Christian Today

https://www.indcatholicnews.com/saint/355

Saint Virginia Centurione Bracelli, Roman Catholic Nun, Feastday Dec. 15

ST. VALERIAN, BISHOP IN AFRICA AND MARTYR Bishop of Abbenza (Tunisia), he bore witness to Jesus Christ, true God and true man, during the persecution of the Vandals. The Arian heretic King Genseric forced Valerian to live on the street, though he was eighty, for refusing to hand over the Church’s sacred vessels. He died of his hardship.  Dec. 15

ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, PRIEST AD DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH, DISCALCED CARMELITE Dec. 14 "Today I'm going to sing the Office in Heaven" A religious vocation and the call to the Carmelite charism were clearly manifest in the life of St John. He was born Juan de Yepes Álvarez, the son of poor parents from Castile, near Avila. He was eighteen when, in 1563, he left the Jesuit College of Medina del Campo where he studied the humanities, rhetoric and classical languages. Soon afterwards he met Teresa of Jesus. It was an encounter that would change their lives forever. St John was already a priest and was fascinated by her plan to reform the Carmelite Order, including the male branch. They worked together, sharing idea and proposals, and together inaugurated the first house of Discalced Carmelites in 1568 in Duruelo, in the province of Avila. It was then, when he, along with others, created the first reformed male community, that St John adopted the new name, "of the Cr...

St. Elizabeth Rose, Roman Catholic Nun. Benedictine abbess, the foundress of the convent of Sainte-Marie-du-Rozoy, near Courtenay, Loiret, France. Dec. 13

ST. LUCY, VIRGIN AND MARTYR OF SYRACUSE Dec. 13 Lucy’s story is told in the  Acts of Martyrdom : a collection of traditions, popular tales and legends. Lucy was born at the end of the third century in Syracuse, into a wealthy, high-ranking family. Reared as a Christian, she was still a child when she was orphaned of her father. Her mother, Eutychia, brought her up with love and dedication. While still a girl, Lucy meditated on her dedication to God, but kept her wish in her heart. Not knowing her daughter’s intentions, Eutychia promised her in marriage to a young man, who was not a Christian. Lucy did not reveal her desire to offer her virginity to Christ and, with various pretexts, puts off the wedding, trusting in prayer and divine rescue. The journey to Catania and the intercession of Sant'Agata It was in the year 301 that Lucy and her mother went on a pilgrimage to Catania, to the tomb of Saint Agatha. Eutychia suffered from bleeding, and despite various and expensi...

Bl. Thomas Holland, Roman Catholic Priest and English Martyr. Thomas was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. Feastday Dec.12