These saints lived so long ago they fade almost into legends. But just imagine 1000, 2000 years from now if people still remembered our names and wrote about us? Apart from the saints how few get to share this Glory? It is true the only failure in life is not to have been a saint.
Though I understand and agree wholeheartedly with the point your making , we must always still pray for others even if it means a deathbed conversion! [Thinking of the Little Flower] Around 1887, in Paris, a man named Henri Pranzini brutally murdered his lover, her 12-year-old daughter, and their housekeeper. The case shocked all of Europe. Pranzini was sentenced to death, but he refused every attempt by priests to visit him, declaring he wanted nothing to do with God. In Lisieux, however, a young Thérèse heard of the case. God stirred her heart with mercy for this man, and she began to pray intensely for his conversion. For two months, she offered prayers and sacrifices, but news reports insisted he remained hardened and refused all priestly counsel. Then, on the day of his execution, something extraordinary happened. Before the guillotine fell, Pranzini suddenly asked the priest present for a crucifix and kissed it three times. For Thérèse, this was the sign she had begged for: her “first son” had turned back to God at the very last moment.
WOW! What an inspiring story! It proves that we must never give up on the resistant soul for whom we have been interceding!
I am less impressed with him becoming a saint than the Faith of the Church in recognising he is a saint. It would have been so easy for them to walk past him and not accept this. Some very holy Church people were open to seeing this. Wonderful. A great tribute to Catholic France. It reminds me of Claude Newman.
SAINT OF THE DAY TUESDAY, 21 APRIL, 2026 SAINT ANSELM BISHOP AND DOCTOR (1033 - 1109) As prior and abbot, Anselm made the Benedictine monastery of Bec the center of a true reformation in Normandy and England. From this monastery he exercised a restraining influence on popes, kings, the worldly great, and entire religious orders. Raised to the dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of England, he waged a heroic campaign in defense of the rights and liberties of the Church. As a result he was deprived of goods and position and finally banned from the country. He journeyed to Rome, and at the Council of Bari supported Pope Urban II against the errors of the Greeks. His writings bear eloquent testimony to his moral stature and learning, and have earned for him the title of "Father of Scholasticism."— The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch. St. Anselm exhibited remarkable versatility in his life; a combination of contemplation, prayer, study, writing, and external activity. This was partly the result of the extraordinary talent that God gave him, but it was likewise the fruit of Anselm's faithful exercise of his talent in the study of natural and supernatural truths. But his chief merit lay in his earnest, conscious effort to live in accordance with what he had learned from the study of divine truths. By this means he was able to ascend to the heights of a life of faith and union with God. There is very much that we can learn from this great teacher. "Lord, I do not presume to fathom the depths of your truths, for my understanding is not equal to the task. Nevertheless, I desire to learn Your truths in some measure—those truths that I believe and love. I do not seek to gain knowledge so that I can believe; rather, I believe so that I may gain knowledge. No matter how persistently my soul gazes, it still beholds nothing of Your beauty; my soul listens intently, and yet it hears nothing of the learning of Your Being; my soul wants to breathe in Your fragrance, and yet perceives none of it. What are You, Lord? Under what image can my heart recognize You? Truly, You are life; You are truth; You are Goodness; You are Holiness; You are eternity; You are everything good! O man, why do you roam about so far in search of good things for soul and body? Love the one Good, in whom all goods are contained, and that will satisfy you!" (St. Anselm.) SYMBOLS: Benedictine monk admonishing an evildoer; archbishop; ship; with Our Lady appearing before him; with a ship. PRAYER: O God, who led the Bishop Saint Anselm to seek out and teach the depths of your wisdom, grant, we pray, that our faith in you may so aid our understanding, that what we believe by your command may give delight to our hearts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
St Teresa of Avila one time posed the question if we had a choice between a Holy Bishop and a Learned one, which should we choose? Perhaps to our surprise she said the learned one would be best. Why? Because the learned one would be better as he would be better at Discernment, at making choices. The Holy unlearned one might be steering by the seat of his pants. In the case of St Anselm we get the ideal someone who was both, very,very learned and very,very holy indeed. What a gift! One thing I would say on behalf of very Holy people who have not read very much is God can infuse them with great wisdom. What is Wisdom? I would say Wisdom is the grace to refer all things to Christ. To see with the eyes of God, so to speak. You can't really beat this. (I think this may be one of the key differences between Catholic and Orthodox is that we Catholics put a much higher premium on Learning than the Orthodox. In fact Orthodox accuse us of the Heresy of, 'Scholasticism' of prizing human learning above the work of the Holy Spirit)
