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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270111
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270112
DTSTAMP:20170824T195705Z
CREATED:20170824T195705Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170824T195705Z
UID:51309-1799625600-1799711999@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Blessed William Carter
DESCRIPTION:Blessed William Carter\nSaint of the Day for January 11\n(c. 1548 – January 11\, 1584)\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nBlessed William Carter’s Story\nBorn in London\, William Carter entered the printing business at an early age. For many years he served as apprentice to well-known Catholic printers\, one of whom served a prison sentence for persisting in the Catholic faith. William himself served time in prison following his arrest for “printing lewd [i.e.\, Catholic] pamphlets” as well as possessing books upholding Catholicism. \nBut even more\, he offended public officials by publishing works that aimed to keep Catholics firm in their faith. Officials who searched his house found various vestments and suspect books\, and even managed to extract information from William’s distraught wife. Over the next 18 months\, William remained in prison\, suffering torture and learning of his wife’s death. \nHe was eventually charged with printing and publishing the Treatise of Schisme\, which allegedly incited violence by Catholics and which was said to have been written by a traitor and addressed to traitors. While William calmly placed his trust in God\, the jury met for only 15 minutes before reaching a verdict of guilty. William\, who made his final confession to a priest who was being tried alongside him\, was hanged\, drawn\, and quartered the following day: January 11\, 1584. \nHe was beatified in 1987. \n\nReflection\nIt didn’t pay to be Catholic in Elizabeth I’s realm. In an age when religious diversity did not yet seem possible\, it was high treason\, and practicing the faith was dangerous. William gave his life for his efforts to encourage his brothers and sisters to keep up the struggle. These days\, our brothers and sisters also need encouragement—not because their lives are at risk\, but because many other factors besiege their faith. They look to us.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/blessed-william-carter/2027-01-11/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270112
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270113
DTSTAMP:20170824T195813Z
CREATED:20170824T195813Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170824T195813Z
UID:51315-1799712000-1799798399@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys
DESCRIPTION:Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys\nSaint of the Day for January 12\n(April 17\, 1620 – January 12\, 1700)\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nSaint Marguerite Bourgeoys’ Story\n“God closes a door and then opens a window\,” people sometimes say when dealing with their own disappointment or someone else’s. That was certainly true in Marguerite’s case. Children from European as well as Native American backgrounds in seventeenth-century Canada benefited from her great zeal and unshakable trust in God’s providence. \nBorn the sixth of 12 children in Troyes\, France\, Marguerite at the age of 20 believed that she was called to religious life. Her applications to the Carmelites and Poor Clares were unsuccessful. A priest friend suggested that perhaps God had other plans for her. \nIn 1654\, the governor of the French settlement in Canada visited his sister\, an Augustinian canoness in Troyes. Marguerite belonged to a sodality connected to that convent. The governor invited her to come to Canada and start a school in Ville-Marie (eventually the city of Montreal). When she arrived\, the colony numbered 200 people with a hospital and a Jesuit mission chapel. \nSoon after starting a school\, she realized her need for coworkers. Returning to Troyes\, she recruited a friend\, Catherine Crolo\, and two other young women. In 1667\, they added classes at their school for Indian children. A second trip to France three years later resulted in six more young women and a letter from King Louis XIV\, authorizing the school. The Congregation of Notre Dame was established in 1676 but its members did not make formal religious profession until 1698 when their Rule and constitutions were approved. \nMarguerite established a school for Indian girls in Montreal. At the age of 69\, she walked from Montreal to Quebec in response to the bishop’s request to establish a community of her sisters in that city. By the time she died\, she was referred to as the “Mother of the Colony.” Marguerite was canonized in 1982. \n\nReflection\nIt’s easy to become discouraged when plans that we think that God must endorse are frustrated. Marguerite was called not to be a cloistered nun but to be a foundress and an educator. God had not ignored her after all.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-marguerite-bourgeoys/2027-01-12/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270113
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270114
DTSTAMP:20170824T200038Z
CREATED:20170824T200038Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170824T200038Z
UID:51317-1799798400-1799884799@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Hilary of Poitiers
