April 1

In 304, during the persecution of Diocletian, the martyrdom of Sts. Agape and Chionia. With their younger sister, Irene, they were arrested for hiding copies of the Christian scriptures. When they refused to sacrifice to the gods or deliver up the Scriptures, they were burned to death.

In the fifth century, in the Judean desert, St. Mary of Egypt. After a dissolute youth in Alexandria, she converted before an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Jerusalem. She then spent the next 47 years as a solitary in the Judean desert east of the Jordan River. Her story was often retold in the Middle Ages, which saw her as a model of repentance. She is usually depicted with the three loaves she took out into the desert with her, or with a lion, which her legend says helped to bury her.

In 1132, St. Hugh of Grenoble, bishop. He went to Rome to be consecrated bishop of Grenoble by Pope Gregory VII and to receive spiritual advice about temptations from which he suffered. As a bishop he was an ardent reformer, seeking to free his diocese of simony, concubinage and ignorance. After two years he went to a Benedictine monastery, where he stayed for a year. The pope ordered him back to his diocese. He supported St. Bruno’s effort to establish the Grand Chartreuse and would have become a Carthusian if the pope had allowed it. The feast of his nephew, Hugh, abbot of the Carthusian monastery of Bonnevaux, is also celebrated this day.

At Györ, in Hungary, in 1945, Blessed Vilmos Apor, bishop and martyr. After studying for the priesthood at Innsbruck, he became parish priest in Gyula, where he was outstanding in his commitment to the poor and to ecumenism. In 1941 he was made bishop of Györ. He protested forcefully against persecution of the Jews by the Nazis. During fighting between the Germans and Russians in 1945, Bishop Apor housed food, supplies and refugees in his basement. On Good Friday, drunken soldiers assaulted a young girl in the cellar; he intervened and they shot him. He died on Easter Monday.

April 2

In Caesarea in Palestine, in 306, Sts. Apphian and Theodosia, two students of Eusebius of Caesarea who were executed during the persecution of Diocletian.

In 1507, at Plessis-les-Tours in France, St. Francis of Paola. He spent his twelfth year in a Franciscan monastery, and a few years later became a hermit. Disciples gathered around him, and he organized them into “the hermits of Brother Francis of Assisi,” who were later called “Friars Minims”. The order embraced charity, penance and humility, and during Lent fasted from meat, eggs and dairy products. He encouraged devotion to the wounds of Christ and to Mary. At its apogee in the mid-sixteenth century, the order had 450 houses.

In 1672, on one of the Marianas Islands near Guam, Blessed Diego de San Vitores, martyr. A Jesuit, he worked as a missionary in Mexico and the Philippines before his request to evangelize the Marianas was granted. He was killed with a spear by an apostate Christian. Martyred with him was Blessed Peter Calungsod, a native Philippine catechist who was his assistant.

In 1967, in Venezuela, Blessed Mary of St. Joseph Alvarado Cardozo. She helped found a congregation of sisters to care for the sick, orphans and the elderly. The institute cared for the most downtrodden and promoted native Venezuelan vocations.

April 3

In 824, St. Nicetas, abbot. While he was head of the monastery of Medikon on Mount Olympus, he was summoned to Constantinople by Emperor Leo the Armenian. He first resisted, then gave in to the emperor’s iconoclasm; he recanted and was imprisoned. Released after the emperor’s death, he became a hermit, saying the scandal he had caused made him unworthy to return to his monastery.

In 1253, St. Richard of Chichester. He studied at Oxford and Paris, and became chancellor of Oxford. St. Edmund of Abingdon (November 16), archbishop of Canterbury, appointed him his diocesan chancellor. He went into exile with St. Edmund to Pontigny and was ordained there in 1243. Over the opposition of King Henry III he was appointed Bishop of Chichester. When he was finally allowed to take up his duties, he proved himself a model bishop.

In 1884, St. Aloysius Scrosoppi. Like his two brothers before him, he became a priest. From his care for poor girls there arose a group of Sisters of Providence, who are today active in Italy, Brazil and Paraguay. He joined the Oratorians at the age of 42. He was provincial of the Oratorians in 1866, when the government suppressed them. Aloysius continued to work on behalf of the Sisters of Providence.

April 4

In 636, at Seville, St. Isidore, bishop and doctor. A great scholar, he received an excellent education and was a prolific and popular author, mainly of histories. He wanted to contribute to the formation of a Catholic, Visigothic culture. He became bishop of Seville after the death of his predecessor and brother, St. Leander (March 13). His aims can be summed up in his advice: “If anyone wants to be always with God, he ought to pray often and to read often as well.” His burial place at Leon, on the route to Compostela, became a popular place of pilgrimage.

