Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Simon, surnamed the Chanaanite and Zelotes, and Thaddeus, the writer of one of the Catholic Epistles, who is called also in the Gospel Jude the brother of James, preached the Gospel, the former in Egypt, the latter in Mesopotamia. They rejoined each other in Persia, where they begot numerous children to Jesus Christ, and spread the faith among the barbarous inhabitants of that vast region. By their teaching and miracles, and finally by a glorious martyrdom, they both rendered great honor to the most holy Name of Jesus Christ.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Evaristus was born in Greece, of a Jewish father, and was Sovereign Pontiff during the reign of Trajan. He divided the titles of the churches of Rome among the priests, and ordained that seven deacons should attend the bishop when preaching. He also decreed that, according to the tradition of the Apostles, matrimony should be celebrated publicly and blessed by a priest. He governed the Church nine years and three months. He held ordinations four times in the month of December, and ordained seventeen priests, two deacons and fifteen bishops. He was crowned with martyrdom, and buried near the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles on the seventh of the Kalends of November.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Chrysanthus and Daria were husband and wife, noble by birth, and still more by their faith, which Daria had received together with baptism through her husband’s persuasion. At Rome they converted an immense multitude to Christ, Daria instructing the women and Chrysanthus the men. On this account the prefect Celerinus arrested them, and handed them over to the tribune Claudius, who ordered his soldiers to bind Chrysanthus and put him to the torture. But all his bonds were loosed, and the fetters which were put upon him were broken.

They then wrapped him in the skin of an ox and exposed him to a burning sun; and next cast him, chained hand and foot, into a very dark dungeon; but his chains were broken, and the prison filled with a brilliant light. Daria was dragged to a place of infamy; but at her prayer God defended her from insult by sending a lion to protect her. Finally, they were both led to the sand-pits on the Salarian Way, where they were thrown into a pit and covered with a heap of stones; and thus they together won the crown of martyrdom.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Hilarion was born of infidel parents at Abatha in Palestine; and was sent to study at Alexandria, where he became famous for his talents and the purity of his morals. He embraced the Christian religion, and made wonderful progress in faith and charity. He was constantly in the church, devoted himself to prayer and fasting, and was full of contempt for the enticements of pleasure and earthly desires. The fame of St. Anthony had then spread all over Egypt. Hilarion, desirous of seeing him, betook himself to the wilderness, and stayed two months with him learning his manner of life. He then returned home; but on the death of his parents he bestowed his goods upon the poor, and though only in his fifteenth year, returned to the desert. He built himself a little cell scarcely large enough to hold him, and there he slept on the ground. He never changed nor washed the sackcloth he wore, saying it was superfluous to look for cleanliness in a hairshirt.

He devoted himself to the reading and study of the holy Scripture. His food consisted of a few figs and the juice of herbs, which he never took before sunset. His mortification and humility were wonderful; and by means of these and other virtues he overcame many terrible temptations of the evil one, and cast innumerable devils out of the possessed in many parts of the world. He had built many monasteries, and was renowned for miracles, when he fell ill in the eightieth year of his age. In his last agony he exclaimed: Go forth, my soul, why dost thou fear? Go forth, why dost thou hesitate? Thou hast served Christ for nearly seventy years, and dost thou fear death? And with these words he expired.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:John was born at Kenty, a town in the diocese of Cracow; and hence his surname Cantius. His parents were pious and honorable persons, by name Stanislaus and Anna. From his very infancy, his sweetness of disposition, innocence, and gravity, gave promise of very great virtue. He studied philosophy and theology at the university of Cracow, and taking all his degrees proceeded professor and doctor. He taught sacred science for many years, enlightening the minds of his pupils and enkindling in them the flame of piety, no less by his deeds than by his words. When he was ordained priest, he relaxed nothing of his zeal for study, but increased his ardour for Christian perfection. Grieving exceedingly over the offences everywhere committed against God, he strove to make satisfaction on his own behalf and that of the people, by daily offering the unbloody Sacrifice with many tears. For several years he had charge of the parish of Ilkusi, which he administered in an exemplary manner; but fearing the responsibility of the cure of souls, he resigned his post; and, at the request of the university, resumed the professor’s chair.

