Category: SAINT of the DAY

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Saint of the Day – 27 September – Blessed Delphine of Glandèves

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Blessed Delphine, also known as Delphina, was born in 1284 in region of Provence, now part of France. She died on 26 November 1358, having lived as a Franciscan tertiary for most of her life. Delphine was the daughter and heiress of the Count of Puy-Michel. Left an orphan in her infancy, she was placed under the guardianship of her uncles, and was brought up under the direction of her aunt, who was the abbess of the Convent of St. Catherine of Sorps, at Bauduen. As a young girl, she took a vow of virginity.

Reliquaries of St. Elzéar and Bl. Delphine
in the Franciscan church of Ansouis, France

Despite her vow, at the age of twelve she was espoused to the ten-year-old Elzéar, Count of Sabran. They were married three years later at the castle of Puy-Michel. Having grown up together, they regarded each other as brother and sister, rather than husband and wife. Inspired by her example, her husband also took a vow of celibacy, which both honored throughout their married life.

Elzear took his place as a trusted aide at the court in Aix-en-Provence. The couple, having both received the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, lived together at their castle in Ansouis in the practice of prayer, penance and charity towards the poor. After seven years, they moved to Puy-Michel. When Elzear had to go to Naples to see to some inherited property, they kept up a regular correspondence.

Elzear died on an errand to Paris in the interests of the king. Delphina wept bitterly when she heard the news. Nevertheless she prayed:

“My God, may Thy most holy will be done!”

Urged by the spirit of God toward still greater perfection, Blessed Delphina presently renounced all temporal goods and added to her vow of chastity the vow of holy poverty and retired first to Naples and then to Cabrières, which was the location of the castle where her husband had born. She finally returned to Apt where her husband had been buried. Upon her death, she was buried with him in the church of the Friars Minor there, wearing the habit of the Order.

The veneration that had begun to be given to Delphine was confirmed by Pope Urban V, godson of Elzéar, who canonized her husband at that time.

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Saint of the Day – 26 September – Saint Gideon the Judge

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Saint Gideon (‘destroyer; mighty warrior; feller of trees’) also known as Gedeon, Jerobaal, Jerubebbeth, Jerub-Baal, was an eleventh century BC Judge of Israel as well as military leader, and prophet. His calling and victory over the Midianites is described in Judges 6–8. Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiezrite clan in the tribe of Manasseh, and lived in Ephra.

And an angel of the Lord came, and sat under an oak, that was in Ephra, and belonged to Joas the father of the family of Ezri. And when Gedeon his son was threshing and cleansing wheat by the winepress, to flee from Madian, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said: The Lord is with thee, O most valiant of men.

Judges 6:11-13

During the night, God instructed Gideon to approach the Midianite camp. There, Gideon overheard a Midianite man tell a friend of a dream in which “a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian”, causing their tent or camp to collapse. This was interpreted as meaning that God had given the Midianites over to Gideon. Gideon returned to the Israelite camp and gave each of his men a shofar and a clay jar with a torch hidden inside. Divided into three companies, Gideon and his 300 men marched on the enemy camp. He instructed them to blow the trumpet, give a battle cry and light torches, simulating an attack by a large force. As they did so, the Midianite army fled.

Gideon Chooses 300 Soldiers

Gideon sent messengers ahead into Israel calling for the Ephraimites to pursue the retreating Midianites and two of their leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. Gideon and the three hundred pursued Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings. When he had asked for provisions in his pursuit, the men of Succoth and Peniel refused and taunted Gideon. After capturing the two kings, Gideon punished the men of Succoth, and pulled down the tower of Peniel killing all the men there. Gideon invited his eldest son, Jether, to slay Zebah and Zalmunna, but being still young at the time, he did not have the confidence to carry out his father’s request, so Zebah and Zalmunna called on Gideon to perform the deed himself. Gideon then killed Zebah and Zalmunna as justice for the death of his brothers.

Gideon thanking God for the Miracle of the Dew

The Israelites invited Gideon to become their king and to found a dynasty, but he refused, telling them that only God was their ruler.

There was peace in Israel for 40 years during the lifetime of Gideon. As soon as Gideon died of old age, the Israelites again turned to worship the false god Baal Berith and ignored the family of their great Judge.

Gideon’s fleece, as symbol of Mary
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Saint of the Day – 25 September – Saint Sergius of Moscow

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Saint Sergius of Moscow, also known as Sergius of Radonezh and Bartholomew of Radonezh, was a Russian (Eastern Catholic) monk. Born to nobility in 1314, Bartholomew, although intelligent, had great difficulty learning to read. This affliction was only removed from him when an angel disguised as a holy man gave him a piece of holy bread. When the Rostov principality fell into the hands of Ivan I of Moscow, his parents Kirill and Maria became impoverished and moved to the village of Radonezh together with their three sons, Stefan, Bartholomew and Peter.

Vison of St Bartholomew

Upon his parents’ death, Bartholomew went to Khotkovo near Moscow, where his older brother Stefan was a monk. He persuaded Stefan to find a more secluded place to live the ascetic life. In the deep forest at Makovets Hill they decided to build a small monastic cell and a church dedicated in honor of the Trinity.

