Litany Of Saints For Married Couples
Holy Prophetess Hannah dwelt in marriage with Elkanah; son whom she named Samuel (which means "Asked from God")
but she was childless. Elkanah took to himself another wife, Phennena, who bore him children. Hannah grieved strongly over her misfortune, and every day she prayed for an end to her barrenness, and vowed to dedicate her child to God.

Once, as she prayed fervently in the Temple, the priest Heli thought that she was drunk, and he began to reproach her. But the saint poured out her grief, and after she received a blessing, she returned home. After this Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son, whom she named Samuel (which means "Asked from God").

When the child reached the age of boyhood, the mother herself presented him to the priest Heli, and Samuel remained with him to serve before the Tabernacle (1 Kings/1 Samuel 2: 1-21).
St Anna mother of the Virgin Mary  Feast day, December 09
   The youngest daughter of the priest Nathan from Bethlehem, descended from the tribe of Levi.
She married St Joachim (September 9), who was a native of Galilee.
    For a long time St Anna was childless, but after twenty years, through the fervent prayer of both spouses, an angel of the Lord announced to them that they would be the parents of a daughter, Who would bring blessings to the whole human race.

The Orthodox Church does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin (death, corruption, sin, etc.) at the moment of her conception by virtue of the future merits of Her Son. Only Christ was born perfectly holy and sinless, as St Ambrose of Milan teaches in Chapter Two of his Commentary on Luke. The Holy Virgin was like everyone else in Her mortality, and in being subject to temptation, although She committed no personal sins. She was not a deified creature removed from the rest of humanity. If this were the case, She would not have been truly human, and the nature that Christ took from Her would not have been truly human either. If Christ does not truly share our human nature, then the possibilty of our salvation is in doubt.

The Conception of the Virgin Mary by St Anna took place at Jerusalem. The many icons depicting the Conception by St Anna show the Most Holy Theotokos trampling the serpent underfoot.
"In the icon Sts Joachim and Anna are usually depicted with hands folded in prayer; their eyes are also directed upward and they contemplate the Mother of God, Who stands in the air with outstretched hands; under Her feet is an orb encircled by a serpent (symbolizing the devil), which strives to conquer all the universe by its power."

There are also icons in which St Anna holds the Most Holy Virgin on her left arm as an infant. On St Anna's face is a look of reverence. A large ancient icon, painted on canvas, is located in the village of Minkovetsa in the Dubensk district of Volhynia diocese. From ancient times this Feast was especially venerated by pregnant women in Russia.
Fresco_St_Nicholas_Church_of_St_Nicholas_Demre.
  350 St. Nicholas Bishop of Myra Council of Nicaea condemned Arianism dec6 doweried 3 little girls released falsily condemned men saw the devil get on the ship, intending to sink it and kill all the passengers calmed waves of the sea by his prayers mortally injured sailor restored to health
Myræ, quæ est metrópolis Lyciæ, natális sancti Nicolái, Epíscopi et Confessóris, de quo, inter plura miraculórum insígnia, illud memorábile fertur, quod Imperatórem Constantínum ab intéritu quorúmdam se invocántium, longe constitútus, ad misericórdiam per visum mónitis defléxit et minis.
    At Myra, which is the metropolis of Lycia, the birthday of St. Nicholas, bishop and confessor, of whom it is related, among other miracles, that, while at a great distance from Emperor Constantine, he appeared to him in a vision and moved him to mercy so as to deter him from putting to death some persons who had implored his assistance.
St. Nicholas, called “of Bari, Bishop of Myra (Fourth Century)
We are assured that from his earliest days Nicholas would take nourishment only once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that in the evening according to the canons.
 He was exceedingly well brought up by his parents and trod piously in their footsteps. The child, watched over by the church enlightened his mind and encouraged his thirst for sincere and true religion.
His parents died when he was a young man, leaving him well off and he determined to devote his inheritance to works of charity. An opportunity soon arose. A citizen of Patara had lost all his money, and had moreover to support three daughters who could not find husbands because of their poverty; so the wretched man was going to give them over to prostitution. This came to the ears of Nicholas, who thereupon took a bag of gold and, under cover of darkness threw it in at the open window of the man's house. Here was a dowry for the eldest girl and she was soon duly married. At intervals Nicholas did the same for the second and third; at the last time the father was on the watch, recognized his benefactor and overwhelmed him with his gratitude. It would appear that the three purses represented in pictures, came to be mistaken for the heads of three children and so they gave rise to the absurdstory of the children, resuscitated by the saint, who had been killed by an innkeeper and pickled in a brine-tub.
375 St. Gorgonia daughter of St. Gregory Nazianzus the Elder & St. Nonna  Feast Day December 09
Naziánzi, in Cappadócia, sanctæ Gorgóniæ, quæ fuit beátæ Nonnæ fília, atque beatórum Gregórii Theólogi et Cæsárii soror, cujus ipse Gregórius virtútes et mirácula conscrípsit.
    At Nazianzum in Cappadocia, St. Gorgonia, of whose virtues and miracles St. Gregory has written.  She was the daughter of blessed Nonna and the sister of St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Caesarius.
372 ST GORGONIA, MATRON
ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN the Elder and his wife St Nonna had three children, St Gorgonia, St Gregory Nazianzen and St Caesarius, of whom Gorgonia was the eldest. She married and had three children, whom she brought up with the same care that she received herself. Twice she recovered from illness through sheer trust in the will of Almighty God: once after a bad fall, when she would not let a physician see her, and another time when she received holy communion. Her brother also tells us that once during sickness she visited the church at night and searched the altar for any crumbs of the Blessed Sacrament that might have been overlooked there in hope of a cure—in those days the bread used at the Holy Mysteries was like ordinary household bread, as it still is in most of the Eastern churches.
   Gorgonia always loved the services of the church and to look after its material building, lived in a sober and God-fearing style, and was most generous to the poor; and yet, in accordance with a common custom of earlier days, she did not receive baptism till she was past middle age. Her husband received it at the same time, together with their children and grandchildren. At her funeral her brother Gregory made a long oration, which was a panegyric of her goodness, and the source of what little is known of her.

We know little or nothing of St Gorgonia except what we learn from her brother’s panegyric. It is printed in Migne, PG., vol. xxxv, pp. 789—817. On the incident of the visit to the altar at night, see H. Thurston in Journal of Theol. Studies, vol. xi (1910), pp.275—279.

  375 St Emilia  mother of St Basil the Great Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, Macrina and Theosevia founded a monastery in her old age
She was the mother of St Basil the Great. In her youth, she desired to remain a life-long virgin, but was forced to marry. She bore nine children, and so endowed each of them with a Christian spirit that five of them became Christian saints: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, Macrina and Theosevia.
She founded a monastery in her old age, where she lived with her daughter Macrina, and where she entered into rest in the Lord on May 8th, 375. SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net

393 Saint Eupraxia the Elder was the mother of St Eupraxia,
maiden of Tabennisi (July 25). She was the wife of the pious senator Antigonus, who was related to the emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395). Following the birth of their daughter, the couple decided to live from that time forward as brother and sister. They distributed alms to the poor, hoping to inherit the heavenly Kingdom.

After she was widowed, St Eupraxia devoted herself completely to the service of the Lord. After visiting several monastic establishments and bestowing liberal alms, she came to the Tabennisi monastery in Egypt, where the abbess was the nun Theodula, known for her strict rule.

Deeply moved by the pure way of monastic life, St Eupraxia came often to this monastery and always brought her eight-year-old daughter with her. The virtues and prayers of her parents bestowed a particular grace of God upon the child, who desired to dedicate herself to God. To her mother's great joy, the abbess Theodula kept the younger Eupraxia at the convent and blessed her to receive monastic tonsure.

St Eupraxia the elder continued her works of charity, and increased her fasting and prayer. Abbess Theodula, possessing the gift of clairvoyance, told her of her impending end. Learning of her imminent death, Eupraxia gave thanks to the Lord for His great mercy towards her. She bid farewell to the sisters of the convent and to her daughter. She left her with these parting words: "Love the Lord Jesus Christ, and respect the sisters. Never dare to think that they are below you and should serve you. Be poor in your thoughts in order to profit by spiritual treasures. Also remember your father and me, and pray for the salvation of our souls." After three days the saint surrendered her soul to the Lord (+ 393) and was buried at the monastery, where her daughter continued her ascetic struggles.
395 St. Gregory of Nyssa {lower Armenia where Nathaniel was martyred) January 10 (Eastern Christianity, Lutheranism)  Catholic, March 9
The son of two saints, Basil and Emmilia, young Gregory was born 330,raised by his older brother, St. Basil the Great, and his sister, Macrina, in modern-day Turkey.
 
Gregory's success in his studies suggested great things were ahead for him. After becoming professor of rhetoric, he was persuaded to devote his learning and efforts to the Church. By then married, Gregory went on to study for the priesthood and become ordained (this at a time when celibacy was not a matter of law for priests).
He was elected Bishop of Nyssa (in Lower Armenia) in 372, a period of great tension over the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. Briefly arrested after being falsely accused of embezzling Church funds, Gregory was restored to his see in 378, an act met with great joy by his people.

Gregory really came into his own. after the death of his beloved brother, Basil.
He wrote with great effectiveness against Arianism and other questionable doctrines, gaining a reputation as a defender of orthodoxy. He was sent on missions to counter other heresies and held a position of prominence at the Council of Constantinople. His fine reputation stayed with him for the remainder of his life, but over the centuries it gradually declined as the authorship of his writings became less and less certain. But, thanks to the work of scholars in the 20th century, his stature is once again appreciated. Indeed, St. Gregory of Nyssa is seen not simply as a pillar of orthodoxy but as one of the great contributors to the mystical tradition in Christian spirituality and to monasticism itself.

Comment:  Orthodoxy is a word that raises red flags in our minds. It connotes rigid attitudes that make no room for honest differences of opinion. But it might just as well suggest something else: faith that has settled deep in one’s bones. Gregory’s faith was like that. So deeply imbedded was his faith in Jesus that he knew the divinity that Arianism denied. When we resist something offered as truth without knowing exactly why, it may be because our faith has settled in our bones.

Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, was a younger brother of St Basil the Great (January 1). His birth and upbringing came at a time when the Arian disputes were at their height. Having received an excellent education, he was at one time a teacher of rhetoric. In the year 372, he was consecrated by St Basil the Great as bishop of the city of Nyssa in Cappadocia.

St Gregory was an ardent advocate for Orthodoxy, and he fought against the Arian heresy with his brother St Basil. Gregory was persecuted by the Arians, by whom he was falsely accused of improper use of church property, and thereby deprived of his See and sent to Ancyra.

In the following year St Gregory was again deposed in absentia by a council of Arian bishops, but he continued to encourage his flock in Orthodoxy, wandering about from place to place. After the death of the emperor Valens (378), St Gregory was restored to his cathedra and was joyously received by his flock. His brother St Basil the Great died in 379.

Only with difficulty did St Gregory survive the loss of his brother and guide. He delivered a funeral oration for him, and completed St Basil's study of the six days of Creation, the Hexaemeron. That same year St Gregory participated in the Council of Antioch against heretics who refused to recognize the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God. Others at the opposite extreme, who worshipped the Mother of God as being God Herself, were also denounced by the Council. He visited the churches of Arabia and Palestine, which were infected with the Arian heresy, to assert the Orthodox teaching about the Most Holy Theotokos. On his return journey St Gregory visited Jerusalem and the Holy Places.

In the year 381 St Gregory was one of the chief figures of the Second Ecumenical Council, convened at Constantinople against the heresy of Macedonius, who incorrectly taught about the Holy Spirit. At this Council, on the initiative of St Gregory, the Nicean Symbol of Faith (the Creed) was completed.

Together with the other bishops St Gregory affirmed St Gregory the Theologian as Archpastor of Constantinople.

In the year 383, St Gregory of Nyssa participated in a Council at Constantinople, where he preached a sermon on the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. In 386, he was again at Constantinople, and he was asked to speak the funeral oration in memory of the empress Placilla. Again in 394 St Gregory was present in Constantinople at a local Council, convened to resolve church matters in Arabia.