Another Saint for today St. Konrad of Parzham (1818-1894), Capuchin lay brother. Death anniversary and feast day: April 21. Patron of porters, the elderly, and those seeking patience and humility in daily service. ◾One miracle approved for his 1930 beatification was the instantaneous cure of a four-year-old girl diagnosed with severe bone distortions and inability to stand or walk after a fall. Her father vowed to visit Conrad’s tomb in Altötting if she recovered; she immediately stood and walked normally. ◾A second approved miracle was the complete healing of a widow suffering from a painful, incurable wound in her foot (pronounced hopeless by doctors); after invoking Conrad’s intercession the wound closed with no further pain. St. Conrad of Parzham, pray for us.
SAINTS OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 22 APRIL, 2026 SAINTS SOTER AND CAIUS POPES AND MARTYRS (c.174 AND c.296) St. Soter was born in Fundi, in Italy. The date of his birth is unknown but we know that he was Pope for eight years from 166 until his death in 174. Soter´s papacy was an example of what seems to have been the remarkable tradition of generosity exercised by the bishop of Rome. This tradition and Soter´s personal charity and paternal love for his universal flock can be evidenced from a letter to Pope Soter by Bishop St. Dionysus of Corinth, quoted in the 4th century “Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius”: “This has been your custom from the beginning, to do good in manifold ways to all Christians, and to send contributions to the many churches in every city, in some places relieving the poverty of the needy and ministering to the Christians in the mines, by the contribution which you have sent from the beginning, preserving the ancestral custom of the Romans, true Romans as you are. Your blessed bishop Soter has not only carried on the habit but has even increased it, by administering the bounty distributed to the saints and by exhorting with his blessed words the brethren who come to Rome, as a loving father would his children." (IV, XXIII, 9- 15) In the same letter of Dionysus we learn that Pope Soter had written a letter to the Corinthians which was read in the Church alongside the epistle of St. Clement and was held in high esteem. Though his kindness extended to all persons, he was a fierce opponent of heresy, having been said to have written an encyclical against Montanism – the teachings of a heretical sect which believed that a Christian who had sinned gravely could never be redeemed. Pope St. Caius reigned for 13 years from 283 until his death in 296 just before the Diocletian persecution. He was a relative of the Emperor Diocletian – instigator of one of the last great persecution of Christians in the early years of the Church. So that he might live to serve the faithful, he remained in concealment a long time and would not leave Rome. Ordinarily it was in the catacombs that he hid, and there he celebrated the holy mysteries and instructed many pagans. It was Pope Caius who decreed that the following steps must precede consecration to the episcopate: porter, lector, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, and priest. He died a natural death and was buried in the catacomb of Callistus on April 22. St. Susanna was his niece. Pope Urban VIII revived his memory in Rome by restoring his church, naming him as its patron saint, raising it to the rank of a station, and enriching it with the saint's relics. Both St. Soter and St. Caius are buried in the cemetery of St. Calixtus and are venerated on the date of the death of Pope St. Caius. PRAYER: O God, who to pasture your people filled the Bishops blessed Soter and Caius with a spirit of truth and of love, grant that, as we celebrate their feast day with honor, we may benefit by imitating them and be given relief through their intercession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Another Saint for today Saint Opportuna of Montreuil April 22 is the feast of Saint Opportuna, a Frankish Benedictine abbess who died on this date at her convent near Almenèches in Normandy. Born into a family of saints at the castle of Exmes in Argentan, she was the sister of Saint Chrodegang, bishop of Séez, and niece of the abbess Saint Lantildis. She entered the Benedictine community at Montreuil as a young woman, receiving the veil from her brother's hand, and in time succeeded her cousin as abbess. Her biographer, Adalhelm of Séez, who wrote her Vita et miracula within a century of her death, described her as "a true mother to all her nuns, correcting their faults with words, not blows." She bore the murder of