found not to be very intelligent or educated and had trouble memorizing the psalms which the monks sang every morning at 2am after getting out of bed, and would make up words as he sang along.

He never returned to Nigeria.  Upon his death in 1964, he was buried at the monastery in England, but his body was later moved to Nigeria. His feast day is January 20.

I suggest you visit Wikipedia for the full story as I have limited space to tell it here.

St. Joanna

Month of Saints - Day 19

I'm very with this tonight, so this is going to be brief.  I'm late because I went to the movies with my friend Jo Ann, so this is for her.

Joanna, whose feast day is May 24th, was the wife of Chuza, steward of King Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. She was one of the women who helped provide for Jesus and the Apostles and was one of the three women who discovered the empty tomb of Jesus on the first Easter morning.

St. Lawrence of Rome

Month of Saints - Day 18

Today's Saint come at a very special request and in loving memory of my Uncle Lawrence.  When I first received the request, I thought that I must have already done a post on St. Lawrence, as he is one of my favorite Saints -- but it turns out that I had not.  So this is for all my cousins who are missing their Dad today.

St. Lawrence is believed to have been born in what is now Spain, then the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis, around the year 225.  He encountered the future Pope Sixtus II, a famous and highly esteemed teacher, and the two left Spain for Rome.  When Sixtus became the Pope in 257, he ordained St Lawrence as a deacon, and though Lawrence was still young appointed him first among the seven deacons who served in the patriarchal church. He is therefore called "archdeacon of Rome", a position of great trust that included the care of the treasury and riches of the church and the distribution of alms among the poor.

At the beginning of August 258, Emperor Valerian ordered that all bishops, priests, and deacons should immediately be put to death. Sixtus was captured on August 6, 258, at the cemetery of St Callixtus while celebrating the liturgy and was summarily executed. As he was led to execution, Lawrence followed him weeping, "Father, where are you going without your deacon?" he said. "I am not leaving you, my son," answered the Pope. "in three days you will follow me." After the Pope's death, the prefect of Rome demanded that the Deacon, Lawrence, turn over the riches of the Church as it was the norm that Christians who had been denounced and executed had their goods confiscated by the Imperial treasury. 

A well-known legend has persisted from early on: Lawrence asked for three days to gather together the wealth of the Church.  He then worked swiftly to distribute as much of the Church property to the poor as possible.  On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to give up the treasures of the Church he presented the poor, the crippled, the blind and the suffering, and said these were the true treasures of the Church. This defiance led directly to Lawrence's martyrdom. The prefect was so angry that he had a great gridiron prepared, with coals beneath it, and had Lawrence's body placed on it (hence St Lawrence's association with the gridiron). After the martyr had suffered the pain for a long time, the legend concludes, he made his famous cheerful remark, "Turn me over, I'm done on this side!" From this derives his patronage of cooks, chefs, and comedians. His feast day is August 10.

St. Frumentius

Month of Saints - Day 17

Oh, so many Saints, so little time.  Some days it is so hard to decide which Saint to feature in my post.  Today I have decided to visit Africa, since we have not been there yet this month.

Today's Saint is St. Frumentius, called "Abuna" or "the fa­ther' of Ethiopia.  He was born in Tyre, Lebanon in the early fourth century. As children, Frumentius and his brother were taken by their uncle on a voyage to Ethiopia. When their ship stopped at one of the harbors of the Red Sea, local people massacred the whole crew, sparing the two boys, who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. The two boys soon gained the favour of the king, who raised them to positions of trust. The king freed them shortly before his death, but they stayed on at court to assist the widowed queen in the education of the heir.  Frumentius used his influence to spread Christianity.

Frumentius traveled to Alexandria, where he requested Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, to send a bishop and some priests as missionaries to Ethiopia. By Athanasius' own account, he believed Frumentius to be the most suitable person for the job and consecrated him as bishop, traditionally in the year 328, or according to others, between 340-346. Frumentius returned to Ethiopia, where he erected his episcopal see at Axum, then converted and baptized King Ezana, who built many churches and spread Christianity throughout Ethiopia. The people called Frumentius Kesate Birhan (Revealer of Light) and Abba Salama (Father of Peace).

The Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of Frumentius on December 18, the Eastern Orthodox on November 30, and the Roman Catholic on October 27. Saint Frumentius is venerated on August 1 in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

St. Gerard Majella

Month of Saints - Day 16

Today's Saint was requested by Elizabeth - and I had actually had him on my list as a couple of the ladies in my Bible Study had mentioned him as a favorite also.

St. Gerard Majella was born in Italy in 1726, the youngest of five children.  He joined the Redemptorist order in 1749.  This is the order that was founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori.  Their primary mission is to preach the Word of God to the Poor.  During his life, Gerard was very close to the peasants and other outsiders who lived in the Neapolitan countryside. In his work with the Redemptorist community he was at different times, gardener, sacristan, tailor, porter, cook, carpenter, and clerk of works on the new buildings at Caposele.

The young religious brother was reputed to be a miracle worker. His reported miracles include: restoring life to a boy who had fallen from a high cliff; he blessed the scanty supply of wheat belonging to a poor family, and it lasted until the next harvest; several times he multiplied the bread that he was distributing to the poor. One day he walked across the water to lead a boatload of fishermen through stormy waves to the safety of the shore. He was reputed to have had the gift of bilocation and the ability to read souls.

Of all Gerard's reputed miracles, one in particular stands out to mothers, expectant mothers and those who hope to become pregnant.  A few months before he died, Gerard accidentally dropped his handkerchief while visiting a local family. One of the girls ran after the lay brother to return it.  He told her to keep it, saying, "You may need it someday."  Years later when the girl—now a married woman—was on the verge of losing her life in childbirth, she remembered the words. She asked for the handkerchief to be brought to her. Almost immediately the pain disappeared and she gave birth to a healthy child. This was no small feat in an era when only one out of three pregnancies resulted in a live birth, and word of the miracle spread quickly. Because of this, St. Gerard's intercession is sought for children, unborn children, women in childbirth, mothers, expectant mothers and motherhood. His Feast Day is October 16.

St. Andrew Dung-Lac and the Vietnamese Martyrs

Month of Saints - Day 14 & 15

I have a pretty busy day scheduled for tomorrow and will probably not have time to post, so today I will feature a group of Saints to make up the difference.

On June 19, 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized a group of 117 martyrs who died for the Roman Catholic Faith in Viet Nam in the nineteenth century. The group was made up of ninety-six Vietnamese, eleven Spaniards, and ten French. Eight of the group were bishops, fifty were priests and fifty-nine were lay Catholics.

St. Andrew Dung-Lac, who represents these heroes, was born Trần An Dũng in 1795 to a poor, non-Christian family.  He was taught by a Christian lay catechist and worked in the missions with the priests of the Foreign Mission Society of Paris.  He took the name Andrew (Andre) at his baptism and was ordained a priest on March 15, 1823. During persecution, Andrew Dũng changed his name to Lạc to avoid capture, and thus he is memorialized as Andrew Dũng-Lạc.

The Vatican estimates the number of Vietnamese martyrs at between 130,000 and 300,000. The tortures these individuals underwent are considered by the Vatican to be among the worst in the history of Christian martyrdom. The torturers hacked off limbs joint by joint, tore flesh with red hot tongs, and used drugs to enslave the minds of the victims. Christians at the time were branded on the face with the words "ta dao" (左道, lit. "Left (Sinister) religion") and families and villages which subscribed to Christianity were obliterated.

The letters and example of Théophane Vénard, French Catholic missionary who is numbered among the martyrs, inspired the young Saint Thérèse of Lisieux to volunteer for the Carmelite nunnery at Hanoi, though she ultimately contracted tuberculosis and could not go.  The feast day of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and the Vietnamese Martyrs is November 24.

St. Adelaide

Month of Saints - Day 13

Today, I have decided to return to the Middle Ages for our Saint story.