In Sicily, in 1589, St. Benedict the Moor. Born of parents who were African slaves, he was given his freedom. He joined a group of Franciscan hermits, became their superior, and when their group was disbanded, joined the Observant Franciscans as a lay brother. He served as a cook, and was appointed superior and novice-master before being allowed to return to his position as a cook.

In 1894, Blessed Joseph Benedict Dusmet, bishop and cardinal. Born in Palermo, he joined the Benedictine monastery of San Martino della Scala, where he had been educated. He was appointed superior of several other monasteries, and became abbot of San Niccolo at Catania. The monastery was suppressed in 1866, and the next year he was appointed archbishop of Catania. He was a supporter of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council and of the definition of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. He was made a cardinal in 1889. He remained a monk at heart and in his lifestyle, and he was put in charge of founding Sant’ Anselmo. He gave everything he had to the poor.

April 5

In 1258, at Fosses in Belgium, Blessed Juliana. An orphan, she was brought up at the double community of Mount Cornillon, which ran a hospital. She joined the community and became superior. She had a dream which urged her to promote a feast in honor of the Eucharist. Caught in a tangle of controversies, she was eventually forced to leave the community and died as a hermit. Her efforts and those of her friend St. Eva of Liège led to the establishment of the feast of Corpus Christi after her death.

At Vannes, in Brittany, in 1419, St. Vincent Ferrer. He joined the Dominicans and was a student and teacher at a number of Dominican faculties in Catalonia and then at Toledo. He was a very effective preacher. When he couldn’t convince his friend, the anti-pope Peter de Luna, to negotiate with his rival, Vincent became a roving preacher and stressed the need for repentance. He finally helped convince Benedict to resign, and then spent the rest of his life as a preacher in Normandy and Brittany.

In 1574, at Palma de Majorca, St. Catalina Tomás. She was an orphan who worked as a shepherdess before becoming a lay sister in the Canonesses of St. Augustine. She was troubled by diabolical events, but remained streadfast. Her body was found to be incorrupt forty years after she died.

In 1744, at Kaufbeuren, Germany, the death of St. Mary Crescentia Hoss. Born of a poor family in Bavaria and christened Anna, she wished to join the local Franciscan convent, but they said they were too poor to receive her without a dowry. The Protestant mayor made shutting a neighboring tavern contingent on the monastery’s acceptance of Anna. The nuns accepted her as a tertiary sister, but treated her miserably. She was eventually allowed to become a full member of the community and later became novice-mistress and superior. She was a visionary, generous to the poor, and a kindly superior.

The Swiss-American Congregation, which was founded in 1870, was formally erected on this day in 1881.

April 6

At the monastery of St. Gall, in 912, Blessed Notker, sometimes called “the stammerer". He studied music and letters under three great teachers at the abbey: the Irish monk Marcellus, Radpert, and Tutilo. Notker became a monk and was appointed librarian, guest-master, teacher and master of the abbey school. He is most known for his Book of Hymns, and may have invented the liturgical sequence.

In 1203, in Denmark, St. William of Eskil, abbot. William was a member of the regular canons at Saint-Geneviève in Paris. He was invited by the bishop of Roskilde in Denmark to form monastic life there.

In 1252, St. Peter of Verona, Dominican priest and martyr. Although his parents were Cathars, he was raised a Catholic. He was a popular preacher. Appointed inquisitor in northern Italy, he incurred the enmity of the Cathars. He was murdered by a man who later became a Dominican brother.

In 1957, near Bergamo, Blessed Pierina Morosini, martyr. She was an excellent student, but had to quit school to support her family. She worked in a textile factory and became active in Catholic Action and in her parish. One night on the way home from work she was assaulted; she resisted and was murdered.

April 7

In 1719, in France, St. John Baptist de la Salle. He studied at St. Sulpice and at Rheims, was ordained, and earned a doctorate in theology. He became involved in opening a school for poor boys in Rheims. He invited the teachers to live in his home, so he could train them properly. Before long he dedicated himself and his considerable wealth to the creation and advancement of the Brothers of Christian Schools. The educational principles he and his collaborators fashioned on the basis of their experience had a profound effect on the way young people were educated.

About 180 AD, probably in Palestine, St. Hegesippus, a pioneering church historian.

In 1241, Blessed Herman Joseph. From a poor family, he was educated by the Premonstratensian canons and joined their monastery in Steinfeld. He eventually was ordained. He had many mystical experiences.

April 8

At Corinth, about 170, St. Dionysius, bishop. Excerpts from some of his letters are preserved in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History.

