The 7th of September is the feast day of Saint Regina (d. 286 A.D.). She is the patron saint against poverty, impoverishment, shepherdesses, and torture victims.

Saint Regina died in 286 A.D. and was born in France to pagan parents. After her mother died during childbirth, her father gave her to be cared for by a Christian nurse who the secretly had her baptised and raised in the Christian faith. When she grew older it was evident that she had embraced Christianity and her father disowned her. She then lived with her Christian nurse and they both lived in poverty. To support the household, she would tend to the sheep. This time of solitude gave her time to pray and she meditated on the lives of the saints. A Roman proconsul, called Olybrius wanted to marry her when she was 15 years old. When he discovered she was a Christian he asked her to renounce her faith to save her life and marry him. Regina had already taken a vow of virginity to Christ and refused to deny her faith. She was cast into prison, and Olybrius visited her in prison hoping she will weaken and eventually renounce her faith. She again refused to give up her faith which angered Olybrius and had her tortured by scourging, burning and at the rake. She was then beheaded. Her strong resolve not to renounce her faith and the appearance of a dove above her caused many witnesses to convert to Christianity. Many miracles were attributed to her relics.

Image: Statue of St. Regina at church dedicated to her at Drensteinfurt.

The 6th of September is the feast day of Saint Eleutherius (d. 585 A.D.).

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

WONDERFUL simplicity and 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. A child who was possessed by the devil, being delivered by being educated in his monastery, the abbot said one day: “Since the child is among the servants of God, the devil dares not approach him.” These words seemed to savor of vanity, and thereupon the devil again entered and tormented the child. The abbot humbly confessed his fault, and fasted and prayed with his whole community till the child was again freed from the tyranny of the fiend. 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.”

Dear children, my words are simple but are filled with motherly love and care. My children, all the more the shadows of darkness and deception are being cast over you, and I am calling you to the light and truth - I am calling you to my Son. Only He can transform despair and suffering into peace and clarity; only He can give hope in the deepest pain. My Son is the life of the world. The more that you come to know Him - the more that you come close to Him - all the more you will love Him, because my Son is love. Love changes everything; it makes most beautiful also that which, without love, seems insignificant to you. That is why, anew, I am saying to you that you must love a lot if you desire to grow spiritually. I know, apostles of my love, that it is not always easy, but, my children, also the painful paths are paths which lead to spiritual growth, to faith, and to my Son. My children, pray - think of my Son. In all the moments of the day, raise your soul to Him, and I will gather your prayers as flowers from the most beautiful garden and give them as a gift to my Son. Be true apostles of my love; spread the love of my Son to everyone. Be gardens of the most beautiful flowers. With your prayers help your shepherds that they may be spiritual fathers filled with love for all people. Thank you.

Assumption of the Virgin by Palma il Vecchio (1512 until 1514)

The 5th of September is the feast day of Saint Teresa of Calcutta. She is the patron saint of World Youth Day, Missionaries of Charity and the Archdiocese of Calcutta (co-patron).

Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born in 1910 in what is now Macedonia to a family of Albanian descent. When she was young, she was interested in the stories of missionaries serving in India. By the time she was 12 she discerned a vocation to the religious life, and at 18 years old she joined the Sisters of Loreto to be a missionary to India. In 1929 she arrived in India and taught in Darjeeling at a schoolhouse for wealthy children. She chose her religious name after Saint Therese of Lisieux, who is the patron saint of missionaries. She became head mistress and served the school for 20 years. She became aware and disturbed at the extreme poverty and societal unrest she observed around her. She then answered “the call within a call” and started her own religious order in Calcutta to minister to, as she described, the “hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, as those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” The Missionaries of Charity was started in 1950 with 12 sisters. By the time she died on September 5, 1997, there were 4000 sisters operating 610 missions in 123 countries in the Missionaries of Charity. She received the Nobel Peace Prize and received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. On September 4, 2016 she was canonised by Pope Francis.

Image: Mother Teresa at a pro-life meeting in 1986 in Bonn, West Germany

The 4th of September is the feast day of Saint Rosalia (1130–1166). She is the patron saint of Palermo; El Hatillo; Zuata Anzoátegui; and Italian fishermen of Monterey, California.

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

ST. ROSALIA was daughter of a noble family descended from Charlemagne. She was born at Palermo in Sicily, and despising in her youth worldly vanities, 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. Her body was found buried in a grot under the mountain, in the year of the jubilee, 1625, under Pope Urban VIII., and was translated into the metropolitan church of Palermo, of which she was chosen a patroness. To her patronage that island ascribes the ceasing of a grievous pestilence at the same time. ST. ROSE OF VITERBO, who is honored on this same day, was born in the spring of 1240, a time when Frederick II, was oppressing the Church and many were faithless to the Holy See. The infant at once seemed filled with grace; with tottering steps she sought Jesus in His tabernacle, she knelt before sacred images, she listened to pious talk, retaining all she heard, and this when she was scarcely three years old. 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. When hardly ten years old, Rose went down to the public square at Viterbo, called upon the inhabitants to be faithful to the Sovereign Pontiff, and vehemently denounced all his opponents. 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.

