January 23 – Saint Emerentiana

January 19, 2023

Virgin and martyr, died at Rome in the third century. The old Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs, after giving the place of burial on the Via Nomentana of St. Agnes, speak of St. Emerentiana. Over the grave of St. Emerentiana a church was built which, according to the Itineraries, was near the […]

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January 23 – Mary Ward and the Institute of Mary

January 19, 2023

Mary Ward Foundress, born 23 January, 1585; died 23 January, 1645; eldest daughter of Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright, and connected by blood with most of the great Catholic families of Yorkshire. She entered a convent of Poor Clares at St.-Omer as lay sister in 1606. The following year she founded a house for Englishwomen […]

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January 17 – Scanderbeg: the hero of Christendom

January 16, 2023

In a history, where so much is spoken of the regions, from whence the miraculous Image of Our Lady of Good Counsel came, it will be of great use to take a brief glance at the once entirely Catholic nation in which it so long remained, and at the great client of its Sanctuary in […]

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January 17 – Sister of the Grand Master of Malta

January 16, 2023

St. Roseline of Villeneuve (or Rossolina.) Born at Château of Arcs in eastern Provence, 1263; d. 17 January, 1329. Having overcome her father’s opposition Roseline became a Carthusian nun at Bertaud in the Alps of Dauphiné. Her “consecration” took place in 1288, and about 1330 she succeeded her aunt, Blessed Jeanne or Diane de Villeneuve, […]

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January 18 – St. Margaret of Hungary

January 16, 2023

St. Margaret of Hungary Daughter of King Bela I of Hungary and his wife Marie Laskaris, born 1242; died 18 Jan., 1271. According to a vow which her parents made when Hungary was liberated from the Tatars that their next child should be dedicated to religion, Margaret, in 1245 entered the Dominican Convent of Veszprem. […]

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January 19 – Bishop Frederic Baraga

January 16, 2023

First Bishop of Marquette, Michigan, U.S.A., born 29 June, 1797, at Malavas, in the parish of Dobernice in the Austrian Dukedom of Carniola; died at Marquette, Michigan, 19 January, 1868. He was baptized on the very day of his birth, in the parish church of Dobernice, by the names of Irenaeus Frederic, the first of […]

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January 19 – James Lainez

January 16, 2023

(LAYNEZ). Second general of the Society of Jesus, theologian, b. in 1512, at Almazan, Castille, in 1512; d. at Rome, 19 January, 1565. His family, although Christian for many generations, had descended from Jewish stock, as has been established by Sacchini (Historia Societatis Jesu, II, sec. 32). Lainez graduated in arts at the University of […]

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January 19 – Noble martyrs of Persia

January 16, 2023

Sts. Maris, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum All martyred at Rome in 270. Maris and his wife Martha, who belonged to the Persian nobility, came to Rome with their children in the reign of Emperor Claudius II. As zealous Christians, they sympathized with and succoured the persecuted faithful, and buried the bodies of the slain. This […]

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January 19 – The scion of a noble family who longed to be enrolled in the noble army of martyrs

January 16, 2023

St. Blathmac A distinguished Irish monk, b. in Ireland about 750. He suffered martyrdom in Iona, about 835. He is fortunate in having had his biography written by Strabo, Benedictine Abbot of Reichenau (824-849), and thus the story of his martyrdom has been handed down through the ages. Strabo’s life of this saint is in […]

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January 19 – Archbishop Senator of the Spanish Kingdom

January 16, 2023

Blessed Marcelo Rafael José María de los Dolores Hilario Spinola y Maestre, Archbishop of Seville born: 14 January 1835. died 20 January 1906 Marcelo Spínola was born on the island of San Fernando, Cádiz Province. His parents were Juan Spínola y Osorno, Marquis of Spínola and Antonia Maestre y Osorno; they had eight children, of […]

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January 19 – Saintly King

January 16, 2023

St. Canute IV Martyr and King of Denmark, date of birth uncertain; died 10 July 1086, the third of the thirteen natural sons of Sweyn II surnamed Estridsen. Elected king on the death of his brother Harold about 1080, he waged war on his barbarous enemies and brought Courland and Livonia to the faith. Having […]

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January 19 – St. Wolstan

January 16, 2023

Benedictine, and Bishop of Worcester, b. at Long Itchington, Warwickshire, England, about 1008; d. at Worcester, 19 Jan.,1095. Educated at the great monastic schools of Evesham and Peterborough, he resolutely combated and overcame the temptations of his youth, and entered the service of Brithege, Bishop of Worcester, who ordained him priest about 1038. Refusing all […]