St. Adelaide was born about 931 in Burgundy.  She shared the lot of many noblewomen of her day, being betrothed by her father at a very young age.  At about the age of 16, she was married to King Lothair of Italy. Lothair died only three years later.  From this short marriage, Adelaide had one daughter, Emma.

Lothair was allegedly poisoned by his rival, Berengar, who then sought to marry Adelaide to his son. When she refused, he had her imprisoned in the fortress of Garda, where she was treated very badly. She was able to escape with the help of her late husband's supporters, and fled to the castle of Canossa.  Berengar then besieged the castle. Adelaide appealed to the German King Otto I (son of St. Matilda, who we heard about a few days ago) for help. 

King Otto marched with an army across the Alps and vanquished Berengar. The King was impressed with Adelaide's beauty and noble character. The two were married on Christmas Day 951. 

As empress and queen, Adelaide had ample opportunity to promote all sorts of good and holy causes. She devoted herself to her husband and showed an interest and understanding of his duties as ruler. The two had four children in addition to Adelaide's daughter from her first marriage.  She also brought to the imperial court two daughters of the hereditary foe of her deceased first husband. Her motherly heart also extended to all who were poor and oppressed. 

Besides her marital and family concerns, St. Adelaide supported the founding of monasteries in Peterlingen, San Salvatore in Pavia and in Selz (Alsace). She is the Patron of abuse victims; brides; empresses; exiles; in-law problems; parenthood; parents of large families; princesses; prisoners; second marriages; step-parents; widows. Her feast day is Dec. 16.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

Month of Saints - Day  12

I normally limit my daily Saint posts to those individuals who have been canonized or beatified by the Catholic Church - and God knows there are enough of those to keep me busy for a good long while.  However, this man's story is so inspiring that I have chosen to make an exception.

Pierre Toussaint was declared Venerable by Pope St. John Paul II in 1996 - his cause for canonization continues to be investigated by the Archdiocese of Ney York.

Pierre was born into slavery in the colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in 1766. He was educated as a child by his owner's tutors and trained as a house slave.  He was brought to New York City in 1787, and apprenticed to one of the city's leading hair dressers.  When his master died while on a visit to Haiti, Pierre voluntarily took on the support of his widowed mistress. She in turn allowed him to keep much of his earnings as a hairdresser and arranged for his emancipation upon her death. He was freed at the age of 45.  He took on the surname of 'Toussaint ' in honor of the hero of the Haitian Revolution which established that nation.

In 1811, Pierre married Juliette Noel, a slave 20 years younger than himself, after purchasing her freedom. When Pierre's sister died, they adopted her daughter, raising her as their own and providing for her education and music classes.  Together the Toussaints began a career of charity among the poor of New York.  They took baked goods to the Orphan Asylum and donated money to its operation.  They also sheltered orphans in their own hope and took in boys to foster, educate and help find employment. They also organized a credit bureau, an employment agency, and a refuge for priests and destitute travelers. Many Haitian refugees went to New York, and because Toussaint spoke both French and English, he frequently helped the new immigrants.

Toussaint also helped raise money to build a new Roman Catholic church in New York, which became Old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street. He was a benefactor of the first New York City Catholic school for Black children at St. Vincent de Paul on Canal Street.  Pierre died at the age of 87 and was buried in the cemetery of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral along side his wife and adopted daughter, who had preceded him in death. 

St. Jose Sanchez del Rio

Month of Saints - Day 11

For Veteran's Day, I like to choose one of the Patron Saints of the Military, but I think I have covered most of the well known ones over the last few years.  So today, I chose a recently canonized Saint with a tragic military connection.

St. Jose Sanchez del Rio was only 13 years old when the Christero War broke out in Mexico.  (The Cristero War began when the government began eliminating church privileges and seizing church properties throughout the country,) Jose's brothers joined the rebel forces, but his mother would not allow him to take part. The rebel general, Prudencio Mendoza, also refused his enlistment. The boy insisted that he wanted the chance to give his life for Christ and so come to heaven more easily.  The general finally relented and Jose became the flag bearer for the troop.

