Christian Today

31st March - Saint Acacius - Independent Catholic News : Bishop of Antioch. According to legend, this 3rd century saint was so revered by his flock that they nicknamed him 'Agathangelus' which means 'The Good Angel'. When the Emperor Decius began persecuting Christians, it is said not a single Christian in his diocese denied their faith. In 261 a representative of Decius named Martian summoned the bishop for cross-examination. Acacius told him that all the Christians were loyal to the Emperor, but when he was asked to make a sacrifice to the gods he refused.

30th March - Saint John Clemacus - Independent Catholic News : Monk and Abbot of Mt Sinai. A seventh century Palestinian, St John was married as a young man. When his wife died he became a monk. He lived in a community for a short time and then became a hermit. He lived at Thole, coming to church with other Egyptian solitaries on Saturdays and Sundays, but spending the rest of the week alone. His name means ladder, and he wrote a book called the Ladder to Paradise, which deals with monastic spirituality, the vices and virtues of communal life and

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: A Great Book; A Tragic Story : When studying the long history of the English Reformation and its aftermath, one thought the student may have is, when so many priests an...

29th March - Saints Gwynllyw and Gwladys; Saint Berthold of Carmel - Independent Catholic News : These sixth century saints were the parents of St Cadoc, one of the early founders of monasticism in South Wales. They are also one of very few married couple to be canonised. Gwynllyw was a chieftain. His wife Gwladys also came from an aristocratic family. Much of their life was spent fighting neighbouring tribes, but their son Cadoc converted them to Christianity and they became devout followers of Christ.

Pope: 'to have faith is to live our lives with joy' - Independent Catholic News : In his homily during Mass at Casa Santa Marta on Tuesday, Pope Franci encouraged Christians to get on with things - living life with joy. He urged us to avoid complaining and not to allow oneself to paralyzed by the ugly sin of sloth. The Gospel story at the heart of Pope Francis' reflection tells of a man who had been ill for 38 years. He was lying at the side of the Bethesda

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Blessed John Hambley, Pray for Us! : Just a reminder that I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show during the EWTN hour this morning (5:00 to 6:00 a.m. Central Daylight Savin...

28th March - Saint Tutilo - Independent Catholic News : Monk, and gifted musician. St Tutilo was an Irish monk who lived in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. He was educated at the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Gall in Switzerland. A good-humoured person of many talents, he was a poet, portrait painter, sculptor, orator, architect and mechanic. But his greatest talent was music. He could play all the instruments known to the monks. Together with his friend, Blessed Notker, he composed much church music and taught at the abbey school.

27th March - 

Saint John of Egypt - Independent Catholic News : Hermit. Born in Asyut, Egypt, in 304, St John was a carpenter. When he was 25 he went out into the desert to pray and was to became one of the most famous hermits of his time. For ten years he was the disciple of an elderly hermit. St John called him his 'spiritual father.' After the older monk's death, St John spent four or five years in various monasteries. Finally, he found a cave high in the rocks. The area was quiet and protected from the desert sun and winds. He divided the cave into three parts: a living room, a work room and a little chapel. People in the area brought him food and other necessities.

26th March - Saint Liudger - Independent Catholic News : Bishop. Frisian by birth, Liudger was one of the eighth century Anglo Saxon missionaries who evangelised parts of northern Europe. He studied under Boniface at Utrecht and Alcuin at York. He then began preaching in remote areas of Frisia where Charlemagne had gone ahead breaking up pagan shrines. In 777 he was ordained priest and built several churches. When the Saxons invaded the area they drove out the priests and sacked the new churches.

25th March

 - Feast of the Annunciation - Independent Catholic News : In both the East and West, Mary is the most important of saints - although little is known of her life. St Matthew describes how, when the angel Gabriel came to her and said: 'Hail favoured one, the Lord is with you', she replied simply: 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be be done unto me according to your word.'

