The 31st of December is the feast day of Saint Sylvester I. He is the patron saint of Feroleto Antico, Sylvestrine, Benedictines and Nonantola.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

SYLVESTER was born in Rome toward the close of the third century. He was a young priest when the persecution of the Christians broke out under the tyrant Diocletian. Idols were erected at the corners of the streets, in the market-places, and over the public fountains, so that it was scarcely possible for a Christian to go abroad without being put to the test of offering sacrifice, with the alternative of apostasy or death. During this fiery trial, Sylvester strengthened the confessors and martyrs, God preserving his life from many dangers. In 312 a new era set in. Constantine, having triumphed under the ” standard of the Cross,” declared himself the protector of the Christians, and built them splendid churches. At this juncture Sylvester was elected to the chair of Peter, and was thus the first of the Roman Pontiffs to rule the flock of Christ in security and peace. He profited by these blessings to renew the discipline of the Church, and in two great Councils confirmed her sacred truths. In the Council of Arles he condemned the schism of the Donatists; and in that of Nicæa, the first general Council of the Church, he dealt Arianism its death-blow by declaring that Jesus Christ is the true and very God. Sylvester died A. D. 335.

The 30th of December is the feast day of Saint Anysia of Salonika, she is also known as Anysia of Thessalonica.

Saint Anysia died circa 298 A.D. Her parents were wealthy and pious Christians living near Thessalonica, Greece. Her parents died when she was still young, and Saint Anysia made private vows of chastity and poverty, dedicating her life completely to Christ. She also gave her wealth to the poor. The persecutions of Roman Emperor Maximian occurred during her lifetime, and he declared that if anyone meets a Christian, they should kill the Christian without a trial. She was on her way to church on a Sunday when a Roman soldier started to harass her. He attempted to make her sacrifice to a pagan sun god. Saint Anysia spat in his face declaring her commitment to Christ. The soldier became enraged and slew her with a sword.

The 29th of December is the feast day of Saint Thomas Becket, also known as Thomas of Canterbury. He is the patron saint of Exeter College, Oxford; Portsmouth; Arbroath Abbey; and secular clergy.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

ST. THOMAS, son of Gilbert Becket, was born in Southwark, England, in 1117. When a youth he was attached to the household of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him to Paris and Bologna to study law. He became Archdeacon of Canterbury, then Lord High Chancellor of England; and in 1160, when Archbishop Theobald died, the king insisted on the consecration of St. Thomas in his stead. St. Thomas refused, warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be broken. In the end he yielded, and was consecrated. The conflict at once broke out; St. Thomas resisted the royal customs, which violated the liberties of the Church and the laws of the realm. After six years of contention, partly spent in. exile, St. Thomas, with full foresight of martyrdom before him, returned as a good shepherd to his Church. On the 29th of December, 1170, just as vespers were beginning, four knights broke into the cathedral, crying: “Where is the archbishop? where is the traitor?” The monks fled, and St. Thomas might easily have escaped. But he advanced, saying: “Here I am—no traitor, but archbishop. What seek you?” “Your life,” they cried. “Gladly do I give it,” was the reply; and bowing his head, the invincible martyr was hacked and hewn till his soul went to God. Six months later Henry II. submitted to be publicly scourged at the Saint’s shrine, and restored to the Church her full rights.

Reflection.—”Learn from St. Thomas,” says Father Faber, “to fight the good fight even to the shedding of blood, or, to what men find harder, the shedding of their good name by pouring it out to waste on the earth.”

The 28th of December is the feast day of the Holy Innocents.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

HEROD, who was reigning in Judea at the time of the birth of Our Saviour, having heard that the Wise Men had come from the East to Jerusalem in search of the King of the Jews, was troubled. He called together the chief priests, and learning that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, he told the Wise Men: “When you have found Him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore Him.” But God having warned them in a dream not to return, they went back to their homes another way. St. Joseph, too, was ordered in his sleep to “take the Child and His Mother and fly into Egypt.” When Herod found that the Wise Men did not return, he was furious, and ordered that every male child in Bethlehem and its vicinity of the age of two and under should be slain. These innocent victims were the flowers and the first-fruits of His martyrs, and triumphed over the world, without having ever known it or experienced its dangers.

