Calendar of Saints

7 May	• yesterday • tomorrow

The May-Book of the Breviary: The Virgin-Mother

Saint Rose Venerini

Profile

Daughter of Godfrey Venerini, physician in Viterbo, Italy. Following the death of her fiance, she entered a convent; following the death of her father, she returned home to care for her mother.

She invited neighbourhood women to pray the rosary in her home, and formed a sort of sodality. As these friends had little religious education, she began to teach them. Jesuit Father Ignatius Martinelli, her spiritual director, convinced her that she was called to be a teacher instead of a contemplative nun.

With two friends, Rose opened a free pre-school for girls in 1685, which was well received. In 1692, Cardinal Barbarigo asked her to oversee training of teachers and the administration of schools in his diocese of Montefiascone, Italy. She organized schools in many parts of Italy, including Rome, and by the time of her death there were 40 schools under her direction. Friend and co-worker with Saint Lucia Filippini.

Rose often met opposition, some fierce, and some actually violent - her teachers were shot at with bows, and their houses burned. She was never deterred, teaching, and finding people who were willing to face the danger in order to do good. The sodality, or group of women she had invited to prayer, were ultimately given the rank of a religious congregation. Today, the so-called Venerini Sisters work with Italian immigrants in the United States and elsewhere.

Born

9 February 1656 at Viterbo, Italy

Died

7 May 1728 at Rome, Italy of natural causes

Canonized

15 October 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI

Video

YouTube PlayList

Readings

Saint Rose Venerini is another example of a faithful disciple of Christ, ready to give up all in order to do the will of God. She loved to say: "I find myself so bound to the divine will that neither death nor life is important: I want to live as he wishes and I want to serve him as he likes, and nothing more". From here, from this surrender to God, sprang the long-admired work that she courageously developed in favor of the spiritual elevation and authentic emancipation of the young women of her time. Saint Rose did not content herself with providing the girls an adequate education, but she was concerned with assuring their complete formation, with sound references to the Church's doctrinal teaching. Her own apostolic style continues to characterize the life of the Congregation of the Religious Teachers Venerini which she founded. And how timely and important for today's society is this service, which puts them in the field of education and especially of the formation of women. - Pope Benedict XVI, from the canonization homily of Saint Rose

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-rose-venerini/

Saint Agostino Roscelli

Also known as

• Augustine Roscelli
• Augustin Roscelli

Profile

Born to a poor farming family, Agostino spent his youth as a mountain shepherd, using his solitary time for prayer. During a parish mission in May 1835, he realized a call to the priesthood, a calling he attacked with prayer which led to financial aid that allowed him to study at Genoa, Italy. Ordained on 19 September 1846.

Priest at Saint Martin d'Albaro in 1846, then the Church of Consolation in Genoa in 1854. Chaplain of the provincial orphanage in 1874, a post he held for 22 years. Prison chaplain, working especially with prisoners condemned to death.

He established a residential school to train young women who were in danger of starvation or falling into prostitution because they had no support. On 15 October 1876, he founded the Institute of Sisters of the Immaculata to run this and other residential centers he established.

Born

27 July 1818 at Bargone di Casarza Ligure, Italy

Died

7 May 1902 at Genoa, Italy of natural causes

Canonized

10 June 2001 by Pope John Paul II

Readings

A spiritual feature characteristic of Blessed Agostino Roscelli was to work at the service of his brothers and sisters without ever neglecting his interior union with the Lord. The true contemplative is the one who is able to work with greater force and incisiveness for the salvation of souls and the good of the Church. The new blessed's apostolic activity was truly fruitful because it flowed from a genuine mystical and contemplative life. His ardent love for God, enriched by the gift of wisdom, enabled him to give himself as far as possible to serving his neighbor without ever being separated from the Lord. - Pope John Paul II at the beatification ceremony of Agostino Roscelli

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-agostino-roscelli/

Blessed Albert of Bergamo

Also known as

Alberto da Bergamo

Profile

Born to a modest but pious farm family. Married layman. Farmer in Villa d'Ogna, Italy. Dominican tertiary. Known for his ministry and devotion to the poor. Pilgrim to Rome, Italy, to Jerusalem and to Compostela, Spain. Settled finally in Cremona, Italy. Known as a miracle worker.

Born

at Villa d'Ogna, Italy

Died

7 May 1279 in Cremona, Italy of natural causes

Beatified

9 May 1748 by Pope Benedict XIV (cultus confirmed)

Patronage

• bakers
• day labourers

Representation

• farm worker cutting through a stone with a scythe
• farm worker being brought the Eucharist in the field by a dove

Readings

Almighty and ever-loving God, you led Blessed Albert to shine forth in humility of life, in zeal for the truth and in apostolic charity. May we follow in his footsteps and so obtain the same reward. 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-albert-of-bergamo/

Saint John of Beverley

Also known as

John of York

Additional Memorial

25 October (translation of relics)

Profile

Studied at Canterbury under Saint Adrian and Saint Theodore. Benedictine monk at Whitby. Bishop of Hexham, England in 687. Metropolitan of York, England in 705. Founded a monastery at Inderawood (later Beverley), which became an important ecclesiastical center. Ordained the Venerable Bede who wrote of him, and recorded miracles worked by him. John always preferred the contemplative life and retired to the Inderawood Abbey in 717. King Henry V's victory at Agincourt was attributed to the aid of Saint John and Saint John of Bridlington.