her brother Chrodegang in September 769 with extraordinary composure, burying him in her own convent, and died herself the following April, worn by grief and illness. She was not a miracle-worker during her lifetime — her era and its bishops were unreceptive to such expressions — but the tradition of her intercession from beyond death was well established by the ninth century. She is venerated as patron of the Diocese of Séez and as one of the patron saints of Paris, where her relics were enshrined in 1374 and carried in procession alongside those of Saints Genevieve and Honoratus. ◾The Vita et miracula records a sign associated with her intercession during her lifetime: a peasant who stole a donkey from the convent and refused to acknowledge the theft found his field sown with salt the following day. He returned the animal and surrendered the field. The same text records a body of miracles worked at her tomb, the specific details of which are preserved in the hagiographic tradition rather than in any clinical documentation, as befits a saint of the Carolingian era. The primary source is Butler's Lives of the Saints, drawing on Adalhelm's ninth-century Life. Source: EWTN, Butler's Lives — Saint Opportuna https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/st-opportuna-5712 Saint Opportuna, pray for us.
SAINT OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 23 APRIL, 2026 SAINT GEORGE MARTYR (April 23, 303 A.D.) Saint George was born to a Christian noble family in Lydda, Syria Palestina, during the late third century between about 275 AD and 285 AD. He died in Nicomedia in Asia Minor. His father, Gerontios, was from Cappadocia, an officer in the Roman army; his mother, Polychronia, was a native of Lydda. They were both Christians from noble families of the Anici, so their child was raised with Christian beliefs. They decided to call him Georgios, meaning "worker of the land" (i.e., farmer). At the age of 14, George lost his father; a few years later, George's mother, Polychronia, died. George then decided to go to Nicomedia and present himself to Emperor Diocletian to apply for a career as a soldier. Diocletian welcomed him with open arms, as he had known his father, Gerontius — one of his finest soldiers. By his late 20s, George was promoted to the rank of Tribunus and stationed as an imperial guard of the Emperor at Nicomedia. On 24 February AD 303, Diocletian (influenced by Galerius) issued an edict that every Christian soldier in the army should be arrested and every other soldier should offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods of the time. However, George objected, and with the courage of his faith, approached the Emperor and ruler. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune and the son of his best official, Gerontius. But George loudly renounced the Emperor's edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and tribunes he claimed himself to be a Christian and declared his worship of Jesus Christ. Diocletian attempted to convert George, even offering gifts of land, money, and slaves if he made a sacrifice to the Roman gods; he made many offers, but George never accepted. Recognizing the futility of his efforts and insisting on upholding his edict, Diocletian ordered that George be executed for his refusal. Before the execution, George gave his wealth to the poor and prepared himself. After various torture sessions, including laceration on a wheel of swords during which he was resuscitated three times, George was executed by decapitation before Nicomedia's city wall, on 23 April 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra and Athanasius, a pagan priest, to become Christians, as well. They too joined George in martyrdom. His body was returned to Lydda for burial, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON In the fully developed Western version of the story of 'St. George and the dragon', a dragon makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of "Silene" (perhaps modern Cyrene in Libya or the city of Lydda in the Holy Land). Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, and if no sheep can be found, then a maiden is the best substitute for one. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but then Saint George appears on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the Cross, slays the dragon, and rescues the princess. The citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity. PATRON: of England & Catalonia. PRAYER: Extolling your might, O Lord, we humbly implore you, that, as Saint George imitated the Passion of the Lord, so he may lend us ready help in our weakness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
It is amazing the veneration for St George that still exists today, for instance he is the Patron Saint of England and Greece. Such a long long ago saint for which we have only half forgotten stories and legends. The Orthodox in particular seem to love him. Perhaps part of the fascination is that he was a soldier? We don;t often think of someone who is a soldier being a saint. He makes holiness seem attainable to everyone.
