Saint of the Day

May 3: Saint Juvenal of Narni

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There are have been several saints named “Juvenal”; this Saint Juvenal was bishop of the city of Narni in Italy and died around the year 376.

He was a priest of the city when the pope separated the city into its own diocese, making Juvenal the bishop. Many of the residents of the town were pagans, and it’s said that while he was passing a statue of a bull in front of a temple one day, a pagan priest struck him with a sword for failing to make a sacrifice in honor of the god. According to tradition, Juvenal caught the sword in his teeth and survived. This public miracle brought many people to the faith.

A few years later, invaders from a neighboring town threatened Narni. Juvenal climbed up the city wall and recited a psalm asking for God’s deliverance; a storm broke out, and many of the opposing soldiers died, saving the city.

Saint Juvenal, show me how to trust in God to do the seemingly impossible.

Saint of the Day

May 2: Saint Wiborada

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Saint Wiborada (d. 926) was born in Klingnau, Switzerland, into a noble family. By the time her brother became a priest, their parents had died, so Wiborada joined him, cared for him, and cared for the sick people of their own. After the brother and sister completed a pilgrimage, her brother became a monk, and she began to live as a recluse.

Unsurprisingly, as word spread about her holiness, prophecies, and miraculous healings of the sick, vicious rumors spread too. Some say she accepted trial by ordeal (that is, some sort of painful test; if you survived, you were considered innocent) to prove her faithfulness. For the rest of her life, she lived in a cell next to Saint Magnus church, praying for hours and practicing many mortifications. Shortly before an invasion of Hungarian forces, she accurately predicted that she would be killed, but her warning allowed the monks and nuns of the area to escape. She was killed with a hatchet while praying (and, one may safely assume, praying for her murderers) and is considered a martyr.

Saint Wiborada, help me to forgive those who harm me.

Saint of the Day

May 1: Saint Amator of Auxerre

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A biography of Saint Amator (344-418) written more than a century after his death is our best source of information about the saint. Setting aside some of the extraordinary details in that account, it’s still not difficult to see why he would be acclaimed a saint.

Amator wanted to become a priest when he was a young man, but he agreed to marry to please his family. Shortly after the wedding, however, he and his bride mutually agreed to enter religious life.

Amator became a priest and then bishop of Auxerre, France, where he converted many followers of paganism to the faith, built churches for the new Christian communities, and even performed miracles through his prayers. Some say he ordained Saint Patrick of Ireland to the priesthood. Amator converted a somewhat frivolous and wealthy young man named Germanus to a deeper practice of the faith; Germanus not only succeeded him as bishop but is also known as a saint.

Saint Amator, show me how to lead others to a deeper faith.

Saint of the Day

April 30: Saint Wolfhard of Verona

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Saint Wolfhard (d. 1127) was a German maker of saddles and other equipment for horses when he traveled to Verona and decided to settle there. In time, his fellow citizens noticed that not only did Wolfhard give away all his profits to the poor, keeping only enough to live on, he was also a holy man. When he noticed that his neighbors were treating him with such veneration, he left to live in the forest as a hermit.

Several years later, some men from Verona happened upon his hermitage and convinced him to return to the city. He lived as a hermit-monk in a Camaldolese monastery there for the rest of his life. It’s said that he was famous for the miracles that resulted from his prayers even during his lifetime, but that even more miracles occurred after his death.

Saint Wolfhard, teach me to be humble.

Saint of the Day

April 29: Saint Joseph Cottolengo

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Saint Joseph Cottolengo (1786-1842) was a parish priest of Turin, Italy, when he was called to the bedside of a poor, pregnant woman. The woman had been refused by hospitals because of her poverty and because she was contagious with tuberculosis and a fever. After Father Cottolengo anointed her and baptized her newborn, both mother and child died. The sight of the squalid conditions, the despair of her surviving children, and the lack of access to medical care for the poor changed his life.

Father Joseph sold everything he had to open a few rooms in a house, and with the assistance of volunteers and a doctor, he turned it into a hospital. From this beginning in 1827 and for the rest of his life, he spent himself on this vocation. With occasional setbacks—such as being closed by the government during a cholera epidemic—the number of hospitals and homes under his direction constantly grew. All the donations he was given were poured back into his homes, though he was also continually close to bankruptcy. He established multiple organizations: religious brothers and sisters to serve the sick; societies to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory; and hermits, priests, and Carmelite nuns to pray for the Church. Worn out by his work, he contracted typhoid fever and died peacefully after saying goodbye to his spiritual children.

