Catholic Fire

The saint of the day for June 28th is St. Irenaeus (c.130 - c.200), Bishop of Lyons (France) and Father of the Church. Irenaeus was born in Smyrna (modern-day Turkey), although he later settled in Rome. He was well -educated and was influenced by men who knew the Apostles, especially St. Polycarp, who had been a student of St. John the evangelist. Irenaeus served as a priest of the Church of Lyons during the Christian persecution under the reign of Marcus Aurelius,  the pagan Roman emperor (161–180). Many of the clergy from Lyons were imprisoned for their faith. In 177, he journeyed to Rome carrying a letter to Pope Eleuterus, urging him to deal with the heresy of Montanism , which was now flourishing in the East. While Irenaeus was in Rome, a massacre occurred in Lyons. A persecution broke out, and some of the leaders of the Lyons church were imprisoned, while others suffered martyrdom. Thus, he did not share in the martyrdom of his fellow Christians. When he r...

Today is the memorial of St. Jerome. Here are fifteen fast facts about him. 1. St. Jerome is a Father and Doctor of the Church. 2. He was a brilliant scholar, monk, traveller, teacher, letter writer, and consultant to Popes and Bishops. 3. St. Jerome was born in Dalmatia (near Aquileia, north of Rome) around 340 to a wealthy Christian family. 4. At the age of 20, St. Jerome was sent to study in Rome, where he became fluent in Latin and Greek and developed a love for the classical writers. 5. He he acquired many worldly ideas, made little effort to control his pleasure-loving instincts, and lost much of the piety that had been instilled in him at home. 6.  St. Jerome travelled throughout western Europe with a friend but that ceased when he had a conversion experience in Trier and decided to become a monk. 7.  He joined a monastic community in Aquileia in 370, where he met some who would become his close friends and others his enem...

By Jean M. Heimann Today, August 28th, is the feast of St. Augustine, a Western Father of the Church whose conversion to Christianity is well-known as one of the most important events in the history of the Church. Augustine was born in Tagaste, Africa in 354 to Patrcius, a pagan Roman official, and to Monica, a devout Christian. Monica raised Augustine in the Christian faith, but when he went to study law in Carthage, he turned away from his Christian beliefs and led a life of immorality and hedonism. At age 15, he took a took a mistress who bore him a son, Adoedatus, which means “the gift of God,” and at age 18, he and his friend, Honoratus became members of the Manichaean heretical sect, which accepted the dual principle of good and evil. The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen explained his attraction to the heresy: “The conflict between flesh and spirit in him was resolved by the heresy of Manichæanism because it enabled him to pursue a voluptuous life without ever being he...