Back to First Page Back to  Saint Mary World News
Mary The Mother of GOD
 Catholic China pages

The Cross
Every Christian must be a living book
wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel
It Makes No Sense
Not To Believe In GOD
May 19, 2005 St. Theophilus of Corte (1676-1740)
If we expect saints to do marvelous things continually and to leave us many memorable quotes, we are bound to be disappointed with St. Theophilus. The mystery of God's grace in a person's life, however, has a beauty all its own.
Theophilus was born in Corsica of rich and noble parents. As a young man he entered the Franciscans and soon showed his love for solitude and prayer. After admirably completing his studies, he was ordained and assigned to a retreat house near Subiaco. Inspired by the austere life of the Franciscans there, he founded other such houses in Corsica and Tuscany. Over the years, he became famous for his preaching as well as his missionary efforts.
Though he was always somewhat sickly, Theophilus generously served the needs of God's people in the confessional, in the sickroom and at the graveside. Worn out by his labors, he died on June 17, 1740. He was canonized in 1930. 
 May 19, 2005 St. Theophilus of Corte (1676-1740)
Comment:
There is a certain dynamism in all the saints that prompts them to find ever more selfless ways of responding to God's grace. As time went on, Theophilus gave more and more singlehearted service to God and to God's sons and daughters. Honoring the saints will make no sense unless we are thus drawn to live as generously as they did. Their holiness can never substitute for our own.
Quote:
Francis used to say, "Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord God, for up to now we have made little or no progress" (1 Celano, #193).
May 8 303 St. Victor Maurus Martyr a native of Mauretania, born in the third century, and called Maurus to distinguish him from other confessors named Victor. He is believed to have been a soldier in the Praetorian guard. Victor was a Christian from his youth, but it was not until he was an elderly man that he was arrested for the Faith. After severe tortures, including being basted with molten lead, he was decapitated under Maximian in Milan around the year 303. Later a church was erected over his grave.
According to St. Gregory of Tours, many miracles occurred at the shrine. In 1576, at the request of St. Charles of Borromeo, Victor's relics were transferred to a new church in Milan established by the Olivetan monks.
The church still bears St. Victor's name today. After a life of adherence to the Faith during perilous times, St. Victor Maurus was taken prisoner and tortured as an old man. Despite age, infirmity, and declining health, he remained steadfast in the Faith, gladly giving up his life for the Kingdom.
His generous response to the call to martyrdom stands as a solemn sign to the modern church of the folly of the things of this world
 May 8 St. Desideratus is also known as Desire and brother of Desiderius and Deodatus. He became a courtier at the court of king Clotaire, was active in combating heresy and simony, and in 541, was made bishop of Bourgues. He attended several councils that condemned Nestorianism and Eutychianism, was reputed to have performed miracles and was known for his peace making abilities
St. Wiro 7v MAY 8 A holy Irish bishop, who traveled to Rome with St. Plechelm, and the deacon Otger. He afterwards preached the faith of Christ to the pagans in the Low Countries.
Prince Pepin of Herstal was a great admirer of his sanctity, and bestowed on him a lonely wood, called the Mount of St. Peter, now of St. Odilia, near the river Roer, one league from Ruremund; and repaired to him often barefoot to confess his sins. Broken by austerities and old age, he departed to our Lord in the seventh century. See Mirebus, and his ancient life in the Bollandists, with a hymn, and several other memoirs t. 2, Maij. p. 309.
May 8 515 Saint Abran
Hermit also called Gibrian. From Ireland, Abran, the eldest of five brothers and three sisters, sailed to Brittany with his siblings. There all of them continued their hermitages and greatly influenced the people of the area. Abran and his brothers and sisters were all declared saints.
 St. Acacius May 8 Martyr
Acacius was a Cappadocian by birth, also known as Agathus. He was a enturian in the imperial army, was arrested for his faith on charges by Tribune Firmus in Perinthus, Thrace, tortured and then brought to Byzantium (Constantinople), where he was scourged and beheaded.
St. Victor the Moor 303 Martyr, also listed as Victor Maurus. He was labeled "the Moor" because he came from Mauretania, Africa. He was a member of the praetorian guard when a young man. He was in his old age when he was tortured and then beheaded at Milan, Italy, during the persecutions of co-Emperor Maximian. St. Dionysius May 8 193
Bishop of Vienne, in Dauphine, France, successor of St. Justus. He was one of the ten missionaries sent with St. Peregrinus to Gaul, by Pope St. Sixtus I.
St. Wiro May 8, 8v Bishop and missionary with Sts. Plechelm and Otger (sharing the same feast day). Originally from Northumbria, England, or perhaps Scotland, he went with the priest Pleehelm (also from Northumbria) and a deacon, Otger, to Rome where Wiro and Plechelm were consecrated bishops.
 They labored for a time in Northumbria and then journeyed to Germany where he gave assistance to St. Boniface in his missionary enterprise. Boniface named Wiro bishop of Utrecht, Netherlands, circa 741 and with two companions Wiro founded a monastery at Odilienburg, in the lower Meuse River valley of Belgium and France, on land donated by Pepin of Heristal (r. 687-714).
St. Odrian May 8 5v  One of the first bishops of Waterford, Ireland. Waterford was part of an ancient deanery system at the time, ruled by abbot bishops. Odrian was a prelate.
St. Helladius of Auxerre May 8 387 Bishop of Auxerre, France, for three decades. He converted his successor, St. Amator, to the religious life.

St. Maria Magdalen of Canossa May 8
Foundress of the Daughters of Charity at Verona, Italy. Born in 1774, she was the daughter of the Marquis of Canossa, who died when Maria Magdalen was three. Her mother abandoned the family, and Maria Magdalen managed her father’s estate until she was thirty-three, then founding her institute. When she died, her Daughters of Charity were widespread. She was canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
St. Peter of Tarantaise May 8 1102-1175 (not Pope Innocent V)
Cistercian archbishop. Peter was born near Vienne, in Dauphine, France, and joined the Cistercian Order at Bonneveaux at the age of twenty with his two brothers and father. Known for his piety, at age thirty he was sent to serve as the first abbot of Tamie, in the Tarantaise Mountains, between Geneva and Savoy. There he built a hospice for travelers. In 1142, he was named the archbishop of Tarantaise against his wishes, and he devoted much energy to reforming the diocese, purging the clergy of corrupt and immoral members, aiding the poor, and promoting education.
He is also credited with starting the custom of distributing bread and soup the so called May Bread just before the harvest;
  a custom which endured throughout France until the French Revolution. After thirteen years as bishop, Peter suddenly disappeared. Eventually he was discovered serving as a lay brother in a Cistercian abbey in Switzerland and was convinced to return to Tarantaise and resume his episcopal duties.
Trusted as an advisor by popes and kings, he defended papal rights in France and was called upon to assist in bringing about a reconciliation between King Louis VII of France and then Prince Henry II of England. Peter was canonized in 1191. He should not be confused with Peter of Tarantaise, who became Pope Innocent V.