Catholic Fire

The saint of the day for October 30 is St Alphonsus Rodriguez, a Jesuit, who was born at Segovia in Spain, on July 12, 1531. From childhood he was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He loved her as his mother. This childlike devotion to her was the main reason for his sanctity. When he was a teenager, Alphonsus and his older brother were sent to study in a Jesuit college. On the death of his father in 1545, he was called home from his studies, by his mother, who was burdened with the care of eleven young children. Though only a boy of fourteen, he was placed in charge of the family business, which involved the buying and selling of wool. At the request of his mother, Alphonsus married the virtuous Maria Suarez. His married life of four years was marked with much suffering. His business suffered, and two of the couple’s three children died in infancy. He was widowed at the age of 32 and his mother died soon aftewards. He sold the business and moved in with his sisters; they hel...

Today is the historical feast of Blessed Imelda Lambertini. The daughter of a noble family, Blessed Imelda was born in 1322 in Bologna, Italy. She was an only child and grew up going to Mass frequently with her family.  When she was nine, Imelda entered the Dominican Convent in Val di Pietra. As the youngest one there, she prayed with the others and wore a modified Dominican habit, but was unable to receive Communion, which was not permitted by Church law until the age of twelve. This hurt her very deeply. She prayed that Jesus would grant her wish and allow her to receive Him sooner. She even asked the convent priest, but he refused to make an exception.To receive Jesus in Communion became the consuming desire of her heart. She would even sometimes exclaim: "Tell me, can anyone receive Jesus into his heart and not die? " When Imelda was eleven years old, on the eve of the Ascension,  she  remained behind after Mass, praying silently in the chapel. As the other sist...

The saint of the day for February 19 is St. Conrad of Piacenza (1290-1350), a friar and hermit celebrated for his piety and miraculous cures at Noto in Sicily. Conrad was born into a noble family in northern Italy. He married the daughter of a nobleman, Euphrosyne. One day, while he was hunting, Conrad ordered his attendants to make a fire. The wind carried the flames, which set fire to nearby fields, forests, towns and villages. Upon seeing this, Conrad ran away in fear. Because he ran, an innocent man was convicted for spreading the fire and was condemned to death as punishment. Upon hearing of this, Conrad stepped forth to accept the blame, saving the innocent man's life. He paid for the damaged property and he and his wife gave everything they owned to the poor in recompense. Conrad then left to join a group of Franciscan hermits, and his wife joined the Poor Clares. Word eventually spread of Conrad's holiness, piety and gift of healing. When many visitors...

The saint of the day for May 2 is St. Athanasius (295 - 373). He was the Church's greatest hero in the battle against Arianism (a heresy that denied Christ's divinity),which, in his lifetime, earned him the title "Father of Orthodoxy". Alexander's writings are outstanding in their explanation of the true teachings of the faith. Athanasius was born into a Christian family in Alexandria, Egypt, where he received a classical education. He was ordained a deacon and later became a priest. Athanasius served as secretary to Bishop Alexander and accompanied him to the Council of Nicea, which officially condemned Arianism. When Bishop Alexander died, Athanasius succeeded him. The next 46 years were filled with constant conflict. Athanasius was exiled on five different occasions under five different emperors. However, his loyalty to the Church never wavered, his courage never weakened even in the face of cruel persecution. For five years he hid in a deep, dry cister...

Today is the historical feast of Blessed Imelda Lambertini. The daughter of a noble family, Blessed Imelda was born in 1322 in Bologna, Italy. She was an only child and grew up going to Mass frequently with her family.  When she was nine, Imelda entered the Dominican Convent in Val di Pietra. As the youngest one there, she prayed with the others and wore a modified Dominican habit, but was unable to receive Communion, which was not permitted by Church law until the age of twelve. This hurt her very deeply. She prayed that Jesus would grant her wish and allow her to receive Him sooner. She even asked the convent priest, but he refused to make an exception.To receive Jesus in Communion became the consuming desire of her heart. She would even sometimes exclaim: "Tell me, can anyone receive Jesus into his heart and not die? " When Imelda was eleven years old, on the eve of the Ascension,  she  remained behind after Mass, praying silently in the chapel. As the other sist...

