Category: Saints For March

Saint for Today - St Joseph

3/19/2014

Sermon by St. Bernard the Abbot

Who and what manner of man this blessed Joseph was, we may conjecture from that title which the providential ordering of God bestowed upon him. He was chosen to the honour of being called, and of being supposed to be, the father of God. What he was we may also conjecture from the very name Joseph, which is to be interpreted as Increase. Wherefore let us liken him to that great man after whom he was named, the Patriarch Joseph. This latter sojourned in Egypt, even as he did. From this latter he not only inherited a name, but an example of chastity which he more than equalled, so that he was like unto the Patriarch Joseph in grace and innocence.

If the Patriarch Joseph (sold by his brethren through envy, and forced into servitude in Egypt) was a type of Christ sold by his brethren and handed over to the Gentiles, the other Joseph (forced through the envy of Herod to flee into Egypt) did in actual fact bring Christ amongst the Egyptian Gentiles. The first Joseph (keeping faith with his lord) would not carnally know his lord's lady. The second Joseph (spiritually knowing the Lady who was the Mother of his Lord to be virgin) kept faithfully virgin toward her. To the first Joseph was given to know dark things in the interpretation of dreams. To the second Joseph was given in sleep to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

The first Joseph laid by bread, not for himself only, but for all the people. The second Joseph received into his keeping the Living Bread which came down from heaven, and he kept the same, not for himself only, but for all the world. Without doubt, good and faithful was this Joseph who espoused the Mother of the Saviour. Yea, I say unto you, he is that faithful and wise servant whom the Lord hath made ruler over his Household. For the Lord appointed him to be the comfort of his Mother, the keeper of his own body, and, in a word, the chief and most trusty helper on earth in carrying out the eternal counsels.

When as his Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost.

Sermon by St. Jerome the Priest

Why was the Lord conceived of a virgin already espoused, rather than of one as yet unpledged to a man? For one thing, because from the genealogy of Joseph, the lineage of Mary as a descendant of David, and thus of her Child, could be the more easily established. For another, because by this betrothal Mary would be saved from being stoned by the Jews as an adulteress. Again, because thereby Mary was given a guardian during the flight into Egypt. To these reasons the Martyr Ignatius added another, namely; that the virgin birth might take place unknown to the devil, who would naturally suppose that Mary had conceived by Joseph.

Before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. That is, she was found so to be by Joseph, not by any one else, for he already had almost an husband's privilege to know all that concerned her. But when it is said: Before they came together: it doth not follow that they ever did come together carnally. The Scripture is to be understood merely in the sense that up to this time they had not done so.

Saint for Today - St Cyril of Jerusalem

3/18/2014

Cyril of Jerusalem was given to the study of the Sacred Scriptures from childhood, and made such progress that he became an eminent champion of the true faith. He embraced the monastic state, and bound himself to perpetual chastity and austerity of life. He was ordained priest by St. Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, and undertook the work of preaching the divine word to the faithful and instructing the catechumens, in which he won the highest praise. He was the author of those truly wonderful Catechetical Instructions which embrace clearly and fully all the teaching of the Church, and contain an excellent defence of the dogmas of religion against the enemies of the Faith. His treatment of these subjects is so distinct and clear that he refutes not only the heresies of his own time, but also, by a kind of foreknowledge, as it were, those which were to arise later. And so he plainly teaches the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the wonderful Sacrament of the Eucharist. On the death of St. Maximus, the bishops of the province chose Cyril in his place.

As bishop he endured, like blessed Athanasius, his contemporary, many wrongs and sufferings for the sake of the faith at the hands of the Arians. They could not bear his strenuous opposition to their heresy, and thus assailed him with calumnies, deposed him in a pseudo-council, and drove him from his see. To escape their rage he fled to Tarsus in Cilicia and, as long as Constantius lived, he bore the hardships of exile. On his death, and at the ascension of Julian the Apostate to the empire, Cyril was able to return to Jerusalem, where he set himself, with burning zeal, to deliver his flock from errors and vices. He was driven into exile a second time, under the emperor Valens, but when peace was restored to the Church by Theodosius the Great, and the cruelty and insolence of the Arians were restrained, he was received with honour by the emperor as a most valiant soldier of Christ, and restored to his see. With what earnestness and holiness he fulfilled the duties of his exalted office was proved by the flourishing state of the church at Jerusalem at that time, as described by St. Basil who spent some time there on a pilgrimage to the holy places.

