Bishop of Antioch in Syria, the See founded by St. Peter, St. Ignatius is one of the finest examples of a bishop in the early Church. Condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts and sent to Rome in chains, he wrote on his journey magnificent letters in which his great love for Christ and…
This feast celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the temple and the Purification of our Lady, forty days after the birth of our Savior; it belongs to the Christmas season. The Purification is a festival of light. The procession, in which the blessed candles are carried by clergy and faithful, recalls by its symbolism the…
Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, St. Blaise was put to death under Licinius in 316. In the holy wars his relics were dispersed over the West, and his veneration was propagated by many miraculous cures, especially of sore throats. He is the principal patron of the commonwealth of Ragusa. No other reason than the great…
A young Florentine of the noble Corsini family, St. Andrew was converted from a sinful life and led to eminent sanctity by divine grace. He joined the Carmelite Order and soon became prior of the monastery at Florence and Provincial of Tuscany. Elected Bishop of Fiesole, despite his unwillingness, he continued as a bishop his…
In Catania, Sicily, St. Agatha, having been consecrated to God from her early years, was martyred. Quintianus, a man of consular dignity who lusted after her caused her to be apprehended and brought before him. Seeing herself in the hands of the persecutors, she made this prayer: “Jesus Christ, Lord of all things, you see…
Born a gentile, St. Titus seems to have been converted by St. Paul, who calls him his son in Christ. His extraordinary virtue and merit gained him the particular esteem and affection of this apostle; for we find him employed as his secretary and interpreter; and he styles him his brother, and co-partner in his…
St. Romuald of the family of the dukes of Ravenna was brought up in the maxims of the world. In softness and the love of pleasure, he grew every day more and more enslaved to his passions: yet he often made a resolution of undertaking something remarkable for the honor of God. His father, Sergius,…
From Provence, St. John of Matha was ordained priest in Paris and retired to a solitary life conscious that God was calling him to a special mission. He spent three years in prayer and recollection and then founded the Trinitarian Order for the ransom of Christians held by the Mohammedans. A great number of houses…
Patriarch of Alexandria, St. Cyril, one of the metropolitan sees of the Christian Church in the East, was one of the great defenders of the faith against the heresy of Nestorius who denied the oneness of person in Jesus Christ. At the Council of Ephesus in 431, over which he presided in the Pope’s name,…
The sister of St. Benedict, St. Scholastica consecrated herself to God as a virgin and lived not far from the monastery of Monte Cassino founded by her brother. In one of their annual visits together, St. Benedict refused to prolong the spiritual conversation which each year he allowed his sister in spite of St. Scholastica’s…
