2) SAINT PETER GONZALEZ DOMINICAN PRIEST (1190 - 15 April, 1246) Peter González, also referred to as Pedro González Telmo, Saint Telmo, or Saint Elmo, was born in 1190 in the city of Astorga, Spain, of an illustrious family. After studies in which he excelled, he was named canon of the Cathedral. His uncle, the Bishop of Astorga, obtained for him from Rome the position of dean of the chapter of canons. He became a priest as a step to high office. One Christmas Day, it was planned for Peter to take possession of the dignity at Christmas. A vain youth filled with the spirit of the world, Peter desired that the ceremony should take place with great pomp before the whole city. Astride a magnificent horse in full harness, he rode through the streets of the city. When he reached a place crowded with onlookers, he spurred his horse to make it prance more elegantly and raise the applause of the people. But the horse tripped and threw the rider into a puddle of mud. The applause immediately changed into derision and laughter. Embarrassed and knowing that his parishioners thought he was a fake, Peter withdrew from the world for a period of prayer and meditation. During this time, he had a conversion and spent the rest of his life making up for his lost youth. He joined the Dominicans and shunned those who tried to convince him to return to his old ways, saying: "If you love me, follow me! If you cannot follow me, forget me!" He served as the confessor and court chaplain to King Saint Ferdinand III of Castile, and reformed court life. He also worked for the crusade against the Moors, went into the battlefields, and worked for humane treatment of Moorish prisoners. Fearing that the honors and easy life offered by the king's court would lead him to return to his previous ways, he left the court and evangelized to shepherds and sailors. He became apostle and preacher to the poor, and especially to sailors. He received the gift of miracles. He preached without stop until his last days and foretold his own death, which took place on April 15, 1246. The sailors of Spain and Portugal still invoke him in every storm under the name of St. Elmo (Elm or Telm). "Public humiliation led Peter Gonzalez to a true conversion experience and set him on the road to sainthood." He died in 15 April, 1246 and was beatified in 1254 by Pope Innocent IV. PATRON: Spanish, Mariners and Portuguese sailors. PRAYER: Almighty God, you bestowed the singular help of Blessed Peter on those in peril from the sea. By the help of his prayers may the light of your grace shine forth in all the storms of this life and enable us to find the harbor of everlasting salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. - General Calendar of the Order of Preachers. Amen. St. Peter Gonsalez: Pray for us!
a Blessed for today Lydwine of Schiedam (1380-1433) April 14 is the feast day of Blessed Lydwine of Schiedam, born April 18, 1380, in Schiedam, in the County of Holland. She died June 14, 1433. At the age of fifteen she suffered a severe fall while skating on the frozen River Schie, breaking a rib, and never recovered. For the remaining thirty-seven years of her life she was bedridden, progressively losing the use of her limbs, her sight, and her ability to eat, subsisting according to the testimony of contemporaries on the Eucharist alone. She bore mystical wounds and was visited by numerous ecclesiastics who attested to her condition. She is patron of the sick, of those who suffer chronic illness, and of skaters Note: This entry predates the Consulta Medica. The miracle documentation is drawn from the beatification process concluded under Pope Leo XIII in 1890, not from modern Vatican medical review. ◾The prodigies accepted in her beatification process were drawn from contemporary witness accounts compiled in the fifteenth century and reviewed in the 1890 process. The specific medical documentation is held in the beatification dossier at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and has not been reproduced in full in public sources. Blessed Lydwine, who transformed unbearable suffering into intercession for others, pray for us.
