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The saint of the day for April 17 is Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, a Third Order Franciscan and pilgrim. He is the patron saint of homeless people. Born in northern France in 1748, he was the oldest of fifteen children of a prosperous shopkeeper and his wife. He was a quiet, thoughtful child with a friendly nature who was both serious and a bit sad. At the age of 12, he studied under his uncle, a parish priest, to prepare for the priesthood. His uncle taught him Latin and the Scriptures. Due to poor health and a lack of appropriate academic preparation, he was unsuccessful in his efforts to enter the religious life in the Trappist, Cistercian, and Carthusian orders. Continue reading.

St. Cyprian. (Image via Catholic.org) I decided a few months back to sign up for a service that sends me the biography of each day's "Saint Of The Day".  Over the last few months since I signed up for the service, I've found that I look forward to seeing the emails in my inbox every morning.  Not only have these informative emails helped me to be prepared in advance for daily Mass, but more importantly, I've been able to get to know the saints on a human level.  It was such a comfort to me, for instance, to learn that St. Cyprian struggled with patience and anger - things I struggle with, also. And I loved reading that St. Thomas of Villanova did not bow to peer pressure "...h e wore the same habit that he had received in the novitiate, mending it himself. The canons and domestics were ashamed of him, but they could not convince him to change." I've been daily inspired (and mentored!) by these human examples of imperfection and their st...

The saint of the day is St. Lutgardis , a Cistercian, and one of the first mystics of the Sacred Heart. St. Lutgardis is the patron saint of the blind and physically disabled people. Born in the 12th century, she came to her vocation, in part, due to her father’s bad business sense. Her father lost her dowry in a failed business venture and sent her to a Benedictine convent at the age of 12. A few years later, she received a vision of Christ showing her his wounds, and at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun. Her visions continued and she is said to have levitated and dripped blood from her head when meditating on the Passion. Seeking a stricter life, she joined the Cistercians and displayed the gifts of healing, prophecy, spiritual wisdom and teaching on the Gospels. She accepted the blindness that afflicted her for the last 11 years of her life as a gift that helped reduce the distractions of the outside world. In her last vision, Christ told her when she was to die, the d...

reposted from: Costing Not Less Than Everything . The Last Communion of Saint Lucy – Tiepolo A Nocturnal Upon Saint Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day –  John Donne ‘TIS the year’s midnight, and it is the day’s, Lucy’s, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;     The sun is spent, and now his flasks     Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;             The world’s whole sap is sunk; The general balm th’ hydroptic earth hath drunk, Whither, as to the bed’s-feet, life is shrunk, Dead and interr’d; yet all these seem to laugh, Compared with me, who am their epitaph. Study me then, you who shall lovers be At the next world, that is, at the next spring;     For I am every dead thing,     In whom Love wrought new alchemy.             For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean emptiness; He ruin’d ...

A princess of Hungary, Countess of Thuringia, her feastday is celebrated today in the Catholic Church, although it is kept on 19th November under the General Roman Calendar.  Married at 14, widowed at 20, she died at the age of 24. Despite many trials and afflictions, she persevered in her devotion to God and  became revered for her charity and piety, building hospitals and tending the sick and the poor. Once, under suspicion of stealing from the castle, she was questioned whilst on her way to feed the poor.  When her cloak was opened, a bouquet of roses was revealed, instead of the food she was taking. She is, therefore, often portrayed with the miraculous roses. The Charity of Saint Elizabeth - Edmund Blair Leighton St Elizabeth of Hungary - Pietro Nelli

A repost from Costing Not Less Than Everything Seventh-century Abbess of Gwytherin in Denbighshire, miraculously restored to life by Saint Bueno after being beheaded by an angry rejected suitor. Her miraculous healing well is still busy today at Holywell, known as the Lourdes of Wales, and remains a place of pilgrimage. There is also a healing well named after the saint at Woolston in Shropshire. For fans of Brother Cadfael, the monk detective, her relics feature in A Morbid Taste for Bones , by Ellis Peters. Here is an ancient hymn to St Winifred: Virgo Venans Velut Rosa – Virgin Blossoming as the Rose More fair than all the vernal flowers  Embosom’d in the dales,  St. Winifred in beauty bloom’d  The rose of ancient Wales.  With every loveliest grace adorn’d,  The Lamb’s unsullied Bride,  Apart from all the world she dwelt  Upon this mountain side.  Till Caradoc, with impious love,  Her ...

