Saint of the day May 10

 Saint of the day May 10

American Ruthenian Catholic Sister of Charity, May 10, The beatification ceremony was the first to take place in the United States,

St. William of Pontoise, 1192 A.D. English hermit. He resided at Pontoise, in France, having gone there to take up the eremetical life. His hermitage became popular in the region. He may have been Benedictine at St. Martin's Abbey.  

St. Comgall, b.516 A.D., d.601 A.D. Abbot and teacher of St. Columbanus and the monks who evangelized France and central Europe. He was born about 516 in Yester, Ireland, and studied under St. Fintan at Cluain Eidnech Monastery. After living under a harsh rule as a hermit, Comgall founded a monastery in Bangor. He was abbot for eight thousand monks. Comgall also accompanied St. Columba on a mission to Inverness, Scotland, and founded a monastery at Heth. He died at Bangor.  

Bl. Damien de Veuster, 1889 A.D. The Leper Priest, the Hero of Molokai. Born in Tremelo, Belgium, on January 3, 1840, he joined the Sacred Hearts Fathers in 1860. He was born Joseph and received the name Damien in religious life. In 1864, he was sent to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was ordained. For the next nine years he worked in missions on the big island, Hawaii. In 1873, he went to the leper colony on Molokai, after volunteering for the assignment. Damien cared for lepers of all ages, but was particularly concerned about the children segregated in the colony. He announced he was a leper in 1885 and 

continued to build hospitals, clinics, and churches, and some six hundred coffins. He died on April 15, on Molokai. Slandered by a Protestant minister, Mr. Hyde, Damien was defended by Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote an impassioned defense of Damien in 1905. He was declared venerable in 1977. Pope John Paul II declared him beatified on June 4, 1995.

St. Peter Van, Roman Catholic Catechist and Vietnamese Martyr. A native catechist, he was arrested by authorities and beheaded. May 10

St. Solange, Roman Catholic Martyr, a shepherdess whose beauty attracted the lustful attention of a noble in Poitiers. He kidnapped her, but when she leaped from the horse on which he was carrying her off, he pursued and killed her. May 10

ST. JOHN OF AVILA, PRIEST

St. John of Avila was a parish priest and theologian in 16 th century Spain who exercised some influence over ideas concerning the reform of priestly reformation at the Council of Trent. May 10

ST. GORDIANUS, MARTYRED ON THE VIA LATINA

Gordianus was a Roman Judge, who converted to Christianity. He was tortured and finally beheaded. His body was laid in a Crypt on the Via Latina, Rome. May 10

STS. QUARTUS AND QUINTUS, MARTYRED ON THE VIA LATINA