Saint John Neumann, Bishop 1811–1860 Feast Day January 5th
Saint John Neumann is the patron saint of educators, immigrants, and, due to the miracles that secured his canonization, sick children. This is a fitting patronage as he was a lover of education and learning from a very young age. In fact, when he was a child, his mother called him “my little bibliomaniac” due to his preoccupation with reading. due to his preoccupation with reading. Born in 1811 Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic, he attended the university in Prague preparing for ordination. However, his local bishops were not ordaining new priests at the time because Bohemia was overstocked with priests. He inquired about ordination all over Europe but received the same answer everywhere. Not one to be deterred, John then applied to several United States dioceses. receiving no immediate responses, the saint took a leap of faith and decided to just immigrate to the United States in 1836, during his 25th year, with only $40 in his pocket. This risk paid off when he was ordained in New York a month later.
Early in his priesthood he worked primarily as a missionary to German immigrants in Buffalo. His missionary work also created an opportunity for him to spend time in Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, and Ohio. When he was 29, he joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), a congregation of priests and brothers dedicated to helping the poor and most abandoned. He was their first member to profess vows in the United States.
In 1852, at the age of 41, Neumann became the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia. During this time, he organized the individual parochial schools in his region into a diocesan system. This change allowed Catholic schools to quickly increase the number of pupils enrolled by almost twentyfold. Over the course of his ministry, St. John expanded the number of Catholic schools in his diocese from 2 to 100! His passion for education extended to immigrants, like himself, and his love for learning languages made it possible for him to hear confessions in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, and Gaelic!
A man of the people, he could often be found outside the church walls visiting people who were sick, staying in taverns and public houses to teach, and celebrating Mass in people’s homes at their kitchen tables. He was canonized on June 19, 1977, following three miracles, two of which regarded the healing of youth from grave illnesses. St. John Neumann was the first American man to be canonized a saint.
Saint of the Week December 29, 2024
St. Basil the Great (329 – January 1, 379) Feast day January 2 Saints Basil the Great Patron Saint of monks, hospital administrators, reformers, and Russia
St. Basil was born at Caesarea of Cappadocia, to a family already deeply rooted in Christianity, going back to the time of widespread persecution in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Following in the footsteps of his father, Basil studied in Caesarea as well as Constantinople and Athens, training in the law and rhetoric. He became a popular teacher. However, his sister persuaded him to give up academia for monastic life. Before inviting St. Gregory to start an order with him, St. Basil traveled through Egypt, Palestine and Syria visiting monasteries, learning everything he could and formulating his own ideas about monastic rule. His rule is still followed today, and he is known as the Father of Eastern Monasticism.
Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist Feast Day December 27
Saint John was one of the Twelve, part of Jesus’ inner circle, among the few that witnessed the Transfiguration, the raising of Jarius’ Daughter, and the Agony in the garden at Gethsemane. He and his brother James ere the sons of Zebedee and Salome. When Jesus called them, they left their father mending nets and followed him. Jesus called the brothers“Boanerges,” meaning “sons of thunder” — they were passionate in their faith and Jesus had to rebuke them for their fiery zeal on more than one occasion. John, the younger brother, possibly the youngest disciple, was the only one present at Jesus’ death. Saint John the Apostle is traditionally thought to be the author of the fourth Gospel, the three Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation. However, there has been some debate among scholars from antiquity to the present. Tradition also gives him the title Beloved Disciple and John’s Gospel sees him seated next to Jesus at the last supper and the one to whom Jesus gives the care of Mary at the crucifixion. Although Church tradition says that John survived the other disciples, living a long life, much of it is steeped in myth and legend. Some say he retired to Ephesus after the crucifixion with Mary and remained there until he died. But in other traditions he is more active. For a time he remained in Jerusalem with the other disciples, then founded churches in Asia Minor. In a legend of his persecution, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, John is taken to Rome and thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil but preserved from death. He is then exiled to the island of Patmos where the Book of Revelation was written. Most accounts agree that after his exile and the Assumption of Mary he returned to Ephesus where he died sometime after 98, during the reign of the Emperor Trajan.
Saint of the Week December 1, 2024
December 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe
When Mary appeared to Juan Diego as Our Lady of Guadalupe, she had encouraging words for him. “Am I not here, I who am your mother?” In the image on Juan Diego’s tilma (tunic), Mary identifies herself with the Aztec people. She has their hair and features, their symbolic maternity dress. She incorporated their important symbols of the sun, moon, and stars. Today’s Mass includes two Gospel options. Both are familiar passages from the Gospel of Luke – the Annunciation and the Visitation. Both are equally relevant to today’s feast because Mary’s yes to Christ isn’t only to care for him but to come to us. Our Lady of Guadalupe is pregnant. The image bears witness to Mary’s yes to conceive the Savior of the World. But even in her pregnancy, she goes to care for Elizabeth. Now Mother to all the world, Mary comes to the aid of her children, reminding them of her presence among them.
