Saints of the Week: Augustine, John the Baptist, Moses, Joshua, Gregory, Junípero, Giles, Cyprian, and More
Happy Sunday! As we move from summer into fall, the declining year might remind some of us of the brevity of life. But for the saints we celebrated this past week, death and suffering are only temporary, preludes to eternal joy in Heaven.
This week was the commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Aug. 29), Jesus’s cousin, the last prophet of the Old Covenant, and the one who baptized Christ. “[ECPubs] Because John had denounced Herod Antipas for putting away his own wife and marrying the wife of his brother Philip, Herod imprisoned John. At a feast in honor of Herod’s birthday, his stepdaughter Salome danced for him. Herod promised her anything; her mother Herodias told her to ask for the head of John on a platter.” John was then martyred. You can read my earlier article for more details.
St. Augustine of Hippo (Aug. 28) went from a life of heresy and sexual sin to becoming a priest, bishop, and one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church. You can read about Augustine’s journey toward holiness through his mother St. Monica’s prayers in my article from earlier this week. Among Augustine’s many inspiring sayings were, “Quia fecisiti nos ad te et inquietem est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te (Because You made us for Yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee).”
St. Moses the Black (Aug. 28), also called the Ethiopian (due to his skin color), was a fourth century Egyptian. He was a slave who committed a murder and then fled, taking up with and eventually leading a band of robbers (he was said to have been very physically strong). Once, he hid from authorities in a monastery, and was converted by the monks there. He struggled for a while to overcome his old vices and suffered demonic attacks. Once, when some of the robbers of Moses’s old band came to attack him, he tied them up and took them to his superiors, who said the robbers should be released. The robbers all converted. Moses became a wise spiritual leader and miracle worker. He was martyred by bandits.
There were many Biblical saints and Old Testament figures this week, including the Judges Abdon and Ibzan and Eleazar the Patriarch. Joshua, son of Nun (Sept. 1), was the successor of the great Moses as leader of the Israelites, the man who led them into the Promised Land, and namesake of the Biblical book of Joshua. Famous episodes involving Joshua include the miraculous taking of the city of Jericho (Josh. 6) and his intercession with God that caused the sun to stand still, prolonging the daylight so the Israelites could win a battle (Josh. 10). Also commemorated this week was Abigail the Matriarch (Sept. 1), one of the wives of King David.
From the New Testament, August 31 was the feast of Sts. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Joseph was a wealthy Israelite who provided his tomb for Jesus after the Crucifixion. After the Ascension, Joseph is said to have taken the Holy Grail, the chalice from the Last Supper, with him to England, where he evangelized. Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin and a secret disciple of Jesus who helped bury Christ after the Crucifixion; tradition says he was a martyr.
Pope St. Gregory the Great (Sept. 3) was the great-grandson of Pope St. Felix III, the son of St. Silvia of Rome, and nephew of two other saints. Very well-educated, he left behind a Roman prefecture to sell his belongings and make his home a Benedictine monastery. He built multiple other monasteries and, after seeing Anglo-Saxon slaves, became fired with zeal to convert the inhabitants of England. “Not Angles,” he said of the fair-haired children, “But Angels.” Later, after becoming the first monk chosen pope in 590, Gregory sent St. Augustine of Canterbury and monks to England, also sending missionaries to Spain, France, and Africa. He famously collected the sacred music known as Gregorian Chant and wrote key works on the Mass and Divine Office.
St. Junípero Serra (Aug. 28) was born in Spain but, after joining the Franciscans, came as a missionary to the Americas. Despite health problems, he walked hundreds of miles across the area of modern Mexico and California founding missions, many of which later became famous cities, including San Diego, San Francisco, and San Juan Capistrano. “By the end of 1784, [when Serra died,] the number of baptized Indians at the first nine missions had reached 6,736, with 4,646 Christianized Indians residing in them.” Despite what modern anti-Catholic maligners say, Serra not only evangelized but helped his native converts to build a life for themselves in the missions. His impact was so great that he was one of two individuals whom California chose in 1931 for its representative statues in the U.S. Capitol.
St. Giles (Sept. 1) was born wealthy in Greece but gave up riches to be a hermit in France. A hunter from a royal hunting party once shot at a deer who ran into Giles’s cave and crippled the saint, which led to his discovery by the French king, who was so impressed by Giles he built the saint a monastery. Giles became famous for his wisdom and not only did followers flock to his monastery, but a town grew up around it before his death in the early 700s. He is the only one of the popular saints known as the 14 Holy Helpers who did not die a martyr.
