These saints lived so long ago they fade almost into legends. But just imagine 1000, 2000 years from now if people still remembered our names and wrote about us? Apart from the saints how few get to share this Glory? It is true the only failure in life is not to have been a saint.
Though I understand and agree wholeheartedly with the point your making , we must always still pray for others even if it means a deathbed conversion! [Thinking of the Little Flower] Around 1887, in Paris, a man named Henri Pranzini brutally murdered his lover, her 12-year-old daughter, and their housekeeper. The case shocked all of Europe. Pranzini was sentenced to death, but he refused every attempt by priests to visit him, declaring he wanted nothing to do with God. In Lisieux, however, a young Thérèse heard of the case. God stirred her heart with mercy for this man, and she began to pray intensely for his conversion. For two months, she offered prayers and sacrifices, but news reports insisted he remained hardened and refused all priestly counsel. Then, on the day of his execution, something extraordinary happened. Before the guillotine fell, Pranzini suddenly asked the priest present for a crucifix and kissed it three times. For Thérèse, this was the sign she had begged for: her “first son” had turned back to God at the very last moment.
WOW! What an inspiring story! It proves that we must never give up on the resistant soul for whom we have been interceding!
I am less impressed with him becoming a saint than the Faith of the Church in recognising he is a saint. It would have been so easy for them to walk past him and not accept this. Some very holy Church people were open to seeing this. Wonderful. A great tribute to Catholic France. It reminds me of Claude Newman.
SAINT OF THE DAY TUESDAY, 21 APRIL, 2026 SAINT ANSELM BISHOP AND DOCTOR (1033 - 1109) As prior and abbot, Anselm made the Benedictine monastery of Bec the center of a true reformation in Normandy and England. From this monastery he exercised a restraining influence on popes, kings, the worldly great, and entire religious orders. Raised to the dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of England, he waged a heroic campaign in defense of the rights and liberties of the Church. As a result he was deprived of goods and position and finally banned from the country. He journeyed to Rome, and at the Council of Bari supported Pope Urban II against the errors of the Greeks. His writings bear eloquent testimony to his moral stature and learning, and have earned for him the title of "Father of Scholasticism."— The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch. St. Anselm exhibited remarkable versatility in his life; a combination of contemplation, prayer, study, writing, and external activity. This was partly the result of the extraordinary talent that God gave him, but it was likewise the fruit of Anselm's faithful exercise of his talent in the study of natural and supernatural truths. But his chief merit lay in his earnest, conscious effort to live in accordance with what he had learned from the study of divine truths. By this means he was able to ascend to the heights of a life of faith and union with God. There is very much that we can learn from this great teacher. "Lord, I do not presume to fathom the depths of your truths, for my understanding is not equal to the task. Nevertheless, I desire to learn Your truths in some measure—those truths that I believe and love. I do not seek to gain knowledge so that I can believe; rather, I believe so that I may gain knowledge. No matter how persistently my soul gazes, it still beholds nothing of Your beauty; my soul listens intently, and yet it hears nothing of the learning of Your Being; my soul wants to breathe in Your fragrance, and yet perceives none of it. What are You, Lord? Under what image can my heart recognize You? Truly, You are life; You are truth; You are Goodness; You are Holiness; You are eternity; You are everything good! O man, why do you roam about so far in search of good things for soul and body? Love the one Good, in whom all goods are contained, and that will satisfy you!" (St. Anselm.) SYMBOLS: Benedictine monk admonishing an evildoer; archbishop; ship; with Our Lady appearing before him; with a ship. PRAYER: O God, who led the Bishop Saint Anselm to seek out and teach the depths of your wisdom, grant, we pray, that our faith in you may so aid our understanding, that what we believe by your command may give delight to our hearts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
St Teresa of Avila one time posed the question if we had a choice between a Holy Bishop and a Learned one, which should we choose? Perhaps to our surprise she said the learned one would be best. Why? Because the learned one would be better as he would be better at Discernment, at making choices. The Holy unlearned one might be steering by the seat of his pants. In the case of St Anselm we get the ideal someone who was both, very,very learned and very,very holy indeed. What a gift! One thing I would say on behalf of very Holy people who have not read very much is God can infuse them with great wisdom. What is Wisdom? I would say Wisdom is the grace to refer all things to Christ. To see with the eyes of God, so to speak. You can't really beat this. (I think this may be one of the key differences between Catholic and Orthodox is that we Catholics put a much higher premium on Learning than the Orthodox. In fact Orthodox accuse us of the Heresy of, 'Scholasticism' of prizing human learning above the work of the Holy Spirit)
Another Saint for today St. Konrad of Parzham (1818-1894), Capuchin lay brother. Death anniversary and feast day: April 21. Patron of porters, the elderly, and those seeking patience and humility in daily service. ◾One miracle approved for his 1930 beatification was the instantaneous cure of a four-year-old girl diagnosed with severe bone distortions and inability to stand or walk after a fall. Her father vowed to visit Conrad’s tomb in Altötting if she recovered; she immediately stood and walked normally. ◾A second approved miracle was the complete healing of a widow suffering from a painful, incurable wound in her foot (pronounced hopeless by doctors); after invoking Conrad’s intercession the wound closed with no further pain. St. Conrad of Parzham, pray for us.