As Sergius’s reputation for holiness spread, he attracted so many students that he founded the Holy Trinity monastery for them; following his ordination at Pereyaslav Zalesky, he served as its first abbot. His brother joined the monastery, but when he opposed Sergius’s strict rule, Sergius left the community to live again as a hermit. However, the monastery began to decline, causing the metropolitan of Moscow to order Sergius to return as abbot. Advisor to the Prince of Moscow, he encouraged the campaign that ended with the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 which ended the Mongol domination of Russia. In the Russia that followed he founded forty monasteries. Metropolitan Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow asked Sergius to become his successor but Sergius declined, preferring to remain a simple monk rather than be a bishop

Late in life he resigned his position and retired to live his last few months as a prayerful monk. He died on 25 September 1392 at the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius of natural causes. He is venerated as the foremost saint of Russia.

Sergius of Radonezh blessing

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Saint of the Day – 24 September – Saint Paphnutius of Egypt

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Saint Paphnutius of Egypt, a hermit and martyr. During the persecution under Diocletian (284-305), the governor Hadrian commanded that Paphnutius be brought to him. Instead of waiting to be brought, Paphnutius appeared before the governor, confessed his faith in Christ, and was subjected to torture.

The soldiers involved in his torture, Dionysius and Callimachus, were converted by his faith. They were then beheaded. Cast into prison after the tortures, Paphnutius converted forty prisoners to the Faith. They were all burnt alive.

Paphnutius was eventually set free, and a Christian named Nestorius took him in. He and all his family, through the influence of the saint, became steadfast in the Faith, and ultimately endured martyrdom. Paphnutius strengthened many other Christians to confess our Lord Jesus Christ, and they all died as martyrs. Some were cut down with swords, others were burned. There were 546 in all.

The hermit himself was thrown by the torturers into a river with a stone about his neck, but he miraculously floated to shore, still with the stone about him. Fustrated, they sent him to the emperor Diocletian himself, who commanded him to be crucified on a date tree.

And if a man professes to be a son of God, why does not he imitate the example of his Father? It becomes us, said he, to answer to our birth; and it is not fitting that those who are evidently born of God should be degenerate, but rather that the propagation of a good Father should be proved in His offspring by the emulation of His goodness.

The Life and Passion of St Cyprian (Pontius)

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Saint of the Day – 23 September – Blessed William Way

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Blessed William Way, was a priest and martyr executed under Elizabeth I. Born in 1560 in Cornwall or Devon, England, William went to France to study for the priesthood since the Protestant revolution in England had closed the seminaries. On 31 March 1584, he received his first tonsure in the Cathedral of Reims from the Cardinal of Guise. On 22 March he was ordained subdeacon, on 5 April deacon, and priest on 18 September 1586, at Laon, probably by Bishop Valentine Douglas, O.S.B

William departed for England on 9 December 1586, and by June 1587, was imprisoned. He was indicted at Newgate in September 1588, for being a Roman Catholic priest. He declined to be tried by a secular judge, whereupon the Bishop of London was sent for. William, refusing to acknowledge him as a bishop or Elizabeth I as head of the church, was immediately condemned as a traitor and to death.

When called to trial at the Sessions in August, “he had so much joy that he seemed past himself”. Way was “hung, drawn and quartered” at Kingston upon Thames on 23rd September 1588.

For nothing else was proper than that he who in the secret recesses of his conscience was rich in the full honour of religion and faith, should moreover be renowned in the publicly diffused report of the Gentiles.

The Life and Passion of St Cyprian (Pontius)

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Saint of the Day – 21 September – Saint Jonah the Prophet

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Saint Jonah the Prophet, also known as Ionas, Jonas, Yona, Yunaan, Yunus, was an Old Testament patriarch and prophet. Hero of the Book of Jonah, he was so reluctant to deliver his prophecy against the city of Nineveh that God had to have him swallowed by a giant fish and then spat out on the city’s shore.

Jonah Preaching to the Ninevites

Jesus calls himself “greater than Jonah” and promises the Pharisees “the sign of Jonah” when referring to his resurrection. Jonah is viewed as a type of Jesus.

He died in 761 B.C. Tradition says he was buried in a tomb in modern Mosul, Iraq. The tomb was enclosed in a shrine in the 8th century BC. The tomb and shrine were destroyed by Muslims in July 2014.

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Saint of the Day – 20 September – St. Fausta and Evilasius of Cyzicum

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Saint Fausta of Cyzicus also known as Saint Fausta, was a thirteen year old girl born in 298, in modern-day Turkey. At the age of 13, she was arrested, tortured, and executed for being a Christian in the year 311. A pagan priest, Saint Evilasius was the one responsible for torturing and executing her. Seeing her courage, and moved by her prayers, he converted, and died with her in a cauldron of boiling water.

And I went up, and I saw an immense extent of garden, and in the midst of the garden a white-haired man sitting in the dress of a shepherd, of a large stature, milking sheep; and standing around were many thousand white-robed ones. And he raised his head, and looked upon me, and said to me, ‘You are welcome, daughter.’

St Perpetua

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Saint of the Day – 19 September – Saint Pomposa of Cordoba

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Saint Pomposa of Cordoba, a martyr from Spain. She was a nun in a convent near Cordoba. When the muslims invaded Spain, she refused to deny her faith and convert to Islam. As such, she was beheaded by them in 835.

View of the historic centre of Córdoba

‘Perpetua, I am waiting for you; but be careful that the dragon does not bite you.’ And I said, ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not hurt me.’ And from under the ladder itself, as if in fear of me, he slowly lifted up his head; and as I trod upon the first step, I trod upon his head.