At the abbey of Pontoise, in 1095, St. Walter, abbot. He was a professor before becoming a monk. He was appointed abbot of the new monastery of Pontoise. He didn’t like the job and fled three times: first to Cluny, then to an island in the Loire River, and finally to Pope Gregory VII, who told him to return to his post as abbot. Walter was an energetic promoter of the Gregorian Reforms.

In 1816, in France, St. Julie Billiart. She was an energetic young woman, active in her parish. When she was in her early 20s, someone attempted to murder her father, and the shock made her an invalid. During the French Revolution she had to go into hiding. In 1804 she was one of the first members of a new order, which became the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. The new congregation was devoted to education; there was no distinction between lay and choir sisters, and there was no enclosure. Their main form of self-discipline was class preparation and teaching. Under her inspiration and that of her colleague, Francoise Blin de Bourdon, the congregation flourished. Several members of the order were active in St. Paul, OR, shortly before 1850.

April 9

In 1140, at Aureil in France, St. Gaucherius, abbot. After receiving a good education, he decided to become a hermit. Gradually people flocked around him and he founded monasteries for men and women under the Rule of St. Augustine. St. Lambert of Angoulême, St. Faucherus, and St. Stephen of Muret (February 8), founder of Grandmont, were among his disciples.

In 1315, at Monte Senario, Blessed Ubald, a worldly young man, who was converted by the preaching of St Philip Benizi (August 22). He joined the Servites and became a priest.

In 1321, in India, Blessed Thomas of Tolentino, martyr. After joining the Franciscan order, he became a follower of Angelo Clareno and the Spiritual Franciscans. For that he spent some time in prison. When he was released he became a missionary to Armenia. After returning to see the pope at Avignon, he was made archbishop and departed for India and China. He was shipwrecked at Bombay, scourged, tortured and beheaded by the Muslim authorities there.

April 10

The commemoration of Ezekiel, the prophet.

At Chartres, in 1029, St. Fulbert, bishop. He studied at Rheims. When his teacher, Gerbert of Aurillac, became Pope Sylvester II, he summoned Fulbert to Rome as an advisor. When Sylvester died, Fulbert became a canon at Chartres, where he built up the school. He was appointed bishop there in 1007, and energetically carried out his duties. His extant writings include poems, sermons and letters.

In Tunis, in 1460, Blessed Antony Neyrot. He joined the Dominican Priory of San Marco in Florence, when it was under the direction of St. Antoninus. He was sent to Sicily. He was captured by pirates and taken to Tunis. When he was released, he became a Muslim and married, but repented after several months. He put on his habit and appeared before the ruler of Tunis to proclaim his faith. He was eventually stoned to death.

In 1835, in Verona, St. Magdalen of Canossa. She was born into a wealthy family, but had an unhappy childhood. When she became an adult she spent much of her time helping the poor, especially abandoned girls. She then founded the Canossian Sisters of Charity and an associated male congregation.

April 11

In Gaza, around 550, St. Barsanuphius, monk. After joining a monastery, he became a hermit. Many people came to him for advice, but he communicated with them only indirectly through two associates, Serios and John the Prophet. He left behind some 850 letters whose spiritual teachings on prayer, the presence of God, humility and obedience were very influential.

In 714, at Crowland, in East Anglia, St. Guthlac, hermit. After fighting as a brigand on the Welsh border, he became a monk at Repton, After two years he became a hermit, taking St. Antony of Egypt (January 17) as his model.

In 1079, St. Stanislaus of Krakow, bishop and martyr. From a knightly family, he became a priest and canon at Krakow Cathedral, and was appointed bishop there in 1072. He was a zealous reformer of his clergy and patron of the poor. He fell afoul of King Boleslaus II, who killed him. He is patron of Poland.

In 1903, in Italy, Gemma Galgani. She wanted to be a Passionist nun, but suffered from spinal tuberculosis, from which she died when she was twenty-five. The publication of 250 of her letters to her spiritual director make clear her robust and level-headed sanctity. She experienced many strange physical and psychical phenomena.

April 12

At Rome, in 352, Pope. Julius I, a strong defender of the faith against the Arians. He built the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere.

At Verona, in about 371, St. Zeno, bishop. About ninety of his sermons survive. They show him fully orthodox in his theology. He was known for his austere life.

At Cuneo, in the Piedmont, in 1495, Blessed Angelo of Chivasso. After serving as a senator, he gave away his wealth and joined the Observant Franciscans. He preached among the poor and set up a system of pawn shops to protect them from moneylenders. He wrote a very popular book of moral theology cases, a copy of which Luther burned in 1520. He refused to become a bishop and spent the last two years of his life as a solitary.