Reflection.—How few perhaps of these children, if they had lived, would have escaped the dangers of the world! What snares, what sins, what miseries were they preserved from! So we often lament as misfortunes many accidents which in the designs of Heaven are the greatest mercies.

The 27th of December is the feast day of Saint John the Apostle. He is the patron saint of love, loyalty, friendships, and authors.

ST. JOHN, the youngest of the apostles in age, was called to follow Christ on the banks of the Jordan during the first days of Our Lord’s ministry. He was one of the privileged few present at the Transfiguration and the Agony in the garden. At the Last Supper his head rested on the bosom of Jesus, and in the hours of the Passion, when others fled or denied their Master, St. John kept his place by the side of Jesus, and at the last stood by the cross with Mary. From the cross the dying Saviour bequeathed His Mother to the care of the faithful apostle, who “from that hour took her to his own;” thus fitly, as St. Austin says, “to a virgin was the Virgin intrusted.” After the Ascension, St. John lived first at Jerusalem, and then at Ephesus. He was thrown by Domitian into a caldron of boiling oil, and is thus reckoned a martyr, though miraculously preserved from hurt. Afterwards he was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he received the heavenly visions described in tine Apocalypse. He died at a great age, in peace, at Ephesus, in the year 100.

Reflection.–St. John is a living example of Our Lord’s saying, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.”

The 26th of December is the feast day of Saint Stephen, the first martyr. He is the patron saint of Altar Servers; Acoma Indian Pueblo; casket makers; Cetona, Italy; deacons; headaches; horses; Kessel, Belgium; masons; Owensboro, Kentucky; Passau, Germany; Serbia; Republic of Srpska; and Prato, Italy.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

THERE is good reason to believe that St. Stephen was one of the seventy-two disciples of our blessed Lord. After the Ascension he was chosen one of the seven deacons. The ministry of the seven was very fruitful; but Stephen especially, “full of grace and fortitude, did great wonders and signs among the people.” Many adversaries rose up to dispute with him, but “they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit that spoke.” At length he was brought before the Sanhedrim, charged, like his divine Master, with blasphemy against Moses and against God. He boldly upbraided the chief priests with their hard-hearted resistance to the Holy Ghost and with the murder of the “Just One.” They were stung with anger, and gnashed their teeth against him. But when, “filled with the Holy Ghost and looking up to heaven, he cried out, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God,’ they rushed upon him, and dragging him forth without the city, they stoned him to death”

Reflection.—If ever you are tempted to resentment, pray from your heart for him who has offended you.

The 25th of December is the Nativity of Christ or Christmas Day.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of Saints:

THE world had subsisted about four thousand years when Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, having taken human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and being made man, was born of her, for the redemption of mankind, at Bethlehem of Judea. Joseph and Mary had come up to Bethlehem to be enrolled, and, unable to find shelter elsewhere, they took refuge in a stable, and in this lowly place Jesus Christ was born. The Blessed Virgin wrapped the divine Infant in swaddling-clothes, and laid Him in the manger. While the sensual and the proud were asleep, an angel appeared to some poor shepherds. They were seized with great fear, but the heavenly messenger said to them: “Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of exceeding great joy, that shall be to all the people. For this day is born to you a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign to you: you shall find the Child wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger.” After the departure of the angel the wondering shepherds said to one another: “Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see the word that is come to pass, which the Lord hath shown to us.” They immediately hastened thither, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the manger. Bowing down they adored Him, and then returned to their flocks, glorifying and praising God.

Reflection.—Our Saviour sanctified our flesh by taking it on Himself, and with His last breath He commended us to the care of His Virgin Mother. Day by day He still feeds us at the altar with the food of incorruption—His body and His blood.

The Fall of Man by Peter Paul Rubens

The 23rd of December is the feast day of Saint Victoria.

Saint Victoria died in 250 A.D. and was a Roman Christian noblewoman. She and her sister, Saint Anatolia were forced into arranged marriages with two pagan noblemen. However, both saints wished to devote themselves to God and did not want to marry. When they refused, their suiters approached the authorities and denounced them as Christians. The Roman Emperor of the time, Decius, was persecuting Christians and the sisters were seized and put under house arrest. They tried to break the sister’s faith and coerce them to marry. The sisters did not weaken in faith and sold all their belongings and gave their money to the poor though they were still under house arrest. They converted to Christianity, both the servants and the guards who attended them. The two women were martyred for their faith, Anatolia first and then Victoria. Saint Victoria was stabbed through the heart which was what her rejected suitor, Eugenius requested.

