Today is Palm Sunday, when we commemorate Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Jn.12) at the beginning of Holy Week. As we attend church this week to honor Jesus’s Last Supper (Holy Thursday) and His Passion (Good Friday), we must prepare for Easter Sunday and the Resurrection with the same piety as the saints we celebrated this past week displayed.
St. Stanislaus of Krakow (April 11) was a pious, charitable, scholarly youth who gave his fortune away. As Archbishop of Krakow, Stanislaus vigorously condemned immorality, including the king’s. When Stanislaus excommunicated the king, the latter killed him in 1079. St. Gemma Galgani (April 11) was an Italian mystic who suffered ill health and was devoted to Christ’s Passion. She received the stigmata (wounds of Jesus), had regular ecstasies and conversations with her Guardian Angel, and practiced great penances (d.1903).
St. Justin Martyr (April 14, Latin Mass) was a second century Church Father famous for his “Apologies” and “Dialogue” expounding and defending the faith. He was a scholarly pagan who adhered to various philosophies of the time before converting to Christianity. He was martyred with six companions during the Roman persecutions. St. Valerian of Trastevere (April 14) was the husband of martyr St. Cecilia, converted by her with his brother St. Tiburtius. The brothers were arrested and martyred in their turn in 229 in Rome for ministering to other Christians. St. Agabus the Prophet (April 8) was a Jewish convert and one of Jesus’s 72 disciples; he had the gift of prophecy and is mentioned in Acts 21.
St. Demetrius Megalomartyr (April 9) was a Greek imperial soldier and possibly proconsul in Thessalonica. He was martyred with spears circa 306, and was a popular patron of soldiers in the Middle Ages. St. Hermenegild (April 13) was the son of Spanish Visigoth Arian King Leovigild. The prince converted upon marrying a Catholic princess, and was disinherited and later defeated in battle by his heretic father. The father and son briefly reconciled, but Hermenegild was eventually arrested, tortured, and martyred in 585. St. Dionysius of Alexandria (April 8) was an archbishop and head of the Alexandria, Egypt, catechetical school. Rescued from imprisonment, he survived persecution to help unify the East during the Novatian Schism. Briefly exiled. A Greek Father of the Church (d.265).
St. Peter Gonzales (April 14) became a cleric for worldly reasons, but a humiliating accident during a Christmas procession made him rethink his vocation. He joined the Dominicans, reformed the royal court of Castile (Spain), preached Crusade, helped prisoners, and worked with shepherds and sailors. When his friends were hungry, Peter’s prayers would cause fish to leap from rivers. Pope St. Julius I (April 12) was a 4th century pontiff who refused to bend to Eastern imperially-supported Arian heretics. While Julius failed to bring back the Arians, Egyptian monasticism and Roman church architecture benefited from his papacy.
St. Lydwina of Schiedam (April 14) was paralyzed following an ice-skating accident, but turned her years of suffering to good by prayer and meditation. She survived solely on consuming the Eucharist, saw visions, and worked miracles (d.1433 in Netherlands). St. Margaret of Castello (April 13) was born a blind, lame, deformed, hunchbacked midget. Her titled parents walled the six-year-old girl up in a chapel. Fourteen years later, her parents took her to a shrine to pray for a cure, but none occurred and they abandoned her. Margaret became a lay Dominican, known for her prayer and charity, and locals thronged her funeral.
Pope St. Martin I (April 13/14) became pope in 649 without imperial approval and held the Lateran Council condemning the heresy of Monothelitism. The emperor arrested and tortured Martin, who later died of his injuries. St. Julia Billiart (April 8) was crippled by shock after seeing her father shot. Miraculously healed, and organized pious educational work during the French Revolution that later was taken up by her Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame (d.1816).
St. Fulbert of Chartres (April 10) was a student and friend of Pope Sylvester II. A reformer and adviser to secular leaders, Fulbert was bishop of and founded a famous school in Chartres, France (d.1029). Bl. Antoine Neyrot (April 10) was a Dominican friar captured by Muslims who, to save his life, became Muslim and accepted the caliph’s arranged marriage for him. Later, publicly repenting of his apostasy, Antoine was martyred in 1460. Bl. Augustus Czartoryski (April 8) was born in France to royal refugees from Spain and Poland, and suffered for years from the tuberculosis that killed him. Inspired by meeting Don Bosco, Augustus joined the Salesians and was ordained not long before his early death in 1893.
St. Teresa of the Andes (April 12) was a Chilean Discalced Carmelite nun who foresaw that she would die young. Her holiness and joy, however, during her short life, as well as her mystical experiences, led to her canonization. St. Joseph Moscati(April 12), “the first modern medical doctor to be canonized,” dedicated his life to the physical and spiritual health of others (d.1927).
St. Antony of Pavoni (April 9) was a learned and eloquent Dominican appointed Inquisitor-General in Piedmont to fight the Waldensian heresy. His success in preaching infuriated the unrepentant heretics so much that, as he had foreseen, he was brutally martyred by them in 1374. St. Benezet the Bridge Builder (April 14) was a shepherd who miraculously built a bridge over the Rhône River after receiving a vision telling him to do so; angels watched his flocks while he was at work. Bl. Lucien Botovasoa (April 14) was a devout husband, father, and teacher in Madagascar, also a member of the Secular Franciscans. He was martyred by anti-Christian forces in 1947.
