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.