February 1

At her monastery in Kildare, in 524, St. Brigid, abbess. After St. Patrick, St. Brigid is the most venerated saint in Ireland. She was abbess of a monastery of men and women located about 40 miles southwest of Dublin. Even as a child, she was extremely generous to those in need. Once while she was tending a dying pagan chieftan, she wove a cross of reeds. He asked her the meaning of the cross, and her explanation led him to ask for baptism. A perpetual fire was kept burning in her honor after her death. Hence, fire and a cross are her emblems.

In 1163, Blessed Raymond of Fitero, Cistercian abbot and founder of the military order of Calatrava, which was dedicated to the reconquest of Spain from the Moors.

At Cúcuta, Colombia, in 1923, Blessed Louis Variara, a Salesian missionary who devoted his life to serving the lepers of Agua de Dios in Colombia. He founded a religious congregation, the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which accepted lepers so that they might minister to their fellow lepers.

February 2

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. This feast is attested from the fifth century in Palestine. It came to Rome in the seventh century under the Greek name, Hypapante. In the Middle Ages it was known as the feast of the Purification of Mary.

In Palestine, in the first century, Cornelius the Centurion. The Acts of the Apostles tell how Peter was instructed by a vision to visit Cornelius’ household. At his preaching they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and he baptized them.

In 619, at Canterbury, St. Lawrence, bishop. Lawrence was a monk of St. Andrew’s on the Coelian Hill in Rome. He accompanied Augustine on his mission to England and succeeded him as bishop.

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the martyrs of Vietnam, including bishops, priests and lay people, both European and Vietnamese. The first effective missionary to Vietnam was the French Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes, who organized the training of catechists and devised a system of writing Vietnamese in the Roman alphabet. Before long, in spite of persecutions, there were almost a million Christians in Vietnam. St. Therese of Lisieux recognized as a kindred spirit one of these martyrs, Fr. Théophane Vénard, who was beheaded in Vietnam in 1861. She wrote a poem in his honor.

February 3

In 316, at Sebastea in Armenia, the death of St. Blaise, bishop. A ritual blessing of the throats with two crossed candles occurs on his feast day. Two miracles attributed to him account for this: While he was being taken to trial, he persuaded a wolf to release a pig it was in the process of killing; the pig's owner brought him food and candles while he was in prison. Also, while in prison, he cured a boy who had a fish bone stuck in his throat. His legend records that he was martyred by being raked with metal wool combs. His emblem is a wool comb, and he is the patron of wool combers.

In 865, at Bremen, St. Ansgar, bishop and patron of Denmark. Ansgar was a monk first at Corbie, then at Corvey. He was a distinguished preacher who was sent as a missionary to Denmark and then to Sweden. His missionary efforts met with initial success, but as the Frankish empire declined, political difficulties undercut what he had accomplished. He was made archbishop of Hamburg and then of Bremen.

In 1837, at Lyons, France, St. Claudine (Marie Saint-Ignatius) Thévenet. When Lyons rebelled during the Reign of Terror, two of her brothers were arrested and executed. As they were led away, one of them told her to forgive “as we forgive.” She established homes for poor women and taught them to support themselves by weaving silk. She founded a congregation devoted to educating poor girls and to looking “at others in a way that enables us to discover in each one a promise, an expectation, an epiphany of the Divine Providence.”

February 4

In 1189, St. Gilbert of Sempringham, abbot. After studying in France, he opened a school for boys and girls. He was called to the household of the Bishop of Lincoln and ordained a priest. He helped a group of women form a community in a house next to his church, to which were added, first lay sisters and lay brothers, and then a group of canons regular. Although the beginnings of his order were troubled by conflicts, by the time of his death it had 1500 members in 13 houses in England.

In 856, St. Rabanus Maurus, abbot of Fulda and bishop of Mainz. He was educated at Fulda, and then under Alcuin at Tours. He wrote extensively on theology for monks, clergy and laity, and composed biblical commentaries.

February 5

At Catania, in Sicily, the martyrdom of St. Agatha. She dedicated her virginity to Christ, and for being a Christian and refusing to compromise her pledge to him, she was martyred. Her breasts were cut off, so she is patron of breast ailments. She is also venerated as a protector against fire. She is sometimes depicted holding a platter with her breasts on it. These were sometimes mistaken for loaves of bread, and it became customary to bake and eat St. Agatha's bread on her feast day.

