(Content below are excerpts from Catholic Culture) 
CLICK TO LINK TO CATHOLIC CULTURE WEBSITE
for addition information on daily saints

St. Paschal Baylon
Paschal Baylon (named after the day of his birth and death: Pentecost Sunday—Pascha Pentekostes) was a simple, pious shepherd boy who later became an ardent spiritual son of St. Francis and the heavenly patron of adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament. He belongs to that illustrious circle of saints who, by heroic holiness of life, refurbished the Church's crown that had been desecrated by the heretics of the sixteenth century. He hailed from the Spanish section of Valencia and died at the age of 52. As he lay dead upon the bier, he opened and closed his eyes twice when the sacred species were elevated at the consecration. Leo XIII declared him the heavenly patron of all Eucharistic leagues and societies.

One day Paschal heard the bells of a convent announce the approaching consecration at Mass. Such an ardent longing for God overcame him that, prompted by yearning and love, he involuntarily cried out: "O God, most worthy of all adoration, please let me see You!" Hardly had he uttered the prayer when a glowing star appeared in the sky. As he watched, the heavens opened; the star disappeared and was replaced by a chalice with the Host, flanked by two adoring angels. Christian art has selected this vision to show his chief virtue, viz., love for the most holy Eucharist.

—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

St. Ubaldus
The saint was born in Gubbio, Italy, was ordained a priest, and made a canon. Against his own wishes but upon the request of Pope Honorius II, he became the bishop of his native city in 1128. In this capacity he was a model of apostolic simplicity, pastoral zeal, and personal holiness. His aid is popularly invoked against evil spirits. To this day his body remains incorrupt.

The power St. Ubaldus possessed against evil spirits was evident. The Church moves in a spirit world--good angels are all about, while constant vigilance is exercised against Satan and his devils. The liturgy contains a considerable number of exorcisms and adjurations. Then there are a series of sacramentals directed against the power of evil spirits; for example, holy water, palms, candles. Hold these sacramentals in highest esteem.

—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

St. Simon Stock
Little is known of his early life. Legend says that at age twelve he began to live as a hermit in a hollow oak tree; the name Stock is believed derived from the old English for tree trunk. Itinerant preacher. Pilgrim to the Holy Lands, but left when invading Muslims chased out Christians. Joined the Carmelite Order soon after its arrival in England.

Simon lived and studied for several years in Rome, Italy and Mount Carmel. Elected sixth general of the Carmelites in 1247 around age 82. He helped the Order spread through England, southern and western Europe. Founded houses in Cambridge, England in 1248, Oxford in 1253, Paris, France in 1260, and Bologna, Italy in 1260. Revised the Rule of the Order to make them mendicant friars instead of hermits.

Regardless of these successes, the Order was oppressed on all sides, including by the clergy and other orders. The friars took their woes to their patroness, the Virgin Mary. Tradition says that in answer, she appeared to Simon bringing him the brown Scapular of Mount Carmel. “This shall be the privilege for you and for all the Carmelites,” she told him, “that anyone dying in this habit shall be saved.” On January 13, 1252 the Order received a letter of protection from Pope Innocent IV, protecting them from harassment.

—Excerpted from CatholicSaints.Info

St. Brendan

Brendan was born in Tralee in what would one day be known as Country Kerry, Ireland, about the year 484 (just ten years after the death of St. Patrick). What we know about his life comes to us through a tract known as Navigate Sancti Brendani Abbatis, (The Voyages of St. Brendan the Abbot), written about three centuries after his death. This recounts how Brendan founded the monastery of Clonfert near the center of Ireland. There he served for many years as abbot of a community of over 3000 monks (a number which historians tell us was common for sixth century Ireland). Fervent in zeal, Brendan was filled with desire to bring to other lands the faith which had only recently transformed his own homeland.

One day an itinerant monk named Barrind visited Clonfert and shared with Brendan and his brothers how he and a hermit named Mernoc had undertaken a voyage to the Promised Land of the Saints. Barrind described sailing to a land in the west, where they walked about for fifteen days without needing to eat or drink. Reaching a river, they met a man who told them many things about this strange Land, which, he said, had been there since the creation of the world. He instructed the two travelers to return home, and escorted them back to their boat, whereupon they set sail and returned to Mernoc's monastery.