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (Tertullian)

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Saint of the Day – 18 September – Saint Ariadne of Phrygia 

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Saint Ariadne of Phrygia, also known as Ariadna, Ariane, Arianna, was a martyr and slave woman in the the 2nd century, who was owned by a Phrygian prince called Tertullus. When by an edict of emperors Hadrian and Antoninus, Christianity was outlawed. When she refused to partake in the pagan rituals on the birthday of Tertullus’ son, she was punished and her case became known to the provincial governor, Gordios.

Both she and Tertullus were convened before a tribunal where Tertullus was acquitted while she was condemned to be crucified. The people of Prymnessus intervened on her behalf to give her three days of repentance in which she then escaped the Roman authorities, fleeing into the nearby mountains where she was saved from her pursuers by a rock which opened miraculously before her and closed behind her, providing her with a tomb.

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Saint of the Day – 17 September – Saint Columba of Cordova

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Saint Columba of Cordova, also known as Columba of Cordoba and Columba of Spain, martyr. She is a part of the Martyrs of Córdoba. Born to a pious family in the 8th century, Columba’s brother was an abbot, and her sister and brother-in-law founded a double monastery at Tabanos, Spain. Her mother wanted her to marry, but Columba was drawn to religious life, and entered her sister’s monastery at Tabanos.

During the Moorish persecutions of Christians in 852, most of the nuns of Tabanos fled to Cordova. Columba refused to run, and made a public proclamation of her faith to a Moorish magistrate and denounced Muhammed and his law. The magistrate condemned her to be beheaded on September 17, 853. Her body was thrown into the Guadalquivir Marshes, but was recovered by other Christians and buried at the basilica of St. Eulalia at Fragellas. Her relics were taken later to and venerated at two churches, the abbey of Santa Maria de Nájera and to its dependent priory, which was dedicated to Saint Columba.

The fortified Santa María la Real of Nájera

Neither can I call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian.

Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (Tertullian)

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Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi and Memorials of the Saints – 17 September

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St Robert Bellarmine SJ (1542-1621) Doctor of the Church, Bishop, Confessor, Theologian, Professor, Writer, Preacher, Mediator. (Optional Memorial) Feast day – 13 May (General Roman Calendar, 1932–1969)

Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi:
Two years before the great Saint Francis of Assisi died and when he was forty-two years old — one year after he had built the first crib in honour of Our Lord — he went off to a lonely mountain called Mount Alvernia, to prepare himself by forty days of fasting and prayer for the Feast of Saint Michael, the greatest of God’s Angels, whose Feast day is 29 September. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on 14 September, Saint Francis received in his hands, feet and side the Sacred Wounds from Our Lord’s own body.

Never was a Saint more beautifully loved by Jesus than Saint Francis of Assisi. The wounds Jesus gave him stayed in his hands, feet and side and continually bled for two more years, until he died in 1226. The day on which Saint Francis received the Five Wounds of Our Lord was 14 September but so, that this beautiful event might have a feast day for itself, the Stigmata of Saint Francis is commemorated today, on 17 September. The simple liturgy of this holy Saint’s life might be put this way – the crib in 1223 and the Cross in 1224.

St Agathoclia
St Brogan of Ross Tuirc
St Columba of Cordova
St Crescentio of Rome
St Emmanuel Nguyen Van Trieu
St Flocellus

St Hildegard von Bingen OSB (1098-1179) Doctor of the Church, German Benedictine Abbess, Theologian, Writer, Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Mystic, Visionary, Founder, Scientist, Artist and Polymath. She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

St Justin of Rome

St Lambert (c 635-c 700) Bishop & Martyr, Bishop of Maastricht, Confessor, Missionary.

St Narcissus of Rome
St Peter Arbues OSA (1442-1485) Priest Martyr
St Rodingus
St Satyrus of Milan
St Socrates
Bl Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary
St Stephen of England
St Theodora
St Uni of Bremen
St Zygmunt Sajna

St Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski TOSF (1822-1895) Archbishop of Warsaw and founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary, Apostle of poor, Confessor, Professor, Writer, Reformer.

Martyred in the Spanish Civil War
• Blessed Álvaro Santos Cejudo Moreno Chocano
• Blessed Juan Ventura Solsona
• Blessed Timoteo Valero Pérez

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Saints of the Day – 16 September – Saints Abundius and Abundantius of Rome

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Saints Abundius and Abundantius of Rome were martyrs who killed during the Diocletian persecution in the year 304. Abundius was a priest and Abundantius a deacon. The emperor ordered them to be arrested on suspicion of Christianity. When they refused to sacrifice to Hercules, they were tortured at Mamertine prison, and condemned to be beheaded. On the way to execution the two passed Senator Marcian who was grieving over his son John who had just died. Abundius prayed over John, and the boy returned to life; Marcian and John converted to Christianity on the spot. 

Prison of the Holy Apostles Peter & Paul (Mamertinum)

The executions were carried out at the 26th milestone of the Via Flaminia. Their bodies were later transferred to the church of Cosmas and Damian in Rome. The bodies of Marcianus and John were found around 1001 and transferred to Civita Castellana. In 1583, the relics of Abundius and Abundantius were transferred to the SS. Nome di Gesu, where they were placed under the church’s high altar. Aloysius Gonzaga heard mass there before becoming a Jesuit.

