SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, VIRGIN AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH; SAINT HUGH OF CLUNY, ABBOT AND SAINT PETER OF VERONA, PRIEST AND MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY: APRIL 29TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church; Saint Hugh of Cluny and Saint Peter of Verona, Priest and Martyr. During this Easter season, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick, we particularly pray for those suffering from cancers and those who are terminally ill and dying. May God in His infinite grace and mercy grant them His divine healing and intervention. We also pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, for the poor and needy, for all expectant mothers and midwives and Christians all over the world. We pray for the safety and well-being of us all and our families, for peace, love and unity in our families, our marriages and our divided and conflicted world. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle souls of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. For vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen 🙏🏽
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, VIRGIN AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH: St. Catherine (March 25, 1347 – April 29, 1380), was born in Siena, on the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1347 and was one of the youngest, 24th of 25 children of a wealthy wool dyer and his wife, Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa. Her twin sister died in infancy. A lay member of the third-order Dominican, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and the Catholic Church. St. Catherine was a peacemaker and counselor to the Pope. She singlehandedly ended the Avignon exile of the successors of Peter in the 14th century. St. Catherine exhibited an unusually independent character as a child and an exceptionally intense prayer life. When she was seven years old she had the first of her mystical visions, in which she saw Jesus surrounded by Saints and seated in glory. In the same year she vowed to consecrate her virginity to Christ. When, at the age of 16, her parents decided that she should marry, she cut off her hair to make herself less appealing, and her father, realizing that he couldn’t contend with her resolve, let her have her way. She joined the Dominican Tertiaries and lived a deep and solitary life of prayer and meditation for the next three years in which she had constant mystical experiences, capped, by the end of the three years with an extraordinary union with God granted to only a few mystics, known as ‘mystical marriage.’ She had regular mystical visits from, and conversations with, Jesus, Mary, and many of the Saints. St. Catherine had no formal education and was illiterate, yet her theological knowledge acquired through prayer astounded learned theologians. She was especially devoted to working for the unity and spiritual health of the Church.
St. Catherine suffered many intense periods of desolation alongside her mystical ecstasies, often feeling totally abandoned by God. She ended her solitude at this point and began tending to the sick, poor, and marginalized, especially lepers. As her reputation for holiness and remarkable personality became known throughout Siena, she attracted a band of disciples, two of whom became her confessors and biographers, and together they served Christ in the poor with even greater ardor. The Lord called her to a more public life while she was still in her 20s, and she established correspondences with many influential figures, advising and admonishing them and exhorting them to holiness, including the Pope himself who she never hesitated to rebuke when she saw fit. Great political acts which are attributed to her include achieving peace between the Holy See and Florence who were at war, to convince the Pope to return from his Avignon exile, which he did in 1376, and to heal the great schism between the followers of the legitimate Pope, Urban VI, and those who opposed him in 1380. She achieved this while on her deathbed. Her Dialogues, one of the classics of Italian literature, are the record of her mystical visions which she dictated in a state of mystical ecstasy. St. Catherine was a great mystic and was granted the stigmata, in 1375, while visiting Pisa, she received the stigmata, even though they never appeared on her body during her lifetime, owing to her request to God. They appeared only on her incorruptible body after her death. Her practical wisdom and profound spiritual insight was widely sought both inside and outside the Church. She died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at the age of 33, worn out by penances, travel, and the burden of her involvement in so many pressing ecclesial affairs, offering her life to God for the sanctification of the Church. She was canonized in 1461 by Pope Pius II. St. Catherine has long been regarded as one of the finest theological minds on the Church—as is shown by her outstanding work, Dialogue, as well as some 400 Letters—and on October 4, 1970 Pope Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church. She was the first woman (along with Teresa of Ávila) to be declared a doctor of the Church. St. Catherine of Siena is the co-patron of Italy and of Europe and the Patron Saint of fire prevention; bodily ills; miscarriages; people ridiculed for their piety; sexual temptation; sick people; sickness; nurses, Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; Europe; illness; Italy; Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines; Samal, Bataan, Philippines.
Quotes of Saint Catherine of Siena:
“Sin arises simply from loving what God hates and hating what God loves.”
“Let all do the work which God has given them, and not bury their talent, for that is also a sin deserving severe punishment. It is necessary to work always and everywhere for all God’s creatures.”