20 000 martyrs from Nicomedia (985, Constantinople, miniature from the Vatican Museum)

The 22nd of December is the feast day of Saint Zeno of Nicomedia.

Saint Zeno of Nicomedia died in 303 A.D. He was a Roman soldier and commander who lived in Nicomedia which is today’s Turkey. He lived during the reign of the Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. They fiercely persecuted the Church and sent many Christians to their death. In Nicomedia 20,000 Christians were burnt to death on Christmas Day as they gathered in a Cathedral. Saint Zeno was put to death when he mocked the Emperor’s devotion to a soulless god when he offered a sacrifice to a Roman deity.

The 21st of December is the feast day of Saint Peter Canisius. He is the patron saint of the Catholic press, and Germany.

In 1565 Peter Canisius was chosen as a secret agent to get the decrees of the Council to all the European bishops. It was a dangerous assignment in the sixteenth century as the first envoy who tried to carry the decrees through the territory of hostile protestants and thieves were robbed of the documents. Saint Peter Canisius was a well known Jesuit and the Protestants respected him. Peter successfully traveled from Rome and Germany with the Tridentine tomes and three sacks of books he took for his own university. He was born in 1521 in Holland. Peter edited and wrote several volumes on Church history and theology was a delegate to the Council of Trent and reformed the Germany universities from heresy. Peter died in December 21, 1597 and was known as the Second Apostle of Germany and is a Doctor of the Church.

The 20th of December is the feast day of Saint Dominic of Silos. He is the patron saint of against rabies; against rabid dogs; against insects; captives; pregnant women; prisoners; and shepherds.

Saint Dominic of Silos lived between 1000 till 1073 A.D. He was born to a peasant family in Navarre, Spain. He herded his father’s sheep in the Pyrenees mountains as he was growing up which helped him love the life of solitude. This led him to enter the local Benedictine monastery in Navarre. He became its prior but was driven out because the King of Navarre took over its land. Saint Dominic took refuge in another monastery and King Ferdinand I of Leon put him under his protection. The monastery was initially dilapidated, but when he became abbot, it was restored both materially and spiritualy. The monastery became a place of scholarship and the funds that they raised were given to ransom Christian captives who were slaves of the Muslims. Saint Dominic of silos was known to be a miracle worker. The mother of Saint Dominic Guzman prayed for a son at his shrine, and the son she conceived became the founder of the Dominican Order. After this, Saint Dominic of Silos became the patron connected with pregnancy and up until 1931, his crozier was used by the queens of Spain to bless them and was placed beside them when they were in labour.

Pope Saint Anastasius I

The 19th of December is the feast day of Pope Saint Anastasius I. 

A pontiff who is remembered chiefly for his condemnation of Origenism. A Roman by birth, he became pope in 399, and died within a little less than four years. Among his friends were Augustine, and Jerome, and Paulinus, Jerome speaks of him as a man or great holiness who was rich in his poverty. It was during the time of the barbarian invasions.

Acta SS., III, September; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints. 27 September.

T.J. CAMPBELL

The 18th of December is the feast day of Saint Winibald.

Saint Winebald lived between 701 and 761. He was a Saxon prince and his family was a holy and royal family of England. His parents were both saints; Saint Richard the king was his father and Saint Wunna of Wessex was his mother. His brother, Saint Willibald and his sister, Saint Walburga, and his uncle Saint Boniface were also saints. He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his father and brother and stayed for many years in Rome. After this, he was asked by Saint Boniface, his uncle, to help him evangelise Germany. Saint Winebald became a priest and started his work as a missionary in Germany, Holland, France, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg. He left many churches and monasteries under the Rule of Saint Benedict. He became known as helping to lay the foundations of Christianity in Europe and his tomb was a place of pilgrimage after he died.

The 17th of December is the feast day of Saint John of Matha or Martha.

The 16th of December is the feast day of Saint Adelaide of Italy. She is also known as Saint Adelaide of Burgandy. She is the patron saint of abuse victims; brides; empresses; exiles; in-law problems; parenthood; parents of large families; princesses; prisoners; second marriages; step-parents; and widows.

