Calendar of Saints - 20 February

20 February	• yesterday • tomorrow

Blessed Stanislawa Rodzinska

Also known as

• Stanislawa Rodzinska
• Giulia Rodzinska
• Mother of Orphans
• Apostle of the Rosary
• Sister Maria Julia
• prisoner P40992

Additional Memorial

12 June as one of the 108 Martyrs of World War II

Profile

Second of five children born to Michael Rodzinska and Marianna (née Sekuly). Michael was the church organist, led the parish choir and worked at a local bank. They were a poor but pious family, and though Marianna’s family was wealthy, they refused to help. Marianna died when Stanislawa was eight years old, and the family fortunes deteriorated further as Michael had trouble working and caring for the children; he died of pneumonia when Stanislawa was ten. From that point, she and her sister grew up in a Dominican orphanage.

Stanislawa loved the Dominican Sisters so much that she joined them in 1916 in Tarnobrzegu-Wielowsi, Poland, taking the name Sister Maria Juliana and made her profession on 5 August 1924. She served as an exceptional and much loved teacher at Dominican orphanages for 22 years. Superior of the Dominican house in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1934, and ran the orphanage; she became known as the Mother of Orphans for her tireless care of the children, and as an Apostle of the Rosary. She was awarded by the secular government of Vilnius for her work.

However, the government seized the school and orphange, took over running both, and dissolved the monastery; the now homeless and unemployed Dominican sisters where taken in by some local Vincentian sisters. Mother Maria Julia and her sisters tried to support themselves doing odd jobs, but the Nazis invaded, the economy tanked, and the Church effectively went into hiding. Clergy, monks and sisters were arrested, imprisoned or executed, teaching Polish culture was made illegal, so everything about Mother Julia was now against the laws of the invaders. She continued to covertly teach children catechism and regular school studies, and worked to keep elderly priests from starving after they were kicked out into the streets by the Nazis.

Mother Julia was arrested by the Gestapo on 12 July 1943 for her work, and was imprisoned for a year in solitary confinement in a cement cell in the Lukiškes Prison in central Vilnius; it was too small and cramped for her to stretch out. She did not break, however, and continued doing her spiritual exercises. In July 1944 she was loaded into a cattle car and shipped to the Stutthof concentration camp where she was tortured, starved and abused; she responded by forming prayer groups and shared what food she received. She contracted a fatal case of typhus while nursing infected Jewish female prisoners. Martyr.

Born

16 March 1899 in Nawojowa, Malopolskie, Poland

Died

20 February 1945 in a Nazi prison camp in Sztutowo (a.k.a. Stutthof), Pomorskie, occupied Poland of typhus

Beatified

• 13 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II
• she was the only Dominican women included in the 108 Martyrs of World War II

Video

YouTube PlayList

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-julia-rodzinska/

Saint Eleutherius of Tournai

Also known as

Eleuthere, Eleuterio, Lehire

Profile

Born to the Gallo-Roman nobility, the son of Blanda and Serenus, a family that converted to Christianity after hearing the preaching of Saint Plato; his father donated the land on which the cathedral of Notre-Dame of Tournai was built. Eletutherius was a friend of, and student with, Saint Medard of Noyon. Priest. Bishop of Tournai in modern Belgium in 486, consecrated by Saint Remigius of Rheims.

As bishop, he endlessly evangelized the Franks in the Tournai region, and fought the spread of Arianism and Pelagianism; he called a synod in 520 to oppose these heresies. He made three pilgrimages to Rome, Italy. During the trip in 501, Pope Symmachus presented him with relics from Saint Stephen the Martyr and Saint Mary of Egypt; back in the Tounai they became renowned for the healing miracles that happened around them. Martyred by a band of Arian heretics.