24th March - Blessed Oscar Romero - Independent Catholic News : Archbishop and martyr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero was born into a family of ten on 15 August in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador. His father was in charge of the local telegraph office. When he was 14 years old, Oscar went to study at junior seminary. When his mother was ill and needed money for medicine, Oscar left the seminary for three months and worked in the gold mine in Potosí,

Pope: warns against becoming hard hearted 'Catholic atheists' - Independent Catholic News : During his homily at morning Mass in Casa Santa Marta on Thursday, Pope Francis pointed out that when we turn away from God and are deaf to His Word, we become hard hearted, unfaithful or even 'Catholic atheists.' Reflecting on the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah the Pope said: 'When we do not stop to listen to the voice of the Lord we end up moving away, we turn away

Amazing Love: An Uplifting Roman Catholic Blog : "We Are Christ For One Another" : In Sunday's Homily, our priest spoke about a major goal of ours as Catholics: for everyone to go to Heaven.  Jesus Christ made the...

23rd March - Saint Toribio of Lima - Independent Catholic News : Reforming bishop. A patron of missionaries and South America. Toribio Alfonso de Mogrobejo was born in Mayorga, in Spain, in 1538. A law professor at the University of Salamanca, he was appointed chief judge of the Inquisition at Granada by King Philip II. He was still a layman, when in 1580, he was made a bishop and sent to work in Lima, Peru.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: The Silence of St. Nicholas Owen : St. Nicholas Owen, SJ, the Jesuit lay brother and carpenter extraordinaire, died under torture on March 22, 1606. The Jesuits in Britain ...

22nd March - 

Saint Nicholas Owen - Independent Catholic News : Jesuit lay-brother, martyr. There is no record of his family, birthplace, date of birth, or baptism. Nicholas had been a servant of the Society of Jesus and joined the order around 1580. At the execution of St Edmund Campion he openly declared him innocent and was imprisoned. After his release he served the priests Henry Garnett and John Gerard for eighteen years. He was captured again with with Fr John, escaped from the Tower, and helped the escape of Father Gerard.

22nd March - 

Saint Nicholas Owen - Independent Catholic News : Jesuit lay-brother, martyr. There is no record of his family, birthplace, date of birth, or baptism. Nicholas had been a servant of the Society of Jesus and joined the order around 1580. At the execution of St Edmund Campion he openly declared him innocent and was imprisoned. After his release he served the priests Henry Garnett and John Gerard for eighteen years. He was captured again with with Fr John, escaped from the Tower, and helped the escape of Father Gerard.

21st March - Saint Enda - Independent Catholic News : Abbot. Born in Co Meath, during the 6th century, Enda was a boy soldier who became a monk. He was trained at St Ninian's monastery in Whithorn, Galloway and then returned to Drogheda and founded monastic communities in the Boyne valley, before settling in Inishmore in the Aran Islands. This became his base. Many monks came to to join him there including Ciaran of Clonmacnoise.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Book Review: The She-Apostle by Glyn Redworth : Book Description by OUP: Before dawn one morning in June 1612, an elderly Frenchman took charge of a carriage carrying a precious cargo near...

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Blesseds Pilchard, Pike, and Flathers at Dorcheste... : Both of these priestly martyrs had been arrested and banished, but returned to England and suffered martyrdom when arrested again, one d...

20th March - Saint Cuthbert - Independent Catholic News : Monk and bishop. Born in 634 on the tiny island of Farne, St Cuthbert was most likely a Northumbrian Englishman. As a young shepherd boy by Leader Water he saw a vision, Bede writes, of angels taking the soul of St Aiden to heaven. Later he became a monk under St Eata at Melrose. For years he undertook long journeys on horseback and on foot, ministering to the remotest parts of the country between Berwick and Galloway, and keeping the spirit of Christianity alive in them. In 664 he accompanied St Eata to Lindisfarne and extended his work south to Durham.