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January 19 – Thomas Vincent Faustus Sadler

January 16, 2023

Thomas Vincent Faustus Sadler Born 1604; died at Dieulward, Flanders, 19 Jan., 1680-1. He was received into the Church at the age of seventeen by his uncle, Dom Walter Sadler, and joined the Benedictines at Dieulward, being professed in 1622. Little is known of his missionary labors, but probably he was chaplain to the Sheldons […]

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January 19 – John Baptist Tolomei

January 16, 2023

John Baptist Tolomei A distinguished Jesuit theologian and cardinal, born of noble parentage, at Camberaia, between Pistoia and Florence, 3 Dec., 1653; died at Rome in the Roman College, 19 Jan., 1726, and was buried before the high altar of the Church of Saint Ignatius. At the age of fifteen, after an early schooling at […]

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January 19 – Henri Victor Regnault

January 16, 2023

Chemist and physicist, b. at Aachen, 21 July, 1810; d. in Paris, 19 Jan., 1878. Being left an orphan at the age of eight he was soon obliged to work in order to provide for himself and his sister. Up to the age of eighteen he worked as a clerk in a drapery establishment in […]

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January 19 – Lady Fullerton

January 16, 2023

Lady Georgiana Charlotte Fullerton Novelist; born 23 September, 1812, in Staffordshire, died 19 January, 1885, at Bournemouth. She was the youngest daughter of Lord Granville Leveson Gower (afterwards first Earl Granville) and Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, second daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire. She was chiefly brought up in Paris, her father having been […]

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January 19 – Godfrey Goodman

January 16, 2023

Godfrey Goodman Born at Ruthin, Denbighshire, 28 February, 1582-3; died at Westminster, 19 January, 1656. He was Anglican Bishop of Gloucester, and passed all his public life in the Protestant Church. His religious sympathies, however, inclined him to the old Faith, and when misfortune and ruin overtook him, late in life, he entered its fold. […]

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Saint Pius V Was Born Into a Guelph Noble Family That Persecution Dragged Into Poverty

January 12, 2023

Michael Ghislieri was born on January 17, 1504, in Bosco, a fortified village not far from Alessandria . . . . The Ghislieri family, originally from Bologna, was of noble origin but lived in a poor condition as a result of the internal battles that had torn apart the city, between the Guelphs, who were […]

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Aseity Differentiates People from the Masses

January 12, 2023

Previous The virtue of aseity is what distinguishes a people from the anonymous masses. The masses are people without aseity. In final analysis, a nation with aseity is a truly Christian one, otherwise it will shift according to the flux of public opinion. The collective opinion often favours a kind of chaotic state. Everyone agrees […]

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January 13 – This Saint Opposed Bishop Lucifer

January 12, 2023

St. Hilary of Poitiers Bishop, born in that city at the beginning of the fourth century; died there 1 November, according to the most accredited opinion, or according to the Roman Breviary, on 13 January, 368. Belonging to a noble and very probably pagan family, he was instructed in all the branches of profane learning, […]

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January 13 – The Count Who Converted the King

January 12, 2023

St. Remigius of Rheims Apostle of the Franks, Archbishop of Rheims, b. at Cerny or Laon, 437; d. at Rheims, 13 January 533. His father was Emile, Count of Laon. He studied literature at Rheims and soon became so noted for learning and sanctity that he was elected Archbishop of Rheims in his twenty-second year. […]

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January 13 – The bold strategic vision of Cluny and its first abbot

January 12, 2023

Saint Berno of Cluny (c. 850 – 13 January 927) was first abbot of Cluny from its foundation in 910 until he resigned in 925. He was subject only to the pope and began the tradition of the Cluniac reforms which his successors brought to fruition across Europe. Berno was first a monk at St. […]

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January 14 – Matriarch of Saints

January 12, 2023

St. Macrina the Elder Our knowledge of the life of the elder Macrina is derived mainly from the testimony of the great Cappadocian Fathers of the Church, her grandchildren: Basil (Ep. 204:7; 223:3), Gregory of Nyssa (“Vita Macrinae Junioris”), and the panegyric of St. Gregory of Nazianzus on St. Basil (Gregory Naz., Oratio 43). She […]

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January 14 – Blessed Devasahayam Pillai

