June 1

Around 165, in Rome, St. Justin Martyr. Justin was a Greek, born in Samaria. He studied various philosophies in a quest for the vision of God. One day on the seashore he met an old man who told him about the Hebrew prophets and Christianity, and Justin’s search was ended. He became a Christian philosopher at Ephesus, and then at Rome. There he wrote his major works of Christian apologetics. He taught that the divine Logos had been at work throughout human history to prepare the world for His coming in the flesh. Justin was beheaded with six other Christians under Marcus Aurelius.

In 1035, at Trier, St. Simeon of Syracuse. Born in Sicily, he was educated at Constantinople and became a monk in the Sinai. He was sent on a harrowing journey to Normandy to raise funds for his monastery. On the way he became friends with Abbot Richard of Verdun and Abbot Eberwin of Trier. After accompanying Archbishop Poppo of Trier on a pilgrimage to Palestine, he returned to Trier where he became an anchorite. He was the second person to be formally canonized by a pope.

In 1905, in Piacenza, Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini. He came from a devout family and was ordained by the bishop of Bergamo. After serving as a seminary rector, he was appointed bishop of Piacenza when he was thirty-six. He visited all 365 parishes of his diocese five times, held synods, reorganized his seminaries, helped the poor, and promoted workers’ associations and cooperatives. He recognized the need for a ministry serving northern Italians emigrating to the Americas, so he organized the Missionaries of St. Charles.

In Sicily, in 1927, St. Annibale Maria di Francia. He grew up a free-thinker, but experienced a sudden call to the priesthood. He worked among the poor, promoted vocations, and founded two religious orders.

June 2

In 177, the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, whose fate is described in a letter preserved in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. Lyons was terminus of a trade route to the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Christians there had close ties with the church in Asia Minor. At Lyons, they were at first ostracized, then accused of treason and cannibalism. A number were arrested and tortured and executed. Throughout their ordeal, these martyrs showed remarkable charity for their persecutors.

In 304, at Rome, Saints Marcellinus and Peter. They were arrested and then beheaded for their faith. They are commemorated in the first Eucharistic Prayer. Constantine built a church over their tomb, and his mother, St. Helena, was buried there.

In 1451, at Castelnuovo, in Italy, Blessed Herculanus of Piegaro. He entered the Observant Franciscans in Sarteano. After going to the Holy Land when the Franciscans were granted custody of the holy places, he returned to Tuscany. After some years as a hermit, he was sent out to preach, which he did very effectively.

June 3

In Uganda, in 1886, St. Charles Lwanga and companions. The unstable young king Mwanga was angered when Christian pages in his court would not yield to his sexual advances. Most of them were burned to death, and they prayed as they died. After Mwanga’s death, Christianity advanced rapidly in his territory.

In 545, at Tours, St. Clothilde. A Burgundian Christian, she married Clovis, king of the Franks, about 492. Four years later he was baptized at Rheims. After his death in 511, Clothilde tried to keep peace among her unruly relatives. She eventually retired to Tours, where she devoted herself to prayer and almsgiving.

About 518, at Glendalough, St. Kevin. He was educated by monks and ordained a priest. He became a hermit at the upper lake at Glendalough and established a monastery for those who gathered around him. Many stories are told about his fondness for animals.

In 1963, Blessed John XXIII, pope. He was born of a poor family in the Piedmont, attended a seminary, and earned a doctorate in theology in Rome. He worked as secretary to Bishop Giacomo Radini-Tadeschi of Bergamo, taught in the diocesan seminary, edited the diocesan newspaper, and began a lifelong project of editing the visitation documents of St. Charles Borromeo. He was conscripted and served terms of military service both before and after his ordination. In 1925 he was sent as apostolic visitor to Bulgaria, where he spent ten frustrating years. Then he was sent as apostolic delegate to Greece and Turkey. There he set up a network to help people escape from the Nazis. Next he served as papal nuncio to France. In 1953 he was made cardinal and patriarch of Venice. In 1958 he was elected pope, and set himself to opening the church to dialogue with contemporary society’s needs, achievements and aspirations, so that the church could bring Christ to the world. To that end he called the Second Vatican Council. He also wrote several important social encyclicals. He died in 1963, after the council was well under way.

