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Catherine of Sweden was a member of the royal family of Sweden through her mother, Saint Bridget, and her father, Ulf Gudmarson. Born around 1331, she was entrusted to the care of Cistercian nuns in Riseberg from a very young age. She left the monastery against her wishes when her father arranged for her to marry the knight, Edgar von Kyren, at the age of 16. Her husband, who was also very devout, agreed to live a marriage of chastity. Throughout her marriage, Catherine took care of her disabled husband. Her father, Ulf, died in 1344.
Beginning in the early decades of the sixteenth century, the proclamation of the Gospel reached the regions of present-day Vietnam, and in 1659 the Holy See gave stable form to missionary activity by entrusting two vast areas to the Apostolic Vicariates of the North (Đàng Ngoài) and the South (Đàng Trong). Despite difficulties and hostility, that work eventually produced a remarkable growth of the Christian community.
The birth of Jesus into the world, although it cannot be dated with precision either as to the year or the day, was already honored as a feast in both Eastern and Western Christian communities at the beginning of the fourth century. Gradually, under the influence of Roman tradition, the celebration of 25 December became established—a date chosen also to counter the ancient pagan festival dedicated to the rising sun, which fell precisely around the time of the winter solstice. Christians saw in that day the symbol of the appearance in the world of the true light, Christ, who breaks through the darkness produced by sin.
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.
The Church celebrates Saint Paul’s Conversion on the road to Damascus, on 25 January. In one of the most powerful manifestations of divine grace, Saul, the fierce persecutor of Christians, became the Apostle of Nations. The event is narrated in the Acts of the Apostles.
It is a familiar scene. God proposes and waits for a response. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”. (Luke 1:26-38).
Mary becomes the Mother of God and of the Savior, and later as she stands at the foot of the Cross, the Mother of the Church. This feast is firstly the celebration of the Incarnation when God began his human life in Mary, a life that will carry this tiny embryo up to the Cross, the Resurrection and the glory of God.
According to tradition, Catherine was a young woman of noble birth from Alexandria in Egypt, known for her beauty and high level of learning.
“Our new Blessed lived that way: in the joy of the Gospel, without compromises, loving to the very end. He embodied the poverty of the disciple, which is not only detachment from material goods, but also victory over the temptation to put oneself at the centre, to seek one’s own glory”, Pope Francis said in his homily for the Beatification of John Paul I, in the world, Albino Luciani, held in Saint Peter’s Square on 4 September 2022.
Paolo Girolamo Casanova, better known as Saint Leonard of Porto Maurizio, was born in Porto Maurizio—today’s Imperia—on 20 December 1676. At a very young age he moved to Rome to complete his studies at the Roman College and, fascinated by the austere life of two friars at the Retreat of San Bonaventura on the Palatine Hill, decided to enter the Order of Friars Minor at the age of twenty-one, taking the Franciscan habit in the convent of Santa Maria in Ponticelli.
John, whose name means “God is gracious”, was described by Paul as a “pillar” of the Church (Gal 2:9). He was originally from Galilee, probably from near Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee).
In a courageous and innovative way for the 16th century, Saint Angela Merici developed a new form of consecrated life for women: no longer in the cloister, but out in the world. She founded the Company of St. Ursula for these women. Angela was closely attentive to the signs of the time, and based her model on the example of the early Church, lived by the Apostles and the early Christian communities, thus paving the way for modern devotion.
Rupert was part of the Frankish nobility and was related to the Merovingian royal family (perhaps to the Robertians). He served as the Bishop of Worms at the end of the 7th century. Duke Theodo II of Bavaria (+718) invited him to Bavaria and entrusted him with important ecclesiastical and political duties. Rupert, who was related to Theodo's wife, Folchaid, converted the Duke of Ratisbon (Regensburg, Bavaria) and his followers to Christianity. According to tradition, he baptized the Duke himself, which is why he is known as the Apostle of the Bavarians.
Virgil, born in Ireland in the 8th century, belonged to the tradition of itinerant monks who left their homeland to undertake long religious pilgrimages. Setting out around 743 with the intention of reaching Palestine, he interrupted his journey.
“Because we cannot know what God is, but rather what he is not, we have no means for considering how God is, but rather how he is not”, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote. Thomas was born in 1225 in Roccasecca, in the province of Frosinone, to one of the most prominent families in Italy. Because he was the youngest child, he was destined for an ecclesiastical career. At the age of five, he entered Montecassino as a “puer oblatus”, and at fifteen, he studied Aristotelian philosophy, grammar, natural sciences, Arabic science and Greek philosophy at the University of Naples.
“Alberic was succeeded by Stephen, English by birth, a most ardent lover and a most faithful example of piety, poverty, and regular discipline. His life confirmed how true it is what is written: The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cry for help” (Exordium Cistercii, II).
The two Apostles, Simon and Jude Thaddeus, are celebrated on the same day, possibly because of their shared apostolate in Mesopotamia and Persia, where they went to proclaim the Gospel. Not much is known about them. The little we know is what is in the New Testament.
The main information about the life of Saturninus comes from the Passio Saturnini, an anonymous text written around the mid-5th century—therefore composed roughly two hundred years after his martyrdom. According to this account, Saturninus arrived from Africa and reached Toulouse around the year 250, during the consulate of Decius and Gratus, where he was chosen as leader of the local Christian community.
Francisco de Jassu y Xavier, known as Francis Xavier, was the “Apostle of the Indies”, the Patron Saint of the Missions, the great Evangelizer of Asia and one of the first to follow Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
He was born in 1506 in Xavier Castle near Pamplona, to a noble family. In September 1525, he travelled to Paris to study at the College of Saint Barbe, where he shared a room with Pierre Favre, the first priest of the Society, who was joined by Ignatius of Loyola. At first, Francis and Ignatius had a strained relationship because Francis wanted to pursue his academic career. Ignatius described him as the “lumpiest dough he had ever kneaded”. In 1530, he became Magister Artium and obtained a chair at the College of Dormans-Beauvais.
There is not much reliable information on Saint Blaise of Sebaste. What is known comes from the Acts of Saint Blaise, which were written in Greek. Blaise studied philosophy as a young man and was a respected physician in Sebaste, Armenia, his hometown. Following the death of the city’s Bishop, he was elected as his successor by popular acclaim.
The Gospels present Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, as one of the two disciples of John the Baptist, who followed Jesus from the very beginning (Jn 1:35-39). He was born in Bethsaida in Galilee, on the shores of Lake Tiberias. He was a fisherman like his brother Simon (Peter). On his search for God, he became a disciple of John the Baptist, who baptized him. When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the “Lamb of God” (Jn 1:29-40) on the River Jordan, he immediately followed the Teacher and never left him.
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