January

“It is not enough that you love the children, it is

necessary that they are aware that they are loved.” 31

Saint John Bosco

Priest, Confessor, Founder,
“Father and Teacher of Youth”
Patron of Christian apprentices, editors,
publishers, schoolchildren,
young, magicians, juvenile delinquents
Life Story
John Bosco (Italian: Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco) was born in the evening of 16 August 1815 in the hillside
hamlets of Becchi, Italy. He was the youngest son of Francesco Bosco (1784–1817) and Margherita Occhiena.
He had two older brothers, Antonio and Giuseppe (1813–1862). The Boscos of Becchis were farmhands of the
Moglian Family. John Bosco was born into a time of great shortage and famine in the Piedmonteses countryside,
following the devastation wrought by the Napoleonic wars and a drought in 1817. In 1835 Bosco entered the
seminary at Chieri, next to the Church of the Immacolata Concezione After six years of study, he was ordained
priest on the eve of Trinity Sunday by Archbishop Franzoni of Turin.
Sainthood
In 1859, Bosco selected the experienced priest Vittorio Alasonatti, 15 seminarians and one high school
boy and formed them into the "Society of St. Francis de Sales." This was the nucleus of the Salesians, the
religious order that would carry on his work. The Salesian Congregation was divided into priests, seminarians
and "coadjutors" (the lay brothers). Bosco's capability to attract numerous boys and adult helpers was connected
to his "Preventive System of Education". He believed education to be a "matter of the heart" and said that the
boys must not only be loved, but know that they are loved. Bosco gained a reputation early on of being a holy
man and miracle worker. His funeral was attended by thousands. Soon after a popular demand to have him
canonized. The Archdiocese of Turin investigated and witnesses were called to determine if Bosco was worthy to
be declared a saint. The Salesians, Daughters and Cooperators gave supportive testimonies.

Reflection
St. John Bosco, with everything he could, he attracted numerous of boys and adult helpers to realize the
education is a matter to their hearts. He also emphasized that the youth must not only be loved, but they must
know that they are loved. You too, you can be a good influence in your youth if your heart be pure as heaven.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bosco#cite_note-
Lemoyne.2C_Vol_I.2C_Chapter_24.2C_Pages_159-163-20
 "If I were worthy of such a favor from my God, I February
would ask that he grant me this one miracle: that by
his grace he would make of me a good man.”
1

Saint Ansgar
Bishop, “Apostle of the North”

Patron of Denmark

Life Story
Ansgar was the son of a noble Frankish family, born near Amiens. After his mother's early death, Ansgar
was brought up in Corbie Abbey, and was educated at the Benedectine monastery in Picardy,] where he made
rapid progress in his education. According to the Vita Ansgarii ("Life of Ansgar"), when the little boy learned in a
vision that his mother was in the company of Saint Mary, his careless attitude toward spiritual matters changed
to seriousness ("Life of Ansgar", 1). His pupil, successor, and eventual biographer Rimbert considered the
visions of which this was the first to be the main motivation of the saint's life. Ansgar wore a rough hair shirt,
lived on bread and water, and showed great charity to the poor.
Sainthood
The “apostle of the north” (Scandinavia) had enough frustrations to become a saint—and he did. He
became a Benedictine at Corbie, France, where he had been educated. Three years later, when the king of
Denmark became a convert, Ansgar went to that country for three years of missionary work, without noticeable
success. Sweden asked for Christian missionaries, and he went there, suffering capture by pirates and other
hardships on the way. Fewer than two years later, he was recalled, to become abbot of New Corbie (Corvey) and
bishop of Hamburg. The pope made him legate for the Scandinavian missions. Ansgar’s biographers remark that
he was an extraordinary preacher, a humble and ascetical priest. He was devoted to the poor and the sick,
imitating the Lord in washing their feet and waiting on them at table. He died peacefully at Bremen, Germany,
without achieving his wish to be a martyr.

Reflection
Ansgar’s life is another reminder that God writes straight with crooked lines. Christ takes care of the
effects of the apostolate in his own way; he is first concerned about the purity of the apostles themselves.

Reference: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1278,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansgar
 February

Saint Joan de Lestonnac

O.D.N., Widow, Religious and Foundress

Patron of abuse victims, people rejected by

religious orders, widows

Life Story
St. Joan de Lestonnac was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1556. She married at the age of seventeen. The
happy marriage produced four children, but her husband died suddenly in 1597. After her children were raised,
she entered the Cistercian monastery at Toulouse. Joan was forced to leave the Cistercians when she became
afflicted with poor health. She remained Catholic despite her Calvinist mother.