SAINT OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 15 APRIL, 2026 SAINT PATERNUS BISHOP, MONK, HERMIT, RENOWNED PREACHER (482 - 550) St. Paternus was born at Poitiers, about the year 482. His father, Patranus, with the consent of his wife, went into Ireland, where he ended his days in holy solitude. Paternus, fired by his example, embraced a monastic life in the abbey of Marnes. After some time, burning with a desire of attaining to the perfection of Christian virtue, he passed over to Wales, and in Cardiganshire founded a monastery called Llan-patern-vaur, or the church of the great Paternus. He made a visit to his father in Ireland, but being called back to his monastery of Marnes, he soon after retired with St. Scubilion, a monk of that house, and embraced an austere anchoretical life in the forests of Scicy, in the diocese of Coutances, near the sea, having first obtained leave of the bishop and of the lord of the place. This desert, which was then of great extent, but which has been since gradually gained upon by the sea, was anciently in great request among the Druids. St. Paternus converted to the faith the idolaters of that and many neighboring parts, as far as Bayeux, and prevailed upon them to demolish a pagan temple in this desert, which was held in great veneration by the ancient Gauls. In his old age he was consecrated Bishop of Avranches by Germanus, Bishop of Rouen. Some false brethren having created a division of opinion among the bishops of the province with respect to St. Paternus, he preferred retiring rather than to afford any ground for dissension, and, after governing his diocese for thirteen years, he withdrew to a solitude in France, and there ended his days about the year 550. PRAYER: All-powerful and ever-living God, you called Saint Paternus to guide your people by his word and example. With him we pray to you: watch over the pastors of your Church with the people entrusted to their care, and lead them to salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
another Saint of today April 15 marks the death anniversary of Saint Damien of Molokai, born Jozef De Veuster on January 3, 1840, in Tremelo, Belgium. He died on this date in 1889 in the leper settlement of Kalaupapa on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, having contracted leprosy himself after sixteen years ministering to its residents. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 4, 1995, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009. He is patron of those suffering from leprosy and Hansen's disease, of Hawaii, and of outcasts. ◾The miracle confirmed by the Vatican's Consulta Medica as medically inexplicable for his canonization concerned Audrey Toguchi of Hawaii, who suffered from liposarcoma, a malignant tumor of fatty tissue. Following prayer to Blessed Damien, she experienced a complete and lasting recovery that her physicians could not account for by any medical means. The case was submitted to the Consulta Medica, whose experts determined the healing to be scientifically inexplicable, clearing the way for canonization. Saint Damien of Molokai, who made yourself a leper among lepers out of love, pray for us.
I read am account of one Irish Jesuit priest who researched the life of St Margaret Mary Alocoque. He said that every moment of her life seemed to be full of the most harrowing suffering. Hardly a moment of relief. A victim soul. The same with St Lydwine. Pt is astonishing to read of such courage, trust and never ending hope. The Cross transformed.
SAINTS OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 16 APRIL, 2026 1) SAINT BERNADETTE 2) SAINT ENGRATIA AND THE EIGHTEEN MARTYRS OF SARAGOSSA 1) SAINT BERNADETTE Marie Bernadette Soubirous was the eldest child of an impoverished miller. At the age of fourteen she was ailing and undersized, sensitive and of pleasant disposition but accounted backward and slow. Between 11 February and 16 July 1858, in a shallow cave on the bank of the river Gave, she had a series of remarkable experiences. On eighteen occasions she saw a very young and beautiful lady, who made various requests and communications to her, pointing out a forgotten spring of water and enjoining prayer and penitence. The lady eventually identified herself as the Virgin Mary, under the title of 'the Immaculate Conception'. Some of these happenings took place in the presence of many people, but no one besides Bernadette claimed to see or hear 'the Lady', and there was no disorder or emotional extravagance. After the appearances ceased, however, there was an epidemic of false visionaries and morbid religiosity in the district, which increased the reserved attitude of the church authorities towards Bernadette's experiences. For some years she suffered greatly from the suspicious disbelief of some and the tactless enthusiasm and insensitive attentions of others; these trials she bore with impressive patience and dignity. In 1866 she was admitted to the convent of the Sisters of Charity at Nevers. Here she was more sheltered from trying publicity, but not from the 'stuffiness' of the convent superiors nor from the tightening grip of asthma. 