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He was a humble farmer, very poor, who spared no effort and sacrifice to bring a piece of bread home. However, he had discovered Christ and everything else seemed nothing compared to his friendship with Him. His name was Isidore. He was born around 1080 in Madrid, which at the time was not yet the capital of Spain but a city like any other.
The exact year of birth of Ubaldo Baldassini is not known, probably around 1085, in the town of Gubbio in the Italian province of Umbria. He was the only son of Rovaldo Baldassini, and Giuliana. He lost his parents as a child and was taken care of by his uncle Ubaldo. In 1115 he was ordained a priest and three years later he became prior of the Cathedral of San Mariano.
He was almost illiterate, teaching himself to read and write, humble, poor, a simple lay friar following in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, a great devotee of the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar to the point of being called the "theologian and Seraphim of the Eucharist". He is Paschal Baylón, born in Torrehermosa, then Kingdom of Aragon, to Martín and Isabel Jubera, on May 16, 1540. They were a large family but very poor. For this reason, the boy was sent at an early age by his father to graze the flocks. He took advantage of his time in nature to praise God and sing hymns to the Virgin Mary.
He was called the “Friar Deo gratias”, because that was how he greeted people he met. For forty years, in fact, he wandered the streets of Rome asking for alms, taking advantage of the opportunity to give spiritual advice to commoners and aristocrats. He is Felice Porro, known as Saint Felix of Cantalice, for the name of the place where he was born in the province of Rieti in 1515. As a child he moved to Cittaducale to serve a family as a shepherd and farmer. He devoted himself to reading the Lives of the Fathers and the desire to lead an austere existence grew in him.
“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.
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 holds that Florian was born in the second half of the 3rd century in Zeiselmauer, near Vienna. He was baptized and raised as a Christian. After several years of service as an officer in the Roman army, he was appointed head of the chancellery of the imperial governor in Lauriacum, present-day Lorch near Enns in Upper Austria.
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.
Wife, mother, widow, and founder of a religious congregation—this is the life journey of Anna Rosa Gattorno, born Rosa Maria Benedetta. She was born in Genoa on October 14, 1831, into a well-off family of shipowners, and received a Christian upbringing. According to the customs of high social classes at the time, she was educated at home. Very intelligent and eager to learn new things, she would entertain guests by playing the piano and singing.
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.
It arrived wrapped in a sheet on a cart of manure—hardly a triumphant entrance for the image of Our Lady of the Rosary that Saint Bartolo Longo had brought from Naples on November 13, 1875. Its destination was the Valley of Pompeii, the place chosen for the construction of a Shrine dedicated to the Virgin. As humble as the journey was, so great was the devotion that later arose among the faithful.
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.
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