Saint of the day

Saint of the day

May 1: Saint Joseph the Worker

The humble carpenter of Nazareth 

“An aspect of Saint Joseph that has been emphasized from the time of the first social Encyclical, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, is his relation to work. Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labour.” So wrote Pope Francis in the Apostolic Letter Patris Corde, on the occasion of the 150th  anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.

April 30: Saint Pius V

The Pope, Reformation and the Rosary 

Elected in 1566, Pope Pius V, a Dominican friar and a great ascetic, is noted for leading the counter-reformation, establishing the Catechism and promulgating the Breviary and the Roman Missal which carry his name.

April 28: Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort

Finding Jesus through Mary 

Embracing the fruits of Baptism he discovered the simplest, shortest and safest path to Jesus, that is, through devotion to the Virgin Mary. Thus Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort proposed to the faithful the consecration to Jesus by the hand of Mary the Mother of God. He wrote in his famous Treatise on True Devotion: “It is through the Most Holy Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ came into the world, and it is also through her that he must reign in the world”.

April 25: Saint Mark the Evangelist

St. Peter's “interpreter” 

What we know about Saint Mark comes to us through the Acts of the Apostles in some letters of Saints Peter and Paul. He was not part of the first group of the Apostles but was a disciple first of Paul and then of Peter. Some authors identify him as the young man, son of the widow Mary, who followed Jesus after his arrest in Gethsemane. On that occasion, he narrowly escaped capture when grabbed, running away by leaving behind the linen robe he was wearing. In his writings, he sometimes also appears with the name of John-Mark.

April 16: Saint Benedict Joseph Labre

The Beggar and Wanderer of God 

In our era he may have been called a globetrotter because he loved to visit the main Sanctuaries of Europe on foot: from Santiago de Compostela to Loreto, from Rome to Gargano. He is Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, known as the beggar or wanderer of God. In less than fifteen years, it is estimated that he traveled thousands of kilometers until he settled in Rome. At first, he found refuge under an arch of the Colosseum and people brought him alms which he promptly distributed to those he considered poorer than himself. He then found a place near the Basilica of Saints Sylvester and Martin, in Rome’s Monti district.