November 1

The Solemnity of All Saints. This feast, which might be called the fulfillment of Pentecost, honors all who are now with God, the great multitude beyond number, which all who wish may join. The feast seems to have succeeded earlier observance of a feast of all the martyrs. It first appeared in the seventh century.

In the second or third century, St. Benignus of Dijon. He spread the gospel in Burgundy and was martyred. A shrine and a monastery grew up at the site of his tomb.

In 1431, in Portugal, Blessed Nonius. He led the Portuguese to victory over Castile, a victory that firmly established Portugal as a nation. His daughter married the son of King João of Portugal. Then Nonius became a lay brother at a Carmelite friary he had established in Lisbon. He remained there the rest of his life.

In 1945, Blessed Rupert Mayer. He became a diocesan priest, but then entered the Jesuits. He ministered to immigrants who came to Munich from the countryside. During World War I he served as an extremely zealous chaplain, was wounded, and lost a leg. He then ministered to the university students in Munich. The Nazis imprisoned him, but when his health began to fail, they interned him at the Benedictine monastery of Ettal. When the Americans liberated Ettal, he returned to Munich, but died soon afterward.

November 2

The Solemnity of All Souls. 2 Maccabees 12.44-45 recommends prayers for the dead, and from earliest times Christians prayed for their dead. A feast for the dead, dedicated to prayers to help move them from what was later known as purgatory to heaven, first appeared in the seventh century. The commemoration of the dead on November 2 spread to the universal church from Cluny, where it was established by St. Odilo.

At Argentan, in 1521, St. Margaret of Lorraine. She was born into a noble family and married into another. Left a widow with three children when she was twenty-nine, she raised her children well and was a capable administrator of their patrimony. When her children were grown she retired to a convent, where she devoted herself to the poor and sick.

In 1583, at Andover, the martyrdom of Blessed John Bodey. When he was deprived of his position at Oxford because he was a Catholic, he went to Douai and studied law. He returned and was arrested and convicted. It is said that after his execution his mother gave a dinner for their friends to celebrate his glorious victory.

November 3

In 1639, in Lima, Peru, St. Martin de Porres. Martin was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed black slave. He received training in medicine. He became a donatus, and later a lay brother, in the Dominican friary in Lima. He energetically fulfilled his community tasks, and untiringly cared for the sick in his community and the city. He extended practical charity to the hungry, to slaves, and to animals.

In Wales, about 650, St. Winefride. According to her legend, she was healed by St. Beuno (April 21) after a rejected suitor cut off her head. A spring appeared on the site, now called Holywell, whose waters have healing properties. It has been a pilgrimage site ever since. Her relics were taken to St. Peter’s Abbey in Shrewsbury in 1138.

In 753, in Germany, St. Pirmin. A refugee from Spain, he did missionary work in Baden. He rebuilt the abbey of Disentis, became the first abbot of Reichenau, and founded the abbey of Murbach.

In 1148, at Clairvaux, St. Malachy, bishop of Armagh. As a young priest he was involved in reforming and restructuring the Irish church. To qualify himself for this task, he studied canon law with St. Malchus, bishop of Lismore. After a year as abbot of Bangor, Malachy was appointed bishop, and served in that capacity successively at Connor, Armagh and Down. He introduced the canons regular to Ireland. On a trip to Rome he met St. Bernard, and then introduced the Cistercians to Ireland at Mellifont. On another trip to Rome, he became ill and died at Clairvaux. St. Bernard wrote his life.

In Switzerland, in 1226, St. Ida. Legend relates that she escaped an abusive husband and became a hermit. Years later, he asked her forgiveness. So many people came to visit her that she finally took refuge in the Benedictine monastery of Fischingen. Originally founded by monks from Petershausen in the 12th century and suppressed in the 19th century, Fischingen was refounded from Engelberg in 1977 at the urging of a zealous group of lay people.