another Saint for today and an approved miracle Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagheddu, OCSO (1914-1939) A Sardinian shepherd's daughter who entered the Trappists near Rome, Maria Gabriella offered her life for Christian unity during the Week of Prayer in January 1938. Tuberculosis followed immediately. She died on the evening of April 23, 1939, as the bells rang for Vespers on Good Shepherd Sunday. She is patron of ecumenism. ◾For her beatification, a Benedictine nun from Alcamo, Sicily, Sister Maria Pia Manno, was healed in 1960 of an incurable, progressive disease of the optic nerve that was expected to end in total blindness. The recovery was total, instantaneous, and lasting, confirmed by the Vatican's Consulta Medica as medically inexplicable. Pope John Paul II beatified her on January 25, 1983. Blessed Maria Gabriella, pray for us.
... another Saint for today and his approved miracle Saint Benedict Menni, OH (March 11, 1841 - April 24, 1914) Benedict Menni died in Dinan, France on April 24, 1914, and his feast day falls on that date. Born Angelo Ercole Menni in Milan, he abandoned a bank career to serve the wounded at Magenta, entered the Hospitallers of Saint John of God, and was ordained in 1866. Sent to Spain by Pope Pius IX, he spent thirty-six years restoring the suppressed Hospitaller Order there and in Portugal and Mexico, opening children's hospitals and founding seventeen psychiatric institutions at a time when those with mental illness were, as he put it, held in prisons with no attention paid to their cure. In 1881 he founded the Congregation of the Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He died after two years of humility and suffering, having been stripped of his offices. He is patron of the mentally ill, the sick, and volunteers. ◾The miracle accepted for his beatification was the healing of Asuncion Cacho through his intercession: Septic process, primarily affecting the vertebrae, with a highly febrile course and significant pain component, as well as progressive deterioration of the general condition" with a fatal Prognosis. The healing was sudden, complete, definitive, inexplicable on the basis of scientific knowledge." He was beatified in Saint Peter's Basilica on 23 June 1985 and canonized on 21 November 1999. Saint Benedict Menni, pray for us.
SAINT OF THE DAY FRIDAY, 24 APRIL, 2026 SAINT FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN PRIEST AND MARTYR (c.1577 - 1622) Fidelis has been called the "protomartyr of the Capuchin Order and of the Propaganda in Rome." He was born in 1577, became a renowned lawyer. But feeling that this profession endangered the salvation of his soul, he decided to join the Capuchin Order and employ his extraordinary gift of eloquence in urging the faithful to lead holy lives and in bringing heretics back to the true faith. An ardent admirer of the founder of his Order, he was a great friend of poverty. Severe with himself, he was most considerate towards others, "embracing them like a mother does her children." When the Austrian army was stricken by plague, he cared for the spiritual and bodily needs of the soldiers in such a manner that he was honored with the title, "Father of the Fatherland." His devotion toward the Mother of God was truly remarkable. Trusting in her intercession and that of other saints, he often begged God for the grace of sacrificing his life in vindication of the Catholic faith. Now his prayer was about to be heard. Since Fidelis had the happiest results from the very first months of his mission activity, the rage of the heretics rose to great heights; his death was resolved upon. Fidelis was so convinced of it that on the morning of April 24th at Sevis he prepared himself for his last moments. Then he mounted the pulpit. During the sermon a band of armed heretics pressed into church. They dragged him down from the pulpit, and inflicted so may blows and cuts on him that he died at their hands. God almighty glorified His martyr by many miracles, whereupon Pope Benedict XIV solemnly entered his name in the register of saints in 1746. PATRON: of lawyers and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. PRAYER: Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, through your intercession before the throne of God, we ask you to fortify all teachers and preachers of the faith to remain faithful to the truth, even to the point of embarrassment, inconvenience, suffering, and death to self. Amen.
