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 2013 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en-us Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 720 webdev@franciscanmedia.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 Matt can be considered the patron of men and women struggling with alcoholism. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1418 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6182013 Even as a young man, Joseph loved to attend Mass and was known for his humility and fervor in prayer. After his ordination he was assigned to a seminary in Turin. There he worked especially against the spirit of Jansenism, an excessive preoccupation with sin and damnation. Joseph used the works of St. Francis de Sales and St. Alphonsus Liguori to moderate the rigorism popular at the seminary. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1417 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 17 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6172013 Born into a family of some wealth, John Francis was so impressed by his Jesuit educators that he himself wished to enter the Society of Jesus. He did so at age 18. Despite his rigorous academic schedule he spent many hours in chapel, often to the dismay of fellow seminarians who were concerned about his health. Following his ordination to the priesthood, he undertook missionary work in various French towns. While the formal sermons of the day tended toward the poetic, his discourses were plain. But they revealed the fervor within him and attracted people of all classes. Father Regis especially made himself available to the poor. Many mornings were spent in the confessional or at the altar celebrating Mass; afternoons were reserved for visits to prisons and hospitals. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1416 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 16 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6162013 An unexpected encounter with St. Francis of Assisi in 1213 was to forever change--and enrich--the life of Count Orlando of Chiusi. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1415 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 15 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6152013 Born in Igolomia near Kraków as the eldest of four children in a wealthy family, he was christened Adam. During the 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III, Adam's wounds forced the amputation of his left leg. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1414 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6142013 The gospel call to leave everything and follow Christ was the rule of Anthony's life. Over and over again God called him to something new in his plan. Every time Anthony responded with renewed zeal and self-sacrificing to serve his Lord Jesus more completely.His journey as the servant of God began as a very young man when he decided to join the Augustinians, giving up a future of wealth and power to be a servant of God. Later, when the bodies of the first Franciscan martyrs went through the Portuguese city where he was stationed, he was again filled with an intense longing to be one of those closest to Jesus himself: those who die for the Good News. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1413 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 13 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6132013 Jolenta was the daughter of Bela IV, King of Hungary. Her sister, St. Kunigunde, was married to the Duke of Poland. Jolenta was sent to Poland where her sister was to supervise her education. Eventually married to Boleslaus, the Duke of Greater Poland, Jolenta was able to use her material means to assist the poor, the sick, widows and orphans. Her husband joined her in building hospitals, convents and churches so that he was surnamed "the Pious." http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1412 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 12 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6122013 Barnabas, a Jew of Cyprus, comes as close as anyone outside the Twelve to being a full-fledged apostle. He was closely associated with St. Paul (he introduced Paul to Peter and the other apostles) and served as a kind of mediator between the former persecutor and the still suspicious Jewish Christians. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1411 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 11 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6112013 Born into an aristocratic family in Barcelona, Spain, Joachima was 12 when she expressed a desire to become a Carmelite nun. But her life took an altogether different turn at 16 with her marriage to a young lawyer, Theodore de Mas. Both deeply devout, they became secular Franciscans. During their 17 years of married life they raised eight children. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1410 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 10 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod6102013 Poet, teacher, orator and defender of the faith, Ephrem is the only Syrian recognized as a doctor of the Church. He took upon himself the special task of opposing the many false doctrines rampant at his time, always remaining a true and forceful defender of the Catholic Church. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1409 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 09 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod692013 A disputed election as archbishop of York and a mysterious death. Those are the headlines from the tragic life of today's saint. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1925 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 08 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod682013 "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church," said Tertullian in the third century. Joseph Perez carried on that tradition. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1407 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod672013 Friends sometimes jokingly mangle the name of the Premonstratensians into "Monstrous Pretensions," just as the Franciscan O.F.M. is said to mean "Out For Money." The name actually derives from Premontre, the region of France where Norbert established this Order in the 12th century. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1406 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 06 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod662013 Boniface, known as the apostle of the Germans, was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes. Two characteristics stand out: his Christian orthodoxy and his fidelity to the pope of Rome. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1405 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 05 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod652013 One of 22 Ugandan martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of tropical Africa. He protected his fellow pages (aged 13 to 30) from the homosexual demands of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga, and encouraged and instructed them in the Catholic faith during their imprisonment for refusing the ruler's demands. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1403 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 04 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod642013 Although few people had as great an impact on the 20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as possible. Indeed, one writer has noted that his "ordinariness" seems one of his most remarkable qualities. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1165 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 03 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod632013 Marcellinus and Peter were prominent enough in the memory of Church to be included among the saints of the Roman Canon. Mention of their names is optional in our present Eucharistic Prayer I. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1402 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 02 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod622013 Justin never ended his quest for religious truth even when he converted to Christianity after years of studying various pagan philosophies. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1401 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 01 Jun 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod612013 This is a fairly late feast, going back only to the 13th or 14th century. It was established widely throughout the Church to pray for unity. The present date of celebration was set in 1969 in order to follow the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25) and precede the Birthday of John the Baptist (June 24). http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1400 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 31 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5312013 The tenth century and the first half of the eleventh were dark days for the Church, partly because the papacy was the pawn of various Roman families. In 1049, things began to change when Pope Leo IX, a reformer, was elected. He brought a young monk named Hildebrand to Rome as his counselor and special representative on important missions. He was to become Gregory VII. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1399 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 30 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5302013 The legacy of Madeleine Sophie Barat can be found in the more than 100 schools operated by her Society of the Sacred Heart, institutions known for the quality of the education made available to the young. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1398 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 29 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5292013 Mary Ann grew close to God and his people during her short life. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1397 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 28 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5282013 In the year 596 a small party of some 40 monks set out from Rome to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons in England. Leading the group was Augustine, the prior of their monastery in Rome. Hardly had he and his men reached Gaul (France) when they heard stories of the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons and of the treacherous waters of the English Channel. Augustine returned to Rome and to the pope who had sent them--St. Gregory the Great--only to be assured by him that their fears were groundless. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1396 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Mon, 27 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5272013 Philip Neri was a sign of contradiction, combining popularity with piety against the background of a corrupt Rome and a disinterested clergy, the whole post-Renaissance malaise. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1395 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sun, 26 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5262013 Bede is one of the few saints honored as such even during his lifetime. His writings were filled with such faith and learning that even while he was still alive, a Church council ordered them to be read publicly in the churches. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1394 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Sat, 25 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5252013 Mystical ecstasy is the elevation of the spirit to God in such a way that the person is aware of this union with God and both internal and external senses are detached from the sensible world. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was so generously given this special gift of God that she is called the "ecstatic saint." http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1393 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Fri, 24 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5242013 Felix was the first Franciscan Capuchin ever canonized. In fact, when he was born, the Capuchins did not yet exist as a distinct group within the Franciscans. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1392 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Thu, 23 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5232013 Like Elizabeth Ann Seton, Rita of Cascia was a wife, mother, widow and member of a religious community. Her holiness was reflected in each phase of her life. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1391 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Wed, 22 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5222013 Like Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, S.J., Cristóbal and his 24 companion martyrs lived under a very anti-Catholic government in Mexico, one determined to weaken the Catholic faith of its people. Churches, schools and seminaries were closed; foreign clergy were expelled. Cristóbal established a clandestine seminary at Totatiche, Jalisco. Magallanes and the other priests were forced to minister secretly to Catholics during the presidency of Plutarco Calles (1924-28). http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1913 webdev@franciscanmedia.org Religion & Spirituality Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400 sod5212013