June 4

In 308, at Sisak in Croatia, Quirinus, bishop and martyr. After a spirited defense of his faith before a magistrate, Quirinus was beaten. According to contemporary accounts, he said: “I am exercising my priesthood here and now by offering myself up to God.” He was finally tossed into the Raab River with a millstone tied around his neck. His body is buried in Santa Maria in Trastevere.

In 387 in North Africa, St. Optatus of Milevis, bishop. He was an apologist for the Catholic church against the Donatists, who differed in their understanding of the sacraments, an argument which had its beginnings in what they regarded as infidelity and laxity among some clergy during the persecution of Diocletian. Optatus insisted on the catholicity of the church and the need to be in communion with the bishop of Rome.

In 1608, in Italy, St. Francis Caracciolo. When he was cured of a skin disease, he gave up his easygoing, aristocratic life and became a priest. A letter wrongly addressed to him invited him to help found a new religious group, the Order of Minor Clerks Regular. He did so and eventually became its leader.

In Spain, in 1940, Bishop Manuel González García. As a child he belonged to the seises, a group of choir boys at the Seville Cathedral who danced on the feasts of Corpus Christi and the Immaculate Conception. He became a priest, and served in an area of rundown churches and lukewarm faith. To revitalize the faith of his people, he founded several religious orders and confraternities, and wrote many books. When he was made bishop of Málaga in 1920, he gave a banquet for 3,000 poor children. His ministry there was met with stiff resistance from anticlerical Republicans who burned down his house. In 1935 he was appointed bishop of Palencia. His ministry centered on the Eucharist.

June 5

In Frisia, in 754, St. Boniface, bishop and martyr, the apostle of Germany. He was born in Devon, and educated in a local monastery and then at the abbey of Nursling, where he was a very effective teacher. When he was he forty, following in the footsteps of Sts. Wilfrid (October 12) and Willibrord (November 7), he left England to do missionary work in Frisia and Germany. With a mandate from Pope Gregory II, he evangelized and organized the German church. He founded many monasteries, and recruited missionaries from English monasteries, such as his cousin Lull, who succeeded him as archbishop of Mainz, Sturmi, abbot of Fulda, Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, and Lioba, abbess of Bischofstein. In 741, Boniface was called to reorganize the Frankish church. In his old age, he resigned his positions and went back to Frisia as a missionary. There, while waiting for some candidates for Confirmation, his party was attacked by robbers. He refused to fight back and was killed. Christopher Dawson judged that Boniface “had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any [other] Englishman who ever lived.”

In 1036, at Paderborn, Blessed Meinwerk, bishop. He trained for the priesthood at Hildesheim, where he became friends with the future emperor Henry II (July 13). Later Henry had him appointed bishop of Paderborn. Meinwerk spent his own considerable fortune and a significant amount of Henry’s on his poor diocese and city, where he founded several monasteries and a school.

In 1443, Blessed Ferdinand of Portugal. The son of King John I of Portugal and an English mother, he was appointed head of a military order formed to fight the Moors. He was captured in Ceuta and died some years later, still in captivity.

Tomorrow is the name day of Father Prior Boniface Lautz. He is recommended to our prayers.

June 6

At Magdeburg, in 1134, St. Norbert, bishop and founder of the Premonstratensian Order. Born into a noble family, he underwent a radical conversion when he was thrown from his horse. He was ordained, gave away his possessions, and with papal permission, became a traveling preacher. He founded a very austere monastery for Canons Regular at Premontré in 1121, which became the head of a large order. He was made bishop of Magdeburg in 1126.

In the first century, St. Philip the Deacon. In art he is usually shown baptizing the eunuch of the Queen of Ethiopia.

In 1840, St. Marcellin Champagnat. While he was in the seminary, he and some of his fellow seminarians conceived the plan to found religious orders of priests, sisters and brothers dedicated to Mary. During the next twenty-five years Fr. Champagnat worked toward that end and was the founder of the Marist Brothers.