St Gregory of Nyssa was a fiery defender of Orthodox dogmas and a zealous teacher of his flock, a kind and compassionate father to his spiritual children, and their intercessor before the courts. He was distinguished by his magnanimity, patience and love of peace.

Having reached old age, St Gregory of Nyssa died soon after the Council of Constantinople. Together with his great contemporaries, Sts Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, St Gregory of Nyssa had a significant influence on the Church life of his time. His sister, St Macrina, wrote to him: "You are renowned both in the cities, and gatherings of people, and throughout entire districts. Churches ask you for help." St Gregory is known in history as one of the most profound Christian thinkers of the fourth century. Endowed with philosophical talent, he saw philosophy as a means for a deeper penetration into the authentic meaning of divine revelation.

St Gregory left behind many remarkable works of dogmatic character, as well as sermons and discourses. He has been called "the Father of Fathers."

400 June 19 St Paisius the Great lived in Egypt. His parents, Christians, distributed generous alms to all the needy; a seer and a wonderworker famed throughout the whole of Egypt
After the death of her husband his mother, on the suggestion of an angel, gave her young son Paisius to the clergy of the church.

The youth Paisius loved monastic life and spent his time in one of the Egyptian sketes. Renouncing his own will, he lived under the spiritual guidance of St Pambo (July 18), finishing all the tasks assigned him. The Elder said that a new monk in particular needs to preserve his sight, in order to guard his senses from temptation. Paisius, heeding the instruction, went for three years with his eyes cast downwards. The saintly ascetic read spiritual books, and he was known for his ascetic fasting and prayer. At first he did not eat any food for a week, then two weeks. Sometimes, after partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, he survived without food for seventy days.

St Paisius went into the Nitrian desert in search of solitude. There he lived in a cave carved out by his own hands. The saint was granted a wondrous vision: the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to him that through his labors the Nitrian wilderness would become inhabited by ascetics. He asked the Lord where the monks would obtain the necessities of life in the desert. The Lord said that if they would fulfill all His commandments, He Himself would provide all their necessities, and would deliver them from demonic temptations and cunning.

In time, a number of monks and laymen gathered around St Paisius, and a monastery was established. The most important rule of St Paisius was that no one would do anything by his own will, but in all things would fulfill the will of his elders.
Since his tranquility was being disturbed by so many people, the saint withdrew to another cave farther away. Once, he was transported to a paradisical monastery and partook of the immaterial divine food. After his ascetic labors for salvation, the Lord granted His saint the gift of prescience and healing the souls of men.
   One of his disciples, with the saint's blessing, went to sell his handicrafts in Egypt. On the way he encountered a Jew, who told the simple-minded monk that Christ the Savior is not the Messiah, and that another Messiah will come. Confused, the monk said, "Maybe what you say is true," but he did not attribute any particular significance to his words. When he returned, he saw that St Paisius would not acknowledge his arrival, and he asked the reason for his anger. The saint said, "My disciple was a Christian. You are not a Christian, for the grace of Baptism has departed from you." The monk repented with tears, and begged to have his sin forgiven. Only then did the holy Elder pray and ask the Lord to forgive the monk.
A certain monk on his own initiative left the desert and moved near a city. There he had encounters with a woman, who hated and blasphemed Christ the Savior. Under her influence, he not only left the monastery, but also scorned faith in Christ, and finally he reached a state of total disbelief.
   Once, through the blessed Providence of God, Nitrian monks came by his home. Seeing them, the sinner remembered his own former life and he asked the monks to ask St Paisius to pray for him to the Lord. On hearing the request, the saint prayed fervently, and his prayer was heard. The Lord, appearing to His saint, promised to forgive the sinner. Soon the seduced monk's woman companion died, and he returned to the desert where, weeping and distressed for his sins, he began to labor at deeds of repentance.
   St Paisius distinguished himself by his great humility, and performed ascetic deeds of fasting and prayer, but he concealed them from others as far as possible. When the monks asked which virtue is the highest of all, the saint replied, "Those which are done in secret, and about which no one knows."
St Paisius died in the fifth century at a great old age, and he was buried by the monks. After some time his relics were transferred by St Isidore of Pelusium (February 4) to his own monastery and placed beside the relics of his friend St Paul, with whom St Paisius was particularly close during his life.

Paisius der Große Orthodoxe Kirche: 19. Juni
Paisius der GroßePaisius lebte in Ägypten. Nach einigen Jahren als Mönch in einer Skete ging er auf der Suche nach tieferer Einsamkeit in die Nitriawüste. Hier lebte er in einer selbstgegrabenen Höhle. In einer Vision enthüllte ihm Christus, dass die Nitriawüste Heimstätte vieler Einsiedler sein werde. Um die Höhle von Paisius entstand ein Kloster und Paisius zog sich weiter zurück. Auch um seine neue Einsiedlei entstand ein Kloster. Paisius starb in hohem Alter im 5. Jahrhundert.

Our Holy Father Paisius the Great SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
    He was an Egyptian by birth and by language. After a vision in a dream, his mother dedicated him to the service of God, and he went to St Pambo while still a youth. Pambo accepted him as a disciple, and he was a fellow-disciple there of St John the Dwarf, who wrote Paisius's life. To the joy of his spiritual father, Paisius piled labour upon labour, one ascetic feat upon another. The Prophet Jeremiah, whom he especially revered and read frequently, appeared to him often, and also the Lord Christ. `Peace be to thee, My beloved in whom 1 am well-pleased!', the Lord said to him. By God's great grace, Paisius had the particular gift of being able to abstain completely from food. He would often not eat bread for a fortnight, even more often for a week, and once, according to the testimony of John the Dwarf, he went for seventy days without tasting a thing. He waged a tremendous war against evil spirits, that sometimes appeared to him in their own form and sometimes as angels of light. But God's servant, filled with grace, never once let himself be deceived and led astray. He was a seer and a wonderworker famed throughout the whole of Egypt. He went to the Lord in the year 400.
Isidore of Pelusium took his relics to his own monastery and buried them there.
May 08 HERE 450 Saint Arsenius the Great; deacon, Sketis monastery in the midst of the desert standing at prayer, surrounded by a flame
Arsenius der Große Orthodoxe Kirche: 8. Mai Katholische Kirche: 19. Juni
Born in the year 354 at Rome into a pious Christian family, which provided him a fine education and upbringing. He studied rhetoric and philosophy, and mastered the Latin and Greek languages. St Arsenius gave up philosophy and the vanity of worldly life, seeking instead the true wisdom praised by St James "pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits" (Jas. 3:17). He entered the ranks of the clergy as a deacon in one of the Roman churches, dedicating himself to the service of God.
604 March 12;  Saint Gregory Dialogus granted a vision of the Lord Himself Pope of Rome used inheritance to establish 6 monasteries
 Romæ sancti Gregórii Primi, Papæ, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris exímii; qui, ob res præcláræ gestas atque Anglos ad Christi fidem convérsos, Magnus est dictus et Anglórum Apóstolus appellátus.
      At Rome, St. Gregory, pope and eminent doctor of the Church, who on account of his illustrious deeds and the conversion of the English to the faith of Christ, was surnamed the Great, and called the Apostle of England.
Born in Rome around the year 540. His grandfather was Pope Felix, and his mother Sylvia (November 4) and aunts Tarsilla and Emiliana were also numbered among the saints by the Roman Church. Having received a most excellent secular education, he attained high government positions.  
604 ST GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
688  May 12 St. Richrudis Benedictine abbess forty years wed St. Adalbald 4 children Eusebia, Clotsind, Adalsind, and Mauront all became saints
688 ST RICTRUDIS, WIDOW
THE family of St Rictrudis was one of the most illustrious in Gascony, and her parents were devout as well as wealthy. In her father’s house when she was a young girl Rictrudis met one who was to be her director for a great part of her life. This was St Amandus, then an exile from the territory of King Dagobert, whose licentious conduct he had condemned; the prelate was evangelizing the Gascons, many of whom were still pagans. Later on there arrived another distinguished visitor in the person of St Adalbald, a young French nobleman in great favour with King Clovis. He obtained from his hosts the hand of Rictrudis in spite of the opposition of relations who viewed with disfavour any alliance with a Frank. The home to which Adalbald took his bride was Ostrevant in Flanders, and there four children were born to them— Mauront, Eusebia, Clotsind and Adalsind, all of whom, like their parents, were destined to be honoured in later times as saints.

After Adalbald was murdered by relatives in Gascony, she refused royal pressure to remarry and instead, with the help of St. Amandus, she became a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders, Belgium, a double monastery that she had founded. Rictrudis served as abbess for some forty years until her death. Adalsind and Clotsind joined her, and Mauront became a monk there too.

Rictrudis of Marchiennes, OSB Widow (AC) Born in Gascony; died 688. Saint Rictrudis was born into a noble Gascon family. She married Saint Adalbald, a Frankish nobleman serving king Clovis II, despite some opposition from her family. The couple had four children, all of whom are counted among the saints: SS Adalsindis, Clotsindis, Eusebia, and Maurontius.

After 16 year of a happy married life at Ostrevant, Flanders, Adalbald was murdered while visiting in Gascony by relatives of Rictrudis who disapproved of the match. After several years, King Clovis ordered her to marry, but with the aid of her old friend and spiritual advisor, Saint Amandus, Clovis relented and permitted her to become a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders--a double monastery that she had founded. Adalsindis and Clotsindis joined her, and sometime later Maurontius, on the point of marrying, left the court and became a monk there, too. Rictrudis ruled Marchiennes as abbess for 40 years (Benedictines, Delaney).
In art, Rictrudis holds a church in her hand. She may also be pictured with her children (Roeder).
684 St. Aldegunais Virgin abess Mauberge, a noted Benedictine monastery
also known as Adelgundis, Aldegonde, or Orgonne. She was a member of the royal family of the Merovingians and was raised by two saints: St. Walbert and St. Bertila, her parents. The family resided in the Hainault region of Flanders, a region of the Low Countries. Endowed with the gift of prayer, Aldegund looked upon the slanders and persecutions she endured as favors from God in His mercy that allowed her to suffer for His sake (Matthew 5:10). She died from breast cancer and, we are told, "in an ecstasy of serene joy."

684 ST ALDEGUNDIS, VIRGIN
St ALDEGUNDIS
was the daughter of Walbert and Bertilia, both venerated as saints, and was born in Hainault about 635. Refusing the marriage proposed by her parents she went to live near her sister St Waldeturdis (Waudru), foundress of a convent at Mons. Then she retired to a hermitage, from which grew up the great double monastery of Maubeuge. We are told that she was a disciple of St Amand and that she had a number of supernatural visions. St Aldegundis developed cancer of the breast, and she bore this agonizing malady—and the cauteries and incisions of the surgeons—with the greatest patience and trust in God till her death on January 30, 684.

The Life of St Aldegund, or at least the more historical portion, has been critically edited by W. Levison in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. vi, pp. 79—90. He pronounces, on what seems quite satisfactory evidence, that the author is not, as the vita claims, a contemporary. On the other hand it cannot be later than the ninth century, for it is quoted by Rabanus Maurus. See also Van der Essen, Etude critique sur les saints merovingiens, pp. 219—231 and cf. the Acta Sanctorum for January 30.
Aldegundis reflused offers of marriage from other nobles and received the veil from St. Amandius, the bishop of Maastricht. She followed this ceremony of acceptance into the religious life with the foundation of a convent near the Sambre River, at a desert site called Malbode. Her sister, St. Waldetrudis, founded a convent at Mons. Aldegundis' foundation became Mauberge, a noted Benedictine monastery, later taken over by canonesses. Aldegundis is reported to have died of cancer at the age of fifty-four.

In art, Saint Aldegund is a Benedictine abbess, crowned. There is generally a dove with veil near her. Sometimes she may be shown (1) receiving the veil from the Holy Spirit; (2) as a princess fleeing from her parents' house; (3) walking with an angel; or (4) walking on water (Roeder). She is invoked against eye troubles, cancer, diseases of children, fever, demoniac possession, wounds, and sudden death (Roeder).