Blessed Maria is a saint who has that same wonderful angelic look of St Gemma. Just to look at her is to have her thoughts turn to God. So beautiful. Her monastery is in the middle of nowhere in Sardinia and a French priest came there and talked about Ecumenism and Maria offered up her life for Christian unity. Her sacrifice was accepted at once and she was diagnosed with a terminal illness within weeks. The only thing that might make us uneasy is that there is a false and true Ecumenism. That which call our separated brethren to the fullness of the truth and that which says the truth is unimportant.. But Maria's would have been the good kind. After her death suddenly all kinds of clergy from all over the World flocked to her Monastery.
SAINT OF THE DAY SATURDAY, 25 APRIL, 2026 SAINT MARK EVANGELIST (5 AD - 25 April, 68 AD) John Mark, later known simply as Mark, was a Jew by birth. He was the son of that Mary who was proprietress of the Cenacle or "upper room" which served as the meeting place for the first Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12). He was still a youth at the time of the Savior's death. In his description of the young man who was present when Jesus was seized and who fled from the rabble leaving behind his "linen cloth," the second Evangelist might possibly have stamped the mark of his own identity. During the years that followed, the rapidly maturing youth witnessed the growth of the infant Church in his mother's Upper Room and became acquainted with its traditions. This knowledge he put to excellent use when compiling his Gospel. Later, we find Mark acting as a companion to his cousin Barnabas and Saul on their return journey to Antioch and on their first missionary journey. But Mark was too immature for the hardships of this type of work and therefore left them at Perge in Pamphylia to return home. As the two apostles were preparing for their second missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take his cousin with him. Paul, however, objected. Thereupon the two cousins undertook a missionary journey to Cyprus. Time healed the strained relations between Paul and Mark, and during the former's first Roman captivity (61-63), Mark rendered Paul valuable service (Col. 4:10; Philem. 24), and the Apostle learned to appreciate him. When in chains the second time Paul requested Mark's presence (2 Tim. 4:11). An intimate friendship existed between Mark and Peter; he played the role of Peter's companion, disciple, and interpreter. According to the common patristic opinion, Mark was present at Peter's preaching in Rome and wrote his Gospel under the influence of the prince of the apostles. This explains why incidents which involve Peter are described with telling detail (e.g., the great day at Capharnaum, 1:14f)). Little is known of Mark's later life. It is certain that he died a martyr's death as bishop of Alexandria in Egypt. His relics were transferred from Alexandria to Venice, where a worthy tomb was erected in St. Mark's Cathedral. The Gospel of St. Mark, the shortest of the four, is, above all, a Roman Gospel. It originated in Rome and is addressed to Roman, or shall we say, to Western Christianity. Another high merit is its chronological presentation of the life of Christ. For we should be deeply interested in the historical sequence of the events in our blessed Savior's life. Furthermore, Mark was a skilled painter of word pictures. With one stroke he frequently enhances a familiar scene, shedding upon it new light. His Gospel is the "Gospel of Peter," for he wrote it under the direction and with the aid of the prince of the apostles. "The Evangelist Mark is represented as a lion because he begins his Gospel in the wilderness, `The voice of one crying in the desert: Make ready the way of the Lord,' or because he presents the Lord as the unconquered King." PATRON: Against impenitence; attorneys; barristers; captives; Egypt; glaziers; imprisoned people; insect bites; lions; notaries; prisoners; scrofulous diseases; stained glass workers; struma; Diocese of Venice, Florida; Venice, Italy. PRAYER: O God, who raised up Saint Mark, your Evangelist, and endowed him with the grace to preach the Gospel, grant, we pray, that we may so profit from his teaching as to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