SAINTS OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 22 APRIL, 2026 SAINTS SOTER AND CAIUS POPES AND MARTYRS (c.174 AND c.296) St. Soter was born in Fundi, in Italy. The date of his birth is unknown but we know that he was Pope for eight years from 166 until his death in 174. Soter´s papacy was an example of what seems to have been the remarkable tradition of generosity exercised by the bishop of Rome. This tradition and Soter´s personal charity and paternal love for his universal flock can be evidenced from a letter to Pope Soter by Bishop St. Dionysus of Corinth, quoted in the 4th century “Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius”: “This has been your custom from the beginning, to do good in manifold ways to all Christians, and to send contributions to the many churches in every city, in some places relieving the poverty of the needy and ministering to the Christians in the mines, by the contribution which you have sent from the beginning, preserving the ancestral custom of the Romans, true Romans as you are. Your blessed bishop Soter has not only carried on the habit but has even increased it, by administering the bounty distributed to the saints and by exhorting with his blessed words the brethren who come to Rome, as a loving father would his children." (IV, XXIII, 9- 15) In the same letter of Dionysus we learn that Pope Soter had written a letter to the Corinthians which was read in the Church alongside the epistle of St. Clement and was held in high esteem. Though his kindness extended to all persons, he was a fierce opponent of heresy, having been said to have written an encyclical against Montanism – the teachings of a heretical sect which believed that a Christian who had sinned gravely could never be redeemed. Pope St. Caius reigned for 13 years from 283 until his death in 296 just before the Diocletian persecution. He was a relative of the Emperor Diocletian – instigator of one of the last great persecution of Christians in the early years of the Church. So that he might live to serve the faithful, he remained in concealment a long time and would not leave Rome. Ordinarily it was in the catacombs that he hid, and there he celebrated the holy mysteries and instructed many pagans. It was Pope Caius who decreed that the following steps must precede consecration to the episcopate: porter, lector, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, and priest. He died a natural death and was buried in the catacomb of Callistus on April 22. St. Susanna was his niece. Pope Urban VIII revived his memory in Rome by restoring his church, naming him as its patron saint, raising it to the rank of a station, and enriching it with the saint's relics. Both St. Soter and St. Caius are buried in the cemetery of St. Calixtus and are venerated on the date of the death of Pope St. Caius. PRAYER: O God, who to pasture your people filled the Bishops blessed Soter and Caius with a spirit of truth and of love, grant that, as we celebrate their feast day with honor, we may benefit by imitating them and be given relief through their intercession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Another Saint for today Saint Opportuna of Montreuil April 22 is the feast of Saint Opportuna, a Frankish Benedictine abbess who died on this date at her convent near Almenèches in Normandy. Born into a family of saints at the castle of Exmes in Argentan, she was the sister of Saint Chrodegang, bishop of Séez, and niece of the abbess Saint Lantildis. She entered the Benedictine community at Montreuil as a young woman, receiving the veil from her brother's hand, and in time succeeded her cousin as abbess. Her biographer, Adalhelm of Séez, who wrote her Vita et miracula within a century of her death, described her as "a true mother to all her nuns, correcting their faults with words, not blows." She bore the murder of her brother Chrodegang in September 769 with extraordinary composure, burying him in her own convent, and died herself the following April, worn by grief and illness. She was not a miracle-worker during her lifetime — her era and its bishops were unreceptive to such expressions — but the tradition of her intercession from beyond death was well established by the ninth century. She is venerated as patron of the Diocese of Séez and as one of the patron saints of Paris, where her relics were enshrined in 1374 and carried in procession alongside those of Saints Genevieve and Honoratus. ◾The Vita et miracula records a sign