691 St. Begga daughter of Pepin of Landen mayor of the palace and St. Itta.
 Andániæ, apud Septem Ecclésias, in Bélgio, beátæ Beggæ Víduæ, quæ fuit soror sanctæ Gertrúdis.
     At Andenne, at the Seven Churches, blessed Begga, widow, the sister of St. Gertrude.
693 ST BEGGA, WIDOW
PEPIN of Landen, mayor of the palace to three Frankish kings, and himself commonly called Blessed, was married to a saint, Bd Itta or Ida, and two of their three children figure in the Roman Martyrology: St Gertrude of Nivelles and her elder sister, St Begga. Gertrude refused to marry and was an abbess soon after she was twenty, but Begga married Ansegisilus, son of St Arnulf of Metz, and spent practically the whole of her long life as a nobleman’s wife “in the world”. Of this union was born Pepin of Herstal, the founder of the Carlovingian dynasty in France. After the death of her husband, St Begga in 691 built at Andenne on the Meuse seven chapels representing the Seven Churches of Rome, around a central church, and in connection therewith she established a convent and colonized it with nuns from her long-dead sister’s abbey at Nivelles. It afterwards became a house of canonesses and the Lateran canons regular commemorate St Begga as belonging to their order. She is also venerated by the Béguines of Belgium as their patroness, but the common statement that she founded them is a mistake due to the similarity of the names. St Begga died abbess of Andenne and was buried there.
A life of St Begga, together with some collections of miracles, has been printed in Ghesquière, Acta Sanctorum Belgii, vol. v (1789), pp. 70—125 it is of little historical value. See also Berlière, Monasticon Belge, vol. i, pp. 66—63 and DHG., vol. ii, cc. 1559— 1560. There can he little doubt that the word beguinae, which we first meet about the year 1200 and which, as stated above, has nothing to do with St Begga, was originally a term of reproach used of the Albigensians: see the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. i, cc. 1341-1342.
She married Ansegilius, son of St. Arnulf of Metz, and their son was Pepin of Herstal, founder of the Carolingian dynasty of rulers in France. On the death of her husband in the year 691, she built a church and convent at Andenne on the Meuse River and died there. Her feast day is December 17th.
VII v. St. Dentlin Seven-year-old confessor little son of Saint Vincent Madelgar and Saint Waldetrudis
called also Dentilin or Denain. He was the son of St. Vincent Madelgarus and St. Waldestrudis A church in Cleves, in Germany, was named for him.

Dentlin (AC) (also known as Denain, Dentelin) 7th century. The little son of Saint Vincent Madelgar and Saint Waldetrudis, and brother of Bishop Saint Landericus and two other saintly siblings, Saint Dentlin died when he was seven. A church in the duchy of Cleves is dedicated in his honor (Benedictines). The child Saint Dentlin usually is depicted with his elderly father covering him and his brother with a cloak. Dentlin has a dove on his finger (Roeder).

680 Eusebia of Hamay, OSB, Abbess wise and capable, re-establishing discipline as in the days of St Gertrude, (AC)
680 ST EUSEBIA, ABBESS
ST EUSEBIA was the eldest daughter of St Adalbald of Ostrevant and of St Rictrudis. After the murder of her husband, Rictrudis retired to the convent of Marchiennes with her two younger daughters, and sent Eusebia to the abbey of Hamage, of which her great-grandmother St Gertrude was abbess. Eusebia was only twelve years old when St Gertrude died, but she was elected her successor, in compliance with her dying wishes and in accordance with the custom of the times, which required that the head of a religious house should, when possible, be of noble birth, so that the community should have the protection of a powerful family in tithes of disturbance. St Rictrudis, who was now abbess of Marchiennes, not unnaturally considered Eusebia far too young to have charge of a community, and bade her come to Marchiennes with all her nuns. The little abbess was loath to comply, but she obeyed, and arrived with her community and with the body of St Gertrude, when the two communities were merged into one and all settled down happily, except Eusebia. The memory of Hamage haunted her, until one night she and some of her nuns stole out and made their way to the abandoned buildings, where they said office and lamented over the non-fulfilment of St Gertrude’s last in­junctions. Though this escapade did not go unpunished, St Rictrudis, finding that her daughter was still longing for Hamage, consulted the bishop and other devout men, who advised her to yield to Eusebia’s wishes. She therefore consented to her return and despatched her back with all her nuns. She had no reason to regret her action for the young abbess proved herself wise and capable, re-establishing discipline as in the days of St Gertrude, whom she strove to imitate in all things. No special incidents appear to have marked Eusebia’s afterlife. She was only in her fortieth year when she had a premonition of her impending end, and gathering her nuns round her, gave them her parting instructions and blessing. As she finished speaking a great light spread throughout her room and almost immediately her soul ascended to Heaven.

See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; Destombes, Vies des Saints de Cambrai, i, pp. 349-343 and Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xx (1901), pp 461—463.
The eldest daughter of Saints Adalbald and Rictrudis, Saint Eusebia was placed by her mother in the abbey of Hamage (Hamay) which had been founded by her grandmother Saint Gertrude. When Saint Eusebia succeeded as abbess at the age of 12, her mother objected and summoned her daughter to Marchiennes. Eusebia and her entire community answered her mother and moved to Marchiennes. Later they were allowed to return to Hamage, where Eusebia continued to rule her convent in peace (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
 701 St. Maurontus Benedictine abbot founder also called Mauront.

701 ST MAURUNTIUS, ABBOT May 05
ST MAURUNTIUS (Mauront) was born in Flanders in the year 634, eldest son of St Adalbald and St Rictrudis. At the court of King Clovis II and Queen Bathildis, where he spent his youth, he occupied several important posts in the royal house­hold. Upon the death of his father he returned to Flanders to settle his affairs and to make arrangements for a projected marriage. But God designed him for the religious life, and the instrument by whose guidance the young man realized his true vocation was St Amandus, bishop of Maestricht, who was at that time living a retired life in the monastery of Elnone.
   Mauruntius was so deeply moved by a sermon preached by the holy prelate that he decided to retire forthwith into the monastery of Marchiennes. There he was raised to the diaconate. On his estate of Merville in the diocese of Thérouanne, he built the abbey of Breuil, of which he was the first abbot. When St Amatus was banished from Sens by King Thierry III, he was committed to the care of St Mauruntius, who held him in such high esteem that he resigned to him the post of superior and lived under his obedi­ence until the death of that holy bishop in 690. Mauruntius then resumed the direction of Breuil. In compliance with the dying injunction of St Rictrudis, he also retained the supervision of the double monastery of Marchiennes, where his sister, St Clotsindis, ruled as abbess. He was actually staying at Marchiennes when he was seized with the illness of which he died.

The account of St Mauruntius in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. ii, is almost entirely derived from the biography of St Rictrudis, concerning whom see later under May 12.
The eldest son of St. Adalbald and St. Rictrudis of Flanders, he served King Clovis II of the Franks. He entered Marchiennes Monastery at the urging of St. Amandus of Maestricht and founded the abbey of Breuil on his personal estate near Therouanne. His sister was an abbess at Marchiennes .
786 June 07 St. Willibald Bishop and missionary native of Wessex England brother of Sts. Winebald and Walburga related to St. Boniface; Willibald was the first recorded English pilgrim to the Holy Land, and his vita the earliest travel book by an English writer; honoured with many miracles.
786 ST WILLIBALD, BISHOP OF Eichstätt
WILLIBALD was born about the year 700, in the kingdom of the West Saxons, the son of St Richard (February 7) and so brother of SS. Winebald and Walburga.
When he was three years old his life was despaired of in a violent sickness. When all natural remedies proved unsuccessful, his parents laid him at the foot of a great cross which was erected in a public place near their house. There they made a promise to God that if the child recovered they would consecrate him to the divine service, and he was immediately restored to health. Richard put him under the abbot of the monastery of Waltham in Hampshire. Willibald left here about the year 720 to accompany his father and brother on a pilgrimage, as is narrated in the life of St Richard on February 7.

June 26 790 St. John of the Goths Bishop of Goths in southern Russia defended use of sacred images Iconoclast Controversy;The future saint was born in answer to the fervent prayer of his parents. From an early age, he lived a life of asceticism.

When the Khazars invaded the region, John was driven into permanent exile.
John of the Goths B (AC) Saint John was bishop of the Goths in southern Russia. He was noted for his defense of the veneration of images against the depravation of the iconoclasts. Invading Khazars drove him from his see into exile, where he died (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).

800 ST JOHN, BISHOP OF THE Goths honoured in Eastern churches -- resistance he opposed to Iconoclasm
THOUGH he has no particular cultus in the West, this St John is honoured in the Eastern churches on account of the resistance he opposed to Iconoclasm. He was a native of that district north of the Black Sea that includes the Crimea, and his grandfather was an Armenian legionary. In 761 the then bishop of the Goths in those parts, to gratify the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, who was attempting to abolish the use of sacred images, subscribed to the iconoclastic edicts and was rewarded by being promoted to the more desirable see of Heraclea. His flock, more orthodox than he, asked that John should be appointed in his place. Their request was granted, but they had to await his return from Jerusalem, where he spent three years.

   He wrote a defence of the veneration paid to sacred images and relics, and also of the practice of invoking the saints. His arguments were supported by quotations from the Old and New Testaments, as well as by references to the teaching of the fathers. Under the regency of the Empress Irene the ban against sacred images was raised, and John came to Constantinople to attend the synod summoned by St Tarasius; John was also present in 787 at the second Council of Nicaea, in which the Catholic doctrine with regard to the cultus of sacred images was clearly defined.
   After his return, John’s diocese was invaded by the Khazars, and through treachery he became a captive in the hands of their chieftain. He succeeded, however, in escaping and found a refuge at Amastris in Asia Minor, where he was hospitably received by the bishop. He spent there the last four years of his life. Upon being informed that the Khazar chief had died, he turned to his friends and said, "And I, too, shall depart from hence in forty days and will plead my cause with him before God". The first part of this prophecy was fulfilled to the letter, for on the fortieth day he peacefully expired. His body was conveyed back to his country by Bishop George of Amastris and was deposited in the monastery at Partheruti in the Crimea.
A sufficient account of his activities, together with a Greek biography, is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. vii. There is also mention of him on the same day in the Synaxary of Constantinople. See Delehaye’s edition, cc. 772—773.
Saint John, Bishop of the Goths, lived during the eighth century. The future saint was born in answer to the fervent prayer of his parents. From an early age, he lived a life of asceticism.
The saint made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and spent three years visiting all the holy places. Then he returned to his native country. At that time the emperor Constantine Copronymos the Iconoclast (741-775) banished the Gothic bishop, and the Goths fervently entreated St John to become their bishop.
St John went to Georgia, which was isolated from the Iconoclast heresy. There he was ordained. Upon his return to the Goths he was soon compelled to depart from them. Hidden away from the pursuing Khazars, he settled at Amastridia, where he dwelt for four years.
Hearing about the death of the Khazar kagan (ruler), the saint said, "After forty days I shall go to be judged with him before Christ the Savior." Indeed, the saint died forty days later. This took place when he returned to his people, in the year 790.
The saint's body was conveyed to the Parthenit monastery in the Crimea, at the foot of Mount Ayu-Dag, where the saint once lived in the large church he built in honor of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
St John, Bishop of the Goths is also commemorated on May 19.
845 Saint Michael the Confessor was born at Jerusalem into a family of zealous Christians and at an early age devoted himself to monastic life;  suffered for the veneration of holy icons under emperor Theophilus; After the death of Theophilus, the empress Theodora (842-855) restored the veneration of holy icons, and ordered the return of Christians banished by the Iconoclasts. She made the offer that St Michael might occupy the patriarchal throne in place of the deposed iconoclast, Grammatikos. But the holy martyr declined this. Thus upon the patriarchal throne entered St Methodius.
After the death of his father, his mother and sisters went to a monastery, and St Michael was ordained as a priest. He was famed as a strong preacher, and therefore the Jerusalem Patriarch Thomas I took him under his wing and advanced him in the calling of "synkellos" (dealing in matters of church governance).