Enthralled with Berrind's tale, Brendan selected fourteen monks from his own community and confided to them his desire to visit the Promised Land of the Saints. After praying and fasting, Brendan and his companions set out for Inishmore of the Aran Islands to seek the blessing of St. Edna. Near a small creek under a mountain now called Brendan's Seat, they pitched camp and built a small wood-framed boat, covered in oxhides tanned with oak bark, and smeared the joints with animal fat to seal them. In the boat they placed supplies for forty days and other equipment. As they prepared to set sail, three strange monks approached them, asking to be taken along. Brendan agreed, but warned that two of them would endure a hideous end, and that the third would not return from the voyage.

Brendan and his companions sailed westward for fifteen days until they lost their bearings and drifted to an island which looked like a huge rock tower with streams cascading down its cliffs. Finding a small harbor, they landed, and were greeted by a dog which led them to a hall where they found food set out for them. They stayed for several days, and the whole time they were on the island they saw no one, yet always found meals set out for them. After three days, as they boarded the boat to leave, one of the three monks who had joined them went into a fit. A demon leaped from his breast, and he died. It was then discovered that he had tried to steal a silver platter from the hall.

Their journey next took them to a large island called the Island of Sheep because of the numerous flocks which roamed its hills. They stayed there from Holy Thursday through Holy Saturday. While there, a man known as the Steward provided for them, and gave them fresh meat to take with them. He instructed them to travel to another island to celebrate Easter. Soon after leaving the Island of Sheep, they found a small barren island and landed there. But when they lit the fire to roast some of the meat they had been given, the island began to shake and move, and the monks scrambled back into their boat. They watched as the island moved away, their fire still burning. Brendan informed his monks that the "island" was in fact Jasconius, the largest whale in the ocean. Across a channel from the Island of Sheep the travelers found the Paradise of Birds, with a river leading inland. A mile upstream they discovered a huge tree covered with white birds. At vespers and at other times the birds burst into hymns and verses. One of the flock flew down to the boat and began speaking to Brendan, informing him that he and his companions would search seven years before reaching the Promised Land of the Saints. Throughout their stay on the Paradise of Birds, the Steward brought them food and water and provided for all their needs. When the Feast of Pentecost came, the Steward instructed them to set sail once again.

For many months they traveled westward and saw no sign of island or coast. Finally, just before Christmas, they spotted an island. When they reached the shore they found a white-haired elder who led them to the nearby Monastery of St. Ailbe. At the door of the monastery they were greeted in silence by eleven monks. The abbot washed their feet and led them to a meal of roots and bread. The abbot broke the silence to explain that no cooked food was ever eaten at the monastery, that the bread was miraculously provided, that their lamps never burned out, and that the monks never grew older. They had been on the island for eighty years, never speaking a word. After the other monks had gone to sleep, the abbot led Brendan to the chapel, where they watched as a fiery arrow sped through a window, touched the lamps at the altar to replenish their oil, and sped out again. When Epiphany came, Brendan and his companions left the Monastery of St. Ailbe and set sail again. They sailed until Lent, without sight of any land, their food and water depleted. After three days without water, they came upon an island where they found a well. But after drinking the water, the monks fell into a deep sleep, some for three days, some for two, some for one. Once they all awoke, Brendan ordered that they leave the island immediately.

Sailing toward the north, they hit a calm and their boat drifted aimlessly for twenty-five days. Finally a wind sped them eastward, returning them to the Island of Sheep on Holy Thursday. The Steward greeted them there, providing them with shelter and fresh clothing. Having observed Holy Saturday, he instructed them to sail off again to observe Easter on the back of Jasconius, the whale, then to proceed to the Paradise of Birds. They did as the Steward said. Again the Steward provided the travelers with food and water while they stayed on the Paradise of Birds. He instructed Brendan that they would repeat the cycle for several years-spending Holy Thursday on the Island of Sheep, Easter on the whale. Easter to Pentecost on the Paradise of Birds, and Christmas to Epiphany with the monks of the monastery of St. Ailbe. The times spent sailing between these islands would bring many adventures.

