SEPTEMBER SAINTS

The Month of Our Lady of Sorrows

1.  Saint Anna the Prophetess (First Century). Saint Anna the Prophetess was the daughter of a man named Phanuel who was of the tribe of Aser, one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. She was one of the very, very few faithful Jewish girls who believed with all her heart in the revelations of God in the Old Testament, and who awaited their fulfillment in the New Testament. Saint Anna was married when she was fourteen. She became a widow at twenty-one. She was the one in charge of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the time Mary was presented in the Temple at the age of three until she was betrothed at the age of fourteen. Saint Anna was seventy-two years old when she first met Our Lady. She was eighty-four years old when Mary presented Jesus in the Temple. All other Jewish women in the Temple at that time ignored Jesus. Only Anna greeted Him. All the Jewish priests ignored Jesus. Only Simeon greeted Him and held Him in his arms, and declared while Anna was listening, "Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, 0 Lord, according to Thy word in peace."

Anna was the name of Mary's mother. Anna was the name of Mary's teacher in the Temple. The name Anna means grace. Mary was not only full of grace, but was companioned by grace all during her childhood.

Saint Aegidius (712). Saint Aegidius, known in Italian as Egidio and in English as Giles, was a Benedictine monk and abbot. In his early life, he lived as a hermit in France. He is one of the fourteen Holy Helpers and is invoked for the cure of cripples.

2.  Blessed Martyrs of Carmes (1792). These were a group of 191 priests, including an archbishop and two bishops, most of whom were massacred, during the French Revolution, in a Carmelite church in Paris known as Les Carmes. They died rather than take the oath to support the civil constitution of the clergy, which the Pope had condemned.

3. Saint Gregory the Great (604). He was a Pope and Doctor of the Church. He was the sixty-sixth Pope, and one of the greatest leaders the Catholic Faith has ever had. He reigned as Roman Pontiff for fourteen years. His mother, Sylvia, was a saint, as were his aunts, Saint Aemiliana and Saint Tarsilla. Saint Gregory revived for the Catholic Church its great love for liturgical chant and music. Saint Gregory sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury to be the apostle of England, in 597.

4. Saint Rose of Viterbo (1252). Saint Rose of Viterbo was a little peasant girl who wanted to become a Poor Clare nun, but was not received in any of their convents. She died when she was only eighteen years old. After her death, she was buried in a Poor Clare convent by order of the Pope. She is one of the noted saints who raised a dead person to life.

Saint Rosalia (1160). There are three noted girl saints from three separate towns in the island of Sicily. They are: Saint Agatha from Catania, Saint Lucy from Syracuse and Saint Rosalia from Palermo. Saint Rosalia lived a religious life in a cave on a mountain, three miles from her home, though her family was wealthy and prosperous. Her relics were discovered in 1624. The town of Palermo calls her its special patroness and prays to her in all its needs.  

Saint Moses (Fifteenth Century B.C.). He was the great patriarch and law-giver of the Old Testament who wrote the first five books of the Bible. He is not called Saint Moses when referred to scripturally, but only on September 4, his feast day. The life of Moses was divided into three periods of forty years. He was forty years in Egypt, a little child picked up near a river bank and educated and trained in the court of Pharao. He was then forty years in the Madianite country, south of the Holy Land. And then he was forty years with the Hebrews in the desert on their way to the Promised Land. Moses died before the Israelites reached the Promised Land. He died on Mount Nebo at the age of one hundred and twenty. His sister Miriam is a great and noble woman of the Old Testament. His brother Aaron, whose feast day is July 1, was the first high priest of the Jews.  

Saint Rebecca (Third Century). She was a martyr at Alexandria in Egypt.  

5. Saint Laurence Justinian (1456). He was the first Patriarch of Venice. He wrote beautifully, clearly and courageously about the truths of the Catholic Faith. He died when he was seventy-four years old. At his death, all the people of Venice wept bitter tears. Venice that day was a city of canals and a city of tears.  