Saint Adelaide was born in 931AD and was the daughter of King Rupert II of Burgundy, France. She became the Queen of Italy after marrying the future King of Italy. Her husband died and she was imprisoned after refusing a second marriage that was also politically driven. When the German Emperor Otto came to rule Italy, she consented to his offer of marriage. They eventually had four children, the future Otto II, and three daughters. Two of her daughters became nuns. In 962 A.D. Otto was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII. After her son Otto II was crowned emperor, her jealous daughter-in-law drove her from court. After her son and her daughter-in-law died, Saint Adelaide returned to rule the empire as regent Queen until her grandson was ready to take the throne. She helped the poor, evangelized, and built and restore monasteries and churches. She retired in a convent in Germany and spent her remaining life in prayer.

The 15th of December is the feast day of Saint Virginia Centurione Bracelli. She is the patron saint of the Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge in Mount Cavalry.

Saint Virginia Centurione Bracelli was born in Genoa, Italy in 1587, to an aristocratic family. At the age of 15 she was forced to marry a wealthy and illustrious man and had two daughters. At the age of 20 her husband died and she refused another arranged marriage. Saint Virginia then took a vow of celibacy and began charitable works for the sick and the poor while raising her two daughters. Once they were grown, she used her wealth to create a refuge center which became a large hospital and then into two religious congregations; the Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge in Mount Calvary, and the Daughters of Our Lady on Mount Calvary. Among her good works included her ability to be a peacemaker between noble families. She died in 1651 and her body is incorrupt.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

THE father of St. John was discarded by his kindred for marrying a poor orphan, and the Saint, thus born and nurtured in poverty, chose it also for his portion. Unable to learn a trade, he became the servant of the poor in the hospital of Medina, while still pursuing his sacred studies. In 1563, being then twenty-one, he humbly offered himself as a lay-brother to the Carmelite friars, who, however, knowing his talents, had him ordained priest. He would now have exchanged to the severe Carthusian Order, had not St. Teresa, with the instinct of a Saint, persuaded him to remain and help her in the reform of his own Order. Thus he became the first prior of the Barefooted Carmelites. His reform, though approved by the general, was rejected by the elder friars, who condemned the Saint as a fugitive and apostate, and cast him into prison, whence he only escaped, after nine months’ suffering, at the risk of his life. Twice again, before his death, he was shamefully persecuted by his brethren, and publicly disgraced. But his complete abandonment by creatures only deepened his interior peace and devout longing for heaven.

Reflection.—”Live in the world,” said St. John, “as if God and your soul only were in it; so shall your heart be never made captive by any earthly thing.

The 13th of December is the feast day of Saint Lucy. She is the patron saint of the blind; martyrs; Perugia, Italy; Mtarfa, Malta; epidemics; salesmen; Syracuse; Italy; throat infections; and writers.

The 12th of December is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On the 9th of December 1531, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Juan Diego, an Aztec peasant, saw the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Hill of Tepeyac which is near present-day Mexico City. The Bishop requested that Her identity be proved, and Our Lady instructed Saint Juan Diego to gather roses found growing on the hill and take the roses to the bishop. The roses were not native to the area and it was not in season. Saint Juan Diego gathered the roses in his tilma, a cloak, and when he opened the tilma to reveal the roses to the bishop, an image of the Virgin Mary appeared on the tilma, dressed as a pregnant Aztec princess. The designs in the tilma are like the codex to the Aztecs, and reveals the truth of the Catholic faith that was preached by the missionary priests. Millions were converted as a result of this miracle. The apparition and image are known under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe and is the first apparition in the new world and the only apparition where Our Lady produced an image of Herself. The tilma is now venerated at the basilica and shrine in Mexico City. She is the patroness of the Americas, the new Evangelisation and the unborn.

Lithography of Pope Saint Damasus I (Lisboa, 1840).

ST. DAMASUS was born at Rome at the beginning of the fourth century. He was archdeacon of the Roman Church in 355, when Pope Liberius was banished to Berda, and followed him into exile, but afterward returned to Rome. On the death of Liberius our Saint was chosen to succeed him. Ursinus, a competitor for the high office, incited a revolt, but the holy Pope took only such action as was becoming to the common father of the faithful. Having freed the Church of this new schism, he turned his attention to the extirpation of Arianism in the West and of Apollinarianism in the East, and for this purpose he convened several councils. He rebuilt the church of St. Laurence, which to this day is known as St. Laurence in Damaso; he made many valuable presents to this church, and settled upon it houses and lands in its vicinity. He likewise drained all the springs of the Vatican, which ran over the bodies that were buried there, and decorated the sepulchres of a great number of martyrs in the cemeteries, and adorned them with epitaphs in verse. Having sat eighteen years and two months, he died on the 10th of December, in 384, being near fourscore years of age.