Whatever time remained over form his studies, he devoted partly to the good of his neighbor, especially by holy preaching; partly to prayer, in which he is said to have been sometimes favored with heavenly visions and communications. He was so affected by the Passion of Christ, that he would spend whole nights without sleep in the contemplation of it; and in order the better to cultivate this devotion, he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. While there, in his eagerness for martyrdom he boldly preached Christ crucified even to the Turks. Four times he went to Rome on foot, and carrying his own baggage, to visit the threshold of the apostles; in order to honor the apostolic See to which he was earnestly devoted, and also (as he himself used to say), to save himself from purgatory by means of the indulgences there daily to be gained. On one of these journeys he was robbed by brigands. When asked by them whether he had anything more, he replied in the negative; but afterwards remembering that he had some gold pieces sold in his cloak, he called back the robbers, who had taken to flight, and offered them the money. Astonished at the holy man’s sincerity and generosity, they restored all they had taken from him. After St. Augustine’s example, he had verses inscribed on the walls in his house, warning others, as well as himself, to respect the reputation of their neighbors. He fed the hungry from his own table; and clothed the naked not only with garments bought for the purpose, but even with his own clothes and shoes; on these occasions he would lower his cloak to the ground, so as not to be seen walking home barefoot.

He took very little sleep, and that on the ground. His clothing was only sufficient to cover him, and his food to keep him alive. He preserved his virginal purity, like a lily among thorns, by using a rough hair-shirt, disciplines, and fasting; and for about thirty-five years before his death, he abstained entirely from flesh-meat. At length, full of days and of merits, he prepared himself long and diligently for death, which he felt drawing near; and that nothing might be a hindrance to him, he distributed all that remianed in his house to the poor. Then, strengthened with the Sacraments of the Church, and desiring to be with Christ, he passed to heaven on Christmas Eve. He worked many miracles both in life and after death. His body was carried to St. Anne’s, the church of the university, and there honorably interred. The people’s veneration for the saint, and the crowds visiting his tomb, increased daily; and he is honored as one of the chief patrons of Poland and Lithuania. As new miracles continued to be wrought, Pope Clement XIII solemnly enrolled him among the saints, on the seventeenth of the Kalends of August, in the year 1767.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Peter was born of noble parents at Alcantara in Spain, and from his earliest years gave promise of his future sanctity. At the age of sixteen, he entered the Order of Friars Minor, in which he became an example of every virtue. He undertook by obedience the office of preaching, and led numberless sinners to sincere repentance. Desirous of bringing back the Franciscan Order to its original strictness, he founded, by God’s assistance and with the approbation of the Apostolic See, a very poor little convent at Pedroso. The austere manner of life, which he was there the first to lead, was afterwards spread in a wonderful manner throughout Spain and even into the Indies. He assisted St. Teresa, whose spirit he approved, in carrying out the reform of Carmel. And she, having learned from God that whoever asked anything in Peter’s name would be immediately heard, was wont to recommend herself to his prayers, and to call him a saint, while he was still living.

Peter was consulted as an oracle by princes; but he avoided their honors with great humility, and refused to become confessor to the Emperor Charles V. He was a most rigid observer of poverty, having but one tunic, and that the meanest possible. Such was his delicacy with regard to purity, that he would not allow the brother, who waited on him in his last illness, even lightly to touch him. By perpetual watching, fasting, disciplines, cold, and nakedness, and every kind of austerity, he brought his body into subjection; having made a compact with it, never to give it any rest in this world. The love of God and of his neighbor was shed abroad in his heart, and at times burned so ardently that he was obliged to escape from his narrow cell into the open, that the cold air might temper the heat that consumed him.