November 4

In 1584, St. Charles Borromeo, bishop of Milan. His education was paid for by revenue from a Benedictine abbey of which he was made commendatory abbot when he was twelve. His uncle Pope Pius IV made him a cardinal when he was twenty-two, appointed him administrator of the diocese of Milan, and assigned him various curial responsibilities as well. He was an extremely efficient person who also found time for music and physical exercise. He was a dynamic presence at the last session of the Council of Trent and spent the rest of his life implementing its decrees in his diocese. He was particularly energetic in promoting Christian education. He died at the age of 46.

In the sixth century, St. John Zedazneli and companions. They were missionaries who were instrumental in establishing Christianity and monasticism in Georgia.

November 5

In the first century, Saints Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist (June 24, August 29).

In 1707, at Constantinople, Blessed Gomidas Keumurgian. During the late 17th century in Constantinople there was a movement favoring reunion with Rome. A backlash against this movement led to persecution, and Blessed Gomidas was arrested, tried and beheaded. He was an Armenian priest, known for his eloquence and devotion. He converted to Catholicism when he was forty, and many Armenians in Constantinople, moved by his martyrdom, did the same.

In 1943, at Hof, Bavaria, Blessed Bernard Lichtenberg. As a parish priest in Berlin, he supported a pacifist Catholic group in 1931 and consistently opposed the Nazi mistreatment of the Jews from the outset. He was arrested several times, and died as the Gestapo were transporting him to Dachau.

November 6

In the sixth century, in Wales, St. Illtud. A seventh-century life of his disciple, St. Samson (July 28) tells that Illtud was ordained a priest by St. Germain of Auxerre (August 3) and became the learned abbot of Llanilltud Fawr. Another source says he founded a monastery on Caldey Island.

In 1414, at Tours, Blessed Jeanne-Marie de Maillé. She was a devout girl who wanted to be a nun; her prayers were thought to have saved a boy who lived near her family. When they grew up, they married and lived as brother and sister. They adopted three children and lived happily for sixteen years. Then her husband, Robert, was wounded in the Hundred Years’ War and their castle was pillaged. Robert was ransomed. Thereafter the two of them added ransom of prisoners to their charitable activities. When Robert died, Jeanne-Marie gave up all her property and lived in poverty in Tours, where she spent the rest of her life praying and visiting prisoners.

November 7

In 739, at the monastery of Echternach, St. Willibrord. When Willibrord was seven, his father decided to become a hermit, and Willibrord was sent to St. Wilfrid’s (October 12) monastery at Ripon to be raised. He studied in Ireland for twelve years, and then set off from England with twelve companions to work as a missionary among the Frisians in what is today the Netherlands. He made several trips to Rome to obtain papal approval and was ordained archbishop. In his old age he retired to the monastery he had founded at Echternach.

In 1280, Blessed Margaret Colonna. Although troubled by ill health, she devoted herself to caring for the needy, then founded a monastery of Poor Clares at Palestrina.

In 1917, Blessed Vincent Grossi, a parish priest in Italy, who founded an institute for women whose mission was to help parish priests with the religious formation of girls.

November 8

Around 300, the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs, to whom a church on the Coelian Hill is dedicated. Their legend indicates that they were Pannonian stonemasons who were martyred under Diocletian.

At the Abbey of Einsiedeln, in 996, St. Gregory, abbot. Gregory was born into the English royal family. He left England and became a monk at St. Andrew’s on the Coelian Hill in Rome. From there he became a hermit in the Alps, and then abbot of Einsiedeln.

In 1115, at Soissons, St. Godfrey of Amiens. He was raised in a monastery, and became abbot of Nogent, which flourished under his leadership. He was appointed bishop of Amiens. He continued to live a monastic life and was a zealous, if severe, bishop. He became discouraged and was thinking about joining the Carthusians at the time he died.

In 1308, in Cologne, Blessed John Duns Scotus. He was born at Duns in Scotland, joined the Franciscans, and was educated and taught at Oxford and Paris. He then taught at Cologne, where he died at the age of forty-three. He was one of the most brilliant philosophers and theologians of his age. His theology is focused on love: God is love, and God’s love is expressed in creation and in the Incarnation, through which human beings can love God in return.

