MEMORIAL OF SAINT SAMSON, BISHOP OF DOL; SAINTS NAZARIUS AND CELSUS, MARTYRS; SAINT VICTOR I, POPE AND MARTYR, SAINT INNOCENT I, POPE AND BLESSED FR. STANLEY ROTHER, PRIEST AND MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 28TH Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Samson, Bishop of Dol; Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs; Saint Victor I, Pope and Martyr, Saint Innocent I, Pope and Blessed Stanley Rother (honored as a patron saint of missionaries and priests). Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers, and other terminal diseases. We pray for those going through difficulties especially during these challenging times, for the poor and the needy, for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏🏾
SAINT SAMSON, BISHOP OF DOL: St. Samson (490-565) is one of the greatest of the Welsh Saints. St. Samson was a bishop who became one of the greatest missionaries of the sixth century in western Europe, evangelizing for Christ in Ireland, Cornwall, Channel Islands, and Brittany. Saint Samson was born in South Wales about 490 and brought up in the Abbey of Llanwit, then ruled by St. Illtud. His parents whose names are given as Prince Amon the Black of Dyfed and Anna of Gwynedd, were of noble, but not royal, birth. While still an infant he was dedicated to God and entrusted to the care of St. Illtyd, by whom he was brought up in the monastery of Llantwit Major. He was ordained and decided to increase his austerities, fervor, and prayer life. Retiring to another community in the neighborhood, he eventually became its Abbot. However, the Saint was so struck by the superior leading of some Irish monks who paid him a visit that he accompanied them to Ireland and remained a considerable time, laboring for the faith. As time went on, the gift of miracles, which he already enjoyed, attracted so much attention that his humility could not tolerate it. Returning to is own country, he lived for a while as a hermit on the banks of the Severn.
The holy monk was consecrated Bishop by St. Dubricius and as the result of a vision crossed the sea to Brittany in company with other monks. With the aid of land given him, the saintly Bishop established a monastery at a place later called Dol, which became an important Episcopal See. His influence can be gauged by the fact that he visited King Childerbert I to intercede on behalf of the dispossessed Breton ruler Judual. St. Samson was a tireless traveler, great ascetic, and fearless monk who rendered innumerable benefits to his adopted country as well as a dedicated pastor who zealously looked after his flock. He died on July 28, 565 and was immediately honored in England, Normandy, and Brittany; later his cult spread to Italy. Saint Samson is revered as one of the seven founding saints of Brittany, along with Saint Pol Aurelian, Saint Tugdual (Tudwal), Saint Brieuc, Saint Malo, Saint Patern, and Saint Corentin. Dol was overwhelmed by a catastrophic tidal wave in 709, and there is now no trace of the monastery. St. Samson’s relics were taken to Canterbury and Ely in the time of King Athelstan of Wessex (895 –939).
PRAYER: God, by Your ineffable mercy, St. Samson proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ. Through his intercession help us to grow in the knowledge of You and faithfully walk before You according to the truth of the Gospel, filled with every good work. Amen 🙏🏾
SAINTS NAZARIUS AND CELSUS, MARTYRS: St. Nazarius and St. Celsus (1st c.) were early Christian martyrs, but nothing else is known with certainty about their lives or the time they lived, other than that they were put to death for their Christian faith in Milan, Italy, perhaps during the persecution of the Emperor Nero. What we know about these saints is from St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. According to one account, St. Nazarius was the son of St. Perpetua, the child she bore just prior being executed for her faith. Celsus was a youth given to the care of St. Nazarius by the boy’s mother, who desired for the saint to teach her son the Christian faith. The two Sts. traveled and preached the Gospel together zealously before being tortured and executed in Milan.