'I am getting on with my job,' she would say. 'What is that?' someone asked. 'Being ill,' was the reply. Thus she lived out her self-effacing life, dying at the age of thirty-five. The events of 1858 resulted in Lourdes becoming one of the greatest pilgrim shrines in the history of Christendom. But St. Bernadette took no part in these developments; nor was it for her visions that she was canonized, but for the humble simplicity and religious trustingness that characterized her whole life. PATRON: Bodily ills; illness; Lourdes, France; people ridiculed for their piety; poverty; shepherdesses; shepherds; sick people; sickness. SYMBOLS: Young girl kneeling in front of a grotto, before the Blessed Virgin ("The Immaculate Conception") who wears a white dress, blue belt, and a rose on each foot. Bernadette is sometimes pictured after she received the habit. St. Bernadette: Pray for us! 2) SAINT ENGRATIA AND THE EIGHTEEN MARTYRS OF SARAGOSSA St. Optatus and seventeen other holy men received the crown of martyrdom on the same day, at Saragossa, under the cruel Governor Dacian, in the persecution of Diocletian, in 304. Two others, Caius and Crementius, died of their torments after a second conflict. The Church also celebrates on this day the triumph of St. Encratis, or Engratia, Virgin. She was a native of Portugal. Her father had promised her in marriage to a man of quality in Roussillon; but fearing the dangers and despising the vanities of the world, and resolving to preserve her virginity, in order to appear more agreeable to her heavenly Spouse and serve Him without hindrance, she stole from her father's house and fled privately to Saragossa, where the persecution was hottest, under the eyes of Dacian. She even reproached him with his barbarities, upon which he ordered her to be long tormented in the most inhuman manner: her sides were torn with iron hooks, and one of her breasts was cut off, so that the inner parts of her chest were exposed to view, and part of her liver was pulled out. In this condition she was sent back to prison, being still alive, and died by the mortifying of her wounds, in 304. The relics of all these martyrs were found at Saragossa in 1389. St. Engratia and the Eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa: Pray for us!
Saint Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) The Blessed Virgin Mary: "Jo noun póouy pas prumété de-bous hase uroussi en aquéou mounde, mès en l'autre" (original Gascon/Lourdes dialect: ) "I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next" February 18, 1858. Third apparition The miracles through her intercession: ◾On May 2, 1925, the Church certified two miracles for her beatification: the healing of Henri Boisselet from tubercular peritonitis following a novena to Bernadette, and the healing of Sister Marie-Mélanie Meyer from a gastric ulcer after a pilgrimage to Bernadette's tomb. ◾For her canonization in 1933, two further miracles were accepted: the recovery of Archbishop Lemaître of Carthage from a chronic amoebic infection, and the complete healing of Sister Marie de Saint-Fidèle from Pott's disease, a form of spinal tuberculosis. Saint Bernadette pray for us.
I think the thing I love most about Bernadette was her ability to cut through the bullshit. For instance when one priest asked her why she had eaten herbs at the grotto she asked him if he had never eaten salad? When someone said he did not believe she had seen Our Lady she told him her mission was to report what had happened not to convince people they were true. When her religious superiors had promised her she would be left in peace in the convent without hordes of visitors and yet another Bishop called at the convent to see her she vehemently complained that they were breaking their word. In this she reminds me of St Joan of Arc who pretty well took a sword of her tongue to the clergy questioning her, This reminds me that we should not create plaster saints, not to put them in our own boxes/ Not to think they only do and say nice things. Look at Jesus in the Gospels. He comes very much across as a real human being. Anything but nice. Very often very far from nice. Not someone to be put in a nice box of our own making. Plus they come across as having a very fine sense of humour.
