All Saints Day All Days

All about our brothers and sisters in heaven! New bio posts daily

[thechurchtriumphant]

Welcome!

This is a blog specifically focused on the Church Triumphant - our brother and sisters in Heaven, otherwise known as the Saints!

I'll mainly be posting little bio pieces about different saints, but feel free to ask questions, whether you're Catholic, another type of Christian, practitioner of another religion or atheist

God Bless! ✝️

[thechurchtriumphant]

In honor of the feast of St. Anselm, here's my condensed version of his ontological argument for the existence of God:

God is defined as "a being greater than that which can be thought" -> in other words, God is better than the best thing you (or anyone) can think of

Things that exist in reality are greater than things that exist in the imagination -> ex. a real staycation is better than an imaginary vacation to the Bahamas

We can imagine both a God who exists and one who does not exist, and "God who exists" is greater than "God who does not exist"

Since God is "a being greater than what can be thought" (and the greatest being we can think of is "God who exists") God must exist -> any being who does not exist would be less/worse than our imaginary God who does exist, just like a imaginary staycation is worse than an imaginary Bahamas trip

Happy Feast of St. Anselm, bishop and doctor of the Church! To read his argument in full, as well as additional arguments about God, check out his book Proslogium

[thechurchtriumphant]

In the mid-second century, the Romans attempted to martyr Polycarp by burning him at the stake. It failed, so they had to stab him instead

Happy Feast of St. Polycarp!

[thechurchtriumphant]

St. Valentine of Rome

Feast Day: February 14

Patron Saint of Love and Happy Marriages (also affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, plague, and young people)

Lived roughly 226-269

Not much is known for certain about St. Valentine, with most stories being legend, but we do know he really existed thanks to a Roman catacomb and ancient church dedicated to him.

His association with love comes from the legend of him secretly marrying couples in a Christian wedding, allowing the husband to escape service in the Roman army

Another popular legend is the converting of Judge Asterius when he healed the judge's blind daughter's sight. He also later attempted to convert the emperor Claudius Gothicus, causing the man to have Valentine executed

St. Valentine, pray for us!

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA (Mother Teresa) Feast Day: September 5

"She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world." -Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, former Secretary-General of the United Nations

The foundress of the Missionaries of Charity (Congregatio Missionariarum a Caritate), was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, on August 26, 1910 in Üsküp, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, North Macedonia). Raised in a Christian family, she was fascinated by the lives of the saints, especially of the missionaries. She was the youngest child of Nikollë and Dranafile Bojaxhiu (Bernai). Her father, who was involved in Albanian-community politics in Ottoman Macedonia, died in 1919 when she was eight years old. Her mother may have been from a village near Gjakova.

In 1928 at the age of 18, she joined the missionary congregation of the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn English with the intent of becoming a missionary; English was the language of instruction of the Sisters of Loreto in India, and was assigned to India. She made her profession on May 24, 1931, taking the religious name of Teresa, in honor of Thérèse de Lisieux, the patroness of missions, because a nun in the convent had already chosen that name, she opted for its Spanish spelling of Teresa.

Teresa took her solemn vows on May 14, 1937 while she was a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta, taking the style of 'Mother' as part of Loreto custom. She served there for nearly twenty years and was appointed its headmistress in 1944.

After teaching for over 20 years in a Catholic school near Calcutta, she became increasingly disturbed by the surrounding poverty. The Bengal famine of 1943 brought misery and death to the city, and the August 1946 Direct Action Day began a period of Muslim-Hindu violence.

On September 10, 1946, while travelling by train to the Loreto convent from Calcutta for her annual retreat, she experienced 'the call within the call,' meaning a strong urge to leave the convent and to live among the poorest of the poor. Replacing her traditional religious habit with a white cotton sari decorated with a blue border, she began her missionary work in the slums of Calcutta. Two years later in 1948, she began missionary work with the poor.

Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent several months in Patna to receive basic medical training at Holy Family Hospital and ventured into the slums. She founded a school in Motijhil, Calcutta, before she began tending to the poor and hungry. At the beginning of 1949, Mother Teresa was joined in her effort by a group of young women, and she laid the foundation for a new religious community helping the 'poorest among the poor'.