Image: Santa Rosalia, depicted on the right, before St. Mary by Anthony van Dyck

The 3rd of September is the feast day of Pope Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540 – 12 March 604). He is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers.

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

GREGORY was a Roman of noble birth, and while still young was governor of Rome. On his father’s death he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned his house on the Cœlian Hill into a monastery, which now bears his name, and for some years lived as a perfect monk. The Pope drew him from his seclusion to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome; and he did great service to the Church for many years as what we now call Nuncio to the Imperial court at Constantinople. While still a monk the saint was struck with some boys who were exposed for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were pagans. “And of what race are they?” he asked. “They are Angles.” “Worthy indeed to be Angels of God,” said he. “And of what province?” “Of Deira,” was the reply. “Truly must we rescue them from the wrath of God. And what is the name of their king?” “He is called Ella.” “It is well,” said Gregory; “Alleluia must be sung in their land to God.” He at once got leave from the Pope, and had set out to convert the English when the murmurs of the people led the Pope to recall him. Still the Angles were not forgotten, and one of the Saint’s first cares as Pope was to send from his own monastery St. Augustine and other monks to England. On the death of Pope Pelagius II., Gregory was compelled to take the government of the Church, and for fourteen years his pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. He healed schisms; revived discipline; saved Italy by converting the wild Arian Lombards who were laying it waste; aided in the conversion of the Spanish and French Goths, who were also Arians; and kindled anew in Britain the light of the Faith, which the English had put out in blood. He set in order the Church’s prayers and chant, guided and consoled her pastors with innumerable letters, and preached incessantly, most effectually by his own example. He died A. D. 604, worn out by austerities and toils; and the Church reckons him one of her four great doctors, and reveres him as St. Gregory the Great.

Reflection.—The champions of faith prove the truth of their teaching no less by the holiness of their lives than by the force of their arguments. Never forget that to convert others you must first see to your own soul.

Image: Jerome and Gregory by Antonio Vivarini (15th Century)

The 2nd of September is the feast day of Saint Brocard (d. 1231). He was one of the first group of hermits at Mount Carmel.

Saint Brocard was a Frenchman who lived in the 13th Century. He travelled to the Holy Land and entered the religious life. He was one of the first hermits to create a community of monks in Mount Carmel. After the death of Saint Berthold, he became prior of the community. To formalise the monks’ way of life on Mount Carmel, he asked Saint Albert, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to write a rule of life for the community. He then created the Rule of Saint Albert and the Carmelites was established as a new religious order. Saint Brocard was an expert on Islam and Eastern affairs, and he planned to accompany Saint Albert to the Fourth Lateran Council. However, Saint Albert was murdered before the Council convened. The Council suppressed new religious orders from being created, but the Carmelites were approved by the Holy See prior to this new decree. The community was led by Saint Brocard during this period of uncertainty until they were eventually granted special approval from the Holy Father.

Image: Stained Glass representing Saint Brocard and Saint Albert Avogadro stained glass window of the Chapel ND of Mount Carmel, Carmel of Middletown, NY, USA

The 1st of September is the feast day of Saint Giles (c. 650 AD – c. 710). He is the patron saint of beggars; blacksmiths; breast cancer; breast feeding; cancer patients; disabled people; Edinburgh (Scotland); epilepsy; noctiphobics; forests; hermits; horses; lepers; mental illness; outcasts; poor people; rams; spur makers; and against sterility.

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

ST. GILES, whose name has been held in great veneration for several ages in France and England, is said to have been an Athenian by birth, and of noble extraction. 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. We read in his life that he was for some time nourished with the milk of a hind in the forest, which, being pursued by hunters, fled for refuge to the Saint, who was thus discovered. The reputation of the sanctity of this holy hermit was much increased by many miracles which he wrought, and which rendered his name famous throughout all France. St. Giles was highly esteemed by the French king, but could not be prevailed upon to forsake his solitude. He, however, admitted several disciples, and settled excellent discipline in the monastery of which he was the founder, and which, in succeeding ages, became a flourishing abbey of the Benedictine Order.

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.

Image: Detail of Saint Giles and the Hind, by the Master of Saint Giles c. 1500

The month of September is the month of Our Lady of Sorrows.

This devotion commemorates the spiritual martyrdom of Our Lady in union with Her Son’s Passion. It is also Her role in salvation history and is symbolised by one or seven swords piercing Her heart. The seven swords represents her Seven Sorrows which are the prophecy of Simeon, the flight to Egypt, the loss of the Infant Jesus for three days, the meeting of Jesus and Our Lady as He carried the Cross, the crucifixion and death of Our Lord, the taking down of Jesus’ body, and His burial.

Image: Mary surrounded by the Seven Sorrows