September 1

The commemoration of the Judges, Joshua and Gideon.

In Switzerland, probably in the fourth century, St. Verena, a martyr.

In Palestine, in 459, St. Simeon Stylites the Elder. He is the earliest and best known of the pillar saints. After some years as a monk in several monasteries and as a hermit, he began living on a pillar nine feet high and six feet in diameter. He spent the rest of his life on such pillars, where he continued the extreme asceticism of his early life. He preached from his pillar twice a day, urging people to act justly and pray.

About 710, near Arles, St. Giles, abbot. He was venerated as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers as a patron of beggars, lepers, the physically handicapped, nursing mothers, shepherds, blacksmiths and horses. One of the legends of his life has it that he protected a deer from hunters, so he is sometimes depicted with a deer.

In Marseilles, France, in 1274, St. Douceline, a Beguine. She was a traveling missionary, an ecstatic, and a counselor to Charles of Anjou.

September 2

In the sixth century in Sicily, St Nonnosus, a monk of the monastery of Mount Soracte. He is venerated particularly at Freising and Bamberg.

About 1070, in Denmark, St. William of Roskilde, bishop.

In 1792, 191 canonized martyrs, almost all of them bishops and priests, who were murdered by mob violence in Paris on September 2 and 3.

September 3

In 604, at Rome, St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the church. Highly educated, he served for some years as a secular administrator. When his father died, he gave his family's property to the church, and in 574 became a monk in a monastery he had established in the family mansion on the Coelian Hill in Rome. In 578 he was made a deacon of Rome, and in 579 he was sent as diplomatic representative of the pope to Constantinople. He was elected pope in 590 while he was helping victims of a plague in Rome. He proved to be a skilled administrator and diplomat. He sent missionaries to England. His extensive writings, including the life of St. Benedict in his Dialogues, were widely read in the Middle Ages.

In the first century, St. Phoebe, whom Paul commends in the epistle to the Romans as “a deaconess of the church of Cenchrae”.

In 676, St. Aigulf, martyr. He was a monk of Fleury and then abbot of Lêrins.

In 1244, Blessed Guala of Brescia. Already a priest, he was recruited by St. Dominic. He later became bishop of Brescia at an especially troubled time in northern Italy.

In Nagasaki, in 1632, Blessed Antony Ixida and companions, martyrs. Antony was born of Catholic parents and became a Jesuit. He was repeatedly imprisoned and finally burned at the stake with five others.

September 4

The commemoration of Moses, prophet and lawgiver.

In 422, at Rome, St. Boniface I, pope. When he was elderly, he was chosen pope in a disputed election. He eventually was recognized as the pope and proved effective. He supported St. Augustine against the Pelagians.

In the early ninth century, St Ida of Herzfeld. She was married to Eckbert, a Saxon ruler, and bore him five children. She nursed him in his last illness, and then embraced a life of austerity, prayer and kindness to the poor.

In 1166, St. Rosalia, a hermit, who died in obscurity. She is became venerated as the patron of Palermo after the end of a plague epidemic in 1624 was attributed to her intercession.

In 1547, at Carmagnola, in Italy, Blessed Catherine Racconigi. She was born into a very poor family. She had mystical experiences as a young girl. She made a private vow of virginity and became a Dominican tertiary. She spent her life working to help support her family, and praying on behalf of those in purgatory and for those who suffered in Italy's wars.

In 1943, Maria Stella and ten companions, the Blessed Martyrs of Nowogrodek, Belarus. These Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth offered themselves to the Gestapo in place of 129 arrested men. The Nazis shot the nuns and deported many of the men, but all of the deportees survived.

September 5

About 698, at the monastery named after him, St. Bertin, abbot. He was a monk of Luxeuil, who was sent to assist Omer when the latter was made bishop of Thérouanne, with the mission of converting the Morini people.

