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"Pancrazio" was the name of a sport practiced in the Olympics of ancient Greece. The athletes had to compete in a cross between boxing and hand-to-hand wrestling, with no holds barred. Only biting and blinding were prohibited.
He was called the Apostle of Andalusia, a great preacher, a spiritual Master who guided many people to holiness and who was able to inspire conversions among those who listened to him.
His name was John of Ávila. He was born in Almodóvar del Campo (Ciudad Real), Spain around 1499 or 1500 into a very religious and wealthy family who owned a silver mine.
Founder of cenobitic monasticism and the first to have written a rule for religious community life, Pachomius was born to a pagan family around the year 292 A.D., in the Thebaid region of Upper Egypt. At age twenty, he was enlisted against his will in the imperial armies of the Emperor Constantine to fight the Persian incursions. Locked in the barracks in Thebes with other soldiers and left without food, he was fed by the local Christians. Struck by their charity, Pachomius prayed to the God of the Christians, promising that if he were freed from this bondage he would dedicate his life to the service of his brothers. In fact, as soon as he was free, he converted and was baptized.
She understood the difficulties and marginalization to which women of her time were subjected and spared no energy to educate them and teach them the truths of faith. She was convinced that to welcome the Gospel it was necessary to free people from ignorance and error. Together with education, she believed that offering professional training would promote human development and affirmation in society. There were no doubts for Rosa Venerini, as she dedicated herself entirely to her apostolate and to the vocational education for women in the 17th century, an era in which they were barred from many opportunities.
Everything that for the world is nothing but misfortune and failure can be found in this young man who died at only 19 years of age. Orphaned, poor, exploited at work, chronically ill, discriminated against, he found his fulfillment in following Christ Crucified. He is Nunzio Sulprizio, who discovered in the love of God the reason for his life. A sorrowful and unfortunate existence from a human point of view, but rich in sanctity and goodness.
The Apostles Philip and James the Less are remembered on the same day because their relics were placed together in the Basilica of the Holy Twelve Apostles in Rome.
We know very little about James, son of Alphaeus, called the Lesser, because he was smaller in stature than James, son of Zebedee and brother of John the Evangelist. The only certain news is that he was one of the first disciples of Jesus.
Tradition has it that he was a relative of Jesus, perhaps that cousin referred to in the Gospel of Matthew (13, 55). He had a notable influence on the Council of Jerusalem, in which the missionary vocation of Peter for the circumcised and of Paul for the uncircumcised were established. In fact, a form of division of the missionary field took place: Peter towards the Jews and Paul towards the pagans.
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