And so it happened. During one of these times the monks saw speeding toward their boat a huge beast spewing foam from his snout, looking as though it will devour them. The monks cried out in fear, but just as it drew next to the boat a second beast came from the west and attacked the first beast, cutting it into three pieces. Then the second beast swam back the way it had come. On another occasion a flying griffin attacked their boat, but before it could strike, a large bird dove out of the sky and killed the griffin. One day the companions came upon an island on which they found three choirs—one of boys, one of youth and one of elders. Throughout the day they sang the praises of God. A cloud of extraordinary brightness covered the island from dusk till dawn. When the travelers were ready to leave, the choirs invited one of the three monks who had joined Brendan's company to stay with them on the island. With Brendan's blessing, the monk remained. After this the wind blew them to a rocky, barren island from which came the sounds of hammer and anvil. Filled with apprehension, Brendan and his companions made a valiant effort to row away, but an islander appeared from out of a forge and threw a huge piece of slag at them. It flew over their heads, and when it fell into the sea, the water boiled and hissed. Other islanders rushed to the shore, likewise hurling slag at the boat. The water all around the Island of Smiths steamed like a furnace, and a horrible stench arose. Brendan informed his companions that they were on the edges of Hell.

Soon they were run aground at an island at the base of a huge black cliff. The third of the monks who had joined the band jumped off the boat and began walking towards the cliff, saying he was powerless to turn back. As he reached the cliff, demons carried him off and set him ablaze. Another time they saw a man chained to a pillar of rock, the wind and waves flailing against him. Brendan called out to him, and was told that he was Judas, upon whom the Lord showed mercy by freeing him from his torments in Hell to sit on this rock on Sundays and holy days.

Finally the travelers reached an island where Brendan found an ancient monk sitting at the entrance to a cave. The ancient one told Brendan he had been a companion of St. Patrick and had been a hermit on the island for ninety years since Patrick's death. The hermit instructed Brendan to return once more to the Island of Sheep and once again to the Paradise of Birds, and after that he would be led to the Promised land of the Saints. There he and his companions would stay for forty days, and then be brought safely home to Ireland. After receiving the ancient monk's blessing, the companions sailed off and came to the Island of Sheep where they were once again attended to by the Steward. This time when they prepared to leave the Steward joined them in their boat. Next they met Jasconius who brought them on his back to the Paradise of Birds. After filling their water vessels, they companions set sail with the Steward as their guide, for, he said, without him they would never find the Promised Land of the Saints.

On the fortieth day a great fog swallowed up their boat. The Steward told them that the fog always surrounded the land for which they had been searching these seven years. An hour later a brilliant light shone forth, and the boat touched shore. The monks disembarked and found a beautiful land filled with fruit-laden trees. They explored the land for forty days, never coming to the end of it. But on the fortieth day they discovered a wide river, which Brendan said they should not cross. A young man approached and greeted each of them by name. He explained that God had delayed them in finding the Promised Land of the Saints so that they might discover many things along the way. He instructed them to gather up fruit and supplies and to set sail for, he said, Brendan's last days were near. The Promised Land, he assured them, would be made known to Brendan's successors at a time when Christians were being persecuted, so that they might find a new home in peace. Brendan and his companions gathered up fruit and, taking their leave of the Steward, sailed out into the fog. They came again to the island of the ancient hermit, and stayed there with him for three days. Then they set sail once again and returned safely to Ireland. The monastery at Clonfert greeted him with great joy, and he recounted to them everything which they had encountered on their journey. Finally he told them of his approaching death, as foretold by the young man. After making everything ready, Brendan received the sacraments, and soon thereafter died among his companions in about the year 570.

While the story of The Voyage of Brendan is filled with fanciful images, many modern scholars believe it has an historical foundation. Some claim that Brendan's voyage brought him to the shores of North America, making him and his companions the first Europeans to reach the continent—nearly a thousand years before Columbus. In 1977 a modern navigator built a replica of Brendan's boat and retraced his route across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, proving that such a journey was indeed possible.

