Saint of the day .

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 9th December

Saint Juan Diego

Visionary and one of the first indigenous saints of the New World. Born in around 1474, Juan Diego was an Indian peasant who experienced a vision of Our Lady on Tepeyac hill on December 9, 1531. The bishop at the time did not believe his story until he returned with his cloak or tilma filled with roses. As he spread the roses onto the ground before the bishop - an image of Our Lady miraculously formed on the fabric. The tilma is now at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadeloupe and the feast is celebrated on 12 December.

Thousands of people gathered in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadelupe July 31, 2002, for his canonization ceremony.

The Holy Father called the new saint "a simple, humble Indian" who accepted Christianity without giving up his identity as an Indian. "In praising the Indian Juan Diego, I want to express to all of you the closeness of the church and the pope, embracing you with love and encouraging you to overcome with hope the difficult times you are going through," John Paul said. Among the thousands present for the event were members of Mexico's 64 indigenous groups .

Saint Juan Diego , pray for us that the image of Christ and of his mother , Mary , may always be imprinted on our hearts .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 10th December

Saint Eulalia

St Eulalia. Child martyr. She was one of the early Christian martyrs of Spain. The daughter of a noble family, during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian, Eulalia refused to make sacrifices to the gods and was burnt alive at Merida in around 304. She was said to be only about 12 years old.

The Spanish poet Prudentius wrote that a white dove flew over her as she died and snow covered her dead body.

Many churches and monasteries were dedicated to her, notably in Toledo, Cordoba, and Barcelona. Palma cathedral in Majorca has five 14th century paintings of her. She has also been venerated for centuries in north Africa, Italy and England.

Saint Eulalia , so young and you gave your life for Jesus . Pray for us , and may your courage inspire us .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 11th December

Saint Daniel the Stylite

Hermit. Daniel was born at Maratha in Mesopotamia in 409. At the age of 12 he decided he wanted to join a monastery. The abbot consulted with his parents and admitted him to the community. Years later he visited St Simeon Stylite, who lived on top of a pillar, and received a blessing from him.

Daniel stayed in the monastery until he was 42, but never forgot his meeting with St Simeon. When the abbot died, his fellow monks asked Daniel to take his place but he refused. Instead he went on a series of pilgrimages and then lived alone in an old temple.

When St Simeon died in 459 Daniel decided to follow the way he had lived. For the next 33 years he lived on top of pillars, refusing to come down even for his own ordination. The Patriarch of Constantinople climbed up to lay his hands on the saint's head.

Thousands of people came to visit St Daniel on his pillar to ask for his advice and prayers. Many healings were attributed to him. He died at the age of 80 in 493 and was buried in a chapel at the foot of his column.

Saint Daniel the Stylite , pray for all who accept a Christian vocation which seems strange to the world , indeed strange to us also .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 12th December

Saint Finian of Clonard

Abbot. St. Finian is one of the most outstanding saints of Ireland after St Patrick. Born in Leinster, during the fifth century, after his education at Idrone, Co Carlow, he established three religious communities at Rossacurra, Drumfea and Kilmaglush. He then went to Wales to study the traditional monasticism of David, Cadoc and Gilda. When he returned to Ireland he established foundations at Aghowle, Co Wicklow and Mufna Sulcain. He then went on to the most important achievement of his life, the foundation of Clonard in Co Meath. Here he is said to have gathered 3,000 disciples.

Finian was known as the Master or teacher of the Saints of Ireland. Many of his students went on to become celebrated religious leaders. They included Saints Brendan the Voyager, Columba and Ciaran. When the monks left Clonard they would carry a gospel book, crozier and reliquary round which they built their churches. Finian died of the plague on this day in 549.

Saint Finian of Clonard , pray for the people of Ireland .

Today is also the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The feast in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the sixteenth century. According to records of the time, a poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honour of Our Lady.

He was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within it a young Native American woman dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga asking him to build a chapel at the site of the apparition.

Eventually the bishop told Juan Diego to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan Diego's uncle became seriously ill. The lady told told Juan that his uncle would recover and filled his cloak with roses to take to the bishop.

When Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop's presence, the roses fell to the ground and the bishop was awazed to see a painting of Mary as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. It was December 12, 1531. Juan Diego was canonized in August 2002.

Our Lady of Guadalupe , pray for the people of the Americas .

