SAINTS DECEMBER 17

SAINTS DECEMBER 17

St. Briarch, 627 A.D. Abbot and founder, a companion of St. Tudwal. Briarch was an Irishman who entered a monastery in Wales. He went with St. Tudwal to Brittany, France. There he built a monastery and served as abbot.

St. Tydecho, 6th century. Welsh saint. He is honored by several churches in Wales. St. Cadfan was his brother. Other details of his life are no longer available.

ST. JOHN OF MATHA, PRIEST, FOUNDER OF THE TRINITARIANS. Born in 1154 in France, St. John was a professor of theology in Paris, before leaving everything to become a priest at the age of 40. He founded the Order of the Most Holy Trinity. He left for Africa, with a mission to free Christian slaves, whom he succours in his hospices. He died in Rome in 1213.   Dec.17

ST. DANIEL, PROPHET, A Jew of a noble family, he was deported to Babylon (VII century BC). He became an official of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel prophesied the fall of the Babylonian Empire. Because of his fidelity to the tradition of his fathers, Daniel was given to lions, but God saved him. Dec.17

STS. HANANIAH, MISHAEL AND AZARIAH, Young Jews in exile in Babylon (VII century BC), the youths became officials at court. Refusing to worship the statue of the king, they were thrown into a furnace: accompanied by an angel of the Lord, they sang a hymn proclaiming the lordship of the true God over all creation, and emerged unscathed.  Dec.17

B. HYACINTHE CORMIER, DOMINICAN, a French Roman Catholic priest and the seventy-sixth Master General of the Dominican Order, serving in that capacity from 1904 until 1916. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 20, 1994. Bl. Dec. 17

St. Olympias, Roman Catholic formed a religious community doing charitable works. She spent the last years of her life beset by illness and persecution but comforted by Chrysostom from his place of exile. She died in exile. Feastday Dec.17