Cristy Li

St. Maria di Rosa (1813-1855)
Image Courtesy: St. Paul Street Evangelization

(EWTN) Born into a wealthy family at Italy Brescia, Maria is the founder of the Handmaids of Charity (also known as the ‘Servants of Charity’) by the age of 17 Maria was managing her father’s household and caring for the girls in her father’s mill and estate.

During the cholera epidemic of 1836 Maria became well known as she directed a ‘Home for Girls’ together with another residence for deaf an mute children and young ladies. In 1840 Maria became Superior of a community that evolved into a congregation — the Women of the ‘Servants of Charity’ ministered to the wounded on the battlefield of Northern Italy and in hospitals.

Sister Maria passed away on this date, in 1940 – she was Beatified and Canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII

More here from SQPN and here from Catholic Online

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Image Courtesy: Catholic Online@Facebook

(Franciscan Media) Born in Spain as Juan de Santa Maria de Yepes according to SQPN Juan became a Carmelite Lay Brother in 1563 studying for the Priesthood in NW Spain at Salamanca – Ordained a Priest in 1567 he took the name St. John of the Cross.

John is a Saint because his life was a heroic effort
to live up to his name:

• “If anyone want to become My followers,
  let them deny themselves
  and take up their cross and follow Me.”  Mark 8:34

Partnering with St. Teresa of Avila (Feast Day: 15 October) Fr. John vowed himself to the primitive Rule of the Discalced Carmelites ‘discalced’ meaning barefoot, symbolizing the simplicity which they chose to return the Order after a period of corruption. Fr. John engaged in the work of reform and came to experience the life of it from stiff opposition, misunderstanding and persecution–Fr. John in his lifetime, came to know the Cross he took up acutely.

Fr. John passed away on this date in 1591 in Spain, was Beatified in 1675 by Pope Clement X and Canonized in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII

More here from EWTN

Related: For Today’s Holy Scripture Readings for the Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Visit: -USCCB

St. Lucy of Syracuse (283-304)

(Franciscan Media) Every young girl named Lucy must bite her tongue in disappointment when she attempts to find out what there is to know about her Patron Saint.

Lucy was born in Sicily Syracuse into a wealthy devout Christian family according to SQPN at an early Lucy vowed a life for Christ. When Lucy’s father passed away when she was still quite young, her Mother Eutychia arranged a marriage for her. For three years, Lucy managed to keep the marriage on hold.

to change her mother’s mind about her being married, Lucy prayed at the tomb of St. Agatha (Feast Day: 05 February) and her mother’s long hemorrhagic illness was cured. Subsequently Lucy’s mother agreed with Lucy’s desire to live for God.

Paschasius (Lucy’s disappointed suitor) wasn’t nearly as understanding. Accusing Lucy of being a Christian to the Governor of Sicily, she was sentenced to ‘forced prostitution’ – When the guard went to get Lucy, they could not move her even when they hitched a team of oxen to her. Subsequently as a result of this, the Governor of Sicily ordered that Lucy be tortured (which included blinding her) and burned to death. — Lucy was surrounded by bundles of wood but when the fire was set a blaze it went out. Lucy was subsequently Martyred by being stabbed to death.

One can easily imagine what a young Woman had to contend with in pagan Sicily in the year 300–If one has difficulty imagining, just take a look at today’s removal of God from all places an ‘pleasure at all cost’ society and the barriers it presents at leading an honorable Christian life.

Lucy’s ‘friends’ must have wondered aloud about Lucy’s hero, an obscure itinerant preacher in a far-away captive nation that was once a carpenter, that had been crucified by Roman soldiers after His own people turned against Him. — Lucy though believed with her whole being that this man named Jesus, had risen from the dead. Heaven had put a stamp on all He said and did, to give witness to her faith she had made a vow of chastity.

