| 20 May |
• yesterday • tomorrow |
| Optional Memorial of Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest |
Bernadino, Bernardine, Bernardino
Franciscan Friar Minor. Priest. Itinerant preacher. Theological writer. His preaching skills were so great, and the conversions so numerous, that he has become associated with all areas of speaking, advertising, public relations, etc.
Bernardino's charismatic preaching filled the plazas of Italian cities. Thousands of listeners flocked to hear him and to participate in dramatic rituals, which included collective weeping, bonfires of vanities, and exorcisms. He was a renowned peacemaker, in the Franciscan tradition, who tried to calm feuding clans and factions in the turbulent political world of the Renaissance. His preaching visits would often culminate in mass reconciliations, as listeners were persuaded to exchange the bacio di pace, or kiss of peace.
Bernardino was sensitive to the demands of secular life, and tried to negotiate between Christian ethics and a conflicting code of honour that stressed retaining face in a public world. He argued that the catalyst of civil discord in the urban setting was malicious gossip, which led to insults, and, too often, vendetta by aggressive males. His surprising allies in his peacekeeping mission were the women who comprised the majority of his audience.
1380 at Massa di Carrara, Italy
1444 at Aquila, Italy of natural causes
• against hoarseness
• against chest problems
• against respiratory problems
• lung problems, lungs
• advertisers, advertising
• communications personnel
• gambling addicts; against compulsive gambling
• public relations personnel (proclaimed on 20 May 1960 by Pope John XXIII)
• Italy
• diocese of San Bernardino, California
• 4 cities in Italy
• short, elderly Franciscan holding a tablet inscribed IHS
• short, elderly Franciscan with three mitres at his feet representing the bishoprics he rejected
• sun inscribed IHS
• tablet inscribed IHS
When a fire is lit to clear a field, it burns off all the dry and useless weeds and thorns. When the sun rises and darkness is dispelled, robbers, night-prowlers and burglars hide away. So when Paul's voice was raised to preach the Gospel to the nations, like a great clap of thunder in the sky, his preaching was a blazing fire carrying all before it. It was the sun rising in full glory. Infidelity was consumed by it, false beliefs fled away, and the truth appeared like a great candle lighting the whole world with its brilliant flame.
By word of mouth, by letters, by miracles, and by the example of his own life, Saint Paul bore the name of Jesus wherever he went. He praised the name of Jesus "at all times," but never more than when "bearing witness to his faith."
Moreover, the Apostle did indeed carry this name "before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel" as a light to enlighten all nations. And this was his cry wherever he journeyed: "The night is passing away, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves honorably as in the day." Paul himself showed forth the burning and shining-light set upon a candlestick, everywhere proclaiming "Jesus, and him crucified."
And so the Church, the bride of Christ strengthened by his testimony, rejoices with the psalmist, singing: "O God from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds." The psalmist exhorts her to do this, as he says: "Sing to the Lord, and bless his name, proclaim his salvation day after day." And this salvation is Jesus, her savior.
- from a sermon by Saint Bernadine of Siena
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-bernadine-of-siena/
• Angelella Guardagnoli
• Colomba of Rieti
Legend says that at her birth, angels gathered around Columba's house to sing. During her Baptism, a dove suddenly flew down to the font. From that point on, no one used her by her given name (Angelella = little angel), but called her Columba (= dove). She was raised in a poor but pious family; her parents gave away nearly everything thing they had to people even poorer than themselves. As a small girl Columba learned to spin and sew; she and her mother repaired the clothes of the local Dominicans. Educated by Dominican nuns.
Columba quickly developed a strong devotion to Saint Catherine of Siena and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. While still in her teens she prayed about her vocation in life, and received a vision of Christ on a throne surrounded by saints. She took this as instruction to dedicate herself to God, and so she cut herself off from the world, made a private vow of chastity, and spent her time in prayer. Unbeknownst to Columba, her parents had arranged a marriage for her, but she cut off her hair and sent it to her would-be suitor, an accepted way at that time of telling him that she was devoting her life to God, not marriage.