Born

456 at Tournai, western Belgium

Died

• beaten in 532 while leaving his church in Tournai, western Belgium; he survived a couple of days, but died directly from these injuries
• funeral oration and Mass conducted by Saint Medard of Noyon
• relics re-discovered in 897 in Blandain, Belgium
• relics transferred to Tournai in the mid-11th century
• relics re-enshrined in a silver reliquary in the cathedral at Tournai in 1247
• relics transferred to Douai, France in the 16th century to prevent their destruction by Huguenots; they were returned to Tournai at the end of the religious wars
• relics hidden in a private residence in Tournai to prevent their destruction by anti–Christian persecutions of the French Revolution; they were returned to the cathedral in 1802

Representation

• hearing the Confession of King Clovis
• holding a church, referring to him as one of the great founders of the diocese of Tournai
• holding blunt instruments like rods, clubs or flails, referring to his martyrdom

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-eleutherius-of-tournai/

Saint Eucherius of Orléans

Also known as

Euchaire, Eucher, Eucherio

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Born to the nobility, Eucherius was a very pious in youth, and highly educated; legend says that his pregnant mother had a dream of an angel who told her that her unborn son would be a holy bishop, and blessed them both. He took the cowl in Jumièges, Normandy, France in 714. When his uncle Suaveric, bishop of Orléans, France, died, the clergy and faithful asked for Eucherius as his replacement. Eucherius fought the appointment, but finally agreed c.721.

He was an active, evangelizing bishop who often visited the monasteries in his diocese. When Charles Martel confiscated Church property to finance his war against the Saracens, Eucherius protested. After his victory, Martel exiled the reluctant bishop to Cologne, Germany. There he was greeted enthusiastically, even receiving the position of distributor of the governor's alms. He was then exiled to Hesbaye in modern Belgium where he retired to the monastery of Sint-Truiden.

Born

at Orléans, France

Died

• 20 February 743 at the monastery of Sint-Tuiden in Belgium of natural causes
• relics enshrined on 11 August 880
• relics re-enshrined on 11 August 1169

Video

YouTube PlayList

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-eucherius-of-orleans/

Blessed Juliana Kubitzki

Also known as

Sister Maria Edelburgis

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The fifth of six children born to Wilhelm and Katarzyna née Bieniek, Juliana was baptized at the age of 5 days. She was raised in a pious family; her brother Piotr became a monk. Juliana joined the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth on 15 September 1929, taking the name Sister Maria Edelburgis, made her first profession on 28 April 1931, and her perpetual profession on 29 June 1936 in Wroclaw, Poland.

Sister Maria trained as a nurse, receiving certification in the field in 1932. She was assigned to serve as outpatient nurse and to care for the elderly in Wroclaw-Nadodrze and Zary, Poland. When the Soviet army overran the area in World War II, the sisters in Zary sheltered in the local presbytery, but were found by a squad of Russian soldiers. Sister Maria fought against them taking her away, and was beaten and murdered. Martyr.

Born

9 February 1905 in Dabrówka Dolna, Pokój, Namyslów, Poland

Died

• beaten and then shot several times on 20 February 1945 in Zary, Poland
• buried in the cemetery of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Zary

Beatified

11 June 2022 by Pope Francis

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-juliana-kubitzki/

Blessed Pietro of Treia

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Born to the wealthy nobility, from an early age Pietro had a devotion to the Archangel Gabriel and was drawn to religious life. As a young man, he turned his back on his wealth and the world, being first a Celestine, and then joining the Franciscan Friars Minor. He spent his life travelling the region of the Marches of Ancona in Italy, staying in various Franciscan monasteries, dividing his time between zealous, eloquent preaching and contemplative prayer. At the convent at Forano, Italy, he received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary placing the Child Jesus into the arms of brother Franciscan friar Saint Conrad of Offida. Pietro went into ecstacies in prayer, and at the Ancona monastery was seen to levitate. He had the gift of moving sinners to return to the confessional and to God.

Born

1214

Died

19 February 1304 at the Franciscan convent of Sirolo, Italy

Beatified

11 September 1793 by Pope Pius VI (cultus confirmation)

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-pietro-of-treia/

Saint Leo of Catania

Also known as

Saint Jacinta Marto

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Youngest visionary of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal in 1917.

Born

11 March 1910 at Aljustrel, Santarém, Portugal

Died

20 February 1920 in Lisbon, Portugal

Canonized

13 May 2017 by Pope Francis

Patronage

• against bodily ills or sickness
• captives, prisoners
• people ridiculed for their piety
• sick people

Video

YouTube PlayList

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-jacinta-marto/

Saint Colgan of Clonmacnoise

Also known as

• Colgan the Wise
• Chief Scribe of the Scots
• Colchu, Colgu, Colga

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Brother of Saint Foila. Friend and teacher of Blessed Alcuin. Abbot of Clonmachnoise, Offaly, Ireland. Many of his spiritual students spread out across France, becoming influential teachers in imperial schools.