DESCRIPTION:Saint Hilary of Poitiers\nSaint of the Day for January 13\n(c. 315 – c. 368)\nClick to hear audio clip ► \nSaint Hilary of Poitiers’ Story\nThis staunch defender of the divinity of Christ was a gentle and courteous man\, devoted to writing some of the greatest theology on the Trinity\, and was like his Master in being labeled a “disturber of the peace.” In a very troubled period in the Church\, his holiness was lived out in both scholarship and controversy. He was bishop of Poitiers in France. \nRaised a pagan\, he was converted to Christianity when he met his God of nature in the Scriptures. His wife was still living when he was chosen\, against his will\, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France. He was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century\, Arianism\, which denied the divinity of Christ. \nThe heresy spread rapidly. Saint Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius\, the great defender of the faith in the East\, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia. Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West.” \nWhile writing in exile\, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church\, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him\, the Arians\, dreading the meeting and its outcome\, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people. \n\nReflection\nChrist said his coming would bring not peace but a sword (see Matthew 10:34). The Gospels offer no support for us if we fantasize about a sunlit holiness that knows no problems. Christ did notescape at the last moment\, though he did live happily ever after—after a life of controversy\, problems\, pain and frustration. Hilary\, like all saints\, simply had more of the same.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-hilary-of-poitiers/2027-01-13/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270114
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270115
DTSTAMP:20170825T155044Z
CREATED:20170825T155044Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170825T155044Z
UID:51320-1799884800-1799971199@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Gregory Nazianzen
DESCRIPTION:Saint Gregory Nazianzen\nSaint of the Day for January 14\n(c. 325 – c. 390)\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nSaint Gregory Nazianzen’s Story\nAfter his baptism at 30\, Gregory gladly accepted his friend Basil’s invitation to join him in a newly founded monastery. The solitude was broken when Gregory’s father\, a bishop\, needed help in his diocese and estate. It seems that Gregory was ordained a priest practically by force\, and only reluctantly accepted the responsibility. He skillfully avoided a schism that threatened when his own father made compromises with Arianism. At 41\, Gregory was chosen suffragan bishop of Caesarea and at once came into conflict with Valens\, the emperor\, who supported the Arians. \nAn unfortunate by-product of the battle was the cooling of the friendship of two saints. Basil\, his archbishop\, sent him to a miserable and unhealthy town on the border of unjustly created divisions in his diocese. Basil reproached Gregory for not going to his see. \nWhen protection for Arianism ended with the death of Valens\, Gregory was called to rebuild the faith in the great see of Constantinople\, which had been under Arian teachers for three decades. Retiring and sensitive\, he dreaded being drawn into the whirlpool of corruption and violence. He first stayed at a friend’s home\, which became the only orthodox church in the city. In such surroundings\, he began giving the great sermons on the Trinity for which he is famous. In time\, Gregory did rebuild the faith in the city\, but at the cost of great suffering\, slander\, insults\, and even personal violence. An interloper even tried to take over his bishopric. \nHis last days were spent in solitude and austerity. He wrote religious poetry\, some of it autobiographical\, of great depth and beauty. He was acclaimed simply as “the Theologian.” \n\nReflection\nIt may be small comfort\, but post-Vatican II turmoil in the Church is a mild storm compared to the devastation caused by the Arian heresy\, a trauma the Church has never forgotten. Christ did not promise the kind of peace we would love to have—no problems\, no opposition\, no pain. In one way or another\, holiness is always the way of the cross.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-gregory-nazianzen/2027-01-14/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270115
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270116
DTSTAMP:20170825T155301Z
CREATED:20170825T155301Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170825T155301Z
UID:51324-1799971200-1800057599@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Paul the Hermit
DESCRIPTION:Saint Paul the Hermit\nSaint of the Day for January 15\n(c. 233 – c. 345)\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nSaint  Paul the Hermit’s Story\nIt is unclear what we really know of Paul’s life\, how much is fable\, how much fact. \nPaul was reportedly born in Egypt\, where he was orphaned by age 15. He was also a learned and devout young man. During the persecution of Decius in Egypt in the year 250\, Paul was forced to hide in the home of a friend. Fearing a brother-in-law would betray him\, he fled in a cave in the desert. His plan was to return once the persecution ended\, but the sweetness of solitude and heavenly contemplation convinced him to stay. \nHe went on to live in that cave for the next 90 years. A nearby spring gave him drink\, a palm tree furnished him clothing and nourishment. After 21 years of solitude\, a bird began bringing him half of a loaf of bread each day. Without knowing what was happening in the world\, Paul prayed that the world would become a better place. \nSaint Anthony of Egypt attests to his holy life and death. Tempted by the thought that no one had served God in the wilderness longer than he\, Anthony was led by God to find Paul and acknowledge him as a man more perfect than himself. The raven that day brought a whole loaf of bread instead of the usual half. As Paul predicted\, Anthony would return to bury his new friend. \nThought to have been about 112 when he died\, Paul is known as the “First Hermit.” His feast day is celebrated in the East; he is also commemorated in the Coptic and Armenian rites of the Mass. \n\nReflection\nThe will and direction of God are seen in the circumstances of our lives. Led by the grace of God\, we are free to respond with choices that bring us closer to and make us more dependent upon the God who created us. Those choices might at times seem to lead us away from our neighbor. But ultimately they lead us back both in prayer and in fellowship to one another.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-paul-the-hermit/2027-01-15/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270116
