Saint of the day

Saint of the day

June 9: Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, Mother and Laywoman

Marriage as a Path to Holiness

A woman, a layperson, a wife, a mother of seven children and a member of the Third Order of the Most Holy Trinity—this is Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, who achieved holiness through marriage. She was born in Siena on May 29, 1769 and baptized the following day. Due to financial difficulties her family—her father Luigi Riannetti and mother Maria Masi—moved to Rome when she was six years old. In the capital she was entrusted to the religious order of Maestre Pie Filippine, where she received a full education in just two years.

Pentecost

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost is the feast that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles and marks the end of the Easter season. The name comes from the Greek pentēkostē, meaning "fiftieth" because it is celebrated fifty days after Easter. On this occasion the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church are commemorated and remembered. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, he sends his disciples a power—the Holy Spirit— a force to enable them to be his personal witnesses in the world.

June 6: Saint Norbert of Xanten, Bishop and Founder of the Canons Regular of the Norbertines

Announcer of the Gospel by word and example

Saint Norbert of Xanten had an instant conversion. When he was about 35 years old he was thrown from his horse and risked death. At that moment he heard the words of the psalm: “Turn from evil and do good” (Psalm 34:15). He interpreted this episode as a divine call and decided to radically change his life. He began leading a life of penance, walking barefoot, wearing rough wool clothes, and traveling from place to place preaching the Gospel.

June 5 Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

The Apostle to the Germans

Known as the Apostle to the Germans, he is considered one of the most important Anglo-Saxon missionaries and the one who brought Christianity to the Germanic lands of old.

May 30: Saint Joan of Arc

Obedient to the voice of God

A “strong” woman who followed the impulse of the Spirit and obeyed the voice of the Lord asking her to free her people and to restore faith for those in desolation. A laywoman, consecrated to virginity yet not cloistered, Joan of Arc was involved in the most dramatic conflicts of the Church and society of the time. Condemned as a heretic through a purely political show trial, she was sentenced to a tragic death even before her trial began - burned at the stake in the old market square of Rouen.