Whether or not Brendan's voyage is historically factual, the story speaks to us throughout the centuries. We, too, are on a journey. Our God has invited us to travel with our companions, and to invite others to journey with us along the way. We are cared for by the Steward and often make the journey through the years from Epiphany to Holy Thursday to Easter. We encounter many strange and wonderful things along the way. And, in the end, we, too, are promised that we will be brought safely home.

—Excerpted from St. Brendan's Catholic Church and School

Gospel Verse, Year C, John 13:34:

I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.

Love is man's first and constant vocation. Love is the summary of the whole Bible. Love is the secret of the saints, the necessary way to God. It is the means to reveal God's heart to other men. But the beauty of God's love must show itself fresh and new in every Christian; for beauty, to delight and attract, must be fresh as the morning. Every deed of vital love, performed by us in our personality which nature and grace have fashioned, is like the morning of time itself. "God is love" in its mysterious fullness and infinite freshness. Utterly King and Lord, He unites the baptized of every nation in the one Mystical Body of Christ, by the one Holy Spirit, under the one Mother Mary.

St. Matthias
Mathias was one of the first to follow our Savior; and he was an eye-witness of all His divine actions up to the very day of the Ascension. He was one of the seventy-two disciples; but our Lord had not conferred upon him the dignity of an apostle. And yet, he was to have this great glory, for it was of him that David spoke, when he prophesied that another should take the bishopric left vacant by the apostasy of Judas the traitor. In the interval between Jesus' Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost, the apostolic college had to complete the mystic number fixed by our Lord Himself, so that there might be the twelve on that solemn day, when the Church, filled with the Holy Ghost, was to manifest herself to the Synagogue. The lot fell on Mathias; he shared with his brother-apostles the persecution in Jerusalem, and, when the time came for the ambassadors of Christ to separate, he set out for the countries allotted to him. Tradition tells us that these were Cappadocia and the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea.

The virtues, labor, and sufferings of St. Mathias have not been handed down to us: this explains the lack of proper lessons on his life, such as we have for the feasts of the rest of the apostles. Clement of Alexandria records in his writings several sayings of our holy apostle. One of these is so very appropriate to the spirit of the present season, that we consider it a duty to quote it. 'It behooves us to combat the flesh, and make use of it, without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.' How profound is the teaching contained in these few words! Sin has deranged the order which the Creator had established. It gave the outward man such a tendency to grovel in things which degrade him, that the only means left us for the restoration of the image and likeness of God unto which we were created, is the forcible subjection of the body to the spirit. But the spirit itself, that is, the soul, was also impaired by original sin, and her inclinations were made prone to evil; what is to be her protection? Faith and knowledge. Faith humbles her, and then exalts and rewards her; and the reward is knowledge.

—Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

Our Lady of Fatima
The famous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the children of Fatima took place during the First World War, in the summer of 1917. The inhabitants of this tiny village in the diocese of Leiria (Portugal) were mostly poor people, many of them small farmers who went out by day to tend their fields and animals. Children traditionally were assigned the task of herding the sheep.

The three children who received the apparitions had been brought up in an atmosphere of genuine piety: Lucia dos Santos (ten years old) and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta. Together they tended the sheep and, with Lucy in charge, would often pray the Rosary kneeling in the open. In the summer of 1916 an Angel appeared to them several times and taught them a prayer to the Blessed Trinity.

On Sunday, May 13, 1917, toward noon, a flash of lightning drew the attention of the children, and they saw a brilliant figure appearing over the trees of the Cova da Iria. The "Lady" asked them to pray for the conversion of sinners and an end to the war, and to come back every month, on the 13th.

Further apparitions took place on June 13 and July 13. On August 13 the children were prevented by local authorities from going to the Cova da Iria, but they saw the apparition on the 19th. On September 13 the Lady requested recitation of the Rosary for an end to the war. Finally, on October 13, the "Lady" identified herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary" and again called for prayer and penitence.