... another Saint for today and the approved miracle Saint Pedro de San José Betancur, OFB (March 21, 1626 - April 25, 1667) Pedro de Betancur died on April 25, 1667, and his feast falls on the anniversary of his death. Born into poverty in Vilaflor on the island of Tenerife, he arrived in Guatemala in 1651 after running out of money mid-journey and working his passage on a ship. Too poor to eat, he joined the Franciscan bread line in Guatemala City. He attempted to study for the priesthood but could not master the coursework, and turned instead to works of mercy. He founded the first hospital and hospice for the homeless in Antigua Guatemala, a school for abandoned children, and the Bethlehemite Congregation, the first religious order founded in the Americas. He is known as the Saint Francis of Assisi of the Americas. He is patron of Guatemala and the Canary Islands. ◾The miracle accepted for his canonization was the healing of a child from Vilaflor, Betancur's own birthplace, who in 1999 was suffering from intestinal lymphoma diagnosed as incurable. The recovery was instantaneous and complete, and was confirmed by the medical experts of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints as medically inexplicable. Pope John Paul II approved the miracle on July 7, 2001, and canonized Betancur on July 30, 2002, in Guatemala City before an estimated 500,000 people. Saint Pedro, pray for us.
FEAST OF THE DAY SUNDAY, 26 APRIL, 2026 OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL On the Feast of Saint Mark, April 25 1467, the people of Genazzano, Italy witnessed a marvellous sight. A cloud descended upon an ancient church dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel. When the cloud disappeared, an image of Our Lady and the Child Jesus was revealed which had not been there before. The image, on a paper-thin sheet, was suspended miraculously. Soon after the image's appearance many miracles were attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Because of this, Pope Paul II ordered an investigation and the results have been preserved. It was later discovered that the very same image had been seen in a church dedicated to the Annunciation in Scutari, Albania. The image in this church was said to have arrived there in a miraculous manner. Now, the image had been transported from Albania miraculously to avoid sacrilege from Moslem invasion. A commission of enquiry determined that a portrait from the church was indeed missing. An empty space the same size as the portrait was displayed for all to see. Many miracles continue to be attributed to Our Lady of Good Counsel. Pope Saint Pius V, for example, credited victory in the Battle of Lepanto to Her intercession. Several Popes have approved the miraculous image. In 1682 Pope Innocent XI had the portrait crowned with gold. On July 2 1753 Pope Benedict XIV approved the Scapular of Our Lady of Good Counsel, and was the first to wear it. In 1884 a special Mass and Office of the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel was approved by Pope Leo XIII. For more than 500 years the image has continued to attract countless pilgrims. Although much of the church was destroyed during World War II, the image has remained intact — and continues to be suspended miraculously. PATRON: Albania, enlightenment. PRAYER: O Holy Virgin, to whose feet we are led by our anxious uncertainty in our search for and attainment of what is true and good, invoking you by the sweet title of Mother of Good Counsel, we beseech you to come to our assistance, when, along the road of this life, the darkness of error and of evil conspires towards our ruin by leading our minds and our hearts astray. O Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the doubtful and the erring, that they be not seduced by the false appearances of good; render them steadfast in the face of the hostile and corrupting influences of passion and of sin. O Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from your Divine Son a great love of virtue, and, in the hour of uncertainty and trial, the strength to embrace the way that leads to our salvation. If your hand sustains us, we shall walk unmolested along the path indicated to us by the life and words of Jesus, our Redeemer; and having followed freely and securely, even in the midst of this world's strife, the Sun of Truth and Justice under your maternal Star, we shall come to the enjoyment of full and eternal peace with you in the haven of salvation. Amen. Composed by Pope Pius XII (Pont. 1939-1958)
Again thank you for posting. Our Lady Good Counsel pray for us! If ever our nations needed good counsel it is now!