January 12, 2023

Blessed Devasahayam Pillai Devasahayam Pillai (named Neelakanda Pillai at birth) was born into an affluent Nair-caste family at Nattalam in the present-day Kanyakumari District, on 23 April 1712. His father Vasudevan Namboodiri, hailed from Kayamkulam, in present-day Kerala state, and was working as a priest at Sri Adi Kesava Perumal temple in Thiruvattar in present-day […]

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January 14 – The Ten Year Old Saint and Some Of Her Miracles

January 12, 2023

Ven. Anne de Guigné When St. Thomas Aquinas’s sister asked him how to become a Saint, he told her to just “will it.” Venerable Anne de Guigné¹ was a child with an iron will and from the moment of her conversion, she willed only one thing…to be a Saint. “To become a Saint is to […]

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January 15 – Most Glorious King Ceolwulp

January 12, 2023

King Ceolwulf (also CEOLWULPH or CEOLULPH) Coelwulf, King of Northumbria and monk of Lindisfarne, date and place of birth not known; died at Lindisfarne, 764. His ancestry is thus given by the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”: “Ceolwulf was the son of Cutha, Cutha of Cuthwin, Cuthwin of Leoldwald, Leoldwald of Egwald, Egwald of Aldhelm, Aldhelm of Ocga, […]

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January 15 – St. Maurus & St. Placidus

January 12, 2023

St. Maurus Deacon, son of Equitius, a nobleman of Rome, but claimed also by Fondi, Gallipoli, Lavello etc.; died 584. Feast, 15 Jan. He is represented as an abbot with crozier, or with book and censer, or holding the weights and measures of food and drink given him by his holy master. He is the […]

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January 16 – The true disciple of St. Francis who sent the Moorish king into a fit of rage

January 12, 2023

St. Berard of Carbio (Or BERALDUS). Friar Minor and martyr; d. 16 January, 1220. Of the noble family of Leopardi, and a native of Carbio in Umbria, Berard was received into the Franciscan Order by the Seraphic Patriarch himself, in 1213. He was well versed in Arabic, an eloquent preacher, and was chosen by St. […]

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January 16 – When the Emporor insisted that the lapsed be readmitted to communion without penance, one man stood in his way. This is his story.

January 12, 2023

Pope St. Marcellus I His date of birth unknown; elected pope in May or June, 308; died in 309. For some time after the death of Marcellinus in 304 the Diocletian persecution continued with unabated severity. After the abdication of Diocletian in 305, and the accession in Rome of Maxentius to the throne of the […]

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January 16 – Irish Prince and Saint

January 12, 2023

St. Fursey An Abbot of Lagny, near Paris, died 16 Jan., about 650. He was the son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Muster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. He was born probably amongst the Hy-Bruin, and was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his father’s uncle, who […]

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January 16 – St. Euphrosyne

January 12, 2023

Saint Euphrosyne Died about 470. Her story belongs to that group of legends which relate how Christian virgins, in order the more successfully to lead the life of celibacy and asceticism to which they had dedicated themselves, put on male attire and passed for men. According to the narrative of her life in the “Vitae […]

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January 10 – Patient to the Penitent, Inflexible to the Impenitent

January 9, 2023

St. William, Confessor, Archbishop of Bourges (c. 1155 – January 10, 1209) William Berruyer, of the illustrious family of the ancient counts of Nevers, was educated by Peter the hermit, archdeacon of Soissons, his uncle by the mother’s side. He learned from his infancy to despise the folly and emptiness of the riches and grandeur […]

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January 10 – Doge of Venice and Saint of Heaven

January 9, 2023

St. Peter Urseolus (Orseolo) Born at Rivo alto, Province of Udina, 928; at Cuxa, 10 January, 987 (997 is less probable). Sprung from the wealthy and noble Venetian family, the Orseoli, Peter led from his youth an earnest Christian life. In the service of the republic, he distinguished himself in naval battles against the pirates. […]

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January 10 – Maria Theodor Ratisbonne

January 9, 2023

A distinguished preacher and writer, and director of the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers, b. of Jewish parentage at Strasburg, 28 Dec., 1802; d. in Paris, 10 Jan. 1884. He was raised in luxury, was educated at the Royal College of his native city, and at the age of manhood, was considered a leader among his […]

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January 10 – Jean-Baptiste Régis

January 9, 2023

Born at Istres, Provence, 11 June, 1663, or 29 Jan., 1664; died at Peking, 24 Nov., 1738. He was received into the Society of Jesus, 14 Sept. 1683, or 13 Sept. 1679, and in 1698 went on the Chinese mission, where he served science and religion for forty years, and took the chief share in […]

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January 10 – St. Diarmaid the Just

