SAINT FEAST DAY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 20th of March WELCOME! SAINT JOZEF BILCZEWSKI, ARCHBISHOP OF LVIV Pope John Paul II  beatified Jozef Bilczewski in 2001 and  Pope Benedict XVI  canonised him four years later. Jozef was born in 1860 in Wilamovice in southern Poland and attended secondary school in Wadowice, the future birthplace of  the Polish pope . He was ordained priest in Krakow by Cardinal Albino Dunajewski. He received a doctorate in theology from the University of Vienna and eventually became professor of dogmatic theology at the John Casimir University of Lviv. Throughout his academic career he devoted himself to scientific work and his exceptional intellectual abilities were recognised by Franz Joseph, the Emperor of Austria, who presented Fr Jozef to the Holy Father as a candidate for the vacant Metropolitan See of Lviv. On  December 17 , 1900, at the age of 40, he was named Archbishop of Lviv of the Latin Rite. After accep...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE Saints celebrated on the 29th of June WELCOME! SAINT JOSE GREGORIO HERNANDEZ, PHYSICIAN Born October 26, 1864, in the small rural town of Isnotú in Trujillo state, Venezuela, José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis, was a saint who “to monetary wealth preferred that of the Gospel, spending his existence helping those in need.” Known as “the doctor of the poor,” he dedicated hours to serving those most in need. In fact, he died after being run over by a car on June 29, 1919, while crossing the street to buy medicine for an elderly woman. Pope Francis dedicated a catechesis at a September 2023 general audience to this layman, noting that “charity was the North Star that guided” his existence. He also described him as “a good and joyful person with a cheerful disposition, endowed with a marked intelligence.” The Holy Father also praised Hernández’s enthusiasm and apostolic zeal, which came from grace and intimacy w...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 12th of March WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH ZHANG DAPENG, MARTYR Zhang Dapeng was born as a Buddhist in Duyun, Guizhou Province, in the year 1754. He grew up without any knowledge of the gospel. He later moved to the provincial capital Guiyang where he went into the silk business with a man named Mr Wang. It was through Mr Wang’s son that he first heard the good news of Christ’s salvation. Zhang Dapeng repented of his sins and put his faith in Jesus Christ. He was not allowed to receive baptism, however, because at the time of his conversion Zhang Dapeng kept a concubine, which was a standard practice for wealthy Chinese men at the time. A Chinese priest named Luo Madi was doing missionary efforts in neighbouring Sichuan at that time and he sent a Chinese lay missionary named Hu Shilu (Lawrence) to go to Guizhou to preach the faith and establish a mission there. Hu Shilu met Zhang Dapeng and had a long chat with him. Zhang Dapeng ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 29th of July WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH ZHANG WENLAN AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS Chinese Priests in their Ecclesiastical Robes, Canton, China - 1/1/1919 The Tsingay seminary for the training of Catholic priests in Yaojiaguan (姚家关), China, which had been opened by Bishop Hu, was raided by Christophobic soldiers in 1861. Three seminarians, Saint Joseph Zhang Wenlan, Saint Paul Chen Changpin , and Saint John Baptist Luo Tingyin were arrested for being Christians and afterwards sentenced to death.  Along the way, all of them 'showed on their faces the peace and joy that rose from courage to die for their Catholic Faith, as they prayed up to the last minute before entering the glory of martyrdom'. All four, including Saint Martha Wang Luo Mande , the Christian Seminary cook, who had accompanied them, were decapitated for the sake of Jesus Christ on July 29, 1861. PRAYER: Grant to your Church, we beseech you, O Lord, through the ...

  WELCOME! SAINT EUPIUS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS For being Christians, Saints Eupius, Joseph, Felix, Secundulus and Julius were martyred in Sicily. These holy men are commemorated on September 2. (I. 359) (Information from  Stadler 's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints,  Volume  2, Augsburg, 1861, p. 117) Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations PRAYER: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saints Eupius, Joseph, Felix and Secundulus may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk,  de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE Saints celebrated on the 13th of June SAINT JOSEPH, BISHOP A page of one of Fortunatus Hueber's Saints' books, "Stammenbuch..." (1693) In the Carmelite calendar of Mechelen, this Saint Joseph (Josephus) is listed as bishop. The Acies bene ordinata calls him a bishop of Emmaus. Wiltsch's "Ecclesiastical Statistics"  indeed features (I. 209) a bishopric in Emmaus or Nicopolis. (II. 665.) (Information from  Stadler 's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints,  Volume  3, Augsburg, 1869, p. 454) Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations PRAYER: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Joseph may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER Saints celebrated on the 18th of October SAINT JOSEPH, ABBOT On October 18, Joseph's name is entered in the handwritten book of the dead (necrologium) of the first abbots of the Casulae monastery he founded in 1099, with the addition that on October 18, 1127 his mortal remains were raised from the grave and placed in a special container, as well as that he died on September 4, 1125 and that a later translation took place on July 16, 1198.  Incidentally, this monastery S. Nicolai Casularum (τῶν Kασονλων) was not, as the Bollandist Papebroch * states in the Life of the Hymnographer Josephus on April 4 (I. 286. no. 11), the one in Constantinople where this hymnographer had stayed for a long time  (St Joseph, Hymnographer) . Where the monastery in question is located is not specified in the article about our holy abbot and founder Joseph. (Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 3, Augsburg, 1869) *A hagiography so...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL Saints celebrated on the 12th of April Prayer to the Angels and the Saints Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation. In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven. Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses. Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 20th of March WELCOME! SAINT JOZEF BILCZEWSKI, ARCHBISHOP OF LVIV, UKRAINE   Saint Jozef Bilczewski, born on April 26 , 1860, was a Polish Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Archbishop of Lviv from 1900 until his death. He served as a theological and dogmatics professor in the Lviv college after himself having earned two doctorates in the course of his own studies.  A PATRON OF THE HOMELESS Cardinal Jozef is a patron saint of the homeless. He aided his people throughout the onslaught of World War I, organising relief and food for those displaced and those who became refugees; he likewise aided beggars and the homeless in his archdiocese. In 1918 he did all he could to smoothe tensions during the Polish-Ukrainian War and he collaborated with his brother bishops in helping their people when the conflict escalated; he likewise did the same thing during the Bolshevik occupation of Poland and Ukraine. He died on...