Tomorrow is the name day of our confrere Fr. Norbert Novak. He is recommended to our prayers.

June 7

In Eichstätt, in 786, St. Willibald. He was the son of St. Richard (February 7), nephew of St. Boniface (June 5), and brother to St. Winnibald (December 18) and St. Walburga (February 25). His father died at Lucca while he was on a pilgrimage to Rome, and Willbald went on to the Holy Land. When he returned, he spent ten years at Monte Cassino, which had recently been restored by Pope Gregory II (February 11). About 740 the pope sent Willibald to help St. Boniface in Germany. Willibald became bishop of Eichstätt and founded the double monastery at Heidenheim, where he lived while he was bishop for forty-five years.

In Ireland, in the sixth century, St. Colman of Dromore, bishop and monk. He was a disciple of St. Ailbhe of Emly (September12). He built a monastery at Dromore and was the first bishop there. St. Finnian of Moville (September 10) was his disciple.

In Antwerp, in 1626, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew. She was a peasant girl who became the first lay sister to be professed at St. Teresa of Avila’s (October 15) reformed monastery. She was St. Teresa’s traveling companion and was with Teresa when she died. Six years later Anne was sent with a group of sisters to found a convent at Paris. There she was yielded to the urging of her fellow sisters and made profession as a nun. She became superior at several convents before she founded one in Antwerp, where she was greatly venerated.

June 8

In 560, at Saint-Quentin, St. Médard, bishop. He became a priest when he was 33, and was an outstanding preacher and missionary. He was ordained bishop by St. Remy (January 13). Medieval tradition invoked him as an intercessor for those suffering from toothache.

In 1899, in Oporto, Portugal, Blessed Maria Droste zu Vischering. She joined he Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and was sent to Portugal to open a hostel for troubled girls. All the while she had mystical experiences. She believed that God wanted the world to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Christ. Pope Leo XIII made that consecration in an encyclical Annum sacrum issued a few days before she died.

In 1926, in Kerela, India, Blessed Mariam Theresia Chiramel Mankidiyan. Her mother died when Mariam was twelve, and Mariam had to leave school. She and some companions became very involved in the life of their parish. Mariam had many mystical experiences, some of them controversial. She and her companions eventually formed a religious order, which has prospered in India.

In 1958, in Sardinia, Blessed Nicholas of Gesturi. Orphaned at an early age, he lived and worked on an older sister’s farm, while attending daily Mass and devotions. When he was 29 he became a Capuchin friar, and spent over three decades walking the roads collecting alms for his friary. He was known for his silence, and became revered. People found in him the presence of God and an invitation to peace.

June 9

In 373, in Syria, St. Ephraem, deacon and doctor of the church. When he was 18, he was baptized in Nisibia. When the Persians took over the city, he went to live in a cave near Edessa, and there he wrote the theological works and hymns that earned him designation as a doctor of the church. Near the end of his life, he was chosen to oversee distribution of food supplies in the Edessa region during a famine, because he could be counted on to be honest and impartial.

In 597, at Iona, St. Columba or Columcille. He was born in Donegal of parents of royal descent. He was ordained a priest and founded monasteries at Derry, Durrow and Kells. He loved learning. When he was forty he and some companions moved to Iona, from where they evangelized the inhabitants of Scotland. He wrote poetry and was transcribing a psalter the day before he died. For the next century, Iona was a great center of evangelization, particularly for Northumbria.

In 1348, at the Camaldolese monastery of St. Mary in Florence, Blessed Silvester of Valdiseve. He entered the community when he was 40 and served many years as a cook. He was highly esteemed for his advice and his devotion to the divine office.

In Rome, in 1837, Blessed Anne Mary Taigi. The daughter of domestic servants, she became a servant herself and married Domenico, another servant. They had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. In spite of their limited means, she was generous with those in need. She led the family in prayer each morning and evening. Her spiritual directors testified to her holiness, and many sought her advice.