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270117
DTSTAMP:20170825T155413Z
CREATED:20170825T155413Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170825T155413Z
UID:51328-1800057600-1800143999@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Berard and Companions
DESCRIPTION:Saint Berard and Companions\nSaint of the Day for January 16\n(d. January 16\, 1220)\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nSaint Berard and Companions’ Story\nPreaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one’s homeland and adjusting to new cultures\, governments and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom caps all the other sacrifices. \nIn 1219\, with the blessing of Saint Francis\, Berard left Italy with Peter\, Adjute\, Accurs\, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. En route in Spain\, Vitalis became sick and commanded the other friars to continue their mission without him. \nThey tried preaching in Seville\, then in Muslim hands\, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached in the marketplace. The friars were immediately apprehended and ordered to leave the country; they refused. When they began preaching again\, an exasperated sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining various bribes to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ\, the friars were beheaded by the sultan himself on January 16\, 1220. \nThese were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths\, he exclaimed\, “Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!” Their relics were brought to Portugal where they prompted a young Augustinian canon to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year. That young man was Anthony of Padua. These five martyrs were canonized in 1481. \n\nReflection\nThe deaths of Berard and his companions sparked a missionary vocation in Anthony of Padua and others. There have been many\, many Franciscans who have responded to Francis’ challenge. Proclaiming the gospel can be fatal\, but that has not stopped the Franciscan men and women who even today risk their lives in many countries throughout the world.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-berard-and-companions/2027-01-16/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270117
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270118
DTSTAMP:20170825T155527Z
CREATED:20170825T155527Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170825T155527Z
UID:51332-1800144000-1800230399@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Anthony of Egypt
DESCRIPTION:Saint Anthony of Egypt (Saint Anthony the Abbot)\nSaint of the Day for January 17\n(251 – 356)\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nSaint Anthony of Egypt’s Story\nThe life of Anthony will remind many people of St. Francis of Assisi. At 20\, Anthony was so moved by the Gospel message\, “Go\, sell what you have\, and give to [the] poor” (Mark 10:21b)\, that he actually did just that with his large inheritance. He is different from Francis in that most of Anthony’s life was spent in solitude. He saw the world completely covered with snares\, and gave the Church and the world the witness of solitary asceticism\, great personal mortification and prayer. But no saint is antisocial\, and Anthony drew many people to himself for spiritual healing and guidance. \nAt 54\, he responded to many requests and founded a sort of monastery of scattered cells. Again like Francis\, he had great fear of “stately buildings and well-laden tables.” \nAt 60\, he hoped to be a martyr in the renewed Roman persecution of 311\, fearlessly exposing himself to danger while giving moral and material support to those in prison. At 88\, he was fighting the Arian heresy\, that massive trauma from which it took the Church centuries to recover. “The mule kicking over the altar” denied the divinity of Christ. \nAnthony is associated in art with a T-shaped cross\, a pig and a book. The pig and the cross are symbols of his valiant warfare with the devil—the cross his constant means of power over evil spirits\, the pig a symbol of the devil himself. The book recalls his preference for “the book of nature” over the printed word. Anthony died in solitude at age 105. \nReflection\nIn an age that smiles at the notion of devils and angels\, a person known for having power over evil spirits must at least make us pause. And in a day when people speak of life as a “rat race\,” one who devotes a whole life to solitude and prayer points to an essential of the Christian life in all ages. Anthony’s hermit life reminds us of the absoluteness of our break with sin and the totality of our commitment to Christ. Even in God’s good world\, there is another world whose false values constantly tempt us. \n\nSaint Anthony of Egypt is the Patron Saint of:\nButchers\nGravediggers\nSkin Diseases
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-anthony-of-egypt/2027-01-17/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270118
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270119
DTSTAMP:20170825T155658Z
CREATED:20170825T155658Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170825T155658Z
UID:51334-1800230400-1800316799@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Charles of Sezze
