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Pope Pius XI described Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Face as “the star of my pontificate”. He beatified her on 29 April 1923 and canonized her on Sunday, 17 May 1925, in the Basilica of Saint Peter, before a crowd of some 50,000 faithful, most of whom could not find room inside the Vatican Basilica. On that occasion, the Pontiff underlined that, “aware of her own frailty, she confidently entrusted herself to divine Providence so that, leaning solely on its help, she could attain perfect holiness of life, even through bitter difficulties, having decided to strive for it with the total and joyful abdication of her own will”.
There is no doubt that Saint Martin of Tours is well known throughout the world, if for no other reason than his act of charity of sharing half his cloak with a beggar. According to tradition, on that same night Jesus appeared to him wrapped in the beggar’s garments, wearing half a cloak.
This “cape” that belonged to Saint Martin was preserved as a celebrated relic and became part of the collection of the Merovingian kings. Charlemagne sent the Saint’s cape to the Palatine chapel of Aachen, whose name was changed to Aix-la-Chapelle in French and Aachen in German. The chapel’s name has its roots in the place where the Merovingian kings kept Saint Martin’s cape.
“With your hand on your conscience may each one hear the anguished cry which is raised to the skies from all parts of the earth, from the innocent children to the elderly, from the people of the communities: Peace, peace! We renew this solemn plea today”. With these words broadcast on Vatican Radio on 25 October 1962, Saint John XXIII launched an appeal for peace to world leaders, in particular those of the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The world was in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis, and had not come this close to a third world conflict, since the end of World War II. Indeed, between 14 and 19 October, the world was on the very edge of a nuclear abyss. The words of the Pope, who had opened the Second Vatican Council on 11 October, were strongly persuasive on the consciences of people, especially those of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev ((Sergeevič Chruščëv).
‘Glory to God, in all things’: with these words, on 14 September 407, Saint John Chrysostom, ‘Golden Mouth’, so called because of his oratorical art and eloquence, concluded his earthly pilgrimage. Born in Antioch in a year between 344 and 354, he devoted himself to the study of rhetoric and letters under the direction of the famous Libanius. After finishing his studies, he became fascinated by the world and became involved in theatre and debate. Shortly afterwards, however, he prepared himself for baptism and received it on an Easter Sunday of an unspecified year. He then attended the Diodorus Circle, a kind of seminary where theological studies could be done. During that time, he became interested in exegesis of the Holy Scriptures and learned the historical-literary method of the Antioch school. He then spent six years living a hermit's life, first on Silpius Hill, near Antioch, and then in a cave in solitude and penance.
“We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection: through him we are saved and made free” (Gal 6:14), is the entrance antiphon for the Feast of the Exhaltation of the Holy Cross. This Feast celebrates Christ’s victory over sin and death and is shared by the Catholic and the Orthodox Church. Indeed, the Orthodox Church considers this Feast day to be almost as important as Easter. The origins of the Feast can be traced back to the first Christian communities of Jerusalem, when the faithful solemnly venerated the Holy Cross on Good Friday.
“For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”.
The Apostolic Nuncio in Spain, Archbishop Filippo Sega, described Teresa of Jesus as “a restless and wandering woman… whose teachings opposed Saint Paul’s command that women should not teach”. His description of the restlessness of Teresa of Jesus, in the world Teresa de Ahumada, was accurate. Indeed, at the time of his comments, she had already founded 12 monasteries throughout Spain and had travelled more than 50,000 kilometres. And she had done all this with the travel means available at the time, journeying on roads that were not quite roads, with all the discomforts involved in moving from one side of the kingdom to the other, especially for a woman, and even more so, for a nun. She managed to open 17 monasteries with very few funds, health problems and countless difficulties in finding homes that could be turned into religious convents. Her “crime” was that she was a woman, and above all, a reformer of consecrated life, including that of males.
Born in Antioch to a pagan family, Luke was a physician who was concerned about his patients and who was well aware of their weaknesses and misery. After hearing Saint Paul speak about Jesus, Luke embraced the faith and never left the Apostle again, following him to his martyrdom in Rome in 67 A.D.
