Saint of the day

Saint of the day

Pentecost

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost is the feast that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles and marks the end of the Easter season. The name comes from the Greek pentēkostē, meaning "fiftieth" because it is celebrated fifty days after Easter. On this occasion the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church are commemorated and remembered. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, he sends his disciples a power—the Holy Spirit— a force to enable them to be his personal witnesses in the world.

June 6: Saint Norbert of Xanten, Bishop and Founder of the Canons Regular of the Norbertines

Announcer of the Gospel by word and example

Saint Norbert of Xanten had an instant conversion. When he was about 35 years old he was thrown from his horse and risked death. At that moment he heard the words of the psalm: “Turn from evil and do good” (Psalm 34:15). He interpreted this episode as a divine call and decided to radically change his life. He began leading a life of penance, walking barefoot, wearing rough wool clothes, and traveling from place to place preaching the Gospel.

June 5: Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

The Apostle to the Germans

Known as the Apostle to the Germans, he is considered one of the most important Anglo-Saxon missionaries and the one who brought Christianity to the Germanic lands of old.

June 4: Saint Francis Caracciolo

The Saint of the Eucharist

He is considered one of the promoters of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and one of the Eucharistic Saints par excellence. This is Saint Francis Caracciolo, born Ascanio, son of Ferrante of the noble Caracciolo family and Isabella, in Villa Santa Maria on October 13, 1563. Educated according to his noble status, at the age of twenty-two he was struck by a form of elephantiasis. He promised God that if he were healed, he would become a priest. After obtaining his recovery, two years later he was ordained to the priesthood.

June 3: Saint John Grande

Devoted entirely to the sick and the poor

He called himself “John the Sinner.” He gathered abandoned sick people, begged alms for the poor, and died while practicing charity toward plague victims, from whom he contracted the disease himself. He is Saint John Grande, born in Carmona, Seville, Spain, on March 6, 1546. His father, a blacksmith, died when he was eleven years old, and his mother Isabel remarried.