At this time there reigned the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820). The patriarch sent St Michael to him, together with the holy brothers Sts Theodore (December 27) and Theophanes (October 11), with the hope that they might persuade the emperor to cease his persecution against the Orthodox. The emperor subjected St Michael to beatings and sent him off into exile.
Later having returned from exile, the monk again suffered for the veneration of holy icons under the emperor Theophilus (829-842). The companions of St Michael, Sts Theodore and Theophanes, were subjected to horrible torments: upon their faces was put red-hot brands with an inscription slandering them. They received the title "the Branded." Again condemned, St Michael was sent with his disciple Job to the Pabeida monastery.
After the death of Theophilus, the empress Theodora (842-855) restored the veneration of holy icons, and ordered the return of Christians banished by the Iconoclasts. She made the offer that St Michael might occupy the patriarchal throne in place of the deposed iconoclast, Grammatikos. But the holy martyr declined this. Thus upon the patriarchal throne entered St Methodius.
St Michael the Confessor to the end of his days toiled in the position of "synkellos." He died peacefully in about the year 845.
901 St. Anthony Kauleas Patriarch of Constantinople
He was born in 829 of Phrygian descent near Constantinople; Antony's noble, Phrygian parents had retired to the countryside near Constantinople to escape the persecution of the Iconoclasts when he was born and entered a local monastery. There he became abbot until chosen as patriarch of Constantinople in 893, a successor of Photius, whose schisms he attempted to heal.
Antony Kauleas B (RM) (also known as Antony Cauleas)  Born near Constantinople in 829; died 901.
1088 Blessed Marianus Scotus extraordinarily gifted at producing manuscripts Feast day february 09, OSB Abbot (AC) (also known as Muirdach MacRobartaigh or Muiredach MacGroarty)

BD MARIANUS SCOTUS (A.D. 1088)
         THE actual name of Marianus Scotus was Muiredach mac Robartaigh, and he appears to have been born in Donegal. As a boy he was remarkable for his personal beauty and great strength, as well as for his piety and for the charming simplicity of his manners. His parents destined him for the priesthood and he early assumed some sort of monastic habit, but without joining any community. With several companions he set out from Ireland in the year 1067, apparently with the intention of ultimately reaching Rome. At Bamberg they were kindly received by Bishop Otto of Regensburg, and under his direction they practised the strictest conventual rule, though still seculars. After a year the bishop, convinced of their vocation, advised them to enter a religious house and they were admitted to the Benedictine monastery of Michelsburg. Though they were very cordially received by the monks, they elected, as they could not speak German, to live apart from the rest, and accordingly a cell at the foot of the mountain was made over to them. There they remained for some time, but they had not forgotten their original intention of making a pilgrimage to Rome. They told the abbot, who, knowing that it was a devout practice very popular with Irishmen, gave them his blessing and a licence to continue on their way.
1130 May 15 Saint Isidore the Farmer; celestial visions, angels sometimes helped him, appeared in a vision to King Alphonsus of Castile in 1211 show him an unknown path used to surprise and defeat the Moors; patron of farmers his master saw angels and oxen helping him
1130 ST ISIDORE THE HUSBANDMAN
In the United States of America this feast is celebrated on 25 October.

THE patron of Madrid was born in the Spanish capital of poor parents, and was christened Isidore after the celebrated archbishop of Seville. Although unable to procure educational advantages for their son, his father and mother early instilled into his mind a great horror of sin and a love of prayer.

May 08 HERE 1175  St. Peter of Tarantaise (not Pope Innocent V) Cistercian archbishop; reformer purging clergy of corrupt & immoral members, aiding poor, promoting education, Trusted advisor by popes and kings
In monastério Bellæ Vallis, in território Bisuntíno, sancti Petri, qui ex Mónacho Cisterciénsi factus est Tarentasiénsis in Sabáudia Epíscopus.
    In the monastery of Bella Vallis, in the diocese of Besançon, St. Peter, Cistercian monk, who was made bishop of Tarantaise in Savoy.
1175 ST PETER, ARCHBISHOP OF TARENTAISE
ST PETER of Tarentaise, one of the glories of the Cistercian Order, was born near Vienne in the French province of the Dauphiné. He early displayed a remarkable memory, coupled with a great inclination for religious studies, and at the age of twenty he entered the abbey of Bonnevaux. With great zeal he embraced the austerities of the rule, edifying all who came into contact with him by his charity, his humility and his modesty. After a time, his father and the other two sons followed Peter to Bonnevaux, whilst his mother, with the only daughter, entered a neighbouring Cistercian nunnery. Besides these members of his own humble family, men of high rank were led by the example of Peter to become monks at Bonnevaux.

Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his parents, who had begged the prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey’s father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.
When he was 5 years old, Godfrey was placed in the care of the abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin. He became a monk and was eventually ordained a priest.
1337 Saint Cyril and his wife Maria
were the parents of St Sergius of Radonezh (September 25). They belonged to the nobility, but more importantly, they were devout and faithful Christians who were adorned with every virtue.

When the child in Maria's womb cried out three times in church during Liturgy, people were astonished. Although frightened at first, Maria came to see this event as a sign from God that her child would become a chosen vessel of divine grace. She and her husband agreed that if the child was a boy, they would bring him to church and dedicate him to God.

This child, the second of their three sons, was born around 1314. He was named Bartholomew at his baptism.

Because of civil strife, St Cyril moved his family from Rostov to Radonezh when Bartholomew was still a boy.  Later, when their son expressed a desire to enter the monastic life, Sts Cyril and Maria asked him to wait and take care of them until they passed away, because his brothers Stephen and Peter were both married and had their own family responsibilities. The young Bartholomew obeyed his parents, and did everything he could to please them. They later decided to retire to separate monasteries, and departed to the Lord after a few years. It is believed that Sts Cyril and Maria both reposed in 1337.

Forty days after burying his parents, Bartholomew settled their estate, giving his share to his brother Peter. He then went to the monastery when he was twenty-three years old, and was tonsured on October 7 with the name Sergius (in honor of the martyr St Sergius who is commemorated on that day). As everyone knows, St Sergius of Radonezh became one of Russia's greatest and most revered saints.

St Cyril was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Russia in 1992. He is also commemorated on September 28, and on July 6 (Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh).

Saint Cyril was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Russia in 1992. He is also commemorated on September 28, and on July 6 (Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh).
1340 June 19 Juliana Falconieri birth answer to prayers of old childless couple they built magnificent church Annunciation at Florence founded Third Order of Servites; Austere. zealous. charitable. sympathetic to all, OSM V (RM)
Floréntiæ sanctæ Juliánæ Falconériæ Vírginis, quæ Sorórum Ordinis Servórum beátæ Maríæ Vírginis fuit Institútrix, et a Cleménte Duodécimo, Pontífice Máximo, in sanctárum Vírginum númerum reláta est.
    At Florence, St. Juliana Falconieri, virgin, foundress of the Sisters of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was placed among the holy virgins by the Sovereign Pontiff, Clement XII.

1341  ST JULIANA FALCONIERI, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE SERVITE  NUNS
ST JULIANA was one of the two glories of the noble family of the Falconieri, the other being her uncle, St Alexis, one of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order. Her father, Chiarissimo, and her mother, Riguardata, were a devout couple of great wealth who had built at their own cost the magnificent church of the Annunziata in Florence. They were childless and already well advanced in age when, in 1270, Juliana was born-the answer to prayer.

1365 Blessed Peter Cambiano Dominican martyr, OP M (AC)
(also known as Peter de Ruffi)
Born in Chieri, Piedmont, Italy, in 1320; died February 2, 1365; beatified in 1856. Link Here
Peter Cambiano's father was a city councillor and his mother was of nobility. They were virtuous and careful parents, and they gave their little son a good education, especially in religion. Peter responded to all their care and became a fine student, as well as a pious and likeable child.
Peter was drawn to the Dominicans by devotion to the rosary. Our Lady of the Rosary was the special patroness of the Piedmont region, and he had a personal devotion to her. At 16, therefore, he presented himself at the convent in Piedmont and asked for the habit.
1518 BD GILES OF LORENZANA his ecstatic prayer and gift of prophecy were renowned far and wide. In particular he is said to have been frequently seen raised from the ground and to have been physically assaulted by the Evil One.
THE published lives of this Giles tell us that he was born about 1443 at Lorenzana in what was once the kingdom of Naples. His parents were a devout couple of the working class, and the boy was not hindered in the religious practices which he adopted from early youth, more especially after he came under the influence of the Franciscan friars, who made a foundation in his native town. In time he decided to serve God in solitude, settling near a little shrine of our Lady. Here he spent most of his time absorbed in prayer, the birds and beasts becoming his familiar companions. But the news of the miracles he was believed to work gradually attracted visitors, and being forced to seek refuge elsewhere, he next took service with a farmer near Lorenzana. Of this stage of his life it is said that, though he spent most of his time in church, his work, God so disposing, did not suffer from his absence. Eventually he was received into the Franciscan com­munity as a lay-brother, and being given the care of the garden, he was allowed to build himself a little hut there, where he lived as in a kind of hermitage. He was still the friend of the birds and all living creatures, and his miraculous cures, his ecstatic prayer and gift of prophecy were renowned far and wide. In particular he is said to have been frequently seen raised from the ground and to have been physically assaulted by the Evil One. He died on January 10, 1518. The state­ment made that six years after his death his incorrupt body, though it had been laid in the tomb in the ordinary way, was found kneeling, rosary in hand, and the face turned towards the Blessed Sacrament, can hardly be considered to rest upon evidence sufficient to establish so strange a marvel. The cult of Bd Giles was confirmed in 1880.
See Leon, Auréole Séraphique (English trans.), January 10 Antony da Vicenza, Vita e miracoli del B. Egidio (1880).
1547 Oct 20 St. Cajetan (Gaetano) of Thienna, Priest (RM) Born in Vicenza, Lombardy, Italy, 1480; died in Naples, Italy, on August 7, 1547; beatified by Urban VIII in 1629; canonized by Clement X in 1671. Saint Cajetan, founder of the blue-habited Theatines, was the son of Lord Gaspar of Thienna (Tiene) and his wife Mary di Porto. Both were known for their piety. At his birth his mother, a fervent Dominican tertiary, dedicated Cajetan to the Blessed Virgin. Although his father died while fighting for the Venetians against King Ferdinand of Naples when Cajetan was only two, the example of his mother helped Cajetan to grow into a man of sweet temper, constant recollection, and unwavering compassion, especially toward the poor and afflicted.
1568 Stanislaus Kostka, SJ (RM) feast Nov 13; known for his studious ways, deep religious fervor, and mortifications. After he recovered from a serious illness during which he experienced several visions, he decided to join the Jesuits; experienced ecstasies at Mass.

1568 ST STANISLAUS KOSTKA
THE Roman Martyrology, in referring to him on August 15, the day of his death, truly says of St Stanislaus Kostka that he “was made perfect in a short while and fulfilled many times by the angelic innocence of his life”. He was the second son of John Kostka, senator of Poland, and Margaret Kryska, and was born in the castle of Rostkovo in 1550. The first elements of letters he learned at home under a private tutor, Dr John Bilinsky, who attended him and his elder brother, Paul, to the college of the Jesuits at Vienna when the saint was fourteen years old.    From the first Stanislaus gave as much of his time as possible to prayer and study, and he was notably sensitive to any coarseness of talk. “Don’t tell that story before Stanislaus”, his father would say to his free-spoken guests, “he would faint.”
1585 Saint Sergius of Malopinega (in the world Simeon) he possessed a kindly soul pure mind a courageous heart humility Nov 16 feast and quiet strength love for truth was merciful to the poor to the point of self-denial numerous miracles which occurred at the grave
Born in 1493. His father, Markian Stephanovich Nekliud, was descended from Novgorod nobles. Together with other fellow citizens they left their native-place setting off “to the side of the icy sea, when Great Novgorod was finally subjugated to the power of Moscow by Ivan III. There in the northlands, Markian Stephanovich married Apollinaria, a maiden from a rich and noble family. The pious spouses raised their son Simeon in the fear of God, they gave him a fine education, and inculcated in him the love for book-learning. Having grown old, Markian and Apollinaria by mutual agreement went to monasteries. Markian (in monasticism Matthew) was afterwards igumen of the Resurrection monastery in the city of Keurola. Apollinaria died a schemanun with the name Pelagia.
1618 St. John Berchmans miracles were attributed to him after his death; Nov 26 he kept before himself a way of perfection which he expressed in the phrase “Set great store on little things”
Eldest son of a shoemaker, John was born at Diest, Brabant. He early wanted to be a priest, and when thirteen became a servant in the household of one of the Cathedral canons at Malines, John Froymont.  “I humbly pray you, honoured father and dearest mother, by your parental affection for me and by my filial love for you, to be so good as to come here on Wednesday evening at the latest, either by the Malines coach from Montaigu or by Stephen’s wagon, so that I may say ‘Welcome and good-bye’ to you, and you to me when you givc me, your son, back to the Lord God who gave me to you”.
In 1615, he entered the newly founded Jesuit College at Malines, and the following year became a Jesuit novice. Soon after his novitiate began his mother died (there is extant a touching letter from him to her during her last illness), and within eighteen months his father had been ordained priest and presented to a canonry in his native town.