In 1997, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. She was born of Albanian parents in 1910 in Skopje, which is now part of Macedonia. She joined the Loretto Sisters when she was 18, was sent to India and was assigned to teach in Calcutta. In 1946 she received a call to serve the poorest people in India, and two years later she founded the Missionaries of Charity. The order grew rapidly. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. After she received the call from Christ to found her order, she received no further consolations and even felt God's absence very intensely.

September 6

The commemoration of Zechariah the prophet.

About 772, in Bavaria, St. Magnus of Füssen. He was a monk of St. Gall who preached the gospel in Bavaria. He established a monastery which served as a missionary center.

In 1181, Blessed Eskil of Lund. He spent time at Clairvaux, where he became a friend of St. Bernard. He encouraged the foundation of several monasteries, including Alvastra, the first Cistercian monastery in Sweden.

September 7

About 560, at Nogent-sur-Seine, St. Cloud. A member of the Merovingian royal family, he became a hermit, and spent his time passing on the faith to the local people.

In 1619, in Hungary, Sts. Melchior Grodziecki and Stephen Pongracz, Jesuits, and Mark Crisinus a diocesan priest. They ministered to the Catholics in a predominantly Calvinist area of Slovakia. They were arrested, and when they would not renounce their Catholic faith, were tortured and killed.

In 1855, on Woodlark Island in the South Pacific, Blessed John Baptist Mazzucconi, a member of the Foreign Missionaries of Milan, who ministered in Papua New Guinea. He was murdered when the ship on which he was traveling landed on Woodlark Island. Just before this he had written to his family: “I don’t know what the Lord is preparing for me on this new journey beginning tomorrow: I just know one thing, that he is good and that he loves me greatly; everything else, calm and storm, danger and safety, life and earth are but passing and changeable expressions of his fervent, unchanging, eternal love.”

In 1921, at Parma, Blessed Anna Eugenia Picco. Her father was a musician who left her mother for another woman. Her mother then took a lover, and Anna grew up without much guidance. She eventually ran away from home and joined the Little Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Parma. She became superior general and was a much beloved religious figure in Italy.

September 8

The Birthday of Our Lady. This feast came to the West in the seventh century. We know nothing about Mary’s birth, though there are ancient traditions which suggest it occurred at Nazareth or Jerusalem.

In 438, St. Isaac the Great, bishop of the Armenians. He was married and fathered one child before his wife died. He seems then to have become a monk as well as a bishop. During his episcopate Armenian Christianity and culture flourished. Isaac combined elements of Byzantine and Syrian Christianity in an Armenian mode. One of his associates developed an Armenian alphabet, and many Christian works were translated at his instigation.

About 545, St. Ciarán of Clonmacnois. After studying under St. Finnian at Clonard, he spent seven years on Inis Mór in the Aran Islands as a monk under St. Enda. After a visit to St. Senan on Slattery Island, Ciarán settled with eight companions at Clonmacnois. Ciarán died shortly after that, but the monastery became one of the great centers of monasticism and learning in Ireland.

In 725, St. Corbinian, apostle of Bavaria. He was born at Châtres near Troyes and became a recluse there. A community grew up, but he found it too distracting for him to lead it, so he went to Rome. Pope Gregory II sent him to Bavaria as a missionary.

In 1555, St. Thomas of Villanova. He studied at Alcalá, then joined the Augustinian friars at Salamanca. He was appointed bishop of Valladolid in 1544. He held a synod and drew up guidelines for his diocese which foreshadowed the disciplinary decrees of the Council of Trent. In his reform efforts, Thomas was very kindly. Famous for his austerity, he had a special concern for the poor.

In 1853, at Marseilles, Blessed Frederick Ozanam. He was born in Milan and raised in Lyons. He went to study at Paris where he became acquainted with Lacordaire, Montalembert, and especially Emanuel Bailly, whom he assisted in founding the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He earned doctorates in both law and literature. He became a professor at Paris, was happily married, and had a daughter. He was very devoted to the church, to his students, to scholarship, and to the poor.