PRAYER: Saint Catherine of Siena, your love of God was expressed in so many vibrant ways and in a fervent love of His Church. From your exalted place in heaven, we seek your powerful intercession to make all Catholics more ardent in their love of the Trinity, of the Passion, and of the Papacy… Amen 🙏🏽
God, You caused St. Catherine to shine with Divine love in the contemplation of the Lord’s Passion and in the service of Your Church. By her help, grant that Your people, associated in the mystery of Christ, may ever exult in the revelation of His glory… Amen 🙏🏽
SAINT HUGH OF CLUNY, ABBOT: St. Hugh (1024-1109) sometimes called Hugh the Great or Hugh of Semur, was the Abbot of Cluny from 1049 until his death. A prince and was an adviser to nine popes. He was one of the most influential leaders of the monastic orders from the Middle Ages. Renowned for his charity towards the suffering poor, he built a hospital for lepers, where he himself performed the most menial duties. Saint Hugh was a prince related to the sovereign house of the dukes of Burgundy, and received his education under the tutelage of his pious mother and by the solicitude of Hugh, Bishop of Auxerre, his great-uncle. From his infancy he was given to prayer and meditation, and his life was remarkably innocent and holy. One day, hearing an account of the wonderful sanctity of the monks of Cluny under Saint Odilo, he was so moved that he set out at that moment, and going there humbly begged the monastic habit. After a rigid novitiate, he made his profession in 1039, at the age of sixteen years. His extraordinary virtue, especially his admirable humility, obedience, charity, sweetness, prudence, and zeal, gained him the respect of the entire community.
At the death of Saint Odilo in 1049, though Saint Hugh was only twenty-five years old, he succeeded to the government of that great abbey, which he continued for sixty-two years. During those years, the role of Cluny was immense. From it came two very illustrious Popes, Urban II and Pascal II, both disciples of Saint Hugh. The king of Castille, Alphonsus VI, owed his deliverance from an imprisonment to the prayers and intervention of Saint Hugh. A count of Macon entered the monastery with thirty knights and a great many servants, while the countess, his wife, retired to a convent founded by Saint Hugh. Donations of large terrains were made to this Abbey, permitting innumerable foundations. Urban II gave Saint Hugh the right to wear pontifical ornaments for the solemn feast days. Saint Hugh of Cluny died on April 29, 1109, at the age of eighty-five years. He was canonized twelve years after his death by Pope Calixtus II on January 1, 1120. He’s Patron Saint against fever.
Saint Hugh of Cluny, Abbot ~ Pray for us 🙏🏽
SAINT PETER OF VERONA, PRIEST AND MARTYR: St. Peter of Verona (1205- April 6, 1252) was a 13th century Italian Catholic priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. His parents were Manichaeans, but he was converted and entered the Order of Preachers with the ambition not only of preaching the faith but of giving his life for it. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy and had his wish, for in the course of his apostolic work he was assassinated by the Manichaeans on the road from Como to Milan in 1252. St. Peter of Verona was born in 1205 at Verona of Manichean parents; there he nonetheless attended a Catholic school. One day his Manichean uncle asked what he learnt there. The Creed, answered Peter: I believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth. No arguments could shake his faith, and at the age of sixteen he received the habit from Saint Dominic himself at Bologna. After his ordination, he preached to the heretics of Lombardy and converted multitudes. Saint Peter was constantly obliged to dispute with heretics, and although he was able to confound them, still the devil took occasion thereby to tempt him one day against faith. Instantly he had recourse to prayer before an image of Our Lady, and heard a voice saying to him the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith may not fail; and thou shalt confirm thy brethren in it. (Luke 22:32)
He often conversed with the Saints, and one day the martyred virgins Catherine, Agnes and Cecilia appeared to him and conferred with him. A passing religious, hearing their feminine voices, accused him to their Superior, who without hesitation or questions, exiled him to a convent where no preaching was being done. Saint Peter submitted humbly, but complained in prayer to Jesus crucified that He was abandoning him to his bad reputation. The crucifix spoke: And I, Peter, was I too not innocent? Learn from Me to suffer the greatest sorrows with joy. Eventually his innocence was brought to light; for his part, he had learned in his solitude to love humiliation and confusion. Again engaged in preaching, miracles accompanied his exhortations. He traveled all over Italy and became famous. Once when preaching to a vast crowd under the burning sun, the heretics defied him to procure shade. He prayed, and a cloud overshadowed the audience. Every day at the elevation of the Mass he prayed, Grant, Lord, that I may die for Thee, who for me didst die. His prayer was answered. His enemies, confounded by him, sought his life. Two of them attacked him in 1252 on the road to Milan and struck his head with an axe. Saint Peter fell, commended himself to God, dipped his finger in his own blood, and wrote on the ground, I believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth. He was then stabbed to death. The brother religious accompanying him also suffered death. The details of the crime were made known by Saint Peter’s murderer, named Carino, who after fleeing from justice confessed his crime, asking for a penance from the Dominican Fathers. He took the habit, and according to their testimony lived the life of a saint and persevered to the end. Miracles at Saint Peter’s tomb and elsewhere converted a great many heretics. He was canonized as a Catholic saint 11 months after his death, making this the fastest canonization in history. He’s Patron Saint of Inquisitors, midwives and Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
St. Peter of Verona, Priest and Martyr ~ Pray for us🙏🏽