On that day a celestial phenomenon also took place: the sun seemed to tumble from the sky and crash toward earth. The children had been forewarned of it as early as May 13, the first apparition. The large crowd (estimated at 30,000 by reporters) that had gathered around the children saw the phenomenon and came away astounded.

Official recognition of the "visions" which the children had at the Cova da Iria came on October 13, 1930, when the bishop of Leiria - after long inquiry - authorized the cult of Our Lady of the Rosary at the site. The two younger children had died: Francisco (who saw the apparition but did not hear the words) on April 4, 1919, and his sister Jacinta on February 20, 1920. Sister Lucia died on February 13, 2005, at her Carmelite convent in Coimbra, Portugal, after a long illness.

—Excerpted from Dictionary of Mary, Catholic Book Publishing Company.

The Message of Fatima
The public message of Fatima recalls that of Lourdes. Through the children Mary urges prayer for sinners, recitation of the Rosary, and works of penance. On October 13 she said: "I have come to exhort the faithful to change their lives, to avoid grieving Our Lord by sin; to pray the Rosary. I desire in this place a chapel in my honor. If people mend their ways, the war will soon be over."

But Mary also confided several "secrets" to the children, some of which Lucy subsequently transmitted. Presumably there was prediction of another war in the near future and a request for special veneration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The final secret Lucy is thought to have entrusted to Pope John XXIII.

As at Lourdes, the "apparitions" of Fatima have brought crowds of visitors. Pilgrimages, which began in the summer of 1917, have experienced growing success, not only among the Portuguese themselves but also among people from other countries, including the United States. The national pilgrimage following ecclesiastical recognition of the apparitions (May 13, 1931) is said to have drawn more than a million participants.

Popes have shown exceptional favor toward Fatima, Pius XII, Paul VI, and John Paul II in particular making a visit to the shrine. The papal interest and the basilica built at the site of the apparitions has helped to swell the summer pilgrimages to Fatima. Crowds comparable to, and sometimes larger than, those at Lourdes are not uncommon. In a rustic setting, pilgrims hear the message repeated that Mary spoke to the children: prayer, works of penance, recourse to her Immaculate Heart.

—Excerpted from Dictionary of Mary, Catholic Book Publishing Company.

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
This title penetrates the mystery itself of the Eucharist, and when well understood, manifests to us the most important part granted to Mary in the economy of the Holy Eucharist.

If we have thoroughly seized Pierre Eymard's thought we understand that she is, first, the Mother of Jesus, giving to the Word her most pure blood, which was changed on the day of the Incarnation into His own Body, into His own Blood, in order to consecrate it later, on the night of the Last Supper, into His Sacrament of Love.

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament is Mary receiving in quality of universal dispensatrix of grace, the full and absolute disposition of the Eucharist and the graces that It contains, because this Sacrament is the most efficacious means of salvation, the fruit par excellence of the Redemption of Jesus Christ. To her, consequently, it belongs to make Jesus in the Sacrament known and loved; to her it belongs to spread the Eucharist throughout the world, to multiply churches, to raise them in infidel lands, and to defend faith in the Eucharist against heretics and the impious; to her it belongs to prepare souls for Communion, to rouse them to make frequent visits to Jesus, and to assist zealously at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. She is the treasure-house of all the graces comprised in the Eucharist, both those that prepare the soul for It and those that flow from It.

—Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament by St. Peter Julian Eymard

St. Nereus, Achilleus and Domitilla
It was under the persecution of Domitian, during which John the Evangelist was condemned to be burned alive in the cauldron of boiling oil, that Flavia Domitilla was honored with banishment and death for the sake of our Redeemer, whom she had chosen for her Spouse. She was of the imperial family, being a niece of Flavius Clemens, who adorned the consular dignity by martyrdom. She was one of the Christians belonging to the court of the Emperor Domitian, who show us how rapidly the religion of the poor and humble made its way to the highest classes of Roman life. A few years previous to this, St Paul sent to the Christians of Philippi the greetings of the Christians of Nero's palace. There is still extant, not far from Rome, on the Ardeatine Way, the magnificent subterranean cemetery which Flavia Domitilla ordered to be dug on her praedium, and in which were buried the two martyrs, Nereus and Achilleus, whom the Church honors today together with the noble virgin who owes her crown to them. Nereus and Achilleus were in Domitilla's service. Hearing them one day speaking of the merit of virginity, she there and then bade farewell to all worldly pleasures, and aspired to the honor of being the Spouse of Christ. She received the veil of consecrated virgins from the hands of Pope St Clement: Nereus and Achilleus had been baptized by St Peter himself.