In 1916, at the Carmelite monastery in Dijon, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. She was a lively girl, with musical talent. From the time of her first communion she began leading a deep interior life, focused on awareness of the Trinity dwelling within her. She became a Carmelite when she was twenty-one, but shortly thereafter contracted a debilitating disease. She united her sufferings with those of Christ, and was joyful in spite of her pain until near the end, when she felt desolation. Her life, and the notes and letters that she left behind, were made known by a number of scholars, including Hans Urs von Balthasar.

November 9

The commemoration of the dedication of the church of St. John Lateran. The Lateran palace was part of the estate of Constantine’s wife Fausta. He donated it to the Christians of Rome in 312. Constantine financed the building of a large church next to the palace. It was dedicated to the Savior, but later it received the name of John the Baptist, probably derived from the nearby baptistery. It has been the cathedral church of the bishops of Rome ever since.

In 467, in Ireland, St. Benen. He was a disciple and successor to St. Patrick, who named him Benignus, because of his kindly disposition. He is remembered as the first to bring the gospel to Counties Clare and Kerry.

In Deventer, in 917, St. Radbod. He was the great-grandson of the King Radbod, who opposed the missionary work of St. Willibrord. He was educated at Cologne, became a monk when he was about thirty, and then was chosen bishop of Utrecht. As bishop, he lived as a monk, became a vegetarian, and continued his studies amid his pastoral and charitable work. He wrote some hymns that survive.

In 1485, in Bologna, Blessed Louis Morbioli. He came from a large middle-class family, and grew into a worldly young man. When he was thirty years old, he became ill while staying with the canons regular of San Salvatore in Venice. This occasioned a profound transformation, and he spent the rest of his life as a wandering preacher.

November 10

In 461, at Rome, St. Leo the Great. He served as an advisor and ambassador for several popes. He was very energetic and big-hearted. He crystallized the belief that the bishop of Rome is heir of Peter with authority from Christ over the universal church. His Tome to Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, was read and approved at the Council of Chalcedon. He did not approve of the council's decision to make Constantinople a patriarchate. In 452 he convinced Attila the Hun to spare Rome, and helped those victimized when Gaiseric the Vandal looted Rome in 455. His letters and sermons are very clear and well-written. He was declared a doctor of the church in 1754.

In 627, at Canterbury, St. Justus. He accompanied St. Augustine (May 27) to England, and became bishop of Rochester, and then of Canterbury.

In 1608, at Naples, St. Andrew Avellino. He was a parish priest and canon lawyer when joined the Theatines. He founded a house of his order in Milan, where he became a close friend of Cardinal Borromeo (November 4) and a firm promoter of the reform program of the Council of Trent.

November 11

In 397, at Tours, St. Martin, monk and bishop. According to his biographer, Sulpicius Severus, who knew Martin personally, Martin was born in Hungary, but raised in Pavia, Italy. His father forbade him to become a Christian and forced him to become a soldier like himself. He was serving near Amiens when he cut his cloak in half to share it with a beggar, an event which is often depicted in art. He left the army and settled as a hermit at Ligugé, near Poitiers. A community formed around him. In 362, over his objections, he was made bishop of Tours. As bishop he lived as a monk in a community he founded called Marmoutier. One of his key preoccupations was to bring Christianity to rural areas.

In 826, in Bithynia, St. Theodore the Studite. He became abbot of a monastery at an early age. He was several times exiled for rebuking moral lapses in Byzantine rulers and for his defense of images. Eventually he became abbot of the monastery of Studios at Constantinople. The wise and prudent observances he developed there were adopted by many monasteries.

About 1050, at the abbey of Grottaferrata, near Rome, St. Bartholomew, who with St. Nilus (September 26), was instrumental in founding that abbey.