On October 7, 1950 after she received Vatican permission for the diocesan congregation, together with thirteen young women, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, whose mission was: 'to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared, for throughout society.'

In 1952, Mother Teresa opened her first hospice with help from Calcutta officials. She converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, free for the poor, and renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday).

Those brought to the home received medical attention and the opportunity to die with dignity in accordance with their faith: Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received extreme unction.

At the height of the Siege of Beirut in 1982, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front-line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she travelled through the war zone to the hospital to evacuate the young patients.

Mother Teresa had a heart attack in Rome in 1983 while she was visiting Pope John Paul II. Following a second heart attack in 1989, she received a pacemaker. In 1991, after a bout of pneumonia in Mexico, she had additional heart problems.

Although Mother Teresa offered to resign as head of the Missionaries of Charity, in a secret ballot the sisters of the congregation voted for her to stay, and she agreed to continue. But on March 13, 1997, she resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity.

Respected as a 'living saint,' she died in Calcutta, West Bengal, India at the age of 87. At the time of her death, the Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters and an associated brotherhood of 300 members operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programmes, orphanages and schools. The Missionaries of Charity were aided by co-workers numbering over one million by the 1990s.

She is beatified by St. John Paul II on October 19, 2003 and canonized a saint by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

She said for herself: 'By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.'

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT ROSE OF VITERBO The Patron Saint of Florists Feast Day: September 4

St. Rose of Viterbo was a prophetic young girl who inspired her homeland to stand with the Vatican in a dispute with an emperor. Rose of Viterbo is the patron saint of florists, flower growers, and those rejected by religious orders.

Frederick II was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th century. He came into conflict with the pope (Gregory IX), who excommunicated him. In response, Frederick began attacking the papal states. In 1240, he conquered the region of Viterbo, Italy.

Rose was born in Viterbo in the year 1233, and lived there with her poor parents during this conflict. When she was 8 years old, Rose fell ill, and during her sickness, she received a vision from Mary, who told her that she was to give her life to pursuing holiness just as St. Francis did. Mary told the girl that she was to take the habit of the Franciscans, but that she was not to live in a convent—she should stay at home and set an example by her words and deeds.

After she recovered, Rose took on the rough cloak of a penitent and continued to ponder this vision. When she was 12, she began preaching in the streets against Frederick's occupation, in an effort to incite the city to overthrow the regime. Rumors spread that she worked miracles as she spoke, and soon a crowd began to gather around her house.

The attention made Rose's father nervous, and he forbade her from leaving the house under threat of a beating.

She replied: 'If Jesus could be beaten for me, I can be beaten for him, I do what he has told me to do, and I must not disobey him.'

When their parish priest insisted that she be free to preach, he relented.

For two more years, she continued to speak in public about the occupation. As her popularity grew, authorities called for her execution, but the city's magistrate sent her and her family into exile instead.

When Frederick died in 1250, the Vatican's forces won the day and Rose and her parents moved back to Viterbo. Rose sought entrance into the local convent, but was denied because she did not have a dowry.

Rose replied with a smile: 'Very well, you will not have me now, but perhaps you will be more willing when I am dead.'

She continued to live with her parents, leading a life of prayer and service, but she died young on March 6, 1251, at the age of 17, and it was long believed that Rose had died of tuberculosis. In 2010, however, researchers examining her remains concluded that she had died of complications due to Pentalogy of Cantrell (thoraco-abdominal syndrome).

Six years later, due to her popularity, her body was transferred to the chapel of the convent she once tried to enter. The church burned down in 1357, but her body was preserved and was carried through the city in a procession every year.

That tradition continues today with an annual festival in Viterbo that features dozens of men carrying a giant platform through the city on the night before her feast day - September 3rd, and it stands several stories high, and atop it is placed a statue of St. Rose.

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT GILES THE HERMIT The Patron Against Plague, Epilepsy, Nightmares and Mental Illness Feast Day: September 1

St. Giles (also known as Aegidius) is thought to have been born in Athens, the son of Theodore and Pelagia, in about 640. When he was twenty-four his parents died, and the young Giles, stricken by the double loss, and unconsoled by the pleasures of fashionable life, sold all that he had and gave to the poor in order to follow Christ.