The bodies of these three Saints reposed, for several centuries, in the Basilica, called the Fasciola, on the Appian Way; and we have a Homily which St Gregory the Great preached in this Church on their feast. The holy Pontiff dwelt on the vanity of the earth's goods; he encouraged his audience to despise them by the example of the three martyrs whose relics lay under the very altar around which they were that day assembled. "These Saints," said he, "before whose tomb we are now standing, trampled with contempt of soul on the world and its flowers. Life was then long, health was uninterrupted, riches were abundant, parents were blessed with many children; and yet, though the world was so flourishing in itself, it had long been a withered thing in their hearts."

—Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

St. Pancras
Pancratius was the descendant of a noble Phrygian family. As a youth of fourteen, he came to Rome while Diocletian and Maximian were in power (about 304). He was baptized by the Pope and given instructions in the Christian religion. Arrested for his action, he steadfastly refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods and was condemned to death. With manly courage, he bared his neck for the sword and received the martyr's crown. During the night his body was removed by the pious matron Octavilla, anointed with sweet smelling balsam and interred on the Via Aurelia.

Pancratius is the patron saint of fidelity to oaths. The basilica that Pope Symmachus erected over his remains about the year 500 later became a station church (since 1798 his relics have been lost). On the first Sunday after Easter the saint exhorted the catechumens gathered at his station church to remain loyal to their baptismal vows. The saint warns us to proceed slowly and prudently before taking an oath or vow. But once our word is given we must remain true to our pledge, true unto death itself, whether it concerns baptismal vows, ordination vows, profession vows, or marriage vows.

—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.

Bl. Imelda Lambertini
Bl. Imelda Lambertini is a model for all in her great love for the Blessed Sacrament. Born in Bologna, she was a pious child who begged her parents to allow her to become a Dominican when she was just nine. Her parents, though saddened at having to be separated from their only child, recognized God's will for their daughter, and Imelda joined the nuns at Val di Pietra. Her status among the nuns is unclear. She received the habit and participated in the life of the nuns to some extent. At that time, children were not allowed to make their First Holy Communion until age 14, but Imelda prayed continually that she would be able to receive Our Lord without having to wait so long. When she was 11, after Mass on the vigil of the Feast of the Ascension, the Sacred Host was seen suspended amidst a brilliant light above Imelda's head. The chaplain, who was immediately summoned, gave the Host to Imelda. Afterwords, the nuns left her alone to make her thanksgiving. The prioress soon discovered, however, that Imelda, who had been in ecstasy, had died shortly after receiving her First Holy Communion, so much in love was she with Our Lord in the Eucharist. Blessed Imelda was declared Patroness of First Communicants by Pope St. Pius X.

St. Francis di Girolamo
St. Francis di Girolamo was the famous Jesuit pulpit orator of Naples: a volume would hardly suffice to record the wonderful effect of his eloquence. "His voice" says Butler "was loud and sonorous, . . . and the style of his preaching simple and impressive. . . . His descriptions forcible and graphic and his pathetic appeals were sure to draw tears while his energy astounded and terrified," yet there must have been much of the magnetism of the popular orator in his manner for whenever he spoke whether in the streets of Naples — a constant habit of his — or in the church great crowds followed him and not a few of the sudden conversion made by him of hardened sinners sound like the records of some modern "Revivalist" preachers.

He was an earnest untiring faithful worker to the very last. Born in 1642, at a very early age he became a prefect in the "College of Nobles of the Society of Jesus" and soon after his novitiate was completed took high rank in the society. It was as a preacher and evangelist that he excelled. He died May 11th, 1716 and was beatified by Pius VII, on the feast of St. Joseph in 1806, and canonized by Gregory XVI, on Trinity Sunday 1839.