In 1952, in Bulgaria, three Assumptionist priests, and the bishop of Nikopol, Eugene Bossilkov, who were shot in Sofia by the Communist regime.

November 12

In 1623, at Vitebsk, St. Josaphat, bishop and martyr. He was born in the Ukraine and educated at Vilnius in Lithuania, where he became a monk. He was a strong promoter of the union of the Ruthenian church with the Roman church. He was appointed bishop of Vitebsk. He was murdered by a rival who opposed union with Rome.

In 574, St. Millán de la Cogolla, a hermit around whose tomb an important Benedictine monastery later developed.

November 13

In 1917, in Chicago, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She was the tenth of eleven children born to farmers near Pavia. She became a school teacher, ran an orphanage, then founded an order called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The bishop of Piacenza, Blessed Giovanni Batista Scalabrini (June 1) encouraged her to send her missionaries to minister to immigrants in America. She went to New York with six sisters. They were poor and at first unwelcome, but she gradually gained support. She worked very hard, traveling the country setting up schools, orphanages and hospitals. She returned to Italy nine times and also traveled to South America to set up schools and orphanages there.

In 867, St. Nicholas I, pope. He was a staunch defender of the independence and primacy of the bishop of Rome. He stood up to kings in defense of the marriage bond and of the right of a woman to freely choose her husband. He contended with Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople. He sent a masterful reply to questions addressed him by Boris, the ruler of the Bulgarians. He was renowned for his care for the poor.

In 1004, St. Abbo, abbot of Fleury-sur-Loire. Because of his learning, he was invited by St. Oswald (February 28) to direct the school of Ramsey. After two years he returned to Fleury, where he was soon elected abbot. He was very active in political and monastic affairs, and was killed while on a peacemaking mission to a monastery. He wrote the first life of St. Edmund, king and martyr (November 20).

In 1896, Blessed Augustina Pietrantoni, martyr. When she was twenty-two, she joined the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide Thoret in Rome. She worked in hospitals, where she contracted tuberculosis. She was stabbed to death by a disgruntled former patient.

November 14

In 1180, at the Victorine monastery of Eu in Normandy, St. Lawrence O’Toole, bishop. He was born of an important Irish family and christened Lorcán. When he was ten he was taken hostage by Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster. He was entrusted to the safekeeping of the bishop of Glendalough, and became a monk there. He was elected abbot when he was twenty-five. He became the second archbishop of Dublin in 1161. He introduced the Canons Regular of Arrousaise to his cathedral and shared their life. He was dedicated to preaching, the liturgy, and the poor. He acted as a mediator when the English invaded Ireland. Lawrence attended the Third Lateran Council in Rome in 1179, and when he tried to implement its decrees in Ireland, he ran afoul of Henry II. He was on his way to see the king in Normandy when he took ill and died.

In 1391, St. Nicholas of Sibenik and companions. Nicholas was a Franciscan sent to preach against the Bogomils in Bosnia. After twenty years he was sent on a mission to Palestine. When he and three other Franciscans proclaimed Christianity to a leading Muslim official, he had them burned at the stake.

November 15

In 1280, at Cologne, St. Albert the Great, bishop and doctor. He was born of an artistocratic family near Augsburg, and joined the Dominicans in Padua. He taught in Cologne, Paris and elsewhere. He was bishop of Regensburg for a brief time, but was allowed to return to teaching. He was brilliant and inquisitive, and interested in natural science as well as philosophy and theology. St. Thomas Aquinas was one of his pupils.

About 600 AD, St. Malo, the apostle of Brittany.

About 879, St. Fintan, an Irishman who joined a community of hermits at Rheinau, near Schaffhausen.

In 1136, St. Leopold, the patron of Austria. He became margrave of Austria when he was twenty-three. He and his wife had eighteen children, one of whom was Otto of Freising, a Cistercian abbot. Leopold founded the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz, the Augustinian priory of Klosterneuberg, and the Benedictine monastery of Mariazell, all of which still exist.

