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  • April 23: Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagheddu

    A life offered for the unity of Christians

    At a young age she offered her life to God for the unity of Christians—this was Maria Gabriella Sagheddu. Born in Dorgali (Sardegna, Italy) on March 17, 1914, into a family of modest means, from an early age she showed a strong and determined character, at times even capricious and moody. She began her studies and pursued them successfully, but due to numerous unfortunate family affairs, she was forced to abandon her studies and work in order to support her family.

  • April 24: Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Martyr

    Apostolic missionary amid adversity

    He is the protomartyr of Propaganda Fide, belonging to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, killed at only 44 years of age. He is Fidelis of Sigmaringen, born in 1578 in Sigmaringen, in what was then the Principality of Hohenzollern, into a well-to-do family. His father was John Roy, who died in 1591, and his mother was Genoveffa Rosenberger.

  • April 25: Saint Mark the Evangelist

    St. Peter's “interpreter” 

    What we know about Saint Mark comes to us through the Acts of the Apostles in some letters of Saints Peter and Paul. He was not part of the first group of the Apostles but was a disciple first of Paul and then of Peter. Some authors identify him as the young man, son of the widow Mary, who followed Jesus after his arrest in Gethsemane. On that occasion, he narrowly escaped capture when grabbed, running away by leaving behind the linen robe he was wearing. In his writings, he sometimes also appears with the name of John-Mark.

  • April 26: Rafael Arnáiz Barón

    “God Alone”

    This was the motto of Rafael Arnáiz Barón: “God alone”. And also: “From the love of God comes everything.” He was a young man who placed the Lord first and made Him the reason for his short life.

  • April 27: Saint Zita, Virgin

    The patron saint of homemakers, domestic workers, and bakers

    She was already regarded as a saint to the extent that Dante Alighieri mentioned her in his Divine Comedy shortly after her death. Zita is not only considered a saint by the poet in his own time, but is also identified with the city of Lucca. In fact, he refers to “one of the elders of Saint Zita!” in “Inferno”, Canto XXI. The “elders” were ten magistrates who governed Lucca, and Dante places one of them among those condemned to the punishment reserved to barrators.

  • April 28: Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort

    Finding Jesus through Mary 

    Embracing the fruits of Baptism he discovered the simplest, shortest and safest path to Jesus, that is, through devotion to the Virgin Mary. Thus Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort proposed to the faithful the consecration to Jesus by the hand of Mary the Mother of God. He wrote in his famous Treatise on True Devotion: “It is through the Most Holy Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ came into the world, and it is also through her that he must reign in the world”.

  • April 29: Saint Catherine of Siena, Patron Saint of Italy and Co-Patron Saint of Europe

    Ambassador of Peace 

    A woman consumed with love and fidelity for the Church, dedicating her life and energy to the Pope, bishops, priests, the consecrated and laity, Saint Catherine of Siena was proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, the second woman ever to receive the title after Saint Teresa of Avila.

  • April 3: Saint Richard of Chichester, Bishop

    For the reform of the clergy

    He devoted himself to the reform of the clergy, to the free administration of the sacraments, to the observance of holy days, and to charity toward the sick and elderly priests.

  • April 30: Saint Pius V

    The Pope, Reformation and the Rosary 

    Elected in 1566, Pope Pius V, a Dominican friar and a great ascetic, is noted for leading the counter-reformation, establishing the Catechism and promulgating the Breviary and the Roman Missal which carry his name.

  • April 4: Saint Isidore of Seville, Doctor of the Church

    The Saint who united faith and culture

    Saint Isidore is the last of the Latin Fathers of the Church and is credited with having guided the society of the Iberian Peninsula, a center of culture and learning, by unifying the Roman Catholic inhabitants with the Arian Goths.

