Catholic Fire

June 6 is the memorial of St. Norbert, a convert, priest, preacher, and reformer of the Church in the 12th century. He is the founder of the Norbertines and the patron saint of peace. Norbert was born around the year 1080 in Xanten, a town near the Holland-German border.  He was the son of nobility.  Through the influence of his family he obtained a financial subsidy from the parish church at Xanten when he accepted ordination to the subdiaconate.  His only task was to chant the Divine Office at the Church, but he apparently paid someone a small fee to take his place in the choir, because he gained an appointment as a chaplain-religious counselor to the emperor, Henry V in Cologne.  As a young man, he was wealthy and committed to worldly pleasures.  The thought of a religious vocation was the furthest thing from his mind until he had a dramatic conversion experience. One day in the spring of 1115, while riding his horse, a thunderbolt from a sudden stor...

April 29th is the feast of my Confirmation saint, St. Catherine of Siena, Caterina di Giacomo di Benicasa (1347 - 1380). As a mystic, activist, reformer, contemplative, and Doctor of the Church, she is one of the most prominent figures in Christian history. Catherine, the youngest of twenty-six children, was born in Siena on March 25, 1347. During her youth she had to contend with great difficulties on the part of her parents. They were planning marriage for their favorite daughter; but Catherine, who at the age of seven had already taken a vow of virginity, refused. To break her resistance, her beautiful golden brown tresses were shorn to the very skin and she was forced to do the most menial tasks. Undone by her patience, her mother and father finally relented and their child entered the Third Order of St. Dominic -- a lay order. Catherine managed a large household of followers, all of whom called her "Mama". She served as spiritual director to royalty and religiou...

On April 6, we celebrate the feast of St. William of Paris (also known as St. William of Eskilsoe, Saint William of Æbelholt, and St. William of the Paraclete). Known for his holiness and austerity, he was the Abbot of Eskiloe (a city in Denmark which once housed an abbey) and one of the most venerated saints of Denmark. William (1105 - 1203) was born in Paris of a noble French family. He was educated by the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Pres under the direction of his Uncle Hugh, the abbot. From there, he was received by the chapter of secular canons of St. Genevieve.  This was already a venerable college of canons, having been founded by King Clovis and St. Choltide in the 6th Century.  But it had grown decadent and in great need of reform. In fact, his fellow canons were so hostile to William and his disciplined way of life that he had to leave and relocate to Epinay, outside of Paris. Pope Eugene III visited the abbey in 1148, discovering its poor state. The refo...

Today is the memorial of St. Charles Borromeo (1538 - 15840), Bishop of Milan and one of the great reformers of the sixteenth century. He is is the patron of catechists, catechumens, spiritual directors, and spiritual leaders. Charles was born at the Castle of Arona in northern Italy to wealthy and powerful parents. His father, Count Gilbert Borromeo, was a man of virtue and skill, and his mother was a member of the famous Medici family of Milan, sister of Angelo de Medici, who was to become Pope Pius IV. Raised in a pious family, Charles was deeply devoted to the Passion of Christ and to the Blessed Mother. He received the clerical tonsure at age twelve and was educated at the Benedict Abbey of Saints Gratian and Felinus. He earned a doctorate in civil and canon law at the University of Pavia. When his uncle, Cardinal de Medici, was elected pope in 1559, as Pius IV, Charles was made cardinal-deacon and administrator to the archdiocese of Milan while still a lay person and a s...

Today we celebrate the feast of St. William of Paris, also known as St. William of Eskilsoe. William (1105 - 1203) was born in Paris of a noble French family. He was educated by the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Pres under the direction of his Uncle Hugh, the abbot. From there, he was received by the chapter of secular canons of St. Genevieve.  This was already a venerable college of canons, having been founded by King Clovis and St. Choltide in the 6th Century.  But it had grown decadent and in great need of reform. In fact, his fellow canons were so hostile to William and his disciplined way of life that he had to leave and relocate to Epinay, outside of Paris. Pope Eugene III visited the abbey in 1148, discovering its poor state. The reform of St. Genevieve was entrusted to the Canons Regular of St. Victor, who were a relatively new canonical house on the outskirts of Paris, being founded only a few decades earlier.  The prior of St. Victor, Odo, came to St. Genev...

The saint of the day for February 21 is St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, who was one of the Church's greatest reformers in the Middle Ages. Peter was the youngest child born to a large family in Ravenna, Italy in 1007. His parents both died when he was young and he was placed in the care of one of his brothers, who treated him like a slave. His oldest brother, a priest in Ravenna, rescued him and sent him away to study. Peter was brilliant and excelled in his studies (theology and cannon law), later returning to Ravena as a professor. Unable to endure the scandals and distractions of university life, he joined a group of Benedictine monks living in northern Italy. There he became a prior at the young age of 36: a position he held unto his death. While at the hermitage, Peter performed austere penances to the extent that he developed near permanent insomnia and was forced to modify them. Although living in the cloister, Peter kept close watch on the Church ...

The saint of the day is St. Colette, founder of the Poor Clare Colettines. Colette was a miracle baby, born to parents over sixty years of age, who had been praying for a child to Nicholas of Myra. Born at Corbie in Picardy, France in 1381, Nicolette was named in honor of St. Nicholas and was known by her nickname, Colette. Quiet and hard-working, Colette was a pious child who demonstrated a sensitive and loving nature. When Colette was 17, both of her parents died and was left her in the care of a Benedictine abbot. She distributed her inheritance to the poor and initially joined the Beguine and Benedictine orders, but neither one worked out for her. Instead, she became a third order Franciscan. At age 21, she renounced the world in order to spend her life alone in penance and prayer as an anchoress - walled into a cell whose only opening was a grilled window into a church. She left her cell in 1406 in response to a dream directing her to reform the Poor Clares. She entered ...

Born in 924 in Swabia, Germany, St. Wolfgang studied at Reichenau, Switzerland under the Benedictines and at Wurzburg before serving as a teacher in the cathedral school of Trier. He entered the Benedictines at Einsiedeln (964) and was appointed head of the monastery school, receiving ordination in 971. He then set out with a group of monks to preach among the Magyars of Hungary, but the following year (972) was named bishop of Regensburg by Emperor Otto II. As bishop, he distinguished himself brilliantly for his reforming zeal and his skills as a statesman. He brought the clergy of the diocese into his reforms, restored monasteries, promoted education, preached enthusiastically, and was renowned for his charity and aid to the poor, receiving the title Eleemosynarius Major (Grand Almoner). He also served as tutor to Emperor Henry II while he was still king. Wolfgang died at the village of Pupping in upper Austria, on October 31, 994. He was canonized in 1052 by Pope St. Leo IX. Patrona...