June 10

In England, about 656, St. Ithamar of Rochester, the first Anglo-Saxon to be consecrated a bishop.

In Rome, in 1386, Blessed Bonaventure Baduario, cardinal. From a leading family of Padua, he became an Augustinian friar, and eventually the head of his order. He was a professor at the university of Paris and a friend of Petrarch. After he became a cardinal, his support of the pope put him at odds with a relative who was the ruler of Padua. Bonaventure was assassinated by an arrow, perhaps at the instigation of his princely relative.

In Belgium, in 1924, Blessed Edward Poppe. He entered the seminary as a young man. While doing his obligatory military service, he discovered St. Thérèse’s Story of a Soul. He was ordained in 1916 and ministered successfully in a working-class parish in Ghent. He had the first of a series of heart attacks in 1919, before he was thirty. He spent his last five years as an invalid. During this time he wrote many letters, articles and religious pamphlets that had a profound influence on the people of Flanders.

June 11

In the first century, St. Barnabas, apostle. Barnabas was a Levite born on Cyprus. His original name was Joseph, but he was called “son of encouragement", probably because of his cheerful disposition. He sold his property and shared the money with the rest of the disciples. He partnered with Paul on many missionary endeavors.

In 888, St. Rembert, archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg. Rembert was a monk of the Belgian monastery of Torhout, when St. Anskar called him to assist with the mission to Scandinavia. He succeeded Anskar as bishop and wrote his predecessor’s life.

In 1250, at the Cistercian convent of monastery of Le Cambre, in Belgium, St. Aleydis of Schaerbeek. She contracted leprosy when she was twenty-eight and spent the rest of her short life as a hermit and anchorite at the monastery.

In 1915, Blessed Ignatius Maloyan, bishop and martyr. He was born in southeastern Turkey, in a town which had a large Christian community. He studied for the priesthood in the Armenian Catholic church and was ordained in 1896. He served for a while in Egypt before returning to his home town, where he became bishop. He was one of 1,500,000 Armenian Christians tortured and killed in the genocide during World War I.

June 12

In the Egyptian desert, about 400, St. Onuphrius, a hermit.

Near Stockholm, about 1080, St. Eskil, bishop, who was martyred when he urged Christians not to take part in a pagan ceremony.

In 1479, in Spain, St. John of Sahagún. Educated at the Benedictine abbey of San ***ún, he became a diocesan priest and served parishes first at Burgos, and then at Salamanca, where he studied theology. He joined the Augustinian friars and became a notable preacher; he was outspoken on social issues and morality.

In 1767, at Castello, Italy, Blessed Florida Cevoli. Born to an aristocratic family, she joined the monastery at Castello when it was under the leadership of Veronica Giuliani (July 9), and succeeded her as abbess. She served well in all the tasks assigned her.

June 13

In 1231, near Padua, St. Anthony, doctor of the church. He was born in Portugal and became a canon regular at Coïmbra, where he spent eight years in prayer and study. He joined the Franciscans and was sent to Morocco as a missionary. He became ill in Africa and went to Italy, where he met St. Francis and became a renowned preacher and teacher of theology. He died at the age of 36. It is thought that the tradition which makes him the patron for finding lost articles originates from an incident when a novice ran away with his psalter. Anthony’s prayer that it be returned was answered, when a heavenly vision commanded the novice to return the psalter.

June 14

The commemoration of the prophet Elisha.

In Wales, around 500, St. Dogmael. Little is known about him, though he seems to have been active in south Wales and later in Brittany. His name was perpetuated at St. Dogmael's abbey, of which Caldey was a cell.

In Constantinople, in 847, St. Methodius, patriarch. He was born and educated in Sicily and went to Constantinople to secure a government job. Influenced by a monk whom he met there, he joined a monastery, then built his own monastery on the island of Chios. He went to Rome to secure the support of Pope Paschal for those who defended the use of holy images against the revived iconoclasm of Emperor Leo V, the Armenian. When he returned to Constantinople he was thrown into prison for seven years and treated very badly. When the empress Theodora reversed the iconoclastic policies of her predecessors, Methodius was released from prison and appointed patriarch. He instituted the annual Festival of Orthodoxy, still observed on the first Sunday of Lent, and wrote the creedal Synodicon, which is read during the Festival.