Church of the Gesù

For in him whom then with a latent foreboding of divinity they were in such wise demanding, they were seeking not only a priest — but moreover a future martyr.

The Life and Passion of St Cyprian (Pontius)

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Saint of the Day – 15 September – Saint Nicetas the Goth

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Saint Nicetas the Goth was a soldier and martyr born in the 4th-century, in the Gothic territory north of the Danube River. Coming from the upper class of his people. He was instructed in Christianity by Theophilus of Gothia, a converted bishop, between 325 and 341 AD.

Nicetas received his Greek name on the occasion of his baptism by Theophilus, a participant in the First Ecumenical Council. Pagan Goths began to oppose the spread of Christianity, which resulted in internecine strife. Nicetas fought in the Gothic civil war between the pagan Alaric and the Christian Fritigern. After the defeat of Alaric and after the invention of Gothic alphabets by Ulfilas, Nicetas worked intensely among the Goths for their conversion.

Later, Alaric returned, defeated Fritigern, and resumed his persecution of Christians. The s aint denounced the persecutor for his cruelty and impiety, because he subjected the Christians to severe torments. Nicetas endured many tortures himself and was condemned to the stake in 372. All the while, he hept over his heart, under his robes, an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Christ Child holding the Cross, carrying this after the Blessed Virgin appeared to him to provide comfort. The devil, shaped as an angel, induced Nicetas to sacrifice to the pagan gods for saving his life; the saint, however, put him to flight by means of prayer and the assistance of St Michael. Although he died at the stake, miraculously the fire did not touch his body, which was buried in Cilicia, and later transferred to Constantinople.

The veneration of this saint gave rise to the Slavic forms of his name: Nikita, Mykyta and Mikita. St Nicetas is prayed to for the preservation of children from birth defects and he is patron of Melendugno, Lecce, Italy.

At what point, then, shall I begin — from what direction shall I approach the description of his goodness, except from the beginning of his faith and from his heavenly birth? Inasmuch as the doings of a man of God should not be reckoned from any point except from the time that he was born of God.

The Life and Passion of St Cyprian (Pontius)

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Saint of the Day – 14 September – Saint Aelia Flaccilla

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Saint Aelia Flavia Flaccilla, known as Aelia Flacilla or Flacilla, was a Roman empress and may have been the daughter of Claudius Antonius, Prefect of Gaul. She was the first wife of Emperor Theodosius I. She was of Spanish descent. During her marriage to Theodosius, she gave birth to two sons, the future Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, as well as a daughter, Aelia Pulcheria.

Aelia Flacilla was a zealous supporter of the Nicene Creed, and she was considered a pillar of the Church and model of Christian virtue by Saint Gregory of Nyssa and others. She died in 385 of natural causes.

"The greatness of the good gift given her made her love for Him who gave it all the greater, so she bestowed every kind of attention on the maimed and the mutilated, declining all aid from her household and her guards, herself visiting the houses where the sufferers lodged, and providing every one with what he required. She also went about the chambers of the churches and ministered to the wants of the sick, herself handling pots and pans, and tasting broth, now bringing in a dish and breaking bread and offering morsels, and washing out a cup and going through all the other duties which are supposed to be proper to servants and maids. To them who strove to restrain her from doing these things with her own hands she would say, "It befits a sovereign to distribute gold; I, for the sovereign power that has been given me, am giving my own service to the Giver."

-Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History (Book V.18)

"It appears that, during the reign of Valens, had some dispute with his own clergy at Cyzicus, and had in consequence seceded from the Arians, and retired to Bithynia, near Constantinople. Here multitudes resorted to him; some also gathered from different quarters, a few with the design of testing his principles, and others merely from the desire of listening to his discourses. His reputation reached the ears of the emperor, who would gladly have held a conference with him. But the Empress Flacilla studiously prevented an interview from taking place between them; for she was the most faithful guard of the Nicene doctrines, and feared lest Eunomius might, by his powers of disputation, induce a change in the sentiments of the emperor."

-Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History (Book VII)
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Saint of the Day – 13 September – St Aigulf

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Saint Aigulf, also known as Aigulphe, Aygulf or Ayoul. He was Abbot of Lérins, and a martyr.

St. Benedict frees a monk possessed by a demon by striking him.

Aigulf was born in 630 in Blois and was a Benedictine monk at Fleury, France. He led a party of monks sent to retrieve the relics of Saint Bernard from the Lombards. Later, he was called upon to reform the Abbey of Saint Honorat.

He became abbot of Lérins around 671 and worked to restore monastic discipline, which had weakened over time. He replaced the monks’ own rules, which had been followed since the abbey’s origins, with the Rule of Saint Benedict. Many of the brothers supported him, but some resisted, and following a riot they conspired to have Aigulf and four of his supporters kidnapped by soldiers, taken to the island of Capri, Italy, blinded, tortured and murdered. The monks of Lérins claimed possession of his relics and have always considered Aygulf a martyr. A chapel was dedicated to him in the fortified monastery. 

Saint Aygulf is invoked for the healing of eye ailments.

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Saint of the Day – 12 September – Blessed Thomas of Zumárraga

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Blessed Thomas of Zumárraga was a Dominican friar, priest, missionary, and martyr of Japan.