September 9

In 1654, in Cartagena, Colombia, St. Peter Claver. He was born in Catalonia and became a Jesuit. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez inspired him to become a missionary. He went to Colombia, and there devoted his long life to working among the slaves. He learned one African language and also used translators in his ministry. He worked with those who were ill, and also ministered to Protestant sailors and Muslims.

About the twelfth century, Blessed María de la Cabeza, the wife of St. Isidore the Farmer (May 15).

In 1864, Blessed Jacques Laval. He was born in Normandy and became a doctor. He became a priest at Saint-Sulpice in 1838. He met Francis Libermann, who helped inspire him to go as a missionary to Mauritius in 1841. He devoted the rest of his life to ministering to the recently freed slaves on the island.

September 10

About 580, St. Finnian of Moville. He was born near Strangford Lough in Ulster, and studied under St. Colman and St. Ninnian. He went to Rome where he was ordained and returned to Ireland to found the monastery of Moville.

In 1305, St. Nicholas of Tolentino. He became an Augustinian friar and was ordained by St. Benevenuto (March 22). He was sent to Tolentino to preach in the streets, where he was highly regarded as a peacemaker, miracle worker and friend of the poor.

In 1641, near Lancaster Castle, the martyrdom of St. Ambrose Barlow. He joined the Benedictines at Douai and was ordained in 1617. He spent twenty-four years working as a missionary around Liverpool. He was much loved for his zeal, simplicity of life and good humor. He was arrested shortly after suffering a stroke. When he wouldn’t promise to stop ministering, he was condemned, hanged, drawn and quartered.

September 11

In Rome, Sts. Protus and Hyacinth, martyrs. Their tombs were discovered in 1845 and they are mentioned in a number of ancient documents, but nothing is known about them beyond the fact they died for their faith.

About 350, in Egypt, St. Paphnutius, a disciple of St. Antony (January 17) and supporter of St. Athanasius (May 2). He became bishop of the Upper Thebaid area in Egypt.

In the fourth century, St. Felix and Regula, to whom an important monastery in Zurich was dedicated in the ninth century.

In 1227, Blessed Louis of Thuringia, the husband of St. Elizabeth of Hungary (November 17). They were a very happy couple and had three children before Louis died at the age of 27 while on crusade.

In 1840, in China, St. John Gabriel Perboye. He was a Vincentian priest and spent years teaching in seminaries in France. He repeatedly asked to be sent to China. After four years of missionary work there, he was arrested, tortured for a year, and strangled to death.

September 12

In Ireland, in the sixth century, St. Ailbe, a bishop and missionary much revered in Ireland, though little is known about his life.

In 1622, six Japanese Christians who were martyred by burning at Omura, a few miles north of Nagasaki.

September 13

In 407, in the region around the Black Sea, St. John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor. John was born about 350 in Antioch, raised by his mother, and well educated in secular and religious subjects. He had been a monk for seven years when his health declined. After he recuperated, he was ordained a priest in Antioch, where was given charge of the poor. He was esteemed as a brilliant preacher and biblical commentator. He was appointed bishop of Constantinople, which earned him the animosity of Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, who wanted the appointment. John’s integrity led him to undertake a thorough reform of the church of Constantinople, and his straightforward talk angered some. He reduced the size of the bishop’s household and gave the money to set up hostels for the needy. With his friend St. Olympias (July 25), he provided services for widows. Because of the enmity of Theophilus and the Empress Eudoxia, John was twice exiled and finally died from exhaustion.

In 453, St. Maurilius, who served as bishop of Angers for thirty years.

In 1640, Blessed Mary of Jesus, Carmelite. She entered the convent in Toledo when she was 17, and was one of the first to join St. Teresa of Avila’s Discalced Carmelites. She served as prioress and novice mistress in her community and was revered as a saint even before her death.

September 14

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which recalls the story of St. Helena (August 18) finding the relics of the holy cross, and their recovery from the Persians in 628.