Born

at Harpham, Yorkshire, England

Died

• 7 May 721 at Inderawood Abbey, England of natural causes
• relics in the Beverley cathedral
• his tomb was a popular pilgrimage point for centuries

Canonized

1037 by Pope Benedict IX

Patronage

diocese of Middlesbrough, England

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-john-of-beverley/

Saint Domitian of Huy

Profile

Priest. Bishop of Tongres (in modern Belgium). He spoke out convincingly against heretics and pagans. Opposed heretics at the Synod of Orleans in 549. Encouraged the development of writings and sermons against heresy. Worked in the Meuse Valley to convert pagans. Built churches and hospices to care for the spiritual and physical needs of the people. Well known for his generosity, his fund-raising abilities that helped ease a famine, and his work against heretics.

Born

6th century in Gaul

Died

• 560
• relics at Huy, Belgium

Patronage

• against fever
• Huy, Liège, Belgium

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-domitian-of-huy/

Blessed Jan Eugeniusz Bajewski

Also known as

• Antonin Bajewski
• prisoner 12764

Additional Memorial

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

Profile

Member of the Franciscan Conventuals, taking the name Antonin. Priest. Worked with Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Imprisoned, tortured and executed by the Nazis for the crime of being a Catholic priest. Martyr.

Born

17 January 1915 in Vilnius, Lithuania

Died

8 May 1941 in the Oswiecim (Auschwitz) death camp, Malopolskie, occupied Poland

Beatified

13 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-jan-eugeniusz-bajewski/

Saint Maurelius of Voghenza-Ferrara

Profile

Bishop of Voghenza, Italy, the modern titutal diocese of Vicohabentia; may have been the last bishop of that diocese before the area was joined to the diocese of Ferrara, Italy.

That’s what we’re relatively sure about. The legend writers, though, they invented all kinds of things - he was the king of Mesopotamia who abdicated to become a wandering priest, that he met the pope who saw his obvious holiness and consecrated him a bishop, that his first Mass as bishop was accompanied with choirs of angels, etc.

Died

• 7 May 644
• relics enshrined at the monastery of Saint George Olivetani, Ferrara, Italy

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-maurelius-of-voghenza-ferrara/

Saint Flavia Domitilla of Terracina

Profile

Roman noble lay woman. Grand-daughter of Emperor Vespasian; niece of Emperors Titus and Domitian. Married to Titus Flavius Clemens, a Roman consul, nephew of Emperor Vespasian, and first cousin of Emperors Titus and Domitian; foster sister of Saint Ephyrosyna of Terracina and Saint Theodora of Terracina. Convert to Christianity. Widowed when her husband was martyred in 96. Banished to the island of Pandataria in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Possibly martyred, though records are sketchy.

Died

at Terracina, Italy

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-flavia-domitilla-of-terracina/

Saint Duje

Also known as

Doimus, Domnio, Domnius, Dujam

Profile

Third century bishop of Salona, Dalmatia (in modern Croatia). Martyred with seven other Christians in the persecutions of Diocletian.

Born

Antiohia, Syria

Died

• beheaded in 304 at Salona, Dalmatia (in modern Croatia)
• secretly buried by other Christians
• a basilica was built over this grave and a monastery grew up nearby
• relics later moved to the cathedral of bearby Split, Croatia

Patronage

Split, Croatia

Representation

bishop holding the city or cathedral of Split, Croatia

https://catholicsaints.info/saint-duje/

Blessed Francesco Paleari

Profile

Priest. Member of the Society of the Priests of Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo. Noted preacher and deeply involved in the work of the Little House of Divine Providence which provides a broad range of medical and social services to the poor.

Born

22 October 1863 in Pogliano Milanese, Milan, Italy

Died

7 May 1939 in Turin, Italy of natural causes

Beatified

17 September 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-francesco-paleari/

Blessed Gisella of Ungarn

Also known as

• Gisella of Hungary
• Gisela, Gisele, Gizella

Profile

Sister of Saint Henry II, emperor of Germany. Wife of Saint Stephen of Hungary. First Queen of Hungary. Widow. After a life of using her position for charity, she retired to the convent at Passau in modern Germany.

Born

11th century

Died

c.1095 at Passau, Germany of natural causes

https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-gisella-of-ungarn/

Apparition of the Holy Cross over Jerusalem

Article

Commemorates the appearance on 7 May 351, Pentecost that year, of a luminous image of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. It stretched from Mount Golgotha to the Mount of Olives (about two miles / three kilometers), was brighter than the sun, lasted several hours, and was seen by the entire city. It led to many conversions, and was reported in a letter attribued to Saint Cyril of Jerusalem.

https://catholicsaints.info/apparition-of-the-holy-cross-over-jerusalem/