In 1927, at Naples, St. Joseph Moscati. He received a medical degree in 1903 and went to work at a hospital called the Incurabili, where he organized a treatment for rabies sufferers. He developed a form of holistic medicine. He was a professor for several years before becoming director of the Incurabili. He was a daily communicant and treated the poor for free.

April 13

In the Crimea, in 654, St. Martin I, pope and martyr. While serving in Constantinople he learned about the Monothelite theory that Jesus did not have a human will. When he became pope he called a council at Rome which condemned Monothelitism. The Emperor Constans II had him kidnapped and taken to Constantinople, where he was imprisoned and scourged. He was then exiled to the Crimea. He wrote to the church of Rome, telling them he felt they had neglected him after his arrest. He died of starvation.

In 1113, at the monastery of Vast, Blessed Ida of Boulogne. She was the daughter of Duke Godfrey IV of Lorraine. the wife of Eustace II, count of Bologne, and the mother of the crusader rulers Godfrey and Baldwin. When she was widowed she spent much of her considerable wealth helping monasteries. She was a spiritual associate of Cluny and a friend of St. Anselm.

In Wales, in 1124, St. Caradoc, hermit. He was a harpist at a royal court in south Wales. He became a hermit and priest and spent many years at St. Ismael’s cell.

In 1867, Blessed Scubillion Rousseau. He was born near Dijon and joined the De La Salle Brothers in Paris. At his request he was assigned to the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. He ministered there as a teacher and catechist for thirty-four years, particularly among the slaves who worked on the coffee and vanilla plantations.

April 14

At Lyons, in 688, St. Lambert, bishop. He served at the court of King Clotaire, then became a monk at Fontenelle. He succeeded the founder, St. Wandrille (July 22), as abbot in 668 and was chosen archbishop of Lyons about 679.

In 1117, St. Bernard, founder of the Benedictine monastery of Tiron. He was a monk in several monasteries before joining the hermits in the forest of Craon, where Blessed Vitalis of Savigny (September 16) and Blessed Robert of Arbrissel (February 24) also stayed. Eventually he founded an abbey at Tiron, where he enforced his strict interpretation of the Rule of St. Benedict. The abbey became the center of a Benedictine congregation. Among its foundations was one on Caldey Island off the south coast of Wales. In the 17th century the Tironian Benedictines merged with the Maurists.

Near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, in 1433, Blessed Lydwina. She was injured in an ice-skating accident when she was fifteen and spent the rest of her life as an invalid. Her health became worse as time went on, but she learned to unite her sufferings with those of Christ. She had many visions and other preternatural experiences. Her life was written by two of her contemporaries: John Gerlac, her cousin, and Thomas a Kempis.

April 15

Around 500, in Wales, St. Paternus or Padarn, abbot and bishop.

In 1565, at Kotor, Montenegro, Blessed Hosanna. She had visions from an early age, and at twenty-one she made vows as an anchorite. She supported herself by needlework. She was honored as a peacemaker and is a patron of ecumenism.

In 1889, on the island of Molokai, Blessed Damien De Veuster. He joined the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1857, and in 1863 went as a missionary to Hawaii. In 1873 he offered to go to serve permanently among the lepers on Molokai. Controversy surrounded his efforts to help the lepers. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in his defense.

April 16

In 304, under Diocletian, at Zaragosa, St. Optatus and companions, martyrs. Prudentius wrote a hymn about them.

In 665, St. Fructuosus, archbishop of Braga. He became a priest and used his large inheritance to found monasteries. He wrote several rules for families who decided to enter monastic life.

In 1116, St. Magnus of Orkney. After a warlike youth, Magnus refused to fight any more. When his cousin Haakon sent men to kill him in order to gain sole control of the earldom of Orkney, Magnus refused to defend himself. He died praying for his killers. His remains were buried in 1136 in the cathedral dedicated to him at Kirkwall on Mainland Orkney; they were rediscovered in 1919.

In 1783, in Rome, St. Benedict Joseph Labre. At first he was educated to become a priest, but he decided instead to join the strictest religious order he could find. When the Trappists, Cistercians and Carthusains turned him down, he decided to become a permanent pilgrim, having only the clothes on his back and no place to sleep. He walked to all the main pilgrim shrines in Europe, relying on whatever people voluntarily gave him. He settled in Rome about ten years before his death. He is the patron of homeless people.

In 1879, at Nevers, St. Bernadette Soubirous. She was born at Lourdes in 1844, and never had very good health. She had not yet made her first communion when, at the age of fourteen, she experienced a series of apparitions, which no one else beheld. People were convinced by her sincerity and common sense. She entered the Sisters of Notre Dame at Nevers in 1864, where she lived as an exemplary religious and shunned all publicity. She said she was a broom that Our Lady had used, and now she was back in the corner. After 1870, Lourdes became the most popular pilgrimage site in Europe.