In Jerusalem, in 1214, St. Albert, bishop. Albert was a canon regular, who was made bishop first of Bobbio and then of Vercelli. He was an effective diplomat and peacemaker, and for that reason in 1205 he was sent to Palestine as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and papal legate. From his episcopal see in Acre he worked to keep peace among the crusaders and between them and the Muslims. He wrote a rule for some hermits who lived on Mount Carmel, who became the nucleus of the Carmelite Order. He was murdered during a procession on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

St. Peter of Tarentaise, bishop. His devout family was hospitable to monks, and Peter became acquainted with the Cistercians. He joined them and became abbot of the monastery of Tamié. He was appointed bishop of Tarentaise. He was an exemplary bishop and mediated in various disputes. He was a strong supporter of Pope Alexander III against the antipope Victor IV.

In China, in 1815, Blessed Gabriel Taurin Dufresse, martyr. He was ordained in 1774 and the next year went to China as a missionary. He worked energetically for eight years, was arrested and then released. In 1800 he was appointed a bishop; in 1815 he was arrested and beheaded.

September 15

The memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.

In 178, St. Valerian, one of the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne.

About 687, at Jumièges, St. Aichardus, abbot. He was educated at a monastery school at Poitiers, refused to live at court, and became a monk.

In 1510, St. Catherine of Genoa. She was born into a prominent family and received a good education. Her family forced her into a political marriage before she was 16. She was beautiful and intense; her husband, Giuliano, was undisciplined and unfaithful. Ten years into the marriage, her husband had a conversion, and the couple went to live and work in a hospital. She worked tirelessly to help those in need. She was also a mystic whose thoughts are contained in two works, a treatise on purgatory and a Dialogue between the soul and the body.

In 1929, Blessed Anton Schwartz. He received his early education at the Cistercian abbey of Heiligenkreuz and with the Benedictines at the Schottenstift in Vienna. After his ordination, he worked with poor apprentices and workers and championed their cause even before the publication of Rerum novarum. He founded an order dedicated to helping the working poor.

September 16

In 253, at Rome during the Decian persecution, St. Cornelius, pope and martyr. During his few months as pope, he had to deal with the Novatian schism and the related issue of how to deal with those who denied their faith during persecution and later repented. He earned the support of St. Cyprian, with whom he corresponded, though the two did not always agree.

In 258, at Carthage, the martyrdom of St. Cyprian, bishop. Cyprian was a prominent and well-educated man who underwent a conversion when he was about forty-five. He became bishop and administered his diocese forcefully and lovingly, and he dealt the same way with the lapsed. Cyprian did not believe that baptisms administered by heretics and schismatics were valid, which led him to quarrel with St. Stephen, Cornelius’ successor in Rome. He was exiled in 257 when he refused to renounce his faith; he was returned to Carthage and put to death by the sword.

About 432, in Scotland, St. Ninian. He was a monk at Whithorn.

In 921, in Bohemia. St. Ludmila. She converted to Christianity with her husband, Duke Borivoy of Bohemia. She helped raise her grandson, St. Wenceslas (Sept. 28), as a Christian. She was murdered by a party which opposed the Christianization of the country.

In 1087, Blessed Victor III, pope. From a prominent family, he became a monk at Cava and at Benevento, where he was given the name Desiderius. He spent time as a hermit and as a student of medicine in Salerno. He then joined Monte Cassino and became one of its greatest abbots. He rebuilt the abbey and promoted literature and learning. He was made a cardinal and served in various mediating roles until he was elected pope against his will. He died two years later.

In 1122, St. Vitalis of Savigny. He received a good education, then became a hermit. With his disciples he formed the abbey and order of Savigny, which followed the Rule of St. Benedict. He was an effective preacher and spoke his mind. His order was incorporated into the Cistercians in 1147.

Tomorrow is the name day of our confrere Br. Tobiah Urrutia. He is commended to our charitable prayers.