SAINT OF THE DAY FRIDAY, 17 APRIL, 2026 SAINT ANICETUS POPE PAPACY BEGAN - 157 AD PAPACY ENDED - 20 APRIL, 168 AD St. Anicetus, the twelfth Pope after St. Peter, first saw the light of day in Syria, toward the end of the first century. He was carefully educated by his parents, and was gifted by God with great natural abilities, especially with a clear, penetrating mind. He made, by his untiring perseverance, such progress in all sciences that he was accounted among the best scholars of his time. In addition to this, the life he led was so blameless, that he was a model to every one of Christian perfection. The most shining of all his virtues was his truly apostolic zeal in protecting and disseminating the true faith. Therefore, when Pius I. had ended his life by a glorious martyrdom, Anicetus was unanimously elected his successor amid great rejoicing. And in truth, the Church needed at that period, a Pope as learned, zealous and holy as himself, as she was assailed and persecuted in all possible ways by divers heretics. Valentinus and Marcion, two Heresiarchs, had already commenced to sow the poison of their corruption in Rome, and even a wicked woman named Marcellina, who had adopted the teachings of Carpocrates, had already many followers. The saddest fact of all, however, was that the Catholics, themselves, became very indolent in the practice of their faith, and their conduct was not such as their religion required. This inspired the heretics with hope of being able to instill their spurious doctrines into their minds, as we know by experience that the surest road to apostasy from the true faith, is indifference and debased morals. St. Anicetus, although he perceived all this with great pain, did not become disheartened. Calling on God for aid, he began earnestly to work. By daily sermons, by teaching and exhortation, he endeavored to move the Catholics to more fervency in their religion, as well as to a reformation of their lives. The example of his own holy life gave the greatest force to his words. He lived like a Saint, and all his thoughts were directed to lead his flock to salvation. He was an enemy to even the most innocent amusement, and found his only pleasure in prayer and in working for the honor of God and the salvation of souls. He employed the greater part of the night in devotional exercises, and during the day he was only found in Church, in the dwellings of the sick, or poor, or at home occupied in study or prayer. He chastised his body by fasting and other penances. To his enemies he was kind and charitable; to the poor, liberal; while in danger and persecution he was fearless and strong. This beautiful example of their shepherd was soon followed by the Catholics residing at Rome with such zeal, that, according to the testimony of Hegesippus, the historian, the whole city became a habitation of sanctity. This change in the morals of the people was the most efficacious means of preserving them in the true faith, as the best safeguard of faith is a pious and blameless life. As far as the heretics were concerned, who endeavored to implant in the hearts of the Romans the seeds of their false doctrines, the holy father had the greatest compassion on them on account of their lost souls. He left nothing untried to bring them to the knowledge of their error, but he thought it prudent to banish those who remained inflexible from the city. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John, came to Rome at the time of Anicetus, to discuss several points with him, which were to be settled for the welfare of the faithful. All was happily concluded and Polycarp paid the greatest honors to the holy Pope, everywhere praising his saintly conduct. For eight years had Anicetus governed the Church with wonderful wisdom and power, when during the persecution of Marcus Aurelius he was seized, and being inflexible in the confession of his faith, he was decapitated. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS St. Anicetus was an enemy of even innocent amusements. His entire occupation was prayer and working for the honor of God and the salvation of souls. The greater part of the night he employed in devotional exercises. During the day he was only to be found at Church, in the dwellings of the poor or sick, or at home occupied in study and prayer: hence only in places where the functions of his station called him. What have you to remark on all these points. Compare your life with the life of the Saint and blush with shame to find how little you resemble him in all these points. St. Anicetus refrained even from innocent amusements. Do you not frequently seek even such as are sinful? St. Anicetus occupied himself only with prayer and works for God and the salvation of souls. In what consists your occupation? How much time do you devote to prayer? St. Anicetus spent the greater part of the night in prayer; you do not even pray during the day, much less do you do so at night? How have you passed many a night. Remember the time when the half, nay even the whole night was too short for your frivolous or perhaps sinful amusements. You did not find it hard then to cut short your hours of rest, but if you were told to employ one short hour during the night in prayer, you would think it impossible to overcome your sleep. Learn by this, how you not only deceived others but also yourself. St. Anicetus was only to be found at such places where the functions of his station called him. Where are you to be found during the day? Ah! very rarely at Church; seldom, if ever, where your station, your labors call you! where are you then? Ah! perhaps in a bar-room ; at the gaming table ; at a ball; in frivolous or dissolute company! Will you ever be able to justify your conduct before God? Most assuredly not. Hence examine your conscience and reform where you have done wrong. St. Anicetus: Pray for us!
