Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. Each saint the Church honors responded to an invitation from God to use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of us to be a saint. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay/default.asp Religion & Spirituality 2009 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en-us Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 webdev@americancatholic.org Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 720 webdev@americancatholic.org FeedForAll v2.0 (2.0.1.0) http://www.feedforall.com http://www.americancatholic.org/Webmasters/buttons/SaintofDay/SaintofDay1.gif http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay/default.asp Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. 98 96 Mary's presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honor of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1206 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11212009 Born in Grenoble, France, of a family that was among the new rich, Philippine learned political skills from her father and a love of the poor from her mother. The dominant feature of her temperament was a strong and dauntless will, which became the material--and the battlefield--of her holiness. She entered the convent at 19 without telling her parents and remained despite their opposition. As the French Revolution broke, the convent was closed, and she began taking care of the poor and sick, opened a school for street urchins and risked her life helping priests in the underground. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1205 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11202009 Agnes was the sister of St. Clare and her first follower. When Agnes left home two weeks after Clare's departure, their family attempted to bring Agnes back by force. They tried to drag her out of the monastery, but all of a sudden her body became so heavy that several knights could not budge it. Her uncle Monaldo tried to strike her but was temporarily paralyzed. The knights then left Agnes and Clare in peace. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1204 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11192009 St. Peter's is probably the most famous church in Christendom. Massive in scale and a veritable museum of art and architecture, it began on a much humbler scale. Vatican Hill was a simple cemetery where believers gathered at St. Peter's tomb to pray. In 319 Constantine built on the site a basilica that stood for more than a thousand years until, despite numerous restorations, it threatened to collapse. In 1506 Pope Julius II ordered it razed and reconstructed, but the new basilica was not completed and dedicated for more than two centuries. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1883 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11182009 In her short life Elizabeth manifested such great love for the poor and suffering that she has become the patroness of Catholic charities and of the Secular Franciscan Order. The daughter of the King of Hungary, Elizabeth chose a life of penance and asceticism when a life of leisure and luxury could easily have been hers. This choice endeared her in the hearts of the common people throughout Europe. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1202 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11172009 Margaret of Scotland was a truly liberated woman in the sense that she was free to be herself. For her, that meant freedom to love God and serve others. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1201 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11162009 Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican who influenced decisively the stance of the Church toward Aristotelian philosophy brought to Europe by the spread of Islam. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1200 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11152009 Gertrude, a Benedictine nun in Helfta (Saxony), was one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St. Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called "nuptial mysticism," that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Her spiritual life was a deep personal union with Jesus and his Sacred Heart, leading her into the very life of the Trinity. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1199 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11142009 Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first United States citizen to be canonized. Her deep trust in the loving care of her God gave her the strength to be a valiant woman doing the work of Christ. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1198 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11132009 In 1967, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned nine centuries. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1197 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11122009 A conscientious objector who wanted to be a monk; a monk who was maneuvered into being a bishop; a bishop who fought paganism as well as pleaded for mercy to heretics--such was Martin of Tours, one of the most popular of saints and one of the first not to be a martyr. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1196 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11112009 With apparent strong conviction of the importance of the Bishop of Rome in the Church, and of the Church as the ongoing sign of Christ's presence in the world, Leo the Great displayed endless dedication in his role as pope. Elected in 440, he worked tirelessly as "Peter's successor," guiding his fellow bishops as "equals in the episcopacy and infirmities." http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1195 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod11102009 Most Catholics think of St. Peter's as the pope's main church, but they are wrong. St. John Lateran is the pope's church, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome where the Bishop of Rome presides. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1194 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1192009 A humble man, John Duns Scotus has been one of the most influential Franciscans through the centuries. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1193 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1182009 Didacus is living proof that God "chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27). http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1192 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1172009 Nicholas and his three companions are among the 158 Franciscans who have been martyred in the Holy Land since the friars became custodians of the shrines in 1335. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1191 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1162009 Barney Casey became one of Detroit's best-known priests even though he was not allowed to preach formally or to hear confessions! http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1190 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1152009 The name of St. Charles Borromeo is associated with reform. He lived during the time of the Protestant Reformation, and had a hand in the reform of the whole Church during the final years of the Council of Trent. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1189 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1142009 "Father unknown" is the cold legal phrase sometimes used on baptismal records. "Half-breed" or "war souvenir" is the cruel name inflicted by those of "pure" blood. Like many others, Martin might have grown to be a bitter man, but he did not. It was said that even as a child he gave his heart and his goods to the poor and despised. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1188 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1132009 The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. "If we had no care for the dead," Augustine noted, "we would not be in the habit of praying for them." Yet pre-Christian rites for the deceased kept such a strong hold on the superstitious imagination that a liturgical commemoration was not observed until the early Middle Ages, when monastic communities began to mark an annual day of prayer for the departed members. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1187 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1122009 The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of "all the martyrs." In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagonloads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended "that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons" (On the Calculation of Time). http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1186 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod1112009 Wolfgang was born in Swabia, Germany, and was educated at a school located at the abbey of Reichenau. There he encountered Henry, a young noble who went on to become Archbishop of Trier. Meanwhile, Wolfgang remained in close contact with the archbishop, teaching in his cathedral school and supporting his efforts to reform the clergy. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1185 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10312009 Tragedy and challenge beset today's saint early in life, but Alphonsus Rodriguez found happiness and contentment through simple service and prayer. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1184 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10302009 Life in second- and third-century Jerusalem couldn't have been easy, but St. Narcissus managed to live well beyond 100. Some even speculate he lived to 160. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1878 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10292009 Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except, of course, where all the apostles are referred to. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to "Jude" in English. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1182 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10282009 Dominicans honor one of their own today, Blessed Bartholomew of Vicenza. This was a man who used his skills as a preacher to challenge the heresies of his day. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1181 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10272009 Contardo Ferrini was the son of a teacher who went on to become a learned man himself, one acquainted with some dozen languages. Today he is known as the patron of universities. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1180 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10262009 God's plan in a person's life often takes unexpected turns which become life-giving through cooperation with God's grace. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1179 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10252009 The "spiritual father of Cuba" was a missionary, religious founder, social reformer, queen's chaplain, writer and publisher, archbishop and refugee. He was a Spaniard whose work took him to the Canary Islands, Cuba, Madrid, Paris and to the First Vatican Council. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1178 webdev@americancatholic.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0500 sod10242009