September 17

In Rome, in 1621, St. Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the church. He was born in Tuscany and received an excellent early education before joining the Jesuits. He studied at Padua and at Louvain, where he taught for seven years. He became a renowned preacher and theological controversialist. He began teaching in Rome in 1576 and worked on many projects, including a revision of the Latin Vulgate Bible, a catechism, and a revision of the church calendar. He worked as a mediator in the controversy over grace between Molina and Báñez. When he was made archbishop of Capua he emphasized the education of adults and the clergy. He was recalled to Rome in 1605 and spent the rest of his life there. In his latter years, he was involved in the controversy over Galileo’s championing of Copernicus’ idea that the earth revolves around the sun. He was a friend of Galileo’s, but he could not reconcile Galileo’s position with his own literal interpretation of Scripture. In his old age he wrote books On the Ascent of the Mind to God and On the Art of Dying Well.

About 705, St. Lambert, bishop and martyr. When bishop Théodard of Maastricht was murdered, Lambert succeeded him. Exiled during political turmoil, he spent seven years with the monks of Stavelot-Malmédy. When he was restored to his see, he proved a dedicated bishop and missionary. There are conflicting accounts of his death, but he was quickly venerated as a saint and martyr.

In 1179, St. Hildegard of Bingen. She was sent as a young girl to be educated by Jutta (December 22), a recluse attached to the Abbey of Disibodenberg. Eventually a community of nuns formed around Jutta. Hildegard joined it and some years later became its leader. From an early age, Hildegard experienced visions, and these became the basis of several theological works, the first of which was the Scivias. She also wrote hymns, a musical morality play, a commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, a book of natural history and medicine, and hundreds of letters to people of all stations. Around 1150 she moved her community to the Rupertsberg near Bingen. In her later years she went on preaching tours in the Rhineland.

In 1895, in Kraków, Blessed Sigmund Felínski, bishop. He was born in territory then under Russian rule. His mother spent twelve years in Siberia for her Polish nationalism and support of the rights of farmers. He was educated at Moscow and Paris, and studied for the priesthood in St. Petersburg; after his ordination he ministered there. In 1862 he was appointed bishop of Warsaw, which was also under Russian rule. After eighteen months he was exiled to Siberia for twenty years. He spent his last years ministering around Kraków.

September 18

In 1603, at Osimo, St. Joseph of Cupertino. He came from a poor family and had a very deprived childhood. He had a short attention span and a hot temper. He was nonetheless devout, and at seventeen joined the Capuchins. He was dismissed soon after that. He worked as a servant for a Conventual Franciscan community, joined them, and was ordained. He lived austerely in service to his order, but was visited with many supernatural phenomena. These brought him to the attention of the Inquisition, which treated him severely. He was canonized in 1767.

September 19

About 305, in the region of Naples and Benevento, St. Januarius, bishop and martyr. Little is known of him except that he was a bishop who died for his faith. A relic of his blood is kept at Naples, and it mysteriously liquefies three days each year.

In 690, St. Theodore, bishop of Canterbury. He was born at Tarsus and educated in Athens. He was a sixty-five-year-old monk when Pope Vitalian appointed him to be bishop of Canterbury. He traveled to England with Adrian and Benet Biscop, and arrived in England in 669. He was a very effective church leader and usually managed to bring harmony to the church. He transformed a missionary church into a well-organized institution. He founded a fine school at Canterbury,

In 1591, St. Alphonsus de Orozco, an Augustinian friar who served all classes of people with equal zeal. He was an effective preacher at the royal court of Madrid. He wrote many devotional and mystical books.

September 20

Between 1839 and 1867, Sts. Andrew Kim, Paul Chong, and companions, martyrs of Korea. A Korean named Yi Sung-hun was baptized in China in 1784 by a French missionary, and returned to found the first Catholic community in Korea in the house of Kim Bom-u. The next year the government dispersed the community and arrested, tortured and exiled Kim Bom-u, who died shortly afterwards. Between 1791 and 1831 the numbers of Catholics increased, but hundreds were martyred. French missionaries arrived in Korea in 1837. Persecution was intense until a treaty with France in 1886. There were further persecutions in 1905 and more recently in North Korea, where the church is still underground.