Tradition states that God made the holiness of this venerable prelate illustrious by signs from heaven. Among these is numbered the apparition of a shining cross, brighter than the rays of the sun, which was seen at the beginning of his episcopate. Not only Cyril himself, but pagans and Christians alike were witnesses of this miracle which Cyril, after having given thanks unto God in church, announced by letter to Constantius. A thing no less wonderful came to pass when the Jews were commanded by the impious emperor Julian to restore the Temple which had been destroyed by Titus. A violent earthquake occurred, and great balls of fire burst out of the earth, and consumed all the works, so that Julian and the Jews were struck with terror and gave up their plan; all of which had been clearly foretold by Cyril. A little while before his death, he was present at the ecumenical Council of Constantinople, where the heresies of Macedonius, and, once more, that of Arius were condemned. After his return to Jerusalem, being nearly seventy years old, he died a holy death in the thirty-fifth year of his episcopate. Pope Leo XIII ordered that his Office and Mass should be said throughout the Universal Church.

Saint for Today - St Patrick

3/16/2014

Patrick, called the Apostle of Ireland, was born in Great Britain. The name of his father was Calphurnius, and that of his mother Conchessa. She is said to have been a relation of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. When Patrick was a youth, he was several times taken prisoner by savages, and while being in their hands he was employed as a shepherd, he already shewed marks of his saintliness to come. His spirit was filled with faith, and love, and fear of God, so that he would rise before the light, in snow, and frost, and rain, to make his prayers to God, being accustomed to address God in prayer an hundred times every day, and an hundred times every night. After being rescued from his third captivity, he was placed among the clergy, and for a long time exercised himself in sacred learning. To this end, he travelled with much labour, through Gaul, Italy, and the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but at last being called of God to work for the salvation of the Irish, and having received from the Blessed Pope Celestine a commission to preach the Gospel, and likewise being consecrated a Bishop, he betook himself to Ireland.

In the discharge of his calling it is a marvel with how many evils, with how many sufferings and labours, and with how many adversaries the Apostolic Patrick had to bear. Nevertheless, by the goodness of God, that island, which had up to that time been given over to the serving of idols, was, through the preaching of Patrick, so wrought on that she soon brought the fruit which won her the name of the Island of Saints. Patrick caused many of her people to be born again by the washing of regeneration; he ordained many Bishops and clerks; he decreed rules for virgins and widows living in continency. By the authority of the Bishop of Rome he established the See of Armagh as the Primatial See of all Ireland, and enriched the Church with relicks of the Saints brought from Rome. Patrick, moreover, was so eminently adorned with heavenly visions, with the gift of prophecy, and with great signs and wonders from God, that the fame of him spread itself abroad more and more, day by day.

Besides that which came upon him daily, the care of all the Churches of Ireland, he never suffered his spirit to weary in constant prayer. They say that it was his custom to repeat every day the whole Book of Psalms, together with Songs and Hymns, and two hundred Prayers; that he bent his knees to God in worship three hundred times every day, and that he made on himself the sign of the Cross an hundred times at each of the Seven Hours of the Church Service. He divided the night into three portions; during the first he repeated the first hundred Psalms, and bent his knees two hundred times; during the second he remained plunged in cold water, with heart, eyes, and hands lifted up to heaven, and in that state repeated the remaining fifty Psalms; during the third he took his short rest, lying upon a bare stone. He was a great practiser of lowliness, and, after the pattern of the Apostle, he always continued to work with his own hands. At last he fell asleep in the Lord in extreme old age, refreshed with the Divine Mysteries, worn out with unceasing care for the Churches, and glorious both in word and work. His body is buried in Down in Ulster. He passed away in the fifth century after the giving of salvation by Christ.

March 15th - St Clement Hofbauer

3/15/2014

St. Clement Hofbauer was born in Tasswitz, Moravia (now the Czech Republic) on December 26, 1751. In his early youth, after the death of his father, he worked as an apprentice baker. Having become a servant in the Norbertine Abbey at Klosterbruck, he was able to follow the call to the priesthood by completing first his secondary schooling and then his catechetical, philosophical, and theological studies in Vienna, Austria. During this time he made yearly pilgrimages to Rome, where he encountered the Redemptorists.

On October 24, 1784, with his friend Thaddeus Hübl, Clement entered the Redemptorist Congregation. Both professed religious vows on March 19, 1785, and were ordained priests on March 29. As vicar general of the Congregation north of the Alps, Clement founded the first house of the Redemptorists in Warsaw, Poland. Other houses were established in Poland, Prussia, Germany, Switzerland, and Romania. He lived in Warsaw from 1787 to 1808, and with the collaboration of lay people of various nationalities, he developed a very fruitful apostolate, promoting good works and strengthening the piety of the faithful.