The saint of the day for March 9th is St. Frances of Rome, one of the great mystics of the 15th century. She was born in Rome to a noble family in 1384 and died in Rome on March 9, 1440. She desired to enter the convent, but in obedience to her parents was instead married at age twelve to a young nobleman named Lorenzo de' Ponziani. Frances was a good wife and homemaker, and the mother to three children. As a lay person, she became an Oblate with the Benedictine Oblate Congregation of Tor di Speechi and led the life of a religious, without taking formal vows. She spent much of her time in prayer and in doing works. She was humble, detached, and advanced in a life of contemplation. She had the supernatural gift of visions, miracles, and ecstasy and saw the bodily image of her guardian angel. She had visions of heaven and hell and foresaw the Western schism. She also possessed the gift of reading consciences. Frances was known for her great works of charity to the poor and...

The saint of the day for February 8 is St. Josephine Bakhita, a Canossian Sister who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Sudan. Bakhita was born in Eastern Sudan around 1869 and was captured by slave traders, who named her Bakhita, which means "the lucky or fortunate one." Bakhita came from a happy, loving tribal family, which consisted of her parents, three brothers, and four sisters. In comparison to other African tribal families, her family was well to do, as her uncle was the village chief and her father owned cattle and large plantations. When Bakhita was about nine years old, slave traders captured her. During the course of her life, she was sold five times. She was subjected to many cruel tortures, some of which included whip lashing, which tore off her flesh, and being tattooed multiple times on her body via incisions with a razor and having salt rubbed into her womb. Despite the cruel treatments, she had no resentment or bitterness in her heart, but pr...

Anne (Hebrew, Hannah, grace; also spelled Ann, Anne, Anna) is the traditional name of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Joachim (whose name means Yahweh prepares), was the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Both were the grandparents of Jesus. Tradition has it they first lived in Galilee and later settled in Jerusalem where the Blessed Virgin Mary was born and raised. Joachim and Anne were a rich and pious couple who had been married for a long time, but found themselves childless. The couple prayed fervently for a child and promised to dedicate their first born to the service of God. An angel appeared to Anne and told her, "The Lord has looked upon thy tears; thou shalt conceive and give birth and the fruit of thy womb shall be blessed by all the world". Joachim also received the same message from the angel. Anne gave birth to a daughter whom she called Miriam (Mary), who was conceived without sin. As a child, Mary was taken to the temple and her parents suffered ...

St. Camilus was born in Bacchianico, Italy in 1550 and died in Rome, Italy in 1614. His mother died while he was still a child and his father was an officer in both the Neapolitan and French royal armies, leaving him neglected. While still a youth, he became a soldier in the service of Venice and later of Naples, remaining there until 1574. While Camillus referred to himself as a great sinner, his only vice seemed to be gambling. He gambled away everything he had and to atone for actions, he went to work as a laborer on the new Capuchin buildings in Manfredonia. Here, after a moving exhortation from the Friar, he completed his conversion and begged God for mercy, at the age of twenty-five. Camillus entered the Capuchin novitiate three times, but a nagging leg injury, received while fighting the Turks, each time forced him to give it up. He went to Rome for medical treatment where Saint Philip Neri became his priest and confessor. He moved into San Giacomo Hospital for the incurable, an...

Today is the optional memorial of St. Martin de Porres, the first black American Saint. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a young freed slave woman from Panama, who may have been black or of Indian blood. His father was repelled by the darkness of his son's skin at birth and abandoned him, leaving the child-raising to his mother. At age 12, Martin was apprenticed to a "surgeon," at that time a combination of barber, druggist, physician and surgeon. Once trained, he began to use his skills to serve the poor. At fifteen, he became a lay brother at the Dominican Friary in Lima, where he worked as a barber, a farm laborer, a clothier, and a care-giver for the sick. Each day Martin distributed food to the hungry, he was doctor to the sick, and he helped to establish an orphanage and a hospice for abandoned babies. Martin devoted himself to severe penances. In turn, God endowed him with many graces and an abundance of spiritual gifts: visions, ecstasies, bi...