June 15

In Rome, during the persecution of Diocletian around 300, Sts. Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia. During the Middle Ages, St. Vitus was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His intercession was invoked for epilepsy and similar conditions.

In Egypt, about 380, St. Orsiesius, who was chosen by the Pachomian monks as a successor to St. Pachomius.

At Pibrac, near Toulouse, in 1601, St. Germaine. She was a poor child with physical disabilities. Her parents segregated her from her healthy step-siblings and when she was old enough, put her to work tending sheep. Gradually, she was recognized as a holy woman. She died at the age of twenty-two.

June 16

In the last half of the sixth century, St. Aurelian. He was bishop of Arles and papal vicar for Gaul. He founded monasteries for men and women and wrote a rule for them. He corresponded with Pope Virgilius, cautioning him to proceed circumspectly in the controversy over the synod of the “three chapters", at which the emperor had condemned works of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyr, and Ibas of Edessa.

In 1106, St. Benno of Meissen, bishop. He was a monk at Hildesheim, then bishop of Meissen. He was entangled in a controversy between the emperor Henry IV and the Saxon nobility, and again in the investiture struggle between the emperor and the papacy. He was exiled and spent time as a missionary to the Slavs. Martin Luther was vehemently opposed to Benno’s canonization in 1523.

In 1246, at Aywières near Liège, St. Lutgard. Sent to a Benedictine convent school, she was a worldly young girl until she had a conversion experience, which brought her close to Christ. When she was twenty-four she sought a stricter monastic life and moved to the Cistercian monastery at Aywières. Although she never mastered the French spoken there, she became a highly esteemed counselor and healer.

June 17

In the fourth century, St. Bessarion, a monk of the Egyptian desert, renowned for his fasting and dispossession.

In the fifth century, St. Hypatius, founder and abbot of a monastery near Chalcedon. He was a defender of orthodox Christology against Nestorianism, a heresy which undercut the unity of Christ's two natures in a single divine person.

In Pisa, about 1161, St. Rainerius, the patron of the city. He was a merchant who converted, spent time in Palestine, and finally returned to Pisa where he lived in association with several monasteries, but never took vows.

June 18

About 431, St. Amandus of Bordeaux, bishop. St. Paulinus of Nola (June 22) was instructed in Christianity by Amandus. Paulinus tells us that Amandus was raised a Christian, was well instructed in the Scriptures, and lived an exemplary life.

In 1165, St. Elizabeth of Schönau. She went to the Benedictine monastery of Schönau when she was twelve. Eleven years later, coping with a bout of depression, she had the first of many visionary experiences. Like Hildegard of Bingen (September 17), with whom she corresponded, she issued prophetic calls for Christians to be true to the vocations God had given them. She left behind a considerable body of writing which survives in numerous manuscripts.

In 1697, St. Gregory Barbarigo, bishop and cardinal. Born of a very wealthy family, he became bishop of Bergamo and later of Padua. He devoted his wealth to charity, and used it to found a seminary and a library. He worked for the reunion of the Byzantine and Roman churches.

June 19

At Val-di-Castro, in 1027, St. Romuald, abbot. After seeing his aristocratic father kill a relative in a duel, he joined the Cluniac monastery at San Apollinare-in-Classe near Ravenna. He became a hermit and founded hermitages in northern Italy. Peter Damian (Febraury 21) was his disciple, and together they established Fonte Avellana and Camaldoli, austere eremitical communities following the Rule of St. Benedict.

In Milan, in the second century, Sts. Gervase and Protase. St. Ambrose discovered their relics in the presence of St. Paulinus of Nola and St. Augustine. While their relics were being carried to the newly constructed cathedral, a blind man was cured.

In 1009, at Braunsberg. St. Boniface of Querfurt, bishop and martyr. Influenced by St. Romuald, he became a monk. Inspired by St. Adalbert of Prague, whose life he wrote, he became a missionary among the Slavs. He was murdered with eighteen companions while trying to evangelize Prussian tribes.

