Saint of the day

Saint of the day

28 January: St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

The universe has nothing greater than the human soul

“Because we cannot know what God is, but rather what he is not, we have no means for considering how God is, but rather how he is not”, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote. Thomas was born in 1225 in Roccasecca, in the province of Frosinone, to one of the most prominent families in Italy. Because he was the youngest child, he was destined for an ecclesiastical career. At the age of five, he entered Montecassino as a “puer oblatus”, and at fifteen, he studied Aristotelian philosophy, grammar, natural sciences, Arabic science and Greek philosophy at the University of Naples.

27 January: Saint Angela Merici

A new form of consecration for women

In a courageous and innovative way for the 16th century, Saint Angela Merici developed a new form of consecrated life for women: no longer in the cloister, but out in the world. She founded the Company of St. Ursula for these women. Angela was closely attentive to the signs of the time, and based her model on the example of the early Church, lived by the Apostles and the early Christian communities, thus paving the way for modern devotion.

January 26: Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops

Disciples of Saint Paul the Apostle

On the day following the conversion of Saint Paul, the Churches of the West commemorate with special attention two of his close collaborators: Timothy and Titus, key figures of the apostolic mission and among the first bishops of the Church.

25 January: The Conversion of Paul the Apostle

From darkness to light

The Church celebrates Saint Paul’s Conversion on the road to Damascus, on 25 January. In one of the most powerful manifestations of divine grace, Saul, the fierce persecutor of Christians, became the Apostle of Nations. The event is narrated in the Acts of the Apostles.

24 January: Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Preacher and evangelizer in the midst of controversy

Born on 21 August 1567 in the Château de Sales in Thorens-Glières (Upper Savoy), Francis de Sales grew up in a Catholic family belonging to the Savoyard aristocracy. His father, who served as maître d’hôtel to Count Sébastien of Luxembourg-Martigues, was also Lord of Sales.

January 23: Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro

United with the suffering of Christ for the salvation of her brothers and sisters

Benedetta Bianchi Porro was born on August 8, 1936, in Dovadola, in the province of Forlì, the firstborn child of engineer Guido Bianchi Porro and homemaker Elsa Giammarchi. Although the delivery was normal, it involved severe hemorrhaging that led her mother to have her baptized immediately, giving her the name Benedetta.