phassa:

St. Catherine, N.Netherlands

The Dirc van Delft Forger 

missfolly:

Saint Francis of Assis Preaches to the Animals, by anonymous Italian painter, 1626

Roman general (stratelates) and covert Christian during a time of persecution. Exposed as a Christian, a military tribunal decided he was a good soldier who had made a mistake, told him to reconsider, and set him free; he promptly burned down a pagan temple. Arrested again, he was ordered to apostatize, then tortured by having his flesh torn off; he responded by reciting the Psalms. Martyr.

Saint Theodore Tyro is almost certainly the same person as Theodore Statelates. The Tyro story describes the soldier as a recruit, the feast day is 9 November, and the region is slightly different, but the story is the same.

Died: martyred 319 at Heraclea, Thrace.

Patronage: Brindisi (Italy), recovery of lost articles, soldiers.

Representation: crocodile; crown of thorns; martyr‘s wreath; palm; pyre; soldier; spear; temple; torch.

Saint Castorus, Saint Claudius, Saint Nicostratus, and Saint Simpronian. Skilled stone carvers in the 3rd century quarries. Martyred when they refused to carve an idol of Aesculapius for Diocletian.

Died: drowned in the River Sava in 305.

Patronage: against fever, cattle, masons, sculptors, stone masons, stonecutters.

Son of Saint Hilgis. Educated at Ripon, England and in Ireland under Saint Egbert. Missionary to Friesland and Luxembourg with Saint Swithbert. Benedictine monk. Founding bishop of Utrecht, Netherlands in 695. Worked with Saint Boniface, Saint Rumold, Saint Werenfridus, Saint Engelmund, and Saint Adalbert of Egmond. Founded monasteries.

Died: 7 November 739 of natural causes.

Patronage: against convulsions, against epilepsy, convulsives, epileptics, Luxembourg, Netherlands.

Representation: cleric dipping his staff into a cask.

Born to the Frankish nobility. Part of the court of the pagan King Clovis I. The Queen suggested to Leonard, possibly as a joke, that he invoke the help of his God to repel an invading army. Leonard prayed, the tide of battle turned, and Clovis was victorious. Archbishop Saint Remigius of Rheims used this miracle to convert the King, Leonard, and a thousand of followers to Christianity.

Leonard began a life of austerity, sanctification, and preaching. His desire to know God grew until he decided to enter the monastery at Orleans, France. His brother, Saint Lifiard, followed his example and left the royal court, built a monastery at Meun, and lived there. Leonard desired further seclusion, and so withdrew into the forest of Limousin, converting many on the way, and living on herbs, wild fruits, and spring water. He built himself an oratory, leaving it only for journeys to churches. Others begged to live with him and learn from him, and so a monastery formed around his hermitage. Leonard had a great compassion for prisoners, obtaining release and converting many.

After his death, churches were dedicated to him in France, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Bohemia, Poland and other countries. Pilgrims flocked to his tomb, and in one small town in Bavaria there are records of 4,000 favors granted through Saint Leonard’s intercession.

Died: c.559 of natural causes.

Patronage: against burglaries, against robberies, against robbers, barrel makers, blacksmiths, captives, Castelmauro (Italy), childbirth, coal miners, Conegliano (Italy), coopers, coppersmiths, greengrocers, grocers, horses, imprisoned people, Kirkop (Malta), locksmiths, miners, porters, prisoners, prisoners of war.

Representation: abbot holding chain, fetters or a lock; chain; fetters; manacles.

Descendant of the Old Testament patriarch, Aaron. Wife of Zachary, temple priest. Relative of Mary. Mother of Saint John the Baptist, becoming pregnant very late in life. She was the Elizabeth that Mary visited soon after the Annunciation. Described in the Gospel of Luke as “righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.”

Died: 1st century AD of natural causes.

Patronage: expectant mothers, pregnant women.

Representation: elderly woman holding the infant John the Baptist; pregnant woman with the Virgin Mary; in company of Saint Zachary.

Born to a wealthy, noble family, the third of six children, son of Count Giberto II Borromeo and Margherita de’ Medici. Nephew of Pope Pius IV. Suffered with a speech impediment. Studied in Milan, and at the University of Pavia, studying at one point under the future Pope Gregory XIII. Civil and canon lawyer at age 21. Cleric at Milan, taking the habit on 13 October 1547. Abbot commendatario of San Felino e San Graziano abbey in Arona, Italy, on 20 November 1547. Abbot commendatario of San Silano di Romagnano abbey on 10 May 1558. Prior commendatario of San Maria di Calvenzano abbey on 8 December 1558. Protonotary apostolic participantium and referendary of the papal court to Pope Pius IV on 13 January 1560. Member of the counsulta for the administration of the Papal States on 22 January 1560. Appointed abbot commendatario of Nonatola, San Gallo di Moggio, Serravalle della Follina, San Stefano del Corno, an abbey in Portugal, and an abbey in Flanders, Belgium on 27 January 1560. Created cardinal on 31 January 1560 at age 22.

