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Alexander, destined to become leader of the Church of Alexandria, was born in 250 and, in 313, assumed responsibility for the Patriarchate at a decisive moment in history. Christianity was emerging from being a clandestine religion, thanks to imperial measures that guaranteed its freedom.
Walpurga (Walburga) was born around the year 710 in Wessex, in southern England. She came from a noble Anglo-Saxon family and received her education in a monastery, possibly at Wimborne.
Blessed Tommaso Maria Fusco was born in Pagani, southern Italy, on December 1, 1831, into a deeply Christian family. His childhood was marked by sorrow: his mother died of cholera while he was still a child, and a few years later he also lost his father. Left an orphan, his education was entrusted to his paternal uncle, a priest.
The figure of Polycarp stands as a fundamental pillar of early Christianity. He is the link between the apostolic age and the generations that followed. As Bishop of Smyrna and a key figure in the Church’s earliest theological indications, he embodied an absolute fidelity to the Gospel, lived without compromise. His name, of Greek origin, evokes the idea of abundance and fruitfulness—a meaning that reflects a personality who left a significant legacy in the history of the Church.
The Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle commemorates the moment when the Lord said, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”. On the day in which Romans traditionally honoured their deceased, we honour the See of Saint Peter’s birth in Heaven, which draws glory from victory on the Vatican Hill and presides over the universal communion of charity, states the Roman Martyrology.
Peter Damian is one of the most well-known writers of the 11th century and one of the greatest advocates of the pre-Gregorian reform, along with several Popes who fought against the evils afflicting the Church at that time – in particular against simony, the buying and selling of an ecclesiastical office or dignity and Nicolaism, which rejected celibacy. With his advice and without taking radical positions, he served the Popes and wrote about these themes in Liber Gratissimus.
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