| 31 October |
• yesterday • tomorrow |
All Hallow's Eve
Eve of the Feast of All Hallows, that is, All Saints Day. Halloween is a day on which many quaint customs are revived. It is popular in the United States and Scotland, and in the US has become the second largest secular holiday of the year.
https://catholicsaints.info/halloween/
Alphonsus Rodriguez
Third of eleven children in the family of the wealthy wool merchant Diego Rodriguez. Met Blessed Peter Faber when he was 10; the Father Faber prepared the boy for his First Communion. At age 14, Alonso was sent to study with Jesuits, Alonso's father died within a year, and he returned home to learn and manage the business.
Married to Mary Suarez at age 26. His business suffered, and two the couple's children died in infancy; one son survived. Widower in his early 30's, Alonso's mother died soon after. He sold the business and moved in with his sisters; they helped Alonso raise his son, and taught their brother prayerful meditation.
When his son died, Alonso decided to follow his call to the religious life. He gave away what little he had left, and tried to join the Jesuits; he did not have the education they required, and was refused. Attended the College of Barcelona, but could not complete the work. Self-imposed austerities nearly destroyed his health; at age 60 he was ordered to begin sleeping in a bed instead of the chair, bench or ground he had previously used. However, at the recommendation of Jesuit Father Luis Santander, Alonso became a Jesuit lay-brother, admitted on 31 January 1571 at Valencia, Spain, and began to study alongside children.
Porter and doorkeeper at the Jesuit college of Montesión at Palma, Mallorca, Spain for 46 years, a duty which involved delivering packages, seeing to the lodging of travellers, and dispensing alms to the poor. From this humble post he influenced many through the years. Obsessed with the spiritual, and given to extreme self-imposed austerities, he had a special devotion to Saint Ursula, and was so obedient to his superiors that when one told him to eat his plate, he tried to cut it with a knife and fork. Friend and room-mate of Saint Peter Claver; advised Peter to request missionary work in South America. Professed his final Jesuit vows at the age of 54.
Reputed to heal by fervent prayer. The night before his death was spent in a visionary ecstasy. Some authors claim he wrote the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, but his part was to make it more popular. Left behind a collection of manuscripts of journal entries, random thoughts, simple illustrations, and musings on things spiritual that are remarkable for their simplicity, sound and correct doctine, and spiritual understanding; they were published as Spiritual Works of Blessed Alonso Rodriguez in Barcelona in 1885.
25 July 1532 at Segovia, Spain
• 31 October 1617 at Palma, Mallorca, Spain of natural causes
• relics enshrined at Majorca
6 September 1887 by Pope Leo XIII
• Majorca, Spain, city of
• Majorca, Spain, island of
an old Jesuit with two hearts on his breast connected by rays of light to Christ and the Virgin
Honour is flashed off exploit, so we say;
And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield
Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field,
And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day.
On Christ they do and on the martyr may;
But be the war within, the brand we wield
Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled,
Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.
Yet God (that hews mountain and continent,
Earth, all, out; who, with trickling increment,
Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)
Could crowd career with conquest while there went
Those years and years by of world without event
That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, in honour of Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, lay-brother of the Society of Jesus
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-alonso-rodriguez/
Faelan, Faillan, Faolan, Feuillien, Foalan, Foelan
Brother of Saint Fursey of Peronne and Saint Ultan of Péronne. Travelled with them from Ireland to East Anglia, England c.630 where they worked as missionaries, and established the monastery of Burgh Castle near Yarmouth. Abbot of the community at Cnoberesburg, Suffolk, England in the 640s, a house founded by his brother Fursey. During a war between the Mercians and Anglo-Saxons c.650, the house was destroyed, the brothers killed, captured or dispersed. Foillan ransomed back his brothers, collected the surviving relics, books and liturgical equipage from the house, and travelled to France.