  • April 5: Saint Vincent Ferrer

    The Angel of the Apocalypse

    He was called the Angel of the Apocalypse for his fiery sermons on the end times and the eternal destiny that awaits humanity. Recalling his contemporaries to coherence in life via the professed faith and announcing the Gospel with vigor and courage, he did not fear the powerful of his time. He is Saint Vincent Ferrer, born on January 23, 1350, in Valencia, Spain, to Don Guillermo Ferrer and Lady Costanza Miguel.

  • April 6: Saint Peter of Verona, Martyr

    Apostolic missionary in the fight against heresy

    Peter Rosini was born in Verona around 1205 into a well-to-do family. It is possible that some of his relatives had embraced the Cathar heresy, which was widespread at the time. His father sent him to study at the University of Bologna, where he came into contact with the environment of the Domenican Friars of the Order of Preachers. He personally met Saint Dominic, who, in 1221, admitted him into his Order.

  • April 7: Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle

    The Patron Saint of Teachers 

    In 17th century France, schooling was no longer in step with the times. Teaching was dispersive and far from the social needs of a changing society. Culture was reserved for an elite and primary school was still based on the private individual method. A young priest had the courage to transform schooling, making it a place for anyone to prepare for life, become educated and acquire knowledge.

  • April 8: Saint Julie Billiart

    Educating young people for a better future

    Marie-Rose Julie Billiart was born on July 12, 1751, in Cuvilly, north of Paris, France. She was the seventh of nine children, many of whom died at a young age. From childhood, she felt called by the Lord to follow him. One event marked her for life: in 1774, her father survived an attempted murder. This was followed, in 1782, by a medical error that caused paralysis in her legs.

  • April 9: Saint Waltrude

    A noblewoman consecrated to God

    Saint Waltrude (Waudru) of Mons was born around 612 in Cousolre, in northern France, into a noble Frankish family. Her father, Saint Walbert, was an official at the court of Clotaire II of the Merovingians, and her mother, Saint Bertilla of Thuringia, was the daughter of a king.

  • December 11: Saint Damasus, Pope

    Defender of the Nicene–Constantinopolitan Creed

    Saint Damasus, born around 305, led the Church as Bishop of Rome from October 1, 366, until his death on December 11, 384. He succeeded Pope Liberius, with whom he had shared a period of exile, and he found a community troubled by the presence of numerous heretical groups—Arians, Novatians, Donatists, and Luciferians—who were very active in the capital.

  • December 16: Saint Adelaide, Empress

    A strong and charitable woman

    Queen and Empress, she remains to this day one of the brightest figures of the Christian Middle Ages: a strong, generous woman, capable of governing with a degree of competence rarely found even among the chroniclers of her time.

  • December 18: Saint Gratian (Gatianus) of Tours, Bishop

    Evangelizer of Gaul

    He was one of the earliest pioneers of the faith in Gaul, a remote foundation of the Christian tradition throughout the region. Gaziano or Graziano—known in ancient sources as Catianus, Gatianus, or Gratianus, and in France as Gatien de Tours—is remembered as the first enduring preacher of the Gospel in the city of Tours and as the founder of its diocese. Information about him is scarce and comes chiefly through the work of Gregory of Tours, the great sixth-century historian, who gathered oral traditions and popular accounts preserved in the Christian memory of Gaul.

  • December 2: Saint Bibiana, Martyr

    Steadfast in the Face of Persecution

    One of the earliest documentary traces of the story of Saint Bibiana appears in the Liber Pontificalis, where it is recalled that Pope Simplicius had a basilica erected in honor of the young martyr, located near the Palatium Lucianum and intended to house her relics. This church still stands in Rome today, not far from Termini Station.

  • December 20: Saint Dominic of Silos, Abbot

    Renewer of cenobitic life

    Saint Dominic Manso, known as de Silos because of his long residence in the monastery that later took his name, was born around the year 1000 in the small Riojan village of Cañas, in Spain. His childhood was spent among pastures and flocks, yet while tending his family’s sheep he began to develop a deep inner attraction to the sacred life. He was welcomed by the local priest, who took him under his care and gradually shaped his formation. At the age of twenty-six, the Bishop of Nájera ordained him to the priesthood.

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