In 1628, in Paraguay, St. Roque González and companions, martyrs. Roque was born in Asunción and, after some years as a parish priest, joined the Jesuits. He and his companions were killed while doing missionary work among native people. He is the earliest native-born American saint.

In 1904, in France, Blessed Mary of the Passion. She was born into a noble French family; after trying the Poor Clares she joined the Society of Mary Reparatrix, who sent her as a missionary to India. There was dissension in the order, and she and nineteen others founded a new order known as the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

November 16

Around 1300, at the monastery of Helfta in Saxony, Saints Gertrude the Great and Mechtild of Hackeborn. Both women were educated from early childhood at the monastery and joined it when they were old enough. Mechtild was in charge of the children in the monastery school, one of whom was St. Gertrude, and she was later Gertrude’s novice mistress. Gertrude had a profound religious experience when she was twenty-five, and from that time on devoted herself to reading the Bible and the Fathers, and immersing herself in the liturgy. The influence of her reading and liturgical life is evident in her Revelations and Spiritual Exercises. Mechtild’s religious experiences and teaching are contained in The Book of Special Grace. Their spirituality emphasized the love of Christ, symbolized by his Sacred Heart.

In 759, in Switzerland, St. Otmar. He introduced the Rule of St. Benedict to the Abbey of St. Gall. He was imprisoned by warring nobles and died in exile.

In 1240, at Abingdon, St. Edmund Rich, bishop. He studied at Oxford and Paris, and then became a professor in the arts faculty at Oxford. In 1222 he became canon and treasurer of Salisbury cathedral, where he also taught. He developed close ties with the Cistercians of Stanley Abbey, where one of his pupils, Stephen of Lexington, was abbot. He preached the Sixth Crusade in 1227. In 1233 he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury, where he proved to be a warm, peacemaking champion of justice. In spite of that, he had tense relations with King Henry III and the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury. He died in France while on the way to a council in Rome and was buried at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny. He wrote biblical commentaries and devotional works, the most read of which has been the Speculum ecclesiae, a summary of the teachings of Hugh of St. Victor on the spiritual life.

November 17

In 680, the death of St. Hilda, abbess of Whitby. She was baptized by St. Paulinus, archbishop of York (October 10). When she decided to become a nun, St. Aidan (October 8) gave her some land for a convent. She was successively abbess of the double monasteries at Hartlepool and Whitby. She was a great promoter of theological education, especially among the clergy. Several of her monks, including St. John of Beverley (May 7), became bishops. She encouraged the poet Caedmon (February l1) and hosted the Synod of Whitby.

In 1093, in Scotland, St. Margaret. Her father was Edward the Atheling, son of the King of Wessex; her mother was sister of the king of Hungary. Margaret received a good education in Hungary. After the Norman invasion of England she took refuge in Scotland, where she married King Malcom III. They lived very happily together for twenty-five years. One of their six sons was St. David (May 24); their daughter Matilda married Henry I of England. Margaret promoted culture and religion, and looked after the poor.
In 1200, in England, St. Hugh of Lincoln. He was born in Burgundy and became an Augustinian canon, then joined the Carthusians at La Grande Chartreuse. After several decades, he established the first Carthusian house in England at Witham. In 1186 he was elected bishop of Lincoln. He energetically revitalized his diocese. He was learned, cheerful, and fond of animals and children. He was also uncompromising in his concern for justice, and not afraid to stand up to three successive English kings, all of whom held him in high esteem. He staunchly opposed anti-Semitism.

In 1231, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, she was married to Ludwig, the duke of Thuringia. They had three children during their happy but brief marriage. Elizabeth gave away many of their possessions; Ludwig told those who criticized her that Elizabeth’s generosity would bring God’s blessings on them all. Ludwig died after only six years. The next year she joined the Third Order of St. Francis. Having provided for her children, she settled in a small house near Marburg to which she attached a hospice for the sick, the poor, and the old, whom she cared for. She came under the influence of Konrad of Marburg, who was a severe and domineering spiritual director. She died at the age of twenty-four.