In 1113, Blessed Odo of Cambrai. A renowned teacher of the arts and sciences, he was moved by a book of St. Augustine to become a monk. He refounded the monastery of St. Martin, which adopted the Rule of St, Benedict and soon became a flourishing community of sixty monks and sixty nuns. He was made bishop, but was forced into exile by Emperor Henry V, and spent much of his last seven years writing books of theology.

June 20

In the early third century, at St. Alban’s, St. Alban, martyr. He was evidently a Roman citizen who became a Christian and then was martyred with his Christian mentor, who is honored as St. Amphibalus.

In 537, near Naples, St. Silverius, pope and martyr. For his opposition to Monophysitism, he was arrested by Belisarius, Justinian’s general, taken into exile, and then returned to Italy, where he died of ill treatment.

In 1505, Blessed Osanna of Mantua. When she was fourteen, she wanted to become a Dominican tertiary, but her father would not let her. She had various visionary experiences. She became a leading figure in the household of the Duke of Mantua, though she continued to live simply and tend to the poor. Three years before her death, she finally became a Dominican tertiary.

June 21

At Rome, in 1591, St. Aloysius Gonzaga. Over the objections of his powerful family, he joined the Society of Jesus. He embraced a regime of severe mortification. At 23, he died while ministering to victims of an outbreak of the plague. St. Robert Bellarmine (September 17), his spiritual director, said Aloysius’ example was so extreme that others should not be encouraged to follow it.

In 866, St. Ralph of Bourges, bishop. As archbishop, he used his great learning and wealth to promote Christian education. He wrote a book of pastoral guidance for clergy.

In 1600, in London, St. John Rigby, a layman who refused to attend services in the Elizabethan church, despite repeated reprieves and opportunities to conform. He wrote an autobiographical account of his imprisonment and trial.

June 22

In 1535, in London, St. John Fisher, bishop, cardinal and martyr. The son of a draper in Beverley in Yorkshire, he distinguished himself as a student at the University of Cambridge and stayed on there in various capacities. In 1502, he resigned his positions to become chaplain to Lady Margaret Beaufort, a great benefactress of Cambridge. He was made chancellor of the university in 1504, and in the same year was appointed bishop of Rochester. He was a champion of church reform, but an opponent of Luther. When he opposed Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the break with Rome which followed, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After he was beheaded, Henry VIII had his head impaled on London Bridge for two weeks. It was removed to make room for the head of Sir Thomas More.

Also in London, in 1535, St. Thomas More, martyr. While studying at Oxford, he became enthusiastic for Greek and humanist ideas. He then studied law in London, His first wife bore him four children, and when she died, he remarried. His household was a center of learning, prayer and hospitality. Henry VIII liked him and appointed him lord chancellor in 1529. When Henry wanted to marry Ann Boleyn, More resigned his office and his family was reduced to poverty. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for fifteen months, tried, convicted and four days later, beheaded.

In 431, St. Paulinus of Nola, bishop. He was born in Bordeaux of a very wealthy and prominent family. He married, but when the couple’s only child died, they decided to give away much of their wealth. They settled at Nola, near Naples, and after giving away more of their goods, each became a hermit near the tomb of St. Felix of Nola. He was chosen bishop of Nola in 409. He wrote numerous works of which some poems and letters survive.

June 23

At Ely, in 679, St. Etheldreda (or Audrey), abbess. The daughter of the king of East Anglia, and the sister of three saints, she was married to a prince named Tonbert. When he died shortly thereafter, she retired to the Isle of Ely to live a life of prayer. Five years later she was married to Egfrid, son of King Oswy. To help her avoid this marriage of political convenience, Wilfrid, the bishop of York, allowed Etheldreda to enter the monastery of Coldingham. A year later, Wilfrid made her abbess of Ely.