6. Saint Eleutherius (585). He was a Benedictine monk and a great supporter of the future Saint Gregory the Great who was Pope from 590 to 604. Saint Eleutherius, although an abbot at the monastery of Saint Mark near Spoleto, retired to Saint Gregory's abbey in Rome where he lived as the simplest monk. Because of his humility, God gave him great powers to work miracles, including the raising of a dead man to life.  

7. Saint Cloud (560). He was the grandson of King Clovis and of Saint Clotilde, the Queen. His uncles, so as to stop his accession to the throne of France, murdered his two brothers, and would have murdered him if he had not been taken into safety. He gave up all idea of becoming a king. He became a simple priest, a hermit--and later an abbot and founder of a beautiful monastery near Versailles. The city of Saint Cloud in Minnesota, in the United States, is named after this great and saintly prince and priest.  

Saint Regina (286). She was a virgin martyr who was imprisoned and subjected to cruel torments at Autun.  

8. The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary (16 B.C.). Mary was born fifteen years, three months and seventeen days before the birth of Jesus. She was born in a house in which, fourteen years, six months and seventeen days later, the great Angel Gabriel, sent by God, would come and kneel before her and with bowed head say: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee"  

Mary was three years, two months and thirteen days old when she was presented by her parents to God in the Temple. She was just fourteen years old when she was espoused to Joseph. She was fourteen years, four months and fifteen days old when her espousals to Saint Joseph were solemnized. She was in her forty-eighth year when Our Lord died and rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, in the year 33. And Mary was seventy-two years old when she herself died, and was three days later assumed into Heaven, in the year 58.  

Blessed Alan de Ia Roche (1475). He was a Dominican who was one of the great apostles for spreading the Holy Rosary. He died when he was forty-seven and his feast day is Our Lady's birthday.  

9. Saint Peter Claver (1654). Saint Peter Claver was a Spaniard who joined the Society of Jesus in 1609. Under the inspiration of Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, a holy lay brother of the Society of Jesus, Saint Peter Claver was moved with the desire to become a missionary and work for the conversion of poor Negro slaves in Central and South America. He labored there for forty years. He was not interested in the Negroes sociologically. He was interested in the salvation of their immortal souls. He loved them and cared for them with the tenderness of a father. He worked many miracles. He raised a dead man to life. He baptized three hundred thousand Negroes with his own hands.  

10. Saint Nicholas of Tolentino (1306). He was a member of the Order of Saint Augustine. For thirty years he preached every day in the streets of Tolentino to the poor, the lowly, the sick and the abandoned. He was one of the great apostles of the souls in purgatory. Four great apostles of the souls in purgatory are: Saint Odilo, Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and Saint John Massias. Saint Nicholas of Tolentino died when he was sixty years old.  

11. Saint Paphnutius (356). He was a noble bishop from Egypt. He took part in the Council of Nicea in 325, to defend the Divinity of Jesus against the Arian heretics. Under the Emperor Galerius he was tortured for the Catholic Faith. One of his eyes was plucked out and one of his legs mutilated. Later, Saint Paphnutius became a monk, and a great friend and associate of Saint Anthony of the Desert, and was consecrated a bishop in the Upper Thebaid in Egypt.  

12. The Holy Name of Mary. Eight days after the birth of the Blessed Virgin, her holy parents, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, inspired by God, gave her the name of Mary. The name Mary means Lady, and also Star of the Sea. Just to say her holy name is a prayer. It gives everyone who does so favor with God and power over the devil. Blessed Pope Innocent XI set up the feast of the Holy Name of Mary in 1683 to thank her for the victory which the Catholic army under John Sobieski, King of Poland, gained over the Turks (Mohammedans), who were trying to sack Vienna and move in and conquer all the Catholics of the West. Mary's name occurs in the first part and in the second part of the Hail Mary In the middle of the Hail Mary, one speaks the Holy Name of Jesus. Great apostles of the Holy Name of Mary have been: Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux says, "O most holy Virgin Mary, your name is so sweet and admirable that one cannot say it without becoming inflamed with love toward God and toward you."  