Sts. Phlegon, Asyncritus, and Herodian(April 8) were first century bishops in Greece mentioned by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans (16:11, 14). St. Ida of Boulogne (April 13) was a noblewoman and mother of crusaders Godfrey and Baldwin de Bouillon; endowed monasteries and became a Benedictine oblate (d.1113). St. Antipas of Pergamon (April 11) was a bishop and martyr referred to by St. John in Revelation. St. Ardalion the Actor (April 14) specialized in performances mocking Christians, until he unexpectedly converted and was martyred in 300. St. Guthlac of Croyland (April 11) was a Mercian noble and warrior who turned from pillaging to penance as a hermit. Sts. Eustace, John, and Antony of Vilna (April 14) were Lithuanian fire worshippers who converted to Christianity and were crucified for refusing meat on a day of abstinence (d.1342). St. Caradoc of Wales(April 13) was a harp player who fell out of royal favor and became a hermit (d.1124). St. David Uribe-Velasco (April 12) was a zealous Mexican priest and martyr of the Cristero War in 1927. St. Madrun of Wales(April 9) was a 5th century queen who, widowed, became a missionary to Cornwall with her son St. Ceidio.
Bl. Boniface Zukowski (April 10) was a Lithuanian Franciscan who helped publish The Knight of the Immaculate magazine and was martyred in Dachau by Nazis. Bl. Scubilion Rousseau (April 13) was a French Christian Brother and educator who dedicated his life to helping slaves and other unfortunates on Reunion Island. St. Liborius of Le Mans (April 9) was a 4th century bishop in Gaul (France) who helped St. Martin of Tours spread the faith. St. Alferius of La Cava (April 12) was an Italian ambassador who became a monk and monastic reformer in his old age (died at age 120 in the 11th century). St. Sabas the Lector (April 12), a Romanian cleric, and his companions were martyred by pagan Goths in 372. Bl. Thomas of Tolentino (April 9) was a Franciscan missionary in Armenia, Persia, and finally Hindustan, where he and his companionswere martyred in 1322.
Bl. Mark Fantucci (April 10) was a wealthy 15th century Italian who became a Franciscan priest, preacher, reformer, and provincial. St. Abundius the Sacristan(April 14) was the holy sacristan of St. Peter’s in Rome, praised by Gregory the Great. St. Barsanuphius of Gaza (April 11) was a hermit in the Holy Land in the early 500s. St. Waltrude of Mons (April 9) was a pious 7th century noblewoman, wife, and mother who founded and joined a convent in Belgium after being widowed. St. Maddalena of Canossa (April 10) founded the Canossian Daughters of Charity and cared for the poor, sick, and abandoned. Bl. Katarzyna Faron (April 9) was a Polish nun, teacher, and orphanage head who died after being incarcerated in Auschwitz by Nazis. Bl. Julian of S.Augustine (April 8) was a tailor rejected by monasteries, but whose holiness as a hermit and preacher impressed many (d.1606). St. Sabas Reyes Salazar (April 13) was a Mexican priest arrested, beaten, burned, tortured, and shot in 1927. St. Bernard of Tiron (April 14) was a French monk, hermit, and traveling preacher who founded a Benedictine monastery (d.1117).
Bl. Hadewych (April 14), daughter of Bl. Hildegundis and sister of Bl. Herman Joseph, was prioress of a Premonstratensian convent (d.c.1200). Bl. Clement of Osimo (April 8) was an Augustinian prior general and miracle-worker who revised the Order’s constitutions, created libraries, and encouraged education, including of women (d.1291). St. Thomaides of Alexandria (April 14) was a 5th century fisherman’s wife murdered by her would-be rapist father-in-law. Bl. John Lockwood(April 13) was an English priest martyred in 1642. St. Zeno of Verona (April 12) fought the Arian heresy, suffered persecution, and was possibly martyred in 380. St. Miguel de Sanctis (April 10) was a 17th century Spanish monk who worked miracles and had ecstasies. Bl. Albertinus of Montone (April 13) was an Italian monk, prior general, and peacemaker (d.1294). Bl. Domingo Iturrate Zubero (April 8) was a Spanish Trinitarian priest with a devotion to the Blessed Virgin (d.1927).
You can also read about Denis of Corinth, Libania of Busano, and Amantius of Como(April 8); Ubaldo Adimari, Acacius of Amida, Marguerite Rutan, Lindalva, Gaucherius, Hugh of Rouen, Casilda, P.Camino, and Hedda and companions(April 9); Bademus and monks, Macarius of Antioch, Paternus Scotus, and Bede the Younger (April 10); Elena Guerra, Angelo Carletti, Symforian Ducki, Sancha of Portugal, Godeberta of Noyon, Isaac of Monteluco, Lanunio, George Gervase, and Raynerius Inclusus (April 11); Andrew of Montereale, Basil of Parion, Erkemboden, and Damian of Pavia (April 12); Ursus of Ravenna, James of Certaldo, Edward Catherick, Isabel Calduch Rovira, Miles Gerard, Francis Dickenson, Marzio, Guinoc, Pergamus &Dorostorum Martyrs, Ida of Louvain, Proculus of Terni, Serafino Morazzone, Mochaemhog, and Rolando Rivi (April 13); and John of Montemarano, Lambert of Lyon, Fronto of Nitria, Tassach of Raholp, Maximus of Rome, Domnina of Terni, Antioch Martyrs, Valeriano, Alfonso of Seville, and Philip of Vercelli (April 14).
Have a blessed week!
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Catherine Salgado
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://catherinesalgado.substack.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