Juan Diego by Miguel Cabrera, 1752

Mary’s holy and immaculate conception, by Francisco Rizi, Museo del Prado, 17th-century, Oil on canvas.

ON this day, so dear to every Catholic heart, we celebrate, in the first place, the moment in which Almighty God showed Mary, through the distance of ages, to our first parents as the Virgin Mother of the divine Redeemer, the woman destined to crush the head of the serpent. And as by eternal decree she was miraculously exempt from all stain of original sin, and endowed with the richest treasures of grace and sanctity, it is meet that we should honor her glorious prerogatives by this special feast of the Immaculate Conception. We should join in spirit with the blessed in heaven, and rejoice with our dear Mother, not only for her own sake, but for ours, her children, who are partakers of her glory and happiness. Secondly, we are called upon to celebrate that ever-memorable day, the 8th of December, 1854, which raised the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Lady from a pious belief to the dignity of a dogma of the Infallible Church, causing universal joy among the faithful.

Reflection.—Let us repeat frequently these words applied by the Church to the Blessed Virgin: “Thou art all fair, O Mary? and there is not a spot in thee” (Cant. iv. 7).

St. Ambrose with Book and Whip

AMBROSE was of a noble family, and was governor of Milan in 374, when a bishop was to be chosen for that great see. As the Arian heretics were many and fierce, he was present to preserve order during the election. Though only a catechumen, it was the will of God that he should himself be chosen by acclamation; and, in spite of his utmost resistance, he was baptized and consecrated. He was unwearied in every duty of a pastor, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in things indifferent, but inflexible in matters of principle. He showed his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuking and leading to penance the really great Emperor Theodosius, who in a moment of irritation had punished most cruelly a sedition of the inhabitants of Thessalonica. He was the friend and consoler of St. Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 he had the joy of admitting to the Church her son, St. Augustine. St. Ambrose died in 397, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of and as one of her greatest doctors.

Reflection.—Whence came to St. Ambrose his grandeur of mind, his clearness of insight, his intrepidity in maintaining the faith and discipline of the Church? Whence but from his contempt of the world, from his fearing God alone?

The 6th of December is the feast day of Saint Nicholas. He is also known as Nikolaos of Myra and Nikolaos the Wonderworker. He is the patron saint of children, coopers, sailors, fishermen, merchants, broadcasters, the falsely accused, repentant thieves, brewers, pharmacists, archers, pawnbrokers, Aberdeen, Galway, Russia, Greece, Hellenic Navy, Liverpool, Bari, Siggiewi, Moscow, Amsterdam, Lorraine and Duchy of Lorraine.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

ST. NICHOLAS, the patron Saint of Russia, was born toward the end of the third century. His uncle, the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him priest, and appointed him abbot of a monastery; and on the death of the archbishop he was elected to the vacant see. Throughout his life he retained the bright and guileless manners of his early years, and showed himself the special protector of the innocent and the wronged. Nicholas once heard that a person who had fallen into poverty intended to abandon his three daughters to a life of sin. Determined, if possible, to save their innocence, the Saint went out by night, and, taking with him a bag of gold, flung it into the window of the sleeping father and hurried off. He, on awaking, deemed the gift a godsend, and with it dowered his eldest child. The Saint, overjoyed at his success, made like venture for the second daughter; but the third time as he stole away, the father, who was watching, overtook him and kissed his feet, saying: “Nicholas, why dost thou conceal thyself from me? Thou art my helper, and he who has delivered my soul and my daughters’ from hell.” St. Nicholas is usually represented by the side of a vessel, wherein a certain man had concealed the bodies of his three children whom he had killed, but who were restored to life by the Saint. He died in 342. His relics were translated in 1807, to Bari, Italy, and there, after fifteen centuries, “the manna of St. Nicholas” still flows from his bones and heals all kinds of sick.