 He was sent to Rome in 1618 to continue his studies, and was known for his diligence and piety, impressing all with his holiness and stress on perfection in little things. He died there on August 13. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death, and he was canonized in 1888. He is the patron of altar boys
1717 Bl. Anthony Baldinucci Nov 7 feast day Jesuit missionary preacher; His father, painter and writer by profession, after recovery from an illness, which he attributed to the intercession of St Antony of Padua, vowed his next child to that saint; and when a boy was born in 1665, appropriately within the octave of his feast, he had him baptized Antony and brought up with the idea of becoming a priest. The Baldinucci family lived in the same house in the via degli Angeli at Florence in which St Aloysius Gonzaga had lived for a time when a child, and the intimate memory of this young saint had much influence on the growing Antony. When he was sixteen he offered himself to the Society of Jesus and was accepted, in spite of his rather uncertain health.
1775 Oct 20 and April 28 St Paul Of The Cross, Founder Of The Barefooted Clerks Of The Holy Cross And Passion
THE founder of the Passionists, St Paul-of-the-Cross, was born at Ovada in the republic of Genoa in 1694—the year which saw also the birth of Voltaire. Paul Francis, as he was called, was the eldest son of Luke Danei, a business man of good family, and his wife, both exemplary Christians. Whenever little Paul shed tears of pain or annoyance his mother used to show him the crucifix with a few simple words about the sufferings of our Lord, and thus she instilled into his infant mind the germs of that devotion to the Sacred Passion which was to rule his life. The father would read aloud the lives of the saints to his large family of children, whom he often cautioned against gambling and fighting. Although Paul seems to have been one of those chosen souls who have given themselves to God almost from babyhood, yet at the age of fifteen he was led by a sermon to conclude that he was not corresponding to grace. Accordingly, after making a general confession, he embarked on a life of austerity, sleeping on the bare ground, rising at midnight, spending hours in prayer, and scourging himself. In all these practices he was imitated by his brother John Baptist, his junior by two years. He also formed a society for mutual sanctification among the youths of the neighbourhood, several of whom afterwards joined religious communities.
1897 Oct 1 Saint Thérèse of Lisieux; Dr of the Church Since death she worked innumerable miracles one of the patron saints of the missions
 the Little Flower of Jesus, born at Alençon, France, 2 January, 1873; died at Lisieux 30 September, 1897.
Generations of Catholics have admired this young saint, called her the “Little Flower”, and found in her short life more inspiration for own lives than in volumes by theologians.
The parents of the saint were St.Louis Martin, a watchmaker of Alençon, son of an officer in the armies of Napoleon I, and St. Azélie-Marie Guérin, a maker of point d’Alençon in the same town, whose father had been a gendarme at Saint-Denis near Seez. Five of the children born to them survived to maturity, of whom Teresa was the youngest. She was born on January 2, 1873, and baptized Marie­ Françoise-Therèse. Her childhood was happy, ordinary and surrounded by good influences; “my earliest memories are of smiles and tender caresses. She had a quick intelligence and an open and impressionable mind, but there was no pre­cocity or priggishness about the little Teresa; when the older sister Léonie offered a doll and other playthings to Céline and Teresa, Céline chose some silk braid, but Teresa said, “I’ll have the lot. “My whole life could be summed up in this little incident. Later...I cried out, ‘My God, I choose all! I don’t want to be a saint by halves.’”
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin, foundress of the Congregation of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, At Chicago,  distinguished for charity, humility, and invincible fortitude. Pope Pius XII added her to the catalogue of saints, and named her as the heavenly patroness of all emigrants.
   
Chicágiæ sanctæ Francíscæ Xavériæ Cabríni, Vírginis, Institúti Missionariárum a Sacratíssimo Corde Jesu Fundatrícis, exímia caritáte, invícta ánimi fortitúdine et humilitáte insígnis, quam Pius Papa Duodécimus, Sanctárum catálogo adscrípsit, et ómnium emigrántium cæléstem apud Deum Patrónam constítuit.
1917 St Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin, Foundress The Missionary Sisters of The Sacred Heart
In a Motu Pro prio of John XXIII dated 25 July, 1960, this feast was transferred to 3 January. In the United States this feast is celebrated on 13 November.AUGUSTINE CABRINI appears to have been what in England of the past was called a very substantial yeoman, who owned and farmed land around Sant’ Angelo Lodigiano, between Pavia and Lodi; his wife, Stella Oldini, was a Milanese; and they had thirteen children, of whom the youngest was born on July 15, 1850, and christened Maria Francesca (later she was to add Saverio to the second name, which is what Xavier becomes in Italian). The Cabrini were a solidly religious family—everything about them was solid—and little Frances came particularly under the strict care of her sister Rosa, who had been a school-teacher and had not escaped all the dangers of that profession. But the child profited by Rosa’s teaching, and suffered no harm from her unbending discipline. There was perhaps a certain precocity about the child’s religion, but it was nonetheless real. Family reading aloud from the “Annals of the Propa­gation of the Faith” inspired her with an early determination to go to the foreign missions—China was the country of her predilection. She dressed her dolls as nuns, made paper boats and floated them down the river manned with violets to represent missionaries going to foreign parts, and she gave up sweets, for in China there would be no sweets so she had better get used to it.

1060 ST DOMINIC LORICATUS October 14

Eódem die deposítio beáti Domínici Loricáti.    On the same day, the death of blessed Dominic Loricatus.
THE severity with which this young man condemned--himself to penance for a misdeed which was not his own is a reproach to those who, after offending God with full knowledge and through malice, expect forgiveness without considering the conditions which true repentance requires. Dominic’s parents aspired to an ecclesiastical state for their son, and his father obtained his promotion to the priesthood from the bishop by means of a present of a goatskin. When the young priest came to the knowledge of this, he was struck with remorse and could not, it is said, be induced again to approach the altar to celebrate Mass or exercise any other sacerdotal office. In Umbria at this time, amidst the Apennine mountains, a holy man called John of Montefeltro led a most austere life as a hermit, with whom in eighteen different cells lived as many disciples. Dominic repaired to this superior, and begged to be admitted into the company of these anchorites. He obtained his request, and by the austerity of his penance gave proof how deep the spirit of sorrow was with which his heart was pierced. After some years he changed his abode, about 1042, retiring to the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, which St Peter Damian then governed.

The abbot, who had been long accustomed to meet with examples of heroic penance, was astonished at this new recruit. Dominic wore next his skin a coat of mail (from which he was surnamed Loricatus, i.e. the “Mailed”), and further burdened his limbs with chains his self-inflicted flagellations, moreover, were so frequent and violent that he seems to have exceeded all measure. He ate as little as was allowed, and then only bread and herbs, with water to drink and he slept kneeling on the ground. When he had loaded himself with his cuirass and chains and iron rings he would make numerous prostrations or stand with arms extended cross-wise, until the weight dragging on his limbs proved too much for him. And these practices he continued up to his death, which occurred some years after he had been appointed prior of a hermitage founded by St Peter Damian near San Severino. The last night of his life St Dominic recited Matins and Lauds with his brethren, and died whilst they sang Prime, on October 14, 1060.

Little or nothing is known of this saint beyond what we learn from St Peter Damian. All that is of value has been gathered up in the article devoted to St Dominic in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vi. See also A. M. Zimmermann, Kalendarium benedictinum, vol. iii (1937), pp. 178-181, and Annales Camaldulenses, vol. ii.

1060 St. Dominic Loricatus Benedictine monk “the Mailed” because of the iron coat of mail that he wore against his skin. Born in Umbria, Italy, in 995, he was ordained illegally when his father bribed the local bishop. Dominic decided to perform penance for the rest of his life. After a period as a hermit, about 1040 he became a Benedictine under St. Peter Damian at Fontavellana.
1115 Godfrey of Amiens a zealous reformer, unrelentingly fought simony enforcing celibacy His tomb was illustrated by many miracles OSB B (RM)
Suessíone, in Gálliis, sancti Godefrídi, Ambianénsis Epíscopi, magnæ sanctitátis viri.
    At Soissons in France, St. Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, a man of great sanctity.
(also known as Geoffrey, Gottfried)  Born near Soissons, France, c. 1066; died near Soissons.
SAINT GODFREY or GEOFFROY Bishop of Amiens (ca. 1066-1115)
Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his parents, who had begged the prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey’s father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.

When he was 5 years old, Godfrey was placed in the care of the abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin. He became a monk and was eventually ordained a priest.
In 1096 he became the abbot of the decayed Nogent-sous-Coucy in Champagne, where the brethren had dwindled to six and the buildings and discipline were similarly dilapidated. Under his rule the monastery prospered, and as a result, he came to the notice of the archbishop of Rheims who asked him to take over the famous Abbey of Saint-Remi at Rheims. Godfrey refused. He made a disturbance and vehemently added during an assembly, “God forbid I should ever desert a poor bride by preferring a rich one!

Despite his strong feelings, he was appointed bishop of Amiens in 1104, but he insisted upon continuing to live very simply. When he thought the cook was treating him too well, he took the best food from the kitchen and gave it away to the poor and the sick.
He was a zealous reformer, unrelentingly fought simony enforcing celibacy, and supported the organization of communes. But, because he was an excessively stern ruler, his life was threatened more than once, including by a disgruntled woman.
His scrupulousness caused great resentment among the laxer clergy. He became disheartened by their behavior and withdrew to the Carthusian monastery at Grande-Chartreuse. A council ordered him to return to his diocese--his people refused to allow him to retire. But on his way to visit his metropolitan, he died the following year at Saint Crispin's abbey in Soissons, where he was buried. His name was not found in calendars before the 16th century (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Walsh, White).
In art Saint Gottfried is a bishop with a dead hound at his feet. Sometimes he is shown serving the sick or embracing a leper (Roeder).


SAINT GODFREY or GEOFFROY Bishop of Amiens (ca. 1066-1115)
Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his parents, who had begged the prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey’s father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.
1159 Bl. Amadeus of Lausanne Cistercian Bishop prominent official court of Savoy & Burgundy
1159 ST AMADEUS, BISHOP OF LAUSANNE
THIS Amadeus was of the royal house of Franconia and born at the castle of Chatte in Dauphiné in 1110. When he was eight years old his father, Amadeus of Cler­mont, Lord of Hauterive, took the religious habit at the Cistercian abbey of Bonnevaux. Young Amadeus went to Bonnevaux to be educated there, but after a time he and his father migrated to Cluny. Amadeus senior returned to the more austere Cistercian house, while Amadeus junior went for a short time into the household of the Emperor Henry V. He then received the Cistercian habit at Clairvaux, where he lived for fourteen years. In 1139 the abbot of Hautecombe in Savoy retired and St Bernard appointed Amadeus in his place; the monastery had adopted the reform only four years before and its temporal affairs were in a bad way. St Amadeus encouraged the community to bear these extra hardships cheerfully, and by careful administration got the monastery out of its difficulties. In 1144 he accepted, by order of
Pope Lucius II
, the see of Lausanne, where he was at once involved in struggles with the nobles of the diocese and a vain effort to induce the Emperor Conrad to go to the help of the pope against Pierleone. When Amadeus III, Duke of Savoy, went on the Second Crusade, St Amadeus was appointed as a sort of co-regent with his son Humbert; and four years before his death he was made chancellor of Burgundy by Frederick Barbarossa. Nicholas, the secretary of St Bernard, speaks highly of the virtues of this active bishop, and his age-long cultus was approved in 1910. A number of sermons of St Amadeus are extant.
There seems to be no early life of Amadeus, but an account of him has been compiled from various sources in such works as the Gallia Christiana, vol. xv, pp. 346—348, and Manrique, Annales Cistercienses, under the year 1158. A more modern survey of his career will be found in the Cistercienser-Chronik, vol. xi (1891), pp. 50 seq. and vol. xxiii (1911), pp. 297 seq. and see A. Dimier, Amédée de Lausanne (1949) in the series “Figures monastiques”.
Amadeus was a member of the royal family of Franconia, the son of Blessed Amadeus of Clermont (monk), born in the castle of Chatte, Dauphine, France.
He was educated at Bonnevaux and then at Cluny, where his father had become a monk. While serving in the household of King Henry V, Amadeus entered Clairvaux in 1124, becoming a Cistercian.
He became abbot of Ilautecombe Savoy in 1139, and the bishop of Lausanne in 1144.
In his last years, Amadeus served as co-regent for Duke Humbert of Savoy and as the chancellor of Burgundy, appointed to the post by Frederick Barbarossa (1123; died 10 June, 1190).

