Calendar of Saints - 28 February

28 February	• yesterday • tomorrow

Daily Bread #68, by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp

Mary: The Perfect Woman, Rhythm XLIII - The Cradle of the Saints

As the ring is the sign of marriage, so is adversity, both corporal and spiritual, patiently borne for the love of God, a most true pledge of divine election, and is like a marriage of the soul with God. - Saint Gertrude

Blessed Villana de'Botti

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Daughter of Andrew de'Botti, a merchant. Villana was a pious child, and at age 13 ran away from home to join a convent. She was refused and had to return home. Soon after, her family married her to Rosso di Piero.

The rejection at the convent and the marriage seemed to change Villana. She suddenly became lazy and worldly, concerned only with pleasure. One day as she was getting dressed for some type of entertainment, her reflection in all her mirrors suddenly changed to a demon. Villana understood this to be a reflection of her sin-laden soul. She tore off her clothes, put on something poor and simple, and ran to the Dominican Fathers of Santa Maria Novella for help.

She became a Dominican tertiary, concentrated on her vocation of married life, and spent her free time praying and reading Scripture and the lives of the saints. Her desire to atone for her earlier life sometimes overwhelmed her, and her husband and family had to stop her begging door to door and doing other penances. She was given to religious ecstasies at Mass, but became the object of much ridicule and slander. Her health suffered, but she received visions of Our Lady and the saints, and had the gift of prophecy. Even her fiercest opponents eventually came to see her as a living saint.

Born

1332 in Florence, Italy

Died

• 29 January 1361 of natural causes
• body taken to Santa Maria Novella
• the Fathers were unable to bury her for a month due to the constant crowd of mourners

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Readings

O God, our merciful Father, you called Blessed Villana back from the emptiness of the world and aroused in her a spirit of humility and true penitence. Recreate in our hearts the power of your love and, filled by that same spirit, may we serve you in newness of life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. - General Calendar of the Order of Preachers

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-villana-debotti

Saint Auguste Chapdelaine

Also known as

• Augustus Chapdelaine
• Father Ma
• Papa Chapdelaine

Addtional Memorial

28 September as one of the Martyrs of China

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Youngest of nine children born to Nicolas Chapdelaine and Madeleine Dodeman. Following grammar school, Auguste dropped out to work on the family farm. He early felt a call to the priesthood, but his family opposed it, needing his help on the farm. However, the sudden death of two of his brothers caused them to re-think forcing him to ignore his life's vocation, and they finally approved. He entered the minor seminary at Mortain on 1 October 1834, studying with boys half his age. It led to his being nicknamed Papa Chapdelaine, which stuck with him the rest of his life.

Ordained on 10 June 1843 at age 29. Associate pastor from 1844 to 1851. He finally obtained permission from his bishop to enter the foreign missions, and was accepted by French Foreign Missions; he was two years past their age limit, but his zeal for the missions made them approve him anyway. He stayed long enough to say a final Mass, bury his sister, and say good-bye to his family, warning them that he would never see them again. Left Paris, France for the Chinese missions on 30 April 1852, landing in Singapore on 5 September 1852.

Due to being robbed on the road by bandits, Auguste lost everything he had, and had to fall back and regroup before making his way to his missionary assignment. He reached Kwang-si province in 1854, and was arrested in Su-Lik-Hien ten days later. He spent two to three weeks in prison, but was released, and ministered to the locals for two years, converting hundreds. Arrested on 26 February 1856 during a government crackdown, he was returned to Su-Lik-Hien and sentenced to death for his work. Tortured with and died with Saint Lawrence Pe-Man and Saint Agnes Tsau Kouy.

Born

6 January 1814 at La Rochelle-Normande, France

Died

beheaded on 29 February 1856 in Su-Lik-Hien, Kwang-Si province, China

Canonized

1 October 2000 by Pope John Paul II

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-auguste-chapdelaine/

Blessed Daniel Brottier

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Ordained in 1899. Taught at the college of Pontlevoy, France. Entered the Congregation of the Holy Ghost at Orly, France in 1902. Missionary to Saint-Louis, Senegal in 1903. His health suffered, and he returned to France in 1911.

At the request of Bishop Jalabert, he conducted a fund-raising campaign to build a cathedral in Dakar, Senegal; he promoted the structure as a way to honour Africans who had died for France, and French who had died for Africa. The cathedral was consecrated on 2 February 1936, just a few weeks before his death.

Chaplain in the French army in World War I. Cited six times for bravery, awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour; he attributed his survival on the front lines to the intercession of Saint Therese of Lisieux, and built a chapel for her at Auteuil when she was canonized. After the war he administered the Orphan Apprentices of Auteuil. Honoured in his life and today as a man who put the family of God above considerations of nationality or race.

Born

7 September 1876 at La Ferté-Saint-Cyr, Diocese of Blois, France

Died

• 28 February 1936 of natural causes at Paris, France of natural causes
• 15,000 Parisiens turned out to honour him, and Cardinal Verdier preached his funeral homily

Beatified

25 November 1984 by Pope John Paul II in Rome, Italy

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https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-daniel-brottier/

Pope Saint Hilary

Also known as

Hilarus, Hilarius

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Deacon. Trusted aide to Pope Saint Leo the Great. Papal legate. Sent to the "Robber Synod" at Ephesus in 449 to report on the Monophysitism heresies of Eutyches, which denied the humanity of Christ and claimed that He had only a divine nature, a teaching condemned in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon. Eutyches' followers attacked the legate party, and forced them to return to Rome. Arch-deacon c.455. Worked on an updated method of calculating the date of Easter. Chosen 46th pope in 461.

As pope, Hilary confirmed the work of several general councils, rebuilt and remodeled many churches, fought Nestorianism and Arianism, and held several Councils at Rome. Renowned for defending the rights of his bishops while exhorting them to curb their excesses and devote themselves more completely to God. Helped define the Church‘s role in the empire, and affirmed the position of the pope, and not the emperor, as leader in spiritual matters. He continued Leo I‘s vigorous policy, strengthening ecclesiastical government in Gaul and Spain. Erected churches, convents, libraries, and two public baths, and his synod of 465 is the earliest Roman synod whose records are extant.

Born

on Sardinia

Papal Ascension

19 November 461

Died

28 February 468 at Rome, Italy of natural causes

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https://catholicsaints.info/pope-saint-hilary/

Blessed Stanislaw Antoni Trojanowski

Also known as

• Tymoteusz
• Timoteo Trojanowski
• Stanislaw Tymoteusz Trojanowski
• prisoner 25431

Additional Memorial

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

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Born to a poor, rural family, he had limited schooling and had to work from an early age. Joined the Friars Minor Conventual in Niepokalanów, Poland on 5 March 1930, taking the name Tymoteusz and making his solemn profession on 11 February 1935. Worked in the convent infirmary, and the warehouse and shipping departments of the magazine Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculate) with its founder Saint Maximilian Kolbe. At one point Brother Tymoteusz tried to go to the foreign missions, but gave it up when the Nazis invaded Poland to start World War II. Arrested with six of his brother friars in October 1941 by the Gestapo, and sentenced for forced labour at the Auschwitz death camp for the crime of being Catholic. Ministered to his fellow prisoners in his remaining few months. Martyr.