Select your language
A Portuguese nobleman who renounced wealth and honors to join the Augustinian Canons, Saint Anthony of Padua was deeply moved by the martyrdom of five Franciscan proto-missionaries. Inspired by their example, he became a disciple of Saint Francis of Assisi, dedicating his life to preaching the Word of God.
Pope Leo III, born in Rome, was educated from childhood within the vestiarium of the Roman Church, the office that managed the papal treasury.
Ordained as a subdeacon and later as Cardinal with the titular church of Santa Susanna, he maintained an important role in that administration which he officially headed in 789, becoming one of the main collaborators of Pope Adrian I.
“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.
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.
“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”.
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.
Select your language