She had the gifts of prophecy, healing, exorcism, raising the dead, and miracles. Given to ecstacies during one of which her spirit toured the Holy Lands. Dominican tertiary at age 19. Her reputation for wisdom and holiness spread throughout the region, and she was a much sought after counsellor. Some people from the city of Narni, Italy tried to kidnap her so she could be their miracle worker, but she escaped.
Following a revelation that she should leave Rieti, Italy, she walked away with no destination in mind. Along the way she was arrested in Foligno, Italy as a vagrant, but she eventually stopped and stayed in Perugia, Italy. On 1 January 1490 she and several other women took vows as a community of Dominican teritary nuns. Noted spiritual counselor to any who sought her advice. During an epidemic she worked among the sick, healing many by praying for them. She offered her own health in exchange for the city; when the general epidemic ended, she became ill, eventually recovering through the intercession of Saint Catherine of Siena. Her sanctity caused her to be persecuted by Lucrezia Borgia for years; at one point Borgia had a decree issued accusing Columba of practicing magic.
2 February 1467 at Rieti, Umbria, Italy as Angelella Guardagnoli
• 20 May 1501 at Perguia, Italy of natural causes
• at the moment of her death, her friend, Blessed Osanna Andreasi, saw Columba's soul as a radiance rising to heaven
• the whole city turned out for her funeral, which was paid for by the city fathers
25 February 1625 by Pope Urban VIII
• against magic or sorcery
• against temptation
• Perugia, Italy
• Dominican tertiary receiving the Eucharist from a hand reaching down from heaven
• Dominican tertiary receiving the Eucharist from an angel
• Dominican tertiary with a dove, lily, and book
• Dominican tertiary with a wreath of roses, cross, lily, and rosary
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-columba-of-rieti/
• Lydia of Thyatira
• Lydia of Philippi
• Lydia Philippisia
• 20 May (Roman Martyrology; Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; Eastern Orthodox)
• 27 March (Russian Orthodox Church)
• 25 June (Russian Orthodox Church)
• 27 January (Evangelical Lutheran)
• 25 October (Episcopal Church; Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod)
Lay business woman in Thyatira, dealing in purple cloth, the most expensive type in the 1st century Middle East. Paul's first known convert.
Greek
cloth dyers
On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, "If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home," and she prevailed on us. -Acts 16:13-15
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-lydia-purpuraria/
As a young adult, Arcangelo had an accident that left him with a lifelong limp. He entered the seminary in Brescia, Italy at age 18. Ordained in 1870, but illness forced him to spend his first year of priesthood with his family. Curate in the mountain village of Lodrino from 1871 to 1873. Curate at the Shrine of Santa Maria della Noce near Brescia. Noted for his attention to his parishioners, and his care for refugees. Curate at Botticino Sera in 1885; parish priest there in 1887, a post he held the rest of his life. He revitalized his parish, involved the parishioners, and made the church the center of the community. He founded the Workers' Mutual Aid Association, a form of social insurance for the sick, injured and aged. He used his own inheritance to build a modern spinning factory, employing local women, and using the profits to build a residence for them. He founded the Congregation of Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth who worked in factories with other women, teaching them when they could, and leading them by example. Father Arcangelo's strength came from prayer, much of it spent in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
12 October 1846 at Verolanuova, Brescia, Italy
20 May 1912 at Botticino Sera, Brescia, Italy of natural causes
26 April 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-arcangelo-tadini/
• María Crescencia
• Sister Dulzura
• Sister Sweetness
Born to immigrants from Spain, raised in a farm family, and known as a pious girl. Entered the Daughters of Our Lady of the Garden on 31 December 1915, taking her vows on 7 September 1918. Teacher and catechist to children. In 1924 to 1928 she was assigned to a tuberculosis hospital where she worked closely with sick children. When her own health began to suffer, she was assigned to a hospital in Vallenar, Chile where she was a source of joy, comfort and the teachings of God to many patients.