He and his brothers were welcomed and encouraged in their evangelization by King Clovis II. Foillan founded a monastery at Fosses, diocese of Liege, Belgium, c.653 on land donated by Saint Itta of Nivelles and Saint Gertrude of Nivelles. He served as its abbot, and the area around it grew to the modern town of Le Roeulx, Belgium. Chaplain and spiritual director at the house founded by Saint Gertrude. Evangelized the Brabants in the region. Popular preacher and devoted pastor to his people. Murdered with three companions on the road by bandits; as he was travelling on Church business, he is often considered a martyr. His remaining brother, Saint Ultan, then took over as abbot of Fosses.
7th century Ireland
• murdered 31 October 655 in the forest near Nivelles, Belgium
• bodies found three months later
• buried at the abbey of Fosses, Belgium
• children's nurses
• dentists
• Fosses, Belgium
• surgeons
• truss makers
• Irish bishop with a palm of martyrdom
• carrying hot coals in his vestment for incense
• kneeling, pierced by a spear
• one of a group of travellers beaten with a club
• praying before the church while the city burns
• refusing the cup at the table of Pepin to show his refusal of worldly things
• with a crown at his feet to indicate his disdain for worldly things
• with a sword and palm of martyrdom
Pagan robbers bestowed upon thee the crown of martyrdom, O righteous Foillan, for thy life was a reproach to the impious and cruel men. Having laboured with thy holy brother, our Father Fursey, in East Anglia and later in the Netherlands, pray to God for us, we beseech thee, that both in word and deed our lives may be a missionary witness, that we may be found worthy of His great mercy. - Orthdox dismissal hymn on the feast of Saint Foillan
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-foillan-of-fosses/
• Thomas of Florence
• Tommaso Bellacci
Son of a butcher, he led such a wild and dissolute life that parents warned their sons to stay away from him. Accused of a serious crime he had not committed, Thomas wandered the streets until he met a priest who listened to his story, took the lad in, and got him cleared of the accusation.
Thomas was so shocked by the incident, and moved by the good example of the priest, that he broke off his old ways, and led a life of prayer and penance. Franciscan lay brother, joining in Fiesole, Italy. He became a model friar, fasting, keeping vigils, disciplining himself, wearing the cast-off clothes of his brothers. Given to religious ecstasies. Though never ordained, Thomas was appointed novice master, and he led many young men to a path of holiness.
Thomas founded several friaries in southern Italy and Corsica. Pope Martin V called on him to preach in Tuscany against the Fraticelli, a group of heretical Franciscans. Sent to Syria and Abyssinia to promote reunification of the Eastern and Western Churches when he was already over 70 years old. Imprisoned for his faith, he expected to be martyred, but the Vatican ransomed him out. Thomas returned to Italy, and died on a journey to Rome where he had planned to ask permission to return to the Orient.
1370 at Florence, Italy
31 October 1447 in Rieti, Italy of natural causes
1771 by Pope Clement XIV
butchers
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-thomas-bellacci/
• Wolfgang of Regensberg
• The Great Almoner
Educated by Benedictines at Reichenau, Switzerland. Spiritual student of Saint Romuald. Benedictine monk at Einsiedeln abbey, Switzerland in 964. Teacher; director of the abbey school. Abbey prior in 970. Evangelized the Magyars in modern Hungary. Missionary to Pannonia. Priest. Bishop of Ratisbon (modern Regensberg, Germany) in 972. Reformed clerical discipline and spirituality in his diocese. Noted for his preaching, his teaching abilities, his charity (hence the name Great Almoner) and his care for lay people in his diocese. Tutor to the future emperor Saint Henry II.
924 in Swabia, Germany
31 October 994 at Pupping, Linz (modern Austria) of natural causes
1052 by Pope Leo IX
• against apoplexy or strokes
• against paralysis; paralyzed people
• against stomach diseases
• apoplexics or stroke victims
• carpenters
• diocese of Regensburg, Germany
• axe
• church
• hatchet
• hermit in the wilderness being discovered by a hunter
• man forcing the devil to help him to build a church
• man with an axe in the right hand and the crozier in the left
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-wolfgang-of-ratisbon/
• Aurelia Mercede Stefani
• Sister Nyaatha (translates "Mother of Mercy")
Consolata Missionary Sisters nun, taking the name Irene. Missionary in Kenya where she worked with the sick hospitals, and then the wounded in camps in Kenya and Tanzania during World War I. Taught school at the Gekondi mission from 1920 to 1930.