April 17

In 1680, in Montreal, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. When she was four, her parents died in a smallpox epidemic which left her disfigured and partially blind. She seems to have decided not to marry, even before she became a Christian in 1676, when she was twenty. She left home to move to a Christian village near Montreal. There she led an exemplary life for three years, before her death at the age of twenty-four. In 1980 she became the first native American to be beatified.

In Persia, in 341, St. Simeon Barbsabae, bishop, and his companions, martyrs. They were martyred under King Sapor II when they refused to worship the sun.

In 1067, in Auvergne in central France, Robert of Chaise-Dieu, abbot. He was educated by the canons of St. Julian’s church in Brioude, joined them, and was ordained a priest. He thought about joining Cluny, and then went on a pilgrimage to Rome and Monte Cassino. He returned to be a hermit. He and two companions built cells, lived a life of prayer and manual labor, and helped their poor neighbors. Many came to join them, so Robert built a monastery, Chaise-Dieu. Soon he had to found many new monasteries and cells, and the Benedictine congregation of Chaise-Dieu was the result. It merged with the Maurists in 1640.

April 18

Around 328, the death of St. Alexander of Alexandria, Patriarch. When he became Patriarch in 312 he had to deal with controversies over the date of Easter and the Melitian schism, which concerned the treatment of Christians who had lapsed during persectutions. Soon these were overshadowed by the conflict over the views of the Alexandrian priest Arius, who taught that Christ was less than fully God and also not fully human, since in him the Logos took the place of the human soul. Alexander responded with tactful overtures, but Arius appealed to bishops elsewhere. The conflict soon spread to much of the Christian world and so Constantine called a general council at Nicaea. Alexander attended, accompanied by his deacon and successor, St. Athanasius (May 2).

In 1404 Blessed James of Lodi. From a wealthy family, James married Caterina Bocconi; they had three children. They left Lodi for the country town of Lodivecchio during a plague. When they returned to Lodi, they found that two of their daughters had died of plague. The couple underwent a profound conversion. They became Franciscan tertiaries and eventually vowed perpetual continence. James then became a priest and devoted himself especially to the care of the sick.

In 1618, at the Carmelite convent in Pontoise, Blessed Mary of the Incarnation. She was born Barbe Avrillot and was the daughter of a high government official in Paris. At 17, she was married to Pierre Acarie, another aristocrat. He was very charitable to exiled English Catholics. The couple were popular in court and ecclesiastical circles. Their three daughters became Carmelites, and one of their sons became a priest. Barbe was very active in helping the poor, and persuaded Henry IV to allow Carmelites back into Paris. She helped establish Reformed Carmelite convents elsewhere. She received spiritual guidance from St. Frances de Sales (January 24) and Pierre de Berulle, and experienced mystical contemplation. When her husband died she entered the Carmelite convent in Amiens, but later transferred to Pontoise.

April 19

In 1054, in Rome, St. Leo IX, pope. He was born in Alsace and educated at Toul. He was bishop there for twenty years, where he was an energetic reformer of both clergy and monasteries. He was named pope in 1049, and entered the city dressed as a pilgrim. He immediately began a series of reform synods in Italy, France and Germany. He assembled an impressive body of advisors and helpers, including Hildebrand (May 27) and Frederick of Liège, who became popes after him, as well St. Hugh of Cluny (May 11), Peter Damian (February 21) and Humbert of Moyenmoutier. Humbert was sent to Constantinople to reconcile differences with the Patriarch over Leo’s policies in Sicily; he ended up excommunicating the Patriarch, who retaliated by excommunicating Humbert and the pope. But by then, Leo had died in his bed, which he had placed next to his coffin in St. Peter’s. The mutual excommunications were lifted during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.

In Carthage, around 250, during the persecution of Decius, St. Mappalicus and companions, martyrs. St. Cyprian wrote of them that they were “firm in their faith, patient under suffering, victorious over torture.”

In 978, in the Voralberg, near Einsiedeln, St. Gerold. He gave his property to Einsiedeln, where his sons were monks, and then became a hermit, at a place now known as St. Gerold.

In 1012, St. Alphege of Canterbury, monk, bishop and martyr. He was appointed by St. Dunstan (May 19) as abbot of Bath, where he was a very strict superior. In 984 he became bishop of Winchester, and in 1005, archbishop of Canterbury. Danish thugs murdered him when he wouldn’t pay tribute money. King Cnut had his body transferred to Canterbury in 1023. St. Thomas a Becket commended himself to God and St. Alphege just before he died.

