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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.
Irmina lived between the 7th and 8th centuries and, according to tradition, was the daughter of Dagobert, King of Austrasia, the eastern portion of Merovingian Gaul. After remaining unmarried following the death of her betrothed, she entered the Benedictine order and founded the monastery of Oeren in Trier, of which she became abbess.
Blessed Tommaso Maria Fusco was born in Pagani, southern Italy, on December 1, 1831, into a deeply Christian family. His childhood was marked by sorrow: his mother died of cholera while he was still a child, and a few years later he also lost his father. Left an orphan, his education was entrusted to his paternal uncle, a priest.
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.
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.
“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.
“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).
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