Saints of the Week: Redeemer, Luke, Raphael, Boethius, John Capistrano, N.American Martyrs, Ursula, Cornelius &More
Saints of the Week: Redeemer, Luke, Raphael, Boethius, John Capistrano, N.American Martyrs, Ursula, Cornelius &More
As the days grow shorter and the election approaches, we should reflect on how to use our time wisely so as to serve God and save our country.
This week we honor Christ as Holy Redeemer (Oct. 23). Because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, Heaven was closed to mankind until the God-man Jesus came through God’s Chosen People (the Jews) to redeem all mankind and open Heaven again. St. Paul wrote (Titus 2:14) that Jesus “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works.” Jesus affirmed (Jn. 8:36) that, “If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” The Redeemer had to be both fully God and fully man because only God could atone for offenses against the infinitely good Divinity, and a man had to suffer for men’s sins. Jesus was perfectly innocent, but He suffered and died for us, so we could gain eternal life in Heaven.
St. Luke the Evangelist (Oct. 18) was likely a pagan Antiochan doctor who converted and became a companion of St. Paul. He “diligently arranged all the things which Jesus did and taught in the book of his Gospel. Likewise, in his Acts of the Apostles, he told the beginnings of the life of the Church up to the time of the first visit of Paul to Rome [ECPubs].” Martyr. His Gospel tells the story of Jesus’s birth and is sometimes called the “Gospel of women” for the number of women it features, including Mother Mary; it also called the “Gospel of Mercy.” It is said that Luke was also an artist who painted the first icons (holy images) of Jesus and His Mother Mary.
The Inner Life of Mary (Oct. 19) “Celebrates the supernatural life which Mary led on earth, particularly her advancement in grace and wisdom, in her intimate union with Jesus…Saint Luke, in chapter 2, tells us Mary’s manner of meditation, how she pondered on the words concerning [and of] Jesus.” St. Raphael the Archangel (Oct. 24) is featured in the Biblical book of Tobit/Tobias, assisting the young Tobias to wed Sara and to exorcise the demon plaguing her, before healing the elder Tobias.
Bl. Severinus Boethius (Oct. 23) was a famous and influential Roman philosopher who was martyred in 6th century Italy. Boethius, born in the late 400s AD, was from a Roman consular family. Both he and his two sons served as Roman consuls (chief magistrates), and he was a confidant to King Theodoric. His life changed dramatically when political rivals falsely accused him of various crimes, including disloyalty to the king; he was imprisoned without trial and eventually executed. Boethius’s great gift to posterity was the book he wrote in prison, “De Consolatione Philosophiae (Concerning/On the Consolation of Philosophy),” where his trials enabled him to have a very clear understanding of the shallowness of worldly prosperity—and the depths to which human nature can sink.
St. John of Capistrano or Juan Capistrano (Oct. 23) became a lawyer and then governor of Perugia, Italy. After being imprisoned during a war, he became a Franciscan in 1416, developed a devotion to Jesus’s Holy Name and the Blessed Virgin, and began a “brilliant preaching apostolate.” After being ordained a priest, he traveled in Italy, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and Russia, preaching and founding Franciscan communities. With Vienna and Rome under the threat of a Muslim Turkish army, John preached and led a crusade against the Muslims, marching at the head of an army of some seventy thousand Christian soldiers. They won a great victory at Belgrade against the Muslims, but John himself died only a few months later.
The North American Martyrs (Oct. 19) were a group of French Jesuits, six priests and two lay-brothers, who came to the area of modern Canada as missionaries and were brutally martyred by native Iroquois for their efforts. St. Isaac Jogues (Oct. 18), the most famous of them, was tortured and mutilated (his fingers gnawed off) by the Mohawks, but escaped back to France with the help of Dutch settlers. He returned to Canada, however, and was tortured and martyred (by a tomahawk to the head) with the other Jesuits. His companions were: Noel Chabanel, Jean de Brebeuf, Charles Garnier, Rene Goupil, Antoine Daniel, Gabriel Lalemant, and Jean de la Lande.
St. Ursula and companions (Oct. 21) were previously very popular saints. Ursula was a British princess who traveled Europe with between 11 and 11,000 companions (some speculate the notation “11M[artyrs]” was mistaken for the Roman numeral for “thousand”). She and her companions (including St. Cordula, celebrated Oct. 22) were martyred for the faith in various tortuous ways in Germany in 238 AD.