Sometimes, while his spirit was nourished in this heavenly manner, he would pass several days without food or drink. He was often raised in the air, and seen shining with wonderful brilliancy. He passed dry-shod over the most rapid rivers. When his brethren were absolutely destitute, he obtained for them food from heaven. He fixed his staff in the earth, and it suddenly became a flourishing fig tree. One night when he was journeying in a heavy snow-storm, he entered a ruined house; but the snow, lest he should be suffocated by the dense flakes, hung in the air and formed a roof above him. He was endowed with the gifts of prophecy and discernment of spirits, as St. Teresa testifies. At length, in his sixty-third year, he passed to our Lord at the hour he had foretold, fortified by a wonderful vision and the presence of the Saints. St. Teresa, who was at a great distance saw him at that same moment carried to heaven. He afterwards appeared to her, saying: Oh! happy penance, which has won me such great glory! He was rendered famous after death by many miracles, and was enrolled among the Saints by Clement IX.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Luke was a physician of Antioch, and, as is shown by his writings, was skilled in the Greek tongue. He was a disciple of the Apostle Paul, and accompanied him in all his journeys. He also wrote a Gospel; wherefore the same Paul says of him: We have sent also with him the brother whose praise is in the Gospel through all the churches. And again to the Colossians: Luke the most dear physician saluteth you. And to Timothy: Only Luke is with me. He wrote another excellent work, called the Acts of the Apostles, in which he relates the history of the Church, as far as Paul’s two years’ sojourn at Rome, that is to the fourth year of Nero. From this circumstance we infer that the book was written at Rome.

Consequently we class the Journeys of Paul and Thecla and the whole fable of the baptized lion, among apocryphal writings. For is it possible that the Apostle’s inseparable companion should know everything concerning him except this one thing? Moreover Tertullian, who lived near to those times, relates that a certain priest in Asia, an admirer of Paul, was convicted by John of having written that book; which he confessed he had done out of love for Paul, and was on that account deposed. Some are of opinion that whenever Paul in his epistles says: According to my Gospel, he means that of Luke.

Luke, however, was instructed in the Gospel not only by the Apostle Paul, who had never seen the Lord in the flesh, but also by the other Apostles. This he declares in the beginning of his work, saying: According as they have delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. He wrote his Gospel, then, from what he had heard, but the Acts of the Apostles from what he had himself seen. He lived eighty-four years, and was never married. His body lies at Constantinople, whither it was translated from Achaia, together with the relics of St. Andrew the Apostle, in the twentieth year of Constantine.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Margaret Mary Alacoque was born of a respectable family in a village in the diocese of Autun, and from her earliest years already gave signs of future holiness. Filled with burning love of the Virgin Mother of God and of the august mystery of the Eucharist, in her youth she dedicated her virginity to God and strove above all things to realize in her life the practice of Christian virtues. Her delight was to spend long hours in prayer and in the contemplation of heavenly things. She had a low esteem of herself, was patient in adversity, practiced bodily penance, and was charitable towards her neighbor, especially towards the poor. She diligently strove by all means in her power to imitate the most holy example of the divine Redeemer.

Having entered the Order of the Visitation, her life became at once a bright example to others. She was endowed by God in a high degree with the gift of prayer, together with other favors and frequent visions. Of these the most famous was when Jesus appeared to her while she was in prayer before the most holy Sacrament and, opening his breast, showed her his divine Heart enkindled by flames and encircled in a crown of thorns; and he bade her, in return for his excessive love and in atonement for the insults of ungrateful men, to seek to have established the veneration of his Heart, which he would enrich with the treasures of heavenly grace. When from humility she hesitated to undertake so great a task the most loving Savior encouraged her, at the same time pointing out Claude de la Colombière, a man of great holiness, as her guide and helper. He also comforted her with the assurance of the very great blessings which afterwards accrued to the Church from the worship of his divine Heart.

Vexations and even bitter insults were not wanting to her on the part of those who maintained that she was liable to mental delusions. She not only bore these troubles patiently, but even profited by them, deeming herself through suffering and reproach as a victim acceptable to God and taking them as a means of more easily furthering her purpose. Renowned for religious perfection and becoming daily more united to her heavenly Spouse by the contemplation of eternal things, she took flight to him in the forty-third year of her age, and in the year of restored salvation 1690. She became famous for miracles, and Benedict XV enrolled her name among those of the saints; and the Supreme Pontiff Pius XI extended her Office to the universal Church.