Saint of the Week December 1, 2024
December 6: Saint Nicholas, c. 270–c. 346
Patron Saint of children, sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, Russia, and numerous countries and cities.
Very little about Nicholas is historically verifiable, but because his life is the origin of the legend of Santa Claus, he is a highly venerated saint in the Church. Nicholas was born into an affluent and devout Christian family. When he was young, his parents died from an epidemic, leaving him an orphan and heir to his family wealth. Conscious of Jesus’ exhortation to “sell what you have and give to the poor,” Nicholas sold his inheritance and distributed the proceeds to the needy.
One popular legend is that among the recipients of his wealth were three girls whose father could not afford dowries for them to be married. Their futures looked grim, including the possibility of their resorting to prostitution to survive. Aware of the dire situation, Nicholas threw a bag of gold through their window that the father used as a dowry for his first daughter. Nicholas then did this a second time. After the second daughter’s marriage, the father waited all night for a third bag of money. When Nicholas threw the third bag through the window, the father ran out and thanked him. Nicholas asked him not to tell anyone. One version of the story says that each bag of gold landed in stockings hung by the fire to dry, leading to the Christmas tradition of placing stockings out for Saint Nick, who secretly fills them.
In another popular story, Nicholas was on a ship traveling to the Holy Land. A storm suddenly arose, and the crew were fearful for their lives. Nicholas prayed, and the storm ceased. For this reason, Saint Nicholas is patron saint of sailors and those taking sea voyages.
Nicholas became bishop of Myra, perhaps selected by the clergy, perhaps with God-given inspiration. During Nicholas’ time as bishop, Emperor Diocletian ordered a great persecution of Christians. Sometime between 303 and 306, Bishop Nicholas was arrested and tortured. When Constantine became emperor in 306, he ordered the bishop’s release. Seven years later, the Edict of Milan granted religious tolerance to Christians. The freed Bishop Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in 325, called to address the Arian heresy that denied the full divinity of Christ. In some sacred art, Bishop Nicholas is portrayed as slapping one of the Arians across the face.
Legends abound about Saint Nicholas, many portrayed in art and some that underlie his various patronages. Bishop Nicholas died on or around December 6, 346 and was canonized by popular acclaim. On his feast day, the faithful performed charitable works, especially toward children.
After the Church split between East and West in 1054, Saint Nicholas’ remains were in the hands of the Orthodox Church. In 1087, Catholic sailors from Bari, Italy took part of Saint Nicholas’s remains from his Myra tomb and brought them to Bari where a church was later built in his honor. To this day, his bodily remains excrete a liquid, at first thought to be an oil but now believed to be water, which is collected, mixed with holy water, and distributed to the faithful in bottles every May 9, the day his remains arrived in Bari. Commonly referred to as the “Manna of Saint Nicholas,” the liquid is believed to contain miraculous healing power.
Saint Nicholas, through your intercession, God has touched many lives. Legends of your life have inspired faith throughout the centuries, just as your ministry impacted the people of your day. Please pray that I will become a saint and fulfill the mission God has given to me. Saint Nicholas of Myra, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.
Saint of the Week November 17, 2024
Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul
November 18: Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
After Emperor Constantine the Great legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313, he constructed churches, including four Roman basilicas: Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s on Vatican Hill, Holy Cross of Jerusalem, and Saint Paul Outside the Walls. Today, the Church celebrates the dedication of Saint Peter’s on Vatican Hill and Saint Paul Outside the Walls.
In 64, a great fire destroyed much of Rome. Many historians believe Emperor Nero set the fires himself to have an excuse to rebuild portions of the city. Blaming the fire on the Christians, Nero implemented the first organized persecution of Christians in the empire. Among the many arrested and martyred were Saints Peter and Paul. The two basilicas mark their places of execution.
Peter, Prince of the Apostles and Bishop of Rome, is believed to have been crucified upside-down in the Circus of Nero near the ancient Egyptian obelisk that now stands in the center of Saint Peter’s Square. Buried on Vatican Hill, his grave became a place of pilgrimage. After Constantine legalized Christianity, he constructed Old Saint Peter’s Basilica to foster devotion and encourage pilgrimages. Dedicated by Pope Sylvester around 324 or 326, it remained for more than a millennium.