—Excerpted from Saints and Festivals of the Christian Church, by H. Pomeroy Brewster

St. Damien of Molokai
Joseph De Veuster, the future Father Damien, was born at Tremelo in Belgium, January 3rd, 1840. His was a large family and his father was a farmer-merchant. When his oldest brother entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts (called 'Picpus' after the street in Paris where its Generalate was located), his father planned that Joseph should take charge of the family business. Joseph, however, decided to become a religious. At the beginning of 1859 he entered the novitiate at Louvain, in the same house as his brother. There he took the name of Damien.

In 1863, his brother who was to leave for the mission in the Hawaiian Islands, became ill. Since preparations for the voyage had already been made, Damien obtained permission from the Superior General to take his brother's place. He arrived in Honolulu on March 19th, 1864, where he was ordained to the priesthood the following May 21st. He immediately devoted himself, body and soul, to the difficult service of a "country missionary" on the island of Hawaii, the largest in the Hawaiian group.

At that time, the Hawaiian Government decided on a very harsh measure aimed at stopping the spread of "leprosy," the deportation to the neighboring island of Molokai, of all those infected by what was thought to be an incurable disease. The entire mission was concerned about the abandoned "lepers" and the Bishop, Louis Maigret ss.cc., spoke to the priests about the problem. He did not want to send anyone "in the name of obedience," because he knew that such an order meant certain death. Four Brothers volunteered, they would take turns visiting and assisting the "lepers" in their distress. Damien was the first to leave on May 10th, 1873. At his own request and that of the lepers, he remained definitively on Molokai.

He brought hope to this hell of despair. He became a source of consolation and encouragement for the lepers, their pastor, the doctor of their souls and of their bodies, without any distinction of race or religion. He gave a voice to the voiceless, he built a community where the joy of being together and openness to the love of God gave people new reasons for living.

After Father Damien contracted the disease in 1885, he was able to identify completely with them: "We lepers." Father Damien was, above all, a witness of the love of God for His people. He got his strength from the Eucharist: "lt is at the foot of the altar that we find the strength we need in our isolation..." It is there that he found for himself and for others the support and the encouragement, the consolation and the hope, he could, with a deep faith, communicate to the lepers. All that made him "the happiest missionary in the world," a servant of God, and a servant of humanity.

Having contracted "leprosy" himself, Fr. Damien died on April 15th, 1889, having served sixteen years among the lepers. His mortal remains were transferred in 1936 to Belgium where he was interred in the crypt of the church of the Congregation of Sacred Hearts at Louvain. His fame spread to the entire world. In 1938 the process for his beatification was introduced at Malines (Belgium): Pope Paul VI signed the Decree on the "heroicity of his virtues" on July 7th 1977. He was canonized on October 11th, 2009.

In Father Damien, the Church proposes an example to all those who find sense for their life in the Gospel and who wish to bring the Good News to the poor of our time.

—Excerpted from SSCC Website

St. John of Avila
Saint John of Ávila was born in Almodóvar del Campo of a wealthy and pious family of Jewish converso descent. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the University of Salamanca to study law but returned after a year to his father's home, where he spent the next three years in the practice of austere piety. His sanctity impressed a Franciscan journeying through Almodóvar, on whose advice he took up the study of philosophy and theology at Alcalá de Henares, where he was fortunate to have as his teacher the famous Dominican Domingo de Soto. While he was a student his parents died and after his ordination he celebrated his first Mass in the church where they were buried, sold the family property and gave the proceeds to the poor.

He saw in the severing of natural ties a vocation to foreign missionary work and prepared to go to Mexico. In 1527, while he was in Seville looking for a favorable opportunity to set out for his new field of labor, his unusually great devotion in celebrating Mass attracted the attention of Hernando de Contreras, a priest of Seville, who mentioned him to the archbishop and Inquisitor General, Don Alonso Manrique de Lara. The archbishop saw in the young missionary a powerful instrument to stir up the faith in Andalusia, and after considerable persuasion Juan was induced to abandon his journey to America.