In 1015, near Cologne, St. Adelaide of Vilich. She introduced the Rule of St. Benedict to the convent her father had established there.

In 1825, Blessed Elizabeth Canori Mora. She was married to a man who led a dissolute life. She spent seven miserable years with him, and had four daughters, two of whom lived. She had a vision of a heart pieced with a dart, joined the Third Order of the Trinitarians, and supported herself and her daughters. She included her husband in their daughters’ lives. After she died, he became a Franciscan priest.

February 6

In Japan, St. Paul Miki and companions. Christianity was first brought to Japan by Bishop John of Albuquerque and St. Francis Xavier in 1548-1549. Soon there were tens of thousands of Christians, and a diocese was created in 1588. In 1597 the first martyrdoms took place at Nagasaki. Other persecutions and martyrdoms followed, and after 1645 Christianity had to exist underground until the country was again opened to Westerners in 1865.

In 539, St. Vedast, companion of St. Rémy and bishop of Arras.

In 676, in Flanders, St. Amandus, abbot and bishop, who founded the monasteries of Elnone, near Tournai, and St. Peter's in Ghent.

February 7

At Lucca, in 720, St. Richard. Richard was from Wessex, and was the father of Saints Willibald, Winnibald, and Walburga, Benedictine Anglo-Saxon missionaries in Germany and superiors of the monastery at Heidenheim.

In 1856, at Paris, blessed Rosalie Rendu. Her parents sheltered underground priests during the French Revolution, one of whom gave her first communion. She entered the Daughters of Charity and was sent to Paris, where she was a very influential force in caring for the poor.

In 1878, Blessed Pius IX, a long-reigning and controversial pope, whose personal magnetism did much to restore the prestige of the papacy. He called the First Vatican Council, whose decrees dealt with the relation of faith and reason and papal infallibility.

February 8

In 1537, St. Jerome Emiliani, founder of the Somaschi Congregation, who were dedicated to the care of needy children. He was perhaps the first person to write a catechism in question and answer form.

At Whitby, in 714, St. Elfleda, abbess. She was offered as a child oblate to St. Hilda by her father King Oswy of Northumbria. She was a friend of St. Cuthbert, and eventually succeeded Hilda as abbess at Whitby.

In 1124, St. Stephen of Muret, abbot and founder of the Order of Grandmont. After visiting Rome, he became a hermit near Limoges. Disciples gathered around him and toward the end of his life he established a very austere monastic community at Muret.

In Italy, in 1947, St. Josephine Bakhita. She was born in the Darfur region of the Sudan. When she was a small child she was captured by slave-traders and sold successively to several different owners. The last, an Italian, offered to free her, and she asked him to take her to Italy. She served as a nanny for a family in Venice. She came to know the Canossian sisters, converted, and joined the Order. Her memoirs were published in 1930 and were widely acclaimed. She was the first African-born saint to be canonized in modern times.

February 9

St. Apollonia, an elderly deaconess of the church of Alexandria, who was burned to death around 249 AD. Before she was burned, all her teeth were knocked out, so she became the patron of dentists and sufferers from toothache.

At Regensburg about 1080, Blessed Marianus Scotus, a Irish pilgrim who became a Benedictine monk in Regensburg. He began the monastery of Weih-Sankt-Peter on the edge of the city. He was a noted copyist and wrote books and poetry of his own. Disciples were drawn to him from Ireland, and after his death they founded the monastery of St. James in 1111. It became the head of a congregation of eight Irish Benedictine communities in German lands.

In Spain, in 1910, St. Miguel Febres Cordero, a Christian Brother, who was a brilliant educator in his native Ecuador, and spent his life in service to others.

February 10

Near Monte Cassino, about 545 AD, St. Scholastica. According to St. Gregory’s Dialogues, each year Scholastica came to visit her brother, St. Benedict, so they could spend a day in holy conversation. The last time she came to visit, she prayed successfully to be allowed to continue the conversation through the night. Her prayers were answered because her love was greater than Benedict's. Three days later, she died. Benedict had a vision of her soul rising to heaven in the form of a dove. He had her body placed in a tomb he had prepared for himself.

1164, at Premontré, Blessed Hugh of Fosses, the first disciple of St. Norbert and his coadjutor and successor as Abbot of Premontré and head of the Premonstratensian Order.