St Alphonsus, or Alonzo as he was called in Spain, was born at Segovia in Spain, on July 12, 1531. From childhood he was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He loved her as his mother. This childlike devotion to her was the main reason for his sanctity. Alphonsus was destined to be an example of Christian perfection in many states of life. On the death of his father in 1545, he was called home from Alcala where he was studying, by his mother burdened with the care of eleven young children, and though a boy of fourteen, he was placed at the head of the family business, which involved the buying and selling of wool. At the request of his mother, Alphonsus married the virtuous Maria Suarez. His married life of four years was marked with much suffering. His wife died leaving behind a son; his mother, too, died leaving behind her eleven children. He was about 32 years old when his mother died. He bore his cross willingly. Alphonsus started a more fervent life. He wanted to become a Jesuit....

Today is the feast day of Sts. Simon and Jude Thaddaeus, Apostles, who both preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia and Persia. The name of St. Simon usually appears eleventh in the list of the apostles. The first cousin of Jesus, he was born at Cana and is surnamed "The Zealot." He preached in Egypt, Spain, and Lybia, leaving behind him the fertile hills of Galilee, where he had been engaged in the healthful cultivation of the vineyards and olive gardens. He later rejoined his brother, Saint Jude, in Persia, where they preached and died as martyrs together. Patronage: curriers; sawmen; sawyers; tanners St. Jude, also called Thaddeus or "Courageous", is the author of the short epistle in the New Testament. He was the apostle who asked the Lord at the Last Supper why he had manifested himself only to the disciples and not to the whole world (John 14:22). He was the son of Cleophas and the woman named Mary who stood with the Blessed Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross as...

St. John was born at Capistrano, Italy in 1385, the son of a former German knight of that city. He studied law at the University of Perugia and practiced as a lawyer in the courts of Naples. King Ladislas of Naples appointed him governor of Perugia. During a war with a neighboring town he was betrayed and imprisoned. Upon his release he entered the Franciscan community at Perugia in 1416. He and St. James of the March were fellow students under St. Bernadine of Siena, who inspired him to institute the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus and His Mother. John began his brilliant preaching apostolate while a deacon in 1420. After his ordination, he traveled throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, preaching penance and establishing numerous communities of Franciscan renewal. When Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and Rome, St. John, at the age of 70, was commissioned by Pope Callistus II to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks. Marchi...

Isabella de Flores was born April 20, 1586 to Spanish immigrants in Lima, Peru. At her confirmation, she took the name of Rose, because as an infant her face had been seen transformed by a mystical rose. She had a strong devotion for Jesus and His Holy Mother and spent long hours praying before the Blessed Sacrament. With St. Catherine of Siena as her model, Rose fasted three times a week, offered up severe penances, and when her vanity was attacked, she cut off her beautiful hair, and wore coarse clothing. She frequently deprived herself of food, water, and sleep. As a result of her exterior mortification, she had interior mystical experiences as well as long periods of darkness and desolation. For fifteen years, she went through the "dark night of the soul." Rose worked hard to support her poor parents (by embroidering and gardening) and she humbly obeyed them, except when they tried to get her to marry. That she would not do. For ten years she fought them on this issue as ...

Bernard, the founding abbot of Clairvaux Abbey in Burgundy, was one of the most commanding Church leaders in the first half of the twelfth century as well as one of the greatest spiritual masters of all times and the most powerful propagator of the Cistercian reform. He was born to a noble family at Fontaines, near Dijon, France in 1090, the third of seven children, six of whom were sons. Bernard left his privileged life near Dijon, France, to join the Cistercians at the age of 22. He was well educated and so passionate about his faith that he convinced 30 of his relatives -- including all of his brothers, his uncle, and later his widowed father -- as well as many friends to join him at the abbey. Bernard first entered the abbey at Citeaux, but only three years later was sent with 12 other monks to establish another monastery in the Diocese of Champagne. The monastery came to be known Clairvaux, the Valley of Light. As a young abbot he published a series of sermons on the Annunciation....