In 1213, in modern-day Belgium, Blessed Mary of Oignies. According to her biographer and disciple, Jacques de Vitry, she was the daughter of wealthy parents in Nivelles. She was married at 14, and later she and her husband turned their house into a hospital for lepers. She had the "gift of tears," a highly esteemed manifestation of the virtue of compunction. Toward the end of her life, she occupied a cell close to the Augustinian monastery at Oignies. Her fame and example influenced the development of the Beguines and the Crosier Order.

In 1860, St. Joseph Cafasso, a secular priest who was the spiritual director of St. John Bosco. Despite a spinal deformity, he became a very effective theology teacher of young priests studying at the theological institute at Turin, which he eventually headed. He had a special ministry to prisoners. He inspired not only John Bosco (January 31), but several other founders of religious orders.

June 24

In Palestine, the solemnity of the birthday of St. John the Baptist. Because of the special circumstances of his birth, described in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel, John’s birthday is celebrated in addition to his death. This is one of the oldest feasts in the church’s calendar. St. Augustine says it is fittingly celebrated at this time of year, when the days start to grow shorter, because John’s task was to decrease so that Christ might increase.

In 1193, St. Bartholomew of Farne, one of Cuthbert’s (March 20) hermit successors on the Farne islands, off Lindisfarne. Bartholomew was born in Whitby, but ordained in Norway. He became a monk at Durham, then went to live in Cuthbert’s cell on Inner Farne. He had some difficulties with two other hermits there, but overall was a cheerful and kindly man.

June 25

In 465, in Aquitaine, St. Prosper. He was a lay theologian who was involved in the semi-Pelagian controversy over grace and free will. In addition to writings related to that controversy, he wrote a chronicle of world history.

In 1142, St. William of Vercelli, abbot. After leading a life of penance and pilgrimage in his youth, he settled as a hermit in a mountainous area inland from Naples. Disciples gathered around him, and he established a severe monastery there, which became known as Montevergine and developed to be the head of a Benedictine Congregation. William went on to found several additional monasteries, eventually settling at Salerno, where he was an advisor to Roger II, king of Naples and Sicily.

June 26

At Rome, in the fourth century, Saints John and Paul, martyrs, to whom in the fifth century a basilica on the Coelian Hill in Rome was built on earlier foundations. They mentioned in the first Eucharist prayer.

In 1178, St. Anthelm, bishop of Belley. He was a secular priest, serving as provost of Geneva, when he joined the Carthusians. He became the seventh prior of the Grand Chartreuse, and summoned the first general chapter of the order. He resigned to live as a hermit, but was sent to be prior of the monastery of Portes. He was then appointed bishop of Belley. In that office he took special care of a group of women solitaries and a leper house.

In 1975, St. Josemaria Escribá, founder of the Opus Dei movement. He studied theology and law and was ordained in 1925. While continuing his studies in Madrid, he had the inspiration for Opus Dei, which at its inception was a movement of men, mostly graduate students, who wanted to put the gospel into action. During the persecution of the church and the civil war of the 1930s, members of the community were scattered. In Franco’s Spain, Opus Dei grew rapidly and achieved considerable influence. Because the movement’s members were secretive, suspicions about them arose. Escribá developed a constitution and received papal approval in 1947. Since then the movement, still controversial, has spread throughout the world. He was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2002.

June 27

In 444, in Alexandria, St. Cyril, bishop and doctor. Cyril succeeded his uncle, Theophilus, as bishop of Constantinople. He was a vigorous, even heavy-handed, supporter of orthodoxy. He presided at the Council of Ephesus, which condemned the Christological views of Nestorius.

In 1066, St. George of the Black Mountain, monk. He spent time in several monasteries, and lived on Mount Athos. His great work was to translate the Bible and the Greek theological heritage into his native Georgian language.

In Cambrai, France, in 1794, Blessed Madeleine Fontaine and three companions. These four members of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul were arrested when they refused to take the oath demanded by the Revolutionary Convention. They were condemned to the guillotine during the Terror, a month before Robespierre and two months before Joseph Lebon, who supervised their condemnation and execution, were themselves sentenced to die.