Sainthood
In 1605, a plague broke out in Bordeaux. At risk to her own life, De Lestonnac returned to her native
city to help care for the sick and suffering in the slums of the city. During this period, De Lestonnac was
exposed to Ignatian spirituality through contact with several Jesuit priests. The Jesuits encouraged her to
establish for girls in terms of formal education what they were doing for boys.
Later, after a period of nursing plague victims and teaching girls, she founded the Sisters of Notre Dame
of Bordeaux, known then as the Company of Mary Our Lady. She was vindicated in a conspiracy devised by one
of her own nuns, but she declined to be reappointed superior. Joan was elected superior in 1610. She was
canonized in 1949 by Pope Pius XII. Her feast day is February 2.

Reflection
Through her manner and service, she attracted a number of young women, with whom she shared her
vision and who indicated a willingness to join with her in this project. She found it to be in line with the spiritual
longings and vision.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_de_Lestonnac
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=685
 “Father of mercy and God of all consolation,
graciously look upon me and impart the blessing
which flows from this holy Sacrament. Overshadow me
February
with your loving kindness, and let this divine Mystery
bear fruit in me.”
3

Saint Blasé
Bishop and Martyr

Patron of Throat Illnesses and wild

animals

Life Story
Saint Blaise (Also known as Saint Blasé) the legend of his life that sprang up in the eighth century tell us
that he was born in to a rich and noble family who raised him as a Christian. After becoming a bishop, a
new persecution of Christians began. He received a message from God to go into the hills to escape persecution.
Men hunting in the mountains discovered a cave surrounded by wild animals who were sick. Among them Blaise
walked unafraid, curing them of their illnesses. Recognizing Blaise as a bishop, they captured him to take him
back for trial. On the way back, he talked a wolf into releasing a pig that belonged to a poor woman. When
Blaise was sentenced to be starved to death, the woman, in gratitude, sneaked into the prison with food and
candles. Finally Blaise was killed by the governor.

Sainthood
Blaise, who had studied philosophy in his youth, was a doctor in Sebaste in Armenia, the city of his birth,
who exercised his art with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety. When the bishop of the city died, he was
chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many miracles:
from all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body; even wild animals came in
herds to receive his blessing. In 316, Agricola, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having
arrived in Sebastia at the order of the emperor Licinius to kill the Christians, arrested the bishop. As he was
being led to jail, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured
straight away. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped
his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.[6]
Reflection
Take time as Saint Blaise did to find out how you can help wild animals. Even a birdfeeder can help
God's creatures survive. With his kindness and his faith, he was able to make miracles. Care for wild animals and
do not treat them as your enemy. Every little in this world has its own purpose. With great faith comes great
miracle.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Blaise
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=28
 "Every Christian must be a living book wherein one
can read the teaching of the gospel.” February

Saint Joseph of Leonissa

O.F.M. Cap., Confessor, Catechist, Priest,
Preacher, Evangelist, Peacemaker

Patron of Leonessa, Italy

Life Story
He was born Eufranio Desiderio at Leonessa, a small town then in Umbria, and now in the Lazio. It is
said that from his infancy he showed a remarkably religious bent of mind; he used to erect little altars and spend
much time in prayer before them, and often he would gather his companions and induce them to pray with him.
Whilst yet a boy he used to take the discipline on Fridays in company with the Confraternity of the Holy Savior.
He was educated by his uncle, who had planned a suitable marriage for him, but in his sixteenth year he fell sick
of a fever, and upon his recovery, without consulting his guardian, he joined the Capuchin reform of
the Franciscan Order. He made his novitiate at the friary of the Carcerelle near Assisi.
Sainthood
In 1587 he was sent by the Minister General of his Order to Constantinople to minister to the Christians
held captive there. Arrived there he and his companions lodged in the Galata district in a derelict house
of Benedictine monks, actually the St. Benedict high school. The poverty in which the friars lived attracted the
attention of the Turks, who went in numbers to see the new missionaries. He was very solicitous in ministering
to the captive Christians in the galleys of the Ottoman Empire's navy. Every day he went into the city to preach,
and he was at length thrown into prison and only released at the intervention of the Venetian agent. Urged on by
zeal he at last sought to enter the palace to preach before Sultan Murad III, but he was seized and condemned to
death. For three days he hung on the gallows, held up by two hooks driven through his right hand and foot; his
legends state that he was then miraculously released by an angel. In return to Italy at Todi, he cultivated with his
own hands a garden, the produce of which was for the poor.
Reflection
People like Joseph of Leonissa challenge us to face life courageously and get to the heart of it: life with
God. Joseph was a compelling preacher because his life was as convincing as his words.