Amadeus of Lausanne, OSB Cist., Bishop (AC)
Born at Chattes, Dauphiné, France; died 1159; cultus approved by Saint Pius X in 1910. Amadeus of Lausanne is the son of Blessed Amadeus of Clermont, lord of Hauterive. He was educated at Bonnevaux and Cluny, then served at the court of Emperor Henry V. In 1125, Amadeus became a monk at Clairvaux under Saint Bernard, who sent Amadeus in 1139 to govern the abbey of Hautecombe in Savoy. Under obedience to the pope, he accepted the bishopric of Lausanne in 1144. During the last four years of his life, he was also co- regent of Savoy and chancellor of Burgundy (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson). Blessed Amadeus is pictured as a Cistercian bishop receiving a pair of gloves from the Blessed Virgin (Roeder). He is venerated in Burgundy and Savoy, especially Cluny, Clairvaux, and Hautecombe (Roeder).
1547 St. Cajetan; at his birth his mother, a fervent Dominican tertiary, dedicated Cajetan to the Blessed Virgin; father died fighting for Venetians against King Ferdinand of Naples when Cajetan was only two, example of mother helped Cajetan to grow into a man of sweet temper, constant recollection, unwavering compassion, especially toward poor and afflicted; mystical experience; doctorate in both civil and canon law at Padua, Italy, he became a senator in Vicenza; Pope Julius II compelled him to accept the office of protonotary in his court. Although Julius II was one of the least inspiring examples of a pope, Cajetan saw through the lustful, simonious, indulgent, war-loving court to the essential holiness of the Church. He knew that despite the vices and follies of Her servants, Holy Mother Church still held the keys to the salvation of the world; resigned as protonotary upon Julius's death in 1513 and was ordained in 1516; founder of the blue-habited Theatines, beatified by Urban VIII in 1629; canonized by Clement X in 1671. Miracles
Neapoli, in Campania, sancti Cajetani Thienæi Confessóris, Clericórum Regulárium Fundatoris, qui, singulári in Deum fiducia, pristinam Apostolicam vivéndi formam suis coléndam trádidit, et, miráculis clarus, a Cleménte Papa Décimo inter Sanctos relátus est.
    At Naples in Campania, St. Cajetan the Theatine, confessor, founder of the Clerics Regular, who, through singular confidence in God, made his disciples practise the primitive mode of life of the apostles.  Being renowned for miracles, he was ranked among the saints by Clement X.
 
Cajetan took a different route.
Just as concerned as Luther was about what he observed in the Church, he went to Rome in 1523 -- not to talk to the pope or the hierarchy but to consult with members of a confraternity called the Oratory of the Divine Love. When he had first come to Rome many years before, he had felt called to some unknown great work there. A few years later he returned to his hometown of Vicenza -- his great work seemingly unrealized. He had however studied for the priesthood and been ordained and helped re-establish a faded confraternity whose aims were promoting God's glory and the welfare of souls.
In the years he had been gone from Rome, he had founded another Oratory in his home town and Verona where he had promoted spiritual life and care for the poor and sick not only with words but with his heroic example. He told his brothers, "In this oratory we try to serve God by worship; in our hospital we may say that we actually find him." But none of the horrors he saw in the hospitals of the incurables depressed him as much as the wickedness he saw everywhere he looked.

In his former confraternity, he found other clergy who felt the way he did. They didn't want to split off from the Church, they wanted to restore it. So they decided to form an order based on the lives of the apostles in the hopes that these lives would inspire them and others to live holy lives devoted to Jesus . In order to accomplish this they would focus on moral lives, sacred studies, preaching and pastoral care, helping the sick, and other solid foundations of pastoral life. This new order was known as Theatines Clerks Regular because it was an order of the regular clergy and because a bishop known as Theatensis was their first superior general (although Cajetan is considered the founder).
Not surprisingly, they didn't find thousands of formerly greedy and licentious priests flocking to their door. But Cajetan and the others persevered even in the face of open opposition from laity and clergy who didn't want to reform. It was his holy example that converted many as well as his preaching.
Worn out by the troubles he saw in his Church and his home, Cajetan fell ill. When doctors tried to get him to rest on a softer bed then the boards he slept on, Cajetan answered, "My savior died on a cross. Let me die on wood at least." He died on August 7, 1547.
In His Footsteps
Do you have concerns about the Church or about certain people in power in the Church? Have you ever thought of leaving the Church because of these concerns? What positive steps could you take instead of splitting from the Church to help promote holiness and love of God and others?  Prayer: Saint Cajetan, when we see things that trouble us in our Church, help us to continue to love her. Guide us to the positive steps we need to take to work within the Church for renewal. Help us to be examples of holiness to all. Amen

Cajetan (Gaetano) of Thienna, Priest (RM) Born in Vicenza, Lombardy, Italy, in 1480; died in Naples, Italy, on August 7, 1547; beatified by Urban VIII in 1629; canonized by Clement X in 1671. Saint Cajetan, founder of the blue-habited Theatines, was the son of Lord Gaspar of Thienna (Tiene) and his wife Mary di Porto. Both were known for their piety. At his birth his mother, a fervent Dominican tertiary, dedicated Cajetan to the Blessed Virgin. Although his father died while fighting for the Venetians against King Ferdinand of Naples when Cajetan was only two, the example of his mother helped Cajetan to grow into a man of sweet temper, constant recollection, and unwavering compassion, especially toward the poor and afflicted.
   After attaining a doctorate in both civil and canon law at Padua, Italy, he became a senator in Vicenza. He built a parochial chapel at his own expense at Rampazzo, where those living far from the parish church might be catechized and worship. Thereafter he fled to Rome in 1506, where he had hoped to live in obscurity among the crowds; however, Pope Julius II compelled him to accept the office of protonotary in his court. Although Julius II was one of the least inspiring examples of a pope, Cajetan saw through the lustful, simonious, indulgent, war-loving court to the essential holiness of the Church. He knew that despite the vices and follies of Her servants, Holy Mother Church still held the keys to the salvation of the world.
He thanked God for the flowering of the arts in the Renaissance, knowing that the genius of the artist was but a reflection of the creativity of God. Yet he knew that the Church was in need of reformation. Unlike his contemporaries Luther and Savonarola, however, Cajetan wanted to bring about the reform patiently and humbly. He put his trust in the Holy Spirit and the love Christ has for His Bride.
   During the thirteen years Cajetan labored in Rome for reform, he did what he could to bring comfort to others: he visited the sick in hospitals and sought out the incurable and the dying in their homes. He had joined the Confraternity of Divine Love, a small, unofficial group devoted to works of charity. They cared for the sick, the poor, foundlings, and prisoners. Gradually their influence spread further afield in Italy.
He resigned as protonotary upon Julius's death in 1513 and was ordained in 1516. The following year, while praying at the Christmas crib in the church of Saint Mary Maggiore, he had a mystical experience. He records, "Encouraged by the Blessed Saint Jerome, whose bones lie in the crypt beneath the crib, I took from the hands of the timid Virgin who had just become a mother her tender Child, in whom the eternal Word had been made flesh."
In 1518, Cajetan returned to Vicenza and his dying mother. There he joined the Oratory of Saint Jerome. Upon Mary di Porto's death, he dedicated his considerable inheritance to relieving distress, first in Vicenza and then in Verona and Venice. He founded a similar oratory at Venice and continued his work, particularly with the incurable.
In 1523, he returned to Rome, Paul Consiglieri, Boniface da Colle, and Bishop Giovanni Pietro Caraffa of Chieti (or Theate), who later became Pope Paul IV. These men helped Cajetan implement his vision of an order of priests whose lives would be as simple as those of the Apostles and who would serve as models for the secular clergy. The members of the Congregation of Clerks Regular (more generally known as the Theatines) were to dress in black and concentrate on the essentials of the priestly life: embracing poverty, spreading charity, and bringing life in the sacraments. The institute was approved by Pope Clement VII with Bishop Caraffa as the order's first provost general.
In 1524, twelve priests installed themselves in a house on the Pinicio in Rome, where Cajetan occupied himself in the humblest tasks. When Rome was sacked three years later by Charles V, the Theatines moved to Venice, where the famine and plague gave them ample opportunity to devote themselves to the service of others. The Venetians called them "hermits" because of their extreme simplicity of life and Cajetan they named "the saint of Providence." Cajetan was elected superior in 1530, and Caraffa re- elected in 1533. That same year the Theatines founded a house in Naples with Cajetan as its superior. Thereafter, the order rapidly spread throughout Italy, then Europe.
In Naples Cajetan fought widespread opposition to the reforms of the bishops and the prevalent heresies. Later, with Blessed John Marinoni, he founded the montes pietatis to help extend loans to the poor and combat usury.
Cajetan, one of the great Catholic reformers, died in Naples, worn out by his frequent travels and many obligations as superior, on a bed of ashes. At his request, he was buried in a common grave in the church of Saint Paul. Many of the reforms of the Council of Trent were anticipated and implemented by Cajetan long before that council convened (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
In art, Saint Cajetan is depicted as a Theatine monk with a winged heart. He may sometimes be shown (1) with a book, pen, lily, and flaming heart (not to be confused with Saint Augustine, who never has a lily); (2) seeing a vision of the Holy Family with a lily at his feet; or (3) holding the Christ-Child as an angel holds a lily nearby (Roeder). He is venerated in Chieti and Naples (Roeder).