Until 1305, popes lived at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. After the Avignon Papacy ended and Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome in 1377, the Lateran Palace was in disrepair from two fires. The pope built a new papal palace next to Old Saint Peter’s on Vatican Hill, where every subsequent pope has resided. By the early sixteenth century, Old Saint Peter’s was in serious disrepair, so Pope Julius II ordered its demolition and began a reconstruction that was completed 120 years later. In 1626, Pope Urban VII dedicated today’s Basilica of Saint Peter at the Vatican.
Saint Paul, the Church’s tireless evangelist and preeminent theologian, founded and nourished many Christian communities. Arrested in Jerusalem, Paul appealed to the Roman emperor as a Roman citizen and was transported to Rome for trial two years later. He was beheaded on or around the same day that Saint Peter was crucified. His beheading and burial occurred just outside the city walls.
Emperor Constantine built the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls over Saint Paul’s grave. Over the next 1,500 years, successive popes added on to the basilica, renovated it, and decorated it. In 1823, a fire destroyed almost the entire basilica. Over the next thirty years, the church was redesigned and reconstructed. Pope Pius IX completed and dedicated it in 1854.
As their graves are foundations for these two churches, Peter’s and Paul’s lives and ministries are the Church’s foundation. Saint Peter, the first pope, received the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Of him, Jesus said, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it”(Matthew 16:18). Saint Paul, the great evangelist to the Gentiles, symbolizes the Church’s missionary life and theological articulation of the faith. His writings make up most of the New Testament. Though centered and unified by Saint Peter, we must go to the ends of the earth, sharing the Gospel like Saint Paul. Every bishop throughout the world is obliged to make an “ad limina apostolorum” visit to Rome once every five years to report to the pope about his diocese and visit the two apostles’ tombs.
Saints Peter and Paul, God used you in powerful ways that have had a profound impact upon the lives of God’s people. Please pray that I will become a foundation upon which God continues to build His Church and from which the message of salvation goes forth. Saints Peter and Paul, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.
Saint of the Week November 3, 2024
Saint Charles Borromeo
November 4: Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop—1538–1584
Patron Saint of apple orchards, bishops, catechism writers, catechists, catechumens, seminarians, starch makers, and spiritual directors Invoked against abdominal pain, colic, stomach diseases, and ulcers Canonized by Pope Paul V on November 1, 1610
Charles Borromeo was born to a noble Italian family in the Castle of Arona in the Duchy of Milan. Charles’ father was the Count of Arona, and his mother was from the powerful Medici family. As the second son, Charles was expected to pursue a career within the Church. He received the tonsure at age twelve and was granted the honorary title of titular Abbot of Sts. Gratinian and Felinus at Arona, endowing him with a steady income. At the University of Pavia, he studied Church and civil law.
On Christmas Day, 1559, Charles’ uncle, Cardinal John Angelo Medici was elected pope after Pope Paul IV’s death. The new Pope Pius IV called his twenty-one-year-old nephew Charles to Rome and made him a cardinal, even though he was not a priest. As a cardinal, he would help elect the next pope, assist with Church governance, and advise his uncle. Soon after, the pope appointed Cardinal Borromeo to a number of high Church positions, including Papal Protector and Legate.
Over four years, Cardinal Borromeo exercised his new responsibilities and enjoyed a good income. He encouraged his uncle to conclude the Council of Trent. In early 1562, the Council’s eighteenth session was held, and seven more would follow, concluding with the promulgation of the decrees on January 26, 1564. Since he was not an ordained bishop, Cardinal Borromeo could not participate in the council as other bishops did, but he was involved behind the scenes in formulating the decrees.
During the final period of the Council of Trent, Cardinal Borromeo’s older brother suddenly died childless. Because Charles was the only living male in the Borromeo family, his relatives urged him to abandon his Church career, become the Count of Arona, marry, and have an heir. This was a turning point for Charles. Deciding to pursue his vocation, he secretly arranged to be ordained a priest. After ordination, Charles celebrated his first Mass on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Mother of God at the tomb of Saints Peter and Paul. Three months later, he was ordained a bishop in the Sistine Chapel and was soon appointed Archbishop of Milan at age twenty-five.
Following the Council’s conclusion, Charles dedicated himself to enforcing its decisions. He helped develop the Roman Catechism, as well as various liturgical documents and hymns. He executed the Council’s decrees and reforms within Rome, including the ban on selling indulgences and church positions, reforming monasteries, training clergy, enforcing clerical celibacy, returning reverence to liturgical ceremonies, and strengthening the laity’s faith and morals.
In Milan, Cardinal Borromeo devoted nineteen years to enforcing the Council’s decrees, igniting a Catholic reawakening within his archdiocese that resonated throughout the Church. In addition to the reforms he had pursued in Rome, he instituted the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine to educate the young and old. While he had basked in his noble heritage and wealth as a young man, as a priest, he adopted a simpler lifestyle, fasted, prayed, donated most of his wealth to the needy, and made pastoral journeys across his archdiocese. His fervor grew steadily, setting his ministry aflame.