22 August 1891 in Anfo, Brescia, Italy as Aurelia Mercede Stefani
31 October 1930 in Gikondi, Mukurweini, Nyeri, Kenya of bubonic plague caught while working with the sick
• 23 May 2015 by Pope Francis
• beatification recognition celebrated at Nyeri, Kenya with Cardinal John Njue and Cardinal Polycarp Pengo the chief celebrants
• her beatification miracle involved keeping a holy water font full in a parish church in Nipepe, Diocese of Lichinga, Niassa, Mozambique in 1989; the font was the only water source for a group of refugee catechists who were hiding from warring "liberation" armies
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-irene-stefani/
María de la Purísima de la Cruz
Born to a wealthy and very pious family. Lived in Portugal from 1936 to 1938 to escape the persecutions of the Spanish Civil War. Nun, joining the Institute of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross on 8 December 1944, making her final vows in 1952. Superior general of her Order in 1977.
20 February 1926 in Madrid, Spain
31 October 1998 in Seville, Spain of natural causes
• 18 October 2015 by Pope Francis at Rome, Italy
• the canonization miracle involved the recovery of a man from a vegetative state through the intercession of Mother Maria
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-maria-isabel-salvat-romero/
Quintin, Quintinus
• 3 January (discovery of relics)
• 25 October (translation of relics)
Son of a Roman senator. Convert to Christianity. Missionary to Gaul with Saint Lucian of Beauvais. Quentin's preaching and example won many converts in Amiens. Arrested in 286 by Prefect Rictius Varus during the Maximian persecution. Martyr.
Rome, Italy
• tortured and beheaded in 287 at Augusta Veromanduorum, Gaul (now Saint-Quentin, France)
• body thrown in the river, but recovered and buried by people he had helped convert
• tomb known as a site for miracles
• relics later re-discovered by Saint Eligius
against coughs
• bishop holding a roasting spit
• Roman soldier holding one or two spits
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-quentin/
Doiminic Ó Coileéin
20 June as one of the Irish Martyrs
Son of John and Felicity Collins. Dominic embarked on a military career, and rose to the rank of Captain. However, following a trip to Santiago del Compostela in Spain, he resigned his commission to become a Jesuit novice and lay brother. Assigned to Ireland in 1601. Arrested on 17 June 1602, he was imprisoned, tortured and executed for promoting his faith. Martyr.
c.1566 in Youghal, Cork, Ireland
31 October 1602 in Youghal, Cork, Ireland
27 September 1992 by Pope John Paul II in Rome, Italy
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-dominic-collins/
Priest. About age 40 he left his parish ministry to become one of the early Franciscan Friars Minor, working with Saint Francis of Assisi himself. Ministered to lepers. Missionary to heretic Albigensians in France. Founded several Franciscan monasteries beginning in Cahors, Guyenne, France.
late 12 century in the Romagna region of Italy
• 1272 in Cahors, France of natural causes
• relics enshrined at the Franciscan monastery at Cahors
• relics destroyed by Huguenots in 1580 when they burned down the monastery
1905 by Pope Pius X (cultus confirmation)
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-christopher-of-romagna/
Married layman of the diocese of Quiché, Guatemala. Director of Catholic Action and served as a catechist. Murdered by Guatemalan government troops. Martyr.