In 1960, Blessed Aloysius Stepinac. He was born in what is now Croatia. He wanted to enter the seminary, but was drafted into the army. After World War I he studied agronomy for five years. He was active in Catholic organizations. He studied for the priesthood in Rome and was ordained in 1930. In 1937 he became archbishop of Zagreb. He opposed “exaggerated nationalism” and tried to help Jews fleeing from the Nazis. At first he accepted the pro-Nazi regime imposed by Germany in 1941, but within a year he was their most outspoken critic. In 1946 he was arrested by the communists and imprisoned. His jailers tried to poison him.

February 11

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, which commemorates the appearances of Mary in 1858 to a fourteen-year-old girl named Marie Bernarde Soubirous. In the course of these, a miraculous spring began to flow. Pilgrimages to the spot began in 1862, and it is now one of the most visited shrines in the world, at which many miraculous cures have occurred.

At Whitby, in 680, St. Caedmon. He was a herdsman of the monastery, who received a vision telling him to sing about the creation of all things. Caedmon then wrote a poem, the earliest surviving poem in English:

Now we must praise the ruler of heaven,
The might of the Lord and his purpose of mind,
The work of the glorious father.
For he, God eternal, established each wonder,
He, holy creator, first fashioned the heavens
As a roof for the children of earth,
And then our guardian, the everlasting God,
adorned this middle earth for men.
Praise the almighty king of heaven!
Afterwards he became a monk and put his poetic gifts at the service of the church.

At Rome, in 731, the death of Pope Gregory II. He was an excellent theologian and administrator. He stood up to Emperor Leo III’s iconoclasm and excessive taxation of Italy. He also warded off an invasion of Rome by the Lombard king Liutprand, who ceded him some territory, the beginning of the papal states. He commissioned and supported St. Boniface in his missionary work among the Germanic tribes. He helped Abbot Petronax to restore Monte Cassino.

February 12

At the Council of Constantinople, in 381, the death of St. Meletius of Antioch, a kindly man, who worked to overcome the schisms caused by the Arian heresy.

In 821, St. Benedict of Aniane, abbot. Benedict was the son of a Visigoth count. He served as a page in Charlemagne’s court and as a soldier. He entered the monastery of Saint-Seine, near Dijon, where he led an extremely austere life. He retired to live as a hermit, but disciples came, and he built a monastery. He was appointed overseer of a number of monasteries in Provence and Gascony, and later was made abbot of the monastery of Kornelimünster, near Aachen, from which he directed the reform of monasteries throughout the Carolingian Empire. He presided at the reform council at Aachen in 816, which imposed the Rule of St. Benedict on all monasteries. He was responsible for several important collections of earlier monastic rules.

February 13

In 1237, in a shipwreck off the coast of Palestine, Blessed Jordan of Saxony. After studying at Paris and lecturing there on theology and perhaps mathematics as well, he joined the Dominicans. Two years later, in 1222, he succeeded St. Dominic as master general of the Dominicans. For the rest of his life he traveled extensively, promoting the spread of his order. He wrote extensively, including a series of letters to his friend Blessed Diana d’Andalo, who in Bologna founded a Dominican convent around which the first group of third order Dominicans gathered.

In 1469, Blessed Eustochium of Padua. She was the illegitimate daughter of a nun who was badly abused by her stepmother. She was educated at the convent where her mother had been a nun, and later joined it. She suffered demonic attacks or mental illness, but the abbess protected her from public outrage, and Eustochium died peacefully at the age of twenty-five.

February 14

In the last half of the 9th century, Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Cyril studied secular sciences at Constantinople, and succeeded Photius as professor there. His brother Methodius was a state official. Around 860 they were sent as missionaries from Constantinople to the Slavs. They translated the Bible and the liturgy into Old Slavonic, for which they created an alphabet. They passed through Rome in 867 on their way to Constantinople, carrying the relics of St. Clement, which were placed in the church of San Clemente. Pope Hadrian II endorsed their missionary work. Cyril died in 869. Methodius was consecrated archbishop of Sirmium in 870, with responsibility for the Moravian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene mission territories. Much of his work was later undone because of conflicts between the Franks, Constantinople and Rome. Cyril and Methodius are, with St. Benedict, the patrons of Europe.