During heavy fighting, the general's horse was killed and Jose gave him his own horse so that he could continue fighting.  Jose sought cover, but was eventually captured and imprisoned in the sacristy of a local church. The government forces ordered him to denounce his faith in Christ, or face death.  He refused to accept apostasy.  To break his resolve, he was made to watch the hanging of another Cristero that they had in custody, but instead José encouraged the man, saying that they would soon meet again in Heaven after death. Jose prayed the rosary daily and wrote to his mother that he was ready to fulfill the will of God.

Failing to break the young Christer's resolve, on the evening of February 10, 1928, his captors cut the bottom of his feet and made him walk around town toward the cemetery.  They also cut him several times with a machete until he was bleeding from several wounds. At times they stopped him and said, 'If you shout, "Death to Christ the King" we will spare your life'. José would only shout, 'I will never give in. Viva Cristo Rey!'" When they reached the place of execution, his captors stabbed him numerous times with bayonets. The commander was so furious that he pulled out his pistol and shot José in the head.

Moments before his death, the boy drew a cross in the dirt and kissed it.  St. Jose Sanchez del Rio was canonized by Pope Francis on October 16, 2016.  His feast day is February 10.

St. Matilda

Month of Saints - Day 10

Since it is late and I am tired, I'm going to try to keep this brief tonight.  With that in mind, I have chosen for reflection a medieval Saint because we tend to know less about them.

St. Matilda was the wife of King Henry I of Germany. She was the daughter of a Count and had received the best possible education in a convent where her Grandmother (also named Matilda) was Abbess.  Matilda and Henry had five children, Otto (who later became King Otto I, the great), Gerberga (whose second husband was King Louis IV of France), Hedwig, Henry (later the Duke of Bavaria) and Bruno (later archbishop of Cologne). When her husband died after 23 years of marriage, Matilda begged her children to practice fear of the Lord, fidelity to the commandments and to maintain harmony and peace among themselves.  Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Matilda favored her younger son for succession to his father's throne, which caused a rift between the brothers - to the point that Henry started an armed uprising against his brother.  The queen-mother had to do a severe penance for favoring the younger son, and she said many prayers and shed many tears before succeeding in reconciling the brothers.  Not long after this, the two sons turned on their mother, accusing her of wasting her possessions on unworthy individuals.  She was forced out of the royal court and fled to a convent.  The family eventually reconciled and Matilda was returned to the court where she again devoted herself to works of charity and piety.

Matilda is the patron of parents of large families (although, by my standards, 5 children does not a "large family" make).  Her feast day is March 14.

St. Kunegunda

Month of Saints - Day 9

Today I have chosen to feature St. Kunegunda (alternate spelling Cunegund - also known as St. Kinga) just because I like her name.

The Hungarian royal family of the thirteenth century was a family of Saints.  St. Knuegunda was the daughter of King Bela IV, King of Hungary, whose sister was St. Elizabeth of Hungary (my confirmation Saint).  Other saintly relatives include St. Hedwig and St. Agnes of Prague, Blessed Jolents (Yolanda) and Blessed Margaret were sisters of St. Kunegunda; St. Elizabeth (Isabella) of Portugal and Blessed Salomea were her nieces.

At about the age of 14, Kunegunda was married to Boleslaus V, prince of Krakow and later of Poland. Tradition is that the spouses practiced a Josephite marriage- living together for 40 years as chaste virgins. Having no natural children, Kunegunda was a mother to her people, caring for the poor, the sick and the oppressed.

At the death of her husband in 1279, Kunegunda refused to take over the regency.  She instead founded a Poor Clare monastery in Stary Sacz and lived there as a guest for eight years before joining as a sister.  In the monastery, she was known for her humility, carrying out the lowliest tasks.  Her cloistered life lasted 13 years before her death. Her feast day is July 24.