He took to sea and landed on the coast of Provence. On the shore he saw human footsteps, and following these, he found a cave in which an old hermit had lived for years on roots and herbs, and who was content to share his cave, his food and his prayers with the young man. After three days Giles began to fear his friends might find him, so he hailed a passing ship and sailed on further westwards to Marseilles. Still seeking solitude, he crossed the Rhone and travelled towards a rocky promontory above the river Gardon and here, in a cave, the entrance of which was hidden by a thicket, he found another solitary, also a Greek. He stayed only a short time before continuing his journey until, finally, in the depth of a forest near Nimes, he found a hollow of a rock in a green glade by a stream, shaded by four gigantic oaks. There he lived in peace and prayer, his only companion a gentle doe deer, whose milk he drank.

Here he was discovered by Flavius (Wamba), king of the Visigoths. The king was out hunting and shot an arrow at the hind, missed it, and hit Giles, who was at prayer. Though wounded, Giles continued at his prayers and refused all compensation for the injury done to his body. This incident made him a great favourite at Court, especially with Wamba, who pressed him to stay. The king would have given him lands for any foundation he chose, but no entreaties would persuade him to desert his life of solitude and prayer.

After much entreaty, at last Giles consented to be the founder of the monastery near Nimes about 673, which flourished till the Saracen invasion, when it was burned down and he and his monks took refuge with Charles Martel, aiding him by their prayers in his great battle for Christianity in the West.

Giles' monastery was restored, and with the words, 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,' he died on September 1st, 712.

Giles became one of the most popular saints in the West, the patron saint of woodland, of lepers, beggars, cripples, and of those struck by sudden misery, and driven into solitude like the deer, which, according to tradition, came to St. Giles wounded. He is also the patron against nightmares, plagues, mental illness and epilepsy.

[luxangelae]

St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)💙

A mystic, composer, herbalist, and visionary, St. Hildegard of Bingen was a female legend of history!! She received divine visions from a very young age, & later recorded her revelations in texts and visionary art. She blended theology, cosmology, & natural healing into her writing.

She was a pioneer of sacred music and holistic medicine, and quite ahead of her time. She was canonized and later named a Doctor of the Church.

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO The Patron Saint of Brewers, Philosopher, Theologian and the Church Father Feast Day: August 28

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

St. Augustine was born in Thagaste, Numidia Cirtensis, Western Roman Empire (present day Souk Ahras, Algeria) in 354 AD.

Despite the prayers of his mother, Monica, he grew up in the paganism of his father, Patricius. He went to Carthage at the age of 17, where he joined the Manichean sect. He led a dissolute life and fathered a child named Adeodatus. He left for Italy at the age of 29. There, he was impressed by the sermons of St. Ambrose of Milan.

One day, he heard the voice of a child singing from the neighboring house: 'Tolle, lege.', meaning, 'take up and read.'

He opened a copy of the Bible nearby and read a passage of St. Paul's letter to the Romans (13:14): 'Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh.'

This marked his final conversion to Jesus Christ.

In 387 AD, he was baptized by St. Ambrose on the Paschal vigil, being 32 years of age, and thereafter resolved to consecrate his life to the Lord. He wrote in his autobiographical work Confessions: 'O beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!'

Appointed as the bishop of Hippo (present day Annaba, Algeria) in 395 AD, Augustine proved himself an excellent shepherd and a brilliant writer. He organized the clergy in a common life, and wrote a famous rule for religious women. To the people he said: 'For you, I am a bishop. With you, I am a Christian.'

One day as he was meditating about the Trinity, he met a mysterious boy who wanted to scoop the ocean into a hole he had made on the sand. When Augustine remarked that it was an impossible task, the boy replied: 'It is easier to scoop all the water of the ocean into this hole than to grasp the nature of God in your mind.'

After the sack of Rome in 410 AD, Augustine wrote 'The City of God', in which he said that the fall of Rome was not the fault of the Christians, but the just punishment of God for vices and sins. According to Possidius, Augustine spent his final days in prayer and repentance, requesting the penitential Psalms of David be hung on his walls so he could read them.

He directed the library of the church in Hippo and all the books therein should be carefully preserved. The great bishop died at the age of 75 in 430 AD while his town was under siege by the Vandals.

Augustine was canonized by popular acclaim, and later recognized as a Doctor of the Church in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII.