November 18

In Rome, the dedication of the basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul.

In 1852, at St. Charles, Louisiana, St. Philippine Duchesne. She was born in Grenoble of a prosperous family. She had a happy childhood and received a very good education. During the French Revolution she educated children and took care of prisoners and the sick. In 1804 she joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, which had recently been founded by Madeleine Sophie Barat (May 25). In 1818, she and four other sisters were sent to St. Louis, where they opened a school for children of the poor. She spent the rest of her life tirelessly and enthusiastically serving her order and poor children, often in the face of great difficulties.

In 1914, at Poland, Blessed Caroline Kozka. She was born into a large and devout family in rural Poland. As a girl she helped raise her siblings and was active in her parish. When she was sixteen a Russian soldier accosted and killed her.

November 19

The commemoration of the prophet Obadiah.

In 379, St. Nerses I, patriarch of the Armenians. He was a married court official before being appointed patriarch of the Armenians. As bishop he founded monasteries and hostels for the poor and for lepers. He held a synod whose purpose was to organize the rapidly growing Armenian church. This aroused royal opposition. When he refused a king entry to the church until the monarch reformed his life, the king poisoned him.

In 815, at the abbey of Ottobeuren, Blessed Tuto.

About 1282, in Germany, St. Mechtilde of Magedeburg. She was a Beguine before retiring to the monastery of Helfta in her old age. At Magedeburg she was guided by a Dominican friar. She recorded her extraordinary mystical insights in the Book of the Flowing Light of the Godhead.

In 1895, in Armenia, Blessed Salvator Lilli, and his companions, martyrs. Salvator was born in Italy and joined the Franciscans when he was seventeen. He studied and served as a priest in Jerusalem before serving for fifteen years in a church in Armenia, where he was a very effective pastor. He and companions were arrested and bayoneted to death when they refused to convert to Islam.

November 20

In 869, in England, the martyrdom of St. Edmund. He was a revered king of East Anglia who was killed by the invading Vikings. His body was later found incorrupt, and he became venerated as a model of heroism and holiness. His life was written by Abbo of Fleury (November 13) at the request of St. Dunstan (May 19), and about 1020, King Knut founded the abbey of Bury St. Edmund in his honor.

In 1002, St. Bernward, bishop of Hildesheim. He was ordained a priest by St. Willigis (February 23) and served as a tutor for the future emperor Otto III. As bishop of Hildesheim, he was a wise and able pastor, and built the church and monastery of St. Michael in Hildesheim. He made profession as a Benedictine not long before his death.

In 1922, Blessed Mary Fortunata Viti. When she was not yet fifteen, her mother died, her father became incapacitated, and she was left to raise her younger siblings. When she was twenty-four, she entered the Benedictine convent of Veroli as a lay sister. She spent the next seventy-two years working and praying, "great in her littleness", as Pope Paul VI noted when she was beatified in 1967. Several monks at Mt. Angel Abbey promoted her beatification.

November 21

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The inspiration for the feast was a story in the Protoevangelium of James.

In 496, at Rome, Pope Gelasius I. He was of African descent. During his four-year papacy he had to deal with the Arian barbarians, especially Theodoric the Ostrogoth. He was inflexible in dealing with the repercussions of the Acacian schism over Monophysitism. He insisted on papal prerogatives and the independence of the church. Dionysius Exiguus reports that he was humble, prayerful, and very generous to the poor.

In 1902, Blessed Mary Siedliska. As a young girl in Poland, she received religious instruction and guidance from a Capuchin friar. Under his direction she founded in Rome a religious order, the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth, which worked for the welfare of families. In 1943, eleven members of the order (August 1) were shot by the Nazis when they offered their lives in place of a group of married men who had been arrested and condemned to death.