Apostolic administrator of Milan, Italy on 8 February 1560. Papal legate to Bologna and Romandiola for two years beginning on 26 April 1560. Deacon on 21 December 1560. Vatican Secretary of State. Governor of Civita Castellana,Italy in 1561. Governor of Ancona on 1 June 1561. Made an honorary citizen of Rome, Italy on 1 July 1561. Founded the Accademia Vaticana in 1562. Governor of Spoleto, Italy on 1 December 1562. Ordained on 4 September 1563. Helped re-open the Council of Trent, and participated in its sessions during 1562 and 1563. Named prince of Orta in 1563. Member of the Congregation of the Holy Office. Bishop of Milan on 7 December 1563. President of the commission of theologians charged by the pope to elaborate the Catechismus Romanus. Worked on the revision of the Missal and Breviary. Member of a commission to reform church music. Archbishop of Milan on 12 May 1564. Governor of Terracina, Italy on 3 June 1564. Archpriest of the patriarchal Liberian basilica in Rome in October 1564. Count of the Palatine in 1564. Prefect of the Tridentine Council from 1564 until September 1565. Papal legate in Bologna, Romandiola, legate a latere, and vicar general in spiritualibus of all Italy on 17 August 1565. Grand penitentiary on 7 November 1565. Participated in the conclave of cardinals in 1565 to 1566 that chose Pope Pius V; he asked the new pope to take the name. Protector of the Swiss Catholic cantons; he visited them all several times worked for the spiritual reform of both clergy and laymen. Due to his enforcement of strict ecclesiastical discipline, some disgruntled monks in the Order of the Humiliati hired a lay brother to murder him on the evening of 26 October 1569; he was shot at, but was not hit. Participated in the conclave in 1572 that chose Pope Gregory XIII. Member of the Apostolic Penitentiary in May 1572. Worked with the sick, and helped bury the dead during the plague outbreak in Milan in 1576. Established the Oblates of Saint Ambrose on 26 April 1578. Teacher, confessor and parish priest to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, giving him his first communion on 22 July 1580. To help the Swiss Catholics he founded the Collegium Helveticum.

Saint Charles spent his life and fortune in the service of the people of his diocese. He directed and fervently enforced the decrees of the Council of Trent, fought tirelessly for peace in the wake of the storm caused by Martin Luther, founded schools for the poor, seminaries for clerics, hospitals for the sick, conducted synods, instituted children‘s Sunday school, did great public and private penance, and worked among the sick and dying, leading his people by example.

Died: 8:30pm on 3 November 1584 of a fever at Milan, Italy.

Patronage: against abdominal pain, against colic, against intestinal disorders, against stomach diseases, against ulcers, apple orchards, bishops, catechists, catechumens, seminarians, spiritual directors, spiritual leaders, starch makers, Lombardy (Italy), Rocca di Papa (Italy).

Representation: cardinal wearing a cord around his neck; it symbolizes the cord or halter worn around his neck during the plague of Milan, Italy in 1575; bishop wearing a cord around his neck; cleric curing the sick; Holy Communion; coat of arms bearing the word Humilitas.

The illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Juan, and a young freed black slave, Anna Velasquez, Martin grew up in poverty. He spent part of his youth with a surgeon-barber from whom he learned some medicine and care of the sick. At age 11 he became a servant in the Holy Rosary Dominican priory in Lima, Peru. Promoted to almoner, he begged more than $2,000 a week from the rich to support the poor and sick of Lima. Placed in charge of the Dominican‘s infirmary; known for his tender care of the sick and for his spectacular cures. His superiors dropped the stipulation that “no black person may be received to the holy habit or profession of our Order” and Martin took vows as a Dominican brother in 1603. Established an orphanage and children‘s hospital for the poor children of the slums. Set up a shelter for the stray cats and dogs and nursed them back to health. Lived in self-imposed austerity, never ate meat, fasted continuously, and spent much time in prayer and meditation with a great devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Friend of Saint John de Massias.

He was venerated from the day of his death. Many miraculous cures, including raising the dead attributed to Brother Martin. First black saint from the Americas.

Died: 3 November 1639 in Lima, Peru of fever.

Patronage: African-Americans, against rats, barbers, bi-racial people, black people, for inter-racial justice, for social justice, hair stylists, hairdressers, hotel-keepers, innkeepers, mixed-race people, mulattoes, Negroes, paupers, Peru, poor people, public education, public health, public schools, race relations, racial harmony, state schools, television.

Representation: broom; crucifix; dog, cat, bird, and mouse eating together from a same dish; rosary.

Feast in commemoration of the faithful departed in Purgatory. Abbot Odilo of Cluny instituted it in the monasteries of his congregation in 998, other religious orders took up the observance, and it was adopted by various dioceses and gradually by the whole Church. The Office of the Dead must be recited by the clergy on this day, and Pope Benedict XV granted to all priests the privilege of saying three Masses of requiem

- one for the souls in purgatory

- one for the intention of the Holy Father

- one for the priest’s

If the feast should fall on Sunday it is kept on 3 November.