Reflecting on the Saints

Of the Saints and Feast Days commemorated this week: January 26th - Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops January 27th - Saint Angela Merici, Virgin January 28th - Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church January 31st - Saint John Bosco, Priest February 2nd - THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD I’ve decided to write about Saint Angela Merici . The future Saint Angela Merici was born on March 21, 1474 on a farm outside of a small town named Desezano del Garda on Lake Garda not altogether far from the city of Brescia in Lombardy , Italy .    She experienced many tragedies early in life.  When she was 10 years old, she and her older sister were left orphaned after their parents died.  Soon afterward, her older sister died as well, and the future St. Angela Merici was left to be raised by her uncle who lived in a neighboring town, also on Lake Garda , named Salò . Tragedy however has a way of focusing one’s life on “matters that endure.”  Even as a teen...

Of the various saints and other days commemorations this week: Jan 20th -- St. Fabian, Pope and Martyr   Jan 20th -- St. Sebastian, Martyr   Jan 21st -- St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr Jan 22nd -- Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children (USA) Jan 23rd -- St. Vincent, Deacon and Martyr Jan 23rd -- St. Marianne Cope, Virgin (USA) Jan 24th -- St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church   Jan 25th -- The Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle   Jan 26th -- St. Thomas Aquinas, Religious and Doctor of the Church I’ve chosen to write about St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr . I do so because along with other women martyrs of the early Church – St. Agatha (Feb. 5th) , St. Cecilia (Nov. 22nd) , St. Barbara (Dec. 4th) , St. Lucy (Dec. 13th) , her memory serves to remind all of us of the reality that women across all of human history have been subject to sexual violence in ways that most men simply have not. St. Fabian , St. Sebastian and St. Vincent the De...

Of the relatively few Saints commemorated this week: January 13th – St. Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church January 15th – Blessed James the Almsgiver, (OSSM) January 17th – St. Anthony of the Desert, Abbot I have chosen to write about  St. Anthony of the Desert . He like St. Basil the Great (Jan 2nd) about whom I’ve written a few weeks ago, lived at the time when Christianity went from being a persecuted religion to being first legalized by Emperor Constantine the Great and then made the official religion of the Roman Empire. The legalization and then making of Christianity the official religion of the Empire produced a number of problems.  First, it soon became clear that there were a number of doctrinal issues that had simmered under the surface during the centuries of persecution: Who exactly was Jesus?  Was Jesus human?  Was he Divine?  Was he both?  To what extent both?  St. Hilary was was involved in that discussion. St. Anthony , in cont...

Of the Saints and Feast Days commemorated this week: Jan 5 SUN - THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD - Solemnity Jan 5 - St. John Neumann, Bishop (USA) Jan 6 - Saint André Bessette, Religious (USA) Jan 7 - Saint Raymond of Penyafort, Priest, Religious Jan 12 SUN - THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD - Feast Jan 12 - St. Anthony Pucci, OSM, Priest, Religious (OSM) I’m choosing to write about my Order’s St. Anthony Pucci, OSM . The future St. Anthony Pucci, OSM was born on April 16, 1819 in the town of Vernio outside of Florence in the then Grand Duchy of Tuscan y in today's Italy . If in previous centuries many of the Church’s Saints remembered on its Liturgical Calendar came from noble or otherwise wealthy families, the future St. Anthony Pucci, OSM came from a poor family –  his father was the sacristan at the local church.   His rise to the priesthood and sainthood would resemble more the path of St. John XXIII who also came from a very poor if also still Italian family, than say St. C...