November 22

In Rome, probably in the third century, the martyrdom of St. Cecilia. There is no solid historical information about this revered saint. Her legend says that before her wedding to Valerian, a pagan, she sat quietly, singing to God in her heart. For this reason she is venerated as the patron of musicians. She converted Valerian and followed him to martyrdom. An attempt to suffocate her failed, but she died from an attempted beheading.

In the first century, St. Philemon, to whom Paul wrote a short letter, appealing to Philemon to be generous toward Onesimus, a slave.

In 1901, Blessed Thomas Reggio, bishop of Genoa. He came from an aristocratic family and received a good education, but gave up his worldly prospects to become a priest. A few years after he was ordained, he founded the first Catholic newspaper. He worked tirelessly as bishop of Ventimiglia, a very poor diocese at the time, and later as bishop of Genoa.

November 23

About the year 100, in the Crimea, St. Clement, pope. He may be the Clement mentioned in Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (4:3). One of the earliest non-biblical Christian documents is a letter that he wrote in the name of the Roman church to the Corinthians, urging the church there to end its dissension.

In 400, St. Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. He was a cousin of Gregory of Nazianzus (January 2) a friend of St. Basil (January 2), and a strong supporter of the orthodox faith.

In 615, at Bobbio, St. Columbanus, abbot. He was born in Ireland and, at the advice of a woman hermit, became a monk. He spent many years at Bangor, under St. Comgall (March 10). About 590 he and twelve companions went into voluntary exile in Gaul. They preached and founded several monasteries, the most famous of which is Luxeuil. St. Columbanus wrote a very austere monastic Rule and Penitential. He eventually came into conflict with some Frankish bishops over his Irish customs; he also offended the King of Burgundy when he rebuked him for keeping concubines. He moved to the area around Zurich, and from there to Bobbio in northern Italy. Several of his letters and poems survive.

In 1927, in Mexico, the martyrdom of Blessed Michael Pro. He was born in Guadalupe in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico. After a happy childhood and a good education, he entered the Jesuits. When the rebel General Carranza’s forces attacked the Jesuit novitiate, he was sent to Los Gatos, and then to Spain and Belgium, where he was ordained. He returned to Mexico City, and there secretly ministered as a priest in defiance of the anticlerical laws. He and two of his brothers were arrested after an attempt on the life of President Obregon, and shot by a firing squad. Before they killed him, he raised his arms and said: “Viva Cristo Rey.”

November 24

At Aquileia, probably in 304, St. Chrysogonus, martyr. He is mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer.

In 606, St. Colman, bishop of Cloyne. He was a bard at Cashel, and was baptized by St. Brendan (May 16) at the age of fifty.

In 1891, Blessed Maria Anna Sala. She was born into a large, happy, devout family in Italy. She joined the Sisters of St. Marcellina, who had educated her, and spent the next forty years teaching in the schools of her order. She was an effective and popular teacher.

November 25

This is the traditional day to celebrate St. Catherine of Alexandria. Legend has it that she was a brilliant philosopher who was killed about 310. At first the Emperor Maxentius tried to have her killed by placing her on a spiked wheel to be torn apart, but the wheel was struck by lightning. She was then beheaded, and milk flowed out instead of blood. She is the patron of St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai and of numerous churches. The story of her life was very popular in the Middle Ages. She is the patron of scholars, nursing infants and those suffering with migraine. She was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

In 251, in Rome, St. Moses, martyr. He was a priest in Rome, and leader of a group of priests who were the first to suffer death for their faith during the persecution of Decius. Moses died after spending almost a year in prison.

In 1951 and 1965, respectively, Blesseds Luigi and Mary Beltrame Quatorcchi. They were married in the cathedral of Mary Major on this day in 1905. They had four children: one became a Benedictine nun, one a Trappist, and one a diocesan priest. Luigi was a successful lawyer and civil servant. In 2001, their three surviving children were in attendance as they became the first couple to be beatified together.

November 26

In 311, St. Peter of Alexandria, bishop and martyr. He led the church of Alexandria through the persecution of Diocletian and was executed under Maximinus Daia.