His first sermon was preached on 22 July 1529, and immediately established his reputation. During his nine years of missionary work in Andalusia, crowds packed the churches at all his sermons. However, his strong pleas for reform and the denunciation of the behavior of the high society brought him before the inquisitor at Seville. He was charged with exaggerating the dangers of wealth and with closing the gates of heaven to the rich. The charges were quickly refuted and he was declared innocent in 1533. By special invitation of the court he was appointed to preach the sermon on the next great feast in the church of San Salvador, in Seville. Like other Spanish mystics of the period, including La Beata de Piedrahita, he was suspected several times during his career of belonging to the Alumbrados, deemed a heretical sect.

John of Avila is also remembered as a reformer of clerical life in Spain. He founded several colleges where his disciples dedicated themselves to the teaching of youths. Among the disciples attracted by his preaching and saintly reputation were Saint Teresa of Ávila, Saint John of God, Saint Francis Borgia and the Venerable Louis of Granada. Of special importance was the University of Baeza established in 1538 by a papal bull of Pope Paul III Its first rector was Saint John of Ávila and became a model for seminaries and for the schools of the Jesuits.

He is especially revered by the Jesuits. Their development in Spain is attributed to his friendship and support to the Society of Jesus.

St. John of Avila was declared Venerable by Pope Clement XIII on February 8, 1759 and beatified by Pope Leo XIII on November 15, 1893. On May 31, 1970 he was canonized by Pope Paul VI. Pope Benedict XVI named him a Doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012, the Feast of the Holy Rosary.

—Excerpted from Patron Saints

Sts. Gordian and Epimachus
During the reign of Julian the Apostate, Januarius, a priest, was brought before the judge, Gordian, that he might be condemned; but Gordian, after being instructed in the Christian faith by this same priest, was baptized by him at Rome, together with his wife and fifty three other members of his house. Whereupon the Prefect, having sent Januarius into exile, ordered his deputy Clementianus to imprison Gordian. The deputy, after some time, had Gordian led in chains before his tribunal, and sought to induce him to deny the faith. Failing in the attempt, the deputy ordered him to be first scourged with whips laden with plummets of lead, and then beheaded. His body was exposed before the temple of Apollo, that it might be devoured by dogs; but during the night the Christians took it, and buried it on the Latin Way, in the same crypt wherein had previously been laid the relics of the holy martyr Epimachus, brought from Alexandria, in which city he had endured a long imprisonment for the Christian faith, and was finally crowned with martyrdom by being burned to death.

—Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

St. Pachomius
St. Pachomius can justifiably be called the founder of cenobitic monasticism (monks who live in community). Even though St. Antony the Great was the first to go into the desert to live a life of seclusion pursuing evangelical perfection, he lived an eremitic life, that is, a primarily solitary life.

Pachomius first started out as a hermit in the desert like many of the other men and women in the third and fourth centuries who sought the most radical expression of Christian life and he developed a very strong bond of friendship with the hermit Palemon. One day he had a vision during prayer in which he was called to build a monastery, and was told in the vision that many people who are eager to live an ascetic life in the desert, but are not inclined to the solitude of the hermit, will come and join him. His hermit friend Palemon helped him to build the monastery and Pachomius insisted that his cenobites were to aspire to the austerity of the hermits.

However, he knew that his idea was a radical one, in that most of the men who came to live in his monastery had only ever conceived of the eremitic lifestyle; his great accomplishment was to reconcile this desire for austere perfection with an openness to fulfilling the mundane requirements of community life as an expression of Christian love and service. He spent most of his first years as a cenobitic doing all the menial work on his own, knowing that his brother monks needed to be gently inducted into serving their brothers in the same manner. He therefore allowed them to devote all their time to spiritual exercises in those first years. At his death, there were eleven Pachomian monasteries, nine for men and two for women.

The rule that Pachomius drew up was said to have been dictated to him by an angel, and it is this rule that both St. Benedict in the west and St. Basil in the east drew upon to develop their better known rules of cenobitic life.

— Catholic News Agency