Saints of the Day

St. Apollinaris Feast date: Jan 08 St. Apollinaris was one of the first great martyrs of the church.  He was made Bishop of Ravenna by St. Peter. The miracles he conducted in Ravenna soon attracted official attention, for they and his preaching won many converts to the faith. However, at the same time, his words … Read more

St. Francis Xavier Feast date: Dec 03 On Dec. 3, the Roman Catholic Church honors St. Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits who went on to evangelize vast portions of Asia. Francis Xavier was born during 1506 in the Kingdom of Navarre, a region now divided between Spain and France. His mother was an … Read more

St. Foillan Feast date: Oct 31 St. Foillan was born in 7th-century Ireland and was the brother of St. Fursey and St. Ultan. He joined them in England, where they were working as missionaries, and had established a monastery near Yarmouth. During a war between the Mercians and Anglo-Saxons, c.650, the monastery was destroyed and many of … Read more

St. Raymond of Penafort Feast date: Jan 07 Saint Raymond of Penafort, a Dominican priest who worked to aid Christian captives during the era of the Crusades and also helped organize the Church’s legal code, will be celebrated liturgically on Jan. 7. A contemporary of Saint Thomas Aquinas, he inspired the theologian to write the … Read more

Feast date: Dec 02 Elisa Angela Meneguzzi was born on September 12, 1901, to poor and humble farming family in Padua, Italy. She manifested an ardently spiritual soul and spent hours in prayer, attended Mass every day and taught catechism. In 1926, willing to totally donate her life to God, she joined the Sisters Congregation of Saint … Read more

St. Andre Bessette Feast date: Jan 06 Brother André was born Alfred Bessette to a poor Quebec family in 1845, a biography from St. Joseph’s Oratory says. His father died in a work accident when he was nine, and his mother died three years later. His large family was split up and the future Brother … Read more

St. Alonso Rodriguez Feast date: Oct 30 On October 30, the Catholic Church honors a man whose humble occupation gave the world only glimpses of his extraordinary holiness. During his lifetime, Brother Alonso Rodriguez never became a priest, published a book, or advanced professionally. But writings discovered after his death revealed a true mystic, who … Read more

St. John Nepomucene Neumann Feast date: Jan 05 John Neumann was born on March 28, 1811, in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. His parents were Philip and Agnes Neumann. He had four sisters and a brother. After college, John entered the seminary. When the time came for his ordination, the bishop was sick … Read more

St. Edmund Campion Feast date: Dec 01 Edmund Campion was born in London on January 25, 1540. He was raised as a Catholic, and had such a powerful and flamboyant intellect that at the age of only 17, he was made a junior fellow at Saint John’s College of Oxford University. On visiting the university, Queen … Read more

Feast date: Oct 29 Helen Kafka was born in 1894 to a shoemaker and grew up in Vienna, Austria. At the age of 20, she decided to join the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity and took the name Restituta after an early Church martyr. In 1919, she began working as a surgical nurse in Austria. When the … Read more