In 1879, at La Pierraz, Switzerand, Blessed Marguerite Bays. A dressmaker, she spent her entire life in the parish where she lived. She was miraculously healed from cancer at the moment Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Later she received the stigmata.

June 28

In 202, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, bishop. Irenaeus was a Greek, born in Asia Minor, where he knew St. Polycarp. He was well educated in Greek philosophy and literature and studied in Rome under St. Justin Martyr. He was a priest in Lyons during the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, and traveled to Rome to argue against the Montanist heresy, a rigorist sect which claimed special prophetic gifts. He returned to Gaul to become bishop of Lyons. He wrote a large and effective work Against the Heresies of the Gnostics.

Before the fifteenth century, on the island of Valaam, in Lake Ladoga, in Finland, Sts. Sergius and Germanus, founders of the monastery of Valaam.

In Lovere, Italy, St. Vincenza Gerosa. She was the confounder with Bartolomea Capitanio (July 26) of a congregation of Sisters of Charity. The two women met through charitable work. Their community is now known as the Sisters of the Child Mary.

June 29

The solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, apostles. Peter was martyred in Rome during the reign of Nero. He was a Galilean fisherman, whom Jesus chose to be leader of the apostles. After denying Christ, Peter visited the empty tomb and became a leader and spokesman for the Christian community. He went to Rome, and the apocryphal Acts of Peter recount that when he was leaving the city during a persecution, he met Jesus and asked him, “Where are you going, Lord?” Jesus replied, “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.” So Peter went back, and according to an ancient tradition, was crucified there upside down. What are very probably his remains were discovered under St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in the 1960s. A medal from the first half of the second century shows him as a sturdy man with a curly beard. His emblems are keys and an upside-down cross.

St. Paul was a Jew from Tarsus, 200 miles north of Jerusalem; he was a Roman citizen and a Pharisee well educated in the Jewish scriptures. After persecuting Christians, he was converted by a meeting with the Lord on the road to Damascus. He took the Christian gospel throughout the eastern Mediterranean and developed Christian doctrine in his preaching and letters. He defended the place of Gentiles in the church and centered his preaching on Christ crucified and risen. He was beheaded in Rome around 65 AD and buried where the basilica and monastery of St. Paul Outside the Walls now stand. His emblem is a book or a sword.

The commemoration of Benjamin, the patriarch.

In 1316, on a ship in the harbor of Palma, Majorca, Blessed Raymund Lull. He was born on Majorca, which had a mixed population of Christians and Muslims. He was wealthy, well-educated, happily married, and well-connected. He led a very worldly life until he was about 30. Then he had a vision of Christ, which convinced him he must devote the rest of his life to church reform, and bringing the Moors to Christ. He never gained much official support. He learned Arabic and wrote prolifically on theological and philosophical topics. Eventually he did go to North Africa several times to preach, but the Muslim authorities treated him roughly and deported him. He died on the ship that brought him back from North Africa after he had been stoned and left for dead there.

June 30

The commemoration of the Christians martyred in Rome under Nero. Two-thirds of Rome burned in July, 64. Nero was accused of starting the fire, or at least not trying to have it put out. He announced that the Christians were responsible and ordered their arrest and execution. Tacitus, the Roman historian, who was nine years old at the time, later wrote that Nero “persecuted with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians."

In 1066, at Salanigo, near Vicenza, blessed Theobald of Provins. Theobald (or Thibaut) was the son of the Count of Champagne. Inspired by stories of the desert fathers, he became a hermit and pilgrim before settling at Salinigo, where he led a small group of followers. Shortly before his death, he made religious profession as a Camaldolese.

In 1646, at Tyburn, Blessed Philip Powell, monk and martyr. He went to school in Augustine Baker’s home town of Abergavenny and studied law under Baker in London. He joined the Benedictine community in exile at Douai and was ordained in 1619. He worked as a missionary in Devon and Cornwall for twenty years, but was arrested on a ship bound for Wales. He was jailed, and later tried and convicted. His fellow prisoners drew up a testimonial to his goodness. He died bravely, saying: “Oh, what am I, that God thus honors me and will have me die for his sake?”