St. Thomas More

Month of Saints - Day 8

As we await election results tonight (no, I'm not watching), I thought that we need to pray for all politicians - winners and losers. So today's Saint is the patron of Politicians.

St. Thomas More was born in London in 1478.  His father was His father was a lawyer and judge who rose to prominence during the reign of Edward IV - his connections and wealth would help his son rise in station as a young man.  In 1490, Thomas became a household page to John Morton, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England. Archbishop Morton was a Renaissance man and inspired Thomas to pursue his own education. He studied at Oxford and became a lawyer.

Thomas also considered a vocation as a Carthusian Monk, but ended up choosing the secular life. He was elected to Parliament in 1504.  He was also a loving husband and doting father, insisting that his daughters receive the same education as his son.

From 1517 on, Henry VIII took a liking to Thomas More, and gave him posts of ever increasing responsibility. In 1521, he was knighted and made Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer. More became Lord Chancellor in 1529 and prosecuted those accused of heresy and worked tirelessly to defend the Catholic faith in England. When the King sought to annul his marriage to Catherine, More refused to sign a letter to the Pope requesting the annulment.

Thomas More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Bolyen, offending his former patron.  Henry had charges trumped up against him.  Through arrest, imprisonment, trial and execution, he maintained his defense of the faith and refusal to acknowledge the king as the head of the church.

His feast day is June 22.

Bl. Peter To Rot

Month of Saints - Day 7

For today's Saint, I have decided to head out to another part of the world - New Guinea.

Blessed Peter To Rot was born in 1912 on the island of New Pomerania - now part of Papua New Guinea. Peter was the third of six children. His parents had become Catholic Christians in 1898.  Although education was not obligatory, Peter was sent to the mission school at the age of 7.  At 18, he began a three year course of study at Saint Paul's College of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Taliligap, after which he was commissioned as a catechist for the parish of Rakunai in 1933.

When Japanese forces occupied New Guinea in 1942, they interred foreign missionaries.  The Parish Priest left To Rot in charge of his parish - he became the acting leader of the parish.  The Japanese restricted religious services, then banned them all together. To Rot continued to hold services secretly until he was denounced by a native policeman who wanted to take a second wife, which was opposed by To Rot as contrary to Catholic teaching.

Peter To Rot was imprisoned for his opposition to bigamy.  He was later poisoned - he was just 33 years old and left a pregnant wife and two children.  He was buried in the church cemetery in a silent funeral as the people were afraid to violate the Japanese ban on public prayer.  His tomb soon became a place of pilgrimage.

Bl. Peter To Rot was named one of the Patron Saints of World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008.  His feast day is July 7.

St. Patricia

Month of Saints - Day 6

Today's Saint is in honor of my cousin, Gloria Patricia.  As you probably know, there is no St. Gloria, but in consolation, we do sing your name at most every Sunday Mass -- except in Advent and Lent, of course.  As for Patricia - I'm sure Aunt Val knows what she is talking about when she says that she named you in honor of St. Patrick.  I think that most parents who name their daughters Patricia have Patrick in mind when they do . . . possibly because they do not know that there is a St. Patricia who lived centuries before her male counterpart.

St. Patricia lived in the seventh century.  Tradition says that she was of noble, or perhaps even royal, family in Constantinople. She fled to Rome to escape marriage and became a consecrated virgin. She returned to Constantinople and distributed her wealth to the poor.  She returned to Italy and shortly after died in Naples. She is a patron of Naples, and like St. Januarius there, a vial believed to be filled with her blood reportedly liquefies thirteen hundred years after her death.

Her feast day is August 25. 

St. Mother Theodore Guerin

Month of Saints - Day 5

Today's Saint is for Aunt Ginny and my Indiana cousins.

St. Mother Theodore Guerin was the foundress of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana.  She was born during the French Revolution and baptized Anne-Therese.  Most of her Catholic elementary education was done at home as the revolution had forced churches and schools to close. She was allowed to receive her First Communion at the age of 10, which was two years earlier than was customary at the time.  On the day of her First Communion, she confided to the priest that it was her desire to enter religious life.

