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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261002
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261003
DTSTAMP:20260409T043134
CREATED:20170801T135749Z
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SUMMARY:Feast of the Guardian Angels
DESCRIPTION:Image: Detail | The Guardian Angel | Marcantonio Franceschini\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFeast of the Guardian Angels\nSaint of the Day for October 2\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nThe Story of the Feast of the Guardian Angels\nPerhaps no aspect of Catholic piety is as comforting to parents as the belief that an angel protects their little ones from dangers real and imagined. Yet guardian angels are not only for children. Their role is to represent individuals before God\, to watch over them always\, to aid their prayer\, and to present their souls to God at death. \nThe concept of an angel assigned to guide and nurture each human being is a development of Catholic doctrine and piety based on Scripture but not directly drawn from it. Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:10 best support the belief: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones\, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” \nDevotion to the angels began to develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. Saint Benedict gave it impetus and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux\, the great 12th-century reformer\, was such an eloquent spokesman for the guardian angels that angelic devotion assumed its current form in his day. \nA feast in honor of the guardian angels was first observed in the 16th century. In 1615\, Pope Paul V added it to the Roman calendar. \n\nReflection\nDevotion to the angels is\, at base\, an expression of faith in God’s enduring love and providential care extended to each person day in and day out.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/feast-of-the-guardian-angels/2026-10-02/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261003
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261004
DTSTAMP:20260409T043134
CREATED:20170801T150934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170801T150934Z
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SUMMARY:Saint Theodora Guérin
DESCRIPTION:Image: Saint Theodora Guerin | Image courtesy and © Sisters of Providence\, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Theodora Guérin\nSaint of the Day for October 3\n(October 2\, 1798 – May 14\, 1856)\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nSaint Theodora Guérin’s Story\nTrust in God’s Providence enabled Mother Theodore to leave her homeland\, sail halfway around the world\, and found a new religious congregation. \nBorn in Etables\, France\, Anne-Thérèse Guerin’s life was shattered by her father’s murder when she was 15. For several years\, she cared for her mother and younger sister. She entered the Sisters of Providence in 1823\, taking the name Sister Saint Theodore. An illness during novitiate left her with lifelong fragile health\, but that did not keep her from becoming an accomplished teacher. \nAt the invitation of the bishop of Vincennes\, Indiana\, she and five sisters were sent in 1840 to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods\, Indiana\, to teach and to care for the sick poor. She was to establish a motherhouse and novitiate. Only later did she learn that her French superiors had already decided the sisters in the United States should form a new religious congregation under her leadership. \nShe and her community persevered despite fires\, crop failures\, prejudice against Catholic women religious\, misunderstandings\, and separation from their original religious congregation. She once told her sisters\, “Have confidence in the Providence that so far has never failed us. The way is not yet clear. Grope along slowly. Do not press matters; be patient\, be trustful.” Another time\, she asked\, “With Jesus\, what shall we have to fear?” \nShe is buried in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods\, Indiana\, and was beatified in 1998. Eight years later\, she was canonized. \n\nReflection\nGod’s work gets done by people ready to take risks and to work hard—always remembering what Saint Paul told the Corinthians\, “I planted\, Apollos watered\, but God caused the growth.” Every holy person has a strong sense of God’s Providence.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-theodora-guerin/2026-10-03/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261004
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261005
DTSTAMP:20260409T043134
CREATED:20170801T151122Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170801T151122Z
UID:50989-1791072000-1791158399@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Francis of Assisi
DESCRIPTION:Image: Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy | Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio | photo by carulmare | flickr\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Francis of Assisi\nSaint of the Day for October 4\n(September 26\, 1182 – October 3\, 1226)\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nSaint Francis of Assisi’s Story\nFrancis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense\, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did\, joyfully\, without limit\, and without a sense of self-importance. \nSerious illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader of Assisi’s youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ\, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolized his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: “Francis! Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate\, if you wish to know my will. And when you have begun this\, all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter\, but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy.” \nFrom the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano\, Christ told him\, “Francis\, go out and build up my house\, for it is nearly falling down.” Francis became the totally poor and humble workman. \nHe must have suspected a deeper meaning to “build up my house.” But he would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor “nothing” man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up all his possessions\, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis’ “gifts” to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say\, “Our Father in heaven.” He was\, for a time\, considered to be a religious fanatic\, begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work\, evoking sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends\, ridicule from the unthinking. \nBut genuineness will tell. A few people began to realize that this man was actually trying to be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said: “Announce the kingdom! Possess no gold or silver or copper in your purses\, no traveling bag\, no sandals\, no staff” (Luke 9:1-3). \nFrancis’ first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. He had no intention of founding an order\, but once it began he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of reform tended to break the Church’s unity. \nHe was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter\, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa\, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases. He did try to convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade. \nDuring the last years of his relatively short life (he died at 44)\, he was half blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death\, he received the stigmata\, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands\, feet and side. \nOn his deathbed\, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun\, “Be praised\, O Lord\, for our Sister Death.” He sang Psalm 141\, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth\, in imitation of his Lord. \n\nReflection\nFrancis of Assisi was poor only that he might be Christ-like. He recognized creation as another manifestation of the beauty of God. In 1979\, he was named patron of ecology. He did great penance (apologizing to “Brother Body” later in life) that he might be totally disciplined for the will of God. His poverty had a sister\, humility\, by which he meant total dependence on the good God. But all this was\, as it were\, preliminary to the heart of his spirituality: living the gospel life\, summed up in the charity of Jesus and perfectly expressed in the Eucharist. \n\nSaint Francis of Assisi is the Patron Saint of:\nAnimals\nArchaeologists\nEcology\nItaly\nMerchants\nMessengers\nMetal Workers
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-francis-of-assisi/2026-10-04/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261005
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261006
DTSTAMP:20260409T043134
CREATED:20170801T151236Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170801T151236Z
UID:50992-1791158400-1791244799@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
DESCRIPTION:Image: Saint Faustyna and Jesus\, I Trust in You sculpture | Piotrków Trybunalski\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Maria Faustina Kowalska\nSaint of the Day for October 5\n(August 25\, 1905 – October 5\, 1938)\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nSaint Maria Faustina Kowalska’s Story\nSaint Faustina’s name is forever linked to the annual feast of the Divine Mercy\, the Divine Mercy chaplet\, and the Divine Mercy prayer recited each day at 3 p.m. by many people. \nBorn in what is now west-central Poland\, Helena Kowalska was the third of 10 children. She worked as a housekeeper in three cities before joining the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925. She worked as a cook\, gardener and porter in three of their houses. \nIn addition to carrying out her work faithfully\, generously serving the needs of the sisters and the local people\, she also had a deep interior life. This included receiving revelations from the Lord Jesus\, messages that she recorded in her diary at the request of Christ and of her confessors. \nAt a time when some Catholics had an image of God as such a strict judge that they might be tempted to despair about the possibility of being forgiven\, Jesus chose to emphasize his mercy and forgiveness for sins acknowledged and confessed. “I do not want to punish aching mankind\,” he once told Saint Faustina\, “but I desire to heal it\, pressing it to my merciful heart.” The two rays emanating from Christ’s heart\, she said\, represent the blood and water poured out after Jesus’ death. \nBecause Sister Maria Faustina knew that the revelations she had already received did not constitute holiness itself\, she wrote in her diary: “Neither graces\, nor revelations\, nor raptures\, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect\, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul\, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God.” \nSister Maria Faustina died of tuberculosis in Krakow\, Poland\, on October 5\, 1938. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1993 and canonized her seven years later. \n\nReflection\nDevotion to God’s Divine Mercy bears some resemblance to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In both cases\, sinners are encouraged not to despair\, not to doubt God’s willingness to forgive them if they repent. As Psalm 136 says in each of its 26 verses\, “God’s love [mercy] endures forever.”