Reference: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4084
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/Saint.aspx?id=1281
 “Jesus Christ, Lord of all things! You see my heart, you February
know my desires. Possess all that I am—you alone. I am
your sheep; make me worthy to overcome the devil.”
5

Saint Agatha
Virgin and Martyr
Patron of Catania, Zamarramala, Spain, breast
cancer patients, martyrs, wet nurses, bell-
founders, bakers, fire, earthquakes, and
eruptions of Mount Etna, rape victims, torture
Life Story victims
Saint Agatha of Sicily (231 AD – 251 AD) is a Christian saint and virgin martyress. Her memorial is on
5 February. Agatha was born at Catania or Palermo, Sicily, and she was martyred in approximately 251. She is
one of seven women, who, along with theBlessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the
Mass. According to Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea of ca. 1288, having dedicated her virginity to
God, fifteen-year-old Agatha, from a rich and noble family, rejected the amorous advances of the low-
born Roman prefect Quintianus, who then persecuted her for her Christian faith. He sent Agatha to Aphrodisia,
the keeper of a brothel.
Sainthood
Legend has it that Agatha, like Agnes, was arrested as a Christian, tortured and sent to a house of
prostitution to be mistreated. She was preserved from being violated, and was later put to death. The year after
her death, the stilling of an eruption of Mt. Etna was attributed to her intercession. As a result, apparently,
people continued to ask her prayers for protection against fire. Amongst the tortures she underwent was the
cutting off of her breasts with pincers. After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, represented in a
sequence of dialogues in her passio that document her fortitude and steadfast devotion. Saint Agatha was then
sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison
where St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds. Saint Agatha died in prison, according to
the Legenda Aurea in the year of our Lord two hundred and fifty-three in the time of Decius.

Reflection
The scientific modern mind winces at the thought of a volcano’s might being contained by God because
of the prayers of a Sicilian girl. Yet, in our historical precision, have we lost an essential human quality of wonder
and poetry, and even our belief that we come to God by helping each other, both in action and prayer?

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_of_Sicily
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1282
 “The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the
doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason that I die… After February
Christ’s example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask
God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow
men as a fruitful rain.”
6

Saint Paul Miki and

Companions
Martyrs

Patron of Japan

Life Story
Paulo Miki (Japanese: パウロ三木; c. 1562[1] – 5 February 1597) was a Roman
Catholic Japanese Jesuitseminarian, martyr and saint, one of the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan. Paulo Miki was
born into a wealthy Japanese family. He was educated by the Jesuits in Azuchi andTakatsuki. He joined
the Society of Jesus and became a well-known and successful preacher - gaining numerous converts to
Catholicism. The local daimyō, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, began persecuting Catholics for fear of the Jesuit's influence
and intentions, and possibly that of European visitors.

Sainthood
Miki arrested and jailed with his fellow Catholics were later forced to march 966 kilometres (600 miles)
fromKyoto to Nagasaki; all the while singing the Te Deum. On arriving in Nagasaki—which today has the largest
Catholic population in Japan—Miki was crucified on 5 February 1597.
He preached his last sermon from the cross, and it is maintained that he forgave his executioners, stating
that he himself was Japanese. Crucified alongside him were Joan Soan (de Gotó) and Santiago Kisai, also of the
Society of Jesus; along with twenty-three other clergy and laity, all of whom were canonized by Pope Pius IXin
1862.

Reflection
Today a new era has come for the Church in Japan. Although the number of Catholics is not large, the
Church is respected and has total religious freedom. The spread of Christianity in the Far East is slow and
difficult. Faith such as that of the 26 martyrs is needed today as much as in 1597.

Reference: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1283
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Miki
 "We must faithfully keep what we have promised. If
through human weakness we fail, we must always without February
delay arise again by means of holy penance, and give our
attention to leading a good life and to dying a holy death.”
7

Saint Colette
P.C.C., Religious, Abbess, and Foundress

Patron of Women seeking to conceive,

expectant mothers and sick children

Life Story
She was born Nicole Boellet (or Boylet) in the village of Corbie, in the Picardy region of France, on 13
January 1381, to Robert Boellet, a poor carpenter at the noted Benedictine Abbey of Corbie, and to his wife,
Marguerite Moyon. Her contemporary biographers say that her parents had grown old without having children,
before praying to Saint Nicholas for help in having a child. Their prayers were answered when, at the age of 60,
Marguerite gave birth to a daughter. Out of gratitude, they named the baby after the saint to whom they credited
the miracle of her birth. She was affectionately called Nicolette by her parents, which soon came to be shorted to
Colette, by which name she is known.
Sainthood
After her parents died in 1399, Colette joined the Beguines but found their manner of life unchallenging. She
received the habit of theThird Order of St. Francis in 1402,[2] and became a hermit under the direction of the
Abbot ofAtCorbie,
21 she began to follow
living near the Third
the abbey Order
church. Rule
After andyears
four became an anchoress,
of following a woman
this ascetic waywalked into a room
of life (1402–1406),
whose only opening was a window into a church. After four years of prayer and penance in this cell, she left it.
through several dreams and visions she came to believe that she was being called to reform the
With the approval and encouragement of the pope, she joined the Poor Clares and reintroduced the primitive
Franciscan Second
Rule of St. Clare in Order, and to returnshe
the 17 monasteries it to its original Franciscan ideals of absolute poverty and austerity.
established.