At Rome, in the third century, the martyrdom of St. Valentine. One theory holds that his association with romanic love originated because birds choose their mates around this date.

February 15

Around 1045, St. Sigfrid, the apostle of Sweden. He was probably a monk of Glastonbury. The spring at Husaby, where he baptized King Olaf of Sweden in 1008, was credited with miraculous powers.

In 1682, at Paray-le-Monial, St Claude de la Colombière. He joined the Jesuits in his youth and studied at Avignon and Paris. He had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart. His devotion was confirmed when he met St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (October 16), who was a nun at the Visitation convent in Paray-le-Monial. He went to England in 1676 as preacher for Maria of Modena, duchess of York. He was arrested in 1678, tried, then banished to France. Largely because of him, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus spread throughout the world.

In 1824, at Dülmen in Westphalia, Germany, Blessed Anna Katharina Emmerich. When she was a girl she experienced visions, but otherwise had a normal childhood. At twenty-eight she was accepted into an Augustinian convent. She received the stigmata. After the government closed all convents in 1811, there were several investigations of her wounds, which to the investigators seemed to be free of fraud. The poet Clemens Brentano transcribed her visions and published them after her death, though in a altered form.

February 16

In the first century, Blessed Onesimus, of whom St. Paul writes in the Letter to Philemon.

In 310, at Caesarea in Palestine, St. Elias and companions. They were Egyptian Christians, who went to visit their fellow converts who had been sent to the mines in Cilicia in southern Asia Minor. They were arrested on the way home, tortured and finally beheaded.

At Turin, in 1926, Blessed Joseph Allamano, priest and founder of the Consolata Missionaries. He was nephew of St. Joseph Cafasso (June 23), who was a major influence on St. John Bosco (January 31), and was himself guided by St. John Bosco when he was a student at a Salesian secondary school.

February 17

In the 13th century, the seven founders of the Servite Order. They were members of a confraternity in Florence dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. They formed a religious community in 1240. The Order was largely responsible for promoting devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At Lindisfarne, in 661, St. Fintan, abbot and bishop. He was sent from Iona to succeed St. Aidan (August 31) at Lindisfarne, and was himself succeeded by Colman (February 18), who defended Irish practices at the Synod of Whitby.

February 18

In Ireland, around 676, St. Colman, abbot and bishop. When the Synod of Whitby decided to follow Roman customs, Colman resigned as bishop of Lindisfarne and returned to Iona. From there he went to the island of Inishbofin, where he founded a monastery. He founded another community for his English followers on the mainland in County Mayo.

In Constantinople, in 806, St. Tarasius, patriarch, who in 787 presided over the Second Council of Nicaea, which restored the veneration of images and legislated some disciplinary matters. Tarasius was a humble person, who disliked pomp and urged his clergy to dress simply.

In 1455, in Florence, Blessed John of Fiesole, known as Fra Angelico. He was already a painter when he joined the Dominicans in 1420. He was ordained in 1429. At San Marco, in Florence, he learned iconography from Greek manuscripts deposited there by Cosmo de Medici. In his paintings at San Marco and elsewhere, he combined the religious fervor of the Middle Ages with the Renaissance love of beauty and nature.

February 19

In 439, Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage. He was exiled by the Vandals to Naples, where he died soon afterwards.

Around 1434, in Spain, Blessed Alvaro of Zamora. He was a Dominican friar, known for his preaching and asceticism. He was a proponent of reform in his Order.

February 20

In 743, at Saint-Trond, near Maastricht, St. Eucherius, bishop. He was a monk at the abbey of Jumièges in Normandy. He was chosen bishop of Orleans, but when he opposed Charles Martel’s confiscation of church property, he was exiled to Cologne, then to a fortress near Liège. Finally he was allowed to retire to the monastery at Saint-Trond.

In 1154, St. Wulfric of Haselbury, a parish priest who became an anchorite. He achieved a reputation for insight and healing, and Kings Henry I and Stephen visited him. He was supported by the Cluniac monks of Montacute, and his life was written by John, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Forde.

In Lisbon, Portugal, in 1920, Blessed Jacinta Marto. She was one of the children who received a vision of Our Lady at Fatima. She died a year after the last apparition.