Thomas was born in Vitoria, Spain, in 1577. In 1594, he was professed in the Order of Preachers in Vitoria. After he entered the Convento de San Esteban de Salamanca, he received the name of Fray Tomás del Espíritu Santo (Brother Thomas of the Holy Spirit). In 1601, he was sent to Mexico en route to the Philippines. Shortly after arriving, in 1603, Fray Francisco Morales, superior of the Dominicans in Manila, sent him to Japan to found a mission.

By the early 17th century Japan was mostly closed to foreigners, but he fearlessly preached the Gospel and worked tirelessly to establish Christian communities. He hid in the mountains in the area of Nagasaki and Ōmura, but in 1617 he was arrested alongside several other missionaries. After five years of imprisonment, he was burnt alive on 12 September 1622.

Pope Pius IX venerated him on 26 February 1866 with a decree of martyrdom, and later proclaimed him blessed on 7 May 1867.

 On all sides all men were flocking together to a spectacle, to us glorious from the devotion of faith, and to be mourned over even by the Gentiles. 

The Life and Passion of St Cyprian (Pontius)

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Saints of the Day – 11 September – Saints Felix, Regula and Essuperanzio 

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Saints Felix, Regula and Essuperanzio were martyrs beheaded together in the 3rd century, near Zürich, Switzerland, for converting to Christianity. Felix and Regula were brother and sister, while Essuperanzio was their servant. They are the patron saints of Zürich.

Felix was a member of the Theban legion which was based in Egypt under Saint Maurice and stationed in Agaunum in the Valais, Switzerland. When the legion refused to sacrifice to Emperor Maximian, the order was given to execute them. The siblings fled, reaching Zürich before they were caught, tried and executed in 286. After decapitation, they miraculously stood to their feet, picked up their own heads, walked forty paces uphill, and prayed before lying down in death. They were buried on the spot where they lay down, on the hilltop which would become the site of the Grossmünster.

This was revealed in a dream to a monk called Florentius in the 8th century. It contributed greatly to the massive conversion of the inhabitants of these regions to Christianity and had such an impact on Zurich that these three saints still appear on the seal of Zurich today.

And Hilarianus the procurator, who had just received the power of life and death in the place of the proconsul Minucius Timinianus, who was deceased, said, ‘Spare the grey hairs of your father, spare the infancy of your boy, offer sacrifice for the well-being of the emperors.’ And I replied, ‘I will not do so.’ Hilarianus said, ‘Are you a Christian?’ And I replied, ‘I am a Christian.’

St Perpetua

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Saints of the Day – 10 September – Sts Victor and Sosthenes of Chalcedon

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Saints Victor and Sosthenes of Chalcedon were soldiers and the executioners assigned to torture Saint Euphemia. However her faith and prayers converted them to Christianity. The Proconsul Priscus ordered Victor and Sosthenes to throw the saint into a red-hot furnace. In the flames, however, they saw angels who prevented them from touching the saint. When they refused to carry out the order, they were placed in shackles. Other soldiers, who threw Saint Euphēmia into the fire, were burnt by the flames, but inside the furnace the martyr remained unharmed.

St Victor of Chalcedon

They were subsequently martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian. The Proconsul tried to make them bow down to the idols, but they replied that they had come to know the true God and would not offer homage to demons. As they were led to the wild beasts, they begged the Lord to forgive the sins they had committed as pagans. Then a divine voice came from Heaven, calling them to their rest. The animals did not touch their bodies. Later, the two martyrs were buried secretly by some Christians.

Then I awoke, and perceived that I was not to fight with beasts, but against the devil. Still I knew that the victory was awaiting me.

St Perpetua

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Saint of the Day – 9 September – Blessed Maria de la Cabeza

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Blessed Maria de la Cabeza, born at Uceda, Guadalajara, Spain, was a Spanish peasant woman who married Saint Isidore. She is known in Spain as Santa María de la Cabeza (“Saint Mary of the Head”) or Maria Toribia.

Ss. Isidore and Maria Torribia

Maria’s date of birth is unknown, but it was sometime near the end of the 11th century or at the beginning of the 12th century. She is believed to have been born in Caraquiz, a little village close to Uceda. She subsequently lived in Torrelaguna, where she met and married Saint Isidore the Farmer. She spent her life working on the farm, cleaning local chapels and shrines, helping the poor.

With her husband she had her only son, Illan. The child one day fell down a deep well, leaving the parents with no recourse but prayer. Miraculously, the water level suddenly rose to the level of the ground, and the floating baby was rescued unharmed. As a result of this, she and her husband committed themselves to sexual abstinence as a form of devotion, and, from that time on, lived in different homes.

One story relates that Maria always kept a pot of stew on the fireplace in their humble rural dwelling. She knew that her husband Isidore would often bring home anyone who was hungry. One day he brought home more hungry people than usual. After she served many of them, Maria told him that there simply was no more stew in the pot. He insisted that she check the pot again, and she was able to spoon out enough stew to feed them all.

Torribia outlived her husband, who died in 1130. After his death, she lived as a hermit, performed miracles, and had visions.

The title of the Head is due to her head being a relic venerated for centuries, and the need to distinguish her from so many other Saints Mary.

She died in 1175 and her relics were displayed in a Franciscan convent in Torrelaguna, Spain, before being moved to Saint Andrew’s Church in Madrid in 1645, placed with the incorruptible body of her husband. In 1769, Charles III of Spain had the remains of Saint Isidore and his wife Maria relocated to the San Isidro Church, Madrid. The sepulcher has nine locks and only the King of Spain has the master key.

