Born at Alexandria in Egypt of wealthy Macedonian parents, St. Syncletica consecrated her virginity to God at a tender age. Mortification and prayer were her principal employment. The fame of her virtue being spread abroad, many women resorted to her abode to confer with her upon spiritual matters. Her humility made her unwilling to take…
Epiphany means manifestation. What the Church celebrates today is the manifestation of Our Lord to the whole world; after being made known to the shepherds of Bethlehem He is revealed to the Magi who have come from the east to adore Him. All Christian tradition has ever seen in the Magi the first fruits of…
St. Amalberge, mother of this saint, was niece to Pepin, mayor of the palace. Gudula was educated at Nivelle, under the care of St. Gertrude, her cousin and god-mother; after whose death in 664, she returned to the house of count Witger, her father, and having by vow consecrated her virginity to God, led there…
According to their acts, and the ancient Martyrologies, though engaged in a married state, they by mutual consent lived in perpetual chastity, sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life, and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick; for this purpose they converted their house into a kind of…
Agatho, a Sicilian by birth was remarkable for his charity and benevolence, a profound humility and an engaging sweetness of temper. Having been several years treasurer of the church of Rome, he succeeded Domnus in the pontificate in 679. He presided in the sixth general council which ruled against the Monothelite heresy, “Acknowledged,” says he,…
During the four years of his pontificate (138-142), St. Hyginus, successor to St. Telesphorus as Pope, opposed the heresy of Valentinus who at this period came to propagate his errors in the heart of the Christian community in Rome. He also fought the heresy of Cerdo with excommunication, twice, the second after a false repentance.
During the reign of Valerian or Diocletian, St. Arcadius was condemned to death by cutting off his limbs joint by joint. Arcadius, with a joyful countenance, surveying his scattered limbs all around him, and offering them to God said, “Happy members, now dear to me, as you at last truly belong to God, being all…
Epiphany, the manifestation of the Lord: guided by this thought the East has made the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist the central theme of its feast on January 6, the voice of the Father, the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, the testimony of John, all constituting the…
Bishop of Poitiers in the fourth century, St. Hilary was one of the great champions of Catholic belief in the divinity of Christ. By his preaching, his treatise on the Trinity, his part in the Councils, his daring opposition to the Emperor Constantius, he showed himself a courageous apostle of the truth. He could not…
It was from St. Jerome (420) that the west learnt of the life of St. Paul; the book which he devoted to the life of the first Christian hermit charmed and instructed generations of the faithful and formed the inspiration of many artists. St. Paul is said to have died in 341, in a hermitage…