Her sisters were known for their poverty—they rejected any fixed income—and for their perpetual fast.
Colette’s reform movement spread to other countries and is still thriving today. Colette was canonized in 1807.
Her miracles like helping a mother in childbirth by praying for her, later, the child entered the monastery
founded by Colette, and saving a sick child.

Reflection
Colette began her reform during the time of the Great Western Schism (1378-1417) when three men
claimed to be pope and thus divided Western Christianity. In any case, Colette’s reform indicated the entire
Church’s need to follow Christ more closely.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colette_of_Corbie
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1284
 "Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not February
know Him. What a great grace it is to know God!"
8

Saint Josephine Bakhita

F.D.C.C., Religious

Patron of Sudan

Life Story
She was born around the year 1869 in the western Sudanese region of Darfur; in the village of Olgossa,
west of Nyala and close to Mount Agilerei. She belonged to the prestigious Daju people; her well respected and
reasonably prosperous father was brother of the village chief. She was surrounded by a loving family of three
brothers and three sisters. Josephine was kidnapped at the age of seven, sold into slavery and given the name
Bakhita, which meansfortunate. She was re-sold several times, finally in 1883 to Callisto Legnani, Italian consul in
Khartoum, Sudan. It is said that the trauma of her abduction caused her to forget her own name; she took one
given to her by the slavers, bakhita, Arabic for lucky. She was also forcibly converted to Islam.

Sainthood
The judge concluded that since slavery was illegal in Italy, she had actually been free since 1885.
Josephine entered the Institute of St. Magdalene of Canossa in 1893 and made her profession three years later.
In 1902, she was transferred to the city of Schio (northeast of Verona), where she assisted her religious
community through cooking, sewing, embroidery and welcoming visitors at the door. She soon became well
loved by the children attending the sisters' school and the local citizens. Bakhita died at 8:10 PM on 8 February
1947. For three days her body lay on display while thousands of people arrived to pay their respects. The first
steps toward her beatification began in 1959. She was beatified in 1992 and canonized eight years later.

Reflection
Josephine's body was mutilated by those who enslaved her, but they could not touch her inner spirit. Her
Baptism set her on an eventual path toward asserting her civic freedom and then service to God's people as a
Canossian sister. She who worked under many "masters" was finally happy to address God as "master" and carry
out everything that she believed to be God's will for her. Pope Benedict XVI, on 30 November 2007, in the
beginning of his second encyclical letter Spe Salvi (In Hope We Were Saved), relates her entire life story as an
outstanding example of the Christian hope.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Bakhita
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/Saint.aspx?id=1453
 February
“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is
better and your better is best.” 9

Saint Jerome Emiliani

Religious and Founder

Patron of orphans and abandoned children

Life Story
Jerome was born in Venice, the son of Angelo Emiliani (popularly called Miani) and Eleonore
Mauroceni. His father died when he was a teenager and Jerome ran away at the age of 15 to join the army. In
1508, he participated in the defense of Castelnuovo against the League of Cambray. A careless and irreligious
soldier for the city-state of Venice, Jerome was captured in a skirmish at an outpost town and chained in a
dungeon. In prison Jerome had a lot of time to think, and he gradually learned how to pray. When he escaped,
he returned to Venice where he took charge of the education of his nephews—and began his own studies for the
priesthood.
Sainthood
In the years after his ordination, events again called Jerome to a decision and a new lifestyle. Plague and
famine swept northern Italy. Jerome began caring for the sick and feeding the hungry at his own expense. While
serving the sick and the poor, he soon resolved to devote himself and his property solely to others, particularly
to abandoned children. He founded three orphanages, a shelter for penitent prostitutes and a hospital.

Around 1532, Jerome and two other priests established a congregation, the Clerks Regular of Somasca,
dedicated to the care of orphans and the education of youth. Jerome died in 1537 from a disease he caught while
tending the sick. He was canonized in 1767.

Reflection
Very often in our lives it seems to take some kind of “imprisonment” to free us from the shackles of our
self-centeredness. When we’re “caught” in some situation we don’t want to be in, we finally come to know the
liberating power of another. Only then can we become another for “the imprisoned” and “the orphaned” all
around us
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerolamo_Emiliani
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1286