Catholic Fire

July 11 is the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, the twin brother of St. Scholastica, the patron of Europe, and the founder of Western monasticism. In 1964, Pope Paul VI declared him patron of Europe and in 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger chose Benedict as patron of his papacy. Biography Tradition teaches that St. Benedict lived from 480 to 547, though we cannot be sure that these dates are historically accurate. His biographer, St. Gregory the Great, pope from 590 to 604, does not record the dates of his birth and death, though he refers to a Rule written by Benedict. Scholars debate the dating of the Rule though they seem to agree that it was written in the second third of the sixth century. Saint Gregory wrote about St. Benedict in his Second Book of Dialogues, but his account of the life and miracles of Benedict cannot be regarded as a biography in the modern sense of the term. Gregory's purpose in writing Benedict's life was to edify and to inspire, not to seek ou...

(left: St. James and right: St. Philip)  Today is the feast of two Apostles, Saints Philip and James. Philip, a fisherman, came from the same town as Peter and Andrew, Bethsaida in Galilee and was one of the twelve apostles Jesus called. On the way from Judea to Galilee Our Lord found Philip, and said, "Follow Me".  Philip obeyed Jesus and immediately began to convert others, finding his friend Nathaniel and telling him that Jesus was the one whom Moses and the other prophets had foretold. Philip was among those who attended the wedding at Cana. He was martyred in the first century. He is the patron saint of hatters and pastry chefs. St. James was also one of the twelve. He is called the “Less” because he was younger than the other apostle by the same name, who was known as James the Great. St. James the Less, a brother of the Apostle Jude, was from Cana of Galilee. He is the author of one of the Epistles in the New Testament. St. Paul tells us that James was fav...

Today is the solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary, foster father of Jesus, and patron of the universal Church.  On May 31, we honor St. Joseph as the patron of workers. Most of the reliable information on St. Joseph is contained in the first two chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Here we discover that Joseph was of royal descent from David, that the family was from Bethlehem in Judea and that Joseph, who was a builder, had moved from Bethlehem to Nazareth in Galilee. Joseph was engaged to Mary and upon learning that she was pregnant; he had plans to divorce her. Described in Matthew as a righteous man, he intended to dismiss her quietly. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream to tell him, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (MT 1:20-21). "When Jo...

The saint of the day for September 10 is St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Nicholas was born in 1245 in Sant’Angelo in the diocese of Fermo. His middle-aged parents named him in thanksgiving to St. Nicholas of Myra, to whose shrine they had made a pilgrimage after being childless for several years. Nicholas showed early signs of piety. At age seven, he hid away in a nearby cave and prayed there like the hermits whom he had observed in the mountains. He became an Augustinian friar at age 18 and was ordained at the age of 25. Nicholas had visions of angels reciting "to Tolentino" and took this as a sign to move to that city in 1274, where he lived the rest of his life. Tolentino was torn by civil war and Nicholas set about restoring peace and unity to the city by preaching in the streets, which converted many souls. His ministry was so effective that it was viewed as miraculous, but he was careful not to take credit for anything. He always told those he helped, "Say n...

The saint of the day for September 10 is St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Nicholas was born in 1245 in Sant’Angelo in the diocese of Fermo. His middle-aged parents named him in thanksgiving to St. Nicholas of Myra, to whose shrine they had made a pilgrimage after being childless for several years. Nicholas showed early signs of piety. At age seven, he hid away in a nearby cave and prayed there like the hermits whom he had observed in the mountains. He became an Augustinian friar at age 18 and was ordained at the age of 25. Nicholas had visions of angels reciting "to Tolentino" and took this as a sign to move to that city in 1274, where he lived the rest of his life. Tolentino was torn by civil war and Nicholas set about restoring peace and unity to the city by preaching in the streets, which converted many souls. His ministry was so effective that it was viewed as miraculous, but he was careful not to take credit for anything. He always told those he helped, "Say no...

The saint of the day for March 8th is St. John of God, Founder of the Order of the Brothers Hospitallers, which bears his name. St. John of God was born on March 8, 1495 in a small village in the south of Portugal called Montemor-o-Novo. At the age of eight, he left home and was raised by a Spanish family in Oropesa. John spent most of his life as a wanderer, working as a shepherd, soldier, a religious bookseller and laborer, traveling in Europe and North Africa. When St. John of God settled in Granada around the age of forty he was so deeply moved by a homily of Blessed John of Avila, that he gave away all his worldly possessions to the poor and went about the city beating his breast, begging for God’s mercy. His conversion experience was so dramatic in its intensity that he was locked up in a lunatic asylum, where he was flogged and placed in solitary confinement. His brief experience of this kind of treatment made him feel very compassionate toward the poor, the sick a...

Today's saint of the day is St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Nicholas was born in 1245 in Sant’Angelo in the diocese of Fermo. His middle-aged parents named him in thanksgiving to St. Nicholas of Myra, to whose shrine they had made a pilgrimage after being childless for several years. Nicholas showed early signs of piety - at age seven he hid away in a nearby cave and prayed there like the hermits whom he had observed in the mountains. He became an Augustinian friar at age 18 and was ordained at the age of 25. Nicholas had visions of angels reciting "to Tolentino" and took this as a sign to move to that city in 1274, where he lived the rest of his life. Tolentino was torn by civil war and Nicholas set about restoring peace and unity to the city by preaching in the streets, which converted many souls. His ministry was so effective that it was viewed as miraculous, but he was careful not to take credit for anything. He always told those he helped, "Say nothing of th...