February 21

In 1072, at Faenza, St. Peter Damian, monk, bishop and doctor of the church. He was born into a poor family in Ravenna. His brother, a priest, provided for his education, and Peter became a professor. In 1035, he joined the community of hermits founded by St. Romuald at Fonte Avellana. Throughout his life he was devoted to the solitary life and the reform of the clergy. His monastery became the center of a congregation. He supported Pope Leo IX, who established the College of Cardinals. Leo made him a cardinal and he served the church on various missions. He put the eremitical movement on a firm theological basis, and his influenced was the growth of the Camaldolese Order.

At Tyburn, in 1595, the martyrdom of St. Robert Southwell, Jesuit priest. After being educated at Douai, he joined the Jesuits in Rome. Sent to England, he attended a strategy meeting of Catholics which was also attended by the composer William Byrd. From that meeting he developed a pamphlet called Mary Magdalene’s Funeral Tears. He then became chaplain to the Countess of Arundel and while in her mansion wrote An Epistle of Comfort. He was captured and tortured, imprisoned for three years, and finally hanged, drawn and quartered. By then Robert Southwell was a famous poet. His brutal execution created a revulsion against such barbarous treatment of Catholics.

In Portugal, the three holy children of Fatima. In 1917, an angel appeared to them; then the Blessed Virgin appeared and asked them to say the rosary for the conversion of sinners. Two of them died shortly afterward in a flu epidemic. The third, Lucia, became a nun. She conveyed a request that the world be dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which several popes subsequently did.

February 22

In Rome, the feast of St. Peter’s Chair, which commemorates St. Peter’s years as bishop of Rome. Romans visited the graves of their dead on this day, and the origins of the feast are connected with veneration of a memorial monument to Peter.

In the second century, St. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis. Fragments of his book, The Sayings of the Lord Explained are preserved in the writings of St. Irenaeus. It is said that he listened to the teaching of Christians who had been disciples of the apostles. He says that Mark wrote down the teachings of Peter in his Gospel, and that Matthew recorded Jesus’ sayings in Aramaic. He opposed the teachings of Marcion, who rejected the Old Testament.

At the monastery of Longchamp, in 1270, Blessed Isabel of France. She was the sister of the king, St. Louis IX. Like him, she was very devoted to the poor, and from an early age she adopted an ascetical way of life.

In 1297, St. Margaret of Cortona. After becoming the mistress of a young nobleman when she was about twelve years old, she underwent a deep conversion at the age of twenty-one when her lover was murdered. Some Franciscans took her under their wing, and she supported herself and her son by nursing. Eventually she became a member of the Franciscan Third Order of Penitents.

February 23

Around 155, at Smyrna, the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, bishop. According to an account of his martyrdom sent by his community to another town, a mob, having killed a young man named Germanicus, demanded the arrest of Polycarp. When he refused to deny Christ, he was put to death by the sword and his body burned in the town theater. Earlier, Ignatius of Antioch, on the way to his own martyrdom, wrote to Polycarp asking him to take care of his church. Irenaeus had met Polycarp and praised his zeal for orthodoxy. He also tells of a trip that Polycarp made to Rome to settle the date for Easter.

At Much Wenlock, about 715 AD, St. Milburga, abbess. The monastery of which she was the second abbess was destroyed by the Danes, but refounded by Cluniac monks in 1079. Her gravesite was rediscovered with the help of St. Anselm.

In the Basque country, in 1900, Blessed Raphaela Ybarra de Villalonga. She was married to an industrialist, bore him seven children and adopted the five children of her deceased sister. She devoted much effort to young girls who came to Bilbao from the countryside, When she was 47, with her husband’s agreement, she made vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. She started centers to feed and house young women. When she died, she was mourned by thousands, having become known as Mother Raphaela of Bilbao.

February 24

In England, in 616, St. Ethelbert, King of Kent. He was married to Bertha, a Christian princess from Paris. He was converted by Augustine. He gave Augustine land at Canterbury for a cathedral and monastery, and helped spread the faith to other parts of England.

At the priory of Orsan, in 1116 or 1117, Blessed Robert of Arbrissel, abbot. Robert was born of a poor but very religious family in Brittany. He was educated in Paris, served as a vicar to the bishop of Rennes, then taught at Angers. He retired as a hermit in the forest of Craon in Anjou, where he came into contact with his fellow reformers, Bernard of Tiron and Vitalis of Savigny. His followers were housed in a double monastery that he started at Fontevrault. The nuns lived a life of prayer, following the Rule of St. Benedict. The lay brothers and priests followed the Rule of Augustine. From this developed a religious order with several thousand members.