In 311, St. Methodius of Olympus, bishop and martyr, who left behind works called On the Resurrection and The Banquet of the Ten Virgins.

In 1534, near London, Blessed Thomas Johnson, one of ten Carthusians who were starved to death because they would not recognize the king as head of the church.

In 1904, in Puebla de los Angeles in Mexico, St. José María de Yermo y Parres. He was ordained for the diocese of Léon in 1879. When he came upon some pigs devouring two abandoned newborn babies, he started an order called the Servants of the Sacred Heart and of the Poor dedicated to helping the poor, especially young women. Shortly before his death he began a mission among the Tarahumara Indians in northern Mexico.

September 21

St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist. He was a tax collector who followed Jesus from Capernaum. The gospel attributed to him seems to have been produced around 80 AD, perhaps in Syria, for a Jewish audience. His emblem is a man, because he begins his gospel with the human genealogy of Jesus.

The commemoration of the prophet Jonah.

About 575, St. Cadoc, one of the most revered Welsh saints.

In 1246, in Russia, Sts. Michael of Chernigov and Theodore, who were murdered by the invading Tatars when they refused to deny their faith.

September 22

About 287, at Martigny in Switzerland, St. Maurice and companions, martyrs. Maurice was an officer in the Roman army who suffered martyrdom with many of his men when they refused to offer a sacrifice to the gods.

In 530, St. Felix IV, pope, who was a fine administrator. He was known for his humility and concern for the poor.

In the seventh century, St. Emmeram, bishop, who was a missionary around Poitiers and in Bavaria. After his murder, his body was taken to Regensberg and buried in a monastery dedicated to him.

In 1770, at Turin, Blessed Ignatius of Santhià. A Capuchin friar, he was a dedicated and effective spiritual guide.

September 23

At Rome, St. Linus, who tradition says was the first bishop of Rome. He is mentioned after Peter and Paul in the First Eucharistic Prayer.

At Iona, in Scotland, St. Adomnán, abbot. He provided refuge to King Oswiu of Northumbria and became his friend. He tried to convince the monks of Iona to adopt the Roman date of Easter. In the Synod of Birr, in 697, he was responsible for the promulgation of a law protecting women and children in time of war. He wrote a Life of St. Columba and a book On the Holy Places of Palestine.

In 1527 and 1529, Sts. Christopher, Antony and John, three young Indian boys in Mexico who became Christians and were murdered by Indians hostile to Christian missionary efforts.

In 1940, in Kraków, Blessed Bernardina Maria Jablonska. She joined the Albertines Sisters, whose founder, St. Albert Chmielowski, made her their leader when she was twenty-four. She held that position for thirty-eight years.

In 1968, St. Pius of Pietrelcina, known as Padre Pio. He was born near Naples, joined the Capuchins as a young man and became a priest. Not long afterward he began to feel the pains of the stigmata. He was a controversial figure; the offerings his fame brought him were used to construct a hospital to relieve the suffering of the sick.

September 24

In Hungary, in 1046, St. Gerard of Csanad, bishop and martyr. He was born in Venice and entered the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore there. He went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and ended up in Hungary. King Stephen (August 16) made him tutor of his son, Emeric (November 4) and then bishop of Csanad. There was a backlash against Christianity after King Stephen’s death, and St. Gerard was killed.

About 1218, Blessed Robert of Knaresborough. He was born in York; as a young man he became a hermit and devoted himself to prayer and care of the poor.

In 1862, Blessed Anton Martin Slomsek, bishop of Maribor in Slovenia. He studied for the priesthood at Celovec, where he became an ardent supporter of Slovenian culture and language. He wrote a catechism in Slovenian and promoted education. As bishop, he promoted foreign missions and ecumenical understanding.