The Bible is filled with the constant presence of angels, passing through the history of salvation. It contains many episodes that refer to their action and to their role as instruments and messengers of God. Suffice it to remember the Old Testament’s account of Jacob wrestling with the angel from whom he receives the name, Israel; (Gen. 32:25-29) the ladder from earth to heaven, from which a multitude of angels ascend and descend (Gen. 28:12); the angel who meets the slave, Hagar, and announces that she will give birth to Ishmael (Gen. 16:7); the angel that goes before the people of Israel as they wandered in the desert (Ex 14:19); the two angels that lead Lot and his family out of Sodom (Gen 19:1); the intervention of the angel who stops Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac (Gen 22:11-13); Daniel who was saved from the fiery furnace by an angel (Dan. 3:17); and the angel that brings food to the prophet Elijah in the desert (1Kings 19:5-10).
Saint Pius X, in the world Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, wrote the following words in his will and testament: “I was born poor, I have lived in poverty, and I wish to die poor”. He was a Pope from a humble social background, who was elected to the See of Peter, after going through all the steps of the ecclesiastical career: Chaplain, Parish Priest, Bishop, Cardinal and Patriarch.
There is not much historical information on the Apostle Matthew. The origin of his name is an abbreviation of Matthias or Mattaniah, which means “Gift of God”.
According to the Roman Martyrology, he died on 21 September and his body was translated from Ethiopia to Salerno on 6 May, with a stop in Paestum. Tradition says he was killed while he was celebrating Mass.
“From the earliest ages of the catholic church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen”. With these words in the Encyclical Letter Ad Caeli Reginam, of 11 October 1954, Pius XII instituted the liturgical feast day of the “Queenship of the Blessed Virgin”.
Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was elected Pope on 16 October 1978. In line with his predecessor, who died suddenly on 28 September 1978, he chose the name John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years, since the death of the last foreigner, Adrian VI from Utrecht, in 1523. He was also the first Pope from Poland and the first Pope to be a native speaker of a Slavic language. His Pontificate was among the longest in history, second only to Saint Peter and Pius IX. It lasted almost 27 years.
“I only want to be a poor friar who prays”, Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, in the world Francesco Forgione, would say as he waved aside the thousands of faithful who followed him. Why was a simple Capuchin from a small village on the Gargano so popular? The secret is that everyone who met him, could glimpse a living image of the Suffering and Risen Christ, in him.
Bartholomew was one of the twelve disciples who followed Jesus after the Baptism in the Jordan River. His name is included in the Synoptic Gospels as one of the Apostles linked to his contemporary Philip. We know little about this Apostle, whose Feast Day is celebrated on 24 August, the day Catholic tradition dates as his martyrdom. He was originally from Cana in Galilee, near Nazareth. Jesus said of him: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (Jn 1:47). In his Gospel, John speaks of Nathanael, who is Bartholomew, at least according to the exegetes.
“Our new Blessed lived that way: in the joy of the Gospel, without compromises, loving to the very end. He embodied the poverty of the disciple, which is not only detachment from material goods, but also victory over the temptation to put oneself at the centre, to seek one’s own glory”, Pope Francis said in his homily for the Beatification of John Paul I, in the world, Albino Luciani, held in Saint Peter’s Square on 4 September 2022.
“God loves the poor, consequently, he loves those who love the poor”, Saint Vincent de Paul often said to his collaborators. Born in Pouy, a small town in Landes, France, on 24 April 1581, to a peasant family, he never forgot that as a child he tended pigs and cows. His father sent him to Dax to study at the College of the Cordeliers, directed by the Franciscans, in the hopes that he could receive an education that would help with the family’s expenses.
The two Apostles, Simon and Jude Thaddeus, are celebrated on the same day, possibly because of their shared apostolate in Mesopotamia and Persia, where they went to proclaim the Gospel. Not much is known about them. The little we know is what is in the New Testament.
The three Archangels, whom we celebrate on 29 September, were contemplatives of the Glory of God and messengers of the Good News. Their names express their mission, not their nature. They are messengers of the Lord who proclaim his will and “along with the Saints, constitute the immense multitude of worshippers of the living God”.
In his Apostolic Letter Scripturae Sacrae affectus,on30 September 2020 on the 16th centenary of the death of Saint Jerome, Pope Francis wrote:“The distinctive feature of Saint Jerome’s spirituality was undoubtedly his passionate love for the word of God entrusted to the Church in sacred Scripture. All the Doctors of the Church – particularly those of the early Christian era – drew the content of their teaching explicitly from the Bible. Yet Jerome did so in a more systematic and distinctive way”.
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