St Cajetan, Co-founder of The Theatine Clerks Regular
St Cajetan (Gaetano) was son of Caspar, Count of Thierie, and Mary di Porto, of the nobility of Vicenza, where he was born in 1480. Two years later his father was killed, fighting for Venetians against King Ferdinand of Naples. His widow was appointed guardian of Cajetan and his two brothers.  The admirable example and teaching she gave her sons bore quick and abundant fruit, and Cajetan in particular was soon known for his unusual goodness. He went 4 years to the University of Padua where long exercises of devotion which he practised were no hindrance to his studies, but sanctified them and purified his understanding, enabling him the better to judge of truth.  He distinguished himself in theology, and took the degree of doctor in civil and Canon law in 1504. He then returned to his native town, of which he was made a senator, and in pursuance of his resolve to serve God as a priest he received the tonsure.
   In 1506 he went to Rome, not in quest of preferment or live at court, but because of a strong inward conviction that he was needed for some great work there.  Soon after his arrival Pope Julius II conferred on him the office of protonotary, with a benefice attached.  On death of Julius II in 1513 Cajetan refused his successor's request to continue in his office, and devoted three years to preparing himself for the priesthood.  He was ordained in 1516 being thirty-three years old, and returned to Vicenza in 1518.
   Cajetan had re-founded a confraternity in Rome, called  "of the Divine Love ", which was an association of zealous and devout clerics who devoted themselves to labour with all their power to promote God's honour and the welfare of souls.
    At Vicenza he now entered himself in the Oratory of St Jerome, which was instituted upon the plan of that of the Divine Love but consisted only of men in the lowest stations of life.  This circumstance gave great offence to his friends, who thought it a reflection on the honour of his family.  He persisted, however, and exerted his zeal with wonderful fruit. He sought out the sick and the poor over the whole town and served them, and cared for those who suffered from the most loathsome diseases in the hospital of the incurables, the revenues of which he greatly increased. But his primary concern was for the spiritual life of the members of his oratory:   In this oratory ", he said, "we try to serve God by worship; in our hospital we may say that we actually find Him."  He founded a similar oratory at Verona and then, in obedience to the advice of his confessor, John-Baptist of Crema, a Dominican friar of great prudence and piety, Cajetan went in 1520  to Venice and, taking up his lodgings in the new hospital of that city, pursued Iris former manner of life there.  He was so great a benefactor to that house as to be regarded as its principal founder.
    He remained in Venice three years, and introduced exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in that city, as well as continuing the promotion of frequent communion:  "I shall never be content till I see Christians flocking like little children to feed on the Bread of Life, and with eagerness and delight, not with fear and false shame ", he wrote.
   The state of Christendom at this time was not less than shocking.
The general corruption weakened the Church before the assaults of Protestantisrn and provided an apparent excuse for that revolt, and the decay of religion with its accompaniment of moral wickedness was not checked by the clergy, many of whom, high and low, secular and regular were themselves sunk in iniquity and indifference. The Church was "sick in head and members ". The spectacle shocked and distressed  Cajetan, and in 1523 he went back to Rome to confer with his friends of the Oratory of Divine Love.  They agreed that little could be done than by reviving in the clergy the spirit and zeal of those holy pastors who first planted the faith, and to put them in mind what this spirit ought to be, and -what it obliges them to, a plan was formed for instituting an order of regular clergy upon the model of lives of the Apostles.
    First associates of St Cajetan in this design were John Peter Caraffa, afterwards pope under the name of Paul IV Clement VII, and Carafh was chosen the first provost general.  From his episcopal name of Theatensis these clerks regular came to be distinguished from others as Theatines.   On September 14, 1524 the four original members laid aside their prelatical robes and
made their profession in St Peter's in the presence of a papal delegate.  The principal ends which they proposed to themselves were to preach sound doctrine to the people, assist the sick, restore the frequent use of the sacraments, and re-establish in  the clergy disinterestedness, regularity of life, sacred studies (especially of the Bible), preaching and pastoral care, and the fitting conduct of divine worhsip.  Life was to be in common, under the usual vows, and poverty was strongly emphasized.
   The success of the new congregation was not immediate, and in 1527, when it still numbered only a dozen members, a calamity happened which might well have put an end to it.  The army of the Emperor Charles V sacked Rome: the Theatines' house was nearly demolished, and the inmates had to escape to Venice.Caraffa's term as superior expired in 1530: St Cajetan was chosen in his place. He accepted the office with reluctance, but did not let its cares abate the energy with which he worked to inspire the clergy with his own fervour and devotion, and his charity was made most conspicuous during a plague which was brought to Venice from the Levant, followed by a dreadful famine. but at that time bishop of Theate (Chieti); Paul Consiglieri, of the family of Ghislieri;  and Boniface da Colle, a gentleman of Milan.  The institute was approved .
   At the end of the three years of office, CarauIa was made superior a second time, and Cajetan was sent to Verona, where both the clergy and laity were tumultuously opposing the reformation of discipline which their bishop was endeavouring to introduce among them.  Shortly after, he was called to Naples to establish the clerks regular there.   The Count of Oppido gave him a large house, and tried to prevail upon him to accept an estate in lands; but this he refused.  In vain the count pointed out that the Neapolitans were neither so rich nor so generous as the Venetians.   "That may be true", replied Cajetan, "but God is the same in both cities."
   A general improvement at Naples was the fruit of his example, preaching and labours, and he was foremost in the successful opposition to the activities of three apostates, a layman, an Augustinian and a Franciscan, who, respectively Socinian, Calvinist and Lutheran, were corrupting the religion of the people.  During the last years of his life he established with Bd John Marinoni the benevolent pawnshops (montes pietatis) sanctioned some time before by the Fifth Lateran Council.  Worn out with trying to appease civil strife in Naples, and disappointed by the suspension of the Council of Trent from which he hoped so much for the Church's good, St Cajetan had to take to his bed in the summer of 1547.  When his physicians advised him not to lie on the hard boards but to use a mattress, his answer was, "My Saviour died on a cross, allow me at least to die on wood ".   He lingered for a week, the end coming on Sunday, August 7.  Many miracles wrought by his intercession were approved at Rome after a rigorous scrutiny, and he was canonized in 1671.
   St Cajetan was one of the most outstanding figures among the pre-Tridentine Catholic reformers, and his institution of clerks regular, priests bound by vow and living in community but engaged in active pastoral work, played a very great part in the Catholic reformation.  Today, with. the one tremendous exception of the Jesuits, all their congregations have been reduced to small bodies,  but continuing their original life and  work. Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of Saint Asaph and  last  survivor of the old hierarchy of England and Wales, was a Theatine, who entered their house of St Paul at Naples in the year of St Cajetan's death.
No biography of this saint has been left us by anyone who actually knew him.  The life is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. ii, compiled by A. Caracciolo, was not written until some 60 years after the holy priest's death. Probably St Cajetan's close association with Caraffa, and the extreme unpopularity of the latter's pontificate-he became pope, as Paul IV, eight years after the former went to Heaven-rendered the early history of the Theatines a delicate subject to handle.  It is only in recent times that L. von Pastor, G. M. Monti, 0. Premoli, and other conscientious investigators have thrown light upon many matters formerly buried in obscurity.  Though only a slight sketch, the bookletof 0. Premoli, S. Gaetano Thiene (1910), perhaps offers the most reliable picture of the saint but for the earlier portion of his career, Pio Paschini, S. Gaetano...e 1a origini dei.Teatini (1926), has provided a study of great value, largely based upon unpublished letters. The life by R. de Maulde Ia Claviere, which having been translated into English is the most easily accessible, cannot be recommended without reserves:  see the reviews of both the original and the revised edition in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxii, p. 119, and vol. xxiv, p. 419. Two later biographies in Italian are by P. Chiminelli (1948), very full, and by L. Ruiz de Cardenas (1947), shorter and more popular.
1461 BD ANTONY OF STRONCONE
         Luici and Isabella Vici, the father and mother of Antony, were people of good position and ancient lineage. Being fervent tertiaries they were both devoted to the Franciscan Order and seem to have raised no great opposition when their son and heir, at the early age of twelve years, sought admission among the Friars Minor  as a lay-brother. His training in the religious life was superintended by his uncle, who was commissary general of the Observants in Italy.
1551 Blessed Thomas Sherwood denying the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy M (AC)

BD THOMAS SHERWOOD, MARTYR (AD. 1578)
  FROM an account written by the martyr’s brother we are exceptionally well-informed regarding this heroic young man of twenty-seven, the son of most devout parents, his mother after his execution having been confined in prison for fourteen years, where eventually she died.
1717 Bl. Anthony Baldinucci Nov 7 feast day Jesuit missionary preacher; His father, painter and writer by profession, after recovery from an illness, which he attributed to the intercession of St Antony of Padua, vowed his next child to that saint; and when a boy was born in 1665, appropriately within the octave of his feast, he had him baptized Antony and brought up with the idea of becoming a priest. The Baldinucci family lived in the same house in the via degli Angeli at Florence in which St Aloysius Gonzaga had lived for a time when a child, and the intimate memory of this young saint had much influence on the growing Antony. When he was sixteen he offered himself to the Society of Jesus and was accepted, in spite of his rather uncertain health.
1742 BD FRANCIS ANTONY OF LUCERA; Brother Francis Antony made his studies in various colleges, and in 1705 was ordained priest at Assisi. He gained his doctorate in theology soon after; Father Francis’s headquarters was in his hometown for the rest of his life. From the time that he received his mastership in theology he was known as “Padre Maestro”, Father Master, in Lucera (as he still is familiarly called there); a teacher and preacher throughout Apulia and the Molise as a superior it was said of him, “He measures our spirit by his own-he wants us all to be as holy as he is”. Like St Joseph Cafasso at the other end of Italy a century later, Father Francis was particularly concerned for the inmates of prisons; the Franciscan’s love embraced all;  it was he who started in Italy a Christmas custom of collecting gifts for the poor, and people continually came to him with their wants, whether possible or impossible. And sometimes the seemingly impossible ones were fulfilled too, notably where shortages of water were concerned; “If you want to see St Francis, watch Father Master”; his first superior said that he reached such a degree of mystical union with God that he was filled with Him; One characteristic was intense devotion to the Mother of God as conceived free from original sin, every year he celebrated a solemn public novena before the feast of the Conception (Lucera still observes it). It was on the first day of this novena, November 29, in 1742, that Father Francis died.

 IN the later part of the seventeenth century there was living at Lucera in Apulia a poor family-the man was a farm-labourer-called Fasani, into which was born in 1681 a boy who was christened Donato Antony John Nicholas, commonly called Johnnie. It was a good and respectable household, but before little John was ten his father died, and his mother married again. However, her second choice was good too, and it was due to the stepfather, Francis Farinacci, that John Fasani was sent to be educated by the Conventual Friars Minor at Lucera. He also heard a call to that order, and in his fifteenth year was clothed at the provincial novitiate on Monte Gargano. Brother Francis Antony made his studies in various colleges, and in 1705 was ordained priest at Assisi. He gained his doctorate in theology soon after, and in 1707 was sent as lector in philosophy to the Conventual college at Lucera.

Father Francis’s headquarters was in his hometown for the rest of his life. From the time that he received his mastership in theology he was known as “Padre Maestro”, Father Master, in Lucera (as he still is familiarly called there), although he fulfilled a succession of offices, including that of minister provincial of the province of Sant’ Angelo. He had made his mark as a teacher and as a preacher throughout Apulia and the Molise as a superior it was said of him, “He measures our spirit by his own-he wants us all to be as holy as he is”. Like St Joseph Cafasso at the other end of Italy a century later, Father Francis was particularly concerned for the inmates of prisons, of whom those condemned to death were perhaps the more fortunate as an indication of their condition one of his Italian biographers quotes Gladstone’s denouncement of Neapolitan prisons one hundred years after. But the Franciscan’s love embraced all;  it was he who started in Italy a Christmas custom of collecting gifts for the poor, and people continually came to him with their wants, whether possible or impossible. And sometimes the seemingly impossible ones were fulfilled too, notably where shortages of water were concerned.
   It was currently said in Lucera, “If you want to see St Francis, watch Father Master”; and his first superior said of him that he had reached such a degree of mystical union with God that he was filled with Him. One of his characteristics was an intense devotion to the Mother of God as conceived free from original sin, and every year he celebrated a solemn public novena before the feast of the Conception (Lucera still observes it). It was on the first day of this novena, November 29, in 1742, that Father Francis died.
   Some time before, when he seemed to be in good health, he had foretold that his earthly end was at hand to one of his penitents, and to Father Ludovic Gioca who, he suggested, would accompany him. Father Ludovic was rather upset. “Listen, Father Master”, he said, “If you
want to die, that is your affair. But I am in no hurry.” “We must both make the journey: I first, you later”, was the reply. Father Ludovic survived Father Master by only two months. Bd Francis Antony Fasani was beatified in 1951.

There are Italian biographies by Canon T. M. Vigilanti (1848), Fr L. Berardini (1951) and Fr G. Stano (1951). The last, a short life, has been translated into English by Fr R Huber in America (1951); it includes two interesting portraits of the beatus

1755 Oct 16  St. Gerard Majella professed lay brother Redemptorists; patron of expectant mothers  gift of reading consciences

GERARD, said Pope Pius IX, was a perfect model for those of his own condition, lay brothers Leo XIII referred to him as “one of those angelic youths whom God has given to the world as models to men” and in his short life of twenty-nine years he became the most famous wonder-worker of the eighteenth century. He was born at Muro, fifty miles south of Naples, the son of a tailor.

