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“The power of God creates us, wisdom governs us, mercy saves us”. This is what Friar Crispin of Viterbo repeated to those he met. A simple lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, assigned to soliciting alms on behalf of the Order, serving the sick and taking care of the convent garden, Friar Crispin (Pietro) Fioretti was born in Viterbo on November 13, 1668. His father, Ubaldo Fioretti, had married Marzia, who was already a widow with a daughter. Crispino soon lost his father and his uncle Francesco took care of him, sending him to attend the school run by the Jesuits. Crispino also worked as an apprentice shoemaker in his uncle's shop.
A lone bishop against all, including the Emperor, in the defense of the Niceo-Constantinopolitan Creed, commonly called the Nicene Creed, fearlessly risking exile, marginalization, or persecution. He is Saint Athanasius, a staunch defender of the orthodoxy of the faith in the face of Arian heresy.
Born near Alexandria, Egypt, around 298, he studied Greek literature and philosophy. At a very young age he entered the Church’s service where for six years he was a lector. Ordained deacon, Patriarch Alexander appointed him his personal secretary.
He traveled throughout Italy in his time, preaching and calling for conversion, pacification and a return to God. He promoted the devotion to the Name of Jesus, which he coined in the trigram “IHS”, inserted inside the form of a sun with twelve rays. He is Bernardino of Siena, a Friar Minor of the Observance, who tried to bring back, first his fellow citizens, to a personal friendship with God and, then, throughout the Italian peninsula to the multitudes who came far and wide to listen to his sermons.
The Church in Mexico had to overcome a terrible test, that of persecution and marginalization. With the law of 1917, known as the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico, inspired by anti-religious and anti-clerical hatred, the harassment of Christians was institutionally increased. Pope Pius XI dedicated the Encyclical Iniquis Afflictisque, beseeching against the prevalent persecution of the Church by the government in Mexico, attributed "arrogance" and " madness " for the intent "to undermine and crumble the house of the Lord".
Wife, mother, widow, nun. It was the arduous human journey that led Rita to become a Saint. She is among the most well-known women in the world, certainly among the most loved and invoked in the ecclesial community after the Virgin Mary. An example of unshakable faith in God, passionate love, so much so that for 15 years she shared with Christ the wound of a thorn driven into her forehead.
He visited the sick in Roman hospitals, managed a night shelter for the homeless, devoted himself to listening to penitents who crowded his confessional. He is Father Giovanni Battista de' Rossi, born on February 22, 1698, in Voltaggio (Genoa). At about thirteen years of age, he moved to Rome to study literature and philosophy at the Roman College and lived with a cousin who was a priest, a canon in Santa Maria in Cosmedin.
To invoke Mary, with the title of Help of Christians or Help of Christians, means to recognize her as Mother and Queen. It expresses, in particular, the filial affection of the faithful towards She, who was the first Disciple of the Son.
Perhaps they took her for a madwoman when she pealed the bells of the monastery to call her Sisters and all creatures to the love of God. She shouted: “Come, souls to love love!” It was May 3rd, 1592, when Saint Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, running through the corridors of the monastery, invited people to love Christ.
Impressed by her “excesses of love for God”, the religious authorities of the time asked the nuns of the Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence to faithfully transcribe the words she pronounced during her ecstasies and to document what she saw and felt.
He was known and loved by the populace of Rome for his cheerful and peaceful character, able to involve the entire city in his spiritual journey, beseeching charity towards the weakest and most neglected of society. He is Philip Neri, born in Florence on July 21, 1515, to Francesco and Lucrezia da Mosciano Neri. His father was a notary when he lost his wife in 1520. He remarried Alessandra di Michele Lensi, who took care of little Philip, who attended public school and was educated by the Dominicans of the convent of San Marco.
A Benedictine monk sent by Pope Gregory the Great to be a missionary among pagans. He became the great re-evangelizer of ancient Britannia, but also the first Archbishop and Primate of England. He is Saint Augustine of Canterbury, known throughout the world by the name of the abbey he founded and where he was buried.
There is no certain information about the life of Emilio. Tradition places him as having lived around the 1st century and having been Bishop of Cagliari on the island of Sardinia.
Saint Emilio, together with Saints Felix, Priamo and Feliciano, is celebrated today and is most likely one of the four Sardinian martyrs who are commemorated in the Martyrology of St. Jerome. In Sardinia he is venerated in various places, especially in the town Sestu.
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.
A “strong” woman who followed the impulse of the Spirit and obeyed the voice of the Lord asking her to free her people and to restore faith for those in desolation. A laywoman, consecrated to virginity yet not cloistered, Joan of Arc was involved in the most dramatic conflicts of the Church and society of the time. Condemned as a heretic through a purely political show trial, she was sentenced to a tragic death even before her trial began - burned at the stake in the old market square of Rouen.
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.
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.
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.
The Solemnity of All Saints, celebrated on November 1, is an occasion for Christian communities to lift their gaze toward Heaven, where men, women, young people and children of every age live in the grace and light of God. On this day, we remember not only the officially recognized Saints of the calendar but also all those who now share in eternal life.
Saint Leo shares with Pope Saint Gregory the title of “the Great.” He was born at the end of the 4th century in Etruria. Initially a deacon in Rome, he was ordained a priest and carried out a mission in Gaul before being elected Pope in 440, serving for twenty years during a time of great difficulty.
Caterina di Favarone, a member of the Offreduccio family and younger sister of Clare of Assisi, was born in the Umbrian city in 1197. Before she had even turned sixteen, she felt the desire to follow her elder sister’s example, choosing a life shaped by evangelical poverty and the Franciscan way.
The last days of October and the first days of November have always been considered a special time to commemorate the dead. One of the ancient beliefs explaining this choice is that the Great Flood—according to tradition—occurred precisely during this time of year, thus making it symbolically connected to death and remembrance.
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