17 August 1897 in San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 20 May 1932 in Vallenar, Atacama, Argentina of natural causes
• found incorrupt in 1966
• re-interred in the College Chapel in Huerto de Pergamino, Argentina
• 17 November 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI
• the recognition was celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, at Pergamino, Argentina
• her beatification miracle involved a cure from type A hepatitis
Heart of Jesus I ask you for a special blessing for Chile, given that it is God's will that I die here. Gladly I offer you the sacrifice for the peace and tranquility of this nation. - Blessed Maria's last words
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-maria-angelica-perez/
Aethelbert, Albert, Albright
Son of Ethelred, King of the East Angles, and Leofrana. A pious youth, he would have preferred religious life, but was in line for the throne. King of East Anglia for 44 years. He would have preferred to remain celibate, but agreed to seek the hand of Althryda (Alfrida) daughter of Offa, King of the Mercians in order to continue a stable line to the crown. There were a number of supernatural indications that it was a bad choice, but Ethelbert went anyway. Due to court intrigues, Ethelbert was murdered by a man named Grimbert at the instigation of his father-in-law, Offa of Mercia. Often listed as a martyr.
• murdered in 793 at Villa Australis, Mercia, England
• his body was buried like trash, but a heavenly light identified it, and it was eventually relocated
• buried at Maurdine near the Lugg River in Mercia
• remains relocated to Stratus-way
• remains relocated to Fernley (modern Hereford, England)
• remains relocated to Hereford Cathedral
• during one of the moves the head fell off the body, fell of the cart it was being carried in, touched a pedestrian who had been blind for eleven years, and cured him
• head enshrined at Westminster Abbey
• Hereford, England
• Hereford Cathedral
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ethelbert-of-east-anglia/
Baldiri, Basile, Baudelio, Baudile, Baudilio, Baudilus, Bausile, Boal, Boi
Married lay evangelist who worked tirelessly to spread the faith in Gaul. He arrived Nîmes, France during a sacrifice to the Roman god Veiovis; he knocked over the statue, interrupted the sacrifice, preached against false gods, and was immediately seized, whipped and murdered. Martyr. Over 400 churches have been dedicated to him throughout France and Spain.
Orleans, France
• beheaded in late 3rd century Nîmes, France
• on the three places where his severed head touched the ground, there sprang up healing springs of water; the street of Trois Fontaines in modern Nîmes goes through the traditional execution area
• his wife took the body to a place called Valsainte for proper burial; a church was built over the tomb, it became a place of pilgrimage, and a monastery was built nearby that lasted over 1,000 years
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-baudelius-of-nimes/
Aoustrille, Austregesilio, Outril, Outrille
Educated and trained as a courtier to King Gontrano, but Austregisilus felt a call to religious life, and withdrew from worldly life. Monk in the abbey of Saint-Nizier at Lyons, France. Abbot of his house. Priest. Bishop of Bourges, France in 612, he served there the remaining 12 years of his life. Part of the Council of Paris in 614. Friend of Saint Amand of Maastricht who lived for several years in a cell next to the cathedral of Bourges.
551 in Bourges, France
624 of natural causes
Bourges, France
armoured knight on horseback with a religious habit over his armour and another man falling off a horse in front of him
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-austregisilus-of-bourges/
Taleleo, Thalelaeus, Thallelaeus
Physician. Imprisoned, tortured and martyred in the persecutions of Numerian.
c.265 near Mount Lebanon, Phoenicia
• 284 in Egea, Macedonia (modern Edessa, Greece)
• relics enshrined in the church of San Agatónico, Constantinople
• relics destroyed by Muslims
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-talaleo-of-egea/
Lucifero
Priest. Bishop of Cagliari, Italy. Fierce opponent of Arianism and defender of the faith as expressed in the Nicene Creed for which he was exiled by emperor Constantius. Bishop Lucifer was so opposed to the Arians that he refused to have anything to do with any of them, for which Saint Jerome had to take him to task.
370 in Cagliari, Italy
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-lucifer-of-cagliari/
• Jeong Guk-Bo
• Peurotasio
• Protasio Chong Kuk-bo
Married layman in the apostolic vicariate of Korea. At one point he abandoned Christianity, but recovered his faith, was imprisoned, tortured and eventually executed for refusing to renounce it again. Martyr.