Saint Joseph, help me to have an open heart for the sufferings of others and a willing body to serve them.

Saint of the Day

April 28: Saint Pamphilus of Sulmona

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Saint Pamphilus’ life shows us that arguments over the liturgy didn’t start in the twentieth century.

Saint Pamphilus was the bishop of the dioceses of Sulmona and Corfinium in Italy in the late seventh century, and he was known for his generosity to the poor, his simple way of life, and personal holiness. But when he decided to offer Mass shortly after midnight each Saturday night/Sunday morning, followed by distributing alms to the poor and feeding them breakfast at daybreak, some people were scandalized. This innovation caused some of his priests and the laity to complain to the pope, accusing him of being an Arian heretic. (It’s difficult to see how a midnight Mass could be construed as heresy, but never underestimate the ability of some people to be offended.) After being called before the pope to explain himself, Pamphilus was not only vindicated but was sent home with a generous gift for the poor people of his dioceses.

Saint Pamphilus, remind me to unite myself to the Sacrifice of the Mass at all times of the day and night.

Saint of the Day

April 27: Saint Maughold

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Saint Patrick is said to have converted all of Ireland, and Saint Maughold (d. c. 498) is said to be one of his most dramatic converts. After all, Maughold was a pirate with apparently little or no virtue in his behavior when Patrick brought him to the faith.

At Patrick’s direction, Maughold left behind his unsavory business associates and traveled by small boat to the Isle of Man, where two other missionaries were already living. Saint Maughold must have learned a great deal about virtue during his time spent in monastic life because he ultimately became a bishop.

Saint Maughold, help me to never give up hope on those who seem far away from God.

Saint of the Day

April 26: Saint Richarius

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Saint Richarius (d. c. 645, sometimes called Radbertus) was a pagan living in France when two Irish priests came to his hometown to preach the Gospel. When his pagan neighbors threatened the missionaries with violence, Richarius protected them. He learned about the faith from them, converted, and traveled to England to become a priest and to become better educated about his newfound faith.

Richarius brought many people into the Church through his zealous preaching, confronted his own king, Dagobert, with the dangers of relying on the vanities of this world, and established an abbey. At the end of his life, he withdrew to live in a hermitage with a single companion.

Saint Richarius, help me to be open to the truth of the Good News.

Saint of the Day

April 25: Blesseds Robert Anderton and William Marsden

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Blesseds Robert Anderton and William Marsden were sixteenth-century Englishmen who had been ordained as Catholic priests. They had been forced to travel to France to be ordained because of the anti-Catholic persecution prevalent in England at the time.

They boarded a ship, apparently to return to England and serve secretly as priests, when the ship on which they were traveling was driven off its course. All the passengers were forced to disembark on the Isle of Wight, and suspicious officials sent them to the local magistrate. When they were asked if they were priests, they acknowledged that they were, which was sufficient cause for them to be put in prison. Although there was no evidence that they had tried to enter England because of the forced landing and although they were not technically violating the penal law of the time, they were condemned to death for treason all the same. They died together, cheerfully and remaining faithful through it all, on this date in 1586.

Blesseds Robert and William, help me to cheerfully accept injustice.

Saint of the Day

April 24: Blessed Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

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Rose Pelletier was born in 1796 into a faithful French family; she became a religious sister in an order which cared for what used to be known as “fallen” women. That is, women who were poor, orphaned, and/or who had fallen into a life of prostitution. Such women had few options to leave their difficult lives.

The homes run by the sisters gave these women shelter, training, and, most importantly, faith. Rose, now known as Mother Mary Euphrasia, was only twenty-nine years old when she was sent to open a new home for her congregation. The establishment of a new house of refuge was very successful under her direction, but when it was time for her to leave, she realized that her order had a serious problem: it needed a stronger and better organized central government, rather than each house being subject to its own rules, without consistent training of novices or clear guidelines about jurisdiction. Convincing other members of the order, as well as negotiating with bishops and priests over who had authority over what, was a lifetime of work for Mother Mary Euphrasia, and she virtually created a new institute. Complaints about her being too innovative, impatient, or disrespectful of proper authority were balanced by the obvious good fruits that resulted from her changes, as the congregation expanded to accept more vocations and serve more women. She died in 1868.

Saint Mary Euphrasia, show me how to best serve those in need around me.