DESCRIPTION:Saint Charles of Sezze\nSaint of the Day for January 18\n(October 19\, 1613 – January 6\, 1670)\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nSaint Charles of Sezze’s Story\nCharles thought that God was calling him to be a missionary in India\, but he never got there. God had something better for this 17th-century successor to Brother Juniper. \nBorn in Sezze\, southeast of Rome\, Charles was inspired by the lives of Salvator Horta and Paschal Baylon to become a Franciscan; he did that in 1635. Charles tells us in his autobiography\, “Our Lord put in my heart a determination to become a lay brother with a great desire to be poor and to beg alms for his love.” \nCharles served as cook\, porter\, sacristan\, gardener and beggar at various friaries in Italy. In some ways\, he was “an accident waiting to happen.” He once started a huge fire in the kitchen when the oil in which he was frying onions burst into flames. \nOne story shows how thoroughly Charles adopted the spirit of Saint Francis. The superior ordered Charles—then porter—to give food only to traveling friars who came to the door. Charles obeyed this direction; simultaneously the alms to the friars decreased. Charles convinced the superior the two facts were related. When the friars resumed giving goods to all who asked at the door\, alms to the friars increased also. \nAt the direction of his confessor\, Charles wrote his autobiography\, The Grandeurs of the Mercies of God. He also wrote several other spiritual books. He made good use of his various spiritual directors throughout the years; they helped him discern which of Charles’ ideas or ambitions were from God. Charles himself was sought out for spiritual advice. The dying Pope Clement IX called Charles to his bedside for a blessing. \nCharles had a firm sense of God’s providence. Father Severino Gori has said\, “By word and example he recalled in all the need of pursuing only that which is eternal” (Leonard Perotti\, St. Charles of Sezze: An Autobiography\, page 215). \nHe died at San Francesco a Ripa in Rome and was buried there. Pope John XXIII canonized him in 1959. \n\nReflection\nThe drama in the lives of the saints is mostly interior. Charles’ life was spectacular only in his cooperation with God’s grace. He was captivated by God’s majesty and great mercy to all of us.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-charles-of-sezze/2027-01-18/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270119
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270120
DTSTAMP:20170825T155813Z
CREATED:20170825T155813Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170825T155813Z
UID:51335-1800316800-1800403199@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Fabian
DESCRIPTION:Saint Fabian\nSaint of the Day for January 19\n(c. 200 – January 20\, 250)\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nSaint Fabian’s Story\nFabian was a Roman layman who came into the city from his farm one day as clergy and people were preparing to elect a new pope. Eusebius\, a Church historian\, says a dove flew in and settled on the head of Fabian. This sign united the votes of clergy and laity\, and he was chosen unanimously. \nHe led the Church for 14 years and died a martyr’s death during the persecution of Decius in 250 A.D. Saint Cyprian wrote to his successor that Fabian was an “incomparable” man whose glory in death matched the holiness and purity of his life. \nIn the catacombs of Saint Callistus\, the stone that covered Fabian’s grave may still be seen\, broken into four pieces\, bearing the Greek words\, “Fabian\, bishop\, martyr.” \n\nReflection\nWe can go confidently into the future and accept the change that growth demands only if we have firm roots in the past\, in a living tradition. A few pieces of stone in Rome are a reminder to us that we are bearers of more than 20 centuries of a living tradition of faith and courage in living the life of Christ and showing it to the world. We have brothers and sisters who have “gone before us with the sign of faith\,” as the First Eucharistic Prayer puts it\, to light the way for us. \n\nThe Liturgical Feast of Saint Fabian is January 20.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-fabian/2027-01-19/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20270120
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20270121
DTSTAMP:20170825T155907Z
CREATED:20170825T155907Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170825T155907Z
UID:51338-1800403200-1800489599@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Sebastian
DESCRIPTION:Saint Sebastian\nSaint of the Day for January 20\n(c. 256 –  January 20\, 287)\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nSaint Sebastian’s Story\nAlmost nothing is historically certain about Sebastian except that he was a Roman martyr\, was venerated in Milan even in the time of Saint Ambrose and was buried on the Appian Way\, probably near the present Basilica of St. Sebastian. Devotion to him spread rapidly\, and he is mentioned in several martyrologies as early as 350. \nThe legend of Saint Sebastian is important in art\, and there is a vast iconography. Scholars now agree that a pious fable has Sebastian entering the Roman army because only there could he assist the martyrs without arousing suspicion. Finally he was found out\, brought before Emperor Diocletian and delivered to Mauritanian archers to be shot to death. His body was pierced with arrows\, and he was left for dead. But he was found still alive by those who came to bury him. He recovered\, but refused to flee. \nOne day he took up a position near where the emperor was to pass. He accosted the emperor\, denouncing him for his cruelty to Christians. This time the sentence of death was carried out. Sebastian was beaten to death with clubs. He was buried on the Appian Way\, close to the catacombs that bear his name. \n\nReflection\nThe fact that many of the early saints made such a tremendous impression on the Church—awakening widespread devotion and great praise from the greatest writers of the Church—is proof of the heroism of their lives. As has been said\, legends may not be literally true. Yet they may express the very substance of the faith and courage evident in the lives of these heroes and heroines of Christ. \n\nSaint Sebastian is the Patron Saint of:\nAthletes
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-sebastian/2027-01-20/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
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