In 1267, St. Silvester Gozzolini. He studied law for a while, then turned to theology. He became a diocesan priest, but at the age of fifty retired to live austerely at a country hermitage. He then founded at Benedictine monastery at Monte Fano. The monastery developed into a small congregation of communities that stressed poverty and were more centrally organized than most later Benedictine congregations.

In 1751, St. Leonard of Port Maurice. He joined a group of reformed Franciscans in Rome and became a preacher. He promoted the Stations of the Cross, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

In 1889, at Cassola, Blessed Gaetana Sterni. When she was fifteen she was married to a widower with three children. Her husband died before their first child was born, and the child died soon after birth. Her husband’s family demanded his three children. She entered a convent, but left to care for her younger siblings. At the age of twenty-six she went to live and work at a hospice for beggars in Bassano. There she spent thirty-six years serving the sick and destitute. With two friends, she formed the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Will.

In 1971, in Rome, Blessed James Alberione. He was born into a farm family and entered the seminary as a teenager. He earned a doctorate in theology and worked in the seminary at Alba. He became editor of the diocesan paper and from that time on dedicated himself to the apostolate of communications. He founded the Paulines and the Daughters of St. Paul, which were dedicated to printing and selling Catholic literature, and later helped found several other congregations.

November 27

In 784, St. Virgil of Salzburg. He was an Irish monk who became a pilgrim out of love for Christ. He became abbot of St. Peter’s in Salzburg and eventually bishop of the diocese. St. Boniface quarreled with him on a number of points. He was a man of great learning and an active pastor.

In 1637, St. Humilis of Bisignano. He was an illiterate Franciscan lay brother, but so great was his theological knowledge that Pope Gregory XV summoned him to Rome to act as his advisor. Throughout his life he remained humble, prayerful, and a servant of the poor.

November 28

In 764, at Constantinople, St. Stephen the Younger. He was born in Constantinople. He joined a monastery in Bithynia and was elected abbot. After a dozen years as abbot, at the age of forty-two, he retired to a hermitage. When he refused to endorse iconoclasm, Emperor Constantine V arrested and exiled him. Eventually he was clubbed to death.

In 1476, at Naples, St. James of the March. He was born into a large, poor family. He entered the Franciscans, studied under Bernardino of Siena (May 20) and after his ordination became a powerful preacher. He worked with James of Capistrano (October 23) as an inquisitor and after the latter’s death became papal legate to Hungary.

In 1811, in Rome, St. Joseph Pignatelli. He joined the Jesuits in his native Spain. When they were completely suppressed in 1773, Joseph lived and worked in Bologna. In the 1790s he was instrumental in restarting the Jesuits in Parma and elsewhere. Three years after his death, the Jesuits were completely restored.

In 1876, in Paris, St. Catherine Labouré. She joined the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and was sent to Paris. There she had the visions which depicted on the miraculous medal. The medal shows on one side Mary with shafts of light shining from her hands, and on the other an M with a cross above it, and below it two hearts, one with a crown, the other pierced by a sword. She lived quietly in her convent in Paris, avoiding all publicity.

November 29

In the third century, St. Saturninus of Toulouse. He was a missionary in the region around Toulouse and was martyred by being tied to an ox that was then goaded into running down a hill.

In 1742, St. Francis of Lucera. He was a conventual Franciscan who taught in his order’s college at Lucera.

November 30

In the first century, St. Andrew. He was a fisherman from Bethsaida, the brother of St. Peter, and one of the earliest of Jesus’ disciples. He is a patron of Russia, Scotland and Greece.

In 1577, in England, St. Cuthbert Mayne. He was an Anglican priest who followed his friends Gregory Martin and Edmund Campion to Douai, where he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1576. He was sent to England, arrested a year later, tried, hanged, drawn and quartered. He was the first martyr from among the “seminary priests” educated at seminaries for English exiles founded on the continent after the Council of Trent.
Tomorrow is the name day of our confrere Fr. Andrew Baumgartner. He is recommended to our charitable prayers.