April 20

In the French Alps, in 374, the burial of St. Marcellinus of Embrun, bishop. He was an African missionary who was appointed bishop of Embrun by Eusebius of Vercelli.

About 930, Blessed Hugh of Anzy, who was an associate of Blessed Berno (May 11) in the reform of the Abbey of Baume and the founding of Cluny. He was appointed prior of Anzy-le-Duc where he preached against paganism and built a hospital.

In 1317, St. Agnes of Montepulciano. She joined the Sisters of the Sack and became superior of a community of theirs near Viterbo. Later she returned to Montepulciano and founded a Dominican convent there. Her tomb became a popular pilgrimage spot.

April 21

St. Anselm, bishop and doctor. Anselm was born in Aosta in 1033. He went to study in Burgundy, where his mother had relatives. He was drawn to Bec by the fame of Lanfranc, who was teaching there; he joined Bec and became prior and abbot. He visited England several times on abbey business, and when Lanfranc died he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury. Almost immediately he clashed with King William Rufus. He went into exile and stayed with St. Hugh at Cluny, and at Lyons and Rome. He returned to England when Henry I became king. Henry and Anselm came into conflict over the investiture of clerics in their offices; that was finally settled, and for his last three years at Canterbury Anselm enjoyed friendly relations with the king. He was always in his heart a Benedictine monk, and love is the key theme of his letters and the prayers he wrote. Guided by his motto, “faith seeking understanding", he also wrote a number of brilliant and extremely influential theological monographs, including Why God Became Man and the Proslogion.

In 185, at Rome, St. Apollonius, martyr. He was a high-ranking Roman who was arrested for being a Christian. He addressed an eloquent apology for Christianity to the senate and was executed.

Around 600, St. Beuno, abbot. He founded a number of monasteries in north Wales and was an advisor, and perhaps uncle, to St. Winefride.

April 22

At Constantinople, in 536, the death of St. Agapitus, pope. He was a learned man and a friend of Cassiodorus, with whom he planned to start a university in Rome. He was elected pope when he was already elderly. He went to Constantinople to dissuade Justinian from invading Italy. He failed in that mission, but managed to have the Monothelite patriarch of Constantinople replaced by St. Mennas.

In 1091, at the abbey of Brauweiler, Blessed Wolfhelm, abbot. He was educated at the cathedral school at Cologne, where he became a canon. He then joined the Monastery of Saint Maximinus at Trier, but was called back to the abbey of Saint Pantaleon in Cologne. He was abbot successively of Gladbach, Siegburg and Brauweiler. In his theological writings, he argued for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and against the idea that pagan and Christian philosophy are necessarily in conflict.

April 23

About 303, at Lydda in Palestine, in the persecution of Diocletian, St. George, martyr. A number of extravagant stories were written about him from 500 AD, to which in the Middle Ages a tale about his slaying a dragon and saving a maiden were added. He became the patron of England, as well as of Venice, Genoa, Portugal and Catalonia.

In 994, at Toul, St. Gerard, bishop. He was born and educated at Cologne, became a canon, and then was chosen bishop of Toul. There he established a school and staffed it with some Irish and Greek monks. He enlarged the ancient monastery of St. Evroult, and founded the oldest hospital in the city. In 1050, St. Leo IX, a native of Toul, canonized Gerard, making him one of the first saints to be officially canonized by a pope.

In 997, in Prussia, St. Adalbert of Prague, bishop and martyr. He was born in Bohemia and educated by another St. Adalbert, archbishop of Magdeburg. He became archbishop of Prague in 982. He took his responsibilities very seriously, perhaps because of the influence of St. Mayol of Cluny and St. Gerard of Toul, who were at his consecration. He didn’t make much headway with his people, so he went to Rome and became a Benedictine monk at the monastery of St. Boniface and Alexis. He returned to Bohemia and established a Benedictine monastery at Brzevnov. He went to Rome again, but at the urging of Emperor Otto III and St. Willigis of Mainz, returned and settled in Poland. He was murdered by Prussians when he was on a missionary journey. His body was buried at Gniezno, and his veneration spread very rapidly.

In Perugia, in 1262, Blessed Giles, one of St. Francis’ first and most beloved disciples. He preached unsuccessfully to the Saracens in Tunis, then spent the rest of his life in Italy. He had ecstatic experiences, one of which he said was his fourth birth, after his birthday, his baptism, and his entry into the Franciscan community.

