Saints of the Week

Sunday, September 1
ST. GILES, Abbot
St. Giles, an Athenian, lived as a hermit in the dense forest of Gaul, and later built a monastery near Arles; famed for miracles and the pilgrimages made to his tomb; invoked against insanity and terrors of the night.
- 1934 Catholic Missal

His extraordinary piety and learning drew the admiration of the world upon him in such a manner that it was impossible for him to enjoy in his own country that obscurity and retirement which was the chief object of his desires on earth. He therefore sailed to France, and chose a hermitage first in the open deserts near the mouth of the Rhone, afterward near the river Gard, and lastly in a forest in the diocese of Nismes. He passed many years in this close solitude, living on wild herbs or roots and water, and conversing only with God.
Reflection. He who accompanies the exercises of contemplation and arduous penance with zealous and undaunted endeavors to conduct others to the same glorious term with himself, shall be truly great in the kingdom of heaven.
- Lives of Saints


Monday, September 2
ST. STEPHEN, King
Stephen I, first King of Hungary; became a Christian 986; died 1038. He married the sister of St. Henry II, emperor of Germany; distinguished by the virtue of prayer, mortification, charity; crowned as Apostolic King of Hungray on Aug. 15, 1000, and dedicated his country to "the Great lady"; died on Aug. 15 after he had converted Hungary to the faith.
- 1934 Catholic Missal

He was most carefully educated, and succeeded his father at an early age. He began to root out idolatry, suppressed a rebellion of his pagan subjects, and founded monasteries and churches all over the land. He sent to Pope Sylvester, begging him to appoint bishops to the eleven sees he had endowed, and to bestow on him, for the greater success of his work, the title of king. The Pope granted his requests, and sent him a cross to be borne before him, saying that he regarded him as the true apostle of his people.
Reflection. "Our duty," says Father Newman, "is to follow the Vicar of Christ whither he goeth, and never to desert him, however we may be tried; but to defend him at all hazards and against all corners, as a son would a father, and as a wife a husband, knowing that his cause is the cause of God."
- Lives of Saints


Tuesday, September 3
ST. SERAPHIA, Virgin and Martyr
Her parents dying, Seraphia was sought in marriage by many, but having resolved to consecrate herself to God alone, she sold all her possessions and distributed the proceeds to the poor; finally she sold herself into a voluntary slavery, and entered the services of a Roman lady named Sabina. The piety of Seraphia, her love of work, and her charity soon gained the heart of her mistress, who was not long in becoming a Christian.
Reflection. Christian courage bears relation to our faith. "If we continue in the faith, grounded, and settled, and immovable," all things will be found possible to us.
- Lives of Saints


Wednesday, September 4
ST. ROSALIA, Virgin
...despising in her youth worldly vanities, [St. Rosalia] made herself an abode in a cave on Mount Pelegrino, three miles from Palermo, where she completed the sacrifice of her heart to God by austere penance and manual labor, sanctified by assiduous prayer and the constant union of her soul with God. She died in 1160... One coarse habit covered her flesh; fasts and disciplines were her delight. To defend the Church's rights was her burning wish, and for this she received her mission from the Mother of God, who gave her the Franciscan habit, with the command to go forth and preach... So great was the power of her word, and of the miracles which accompanied it, that the Imperial party, in fear and anger, drove her from the city, but she continued to preach till Innocent IV was brought back in triumph to Rome and the cause of God was won. Then she retired to a little cell at Viterbo, and prepared in solitude for her end. She died in her eighteenth year. Not long after, she appeared in glory to Alexander IV, and bade him translate her body. He found it as the vision had said, but fragrant and beautiful, as if still in life.
Reflection. Rose lived but seventeen years, saved the Church's cause, and died a Saint. We have lived, perhaps, much longer, and yet with what result? Every minute something can be done for God. Let us be up and doing.
- Lives of Saints

Thursday, September 5
ST. LAURENCE JUSTINIAN
Born at Venice, 1381; died, 1455; made first Patriarch of Venice, 1451; author of mystical works.
- 1934 Catholic Missal

LAURENCE from a child longed to be a Saint; and when he was nineteen years of age there was granted to him a vision of the Eternal Wisdom. All earthly things paled in his eyes before the ineffable beauty of this sight, and as it faded away a void was left in his heart which none but God could fill... he fled secretly from his home at Venice, and joined the Canons Regular of St. George. As superior and as general, Laurence enlarged and strengthened his Order, and as bishop of his diocese, in spite of slander and insult, thoroughly reformed his see. His zeal led to his being appointed the first patriarch of Venice, but he remained ever in heart and soul an humble priest, thirsting for the sight of heaven.
Reflection. Ask St. Laurence to vouchsafe you such a sense of the sufficiency of God that you too may fly to Him and be at rest.
- Lives of Saints


Friday, September 6
ST. ELEUTHERIUS, Abbot
Wonderful simplicity and a spirit of compunction were the distinguishing virtues of this holy man. He was chosen abbot of St. Mark's near Spoleto, and favored by God with the gift of miracles... St. Gregory the Great not being able to fast on Easter-eve on account of extreme weakness, engaged this Saint to go with him to the church of St. Andrew's and put up his prayers to God for his health, that he might join the faithful in that solemn practice of penance. Eleutherius prayed with many tears, and the Pope, coming out of the church, found his breast suddenly strengthened, so that he was enabled to perform the fast as he desired. St. Eleutherius raised a dead man to life. Resigning his abbacy, he died in St. Andrew's monastery in Rome, about the year 585.
Reflection. "Appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father Who is in heaven, and thy Father, Who seeth in secret, He will repay thee."
- Lives of Saints


Saturday, September 7
ST. CLOUD, Confessor
He was son of Chlodomir, King of Orleans, the eldest son of St. Clotilda, and was born in 522. He was scarce three years old when his father was killed in Burgundy; but his grandmother Clotilda brought up him and his two brothers at Paris, and loved them extremely. Their ambitious uncles divided the kingdom of Orleans between them, and stabbed with their own hands two of their nephews. Cloud, by a special providence, was saved from the massacre, and, renouncing the world, devoted himself to the service of God in a monastic state. After a time he put himself under the discipline of St. Severinus, a holy recluse who lived near Paris, from whose hands he received the monastic habit.
Reflection. Let us remember that "the just shall live for evermore; they shall receive a kingdom of glory, and a grown of beauty at the hand of the Lord."
- Lives of Saints