St. Cornelius the Centurion (Oct. 20) was a pagan Roman stationed at Caesarea. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he sent for St. Peter, who baptized Cornelius’ entire household. First “known Gentile convert to Christianity, and the baptism of his whole household points to the first century use of infant baptism. First bishop of Caesarea [catholicsaints.info].” Joel the Prophet, (Oct. 19) “who announced the great day of the Lord and the mysterious pouring out of the Spirit on all flesh, which the divine majesty in Christ deemed fit to fulfill marvelously on the day of Pentecost [ECPubs].”
St. John Cantius or Kanti (Oct. 20) is the patron of Poland and Lithuania. Born in Poland, he studied in Kracow and was ordained. He gave lectures on the Scriptures and was a popular preacher. He was especially famed for his own personal penances and his kindness to the poor. The Seven Holy Sleepers of Ephesus (Oct. 22, Byzantine) were young soldiers who refused to sacrifice to idols and hid with their dog in a cave outside Ephesus, where the Roman emperor sealed them up. Instead of dying, the youths woke up some two centuries later when the cave was unsealed!
St. Anthony Mary Claret (Oct. 24) was a weaver and then a priest, sent as a missionary to Catalonia (Spain) and the Canary Islands. He directed retreats, founding the congregation now called the Claretians and the Teaching Sisters of Mary Immaculate, and was appointed archbishop of Cuba. Anthony later returned to Spain and was exiled along with Queen Isabella II while serving as her confessor. Anthony was a miracle-worker, zealous preacher, devotee of the Eucharist and Our Lady, and possessed of the gift of prophecy. He reportedly preached 10,000 sermons and published 200 works.
St. Paul of the Cross (Oct. 20) was briefly a soldier and then a priest and popular preacher who focused on Jesus’s Passion as an expression of God’s love. He performed many acts of mercy and founded the Passionists, who preach to the poor and perform harsh penances. They “add a fourth vow to the traditional three of poverty, chastity, and obedience, to spread the memory of Christ’s passion among the faithful.” Paul was superior general of the congregation starting in 1747, and died in 1775. More than 2,000 of his letters and some of his short works have survived.
St. Peter of Alcantara (Oct. 18) was a Spanish legal scholar who became a Franciscan priest and preacher, though he preferred life as a recluse. Reformed his religious order, launching the Alcantarine or Strictest Observance in 1555. A mystic and writer, he held various positions in the Franciscan Order and was the friend and confessor of St. Teresa of Avila.
St. Philip Howard (Oct. 19) was the earl of Arundel and Surrey and, although a Catholic, was originally religiously indifferent. He had a personal conversion and his zeal led to his arrest under Queen Elizabeth I. While he was condemned to death in 1589, the sentence was not carried out, and he died while still imprisoned in the Tower of London. St. Petrus Yu Tae-Ch’ol (Oct. 21) was a young Korean teenager tortured and martyred for his faith in 1839.
St. Artemius Megalomartyr (Oct. 20): “Egyptian by birth, he was the [4th century] commander-in-chief of the army of emperor St. Constantine the Great. When the cross of the Lord appeared in the sky to the emperor, Artemius also saw it and came to faith. He was eventually appointed governor in Egypt. During the reign of emperor Julian the Apostate, he was stripped of his rank and thrown into prison. The emperor had him cruelly killed.”
St. Hilarion of Gaza or Hilary the Great (Oct. 21) “on the island of Cyprus, hegumen [head of a monastery]. He followed in the footsteps of St. Anthony, first near Gaza leading a solitary life. Then in this province of Cyprus, he was an outstanding founder and example of eremetical [i.e., hermit’s] life. [ECPubs]” Bl. Jerzy Popieluszko (Oct. 19) was a Polish priest and preacher (including on radio) who fearlessly opposed the Communists and was martyred by them for his work.
Sts. Alodia and Nunilo of Huesca (Oct. 22) were two sisters with a Muslim father and Christian mother in 9th-century Muslim-controlled Spain. Their widowed mother married another Muslim who persecuted the girls, first locking them up and then handing them over to martyrdom during the persecutions of Abdur Rahman II.