January 9, 2023

A famous Irish confessor of the mid-sixth century; d. 542. His name is associated with the great monastery of Inisclothran (Iniscleraun) on Lough Ree, in the Dioeese of Ardagh, which he founded about the year 530. He was of princely origin and a native of Connacht. Wishing to found an oratory far from the haunts […]

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January 11 – Wounded in a duel

January 9, 2023

Blessed Bernard Scammacca, O.P. He was born in 1430 to a noble family of Catania, Sicily and given the name Anthony. As was typical of young men at that time, he fought duels. In one of them, his leg was badly wounded. As Anthony convalesced, he had time to think about his life and his […]

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January 12 – Duke of Alva

January 9, 2023

(FERNANDO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO) Born 1508, of one of the most distinguished Castilian families, which boasted descent from the Byzantine emperors; died at Thomar, 12 January, 1582. From his earliest childhood the boy was trained by a severe discipline for his future career as warrior and statesman. In his sixteenth year he took part in […]

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January 12 – He promoted the use of stained glass

January 9, 2023

St. Benedict Biscop An English monastic founder, born of a noble Anglo-Saxon family, c. 628; died 12 January 690. He spent his youth at the court of the Northumbrian King Oswy. When twenty-five years old, he made the first of his five pilgrimages to Rome. On his return to England, Benedict introduced, whenever he could, […]

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January 12 – “The English Saint Bernard”

January 9, 2023

St. Aelred Abbot of Rievaulx, homilist and historian (1109-66). St. Aelred, whose name is also written Ailred, Æthelred, and Ethelred, was the son of one of those married priests of whom many were found in England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. He was born at Hexham, but at an early age made the acquaintance […]

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January 12 – Tyrolese priest and patriot

January 9, 2023

Johann Simon (Joachim) Haspinger A Tyrolese priest and patriot; b. at Gries, Tyrol, 28 October, 1776; d. in the imperial palace of Mirabell, Salzburg, 12 January, 1858. His parents were well-to-do country people, and destined their son for the priesthood. It was, however, only in 1703 after having devoted himself until his seventeenth year to […]

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January 12 – Countess, convert and authoress

January 9, 2023

Ida Hahn-Hahn Countess, convert and authoress, born 22 June, 1805; died 12 January, 1880. She was descended from a family that formerly was one of the wealthiest and most illustrious of the Mecklenburg nobility. Her father, the tragic and famous “Theatergraf” (theatrical count), squandered such huge sums on his one hobby, the drama, that he […]

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January 12 – Prominent Jesuit Missionary in Early Mexico

January 9, 2023

Pedro Díaz Missionary, b. at Lupedo, Diocese of Toledo, Spain, in 1546; d. in Mexico, 12 Jan., 1618. Though but twenty years of age when he joined the Society of Jesus he had already been a teacher of philosophy for two years. In 1572 he was sent by St. Francis Borgia to Mexico with the […]

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January 12 – Physician

January 9, 2023

Daniel Noble Physician, b. 14 Jan., 1810; d. at Manchester, 12 Jan, 1885. He was the son of Mary Dewhurst and Edward Noble of Preston, a descendant of an old Yorkshire Catholic family. Apprenticed to a Preston surgeon named Thomas Moore, Noble was in time admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and […]

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January 12 – Father of the Modern Oratorio

January 9, 2023

Giacomo Carissimi The most influential and prolific Italian composer of his time, b. in 1604 at Marino in the Papal States; d. 12 Jan., 1674, in Rome. After completing his musical education in Rome, Carissimi became choirmaster at Assisi, and, in 1628, he was appointed to a like position at the church of St. Apollinaris […]

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January 12 – Bernard Jungmann

January 9, 2023

Bernard Jungman A dogmatic theologian and ecclesiastical historian, born at Münster in Westphalia, 1 March, 1833; died at Louvain, 12 Jan., 1895. He belonged to an intensely Catholic family of Westphalia; like him, two of his brothers entered the service of the Church, one joining the Society of Jesus and the other becoming a missionary […]

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A Fighting Bishop Joins El Cid in Valencia

January 5, 2023

  At this time there came the bishop Don Hieronymo, a very learned man and also a great soldier. He came asking for the Cid, and saying that he was anxious to fight the Moors in the field as he thought it a good deed to fight the Mahometans who were the enemies of the […]

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How a Person Is Influenced by the Opinions of Friends