February 25

At Heidenheim, in 779, St. Walburga, abbess. She was a nun at the double monastery of Wimborne. St. Boniface, her uncle, invited her and her brothers to join him as monk-missionaries in Germany. She spent two years at Tauberbischofsheim under St. Lioba, then joined her brother Winnibald as superior at the monastery of Heidenheim. Boniface appointed their brother Willibald first bishop of Eichstätt, where both he and Walburga were eventually interred.

At Engelberg, around 1131, the death of St. Adelhelm, who was the leader of the founding monks who came there from the monastery of Muri. He became the first abbot of Engelberg.

In 1930, in China, the martyrdom of the Salesians Blessed Aloysius Versaglia, bishop, and Callistus Caravario, priest. They were zealous and tireless missionaries. While traveling by boat with a group of women, they were attacked by Communist mercenaries. The two missionaries tried to protect the women and were bludgeoned to death.

February 26

In Gaza, in 421, St. Porphyry, bishop. Porphyry left his native Thessalonika to become a monk in the Egyptian desert monastery of Skete. Then he spent time as a hermit along the Jordan River. He became crippled, so he went to Jerusalem. When his friend Mark sold off Porphyry’s estates and brought him the money to distribute to the poor, Porphyry was healed. He was ordained a priest, and was then pressured to become bishop of Gaza. During his years as bishop, he struggled against stubborn pagans and was renowned for his generosity to the poor.

At Tyburn, in 1607, the martyrdom of Blessed Robert Drury, priest. He was ordained at the English College in Valladolid and went to England as a missionary. He was housed in the home of St. Anne Line (February 27) until he was arrested, condemned, hanged, drawn and quartered.

In 1889, at Barcelona, St. Paula Montal Fornés. While teaching catechism when she was a teenager, she discovered a gift for teaching. Working with Piarist Fathers, she established schools and an order, The Sisters of Pious Schools, dedicated to the education of young women.

February 27

In Alexandria, around 250, during the persecution of Decius, the martyrdom of St. Julian and companions. St. Julian was arrested, but was so feeble he had to be carried to his trial. When he would not renounce his faith, he was beaten, mocked, and burned in a pit of quicklime.

At Tyburn, in 1601, St. Anne Line. She and her brother converted from Calvinism and were disinherited. She married another disinherited Catholic, who was forced to flee to Flanders and died. She was left destitute, but became manager of a Catholic safe house in London. She was arrested, and despite being very ill, was condemned and hanged.

At Pasto, in southern Colombia, in 1943, Blessed Caritas Brader. She was born in the canton of St. Gallen and entered a Franciscan convent. In answer to a request from a bishop in Ecuador, she and five others went to Ecuador as missionaries. She later moved to Colombia where she served in a very poor area. To help with her work, she started a missionary order, which soon drew recruits from Switzerland and Colombia. She emphasized the importance of education and of living as poorly as the people they served.

February 28

At Worcester, in 992, St. Oswald, bishop. Oswald was of Danish descent. He was a canon of Winchester before becoming a monk at Fleury-sur-Loire. At the recommendation of St. Dunstan, he was appointed bishop of Worcester. He founded a Benedictine monastery at Westbury-on-Trym and turned his cathedral chapter over to monks. Later he built the abbey of Ramsey, which in turn founded the abbeys of Pershore and Evesham. He made Ramsey a center of learning. He was appointed archbishop of York. With Dunstan and Ethelwold, he spearheaded a great ecclesiastical and monastic revival in England in the last half of the tenth century.

In Switzerland, in 1602, the foundation of the Swiss Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict.

In 1936, in Paris, Blessed Daniel Brottier. He was born in France and ordained a diocesan priest. He joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit and was sent to Senegal, where he spent eight years. He served as a chaplain in the First World War, spending four years at the front. In 1923 he was given charge of a ministry to orphaned and abandoned children in a suburb of Paris, a project to which he devoted the rest of his life.

February 29

In Rome, in 468, St. Hilary, pope, who was a strong supporter of the Church’s faith in Christ.

At Aquila, in 1472, blessed Antonia of Florence, widow, who was the founder and first abbess of the Poor Clare monastery of Corpus Christi.