What a ruckus Lucy’s desire to lead a Christian life of chastity among her pagan acquaintances, the kindlier ones may have thought this was just a little peculiar, to be pure before marriage, though an ancient Roman ideal, it was rarely found but never condemned. To exclude marriage altogether, this was just too much in that day, Lucy must have something sinister to hide.

Lucy knew of the heroism of earlier virgin martyrs for Christ and she remained faithful to their example and the Carpenter whom she knew as the Son of God.

What an inspiring ‘Saint of the Day’ for all Christians — Lucy was an authentic first class heroine, an abiding inspiration for all Christians, whose moral courage shines forth as a guiding light for future generations just as it did in Lucy’s day.

More here from EWTN

Related: For Today’s Bible Readings for the Memorial of St. Lucy, Visit: -USCCB

Pope Saint Damasus I –Image: Pinterest

(CatholicOnline@Facebook) All lovers of scripture have reason to celebrate this date. Damasus was the Pope that commissioned Saint Jerome to translate the scriptures into Latin, the Vulgate version of the  Bible.

To his Secretary St. Jerome, Damasus was “an incomparable person, learned in the scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin Church, who loved chastity and heard its praises with pleasure.”

As Pope, his lifestyle was simple in contrast to other ecclesiastics of Rome and he was fierce in his denunciation of Arianism and other heresies. A misunderstanding of the Trinitarian terminology used by Rome threatened amicable relations with the Eastern Church and Damasus was only moderately successful in dealing with that challenge.

More here from Catholic Online and here from Franciscan Media

Blessed Fr. Adolph Kolping (1813-1865) –Image: The Black Cordelias

(Franciscan Media) Born in the village of Kerpen Germany in 1813 Adolph Kolping became a shoemaker at an early age because of his families economic situation–Ordained in 1845, Kolping ministered to young workers in Cologne, establishing a choir which by 1849 grew into the ‘Young Workman’s Society’ a branch of this began in St Louis, Missouri in 1856

Nine years later, there were over 400 ‘Gersellenvereine’ (workman societies) around the world more commonly called the Kolping Societies today this group has over 500,000 members in 54 countries emphasizing the sanctification of the family life and dignity of labor.

Father Kolping, worked to improve conditions for workers and greatly assisted those in need.

Father Kolping once told his followers: “The first thing a person finds in life and the last to which he holds out his hand and the most precious he possesses even if he does not realize it, is his family.”

Blessed Fr. Kolping was beatified by Pope John Paul II on the 27 October, 1991 who said during his homily:

“Adolph Kolping gathered skilled workers and factory laborers together thus he overcome their isolation and defeatism–a faith society gave them strength to go out into their everyday lives as Christ’s witnesses before God and the world, to come together, to become strengthened in the assembly and thus to scatter again is and still remains our duty today. We are not Christians for ourselves alone but always for others too.”

More here on Blessed Fr. Adolph Kolping from The Black Cordelias

(Franciscan Media) A feast called the ‘Conception of Mary’ arose in the Eastern Church during the 7th Century and came to the West in the 8th Century.

In the 11th century it received its present name–the ‘Immaculate Conception’ and during the 18th century it became a feast of the universal Church and is now recognized as a solemnity.

In 1854, Pius IX solemnly proclaimed: “The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

It took a long time for this doctrine to develop. While many Fathers and Doctors of the Church considered Mary the greatest and holiest of the Saints, they often had difficulty in seeing Mary as sinless–either at her conception or throughout her life. This is one of the Church teachings that arose more from the piety of the faithful than from the insights of the brilliant theologians. Even such champions of Mary as Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas, could not see theological justification for this teaching.

Two Franciscans, William of Ware and Blessed John Duns Scotus, helped develop the theology–pointing out that Mary’s Immaculate Conception enhances Jesus’ redemptive work. Other members of the human race are cleaned from original sin after birth.

In Mary, Jesus’ work was so powerful as to prevent original sin at the outset.

More here from EWTN

Related: For Today’s Bible Readings and More Visit -USCCB

Immaculate Conception Pendant here -Catholic Shopping.com