another Saint of today Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), whose death anniversary falls on April 17 (and is her feast day in Canada), is the first Native American saint and a patron of ecology. ◾The miracle approved for her 2012 canonization, after review by the Consulta Medica in Rome, involved five-year-old Jake Finkbonner. Diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating bacteria) following a cut to his lip while playing basketball, he faced a grave prognosis with rapid tissue destruction. After his family and community prayed for her intercession and a relic of St. Kateri was placed on him, the infection halted its progression overnight with no medical explanation; he made a full recovery. Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.
A Blessed for today Marie-Anne Blondin, SSA (April 18, 1809 - January 2, 1890) Today marks the birthday of Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin, whose optional memorial is observed on this date in Canadian dioceses. Born Esther Blondin in Terrebonne, Quebec, the daughter of farming parents, she worked as a domestic in a convent before learning to read and write as an adult. After a failed novitiate due to poor health, she became a teacher and in 1850 founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne in Vaudreuil, dedicated to educating poor rural children of both sexes in co-educational schools, a practice then forbidden by local church regulation. Within a few years of the congregation's founding she was stripped of all authority by its chaplain and spent her final thirty-two years in the laundry without complaint. She was declared Venerable in 1991 and beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 29, 2001. She is honored as a patron of educators and rural communities. ◾The miracle accepted for her beatification involved a 72-year-old woman from Saint-Genevieve, Canada, who in October 1991 was diagnosed with a malignant intestinal tumor. After three surgical interventions over 21 days, she developed severe post-operative complications. On November 21, 1991, her physicians judged her condition hopeless and suspended further treatment. On November 25, a sudden and medically inexplicable recovery occurred. The cure was attributed to the intercession of the then-Venerable Marie-Anne Blondin, and ecclesiastical confirmation of the miracle in 1999, confirmed by the Vatican's Consulta Medica as medically inexplicable, cleared the way for the 2001 beatification. Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin, who bore humiliation in silence and trusted Providence without reserve, pray for us.
SAINT OF THE DAY SATURDAY, 18 APRIL, 2026 SAINT PETER (PEDRO) OF SAINT JOSEPH BETANCUR (19 March, 1626 - 25 April, 1667) St. Pedro de Betancur was born on 19 March 1626 at Chasna de Vilaflor on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. He died on 25 April 1667 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. His life, marked by a heroic holiness, is a shining testimony of faithfulness to the Gospel. Pedro was a descendant of Juan de Betancurt, one of the Norman conquerors of the Canary Islands. His immediate family, he was one of the five children, however, was very poor and he started work as the shepherd of the small family flock. His parents raised him soundly in the faith and his contact with nature nurtured his deeply contemplative soul. As a young boy, Pedro learned to see God in everything around him. When Pedro heard about the miserable living conditions of the people of the “West Indies” (present-day America), he felt called to take the Christian message to this land. In 1650 when he was 23 years old, he left for Guatemala where a relative had already gone to become secretary of the Governor General. His funds ran out in Havana so Pedro had to pay for his passage from that point, by working on a ship which docked at Honduras from where he walked to Guatemala City. Pedro was now so poor that he had to stand in line for his daily bread at the Franciscan friary and it was here, that he met Friar Fernando Espino, a famous missionary, who befriended him and remained his lifelong counsellor. He found Pedro a job in a local textile factory. In 1653 Pedro realised his ambition to enter the local Jesuit college in the hope of becoming a priest. He showed little aptitude for study, however, which led him to withdraw. Here Providence once again helped him as he met Fr Manuel Lobo, SJ, who became his confessor. San Pedro de San José Betancur- After holding the position of Sacristan for a while in