ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY Saints celebrated on the 20th of January WELCOME! BLESSED EUSTOCHIUM, ABBESS OF MONTE VERGINE Blessed Eustochium (Smaragda) was born in A.D. 1430 at Messina in eastern Sicily. Her father was of the noble family of Calafato, and her mother a neé Colonna. She excelled in virtue and beauty, therefore several rich and noble Sicilians asked her hand in marriage, but in vain, because Eustochium had made up her mind to remain in the virgin state for love of Jesus, whom she had chosen as her bridegroom. After she had withstood the demands of her parents for some time, unswervingly but but with childlike modesty, and even endured mistreatment from them (in their attempt to make her change her mind) with wonderful patience, she eventually received permission to enter the monastery of Saint Clara in Bassincano. Here she soon became a model for all her sisters in religion. Later she received permission from Pope Calixtus III to found a new n...