13. Saint John Chrysostom (407). He was Patriarch of Constantinople and a Doctor of the Universal Church. He suffered terribly for his orthodoxy and his defense of the Catholic Faith, and was even exiled from his diocese. But he was beautifully supported by the holy Pope, Saint Innocent I. Saint John Chrysostom's body is kept in the Church of Saint Peter in Rome where it is venerated to this very day.   MORE INFO

14. The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (629). The Holy Cross on which Our Lord was crucified was first discovered by Saint Helena in the year 326. A Roman emperor, Hadrian, about two hundred years before, in order to stop Christians from venerating the mount of Calvary where Jesus was crucified, had raised a large mound of earth over it and dedicated a temple there to the goddess Venus. When Saint Helena arrived in Jerusalem, with the help of Saint Macanus, Bishop of that city, she had the Temple of Venus destroyed. She hired two hundred workmen and one hundred soldiers to dig into the ground, and they found the Holy Cross on which Our Lord was crucified. It was identified miraculously by the instantaneous cure of a little boy with a crippled arm and of a woman who was dying.  

A large part of the Cross was placed in a church in Jerusalem. It was stolen in 615 by Chosroes, a king of the Persians. After many prayers and fasts, and a battle to recover it, the Emperor Heraclius defeated Chosroes and brought back the Holy Cross to Jerusalem, fourteen years after it was stolen. This was in the year 629. Part of the Cross was kept in Jerusalem, but a great part of it was brought to the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem in Rome, one of the seven great churches of the Holy City.  

Along with the finding of the True Cross, Saint Helena also found the nails which were in Jesus's hands and in His feet when he died and the inscription placed above the head of Jesus on the Cross, which proclaimed Him in Hebrew, in Greek and in Latin: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." The nails are kept in churches in Europe. One of them is in the Iron Crown of Lombardy. The spear which pierced Our Lord's side is kept in one of the pillars of the Vatican in Rome. The inscription over Our Lord's sacred head is kept in the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome.  

Saint Maternus (First Century). Saint Maternus was the son of the widow of Naim whom Jesus raised from the dead, as we are told in the seventh chapter of Saint Luke. He became an ardent disciple of Saint Peter. He was named by Saint Peter to be the first Bishop of Cologne. A saint very devoted to Saint Maternus, centuries later, was Saint Peter Canisius who labored in Cologne and is one of the two members of the Society of Jesus who are Doctors of the Church. Saint Peter Canisius clearly identifies Saint Maternus as the widow of Naim's son.  

15. Our Lady of Sorrows. The feast of today was extended to the whole Church in 1817 by Pope Pius VII to try to make atonement to the Blessed Mother of God for the horrors inflicted on all those she loved by the Masons and the Jews of the French Revolution. It was also raised to a solemn feast by Pope Saint Pius X in 1908 when he saw the outrages that were coming to the world with the approach of the First World War.  

No heart ever burned with love of God or was united with Him more intimately in grief that was the heart of Mary. Simeon in prophecy told Our Lady when she presented Jesus in the Temple how complete and absolute her grief would be. He said to her, "Thine own soul a sword shall pierce." The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, as we commemorate them in loving and mystical remembrance, are: (1) the prophecy of Simeon, (2) the flight into Egypt, (3) the losing of Jesus in the Temple when He was twelve years old, (4) Mary's meeting with Jesus on the way to Calvary--the Fourth Station of the Cross, (5) the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus-- the Twelfth Station of the Cross, (6) the taking down, of the Body of Jesus from the Cross and the placing of it in Mary's arms-- the Thirteenth Station of the Cross, (7) the burial of Jesus in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea on the afternoon of the first Good Friday--the Fourteenth and last Station of the Cross.  

Blessed Roland (1386). He was a member of the great Florentine family known as the Medici. The last twenty-six years of his life he lived as a hermit in the forests of Parma.

