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  • 22 August: Liturgical memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Not a distant sovereign, but a tender Mother who is close to us

    “From the earliest ages of the catholic church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen”. With these words in the Encyclical Letter Ad Caeli Reginam, of 11 October 1954, Pius XII instituted the liturgical feast day of the “Queenship of the Blessed Virgin”.

  • 22 NOVEMBER: SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

    Patron Saint of Musicians and Music

    Saint Cecilia, Patron Saint of music and musicians, luthiers and other musical instrument makers, was born to a noble Roman family at the beginning of the third century.

    Her biographical details come from texts whose accuracy is uncertain, but the fact that she existed was never in doubt.  By 496, Cecilia was already being worshipped by the Church of Rome as a virgin and martyr. A Basilica was built on the site of her house in Trastevere. Her memorial is celebrated on 22 November, and her name appears in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

  • 22 OCTOBER: SAINT JOHN PAUL II

    A life donated to the Church through Mary

    Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was elected Pope on 16 October 1978. In line with his predecessor, who died suddenly on 28 September 1978, he chose the name John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years, since the death of the last foreigner, Adrian VI from Utrecht, in 1523. He was also the first Pope from Poland and the first Pope to be a native speaker of a Slavic language. His Pontificate was among the longest in history, second only to Saint Peter and Pius IX. It lasted almost 27 years.

  • 23 September: Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

    Living Image of the Suffering and Risen Christ

    “I only want to be a poor friar who prays”, Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, in the world Francesco Forgione, would say as he waved aside the thousands of faithful who followed him. Why was a simple Capuchin from a small village on the Gargano so popular? The secret is that everyone who met him, could glimpse a living image of the Suffering and Risen Christ, in him.

  • 24 August: Saint Bartholomew the Apostle

    An Israelite without guile

    Bartholomew was one of the twelve disciples who followed Jesus after the Baptism in the Jordan River. His name is included in the Synoptic Gospels as one of the Apostles linked to his contemporary Philip. We know little about this Apostle, whose Feast Day is celebrated on 24 August, the day Catholic tradition dates as his martyrdom. He was originally from Cana in Galilee, near Nazareth. Jesus said of him: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (Jn 1:47). In his Gospel, John speaks of Nathanael, who is Bartholomew, at least according to the exegetes.

  • 24 January: Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

    Preacher and evangelizer in the midst of controversy

    Born on 21 August 1567 in the Château de Sales in Thorens-Glières (Upper Savoy), Francis de Sales grew up in a Catholic family belonging to the Savoyard aristocracy. His father, who served as maître d’hôtelto Count Sébastien of Luxembourg-Martigues, was also Lord of Sales.

  • 25 January: The Conversion of Paul the Apostle

    From darkness to light

    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.

  • 26 August: Liturgical memorial of Blessed John Paul I

    The space of a smile

    “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.

  • 27 December: Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

    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).

  • 27 September Saint Vincent de Paul

    A life of service to the poor and the least ones

    “God loves the poor, consequently, he loves those who love the poor”, Saint Vincent de Paul often said to his collaborators. Born in Pouy, a small town in Landes, France, on 24 April 1581, to a peasant family, he never forgot that as a child he tended pigs and cows. His father sent him to Dax to study at the College of the Cordeliers, directed by the Franciscans, in the hopes that he could receive an education that would help with the family’s expenses.

  • 28 January: St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

    The universe has nothing greater than the human soul

    “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.

  • 28 October: Apostles Saint Simon and Saint Jude (Thaddeus)

    Proclaiming the Gospel together

    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.

  • 29 SEPTEMBER: ARCHANGELS MICHAEL, GABRIEL AND RAPHAEL

    Proclaimers of God’s mysteries

    The three Archangels, whom we celebrate on 29 September, were contemplatives of the Glory of God and messengers of the Good News. Their names express their mission, not their nature. They are messengers of the Lord who proclaim his will and “along with the Saints, constitute the immense multitude of worshippers of the living God”.

  • 3 December: Saint Francis Xavier, Patron of the Missions

    The Apostle of the Indies

    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.

  • 30 November: Saint Andrew the Apostle

    Simon Peter’s brother

    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.

  • 30 SEPTEMBER: SAINT JEROME, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

    The Bible at the Centre of Life

    In his Apostolic Letter Scripturae Sacrae affectus,on30 September 2020 on the 16th centenary of the death of Saint Jerome, Pope Francis wrote:“The distinctive feature of Saint Jerome’s spirituality was undoubtedly his passionate love for the word of God entrusted to the Church in sacred Scripture. All the Doctors of the Church – particularly those of the early Christian era – drew the content of their teaching explicitly from the Bible. Yet Jerome did so in a more systematic and distinctive way”.

  • 31 January: Saint John Bosco

    Education is a question of the heart

    “Do not ever forget these three things, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to Mary Help of Christians and devotion to the Holy Father”, Don John Bosco said to his companions, shortly before he died.

    Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco was born on 16 August 1815 in Becchi, Castelnuovo d'Asti, to a poor and humble rural family. His parents' names were Francesco Bosco and Margherita Occhiena. He had two brothers, Giuseppe and Antonio.

  • 4 December: Saint Barbara, Patron Saint of Firefighters

    Witness of Christ who donated her life

    Saint Barbara, a martyr rom the third century, is the Patron Saint of Firefighters. Her liturgical memorial is celebrated on 4 December. Devotion to the Saint began to spread in the seventh century, when the first Acta of her martyrdom began to appear.

  • 4 January: Saint Angela of Foligno

    “My love for you is no joke”

    While meditating on the death of the Son of God on Holy Wednesday in 1301, Saint Angela of Foligno heard the following words within her: "My love for you is no joke". These words embody the essence of Saint Angela, the Franciscan mystic whom Pope Francis canonized on 9 October 2013, by equipollent canonization.

  • 4 NOVEMBER: SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO

    Souls are won on one’s knees

    The son of a noble family, he was appointed a commendatory abbot when he was 12 years old, and was created a Cardinal when he was 22, heading for a rapidly advancing and bright ecclesiastic career. He was the nephew of a Pope and became a formidable and exemplary pastor, a zealous preacher and a promoter of the implementation of the decrees of the Council of Trent. He faced struggles and adversity in his efforts to reform the Church, both the clergy and the religious, to free her from outside powers that threatened her integrity. Because of his zeal, he suffered slander, humiliation and even an attempt on his life, in which an arquebus was fired at his back as he prayed. He was unharmed

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