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 14th of March WELCOME! SAINTS ACEPSIMAS, JOSEPH, AND AITHILAHAS, MARTYRS  (Saints Acepsimas, Bishop; Joseph, Priest; and Aithilahas, Deacon, Martyrs) St Maruthas closes with the acts of these martyrs, his history of the persecution of King Sapor, which raged without intermission during forty years.  A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT The venerable author assures us, that, living in the neighbourhood, he had carefully informed himself of the several circumstances of their combats from those who were eye-witnesses, and ushers in his account with the following address:  “Be propitious to me, O Lord, through the prayers of these martyrs. Being assisted by the divine grace, and strengthened by your protection, O ye incomparable men, I presume to draw the outlines of your heroic virtues and incredible torments. But the remembrance of your bitter sufferings covers me with shame, confusion, and tears, for myself and my sins. O! you who he...

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY Saints celebrated on the 28th of January WELCOME! ST JOSEPH FREINADEMETZ, PRIEST  Joseph Freinademetz was born on April 15, 1852, in  Badia, which was then in the County of Tyrol, a part of the Austrian Empire. He was the fourth of 13 children of Giovanmattia and Anna Maria Freinademetz, who were poor farmers. HE VISITED THE MISSION HOUSE A pious child and youth, he entered the major seminary and was ordained a priest for the Brixen Diocese on July 25, 1875. His initial assignment was to be a teacher. But soon an article in the local diocesan newsletter about the new Mission House at Steyl, Holland, founded by  Fr Arnold Janssen caught his attention. Joseph went to visit the Mission House.  HE AND HIS COMPANIONS SAILED TO CHINA In 1878, he joined the group at Steyl and received training as a missionary. Barely a year later Joseph Freinademetz SVD sailed to China on the mission. In 1881, the Mission House had received its own mission ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 21st August WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH DANG VAN VIEN, PRIEST AND MARTYR  Saint Joseph was born in  1787 in Tien-Chu, Tonkin. The son of a Christian family, he studied at the Luc-Thuy seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1821.  His first assignment was the Christian community of Dong-Bai, where he carried out his ministry with righteousness and holiness. HE CARRIED OUT HIS MINISTRY WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS The letters he sent to a catechist who was in Au-Lien were intercepted and it was the cause of the warrant for his arrest, that a reward was offered to whomever turned on him.  He had to flee from one place to another without feeling safe anywhere because of apostates turned informers; It was two of his relatives who betrayed him. THEY FOUND NO CRIME OTHER THAN THAT OF HIM BEING A CHRISTIAN They took him to the city of Hung-Yen, capital of the northern province, who put him in chains. He was ordered ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 22nd of July WELCOME ! SAINT JOSEPH OF PALESTINE   [Commonly called Count Joseph.] The Jews, after the destruction of Jerusalem, erected two academies, the one at Babylon, the other at Tiberias, a city on the lake of Genesareth, rebuilt by Herod, in honour of the Emperor Tiberius. Both these schools flourished till the Saracen empire overran those countries.  That of Tiberias produced the Massoretes or Massoretic doctors, so famous for the invention of the vowel points in the Hebrew tongue, and their care in preserving the genuine text of the Holy Bible. Though the Jews then retained no sort of jurisdiction or form of government, yet they chose one among their chief doctors to whom they gave the title of patriarch or prince of the captivity.  HILLEL The most celebrated person who ever bore this honour among them was Hillel, whose name is still in great veneration with the Jews, and who was their most learned or...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 25th of August WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH CALASANZ, PRIEST Born of a wealthy family in Aragon in 1556, Saint Joseph Calasanz was ordained when he was in his thirties and went to Rome in 1592. He gave his life to the education of young people. He founded the first free school there; others came to work with him, and a religious congregation was formed to carry on the work, which spread through Italy and to Germany, the Piarists . As its success grew, jealousy and intrigue made his life very difficult. St Joseph died in 1648. PRAYER: Lord, you blessed Saint Joseph Calasanz with such charity and patience that he dedicated himself to the formation of Christian youth. As we honour this teacher of wisdom may we follow his example in working for truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 30th of July WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH YUAN GENGYIN, MARTYR Joseph Yuan Gengyin, born in 1853 in Hui, China (Hebei Province), was a devout and fervent Catholic husband and father. A DEVOUT AND FERVENT CATHOLIC HUSBAND AND FATHER In July 1900, he was compelled to bury a