16. Saint Cornelius (253) and Saint Cyprian (258). Saint Cornelius was the twenty-second Pope. Saint Cyprian was a bishop of Carthage in Africa. This Pope and this bishop are commemorated on the same day because Saint Cyprian died on the day that the body of Saint Cornelius was brought to Rome for veneration. This is how loving the Catholic Church is toward the precious remains of her holy saints. Saint Cornelius and Saint Cyprian are mentioned by name together in the Roman Canon of the Mass.  

Saint Edith (984). Saint Edith was the daughter of King Edgar of England. Her mother was also a saint, Saint Wilfrida. Saint Edith was dedicated to God from her earliest years and became a nun when she was fourteen.  

17. Saint Robert Bellarmine (1621). Saint Robert Francis Bellarmine was born at Montepulciano, in Tuscany, in Italy. He joined the Society of Jesus when he was eighteen years old. In 1599, in spite of all his protestations and entreaties, and even tears, he was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII, and in 1602 became Archbishop of Capua. He died on the seventeenth of September, 1621, the feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi, a saint to whom he was very much devoted. Saint Robert Bellarmine was one of the greatest and most learned men in the history of the Church. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI, in 1931. He is one of the two priests of the Society of Jesus who are Doctors of the Church. The other is Saint Peter Canisius. Queen Elizabeth of England was so afraid of the writings of Saint Robert Bellarmine that she forbade any of her subjects to read them. Pope Benedict XIV called Saint Robert Bellarmine "the Hammer of Heretics," the title also given to Saint Anthony of Padua. Pope Benedict XV entitled him "the Model of the Defenders of the Faith."   It is Saint Robert Bellarmine who assures us that the body of Saint John the Evangelist, Our Lady's first Eucharist child, is with her in Heaven.  

Saint Hildegarde (1179). She was a nun who became an abbess, first on Mount Disibode and then on Mount Rupert in Germany She was greatly admired and praised by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.   MORE INFO

18. Saint Joseph of Cupertino (1663). He was a Franciscan, a man of simple and innocent mind, who was first admitted and then dismissed by the Capuchins and later accepted by the Conventuals. Through sheer childlike simplicity he managed to learn enough theology to be ordained a priest. His love for God was so great that the mere mention of the name of Jesus would put him into an ecstasy At Mass he was seen dozens of times floating in mid-air, in rapture. After a life of great humiliations, he finally departed from this world at the age of sixty.  

Saint John Massias (1645). He was a Dominican lay brother who came from Spain and lived a humble life as a doorkeeper in a priory in Lima, in Peru. He was one of the great apostles of the souls in purgatory and was sixty years old when he died. His special patron was Saint John the Evangelist who often appeared to him and miraculously transported him from place to place in his travels. He was a dear friend of another Dominican lay brother who lived at the same time and in a neighboring Dominican priory in Lima, Saint Martin de Porres, whose feast day is November 3 and who died in 1639.  

19. Saint Januarius (Gennaro) (304). Noted in the world everywhere, the great Saint Januarius was martyred for the Catholic Faith under the Emperor Diocletian. His body is now enshrined in the Cathedral of Saint Januarius in Naples. There are two vials of his blood there, which liquefy eighteen times every year, on three occasions. Millions of visitors have seen this liquefaction of Saint Januarius'  blood. This miracle is a child-like tribute to the preciousness of the blood of every martyr who shed it for the truth of the one, holy and apostolic Church, founded by Jesus Christ for the salvation of all men.  

Saint Constance (First Century). She was martyred under Nero, near Naples.  

Saint Emily (1852). Saint Emily de Rodat was born in southern France. She started a religious community dedicated to teaching children which became the Congregation of the Holy Family She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950.  