With the takeover of Poland by Napolean, the Redemptorists were suppressed and Hofbauer — forced to leave Warsaw — made his way to Vienna. In 1813 he was appointed rector of the church of the Ursulines. Through the charisms of spiritual direction, preaching, confession, and works of charity, he converted and helped people of every social class. Hofbauer's activity influenced the Congress of Vienna and the culture of the time, especially the Romantic Movement.

Clement died at Vienna on March 15, 1820. He was canonized by St. Pius X on May 20, 1909. He is co-patron of both Vienna and Warsaw.

The shrine of St. Clement Hofbauer is in the church Maria am Gestade in Vienna, Austria.

March 14th - St. Matilda

3/14/2014

St. Matilda was born about 895, the daughter of a German count. When she was still quite young, her parents arranged her marriage to a nobleman named Henry. Soon after their marriage, Henry became king of Germany. As queen, Matilda lived a simple lifestyle with times for daily prayer.

Everyone who saw her realized how good and kind she was. She was more like a mother than a queen. She loved to visit and comfort the sick. She helped prisoners. Matilda did not let herself be spoiled by her position, but tried to reach out to people in need.

King Henry realized that his wife was an extraordinary person. He told her many times that he was a better person and a better king because she was his wife. Even though their marriage had been arranged, Henry and Matilda really loved each other.

Matilda founded several Benedictine abbeys, and was free to use the treasures of the kingdom for charity. King Henry never questioned her. In fact, he became more aware of the needs of people. He realized that he had the power to ease suffering because of his position. The couple were happily married for twenty-three years. Then King Henry died quite suddenly in 936.

The queen suffered the loss very much. She decided then and there to live for God alone. So she called the priest to celebrate Mass for King Henry’s soul. Then she gave the priest all the jewels she was wearing. She did this to show that she meant to give up the things of the world from then on.

Although she was a saint, Matilda made mistakes. She favored her son, Henry, more than her son, Otto, in the struggle to be king. She was sorry for having done this. She made up for it by accepting without complaint the sufferings that came her way. Nevertheless, she was betrayed by Otto after Henry’s death when he falsely accused her of financial mismanagement.   After years spent in practising charity and penance, St. Matilda died peacefully in 968. She was buried beside her husband. From St. Matilda we can learn to offer up little sufferings to make up for our sins and mistakes.

March 13 - St Roderick

3/13/2014

Roderick, also known as Ruderic, was a priest in Cabra, Spain during the persecution of Christians by the Moors.

Roderick had two brothers, one was a Muslim and the other, a fallen-away Catholic. One day, he tried to stop an argument between his two brothers. However, his brothers turned on him and as a result he was beaten into unconsciousness. The Muslim brother then paraded Roderick through the streets proclaiming that he wished to become a Muslim. His brother also told the authorities that Roderick had converted to Islam.

When Roderic awoke, he renounced his brothers story and told the authorities of his loyalty to the Catholic faith. The authorities accused Roderick of apostacy under Sharia Law and he was imprisoned.While in prison, he met a man named Solomon, also charged with apostasy.

After a long imprisonment, they were both beheaded.

Saint for Today - St Gregory the Great

3/12/2014

Gregory the Great was a Roman, the son of Gordian the Senator. As a young man he studied philosophy, and afterwards discharged the office of Praetor. After his father's death he built six monasteries in Sicily, and a seventh in honour of St. Andrew, in his own house at Rome, hard by the Church of Saints John and Paul at the ascent of the hill Scaurus. In this monastery of St. Andrew, he and his masters, Hilarion and Maximian, professed themselves monks, and Gregory was afterwards Abbot. Later on, he was created a Cardinal Deacon, and sent to Constantinople as legate from Pope Pelagius to the Emperor Tiberius Constantine. Before the Emperor he so successfully disputed against the Patriarch Eutychius, who had denied that our bodies shall verily and indeed rise again, that the Prince threw the book of the said Patriarch into the fire. Eutychius himself also soon after fell sick, and when he felt death coming on him, he took hold of the skin of his own hand said in in the hearing of many that stood by: I acknowledge that we shall all rise again in the flesh.

