Saints of the Week: Mary’s Birth, Moses, Joseph, Gregory, Kieran, Zachary, Elizabeth, Stephen, P.Claver, Cloud &More
This past week we celebrated the birth or nativity of Jesus’s Mother. “As Eden was the Paradise of Creation, Mary is the Paradise of the Incarnation, and in her as a Garden were celebrated the first nuptials of God and man,” said Ven. Fulton Sheen. God longs for man to be spiritually wed to him, as the saints we honored this past week were.
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sept. 8) celebrates Mary’s miraculous birth to her parents, Sts. Joachim and Anna (Sept. 9), when they were already old. It was through Mary that Jesus the Savior of mankind came into the world, making her birthday an important event in salvation history. Read my full article on Mary’s birthday.
Moses (Sept. 4) is arguably the greatest of the Old Testament patriarchs/prophets, who was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Famous Biblical episodes of his life include the Burning Bush, the miracles before Pharao and Ten Plagues, the first Passover, the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, manna and water provided by God in the desert, the Ten Commandments, the Golden Calf, and the giving of the Mosaic Law. Moses is traditionally said to be the author or compiler of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
Joseph the Patriarch (Sept. 4) is one of the holiest figures in the Old Testament, his story related in Genesis. The son of Jacob and Rachel, favored by his aging father and gifted with the coat of many colors, Joseph was betrayed by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt. There, after landing in jail through a false accusation, Joseph’s prophetic dream readings impressed the Pharaoh and made him the most powerful man in Egypt aside from the Pharaoh. Joseph eventually chastised, forgave, and was reunited with his brothers.
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. Kieran the Younger (Sept. 9) was an Irish abbot and miracle-worker who founded a monastery famous for its learning and who greatly assisted the poor. He is one of the “12 Apostles of Ireland.”
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. Sts. Zachary and Elizabeth (Sept. 5, Byzantine calendar) were the parents of St. John the Baptist (see Lk. 1-2). John’s birth was foretold to Zachary by an angel when they were already old, and Zachary (a priest) was struck dumb until after John’s birth, when he delivered a prophetic canticle about John’s future. Mother Mary visited the pregnant Elizabeth, when Elizabeth was inspired by the Holy Spirit to testify to the Messiah Whom Mary was carrying in her womb.
St. Peter Claver (Sept. 9) was a Spanish Jesuit most famous for his work evangelizing and materially assisting black slaves in Colombia. He worked for their humane treatment and their spiritual welfare amidst the hell of exploitative South American slavery. St. Cloud (Sept. 7) was the grandson of the famous Frankish King Clovis and Queen St. Clothilde. While he was still young, Cloud’s brothers were murdered by his uncles. Cloud survived to become a hermit and teacher.
St. Thomas Tsuji (Sept. 7) was a Japanese nobleman who became a Jesuit priest and preacher. Exiled for his faith to Macao, Tsuji returned in disguise to Japan but was martyred in 1627. 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 Revolutionaries’ hatred of religion. Solomon le Clerq is probably the most famous of the group called the Martyrs of September.
St. Thomas of Villanova (Sept. 8) was an Augustinian friar and archbishop who lived in great humility and poverty, providing charity to several hundreds of poor people every day. He especially assisted orphans and gently led sinners to repentance. St. Catherine of Racconigi (Sept. 4) was a Dominican tertiary, mystic, visionary, miracle-worker, and wise counselor. St. Mamas (Mammas) (Sept. 2, Byzantine calendar) was the son of Sts. Theodotus and Rufina (Aug.31), 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. Isaac the Great (Sept. 8) was the son of St. Nerses the Great and a married layman who become a monk after his wife’s death. As Catholicos of Armenia, he did great work for the country, including developing a liturgy and an alphabet. Zechariah the Prophet (Sept. 6) prophesied around 520 BC in the reign of King Darius. The Biblical book bearing his name includes prophesies about the Messiah to come. St. Pius X (Sept. 3, Latin Mass) began as a humble priest and ended his life as pope. He promoted liturgical devotion and frequent Communion, including for children, and condemned modernism.
“At Nicomedia, St. Gorgonius [Sept.9], an officer of Diocletian’s household, converted many servants of the imperial court. His cruel master condemned him and his companions to the most atrocious death in 302.” St. Teresa of Calcutta (Sept. 5) founded the Missionaries of Charity and did groundbreaking work with the most despised and poverty-stricken people in India. She became an international celebrity, spreading her message of love, sacrifice, and compassion around the world. Despite the inner darkness she experienced for much of her life, her faith in Jesus never wavered.
St. Phoebe of Rome (Sept. 3) was a Christian matron and deaconess who delivered St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. St. Nicholas of Tolentino (Sept. 10) was an Augustinian friar, miracle-worker, and healer. The 205 Martyrs of Japan (Sept. 9/10) are celebrated as a group, though they were killed over the years between 1617 and 1632, including both missionaries and natives. St. Marinus (Sept. 3) was a preacher, deacon, and hermit for whom the country of San Marino is named. St. Lawrence Justinian (Sept.5), “of the noble family of Giustiniani, Bishop and first Patriarch of Venice, was ‘the pride and the ornament of the Catholic Episcopate.’ He died in 1455.” Eleazar the Patriarch (Sept.2), third son of Aaron (see Exodus), helped found the Israelite priestly class. St. Maria de la Cabeza (Sept. 9) was the holy wife of St. Isidore the Farmer. St. Adrian (Sept.8) “suffered martyrdom with twenty-five others at Nicomedia under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian in 303.”1
You can also read about Ingrid of Sweden, Margaret van Löwen, and William of Roskilde (Sept. 2); Vitalian of Capua, Remaclus, Hereswitha, and Seoul and Nagasaki Martyrs (Sept. 3); Pope Boniface I, Maria Dina Belanger, Rosalia, Ida of Herzfeld, and Hermione (Sept. 4); Bertin the Great, Phêrô Nguyen Van Tu, and Maria Velotti (Sept. 5); Bertrand of Garrigue, Bega, Frontiniano of Alba, Augebert and Felix, Pascual Torres Lloret, and Spanish Civil War Martyrs (Sept. 6); John Mazzucconi, Eugenia Picco, Ignacio Klopotowski, and John Duckett (Sept. 7); Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre and Meritxell, Pope Sergius I, and Antoine-Frederic Ozanam (Sept. 8); and Jacques Laval, Gorgonius of Nicomedia, and Ivan Sanin (Sept. 9).
Have a blessed week!
Quotes without links are from the Latin Mass Missal. Most of this article is adapted from two pieces I published last year.