[moddawn]

OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS. We might be getting a samurai saint. THE SAMURAI OF CHRIST. That is so cool!!!

Blessed Justo Takayama Ukon

His sword… IS THE CROSS. WITH JESUS ON IT. You guys, that is so coooool

[austerity-audacity-asceticism]

One of the greatest heroes of the glorious Martyr Church of Japan is undoubtedly the Catholic lay apostle, Justus Ukon Takayama (1552-1615), or Justus Ucondono, as he was usually called by missionaries. Although he greatly desired to shed his blood for Christ, he was not granted this honor, yet he sacrificed everything on three separate occasions for his Divine Master, was exiled to a foreign land (the Philippines) for the sake of his Faith, and died in Manila as a result of the hardships endured on the voyage to his exile.

Ukon Takayama was one of the greatest men of his era. He was an able ruler (as Daimyo, or governor of Takatsuki and later, of Akashi), a great general, an ingenious strategist, a master of the tea ceremony, a harmonious personality, and above all, an exemplary and saintly Christian. He preached the Gospel better than any of the missionaries. His amiable and attractive personality and, more striking, his blameless life, attracted numerous souls to the fold of the Good Shepherd. Not only did he convert his vassals and subjects to the Catholic Faith, but a number of the greatest personalities of his era were also won over by his entreaties and example to the cause of Christ. Gamo Ujisato, Kuroda Yoshitaka, Hosokawa Gracia were the most outstanding of them, but there were many others whose number and identity is known to God alone. Ukon’s unblemished chastity was so generally admired even his enemy, Hideyoshi (who ruled Japan 1583-1598) could not but admire it.

As the beloved of God, Ukon Takayama was necessarily blessed with the surest sign of elections, the Cross. When the hegemon Nobunaga (r. 1574-1582) threatened to massacre all the Christians and destroy their churches unless Ukon handed over to him the castle of Takatsuki (in Osaka prefecture), the heroic champion of Christ, without hesitation, renounced his domain and betook himself to Nobunaga, ready to die with the missionaries and Christians. Doing this, he fully realized the terrible danger to which he exposed the lives of his only son and his little sister, who were hostages held by his suzerain Araki Murashige. God took the will for the deed, saved Ukon’s life, spared his hostages and secured for him Nobunaga’s admiration and good graces.

When Hideyoshi (who succeeded Nobunaga) suddenly turned persecutor in 1587, Ukon Takayama was called upon either to deny his Faith, or lose his fief, and he gladly gave up everything rather than turn traitor to his Divine Master. For several years, he was in fear of his life; even after Hideyoshi’s wrath had cooled, he never again became a ruling daimyo but lived in obscurity as a simple samurai of the Maeda rulers at Kanazawa. In 1614, Ieyasu resolved to exterminate Christianity, and Ukon Takayama was again among the first victims. Since the tyrant could not hope to make him apostatize, he exiled him to a foreign land, calculating that he would not long survive the rigors and hardships of the voyage. The fact that Ukon died a few weeks after his arrival at Manila shows most clearly that Ieyasu’s calculation has been only too correct. Thus Ukon Takayama has the satisfaction of giving up his life for the Divine Master.

In the estimation of his contemporaries, Ukon Takayama was a saintly man. When after he had been deposed a Lord of Akashi (in 1570), he arrived in Kyushu, the Christians there venerated him as a martyr. In Manila, he was welcomed with religious enthusiasm, for everyone was well aware of the honor of giving hospitality to a renowned Confessor of the Faith. His premature death on February 3, 1615  caused general mourning and regret that Manila had been deprived of the presence of a man of God. His funeral in Intramuros, accorded by Church and State, was a great tribute to him, underscoring that an outstanding Servant of God had passed to a better life.

The Archdiocese of Manila (as the diocese where Takayama died (or was “born to Heaven”) first presented to the Pope a petition for the beatification of Ukon Takayama in 1630, only 15 years after he died. Many who have remembered this heroic champion of Christ across the centuries continue to pray fervently that Ukon Takayama woud someday be raised to the honors of the Altar, and thus be set as a model for young people.

source: x.