September 25

In 1487, at Sachseln in Switzerland, St. Nicholas von Flue, hermit. His father was a prosperous farmer; his mother, a very pious woman, perhaps of Italian parentage, who came from Wolfenschiessen. She initiated her sons into the spirituality of the Friends of God, which derived from the Rhineland mystics. Nicholas married and had ten children. He was a farmer and a military man; after his military service, he became an important official in the canton of Unterwalden. In 1467, with the consent of his spiritual advisor and his wife, he became a hermit, eventually settling in Ranft, where for many years he lived fed only by the Eucharist.. He was venerated as an advisor and helped feuding Swiss cantons avoid a civil war. The cause for the beatification of his wife, Dorothy, is underway.

At Langres, St Ceolfrith, abbot. He was a monk under St. Wilfrid (October 12) at Ripon, before joining St. Benet Biscop (January 12) at Wearmouth. He became head of the new community at Jarrow, and during a plague only he and a boy, probably St. Bede, survived (May 25). He succeeded Benet Biscop as abbot. Bede describes him as “a man of acute mind, conscientious in everything he did, energetic, of mature judgment, fervent and zealous for his faith.” Coelfrith arranged the preparation of three beautiful complete codices of the Latin Bible, one of which he meant to take to Pope Gregory II; however, he died on the way to Rome. The bible, now known as the Codex Amiatinus, is in the Laurentian Library in Florence.

In 1054, at Reichenau, Blessed Herman “Contractus”. He was crippled and mentally very bright. He wrote works on many subjects, especially liturgical music.

In 1392, St. Sergius of Radonezh, abbot. He became a hermit, and a monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity grew up around him. He was a respected mediator as well as a man of prayer. Many of his disciples were important ecclesiastics. He is the most popular Russian saint.

September 26

In the late third century, in Syria, Saints Cosmas and Damian, martyrs. Little is known about them historically, but legendary stories about them are numerous. One legend has it that they practiced medicine without charging fees. They are patrons of physicians, nurses, dentists, barbers and pharmacists. They are usually portrayed with medical instruments or pharmacists' vials.

In 611, St. Colmán Elo. He was influenced by St. Columba, and founded a monastery at Lynally in Offaly, not far from Durrow.

In 1004, at Grottaferrata, St. Nilus. He was born at Rossano in Calabria. When he was thirty, he underwent a conversion. He joined a Byzantine monastery after his wife and daughter died in an epidemic, eventually becoming abbot of Sant’Adriano. During an Arab invasion, his community took refuge at Monte Cassino. Just before his death, he founded the monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome.

In 1885, at Lyons, St. Teresa Couderc. As a young girl, she wanted to join a religious community in order to devote herself to rechristianizing the countryside. She did so, and later was one of the founders of the Religious of the Cenacle, dedicated to giving retreats for women. The development of the order was very rocky, but Teresa bore all of her reversals of fortune with remarkable equanimity.

In 1899, at Gars in Bavaria, Blessed Caspar Stanggassinger. He felt called to be a priest from an early age and went to the junior seminary at Freising when he was ten years old. He joined the Redemptorists and was ordained. He was assigned to work in Redemptorist seminaries, but died of an infection when he was 28.

September 27

In 1660, in France, St. Vincent de Paul. He was born of a peasant family and studied theology at Toulouse. He joined the circle of Pierre de Bérulle and was much influenced by St. Francis de Sales (January 24). When he served as a parish priest, he organized a confraternity of women to care for the sick poor. In 1625 he founded an order of priests, the Congregation of the Mission, which was dedicated to preaching and revitalizing Catholicism in France. With Louise de Marillac (March 15) he founded the Daughters of Charity, a group of religious women. They wanted to work among the poor, so to avoid being bound by enclosure, they did not make permanent, public vows. By his preaching and seminary work, Vincent de Paul contributed to the renewal of the clergy in France. He was an opponent of Jansenism.