 

[Colin]

{ From ICN }
Saint of the day: 13th December

Saint Lucy

Patron saint of eyesight. St Lucy was martyred during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian during the 3rd century. According to legend, when she refused to give up her faith she was blinded, but her sight was miraculously restored. She was finally killed with a sword.

There are churches dedicated to her in Rome, Naples and Venice as well as two in England.

Her feast is celebrated in Sweden as the 'festival of light'. Youngest daughters, dressed in white, wake up the rest of the family with coffee, rolls and a special song. In Sicily the song Santa Lucia, dedicated to her, is very popular.

Saint Lucy , please pray for the physically blind and for the spiritually blind .

 

[S.ilvio]

I'd heard of Our Lady of Quadalupe but never read the whole story. I will look into it tonight...

 

[Colin]

I'd heard of Our Lady of Quadalupe but never read the whole story. I will look into it tonight...

If you are lazy like me you can just watch the video .

Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe - YouTube

 

[S.ilvio]

Thank you Colin. Much appreciated...

 

[Colin]

{ From ICN }
Saint of the day: 14th December

Saint John of the Cross

Carmelite friar, and one of Spain's foremost poets, mystics and theologians.

St John was born in Toledo in 1542 to a noble but poor family. His was brought up by his mother, went to a poor school, and was then apprenticed to a silk weaver. He had little aptitude for this trade and in 1563 joined the Carmelites. He studied theology and was ordained priest in 1567.

St Theresa of Avila persuaded him to join the Discalced Reformed Order which she had initiated for nuns and friars. For a time John lived in the house of Duruelo. In 1571 he became rector of Alcala, a study house attached to the university and was also confessor to the nuns of Avila.

But in 1571 he was seized and imprisoned by the Calced Carmelite Friars who rejected the reformed order. They kept him incarcerated in terrible conditions in Toledo, for nine months. It was during this time that he wrote some of his most beautiful poetry. After managing to escape, he went to Baeza where he founded a college. In 1582, the year his friend St Theresa died, he became Prior at Granada. In 1588 he took over at Segovia.

John suffered during the last years of his life at the hands of the Discalced Carmelite Vicar General Nicholas Doria. A victim of jealousy and power politics, he was deprived of his office and banished to Ubeda in Andalusia where he died in 1591.

St John was small physically but among poets and mystics he was a giant, combining a deep poetic sensitivity with highly developed philosophical thought. His spiritual works, written as commentaries on his poems stress the need for active asceticism as well as the far deeper purification of the soul by divine grace. Through a life of pure faith and love of God the soul eventually attains the deepest mystical union.

St John's writings are theologically substantial and he is regarded not only as a mystic but as a supreme Doctor of Mystical Theology. He was beatified in 1675 and canonised in 1726. 200 years later he was declared a Doctor of the Church.


Saint John of the Cross , so inspire us that through a life of pure faith and love of God we may eventually attain the deepest mystical union with God whose desire it is that we be one with Him .

May no obstacles become a hindrance to the activity of God's grace within , rather may they be a means of deeper purification through the grace of God .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 15th December

Saint Mary di Rosa

Nun and foundress of the Handmaids of Charity. St Mary took took seriously Jesus' words that whoever helped the least of his brethren did it to him.

Born in 1813, in Brescia, since she was a young girl Mary was always very concerned about the poor and sick. She regularly visited the women and child factory workers who lived in appalling conditions. She also went to the hospital each day to visit patients. She took a particular interest in the deaf.

At the age of 27 she established her order. War broke out with Austria in 1849 and the sisters worked night and day, nursing the injured and caring for displaced families.

In 1852 there was an outbreak of cholera which decimated the population. Mary di Rosa personally cared for hundreds of people throughout the epidemic, and died, it is said, of exhaustion, in 1855. She was just 42. She was canonised in 1954.

Saint Mary di Rosa , lover of the poor and the sick , may we be inspired by your example to see Jesus in all who are in need through poverty and sickness .

Inspire us to come to the aid of those in need , for in them we meet our Lord and Saviour .

 

[Colin]

{ From ICN }
Saint of the day: 16th December

Saint Adelaide

Empress, wife and mother. This much-loved 10th century saint lived in Alsace. After her first husband, King Lothair of Italy, died in 950, she became the second wife of King Otto the Great (whose first wife had been Edith, sister of the English king).

In 962 Adelaide and Otto were crowned emperor and empress of the Holy Roman Empire, by Pope John XII. After Otto died in 973, Adelaide suffered many family and political troubles. Her son Otto II and grandson Otto III banished her from the court to live with her brother in Burgundy.