deceased fellow Catholic quickly without the customary prayers. At the time, a Chinese quasi-religious faction known as the “Boxers” had been carrying out a bloody persecution of Christians in China. Joseph subsequently returned to the grave with his son that he might sprinkle it with holy water and recite the prayers for a Catholic burial. HE REFUSED TO PROSTRATE HIMSELF BEFORE THE PAGAN IDOL A few days later, on July 30, 1900, Joseph was in the market place when the Boxers came and demanded that he prostrate himself before the idols of a pagan pagoda. He stalwartly refused. Several pagan friends sought to save Joseph’s life, telling the Boxers that they knew him ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE Saints celebrated on the 23th of June WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH CAFASSO, CONFESSOR ... There lived in Turin another holy priest, the Venerable Joseph [Giuseppe] Cafasso. In 1835, the Venerable Don Bosco came to take up his theological studies in Turin, and during that time Don Cafasso was his confessor, director, and most trusted friend.  HIS WORD AND EXAMPLE If the Church owed nothing else to Joseph Cafasso but the fact that he trained up a Don Bosco for her, she would be obliged to render him the greatest gratitude. But we can not number the persons who were inspired with zeal for Christ and the Church by the word and example of Cafasso.  There was at that time in Turin what was practically a seminary for young priests - the Institute of Saint Francis of Assisi . In this seminary Cafasso was professor of moral theology, and from 1848 to 1860 director of the Institute.  THE PREPARATION OF THE MIND AND HEART OF THE PRIEST The preparation o...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 1st of May WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER On May 1, 1955, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker – a day dedicated to the dignity of labour and honouring workers throughout the countries of the world. This liturgical feast serves as an incentive to all those involved in the enterprise of labour to devote themselves to the realisation of a social order in keeping with the Gospel. PRAYER: O God, Creator of all things, who laid down for the human race the law of work, graciously grant that by the example of Saint Joseph and under his patronage we may complete the works you set us to do and attain the rewards you promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 23rd of March WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH ORIOL, PRIEST Saint Joseph Oriol was born at Barcelona, November 23 , 1650 . He studied in the University of Barcelona, receiving the degree of Doctor of Theology, August 1 , 1674 . Ordained priest, May 30 , 1676 , he visited Rome in 1686 and was granted a benefice in the church of Nuestra Señora del Pino, in Barcelona. His priestly life was remarkable for a spirit of penance, profound humility, and prudence in directing souls. PRUDENCE IN DIRECTING SOULS Impelled by a desire of martyrdom, he went to Rome in April, 1698, to offer himself for the foreign missions, but, falling sick at Marseilles, he returned to Barcelona. God bestowed upon him prophetic and miraculous power. The dying, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the lame, and the paralytic, were instantly cured by him. He died March 23 , 1702 . He was beatified by Pope Pius VII , September 5 , 1806 , and canonized by  Pope Pius X , May 20 ...

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH Saints celebrated on the 19th of March WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH, FOSTER-FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS • PRAYER TO ST JOSEPH • (To be said after the night prayers) Glorious St Joseph, who wast chosen by Almighty God to be the foster-father of the Word made flesh, the comforter of His most holy Mother, the faithful co-operator among men in His greatest design, obtain for me to do in all things the Will of the Father, to cherish in my heart the mysteries accomplished in the person of the Son, and by the abundant graces of the Holy Ghost to persevere, pure of heart and chaste of body, in the service of God. (St Anthony’s Treasury, 1916) %%%

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY Saints celebrated on the 16th of January WELCOME! SAINT JOSEPH VAZ, PRIEST Saint Joseph Vaz was a Goanese priest, Apostle of Ceylon [Sri Lanka], born at Goa, April 21, 1651; died at Kandy, January 16, 1711. His parents were Christians of the Konkani Brahmin caste.  HE BECAME A FAVOURITE PREACHER AND CONFESSOR He learned Portuguese in Sancoale, his father’s village, and Latin in Baulim, his mother’s village, studied rhetoric at the Jesuit college and philosophy and theology at the College of St Thomas Aquinas, Goa, was ordained in 1676, and became a favourite preacher and confessor.  Hearing of the oppressed state of the Catholics of Ceylon under the Dutch, Father Vaz desired to go to their rescue, but was for the time being appointed Superior of the Kanara Mission, a post which he occupied for three years.  HE JOINED THE ORATORIANS On his return to Goa in 1684 he spent his time preaching in the villages, and joined the Oratorians th...