St. Nazarius was baptized by the blessed Pope Linus. He went into Gaul, and there baptized a child named Celsus whom he had instructed in the Christian doctrine. Together they went to Treves, and in Nero’s persecution were both thrown into the sea, but were saved by a miracle. They proceeded to Milan, where they spread the faith of Christ; with great constancy confessed Christ to be God, the prefect, Anolinus, condemned them to death, beheaded about the year 68. Their bodies were buried outside the Roman gate, and for a long time remained unknown. But through a divine revelation, they were found by St. Ambrose in 395 A.D. St. Ambrose discovered the body of St. Nazarius, with severed head, along with a vial of his blood still as fresh as the day it was spilled, in a garden outside the city gates. St. Ambrose carried the body in procession to bury in the city’s Basilica of the Apostles. In the same garden he also discovered the body of St. Celsus, and likewise had the body taken to the same basilica. Miracles occurred in the church at the presence of the relics of these two holy martyrs. Both Sts. Nazarius and Celsus share a feast day on July 28th.
Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏🏾 l
SAINT VICTOR I, POPE AND MARTYR: St. Victor was pope from 189 to 199 A.D. He was born in Africa, his father’s name was Felix. He succeeded St. Eleutherius, on the pontifical throne. In fact, St. Victor is the first Pope to have been of African origin. He is known for having obtained the release of many Christians who had been deported to the mines of Sardinia, and for being the first Pope to celebrate the liturgy and write Church documents in Latin rather than Greek. It was St. Victor who made Latin the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. He regulated the date for the celebration of Easter throughout the Church in accordance with the Roman tradition observed till now. He decided that any one might baptize in cases of necessity with unblessed water. St. Victor was a favorite of the mistress of the Emperor Commodus, and his good relationship with her allowed him to present to her lists of imprisoned Christians. Through her power, she was able to secure their releases. Yet, his reign was not without its difficulties. During his reign, he excommunicated several bishops for celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan. Prior to his elevation, a difference in dating the celebration of the Christian Passover/Easter between Rome and the bishops of Asia Minor had been tolerated by both the Roman and Eastern churches. The churches in Asia Minor celebrated it on the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan, the day before Jewish Passover, regardless of what day of the week it fell on, as the Crucifixion had occurred on the Friday before Passover, justifying this as the custom they had learned from the apostles; for this, the Latins called them Quartodecimans.
Synods were held on the subject in various parts—in Palestine under Theophilus of Caesarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem, in Pontus under Palmas, in Gaul under Irenaeus, in Corinth under its bishop, Bachillus, at Osrhoene in Mesopotamia, and elsewhere—all of which disapproved of this practice and consequently issued by synodical letters declaring that “on the Lord’s Day only the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord from the dead was accomplished, and that on that day only we keep the close of the paschal fast” (Eusebius H. E. v. 23). St. Irenaeus of Lyons criticized St. Victor’s severity at times. Accounts also show that Victor excommunicated Theodotus of Byzantium for teaching that Christ was a mere man. Yet, St. Victor remained steadfast and stern as he faced great threats to the True Faith from both Gnosticism and Monarchianism. St. Victor I ultimately suffered martyrdom under Septimus Severus in A.D. 199 A. D. All in all, St. Victor fought for the True Faith and strongly condemned heresies strongly for the uniformity of the Church.
Saint Victor I, Pope and Martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT INNOCENT I, POPE: Pope Saint Innocent I (378-417) was pope from 401 to March 12, 417. He was born on March 11, 378 AD at Albano and was one of the greatest early Popes. He was, according to his biographer in the “Liber Pontificalis”, the son of a man called Innocens of Albano; but according to his contemporary Jerome, his father was Pope Anastasius I (399-401), whom he was called by the unanimous voice of the clergy and laity to succeed (he had been born before his father’s entry to the clergy, let alone the papacy). He was a contemporary of St. Augustine and of St. Jerome. The latter wrote of him: “Keep the faith of St. Innocent who fills the Apostolic Chair and who is the successor and spiritual son of Anastasius, of happy memory; receive no other doctrine, however wise and attractive it may appear.” He was one of the great champions of the primacy of the Holy See. He fought the unjust removal of Saint John Chrysostom and spoke strongly in favor of clerical celibacy. It was during Pope Innocent I’s papacy that the siege of Rome by Alaric I (395-410) and the Visigoths (408) took place, when, according to an anecdote of Zosimus, the ravages of plague and famine were so frightful, and divine help seemed so far off, that papal permission was granted to sacrifice and pray to the pagan deities. The pope, however, happened to be absent from the city on a mission to Honorius at Ravenna at the time of the sack in 410.
