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Saturday of the Second Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Nicholas Owen, 1550-1606; born at Oxford, England, and became a carpenter, building hiding places for Jesuit priests in mansions; he became a Jesuit lay brother in 1580, and was arrested in 1594; he was tortured, but refused to reveal the names of his Catholic colleagues; he was released when a ransom was paid by a wealthy Catholic; Nichola...

Friday of the Second Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Enda, 450-530; Irishman noted for his military feats who was convinced by his sister  St. Fanchea to renounce his warring activities and marry; when he found his fiancee dead, he decided to become a monk and went on pilgrimage to Rome, where he was ordained; he returned to Ireland, built churches at Drogheda, and then secured from his br...

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Martin of Braga, 520-580; born in Pannonia, along the Danube;he made a pilgrimage to Palestine and then settled in Spain; regarded as one of the outstanding scholars of his age, he converted many Arians, built Dumium Monastery, and then became bishop  of Braga and  metropolitan of Galicia; several of his treatises have survived Of...

Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/19/25 Gospel: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent Commemoration of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 315-386; raised in Jerusalem and well-educated, especially in the scriptures; as a priest, he was given the task during Lent of catechizing those preparing for Baptism and catechizing the newly baptized during the Easter season; folllowing his consecration, conflict rose between Cyril and Acacius, bishop of the rival nearb...

Monday of the Second Week of Lent Commemoration of St. Patrick, 415-493; Patrick called himself both a Roman and a Briton; at 16, he and a large number of his father’s slaves and vassals were captured by Irish raiders and sold as slaves in Ireland; Patrick escaped and returned to Britain at the age of 22; his great desire was to proclaim the Good News to the Irish; despite opposition from th...

Second Sunday of Lent Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/16/25 Gospel: Luke 9:28-36

Saturday of the First Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Louise de Marillac, 1591-1660; following the death of her husband, she met St. Vincent de Paul, and worked with him for the rest of her life, directing his Ladies of Charity in their work of caring for the sick, the poor, and the neglected; in 1633, she set up a training center for candidates seeking to help in her work--the beginning of the...

Friday of the First Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Matilda; Tenth Century daughter of Count Dietrich of  Westphalia and Reinhild of Denmark; married Henry the Fowler, son of Duke Otto of Saxony, in the year 909; he succeeded his father as Duke in the year 912 and in 919 succeeded King Conrad I to the German throne; she was noted for her piety and charitable works; she was widowed in 936;...

Thursday of the First Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Heldrad; Ninth Century Benedictine abbot who devised ways of rescuing travelers in the Alps; a noble from Provence, France, he set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, entered the abbey of Novalese in the Italian Alps, became abbot, and ruled for thirty years; he built a hospice and added to the abbey's library; Heldrad died in 842 A.D. Office of Re...

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Peter of Nicomedia; Third- and early Fourth-Century chamberlain to emperor Diocletian in Nicomedia; arrested for being a Christian at the beginning of the last great persecution by the Roman Empire; Peter was tortured and roasted to death over a fire in 303 A.D. Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/12/25 Gospel: Luke 11:29-32

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Saint of the Day: St. Eulogius of Cordoba; noted scripture scholar; wrote "Exhortation to Martyrdom" for two young virgin martyrs; he was named archbishop of Cordoba; before being consecrated, he aided Leocritia, a young Moorish woman who had converted to Christianity; they were caught and beheaded in 859 A.D. Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/11/25 Gosp...

First Sunday of Lent Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/9/25 Gospel: Luke 4:1-13

Saturday after Ash Wednesday Commemoration of St. John of God, 1495-1550; wanted to be a martyr in North Africa, but returned to care for the sick poor; John became ill after ten years of service, and died under the care of a spiritual friend and admirer, Lady Ana Ossorio Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/8/25

Friday after Ash Wednesday Commemoration of Saints Perpetua and Felicity; Perpetua was a young, beautiful, well-educated, a noblewoman of Carthage in North Africa in the Second and early Third Centuries, mother of an infant son and chronicler of the persecution of the Christians; Perpetua refused to renounce her Christian faith, and she, Felicity--a slavewoman and expectant mother–and three...

Thursday after Ash Wednesday Saint of the Day: St. Fridolin; Sixth century Benedictine abbot, an Irishman venerated as “the  Apostle of the Upper Rhine”; settled in Poitiers, France, and rebuilt the monastery of St. Hilary, destroyed by Vandals; then, he became a hermit on the Rhine, and built the Abbey of Sackingen; he was often called "The Wanderer" because of his many evangeliz...

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/5/25 Gospel: Matthew 6: 1-6. 16-18

Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Casimir, 1458-1483; lived a disciplined, holy life from his teens; when the people of Hungary asked Casimir's father, the king of Poland, to come and take over their country, Casimir obeyed--but was outnumbered; when his troops started deserting, Casimir decided to return home; his father punished him by confining him for three m...

Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Katharine Drexel, 1858-1955; born in Philadelphia, and grew up in a privileged atmosphere; but when nursing her terminally ill stepmother, her life took a turn; on a trip to Europe, Pope Leo XIII invited her to become a missionary, and she returned to the United States to begin her systematic aid to Indian missions; Mother Drexel...

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 3/2/25 Gospel: Luke 6:39-45

Saturday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Aubin, aka St. Albinus, 470-550; entered the monastery of Tincillac as a youth, was elected Abbot  when he was thirty-five, and was named  Bishop  of  Angers in 529; known for his generosity to the sick and the indigent, widows, and orphans, for his work in ransoming slaves, and for his  holiness  and...

Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Oswald, 925-992; a Dane by birth, St. Oswald  studied in the household of his uncle,  Archbishop Odo of Fleury, France, where he was ordained; he returned to England in 959, and was made Bishop of Worcester in 962; in 972, he became archbishop of York; for most of his public life, he was associated with St. Dunstan and St....

Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Baldomerus; Seventh Century locksmith until he entered the monastery of St. Justus; he is depicted in liturgical art as carrying blacksmith tools and pincers; he is the patron of locksmiths Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 2/27/25 Gospel: Mark 9:41-50

Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Isabel of France, 1225-1270; sister of St. Louis, and daughter of King Louis VIII of France; refused offers of marriage to continue her life consecrated to God; she ministered to the sick and the poor, and after the death of her mother, founded the Franciscan Monastery of the  Humility  of the Blessed Virgin  Mary...

Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Walburga, 710-779; born in Devonshire, England, the daughter of a West Saxon Chieftain, and sister of Saints Willebald and Winebald; she was educated at Wimborne Monastery in Dorset, where she became a nun; she was later sent to Germany to help St. Boniface in his missionary work; she became  Abbess of the double monastery at...