Saint of the day

Saint of the day

January 19: Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachus, martyrs

Witnesses of Christ to the sacrifice of their lives

Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachus are remembered by the Catholic Church as martyrs of the early centuries of Christianity, and their liturgical memorial falls on January 19. The information concerning them is scarce and fragmentary and comes mainly from ancient hagiographical texts, in particular from a Passio dating to Late Antiquity, which was reworked in subsequent centuries with edifying aims.

January 18: Saint Margaret of Hungary

A Queen in the service of God and the poor

Margaret of Hungary was born in 1242, probably in the castle of Turóc, the daughter of King Béla IV and Queen Maria, of Byzantine origin. Her birth was linked to a dramatic moment for the kingdom: Hungary had been devastated by the Mongol invasion, and the royal family had taken refuge in Dalmatia. On that occasion, the sovereigns made a vow that, if a daughter were born, they would consecrate her to God as a sign of gratitude for the nation’s deliverance.

17 January: Saint Anthony the Abbot

Father of all Monks

Anthony is considered the Father of Monasticism. Details of his life are narrated in “The Life of Anthony”, by Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, written in 360 AD. Anthony was born to a wealthy family, in Koma, Egypt, on the left bank of the Nile, around 251. He was an orphan by the time he was 18 years old. Two years later, taking the Gospel literally, he sold all his possessions, distributed them to the poor and withdrew into the desert to live a life of penance.

January 16: Saint Marcellus I, Pope

Impeccable Shepherd

The memorial of Pope Marcellus I, commemorated by the Roman Martyrology on January 16, belongs to one of the most complex phases in the history of the early Church. The sources that mention him are few and often conflicting, so that his figure emerges more through fragments than through a linear narrative. What is certain is that he was Bishop of Rome at the beginning of the fourth century, that his pontificate was brief, and that he was buried along the Via Salaria, in the Cemetery of Priscilla, after dying while away from the city.

January 15: Saint Maurus, Abbot

When obedience works miracles

Maurus, the son of the Roman patrician Eutychius, entered the monastic world at a very young age when his father entrusted him to Saint Benedict, who at that time was shaping his communal experience at Subiaco. Along with him also received was Placid, the son of another nobleman, Tertullus. The two boys, noted for their docility and goodness of heart, soon became especially dear to the founder of Western monasticism; Maurus, being the elder, quickly assumed a position of trust beside his master.

January 14: Saint Felix of Nola, priest

Unfettered devotion to charity

An example of fidelity, humility, and Christian witness lived to its utmost consequences, yet without the martyrdom of blood. The figure of Felix of Nola is known to us almost exclusively through the poetic compositions of Saint Paulinus of Nola, who between the late 4th and early 5th centuries committed to writing oral traditions still alive in the Nola region. These poems represent the earliest historical testimony to the life of the saint, whose memory has remained deeply rooted in the Christianity of southern Italy.