Gregory returned to Rome, and, Pelagius being dead of a plague, he was unanimously chosen Pope. This honour he refused as long as he could. He disguised himself and took refuge in a cave, but was betrayed by a fiery pillar. Being discovered and overruled, he was consecrated at the grave of St. Peter. He left behind him many ensamples of doctrine and holiness to them that have followed him in the Popedom. Every day he brought pilgrims to his table, and among them he entertained not an Angel only, but the very Lord of Angels in the guise of a pilgrim. He tenderly cared for the poor, of whom he kept a list, as well without as within the city. He restored the Catholic faith in many places where it had been overthrown. He fought successfully against the Donatists in Africa and the Arians in Spain. He cleansed Alexandria of the Agnoites. He refused to give the Pall to Syagrius, Bishop of Autun, unless he would expel the Neophyte heretics from Gaul. He caused the Goths to abandon the Arian heresy. He sent into Britain Augustine and divers other learned and holy monks, who brought the inhabitants of that island to believe in Jesus Christ. Hence Gregory is justly called by Bede, the Priest of Jarrow, the Apostle of England. He rebuked the presumption of John, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had taken to himself the title of Bishop of the Universal Church, and he dissuaded the Emperor Maurice from forbidding soldiers to become monks.

Gregory adorned the Church with holy customs and laws. He called together a Synod in the Church of St. Peter, and therein ordained many things; among others, the ninefold repetition of the words Kyrie eleison in the Mass, the saying of the word Alleluia in the Church service except between Septuagesima inclusive and Easter exclusive, and the addition to the Canon of the Mass of the words: Do thou order all our days in thy peace. He increased the Litanies, the number of the Churches where is held the observance called a Station, and the length of the Church Service. He would that the four Councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon should be honoured like four Gospels. He released the Sicilian Bishop from visiting Rome every three years, willing them to come instead once every five years. He was the author of many books, and Peter the Deacon declareth that he often saw the Holy Ghost on his head in the form of a dove when he was dictating them. It is a marvel how much he spoke, did, wrote, and legislated, suffering all the while from a weak and sickly body. He worked many miracles. At last God called him away to be blessed for ever in heaven, in the thirteenth year, sixth month, and tenth day of his Pontificate, being the 12th day of March. This day is observed by the Greeks, as well as by the Western Church, as a festival, on account of the eminent wisdom and holiness of this Pope. His body was buried in the Church of St. Peter, hard by the Private Chapel.

Saint for Today - St Eulogius

3/11/2014

ST. EULOGIUS was of a senatorian family of Cordova, at that time the capital of the Moors in Spain. Our Saint was educated among the clergy of the Church of St. Zoilus, a martyr who suffered with nineteen others under Diocletian. Here he distinguished himself, by his virtue and learning, and, being made priest, was placed at the head of the chief ecclesiastical school at Cordova. He joined assiduous watching, fasting, and prayer to his studies, and his humility, mildness, and charity gained him the affection and respect of every one. During the persecution raised against the Christians in the year 850, St. Eulogius was thrown into prison and there wrote his Exhortation to Martyrdom, addressed to the virgins Flora and Mary, who were beheaded the 24th of November, 851. Six days after their death Eulogius was set at liberty. In the year 852 several others suffered the like martyrdom. St. Eulogius encouraged all these martyrs to their triumphs, and was the support of that distressed flock.

The Archbishop of Toledo dying in 858 St. Eulogius was elected to succeed him; but there was some obstacle that hindered him from being consecrated, though he did not outlive his election two months. A virgin, by name Leocritia, of a noble family among the Moors, had been instructed from her infancy in the Christian religion by one of her relatives, and privately baptized. Her father and mother used her very ill, and scourged her day and night to compel her to renounce the Faith. Having made her condition known to St. Eulogius and his sister Anulona, intimating that she desired to go where she might freely exercise her religion, they secretly procured her the means of getting away, and concealed her for some time among faithful friends. But the matter was at length discovered, and they were all brought before the cadi, who threatened to have Eulogius scourged to death. The Saint told him that his torments would be of no avail, for he would never change his religion. Whereupon the cadi gave orders that he should be carried to the palace and be presented before the king's council. Eulogius began boldly to propose the truths of the Gospel to them. But, to prevent their hearing him, the council condemned him immediately to lose his head. As they were leading him to execution, one of the guards gave him a blow on the face, for having spoken against Mahomet; he turned the other cheek, and patiently received a second. He received the stroke of death with great cheerfulness, on the 11th of March, 859. St. Leocritia was beheaded four days after him, and her body thrown into the river Guadalquivir, but taken out by the Christians.

Saints for Today - The Forty Holy Martyrs

3/10/2014

While Licinius was Emperor and Agricolaus Governor, forty soldiers at Sebaste, a city of Armenia, gave a singular instance of faith in Jesus Christ, and bravery under suffering. After being often remanded to an horrid prison-house, bound in fetters, and their mouths bruised with stones, they were ordered out in the depth of winter, stripped naked, and put upon a frozen pool, to die of cold during the night. The prayer of them all was the same: O Lord, forty of us have begun to run in the race, grant that all forty may receive the crown, let not one be wanting at the last. Behold, is it not an honourable number in thy sight, who didst bless the fast of forty days, and at the end thy Divine Law came forth to the earth? When also Elias sought thee, thou, O God, didst reveal thyself unto him when he had fasted for forty days. Even so was their petition.