In 1457, Blessed Lawrence of Ripafratta, who supported Blessed Raymond of Capua (October 5) in the renewal of the Dominican Order. He encouraged Fra Angelico (February 18) to paint. St. Antoninus (May 10) was one of his students.

September 28

In 929, St. Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia. His father died and he was raised by his Christian grandmother St. Ludmila. His mother, a pagan who converted when she married, regained control of her son by having Ludmila strangled. Wenceslas assumed rule and exiled his mother. He was a just and decisive ruler. His brother Boleslas had him murdered on the way to church. He is the "good King Wenceslas" of the Christmas carol.

In 419, in Palestine, St. Eustochium. She was the daughter of St. Paula (January 26) and a disciple of St. Jerome (September 30), who wrote her a number of letters which survive. Eustochium went with her mother to Palestine and helped her superintend the monasteries she founded in Bethlehem. She learned Greek and Hebrew and assisted Jerome in translating the Bible.

In 782, in Germany, St. Lioba. She was a relative of St. Boniface and, like him, was born and raised in England. She became a nun at Wimborne, where she impressed people with her single-mindedness and enthusiasm for learning. In 748 Boniface requested nuns to help with his evangelization, and she and St. Walburga (February 25) were among the thirty nuns sent to help him. She was abbess of the monastery Tauberbischofsheim and founded a number of others. She was a patient, warm and intelligent woman who urged her monks to live moderate lives and required that they learn to read Latin.

In 1494, in Pavia, Blessed Bernardino of Feltre. He studied at Padua. When he met St. James of the March (November 28), a disciple of St. Bernardino of Siena (May 13), he joined the Observant Franciscans. He became a renowned preacher, straightforward and uncompromising. He was very opposed to usury, and to counter the predations of unscrupulous lenders he established low-rate loan institutions (called monte di pietà) for the poor.

September 29

The feast of Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and all the angels.

In 1349, Blessed Richard Rolle of Hampole. He studied at Oxford, and became a hermit in his late 20s. He eventually settled at Hampole, not far from a priory of Cistercian nuns. He spent his time praying and counseling; he wrote several works, among them The Fire of Love. One of his maxims is that “The holy lover of God shows himself neither too merry nor full heavy in this habitation of exile, but he has cheerfulness with maturity.”

In 1364, Blessed Charles of Blois. He spent most of his life trying to gain the dukedom of Brittany, to which Duke John III had designated him heir. He was not successful and at one point spent nine years in the Tower of London. Throughout the struggle, he tried to minimize the effects of the war on his subjects. He once suspended a siege so his troops could go Mass.

September 30

In 420, at Bethlehem, St. Jerome, doctor of the church. He was born to a wealthy family and received an excellent education; Aelius Donatus, the grammarian, was one of his teachers. He spent years traveling, and in 370 became a monk at Aquileia. He was quarrelsome, and left in 374 for Antioch, where he spent four years as a hermit. He learned Hebrew from a converted Jew who had become a monk. He then studied the Bible under St. Gregory Nazianzen (January 2) in Constantinople. In 382 he went to Rome, worked for Pope Damasus (December 11) and began a revision of the Latin Bible. In Rome a group of Christian women gathered around him and lived a quasi-monastic life. In 385 he departed for Palestine, where some Roman women joined him in Bethlehem. He was involved in a number of controversies, particularly over the virginity of Mary and the teachings of Origen.

About 330, in Armenia, St. Gregory the Enlightener, bishop. He was born in 260, when Armenia was under Persian occupation. In 314, he was appointed bishop. He created a native Armenian clergy and organized the church. In 330 he withdrew to a hermitage.

In 1876, in the region of Turin, Blessed Frederick Albert. He was a royal chaplain for some years, then became a parish priest in a large parish outside of Turin. He worked long and hard in service of his people. He talked Pope Pius IX out of making him a bishop. He died after a fall from scaffolding in a church he was working on; it was to be the center of a farming commune where young people would cultivate church land.