5 September 1941 in La Montaña, Parraxtut, Sacapulas, Quiché, Guatemala
31 October 1991 in Parraxtut, Sacapulas, Quiché, Guatemala
• 23 April 2021 by Pope Francis
• beatification recognition celebrated in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-miguel-tiu-imul/
First-century spiritual student of Saint Paul the Apostle, and mentioned by him in the Epistle to the Romans. Missionary bishops with Saint Andrew the Apostle in Greece and the Balkans. Martyr.
relics at Constantinople
Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. - Romans 16:8-11
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ampliatus-31-october/
First-century spiritual student of Saint Paul the Apostle, and mentioned by him in the Epistle to the Romans. Missionary bishops with Saint Andrew the Apostle in Greece and the Balkans. Martyr.
relics at Constantinople
Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. - Romans 16:8-11
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-narcissus-31-october/
First-century spiritual student of Saint Paul the Apostle, and mentioned by him in the Epistle to the Romans. Missionary bishops with Saint Andrew the Apostle in Greece and the Balkans. Martyr.
relics at Constantinople
Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. - Romans 16:8-11
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-urban-31-october/
12 June as one of the 108 Martyrs of World War II
Priest in the diocese of Wloclawek, Poland. Executed for defending the faith in the face of Nazi persecution. Martyr.
28 June 1913 in Byton (Cuiavia), Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland
shot on the night of 31 October 1939 in Piotrków Kujawski, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland
13 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-leon-nowakowski/
Born to the Catalan nobility, she gave away her fortune to the poor and became one of the first Mercedarians. Worked in the convent hospital of Saint Eulalia in Barcelona, Spain. Noted for her personal piety and as a miracle worker.
mid-13th century Spain
1345 of natural causes
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-maria-de-requesens/
• Epimachus of Alexandria
• Epimachus Pelusiota
• Epimachus of Pelusium
• Epimachio
When, during the persecutions of Decius, he saw Christians forced to sacrifice to idols, Epimachus attacked the pagan altars and statues. Imprisoned, tortured and exexcuted. Martyr.
beheaded c.250 with a sword in Alexandria, Egypt
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-epimachus-of-melusio/
Nun in the Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain. Member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. Martyred in the Spanish Civil War.
5 November 1906 in Madrid, Spain
31 October 1936 in Vallecas, Madrid, Spain
27 October 2013 by Pope Benedict XVI
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-pilar-isabel-sanchez-suarez/
Daughter of Saint Nemesius. Healed of congenital blindness by Pope Saint Stephen I; this caused her and her father to convert to Christianity. Martyred in the persecutions of Valerian.
Roman citizen
beheaded with a sword c.260 in Rome, Italy
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-lucilla-of-rome/
Nun in the Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain. Member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. Martyred in the Spanish Civil War.
11 July 1901 in Santibéñez de Béjar, Salamanca, Spain
31 October 1936 in Vallecas, Madrid, Spain
27 October 2013 by Pope Benedict XVI
https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-modesta-moro-briz/
Apelle
First century convert, and one of the 70 disciples sent out as missionaries as described in the Acts of the Apostles. Bishop of Eraclea Sintica, Macedonia. Martyr.
Heraklion (modern Candia, Crete), Greece
Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey)
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-apelles-of-eraclea-sintica/
Stachis
First bishop of Constantinople, ordained by Saint Andrew the Apostle. Greeted by Saint Paul the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans.
ReadingsGreet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. – Romans 16:9, New American Bible
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-stachys-of-constantinople/
Antonino, Fontana
Archbishop of Milan, Italy.
• 660 of natural causes
• interred in the church of Saint Simplician, Milan, Italy
• relics moved to a new altar by Saint Charles Borromeo in 1581
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-antoninus-of-milan/
Herygh, Urith
Brother of Saint Uny and Saint Ia. Evangelist in Cornwall where the village of Saint Erth is named for him.
Ireland
6th century
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-erth/
Benedictine monk at Novalesa Abbey, Piedmont, Italy. Martyred by Saracens.
c.840
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-arnulf-of-novalesa/
Benedictine nun at the convent of Saint Mary, Cologne, Germany.
c.714
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-notburga-of-cologne/
Nun at Hackness, Yorkshire, England.
660
https://catholicsaints.info/saint-begu-of-hackness/
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