St. Pontian (Pontianus) was a victim of the persecution of Alexander Severus, who directed his attention particularly against the leaders of the Church. St. Pontian governed the Church from 230 to 235. He was exiled to the mines of Sardinia and died in exile. St. Hippoytus, a priest and a person of some importance in the Church in Rome at the beginning of the third century, provoked a schism which lasted for some years. He was exiled to Sardinia with St. Pontian, where he was reconciled with the Church and died for the faith in 235. As kind as Severus might have been to the Christians, his successor Maximus Thrax persecuted them. Although Maximus was not a religious man himself, he despised Severus and intended to reverse any attitude to which Severus might have been disposed. He therefore decreed that leaders of the Church be singled out and banished to the labor mines of Sardinia, the famous "Island of Death." Pontian, a Roman and son of Calpurnius, had enjoyed a peaceful r...

Joachim (whose name means Yahweh prepares), was the father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Anne (Hebrew, Hannah, grace; also spelled Ann, Anne, Anna) is the traditional name of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Anne and St. Joachim were parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandparents of Jesus. Tradition has it they first lived in Galilee and later settled in Jerusalem where the Blessed Virgin Mary was born and raised. Joachim and Anne were a rich and pious couple who had been married for a long time, but found themselves childless. The couple prayed fervently for a child and promised to dedicate their first born to the service of God. An angel appeared to Anne and told her, "The Lord has looked upon thy tears; thou shalt conceive and give birth and the fruit of thy womb shall be blessed by all the world". Joachim also received the same message from the angel. Anne gave birth to a daughter whom she called Miriam (Mary), who was conceived without sin. As a child, Mary...

The people who mass-produce statues and holy cards have done St. Aloysius Gonzaga no favors. The standard image of the saint as a frail, doe-eyed novice has given us the wrong impression. It may even be responsible for the decline in devotion to St. Aloysius. Yet Aloysius deserves a revival, especially as the patron saint of teenagers. The time and place where he grew up — 16th-century Italy — is not very different from 21st century America. It was a lax, morally careless, self-indulgent age. Aloysius saw the decadence around him and vowed not to be part of it. He did not, however, become a kill-joy. Like any teenage boy, he wanted to have a good time, and as a member of an aristocratic family he had plenty of opportunities for amusement. He enjoyed horse races, banquets and the elaborate parties held in palace gardens. But if Aloysius found himself at a social function that took a turn to the lascivious, he left. Aloysius did not just want to be good, he wanted to be holy; and on this...

Today is the Optional Memorial of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity. Perpetua was a convert to Christianity who was born to a noble pagan family. She was martyred along with her maid and friend, Felicity in Carthage in 203 A.D. The two women were arrested and imprisoned, along with three other Christians. Perpetua was 22 years old, with a son a few months old; Felicity was pregnant at the time of the arrest. Their only crime was defying Emperor Septimus Severus' prohibition of conversions to Christianity. The account of their martyrdom and courage, The Suffering of Perpetua and Felicity, is one of the earliest historical accounts of Christianity. It is one of the great treasures of martyr literature, an authentic document preserved for us in the actual words of the martyrs and their friends. Perpetua wrote a vivid account of what happened. "While I was still with my companions, and my father in his affection for me was trying to turn me from my purpose by arguments and so weaken my ...

Today is the feast of St. Scholastica (480 - 543), the twin sister of St. Benedict and head of the monastery at Plombaria, under her brother's direction. The siblings were very close. They met once a year at a house near the Monte Cassino monastery to discuss spiritual matters. Saint Gregory tells the charming story of their last meeting. The saints had spent their time together in the mutual comfort of "heavenly talk" and with nightfall approaching, Benedict prepared to leave. Scholastica believed that it would be their last opportunity to see each other alive, so she asked Benedict to spend the evening in conversation. Benedict sternly refused because he did not wish to break his own rule by spending a night away from his monastery in Monte Cassino. Scholastica cried, laid her head upon the table, and prayed that God would intervene. As she did so, a sudden storm arose. There were brilliant flashes of lightning, a loud peal of thunder, and the rain and hail came in such...