She was beatified by Pope Innocent XII on 11 August 1697.

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Saint of the Day – 8 September – St. Isaac the Great

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Saint Isaac the Great, also known as Sahak and Parthev, was born in 338, the son of Saint Nerses the Great, Catholicos of Armenia.

Left an orphan at a very early age, he received in Constantinople an excellent education, particularly in the Eastern languages. He was a married layman for several years. When he wife died he became a monk, succeeding his father as Catholicos (Patriarch) of Armenia in 390. He secured recognition from Constantinople of the status, rights and independence of the Armenian Church. From his position he worked to reform the Armenian Church, evangelize the Armenian people, and establish an Armenian identity. Through Isaac’s efforts the churches and monasteries destroyed by the Persians were rebuilt, education was cared for in a generous way, the pagan worship of Ormuzd which Shah Yezdigerd tried to set up was cast out, and three councils held to re-establish ecclesiastical discipline. He was also noted for his ascetic life.

Isaac worked with Saint Mesrop the Teacher to evangelize Armenia, and to develop an alphabet for the Armenian language. He supported the translation of the Bible and the Greek and Syrian Doctors of the Church into Armenian, and translated some of holy scripture himself. Isaac served as both civil and religious ruler of his people, established a national liturgy, and was responsible for the beginnings of Armenian literature. He was driven into retirement in 428 when the Persians conquered part of his territory, but later returned as Catholicos at Ashtishat from where he worked until he death. He is considered the founder of the Armenian Church.

He died at the age of 110 at Ashtishat, of natural causes.

St Isaac and St Mesrop
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Saint of the Day – 7 September – Blessed John Duckett

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Blessed John Duckett, was a priest and martyr, one of the Martyrs of Douai. Born in 1613 in Sedbergh, Yorkshire, the son of James and Francis Duckett and a relative and possibly the grandson of Blessed James Duckett, who had been executed at Tyburn on 19 April 1601 for printing Catholic books.

He was baptized on 24 February 1614 and educated at Sedbergh School. At the age of seventeen, he entered the English College, Douai; where he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Cambrai in 1639.

John possessed an extraordinary gift for prayer, and would spend whole nights in contemplation. On his way to the English mission, he spent two months in spiritual exercises, under the direction of his uncle, the Carthusian prior at Nieuport. He laboured for about a year in Durham and was arrested near Whisingham on his way to baptize two children, 2 July, 1644. The place which tradition declares to be that of his arrest is now marked by a tall stone cross. Carried to Sunderland, he was examined by a Parliamentary Committee of sequestrators, and placed in irons. He confessed his priesthood and was thereupon sent up to London with Father Ralph Corbie, S.J., who had been arrested about the same time near Newcastle-on-Tyne.

They were committed to Newgate, and edified the crowds of Catholics who flocked to see them by their joyousness, their sanctity, and their longing to suffer for Christ. A reprieve for one of them having been obtained, each refused to take it for himself. On his way to execution, Duckett astonished all by his supernatural joy; comforting those who wept for him, he said smiling: “Why weep you for me who am glad at heart of this happy day?” His jailers even were so struck by his gladness that they exclaimed “assuredly this man dies for a good cause”.

He suffered with Father Corbie, at Tyburn. In a farewell letter to the Bishop of Chalcedon, he wrote on the eve of his martyrdom: “I fear not death, nor I contemn not life. If life were my lot, I would endure it patiently; but if death, I shall receive it joyfully, for that Christ is my life, and death is my gain. Never since my receiving of Holy Orders did I so much fear death as I did life, and now, when it approacheth can I faint?”

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Saint of the Day – 6 September – Saint Zacharius the Prophet

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Saint Zacharius the Prophet, also known as Zaccaria, Zechariah (“Yahweh remembers”), was the son of Barachias, son of Addo, and a prophet who rose in Israel in the eighth month of the seventh year of the reign of King Darius, 520 B.C. He began to prophesy just two months after Haggai. The urgings of the two Prophets brought about the building of the second temple. He is the the author of the Book of Zechariah, the eleventh of the Twelve Minor Prophets.

Zechariah on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

The Book of Zechariah introduces him as the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. The Book of Nehemiah identifies him as a Levitical priest. His work has both an allegorical history of his people, and prophecies of the Messiah to come.

In the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zacharias the son of Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet, saying: The Lord hath been exceeding angry with your fathers.

Zechariah 1: 1-2

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Saint of the Day – 5 September – Blessed  Peter Nguyễn Văn Tự

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Blessed Peter Nguyễn Văn Tự, also known as Phêrô Nguyễn Văn Tự or Peter Tu Van Nguyen, was a Dominican priest and martyr born in 1796, Nam Dinh, Vietnam. Growing up during a time of persecutions of Christians, he entered the seminary, was ordained a priest in 1826, and joined the Dominican Order on January 4, 1827.

For 12 years Peter served in parishes across the Diocese of Bùi Chu. When the 1832 edict under Emperor Minh Mạng came, he went into hiding for six years, yet continued ministering secretly, often at great risk. In June 1838, soldiers raided Kẻ Mốt village, confiscating religious items and torturing locals. His hiding spot was betrayed and he was arrest on June 29, 1838, alongside catechist Bùi Văn Úy.