Reflection.—Those who would enter heaven must be as little children, whose greatest glory is their innocence. Now, two things are ours to do: first, to preserve it in ourselves, or regain it by penance; secondly, to love and shield it in others.

St. Barbara with her attribute – three-windowed tower, central panel of St. Barbara Altarpiece (1447), National Museum in Warsaw

The 4th of December is the feast day of Saint Barbara. She is the patron saint of Armourers, Architects, Artillerymen, Firemen, Mathematicians, Miners, Tunnellers, Chemical Engineers, and Prisoners.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

ST. BARBARA was brought up a heathen. A tyrannical father, Dioscorus, had kept her jealously secluded in a lonely tower which he had built for the purpose. Here in her forced solitude, she gave herself to prayer and study, and contrived to receive instruction and Baptism by stealth from a Christian priest. Dioscorus, on discovering his daughter’s conversion, was beside himself with rage. He himself denounced her before the civil tribunal. Barbara was horribly tortured, and at last was beheaded, her own father, merciless to the last, acting as her executioner. God, however, speedily punished her persecutors. While her soul was being borne by angels to Paradise, a flash of lightning struck Dioscorus, and he was hurried before the judgment-seat of God.

Reflection: Pray often against a sudden and unprovided death; and, above all, that you may be strengthened by the Holy Viaticum against the dangers of your last hour.

Dear children, I turn to you as your mother, the mother of the just, the mother of those who love and suffer, the mother of those who are holy. My children, you too can be holy - this depends on you. Those who are holy are those who immeasurably love the Heavenly Father, those who love Him above all. Therefore, my children, always strive to be better. If you strive to be good you can be holy even though you may not think so of yourselves. If you think that you are good, you are not humble, and arrogance distances you from holiness. In this peaceless world full of threats, your hands, apostles of my love, should be extended in prayer and mercy. And to me, my children, give the gift of the rosary, the roses which I love so much. My roses are your prayers pronounced with the heart and not only recited with the lips. My roses are your acts of prayer, faith and love. When my Son was little, he said to me that my children would be numerous and that they would bring me many roses. I did not comprehend Him. Now I know that you are those children who are bringing me roses when, above all, you love my Son, when you pray with the heart, when you help the poorest. Those are my roses. That is the faith which makes everything in life be done through love, not knowing arrogance, and always ready to forgive; never judging, always striving to understand one's brother. Therefore, apostles of my love, pray for those who do not know how to love, for those who do not love you, for those who have done evil to you, for those who have not come to know the love of my Son. My children, I ask this of you because, remember, to pray means to love and to forgive. Thank you.

Concordance of Our Lady's Messages 1981-2014

Virgin and Child with a Rosary by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo circa 1650-1655

The 3rd of December is the feast day of Saint Francis Xavier. He is the patron saint of African missions; China; foreign missions; Missioners of the Precious Blood; navigators; New Zealand; parish missions; plague epidemics; and the Propagation of the Faith.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

YOUNG Spanish gentleman, in the dangerous days of the Reformation, was making a name for himself as a Professor of Philosophy in the University of Paris, and had seemingly no higher aim, when St. Ignatius of Loyola won him to heavenly thoughts. After a brief apostolate amongst his countrymen in Rome he was sent by St. Ignatius to the Indies, where for twelve years he was to wear himself out, bearing the Gospel to Hindostan, to Malacca, and to Japan. Thwarted by the jealousy, covetousness, and carelessness of those who should have helped and encouraged him, neither their opposition nor the difficulties of every sort which he encountered could make him slacken his labors for souls. The vast kingdom of China appealed to his charity, and he was resolved to risk his life to force an entry, when God took him to Himself, and on the 2nd of December, 1552, he died, like Moses, in sight of the land of promise.

Reflection.—Some are specially called to work for souls; but there is no one who cannot help much in their salvation. Holy example, earnest intercession, the offerings of our actions in their behalf—all this needs only the spirit which animated St. Francis Xavier, the desire to make some return to God.

Saint Bibiana. Etching by G.B. Mercati after P. da Cortona.

The 2nd of December is the feast day of Saint Bibiana. She is the patron saint of parish, epilepsy, epileptics, hangovers, headaches, insanity, mental illness, mentally ill people, single laywomen, and torture victims.

The 1st of December is the feast day of Saint Edmund Campion.