19th March - 

Saint Joseph - Independent Catholic News : Foster father of Jesus and husband of Our Lady. Patron saint of families, homes, hospices, manual workers, especially carpenters, and those who desire a happy death. All that is known of St Joseph for certain is in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. He came from the house of David but his trade as a carpenter shows that he was not rich. He was betrothed to Mary and worried when he learnt that she was pregnant, until an angel came to him in a dream.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Pope Clement XI, RIP : Pope Clement XI, born Giovanni Francesco Albani on the 23rd of July in 1639, died on the 19th of March in 1721. His papacy began on the 23...

18th March - Saint Edward the Martyr - Independent Catholic News : King. Edward was born in 862, the son of the English King Edgar and his first wife. He succeeded his father in 965. Three years later, when he was just 15 or 16, he was assassinated at Corfe in Dorset, in 978 and quietly buried at Wareham. It is said that he was on his way to visit his half brother Etheldred, when he was set upon by Etheldred's retainers and stabbed before he could dismount from his horse.

18th March - Saint Edward the Martyr - Independent Catholic News : King. Edward was born in 862, the son of the English King Edgar and his first wife. He succeeded his father in 965. Three years later, when he was just 15 or 16, he was assassinated at Corfe in Dorset, in 978 and quietly buried at Wareham. It is said that he was on his way to visit his half brother Etheldred, when he was set upon by Etheldred's retainers and stabbed before he could dismount from his horse.

17th March
 - Saint Patrick - Independent Catholic News : Fifth century bishop. Patron of Ireland. St Patrick was a Roman Briton, born somewhere on the west coast, between the Clyde and the Severn estuary. His father Calpurnius, was a civil official and a deacon. His grandfather was a priest. When Patrick was 16, he was captured by slave traders, and taken to Ireland where he was used as a herdsman, traditionally at Slemish in Antrim.

16th March - Saint Fintan Lobur - Independent Catholic News : St Finan was an Irish abbot who lived in the 6th century. Although of Munster descent he was born in Leinster. He is said to have suffered from a skin disease, possibly leprosy. He ruled over the monastery of Swords, north of Dublin, and possibly over Clonmore at the end of his life, where he was buried. In one of his few surviving quotes, he said: 'Most ignorant and of least account among the faithful, despised by many.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: From The Reformation to the Present Day : AN Wilson reviews Roy Hattersley's The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation to the Prese...

15th March - Saint Louise de Marillac - Independent Catholic News : Widow. Foundress of the Daughter of Charity. Born in 1591 to an aristocratic family, Louise was educated by nuns at Poissy. Her mother died when she was very young and her father died when she was 15. Louise married Anthony Le Gras and they lived happily together for 12 years and had one son. After her husband's death, Louise became involved with the work of St Vincent de Paul, who was organising groups of women into helping the poor and sick. He asked her to help train women in this work.

14th March - Saint Matilda - Independent Catholic News : Wife, mother and queen. St Matilda was born at Engern in Westphalia in 895. Married to the German King Henry I, the Fowler, she had five sons, including the Emperor Otto I and St Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne. Matilda was widowed at a young age and for 32 years and suffered ill-treatment from Otto. Another son Henry, who was called The Quarrelsome, also gave her a difficult time. Otto and Henry both complained that she was too generous to the poor.

English Historical Fiction Authors: The Abbot’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey : by Mary F. Burns Nearly all the information is this post taken from a printed pamphlet displayed for public education in the Abbot’s Ki...

13th March - Saint Gerald of Mayo - Independent Catholic News : Abbot. St Gerald was an Englishman who became a monk at Lindisfarne in the 8th century. He then travelled to Inishbofin in Galway with St Colman of Lindisfarne and was later made abbot of the English part of the monastery at Mayo. The community became known as the Mayo of the Saxons. It flourished and was known as a great centre of study.