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Gertrude of Nivelles

626 - 659

Feast Day: March 17

Patronage: cats, rat and mice infestation, mental illness, travelers, gardens

Saint Gertrude of Nivelles was a noble-born from saintly parents. At 10 she refused any and all marriage prospects. At 13, after her father died, Gertrude founded the Benedictine Abbey of Nivelles with her mother and was installed as abbess in 639. The Abbey's hospitality welcomed travelers, wishing them no misfortune. She was a mystic, who helped the poor, elderly, and sick. Townspeople called her to ward off rat and mice infestation thus becoming the patron of cats. She died in March at age 33 after a life of prayer and penance, becoming the patron of gardens because of the prospect of fair weather.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase.(website)

[thechurchtriumphant]

St. Isabel of France

Feast Day: February 26

Patron Saint of the Sick

Lived 1225-1270, canonized 1696 by Pope Innocent XII

St. Isabel was a French Princess. She rejected multiple marriage proposals as she had consecrated her virginity to God. She founded a convent of the Orser of St. Clare. Although she eventually lived in a Longchamp Abbey, she never became a nun. She died in 1270 and was buried in the abbey church.

St. Isabel of France, pray for us!

[thechurchtriumphant]

St. Walburga

Feast Day: February 25

Lived 710-777 or 779, Canonized 870 by Pope Adrian II

Patron Saint of Eichstätt, Antwerp, Zutphen and other towns

St. Walburga was born to English aristocracy, and grew up with and was educated by nuns in Wimbourne. As an adult, Walburga became a nun and joined her relative, St. Boniface's missionary mission. Eventually she became abbess of the monastery at Heidenheim.

St. Walburga, pray for us!

[thechurchtriumphant]

St. Adela

Feast Day: February 25

Lived 1067-1137

St. Adela was the youngest daughter of King William the Conqueror of England and Matilda of Flanders. She married Count Stephen of Blois, with whom she had eleven children. She became involved in both English and French politics. A pious Catholic, Adela endowed many churches and monasteries. She died of natural causes, having retired to a monastery in Marcigny-sur-Loire, France.

St. Adela of Blois, pray for us!

[thechurchtriumphant]

St. Boswell

Feast Day: February 23

Lived ?-661

St. Boswell, also known as Boisil, was born in modern day England. He was the abbot of the abbey in Melrose in Scotland. Boswell was known for his preaching, as he was a Biblical Scholar. He was also granted the gift of prophecy. He died in 661 of yellow plague.

St. Boswell, pray for us!

[thechurchtriumphant]

St. Margaret of Cortona

Feast Day: February 22

Lived 1247-1297, Canonized 1728 by Pope Benedict XIII

Patron Saint of Reformed Prostitutes, People Battling Temptation, Falsely Accused People, Homeless People, Orphans, Mental Illness, Midwives, Single Mothers, People Whose Piety is Ridiculed, Single Laywomen

St. Margaret of Cortona was born to farming parents in Tuscany. When she was seven, her mother died and her father re-married to a woman Margaret did not get along with. Possibly as a result from her troubles at home, Margaret ran off with a young noble-man, whom she remained with as a mistress for nine years and bore him a son out of wedlock, until the noble-man was murdered. This caused her to turn back to God, giving up all her worldly possessions.

However, her father and step-mother refused to let her return home, so she and her son sought help from Franciscan friars. She worked first as a nurse for sick women, then nursing the poor for no payment. Margaret became a Franciscan tertiary, and was given to ecstasies. She later formed a group of tertiaries, called the Poverelle. Rumors resulting from her past followed her the rest of her days.

Her body has been declared incorruptable:

St. Margaret of Cortona, pray for us!

[thechurchtriumphant]

St. Peter Damian

Feast Day: February 21

Lived 1007-1072, canonized

Patron Saint of Faenza and Font-Avellano, Italy

St. Peter Damian is a Doctor of the Church. He was originally a professor, before finding his calling to become a hermit in Fonte Avellana, where he lectured the other monks and become known for his self-discipline. In a move that would become ironically familiar, the abbot ordered Peter Damian to succeed him after his death, despite Peter Damian's reluctance. He founded 5 more hermitages, and was often called upon by the Pope for advice. Once again against his reluctance, Pope Stephen IX made Peter the cardinal-bishop of Ostia. Pope Alexander II finally let him retire on the condition they could still call on Peter Damian for help and advice when they needed it. In either 1072 or 1073, he died after a week of fever.

St. Peter Damian, pray for us!