Instead of complaining she devoted her life to good works, caring for the poor and sick and building a convent at Seltz. She died there in 999.

St Adelaide was a friend to St Adalbert of Magdeburg, St Willigis and the Cluniac Abbots St Mayeul and St Odilo. in his account of her life, St Odilo said: St Adelaide was 'a marvel of beauty and goodness.'

Saint Adelaide , please pray for those who devote their lives caring for the poor and the sick . Pray also for families which are having serious problems .

 

[S.ilvio]

St. Adelaide. Another gem of a Saint. Thanks again Colin...

 

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 17th December

Saint Lazarus of Bethany

The brother of Martha and Mary. The account of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus, led to his widespread veneration in Jerusalem, which was witnessed by the Spanish pilgrim Etheria in 390.

Nothing more is written about him in the New Testament. According to tradition however, the Jews of Jaffa placed Lazarus and his sisters in a leaky boat in which they somehow sailed safely to Cyprus. He said to have become a bishop on the island and died there peacefully 30 years later.

Another legend tells how he was placed in a boat which did not have oars or a rudder. Nevertheless, together with his sisters, he landed safely in Gaul. That story claims he was martyred under Domitian and buried in a cave under the Abbey church in Marseilles.

The Order of Lazarists founded by St Vincent de Paul took its name from the church in Paris dedicated to Saint Lazare.

Chichester Cathedral has an 11th century sculpture depicting the Raising of Lazarus.


Saint Lazarus of Bethany , pray that we may always look forward to our resurrection from the dead and the life of the world to come .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 18th December

Saint Samthan

Irish nun. This 8th century saint was a foster child of King Cridan of Cairbr Gabrah. He had planned to arrange a marriage for her, but she decided to become a nun instead. After training under St Cognat at Arnaide in Donegal she founded a convent at Clonbrony in Co Longford.

Samthan is named in the litany and the canon of the ancient Stowe Missal.

When a monk asked her what was the best attitude for prayer, she answered: "every position - sitting, standing or lying down."

When another said he wanted to give up study to pray more, she said he would never be able to fix his mind on prayer if he did not study. When a monk said he was going on pilgrimage, she told him: "the kingdom of God can be reached without crossing the sea and God is near all who call on Him."

St Samthan refused large estates for her convent and lived in poverty with her community and six cows .

Saint Samthan , please pray for us that we may always appreciate the nearness of God .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the day: 19th December

Saint Urban V

Pope. William de Grimoard was a scholar who taught at four universities: Paris, Montpelier, Toulouse and Avignon. In 1352, he became abbot of St Germain, Auxerre. He was chosen as abbot of St Victor, Marseille in 1361. During a papal mission to Naples, he learnt that Pope Innocent VI had died and he had been elected successor.

For 50 years the papacy had been based at Avignon. In 1366 Pope Urban decided to try to return to Rome. He was a peacemaker and worked very hard to reconcile the Eastern and Western churches. The emperor Charles IV was won over to a new treaty with the Papacy. Even the Greek emperor, John V Palaeologus was reconciled to Rome. But Pope Urban met with great hostility from many warring princes, and was forced to return to Avignon. He died six months later, in 1370.

Pope Saint Urban V , please pray for Pope Francis , Bishop of Rome , that like you he may be a means of reconciliation , and that any hostile to him may be confounded .

 

[Colin]

{ From ICN }
Saint of the day: 20th December

Saint Dominic of Silos

Abbot. A patron of pregnant women. St Dominic was born in 1000, at Rioja in Navarre. His parents were farmers and he worked the land with them for some years before becoming a monk. He was later ordained priest and became prior at St Milan de la Congolla. However after a dispute over property rights he was exiled with two companions.

Ferdinand I of Old Castile welcomed these monastic refugees and gave them a derelict old monastery at Silos. Within a few years Dominic had supervised a rebuilding programme and Silos became a thriving community and centre of learning with more than 40 monks. One of their scriptoriums can now be seen in the British Library.

St Dominic was known for his holiness and his healing powers. Women suffering difficult pregnancies flocked to visit him. One woman, Jane of Aza named her child after St Dominic, and he in turn became the founder of the Dominicans. Dominic's pastoral staff was used to bless queens of Spain and would be kept at their bedside until they had a safe delivery.