a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, he rented a house in a suburb of the city called Calvary and there taught reading and Catechism to poor children. Friar Fernando invited Pedro to join the Franciscan Order as a lay brother but Pedro felt that God wanted him to remain in the world and in 1655, he joined the Third Order of St Francis. From then on, Pedro dedicated his time to alleviating the sufferings of the less fortunate in the midst of inexpressible toil and difficulty. He became the Apostle to African-American slaves, the Indios subjected to inhuman labour, the emigrants and abandoned children, with ever-expanding generosity and deep humility, in total abandonment to God's will. Inspired by the charity of Christ, he became everything to everyone . In 1658 Pedro was given a hut which he converted into a hospital for the poor who had been discharged from the city hospital but still needed to convalesce.It was called “Our Lady of Bethlehem.” He also founded a hostel for the homeless, a school for poor and abandoned children and an oratory. Pedro received help for these foundations from both the civil and religious authorities. He begged for alms to endow the Masses celebrated by poor priests and also endowed Masses, to be celebrated in the early hours, so that the poor might not miss Mass. He had small chapels erected in the poor sectors, where instruction was also given to children. Prisoners also excited Pedro's compassion. Every Thursday he begged for them through the city and visited them in their cells. Every year, on 18 August, he would gather the children and sing the Seven Joys of the Franciscan Rosary in honour of the Blessed Mother, a custom still continued today in Guatemala. The neglected souls in purgatory were also the objects of his solicitude. He would travel the streets at night, ringing a bell and recommending these souls to be prayed for. He was joined by men and women, who became the Bethlemite Brothers and the Bethlemite Sisters and formulated a Rule that included the active apostolate of working with the poor, the sick and the less fortunate, based on a life rich in prayer, fasting and penance. The Bethlemite Congregation was thus established. Pedro died on 25 April 1667, at 47 years of age exhausted by labour and penance. At the request of the Capuchin Friars he was buried in their church in Antigua, Guatemala, where, ever since, his remains are held in veneration. Throughout his life, the Child of Bethlehem was the focus of Pedro's spiritual meditation. He was always able to see in the poor the face of “the Child Jesus,” and to serve them devoutly. He is known as the “St Francis of the Americas.” Pedro is considered the great evangelist of the Guatemala. His dedication to the social problems of his time are comparable to that effected, centuries later, by St Mother Teresa in Calcutta, serving the most vulnerable and needy. He is credited with introducing to the Americas, the Christmas Eve Novena ‘posadas' procession, in which people representing Mary and Joseph, seek a night's lodging from their neighbours. The custom soon spread to Mexico and other Central American countries. Pedro was known to work miracles also, including healing the sick. Among other facets of his life, his defence of the Immaculate Conception stands out – two centuries before the declaration of the Dogma. His great devotion to prayer for the Souls in Purgatory and the penance he practised, for the sins of the world. St Pedro de Betancur was distinguished by the humble spirit and austere life with which he practised mercy. He was Beatified on 22 June 1980, at St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City by St Pope John Paul II and Canonised on 30 July 2002, in Guatemala City, Guatemala by St Pope John Paul II. During his homily at the Canonisation St John Paul called Pedro the “first Tenerifean and Guatemalan saint” and he “… personifies “a heritage which must not be lost; we should always be thankful for it and we should renew our resolve to imitate it” ATTRIBUTES: Holds a walking stick and bell. Occasionally it also represents a spear canary pastor. PATRONAGE: Canary Islands, Guatemala, Central America, catechists of Guatemala, Honorary Mayor of municipalities in the south of Tenerife and Honorary Mayor of Antigua Guatemala, of the homeless and of those who serve the sick. St. Peter of St. Joseph Betancur: Pray for us!
It is amazing how many of these priestly saints had great difficulty with their studies. I wonder if perhaps it was to lay down a foundation of humility in their Spiritual Life? To keep them humble..
