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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...

Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Adela; youngest daughter of William the Conqueror; marries Stephen of Blois in 1080; she had an active role in English politics, and was famed for endowing churches and monastic institutions Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 2/24/25 Gospel: Mark 9:14-29

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 2/23/25 Gospel: Luke 6:27-38

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 2/22/25 Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19

Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Peter Damian, 988-1072; became a professor, but left his teaching to devote full-time prayer with the Benedictines; Peter succeeded the abbot, and founded five additional hermitages; Pope Stephen IX made Peter the cardinal-bishop of Ostia; he worked to combat simony, and encouraged his priests to observe celibacy and to live togeth...

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Saints of the Day: Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto; in 1917 three Portuguese children received apparitions of Our Lady near Fatima, Portugal; Mary asked them to learn to read and write, and to pray the rosary for peace and for the end of the war; they were also to pray for sinners and for the conversion of Russia; less than two years later, Francisco...

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Barbatus of Benevento, 610-682; born in Italy, ordained in Marcona, and sent to Benevento; in 663, the city was under siege by Emperor Constans II, and Barbatus predicted that the assault would end; when peace came, he was named bishop of Benevento; he attended the council of Constantinople in 680, and died in Benevento Office of R...

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Colman of Lindisfarne, 605-675; Irish bishop of Lindisfarne, England; born at Connaught; defended the Celtic ecclesiastical practices, and refused to accept King Oswy's decision on the Roman rites; moved his Irish and English monks to the Isle of Innishboffin, and later moved the English monks to Mayo; praised by Blessed Alcuin and S...