St Dominic died in 1073 and was canonised three years later. Many churches and monasteries were dedicated to him.

Silos is still a flourishing community today. Several recordings of the monks singing Gregorian chant have been best sellers around the world.


Saint Dominic of Silos , patron of pregnant women , please pray for all women bearing children within their wombs .

 

[Colin]

{ From ICN }
Saint of the day: 21st December

Saint Peter Canisius S.J.

Jesuit priest and theologian. Born in Nijmegen, Holland, in 1521, the son of a burgomaster, he went to university in Cologne, to study law. There he met the celebrated Jesuit teacher Peter Favre, and turned to theology, becoming a Jesuit himself in 1543.

He soon became known as a fine preacher. He assisted at the Council of Trent, spent six months with St Ignatius Loyola in Rome and taught at the Jesuit school at Messina. He reformed the universities at Ingoldstadt in Bavaria, and Vienna.

Peter Canisius devoted himself to strengthening the faith of Catholics in the face of the Protestantism. In 1556 he was made provincial superior of the Jesuits in Southern Germany, Austria and Bohemia, where he founded schools colleges, and seminaries, as well as preaching, writing and giving missions. He is said to have travelled more than 20,000 miles on foot and on horseback in three years. Later he was based at Dillingen in Bavaria, at Innsbruck and finally at Fribourg, Switzerland where he died in 1597.

A Lutheran theologian described Canisius as 'a noble Jesuit of faultless character'. He is said to have been 'courteous, moderate and understanding'.

His best known works are three catechisms which were translated into many languages - including English, Scottish and Welsh. St Peter Canisius was canonised and made a doctor of the church in 1925.

Saint Peter Canisius S.J. , please pray that we be courteous , moderate and understanding .

 

[Colin]

{ From ICN }
Saint of the Day: 22nd December

St. Chaeremon & St. Ischyrion & Other Martyrs

Martyrs. [FONT=Verdana,helvetica,arial]Saints Chaeremon and Ischyrion[/FONT] were two Christians in Egypt, martyred during the reign of Emperor Decius. Many Christians at the time were banished to the desert where they died in a variety of ways, from hunger and thirst, exposure and wild animals. Those Christians who tried to return to civilization were killed, while the young, healthy ones were sold into slavery.

St Chaeremon was an elderly priest and bishop of Nilopolis. He was sent into the mountains of Arabia with a companion. They were never seen again.

St Ischyrion worked for an official in Alexandria. His employer required that he sacrifice to the gods. When he refused he was killed. Many more Egyptian martyrs are also remembered on this day.

St. Chaeremon & St. Ischyrion & Other Martyrs , inspire us and pray for us that we too may put God before all else .

 

[S.ilvio]

Saint of the day: 18th December

Saint Samthan

Irish nun. This 8th century saint was a foster child of King Cridan of Cairbr Gabrah. He had planned to arrange a marriage for her, but she decided to become a nun instead. After training under St Cognat at Arnaide in Donegal she founded a convent at Clonbrony in Co Longford.

Samthan is named in the litany and the canon of the ancient Stowe Missal.

When a monk asked her what was the best attitude for prayer, she answered: "every position - sitting, standing or lying down."

When another said he wanted to give up study to pray more, she said he would never be able to fix his mind on prayer if he did not study. When a monk said he was going on pilgrimage, she told him: "the kingdom of God can be reached without crossing the sea and God is near all who call on Him."

St Samthan refused large estates for her convent and lived in poverty with her community and six cows .

Saint Samthan , please pray for us that we may always appreciate the nearness of God .

You know I'd never heard of St. Samthan until now. What a lady...

 

[Colin]

{ From ICN }
Saint of the Day: 23rd December

St Thorlac

Bishop. Born in Iceland in 1133, St Thorlac went to Paris and Lincoln to study. When he returned home he is said to have ignored advice to marry a rich widow - at a time when many other Icelandic priests were married - and instead started a house of canons regular at Thykkviboer. He was consecrated bishop of Skalholt in 1178 and set about reforming the Church in Iceland, drawing up a code for both laity in clergy. He died in 1193, and was canonised by bishops in the national assembly in 1198.

His life and dozens of his miracles are described in great detail in Icelandic saga Þorláks Saga Helga (Saga of Saint Thorlak), republished recently in Icelandic on the occasion of John Paul II visit to Iceland.

St. Thorlac , patron saint of Iceland , please pray for the people of Iceland .