Pope Innocent I lost no opportunity of maintaining and extending the authority of the Roman see as the ultimate resort for the settlement of all disputes; and his still extant communications with Victricius of Rouen, Exuperius of Toulouse, Alexander of Antioch and others, as well as his actions on the appeal made to him by John Chrysostom (397-403) against Theophilus of Alexandria, show that opportunities of the kind were numerous and varied. He took a decided view on the Pelagian controversy, confirming the decisions of the synod of the province of proconsular Africa, held in Carthage in 416, which had been sent to him, and also writing in the same year in a similar sense to the fathers of the Numidian synod of Mileve who, Augustine being one of their number, had addressed him. Among Pope Innocent I’s letters is one to Jerome and another to John, bishop of Jerusalem, regarding annoyances to which the former had been subjected by the Pelagians at Bethlehem. Pope Innocent I sat fifteen years, one month, and ten days. Saint Innocent died in Rome, March 12, 417, and was buried in the cemetery called ad Ursum Pileatum. Accordingly, though from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, he was commemorated on 28 July, his feast day is now March 12th.
Saint Innocent I, Pope ~ Pray for us 🙏🏾
BLESSED FR. STANLEY ROTHER, PRIEST AND MARTYR: Blessed Stanley Rother (March 27, 1935 – July 28, 1981) was an American priest and missionary martyred in Guatemala during a time of civil unrest. His deep love for the poor, unwavering commitment to his flock, and courageous witness to the Gospel have made him a powerful example of modern-day sainthood. He is the first U.S.-born priest recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church and beatified in 2017. On September 23, 2017 during the reign of Late Pope Francis, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, celebrated the Rite of Beatification for Blessed Stanley Rother during a Beatification Mass in downtown Oklahoma City. Blessed Stanley is the first martyr born in the United States and the first U.S. priest to be beatified.
Stanley Francis Rother was born on March 27, 1935, in Okarche, Oklahoma, into a devout Catholic farming family. Raised with strong values of faith, hard work, and service, he felt the call to priesthood early in life. After overcoming academic struggles particularly with Latin he was ordained a priest in 1963. In 1968, he volunteered for missionary work in Santiago Atitlán, a small village in the highlands of Guatemala, where he served the indigenous Tz’utujil people.
Father Rother immersed himself in their culture, learned both Spanish and the Tz’utujil language, and helped translate the New Testament into their native tongue. He celebrated the sacraments, taught the faith, supported local agriculture, built schools, and provided medical care. Amid Guatemala’s violent civil war, the Church’s advocacy for justice made clergy targets. Despite growing threats, Fr. Rother refused to abandon his people, famously saying, “The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.”
On July 28, 1981, just after midnight, armed men entered the rectory and shot him dead a clear act of martyrdom. His body was returned to Oklahoma, but at the request of his Tz’utujil community, his heart was buried in the church he loved and served.
Blessed Stanley Rother’s life is a testament to pastoral charity, courage, and solidarity with the poor. He reminds us that holiness is not limited by geography or age and that the call to mission may involve sacrifice, even unto death. His humility, quiet strength, and fidelity to his vocation serve as an inspiration, especially to those called to missionary and rural ministry.
PRAYER: Blessed Stanley Rother, faithful shepherd and courageous witness of Christ, intercede for us that we may love and serve with the same dedication you showed. Teach us to embrace the Gospel with simplicity and courage, to care for the poor and forgotten, and to be fearless in the face of injustice. May your example strengthen all missionaries and priests who work in dangerous or difficult places. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.🙏🏾