12th March - Saint Paul Aurelian - Independent Catholic News : Bishop. Patron of Paul in Cornwall. He is also known as Saint Pol de Leon. According to his Life written by Wrmonoc, a 10th century monk from Landevennec, he was the son of a Welsh chieftain who was educated at the monastery of St Iltyd. He became a monk, and together with 12 companions migrated to Brittany where they built a number of churches and monasteries.

Ain't no mountain high enough... for Sisters in Latin America - Independent Catholic News : Religious Sisters are transforming communities across Latin America by travelling to isolated parishes that have not seen a priest for years. Mother Lorena told Aid to the Church in Need about the impact of the work being done by the Misioneras de Jesús Verbo y Víctima. When she started working in the parish of Virgen del Carmelo de Villa Ygatimy, Paraguay three years ago some of its chapels had not seen a priest since 2013. Mother Lorena said that the parish is made up of nearly 100 chapels for 20,000 faithful living in scattered rural communities.

11th March - Saint Oengus the Culdee - Independent Catholic News : Monk and writer. Oengus was the author of the earliest Irish Martyrology, called the Felire. Born of a royal Ulster family, he was educated at the monastery of Clonenagh (Co Laois). He lived as a hermit at Disertbeagh where he practised a life of austerity, reading the psalter daily while submersed in cold water, fasting and many genuflections. In later life he joined the monastery of Tallacht near Dublin.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: The Martyr's Beads II: Blessed Thomas Atkinson : Coming the day after St. John Ogilvie's feast, and with another connection to the Rosary, I wanted to highlight Blessed Thomas Atkinso...

9th March - Saint Dominic Savio - Independent Catholic News : Child saint. St Dominic was born in 1842 at Riva near Turin. He was one of ten children - his father was a blacksmith and his mother a seamstress. At the age of twelve he joined the school of St John Bosco where it is said he developed a spirituality well beyond his years. Under John Bosco's guidance he managed to avoid becoming a prig or a fanatic. He was known for his cheerfulness and friendliness to all. People would come to him for advice.

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: The Martyr's Beads: St. John Ogilvie : In honor of St. John Ogilvie, SJ, I'll be on the Son Rise Morning today and tomorrow with Annie Mitchell to discuss the life and death...

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: The Martyr's Beads: St. John Ogilvie : In honor of St. John Ogilvie, SJ, I'll be on the Son Rise Morning today and tomorrow with Annie Mitchell to discuss the life and death...

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Don't Forget: St. Ogilvie on EWTN Radio! : If you listen to EWTN Radio early in the morning, the Son Rise Morning Show has an hour broadcast from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. Central time/6:00...

10 March - Saint John Ogilvie - Independent Catholic News : Jesuit priest and martyr. St John was born at Drum na Keith in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1580 and brought up as a Calvinist. His parents sent him to France for his education and at the age of 16 he decided to become a Catholic. He was received into the church at Louvaine and joined the Society of Jesus in 1599. For ten years he worked in Austria, He was then assigned to the French province and ordained in Paris in 1610. He longed to return to his native Scotland but had to wait until 1613 until he was granted permission.

7th March - Saints Perpetua and Felicity - Independent Catholic News : Martyrs. Perpetua was a 22 year old married Christian woman who lived in Carthage during the first century. She had given birth to a son a few months before she was arrested for her faith, under the persecutions of Septimus Severus. A pregnant slave, Felicity, with her husband Revocatus and six other African Christian men were also arrested. The group were kept together in a house for several weeks, during which time Felicity had her baby.