St. Finian Munnu (Oct. 21) was a 7th century member of the noble Irish Ui Neill clan, a monk in both Ireland and Scotland, defender of Celtic liturgy, and founder of a monastery. St. Cilinia (Oct. 21) was the mother of Sts. Remigius of Rheims and Principius of Soissons. St. Wendelin (Oct. 21) was a Scottish prince, pilgrim to many holy sites, and later a shepherd who loved his job watching sheep, as it gave him lots of time for prayer. St. Gwen of Tagarth (Oct. 18) was the daughter of the Welsh King St. Brychan; after her husband’s death, she evangelized northern Wales and was martyred. St. Mellon (Oct. 22) was a Welsh pagan converted by the pope’s preaching during a visit to Rome; he sold his property and, under guidance from a vision, evangelized and worked miracles in France.
St. Abercius Marcellus (Oct. 22) was a bishop and missionary in Hierapolis (modern Turkey); he exorcised a demon from the daughter of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. St. Acca of Hexham (Oct. 20) was a singer, Biblical scholar, monk, abbot, and bishop who built churches, revived British liturgical vocal music, and was exiled by the Northumbrian king (d. 742). St. Justus of Beauvais (Oct. 18) was martyred in 285 AD at the young age of nine—it is said his dead body miraculously picked up his severed head. Bl. James of Strepar (Oct. 20) was a Polish Franciscan Archbishop who organized preachers, built hospitals, schools, and churches, worked with the government, and tried to keep peace between Orthodox and Catholic Christians. St. Senoch (Oct. 24) was a French Benedictine abbot and friend of St. Gregory of Tours.
Bl. Esclaramunda of Majorca (Oct. 22) was the queen of Majorca (Spain) and later a member of the Mercedarian order. Bl. Burchard of Nabburg (Oct. 18) was an 11th century German politician and chancellor for the emperor, and later a bishop who worked as a peace-maker. St. John Kolobos or the Short (Oct. 17) was a 4th century Egyptian hermit in a cave; originally hot-tempered and arrogant, he later became so humble he watered a walking staff when ordered to (it bloomed). St. Laura of S. Catherine of Siena (Oct. 21) was a Colombian teacher, founder of a religious congregation, and missionary to and advocate for the area’s natives. Bl. Arnold Reche (Oct. 23) was a coachman and mule driver who became a LaSalle Brother and earned an award for his work as a medic during the Franco-Prussian War. St. Phaolô Tong Viet Buong (Oct. 23) was a captain of the guard for the Vietnamese emperor, martyred in 1833. St. Ignatius of Constantinople (Oct. 23) was a prince who became a monk and then Patriarch of Constantinople.
St. Maria Bertilla Boscardin (Oct. 20) was a nun and talented nurse who stayed with her Italian soldier patients despite WWI bombing. Sts. Philip and Hermes of Adrianople (Oct. 22) refused to hand over the Scriptures and their church furnishings during the persecution of Diocletian, and were martyred. Bl. Sancho of Aragon (Oct. 22) was a Spanish prince and Mercedarian Archbishop martyred in 1275 by the Muslim Saracens. St. Proclus of Constantinople (Oct. 24) was the patriarch of Constantinople, a preacher against heresy, and a disciple of St. John Chrysostom. St. François-Isidore Gagelin (Oct. 18) was a French missionary martyred by strangulation in Vietnam. Bl. Karl of Austria (Oct. 21) was the last Habsburg emperor, who worked for peace during WWI and died in exile.
Pope St. John Paul II (Oct. 22), born Karol Wojtyla in 1920 in Poland, studied secretly for the priesthood under Nazi occupation. As pope, he traveled widely and was devoted to Our Lady, though he did not dedicate Russia to her in the manner Our Lady of Fatima requested. While John Paul’s weak response to clerical sex scandals worsened a crisis, and he did some highly questionable/scandalous actions (such as kissing the Islamic Quran, which blasphemes Christ), he was one of the world leaders instrumental in bringing about the fall of the Soviet Union.
You can also read about Lupenzius, Mark of Jerusalem, Apollo of Bawit, and Moderan of Rennes (Oct. 22); Malchus of Syria, Celina, Julian Nakaura, William of Granada, and Peter Capucci (Oct. 21); Maximus of Aquila and Andrew of Crete(Oct. 20); Agnès of Jesus, Frideswide, and Laura of Córdoba (Oct. 19); Theobald of Narbonne, Amabilis of Riom, Proculus and comrades, and Cadwaladr (Oct. 18); Allucio, John Buoni, and Valenciennes Martyrs (Oct. 23); and Martin of Vertou, Luigi Guanella, Benigna Cardoso da Silva, Cadfarch, and Najran Martyrs (Oct. 24).
Have a blessed week!1
This article is largely adapted from two I published last year.