In 1939, Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagheddu. She was born in Sardinia, and grew up to be a headstrong, loyal and chaste young woman. When she was 18, her sister died, and she became very active in Catholic Action. Three years later she became a Trappist nun at the abbey of Grottaferrata near Rome. She tried to show her gratitude for her calling by living her religious life fully. She devoted her prayer to the cause of ecumenism. She died on Good Shepherd Sunday before her twenty-fifth birthday.

April 24

In Switzerland, in 1622, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, martyr. Born Mark Roy, he earned a doctorate in philosophy at Freiburg in Breisgau, then became a tutor. He earned doctorates in civil and canon law in 1611. He quickly gave up the practice of law, became a priest, and joined the Capuchins. At the request of the bishop of Chur, he was sent to the canton of Graubünden to preach to the Protestants under the auspices of the new Roman Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. One day as he finished preaching. he was assaulted by twenty armed men; refusing to renounce his faith, he was murdered.

In France, in 1969, St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier. who founded the Good Shepherd Sisters at Angers. She drew her spirituality from seventeenth-century writers such as St. John Eudes (August 19).

In 1914, at Dinan in France, the death of Blessed Benedict Menni, who was responsible for the re-foundation of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God in Spain and France. He also founded a female branch of the order. He was a pioneer in the medical treatment of psychiatric patients.

In 1957, Blessed Mary Hesselblad. Born in Sweden of Lutheran parents, she emigrated to the United States as a young girl. She trained as a nurse. In 1902, after 20 years of deliberation, she joined the Catholic Church. She went to Rome and asked to be admitted to the Carmelite convent which occupied St. Bridget of Sweden’s old home on the Piazza Farnese. After finishing her novitiate she was allowed to take the vows and habit of a Brigittine. She toured the four surviving Brigittine monasteries and after a few years started her first house in Rome. In 1929, she occupied the house in the Piazza Farnese, after the Carmelites vacated it. In 1935 she opened a convent at Vadstena. During the war she used the house in Rome to help Jews and others threatened by the Nazis. Her order now has 37 houses.

April 25

In the first century, St. Mark, evangelist. He has been venerated as a martyr especially at Alexandria, Venice and Reichenau.

In 1218, at the Benedictine abbey of St. Syrus in Piacenza, St. Franca Visalta of Piacenza. She was placed in the monastery as a child oblate. When she was elected abbess, the nuns had her deposed because she was too strict. She found refuge in a Cistercian abbey, where she became abbess also.

In 1667, in Guatemala City, St. Peter of St. Joseph Betancur. Born in the Canary Islands, he decided to go to South America to help the poor people there. He stayed for the rest of his life. Around him a group of like-minded individuals gathered, who evolved into the Bethlehemite Congregation. He is credited with starting the procession held on Christmas Eve known as posadas, which means “lodgings".

April 26

About 645, in the forest of Crecy, St. Riquier. Converted by Irish missionaries, he became a priest and missionary. As he grew older, he retired to live a solitary life in the forest of Crecy. A monastery grew up there. After his death it was united with the monastery at Celles, and renamed Saint Riquier.

In 865, at the abbey of Corbie, St. Paschasius Radbertus, abbot. He was a foundling raised by nuns at Soissons. He became a monk at Corbie, which had an excellent library. He studied theology there, and in 843 or 844 was elected abbot. He resigned in 849 and devoted the rest of his life to study and writing. He spent some years at the monastery of Saint Riquier. He wrote several biblical commentaries, the letter Cogitis me which was important in the development of the doctrine of the Assumption, and a book on the Eucharist which championed the real presence of Christ and taught that by receiving the Eucharist people became part of Christ’s mystical body, the church.

In 1396, St. Stephen of Perm, bishop. He was born of Russian Christian parents in an area about 500 miles northeast of Moscow occupied by the mostly pagan Zyryani people. He joined a monastery in Rostov and became an expert on Byzantine theology. He learned the Zyryani language, so he could become a missionary among them. He invented an alphabet for their language, so they wouldn’t have to pray in Russian.

April 27

About 107, in Palestine, St. Simeon, the son of Clopas, who succeeded James the Less as bishop of Jerusalem. He survived the fall of the city but was martyred by crucifixion under the Emperor Trajan.

In 915, St. Tutilo. He became a monk at St. Gall in Switzerland at the time of Blessed Notker (April 6), and was an outstanding artist and musician.

In Lucca, in 1278, St. Zita, who spent her adult life as a devout and energetic servant in the house of a wealthy family. She is the patron of Lucca.

In Montenegro, in 1565, Blessed Osanna. Born of Orthodox parents, she joined the Catholic Church. After hearing a moving sermon on Good Friday, she withdrew to live as an anchoress in Cattaro. She became a Dominican tertiary and a community of tertiaries formed around her.