While imprisoned, Peter boldly preached during interrogations and refused to trample on a crucifix. Sentenced to death, he prepared with prayer, confessing to a fellow priest and receiving Holy Communion. On September 5, 1838, at age 42, he was beheaded at Cổ Mễ execution grounds alongside Joseph Hoàng Lương Cảnh. His body was buried at Nghĩa Vũ parish, with relics now at Trung Lại church in Bắc Giang province.

He was beatified on May 27, 1900, by Pope Leo XIII.

O blessed, you may regard yourselves as having been translated from a prison to, we may say, a place of safety. It is full of darkness, but you yourselves are light; it has bonds, but God has made you free. Unpleasant exhalations are there, but you are an odour of sweetness. The judge is daily looked for, but you shall judge the judges themselves.

Tertullian (To the Martyrs)

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Saint of the Day – 4 September – St Moses the Prophet

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Moses (“saved from the waters”) was a Hebrew liberator, law giver, and prophet. He belonged to the tribe of Levi and was born in Egypt (10th century B.C.), at a time when Pharaoh had ordered the killing of all male Hebrew children. Exposed in the waters of the Nile, he was rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter and educated at court.

Having killed an Egyptian to save one of his brethren from ill-treatment, he fled to Madian where he married Jethro’s daughter. God appeared to him in the burning bush and commanded him to go and deliver his people, with the help of his brother Aaron, but Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, and the terrible chastisements known as the Ten Plagues of Egypt only hardened his heart. However the last one, the death of every first born, forced him to yield, and the Hebrews departed, after celebrating the first Pasch.

The Finding of Moses

Then began, under the leadership of Moses, a long journey in the direction of the Promised Land. Moses himself is excluded from it because of his lack of confidence at the “Waters of Contradiction”. The Israelites finally reached the banks of the Jordan, after defeating the Amorrhites and Moabites, and Moses died on Mount Nebo after pronouncing the three discourses preserved in Deuteronomy, his position being inherited by Joshua. He was buried in the valley of Moab, but “no man knows his sepulchre”.

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Saint of the Day – 2 September – St Margaret of Louvain

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Saint Margaret of Louvain, also known as known as Margaretula, Margaret la Fière, Margaret van Leuven, Margaret van Löwen, Margarita Lovania, Fiere Margriet.

Death of Margaretha of Louvain by Pieter-Jozef Verhaghen

She was a maid born in 1207 to a poor family at Louvain, Brabant, Belgium. When a teenager, Margaret worked as a maid at the Sint Joris, an inn in Louvain owned by her uncle Aubert. Aubert and his wife sold the inn, planning to each enter the religious life. Margaret herself wanted to become a Cistercian nun.

The body of the blessed Margaretha of Louvain laid out.

On their last night in the inn, thieves broke in and murdered the owners while Margaret was out. She came home as the killers were leaving, seeing what they had done. She ran and the thieves gave chase. They caught up with her along the banks of the Dyle River, where they murdered her by slitting her throat. They threw her corpse into the Dyle, but when a large fish pushed the body upstream and an angel hovered over the river, shining a light on the body, it was recovered and buried on the riverbank where she was killed. Miracles were reported at her gravesite, and her remains were then translated and reinterred in a chapel in the yard of Saint Peter’s Church in the centre of town, where many miracles occured.

In 1905, Pope Pius X confirmed her cultus. Her shrine was made of gilded copper and adorned with semi-precious stones and co-financed by gifts from parishioners and young maids who honor Marguerite la Fière as their patron saint.

The funeral procession of Blessed Margaretha of Louvain

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Saints of the Day – 31 August – St Theodotus and St Rufina of Caesarea

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St Theodotus and St Rufina of Caesarea were husband and wife, martyrs in the persecutions of Aurelian, and parents of Saint Mamas. Born to patrician families in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, they were devout Christians. When the persecutions of Christians began, Alexander, the magistrate of the city of Gangra, summoned them to trail because they refused to obey the imperial decree requiring all citizens to worship the pagan gods. Those who disobeyed would be tortured and put to death.

Since Theodotus was a noble, and Alexander could not torture or murder him because of that, so he sent him to the governor Faustus in Caesarea of Cappadocia. Faustus, who was notoriously ruthless, threw Theodotus into prison. Though pregnant, Rufina followed her husband into gaol. Fearing that he would not be able to withstand torture and would apostatise, Theodotus asked God to take his soul, a prayer which was granted. As a result of sorrow and the privations she experienced in prison, Saint Rufina gave birth prematurely. She prayed that God would permit her to follow her husband in death, and that He would also protect her child. Her prayer was also granted and Saint Mamas was raised by a pious woman named Ammia.

The prison, indeed, is the devil’s house as well, wherein he keeps his family. But you have come within its walls for the very purpose of trampling the wicked one under foot in his chosen abode.

Tertullian (To the Martyrs)

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Saint/s of the Day – 30 August – Bl Margaret Ward

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Blessed Margaret Ward, known as the Pearl of Tyburn, a martyr during the reign of Elizabeth I. Margaret was born a gentlewoman in Congleton, Cheshire, in Northwest England, in 1550. Later she travelled to London and went to work in the home of a woman of distinction called Whitall.