20. Saint Eustace (118). He was a Roman general under the Emperor Trajan. He shed his blood for the Catholic Faith along with his beloved wife, Theopistes, and his two sons, Agapitus and Theopistus. One day, when he was hunting, a stag with a cross between its horns faced him and told him to embrace the Catholic Faith. The same voice was heard, and the same apparition seen, by his wife. They were converted and immediately persecuted, and divided as a family Saint Eustace was recalled to Rome because he was such a brilliant general. He was restored to his position in the Roman Army But when, after a great victory he had scored in a battle, he and his family refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, they were all thrown into a brazen bull and slowly roasted to death. Saint Eustace is one of the fourteen Holy Helpers. He is invoked for protection against fire.  

21. Saint Matthew (65). Saint Matthew's name was originally Levi. He gathered taxes for the Romans in the town of Capharnaum. His vocation to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ is one of the most remarkable ever told. Jesus met Matthew, and had only to say to him, "Follow Me." Without hearing any sermon or seeing any miracles worked, Matthew immediately became a disciple of Our Lord. Just the look of the eyes of Jesus and the sound of His voice gave Matthew his vocation. Saint Matthew was given his name by Our Lord Himself. Matthew means Gift of God. Saint Matthew was the author of the first Gospel. This Gospel is in many ways the most glorious revelation ever made by God. Saint Matthew went to Africa to preach the word of God to Gentile pagans. In Ethiopia he raised from the dead the daughter of the king there. Her name was Iphigenia. Because of this outstanding miracle he converted the King, his whole family and many of his subjects to the Catholic Faith.  

Saint Matthew dedicated Iphigenia to God as a virgin. She, too, was to become a saint, and her feast is the same as Saint Matthew's. When her father died, his successor, a king named Hirtacus, wished to marry lphigema. But, because, under Saint Matthew's direction, she had made a vow of virginity, she refused. She was a girl of admirable holiness and beauty Saint Matthew wanted her wholly given to Jesus. Because of this, the King ordered Saint Matthew to be killed. He was martyred while celebrating Mass. Saint Matthew's body was later taken to the town of Salerno in Italy. It is kept there now in a church dedicated to his name.  

22. Saint Thomas of Villanova (1555). He was an Augustinian friar who was Archbishop of Valencia in Spain. His great apostolate was among the poor.  

Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion (286). Saint Maurice was the commander of a legion in the Roman Army, called the Theban Legion because it had been recruited in the Thebaid in upper Egypt. This Legion was composed of 6,666 men, every one of whom was a Catholic. They were noble, holy and devout soldiers. They were ordered by the Roman Emperor Maximian to sacrifice to pagan gods. They all refused. The Emperor first killed every tenth man. But still the Legion would not give in. Again, he killed every tenth man. But the valiant regiment held out. Finally, when asked once more to sacrifice to the gods, Maurice in the name of his soldiers, replied "0 Caesar, we are your soldiers. But we are also the soldiers of Jesus Christ. From you, we receive our pay. But from Him, we receive eternal life. To you, we owe service. But to Him, we owe obedience. We are ready to follow you against the barbarians, but we are also ready to suffer death rather than renounce our Faith." They were then all slaughtered. Saint Maurice knelt down and was beheaded.  

23. Saint Linus (79). Saint Linus was the second Pope of the Catholic Church. He ruled from the year 67 to the year 79, a period of twelve years. He was a Gentile. He shed his blood for the Faith which Saint Peter preached. After he was martyred he was buried beside Saint Peter in Rome. His name is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the1 Mass. He raised a dead man to life. He made the rule that women should wear veils or at least, a head covering in church.  

Saint Thecla (117). She was a young girl of eighteen who lived in Iconium, in Lycaonia and who was converted by Saint Paul. She then became one of his disciples and followed him on several of his missionary journeys. She was submitted to all sorts of suffering for her Faith. She was thrown to wild beasts in the amphitheater. She was thrown into a furnace of fire. She was cast out into the wilderness. Though she still lived, she is given, because of these sufferings, the title of martyr. Her name is invoked for the dying. She was ninety years old when she died.  