Saint Charles Borromeo, once ordained, you fervently followed Christ and became a holy shepherd of God’s people. Please pray that I will follow your example by applying your reforming fervor to my own soul and family. May all I do be for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Saint Charles Borromeo, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.
Saint of the Week October 20, 2024
Saint Anthony Mary Claret
October 24: Saint Anthony Claret, Bishop— (1807–1870)
Patron Saint of the Catholic press, textile merchants, and weavers Canonized by Pope Pius XII on May 7, 1950
Anthony Adjutor John Claret. Clara was born in Sallent, in the Province of Barcelona, Spain, one of five surviving children of devout Catholic parents. When only five, he would lie down at night and ponder eternity. Filled with holy sorrow for those who were miserable in life, he desired to help as many as possible get to heaven. He memorized the catechism, visited the parish church in the evening, and prayed the rosary every day. He felt a growing desire to be a priest.
As a teenager, Anthony worked in his father’s thread and cloth factory and studied manufacturing techniques in Barcelona. Invited with his father to open a factory there, he declined, knowing that something else awaited him. His spiritual director convinced him to study philosophy in the diocesan seminary in Vich, twenty-five miles from his family home. Refocused on his prayer life, Anthony realized that the diocesan priesthood was God’s will. He was ordained a priest on June 13, 1835. Assigned to his hometown, he spent the next four years continuing his theological studies.
Returning to Vich in 1849, Father Anthony founded the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, later known as the Claretian Missionaries, or Claretians. The new congregation’s goal was to train priests for preaching missions, evangelizing, and saving souls. Just after founding the congregation, he was appointed as Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. He then added “Mary” to his name: Archbishop Anthony Mary Claret. After his episcopal ordination, he arrived in Cuba in February 1851 and spent the next six years reforming the clergy, creating new parishes, making multiple pastoral visits on foot to every parish, and renewing the people’s faith. He co-founded an order of sisters, preached against slavery, and established facilities to help the poor.
In 1857, Queen Isabel II called Bishop Claret back to Spain to serve as her confessor and spiritual director. For the next ten years, he accompanied the queen on her travels, preaching missions in each town while continuing to write and publish. In 1868, due to a revolution in Spain, the queen and her court fled to France. After advocating for papal infallibility at Vatican I, Bishop Claret returned to France, taking refuge in the Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide, where he died several months later.
Saint Anthony Mary Claret, God set your heart on fire with a deep love for Him that overflowed into the hearts of sinners. Please pray that I will grow deeper in my love of God and will love all those whom I encounter. Saint Anthony, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.
Saint of the Week October 13, 2024
Saint Luke | October 18
Saint Luke, sometimes called The Evangelist, is the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles and a physician. There is some debate about how he came to Christianity, though many believe he was a gentile convert. Tradition holds him to be a native of Antioch, Syria, possibly a slave. Most of what we know of Luke comes from Scriptures, he was an eloquent and proficient writer, penning with accuracy the events he recounted. He is viewed as one of the best historical sources of the time. Luke was a close companion of Paul’s, joining him at Troas about year 51 and going with him to Macedonia and Philippi. Their paths diverged and met again as they journeyed to spread the Good News. Luke remained with Paul until the latter was martyred in Rome.
Saint Luke’s Gospel is viewed as one of social justice, giving special attention to the poor. He also emphasizes gentiles hearing the message of Christ. It is the only Gospel with Mary’s Magnificat, and spends the most time illuminating the lives of the other women around Jesus. Accounts of Luke’s death is conflicting; some say he was martyred shortly after Paul others that he lived a long life completing his Gospel in Greece and dying at 84. He is the patron saint of physicians.
Saint John Neumann is the patron saint of educators, immigrants, and, due to the miracles that secured his canonization, sick children. This is a fitting patronage as he was a lover of education and learning from a very young age. In fact, when he was a child, his mother called him “my little bibliomaniac” due to his preoccupation with reading. due to his preoccupation with reading. Born in 1811 Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic, he attended the university in Prague preparing for ordination. However, his local bishops were not ordaining new priests at the time because Bohemia was overstocked with priests. He inquired about ordination all over Europe but received the same answer everywhere. Not one to be deterred, John then applied to several United States dioceses. receiving no immediate responses, the saint took a leap of faith and decided to just immigrate to the United States in 1836, during his 25th year, with only $40 in his pocket. This risk paid off when he was ordained in New York a month later.
Patron Saint of children, sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, Russia, and numerous countries and cities.
November 4: Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop—1538–1584 
October 24: Saint Anthony Claret, Bishop— (1807–1870) 