Whilst in London she assisted a priest called William Watson, who was imprisoned in the Bridewell prison. Ward befriended the gaoler’s wife, took food to Watson, and smuggled in rope to help Watson escape. She arranged for two Catholic watermen to meet Watson on the Thames below the prison walls; even though he broke his arm and leg during his escape, he was picked up by the watermen, “who rowed him to a safe hiding place”. The rope was traced back to Ward. She was arrested, charged, and tried for “aiding a traitor to escape” and was tortured by being hung by her wrists and beaten for eight days.

Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Margaret Ward

Blessed Robert Southwell said Ward “was flogged and hung up by the wrists, the tips of her toes only touching the ground, for so long a time that she was crippled and paralyzed, but these sufferings greatly strengthened the glorious martyr for her last struggle”. Blessed John Roche was arrested and tried with Ward. They were offered release if they asked for the queen’s pardon and agreed to “conform to the established Church”, but they refused and were hanged at Tyburn on 30 August 1588. Ward and Roche were beatified in a large group in 1929.

Possibly such a woman could not have been slain unless she herself had willed it, because she was feared by the impure spirit.

Tertullian (Passion of Perpetua and Felicity)

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Saint of the Day – 29 August – Blessed Bronislava of Poland

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Blessed Bronislava of Poland, also known as Bronislava Odrowaz, Bronislava of Cracow, Bronislawa. She was a cousin of Saint Hyacinth and Blessed Czeslaw. The daughter of Count Stanislaus and Countess Anna of Prandata-Odrowaz, she was born at the castle of Kamien in Upper Silesia, Poland, in 1203, becoming at age sixteen a Premonstratensian nun at a convent founded by her maternal grandfather. Saint Hyacinth himself introduced her to this community of the Norbertines.

She was deeply devoted to the Holy Cross. After her profession in 1223, Christ Crucified appeared to her and said, “Bronislava, as my Cross has been your cross, so my glory will be your glory.” When the Tartars invaded Krakow in 1241, Bronislava, holding the cross in her hand, encouraged her sisters with the words, “Do not be afraid, the cross will save us.” She then knocked on the wall with her crucifix, at which a corridor opened before them and they all escaped into a nearby forest. Some of the Sisters joined another surviving convent, while Bronislava and a few others built huts on the ruins of their former home. They ministered to the poor, sick, and homeless of the surrounding countryside. The local population considered her their patroness on whom they could count when they needed protection.

The Norbertine rule was rigorous. They lived in cells that had dirt floors and no stoves; they suffered intensely from cold and frost, following a vow of extreme poverty and had no contact with the outside world. After 15 years of solitary, austere religious life, Bronislava accepted the burden of becoming a Superior. Later she became a hermitess on the hill of Sikornik. When Saint Hyacinth died, she received a vision of him ascending to heaven holding the hand of the Blessed Virgin.

Bronislava died on August 29, 1259, two years after her beloved cousin. Both of them had been devoted to the holy Mother of God and to her Rosary in its earliest form. Her body was taken to the convent church and she was invoked as a saint. Her relics were placed in a precious reliquary and were carried in solemn procession each year on the anniversary of her death. In 1707 she was designated a patroness of Krakow and Poland, of orphans, young people, a happy death and of the prevention of disease.

She was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI on 23 August 1839, after being attributed for protecting Zwierzyniec from cholera in 1835. The efforts of the Polish bishops toward the canonization of Bronislava in 1947 by Pope Pius XII were thwarted by 40 years of Communist rule.

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The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and Memorials of the Saints – 29 August

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The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

St Sabina of Rome (Died c 126) Martyr, Widow

Blessed John of Perugia`OFM (Died 1231) Martyr, Friar of the Friars Minor

Blessed Peter of Sassoferrato OFM (Died 1231) Martyr, Friar of the Friars Minor

St Adelphus
St Adausia of Rome
St Alberic of Bagno de Romagna
St Basilia of Sirmium
Bl Bronislava
St Candida of Rome
St Edwold the Hermit
St Euthymius of Perugia
St Maximian of Vercelli
St Medericus
St Nicaeus of Antioch
St Paul of Antioch
St Repositus of Velleianum
Bl Richard Herst
St Sabina of Troyes
St Sator of Velleianum
St Sebbe of Essex
St Velleicus
St Victor of La Chambon
St Vitalis of Velleianum

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Saint of the Day – 28 August – Blessed Adelindis of Buchau

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Blessed Adelindis of Buchau, also known as Adelindis of Poulagy, Adelindis of Swabia and Adelinda, Adele, Adelaide. Blessed Adelindis was the founder of the Imperial Abbey Buchau Ladies’ Convent, in today’s Bad Buchau near the Federsee lake in Swabia, Francia (Württemberg, Germany).

Adelindis kneels at right at the founding of the Abbey

Adelindis was born c. 729, the daughter of Duke Hildeprand of Spoleto, a member of the Lombard nobility, later under the protection of Charlemagne. Her mother Regarde was the daughter of Gotfrid and came from Bavaria. She married the Frankish Count Warin II around 750. In 770 she and her husband founded the Buchau Abbey.

She is not to be confused with the second Abbess, a woman of the same name and a countess who entered the convent as a nun to atone when her three sons were killed attempting to abduct their sister from it in order to marry her off.

In her memory, the Adelindis Festival, a homeland and children’s festival, is celebrated in Bad Buchau every two years on August 28.

Attributed arms of Adelindis of Swabia