When the keepers were all asleep and the watchman only was awake, he heard them praying and saw a light shining round about them, and Angels coming down from heaven, as the messengers of the King, bearing nine-and-thirty crowns, and distributing them to the soldiers. Then he said within himself: Are not forty here? Where is the crown of the fortieth? And as he looked he saw one of them whose courage could not bear the cold, come and leap into a warm bath that stood by; and the Saints were grievously afflicted. Nevertheless God suffered not that their prayer should return unto them void; for the watchman wondered, and called the keepers, and stripped himself of his clothes; and, when with a loud voice he had confessed himself a Christian, he joined the Martyrs. When the servants of the Governor knew that the watchman also was a Christian, they brake the legs of them all with staves.

Under this torment died they all, saving Melithon, who was the youngest. Now, his mother stood by, and when she saw that his legs were broken, but that he was yet alive, she cried, and said: My son, have patience but a little longer. Behold how Christ standeth at the door to help thee. When she saw the bodies of all the others put upon carts and taken away to be burned, and that her son was left behind, because the multitude wickedly hoped that being but a youth, if he lived, he might yet be drawn to commit idolatry, the holy mother took him on her own shoulders and bravely followed behind the carts laden with the bodies of the Martyrs. In her arms Melithon gave up his soul unto God, and the mother who loved him so well laid his body with her own hands upon the pile, with those of the other Martyrs, that, as they had all been one in faith and strength, in death they might not be divided, and might enter heaven together. After the burning, what remained of them was thrown into a running stream, but the ashes were all washed together into one place, and being found and rescued, they were laid in an honourable sepulchre.

Saint for Today - St John of God

3/8/2014

John of God was born of Catholic and devout parents in the town of Montemor o Novo, in the kingdom of Portugal. The lot to which the Lord had elected him was distinguished; at the very hour of his birth this was clearly foretold, when an unusual light was shining over his home and a bronze bell was ringing without human aid. Recalled from a lax way of living by the grace of God, he began to give an example of great holiness. A sermon he heard on the word of God so encouraged him to better things, that from the very beginning of this more holy life, he seemed to have attained the height of perfection. He gave all he possessed to the poor who were in prison. He shewed great contempt of self in public by such unusual penances that many thought he was seriously afflicted with lunacy, and he was thrown into a prison for the insane. But John, all the more inflamed with celestial charity, collected alms from the devout sufficient to build two large hospitals in the city of Granada. Here he also founded the new Order of Brothers Hospitallers, with which he enriched the Church; its object was to assist the sick, both in their spiritual and corporeal wants; it spread far and wide throughout the world.

He often carried the sick poor on his own shoulders to the hospital, and there he provided them with everything they could want, whether for soul or body. His charity was also exercised outside the hospital; he secretly provided food for needy widows, and especially for virgins whose virtue was in danger, and with indefatigable zeal he laboured to drive out the lust of the flesh from those of his neighbours who were stained with this vice. On the occasion of an immense fire breaking out in the royal hospital of Granada, John fearlessly rushed into the flames, ran through the several wards, taking the sick upon his shoulders, and saving the beds from the flames by passing them through the windows; although half an hour in middle of the flames which now raged with wildest fury, by the mercy of God he came forth uninjured to the astonishment of the whole city; thus clearly shewing to the disciples of love, that the fire which burned outside of him was weaker than the fire which burned within him.

He excelled in every kind of austerity, in the most humble obedience, extreme poverty, zeal for prayer, contemplation of divine things, and a wonderful devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and he was noted for the gift of tears. At length, falling seriously ill, he fervently received all the sacraments of the Church. Though reduced to a state of utter weakness, he dressed himself, rose from his bed, fell on his knees, devoutly took the image of Christ the Lord hanging on the Cross into his hands, pressed it to his heart, and died (as it were) in the embrace of the Lord, on the 8th day of March, in the year of salvation 1550. His body remained in this attitude, holding the crucifix, for about six hours after his death, until it was forcibly removed. The whole city came to see the corpse which remained in such a strange position, giving forth a remarkably fragrant odour. Made famous by many miracles before and after death, the Sovereign Pontiff Alexander VIII added him to the number of the Saints; and Leo XIII, at the desire of the bishops of the Catholic world, and after consulting the Sacred Congregation of Rites, declared him the patron in heaven of all hospitals and sick persons of every place, and ordered that his name should be invoked in the litany for the dying.