B. MARY VIRGIN OF LORETO, ST. MAURUS, MARTYR ON THE VIA SALARIA, SAINT GREGORY III, POPE, Dec.10

B. MARY VIRGIN OF LORETO

The title "Our Lady of Loreto" is associated with the Holy House of Loreto in Italy, the house of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, miraculously transported by the angels from Palestine to Europe. Dec. 10

ST. MAURUS, MARTYR ON THE VIA SALARIA

Saint Maurus' attributes is a crutch, in reference to his patronage of cripples. He was invoked especially against fever, and also against rheumatism, epilepsy, and gout. He is also sometimes depicted with a scale, a reference to the implement used to measure a monk's daily ration of bread, given to him by Benedict when he left Montecassino for France. Dec 10

SAINT GREGORY III, POPE

Pope Saint Gregory III, Roman Catholic Priest and head of the Catholic Church from 11 February 731 to his death in 741. His pontificate, like that of his predecessor, was disturbed by the iconoclastic controversy in the Byzantine Empire, and by the ongoing advance of the Lombards, in which he invoked the intervention of Charles Martel, Feastday December 10