1799 in Songdo, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
20 May 1839 in Seoul Prison, South Korea
6 May 1984 by Pope John Paul II
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-protasius-chong-kuk-bo/
Aura, Chryse
Killed for visiting Christian prisoners and giving them a decent burial after their execution. Martyr.
• drowned c.270 in Ostia, Italy
• her body later washed ashore and was given a proper burial
woman thrown into the sea with a millstone around her neck
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-aurea-of-ostia/
Babilla
Niece of the Emperor Gallienus. Adult convert to Christianity, baptised by Pope Saint Cornelius. She refused to marry a pagan patrician to whom she had arranged marriage and who required her to denouce her faith. Martyr.
• beheaded in 304 in Rome, Italy
• buried in the catacombs on the Via Salaria outside Rome
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-basilla-of-rome/
Mercedarian. While on a mission to Tunis, Tunisia to ransom Christian slaves from Muslim captors, he was imprisoned, tortured and left to die in prison with 30 fellow Christians. Martyr.
of hunger and thirst in 1492 in prison in Tunis, Tunisia
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-arnaldo-serra/
Little known of his early life. Bishop of Pavia from 743 to 778. Outspoken critic of Arianism, which caused his repeated exile by Lombard Arian kings.
778 of natural causes
Pavia, Italy
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-theodore-of-pavia/
Guido
Hermit at Campo, Italy.
at Pisa, Italy
1099 of natural causes
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-guy-de-gherardesca/
Married to a former imperial proconsul. Mother of Flavia Domitilla of Terracina. An adult convert, tradition says she was baptised by Saint Peter the Apostle, and witnessed the martyrdom of Saint Paul the Apostle.
c.67
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-plautilla-of-rome/
Member of the Parisi family. Monk. Abbot of the Vallombrosan abbey near Bologna, Italy, which after his death was renamed San Alberto.
in Bologna, Italy
1245 of natural causes
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-albert-of-bologna/
Alfrida, Altrida, Etheldrytha
Born a princess, the daughter of King Offa of Mercia. Betrothed to Saint Ethelbert after whose death she retired to Croyland Abbey to live as a hermitess.
834 of natural causes
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-althryda/
Executioner who killed Christians until his exposure to them converted him to the faith. Martyred in the persecutions of Numerian.
Syrian
284 at Edessa, Mesopotamia
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-asterius-of-edessa/
Bishop of Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. Converted the Lombards from Arianism.
• 610 of natural causes
• relics translated in 1581 by Saint Charles Borromeo
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-anastasius-of-brescia/
Aquila of Nîmes
Martyred in the persecutions of Maximinus Daza.
Egyptian
torn to pieces with iron combs in 311 in Thebais, Egypt
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-aquila-of-egypt/
One tradition makes him the son of Alphaeus the Apostle. Martyr.
exposed naked to a swarm of angry bees in the 1st century
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-abercius-20-may/
Martyred in the persecutions of Numerian.
Edessa, Syria
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-alexander-of-edessa-20-may/
One tradition makes her the daughter of Alphaeus the Apostle. Martyr.
stoned to death in the 1st century
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-helena-20-may/
Martyred in the persecutions of Numerian.
Edessa, Syria
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-thalalaeus-of-edessa/
Codro
Martyr.
tied to and torn apart by horses
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-codrato/
Fourth century bishop of Toulouse, France.
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-hilary-of-toulouse/
Martyr.
molten lead poured down his throat
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-marcello/
Thousands of people were murdered in the anti-Catholic persecutions of the Spanish Civil War from 1934 to 1939. I have pages on each of them, but in most cases I have only found very minimal information. They are available on the CatholicSaints.Info site through these links:
• Blessed José Pérez Fernández
• Blessed Rafaél García Torres
• Blessed Tomás Valera González
• Josepha Endrina Stenmanns
• Luigi Talamoni
CatholicSaints.Info Portable Edition