His mother testified after his death:  My child’s only happiness was in church, on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament. He would stop there till he forgot it was dinner-time. In the house he prayed all day. He was born for Heaven.”
1775 Sancti Pauli a Cruce, Presbyteri et Confessóris; qui Congregatiónis a Cruce et Passióne Dómini nostri Jesu Christi nuncupátæ Institútor fuit, atque in Dómino obdormívit quintodécimo Kaléndas Novémbris.
 St. Paul of the Cross, priest and confessor, founder of the Congregation of the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He went to his repose in the Lord on the 18th of October.
St. Paul of the Cross Paul Francis Daneii, born at Ovada, Genoa, Italy, 3 January, 1694; died in Rome, 18 October, 1775.
1775 St Paul Of The Cross, Founder Of The Barefooted Clerks Of The Holy Cross And Passion
THE founder of the Passionists, St Paul-of-the-Cross, was born at Ovada in the republic of Genoa in 1694—the year which saw also the birth of Voltaire. Paul Francis, as he was called, was the eldest son of Luke Danei, a business man of good family, and his wife, both exemplary Christians. Whenever little Paul shed tears of pain or annoyance his mother used to show him the crucifix with a few simple words about the sufferings of our Lord, and thus she instilled into his infant mind the germs of that devotion to the Sacred Passion which was to rule his life. The father would read aloud the lives of the saints to his large family of children, whom he often cautioned against gambling and fighting. Although Paul seems to have been one of those chosen souls who have given themselves to God almost from babyhood, yet at the age of fifteen he was led by a sermon to conclude that he was not corresponding to grace.

His parents, Luke Danei and Anna Maria Massari, were exemplary Catholics. From his earliest years the crucifix was his book, and the Crucified his model. Paul received his early education from a priest who kept a school for boys, in Cremolino, Lombardy. He made great progress in study and virtue; spent much time in prayer, heard daily Mass, frequently received the Sacraments, faithfully attended to his school duties, and gave his spare time to reading good books and visiting the churches, where he spent much time before the Blessed Sacrament, to which he had an ardent devotion. At the age of fifteen he left school and returned to his home at Castellazzo, and from this time his life was full of trials. In early manhood he renounced the offer of an honourable marriage; also a good inheritance left him by an uncle who was a priest. He kept for himself only the priest's Breviary.
1828 Bl. Dominic Lentini  called the Son and Servant of the Cross Feb 25
Sanctuary of the Assumption. It was here that his saintly mother consecrates him to the Heavenly Mother and asking Her: I want My Dominic to be holy and old. Such was the religious spirit that Rosaly had learned in her family that her own brother was a Priest: Don Dominic Vitarella. Poor Rosaly nevertheless would soon leave little Dominic as an orphan.
1858  February 11 Our Lady of Lourdes a young lady “I am the Immaculate Conception.” appeared to Bernadette Soubirous
Bernadette
The marriage of Francois Soubirous and Louise Casterot produced 6 children. The eldest was Bernadette.
She was born of 7th January 1844, and was baptised the next day by the Abbe Forgues in the old parish church, being given the name Marie Bernarde. Because of her small stature, she was always referred to by the diminutive form of the name, Bernadette.

Bernadette told her, making her promise to say nothing, but she told her mother that evening. Madame Soubirous questioned Bernadette. “You were mistaken you saw a white stone.”— No,” said the child, “she had a beautiful face.”  Her mother thought it might be a soul from Purgatory, and forbade her to return to the grotto.

On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus. A little more than three years later, on February 11, 1858, a young lady appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. This began a series of visions. During the apparition on March 25, the lady identified herself with the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Bernadette was a sickly child of poor parents. Their practice of the Catholic faith was scarcely more than lukewarm. Bernadette could pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Creed. She also knew the prayer of the Miraculous Medal: “O Mary conceived without sin.”
1858 Blesseds Louis Martin and Marie-Zélie Guérin:  Marriage Leads to Heaven
By Miriam Díez i Bosch ROME, NOV. 25, 2008 Zenit.org
As if to emphasize that marriage is a vocation to holiness, the Church will commemorate the feast of Blesseds Louis Martin and Marie-Zélie Guérin, St. Thérèse's parents, on their wedding anniversary.  The Martins were beatified last month in Lisieux, the second married couple the Church has raised together to the altar.
Portrait of Thérèse's mother at the Basilica of St. Thérèse Lisieux
1927  St. Joseph Moscati Celebrated physician of Naples a model of piety and faith long periods of reflective prayer feast day Nov 19
 Italy, noted for medical research. Joseph gave his wages and skills to caring for the sick and the poor and was a model of piety and faith. He was beatified in 1975 and canonized in 1987.

Giuseppe Moscati (RM) (also known as Joseph Moscati) Born in Benevento, Italy, 1860; beatified in 1975; canonized in 1987 by Pope John Paul II. Saint Giuseppe studied medicine at the University of Naples and later joined the school's medical faculty. His work led to the modern study of biochemistry. But Giuseppe was not canonized because he had a great scientific mind; rather his vow of chastity and loving care of the incurables at Santa Maria del Populo drew him to a life of sanctity. His charity was further proven during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906 and the cholera outbreak in 1911. Throughout his professional life he continued his medical research to relieve suffering, not to earn acclaim or wealth. He regularly withdrew for long periods of reflective prayer. Three years after his death, his relics were translated to the church of Gesu Nuovo (Farmer).
St. Joseph Moscati
1880-1927 “Remember that, following Medicine, you undertook upon yourself the responsibility of a teachings always in your memory, with love and pity for the abandoned, with faith and enthousiasm, deaf to praises and criticisms, to envry, inclined only to God.”   [from a letter to Dr.Giuseppe Biondi, Sept. 4th, 1921.]
Joseph Moscati was born in Benevento, Italy, on July 25, 1880. He was born to virtuous Catholic parents being the seventh of nine children. His father was a lawyer and President of the Court of Assize in Naples. He was a very friendly and well-liked person. He was extremely intelligent, pious and prayerful.

1589 St. Bendict the Black Franciscan lay brother superior obscure and humble cook holiness reputation for miracles
        patron of African-Americans in the United States incorrupt
St. Benedict of San Philadelphio (Or BENEDICT THE MOOR)
Born at San Philadelphio or San Fradello, a village of the Diocese of Messina in Sicily, in 1526; d. 4 April, 1589. The parents of St. Benedict were slaves from Ethiopia who were, nevertheless, pious Christians. On account of their faithfulness their master freed Benedict, the first-born child. From his earliest years Benedict was very religious and while still very young he joined a newly formed association of hermits. When Pope Pius IV dissolved the association, Benedict, called from his origin Æthiops or Niger, entered the Reformed Recollects of the Franciscan Order. Owing to his virtues he was made superior of the monastery of Santa Maria de Jesus at Palermo three years after his entrance, although he was only a lay brother. He reformed the monastery and ruled it with great success until his death. He was pronounced Blessed in 1743 and was canonized in 1807. His feast is celebrated 3 April.
Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his parents, who had begged the prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey’s father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.
When he was 5 years old, Godfrey was placed in the care of the abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin. He became a monk and was eventually ordained a priest.
1717 Bl. Anthony Baldinucci Nov 7 feast day Jesuit missionary preacher; His father, painter and writer by profession, after recovery from an illness, which he attributed to the intercession of St Antony of Padua, vowed his next child to that saint; and when a boy was born in 1665, appropriately within the octave of his feast, he had him baptized Antony and brought up with the idea of becoming a priest. The Baldinucci family lived in the same house in the via degli Angeli at Florence in which St Aloysius Gonzaga had lived for a time when a child, and the intimate memory of this young saint had much influence on the growing Antony. When he was sixteen he offered himself to the Society of Jesus and was accepted, in spite of his rather uncertain health.

1115 Godfrey of Amiens a zealous reformer, unrelentingly fought simony enforcing celibacy His tomb was illustrated by many miracles OSB B (RM)
Suessíone, in Gálliis, sancti Godefrídi, Ambianénsis Epíscopi, magnæ sanctitátis viri.
    At Soissons in France, St. Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, a man of great sanctity.
(also known as Geoffrey, Gottfried)  Born near Soissons, France, c. 1066; died near Soissons.
SAINT GODFREY or GEOFFROY Bishop of Amiens (ca. 1066-1115)
Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his parents, who had begged the prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey’s father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.

When he was 5 years old, Godfrey was placed in the care of the abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin. He became a monk and was eventually ordained a priest.
In 1096 he became the abbot of the decayed Nogent-sous-Coucy in Champagne, where the brethren had dwindled to six and the buildings and discipline were similarly dilapidated. Under his rule the monastery prospered, and as a result, he came to the notice of the archbishop of Rheims who asked him to take over the famous Abbey of Saint-Remi at Rheims. Godfrey refused. He made a disturbance and vehemently added during an assembly, “God forbid I should ever desert a poor bride by preferring a rich one!

Despite his strong feelings, he was appointed bishop of Amiens in 1104, but he insisted upon continuing to live very simply. When he thought the cook was treating him too well, he took the best food from the kitchen and gave it away to the poor and the sick.
He was a zealous reformer, unrelentingly fought simony enforcing celibacy, and supported the organization of communes. But, because he was an excessively stern ruler, his life was threatened more than once, including by a disgruntled woman.
His scrupulousness caused great resentment among the laxer clergy. He became disheartened by their behavior and withdrew to the Carthusian monastery at Grande-Chartreuse. A council ordered him to return to his diocese--his people refused to allow him to retire. But on his way to visit his metropolitan, he died the following year at Saint Crispin's abbey in Soissons, where he was buried. His name was not found in calendars before the 16th century (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Walsh, White).
In art Saint Gottfried is a bishop with a dead hound at his feet. Sometimes he is shown serving the sick or embracing a leper (Roeder).


SAINT GODFREY or GEOFFROY Bishop of Amiens (ca. 1066-1115)
Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his parents, who had begged the
 prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey’s father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.
Litany Of Saints For Married Couples
St. Paul and Tatta Martyred husband and wife
Saints Ann and Joachim   -   pray for us.
Saints Mary and Joseph   -   pray for us.
Saints Elizabeth and Zechariah   -   pray for us.
Saints Mary of Clopas and Cleopas   -   pray for us.
Saints Aquila and Priscilla   -   pray for us.
Saints Philemon and Apphia   -   pray for us.
Saints Isidore and Maria de la Cabeza   -   pray for us.
Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin   -   pray for us.
Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Maria Corsini   -   pray for us.
Amen.
Couples:
677 St. Vincent Madelgarus; Benedictine abbot; established monasterys; at 35 he wed St. Waldetrudis by whom he fathered four children, all of whom were later venerated as saints: Aldegundis, Landericus, Dentlin, and Madalberta. Benedictine abbot  established monasterys

706 St. Madalberta Benedictine abbess Daughter of Sts. Vincent Madelgarus and Waldetrudis
Amen.
Couples:
1175 Blessed Mary de la Cabeza, Widow irreproachable wife of Saint Isidore the Farmer
1283 St. Elzear and Blessed Delphina Franciscan couple
1323 St. Elzear; He managed his estate with firmness, prudence, and ability; Elzear and Delphina were regarded as an ideal married couple, known for their holiness and piety.  pope Urban V About the year 1309 St Elzear had assisted as godfather at the baptism of William of Grimoard, his nephew, a sickly child whose health was restored at the prayers of his sponsor. Fifty-three years later this William became pope Urban V, and in 1369 he signed the decree of canonization of his godfather Elzear, who is named in the Roman Martyrology on this day.
1337 Saint Cyril and his wife Maria parents of St Sergius of Radonezh (September 25). They belonged to nobility, more importantly, they were pious and faithful Christians who were adorned with every virtue. St Cyril moved his family from Rostov to Radonezh when Bartholomew was a boy.  Sts Cyril and Maria asked him to wait and take care of them until they passed away. The young Bartholomew obeyed his parents, and did everything he could to please them. They later decided to retire to separate monasteries, and departed to the Lord after a few years. It is believed both Sts Cyril and Maria reposed in 1337.
Blessed Luigi (1951) and Blessed Maria Quattrocchi (1965)
 Venerable Louis Martin ( 1894) and Venerable Zelie Martin (1877) France Servant of God.
 Catherine Doherty (1986) and Husband Fr. Eddie Doherty( 1975) Russia, USA Canada.
 Servant of God Anna Maria Iguscio (1986) and Marcello Iguscio (1996) Italy.
 George Vanier (1967) and Pauline Vanier (1991) Canada.