10/30/2021 – St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
St. Alphonsus (also known as Alonso) was born in Spain in 1532. He married when he was 26, and worked as a cloth merchant. After a series of personal tragedies — his wife and two of their children had died by the time he was 31, his last child died after he embraced a life […]
10/29/2021 – St. Narcissus
St. Narcissus was born towards the end of the first century in AD 99. He was almost 80-years-old when he was placed at the head of the church of Jerusalem, making him the 30th bishop of that see. In 195, he and Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, presided together in a council of the […]
10/28/2021 – Saints Simon and Jude
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 mentioned. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because […]
10/27/2021 – Bl. Contardo Ferrini
Blessed Contardo Ferrini was born of a distinguished family on April 4, 1859. When he was still a student in high school and college he encouraged his companions to lead good lives and exercised a kind of lay apostolate among them. After winning his doctorate in law, he obtained a government scholarship to study abroad. […]
10/26/2021 – St. Evaristus
St. Evaristus succeeded St. Clement in the See of Rome in the reign of Trajan and governed the Church about eight years, being the fourth successor of St. Peter. The Liber Pontificalis says that he was the son of a Hellenic Jew of Bethlehem, and, certainly incorrectly, that he divided Rome into several “titles” or […]
10/25/2021 – St. Richard Gwyn
One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Also called Richard White, he was born in Montgomeryshire, Wales, in 1547, and studied at Cambridge University, England. Converted from Protestantism, he returned to Wales in 1562, married, had six children, and opened a school. Arrested in 1579, he spent four years in prison before his […]
10/24/2021 – St. Raphael the Archangel
St. Raphael is the patron saint of travelers, the blind, bodily ills, happy meetings, nurses, physicians and medical workers. He is often pictured holding a staff and either holding or standing on a fish.
10/23/2021 – St. Allucio
Allas giver, founder, and miracle worker. He was a shepherd in Pescia, Tuscany, in Italy, when he became the director of the almshouse in Valdi Nievole. Allucio also built shelters in mountain passes and at rivers. The group with which he worked became the Brothers of St. Allucio. A miracle worker known throughout the region, […]
St. Philip of Thrace
Philip was a bishop in the time of the Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians. When the orders against Christians were first published in his city, many who loved him begged him to leave. But he would not even consider it. The door of his Church was sealed up first of all, so he held services […]
10/21/2021 – St. Hilarion
Hilarion the Great (291–371) was an anchorite who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Anthony the Great (c. 251–356). While St Anthony is considered to have established Christian monasticism in the Egyptian desert, St Hilarion is considered by some to be the founder of Palestinian monasticism and venerated as […]