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-maria-faustina-kowalska/2026-10-05/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261006
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261007
DTSTAMP:20260409T043134
CREATED:20170801T151353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170801T151353Z
UID:50994-1791244800-1791331199@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Bruno
DESCRIPTION:Image: Saint Bruno | Girolamo Marchesi\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Bruno\nSaint of the Day for October 6\n(c. 1030 – October 6\, 1101)\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nSaint Bruno’s Story\nThis saint has the honor of having founded a religious order which\, as the saying goes\, has never had to be reformed because it was never deformed. No doubt both the founder and the members would reject such high praise\, but it is an indication of the saint’s intense love of a penitential life in solitude. \nBruno was born in Cologne\, Germany\, became a famous teacher at Rheims\, and was appointed chancellor of the archdiocese at the age of 45. He supported Pope Gregory VII in his fight against the decadence of the clergy\, and took part in the removal of his own scandalous archbishop\, Manasses. Bruno suffered the plundering of his house for his pains. \nHe had a dream of living in solitude and prayer\, and persuaded a few friends to join him in a hermitage. After a while he felt the place unsuitable and\, through a friend\, was given some land which was to become famous for his foundation “in the Chartreuse” (from which comes the word Carthusians). The climate\, desert\, mountainous terrain\, and inaccessibility guaranteed silence\, poverty\, and small numbers. \nBruno and his friends built an oratory with small individual cells at a distance from each other. They met for Matins and Vespers each day and spent the rest of the time in solitude\, eating together only on great feasts. Their chief work was copying manuscripts. \nThe pope\, hearing of Bruno’s holiness\, called for his assistance in Rome. When the pope had to flee Rome\, Bruno pulled up stakes again\, and spent his last years (after refusing a bishopric) in the wilderness of Calabria. \nBruno was never formally canonized\, because the Carthusians were averse to all occasions of publicity. However\, Pope Clement X extended his feast to the whole Church in 1674. \n\nReflection\nIf there is always a certain uneasy questioning of the contemplative life\, there is an even greater puzzlement about the extremely penitential combination of community and hermit life lived by the Carthusians.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-bruno/2026-10-06/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261007
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261008
DTSTAMP:20260409T043134
CREATED:20170801T151505Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170801T151505Z
UID:51002-1791331200-1791417599@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Our Lady of the Rosary
DESCRIPTION:Image: Our Lady of the Rosary | St. Nicholas Church\, Osgood\, Ohio\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOur Lady of the Rosary\nSaint of the Day for October 7\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nThe Story of Our Lady of the Rosary\nSaint Pius V established this feast in 1573. The purpose was to thank God for the victory of Christians over the Turks at Lepanto—a victory attributed to the praying of the rosary. Clement XI extended the feast to the universal Church in 1716. \nThe development of the rosary has a long history. First\, a practice developed of praying 150 Our Fathers in imitation of the 150 Psalms. Then there was a parallel practice of praying 150 Hail Marys. Soon a mystery of Jesus’ life was attached to each Hail Mary. Though Mary’s giving the rosary to Saint Dominic is recognized as a legend\, the development of this prayer form owes much to the followers of Saint Dominic. One of them\, Alan de la Roche\, was known as “the apostle of the rosary.” He founded the first Confraternity of the Rosary in the 15th century. In the 16th century\, the rosary was developed to its present form—with the 15 mysteries (joyful\, sorrowful and glorious). In 2002\, Pope John Paul II added five Mysteries of Light to this devotion. \n\nReflection\nThe purpose of the rosary is to help us meditate on the great mysteries of our salvation. Pius XII called it a compendium of the gospel. The main focus is on Jesus—his birth\, life\, death\, and resurrection. The Our Fathers remind us that Jesus’ Father is the initiator of salvation. The Hail Marys remind us to join with Mary in contemplating these mysteries. They also make us aware that Mary was and is intimately joined with her Son in all the mysteries of his earthly and heavenly existence. The Glory Bes remind us that the purpose of all life is the glory of the Trinity. \nThe rosary appeals to many. It is simple. The constant repetition of words helps create an atmosphere in which to contemplate the mysteries of God. We sense that Jesus and Mary are with us in the joys and sorrows of life. We grow in hope that God will bring us to share in the glory of Jesus and Mary forever.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/our-lady-of-the-rosary/2026-10-07/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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