The saint of the day is St. Etheldreda (also known as: Audrey, Ethelreda, Æthelthryth, Edilthride, Ediltrudis, Edeltrude), a widow and a Benedictine nun. She was born in Exning, Suffolk, England and died at Ely, 679. To her friends and family, this once most famous female Anglo-Saxon saint was Etheldreda. To poor people she was Audrey, and the word "tawdry" originally came from the cheap necklaces that were sold on the feast of Saint Audrey and which were believed to cure illness of the throat and neck. This was because Etheldreda had suffered from neck cancer, which she attributed to divine punishment because she was once vain enough to wear a costly necklace. She had a huge tumor on her neck when she died, but, according the Saint Bede, when her tomb was opened by her sister Saint Sexburga, her successor as abbess at Ely Abbey, ten (or 16) years after her death, her body was found incorrupt and the tumor had healed. Etheldreda was a woman of noble birth, the daughter o...

Today's saint of the day is Blessed Osanna Andreasi  of Mantua (1449 - 1505), a Dominican tertiary, stigmatic, and mystic. The daughter of Italian nobles Nicolaus and Agnes, she is reported to have had her first mystical experience at the age of five: a vision of the Trinity, the nine choirs of angels, and Jesus as a child her own age, carrying His Cross. Feeling called to the religious life, Osanna rejected an arranged marriage and became a Dominican tertiary at the age of 17; however, she waited 37 years to complete her vows so she could care for her brothers and sisters after the death of her parents. At the age of eighteen she experienced mystical espousal to Jesus -- like St. Catherine of Siena , she had a vision in which Our Blessed Mother made her a bride of Christ, placing a ring on her finger. When she was thirty she received the stigmata on her head, then her side, and finally on her feet. She also had a vision in which her heart was transformed and divi...

Today is the is the feast day of St. Germaine Cousin, a simple and pious young girl who lived in Pibrac, France in the late 1500s. Germaine was born in 1579 to poor parents. Her father was a farmer, and her mother died when she was still an infant. She was born with a deformed right arm and hand, as well as the disease of scrofula, a tubercular condition. Her father remarried soon after the death of her mother, but his new wife was filled with disgust by Germaine's condition. She tormented and neglected Germaine, and taught her siblings to do so as well. Starving and sick, Germaine was eventually kicked out of the house and forced to sleep under the stairway in the barn, on a pile of leaves and twigs, because of her stepmother’s dislike of her and disgust of her condition. She tended to the family's flock of sheep everyday. Despite her hardships, she lived each day full of thanksgiving and joy, and spent much of her time praying the Rosary and teaching the village childr...

 by Jean M. Heimann, Cross-posted at Catholic Fire Today's saint is the valiant warrior Saint Joan of Arc , French national heroine, who was born in Domremy, France, 1412 and died in Rouen, France, 1431. When she was about 13 years old, Joan began to hear the voices of Saints Michael the Archangel, Margaret of Antioch, and Catherine of Alexandria, urging her to free her country from the English. Joan’s visions told her to find the true king of France and help him reclaim his throne. She resisted for more than three years, but finally went to Charles VII in Chinon and told him of her visions. After overcoming opposition from churchmen and courtiers, she was given a small army with which she raised the siege of Orleans on May 8, 1429. Carrying a banner that read “Jesus, Mary”, she led the troops into battle. She followed the famous campaign of the Loire during which the English were decisively beaten, and Charles was crowned at Rheims, on July 17, 1429. When she was capture...