January 5, 2023

Previous Man tends to accept regularly the opinions in vogue among his friends. This is a deterioration of the instinct of sociability that leads man to go with the tide without realising how wrong it may be. This is caused by the desire to agree with others and avoid the discomfort of disagreeing. It is […]

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First recorded Mass in the Americas: January 6, 1494 at La Isabela, Dominican Republic

January 5, 2023

Columbus’s second fleet of seventeen assorted ships carried between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred men and was organized to establish a permanent colony that would serve as a base for trade with the people of this new land. The fleet left Cádiz on 25 September 1493 and arrived in the Caribbean in November. Columbus was […]

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January 6 – St. Roch

January 5, 2023

St. Roch Born at Montpellier towards 1295; died 1327. His father was governor of that city. At his birth St. Roch is said to have been found miraculously marked on the breast with a red cross. Deprived of his parents when about twenty years old, he distributed his fortune among the poor, handed over to […]

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January 6: Epiphany – The Three Kings made the Kingship of Christ Manifest to the Pagan World

January 5, 2023

The Epiphany of Our Lord Saints Balthasar, Caspar and Melchior Epiphany, which in the original Greek signifies appearance or manifestation, as St. Augustin observes, (1) is a festival principally solemnized in honor of the discovery Jesus Christ made of himself to the Magi, or wise men; who, soon after his birth, by a particular inspiration […]

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January 7 – Ordered bandits of royal blood to hang from the highest mast

January 5, 2023

St. Canut Second son of Eric the Good, king of Denmark, he was made duke of Sleswig, his elder brother Nicholas being king of Denmark. Their father, who lived with his people as a father with his children, and no one ever left him without comfort, says the ancient chronicle Knytling-Saga, p. 71. died in […]

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January 7 – St. Kentigerna

January 5, 2023

St. Kentigerna, Widow She is commemorated on the 7th of January, in the Aberdeen Breviary, from which we learn, that she was of royal blood, daughter of Kelly, prince of Leinster in Ireland, as Colgan proves from ancient monuments. She was mother of the holy abbot St. Fœlan, or Felan. After the death of her […]

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January 7 – St. Aldric

January 5, 2023

St. Aldric Bishop of Le Mans in the time of Louis le Debonnaire, born c. 800; died at Le Mans, 7 January, 856. As a youth he lived in the court of Charlemagne, at Aix la Chapelle, as well as in that of his son and successor Louis. By both monarchs he was highly esteemed, […]

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January 8 – Hapsburg Saint

January 5, 2023

St. Gudula (Latin, Guodila) Born in Brabant, Belgium, of Witger and Amalberga, in the seventh century; died at the beginning of the eighth century. After the birth of Gudula her mother Amalberga, who is herself venerated as a saint, embraced the religious life, and according to tradition received the veil at the hands of St. […]

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January 8 – St. Severinus

January 5, 2023

St. Severinus Abbot, and Apostle of Noricum, or Austria A.D. 482. We know nothing of the birth or country of this saint. From the purity of his Latin, he was generally supposed to be a Roman; and his care to conceal what he was according to the world, was taken for a proof of his […]

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January 9 – St. Adrian of Canterbury

January 5, 2023

St. Adrian of Canterbury An African by birth, died 710. He became Abbot of Nerida, a Benedictine monastery near Naples, when he was very young. Pope Vitalian intended to appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury to succeed St. Deusdedit, who had died in 664, but Adrian considered himself unworthy of so great a dignity, and begged […]

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January 9 – St. Peter of Sebaste

January 5, 2023

St. Peter of Sebaste Bishop, born about 340; died 391. He belonged to the richly blest family of Basil and Emmelia of Caesarea in Cappadocia, from which also sprang St. Macrina the Younger (q.v.) and the two great Cappadocian doctors, Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. He was the youngest of a large family, […]

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January 9 – Blessed Tommaso Reggio

January 5, 2023

Blessed Tommaso Reggio Bl. Tommaso Reggio was born in Genoa, Italy, on 9 January 1818 to the Marquis of Reggio and Angela Pareto. He had a comfortable upbringing which gave him a solid Christian and cultural background and assured him of a brilliant career. However, at the age of 20 he decided to become a […]

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January 3 – Discoverer of Oregon and of the entire California coast

January 2, 2023

Estévan (Juan) Cabrillo A Portugese in the naval service of Spain, date and place of birth unknown; died on the island of San Bernardo, 3 Jan., 1543. In 1541 Pedro de Alvarado gathered a fleet of twelve vessels on the coast of Western Mexico (Navidad) for an expedition to the Moluccas. Alvarado was soon after […]

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