Bl. John Larke - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online Bl. John Larke, Roman Catholic Priest and English Martyr. He served as a pastor in Bishopgate, Woodford, Essex, and then Chelsea until his arrest for opposing the religious supremacy of King Henry VIII of England . He was executed at Tyburn with John Ireland and Jermyn Gardiner. Feastday Mar. 7

Bl. John Ireland - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online Bl. John Ireland, Roman Catholic Priest and English Martyr. Chaplain to St. Thomas More. He became a pastor at Eltham, Kent, prior to his arrest for resisting the supremacy of King Henry VIII of England over the Church of England. Executed at Tyburn, he died with Blesseds Jermyn Gardiner and John Larke.Feastday Mar.7

6th March - Saints Baldred and Bilfrith - Independent Catholic News : Hermits. St Baldred lived during the 6th century in Northumberland, as a hermit, first at Tyningham and then on the Bass Rock. According to legend, it was thanks to his prayers that a dangerous reef was removed between the rock and the mainland. All that is left of it is St Baldred's Rock. The saint's supposed relics were discovered with those of St Bilfrith in the 11th century and removed to Durham.

5th March - Saint Ciaran of Saighir - Independent Catholic News : Bishop and monk. St Ciaran was born in West Cork in the 6th century. He came from an Ossory family. Ciaran went to Europe as a young man where he was baptised and ordained. He returned to Ossory and settled at Saighir near Birr in Co Offaly, first as a hermit, then later as the abbot of a large monastery. He may have been consecrated bishop by St Patrick. There are many legends about St Ciaran. He is said to have had great skills communicating with wild animals. A wolf, a badger and a fox helped him and his monks build their huts.

4th March - Saint Casimir - Independent Catholic News : Polish prince. Patron of Lithuania. St Casimir was the third son of King Casimir IV of Poland. Born in 1458, he was educated by John Dlugosz, canon of Krakow, the mediaeval capital of Poland. When Casimir was only 13 there was an attempt to place him on the throne of Hungary. This failed and he was banished to a castle outside the city. The court then tried to pressurise him into marrying a daughter of the Emperor Frederick II, but he refused, saying that he wanted to live a life of prayer and celibacy.

3rd March - Saint Katharine Drexel - Independent Catholic News : Nun and foundress. Katharine Drexel was the daughter of a millionaire banker. Born in Philadelphia in 1858, she had an excellent education and travelled widely. Her unusual family had their own railway car and were used to every luxury. But her mother also opened the door of their home to the poor three days each week and her father spent half an hour each evening in prayer. As a young woman Katherine nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness.

Pope: The Christian is directed to follow Christ crucified - Independent Catholic News : The Christian is directed him to follow Christ crucified - not a disincarnate god - but God made flesh, Who bears in Himself the wounds of our brothers. That was the main message of Pope Francis in his homily during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday morning. The invitation to be converted resounds strongly at the beginning of Lent. And the liturgy of the day, places this exhortation in the context of three realities: man, God, and the journey. The reality of man is that of choosing

2nd March - 

Saint C : Bishop. St Chad was the first bishop of Mercia and Lindsay at Lichfield. Born in Northumbria in the 7th century, he was a pupil of St Aidan at Lindisfarne, who sent him to Ireland for part of his education. He later became abbot of Lastingham in Yorkshire, but was then called to be bishop of York. In 669 St Theodore of Canterbury judged him to have been irregularly consecrated. Chad accepted the decision and humbly went back to his monastery. Theodore was so impressed by his character he made him bishop of Mercia with his see at Lichfield.

Pope Francis: 'we do not go to heaven in a carriage' - Independent Catholic News : Pope Francis marked Ash Wednesday inviting the faithful to renew their hope in Christ's promises and their commitment to follow Him ever more closely. He was addressing the crowds gathered in St Peter's Square for the weekly General Audience. Pointing out that on Ash Wednesday we enter the liturgical time of Lent, Pope Francis said this time of penitence and mortification is actually a journey of hope as it is directs us on the path towards Resurrection, and help us renew our Baptismal identity.

1st March - Saint David - Independent Catholic News : Monk. patron saint of Wales. Not a great deal is known about St David. The oldest written evidence about him come from Ireland, but there are legends about him as far afield as Brittany, Cornwall and Herefordshire. He was born some time in the 6th century, probably Henfynw in Cardiganshire. According to legend he was the son of a local chieftain and founded twelve monasteries from Croyland to Pembrokeshire.