24. Our Lady of Ransom (1218). This feast commemorates the founding of a wonderful Order dedicated to the Immaculate Mother of God in the year 1218, and fully established in the year 1223. Its founders were a saint named Peter Nolasco, a saint named Raymond of Pennafort (a General of the Dominican Order), and a king named James of Aragon. Its purpose was to rescue Catholics from captivity, from the Moors, by the help and protection and intercession of the powerful Mother of God. Prayers are especially said on this day in the Catholic Church to rescue England from the hands of the heretics who are still keeping the lovely people of that country from the true Faith and from the love of the Mother of God. England was once known as "Our Lady's Dowry."  

25. Saint Cleophas (First Century). Saint Cleophas was one of the greatest brothers and husbands and fathers and grandfathers who has ever been in the history of the world. His brother was Saint Joseph, the virginal spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. His wife was Saint Mary of Cleophas, whose feast day is April 9. Three of his sons, Saint Simon, Saint James the Less and Saint Jude--and two of his grandsons, Saint James the Greater and Saint John--were Apostles of Jesus. They are called in Holy Scripture, "the brethren of Our Lord."  His daughter, Mary Salome, the mother of Saint James the Greater and Saint John, is also a saint. Her feast day is October 22. Still another son, Joseph Barsabas, who is called in Holy Scripture, "the Just," and who was one of the two nominated to take the place of the traitorous Judas Iscariot, is a saint and has a feast day on July 20. Saint Cleophas was one of the two disciples Our Lord met on the road to Emmaus on the day of His Resurrection, as we are told in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 24. Our Lord stopped to have supper with these two disciples. At the end of the meal Jesus blessed bread and gave them His Sacred Body to eat. And Saint Luke tells us that "they knew Him in the breaking of bread." Saint Cleophas was murdered by the Jews in the very house in which he had been host to Our Lord on the first Easter Sunday.  

Blessed Herman the Cripple (1054). He was a Benedictine monk called "the Cripple" because of a deformity of his body He entered the Benedictines when he was a child of seven. He became one of the great religious poets of the Church. It was Blessed Herman the Cripple who wrote the Salve Regina (the Hail, Holy Queen) which is recited at the end of the rosary.  

Saint Barry (Barr, Finbar) (Sixth Century). He was an Irish monk. He was the first Bishop of Cork, and died after having been bishop for seventeen years.  

26. Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian (303). Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian were twins. Both were physicians by profession. So much did they love those who had been baptized and received Holy Communion that they gave all their medical services to them without any charge. Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian were martyred for declaring that "there is absolutely no salvation outside the Catholic Church." Their relics are sacredly guarded in Rome. They are mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass and always in the Litany of the Saints.  

Saint Therese Couderc (1885). She was a valiant French nun, one of the many who fought to save the Catholic Faith in France in the wake of the French Revolution. She founded the Religious of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle for conducting retreats. She was eighty years old when she died.  

27. Saint Vincent de Paul (1660). He was a Frenchman who founded the great Order known as the Congregation of the Priests of the Missions, popularly known as the Vincentians. Along with Saint Louise de Marillac, he founded the Sisters of Charity, in the year 1634. He was one of the greatest apostles of his day He is the patron saint of all organizations in the Catholic Church devoted to charity Saint Vincent de Paul was eighty-four years old when he died.   MORE INFO

28. Saint Wenceslaus (935). Saint Wenceslaus was the King of Bohemia who obtained his title from the Emperor Otto I. He was a noble and royal ruler, educated in the Catholic Faith by his grandmother, Saint Ludmilla. His great devotion was to the Blessed Sacrament. His father was a Christian. But his mother, Dragomir, pretending to be a Catholic, was a pagan at heart. She did everything to make him suffer. Saint Wenceslaus was killed before the Blessed Sacrament at midnight by his brutal brother, Boleslas. Saint Wenceslaus was only thirty-two years old at the time. He had dedicated himself to God by a vow of chastity.  

29. Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael. There are seven special angels who stand before the throne of God. We know the names of three of them. They are Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael.  