associated with her intercession during her lifetime: a peasant who stole a donkey from the convent and refused to acknowledge the theft found his field sown with salt the following day. He returned the animal and surrendered the field. The same text records a body of miracles worked at her tomb, the specific details of which are preserved in the hagiographic tradition rather than in any clinical documentation, as befits a saint of the Carolingian era. The primary source is Butler's Lives of the Saints, drawing on Adalhelm's ninth-century Life. Source: EWTN, Butler's Lives — Saint Opportuna https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/st-opportuna-5712 Saint Opportuna, pray for us.
SAINT OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 23 APRIL, 2026 SAINT GEORGE MARTYR (April 23, 303 A.D.) Saint George was born to a Christian noble family in Lydda, Syria Palestina, during the late third century between about 275 AD and 285 AD. He died in Nicomedia in Asia Minor. His father, Gerontios, was from Cappadocia, an officer in the Roman army; his mother, Polychronia, was a native of Lydda. They were both Christians from noble families of the Anici, so their child was raised with Christian beliefs. They decided to call him Georgios, meaning "worker of the land" (i.e., farmer). At the age of 14, George lost his father; a few years later, George's mother, Polychronia, died. George then decided to go to Nicomedia and present himself to Emperor Diocletian to apply for a career as a soldier. Diocletian welcomed him with open arms, as he had known his father, Gerontius — one of his finest soldiers. By his late 20s, George was promoted to the rank of Tribunus and stationed as an imperial guard of the Emperor at Nicomedia. On 24 February AD 303, Diocletian (influenced by Galerius) issued an edict that every Christian soldier in the army should be arrested and every other soldier should offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods of the time. However, George objected, and with the courage of his faith, approached the Emperor and ruler. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune and the son of his best official, Gerontius. But George loudly renounced the Emperor's edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and tribunes he claimed himself to be a Christian and declared his worship of Jesus Christ. Diocletian attempted to convert George, even offering gifts of land, money, and slaves if he made a sacrifice to the Roman gods; he made many offers, but George never accepted. Recognizing the futility of his efforts and insisting on upholding his edict, Diocletian ordered that George be executed for his refusal. Before the execution, George gave his wealth to the poor and prepared himself. After various torture sessions, including laceration on a wheel of swords during which he was resuscitated three times, George was executed by decapitation before Nicomedia's city wall, on 23 April 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra and Athanasius, a pagan priest, to become Christians, as well. They too joined George in martyrdom. His body was returned to Lydda for burial, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON In the fully developed Western version of the story of 'St. George and the dragon', a dragon makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of "Silene" (perhaps modern Cyrene in Libya or the city of Lydda in the Holy Land). Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, and if no sheep can be found, then a maiden is the best substitute for one. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but then Saint George appears on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the Cross, slays the dragon, and rescues the princess. The citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity. PATRON: of England & Catalonia. PRAYER: Extolling your might, O Lord, we humbly implore you, that, as Saint George imitated the Passion of the Lord, so he may lend us ready help in our weakness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
It is amazing the veneration for St George that still exists today, for instance he is the Patron Saint of England and Greece. Such a long long ago saint for which we have only half forgotten stories and legends. The Orthodox in particular seem to love him. Perhaps part of the fascination is that he was a soldier? We don;t often think of someone who is a soldier being a saint. He makes holiness seem attainable to everyone.