Anne-Therese's father died when she was 15, leaving her mother in a deep depression.  Anne-Therese accepted the responsibility of caring for her mother and younger sister as well as the family home and garden.  It wasn't until she was 25 that she was able to fulfill her desire to join the Sisters of Providence of Ruille-sur-Loir. When she pronounced her vows and received her habit, she was given the name Sister St. Theodore.

In 1839, the first Bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes, IN, sent one of his priests to France to recruit sisters to work in the American frontier. Sister Theodore, two other professed sisters and two novices accepted the assignment. They sailed to New York City, traveled by train through Philadelphia to Frederick, MD, where they transferred to a stagecoach, which carried them through the Cumberland Pass to Wheeling. At the Ohio River, they caught a steamboat to Madison, IN, then another boat to Evansville. The sisters continued by stagecoach to Terre Haute, crossed the Wabash River by ferry and arrived at their wilderness destination of St. Mary-of-the-Woods on Oct. 22, 1840. Within a few years,  the sisters had opened schools in St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Jasper, Terre Haute and Ft. Wayne Indiana and St. Francisville, IL.

Despite tribulations, Mother Guerin's congregation grew rapidly during the 16 years of her service in the U.S. She dies in 1856 and was canonized in 2006.  Her feast day is Oct 6.

Bl. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Santiago

Month of Saints - Day 4

Since our first three Saints this month were European, I think it is time to cross the pond.  Today I remember my friend Luis, who moved back to PR a few months ago -- this one is for you Lu.

When he is canonized, Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Santiago will be Puerto Rico's first native saint.  Carlos Manuel (Charlie) was born less than 100 years ago on Nov. 22, 1918.  He was the second of five brothers and sisters. Two of his sisters married, while another is a Carmelite nun. His only brother, José (Pepe) Rodriguez is a Benedictine monk and the first Puerto Rican to become abbot of his monastery.

Charlie lived a profound Christian life as a lay person. He himself was enlightened, and he passed on the light of the Paschal Vigil to many others. He zealously promoted a renewal of the Catholic liturgy among bishops, clergy and laymen. He professed extreme devotion to the liturgy and worked to repair the loss of liturgical customs that had been abandoned over generations. He advocated for active participation of the laity in prayer, the use of the vernacular and – most especially – the observance of his much loved Paschal Vigil in its proper nighttime setting. His physical strength declined gradually, but his spirit never failed. Rodríguez died at the age of 44 of colorectal cancer on July 13, 1963.

St. Gianna Molla

Month of Saints - Day 3
Natasha made a request for a saint story, So today, I am switching gears and zooming into the twentieth century with the story of a modern Saint.

St. Gianna was born in Italy in 1922, the tenth of thirteen children. She studied medicine in Milan and, after receiving her diploma, opened her own medical practice where she specialized in pediatrics. She met Peitro Molla in December 1954 and they were married in September of the following year. By 1961, the couple had three children, Gianna had suffered two miscarriages and was pregnant again.

During the second month of this latest pregnancy, Gianna developed a fibroma on her uterus. After examination, the doctors gave her three choices: an abortion, which would save her life and allow her to continue to have children; a complete hysterectomy, which would preserve her life, but take the unborn child's life, and prevent further pregnancy; or removal of only the fibroma, with the potential of further complications. Roman Catholic teaching would have allowed her to obtain a hysterectomy, but would forbid an abortion. Wanting to preserve her child's life, she opted for the removal of the fibroma. After the operation, she continued to experience complications throughout her pregnancy. Gianna made her wishes clear to her family - if a difficult delivery made a decision necessary between saving her life or that of her child, she wanted them to save the baby.

On Good Friday, 1962 (April 21), Gianna went to the hospital where her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, was successfully delivered via cesarean section. However, Gianna continued to have severe pain, and died of septic peritonitis 7 days after the birth.

St. Gianna is the Patron Saint of mothers, physicians, preborn children.  Her feast day is April 28.