The greatest and most powerful of all God's angels is Saint Michael. His name means Who is like to God? This was the challenge he issued to Lucifer when Lucifer offended God and was hurled by Saint Michael out of Heaven and into hell. It was Saint Michael who appeared to Abraham to forbid him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Saint Michael brought the plagues to Egypt. Saint Michael led the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land and fought with Lucifer for the body of Moses. Saint Michael led Josue into the Promised Land. Saint Michael delivered the three young men from the fiery furnace. Saint Michael sent Habacuc to feed Daniel in the lions' den. Saint Michael escorted the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven on the day of her Assumption. Saint Michael is the Guardian Angel of the Pope. He is the special protector of the Church. He is the special angel of the Blessed Sacrament. He leads the souls of the Just into Heaven when they die. He is invoked in the lovely prayer: "Holy Archangel Michael, defend us in the battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil…"  Saint Gregory the Great was the Pope specially devoted to Saint Michael. Saint Michael appeared to Saint Joan of Arc and helped her in her battle against the English. He also appeared in France, in Normandy, in 709. A beautiful shrine was built to him on a hill there, the still famous Mont Saint-Michel.  

The name Gabriel means Strength of God. Saint Gabriel is the special angel of the Annunciation. He is the Guardian Angel of the Blessed Virgin Mary It was he who brought the news of the Annunciation to her. He came in the guise of a man, though he was always an angel, because his was the message of the Incarnation, to let it be known that God was ready to become man. It was Saint Gabriel who gave us the first greeting of the Hail Mary, "Hail (Mary), full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women."  

The name Raphael means Healer of God or Medicine of God. He is said to have been the angel who came to console Our Lord in His bitter agony in the Garden of Olives, when Jesus sweat blood. Saint Raphael's name is mentioned in Catholic prayers, including the Litany of the Saints. He is one of our special helpers in times of sickness and the hardships that go with it. His story in the Old Testament makes up nearly all of the Book of Tobias.

30. Saint Jerome (420). Saint Jerome--who is called in Latin, Hieronymus, which means holy name\emdash was born in Dalmatia. He was baptized a Catholic when he was eighteen years old. After living as a hermit in Palestine, Saint Jerome came to Rome. Much against his will, because of his great humility, he was ordained a priest. He was the great friend and ally of Saint Damasus, the thirty-ninth Pope. Saint Damasus commissioned him to translate the whole Bible into Latin. It took Saint Jerome fourteen years to make his first version in Latin of the Holy Scripture, in what is known as the Vulgate. A few more years were required to make emendations, and then in the beginning of the fifth century, the lovely Latin--the language of the Church--was, in Jerome's style, the perpetual prayer of Catholics.

Saint Jerome had a great devotion and love for the Blessed Virgin Mary He went to Bethlehem, and lived near the crib where Our Lord was born. He had two wonderful disciples there, Saint Paula, and her daughter, Saint Eustochium. Saint Jerome had a great devotion to the Guardian Angels. He is the Doctor of the Church who assures us--and the Church has completely confirmed this--that each one of us has a Guardian Angel for himself. It was also Saint Jerome who beautifully let us know that Saint Cleophas was the brother of Saint Joseph. This explains why Saint James, Saint Simon and Saint Jude, the sons of Saint Cleophas, and Saint James the Greater and Saint John, his grandsons, are referred to as "the brethren of Our Lord." 

Saint Jerome died in Bethlehem, with his head in the manger where Our Lord was born. His body is now kept in the Church of Saint Mary Major in Rome, where Our Lord's crib is also kept. Saint Jerome wrote the lives of two wonderful saints--Saint Paul the Hermit whose feast day is January 15 and Saint Paula, whose feast day is January 26.

Saint Jerome is one of the thirty-two Doctors of the Universal Church. He is one of the eight Doctors who were priests. Two of the Doctors of the Church were Popes, three were cardinals, five were patriarchs, ten were bishops, one was an abbot and one was a deacon. We now have two women Doctors, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Catherine of Siena.

-from “Saints to Remember from January to December,” by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary  

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St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do you, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

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