St. Cyprian of Carthage (Aug. 31) was born to wealthy pagans, and taught rhetoric and literature before his conversion in 246 AD. The Bishop of Carthage, he secretly ministered to his flock during the persecutions of Decius and later weighed in on the debate over whether apostates could be readmitted to the Faith (Cyprian said yes). He supported the true Pope Cornelius against an anti-pope, was one of the most important Latin Fathers of the Church, and was exiled and later martyred. His name is in the Communicantes prayer of the Mass.
St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (Aug. 31) was a bishop in Ireland who resigned his office to become a monk at Iona, Scotland, around 630 AD. He evangelized in Northumbria and miraculously rescued his friend King St. Oswald’s troops. He was an expert Biblical scholar and excellent preacher who founded the Lindisfarne monastery that became a “storehouse” of literature and learning during the so-called “Dark Ages.” St. Bede warmly praised Aidan.
St. Mamas (Mammas) (Sept. 2, Byzantine calendar) was the son of Sts. Theodotus and Rufina, born in prison where his parents were on account of their Christianity, and by some reports only a young boy when he was stoned to death in the late 200s. Before his early martyrdom, he befriended a lion, which is often pictured with him.
St. Fiacre (Aug. 30) was raised in an Irish monastery but moved to France to be a hermit. He was famed as a miraculous healer who could cure people just by touching them. It is said that St. Faro of Meaux promised him as much land as he could entrench in a day—Fiacre walked a long way dragging a spade, and, wherever he passed, plants and trees were miraculously uprooted and the soil entrenched.
Many were the innocent victims of the bloodthirsty and vicious French Revolution, and on September 2 and 3 we commemorate 191+ priests martyred due to the Revolution’s hatred of religion. Solomon le Clerq is probably the most famous of the group called the Martyrs of September.
St. Margaret Ward (Aug. 30) was a lady’s companion in London, where she was arrested with her servant Bl. John Roche for helping Fr. Richard Watson escape prison during the Protestant persecutions of Queen Elizabeth I. Margaret was arrested and tortured, and she and Roche were martyred by being hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1588.
St. Stephen of Hungary (Sept. 2, Latin Mass) converted from paganism to Christianity as a child. King of the Hungarian Magyars, he married Bl. Gisela of Ungarn, Emperor St. Henry II’s sister, and fathered St. Emeric. Stephen united the Magyars into one nation. He was an evangelizer who also founded monasteries.
St. Raymond Nonnatus (Aug. 31) was a priest, monk, and Master General of the Mercedarians tortured for his faith while ransoming Christians from Muslim captors. Our Lady of Montevergine (Sept. 1) is an icon or image of Mary and Jesus in Italy, which draws thousands of yearly pilgrims. St. Rosa Eluvathingal (Aug. 29) or Mother Euphrasia of the Sacred Heart was a nun in India. St. Rose of Lima (Aug. 30, Latin Mass) was a holy Dominican tertiary in Peru. St. Paulinus of Trier (Aug. 31) was a French missionary to Germany exiled to Asia Minor by an Arian heretic emperor. Bl. Sancja Szymkowiak (Aug. 29) was a Polish nun who died while doing forced labor for the Nazis. St. Phoebe of Rome (Sept. 3) was a Christian matron and deaconess who delivered St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. St. Marinus (Sept. 3) was a preacher, deacon, and hermit for whom the country of San Marino is named.
You can also read about Sts. Vicinius of Sarsina, Edmund Arrowsmith, and Hermes of Rome (Aug. 28); Edmund Rice, Jeanne Jugan, Sabina of Rome, Bronislava of Poland, Peter of Sassoferrato, and John of Perugia (Aug. 29); Pammachius, Felix and Adauctus, Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, Eustáquio van Lieshout, and Yusuf Nehme (Aug. 30); Pere Tarrés i Claret, Germán Martín y Martín, and Patrick O'Healy (Aug. 31); Giuliana of Collalto, Lupus of Sens, 12 Holy Brothers, and Michael Ghebre (Sept. 1); Ingrid of Sweden, Margaret van Löwen, and William of Roskilde (Sept. 2); and Vitalian of Capua, Remaclus, Hereswitha, and Seoul and Nagasaki Martyrs (Sept. 3).
Have a blessed week!