April 28

In 1841, St. Peter Chanel, martyr. Born near Lyons, he was ordained in 1827. He served as a parish priest for several years, then joined the Society of Mary in order to become a missionary. After teaching in a seminary for several years, he was sent to the islands of the South Pacific when these were entrusted to his order. He sailed with eight missionaries from Le Havre to Valpaisao in Chile, and from there for Tonga. On the way they happened to land on the island of Futuma. Peter agreed to stay there as a missionary, along with a Marist brother and a European trader who was to act as a translator. Peter had some success in making converts, but earned the animosity of the king of the island and was killed with clubs and an axe.

In 1182, at Turov in Belarus, St. Cyril, bishop. He was a monk and a recluse before being chosen bishop. A number of his writings survive: twelve sermons, twenty-four prayers, an Exhortation to the Monastic Life, and a penitential. He spent the last three years of his life in retirement in his monastery.

In 1716, St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. He was born in Brittany and educated by the Jesuits. He had limited social skills and preferred solitary prayer. After his ordination, he struggled to find his proper ministry and developed his spirituality centered on Our Lady and the Cross. He went on preaching missions in Brittany, and wrote a number of devotional works. From his ministry derive the Montfort Fathers and the Daughters of Divine Wisdom.

In Italy, in 1962, St. Gianna Beretta Molla. As a young girl she was involved in Catholic Action. When her parents died she decided to study medicine. She opened a clinic in Milan, but wondered if she should enter the religious life. She married Pietro Molla, an engineer, in 1955. They had three children and a happy life together. When a uterine growth was discovered during her fourth pregnancy, she opted for surgery to remove the growth. The procedure was more dangerous for her but less dangerous for her fetus, a choice that was in line with her life of service and self-sacrifice. The baby was born and lived, but Gianna contracted peritonitis and died a week later.

April 29

In 1380, in Rome, St. Catherine of Siena, doctor of the church. Catherine was born [the] next to the last of 25 children in a prosperous Sienese family. She chose a life of virginity, which so angered her parents that they turned her into a servant. She joined a group of lay Dominicans, but spent much of her time in prayer and soon developed an intense spiritual life. When she was 21 she began to spend more time in charitable work and in preaching. He confessor and friend, Blessed Raymund of Capua, supported her in these endeavors. In 1375 she supported a young political prisoner as he prepared to face execution and knelt with him as he was beheaded. In 1377 and 1378 she wrote her Dialogues, which summarize her spiritual teaching. She worked tirelessly to bring peace among Christian states and to reform the church. She urged Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon. She fasted in support of Pope Urban VI, and that may have hastened her death. Whatever the extent of her literacy, she knew the Bible well, and she speaks of the great Christian mysteries with depth and accuracy. In 1970 she was declared a doctor of the Church, the first time the title was given to a lay person.

April 30

In Rome, in 1572, Pope St. Pius V. He joined the Dominicans at 14, and lectured for them at the University of Pavia. He held various offices in the Inquisition and was made a cardinal in 1557. As bishop of Mondovi, he was a strict reformer who practiced an ascetical way of life. At the papal election of 1566, he was the successful candidate of the reforming party led by St. Charles Borromeo. He began immediately implementing the reforms of the Council of Trent, starting with Rome itself. He called for the Christian states of Europe to oppose the advance of the Muslims in the Mediterranean, an effort which bore fruit in the battle of Lepanto. He insisted that bishops be conscientious in their pastoral charge and issued new liturgical books.

1n 1672, Blessed Marie of the Incarnation Guyart. She was born in Tours. She was married at 17 and [the couple] had one son, Claude, who became a Benedictine and her first biographer. Her husband died a year later. She worked to support herself and her son until he was twelve, then put him in the care of her sister and joined the Ursuline Convent in Tours. In 1639 she went to Quebec, where she set up a convent and school. Although her work came close to being destroyed by fire or war several times, she carried on teaching, learning the native languages of Iroquois, Hurons and Algonquins, and writing dictionaries to help with translations of the Bible and the catechism. Her convent became an advice center for the missionary enterprise in French Canada. She wrote thousands of letters of counsel and encouragement.

In 1881, in Germany, Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt. A teacher, Louise Hensel, who also mentored Blessed Frances Schervier (December 14) and Blessed Anna Kathariana Emmerich (February 15), encouraged her to work for the good of society. Pauline took blind children into her home, and developed the first institute for the blind in Germany. She founded the Sisters of Christian Charity. When Bismarck campaigned to subordinate all religious institutions to the state, Pauline sent sisters to New Orleans, and they eventually established a motherhouse in Wilkes-Barre, PA.